would divert himself and make good sport with those people that are cryed up at least with those that presume and have a great opinion of themselves As for the rest who satisfie themselves with small matters and have humble thoughts of themselves one cannot laugh at them although they do amiss because they know that all the World is capable of committing the like errours and they act upon that Maxime And so though we have but a glimpse or do but fancy something better than that which we speak yet we must have a little confidence to express it well and with a good grace But nothing is so great a hindrance to the attaining perfection as the belief that one hath already found it It comes into my mind said the Mareshal smiling that the more perfect one is the more this that we say may be useful and that our entertainments are almost like if the comparison offends you not the Commentaries of Caesar by which no body could much profit unless he were a great Souldier before For we touch by the by only on that which offers it self as necessary for the making of a worthy honest man What we say concerns those only who are animated with such a kind of Spirit as we are as for the rest they will never go very far But do you think that this Spirit may be acquired If you judge it may how would you begin to infuse it into Children for one must not pretend to begin with them so high at the first It were to be wished that those who educate Children said the Chevalier would endeavour to make them love or hate that which deserves the one or the other I mean as much as Childhood will permit and to order it so that they may have a good taste or discernment For to express my self well I must make use of this word which so many people abuse a good taste would make him understand what he ought to desire to learn and the means to be excellent in it For if he had afore-hand a right apprehension of good and of evil the very course of things would instruct him without a Governour and likewise the aversion to that which is evil whenever he saw it would be a sufficient Lesson to him to avoid it One cannot have too curious a taste to discern between true and false pleasures and not be deceived in what pleases or displeases That which I mean by it is not to disrelish every thing like a sick person but to be able to judge well of any thing that presents it self I know not by what a kind of apprehension which I cannot express which works quicker and is sometimes more in the right than reflections are but for all that we must not reject too severely that which is displeasing or be too busie with our reproofs The most agreeable way of instructing and reforming others is to endeavour to do that well our selves which we see them do ill by which means we make our life the more easie Besides I would have it so ordered that a young mans wit and heart be disposed as it ought to be Wit finds out the means to attain to perfection and the heart is necessary to put in practice that which we judge to be best for honesty is not a meer speculation 't is fit it should be active and govern We see many Children said the Mareshal who are not without some prudence and a fore-sight of what may be either hurtful or beneficial to them but that which is called the having a good taste for I dare use this word as well as you all the elegant ways of speaking when they are not affected and are well applied are becoming enough I say that which I called the having a good taste must not be expected from young people unless they are born with a much more than an ordinary Genius or that there hath been a great care had in their Education I do not know whence that proceeds unless it be that by a natural instinct they take at first to that which appears to them the most necessary and that the rest affects them but very little This is an excellent reason which you give said the Chevalier and I look upon it as a hard matter for one that is young not to be transported with that which sparkles and makes the best shew there should be as much care as could be taken to undeceive Children because that it is natural to them as well as to the people in general to love Shows and even these who are born Princes they are inclined naturally to delight in Stage-plays and publick Spectacles But those that are perfect and that have a good judgment regard not things of shew when they are but of little worth those which are but of little lustre and great prize please them That is to be taken notice of in all things even in our thoughts and understandings for if those sorts of things seem very fine they are so only in appearance and presently disliked those that are so in reality without appearance the more they are considered the better they are liked the reason is because they are fair of themselves without any helps or ornaments and that still we discover some new and secret graces in them which were not at the first perceived How comes it to pass said the Mareshal that some people who express themselves well upon some certain Subjects differ so much from themselves when they undertake to discourse of other things and do not admire you that that man whom we have both known and who had so much Wit hath left behind him such ill Love-Letters he who writ such good ones on other Subjects How could that be was it not still one and the same Genius It is indeed the same Genius answered the Chevalier but the most accomplished in the World is not able alike in all things and diversity of Subjects cause him to produce very different effects