that she shall be thanked on both sides for bringing them acquainted and after shewes that she is no way counterfeit MAdam you are not a little faulty if you doe with paine employ me you cannot deprive me of the occasions to serve you without taking from me those of contentment And judge if you ought to have any repugnancy since I am tyed to you by the two strongest chaines of the world inclination and obligation The desire I have to doe you some service is aswell an effect of my sympathy as my duty I beseech you bel eve it and especially in an occasion where my labor will be more honorable to me then profitable to you You desire I should bring you acquainted with Melâ—ante and I thinke you demand mee nothing which to her may not be very pleasing I shall receive thankes on both sides and you both shall have a better opinion of my spirit because of the interest I have in persons that are so rare Iudge not of her by my report but by her merit which is the cause of it when you have seene her you will not accuse me to have spoken more then truth And likewise you shall judge mee worthy of excuse if I have not exprest all her good qualities since there is too great a number I must make her the same complement for you and refer you both to a more particular acquaintance which you shall get in time But you are in the wrong to say there is nothing amiable in you but simplicity if you are simple t is by reason rather then nature And if you be without finenesse t is not by ignorance but contempt yours is a noble simplicity which comes not from want of spirit like that of many but onely from an aversion you have to impostures I hate them so much that it is impossible for me to suffer them There is nothing I desire so much in those I love as a solid honesty which serves for foundation to al vertues and without which there shall never be assurance in society nor commerce I seldome see those that are cunning to have much soule or vertue if they were really good or prudent they would lesse affect the appearance There are which conceale their vertues by modesty meane while that others conceale their defects by vanity But in the end men take away the vizards and discover in time what is worthy of blame or praise This is my opinion which I esteeme so much the more reasonable as it is conformable to yours Finally you know if I have cause to make warre with those that are lesse sincere since there is nothing so contrary to my humor as deceit and nothing so pure and naturall as my affection but especially that I have to be Madam Your c. The XXXIV Letter Shee rejoyces that she is not forgotten and feares least the number of her Letters be troublesome MAdam I must needs say in the feare I was in to be blotted from your memory I have beene very glad to know that your long silence was rather an effect of distance then oblivion You will that I interpret it so and I assure you I am of the number of those who beleeve easily what they desire I will not examine if it be truth or civility that speakes I make no more doubt there hath wanted occasion not wil if I have not received your letters As for mine I had cause to desire that some had stayed by the way since if you have received them all you should have no lesse reason to complaine for the testimonies of my remembrance then I for the silence of yours Our plaints had been very different you perhaps had lesse desired my Letters I yours more But I doe not repent I thinke you be not angry at my writing and since you suffer my affection your patience will stretch to those effects which shew it I wish stronger better to merit what you be to me and better to testifie what I am to you that is Madam Your c. The XXXIV Answer Shee assures her that her Letters shall never bee troublesome and expresses displeasure that hers were not all received MAdam you do me wrong to thinke I can ever forget you you must have lesse merit or I lesse knowledge of it There is nothing so true as the assurances I give you of my remembrance And you shall have better reason to beleeve then desire it This is more true then profitable to you You are my example and my remedy I thinke on you alwayes to comfort and instruct my selfe You tell me that I have not received all your Letters if it be so I have reason to complaine with thankes and to esteeme my selfe unfortunate at the same time I beleeve my selfe obliged I should be lesse worthy of this favour if I had lesse feeling of such a losse I see my selfe enforced to agree to contrary passions for the same cause joy and sadnes If I rejoyce to know you remember me it afflicts me not to have seene all the evidences as for my Letters you have receiv'd them all in the same day as I conceive albeit as you may well see I write them one after another I am sorry they were not given you in the time that I desired But seeing it is thus happened at least I shall thence draw one great advantage It is that henceforth if you receive none you will attribute it to my misfortune which else perhaps you would to my oblivion never then entertaine an opinion contrary to the purpose I have to honour you and whether I write to you or not beleeve that I am perfectly Madam Your c. The XXXV Letter She praies her to assist a friend of hers in some affaire MAdam I beseech you at the entrance of this to remember the command you made mee when I had the honour to