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Title: Letters of Abelard and Heloise

Author: Pierre Bayle

Translator: John Hughes

Release Date: April 27, 2011 [EBook #35977]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE ***




Produced by Jim Adcock. Special Thanks to the Internet Archive.






  LETTERS
  of
  Abelard and Heloise.



  LETTERS
  OF
  Abelard and
  Heloise.

  To which is prefix'd
  A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT
  OF
  THEIR
  _Lives, Amours, and Misfortunes._
  BY THE LATE JOHN HUGHES, ESQ.
  Together with the
  _POEM OF ELOISA TO ABELARD._
  BY
  MR. POPE.
  And, (to which is now added) the
  _POEM OF ABELARD TO ELOISA,_
  BY MRS. MADAN.

  ------------

  LONDON:

  Printed
  for W. OSBORNE, and T. GRIFFIN in
  Holborn, and J. MOZLEY, in
  Gainsborough.

  MDCCLXXXII.




PREFACE


It is very surprising that the _Letters of Abelard and Heloise_
have not sooner appeared in English, since it is generally allowed,
by all who have seen them in other languages, that they are written
with the greatest passion of any in this kind which are extant. And
it is certain that the _Letters from a Nun to a Cavalier_, which
have so long been known and admired among us, are in all respects
inferior to them. Whatever those were, these are known to be genuine
Pieces occasioned by an amour which had very extraordinary
consequences, and made a great noise at the time when it happened,
being between two of the most distinguished Persons of that age.

These _Letters_, therefore, being truly written by the
Persons themselves, whose names they bear, and who were both
remarkable for their genius and learning, as well as by a most
extravagant passion for each other, are every where full of
sentiments of the heart, (which are not to be imitated in a feigned
story,) and touches of Nature, much more moving than any which could
flow from the Pen of a Writer of Novels, or enter into the
imagination of any who had not felt the like emotions and distresses.

They were originally written in Latin, and are extant in a
Collection of the Works of _Abelard_, printed at Paris in the
year 1616. With what elegance and beauty of stile they were written
in that language, will sufficiently appear to the learned Reader,
even by those few citations which are set at the bottom of the page
in some places of the following history. But the Book here mentioned
consisting chiefly of school-divinity, and the learning of those
times, and therefore being rarely to be met with but in public
libraries, and in the hands of some learned men, the Letters of
_Abelard_ and _Heloise_ are much more known by a Translation,
or rather Paraphrase of them, in French, first published at
the Hague in 1693, and which afterwards received several other
more complete Editions. This Translation is much applauded, but who
was the Author of it is not certainly known. Monsieur Bayle says he
had been informed it was done by a woman; and, perhaps, he thought no
one besides could have entered so thoroughly into the passion and
tenderness of such writings, for which that sex seems to have a more
natural disposition than the other. This may be judged of by the
Letters themselves, among which those of _Heloise_ are the most
moving, and the Master seems in this particular to have been excelled
by the Scholar.

In some of the later Editions in French, there has been prefixed
to the Letters an Historical Account of _Abelard_ and _Heloise_;
this is chiefly extracted from the Preface of the Editor of _Abelard's_
Works in Latin, and from the _Critical Dictionary_ of Monsieur
Bayle*, who has put together, under several articles, all the
particulars he was able to collect concerning these two famous
Persons; and though the first Letter of _Abelard to Philintus_,
in which he relates his own story, may seem to have rendered this
account in part unnecessary; yet the Reader will not be displeased to
see the thread of the relation entire, and continued to the death of
the Persons whose misfortunes had made their lives so very
remarkable.

* _Vide Artic_. Abelard, Heloise, Foulques, _and_ Paraclete

It is indeed impossible to be unmoved at the surprising and
multiplied afflictions and persecutions which befel a man of
_Abelard's_ fine genius, when we see them so feelingly described
by his own hand. Many of these were owing to the malice of such as
were his enemies on the account of his superior learning and merit;
yet the great calamities of his life took their rise from his unhappy
indulgence of a criminal passion, and giving himself a loose to
unwarrantable pleasures. After this he was perpetually involved in
sorrow and distress, and in vain sought for ease and quiet in a
monastic life. The _Letters_ between him and his beloved _Heloise_
were not written till long after their marriage and separation, and
when each of them was dedicated to a life of religion. Accordingly we
find in them surprising mixtures of devotion and tenderness, and
remaining frailty, and a lively picture of human nature in its
contrarieties of passion and reason, its infirmities, and its
sufferings.




   CONTENTS.


The History of Abelard and Heloise

   LETTERS.

I. Abelard to Philintus.

II. Heloise to Abelard.

III. Abelard to Heloise.

IV. Heloise to Abelard.

V. Heloise to Abelard.

VI. Abelard to Heloise.

VII. Eloisa to Abelard. A poem. by Mr. Pope.

VIII. Abelard to Eloisa. A poem. by Mrs. Madan.




The History of Abelard and Heloise


_Peter Abelard_ was born in the village of Palais in Britany.
He lived in the twelfth century, in the reigns of _Louis the Gross_,
and _Louis the Young_. His Father's name was _Beranger_, a
gentleman of a considerable and wealthy family. He took care to give
his children a liberal and pious education, especially his eldest
son _Peter_, on whom he endeavoured to bestow all possible
improvements, because there appeared in him an extraordinary vivacity
of wit joined with sweetness of temper, and all imaginable presages
of a great man.

