assistance and all the ornament allowed them is onely freedome of conceptions the fecunditie of language and that they passe not promiscuously But as concerning the Subiects they are common to both kinds of writings and it is an errour to imagine there are some so particular to the one that the other cannot touch vpon the same withont iniurie thereunto Vpon the matter Panegyrick discourses Apologies Confultations Iudgements vpon morall actions whether good or bad opinions and censures vpon occurrents of those which please and those wee ought to detest yea euen indifferent accidents briefely whatsoeuer may fall into discourse and vnder reason are the obiects of Letters So wee see the greatest and most important misteries of our religion haue been left vnto vs in Letters All the wisedome of the Paganâ— contained in those of Seneca and wee owe to those Cicero wrot to his friends the knowledge of the secrets and certaine inducements which caused the greatest reuolutions the world hath euer known to witt the shaking and subuersion of the Romane Reipublike wee are therefore to confesse Oratoricall Treatises to haue no other subiect then Letters and that if there bee any difference it is none other then what is obserued betweene our ancient Seas and those not discouered vnto vs till in our fathers times The latter are no lesse deepe then the other they are capable of the like shipping their ebbes and floods are neither more iust nor lesse vncertaine and all the difference discouered betweene them is onely this that the windes tosse not those in like fort as it doth ours and in that they are seldome or neuer subiect either to stormes or tempests In like manner it being within the power and capacitie of Letters to treate of the same things how much more emenent and excellent soeuer one may conceiue them to be then any other kind of writings yet doe they not indeede receiue those extraordinary motions which appeare in Orations since neither the like high of excesse nor the same Enthusiasmes or Raptures are herein found In a word it is a more middle beauty and a more calme eloquence And surely if the subiect wee make vse of be as illustrious as the person before whom wee are to handle it were it not as much as to abuse both the one and the other to come short in our expressions Since the action ought neither to be publique nor generall if you intend to performe it negligently and not to allow it all the ornaments whereof it is capable And who can doubt that Cicero being to make an Oration before Caesar after the change of the Common-wealth had not a greater apprehension and prepared not himselfe with more studious care then if he had onely spoken to that beast with an hundred heads hee had so often led after his owne Phantasie and whereof hee was in so full possession so long before as to cause them to take the part best pleasing vnto him In these last occasions and in the presence of this man alone he know with whom he had to doe Now had he beene timerous or fearefull to faile before his Master yet impute not this apprehension of his to proceede either out of consideration hee had of his greatnesse nor from the reflection vpon those things hee came to accomplish But it was in that he considered him as a man no lesse versed in the art of well-speaking then himselfe and who had heretofore contributed to the study of this science so many rare gifts of spirit and so many faire indowments of nature that had he not afterward esteemed it more noble to conquer men by armes then to conuince them by arguments and if of the two most excellent exercises of this life his fortune and the famousnesse of his courage had not caused him to make choyce of the former hee might easily haue disputed for the glory of the latter with him Or were it so that this excellent Oratour might at this day returne into the world and were personally or by his Penne to discourse with those two great Cardinalls to whom the most part of these Letters are addrest is it not probable comming to know them as wee doe that he would imploy and contribute a a more exact study and solicitude then when hee was onely to please a multitude of ignorant Plebeians and to speake to all that rable of ancient Rome Wee shall yet againe bee amazed at the perfection of these Letters some whereof are written to the King and appointed to bee read as in trueth they were with admiration in full counsell and a great part of the rest addressed to the most eminent persons of our age To speake trueth wee may iustly say this is the first time any thing of perfection hath appeared in our language so that if of all our ancient eloquence there bee ought worthy of esteeme in any equalitie with this it may bee that with much labour you shall produce some one Letter For of all such who haue hitherto written wee may affirme that the most fortunate among them when they made choyce of subiects able to subsist of themselues haue not beene absolutely condemnable and that amidst their writings the soliditie of learning and the sauagenesse of language to wit the good and euill did equally appeare But when at any time they fell vpon subiects where eloquence onely swayed the Scepter there truly it was where fortune forsooke them and where the feeblenesse of their proper forces was manifestly perceiued if they were not some way assisted by strange tongues Some of them to say the trueth haue doubted what way they were to take and haue striuen to shew it to others though themselues were not in it In a word the greatest glory those gained who haue written with most perfection and puritie is only that which nature hath reserued for women to which sex eminent actions being denied it seemeth they performe sufficient if they abstaine from euill doing But to say that any hath ioyned Art to aboundance and mingled mildnesse with Maiestie or hath raised his stile without either loosing himselfe or straying from his subiect that is it which in trueth we could not see till this present And questionlesse these braue and generous formes of discourse and those great and strange conceptions wherewith these Letters are so curiously limed and so plentifully grac'd haue beene very slenderlie known in proceeding ages This very order and this number whereof euery tongue is not capable and wherein ours owes nothing to the Latine and which appeares in all his words though diuersely and as their gender requires do right haply appeare in this place though the most part of writers before him haue esteemed these perfections of small importance yet notwithstanding without the helpe of these two great secrets neither ornaments of Art nor graces of Nature can bee but in part pleasing nor can all the reasons the World can alledge perswade a Very woman resoluing to resist And to speake
of me Mounsieur the Priour of Chiues to whom I communicate my most secret thoughts and in whose person you shall see that I know how to make good elections in deliuering you this Letter may conclude it and acquaint you with the power I haue giuen you ouer all my desires truely it hath no other bounds then impossibilities Since as for those which are onely vniust I beleeue I should make small scruple to violate the Lawes for your sake and to testifie vnto you that vertue it selfe is not more deare vnto mee then your Friendship this is Your most humble and most affectionate seruant BALZAC The 4. of Ianuary 1624. LETTER XXIX BEing now ready to alter my course of life and part hence to come to Court I held my selfe obliged to aduertise you that herein I doe what I haue no minde vnto and that they haue pulled me out from a soyle where I suppose I had taken roote It much afflicts me that I must forsake the company of my Trees and part from that pleasing solitude my good Fortune had chosen for me before I was borne But since all the World driues me out and because what I call repose my Friends tearme Pusillanimity I must suffer my selfe to be carried away with the presse and to erre with others since they will not let me doe well by my selfe Vpon my Conscience it is not out of mine owne ambition that J am high-minded but out of my Fathers and if people of his time had not measured things by the euents and had not belecued those onely to be wise who are fortunate I should not haue busied my selfe in searching at Paris for what I ought to haue found in my selfe But truely I haue so great obligation to so good a Father and the care he hath taken to husband the good graine he hath cast into mee and to finish mee after hee had framed me haue beene so great and passionate as there is no reason I should follow my priuate inclination by resisting his intention I goe therefore since it is his pleasure to liue among wilde beasts and to expose my selfe to hatred and calumny as though the Feauer and Scyatica were not sufficient to make me miserable At my first approach the Grammarians will call me into question because I put not the French word Mensonge into the feminine gender and doe not beleeue the Iurisdiction they haue ouer words is powerfull enough to cause this word to change Sexe Those who haue not as yet written will set pen to paper against me and the new Bridge will eccho nothing but my name and their iniuries I shall be much distasted to heare I am become an Author and that I performe indifferent good peeces The meaner sort of spirits will be much mooued in that I haue set so high a rate vpon Eloquence and being vnable to follow me they will throw stones to stay me The truth I haue not dissembled will at once offend our aduersaries and ill Preists debaucht persons wil neuer forgiue me the P. P. they haue seene in my bookes and Hypocrites will wish mee ill because I set vpon vice euen within the Sanctuarie See here my deare friend the persecution prepared for me and of what sorts of people the Army of mine Enemies is composed In all apparance there is not any valour able to surmount so great a Multitude and I should doe much better to enioy the peace of my Village and to eate Mellons in security then to cast my selfe into this incensed troope and to engage my selfe in an endlesse warre yet since all Grammarians are not worth one Philosopher and in that the better part hath often the aduantage ouer the greater I am in hope Authority and Reason siding with me I shall easily get the vpper hand of Multitudes and Iniustice To taxe me in these times wherein we are is as much as to giue the lye to his Master and to condemne the opinion of the prime men of our Age. Those who gouerne at Rome and at Paris make my labours their delights and when at any time they lay aside the waight of the whole World they refresh themselues with my Workes But if some bad Monkes who in religious houses as Rats and other imperfect creatures may happily haue beene in the Arke seeke to gnaw my reputation Mounsieur de Nantes and Mounsieur de Berulle will conserue it and you know them for two men whom the Church in this age beholdeth as two Saints dis-interred out of the memory of her Annals or two of those Primatiue Fathers whose Soules were wholy replenished with Iesus Christ and who haue established the Truth as well by their Blood as Doctrine I haue besides as an opposite to my Calumniators one of the most perfect Religious this day liuing I meane Father Joseph whose great Zeale is guided by as eminent an vnderstanding and who hath the same passions for the generall good of Christendome as Courtiers haue for their particular Interests This irreproachable witnesse knowes I reuerence in others the Piety I finde not in my selfe and if I performe not all the actions of a perfectly vertuous person yet haue I at least all the sensibilities and desires Mounsieur the Abbot of St. Cyran who is not ignorant of any thing falling within the compasse of humane vnderstanding besides the more sublime gifts and illuminations where with he is adorned and who in a right profound Litterature hath yet a more resigned humility will answer for me in the same case and though all these strange forces should faile me haue I not sufficient in the protection of the Bishop of Aire and Mounsieur Bouthilier who doe both of them loue me as though I had the honour to be their Brother and who are so sage so iudicious and so vnderstanding in all things as it is not probable they would begin to erre by the good opinion they haue of me I suppose that hereupon I may venter to goe to Court and that with so powerfull assistance there are no enemies I neede feare Yet will I once againe tell you and I beseech you beleeue mee I would not part hence were I permitted to stay and that it doth not a little trouble me to lose the sight of my pathes and allyes wherein I walke without being enforced to weare Bootes or haue any apprehension of Carroaches From Balzac the 18. of October 1624. LETTER XXX I Am doubtfull to beleeue you speake in earnest in your Letter and that he of all men who hath most cause to be satisfied with himselfe should neede the assistance of any other to comfort him This is as much as to be distasted amidst the abundance of all things and to be vngratefull toward your good fortune since in the height of those fauours you receiue and expectation of those prepared for you you notwithstanding seeke for forraine pleasures and are sensible of petty contentments among great felicities My writings are no obiects but for
