is to my infinite contentment of this number and I have read it above a dozen times without tediousnesse You might have been an admirable author of politick discourses and 't is a great losse that your subject has so much of fiction Our entire History would not have cost you more pains than this small parcell of it which you endeavour to adorn with falsities And you might have instructed posterity instead of being uncertain whether you shall happily have time to divert them I will hope for satisfaction to my desires both the one and the other from your Pen. And I require of you at least some conspiracy of Cataline some Jugurthine war or any other considerable member if it be impossible to obtain the whole body The Packet foâ— Rome is not yet dispatcht Perhaps a fecond Abbot de Rets will appear to do us the like favour I beseech you to attend it with patience and not to believe in the mean time that my affection makes me sick You understand my intention in this I am SIR Your c. Balzac 16 March 1638. LET. VIII SIR THe Doctor that acted Hercules furens in your presence and the pipe you advis'd him to moderate his violence with in the dispute are very fine devices and which I have a desire to rob you of for one of the Chapters of my Burbon But is it possible that the dear **** should become an impeacher of crimes and a preyer upon confiscations and that he will live by the death of others Certainly after this Honey must lose its sweetnesse for the taste of Gall Sheep must turn Woolvs and the whole frame of Nature be everted His onely justification will be to alledge that Quid non mortalia pectâ—ra cogis Dira fames durisque urgens in rebus egestas I cannot approve those foul and unhandsom courses to sustain life this is not to want Philosophy as you say 't is to have no humanity But there is no redresse for habituall and confirmed maladies Such wretches have made a solemn vow to basenesse at the Court and are not any longer capable of vertue honour or liberty Therefore I entreat you let the dear *** know that I have no appetite to serve him in this affair and that I receiv'd the proposition with honour which Monsieur the Commissary made me in his behalfe It were better to betake himself to eat Cheese and Chesnuts in the Mountains of Avergne then to enterprise such practises to subsist at Court I am SIR Your c. Balzac 29 May 1637. LETTER IX SIR THe Letter of Seigneur Jean Jacques has afforded me extraordinary pleasure and I am oblig'd to your goodness for furnishing me with such agreeable divertisâ—ments His manner of begging often brings to memory that of Paulus Jovius who yet us'd to demand with more confidence and carelesness then he I have read certain Letters of his of that nature indeed admirable in their kind In some of them he protests that if the Cardinal of Lorrain do not cause his pension to be paâ—d him he will affirm that he is not of the race of Godfry who bestow'd the Arch bishop-wrick of Tyre upon a Schoolmaster In others he desires two Horses of the Marquiss of Pescara and for that effect prayes him to strike the earth with a little more force then Neptune did In another to a Lady his friend he beseeches her to send him some Preserves of Naples for that he began to be clâ—y'd with his dayly food of new laid Egges c. Although our friend have not the gift of begging with so much variety yet it must be granted he will receive a sufficient Dole if he to whom he writes procure him a Canonship of Verdun But I beseech you make me understand the reason of Most Illustrious which he gives him Is it because he has a suit to him and the Italian Policy has taught him in such cases trattalo di mester Domine Dio c. The Poet Martial who was at least as poor as the Oratour Jean-Jacques terms a Roman Lady his Queen because she gave him good New-years gifts once a year and almost every day a Dinner I am SIR Your c. Balzac 10 April 1638. LETTER X. SIR I was surpris'd at the discourse of the French Gentlemen and I assure you I could not own it till I had with much study recall'd the memory of things long since past If I had comitted sacriledge or a greater crime if such can be I should not conceal it from you and therefore am not at all scrupulous to confesse that which is more pardonable and of less consequence It is true I am the Author of that discourse which does not enough fear the Thunders of Rome and treats the holy Inquisition with too little respect But it is likewâ—se true that I compos'd it in Holland without design of coming to the eyes of the publique by printing and in an age that might be excus'd for greater failings Therefore having pass'd the space of five and twenty years it may well claim prescription against all sorts of accusers Since that time the whole face of Christendom has been often changed and all the Earth renew'd The world then was not the world it is at this day And in truth the great Heinsius cannot hope for much glory in fleshing himselfe so unmercifully upon Balzac in his Infancy and triumphing with his gray hairs over a youth of seventeen years old and who as then had no beard His cruelty has beene decry'd by both parties and though that continuation of Antitheses I lately observ'd in the discourse of the French Gentlemen may be tolerable in the composition of such a schollar as I was at that time and the babies I then play'd withall ought not to disparage the Arms I have since manag'd yet I will not put my selfe to that trouble as to defend the cause of my Child-hood I committed a folly when I was young and the good man Hâ—insius has told the world five and twenty years after that I did it Let that judge which of us two is more culpable I endeavour'd to extinguish and suppress the fault and he would renew it and make it perpetuall if possible O violator of the sepulchre of an Infant half born or at least unperfect for the birth O unworthy that disâ—nters the dead I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15. Octob. 1638. LETTER XI SIR LEt us never mention the 't is the shame and ignominy of the French name 'T is a day the Romans would have termed Scelerata we must call it cursed It is fit Posterity detest it or rather never hear of it and that we raze it if it be possible from amongst the rest of the year one thousand By Jove's command out of old Time's Record Let the three Sisters raze it nor afford Its name a place amongst things past and done There are some people onely instruments of ill luck in whose hands the most advantageous
after so handsome a manner you give me courage to request it of you more vigourously though my whole library should reproach me for it I will not stick to say that my Niece became obliged to you for the conservation of her just right I shall also be obliged to you for that which was only wanting to the tranquillity of my life Though Philosophy promised me it yet she alone is not able to present me with it nor appease my disquiets but by stripping me of my dearest affections that would be too high an act of cruelty Lay hold therefore on this advantage which you have over her that I may owe you my repose for protecting the affections she had deserted and that my contentment proceed from your courtesie and not from the strength of my imagination I hope all good successe by all the faire prefages you have given my friend and if the destiny of a cause may be read in the eyes of a judge he doth not any whit doubt the event of this he counsells me Therefore to end as he prescribed me to begin and since I am already in your chaines since I am already fastned to you by this obligation I will for the future onely continue to style my selfe SIR Your c. Jan. 6. 1641. LETTER XXV To the same SIR YOur facility hath attracted a persecution on you and you will be importuned afresh since you have laid a baite for an importunate man It is dangerous to give such persons admission and not dispute their first approaches There is another sort of people Sir who take civilities for Deeds sealed before a notary and pretend they should be warranted even to the utmost of their wishes I am not altogether one of those unjust pretenders who exact favours as peremptorily as Creditours do their Debts My sollicitations too are somewhat lesse violent then those resolute suppliants who part with their modesty to gaine their boon But in truth not being able to doubt either of the solidity of what you say or extent of what you are able to do I cannot deny but I build upon the aide that you have promised us and expect from your protection all the good fortune of our cause Heretofore the Gods and Cato were of a contrary opinion in the most important difference that ever was I hope in this that is not of so much concernment they will agree together for my sake I meane Sir A Cato more mild and gentle then that Cato who rayled at fortune can wind her about to our side in this occasion and bring good luck to the businesse he undertakes Pardon me the liberty of this last word for it is your easinesse and goodnesse that suggested it to me and I take heart besides that from the violent passion wherewith I am and ever will be SIR Your c. Dec. 15. 