Letters of affaires love and courtship. Written to several persons of honour and quality; / by the exquisite pen of Monsieur de Voiture, a member of the famous French Academy established at Paris by Cardinall de Richelieu. English'd by J.D.

To Madam — LETTER XX.

MADAM,

I Am at last come hither alive, and am ashamed to tell it you; for, methinks, a person of honour ought not to live after he had been ten daies without seeing you. I should be the more astonished, that I have been able to do it, were I not satisfied that for some time, there have happned things to me altogether extraordinarie, and such, as whereof I had not the least expe∣ctation, and that since I have seen you, all things are done in me by miracle. It is certainlie a strange effect that I have all this while withstood so manie afflictions, and that a man so much wounded could hold out so long! No sadnesse so weightie, no sorrow comparable to that I struggle with. Love, and feare, grief, and impatience, are my perpetual torments, and the heart I had bestowed on you whole, is now torne into a thousand pieces, but you are in everie one of them, nor could I part with the least to any I finde here. In the mean time, amidst so ma∣nie and such mortal afflictions, I assure you I am not to be pittied, for it is onelie in the lower region of my minde that the tempests are raised, and while the clouds are in perpetual agi∣tation, the higher part of my soul is quiet and clear, when you shine with the same beautie, lustre, and influences, as you had on the fairest daies wherein I have seen you, and with those beames and circulations of light, and graces as are sometimes seen about you. I must needs confesse, as often as my ima∣gination is directed that way, I am insensible of all affliction. So that it sometimes happens, that while my heart suffers ex∣traordinarie torments, my soul tastes infinite felicities, and at the same time that I am afflicted, weep, and consider my self at a great distance from your presence, nay, haplie, your thoughts, I would not change fortunes with those who see, are lov'd and enjoy. I know not whether you, Madam, whose soul knows not the least disturbance, can conceive these contrarieties; it is as much as I can do to comprehend them, who feel them, and am often astonished to finde my self so happie and so unhappie

at the same time. But let not, I beseech you, what I tell you of my happinesse, divert your care from a considerati∣on of my miseries, for they are such as cease not to frighten me even when I feel them not, the only agitation of two so different resentments being enough to cast me to the ground. If then you have any reasons to comfort me withall, that are not taken out of Seneca, I beseech you send them them me, and withall some of those miraculous words, which you know, that can restore strength and cheerfulnesse to the most indisposed minds, and which have twice alreadie saved my life? you ought certainlie to be tender of it, since indeed it is yours, and that I have made foheartie a present to you of it. For my part, I must confesse it is much dearer to me since it hath belonged to you & I should be loath to leave the world so soon after my acquain∣tance with what, is most accomplished, and most excellent in it.