Персидские письма

certain in their unbelief as Bossuet w'as in his faith, who made a byword of the eight years from the death of Louis XIV. to his successor’s assumption of power. Grown sanctimonious in his old age, Louis XIV. had made his subjects hypocrites. At his death the boast of vice succeeded to ostentatious devotion ; the court like one man changed from Tartuffe into Don Juan. All things were discussed, examined, and torn to shreds. The intestine quarrels of the Church gave INTRODUCTION scoffers the opportunity they would have made. Dubois debauched politics ; Law, finance ; and the populace debauched themselves : for gaming, which had before been confined to people of quality, became the common amusement. Incest, too, was quite h la mode ; and those who could not be in the height of the fashion had to be satisfied with lesser vices. The autocratic rule of the Grand Monarqne gave place to the laissez-aller of Philip of Orleans, the " unbelieving Regent.” llope, desire, speculation, knew no bounds, all things in heaven above and ill the earth beneath having become common and unclean. It is this period that is reflected and criticised in the " Persian Letters.” V