praise Madamoiselle de Dampierre I am just but not liberall The Law of Nations would exact the like duty from me to the person of a Spanish Lady in the heat of a proclaimed War So that you must not take her upon my testimony that is too much beneath her merit But my suffrage must be added to the other commendations that are due to her and confess that she is indowed with modesty and all the other qualities that beget pride in her sexe She made you a strange request in desiring you to perswade me to forget that I had ever seen her Letters in the hands of a Lady that feasted me with them two hours together Your way Sir to effect this must be by the help of Sorcery you cannot make me forget two so happy hours and so dear to my remembrance with less then making me lose my memory Have you learned either Magick or Physick enough to reduce me to that condition Have you as much as will send me a disease like that of the ancient Oratour who having known all things forgot them all to his own name You see what is the demand of Madamoiselle de Dampierre I am confident neither you nor I are able to do any thing in it I shall ever be the same I was ever steadfast in my judgement and affections ever an admirer of Madamoiselle de Dampierre and the excellent things she writes and ever passionately SIR Your c. Apr. 25. 1640. LETTER XXI To Madam de Villesavin Madam VVHen I tender you my duty I have no other design then to tender it in intelligible language and not to pass for a man of the other World before a person of this Yet you are so good you would perswade me that I write you Letters and that I am eloquent without any intention of mine to be so You profess to admire Madam what I believe you could not endure but out of grace and indulgence If so favourable words were not accompanied with more obliging effects I should conceive some suspition they proceeded from the spirit of the Court and that in that part of the Kingdome it was their manner of mockerie But the craftiest way of derision not being the style of truth and consequently not yours I beseech yoâ— do not confound me any more by commendations that amaze me I might be vain enough not to reject them in things I did ever pretend to but what Colour can there be to admit them in this where they are no less beyond my ambition than out of their proper place No Madam my soul discovers her self to you in the simplicity of her first thoughts and you may easily perceive she is not naturally a Rhetorician They are my very thoughts that speak to you and the Art of fine Langâ—age has nothing to doe with the passages of my heart We do not study our passions I have not learnt to love either by Greek or Latin from Aristotle or Cicero and though I could not write with any kind of Ornament yet I shoâ—ld not cease to protest with a great deale of truth that I am Madam Your c. Jan. 4. 1641. LETTER XXII To Madamoiselle de Scudery Madam COuld I have obtained one moment's dispensation from my indisposition I had told you long since that I have neither humility enough to reject the praises you bestow on me nor presumption to assent to them To believe them with an Historicall faith requires a very strong Imagination and yet to be offended at so obliging a Fable would speak an ill nature The mean herein which I intend to choose shall not be to your disadvantage I will consider your excellent language as purely yours and not with any reference to my self Thus they shall still have their true effect and I shall ever be convinced by them that is Madam of the beauties and perfections of your soul of the Eloquence that gives those praises not that to which they are directed Pardon my distrustfull humour I cannot believe you are of the same opinion with your Letter nor that my Relation to Menander is of that strength you speak of Possibly it may move you because you are compassionate of other mens misfortunes and your goodness interesses you in all the adventures of innocence In this respect indeed I may deserve your favour and your worthy brother too might justly take me for one of those objects that need his assistance He can defend with as much valour as assault and his bucklers are no lesse impenetrable then his other armes are piercing The piece of his which you sent me me thinks retaines that fatall solidity The greatest enemyes of shewes and Wit-feasts will not hereafter be able to violate them under such a protection Pleasure shall by his meanes acquire a good repute and by hâ—s favour we shall be merry without scruple in spight of the Sad and the Severe I could say more to you if you were desirous to examine me concerning your book or take an account of my studies But this is no place for Comment or Preamble and the noble assemblies which are not ungratefull will on all sides proclaime so loud the glory of their defender that it is probable a voice so weak and remote as mine would not be observed in the great shout of so many acclamations It shall suffice me therefore to tell you without any dresse of words that I am not voide of gratitude for so compleat an obligation and that it being impossible the present I received should be richer Monsieur de Scudery has found out an expedient to make it more acceptable by entrusting you to send it With his permission I thank you with all my heart and will ever be if you please to suffer me Madam Your c. Jul. 25. 1639. LETTER XXIII To Monsieur de Villesavin SIR AS I am not importunate so I will not be ungratefull The study of wisdome which teaches to beg nothing teaches how we ought to owe and though it ha's taken away my desire of getting it has not extinguish't my acknowledgment for benefits when I receive them You are one of those generous persons who take pleasure in obliging But how gratefull soever I am in my heart I might appeare somewhat too reserv'd did I any longer conceale how I am engaged to you I must at length Madam fall to an open publishing of your goodness and that of your memory The first expected not my entreaties to recommend my interests to Monsieur the Sur-intendant and the other minded you amongst the great crowd of the world that there was a certain Some-Body in the desart not unworthy your protection This I know not who hath yet some motions of a rationall life left enough to distinguish his repose from laziness He is by some chance or other illuminated still with a bright ray of light and his retirement is not altogether his buriall Vouchsafe me the honour to believe it and that I am ever passionately
BALZAC'S REMAINES Or his last LETTERS WRITTEN To severall Grand and Eminent Persons in FRANCE Whereunto are annexed the Familiar Letters of Monsieur de Balzac to his Friend Monsieur CHAPELAIN Never before in English LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the George in Fleet-street neer St. Dunstans Church 1658. Mounseur de BALZAC R. Gaywoâ—d fecit THE STATIONER TO THE READERS GENTLEMEN I Am not ignorant that the Book which now fills your hands is uncapable to receive either Supplement or Ornament from any Preface And it may be in these wild times there are few can be accused of such a degree of Conceitednesse as 〈◊〉 imagine that Balzac may be Complemented Let this letter then be reckoned as a Tax payd to Custome being sadly sensible that the labours of greatest merit are like to suffer as abrupt rude except the Reader be courted and invited in the Dedication There is one grievance more which I earnestly deprecate You commonly date the worth of the book from the Abilities you taste in the Epistle and if this Humor prevaile here I am Undone Besides you destroy my harmless designe which was to try whether the Noble conceptions of the Monsieur would admitt of any Advantage and appear more orient as they are foil'd by this trifle If any shall dispute the Decency of the Title and aske How these letters came to be call'd choise since none fell from the same incomparable pen which did not challenge the same Denomination J shall easily yeeld but must crave leave to affirme that by persons of high discernment these have bin gather'd as prime Stars from the other Sporades and are here presented in one entire Constellation There was nothing but Gold in the whole Mine but here you will find such as has bin tried and stamp'd and pass'd in all places not only Currant but Admir'd He is much a stranger to the world that does not know that the style of Monsieur Balzac was consider'd in France as the Treasure and Test of Elegance And he was esteem'd the best proficient in that which they call flos linguae the Delicacy fineness and Idiom of language who had attayn'd the nearest Resemblance of this Author Observe the vigour and flame of his fancy the Cleannesse and Roundnesse of his expression the spirit and brisknesse of his Notions the prudence and Insinuation of all his Addresses and you will judge him a fit Parallel for any of his Predecessors that Rome or Athens has most celebrated The Comedian was handsomely caress'd by him that said If Jupiter would speake Latine He might find Apparrell for his thoughts in Plautus his wardrobe Possibly if the same Jove had occasion to transmit his pleasure those Gods wanting the mysticall waies of Communication which we now ascribe to spirits he had chosen no other Mercury but this Frenchman I am unwilling to be guilty of so much folly as to define or distinguish Letters and then list them under their severall Colours descanting upon those perfections which render them peculiarly gratefull to knowing men lest any should suspect that this one Letter was not written by my selfe Gentlemen I shall not blush to acknowledge that 't is much my Interest this volume should be generally read For I believe there is Charme enough in it to dissolve the most covetous Resolutions And that such revenues of pleasure and improvement will arise from the perusall of this book as may prevailingly tempt the greatest husbands to buy more Your humble servant THOMAS DRING Books Printed for Thomas Dring and are to be sold at the George in Fleet-street near St. Dunstans Church Law-Books THe Pleader containing perfect Precedents and Forms of Declararions Pleadings Issues Judgements and Proceedings in all kinds of actions both reall and personall by Mr. Brownlow Mr. Moyle Mr. Gulston and Mr. Cony published by J. Hern Gent. in Folio The Law of Conveyances of all manner of assurances with directions to sue out and prosecute all manner of Writs by John Hern Gent. in Octavo The Reports of that reverend and learned Judge Sir Richard Hutton in Folio The twelfth Part of the Reports of Sir Edward Cook in Folio The Reports of that Learned Judge Owen in Folio The Reading upon the Statute touching Bankrupts by John Stone in Octavo An abridgement of the Common Law with the Cases thereof drawn out of the old and new Books of Law for the benefit of all Practisers and Students by W. H. of Graies-Inne Esq in Quarto An abridgement of the Acts and Ordinances of Parliament from 1640. to the year 1656. by W. H. Esq in Quarto The Reports of Serjeant Bridgman in Fol. The grounds of the Lawes of England extracted out of the fountains of all Learning and fitted for all Students and Practitioners in large Octavo A profitable Book of Mr. John Perkins treating of the Lawes of England in Octavo An exact Abridgement of that excellent Book called Doctor and Student in Octavo The Interpreter or Book containing the signification of all the words of the Law by Iohn Cowell in Fol. The Maxims of Reason or the Rule of the Common Law by Edmond Wingate Esq in Fol. An exact Abridgement of all the Statutes in force and use upon the fourth of Jan. in the yeare 1641. 1643. faithfully extracted out of the said Statutes from Magna Charta to the said time by Edmond Wingate Esq Romances ARtamenes or the Grand Cyrus a Romance Compleat in five volumnes in Folio by Monsieur de Scudery Clelia an excellent Romance in three volumes in Folio by Monsieur de Scudery The Illustrious Bassa a Compleat Romance in Folio by Monsieur de Scudery Astrea a new excellent and compleat Romance in three volumes in Folio Translated by a person of honour The History of Polindor and Flaetella a Romance in verse by J. Harrington Esq Histories THe History and lives of the philosophers with their figures in two volumes in Folio by Thomas Stanly Esq The History of the warrs betwixt Swedeland and Poland with all their policyes in Folio by John Fowler An Historicall discourse of the City of London with the History of Westminster with the Courts of Justice Antiquities and new buildings thereunto belonging by James Howell Esq in Folio The History of the Goths Swedes and Vandalls by the Bishop of Vpsall in Folio The History of Masiniello the second part with a Continuation of that tumult and the end of it by J. H. Esq The naturall and experimentall History of winds written by the Lord Bacon and translated into English by R. G. The life and death of Freeman Sands Esq by R. Bereman in quarto Divinity THings new and old or a Store-house of above two thousand Similies Sentences Allegoryes Apophthegms Adagies Apologues divine and morall Politicall and Historicall with their proper applications A book that will furnish the Reader with Rarities for the adornment of his discourse upon any subject whatsoever Anti-Socinianism or a Confutation of Socinian heresy with the description of the lives
