BO S SUET, JACQUES BENIGNE, a celebrated French divine, was born at Dijon on the 27th of September, 1627, of a family of great respectability in the parliament of Burgundy. The talents which he displayed in the commencement of his studies, ren dered the Jesuits, his first instructors, anxious to en. list him into their society ; but the design was im. mediately perceived by an iatelligent uncle, who had the charge of his education, and who, to rescue his nephew from that factious and intriguing order, sent him to Paris to finish Isis studies at the college of Navarre.
As his views were directed towards the clerical profession, he pursued, with the ardour and- emula tion of a rising genius, every study which appear ed to be essential, or even remotely conducive, to his excellence as a minister of the gospel. He pe rused the sacred writings in particular, with a re lish and fondness approaching to passion ; he studied with assiduous attention, the writings of the fathers, among whom Augustine was his principal favourite ; and he enriched his mind with all the treasures of classical literature. The sublime, the bold, and un constrained effusions of the MEonian bard, while they called forth the kindred qualities of his own mind, inspired him with a kind of affectionate reverence ; lie dwelt with great delight on the eloquent declama tions of Cicero, and the graceful strains of Virgil ; but, with a sternness that does more honour to his conscience than to his taste, he condemned the fasci nating, though often licentious, verses of Horace ; nor could the enchanting gaiety of the poet's fancy, and inimitable felicity of his expressions, compensate, in the rigorous judgment of Bossuet, for the lax morality of the Epicurean.
The same austerity of disposition led him to dis approve the liberty frequently taken by Christian poets, of introducing into their verses, the names of heathen divinit7Zs, and allusions borrowed from Pagan mythOlogy. We arc not certain whether we should be as niuch alarmed as Bossuet, by the fancied im moral tendency of such a practice ; but we have no hesitation in joining him, even against the authorities of D'Alembert and Boileau, in the condemnation of an abuse, which serves only to introduce absurdity into modern poems, without adding, in any respect, to their interest. A poet of.genius cannot need the rid of these mythological fictions ; and when they are interwoven, into the flimsy productions of an or dinary versifier, they only attract attention to that indigence of thought, which they cannot conceal.
Mathematics was almost the only science which Bossuet disregarded ; from a strange opinion, that a knowledge of mathematics was either useless to the divine, or directly hostile to the feelings which he ought to cherish, and the studies which he ought to pursue. Though averse to this study, Bossuet en
tered, with considerable eagerness, into the spe culations of philosophy. The Cartesian system, which had been recently divulged, and which was then forcing its way against inveterate prejudices, re commended itself, by its boldness and its novelty, to his vigorous and independent mind ; and he warmly patronized and defended it, against the fulminations of his ecclesiastical brethren, and the more formidable edicts of civil authority.
His talents for eloquence, to the improvement of which all his studies were directed, were admirably displayed from the pulpit, at the early age of six teen. He had been announced as a young man of premature genius, at the Hotel de Rambouillet, to which merit of every kind was then summoned to appear. A numerous and select company met for the purpose of deciding on his qualifications as an orator, and proposed to him a subject, from which Bossuet, almost without preparation, pronounced a sermon, which drew forth the warmest applauses from bis auditors. He had the merit of produ: cing a total change in the tone of pulpit eloquence ; and of substituting, for the coarse indecencies and quaint affectation by which it was degraded, the strength and dignity which become the sublime truths and elevated morality of the gospel. " One of those men," says D'Alembert, " who make a pa rade of believing nothing, wished to hear, or rather to brave him. Too proud to own himself over come, but too just not to pay homage to a great man ; There,' said he, on leaving the church, ' is the first of preachers for me ; for he is the person by whom I feel that my conversion would be effected, if it were to be effected at all." Thus applauded as an orator, Bossuet became ambitious of distinguish ing himself in the field of theological controversy. With this view he undertook the refutation of the catechism of I'aul Ferry, a Protestant minister, with whom he had hitherto lived in intimate friendship-,; and it deserves to be recorded, to the immortal ho nour of both, that the heat of their theological con tentions never betrayed them into even a momentary oblivion of their former amity. The reputation 'of Bossuet soon reached the court, and he was invited to Versailles, the proper theatre for the display of his brilliant talents. Amidst the splendour and se ductions of a palace, lie preserved a dignity and in dependence of conduct, becoming his character as the ambassador of Heaven. Without a single effort to foice himself into notice, except by his exhibitions in the pulpit or at the altar ; without once discend ing to the meanness of flattery or paltry intrigue, he obtained from Louis XIV. the bishopric of Condom just tribute to his transcendant, though unob trusive merit.