precisely the feature here
referred to that constitutes, in the eyes of reflecting readers,
the chief, if not the sole, redeeming trait of the Heptameron. As a
favorable example, illustrating the nature of the pious words and
exhortations thrown in so incongruously with stories of the most
objectionable kind, I translate a few sentences from the Prologue,
in which Oisile (the pseudonym for Margaret herself) speaks: "If
you ask me what receipt I have that keeps me so joyful and in such
good health in my old age, it is this--that as soon as I rise I
take and read the Holy Scriptures. Contemplating there the goodness
of God, who sent His Son to earth to announce the glad tidings of
the remission of all sins by the gift of His love, passion, and
merits, the consideration causes me such joy that I take my psalter
and sing in my heart as humbly as I can, while repeating with my
lips those beautiful psalms and hymns which the Holy Ghost composed
in the heart of David and other authors; and the satisfaction I
derive from this does me so much good that all the ills that may
befall me through the day appear to me to be blessings, seeing that
I bear in my heart Him who bore them for me. In like manner, before
I sup, I withdraw to give sustenance to my soul in reading, and
then at night I recall all I have done during the past day, in
order to ask for the pardon of my faults and thank God for His
gifts. Then in His love, fear and peace I take my rest, assured
from every ill. Wherefore, my children, here is the pastime upon
which I settled long since, after having in vain sought contentment
of spirit in all the rest.... For he that knows God sees everything
beautiful in Him, and without Him everything unattractive."
Prologue, 13-15.

If any one object that no quantity of pious reflections can
compensate for the positive evil in the Heptameron, I can but
acquiesce in his view, and concede that M. Genin has been much too
lenient in his estimate of Margaret's fault. It is a riddle which I
leave to the reader to solve, that a princess of unblemished
private life, of studious habits, and of not only a serious, but
even a positively religious turn of mind--in short, in every way a
noble pattern for one of the most corrupt courts Europe has ever
seen--should, in