Miscellany essays upon philosophy, history, poetry, morality, humanity, gallantry &c. / by Monsieur de St. Evremont ; done into English by Mr. Brown.

A LETTER To Monsieur D'OLONNE.

By the same Hand.

AS soon as I heard of your disgrace, I gave my self the honour of write∣ing to you, in order to testify my great con∣cern for you; and I write to you at pre∣sent to let you know that you ought at least to avoid so troublesome a Companion as Melancholy is, at a time when it is not in your power to relish any joy.

If such valuable commodities, as Men of good Sense are to be had in the place where you are, their Conversation may in some manner repair the loss of the Cor∣respondences you have quitted. And if you find none there, Books and good chear may be a great assistance to you, and give no ordinary consolation.

I speak to you like a Master that designs

to prescribe Lessons: not that I presume much upon the force of my Reasoning, but I fancy I have some right to assume an Authority over persons that are Unfor∣tunate, by the long experience I have had of Misfortunes and unhappy Revolutions.

Amongst the Books you are to choose for your entertainment in the Country, apply your self principally to those that strike in with your humour by their a∣greements, rather than those that pretend to fortify your Mind by Arguments and Reasons. The last engage with your Dis∣temper, which is always done at the expence of the person, in whom this troublesome Scene is Acted; The first makes it to be forgotten, and it is no hard matter to make a sentiment of Joy suc∣ceed to an obliterated Grief.

Systems of Morality are only proper to set the Conscience in good order, and re∣trieve it from confusion; and I have seen several grave and composed Men come out of its School, who were not over-stocked with the Rules of a prudent behaviour.

Your true Men of Sense need not hunt Books to read these Lessons, but only to make Lessons for themselves; for as they know what's good by the singu∣lar

exactness of their Taste, so they are disposed to it by their own voluntary motion. Not but that there are cer∣tain occasions, wherein such assistances are not to be rejected; but where it is a Man's fortune to have need of its aid, he may easily deliver himself from these perplexities. If you were reduced to the necessity of having your Veins opened, I would permit you to read Seneca, and to imitate him: Yet would I choose ra∣ther to fall into the carelessness of Pe∣tronius, than to study for a constancy which is not obtain'd without a great deal of difficulty.

If you were of a humour to devote your self for your Country; I would advise you to read nothing else but the lives of those Romans, who courted a glorious Death for the good of their Nation: But considering your present Circumstances, I think you lie under an Obligation to live for your self, and to spend the remainder of your life as agreeably as you can.

Now things being in this scituation, leave off all study of Wisdom, which doth not contribute to the lessening of your troubles, or to the regaining of your Pleasures. You will seek for Constancy

in Seneca, and you will find nothing in him but severity. Plutarch will be less troublesome, however he will make you grave and serious, rather than sedate.

Montagne will instruct you better in what relates to Man, than any other. But after all, this rational Tool, this Man with all his mighty stock of knowledge, which is usefull indeed in good Fortune to teach him moderation, has nothing but sad and afflicting Thoughts, which serve to deject him in the bad.

Let not the unhappy then seek in Books to be disturbed at Our Miseries, but to rejoyce at Our follies. For this reason you will prefer the Reading of Lucian, Petronius, and Don Quixot, before that of Seneca, Plutarch, and Montagne. But I recommend to you Don Quixot above all. What pressure soe're of affliction you have, the fineness of his ridicule will insensibly conduct you to the taste of Joy.

You will tell me perhaps, that I am not of so pleasant and easie a humour in my own Misfortunes, as I appear to be in yours; and that it is indecent for a Man to afford all his concern to his own unhappiness, when at the same time he

preserves an indifference, nay, and even a gayety for the misfortune of his Friends. I should agree with you in that respect, if I behaved my self so: But I can af∣firm to you with reality, that I am not less concerned at your Exile than your self; and the joy which I advise you to, is in order to have a share of it my self, when I shall see you capable of receiving any.

As for what relates to my Misfor∣tunes, if I have formerly appeared to you more afflicted under them, than I seem to you at present, it is not that I was so in effect. I was of opinion that disgraces exacted from us the decorum of a Melancholy Air; and that this ap∣parent Mortification was a respect we owe to the will of Superiors, who sel∣dom think fit to punish us without a de∣sign to afflict us. But then you are to know, that under this sad out-side and Mortified Countenance, I gave my self all the satisfaction I could find in my self; and all the Pleasure I could take in the correspondence of my Friends.

After having found the vanity of that grave temper we learn from Morality, I should be ridiculous my self, if I con∣tinued

so serious a discourse; upon this score I shall quit the Subject, and give you some Counsels that shall be less trou∣blesome, than Instructions.

Adapt, as much as possibly you can, your Palate and Appetite to your Health; 'tis a great secret to be able to reconcile the agreeable and the necessary in two things, which have been almost always repugnant and opposite.

Yet after all, to arrive to this great secret, or mistery, we want nothing but Sobriety and Judgment; and what ought not a sensible man to do, that he may learn to chuse those delicious Dishes at his Meals, which will keep both his Mind and Body in a good disposition all the remainder of the Day?

A man may be Sober without being Delicate; but he can never be Delicate without being Sober. Happy is the Per∣son that enjoys both these qualities to∣gether! He doth not separate his Diet from his Pleasure.

Spare no cost to obtain the Wines of Champagne, were you 200 Leagues from Paris. Those of Burgundy have lost all their credit with Men of good taste, and scarce do they preserve a small remainder

of their old Reputation with the Mer∣chants.

