a fashionable novel. He conceives that the great legislator of the
Hebrews is too barren in his descriptions, too concise in the events he
records, nor is he careful to enrich his history by pleasing reflections
and interesting conversation pieces, and hurries on the catastrophes, by
which means he omits much entertaining matter: as for instance, in the
loves of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar, Moses is very dry and concise,
which, however, our Pere Berruyer is not. His histories of Joseph, and
of King David, are relishing morsels, and were devoured eagerly in all
the boudoirs of Paris. Take a specimen of the style. "Joseph combined,
with a regularity of features and a brilliant complexion, an air of the
noblest dignity; all which contributed to render him one of the most
amiable men in Egypt." At length "she declares her passion, and pressed
him to answer her. It never entered her mind that the advances of a
woman of her rank could ever be rejected. Joseph at first only replied
to all her wishes by his cold embarrassments. She would not yet give him
up. In vain he flies from her; she was too passionate to waste even the
moments of his astonishment." This good father, however, does ample
justice to the gallantry of the Patriarch Jacob. He offers to serve
Laban, seven years for Rachel. "Nothing is too much," cries the
venerable novelist, "when one really loves;" and this admirable
observation he confirms by the facility with which the obliging Rachel
allows Leah for one night to her husband! In this manner the patriarchs
are made to speak in the tone of the tenderest lovers; Judith is a
Parisian coquette, Holofernes is rude as a German baron; and their
dialogues are tedious with all the reciprocal politesse of metaphysical
French lovers! Moses in the desert, it was observed, is precisely as
pedantic as Pere Berruyer addressing his class at the university. One
cannot but smile at the following expressions:--"By the easy manner in
which God performed miracles, one might easily perceive they cost no
effort." When he has narrated an "Adventure of the Patriarchs," he
proceeds, "After such an extraordinary, or curious, or interesting
adventure," &c. This good father had caught the language of the beau
monde, but with such perfect simplicity that, in employing it on sacred
history, he was not aware of the ludicrous style in which he was
writing.

A Gothic bishop translated the Scriptures into the Goth language, but
omitted th