of others evils Although the place to which she hath raised you cannot be more eminent nor more sure yet my disgraces may be cause that her prospect is not so fair or pleasant and how setled soever the peace of your minde be yet the Object of a persecuted friend may perhaps offend your eyes Our Mounsieur de Berville I assure my self dislikes not this kinde of wisdom he likes to have that husbanded and dressed which Zeno would have to be rooted out he knows that magnanimity hath its residence between effeminateness and cruelty and that the sweet and humane virtues have place between the Fierce and the Heroick Poets sometimes make the Demy Gods to weep and if an old womans death were cause enough to make Aeneas shed tears the oppression of one innocent cannot be unworthy of your sighes Yet I require from you none of these sad offices your onely countenance is enough to give me comfort I do not live but in the hope I have to see it and to get you to swear once again in presence of the fair Agnes and the rest of your Chamber Divinities that you love me still After that if you will have us make a voyage in your Abby I shall easily condiscend Provided Sir that you promise me safety amongst your Monks and that they be none of those who profess exquisite words and onely talk of Analysis and Caco-zeal If you have any that be of this humour you are an unfortunate Abbot and you may make account to be never without suites First they will ask you a double allowance next they will question your Revenew and if you chance by ill hap to make a Book you are sure to be presently cited before the Inquisition or at least before the Sorbon God keep you Sir from such Friers and send you such as I am who eat but once a day and who will not open my mouth unless it be to praise your good words and to tell you sometimes out of the abundance of my heart that I am Sir Your c. At Balzac 26. of Decemb. 1631. To LETTER XLVI SIR I Am able to live no longer if you be resolved to love me no longer and think not that the good you promise me can countervail the loss of that you take from me Keep your estimation and your bounty for those that have nothing in them but Vanity and Avarice I am endowed from Heaven with better and more noble passions I like better to continue in my poverty than in your disgrace and will none of this cold speculative estimation which is but a meer device of reason and a part of the Law of Nations if you give it me single and nothing else with it I must tell you I think my self worthy of something more and that the Letter I write to you was worthy of a sweeter answer than you sent me If therein I said any thing that gave you distaste I call that God to witness by whom you swear I then wandred far from my intention I meant to contain my complaints within so just bounds that you should not finde the least cause to take offence But I see I have been an ill interpreter of my self and my rudeness hath done wrong to my innocency yet any man but your self would I doubt not have born with a friend in passion and not so unkindely have returned choler for sorrow As for my pettish humour it is quickly over and there is not a shorter violence than that of my spirit whereas you have taken five whole weeks to digest your indignation and in the end come to tell me you would do me any good you can upon condition to love me no longer I vow unto you it is a glorious act to do good to all the World and to make even ungratefull men beholding But Sir if you think me one to whom you may give that name you do me exceedingly much more wrong than it is in your power to do me right Neque decorum sapienti unde amico infamiam parat inde sibi gloriam quaerere I am wounded at the very heart with this you have written but since you will not suffer me to complain I must be fain to suffer and say nothing onely I will content my self to make a Declaration contrary to yours and tell you I will never make you beholding to me because I am not happy enough to be able to do it but yet I will love you alwayes and will alwayes perfectly be Sir Your c. At Balzac 1. of March 1633. To Mounsieur Trovillier Physician of the Popes House LETTER XLVII SIR HAving alwayes made especial reckoning of your friendship it is a great satisfaction to me that I receive assurance of it by your Letter I doubt not of your compassionating my disgraces and that the persecution raised against me hath touched you at least with some sence of grief for even meer strangers to me did me these good Offices and though the justice of my cause had not in it self been worthy of respect yet the violence of my adversaries was enough to procure me favour and protectours There is no man of any generous spirit that found not fault with the wits of your Philarchus nor a man of any wisdom that thought him not a Sophister Yet I cannot blame you for loving him seeing I know well you do it not to prejudice me and that your affection corrupts not your judgement You are too intelligent to be deceived with petty subtilties and too strong to be broken with engins of Glass but in truth being as you are a necessary friend to a number of persons of different qualities it cannot be but you must needs have friends of all prices and of all me it and that the unjust as well as the innocent are beholding to you You shall hear by Mounsieur when he comes to Rome the little credit I have with the man you spake to me of to whom I present my service but onely once a year and that I do too least I should forget my name and mistake my person If in any other matter which is absolutely in my own power you will do me the honour to imploy me you shall see my course is not to use excuses and colours but that I truly am Sir Your c. At Paris 4. of April 1631. To Mounsieur Gerard Secretary to my Lord the Duke d'Espernon LETTER XLVIII SIR YOu cannot complain nor be in misery by your self alone I partake of all your good and evil and feel so lively a reflection of them that there needs but one blow to make two wounds And thus I am wounded by the news you write and though your grief he not altogether just yet it is sufficient to make me partake with you that it is yours We weep for one not onely whom we knew not but whom we know to be happy one that in six months staying in the World hath gained that which St. Anthony was afraid
calmness and tranquillitie of his passion not needing that it should break forth and appear through noise and jangling Many men you know never do a good turn but that they may have occasion of upbraiding Poverty is more tolerable then such Creditors and there are some Patrons of such harsh dispositions that I would chuse persecution before their succors Upon our first meeting I will declare my self more particularly to you and in the mean while rest Sir Your c. Paris May 3. 1631. To my Lord the Bishop of Angoulesme chief Almener to the Illustrious Queen of great Brittain LET. XXX MY LORD I have seen in a Letter that you have written to Monsieur that my name is not unknown unto you and that I have some share in your good Graces this is a favor which I owe to your courtesie onely and I dare not believe that my more then small deserts could have acquir'd me such an inestimable good as that I cannot justlie enjoy it if you would not admit of that perfect devotion and reverence which I offer you and which I were bound to pay to your virtue though I should never reflect upon your Dignity You have at first boaâ—ding ingaged my observance It will be my Lord an incredible contentment unto me to enjoy that happy entertainment and discourse which you have done me the honor to promise me And I am confident that I shall still depart thence a better man and more learned though my inclination be never so untoward and unapt for good purposes and my memorie never so slipperie to retain the impression of fair Ideas But I begin to fear that your Flock should in the mean while languish for you and that the interests of France will crosse and oppose themselves against the wishes of our Province The fear of that was it that caused me to send England a Book which J did heartilie desire J could have presented to you there together with the Author He is one of the great Votaries of that great Cardinal Perron your Uncle He doth celebrate his memorie without intermission and adores his learned Reliques He doth glorie in being his ghostlie Son and you will not I am sure make any difficultie to avow this spiritual alliance that is between you and him being joyned with the condition that he desires to live in all his lifetime which is to be My Lord Your c. Balzac 20. Dec. 1636. To Monsieur De LET. XXXI Sir I write unto you with a heart wounded with sorrow and make my moan to you for the sinister opinion that you have conceived of me upon the first evill report that was suggested to you concerning me I thought J had given you a sufficient assurance of the smoothnâ—sse and plamnesse of my soul that you should not have so easily doubted of it and entertain a belief so injurious to amity before you had communicated your jealousies to your friends and made them cleare enough You know Sir more then any other that my passions are not close and reserved but J carrie my soul still in my prehead When J was not as yet so far your Servant as now J am J did not use much Artifice and dissimulation to perswade the contrarie and thence you might have deduc'd an infallible conclusion that if I had chang'd my inclination I would not have deceived you with new protestations of fidelitie I do therefore religiously protest unto you that honoring you with that zeal as I do you could not inflict a greater punishment upon me then the forfeiture of your favors But moreover I do swear to you by all that is sacred in the world that I have committed nothing that might deserve such a cruel punishment After this me thinks you might be confirm'd in the truth but pardon me if I tell you you should have been so before and that I do extreamlie wonder that a weak and grosse calumnie should quite ruine and deface in your thoughts the good impressions which I thought I had left there I cannot hinder mens mis-constructions of me or binde Interpreters from doing violence and putting my words upon the rack to make them depose things which were far from my intentions Sophisters make use of a true proposition to infer an erroneous conclusion and Pettisoggers still cite the Law to authorise their injustice and yet none will tax truth to be the cause of error or Law the mother of injustice I cannot warrant but my own thoughts which are sound and innocent not those of my adversaries which are full of malice and rancor I am responsible for the things that I have written and readie withall to maintain them But all the visions and fancies of men are not in my power Everie man can make a nimble and subtle decipherer of another mans intentions The same picture according to several lights and postures may have several representations and often times there is a great difference between a Text and the Commentaries the meaning of the Author and the Criticismes of Grammarians I said that I knew some strange insufferable humors and no way fit to possesse and sway free-born men Therefore I said that a man whom I do infinitelie esteem and honor was of that humor Loe here Sir not to say half of what I think of it a conclusion verie unworthie a Logician and which is as far from common as from my particular sense Jndeed it was not you that deduced it yet you should not have entertain'd it at second hand and if it did not seem to you to be palpably false yet you might have demurr'd a while and suspected it you have done your selfe wrong and me too in conceiving so bad a thought of your own merit and my fidelitie in expressing that you have some distrust of your self who are of no mean value and but verie little confidence in me whose freeness is something worth I have but little skill in fallacies and a mean Jugler may sometimes gain credit with me neverthelesse I should never have been thus surpris'd and deluded and when you have wrote to me in a dozen Letters at least that you knew some men that wrote pernicious Books and maintained Heretical Propositions I did not yield to such an imagination that this did reflect upon me and when you sent a Lackey into this Province I did not forbear to send you commendations by him You see that I am stung and therefore am sencible If your love were not deare unto me I could well enough bear your neglect of me and if my zeale to you were not strong I should endeavor to solace my selfe after your ill intreating of me But because I love I would be requited with love and I cannot brook to be taxt with a fault which I thought did not deserve so much as suspition Sir I am upon the point to publish a new Volum of Letters where there be some which I have written unto you and others where I make mention of you as
Mounsieur Gerard page 137 To Mounsieur de Gues page 139 To Mouns de Bois Robert page 143 A Table of the Letters contained in the fourth volume TO Mouns Conrart page I. To Mounsieur du Moulin page 3 To Mouns L'Huillier page 4 To Mounsieur the Abbot of Bois Robert page 6 To my Lord the Earle of Exceter page 7 To my Lord the Duke de la Valett page 8 To Mouns Drovet page 9 To Mouns De-Bonair page 10 To Mouns Huggens page 11 To Mouns de Racan page 12 To Mouns De St. Chartres page 13 To Mouns Baudoin page 14 To Mouns de Coignet page 15 To Madam Cesloges page 16 To my Lord Keeper of the Seals Seguier page 17 To Mounsieur de Morins page 18 To Mouns de Vaugulas page 19 To Mouns de la Motte Aigron page 21 To Mouns de Borstel page 22 To Mouns the chief Advocate page 23 To Mounsieur de Maury page 24 To Mouns de Mondory page 24 To Mounsieur le Guay page 26 To Mouns de Silhon page 26 To Mouns de la Fosse page 27 To Mouns D'Espesses page 29 To the same page 30 To Mouns de Couurelles page 32 To page 32 To my Lord the Bishop of Angoulesme page 33 To Mounsieur de page 34 To Mounsieur de Serizay page 39 To Mouns Habert Abbot of Cerizy page 40 To Mouns de Galliard page 41 To the same page 42 To Madam Desloges page 43 To Mouns de page 44 To Mouns Girard page 46 To the same page 47 To the same page 48 To the same page 49 To Madamoisel de Campagnole page 50 To Mouns the Abbot of Bois Robert page 51 To the same page 52 To the same page 53 To Mouns de Savignac page 54 To Mouns Chaplain page 56 To the same page 57 To the same page 58 To the same page 59 To the same page 60 To the same page 62 To the same page 63 To the same page 64 To the same page 65 To the same page 66 To Mounsieur de Silhon page 67 To Mouns Gerard Secretary to the Duke of Espernon page 68 To the same page 69 To Mouns de la Mothe le Vayer page 70 To Mouns de page 71 The Letters of MONSIEUR de BALZAC The first Book A Letter from the Cardinal Richelieu to the Signior of BALZAC LETTER I. SIR THough I have formerly delivered my opinion to a friend of yours concerning some of your letters he shewed me yet can I not satisfie my self before these lines afford you a more Authentical approbation thereof It is not any particular affection I bear to your person which inviteth me to this allowance but truth it self carrying with it such a Prerogative that it compelleth all who have their eys and spirits rightly placed for the delivering an unpartial opinion to represent them without disguise My censure shall be seconded