found, in the feebleness of Racine's character, and in the elegance of his genius, a fit engine to con firm that esprit de systeme, which enters into every relation under his government, to dazzle and enslave the dramatic taste of the day ; to conform to the cold severity of the Greek rules; and avoiding all referen ces to national history, to liberty, or go vernment, to weave with the religious and historical fables of antiquity, the characters
But the impor tunate vanity of Louis XIV.  found, in the feebleness of Racine's character, and in the elegance of his genius, a fit engine to con firm that esprit de systeme, which enters into every relation under his government, to dazzle and enslave the dramatic taste of the day ; to conform to the cold severity of the Greek rules; and avoiding all referen ces to national history, to liberty, or go vernment, to weave with the religious and historical fables of antiquity, the characters  154 BOOK VII.