further then to erect Altars and offer Sacrifices in my breast I could not have presumed more then to have made a part of the people on the feastivalls of France and joyned my voyce to the publick acclamations which at this day are the musick of the Hostel of Conde and so agreeably disturb the quiet of the most contented of all mothers This Title belongs to your Highnesse who by the birth of one Prince have oblig'd the whole World 'T is to your happy fruitfulness that our Age owes all its ornament honour and lustre and you the person that have astonish'd all Nations with the late miracles they have seen If the Kings Soveraignty ha's grown beyond the extent of his own Kingdome If his Kingdome have no frontiers after so many conquests and triumphs these are in truth the atchievements of a Princes hands who ha's not reckoned above two and twenty years in the world But they proceed Madam from that flowre and perfection of the bloud of Bourbon and Montmorency which is deriv'd from you Is there any of the French nation who is not an Enemy to his Country that restraines his vowes for the perpetuity of your contentment And ought we not to wish your Highness a long and peaceable possession of a good in which we are rich as well as you For my part I beseech Heaven Madam that he may never be ravish'd from you not even by the violent passion of some forraign Nation enamour'd with his heroicke vertue or by the Embassadours of some elective Crowne who may once more come to desire a King from France These misfortunes Madam are those that attend of a too great felicity They threaten the heads of few Princes and all Princesses are not in a condition to fear them But I may confidently presage that never more any Calamity or dysaster shall betide your Family if my prayers be successfull and I be as propitiously heard by Heaven as I am passionately Madam Your Highnesses most humble c. Feb. 1. 1645. LETTER II. To my Lord the Duke of For Monsieur the Colonell de My Lord THE Letter which your Highness ha's honour'd me with writing hath calmed the disquiet of my mind I perceive manifestly My LORD that I was but alarm'd and some were pleased to make an experiment of my passion But the ill opinion I have conceived against the World made me not unapt to believe ill newes Since I know there is no Saint in Heaven but ha's been traduc'd on Earth I did not imagine that the fate of naked and common innocente could scape better then that of triumphant and soveraigne vertue Yet this world is not so universally corrupted but that there is some found part of it There is some place of safety from the persecution of the wicked and honest men find sanctuary in your Lordships protection All your inclinations tend to Greatnesse not any deflects to Tyranny so that he that is not preserved in your Highnesses love must needs have a designe to lose himselfe there God keep me my Lord from so dangerous a thought Since Calumny can prevaile nothing in your Court I cannot feare any injury in this Country and my conscience beares me witnesse of the passion wherewith I have ever been and desire to be eternally My Lord Your c. Aug. 15. 1632. LETTER III. To my Lord Seguier Chancellour of France My Lord I Do not stay for your favours to testifie my gratitude The only intention you had to favour me hath already extreamly obliged me Though it should still remaine in your thoughts without producing its effect yet it would at least be a very faire Idea it would draw a man out of oblivion of whom the world hath no longer Remembrance it would do me no injury in representing me in the chiefe dispencer of justice better and more deserving then I am It would be My Lord an interiour action of Liberty and Choice which not being conveyed to any second subject would terminate in it selfe and without appearance retaine its merit in its own reality The vulgar call nothing benefits but what they handle and falls under their sense They measure them only by successe which is within the jurisdiction of Fortune Speculative men ascend higher They meet courtesies in the Rudiments of the imagination as pure acts and seperate from matter and deferre not their gratitude untill the event which would in that case be involv'd in chance and hazard That which is not now possibly may never be and the most faithfull promises are exposed to all the uncertainty of the future and the changes of humane things yet they cease not to be esteemed faithfull Thus My Lord I have received from you the favour which may properly be called yours though I am yet in expectance of the benefit of it from the king And I maintaine against all those who are not of my opinion that you have given it me in your promise It may possibly fall out that I shall receive nothing of it by reason of the ill fortune that attends me but it is beyond the reach of Fate to destroy the obligation I have to your Lordship according to the maximes I have learnt Your good-will having satisfied my ambition my necessity doth not presse me so hard as to I account it in the first place Esteem is somewhat more noble then payment and the Honest shall ever comfort me for the losse of the Profitable But in the meane time that I may not seeme to deliberate upon the reality of my obligation to you after the assurances I received in the Letters of Monsieur de Bois-Robert I will not deferre till to morrow the protestation which I make to be perfectly My Lord Your most humble most obedient and most obliged servant Balzac Feb. 20. 1638. LETTER IIII. To the same My Lord YOur favours justifie my solitude and the benefit I have received upon your recommendation makes me eminent in the world though I am no longer of it It declares to such as throng and runne that there is an idlenesse which the Common-wealth rewards and a rest that you esteem All the hands that serve the State are not employed in killing men nor removing Engines some there are which are lifted up to Heaven to second those that fight and pray to God for the victory Some of them make dispatches and Commissions Some draw Redoubts and Battaglias and score out on paper what is to be executed in the field and some without noise labour for the glory of their Prince and the edification of his subjects I wil not say My Lord that mine have been so nobly employed nor pretend to that glory which was bestowed on Phidias of having made the image of a God which added much devotion to what was payed him before I only say that if to be an honest man and a good Citizen is the first part of the definition of a good Oratour the halfe of that excellent quality cannot in reason
signifie what he pleases 'T is the ordinary vice of Grammarians such as he is quorum proprium est malè interpretari à mente Auctorum saepius aberrare As for my self Sir who have known long since and think I have express't as much somewhere that there is no Saint in Heaven but has been asperss'd with unjust calumny upon earth I do not receive all sorts of testimonies indifferently and before I can believe the evill that is cast upon a person I love I must see it clearly and search it with my fingers Yet I am not ignorant of the corruption of mankind nor do I desire to answer for the honesty of all the Doctors But to imagine that all our Societies are full of and is beyond my skill and I could not do it though I should be accus'd of more then rustick simplicity and call'd the ignorant amongst the great wits of the Academy Your Jesuite of Thoulouse is a person of rare merit and I esteem his dozen of Verses you have favour'd me with above all that I have seen of this ten years Here is strength wit and clearnesse 'T is an absolute Poem and has all the requisites of Art and Rule He delivers all that could be express'd in vulgar Prose but in such a manner that the Muses themselves could not have spoken better if they had made use of the mouth of Horace and Virgil. You have much obliged me in copying out that passage in the Life of Monsieur de Peiresk that concerns your selfe and me The Historian has done me right in regard of my affection to place me near you This is to make two favours of one I could wish he had touch'd one word of our friendship erat huic locus and that in the succession of Malherbe he had not forgotten your Lyrick Poetry I know he understands the mystery of writing and his Latine is of the best age so that he will do great honour to the memory of his friend I beseech God comfort you with some good news from Germany I tremble at the onely reading of what you write me thence and unlesse fata viam invenient I cannot tell how your Heroe can save himselfe I am SIR Your c. Balzac 30 Jan. 1641. LET. IV. SIR YOur discourses are according to your custome prudent and Philosophicall and there is scarce a small word escapes from me in writing to you but returns me many periods of excellent instruction You treat the stupid and obdurate sect of Stoicks as they deserve and yet do not bend the tendernesse of other more mild Philosophy so low as to lament the death of Lampreys Hens and Parrots ut olim Crassus Honorius aliique non pauci ridiculae memoriae mortales We do not say with Virgil Nec doluit miserans Refute him by himselfe and say Sunt lachrymae rerum mentem mortalia tangunt I am not exempt from such apprehensions as afflict you concerning the uncertain condition of the affaires of War Be plâ—as'd therefore to let me know what newes you have received and suffer me not to be consumed in my own feares Oblige me also by recommending me to Monsieur the Bishop of Grasse and assure him he has not a more faithful servant then me nor better perswaded of his incomparable worth If there be any of his new Poetry abroad I beseech your goodnesse to intercede for it in my favour who am most passionately SIR Your c. Balzac 6 Feb. 1641. LETTER V. SIR THough the Greeks have a proverb that offends the sons of the gods yet I do not believe that the Counts of Dunois of former times were more honourable persons then the Duke of Longueville of the present The last miracle whereof your Letter gives me relation made me tremble in the reading my imagination is still unsetled and I fear for them that are escaped as if I saw them yet in hazard and amidst the difficulties of the passage Without question Sir Heaven has some extraordinary designe for your Prince Men are not lesse frequently deceived in their fears then in their hopes and I have observed in the Histories of all Ages that great forces have almost ever performed but little and such as were inconsiderable very much Nil desperandum Teucro duce auspice Teucro Crà