by many others if there be any of a contrary conceit I dare assure you time will make them know that the defects they finde in your Letters proceed rather from their Spirits than from your Pen and how nearly they resemble the Ictericks who having the Jaundise in their eys see nothing which seemeth not unto them to carry the same colour Heretofore mean Wits admired all things above the pitch of their capacitie but now their judgements seconding their sufficiencies they approve nothing but what is within the compass of their Talent and blame all whatsoever exceedeth their Studies I dare without presumption say in what concerneth you herein that I see things as they are and declare them to be such as I see them The conceptions of your Letters are strong and as transcendent above ordinary imaginations as they are conformable to the common sense of such who are of sound judgement The Language is pure and the Words perfectly well chosen without affectation the Sense is clear and neat and the Periods accomplished with all their numbers This censure of mine is by so much the more ingenuous as that approving whatsoever is your own in your Letters I have not concealed to a certain friend of yours that I found some rectification to be desired concerning certain things you insert of other mens fearing least the liberty of your Pen should cause many to imagine that it is too often dipped in their humours and manners and draw such as are more acquainted with you by name than conversation to be otherwise conceited of you then you willingly could wish The manner wherewith you have received this my Advise causeth me that continuing my former freedom I will conclude in advertizing you that you shall be answerable before God if you suffer your Pen to sleep and that you are obliged to imploy it upon more grave and important Subjects being contented that you shall blame me if in so doing you receive not the satisfaction to see that what you perform herein shall be praised and esteemed even by those who would willingly pick occasion to controul them which is one of the most sure marks of the perfection of any Work You shall receive some in this kinde out of my Affection when I may have the opportunity to assure you that I am Your well affectionate to serve you the Cardinal of Richelieu From Paris the 4. of February 1621. To the Lord Cardinal of Richelieu from BALZAC LETTER II. MY LORD I Am as proud of the Letter you did me the Honour to write unto me as if there were a thousand Statues erected for me or as if I were assured by infallible authority of my works excellency Truly to be commended by that man our Age opposeth to all antiquity and upon whose wisdom God might well intrust the whole earths Government is a favour I could not wish for without presumption and which I am yet doubtfull whether I have really received or onely dreamed some such matter But if it be so that my eys have not deceived me and that you are he who hath bestowed that voice upon me which hath been chosen by all France to present her Petitions to the King and by the King him self to convey his Commands into Cities and Armies My Lord I must humbly then acknowledge you have already payed me before hand for all the services I can ever possibly perform unto you and I should shew my self very ungratefull if I should hereafter complain of my fortunes since upon the matter the goods and honours of this World are most ordinarily none other than the inheritance of Sots or rewards of Vice Estimation and Commendation being onely reserved for Virtue Ought I not then to rest highly satisfied having received from your mouth the same prize which Conquerours expect for their Victories yea all that your self could hope for in lieu of your great and immortal actions if there were another Cardinal of Richelieu to give them their due commendations But truely my Lord that is a thing which will always be wanting to your glorie for when by your onely presence you
have appeased the spirits of an incensed multitude when by your powerfull reasons you have induced Christian Princes to set the Native Countrey of Jesus Christ at liberty to undertake the Holy War when you have gained whole Nations to the Church as well by the force of your Example as by that of your Doctrine who is of ability to pay you the reputation which you in all right deserve and where shall you finde so excellent a witness for all the marvellous Acts of your life as I have of my watchings and studies I cannot chuse but reiterate this and my joy is over-just to be concealed Is it possible this great wit and high spirit which hath been imployed even from his first youth in perswading Princes in giving instructions to Embassadours and hath been listned unto by old men who have seen four Reigns Is it possible I say this man should value me on whose approbation all enemies agree nor is there among all men a contrary party or diversity of belief in this point If I had a purpose to disquiet the repose of this Kingdom I would seek for the consent of slack spirits and I should stand in need in my favour of all sorts of men were I to study for reputation in a popular State but truely I never affected confusion or disorder and my designs have ever aimed at the pleasing of a few For since you have declared your self in favour as he likewise hath done for whom France at this day envieth Italy and since you carry after you the most solid part of the Court I am content to let the rest run astray with Turks and Infidels who make the greater number of mankinde Yet my Lord I cannot think that any hereafter will be so far in love with himself or so obstinate in his own opinion as not to be a Convertite by the onely reading the Letter you honoured me with and who in conclusion will not subscribe to your great judgement And if it be certain that truth it self could not be strong enough against you there is no question but that side whereon you two shall agree ought to be universally followed For my part my Lord let all men say what they will I fix my self with closed eys there and what enemies soever the reputation you have allowed me procure me yet knowing your abilities and what you are I will be no farther solicitous for mine own interest or future benefit since it is become your cause I am My Lord Your most humble and most obedient servant BALZAC The 10. of March 1624. To the Cardinal of Richelieu from BALZAC LETTER III. My Lord I Humbly intreat you to be pleased by these presents to permit me to confirm unto you the assurance of my most humble service and that you would allow me to crave some news from you It is the onely thing wherein I am now curious and which in the very depth of my retiredness obligeth me to reflect sometimes upon worldly affairs But happen what can I am most assured you will remain constant even amidst publick ruins and that Fortune cannot bereave you of those advantages she never gave you Yet could I wish that your life were somewhat more calm and less glorious And I suppose that Artimiza's goodness having so great Affinity to what is infinite which is of power to procure love even amidst the most savage beasts doth in right deserve to obtain truce and repose among reasonable Creatures It is not in us to be Authours of hereafter nor do our wishes rule the event of humane affairs But surely if there be any Justice in Heaven whereof there is no doubt and if God have an eye to worldly matters we must believe the tears of upright persons shall not be shed in vain or that your Queen shall wax old in her misfortunes yet at the least since our cogitations be still within our own compass and we being not forbidden to hope well let us make the best use we may of this small portion of Liberty yet remaining The virtue she hath hitherto made use of in resisting her afflictions will happily one day serve to moderate her felicities And if God strook a certain Woman with suddain death for that she should have been seated in the place he destinated to this great Princess he surely will not suffer that man to live long who hath so highly injured her However my Lord it is great honour unto you not to have failed her in her afflictions and to have under-valued all worldly Prerogatives to be unfortunate with her I know that herein you satisfie your self with the testimony of a clear conscience and that it is not so much for opinion of men you undertake Worthy actions as for your own private satisfactian Nor are you a little to comfort your self in that at this present you are praised even by your very enemies and to see your resolutions redoubtable to those who have great Armies on foot and the chief forces of the State under their Command I would say more did I not fear you might suppose I had some private design in my Discourse or seek hereby to prepare you to receive some kinde of importunity from me But I most humbly beseech your Lordship to be confident that I being of free condition am little acquainted with flattery and that I am not so given over to gain but that notwithstanding you were still in Avignion I would ever as really as at this hour remain My Lord Your most humble and most affectionate servant BALZAC The 15. of May 1623. To the Cardinal of Richelieu from BALZAC LETTER IV. My Lord WEre I not well acquainted with my own insufficiency I might well be possessed with no small vanity upon the Letter you did me the Honour to write unto me and might well imagine my self to be some other thing than I was the day before I received it But knowing it is no other than a meer favour you pleased to afford me I will not flatter my self in my good fortune nor lessen the Obligation due unto you in presuming to merit the same If Virtue required any recompence out of her self she would not receive it from other mouth than yours and your reputation is at this day so Just and General as it is become a Verity wherein the Wise agree with the Vulgar I do therefore account my self very happy to be reputed of by a Person who is able to give a value to things of themselves worthless and I attribute so much to your Judgement that I will no longer hold any mean opinion of my self lest therein I should contradict you Truely my Lord very difficultly will my parts any way answer your expectation The time my Favour affoordeth me for rest is so short I can hardly imploy it to other purpose than to complain of its cruelty I have enough to do to live and to make that good I keep my self as carefully as though I were
that you are recovered yet have I still an apprehension of what alteration each hour may bring upon you Ought it then to be in the fits of your Feaver and in your inquietude for want of sleep that you understand these publick acclamations and the due praises you have purchased Shall the Senses suffer and the Spirits rejoyce or they continue tortured amidst these Triumphs or that you at once perform two contrary actions and at the same time have need as well of moderation as patience If Virtue could be miserable or if that Sect which acknowledgeth no other evil but pain nor any greater good than pleasure had not been generally condemned the Divine providence had received complaints from all parts of this Kingdom nor had there been an honest man known who for your sake had not found something farther to be desired in the conduct of this World But my Lord you understand much better than I do that it is onely touching the felicity of beasts we are to believe the body and not concerning ours residing onely in the supreme part of our selves and which is as smally sensible of those disorders committed below her as those in Heaven can be offended by the tempests of the Air or vapours of the Earth This being true God forbid that by the estate of your present constitution I should judge of that of your condition or that I should not esteem him perfectly happy who is superlatively wise You may please to consider that howbeit you have shared with other men the infirmities of humane nature yet the advantage resteth soly on your side since upon the matter there is onely some small pain remaining with you instead of an infinity of errours passions and faults falling to our lots Besides I am confident that the term of your sufferings is well nigh expired that the times hereafter prepares right solide and pure contentments for you and a youth after its season as you are become old before your time The King who hath use of your long living makes no unprofitable wishes Heaven hears not the prayers that the Enemies of this State offer We know no successour that is able to effect what you have not yet finished and it being true that our Forces are but the Arms of your head and that your Counsels have been chosen by God to re-establish the affairs of this age we ought not to be apprehensive of a loss which should not happen but to our successours It shall then be in your time my Lord I hope that oppressed Nations will come from the Worlds end to implore the protection of this Crown that by your means our Allies will repair their losses and that the Spaniard shall not be the sole Conquerour but that we shall prove the Infranchizers of the whole earth In your time I trust the Holy Sea shall have her opinions free nor shall the inspirations of the Holy Ghost be oppugned by the artifice of our Enemies resolutions will be raised worthy the ancient Italy for defence of the common cause To conclude it will be through your Prudence my Lord that there shall no longer be any Rebellion among us or Tyranny among men that all the Cities of this Kingdom shall be seats of assurance for honest men that novelties shall be no farther in request save onely for colours and fashions of Attire that the people will resign Liberty Religion and the Common-wealth into the hands of superiours and that out of law-full government and loyall obedience there will arise that felicity Politicians search after as being the end of civile life My hope is my Lord that all this will happen under your sage conduct and that after you have setled our repose and procured the same for our Allies you shall enjoy your good deeds in great tranquility and see the estate of those things endure whereof your self have been a principal Authour All good men are confident these blessed events will happen in your age and by your advice As for me who am the meanest among those who justly admire your Virtues I shall not I hope prove the slackest in the expression of your Merits Since therefore they of right exact a general acknowledgement if I should fail in my particular contribution I were for ever unworthy the Honour I so ambitiously aspire unto the heighth whereof is to be esteemed Your Lordships most humble and most obedient servant BALZAC To the Lord Bishop of Air. LETTER VIII My Lord IF at the first sight you know not my Letter and that you desire to be informed who writes unto you It is one more old-like than his Father and as over-worn as a Ship having made three voyages to the Indies and who is no other thing than the Relicks of him whom you saw at Rome In those days I sometimes complained without cause and happily there was then no great difference between the health of others and my infirmity Howsoever be it that my imagination is crazed or that my present pain doth no longer admit of any comparison I begin to lament the Feaver and Scyatica as lost goods and as pleasures of my youth now past See here to what terms I am reduced and how as it were I live if it may be called living to be in a continual contestation with death True it is there is not sufficient efficacy in all the words whereof this World makes use to express the miseries I indure they leave no place either for the Physicians skill or the sick mans patience nor hath Nature ordained any other remedies for the same save onely poison and precipices But I much fear least I suffer my self to be transported with pain or indure it less Christianly than beseemeth me being a witness of your Virtue and having had the means to profit my self by your Example My Lord it is now time or never I subdue this wicked spirit which doth forcibly transport my will and that the old Adam obey the other Yet doth it not a little grieve me to be indebted to my miserie for my Souls health and that I much desire it were some other more noble consideration than nessitie should cause me to become an honest man But since the means to save us are bestowed upon us and that we chuse them not it is fitting that reason convince our sensibilities causing us to agree to what is otherwise distastefull unto us At the worst we must at all times confess that we cannot be said to perish when we are safely cast on shore by some Shipwrack and it may be if God did not drive me as he doth out of this life I should never dream of a better I will refer the rest to be related unto you at your return from Italy with purpose to lay open my naked Soul unto you together with my thoughts in the same simplicity they spring in me you are the onely Person from whom I expect relief and I hold my self richer in the possession of your