When he had made some advancement in learning, he grew so fond of
his books, that, lest affairs of the world might interrupt his
proficiency in them, he quitted his birthright to his younger
brothers, and applied himself entirely to the studies of Philosophy
and Divinity.

Of all the sciences to which he applied himself, that which
pleased him most, and in which he made the greatest progress, was
Logick. He had a very subtile wit, and was incessantly whetting it by
disputes, out of a restless ambition to be master of his weapons. So
that in a short time he gained the reputation of the greatest
philosopher of his age; and has always been esteemed the founder of
what we call the _Learning of the Schoolmen_.

He finished his studies at Paris, where learning was then in a
flourishing condition. In this city he found that famous professor of
philosophy William des Champeaux, and soon became his favourite
scholar; but this did not last long. The professor was so hard put to
it to answer the subtle objections of his new scholar, that he grew
uneasy with him. The school soon run into parties. The senior
scholars, transported with envy against _Abelard_, seconded
their master's resentment. All this served only to increase the young
man's presumption, who now thought himself sufficiently qualified to
set up a school of his own. For this purpose he chose an advantageous
place, which was the town of Melun, ten leagues from Paris, where the
French court resided at that time. Champeaux did all that he could to
hinder the erecting of this school; but some of the great courtiers
being his enemies, the opposition he made to it only promoted the
design of his rival.

The reputation of this new professor made a marvellous progress,
and eclipsed that of Champeaux. These successes swelled _Abelard_
so much that he removed his school to Corbeil, in order to engage his
enemy the more closer in more frequent disputations. But his
excessive application to study brought upon him a long and dangerous
sickness, which constrained him to return to his own native air.

After he had spent two years in his own country he made a second
adventure to Paris, where he found that his old antagonist Champeaux
had resigned his chair to another, and was retired into a convent of
Canons Regular, among whom he continued his lectures. _Abelard_
attacked him with such fury, that he quickly forced him to renounce
his tenets. Whereupon the poor monk became so despicable, and his
antagonist in such great esteem, that nobody went to the lectures of
Champeaux, and the very man who succeeded him in his professorship,
listed under _Abelard_, and became his scholar.

He was scarce fixed in his chair before he found himself exposed
more than ever to the strokes of the most cruel envy. Endeavours were
used to do him ill offices by all those who were any ways disaffected
to him. Another professor was put into his place, who had thought it
his duty to submit to _Abelard_, in short so many enemies were
raised against him that he was forced to retreat from Paris to Melun,
and there revived his logick lectures. But this held not long; for
hearing that Champeaux with all his infantry was retired into a
country village, he came and posted himself on mount St. Genevieve,
where he erected a new school, like a kind of battery against him
whom Champeaux had left to teach at Paris.

Champeaux understanding that his substitute was thus besieged in
his school, brought the Regular Canons attack again to their
monastery. But this, instead of relieving his friend, caused all his
scholars to desert him. At which the poor philosopher was so
mortified, that he followed the example of his patron Champeaux, and
turned monk too.

The dispute now lay wholly between Abelard and Champeaux, who
renewed it with great warmth on both sides; but the senior had not
the best on't. While it was depending, _Abelard_ was obliged to
visit his father and mother, who, according to the fashion of those
times, had resolved to forsake the world, and retire into convents,
in order to devote themselves more seriously to the care of their
salvation.

Having assisted at the admission of his parents into their
respective monasteries and received their blessing, he returned to
Paris, where during his absence, his rival had been promoted to the
bishoprick of Chalons. And now being in a condition to quit his
school without any suspicions of flying from his enemy, he resolved
to apply himself wholly to Divinity.

To this end he removed to Laon, where one _Anselm_ read
divinity-lectures with good reputation. But _Abelard_ was so
little satisfied with the old man's abilities, who has he says, had a
very mean genius, and a great fluency of words without sense, that he
took a resolution for the future to hear no other master than the
Holy Scriptures. A good resolution! if a man takes the Spirit of God
for his guide, and be more concerned to distinguish truth from
falsehood, than to confirm himself in those principles into which
his, own fancy or complexion, or the prejudices of his birth and
education, have insensibly led him.

_Abelard_, together with the Holy Scriptures, read the
ancient fathers and doctors of the church, in which he spent whole
days and nights, and profited so well, that instead of returning to
_Anselm's_ lectures, he took up the same employment, and began
to explain the Prophet _Ezekiel_ to some of his fellow-pupils.
He performed this part so agreeably; and in so easy a method that he
soon got a crowd of auditors.

The jealous _Anselm_ could not bear this; he quickly found
means to get the lecturer silenced. Upon this _Abelard_ removed
to Paris once more, where he proceeded with his public exposition on
Ezekiel, and soon acquired the same reputation for his divinity he
had before gained for his philosophy. His eloquence and learning
procured him an incredible number of scholars from all parts; so that
if he had minded saving of money, he might have grown rich with ease
in a short time. And happy had it been for him, if, among all the
enemies his learning exposed him to, he had guarded his heart against
the charms of love. But, alas! the greatest doctors are not always
the wisest men, as appears from examples in every age; but from none
more remarkable than that of this learned man, whose story I am now
going to tell you.

