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in his power to miss the Archbishopric of Paris, which feemed to be his by inheritance, as it had been poffeffed by his grand-uncle and two of his uncles. Before he was feventeen he had been engaged in three duels, and had fignalized himself in two or three affairs of gallantry. Yet his family perfifted in making him coadjutor to his uncle; fo that notwithstanding his conduct and inclinations, he was for ced to remain in the ecclefiaftical line, and to make a great fortune whether he would or not.

The young Abbé de Retz brought his intriguing fpirit to Court. And against whom did he employ it? a gainst the Cardinal de Richelieu: but why he did fo is a queftion he would have been at a loss to answer himself, for it could lead to nothing. It was at this time that he tranflated the hif tory of Fiefco's confpiracy: he fhewed the work to the Abbé de Boifrobert, and probably accompanied it with fome reflections, which fhewed this fagacious friend of Cardinal Richelieu, that de Retz had all the inclination in the world to become factious and meddling. Boifrobert acquainted the prime minifter with his fufpicions. I fee, faid the Cardinal aloud, that the little Abbé will one day be a dangerous fellow." This difcourfe alarmed M. Gondi the father; but it was otherwife with the fon; he was charmed to think that at his age he was confidered as a dangerous man by a minister who made France and all Europe tremble. In order to fupport the great part that he pretended already to act, he disputed the first place of licenfer in the Sorbonne with the Abbé de la Mothe-Houdancourt, a relation of the Cardinal, and carried it. Richelieu, the patron and reftorer of the Sorbonne, was as much furprised as enraged; and threatned the doctors who had voted against the perfon he had proposed: these came in triumph to inform the Abbé de Retz, who geDerously but proudly apfwered, That

rather than be the occafion of any heart-burnings between Meffrs de Sorbonne and their Protector, he would decline the place, content with having deserved it.

A conduct fo haughty alarmed the family of Gondi. The Abbé was fent to travel in Italy. At Venice he fignalized himself by gallantries, at Rome by lampoons: but he quickly returned to Paris, to fupport the uselefs and dangerous character of the enemy and rival of Cardinal Richelieu. Sometimes he attached himself to the ladies with whom the Cardinal was at variance; fometimes he made court to his miftreffes, and even carried them off from him, and at last entered into a confpiracy, which aimed at his life. It would appear that the Abbé entered upon this plot with great unconcern; he confidered himself as another Fiefco; he was of the fame age with his model when he was killed, that is two and twenty but luckily the confpiracies of the French Abbé were not fo actively carried through as those of the Genoefe count: he had the hap pinefs to fee his projects mifcarry, one after another, without any accident or danger to his perfon. At last he was made fenfible that the most he could do was to join with the turbulent of his own stamp, with whom he had nothing to gain and every thing to lofe. He found it neceffary to take a new courfe: he affociated with the devout, though he did not imbibe their spirit, and with ecclefiaftics who had the reputation of fanctity, before he fanctified his own life: he undertook to make converts before he was converted himself; and he found the moft refpectable part of the clergy and thofe the higheft in the church, very much difpofed to receive him as a prodigal fon, without waiting till he should repent of his errors.

The good M. Vincent himself was inclined to believe that the inftructions he had formerly given him were not feed fown in a foil altogether ungrate

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Anecdotes of the Cardinal de Retz.

ful. The devout thought it an honour to include him in their number; and without fubjecting him to fevere trials, they endeavoured to procure for him the coadjutorfhip of the Archbishopric of Paris. It was neceffary to begin with reconciling him to the Cardinal; this they effected. It was urged in his behalf, and as an evidence of his converfion, that he had not entered into the confpiracy of Cinq-Mars. This was thought fufficient proof that he had renounced his paffion for intrigue, but the fequel fhewed that it was not yet relinquished.