s ingens iterabimus aequor But you must remember that Teucer made this Oration amongst his cups and likewise observe that 't is from the banks of Bacchara which the Latinists of Germany derive by Etymologie from Bacchi ara that the Nectar Rhenanum is gather'd which may perhaps have fill'd your Army with Enthusiasm But Sir you return me the title of Philosopher with too great humility I cannot accept an honour whereof I am so undeserving nor suffer you to call me your Book who are to me both a Library and an University If you provoke me further I will term you my Tripod and my Oracle and treat you as Apollo or at least as a Prophet and a man inspired by some deity But out of raillery you know the high esteem I have of your great capacity and the reverence I bear to all that you pronounce ex cathedra I use this word because you many times send me the advices of others for your own And though I very much prize the wit and eloquence of our acquaintance yet I do not acknowledge them for Judges and Soveraigns Since you are curious to know who the father Teron is whom I believed you had known better then my self I shall tell you that he is a Poet of seventy five years old Soon after the birth of the King he compos'd two Poems of little Verses which they call Glyconiques and the late King upon the favourable applause that was given them commanded Molin to translate them they are entitled Les Couronnes and Les Dauphins and were printed at Paris the Latin on one side and the French è regione These two works are indeed very commendable and I am assured they will find your approbation I have seen other things of his wherein I observ'd an excellent genius but I know that he is otherwise enclin'd to idlenesse and a workman that of all the world loves his own trade least I had good store of other newes to requite you with and but for this diversion you had not been discharged at so cheap a rate Monsieur de Thou who turned out of his way to do me the honour of a visit had the patience to relate them four and twenty hours together which were so pleasing and agreeable that they seem'd to me scarce four and twenty minutes I am SIR Your c. Balzac 25 Feb. 1641. LETTER VI. SIR YOur diligence depends not upon that of the Poste nor upon considerations of the season Whatever his speed be and the Sun approach or be more remote from you I alwaies find my reckoning and receive tidings from you at the end of the week for which Sir I return you a thousand
III. To Monsieur Du Pui Counsellour and Library-Keeper to his Majesty SIR THe infinite value which I set upon your love ha's made me receive the tokens of it with a sort of extasie and triumph and although as to the essentiall part of friendship your generosity do's sufficiently assure my possession yet it is great contentment to me that I have that in my Cabinet which unquestionably confirmes my Title I received together with those dear pledges the advantageous testimony you were pleas'd to bestow upon my Book which I intend shall serve me as a buckler against all the insolences of Censure and the injustice of those perverse judges you speak of I do not covet the suffrages of all the world even the Heroes have come short of universall approbation The most just and cleare fame ha's been brought into question and disputed I have seen a Gallant in Euripides Tragedies accuse Hercules for a pitifull and cowardly Lubber the morall whereof is this that there is alwayes some body in the world that are of contrary opinions to the whole race of mankind and whose â—xtravagant singularity is not scrupulous to put the lye upon the affirmation of all men upon earth Pro and Con are of equall antiquity in the world with Meum and Tuum and Reason is not of longer duration then opposition and disputes Sound opinions have never been at peace or free from the Alarmes of Malice and Ignorance and even at this day how many Schisms Sects and Heresies make open warre upon poore truth That part of it which ha's the holinesse of Religion and her Mysteries for its object is of much greater importance then that which is only interested in the contrivance of a Comedy and the purity of language and yet there were counted a hundred Atheists and Sectaries for one of a right perswasion Every thing under Heaven is contradicted yea even what God himselfe hath spoken We must look for unity of Tenets somewhere else here we can find nothing but Diversity and Medly for as long as there are heads and passions there will be contentions and suits I esteem my self Victor in all those that concern me since you do me the honour to uphold the justnesse of my cause and since it is at the house of Monsieur de Thou and not at that of Monsieur de where the true and lawfull Senate is held whose right it is to judge our Book-affaires Let the worst come I do not so take things to heart as perhaps you imagine since I write lesse to please others then to divert my selfe and have need to be rowsed up that way from my repose lest it turne into a Lethargy it suffices me that your goodnesse dispences with my Papers as a Course prescribed by my Physitian and that you do me the favour to believe It is not necessary to be perfectly eloquent to be perfectly what I am SIR Your c. Octob. 20. 1644. LETTER IV. To Monsieur d'Argenson Controller of the Revenue in Poictou c. SIR I Begin to conceive my solitude lesse obscure since I received the Title of Illustrious from the hand of one of his Majesty's Officers and to esteem my selfe a more considerable person in that you have daign'd from amids your high employments to cast an obliging aspect upon the valleys of my Hermitage To represent to you my manner of living is an enterprize on which I dare not presume neither would the Relation be fit the Curiosity of him that understands the affaires of all Courts and States Yet I must not dispute my obedience and will tell you in a word either what I do or what I do not My life Sir is a profound and drowzy pensivenesse which yet is sometimes interrupted by not unpleasing visions Hunting is the delight of my neighbours but I affect it not nor have I skill in matters of Husbandry the divertisement of our Monsieur d'Andilly Our woods do not afford me a Nymph to entertaine the tedousnesse of the time with as the good man Numa had and our honest friend Des Yveteaux I am no gamester at Hoc Primero or Tick-tâ—ck So that I am forc't to busie my selfe sometimes upon my books to discusse the torpor and languishing of idlenesse But 't is fit you know that my meditations are not seldome brought to a perfect birth I imploy paper and a Scribe and am continually sending somewhat to my good Lords and friends wherewith either to justifie my lazinesse or request pardon for it Since you intend to be at Poictiers the Fifteenth of this month I have design'd a present of this nature to meet you there And were not my Coach crippled by the losse of two of my horses I should my selfe be the bearer of my offering and assure you in person that I am with as much ardour as ever SIR Your c. Aug. 1. 1645. LETTER V. To Monsieur the Abbot de Talan SIR HAd not Monsieur de given me assurance of your facility to pardon I should not have presum'd to appeare before you after a negligence of so many ages You may please to judge the proportion of my remorse by the large periods wherewith I compute the duration of my fault I should have sinn'd above forgivenesse according to the punctuall regularity of Complement on the other side the Mountains and the Courtship of Italy But I perswade my selfe you will allow somewhat to the French liberty You have heard there was once in Italy an honest man that made a Hymne to the Goddesse Sloath and took it on him as a piece of honour to be her Priest My ambition is not depraved yet to such extravagancie and I shall not be competitor with him for his function The cloudy fumes of my melancholly have not yet so overcast my reason as to make me in love with nothing but night and sleep And though I am much affected with this Recesse of mine as prohibiting admission to all Letters and Newes yet I cannot but confesse that it is destructive to all civill society and commerce and of neere resemblance to that wild condition of mankind before their union into Government I acknowledge my duty although I wholly faile in the performance of it It is true I am sometimes enchanted for whole yeares together and do no more correspond with my dearest friends and next neighbours then with our Enemies of Spaine or the People that are separated from us by the maine Ocean But it is also a truth that in my profoundest drowsinesse I delight to be awakened with the remembrance of such persons as I infinitely honour and esteem in which number I am proud to recken you It is yet a greater truth Sir that I shall ever most constantly observe the essentiall part of friendship and remaine with much fervency though with little blaze and shew SIR Your c. July 14th 1640. LETTER VI. To Monsieur de la Nauve Ensigne to the Queenes Guard SIR My deare Cousen I Conceive not