Reuerend Bishop of Ayre from BALZAC LETTER XIIII My LORD SInce you haue as much care of me as of your Diocesse and in that I perceiue you would imagine some defect euen in the felicities you expect in Heauen should you be saued without me I will vse my vtmost indeauours to cause that your desire of my Spirituall good prooue not vnprofitable and to make my selfe capable of the good Counsell you gaue mee by your Letter True it is I haue beene so long habituated in vice I haue almost vtterly forgotten my state of Jnnocency so as a particular Jubile for my selfe onely were no more then necessary On the otherside the pious motions I haue are so poore and imperfect that of all the flames the Primatiue Christians haue felt and endured I should hardly support the meere smoake Yet my Lord euen in this bad state wherin I now stand doe I expect a Miracle from my Maker who is onely able to raise Children out of the hardest Quarries nor will I beleeue his Mercy hath finished what hee intendeth to effect for the good of Mortals For since hee hath placed Ports vpon the shoares of most dangerous Seas and giuen some kinde of dawning euen to the darkest Nights it may be there is yet something reserued for me in the secrets of his Prouidence and that if hitherto I haue ranged out of the right way he will not any longer suffer me to stray or tire my selfe in the tracke of vice And truely I must here though much to my shame acknowledge the truth vnto you with those few drops of corrupt blood which is all I haue left I am plunged in all those passions wherewith the foundest bodies are pressed yea Tyrants who burne whole Citties vpon the first motion of rage and choller and who allow themselues to act what vnlawfull thing soeuer doe nothing more then my selfe saue onely to enioy those things I desire and to execute those designes remayning onely in my will I wanting their power to perpetrate the like Nor can the Feauer the Stone nor the Scyatica as yet tame my rebellious spirit or cause it to become capable of Discipline and if time had added yeares to the rest of my infirmities I verily thinke I should desire to behold vncleane sights with spectacles such I meane as you vtterly auoide and cause my selfe to be carried to those lewd places whither alone I were vnable to goe Insomuch that as there are diuers paintings which are necessarily to bee cleane defaced to take away the defects so I much feare nothing but Death can stay the current of my crimes vnlesse by your meanes I enter into a second Life more fruitfull then the former I therefore speake in good sadnesse set your whole Cleargy to prayer and commaund a publique Fast in the same strictnesse as though you were to impetrate at the hands of God the conversion of the great Turke or of the Persian Emperour Propound to your selfe Monsters in my will to be mastred and an infinity of enemies to ouercome in my passions and after all this you will beare me witnesse I haue not made matters greater then they are and saue onely a certaine imperfect desire I haue to repent and a kinde of small resistance I sometimes make against the beginnings and buddings of vice there is not any difference at all betweene my selfe and the greatest sinner liuing But take not I beseech you this I write as a marke of my Humility for you neuer read a truer relation and what St. Paul spake in the person of Mankind accusing himselfe of other mens offences is my owne simple deposition which I deliuer into the hands of the Diuine Justice I hate my selfe yet true it is I finde so great coldnesse in the performance of pious actions that my mind seemeth to be imprisoned when at any time my Duty draweth me to Church and when I am there I rather seeke diuertions and temptations then instruction or edification Euen mentall prayer being an Oblation for all houres and which may bee performed without either burnt Jncense OF bloody Sacrifices and the finishing whereof is so neere the first motion is to me as laborious as the Pilgrimage of Mount Serrat or of our Lady of Loretta would be to another I am alwayes sad but neuer penitent I loue solitarinesse but hate austerity I side with honest men but reside with the wicked if at any time some small rayes of Deuotion reflect vpon my crazy conscience they are of so short continuance and so weake as they neyther afford me light nor heate so as all this being but accident and meere chance doth not any way merit the name of good and it were great wrong to Vertue to ranke it in the number of casuall occurrents You are therefore necessarily to labour for my conversion which I am vnable to effect of my selfe and that for my part I onely affoord matter whereon to make an honest man If there bee certayne Saints whom we owe to the teares and intercession of others and if some Martyrs haue made their very Executioners Companions of their Glory I may well hope you will be a powerfull meanes to saue me with your selfe and that one day happily I may be mentioned among the rest of your Miracles Sir I know your life to be so spotlesse as though you were incorporeall or neuer loued any other then that Supreame beauty from whence all others are deriued Wherefore there is no question but so rare a Vertue may easily impetrate at Gods hands any supplication you shall exhibite nor is there any doubt hee hath for you allotted other limits to his bounty saue his onely omnipotency You shall yet at the least finde in me Obedience and Docility if I haue not attayned any stronger habitudes You shall haue to doe with one who amidst the corruption of this Age wherein well nigh all Spirits reuolte from the Faith cannot be drawne to beleeue any truth to be greater then what he hath vnderstood from his Nurse or Mother If in what concerneth not Religion I haue sometimes had my priuate Sence and Opinion I doe with my very heart leaue the same to the end to reconcile my selfe with the Vulgar and least I should appeare an Enemy to my Countrey for a slight word or matter of small importance If φφφφ had held himselfe to this Maxime he might securely haue liued among men nor had hee beene prosecuted with all extreamity as the most sauage of all beasts But he rather chose to make a Tragicall end then to expect a death wherewith the World was vnacquainted or to execute onely ordinary actions So farre as I can learne or if the report which passeth be current he had a conceite he might one day proue to be that false Prophet wherewith the declining age of the Church is threatned and though hee be but of meane extraction and poore fortunes he was notwithstanding so presumptuous as to imagine himselfe to be the
ARMANDVS IOANNES DV PLESIS Cardinalis de Richelieu Sic oculis sic Ille manu sic ore decorus Pallada in hoc Martem Mercuriumque Vides P. G. De Vauchelles THE LETTERS OF MOVNSIEVR DE BALZAC Translated into English according to the last Edition By W. T. Esq Lege Collige LONDON Printed by Nicholas Okes for Richard Clotterbuck and are to be sold at his shop at the Ball in Little-Brittaine 1634. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE WILLIAM Lord CRAVEN Baron of Hamsted-Marshall c. My LORD NOt to know your Lordship is an ignorance next Barbarisine but to be knowne vnto you is an honour my ambition hath alwayes aymed at but which my want of merit or euill fortune neuer yet attained In making this tender of my truest seruice I offer you the Votes of all who not poysoned by that Viper Enuie iustly extoll courage in youth not forced to action but by the only spurre of glory The vniuersall world among the wonders of our age numbers you and our world hauing the happinesse to boast her selfe your mother cherisheth you as a man shee hath long time laboured to produce This Present is but a Translation which yet may happily as well for the generall benefit as particular choice bee equall to an originall you can best iudge I haue therefore in part vindicated my selfe from those who may accuseme of not knowledge or negligence I submit all to your censure and with this small testimony of my deuotion to true Nobility doe here sue to haue these first fruits of my labours placed vnder the protection of so Honourable a Patron whose vertues as they are worthy to bee admired by all so shall they together with this so noble a fauour bee euer duely acknowledged by My Lord Your humblest seruant William Tirwhyt To the Lord CARDINALL of Richelieu MY LORD I Here present you Mounsieur Balzac's Letters which may well bee tearmed new ones euen after the eighth Edition for though they haue long since beene in possession of publike fauour yet may I iustly say this is the first time their Authour hath auouched them The aduantagious iudgement you haue deliuered of him and the ardor wherewith all France hath followed your approbation well deserueth his best endeauours toward the perfectionating so excellent things I haue beene solicitous to draw him to this labour to the end the world might know that if I bee not worthy the share I haue in his respects yet that I haue at least beene wise enough to make right vse of my good fortune and to cause it to become seruiceable to the glory of my Countrey But truely were hee master of his body or did his maladies afford him liberty of spirit hee would not suffer any but himselfe to speake in this cause and his Pen performing no slight acts would haue consecrated his owne labours and the wonders they haue produced But since euills haue no prefixed time of durance and in that all the good interims which hereafter may befall him are wholly to be imployed in his Booke The Prince I esteemed it to small purpose to attend his health in this businesse and that it was now no longer any time to deferre the purging of these curious Letters from such blemishes as ill impressions had left vpon them They shall therefore now appeare in the parity wherein they were conceiued and with all their naturall ornaments Besides I haue added diuers letters of his not as yet come to light which may serue as a subiect of greater satisfaction to all men and bee as a recompense of the honour wherewith he hath collected the former And truly my Lord had it beene possible to place in the Frontispiece of this Booke a more illustrious name then yours or should Mounsieur de Balzac's incsination and mine haue beene farre from any such intention yet would not the order of things or the law of decency haue permitted any other reflection then what I now make I speake not at this present of that dazeling greatnesse whereunto you are eleuated nor of that so rare and necessary vertue which rightly to recognize the greatest King on earth hath esteemed himselfe not to bee ouer able I will onely say I had reason to submit an eloquence produced in the shade and formed in solitarinesse to this other eloquence quickned both with voyce and action causing you to reigne in soueraignety at all assemblies Certainely my Lord you are more powerfull by this incomparable quality then by the authority wherein the King hath placed you The onely accent of your voyce hath a hidden property to charme all such as hearken vnto you none can bee possessed with any so willfull passions who will not be appeased by the reasons you propound and after you haue spoken you will at all times remaine master of that part of man no way subiect to the worlds order and which hath not any dependency vpon lawfull power or tyrannicall vsurpation This is a trueth my Lord as well knowne as your name and which you so solidly confirmed at the last assembly of the Notables as that in the great diuersity of humours and iudgements whereof it was composed there was peraduenture this onely point well resolued on That you are the most eloquent man liuing This being true I can no way doubt but the perusall of this Booke I offer vnto you will extraordinarily content you and that you will bee well pleased to retire thither sometimes to recreate your spirits after agitation and to suspend those great thoughts who haue for their obiect the good of all Europe It is a Booke my Lord wherein you shall find no common thing but the Title where entertaining some particular person Mounsieur de Balzac reades Lessons to all men and where amidst the beauty of Complements and dexterity of Ieasting he often teacheth of the most sublime points of Philosophy I meane not that wrangling part thereof which reiecteth necessary verities to seeke after vnprofitable ones which cannot exercise the vnder standing without prouoking passions nor speake of moderation without distemper and putting the soule into disorder But of that whereby Pericles heretofore made himselfe master of Athens and wherewith Epaminondas raised himselfe to the prime place of Greece which tempereth the manners of particulars regulateth the obligation of Princes and necessarily bringeth with it the felicity of all States where they command This booke will make it apparent euen to your enemies that your life hath beene at all times equally admirable though not alwayes alike glorious How you haue conserued the opinion of your vertue euen in the time of your hardest fortunes and how in the greatest fury of the tempest and in the most extreame violence of your affaires the integrity of your actions hath neuer beene reduced to the onely testimony of your conscience To conclude It is in this Booke my Lord where I suppose you will bee well pleased to reade the presages of your present greatnesse and what
