Heads I meane the Signoury of Venice together with all those petty Soueraignes who would hazard more men in hanging one single person then the King would venture in two battailes or at the taking in of foure Citties But my Lord all this with the rest doth but slightly touch my spirit and as you are the sole worldly cause which affordeth me either ioy or discomfort so it is from you onely I expect good or ill newes I haue made your affection in such soft necessary for my lifes contentment that without it I should finde defects euen in Felicity it selfe and should haue an imperfect feeling of the most happy successes could befall me Restore therefore if so you please or continue this your ancient fauour towards me which J cannot possibly forbeare And since you are part of that body to which God hath giuen infalibility and since it is forbidden to call the certainty of your wisedome into the least question condemne not I beseech you what you haue formerly made as though your Jtalian fauours were some other things then your French ones Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC The 10. of December 1623. Balzac his Letter to Mounsieur du Planty LETTER XII SIR SInce you cannot be here till after the Feast and for that I presume you haue no purpose to oppose the Election of the Pope being cannonically chosen I will aduise you to stay your iourney till the Spring be past and the Snowes melted yet truely you are in such esteeme here as if you come not the sooner I verily thinke you will be sent for and that the Court of Rome will commence suite with the Loouer to haue my Lord the Cardinals presence It is therefore fitting if so hee please that hee vndertake this Voyage and put off State-businesse and the Warre to others to liue here in the midst of Glory and Tryumphs In the meane time I may so neare as I can informe my selfe both of men and affaires thereby to giue you the better instructions at your comming Now to the end to affoord you a taste of what I know obserue what I say for I will tell you strange things There is a certaine Great man here who entertaineth sixe Astrologers in Pension to let him vnderstand from time to time who shall be Pope Another takes large fees on both sides finding it the onely way to bring his Clients to composition A third hath the most extrauagant vertue you euer heard of he leades a farre more pleasant life then the Duke of Ossuna and hauing read in Holy Writ how the Wisedome of the world is folly in Gods sight he imagines hee should offend his Conscience if he were ouer wise Here are Princes in this place who in full peace pardon neyther Age nor Sexe There are others who keepe their beds though they be well able to ride post and who vse all Phisicke possible to looke pale to be feauerish and full of Cathars and who make vse of all the sectets in Phisicke to haue a megar aspect In conclusion the highest place in this world is that whether the more easily to arriue it is necessary to be lame and take short steps so as a sound Pope is commonly made out of a sickely Cardinall At our next meeting I will informe you of the rest and will in one halfe houre infuse into you all the experience I haue hither to gotten But if I haue not this contentment so soone as I desire faile not I pray you to let me here newes of your health and the rest of our good friends But especially I beseech you to assure Mounsieur de Mauroy that I am passionatly his seruant and that I finde here much fubtilty and dissimulation but not many so pure and true vertues as his are BALZAC From Rome 10. of February 1621. A Letter to Mounsieur de la Magdelene from BALZAC LETTER XIII SIR I Am extreamely glad you are not of the number of those whom the King hath lost before St. Iohn d' Angely Conserue your selfe therefore so farre forth as your Honour and Courage will suffer or permit and content your selfe to haue tasted what Warre is which if you please to be aduised by mee you should doe well neuer more to behold but with Flanders spectacles You are bound to execute good actions but you are to performe many and permanently and to be a better husband of a worthy mans life then that of an ordinary Souldier of the Guardes At leastwise so long as you continue at the assembly of the Clergy you shall be seruiceable to the Church at your owne ease and there shall commonly be ten dayes iourney betweene you and danger Though I were not any more of this world then those who liued before the late King or who are to come into the world after the decease of this yet should I not feare to hazard my selfe in this sort and to keepe all my bloud for the Publique as readily as the most valiant Iesuite of France It is in this sort I haue learned to speake in this Court where honest men are so wedded to their particular interests and doe so little reflect vpon the generall affaires as they thinke there is nothing beyond the tips of their vpmost haires and suppose the world endeth at their feet The C. L. dreames of no other thing but how to fortifie himselfe with Men and Money against the C. B. whom he taketh for the Turke and an Hereticke And say what you will the fifty Abbies he hath gotten in one Yeare is that portion of the Church which pleaseth him better then all the rest Behold in what tearmes we stand at this present instead of procuring the conuersion of Nations and to seeke the meanes to set the Leuant at liberty a P. thinkes he hath worthily acquited himselfe of his charge so long as he prouides to make his Nephew a greater man then his Predecessors was But that I feare lest my zeale should ouer-far transport me or that you should become as weary of my Discourse as of a tedious Preacher I would dilate my selfe vpon this Subiect but I know the affaires in these parts are very indifferent vnto you I will therefore referre the further relation wherewith I intended to acquaint you to my Lord the Marquesse of Caeuure In briefe there are none but himselfe and the Councell who can cause the Pope to incline to our reasonable demands and I will tell you without flattering him that so long as he is here the King may glory that he reigneth at Rome As for other things what beautifull obiects soeuer Rome presenteth to my view what pleasure soeuer each man findes there conformable to his humour and inclination yet cannot I receiue any being so remote from persons so deare vnto mee and shall esteeme my selfe vnhappy so long as I am necessitated to write Letters vnto you and onely say what is not as yet in my power to cause to