continue the trade any longer The expectation of golden Letters from me is too unreasonable for my stock to furnish But even now I was overwhelm'd in a great crowd of complements of diverse languages so that rather then go about to pay my debts I am resolv'd to break and make a solemne renunciation to all my Greek Latin and French I would sooner choose to get my selfe naturaliz'd in Base Bretagne and buy the place of a Tax-gatherer in the Town of Quinpercorentin 'T is more then four nights since I clos'd my eyes to sleep Have pitty Sir I beseech you both you and the kings Advocate upon SIR Your c. 19. March 1640. LETTER IX To Monsieur de Clairville SIR I Had very unquiet apprehensions of the Catarrhe of Monsieur de and your Letter ha's not deliver'd me from them How well complexion'd soever he appeares to your eye I ever suspected the falsenesse of that scarlet in his cheeks from the first day I saw him There are deceitfull shews of a firme constitution and roses of an ill omen 'T is not Art alone that is guilty of dawbing and counterfeit Nature do's some times dissemble and flatter us with a false Glosse And hence it is that I do not alwayes passe my judgment in favour of florid faces and a good colour Yet I would not have you adde despaire to a man who ha's already received the allarme Onely advise him thus from me that he take care to settle his mind in peace and that I forbid him studying with as much caution as riot Since you assure me he ha's a great beliefe in my counsells I enjoyne him to make no more Prefaces or Paraphrases indeed not to do any thing at all either in Prose or Verse as an Author or Translarour And this upon paine of incurring the displeasure of the dumbe Muse I lately shew'd him which is added by a certaine Greek to the other Nine She was well satisfi'd as she affirm'd with the secrecy of his thoughts and a quiet possession of his Soul O prudent Muse transcendently more discreet then all her sisters Of what incomparable excellency is silence and how great the vanity of words and ceremony We commit sins enough beside this and there is nothing admits of a more easie reformation But we had rather get rheumes and catarrhes distill our brains by drops and become hecticall and consumptive over our papers then forbeare to make Prefaces and Paraphrases In expectance of better newes of the health of Monsieur de I rest SIR Your c. Jan. 10. 1638. LETTER X. To Monsieur de Bois Robert Metell Abbot of Chastillon SIR VVIth your permission I will begin my Letter as you end all yours and tell you that I am overpress'd as well as you although it be not with so faire a burden I professe my selfe a fugitive from the world and a desertour of civill society I proclaime this as much as possibly I can And yet this world and this society make semblance not to understand me They take no notice of a vow which I caused to be publish'd in print that every one might know it My silence is molested every day by other mens Eloquence and in penance for my sins I am forc'd to become the mark against which all the complements of France are levell'd Is it impossible for me to be quit of this trade of a Letter-maker which drawes persecution upon me from every side And is there no way to resigne it into the hands of some of our Brethren of the Academy who perhaps loves the employment and new acquaintances better then I do Is it not extreamly ridiculous to have no businesse and yet to write as much as a dozen Bankers to be idle in perpetuall action and notwithstanding alwayes at leisure not to have so much spare time as to pick strawes on Holy dayes I would faine keep my selfe for a few and admit comerce only with some select persons But what reason is there to expect a punctuall answer from me to Questions that come from Roiergne and Givaudan or that I should make an Elogium upon a book sent me from Castelnau d'Arry and give my approbation to a piece of Barbary-Latine or low Brittany French In which I must delude some with flattery and incurre the displeasure of others by my freedome Pardon me I beseech you the untoward humour wherein I am I did not think it would have transported me so farre Three great packets have irritated it and almost made me forget what I owe to the civility of your friend I intend to give him thanks more at large But it cannot be till the returne of the next Post I need at least a weeks time to compose my braine and reduce the acrimony of my Rhetorick I am ever most passionately SIR Your c. 7. April 1641. LETTER XI To the same SIR I Do but little trouble my selfe with the thought of Eloquence and much lesse of Fortune I am fallen into that extream degree of languishment that I have scarce strength enough to tell you of my deplorable condition or courage to desire the health I want You have done me singular favours but I am destitute of taste even of the best things I am at the same passe with that man of the Country of Epigrams who desired thirst of him that offer'd him wine 'T is not Sir that I am become so precisely devoted to sobriety but because I have lost my appetite Fortune which is able to fill the widest desires of ambition is not able to content the morosity of Melancholly Even Joy her selfe would be hardly put to it to cheere my dejected spirits unlesse perhaps that Holy-Joy that resides in heaven and very rarely descends to earth where it lyes hid in the breasts of the reverend Fathers and glimmers upon the countenances of young novices Laetitiam quae Caelicolum per limina semper Discursat raroque imas petit hospita terras Curarumque expers lachrymasque exosa virago Exultat totoque abigit suspiria Caelo Hanc soli hîc novére deo gens plena sodales Ignati et Francisce tui et quos carcere clausit Insontes Bruno Bernardique optima proles Innuptum aeternumque omnes genus But I must here distinguissi between my selfe and my melancholly I do not cease to acknowledge the civilities that are done me although I am not sensible enough to apprehend them with pleasure and in the Lethargy of my other faculties my reason acts strongly enough to keep me from being ingratefull for the new obligations I have to you Be pleas'd to do me the honour to believe it and never doubt of my constant fidelity I will dye as I have liv'd SIR Your c. 10. Aug. 1645. LETTER XII To Monsieur de Bonair SIR YOu cannot conceive how much I am displeas'd with the negotiation of Monsieur de This was not to solicite for his friends Pension but to make a purse and desire charity for a
supply me with your assistance herein you have ever used so unlimited a goodnesse in my behalfe that I cannot apprehend any niggardise or closenesse from that very soul which I have found liberall even to profusion Do by me Sir as you are used to do and persevere to oblige me in a second person Love a man whom undoubtedly you will esteem The desire he hath to but know you proceedes from the skill he already hath of many rare things but you are his last and highest Curiosity He wishes this happinesse because he thinks to meet with every thing in you and that you have enough to latiate his appetite of knowledge yet I do not entreate an absolute abandoning of your selfe your leisure and our discretion must regulate the favours we expect from your goodnesse I onely tell you that my friend doth deserve very particular ones and that if you do discover to him the mysteries of the Arabians for in those of the Grecians he is pâ—rfect he will not receive your instruction like a profane plebeian or a meere novice His name is in great Letters in the Archives of Padua and he is newly come from under the tuition of the great Cremoninus almost as great and learned as himselfe Not that he is a blind Proselyte of his deceased Master I can assure you he is wedded only to his legitimate opinions and never was any faithfull person more strongly perswaded then he that the God of Abraham and Isaack is the God of the living and not of the dead c. When you have seen him you will finish his Character I am passionately SIR Your c. Jan. 8. 1641. LETTER XXIII To Monsieur de Zuylichem Councellour and Secretary of State to his Highnesse the Prince of Orange SIR I Have a favour to request of your Court which your reputation I conceive may procure me 'T is a longer Licence for Monsieur de His merit being so well known to you I will not make a rehearsall to you how he hath been continually in the service above these ten yeares and on his body beares honourable testimonies of his courage I onely assure you thus much that he had ere this been on his way towards the Army if I had not detain'd him fast with all my strength and imployed the utmost power that friendship gives me to make him deferre his journey His affaires are so important and of necessity require his presence that it would be the utter losse of them to abandon them in the condition they now are in Neveâ—thelesse this would not be enough to stay him and being more sensible of the least interest of Honour then of the most considerable businesses he hath were it not for this violence that I exercise upon him he would break all other chaines that bind him to arrive at his Charge yet before the fifteenth of March. So that if any prejudice befall him for this stay whereof I am the Authour you see clearly whom he hath reason to complaine of and how little I shall be satisfied with my counsell if it be of the nature of those medicines that corrupt the Liver when they comfort the stomack and if I could not propound him the conservation of one thing without the ruine of another Wherefore Sir it is as well for the honour of my own judgment which is engaged in the advice I have given him as for contenting a person whom I love no lesse then my selfe that I importune you not onely for your favour and your good offices which I know are very prevalent with his Highnesse the Prince of Orange but your expedients and contrivances which I am confident are most dextrous and effectuall in all kind of affaires now Besides that the rigour of the Law does in some cases admit mitigation and justice does not exclude mercy there is nothing impossible for a prompt and intelligent head as yours is that can profitably employ industry when it is fitting to be sparing of Authority and rescue that by some By-way which would be otherwise lost at Common Law Monsieur de when he presents you this Letter will conferre with you more particularly upon this subject and offer you his opinion what wheeles are to be set on work to make his friends businesse feazible I beseech you once more to undertake it for my sake and if you conceive my name of any power in your mouth or that it were known enough to be alledged to his Highnesse I durst engage he should not have cause to repent of granting me a favour which I should trumpet out so loud and send so farre that it may be Posterity would thank him for it It is a great while since I have had a high Veneration of that Prince as one of the demi-gods of my Cabinet But if he desires I should beare a more tender and ardent passion towards him if he would be the object of my love as he is of my Estimation how delightfull would it be to me to terme him my Benefactour and receive something from a person whom I should not cease to admire though he should take away all I have I wish him Lawrells alwayes greene and fresh and if the Warre must end a long and peaceable enjoyment of the purest fame that ever was and a Glory that even the Enemy shall acknowledge with generall accord by the very Histories of Spaine In expectation of some newes from you I rest SIR Your c. Feb. 1. 1640. LETTER XXIIII To Monsieur the President de Pontae SIR MY first designe is altered by the arrivall of Monsieur de I was about to have made a request to you and he informed me that I owed you a thanks I understood from him that he had found you so disposed to oblige me that all his Rhetorick lay on his hands He told me too that even Monsieur de Thou's great name was used to you unnecessarily In fine Sir I knew that I needed onely to have employed my selfe to do my selfe any good offices with you I am very fortunate to be so much considered in a place where I thought I was scarce known and to find my selfe all at once in your good opinion where you ought not to have afforded me a room untill after a long tryall of my service But I see clearly from whence all this proceedes Rigorous justice is seldome coupled with perfect Generosity this last which is properly their own is more impatient to produce her effects and lesse regular in observing formalities She would not be as now she is the honour of your owne Province nor celebrated in all others did she so scrupulously attend desert she will oftentimes prevent it and I am one of the examples of this happy unworthynesse you have rewarded my good intention and answered my very thoughts as Heaven answers the religious silence of people upon earth You promised me that which I had not so much as asked for but yet having promised it to me
