His mighty hand is the source of everything; it is He who sends from heaven generous sentiments, wise counsels and every worthy thought.  But He wishes us to know how to distinguish between the gifts He abandons to His enemies and those He reserves for His servants.  What distinguishes His friends from all others is piety.  Until this gift of heaven has been received, all others not only are as naught, but even bring ruin on those who are endowed with them; without this inestimable gift of piety what would the Prince de Conde have been, even with his great heart and great genius?  No, my brethren, if piety had not, as it were, consecrated his other virtues, these princes would have found no consolation for their grief, nor this pontiff any confidence in his prayers, nor would I myself utter with conviction the praises which I owe so great a man.

Let us, by this example, then set human glory at naught; let us destroy the idol of the ambitious, that it might fall to pieces before this altar.  Let us to-day join together (for with a subject so noble we may do it) all the finest qualities of a superior nature; and, for the glory of truth, let us demonstrate, in a prince admired of the universe, that what makes heroes, that what carries to the highest pitch worldly glory, worth, magnanimity, natural goodness—­all attributes of the heart; vivacity, penetration, grandeur and sublimity of genius—­attributes of the mind; would be but an illusion were piety not a part of them—­in a word, that piety is the essence of the man.  It is this, gentlemen, which you will see in the forever memorable life of the most high and mighty Prince Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, first prince of the blood.

God has revealed to us that He alone creates conquerors, and that He makes them serve His designs.  What other created a Cyrus if it is not God, who named him two hundred years before his birth in the Prophecies of Isaiah?  “Thou art as yet unborn,” He said unto him, “but I see thee, and I named thee by thy name; thou shalt be called Cyrus.  I will walk before thee in battle, at thy approach I will put kings to flight; I will break down doors of brass.  It is I that stretch out the heavens, that support the earth, that name that which is not as that which is,” that is to say, it is I that create everything and I that see, from eternity, all that I create.  What other could fashion an Alexander, if it is not this same God who caused the unquenchable ardor of Daniel, His prophet, to see from so great a distance and by means of foreshadowings so vivid.  “Do you see him,” he says, “this conqueror; with what rapidity he rises from the west by bounds, as it were, and touches not the earth?”