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
onely assure you at the present that I am most faithfully Reverend Father Your c. Jan. 15. 1643. LETTER XII To my Lord the Bishop of Grasse My Lord IF you resolve as you say you do to write without any Ornament it is a designe will puzzel you hard and you will scarce be able to bring it about besides your not following Saint Basil's counsell herein you deviate from the example of him and the whole Church of his time who made no scruple to speak handsomely I beseech you shake off this untoward humour do not be incensed against the Graces those good and innocent Damsels who have already wonne you so many Adherents and so many Readers of your works bear some respect to the advantages of nature I mean the gifts of God and if you are not an Enemy to the harmless delights of our Country do not do like that extravagant Chaste one who mangled his face because his beauty pleased those Eyes too well that looked upon it Eloquence hath nothing to be dreaded in it when she is in the service of Piety A Graecian is not to turne Barbarian when he is converted Christian They who are afraid the riches of Language should corrupt the simplicity of Christianity would have driven the wise men from Jesus Christs stable where they came to offer Gold There cannot be too much curiosity either on the Altars or in your works and you ought not to apprehend that the name of Chrysostome should make you loose that of Saint I am My Lord Your c. Ap. 12. 1639. LETTER XIII To Monsieur the Abbot Talon SIR SInce you relish well the last things I writ and your palat so exceedingly accurate and discerning I cannot count them utterly ill it is no small matter to have pleased you and Monsieur the Attourney Generall Talon for who dares in point of Eloquence contradict a mouth that hath so long while swayed the ablest and justest Councell in the world I willingly submit my dead words dropped upon my paper to that lively and animated vertue residing on his lips that produces decrees in the breasts of the judges I should be contented not to be wholly slighted but I should be very proud if it were true that he had any esteem for me and that in that Sunne he fights in he cast pleased aspects upon that shade wherein I am obscur'd I cannot chuse but apprehend much delight that my retirement is approved by the most active and best-acting person in the world Oblige me to tell him this on my part and to believe me passionately SIR Your c. Jan. 4. 1645. LETTER XIIII To Monsieur the Abbot Bouchard SIR I Make no question of Monsieur Holstenius his great riches I only complain of his thriftiness Of what use is abundance without liberality unlesse to change the nature of Good and lock up that which would be communicated He should either possesse lesse or impart more for though I know he hoards up for Posterity and will enrich our grand-children yet me thinks he should not in the meane time disinherit us nor reserve the best part of his fame for a Future that he shall never see Be our solicitour then to his learned worship and tell him in the name of all the Grecians and Latins of this kingdome that we lay claime to his papers and that he is more obliged to instruct his own Age then another He is none of those barren ones that continually sit in Libraries but never hatch any thing It is expected he should bring forth something Eminent from his long conversation with the Vatican I received what you did me the favour to send me from him I confesse it is purple and cloath of Tissue but it is only a patterne and there is scarce enough to make a sute for a baby I would have enough to hang a room with and I beg whole Pieces c. I am SIR Your c. Mar. 14. 1640. LETTER XV. To the Reverend father Josset a Divine of the society of Jesus Professour of Rhetorick Reverend father I Think I need not spend much time in justification of my silence I may rather commend my teares to you and tell you that common report having killed you I have with true griefe bewail'd your imagined death I must confesse you confuted this falsity after an excellent fashion for as you were deceased in my thoughts so you are newly risen againe to my eyes more gloriously for so I call the pompe wherein you appeared to me and that lustre in the work you did me the faâ—our to send me Never was so bright a diffusion seen The fertility of things rare is only in you and though there are mothers that people the world with cripples and crook'd-backs your abundance cannot be said to resemble that unfortunate fecundity You get only perfect children Omnes Coelicolas omnes supera alta tenentes May I dare to hazard a fancy just now fallen into my head You so highly sing the triumphs of the Church and Holy dayes of the State the death of Martyrs and the birth of Princes that your verses seeme to accumulate glory to that of Heaven and ornaments to those of the Lovure the Saints seeme to receive a new happinesse from you and Monsieur the Dolphin a second nobility But you are not only a great Poet you are a jâ—lly man also for I confesse that what you say there concerning the warre with Spaine and the Queens lying in made me laugh in the height of my Melancholly According to your opinion the good fortune of the King was so busily employed at Saint Germaines that she could not be at Fontaraby So Diana suffered her temple at Ephesus to be burnt that night in which Alexander was brought into