The deadly accuracy with which one nation always selects a
second-rate example of the art of another nation for particular approval is well illustrated by the fact that Renan is chiefly known in this country by the Vie de Jesus. It is a mistake to write one " shocking " book. Inevitably fifty years later it will have ceased to be shocking, and unless it is good in other ways, the disappointed reader will never trouble to find out that it is not its author's only work. If it were not for the beauty of its style, the Vie de Jesus would have been the end of Renan's reputation. The Dialogues Philos°. phiques, which contains Le Pretre de Nemi, is probably the greatest work of this most intellectual of all writers. His favourite study was that of ideas, and it is not unnatural that the quintessence of Renan should be found in this book, which is occupied entirely with what M. Faguet calls " The Divine 'Amusement of the Intellect."
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