I have search’d all the Booksellers Shops at Paris for some choice new Tracts, to add to those which I shall receive from Holland, but found nothing good besides what I have already sent thee, except two little.  Romances that are lately come out.  The first is intitled, Les Egaremens du Coeur & de l’Esprit; the Author of which I have already made mention of in my former Letters.[13] He writes in a pure Stile, understands Human Nature, and he lays the Heart of Man open with a great deal of Clearness and Justice:  But in this Work he has fallen into an Error, which he has often condemn’d in the Writings of others.  He makes it plain to the Reader, that he affects to be witty; and there are some Passages where Nature is sacrificed to the false Glare.  But this Error, which is not common, is repair’d by a thousand Beauties.  The Author of this Romance paints rather than writes Things; and the Pictures he draws strike the Imagination with Pleasure.  Do but consider if it be possible to define the first Surprize of a Heart with more Justness and Clearness. Without searching into the Motive of my Action, I managed, I interpreted her Looks; I endeavour’d to make her least Motions my Lessons.  So much Obstinacy in not losing Sight of her made me at last taken notice of by her.  She looked upon me in her turn, I fix’d her without knowing it, and during the Charm with which I was captivated whether I wou’d or not, I know not what my Eyes told her, but she turn’d hers away with a sort of Blush.

None but a Man who was at that Juncture, or had been formerly, in Love cou’d, with so much Truth and Delicacy, have painted all the Motions of the Soul.  Genius, Wit, and Learning cannot draw Pictures so much to the Life, it being a Point to which the Heart alone can attain.  When I say the Heart, I mean a tender Heart, and one that is in such Situations.  The following is the Character of a Prude in Love. Being not to be depended upon in her Proceedings, she was a perpetual Mixture of Tenderness and Severity:  She seem’d to yield only to be the more obstinate in her Opposition.  If she thought she had, by what she said, disposed me to entertain any sort of Hopes, being on the Watch how to disappoint me, she presently resum’d that Air which had made me so often tremble, and left me nothing to trust to but a melancholy Uncertainty.  One cannot help being struck with the Truth and Nature which, prevail in this Character.  Without an Acquaintance with the World, and a perfect Knowledge of Mankind, ’tis impossible to attain to this Point.  ’Tis difficult to distinguish the different Forms, and, as one may say, the internal Motives of different Characters.  A mean Writer does only take a Sketch of ’em; but a good Author paints them, sets them plainly in Sight, and exposes them as they really are.

A Romance is consider’d in no other Light than as a Work composed only for Amusement; but something else ought to be the Scope of it:  For every Book that has not the Useful as well as the Agreeable, does not deserve the Esteem of good Judges.  The Heart ought to be instructed at the same time as the Mind is amused; and this is the Quality with which the greatest Men have render’d their Writings famous.