bee very hard for me to be of a fooles minde though he were a Monarch Iintend not to steale your fauours but to purchase them legally and hauing euer beleeued flattery to bee as mischieuous a meanes to gaine affection as charmes and sorcery I cannot speake against my conscience and were not this true I tell you I would not assure you that I am Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC From Rome this 10. of December 1622. To the Lord Cardinall de Valete from Balzac LETTER VI. My LORD HOw great soeuer the subiect of my sorrows be yet doe I finde in your Letters sufficient to make mee happy in my hard fortune The last I receiued hath so much obliged mee that but for the displeasing newes comming vnto me which tempered my ioy my reason had not beene of sufficient force to moderate it But at this time the death of my poore Brother being incessantly before mine eyes taketh from me the taste of all good tidings and the prosperity euen of the Kings affaires seeme displeasing vnto mee finding my selfe to beare vpon mee the mournings of his Victory Yet since in this fatall agitation of Europe it is not I alone who bewayle some losse and since your selfe haue not beene able to preserue all that was deare vnto you I should seeme very vnciuill if I presumed to preferre my priuate interest before yours or reflect vpon my particular affliction hauing one common with yours It is long since I haue not measured either the felicities or fatalities of this world but by your contentments or discomforts and that I behold you as the whole workmanship God hath made Wherefore my Lord I will lay aside whatsoeuer concernes my selfe to enter into your resentments and to tell you since you cannot make vnworthy elections it must needes be that in the death of your Friends you can suffer no small losses Notwithstanding as you transcend sublimary things and in that all men draw examples out of the meanest actions of your life I assure my selfe they haue acknowledged vpon this occasion that there is not any accident to surmount against which you haue vse of all your vertue Afflictions are the gifts of God though they be not of those we desire in our prayers and supposing you should not approue this proposition yet haue you at all times so little regarded death as I cannot beleeue you will bewayle any for being in a condition your selfe esteemes not miserable My Lord it sufficeth you conserue the memory of those you haue loued in consequence of the protestation you pleased to make vnto me by your Letter And truly if the Dead be any thing as none can doubt they cannot grieuefor ought in this world wherein they still enioy your fauours In the meane time I take this to my selfe and am most happy in hauing conferred my dutifull affections vpon a man who setteth so high a value vpon those things he hath lost For any thing my Lord I perceiue there is small difference betweene good workes and the seruices we offer you they hauing their rewards both in this life and the other your goodnesse being illimitable as is the desire I haue to tell you I am Your most humble and most faithfull Seruant BALZAC From Rome the 29. of December 1621. To the Lord Cardinall of Valete from BALZAC LETTER VII MY LORD THough I be not in state either to performe any great exploite vpon the person of any man nor haue any great force to defend my selfe yet cannot I touch vpon the Count Mansfield without taking it to heart and ioyning my good affections to the Kings forces If this were the first time the Germans had exceeded their limits and sent their Armies to be ouerthr owne in France the nouelty of these barbarous faces and of those great lubberly swat-rutters might easily haue affrighted vs But vpon the matter we haue to doe with knowne enemies and who will suffer vs to take so sufficient aduantages ouer them besides those we naturally enioy as without being forced to make vse of Armes we may defeate them onely by their owne euill conduct I doe not wonder there are men who willingly forsake Frost and Snow to seeke their liuing vnder a more pleasing and temperate climate then their owne and who quit bad Countreyes as being well assured the place of their banishment shall bee more blissefull vnto them then that of their birth Onely herein it vexeth me in the behalfe of the Kings honour to see him constrayned to finish the remainder of the Emperours victories vpon a sort of beaten Souldiers and who rather fly the fury of Marquesse Spinola then follow vs. These great Bulwarks whose neighbour I am seeming rather the Fabricks of Gyants then the fortifications of a Garrison-towne will not euer be looked vpon with amazement one day I hope there will appeare nothing in their places but Cabbins for poore Fishermen or if it be requisite the workes of Rebellion should still remaine and the memory of these troublesome some people indure yet longer we shall in the vpshot see them remoue Mountaines and diue into the Earths foundations to prouide themselues a Prison at their owne charge But withall my Lord I beseech you let there be no further speech made of occasions or expeditions and let a Peace be concluded which may continue till the Worlds end let vs leaue the Warre to the Turke and King of Persia and cause I beseech you that wee may lose the memory of these miserable times wherein Fathers succeed their Children and wherein France is more the Countrey of Lansknights and Swisses then ours Though Peace did not turne the very Desarts into profitable dwellings as it doth or caused not the quarries or flints to be come fruitfull though it came vnaccompanied without being seconded with security and plenty yet were it necessary onely to refresh ourforces thereby to enable vs the longer to endure Warre As I was ending this last word I heard a voyce which desired my dispatch oblieging me to end what I supposed I had but begun It is with much reluctation my Lord I am depriued of the onely contentment your absence affordeth me But since you could not receiue this Letter were it any longer J am resolued to lose one part of my content to enioy the other and to say sooner then I supposed that I am euer absolutely Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull seruant BALZAC The 16. of September 1622. To the Cardinall de Valette from BALZAC LETTER VIII My LORD YOu should oftner receiue Letters from me could I ouer-master my paine but to say truth it leaueth me not one thought free to reflect vpon any thing else and what desire soeuer I haue to giue you content yet am I not able to doe any thing but at the Physitians good pleasure and at the Feauers leasure whilest the Court affoordeth you all content and prepareth whatsoeuer is pleasant for you reseruing distrusts
the end not to omit any thing worthy the Ancient Rome It is impossible at once to haue so glorious obiects and degenerous thoughts or not to be transported with all those Tryumphs of times past and with the glory of our Age. But this is not the place where I intend to speake it being of too small extent to receiue so illimitable a Subiect It shall therefore suffice in conclusion of this my Letter to tell you that since vpon your aduice all posterity dependeth and the whole Court expecteth from you what they are or are not to beleeue I cannot chuse my Lord but to esteeme my selfe right happy euen amidst my greatest miseries if you still continue vnto me your equall Iudgement with the honour of your fauours BALZAC From Rome this 10. of Aprill 1623. To the Lord Cardinall of Richelieu from Mounsieur Balzac LETTER V. My LORD MY purpose was at my arriual in France to haue presented my Seruice vnto you in the place of your Residence that I might haue had the honour to see you but my health hauing not beene such as to affoord me the free disposition of my selfe I am forced to deferre my contentment in that kinde and to intreate to heare some Newes from You till I be able to go to vnderstand them from your Selfe In the interim the better to cheare my Spirits I will beleeue they are as good as I wish them and will imagine this Collicke of yours whereof I had so great apprehension shall be drowned in the fountaine of Pougues This truly is so generally desired and sought for at Gods hands by so many mouthes that I am confident he will not in this poynt leaue the felicity He hath prepared for our times vnperfect and that He loueth the World too well to depriue it of