bid you farewell and you will finde it lesse strange if I have rather suffered my self to be transported with feare to disobey you then to importune you by my Letters I can write you none but ill-composed but I forbeare not to hope you will suffer them and after having had patience for a bad conversation you will not deny it me for a bad Letter that which yet makes me hope this favour with more assurance especially in this occasion is that I write for one who hath wisedome and vertue They are two qualities you love and possesse in a degree so eminent that even those who have them but in the meane finde easie accesse when any occurrent presents it selfe I assure my selfe this bearer which knowes this truth but by report shall quickly learne it by experience when he shall have seene you I doubt not but you will assist him and doe beleeve that in obliging him you will give me new ground to serve you and to be Madam Your c. The XXXVI Letter Shee makes her a Complement on the praises she had received MAdam you give me
elsewhere It is certainely true that the two most happy newes I can receive are that you love me and are well And that I feare most in the world is the alteration of your health or friendship the least suspition of the one or other would make meÌ„ hate my life I protest never was Letter so deare unto me as that you sent maugre your fit but yet I like better you should take care of your health then writing Albeit your tidings extremely reâ—oyce me I love your life better then your letters I beseech you beleeve it and employ me in all you please as Madam Your c. The XXIII Letter Shee recommends to him the cause of her friend SIr if I had as much ability to serve you as occasion to trouble you you should easily judge I valew not my owne interests in respect of yours But I must in this accoÌ„modate my selfe rather to the condition of â—y fortune then my disposition and if you have no proofes of my thankefulnesse you shall at least of my confidence past examples doe make me more and more hardy for the future and instead that the continuation of your favours ought to oblige mee to a modesty lesse audacious I finde they give me more liberty So it is Sir that I have once more neede of the accustomed testimonies of your good will but to begge with more dexterity I wil joyn your owne interest with mine and convince you by your own charity as well as by the favor you have promised me I assure my selfe that the vertue you practise with so much praise and the justice you exercise with so much integrity will easily obtaine of you all I shall demand in behalfe of this bearer He is no lesse worthy your compassion then his adversaries your chastisement I know you will do in this businesse all that justice requires but besids this I most humbly beseech you to adde yet for my sake that sweetenesse wherewith you are wont to receive all those I recommend to you and that obliging quality which interesses you in all that I affect The obligation I shall beare you in this respect shall hold the place of one of your most speciall favours and I shall remember it all my life aswell as the promise I have made to remaine Sir Your c. The XXIV Letter She writes to her that her sadnesse iâ— extreame during her absence MAdam I take no care how to expresse the griefe I suffer by your absence for it were to aspire to an impossibility and as I cannot speaâ—e my contentment when I have the honour to see you so can I not testify the displeasure I feele when I am deprived of so great a good fortune my griefe is as mute as my joy I wish you could see it you should judge my affection by my sorrow since the one is the cause of the other and both are extreame In this case I have no other comfort but that I receive by reading your Letters If I had no memory I should be the most unfortunate of the world And that which more afflicts me is that I have no more opportunity to receive the assurances of your friendship but onely to send you those of my duty the desire I have to be Madam Your c. The XXIV Answer She answers that shee hath not merit enough to cause joy in the possessing or sorrow in the losing MAdam your letter makes me more ashamed then my absence you melancholly I have more cause to blush at your praises then you to be sad at my separation I cannot beleeve you without mistaking my selfe for another and to credit your words I must renounce the knowledge of my selfe That which you have of mee is very different from your discourse or at least from truth I doubt not but you feele some sorrow but I care not to measure it by my merit I have too little to equall the favour I possesse and I should be no lesse ignorant then unthankefull if I should not avow that you have much more affection to me then I good qualities to deserve it If I have any one that makes me so hardy to beg the continuation t is onely this simplicity you love in me and which renders you my defects the more suppoâ—table T is the only advantage I have to think you love me and that you permit me to call my selfe Madam Your c. The XXV Letter She desires to enter into a Monastery and prayes her to aide her therein MAdam I must needs confesse you my error I feare that you forget me I beleeve you wish me well but I know not if you thinke on doing it and in the number of great affaires which take up your thoughts I feare you dreame not on any