whom you love and to tell you the truth methinks he is grown more gentle and lesse thorny since he passed through your hands The reason is you contract no soile from the impurity of the matters which you handle and amidst the corruptions of Policy your morality is preserv'd pure and unconcern'd A Stoicall Philosopher of this latter Age as you will grant Justus Lipsius to be had the same passion as your self A great Commander as questionless was the Marquesse Spinola hath translated the same thing into his own language though it never was yet published and I reveale this secret to you from the mouth of one of his greatest Confidents So that you are neither singularly gentleman or the only wise man that hath pleased to make observation upon ill times and carefully studied the History of a corrupted Empire with a soul worthy the Repubique in her perfect Glory You cannot thinke how I prize your work the beauty and the chastity of your style both that which nature bestowed largely upon you and your own acquisitions But this is a subject for another paire of manuscripts I conclude with a sincere protestation to continue with all my soul SIR Your c. Jun. 4. 1643. LETTER XXII To the Reverend Father d'Estrades a Divine of the Society of Jesus Superiour of the confessours Cloister in Bourdeaux Reverend father At last my New-years gift are come I Have received the controverted discourses you did me the favour to send me and you were just to call them the Weapons I adde fatall and invincible and I think I speak yet too modestly of them For in earnest who can esteem those Weapons high enough which Monsieur the Grand Prior forged and you have polished on which he bestowed the temper and the strength you the fashion and ornaments Your Minister is too happy for dying so faire a death Certainly Du Moulin and Mestrezat will envy him for it But for our particular what should we do It becomes us to joy as in our Muses behalfe at the honour don them by a man of so high quality who hath had so great and so illustrious employments is at present Governour of a Province and one day may be soveraigne to a Nation made up all of Gentlemen I confess freely to you my profession begins not to dislike me so much as it did I begin to love it a little more since as well as I that Gallant Knight is of the same and we are both Authors in one Language But I beseech you Reverend father repent not of that good Office you lately did him and do not conceive that action though it seem inferiour is unworthy of you There is more Glory in Copying out Oracles then dictating ones own inventions The Sybills and Prophets did nothing but repeate as well as you They were but interpreters and messengers or not to runne so farre back Posterity shall not be less beholding to you for preserving a piece of Divinity of Monsieur the Grand Priour than we are now obliged to Arrian for saving us the reliques of Epictetuâ—'s Philosophy Doubt not then to proceed in the Noble Collection of the reasons and arguments of an other Nevertheless since in poynt of Learning you are not lesse rich by birth then fortune and industry hath rendred you send us something immediately from your own hand to let your Minister know you are able to beat him with your unborrow'd forces this will effectually dispatch him and not leave him in the distress you have put him so much as this small sentence of comfort with which he may possibly flatter his despaire Is it possible not to yield to the Vncle of a man who hath command of Legions I shall expect this second present for my next new yeares gift and in the meane time remaine withall my soul Reverend father Your c. Jan. 15. 1640. LETTER XXIII To Monsieur de Borstel SIR THe gentleman who delivered me your Letter brings you the Sermons you would needs have me read and of which you desired my opinion I have read them with a great deal of delight and I may say with much edification for in earnest they do not deviate me-thinks from the Orthodox Doctrine and were it not for two or three little marks which denote them of the contrary party and some slight offers at our Outside which we do not much care to defend they might be preached with applause in our Ladies Church at Paris I met with beauty in most places and vigour almost in all especially in that of our dear Monsieur Daille He is none of those Oratours Seneca's Apes whose perpetuall Antithesies only touch upon the superficies of the soul As he uses better weapons then they so he strikes deeper wounds He leaves true compunction in the heart and not false allarmes in the eare He hath seen the Idea of that Soveraigne Rhetorick whose pourtrait I drew lately and Monsieur Costar calls Queen of the Free States He hath studyed her among the ablest masters and though by a certaine scrupulositie entayled on his profession he dare not display her in her full extent though he conceales more then he discloses yet it is easily visible he doth possesse what he doth not make shew of and that he is rich and powerfull though he be modest and thristy c. In a word I am with passion SIR Your c. Feb. 4. 