"You must be convinced that kings are absolute lords, and have the full and entire disposal of all property, whether in the possession of the clergy, or of laymen; and may use it, at all times, as wise economists. So also, the lives of their subjects are their own property. He who has given kings to men has ordered them to be respected as his vicegerents, reserving to himself alone the right of examining their conduct." Euvres de Louis XIV. tom. II. Massillon had been taught in a different school. He was a profound student of the Bible, that best text-book of the rights of man; and he drew from it those great principles of liberty, which, springing up from the same source, glowed in the bosoms of the Puritans, and glittered on the banner of the Pilgrim Fathers. "Sire," said he, addressing the juvenile monarch, "It is not the soyereign, but the law that should reign over the people. You are only its servant and first depositary." "A great man, a prince is not born for himself. He belongs to his subjects. The people in elevating him, have confided to him power and authority; but in exchange for these, they have reserved his time, his care, his vigilance, for themselves......It is the people who, by the command of God, have made kings all that they are: it is their duty to be what they are, only for the people. Yes, Sire, it was the choice of the nation which first placed the sceptre in the hands of your ancestors: it was that choice which placed them upon the military buckler, and proclaimed them sovereigns. The kingdom has become, in consequence, the heritage of their successors; but they owe it originally to the free consent of their subjects. Birth alone places them in possession of the throne: but it was the public suffrage which first connected that right and prerogative with their birth. In short, as the original source of authority rests with us, they have no right to use it but for our benefit. Flatterers, Sire, will continually report to you that you are accountable to no one for your actions, &c." Petit Carême. Brave and noble words, worthy to be placed by the side of those which fell from the sternest Republican of the English school. "For therein stands the office of a king, These sentiments seem to have made little impression on the mind of Louis XIV. or of his courtiers; but they woke the echoes of freedom in a coming generation. Uniting with other causes, then at work, they sowed the dragon's teeth which sprung up into the armed men of the French Revolution. Louis XIV. had done his best to root out of the kingdom all dissent, political and religious. To this end, the blood of the Huguenots had flowed like water; the amiable archbishop of Cambray had been proscribed, for the liberalism of his Telemaque; the recluses of Port Royal had been assailed in their peaceful retreat, and scattered to the winds; and France, like an unnatural mother, had cast from her bosom, a million of her best and bravest children. But all in vain. These measures only hastened the catastrophe which they were intended to avert; and the monarchy, which passed out of the hands of Louis XIV., with all the decrepitude of the old monarch himself, was soon shaken to pieces. Had any one of those gay and frivolous courtiers, who filled the Chapel of the Tuileries, when Massillon delivered his instructions to the young king, been suddenly gifted with insight into futurity, sad indeed, would have been the scenes which must have crowded on his startled vision. Looking down the vista of little more than half a century, the eye of the prophet would have descried that portentous hand-writing on the wall, which told that the kingdom had departed from them, and the Bourbon dream of absolute power had faded forever. He would have known that the period was not far distant when that very chapel would echo to the tread of unhallowed feet-the ancient cathedral of Notre Dame, along the arches of which had rolled the thunders of Bossuet, would resound with the tramp and roar of an atheistical faction, enthroning before its altar, a strumpet as the Goddess of Reason, and desecrating it with their impious orgies the Holy Book be taken from its place, and trailed, at the tail of an ass, through the streets of Paris-the dark and silent sepulchres of St. Dennis, which had been the resting-place of royal dust for ages, be thrown open to the light of day, and the bones of mightiest monarchs trampled under foot of men-when, to them the darkest shade in this frightful picture, the guillotine would rise from the Place de Concord, and the blood of the meekest of the Bourbons be poured out, ignominiously, upon the scaffold, in expiation of the crimes and follies of his race. From the doctrines of the Petit Carême, there was but one step to the theories of the Contrat Social. But while the latter was a proscribed book, and its dogmas contemned, as the idle dreams of a melancholic visionary, the production of the Bishop was allowed unrestricted circulation; and became the manual of the middle class, a large and respectable body, whom the policy of Richelieu and Mazarin had raised to wealth and intelligence, but who were exposed to the daily humiliation of seeing themselves excluded from public honors, because their plebian blood had not flowed, for ages, through accredited channels. The imbecility, prodigality, and lechery of the king, fanned the flame of discontent. Louis XIV. had, indeed, impoverished his kingdom by sumptuous expenditures, and lavished the best blood of France in wars of ambition and conquest. But the people saw great public improvements completed, magnificent edifices rising among them, and