Jacob. See Gen. xlix

4. 6 prince. Francis- Louis de Bourbon, prince of Conti ( 1 664- 1709). He was Conde’s orphaned nephew, a most excellent soldier and scholar, but had incurred the ill-will of the king (cf. page 191, line 3), by sundry witticisms and by enlisting without royal permission in a war against the Turks.

Page 191 . — 1. ce ferme rocher. 2 Samuel xxii, 2-3.

2. la deraiSre lettre, etc. Mme de Sevigne speaks of the noble tone of this letter, and of the king’s emotion on hearing it read. (Cf. her Letter of December 13, 1686).

Page 192 . — 1. 0 Dieu, crlez, etc. Psalm li, 10.

2. Je n’ai jamais dout£, etc. Conde had been looked upon by some as a free-thinker.

Page 193. — 1. Sicuti est, etc. 1 John iii, 2, and 1 Cor. xiii, 12.

2. mais venez plutot, etc. This address cites each class which was represented at the service : the nobles, the magistrates, the clergy and the princes of the blood.

3. venez voir le peu, etc. Bossuet returns to the idea developed in the Oration on Madame.

4. des fragiles images = de fragiles images to-day. Both constructions are found in the seventeenth century.

NOTES

Page 194 . — i. un verre d’eau, etc. Matthew x, 42.

Page 195 . — 1. Et haec est, etc. 1 John v, 4.

2. ce sacrifice. Symbolized by the mass, of which this Oration was the sermon. See page 1 58, note 1 .

3. Vous mettrez fin, etc. This was in fact Bossuet’s last Oration. In 1690 he delivered an address at the Val-de-Gr&ce convent on the Dauphiness, whose heart had been brought there (April 26). It was not age which led him to renounce formal panegyrics. He had never favored such discourses, thinking them essentially worldly and unworthy the effort of a priest.