No More Learning

He was born at Paris, educated with the Oratorians, and then studied
law; but when about twenty-eight he gave up practice, and bought
treasurership at Caen, which he sold
again twelve years later. To his friend
and admirer Bossuet may be attributed his
literary success; for, recommended by him,
he became in 1684 instructor in history to
the young Duc de Bourbon, grandson of the
famous Condé. He received a salary of a
thousand crowns, and seems to have taught
his charge a variety of subjects. The stormy
Condés liked this genial quiet gentleman-
teacher and his ready tact. They may have
stormed sometimes, after their wont; but
La Bruyère knew how to be amiable while
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE preserving his own respect and winning
theirs. When his pupil left him, to marry
the daughter of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan, he was asked
to stay on as gentleman-in-waiting; and did so until his death of apo-
plexy at the Hôtel Condé, when only fifty-one.
With the Condés the witty bourgeois had every opportunity to
gather material for his famous Characters. He was a keen observer,
with the clear impartial vision possessed only by an unconcerned
spectator. Though he knew the King and all the powerful noblemen
of France, though he was familiar with every court intrigue, he must
often have been made to feel that he was a recognized inferior.
There was quiet malice in his outward respect for these men and
women, and in the merciless analysis with which he exposed their
misplaced pride and ridiculous foibles.
The Characters) (Les Caractères), suggested as its name indicates
by the work of Theophrastus, and partly modeled after it, appeared



## p. 8761 (#377) ###########################################

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
8761
in 1687; and La Bruyère found his literary pastime, his solace to
wounded vanity, winning an immediate success. It is said that he
had offered to give the manuscript to a bookseller friend, the possible
profits to become a dowry for his child. The hesitating bookseller
finally printed it, and thus made a large fortune.
La Bruyère has definitely stated the purpose of his work: “Of the
sixteen chapters which compose it, there are fifteen wholly employed
in detecting the fallacy and absurdity to be found in the objects of
human passions and inclinations, and in demolishing such obstacles
as at first weaken, and afterwards extinguish, any knowledge of God
in mankind: therefore these chapters are merely preparatory to the
sixteenth and last, wherein atheism is attacked, and perhaps routed;
wherein the proofs of a God, such at least as weak man is capable of
receiving, are produced; wherein the providence of God is defended
against the insults and complaints of free-thinkers. ”
The continuity of the sixteen chapters is not very evident. Each
begins with general moral reflections upon Merit,' Women, the
Affections, and similar subjects; and ends with a series of literary
portraits. La Bruyère was not a profound psychologist, but a careful
superficial observer, with a gift for witty description. Although he
used fictitious names, the sketches were too like living originals to be
mistaken. Naturally they caused resentment and personal enmities,
which twice prevented his election to the Academy, finally achieved
in 1693. Everybody read the Characters,' charmed by the delicate,
forceful style, and by the shrewd moral reasoning which enriched the
language with wise sayings. Key after key appeared, identifying his
personages; but La Bruyère repudiated them all, declaring that he
had represented types, not copied individuals.
The influence of this early realist was very great. But for him
Le Sage's famous novel (Gil Blas' might never have been written.
He is said to have inspired the Persian Letters' (Lettres Persanes)
of Montesquieu. Translated into English as early as 1698, the Char-
acters' had a wide influence upon our literature. « There is no
doubt,” says Saintsbury, “that the English essayists of the Queen
Anne school modeled themselves upon it. ”
Its success called forth many feeble imitations, among them
(The Little La Bruyère, or Characters and Morals of Children of this
Century'; and “The La Bruyère for Domestics,' by Madame de Gen-
lis, besides a La Bruyère for Boys) and a La Bruyère for Girls. '
His other works — a translation of Theophrastus, and an unfinished
work upon Quietism,' materially altered by the Abbé du Pin, and
published after La Bruyère's death -- are not noteworthy. But the
(Characters' still constitute a delightful model of style, and a wise
and witty commentary on social life.


## p. 8762 (#378) ###########################################

8762
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
OF FASHION
From the Characters)
I"
T is very foolish, and betrays what a small mind we have, to
allow fashion to sway us in everything that regards taste; in
our way of living, our health, and our conscience. Game is
out of fashion, and therefore insipid; and fashion forbids to cure
a fever by bleeding. This long while it has also not been fash-
ionable to depart this life shriven by Theotimus; now none but
the common people are saved by his pious exhortations, and he
has already beheld his successor.
To have a hobby is not to have a taste for what is good
and beautiful, but for what is rare and singular and for what
no one else can match; it is not to like things which are per-
fect, but those which are most sought after and fashionable. It
is not an amusement, but a passion; and often so violent that in
the meanness of its object it yields only to love and ambition.
Neither is it a passion for everything scarce and in vogue, but
only for some particular object which is rare and yet in fashion.
The lover of flowers has a garden in the suburbs, where he
spends all his time from sunrise till sunset. You see him stand-
ing there, and would think he had taken root in the midst of
his tulips before his “Solitaire ": he opens his eyes wide, rubs
his hands, stoops down and looks closer at it; it never before
seemed to him so handsome; he is in an ecstasy of joy, and
leaves it to go to the “Orient,” then to the “Veuve," from thence
to the “Cloth of Gold,” on to the "Agatha,” and at last returns
to the “Solitaire,” where he remains, is tired out, sits down, and
forgets his dinner; he looks at the tulip and admires its shade,
shape, color, sheen, and edges,— its beautiful form and calyx: but
God and Nature are not in his thoughts, for they do not go
beyond the bulb of his tulips, which he would not sell for a
thousand crowns, though he will give it to you for nothing when
tulips are no longer in fashion, and carnations are all the rage.
This rational being, who has a soul and professes some religion,
comes home tired and half starved, but very much pleased with
his day's work: he has seen some tulips.
Talk to another of the healthy look of the crops, of a plenti-
ful harvest, of a good vintage, and you will find he only cares
for fruit, and understands not a single word you say. Then turn
»


