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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
140
He
loved
to
stop
by
the
road
and
talk
with
children,
and
knew
how
to
hold
their
attention
whilst
teaching
them
a
lesson.
Seeing
boy
or
girl
in
charge
of
a
cow,
he
would
ask:
"How
is
it
that
you,
a
little
child,
are
able
to
control
that
animal,
so
much
bigger
and
stronger?"
And
he
would
show
the
reason,
speaking
of
the
human
soul.
All
this
about
Tillemont
is
new
to
me;
well
as
I
knew
his
name
(from
the
pages
of
Gibbon),
I
thought
of
him
merely
as
the
laborious
and
accurate
compiler
of
historical
materials.
Admirable
as
was
his
work,
the
spirit
in
which
he
performed
it
is
the
thing
to
dwell
upon;
he
studied
for
study's
sake,
and
with
no
aim
but
truth;
to
him
it
was
a
matter
of
indifference
whether
his
learning
ever
became
known
among
men,
and
at
any
moment
he
would
have
given
the
fruits
of
his
labour
to
any
one
capable
of
making
use
of
them.
Think
of
the
world
in
which
the
Jansenists
were
living;
the
world
of
the
Fronde,
of
Richelieu
and
Mazarin,
of
his
refulgent
Majesty
Louis
XIV.
Contrast
Port-Royal
with
Versailles,
and--whatever
one's
judgment
of
their
religious
and
ecclesiastical
aims--one
must
needs
say
that
these
men
lived
with
dignity.
The
Great
Monarch
is,
in
comparison,
a
poor,
sordid
creature.
One
thinks
of
Moliere
refused
burial--the
king's
contemptuous
indifference
for
one
who
could
do
no
more
to
amuse
him
being
a
true
measure
of
the
royal
greatness.
Face
to
face
with
even
the
least
of
these
grave
and
pious
men,
how
paltry
and
unclean
are
all
those
courtly
figures;
not
there
was
dignity,
in
the
palace
chambers
and
the
stately
gardens,
but
in
the
poor
rooms
where
the
solitaries
of
Port-Royal
prayed
and
studied
and
taught.
Whether
or
not
the
ideal
for
mankind,
their
life
was
worthy
of
man.
And
what
is
rarer
than
a
life
to
which
that
praise
can
be
given?
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