so small as mine I have more neede to sollicite your memory then your will and am more in paine for your â—emembrance then your affection but that I may touch you where you are most sensible â—he pleasure you shall doe me may be cald an effect of your charity aswel as of your friendâ—hip I perceive well the endeaâ—ours of my calling but I canâ—ot follow it perfectly without â—our favour I have yet neede â—f humane things to arrive at â—ivine and albeit I be neere a â—onasticke life as the cripple â—â— the poole I want some boâ—y to cast me in upon this occasion Without which I shall but languish in my desires and remaine alwaies in a place where long since I fastned no more hopes I call the world so which I should quit with griefe because I leave you there did I not consider that one day by Gods grace wee shall enjoy a longer conversation then that is promised here below In which I place all my expectation and since it is the greatest good of all I content my selfe to wish it you to shew the true affection I have to serve you and to be Madam Your c. The XXV Answer She praies her to employ her with more â—â—â—â—â—â—ence approves her designe to enter into that course and offers her aide MIstris if you thinke I have forgotten you never was faith so faulty as yours It is an injury to both seeing you must have a bad opinion of my friendship or I not that I ought to have of your merit Iudge the consequence for to want memory I must want knowledge We cannot in this separate ingratitude from ignorance And to examine all things well I understand not how I can wish you good without remembring to doe it this should be rather a sicke desire then mine I have too much affection to remaine unmooveable and I can assure you that occasions shall rather be wanting to my wil then my will to occasions This would be a thought very vnprofitableÌ„ to our friends if we should remember them alwayes except at those times they have neede of us Be then lesse fearefull and if you will that I assure my selfe of your affection doubt not of mine I
lesse harme to the soules of many then painting does their faces this corrupts the naturall colour and that enfeebles comâ— mon sense they rave when they thinke to discourse they become all memory and take paines to amasse much goods which they know not how to manage T is pitty to see how sometimes they be bemired they are but shreds they get they speake nothing naturally without which the richest discourses are irke some I know well there are some knowing women which being withall faire or rich doe alwaies finde approvers but meane while that flattery praises them in private truth doth often condemne them in publicke The XIII Letter She affirmes that the Gentleman commended to her merits the title of a good friend and promises to assist him in his affaires MAdam the Gallant you commend to me seemes so worthy of the title you give him and t is with so much justice you call him a good friend that in my opinion he must invent some other word more significant than this friendship to expresse his owne knowing him as I doe you need not petition me for him it had been enough only to have given me advertisement since he can so well expresse his affection to those that neede it I shall endeavour to let him see how much I desire his affaires shold prosper I will take as much paines as in my own and more care for besides the displeasure I should have not to bee fortunate in his behalfe I shold likewise suffer the misfortune not to content you that you may hope for all effects that lie in my power judge onely that three puissant reasons oblige me to serve him his owne merit the justice of his cause and the force of your recommendation which would make me undertake a meere impossibility to shew in doing him some small service what I would do for you if I could finde any favourable occasion to witnesse how much I am Madam Your c. The XIII Answer She replies that albeit the affaire recommended to her should uot succeede the obligation for her paines could never be the lesse MAdam I am not ignorant that you love the person I commended to you and that to gratifie him it were enough to let you know that hee hath neede of your favour but if it be sufficient for your friendship to be advertised it is not too much for my duty to beseech you as I doe If prayers bee superfluous because of the good you wish him they seem to me necessary because that I demand it I cannot make them too humble if I consider your condition nor too affectionate if I regard his merit The desire I have to see his matters prosper obliges me to employ all my power of recommendation If he be worthy the quality of a good friend for all others I thinke he will esteeme that of your servant for most honorable I undertake not to complement for him since he hath no neede of my helpe and that I have not in my power too many thankes to tender you for which I have cause whatever become of this affaire After you have taken all the paine you can to give us content suppose it should not succeede we shall not cease to be extreamely obliged to you wee ought not to crave that of you which depends upon chance but we shall alwayes thank you for the favour which depends on yourcare when we shall be deprived of that which depends upon fortune After Phisitians have don what they can to cure us we cease not to be bound to them