1639. LETTER XXIIII To Madam de Nesmond Superiour of the Ursulines in Angoulesme Madam my Deare Cosen IT is now wednesday morning and you may keep Monsieur Godeau's book till Friday Evening but I declare to you I cannot resolve to endure a longer absence Do you know how much I do in this for your sake I seperate my selfe from a friend at all houres of the day I deprive my self of a companion that makes my solitude happy I let go a guest that payes me in Rubies and Diamonds It is true he will returne speedily but in the meane time what a Patience must I practise to be without him to day to morrow and the next day When you have surveyed the wonders I speak of you will accuse my words of undervalewing and poorenesse you will deride the meanenesse of my Metaphors though I draw them from the most precious things Magnificence can be imploy'd in and make them of Rubies and Diamonds You will tell me that in this inferiour world and amongst all the glories of nature that are visible no comparison is to be found worthy of my friend that he is an Angell in a Poets disguise that he is descended to Earth to teach men the language and Musick of Heaven at least let us say and that with a perfect consent and wonder that before him our Muses were Courtesans and debauched wenches and he hath reclaimed them from that scandalous life to make them Saints and Religious like you let us say he hath reduced Verse to its primitive and Legitimate use that he hath cleansed Parnassus when
for I am impatient to be with you and protest to you by word of mouth that none is more truly then my selfe SIR Your c. Oct. 8. 1645. LETTER XXV To Monsieur Esprit SIR HEre lately passed a Nymph this way whose elegancy and promptnesse of tongue is admirable She informed me of an infinite number of things that I was ignorant of before And though she has not so many mouths as that other lying Nymph who presides over Panegyrickes and funerall Orations yet she hath one extreamly eloquent which does not marre good subjects as it embellishes only such as are true I perceive I exercise your patience and you expect the name of this Nymph Not to make you Languish any longer She is called in the Language of men Madamoiselle de Newfoic But it concernes you to know she is your votary though her selfe adored by me and others You may please to know that she sings you in what place soever she can find Auditours or Ecchoes She hath strewed our Hillocks our Plaines and Valleyes with your praises Among other things she affirmes you better performe the duties of Amity then the illustrious friends mentioned in Lucians Toxaris She is in a word a very magnificent and generous publisher of all your merits But to tel you the truth this last hath made most impression on me and is the reason why I write this Letter to you with as little ceremony as if these six yeares silence I had written to you by every poste Nor is this all I intend something more then a Letter and I recommend a Suite and a solicitour to you I entreat your credit and care for him to obtain what he desires and beseech you to oblige me effectually in his person with your interest in our common Lord I promise my selfe this good office from your friendship and rest with passion SIR Your c. Oct. 15. 1643. LETTER XXVI To Monsieur de la Chetardie Sir My deare Cousen I Secure my selfe to the utmost of my power from the persecution of complements and for that purpose I have sought out a desart more out of the way and lesse known then my own At present I inhabite an enchaunted Island where few guests are admitted and all sort of Letters are not read Yours indeed deserve a priviledge not one of them arrives here is fraughted but with some good tidings or other or attended with some excellent rarity and presents me sometimes with temporall goods sometimes with spirituall not seldome with both These last have feasted me with double magnificence and are so farre from disturbing my repose that I assure you they make a part of my pleasures Who can be so much his own enemy or an inhabitant of the Earth in despight of Heaven as to complaine of his happinesse I meane the favours of Madam de la Chetardio and the civilities of Monsieur the Count of Cremâ—il Who can possibly be so distemper'd or it is too little to call him delicate as to taste such exquisite meates without making exclamations as he tastes them without lifting up his eyes without crying out upon the first morsell that the Nectar and Ambrosia which Jove receives from the hand of Ganymede are neither sweet nor divine incomparison But Madam my Cousen will some little time dispence with the thanks which is due to her since all the gratitude I have at present and all my words this day must be for Monsieur our Count and you will not take it ill that I go to finish those Commentations I have begun in satisfaction on his questions I beg the continuance of your good offices to the excellent Chevalier and beseech you to believe that I am ever passionately Sir my Deare Cousen Your c. Mar. 6. 