_Abelard_, besides his uncommon merit as a scholar, had all
the accomplishments of a gentleman. He had a greatness of soul which
nothing could shock; his passions were delicate, his judgment solid,
and his taste exquisite. He was of a graceful person, and carried
himself with the air of a man of quality. His conversation was sweet,
complaisant, easy, and gentleman-like. It seemed as tho' Nature had
designed him for a more elevated employment than that of teaching the
sciences. He looked upon riches and grandeur with contempt, and had
no higher ambition than to make his name famous among learned men,
and to be reputed the greatest doctor of his age: but he had human
frailty, and all his philosophy could not guard him from the attacks
of love. For some time indeed, he had defended himself against this
passion pretty well, when the temptation was but slight; but upon a
more intimate familiarity with such agreeable objects, he found his
reason fail him: yet in respect to his wisdom, he thought of
compounding the matter and resolved at first, that love and
philosophy should dwell together in the same breast. He intended only
to let out his heart to the former, and that but for a little while;
never considering that love is a great ruiner of projects; and that
when it has once got a share in a heart, it is easy to possess itself
of the whole.

He was now in the seven or eight and twentieth year of his age,
when he thought himself completely happy in all respects, excepting
that he wanted a mistress. He considered therefore of making a
choice, but such a one as might be most suitable to his notions, and
the design he had of passing agreeably those hours he did not employ
in his study. He had several ladies in his eye, to whom as he says in
one of his _Letters_, he could easily have recommended himself.
For you must understand, that besides his qualifications mentioned
before, he had a vein of poetry, and made abundance of little easy
songs, which he would sing with all the advantage of a gallant air
and pleasant voice. But tho' he was cut out for a lover, he was not
over-hasty in determining his choice. He was not of a humour to be
pleased with the wanton or forward; he scorned easy pleasures, and
sought to encounter with difficulties and impediments, that he might
conquer with the greater glory. In short, he had not yet seen the
woman he was to love.

Not far from the place where _Abelard_ read his lectures
lived one _Doctor Fulbert_, a canon of the church of Notre-Dame.
This canon had a niece named _Heloise_ in his house whom he
educated with great care and affection. Some writers say*, that she
was the good man's natural daughter; but that, to prevent a public
scandal, he gave out that she was his niece by his sister, who upon
her death-bed had charged him with her education. But though it was
well known in those times, as well as since, that the niece of an
ecclesiastick is sometimes more nearly related to him, yet of this
damsel's birth and parentage we have nothing very certain.
There is reason to think, from one of her _Letters to Abelard_,
that she came of a mean family; for she owns that great honour was
done to her side by this alliance, and that he married much below
himself. So that what Francis d'Amboise says, that she was of the
name and family of Montmorency has no manner of foundation. It is
very probable she was really and truly Fulbert's niece, as he
affirmed her to be. Whatever she was for birth, she was a very
engaging woman; and if she was not a perfect beauty, she
appeared such at least in _Abelard's_ eyes. Her person was well
proportioned, her features regular, her eyes sparkling, her lips
vermillion and well formed, her complexion animated, her air fine,
and her aspect sweet and agreeable. She had a surprising quickness of
wit, an incredible memory, and a considerable share of learning,
joined with humility; and all these accomplishments were attended
with something so graceful and moving, that it was impossible for
those who kept her company not to be in love with her.

* Papyr. Maffo. Annal. 1. 3. "Joannes Canonicus Pariflus,
Heloysiam naturalem filiam habehat prastanti ingenio formaque."

As soon as _Abelard_ had seen her, and conversed with her,
the charms of her wit and beauty made such an impression upon his
heart, that he presently conceived a most violent passion for her,
and resolved to make it his whole endeavour to win her affections.
And now, he that formerly quitted his patrimony to pursue his
studies, laid aside all other engagements to attend his new passion.

In vain did Philosophy and Reason importune him to return; he was
deaf to their call, and thought of nothing but how to enjoy the sight
and company of his dear _Heloise_. And he soon met with the
luckiest opportunity in the world. Fulbert who had the greatest
affection imaginable for his niece, finding her to have a good share
of natural wit, and a particular genius for learning, thought himself
obliged to improve the talents which Nature had so liberally bestowed
on her. He had already put her to learn several languages, which she
quickly came to understand so well, that her fame began to spread
itself abroad, and the wit and learning of _Heloise_ was every
where discoursed of. And though her uncle for his own share was no
great scholar, he was very felicitous that his niece should have all
possible improvements. He was willing, therefore, she should have
masters to instruct her in what she had a mind to learn: but he loved
his money, and this kept him from providing for her education so well
as she desired.

_Abelard_, who knew _Heloise's_ inclinations, and the
temper of her uncle, thought this an opportunity favourable to his
design. He was already well acquainted with Fulbert, as being his
brother canon in the same church; and he observed how fond the other
was of his friendship, and what an honour he esteemed it to be
intimate with a person of his reputation. He therefore told him one
day in familiarity, that he was at a loss for some house to board in;
and if you could find room for me, said he, in yours, I leave to you
name the terms.

The good man immediately considering that by this means he should
provide an able master for his niece who, instead of taking money of
him, offered to provide him well for his board, embraced his proposal
with the joy imaginable, gave him a thousand caresses, and desired he
would consider him for the future as one ambitious of the strictest
friendship with him.

