Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/24

 a single reflection. When Bourdaloue appeared, the pulpit was yet barbarous; rivalling, as Massillon himself observed, the theatre in buffoonery, or the schools in dryness. That Jesuit orator, was the first who gave to Religion a language worthy of her : it was solid, serious, and above all, strictly and closely logical. If he who enters an untrodden path has many thorns to obstruct him, he also enjoys great advantages, for his advance is more marked and his immediate celebrity greater, than those of his successors. The public, long accustomed to the reign of Bourdaloue, who had been the first object of their veneration, were long persuaded that he could have no rival, especially while Massillon was living, and Bourdaloue from his tomb no longer heard the cry of the multitude in his favour. At length, Death, which brings justice in its train, has assigned to each orator his proper place : and Envy, which had excluded Massillon from that which was his due, may now seat him in it without the fear of his enjoying it. We shall, however, refrain from giving him a pre-eminence which grave authorities would disallow: it is Bourdaloue's greatest glory, that the superiority of Massillon is still disputed; but if it were to be decided by the number of readers, the advantage would be on the side of Massillon. Bourdaloue is little read but by preachers and devotees; his rival is in the hands of all who read; and we must be permitted to say, as completing his Eulogy, that the most celebrated writer of our age and nation is particularly assiduous in the perusal of this great orator's sermons; that Massillon is his model for prose, as Racine is for verse; and that the Petit Carime is always laid on his table by the side of Athaliah,

If, however, a kind of parallel were to be drawn between these two illustrious orators, we might say, with an intelligent judge, that Bourdaloue argues the best, and Massillon is the most pathetic; and that a sermon excellent in all respects would be one, of which Bourdaloue should write the first head, and Massillon the second. Perhaps a still more perfect discourse would be one in which they should not appear apart; but their talents, melted together, should, as it were, mutually penetrate each other, and the logician should at the same time write with pathos and sensibility.

We ought not to conceal, that all the sermons of our eloquent academician, as well as his Petit Careme, are accused of the fault of frequently presenting in the same page only a single idea, varied, indeed, with all the richness of expression, but by its fundamental uniformity, somewhat dragging in its enunciation. The same criticism has been made upon Seneca, but with more justice : that writer, solely ambitious of astonishing his reader by the profusion of wit with which he overwhelms him, becomes the more wearisome, as he seems to weary himself by a pompous display of riches, which he collects on all sides with manifest effort. Massillon, having his heart solely filled with the interest of his hearer, appears to present before him, in many forms, the truth he wishes to impress upon him, only through fear lest he should not engrave it deeply enough on his soul. Not only, therefore do we pardon him