which is priviledged every where else hath not been able to get me dispensed with for severall labours which require a perfect health At length after all I am at leisure and have overtaken the April-sunne who bestowes strength on me as he receives it himselfe Blessed be this Visible sonne of the invisible Father you know it hath been called so heretofore He hath already put me in possesson of my walks he will shortly digest and purifie the waters that are prescribed to you he himselfe will make ready your bathes and cure you by luxurious medicines when it is so will you not be a man of your word and come neere our Desart will you not come and contribute to my amendment by the vicinity of your vertue and the presence of your good examples I onely begge you one day in a week But I speak in earnest rather then not obtaine this favour I will set all my friends on work at Rome to the great Mutio Vitelleschi He would not deny you to the Savages if they had need of you Shall I be lesse favourably dealt withall then the people of Canada and do you runne more hastily to an unknowne harvest then a chosen one You see whither my desire of not being farre from you and of sometimes enjoying your holy and learned conversation transports me Limit your ambition for my sake Be not jealous of the honour of your Companions ruminate not on their famous conquests nor propound to your selfe the conversion of Kingdomes and Kings fix your selfe to this little corner of the world and out of humility be an Apostle to your friend Sic erit et voti facies Marine potentem Balzacium exanguemque dabis pinguescere terram Cum propior largos Caelo demiseris imbres I conjure you to this from the bottome of my heart and am passionately Reverend father Your c. Ap. 27. 1644. LETTER XXVII To the Reverend father Destrades a Divine of the Society of Jesus Superiour of the Cloister in Bourdeaux Reverend Father VVHen you do a good deed you thinke you receive one and you are officious with such alacrity that the way wherewith you oblige is commonly a second obligation But I leave the Chapter concerning the businesse in recommendation to Madam Capaignol to give you thanks in my own words for your perfumed-Rosary I esteem it much higher for comming to me from you then for comming from Peru to you for I know your staple trafficke is in heaven from whence grace distils upon devotion Questionlesse it will be auspicious to me it will do much more then you say for it will impart zeale to me which I want and make it acceptable after the conferring it upon me So this sweet odour that makes the sacrifices agreeable will not be wanting to that of my prayer Et per te mi optime dulcissime pater etiam in Christo deliciabor In the mean time I must tell you here is strange talke of your passion against Spain or to speake more properly against Castile Are you certain Saint Ignatius and Saint Xavier will not take it ill at your hands that you declare so openly for the King of Portugall do you know what their opinions are in so nice a business and upon a Question so problematicall however Reverend Father you cannot be blamed for being a loyall Frenchman there is no danger to be feared nor hazard to be runne in opinions of State remember ever that verse in Homer that sayes To serve ones Country is to protect her Temples and to do an act of Religion Once more I thank you for my Rosarie but I must acquaint you with all that I repose more confidence in your prayers then my own do not forget me then if you please when you recommend your well bebeloved to our Lord. and I am from the bottome of my soule Reverend father Your c. Mar. 12. 1641. LETTER XXVIII To Madam The Marchionesse of Rambouillet Madam I Have not yet received the present you were pleased to honour me withall but the newes of it beeing brought me by Monsieur Chaplain I was not able any longer to suppress within mymind the acknowledgements I owe you for it and yet they are such Madam that it is not easie to draw them out of the thought into the expression without losing somewhat in the conveyance To cloathe them in ordinary words were too great an abasement of them and in conscience I never had more need of that officious figure which aides our good intentions which dischargeth the poor mans debts and not content to describe things to their just value doth inhaunce them infinitely above themselves You are acquainted with it Madam under the famous name of Hyperbole and I must confesse to you I have poorly abandon'd it almost eighteen yeares ago out of a cowardly fear which the reproaches and calumnies of my enemies created in me without Question very much to my disadvantage for I easily foresee that wanting its succour to thank you magnificently as I desired I must be constrained to serve my selfe of the simplicity of my mother tongue and only to tell you as another mortall would that I am highly obliged to you for your Present yet I will adde Madam but in the extreamest rigour and severity of truth That the only news of this Present hath intirely changed the face of my fortune and seems to have placed aboundance where before was poverty If you please I shall take the Liberty to expound my meaning and render you an account of the present estate of my affaires 'T is most certain the wrath of Heaven is this year fallen upon our Country and that for my own particular I have not been more favourably treated then my neighbours But though the unseasonable haile and frost in the month of May have saved us the labour of gathering our Vintage in September and left us nothing but the sad remainders of their prey though the promising eares of corne have deceived our expectation and yielded an inconsiderable harvest I demand your pardon Madam for these village expressions though on the other side all the Avenues of the Exchequer are most strictly guarded and justest gratifications escape not from it but with difficulty yet for my own part I am nothing sensible of all these bad consequences they are misfortunes that concerne not me and you madam are alone the cause that I complain not either of the inclemency of heavens the barrennesse of the earth or the covetousnesse of the State By meanes of you never year was more plentifull nor more happy to me then this for having lost somewhat in ignoble and common things may I not be more justly thought a gainer since your hand makes me so bountifull a recompence in things of rarity and value in Essences of Jasmin flower of Orange musk and Amber grease But Madam what will the preciser sort of people say to this and what answer shall I make to the generation of
severe sages who will think it strange that a man making profession of frugality should bring into his desart the delights and luxury of the Court that a solitary person should have his boxes full of Frangipane gloâ—es he I say who in reason should be content with a paire of mittens every winter I shall not here endeavour to make his apology or to justifie that by reason which may be defended by authority and by the example of one who had credit enough to found a Sect. It will not become me Madam to be better or more wise then Aristippus who knew so well the art of mixing pleasure and temperance together he did not at all condemne the use of innocent pleasures he could make a difference betwixt stinks and perfumes and was nothing inclined to believe that aromaticall odours were infectious One day above the rest he declaâ—'d himselfe more openly upon this subject an impertinent asker of questions fell upon him in a great assembly and having held some discourse with him concerning the austerity to be observed in the lives of Philosophers upon the suddaine thinking to put him to the blush captiously inquired who it was in the company that smelt so strong of perfumes 't is I answered Aristippus and another wretch more unhappy then my selfe known by the name of the King of Persia Shall I take the boldnesse Madam to rank my selfe as the third sinner of that order and dare to intrude into so noble a society Yes Madam for once I shall renture to march by the side of this King and Philosopher who perfum'd themselves and have some reason to believe I possesse advantages above them both because in their time they had neither a Madam nor a Madamoyselle de Ramboüillet to select and present them with those perfumes The Latine Poesy makes its vaunt of certaine Essences which Venus and the loves her children made present of to a Romane Lady but those Essences Madam which I expect are sent me by a nobler hand then of that Common Venus and her Cupids 't is the true Venus Urania and her adorable daughter 't is vertue it selfe embodied and become visible to the eyes of mortalls 't is perfection descended from its heavenly habitation which does me this day the honour to regale me I make my publique boast of it I look upon all the riches and possessions of the earth as things below me but as there is no glory in the world which equalls mine I must also beg your beliefe there are no acknowledgments can vye with mine though yet the greatest part of them remaine within my heart and cannot make any outward appearance but imperfectly in the protestation which I make to be allwayes with respect and veneration MADAM Your c. LETTER XXIX To Monsieur Costar SIR I Have received your Pastills your Powder and your Cushionets of Odours But what do you expect I should say of them They are no mortall things nor are they to be commended in humane termes Flora the spring the sunne and Marshall never produced so faire a fruit of their united labours or made any thing so excellent as these perfumes Our Doctor sweares they are better then those of Venus when she