1641. LETTER XXVI To Monsieur the Mayor of Angoulesme SIR I Promise my selfe you will condiscend to the request this bearer will make to you from me it concernes the publâ—que as well as my particular interest and I know you are so exact in the functions of your Charge that to discover an enormity to you is almost to redresse it At the entrance into the Suburb Loumeau there is a way not to be complained of in ordinary expressions it is more intricate and perplexing then a Labyrinth it would teach a man to sweare that can say nothing but Verily it would change all the meeknesse of a father of the Oratory into choler It does not fortifie Angoulesme though it makes people dread to approach it on that side I had like the other day to have been cast away there and wrackt in the mire If it had been in the maine Ocean in a scurvy shallop and by the impetuousnesse of a tempest it had been but an ordinary adventure but upon the continent in a Coach and the serenity of the fairest weather nay and in your Mayoralty it is a mischiefe cannot be comprehended there is no comfort for it Three words of an Order which I entreat you for will reduce things to a better passe and oblige all the Country round Joyne then the benedictions of them without the City to those which you receive within it and suffer not the face of your Corporation in the embellishing whereof you are industrious in other places to be disfigured by so foul a spot in this But after you have considered the Publique would not you valew me at something and bestow a favour on a person who is known not to be ungratefull for the courtesies he receives There are some in the world will tell you more and assure you you have an opportunity to extend your reputation beyond the limits of your own Province and make the year of your Mayoralty last long I shall know at the returne of this Bearer whether those men speak truth or not and whether you so highly esteem the thanks I shall pay you after the request I have made to you whereunto I have nothing further to adde but the assurance I give to be sincerely SIR Your c. Ju. 4. 1638. LETTER XXVII To Monsieur de Villemontée of the Kings Councell and Controller of the Revenue in Poitou Saintonge Aunix c. SIR I Will not relate to you the adventures of that person who spoke to you whose conditions are as deformed as his body I will onely tell you that I do not conceive his testimony fitter to be received then mine and though I give it in an affaire that concernes my selfe you have so good an opinion of my honesty and discretion as to think I would not recommend to you any unjust interest or make you any uncivill request I beseech you Sir then be pleased to consider that this place which hath so great a reputation yeelds but a very small revenew Vlysses's Ithaca was very renowned and yet it was but a nest hung upon a rock mine as you may imagine is somewhat lesse It is peradventure a handsome desert but not a rich Parish The wayes in it are very faire but the fields very barren and so consequently this Country more agreeable for the secesse and meditation of a Philosopheâ— then fit to fill the stores of a House-keeper Hitherto the Souldiery have only lookt on us not medled with us now I beg you for a protection from unarmed enemies With their wandes and bits of paper they make themselves more formidable then the Câ—oates Their way of writing hath no affinity to mine and the language they speak is unknown to me But on the other side they understand neither Humanity nor Reason neither Schooles nor the Morality taught in them If you please Sir let them learne what distributive justice is from you since they have not been at leisure to learne it from Aristotle for I am confident you will reforme all things according to reason Besides proportioning the burden according to the feeblenesse of him who is to beare it it
III. To Monsieur Du Pui Counsellour and Library-Keeper to his Majesty SIR THe infinite value which I set upon your love ha's made me receive the tokens of it with a sort of extasie and triumph and although as to the essentiall part of friendship your generosity do's sufficiently assure my possession yet it is great contentment to me that I have that in my Cabinet which unquestionably confirmes my Title I received together with those dear pledges the advantageous testimony you were pleas'd to bestow upon my Book which I intend shall serve me as a buckler against all the insolences of Censure and the injustice of those perverse judges you speak of I do not covet the suffrages of all the world even the Heroes have come short of universall approbation The most just and cleare fame ha's been brought into question and disputed I have seen a Gallant in Euripides Tragedies accuse Hercules for a pitifull and cowardly Lubber the morall whereof is this that there is alwayes some body in the world that are of contrary opinions to the whole race of mankind and whose â—xtravagant singularity is not scrupulous to put the lye upon the affirmation of all men upon earth Pro and Con are of equall antiquity in the world with Meum and Tuum and Reason is not of longer duration then opposition and disputes Sound opinions have never been at peace or free from the Alarmes of Malice and Ignorance and even at this day how many Schisms Sects and Heresies make open warre upon poore truth That part of it which ha's the holinesse of Religion and her Mysteries for its object is of much greater importance then that which is only interested in the contrivance of a Comedy and the purity of language and yet there were counted a hundred Atheists and Sectaries for one of a right perswasion Every thing under Heaven is contradicted yea even what God himselfe hath spoken We must look for unity of Tenets somewhere else here we can find nothing but Diversity and Medly for as long as there are heads and passions there will be contentions and suits I esteem my self Victor in all those that concern me since you do me the honour to uphold the justnesse of my cause and since it is at the house of Monsieur de Thou and not at that of Monsieur de where the true and lawfull Senate is held whose right it is to judge our Book-affaires Let the worst come I do not so take things to heart as perhaps you imagine since I write lesse to please others then to divert my selfe and have need to be rowsed up that way from my repose lest it turne into a Lethargy it suffices me that your goodnesse dispences with my Papers as a Course prescribed by my Physitian and that you do me the favour to believe It is not necessary to be perfectly eloquent to be perfectly what I am SIR Your c. Octob. 20. 1644. LETTER IV. To Monsieur d'Argenson Controller of the Revenue in Poictou c. SIR I Begin to conceive my solitude lesse obscure since I received the Title of Illustrious from the hand of one of his Majesty's Officers and to esteem my selfe a more considerable person in that you have daign'd from amids your high employments to cast an obliging aspect upon the valleys of my Hermitage To represent to you my manner of living is an enterprize on which I dare not presume neither would the Relation be fit the Curiosity of him that understands the affaires of all Courts and States Yet I must not dispute my obedience and will tell you in a word either what I do or what I do not My life Sir is a profound and drowzy pensivenesse which yet is sometimes interrupted by not unpleasing visions Hunting is the delight of my neighbours but I affect it not nor have I skill in matters of Husbandry the divertisement of our Monsieur d'Andilly Our woods do not afford me a Nymph to entertaine the tedousnesse of the time with as the good man Numa had and our honest friend Des Yveteaux I am no gamester at Hoc Primero or Tick-tâ—ck So that I am forc't to busie my selfe sometimes upon my books to discusse the torpor and languishing of idlenesse But 't is fit you know that my meditations are not seldome brought to a perfect birth I imploy paper and a Scribe and am continually sending somewhat to my good Lords and friends wherewith either to justifie my lazinesse or request pardon for it Since you intend to be at Poictiers the Fifteenth of this month I have design'd a present of this nature to meet you there And were not my Coach crippled by the losse of two of my horses I should my selfe be the bearer of my offering and assure you in person that I am with as much ardour as ever SIR Your c. Aug. 1. 1645. LETTER V. To Monsieur the Abbot de Talan SIR HAd not Monsieur de given me assurance of your facility to pardon I should not have presum'd to appeare before you after a negligence of so many ages You may please to judge the proportion of my remorse by the large periods wherewith I compute the duration of my fault I should have sinn'd above forgivenesse according to the punctuall regularity of Complement on the other side the Mountains and the Courtship of Italy But I perswade my selfe you will allow somewhat to the French liberty You have heard there was once in Italy an honest man that made a Hymne to the Goddesse Sloath and took it on him as a piece of honour to be her Priest My ambition is not depraved yet to such extravagancie and I shall not be competitor with him for his function The cloudy fumes of my melancholly have not yet so overcast my reason as to make me in love with nothing but night and sleep And though I am much affected with this Recesse of mine as prohibiting admission to all Letters and Newes yet I cannot but confesse that it is destructive to all civill society and commerce and of neere resemblance to that wild condition of mankind before their union into Government I acknowledge my duty although I wholly faile in the performance of it It is true I am sometimes enchanted for whole yeares together and do no more correspond with my dearest friends and next neighbours then with our Enemies of Spaine or the People that are separated from us by the maine Ocean But it is also a truth that in my profoundest drowsinesse I delight to be awakened with the remembrance of such persons as I infinitely honour and esteem in which number I am proud to recken you It is yet a greater truth Sir that I shall ever most constantly observe the essentiall part of friendship and remaine with much fervency though with little blaze and shew SIR Your c. July 14th 1640. LETTER VI. To Monsieur de la Nauve Ensigne to the Queenes Guard SIR My deare Cousen I Conceive not