## p. 8763 (#379) ###########################################

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
8763
to figs and melons; tell him that this year the pear-trees are
so heavily laden with fruit that the branches almost break, that
there is abundance of peaches: and you address him in a lan-
guage he completely ignores, and he will not answer you, for his
sole hobby is plum-trees. Do not even speak to him of your
plum-trees, for he is only fond of a certain kind, and laughs and
sneers at the mention of any others; he takes you to his tree
and cautiously gathers this exquisite plum, divides it, gives you
one half, keeps the other himself, and exclaims, “How delicious!
do you like it? is it not heavenly? You cannot find its equal
anywhere;” and then his nostrils dilate, and he can hardly con-
tain his joy and pride under an appearance of modesty. What
a wonderful person, never enough praised and admired, whose
name will be handed down to future ages! Let me look at his
mien and shape whilst he is still in the land of the living, that I
may study the features and the countenance of a man who, alone
amongst mortals, is the happy possessor of such a plum.
Visit a third, and he will talk to you about his brother col-
lectors, but especially of Diognetes. He admits that he admires
him, but that he understands him less than ever.
Perhaps you
imagine,” he continues, "that he endeavors to learn something
of his medals, and considers them speaking evidences of certain
facts that have happened, - fixed and unquestionable monuments
of ancient history. If you do, you are wholly wrong. Perhaps
you think that all the trouble he takes. to become master of a
medallion with a certain head on it is because he will be de-
lighted to possess an uninterrupted series of emperors.
do, you are more hopelessly wrong than ever. Diognetes knows
when a coin is worn, when the edges are rougher than they
ought to be, or when it looks as if it had been newly struck.
All the drawers of his cabinet are full, and there is only room
for one coin; this vacancy so shocks him that in reality he
spends all his property and literally devotes his whole lifetime to
fill it. ”
Another man criticizes those people who make long voyages
either through nervousness or to gratify their curiosity; who
write no narrative or memoirs, and do not even keep a journal;
who go to see, and see nothing, or forget what they have seen;
who only wish to get a look at towers or steeples they never
saw before, and to cross other rivers than the Seine or the
Loire; who leave their own country merely to return again, and
-
If you


## p. 8764 (#380) ###########################################

8764
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
like to be absent, so that one day it may be said they have come
from afar. So far this critic is right and is worth listening to.
But when he adds that books are more instructive than
traveling, and gives me to understand he has a library, I wish
to see it. I call on this gentleman, and at the very foot of the
stairs I almost faint with the smell of the russia-leather bind-
ings of his books. In vain he shouts in my ears, to encourage
me, that they are all with gilt edges and hand-tooled, that they
are the best editions,- and he names some of them, one after
another,- and that his library is full of them, except a few
places painted so carefully that everybody takes them for shelves
and real books and is deceived. He also informs me that he
never reads, nor sets foot in this library, and now only accom-
panies me to oblige me. I thank him for his politeness, but feel
as he does on the subject, and would not like to visit the tan-pit
which he calls a library.
Some people immoderately thirst after knowledge, and are
unwilling to ignore any branch of it, so they study them all and
master none; they are fonder of knowing much than of knowing
some things well, and had rather be superficial smatterers in sev-
eral sciences than be well and thoroughly acquainted with one.
They everywhere meet with some person who enlightens and cor-
rects them; they are deceived by their idle curiosity, and often,
after very long and painful efforts, can but just extricate them-
selves from the grossest ignorance.
Other people have a master-key to all sciences, but never
enter there; they spend their lives in trying to decipher the
Eastern and Northern languages, those of both the Indies, of
the two Poles, nay, the language spoken in the moon itself. The
most useless idioms, the oddest and most hieroglyphical-looking
characters, are just those which awaken their passion and induce
them to study; they pity those persons who ingenuously content
themselves with knowing their own language, or at most the
Greek and Latin tongues. Such men read all historians and
know nothing of history; they run through all books, but are
not the wiser for any; they are absolutely ignorant of all facts
and principles, but they possess as abundant a store and garner-
house of words and phrases as can well be imagined, which
weighs them down, and with which they overload their memory,
whilst their mind remains a blank.
Who can describe all the different kinds of hobbies ?
.


## p. 8765 (#381) ###########################################

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
8765
A fashionable person is like a certain blue flower which grows
wild in the fields, chokes the corn, spoils the crops, and takes
up the room of something better; it has no beauty nor value but
what is owing to a momentary caprice, which dies out almost as
soon as sprung up. To-day it is all the rage, and the ladies are
decked with it; to-morrow it is neglected and left to the common
herd.
A person of merit, on the contrary, is a flower we do not
describe by its color, but call by its name, - which we cultivate
for its beauty or fragrance, such as a lily or a rose; one of the
charms of nature: one of those things which beautify the world,
belonging to all times, admired and popular for centuries, valued
by our fathers, and by us in imitation of them, and not at all
harmed by the dislike or antipathy of a few.
Every hour in itself, and in respect to us, is unique; when
once it is gone, it is entirely lost, and millions of ages will not
bring it back again; days, months, and years are swallowed up
and irrevocably lost in the abyss of time; time itself shall be
destroyed; it is but a point in the immense space of eternity, and
will be erased. There are several slight and frivolous periods of
time which are unstable, pass away, and may be called fashions:
such as grandeur, favor, riches, power, authority, independence,
pleasure, joy, and superfluities. What will become of such fash-
ions when time itself shall have disappeared ? Virtue alone, now
so little in fashion, will last longer than time.
si
THE CHARACTER OF CYDIAS
From the Characters)
a Hegio
A fuller, and Cydias [the
poet Fontenelle) a wit, for that is
his trade. He has a signboard, a shop, work that is ordered,
and journeymen who work under him; he cannot possibly let you
have those stanzas he has promised you in less than a month,
unless he breaks his word with Dosithea, who has engaged him
to write an elegy; he has also an idyl on the loom which is for
Crantor, who presses him for it, and has promised him a liberal
reward. You can have whatever you like prose or verse, for
he is just as good in one as in the other. If you want a letter
of condolence, or one some person's absence, he will write
on


