1698.] HIS EULOGIST AND HIS CRITIC. 433 



The Orator. " Great in religion by his piety, he 

 practised its good works in spirit and in truth, — 



The Critic. "Say rather that he practised its forms with 

 parade and ostentation : witness the inordinate ambition with 

 which he always claimed honors in the Church, to which he had 

 no right ; outrageously affronted intendants, who opposed his 

 pretensions ; required priests to address him when preaching, and 

 in their intercourse with him demanded from them humiliations 

 which he did not exact from the meanest military officer. This 

 was his way of making himself great in religion and piety, or, 

 more truly, in vanity and hypocrisy. How can a man be called 

 great in religion, when he openly holds opinions entirely opposed 

 to the True Faith, such as, that all men are predestined, that 

 Hell will not last for ever, and the like ? " 



The Orator. " His very look inspired esteem and 

 confidence, — 



The Critic. " Then one must have taken him at exactly the 

 right moment, and not when he was foaming at the mouth with 

 rage." 



The Orator. " A mingled air of nobility and 

 gentleness; a countenance that bespoke the pro- 

 bity that appeared in all his acts, and a sincerity 

 that could not dissimulate, — 



The Critic. " The eulogist did not know the old fox." 



The Orator. " An inviolable fidelity to friends, — 



The Critic. " What friends? Was it persons of the other 

 sex ? Of these he was always fond, and too much for the honor 

 of some of them." 



The Orator. " Disinterested for himself, ardent 

 for others, he used his credit at court only to 

 recommend their services, excuse their faults, and 

 obtain favors for them, — 



28 