1645. LETTER XXVII To my Lord the Marquesse of Montausier Governour and Lieutenant Generall to the King in Saintonge Angoumois c. My Lord HAnnibal laughed at a Scholler that discoursed of warre before him This example has been an impediment in the designe I had to write to you in favour of Monsieur des Ardillers And in truth I know not what you will conceive of me or what you will take me for if I venture to give an officer of your Troopes a Certificate there being so little affinity betwxit his profession and mine If it be possible I will not do any thing that shall be ridiculous I will restraine my judgment within the confines of my art I do not meddle with setting prices upon things which I do not understand I only conceive my Lord you will not disapprove a passion I beare to a person whose discourse to me is nothing but your History and who comforts himselfe for many miseries he has suffered with the honour only he had to serve under you These ten months we have been upon this subject and I find in him so intelligent an admiration of your vertue so much ardour and zeal to your glory that though he be not runne through and through and cannot shew his wounds in Germany nor his hurts in Catalonia I cannot have a mean esteem of him since he ha's so perfect an understanding of your worth This is at least the testimony I owe him and the acknowledgment he hath deserved from me for the pleasant houres he hath made me in the rehearsall of your brave actions I wish I could be as serviceable to him as he was acceptable to me But I have no power in the world and can only make vowes in the desart Yet I am sure of one thing never man my Lord knew better then I how to owne the courtesies done to my friends This gentleman hath no great reason to be contented with his fortune and for my part since I am able only to wish him a better if you judge him worthy of any of your favours I shall willingly beare a part in the obligation and not be lesse then if I received them my selfe My Lord Your c. Jan. 21. 1647. LETTER XXVIII To Monsieur Conrart Councellour and Secretary to the King SIR MY indisposednesse having hitherto retarded my good designes I could not possibly perform this duty to you sooner nor give you notice since May that I received Monsieur Dailles Sermons and Monsieur des Cartes discourses Both of them have written me so many obliging caresses and commended me with such excesse that there is nothing in their excellent Letters which belongs to me besides my name I know my selfe in it only by that and without doubt the high opinion these two great persons have conceived of me will one day be reproached to them by their adversaries it will be one of the errours of your excellent Heretick and one of the over-sights of my admirable maker of Spectacles I have no mind whatsoever you please to enjoyn me to give you my judgment of the last man for I know he sees nothing but Heaven above his reason and Soveraignety hath no judge Since he tells me
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
a terrible thing and of more dread then the holy Inquisition They write that it is a tyranny which must be establish't over all wits and to which it is required that all makers of Books should yield a blind obedience If it be so I am both a Rebell and a Heretick and intend to list my self on the side of the Barbarians This is a great word but most true You are the only person I can allow to be soveraigne of my liberty And if there be no means to live independent in the world I entreat you let me not be enforced to acknowledge either in Verse or Prose any other jurisdiction but yours I am SIR Your c. Balzac 22 Septemb. 1636. LETTER XVI SIR I Crave your pardon for my over great credulity forgive me I beseech you my fears and my alarms I am in dread of all sort of yoaks and Tyranny casts me into fear even in the histories of Athens and Syracuse I was ill informed of the nature of your Academy without question the picture that was sent me of it was not drawn after the life You have done me the kindnesse to undeceive me and I well see this new Society will be none of the least glories of the Kingdom of France it will raise jealousie and perhaps envy in Italy And if I have any skill in drawing a Horoscope it will in a short space become the Oracle of all civiliz'd Europe I am glad that Monsieur the Keeper of the Seales and Monsieur Servien are admitted of it But I should be also contented that some others which have been named to me were not or at least that they had no deliberative voice It would be well if they satisfied themselves with placing the chaires and to open and shut the door They might be of the Academy but in the quality of Beadles or lay-Fryers It were necessary that they made up a part of your body as the Ushers are part of the Parliament But it may be I am mistaken in my latter newes and they which were mentioned to me have not received the honour that is reported it is probable you know better how to choose By all means I desire that there may be two Orders of Academicians and that you remember at your first sitting to separate the Patricians from the People I am SIR Your c. Balzac 30 Septemb. 1636. LETTER XVII SIR I Have received your Letter of the twentieth of this Month and bestowed the same caresles on it that I us'd to the former I kiss'd it as I read it which is not a ceremony without example the Cardinal Barronius performed that reverence to all those he received from the Cardinal of Perron Having perus'd it and done my devotions to it I treasur'd it up in my Cabinet Concerning that other which I â—rit to that poor Gentleman that is slain 't is glory to me that the Prince does not dislike it But all the glory in the world has not charmes enough to cause me to forget the losse I suffer of that person so dear unto me When he forsook Paris to run unto Death which awaited him before Mastricht he came to take his horse at my lodging where we parted with tears and sorrow Between us there was a sworn friendship of the heroicall ages and we intended to out-do Orestes and Pylades That which I have written of him and you so highly prize must be no more then the preface of our History What would you then have said of entire Volumes and I know not how many Decades I had design'd him if his courage which was his ruine had allowed me leasure to compose them Thus we propose mighty enterprises upon Earth and are great undertakers Mais dans le Ciel on se moque de nous Preschoit un jour reverend Pere Arnoux But as of old the reverend Arnauld taught Heaven scorns our plots and brings our hopes to naught I am SIR Your c. Balzac 6 Octob. 