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which a certain sort of minds might find with them, thatof frivolity. If they are frivolous, what are oui ownlives ? Let us turn our eyes towards ourselves, andask, if we daily put down our occupations, the sub-jects of our conversation, our pleasures and our seriousthoughts, would they not be more empty of solid in-formation than madame de Sevigne’s letters; or, ifmore learned, will they not be less wise, and, above all,deficient in the warmth of heart that burns in hers ?In the summer of this year, she would fain have visitedher daughter; but her uncle insisted that a journey toBritany was necessary for the final settlement oftheir mutual affairs, as he was grown old, and mightdie any day. She arrived at the Rocliers at the endof September. Her life was more lonely than duringthe previous visit, for her only companion was heruncle. She had felt deeply disappointed at giving upher journey to Provence , and the additional distancebetween her and her daughter, when in Britany, washard to bear. “We were far enough off,” she writes ;“ another hundred leagues added pains my heart; andI cannot dwell upon the thought without having greatneed of your sermons. What you say of the littleprofit you often derive from them yourself displays atenderness that greatly pleases me. You wish me, then,to speak of my woods. The sterility of my letters doesnot disgust you. Well, dear child ! I may tell you, thatI do honour to the moon, which I love, as you know.The good abbe fears the dew: I never suffer from it,and I remain, with Beaulieu (her dog) and my ser-vants in attendance, till eight o’clock. Indeed, theseavenues are of a beauty, and breathe a tranquillity, apeace, and a silence, of which I can never have toomuch. When I think of you, it is with tenderness ; andI must leave it to you to imagine whether I feel thisdeeply — I cannot express it. I am glad to feel alone,and fear the arrival of some ladies, that is, of con-straint.” Her residence in the province was painfullydisturbed, on account of the riots which had taken place at