and complete the subject. The last
scene of the romance of _Madame Bovary_ has been made a complete study
of this kind from religious documents. M. Flaubert has taken the scene
of the extreme unction from a book which a venerable ecclesiastic, one
of his friends, lent to him; this same friend has read the scene and
been moved to tears, not imagining that the majesty of religion was in
any way offended. The book is entitled: _An historic, dogmatic, moral,
liturgical and canonical explanation of the catechism, with an answer to
the objections drawn from science against religion, by the Abbe Ambroise
Guillois, curate of Notre-Dame-du-Pre, 6th edition, etc_., a work
approved by His Eminence the Cardinal Gousset, N.N.S.S. the Bishops and
Archbishops of Mans, of Tours, of Bordeaux, of Cologne, etc., vol. III.,
printed at Mans, by Charles Monnoyer, 1851. Now, you shall see in this
book, as you saw just now in Bossuet's, the principles, and, in a
certain way, the text of the passages which the Government has
condemned. It is no longer M. Sainte-Beuve, an artist, a literary
rhapsodist, whom I am quoting; we now listen to the Church itself:

"Extreme unction can give back health to the body if it be useful to the
glory of God" ... and the priest says that this often happens. Now, here
is the extreme unction:

"The priest addresses the sick with a short exhortation, if he is in a
state to hear it, in order to dispose him worthily to receive the
sacrament which is to be administered to him.

"The priest then passes the unction upon the sick person with the
stiletto or the extremity of his right thumb, which he dips each time in
the oil. This unction should be made especially upon the five parts of
the body which nature has given to man as the organs of sensation,
namely: the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth and the hands."

"As the priest makes the unctions [we have followed from point to point
the ritual which we have copied], he pronounces the words which
correspond to them.

"_To the eyes, upon the closed eyeball_: Through this holy unction and
His divine pity, may God pardon all the sins that you have committed
through sight. The sick person should at this moment have a new hatred
of all the sins committed through sight: such as indiscreet looks,
criminal curiosity, and reading what has caused to be born in him a host
of thoughts contrary to faith or morals."

What has M. Flaubert done? He has put in the mouth of