37 



The views of the sovereign were powerfully seconded, by 

 the talents of an able and magnanimous minister,* of a 

 spirit and temper congenial to those of his master. Thus 

 his reign produced a number of immortal names; in ar- 

 chitecture and painting, Le Brun, Le Sueur, the Poussins; 

 in sculpture, Bernini; in music, Rameau, B. Lully; in philo- 

 sophy, Des Cartes, Gassendi, Cassini, Malbrahche, Leibnitz; 

 in poetry, Boileau, the Corneilles, Racine, Quinault, La Fon- 

 taine, J. B. Rousseau, &c.; in eloquence, Massillon, Bour- 

 daloue, Flechier, Fenelon, Pere Bossuet, &c., a splendid 

 catalogue! Besides this, France must not be considered 

 as an absolute despotism: Montesquieu affects to treat it 

 as a limited monarchy: and even then began to dawn the 

 spirit of philosophical enquiry, and free discussion, the 

 power of ridicule, (that touchstone of imposition and an- 

 cient abuses,) and satire. These, under Lewis XIV., not- 

 \ vithstanding the imposing grandeur of that monarch's per- 

 son and measures, opened the career of animadversion and 

 innovation, to the bold spirits which succeeded. First, to 

 the president, Montesquieu, whose works contain many se- 

 vere and direct attacks on the abuses of government, and 

 the baneful influence of despotism; then, to Rousseau, 

 Voltaire, and d'Alembert, who attacked ancient abuses 

 still more, with all the powers of genius and eloquence, in 

 their writings. We even find the pious and mild Fenelon, 

 in his Telemaque, uttering lessons of clemency, justice, the 



love 



* Louvois. 