your purpose in your so wastfull profusion of your Rhetorick and heaping such elaborate complements upon me Certainly you could not have imployed more to gaine a coy Mistresse or impose upon a credulous Enemy It 's a cleare evidence you have breath'd the Aire of Florence and been scorched with the Sun of Rome and that you are but lately arrived from the land of Eloquence But though you come from that country me-thinks you ought not to have us'd their style of Italy when you are treating with an ancient Gaule These caresses which would oblige another man are in a manner injurious to me and you wrong my affection in imagining it to stand in need of your fine language to feed and maintaine it's heat I can professe of my selfe without vanity that I am an honest and good man and on the other side without flattery declare you for a person exceeding generous And these being undisputable certainties how can you apprehend any hazard of our friendship by our silence does it depend onely upon a dozen lines every month or is it built upon a foundation of Paper that is upon one of the slightest and weakest things in nature I am not of this beliefe and though I might justly blame my own pertinacious slothfullnesse and alledge the multiplicity of your affaires for the discontinuance of our correspondence yet I had rather referre it to the confidence of a perfect affection which giving us an undoubted assurance each of other may safely dispense with both for the observance of those petty Lawes which the world prescribes it selfe If the Sluggard be so happy as to be visited by the Active and Industrious he will indevour to infuse some of his Maximes into him with his treatment of Muscadine grapes and the fare of the village using that of Virgil in lieu of all complements Aude hospes contemnere opes In September I expect the performance of your word and am ever with all my soul SIR My deare Cousen Your c. 4 June 1641. LETTER VII To Monsieur de Gombervile SIR I Had not a lesse firme perswasion of the immutablenesse of your affection before then I have now upon the receit of your Letter Men knew how to love and to be faithfull too before the art of writing was discover'd And since that invention they have lyed deceived and betrayed one another with greater facility and cunning Nay the crafty malice of some ha's even practis'd poisoning by Letters and revenge ha's been Ingenious to turne these marks of friendship into instruments of destruction Yet I do not inferre from hence that we should therefore never trust to a way of communication which may in possibility prove so dangerous I onely say we are not to be so precise about evidences of that dubiousnesse and which serve oftentimes as well to disguise and corrupt truth as to declare it 'T is from our hearts that we receive sincere testimonies and assurances of our mutuall passion though our commerce ha's not been manag'd with the stirre and heat of answers and replyes yet neither ha's our quiet been cold and lifelesse nor is silence the same thing with oblivion Certainly if silence will not be allowed in the rank of Vertues yet it containes innocence in it and do's nothing at all detract from the purity of engaged fidelity But which is some thing more it conserves it in the memory by locking and keeping it up in restraint There is a certaine Author either ancient or moderne that in favour of this happy silence pronounces it The nourishment of the soul and its conceptions I presume therefore that these tenne yeares past you have had my company with you in contemplation My pourtrait but far better drawn and by a more masterly hand then that which you have of Ferdinand's doing ha's never been out of your sight and undoubtedly you have meditated of me during all this long intermission of our converse You see what justice I do your friendship and will not you judge as candidly of mine And unlesse I should now assure you that I resound your name over all this Province that I fill this part of the world with relations of the wonders of your generosity and of the greatnesse of your accomplishments and that when I would feast my fancy and entertaine it magnificently I betake my selfe to the Court of King Polexander could you possibly doubt of the certainty of such manifest and historicall truth Since you know me so perfectly as you do I conceive there is no necessity of unripping my brest to you every day and being also fully perswaded of the affection I have for you you cannot in reason doubt that I am in all sincerity or to speak in the style of those that come from Paris that I am effectively SIR Your c. 13. Feb. 1646. LETTER VIII To Monsieur de Bellejoy SIR HOwever you are of a contrary opinion your friend ha's reason to curse his profession The stipend of a Partisan is preferable to the reputation of a Poet and 't is better to lodge in gilded Palaces then to chante of the Golden age and lye in an Hospitall The famed Torquato Tasso wore tatter'd breeches and stood in need of charity There is a Letter of his abroad in the world wherein he implores the largesse of a crowne And yet there is a certaine Ignorant that I could name who counts his wealth by Millions and pities the indigence of a senatour of Venice He dreames of purchasing Principalities and Kingdomes if there were any to be sold and his high raptures have scarce left him humility enough to judge himselfe deserving of lesse then Crownes and Scepters But I beseech you what meanes Monsieur the Kings Advocate to engage himselfe into the trouble of writing books This is such an unseasonable absurdity as admits of no excuse Surely 't is too much Vacation with him in his Law-Practice and there is no great crowding in his apartment at the Palais I cannot tell what he would have me say concerning the first race of our Kings and his Latin observations upon the Salick Law If he should send me the contract of Pharamund's mariage and an extract of Meroiiée's last will and Testament or to go higher if he should present me with the originall of the Twelve Tables of the old Roman Lawes with the first draught of those of Solon or the Manuscripts of those of Lycurgus and Charondas yet all these rarities would not have power enough to awaken my benummed curiosity or tempt me in the least to a desire of knowing more then I do already My humour is become so fastidious of every thing that is Grave or Serious that my appetite cannot possibly be restored but by somewhat that is very delightfull and Merry In the mood wherein I am at present I would give both the Goddesses of Equity and Justice with all the skill in the Lawes the Ethicks and the Politickes for one drinking-song I am not able to
will be a sensible obligation to me of the greatest adherents to your vertue a man that extolls you with all his power and that is with all his soul SIR Your c. Aug. 20. 1642. LETTER XXVIII To Monsieur de la Thibaudiere SIR I Just now heard tidings that you were within six leagues of this place and you it may be will be so good as to let me heare from you by your selfe but in the meane time if the Storme of your troopes should approach our villages and that of my residence be threatned you know very well what I have title to exact of you on such an occasion I entreate all that your favour with Monsieur d'Aumont can procure and injoyne you to make my interest your own friendship is imperious and her termes are absolute You have read the confident requests written by Cicero Lucian and other our honest friends of Ancient time I pretend to be loved by you after that handsome manner though it be not to be met withall any where but in History and though I know common fame is not in that particular favourable to your vertue That accuses you for being little sensible of other mens griefes and being cured of an infirmity whereof it is seemly to be sick but grant it did not accuse you falsely and that you were more Stoicall then Chrysippus and Cleanthes I am confident I should give you back againe the passions that Philosophy had bereaved you of and make the first breach in your heart But publique faâ—ie is a lyar and Report calumniates you that heart has long since been softned for me and it is certaine I am no lesse your deare and well loved friend then SIR Your c. Jan. 15. 