Je suis, etc. Isaiah xlvii

Page 158 . — 1. nous pouvons achever, etc. Remember that this Oration was a part of the regular church service, a sermon in the mass. See Introduction, page viii.

Page 159 . — x. Attendons-nous que Dieu, etc. Suggested perhaps by Luke xvi, 31.

2. c’est par passion, et non par raison, etc. For Pascal’s view, see PcnseeSy Art. VIII, pensee 6.

3. ni de plus prfcs, ni plus fortement. Notice the use of ni . . . ni in interrogation, where the declarative phrase would be negative. It was not unusual in the seventeenth century.

4. que de la vouloir forcer, would now be changed to que de se voir forcee , since the modem construction of the phrase rejects the introduction of a new subject into a dependent clause in the infinitive.

Page 160. — 1. penitence. Notice how this Oration maintains to the end the idea of the vanity of earth. Nothing lasts but faith and repentance.

NOTES

ORAISON FUNfeBRE DE LOUIS DE BOURBON.

This is the last of Bossuet’s Funeral Orations. See the closing sentence of the Oration itself. Compare for thought with the Sermon sur FHonneur du Monde which Conde had heard Bossuet preach on March 2i) 1660.

2. Louis de Bourbon (1621-1686)) Prince of Conde, the most famous of his family, was together with Turenne the great general of the seventeenth century. In his quality as governor of Burgundy he had known and befriended Bossuet for many years. Probably for that reason Louis XIV desired that Bossuet should eulogize him. The ceremony took place at Notre Dame of Paris, magnificently decorated for the occasion with arms, escutcheons, portraits, triumphal arches and a mausoleum, and hung with the flags Conde and Turenne had won from the enemy. See page 193, lines 25-32.

3. - Monseigneur. Henri-Jules de Bourbon (1643-1709), eldest son of Conde, and succeeding to his title.

Page 161 . — 1. leurs seules actions, etc. Perhaps a paraphrase of “ let her own works praise her in the gates ” {Proverbs xxxi, 31).

2. du plus grand, etc. Louis XIV, called below Louis le Grand.

3. qui a honors la maison de France. Conde was the first prince of the blood, being the great grandson of the Huguenot leader Conde, of the sixteenth century, who was uncle to Henry IV of France. *

4. Louis le Grand. This title was conferred on Louis XIV by the city of Paris in 1680.

5. representations. Probably an allusion to the catafalque and its covering.