nfaithfully published, "curtailed of their fair proportions;"
and not a few might be noticed which subsequent editors have restored to
their original state, by uniting their dislocated limbs. Unquestionably
Passion has sometimes annihilated manuscripts, and tamely revenged
itself on the papers of hated writers! Louis the Fourteenth, with his
own hands, after the death of Fenelon, burnt all the manuscripts which
the Duke of Burgundy had preserved of his preceptor.

As an example of the suppressors and dilapidators of manuscripts, I
shall give an extraordinary fact concerning Louis the Fourteenth, more
in his favour. His character appears, like some other historical
personages, equally disguised by adulation and calumny. That monarch was
not the Nero which his revocation of the edict of Nantes made him seem
to the French protestants. He was far from approving of the violent
measures of his catholic clergy. This opinion of that sovereign was,
however, carefully suppressed, when his "Instructions to the Dauphin"
were first published. It is now ascertained that Louis the Fourteenth
was for many years equally zealous and industrious; and, among other
useful attempts, composed an elaborate "Discours" for the dauphin for
his future conduct. The king gave his manuscript to Pelisson to revise;
but after the revision our royal writer frequently inserted additional
paragraphs. The work first appeared in an anonymous "Recueil d'Opuscules
Litteraires, Amsterdam, 1767," which Barbier, in his "Anonymes," tells
us was "redige par Pelisson; le tout publie par l'Abbe Olivet." When at
length the printed work was collated with the manuscript original,
several suppressions of the royal sentiments appeared; and the editors,
too catholic, had, with more particular caution, thrown aside what
clearly showed Louis the Fourteenth was far from approving of the
violences used against the protestants. The following passage was
entirely omitted: "It seems to me, my son, that those who employ extreme
and violent remedies do not know the nature of the evil, occasioned in
part by heated minds, which, left to themselves, would insensibly be
extinguished, rather than rekindle them afresh by the force of
contradiction; above all, when the corruption is not confined to a small
number, but diffused through all parts of the state; besides, the
Reformers said many true things! The best method to have reduced little
by little the Huguenots of my kingdom, was not