It is not without reluctance that I expose his weaknesses; but timid as the steps must ever be which are taken upon historic ground, we must walk in daylight.  No one, moreover, could regard this effervescence of a sentiment noble in its source, as a want of intellectual liberty.  It was the affectionate side of his nature which at moments dimmed his reason, but never went so far as to put out its light.  I need not attempt to defend on this point one, of whom Auguste Luchet wrote: 

“It is by his soul and his science that he lifts you, transports you, strikes you, shatters you with terror, anguish and love!”

And Pierre Zaccone says: 

“He is an artist, apart, exceptional, perhaps unique! with what finished art, what talent, what GENIUS, he uses the resources of his voice!”

That which best atoned in Delsarte for the grain of fanaticism with which he was reproached, was the tolerance which prevailed in every controversy, in every dissension.  If he sometimes blamed free thought, he never showed ill will to free-thinkers.  In the spirit of the gospel—­so different from the spirit of the devout party—­he was “all things to all men.”  He was on a very friendly footing with a priest whom, by his logic and his sincerity, he had prevailed upon to forsake the ecclesiastical calling.

In our discussions, which dealt with secondary subjects of various forms of belief—­for I never denied God, or the soul and its immortality, or the freedom of the will which is the honor of the human race, or the power of charity, provided it become social and fraternal, instead of merely alms-giving as it has been,—­in these debates, sometimes rather lively, I would end by saying to him:  “You know that I love and seek truth; very well! if God wished me to join the ranks in which you serve, he would certainly give me a sign; but so long as I do not receive His summons, what have I to do with it?”

I spoke his own language, and he yielded to my reasoning.  “Come,” he would say, “I prefer your frankness to the pretenses of feigned piety;” and he would add sorrowfully:  “Alas!  I often encounter them!” So we always ended by agreeing, and this truce lasted—­until our next meeting.

The words which I have just quoted prove that if Delsarte clung to the Catholic dogmas, he was particularly touched by the sincere piety and active charity of simple, evangelic hearts.  I may give yet another proof of this.

To satisfy his sympathies as much as to rescue his clan, when attacked, he would always quote a father confessor, one Father Pricette—­this name should be remembered in the present age—­who, during the icy nights of December, slept in an arm-chair, because he had given his last mattress to some one poorer than himself.

Chapter XIII.

Delsarte’s Friends.

Friendly relations—­although disputes often arose—­were established toward 1840 between Delsarte and Raymond Brucker (known to literature as Michel Raymond).  Fortunately in spite of the influence of the author of “Mensonge,” Delsarte’s superior rank always prevailed in this intimacy.