What an unspeakable joy was this to the amorous _Abelard_! to
consider that he was going to live with her, who was the only object
of his desires! that he should have the opportunity of seeing and
conversing with her every day, and of acquainting her with his
passion! However, he concealed his joy at present lest he should make
his intention suspected. We told you before how liberal Nature had
been to our lover in making his person every way so agreeable; so
that he flattered himself that it was almost impossible * that any
woman should reject his addresses. Perhaps he was mistaken: the sex
has variety of humour. However, consider him as a philosopher who had
therto lived in a strict chastity **, he certainly reasoned
well in the business of love; when he concluded that _Heloise_
would be an easier conquest to him than others because her learning
gave him an opportunity of establishing a correspondence by letters,
in which he might discover his passion with greater freedom than he
dared presume to use in conversation.

* _Tanti quippe tune nominis eram & juventutis & forma
gratia praeminebam, ut quamcunque foeminartn nostre dignarer amore
nullam verer repulsam._ 1 Epist. Abel. p. 10. Abel.

** _Froena libidini coepi laxare, qui antea viveram continantissime._
Ibid.

Some time after the Canon had taken _Abelard_ into his own
house, as they were discoursing one day about things somewhat above
Fulbert's capacity, the latter turned the discourse insensibly to the
good qualities of his niece; he informed _Abelard_ of the
excellency of her wit, and how strong a propensity she had to improve
in learning; and withal made it his earnest request, that he would
take the pains to instruct her. _Abelard_ pretended to be
surprised at a proposal of this nature. He told him that learning was
not the proper business of women; that such inclinations in them had
more of humour or curiosity than a solid desire of knowledge; and
could hardly pass, among either the learned or ignorant, without
drawing upon them the imputation of conceit and affectation. Fulbert
answered, that this was very true of women of common capacities; but
he hoped, when he had discoursed with his niece, and found what
progress she had made already, and what a capacity she had for
learning, he would be of another opinion. _Abelard_ assured him,
he was ready to do all he could for her improvement, and if she was
not like other women, who hate to learn any thing beyond their
needle, he would spare no pains to make _Heloise_ answer the
hopes which her uncle had conceived of her.

The canon was transported with the civility of the young doctor;
he returned him thanks, and protested he could not do him a more
acceptable service than to assist his niece in her endeavours to
learn; he therefore entreated him once more to set apart some of his
time, which he did not employ in public, for this purpose: and, (as
if he had known his designed intrigue, and was willing to promote it)
he committed her entirely to his care, and begged of him to treat her
with the authority of a master; not only to chide her, but even to
correct her whenever she was guilty of any neglect or disobedience to
his commands.

Fulbert, in this, showed a simplicity without example but the
affection which he had for his niece was so blind, and _Abelard_
had so well established his reputation for wisdom, that the uncle
never scrupled in the least to trust them together, and thought he
had all the security in the world for their virtue. _Abelard_
you may be sure, made use of the freedom which was given him. He saw
his beautiful creature every hour, he set her lessons every day, and
was extremely pleased to see what proficiency she made. _Heloise_,
for her part, was so taken with her master, that she liked nothing so
well as what she learned from him; and the master was charmed with
that quickness of apprehension with which his scholar learned the
most difficult lessons. But he did not intend to stop here. He knew
so well how to insinuate into the affections of this young person, he
gave her such plain intimations of what was in his heart and spoke so
agreeably of the passion which he had conceived for her, that he had
the satisfaction of seeing himself well understood. It is no
difficult matter to make a girl of eighteen in love; and _Abelard_
having so much wit and agreeable humour, must needs make a greater
progress in her affections than she did in the lessons which he
taught her; so that in a short time she fell so much in love with
him, that she could deny him nothing.

Fulbert had a country-house at Corbeil, to which the lovers often
resorted, under pretence of applying themselves more closely to their
studies: there they conversed freely and gave themselves up entirely
to the pleasure of a mutual passion. They took advantage of that
privacy which study and contemplation require without subjecting
themselves to the censure of those who observed it.

In this retirement _Abelard_ owns that more time was employ'd
in soft caresses than in lectures of philosophy. Sometimes he
pretended to use the severity of a master; the better to deceive such
as might be spies upon them, he exclaimed against _Heloise_, and
reproached her for her negligence. But how different were his menaces
from those which are inspired by anger!

Never did two lovers give a greater loose to their delights than
did these two for five or six months; they lived in all the
endearments which could enter into the hearts of young beginners.
This is _Abelard's_ own account of the matter. He compares
himself to such as have been long kept in a starving condition, and
at last are brought to a feast. A grave and studious man exceeds a
debauchee in his enjoyments of a woman whom he loves and of whom he
is passionately beloved.

_Abelard_ being thus enchanted with the caresses of his
mistress, neglected all his serious and important affairs. His
performances in public were wretched. His scholars perceived it, and
soon guessed the reason. His head was turned to nothing but amorous
verses. His school was his aversion, and he spent as little time in
it as he could. As for his lectures they were commonly the old ones
served up again: the night was wholly lost from his studies; and his
leisure was employed in writing songs, which were dispersed and sung
in diverse provinces of France many years after. In short our lovers,
who were in their own opinion the happiest pair in the world, kept so
little guard, that their amours were every where talked of, and all
the world saw plainly that the sciences were not always the subject
of their conversation. Only honest Fulbert, under whose nose all this
was done, was the last man that heard any thing of it; he wanted eyes
to see that which was visible to all the world; and if any body went
about to tell him of it, he was prepossessed with so good an opinion
of his niece and her master, that he would believe nothing against
them.

