Recollections of My Youth

Recollections of My Youth

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Title: Recollections of My Youth
Author: Ernest Renan
Release Date: June 26, 2004 [eBook #12748]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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RECOLLECTIONS OF MY YOUTH***
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RECOLLECTIONS OF MY YOUTH
BY

ERNEST RENAN
1897

[Illustration: Ernest Renan]

CONTENTS.
THE FLAX-CRUSHER.

PART I.

PART II.

PART III.

PART IV.
PRAYER ON THE ACROPOLIS
ST. RENAN
MY UNCLE PIERRE.
GOOD MASTER SYSTÈME.

PART I.

PART II.
LITTLE NOÉMI.

PART I.

PART II.
THE PETTY SEMINARY OF ST. NICHOLAS DU CHARDONNET.

PART I.

PART II.

PART III.
THE ISSY SEMINARY.

PART I.

PART II.
THE ST. SULPICE SEMINARY.

PART I.

PART II.

PART III.

PART IV.

PART V.
FIRST STEPS OUTSIDE ST. SULPICE.

PART I.

PART II.

PART III.

PART IV.

PART V.
APPENDIX

PREFACE.
One of the most popular legends in Brittany is that relating to an
imaginary town called Is, which is supposed to have been swallowed
up by the sea at some unknown time. There are several places along the
coast which are pointed out as the site of this imaginary city, and the
fishermen have many strange tales to tell of it. According to them, the
tips of the spires of the churches may be seen in the hollow of the
waves when the sea is rough, while during a calm the music of their
bells, ringing out the hymn appropriate to the day, rises above the
waters. I often fancy that I have at the bottom of my heart a city of Is
with its bells calling to prayer a recalcitrant congregation. At times I
halt to listen to these gentle vibrations which seem as if they came from
immeasurable depths, like voices from another world. Since old age
began to steal over me, I have loved more especially during the repose
which summer brings with it, to gather up these distant echoes of a

vanished Atlantis.
This it is which has given birth to the six chapters which make up the
present volume. The recollections of my childhood do not pretend to
form a complete and continuous narrative. They are merely the images
which arose before me and the reflections which suggested themselves
to me while I was calling up a past fifty years old, written down in the
order in which they came. Goethe selected as the title for his memoirs
"Truth and Poetry," thereby signifying that a man cannot write his own
biography in the same way that he would that of any one else. What
one says of oneself is always poetical. To fancy that the small details of
one's own life are worth recording is to be guilty of very petty vanity. A
man writes such things in order to transmit to others the theory of the
universe which he carries within himself. The form of the present work
seemed to me a convenient one for expressing certain shades of thought
which my previous writings did not convey. I had no desire to furnish
information about myself for the future use of those who might wish to
write essays or articles about me.
What in history is a recommendation would here have been a drawback;
the whole of this small volume is true, but not true in the sense
required-for a "Biographical Dictionary." I have said several things
with the intent to raise a smile, and, if such a thing had been compatible
with custom, I might have used the expression cum grano salis as a
marginal note in many cases. I have been obliged to be very careful in
what I wrote. Many of the persons to whom I refer may be still alive;
and those who are not accustomed to find themselves in print have a
sort of horror of publicity. I have, therefore, altered several proper
names. In other cases, by means of a slight transposition of date and
place, I have rendered identification impossible. The story of "the
Flax-crusher" is absolutely true, with the exception that the name of the
manor-house is a fictitious one. With regard to "Good Master
Système," I have been furnished by M. Duportal du Godasmeur with
further details which do not confirm certain ideas entertained by my
mother as to the mystery in which