1636. LETTER XVIII SIR I Am extreamly satisfied with your Letter and as much astonished at the request which was made me by our friend of Languedoc not but that I do very readily accord it to him but for that I am of the opinion of that honest man of old who said He had rather have an outrage done him then an injury offered to his reason I never heard of so pleasant a scruple and if I did believe him the Author of it I should suffer my self to abate somewhat of the esteem I have of him But I understand by what head these pretty difficulties are brought forth and therefore shall discover no further to you Though the word of illustrious Stripling or of illustrious young man or illustrious youth may afford matter of railery you know 't is a condition of mirth not to be apprehended as offensive as for instance The appellation of Salapusium disertum did not put the Oratour Calvus into choler and lepidissimus homuncio was not displeasing to the Poet Horace So that if our friend is jealous lest the name of illustrious Youth should stick upon him he fears what he should rather desire and which a Roman would have received as a great piece of honour Perhaps he never heard of those grandes praetextati the Scholars of Cicero They were of greater age then he they commanded Armies and were Consuls at the same time and after all this did not account it an affront to be treated as young men But what will he say when he shall see in the divine Jerusalem that Rinaldo is in divers places called Youth and even without the additions of brave valiant or illustrious Such men as are illustrious owe a great part of their glory to time but illustrious youths are indebted for neere all theirs By consequence those two sorts of glories are much different and one is fairer then the other The glory of youth is a light as it were proper and naturall to it and which it seems rather to produce then receive the glory of riper age is a light fetcht from abroad either gotten or borrowed which arises more out of exploits and actions then from the person and hath greater advantage by the length of life then the noblenesse of the subject But without further Philosophizing glory it is necessary to comply with the fancies of Languedoc and to deal with the world according to its humour I am SIR Your c. Balzac 14 Octob 1636. LETTER XIX SIR MY words are not so dear to me but that I freely bestow them on you to deal with them as you please and my Stationer is not so ignorant of my affection but that he might have obeyed you without expecting my answer you have therefore us'd your power over me with too much moderation There was no necessity to cause the dispatch of an Order six score leagues for an affair which you might have determined upon the place and whereto I should have readily yielded my allowance Since you have not
lies out of his road To be a native of Italy is not a sufficient qualification to create a man Dictator in the Commonwealth of Literature witnesse the Poet of Luca for whom Camusat lately printed a volume of Verses which in my opinion are far short in value of the paper of the Impression I am SIR Your c. Balzac 24 Septemb. 1639. LET. XX. From Monsieur Conrart to Monsieur de Balzac SIR I Advertise you before-hand that I intend no excuses in this for my not writing to you it is rather a protestation to assure you that I shall give you no further trouble in that kind but leave you in repose to employ your onely care in advanceing the immortality of your own glory and that of your friends Neverthelesse I have imagined that after a silence of above a years durance I might happily oblige you to the reading of a few lines provided I did at the same time oblige you to return me no answer This is now a favour which I request of you with as much passion as I us'd heretofore to obtain your Letters the esteem I bear them is in as high a degree as ever but I content my desires with those which you write to Monsieur Chapelain as well as if they were addressed to my selfe and I have found the device to imagine them such and that I make you all the answers which you receive from him So that without losse of time to you in regard of me or of my prayers and importunities we enjoy a mutuall commerce which puts you to no trouble and affords me a great measure of delight and contentment I have had a sight of the remarkable judgment you pass'd upon the Supposez of Ariosto wherein I am much taken both with your equity and your addresse and have equall admiration of the profoundnesse of your capacity and the politenesse of your wit Never was seen a Judge so well accomplish'd and so little prepossest nor a sentence more just and better grounded There needs no rigid and severe decrees to constrain it to execution every one acquiesces in it without resistance and even those that accounted it their glory to have never yielded have thought themselves obliged to a ready approbation of what you ordain I have read with no lesse contentment