But at last so many discoveries were daily made to him, that he
could not help believing something; he therefore resolved to separate
them, and by that means prevent the ill consequences of their too
great familiarity. However, he thought it best to convict them
himself, before he proceeded further; and therefore watched them so
closely, that he had one day an opportunity of receiving ocular
satisfaction that the reports he had heard were true. In short he
surprised them together. And though he was naturally cholerick, yet
he appeared so moderate on this occasion as to leave them under
dismal apprehensions of something worse to come after. The result
was, that they must be parted.

Who can express the torment our lovers felt upon this separation!
However, it served only to unite their hearts more firmly; they
were but the more eager to see one another. Difficulties increased
their desires, and put them upon any attempts without regarding
what might be the consequence. _Abelard_ finding it impossible
to live without his dear _Heloise_, endeavoured to settle a
correspondence with her by her maid Agaton, who was a handsome brown
girl, well shaped, and likely enough to have pleased a man who was
not otherwise engaged. But what a surprise was it to our Doctor, to
find this girl refuse his money, and in recompence of the services
she was to do him with his mistress, demanded no less a reward than
his heart, and making him at once a plain declaration of love!
_Abelard_ who could love none but _Heloise_, turned from
her abruptly, without answering a word. But a rejected woman is a
dangerous creature. Agaton knew well how to revenge the affront put
upon her, and failed not to acquaint Fulbert with _Abelard's_
offers to her, without saying a word how she had been disobliged.
Fulbert thought it was time to look about him. He thanked the maid
for her care, and entered into measures with her, how to keep _Abelard_
from visiting his niece.

The Doctor was now more perplexed than ever: he had no ways left
but to apply himself to _Heloise's_ singing-master; and the gold
which the maid refused prevailed with him. By this means _Abelard_
conveyed a letter to _Heloise_, in which he told her, that he
intended to come and see her at night, and that the way he had
contrived was over the garden-wall by a ladder of cords. This project
succeeded, and brought them together. After the first transports of
this short interview, _Heloise_, who had found some more than
ordinary symptoms within her, acquainted her lover with it. She had
informed him of it before by a letter; and now having this
opportunity to consult about it; they agreed that she should go to a
sister of his in Britany, at whose house she might be privately
brought to bed. But before they parted, he endeavored to comfort her,
and make her easy in this distress, by giving her assurances of
marriage. When _Heloise_ heard this proposal she peremptorily
rejected it, and gave such reasons * for her refusal, as left _Abelard_
in the greatest astonishment.

* See _Abelard's_ letter to _Philintus_, and _Heloise's_
first _Letter to Abelard_.

Indeed a refusal of this nature is so extraordinary a thing, that
perhaps another instance of it is not to be found in history. I
persuade myself, therefore, that I shall not offend my reader, if I
make some few remarks upon it. It often happens, that the passion of
love stifles or over-rules the rebukes of conscience; but it is
unusual for it to extinguish the sensibility of honour. I don't speak
of persons of mean birth and no education; but for others, all young
women, I suppose, who engage in love-intrigues, flatter themselves
with one of these views; either they hope they shall not prove with
child, or they shall conceal it from the world, or they shall get
themselves married. As for such as resolve to destroy the fruit of
their amours, there are but few so void of all natural affections as
to be capable of this greatest degree of barbarity. However, this
shows plainly, that if Love tyrannizes sometimes, it is such a tyrant
as leaves honour in possession of its rights. But _Heloise_ had
a passion so strong, that she was not at all concerned for her honour
or reputation. She was overjoyed to find herself with child, and yet
she did her utmost not to be married. Never fore was so odd an
example as these two things made when put together. The first was
very extraordinary; and how many young women in the world would
rather be married to a disagreeable husband than live in a state of
reproach? They know the remedy is bad enough, and will cost them
dear; but what signifies that, so long as the name of husband hides
the flaws made in their honour? But as for _Heloise_, she was
not so nice in this point. An excess of passion, never heard of
before, made her chuse to be _Abelard's_ mistress rather than
his wife. We shall see, in the course of this history, how firm she
was in this resolution, with what arguments she supported it, and how
earnestly she persuaded her gallant to be of the same mind.

_Abelard_, who was willing to lose no time, least his dear
_Heloise_ should fall into her uncle's hands, disguised her in
the habit of a nun, and sent her away with the greatest dispatch,
hoping that after she was brought to bed, he should have more leisure
to persuade her to marriage, by which they might screen themselves
from the reproach which must otherwise come upon them, as soon as the
business should be publickly known.

As soon as _Heloise_ was set forward on her journey, _Abelard_
resolved to make Fulbert a visit in order to appease him, if
possible, and prevent the ill effects of his just indignation.

The news that _Heloise_ was privately withdrawn soon made a
great noise in the neighbourhood; and reaching Fulbert's ears, filled
him with grief and melancholy. Besides, that he had a very tender
affection for his niece, and could not live without her, he had the
utmost resentment of the affront which _Abelard_ had put upon
him, by abusing the freedom he had allowed him. This fired him with
such implacable fury, as in the end fell heavy upon our poor lovers,
and had very dreadful consequences.