large additions made to their territorial domains. Their vanity was flattered; they remained quiet, and felt no disposition to theorize on government. But when, in the next reign, the resources of the kingdom, raised by oppressive taxation, were wasted on the minions and harlots of Louis XV.; the treasury drained to maintain his foolish projects, and licentious establishments, among which the Parc-aux-cerfs rivalled the pollutions of Caprea; the highest appointments disposed of at the chessboard of the Marchioness de Pompadour, or Madame Du Barry; and the interests of the kingdom made the sport of the vilest passions; in short, when government was used, merely as a means of pampering the vices of the king and court, popular discontent waxed louder and louder; until, at last, a storm was raised, such as not even the moderation of the sixteenth Louis could quell, and the monarchy was swept away. Had the fellow-citizens of Massillon imbibed, with his spirit of liberty, his reverence for religion and law, they would have been spared the excesses which stained the Revolution;* and that great crisis might have been invested with a glory, not inferior to that which distinguished the nativity of our own Republic. But the liberalism of the age was not confined to politics. It assailed the venerable truths of religion. From the saloon of Baron D'Holbach, where the Voltaires, the Diderots, and D'Alemberts congregated, issued streams of corruption, which infected all classes of society. The contagion crept through all orders; and so vitiated the social fabric, that it could be removed, only by rending the structure to its foundation. At that spectacle *Vid. Compendium der Christlichen Dogmengeschichte von Dr. L. F. O. Baumgarten-Crusius. p. 450. Leipzig, 450. the world stood pale and aghast; for, surely, never did impiety and cruelty play their parts on a more imposing theatre. In every act of that dark tragedy, through which France hurried to ruin, there was proclaimed to mankind, at least one solemn lesson-that true liberty "With right reason dwells Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being." Liberty, in uniting with impiety, embraced a fiend, that despoiled her of her innocence, and consigned her to an ignoble end. Religion was her only lawful spouse. Such a union would have been blessed of heaven and earth. But when, in the wild frenzy of the Revolution, forgetful of her first love, she stooped to minister at the shrine of atheismthe foul Mokanna of that bloody idolatry-she shared the fate of the luckless Zelica. To worship a veiled impostor for a divinity; to pledge her vow of fidelity, in a charnelhouse, with draughts of human blood; and then, to shrink, in agony, from the uncurtained countenance of the demon; and, disguised in his hateful habiliments, to die by the hands of those who loved her best-was the sad lot of Gallican liberty. We must, at length, turn away from Massillon. A century is just about to close, since he terminated his earthly career. The present is a fit time to wreathe fresh garlands on his tomb. During that period, the world has not seen his superior, and scarcely his equal. Our readers will, therefore, pardon us, if, in the fondness of our love and reverence, we have delayed then, too long, in paying this centennial tribute to his memory. ART. III.-1. Collections of the Georgia Historical Society. Vol. I. Savannah : 1840. 2. Collections of the Georgia Historical Society. Vol. II. Savannah: 1842. 3. Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe, Founder of the Colony of Georgia in North-America. By THADDEUS MASON HARRIS, D. D. Boston: 1841. THE Georgia Historical Society was organized in June, 1839, and before one year had elapsed, presented a volume of its collections to the public. This first fruit, of the first Historical Society south of Virginia, was a valuable contribution to the cause of History, and proved the zeal and efficiency of the Institution. Since then, two years have passed, and a second volume of its Collections is on our table, following up the important series begun in the first. These volumes possess the extrinsic interest of being the first effort of the kind this side of the Potomac. 66 66 There is, it is true, a " Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society," instituted in 1831, but it has only published a small pamphlet, containing an address, and a few facts relative to the society. The Charleston Library Society" has also connected with it an Historical Committee, and their report, drawn up by Benjamin Elliott, Esq., shews that they possess very rare and valuable materials, but, with the exception of that paper, nothing has been published by them; and nothing similar to the volumes of the "Georgia Historical Society" have ever been presented to the public, either in the Southern or South-Western States. In each of the New-England States there exist Historical Societies, all of which are in efficient operation. New-York, and Pennsylvania also, have similar institutions; the "Virginia Historical and Literary Society" has but a nominal existence, and in no other of the original thirteen States, except Georgia, the youngest of the colonies, do they exist. New-Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, NorthCarolina and South-Carolina, rich as their materials must be, have allowed Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Michigan, to be up and doing before them, in gathering the scattered materials of state and territorial history, and in laying foundations for the most valuable public archives. These various Historical Societies, have published fifty |