have educated their son to this period of his life judiciously, they cannot do better, than trust to the effects of that education. They will find, that to a young man of good habits, and of an ingenuous, generous disposition, there cannot be a greater incentive to prudence, than the confidence reposed in him, and the liberty allowed him by his best friends.

At the university, the study of the Scriptures in the original language, the comparison of the original with the translation, the comparison of the Old and New Testament, of the prophecies with the history of their accomplishment, biblical criticism, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, should constitute his principal studies. He may relieve his attention with other occupations; for instance, with a course of natural philosophy, particularly of astronomy; he may acquire some knowledge of chemistry, botany, and anatomy; all which he may afterwards find of use, even in his own profession. In the character of a good curate it has been suggested, that some skill in surgery and medicine will increase his power of doing good. This knowledge he may probably have means and leisure to obtain during his residence at the university. After his more essential studies are completed, he may continue his course of English literature; and he should especially make himself acquainted with the works of those authors, who have most distinguished themselves in ecclesiastical history, and in the eloquence of the pulpit. Hooker, Barrow, Tillotson, Clarke, Atterbury, South, Wilson, and many others among English writers, cannot fail immediately to occur. Among the French, "Bossuet sur l'Histoire Uni"verselle," should be read, as it is a rapid view of a great

Pascal's "Lettres

subject by the mind of a great master. Pascal's "Provinciales," the student will also read; because, though they have lost much of their interest since the disputes between the Molinists and the Jansenists have been forgotten, and since the abolition of the society of the Jesuits, yet these letters will ever be interesting, as models of exquisite irony, and of theological controversy. For their style, they may be considered as literary curiosities. They were written ten years before Racine produced his first tragedy, when the French language was far from having arrived at its present perfection; they have lasted now above a century and a half, and yet, as one of the best of French critics observes, the Provincial Letters seem as if they had been written but yesterday; not a single word used in them has grown obsolete; while the language of most of his cotemporary prose writers is not to be endured. It is not, merely, as literary compositions nor yet merely as examples of excellent reasoning, that they are recommended to the student, but chiefly because they inspire just indignation against that jesuitical morality, which attempted to separate faith and good works. Sir Thomas More said of the casuists, that they did not take pains to preserve men from vice, but to show how near to sin they might go without sinning. "Quam propè ad рессаtum liceat accedere sine peccato."

The ancient casuists are now buried in dust; but amongst those who wish to reconcile worldly morality and religion, there is a continual tendency to revive their doctrines in a new form. Against this convenient sophistry young clergymen ought to be particularly guarded.

Ο

Among French divines, the works of Saurin, Fenelon, Flechier, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Massillon, ought to be studied. Every body knows the great effects, that were produced by the funeral sermons of Flechier and Bossuet, especially by those on the death of Turenne, of Madame', and of the great Condé*. But of all the celebrated foreign preachers, we should recommend Massillon to the young student's attention, as being the most congenial to the English taste, because the most simple. Massillon universally pleased, in the city and at court, at Versailles and in remote villages. A country curate said of his parishioners-" Ils "m'écoutent toujours avec plaisir quand je leur prêche Mas"sillon."-A Parisian poissarde, impatient of being jostled by the crowds, who gathered to hear him in the city, exclaimed, "Ce diable de Massillon quand il prêche il remue tout Paris.” And the polished monarch, Lewis XIV. as he left his chapel after having heard Massillon, said to him-" Other great preachers I have heard at Versailles, and they have excited my admiration of their talents; but I never leave this chapel "after listening to you, sir, without feeling dissatisfied with myself."-To these suffrages of the highest and the lowest,

h V. Lettres de Madame de Sevigné.

i “O nuit désastreuse, nuit effroyable, ou retentit tout a coup, comme un "éclat de tonnerre, cette accablante nouvelle, Madame se meurt-Madame est morte!"

k Prince! Agréez ces derniers efforts d'une voix qui vous fut connue. Vous mettrez fin à tous ces discours. Au lieu de deplorer la mort des autres, je veux désormais apprendre de vous à rendré la mienne sainte; heureux, si averti par ces cheveux blancs du compte que je dois rendre de mon administration, je réserve au troupeau que je dois nourrir de la parole de vie, les restes d'une voix qui tombe, et d'une ardeur qui s'éteint!

may be added the eulogiums extorted from one unused to praise evangelical orators, Voltaire, who had the Petit Carême constantly on his table, and who cites a passage' from one of Massillon's Sermons, as the chef-d'œuvre of ancient and modern eloquence. The Petit Carême consists of a series of sermons preached (in Lent) before a monarch of ten years old, and purposely adapted to his youthful capacity; and as the chief theme of all Massillon's sermons is the duties of the affluent towards the indigent, they are interesting, both to court and country auditors, and may be studied with advantage by young clergymen in every situation.

It should be clearly understood, that in recommending it to British clergymen to form their taste by the comparison of

1

It is recorded, that, when Massillon pronounced the apostrophe, which begins with the following words, his auditors rose with such exclamations of surprise and terror as almost drowned the voice of the orator :

"Je m'arrête à vous mes frères, qui etes ici assemblés. Je ne parle plus du "reste des hommes; je vous regarde comme si vous étiez seul sur la terre."Je suppose que c'est ici votre dernière heure, et la fin de l'univers," &c.

We add a passage from another of Massillon's sermons, which we think will be better suited to the English taste. Sur la Gloire Humaine. Page 163.— "Aussi écoutez ceux qui ont approchés autrefois de ces hommes, que la "gloire du succés avoit rendu célébres; souvent ils ne trouvoient de grand "que le nom; l'homme désavouoit le héros ; leur réputation rougissoit de la "bassesse de leur mœurs et de leurs penchants. La familiarité trahissoit la gloire de leur succés; il falloit rapeller l'époque de leur grandes actions pour se persuader que c'étoit eux qui les avoit faits. Ainsi ces décorations si magnifiques qui nous éblouissent et qui embellissent nos histoires cachent

46

"souvent les personnages les plus vils et les plus vulgaires."

Voltaire obviously took from this passage that remark, which has been so frequently quoted, that "No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre."

different styles of eloquence, they are not advised to make the French their model. Foreign authors are proposed generally to their attention, not indiscriminately to their imitation. It would require much judgment in an English preacher, to attempt to imitate, or even to approach the French style, which is so much more florid than our own, and which admits so much more of exclamation, personification, and of all those bold ap-. peals to the imagination and the passions, which are sublime if they succeed, and ridiculous if they fail. The French mode of delivering their sermons is more favourable than ours to this kind of eloquence. The committing sermons to memory gives more the appearance of speaking extempore; the degree of action that the French use habitually, and their preachers not being confined to a narrow pulpit, are circumstances advantageous to the vehemence of their eloquence, and to their power of exciting sympathy and enthusiasm. Some successful attempts have been made to introduce this style of preaching in England, and in Ireland; but it may be much doubted, whether it would be beneficial to these countries, that it should become more popular. It can be employed only in great towns, and by men of superior eloquence; the hazard of the attempt is great before an English audience, who are generally averse to any appearance of what is theatrical in the pulpit, and who connect with a calm and serious deportment the idea of a preacher's being in earnest, and free from all fanaticism. The French critics reproach English preachers with being only cold metaphysical reasoners, fitter for an academy than for a popular assembly;

See Crevier. Rhétorique Francois, tom. i, p. 134,

m