ON THE DEATH OF THE GREAT CONDÉ[1]
(1686)
Born in 1627, died in 1704; became Preceptor to the Dauphin in 1670, and Bishop of Meaux in 1681; besides sermons he wrote historical and theological works.
Such as he had been in all combats—serene, self-possessed, and occupied without anxiety, only with what was necessary to sustain them—such also he was in that last conflict. Death appeared to him no more frightful, pale, and languishing, than amid the fires of battle and in the prospect of victory. While sobbings were heard all around him, he continued, as if another than himself were their object, to give his orders; and if he forbade them weeping, it was not because it was a distress to him, but simply a hindrance. At that time he extended his cares to the least of his domestics. With a liberality
- ↑ Bossuet's works, In the best French edition (that of Lachat), comprise thirty-one volumes. His "Funeral Orations" are now perhaps the most celebrated of his writings. In this branch of oratory he is usually acknowledged to have been the first great master, as also its creator. Besides the one on the great Condé, from which passages are here given, two others are famous—those on Henrietta of England and her daughter, the Duchess of Orleans. "Bossuet," says H. Morse Stephens, "in the simple grandeur of his language, stands alone among the orators of the golden age of French pulpit eloquence."
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