At the beginning of the reign the genius of Colbert, the restorer of the national finances, was largely employed on the extension of commerce, then almost entirely in the hands of the Dutch and English.  Not only a navy, but a mercantile marine was created; the West India and East India companies were both established in 1664.  Almost every year of Colbert’s ministry was marked by the establishment of a new industry.

Paris was lighted and paved and policed, almost rebuilt.  Louis had a marked taste for architecture, for gardens, and for sculpture.  The law owed many reforms to this monarch.  The army was reorganised; merit, not rank, became the ground of promotion:  the bayonet replaced the pike, and the artillery was greatly developed.  When Louis began to rule there was no navy.  Arsenals were created, sailors were trained, and a fleet came into being which matched those of Holland and England.

Even a brief summary shows the vast changes in the state accomplished by Louis.  His ministers seconded his efforts admirably.  Theirs is the credit for the details, for the execution; but the scheme, the general principles, were due to him.  The magistrates would not have reformed the laws, order would not have been restored in the finances, discipline in the army, police throughout the kingdom; there would have been no fleets, no encouragement of the arts; none of all those improvements carried out systematically, simultaneously, resolutely, under various ministers, had there not been a master, greater than them all, imbued with the general conceptions and determined on their fulfilment.

The spirit of commonsense, the spirit of criticism, gradually progressing, insensibly destroyed much superstition; insomuch that simple charges of sorcery were excluded from the courts in 1672.  Such a measure would have been impossible under Henry IV. or Louis XIII.  Nevertheless, such superstitions were deeply rooted.  Everyone believed in astrology; the comet of 1680 was regarded as a portent.

In science France was, indeed, outstripped by England and Florence.  But in eloquence, poetry, literature, and philosophy the French were the legislators of Europe.  One of the works which most contributed to. forming the national taste was the “Maxims” of La Rochefoucauld.  But the work of genius which in itself summed up the perfections of prose and set the mould of language was Pascal’s “Lettres Provinciales.”  The age was characterised by the eloquence of Bossuet.  The “Telemaque” of Fenelon, the “Caracteres” of La Bruyere, were works of an order entirely original and without precedent.

Racine, less original than Corneille, owes a still increasing reputation to his unfailing elegance, correctness, and truth; he carried the tender harmonies of poetry and the graces of language to their highest possible perfection.  These men taught the nation to think, to feel, and to express itself.  It was a curious stroke of destiny that made Moliere the contemporary of Corneille and Racine.  Of him I will venture to say that he was the legislator of life’s amenities; of his other merits it is needless to speak.