understood that it was better the thing should have happened in this way, and that the object of his temptation should have abruptly quitted his door of herself; but as to thanking God for it, as for a mercy, and the commencement of a reward, it was an idea which he could neither have of himself, nor receive from any one else.

Despairing, then, of going any further, and very happy besides to have got so far, Bossuet retired. Another reason for quitting the king as soon as possible, was that he feared his return to the subject of the sermon. It was in effect somewhat to be feared, either that the king would refuse to go to the chapel the next day, or that he would exact the taking from the sermon all that could directly or remotely bear any relation to what was passing; two things which were equally feared by Bossuet; for he saw, on the one hand, that if the king once took it into his head not to hear the sermon, it would be impossible to make him give up the idea; and on the other, that he would have more need than ever of the instructions of religion.

It was with this idea that Bossuet returned to Bourdaloue, and related to him the scene which we have just described.

CHAPTER XIX.

BOURDALOUE AND BOSSUET.-DISTINGUISHING PECULIARITIES OF THE PROTESTANT PULPIT.-PULPIT ELOQUENCE.

BOSSUET's conclusion, then, was that nothing should be changed in the composition which he had just heard. Bourdaloue said neither yes nor no. Besides his embarrassment at finding himself borrowing the plumes of another, he felt, and not without foundation, that his position in regard to the king was more and more critical.

Bossuet having asked if Claude had staid long, and how they parted; "very pleasantly," he said, charmed that the latter half of the question dispensed him from answering the first. "He is a man of feeling and a man of talent."

"I know that; but-"

"Well ?"

“He ought to have felt that all times are not equally fit—” "For giving lectures, you would say ?"

"Well yes.-A visit-a first visit

"He apologized amply for that. Without M. de Fénélon.By the way he looked at you very often, M. de Fénélon! Many of his remarks seemed allusions-"

"To what?" said Bossuet hastily.

"I do not know to what."

"We have been acquainted such a long time. However, you must confess to me that Monsieur Claude-"

"Only spoke the truth. If it appeared harsh to us, so much the worse for us."

"It is true that these ministers pique themselves upon saying it to everybody."

"I wish that I had always deserved that reproach

"I also. But you must acknowledge that it would be unjust to conclude from that, as the Protestants do, that our preaching is generally complaisant and feeble."

"I certainly do believe that it is not the case with our curés, particularly our country curés. They, on the contrary, go too far in the other direction; they cannot preach a sermon without damning the whole world. But how should a stranger, or a Protestant of Paris, judge of Catholic preaching, if not from the discourses of the preachers of Paris and Versailles? By what will we be judged in the future, if not by the few sermons which shall have been preserved, by yours, by mine perhaps? And then, if the judgment be unjust, if it be even said that our Church uses two weights and two measures, one for kings, the other for the people,-who will be responsible for this, if it be not ourselves? I shudder when I think what might be said of me in one or two centuries, if I am judged from many a page with which the king and court have been most enchanted. This wretched peroration"

"But do not speak of it any more," interrupted Bossuet. “If you were wrong in writing, never has wrong been better repaired. And now permit me an observation. I do not say that you ought not to listen to Monsieur Claude because he is a Protestant; but neither is this a reason why you should listen to him like an oracle. He subdued you, in fact, completely. These people—" "These people have decidedly better notions than we in re gard to the dignity of the pulpit."

"They have not always had them

Perhaps not, a hundred years ago; but had we them either? I doubt whether anything is to be found in their history comparable to the buffooneries of the orators of the League. In the midst of the commotion and bad taste of the time, they knew how to speak nobly.* I know nothing more beautiful of this kind, than the famous harangue of their Theodore de Bèze at the conference of Poissy. After the good sense of the public had condemned buffoonery, there were traces of it remaining among us at least forty years longer than among them. Our sermons were still all variegated with profane quotations, which they had completely banished from theirs, and the truth is, that this miserable practice never has been universal among their orators. In our Church, it is you alone who have completely freed the pulpit from them."

"You also."

"True, but it was after your example-and probably a little also, like yourself, after the example of the Protestants; for I doubt not that the gravity of their eloquence has contributed, even without our being aware of it, to correct the faults of ours. The sermon occupying an important place in their worship, they have naturally been led to elevate its tone, and to give it the nobleness and majesty of a real act of worship; it is their

* It is scarcely necessary to recall the fact that Luther in Germany, and Calvin in France, greatly contributed to establish the language. The Christian institutes of Calvin abounds in pages, which one might believe to have been written a century later. As to their polemics, we know very well that they were not of the most polished, but was it inferior to the style of the time? No. At its worst, it was on a level; and in many respects far above it. In our days, have not some gone so far as to accuse Protestantism of the superannuated style of the old Bibles of the 16th century? If this were even a just accusation, it would still be somewhat awkward; for truly if the Protestant psalms are as verse little worthy of Racine, the Latin of the Church is still further from resembling that of Cicero

mass. A minister who ascends the pulpit considers himself as performing an office of no less gravity than we when we are about to approach the altar. It is not a more solemn act for us to open the tabernacle and take out the sacred vessels, than is for him the simple fact of opening his Bible and reading his text."

"I can understand very well how much nobleness their sermons receive from this fact, but you do not say all. What has been the consequence of their so exalting the value of the sermon? That they have their churches crowded with people for whom the sermon is the whole service. To go to the sermon has become with them equivalent to our vulgar to go to mass, and a great error is concealed beneath this expression."

"Without doubt; but it is said that far from partaking in this error, their ministers do all in their power to combat it. The reading of the Bible, the singing of the psalms, and above all, the prayers, form the chief part of the worship, and this they do not cease to repeat. They acknowledge, then, as we do, that the sermon is, and ought to be, but an accessory; and if their hearers sometimes fall into the extreme of which you speak, I believe that ours are pretty generally in the contrary extreme. It cannot be denied; preaching with us is in some sort a side dish. It is scarcely connected with the service; and it only plays a part from time to time, thanks to the talent of some preacher."

"Do you believe, then, that it would not be the same with them, and that the place of worship at Charenton, for instance, would always be equally full whether Monsieur Claude preached or not?"

"I did not say that. The reputation of the minister will always have an effect, at Charenton as at Paris, upon the number of the audience. What I meant to say was, that preaching with