Besides to do a thing well it is not enough to know the manner of doing it but we must take delight in it and not be tired with it We find that commonly good Masters speak well of that which relates to their own Trade and I fancy to my self that this mans Trade was not making of Love or at least that he never well understood what it was It cannot be said to be want of Wit if his Letters concerning Love are not as his others so well esteemed for there is in some of them more than enough but the Wit was ill imployed when his business was to touch the heart he was thinking how to refine things and shew his witty conceits He writ to a Lady with whom he was passionately in Love that his Soul was so weak that it had not strength enough to go quite out of his body that was the reason only which kept a little life in him To another that the only thing that hindred him from dying was
understanding or want of wit But to return to our nice Queen was it not unreasonable in her to expect that a man who is bred to Arms should shew nothing of his Profession but when he faces the Enemy How is it possible that any one can spend his life in the Wars and not smell a little of the Souldier The Wars said the Chevalier we must grant to be the finest imployment in the World but to take it right a well bred man hath no Profession at all For though he understands a thing perfectly well and is in a manner obliged to pass his life in it it seems to me that neither his Actions nor his Converse should shew any signs of it he takes too deep a tincture of nothing and his Wit and good Sense teaches him how to behave himself on all occasions What a fine Idaea you give me cryed the Mareshal I am much pleased with fancying to my self our young Prince to be of this kind of Wit we cannot take a more noble Subject to entertain our selves withal and you know that very few days pass wherein I speak not something of him I remember very well where we left when we were interrupted I was asking whether you were not of that opinion that it would do well for him to learn the Language of the ancient Romans which is spoken by so many good men and such a number of Emperors It is not only to be valued as good in it self answered the Chevalier but there is very much advantage to be made by understanding it we find in it so many excellent things and that in their Original for you must needs confess that when any one speaks there is something so clear and natural which proceeds from the Wit and Understanding of the person expressed in apt and significant words which cannot by all the Art imaginable be rendred into another Language as to be altogether the same I find also that the Art which is used to teach that Tongue gives a great light into all the other Languages and that we may by knowing it speak our own the better and with more assurance Besides being at this day the most known and universal the Prince would be glad especially if he should one day become the Arbiter of the World to understand what so many Nations should say to him and to express himself without an Interpreter Is it an easie matter said the Mareshal to learn it in a little time The more necessary part of any Language answered the Chevalier will ask but little time and yet it is of great benefit when one knows it But the Niceties which depend much on the skill of the Teacher and on the persons we hear speak are more difficult You know in all other things what it is to give the last touch I should be of opinion continued the Chevalier that now in his Youth it would be best to divide and set apart his hours for fear of oppressing him too much and giving him a disgust of what he should learn and make him begin to practise such little Exercises for the activity of his body as his age and strength permits he would be the better shap't and more healthful that it will be good likewise to divertize his Studies and his Recreations too as should be thought most convenient and I believe his hours should not be too regular for even pleasure it self if it be offered always in so orderly a way and at set times becomes tiresom and looks like constraint I fancy now in his tender age in which they may make what impressions they please but not so easily blot out again hereafter they should order it so that those who come about him should be of those persons who are lucky in all things and whose demeanour and presence may not accustom him to any thing which is fit for him to forget I would have the like regard had in chusing those Masters who come to teach him the smallest things I know there will not want those who will say that this is but a fancy but I am very certain that as for all sorts of Exercises as well those of the body as of the mind it were to be wished that such as are most skilful and able to perform them best might form in him that unexpressible gracefulness which most Masters want themselves and also that after some time Monsieur de D. T. and likewise Monsieur le P. might discourse to him of the Wars and shew what ways Conquerours took to be great For I am perswaded that of what Birth soever any one is he may think himself much honoured to have contributed any thing to a work of so great consequence and that all those things which a young Prince ought to learn cannot come from a person of two good a Family It is said that Caesar by combating and running through all parts from Europe into Asia and thence into Africa lost most part of his old Souldiers and that he himself instructed new-raised men to hold the Buckler and use