Selected Essays of James Darmesteter

®mmll Wmvmitg ptaeg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg W. Sage 1891 A..^o.^./.5.Q L*fl.{lf-S.k.... 59" Cornell University Library PJ 27.D22 1895 Selected essays of James Darmesteter. 3 1924 026 804 595 \1K Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026804595 SELECTED ESSAYS OF JAMES DARMESTETER THE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FRENCH By HELEN B. JASTROW EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR By MORRIS JASTROW, Jr. PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY (€be fiitoctsibc press, Cambnbijc i89S 2> A- 2-0*{\g~O Copyright, 1895, By HOUGHTON, MIFFIJN & CO. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., IT. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company. KB To ANNIS LEE WISTER EDITOR'S PREFACE. Alas, that this volume, which was to intro- duce James Darmesteter to a larger public on this side of the Atlantic, appears as a memorial to his career, — now forever closed. At the time that the translator was putting the final touches to her work, the sad news came from Paris that James Darmesteter was no more, — dead at the early age of forty-five. Barely has the death of a scholar aroused such general grief, the echoes of which reach to distant Per- sia. It is hard indeed to bear the thought that one who had so much to live for, one from whom so much was still to be hoped for, should now be lying in the embrace of the silent grave; the voice that spoke so eloquently forever hushed, the mind so full of plans for science and hu- manity at rest. Death came to him suddenly, though not without warning, and those who knew the slight frame which held the gigantic intellect hardly dared to hope that it could long endure the strain of ceaseless labor, of ever- increasing toil. The endj as described by one n EDITOR'S PREFACE. of his colleagues,1 was pathetic in its simplicity as well as significant. On the afternoon of October 19, 1894, " James Darmesteter, seated at his writing-table, drooped the head, heavy with knowledge and thought, on his frail chest, and vanished from among us." With him there passed away one of the most remarkable personages in the world of contemporary science and letters. By general consent • he was regarded, after Renan's death, as the most distinguished scholar of France. He shared with Reiian — whom he affectionately spoke of as his " master " — marvelous breadth of learn- ing, profound originality of thought, splendid literary ability, and keen sympathy with the problems and movements of the day. Like Kenan, too, he was reared in humble surround- ings, and at a tender age learned to face the struggles of life ; and with more obstacles to overcome than Renan, his ascent on the ladder of fame bears witness to his strength of charac- ter as well as to his talent. In the touching memoir that he wrote, a few years ago, of his elder brother Arsene, he gives an account of his childhood.2 James, the younger, was born on the 28th of March, 1849, at Chateau-Salins in 1 Gaston Paris, Contemporary Review, January, 1895. 2 Preface to Arsene Darmesteter's Rdicpi.es Scientifiques, Paris, 1890. EDITOR'S PREFACE. vii Lorraine. His father was a poor Jewish book- binder. In 1852 the family moved to Paris. It was the ambition of the parents to educate their sons for one of the learned professions, and amid many struggles and hardships, the foun- dation for their later distinction as scholars was laid. Reared in orthodox tradition and sur- roundings, they were initiated into Jewish lore almost prior to their acquiring secular knowledge. When, finally, James was enabled to enter a Lycee, his extraordinary ability began to display itself. Graduating in 1867, he passed several years in various studies and in laying plans for the future, before he finally turned his attention to Oriental philology. No doubt the knowledge of Hebrew and of Talmudic literature, acquired in boyhood, had much to do with the attraction that the literature and languages of the East exercised upon him, but it was the distinguished philologist, Michel Breal, who first suggested to young Darmesteter the thought of taking up the study of Zoroastrian- ism as his life-work. The ease with which he acquired the mastery of languages and of phi- lological method was astonishing, — an ease that led his professors to compare it to the manner in which children learn a game. The very first fruits of his studies assured him a high rank among Persian scholars ; before he died he riii EDITORS PREFACE. was universally acknowledged to be the greatest authority in his special domain, even by those who were not prepared to accept all of his theo- ries. Besides various volumes and numerous essays, embodying the results of researches that have greatly aided the interpretation of Zoroas- trianism, his French translation of the Zend- Avesta, with a commentary (completed a little over a year ago), — three large quarto -volumes, — remains as the most enduring monument of his vast erudition. This production, enriched by a series of essays, in which are summed up Dar- mesteters views of the late origin and gradual growth of the sacred collection, forms a new point of departure for the further studies of other scholars. The French Academy honored itself by crowning this great production with its prize of 20,000 francs, granted biennially, for the most noteworthy achievement of French scholarship. What might have been for others a task of a lifetime was for Darmesteter but an incident in his career, and. unsurpassed as he is in his specialty, one does not think of him as a spe- cialist. He entered into numerous other fields of investigation, and Jiis activity passed beyond the confines of technical scholarship into the domain of modern literature, and even into pol- itics. His Persian studies led him necessarily " KMTOirs PRKFACK. ix to Sanskrit literature. Ilia excellent classical knowledge enabled him to make a valuable con- tribution to Latin philology. To his knowledge of Aryan languages ho added the study of Se- mitic tongues. The work on "the Mahdi (published also in English translation ^ gives evidence of the mastery he bad obtained in tho vast realm of Arabic literature. Even when dealing with abstruse subjects, his raw powers as a writer were shown. Whatever issued from his pen bow the mark of the literary artist, and so it is not remarkable that modern literature exercised a strong fascination upon him. Besides a masterly study of Macbeth, he published a volume of essays on English literature, and edited various English classics. A poet by nature, he enriched his own literature with a volume of poems, in which he unfolds an exalted conception of Christ. Deeply im- pressed by the poems of Mary Robinson, he translated them into French in 1888. The work laid the foundations of a friendship between two kindrod souls, and led to the perfect union which illumined the closing years of his life. Darmesteter was an anient patriot, and the sad condition of 1-Vance at the close of the Franco-lYussian war afflicted him profoundly. He gave expression to his burning sentiments in a volume of " patriotic selections," published X EDITOR'S PREFACE. under the pseudonym of J. D. Le Francais. Nothing that touched the thought or life of the people among whom he was thrown seemed for- eign to his spirit, and he found time while on a visit to Persia and India, for the purpose of gathering further fragments of the Zend-Ayesta and of studying Zoroastrianism at its source, to collect the popular songs of Afghanistan. In an extensive work upon the subject, published on his return, he demonstrated the historical value of these songs, and showed that the lan- guage in which they are couched follows in direct succession to that of the Zend-Avesta. With all these labors, and with his duties as professor of Persian at the College de France, in addition to a professorship at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, he found time to perform the exacting services demanded of him as secretary of the Societe Asiatique, in which capacity he published yearly a masterly review of all contributions made to Oriental science, by French, and, in part, by other scholars. Even this did not exhaust his boundless capacity for work, and great was the astonishment of his friends to learn a few years ago that he had accepted the editorship of a leading political and literary review, " La Revue de Paris," to which he made several noteworthy contributions. Endeared to his soul were the studies of his EDITOR'S PREFACE. xi childhood, — Hebrew and the subsequent Rab- binical literature. In an essay on the history of the Jews, he outlined the great epochs in the fortunes of this people in such a manner as was possible only to one who possessed a complete mastery of the sources for this subject. But it was the Old Testament rather than the later literature that appealed strongest to him, and within the Old Testament it was the Prophets that answered to the needs of his own religious nature. In the course of years he moved far away from the lines of orthodox tradition, but the echoes of the faith of his childhood never ceased to stir his soul.

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