Waves instead of Water and evil Fates for ill fortune or the Flower-de-luce for France to the end to play the Poet in Prose should I immolate my self to publick scorn and sail upon the Ocean in the stormical seasons of the year if I should say the Misericordious Justice of God and his just Misericord or pluck comparisons from Plinie and could I not commend a King without the help of Alexander the Great and Plutarcks Worthies if instead of well-speaking I should translate Tacitus ill and if in spite of him I should force him to deliver his opinion concerning all the affairs of this age you then might rightly blame me from bringing follies so far off and for taking so much pains to make my self ridiculous But surely I should be the most innocent of all others had I onely offended therein and I may safely say without vanity that even the follies of my Infancie were more serious than those sweet Rhetorical flowers when all is said since there is nothing but Religion can force us to believe what she pleaseth and that Kings themselves have no power over Souls I am well satisfied with the affection of my friends and do willingly leave their judgements free to themselves One Good-night is more worth than all our Eloquence and not to know the miseries of this life is to be more learned than the Scorbonists and Jesuits For my part despising the World as I do I cannot much esteem my self who make up one of the sickliest parts thereof and I have so poor an opinion of my own sufficiency as I little esteem the Talents of others Think not then I adore the workmanship of my hands though I take as much pains therein as did the ancient Carvers in counterfeiting their gods But contrariwise it is the reason why I dislike them and had I been a man of ten thousand Crowns rent I would have given the half of it to a Secretary onely to hire him not to indite those Letters you have so much admired The 15. February 1624. The Letters of MONSIEUR de BALZAC To my Lord Cardinal de la Valete from Mounsieur D' BALZAC The second Book LETTER I. My LORD WHilst you imploy your hours in gaining hearts and Votes and happily lay the foundation of some eminent enterprize I here enjoy a reposedness not unlike that of the dead and which is never rouzed but by Clorinda's kisses If the Duke of Ossuna be chosen King of Naples as you write the report runneth I finde no strangeness in it The World is so old and hath seen so much it can hardly spie any new matter nor is there at this day any lawfull Authority whose Origin for the most part hath not been unjust And on the other side the ill success of revolts are far more frequent than are the changes of States and the same action which hath no less than a Diademe for the aim hath often an ignominious death for its end Howsoever this happens it shall not much trouble me since the issue cannot be other than advantagious to this State For God herein will either make it appear that he is protector of Kings or it falling out otherwise yet at least it will weaken the Enemies to this Crown But I hope you will not advise me to beat my brains upon those politick considerations for should I do so it were no less than to retract the resolution I had taken to look upon things passing among us and our neighbours as I do on the History Japon or the affairs of another World I ought to surrender this humour to vulgar spirits who interest themselves in all the quarrels of States and Princes and who will always be parties on purpose to put themselves into choler and be miserable in the misfortunes of others Truely we shall never have done if we will needs take all the affairs of the World to heart and be passionate for the publick whereof we make but a small part It may be at this very instant wherein I write the great Indian Fleet suffereth shipwrack within two leagues of Land happily the great Turk hath surprised some Province from the Christians and taken thence some twenty thousand Souls to convey them to their Cittie of Constantinople It may be the Sea hath exceeded its limits and drowned some Cittie in Zealand If we send for mischiefs so far off there will not an hour pass wherein some disconsolation or other will not come upon us If we hold all the men in the World to be of our affinity let us make account to wear Mournings all our life As mine experience is not great so are my years not many yet since I came into the World I have seen so many strange accidents and have understood from my Father such store of incredible occurrents as I suppose there can nothing now happen able to cause admiration in me The Emperour Charles the fifth his Grand-child born to the hopes of so many Kingdoms was condemned to death for having over-soon desired them The natural subjects of the King of Spain do at this day dispute with him for the Empire of the Sea nor will they rest satisfied with their usurped liberty Surely we should hardly be drawn to believe these things upon the credit of others and those in succeeding ages will with much difficulty be perswaded to receive them for truths yet are these the ordinary recreations of Fortune taking pleasure in deceiving Mankinde by events far opposite to all appearance yea and contrary to their judgements Hath she not delivered over to the peoples fury the man whom she had formerly raised above the rest to the end we should not presume in greatest prosperities And hath she not at the same time taken out of the Bastile a Prisoner to make him General of a Royal Army thereby to oblige us not at any time to despair I do here consider all this with a reposed spirit and as Fables presented on the Stage or Pictures in a Gallery Now since the late Comet had like to have been as fatal unto me as to the Emperour Rodolphus in that my curiosity to see it caused me to rise in my shirt which gave me a cold all the Winter after I am hereafter resolved not to meddle with any thing above my reach but to refer all to GOD and Nature So as Clarinda suffer me to serve her and that I understand from her own mouth that she loves me I will hearken to no other news nor search a second Fortune I therefore most humbly beseech your Lordship to excuse me if upon these occasions lately presented I cannot affoord you my personal attendance or refuse to follow you whither your resolution leads you my Mistress having commanded me to render her an account how I shed my bloud and enjoyning me never to go the Wars but when Muskets are charged with Cypres powder I am rather contented you should accuse me of Cowardize than she justly to charge me
a voice which desired my dispatch obliging me to end what I supposed I had but begun It is with much reluctation my Lord I am deprived of the onely contentment your absence affordeth me But since you could not receive this Letter were it any longer I am resolved to lose one part of my content to enjoy the other and to say sooner then I supposed that I am even absolutely Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull servant BALZAC The 16. of Sept. 1622. To the Lord Cardinal de Valette from BALZAC LETTER VIII My Lord YOu should oftner receive Letters from me could I over-master my pain but to say truth it leaveth me not one thought free to reflect upon any thing else and what desire soever I have to give you content yet am I not able to do any thing but at the Physicians good pleasure and at the Feavours leasure whilest the Court affordeth you all content and prepareth whatsoever is pleasant for you reserving distrusts and jealousies for others I here endure torments such as wherewith one would make conscience to punish Parricides and which I would not wish to my worst enemies If notwithstanding all this in obedience to the Counsel you give me in the Letter you did me the honour to write unto me I should make my self merrie I were necessarily to take my self for some other body and become a deeper dissembler than an honest man ought to be My Melancholly is meerly corporeal yet doth my spirit give place though not consent thereto and of the two parts whereof I am composed the more worthy is over-born by the more weighty Wherefore if the whole World should act Comedies to make me laugh and though St. Germans Fair were kept in all the streets where I pass the object of death ever present before my eys bereaving me of sight would likewise bar me of content and I should remain disconsolate amidst the publick Jubilations Yea if the stone I so much dread were a Diamond or the Phylosophers Elixar I should therein take small comfort but would rather beseech God to leave me poor if he please to bestow no better Riches upon me But when I have said all be it unto me as he shall please to appoint since I am well assured my maladies will either end or I shall not for ever hold out yet should I die with some discontent if it happen before I testifie my dutifull affection towards you and the sensibility I have of your noble favours But howsoever it fare with me I would willingly make a journey to Rome there to finish the work I promised you and which you command me to undertake for the honour of this Crown Certainly if I be not the cause to make you in love with our language and to prefer it in your estimation before our Neighbour Tongues I am afraid you will be much troubled to revolt from the Roman Empire and that it will not be for the Historie of Matthew or of Hallian you will change that of Salust and Livie I will not deceive you nor delude my self yet may I tell you that my head is full of inventions and designs and if the Spring for which I much long would afford me the least glimpse of health I would contest with any who should produce the rarest things I have an infinite of loose flowers which onely want binding up into Nosegays and I have suffered others to speak any time these six years on purpose to be think my self what I have to say But I well perceive the publick shall have onely desires and hopes and truely if I spring not afresh with the Trees in stead of so many books you expect from me you shall not read any thing of mine save onely the end of this Letter and the protestation I here make unto you to die Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull Servant BALZAC The 7. of January 1623. To the Lord Cardinal de Vallette from BALZAC LETTER IX My Lord THe hope which any time this three Moneths I have had of your determination to come into this Countrey hath hitherto hindred me from writing unto you or to make use of the onely means remaining for me to be near your person But since you have supposed the speedy quitting the Court to be as fatal as to die a sudden death and that no less fortitude or time is requisite to resolve to wean our selves from pleasing things than to surmount painfull ones I will by your permission resume the commerce the common rumour caused me to surcease and will not hereafter believe you can with any less difficulty get out Paris than can the Arsenac or Loover Were it not a place all stored with inchantments and chains and which is of such power to attract and retain men as it hath been necessary to hazard divers battels to drive the Spaniards further off one might well wonder at the difficulty you finde to convey your self thence But in truth all the World doth there finde both habitations and affairs and for you my Lord since in that Countrey our Kings both enter into their first infancy and grow old as being the seat of their Empire no man can justly blame you for making over-long abode there without accusing you of over-much love to your Master and for desiring to be near his person At Rome you shall tread upon stones formerly the gods of Caesar and Pompey and shall contemplate the ruins of those rare workmanships the antiquity whereof is yet amiable and shall dayly walk among Histories and Fables But these are the pastimes of weak spirits which are pleased with trifles and not the imployments of a Prince who delighted in sayling on rough Seas and who is not come into the World to let it rest idle When you have seen the Tyber on whose banks the Romans have performed the Apprentiships of their rare victories and begun that high design which they ended not but at the extream limits of the Earth When you shall ascend the Capitol where they supposed God was as well present as in Heaven and had there inclosed the fatality of the universal Monarchy After you have crossed that great Circus dedicated to shew pleasures to the people and where the bloud of Martyrs hath been often mingled with that of Malefactours and bruit beasts I make no doubt but after you have seen those and divers other things you will grow weary of the repose and tranquility of Rome and will say they are two things more proper for the Night and Church-yards than for the Court and the Worlds eye Yet have I not any purpose to give you the least distaste of a Voyage the King hath commanded you to undertake and whereof I well hoped to have been the guide if my crazy body would have seconded the motion of my Will But truely my Lord I am deeply ingaged in this business and when I look upon my self single I sometimes have a desire to make you