Every thing was in train for his being appointed coadjutor when Cardinal Richelieu died. But it would probably have been finished by Lewis XIII. had he not foon followed the Cardinal. The honour of it was referved for Anne of Austria, who began her regency by allowing herself to be directed by people of acknowledged incapacity. They made her commit an additional blunder, in appointing to the Archbishoprick of Paris a perfon fo turbulent and fo dangerous as the future Cardinal de Retz.

Mazarine, who foon fupplanted these first favourites of the Queen regent, would not perhaps have committed this fault. However, he was more afraid of de Retz than hurt by him. The political conduct of thefe two perfonages was very different, tho' it proceeded in both from a bad heart: neither of them had any regard for honour or virtue: but Mazarine formed plans, and he pursued them; nor ever failed for want of judgement: if he was not brave, he was neither fickle nor inconfiderate. and what he wanted in greatness, he made up by skill and addrefs. The Cardinal de Retz had none of thofe qualities; for one cannot be great without great defigns; and of what use is skill or addrefs without determinate objects?

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The Abbé de Retz being now Coadjutor of Paris, retired to his old mafter M. Vincent at St Lazare. We VOL. VI. No 35.

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may eafily believe that the holy man gave him his best advice, which he feigned to liften to with much edification. He confeffes in his Memoirs, that he employed the time deftined for meditation in thinking, not how he fhould become a good Bishop, but on the means of turning his character and office to account, and of being wicked with art and addrefs. I have known many fuch reftlefs fpirits, who, when they had leifure, have laid plans of conduct deteftable in their tendency, but which might eafily have fucceeded if they had been carried on. The Coadjutor for fome time feemed to act in conformity to his plan. He preached in Paris, and his fermons, which my uncle told me he had often read, were written with much fpirit and erudition, according to the taste of that time, and even in a strain of piety and devotion, which he no doubt had learnt of M. Vincent. The people of Paris were enchanted with the fight of an Archbishop in the chair; and he made fome other grimaces in performing the epifcopal functions in the absence of his uncle.

Having thus prepared the way, the Coadjutor waited only for an opportunity of fignalizing himself, and of reaping the fruits of his hypocrify, which he was incapable of fupporting long. But no great occafion prefented itself for four or five years. In the mean time, he had some disputes with regard to his rank in quality of Diocefan of Paris. These he fupported boldly, and gave the Cardinal to underftand that he was no contemptible enemy. But it would have been coftly to gain him over, as nothing lefs would have fatisfied him than the Car dinal's place.

In the mean time, the minds of the people were irritated with the mifcondust of the Queen regent and her minifters; and now the Coadjutor found an opportunity to exert himself; he gained the people underhand, by dif tributing charities that procured him

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the favour of the poor, without telling them what he wanted of them. Sometimes he would go to the regent, and inform her of the difaffection of the people; fometimes to the parliament with complaints of the Queen and her miniftry. The Coadjutor continued this conduct till the famous day of the Barricades, when he fhone forth in all his glory. Nothing can be more curious than the accounts contained in his Memoirs of the commencement of the War of Paris and its confequences. The weakness of the Queen and of her male and female favourites, the addrefs, the meannefs and treachery of Mazarine; the folly and abfurdity of many members of the parliament, and the inconfiderate turbus lence of the people of Paris, he has defcribed with great truth, and in the moft lively colours.

'He does not diffemble the wicked nefs and folly of his own conduct in that farce which lafted during the years 1648 and 1649. After a fhort interruption, it began again in the following years 1650 and 1651, when the Coadjutor purfued a plan not lefs intemperate and undecided.

His account of that strange scene which happened in the great faloon of the palace, where he meant to affaffinate the Prince of Condé, would appear apocryphal at this day, if it had not been witneffed and related by people of both parties: but that the principal actor fhould relate it with all the frankness and naiveté imaginable, is without example.