your purpose in your so wastfull profusion of your Rhetorick and heaping such elaborate complements upon me Certainly you could not have imployed more to gaine a coy Mistresse or impose upon a credulous Enemy It 's a cleare evidence you have breath'd the Aire of Florence and been scorched with the Sun of Rome and that you are but lately arrived from the land of Eloquence But though you come from that country me-thinks you ought not to have us'd their style of Italy when you are treating with an ancient Gaule These caresses which would oblige another man are in a manner injurious to me and you wrong my affection in imagining it to stand in need of your fine language to feed and maintaine it's heat I can professe of my selfe without vanity that I am an honest and good man and on the other side without flattery declare you for a person exceeding generous And these being undisputable certainties how can you apprehend any hazard of our friendship by our silence does it depend onely upon a dozen lines every month or is it built upon a foundation of Paper that is upon one of the slightest and weakest things in nature I am not of this beliefe and though I might justly blame my own pertinacious slothfullnesse and alledge the multiplicity of your affaires for the discontinuance of our correspondence yet I had rather referre it to the confidence of a perfect affection which giving us an undoubted assurance each of other may safely dispense with both for the observance of those petty Lawes which the world prescribes it selfe If the Sluggard be so happy as to be visited by the Active and Industrious he will indevour to infuse some of his Maximes into him with his treatment of Muscadine grapes and the fare of the village using that of Virgil in lieu of all complements Aude hospes contemnere opes In September I expect the performance of your word and am ever with all my soul SIR My deare Cousen Your c. 4 June 1641. LETTER VII To Monsieur de Gombervile SIR I Had not a lesse firme perswasion of the immutablenesse of your affection before then I have now upon the receit of your Letter Men knew how to love and to be faithfull too before the art of writing was discover'd And since that invention they have lyed deceived and betrayed one another with greater facility and cunning Nay the crafty malice of some ha's even practis'd poisoning by Letters and revenge ha's been Ingenious to turne these marks of friendship into instruments of destruction Yet I do not inferre from hence that we should therefore never trust to a way of communication which may in possibility prove so dangerous I onely say we are not to be so precise about evidences of that dubiousnesse and which serve oftentimes as well to disguise and corrupt truth as to declare it 'T is from our hearts that we receive sincere testimonies and assurances of our mutuall passion though our commerce ha's not been manag'd with the stirre and heat of answers and replyes yet neither ha's our quiet been cold and lifelesse nor is silence the same thing with oblivion Certainly if silence will not be allowed in the rank of Vertues yet it containes innocence in it and do's nothing at all detract from the purity of engaged fidelity But which is some thing more it conserves it in the memory by locking and keeping it up in restraint There is a certaine Author either ancient or moderne that in favour of this happy silence pronounces it The nourishment of the soul and its conceptions I presume therefore that these tenne yeares past you have had my company with you in contemplation My pourtrait but far better drawn and by a more masterly hand then that which you have of Ferdinand's doing ha's never been out of your sight and undoubtedly you have meditated of me during all this long intermission of our converse You see what justice I do your friendship and will not you judge as candidly of mine And unlesse I should now assure you that I resound your name over all this Province that I fill this part of the world with relations of the wonders of your generosity and of the greatnesse of your accomplishments and that when I would feast my fancy and entertaine it magnificently I betake my selfe to the Court of King Polexander could you possibly doubt of the certainty of such manifest and historicall truth Since you know me so perfectly as you do I conceive there is no necessity of unripping my brest to you every day and being also fully perswaded of the affection I have for you you cannot in reason doubt that I am in all sincerity or to speak in the style of those that come from Paris that I am effectively SIR Your c. 13. Feb. 1646. LETTER VIII To Monsieur de Bellejoy SIR HOwever you are of a contrary opinion your friend ha's reason to curse his profession The stipend of a Partisan is preferable to the reputation of a Poet and 't is better to lodge in gilded Palaces then to chante of the Golden age and lye in an Hospitall The famed Torquato Tasso wore tatter'd breeches and stood in need of charity There is a Letter of his abroad in the world wherein he implores the largesse of a crowne And yet there is a certaine Ignorant that I could name who counts his wealth by Millions and pities the indigence of a senatour of Venice He dreames of purchasing Principalities and Kingdomes if there were any to be sold and his high raptures have scarce left him humility enough to judge himselfe deserving of lesse then Crownes and Scepters But I beseech you what meanes Monsieur the Kings Advocate to engage himselfe into the trouble of writing books This is such an unseasonable absurdity as admits of no excuse Surely 't is too much Vacation with him in his Law-Practice and there is no great crowding in his apartment at the Palais I cannot tell what he would have me say concerning the first race of our Kings and his Latin observations upon the Salick Law If he should send me the contract of Pharamund's mariage and an extract of Meroiiée's last will and Testament or to go higher if he should present me with the originall of the Twelve Tables of the old Roman Lawes with the first draught of those of Solon or the Manuscripts of those of Lycurgus and Charondas yet all these rarities would not have power enough to awaken my benummed curiosity or tempt me in the least to a desire of knowing more then I do already My humour is become so fastidious of every thing that is Grave or Serious that my appetite cannot possibly be restored but by somewhat that is very delightfull and Merry In the mood wherein I am at present I would give both the Goddesses of Equity and Justice with all the skill in the Lawes the Ethicks and the Politickes for one drinking-song I am not able to
share in that honour you have done to our Age and that I should have been unwilling to dye without seeing your labours in their utmost perfection This work Sir will be no vaine shew of Science nor meer Ornament of Libraries this will be a piece necessary to the order of things for want of which the Glory of France was defective it will at once both beautifie the publique and strengthen the State Our Kings shall reckon it among their Demeanes or put it into the number of their Treasures and if with your profound Learning you had not a large portion of humility you would give me leave to preferre it before Bucklers faln from Heaven Images esteemed fatall and other sacred Gages of the Grandure and Duration of Empires but you would not have men flye so high for your sake and you do not affect to shew your self in so much pompe The Title you have given to your excellent Book is lesse proud and figurative it doth not menace the world with an insolent Metaphor though its modesty notwithstanding promise that which none but a perfect understanding can performe You undertake Sir the difficultest accommodation that ever was heard spoken of since there were any quarrels on Earth and though Priesthood and Royalty are two powers naturally friends nay two daughters of the same Father yet they are oft-times so embroyled against one another by the interest of their relatives that it will be hard for Equity her self to succeed in the reconciliation of them To this is required a moderation the hot-headed French are not very inclinable to and the haughty Roman lesse here must be neither the spirit of a Slave nor an Enemy here must be a soul full of light and emty of passion the King's power must be acknowledged and the Pope's authority bowed to but truth who is Superiour both to Pope and King and is the strongest thing in the world must be absolutely depended on What a Renoune will it be to you when it is believed that your designe was meerly to oblige her and it shall be said you defended her rights as if you had received pay from her or were by her commanded to write books What a brave thing it will one day be to be styled the Champion of truth I do not see any thing in your writings that may prejudice your hopes or so noble a pretention If you had any such when you writ it there is nothing of the degenerate or rebell in it and though as yet I have only considered the outside of the building and three or four pieces of the Portal I omit not to comprehend the merit of the whole pile together I saw at the first glance that your knowledge is wise your Libertie discreet and your zeal not blind the most part of books are notorious by such imperfections and the greatest part of Readers will easily be cured of them if they meet with no more books to foment them for my part I seek after nothing else since my gray Haires admonished me to look after what is solid and serious but especially Sir I highly esteem that learned wisdome without which I should not value all Baronius Latin though he had mountaines of it nor all Casaubon's Greek though he were more Atticke then Athens it self nor all Scaliger's Hebrew and Arabick though he understood it better then the Rabbins and the Mufty With this bait of sound sense and reason you take my mind after you had conquered my heart by another charme and I am not in this particular lesse your abettor than elsewhere I am obliged to be SIR Your c. Aug. 6. 1641. LETTER XVII To Monsieur de Rampalle SIR I Prized you before I knew you loved me and though such good tidings should have been concealed from me for ever yet should I have spoke of your verses with passion because indeed they put me into one there is fire in them that creepes into my veines for I confesse to my shame my age was a little warmed again with them I cannot dissemble it they tickled my heart and I appeared lesse severe that day I received them then I was the day before you touch the soul so to the quick that he must have none who feeles not those smart-stroakes your Art is a second Nature and your picture 's rather the perfection of things then the representation It is true the Stories you set down are such as lead to errour and forfeited Bishopprickes in the rigour of the Primitive Church for who can tell but your Metamorphosis may beget others nay may make more then one in Diana's retinue may change chast Ladies into amorous ones and the pleasure of reading into a temptation of sinning but I have neither vertue nor authority suffificient to prescribe you spirituall counsel it is enough for me to commit destiny holy matters to you and to tell you concerning the subject of those that are not so and that are such dangerous weapons in your hands what an old woman in Rome said when she was reading the tales of Bocace Would to God this were saying ones prayers You see by the carelesness of this Letter that I have put off my trade of Declaimer I have absolutely renounced the Genus demonstrarivum and deal no more in Eloquence but I have great doings with truth and you may believe me when I protest I am SIR Your c. May. 21. 