## p. 8766 (#382) ###########################################

8766
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
a
(C
>>
them: he has them even ready-made; step into his warehouse,
and you may pick and choose. Cydias has a friend who has
nothing else to do but to promise to certain people a long time
beforehand that the great man will come to them, and who
finally introduces him in some society as man seldom to be
met with and exquisite in conversation. Then, just as a vocalist
sings or as a lute-player touches his instrument in a company
where it has been expected, Cydias, after having coughed, puts
back his ruffles, extends his hand, opens his fingers, and very
gravely utters his over-refined thoughts and his sophisticated
arguments. Unlike those persons whose principles agree, and
who know that reason and truth are one and the same thing,
and snatch the words out of one another's mouths to acquiesce
in one another's sentiments, he never opens his mouth but to
contradict: "I think,” he says graciously, it is just the opposite
of what you say; or, "I am not at all of your opinion;" or
else, “Formerly I was under the same delusion as you are now;
but . . . ”; and then he continues, “There are three things to
be considered, to which he adds a fourth. He is an insipid
chatterer; no sooner has he obtained a footing into any society
than he looks out for some ladies whom he can fascinate, before
whom he can set forth his wit or his philosophy, and produce
his rare conceptions: for whether he speaks or writes, he ought
never to be suspected of saying what is true or false, sensible or
ridiculous; his only care is not to express the same sentiments
as sonie one else, and to differ from everybody. Therefore in
conversation, he often waits till every one has given his opinion
on some casual subject, or one which not seldom he has intro-
duced himself, in order to utter dogmatically things which are
perfectly new, but which he thinks decisive and unanswerable.
He is, in a word, a compound of pedantry and formality, to be
admired by cits and rustics; in whom, nevertheless, there is
nothing great except the opinion he has of himself.
Translation of Henri Van Laun.


## p. 8767 (#383) ###########################################

8767
MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
(1634-1693)
N THE history of French fiction the work of Madame de La
Fayette marks the beginning of a new era. Her work is
the first which relies for its interest upon the truth of the
emotions. For the impossible romances of heroic gallantry to which
Cervantes had already given the death-blow, and for the picaresque
tales of adventure which were to find their chief exponent in Defoe,
she substituted the novel in which the study of character and the
analysis of motive were to be the main sources of interest. Her
immediate successors in the next century
were the Abbé Prévost in France and Sam-
uel Richardson in England. She raised the
tone of fiction by simplifying motives, by
deepening the characterization, and by ad-
hering more closely to the facts of history
and to the truth of nature. To these im-
proved methods of treatment was added a
distinction of style, and a carefully chosen
but direct and unassuming language. The
work in which her finest qualities are ex-
hibited in combination is the Princess of
Clèves,' upon which two centuries have
placed the indelible mark of a great French MME. DE LA FAYETTE
classic. With this work the analytical novel
of modern times may be said to have had its origin; and if the text-
ure of motives in the Princess of Clèves) seems thin in comparison
with the complicated and closely woven web of Madame Bovary' or
(Middlemarch, it must be remembered that Madame de La Fayette's
book appeared thirty years before (Gil Blas,' and nearly half a cen-
tury before the time of the great English novelists.
Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne was born in Paris in March
1634. Her brilliant qualities of mind were early displayed in the
literary circle of the Hôtel Rambouillet; but after her marriage in
1655 to the Count de La Fayette, her own home became one of the
chief literary centres of Paris. Madame de Sévigné, La Fontaine,
and Segrais were her close friends; and after the early death of her
husband she established an intimate friendship with the Duke de La

>


## p. 8768 (#384) ###########################################

8768
MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
(
Rochefoucauld. Her character was highly estimable, though long
misunderstood. She survived La Rochefoucauld by thirteen years,
which she was reported to have devoted to a life of penance. In
1880 hitherto unpublished letters were brought to light, which show
that during those years Madame de La Fayette continued to play an
important role at court, and was active for good in many a court
intrigue. She was sincerely attached to her friends, of a restless
activity, honestly frank, and possessed of a keen understanding.
At the time when Madame de La Fayette began to write, women
of talent and learning were in disrepute; ecclesiastics had denounced
them; Molière had ridiculed them. Her first story, (The Princess of
Montpensier,' appeared anonymously and made no stir. Her second,
"Zayde,' bore the name of her friend Segrais, and immediately at-
tracted attention. "The Princess of Clèves, published in the spring of
1678, made a sensation. There was in this case no such close con-
cealment of the authorship, but there was considerable mystification.
Many believed the book to be the work of La Rochefoucauld. In one
of her letters Madame de Scudéry wrote, “The book is an orphan
disowned both by father and mother. ” “The Princess of Clèves' was
the first novel in literature that could be called the romance of a
married woman. There can be no doubt that although the scene is
laid at the court of Henry II. , the heroine is Madame de La Fayette
herself; the Prince de Clèves, the Count de La Fayette; and the Duke
de Nemours, La Rochefoucauld. The inner workings of a woman's
life are here portrayed with purity of feeling and faithfulness of
observation. The Princess's confession to her husband of her love
for another man is related without dramatic fervor, but with a grace-
ful certainty of touch. Two other works require only passing men-
tion: ‘The History of Henrietta of England, published in 1720, and
the Mémoires of the Court of France,' published in 1731. It is the
(Princess of Clèves) alone that renders Madame de La Fayette pre-
eminent among the many brilliant women of France in the seven-
teenth century. “In order to produce it,” says her biographer, “there
were needed a court and a country like the court and France of
Louis XIV. Let us give greeting to these graces that we shall see
no more; but since this flower is not yet faded, let us breathe its per-
fume which awakens in us the dreams of that brilliant time, and let
us adınire its undying freshness. ”
Madame de La Fayette died in Paris on May 25th, 1693.


