see that Severus, like the Emperor, who was his namesake, voluntarily put in the rank of his gods and divine sages, the Founder of Christianity.

He extols the morality of the Gospel; and yet allows these lines to escape from him:

“But are not these religious creeds the subtle tools,

By which, in every age, the wise have governed fools;
Teaching indeed much truth, and kindling earnest zeal;
Yet thus subjecting millions to a single will?”

These lines have had their influence in giving the part of Severus the approbation of the writers of the eighteenth century. Voltaire speaks of its extreme beauty; and is inclined to make it the prominent one of the piece.

In approaching the conclusion, the character of Severus is continually increasing in beauty. The death of Polyeucte, the conversion of Pauline, and that of Felix himself, affect and shake him, without, however, convincing him; he still remains human and wise, but more sympathizing than ever. He exclaims:

"Who could, insensible, behold so sad a sight!
Such transformations show a superhuman might.
No foe to Christ can doubt that hands divine sustain
His people, whom their enemies oppose in vain.

I always loved them, though their enemies reviled;
And sighed in sorrow at their deaths, e'en when a child.
And I may one day know them better still than now."

He, however, recovers himself; and returning within the limits of his strictly human and philosophical position, immediately adds:

"I think that each his several god should serve."

Severus is, then, in this piece the ideal, under the Empire, of an honest pagan; already infected by the stoic philosophy, as professed by Marcus Aurelius; but more open, more accessible, and more compassionate. In hearing his last speech; that mixture of confession and reserve; that almost entire, and yet indefinite homage, which the divine aspect of Christianity forces from him, we can imagine that we already catch the echo of those beautiful, but inconsistent words, which before and since the Vicar of Savoy, have been uttered and retracted; believed and denied, by the spiritualists, the deists, and the most noble of human sages:

"If the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God."

"All the most elevated and virtuous men since the Advent, among those incomplete testimonies which pause at the threshold, have murmured that; and Severus already confesses it." *

Let us now take leave of Corneille, and regret that there are, in our day, so many men like Severus, while we desire that there may be, on the contrary, many such persons as Pauline.

* St. Beuve, Port-Royal, 1st vol., page 146.

LECTURE IV.

FENELON.

DOCTRINE OF THE QUIETISTS. -MADAME

GUYON.

CONTRO

VERSY WITH BOSSUET.INFALLIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. — TELEMACHUS. VOLTAIRE'S AND ROUSSEAU'S OPINIONS OF

TELEMACHUS.

"FENELON is one whose name awakens in the heart a sentiment of affection; of whom we cannot speak but with tenderness; whom we cannot forget without ingratitude; whom we are proud to exalt; and whose name, far from losing its lustre as it advances from age to age, gathers on the route new honors; and is handed down to the latest posterity, preceded by the acclamations of every people, and freighted with the tribute of every age."

Such are the glorious characteristics of Fenelon, says Laharpe, in the Academic Eulogy of the bishop of Cambray, and he adds:

"Fenelon is, among men of letters, what Henry IV. is among kings. Our love guards his reputation; and whatever panegyric is bestowed upon him, it falls short of what has been given in advance by those to whom it is addressed. There is, perhaps, no class of men

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