1640. LETTER XVIII To Monsieur de la Chambre Councellour and Physitian to the King and in ordinary to my Lord Chancellour c. SIR YOur humility does you injustice and me a favour It exalts me by undervalewing you but yet I cannot therefore esteem my selfe taller or reckon you lesser I understand the style of the place where you are such submissions are part of your mirth and at Court you play with those words which we use in earnest in the Country It must necessarily be so else is it possible that you who are ignorant of nothing should not know what your selfe were worth Would you have excepted your selfe out of the universall knowledge you have acquired and at once both obeyed and disobeyed the Oracle of Apollo In earnest after I had considered examined and studied your book a whole fortnight I concluded that never any knew the worth of a man so perfectly as your self Never was the God of Delphos more nobly more punctually obeyed No not by him of whose absolute wisedome he gave testimony nor him that was heretofore called The understanding nor that other who to this day is called The Genius of nature This Genius it is true hath peeped into the soul but he stopped at the doore He hath only made the way open to you and if I were bold enough I would say he is but of the outer Court you of the Cabinet-councell There is no recesse nor cranny of the humane soul but you have penetrated there is nothing how nimble swift or secret soever that passes through it can
this testimony of the latter Juvenis genere nobilis manu fortis sensu celeâ— ultra barbarum promptus ingenio nomine Arminius Segemiri Principis gentis ejus filius ardorem animi vultu oculisque praeferens assiduus militiae nostrae prioris comes et jam Civitatis Romanae jus equestremque consequutus gradum segnitia Ducis in occasionem sceleris usus est haud imprudenter speculatus neminem celerius opprimi quà m qui nihil timeret et frequentissimum initium esse calamitatis securitatem In this passage Arminius is the sonne of Segemirus and if it be so might not some scrupulous Grammarian demand how you come to make the father of Arminius to be his sister in law but besides the community of names to either sexe as Hippolite Anne c. You have without question some historicall ground to oppose against this slight objection It was made to me by one who nevertheless valewes you perfectly and I send it you without any examination I will ever be of your opinion and withall my soul SIR Your c. Apr. 16. 1643. LETTER XXXVII To Monsieur de Lorme Councellour and Physitian in ordinary to his Majesty SIR I Am extreamly taken with the silver Medall in which you revive Hippolytus with these three words Diis geniti potuere but I maintaine besides that the name of Demy-god cannot be disputed against you but only by such as are ignorant of your fathers merit and the noblenesse of your profession The good Lord you speak of does not know that besides Apollo and Aesculapius his sonne there was in Greece one Hercules a Physitian Peter Mommor calls him in French of Alexica and he is yet to be seen in the Tapistry of Clement Alexandrinus but that honest Lord uses no Hangings but of Flanders or those of the Fairies and knowes no other Hercules but he that carries a Club and a Lions skinne This Demy-god Physitian we treat of had an infallible receit to cure pale complexions and yellownesse in lesse then four and twenty houres He was not contented only to bestow health and good plight upon the Ladies but he inspired youth and beauty into them It was he that cured the Queen Alceste of a disease which the faculty of Montpellier had judged incurable and I mention to you particularly what he did for women because I know you are readiest to give succour to that sexe which is most delicate and infirme as well as he But Hercules hath made me forget Hippolytus and I have filled that fragment of paper in which I intended to have thanked you with a comment upon your Medall I have no more roome left Sir but as much as to assure you that I am ever perfectly SIR Your c. Aug. 12. 1639. LETTER XXXVIII To Monsieur Girard Officiall and Prebend of Angoulesme SIR IT must be acknowledged that Madamoiselle de Schurman is an admirable Virgin and her verses are not the least of her wonders I do not thinke that the Sulpitia whom Martiall hath so highly extolled ever made better or more elegant in her native Latine But what modesty and vertue there is among the Graces and beauties of her Verses how the goodnesse of her soul is agreeably interwoven with the productions of her wit I am very much obliged to you for the knowledge of this admirable Lady and for sending me with her Epigrams the eloquent Letter of Monsieur Naudé I returne you them all againe by my Servant who should have set forth yesterday had it not been for an accident that befell me to restore more then I had received In the midst of this Epistle a new book was brought me and casting my Eye upon the preface I found these lines Habemus in urbe unius diei itinere hinc dissitâ virginem nobilem haud minus quâm Hippian numerosa arte multisciam tanto magis eo nomine mirandam quòd in hunc sexum rarò cadit tanta ingenii foecunditas tanta artium copia cum omnes calleat tot virtutum conjunctio cum nullâ careat Quaecunque manu confici â—t mente concipi possunt tenet una sic pingit ut nemo melius sculpit fingit ex aere ex cera ex ligno fimiliter in Phrygionica arte in omnibus quae muliebrium sunt curarum et operum omnes antiquas et hodiernas provocat ac vincit mulieres tot vero doctrinarum dotibus instructa est ut nescias in qua magis antestet tot linguarum donis ornata est ut non contenta Europaeis in orientem usque studio industria pervolârit comparatura ibi HebraÃcas Arbaicas Syriacasque quas adjungeret jam quaesitis Latinè ita scribit ut virorum qui totâ vitâ hanc elegantiam affectaverunt nemo politiús Gallicas Epistolas tales concinnat ut vix meliores Balzacius Cateris in Europa usitatis linguis aequè bene utitur ac illi quibus sunt vernacula Cum Iudaeis Hebraice cum Saracenis Arabice potest commercium habere literarum etiam viris arduas spinosas sententias ita tractat Philosophiam nempe Scholasticam et Theologâ—am ut omnes flupeant quia prodigio similis res est nemo aemuletur quia nemo potest imitari nullus etiam invideat quia supra invidiam ipsa est If Monsieur Salmasius be author of this book and the preface as I am written word when he puts out a second Edition I shal entreat him instead of Gallicas Epistolas tales concinnat ut vix meliores Balzacius thus he will please to change it multo minus bonâ—s minus Gallicas Balzacius I shall think my self yet too much honoured by this allay and moderation to my honour There is no glory in being neer so excellent a person in what manner soever it be and in such a similitude disadvantage it self is obliging I attend by my servant the inscriptions of Gruterus and the Chrysostome of the Father Fronton I am SIR Your c. May. 15. 1646. THE SECOND PART THE FIRST BOOK LETTER I. To Madam the Princess Madam IT is not for glory to approach the obscurity of a defart nor was its splendour ordained for Recesses and Solitude Your Highness has bestowed that on me which I am not capable of receiving and I acknowledge in the midst of a great amazement that I cannot in conscience esteem my self deserving the least word of that favourable Message which my Nephew delivered me Neverthelesse I can safely protest an infinite zeal to the Service of your Highness and this most assured truth gives me incouragement to believe that I do not merit to be wholly unregarded I know not whether it was not first fitting to learn that my devotion is not displeasing to you to the end I might with greater confidence performe my duty at certain altars I have raised to this effect and whose designe was not unpleasing to me in the conception Without this evidence of your goodnesse Madam I had never dared any
Cum talis fis utinam noster esses Will you be so faithfull as to carry him this amorous sigh from me it makes its addresses also to you who very well merit our desires and I beseech you receive it with my protestation to be alwayes in sincerity SIR Your c. Aug. 8. 1644. LETTER XXXIV To Monsieur de Blassac Merè SIR YOu are too good in pittying my solitude and awaking me out of my drouziness by a name so dear to me as yours I was ravished to find it at the end of those curious lines that preceded it curious indeed if ever I read any for without any designe to irritate the goddess of flowers or the god of light I maintain there can be nothing more gloriously enamelled nor more radiant then what you write But from whence do you gather all these riches You make but few journyes into the Latin Country and very rarely in to Greece Without doubt you take all these rich materialls of the Universal Idea of things your soul is naturally instructed and disciplined and you become learned in the same manner as the first Inventours of Arts and Sciences I am confident that excellent man you tell me of is of my opinion and that nights conversation you two had togerher in the walls of Saint Germans shew'd him that common understanding well-managed can outstrip Philosophy and that there was just occasion for a Dialogue where it may be he had provided a Lecture I exceedingly approve the eloquent homages you do him in your Letter to him I admire the high things you speak concerning the superiority of his wit and that silver Coller which you promise to weare as the badge of your servitude is a rare piece in my conceite I very much esteem Sir the good Counsels you have given to our Monsieut de la if he resolve to follow them no heart can escape him and we shall see as many Chlorises and Phillises as he can catch in his nets O the gallant Inamorato and youthfull Doctor of Love When shall I make up the third in your society It cannot be till you both come hither for in the consideration I am good fortune must come seek me and cast her self into my armes In the mean time I beseech you continue your hearty love to me if you will have me live with any comfortably in expectation of you and believe me ever I beseech you SIR Your c. Oct. 1. 