Nevv epistles of Mounsieur de Balzac. Translated out of French into English, by Sr. Richard Baker Knight. Being the second and third volumes

To Mounsieur de Soubran. LETTER. XIII.

SIr, if you take mee for a man hungry of Newes, you do not know me; and if I have asked you for any, it is because I had none to tell you; and because I must have something to say, I have done it against the streame of my resolution quite, which is, to quit the world both in body and minde: but custome is a thing we often fall into by flying it; and we sweare sometimes that we will not sweare; I desire so little to learne that I know not, that I would be glad to forget that I know, and to be like those good Hermites who enquired how cities were made, and what kind of thing a King or a Commonwealth was; I am well assured that Paris will not be removed out of its place that Rochell will not be surprized againe by Guiton; that petty Princes will not devest great Kings;

that favour will never want Panegyricks and Sonnets; that the Court will never be without Sharkes and Cheaters: that Vertue will ever be the most beautifull, and the most unprofita∣ble thing in the world. And what can you write in the generall of affaires, that hath not relation to one of these points? And for my owne particular, what can I heare, but that ei∣ther some Booke is written against me, or that my Pension is like to be ill paid, or that I shall not be made an Abbot, unlesse I be my selfe the Founder of the Abby: such newes would be terrible to a man more interressed than my selfe, but to me, they are in a manner indiffe∣rent, and trouble mee no more, than if you should tell me it will be foule weather all this Moone, or that the water is growne shallow in our river, or that a tree in my Wood hath been overturned by tempest. I have had hereto∣fore some pretentions to Church preferments, but now they are all reduced to this one prefer∣ment of being a good Ch•…•…stian; and so long as they cast not upon Balzac the terme of an A∣postata, for the rest, I am well content with my present condition and certainely desires so moderate, cannot •…•…use but be successefull, and I will never beleeve that ill fortune any more than good will seeke after mee so farre as this; or that it is possible for him to fall that stands so low, yet if any devill, enemie of my advance∣ment should envie my retiring; and if any pro∣moter should lay to my charge, that to get out off—. I would corrupt—, I make my selfe

this promise Sir, that you will stand strong∣ly in defence of your innocent friend, and that in so just a protection you will embarque also that excellent personage, of whom you speake in your letter. I am, as you know, unhappy enough not to know her, but seeing the honest men of Greece have used to adore upon adven∣ture, and built Altars to unknowne Deities, it may as well be lawfull for me to use devotion to this Saint upon the credit of the people of Rome, who have now these three yeares looked upon her, as upon one of the true Originalls, whereof they revere the Statues; they all agree in this, that since the Porciaes and the Corneliaes there never was any thing scene comparable to this; and that those divine women, which were the domesticall Senate of their husbands, and the rivalls of their vertue, have no other advan∣tage over this French Lady, but that they died in an age of funerall Orations. You send mee word that you finde her in the same estate you left her, and that she is now as fresh and amia∣ble as ever she was, and I easily beleeve it; this long continued state of youth is no doubt the recompence, of her extraordinary vertue: the calme within sweetens and cleares the ayre without, and from the obedient passions of her minde, there riseth neither wind nor cloud to taint the purenesse of her complexion, as there are certaine temperate Climates which bring forth Roses all the yeare long; and where it is counted for a wonder, that such a day it was cold or snowed: so are there likewise certaine

faces priviledged, preserved to the end of old age, in the happy estate of their infancie, and never lose the first blossomming of their beau∣tie. But it is not for a man buried in the darke∣nesse of a Desart, to talke of the most illustrious matter that si in the world: it befits me rather to reade that over again which you have written, than to adde any thing to it, & for feare least any word should scape from me that is not Courtly, and which may marre all I have said already, without further discourse, I assure you that I am,

Sir,

Your, &c.

From Balzac, 8. of August 1633.