you can't take a step, open a book, or even enter a church, without meeting with something which excites your passions ;-it is there fore no objection to the Theatre, that you find in it objects which excite them."—The reasoning is excellent,' says Bossuet :- the world abounds with unavoidable dangers, therefore you should multiply them. Every creature you meet with is a snare to man, you may therefore invent new snares for his ruin. Every object that meets your eyes may excite your passions; 'you may therefore add to your dangers by seeking objects whose elegance and refinement make them more dangerous.Rather say, the dangers of the world are already too great, let us not add to them :-God vouchsafes his assistance to us, in dangers inseparable from our condition, but he abandons us in dangers of our own seeking; he has assured us that all who love danger shall perish in it.' "Such is the general tone of Bossuet's reply. It was communicated privately to Father Caffaro. He almost immediately answered it by a letter, in which he protested that the letter which he had addressed to Boursault in defence of the theatre, was not designed for publication, and intimated that it had been altered in some respects in the impression; but he seems to admit that the alterations in it were not of importance. He professes to be convinced by Bossuet's arguments of the erors of the doctrines contained in it, and promises to retract them. This promise he performed by a letter addressed by him, a few days after, to the Archbishop of Paris. He expresses in it the great concern which, his having written the letter in question, had given him; he retracts it unequivo cally, and concludes by saying, that after a full examination of the subject, he was perfectly convinced that the reasons urged in defence of Stage Entertainments were frivolous, and that the reasons given by the Church for her condemnation of them, were solid and unanswerable. "The dispute was renewed several times in the course of last century. In the first year of it, the actors on the French theatre presented a petition to the pope, in which they represented to his holiness that it was the year of the Church's centenary jubilee, and therefore a time of indulgence and benignity; that, since the church had first passed her censure on theatrical exhibitions, they had undergone a complete alteration, and been purged from the indecency and ribaldry which had provoked those censures; they prayed therefore for a removal of them. but his holiness was inexorable; and, by his direction, some works were published to justify the church's severity. Towards the middle of the century a contest on the tendency of stage entertainments took place between Rousseau and D'Alembert. The latter, in an article in his Miscellanies, censured the magistrates of Geneva for not permitting a theatre within that city. Rousseau undertook the defence of the magistracy, and replied to D'Alembert in a letter which has been much admired, both for its eloquence and argument. The principal object of it, is to shew that the morality of the stage is not the morality of real probity; that comedy places virtue in a ridiculous light, and makes immorality agreeable, and that tragedy makes crime an object of admiration, by the splendor of talents and glory with which she she radiates it. D'Alembert replied to Rousseau: his letter contains many sensible observations, but, as a literary composition, sinks before that of his antagonist. In 1761, the celebrated Melie Clairon professionally consulted with M. Huerne de la Motte, a French avocat, on the reprobation of actors by the civil law of France, and the supposed excommunication of them by the Gallican church. M. Huerne de la Motte delivered his opinion, in a long dis: sertation, in which he attempted to shew that the laws both of the state and the church against the theatre, were founded in prejudice, and that the supposed excommunication of the actors was an invasion of the liberties of the Gallican church. On the motion of M. Joly de Fleury, the Procureur General of the King, the parliament of Paris ordered this dissertation of M. Huerne de la Motte to be burned by the hangman, and, on a general requisition of the French bar, M. Huerne de la Motte was expelled from it. "M. Desprez d'Boissy, in his 'Lettres sur les Spectacles,' (ed. 1774, 2 part, pa. 673) mentions, that two individuals having entered into an agreement to establish a new theatre, one of them, from motives of conscience, declined the adventure; that the other instituted, in one of the civil courts of Paris, a suit to compel him to perform his part of the contract: and that the Court was of opinion, that the contract was morally vicious, and therefore legally void. Bossuet's " Exposition of the Doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church." "Of all Bossuet's controversial works, this is the most valuable. In disputes of every kind, the first object of those who really seek for truth, is to ascertain the precise points in difference between them and their adversaries; then to see that they are pressed with precision, both in words and substance; and then to confine the discussion to them, with as