Retrospect of French Literature—Miscellanies. 
the sacrament, exactly as if he had been 
a dog!” 
What a misfortune! what a shame to 
the family! [t would require many good 
masses, to obtain mercy, and Madeinoi- 
selle, quite ailrighted, immediately pro- 
cured fifty louis dors, which she confided 
to her mother, expressly for this pur- 
pose. 
Tt may be readily supposed that the 
Abbé d’Alévre did not fail to appear 
very sorrowful, and to be anxious at the 
same time to do every thing in his pow- 
er to console Mademoiselle Provost. She 
was in tears—this therefore was a fine 
opportunity for the sighs of the amorous 
priest; she frankly related to him the 
eause of her chagrin, and affliction -- 
and she allowed that she might have been 
‘consoled, provided her father had but 
died like a christian, but he had departed 
like a dog! Her glory was affected, and 
her reputation tarnished by the cunsider- 
aun that he had gone off without cere- 
mony.” 
«Tf T esteemed you less,” replied the 
Abbé, “I should perhaps, condescend 
to bestow that species of consolation, 
which 3s at once false and dangerous, 
As for yourself, you surely have not any 
thing to repreach yourself with, neither 
in the face of God, nor of man, for you 
- have bestowed filty louisdors on purpose 
to recommend the soul of your deceased 
father to the protection and good offices 
of the church—this is at once generous, 
‘and laudable! But what must you think 
when I tell you, that the most innocent 
use which will be made of at least one 
half of these fiftv louis, will be for the 
inferior clergy of the parish, to puy their 
gossips to dine with them, and not to 
soy prayers 2 And what will you say, if 
théy should give the other haif of your 
fifty louis to Irish priests, who live by 
masses, and even swallow them whole, 
without attending to what they eat? 
You must easily comprehend that it is 
not the same sacrifice when it is perform- 
ed gratuitously by aman of my rank, for 
example, or by a low hired priest!” 
“] most readily believe it,” replied 
Mademoiselle Provust. Heaven is not 
to be cheated in that manner! but will 
you yourself, Monsieur l’Abbé, conde- 
scend to say a few masses for the soul 
of my poor father? 
«{ will undertake it, but T cannot 
promise to save your father, if you will 
not undertake to damn me, it is absolute- 
ly necessary that the Devil should have 
<@.ne one, and it must be either of us 
665 
two. Mean time, Iam ready to answer 
to Heaven for him, and i shall endea- 
vour to make up my ewn affair with the 
Devil, the best way F can.” 
Lhe Abbe Barthelemy.—Having men- 
tioned two bad Abbés, we now come 
to a third, who happens to be a good 
one. 
The Abbé Barthelemy was a native of 
Provence, and studied at the College 
of the Oratory, at Marseilles. After 
having addicted himself for a considér- 
able time, to the study of the Greek and 
Latin Jauguages, he learned Arabic. 
His literary attainments at length ena~ 
bled him to examine the manuscripts of 
the celebrated Pieresc, at Aix, a learn- 
ed man, whose knowledge was to the 
full, as universal and formidable, as that 
of the celebrated John Picus de la Mi- 
randola, 
M. de Boze, curator and secretary to 
the Academy of Inscriptions, and Belles 
Letires, and also keeper of the ‘king’s 
medals, invited the Abbé Barthelemy to 
Paris, in 1744, and obtained for him a 
place, as his assistant. Ele next succeed- 
ed M. Burette of the Academy of In- 
scriptions, and after labouring during 
seven years at the catalogue of the Cabi- 
net of Medals, be had the office of M. 
de Boze, also conferred on him. 
The collection, although already con- 
sidered as famous, had then no more than 
twenty thousand medals, at that pe- 
riod appertaining to it; but the new keep- 
er soon enriched it in the sales of MM. 
Cary, Cleves, and Emery, as well by 
the acquisition of the collection of M. 
Pellerin, that M. Pellerin, who but twen- 
ty years since, spoke with such freshness 
of memory of M, de Yorcy, minister for 
foreign atfairs, to whom he had been se- 
cretary: and talked with the utmost fa- 
cility of the reizn of Louis XIV. one 
half of which had been witnessed by him- 
self. This good and respectable man 
had been a long time Intendant of the 
southern ports, which gave him consi- 
derable influence over the French consu!s 
in the Levant, and thus the king’s ser- 
vants were employed in searching through- 
out Greece and Asia, for medals, con- 
cerning which his Majesty (Louis XV.) 
did not care a farthing. After half a 
century of labour, correspondence, and 
the exercise of that power, which he 
never employed but in order to obtain 
medals, he continued to procure a most 
curious and valuable collection of them. 
To his literary places, Barthelemy did 
not add any court employments: he 
however 
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