第 19 节
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车水马龙01 更新:2021-03-11 18:31 字数:9322
in the latter place。〃 She finds the music of Lulli celestial and the preaching of Bourdaloue divine。 Racine she did not quite appreciate。 In his youth; she said he wrote tragedies for Champmesle and not for posterity。 Later she modified her opinion; but Corneille held always the first place in her affection。 She had a great love for books on morals; read and reread the essays of Nicole; which she found a perpetual resource against the ills of life even rain and bad weather。 St。 Augustine she reads with pleasure; and she is charmed with Bossuet and Pascal; but she is not very devout; though she often tries to be。 There is a serious naivete in all her efforts in this direction。 She seems to have always one eye upon the world while she prays; and she mourns over her own lack of devotion。 〃I wish my heart were for God as it is for you;〃 she writes to her daughter。 〃I am neither of God nor of the devil;〃 she says again; 〃that state troubles me though; between ourselves; I find it the most natural in the world。〃 Her reason quickly pierces to the heart of superstition; sometimes she cannot help a touch of sarcasm。 〃I fear that this trappe; which wishes to pass humanity; may become a lunatic asylum;〃 she says。 She believes little in saints and processions。 Over the high altar of her chapel she writes SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA。 〃It is the way to make no one jealous;〃 she remarks。
She was rather inclined toward Jansenism; but she could not fathom all the subtleties of her friends the Port Royalists; and begged them to 〃have the kindness; out of pity for her; to thicken their religion a little as it evaporated in so much reasoning。〃 As she grows older the tone of seriousness is more perceptible。 〃If I could only live two hundred years;〃 she writes; 〃it seems to me that I might be an admirable person。〃 The rationalistic tendencies of Mme。 de Grignan give her some anxiety; and she rallies her often upon the doubtful philosophy of her PERE DESCARTES。 She could not admit a theory which pretended to prove that her dog Marphise had no soul; and she insisted that if the Cartesians had any desire to go to heaven; it was out of curiosity。 〃Talk to the Cardinal (de Retz) a little of your MACHINES; machines that love; machines that have a choice for some one; machines that are jealous; machines that fear。 ALLEZ; ALLEZ; you are jesting! Descartes never intended to make us believe all that。〃
In her youth Mme。 de Sevigne did not like the country because it was windy and spoiled her beautiful complexion; perhaps; too; because it was lonely。 But with her happy gift of adaptation she came to love its tranquillity。 She went often to the solitary old family chateau in Brittany to make economies and to retrieve the fortune which suffered successively from the reckless extravagance of her husband and son; and from the expensive tastes of the Comte de Grignan; who was acting governor of Provence; and lived in a state much too magnificent for his resources。 Of her life at The Rocks she has left us many exquisite pictures。 〃I go out into the pleasant avenues; I have a footman who follows me; I have books; I change place; I vary the direction of my promenade; a book of devotion; a book of history; one changes from one to the other; that gives diversion; one dreams a little of God; of his providence; one possesses one's soul; one thinks of the future。〃
She embellishes her park; superintends the planting of trees; and 〃a labyrinth from which one could not extricate one's self without the thread of Ariadne;〃 she fills her garden with orange trees and jessamine until the air is so perfumed that she imagines herself in Provence。 She sits in the shade and embroiders while her son 〃reads trifles; comedies which he plays like Moliere; verses; romances; tales; he is very amusing; he has esprit; he is appreciative; he entertains us。〃 She notes the changing color of the leaves; the budding of the springtime。 〃It seems to me that in case of need I should know very well how to make a spring;〃 she writes。 She loves too the 〃fine; crystal days of autumn。〃 Sometimes; in the evening; she has 〃gray…brown thoughts which grow black at night;〃 but she never dwells upon these。 Her 〃habitual thoughtthat which one must have for God; if one does his duty〃is for her daughter。 〃My dear child;〃 she writes; 〃it is only you that I prefer to the tranquil repose I enjoy here。〃
