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The large number of Radcliffe and Harvard students who, in spite of the bad weather, attended Assistant Professor de Sumichrast's lecture on "M. Ferdinand Brunetiere," yesterday afternoon, seems to indicate that M. Brunetiere will have large audiences in Sanders Theatre on the afternoons of April 12, 14 and 15.
M. Brunetiere,said Mr. de Sumichrast, will be the first member of the French Academy to speak at this University. He is a typical Frenchman and one of the best type; he will give us a truer idea of the French and their literature than we can ever derive from paper-covered novels and sensational plays. He is a self-made man, in the best sense of the expression-one who, starting without wealth or rank, has made himself an authority by sheer energy, patience and labor.
Other modern French critics, such as Lemaitre and Bourget, are novel-writers, poets, playwrights besides, and therefore in danger of being prejudiced; M. Brunetiere is a critic and nothing else, unless, indeed, his desire to propagate pure science and his intimate knowlege of life lead us to think of him as a scientist and a philosoper, both of which titles he disclaims.
As a critic he is impartial; he has strong convictions and presents them forcibly; he is aggressive. To these qualities are due the large number of his enemies; but these are good qualities. He is, morever, accurate and exceedingly erudite.
M. Brunetiere admires the seventeenth century more than he does the last century or our own. For this reason we are fortunate that he is to speak to us upon the philosopher of his favorite epoch, Moliere.
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