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

To Monsieur de Villiers Hottoman. LETTER XII.

SIR, being equally tender of the good will you beare me, and of the account you make of me, I cannot choose but rest well satisfied with your remembring me, and with the judge∣ment you deliver of my writings; you are not a man that will beare false witnesse, and you have too much honestie to deceive the world, but withall, you have too much understanding to be deceived your selfe, and one may well re∣lie upon a wisedome that is confirmed by time and practise. This is that which makes mee to make such reckoning of your approbation, and such account of your counsell, that I should be loath to be defective in the least tittle of conten∣ting you. It is farre from me, to maintaine a point, that you oppose; I give it over at the first blow, and yeeld at the first summons: yet I could never have thought, that of a jeast, there should have been made a fault; or that a poore word, spoken without designe or ayming at any, should have been the cause of so great complaints. You know, that in a certaine moderne Schoole, there is a difference made, Fra la virtu faeminile, & la Donnesca; and it is held, that to make love, is more the vice of a woman, than of a Princesse; and lesse to be blamed in the person of Semird∣mis or Cleopatra, than in the person of Lucretia

or Virginia: I carry not my opinions so farre, and I meane to be no Authour of so extrava∣gant a Moralitie. It may suffice, that without descending from the thesis to the hypothesis, I protest unto you, I should be very sorry, I had trenched upō the reputation of that great Queen, or intended to corrupt the memory of so excel∣lent an odour, as shee hathleft behinde her; of whose great worthinesse, I have in other places sayd so much, that I should but shame my selfe to say any otherwise; and indeed, the termes I used were free, and not injurious, and such, as if they wound a little, they tickle & delight much more: I neither spake disgracefully of the dig∣nitie of her royall birth, nor gave her any odious or uncivill names, as some others have done, whom I condemne extreamly for it; yet Sir, I will yeeld to confesse, that I have said too much, and though my saying too much should have attractives to charm me, and were as deare to me as any part of my selfe, yet seeing it is di∣stastfull to you, I will for your sake cut it cleane off, and never looke for further reasons to in∣duce me to it. I can deny nothing to my friends, and therefore make no doubt of the power you have over me, and of my testifying, upon this occasion, without further opening my eyes, that I am

Sir,

Your, &c.

At Balzac, 4. Jan. 1632.