little divergence as possible, into extraneous matter. It is surprising how much, by attending to these rules, good sense and good humour will lessen the number of apparent articles of disagreement, and reduce their weight. "On the part of the Roman Catholics, this, by universal consent, has been admirably performed by Bossuet, in the work of which we are now speaking. It was composed originally for the private use of the Marquis de Dangeau; and having been communicated by him to the Maréchal Turenne, that great man was sensible of its merit, and circulated it every where: and thus it became generally known. Copies of it got into many hands: and a surreptitious edition of it, with several errors, was printed at Toulouse. This made it necessary that Bossuet himself should publish an authentic edition of it. In composing it, he was sensible how important it was, not only to himself, but to the whole church, that it should be absolutely free from error. With this view he caused a small number of copies of it to be privately printed, and he circulated them among several persons of acknowledged learning and piety in the Gallican church, with a request from him that that they would favour him with their remarks on any parts of it thas should appear to them obscure, erroneous or imperfect.-After he had received their communications, he published the work, and prefixed to it the formal approbations of the Archbishops of Rheims and Tours; of the Bishops of Châlons, Usez, Meaux, Grenoble, Tulle, Auxerre, Tarbes, Béziers, and Autun. "Soon after its publication, Bossuet received from Cardinal Bona, Cardinal Chigi, and Hyacinth Libelli, then master of the sacred palace, afterwards Archbishop of Avignon, the most unequivocal and unqualified approbations of it; and it was twice formally approved by Pope Innocent the 11th, first, by a brief, dated the 22d of November, 1678, and afterwards, by a brief dated the 12th of July, 1679. The clergy of France, in their assembly of 1682, signified their approbation of it, and declared it to contain the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. It is translated into the language of every country where the Roman Catholic religion is either dominant or tolerated. "Roman Catholics have but one opinion of it--in public and in private, by the learned and unlearned, it is equally acknowledged to be a full and faultless exposition of the doctrine of their church. "A translation of it was published in English, by the Abbé Montagu, in 1672; in Irish, by Father Porter, at the press of the Propaganda, in 1673; in German, by the Prince Bishop of Paderborn in the same year; in Dutch, by the Bishop of Castorie, in 1678; in Italian, by the Abbé Nazari, under the inspection of the Cardinal d'Etrées, who, himself, corrected the proofs of the impression, This translation was formerly approved of by Riccia, the secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, and by Father Laurence Brancati, librarian of the Vatican, and, with their permission, was dedicated to the Congregation of Propaganda. It was translated into Latin, under the immediate inspection of Bossuet, by the Abbé de Fleury, the author of the invaluable History of the Church. The Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy mentions (Memoires d'Ar- . tigny, tom. i. p. 336, note 6.), that the celebrated M. Basnage assured him that, in the opinion of protestants, it had injured their cause more than all other Roman Catholic works of controversy, collectively taken.-It is much to be lamented that the English translation of it is very ill executed. "Several answers to it by Protestants were published; all of them agree in accusing Bossuet of disguising the tenets of the Roman Catholic church, in order to make them more palatable to Protestants. But surely this charge cannot be supported. When a body of men, so numerous and so respectable as the Roman Catholics, (what candid Protestant does not allow them to be both numerous and respectable ?) declare, without a single dissenting voice, that a particular work expresses their tenets, fully and unequivocally, it is indecent and unfair in the extreme to charge it with disguising them. Should not those who make the charge, rather acknowledge that they had misconceived them? "It is generally understood that the Roman Catholic church owes to this invaluable exposition of her faith, one of her most distinguished proselytes. The circumstance is thus related by the Cardinal Maury, in his Essai sur l'Eloquence de la Chaire,' edition of 1810, first vol. p. 252.) "Marshal Turenne was educated in the Protestant religion, and long continued attached to the principles of Calvin. While he adhered to them, he rendered his party every service which might be expected from his sincerity, his credit, and his glory. So highly was his probity respected by Lewis XIV. that the monarch never expected from the ambition or politics of Turenne, that change of his religious principles which he so earnestly desired, but which he knew could only be expected from Turenne's real conviction. The king repeated often, but never in the presence of Turenne, that, in the war of the Fronde, when it was of so much importance to