"anders and the Cæfars:" "in which ridiculous fuppo "fition," fays Voltaire," his very reafoning talent, "which he ufually exercifes with fuch judgement and fubtilty, intirely deferted him: for Cæfar was much "more debauched than Henry was amorous, and nobody "can fee why Henry was a jot worfe than Alexander." In short, we may fay with lord Bolingbroke, what all the Letter to hiftories will confirm, that Henry was poffeffed of all thofe Windham. "fhining qualities which rendered him the honefteft gen

"tleman, the bravest captain, and the greatest prince of his "age."

After the death of his mafter, with which he was infinitely afflicted, Sully retired from courrt: for, a new reign introducing new men and new measures, he was not only no longer regarded, but the courtiers alfo hated and plotted against him. The life he led in retreat was accompanied with decency, grandeur, and even majefty; yet it was, in fome measure, imbittered with domeftic troubles, arifing from the extravagance and ill conduct of his eldeft fon, the marquis of Rofny. He died Dec. 22, 1641, aged 82; and his duchefs caufed a ftatue to be erected over his buryingplace, with this infcription on the back of it: "Here lies the body of the most high, moft puiffant, and moft il"luftrious lord, Maximilian de Bethune, marquis of Rofny, who fhared in all the fortunes of king Henry the Great; among which was that memorable battle, which 61 gave the crown to the victor; where, by his valour, he "gained the white ftandard, and took feveral prifoners "of distinction. He was by that great monarch, in re"ward of his many virtues and distinguished merit, ho"noured with the dignities of duke, peer, and marshal of "France, with the governments of the Upper and Lower "Poitou, with the office of grand mafter of the ordnance; "in which, bearing the thunder of his Jupiter, he took "the caftle of Montmelian, till then believed impregnable, "and many other fortreffes of Savoy. He was likewife "made fuperintendant of the finances, which office he "difcharged fingly, with a wife and prudent œconomy; "and continued his faithful fervices till that unfortunate day, when the Cæfar of the French nation loft his life. "by the hand of a parricide. After the lamented death of "that great king, he retired from public affairs, and paffed "the remainder of his life in eafe and tranquillity. He died at the caftle of Villebon, Dec. 22, 1541, aged 82."

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liv. ii.

It was a very great age for a man to live to, who had run through fo many changes and chances, and been exposed to fuch variety of perils, as this great man had been. One of thefe perils was of a very extrordinary kind, and deferves Memoires a particular mention. It was at the taking of a town in de Sully, Cambray, in 1581, when, to defend the women from the brutality of the foldiers, the churches, with guards about them, were given them for afylums; nevertheless, a very beautiful young girl fuddenly threw herfelf into the arms of Sully, as he was walking in the ftrects, and, holding him faft, conjured him to guard her from fome foldiers, who, fhe faid, had concealed themselves as foon as they faw him. Sully endeavoured to calm her fears, and offered to conduct her to the next church; but he told him the had been there, and had asked for admittance, which they refufed, because they knew he had the plague. Sully thruft her from him with the utmoft indignation as well as horror, and expected every moment to be feized with the plague, which, however, by good luck did not so happen.

Memoires,

liv. xxvi,

The character of Sully, as it was given by his master Henry IV. and as it is preferved in his Memoirs, will very properly conclude our account of this illuftrious minifter. "Some perfons," faid Henry, "complain, and indeed I do myfell, fometimes, of his temper. They fay he is harfh, impatient, and obftinate: he is accufed of having too enterprifing a mind, of prefuming too much upon his "own opinions, exaggerating the worth of his own actions, "and leffening that of others, as likewife of eagerly afpir"ing after honours and riches. Now, although I am well

<

convinced that part of thefe imputations are true, and "that Iam obliged to keep an high hand over him, when he offends me with thofe fallies of ill humour; yet I "cannot ceafe to love him, cfteem him, and employ him "in all affairs of confequence, because I am very fure that " he loves my perfon, that he takes an interest in my prefer

vation, and that he is ardently folicitous for the honour, "the glory, and grandeur of me and my kingdom. I "know, alfo, that he has no malignity in his heart; that

4,6

he is indefatigable in business, and fi uitful in expedients; *he is a careful manager of my revenue, a man laborious "and diligent, who endeavours to be ignorant of nothing, and to render hitelf capable of conducting all affairs, whether of peace or war; who writes and fpeaks in a "ftyle that pleafes me, because it is at once that of a foldier and ftatefman. In a word, I confess to you, that, notwithstanding

66

I

66

"withstanding all his extravagances and little tranfports "of paffion, I find no one fo capable as he is of confoling "me under every uneafinefs."

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The "Memoires de Sully" have always been ranked among the best books of French hiftory. They contain a most particular account of whatever paffed from the peace in 1570, to the death of Henry IV. in 1610; a period of time, which has fupplied the moft copious fubjects to the hiftorians of France. They are full of numerous and various events; wars, foreign and domeftic; interests of fate and religion; mafter ftrokes of policy; unexpected difcoveries; ftruggles of ambition; ftratagems of policy; embaffies and negociations. These memoirs take their value, perhaps their greatest value, from the innumerable recitals of a private kind, which scarcely belong to the province of hiftory; for, at the fame time that they treat of the reign, they defcribe the whole life of Henry the Great. They are not, however, either in the form or language, in which they were left by Sully: the form has been digefted and metho difed, and the language has been corrected and polished. The beft edition in French is that of Paris, in three volumes 4to, and alfo in eight yolumes 12mo. They have been tranflated into English, and published both in 4to and 8vo.