the Sword or the Javelin Do you not think that by learning of such a Master the instruction took much deeper impression and spread it self further even without being aware of it What is said of handsom persons answered the Mareshal that every thing becomes them may be said with more reason of dexterous and judicious persons I should have been glad to have seen that Masters of the World play the Fencing-master Whatsoever I had observed from so great a man would have taught me something that I should have been glad to remember And that which you said just now is very true That there are some persons whose Company we cannot too much frequent 'T is certain that by seeing them often on whatsoever occasion it may be besides the improvement that we have by being with them we gain a good esteem to our selves as we perfume our selves unawares by walking amongst the Jasmins and Orange-Trees There cannot any thing be imagined more gallant and truly said the Chevalier you have a great exactness in speaking I know very well said the Mareshal when I am minded to be pleasant and I thought it would surprize you If you did surprize me said the Chevalier 't was the better to please me A thing that is well conceived ought likewise to be well expressed and I think there is nothing more pleasant For all that answered the Mareshal I am the man in the World that least studies those kind of florid expressions Neither do I much affect exactness in speaking To be punctual and just as to the sense I love always but to be so in words appears commonly too much affected and if I did desire to be eloquent I should wish to be so with my heart and understanding No man wants words when he has any thing to say to the purpose People talk as long as they please said the Chevalier of what relates to the Commerce of the World
they are capable of profiting by them that will at the least dispose them to compleat themselves As soon as I begin to speak said the Mareshal you understand me better than I understand my self and whatsoever you tell me appears to me so easie to comprehend that I think many times I knew it before you told it I am continually thinking of my Children who cannot as yet be without me and I love them the better for it and though Wealth be something yet I wish them nothing so much as I do Parts We discourse sometimes of that which we think best for the educating of a young Prince and by this Model as near as it is fit for us to come to it in my judgment we might breed our Children For I imagine that is one and the same vertue that knows how to command if Fortune pleases and how to obey when ones duty obligeth one to it And being sate down with the Chevalier You said continued he that Study might hinder I would gladly inform my self in what manner it should be used for I do not believe that you are of the opinion to renounce it absolutely That would be said the Chevalier a very fantastical opinion indeed the best natural parts of the World would be but of little value if there were not care taken to improve and bring them to perfection One can never take any thing aright without having learned it and who can believe that either to do a thing well that one doth ill or to do it better if one doth it well that Study can ever hinder that is to say to seek out the means and that under the best Masters for so it is that one ought to study It is seen by all sorts of Exercises how much Art and good Masters are necessary and it were very strange that the body should be capable of instruction and that the mind should not be so to For what likelihood is there that if Practice and good Masters are without peradventure effectual for the making people skillful in riding the great Horse that to the making of an accomplisht person they should both of them be altogether needless and hurtful The body and the mind are seldom as one could wish but the defects of the body seem to me more difficult to be corrected the mind is naturally souple and it may be redressed provided a right course be taken And who can doubt that if there be any one as exact in breeding Youth as it is said Pignatel was good at Horsmanship but that he might make an accomplisht man as well as Pignatel made a good Horse-man How comes it about then that it many times falls out otherwise The truth is that when one learns to do a thing of an ill Master one learns to do it ill and it is much more difficult to chuse good Masters for the framing of the mind than for the body For the advantages of the body are much more remarkable and more known than those of the mind And besides many people who are capable of instructing the mind will not always meddle in it for in truth as the World judges of it there would be but very little honour gained by undertaking the Trade although they did acquit themselves of it in perfection It is certain that to be able well bred and agreeable to such a degree as one would wish a great Prince one cannot know too many things so that he have the skill to make a right use of them and that he knows how to value them But to speak my Judgment it is not to be knowing to have read very much nor to have learned a great number of different opinions which discover nothing certainly We know nothing well but that which we see clearly and that which we can presently make others see and understand if they are clear-sighted We should mistrust all that which we perceive but as through a Cloud and which we cannot make very plain to the sight of another Whilst people are young they learn little more than certain