Abstract

Lamennais and Maurice de Guerin

An interesting article published in the Nation of February 14, 1918 recalls to attention the career of Félicité de la Menais, that unhappy champion of Liberty under the standard of Obedience. Naturally, a man who spent his time trying to reconcile these principles found so much to do that only a little could be crowded into, a single article. After the suppression of L'Avenir in 1831 and the unsuccessful pilgrimage to Rome, Lamennais retired with a few followers to a secluded house in his native Brittany, which had been the place of his youthful studies with his brother. M. de Marzan, in his reminiscences of poet Maurice de Guérin believes that, in spite of these epistolary eulogies, there was a certain aloofness between Lamennais and his pupil; that the latter's intuitively poetic nature, incapacity for rigorous thought, and restiveness under rule prevented his feeling perfectly at ease.