h those who have nothing
else to give, make up the deficiency in wishes.

XVII

Ninon de l'Enclos to Saint-Evremond

"I Should Have Hanged Myself"

Your letter filled with useless yearnings of which I thought myself
incapable. "The days are passing," as said the good man of Yveteaux,
"in ignorance and sloth; these days destroy us and take from us the
things to which we are attached." You are cruelly made to prove this.

You told me long ago that I should die of reflections. I try not to
make any more, and to forget on the morrow the things I live through
today. Everybody tells me that I have less to complain of at one time
than at another. Be that as it may, had I been proposed such a life I
should have hanged myself. We hold on to an ugly body, however, as
something agreeable; we love to feel comfort and ease. Appetite is
something I still enjoy. Would to Heaven I could try my stomach with
yours, and talk of the old friends we have known, the memory of whom
gives me more pleasure than the presence of many people I now meet.
There is something good in all that, but to tell you the truth, there
is no comparison.

M. de Clerambault often asks me if he resembles his father in mental
attainments. "No," I always answer him, but I hope from his
presumption that he believes this "no" to be of advantage to him, and
perhaps there are some who would have so considered it. What a
comparison between the present epoch and that through which we have
passed!

You are going to write Madame Sandwich, but I believe she has gone to
the country. She knows all about your sentiment for her. She will tell
you more news about this country than I, having gauged and
comprehended everything. She knows all my haunts and has found means
of making herself perfectly at home.

XVIII

Saint-Evremond to Ninon de l'Enclos

Life Is Joyous When It Is Without Sorrow

The very last letter I receive from Mademoiselle de l'Enclos always
seems to me to be better than the preceding ones. It is not because
the sentiment of present pleasure dims the memory of the past, but the
true reason is, your mind is becoming stronger and more fortified
every day.

If it were the same with the body as with the mind, I should badly
sustain this stomach combat of which you speak. I wanted to make a
trial of mine against that of Madame Sandwich, at a banquet given by
Lord Jersey. I was not the vanquished.

Everybody knows the spirit of Madame S