words which make a shew of Learning though they are knowing in nothing and that is not becoming to a man that is abroad in the World I would have one know all things and that his manner of discoursing might not betray his having studied It is a very great advantage to have an inspection into things said the Mareshal and to know the World whether it be that we are to speak or write but that which savours too much of Study is for the most part not liked I know not whether it be well to write as one speaks and to speak as one writes Many people have been of opinion that it is but it seems to me that the use is otherwise 'T were more likely answered the Chevalier if they had said that we should write as we desire to speak and speak as we desire to write for one seldom doth either of them as we wish we could This question which is not to be despised by persons of wit may easily be cleared We write things which are never pronounced and which are made only to be read as a History or any such like thing When any one undertakes that and would be successful in it they must not write as if they were telling a story in Company History is more noble and more severe Conversation is more free and negligent And as there are some things which are only fit to be read so there are others which are made principally to be heard spoken as Harangues If we would judge of their worth we must consider to what degree they are good when they are pronounced since that is what they aim at And because that Letters are not pronounced for although they are many times read aloud yet that is not called pronouncing we should not write them altogether as we speak As for Example whosoever should see a person to whom he had just been writing a Letter although it were very excellent he would not say the same things to him that he had written or at the least he would not say them in the same manner yet for all that it is good when we write to imagine in some sort that we are speaking that we may not put in any thing that is not natural or which may not be spoken in Company and likewise when we speak to fancy that we are writing that we may not say any thing that is not noble and which hath not something of exactness How comes it to pass said the Mareshal that many people are said to speak well who cannot write well It is many times believed answered the Chevalier that some certain persons speak well in effect when in truth they only speak well in appearance That is because either their presence startles or the sound of their voice surpriseth When any one excelleth in speaking they may do the same in writing it is true that this latter requires a little more care
Also it seems to me that one cannot write well without knowing how to speak well but it happens that those who make it their study to write well have commonly a languishing way of speaking which is as it were almost spent Those people mind too much the sound and harmony This softness of Language which they affect makes them many times lose by little and little the natural use of it which consists in giving to every thing that one speaks the motions that we feel in our hearts For we do not speak only to make our thoughts to be understood but to express our apprehensions which are two very different things He who finds himself not moved at any thing is as unfit to speak as he that thinks nothing The heart hath its Language as the Wit hath his and this expression of the heart works many times the greatest effects When the heart is not agitated although one hath very much wit it touches not so sensibly and when one is stirred if the wit fails they only make a noise and so unseasonably that they were better hold their peace It is necessary then for the heart to have apprehensions and for the wit not only to guide but also to make the choice of them For as there are thoughts which are agreeable and others which are not the very same diversity is found in the motions of the heart some of them are well received and others rejected You know much better than I that to inspire either joy or sadness and many other passions which govern the World in truth to the prejudice of reason it is not enough to know them by experience but we must be affected with them at the same instant at least so as we are with those things which are represented on the Theatres Whether we design to speak well or to write well we must have many considerations in the well doing of it very few people have succeeded The most difficult thing in my Judgment is to be knowing in that which ought to please and to have a Genius to put it in practice I say in that which ought to please because it is very difficult to be assured of it For in matters of agreements every one hath his several relish and if you take notice of that which commonly pleases it proceeds not so much from the perfection of it as from a certain temperature which agrees with our natural sentiments It is this proportion which charms us and it is not perceived from whence it comes but in my Judgment the true graces those which affect most and which are always liked are never to be without a delicateness and that great things as Pomp and Magnificence are made not so much to please as to cause admiration Beauty it self when it hath so much lustre is above our strength we cannot support it We praise the greatest Beauties but we love the prettiest The reason is because we are tired with long admiring and whatsoever is made only for that displeaseth as soon as the admiration is over We must apply our selves