Preaching and Preachers [pp. 454-483]

Preaching and Preachers.
tion, he speaks with a solemnity and an unction, which explain
to us the admiration felt for him by Boileau and other Jansenists. The manner in which Bourdaloue pronounced his
discourses must have had a power of incantation to which even
their greatness as compositions gives us no key. It was his
remarkable custom to deliver his sermons with his eyes closed;
and he is so represented in his portrait. On coming from the
provinces, to preach in the Jesuit Chapel at Paris, he was at
once followed by crowds of the highest distinction; and his
popularity increased to the very close. For thirty-four years
he was equally admired by the court, by men of letters, and
by the people. To the Christian visitor in Paris, there is something solemn in the church of St. Paul and St. Louis, to
approach the tablet with the simple inscription, IIc JACET
BOURDALOUE.
Bossuet was a greater man, but not a greater preacher, than
his eloquent contemporary. The reputation derived from his
vast learning, his controversial ability, his knowledge of affairs
and his strength of will, we very naturally transfer to his
preaching, which was nevertheless of consummate excellence.
As an author, especially as a master of style, he surpasses them
all, if indeed he does not surpass all who ever wrote in French.
The power of that somewhat intractable language was never
more fully brought out than by Bossuet, to whom the crown
of eloquence is therefore given by Voltaire. He was the
orator for courts, and we suppose no prince in ancient or
modern times, ever had a nobler panegyrist. To learn his
argumentative eloquence, we must look to his other works; but
in his celebrated Funeral Orations, we have unequalled examples
of sublime and original conceptions, arrayed in a diction majestically simple and yet triumphantly splendid. The term
which characterizes the discourses of Bossuet, is magnificence.
We believe it to be admitted by French critics, that his style
is as faultless as that of any writer in any tongue.
There are those who consider Massillon the greatest of
French preachers; and the award is just, if we confine our
regards to simple elegance of style, traits of nature, strokes of
pathos, perfect contexture of the entire performance, and irresistible command of assemblies, and in elocution. Being thirty
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