which she had received from Bossuet, she requested that, after her decease, a particular emerald ring, set in diamonds of great price, might be presented to him.'-Her torments continued to the last, but her patience remained; she persisted to listen to the exhortations, to repeat the prayers, and make the humble and fervent offering of herself to the divine will, which Bossuet suggested to her. Those who heard them never forgot them;the Abbé Feuillet declared he never heard any thing so completely fine. "At three, in the morning, the princess died. The particulars of her death were immediately related by Madame de la Fayette, to Lewis the Fourteenth. He sent for Bossuet, heard them again from him, and then, with his own band, put the emerald ring, mentioned by the princess, on the prelate's finger, and desired him to wear it for the rest of his life, in remembrance of her. He added, that he himself could not better show his regard for the memory of his sister-in-law, than by desiring Bossuet to pronounce her funeral oration. "Every thing we know of Bossuet, leads us to think that he had a very feeling heart; it certainly is discernible in every line of his funeral oration on the princess. He chose for his text the verse of Ecclesiastes (i. 2.) so suitable to the occasion, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!' -Having pronounced these words, he remained for some time in silence, evidently overpowered by his feeling. 'It was to be my lot, he then exclaimed, to perform this melancholy duty to the memory of this illustrious princess! she, whom I had observed so attentive while I performed the same duty to her royal mother, was herself so soon to become the theme of a similar dis course!-And my voice was so soon to be exerted in discharging the like melancholy duty to her. O vanity! O nothing! O mortals! ever ignorant of what awaits you! But a month ago, would she have thought it! You, who then beheld her drowned in tears for her mother's loss, would you have thought it! would you have thought that you were so soon to meet again to bewail her own fate! Oh! vanity of vanities! all is vani, ty! These are the only words! the only reflection which, in such an event, my sorrow leaves me!' "After this eloquent exordium, Bossuet pursues his dismal theme. He describes in strains, always eloquent, but always mournful, the short, but brilliant career of the princess; -so highly placed, so greatly gifted, so widely admired, and so generally loved! The idol of the world! The pride of her august family! The delight of all who approached her! Yet, what,' he exclaimed, is all this, which we, so much below it, so greatly admire! While we tremble in the view of the great, God smites them, that they may serve as warnings to us. Yes! so little does he consider these great ones, that he makes them often serve as mere materials for our instruction !-We have always sufficient reason to be convinced of our nothingness; but if, to win our hearts from the fascination of the world, the wonderful and astonishing is necessary, what we now behold is sufficiently terrible.-O night of woe! O night of horror! When, like a peal of thun der, the dreadful cry bursts on us, on all sides;-The Princess is dying!-The Princess is dead! Nothing could be heard but cries, nothing was discernible but grief, despair, and the image of death!"The writers of the time mention, that, of what it had cost him; as an ob, ject beneath his mighty mind: In the end, he was sensible of his errors, and of the vanity of human greatness. But, while he was in search for what he was thus afterwards to despise, he shook every thing by his secret and powerful means :-even in the universal overthrow of all around him, he still seemed to suffice for his own support; and his disappointed and intrepid aspect still breathed defiance on his successful adversary." that, when Bossuet pronounced these words, the whole audience arose from their seats; that terror was visible in every countenance, and that, for some moments, Bossuet himself was unable to proceed. "Some of the other funeral orations of Bossuet contain passages equally fine. What an English reader will principally admire in them, are the portraits which they contain of several distinguished personages of that time. In his funeral oration on Henrietta-Maria, the widow of our Charles the First, and "In this funeral oration on the the mother of the princess, who prince of Condé, Bossuet thus conwas the subject of the discourse trasts the prince and the Marechal which we have just mentioned, Bos- de Turenne: "It was a sublime suet gives the following description spectacle to behold, at the same of Cromwell: In those days, a time, and, on the same fields of man arose of unfathomable depth war, two men, whom the universal of thought; as subtle a hypocrite, voice of Europe equalled to the as he was a consummate politician. ⚫ greatest generals of past ages, someIn peace and war, equally enter- times united, sometimes commandprizing and impenetrable, he left ing different bodies, and, sometimes nothing to Fortune, which he could opposed to each other; possessed of keep from her power, by wisdom virtues, at once so equal, and of so and foresight; at the same time that different a character. One seemed he was so well prepared as never to to act from deep reflection, the let slip any opportunity, of which