What a fancy to want good wine, and how unfortunate that I can not say I was successful in getting it!  M. de L’Hermitage will tell you as well as I, that de Gourville never leaves his room, is indifferent to taste of any kind, is always a good friend, but his friends do not trespass upon his friendship for fear of worrying him.  After that, if, by any insinuation I can make, and which I do not now foresee, I can use my knowledge of wine to procure you some, do not doubt that I will avail myself of it.

M. de Tallard was one of my former friends, but state affairs place great men above trifles.  I am told that the Abbe Dubois will go to England with him.  He is a slim little man who, I am sure, will please you.

I have twenty letters of yours, and they are read with admiration by our little circle, which is proof that good taste still exists in France.  I am charmed with a country where you do not fear ennui, and you will be wise if you think of nobody but yourself, not that the principle is false with you:  that you can no longer please others.

I have written to M. Morelli, and if I find in him the skill you say, I shall consider him a true physician.

XIV

Saint-Evremond to Ninon de l’Enclos

Superiority of the Pleasures of the Stomach

I have never read a letter which contained so much common sense as your last one.  You eulogize the stomach so highly, that it would be shameful to possess an intelligent mind without also having a good stomach.  I am indebted to the Abbe Dubois for having sounded my praises to you in this respect.

At eighty-eight years of age, I can eat oysters every morning for breakfast.  I dine well and sup fairly well.  The world makes heroes of men with less merit than mine.

Qu’on ait plus de bien, de credit,
Plus de vertu, plus de conduite,
Je n’en aurai point de depit,
Qu’un autre me passe en merite
Sur le gout et sur l’appetit,
C’est l’avantage qui m’irrite. 
L’estomac est le plus grand bien,
Sans lui les autres ne sont rien. 
Un grand coeur veut tout entreprendre,
Un grand esprit veut tout comprendre;
Les droits de l’estomac sont de bien digerer;
Et dans les sentiments que me donne mon age,
La beaute de l’esprit, la grandeur du courage,
N’ont rien qu’a se vertu l’on puisse comparer.

(Let others more riches and fame,
More virtue and morals possess,
’Twill kindle no envious flame;
But to make my merit seem less
In taste, appetite, is, I claim,
An outrageous thing to profess. 
The stomach’s the greatest of things,
All else to us nothing brings. 
A great heart would all undertake,
A great soul investigate,
But the law of the stomach is good things to digest,
And the glories which are at my age the delight,
True beauty of mind, of courage the height,
Are nothing unless by its virtue they’re blest.)