appear'd to her son Aeneas upon the bank of a River in Lybia Yet Virgil who is not so prodigall of Divinity as the Poets his successours gives them the appellation of divine Ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem Spiravêre For your Table books I look on them and consider but dare not adventure to use them I make a conscience of touching so faire things with such coorse hands as mine The plates guilding and lively colours have been bestowed on them without parsimony They would have been fit Registers for the private Cabinet of Caesar and Cleopatra I do not think when the Conquering God read a lecture to the Muses his scholars they had such handsome Note-books as these wherein they diligently writ after him Bacchum in remotis carmina rupibus Vidi docentem Nymphasque discentes c. You know the rest in Latin but not in Italian for I just now receiv'd these verses from Florence where they were made the last month Jo vidi il giuro et se mia lingua mente Con furia procellosa Schiantin le viti mie grandini acâ—rbe Vidi il Padre Lieo steso fraÌ„ l'erbe su cetra armonioso Trattar d'avorio d'or plettro lucente Vidi le Ninfe intente Sâ—arfene al canto à le voci argute I satiri chinar l'orecchie argute You see here I put the change upon you and deviate as much from my subject as I can The reason is because I do not intend to slubber over a thanks to you for exquisite presents I must prepare my selfe a whole moneth for it I think of consulting all my Muses and to look over all my common places nay I have a mind to take a potion for that purpose and be let blood that my spirits may be clearer and all my faculties more free and active I most humbly kisse your hands and am with passion SIR Your c. Sept. and 1644. LETTER XXX To the same SIR I Know not how I dare undertake to write to you for in the condition I am I can with truth assure you that I do not see my Letter In me tota ruens Hyems Arcton deseruit If ruens Hyems grate your eare it does more mischiefe to my Eyes But then I have an other way to expresse my self Me nebulâ turpi multo me Jupiter imbre Atque omni premit Aeolio Da mitior almâ Luce frui Pater et formosum redde serenum I do not beg Jupiter for the drying up my Rheume and use of my Nose but meerly that I may be in a condition to injoy your kindnesse or if you will have any more in the language of the immortall Gods Vt saltem Ambrosio Florae immortalis odore Muneribusque tuis fruar ô vel Regibus aequis Par Arabum Costarde animo In earnest Sir your perfumes are admirable they are even better then those of the last yeare and if my Rhetorick about this subject were not quite exhausted they should be attended with as ample thanks as the divine Artenice I am without reserve SIR Your c. THE THIRD BOOK LETTER I. To Monsieur Menage SIR TO obey you I have read the Spanish Philosopher's Book a second time The title alwayes pleased me exceedingly but I cannot say any more of the rest then what I told a Gentleman of my familiaritie who first mention'd it to me I could not find what I sought in it and in my opinion the Art of the Will required all the sufficiencies of our Gassendus to be display'd answerably to its merit The Spaniard is in many places enervate and feeble in others too subtile and abstractive and repeates the same matter so often that his sixe Books might be reduc'd to lesse then the halfe of that number without any injury to
c. March 4. 1641. LETTER X. To Monsieur le Grass Councellour to the King and Master of Requests in Ordinary of his Houshold SIR MY passion is not satisfied with what I have already done it still requires more from me and having employed the language of the Gods to extoll your great honesty your profound judgment sense and excellent knowledge I am lâ—ft to tell you in the tearmes of mortalls that I more esteem the friend then the judge and the Generous then the Intelligent You have so heartâ—ly desired for me what you could not give me that I conceive I owe it you though I have not received it The intention is something more obliging and more ours then the success and since you have had that entire to establish me in the enjoyment of the courtesie that was granted to me there is no part of your favour lost though fortune came short in the accomplishment of the rest This rest Sir which the people calls the whole is but the gross materiall part of the obligation and this fortune who takes delight in sporting with events and destroying hopes cannot reach the principle of well doing which resides in the mind You have therefore been beneficent in despight of her and I will be gratefull in the same manner For whatever misfortune she ha's blown upon the Kings gift so that it could not pass the Seal yet she could not hinder me from finding a great treasure in the loss of a business of 3 thousand livres I mean Sir the assurance you have in your actions with which I dare not call my self unhappy and am at least satisfied with the negotiation of my friend He ha's upon this occasion writ me truths so welcome to my beliefe and so much to my advantage that I cannot doubt being rich by the gain I have made though it be not in my puâ—â—e and though I thank you for nothing but what was deny'd for me The reason is for that I understand how to seperate the spirituall from the terrestriall I can esteem where others tell out and being contented with the thing without the perplexity of an account I am Sir in the most pure and noble manner Your c. Jun. 4. 1645. LETTER XI To Madam the Dutchesse of Madam TEn years are fled since you heard tidings of me yet I have received a Letter from you this day exceeding civill obliging and very worthy of your perfect generosity I consider this honour as a Favour from Heaven arriv'd to a man that never sayes his prayers He offers up neither vowes nor sacrifices and yet his indevotion failes not to be happy and receives the rewards of Piety You are stored with these goodnesses of Heaven amidst the wickednesses of the Earth and you seek after those savadges Madam that endevour to avoid you Yet it is not requisite for me to take this paines to bring my self into a bad reputation or decry my self with so much diligence and care Questionlesse Madam you more regard the inside of things then the surface and outward appearance You have the gift to behold the actings of immateriall souls and so consequently you perceive there that the private motions of my heart cleare me of all the ill conjectures that might condemne me That is a place I alwayes reserve for you though I never give you an account of it Al there is ful of zeal and reverence to your vertue and if externall acts were not of the essence of true worship I would challenge the most diligent of your Courtiers for the glory of being more yours then he conceives himself to be This being granted Madam I beseech you not to conceive it possible for me to deliberate on any proposition that regards your service or contentment or that I need quickning and excitation to indeavour the advancing my interests into your affections I could wish they were lesse just then they are that my obedience might be purer then it will be and that you might see I can perform your will without examining your commands The Gentleman that delivered me your Letter will confirme what I say and make his report of the things he hath seen already I had begun them before I understood your desire The end shall soon follow the beginning and if you do me the honour to cast your eye upon my paines I assure my selfe you will accept my devotion Which hath not ceased to be though it did to appeare and I have constantly been as I shall continue my whole life with all my soul Madam Your c. Mar. 14. 1643. LETTER XII To the Reverend father Vital Theron a Divine of the society of Jesus Reverend father IS it possible that I am the person of whom you have sung such excellent things it is almost beyond my beliefe and though my friend assures me of it and I read my name in your verses I am in doubt whether there be not another Balzac more worthy of that Honour Perhaps I am not the true one and I owe my good fortune to an Equivocall name Yet I remember I have heard it reported for one of Jupiters pastimes to enrich poverty and exalt meanenesse In which regard I am not longer in wonder that the Muses should be of their Fathers humour and that they love the same divertisement with him You have therefore with your pen ennobled a vision which appeared to you for my advantage you have lifted me from Earth to Heaven you have celebrated the Apotheôsis of a man yet alive of a man that hath no Legions who is not clad in purple nor hath founded you a Colledge yet you have brought more pompe and more ornaments to this uninteressed Canonization then is to be found in that which is left us by Antiquity and Herodian hath so magnificently described It is too superlative an excesse Reverend father and though I had the vertue of moderation and equanimity yet my happinesse is extravagant and irregular so that I justly apprehend the jealousie of that Goddesse whom the Language of your verse calls The terrible Nemesis she punishes the prosperous as well as the proud and does not willingly let festivalls pass without troubling their serenity with some dysaster But is it not possible to get her in lieu of her interest and for the tempering of my great fortune to be satisfied with a douzen fits of a feaver and five and thirty ounces of blood which are already drawn from my veines by sentence of the Physitian If I could escape on these termes I should take my disease for a remedy and believe I had made a good purchase of your praises Is it a good that can be bought too dearely to be commended by father Theron Should it not be the ambition of Kings and the desire of them that possesse all things The fabrick of Glory that is rais'd by their hands hath nothing of fraile or mortall That which you have bestowed on me shall not perish with my name which yet