the good you are to Performe Armies being defeated new Forces may be set on foot and a second Fleete may be rigged after the first perish But if we should want your Lordship the World would not last long enough to be able to repayre such a losse And the King might haue just cause to bewayle the same in the midst of his greatest Tryumphes He hath indeed an inexhaustable Kingdome of men The Warres do daily affoord him Captaines The number of Iudges is not much inferiour to that of Criminals It is only of wise men and such as are capable to guide the Sterne of States whereof the scarcity is great and without flattery to find out your Equall herein all Nature had need put it selfe into Action and that God long promise the same to mankinde before he be pleased to produce him I say nothing my Lord I am not ready to sweare in verification of my beleefe or which I confirme not by the Testimony of your very Enemies The authority of Kings is not so Soueraigne as that is you exercise ouer the Soules of such as hearken vnto you Your Spirit is right powerfull and dayly imployed in great affaires and which refresheth it selfe in agitation of ordinary occurrents You are destinated to fill the place of that Cardinall which at this present maketh one of the beautifull parties of Heauen who hath hitherto had no Successour though he haue had Heires and Brothers This being thus who will doubt that publicke Prayers are to be offred for so precious and necessary a health as yours or that your life ought to be deare vnto you within you are to conserue the glory of our age As for me my Lord who am assaulted on all sides and to whom nothing is remayning saue hope being the only benefit of those who are depriued of all others since my misfortune wil needs make me that publicke sacrifice which is to be charged with the paines of all the people and pay for all the World I could be well content you should send me your Collicke and that it come to accompany the Feauer the Scyatica and the Stone Since of so many Diseases there can but one Death be composed Nor is it time any longer to be a good husband of what is already lost But I will not enter further into this discourse wherof I shal find no end and it were to small purpose to tell you he is the most wretched man in the World who so much honoureth you for feare you should reiect my affection as somefatall thing and least it auayle me not at all to protest that I am my Lord Your most hamble and most obedient Seruant BALZAC September the 4. 1622. To the Lord Cardinall of Richelieu LETTER VI. MY LORD AFter the sealing of these presents a messenger passed by this place by whom I vnderstand that the Pope hath created you a Cardinall I make no question but you receiued this Newes as a matter indifferent vnto you and that your Spirit being raised aboue the things of this world you behold them with one and the same Aspect Yet since herein the publicke good meeteth with your particular interest and that for your sake the Church reioyceth euen in all the most irkesome Prisons of Europe it is not reasonable you should depriue your selfe of a contentment no lesse chast then those Heauen it selfe affoordeth vs and which proceedeth from the same cause All good men my Lord ought in these times to desire great Dignities as necessary meanes to vndertake great matters If they doe otherwise besides that God will demand a strict account from them of those his graces whereof they haue made no good vse the World hath likewise iust subiect of Complaint seeing them abandon it as a prey to the wicked and that their desire of ease causeth them to forsake the publicke good This my Lord is to let you know you are to reserue your Humility for those Actions passing betwene God and Your selfe But that in other cases you can neither haue too much Wealth nor ouer great power since Obedience is due to Wisedome there being certaine vertues not practiseable by the poore I doe therefore infinitely reioyce to see you at this present raised to that eminent Dignity wherein you fill the Vniuerse with Splendor and where your sole Example will I hope carry so great weight as to cause the Church to returne to the Purity of its first Jnfancy Truely if there be any hope to expect this happinesse and to see rebellious Spirits perswaded as we behold their Citties forced you doubtlesse are the man from whom wee are to expect this felicity and who is only able to finish the victories of Kings by the subuersion of Misbeleeuers To this effect doth all Christendome exact these atchieuments at your hands as a last instruction and the generall peace of Consciences and my selfe who haue thus long beene in search after the Jdea of Eloquence without finding among vs any which is not eyther counterfeit or imperfect am very confident you wil bring it to light in the same excellency as it was when at Rome the Tyrants were condemned and when it defended
enables them not to write many bookes I might enlarge my selfe vpon this subiect and discouer diuers secrets vnto you the world is not yet acquainted with But I haue neither time nor paper left saue onely to tell you that J am Sir Your most humble seruant BALZAC Another Letter from Balzac to the same man LETTER IX IVnderstand some haue taxed me for saying in my last Letter vnto you the spirits of Angels since Angels being all Spirits it seemed vnto them to be two inseperable tearmes But to let such men see how ill grounded their Obiection is and I suppose our iudgements will herein agree it may please them to remember that we call Angels Spirits to distinguish them from bodies being a farre different signification from what the word Spirit importeth when we take it for that part of the soule which vnderstandeth reasoneth and imagineth and which causeth so different effects in the soule of a foole and that of a discreete person Questionlesse euen among Angels themselues there may be a difference found betweene the spirits of some and other some of them to wit in the faculty of Ratiotination and Comprehension Since those of the last order are not illuminated but by meanes of them of the precedent rankes and so of the rest euen to the first which haue a farre more sublime intelligence then the inferiour Orders which as no man how smally soeuer seene in the Metaphisiques will doubt of come as farre short of the vnderstanding the first Order is indued with as they doe of their degree We are therefore to admit of this difference and say that an Angell is doubtlesse a Spirit to wit he is not a Body but withall that an Angell hath moreouer a spirit namely this faculty of knowing and conceiuing either lesser or more large according to the priuiledge of his Order So as if a Spirit hath no other signification then a simple and incomposed substance this inequality were not to be found among the Angels being equally simple and farre from all composition and mixture When then I say it was a wrong done to Angels to call any other Spirits diuine saue onely theirs I take the word Spirit in its second signification and thereby seperate it from the Angell and distinguish the simple substance and nature Angellicall from that faculty of the Soule tearmed the vnderstanding But that one may not say the spirit of Angels because they are all spirit is a reason very reproueable and whereto there wanteth nothing but verity to make it no vntruth for that besides the spirit or vnderstanding affoording to Angels so eminent a knowledge of diuine