THOMAS C. SAVILL,

PRINTER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, CHARING CROSS.

CONTENTS OF VOL. X.

men.

(Concluded from the last Number.) It would exceed the limits of the present paper to enter at any length into the biography of the Port Royal saints; my present object being rather to speak of Jansenism as a system, than to view it in its effect upon those who professed it. I cannot, however, forbear from introducing in this place some account of one of these eminent

M. Le Maitre (not, I believe, the same who was afterwards called Saçi, and also translated the Bible, but a relative,) was the ornament and oracle of the French bar. When he pleaded, (says the historian of the Port Royal,) the other courts of law, and even the lecture rooms, at Paris, were deserted. At the age of twenty-seven he had become a councillor of state, and was in the highest favour at court, as well as in his own profession. His mother, a woman of great piety, dreaded the effect which so much popularity and distinction might produce upon a naturally ambitious mind. When Le Maitre was in his thirtieth year, and at the height of his reputation, it happened that Madame D'Audilly, the intimate friend of his mother, with whom she had taken refuge from the ill-treatment of her husband, became dangerously ill. She was visited by the Abbé de St. Cyran, who conversed with her upon rekgious subjects, and read by her side the prayers of the church. At some of these interviews Le Maitre was present; and the truths of religion, enforced by so experienced a teacher as St. Cyran, and heightened in their effect by the striking circumstances under which they were presented, were speedily impressed with indelible force upon a mind naturally warm and imaginative. He withdrew from the death bed, and formed, without delay, the resolution of quitting the world, and of dedicating the rest of his life in retirement to God. The historian of the Port Royal has preserved the letter which Le

VOL. X.-July, 1836.

B

Maitre wrote, upon forming this determination, to his father; and I am sure that I shall be excused for giving a translation of it.

“ You have been (he writes) instrumental, under God, in placing me in the world; and I am too sensible of the respect due to a parent to lose one moment in acquainting you with the resolution which, by God's infinite mercy, I have formed, after three months' reflection, of quitting my profession, and withdrawing into retirement, where I may dedicate the remainder of my days to God. I have abstained, by the advice of my friends, from making known this resolution, until quite satisfied that it was no excitement of the moment, but a direction from above. T'ime, instead of weakening, has only confirmed the impression; and I am now satisfied that it comes from Him who is alone the master of our hearts, and changes them at his own pleasure.

“ I quit the world at His bidding, as you would quit it if called by the same voice. I pretend to no special revelation or extraordinary vision. I am simply following the voice which speaks in the gospel, urging me to repent of my sins. I am not exchanging the honours of one profession for those of another ; reputation at court, for reputation in the church. I do not desire the notoriety of retiring into a monastery; but I seek some private abode, where ambition can have no place, and wherein I may seek God in repentance and by prayer.

“ I expect that my resolution will astonish you. Six months ago, I thought no more of such a step than you think of it at present. I came to the determination without the advice of any friend. A voice spoke, not to my ear, but to my heart.

“ If the example of an eldest son quitting the world in his thirtieth year, with for. tune smiling around him, with the favour of kings shining upon him, with the path of honour open to him-if an example such as this could move you, it would be to me a cause of greater joy than that which you felt on hearing of my birth. But this must be God's work. My words are of no avail, and I have ever shrunk from acting the preacher with you (dous savez d'ailleurs que je n'ai jamais fait le prédicateur avec vous.) I will only say, what you doubtless, know better than myself, that it is no mark of weakness to cultivate the Christian graces. One whom the world has never held weak or scrupulous, and who is still the same as ever, resolves to sacrifice the fair fame of an orator and a courtier, for the simple character of a servant of Christ."

This letter presents (I think) a fair specimen of the tone and spirit of Jansenism. Who can fail, upon reading or hearing it, to lament that any should carry out of the world a temper so fitted to amend it ? Practical religion had not yet realized its perfect work,--the spirit of the hermit, in the midst of social intercourse and lawful occupation. The spirit of Jansenism is, by many degrees, the best which the church of Rome has exhibited ; but the reformed catholic church has come nearer still to the scriptural pattern, according to which activity in business may be combined with fervour of spirit.

“ We need not bid, for cloistered cell,

Our neighbour or our work farewell;
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high
For sinful man beneath the sky.

The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask-
Room to deny ourselves: a road

To bring us, daily, nearer God.”
Le Maitre retired into a private house, near the Abbey of Port
Royal; and having once put his hand to the plough, did not turn
back.

It seems necessary to my subject that I should touch briefly upon the question of the Port Royal miracles.

The first miracle professed to have been wrought in the Port Royal,