]
[Footnote 149: It is this conception, as he himself tells us, that
Renan applied to the life and teaching of Jesus.]
As sung by Ali and Fatima on the death of Mahomet, the ode was an
allegory of his life from its beginning to its triumphant close when
he passed from the present with the consciousness that he had won to
his faith the nation from which he had sprung. But it also undoubtedly
expressed the aspiration of the poet himself. The ambition to impress
himself on the world, and the consciousness of powers to give effect
to his ambition, were indeed the ruling impulses behind all his
distracted activities. But he was thwarted in his ambition alike by
external circumstances and by his own temperament, and there came
occasions when he was disposed to accept failure as his wisest choice.
In two poems of this period he gives expression to this mood, and the
necessity for overcoming it. In the one, _Adler und Taube_, a young
eagle is wounded by a fowler, but after three days recovers, though
with disabled wings. Two doves alight near the spot, and one of them
addresses soothing words to the crippled king of the birds. "Thou art
in sorrow," he coos; "be of good courage, friend! hast thou not here
all that peaceful bliss requires?.
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