Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/46

Rh mind which created around her a sort of atmosphere of enthusiasm and sympathy. Such are the chief features of the portrait which her contemporaries have left of her. La Harpe speaks of her as a person " well-made, with an agreeable face before the small-pox spoilt it," " She was tall and well-formed," says M. de Guibert. "I did not know her until she was thirty-eight years of age, but her figure was still noble and full of grace. But what she possessed, and what distinguished her above all else, was that first and greatest charm of all, without which beauty is but a cold perfection, the charm of an expressive countenance; hers had no special character ; it united all." But, as often hap- pens to persons for whom the trials of life begin early, one thing was lacking to Mile, de Lespinasse, namely, the look of youth, in which happiness plays so great a part. " Her face," says Grimm, " was never young."

But her soul was — ever. To Marmontel it seemed " an ardent soul, a fiery nature, a romantic imagination." " She was born," says Grimm," with nerves that were marvellously sensitive. But that sensibility, which gave passion such grasp upon her, made her also accessible to all generous emotions — enthusiasm for the noble and the good, indigna- tion at the bad and the mean." " She was of all styles," says Guibert ; " the lover of what was good ! How she enjoyed, how she knew how to praise that which pleased her, above all, that which touched her ! " These qualities had their reverse, namely : infatuation and variability. D'Alembert reproaches her for too ready a credulity, especially when sentiments of a specially tender nature were in question. She herself speaks of that " mobility of soul of which they accuse me," and admits it.

Such was her soul. As for her mind : all was natural, spontaneous, of an elegant simplicity as far removed from