: The Sin and Danger of Self-Love Described by a Sermon Preached At Plymouth in New-England 1621 by Cushman Robert - New England History Colonial period ca. 1600-1775; Congregational churches Sermons Early works to 1800; Pride and vanity Sermons Early works

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INTRODUCTION BY C.-A. SAINTE-BEUVE 1

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 35

INDEX 323

From a photograph by Neurdin, Paris.

The Duc de Bourgogne carries a lance; the Duc d'Anjou holds a dog; the Duc de Berry is on his mother's lap; by Mignard ; in the Louvre.

Painter's name not obtained; probably Santerre; in the Royal palace at Turin; photographed by permission from the original for this edition.

Head of the portrait painted for Saint-Cyr by Mignard; now in the Louvre.

CORRESPONDENCE OF MADAME,

?LISABETH-CHARLOTTE, PRINCESS PALATINE, MOTHER OF THE REGENT.

INTRODUCTION BY C.-A. SAINTE-BEUVE.

"I am very frank and very natural, and I say all that I have in my heart." That is the motto that ought to be placed upon the correspondence of Madame, which was chiefly written in German and published from time to time in voluminous extracts at Strasburg and beyond the Rhine. This correspondence, translated by fragments, was made into a volume and called, very improperly, the "Memoirs of Madame." Coming after other memoirs of the celebrated women of the great century, it ran singularly counter to them in tone, and caused great surprise. Now that the Memoirs of Saint-Simon have been published in full, I will not say that the pages of the chronicle we owe to Madame have paled, but they have ceased to astonish. They are now recognized as good, na?ve pictures, somewhat forced in colour, rather coarse in feature, exaggerated and grimacing at times, but on the whole good likenesses. The right method for judging of Madame's correspondence, and thus of gaining insight to the history of that period, is to see how Madame wrote, and in what spirit; also what she herself was by nature and by education. For this purpose the letters published by M. Menzel in German, and translated by M. Brunet, are of great assistance to a knowledge of this singular and original personage; to understand her properly it is not too much to say that Germany and France must be combined.

In Germany, on the banks of the Neckar and the Rhine, ?lisabeth-Charlotte enjoyed the picturesque sites, her rambles through the forests, Nature left to herself, and also the spots of bourgeois plenty amid the wilder environment. "I love trees and fields more than the finest palaces; I like a kitchen garden better than a garden with statues and fountains; a brook pleases me a great deal more than sumptuous cascades; in a word, all that is natural is infinitely more to my taste than works of art or magnificence; the latter only please at first sight; as soon as one is accustomed to them they fatigue, and we care no more about them." In France she was particularly fond of residing at Saint-Cloud, where she enjoyed Nature with greater liberty. At Fontainebleau she often walked out on foot and went a league through the forest. On her arrival in France and first appearance at Court, she told her physician when presented to her that "she did not need him; she had never been bled or purged, and when she did not feel well she always walked six miles on foot, which cured her." Mme. de S?vign? who relates this, seems to conclude, with the majority of the Court, that the new Madame was overcome with her grandeur and spoke like a person who is not accustomed to such surroundings. Mme. de S?vign? is mistaken; Madame was in no degree overcome by her greatness. She felt herself born for the high rank of Monsieur's wife, and would have felt in her right place if higher still. But Mme. de S?vign? though she herself walked with pleasure in her woods at Livry and her park des Rochers, did not divine the proud young girl, so brusque and wild, who ate with delight her bit of bread and cherries plucked from the trees at five in the morning on the hills of Heidelberg.

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