Letter IV. To an Author

A magistrate who had sent him, a book of Christian poetry.

Sir, — It has been to me an extremely grateful honour to have received from you these rich and devout

• Ps. cxix. 6.

studies which the Rev. Father Angelus le Blanc has handed me; and if I had the rich scented casket or cabinet steeped in unguents, which that prince of old, Alexander the Great, destined for the keeping of the works of Homer, I would destine it also for the treasuring of this beautiful present. It is by so much the more precious to me, as I had the less reason to dare to hope for it, since I did not even think you knew I was in the world; in which being truly so small a thing, held in this nook of our mountains, I think myself invisible. But still, as the strong lights discover the atoms, so have you been able to see me.

But since it has pleased you, sir, to turn not only your thought, but what is still more, your good will, towards me, I beseech you very humbly to continue this grace in my regard, by the same courtesy and goodness which has made it spring in your soul, without any merit on my part. And if I cannot by effects, at least I will try by affection, to correspond with this favour, ever bearing you an honour, or even, if you allow this word, a love, very special. I am further drawn to this by this learned piety which makes you so happily transform the Pagan into Christian muses, taking them from that old profane Parnassus, and putting them on the new sacred Calvary.

And would to God that so many Christian poets who have in our age worthily shown, like you, sir, the beauty of their minds, had also, like you, shown the goodness of their judgment in the choice of the subjects of their poems! The corruption of manners would not be so great; for it is a marvel how words marshalled by the laws of verse, have power to penetrate hearts and subdue the memory. May God pardon them the abuse they have made of their learning. And do you, sir, ever employ and enjoy thus holily the beautiful, rich, and excellent mind which the Divine Majesty has bestowed on you in this temporal life, in order that you may rejoice for ever, contemplating and gloriously singing the same mysteries in eternal life.

I am with all my heart your, &c.