DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0348
304
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
first apostles of Nature—may be said to represent the two
great natural schools of thought; those who with Rabelais
look at Nature from the outside; those who with Rousseau
look at her through the medium of their own souls. Rous-
seau formed a larger number of writers by his direct influ-
ence : the Romantic school and its followers—Chateaubriand,
George Sand, De Musset, Victor Hugo—but Rabelais will
probably have more effect on thought in the long run.
So much for France. It is curious that it should be in
England that his most recognisable descendants' can be found.
Charles Kingsley, his eager admirer, is one of them : Kingsley
with his “consecration of things secular” and his reverence
for every form of life. Robert Browning is another—he
who loved the light and fought asceticism as the Devil;
he who reverenced the “poor coarse hand” and said that
“All good things are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now,
than flesh helps soul.” Browning’s orthodoxy heightens the
resemblance; like Rabelais, he was content to let things
alone and accept the old forms, provided he might fill them
with a new meaning. Among earlier authors there are none
so closely related as these two to the Prince Pantagruel.
Sii* Thomas Browne, it is true, also doctor and philosopher,
bears some resemblance to the Renaissance thinker; but the
“Religio Medici” is made for the by-ways of wisdom—for
the intimate firelight of the study—and has little to do
with the great high-roads of thought.
Love—extended to our fellows—is to Rabelais, as to
Browning and Kingsley, the only solution of human ills.
If men would help one another there would be “peace
among mortals, love and delight, good faith, repose and
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
first apostles of Nature—may be said to represent the two
great natural schools of thought; those who with Rabelais
look at Nature from the outside; those who with Rousseau
look at her through the medium of their own souls. Rous-
seau formed a larger number of writers by his direct influ-
ence : the Romantic school and its followers—Chateaubriand,
George Sand, De Musset, Victor Hugo—but Rabelais will
probably have more effect on thought in the long run.
So much for France. It is curious that it should be in
England that his most recognisable descendants' can be found.
Charles Kingsley, his eager admirer, is one of them : Kingsley
with his “consecration of things secular” and his reverence
for every form of life. Robert Browning is another—he
who loved the light and fought asceticism as the Devil;
he who reverenced the “poor coarse hand” and said that
“All good things are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now,
than flesh helps soul.” Browning’s orthodoxy heightens the
resemblance; like Rabelais, he was content to let things
alone and accept the old forms, provided he might fill them
with a new meaning. Among earlier authors there are none
so closely related as these two to the Prince Pantagruel.
Sii* Thomas Browne, it is true, also doctor and philosopher,
bears some resemblance to the Renaissance thinker; but the
“Religio Medici” is made for the by-ways of wisdom—for
the intimate firelight of the study—and has little to do
with the great high-roads of thought.
Love—extended to our fellows—is to Rabelais, as to
Browning and Kingsley, the only solution of human ills.
If men would help one another there would be “peace
among mortals, love and delight, good faith, repose and