without levity it accuseth innocencie without calumny And to say truth Painters and Stage-players are no way culpable of those murthers we see represented in Pictures or presented upon Theaters since therein the most cruel is the most just None can justly accuse those of falsity who make certain glasses which shew one thing for another Errour in some cases being more gracefull then truth In a word the life even of the greatest Sages is not altogether serious all their sayings are not Sermons nor is all they write either their last Testament or the confession of their Faith What can I say more Can you imagine me to be so curious as to condemne the gust of all that great multitude who flock to hear you every morning Are you perswaded that I and the people can never be of one minde That will oppose my self to the belief of honest men to the approbation of Doctors and to their authority who are eminent above others No Father I allow no such liberty to my spirit assure your self I esteem you as I ought I commend your zeal and learning yea were it truer then ever it was that to compose tedious Volumnes is no less then to commit great sins Yet if you oblige me to judge of yours by that you sent unto me I say it is very excellent in its kinde and that I will no way hinder you from obtaining a Rank among the Fathers of these modern ages But my testimony will not I hope become the onely fruit of your labours I wish with all my heart the conversion of Turks and Infidels may crown your indeavours I am perswaded all the honour this World can affoard ought to be esteemed as nothing by those who onely seek for the advancement of Gods glorie I will therefore no farther dilate my self upon this Subject nor wrong holy things by prophane praises my intention is onely to let you know I assume not so poor a part in the Churches interest as not to be extraordinarily well pleased with those who are serviceable thereto and that I am right glad besides the propension I have to esteem your amity so powerfull a perswasion as Religion is doth yet further oblige me Yours BALZAC To the Cardinal of Vallette LETTER IV. My Lord THe Letter you pleased to send me from Rome caused me to forget I was sick and I presumed to solace my self after three years of saddess ever since news was brought me of Lucidors death and the success of that fatal combate wherein you could not but be a loser on which side soever the advantage happened My Lord I doubt not but your spirit though altogether stout and couragious to support your proper misfortunes is yet mollified by the relation of their miseries who love you and where there is question rather of shewing your good nature or your constancy you will quit one virtue to acquire another I know well that in the number of your goods you reckon your friends in the first rank allowing onely the second place to your dignities and to fifty thousand Crowns rent which accompanies them and consequently I assure my self you believe you are as it were grown poor by the loss of a man who had relation unto you But I am likewise most certain how after the passing certain unpleasant dayes out of the love you bare him and having affoardeth him sufficient Testimonies of your affection he now expecting no further acknowledgement or service you will at length call to minde that it is the publick to whom you owe your cares and passions and that you are not permitted farther to afflict a spirit which is no longer yours Since the misery of this age is so general as it leaveth no one house without tears nor any one part of Europe without trouble and since Fortune is not of power to conserve even her own workmanships who are many of them fallen to ground it must needs so happen my Lord that being of the World you are to taste of the fruits it produceth and that you purchase at some hard rate the good successes daily attending you But truely the place where you are and the great designs taking you up may well furnish you with so strong and solide consolations as they need leave no work for others and my Eloquence would come too late should I imploy it after your reason which hath formerly perswaded you there being now neither precept nor Counsel in all humane wisdom unproposed to your view and since neither Seneca nor Epiotetus can say any thing save onely your thoughts I had much rather send you divertisements no way distastefull then to present you any remedies which doubtless will prove importunate These writings my Lord here inclosed shall not enter as strangers into your Cabinet they will not talk unto you of the five Praedicables of Porphiry nor of Justinians Novelles or the numbers of Algebra But you may there recreate and repose your spirits at your return from Audiences Congregations and the Consistory I could well have bestowed upon them a more eminent title then what they have I could out of these composures have framed Apologies Accusations and politick discourses yea had I pleased never so little to have extended some of my Letters they might have been called books But besides my design aiming rather to please then importune and that I tend to the height of conceptions and not at the abundance of words When I treat with you my Lord I suppose my self to be before a full assembly and do propose to my self never to write any thing unto you which Posterity ought not to read Now if sometimes from your person I pass to others or if I commend those whom I conceive are deserving I assure my self I therein performing an act of Justice and not of subjection you will be no way displeased with what I do and well hope I may conserve your favours without violating humane Laws or separating my self from civil society Your most humble servant BALZAC The 15. of July 1629. To the Cardinal of Vallete LETTER V. My LORD THough innocency be the felicity of the afflicted and that I finde in my self the satisfaction he can expect who hath not offended yet can I not so easily comfort my self And the remedies my Phylosophy affoard me are for meaner misfortunes then the loss of your favours All I can contribute to my consolation out of the assurance I have of mine innocency is the liberty I have taken to tell you so and to complain of the injustice you have done me if you have so much as suffered any to accuse me I need not seek colours to palliate my actions or words it is sufficiently known their principal objects have ever been the glory of your name and the desire to please you I beseech you likewise to call to remembrance that hard times have not hindred me from imbarking my self where my inclination called me and that I have served my Lord your Father
bravery and dainties of Athens M. de Saint Surin hath hereof made us excellent relations and you have sent him back to us with his heart wounded and his minde tainted with that he hath seen he wants not much of being become a bad French-man at least he reteins nothing for his Country but a dutifull and reverent affection his love your Island hath gotten possession of and I am much afraid you will finde more load-stones to draw him to you than we shall finde chains to hold him with us He is full of the objects he hath left behinde him and when I talk to him of our Court and of our confusions he answers with telling me of your government and good order And here you shall pardon me if I change my complement into blame and require to be righted by you for debauching a friend who with one look of his countenance allayes and sweetens all the bitterness of my life The number of my persecutours is in a manner infinite but for how many think you I account so brave a champion Take him from me and you leave me quite disarmed against ill fortune I loose my comfort for adversitie and my example for virtue And finding you the principal Author of this disgrace I know not how I should but hate you and persevere in the resolution I have taken to be most affectionately Sir Your c. To the Baron of Saint Surin LETTER IX Sir I Learn by the Gazette that you have received a wound at Mastrick so it be light I forgive it you but though it be but a scratch I love you too well not to accuse you of too much forwardness They that are poor in reputation ought to press up to the trenches and such fervour is as well beseeming fresh Souldiers as young Fryers but for you you have seen too many wars to be called by the first name and your valour having been shewed in the presence of the Prince and approved by the testimony of the very enemy it seems to me that your part is not so much to bring it forth as a new matter as to keep it up as a known good I would have you make good actions as you use to do but I would have you do it now if it might be had with a body charmed and with inchanted Arms that leaving behinde you all danger you might have before you nothing but glory If God had given us three or four lives we might at any time venture one and sometimes in a bravery let one go being assured we have another in store but to be prodigal in poverty and to be careless of ones head when no art can make him a new this is a point hath no apparence of reason We must not set so light by the beauties of heaven and the Rayes of visible things nor turn our eyes from a spectacle so magnificently erected for us I offend perhaps the ears of your courage with this discourse and you are like to send my counsel away as it came yet take not distastefully an officious injury and think it not strange that I acquaint you with my fears seeing a goddess was not ashamed to attire her Son in Womans habit to preserve him it would grieve me exceedingly to see you come halting home or with but one eye and to bring such untoward favours from the Wars I will not be bound to flatter your grief with that word of a Lacedemonian mother Courage my Son you cannot now take a step that puts you not in minde of your virtue and less with that example in the Histories of Salust he made ostentation of a face remarkable onely for skars and for having but one eye wherein he took a pleasure though it made him deformed and cared not for losing one part of himself which made all the rest the fuller of honour Spare me I beseech you this kinde of consolation which I should give you if you suffer the like losses and be not so hot in seeking after a fair death which can gain you nothing but a fair Epitaph Give me belief onely this once and after this I will leave you to your own belief and commend you to your good Angel You shall have leave to dispose of your time some otherwise than thus but remember that Melons are past and make not stand waiting too long for you Our Rivers never ran more clear nor our Meddows were ever more green I make use Sir of all things both reasonable and insensible to perswade your return In the name of God come and draw me out of the unquietness you have put me in I have something I know not what lies heavy at my heart and nothing will lighten it but your company That which a superstitious man would do for a dream or for some idle presage do you I pray you for a friend who carries you alwayes in his minde and who is more than any in the World Sir Your c. To my Lord the Cardinal de la Valette LETTER X. SIR the Letter you did me the honour to write unto me the thirteenth of the last Moneth came not to my hands till the beginning of this otherwise I had sooner given testimony how dear these last marks of your remembring me are unto me and how much I receive of secret glorie seeing all other is denied me in that I have done any thing which seems not altogether unpleasing to you It is no small matter to entertain eyes that use not to stay upon vulgar Objects and to minister pleasure to a minde which hath nothing in it but lawfull passions and indeed Sir the height of my ambition is bounded there If I had no other payment for all my travail but onely your good opinion of it I should not complain for being ill paid and your goodness hath made me full recompence for all the wrongs I have received The number of my enemies is great I see it well the time doth not favour me I confess it but having your favour Sir what can I fear under so powerfull a protection Seeing those to whom God hath given clearer eyes than to other men and a more soveraign reason as well as a more soveraign dignity have no ill opinion of my opinions what need I care for the censure of the base World and how can I but hope that the truth assisted by a few sages will be alwayes able to withstand a multitude of Sophisters I now send you Sir my answer to such of their Objections that seem worth the refuting and which have but any spark of apparance to dazle the eyes of simple people the rest are so ridiculous that I dare not oppugne them for fear you should think I had devised them my self to make matter for discourse or that I coaped with them about points where I were sure they could do me no hurt And yet why should I dissemble my ill hap Those ridiculous Objections finde abettours uphoulders although I have
of your book I have not yet discovered the bottom onely the bark I must tell you seems very precious and I am ravished with the sound and harmony of things I understand not this kinde of writing would have astonished Philosophers whom it could not have perswaded and if Saint Gregory Nazianzen had but shewed such a piece as this to Themistius he could not chuse but have been moved with it and must needs have admired the probability of Christianity though he had not known the secret These are not words that one reads and are painted upon Paper they are felt and received within the heart They live and move and I see in them the sinews of the first Christians and the stile of that Heroick age where one and the same virtue gave life both to discourse and actions gave influence both to the Soul and to the courage made both Doctours and also Martyrs Tell me true Did you not propose to your self a Pattern to follow Have you not been at the Oracle of have you not received some inspiration from our excellent friend Me thinks I meet with his very Character In certain passages I observe some marks and traces of his spirit and when I read them cannot sometimes forbear crying out Sic oculos sic ille manus c. You need not take offence at my suspition so noble a resemblance is an inferiority lifted up extreamly high You are not therein his Ape but his Son There is nothing base not mean in the imitation of so high and perfect an Idea and you know the example of Plato made Philo go cheek by jowl with him All I ask of you at Paris where you so liberally offer me all the good Offices you can do is but this that you will do me the favour to assure that great personage of the great reverence I bear to his merits and what glory I count it to be counted his friend but I require with all the continuation of your own love with which you can honour none that is more truely than I am Sir Your c. July 25. 