## p. 8769 (#385) ###########################################

MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
8769
HUSBAND AND WIFE
M
From "The Princess of Clèves. ) Copyright 1891, by Little, Brown & Co.
ONSIEUR felt very bad at not seeing Madame de Clèves again
after the pleasant afternoon he had spent with her, which
had so fired his hopes. His impatience to meet her once
more left him no peace; so that when the King returned to
Paris he determined to make a visit to his sister, the Duchess
of Mercour, who lived in the country not far from Coulommiers.
He proposed to the Vidame to go with him; the latter gladly
consented, to the delight of Monsieur de Nemours, who hoped
to make sure of seeing Madame de Clèves by calling in company
with the Vidame.
Madame de Mercaur was delighted to see them, and at once
began to devise plans for their amusement. While they were
deer-hunting, Monsieur de Nemours lost his way in the forest;
and when he asked what road he should take, he was told that
he was near Coulommiers. When he heard this word, “Coulom-
miers,” he at once, without thinking, without forming any plan,
dashed off in that direction. He got once more into the forest,
and followed such paths as seemed to him to lead to the castle.
These paths led to a summer-house, which consisted of a large
room with two closets: one opening on a flower-garden separated
from the forest by a fence, and the other opening on one of
the walks of the park. He entered the summer-house, and was
about to stop and admire it, when he saw Monsieur and Madame
de Clèves coming along the path, followed by a number of serv-
ants. Surprised at seeing Monsieur de Cièves, whom he had left
with the King, his first impulse was to hide. He entered the
closet near the flower-garden, with the intention of escaping by
a door opening into the forest; but when he saw Madame de
Clèves and her husband sitting in the summer-house, while their
servants stayed in the park, whence they could not reach him
without coming by Monsieur and Madame de Clèves, he could
not resist the temptation to watch her, or overcome his curiosity
to listen to her conversation with her husband, of whom he was
more jealous than of any of his rivals.
He heard Monsieur de Cièves say to his wife: "But why
don't you wish to return to Paris ? What can keep you in the
country? For some time you have had a taste for solitude which
XV-549


## p. 8770 (#386) ###########################################

8770
MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
»
(
surprises me and pains me, because it keeps us apart. I find
you in even lower spirits than usual, and I am afraid something
distresses you. ”
"I have nothing on my mind,” she answered with some
embarrassment; “but the bustle of a court is so great, and our
house is always so thronged, that it is impossible for mind and
body not to be tired and to need rest. ”
“Rest,” he answered, “is not needed by persons of your age.
Neither at home nor at court do you get tired; and I should
be rather inclined to fear that you are glad to get away from
me. ”
"If you thought that, you would do me great injustice," she
replied with ever growing embarrassment; “but I beg of you to
leave me here. If you could stay too I should be very glad;
provided you would stay alone, and did not care for the throng
of people who almost never leave you. "
"Ah, madame,” exclaimed Monsieur de Clèves, your air and
your words show me that you have reasons for wishing to be
alone which I don't know, and which I beg of you to tell me. ”
For a long time the prince besought her to tell him the reason,
but in vain: and after she had refused in a way that only doubled
his curiosity, she stood for some time silent with eyes cast down;
then raising her eyes to his she said suddenly:-
“Don't compel me to confess something which I have often
meant to tell you, but had not the strength. Only remember
that prudence does not require that a woman of my age, who is
mistress of her actions, should remain exposed to the temptations
of the court. ”
"What is it you suggest, madame ? » exclaimed Monsieur de
Clèves. "I should not dare to say, for fear of offending you. ”
Madame de Clèves did not answer, and her silence confirming
her husband's suspicions, he went on:-
“You are silent, and your silence tells me I am not mistaken. ”
“Well, sir,” she answered, falling on her knees, “I am going
to make you a confession such as no woman has ever made to
her husband; the innocence of my actions and of my intentions
gives me strength to do so. It is true that I have reasons for
keeping aloof from the court, and I wish to avoid the perils that
sometimes beset women of my age. I have never given the
slightest sign of weakness; and I should never fear displaying any,
if you would leave me free to withdraw from court, or if Madame