1642. THE SECOND BOOK To Monsieur de LETTER I. SIR YOur Letter of June was delivered me in the middle of August and I answer it in a Condition more capable to move pitty then conferre comfort My old diseases have of late assail'd me increas'd by a Meagrim which does so torment me that it would be a wonder if a griefe so neighbouring to the brain should leave the faculties of it at liberty I am confident your goodnesse will pardon my weakenesse and I hope you will not take it ill that in this generall dissipation of my most reasonable thoughts I cannot make you equall returnes but am forc't to send you drosse for gold and things of no esteem for things most excellent It is sufficient Sir that I am able highly to valew as I do the most eloquent and handsome dresse you are pleas'd to put on your sadnesse Yet I must needs tell you if it should still continue though accompanied with all sorts of Arguments and Colours of Rhetorique I would take upon me not to allow your perseverance therein I would know willingly what you meane by that magnificent aggravation of your misfortune by that Art and those Ornaments you make use of in the setting forth your losse Instead of letting it wax old and dye with time it seemes you seek to renew it and feast your selfe with it every day and whereas t is expected you should by little and little blot it out of your mind you would preserve it fresh and ever new that if possible by the most lively and lasting'st Colours it might be kept to eternity But how can an eternity be looke for from the frailty of a picture since we cannot meet with it in the strength of marble Years spoil and consume it it glitters finely and then moulders into dust and returnes to its first nothing It is from hence Sir I find my greatest advantage to assail you and summon you to yield up to Reason We have in our Friend lost a most worthy Senatour I confesse it But the Senate it selfe shall be destroyed and one day there shall be no more Counsellours of Paris then Conscript fathers of Rome or Areopagites of Athens We have in the same friend been deprived of a Mathematician an Oratour and a Poet I confesse this too but do not you sufficiently know man lives onely among casualties and walkes onely upon ruines How long is it I beseech you Since Mathematicians Oratours Poets died We should accustome our selves to such like accidents as these they are as antient as the world and yet we look on them as strange things and novelties of to day These are no Prodigies they are very vulgar and ordinary and he who said There was none but the first death and none but the first night that deserved astonishment and sadnesse spake a truth whereon we ought to reflect more then we do Every thing without exception is condemned to the same punishment and not onely Parliaments and Judges are things not immortall but learning shall perish as well as the learned and the height of Astrologie shall be no more priviledged then the lownesse of Grammar God who will dissolve the Heavens to build more beautifull ones will not protect Globes and Astrolabes in the destruction of their object He will not leave us any notion of our small acquaintance here in the happy future he prepares for us because we shall have no leisure there to enjoy them our felicity shall be altogether serious He will abolish both Prose and Verse he will put down Prayers and Hymnes and all other imperfect formes of speaking to him and make way for a more noble and excellent manner of praising him I cannot then think it strange whatsoever your exclamations say that Artists and their works have an end since the Arts themselves as well as their instruments must find a period But grant it were not so yet me thinks Sir this End is no such horrible thing I am so little at Amity with the world that I do not much deplore any whomsoever for being no more in it These five and thirty yeares I have been tyred with it and every thing in it displeases me so that I murmur and exclaime against it My friends are the only objects in it that are not distastefull to me and I hope you take it not ill that I put you in that Role since with passion I am SIR Your c. Aug. 19. 1638. LETTER II. To Monsieur L' Huillier of the kings Councell c. SIR I Am alwaies concern'd in some trifling employment or other so that I have neither businesse nor leisure My unhappy fate hath impos'd this voluntary servitude upon me which most commonly takes me up in frivolous affaires and prevents me in the discharge of my more necessary duties This is the onely thing in my opinion that can justifie my silence to you and oblige you to pitty instead of Condemning me I have owed you a Letter a great while and the newes of Monsieur de Peiresk's death would require something more of me if I should take counsell of my first suggestions and act according to the usuall Custome But all good offices are not to be done to all kind of persons It would be
Sir MY two years silence hath been the effect of severall unlucky causes melancholy and grief have done their parts and there ha's been a little concurrence of debauchery with a great deal of lazinesse and some businesse Any person besides you would think strange that I put business into the number of evills but since you flye from it to the further end of the world and the leasure of the desart seems more agreeable to you then the most eminent employments at Court I may not fear to disclose my inclination to you which your example ha's justified You have obliged me Sir by the care you have taken to let me understand the truth of that which I knew only by hear-say Let Rouliers Sonne be of as mean extraction as he can he is an illustrious Rascal and I look upon him as the Ventidius of our age That Ventidius that beat the Parthians in severall battells and revenged the affronts the Romans had received climb'd up from slavery to command by the same steps that this man ha's done and this Libel was sung of him all about Rome Concurrite omnes augures Haruspices Portentum inusitatum conflatum est recens Nam mulos qui fricabat consul factus est I must confess you dive very deep into the truth of things I admire the relations you have sent me And who would have thought ten years since that Limosin would become as polite and as politicke as Tuscany O fertile Desarts c. Continue to make me partaker of the fruits that grow in those dry sands you have so well manured Think on my poverty among your riches but never doubt I beseech you that I alwaies am with many acknowledgments SIR Your c. Dec. 28. 1639. LETTER XXXIV To my Lord the Bishop of Grasse My Lord I Am no longer in the number of profane Poets The Christian Collection is perfected and it may be you will not be displeased to see your self there under the name of Gratius If you had rather it should be Daphnis there is nothing easier then to alter it for it will not be any prejudice to the measure Nulla hûc Syllaba contumax repugnat My verses are not otherwise interressed in any thing And when I commend you it is not out of a traffique that I drive with Complements I do not barter with praises for others nor is it act of gratitude I pay after the favours I have received These favours in truth do sensibly oblige me and the thought you had to travell a hundred leagues on a visit to me fills all my desart with Glory But though you had condemned the Author of whose Paneygrick you have made an Eulogy and should chase me from your approaches with Thunder instead of giving me a visit yet I am so convinced of your vertue that I should ever perfectly esteem it for otherwise I must do violence to my own inclination and commit a greater outrage upon my selfe then any mischiefe you could do me not to be during life withall my soul My Lord Your c. Apr. 12. 1639. LETTER XXXV To Monsieur de Bois-Robert Metel Abbot of Chastillon SIR ALl things dye and are subject to corruption it is an universall Law But you have affections that are priviledged They know no declination they hold out against old age having never been more vigorous and ardent It was an infinâ—te pleasure to me to understand this truth in the Letter you did me the honour to write me and to behold in it that I am still your favourite after I have held the place five and twenty yeares Questionlesse we shall one day be propos'd for examples and added to the Fables and Histories But how fine a thing it would be Sir could the other parts of our selves be preserved in the same vigour that our friendship is and the snow that appeares upon our heads did not signifie there is ice in our veines See how deare two vertues cost us which we could very well spare Experience and Gravity In this world we must lose when we get we cannot be respected till we come to be pittied and the Epithete Venerable is most perpetually attended with that of Infirme For my part I am sensible of this infirmity as often as â—ver I have any need of my strength I do not meane for running or combatting in the lists but for walking softly and taking a few turnes in our Garden All my fire is retreated to the center of my soul where it may be I can tell you it is yet quick enough to kindle some thoughts of mirth and make me a Poet in my old dayes You speak concerning my Prose much more advantagiously then it deserves but you take no notice of the new discovery I have made in my own braine The father Bourbon and the Embassadours of Sweden liked it well and encouraged me to travell further into the Country You shall shortly have your share of such rarities as grow there which I have brought over from thence lately but your whole part shall not be hudled with that of the publicks I promise you yet more then that There shall be no parcell of my Latin but Metellus shall gather his custome from and you shall find him at Balzac in as large Characters as in Horace where you have read more then once Motum ex Metello Consule Civicum The Prelate is very well worth the Consul and is there any thing which I owe not to an affection so constant and pure as yours I am SIR Your Dec. 26. 1644. LETTER XXXVI To Monsieur de Scudery SIR EVery thing that comes out of your hands every thing that bears your name is precious Your remembrance is very obliging in all manners In a little note written to another in the simplicity of a sudden thought raised only by chance it had been exceeding deare to me I leave you to imagine with what joy I received it being embellished with infinite riches and ornaments and accompanied with an eloquent Preface which I found followed by an excellent Poem If this Poem be the last present you intend to the Theater as you put us in fear you cannot take your leave of the people with an Adieu more remarkeable then that or that will make your departure more regretted I subcribe in generall to what is said of it in the Preface and further adde this Sir That Arminius is not only your Master-piece but the Master-piece of the Art that he will bring honour to our Muses and put a jealousie into those of our neighbours I proceed still that it is a child which speakes the place of his extraction and the courage of his father Meere imitation and the borrowed greatnesse of matter fly not so high There is something here naturall and your own and it was not enough to be a learned and ingenious person but Magnanimity and Gallantry were required to make Germanicus and Arminius speak so nobly An authour who lived in their time hath given