1630. To Mounsieur Coeffeteau Bishop of Dardany LETTER VIII SIR SInce your departure from Mets there hath nothing hapned worthy of the History I promised you but onely that Caesar as I hear hath presented to the view of brave spirits certain new and very strange recreations by which he hath gained a great opinion of his knowledge As to make the images in a piece of Tapistry to walk and move to make all the faces in a room to seem to be double to make a River rise in a Hall and after streaming away without wetting of any make a company of Fayries appear and dance a round these are his ordinary sports and to use the phrase of our friend but the outside of his secret Philosophy Signiour Mercurio Cardano swears he hath seen all this and more enough to finde you discourse for many meetings and if you appoint him to set hand to his Pen he will be a Philostratus to this Appolonius He hath told me as he hath heard it from him that for certain the Heavens menace France with a notable revolution and that the fall of hath not been so much the end as the change of our miseries For my self who know that God never makes Mountibanks of his Councel and that the virtue of the King is able to correct the malignity of the Stars I laugh at the vanitie of such presages and look for nothing but happiness from the ascendent and fortune of so great a Prince But to change this discourse and this Mountibank for another I have seen the man Sir that is all armed with Thorns that pursues a Proposition to the uttermost bounds of Logick that in most peaceable conversations will put forth nothing nor admit of nothing that is not a Dilemma or a Syllogysme To tell you true what I think of him he would please me more if he had less reason this quarrelsom eloquence affrights me more than it perswades me They which commonly converse with him run in my opinion the same fortune which they do that live near the falls of Nilus there is no overflowing like that of his words a man cannot safely give him audience a Headach for three dayes after is the least hurt he can take that but hears him talk an after-noon The Gentleman that brings you this Letter hath charge given him from all in general to entreat you Sir not to forsake us in so important a matter but to come and free our companies from one of the greatest crosses that hath a long time afflicted civil society You are the onely man in whom this Sophister hath some belief and therefore none but you likely to reduce him to common right and to bring his spirit to submit it self to Custom and Usage You can if you please make it appear unto him that an honest man proposes alwayes his opinions no otherwise than as doubts and never raiseth the sound of his voice to get advantage of them that speak not so loud that nothing is so hatefull as a Chamber Preacher who delivers but his own word and determines without Warrant that it is fit to avoid gestures which are like to threatnings and terms which carry the stile of Edicts I mean that it is not fit to accompany his discourse with too much action nor to affirm any thing too peremptorily Lastly that conversation reflects more upon a popular estate than upon a Monarchy and that every man hath there a right of suffrage and the benefit of liberty You know Sir that for want of due observing these petty rules many have fallen into great inconveniences and you remember him who spilt Queen Margarets own dinner by striking an argument upon her Table with too great violence disturbed and drove Queen Margaret from her dinner Such men commonly spoil the best causes whilest they seek to get the better not because their cause is good but because themselves are the Advocates reason it self seems to be wrong when it is not of their side at least not in its right place nor in its ordinary form They disguise it in so strange a fashion that it cannot be known to any and they take away her authority and force by painting her in the colours and marks of folly These are the particular heads for which we desire you to take the pains of applying your Exorcismes particularly upon I dare say you will have a thousand Benedictons if you can drive out of his body this Devil of dispute and wrangling which hath begun already to torment us We expect you at the end of the week and I remain From Mets 15. August 1618. Sir Your c. To my Lord the Earle of Brassac LETTER IX SIR THat which I have written of you is but a simple relation of that I have seen of you and if there be any ornament in it It must needs be that either your self have put it
Philosophy is in your writings all painted and perfumed After you have purged it from the rust of Barbarians and from the poyson of Sophisters you make with it a wholesom and delightfull lancing and no man seeks to ward your blows because they heal and tickle With these rare knowledges you should entertain your friends and not with the fruits of our Orchard nor with those of my studies which are as vulgar the one as the other But yet seeing they please your taste and that you demand of me particularly the last piece you saw of my making I have intreated who carries it to Paris to deliver it unto you in the place where you are By your example I call it my dissertation because we live in a Countrey of liberty and where faults of this nature are not under the Jurisdiction of the Kings Commission But I durst not be so bold at the Court where there is no longer any favour for naughty words nor safety for innovatours of our language Remember therefore that I speak under Benedicite and in our most strait confidence and imitate herein that Queen who in publick called her Son by the name of her Husband but in private by the name of her favorite much after this sort do I having conceived my work from the acquaintance I have with the Latin I let it in truth carry a French title but in secret and speaking in the ear I give it the name of his Father It is now three moneths that M. de Nants hath been in Britanie and M. de Tholouze in Languedoc Upon the first opportunity I will not fail to send them your rare Presents and let them know in what height of account you hold them both Do me the like office to Mounsieur Bourdelot and assure him that I have great pretensions upon his learning and that I ground my self much upon his honesty Hereafter one of them shall be my treasure in the necessities of my spirit the other my sanctuary against the malice of the World For you Sir it is impossible for me to express the high opinion I conceive of you when the question is to speak of your virtue I cannot finde words that give me satisfaction and therefore at this time you shall have from me but the common conclusion of all my Letters that I am Sir Your c. From Balzac 15. December 1633. To Mounsieur de Aigue bere Commander of a Company in Holland LETTER XXXVII Sir YOur Letter hath stayed here a long time for me if I had been here at its first arrival I had sooner testified to you the joy with which I received it and the especial account I make of the meanest of your favours I seek not after new acquaintance I had rather I could forgo one half of those I have already but for yours I vow unto you I have much desired it and you had attractives for me even in the Melancholy of my Quartan Ague I discovered a great worth under the veil of your disvaluing your self and saw well that you sought rather to go safely and solidly than to go in pomp and state and had more care to nourish your minde than to set it out in colours I do not therefore take you for a simple Captain of Holland who takes nothing but Stoccadoes and Circumvallation and studies such other words in that Countrey to come afterwards and fright us with them here in France I know you possess no less the virtues of peace than those that make a noise and handle iron and that you are a man of the Library as well as of the Arsenal Mounsieur Huggens I assure my self is of the same minde and I doubt not but having observed you in both these kindes he relisheth as well your spirit as he values your courage I am very glad of the correspondence that is between you of which if you please I shall make use hereafter for the safety of our Commerce But Sir I have another more important request to make unto you and I earnestly entreat you to do for me with my Lord the good offices which I have right to hope your goodness will afford me It hath been written to me from Paris that he had some sinister conceit of me and indeed the coldness of his countenance the last time I had the honour to do him reverence seemed to shew as much This misfortune comes not to me by any fault of mine for I swear unto you Sir that I have alwayes carried towards him a most religious respect and have never spoken of him but as of a man of very extraordinary parts It must needs be that this is some rellick of those impressions which hath left in him and that he judgeth of me by the report of my Enemies I will not move questions against the memory of a dead man nor blame the passion of a great worthy There have been some moved with motives less reasonable that have wept for their Dogs and built Tombs for beasts they loved In that I acknowledge the good fortune of but you know better than any other what his honesty was and you ought upon this occasion to give your uttermost Testimony in behalf of calumniated innocency I conjure you to do it effectually and from what Coast soever the evil come take into your protection an honest man who passionately is Sir Your c. From Balzac 3. of February 1633. Another to him LETTER XXXVIII SIR I Have received in one Packet a Letter from you of the four and twentieth of March and another from Mounsieur Huggens of the fifteenth of December I give you a thousand thanks for each of them and complain not that I stayed a while for the latter seeing if it had come a readier way it had perhaps not come so safe a way neither contains it any news whereof the knowledge might not be forborn without any danger no matter in it that either concerns the life of the Prince or the good of the state It might have come time enough ten years hence for it speaks of nothing but of Kings and Common-wealths that have been long ago Our commerce hath no object but our books and I have no reason to complain of a slowness that does a favour to my negligence But my good neighbour suffers me to be idle no longer she will have me hereafter make use of her messengers and by consequent ease you of your conveying them Yet for my part I exempt you not altogether but if you return into Holland at the time you have appointed you shall do me the favour to remember the note I send you I intreat you also to demand of our friends in that Countrey what reason they have to bring into our language a new fashion of speaking and which by the communication you have with them is gotten into the Letter you sent me If you say my Masters the States you may as well say Mounsieur the Councel and Madam the Assembly
great experience you have in many things I desire of God with all my heart that he will be pleased to afford you yet some great matter to exercise your selfe in and that this wise old age of yours which we so much admire may long continue to be a strength and ornament to your family These are my earnest wishes and withall to make you by a perfect acknowledgement of your favours a perfect proof that I am Sir my deare Father Your c. At Balzac 7 June 1634. To Monsieur de Boisrobert LETTER LI. SIR the Muses never favoured man as they do you you are the onely man that need neither retreite nor leisure for your meditations In the troubles of the world you possesse your spirit in peace and seeing the bruit of the Court diverts not your attention neither can the Sea and all its waves hinder your compositions It is no small advantage to finde that solitude in ones selfe which others seeke for in the Desart and not to be bound to goe out of the world for fetching in of sound opinions and perswasive words If the merit of yours take place we shall shortly see at Stage-playes as many long Cassocks as short Robes and the most austere Philosophers will have their hands and eyes in the recreations of the people and so Sir of a mischiefe you shall make a remedy you shall set timerous spirits at liberty and shall free us from two terrible Monsters scrupulousnesse and vitious bashfulnesse You make me long to bear a part in this action and in this sort to defend the Theater to take the field after you is not so much to fight as to pursue the victory and I think it no wrong to vertue to justifie an innocent pleasure and that which is onely worthy of her this we owe to Jason to Masinissa to Brutus and other worthy men who live at this day in the person of the man you so much commend and whom I admire as often as I heare It is certaine that the grace with which he pronounceth vertue gives them a degree of goodnesse which the Poets could not They are more beholding to him that pronounceth them than to him that made them and this second Father if I may so speak purgeth by his adoption all the vices of their birth the tune of his voice accompanied with the dignity of his gestures gives a kinde of noblenesse to the vulgar and base conceits No soule is so strongly fortified against the objects of sense which he forceth not No judgement so wary and so well prepared which is not caught with the imposture of his words in such sort that if in this world there be any happinesse for verses it is certainly in his mouth and in his pronouncing by which as evill things get the colour of good so good things get the uttermost of their perfection Let me know Sir wether I hit right upon your inclinations and in the mean time I give you many thanks for your many favours particularly for the Letter of my Lord you took the pains to send me He writes indeed in the style of a Conquerour and these words Accepi legi probavi savour much of these Veni vidi vici of J Caesar and of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of another Ceasar that was afterwards Though I should never receive other mark of his love but this yet were this a full recompence of all the passion I ow to his service yet I must tell you I cannot forget the honour he hath done me in procuring me a promise that I shall be paid of I have done all possible I could to blot this thought out of my minde but I confesse unto you that my imaginative part is a little strong I could never hitherto satisfie my selfe herein and what bad answer soever I receive from men yet still I rely upon this word of God who commands me to hope well and therefore I wait still for the accomplishment of the Oracle All our people are extreamly bound unto you for remembring it and I am my selfe more than all the world together Sir Your c. At Balzac 3 April 1635. FINIS LETTERS OF MONSIEVR DE BALZAC THE FOURTH VOLVME Newly corrected Printed in the year 1654. To the READER THe name of Balzack is not confined within the Orbe of one Kingdom his pen hath made him known unto all that pretend to Eloquence and Politer Learning And had his language been more general his worth had been more known It is then a duty we owe to virtue to unfold it when it is contracted within too narrow limits and to unlock the Cabinet and make it communicable when it is restrained from that freedom which is part of its essence and nature Wherefore some of our own finding that our Authors Language was too narrow for the merits of his works have rendered some pieces of his in English Nor did their Travails fall short of their hopes but success hath crowned their endeavors By the incouragement of their auspicious flight abroad I made Augury touching the fortunes of this fresh piece whtch I now expose to the common light without the countenance and patronage of any great name but guarded onely with its own fate It hath a Genius and carries the name of Balzac in every page that is enough For know Reader that he is Master of the pen in France L' Aigle de l' Eloquence Francoise as one stiles the great Chancellour Du Vair a towring Eagle whose strength of wings bears him aloft above the tracts of common flights I may say of him with some variation what Pliny said of Cicero that of latter times and for his own language solus in toga triumphum meruit linguaeque lauream and if the Muses speak French they would use no other Dialect than that of Mons de Balzac If thou dost not find the same thread run through all his Letters think it a peece of his Art to vary the Idea and character of his speech according to the quality of his subject Wherefore we finde him sometimes lofty and magnificent and sometimes grave and moderate now he is calm and smooth and anon he thunders and lightens here his words fall like hail and there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like still and gentle snow or the silent feet of time And though they be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strictures and excursions of his pen yet upon due examination thou shalt finde they be decoctions of purest Rhetorick and take away Monsieur vostre tres humble they be so many quaint orations and discourses politick and morall But never did any beauty gain all sufferages nor any wit a general applause Our Author in his Hermitage like that Bee intombed in Amber Dum latuit luxit he shined through the vail of obscurity where in he involved himself but some Owleys could not brook the splendor of his light though at such a distance and declination and he had