When Fulbert saw _Abelard_, and heard from him the reason why
_Heloise_ was withdrawn, never was man in such a passion. He
abandoned himself to the utmost distractions of rage, despair, and
thirst of revenge. All the affronts, reproaches, and menaces that
could be thought of, were heaped upon _Abelard_; who was, poor
man, very passive, and ready to make the Canon all the satisfaction
he was able. He gave him leave to say what he pleased; and when he
saw that he tired himself with exclaiming, he took up the discourse,
and ingenuously confess'd his crime. Then he had recourse to all the
prayers, submissions, and promises, he could invent; and begged of
him to consider the force of Love, and what foils this tyrant has
given to the greatest men: that the occasion of the present
misfortunes was the most violent passion that ever was; that this
passion continued still; and that he was ready to give both him and
his niece all the satisfaction which this sort of injury required.
Will you marry her then? said Fulbert, interrupting him. Yes, replied
_Abelard_, if you please, and she will consent. If I please!
said the Canon, pausing a little; if she will consent! And do you
question either? Upon this he was going to offer him his reasons,
after his hasty way, why they should be married: But _Abelard_
entreated him to suppress his passion a while, and hear what he had
to offer: which was, that their marriage might for some time be kept
secret. No, says the Canon, the dishonor you have done my niece is
public, and the reparation you make her shall be so too, But _Abelard_
told him, that since they were to be one family, he hoped he would
consider his interest as his own. At last after a great many
intreaties, Fulbert seemed content it should be as _Abelard_
desired; that he should marry _Heloise_ after she was brought to
bed, and that in the mean time the business should be kept secret.

_Abelard_, having given his scholars a vacation, returned
into Britany to visit his designed spouse, and to acquaint her with
what had passed. She was not at all concerned at her uncle's
displeasure; but that which troubled her was, the resolution which
she saw her lover had taken to marry her, She endeavoured to dissuade
him from it with all the arguments she could think of. She begun with
representing to him the wrong he did himself in thinking of marriage:
that as she never loved him but for his own sake, she preferred his
glory, reputation, and interest, before her own. I know my uncle,
said she, will never be pacified with any thing we can do, and what
honour shall I get by being your wife, when at the same time I
certainly ruin your reputation? What curse may I not justly fear,
should I rob the world of so eminent a person as you are? What an
injury shall I do the Church? how much shall I disoblige the learned?
and what a shame and disparagement will it be to you, whom Nature has
fitted for the public good, to devote yourself entirely to a wife?
Remember what St. _Paul_ says, _Art thou loosed from a wife?
seek not a wife._ If neither this great man, not the fathers of
the church, can make you change your resolution, consider at least
what your philosophers say of it. Socrates has proved, by many
arguments, that a wife man ought not to marry. Tully put away his
wife Terentia; and when Hircius offered him his sister in marriage he
told him, he desired to be excused, because he could never bring
himself to divide his thoughts between his books and his wife. In
short, said she, how can the study of divinity and philosophy comport
with the cries of children, the songs of nurses, and all the hurry of
a family? What an odd fight will it be to see maids and scholars,
desks and cradles, books and distaffs, pens and spindles, one among
another? Those who are rich are never disturbed with the care and
charges of housekeeping; but with you scholars it is far otherwise*.

* _Heloissa dehortabat me nuptiis. Nuptia non conveniunt cum
philosophia_, &c. Oper. Abel. p 14.

He that will get an estate must mind the affairs of the world, and
consequently is taken off from the study of divinity and philosophy.
Observe the conduct of the wife Pagans in this point, who preferred a
single life before marriage, and be ashamed that you cannot come up
to them. Be more careful to maintain the character and dignity of a
philosopher. Don't you know, that there is no action of life which
draws after it so sure and long a repentance, and to so little
purpose? You fancy to yourself the enjoyments you shall have in being
bound to me by a bond which nothing but death can break: but know
there is no such thing as sweet chains; and there is a thousand times
more glory, honour, and pleasure, in keeping firm to an union which
love alone has established, which is supported by mutual esteem and
merit, and which owes its continuance to nothing but the satisfaction
of seeing each other free. Shall the laws and customs which the gross
and carnal world has invented hold us together more surely than the
bonds of mutual affection? Take my word for it, you'll see me too
often when you see me ev'ry day: you'll have no value for my love nor
favours when they are due to you, and cost you no care. Perhaps you
don't think of all this at present; but you'll think of nothing else
when it will be too late. I don't take notice what the world will
say, to see a man in your circumstances get him a wife, and so throw
away your reputation, your fortune and your quiet. In short,
continued she, the quality of mistress is a hundred times more
pleasing to me than that of a wife. Custom indeed, has given a
dignity to this latter name, and we are imposed upon by it; but
Heaven is my witness, I had rather be _Abelard's_ mistress than
lawful wife to the Emperor of the whole world. I am very sure I shall
always prefer your advantage and satisfaction before my own honour,
and all the reputation, wealth, and enjoyments, which the most
splendid marriage could bring me. Thus _Heloise_ argued, and
added a great many more reasons, which I forbear to relate, lest I
should tire my reader. It is enough for him to know, that they are
chiefly grounded upon her preference of love to marriage, and liberty
to necessity.