things they are likewise indued with will causing them to loue what they know and with memory dayly adding something to their naturall intellect But admitting I should yeeld to whatsoeuer these my reprehendors would haue and that I limit the word Spirit within the bounds of its first signification I should still haue the better of it For in truth our ordinary manner of conception cannot possibly represent Angels without bodies yea and the Church it selfe affoordeth them so faire beautifull and perfect ones that from thence the best Poets ordinarily picke their Comparisons to pourtraite the rarest beauties Besides if in holy Writ mention be often made of the Spirit of God euen before he assumed our corporall substance and in a sence which could not be vnderstood of the third person in Trinity why may not I as iustly speake of the spirits of Angels being in comparison of Gods Spirit no better then earth and materiall and which approacheth not by many degrees vnto the simplicity and purity of this maiesteriall cause being as the Mother to all the rest You see here that howsoeuer it is very dangerous to study by halfe parts or to vnderstand some small matter more then those who neuer were at Schoole yet is it out of such men as these that Nouellists and superstitious persons are raised yea and all the rest who haue reason enough to doubt but not science sufficiently to determine rightly BALZAC To Mounsieur de Bois Robert from Balzac LETTER X. SIR YOu haue anticipated what I intended to say and haue not left for me in all Rhetoricke either complement or commendations to returne you This is to force ingratitude by excesse of obligation and to reduce me to the necessity of being indebted vnto you after I be dead In truth it were necessary I had the power to promise you felicity and Paradise in requitall of the vowes and sacrifices you offer vnto me and that I were in case to be your aduocate instead of being thus put to a stand to answer you It may be you haue a minde in such sort to disguise me to my selfe as I shall not hereafter know who I am but be forced to forget my owne name by causing me to imagine I am not the same man I was yesterday Proceede at your pleasure to deceiue me in this sort for I am resolued not to contest with you in this kind to the worlds end nor to arme my selfe against an enemy who onely throwes Roses at my head I should be very glad all my life would passe in such pleasing Dreames and that I might neuer awake for feare of knowing the truth to my preiudice But for the attayning this happinesse it is necessary I doe quite contrary to your aduice and neuer quit my Countrey-house where none comes to enter into comparisons or contest with me for the aduantage I haue ouer bruite beasts or my Lackeyes I agree with you that it is the Court-voice which either approueth or condemneth all and that out of its light things though neuer so perfect haue no appearance But I know not whether it were my best to make that my owne case since I feare lest my presence there will rather preiudice my reputation and your iudgement then make good your position Vpon the matter if there be any tollerable parts in me they appeare so little outwardly as I had neede haue my breast opened to discouer them And in conclusion you will finde it a sufficient obligation for me to haue you thinke my soule is more eloquent then my discourse and that the better part of my vertue is concealed Yet since my promise is past I must resolue for Paris though it prooue as strange a place vnto mee as if I were out of the World or as though they should chase raw Courtiers thence as they doe corrupt States-men To tell you plainely how the case stands J am none of those who study the slightest actions of their liues and who vse Art in all they doe or doe not I cannot light vpon that accent wherewith they authorise their follies nor make of euery meane matter a mystery by whispering it in the eare And lesse doe I know how to palliate my faults or make shew of an honest man if really I be not so Now though I could make my selfe capable of these Arts yet
two hundred calling themselues Virgins I verily thinke there is not one who speakes truth if shee haue not recouered her Maiden-head It may be their intention is not ill and that in suffering themselues to be courted they haue no other designe then to raise seruants to God But since godly intentions doe not alwayes produce good effects if you suffer things to run on in the same course which they doe I greatly apprehend in your regard that Antichrist will shortly take his beginning in your Diocesse and lest you by consequence should be the first obiect of his persecution J suppose you haue a greater interest then any man to oppose this accident which now threatneth vs and that to diuert a mischiefe which is to be followed by the worlds ruine you ought not to spare the fulminations of Rome nor make vse onely of halfe your power There are not any will be auerse to this good Worke saue only our young Gallants But you cannot procure their disaffections vpon a better subiect then this nor doe greater seruice to the iealious God then to conserue the honour of those creatures he loueth I am Your most humble and most affectionate seruant BALZAC The 7. of October 1618. To Mounsieur Pouzet LETTER XI IF you will not returne from Court we are resolued to send Deputies on purpose to require you of the King and to beseech him to restore vs our good company I know well that in the place where you are there are prisons both for the innocent and most happy and that no man can blame you for your ouer-long abode there without accusing you for being fortunate But it were likewise small Justice your absence should make this City a Village and that Paris should vsurpe all the affections you owe me As I perfectly loue you so doe I expect to be reciprocally respected by you nor would you I should herein haue any aduantage ouer you though I yeelde vnto you in all other things Neither of vs therefore can enioy solide contentments so long as we are separated and I pretend you doe me wrong if you take satisfaction where I am not Take Poste therefore with speed to be here quickely grow not old eyther by the way or at your Inne for by this meanes I shal get the aduantage of that time and you shall gaine me foure dayes out of the losse of three Moneths I haue seene what you willed me concerning λλλ But I would you knew I haue no resentments against forcelesse enemies nor haue I any minde to put my selfe into passion when these petty Doctors please Should these fellowes speake well of me I would instantly examine my conscience to know whether I were guilty of any fault and as Hippolitus suspected his owne innocency because hee was esteemed spotlesse in his stepdames eye So should not I haue any good opinion of my owne sufficiency were I gracious in their sights who can haue no other then bad affections Howsoeuer they cause me once a day to thinke my selfe some greater matter then I am when I reflect vpon their number and the miracle I worke in interessing in one and the same cause supersticious persons Atheists and euill Monkes Adieu Yours BALZAC The 14. Aprill 1625. An answer to a Letter sent to Balzac from a learned Old Lady Madamoiselle de Gournay LETTER XII Madam I DOe here at the first tell you I haue no other opinion of you then your selfe giues me and I haue at all times had a more strong and sound notion of the inward qualities by