not the exact details of fact.  “Tout est vrai dans ce petit volume, mais non de ce genre de verite qui est requis pour une Biographie universelle.  Bien des choses ont ete mises, afin qu’on sourie; si l’usage l’eut permis, j’aurais du ecrire plus d’une fois a la marge—­cum grano salis”.  It is candid to warn us thus to read a little between the lines; but it is a curious and unconscious disclosure of his characteristic love of a mixture of the misty and the clear.  The really pleasant part of it is his account, which takes up half the volume, of Breton ways and feelings half a century ago, an account which exactly tallies with the pictures of them in Souvestre’s writings; and the kindliness and justice with which he speaks of his old Catholic and priestly teachers, not only in his boyish days at Treguier, but in his seminary life in Paris.  His account of this seminary life is unique in its picturesque vividness.  He describes how, at St. Nicolas, under the fiery and irresistible Dupanloup, whom he speaks of with the reserved courtesy due to a distinguished person whom he much dislikes, his eager eyes were opened to the realities of literature, and to the subtle powers of form and style in writing, which have stood him in such stead, and have been the real secret of his own success.

Le monde s’ouvrit pour moi.  Malgre sa pretention d’etre un asile ferme aux bruits du dehors, Saint-Nicolas etait a cette epoque la maison la plus brillante et la plus mondaine.  Paris y entrait a pleins bords par les portes et les fenetres, Paris tout entier, moins la corruption, je me hate de le dire, Paris avec ses petitesses et ses grandeurs, ses hardiesses et ses chiffons, sa force revolutionnaire et ses mollesses flasques.  Mes vieux pretres de Bretagne savaient bien mieux les mathematiques et le latin que mes nouveaux maitres; mais ils vivaient dans des catacombes sans lumiere et sans air.  Ici, l’atmosphere du siecle circulait librement....  Au bout de quelque temps une chose tout a fait inconnue m’etait revelee.  Les mots, talent, eclat, reputation eurent un sens pour moi.  J’etais perdu pour l’ideal modeste que mes anciens maitres m’avaient inculque.

And he describes how Dupanloup brought his pupils perpetually into direct relations with himself and communicated to them something of his own enthusiasm.  He gained the power over their hearts which a great general gains over his soldiers.  His approval, his interest in a man, were the all-absorbing object, the all-sufficient reward; the one punishment feared was dismissal, always inflicted with courtesy and tact, from the honour and the joy of serving under him:—­