We might therefore suppose that _Heloise_ was afraid lest
marriage should prove the tomb of love. The Count de Buffi, who
passes for the translator of some of her Letters, makes this to be
her meaning, though cloathed in delicate language. But if we examine
those which she writ to _Abelard_ after their separation, and
the expressions she uses to put him in mind, that he was indebted for
the passion she had for him to nothing but love itself, we must allow
that she had more refined notions, and that never woman was so
disinterested. She loved _Abelard_ 'tis true; but she declared
it was not his sex that she most valued in him.

Some authors * are of opinion, that it was not an excess of love
which made _Abelard_ press _Heloise_ to marriage, but only
to quiet his conscience: but how can any one tell his reasons for
marriage better than he himself? Others say ** that if _Heloise_
did really oppose _Abelard's_ design of marrying her so
earnestly, it was not because she thought better of concubinage than
a married life, but because her affection and respect for her lover
leading her to seek his honour and advantage in all things, she was
afraid that by marrying him she should stand between him and a
bishoprick, which his wit and learning well deserved. But there is no
such thing in her Letters, nor in the long account which _Abelard_
has left us of the arguments which his mistress used to dissuade him
from marriage. These are the faults of many authors, who put such
words in the mouths of persons as are most conformable to their own
ideas. It is often more advantageous, that a woman should leave her
lover free for church dignities, than render him incapable of them by
marriage: but is it just therefore to suppose that _Heloise_ had
any such motives? There is indeed a known story of a man that was
possessed of a prebend, and quitted it for a wife. The day after the
wedding, he said to his bride, My dear, consider how passionately I
loved you, since I lost my preferment to marry you. You have done a
very foolish thing, said she; you might have kept that, and have had
me notwithstanding.

* _D'ctionnaire de Moreri_

** _Fran. d'Amboise._

But to return to our lovers. A modern author, who well understood
human nature, has affirmed, "That women by the favours they
grant to men, grow she fonder of them; but, on the contrary, the men
grow more indifferent*." This is not always true, _Abelard_
was not the less enamoured with _Heloise_ after she had given
him the utmost proofs of her love; and their familiarity was
so far from having abated his flame, that it seems all the
eloquence of _Heloise_ could not persuade _Abelard_ that he wronged
himself in thinking to marry her. He admired the wit, the passion,
and the ingenuity of his mistress, but in these things he did not
come short of her. He knew so well how to represent to her the
necessity of marriage, the discourse which he had about it with
Fulbert, his rage if they declined it, and how dangerous it might be
to both of them, that at last she consented to do whatever he
pleased: but still with an inconceivable reluctance, which showed
that she yielded for no other reason but the fear of disobliging him.

* _M. de la Bruyere._

_Abelard_ was willing to be near his mistress till she was
brought to bed, which in a short time she was of a boy. As soon as
_Heloise_ was fit to go abroad, _Abelard_ carried her to
Paris, where they were married in the most private manner that could
be, having no other company but Fulbert, and two or three particular
friends. However, the wedding quickly came to be known. The news of
it was already whispered about; people soon began to talk of it more
openly, till at last they mentioned it to the married pair.

Fulbert who was less concerned to keep his word than to cover the
reproach of his family, took care to spread it abroad. But _Heloise_,
who loved _Abelard_ a thousand times better than she did
herself, and always valued her dear Doctor's honour above her own,
denied it with the most solemn protestations, and did all she could
to make the world believe her. She constantly affirmed, that the
reports of it were mere slanders; that _Abelard_ never proposed
any such thing; and if he had, she would never have consented to it.
In short, she denied it so constantly, and with such earnestness,
that she was generally believed. Many people thought, and boldly
affirmed, that the Doctor's enemies had spread this story on purpose
to lessen his character. This report came to Fulbert's ears, who,
knowing that _Heloise_ was the sole author of it, fell into so
outrageous a passion at her, that after a thousand reproaches and
menaces, he proceeded to use her barbarously. But _Abelard_, who
loved her never the worse for being his wife, could not see this many
days with patience. He resolved therefore to order matters so as to
deliver her from this state of persecution. To this purpose they
consulted together what course was to be taken; and agreed, that for
setting them both free, her from the power and ill-humour of her
uncle, and him from the persecuting reports which went about of him,
_Heloise_ should retire into a convent, where she should take
the habit of a nun, all but the veil, that so she might easily come
out again, when they should have a more favourable opportunity. This
design was proposed, approved, and executed, almost at the same time.
By this means they effectually put a stop to all reports about a
marriage. But the Canon was too dangerous a person to be admitted to
this consultation; he would never have agreed to their proposal; nor
could he hear of it without the utmost rage. 'Twas then that he
conceived a new desire of revenge, which he pursued till he had
executed it in the most cruel manner imaginable. This retreat of
_Heloise_ gave him the more sensible affliction, because she was
so far from covering her own reputation, that she completed his
shame. He considered it as _Abelard's_ contrivance, and a
fresh instance of his perfidious dealing towards him. And this
reflection put him upon studying how to be revenged on them both at
one stroke; which, aiming at the root of the mischief, should forever
disable them from offending again.

