There are others yet more strong and much more considerable For you sin against God you lose your shamefac'dness which is the glory of your Sex you enkindle criminal flames in the hearts of men and you render your selves like to those infamous sacrifices of publick unchastity Consider then with attention all these advices I have given you Despise for the future these Diabolical ornaments Renounce these false embellishments or rather these true deformities to embusy your self no longer but only upon that interiour and invisible beauty of the Soul which the Angels desire which God loves and which will be precious and venerable to them to whom you are united by a sacred tye You have my Sister in these words of this great Saint all that is necessary to strengthen your Daughters against the evil inclination which they of your Sex have to make themselves fair and to please You have there all that is necessary to inspire into them the horrour of these painted and counterfeit beauties which they so much affect Finally you there finde the motives which oblige your self to educate them in the modesty and in the reservedness which the Christianism you profess requires 2. Advice Concerning Worldly Songs TAke a very particular care to hinder your children from learning profane songs I cannot my Sister too much recommeud this advice unto you nor express as I ought the evils which these accursed songs produce which nevertheless are the main divertisement and the chief joy of them who follow the Maxims of the World God hath given us eyes St. Chrys ser 2. in Matth. 1. a mouth and ears to the end says St. Chrysostom that we should consecrate them to his service that we should not talk but of him that we should not act but for him that we should sing only his prayses that we should render to him continual thanksgivings and that by these holy exercises we should purify the bottom of our hearts But instead of making this use of them we profane them by words and actions altogether vain and superfluous and would to God they were only superfluous and not wicked and dangerous Who is he among all you who listen unto me adds this Father that can say by heart either one Psalm or any other part of the Scripture if I should demand it of him there would not one be found and which is more to be deplored in this indifference for sacred things you have at the same time an ardour which out-passes that of fire it self for such detestable things as are only worthy of the devils For if any one should entreat you on the contrary to recite some one of these infamous songs and of these shameful and Diabolical Odes there would many be found who have learned them with care and who would relate them with pleasure Think not my Sister that these words are too strong to be applied to such songs as are common in the world and which are taught children when they begin to speak Those songs which pass for the most honest include oftentimes the most subtil poyson And if you examine all them you have ever heard you will observe that there are few which wound not either truth or charity whether it be in giving false prayses to things and persons which deserve them not or whether it be in rending the honour and the reputation of the Neighbour you will mark that there are scarcely any which are not full of bitter backbitings and slanders and which are not bloudy Satyrs sparing neither the sacred persons of Soveraigns nor of Magistrates nor of the most innocent and pious people you will perceive that there are hardly any which serve not either to express irregular passions or to entertain them that there are few or none which flatter not the said passions which represent them not with a colour to disguise their horrour and to make injustice and infamy to be loved and cherished which are not employed to render criminal flames illustrious which are not stuffed with dishonest equivocations and which bring not into the imagination such filthy and shameful Idea's and images that it is impossible they should not totally wound purity Yet notwithstanding how many Fathers and Mothers are there who suffer without any scruple their children to fill their spirits and their memories with these songs which they sing with pleasure in their presence and by their free and frequent repetitions of them accustome themselves insensibly to lose their shamefacedness though they would blush to hear them in a more advanced age if they had not timely inured them to this corrupted language Lactantius in the abridgment he made of his Institutions says That one of the dismal effects of these songs is to leave in the heart a very great disposition to crimes and to liberty insomuch as they who love them and who make them their divertisement suffer themselves to be easily engaged in all manner of disorder and impiety He adds that they instill a disgust of all holy things and above all of the sacred Scriptures because corrupted nature finding nothing there which flatters her becomes distasted and unjustly prefers those wretched verses and songs which foment and entertain its passions before the solid Truths which those holy Books discover unto it and which condemn its irregularities What care then ought not Fathers and Mothers to take to preserve their children from this plague which infects almost the whole world what crime do they not commit not only when they please themselves to hear them sung by their children but even themselves teach them to sing them St. Cyprian speaking of Parents who caused their Children to eat meats offered to Idols makes the children utter these astonishing words Our own Fathers have