1922 SHORT NOTICES 467 between the needs of the naval expert and those of the uninitiated layman. The original manuscript is at present at Petworth House in the possession of Lord Leconfield, and from internal evidence Mr. Anderson argues that it was composed between the years 1618 and 1637. It was almost cer- tainly in the possession of that Algernon, earl of Northumberland, who was lord high admiral from 1638 to 1642, though it may not have been prepared for him in the first instance. In only one very small matter would we venture to criticize Mr. Anderson's editing : it would be well always to state at the beginning of the printed version of a manuscript the exact significance of all typographical signs, no matter how familiar they may be ; what, for example, do Mr. Anderson's brackets and italics stand for in the original manuscript ? In every other respect the society and its editor are to be congratulated on a most excellent production. E. E. A. English historical literature is deficient in good biographies of seven- teenth-century foreign statesmen and churchmen, and for this reason at least Miss E. K. Sanders's Jacques Benigne Bossuet (London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921) is welcome. The volume is the result of very wide and careful investigation into the best contemporary sources ; it is well written and on the whole is likely to be the standard English biography of Bossuet for some time. Bossuet has been traditionally considered in England as a courtier-bishop and as having, in some measure, condoned the moral delinquencies of Louis XIV. To most of us he is known by his flamboyant Oraisons Funebres and his Politique tiree des Propres Paroles de VEcriture Sainte, and, based mainly on the consideration of these writings, the tendency in this country has been to regard Bossuet as a sycophantic exponent of the doctrine of divine right and the apologist of a licentious court. This view is unfair and was never held in France, not even by contemporaries. Bossuet in his sermons at court never spared Louis XIV and, by his personal influence, did everything in his power to stem the tide of corrup- tion at Versailles. Saint Simon said of him that he was ' un eveque des premiers temps ' and that he often spoke to Louis XIV ' avec une liberte digne des premiers siecles '. The bishop sympathized with the Jansenists, and that is sufficient to suggest at least external austerity of morals. That he did little to change the morals of Versailles is no evidence that he neglected the duties of his profession. No subject has been so overdone as the court of Versailles. It is evidence of Miss Sanders's tact that she manages to depict the background of Bossuet's portrait as courtier without being either sensational or banal. Where she errs is in assuming that the bishop of Meaux was a great man, a fault generally pardonable in an enthusiastic biographer. It has been said that only great men have the courage to be inconsistent, and when Bossuet refused to admit corrections of his published writings where he was obviously wrong he gave evidence of the obstinacy of mediocrity. There were great men in the France of Louis XIV, but none of them would have been tolerated at Versailles. A very complete bibliography is appended to Miss Sanders's biography, and there is ample evidence that the bibliography is a list of Bhi