the speech then by the Physiognomy But if after the Letter you did me the honour to write vnto me it were necessary to seeke any forraigne proofes the testimony of those two great personages who haue admired your vertue euen in the budde and left the pourtraite thereof vnder their owne hands may well serue as an Antidote to secure mee from the impressions and the painted shadowes of calumny I who know that Asia Affricke and a great part of the world besides beleeue Fables as fundamentall points of Religion doe not at all wonder if in what concerneth your particular there be some who side not with the truth which is sure to finde enemies in all places where there are men This is an effect of that errour now growne old in popular opinion that it is fit an honest woman be ignorant of many things and that to maintaine her reputation it is not requisite all the world commend her but that she be vnknowne to all men Nay I say further The vulgar doth ordinarily cast an iniurious eye and with some taxe of extrauagancy vpon great and Heroicall qualities if they appeare in that sexe to which they conceiue it ought not to appertaine Now though to speake generally and to reflect rightly vpon the order of earthly things and the grounds of policy I must confesse I should leane to the first of these opinions Yet will I be well aduised how I thinke that Nature hath not so much liberty left her as to passe vpon occasion the limits shee ordinarily alloweth her selfe or sometimes to exceede her bounds without blame to the end to produce certaine things farre surpassing the rest in perfection It is no good Argument to auerre that because you are adorned with the vertues of our sexe you therefore haue not reserued those of your owne or that it is a sinne for a woman to vnderstand the Language which heretofore the Vestals made vse of I will therefore leaue these calumnious persons who desire to bereaue Lillies of their beauty and Christall of its clearenesse to returne to the Letter I haue receiued from you where without flattery I will affirme that this man who hath beene discribed vnto you for so vaine glorious a person who despiseth times past who mocketh the moderne and preiudicateth the future hath found out diuers things in your workes well pleasing vnto him so as if my approbation be at this present of any weight with you you may for your owne aduantage adde this Encomion to that of Lipsius and Montagnie and boldly affirme you haue this aduantage ouer Kings and Emperours that the tastes of two different ages haue agreed in your fauour Since you were first commended the face of Christendome hath changed ten times Neyther our manners attire or Court are cognisible to what you haue seene them Men haue made new lawes yea and the vertues of our fore-fathers age are esteemed the vices of ours yet shall it appeare how amidst so many changes and strange reuolutions you haue brought euen to ourtimes one and the same reputation and that your beauty I speake of what enamoreth the Capucins Friers and old Philosophers hath not left you with your youth I shall in mine owne regard bee very glad the world should take notice how much I honour Vertue by what name soeuer it passeth and vnder what shape soeuer it is shrowded and I esteeme my party stronger by the halfe then
double as rich as thou desirest to be I haue long since beene assured thy thoughts are not inthralled to the earth or that thy passions onely exceede those of the vulgar Let me intreat thee to cherish them my deare Hydaspe and though I be continually sad and at all times ill affected in my health yet remember that the very rauings of my Feauer are sometimes more prizeable then Philosophicall meditations and we see beautifull faces often weepe so gracefully that some haue beene enamoured of their teares I haue fully acquainted thee with our occurrents here by my last Letters nor will I let any opportunity passe without giuing my selfe the content of discoursing with thee in that kind binde me so much vnto thee as to doe the like on thy part But if thy Letters be so short as vsually they are I will now betimes tell thee I will read them so often as they shall become long enough in spite of thee I know well how in the place where thou art thou oughtest not lose any minute of time since opportunities last no longer and resolue thy selfe to take a thousand vnprofitable iournies to thy Lords Chamber before thou makest one to purpose Great men vse not to keepe Registers of the absent nor remembrancers of them they vsually forget but rather to the contrary they imagining there is no other thing on earth but themselues and what concernes them prouided they finde any who looke like men they neuer trouble themselues to enquire for others since with them assiduity often workes more then seruice yea and those whom they would not affect for merit they will loue by custome It is therefore necessary you be still in sight and alwayes at hand for the entertainment of Fortune It is a tradition the subtle Gascoynes at their deathes leaue to their Children and truely as choler assumeth Armes out of whatsoeuer it encounters so is it true that occasion taketh hold of all such as present themselues We ought to contract perfect loue with honest men but yet not to be at oddes with others Poysons themselues are necessary in some cases and since we are forced to liue among sauage creatures wee had neede haue the industry either to familiarise or force them I aduise thee not to looke before thee behinde thee and on euery side when thou speakest or to be in so great feare to be taken at thy word as thou darest not tell what a Clocke it is if one askes thee Thou shalt gaine much by being silent the dumbe shall at all times therein exceede thee For my part I neuer make question of speaking when I haue any thing in my head better then silence I doe not hereby meane that wee ought to discouer our intentions by our lookes or that our interiour conceptions appeare outwardly with all their passions namely of feare hatred or distemper This were to betray our selues and to giue ill example to others But herein you are to make election of place and persons and not wilfully to depriue thy selfe of the most pleasing fruite of mans life there being not any in whose breast we may securely deposite either our griefes or ioyes Besides I would not haue thee of that Spaniards humour who tooke for his deuice Que fi que no but consider with thy selfe that Reason is a sacred thing whereto thou art to yeeld where euer it appeares I confesse that most things are inuolued in vncertainties and that humane Sciences haue very slender and vncertaine foundations yet are there some truths so perspicuous and so absolutely receiued into the Worlds approbation as it were no lesse then to lacke common sense to call them into question for hee who should say my Lord the Constable d'Esdiguieres were not valiant or my Lord the Cardinall of Richelieu were not a man of able parts doubtlesse all men would wonder at him as at one who sought to introduce some new Sect or indeauour to ouerthrow the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Nay I tell you yet more you are piously to beleeue diuers sots to be sufficient men since the World will haue it so and that Kings are not the onely men who desire complasency since if we meane to liue among others we must sometimes necessarily flatter and frame our selues to their opinions Let vs then follow the