he would bring a blessing to all France and though he intimated nothing to the King yet that he would at least inspire whatsoeuer were necessary for the good of his Subiects and Dignity of his Crowne I will reserue to speake as I ought of this rare Vertue till my great Worke come to light Where I will render euery man his right and condemne euen those as culpable whom the Parliaments crouch vnto There shall it be where I will canuasse the Court of Rome which I alwayes separate from the Church with as much force and freedome as he vsed from whose mouth we haue seene lightning to issue and Thunder to be throwne out There is not any thing of so faire a semblance whose deformities I vnmaske not There is nothing of eminency from one end of the World to the other I ouer-turne not I will discouer the defects of Princes and States I will expugne Vice wheresoeuer it is hidden and with what Protection soeuer it is palliated To conclude I will passe as seuere a Judgement as was that of the Areopagites in times past or of the Inquisition at this present Yet my Lord in this my common censure I will take a particular care of the Queene Mothers reputation and will let all the World see that what heretofore others haue called Vertue is the naturall habitude of this great Princesse In the place for others appoynted for Afflictions and Calamities She shall together with the King receiue onely Flowers and Crownes and as her innocency had saued her from the generall deluge had she then liued so will it cause her to Tryumph in my Story amidst the tuines of others I haue not the faculty of Flattering but the Art only to speake the Truth in good termes and the Actions you see had need be more eminent then those you haue read of if I equall them not by my Words This being thus my Lord as I hope you doubt not imagine in what tearmes I will iustific the R. D. L. R and in what fort I will intreate her enemies if I haue a minde to it I will make it one day appeard that 〈◊〉 hath beene as cruell a Monster as those who deuourewhole Cities and denounce Warre agaynst all Humane and Dinine things One will imagine by the markes I giue him that R. was a Magician which daily pricked some Image of Waxe with needles and who disturbed the repose of all Princes Courts of his time by the force of his Charmes The truth is I will do great matters prouided my courage quaile not on his part whence I expect it should come and to whom by a kind of strict Obligation I am excited to vndertake this Iudgement which will be no lesse famous then that of Michael Angelo At our next meeting I will more particularly acquaint you with the whole designe of my Worke with its order ornaments and artifice you shall there see whether or no I make good vse of those houres I sometimes obtaine from the tyranny of my Phisisians and lingring maladies In the interim doe me the Honour to loue me still nor thinke I speake the Court-language or that I compliment with you when I assure you I am more then any man liuing My Lord Your most humble seruant BALZAC The 28. of December 1622. Another Letter to the Lord Bishop of Ayre LETTER XII My Lord IT must needes be your Oath of Fealty doth yet continue and that the Ceremony you are imployed in be longer then I imagined since I haue no newes from you for I must freely confesse vnto you I am not so slightly perswaded of my selfe as to haue any thought as that you neglect me Besides I am certaine that publique faith and what hath euer beene sworne vpon Altars and the Gospolls are not more inuiolable then your word and that it will stand good though Heauen and Earth should start Besides I can lesse coniecture that you are hindred by want of Health whereof I hope you enioy so large a treasure as it is like to contine as long as the World lasteth It were a wrong to me should you alledge Sicknesse and no lesse then to wrangle with me for a thing in such manner appropriated to my selfe as I cannot communicate it to any other I will therefore imagine whatsoeuer you will haue me to thinke you may loue me if you please without taking the paines to tell mee so But for my part how importunate soeuer I am herein yet am I resolute to write vnto you till you cut off my hands and to publish so long as I haue a tongue that I am Sir Your most humble and most affectionate seruant BALZAC The 16. of December 1622. To the Lord Bishop of Ayre from BALZAC LETTER XIII My Lord YOu cannot loose me how little care soeuer you take to keepe mee The Heauens must necessarily infuse new affections in me and vtterly alter my inclinations if they intend to inhibite mee to be your Seruant Yet doth it not a little grieue me you doe not testifie what I know you beleeue and that hauing the power to make me happy by the least of your Letters I haue more trouble to impetrate this fauour then I should finde in the obtaining of three Declarations from the King and as many Briefes from his Holinesse But all this notwithstanding I cannot be perswaded you place mee among matters of meere indifferency or that you no longer remember what you haue promised with so large protestations which I hold to be most authenticall I rather for the satisfaction of my thoughts will be confident you haue resolued to loue me in secret thereby to auoide all iealousie and will beleeue there is more cunning then coldnesse in your Silence were it otherwise or had I really lost your Fauours certainely I would not suruiue so deepe a discomfort since there is not any banishment shipwracke or sinister fortune I could not rather require at Gods hands then such a losse But these Discourses are as much as to suppose impossibilities or to inuent Dreames I will therefore leaue them to let you vnderstand some newes from me I can onely say the Ayre of this Countrey is not offensiue vnto me for to assure you that I am in health were too great a boldnesse I confesse I haue now and then some pleasing pauses and I enioy certaine good Houres which make mee remember my former Health But there is great difference betweene this imperfect estate of mine and a constitution comparable to that of yours who haue life sufficient to viuifie thirty such worne bodies as mine which needes but one blast to blow it downe Howsoeuer my Phisitians haue promised to make me a new man and to restore vnto mee what I haue lost I should be well contented they were men of their words and that I might at my ease attend all occasions to testifie how passionately I am The 6. of Ianuary 1623. Your most humble and most affectionate Seruant BALZAC To the
man who is to come with armed forces to disturbe the quiet of Consciences and for whom the infernall Ministers keepe all the Treasures yet hidden in the Earths intrailes So long as he contented himselfe in committing onely humane faults writing as yet with an vntainted Pen I often told him his Verses were not passable and that hee was in the wrong to esteeme himselfe an vnderstanding man But he perceiuing that the rules I propounded to him for bettering his abilities to be ouer-sharpe and seuere for him and finding small hope of arriuing whether I desired to conduct him he perhaps thought best to seeke out some other way to bring himselfe into credit at Court hoping of a meane Poet to become a mighty Prophet So that as it is generally reported after he had peruerted a number of silly Spirits and long shewed himselfe in the throng of the ignorant multitude he in conclusion did as one who should cast himselfe into a bottomlesse pit on purpose to gayne the reputation of being an admirable Iumper My Lord you remember I doubt not what our ioynt opinion hath beene of such like persons and the weaknesse you shewed there was in the principles of their wicked Doctrine Now truely how extrauagant soeuer my Spirit hath beene I haue yet euer submitted the same to the authority of GODS Church and to the consent of Nations and as I haue alwayes held that a single drop of Water would more easily corrupt then the whole Ocean So haue I euer assured my selfe that particular opinions could neuer be eyther so sound or sollid as the generall Tenets A silly man who hath no further knowledge of himselfe then by the relations of others who is at his wits end and wholly confounded in the consideration or reflection vpon the meanest workes of Nature who after the reuolution of so many Ages is not able to assigne the cause of a certayne Riuers ouer-flow nor of the interuals or good dayes of a Tertian Ague How dare he presume to speake confidently of that Infinite Maiesty in whose presence the Angels themselues couer their faces with their Wings and vnder whom the very Heauens crouch euen to the Earths lowest concauities There is no other thing remayning for vs saue the only glory of Humility and Obedience within the limits whereof we ought to contayne our selues And since it is most certayne that Humane reason reacheth not to so high a pitch as to attayue the perfection of Knowledge we ought insteed of disputing or questioning poynts of Religion to rest satisfied in the adoration of their Mysteries for doubtlesse if we striue to enter further thereinto or search for a thing vtterly vnknowne to all Philosophy and concealed from the Sages of this World we shall by such prophane curiosity gaine onely the dazeling of our Eyes and confusion of our Sences God by the light of his Gospell hath reuealed vnto vs diuers Truths whereof we were vtterly ignorant but he reserueth for vs far greater Mysteries which wee shall neuer comprehend but only in that Kingdome which he hath prepared for his chosen Seruants and by the onely vision of his Face In the meane time to the end to augment the merit of our Faith and the more to perfectionate our Piety his pleasure is that Christians should become as blind Louers and that they haue not any other desires or hopes but for those things aboue the reach of their vnderstandings and which they can no way comprehend by Naturall reason So soone as the time you haue prefixed me shall be expired and the Prime-roses make the Spring appeare I will not faile to wayte vpon you and diligently to addresse my selfe to the collection of your graue and important Discourses and to become an honest man by hearing since that is the Sence appointed for the apprehension of Christian vertues and whereby the Sonne of God was conceiued and his Kingdome established among men But it is needlesse to vse any artifice or that you paint the place of your abode in so glorious colours thereby to inuite mee to come For though you preached in the Desart or were you hidden in such a corner of the World where the Sunne did onely shine vpon the sterile Sands and steepe Rockes you well know I should esteeme my selfe happy where you are Your Company being of power to make either a prison or proscription pleasing vnto me and wherein I finde the Loouer and the whole Court will adde to the description you haue made of Aire diuers beauties which Geographers haue not hitherto obserued as being far greater then others though more secret Those Mountaines which will not allow France and Spaine to be one mans and vnder which the Raine and Thunder are framed will appeare to me more huge then they formerly did when I first saw them your waters which heretofore cured diuer Diseases will euen raise the Dead if you once blesse them and doubtlesle this people alwayes bred vp to beare Armes and who as the Fire and Jron is onely destinated for the vse of Warre hath ere now mollified their fierce humour by the moderation of your mild conduct For my part Sir I make account to become a new man vnder your hands and to receiue a second Birth from you Truely it would be a thing right happy to me and in it selfe famous if the like Spirituall health proceeding from the garments and shadowes of the Apostles might happen vnto me by approaching so holy a person and if being your workmanship and the Sonne of your Spirit I should instantly resemble a Father so happily endowed with all those rare qualities and perfections which are wholy deficient in me BALZAC To Mounsieur de la Motts Aigron LETTER XV. YEsterday was one of those Sunlesse dayes as you tearme them which resemble that beautifull blind Maide wherewith Philip the second fell in Loue. Truely I neuer tooke more pleasure in so priuate a solitarinesse and though I walked in a large and open Plaine wherof man could make no other vse but for two Armies to fight in yet the shade the Heauens cast on all sides caused mee little to regard the shelter of Caues or Forrests There was a generall and quiet calme from the highest Region of the Ayre euen to the Superficies of the Earth the waters of Riuers seemed as euen and smooth as those of Lakes and surely if at Sea such a calme should for euer surpriseships they could neuer bee eyther safe or sunke This I say on purpose to make you repent the losle of so pleasant a Day for not comming abroad out of the Citty as also to draw you sometimes out of your Angoulesme where you treade leuill with our Towers and Steeples to come and take part of those pleasures wherein the ancient Princes of the World tooke delight who vsually refreshed themselues in Fountaines and liued on those fruites which Forrests affoord Your Friends here are in a small circle enuironed with Mountaines and where is yet
