never to have entirely given him his confidence, or to have made that use of the talents of this Prince which he should have made.

The Prince of Condé was a striking illustration of the observation made by the acute Dr. Johnson, that in public fpeaking there was often more of knack and of habit than of real talent or knowledge: for whilft Condé never rofe to speak in the Parliament of Paris but to difgrace himself, Gaston his coufin, with a mind very inferior to his in every respect, was very well heard in that Affembly.

His Sovereign Louis XIV. once paid Condé a very handsome compliment. The Prince, in the latter part of his life, was very lame with the gout, and was one day in that fituation apologizing to him for making him wait for him at the top of the great ftair-cafe at Versailles, which he was afcending very flowly. "Alas! my coufin," replied he, "who that is fo loaded with laurels as yourself "can walk faft ?"

The Prince was a man of fome learning himself, and extremely fond of the converfation of learned and ingenious men. Moliere, Boileau, and the celebrated writers of their time, were frequently with him at Chantilly. He however expected as much deference from these great men in literary matters, as he had been used to exact from his VOL. II. Officers

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Officers at a Council of War. Boileau, however, had once the spirit to contradict him on some subject of literature, of which moft probably he knew more than the Prince. Condé foon fired, and darted his eyes upon him, fparkling with rage and indignation. "Upon my word," faid the fatirist, " in "future I will take particular care to be of the "fame opinion with the Prince of Condé when he " is in the wrong."

Pains had been early taken by fome of the Prince's fuppofed friends to shake his belief in Christianity; he always replied, "You give yourselves a great "deal of unneceffary trouble: the difperfion of "the Jews will always be an undeniable proof to "me of the truth of our holy religion."

Some writer fays, that the difpofition of a man is to be known by his hand-writing. This obfervation seems realized in this great Prince, who was a man of a very violent and hafty temper. Segrais fays of him, "The Prince of Condé used "to write without taking his pen from the paper "till he had finifhed a fentence, and without put"ting any points or adjuncts to his letters."

DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT.

"THE Author of the celebrated Maxims which « bear his name, was not a man of learning," fays Segrais," but he was a man of great good sense, " and had a perfect knowledge of the world. This 66 put him upon making reflections, and upon re"ducing into aphorifms what he had been able to "discover in the heart of man, with which he was "most intimately acquainted.”

M. de la Rochefoucault was fo accurate in the compofition of his little book, that as he finished a Maxim, he used to send it to his friends for their opinion upon it. Segrais afferts, that fome of his Maxims were altered thirty times. The Maxini, "that it fhews a wretched poverty of mind to "have but one fort of understanding," took its rise from Boileau and Racine, who were extremely ignorant of every thing except poetry and literature.

"M. de la Rochefoucault," adds Segrais, "would have made a better Governor for the "Dauphin, Louis the Fourteenth's only fon, than "the Duke of Montaufier;" being a man of great sweetness of temper, extremely infinuating in his address, and exceedingly agreeable in converfation.

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fation. M. de la Rochefoucault could never belong to the French Academy, as he could never mufter up courage enough to deliver to the Academy the speech which it was neceffary to make in order to be admitted into that body.

CARDINAL DE RETZ.

HENAULT applies this paffage in Tacitus to this celebrated Demagogue: "Non tam præmiis "periculorum, quàm ipfis periculis, lætus pro "certis et olim partis, nova, ambigua, ancipitia, "mallebat." The fagacious Richelieu early difcovered the difpofition of De Retz, and according to Segrais, though he was of an antient and an illuftrious family, never intended to give him a benefice of any value or confequence. In very early life De Retz wrote the "Hiftory of the "Confpiracy of Fiefqui against the Ariftocracy "of Genoa," in which he took the part of the Confpirator. He seems by nature to have had all the qualities requifite to become a favourite with the people. Brave, generous, eloquent, full of resources, and fettered by no principle, he dazzled the multitude of Paris, who seem ever to have been more taken with actions of eclat and

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of enterprize, than all the efforts of modeft and humble virtue. On feeing one day a carbine levelled at him by fome one he did not know, he had the presence of mind to cry out, "If your Father, "Sir, were now seeing what you were about!" This fpeech immediately difarmed the fury of the affaffin.

The Cardinal feems nearly to have made an ample compenfation for the follies and irregularities of his youth by the honeft confeffion he made of them in his Memoirs. He appears in them to have been a man of great talents, and of good natural difpofition, perverted by vanity, and the defire of that distinction, which, if not acquired by honeft means, difgraces instead of dignifying those who are fo unfortunate as to poffefs it. Had he directed his great powers of mind in endeavours to unite, inftead of efforts to divide his unhappy and distracted country, he would have endeared himself most effectually to his countrymen, and would have deserved the praises of pofterity, by exhibiting an example which too rarely occurs, of a Politician facrificing his refentment to the good of the State.

The Memoirs of this celebrated Perfonage, written by himself, are extremely fcanty and imperfect they give no account either of the early or of the latter part of his life. He entrusted the

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