"fires of military ardour are scarce lighted in the King's heart, but they fparkle, break out, and ftrike with "terror univerfally.”

The author of the Common Place upon the functions of the lieutenant de police, has a character very different from the three others. The little fpecimen I gave of it is exquifite, and muft appear the more beautiful, because its beauties are lefs affected, though the fubject was very fufceptible of those bright and florid turns; but he chofe rather to express his thoughts in a juft and folid manner.

The academic elogiums composed by the fame author, being of that kind of eloquence which the Latins call genus tenue & fubtile; it's ftile is, as it fhould be, more fimple; but that fimplicity is attended with a great deal of with, as will appear from felect paffages I fhall now cite: Thefe will fhew, that " Every thing he fays is his own,' to use the fame terms this author does in speaking of one of his brother academicians; to which I would willingly fubjoin, " and "his manner of expreffing it."

We there find fome images copied from nature; and very fimple, but at the fame time very lively descriptions.

M. Dodart, fays he, in the elogium of that il"luftrious member of the royal academy, was natu<c rally grave and ferious; and the Chriftian atten"tion with which he always watched over himself, ແ was not of a caft to make him change that difpo"fition. But this ferioufnefs, fo far from being cc gloomy or auftere, fufficiently difcovered a fund of "that prudent and lafting joy, which refults from "the most refined reafon and tranquillity of consci

cr

ence. This difpofition is not productive of starts "of gaiety, but of an even fweetnefs of temper, "which may however become gaiety for fome mocc ments, and by a kind of furprize. And all this "united, imparts that air of dignity which belongs only to virtue, and which eminency and ftation

66 cannot

"cannot give. M. de Vauban despised that fuperfi"cial politeness which pleases the generality of people, ❝ and under which a great deal of barbarity is often " concealed; but his goodness, humanity, and liberality, form'd another kind of politeness more fel"dom met with; it being entirely that of the heart. "It became fuch an affemblage of virtues to neglect "exterior forms, which were indeed natural to him, "but which vice can eafily affume with too much "facility.

"It is allow'd, that Cicero has ferved as a model "for dialogue, and for this method of treating philo"fophy, (he means the philofophy of M. du Hamel) "but he is likewife diftinguished by the purity and "correctness of his Latin; and, what is ftill more important, by the great variety of ingenious and "delicate expreffions, with which his works are interwoven, These are philofophical reafonings, which have happily loft their natural, at least their ufual jejuneness, by paffing through a florid imagination; “ and yet without taking any more from it, than a juft proportion of beauty. Whatever is to be adorned only to a certain degree, it is always the moft diffi"cult to adorn.

“

*

"Father Malebranche's Enquiry after Truth is diftinguished on account of the great art with which it fets abftracted truths in their true light, joins "them together, and adds new ftrength to them "from their union. The diction is not only pure "and correct, but has all the dignity requifite to the fubjects, and all the graces they could admit. Not "that he took any pains to cultivate the talents of "the imagination; on the contrary, he always un"dervalued them. But his own was naturally very "noble and lively, and laboured for her ungrateful (6 poffeffor, in fpite of himfelf; and adorned reafon 66 whilft fhe concealed herself from it.

Botany is not an idle fedentary fcience, that may be attained in the calm repofe of a study. It re

2

<quires

"quires us to ramble over mountains and forefts; "climb steep rocks, and expofe ourselves upon the "brink of precipices. The only books that can in"ftruct us effectually in this fcience, have been dif"perfed at random over the whole furface of the earth; and we muft refolve to undergo the fatigue " and danger of enquiring after and collecting them. ca His predominant inclination made him furmount "all things. Thofe frightful and inacceffible rocks, "with which he was furrounded on all fides in the "Pyrenees, were transformed, with refpect to him, "into a magnificent library, where he had the plea"fure to find whatever his curiofity required, and "where he spent many delightful days."

The author of the elogiums has the art of applying à propos certain paffages from hiftory and antiquity, which are very proper to inftruct youth in the ferious and prudent ufe to be made of them in compofition.

