i'jgi' memoirs of Ahhe Blanchef. 51 



the more attentively because they are more neglec- 

 ted." 



I am very sorry that the modesty of M. de Che- 

 vanes will not perrnit me to publifh the letters of his 

 friend ; for, independent of the graces, the mirth, and 

 the wit, interrupted indeed sometimes by crie^ of grief, 

 there are some curious anecdotes, and some portraits 

 very well drawn. One may judge by the following : 

 *' I subscribe with all my heart to your cpinion of 

 the late cardinal de Fleury ; he was I think a wise and 

 a good man ; he had, if I dare say so, a great soul, but 

 tempetate and moderate, who neither admired nor der- 

 pised any thing ; who did great and little things, with 

 the same manner ; who with a great deal of applica- 

 tion, joined to much addrefs and patienc*, rendered 

 himself capable of seeing every thing, and conducting 

 any thing. He was a disinterested and modest mi- 

 nister, who loved the state and the king, and who 

 was not loved as he ought to have been by any order 

 of the state ; a man really deserving admiration, who 

 did not desire it, and who had it not." The continu- 

 ation of this letter characterises too strongly the 

 Abbt Blanchet to omit it : " There is, if I am not de- 

 ceived a portrait in all the rules, one feature is how- 

 ever wanting, which does infinite honour to the car- 

 dinal, it was his kindnefs to men of worth, to men of 

 any country. The holy man he sent for from Char- 

 tres, or rather from Auneau, and whom, as it is said, 

 he wifhed to make a bifliop, this M. Cafsegrain, of 

 whom you spoke to me, is a man I know intimate- 

 ly well. Would you believe it, Sir, he comes from 

 my village ; he is the son of the surgeon of Angerville. 



