Page 036 PARADISE LOST students of Rouen by the faculty at Caen, the
ancient capital of Normandy, whose massive and beautiful churches
are constructed like the tragedies of Corneille. The subject for
the French composition was a sentence from Renan: `To have had
common glories in the past, to possess a common will in the present,
to have achieved great things together, to be determined upon further
achievement, these are the essential conditions for being a people';
it pleased me so much that I forgot where I was and why I was writing
in the delight of composition. The oral examination seemed easy.
I was questioned about Descartes and his influence on literature;
about Livy (and I had just read Taine's book) and about a book
of Homer which I knew by heart. Everything went smoothly except
geography. An illtempered old man asked me the depth of the Rhone
at Pont-Saint-Esprit. I never knew any figures, and this one least
of all. But despite this culpable ignorance I passed. |
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