442 D'ALEMBEET. 



rated by his predecessors. In three years he composed 

 no fewer than seventy such biographical sketches, which, 

 with thirteen others of his writing, fill six volumes of 

 his works. Nor can we avoid feeling great regret that 

 he should have wasted so much time and labour on a 

 species of composition extreme]^ little to be esteemed. 

 For these Eloges are almost always remarkable for 

 omitting whatever truths tell to the disadvantage of 

 their subjects, so that they are of little value as history; 

 and they are so slight and superficial as notices, that 

 beyond giving dates and facts they give nothing. 

 D'Alembert's offer no exception to this description ; 

 they do not record the history of the learned men's 

 works of whose lives they profess to be sketches, and 

 only general sketches. Many of them, indeed, relate 

 to exceedingly obscure individuals, and the most dis- 

 tinguished are treated of in a manner quite unsatis- 

 factory. The most elaborate is that of Boileau, in 

 the notes of which we find a great number of literary 

 anecdotes. The best, perhaps, is that of a man with 

 no pretensions to literature, Lord Mareschall (Keith) 

 because it contains a number of racy and characteristic 

 traits of the worthy old politician. The taste and judg- 

 ment shown in several is of a very equivocal character. 

 Thus Massillon is described with some reference to his 

 finer sermons, but very indifferent passages are selected 

 for illustrating his prodigious merits ; and his funeral 

 sermons are plainly undervalued, without any exception 

 being made in favour of the most magnificent passage, 

 and the most successful that was perhaps ever delivered 

 from the pulpit, the opening of the sermon on Louis le 

 Grand's death.* Bossuet is plainly preferred to him ; 

 and some passages are given as master-pieces that are 

 far exceeded by others in that great preacher's dis- 

 courses. The "article" on the Abbe Dubois is enter- 



* The body was lying in the church when Massillon began, " Dieu seul 

 est grand, mes freres I " 