iudgement of the wise and the customes of the vulgar let vs keepe our thoughts to our selues and allow them our actions and out-sides As J haue aduised thee not to be ouer silent so would I not haue thee ouer talkatiue nor to weary any one with thy discourse of Mountauban or the exploits thou hast there seene performed I assure thee to auoyde the company of these boasting companions I would take poste goe to Sea or fly to the Worlds end They seeme to me to haue gotten a patent for prating and that it were no lesse then to take their purse if one should offer to speake a word in their presence But aboue all it is very death to me when these fellowes come fresh out of Holland or when they begin to study the Mathematicks From Millan to Sienna I was haunted with one of these Chapmen whose company I shall so long as I haue life reckon among my greatest misfortunes Hee would needes reforme all the fortifications of those strong places wee passed by bee trode on no earth at which he carped not nor trauailed ouer any Mountaine on which hee had not some designe he set vpon all the Citties in the Dukedome of Florence he desired onely a certaine short prefixed time to take in all the States of Medena Parma and Vrbin yea I had much adoe to draw him from casting his designes vpon the lands of the Church and St. Peters Patrimony These be diseases the roots whereof are not to be cut vp without taking away the tongue withall Nay J feare when all this is done there will be yet neede to passe further into the cure and to vse meanes to bereaue them of voyce for the generall good of such as can heare There is yet another sort of importunate people whose number doth so multiply in France it is almost arriued to an infinity These haue not one halfe houres intertainement for thee without telling thee the King is raysing puissant forces how such a one is out of credit with his faction another is a great searcher into and medler in State-matters and how a third diueth into all the intricacies of Court-businesses If you can haue the patience to heare them yet a while longer you shall straite vnderstand how the President Iannin was the man who had the truest intentions of all the ministers of Justice That it is expedient to shew a Master-peece of State to giue reputation to the present current of affaires That the Kings authority was interessed in this action and that those who sought to cry downe the present gouernment rather aimed at their particular aduantages then redresse of disorders See here the
style wherewith they persecute me euen to my poore Village and which is a cause I loath State and publique affaires Tyre not therefore my eares at thine arriuall lest you turne mine aduersary with intention to assault mee with these huge words If you know not that these follies haue not alwayes the same aspect and that there are as well serious follies as slight ones I would admonish thee in this place Now though a man at twenty can haue no great experience of the World yet haue you a sufficient cleare iudgement to keepe your selfe from being deluded by the apparance of good or by the outward luster of euill I had neede of more time then the bearer allowes mee and of more words then a Letter is capeable of sufficiently to instruct thee what thou oughtest to doe and what to auoide or to learne thee a Science wherin my selfe doe study in teaching thee I will therefore onely say since I am hastned to make an end that before all other things thou art to offer thy whole will to God if thou beest not able to giue the rest and to haue at least good designes if it be not as yet in thy power to doe any good deeds I well know it is no slender taske to vndertake to guard our selues from euill where inticements are extraordinary and the danger extreame and where thou wilt tell me that if God will hinder thee from louing beauty he had neede make thee blind I hauing no pleasing answer to make thee hereto my deare Hydaspe I referre thee to thy Confessor intreating thee to consider how if the King in the flower of his age wherein wee see him and in the midst of an infinity of obiects offering themselues to giue him content is yet notwithstanding so firme in the resolution to vertue that he as easily surmounteth all voluptuous irregularities as he doth his most violent rebels and is not any way acquainted with forbidden pleasures nor doth glut himselfe euen with lawfull ones If as I say this truth bee generally auowed I beseech thee tell me why continency may not be placed among things possible But I much feare there is no meanes to gaine this for granted at thy hands since thou beleeuest as others doe that to be chaste were no lesse then to vsurpe vpon the possession of married Wiues Yet at the least Hydaspe if this body of thine being of sufficient ability to send Collonies into each corner of the World and to people the most desart places will needes be imployed I intreate thee to stay there without being transported with the debauches of the mouth which haue no other limits then the losse of reason and ruine of health I should be in vtter despaire were it told me that my brother drinkes as much as though hee were in a continuall Feauer and were as great a purueyer for his panch as if hee were to enter into a besieged City I confesse thy inclination doth of it selfe sufficiently diuert thee from these Germaine vertues and that thou art not much lesse sober then my selfe who haue passed ouer three yeares without suppers and who would willingly feed onely vpon Fennill and picktoothes if I thought I could thereby recouer health Yet truely this doth not hinder me from hauing some apprehension when I consider how the examples of great ones doth often giue authority to vice and that to keepe our selues vpright in the midst of corruption is not an effect of the ordinary force of men Consider then once againe Hydaspe that we are powerfully to resist temptations Haue an eye to the interest thou hast to contayneithy selfe within the limits of an orderly life and be well aduised whether thou couldst be contented to be of the proportion of those good fellowes whose spirits are choaked in their owne grease and who become such comely creatures that if their bodies were pierced there would nothing passe forth of their wounds but Wine and Porridge Besides making profession as thou dost to be a man of thy word be not offended if I summon thee to obserue what thou hast promised mee or that I freely tell thee that if thou fallest againe to the old game I shall haue small subiect to assure my selfe of thy fidelity in other thy former promises Wert thou the King of the Indies or thy life endlesse I would not forbid thee this exercise but since wee haue scarce leasure enough in this world to attayne vertue nor ouer great possessions to secure vs from pouerty beleeue me Hydaspe it is very dangerous to suffer shipwracke on shoare and besides the expence of money which wee esteeme as deare vnto vs as life to lose our sences likewise and our time the last whereof is irrecouerable is both shamefull and sinfull hauing here admonished thee well neere though confusedly and scatteredly of those things thou oughtest to flye it were requisite I should likewise aduise thee of what were fit for thee to follow and to cause if I could good lawes to arise out of euill manners But it is fit to take time to deliberate vpon a matter of such importance and truely to speake herein to purpose all the wit I haue