XXIV 



his biographers says : " La religion, qui eclaira ses 

 derniers momens, avoit anime toute sa vie." The au- 

 thor of the Pursuits of Literature thus speaks of him : 

 " The most perfect of all modern writers, in true taste 

 and judgment. His sagacity was unerring ; he com- 

 bined every ancient excellence, and appears original 

 even in the adoption of acknowledged thoughts and 

 allusions. He is the just and adequate representative 

 of Horace, Juvenal, and Perseus, united, without one 

 indecent blemish ; and for my own part, I have al- 

 ways considered him as the most finished gentleman 

 that ever wrote." In his Life, translated by Ozell, we 

 are told, that " he was full of sentiments of humanity, 

 mildness, and justice. He censured vice, and sharply 

 attacked the bad taste of his time, without one spark 

 of envy, or calumny. Whatever shocked truth, raised 

 in him an indignation which he could not master, and 

 which accounts for that energy and fire which per- 

 vades his satires. The sight of any learned man in 

 want, made him so uneasy, that he could not forbear 

 lending money. His good nature and justice did far- 

 ther appear in his manner of recompensing his domes- 

 tics, and by his liberality to the poor. He gave by 

 his will fifty thousand livres to the small parishes ad- 

 joining the church of Notre Dame ; ten thousand 

 livres to his valet de chambre, and five thousand to 

 an old woman who had served him a long time. But 

 he was not contented to bestow his benevolence at 

 his death, and when he was no longer in a condition 

 of enjoying his estate himself, he was, all his life long, 

 studious in seeking opportunities of doing good of- 