albeit their potions prove unprofitable we must consider that events are not in our owne power there is nothing but the meanes and the conduct which is our owne but what neede we feare while we have reason to hope there is no likelihood that our right should remaine unknowne and your paines unsuccesfull I cannot beleeve it and am confident that the end of this businesse shall give mee new cause to serve you and to be Madam Your c. The XIIII Letter She saith that the greatest persons esteeme themselves happy to carry her Letters because of her that receives them MAdam albeit I write often I thinke you are not much troubled with the reading of my letters and that the greatest part stay by the way I am resolved to serve my selfe of all occasions to prove if any one shall bee lesse unfortunate then the rest And that I may speede I will also employ all sorts of persons and not regard if they be Knights of the holy Ghost or Marshals of France provided I may use them to carry my tidings The trouble they shall have from me shall be repaired in the satisfaction to see you And of what quality soever my messengers be they cannot thinke themselves vilified when they know the merit of her whom they oblige I demand not your assent to this since humility forbids you professe what truth publisheth to all the world I only entreate that you suffer it from me and that you receive it not amisse if after so much paine I take give to send you mine I have some hope to receive yours This is that I begge of you and to beleeve that my greatest contentment is to be able to give you testimonies of my affection It is true they are but feeble but in this I shall be more obliged if I can expresse a great friendship by little proofes and by my small services make you see a desire so great as that to be Madam Your c. The XIV Answer She saith that if persons of quality bring her letters t is because of the sender not the receiver MAdam I know not if I receive all the Letters you write me But I can assure you I alwayes receive lesse then I desire I wish you such perfect health that I cannot too oft receive the newes and if you have beene ill and I not know of it I should be extreamely displeased for having beene contented when you were not I beseech you beleeve it and to oblige me in this employ as you do all sorts of messengers of what condition soever they be When they deliver mee your Letters they all assure me that they are rightglad to obey you and I should not much wonder at their quality thogh it were yet greater I thinke they esteeme it little in respect of the service you deserve and they desire to performe I measure their desire by their duty and I beleeve that having eies and soule they have likewise that sense and respect due to such a one as your selfe I conceive they would not take such paines to bring me letters if it were another sent them They regard her that writes not her that receives They oblige me but serve you You have reason to forbeare demanding my assent when you say the contrary since you know well that duty bids mee deny it my refuse is just because your prayer is not And if civility bindes you to
approbation for a thing which hardly deserves patience I thinke t is rather an effect of your affection then of your judgement and that you have more desire to declare me your good will then your esteeme Take heed you offend not in praysing me after this manner and that yon make me not fall into the greatest errour of the world which is to take my selfe to be eloquent I ascribe so much to your judgement I should be ready to abuse my owne to conforme my beleefe to yours but let us change stile I thinke it is not your intention no more then mine and that when you value me so much t is rather civility then truth that speakes I know you have no lesse ability to discerne my defects then goodnesse to pardon them And I doe not desire you to run your selfe into errour I onely pray you to bring in others and to say of mee sometimes that which your selfe doe not beleeve It seemes to me my request is not uncivill if I beseech you to speake for mee to others as you use to doe to my selfe I thinke you would not I should have any other opinion of my selfe so I take your praise for an honest correction and doe beleeve that in attributing to mee so many good qualities you would admonish mee of those I want and which must be had to merit so high an approbation as yours This is that which ought to be beleeved by Your c. The XXXVII Letter She professes to her the feare shee hath during the thunder and expresses her griefe for not seeing her MIstris wonder not if this Letter be confused I am yet more in my thoughts then my discourse if you know not the cause I thinke it is enough for your information to tell you it thunders here they say the storme is past and neverthelesse my feare is not yet blowne over This is not written like others in my cabinet but in the bottome of a cave whether I descended all trembling and wrote it with so much disorder that to reade it onely will be enough to make you beleeve the truth I thinke that you are sorry to know me subject to such an excessive feare but yet doth it seeme that I have more reason to feare thunder then others have to runne away from Rats and spiders After so many sad examples wee have of it that which is capable of feare ought to be possest with it at