## p. 8771 (#387) ###########################################

MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
8771
>
de Chartres still lived to guide my actions. Whatever the dangers
of the course I take, I pursue it with pleasure, in order to keep
myself worthy of you. I beg your pardon a thousand times if
my feelings offend you; at any rate I shall never offend you by
my actions. Remember that to do what I am now doing requires
more friendship and esteem for a husband than any one has ever
had. Guide me, take pity on me, love me if you can. ”
All the time she was speaking, Monsieur de Clèves sat with
his head in his hands; he was really beside himself, and did not
once think of lifting his wife up. But when she had finished,
and he looked down and saw her, her face wet with tears, and
yet so beautiful, he thought he should die of grief. He kissed
her, and helped her to her feet.
“Do you, madame, take pity on me,” he said, “for I deserve
it; and excuse me if in the first moments of a grief so poignant
as mine I do not respond as I should to your appeal. You seem
to me worthier of esteem and admiration than any woman that
ever lived; but I also regard myself as the unhappiest of men.
The first moment that I saw you, I was filled with love of you;
neither your indifference to me nor the fact that you are my
wife has cooled it: it still lives. I have never been able to make
you love me, and I see that you fear you love another. And
who, madame, is the happy man that inspires this fear? Since
when has he charmed you? What has he done to please you?
What was the road he took to your heart ? I found some conso-
lation for not having touched it, in the thought that it was
beyond any one's reach; but another has succeeded where I have
failed. I have all the jealousy of a husband and of a lover; but
it is impossible to suffer as a husband after what you have told
Your noble conduct makes me feel perfectly secure, and
even consoles me as a lover. Your confidence and your sincerity
are infinitely dear to me; you think well enough of me not to
suppose that I shall take any unfair advantage of this confession.
You are right, madame,- 1 shall not; and I shall not love you
less. You make me happy by the greatest proof of fidelity that
a woman ever gave her husband; but madame, go on and tell
me who it is you are trying to avoid. ”
“I entreat you, do not ask me,” she replied: "I have deter-
mined not to tell you, and I think that the more prudent course. ”
« Have no fear, madame,” said Monsieur de Cièves: “I know
the world too well to suppose that respect for a husband ever
me.
-


## p. 8772 (#388) ###########################################

8772
MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
»
So.
even
prevents men falling in love with his wife. He ought to hate
those who do so, but without complaining; so once more, madame,
I beg of you to tell me what I want to know. ”
“You would urge me in vain,” she answered: "I have strength
enough to keep back what I think I ought not to say. My
avowal is not the result of weakness, and it requires more courage
to confess this truth than to undertake to hide it. "
Monsieur de Nemours lost not a single word of this conversa-
tion, and Madame de Clèves's last remark made him quite as jeal-
ous as it made her husband. He was himself so desperately in
love with her that he supposed every one else was just as much
It was true in fact that he had many rivals, but he imagined
more than there were; and he began to wonder whom
Madame de Clèves could mean. He had often believed that she
did not dislike him, and he had formed his opinion from things
which seemed so slight that he could not imagine he had kindled
a love so intense that it called for this desperate remedy. He
was almost beside himself with excitement, and could not forgive
Monsieur de Clèves for not insisting on knowing the name his
wife was hiding.
Monsieur de Clèves, however, was doing his best to find it
out; and after he had entreated her in vain, she said:-“It seems
to me that you ought to be satisfied with my sincerity; do not
ask me anything more, and do not give me reason to repent what
I have just done.
Content yourself with the assurance I give
you that no one of my actions has betrayed my feelings, and
that not a word has ever been said to me at which I could take
offense. ”
"Ah, madame, Monsieur de Clèves suddenly exclaimed, « I
cannot believe you! I remember your embarrassment the day
your portrait was lost. You gave it away,- you gave away that
portrait which was so dear to me, and belonged to me so legiti-
mately. You could not hide your feelings: it is known that
you are in love; your virtue has so far preserved you from the
rest. ”
"Is it possible," the princess burst forth, “that you could
suspect any misrepresentation in a confession like mine, which
there was no ground for my making ? Believe what I say:
purchase at a high price the confidence that I ask of you. I
beg of you, believe that I did not give away the portrait; it is
true that I saw it taken, but I did not wish to show that I saw


## p. 8773 (#389) ###########################################

MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
8773
»
it, lest I should be exposed to hearing things which no one had
yet dared to say. ”
“How then did you see his love ? ” asked Monsieur de Clèves.
«What marks of love were given to you? ”
"Spare me the mortification," was her answer, "of repeating
all the details which I am ashamed to have noticed, and have
only convinced me of my weakness. ”
“You are right, madame,” he said: "I am unjust. Deny me
when I shall ask such things, but do not be angry if I ask
them. "
At this moment some of the servants who were without came
to tell Monsieur de Clèves that a gentleman had come with a
command from the King that he should be in Paris that evening.
Monsieur de Clèves was obliged to leave at once; and he could
say to his wife nothing except that he begged her to return the
next day, and besought her to believe that though he was sorely
distressed, he felt for her an affection and esteem which ought to
satisfy her.
When he had gone, and Madame de Clèves was alone and
began to think of what she had done, she was so amazed that
she could scarcely believe it true. She thought that she had
wholly alienated her husband's love and esteem, and had thrown
herself into an abyss from which escape was impossible. She
asked herself why she had done this perilous thing, and she saw
that she had stumbled into it without intention.
The strange-
ness of such a confession, for which she knew no precedent,
showed her all her danger.
But when she began to think that this remedy, violent as it
was, was the only one that could protect her from Monsieur de
Nemours, she felt that she could not regret it, and that she had
not gone too far. She spent the whole night in uncertainty, ,
anxiety, and fear; but at last she grew calm. She felt a vague
satisfaction in having given this proof of fidelity to a husband
who so well deserved it, who had such affection and esteem for
her, and who had just shown these by the way in which he had
received her avowal.
Meanwhile Monsieur de Nemours had left the place where he
had overheard a conversation which touched him keenly, and had
hastened into the forest. What Madame de Clèves had said about
the portrait gave him new life, by showing him that it was he
whom she did not hate. He first gave himself up to this joy;