In the year 1652 the Coadjutor obtained the Cardinal's hat; but he would have had it sooner, if he had maintained a different conduct. He is not the only perfon in the world who has taken pains to counteract the good intentions of fortune, and to render problematical the best-grounded hopes. If he could not lofe the hat after having obtained it, his fubsequent conduct tended to make him lofe the public efteem and confider

ation, and to deprive him of that rea pofe which he found ten years after wards in the obscurity of inaction and retreat.

I faid at the beginning, that Meffrs de Caumartin, my relations, had a hand in the publication of the Cardinal's Memoirs. They had entrusted to the care of fome indifcreet perfons the copy of these Memoirs, which had been found with the Nuns of Commercy in Lorraine, a town where De Retz had paffed many years of his life, and of which he was Lord, not as a dependence on any of his benefices, but by inheritance from his mother Margaret de Silly de la Rochepot. The good Nuns knew nothing of the merit or demerit of thefe Memoirs, nor I believe of the lady to whom they had been addressed: neither indeed do I; but it is certain, that, at the beginning of the regency of the Duke of Orleans in 1717, the first furreptitious edition was publish ed. The Regent afked my father, who was then Lieutenant of the Police, what effect the book would have? "None, Sir, replicd M. d'Argenson, that can give you uneafinefs. The manner in which the Cardinal speaks of himself, the franknefs with which he difplays his own character, confeffes his faults, and informs us of the ill fuccefs of his imprudent behaviour, will never encourage any body to imitate him: on the contrary, his misfortunes will be a leffon to the factious, and to thofe who impertinently med dle in matters that do not concern them. I do not know why he left this general confeffion in writing; but if it has been published in the hope that his franknefs may operate his don with the public, the editors will undoubtedly be mistaken."

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However probable it might appear to my father, that this would be the effect of thefe Memoirs, it is certain that the opinion of the public was ve ry different; for in the year 1718 the Regent again mentioned the fubject

Characters of Fontenelle, of Montefquieu, and Henault.

to my father, who was then Keeper of the Seals; and it was found neceffary to think of fomething to counteract the ill effects which the Memoirs had produced. It was agreed to print the Memoirs of Joly, who had been his fecretary: these were ftill in the library of M. de Caumartin, who was averse to their being made public, because he had made Cardinal de Retz blacker than the Cardinal had made himfelf. But the Regent was anxious to decry the Cardinal, to fhew him for what he was, and to difgust thofe that might have a fancy to imi

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tate him. The Memoirs of Joly failed in the effect: they were written in a lefs captivating ftyle than thofe of the Cardinal, and the author was confidered as an ungrateful and dishonest fervant, who calumniated the master whofe bread he had eaten; while the opennefs of the Cardinal pleafed every one. In short, the thoughtless and meddling continued to love the Cardinal de Retz, and to imitate him, whatever might happen to themselves; while no body took the fide of M, Joly.

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Characters of Fontenelle, of Montefquieu, and of Henault *.

HAVE often heard it faid, that he who is not a bitter enemy, cannot be a zealous friend; the meaning of which no doubt is, that he who does not carry to extremity the effects of his hatred and revenge, will not exert himself with ardour in the fervice of his friends. But let us diftinguish between the enormities into which we may be led by our paffions, and the confequences of a wife and prudent attachment: friendship ought always to be of this fort; when it rifes into paffion, it forfeits in part our efteem and refpect; it is attended with all the dangers of love, which is the fource of as many faults as hatred or revenge. God preferve us from either loving or hating to excefs: yet we must indulge the paffion of love to a certain degree; the heart of man has need of this fentiment, which meliorates the mind when it does not blindfold it. But hatred and revenge are unceafing tormentors: we are happy while we do not hate; but while we love with reason, is it impoffible to ferve our friends with ardour, with affection, with conftancy, with obftimacy? Must we be cruel to one before

we can be kind to another? perfecutors before we can be protectors? No, for my part, I declare myself a feeble enemy, not only in power but in intention, although I am a very zealous and very firm friend.

