dmirer of Ninon de l'Enclos
during his long career, and he did much toward shaping her philosophy,
and enabling her to understand the human heart in all its
eccentricities, and how to regulate properly the passion of love.

During his long exile in England, the two corresponded at times, and
the letters here given are the fragments of a voluminous
correspondence, the greater part of which has been lost. They are to
be found in the untranslated collated works of Saint-Evremond, and are
very curious, inasmuch as they were written when Ninon and
Saint-Evremond were in their "eighties."

Saint-Evremond always claimed, that his extremely long and vigorous
life was due to the same causes which Ninon de l'Enclos attributed to
her great age, that is, to an unflagging zeal in observing the
doctrines of the Epicurean philosophy. These ideas appear in his
letter to Mademoiselle de l'Enclos, written to her under the sobriquet
of "Leontium," and which is translated and appended to this
correspondence.

As an evidence of Saint-Evremond's unimpaired faculties at a great
age, the charms of his person attracted the attention of the Duchess
of Sandwich, one of the beauties of the English Court, and she became
so enamored of him, that a liaison was the result, which lasted until
the time of Saint-Evremond's death. They were like two young lovers
just beginning their career, instead of a youth over eighty years of
age, and a maiden who had passed forty. Such attachments were not
uncommon among persons who lived calm, philosophical lives, their very
manner of living inspiring tender regard, as was the case of the great
affection of the Marquis de Sevigne, who although quite young, and his
rank an attraction to the great beauties of the Court, nevertheless
aspired to capture the heart of Mademoiselle de l'Enclos, who was over
sixty years of age. What Ninon thought about the matter, appears in
her letters on the preceding pages.

Correspondence Between Lord Saint-Evremond
and Ninon de L'Enclos
When Over Eighty Years
of Age

I

Saint-Evremond to Ninon de l'Enclos

Lovers and Gamblers have Something in Common

I have been trying for more than a year to obtain news of you from
everybody, but nobody can give me any. M. de la Bastille tells me that
you are in good health, but adds, that if you have no more lovers, you
are satisfied to have a greater number of friends.

The falsity of the latter piece of news casts a d