hath been improved with excellent education he understands his own profession and that of other men too And although Politeness and Purity do seldome meet together yet he hath both the knowledge of the Court with the innocence of the Country I have heard him commended by the greatest persons of this Kingdome and I make no Question but you will be one of his illustrious approvers after you have had an hours entertainment of his discourse I most humbly beseech you Sir to do him this favour and dismiss him back to us as soon as you can with the satisfaction he promises himself from your justice He is one of those that civilize our Barbarisme and represent us your great world so that consequently conceiving my self interessed in my own particular in the supplication I have made to you I redouble it in this place with a little fervency and protest to you with much truth that no man can be more then I my self Sir Your c. May. 10. 1638. LETTER VII To the Same SIR VVHatever infirmity it is that confines me here it is only Madam Desloges power that withholds me from causing my self to be conveyed to Paris to be her solicitour there to you But she will not employ all the right she hath over me and whereas she may command me a journey she is contented to desire a Letter from me I have granted it to her as a favour which she does me or I rather which I do my self and I write it to you with as much concernment as if my own good fortune depended on the success she promises her self from your justice So the thing hath changed its nature it is not her business I recommend to you but my own interests which I put into your hands and prosecute in anothers name I account it superfluous Sir to tell you at this time of a vertue the most acknowledged and celebrated in the World It would not only be a stâ—fling of a great subject in too close a Room and bringing the Genus Demonstrativum to a strait but it would look as if had a designe to mixe some thing of ascititious in a cause which I esteem wholly my own and as it I had a mind to be little beholding to you when I make many importune instances and allegations I have not any such cunning design I should be very loath to diminish the worth of your benefit by the reflection on any other merit But on the contrary I declare to you that of the many obligations I have to you both of new and ancient date this will be the most considerable beyond compare Whereof I shall be more sensible and for which principally you shall be entitled My Benefactour as I all my life time will profess my selfe Sir my dear Cousen Your c. Aug. 15. 1639. LETTER VIII To the same Sir my deare Cousen YOu have obliged me with so much goodness in the affaires of others that I cannot doubt your assistance in my dearest and most sensible interests It is true I am ashamed that I never come before you but with the countenance of a suppliant and that I never write any thing but bâ—gging Letters I would at least once in my life offer you my devoirs more nobly and without blemish to the purity of my passion by this troublesome mixture of business that accompanies it But on the other side me thinks it would have something of Pride in it to be unwilling to owe you much your protection is so gentle that I am not troubled to be more yours every day by some new title which you acquire over me Whom should we invoke in our calamities but him that effectually hearkens to us and to whom shall we addresse our prayers but to a power that is beneficent to all but to the tutelar Saint of our Province and our peculiar Protectour Preserve us therefore Sir from the dreadfull harrasses of Barretry that menace us Which after it hath defrauded us of what our lawfull right was not strong enough to maintaine would now snatch that from us which the remorse of our judges hath left us I do not accuse their integrity though I cannot commend their judgment I only say to cleare them that oftentimes falshood has a better appearance then truth I see very evidently the fictions of Lawyers are more dangerous then those of Poets and the Sophisms of Normandy harder to resolve then those of the Latin Country If you pleas'd but to discourse upon this matter with any of our Commissioners I make no question but being inspired by your words he would receive a new spirit for the good of our business and the effect of his inspiration be immediately infused on all his Associates The reverence of your vertue would make them consider more exactly the goodness of our cause you and will be the chiefe Authour of the consolation we expect I conjure you to do us this favour and believe me alwayes Sir my deare Cousen Your c. Nov. 20. 1640. LETTER IX To Monsieur de la Nauve a member of Parliament in the Court of Enquiries SIR HItherto I have sollicited you in favour of my friends and never for my selfe At this time I must do it for one that is neerer to me then my self and I recommend something more then my own cause since it is that of Monsieur Chapelain I draw so much advantage from his friendship and so much profit from his example that if I have any comfort in solitude or any goodness in a wicked age I owe him both He made me a Philosopher and he detaines me from being a savage I cannot be indebted to him higher then that nor tell you more of him after I have said he alone is my Socrates Aristides and my Phocion I beg justice of you in the name of those three concentred together in this one In the name of vertue injured in his person in the name of all civill men interested in his cause for the sake of an honesty so pure and exact nay so rigid and scrupulous that we may with advantage parallel it with those of the first times These are high words I confesse yet they are not sufficient for my purpose and my thoughts outgoe them though my expression be forct to stoppe here That expression which did not dislike the King of Sweden and made the Duke of Weymar desire that I should speak of him doth afford me nothing that contents me when I should speak of my friend I find it weake in the testimony I now give of him and think I render him this office but imperfectly though it be with the utmost of my affection and with as much fervency and zeal as I am Sir my deare Cousen Your c. Sep. 10. 1640. Pardon my precipitation I had in my Letter forgot a fourth Grecian in whose favour I am bound to sollicite you with their permission I will adde Homer to Socrates Aristides and Phocion You will
sick persons I recommend to your care the dispatch to Tholose the Letter to Monsieur the Count of Clermont the copy of the Poem which Monsieur de I am SIR Your c. Sep. 10. 1630. LETTER XVIII To the same SIR I Have watched these five and twenty years or to speak more Historically have slept ill these five and twenty years I have sought all remedies imaginable but have been diligent to no effect Since Physick hath failed me I am fallen into superstition I pray to him whom our Predecessours admitted into the List of Deities and who yet hath Altars in the works of some of our moderne Poets I address to him in the language of Tibullus Huc ades ô bone Somne veni dulcissime Semne Et mea furtivâ lumina claude manu Somne veni en volucres tibi dulcia carmina dicunt Invitat placito te vaga lympha sono Te violae te lilia pulchra tuumque papaver Teque vocant plenis Rhetica vina cadis Nec tamen ipse venis quidnam mitissime rerum Tam surdum precibus te facit esse meis Non Divos violavi ullos scelerisve nefandi Conscia perpetuus mens mihi tortor adest Ille ego sum Phoebi si nescis Somne sacerdos Nutriit in tenero me pia Musa sinu Et Citharam dedit Et dulces tibi condere versus Jam meditor properè jam modo Somne veni Ni properas lethi sopor ingruit et mea saevus Lumina perpetuâ claudere nocte parat Ergo age Somne gradum celera ne fama vagetur Immeritum culpâ me periisse tuâ Nam si nulla meae tangit te cura salutis At parcas famae si sapis ipse tuae And after that in the language of Petrarch O Sonno ô de la quieta humida ombrosa Notte placido figlio ô de mortali Egri conforto oblio dolce de mali Si gravi on d'è la vita aspra è noiosa Succori al core homar che langue e posa Non lave e queste membra stanche e frali Solleva à me t' invola ô Sonno è l'ali Tue brune soura me distendi e posa Ou e'l silentio che'l di fugge e ' l lume E lievi sogni che con non secure Vestigia di seguirti han per costume Lasso che noan ti chiamo e queste oscure E gelide ombre inean lusingo ô piume D' asprezza colme ô notti acerbe e dure In English thus Sweet Sleep thou pleasing Son of quiet night The sick mans ease the joylesse mans delight Afford my wearied heart thy timely aide And supple limbs thy want hath useless made Come with thy powerful Rod come touch my head And thy soft wings o're all my body spread Where is sweet silence fled that shuns the day And gentle dreams which thy commands obey O cruel nights Deaf sleep in vain in vain I sing and flatter thee to charme my pain You see by the conclusion of this Sonnet that I invoke but am not heard that he who hath been called the gentlest of all the gods is ever cruell to me and that he perpetually rejects my prayers and my devotion He will not be perswaded by my words nor yet by better then mine He derides both the Latin and Tuscan I had borrowed from two such rich persons to endeavour to mollifie him At all adventures let us make one prayer more to him Let us try whether Malherbe's language will succeed better with us then that of Tibulius and Petrarch But I must pray Sir in your name for mine is too odious to him Oblige the god Somnus either by an Ode or a paite of Sonnets or three Epigrammes to relent of his cruelty and deal more favourably then he is wont with your poor friend Get him to allow some good hours in the night for it would be too much to demand whole nights Let him pour upon my eye-lids at evenings one little drop of that precious liquor in which he plunges my Laquay over-head and eares If he will do nothing and continue peremptory in his rigour then you have liberty to alter your style and to pass from invocation to blaspheming him You shall threaten him to degrade him of his Divinity to beat down his images and set fire on his temples to take away the Wife Homer gave him and to grubbe up the Wood which Statius planted for him to deprive him of all the pretty names all the Epithet-Titles and in generall of all the honours he hath received from the Poeticall Nation since rhe reigne of Orpheus to that of Monsieur de Grasse I begge this comfort of you that I may be revenged if I cannot otherwise be satisfied I am SIR Your c. Dec. 81. 