I am told that a great man, greater by some inches than any other man, had ordered a remarkable costume to be made for him, and after all would not wear it; for he learned by chance that a certain lady, with whose person he was not acquainted, and to whom he never spoke a word in his life, would not be at the assembly.

I prose on with a facility that wearies you to death.

I experience every day the truth of what you once told me, that there are certain thoughts which are not to be dwelt upon, but passed over as lightly as possible, unless we would be forever in tears: that is my case: for there is not a place in the house which does not give a stab to my heart when I see it: but your room especially deals a deadly blow from every part of it.

I make no doubt, the consternation was general; it must be very disagreeable to have so fatal an event break in upon an entertainment that cost fifty thousand crowns.

Think,—but no; think of nothing, leave the business of thought to me, in my long shady alleys, whose dreary melancholy will add to mine; I shall walk there long enough before I shall find the treasure I had with me the last time I was in them.

I am a fool; that is beyond dispute; but you are bound to love my folly.

Divest yourself of the dislike you have taken to circumstantial details; I have often told you, and you ought yourself to feel the truth of this remark, that they are as dear to us from those we love, as they are tedious and disagreeable from others. If they are displeasing to us, it is only from the indifference we feel for those who write them.

We are never satisfied with having done well, and In endeavoring to do better, do much worse.

Nothing is so capable of overturning a good intention as to show distrust of it; to be suspected for an enemy is often sufficient to make a person become one.

How strange is the force of imagination! it represents things as if they were actually present to us; we consider them so, and to a heart like mine, this is death. I know not where to hide myself from you.