## p. 8774 (#390) ###########################################

8774
MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
but it was not of long duration, for he reflected that the same
thing which showed him that he had touched the heart of
Madame de Clèves ought to convince him that he would never
receive any token of it, and that it was impossible to gain any
influence over a woman who resorted to so strange a remedy.
He felt, nevertheless, great pleasure in having brought her to
this extremity. He felt a certain pride in making himself loved
by a woman so different from all others of her sex,- in a word,
he felt a hundred times happier and unhappier. Night came
upon him in the forest, and he had great difficulty in finding the
way back to Madame de Mercoeur's. He reached there at day-
break. He found it very hard to explain what had delayed him;
but he made the best excuses he could, and returned to Paris that
same day with the Vidame.
Monsieur de Nemours was so full of his passion, and so sur-
prised by what he had heard, that he committed a very common
imprudence,- that of speaking in general terms of his own
feelings, and of describing his own adventures under borrowed
names.
On his way back he turned the conversation to love: he
spoke of the pleasure of being in love with a worthy woman; he
mentioned the singular effects of this passion; and finally, not
being able to keep to himself his astonishment at what Madame
de Clèves had done, he told the whole story to the Vidame, with-
out naming her and without saying that he had any part in it.
But he manifested such warmth and admiration that the Vidame
at once suspected that the story concerned the prince himself.
He urged him strongly to acknowledge this; he said that he had
long known that he nourished a violent passion, and that it was
wrong not to trust in a man who had confided to him the secret
of his life. Monsieur de Nemours was too much in love to
acknowledge his love; he had always hidden it from the Vidame,
though he loved him better than any man at court. He answered
that one of his friends had told him this adventure, and had
made him promise not to speak of it, and he besought him to
keep his secret. The Vidame promised not to speak of it; never-
theless Monsieur de Nemours repented having told him.
Meanwhile, Monsieur de Clèves had gone to the King, his heart
sick with a mortal wound. Never had a husband felt warmer
love or higher respect for his wife. What he had heard had not
lessened his respect, but this had assumed a new form. His most
earnest desire was to know who had succeeded in pleasing her.


## p. 8775 (#391) ###########################################

MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
8775
(
Monsieur de Nemours was the first to occur to him, as the most
fascinating man at court, and the Chevalier de Guise and the
Marshal of Saint-André as two men who had tried to please her
and had paid her much attention; so that he decided it must be
one of these three. He reached the Louvre, and the King took
him into his study to tell him that he had chosen him to carry
Madame to Spain; that he had thought that the prince would
discharge this duty better than any one; and that no one would
do so much credit to France as Madame de Clèves. Monsieur
de Clèves accepted this appointment with due respect, and even
looked upon it as something that would remove his wife from
court without attracting any attention; but the date of their de-
parture was still too remote to relieve his present embarrassment.
He wrote at once to Madame de Clèves to tell her what the King
had said, and added that he was very anxious that she should
come to Paris. She returned in obedience to his request; and
when they met, each found the other in the deepest gloom.
Monsieur de Clèves addressed her in the most honorable
terms, and seemed well worthy of the confidence she had placed
in him.
“I have no uneasiness about your conduct,” he said: "you
have more strength and virtue than you think. It is not dread
of the future that distresses me; I am only distressed at seeing
that you have for another feelings that I have not been able to
inspire in you. ”
"I do not know how to answer you,” she said; “I am ready
to die with shame when I speak to you. Spare me, I beg of
you, these painful conversations. Regulate my conduct; let me
see no one,- that is all I ask: but permit me never to speak of
a thing which makes me seem so little worthy of you, and which
i regard as so unworthy of me. "
« You are right, madame," he answered: "I abuse your gen-
tleness and your confidence. But do you too take some pity
on the state into which you have cast me, and remember that
whatever you have told me, you conceal from me a name which
excites an unendurable curiosity. Still, I do not ask you to
gratify it; but I must say that I believe the man I must envy
to be the Marshal of Saint-André, the Duke of Nemours, or the
Chevalier de Guise. »
“I shall not answer,” she said blushing, "and I shall give
you no occasion for lessening or strengthening your suspicions;
(


## p. 8776 (#392) ###########################################

8776
MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
me
no
but if you try to find out by watching me, you will surely make
so embarrassed that every one will notice it. In Heaven's
name,” she went on, "invent some illness, that I may see
one! ”
“No, madame,” he replied: "it would soon be found that it
was not real: and moreover, I want to place my confidence in
you alone; that is the course my heart recommends, and my rea-
son too. In your present mood, by leaving you free, I protect
you by a closer guard than I could persuade myself to set about
you. ”
Monsieur de Clèves was right: the confidence he showed in
his wife proved a stronger protection against Monsieur de Ne-
mours, and inspired her to make austerer resolutions, than any
form of constraint could have done. She went to the Louvre
and visited the dauphiness as usual; but she avoided Monsieur de
Nemours with so much care that she took away nearly all his
happiness at thinking that she loved him. He saw nothing in
her actions which did not prove the contrary. He was almost
ready to believe that what he had heard was a dream, so unlikely
did it appear.
The only thing that assured him that he was not
mistaken was the extreme sadness of Madame de Clèves, in spite
of all her efforts to conceal it. Possibly kind words and glances
would not have fanned Monsieur de Nemours's love as did this
austere conduct.
One evening when Monsieur and Madame de Clèves were with
the Queen, some one said that it was reported that the King
was going to name another nobleman of the court to accompany
Madame to Spain. Monsieur de Clèves fixed his eyes on his wife
when the speaker added that it would be either the Chevalier
de Guise or the Marshal of Saint-André. He noticed that she
showed no agitation at either of these names, or at the mention
of their joining the party.
This led him to think that it was
neither of these that she dreaded, to see; and wishing to deter-
mine the matter, he went to the room where the King was. ,
After a short absence, he returned to his wife and whispered
to her that he had just learned that it would be Monsieur de
Nemours who would go with them to Spain.
The name of Monsieur de Nemours, and the thought of seeing
him every day during a long journey in her husband's presence,
so agitated Madame de Clèves that she could not conceal it; and
wishing to assign other reasons, she answered: -


