exists in
France. I am charmed with a country where you do not fear ennui, and
you will be wise if you think of nobody but yourself, not that the
principle is false with you: that you can no longer please others.

I have written to M. Morelli, and if I find in him the skill you say,
I shall consider him a true physician.

XIV

Saint-Evremond to Ninon de l'Enclos

Superiority of the Pleasures of the Stomach

I have never read a letter which contained so much common sense as
your last one. You eulogize the stomach so highly, that it would be
shameful to possess an intelligent mind without also having a good
stomach. I am indebted to the Abbe Dubois for having sounded my
praises to you in this respect.

At eighty-eight years of age, I can eat oysters every morning for
breakfast. I dine well and sup fairly well. The world makes heroes of
men with less merit than mine.

Qu'on ait plus de bien, de credit,
Plus de vertu, plus de conduite,
Je n'en aurai point de depit,
Qu'un autre me passe en merite
Sur le gout et sur l'appetit,
C'est l'avantage qui m'irrite.
L'estomac est le plus grand bien,
Sans lui les autres ne sont rien.
Un grand coeur veut tout entreprendre,
Un grand esprit veut tout comprendre;
Les droits de l'estomac sont de bien digerer;
Et dans les sentiments que me donne mon age,
La beaute de l'esprit, la grandeur du courage,
N'ont rien qu'a se vertu l'on puisse comparer.

(Let others more riches and fame,
More virtue and morals possess,
'Twill kindle no envious flame;
But to make my merit seem less
In taste, appetite, is, I claim,
An outrageous thing to profess.
The stomach's the greatest of things,
All else to us nothing brings.
A great heart would all undertake,
A great soul investigate,
But the law of the stomach is good things to digest,
And the glories which are at my age the delight,
True beauty of mind, of courage the height,
Are nothing unless by its virtue they're blest.)

When I was young I admired intellect more than anything else, and was
less considerate of the interests of the body than I should have been;
to-day, I am remedying the error I then held, as much as possible,
either by the use I am making of it, or by the esteem and friendship I
have for it.

You were of the same opinion. The body was something in your youth,
now you are wholly concerned with the pleasures of the mind. I do not
know whether you are right in placing so high an estimate upon it. We
read litt