this most fearefull Meteor but that this feare may be profitable it must make us discourse of our owne weakenesse and the greatnesse of God which makes all tremble with a vapour and which employes but an exhalation to fright the proudest Excuse me if I write to you in this fashion the apprehension I am in inspires me with no other thoughts you shal receive something another time lesse melancholly but see how far I am distracted I forgot to answer your Letter where you tell mee there is no appearance I bemoane you much and that you yet hope my returne with more passion I have as much affection to your company as you to mine I wish you knew my thought without doubt you would change yours Finally binde me to judge of my griefe by my love or rather of the one and the other by your merit which is the object of both Neverthelesse I ought not to give my selfe over to the judgement you make of me for as humility conceales from you the better part of your selfe I feare least it also hide the affection they beget in the soule of those which know you as my selfe and which are as perfectly as I am Mistris Your c. The XXXVIII Letter She complaines of her subtleties MAdam albeit I were told of your humour I could hardly beleeve you would disoblige those that had vowed you service and friendship the good opinion I had tane of you forbad mee this beleife insomuch that I accused of malice and invention those that informed me yours but now I have quitted this error by the last effects you have made mee receive of your bad disposition which are by so much the more unjust as I have never given you cause to offend mee On the contrary I have alwayes exprest to you that I esteemed you perfectly T is this which makes your processe the more criminall and which should carry mee more justly to revenge if the contempt I make of your deceits tooke not away my purpose In this minde I would never complaine of you if it were not for feare to passe for an innocent in your judgement giving you advantage by my silence to thinke that I discover not your subtleties and that I yet preserve the affection I promised you T is this that made me resolve to hazard this writing to assure you that I am cleane stript of friendship or hatred towards you My courage makes me uncapable to estee me you and my goodnesse to hate you But if my mildnesse obliges me to this moderation it shall not hinder me to tell you that of all the Ladies I have ever knowne you are the most malicious and the most unworthy to be beloved This is all that I can write unto you of this matter assuring you that your instructions have bin unprofitable and that those people which have studyed them have made very bad use of them at least have they not made those to speake which else would hold their peace I doubt not but if they have bin willing to tell you the truth they have affirmed to you the little satisfaction they have received from their curiosity Any finenesse that their wit hath used innocence hath surpast their craft so doth shee triumph alwayes soone or slow over lies and calumnies I beseech you beleeve that those you have employed to disoblige mee have absolutely taken away the will and the desire to be Madam Your c. The XXXIX Letter She entreates a strange Lady to assist a friend of hers goeing out of the Realme MAdam I have alwayes beene heard to speake of your merit with so much zeale that every one hath imagined by the testimonies of my affection that I had some part in yours You see the reason why M. L. which shall present you this Letter hath desired to be the bearer thereof and withall the subject that hee might receive some reflexion of the friendship wherewith you â—â—ave honoured me Surely Madam I am engaged to him in this occasion to give me that to write to you to recommend to you in him the person of one of my friends though hee be commendable enough of him selfe I hope you will make him know by your good offices that I am a little in your favour and that those hee shall obtaine of your courtesie in my regard shall oblige mee to render you as much service In the meane time I conjure you to conserve me the honour of your remembrance with assurance that I wish that of your commands to make it appeare that I am
me to speake of that they have in this Country know you that if I had more spirit I should here have lesse credit and should be in danger to have fewer friends if I had fewer like if I could speake or write well I should have qualities not in fashion and which would not onely be unprofitable but dangerous they esteeme them worthy of contempt not prayse or imitation we are in a Country where ignorance is more happy and more esteemed than knowledge Vertue is here despised and worthy persons are constrained to doe as Protestants at Rome they are afraid to appeare with their merit as those with their religion insomuch that if I were more able I should be lesse honoured yet have I cause to thanke God in that having destind me for the Countrey he hath given me qualities there esteemed meane while my defects render me the object of your compassion here they are that of praise and admiration insomuch that I cannot depart hence without losing my luster If I quit the Country and come to Paris of admirable I shall become ridiculous I am hardly of opinion to goe into a place where are able spirits that can better marke my defects