doe not know whether this be either the cowardize of the age or the impatience of the Naetion or the fear of poverty and famine presented to their imagination or to speak more favourably of the present occasions a Christian tendernesse and common sense of humanity so vehemently doth all the world desire peace that I think Heaven cannot send a better Present to the Earth I think that should be imployed upon such a pious occasion and chosen one of the Agents for Coloigne If he would bring us that excellent Donative of Heaven he deserved to enter the Academy in triumph and that Monsieur the President should make the speech himself For my part I should receive him after such a Negotiation with more respect then if he came from commanding an Army And to tell you the truth the pacifick Angels doe please me farre better then the destroying Angels Think it not strange Sir that the desire of glory is not the passion of Villagers and that dreaming sometimes of the Crabbats I pitch upon the same though with the Poet Impius haec tam culta novalia Miles habebit Barbarus has segetes These are thoughts which are bred in my rural walke and which spring from lownesse of spirit into which I am apt to fall as soon as I have lost the sight of you Therefore be pleased to take the pains to fortifie me from time to time and to send me some preservatives against the bad news which flie about These would help to entertain good thoughts while we expect the conclusion of the Treatie and make my Neighbours know that a man cannot be ill inform'd that maintains intelligence with you and make them believe that I am indeed what I professe my self to be which is Sir Your c. Balzac 17. Octob. 1616. To my Lord the Earl of Excester LET. V. MY Lord having not enjoyed my health or as least having had no leisure at all since the time that your Letter was delivered me I could not any sooner render you thanks for the testimonies of your esteem and affection which you vouchsafed me therein I will not any way seem to suspect or doubt of a news that makes for me and I doe readily believe that my works that were sent you from the Queen your Mistresse have been your welcome home among your friends But herein I doe acknowledge their good fortune far beyond my deserts and the Influences that descend from the Court beyond all the favors they can receive from a Countrie Village Those hands so great and powerful that gave you this small Present do ennoble whatsoever they touch and are able to effect rarer transmutations than those which Alchymy boasts of with their mark a trivial Fable may passe for Authentick History and the Nether-Britton should surpasse the native Frenchman I have therefore my Lord no thought of deserving that Elogie which I owe to so illustrious a circumstance nor do I mean to glorie in the travails which my Book as you inform me hath made beyond the Rhine Your name being one of its principal Ornaments is that to which I must owe my frame in those Climates and it was upon your recommendation and credit that all the Courts in the North and some of their Schools too have entertain'd my Books I do here solemnlie promise you never to abuse this favor at leastwise never to write anie thing of your Iland that might give anie distast in the reading and that will not testifie particularlie of you that I am most intirelie My Lord Your c. Balzac Sept. 20. 1636. To my Lord the Duke de la Valette Governor and Lieutenant General for the King in Guyen LET. VI. My Lord I Do not mean to tempt your valor it were precipitate rashness to dare it yet I shall make bold to tell you that you have no lesse Art and dexteritie in conquering than in winning men and that in you that which intreats and perswades hath no lesse efficacie than that which commands and enforceth It doth nothing avail me to shun the world the better to enjoy my self in the desart Three words from your mouth make me lose all the freedom I enjoy there and I see my self surprized in that Sanctuary in which I thought to save my self I must confess my Lord that there is no such absolute independence over which you cannot claim some power that there is none so discontented and averse that you cannot allure or so wild and disorderlie that you cannot tame Since you have done me the honor as to write that you have sent me your heart I should betray verie tittle skill or judgement in rare and excellent things if I were not ravisht with such a present and if I did not esteem it above all that ambition can desire or Fortune bestowe It may be the hearts of Giants were more vast and lesse limited by reason but the hearts of the Heroes were not more noble or of any other elevation then yours is of and be that speaks of this speaks of a place hallowed and purged from all the vices of this age and where all the ancient Virtues have taken Sanctuary Loe here my Lord what gift you have sent after which I have nothing to wish for in this world which I have abandoned since this is the most pure and refin'd part of it in which goodness cohabits with power and greatness combines with love To which I must of necessitie stoop and yield and my heart were more vile than yours is generous if I were not My Lord Your c. Balzac Jan. 10. 1637. To Monsieur Drovet Doctor of Physick LET. VII SIR YOur sorrow is too accurate and studied to be true and an afflicted person that writes such brave things hath no great need of anie thing of mine to solace him I will therefore forbear a taske which I conceive to be so needless and will be contented to tell you that I know how to discover counterfet sorrows No man could act a Desperato better than you Panigarola made not such exclamations when he preacht that there will be signes in the Sun and in the Moon And it is a pleasure to see you write of the end of the world of the falling of the Starres and the final ruine of Nature and all this upon occasion of my Niâ—câ— laboring of a feaver This is to give Virgil the lie that calles your profession a dumb Science For indeed to finde so manie Ornaments and Tropes upon such a vulgar Theme could not be without having a Treasurie of words without teaching this Mute Rhetorick Yet me thinks you should husband manage this treasure more thriftilie have more care than you had of the modestie of a poor Maid Are you not afraid to make her fall into vain-glorie and marre all the pains of that good Father that guides her conscience if I did not furnish her with counter-poison you would infect her minde and cast her into a worse maladie
than that you cured her of But I have taught her that there are a sort of Enchanters that bewitch by commending and that the wanton Courtship of Sirens hath allured many to their ruines and fill'd the Seas with frequent shipwracks She believes her Glasse and me too who are more true to her then you and who without much difficulty can rectifie her opinion of her self which you would have strained too high For my own particular I cease not to be your debtor for the quaint extravagances and hyperboles wherein you expresse your affection towards me and for her part separating your commendations from her name and considering them asunder by themselves she esteems them as the wealth of a Jewellers shop which indeed may delight her eyes but she findes nothing there that belongs to her Receive this complement as from her if you please I am meerly but her Secretary in this point and J shall remain Sir Your c. Balzac 12. Octob. 1636. To Monsieur de Bonair LET. VIII SIR the honourable mention that you were pleased to make of me in your Book is a most singular favour and I cannot behold my self in so fair a seat without some temptation of vain glory I know not as yet whether my testimonie be to be admitted or rejected and whether I be an Apocryphall or Canonicall Author but since you have cited me it is not lawful for me to doubt any more of the good successe of my writings and after this I dare claim a place in the noblest Libraries It is true J dare not own that Title you bestow on me of the Genius of Eloquence Besides that this would be a wrong to Mercury and Pythe who have for many ages possest the Chair and swayed the Art of Elocution it were necessary also that J had the suffrages of all the Preachers and Advocates of the Realm and you know Sir that there is none of them so mean that doth not perswade himself that he is the God of Perswasion and would very hardly confesse a superior J must not therefore entertain an Elogie which would be challenged from me by two so great Nations equally terrible and potent and J am content to be lesse prized by you since J am sure of the same affection you shall preserve that for me if you please since J am willing to give it its true estimation and to be really Sir Your c. Balzac 20. Dec. 1635. To Monsieur Huggens Councellor and Secretary of the Commands of my Lord the Prince of Orange LET. XIX SIR I have received with your Letter the Dissertation of Monsieur in Print but to write my opinion thereof would be too dangerous an enterprise I never mean to doubt of the certainty of his Doctrine and too bad construction was made of me at the beginning of our commerce for to adventure farther in that way It sufficeth me to confesse that I was lost in all probability had it not been for your protection since even under that I could hardly be secure This is a Buckler that hath been pierced in a thousand places and to speak freely hath served me rather for a shew then defence My great Adversary as you call him would rain have made an example of your poor Suppliant and shewed that he did not either believe that you did love me so dearlie or that he did not much reward the persons whom you so loved Nevertheless Sir if I had been of a quarrelsom humor that matter perhaps would not have been so appeased and men would perswade me that my person only was injur'd my Assertions being as firm and as found as they were before the batterie But let the field be his seeing he cannot endure an encounter that I say not a resistance and I do willinglie yield him all the advantages of this action He chose rather to take me then receive my submission and preferr'd a trophey before an homage Neverthelesse I am resolv'd not to alter my condition or forget my wonted civility Yet I do make a stand at the very same bounds that he hath leapt over and give respect to that Character which he hath violated I speak of your love and good opinion which are more precious to me then my writings or my reputation and which I cannot disesteem wheresoever I met them Sir there will be alwaies in the world Oppressors and man oppressed and I must be one of the Innocents that must suffer the persecutions of a Herod But there is nothing so hard that love cannot digest I pardon for your sake all my injuries and sufferings with all my heart and am contented to be ill intreated as long as I give evidence that I am Sir Your c. Balzac 10. Septemb. 1636. To Monsieur de Racan LET. X. SIR I render you thanks for your Shephtardesse with whom I enjoyed such ravishing pleasures that the voluptuous never enjoy the like and yet so chast and honest that I think not my self bound to make confession she hath reviv'd my spirits that were rebated with eager studie and retired with distinctions and Syllogismes I cannot dissemble I have not this long time Sir spent a day more happilie then when I entertained Her And if I have thought Her so beautiful in her own simple weeds and natural habiliments without the addition of those helps which serve to embellish and adorn what will it be when she will appear in the pomp and luster of the Theater and when those things that are of themselves so powerful will be mended with the help of the voice and the graces of pronunciation if I thought She were to come forth suddainlie in that Equipage I would straight begin my journie for to be present at that joyful spectacle and to give you the applause which you do justlie deserve But since you have sent Her me being yet warm from the birth and that She must grow up a while and gather strength in your hands I hope I shall be time enough at Roche to behold her in her glorie I understand Sir in the mean while that there is a great contention between the Ladies about the names of Orante and Ortana and that they are more ambitious of the scrip and sheapheards hook then any thing It lieth in you to do them justice satisfie their ambition yet notwithstanding if youl 'e believe be you must casheere this rural Equipage adapt yourselfe to Crowns Scepters That active and strong spirit which doth swey you hath too much vigor for to dwell on weaker Themes it would break all the furniture of Horn-pipes and Hau-bois that you should fill it with moreover the Countrie and Cabbin is not the proper spheare of magnificence and Shepheardesses must not dance to the sound of a Trumpet I have therefore chosen for you an heroick subject indeed and worthy the courage and majestie of your style which style carrieth all the exactnesse of rules and hath been alreadie used with good approbation by the
