Edward Bruce Hamley

“ Young as he was, he was admitted into the society of the Marquis de la Fare, the Duc de Sully, the Abbé Courtin,... and his father thought him lost because he mixed with good society and wrote verses." So he says in the 'Commentaire Historique,' an autobiographical production of his old age. He certainly possessed the most remarkable qualifications for social success. His readiness in the use of his singular mental endowments, his wit, aptitude of expression, confidence, animation, and good-humoured malice, were all prefaced for success by the charm of his manner. ”

“ The print in the quarto edition of his works, from a later portrait, confirms this description: there is extraordinary spirit and animation in the eyes and semi-cynical yet bright and good-humoured smile. ”

“ Was ever canon so disgraced?"
and after much remonstrance on the inutility and folly of his grief, and a glance at the "constancy of a churchman's love," ends by advising him to take refuge from sadness in the arms of pleasure. The Abbé Chaulieu, another friend, nearly eighty, was a poet, a voluptuary, and a sceptic. The Abbé Desfontaines, a later acquaintance, befriended by Voltaire, was much worse than any of them. The society and example of these ecclesiastics must have had more influence than the companionship of a thousand fashionable young scoffers. ”