If her own soul is open to us in all its variable and charming moods; we also catch in her letters many unconscious reflections of her daughter's character。 She offers her a little needed worldly advice。 〃Try; my child;〃 she says; 〃to adjust yourself to the manners and customs of the people with whom you live; adapt yourself to that which is not bad; do not be disgusted with that which is only mediocre; make a pleasure of that which is not ridiculous。〃 She entreats her to love the little Pauline and not to scold her; nor send her away to the convent as she did her sister Marie…Blanche。 With what infinite tenderness she always speaks of this child; smiling at her small outbursts of temper; soothing her little griefs; and giving wise counsels about her education。 Evidently she doubted the patience of the mother。 〃You do not yet too well comprehend maternal love;〃 she writes; 〃so much the better; my child; it is violent。〃
Unfortunately this adoring mother could not get on very well with her daughter when they were together。 She drowned her with affection; she fatigued her with care for her health; she was hurt by her ungracious manner; she was frozen by her indifference in short; they killed each other。 It is not a rare thing to make a cult of a distant idol; and to find one's self unequal to the perpetual shock of the small collisions which diversities of taste and temperament render inevitable in daily intercourse。 In this instance; one can readily imagine that a love so interwoven with every fiber of the mother's life; must have been a little over…sensitive; a little exacting; a trifle too demonstrative for the colder nature of the daughter; but that it was the less genuine and profound; no one who has at all studied the character of Mme。 de Sevigne can for a moment imagine。 How she suffers when it becomes necessary for Mme。 de Grignan to go back to Provence! How the tears flow! How readily she forgives all; even to denying that there is anything to forgive。 〃A word; a sweetness; a return; a caress; a tenderness; disarms me; cures me in a moment;〃 she writes。 And again: 〃Would to God; my daughter; that I might see you once more at the Hotel de Carnavalet; not for eight days; nor to make there a penitence; but to embrace you and to make you see clearly that I cannot be happy without you; and that the chagrins which my friendship for you might give me are more agreeable than all the false peace of a wearisome absence。〃 In spite of these little clouds; the old love is never dimmed; we are constantly bewildered with the inexhaustible riches of a heart which gives so lavishly and really asks so little for itself。
The Hotel de Carnavalet was one of the social centers of the latter part of the century; but it was the source of no special literature and of no new diversions。 Mme。 de Sevigne was herself luminous; and her fame owes none of its luster to the reflection from those about her。 She was original and spontaneous。 She read because she liked to read; and not because she wished to be learned。 She wrote as she talked; from the impulse of the moment; without method or aim excepting to follow where her rapid thought led her。 Her taste for society was of the same order。 Her variable and sparkling genius would have broken loose from the formal conversations and rather studied brilliancy that had charmed her youth at the Hotel de Rambouillet。 The onerous duties of a perpetual hostess would not have suited her temperament; which demanded its hours of solitude and repose。 But she was devoted to her friends; and there was a delightful freedom in all her intercourse with them。 She has not chronicled her salon; but she has chronicled her world; and we gather from her letters the quality of her guests。 She liked to pass an evening in the literary coterie at the Luxembourg; to drop in familiarly upon Mme。 de La Fayette; where she found La Rochefoucauld; Cardinal de Retz; sometimes Segrais; Huet; La Fontaine; Moliere; and other wits of the time; to sup with Mme。 de Coulanges and Mme。 Scarron。 She is a constant visitor at the old Hotel de Nevers; where Marie de Gonzague and the Princesse Palatine had charmed an earlier generation; and where Mme。 Duplessis Guenegaud; a woman of brilliant intellect; heroic courage; large heart; and pure character; whom d'Andilly calls one of the great souls; presided over a new circle of young poets and men of letters; reviving the fading memories of the Hotel de Rambouillet。 Mme。 De Sevigne; who had fine dramatic talent; acted here in little comedies。 She heard Boileau read his satires and Racine his tragedies。 She met the witty Chevalier de Chatillon; who asked eight days to make an impromptu; and Pomponne; who wrote to his father that the great world he found in this salon did not prevent him from appearing in a gray habit。 In a lett