"M. Parent was charged with writing obfcurely; "for we are frank, and follow, in fome meafure, a law made anciently in Egypt, by which the actions "and characters of the dead were examined before judges, in order to determine what was due to "their memory.

"A certain King of Armenia asked Nero for an "extraordinary player, fit for all parts; that he « might have, faid he, a whole company in him "alone. So M. de la Hire might have been faid to "have poffeffed in himself only a whole academy of "fciences.

In fpeaking of M. Leibnitz, who had acquired almoft the whole circle of fciences: "We are, fays he, "obliged to divide him in this place; and, philofo"phically speaking, to refolve him into his conftituent parts. Of many Hercules's, the ancients made but L one; and of M. Leibnitz alone, we fhall make many learned men.

M. Tournefort.

Сс

"b He went into Auvergne, Languedoc, Provence, on the Alps, and the Pyrenees; and did СС not return, till he had got together numerous co"lonies of plants, defigned for replanting this defert, that is, the royal garden, which was so unfurnished with plants, that it was in a manner no longer a "garden."

Сс

If we were allowed to fearch for imperfections among so many beauties, we might perhaps fufpect one to be a certain turn of thoughts, fomething too uniform, (though they are very much diverfified) which terminates the greatest part of the articles by a short and lively turn in a sententious way, and feems inftructed to seize the conclufion of the periods, as a poft which belongs to itself, exclufively of all others.

What exalts the understanding fould likewife exalt the foul.

The fame piety that made him worthy of entring the church, kept him out of it.

The fame caufe that kept him out, made him worthy of it.

The more the eyes have seen, the more reason itself fees.

That which he believed, he faw: whereas others fee ere they believe, &c.

I fhould be afraid, that a model of fuch authority might, one day or other, make eloquence degenerate into those touches, called fimuli quidam & fubiti ictus fententiarum, in Seneca; which, in the opinion of the fame author, feem, by their studied affectation, to beg applause; and which was unknown to the judicious ancients. d Apud antiquos nondum captabatur

plaufibilis oratio.

We muft, however, not reject them entirely; for they may give great grace and even ftrength to difcourse, as we often find in the author in queftion, as I fhall take notice elsewhere. But there is reason to

fear the abuse of this permiffion; which obliges me to animadvert often and strenuously upon it.

I

CHA P. III.

Of the reading and explaining of authors.

HAVE already obferved, in treating of the various duties of a profeffor of rhetoric, with regard to eloquence, that this part was one of the most effential; and may, in one fenfe, be faid to include all the reft. 'Tis, indeed, in the explanation of authors, that the mafter applies the precepts, and teaches youth to make use of them in compofing.

The rules which relate to the explaining of authors, are, no doubt, neceffary in a certain degree, to all the claffes; but they belong to that of rhetoric more particularly, because the judgment of youth is then more mature, and confequently more capable of improving from thofe rules: till then mafters are principally intent upon teaching them the rules and principles of grammar, and to make them obferve the correctness, purity and elegance of language. But the proper duty of a rhetorician is to fhew them the difpofition of an oration, and the beauties and even faults which may occur in it.

❝f He obferves to them, in what manner the ex❝ordium conciliates the favour and good-will of the "auditors; points out the perfpicuity and brevity, "the air of fincerity, the defign which may fome"times

• Demonftrare virtutes, vel fi quando ita incidat, vitia, id profeffionis ejus atque promiffi, qui fe magiftrum eloquentia pollicetur, maximè proprium eft. Quintil. L. 5. c. 2.

f Quæ in prooemio conciliandi judicis ratio: quæ narrandi lux,

brevitas, fides, quod aliquando confilium & quam occulta calliditas; (namque ea fola in hoc ars eft quæ intelligi nifi ab artifice non poffit) quanta deinceps in dividendo prudentia: quàm fubtilis & crebra argumentatio; quibus viribus infpiret,qua jucunditate permulceat,

quanra