remaining some few graines of that faire Gold whereof the first Age was composed In truth when the fire of Warre is flaming in the foure corners of France and that within a hundred paces hence the whole Earth is couered with aduerse Troupes and Armies they with mutuall consent doe alwayes spare our Village The Spring-time in other places producing the besiegings of Forts and Cities with other enterprises of Warre and which for this dozen yeares hath beene lesse looked for in respect of the change of Seasons then for any alteration of Affaires suffers vs to see no other thing but Violets and Roses Our people are not contayned in their primatiue innocency eyther by feare of Lawes or Study of Sciences They to liue vprightly doe simply follow their naturall Bounty and draw more aduantage from their ignorance of Vice then most of vs do out of the knowledg of Vertue so as in this Territory of two miles they know not how to cosen any saue Birds and Beasts and the pleading Language is as vnknowne here as that of America or of other parts of the World which haue escaped the auarice of Ferdinand and the ambition of Isabella Those things which hurt the health of man or offend their eyes are generally banished hence Snakes nor Lizards are neuer seene here and of creping creatures wee know no other but Melions and Strawberries I intend not here to draw you the portraite of a Palace the workemanship wherof hath not bin ordred acording to the rules of architecture nor the matter so precious as Marble and Purphire I will onely tell you that at the Gates there is a Groue wherein at full noone there enters no more day then needes must not to make it night and to cause all colours not to looke blacke so that betweene the Sun and the shade there is a kinde of third temper composed which may well be endured by the weakest eyes and hide the deformities of painted faces The Trees here are greene to the very ground as well with their owne leaues as with Iuy which inuirones them and as for the fruites wherein they are deficient their branches are all beset with Turtle-Doues and Phesants and this at all times in the yeare From thence I march into a Meddow where I treade vpon Tulipans and Anemons hauing caused them to be mingled among other Flowers to confirme my opinion I brought from my Trauailes that French Flowers are not so faire as those of Forraine Countries I sometimes walke downe into that Vallie being the secret part of my Desart and which till now was not knowne to any man It is a Country to be wished for and painted I haue made choise thereof for my most precious occupations there to passe the most pleasing houres of my life The Trees and Water neuer suffer this place to want coulenesse and verdure The Swans which couered the whole Riuer are retired to this place of security liuing in a Channell which causeth the greatest talkers to take a nappe so soone as they come neare on whose Bankes I am alwaies happy be I merry or melancholly How short a time soeuer I stay there I suppose I enter into my first innocency my desires my feares and hopes stop in a trice all the motions of my soule flacken nor haue I any passions remaining or if I haue any I gouerne them as tame Beasts The Sunne conuayes its light thither but neuer its heate The place is so low as it can onely receiue the last points of its beames being therfore the more beautifull in that they are lesse burning and the light thereof altogether pure But as it is my selfe who haue discouered this new found Land so do I possesse it without any partner nor would I share it with my owne brother But in all other quarters vnder my commaund there is not a man who courts not his Mistresse without controule nor seruant of mine who is not master each one satisfying himselfe of what he loues and spending the time at pleasure And on the other side when I see the Grasse trodden downe and on the other the Corne full of Layers I am well assured it is neither Winde nor Haile hath made this worke but only a Shepheard and his sweete-heart At which doore soeuer I goe out of my house or on what side soeuer I turne mine eyes in this pleasant Pathmos I finde the riuer of Charauton wel meriting as much fame as that of Tagus aud wherein when Beasts go to drinke they see the Heauens as cleare as we doe and enioy the same aduantage which elsewhere men haue ouer them Besides this pure water is so in loue with this petty Prouince that it diuides it selfe into a thousand branches and makes an infinite of windings and turnings as loath to leaue and depriue it selfe of so pleasing a lodging and when at any time it ouer-floweth it is only to make the yeare more firtile and to affoord vs meanes to catch Trouts and Pykes leauing them vpon the leuill and which are so great and excellent as they equall the Sea Monsters the Crocadiles of Nile and all the supposed Gold rowling in those feigned Riuers so much spoken of by Poets The great Duke of Espernon comes hether sometimes for change of felicity and to lay aside that austere vertue and splendor which dazeleth the eyes of all men to assume milder qualities and a more accostable Maiesty This Cardinall likewise by whom Heauen intends to act so high designes and of whom you heare me dayly speake after the losse of his brother who was such a one as if he might haue chosen him among all men hee would not haue taken any other after as I say hauing indured that losse well deseruing to draw teares from the Queene he made choice of this place here to exercise his patience and to receiue from Gods hands who loueth silence and who is found in solitary retirements what Philosophy affoordeth not nor is to be practised among the throng of people I would enlarge my selfe vpon other Examples to shew you how my Village hath at all times bin frequented by Heroical Hermits and how the steps of Princes and great Siegniors are as yet newly trodden in my ordinary pathes But the more to inuite you to come hither I suppose it sufficient to say that Virgil and myselfe do here attend you if therfore you be accompanied in this Voyage with your Muses and other Manuscripts we shall not neede to entertayne the time with Court newes nor with the Germaine troubles Let me not liue if euer I saw any thing comparable to your Spirituall Meditations and if the least part of the Worke you shewed me be not of more worth then all Frankford Mart and all those great Bookes which come to vs from the North bringing cold weather and frosts along with them I assure you the President of THOV who was as worthy a Iudge of Latine Eloquence as of the life and fortunes of men and
am well satisfied with the affection of my Friends and doe willingly leaue their iudgements free to themselues One Good-night is more worth then all our Eloquence and not to know the miseries of this life is to be more learned then the Sorbonists and lessits For my part despising the world as I doe I cannot much esteeme my selfe who make vp one of the sickliest parts thereof and I haue so poore an opinion of my owne sufficiency as I little esteeme the Talents of others Thinke not then I adore the workemanship of my hands though I take as much paines therein as did the ancient Caruers in counterfeiting their gods Butcontrariwise it is the reason why I dislike them and had I beene a man of ten thousand Crownes rent I would haue giuen the halfe of it to a Secretary onely to hire him not to indite those Letters you haue so much admired The 15. February 1624. THE LETTERS OF MOVNSIEVR DE BALZAC To my Lord Cardinall de la Valete from Mounsieur D'BALZAC THE SECOND BOOKE LETTER I. My LORD VVHilst you imploy your houres in gayning hearts and Votes and happily lay the foundation of some eminent enterprize I here enioy a reposednesse not vnlike that of the dead and which is neuer rouzed but by Clorinda's kisses If the Duke of Ossona be chosen King of Naples as you write the report runneth I finde no strangenesse in it The world is so old and hath seene 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 beene vniust And on the other side the ill successe of reuolts are far more frequent then are the change of States and the same action which hath no lesse then a Diademe for the ayme hath often an ignominious death for its end Howsoeuer this happens it shall not much trouble me since the issue cannot be other then aduantagious to this State For God herein will either make it appeare that he is the protector of Kings or it falling out otherwise yet at least it will weaken the enemies to this Crowne But I hope you will not aduise me to beat my braines vpon those politique considerations for should I doe so it were no lesse then to retract the resolution I haue taken to looke vpon things passing among vs and our neighbours as I doe on the History of Japon or the affaires of another World I ought to surrender this humour to vulgar spirits who interest themselues in all the quarrels of States and Princes and who will alwayes be parties on purpose to put themselues into choler and bee miserable in the misfortunes of others Truely we shall neuer haue done if we will needes take all the affaires of the world to heart and be passionate for the publique whereof wee make but a very small part It may be at this very instant wherein I write the great Indian Fleete suffereth shipwracke within two Leagues of Land happily the great Turke hath surprised some Prouince from the Christians and taken thence some twenty thousand soules to conuey them to their Citty of Constantinople It may be the Sea hath exceeded its limits and drowned some Citty in Zealand If we send for mischiefes so farre off there will not an houre passe wherein some disconsolation or other will not come vpon vs. If we hold all the men in the world to be of our affinity let vs make account to weare Mournings all our life As mine experience is not great so are my yeares not many yet since I came into the world I haue seene so many strange accidents and haue vnderstood 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 fist his Grand-child borne to the hopes of so many Kingdomes was condemned to death for hauing ouer-soone desired them The naturall subiects of the King of Spaine doe at this day dispute with him for the Empire of the Sea nor will they rest satisfied with their vsurped liberty Surely wee should hardly bee drawne to beleeue these things vpon the credit of others and those in succeeding ages will with much difficulty bee perswaded to receiue them for truths yet are these the ordinary recreations of Fortune taking pleasure in deceiuing Mankinde by euents farre opposite to all appearance yea and contrary to their iudgements Hath shee not deliuered ouer to the peoples fury the man whom she had formerly raysed aboue 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 Generall of a Royall Army thereby to oblige vs not at any time to despaire 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 haue beene as fatall vnto me as to the Emperour Rodolphus in that my curiosity to see it caused me to rise in my shirt which gaue me a cold all the Winter after I am heereafter resolued not to meddle with any thing aboue my reach but to referre all to GOD and Nature So as Clorinda suffer me to serue her and that I vnderstand from her owne mouth that she loues me I will hearken to no other newes nor search a second Fortune I therefore most humbly beseech your Lordship to excuse me if vpon these occasions lately presented I cannot affoord you my personall attendance or refuse to follow you whither your resolution leades you my Mistresse hauing commanded me to render her an account how I shed my bloud and enioyning me neuer to goe to the Warres but when Muskets are charged with Cypres-powder I am rather contented you should accuse mee of Cowardize then she iustly to charge mee with Disobedience And after all this tell me whether or no you thinke me to be in my right wits and that I haue not lost my reason together with the respect I owe you I herein doe as a delinquent who fearing he should not be soone enough punished puts himselfe into the hands of Justice not staying eyther for the Racke or examination of Iudges for the discouery of a crime whereof he was neuer accused I am well assured that of all passions you haue onely those of Honour and Glory and that your Spirits are so replenished therewith as there is no place left eyther for loue hate or feare Yet doe I withall consider that it is a part of a wise mans felicity to reflect vpon other mens follies howsoeuer if any word hath escaped me which may offend your eyes take it I beseech you as a meanes sent you from God for your farther mortification in causing you to read things so distastefull vnto you You are necessarily to endure farre greater crosses amidst the corruption of this Age if you cannot liue among the wicked you must
