40 VOLTAIRE. 



the denouement, Henry's conversion operated by an 

 address of St. Louis to the Almighty, in which, for- 

 getting Massillon's celebrated exordium to Louis 

 XIV.'s funeral sermon, the Saint is actually made to 

 call the hero "Le Grand Henri? nay, if the details 

 of that conversion are so described as to make it almost 

 appear that Voltaire is laughing in his sleeve,* we 

 must allow the very great beauty of other passages. 

 The description of the Temple of Love, with which 

 the ninth canto opens, is rich and splendid ; the pic- 

 ture of St. Louis descending to stay the conqueror's 

 hand in the sixth ; the characters drawn so finely and 

 forcibly in the seventh, especially those of Richelieu 

 and Mazarin; the more concise traits by which he 

 paints Guise in the third 



" Connaissant ses perils, et ne redoutant rien, 

 Heureux guerrier, grand prince, et mauvais citoyen ;" 



and Morney in the sixth 



" II marche en philosophe, ou 1'honneur le conduit, 

 Condamne les combats, plaint son maitre, et le suit ;" 



these are all of the very highest excellence in their 

 kind, though that kind is not epic, hardly poetical. So 

 are such passages of profound sense as the strains of the 

 immortal choir in the seventh canto, strains " which 

 each star repeated in its course," 



Sans remords, sans plaisir, maitresse de ses sens, 



Et comme accoutumee a de pareil encens." (ii. 242.) 



* See particularly x. 480, et seq. This passage contains the line 

 on transubstantiation which Marmontel admires so much as to pro- 

 nounce that curse of Fenelon against those who are not moved by 



