beaute;  mais  il  n'y  en  avoit  clansle  royaume,  ni  peut-etre  sur
la  terre  qui  Tegaloit  en  esprit  et  en  erudition.*)

Brucker,  the  historian  of  Philosophy,  also  tells  us  that  she
was  "  commendable  for  her  exquisite  beauty"  {eximia  pul-
chritudine  commendabilis^\  which  is  suflScient  to  show  that
this  very  learned  writer  had  read  the  testimony  of  Abelard
in  the  same  spirit  as  I  think  it  ought  to  be  read.
Of  Abelard  we  have  his  own  testimony  that  he  w^as  very
beautiful ;  and  though  he  was  in  every  respect  a  conceited  cox-
comb, perhaps  his  evidence  on  this  point  cannot  well  be  rejec-
ted. He  tells  us  that  when  he  contemplated  the  seduction  of
Heloise  he  believed  he  woul4  have  a  very  easy  task.  "  For  I
was  then,"  he  says,  "of  so  great  reputation  and  was  so  endo\ved
with  the  graces  of  youth  and  .form,  that  I  feared  no  repulse
from  any  woman  whatever  on  whom  I  might  condescend  to
bestow  my  love."j:  This  language  is  remarkably  characteris-
tic of  Abelard.  At  the  time  to  which  he  refers  he  was  forty
and  Heloise  not  half  that  age;  and  yet  he  could  speak  of  his
"youth."  There  is  no  doubt  that  downright  impudence,  in
which  Abelard  was  an  eminent  proficient,  has  a  great  charm
for  most  men  and  women  in  this  world.  The  power  of  audac-
it}^  in  politics  and  in  war  is  invariably  acknowledged,  and  in
love  also  that  assurance  which  is  blind  to  all  chance  of  failure
will  often  succeed  w4iere  a  world  of  modest  merit  may  fail.