1643. LETTER XXXV To the same SIR YOu did not allow me time to expect the good which I desired Almost at the same instant that I wish'd for manna from Sedan I saw it rain in my desart and the cloud broke upon the banks of Charante when I thought the vapour began but to exhale from the streames of Meuse Yet so rare a present is not the principall part of the benefit I have received the spirit with which you animated it is something more exquisite then the gift I do less value your none-such then your eloquence and contrary to the ordinary course words are here of more worth then things Give me leave therefore Sir to renew my old Questions to you and to demand What God hath inspired you with these eloquent words who hath revealed Rhetorick to you on what hill have you slept and what lawrell have you eaten Or have you lighted upon the thoughts of those Philosophers and Oratours whose books you never read Certainly your souls have seen and discoursed with one another in the other world before yours came into this You must have conferred together in the Closet from whence celestiall originalls and the first formes of things do issue for your acquaintance with them must come from a farther place then mine If it be so me thinks you have lately put your self to a superfluouâ— expence What will you do with that perpetuall whistler that chatters out Porphyries five Predicables and that Hackney Grammarian who betrayes Cicero every time he goes about to translate him to him Retrench your retinew of those two unprofitable mouths and continue to search narrowly within your self where I promise you you will find excellent things It is betetr to be rich by birth then cease to be a begger by labour and I esteem an admirable ignorant as you are before an ordinary Doctour such as I know store But the matter in Question hath been too long and too often handled Let us therefore conclude it with that faire picture which you have drawn in your Letter and do you fancy that young Lady who dispenses good and ill dayes at her pleasure and who without stirring from her mothers house scatters fire over all France fancy her I say either comming out of her bed or from bathing without a coâ—â—â— without a night-gown without lawne nay without her smock if you be but valiant enough to endure such an apparition and see her as naked as when she came into the world On the other side imagine to your self that Lady who ha's the prodigious memory who is the inventory of severall Kingdomes who groanes under the burden of fashions and gugewes who hath all Medaeaes receits for pastes oyles and essences To which of these two think you would the inclination of a soul that knew how to chuse runne first before which would a man of a sound judgment and good eyes most willingly prostrate himself There would be no great scruple in the choice Sir and by the same sentence your divine cousen and your selfe have carried your cause but I am not of opinion to venture my self any further though you would lead me I am extreamly apprehensive of ridiculous designes and adventures and my gray haires drive me from that banquet your good nature invites me to I leave you then the Phoenix the eighth wonder of the World the utmost atchievement of nature and all the rest of the hardwords of which you would have had me make an Oration contenting my self to end this Letter in the simplicity of familiar language and telling you acording to my custome that I am perfectly SIR Your c. Dec. 3. 1642. THE SECOND BOOK LETTER I. To Monsieur Menage SIR IF your passion be as true as it is eloquent and kindle as great a flame in your own breast as it casts lustre in your words with the favour of Socrates I am the most happy Lover that ever courted beautious souls Within a little space I have found a thousand rayes of that first and soveraign Faire which all the ancient Philosophy sought after and you can so well represent what you happily conceive that had you given me no more then this picture I should have already received too much But it is not your intention I should only be happy in figure you do not designe to bedeck me with a new nothing nor make a largess of false money Your Colours are solid and your appearances essentiall and without Question you have professed to me the fervency of your love in
the view of the frontitiers of a Country wherein you would not have found many Libraryes I am of opinion there are but very few Turkes Rhetoricians or Philosophers you would hardly have met with any solution of your doubts amongst a people that hold forth ignorance the fundamentall Article of their Religion They take the most vulgar operations of the Mathematicks for Magick and believe Printing and Clocks inventions of the Devell So that I extreamly approve your stay in Italy and the desire you had to understand and observe the deportment of the most rationall People of the world But why do not you speak of Rome as well as Venice Do you only esteem the Nephewes of Antenor and make no account of the sons of Aeneas I should think father Strada might merit as much your curiosity as father Fulgentio and you ought not to have slighted the Legitimate heir or rather the very soul of Tacitus to runne after the shadow and reliques of father Paul You make no mention of the Court of the Princes Barbarini though it is most certaine that all manner of vertue is wellcome to that Court though it come from Hamborough or beyond the Elbe The Muses are lodged in that Palace and he whom you Gallants call Jupiter Capitolinus may justly adde to his titles of Most good and Most great those of Most learned and Most generous He speakes the Language of Oracles even when he do's not speak ex Tripode and makes himselfe familiar with men And it is possible had you written that Elegy ad Romam which you have written ad Venetias the good Pope that understand the making of verses might have return'd you an answer which is beyond the skill of the Duke I am SIR Your c. Oct. 1. 1640. LETTER IIII. To Monsieur Rigault Councellour and Master of the Library to his Majesty SIR I Confesse my sinne but do not repent of it I am the most vaine of all men Living but how is it possible to be humble with all the glory that you give me After such rich tokens of your amity and esteem commendations bestowed by you are in effect something more glorious then Statues erected by a publique decree and carved by Phidias When I consider with my self it is the deare and last confident of the great President de Thou who is also my intimate and perfect friend you can not believe what advantage I draw from the meere imagination of so illustrious a society As often as I think that it is a Patriot of old Rome and a Christian of the Primitive Church which whom I converse I fancy my selfe immediately transported back into former ages and am sometimes become companion to the Sulpitii or Scevolaes and at other times to the Tertullians and Cyprians That which you have sent me to confirme my opinion of one of those good fathers is most worthy both of you and him And should he returne from the other world himselfe to give an account of his thoughts he could not justifie them better But because they may seeme somewhat harsh and strange at least to the nicety of women and ignorance of children and appearing in French cast a generall fright on all unlatin'd people I could wish you had taken the paines to transfuse them out of the vulgar tongue into the learned and adde this new benefit to all the old favours which Tertullian ha's received from you I could desire too Sir but in the same manner as Brutus did that you would give me the Christian which you once promised me I meane that Christian of the Heroick times of Christianity one of those gluttons of Fasts and Martyrdomes as your African would have called them I should be infinitely obliged to you if you would please to dispatch this present to me and if at the opening of a packet from Monsieur l'Huillier I found but three leaves written with your hand in the style and vigour of your Prefaces with this inscription on the front Rigaltii Christianus ad Balzacium Permit that admirable Monsieur l'Huillier to importune you for it in my absence and me to burden him with the solicitation of a businesse that lies neerer my heart then you can imagine Besides his own strength and power in perswasion he shall be assisted if it be necessary with the last part of my Apologies to Menander a volume of my Discourses two volumes of Letters ad Atticum and some other such Records that is the only word of Barretry I am Master of that shall all combine to demand the like debt from you When you have payed it we will talk more civilly It shall then be a benefit or a favour and I shall be glad to be yet more firmely then I am SIR Your c. Nov. 27. 1644. LETTER V. To Monsieur the Abbot of Guyet SIR YOu entreat me a great benefit to my self when you desire my company I understand what advantage a man that has but good ears may gain by it and I should have a soul too stubborn and flinty if it would not be mollified by the remonstrances you use to me Though I am one of the most rigid Anchorites that live in the Desart I must confess you have shook the firmness of my vow and the society of one of your merit is a violent temptation to encline me to Apostacy A solitary life has indeed its charmes and delights But who can chuse but grow lean when he is brought to that pass as he has no aliment but his own juyce And how commendable soever the commerce with books be yet every thing considered is it not an unburying of the dead and oftentimes a descending into their Sepulchres by deep and melancholy meditation A man had almost as good work in the mines He runs the same fortune and hazard and brings back no better a countenance nor eyes less sunck in his head They are living books that illuminate the mind without prejudice to the sight and you are Sir one of those excellent and agreeable books What delight then is in such volumes as can answer and reply they save the labour of scrutiny and choice by presenting things pure and simple they have something of more power and life then reading can possibly be capable of And though your three great favourites Terence Horace and Virgil be my ancient inclinations too yet I confess I never accounted them such honest fellows as when I heard them speak out of your mouth But what shall I say of the incomparable things I have heard from your self What Oracles have you deliver'd in my presence or to speak more plainly what admirable verses have I seen you make and recite By your favour I once had them among my papers and should have kept them still if some curious hand had not pilladg'd my Cabinet Be pleas'd to make me a second present of them if you desire to have me believe my own not displeasing to you Let Monsieur Menage prevaile with you and I
It is so noble and so glorious that the Muses and the Graces themselves would not disdaine your office Without question they would alwayes write if Monsieur Costar would alwayes dictate to them I recommend him to you once more and remaine SIR Your c. Feb. 1. 1642. LETTER XVII To my Lord Sequier Chancellour of France My Lord I Have heard you would not permit the publication of a book newly made against me though the harme I had thence received had been small My obligements to you for the favour cannot but be great it being a very particular care you have for the quiet of my life not to suffer the least noise to disturbe it I know not my Lord whether you may not seem to have treated with too much delicacy one who makes profession of Philosophy It is enough the publique authority shelters me from the tempest without defending me from the wind and dust and that it protects my hermitage from the violence of salvage beasts without beating off the flyes and other importunate Insects from me But my Lord the goodness you have for me goes beyond the limits of ordinary justice you would not only I should enjoy a calme repose amidst the agitations of all Europe but were farther willing the world should have some respect for my retiredness and that being eloigned from the society of men I should be placed without the reach of detraction And yet it pursued St. Jerome even to the Grottâ— of Bethelem and to the foot of our Saviours cradle it even there found him out though as himself tells us he endeavour'd to lye hid if that insolent had no consideration for so admirable a sanctity nor for a place guarded by Angells no wonder a vulgar innocence retired into a village ill fortified should not find a very favourable entertainment But to passe from the purity of manners to the high qualities and endowments of the soul if from time to time there have been bold revolts against the heads of Arts and disciplines and if within the memory of our fathers it hath publiquely been said at Paris that Aristotle was a bad Sophister I think my self civilly used in that place that they content themselves to call me a bad writer that grand Blasphemer of the name of Aristotle as well by his penne as by his tongue was as you know Peter Ramus who though of our Religion pass'd for an Hugue not in the Massacre and dyed the death of the Rebells and the Factious in effect some have thought God permitted it by a just judgment and that the tutelaâ—y Angell of Learning took the colour of the cause of faith to revenge the injury by him done to reason There is this day living in Germany a tyrant Grammarian an enemy of universall truths an accuser of Cicero who not long since hath printed his Animadversions wherein he is so impudent as to arraigne his judge and to dispute the praecedence of the Prince of Latine Antiquity insomuch My Lord that the consent of all Mankind confirmed by a possession of eighteen ages is not Title sound enough to secure the reputation of that Roman against the Pedantry of