uide. For his biblical and oriental studies he had
turned almost exclusively to the Germans. There is a deep religious
spirit in the work of the period of his conflict with the Church. The
enthusiasm for Christ sustained him in his struggle. Of the days before
he withdrew from the Church he wrote: 'For two months I was a Protestant
like a professor in Halle or Tuebingen.' French was at that time a
language much better known in the world at large, particularly the
English-speaking world, than was German. Renan's book had great art and
charm. It took a place almost at once as a bit of world-literature. The
number of editions in French and of translations into other languages is
amazing. Beyond question, the critical position was made known through
Renan to multitudes who would never have been reached by the German
works which were really Renan's authorities. It is idle to say with
Pfleiderer that it is a pity that, having possessed so much learning,
Renan had not possessed more. That is not quite the point. The book has
much breadth and solidity of learning. Yet Renan has scarcely the
historian's quality. His work is a work of art. It has the halo of
romance. Imagination and poetical feeling make it in a measure what it
is.

Renan was born in 1823 in Treguier in Brittany. He set out for the
priesthood, but turned aside to the study of oriental languages and
history. He made long sojourn in the East. He spoke of Palestine as
having been to him a fifth Gospel. He became Professor of Hebrew in the
_College de France_. He was suspended from his office in 1863, and
permitted to read again only in 1871. He had formally separated himself
from the Roman Church in 1845. He was a member of the Academy. His
diction is unsurpassed. He died in 1894. In his own phrase, he sought to
bring Jesus forth from the darkness of dogma into the midst of the life
of his people. He paints him first as an idyllic national leader, then
as a struggling and erring hero, always aiming at the highest, but
doomed to tragic failure through the resistance offered by reality to
his ideal. He calls the traditional Christ an abstract being who never
was alive. He would bring the marvellous human figure before our eyes.
He heightens the brilliancy of his delineation by the deep shadows of
mistakes and indiscretion upon Jesus' part. In some respects an epic or
an historical romance, without teaching us history in detail, may yet
enable us by means of the artist