SECTION XXII.

IT

OF DESCRIBING CHARACTERS.

T is common in Panegyrics, or in funeral Orations, for Orators to sketch the portraiture of contemporaries who have been the rivals or antagonists of the man whose virtues are praised. Such passages are commonly criticised with so much the more severity, as they always indicate design; and the Auditor is uninterested in hearing them, unless a distinguished precision immediately impress them on his memory; un

into the melancholy detail of mismanagement and neglect, published authentic lists of their mortality, which was almost universal, encountered the resentment of parish officers of all ranks by publishing their names, informed himself of the best methods in practice, both at home and abroad, for preserving poor infants. After persevering for years in investigating the evil and the remedy, he, at length, in 1766, by his own exertions, and at his sole expence, obtained an act of parliament, which, from its beneficial influence, was called by poor people, the act for keeping children alive.

The life of JONAS HANWAY, is a series of benevolent 'intentions, recommended by his writings, promoted by his bounty, and accomplished by unceasing industry. All his efforts, except his opposition to the bill for naturalizing the Jews, were dictated by a wise, liberal, and enlarged benevolence. We calculate, with pleasing admiration, how much it is possible for a good man zealously affected to accomplish.' In every good work that he began, he did 'it with all his might, and prospered.'-CHARTER's Sermon on Alms, p. 40, and HANWAY's Life, by PUGH.

less each stroke of the pencil form an excellent trait; unless the man, of whose character we are forming a judgment, is already celebrated; and, in a word, unless the Orator compress many ideas into a very narrow compass.

When Massillon preached to the Nuns of Chilot, in the presence of the Queen of England, he drew the picture of the Prince of Orange, to please the consort of King James; but his genius rendered him no service on this occasion. Massillon only introduces one thought, in order to describe William III. which he expresses with sufficient precision, and afterwards dilates with his usual elegance, but without thoroughly investigating the character of the Stadtholder, or availing himself of the result of the history.

His amplification was more adapted to console the Queen of England, than to describe the Prince of Orange. It may serve for an illustration of the fact, that Massillion enlarged too much on the same idea, and extremely misapplied his fluency of expression.

Would you wish to know how Bossuet has desscribed the Protector CROMWELL? Contrast with the excessive copiousness of the Bishop of Clermont, the energetic impetuosity of the Bishop of Meaux. Nothing will more strongly mark the difference of their genius.

war;

A man, in whom was combined an incredi'ble depth of mind, the refined hypocrite, and 'the skilful politician; a man capable of any un'dertaking, and of profound dissimulation; "equally active and indefatigable in peace and r; who left nothing to Fortune, that he could 'take from her, either by resolution or foresight; • withal so vigilant, and prepared on every side, 'that he never neglected the opportunities, with 'which she presented him. In a word, he was ' one of those restless and daring geniuses, who C seem as if they were born to effect the revolu'tion of the world.' *

It is thus that a few lines suffice to develop an extraordinary character, with the penetration of a Moralist, the vehemence of an Orator, and the correctness of an Historian.

Massillon slightly glances upon subjects, and has a profusion of words. Bossuet acts precisely the reverse. It is not possible to deliver an opinion more adapted to establish the decision of posterity...

* Funeral Oration for the Queen of England.

SECTION XXIII.

OF COMPLIMENTS.

INCE the discussion of the different rules, to which the art of Eloquence subjects Christian Orators, hath led me on to various episodical details, I must not proceed to more important matters, without dwelling a little longer on another branch of ministerial work, which has much affinity to Penegyrics, and especially to the discription of characters.

I mean to speak of COMPLIMENTS, with which we are sometimes led to begin, or finish, our pulpit discourses.

Established usuage no longer permits the ministers of the gospel to preach the sacred word before the rulers of the world, without burning at their feet some grains of incense. Kings are, therefore, much to be pitied, who are pursued with flattery in those very Churches, where they come to learn their duty, and to be humbled for their faults: but it is, also, to be regretted, that Christian Orators, who ought then to speak to the conscience of the guilty, should degrade themselves to a level with a crowd of flatterers. What must doubtless comfort them, is, the assurance that commendations enjoined upon the man who

2

offers them, cannot dazzle the great, to whom they are addressed.

Let no one, however, exceed the bounds of just praise; for religion doth not permit any farther than is consistent with truth.

Let us ever recognize an apostle as an enemy to falsehood, even in those compliments wherein one might so often suppose himself freed from the obligations of sincerity. Let us not bring a ministry, divinely commissioned, into contempt, by exaggerated eulogiums, which can never impose, either upon the Great who despise them, upon the Orator who pronounces them, upon the Auditor who hears them, or upon God, who forms a just judgment concerning them.

"To praise

Adulation always displeases. Princes for virtues which they have not," says the Duke de Rochefoucauld, "is to insult them with impunity."* It is, at least, to forget the respect which is due them.

Eusibius, in "the life of Constantine," relates, that this Emperor imposed silence upon a preacher, who was base enough to imitate, in his sermon, the fiction of Virgil respecting the Apotheosis of Augustus, telling Constantine, that, † B. iv. chap. 4.

*Thought, 320.