been our Murderers And St. Augustin explicating this passage says that although these children having no share in this criminal action by their own will did not really dye in their soul yet their Fathers ceased not to be their Murderers because forasmuch as depended on them they caused their souls to dye spiritually How much more culpable are Parents who teach their children songs of detraction or of obscenity then these whom St. Cyprian blames For surely the meats offered to Idols are the creatures of God but these Songs are the productions of the devil who composes them by his ministers Those meats did not really corrupt either the soul or the body of the Children they only passed through them like other victuals without leaving in them any malignant impression whereas these sacrilegious songs corrupt the spirit of such as sing them and sticking close to their memory prove a temptation to them as long as they live Finally as Lactantius excellently observes Lactant. l. 6. Instit c. 21. whatever sweetness there is in the harmonious sounds which flatter the ears one may easily contemn them because they leave no impression in the heart and because they adhere not if we may say so to the substance
and civility of Virgins and the means to empoison those well-born and yet tender souls by shewing to them in Tragedies of Women transported by love and in Comedies such shameful filthinesses as are unfit to be heard by persons of their Sex who are obliged not so much as to think of them But in lieu of these she caused her to learn such passages of the sacred Scripture as were most easy to be understood and most proper for her age Thus she began by the Wisdom of Solomon out of which she selected the sentences which were most convenient to regulate her life and all the motions of her spirit She was also very skilful in the Psalms and divided them into certain hours St. Jerome in the Letter he wrote to a certain holy Widow whereof I have already made frequent mention to teach her in what manner she was to train up her Daughter will have this little girl to apply her self timely to the reading of the holy Scripture to learn in the Proverbs of Solomon the Rules and the Maxims of good life to accustom her self by the Lecture of Ecclesiastes to despise the World and to trample under her feet all its grandures and all its vanities to furnish her self with examples of courage and of patience by reading the Book of Job that afterwards she should reade the Gospels and have them always in her hands that she should reade with fervour the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles and after she shall have filled her self with the riches she hath heaped up by these precious Lectures let her moreover reade the rest of the Books of sacred Scripture He will also have her reade the works of the holy Fathers take delight therein and seek there the nourishment and the establishment of her Faith St. Chrysostom acknowledges no other source of all the evils which are committed in the World S. Chry. ho. 9. Ep. ad Coloss but the ignorance of the holy Scriptures Listen says this Father all you who are engaged in the World and who have a Family and children to govern S. Chry. ho. 21. in ep ad Eph. c. 5. how St. Paul recommends particularly unto you the reading of the holy Scripture with great diligence Think not that the Lecture of holy Books is unprofitable to your son One of the first things he will there finde will be the obligation he hath to honour you and without doubt God hath so permitted it that you might not say 't is only for solitary and Religious persons to reade it Say not that you have no designe that your Son should be Religious and that therefore he needs not this reading since you ought at least to make him a good Christian and that those children who are designed to live in the World are they to whom the science of the sacred Scripture is principally necessary There is says the same Saint much weakness and a strong inclination to wickedness in children the weakness and this dangerous inclination encreases dayly by the impression they receive from such things as they learn What bad effects then may it not have in a young man to know that those Hero's of antiquity whom they admire were lovers of Wine and good cheer that they were slaves to their passions and that the motives they had in all their enterprises were Pride and Ambition Let them therefore seek for a Counter-poyson in the sacred Scripture and apply them from their tenderest Infancy to this holy reading I well see that I shall seem to dallie adds this Saint because I always say over the same thing yet I will never cease to do what is in me to render your children perfect Christians To this end teach them to sing the Psalms of David S. Chry. ho. 9. in ep ad Colos c. 3. those Spiritual Canticles being full of that Divine Phylosophy which Christ Jesus came to teach men instructing them by recreating them Psal 1. v. 1. and 14. They will learn there in the beginning to fly the company of the wicked and to seek that of the good And as there is scarcely any Mysteries and Verities in Christianism which are not contained in that sacred Poesie they will there see the small solidity that can be found in all creatures the sweetness and the advantage that is found in the practise of Virtues and finally they will there finde the knowledge of their duties towards God and towards their Neighbour 'T is thus that by accustoming them betimes to taste these things you will render them easily capable of higher truths And like as Fruits of Trees retain much of the quality of the earth where