brought forth with much care I bedeck my self and flatter my vanity with them I look upon them as the fairest token of remembrance that Polybius could have wished from his Scipio and Paulus Jovius from his Marquesse of Pescara It is not without some designe of Heaven or some good presage that this Marquesse is come into my mind Since you are not lesse brave then he it is just you be not lesse happy The Victoria Colonna of our age must compleat your felicity since vertue hath begun it There are no wishes to be made for you after these And though the present I have received from you be something more obliging then the grant of Exemptions and Protections or then the Majoralty of Angoulesme and that of Saintes which you have conferr'd at my instance yet I think my self sufficiently gratefull if I prognosticate with successe the possession of a good which you esteem infinitely higher then all others It hath hitherto been in vain desired God hath refused it to the prayers and devotion of men But without doubt you are elected in the secret of Providence to be the happy possessour of it Believe me my Lord I have been inspired more then once and I tell you in the name of Heaven and in the language of my Oracles Tua tua erit et sua te propter esse desinet Tu certè dignus es quem ipsa Minerva praeferat virginitati fibi I dare not adde any thing to these high words and cannot better conclude my Letter then with a Prophecie I am ever passionately My Lord Your c. Apr. 25. 1645. LETTER IV. To the same My Lord YOur remembrance is not a bare token of your civility You remember me in termes that perswade me although they come from a suspected place and that I know at Court words are not much used but to disguise intentions You use them with greater integrity and more faithfull to the intent of nature They are the faire interpreters of your soul and in your Letters the representation of the thing is no other then the thing it self You love my Lord where ever you have said it and your word gives me firmer assurance of my good then my possession of it I repose confidence in that who have reason to distrust the decrees of Jupiter and in whom so many Oracles have proved lyars I am not a little proud to find room in a memory which usually is stored with Orders from the King and determinate resolutions of the Councell But I am much more glorious in being beloved by a man that looks on all Employments and charges beneath him who makes serious profession of Probity and honour whom the Court hath not been able to effeminate nor War to exasperate I think I have said all in this For is it not a little miracle to escape without flying from the contagion of a corrupted Age to have more true strength then custome hath violence to know how to manage fury and mixe the Man with the Lyon to be vertuous rationall wise amidst the tumult of unchained passions And in this place you must if it please you pardon me the liberty I am about to take and permit me to demand of you whether you alwayes intend to employ Reason to a use that seems so contrary to her Will you ever exercise an Art so mortall to the quiet of the World Shall the wise my Lord and vertuous be any longer injurious to the ruine of mankind It may be a milder season will succeed this and heaven may be reconciled to earth possibly the future reserves some good dayes for us and all our feastivalls are not extinct In case it should be so you will have leisure to let us see you in your government and that is at least one fruit of the peace which I hope to gather on the banke of our fair Charante I do not tell you in her behalfe and as her Poet that the Rhine and Danow make her jealous I speak of my own head that I impatiently expect the honour of kissing your hands and am more then any person in the World My Lord Your c. Jan. 7. 1646. LETTER V. To Monsieur de Puy Councellour to the King SIR SInce your books are your mistresses and I am the cause of an eighteen months absence having detained them here so long I believe you have put up many unprofitable vowes for their return and they will come to your hands at the instant you are making imprecations against me so long a stay from their own home and the opinion which they have at Paris that all on this side the Loire is Gascon may have rendred my fidelity suspected to you and given you some reason to fear that the Romans had much difficulty to themselves from the Barbarians Yet here they are Sir as sound and entire as I received them from Monsieur Girard and I prâ—test I have borne such respect to them that had it been possible I would not have touched them but with sattin fingers Every thing that comes to me from you and that weares the Livery of Monsieur de Thou satisfies me immediately of its price and merit and if I did but see that marke on an Almanack or on the works of the Count Vi Ma I should restrain my self from terming them pitifull papers You may judge by this in what consideration I held your Hubertus Fobietta and his excellent company Since the bastards of Vandalls and Goths if owned by you should be treated honourably by me you may believe Sir that the same warrant did not permit me to dis-esteem the true and magnanimous Nephews of Remus Monsieur Menage who knows my resentments in this particular and the perfect value I set upon your vertue and your brothers will tell you in more Courtly manner what I only write you in the style of the village He will chuse out words which shall not extenuate as mine do the greatness of my passion and gratitude If there be any necessity of it he shall bind himself by oath to you he is good and my friend enough to do it that I am not less then he SIR Your c. Jul. 15. 1642. LETTER VI. To Monsieur the President de Nesmond Sir my dear Cosen I Am so good a husband of that portion I conceive I have in your favour that I would not willingly ever touch it and had rather pass for a bad friend then make a custome of recommending suits to you But discretion must not be so scrupulous as to violate Society and one may suspend the rigour of his principles without forfeiting the reputation of constancy I thought I was obliged to offer that to Monsieur Couvrelles which I had refused to an infinite number of Suitours and I have intreated him to deliver you this Letter from me to the end an action not usuall with me might be a token to you of his extraordinary vertue He is a Gentleman whose noble extraction
and therefore to take away all likeness and resemblance I shall chuse not to end with Sir and your most humble servant though there are not many gentlemen whom I esteem more then you nor any person more your servant then my self Jul. 20. 1639. LETTER XXXI To Monsieur Conrart Councellour and Secretary to the King SIR THe loveliest solitudes are those about Paris and you have the happiness to be a Courtier in the morning and a Hermite after dinner This is the way not to be tired with either kind of life and prevent nauseating by change for my part I am here confined to one of the futhermost corners of the earth eight long dayes journeyes distant from your polite world and so consequently reduced to gather a simple satisfaction with my self which I can almost never do or if at any time it is only by conversation with the dead who yet do but repeat me over the same things The condition of Madam Desloges is little better then mine and unlesse it be in her own Closet or her family she sees nothing that can please her But she is more to be commiserated now then any of the yeares past Besides the melancholiness of Limosin she apprehends all the dangers of Breda and according to her account it is on her alone the Spaniards make all their sallies and shoot into the trenches of the Hollanders I lately left her in a fit of these fits of discontent that made her tremble at the opening of every Letter she received for feare she should find a sonne or a nephew dead in it Yet in this deplorable estate she remembred you with comfort and you were the subject of one of our longest conferences You were read over and over a dozen times I shewed her the description of your retreate and she requited me with the sight of other fine things of your making and this was our result for you that there is good sense in Paris as well as at Athens and Rome and that it is possible to invent happily and expresse those fancies with successe without the help of Greek or Latine If I use both of them more then ordinary I do not think this forraine abundance any great credit to me but rather a reproach of my own sterility It is in effect because I am forced to borrow from others having exhausted what was my own and wanting strength I have need to leane on something to support me However it be it is no small matter to please you whether as an Originall or a Copy and since you assure me that my writings are your most pleasing divertisements I fully resolve to be a Scribe still though there were no other Reader in the world but your self So that I intend to fall to work again this winter and keep maintain the authentick Priviledge you have obtained for me who am alwayes most perfectly SIR Your c. Sep. 18. 1637. LETTER XXXII To Monsieur de Souchote SIR THough I had lost the use of my hands and had not wherewithall to maintaine a Scribe and though I had made a second oath with intention to observe it better then the first yet I should not cease to love those persons to whom I did not write Your goodness has made you one of that number and to justifie this you may please but to consult your own memory Do you remember the day when I made over my affection to you by a solemne act it was in the presence of the God of the Seine and the Sunne of the meadowes aux Cleres was witnesse to it you assured me you were contented with that forme of gift and that you would not desire I should send you any new titles to it by the Carrier or the Post This is the reason of my long and obstinate silence you may terme it laziness as long as you please but you will injure me if you give it any worse name you would derogate from my friendship if you imagine that it is enclosed in my Letters and you mistake one thing for another if you lay inconstancy to the charge of a man that is stedfast even to obstinacy I love and esteem you do not question it and had I as much good fortune as good wishes you should see I am as zealous in essentialls as I am cold in ceremonies For the two Lists you speak of your absent friend is authour of both one and the other and consequently the complaint you make to him upon occasion of them is more gallant then reasonable I had no hand in the distribution of the Copies and I believe Monsieur de Campaignole who was the chiefe manager of that little affaire did not think of all my friends But I beseech you what matters it that an Almanack out of date and some scribled sheetes of paper were not presented to you The authour himself in body and soul his whole Library all his Learning Eloquence and Hyperbolies are yours that is I am absolutely SIR Your c. Nov. 15. 