has done so, and she has received such profits from his instructions, that she cannot be said to be ignorant of any thing all this is concealed beneath a pretty face, extreme modesty, natural timidity, and the age of seventeen years. She understands and sings the opera airs better than most I have met with. She is a relation of the first president, and of M. d'Harouis. I wish she could take the place of mademoiselle de Plessis till All-Saints only; and she wishes as heartily that her mother was like me. LETTER DCXXX. TO THE SAME. Nantes, Saturday, May 25, 1680. WHILE I am waiting for the arrival of your letter, I must converse with you a little. I hope you have received so many of mine, that you will be for ever cured of any uneasiness on account of the delay of the post. For my part, my child, I feel as if I had been six months in this place, and the month of May would last for ever. Do you remember the fancy that once entered your head, that there were some months that never had an end? I was of a different opinion when I was with you; all my concern was, to find them fly away so rapidly. But how I admire this month of May! what have I not done? what have I not seen? what have I not thought, in this charming month? and, after all, I shall get to the Rocks before it is ended. My son was desirous we should go to Bodegat, where indeed we have many affairs to settle and pressed me particularly, above all things, fo go to Tonquedec's; but as I am not very fond of this visit, I shall defer it till I am obliged to go to Rennes to pay a visit to M. and madame de Chaulnes. I am at present going to see the Rocks, where I shall send for all my people from Bodegat. You will ask me, perhaps, if no one could have transacted the business for me here? No, my dear, no; my presence was absolutely necessary, aud the interest of my friends on the spot: this has been a sort of comfort to me, besides the pleasure of passing a part of my afternoons with the poor girls of Saint-Marie. I have made them a present of a little book, entitled La Frequente Communion*, with which they are charmed; but this is the greatest secret in the world. I beg you will read the second part of the second treatise in the first volume of Moral Essays; I am sure you know it, but you may not perhaps have observed it particularly; it is on the subject of submission to the will of God. You will there see how clearly it is demonstrated that Providence governs all things; that is my creed, by that I abide: and though a contrary doctrine may be advanced elsewhere, to keep fair with all sides, I shall consider such conduct only in the light of a political stratagem+, and follow ́ the example of those who believe as I do, though they may change their note. We dined yesterday at Seilleraie, as I told you we should do my little Agnes was delighted with this party, though there was nobody but the good abbé and the abbé de Bruc; she is nineteen years of age, and not so simple as I thought; she has an infinite desire to learn; she is already acquainted with many things; and, as you said of Marie at Grignan, she guesses what you are going to say to her; she is a charming girl. * Written by M. Arnaud. It was he who began the war he sustained throughout his life against the opinions of the Jesuits. Such a book, particularly at such an epocha, was truly contraband goods to the nuns. + We cannot help smiling to see madame de Sévigné accusing the Jansenists of Jesuitising, Her confessor makes her communicate twice a week; what a profanation! she makes one in every party of pleasure that she can, at least she wishes it, which is alone sufficient to prohibit so frequent an appearance at the holy table. She has read all the romances she could find, and with all the eagerness that curiosity, and the pleasure of deceiving, can inspire. Between you and me, if I wished a girl to be wanton, I need only give her a confessor, and a mother, such as she has. No letters from Paris yet, my dear; let me, therefore, say a word to you about Nantes: there is the lady here, a kind of intendant, and no intendant; a madame de No***, daughter of madame de Br***, about seventeen years of age, very silly, and very conceited. Her husband is of the family of Be***, but is absent; his wife gives herself airs, and thinks it is my place to pay her the first visit, for what reason I cannot comprehend; and therefore, without waiting till she has cleared the point, I shall set out for the Rocks: this will be a good thing for madame de Molac; it will save trouble she is at Paris, and her husband † is gone to fetch her. I have just received your letter of the 15th of this everlasting month: I declare I never found one like it for length. I see you have received all mine: I entreat you not to be uneasy, if, at any time, you should be disappointed; as you must be sensible this depends on the motions of the post, which are not always certain. Till now I have had no reason to complain, for I receive your letters only two days later than at Paris; this is all that can be expected at so immense a distance but you say I am not struck with this distance: this is said by a person more truly separated from me than I + M. de Molac was governor of the city and castle of Nantes. : thought; who has altogether forgotten me, and the fondness of my heart for her; who has lost the remem brance of that weakness of nature, that propensity to tears, of which her firmness and philosophy have so often made a jest. It is for me to complain; my feelings, on this score, are more poignant than I can express; with all my admirable notions of Providence, I can scarcely keep myself from sinking under such strokes: an undisturbed peace, and an implicit submission, is the lot of the perfect; while the knowledge of a Providence, of which I have made so bad a use, is given me only for my punishment. You say that I make God the author of every thing that happens ; read, read, I say, that part of the treatise I have pointed out to you, and you will find that we are to look to Him for every thing, but with reverence and humility, and consider man only as the executor of his orders, from whose agency he can draw what effects he thinks proper. It is thus we reason, when our eyes are lifted up to heaven; but, in general, we are apt to confine our views to the poor contemptible second causes that strike our bodily senses, and bear with impatience what we ought to receive with submission; and such, alas! is my present wretched situation. I join with you in believing, that philosophy is good for little, except to those who do not stand in need of it. You desire me to love you more and more: indeed you embarrass me; I know not where to find that degree of comparison; it is beyond my conception: but this I am certain of, that I never can, in thought, word, or deed, evince the thousandth part of the affection I bear you; and this it is that sometimes distracts me. Madame de la Fayette is still inconsolable, notwithstanding the favours her son has received *; her heart * He had obtained a regiment. is even more affected than I imagined. She has been to return thanks to his majesty, who gave her a most gracious reception; and yet she cannot bear the court, but is returned back to Paris. Madame de Vins has come into my mind, as well as into yours, in regard to her pleasant situation at Fontainbleau last year. She pays me a thousand attentions; and I am affected with her merit and her misfortunes: the higher she was raised, the greater is her fall; she cannot now endure a place which is no longer her home; she confines her self wholly to her family, and the law-suits which press more heavily upon her than ever. I believe I was a comfort to her at Paris, for I always made her my first and chief concern. We correspond about you; she writes me word, that she is our emporium: I think my. self greatly honoured by her friendship and notice. You have greatly delighted me with your account of the Carmelites, whose three vows are changed to three things perfectly suitable to the sisters of Saint Theresa, interest, pride, and hatred. The dauphiness says she has seen nothing at Paris but heads, and the tops of the trees in the Thuilleries; this speech will do her no disservice at court. There was a terrible quarrel the other day, between the king and madame de Montespan: M. Colbert endeavoured to bring about an interview, but could, with great difficulty, obtain of his majesty to consent to a medianoche with her as usual; it was only on condition that it should be general, and every body admitted. The lovely Fontanges has relapsed into her old disorder, and the prior * has had recourse to his old medicines : if they fail, he must return to his faggots. I have some excellent letters from La Troche; her son is witness to * The prior de Cabrières, whom she compared to the Medecin malgré Lui. |