sustayne any great detriment by the losse of a thing J so slightly esteeme as I do worldly substance I intend not in this place to complayne of my pouerty But to speake truth since all my words and actions are by many misinterpreted and that hauing affoorded my dutifull attendance to the seruice of three great Kings I yet find much difficulty to defend my so long a loyalty agaynst Calumny I am with much sorrow constrayned to say that if I stood firme in my duty euen when disobedience was Crowned with rewards and haue maintayned your Authority when by some it was abused by others contemned It is no small iujury to me to imagine I wil now begin to fayle in my loyalty at this age wherein I am or suffer my selfe to be reproached by posterity whereto I study to annexe the last actions of my life But I see well Sir it is long since the hatred of dishonest French-men hath beene fatall vnto me and that it hath beene borne with mee inseparably From the first houre I appeared in the World there was neuer either peace or truce vnuiolated to my preiudice and as though I were excepted out of all treaties though Warre be ended yet that made against me endureth At this present Sir it sufficeth not I performe my charge without omitting or forgetting any thing due to your seruice or that the innocency of my actions be generally acknowledged but I am driuen to those streights as to be forced to giue account of my very thoughts there being not any my selfe excepted from whom satisfaction is required for the fault hee hath not as yet committed If wee liued in a Countrey where vertue were auoyded as not concurrent with the times or aduerse to the State and where a great reputation were more dangerous then an inglorious one I should not neede to make much search for the cause of my misfortunes but I well know the conduct you vse hath more honourable and honest grounds and that your Maiesty hath no pretention to reigne with more assurance then the King your Father did before you It is from him Sir you may learne how you are to distinguish wounded innocency from wicked impudency and to know it is ordinary to draw honest men into suspicion thereby to make them vnseruiceable In following his example you shall finde out the truth though neuer so closely hidden or what shadow soeuer they cast ouer the same to disguise it And truely Sir since this great Prince in bestowing your Origin vpon you hath together therewith conferred his most Royall inclinations I will neuer beleeue that to follow a stranger passion you will lose those perfections so proper and naturall vnto you or that for me alone your Maiesty hath any other spirit then for the rest of men Truely if when you were not yet at your owne liberty such hath beene the naturall goodnesse of your gracious disposition as you haue at all times resisted violent counsels nor haue euer permitted your authority should bee imployed to the ruine of your subiects there is small appearance that hauing now by publique and solemne act obliged your selfe to reigne alone and your bounty finding not any obstacle to hinder the same you would disturbe the old age of one of your best seruants or deny to his gray haires that rest Nature requires at your hands I ought to hope at least for this recompence for my long and faithfull seruices since your Maiesty may bestow it without incommodating your affaires and besides I hauing neuer expected other reward of worthy actions then the onely contentment to haue performed them I shall hold my selfe sufficiently happy to receiue from my conscience the testimonies which whilst I liue it will affoord me that I haue beene really am and euer will to the end remayne SIR Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull subiect and seruant ESPERNON From Mets 7 of Ianuary 1619. Another Letter to the French King from the Duke of Espernon penned by the same Balzac LETTER XIX SIR HAuing long attended at Mets the occasions not to be vnusefully there and not finding any thing either in the conduct of my present life or in the memory of my fore-passed time which might iustly cast me into a worse condition then the rest of your subiects I haue presumed that the Lawes of this Kingdome and my Births prerogatiue might permit me to make vse of publique liberty and to partake of that peace you haue purchased to the rest of your subiects Neuerthelesse Sir your Maiesties will doth so regulate mine that I had not remooued had not the cause of my stay there ceased and the difficulties of the Bohemian Warre beene vtterly remoued But hauing had perfect intelligence by the relations the Duke of Loraine hath receiued from those parts that the affaires there begin to be well setled the ouerture thereof beginning with the suspension of Warre on both sides I could not imagine the good of your seruice did any way oblige me to remaine longer in a place out of all danger in time of peace and which will make good vse of the Empires weakenes if the War continue considering likewise that if there bee any part of your State lesse sound then the rest and where your Authority had need with more then ordinary care to be conserued it is questionlesse in the Prouince whither I am going which bordering vpon such neighbours as all honest men may iustly suspect and being a people composed of diuers parts haue at all times beene either troubled or threatned with changes yea at this present Sir the most common opinion is that the assembly now holden at Rochell is no way pleasing vnto you and that if you haue bin drawne to giue any asscent thereto it hath rather beene a conniuency to the necessity of time then conformable to your will Whereupon Sir if your Maiesty please to reflect vpon the miseries of your State whereout at least you haue drawne this aduantage that euen in the very spring of your age you haue attained great experience You shall plainely see that all the miseries which befell your Maiesty in your minority haue beene begun vpon the like occasions I therefore vsing my best indeuours if the intentions of those of Rachell bee good to hinder that the euents bee not euill therein I hope I shall no way disobey your Maiesties commands but doe rather explaine them according to the true sense allowing them the best interpretation since it is most profitable for your seruice Truely Sir no man is ignorant that as the conseruation of your authority is the principle Law of your State so likewise that the most expresse and important part of your commands is the good of your affaires This being vndoubtedly true what appearance is there it being in my power to preserue the affections of a diuided Prouince in due obedience to your Maiesty and to pacifie by my presence those affections easily drawne to reuolt if none did
which hath beene the dishonour of Charles the fift and which affoordeth France a reuenge for all the affronts he offered thereto He who defended it against him had no more then two armes as you haue and one single life nor was hee madé of any other matter then other men are It is true he fought by the Kings succours but it sufficeth you fight for his seruice and that all men know you are resolued not to suruiue your fortunes Were you borne to performe ordinary actions I should hold it fit to speake vnto you in another straine but since you purpose not to exercise any idle dignity in this world nor are at this present in case to make vse of the hands of a great Army or expect reputation in your bed speake as high as you please prouided you act accordingly and that out of your particular forces since those of the State faile you you make good vnto the King the last conquest of his Ancestors One only worthy man hath heretofore beene the whole Republicke of Rome and hath resisted the fury of a victorious Army So though there were no more true Frenchmen but my Lord your Father your selfe and my Lords your Brothers I could no way dispaire of Publique affaires nor of the fortune of this Kingdome My Lord I am so weary that I am forced to defer the continuation of this discourse till another time and to rest awhile to make a more ample relation I will content my selfe for the present to passe my promise vnto you of that History the subiect whereof I require at your hands and to assure you it is impossible to be more then I am Your most humble most obedient and most affectionate Seruant BALZAC The 9. of February 1619. To the Signiour of Plessis Gouernour of Tollemount from BALZAC LETTER II. SIR SInce it appeares you haue a will to lose euery hour what you can in truth spend but once and that you so slightly esteeme your life as though it were another mans me thinkes the Warre hath dealt very kindly with you in being contented to leaue you halfe a face and that you may well account what is left as gotten goods The Duke de Mayne and the rest were not quit at so easie a rate and it hath pleased God to shew examples in this kinde to make it appeare that he approoueth not vanity nor that he needeth the aduise of men for the defence of his owne and his Churches cause Truely if these men had practised with the enemy they could not haue beene more confident nor haue gone more naked to Warre had they fought against women And in truth I am so farre from praising their desperate courses as I doe not so much as pardon them their deathes and if my opinion had passed I should haue thought it fit to haue accused them as culpable of their owne deathes and as such who had committed the greatest Parricides It becomes mee ill in this place to prescribe rules to my Master for should I attempt to tech your courage how farre it should extend it selfe I might seeme to doe no lesse then prescribe lawes to what is illimitable Yet bee pleased I pray you to be informed that valour is so tender and delicate a vertue that if it be not sometimes well shielded and conserued by some others it becommeth more hurtfull to him who hath it then healthfull for the State often endamaged by it or to the Prince who maketh vse thereof And surely without the assistance of Reason which ought to be its Gouernnesse and Prudence as a guide vnto it there is not any passion more blinde nor which doth lesse differ from the fury of Beasts and the bruitish ferocity of Barbarians The latter of these thinke it cowardise to quit the place though the breach of a Riuer rowle vpon them or not to stand firme though they see a house falling on their heads But these wretches and wee haue not the same pretentions for as they propound to themselues onely to kill and to die so should we onely aime at victory and neglect the rest otherwise to what end is the knowledge of Vertue vnto vs and of the limits which boundeth it or to be borne vnder a more happy Climate then that of Polonia and Muscouia if we draw no aduantage either from the excellency of our institutions or extractions I doe not at all wonder why there are men who preferre death before indigence and who not finding any contentment in their owne Countries are well pleased to passe beyond the Ice of their naturall ayre as willing to forgoe the infelicity of their fortunes But a man of worth who at all houres inioyeth both perfect and pure contents and who hath a great share of this Ages vertue to lose is a Traytour to the Publick and a Tyrant to himselfe if he forsake all this for a meere fancy and depriue the world thereof onely for a flash of Fame and vaine Glory You know this better then I can tell it you and if you suppose the Philosophy you haue heretofore so highly esteemed be yet wise enough to instruct you shee will tell you that Life is the ground-worke of all other good that can here befall vs since by meanes therof one may recouer Kingdomes though vtterly lost and remaine Victor after hauing beene defeated in foure battailes There is no question but a dead Lyon is lesse worth then a liuing Dogge or that the most part of those Princes of whom there hath beene so much speech and those valiant Captaines with whose Heroicke acts so many Histories are stored would not willingly change their Laurels for our liues Reioyce therefore good Sir together with Nature in that you are as yet in the number of men and comfort your selfe with Haniball and the Father of Alexander the great for the losse you haue receiued whatsoeuer you can say you haue yet sight enough to cause you to turne loue-sicke and to contemplate the beauties of Heauen and Earth But suppose you were wholy blinde yet is it true that the Night hath its pleasures as well as the Day yea and such as you best loue Yours BALZAC The 18 of December 1622. Another Letter to Hidaspe from BALZAC LETTER III. MY deare Hidaspe thou canst not imagine the content I take in thy Letter and in the good newes it brings me it is the onely way to cause me to contradict my selfe when I account my estate miserable since I heare thou art in health and louest me Were I not confident thereof I should the next day drinke poyson or if not valiant enough to attempt so hardy an enterprise I should dye with sorrow Thou art then as necessary for my liuing as life it selfe so as if thou desirest my estate thou needest not for that any other meanes then to depriue me of thy good opinion But truely I neuer had the least apprehension of such a losse and I assure my selfe if J were dead thou shouldest be