1644. LETTER XXXIII To Monsieur de Bois-Robert Abbot of Chastillon SIR YOu are very well informed of what happened here as my Lady Dutchesse of travelled through this province What ever judgment may be given of it in the place where you are and whatsoever interpretation they may lay on a casuall action I can assure you on my knowledge that in all that businesse there was nothing lesse then interest of State It is a pure Hypothesis of that Chapter of Aristotles Rhetoricks where the generosity of the young people is opposed to the circumspection of the old and honour to reason Cavaliers will ever be obsequious to the beauteous sexe and not deliberate of safety or danger when the question is of serving them They talk so frequently of the Empire and Soveraignty of Ladyes and have their heads so full of Romanzaes and strange adventures that they believe they can atchieve whatsoever was done in the reigne of Amadis they think they are obliged to follow the mode of Gallantry though contrary to all the reasons of policy and that they may at least tell a suppliant Princesse Etenim ipsi Dii negare cui nil potuerunt Hominem me denegare quis posset pati You will do me a pleasure to send me word of the consequences of this businesse and believe me ever I beseech you SIR Your c. Sep. 15. 1640. LETTER XXXIIII To the same SIR I Know very well you are cured of that sickness which you have walkt through so many provinces and which has bred me so many disquiets But my friendship is not satisfied with that I would understand that you are confirmed in health and that you have recovered your pristine strength For this purpose I have entreated Monsieur de to survey you curiously when he delivers you this Letter and send me word whether your eyes are cleare or your face well complexioned But especially I have desired him not to require any answer from you for I
fieri solet alterum sordes tantum ut non solet Hoc enim peculiari nos modo agimus ut subsidente pinguiori materiâ vires liquor diutius servet alatur velut à faece Scire aves Testam poculi instar sed aperto et collo et fundo ejusmodi ferè vascula sunt quibus urbani passerculi nidos suos pullos credunt Testam inquam gutture in os dolii immisso tanquam infundibulum statuimus in quam se foeces bulliendo attollunt nec ejiciuntur Cogitur enim è testa in dolium redire spuma unde surrexerat posito velut fervore densatur ac mitescit limi instar humore supernatante Testa demum aufertur vas clauditur Cererem velut Bacchum stringit Non enim Dea hic Deo cedit aut in sexu vilior natura est Isidoru◠sic quidem Cerevisiam quasi Cereris vim olim definivit ipsumque adeo Germanorum potum Tacitus hordei liquorem in similitudinem vini corruptum Sed an corruptum Quod igni coquitur corrumpi certè non potest Deinde bibitur sapit nutrit imo ut scias vim vini inesse vincit virum ac deponit Obiter haec indicare volui ut non ingenium tantum utriusque Cerevisiae distingueres quam mittemus sed usum Aetatem illa melius feret quae flori suo incumbit substrata fomenta habet Altera ante senium magis allubescat Fruere utrâque nos ama vale THE THIRD BOOK LETTER I. To Monsieur Salmasius SIR MY admiration is not within your jurisdiction give me leave to speak of an extraordinary merit in termes that are not common and allow as much confidence to truth as to flattery Having seen such a multitude of your excellent works so many goodly and choise things I must needs say there is nothing so vast and bound-lesse as your learning I except neither the extent of the Ocean nor the depth of the Abysse I will maintaine that your soul is of another kind then ours and you know more then can be comprehended by a humane capacity They that think it sufficient to call you a Genius do not expresse you in your full latitude They omit some thing that is essentiall and forget two words that should attend the first You are indeed a gentle and amiable Genius one of that charitable order that love and help men and have as much goodnesse as knowledge You possesse the vertues of urbanity in the same degree of perfection as you do the advantages of wit whereof I have an eminent instance in my hands and I perceive Sir by the Letter so extreamly modest civill and obliging which you have favour'd me with that the French gentlenesse and courtesie ha's retired with you to the neighbourhood of the North into the Country and among the Sons of Neptune You are in all regards the grand enemy of Barbarisme and alwayes the absolute favourite of those Goddesses called Mansuetiores even to the excluding the graces and Venus yet I must confesse your sweetnesse ha's a pungency in it and your hony is not without a sting The inclination that moves you to do good to all is nevertheless fatall to some you sometimes wage warre and if necessity require it you do it to the extremity with all the forces of reason and all the Artillery of Authority Woe be to counterfeit Learning and Errour puffe up with presumption when they dare make head against you As you protect the weake so you chastise the Tyrants and it must be acknowledged that unlesse you had come in to our assistance there would in a short time have been no liberty in a State that ha's been hitherto esteemed Aristocraticall and I am SIR Your c. Jun. 15. 1643. LETTER II. To the same SIR ALI things will be at the best passe in the world provided you be well and that the defluxion your Letter tells me of be not obstinate in tormenting you It would be a strange irregularity indeed a notorious injustice if it mistake the Abstemious for the drinker and that you with your water and diet-drink should suffer the punishment which one of my acquaintance has escaped with all his Sack and Frontiniacke I beseech God render every one according to his works at least that he do not deal with Temperance more severely then with Excesse and that your designes be no longer interrupted by the surprizes of this vexatious disease which sometimes opposes the resolutions of the Prince of Orange May you give light and ornament to the world for many periods of the Suns motion Be not weary in doing good to mankind and enriching our Age with the treasures of your wit instructing them that are now alive with them that are yet unborn You will without question find equity and gratitude both in this and future Ages Rationall Learned men who invoke you in the difficult tracts of Antiquity and in the Quicksands and Rocks of History will not refuse you their oblations after they have propitiated you with their prayers For my part I owe you more then all the rest I shall promise you as religious an acknowledgment as any but I dare not say any thing that favours of the profane medley which I have blamed I will not speak any more of Infinite Genius divine c. they are the words that fell from me in my last Letter and your modesty disapproves It shall suffice me to tell you in the plaine Language of men that I am more then any person in the world SIR Your c. Apr. 25. 1644. LETTER III. To Monsieur John Frederick Gronovius SIR I Was transported with joy at the opening of your Letter but upon observation of the date and that it was written from Paris I was reduc'd to a more calme and serene gladness This little Abridgement of your Odysseus composed in a place of security restored my mind to its former tranquillity and appeas'd my inquietude For indeed I began to have doubtfull apprehensions of you I was at the same time afraid of Heaven Earth and Sea that is of sicknesse imprisonment and Shipwrack But now the cloud is dispell'd and if I were one that committed the faults which I have reproved or mingled two Religions together I should pay my vowes to Fortune I should offer a victime to Mercury and give thanks to the other Gods that preside over travelling abroad and returning for the conservation of a Head that is so infinitely deare to me But we must not withhold our acknowledgments from the authour of the mercy Let us be gratefull to your good Angell or rather to him that put you in his custody and confesse that if you had been minded to passe through Hungary and make a voyage out of the Christian world he would have tamed the Barbarians for your sake Posuissentque effera Turcae Corda Jubente Deo But you have done better not to hazard your self upon such an occasion and to be contented with
is to my infinite contentment of this number and I have read it above a dozen times without tediousnesse You might have been an admirable author of politick discourses and 't is a great losse that your subject has so much of fiction Our entire History would not have cost you more pains than this small parcell of it which you endeavour to adorn with falsities And you might have instructed posterity instead of being uncertain whether you shall happily have time to divert them I will hope for satisfaction to my desires both the one and the other from your Pen. And I require of you at least some conspiracy of Cataline some Jugurthine war or any other considerable member if it be impossible to obtain the whole body The Packet foâ— Rome is not yet dispatcht Perhaps a fecond Abbot de Rets will appear to do us the like favour I beseech you to attend it with patience and not to believe in the mean time that my affection makes me sick You understand my intention in this I am SIR Your c. Balzac 16 March 1638. LET. VIII SIR THe Doctor that acted Hercules furens in your presence and the pipe you advis'd him to moderate his violence with in the dispute are very fine devices and which I have a desire to rob you of for one of the Chapters of my Burbon But is it possible that the dear **** should become an impeacher of crimes and a preyer upon confiscations and that he will live by the death of others Certainly after this Honey must lose its sweetnesse for the taste of Gall Sheep must turn Woolvs and the whole frame of Nature be everted His onely justification will be to alledge that Quid non mortalia pectâ—ra cogis Dira fames durisque urgens in rebus egestas I cannot approve those foul and unhandsom courses to sustain life this is not to want Philosophy as you say 't is to have no humanity But there is no redresse for habituall and confirmed maladies Such wretches have made a solemn vow to basenesse at the Court and are not any longer capable of vertue honour or liberty Therefore I entreat you let the dear *** know that I have no appetite to serve him in this affair and that I receiv'd the proposition with honour which Monsieur the Commissary made me in his behalfe It were better to betake himself to eat Cheese and Chesnuts in the Mountains of Avergne then to enterprise such practises to subsist at Court I am SIR Your c. Balzac 29 May 1637. LETTER IX SIR THe Letter of Seigneur Jean