SULPICIA, an ancient Roman poetefs, who lived under the reign of Domitian, and afterwards was fo cele brated and admired, that fhe has been thought worthy of the name of the Roman Sappho. We have nothing left of her but a fatire, or rather fragment of a fatire, against Domitian, who published a decree for the banishment of the philofophers from Rome; which fatire may be found in Scaliger's" Appendix Virgiliana," and other collections, but has ufually been printed at the end of the" Satires of "Juvenal," to whom it has been falfely attributed by fome. From the invocation it should feem, that she was the author of many other poems, and the firft Roman lady who taught her fex to vie with the Greeks in poetry. Her language is eafy and elegant, and the feems to have had a happy talent for fatire.. She is mentioned by Martial and Sidonius Apollinaris, and is faid to have addreffed to her husband Calenus, who was a Roman knight, "A poem on con"jugal love." She was certainly a lady of bright genius, and there is reafon to lament the lofs of her works.

SUL

Paulin. epift. vii.

SULPICIUS (SEVERUS), an ecclefiaftical writer, who flourished about the beginning of the fifth century, was contemporary with Rufinus and St. Jerome. He was a disciple of St, Martin of Tours, whofe life he has written; and friend of Paulinus, bifhop of Nola, with whom he held a conftant and intimate correfpondence. He was illuftrious for his birth, his eloquence, and ftill more for his piety and virtue. After he had fhone with great luftre at the bar, he married very advantageoufly; but, lofing his wife foon after, he quitted the world, and became a prieft. All this appears from a letter Paulinus wrote to him: "But "you, my dear brother," fays that bishop, "were more "wonderfully converted to the Lord, inafinuch as, amidst "all the fecular advantages of youth, fame, and wealth,

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and eloquence, in pleading before courts. of juftice, that "is, upon the theatre of the world, you fuddenly threw "off the flavish yoke of fin, and broke the deadly bonds of "flesh and blood. Neither could youth, nor increase of riches, by marrying into a noble family, nor pleafures of any kind, turn you from the narrow path of virtue and falvation, into the broad and eafy way of the multitude." He was born in the province of Aquitain, whofe inhabi tants were then the flower of all the Gauls, in matters of wit and eloquence. The beft poets, the best rhetoricians, and the beft orators of the Roman empire, of those at least who wrote in Latin, were then to be found in Aquitain. Thus in a converfation fupported by Pofthumianus, Severus Sulp. Oper. Sulpicius, and Gallus, Gallus is made to fay, "Sed dur

P-439.

"cogito, me hominem Gallum inter Aquitanos verba facLipl. 1709. turum, vereor ne offendat veftras nimium urbanas aures

Vid. Oper.

P.372.

"fermo rufticior." Suipicius lived fometimes at PrimuliaEpift. vi, xi, cum, fometimes at Elufa, as we learn from Paulinus, and alfo at Tolofa, as we learn from his letter to his wife's mother Baffüla. Some have affirmed that he was bishop of the Biturices; but they have erroneously confounded him with another Severus Sulpicius, who was bifhop of that people, and died at the end of the fixth century. Sulpicius lived till about the year 420. He is faid, fome time before he died, to have been feduced by the Pelagians; but that, returning to his old principles, he impofed a filence upon himself for the reft of his days, as the beft atonement he could make for an error, into which he was led by the itch of difputation. He was a man of fine fenfe and great learning. The principal of his works was his " Hiftoria "facra," in two books; where he gives you a fuccinct ac

count

Count of all the remarkable things that paffed in the Jewish or Christian churches, from the creation of the world to the confulate of Stilicon and Aurelian; that is, to about the year 400. He wrote, alfo, the "Life of St. Martin,” as we have faid already; "Three letters upon the death and "virtues of this faint;" and "Three dialogues;" the first upon the miracles of the Eaftern monks, and the two laft upon the extraordinary qualities and graces of St. Martin. Thefe, with feven other epiftles never before printed with his works, were all revifed, corrected, and published with notes, in a very elegant edition, by Le Clerc, at Leipfic, in 1709, 8vo.

This author is extremely elegant; there is a purity and politeness in his ftyle, far beyond the age in which he lived. He has joined a very concife manner of expreffing himself to a remarkable perfpicuity, and in this has equalled even Salluft himself, whom he always imitates, and fometimes quotes. He is not, indeed, exact throughout in his "Hif"tory of the church;" and he is prodigiously credulous upon the point of miracles. He admits, alfo, feveral falfe and foolish opinions, which have no foundation at all in in fcripture; as, for inftance, the doctrine of the Millenaries; that Nero was the Antichrift; that demons cohabited with women, &c. In the mean time, there are feveral of his pieces, not only useful, but highly entertaining, more especially his "Dialogues," which are drawn up with the greatest art and juftnefs. The first of these contains many interesting particulars: the manners and fingularities of the Eaftern monks are elegantly defcribed. An account too is given here of the difturbances which the books of Origen had occafioned in Egypt and Palestine, where Sulpicius delivers himself like a very wife and moderate man. He entirely excufes Origen, yet highly difapproves the rigour with which the bishop of Alexandria had purfued his advocates and followers: and he deplores the misfortune of the church, whose peace was so disturbed by matters, in themselves, of very little confequence. He has preferved in this dialogue, in the person of Pofthumianus, a "bon mot," or good faying, of an African presbyter, which deferves to be mentioned, as every reader, perhaps, may not think the worse of either him, or the Prefbyter, for it. This speaker had been entertained by the Prefbyter upon the coafts of Africa very generously and hofpitably, according to his abftemious and rigid way of living; and therefore offered him at parting a few pieces of gold, by VOL. XII

E

way