oppose Turenne to the great Condé, the Queen Regent had promised him the dignity of high constable of France, the highest which a subject could fill in the old government, and the monarch used frequently to declare that he was ever ready, if, by a change of religion, Turenne would remove the only obstacle in its way to perform the engagements of his mother. One day, a sword of the most costly and exquisite workmanship was presented to Lewis XIV. to be worn by him, for the first time. The king extolled the workmanship of it; and Turenne, who was present, took it out of the hands of the monarch, considered it with attention, and expressed his opinion of the beauty of its workmanship, in terms of admiration, which were not common to him. It gives me great pleasure,' Lewis said to him with a very serious look, that you are satisfied with the workmanship of this sword. I gave particular directions that it should be finished in the highest degree of perfection -Now hear my motive for it. It is the sword which I designed for the high constable of France; I shall only wear it while that office continues vacant. It will suit you wonderfully and it is your's whenever you please to receive it. You know there is an obstacle to it (but it is an obstacle which you yourself can remove when you will ;) and to my most sincere regret, this circumstance alone prevents me from delivering it at this very moment into your hands.' Turenne immediately returned the sword to his Majesty, saying, that he felt himself more honoured than he could express, by so flattering an expression of his Majesty's kindness towards him, and that, in his heart, he preferred it to all dignities. But,' added Turenne, the attachment which your Majesty shews to your religion, proves to me how I should my attachment to mine.' preserve "Some years after this circumstance took place, Bossuet's Exposition of the Roman Catholic doctrine, appeared. In its manuscript state, it was put, by the Marquis de Dangeau, into the hands of Turenne. He read it over and over again, and was surprised to find the statement which it gives of the Roman Catholic faith so different from the hideous representation given of it by the Huguenot ministers. At first, in unison with their language respecting it, he considered it as a softened and unfair account of the doctrines which it was intended to exhibit; but when it afterwards appeared in print, authenticated by the approbations of universities, doctors, bishops, cardinals, and the Pope himself, he was satisfied that it contained the doctrine of the Council of Trent, the real doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, From that moment he determined to embrace the Roman Catholic religion; and Bossuet was the first person to whom he communicated the the important secret. He desired him to make the circumstance known to his majesty; and, at the same time, opened to him his whole mind. His majesty,' he said to Bossuet, has, more than once, intimated to me his intention of conferring on me the dignity of high constable of France, when I should abjure the Huguenot religion. Say from me to him that I abjure the Huguenot and embrace the Roman catholic religion from conviction. But I rely on his majesty's kindness to me, that he will never mention to me the dignity of high constable.' "THE CONFERENCE OF BOSSUET WITH M. CLAude. Bossuet in this conference, enjoyed "The conference was held at the request of Mademoiselle de Duras, a niece of the great Turenne. Several Huguenots of distinction assisted at it; the countess de Lorges, a sister of Mademoiselle de Duras, was the only Roman catholic present. HE account which Bossuet has given of this conference is extremely interesting. It turned on some points of the most important of all the articles in dispute between Roman catholics and Protestants, the authority by which Jesus Christ directed christians to be governed in the disputes which he foresaw would arise on his doctrine. All Roman catholics, and all the protestants of the old school assert, that these disputes should be decided by the church. But, when churches themselves are divided, the question must be, which of them is to be obeyed. The Roman catholic says, it is that church which existed before all other churches, and from which all churches, not in union with her, have separated. This description, they assert, applies to the Roman catholic church, and to no other. She therefore, in their opinion, is the mistress and judge of controversies. Her authority, the separatists from her deny; and the dispute on this point is the most important of all their differences, as the decision of it involves the decision of every other article in dispute between them. "M. Claude, the antagonist of an external and visible society, "On the day preceding the conference, Bossuet, by the desire of Mademoiselle de Duras, waited on her, and explained to her what he understood by the words, Catholic church,' which he foresaw would frequently occur in the conference. He explained to her that, in his controversy with M. Claude, he should not appropriate these words to the Roman catholic church, but use them to denote generally what both M. Claude and he adinitted, |