this Barbarian If then it availes not vertue that she hath been consecrated by time and crowned by the people to preserve her inviolate from the attempts of particular persons there is no shew of likelihood I should move their compassion amongst so many injured Hero's or that I should have respect showne me when Aristotle and Cicero are not in safety An ordinary man ought not in justice to complaine if he undergoeth the same destiny with extraordinary persons neither would it be handsome in me to petition you would reforme the world for my only interest I know not My Lord but that this petty disorder may be of some use to the Common wealth and it were to be wish'd that malice would alwayes amuse it self in things of so small concerne to the end it might never intermeddle with affaires of greater moment Those who have employed their talent in perverting the sense of my words and falsifying my works had otherwise perhaps been busied in forging wills and coyning money And he who now only desires an Imprimatur from you for his book had I not been might have sued to you for a Reprieve or Act of grace 'T is much better injustice should spert it self with my books then that it should have ought to do in civill society 't is much the lesser inconvenience that injurious persons should transpose words and alter periods then that they should remove the Land-marks and ruinate the houses of their Neighbours it is to say the truth the most innocent imployment vice can have and I do not think the Common-wealth a little beholden to me that I have for these ten yeares set a-work a number of retchlesse idle fellowes who apparantly would have proved dangerous Citizens if they had not chosen to be ridiculous Censurers 't is very well if the heat of their souls exhales this way if their intemperance finds this vent and that to avoid their rage their folly may be licensed leave them then my Lord this exercise they know not what to do with their time and will employ it worse if you will not permit them to use it thus suffer their turbulent youth to spend its fury upon an insensible subject and to combat dead words which are neither capable of griefe nor joy so long as they present themselves before you in no other quality then as Gladiators of the Penne be not sparing of the Kings grace and remit somewhat of your severity If the thing were new to me 't is likely I should not find my self aggrieved that the first Pamphlet that libell'd me should be stopt in the presse but now that there is already a faire Library of them got together I am well content they should encrease and multiply and take pleasure to behold a goodly heap of stones which envy hath thrown without hurting me The reproach of some persons is not resented by me as shamefull because I esteem not their praise for honest I do not trouble my self to go begging of voices or making Cabals that I may be approved by all sorts of people I have what I desire my Lord if I have your approbation as that which proceeds from an un-erring principle an understanding perfectly cleare God had indued you with a soveraigne judgment before the King had bequeathed his soveraigne justice into your hands and you were all poâ—â—rfull in reason before you were so in authority I will have no recourse to this latter because I know the former is not altogether my enemy and am more proud to have pleased you then I should be satisfied should you have prescribed all my adversaries the advantagious discourses you have held with me upon diverse occasions your Picture which you were pleased to give me last yeare as the gage of your affection those rich works of yours which you have
cause him to go with this Ticket being bound by Oath to write no more Letters But he protested he would not present himself before you with empty hands He told me moreover out of his familiarity with me that he would allow me to make a sermon or an Oration if I were so conscientious as not to dictate a Letter to him and he ha's thought himselfe to draw two pieces out of his Register presuming you will take delight to read them because he does so to copy them If Monsieur I should be glad he may be partaker with you you know I have a most particular esteem of his judgment and that a young Cato is worth a whole senate of Gray-beards That which makes me not to hope ill of my French is that he did not judge my Latin barbarous and that the inartificiall simplicity of my verse found favour in his eyes Having fallen casually from the mouth of him that made them they ought to have died in the secrecy of him that receiv'd them But their good fortune ha's been greater than their merit and since that time they have almost perswaded me to think my self a Poet. Being approv'd by a person that is not lesse of the Court of Augustus then of that of Lewis the thirteenth his approbation ha's encouraged me to a new heat and the honour which he ha's done to five or six straglers is the cause that has induc'd me to form a Body of sixty and more which I beseech you to present him with the two pieces of the Register c. I am SIR Your c. Aug. 4. 1638. LLTTER XXXVII To Monsieur de Bois-Robert Metel Abbot of Chastillon SIR YOur Letter of the sixth of the past month gives me no new knowledge it confirms me onely in my old opinions You are alwaies the father of courtesies and the common good of the whole world But you are principally necessary to the learned world and the Common wealth of good Letters Were it not for you the Oratours would be perpetually exclaiming in their Orations against the Times and Manners and the Poets would do nothing in their Verses but curse Apollo and the Muses The good offices which you do them with his Eminence temper their bad humour and give them thoughts less violent So that to consider things from their Originall there is no Ode nor Panegyrick at this day whereof you are not the first Authour and Posterity will be oblig'd to you for all the Latin and French of our Age. But beside the Panegyrick and Ode c. I beseech you in the meane time to secure the affaire and since you know that times consumes things as it ripens them continue me your care and diligence both for the one and for the other assignation I am passionately SIR Your c. LETTER XXXVIII To the same SIR I Am astonish'd at the designe of Madam de Motteville concerning me I did not imagine my name was known to so excellent a Person and there was so muth goodness at Court as would oblige without importunity As it is a favour above the common Standard so my resentments must not be in an ordinary measure But do not you counsell to depute that office to your most reverend Lordship Since you know better how to set it off then I and that she has been excitâ—d to a good action only by the inducement of her vertue she will not refuse to continue that goodness at your intreaties which are attended with the force of so much eloquence Your last Verses seemed to me very excellent and naturall but I have known long agoe that you are none of those violents that take our Goddesses by force quique in Parnassum irrumpunt diis hominibusque invitis Were it not for you the comparison of Cleopatra would be no longer in the world which now cannot perish being she finds her preservation in your memorie The care you have taken of her is an evidence of her predestination or if you would have me speak less Theologically there is no appearance that I should neglect that which is now more yours then mine and which you judg'd worthy to be kept a long time in the Cabinet of excellent things so I call your memory Sir c. I am alwayes peâ—fectly Decem. 26. 1644. Your c. LETTER XXXIX To Monsieur Conrart Councellour and Secretary to the King SIR MY melancholy corrupts the greatest pleasures of my life I am unsatisfied with the sweetness of light and nothing in the world would content me if I had not two or three persons in it that are to me instead of all You are a part of this little world which I esteem so dear I have chosen you with the refusall of the Sun and the Court and in the most gloomy and sad nights only your Idea fram'd in my imagination gives me sensible comforts Therefore what will not your Letters do which are so sincere and amorous and infinitely more your presence which your Letters promise me But there is no longer a Madam Desloges to invite you to the Village and to hope such a visite but from the like attractive is beyond the belief I have of my desert Nevertheless it is perhaps a designe of your goodness and you have resolv'd to make me happy If there needs no more but the good interval you speak of to bring me that felicity I shall presently betake my self to my vows to the goddess of Health for it I will compose her a Hymne to obtain a months release from your Gout And to speak my conscience she will not more oblige me in restoring me the vigour of my first years in giving me a second youth yea in giving her self to me then in granting me those thirty dayes of so dear a society They would be dayes of which I should make benefit every moment and would requite me for all the time I have lost amongst pretenders and false friends My spirit which is corrupted by the neighbourhood of bad examples would be restored to purity by your excellent communication You would purge me from all the errors of the people and the defects of the Country You would make me live in earnest The life of the fortunate Islands or that of the Elysian fields those which the Poets spin of Gold and Silke would be but low resemblances of it But I must repress my course Poor men are never more sensible of and more afflicted with their poverty then when they have dream't of riches I am to the utmost of my power and without reserve SIR Your c Apr. 25. 1647. FINIS FAMILIAR LETTERS OF M. de BALZAC To M. CHAPELAIN The First Book LETTER I. SIR IT is out of doubt nothing of Alarm hath yet been apprehended by us from Paris Neverthelesse it is true that a Gentleman of quality inform'd my father of the Prince's indignation and the complaints of the Queen his mother But the Queen is of too great goodnesse to have given
that rigorous command which is reported to us and there is not much likelyhood that the Prince should say at Brussells he would set my house on fire if he came with his Army into Guienne This burning would indeed somewhat more displease me then that which my Book suffered by the couragious Marquesse d'Aytâ—na Houses as you know are not printed nor can there be more copies of them made at the same time But I am very averse from believing that those words fell from the lips of the son of Henry the Great an action of that kind would not be the fairest part of his History It is not the manner of Eagles to stoop at Flies We are too inconsiderable objects for his high and redoubtable displeasure And what presumption would it be in a man that is not appointed with a hundred Armes nor of strength enough to pile Mountains one upon another to esteem himself worthy of the vengeance of Jupiter or at least of one of his sons I expect some of your news by the Post on Friday and remain SIR Your c. Balzac 1 June 1636. LETTER II. SIR IT must needs be that either I did not deliver my self well in the Conference I had with your friend or he ill understood my intention For I desire nothing from Doctor B. but the honour of his good opinion which he hath solemnly promised me nor from the Sorbonne but the enjoyment of the peace they accorded me in the most ample form that I could request It would be very strange if I should be enforc'd to the further trouble of Negotiation and Ambassadours to treat that old Peace anew I believ'd that affair to be as well dead at Paris as it was buried in oblivion at Balzac The homage which the Faculty required of me I have already rendred them and was assured that the Gentlemen were therewith satisfied Hereafter let us visit them as our Friends and cease to solicite them as Judges I conceive Doctor B. repents himself of having treated me too civilly perhaps he expected I should have taken an attire of mourning and suffered my hair and beard to grow down to my girdle to the end I might have presented my self before him in the fashion of an accused person and an humble suppliant His Doctorall severity must not proceed so far And I intreat