they are planted and of the waters which moysten them so the actions which your children shall do during their whole life time and which will be properly the fruits of their souls will always retain something of the sweetness and of the purity of those wholesome waters which they drew in their Infancy from the holy Scriptures I believe Sister that nothing needs to be added to these Words issuing out of so holy and so eloquent a mouth upon an occasion wherein the Holy Ghost communicated to him not only the lights which he bestows on all them who preach the Gospel but wherein according to the common opinion of Divines he assisted him more particularly than he did the other Doctours to give him entrance into the sentiments and feelings which he had inspired into St Paul and which this great Patriark explicated to his people Now if you desire to know more fully the importance of this second means I have proposed to you S. Aug. Conf. l. 1. take the pains to reade in that excellent Translation which is published of the Confessions of St. Augustin four or five of the last Chapters of the first Book You shall see how that great Saint examining there all the actions of his life by the help of the lights of that Grace which he had received in Baptism and which ever after he had strengthned makes it appear that the study of Poets and profane Authours is in regard of children who are engaged therein as a Sea full of Monsters and of rocks where the best provided suffer shipwrack and that the choicest and most eloquent Words of the Courtiers of Augustus are but Golden Vessells full of Poyson which are presented to us by drunken Doctours and by men who have lost their right reason and their good sense You will see how he there brands with Idolatry this manner of instructing children and that addressing himself to God as it were to complain to his Divine goodness of the Tyranny which is exercised upon their spirits by instilling Vice into them by these studies he exclaims and utters these admirable Words What then Lord was there no other means to exercise my spirit and my tongue Without doubt O Lord had I discovered your praises in your sacred Scriptures and had they made me reade them they had
setled my heart and had tyed it to your service whereas it having wandred among the Fables and the unprofitable inventions of the ancient it is become the unhappy and unfortunate Prey of those bloody Birds whereof you speak in your Gospel and I have but too much experienced that there are many manners of sacrificing to the Rebell-Angels And do not think that St Jerome St Chrysostom and St Augustin were the first who reproved this disorder and who recommended to children above all things to learn the holy Scriptures and to make them the subject of their principal Lecture and of their most serious occupations St. 2 Epist to Tim. v. 5. chap. 2. Paul himself prayses the care which Lois the Grandmother of Timothy and his Mother Eunice took to instruct him from his Infancy in the sacred learning and after he had put Timothy in remembrance with great comfort of the sincere Faith of these two holy Women he excites him to remain constant in what he had learned Considering says he Ib. 3.15 that you have been nourished from your Infancy in the knowledge of the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto Salvation through Faith which it in Christ Jesus The sacred Scripture attributes to the care which the Parents of Susanna took in educating her in the Law of Moses and in instilling into her the fear of God from her Infancy all the Glory of that Virtue which she made appear in resisting the strongest temptation wherewith a person of her quality could be assaulted chusing rather to expose her self to death and to confusion wherewith she was threatned than to offend God Susanna says the Scripture Dan. 13.2 was very beautiful and one who feared God for her Parents being just had brought her up according to the Law of Moses Josephus attributes the eminent Virtue of the Mother of the Machabees to the excellent Instructions which her Father gave her in her youth Tract de Machabeis who frequently entertained his children with the examples of Virtue which are found in the sacred Scripture And Eusebius observes that the Father of Origin did not only teach him humane learning but also the holy Scripture some passages whereof he caused him every day to learn and recite Yet my Sister notwithstanding all the care you can take to teach your children the obligations of Christianism and to forbid them the songs and the verses which express the beauties of Women and the passion which men have for them although you permit them not to reade Romances and to take no other Books into their hands but the Holy Scripture and the Works of the Fathers of the Church all this Prudence nevertheless will be vain if you instruct them not your self by your own good examples and if what you do sets not incessantly before their eyes those Truths which you have had care to cause them to learn in Books The Third Means Example ACtions S. Chrys ho. 5. super 2. ad Thess c. 2. says St. Chrysostom have altogether another force than Words over the spirits of men to correct them This moved St. Paul to recommend Virtue so earnestly to servants because it hath so much power that it makes it self esteemed in persons of meanest degree and makes them by its means to become very useful in Families And as to what concerns children in particular it is to them so natural to become like their Parents in their manners that our Saviour in the Gospel John 8.39 makes use of no other argument to convince the