Louis XIV, appears to me to merit the first place. Demosthenes and Massillon both flourished at the close of the age in which they lived. Demosthenes is one of the last from the period of Attic splendor; Massillon stands on the decline of the age of Louis XIV, an age which has been not unjustly praised; and he lived to see the beginning of the following century, and of the new period which began with it. The second half of the seventeenth century was, in many countries, rich in highly gifted and pious men. In the evangelical church in Germany were Gerhard, Spener and Franke; and France possessed such men as Pascal, Fenelon and Bossuet, to the number of whom Massillon may be worthily added. He was born in 1663 at Hyères, and in his youth attended the school in his native town, established and directed by the priests of the Oratorium. He afterwards, in his eighteenth year, became a member of that congregation, and was animated by its spirit, and became himself its ornament. This was a religious society, which had its establishments in various parts of France, and sustained a high religious character. Somewhat resembling this was the congregation of Saint Lazare, founded by Vincent de Paul. When we consider these and other institutions in their activity, we may form a favorable picture of the condition of the Catholic church at that time in France. About this time also arose the struggle between the Jesuits and the Port-Royal. Massillon, shortly after entering the Oratorium, resolved to leave, and devote himself to the life of the cloister. Accordingly he entered as novice the abbey of Septfons; but by means of a letter, which he wrote for the abbot, he attracted the notice of the bishop, who said, that a talent, like his, must not bury itself in a cloister; Massillon returned to the Oratorium.

Demosthenes felt himself, in his earliest years, called to be an orator; in Massillon this consciousness slumbered during his youth; he thought himself fitted for every other work, more than proclaiming the word of God. At the urgent request of his superiors, however, he made some essays in preaching, and immediately gained uncommon applause; which they merited, perhaps, on account of what they promised for the future; but by no means for what he then performed. He seems to have had no presentiment at all of the great resources, which he discovered, indeed, only in the progress of his own inner life, and through which he afterwards succeeded in producing so great effects. But in these first attempts, is not to be mistaken an earnest and strict religious sentiment.

In his thirty-third year he was called to Paris, as superintendent of the seminary of Saint Magloire, which was under the direction of the Oratorium, and in this capacity delivered several sermons. In these

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Character of the Age of Massillon.

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he shows himself a mature orator; insight and experience are combined with enthusiasm for his profession, which is never wanting to him. The style freed from the burdensome play of rhetorical forms, with all youthful life and freshness, may be called appropriate, noble, and simple.

Soon after Massillon arrived in Paris, he was asked his opinion concerning the most celebrated pulpit orators of that period. He replied that he acknowledged and esteemed the excellences of each, but did not wish to take any of them as a pattern for himself. This expression seems to show, that Massillon, even at that time, was satisfied as to the direction to be pursued by him in proclaiming the Divine word. Public speaking stands in the closest connection with the entire personality; where this has something decided, it not only rejects conscious imitation, but seeks to break new paths for itself, in order to unfold itself the more fully. The most distinguished orators of France, at that time, were Mascaron, Fléchier, Bossuet and Bourdaloue. Massillon may not have heard them all, as they were advanced in life when he went to Paris. The province of feeling was at that time little appropriated for sacred eloquence; and if Massillon was led to this, almost involuntarily, by his personal endowments, he may also have recognized it as the province in which the sacred orator must be especially at home. By this is not to be understood, that he aimed to call forth idle emotions, that move and affect us uselessly, but serve no higher aim; the French character, indeed, is not inclined to such tones of mind; and, with his high idea of the dignity of the preacher's office, Massillon could not possibly have assigned to it so low a mission. It is his design, to awaken the tenderest and most powerful feelings of the heart, on the side of faith and Christian piety; to draw the whole world of feeling into the struggle for holiness, to convert it from a hostile to an auxiliary power. Connected with this, is the fact, that, at least in his best sermons, he does not aim so much to develop doctrines and exhibit commands, as to contend against the prejudices and passions, which hinder the reception of truth and obedience to commands. All this appears to have hovered, though dimly, before his mind, in that answer which he gave.

If the personality, disposition and the principles of an orator point out to him the direction which he is to take, it is still the surrounding world which furnishes the material of his discourses; and from the position which he takes, in the century in which he lives, will the predominent tone and coloring of his addresses, in many respects, be explained. But the period in which Massillon lived, may be called, in respect to the political, literary, religious, and moral life in France, a

time in which decline was commencing. The unjust and ambitious wars of Louis XIV. had exhausted the resources of the country, and alienated the hearts of his subjects, and the French army had suffered many great defeats in the war of the Spanish succession, although the king attained his purpose. The splendid epoch of French literature, which began about the middle of the seventeenth century, was already approaching its end. Massillon lived at a time when he could make use, for his culture, of all the great works of this period, and in him, as in one of the last representatives of this epoch, that which is excellent in them appears to have united in a last glance of light. But he outlived this period, and witnessed the decline of French literature, that afterwards appeared. Towards the close of this century that man was born, who, in the next, became the most noted instrument of the universal decline,- Voltaire.

Moral life had sunk deeply in France, which must probably, among other reasons, be ascribed to the influence of Louis XIV; of the spirit, in which, guided by fanatical and intriguing priests and statesmen, he managed the affairs of the church, we have an example in his persecution of the protestants. He also delivered up the Port-Royal to the hatred of the Jesuits; and procured from the pope the condemnation of a religious work of Fenelon. It marks the court of Louis XIV, that a man like Fenelon found no place there, was thrust from it, and must close his days in honorable exile, as archbishop of Cambray. But this incredibly rapid decline of religion and morality in the French people, cannot be explained, unless we add the corrupt influence of an immoral court.

