splendour, as much authority, as much ascendency, as
would fill the national imagination and satisfy national pride. The
history of Charles I, the restoration of Charles II, the outbreak of
loyal sentiment, which was stronger than religion, which was itself a
religion, showed that there was something in royalty higher than the
policy of statesmen, and more fitted to inspire the enthusiasm of
sacrifice.

At the death of Mazarin there was no man capable of being his
successor. Le Tellier, Colbert, Lionne were men of very great
ability, but they were departmental ministers. The young Monarch gave
orders that, as they had reported to the cardinal, they should now
report to himself. He added that they were to assist him with their
advice whenever he asked for it; and he did not make it appear that he
would trouble them often. The initiative of government passed into
his hands. He did not say, "L'etat, c'est moi." Those words, I
believe, were invented by Voltaire, but they are profoundly true. It
was the thing which occasion demanded, and he was the man suited to
the occasion.

Lewis XIV was by far the ablest man who was born in modern times on
the steps of a throne. He was laborious, and devoted nine hours a
day to public business. He had an excellent memory and immense
fertility of resource. Few men knew how to pursue such complex
political calculations, or to see so many moves ahead. He was patient
and constant and unwearied, and there is a persistent unity in his
policy, founded, not on likes and dislikes, but on the unvarying facts
in the political stage of Europe: Every European state was included in
his system, and had its part in the game. His management of each was
so dexterous that diplomacy often made war superfluous, and made it
successful. Lewis was not a born soldier like Swedish Charles and the
great Frederic. He never exercised an actual command. He would
appear at sieges when the psychological moment came, and ride
ceremoniously under fire, with his Jesuit confessor close at hand. His
fame was so large a part of the political capital of France, that a
pretence was made of believing in his generalship, and the king took
it quite seriously. He told his son to go to the wars and prove his
warlike quality, that the change, when his father died, might not be
too deeply felt. In many places he was accepted as a benefactor and a
That was generally the case in Switzerland, in Portugal, in Denmark