thinkes we should haue more noble designes since his onely vertue deserueth to be followed and to cause a presse wheresoeuer it passeth In truth the seruice we yeeld to so great a person ought to hold the ranke of the chiefe recompences we are to expect vet after this there followeth another seldome fayling any of good parts yea or those who haue but patience If thou beest of the one or other sort of such men remember this maxime and doe not as those honest persons who thinke they doe good seruice to the State when they betray their Masters Beasts themselues are capeable of acknowledgement and that Italian had some small shew of Reason who called those Diuels who cured Agues good Angels Yet truely it is no lesse then to be ouer mannerly to goe so farre nor would I thanke Gods enemies for those gracious fauours I indeede receiue from him onely But as touching the rest of worldly affaires there is no question but wee are to reflect vpon the nearest occasions Fortune affoordeth vs and those who seeke after more remote meanes shall in conclusion finde from one degree to another that it is to Hugh Capete to whom they are obliged I was affraid lest I should have left my fingers vpon this paper and haue disenabled my selfe for euer writing more Letters after this had I any longer continued my discourse I tell thee no lye Hydaspe this is the third Winter wee haue had this yeare and the greatest irregularity I euer obserued in Nature For Gods loue inquire the cause of Father Ioseph and intreate him from me if your selfe be not acquainted with him that he would be pleased to imploy the credit he hath in Heauen to cause the returne of warmer weather BALZAC The 25. of Ianuary 1624. To the Seigneur de la Roche from Balzac LETTER V. SIR I Cannot conceiue your meaning when you speake of my friendship as of a fauour or predestination or in being so prodigall of your complements and commendations There was sufficient in the Letter you lately sent to bereaue me of speech and to make me flye to the Indies were I forced to frame you a punctuall answer But since you are vsually victorious be pleased I beseech you to permit your courtesie to worke the same effects as doth your courage and suffer me to yeeld vnto you in this occasion as I would doe in those of Rochell or Mountuban I onely intreate you henceforward to loue me with lesse ostentation and luster then you haue done hitherto and since it is not in my power to hinder you from hauing me in estimation let me at the least intreate you to carry the matter so as though you had committed some sinne that is without calling witnesse or confirming the fact otherwise doubtlesse the world will suppose your affection to be iniurious to your iudgement and I much feare lest I should be blamed for blinding you and for being more wicked then the late Warre which was contented onely to make diuers of our friends blinkards Truely that so compleate a person whose acquaintance you commend vnto me not finding me sutable to the pourtraite you shewed him may well say you are not onely satisfied in being singly seduced but seeke to raise Heresies out of your errours and a contagion out of your crazy constitution This being so I see not how I can better make good either mine owne reputation or your report then by voluntarily banishing my selfe from the place where you are and not by my presence to ouerthrow all the Honour you haue hither to acquired for me If therefore you will not appeare a deceiuer nor declare your selfe my aduersary leaue me I pray you to my retirednesse where I study onely to maintaine health and take no other paines then to procure my owne repose nor haue any conference but with my selfe Your most humble seruant BALZAC The 10. of Aprill 1623. To Mounsieur de Bois Robert from Balzac LETTER VI. SInce the dead neuer returne but they affright vs I was perswaded I should doe you no small pleasure nor a little oblige you in forbearing to appeare so much as on Paper before you suffering you purely to enioy your accustomed pleasures without the mixture of any thing that might be distastefull vnto you But since at this present you come to disturbe the quiet of Church-yards and to finde out a man in affecting whose memory you might well be satisfied I am forced to tell you that the party you so highly esteeme is wholy remaining beyond the Alpes and how this is onely his Ghost lately returned into France I breake all the Looking glasses I meete with I blunder the water of all Riuers I crosse I auoid the sight of all Paynters in any place where I come lest they shew me the patterne of my pale visage Yet if in the crazy case wherein I am J were any way capeable of consolation I beseech you to be assured I should take it as proceeding from the good successe of your affaires nor would I desire of my disease any long respite then what were requisite to reioyce with you But truely it is an enemy who knowes not how to admit of conditions of peace or truce and I am so happy as not to be suffered to quit my paines to resume them The meate I here eate for sustenance is to me as pleasing as poyson and I endure life out of pennance whereas you in the place where you liue spend the remainder of the Golden age refusing nothing to your sences you lawfully may allow them Though the Queenes Court be so chaste as it were easier to drinke drunk of a fountaine then to take any dishonest pleasures thene and that to gaine admittance it is requisite to be first purified at the Porters lodge yet are you allowed euen there to haue pleasing temptations and going elsewhere to seeke out more solide contentments But as for me in the case I am I make no difference at all betweene louely creatures and well limmed pictures and the misery I endure hauing bereaued me of action my wretched vertue is as much constrayned as the sobriety of the poore is necessary In all this I adde not one word to the bare truth and if the Counte of Pountgibaut had his pardon to let you know how it is with me he would tell you that I am more withered then the last yeares Roses and how all the Ingeniers in an Army were no more then sufficient to remoue me But my discourse will be more pleasing if I speake of that Head which deserueth to fill a Diadem then in continuing this wretched complaint When at the first I saw concurrent in him so much valour and so great beauty I neither tooke him for man nor Woman but after hauing recollected my selfe J supposed him to be the Amazonian Queene and doubtlesle in the worlds infancy it was to such faces onely whereto all people yeelded willing obedience none quitting their seruice euery mans
duty being conformable to his inclination so as the onely meanes then to be rebellious was to beblinde When this young Lord came to Rome at his returne from the battaile of Prague I can well witnesse the iealousie he at once afforded both to men and their wiues and of the great Prognostickes all such gaue of him who presumed to haue any experience in future occurrents either by the aspect of Starres or some more sublime vnderstanding besides to consider how at twenty yeares of age there is scarce any corner of the knowne world he hath not traced to encounter honourable actions nor any sort of combate wherein for the most part he hath not beene Conquerour that he hath borne Armes against Turkes and Jnfidels that he hath appeared both in battailes and sieges of Citties that he hath giuen life to some enemies and taken it from others This to speake truth is a thing God suffereth as rarely to be seene as deluges and other great effects of his power or iustice In a long processe of time the meerest Cowards may become Maisters were it by no other meanes but that by seeing all men dye before them they may inherit the whole world Diuers likewise haue performed great exploits who haue begun their actions either with grosse errours or meane aduentures But as there are very few Riuers nauigable euen from their first fountaines nor Countries where the Sun fendeth forth his full heate from the very day-spring so are such men doubtlesse very rare and singular who haue not any neede either of growth or yeares nor are subiect either to the order of times or rules of Nature But I haue no purpose to folde vp a booke in a Letter for though my griefe doe sometimes permit mee to spend some small time vpon pleasing subiects yet will it not allow me to make thereon any long stay I must therefore leaue off during my short good day lest I fall sicke againe in your presence and once more clogge you with my complaints insteade of thanking you for your kinde remembrance and assuring you of the great desire I haue to remaine so long as I liue Your most humble seruant BALZAC The 4. August 1615. A Letter from Balzac to Mounsieurde Bois Robert LETTER VII THough I receiue no newes from you and howbeit those from Paris are generally naught yet am I so confident of your excellent constitution as I cannot imagine it can be endamaged by that contagious ayre Surely if it be not in such sort infected that birds fall downe dead and that the Springs be not corrupted you haue small cause to feare and I haue heretofore seene you of so perfect a composition and so strong a substance that an ordinary infection I suppose is vnable to seaze vpon you And rather then I will haue any apprehension of your being carryed away with the current of those who dye of this great mortality I shall sooner beleeue that God reserueth you to make the worlds Epitaph and those last Songs appointed for the Catastrophe of all humane ioyes Yet ere it come to this point remember your promise I pray you and send me something to rid me of the Megreme I haue taken in reading the sotteries of these times I cannot counterfeit the matter but must confesse I taste Verses as I doe Mellons so as if these two sorts of Fruites haue not a relish neare approaching to perfection I know not how to commend them though on the Kings Table or in Homers workes Whatsoeuer you doe yet at the least permit nothing to your spirit which may wound your reputation and aboue all let me intreate you not to bee the man who may iustly be taxed of hauing violated the chastity of our Language or for instructing the French in forraigne vices vtterly vnknowne to their Predecessours Poetry which God hath sometimes made choice of for the vttering of Oracles and to vnfold his secrets to Mankinde ought at the least to be imployed in honest vses Nor is it a lesse offence to make vse thereof in vicious matters then to violate a Virgin This I speake vpon the subiect of our Friend whose end I feare will hardly be naturall if hee dye not the sooner of his fourth Poxe This is the second time hee hath issued out of Paris by a breach hauing escaped as furious a flame as that of Troy For my part I cannot conceiue what should be his designe For to warre against Heauen besides that he shall be but slackly accompanied in such an expedition nor hath a hundred hands as it is sayd of Gyants he ought to vnderstand it was an action they could neuer atchieue and how in Cicilia there are Mountaines yet smoaking with their Massacre We come not into this world to prescribe Lawes but to submit our selues to those we find and to content ourselues with the wisdome of our fore-fathers as with their Land and Sunne And truely since in matters indifferent nouelties are euer reprehensible and that our Kings quit not their Lillies to quarter Tulipans in their armes by how much greater right are we obliged to conserue the ancient and fundamentall points of Religion which are by so much the more pure in that by their antiquity they approach nearer to the Origine of things and for that betweene them and the beginning of all good there is the lesse time subiect to corruption To speake plainely there is small appearance that truth hath from the beginning of the world attended this man on purpose to discouer it selfe vnto him in a Brothell or Tauerne and to bee sent forth of a mouth which comes short in sobriety to that of a Suisse I intend not to intermeddle with the Courts of Parliament nor to preuent their Decrees by mine opinion And to thinke to make this man more culpable then he is were as much as to cast Inke on an Ethiopians face I owe so much to to the memory of our fore-past acquaintance as I rather pitty him as a diseased person then pursue him as an enemy I confesse he hath parts in him not absolutely ill nor doe I deny I haue much pleased my selfe with his freedome of speech so long as hee proposed onely men for his obiect and spared to speake of holy things But when I heard say he exceeded the bounds of inferiour matters and banded himselfe euen a gainst what is transcendent to Heauen I instantly quitted all acquaintance with him and thought the onely pleasure I could doe him was to pray to God to restore him to his right sences and to take pitty on him as he did of the Jewes who crucified our Sauiour Hereafter I will be better aduised then to weary you with so long a discourse or to tyre my selfe in troubling you But truely I thought I could doe no lesse after three yeares silence esteeming this not to be ouer much for a man who is so slow a pay-master for so many Letters hee oweth you Yet cannot I conclude before I