to think well the excellency of thoughts hath so many advantages over other certain Beauties they hope to find in Arts and Study that he who thinks the best is always above others I find also that those who have a good discernment in things have likewise the advantage in the manner of expressing them and that it is the exquisiteness of the apprehension which makes the Language excellent All this depends upon acquiring that king of Wit which we have been so much speaking of and that Master who can teach it may be said to be an excellent Master Things of action and memory are very easily learned and there are people enough to be found who know how to teach them But it is not so with that which they call to Know and to Judge This is the Master-piece of the mind especially as to that which regards skill and invention the justness and decency of things There are but few Masters who do not make one take a contrary course which cannot afterwards easily be altered And because the first motions and impressions which are made in the heart of a Child take deepest root and insensibly disposeth and swayeth him to good or evil for his whole life I could wish that such Books only might be read to the young Prince as might give him the Idaea or at least the apprehension of perfection by some most remarkable passages written by a good hand For sometimes we see things so well hit that it is impossible either to say or think them better One makes a great progress when one forms ones self after such models and by the accustoming ones self whatsoever one says hath a taste of it This Language which few persons know how to speak proceeds from a justness of wit and from an extent of understanding which discovers things as they are It is a natural discernment which nevertheless we constantly improve when we think of it as we ought and frequent the company of such persons who have it by Nature But I tell you again Sir that those who bemoan themselves for not having studied as commonly people study have lost but little by it It is no inconsiderable thing the being able to undeceive ones self in all things and to know how to set a value upon every thing according to its merit And if any one would discover to us or but only make us sensible what we ought to believe of things we should have a great obligation to that person Most people account this nothing but for all that it is certain that without this knowledge we must be always either fool'd by our selves or unjust to all others It seems to me said the Mareshal that to be instructed how to live and to insinuate such opinions as one ought to have there is nothing more to be feared than an ill Master I do not wonder so much that such as are first offered are taken for us that is not of so much consequence But for a great Prince upon whom the happiness of the Publick must hereafter absolutely depend and by whose Example so many people will endeavour to fashion themselves as being the most noble Model no care in the World should be neglected If there were a man in the farthest part of the Indies who could acquit himself therein better than the ablest amongst us I would have him fetched The business is to make a great King whom we may love and admire to make him happy and likewise to order it so that all those who live under him may be happy too For it is but reasonable that those should a little share in his happiness who are in duty obliged to sacrifice themselves for the procuring of it There is nothing requisite said the Chevalier but the rendring of him an honest and worthy man at least that is the most important thing I see said the Mareshal that this word honest man
a great Prince It is true said the Chevalier that it is amiable and that it inspires respect although it be forced to be silent and unactive but you have hit upon the two things which give lustre the speaking and the actions all depend upon that and it was that says Homer which the Learned Chiron taught to young Achilles That Master said the Mareshal without doubt had great skill he made a Scholar that the World hath talked of and if that we see so few of so high and extraordinary a Worth it must needs be the fault of the Governors As he ended these words he saw Gamesters come in who came to divert him and that put an end to the Conversation THE SIXTH CONVERSATION THE Chevalier came to the Mareshals house who had passed the Afternoon at play He came just as the Game was ended and the Gamesters were retiring The Mareshal who had a mind to go abroad was glad to see him come so opportunely to have him with him I will not ask you said he whether you are for walking for I know very well you love to look upon the different colours which are in the Sky when the Sun sets and that it is a pleasure to you to breathe the fresh Air in the Evening I am only in doubt of which side we should go That Wood where we were the other day would please me much but we must cross the Town to go to it and the way is very rough I doubt besides whether we shall have time enough I suppose said the Chevalier that it will be best to go the lower way along by the Water-side which advice was followed and they went on that side as far as to the end of the Meadow where they stopt because they could not go further with the Coach and alighted to walk by the River side The Mareshal loved not to be long silent and it happened luckily for him and for those who frequent him who were always glad to hear him He had been so imployed at play that he had scarce said any thing all the day He began at