a part of our very being, with which to win the hearts of others.
Greatness, which is but the result of good fortune, so far from
diminishing the quality of kindness, is but given one that he might
the more freely spread broadcast its beneficent effects like a public
fountain, which is but erected that its waters might be scattered to
the sunlight.

This is the value of a good heart; and the great who are devoid of
the quality of kindness, justly punished for their disdainful
insensibility to the misfortunes of their fellows, are forever
deprived of the greatest blessing of human life--that is to say, of
the pleasures of society. Never did man enjoy these pleasures more
keenly than the prince of whom I am speaking; never was man less
inspired with the misgiving that familiarity breeds contempt. Is this
the man who carried cities by storm and won great battles? Verily, he
seems to have forgotten the high rank he so well knew how to
sustain. Do you not recognize in him the hero, who, ever equable and
consistent, never having to stand on tiptoe to seem taller than he is,
nor to stoop to be courteous and obliging, found himself by nature
all that a man ought to be toward his fellow, like a majestic and
bountiful stream, which peacefully bears into the cities the abundance
it has spread in the fields that it has watered, which gives to all
and never rises above its normal height, nor becomes swollen except
when violent opposition is offered to the gentle slope by which it
continues on its tranquil course. Such, indeed, has also been the
gentleness and such the might of the Prince de Condé. Have you a
secret of importance? Confide it boldly to the safe-keeping of this
noble heart; he will reward your confidence by making your affair his
own. To this prince nothing is more inviolable than the sacred rights
of friendship. When a favor is asked of him he acts as tho he himself