that handsome Apology which is in the keeping of Monsieur Chapelain it has been the subject of divers Academicall conferences and all that saw it after they had survey'd all the perfections of it with wonder could find no other fault in it but its brevity I assure you there was scarce one lecture of it but drew these expressions from the Auditory When will it be our happinesse to see compleat Volumes of such excellency as this Discourse And why cannot we prolong the life of this incomparable person the Author of it with the like facility as he renders all those immortall whose names deserve a place in his Writings I had intended to finish my Letter here but this last word induces me to make a request to you for a speedy sight of your rich Miscellanies wherein we shall unquestionably behold all the beauties of Art and Nature in the height of their glory and lustre and the pomp of ornament so delightfully accommodated with the genuine and simple comlinesse that the contexture though of nothing but naturall and supernaturall will appear most gracefull without either disorder or contradiction Eloquence will have there so dextrously contriv'd all its force and artifice yet without making shew of any it will notwithstanding animate the whole body with such motion and action as will ravish all the world Suffer us not to languish any longer in expectation of our happinesse and be pleased to believe that amongst all those that desire the accomplishment of it there is not any more perfectly then my self SIR Your c. Balzac 10 Sep. 1639. LET. XXI SIR YOu shall be no better obey'd then Virgil was of old when he sentenc'd his Aeneids to the fire I cannot be won to burn your Letter although you should ordain me to do it by an especiall clause of your Testament Notwithstanding your desire may prevail with me for secrecy and the wise person be suffer'd in the guilt of his folly without knowing our opinions of the action Your perspicatious reason has discovered the true cause of his prodigious inequality and the article which you write me concerning it deserves to be inserted in a convenient place This may be effected without difficulty Suppresso authorum paraphrastarum nomine and you may intrust Monsieur upon my interest I will not descend from a Thesis to an Hypothesis I knew long since that man is an Animal compos'd of contrarieties and that such a person is reasonable to day who has no assurance of being so to morrow Some man may have great dexterity and conduct in his affairs as for instance the Marshal and yet be void of all sense in his writings and another as the Lord Madelenet may compose Odes in Latin in competition with those of Horace and French Verse after the rate of Du Monin Your affords an authentick demonstration of this truth and as far as I can judge there is a greater difference between him and himself then there is between him and another person I speak onely of his Poetry having yet seen but one sort of his Prose concerning which I must tell you that if he choose me for his example I am as unhappy as he of whom it was said Multas fecerat simias nullos filios I am SIR Your c. Balzac 4 Octob. 1639. LET. XXII SIR I Have very tender resentments of your losse although your gain could not have promoted the conclusion of the War Since Brisac has wrought no advantage to it I am no longer of belief that peace is in the power of men Heaven must of necessity become engaged in the affair and it must be the work of God and not ours Yet let us not in the mean time abandon our selves to grief nor dispair of the Common-wealth although after a Battle of Cannae At the worst we may save our selves in the Sanctuary that Philosophy has built for us against the misfortunes of the world I mean the Philosophy of Plato for I know you affect not that of Chrysippus and I accord with you in dislike of that step-dame of the passions as one tearms it which in order to the designe of making a true wise man that is living and sprightly represents him no other then a dead and insensible image This kind of Statues are more sutable for the ornament of the Porch then for the uses of life and as I conceive there is between hardnesse and softnesse a middle temperament which is called Firmnesse The Piece that this Post will deliver you contains something perhaps not impertinent to this argument I have some weak apprehensions of its beauty by the persuasion of some here that think it fair but
sutable companions For besides the great Poet which I acknowledge you to be I account you also an eminent Counsellor of State Secretary and Ambassadour in a word a person most accomplished in all things And I never give any other Character of you to those that demand of me who that perfect friend is I have at Court and of whom I make all my glory Et haec non animo adulatorio ad aulicas artes composito dicta sint Jure tuo habes testem qui si sciens fallat c. The rest another time for at present I am able to proceed no further but remain SIR Your c. Balzac 1 Decemb. 