1645. LETTER XIX To the Chloris of Monsieur Maynard Madam VVEe are indebted to you for the rarest things in the world Monsieur Maynard sings them but it is by meanes of your inspiration and it must be acknowledg'd that you have either infus'd new spirits into him or awakened a faculty that lay dormant in him Since he is your Knight he is become our Master and his strength has encreased by half in the last Stanzaes that he writ He is raised above the view of France in the sublimity and lostiness of his strain He leaves Italy behind him I mean the witty and eloquent Italy even in the judgement of the eloquent Cardinal Bentivoglio and it would be the greatest infelicitie that ever hapned if he should not winne you with such a as has vanquished a nation victorious over all the rest Believe my counsell Madam I know assuredly that your reputation hath raised jealousie in the Closets and divers Calistaes and Clorindaes are envious of the praises of Chloris I lately saw a dispatch from Court which speaks of a Widow in this Country that gives out she is Chloris and sweares the amorous stanzaes belong to her Give the world Madam the satisfaction of a truth which is so important to you silence the tongue of a presumptuous counterfeit Secure your glory and praises with speed and in a word take possession of the name of Cloris by a Solemne act which neither Cloris nor Menander can undoe again if they would I wish each of you a long and perfect happinesse on condition that pleasant life be ever fertile of good Verses and that the Prophet do not grow so drowzy in the armes of the Nymph that he forget to prophesie He must utter Oracles according to his custome and chant his enjoyments as well as his hopes But to this he must have your yes so that I want only your consent to have your Epithalamium in the behalfe of all France I begge a Poem of you that cannot be made without you and profess my self MADAM Your c. Aug. 20. 1643. LETTER XX. To Monsieur Costar SIR It is not to do a favour to a vertue not common to esteem it extraordinarily as I do When I
as farre as the will and endeavours Your jurisdiction do's not extend to the secrets of my heart and you cannot hinder the devotion of my soul although you do with so much severity prohibite me the ceremonies and outward worship I question not but you will find my expressions very high when you are the subject which yet do not seem such to me My words I conceive may be drawn from holy things without offending Religion and your verses being related to it I look on it as a piece of divine service to read them Since the Muses which supply you with such excellent inventions are not false Deities the honour which is given them goes directly to Heaven and we adore the inspirer of Prophets and Sybills when we admire a Poet so chast and pure as you Be pleas'd to admit this truth which is compatible with their modesty and represents you some shadow of my intention If you would allow me to display it what should I not say of the early atchievements which I have seen and of that prudent and grave youth which reproaches my gray haires But the orders which I have receiv'd from you are of too strict a tenour and you will be so punctually obey'd that I cannot so much as publish your Elogium in Epitome All I can do in a person so commendable and that is offended with the effects of his vertue is to esteem him perfectly in my heart and to be as I am with all my soul SIR Your c. Jan. 5. 1646. LETTER XIIII To Monsieur Colletet SIR I Am at a losse what language I should use to please you in commendation of your self and your works Great titles have been profan'd by being conferr'd on undeserving persons which they have obtain'd and still weare out of a frollick of fortune Excellent Admirable and Incomparable are termes of every day and if I should treat you with the Epithet of Divine I should only give you the relicks of Rossett◠and Mailles who have been saluted in that manner by poorer Poets then themselves I have determin'd at length to seek out no new termes at all to expresse you my ancient passion and the esteem I have ever had of your person and productions I will content my self to read them so often as to be able to give you account of every verse and to tell you that this tickled me with delight and the acuteness of that touch'd me to the quick I was wholly transported by another and such a whole scene charm'd me You may perceive I have no need of Bellerose to enflame me and they receive applauses at a hundred leagues distance from the Theater Yet I do not deny but the voice and good action have life in them You know what the rivall of Demosthenes said in that particular and if I had been present at the representation of the piece which I have read there is no question but I should have made my selfe hoarse with the violence of exclaiming Euge Bellé c. My admiration is more calme upon my paper though not lesse true and I am as really Sir though without much noise of complements Your c. Jan. 5. 1641. LETTER XV. SIR I Have a great designe of making you a magnificent acknowlegdment and such as might be answerable to the civilities of your Letter and according to the degree you have plac'd me in amongst the Latine Poets with that too favourable Tibi carmine ab omni Cedetur jurique tuo Natura relinquet Quis vatum esse velis But what hopes is there in contesting with you in point of generosity and gallantry who are then at Roane when you are no longer at Paris that is who change one Court for another and never go out of the great world So that I shall only tell you that without pretensions to the glory of which your Letter ha's pretended me I receive very much honour from the four termes of warre which you bestow on me and from the first as well as the other three Although the style of Statius be not that to which I would frame mine yet his straine is none of those whose imitation I account vitious I am not so delicate as those Gallants on the other side the mountaines and I have alwayes blam'd the Capricio of that Venetian Gentleman who to ingratiate with Virgil burn'd the woods which he had compos'd in his youth because they were sprung from the Nursery of Statius He would not have Posterity ignorant of his bad humour and ha's therefore preserv'd the memory of it in an Epigram which begins thus Has vulcane dicat Sylvas tibi villicus Aymon Tu sacris illas ignibus ure Pater Crescebant ducta è Statî propagine Sylvis Jamque erat ipsa bonis frugibus umbra nocens Perhaps that which was an effect of cruelty in this Gentleman of Venice would be in me an act of justice if I condemn'd my verses to the fame fate that he did his And indeed I am so doubtfull of their goodness that unless our Master Monsieur Menage sweare to me that my apprehension is ill grounded and after that confirme his Oath by the testimony of our other Masters Monsieur Bourbon Monsieur the Ambassadour of Sweden I shall have a beliefe that you and he do only abuse me with your applauses I shall imagine that you have a designe to make your selfe sport with the gibberish of a Country versifier Qui linguam violare Remi temerarius audet Somniat Thuscum Tiberim Saturnia Regna Accola Santonici Oceani viridisque Carentae Potator procul à doctis vetus exul amicis However it be there is no sort of pastime but may be allow'd in the Common-wealth of good Letters to two persons which have deserv'd so well of it as you and Monsieur Menage And as to matter of raillery it is no great hurt to suffer somewhat from the Historian of Mamurra and the father of the stage I would signifie by this last word that you may be Aristophanes when you please as you are already Sophocles but I should never be offended with your mirth The warre which you make upon me instead of hurting me shall afford me divertisement You cannot be otherwise to me then a gentle and agreeable Persecutour nor my self though ill treated by you any other then SIR Your c LETTER XVI To Monsieur le Prieur Pacquet SIR YOu have given life to me as well by the great care you have taken of Monsieur Costar as the good newes you have signified to me of his recovery I beseech God it may have a long and faire continuance and that the losse which we were in feare of do not happen but to our Nephews May I ne're know Thyrsis ha's ceas'd to be Heaven keep that day for our Posterity But you must contribute your part to the favour of the Stars Preserve us I entreat you our treasure and be not weary of a fervice which I envy you