ioyned with that of others were no more then sufficient Yours BALZAC The 1 of Ianuary 1624. To Hydaspe from Balzac LETTER IIII. MY deare Hidaspe if God had conferred a Kingdome vpon me with condition not to haue mee sleepe more then I doe I should prooue the most vigilant Prince liuing nor should I neéde either Guards or Sentinels about my person Surely there is not any my selfe excepted for whom Night was not made since when the windes are calme and all Nature quiet I alone watch with the Starres But I much feare lest God will not be satisfied herewith since I fore-see so many miseries ready to rowle vpon me as I haue no small apprehension to become more wretched tomorrow then I am at this present The onely countenance of Hydaspe would refresh mee and cause my paine to be in some sort pleasing But fince there are now at least a dozen great Cities and a hundred Leagues of Snow betweene vs I haue much adoe to forbeare dying and to support my selfe vpon my weakest part Yet my meaning is not to haue thee returne hither for were it possible for me I had much rather come to thee and continually to gaze on that face whereof I haue drawne so many faire purtraicts It is true there are few men liuing whose loue we should preferre before liberty But assure thy selfe thy Master is of those be not therefore more proud then Henry the third who first obeyed him For my part though I be naturally refractory yet haue I euer had a speciall inclination to his seruice yea when all things went crosse with him and that his best Friends forsooke him I tooke pleasure in perishing on purpose to affoord him some consolation in his calamities Many desire a dependency on him out of their particular ends but me
all this may happen but it is no reason we should be obliged to the Tyrants death for our liberty but to our owne resolutions BALZAC The 30. of Iuly 1620. To Lydia from Mounsieur Balzac LETTER XXII I Am almost madde to vnderstand thou wert seene laugh to day Is this true loue Lydia to be merry in my absence and to be the same woman thou art when I am with thee Yet should I haue bin satisfied hadst thou beene contented only to haue made thy selfe merry with thy looking-glasse so the man in yron had not been in my place I neuer saw him but once and surely he is eyther a Sot or else all the rules of Phyhognomy are false yet because he cals himselfe Captaine thou permits him to persecute thee with his Complements and art at the point to yeild If he touch thee Lydia all the water in the Sea is little enough to purifie thee and if thou allowest him the rest haue a care least in his sleep he take thee for an Enemy and instead of his imbraces strangle thee To the Baron of Amblouile from BALZAC LETTER XXIII My LORD I Attend you here in the season of Jasmins and Roses and do send you a taste of the pleasures of Rome for feare you be poisoned therewith vppon your first approach We are here in the Country of curiosities and to be happy in this place it sufficeth not to be blind The Sunne hath yet heat enough to ripen vs Reasins and to afford vs Flowers all the Winter fals vppon the neighbouring Mountaines to the end we may not want Snow in August But if you desire I should diuert my Discourse vnto more serious matters conceale nothing from you I must tell you there is no place vnder Heauen where Vertue is so neare a Neighbour to Vice or where Good is so mingled with Euill We here behold miracles on the on side and monsters on the other and at the same time when some Discipline themselues others run to debauches of all kinds Besides there is as profound a peace here as in that part of the Ayre eleuated aboue the Windes and Stormes Idlenesse in this place is an honest mans ordinary Vocation and to saue halfe the World no man will rise hastily from Table for feare of troubling digestion If you chance to see any with skars in their faces do not thereupon imagine they haue purchased them eyther in Warres or in defence of their honour for these are only their Mistresses fauours but in recompence of such refractory humors you shall see that here the sanctity whereof doth illustrate the whole Church It is their feruent prayers which impetrate all aduantages ouer Enemies It is their fastings which cause fruitefulnesse to flow vppon the Earth It is their innocency which conserueth the culpable from Eternall ruine In a word there are here such excellent examples of Vertue and so intising allurements to Vice that I will not maruaile if you turn honest man here and I will likewise willingly pardon you if you do not so Truly as new Spaine is the Prouince of gold and as Affricke affords Lyons and France souldiers so is Italy the mother of those things you best loue When you shall see these Female Creatures in their owne Country and compare their beauty with the bad fashion of the masculine Italians I doubt not but it will seeme to you aswel as to my selfe these diuine Women to haue beene created by themselues or to be Queenes who haue married their Groomes The most part of those beyond the Mounts haue no more beauty then needs must to excuse them from being esteemed vgly and if there be some one whose face you could fancy this shall happily be some desolate Palace or some well fauoured beast But here for the most part they are borne Eloquent and I will tell you before hand that in one and the same person you shal find both your Master and Mistresse For my part I ingeniously confesse I do no longer liue vnder Clorinda's regency and all that is permitted mee in this place is onely sometimes to honour her memory I expect you should at this passage accuse me of leuity and disloyalty and that you could willingly reuile mee But doe you not thinke my sighes must needes be surbated in going euery day foure hundred leagues Besides being so farre from her as I am what know I whether I loue a dead body or an Infidell I haue not receiued any fauours from her which are not rather markes of her vertues then demonstrations of her loue And had she lost all her liberality in that kinde shee could hardly misse it I am therefore onely obliged to my word not to her affection And as for that I should ouer-esteeme her if I made more reckoning thereof then some Princes doe of theirs and I should shew my selfe ouer superstitious if I valued what I onely whispered in her care to be of greater efficacy then Letters Pattents and Edicts It is a point decided in Onids Theology that an hundred false Oathes from an amorous person amount not to halfe a deadly sinne and that it is onely the God of Poets whom wee offend by our periury in that point Now I will bee iudged by her selfe whether J hauing bestowed my seruice vpon her she should take it ill if another did reward me or that I loue rather to bee happy then otherwise or desire rather to possesse Lucretia then to desire Clorinda Will she haue her tyranny extend euen to the Churches patrimony and that the Pope share his temporall authority with her J doe not beleeue she hath any such pretentions For my part I would shee knew I can no longer behold any beauty but naked nor receiue any but warme moist kisses I will tell you the rest vpon the bankes of Tyber and in these precious ruines whither I goe to muse once a day and to treade in their steps who haue led Kings in triumph If there were any meanes there to finde a little of Sylla's good fortune or of Pompeis greatnesse instead of the Medals we now then meet with I should haue a farther subiect to inuite you hither Notwithstanding if you be yet your selfe and that by solemne vow you haue forsaken the world and the vanities thereof assure your selfe that it is in this Countrey where felicity doth attend you and that being once in this place you will esteeme all those as banished persons whom you haue left behinde you in France BALZAC The 25. of December 1621. To the Count of Schomberg from BALZAC LETTER XXIIII My Lord I Send you the papers you haue formerly seene and whereto you haue attributed so much as I should bee ashamed to assent thereto were it not that I hold it lesse presumption to beleeue I haue merited the same then to imagine I can haue a flatterer of your fashion I had neede be eleuated to a more soueraigne fortune then the state of Kings to expect complacency