you tell your friend that it is not reasonable to oppresse people with formalities which are to no purpose and never have an end I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15 June 1636. LETTER III. SIR YOu are not ignorant that in the affair of the Sorbonne I comported my self with the docility and flexiblenesse of a Novice And although I had as much reason to maintain my opinions as they to oppose them yet I forbore to make use of my right or defend my self against my fathers My submission will possibly one day be proposed for Imitation and I would fain believe that for the future I shall be left to my undisturbed quiet In former years I was of the number of those thirsters after honour to whom both daies and nights were rendred restlesse by the desire of conquest At present I am altogether another person I love rather to sleep in the silence and calm of peace then to be wakened from my repose by all the Trumpets of Victory Let us keep close to the Pater noster and determine our selves with the other pieces of that nature There is none but God that can speak fitly of God because there is none but God that knowes God All that men of themselves speak concerning him is no other but stammering incongruity and soloecism in the language and science of Heaven And you are not to learn that De divinis etiam vera dicere periculosum I am SIR Your c. Balzac 20 June 1636. LETTER IV. SIR I Am not much troubled to be dead at Paris provided that I live at Balzac the Letter I writ you about eight daies since hath given you assurance of this truth whereof a flying report had caused you to doubt Though I be not of much value I perceive you would have had a sensible regret of my losse and I am greatly satisfied of your affe n. The onely resentment I have is that your judgment doth not appear so favourable to me as your inclination and that you refuse me that agreable fruit which I aime at in all my actions I mean the contentment of having pleased you You make scruple to pronounce upon the Letter which I write to an Achilles of the cause because a Thorsites of the same cause hath told you that it displeased him to whom it was sent I have learnt the contrary from himself And besides the civilities of his Answer he hath caused a thousand complements to be made me in person by a famous Hugenot of this Province The comparison between him and Hannibal both of them sworn enemies of Rome did him honour and I know was not displeasing to him The word Finesse could not any waies disgust him in the place where it is it signifies onely addresse knowledge and subtlety The finenesse of a language and the finenesse of an art are termes of no bad sense And if I had said that such a Captain by some certain means had finely concealed the weaknesse of his Town it must needs be that this Captain were more rude then a Gascone and that his bravery extended to a dislike of good reason and prudence if he took it ill that I spoke of his finenesse As for Hannibal I am most confident he was of no such humour he did not account himself affronted by the recitall sometimes of his stratagems and sleights fot it was no more then to intimate to him that he not onely knew how to overcome his enemies but that he could also overcome them by mockery and sport I am SIR Your c. Balzac 30 June 1636. LETTER V. SIR THe objections of Paris are insupportable and the interpreters of the Fauxbourgh of St. German take all my words to a contrary sense I perceive that to avoid being contradicted it is necessary that I give over speaking If I am so unhappy as to injure my friends when I caresse them reason requires that for the good of civill society I change my solitude into a prison and chain up my self for the safety of my friends Will the world be alwaies thus unjust and impertinent and will there never be any other to judge of the productions of the soul but lumps of flesh and matter I think I cannot call them beasts by a more civill expression I am SIR Your c. Balzac 8 July 1636. LETTER VI. SIR I Received two of your Letters by the same Post which gave me knowledge of some newes whereof I was before ignorant and confirmed the relations of others I am alwayes of your opinion and particularly concerning the King of Sweden I wish onely that he had not so much of the German in his
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
had need of life and vigour it is you who have undertaken a designe I believe the greatest that has been this hundred years But if you should chance to fail in your purpose it will not be construed either inability or unfaithfulnesse but want of convenience and leisure I am affraid that Paris with its complements will do the Maid more hurt then ever England did by all her force of Arms. I am told that something has passed unhandsome betwixt the Marshall de and our friend who has been menaced although the sacrednesse of his person preserves him secure We are here in a place where we catch cold whilst the Country you reside in burns with excessive heat May you enjoy a felicity pure and unmixt and passe such daies as are woven with the finest gold and silk that ever the three Sisters wrought calm and undisturbed I am SIR Your c. Balzac 30. Septemb. 1637. LET. XXIV SIR I See now you are a faithfull promiser and that a man may safely rely upon your word The fragments you are pleased to communicate to me is come to my hands But to tell you the truth this drop does but increase my thirst I burn with impatiency to have the sight of that entire body from which so rare a piece was taken But while I am in preparation to court you to that suit is it not true that a hundred Verses had been of no greater charge to you then thirty If you would have obliged me nobley I assure you they should be kept here in great secrecy neither will I communicate them to more then one person who shall also oblige her self by Oath never to remember any thing of that I shall recite to her Those distates you mention would some thing trouble me but that you sufficiently understand the brutishnesse of this age whose judgment concerning good things is yet worse then that of the precedent I jâ—st now came from reading in Monsieur de Thou the complaints made to him by the good man Victorius when he went to visit him being at Florence Querebatur is tum bonas litteras in Italiâ vilescere habere se multa quae publico libenter daret sed ea plerisque non tanti aestimari quanti conveniret c. I am of his mind that the pains we take are very ill bestowed and that we ought not to trouble our selves so much in making-pastime for impertinent and ingratefull persons If some ignorant fellow take exception at the learned World in the discourse you may alledge those verses to him Meritò cui doctior Orbis Submissis defert fascihus imperium I am SIR Your c. Balzac 20. Septemb. 1637. LET. XXV SIR I Presume you understand the designe of our Semicapro to put me into the Prelacy which he imagines to accomplish by the credit and recommendation of certain people whose names and existence I never yet heard of I send you the two wonderfull Letters they writ me to that effect which I think you can scarce read with a sober countenance you will there see the management of all bad policy and the whole Machiavel of the Village to draw two Letters from me in their own commendation But I am determin'd and that I assure my self with your allowance to equall their artifice wtth cruelty and to suffer their vanity to expire for want of succour If these Gentlemen were not comprised in my generall vow I should make a particular one for their sakes They have as little knowledge of me as I have sufficient of them And their attempt is contriv'd upon me by such means as I am hardest to be taken It is not in my skill either to canvasse for voices or beg any man's approbation I have forsaken those that were able to give and enrich and shall not now begin to court such as can onely promise and abuse You know Sir I have no ambition to raise a fortune if I had I should endeavour it all other waies before The kindnesse that our good Semicapro has for me and his readinesse to ingratiate me with my Lord perhaps as sincerely as many others have restrain'd him from discovering such a number of subtle devices as you may observe in the Letters I speak of For these friendly advices and all the propositions of advancement have in reality no other aime but two answers But I here solemnly protest they shall never be Masters of their designe And if it be requisite I will add to my former Oath all those Execrations of the Antients which you have read in Aulus Gellius You see the bad construction I make of other mens good-will But I have told you a thousand times that I am infinitely apprehensive of all injuries that abuse my reason I most humbly kisse your hands and remain SIR Your c. Balzac 28 Septemb. 1637. LETTER XXVI SIR YOur Letter represents the little Father as so jolly a person that my displeasure would be more vehement if he had been an experter Mountebank and endeavoured to beguile me with greater subtlety 'T is your happinesse to apprehend things alwaies on the right side and to proceed directly to truth This is no groundlesse asseveration We have friends of lesse exact judgment and you know the Writer of Politick Books is liable to be over-matcht by the little Father as well as he that prints them I am redevable to this latter for his good-will yet I would wish him to acquiesce absolutely in your advice He must not permit the mediocrity of his reason to strain forwards having learn'd from you or me the compasse it should move in I do not doubt but you are surprised even at the title of the litle Father's Letter and that Balzac l'Orateur does not extreamly please you Although he cannot confer that quality on me without displacing Monsieur de Colomby who is Oratour to the King and usurping upon the Jacobins and Cordeliers who are your most humble Oratours I am SIR Your c. Balzac 6 Octob. 1637. LETTER XXVII SIR THough I have no very commendable eyes yet I perceive the workmanship of Mellan is far gallanter and of better conceit then that of the other engraver The good Camusaâ— adds much honour to my writings by the ornament of so fair and ingenuous figures What do you conceive in particular of that pensive and melancholly Pallas May she not seem to be plac'd at the entry of the Book with her wand onely on purpose to defend it from the fingers of the Sophister Gorgias and Palemon the Grammatian That which I have sent you is of the style which the Romanes termed Attique and has not yet fallen into the observation of our people Nevertheless it was of great renown during the times that Eloquence and Orators flourish'd in the world and maintain'd its credit against Cicero even in his own dayes If I were minded I could send you somewhat more considerable for which I am confident of your thanks But that must be intreated