the world while she served as a Midwife to his Mother Olimpias Plutarch derides this saying of Timeus the Historian and Cicero admires it in his books of the nature of the Gods Which of these two are in the right and to whom shall we judge the prize or if neither of them must be condemned what way of accommodation shall we contrive to reconcile them we wil determine this businesse of consequence at our next interview In the mean time I have a thing that more concernes me to speak to you since you ever love me Be alwayes mindfull of me in your sacrifices of Love and Charity allow me some little share in those excesses and inundations of vertue I have been told of at least let those overflowings water my barrennesse I want only the sight of you to grow better Come reverend father come and with your presence manure the stones and sands of our desart I conjure you to it from the bottome of my heart and am passionately Dec. 5. 1638. Your c. LETTER XVI To Monsieur de Marca Councellour to the King SIR AFter I have told you I was very sensible of the honour you did me I must now adde that I have a
brought forth with much care I bedeck my self and flatter my vanity with them I look upon them as the fairest token of remembrance that Polybius could have wished from his Scipio and Paulus Jovius from his Marquesse of Pescara It is not without some designe of Heaven or some good presage that this Marquesse is come into my mind Since you are not lesse brave then he it is just you be not lesse happy The Victoria Colonna of our age must compleat your felicity since vertue hath begun it There are no wishes to be made for you after these And though the present I have received from you be something more obliging then the grant of Exemptions and Protections or then the Majoralty of Angoulesme and that of Saintes which you have conferr'd at my instance yet I think my self sufficiently gratefull if I prognosticate with successe the possession of a good which you esteem infinitely higher then all others It hath hitherto been in vain desired God hath refused it to the prayers and devotion of men But without doubt you are elected in the secret of Providence to be the happy possessour of it Believe me my Lord I have been inspired more then once and I tell you in the name of Heaven and in the language of my Oracles Tua tua erit et sua te propter esse desinet Tu certè dignus es quem ipsa Minerva praeferat virginitati fibi I dare not adde any thing to these high words and cannot better conclude my Letter then with a Prophecie I am ever passionately My Lord Your c. Apr. 25. 1645. LETTER IV. To the same My Lord YOur remembrance is not a bare token of your civility You remember me in termes that perswade me although they come from a suspected place and that I know at Court words are not much used but to disguise intentions You use them with greater integrity and more faithfull to the intent of nature They are the faire interpreters of your soul and in your Letters the representation of the thing is no other then the thing it self You love my Lord where ever you have said it and your word gives me firmer assurance of my good then my possession of it I repose confidence in that who have reason to distrust the decrees of Jupiter and in whom so many Oracles have proved lyars I am not a little proud to find room in a memory which usually is stored with Orders from the King and determinate resolutions of the Councell But I am much more glorious in being beloved by a man that looks on all Employments and charges beneath him who makes serious profession of Probity and honour whom the Court hath not been able to effeminate nor War to exasperate I think I have said all in this For is it not a little miracle to escape without flying from the contagion of a corrupted Age to have more true strength then custome hath violence to know how to manage fury and mixe the Man with the Lyon to be vertuous rationall wise amidst the tumult of unchained passions And in this place you must if it please you pardon me the liberty I am about to take and permit me to demand of you whether you alwayes intend to employ Reason to a use that seems so contrary to her Will you ever exercise an Art so mortall to the quiet of the World Shall the wise my Lord and vertuous be any longer injurious to the ruine of mankind It may be a milder season will succeed this and heaven may be reconciled to earth possibly the future reserves some good dayes for us and all our feastivalls are not extinct In case it should be so you will have leisure to let us see you in your government and that is at least one fruit of the peace which I hope to gather on the banke of our fair Charante I do not tell you in her behalfe and as her Poet that the Rhine and Danow make her jealous I speak of my own head that I impatiently expect the honour of kissing your hands and am more then any person in the World My Lord Your c. Jan. 7. 