other from a sudden illumination of he could avail himself to his ad- mind; the latter was most fiery, but vantage. In a word,-one of those had nothing of rashness; the former active and audacious spirits, who seemed cold, but was never slow; seem born for the disturbance of and, while he appeared at a loss, the world. What do not such meu was quietly determined on the boldachieve, when it pleases the Al- est and most successful enterprizes. mighty to make them the instru- As soon as he began to act, somements of his wrath.!" thing extraordinary was expected from him, and he advanced, in a kind of regular succession, from prodigy to prodigy, till the very hour which terminated his conquests and his life. The first battle of the other placed him on a level with the greatest generals. One, by vigorous and incessant efforts, fixed the admiration of the world, and silenced envy; the other, on his first appearance, threw out a lustre which filled the universe with his ascending "In his funeral oration on the chancellor Le Tellier, Bossuet gives the following admirable portrait of the celebrated Cardinal de Retz:A man so faithful to individuals, so terrible to the state of so lofty a character, that it was impossible to esteem, to fear, to love, or to bate him, in moderation. Firm in himself, he shook the universe, and obtained a dignity, which he afterwards wished to resign, as unworthy ascending glory, and envy dared not attack him. In fine,-one, by the depth of his genius and the infinite resources of his mighty en rgies, was raised above danger, and even turned to his advantage the fickleness of fortune; the other, by his illustrious birth, the lotty conceptions of his mind, and a kind of divine instinct, the secret of which was kept from man, seemed born to bend fortune to his will, and enchain the fates." "The whole discourse abounds with the sublime, the beautiful, and the pathetic: it is generally considered to be the master-piece of Bossuet, in this branch of eloquence : but, by his own ingenuous confession, it was surpassed by the discourse which Bourdaloue pronounced on the same occasion. "Through life, the prince of Condé showed great external reverence for religion; but his youth was dissolute; during many years he was untrue to his king and country, and, for some time, commanded against them the armies of Spain, whom France then considered her natural and inveterate enemy. But the twenty last years of his life were religious and exemplary, and his death was edifying. On the criminal part of his life, Bossuet employed only three lines, Bourdaloue nobly plunged into it. The prince's long profligacy, his neglect of religion, and his rebellion against his king, Bourdaloue held up to his audience, in their true colours, and dilated on them, through all the second part of his discourse. At the same time he showed, that in the midst of his errors and his crimes, the prince preserved much of what was really great and good and thus, while he descanted, in the very strongest terms, on the follies, the vanities, and the crimes of his hero, he made the audience lose sight of them, in the blaze of glory, with which, in the midst of all his crimination of the prince, he took care to radiate him. When, after he had amply descanted on this part of the subject, Bourdaloue described the price, on the approach of age, sitting down to the study of religion, making bis peace with his God and his king, and atoning by the retirement and regularity of the twenty last years of his life, for the errors and wanderings of his youth, and showed how honourable it was to the prince to be so converted to religious duty, and how honourable it was to religion, to have such a convert, he filled the audience with veneration for the illustrious subject of his discourse, and impressed on them the most salutary truths. Bossuet was so struck with the noble candour and simplicity with which Bourdaloue opened this part of his discourse, that he turned to the prelates near him, and cried out loudly enough to be generally heard, ‘Voila, notre maître a touts"—" Behold the master of us all!' Yet, it may be questioned, whether this celebrated oration of Bourdaloue contains quite so fine a passage as that with which Bossuet concludes the oration pronounced by him on the same occasion. A few minutes before the Prince of Condé expired, his confessor exhorted him to repeat with him the prayer of David, O God! create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within my bowels.— The prince seemed lost in thought; his whole attention appeared to be fixed by some great object. Then, raising himself on his bed, and turning to the persons present, he said, said, I never doubted of the mysteries of religion,-whatever may have been asserted to the contrary. -Now I doubt of them less than ever. How these truths now display themselves! How they now unfold themselves to me!' Then, lifting his eyes to heaven, he repeated, in Latin, several times, the words of the apostle, (1 Cor. xiii. 12), "Facie ad faciem,-Face to face;" and with those words on his lips, expired. Beautifully alluding to this interesting scene, Bossuet thus concludes his funeral oration on the prince : For me, O Prince! O worthy theme of our praise and regrets In my memory, your image will ever live! Not however with that air of heroic ardour, which presaged your victories!