## p. 8777 (#393) ###########################################

MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
8777
1
.
1
“The choice of that gentleman will be very disagreeable for
you: he will divide all the honors, and I think you ought to try
to have some one else appointed. ”
« It is not love of glory, madame,” said Monsieur de Clèves,
« that makes you dread that Monsieur de Nemours should come
with me.
Your regret tells me what another woman would have
told by her delight. But do not be alarmed; what I have just
told you is not true: I made it up to make sure of a thing which
I had only too long inclined to believe. ” With these words he
went away, not wishing by his presence to add to his wife's evi-
dent embarrassment.
At that moment Monsieur de Nemours entered, and at once
noticed Madame de Clèves's condition. He went up to her, and
said in a low voice that he respected her too much to ask what
made her so thoughtful. His voice aroused her from her revery;
and looking at him, without hearing what he said, full of her
own thoughts and fearful that her husband would see him by
her side, she said, “In Heaven's name leave me alone! ”
"Alas! madame,” he replied, "I leave you only too much
alone. Of what can you complain? I do not dare to speak to
you, or even to look at you; I never come near you without
trembling How have I brought such remark on myself, and
why do you make me seem to have something to do with the
depression in which I find you? ”
Madame de Clèves deeply regretted that she had given Mon-
sieur de Nemours an opportunity to speak to her more frankly
than he had ever done. She left him without giving him any
answer, and went home in a state of agitation such as she
had never known. Her husband soon noticed this; he perceived
that she was afraid lest he should speak to her about what
had just happened. He followed her into her room and said
to her:-
“Do not try to avoid me, madame; I shall say nothing that
could displease you. I beg your pardon for surprising you as I I
did; I am sufficiently punished by what I learned. Monsieur de
Nemours was the man whom I most feared. I see your danger:
control yourself for your own sake, and if possible for mine. I
do not ask this as your husband, but as a man all of whose hap-
piness you make, and who feels for you a tenderer and stronger
love than he whom your heart prefers. ”


## p. 8778 (#394) ###########################################

8778
MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
Monsieur de Clèves nearly broke down at these last words,
which he could hardly utter. His wife was much moved; and
bursting into tears, she embraced him with a gentleness and a
sorrow that almost brought him to the same condition. They
remained for some time perfectly silent, and separated without
having strength to utter a word.
Translated by Thomas Sergeant Perry.


## p. 8778 (#395) ###########################################



## p. 8778 (#396) ###########################################


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## p. 8778 (#397) ###########################################

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## p. 8778 (#398) ###########################################


JEAN DE LAFONTAINE


## p. 8779 (#399) ###########################################

8779
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
(1621-1695)
BY GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER
T The court of Louis XIV. there once appeared a figure which
clashed with the regularity and harmony of the scene. A
tall, spare man, with a long nose, thin satirical lips, and
kindly eyes, which could be sharp enough but were for the most part
veiled by revery, wandered through the palace of Versailles and lin-
gered half amused in the stately and unnatural gardens. Jean de La
Fontaine, then in discredit as the author of certain licentious tales
and the associate of malcontents, had come, rather sheepishly, at the
instance of his friends, to present a volume of his fables to the King,
of whose disfavor he was well aware. Though not quite clear as
to the nature of his offense nor over-anxious for royal patronage, he
was willing to purchase protection by an act of homage. He felt un-
comfortable in his rôle of suitor, but played it with what grace and
countenance he could. While conforming, with an odd mingling of
ease and childish awkwardness, to the requirements of the situation,
there was a fine, incredulous smile about the corners of his mouth as
he bent the knee to the monarch whom under his breath he called
Sire Lion, — feeling himself to be neither more nor less of a courtier
than that handsome rascal, the Fox. The glitter of ceremony failed
to dazzle him; and although he manifestly tried to be interested in
the regal pageant, he was not much impressed. When he had fin-
ished his harangue, he found he had forgotten to bring the book
which was to have been its excuse, and he absent-mindedly left in
the carriage that bore him away, the purse of gold with which his
solicitations had been rewarded.
To the King and his elegant retinue he must have seemed a
naughty, undisciplined child, -rustic, old-fashioned, irreverent, out of
keeping with the world and the times. Yet he was in some ways
the most real man there; certainly the most natural. He understood
his world and his time profoundly, after his fashion, and was des-
tined to interpret them to future generations. For if he never suc-
ceeded in pleasing the King or obtaining a royal pension, he was only
too popular with many great lords and ladies, and knew most of the
celebrities of Paris; and though his acquaintances would have been
3