the first to speak of some things which he had most a mind to and after some discourse upon that Subject We must not said he look upon Kings with the same eyes as we do upon private persons the most part whereof have little other aim than to live contentedly and at ease though a man of ability doth always study most how to purchase love and esteem I know very well what false glory is a worthy honest man regards it not and the wisest despise it but it seems to me that the more Courage and Wit a man hath the more he loves true Honour and if there where any one who could not acquire that although he hath all other things to be wished he would nevertheless be much to be pitied at least if he were of a generous noble Nature and if you observe it people are less willing to pardon those injuries which touch upon their Honour than any other And when they find themselves touched on that side they think they cannot enough resent it Also to say the truth that which makes people so much desire great Imployments and high Commands is not for the conveniencies of life for our lives are made by them the more troublesom but it is the hopes of having an opportunity to make it appear that they have Merit in them But this nevertheless for a private person cannot extend it self far nor be but of short continuance But Kings are looked upon by all the Earth and Posterity which never flatters any body will be Judge of their Merit Glory is their greatest and their chiefest Interest All the Heroes and all the great Men have devoted and given themselves up to it One had need be able faithful and zealous to give them good counsel in this particular and principally they ought well to understand in what true Glory consists and by what means it may be acquired It is said that Parmenio that great Captain whose only aim was to vanquish counselled his Master to surprize the Enemy because of their great number and to assault them by the favour of the night But this Prince who made it not so much his aim to gain the Battel as to make his Valour be admired would fight them in the day time being resolved to lose all both his Life and Fortune rather than to run the hazard of having cause to blush at his Victory The same man counselled him also to divide Asia with the Persians and to receive great Treasures which they proposed to him This advice he received no better than the other he had a heart too Imperious to suffer any one to be equal with him and too high to love Gold and Riches His desire tended only to glory and if he did not always know what was the best and most solid it was because he was yery young and that he saw himself at the top of Fortune Besides he grasped at so many things that he could not well have a due regard to every thing that he undertook and he was also easily transported The smallest errours that Princes commit are sometimes of great consequence to their reputation and I should advise them if they would trust my Judgment to consider often in what manner the greatest Men would carry themselves if they had their parts to act It is no ill way to advise a Prince to do that which is most honest and likewise most heroick We have seen already that it is that which befits him best and if we look further into things concerning this World we still find in all manner of respects that this at last is the best Both Heaven and Fortune seem to have a particular care of these great hearts who are negligent and resign up themselves The bravest for the most part prevail and an high resolution hath been the saving of many more people than it hath lost The more this Prince whom I was speaking of sought after death the further it was from him and if he were wounded as it is almost impossible for any one to throw himself continually into danger and never to be so it was at least without being ever killed or overcome However it is not to be wished that a Prince should hazard himself so much or that he should only know that way to glory for besides that it would put us in continual Alarms for so precious a life it appears to me below a great Prince to expose himself on all occasions and if you well consider it it is not that which most shews the greatness of ones Soul and the contempt of death I think it much better to march towards death with a steddy pace like Socrates than to precipitate ones self upon it like Alexander for this is to effect a very difficult thing very easily which shews a heart to be more firm and resolute There are some Soveraigns who we can
look on only but as wise Politicians and that in my mind is not the best form that they might appear in Something which I cannot express of more noble would give them a greater splendour and can you think any thing more worthy of a great Prince than Love and Arms They are the Subject of the finest Romances answered the Chevalier and when a Reign is at an end without either Love or Arms a History has but a few things to say But some Princes are not born to act both parts and it is always enough for a Soveraign to govern his States well and to render his Subjects happy I have known some Princes said the Mareshal who would have been very gallant men if there had been care taken at the first to have put them into the right way and to have shewed them what was to be done This first point of Education is of much greater importance to them than private persons for when they are no longer under the Conduct of a Governour all that they do is approved on or at least it is so in appearance and no body comes into their presence