Jews that they were not the children of Abraham but because they performed not his actions and that on the contrary they were the children of the Devil because like to him they loved murder and lying And St. Chrysostom proposes as an infallible Rule to such as will marry to consider the Life of the Father and of the Mother of the person to whom they desire to joyn themselves thereby to judge certainly of their good or of their bad qualities The foundation of this truth is that children having received from their Parents the beginning and the bud of their own passions if the Fathers and the Mothers suffer themselves to be transported in their childrens presence this bud sprouts up and strengthens it self and the passions take new and more deep roots in their hearts Besides that the respect they are bound to have for their Father and for their Mother permits them not to condemn their actions And as they are not capable to chuse in them what they ought to honour the inclination which Nature hath given them to love them and to esteem them induces them to love and to esteem their very Vices and easily to embrace their most dangerous conceptions and opinions which gave St. S Greg. in Pastorali c. 2. Gregory occasion to say That a fault extends it self prodigiously by the means of example when he who commits it is honoured by reason of the eminence of his rank and of his estate And to St. Augustin that all a childe can do in so weak and tender an age S. Aug. in Psal 136. is to consider his Parents and blindely to perform what he sees them practise Let not your Daughter says St. Jerome to a Lady of quality S. Jerem. in Ep. ad lotam ever see any thing in you or in her Father which may engage her in any fault by imitating you and remember that you must rather conduct and govern her by good Example than by Words The very Pagans have acknowledged that all disorders in the World come from the bad Example which Fathers and Mothers give to their children Would to God says Quintilian Quintil. l. 1. Instit c. 3. that we were not our selves the cause of the corruption which appears in the manners of our children We bring them up in delights from their tenderest Infancy and this soft education which we call indulgence ruines insensibly the forces of their Spirit and of their Body What will not a childe desire in his more advanced age who when he is yet scarcely able to go is wrapped in Purple and knowing not yet how to pronounce a plain word knows scarlet and can gape after the most precious Stuffs They are taught to taste the most exquisite Dainties before they can express their desires They grow up in Coaches and in Litters and if they must put their foot to the ground there are servants on each side to lean upon and to support them We take pleasure to hear them speak unseemly words and oftentimes they are cherished and applauded for uttering such profane and infamous things as one would be ashamed to hear and endure in the most debauched persons Nor do I wonder at it We our selves teach them They hear us speak all these things and they see what liberties their Fathers take with Women and their Mothers with Men Almost all our Feasts resound with unchaste Songs and most shamefull things pass in the
Book because a very special care hath been taken that it should contain nothing which is not drawn from the two most pure Fountains of Truth which are The Sacred Scripture and the Works of the Church-Father THE Approbation of the Doctors THe Education of Children is one of the things of greatest importance in the World The Pagans looked upon it as the only good of the Common-Wealth they applied thereto all their cares and they composed Books upon this subject which are not the least considerable of Antiquity Which notwithstanding one may say that all their Solicitude and all their diligence proved unprofitable They sought a good which was impossible for them to discover The darkness of Paganism hindred them to acknowledge Virtue and in instructing others they could never frame to themselves any other than a gross Idea thereof and a shadow far distant from the Verity But the School of Christianism ought to be replenished with Masters much more clear-sighted and illustrated by the Lights which shine from the Fire enkindled in the Souls of the Faithfull by the Grace of Christ Jesus The sacred Scriptures and the works of the Fathers furnish the Matter and Form to make people truly good and there may be found all the precepts which are necessary to instruct Fathers and Mothers in what they ought to teach their Children The Author of this Treatise is assuredly of the number of these excellent Masters His Piety and his Learning sparkle out without Ostentation in all the passages of his Book We have read it with all possible exactness and we judge it very profitable and very necessary to be published c. Given at Paris the 24 of February 1666. T. Fortin Roileau THE CONTENTS The Preface Page 1. Chap. I. Of the Excellency of Christian Marriage pag. 6. Chap. II. That the Education of Children is one of the most considerable employs of Christianism And of the first errour which causes it to be neglected which is the mean Idea men have of the Christian Life p. 14. Chap. III. Of the Second Errour which causes a neglect of the Education of Children which is the little care Parents take to preserve them in Innocence p. 25. Chap. IV. How highly Fathers and Mothers are interessed in the Christian Education of their Children and in particular of what importance it is to Mothers p. 30. Chap. V. Wherein particularly consists the Obligation which Fathers and Mothers have