the first rank as a writer. No one has carried the excellence of style to a higher degree of perfection. He attended to this branch of Eloquence to the latest period of his life.

There were found in his port-folio, after his death, twelve transcripts of his sermons, which he revised with unwearied pains after his advancement to the episcopacy, and which of course, have never been delivered from the pulpit, such as we now read them.

Massillon retained in his old age all the purity of his taste, although he had lost the vivacity of

' and inculcates his doctrines with much zeal, piety, and ' earnestness; but his style is verbose, he is disagreeably 'full of quotations from the Fathers, and he wants imagina'tion. Massillon has more grace, more sentiment, and, in 'my opinion, every way more genius. He discovers much ' knowledge both of the world and of the human heart; he

is pathetic and persuasive; and, upon the whole, is perhaps, the most elegant writer of sermons, which modern ⚫ times have produced.'-BLAIR's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 120.

M. CREVIER, in his Rhetorique Francoise, makes the following critical comparison of celebrated French Orators: BOSSUET is sublime, but unequal; FLECHIER is more equal, but less sublime, and often too flowery; BOURDA-' LOVE is solid and judicious, but he neglects the lighter ornaments. MASSILLON is richer in imagery, but less cogent in reasoning. I would not, therefore, have an Orator content himself with the imitation of one of these models, • but rather that he strive to combine in himself the differ'ent qualities of each.'-Vol. ii. ad. fin.

his imagination. He then employed himself much more upon the style than upon the main points of his discourses; but he was always unwilling to revise his course of Lent Sermons,* which he had written at first with much care; and I do not mean to attack the glory of the immortal MASSILLON, I intend, on the contrary, to render him fresh homage, in boldly advancing, that this, which has for a long time been quoted as his chief work, appears to me one of his feeblest rhetorical productions.

Massillon's plans are all alike; and besides this sameness which is so perceptible, when we read his sermons in succession, he generally confines himself to combat excuses, and perhaps does not sufficiently search beforehand into the bottom of his subjects.

He was born with very great talents for Eloquence; but, he was not sufficiently studious in his youth. He depended too much upon his quickness of parts; and we may say respecting him, what the Roman Orator said of Piso, "As much as he withheld from application, so "much he diminished his glory." Yes, it is my admiration of him; it is my reading him over and

* Fr. son petit Carême.

* Quantum detraxit ex studio, tantum amisitè gloria.BRUTUS, 236.

over, every day, with delight, that emboldens me to apply to him the charge, which Cardinal de Retz brought against the great Condé, when he blames him for "not having merited all that he "might."*

How superior would Massillon really have been to himself, were all his sermons as eloquent and perfect as his "Ecclesiastical Conferences ;" his discourses "on the Forgiveness of Enemies ;" 66 on the Death of a Sinner;" "on Confession;" "on the Divinity of Jesus Christ;"" on the "Mixture of the Righteous and the Wicked;" his homily" of the Prodigal Son," &c. In these we have Massillon's most masterly performances; it is here we discover all his genius; while we regret that he hath not bestowed more time upon the composition of his other works. †

This excellent writer, misled by his copiousness, frequently fails in not sufficiently enriching his beautiful style with ideas; and he would unquestionably lose much of his celebrity, were he to be judged according to this maxim of Fene

* Memoirs, vol. 1.

+ The late Dr. Dodd published a translation of Massillon's sermons preached before Louis XV. during his minority. They were called Sermons on the Duties of the Great,' and inscribed to the Prince of Wales.

The Rev. Dr. Milne has published a volume of sermons, professedly in imitation of Massillon and other French wri ters.

lon; 'a good discourse is that from which nothing 'can be retrenched without cutting into the 'quick.'*

Massillon's arguments are sometimes destitute of regularity, of energy, perhaps even of the solidity which he was so capable of giving them.

Could it be believed, that, in his sermon ' on the Certainty of a future State,' which is, in other respects, full of beauty and energy, Massillon seriously refutes, and more than once, the frivolous objection, that another state of existence is incredible, because no one ever returned from it? The French Orator, so styled by way of pre-eminence, Bossuet, has also deigned to take notice of this plea of sinners, who would call for miraculous apparitions, not to convince them of the soul's immortality, but to determine their conversion. One expression at the close of the funeral Oration for Queen Henrietta (the most pathetic of all his discourses) suffices him to confute, by a sublime stroke, this absurd demand. It were to be wished, that Massillon had often copied this boldness of the pencil! Do we expect God to raise the dead in order to instruct 'us? It is by no means necessary that the dead

return, nor that any one rise out of the grave; 'that which to day descends into the tomb might 'be sufficient to convert us.'

* Letter upon Eloquence.

SECTION XLV.

OF SAURIN.

WE sometimes discover such passages after

the manner of Bossuet, in the sermons

of the Pastor SAURIN, whom we ought to insert at the head of Preachers of the second class.*

In my

The first part of his discourses generally consists of a commentary upon his text. opinion, all his critical discussions upon history, grammar, or chronology, are extremely different from Eloquence.

Besides, the shew of erudition, with which Saurin imposes on so many of his readers, ought not to be held of any account, even if all this scientific dress were not mistimed, inasmuch as it is no very difficult task to copy commentators, or to translate dissertations.

* Among the French Protestant Divines, SAURIN is the 'most distinguished; he is copious, eloquent, and devout, though too ostentatious in his manner.'-BLAIR's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 120.

The sermons of the late Rev. C. CHAIS, preached at the French church at the Hague, have also considerable merit in his pulpit eloquence.

R