Cf. passage in Portrait, p. 58, Note

10. See 'Portrait de la Rochefoucauld, ' etc., p. 62, Note 18.

H. En = des torts. It is not strictly correct, for 'avoir tort' is to be considered as a compound expression. Cf. Note 28, Letter vii., l'ascal.

Life and Works. — Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was born in 1627 at Dijon (Côte-d'Or). He began his éducation in the local Jesuit school, and completed it at the Collège of Navarre, in Paris. At the âge of sixteen his réputation as a scholar was already established in the cultured society of the capital, and after quitting collège he rapidly made himself known as a powerful and éloquent preacher. On one occasion the august and all-powerful Louis XIV. condescended to send a letter to his father, 1 pour le féliciter d'avoir un tel fils.' In 1669 ne was appointed Bishop of Condom, but resigned in the following year in order to give his undivided attention to the tuition of the heir to the throne. In spite of the pains he took, his illustrious pupil made but slow progress, a resuit for which the tutor was not to blâme. Fortunately for posterity, Bossuet published the matter of the instruction he gave under the titles Discours sur V Histoire universelle, Connaissance de Dieu et de soi-même, Politique tirée de V Ecriture Sainte. In 1682 he became Bishop of Meaux, and henceforth devoted himself entirely to the service of the Church, and the books or treatises he wrote were almost entirely of a religious character. Between 1669 and 1687 ne delivered his famous funeral orations, among the

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being those on Henriettaof England and the gréai

Condé. In 1689 occurred his controversy with Fénelon, whirh will be dealt with in the biography of the latter (p. xxxvm), He died in 1704 «it the âge of seventyen.

The best-known work of Bossuet is his Discours sur V Histoire universelle. This ' chef d'œuvre de la prose fraiu Nisard calls it in his Histoire de la littérature

française, is divided into three parts: (1) Les Époques, ou la suite des temps ; (2) la suite de la religion ; (3) les Empires.

The first part is a summary of the history of the world from the création to the reign of Charlemagne — that is, to the beginning of the tenth century. The word ■ epoch ' is explained by Bossuet himself in a form adapted to the intelligence of his pupil : ■ De même que pour aider sa mémoire dans la connaissance des lieux, on retient certaines villes principales autour desquelles on place les autres, chacune suivant sa distance, ainsi, dans l'ordre des siècles, il faut avoir certains temps marqués par quelque grand événement auquel on rapporte tout le reste. C'est ce qui s'appelle époque, d'un mot grec qui signifie s'arrêter, parce qu'on s'arrête là pour considérer, comme d'un lieu de repos, tout ce qui est arrivé devant ou après et éviter par ce moyen les anachronismes, c'est à dire cette sorte d'erreur qui fait confondre les temps.'

The second part exposes the origin and development of religion. In it the influence exercised by the Pensées of Pascal is easily traced ; indeed, it may be regarded as co-ordinating and amplifying the ideas which Pascal bad only been able to note down on scraps of paper as they occurred to his mind. A portion of the third part is D in this volume.

Ail three parts of the Discours are dominât ed by the

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idea of the controlling influence of the Divine will upon human affairs. It is this idea that helps to give to the work its remarkable unity of design. As an example of unité and ordre (see note 27, p. xlii), it can scarcely be excelled. Its defects as history are obvious enough, but thèse can be explained and excused by the fact that in the time of Bossuet the scientific method had not yet been applied to the study of historical sources. The style, though wonderfully précise, simple, pure, and varied, has at times a smoothness and polish that almost weakens its vigour. Yet, in spite of any defects, the work must rank among the masterpieces of prose composition.

EDITIONS.— The complète édition is thatof Lâchât, 31 vols., 1867 (Paris). A good cheap édition of Les E/npires has been edited by M. Gazeau (Delagrave, 18.). BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM.— The article Bossuet, by F. Brunetière, in the Grande Encyclopédie (copy at British Muséum) and Etudes critiques, tom. v. ; A. Rebelliau, Bossuetf historien du protestantisme (Paris, 1891) ; G. Lanson, Bossuet.

NOTES

1 . ' Où ' can no longer be thus used in référence to names of persons. M. F. has chez lesquels.

2. Cf. Herodotus, II. 35, and also Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois> livres xiv.-xviii.

3. This assertion is borrowed by Bossuet from Diodorus of Sicily, and corroborated by Herodotus, but contradicted by inscriptions and papyri.

4. Civil polity, ail matters concerning the relation of the citizen to the State. Cf. iroXirela.

5. It means that each trade had a particular quarter of the town ass;gned to it. This was a common custom in Europe of the Middle Ages, and it still survives in the names of many streets. In Paris, for instance, there is the Rue de la Parcheminerie, which was reserved to merchants of parchment ; Rue de la Ferronnerie, to dealers in old iron and tin ; Rue des Lombards, in which Italian bankers or usurers used to hâve their shops, and lend or steal money, etc. Cf., in London, Lombard Street, etc.

6. Cf. the Chinese, Lesseps, when çutting the Suez Canal, found

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the P'ellahs using BMthodl employai 1>y their ancestors hundrcds <>f years ago. lHit F.gyptian conservatism has bcen cxaggerated. ulre des jugcnR-nt> ■ system of justice.