that is to a Jean de Wert and imployes all his Rhetorick in the Oration of an ignorant The Commentaries of Caesaâ— and the lives of Suetonius might be brought in your justification but they have not the name of Histories nor with your favour must what I say be tearmed Controversie For I am in effect of your opinion and would write an History in the manner you designe it though I have great contentment in reading that of the draught of Livy I am SIR Your c. Balzac 4 July 1638. LETTER XVI SIR MY intention was certainly mis constru'd concerning the Gasconian Poem I never had any designe of aspersing it much less Statius and Tacitus for although I am of the contrary party to them yet I esteem them brave generous enemies I know those noble personages have conceits high and magnanimous that above half the world is for them and that being onely culpable of the vice of their age they are culpable of a vice that has a neer resemblance to vertue It is true Naugerius made a sacrifice to the god Vulcan of the Woods he had planted in imitation of Statius But I cannot approve of his cruelty nor will I counsell Monsieur de Saint Blancat to dispose so of his which I have seen of the Impression of Tholouse Besides their worth whâ—ch is not ordinary I have a kind of interest in them since I am styl'd there magni Balzacius oris if at least his meaning is that I have the eloquence of Cicero and hot the throat of Garagantua I am for the child of a thousand vowes All France has apprehended the matter so 'T is a word fram'd by the universall voice and without an expresse Edict to that purpose it will be no small difficulty to make us change our language I am SIR Your c. Balzac 6 Janu. 1639. LETTER XVII SIR I Return you the Comedy of Annibal Caro which I have just now read over it seems to me judicious and plausible yet I conceive I have seen better The morall part has more of my approbation then the pleasant and his Fool has not given me so agreeable divertisment as I could have wished Touching the Comedies of Ariosto you tell me of I read them in my voyage to Rome and do readily subscribe to the favourable judgment you make of them The person that lent them me did not value them at so high a rate as your friend of Paris Certainly if that friend be marri'd he will not suffer his wife out of his sight but accompany her himself to repay visits A man of that unmeasurable jealousie deserves a strumpet for his consort and that his servant should set his Library on fire to teach him a more moderate esteem of what he calls himself Master I cannot believe I have any friends of this humour if they were I should soon repent me of their knowledge and so have given them such testimonies as I prize above all their Books I speak onely of Inke Paper and Covers without reference to the merit of the Authors who are not concern'd in this sort of commerce I am SIR Your c. Balzac 19 May 1638. LET. XVIII SIR I Am not so well skill'd in the Greek of Florence as to understand distinctly the Atticism of Annibal Caro yet I have some doubt of it and my confus'd suspicions are at no great distance from your perfect knowledge There is something of morality in the Comedy that gave me much contentment though have at present lost the remembrance of it For the rest I refer my self to you onely I conceive the Cavalier Marini must be allowed the preeminence of fancy and I never knew so great a difference between two Wits as his and this one of them is all imagination and the other all judgment In the Verses of Annibal Caro me-thinks I behold the modest grandeur and decent management of a Common-wealth and those of Cavalier Marini represent me the luxury and profusion of Nero. As to Victorius he is a person I extreamly value although he be no great friend to Ovid and seems not wholly satisfied with the Latine of Virgil. We will examine this matter at better leisure and consider the weight of those reasons that have induc'd him to such opinions In the mean time you may please to understand that I expect the volume in Folio and have nothing but thoughts of acknowledgment for the civilities of Messieurs du Puy Your jealous friend might do well to consult some Soothsayer concerning the voyage of his Book I think he would be in as forlorn a condition as the desolate Alcyone if he should dream of some unhappy adventure that had befallen it I beseech you pardon my freedom in treating such pâ—ople the greatest honour I can afford them is to reckon them in the number of those that are sick of the disease of Tulips or of that of Hens and Pigeons Although these last are sometimes more profitable and I have had the flowers of the one in my hand and the young of the other in my dish For my own part I should take great contentment in losing my Books in that manner and I can say without vanity that those wherewith I have pleasur'd my friends since I came into the world would be sufficient to make no small Library I am SIR Your c. Balzac 29 May 1638. LETTER XIX SIR MY indisposition renders all my nights restlesse and yours permits you but small repose I cannot draw comfort from the resemblance of your sufferings But I must further advertise you that my daies are also painfull and irksom and I onely enjoy a few passable moments A life of this kind is a great misery and I know nothing in it can countervail the trouble of sustaining a body so ruinous as mine Long waking is sometimes without anguish but when a man's pains never sleep this is indeed the state of Regulus in the hands of the Carthagenians 'T is to endure all the racks and tortures of the Tyrants your Letter mentions 't is to live as I do I am sorry that in all this relation there is not so much as one word of Rhetorick and could wish my complaints were lesse Historicall they proceed from a cause so sensible and importunate that I am not able to continue them but must of necessity for this time reduce all my matter to these few lines which will assure you that I am eternally with all my soul SIR Your c. Balzac 12 June 1638. LETTER XX. SIR HAving depriv'd the imaginative Poet of judgment I have left h m nothing now bâ—t an instrument to commit faults with You know when the Cyclops was blind his great strength incumbered him and serv'd onely to advance the danger of his fall Our opinions therefore appear to be the same though they differ'd in the expression and I conceive that the fancy alone in what degree of perfection it can possibly be is uncapable of being a
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
a great company with me will not afford me leasure I am confident you will allow the excellent wit and language of Monsieur the Duke de la Rochefoucaut as also that of Monsieur the Prince of Marsillac his son to be sufficient and lawfull causes of referring you to another time Yet I must not end here without telling you that I received about three hours since a rich present from Monsieur de la Menardiere All that I could do since that time was to read the discourse at the entry of the book wherein I confesse betwixt the strength of his reasoning and the solidity of his doctrine I perceiv'd so quick and glorious appearances and in so great number that I yet remain dazled with them Did I yet practise the writing of Letters I would not fail to testifie to him the resentments I have of so dear a favour But it is possible I shall one day render him some more considerable act of my gratitude and I hope that after I have studied his book it will furnish me wherewith to alledge it Par verò mumus ne à nobis unquam expectes praestantissime Capellane sed si per egestatem nostram referre gratiam non licet ingenui saltem animi erit profiteri per quem profecerimus I am SIR Your c. Balzac 22 June 1640. LET. XVIII SIR I Have solemnly renounc'd Hyperbole 't is a rock which I look 〈◊〉 upon without trembling and fear more then Scylla and Châ—â—â—dis Yet you think I take pleasure to fall upon it and that I am more then ever the hyperbolicall Doctor I perceive well Sir where the occasion lies I shall be in combat all my life with your perpetuall humility and there is need of a processe to make you receive your due I will not cease to tender it to you in the best coine I am able and shall not scruple to perform that justice to the most faithfull of my friends which I rendred to my most enraged adversaries Monsieur Costard will without doubt be transported with joy for the receit of the excellent present you sent him and you shall not fail of his thanks which notwithstanding I shall know sooner from you then from him because there is no commerce from hence to Niort and the fifteen leagues that separate us are lesse favourable to our entertainments then the distance of a hundred 'twixt Angoulesm and Paris All your fears give me not lesse disquiet then they do you But I hope the God of Hosts will be on our side to the end of this Campagne It may be the excellent Hymns will prevail with him and then I doubt not but the Prince of Monsieur Chapelain will obtain greater favours from him then he of Monsieur Faret Battels are not alwaies fought at the times of appointment and I have observ'd in the Histories of all ages that the great events which determine the fate of great affairs do happen lesse frequently according to designe then by accident and occasion Our enterprises here below are derided from above and we are but the engines and actours of pieces that are composed in heaven Homo histrio Deus verò poeta est He is Sir a soverain Poet and you cannot refuse the part which he appoints you to bear in the Scene It is meet we comply to his orders concerning us and submit our selves to the direction of his providence Neverthelesse I dare promise you this time that you shall have no need of your supream vertues and my genius prompts me that your Muses shall yet a long time sing the triumphs of Monsieur de Longueville These are the vowes which are made for him and you by SIR Your c. Balzac 1 July 1640. LET. XIX SIR YOu are the last of the good and magnanimous and if there be yet any generosity upon earth we maâ— say boldly it is lodged in your breast and discovers it seâ—â—â—n your words Those which you have written to Monsieur Costard in answer to his Letter have so wholly satisfied me on every side that I know not which most to esteem either the prudence and freedom that have dictated them or the wit and courage that breathe in them They would even reclaim Tigers to civility and to inchant Dragons Quid fiet de homine ut Romani loquebantur humanissimo cui est consuetudo cum mansuetioribus musis Non obtusa adeò Costardus pectora gestat I doubt not but for the future he will be one of your great admirers and knowing you as he does bestow his heart upon you which is one of the most noble and constant that I know I account myself happy in having contributed something to this incomparable friendship Being both of you of such eminent worth it was requisite to the glory of either that you should be no longer indifferent I have yet seen no more then the Epistle of our friend wherein I was ravished to see the Verses which he cites from you This is term'd Praesenti tibi maturos largitur honores Ornandasque tuum per nomen suscipit artes Do me the reason of a most humble acknowledgment for the other wherewith he begins his discourse with that excesse of gratitude pro ingratissimâ mihi olim gratiâ If one had given him the Consulship what would he not have said For one Panegyrick that Ausonius made he would have made a dozen and if Domitian had offer'd him the honour of a dinner he would have flouted the feasts of Jupiter he would have said He scorn'd his Nectar and had no need of his Ambrosia I am SIR Your c. Balzac 10 July 1640. LET. XX. SIR SInce the Letters which you write me are benefits which I receive and those I return you are the acknowledgments which I render you may well perceive that it concerns me not to leave you one onely moment in doubt of the gratitude of my soul The happinesse is you are neither a hard friend nor a proud benefactor Although I should fail your indulgence would seek reasons to justifie my offence and you would accuse not onely the Post Totila and Rocolet but also fortune the stars and destiny rather then believe me culpable You need not doubt but I am much interessed in the great newes of Germany and intend to make a bonefire for my own particular as soon as your Prince shall have deserved those of the publick I pray Heaven he may become the Liberatour of Christendome and that I be his Prophet and you his Historian But indeed if a man may be a Prophet and a Poet at the price you speak of they are charges of a very cheap rate and the places of the Sages did not cost more in the time of Cleobulus and Bias when there needed no more to have one then to have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or some such like quodlibet If Monsieur Menage does me the honour of a visit I will receive him with open arms and my hermitage shall be