from a man who could neuer be procured to approue euill and of whose disfauour one can hardly finde other cause then the onely truth he hath declared Howsoeuer it be since you are now in Lymosin and take not any iourney in those parts without hauing a thousand old debates to reconcile and as many new ones to preuent it is very probable that after so painefull an imployment and so great disquiet of mind my booke will fall into your hands iust at such time as you cannot find any thing more tedious vnto you then what you come from treating of For should I presume that in your pleasant walkes of Duretal where all your minutes are pleasing and all your houres precious there could be any time spare for me and my works it were as much as to be ignorant of the diuersions there attending you or not to be acquainted with the great affluence of noble company dayly repairing thither to visite you But were it so that you had none with you saue onely the memory of your fore-passed actions your solitarinesse hath no neede of bookes to make it more pleasing nay if all this were not yet if you desire to seeke contentment out of your selfe you cannot finde any more pleasing then in the presence of your Children and particularly of that diuine Daughter of yours from whom I dayly learne some miracle It is therefore in her absence and in solitary walkes where I haue the ambition to finde entertainement and to receiue gracious acceptance In all other places without presuming either to passe for Oratour or Poet it shall highly suffice me in being honoured with the assurance that I am My Lord Your most humble Seruant BALZAC The 25 of May 1624. A Letter from the Count of Schomberg to Mounsieur de Balzac LETTER XXV SIR THe stile you trauaile in causeth the Pennes of all such who attempt an answere to fall out of their hands and Eloquence may so properly be called yours that it is no maruell though others haue but a small share therein I would therefore haue you know that if I vnderstand any thing in Letters yours doe obscure whatsoeuer hath hitherto bin esteemed of in our Language and that without flattering you there can be no diuersion so pleasing which ought not to giue place to the perusing of those Lines you sent mee This occupation is worthy the Cabinets of Kings and of the richest Eare curtins of France and not as you would haue it of my solitary retirements in Lymosin from whence I am ready to be gone with resolution neuer to retire from the affection I haue promised you whence you shall at all times draw effectuall proofes whensoeuer you please to imploy them for your seruice Sir Your most affectionate seruant SCHOMBERG The 1. of Iune 1624. THE LETTERS OF MOVNSIEVR DE BALZAC To my Lord Mashall of Schomberg THE FOVRTH BOOKE LETTER I. My LORD I Should be insensible of Publique good and an enemy to France had I not as I ought a true taste of the good newes your Foot-man brought me I will not mention the obligations I owe you being no small ones if that be not a slight matter to be esteemed by you But since I make profession to honour vertue euen in the person of one departed or an enemy and at all times to side with the right were there onely my selfe and Iustice for it you may please to beleeue I complaine in your behalfe for the miseries of our times and that I am most ioyfull to see you at this present where all the world mist you Certainely your retirement from Court hath beene one of the fairest peeces of your life during which you haue made it apparent you are the same in both fortunes since I can witnesse that no one word then passed from you vnsutable to your resolution Yet this rare vertue being there hidden in one of the remote corners of the world hauing but a very small circuite to dilate it selfe must necessarily be contented with the satisfaction of your conscience and slender testimonies In the meane time the authority of your enemies hath beene obnoxious to all honest eyes There was no meanes to conceale from strangers the States infirmities or what reason to affoord them for the disgrace of so irreproachable a Minister nor was there any who grieued not that by your absence the King lost so many houres seruices For my part my Lord reflecting vpon you in that estate it seemed to me I saw Phidias or some other of those ancient Artists their hands bound and their costly materials as Marble Gold or luory taken from them But now that better time succeede each thing being againe reduced to its place it is time to reioyce with all good French-men that you shall no more want matter and that the King hath at length found how vnusefull your absence hath beene to his affaires Truely be it that he content himselfeto gouerne his people wisely or that the afflictions of his poore neighbours set neare his heart and that his Iustice extend further then his Iurisdiction No man doubts whatsoeuer he doth but you shall be one of the principall instruments of his designes and that as well Peace as Warre haue equall vse of your Conduct All men haue wel perceiued you haue not contributed any thing to the administration of the Kings treasure saue onely your pure spirit to wit that part of the soule separated from the terrestriall part being free from passions which reasoneth without either louing or desiring and that you haue managed the Riches of the State with as great fidelity as one ought to gouerne another mans goods with as much care as you conserue your owne and with as great scruple as wee ought to touch sacred things But in truth it is no great glory for that man to haue beene faithfull to his Master who knowes not how to deceiue any And did I beleeue you were onely able to abstaine from ill I would barely commend in you the Commencements of Vertue I therefore passe further and am assured that neither the feare of death which you haue slighted in all shapes and vnder the most dreadfull aspects it could possibly appeare nor complacency which often ouer passeth the best Counsels to transport it selfe to the most pleasing ones nor any priuate interest which makes vs rather regard our selues then the Publique shall at all hinder you either from purposing vndertaking or executing eminent matters Posterity which will peraduenture iudge of our age vpon the report I shall make will see more elsewhere then I can here relate and I shall rest sufficiently satisfied if you please to doe mee the honour as to remember that mine affection is no Child of your prosperity and how in two contrary seasons I haue beene equally My Lord Your most humble and most faithfull seruant BALZAC To the Bishop of Angoulesme LETTER II. SIR I Will no longer complaine of my pouerty since you haue sent me