informe you of some particulars touching the place where I am at this present and of my imployments here First there is no day passeth wherein I see not the rising and setting of the Sunne and how during that time I withdraw my selfe from all other distractions to enioy the purity of that faire light Behold here in this present state wherein I am all the Courtship I vse and the onely subiection I oblige my selfe vnto When I desire to take the Ayre at other houres of the day I must indeede confesse my eyes haue no obiects so vast as the Sea or Appenines nor doe I behold Rome vnder my feete as formerly I haue done Yet doe I on all sides discouer so pleasing a prospect as though it fill not the capacity of my spirit so much as did the other yet doth it farre more content me Painters come forty dayes iourneyes hence to study in my chamber and if Nature cause her greatnesse to appeare euen from the bottome of the deepest Abysses and darkest downefals she hath no lesse placed her rarest perfections vnder my windowes Moreouer I am plunged in abundance vp to the eyes but my Riches are tacked to the twigs and branches of Trees for as Summer hath made mee plentifull so will Winter reduce me to my former puuerty In the meane time I make Feasts of Figges and Mellons yea out of the very Museadine Grapes I eate there issueth liquor enough to make halfe a Kingdome drunke and the thing whereat happily you will wonder is that I put all this into a sicke mans stomacke to whom well-nigh all good things are forbidden yet haue I found a meanes to reconcile my surfets with my phisicall receits and in one and the same day I both enioy pleasure and endure paine for I nourish my Feauer with excellent fruites and purge it with Rubarbe but howsoeuer I cannot hazard my health in more innocent debauches since I performe them without troubling the tranquility either of Earth or Ayre or without bereauing any thing of life The first men the world produced attained to extreame age with such pure cates as mine are for as of all bloudy meates they onely vsed Cherries and Mulberries so was the simplicity of their liues accompanied with a perfect reposednesse Nature as yet being voide of all Monsters There was as then no mention either of Geryon or Minotaure nor of φφφφ The Inquisition and Parliament were onely in the Jdea of things and of the two parts of Iustice there was that onely knowne which gaue merits their due rewards BALZAC From BALZAC 1623. Another Letter from Balzac to Mounsieur de Bois Robert LETTER VIII YOur Letter of the fifteenth of the last Moneth came to my hands as I was ready to seale these Presents You might haue iust cause to taxe me should I let them goe vnanswered or if this dead man appearing in your presence did not giue you thankes for the many excellent words you haue vsed in the adorning his Funerall Oration I should be but too proud if others were of your opinion or were infected with the like errour you are but I much feare you will not for the present herein finde a party equall to that of the League and doe much doubt if all of a contrary conceite should be declared Criminals there would hardly be any acquitted in this Kingdome Howsoeuer I hold my selfe much obliged vnto you in conferring so liberally that vpon me you so well know I want and for bestowing all your colours and mercuriall mixtures to make mee seeme beautifull I will bee well aduised how I fall out with him who flatters me and in the loue I beare my selfe I shall at all times suffer a riuall with much satisfaction Since a certayne Gentleman in Germany pleaseth himselfe in being stiled King of Ierusalem and since those who haue no reall patrimonies tickle themselues with meere Titles and Armes by the like reason may J imagine my selfe to be the man you will needes haue me and receiue from your courtesie the qualities my Natiuity hath not affoorded me But to disblame both of vs I beseech you hereafter to haue more care of my modesty and not to put me in danger either to lose it or not to beleeue you It is no lesse then to wrong the Angels to call other spirits then theirs diuine yea all the Celestiall Court is sensible of suffering that name to fall to ground For my part I am so farre from freeing my selfe of humane defects as I doe absolutely auow there is not any more imperfect then J am no not so much as blinkards and maymed persons I espye faults enough on which side soeuer I see my selfe and my wit is so disfurnished of forraine perfections as I hold no man for learned if he be not adorned with those abilities whereof I am ignorant yea euen in that whereof you suppose me to haue a perfect vnderstanding I haue in truth no more then meere doubts and coniectures so as if there were a man of perfect Eloquence to befound at the worlds end I would goe in pilgrimage on purpose to see one contrary to N N. To speake truely there is great difference betweene filling the care with some pleasing sound and expressing the fancies of Artizans and Clownes according to Grammaticall Rules and in reigning ouer the spirits of men by force of Reason and to share the gouernment of the World with Conquerours and lawfull Kings I haue not the presumption to suppose I am arriued at this point but I likewise thinke few haue attayned thereto and the Philosophers Stone were with more ease to be extracted then the Eloquence I propose to my selfe It is as yet a kind of Terraincognita and which hath not beene discouered together with the Indies The Romans themselues could onely recouer the bare image as they did of those Territories ouer which they triumphed by a false title Yea Greece her selfe how vainely soeuer shee boasted thereof yet seazed shee onely vpon the shadow not seeing the substance So as vpon the matter diuers haue possessed others with that conceite being first deceiued themselues and are obliged to the restitution of an ill acquired reputation Many of our friends haue fallen into the like errours I will not name them fearing to astonish at the first sight all such to whom you shall shew this Letter or lest I should publish odious truthes It shall suffice I tell you by the way that if to attaine perfect Eloquence it sufficed onely to weary our hands with Writing none could therein any way compare with our Practitioners and Pen-clarkes Yet is there not any reason why those who performe poore things should draw their weakenesse to their owne aduantage or imagine I flatter them A man is as well damned for one single deadly sin as for a thousand without repentance nor is it the strength of their iudgement which hinders them from committing many faults but the onely barrennesse of their wits which
from a man who could neuer be procured to approue euill and of whose disfauour one can hardly finde other cause then the onely truth he hath declared Howsoeuer it be since you are now in Lymosin and take not any iourney in those parts without hauing a thousand old debates to reconcile and as many new ones to preuent it is very probable that after so painefull an imployment and so great disquiet of mind my booke will fall into your hands iust at such time as you cannot find any thing more tedious vnto you then what you come from treating of For should I presume that in your pleasant walkes of Duretal where all your minutes are pleasing and all your houres precious there could be any time spare for me and my works it were as much as to be ignorant of the diuersions there attending you or not to be acquainted with the great affluence of noble company dayly repairing thither to visite you But were it so that you had none with you saue onely the memory of your fore-passed actions your solitarinesse hath no neede of bookes to make it more pleasing nay if all this were not yet if you desire to seeke contentment out of your selfe you cannot finde any more pleasing then in the presence of your Children and particularly of that diuine Daughter of yours from whom I dayly learne some miracle It is therefore in her absence and in solitary walkes where I haue the ambition to finde entertainement and to receiue gracious acceptance In all other places without presuming either to passe for Oratour or Poet it shall highly suffice me in being honoured with the assurance that I am My Lord Your most humble Seruant BALZAC The 25 of May 1624. A Letter from the Count of Schomberg to Mounsieur de Balzac LETTER XXV SIR THe stile you trauaile in causeth the Pennes of all such who attempt an answere to fall out of their hands and Eloquence may so properly be called yours that it is no maruell though others haue but a small share therein I would therefore haue you know that if I vnderstand any thing in Letters yours doe obscure whatsoeuer hath hitherto bin esteemed of in our Language and that without flattering you there can be no diuersion so pleasing which ought not to giue place to the perusing of those Lines you sent mee This occupation is worthy the Cabinets of Kings and of the richest Eare curtins of France and not as you would haue it of my solitary retirements in Lymosin from whence I am ready to be gone with resolution neuer to retire from the affection I haue promised you whence you shall at all times draw effectuall proofes whensoeuer you please to imploy them for your seruice Sir Your most affectionate seruant SCHOMBERG The 1. of Iune 1624. THE LETTERS OF MOVNSIEVR DE BALZAC To my Lord Mashall of Schomberg THE FOVRTH BOOKE LETTER I. My LORD I Should be insensible of Publique good and an enemy to France had I not as I ought a true taste of the good newes your Foot-man brought me I will not mention the obligations I owe you being no small ones if that be not a slight matter to be esteemed by you But since I make profession to honour vertue euen in the person of one departed or an enemy and at all times to side with the right were there onely my selfe and Iustice for it you may please to beleeue I complaine in your behalfe for the miseries of our times and that I am most ioyfull to see you at this present where all the world mist you Certainely your retirement from Court hath beene one of the fairest peeces of your life during which you haue made it apparent you are the same in both fortunes since I can witnesse that no one word then passed from you vnsutable to your resolution Yet this rare vertue being there hidden in one of the remote corners of the world hauing but a very small circuite to dilate it selfe must necessarily be contented with the satisfaction of your conscience and slender testimonies In the meane time the authority of your enemies hath beene obnoxious to all honest eyes There was no meanes to conceale from strangers the States infirmities or what reason to affoord them for the disgrace of so irreproachable a Minister nor was there any who grieued not that by your absence the King lost so many houres seruices For my part my Lord reflecting vpon you in that estate it seemed to me I saw Phidias or some other of those ancient Artists their hands bound and their costly materials as Marble Gold or luory taken from them But now that better time succeede each thing being againe reduced to its place it is time to reioyce with all good French-men that you shall no more want matter and that the King hath at length found how vnusefull your absence hath beene to his affaires Truely be it that he content himselfeto gouerne his people wisely or that the afflictions of his poore neighbours set neare his heart and that his Iustice extend further then his Iurisdiction No man doubts whatsoeuer he doth but you shall be one of the principall instruments of his designes and that as well Peace as Warre haue equall vse of your Conduct All men haue wel perceiued you haue not contributed any thing to the administration of the Kings treasure saue onely your pure spirit to wit that part of the soule separated from the terrestriall part being free from passions which reasoneth without either louing or desiring and that you haue managed the Riches of the State with as great fidelity as one ought to gouerne another mans goods with as much care as you conserue your owne and with as great scruple as wee ought to touch sacred things But in truth it is no great glory for that man to haue beene faithfull to his Master who knowes not how to deceiue any And did I beleeue you were onely able to abstaine from ill I would barely commend in you the Commencements of Vertue I therefore passe further and am assured that neither the feare of death which you haue slighted in all shapes and vnder the most dreadfull aspects it could possibly appeare nor complacency which often ouer passeth the best Counsels to transport it selfe to the most pleasing ones nor any priuate interest which makes vs rather regard our selues then the Publique shall at all hinder you either from purposing vndertaking or executing eminent matters Posterity which will peraduenture iudge of our age vpon the report I shall make will see more elsewhere then I can here relate and I shall rest sufficiently satisfied if you please to doe mee the honour as to remember that mine affection is no Child of your prosperity and how in two contrary seasons I haue beene equally My Lord Your most humble and most faithfull seruant BALZAC To the Bishop of Angoulesme LETTER II. SIR I Will no longer complaine of my pouerty since you haue sent me