Jacques has afforded me extraordinary pleasure and I am oblig'd to your goodness for furnishing me with such agreeable divertisâ—ments His manner of begging often brings to memory that of Paulus Jovius who yet us'd to demand with more confidence and carelesness then he I have read certain Letters of his of that nature indeed admirable in their kind In some of them he protests that if the Cardinal of Lorrain do not cause his pension to be paâ—d him he will affirm that he is not of the race of Godfry who bestow'd the Arch bishop-wrick of Tyre upon a Schoolmaster In others he desires two Horses of the Marquiss of Pescara and for that effect prayes him to strike the earth with a little more force then Neptune did In another to a Lady his friend he beseeches her to send him some Preserves of Naples for that he began to be clâ—y'd with his dayly food of new laid Egges c. Although our friend have not the gift of begging with so much variety yet it must be granted he will receive a sufficient Dole if he to whom he writes procure him a Canonship of Verdun But I beseech you make me understand the reason of Most Illustrious which he gives him Is it because he has a suit to him and the Italian Policy has taught him in such cases trattalo di mester Domine Dio c. The Poet Martial who was at least as poor as the Oratour Jean-Jacques terms a Roman Lady his Queen because she gave him good New-years gifts once a year and almost every day a Dinner I am SIR Your c. Balzac 10 April 1638. LETTER X. SIR I was surpris'd at the discourse of the French Gentlemen and I assure you I could not own it till I had with much study recall'd the memory of things long since past If I had comitted sacriledge or a greater crime if such can be I should not conceal it from you and therefore am not at all scrupulous to confesse that which is more pardonable and of less consequence It is true I am the Author of that discourse which does not enough fear the Thunders of Rome and treats the holy Inquisition with too little respect But it is likewâ—se true that I compos'd it in Holland without design of coming to the eyes of the publique by printing and in an age that might be excus'd for greater failings Therefore having pass'd the space of five and twenty years it may well claim prescription against all sorts of accusers Since that time the whole face of Christendom has been often changed and all the Earth renew'd The world then was not the world it is at this day And in truth the great Heinsius cannot hope for much glory in fleshing himselfe so unmercifully upon Balzac in his Infancy and triumphing with his gray hairs over a youth of seventeen years old and who as then had no beard His cruelty has beene decry'd by both parties and though that continuation of Antitheses I lately observ'd in the discourse of the French Gentlemen may be tolerable in the composition of such a schollar as I was at that time and the babies I then play'd withall ought not to disparage the Arms I have since manag'd yet I will not put my selfe to that trouble as to defend the cause of my Child-hood I committed a folly when I was young and the good man Hâ—insius has told the world five and twenty years after that I did it Let that judge which of us two is more culpable I endeavour'd to extinguish and suppress the fault and he would renew it and make it perpetuall if possible O violator of the sepulchre of an Infant half born or at least unperfect for the birth O unworthy that disâ—nters the dead I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15. Octob. 1638. LETTER XI SIR LEt us never mention the 't is the shame and ignominy of the French name 'T is a day the Romans would have termed Scelerata we must call it cursed It is fit Posterity detest it or rather never hear of it and that we raze it if it be possible from amongst the rest of the year one thousand By Jove's command out of old Time's Record Let the three Sisters raze it nor afford Its name a place amongst things past and done There are some people onely instruments of ill luck in whose hands the most advantageous
that I am going to tell you this good man does so neerly resemble my father that the first time I saw him I believ'd my father had disguis'd himself in the habite of a Capuchine I am SIR Your c. Balzac 20 Octob. 1638. LET. XXVIII SIR I Earnestly beseech you to have so much pitty of me as to deliver me from the torment of this importunate person he assaults me with Paraphrases and Sermons and will not suffer me to enjoy the benefit of being a hundred leagues distant from him If you have no skill in Exorcism to chase him from haunting me I will turn shamelesse and give him some remarkable disgust At least his qualities of Preacher and Paraphrast or even those of Psalmist and Prophet shall not hinder me from signifying to him in plain tearms that I much value his friendship but yet have greater love to my own repose As for Monsieur the Count I am not so unjust as to honour him in a lesse degree then I did because I have no reason to commend Monsieur his brother They are two persons not onely distinct and separate but even opposite and contrary in all things One of them is the most courteous and civill of all men living and the other has not his equall in crossnesse and morosity so that if the vertue of their mother were not indubitable no man would ever believe them brothers I am SIR Your c. Balzac 30. Octob. 1638. LET. XXIX SIR I Am redevable unto you for the exact justice you have rendred in your last Letter to our friends of antiquity I have drawn particular instruction from it as from all the precedent and my expectation was not greater then my satisfaction But I cannot deny The demand you make me concerning Monsieur de has something surprised me he understands more of my affairs then my self and it is fit he be both most-great and most-good since he beatifies me in my life-time and by his own private authority I am all matter earth and body and yet they sell me about at Paris for a man made up of quintessence 'T is a favour done me by my News-Merchant and a vertue he is pleased to endue me with Neverthelesse I believe he does not report that I let my beard grow at length or curtail the collar of my jerkin I have ever so much disapproved singularity of this nature that although I reverence the younger Cato yet the uncleanlinesse of his hands with his torn and dirty Gown and his locks horrid and incompt are very far from commending him to my esteem The action of Monsieur the President is an heroicall exploit which must not be drawn into example and infinitely transcends my capacity and endeavours I have not wing enough for so high a flight nor know I how to take ayme at things beyond my view and comprehension But as I am short of those perfect ones who have no other object of their thoughts but the felicities of Heaven so I beseech you to believe that I am more remote from the number of those hypocrites who drive a trade upon earth with dejectednesse and soure faces I have not falshood enough for such carriage I never affected to appear better then I am because I alwaies lov'd my reputation lesse then truth Had I been capable of the cheat of devotion I had certainly found fortune more favourable then she has been and the Seigneur Jean Jacques should have treated me at this day with the title of my Lord. But in reality I prefer liberty before command and prise my quiet more then the dignities of others You should see a clear proof of what I say if they at Court would take me into consideration and confer on my silence what the Doctors canvasse for every day by their Sermons the world should then know that I am no vaunter of Philosophy you receive the pleasure of having a friend that did in earnest refuse Bishopricks I am SIR Your c. Balzac 10 Novemb. 1638. LET. XXX SIR I Will not undertake to cure you it is enough that I assure you I suffer with you and have as quick a sense of your sorrowes as of my owne The person for whom you lament dyed like a Hero and with the glorious consolation of that antient Verse He conquering fell and ere of life bereav'd Paid back his foe the death himself receiv'd But this is that which in my opinion obliges you to a double grief that which augments the glory he obtain'd renders more deplorable the losse which you undergo and a meaner valour had given you a lesse measure of affliction Yet in this case as in others attention must be given to the counsels of reason and it ought to be remembered that in the ruine of the world which is dissolved piece by piece it is not requisite to bewail a small portion that has hapned to perish a little sooner then the rest Coloredo was ever speeding on to the end of his daies without the furtherance of Monsieur de la Trousse and also Monsieur de la Trousse although he had never met Coloredo Death is a necessary consequence of birth and 't is our beginning should be lamented as being the first step to our end and dissolution But what presumption is this to preach befere the father Narni Neverthelesse the father Narni preach'd before the Pope that is before him that has all the Canon Law and Divinity in his breast I could curse those Poltrons that forsook their Principall at his fall and me-thinks there ought to have been four French Cavaliers to have covered him with the bodies of four Cavaliers of Germany The brown Nymph in my opinion does not render him good justice nor sing his high valour in a sutable strain I am troubled for our Monsieur de Chaudebonne whom you call the sick-Sage But wisdom is no more priviledged then valour it is necessary that even the Saints die before they be Canoniz'd I am SIR Your c. Balzac 1 Decemb. 1638. The End of the Third Book FAMILIAR LETTERS OF M. de BALZAC To M. CHAPELAIN The Fourth Book LETTER I. SIR I Do not begin to count my obligations to you from this day All that I possess of Hannibal Caro I hold of your bounty and the same hand has made me a New years present of his Translation of Aristotle that formerly bestow'd on me the Volum of his Letters So that we onely continue our custome you give and I receive May prosperity attend my benefactor or my bere-factor since Monsieur Vaugelas will have it so and that it is not meet to interrupt an old friendship for so inconsiderable a difference The Italian Aeneide shall return to you as compleat and sound as it left your Closet Such guests when they sojourn under my roof never suffer any bad treatment Of the two Epitaphs you were pleas'd to send me I conceive one is lesse blameable then the other but there is neither of them