Posthumous Works

or to have any key to his style and his doctrine, to understand the greater part of his works. Some savants learned scholars, as well as several simple and less literate persons, have enjoyed them from the first reading, and cannot tire of rereading them.

It is true that, when one is accustomed to reading books that exempt one from the labor of thought or reflection: those philosophical books that cheer the reader through sarcasm and jest: one has difficulty adjusting to the religious sentiments and the tight, precise reasoning of Mr. Saint-Martin. He seems to want to compel his readers to think and to seek the truths themselves, to the path of which he only wishes to bring them back. It is a case of saying that in reading him, one would always desire that he say more; but we can assure those who do not dare