1646. LETTER V. To Monsieur de Puy Councellour to the King SIR SInce your books are your mistresses and I am the cause of an eighteen months absence having detained them here so long I believe you have put up many unprofitable vowes for their return and they will come to your hands at the instant you are making imprecations against me so long a stay from their own home and the opinion which they have at Paris that all on this side the Loire is Gascon may have rendred my fidelity suspected to you and given you some reason to fear that the Romans had much difficulty to themselves from the Barbarians Yet here they are Sir as sound and entire as I received them from Monsieur Girard and I prâ—test I have borne such respect to them that had it been possible I would not have touched them but with sattin fingers Every thing that comes to me from you and that weares the Livery of Monsieur de Thou satisfies me immediately of its price and merit and if I did but see that marke on an Almanack or on the works of the Count Vi Ma I should restrain my self from terming them pitifull papers You may judge by this in what consideration I held your Hubertus Fobietta and his excellent company Since the bastards of Vandalls and Goths if owned by you should be treated honourably by me you may believe Sir that the same warrant did not permit me to dis-esteem the true and magnanimous Nephews of Remus Monsieur Menage who knows my resentments in this particular and the perfect value I set upon your vertue and your brothers will tell you in more Courtly manner what I only write you in the style of the village He will chuse out words which shall not extenuate as mine do the greatness of my passion and gratitude If there be any necessity of it he shall bind himself by oath to you he is good and my friend enough to do it that I am not less then he SIR Your c. Jul. 15. 1642. LETTER VI. To Monsieur the President de Nesmond Sir my dear Cosen I Am so good a husband of that portion I conceive I have in your favour that I would not willingly ever touch it and had rather pass for a bad friend then make a custome of recommending suits to you But discretion must not be so scrupulous as to violate Society and one may suspend the rigour of his principles without forfeiting the reputation of constancy I thought I was obliged to offer that to Monsieur Couvrelles which I had refused to an infinite number of Suitours and I have intreated him to deliver you this Letter from me to the end an action not usuall with me might be a token to you of his extraordinary vertue He is a Gentleman whose noble extraction
have absolute power over the whole collection and may at your discretion retrench entire Lines and Periods But I reserve with your favour this small parcell to my self which if your modesty should induce you to diminish in the least I immediately forbid the impression and declare to honest Camusat that I have nothing to do with him Sans plus is an Italian idiotism without question but it is also French and very frequently us'd by the Cardinall of Perron Besides having no harshnesse to offend delicate ears I may think I have name enough to introduce the usage of it my self Trop plus and Trop mieux which are often in the same Cardinal's writings are tearms which I leave to himself without ever being liquorish after them they seem to be of so bad a relish I am SIR Your c. Balzac 17 March 1637. LET. IX SIR I Cannot but admire the industry you are pleased to bestow on a work that deserves it so little This piece is nothing but the Van-currier to the Grosse of my other compositions And I am in fear this paper of Satin and the Characters dropt down from Heaven will not be suitably employed to their worth 'T is yet to engage you to a further obligation But howsoever though I performed nothing more then to give the world a promise of your Maid of Orleans and that my Book serv'd onely to give the world notice of your Poem I think it would finde no bad entertainment and the good tidings it brought would render it agreeable to the curiosity of the ingenious I am loth to tell you what you must of necessity know that having turn'd over a huge mountain of Papers and made exact search in all my Magazines it is impossible to find that Piece I promised you Without dispute it has either been pillaged from me by some curious hand or sâ—me despightfull devill conceales it I cannot make you sensible how much I apprehend the losse of that thing I intended should be yours I am SIR Your c. Balzac 25 May 1637. LET. X. SIR I Perceive idlenesse is a better Catholick then diligence I solemnise holy Festivalls with more devotion than you and you are not likely to receive Letters from me dared upon Whitsunday as I have one of yours I acknowledge modesty is the most amiable thing in the world and because it is peculiarly the vertue of Virgins you will not suffer the defect of it in yours of Orleans Yet there is a magnanimous pride of which Philosophy does not disapprove and Aristotle relates wonders in his Ethicks If I have promised high matters of you your performance will yet transcend my engagements I do not fear being questioned by the Publick and reproached for false information To be surety for Croesus is not lesse hazardous then to be responsible for Monsieur Chapelain I am SIR Your c. Balzac 6 April 1637. LET. XI SIR IT is rrue that being at Paris I sent a copy of my last Book to Sedan And this without other designe then in pursuance of a customary civility and to avoid the complaints of a person that perhaps expected it He returned me for it the complement that I shewed you whereunto I thought my self obliged to answer But I fear our friend has made him too particular a discovery and contrary to my intention For though I had seen the last year that passage of his Latin Libell for which I am not extreamly beholding to him yet I dissembled my knowledge and forbore to vaunt of my disgrace