If I have been fometimes falfely accufed of indifference for people with whom I am intimate, there are three of my friends that deserve fuch reproach still more than I do, though I do not esteem them the lefs on that account. They are people well known in the world, M. de Fontenelle, the Prefident de Montefquieu, and Prefi dent Henault.

The first is accufed and convicted of a fort of apathy, blameable perhaps as it regards others, but excellent as it regards his own prefervation; for being occupied folely with himself, and being amiable enough to make others concern themselves about him, he has had leifure to take care of his weak and delicate conftitution; he has always enjoyed his pleasures, and finds himself now at the eightieth year of his age, in the pleafing hope of feeing the revolution of a compleat century. Each year procures him an additional de

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* From the fame; and written about the fame time.

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gree of merit, and adds to the intereft we take in his existence. We look upon him as on one of those masterpieces of art which have been finished with the most exquifite delicacy and care, and which we are at pains to preferve entire, as fuch are not made every day. He not only reminds us of the fine age of Lewis XIV. that age fo noble and fo grand, which fome of us have feen end, but likewife of the wit of the Benferades, of the Saint Evremonts, and of the Scuderies, while he breathes the spirit of the hotel de Rambouillet, which he inhaled on the fpot. He is poffeffed of the fame fpirit now foftened and perfected, adapted to the complexion of our age, lefs obfcure, lefs pedantic than that of the beaux-efprits that founded the Academy, lefs precife than that of Julia d'Angennes, and of her mother. His converfation is exquifitely agreeable, abounding in the moft delicate strokes and lively fallies, and in anecdotes keenly fatirical, tho' never ill natured, as they relate only to fubjects of literature or gallantry, and to the little bickerings incident to focial life. All his tales are fhort, and on that account the more striking; and they have all an epigrammatic turn, which is effential to a good story. The eloges pronounced by him at the Academy of Sciences are in the fame ftyle with his converfation, and are confequently delightful: but I am not fure that the manner in thefe is what it ought to be: he confines himself too much to the perfonal circumstances of the Academicians, endeavours to draw their character, and to describe the particulars of their private life; and, as he is an excellent painter, his portraits are admirable may we not, however, fay of them, that they refemble thofe beautiful engravings that we find before the works of fome heroes? they fhew us their phyfiognomy, but do not tell us what they have done.

It is well known that Fontenelle is neither warm nor violent in his attach

ments; but we forgive him, and even love him the more for it; for we love him for himself, without demanding or expecting a return. We may say of him what Madame du Deffant faid of her cat: "I am fond of him to diftraction, for he is the most amiable creature in the world: I trouble myfelf little about the degree of affection he has for me: I fhould be wretched if I were to lose him; for I feel, that while I employ myfelf in cherishing my cat, I multiply and prolong my own enjoyments.'

The Prefident de Montefquieu is not fo old as Fontenelle, and has as much genius, but of a different kind. We expect more from the President in company, because he has more vivacity, feems more active, more fufceptible of enthufiafm. But at bottom, their hearts are of the fame temper. Montefquieu disquiets himself for no body, nor has he ambition enough to make himself uneafy : he reads, he travels, he collects information, and he writes, merely for his own pleas fure. As he has a great deal of wit, he makes an admirable use of what he knows, particularly in his books, for in converfation he is careless, and is not ambitious of fhining. He has preferved the gafcon accent, which he acquired in his native place (Bour deaux,) and thinks it beneath him to correct it. He does not take pains with his ftyle, which is more fprightly and nervous than pure: he does not study method or connection in his writings, and thus they are rather pleafing than inftructive. He early ac quired a taste for a kind of bold phi lofophy, which he has mingled with the gaiety and levity of the French manner; and it is this which makes the charm of his Perfian Letters. But if, on one hand, this book excited admiration, on the other it occafioned very well-grounded complaints: there are ftrokes in it that a man of geni us might eafily conceive, but which no man of prudence would have al

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