-I desire to behold, about you, nothing which death effaces. In your image, as I wish to behold it, I shall see that which is immortal. I shall behold you, as you were seen in your last moments, when, full of faith and hope, you were under the powerful hand of God; and his glory seemed to open on you. There I shall behold you infinitely more triumphant than you were at Friedberg or Rocroy!-Transported with the view, I shall pronounce the beautiful words of the apostle, (1 John. v. 4) The victory which conquers this world, is our faith. May this be your victory! May you enjoy it eternally! May the eternal sacrifice which is now offered for you, give you the immediate enjoyment of it!-Accept, O Prince! the last effort of a voice which was known to you. Yes, you shall close these discourses. Instead of bewailing the deaths of others, I shall henceforth endeavour, in imitation of your example, to sanctify my own end, Happy! if taking warning from these gray hairs, of the account, which I must soon render to God, I shall dedicate to the flock, which he has committed to my charge, the remains of a voice, which begins to fail me, of a flame, that must soon expire! This is the true sublime; the sublime of taste, and, what crowns it all, the sublime of religion. ON THE CHAracter of FRENCH SERMONS. [From the same.] HE sermons of Bossuet place line of preachers; and even leave it open to argument, whether he is not the first in that line. Bourdaloue and Massillon alone can dispute his pre-eminence. Nothing in the sermons of either equals, in splendor or sublimity, a multitude of passages which may be produced from the sermons of Bossuet; and he has little of Massillon's too fre quent monotony, or of the cold dia beautiful march of Bourdaloue. On the other hand, Bossuet has not the continued elegance and grace of Massillon; and an advocate of Bourdaloue might contend, that if Bourdaloue appears to yield to Bossuet in sublimity, it is only because the sublimity of Bourdaloue is more familiar, and therefore less imposing. "It seems to me admitted, that the sermons of Massillon, the tragedies of Euripedes and Racine, and the Georgics of Virgil, are the most perfect of human compositions. Those, therefore, who read sermons, merely for their literary merit, will generally prefer the sermons of Massillon to those of Bourdalone and Bossuet. On the other haud, the profound theology of the sermons of Bossuet, and the countless passages in them of true sublimity, and exquisite pathos, will lead many to give him a decided preference over both his rivals. But those who read sermons for instruction, and whose chief object, in the perusal of them, is to be excited to virtue, or confirmed in her paths, will generally consider Bourdaloue as the first of preachers, and every time they peruse him, it will be with new delight. No sermons possess, in so great a degree, the indescribable charm of simplicity; and no composition, sacred or profane, contains any thing, which, in grace or effect, exceeds that insensible rise from mere instruction into eloquence, of which Bourdaloue scarcely has a sermon that does not furnish more than one example.To these must be added, his inestimable talent of conversing with his hearers. Was Magdalen,' he says in his panegyric of her, better acquainted with Jesus Christ, than we are? On the contrary, the mysteries and doctrines of Christianity, in which we have been instructed, have discovered to us wonders that were hidden from her eyes. Why, therefore, should we make a longer delay? Without going further, why, before we quit this church, before we stir from this very altar, where Jesus Christ himself is present,— (not indeed as a guest, which he was at the house of the Pharisee, but, as our food and nourishment, as a victim immolated for us, as our priest, as our pastor,)-why should we not now give ourselves up to him?-Let us, for once, completely do what we have, so often, proposed to do;-Let us say to him, No! O Lord! It shall not be in a year's time; at the end of a month; it shall be to-day. It is wrong for me to temporize with thee.-It shall not be, when I have Anished this or that business; for it is unjust that the concerns of the world should make me postpone the concerns of God to them: It shall not be, when age comes upon me, for thine, O God! is every age: and it would be a sensible insult to thee that I should reserve for thee the last years, the refuse of my life.It is now, O God!-I am thine; and I will be always thine Receive the protestation I make to thee, and strengthen the resolution which I form in thy sight. Can simplicity, can instruction, can eloquence go beyond this passage? "To Bourdaloue, other merita must be added, particularly the perfection of his style. Always plain, always unambitious, he appears to strike, by what he says, and not by the manner of his saying it. Upon the whole, the public opinion, that, after reading Bourdaloue, we shall not think Bossuet the first preacher of the French nation, seems to be founded. "Few sermons of Bossuet were published before the Benedictine edition of his works made its appearance. They fill three volumes of that edition; but many sketches and extracts of sermons are inserted in them, which, in that form, at least, should not have been presented to the public. "The following passage is both beautiful and sublime: Human life resembles |