I would not let him understand my resentments of it lest I should put him to the pains of giving me satisfaction I am not ignorant that satisfactions are oft-times the seeds of second quarells and that a vain man yea one of much modesty is not easily induced to unsay what he hath spoken but with reluctancy But what would you say of Monsieur **** who hath written me a tedious long Letter accompanyed with a Sermon that would hold a whole Lent Hostibus eveniant talia dona meis I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15 April 1637. LETTER XII SIR I Am glad you are well pleased with the Treatise of Monsieur des Cartes and shall no longer question the solidity of his doctrine since it has receiv'd your approbation I send you with this his judgment on my first Letters stylo ut aiebat Petroniano My Latin will suddenly follow all glorious with the Elogies bestowed on it at Paris with which appointments it will not fear to appear before the Manutii having been so highly valued by the Bourbons You are extolled there according to your merit and you may believe that if I understood as many Languages as one of our friends professes knowledge of and they report Scaliger had skill in I should not content my selfe to commend you in Latin and French The accuser of Cicero since you desire to know him is the redoubtable Schioppius He hath caused a Book to be printed at Milan wherein he accuses Cicero of incongruity and barbarism There is but one copy in all France and the Sieurs Dupens did me the favour to lend it me when I was at Paris This injustice offered to Cicero would be a comfort to Scaliger if he should return into the world in these daies But I expect the same Schioppius should shortly write another Volume and therein undertake to prove that Cato was a wicked man and Julius Cesar a craven souldier I am SIR Your c. Balzac 22 April 1637. LETTER XIII SIR I Did not understand the extraordinary merit of Monsieur the Counsellor de and you are the first that rated him to me at so high a value The late Monsieur de Malherbe was one of his particular friends and made sometimes mention of him but onely as a person extreamly curious much affecting relations and stories a great searcher of Medalls and Manuscripts a great professor of knowledge in strange Countries a great admirer of all the Doctors of the University of Leyden c. All this in my opinion is too little to make up a grand personage I do not question but he was also respectfull and faithfull to his friend But there is a difference between the heroicall vertues and those of the meaner sort betwixt glory and a good repute and by consequence between Monsieur the President de Thou and Monsieur the Counsellor de Your Letter concludes in the style of an Oracle and sets my wit upon the rack These are your affronts of old and you take pleasure in provoking the impatiency of them that love you And why I beseech you so many guises so many veiles and folds to hide a little secret from me You might at first have discovered the truth in its native clearnesse But you designe to make me languish and had rather I should a long time attend the revelation of the mystery by the post or seek it out at adventure by suspicions and conjectures I am SIR Your
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
praise so much was not greater then your humility You speak almost in the strain of young novices This would be good in a general Confession at the feet of a Father of the Oratory but to write to me that you have no merit and that 't is I that set a value upon you cannot be receiv'd without an incivility to the publique in flattering a particular person I pray God pardon you my dear Sir yet a superfluity in your Complement may be suffer'd for this time although in the judgement of Monsieur de it be not any where allowable but at Table where I agree with him that Entertainments are of the essence of good cheere I confesse the conversation of this Gentleman pleases me wondrously being mixed of the world and books He brings in such a proportion of serious and jest as serves exactly to keep the mind betwixt loosnesse and study in the agreeable mean that partakes of both If I had known his Letter would have been troublesome to you I should have hindred him from writing but I conceiv'd that twelve lines of your style every day would not put you to much pains Besides to tell you true the sending of Spanish gloves to Monsieur de Voiture pleas'd me so well that I was desirous to see a Ticket more of the same aire Monsieur de Thou has sent Monsieur Girard the relation of the death of Monsieur the Cardinall de la Valette he desir'd to be interred at Tholouse in a Church where the bodies of three Apostles and many Saints are repos'd I observe in it also divers other evidences of a true piety and this I confesse it is wherein I find some consolation At least it is the onely comfort I will admit of in so great a losse I am SIR Your c. LET. XII SIR THe last Post made me rich and you have been liberall as well of your own presents as of those of another The Letter of Monsieur Silhon to Monsieur the Cardinall Bentivoglio is very full of admirable conceits it afforded me not onely divertisement but instruction and his judicious reflections upon the most eminent places of the Italian Book are Master pieces of an absolute workman You would proceed from liberality to magnificence if you could often make me the