but with a design to please them because although one loves them yet one easily inclines to love their favour more And in truth it would be great imprudence for any one to hazard the drawing the hatred of his Prince upon himself and to go about to advise him as he would one of his particular Friends unless he had first signified his pleasure to have it so However those persons who are near about him if they are not too much swayed by Interest may very securely tell him in an agreeable manner all that which may contribute to his Glory and to his Happiness It is an easie matter said the Chevalier to give them good advice as to their glory It is agreed what that is and how it may be acquired all those who know how to judge will concur But it is not so as to ones happiness which depends more upon the temper than upon those things which people believe give it And to say the truth whosoever undertakes to ascertain a Prince what will make him happy must know him very perfectly Many times we our selves know not what would be best for our own happiness You speak reason said the Mareshal but when all things that can be wished present themselves and that there is nothing wanting but to chuse well it seems to me that with a very little help it were no difficult thing to be happy And to say the truth he is in a fair way to it who sees himself one of the first among the Masters of the World Fortune hath nothing greater to give Let us consider what pleasure it is to do good There is nothing in my mind more noble and this delight seems to me to be made only for great Princes the more favour they bestow the more they are in a condition to grant For it is certain that their gifts which are accompanied with choice and esteem support their Grandeur and render them the more powerful It is not riches that are principally to be desired from Kings for their Treasuries might be exhausted by profuseness but it is Imployments and Trusts these are the opportunities by which men make it appear what they are and when those persons who have Worth are put into Imployments suitable to themselves they make themselves known and their Princes are well served That which commonly they want and which we have abundantly is the pleasures which you know we have in conversing freely with those we love and the being in a condition to dispute of certain advantages in which neither Fortune nor Greatness have any part The price of Merit which touches so much many brave hearts at length becomes insensible to them because people praise indifferently all that they do alike without regarding either measure or decency One must be complacent as becomes a gallant man to make his life agreeable and I cannot conceive that those Princes of the Levant who live only amongst Slaves can be happy They have all things and perfectly enjoy nothing they have the fairest Women in the World but they are Captives always in prison without wit or love they have nothing of that which is most taking nothing of freedom nothing that is pleasant and delightful The Commerce of Love and the diversities of gallant Adventures which make one delight in the Courts of the World and to endeavour to render ones self an accomplisht man all this is unknown to them They are only savage Events which they delight in I am thinking of that which you said just now there are always in those Countries some Adventures of Love and of War but they are such that I defie Ariosto Tasso and even Sapho to make a pleasant Romance of them If living so be happiness that felicity seems to me very barbarous and I cannot believe that any man of good sense can envy it The greatest pleasures if people know not how to manage them and that there be not wit intermixt with them or some sense of Honour last not long and that may be some comfort to those who have not all that they desire I look upon it that these Princes debase rather than exalt themselves in affecting such a Grandeur which no body hath any thoughts of disputing with them I think that Civility and Majesty both together which makes people find with pleasure that such Princes are their Masters is much better the more they condescend the more one is ready to submit especially those that are well bred persons who never presume too much I think that the most eminent men were wont to communicate freely with their Friends and that they were very familiar at least Caesar was so said the Chevalier even with his Souldiers so far as he took delight to remember in any of their remarkable sayings this familiarity Which to say the truth accompanied with other kindnesses had charmed them so that when they were to fight for his Glory they thought nothing difficult to them and were not apprehensive either of peril or death If by chance they were made Prisoners and had their lives offered them they refused it and said that it belonged to the Souldiers of Caesar to give not to take Quarter I wonder not then at all said the Mareshal that such a man followed by such people although the smaller number did always conquer That which I said that Heaven takes these great hearts into its protection it appears also in this Hero who amidst all those Combates in which he was very active received not the least hurt Princes of great Designs and high Enterprises said the Chevalier are always beloved although Fortune which we know is inconstant leaves their side yet Glory Honour never forsake them Caesar was of this number he had nothing in him which was not noble and which savoured not of Grandeur He was so brave and so full