and the study of religion and the fciences. About the year 1730, he took, in the abbey of St. Genevieve, an apartment, fmall, retired, and inconvenient. He was near the two churches of St. Genevieve and the Mount; wherein he had galleries. This apartment was contiguous to the house of God, which alone was fufficient to make the duke prefer it to the finest palace. He at first retired to it only at the folemn feftivals: but refided in it more frequently after the year 1735, and when he left the court in 1742, took up his conftant abode there, and went no more to his palace, except to attend the council, from which he feldom abfented himfelf.

After his converfion (for fo he called this change of life which began in 1726) he practifed the greateft aufterities. He flept on a rough ftraw bed, rose at four o'clock every morning, spent feveral hours in prayer, drank nothing but water, fafted rigorously, deprived himfelf almoft conftantly of fire, even in the moft inclement feafon; aufterities these, especially that of taking no wine, which he faid fometimes had coft him a great deal of pains. He poured water often into his cup undera pretence to cool it, but indeed thro' a principle of mortification. His apparel was plain and neat. His furniture and his table were not at all fplendid. He was in every thing a pattern of felf-denial and piety. He loved to mingle in our churches among the common people. He reverenced the external rites of religion. He attended divine fervice regularly, fpent five or fix hours at church every funday, and holiday; and continued fo to do even in his laft ficknefs, receiving the

communion, and often attending thofe who adminiftered it to the fick. He has been feen many times during the Eafter week, although troubled with the gout, going up to the fourth or fifth ftory, after the minister of the parish who went to adminifter the facrament to poor fick people.

Filled with the fpirit of prayer, he was fometimes furprised in the innermoft reçeffes of his apartment, proftrate on the ground and groaning moft bitterly. But thefe devout exercises never made the duke forget the duties of his station. He was affiduous feveral years at the king's councils, but his indifpofitions and other reasons, made him determine entirely to quit the court. Daring his recefs, however, he lost nothing of his tender attachment and profound refpect for the king. It is well known with what concern he heard of his fickness at Metz. When the news was brought him, he fhed tears, and haftened to Metz immediately. Perhaps it is to the conftancy and fervency of this prince, that France is indebted for the prefervation of her king. He was often heard to say: "The king is our master; we are his fubjects, and we owe him refpect and obe-` dience." The duke of Orleans full of veneration for the piety of the queen, called it “ a piety of the understanding and of the heart." He expreffed the greateft joy at the birth of the Dauphin, and he spoke with great complacency of the virtues of the prince, which he faid “ declared beforehand the happiness of our grand-children." He was conftant in his love to her royal highnefs the duchefs of Orleans his mother, who died in 1749, and always fhewed the greateft paternal tender

nefs

pefs to his fon, the prefent duke of Orleans. He delighted to hear him fpoke of, and it was eafy to perceive the joy he felt when the converfation turned on the eminent

qualities of this prince, and on the prowess he fhewed in the army.

But what must render the memory of the duke ever dear to France, was a most extenfive charity and an enlightened zeal for the public good, and the interefts of religion. The indigent, of every age, fex, and condition, were certain to receive relief from him. He heard their complaints every day in one of the halls of the convent of St. Genevieve, he fympathised with them, he alleviated their diftreffes; when it was not in his power to dismiss them entirely fatisfied, one might fee that his heart granted them what neceffity obliged him to refufe. It is hardly to be imagined what fums this pious prince expended in placing children for education in colleges and nunneries, in portioning young women, endowing nuns, putting boys apprentices or purchafing for them their freedoms, fetting unfortunate tradefmen up in bufinefs again, and preventing the ruin of others, maintaining officers in the fervice, or granting affiftance to their widows and children, reftoring and fupporting noblemens families, relieving the fick and paying furgeons for their attendance on them. The wounds of fome he examined himself, and other poor men he fought himself in the chambers and garrets, attended by only one fervant.

