It is clear and indubitable (says he in his sermon on the 6th psalm) that the number _four_ denotes the human body, because of the four elements, and the four qualities of _hot_, _cold_, _moist_, and _dry_; and as _four_ relates to the body, so _three_ relates to the soul; for we must love God with a triple love--with all our _hearts_ with all our _souls_, and with all our _minds_. _Four_ also relates to the Old Testament, and _three_ to the New. _Four_ and _three_ make up the number of _seven_ days, and the _eight_ is the _day of judgment_. One cannot but feel that there is in these allegories an affectation but little compatible with true eloquence. The fathers, who sometimes made use of these figures, wrote in times and countries in which nearly all the arts were degenerating. Their learning and fine genius were warped by the imperfections of the age in which they lived. St. Augustine is not to be respected the less for having paid this tribute to the bad taste of Africa and the fourth century. The discourses of our modern preachers are not disfigured by similar faults. Not that we dare prefer them to the fathers; but the present age is to be preferred to the ages in which they wrote. Eloquence, which became more and more corrupted, and was not revived until later times, fell, after them, into still greater extravagances; and the languages of all barbarous nations were alike ridiculous until the age of Louis XIV. Look at all the old collections of sermons; they are far below the dramatic pieces of the Passion, which used to be played at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. But the spirit of allegory, which has never been lost, may be traced throughout these barbarous discourses. The celebrated _Ménot_, who lived in the reign of Francis I., did more honor, perhaps, than any other to the allegorical style. "The worthy administrators of justice," said he, "are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than twenty mice can do." Here is another very curious passage: "The woodmen, in a forest, cut large and small branches, and bind them in faggots; just so do our ecclesiastics, with dispensations from Rome, heap together great and small benefices. The cardinal's hat is garnished with bishoprics, the bishoprics are garnished with abbeys and priories, and the whole is garnished with devils. All these church possessions must pass through the three links of the _Ave Maria_; for _benedicta tu_ stands for fat abbeys of Benedictines, _in mulieribus_ for _monsieur_ and _madame_, and _fructus ventris_ for banquets and gormandizers."