2nd s. jr* 73., May 23'. W.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



401 



LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1857. 



MEMORANDUM ON NIEBUHB's PRAISES OF A SPURI- 

 OUS WORK OF THE ABBE SOULAVIB, ENTITLED 

 " MEMOIRES DE LA MINORITE DE LOUIS XV., PAR 

 J. B. MASSILLON, PARIS, MDCCXCII." 



The credit demanded for a supposed faculty 

 of historical divination in Niebuhr, in regard to 

 events of which there were no contemporaneous 

 written accounts, is perhaps more than can be 

 reasonably conceded to any one. But at any rate 

 it will probably be admitted, that the claim to 

 such a faculty can only, with any plausibility, be 

 advanced in favour of an intellect which has al- 

 ways shown, when it has been tested by facts, 

 that it has not been duped by imagination into 

 forming illusive conclusions and judgments. 



That Niebuhr's intellect was not precisely of 

 this description, however powerful it may other- 

 wise have been in many respects, may be inferred 

 from the following circumstances. 



In 1792 the Abbe Soulavie published a spurious 

 work of his own, called Memoires de la Minorite 

 de Louis XV., as a production of the celebrated 

 Massillon. 



Niebuhr not only failed to see through the im- 

 position, but in a letter to Count Adam Moltke, 

 dated January 15, 1809, he praised it in the fol- 

 lowing terms : 



" Massillon's Petit Careme, the sublimity and splendor 

 of which you know .... induced me to read his Histoire 

 de la Minorite de Louis XV., a book which, in my opinion, 

 is not onlj' the beat historical work in the French litera- 

 ture, but is not inferior to any in any other modern lan- 

 guage, and maj' be compared to the ancients. The grace 

 of the style is inimitable ; the descriptions are speaking 

 truth ; the proportion in the distribution of the parts 

 harmonious ; the apophthegms full of deep significance ; 

 and the verdicts passed, those of a great statesman. The 

 judgment which the Bishop of Clermont pronounces upon 

 subjects of finance might put to shame nearly all the 

 ministers who have no other vocation ; but that is the 

 true test of a great man, that from his eminence he can 

 survey all fields. The whole work displays a spirit of ele- 

 vated purity, the real human sentiments which animate 

 his sermons also, his classical cast of thought, and the 

 truthfulness of a man who is at one with himself — his 

 freedom from all bonds of class and opinion, strong as was 

 his own faith, his love of liberty, his correct appreciation 

 of the duties of this world ; finally, it breathes through- 

 out the exquisitely-beautiful spirit of the Petit Careme — 

 the spirit which in his Orations gave rise to that deline- 

 ation of the times of Louis XIV., which must have made 

 his hearers tremble, as the great man, scarcely guessing 

 their feelings, poured forth his own soul. This descrip- 

 tion is annexed to the Histoire. I am certain that if you 

 ever read it, it was so long ago that your memory can tell 

 you little about it. Take this golden book in hand, beg 

 Dora to read it also, and place it among your books, not 

 beside the writers of his own nation — except perhaps 

 Diderot and Montesquieu — but beside Thucydides and 

 Sallust : if you have it not, lose no time in procuring it. 

 The discovery of such a pearl gives me a day of delight, 



and you need such days." — See Life and Letters of Nie- 

 buhr, in the English translation, vol. i. p. 265. 