make but a sorrie Souldier I thought that no body had any thing to say to me in Picardy and that the Kings Armie would not be the lesse compleat for my absence Loe now Sir I am arrived here this side of the Loire busie in fortifying as well as I may my village with Philosophy and intrenching my self against the Enemies with good books If the tempests which threaten the Frontiers of Bayon arrive at us we must think of another way of safetie and resolve in any case to passe the Sea and go and dwell in that Region of Peace and that happie Climate where your divine Princesse reigns But the good conduct and leading of the King her Brother and the good Fate of France Forbid us to harbor any thoughts of despair and the opinions of Sages that expect a calm and serenitie after a storm are far different from the Dialect of the vulgar that think that all storms are everlasting It shall be then a visit of complement in despight of Iohn de Werth that I shall perform and not a voyage of necessitie which I must make and I hope my words shall finde no evasion and that I shall tell you in London that which I say here that I am entirelie Sir Your c. Balzac 10. Sept. 1636. To Madam Desloges LET. XIV MAdam Take it not amisse that I do much rejoyce at your removal from Paris since that thereby I do regain the glorious beatitude of your Neighbor-hood and that I am now but fifteen Leagues distant from Virtue retired Monsieur d'Auvita did confirm this newes whereof I had otherwise an intimation formerlie and he hath farther assured me Madam of the good success of your journey and of your victorie in the Chamber of the Edict Since the guerdon of this Conquest lyeth in Aunix I believe it will repent you to have offended the Angoulmois some five years agone I say it is some pleasure to me to think that you will not digresse any more out of the Roade in contempt of us and now shortlie will be the time when you will dignifie those men with your presence which do so passionatelie desire to see you I am not so presumptuous as to alleage here my own wishes But me thinks Madam that the Duke of Rochefeucaut deserves one of your stages and if it be so I have reason to hope to be happy in some houres of the two or three dayes which you cannot denie to afford Him I was about to send to you to learn some newes of you But this excellent Bearer hath promised me to relate some at his return and you need not be troubled in that he did forbear that crude Oration that was provided for you This is a man Madam in whose month are Temples and Altars erected for you and who adores you in everie word he speaks He hath no vulgar conceit of your vertues and he being abâ—oâ— man of parts is worthie of that regard you beare to him I hope he will love me a little for love of you and that you will do so likewise and adde this favor to the infinite number that I owe you and which oblige me to be more then anie man in the world Madam Your c. Balzac 7. Octob. 1636. I send you Madam the complement which you desire to see it was sent ere this but was not received because my packet was lost Since that time I have never thought of it but your curiositie findes out things that are lost and I am so good a Courtier that none should have seen it besides your selfe To my Lord Keeper of the Seales Seguier since Chancellor of France LET. XV. MY Lord If I had not been advertis'd that it was my bounden dutie to write unto you I should not have thought it needful so to do And though I have ruminated as much as anie other upon the choice that the King hath made of your person I considered it as one of the felicities of his reigne and as a general influence of favor upon all the world Calling to mind the definition of Aristotle that calls justice the good of another I thought it not so congruous to congratulate with him that must be the Guardian of the Lawes touching a preferment that will put him to a perpetual care and vigilance But rather to partake in silence of the common felicitie of those people that shall whollie relie upon his watchfulness But my Lord since custom coÌ„mands it that coÌ„gratulatioÌ„s from the remotest parts of the Kingdom do post towards you I should be thought unworthie of that rank which I hold among your humble Servants if I did not sequester my self from the Crowd to deliver you a part some testimonie of my joy and to make you see that in places of silence and solitude there be not wanting acclamations for you and affections for the Countrey I shall therefore make bold to tell you that the joy which seiseth me at this time is mingled with a kind of vanitie and having accompanied you with my thoughts and eyes even unto the place of your advancement I do imagine I have in some sort conducted you whither the judgement of the Prince hath advanced you Wherefore my Lord in your promotion I do rejoyce for the good success of my Imagination and take no small pleasure to see my own Divinations verified Certainlie it is a matter of delight to see a Vertue so laborious and active as yours brought into the most wide and spacious Carreere that Fortune could make choice of and this is aspectacle worthie the sight of Heaven and of the blessed soule of the late Cato of your race The importance is my Lord that you begin in a verie good season for to continue long and that you are in the verdure and vigor of your age for to uphold the crazie and decrepit weaknesse of our State In this Elevation both of Merit and Dâ—gnitie each man will be your Adorer and Votary But you will give me leave to assure you that none will approach unto you with a purer and more dis-interessed Devotion then mine and that I am without much pomp and flourish yet in much sinceritie My Lord Your c. Balzac 1. April 1636. To Monsieur de Morins Counsellor of the King in the Court of the Edict at Agen. LET. XVI MY Lord You are noble enough to love a man without anie merits but I were too loose and forlorn if I were so loved and yet you have some cause to call me by that bad title and if Monsieur Girard hath not had a care of his friends reputation all circumstances condemn me It is true that my fault was but the omission of a Complement which had slipt out of my memorie and yet I avow to you that this omission is such a sin that hath a long time burdened my conscience and causeth such gripes and remorse Sir that except the same goodness that hath shewed me favor do grant me a pardon I
eye upon my Booke for presenting an image of those things which offend them so much And they who believe Fables and Romances and are in passion for an Hercules or an Achilles who perhaps never were They who reade with extasie of joy the actions of Rowland and of Reinold which were never done but upon Paper These men will finde no rellish in a true History because it gives testimony to the vertue of their naturall King They can like well enough that against the credit of all Antiquity Xenophon being a Graecian and no Persian should frame Cyrus a life after his owne fancie and make him die in his bed and amongst his Friends when yet he dyed in the warres and overcome by a woman and they can like well enough that Plinie should tell a lye in open Senate and praise Trajan for temperance and chastitie who yet was given to wine and to another vice so fowle that it cannot honestly be named but they can by no meanes like that I who am the Kings subject born should say that of him which no man can deny to be most true and that being to make a patern for Princes I should rather make choice of his life than either of that of Cyrus which is fabulous or that of Trajan which is not the purest that I may not speake of that of Caesar Bogia which is all blacke with licentiousnesse and crimes Heaven it selfe is not able to give this kinde of people a Governour to their minde He that was according to Gods owne heart should not be according to theirs They would not thinke Sâ—lomon wise enough nor Alexander valiant enough They are generally enemies of all sorts of Masters and accusers of all things the present time affords They make our heads ake with crying out that there was no necessity to make a war in Italy but if you had stayed still at Paris they would have cryed out much lowder that it had not been honest to suffer our allyes to perish Because some of our Kings have made unfortunate voyages beyond the mountaines therefore they will needs have it that our King though he follow not their counsels should yet fall into their misfortunes They accuse your conduct with old proverbs because they cannot with sound reasons They say Italy is the Church yard of the French and being not able to observe the least fault in all your carriage in that countrey they lay upon you the faults of our auncestors and charge you with the errour of Charles the eighth Yet I conceive that these mens sinne is rather of infirmity than of malice that they are rather passionate for their opinions than Pensioners of our enemies and that they have more need of helpe by Physick than of restraint by Law But it is a grievous thing to see how the busie-bodyes of our time speake the same language which Rebells did in times past and abuse the happinesse of liberty even against him who hath procured it unto us They come continually and tell me we are like to receive much prejudice by the discontent of such a Prince that is gone from our side And I answer them it is better to have a weake enemy to fight withall than a quarrelsome friend to make much of They will by all meanes that the King at any price should succour Cazall and I tell them that he hath succoured it already by his conquest of Savoy and that in the state as things now stand it cannot be taken but to be delivered back They are not contented that you performe actions that are extraordinary they looke you should performe some that are impossible And though there arise sometimes such difficulties in things that they cannot by any possibility be encountred I say not by defect in the undertaker but by reason of repugnancy in the subject yet they will not take for payment such reasons as wise men are satisfied withall but they would have the King doe that which the Turke and Persian joyned together were not able to doe Thâ—se things my Lord would put me extreamly into passion and I could never be patient at such excesse of ungratefulnesse if I did not remember that there hath sometimes beene a spirit so sullen and so sawcy that it dared to finde fault with the workes of God himselfe and was not afraid to say that if he had been of his counsell as well in the creation as in the government of the world he would have given him better advise than he tooke at first or than he now followes After so immense a folly you must not thinke it strange if there be some extravagants and the vulgar at all times hath beene found but an unjust Judge of vertue and yet for all that it hath never beene without admirers and now if those that have but little instinct and can doe nothing but murmure and doe not favour him it is for us my Lord to testifie unto you that reasonable men and such as know how to speare are of the better side At Balzac 4. Aug. 1630. Your most humble and most obedient servant BALZAC Another to him LETTER II. MY Lord hearing that Monsieur de meanes to question me about the Benefice you did me the honour to give me and that by vertue of his dispensation he hath sent to take possession I have conceived no better shelter to avoide this storme than under the greatnesse of your Name nor any safer defence against the forces of such an adversary than the respect of such a Protector as you are I require not in this any strayning of your Lordships power I know you are sparing of it in your owne proper interests and reserve it for occasions that are publicke and important I onely require the continuance of your love and that you would signifie to him that trâ—â—bles me you would be glad he would let me be at quiet Fâ—â— besides that to stand in suit with a man of his robe were as much as to fight with a Mâ—ster of Fence and to put ones whole right in hâ—zâ—rd It would trouble me my Lord though I were assured of successe to thinke I should owe any part of it to any other besides your selfe seeing I account it more glory to receive from you than to wâ—est from another Monsieur de may doe well to keepe his dispensation for a better maâ—ket and draw much more profit with a little patience And indeed I verily believe he lookes for nothing to make him surcease but for some demonstration from you of your desire and that he rather hath an ambition to be intreated by M. The Cardinall than any designe to take your gift from me I humbly intreate your Lordship to give him contentment in this poynt and not suffer me to fall at this first step of my Fortune and that I may not alwayes be unfortunate being as I am with all my soule At Balzac 8. Novem. 1631. Your c. Another to him LETTER III. MY Lord I am
infinitely bound unto you for the honour you have done me to remember me and for the paines you have taken to write in my behalfe to Monsieur de It is true your paines hath not had so good successe as I verily hoped it would for though he had given out that for his satisfaction he required no more but some small signe that it was your desire yet having received that signe he continues still in the same termes and holds the same rigorous course he did It makes me thinke my Lord that he knowes well enough of what worth your commendation is certainly if it had beene imployed for any other but my selfe it had found all the yeilding and respect it meriteth but indeed I cast unfortunatenesse upon all matters I deale in my evill Fortune suffers me not to make benefit of your love you have no sooner a thought to doe me good but presently a thousand impediments arise to hinder it You give me presents and doe not receive them You command I should be paid my pension and your command is not obeyd Not yours my Lord of which one might say Est fatum quodcunque votes You have read my Booke with pleasure and spoken of it with commendation and yet I suffer persecution for making it as much as to say for being a true Frenchman and a lover of publique Liberty For as for the objections they make against me they certainly are but colours and pretences If may words be not learned or eloquent they are yet sound and full of truth There is not one to be found in all my worke which a meane Advocate were not able to defend before the severest Tribunall in the world The makers of Libells who condemne them are the men of all other that first corrupt them I begin my Lord to be weary of this long and obstinate injustice my Philosophy beginnes to faile me in this case and I should be clean and altogether out of heart if I had noâ— your goodnesse to rely upon For this at this day is the common refuge of all oppressed innocents and no man invocates it in vaine I therefore make my selfe believe that it will at last send me also some faire dayes after so many storms and tempests raised against me by mine enemies and that after you have saved Nations and set Princes in their Thrones it will be no hard matter to relieve a poore private man who adores you and whom calumny seeks to ruine I know some my Lord whom you have made happy and yet scarce knew their names when you did me the honour to speak well of me And some I have knowne advanced by you that lay hidden in the throng when your selfe drâ—w me out and placed me amongst the few yet what get I by it For in truth I could never make any use of this advantage because indeed I could never serve you with such care and subjection as the forwardnesse of your favours obliged me to doe My indisposition hath alwayes hindred my good designes I have alwayes combated with weaknesse of body and never durst venture to beginne a life which I was not assured I was able to hold out This hath forced me my Lord to court you in a new fashion and to seeke to doe you service by my absence and ease and not trouble you with unseasonable officiousnesse and with many low curâ—sies to no purpose I am able to say unworthy as I am that I was the first man that preached the wonders of your life unto the people exhorted all Frenchmen to do their duties have in mine owne person given good example in the Provinces and have healed many spirits that were sick and ill perswaded of the present government I am not so well knowne by my name as by my forwardnesse in your service And when the spitefull rumour ranabroad of late many persons of quality can tell how grievously I tooke it and how I resolved to follow you to the worlds end if so be the unfortunatenesse of France should remove you from the Court Yet I am not troubled that I make you these proofes of my Fidelity though they would be lesse difficult to