than here they doe but all these reasons move me not the feare not to be there esteemed shall never be so strong as the desire I have to see you and to assure you that I am Madam Your c. The XLIX Letter She sayes that if she prayse her it is without flattery MAdam what ever I say of you doe me the favour not to accuse me of dissimulation it is not civility obliges me to your prayses t is that which hinders you to receive them doth truth displease you because you are the object and must vertue lose the esteeme we owe it because it lives in you This is unreasonable and I will not be unjust to please you I want two qualities which are more necessary to slatterers I have neither wickednesse nor wit I am too generous and too ignorant to practise this vicious dexterity however I know you are no more capeable to receive than I to offer it I should bee farre estranged from my purpose as well as from yours and my owne humour should I endeavour to please you by flattery I should put my selfe in danger to loose your favour instead of gaining it by this device Finally I tell you my thought and if you acâ—use mee to bee in errour â—t least accuse mee not of â—eduction I will speake noâ—hing but what I thinke â—hen I publish every where â—s I doe that the two things â—hich admit not the lest â—omparison are your meâ—â—t and the desire it produces â—â— mee to serve you and to bee alwayes Madam Your c. The L. Letter Shee accuses his silence and complaines that shee knowes not whether to write to him MY deare Brother I know what reason you have not to bee here but cannot comprehend whaâ— hinders you to write Iâ— your absence bee an effect of your misfortune your silence is one of your oblivion And thinke in what displeasure wee bee since wee must beleeve you want opportunitie or will if the first wee feare you have no longer libertie and have cause to lament you if the second you have no more affection and wee have cause to be angry with you wee are reduced to the straite either of pitty or choller So little as you regard us consider yet into what you plung us Since beside the griefe wee have not to heare from you wee know not moreover how to send If you tell us yet where you bee wee should have some comfort but as yet wee can discover nothing of it So I turne this loose to hazard us knowing what fortune it shall runne by sea or land I must speake freely to you and tell you that I cannot imagine the cause of so long a silence especially in a person that would perswade that his affection is extreame It must needes be that you inhabite some land where they forget faire women as easily as here they doe good services You understand me well enough and t is enough you know that Calista doth yet complaine more then Amaranta and that your Mistresse mixes her teares with those of your sister Are these two pleasing companions cleane forgotten Consider if you be but little guilty when at the same time you offend love and friendship And are no better brother then faithfull lover How insensible soever you bee I assure my selfe if you reade this Letter with my attention you cannot but bee toucht I hope my prayers shall worke some effect if you regard who makes them it is My Brother Yours c. The LI. Letter Shee complaines of the inconstancie of a certaine Lady who had in the beginning exprest an extraordinary inclination and soone after quitted it MAdam I know no longer what to thinke of our age I am of the opinion of those who have neither hope nor faith but in God that wee give to the world is too often abused not to leave us undeceived would you ever beleeve that Beliana had ceast to visite mee after the protestations shee made mee in your presence had you thought she could live without mee and neverthelesse I heare no more newes of her I have given her many visites without receiving any And when I meete her by the way shee salutes mee with so much coldnesse as will serve to expresse her ficklenesse I protest I have beene deceived in her I never thought so faire a beginning had beene so neere the end and that so much dearenesse shee made mee at first should have beene followed in so short a time with neglect You know how farre my humour is estranged from lightnesse but I protest at present I wish my selfe more facility that I might bee lesse troubled with hers My constancy is no lesse importunate then unjust since ordinarily it carries mee to those that have it not I chaine my selfe so strongly to what I love that it cannot be separated from mee without carrying away a peece I still behold with griefe what I should behold with contempt It is true I doe my selfe all the violence of the world to lose my prize But what shall I doe more for her not being able to returne I must needes let her goe and let the force of reason comfort mee in a chance where the tendernes of affection would bee without remedy but let us leave a discourse unprofitable and irkesome t is better I entertaine you with my voyage I have beene in the Countrey since I saw you and was never so much vext in so little time T is a strange countrey where I thinke they would never speake should you barre rayling There is no more honesty then ingenuity And what ever they talke of the simplicity of the village I know they are no lesse viciouâ— there then in the City and that all the difference is they sinne more grosseâ—y I have met there but