gallant man which pass'd through this Country and is going in quest of Truth and good Wine by Sea and Land To this effect he designs a Pilgrimage to Monsieur Des Cartes in imitation of that of Apollonius to Hiarchas Nevertheless he will put off truth and Monsieur des Cartes to the next year and not pass the Sea this Campagne But his other design deserves the knowledge of the whole world He departed from Paris on purpose to come and see the Sun rise and set at Balzac and so forwards to eat all the Melons and Figs of Gasconie and from thence to take the way of Languedoc and keep the Vintage of Frotignac Alexander had never so rare a thought The Conquest of the Indies is nothing in comparison to this expedition and you must be more sparing hereafter in relating to me the voyages of your Theseus You must further know that his first speech to me was concerning you in such manner as I would have all the world speak and this introduction has so well pleas'd me that although he had drawn after him Maenades Sileni Asses and Panthers I could not have shut my Gate upon this extraordinary train As I had finish'd my Letter he that is the subject of it came hither upon the Gallop and gave me a second visit matutinam siccam sobriam But yet I must tell you that this sobriety is not without some consideration of interest and that he did not forbear his breakfast but for fear it might be prejudiciall to a great dinner which attended him at Angoulesme So that even his abstinence has intemperance for its object and is nothing at all agreeable to that of the ancient Fathers in the Desert I am SIR Your c. Balzac 14 Aug. 1640. LETTER XXIV SIR THe great importance is to know that I am your Favourite for it is most certain you are a King and if you will not believe me hear the Oracle that tells you Rex est qui posuit metus Et airi mala pectoris Quem non ambitio impotens Et nunquam stabilis favor Vulgi praecipitis movet Qui tuto positus loco Infra se videt omnia If you desire any more behold Sir a second Oracle or the confirmation of the first Mens regnum bona possidet Nil ullis opus est equis Nil armis inertibus Telis quae procul ingerit Parthus cum simulat fugas Rex est qui metuit nihil There is nothing herein which is not proper to you and you are the Soveraign next Monsieur de Longueville But it is true this Noble affection gives you some disquiets and you feare all the blowes for so dear a person which you would contemn if they were directed against your selfe The Sonnet of the Italian President and the Letter of the Cavalier of twenty years old are very agreeable to my palate and you have obliged me with a feast of two so rare presents But how many lustres are gone I had almost said Ages wherein we have seen nothing of your Muses I know well that Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno And there is scarce any thing but Vowes made in a Tempest But yet you might have put those vowes in rime and told us in Musick that singing could not be exspected from you in your present estate As for me nothing disturbs me from my Trade Neither pain of body nor affliction of mind hinder me from sending you almost by every Post something of my workmanship My Enthusiasm being past and my last Latine-Letter sent some have assur'd me that it was an incomparable piece Behold a great word for a Courtier not very familiar with your Apollo and a Doctor in the vulgar tongue I have not so much faith as to believe my self presently a Roman Citizen because a Provinciall told me so 't is you Sir who must clear me up this truth and if you please to associate Monsieur the Abbot of St. Nicholas in the judgment of this important affair I send you a new copy to be delivered to him He is without doubt rerum nostrarum acerrimus integerrimus judex possidetque in supremo gradu ut Magistri loquuntur facultatem judicatricem Do me the favour to observe and mark all the faults to the end I may correct them for it is a dangerous thing to speak a dead language I am SIR Your c. Balzac 4 Septemb. 1640. LET. XXV SIR I Have much exclaim'd against the delayes of messengers and truly not without cause since they depriv'd me of an extraordinary contentment and hinder'd me from the enjoyment of Monsieur Menage his Book would have made Justus Lipsius jealous and put Lambin in dispair It astonishes me and I am confident satisfies you though you expresse nothing thereon to leave me the entire liberty of my judgment It is true I have a great inclination for this grandis praetxtatus But if I were his profest enemy I should confesse that his subtleties are very solid and his doctrines exquisite he drawes out of fountains remote from the common roads and which the people have not yet soyled But who would think that in criticall questions and those upon the Heautontimorumenos of Terence there were any room for courtesie and offices of friendship and that I should see my self amongst so many Authors and Scholiasts It seems he did not reprehend me in tâ—e beginning but with a foresight of rendring his commendations of me lesse suspected in the conclusion nor correct me for taking the conception of Hercules for his birth but to the end he might say that the faults which I commitate common to me with the infallible Heinsius You are too good Sir and know the way of gratitude too well to leave me in areer in this particular and there are no words but yours that can sufficiently expresse my resentments Be pleased to grant me them in this occasion and preserve me that precious friend in the same manner as you bestow'd him on me But must I not hear that you are returned into the way of the Hostel of Monsieur the Ambassadour of Sueden and that you are a better Courtier in Summer then in Winter Visit that excellent person and become his Confident You may possibly see that incomparable History which he keeps prisoner so many years for there are neer thirty past since the Author of Infanticida writ to him in these remarkable words Ita munus molestissimum sustinuisti hactenus ut quaecunque in Republicâ jam restant aliud agendo sustinere possis quod fidem superat tanquam in otio absolutam patriae Historiam occupatissimus scripsisti Quam qui olim legent obstupescent salvo Taciti splendore augustâ Majestate dici aliquid floridius potuisse I have read his Book de jure Belli Pacis which is of very great learning and a long time since his Mare Liberum and lately two Tragedies and some other sacred Poems but I have lost the
witnesses against him are not so faithfull as I and that the greatest part of advices are like Heroick Poets who upon a small foundation of truth build a prodigious structure of Lyes How many wicked minds are there that wish an eternity of the Warre that are onely fit to break friendships to hinder reconcilements and to cherish and improve the seeds of hatred But the businesse must be further cleared and our judgments suspended till then I know not what to say concerning Monsieur Conrart but onely that old word which I have repeated so often I shall live and dye in my ingratitude He is excessivly obliging and unlesse I have your assistance to acquit me from so many engagements I confesse I am insolent and I yield him up my words which are the onely goods of a poor Rhetorician I am SIR Your c. Balzac 1 May 1641. LET. XIII SIR YOu remember what the Crow said of old upon the Capitol Est bene non potuit dicere dixit erit She is in the same note at this day and therefore let us hope well for the future Let us judge favourably of our affairs in Germany and not imagine that the fortune of our Army is dead with its first Generall at least let us content our selves with present losses and the miseries that arive every hour Calamities come fast enough without being anticipated by our fears as it also continues to long although we take no pains to preserve it in our memories I expect the book of Monsieur de la Chambre with much zeal and devotion since we are now entred upon the holy week without doubt he has made some new discoveries touching the Passions for he long since design'd them an argument for his pen and told me he would treat of them as a Physician and in another way then that of Aristotle He has a wit piercing and confident and a style not unpleasing When I was at Paris he gave me a view of a great store of his exeellent Merchandises So that to do well he needs understand no more then to make a good choice wherein the goodnesse of his judgment will secure him from errour But I beseech you who is the Author of the French Verities that did me the favour to send me his books The same day I receiv'd them they were taken from me by a friend so that having not yet read them I cannot tell you my opinion of their worth In the mean time be pleased to let him know that I am obliged to him for his present and give him all the thanks I am able I am more troubled for the health of our dear Monsieur the Abbot of Bois-Robert then for my pension If by your credit and his it happen to be paid this little succour will come conveniently to repair some breaches of the last year But I ought to thank none but you and him for it since you will procure me a thing which was not so much in my thoughts as to ask it I was formerly yours by abundance of titles but I shall moreover be now so by that of your most humble Pensioner I am SIR Your c. Balzac 12 May 1641. LET. XIV SIR SInce I every day receive new testimonies of your affection I am obliged to expresse my acknowledgments as often Did I not readily embrace them I should be an enemy of mine own happinesse Your tender inclinations are the fountains from whence I continually draw comfort to my miseries But the condition of Monsieur de Feuguiere renders him incapable of receiving any I did not write you such words as that I consented with the people in that which concerns his reputation for I could never favour the injustice that has been done him by some persons mis-informed yet I am glad that I have given occasion for an apology of a dozen lines You defend his life more vigorously then I related you his death and having most judiciously alledged the examples of many illustrious unfortunate persons 't is infinite pleasure to see how roughly you deal with the Beast of many heads and interest almost all persons of honesty on your side against her Every drop of blood that remains in the veins of the old Jesuit is clear and sprightly and even his declining is full of lustre and glory But is it not strange that the name you know of should be as essentiall in Verses as those of the Saints in the Testaments and that it must be thrust into all compositions whether good or bad and to the purpose or otherwise I am confident he will be the first that will deride these extravagances and as he deserves infinite commendations so he desires that the praises bestow'd on him be not ridiculous and impertinent I am SIR Your c. LETTER XV. SIR I Have read your Letter of the two and twentieth of the last month not onely with joy but profit and have already provided those prospectives of your invention which I intend to use upon opportunity of time and place It is indeed sometimes good to be a creature lesse reasonable and too curious providence gives us trouble by adding the evills of our imagination to those which really afflict us But under your pardon Sir I do not believe you one of those that use to be sick by anticipation and to what end were your philosophicall reason which corrects common apprehension unlesse it enabled you to contemn all that which others fear hope admire c. I have at last received the excellent Book of Monsieur de la Chambre and am now about the middle of it I could wish it were as great a volume as Calepin to give me a more durable contentment I protest to you I never read any thing with greater pleasure or that affected me more sensibly Some others have heretofore furnish'd us with pieces of brokage and disguised translations but he presents us with a true and perfect Originall And if all the parts of Philosophy were made French in this manner non esset cur Graeciae suos Platones Xenophontes Theophrastos invideremus I know not how I came to omit Aristotle here whose acutenesse I also observe in it and his methodicall style so necessary to the inquiry and clearing of truth In my opinion the Latin of Celsus is not more gracefull then his French Imò verò tersam elegantem dictionem ipsae gratiae videntur mihi iis manibus formâsse quibus ut vos vos Poetae vultis Dominae veneri ministrant As for my self I would willingly say something to our Heroesse upon the subject of the Bruti Scaevolae Camilli Fabritii Scipiones Catones Caesares Mecaenates but this requires more cheerfulnesse then I am owner of And unlesse you entreat your God of spirit and light to dispell those clouds and sadnesses that oppresse my soul all that 's there will languish with more night and darknesse then is imaginable in caves and dungeons I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15