The overflowing of the Loire in 1733, having done confiderable damage to the country of Orleans, the duke faved, by the immediate relief he afforded them, a number of

families who were perishing; he fupplied them with feed for their land; in 1739 and 1740, he fet no bounds to his beneficence, On being told that the aufterities he practifed would impair his health, het would anfwer with a fmile, "It is fo much faved for the poor, whom he termed the courtiers of the Lord, and added, he would not ferve his body at the expence of his foul,"

His great mind embraced the needy of all countries. He relieved the poor catholics of Berlin, and of all Silefia, as well as thofe of the Indies and America. He fent miffionaries to the remoteft parts of the world. He founded charity schools, and communities of men and women in several places, a college at Verfailles, a profefforfhip of divinity in the Sorbonne, to explain the original text of the facred fcriptures; he rebuilt colleges and feminaries. At Orleans he established hofpitals for lying-in women. He employed many skilful furgeons in in the fervice of the poor. He made great improvements in phyfic, agriculture, arts, and manufactures. He purchased, and made public, a variety of ufeful remedies. His gardens were filled with medicinal plants of all forts, brought from the moft diftant climates.

Nor did his charitable offices ob ftruct his progress in literature. Ife applied himself to the ftudy of the writings of St. Thomas, of Eftius, of the most excellent religious treatifes, of the fathers of the church and the beft ecclefiaftical writers, of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriae, and Greek tongues, to convince himself more and more of the fundamentalprinciples of his faith; the peconomy of religion had ftruck him to fuch a degree, that he was ever firm

in the faith, and often faid, "that the perufal of impious treatifes never excited in him the leaft doubt of the truth of the christian mysteries, and that the belief of these myfteries never disturbed his mind." He alfo devoted fome of his time to the ftudy of history, geography, botany, chemistry, natural history, philofophy, and painting, all useful fciences; the progrefs he made in literature is fcarce to be credited. In the feven or eight last years of his life, he could repeat without book the texts of fcripture, with the differences between the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Vulgate. He understood the Greek as well as the Latin fathers. He could tranflate, with ease, the dialogues of Plato and other profane authors. Some, who heretofore would never believe the duke had attained fo much knowledge, can now testify the truth of what we have advanced. It must be confidered that he had a quick and piercing genius, and that during the fpace of twenty-five years he ftudied many hours every day, chofe the best masters in every kind of learning, and converfed with the learned of every country on fuch fubjects as were most familiar to them. He honoured them all with his protection, encouraged them by his favours, and always preferred those whofe inquiries tended to the advancement of virtue and the public good. He gave the Abbé Francis a penfion, which he has continued in the codicil of his will, explaining thus the motives for fo doing : being willing, fays he, to encourge the Abbé Francis, to whom the public are under great obligations for a modern work upon the proofs of our religion and being willing to enable him to continue

his fo useful labours, 1 give and be queath to the said Abbé Francis an annuity of 1500 livres." Thofe, who excelled in nothing but the belles lettres and in poetry, had feldom access to this prince. An enemy to praife, he feared they might again revive the tafle he had for French poetry; for fometimes he he had made verfes, and received no fmall praife for them. The Abbé l'Advocat (to whom we are principally indebted for this account) tells us he has feen pieces of his compofition, which, tho' elegant and pretty, the duke afterwards threw into the fire. Senfible of the importance of time, he took care to improve every minute. When artists or learned men waited on him, they were admitted into his prefence immediately; and if he appointed them to attend a certain hour, and other bufinefs would not permit him to fee them, he fent his fervant to let them know it, and fave them the trouble of waiting.

Notwithstanding the immenfe fums which he difperfed at home and abroad, he discharged the debts of his ancestors, retrieved the exhaufted finances, and confiderably augmented the demefnes, of his houfe. Humble and modeft in private life, he was fplendid and magnificent in public. He went with the utmost pomp into Alface to marry the queen by proxy. He behaved with becoming dignity when colonel-general of the French infantry. Chearful and innocent in common converfation, he was ever ferious on fubjects of importance. He never fpoke ill of any absent perfon, nor would he suffer others to do it in his prefence. Eyer equitable, even at the expence of his own intereft, he thanked a pri

vate man whom he had furnished with money to go to law against himself, and who had gained his caufe, for having faved him from the guilt of injuftice.

The delight he found in piety and devotion he used thus to express: "I know by experience that fublunary grandeur and fublunary pleasure are delufive and vain, and are always infinitely below the conceptions we form of them; but, on the contrary, fuch happiness and fuch complacency may be found in devotion and piety, as the fenfual mind has no idea of." His piety was real and folid. " Zeal, he would fay, must be enlightened. Zeal and prudence ought ever to go hand in

hand."

