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Rh happened earlier in life; what wholesome corrections they would have been to his overmuch prosperity! As, in after-time, we read the annals of his court, we are revolted by his self-indulgence, his utter thoughtlessness of others, his ingratitude, his cruelty,—and all is summed up in the conviction, This man knows nothing of suffering—he cannot measure the pain which he inflicts. Truly, we need human infirmity to teach us human nature, and that to Louis had been as a sealed book; he had only seen the coloured and gilded outside: too late he had to decipher the rough and gloomy page within. His natural impulses were good, and these are all most manifest in youth—the truth is, time wears them out; and manhood needs principle, which he had not. The beginning was promising. Look at his constant and attentive affection to his mother; his unvarying gratitude to the Cardinal; the energy with which, on Mazarin's death, when government came to be necessity, he devoted himself to the duties of his high station. No pleasure, no idleness, ever trespassed on the hours given to business.

But it is the earlier and lighter part of his career with which our readers have to do; and the present period at Paris was as gay as fêtes of every kind could make it. The youthful monarch