There is no Province that affords ex∣cellent Wines for all Seasons, but Cham∣pagne. It furnishes us with the Wine of Ay, Avenet, Douillé till Spring; Tessy, Selle∣ry for the rest of the Year.

If you demand of me which of all these Wines I prefer, without falling into the se∣veral tastes, which are introduced by those who have a false sense of delicacy; I will affirm to you that the good Wine of Ay is the most natural of all Wines, the most wholsome, the most extracted from all Terrene smell, and of the most ex∣quisite agreeableness, in regard of its Peach-taste which is peculiar to it, and is in my opinion, the chief of all tastes.

L. X. C. V. F. I. and H. VIII. had each of them their several Houses in Ay, in order to the more curious making of their Wines. Amongst the greatest affairs of the World, which those Princes were con∣cerned to disentangle, it was not the least of their cares to have some of the Wine of Ay.

Express but little curiosity for extraordi∣nary dishes, and show much choice in what may be obtained with convenience. A good

wholsome, natural Pottage, which is neither too high nor too little seasoned, nor too much Jelly is to be preferred for common use before all o∣thers, as well for the exactness of its taste, as for the advantage of its use.

Mutton tender and juicy, good suck∣ing Veal, white and curious; your Barn∣door Fowls, your fat Quail taken in the Country, your Pheasant, Partridge, and Rabbet, all which have an agreeable Sa∣vour in their taste, are the true Meats which are able to furnish your Table all the different Seasons of the Year. Your Wood-Hen particularly, is estimable for its excellency, but is not to be sought after where you are, or where I am, because of its great rarity.

If an indispensible necessity obliges you to dine with some of your Neighbours, who shall have excused themselves from the Arrier-ban either by their Money, or their address, you may commend the Hare, the Stag, the Roe-Buck, the Wild-boar, but eat none of them: Let Dogs, and nets partake of the same praises. Of all Black-Meats, the Snipe alone is to be commended, in Favour of

its taste, though it is somewhat prejudicial to Health.

Let all mixtures and Kitchin-compo∣sitions, called Ragoo's, or Out-works, pass with you for a sort of Poison. If you eat but a little of them, they will do you but a little harm; If you eat a great deal, it's impossible but their Pepper, their Vinegar, and their Onions must Ruine your taste at last, and soon cause an alteration in your Health.

Your Sauces, if you make them as simple and plain as is possible, can do no great harm.

Salt and Orange are the most Gene∣ral and most natural Seasonings.

Fine Herbs are wholsomer, and have something in them more exquisite than Spices; but they are not equally pro∣per in all things. One must employ them with Judgment in Meats where they are most agreeable; and distribute them with so much discretion, that they may improve the proper taste of the Meat, without making their own discerned.

After having Discoursed to you of the Quality of Wines, and the condi∣tion of Meats, 'tis necessary to come to

the most proper counsel for the agree∣ment of Taste and Health.

Let Nature incite you to drink and eat by a secret disposition, which is light∣ly perceived, and doth not press you to it through necessity.

Where there is no Appitite, the most wholesome nourishment is capable of hurting us, and the most agreeable of disgusting us.

Where there is hunger, the necessity of eating is an Evil which causes another af∣ter the Meal is over, by having forced a man to an excess of Eating.

The Appetite prepares, if I may so speak, an exercise for our heat in the digestion: Whereas Greediness prepares Labour and Pains for it. The way to keep us always in an agreeable disposition, is to suffer nei∣ther too much emptiness, nor too much repletion; to the end that Nature may never have wherewithal to fill it self gree∣dily with what it wants, nor to ease it self with eagerness of its oppression.

Behold all the Counsels that my expe∣rience has been able to furnish me with, in relation to reading and good chear; I will not end without giving you a word or two concerning Love.

If you have a Mistress at Paris, for∣get her as soon as possibly you can; for she will not fail to change, and it is good to prevent the unfaithful.

A Person aimable at Court will be Lov'd there, and where she is Loved, she Loves to the end.

They who preserve a Passion for persons that are absent, raise but little in those who see them; and the continuance of their Loves for the absent is less an Honour to their Con∣stancy, than a Scandal to their Beauty.

Thus, Sir, whether your Mistress lov's another, or whether she Loves you still, good Sense ought to make you leave her as deceitful, or contemned.

Nevertheless, in case you live to see an end of your disgrace, you ought not to put an end to your Love; so short an absence ex∣cites passions, whereas a long one destroys them.

What way soever your mind turns, give not a new weight to it by the ponderous∣ness of too serious things. Disgrace carries but too much heaviness along with it.

Do in your Exile, what Petronius did at his Death. Amove res serias, quibus gravitas, & constantiae gloria peti solet. Ti∣bi,

ut illi, Levia Carmina, & faciles versus.

There are some whose Misfortunes, have rendered them devout by a cer∣tain compassion, and a secret pitty, which a man is apt to entertain for himself, proper enough to dispose Men to a more Religious Life. Never did my disgraces give me this sort of compassion.

Nature has not made me Sensible e∣nough of my own Misfortunes. The loss of my Friends might be able to excite in me those tender sorrows, and those nice afflictions, out of which the Sentiments of Devotions are formed in process of time.

I will never advise any one to resist that devotion, which is formed out of compassion, nor that which gives us an assurance.

Both the one and 'tother agreeably touch the Soul, and confirm the Mind in a sweet Repose; but all men, and particularly the unhappy, ought to de∣fend themselves with care from a su∣perstitious Devotion, least it should mingle its blackness with that of their Misfortune.