Note 257 — CCLII.—To Farel.[257]

Endowed, according to the testimony of his contemporaries, with a powerful and impetuous eloquence which charmed multitudes, and which, with the strong faith with which he was animated, could alone explain his splendid success as a missionary, Farel was abler with the tongue than with the pen, and his various writings, called forth by circumstances, are in general defective. We find in them a few ideas, cast forth at hazard, without plan, in strange disorder, and with a superabundance of explanation, in a diffuse and obscure style. It is not uninteresting to know the judgment which Calvin pronounced upon the works of his friend, and to find in this judgment even a new testimony to the brotherly candour which presided at all times over the intercourse of the two Reformers.—See on the writings of Farel, Senebier, Hist. Litt. tom. i. pp. 148, 149; Sayous, Etudes sur les Ecrivains de la Réformation, tom. i., 1st sketch; and Haag, France Protestante, Art. Farel.