It seemed necessary to refer to this general decline, especially in morals and religion, in the age of Massillon; since his eloquence can appear in its true light, only when seen upon this dark background. In periods of great corruption, men are accustomed to take a twofold position in relation to their age. Some, without exactly participating in the corruption, in its whole extent, yet swim along with the stream, unconcerned where it may take them. Others, perceiving the danger, escape the whirlpool, and with the power of a morally good will, set themselves against the general movement; such was the position of Demosthenes and Massillon; a position, perhaps, not unfavorable to eloquence. By the greatness and general spread of the evil he contends against, the orator feels himself summoned to the most extraordinary efforts. It was such a violent contest as this, that Massillon carried on; and if his sermons, on this account, are less adapted to the edification of the closet, they are so much the more important as examples of exalted eloquence. From this may be explained that coloring of

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Later Life of Massillon.

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sadness, which, with all their splendor of style, extends itself over his sermons; and that he sometimes breaks out in certainly blameworthy sighs upon the fruitlessness to be apprehended in his preaching.

After Massillon had preached, with great distinction, in the seminary of Saint Magloire, he resolved to enter upon the great career of Catholic pulpit oratory in France, as Advent and Fast-day preacher. He commenced at Montpellier, and in the following year preached at Paris, where he met with the most extraordinary applause. In the same year, his thirty-sixth, he was called to preach in Versailles before the king and court. He preached the fast-day sermons before the king also in 1701 and 1704. A great effect was produced by a passage in one of these sermons, "upon the small number of the chosen," in which he supposes Christ in the midst of the assembly to judge them, and the various classes of sinners to be separated from the just. The effect of the passage was extraordinary. The king and those around him, the whole assembly were shaken. One will not be able to refrain from rejoicing at this testimony for the power of the Divine word. For it was not the arts of a worldly eloquence, which produced this effect; it was the word of God itself, which smote the heart as with a hammer. To be sure the word of God was here proclaimed to a mighty king, and a splendid court, with a fearlessness and a boldness, which must gain our esteem and veneration for the orator. These advent and fast-day sermons appear to me the best of all his works.

Louis XIV. seems to have entertained great esteem for Massillon, as is evident from the words which he addressed him. "I have beard," says he, "many great preachers in my chapel, and have been very well satisfied with them; but every time that I have heard you, I have been very much dissatisfied with myself." It did not escape the king, that Massillon sought not his own honor, but the welfare of his hearers, their conversion and change of heart. By these words he designated well the spirit of his eloquence; and the praise which he gave him was the best which can be bestowed upon a sacred ora

tor.

He pronounced the funeral oration at the obsequies of the king, a difficult problem for one, who could never have accustomed himself to the tone of flattery; a problem which he solved in a striking and not in the happiest manner, by placing light and shade side by side; bestowing praise, and then destroying it, by the blame immediately added.

It was usual at that time, in France, to reward those, who had delivered a brilliant course of advent and fast-day sermons, with the of

fice of bishop. This reward Massillon did not receive from Louis XIV; but was afterwards, through the Regent Duke of Orleans, appointed Bishop of Clermont. In the following year he was appointed to preach to Louis XV, then eight years old, and his attendants. In these sermons he commits the great mistake, of undertaking to instruct the young king upon all, which the high office, to which he was destined, demanded; instead of endeavoring to awaken in his mind, for the person of Christ, for his love, his sacrifice and his favors, feelings of adoration, trust and love, and thus plant in the heart of the child the germ of a Christian life. But it may be said in his favor, that the passions of Louis XIV, his ambition and abuse of power, with all their sad consequences, stood in such living and terrifying colors before his eyes, that nothing appeared more necessary and urgent than to warn his successor from such errors; that his principles could not remain without influence upon the young king, if they were laid to heart by those who surrounded him, and were afterwards to guide his steps. And perhaps he flattered himself, if his words should be rescued from oblivion, to leave in them, for the future king, a permanent possession, and a mirror of all kingly virtues.

In 1719, Massillon became member of the French Academy. From this time till his death, in 1742, he remained in his diocese, and devoted himself, with the greatest fidelity, to the administration of his office. His revenues belonged to the poor; and in the ecclesiastical confusion of the times, he appeared as the man of peace.

In giving the description of a pulpit orator, we should aim chiefly to point out the means of religious influence peculiar to him, or which he has applied with particular success. Thereby we receive a clear and definite picture of the preacher himself, and of his work as an orator; we acquire a deeper insight into the nature of eloquence. In attempting to describe Massillon's manner of preaching we shall follow these principles. To this end, in order to point out more definitely the means employed by the preacher, for attaining the end proposed, it will be necessary to divide his sermons into certain classes, according as the most prominent point of view shall be that of eternal happiness, virtue, duty, or truth.

In preaching upon duty, it is the common procedure to represent the extent of the duty and the motives for fulfilling it. This method has the advantage of developing the thoughts in a connected manner; but it has the disadvantage, that by such considerations, which besides are commonly not unknown to the hearer, the opposition of the heart to the fulfilment of the divine commands is rarely broken. This Mas