to endeavour the Christian Education of their Children p. 42. Chap. VI. With what Dispositions they are to labour in the Christian Education of their Children p. 50. Chap. VII What Ideas or Forms they ought to propose to themselves for their imitation in the Christian Education of Children p. 68. Chap. VIII An Introduction to the Maxims which Christians ought to follow in the Education of Children p. 77. Chap. IX The Maxims which ought to be observed to render the Education of Children Christian p. 84. I. Maxim Drawn from the sacred Scripture p. 85. II. Maxim Drawn from S. John Chrysostom p. 88. III. Maxim Concerning the manner how Parents are to love their Children p. 95. IV. Maxim Concerning the care they ought to take to disintangle Children from the World and to inspire into them Christian Sentiments and Feelings p. 98. V. Maxim Concerning the search they ought to make of the predominant inclinations of their Children p. 102. VI. Maxim Touching the Instruction of Children p. 104. VII Maxim Touching the Motives whereby to engage Children to labour and to do what one desires of them p. 112. VIII Maxim Touching the care Parents ought to take for their Childrens health and of what concerns their Bodies p. 117. IX Maxim Touching what is particularly to be avoided in conversation before Children p. 120. X. Maxim Touching the Corrections of Children p. 122. XI Maxim Touching the differences and disagreements which Children ordinarily have with the Domesticks and the liberties they take with them p. 125. XII Maxim Touching the freedom which is to be given to Children to express their thoughts and opinions p. 128. XIII Maxim Touching the Patience wherewith Parents are to support their Children and to moderate their resentments of injuries received from others p 132. XIV Maxim Touching the Equality which Parents are to keep among their Children p. 140. XV. Maxim Touching the Lodging of Children p. 150. XVI Maxim Touching the Complacency which Parents have in their Children p. 151. XVII Maxim Touching the Plays and Recreations of Children p. 152. XVIII Maxim Touching what Company ought to be permitted to children p. 155. XIX Maxim Touching the care which is to be taken to induce children to do what they ought to their Fathers p. 160. Chap. X. Important Advices for the Christian Education of Children p. 165. I. Advice Concerning the Exercises and ornaments of the world p. 165. II. Advice Touching worldly Songs p. 183. III. Advice Touching Romances p. 194. IV. Advice Touching Balls Dancings and publick Meetings p. 203. V. Advice Touching Stage-Plays p. 218. VI. Advice Touching Gaming and against the Wantonness and Idleness of Worldlings p. 246. VII Advice That in the Education of Children Parents should particularly propose to themselves to induce them to consecrate themselves to God and to serve him p. 280. Chap. XI At what Age these Maxims and these Advices ought to be applied p. 303. Chap. XII That these Maxims and these Advices are principally to be followed in the Education of such Children as are designd for the world p. 317. Chap. XIII The means which facilitate the application of these Maxims and Advices in the Christian Education of Children p. 326. The I. Means Speech Words or Discours p. 327. The II. Means Lecture or Reading p. 352. The III. Means Example p. 364. The IV. Means Prayer p. 371. Chap. XIV What is most opposite to the application of these Maxims and these Advices in the Christian Education of Children p. 394. OF The Christian Education Of CHILDREN The Preface NOthing is more common among men then Marriage and nothing is more unknown then the Duties of this so common a condition The major part of them who engage themselves therein look only on its outside and on that which it hath of carnal and terrestrial and they do not at all inform themselves either of the obligations which it includes or of the extreme difficulties there are to acquit ones self Christianly therein They embark themselves and enter upon this voyage of their whole lives without knowing whether they go or what course they are to stear and contracting an undissolvable alliance with a strange person they scarcely known him who must be not only the Companion of their happiness or unhappiness in this life but who must be one of the principal causes thereof both in this life and for all Eternity To embrace solemnly a Regular life under the Obedience of a Superiour chosen among many for his Virtues and for his good qualities there must be at least a year of
effectually and really criminal I do not think my Sister that any thing needs to be added to these words to make you abhor the reading of Romances since they discover so cleerly the greatest part of the bad effects which these fabulous Histories produce which the idleness and licentiousness of these later times have invented to nourish and entertain the most dangerous passions For you see in the words and in the example of this holy woman how these unhappy lectures charm in such sort the spirits of young people by the pernicious sweetness and the dismal pleasure they present unto them that they neglect all other exercises to tye themselves to this that they make it their only and their principal business and that they employ the days and the nights even against the will of their parents to satisfy the curiosity which the connexion of the diverse adventures they meet with in those books excites more and more in their spirits as they proceed in the reading thereof You see how these empoysoned Lectures change all the good inclinations they received from nature how they chill by little and little