Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/22

Rh But never any commonplaceness, never declamation; all is from the living spring, from nature.

Let us come at once to her principal claim, to her glory of loving woman. In spite of her tender friendship for d'Alembert, a friendship which was doubtless a little more at its origin, we may say that Mile, de Lespinasse loved but twice in her life : she loved M. de Mora and M. de Guibert. It is the struggle of these two passions, the one expiriug but powerful still, the other whelming-in and soon to be paramount, it is this violent and desperate combat which constitutes the heart-rending drama to which the publication of these Letters initiates us. The contemporaries of Mile, de Lespinasse, her nearest and best informed friends knew nothing of it. Condorcet, writing to Turgot, often speaks of her and tells him of her nervous attacks, but without appear- ing to suspect their cause; those who, like Marmontel, divined some trouble, were wholly on the wrong scent as to dates and sentiments. D'Alembert himself, so concerned in seeing clearly, knew the mystery only on reading certain papers after her death. Therefore we must seek the truth as to the secret sentiments of Mile, de Lespinasse from her own avowals, from herself alone.

She had loved M. de Mora for five or six years, when she met for the first time M. de Guibert. The Marquis de Mora was the son of the Comte de Fuent^s, ambassador from Spain to the Court of France. All things prove that, although still young, he was a man of superior merit and destined to a great future had he lived. As to this, we have not only the assurance of Mile, de Lespinasse, but that of others least subject to infatuation among his contempo- raries ; the Abbe Galiani, for instance, learning in Naples of his death, writes to Mme. d'Epinay (June 18, 1774): "I dare not speak of Mora. I have mourned him long. All is