like presents and they should be better received here then the platform of the building of Monsieur de What a strange sight is this and what is the meaning of this republican to raise his vanity from the structure of his house knowing it was a crime in one of old to have built his a story higher then that of his neighbours Madam Desloges had informed me before of this important newes and told me more that this Builder was of great note in his Country and very powerfull with his Master We shall see what he desires of me for there must needs be a Letter with the Pacquet and he protests to Madam Desloges that he has writ me divers others which notwithstanding never came to my hands You surprise me strangely in telling me that the old Doctor whom we have alwaies so much lov'd is but a refined cheat he preaches nothing else but fidelity freedom and sincerity I know that oftentimes deceits are practis'd that way and some people commend truth to the end they may lie with lesse suspicion I know there will be alwaies Pharisees in the world alwaies Salusts and Seneca's who will hide corrupt manners under fair speeches O vita fallax abditos sensus geris Or if you will with Cicero Frons oculi persaepe mentiuntur oratio verò saepissime We must observe the carriage of this gallant man for the future and beware that his finesses take not advantage of our simplicity Be pleased to send me your opinion of an Italian Author called Davila who has writ the History of the Civill Wars of France Is he comparable to the Antients as I have been told is his language pure and his mind dissinteressed are his Politicks solid and judicious c All this Sir in the familiarity of your ordinary style and without any meditation I have received newes of our good Monsieur Maynard who will be here in few daies if he be a man of his word In the mean time oblige me with the delivery of a Letter to him from Monsieur the Commissary Of many Verses wherewith he has feasted us I send you ten which are not indeed of the lofty strain but such whose style seems to me very sweet and naturall To Phillis afflicted THink not fair mourner I can e're be tir'd To see that sorrow which so sweet appears What Artemisia could be more admir'd Or wash a Tomb with such becomming tears May curses that Philosophy pursue Which with tame precepts shall your grief subdue All your regrets and sighs so gracefull are And force my heart by their victorious charms Those clouds of sorrow are both bright and fair And love from them takes more triumphant arms I most humbly kisse your hands and am with all my soul SIR Your c. Balzac 15 May 1640. LETTER XIII SIR THe Post has faithfully acquit himself of all that you entrusted him with in my favour for which I confesse a new engagement to you but more eminently for the two most prudent most exact and according to your custome most obliging Letters The gift of Urbanity which you congratulate to Monsieur de la Thebaudier will be undoubtedly pleasing to him I have sent him your Letter but I had neer forgotten to thank you for it on my own part And surely Sir it is fit I do since I am as much interessed in it as he and you therein amplifie my small merit with your accustomed exaggerations I am very sensible of these testimonies of esteem because they are also evidences of love and the heat where with your words are animated is too naturall to come other whence then from your heart But Sir what are the intentions of our dear Monsieur Esprit his civilities fill me with confusion he either mocks me or is good and generous even to excesse as well as Monsieur his elder brother who is not contented to excuse the poverty of the Village but also mis-imployes his good language in commendations of the bad cheer wherewith he was received I treated him onely in the fashion of the good man in the Georgicks Qui dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis and made him no other complement then that in the same Author Aude hospes contemnere opes te quoque dignum c. Notwithstanding he would have the whole family charg'd with all these favours which are so empty and leight and whereunto onely his acknowledgment gives a a body How easie is it to oblige persons that act by noble principles 'T is I Sir that am infinitely accountable to them for their generous affection and since I am destitute of all means to declare my gratitude by my actions I conjure you to assure the
two brothers which are at Paris that I love esteem and honour them all three perfectly I return you the catalogue of Italian books wherein I see not any thing of value Is this the rich Library of the curious book-merchant I much pity the hard hap of his widow if she be such as she is represented to me and if I were one of those Grandees that lov'd the husband so well I would not suffer her to perish for want of relief But they are of that sort of people who think they give all when they give shadowes and appearances and had rather go to the obsequies of the dead then assist to the upholding of his ruinous family I am SIR Your c. Balzac 22 May 1640. LET. XIV SIR I Have a perfect esteem of the merit of Monsieur but I confesse his book lesse pleased me at the second then it did at the first reading You shall know the reasons of my sentence if we happen to meet once more in our lives and it shall be on the side of that fair bed wrought with Tulips where we will treat of this matter and severall others if