## p. 8780 (#400) ###########################################

8780
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
amused to hear that he possessed any moral superiority over them,
he at least enjoyed a certain advantage of birth and breeding which
enabled him to see things with clearer eyes than they.
No one can see clearly and judge with broad fairness in a society
which represents to him the whole of life. One must come from
another world to do this. And a large part of La Fontaine's past
had been spent in a world as different as could be imagined from the
artificial circumstances of a court, and his experience was well calcu-
lated to reduce them to a natural perspective. Other men, of remark-
able penetration and unusual honesty, were aware of the evils of
that reign, — so difficult to judge then, because so grand in outward
seeming. La Rochefoucauld was letting fall, here and there, a maxim
of concentrated bitterness; and Saint-Simon was rushing home from
court every night to pour out, on endless paper, his righteous indig-
nation against the crawling hypocrisy of bishops, the slander and
place-hunting of lords, and the tainted ambition of ladies. But to
neither of these observers did it all seem abnormal and ridiculous, as
it did to La Fontaine. To him there was matter for eternal laugh-
ter in that perversion of nature which was called a court. Like
Jupiter's monkey in his own fable, who replied to the elephant,
astonished at the indifference of the gods to his size and importance,
the complacent dreamer said, “Both small and great in their eyes
are the same. » For him the gods were elsewhere, - divinities of
groves and rivers, shaking the leaves of woodland birch and roadside
poplar in the sunny Champagne country, and splashing, serenely
unconcerned with mortal business, through the meandering Marne.
And he laughed silently at the formal ugliness of Versailles horti-
culture, as the vision of trees,” “the mist and the river, the hill and
the shade,” roşe before his mind. No less ludicrous must the King
of France and his brilliant company of flatterers have sometimes
appeared to him, when he reflected how exactly they and all their
movements matched the life of village boors and gossips, or the
more antique and undeviating ways of forest creatures, in bush and
stream. For it was by intimacy with country scenes, peasant nature.
and the primitive and changeless character of animals, that La
Fontaine differed from the high society into which he had been
allured, and was enabled to judge it. Like Benjamin Franklin a cen-
tury later at the court of Louis XVI. , he brought into an artificial
circle the clear perceptions and the common-sense which are bred of
familiarity with simple forms of life.
He was born July 8th, 1621, in the small town of Château-Thierry,
which sits quietly beside the river Marne, in the heart of Champagne.
The soil of that famous wine-growing country is light, and the sun
shines fair, but without excessive heat. The beauty of the landscape
c
»


## p. 8781 (#401) ###########################################

JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
8781
»
of «
is in the ordered green of its little vineyards, the bright red and blue
of poppy and corn-flower in its winding meadows, which low chalk
hills warmly enfold, treeless but gently outlined, — all these features
perfect in detail, and the common charm their gracious harmony.
There is no grandeur to uplift, no mystery to deepen the human
spirit; neither is there fat abundance to make men dull. The native
race is shrewd, witty, parsimonious, sober. They see clearly in the
small concerns of their very limited lives, and are devoid of illusions
and exciting fancies. The moral current is shallow, but sparkling
and quick. The deep imaginings and awful pleasures of northern
peoples are to them unknown. Mystery does not charm, but only
irritates them. They have a weak sense for the supernatural or the
abstract. Ridicule, rather than priestor Bible, is the guardian of
their behavior; and the principles which regulate their conduct have
long ago been coined into maxims and anecdotes and significant
bywords, which pass down from generation to generation with accu-
mulating force.
In this region La Fontaine's father and grandfather held the office
master of streams and forests,” a government position in the
proper filling of which a man would naturally become familiar with
the country and its inhabitants. The family enjoyed consideration
and some wealth. Jean, who must have been but a willful and indif-
ferent scholar, received an education of which the principal traces in
his works are a loving familiarity with the Latin poets, and a wide
acquaintance with the racy and somewhat recondite narratives which
constituted the undercurrent of French literature,- irregular, licen-
tious, but undeniably congenial to the French spirit. He became
deeply read in the popular tales of the Middle Ages, - satires, animal
stories, and “moralities. ” From these sources, and from several
writers of the sixteenth century, particularly Rabelais and Marot, he
obtained a fund of witty and sensual incidents; while his poetical
imagery and much of his tenderer and purer sentiment were derived
from Virgil and Ovid.
The son of an old family comfortably settled in a small country
town is strongly tempted to idleness; because there come to him by
birth that consideration and respect, and that freedom from financial
concern, which are the usual objects of men's activity. La Fontaine
was never very successful in resisting temptation of any kind, and it
suited his nature to float indolently on the current of wealth and social
regard which his more strenuous ancestors had accumulated. Nor
was there lack of entertainment to enliven the smooth voyage; for
he had neighbors to his liking, - not averse to playing for high stakes
or drinking up to the limit of sobriety, and withal of a very ready
wit. Unambitious, fond of easy company, absent-minded, given to


## p. 8782 (#402) ###########################################

8782
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
receiving hospitality, which was offered freely in those days in French
provincial towns, he drifted into middle age; allowing himself to be
married by family arrangement and without love, and quietly accept-
ing his father's office, which was resigned in his favor.
His life of hunting, reading, and convivial pleasure at Château-
Thierry was diversified by frequent visits to Paris, where his com-
positions were a passport to the acquaintance not only of literary
people, but of many rich and frivolous nobles. In 1654 he published
.
an adaptation of the “Eunuchus) of Terence, and at about this time
his tales and epistles in verse began to circulate from hand to hand.
He lived to deplore the harm the tales may have done, though he
professed for his part to see no evil in them. They were based
largely on Boccaccio and Rabelais; and represented woman's charac-
ter especially in a way not creditable to their author, either as poet
or as mere observer. It is true, however, that so far as the material
of the tales is concerned, he accepted the disgusting inventions of
his coarse masters without much change. Between 1657 and 1663 he
was a frequent guest, and indeed a pensioner, of the rich and corrupt
Fouquet, superintendent of finance. Several other poets also enjoyed
the bounty of Fouquet at his magnificent country-seat, the palace of
Vaux; but none on such strict terms of service as La Fontaine. He
was at work for three years, with what frequent intervals of repose
we can imagine, on a long eulogistic composition, “The Dream of
Vaux'; and wrote besides many occasional pieces, in return for lav-
ish hospitality.