The duke, being once follicited by a nobleman to difcard one of his officers from his fervice, because he was diffolute in his conduct, and would fometimes inveigh against religion, answered him with fpirit:

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Learn, fir, that the king ought not to deprive the ftate of an excellent officer, because his morals are not fo good as could be wifhed, and he has not fo great a veneration for religion as one could defire. Immorality and vice fhould be difcouraged as much as poffible, but his majesty muft not, for things foreign to the fervice, deprive of ficers of their employments."

His intenfe application to ftudy and his fevere abftinence at laft occafioned a long and painful illnefs; the news of which being spread abroad threw all France into confternation. The church of St. Genevieve was filled with people of all forts, who offered up fervent prayers for the restoration of his health. The duke forefaw and waited for death with the greatest

fortitude and compofure: he spoke of it, as of the demife of another perfon, to those about him: and in his laft will he expatiates in the most pathetic manner, on his belief in the refurrection. Notwithstanding his ill-health, no body could perfuade him to fleep more than he was ufed to do; when any one reprefented that it was abfolutely neceffary, and that he fhould change his ftraw bed for a fofter one, he replied, "Phyficians have no concern for the foul, they only care for the body. When a man draws near his diffolution, his zeal should increase. 'Tis in the arms of felfdenial, that a true christian is to die: I have always made it a part of my penitence to fit in an uneafy posture: I am refolved to perfift in it to my last moments, for I have not yet practifed mortification enough." In his will he expreffes himself much in the fame manner. In his laft moments, he was folely intent on God, nor did he ceafe to implore his bleffing for the duke of Chartres. "I have a fon, (faid he to the minifter who attended him,) whom I am going to commend to the all-perfect Being; I' entreat God that his natural virtues may become Chriftian graces; that the qualities which gain him efteem, may be ferviceable to his falvation; that his love for the king, and his love for me, may be the bloffoms of that immortal charity, which the holy Spirits and blessed Angels enjoy."

The duke was fteady to the plan he had prefcribed for upwards of twenty years. He was ever anxious for the propagation of religion, and for the public good. He died on the 4th of February, 1752, aged forty-eight years and fix months,

B 3

beloved

beloved by good people of all forts, lamented by the poor, the fick, the unhappy.

He left behind a great number of writings; the chief of which are, 1. A tranflation and comment on fome part of the Old Teftament. 2. A literal version of the Pfalms, from the original Hebrew, with notes and a paraphrafe. This work is the moft compleat, which onr pious and learned prince has left; in his laft illness he was employed in it, and finished it but a few days before his death: It is full of great erudition and found criticism; it contains a number of very curious and ufeful remarks: In one place he proves clearly, that the Greek annotations on the Pfalms, which are found in the Catena of father Cordiers,, and go under the name of Theodorus of Heraclea, are of Theodorus of Mopfueft a discovery which this learned prince fitft made, and which we muft attribute to his deep penetra tion. 3. Several differtations against the Jews, to ferve as a refutation of the famous Hebrew book, entitled Kifouch Emouna; i. e. The Buckler of Faith. The duke of Orleans, not fatisfied with Gouffet's refutation of this book, undertook to anfwer it himself, but did not live to compleat the defign. His manufcript, though incompleat, is far fuperior to Gouffet's. He has examined and refuted the objection of the Jews. 4. A literal translation of the Epiftles of St. Paul from the Greek, with a paraphrafe, annotations, and ufeful remarks. 5. A treatife against theatrical exhibitions. 6. A folid refolution of the large French work, entitled the Hexaples. . Several other treatifes and cu

ricus differtations upon divers fubjects. His modesty would never fuffer him to publish any of his writings: he bequeathed them. with his library, to the order of Dominican Friars, and by his will, left that order full liberty to add, retrench, fupprefs, or even employ his writings, as materials in the compofition of fuch works as they might undertake upon the fame fubjects. For the writings of St. Thomas he had a particular efteem, and this efteem he testifies, even in his laft will.

One might easily fill a large volume with a detail of his royal highnefs's piety, his learning, his charity, and benevolence. It must be obferved, however, that what is related in this account is not collected from popular reports. The gentleman, from whom this is taken, was admitted often into his company, from the time of his retirement to his death; and had ocular proof of many things here mentioned.