Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/17

2 by Barrfere, the Barrère of the Terror, neither more nor less, who, as we know, loved literature, especially that of senti- ment. When the Letters appeared there was great emotion in society, several of the friends of Mile, de Lespinasse being still alive at that date. They deplored the indiscreet publi- cation ; they blamed the conduct of the editors, who thus dishonoured, they said, the memory of a woman until then respected, and betrayed her secret to all, without the right to do so. They appealed to both morality and decency; they invoked the very fame of Mile, de Lespinasse. Nevertheless, they eagerly enjoyed the reading of the Letters, which far sur- passed in interest the most ardent romances, being, in truth, a " Nouvelle H^loise " in action. To-day posterity, indifferent to personal considerations, sees only the book, and classes it in the series of immortal paintings and testimonies of passion, of which there is not so great a number that we cannot count them. Antiquity gives us Sappho for certain accents, certain sighs of fire that come to us athwart the ages ; it has given us the " Phaedra " of Euripides, the " Magician " of Theocritus, the " Medea " of ApoUonius of Ehodes, the " Dido " of Virgil, the "Ariadne" of Catullus. Among moderns we have the Latin Letters of H^loise, those of the Portuguese nun, " Manon Lescaut," the " Phfedre " of Eacine, and a few other rare pro- ductions, among which the Letters of Mile, de Lespinasse are in the first rank. Oh ! if the late Barrfere had never done worse in his life than publish these Letters, if he had had no greater burden on his conscience we would say to-day, absolv- ing him with all our heart, " May the earth lie light upon him!"

Here is an anecdote which I possess from the original. At the time when these Letters appeared, a brilliant society had gathered at the baths of Aix in Savoie. Some of the party had gone to visit Chambéry ; on their return one of the