Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PORTRAIT OF MLLE. DE LESPINASSE. By D'ALEMBERT. [Portraits of the living and Eulogies of the dead were a fashion of the period; the Eulogies were usually offered for competition and read before the French Academy; the Portraits circulated in the salons or were given to their originals. Mlle. de Lespinasse wrote one on the Marquis de Condorcet. That of herself by d'Alembert was addressed to her in 1771, and first published in his " (Euvres Posthumes " in 1799. The " Eulogy of Eliza," by M. de Guibert, appeared for the first time in a collection of Eulogies written by him and published by his widow in 1806, before her publication of the Letters, edited by Barrere, in 1809. The name Eliza is given in memory of Eliza Draper, the friend of Sterne, the favourite author of Mlle. de Lespinasse. At the close of the Eulogy M. de Guibert names her Claire- FranQoise, and no explanation is given of this misnomer. The Address to her Manes by d'Alembert appeared first in his Posthumous Works above-mentioned.] Time and habit, which change all things, Mademoiselle, which destroy our opinions and our illusions, which annihilate or enfeeble love itself, can do nothing against the feeling that I have for you, which you have inspired in me for the last sixteen years; that feeling is strengthened more and more by the knowledge that I have of the lovable and solid qualities that form your character; it makes me feel at this moment the pleasure of occupying my mind with you that I may paint you such as I see you. You say you do not wish me to limit myself to making half your portrait by writing a panegyric; you wish the shadows to be in it, apparently to put in relief the truth of the rest; and you order me to tell you your faults, and even, if occasion be, your vices, should I know of any. ...