OZANAM, AntoineFrédéric (1813-1853), the greatest name, as far as literary and historical criticism is concerned, of the Neo-Catholic movement in France during the first half of the 19th century, was born at Milan on April 13, 1813. His family is said (as the name suggests) to have been of Jewish extraction, and has a circumstantial though possibly fabulous genealogy of extraordinary length. At any rate it had been settled in the Lyonnais for many centuries. In the third generation before Frédéric it had reached distinction through Jacques Ozanam, a mathematician of eminence. The critic’s father, Antoine 0zanam, served in the armies of the republic, but could not stomach the empire, and betook himself to commerce, teaching, and finally medicine. The boy was brought up at Lyons, and was strongly influenced by one of his masters, the Abbé Noirot. His conservative and religious instincts showed themselves early, and he published a pamphlet against Saint-Simonianism in 1831, which attracted the attention of Lamartine. He was then sent to study law in Paris, where he fell in with the Ampère family, and through them with excellent literary society. He also came under the influence of the Abbé Gerbet, the soberest and most learned member of the religious school of Lamennais and Lacordaire. Ozanam, however, though he joined with all the fervour of youth in the Neo-Catholic polemic, never underwent the uncomfortable experiences of the direct followers of Lamennais. His journal (for in those years every one was a journalist) was not the Avenir, but the more orthodox Tribune Catholique of Bailly, and he with some other young men founded the famous society of St Vincent de Paul, which was occupied in practical good works. Meanwhile he did not neglect his studies. He was ...