Life, Science and Art

In the third essay, Intellectual Charity, of the collection Life, Science and Art, we read:

Now, written speech may be a great charity, and its diffusion, whenever it is true and beautiful, is one of the acts of charity most suited to our time. In many souls, a hunger and thirst exists which can only be satisfied by printed words. Between these eager readers and the writer (who should also be eager) a current of sublime charity may be established, since all give and all receive.

The reason for this reprint is to satisfy, in some small measure, that intellectual hunger and thirst with the beauty of revealed and natural truth in printed form. The need for this type of life-enriching charity is as desperate today as it was 150 years ago when Hello wrote those words.

Ernest Hello (1828-1885) was a French journalist. Along with his journalism, he published several books of criticism and philosophy. Life, Science and Art forms a valuable introduction to his writing and thought. This work has not been published in English, in a new edition, for over one hundred years.