t a fraction are rough
drafts. No wonder ladies like Mme de Sevigne forsook him, when
Bourdaloue dawned on the Paris horizon in 1669; though Fenelon and La
Bruyere, two much sounder critics, refused to follow their example.
Bossuet possessed the full equipment of the orator, voice, language,
flexibility and strength. He never needed to strain for effect; his
genius struck out at a single blow the thought, the feeling and the
word. What he said of Martin Luther applies peculiarly to himself: he
could "fling his fury into theses," and thus unite the dry light of
argument with the fire and heat of passion. These qualities reach their
highest point in the _Oraisons funebres_. Bossuet was always best when
at work on a large canvas; besides, here no conscientious scruples
intervened to prevent him giving much time and thought to the artistic
side of his subject. For the _Oraison_, as its name betokened, stood
midway between the sermon proper and what would nowadays be called a
biographical sketch. At least, that was what Bossuet made it; for on
this field he stood not merely first, but alone. His three great
masterpieces were delivered at the funerals of Henrietta Maria, widow of
Charles I. (1669), her daughter, Henrietta, duchess of Orleans (1670),
and the great soldier Conde (1687).

Apart from these state occasions, Bossuet seldom appeared in a Paris
pulpit after 1669. In that year he was gazetted bishop of Condom in
Gascony, though he resigned the charge on being appointed tutor to the
dauphin, only child of Louis XIV., and now a boy of nine (1670). The
choice was scarcely fortunate. Bossuet unbent as far as he could, but
his genius was by no means fitted to enter into the feelings of a child;
and the dauphin was a cross, ungainly, sullen lad, who grew up to be a
merely genealogical incident at his father's court. Probably no one was
happier than the tutor, when his charge's sixteenth birthday came round,
and he was promptly married off to a Bavarian princess. Still the nine
years at court were by no means wasted. Hitherto Bossuet had published
nothing, except his answer to Ferry. Now he sat down to write for his
pupil's instruction--or rather, to fit himself to give that
instruction--a remarkable trilogy. First came the _Traite de la
connaissance de Dieu et de soi-meme_, then the _Discours sur l'histoire
universelle_, lastly the _Politique tiree de l'Ecriture Sainte_. The
three books fit into each other. The _Traite_ is