the desires they had for goodness and how they banish in a short time out of their Soul all that was there of solidity and of virtue You see how they instill into their Readers the love and esteem of all worldly vanities how they teach them to seek out means whereby to please the world to flatter their senses to trick up themselves to render themselves pleasing to stay and deceive the eyes finally to finde out disguises and cunnings to conceal that wherein the body is defective and to place in its highest splendour whatever may make for their advantage Oftentimes one is surprized to see young girls educated in a great reservedness and in great modesty take all on a sudden an air full of vanity and gallanterie and to make shew of no other ardour than for that which the world esteems and which God abominates One is astonished at this deplorable change and since they had not as yet haunted companies one knows not well to what it may be attributed 'T is that Fathers and Mothers have not watched over them to hinder their reading of these dangerous books which have instilled into them this secret vanity and this desire to raise in them who look upon them those passions for which they conceived so high an esteem by seeing them expressed so agreeably in those Books Those feigned and imaginary adventures have charmed their hearts They have redoubled the ardours of their passions and have permitted to pass first into their souls and afterwards into their gestures and into their actions all the motions they have found registred of those fabulous Ladies They have espoused their Maxims their spirit their conduct their language and all their manners of proceedings They have there learned not to be so untractable nor so severe to be somewhat tender and compassionate to suffer themselves to be coneerned in the services cherishings kindnesses and tears of their wooers finally to hide themselves from themselves and to cloak the motions of a love which is totally irregular with the appearances of a civil honesty and of an easy complying and gay humour and disposition Be vigilant therefore my Sister and carefully hinder your Children from falling into this dangerous snare which the devil lays to entrap their Innocence Let them not be hurried away with this dismal torrent which St. Augustin says S. Aug. l. 1. Confes. c. 16. drags along the children of Eve into that vast and dangerous sea out of which they scarcely says this Saint can escape and save themselves who pass over upon the wood of the Cross of Christ Jesus And let them not say adds this Father that in these Books they may learn the purity of the language and that it is from them that this eloquence is to be sucked which is so necessary to perswade what one desires and to express with a grace ones advises and conceptions You ought to take greater care of the purity of your childrens heart than of that of their language And although there may be found good things in those books intermixed with the bad S. Jerome to Leta yet as St. Jerome observes upon the subject of dangerous books one needs much discretion to seek and finde out gold in the dirt and one is ofttimes in danger to defile himself in this search without finding what they look for After all there are now an infinity of Books of Piety much better written from which your children may draw together with the knowledge and the love of Christian Verities true Eloquence and where they may finde all the graces of the Language without any need of seeking them in fabulous Histories which are only capable to quench Charity in their souls and to enkindle there forreign flames which will consume by little and little all the feelings of piety which you have endeavoured to instil into them 4. Advice Touching Balls Dancings and publick meetings IN the occasion of scandal which the world is ful of we are not sollicited to evil at the same time by all the ways by which we are susceptible of it But as Salvian observes Salvian l. 6. de gubernat Dei either the spirit alone is set upon by thoughts contrary to purity or the eyes are struck with dishonest objects or the ears filled with discourses opposite to charity so that if any one of these senses suffers it self to be engaged in the sin the others may at the same time be exempt from it and may serve the soul for an instrument to raise her up from this fall But in Balls and Assemblies which are at present but too common among Christians the World the Flesh and the Devil assault the spirit of young people by all the ways whereby they may instill vice into them They present at the same time to all their senses all the different objects which may charm them and allure them to evil You may say that they have heaped together in the same place all that which can give entrance to pleasure into the heart of man by which they are wont to make themselves Masters of him The Ear is there charmed with the concert of Musical Instruments and the Eyes with every object which riot and vanity can produce and expose as most proud and pleasing the delight which is found in sweet odours is there awaked by most precious parsumes and most agreeable smels and the taste by most delicious fruits and most exquisite dainties Finally there is as it were a general conspiration of all that voluptuousness hath of allurements and of charms to effeminate the heart of man and to flatter his several passions The persons who are invited to these assemblies apply themselves only to render themselves pleasing and to make themselves to be loved They spend whole days in dressing trimming and disguising themselves and in hiding as much as