from the heart the curtain of deceit, artifice and treachery, to
expose the nature of the machinery behind the scenes.

These letters must be read in the light of the opinions of the wisest
philosophers of the seventeenth century upon her character.

"Inasmuch as the first use she (Mademoiselle de l'Enclos) made of her
reason, was to become enfranchised from vulgar errors, it is
impossible to be further removed from the stupid mistake of those who,
under the name of "passion," elevate the sentiment of love to the
height of a virtue. Ninon understood love to be what it really is, a
taste founded upon the senses, a blind sentiment, which admits of no
merit in the object which gives it birth, and which promises no
recompense; a caprice, the duration of which does not depend upon our
volition, and which is subject to remorse and repentance."




LETTERS OF NINON de L'ENCLOS

TO THE

MARQUIS de SÉVIGNÉ



I.

A Hazardous Undertaking.