1639. LETTER XXVII SIR I Am but ill affected with the deportment of the Italian Paricide and the Muses Balzacides doe no lesse distaste it then the Putean's The pious offices which he renders to the memory of his friend gave me infinite contentment and I have testified as much But I cannot endure that he should drive a Trade with them It must needs be that he has little knowledge of our Court since he addresses himselfe to Schollars to be his Soliciters and to gaine him kindnesse from a man they never see He is yet more strangely mistaken in the choise of his subject For you may believe that if he escape being derided for his Panglossie he will at least receive but little thanks for this Monsieur the Cardinall may willingly bear with his Panegyricks and pay him for some of them but he is not concerned in a Funerall Oration for people that he never heard of It seems the famous Tâ—pler is come back to drink at Paris and that he could not be long absent from the center of his Luxury I beseech you Sir let me know from him where Monsieur Maynard is for whom my curiosity is uncessant If you also happen into the company of Monsieur de la Pigeonnier you will infinitely oblige me by desiring of him the Manuscript Works of the late du Vivier which are in his hands I think he will not refuse you and if you will do me the pleasure to send them hither I shall return them with speed and before he can imagine they are gone so long a journey This du Vivier had a pretty way of raillerie and because it may be thought I had some share in his death I believe my selfe obliged to perform some duty to his memory He writ me word by the Messenger from Blois to Paris that he had lost his Father and that himselfe should infallibly follow unlesse I comforted him for that affliction I was negligent after my custome and rendred him not the office he required at the time appointed As for him he made good his word and the following Messenger by whom I intended my answer told me the person to whom I addressed it was no longer of this World Behold a fatall sloathfulnesse and which may give warning to all people that write to me in that manner for I know at length I shall become incorrigible I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15. Decemb. 1639. LETTER XXIX SIR YOu may be assur'd by my former Letters that I have received yours and that the Elogium of your Marchionesse is not lost if it were she that sent you so many Notes they might be tolerated with patience But the persecution of the other is insupportable and I swear unto you I would never have said a good word of her if I had known she did so perpetually assassinate you with her Writings I should have begun long since to deplore your fortune The would needs heretofore play with me at that sport but I was more valiant then you and acquitted my selfe of her couragiously She made a thousand false thrusts and I received a whole Bushell of Tickets but without losing one jot of my dumbe gravity This is the way to treat Ladies of that kind whether they be Muses or Fairies or which you love better Sybils You see my old practice I am ready to do worse in case of necessity 'T is not because I am full of imployment but for that I am so discontented and weary with the continued torture of my maladies that I know not on which side to turn my self I am in great fear for Piedmont that is for you and a little Nephew I have there who may possibly be troden down in the croud Our friends are of great worth but the Princes of Savoy must not be neglected and there being brave spirits on both sides I apprehend a terrible slaughter unlesse Heaven avert it I am proud of the good opinion that Monsieur Spanheim has of me for he is a person whom I infinitely esteem If there be any thing of his abroad besides the two Books which I have already seen I beseech you inform my Stationer of it and let him send them Otherwise I never make any uncivill request nor desire to see that which is kept secret Hence it is that I mortifie my curiosity with my discretion and am contented to know that Monsieur le Maistre can make nothing but what is rare and excellent You are wholly silent concerning my affections I meane Monsieur Conrart and Monsieur Menage Be pleâ—s'd to let tâ—em know I have still the same passion for them and be confidâ—ntly assur'd that I am more perfectly then any other in the world I am SIR Your c. Balzac 20 Decemb. 1639. The End of the Fourth Book FAMILIAR LETTERS OF M. de BALZAC To M. CHAPELAIN The Fifth Book LETTER I. SIR I Saw yesterday the Duke of Rochefoucaut who told me many things and amongst the rest that your Signora Vittoria takes the little man we know for a little fool It is the more likely to be true because the number of that Order is very great and yet it may not be so because the Court oftentimes condemns a man for a wry mouth or one simple look I understand from the same Author that Moses saved was the delight and passion of Monsieur and Madam of Liancourt Besides I have received the book of Holstenius and the Tyrannique Love of Monsieur de Scudery by the reading of which I must confesse to you I am still warm'd and agitated 'T is true there are some few things in that piece which I could wish he would alter and himself may take notice of them but the rest are in my opinion incomparable which move the passions after a strange manner which make me shed tears in despight of me and are the cause that the Kid and Scipio are no longer my favourits perhaps it is because we ordinarily judge in favour of things and persons that are present and forget what is past However it be I shall not be displeased that Monsieur de Scudery understand he hath done what he would with me and hath taken me down from my altitude of Philosophy to range me amongst the common croud But I beseech you Who is that gallant person whom you