me than to entertaine you as now I doe with my interests which to say true is a cruell torture I put my selfe to It is not my desire you should have misfortunes to the end I might make use of my consolations nor it is my wish there should be disorders in my Countrey and disgrace to my Master to the end I might the better shew my selfe a good Frenchman and a loyall servant But yet my Lord why may I not be of some use in a calme and have a place as well in the joy as in the sorrow You alone are the Author of your victory but you alone cannot furnish your triumph but must have many Artificers to worke about it I have materials enough to make many large Fabricks but to undertake the worke I must entreat your Lordship I may have a little contentment or at least a little quiet The splendour of your person is so great that it sends forth beames of light to your remotest servants and the power which heaven hath given you is so redoubtable to all sorts of Tyrants that to give a period to my persecution there needs no more but that you give some signe you meane to protect me which favour I perswade my self you will not deny me for besides the common cause of being oppressed you have knowne a long time that I make a speciall profession to be My Lord Your c. At Balzac 5. Jan. 1632. To Monsieur Cytois Physitian to M. the Cardinall LETTER V. SIR my curiosity were undiscreet if I should aske you newes of occurrents in the Army but you cannot take it ill that I aske you news of my Lord the Cardinals health I learne the progresse of his glorious actions by the mouth of Fame but I must learne from you how he fares in his continuall agitation and whether the temper of his body feele no alteration by the violent motions of his spirit I conceive that God doubles his force when there is need and that he hath regard to the necessity of so many people that cannot misse him but I know also that he makes use of the second causes and that your cares and industry concur with this providence The services you doe to one particular man are obligations to all the world Never had any Science a more worthy or profitable imployment than yours hath And if the Romanes erected a statue to Antonius Musa for healing of him who oppressed their liberty why may not you justly expect a publick acknowledgement for preserving of him who makes us all both free and happy I send him the discourses which I humbly entreate you to take care they may come to no other hands but his and therefore that you will keepe them in your custodie that they may be safe untill I come my selfe to Paris I
from thence I will acquaint you with it and intreate this savour from you that you will believe I passionatelie am Sir Your c. At Balzac 10 June 1635. To Mounsieur Girard Secretary to M. the Duke D' Espernon LETTER IX SIR your last Letters have exceedingly comforted me and you have such things for me that they make me forgetfull of all my miseries With such a friendship I can mocke at ill fortune and it makes me taste contentments which good fortune knowes not of It is true that your absence is a perpetuall cooling Card to my joy and possessing you but in spirit it requires a very strong imagination to desire nothing else Shall we never come to be Citizens of one City Never to be Hermits in the same Desart Shall my Counsayle be alwayes twenty myles from me and must I be alwayes forced to passe two Seas to fetch it when I need it I hope your justice will doe me reason and that Heaven will at last heare the most ardent of all my prayers but in the meane time whilst I stay waiting for so perfect a contentment I would be glad to have of it now and then some little taste if it be not in your power to give your selfe at least lend your selfe for some few dayes and come and sit as supreame President over both my French and Latin I promise you I will never appeale from you to any other onely for this once give me leave to tell you that the word Ludovix which you blame as too new seemes to me a more Poeticall and pleasing word than either the Aloysius of the Italians or our Ludovicus and besides It favours of the Antiquity of our Nation and of the first language of the Gaules witnesse these words Ambiorix Eporedorix Orgetorite Vercingetorix c. In which you see the Analogie to be plaine yet more than this I have an Authority which I am sure you will make no difficultie to allow you know Monsieur Guyet is a great Master in this Art but perhaps you know not that he hath used this very word Ludovix before I used it for I tooke it from these excellent Verses of his Non tulit hoc Ludovix justa puer acer ab ira Et patriae casum sic videamus ait For other matters Sir you may adde to that which was last alledged in the cause of Madam Gourney this passage out of the divine Jerusalem where Aladin calls Clorinda the Intercessour of Sophronia and of her lover Habbian vita Rispose libertade E Nulla a tanto Intercessor se neghi I kisse the hands of that faire creature you love and am withall my soule Sir Your c. At Balzac 20. Septemb. 1635. To my Lord the Earl of Port. LETTER X. SIR I have received a letter from you since your being in England but not being able to read the Gentlemans hand that sent it to me for want of a decipherer I have been forced to be uncivill till now and have therefore not answered you because indeed I knew not whom to answer but now that this Gentleman whose name is a mysterie in his letters is by good fortune come againe into this countrey I can by no meanes suffer him to part without some testimony of the account I make of your favour and the desire I have to preserve it by all the possible meanes I can I will make you Sir no studied Protestations nor send complements to a man that is borne in the Countrey of good words I will onely say there are many respects that make your person dear unto me and that besides the consideration of your vertue which gives me just cause to honour you that also of the name you beare and of the ranke you hold are things that exceed the value of indifferencie I love all them that love France and wish well to our great Prince of whom in truth I have heard you speake so worthily that as often as I remember it it stirres me up to doing my duty and to profit by so good an example If it had been seconded in Italy we should have seene all we could have hoped But God himselfe saves none but such as contribute themselves to their salvation Saguntum was taken while the Senatours were deliberating and a wisedome that is too scrupulous commonly doth nothing for feare of doing ill The most part of Italians are themselves the workmen to make their owne setters they lend the Spaniard their blood and their hands to make a slave of their countrey and are the parricides of their mother of whom they might have been the redeemers But of all this we shall talke more at Paris if you come thither this Winter as I am put in hope you will In the meane time doe me the honour to let me have your love and to believe me there is none in the world more truly than I Sir Your c. At Balzac 10 Sept. 1630. To my Lord the Bishop of Nantes LETTER XI MY Lord the joy I take in the recoverie of your health is not yet so pure but that it alwayes represents unto me a terrible Image of your last sicknesse The imagination of a danger though past and gone yet makes my memorie afraid and I looke upon it rather in safety than with assurance We missed the losing you but very narrowly and you were upon the poynt to leave us Orphans I speake it seriously and without any flattery at all all the victories we have gotten or shall get would never be able to make us amends for such a losse you wouldd have made our conquest turne to mourning M. the Cardinall would have found something to complaine of in his great felicitie and would have watred his triumph with his tears Let it not be Gods will to lay this crosse upon our time and if it be a crosse inevitable yet let it be deferred to our posteritie It is necessary the Phoenix should live out her age and that the world should be allowed time for enjoying the possession of so profitable and sweet a life as yours It is true the world is not worthy of you but my Lord the world hath need of you your vertue indeed should long since have been crowned but that your example is still necessary and the more happie ones there be in heaven the fewer honest ones will be left upon earth Love therefore your selfe a little for our sakes begin now at last to studie your health which hitherto you have neglected and make a difference hereafter betweene cold and heate betweene good and bad aire betweene meates that are sweet and those that are bitter Though you take no care of your health for your own sake yet you must take care of it for the common good For I beseech you my Lord tell me what should become of the cause of the poore what of the desolation of widdowes what of the innocencie of men oppressed I speake not of the hope of such as hope for
preferment by you for though I write you my Father and call you Monsieur yet I am none of that number I desire nothing from you at this time but that which you may give me without asking it of another your love and good will is the onely object of my present passion I renounce with all my heart all other things in the world so I may keepe but this and shall never complaine of my shipwracke if it leave me so solid a planke as this to rest upon Be pleased to doe me the honour to believe it and that I am with all my soule My Lord Your c At Balzac 15 June 1635. To Monsieur Senne Theologall of the Church of Saints LETTER XII SIR I have been in extasie to heare of your health and that you keepe your body in that reasonable fulnesse of flesh which contributes something to your gravity and addes nothing to your weight I would not wish you to seeke to abate it nor long to be like the dry and tawnie skinnes of the first Christians For all Tertullians saying all Saints have not beene leane and melancholick The last that we have seene were of your colour and statute and you doe an honour to Divinity to preach it with a bright visage representing in some sort the stateof future glory you speake of to the people Monsieur de made me so rich a description of your health that I could not choose but begin my letter with this complement I have seen since Monsieur de who delivered me one from you and with it our friends booke for which I thank you with all my heart I have yet perused onely some Tracts which in truth seem very learned and are as intelligible as the obscurity of the matter would well beare It is true the Title deceived me and seeing you will have me speake freely what I thinke I must tell you I thinke they are nothing else than Orations and that they are fitter to be read upon a Joyn-stoole than pronounced at a Tribunall I had thought to have found in them the perswasive motives of Oratours in the highest straine of their stile and I finde nothing but the drye doctrine of Philosophers and of them neither nothing but the ordinary language of their precepts that it makes me think of these new Companies of Souldiers which are levied under the name of Horse but are put to serve on foot when they come to the Armie I say not it is necessary to handle Schoole questions with all the pompe and force of eloquence I onely say that such discourses ought not to be called Panaegiricks or Oâ—ations and that there is either craft or rashnesse in this proud inscription which promiseth more than a Philosopher can performe Cicero condemnes it of impropriety as you shall see at the end of this Letter and you cannot but confesse unto me that our friend hath mistaken himselfe two wayes First to believe he ought to play the Oratour in Divinity And secondly to imagine that to make Orations with successe he neede but draw forth some Exordiums out of Plutarch's lives and to alledge the so famous Bucephalus that was broken by Alexander the great These are Ornaments so vulgar and so stale that to use them at this day is rather a mark of Clownishnesse than of neatnesse When fashions are left off in the City they are then taken up in the Country and there are none now but poore Gentlemen that will offer to weare the massiest silver lace when it is once fitterd or the richest Plush when it is once growne thred-bare Both the one and the other have been in fashion but they are not so now They were heretofore novelties but are now but Rellicks The first comparison that was made of the burning of Dianaes Temple was excellent all other since have beene but idle And it is not enough that the spring from whence water is drawne be it selfe cleare but to draw that which is cleare it is necessarie also that Lawndresses and Passengers have not troubled it I make no doubt Sir but that which you will shew me shall be very choyce and perfect You are I know of too dainty a taste to be contented with every sawce I am very impatient till I see those rare productions and I should ere this have seene them but that your promises are as deceitfull as the Titles of your Booke which notwithstanding is otherwise full of excellent discourse and profound knowledge It is now foure moneths that I have waited for you and you have still continued to wrong me in continuing to breake your word yet as much wronged as I am I leave not to be Sir Your c. At Balzac 1. Octob. 1635. The Opinion of Cicero concerning the stile which Philosophers use in their Writings LOquuntur Philosophi cum doctis quorum sedare animos malunt quam incitare Siquidem de rebus pacatis ac minime turbulentis docendi causa non capiendi loquuntur ut in eo ipso quod delectationem aliquam dicendo aucupentur plus nonnullis quam necesse sit facere videantur Mollis ergo est eorum oratio umbâ—atilis neque nerves aculeos oratorios habet Nec sententijs est nec verbis instructa popularibus nec juncta numeris sed soluta liberius Nihil iratum habet nihil atrox nihil mirabile nihil astutum Casta verecunda incorrupta quodammodo virgo Itaque sermo potius quam oratio dicitur Quamquam en m omnis locutio oratio est tamen unius orationis locutio hoc proprio signata nomine est To Mounsier Granier LETTER XIII SIR my persecution should be sweete unto me if in suffering it I might have the happinesse to see you but your absence makes it insupportable and it were as good for me to goe and be killed in the place where you are as to come hither and die with languishing Being here against my minde I finde nothing that pleaseth me and the objects which I beheld before as the riches of Nature I cannot now looke upon but with horrour and count them but as the moveables of a Prison I sigh continually after your Cabinet which hath so often served for a haven to my tossed spirit and from whence I have so often fetcht Armes and courage to defend me against Fortune I am not out of hope to see it once againe and to sit me downe in that greene chaire where you know I have used to be inspired and foretell things to come as Sibil did from her Tryvet In the meane time I must let the unhappy constellation passe away and must give place to the choler of heaven So long Sir as you vouchsafe to remember me and to hold me in the favour of Messieurs du Puy I shall not want a good portion of consolation These are persons that without wearing purple or bearing office are yet illustrious and in Authority at least in the reasonable world and amongst men that can