treasures of Roses Ambergreece and Suger it being of such pleasing commodities I pretend to bee rich leauing necessary wealth to the Vulgar Two Elements haue ioyntly contributed the best they haue to furnish matter for your Liberality and smally valuing either Cold or Pearles as I doe I could wish for nothing either from Sea or Land I finde not among your presents You haue bestowed with a full hand what is offered vpon Altars but sparingly which men reckon by graines and whereof none the King of Tunnis excepted is so prodigall as your selfe In a Word this profusion of forraine odours you haue cast into your Comfitures obligeth me to speake as I doe and to tell you if you feed all your flockeat this rate there will not be any one in all your Diocesse who will not cost you more by the day then the Elephant doth his Master I see therefore Sir I am the dearest Childe you haue vnder your Conduct nor should J receiue so delicate and precious nourishment from you did not your affection force you to beleeue my life to be more worth then ordinary and consequently that it deserueth morecarefully to be preserued then any other But to returne you Complements for such excellent things were as much as to vnder-value their worth should J striue to acquit my selfe that way our Language is too poore and vnable to lend mee wherewith to pay you And since in Homers iudgement the words of the most Eloquent among the Grecians were esteemed little better then Honey the foode of Shepheards there is small probability mine should be comparable to Amber-greece and Suger the delicacies of Princes I therefore feare J shall beforced to be all my life time indebted vnto you for the fauours I haue receiued from you and that it must bee onely in my heart where I can bee as liberall as your selfe But I well know you are so generous as to content your selfe with this secret acknowledgement and that in me you affect my naked good-meaning which must supply the place of those other more fine and subtile vertues I cannot learne at Court Truely as I expect no commendations being the second perfumes you present mee in that I hold myselfe vnworthy thereof so doe I suppose you cannot refuse mee your affection since it is a kind of deseruing it to be passionately as I am Sir Your most humble and most faithfull seruant BALZAC The 25. of December 1626. To Father Garrasso LETTER III. Father YOu haue found the place whereat I confesse I am the most easily surprised and to oblige mee to yeelde your Courtesie hath left nothing for your courage to performe since therefore you imploy all your Muses to require my Friendship and haue already payed of your owne I can no longer keepe it to myselfe but as another mans goods But if this were not so my resentments are not of such value with mee as not often to bestow them vpon more slender considerations then those were which produced them nor doe my passions so transport me but that I will at all times remaine in the power of Religion and Philosophy Hitherto I can defend a iust cause but in farther resisting what you desire I should force right it selfe to be in the wrong were it on my side And out of bare enmity which in some Common-wealthes hath beene tollerated I should euen passe to Tyranny a thing odious to all men Since our liues are momentary it is no reason our passions should be immortall or that men should glut themselues with reuenge whereof God hath as well forbidden the vse as the excesse It is a thing he hath soly reserued to himselfe and since none but hee truely knoweth how to vse this part of Iustice he would no more put it into the hands of men then hee doth Thunder and Tempests Let vs therefore stop in our first motions for it is already too much to haue begun Let vs not tearme the hardnesse of our hearts Courage and if you haue preuented me in the ouerture of the peace wee treate of repent not your selfe since you haue thereby bereaued me of all the honour there had beene in acquiring it Heretofore Magnanimity and Humility might haue beene esteemed two contrary things but since the maximes of Morality haue bin changed by the principles of Diuinity and that Pagan vices are become Christian vertues there are euen weake actions a man of courage ought to practise nor is true glory any longer due to those who haue triūphed ouer innocents but to those Martyrs they haue made and to such persons whom they haue oppressed But to passe from generall considerations to what is particular betweene you and me it is no way likely a religious man would disturbe the tranquility of his thoughts or quit his conuersation with God and Angels to intermeddle with wicked Mortals and to make himselfe a party in our disorders I should likewise haue lesse reason to seeke for an enemy out of the World wherein there are so many aduersaries to dislike and so many Rebels to subdue Now Father whatsoeuer opinion you haue had and notwithstanding any thing I haue said in the beginning of this Letter I neuer intended to commence any reall Warre against you I haue not at all felt the emotion I shewed all my choller being but artificiall when at any time certaine of my speeches seemed disaduantagious vnto you so as I freely consent that what was written to Hydaspe shall passe as a flash of my braine and not as any testimony of my beleefe onely to let men know I had a desire to shew how able J was to contest with truth if I had no minde to side with it This science hauing beene sufficiently daring to vndertake to perswade that a Quartan Ague was better then Health Rhetoricke I say which hath inuented praises for Busiris made Apologies for Nero and obliged all the people of Rome to doubt whether Iustice were a good or bad thing may yet in these dayes exercise it selfe vpon subiects wholy separated from common opinions and by gracefull fictions rather excite admiration in mens spirits then exact any credence It rayseth Fantomes with purpose to deface them It hath paintings and disguisements to alter the purity of all worldly things It changeth sides without leuity it accuseth innocency without calumny And to say truth Painters and Stage players are no way culpable of those murthers wee see represented in Pictures or presented vpon Theaters since therein the most cruel is the most iust None can iustly accuse those of falsity who make certaine glasses which shew one thing for another Errour in some cases being more gracefull then truth In a word the life euen of the greatest Sages is not altogether serious all their sayings are not Sermons nor is all they write eyther 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
that I neuer had one single temptation against my duty and that my fidelity is spottlesse as if you so pleased it might be without suspicion I must confesse that you hauing declared your selfe no way desirous to trench vpon my liberty and that you left it wholy to my selfe I haue sometimes made vse thereof imagining that without wronging that first resolution I vowed to your seruice it might be lawfull for me to haue second affections I will not expect the racke to force me to confesse it I haue loued a man whom the misfortunes of Court and the diuers accidents happening in worldly affaires haue separated from some friends of yours and haue cast him into other interests then theirs But besides that he was extracted from a Father who did not more desire his owne good then your contentment and since I am most assured how amidst all the fore-passed broiles he at all times conserued his inclinations for you I must needs tell you I was in such sort obliged vnto him as had he declared Warre against my King and against my Country J could not haue chosen any side which had not bin vniust J therefore at this day bewaile him with warme teares and if euer I take comfort in the losse I haue sustained I shall esteeme my selfe the most vnworthy and in gratefull person liuing Your selfe my Lord knowing as you do how much I owe vnto his amity would sooner adiudge me to die with him then blame my resentments I assure my selfe all my actions are disguised vnto you on purpose to cause you to dislike them Howsoeuer I will not dispaire but the time to come wil right me for what is past You will on day see the wrong you ofter to my innocency in admitting false witnesses in prciudicethereof and what you now tearme my fault you will then be pleased to say it was my vnhappy fate or my hard fortune in the interim I am resolued to continue in well doing and though there were no other but my conscience to acknowledge my fidelity yet inuiolably to remaine Your most humble and most faithfull seruant BALZAC The 30. of December 1626. To the Lord Bishop of Nantes LETTER VI. SIR AS the bearer hereof can testifie the obligations I owe you so may he beare witnesse of my perpetuall resentments and will tell you that were I borne your sonne or subiect you could haue but the same power ouer mee you now possesse nay I am perswaded I yet owe somewhat more to your vertue then to the right of Nations or Nature If power hath made Princes and chance Parents reason well deserues a further kinde of Obedience It was that which ouercome me vpon the first conference I had with you causing me to prostrate all my presumption at your feete after hauing rightly represented to my thoughts how impossible it is to esteeme my selfe and know you I am sure this Language is no way pleasing to you and that you will looke awry at my Letter but doe what you please I am more a friend to truth then to your humour and my spirits are so replenished with what I haue seene and heard as I can no longer conceale my thoughts I must tell you Sir you are the greatest Tyrant this day liuing your authority becomes awfull to all soules and when you speake there is no further meanes to retaine priuate opinions if they be not conformable to yours I speake this seriously and with my best sence you haue often reduced me to such extreamities that comming from you without knowing what to answer you I haue beene ready to exclaime and say in the rapture wherein I was Restore me my opinion which you haue violently forced from me and take not from mee the liberty of Conscience the King hath giuen mee But truely it is no small pleasure to be constrained to be happy and to fall into his hands who vseth no violence but to their auaile who suffer For my part I haue at all times departed your presence fully perswaded in what I ought to beleeue I neuer gaue you a visite which cured me not of some passion I neuer came into your Chamber so honest a man as I went foorch How often with one short speech haue you eleuated me aboue my selfe and bereaued me of whatsoeuer was fleshly and prophane in me How often hearing you discourse of the World to come and of true felicity haue I longed after it and would willingly haue purchased it at the price of my life How often could I haue followed you would you haue conducted me to a higher pitch of perfection then all ancient Philosophers euer attained So it is that you onely haue bestowed the loue of inuisible things vpon me causing me to distaste my first and most violent affections I should still haue beene buried in flesh had not you drawne me forth nor had my spirit beene other then a part of my body had not you taken the paines to vnloose it from sensuall obiects and to seuer the eternall from the perishable part You caused mee at the first encounter to become suspicious to the wicked and to fauour the better side before I was of it you haue made those remedies pleasing which all others affrighted me with and in the midst of vice you haue constrained me to confesse Vertue to be the most beautifull thing on Earth Thinke not therefore that either the pompe of the Roman Court or the glitter of that of France can dazell those eyes of my soule where to you haue shewed so many excellent things It is the beames and lightning of those eminent Vertues you haue discouered vnto me which cast so forceable reflections vpon the eyes of my soule and which cause mee though I formerly resolued to slight all things yet at least now to admire something But yet Sir assure your selfe it is not the world I admire for I rather reflect vpon it as on that which hath deceiued me these eight and twenty yeares I haue bin in it and wherein I fearce euer saw any thing but how to doe euill and counterfeit to be good In all places on Earth whether my curiosity hath transported me beyond Seas or on the other side the Alpes in free States or in Kingdomes of Conquest I haue obserued among men onely a fare of flatteries fooles and Cheaters of Oldmen corrupted by their Ancestors and who corrupt their Children Of slaues who cannot liue out of Seruitude of pouerty among vertuous persons and Ambitious Couetousnesse in the soules of great persons But now that you haue broken the barres through which I could onely receiue some light impression of truth I distinctly see this generall corruption and doe humbly acknowledge the iniury I offered to my Creator when I made Gods of his Creatures and what glory I fought to bereaue him of c. BALZAC The 12. of Ianuary 1626. To Mounsieur de la Marque LETTER VII I Know not what right vse to make of your praises if