Heaven hear my prayers Et me fata unum patiantur degere mensem Anspiciis Capelane tuis I am confident the Bulls you speak of will not be the cause of this voyage although he that makes the Briefs at this day has said these twenty years that I was not unworthy of the favours of the King sed haec fuere and he obliges me too much to leave me to my repose and liberty which I prefer above all that greatnesse is able to give me I find that true every day which you write me of Davila and the frequent concurrence of my judgment with yours gives me great cause of glory I onely adjoyne to it that it is a great shame to our Nation to be instructed of their own affairs from a stranger and that France has not yet been the mother of a French Historian I have seen a second Lapidary on the Duke of Weymar which I cannot commend though it be ascribed to a person whom we love That which you tell me of the other is most true his eloquence is wholly founded upon common places and has nothing at all of Cicero I am SIR Yours c. Balzac 1 June 1640. LET. XV. SIR I Should not think my selfe in my wits if I did not extraordinarily esteem those Messieurs that bear that name by way of excellency But further also considering my obligations to them if I lov'd them not permit me to tell you in Latine Mihi robur aes triplex circa pectus esset The strength that Philosophy confers on us being not contrary to the tendernesse into which humanity softens us I make it my glory to be one of those tender and sensible ones that have alwaies their hearts wounded and their souls captiv'd to incomparable vertue When I have discover'd it in any place no ceremony or complement is able to restrain me The possessors of it cannot quit themselves of me at their pleasure and there is a necessity of loving that joyns me inseparably to the thing that I account amiable Our Monsieur Esprit de Verseüil and yours of Paris shall not doubt of this truth and they shall one day see that I do not content my selfe with a secret resentment but make profession of my gratitude It seems you have shown all our friends the Letter of Monsieur de He would be very much mistaken if he thought I would raise me a Trophie of the praises that he gives me and be still greedy of those Viands whereof I surfeited long ago You need not fear lest his profusion make me slight my vow and bring me new desires to write Letters It was with much Religion that I said vae literis and pronounced a curse upon my ancient Trade And in case you doubt of it I confirm all the maledictions in this place that I have so often and solemnly bequeath'd unto it I am SIR Your c. Balzac 10 June 1640. LETTER XVI SIR ALl that I receiv'd of yours and the Roman Frenchman's has satisfi'd me above measure Although his mind be famished with Benefices and sick of Ambition yet he has otherwise amiable and deserving qualities Let us not exact more of poor mortalls then the proportion of their fortunes will allow It is not a crime to be no Philosopher All of that profession have not equally abandon'd matters of interest There have been some that have made as importunate supplications as this that have receiv'd denials and affronts and insinuated into the favour of the Pages of the Syracusan Tyrants I took delight in all the Papers which he sent me and should have taken much more it they had not oblig'd me to the return of answers We have to do with an urgent man and who understands not what it is to give He lends onely upon usury and trafficks in Prose and Verse in the one and the other Tongue He is so rigorous in the observation of punctualities that he will never be woo'd to pardon my omistions Yet I must beseech a little expectation from him and some of his mercy in consideration of my infirmities He that told you the other day that he had not aes triplex circa pectus may notwithstanding have it circa frontem For indeed I see no other remedy to defend my selfe from these favours that are done me which I esteem cruell and should be happier in the neglect and oblivion of all the world I am SIR Your c. LETTER XVII SIR YOur last Letter has taught me nothing new it onely confirm'd me in the high opinion I had of the strong constitution of your soul Neverthelesse I discover through it a very excellent and commendable infirmity I mean that tenderness whereof you tell me which renders you sensible onely of the losses which you suffer of your friends These are such Sir as in these dayes are accounted none and how many people are there on every side of you that had rather have lost eight hundred friends then eight hundred crowns they value them no more then they do men in Turky that are to be sold and I know some that would easily forego their most dear and faithfull intimates at fifty crownes a-piece O curvae in terris animae coelestium inanes In stead of requiring consolation you ought rather to rejoyce in the possession of the vertue which is contrary to that ignoble vice and congratulate your health in the time of a Pestilence I am fully satisfied that the ruines upon which the antient Sages held themselves immovable would not be more dreadfull to you then them and that you could behold with a countenance no lesse serene and unfrighted all the Shipwracks and burnings and other hostilities wherewith fortune enterprises upon Philosophy I would gladly continue this Discourse and acquit my self of what I promis'd you by the last Post but my attendance on