JOSEPH ERNEST RENAN, perhaps the most celebrated French representative of what is sometimes called “higher criticism,” was born at Tréguier, France, January 27th, 1823. When he left his native town to complete his studies in Paris, he had a strong bent towards theology, which controlled his later writings; but his attention was distracted from theology to philology, and it was for philology chiefly that he educated himself and took his university degree. He published in 1857 “Studies of Religious History” and the next year studies “On the Origin of Language.” These works suggest at once his method and the scope of his life work. He applied the modern critical philological method to theology and made an international reputation by works which were accepted as representing the highest reaches of scientific criticism. Renan was a man of genius and a most attractive writer; but as a philologist, he belonged to what may be called, without inaccuracy, the Romantic school, swift in assumption and daring in generalization. He was a great essayist rather than a great scientist. Among his noted works are “Essays Moral and Critical,” “The Life of Jesus,” “St. Paul and His Mission,” “Marcus Aurelius and the End of the Ancient World,” and “History of the Origins of Christianity.” He died at Paris, October 2d, 1892.