good and this is not called writing in Latine You understood this truth before me but would not declare it so freely 'T is no new observation to you that as there are confident and furious fools in the gaâ—be of wisemen so there are also sententious obsurdities that carry the appearance of Aphorisms The World is most frequently impos'd upon by such false lightning and I cannot affirm if to avoid being of the deceived World it suffices to be one of the Academie I am infinitely pleas'd with the new acquisition it has made of the Philosopher He is in truth a gallant person and is not deficient of conceit and invention though he serves himselfe most commonly of that of others I say nothing of the other reception which was made on the same day least I should seem to disparage the judgement of my Superiours and to give too much liberty to my own There are some Books and some wits which he cannot endure He would suppress two thirds of all Libraries and the moiety of Universities A person of such savage melancholly should never dream of coming abroad out of his retirement and the pleasure which he takes in despising all things ought to restrain his desires of being any thing in the world I am SIR Your c. Balzac 4 Janu. 1639. LETTER II. SIR THe ambitious thoughts of Monsieur in my behalf and the glorious offers he many times proposes to you cannot but give you strange apprehensions of him You must excuse the heat of his zeal and make your selfe pleasant with all his splendid promises Without question it is onely an old Parchment which they call a Breviate that was tendred me some ten years since and the subscription of severall Letâ—ers some whereof are from very ordinary hands that have carried him to these extravagant motions He imagin'd I might with justice expect the like favour that was granted to an Advocate of Picardy who is not capable of returning any considerable services But herein I dissent from my friend having learnt a long time since that there is no Robe so becomming a Philosopher as his virtue Wherefore Sir after acknowledgements to you for the good will you have testified towards me in this occurrence and the sollicitation you have already begun my request to you is that you would surcease the continuance of it and inform Monsieur the Abbot that my appetite is not sutable to the desires of my friends I find my selfe so feeble and overburden'd with divers evills that even an other name annexed to mine would weigh me down and a naked title though without charge or employment can afford me onely trouble and inconvenience I would willingly have written to Monsieur but I am wholly unprovided of matter to do it Neither my Rhetorick nor my Muses yield me any thing upon those sorts of arguments If I knew a maker of Complements and Marriage-Sonnets I would purchase some of his Merchandize at a Pistol a line though Pistols also are not made in my Village This is to tell you Sir I am no longer able to do it and you may moreover excuse me that there was no great appearance I should perform civilities upon a subject of marriage since I fail'd in the duties of humanity and afforded nothing to my antient affections upon occasion of the death of Monsieur de It is necessary therefore for my honour that my Letters be kept secret to avoid offending such persons as I respect and it is of much importance that every one be assured of my indisposition to the end no body may complain of my silence To morrow I will send Monsieur the Commissary the Letter which you writ to him I have opened it and find it very judicious and discreet But discretion is the universall character of all your writings and you are very circumspect in the least actions of your life I am SIR Your c. Balzac 27 Jan. 1639. LET. III. SIR I Perceive Monsieur de la Brosse had not intentions onely to oblige me but to do it gracefully and after a noble fashion this is to make two favours of one and to understand the Art that Seneca teaches But he is better skil'd in other matters and I know not if I told you when I was at Paris that as often as I had the honour to entertain him I was dazled with the raies and lustre that proceeded from his wit At that time I spoke without interest It is requisite now that I adjoyn my acknowledgments to my esteem and beseech you to give him assurance of both I am now falling to work in good earnest for our incomparable Marchionesse and you may tell him before hand that I hope to relate some wonders of his Rome and his Romanes There shall be perhaps a little Book divided into severall Chapters for the better consideration of the parts and when that is finished I must bethink my self of another designe for I have a work in my head which I intend to intitle Entertainments and shall be of a more concise and lesse oratoriall style but yet such as shall not be lesse gracefull and pleasing To authorise the title I have the example of two Authors that have pass'd before me namely Monsieur the Bishop of Geneva and our dear Monsieur Bardin who impos'd this name upon some of their works It will suit exactly with my book it being in effect the abridgment and extract of all the conversations I have had with your self and other choice persons I shall therein discourse either with my friends or concerning them and I think that disinterressed commerce ought to be more approved by them then Letters of complement which almost ever signifie the same thing I renew my former resolution and renounce them this last time more solemnly then ever Therefore dear Sir oblige me by forbearing to presse me further thereunto and remember that for all others except you I am at Jerusalem but passionately at Balzac SIR Your c. Balzac 8 Feb. 1639. LETTER IV. SIR I Am not at all dismaid at the digression which you are pleased to call terrible The Tickets of other men seem tedious unto me but should you write me whole Volumes I should account them short And I have no reason to complain that you dispense your favours so liberally and by handfulls All that you write is considerable and over-payes the Reader 's patience The greatest part of posthumous pieces are either spurious or very unworthy of the name of their fathers to whom those injurious offices are ordinarily performed if not against their order at least besides their intention Yet this does not excuse the feeblenesse and flagging style of Victorius for his Orations which were not written without meditation are more weak and dead if possible then his Letters on which it is evident he employed no study or diligence at all The funerall Oration of Cosmo deserv'd the height and excellence of Oratory But I cannot judge it tolerable and without
doubt he has done injury to the reputation of that great Prince not to say that he has scandaliz'd his memory In truth he did deserve to have been told at his descending from the Chair O indignum fatum principis tui bis mortuus est semel per morbum iterum per te I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15 Feb. 1639. LET. V. SIR YOu write me the most pleasant things in the world concerning the greater and lesser deities and the array as Varro places them in St. Augustine is nothing comparable to yours I esteem it but without any benefit or advantage And since all the calamities those little gods can send us are onely metaphoricall I continue in the tearms of my last Letter and am resolved to be irreligious rather then adore all sorts of Divinities There is Sir in my opinion a mean between impiety and devotion and a man may abstain from blasphemies though he do not undertake to compose hymns Besides silence is sometimes interpreted an owning of Religion and they us'd to cry of old Favete linguis in the middle of their sacrifices I have chosen this piece of false religion and desire to hold my self to it most of all for the commerce with the Academy and that I have with you which I should have kept secret lest the should think to measure themselves by the value I make of Monsieur Chapelain I am SIR Your c. Balzac 20 Feb. 1639. LETTER VI. SIR TO judge exactly and like a Master of the Comedy which you have done me the favour to send me it is not necessary to be deeply learn'd or to have more knowledge then I have of Aristotle's secrets and yours I call that new doctrine so which you disclose to your favourits and whereof our Poets understand no more then it pleases you to teach them Neverthelesse I shall not forbear to declare my opinion in expectance of your determination and to tell you that the Supposez as I conceive are far from doing prejudice to the reputation of Orlando their elder brother If I can judge any thing there cannot be a more ingenuous handsome or better contriv'd story then this and France never yet saw any piece of this nature that deserv'd to be compar'd with it It is almost impossible to bend the gravity of our Verse and suit it to the familiarnesse of ordinary conversation Neither do I much approve of Prose upon the Theatre and Verse without rhyme in the opinion of our friend de la Tournelle have little of life or pleasure Unlesse you oblige the Stage with a Comedy We are like to have no Ariosto amongst us But I confesse I never perused this but in the bulk and without designe of strict examination You may please to resolve me if my first view has deceived me and whether my judgment be not erroneous However it be the concernment is not so great to me as to require my care Good or bad true or false 't is almost the same thing now adaies and all the world undertakes to judge though in truth there is nothiâ—g so rare and hard to be found as solid and unbiass'd judgment Perhaps we spend a whole day in the elaborating of one Period and when we have distill'd our brains in the framing of a discourse which may possible be a Master-piece of Art they will believe they highly favour us in saying there are truly some pretty things in it the language is not bad A man had better devote himself to sleep than to tire himself in such unprofitable elucubrations And I freely pardon that brave person the resentment