These supposititious Memoirs are not easily to be 

 met with now ; but copies of them are still on sale 

 occasionally — and there is a copy in the British 

 Museum. And any one who reads them may 

 easily convince himself how little they deserve to 

 be called "a pearl," "a golden book," "the best his- 

 torical work in the French literature," and worthy 

 to be placed "beside Thucydides and Sallust." In 

 reference, however, to Niebuhr's statement, that 

 the grace of the style is inimitable, and that the 

 whole work displays a spirit of elevated purity, it 

 may be interesting to read the following remarks 

 on it by J. de Chenier, in his Tableau Historique 

 de VEtat et des Progres de la Litterature Franqaise 

 depuis 1789, p. 111. 3rd edit. 1819 : 



"C'est ici que nous parlerons des Memoires sur la Mi- 

 norite de Louis XV., publics, il y a huit ans, sous le nom 

 de Massillon; car ces Memoires, evidemment supposes, 



appartiennent au temps meme oil ils ont paru Le 



pi^ge tendu k la curiosite publique n'est pas difficile h re- 

 connaitre. En effet, quelles pensdes, et quelles expres- 

 sions ! Le due d'Orleans se determina pour la chambre 

 de j ustice, 'par la seule raison que le due de Noailles n'avait 

 pas voulu en demordre ; ' I'abbe Dubois avait ete ' mis par 

 feu M. de St. Laurent, gouverneur du regent, alors due de 

 Chartres, pour lui faire seulement des repetitions de 

 latin ; ' et trois lignes plus bas, * il lui faisait tons ses 

 thfemes, et faisait croire par-lsl des progrfes, qui dans le 

 fond n'dtaient qu'une tricherie.' M. de Armdnonville 

 ' etait friand de toute prevarication ; ' M. de Bretueil 'dtait 

 un de ceux dont Madame de Prie s'accommodait le mieux 

 pour les momens d'infid(^litd h I'dgard de M. le due ;' le 

 roi d'Angleterre Georges 1^"^ ' etait vdritablement un bon 

 et brave gentilhomme ; ' une princesse Portugaise ' avait 

 un sang redoutable et un soupcjon de folic ; ' mademoiselle 

 de Vermandois ' avait fait parler d'elle ; ' quant h la fille de 

 Stanislas, • on disait des choses admirables de ses qualitds 

 de corps et d'esprit;' madame de Prie voulait s'en 'faire 

 un appui plus solide que les favours de M. le Due;' elle 

 fit nommer Vanchoux, ' pour aller faire un dernier exa- 

 men plus particulier de la personne de la princesse ; ' on 

 se decida 'malgre la duchesse de Lorraine, enragee de la 

 preference : ' madame la duchesse ' enragee osait presque 

 vouloir que I'on substituat mademoiselle de Charolois ou 

 mademoiselle de Clermont ; ' la duchesse d'Orldans ' en- 

 rageait de voir la maison de Conde s'elever ; ' madame de 

 Prie ' etait-elle en etat de lui faire connaitre votre ma- 

 jeste, ce qui eut Aii etre I'objet principal? Ni M. le due, 

 ni elle ne la connaissaient point ; ' c'est la reine d'Espagne 

 ' qui a songd h mettre votre majeste hors d'etat d'avoir 

 posterity :' sa majeste 'n'avait assurement aucune idee 

 sur les devoirs du mariage, le temperament ne disait 

 rien : ' — ■ Certes, Massillon ne se fiit jamais permis cet 

 amas d'incorrections, de trivialites, d'indecences. Massil- 

 lion n'eiit pu dcrire : ' la compagnie de la Emilie, danseuse 

 de I'opdra, avec qui reposait le due d'Orleans, n'etait pas 

 naturellement celle en laquelle on devait disposer d'un 

 siege ecclesiastique ; ' encore moins eiit-il ajoute, de peur 

 de n'etre pas entendu, 'la Emilie et ses charmes furent 

 pris h, temoin de la parole qu'il venait de donner.' Mas- 

 sillon eiit senti combien il ^tait inconvenant k un prelat 

 de paraitre si fort initio dans les secrets du Prince ; a un- 

 vieillard, d'entretenir un jeune roi d'anecdotes aussi scan- 

 daleuses qu'incertaines, et de les lui center dans un pareil 

 langage : Massillon n'eut point accuse le respectable Abbe 

 de St. Pierre d'avoir compose ' la Polysynodie par un es- 