which he testified against the Muses upon the like occasion Ite leves nugae sterilesque valete Camaenae Ite sat est primos vobiscum assumpsimus annos I am SIR Your c. Balzac 15 March 1639. LET. VII SIR THis paper serves onely to accuse the slow pace of your Letter of the eighth of this month and to assure you that I subscribe universally to all that you write I look upon my self as much honoured by the late conference which you had with the Marquesse de Montausier he casts too many obligations upon me and the fresh proofs of his goodnesse seem too disproportionate to my merit One day perhaps I may have opportunity to signifie unto him how gratefully I resent his civilities and I hope he will have no cause to repent of having honoured a person with his friendship who has so reverent esteem of his vertue I must further add to this Ticket the report which one lately acquainted me withall that there passes a Libel at Paris whereof some conjecture me the Author if it arrive at your ears you may confidently swear without fear of perjury that I intermeddle not with things of so foul a nature You know how well I love my quiet and how generally backward I am from all manner of writing I am so far from supererogating that I oftentimes fall short of my duty I use not to lend my words or my choler in the behalf of any man And he that passes over injuries done to himself is not like to revenge those of another The relation which I have made you of it is I think to little purpose but ad majorem cautelam and I thought my self obliged to give it you I am SIR Your c. Balzac 17 Novemb. 1639. LETTER VIII SIR THe affair of Ariosto is it seems in the mouth of all people and has occasion'd factions and parties For my particular I have gone in that way my reason suggested for the best without imagining that I concurr'd with you and I merit not your thanks for following my own opinion I had no other object but truth which it was said of old ought to be chosen with the desertion of Socrates and Plato and in whose cause we should not scruple to oppose not onely the apprehensions of our friends but even our own inclinations Upon this consideration I have some hopes of the conversion of our dear Monsieur de Voiture who knowes that Saint Augustine hath written his retractations and that there are some Lawes that are abrogated by others as also that none hath the gift of infallibility besides our holy father the Pope when he speaks ex cathedrâ It is fit to ascribe glory to God who alone has the possession of truth and is not capable either of errors or repentance Since the Stars and Cedars fall who is he that can assure himsâ—lf of his stability And is there any person so perfect that he has not sometimes a sense of human weaknesse This ingenuous confession is almost as honourable as the victory In all regards an accommodation is better then a duell and I had rather be reconciled with Ariosto then be engaged in a combat against his Knight This Astolpho is a dangerous man and wo be to them that incur his displeasure As to my self I account his friendship as a piece of good fortune and
Sir I would not be misconceived as offended thereat and that my disgust of the last weeks actions drawes these speeches from me Whatsoever I have written to you I beseech you to believe that I know with what submission and docility I ought to receive every thing that is tender'd me by my friends Onely I think the freedome of friendship should not exclude discretion and that faithfull counsell is not us'd to be given in publick Therefore Monsieur might have forborn raising himself to be Monsieur the Judge and rather thought he had been lesse attentive in reading the second part then said of it that it was of lesse strength then the first which is onely a civill accusation of its weakness He has receiv'd the displeasure of being contradicted by you and Monsieur de Conrart who have observ'd no inequality in it and therefore by necessary consequence it can have none But although we should agree in the acknowledgment of his objection yet being as I am continually afflicted and in misery I desirâ— rather consolation then counsell Provided there be neither heresie nor incongruity in my writings I esteem all the rest as undeserving the trouble of reformation I prefer indeed a businesse accomplish'd before that which is to be done and is yet onely in designe Praetulerimque parùm fortis doctusque videri Dum mea delectant mala me vel denique fallent Quà m sapere ringi I have seen the daies wherein I had different inclinations but age and infirmities have wrought this amongst other alterations in me I perceive my selfe become obstinate and hardned against the greatest and most provoking injuries which may possibly be rather an effect of them than of Philosophy I am SIR Your c. Balzac 24 May 1639. LET. XII SIR IT is not unquestionable but Scaliger may have fail'd in the quadrature of the Circle Yet Casaubon has written excellent observations in his Exercitations against the Cardinal Baronius Heinsius also will perhaps afford us some remarkable discoveries upon the New Testament although he be no Doctor of the Sorbonne Good judgment with understanding of Languages and skill in Antiquities are the onely necessary provision for his enterprise and if he employ them with integrity and faithfully our side will draw more advantage from them then his own The handling of the Mathematicall Sciences is a far different businesse in my opinion since they have no community with the precepts of Morality and their mystery depends not either of the Greek or Hebrew They require a very abstracted speculation and must be attended with that subtlety of apprehension that I conceive it not difficult to mistake the way in a path so obscure and narrow Yet I think a knowing and judicious person that has read all the antient Fathers and is skill'd in all the tongues of the East may with successe publish what he has gone so far to seek and taken up at severall Ports and Countries As to the ridiculous he has something too much toleration it is not fit he be suffer'd to rule so absolutely but must be frequently put in mind of la Berne and perhaps that may make him for the future more wise Monsieur would do well to extend his charity so far and try if the fear of punishment may happily divert the effect But what prodigy is that you tell me Is it possible that a person that is indu'd with one grain of common sense can prefer the Spanish Poets above those of Italy and conceive the visions of one Lopez de Vega to be rationall compositions This is it that perswades me there are sometimes false judgments made in the cabinets of the wisest and that there is hazard in the issues of the brain as well as in the affairs of the world I appeal from this injustice to our excellent Marquis who will never mistake apparences for truth But can it be true that this brave Marquis should not be treated answerably to his worth and that he was design'd to encounter with all the fury and hardships of the North without allowance of necessary support I am fearfull of the successe of thâ—s great courage if he fail of the assistance of men and mony He apprehends the enemy to be the least considerable danger he can meet with Famine and want of provisions are far more dreadfull and such as no valour is able to resist I would to God all the Spaniards were at the Indies and all the Imperialists with the Antipodes our friends indeed would hereby have lesse matter for triumph and glory but we should be freed from those fears we apprehend for their safety I am SIR Your c. Balzac 8 June 1639 LETTER XIII SIR I Repent me that I made you any discovery of my losses since you resent them so deeply But I receive great contentment from those evident testimonies you give me of your affection and that my interests could make any impression upon your soul which is all Adamant in your own Such tenderness is not unbecomming the strength of Hero's and if they have sometimes lamented the losse of a Dog they lov'd you may certainly be allowed to condole with a friend for the death of four Horses that were of necessary use unto him In those daies they would have deserved four Epitaphs but they are now too well treated in that they are sorrow'd for by you and the unfained tears you speak of are more glorious to them then a Bucephalia and all the Grecian vanity could invent to consecrate dead things to perpetuall remembrance I hope in a short time to fill their places with others because I cannot live and be without them and that my weaknesse is of more reality then your tears When I relate you my afflictions I borrow no Rhetorick to represent them in a larger proportion I am an Historian and make you a faithfull narration I cannot consent to you that the use of the Caroch is but a shadow of exercise there is not indeed such violent agitation as in other sorts yet there is a continuall motion that contributes enough to the advancement of digestion Besides I receceive the aire on all sides and my eyes aâ—e refreshed with the beauties of the field as often as I discharge them from the employment of reading My infirmity makes me wish some other carriage of more gentlenesse and ease and the Gestatio of the old Romans is exactly such as I stand in need of Were it not to provoke the tongues of people I would provide me a Pulpet and cause my self to be carried by men instead of being drawn by horses The person of whom I told you and whose character you have so sutably delineated is departed from this Province with the curses of the whole world If the Tax be continued all this Country will be turn'd into an Hospital For my own concernment I have great reason to commend his civility for that he had a more mercifull regard to all such as I