While this plot was in agitation, the lovers, who were not apt to
trouble their heads about what might happen, spent their time in the
most agreeable manner that could be. _Abelard_ could not live
long without a sight of his dear wife. He made her frequent visits in
the convent of Argenteuil, to which she was retired. The nuns of
this abbey enjoyed a very free kind of life: the grates and parlours
were open enough. As for _Heloise_, she had such excellent
qualifications as made the good sisters very fond of her, and
extremely pleased that they had such an amiable companion. And as
they were not ignorant what reports there were abroad, that she was
married to the famous _Abelard_, (though she denied it to the
last,) the most discerning among them, observing the frequent visits
of the Doctor, easily imagined that she had reasons for keeping
herself private, and so they took her case into consideration, and
expressed a wonderful compassion for her misfortunes.

Some of them, whom _Heloise_ loved above the rest, and in
whom she put great confidence, were not a little aiding and assisting
in the private interviews which she had with _Abelard_, and in
giving him opportunities to enter the convent. The amorous Doctor
made the best use of every thing. The habit which _Heloise_ wore
the place where he was to see her, the time and seasons proper for
his visit, the stratagems which must be used to facilitate his
entrance, and carry him undiscovered to _Heloise's_ chamber, the
difficulties they met with, the reasons they had for not letting it
be known who they were, and the fear they were in of being taken
together; all this gave their amours an air of novelty, and added to
their lawful embraces all the taste of stolen delights.

These excesses had then their charms, but in the end had fatal
consequences. The furious Canon persisting in his design of being
revenged on _Abelard_, notwithstanding his marriage with his
niece, found means to corrupt a domestic of the unfortunate Doctor,
who gave admittance into his master's chamber to some assassins hired
by Fulbert, who seized him in his sleep, and cruelly deprived him of
his manhood, but not his life. The servant and his accomplices fled
for it. The wretched _Abelard_ raised such terrible outcries,
that the people in the house and the neighbours being alarmed,
hastened to him, and gave such speedy assistance, that he was soon
out of a condition of fearing death.

The news of this accident made great noise, and its singularity
raised the curiosity of abundance of persons, who came the next day
as in procession, to see, to lament and comfort him. His scholars
loudly bewailed his misfortune, and the women distinguished
themselves upon this occasion by extraordinary marks of tenderness.
And 'tis probable among the great number of ladies who pitied
_Abelard_, there were some with whom he had been very intimate:
for his philosophy did not make him scrupulous enough to esteem every
small infidelity a crime, when it did not lessen his constant love of
_Heloise_.

This action of Fulbert was too tragical to pass unpunished: the
traiterous servant and one of the assassins were seized and condemned
to lose their eyes, and to suffer what they had done to _Abelard_.
But Fulbert denying he had any share in the action saved himself from
the punishment with the loss only of his benefices. This sentence did
not satisfy _Abelard_; he made his complaint to no purpose to
the bishop and canons; and if he had made a remonstrance at Rome,
where he once had a design of carrying the matter, 'tis probable he
would have had no better success. It requires too much money to gain
a cause there. One _Foulques_, prior of Deuil, and intimate
friend of _Abelard_, wrote thus to him upon the occasion of his
misfortune: "If you appeal to the Pope without bringing an
immense sum of money, it will be useless: nothing can satisfy the
infinite avarice and luxury of the Romans. I question if you have
enough for such an undertaking; and if you attempt it, nothing will
perhaps remain but the vexation of having flung away so much money.
They who go to Rome without large sums to squander away, will return
just as they went, the expence of their journey only excepted*."
But since I am upon Foulques's letters which is too extraordinary to
be passed over in silence, I shall give the reader some reflections
which may make him amends for the trouble of a new digression.

* _This Letter is extant in_ Latin _in _Abelard's _Works_.

This friend of _Abelard_ lays before him many advantages
which might be drawn from his misfortune. He tells him his
extraordinary talents, subtilty, eloquence and learning had drawn
from all parts an incredible number of auditors, and so filled him
with excessive vanity: he hints gently at another thing, which
contributed not a little towards making him proud, namely, that the
women continually followed him, and gloried in drawing him into their
snares. This misfortune, therefore, would cure him of his pride, and
free him from those snares of women which had reduced him even to
indigence, tho' his profession got him a large revenue; and now he
would never impoverish himself by his gallantries.

_Heloise_ herself, in some passages of her _Letters_,
says, that there was neither maid nor wife **, who in _Abelard's_
absence did not form designs for him, and in his presence was not
inflamed with love: the queens themselves, and ladies of the first
quality, envied the pleasures she enjoyed with him. But we are not to
take these words of _Heloise_ in a strict sense; because as she
loved _Abelard_ to madness, so she imagined every one else did.
Besides, that report, to be sure, hath added to the truth. It is not
at all probable that a man of _Abelard's_ sense, and who
according to all appearance passionately loved his wife, should not
be able to contain himself within some bounds, but should squander
away all his money upon mistresses, even to his not reserving what
was sufficient to provide for his necessities. Foulques owns, that he
speaks only upon hearsay, and in that, no doubt, envy, and jealousy
had their part.

** _Qua conjugata, que virgo non concupiscebat absentem, & non
exardescebat in presentem? Qua regina, vel prapotens foemina gaudiis
meis non invidebat, vel thalamis?_

Foulques tells him besides, that the amputation of a part of his
body, of which he made such ill use, would suppress at the same time
a great many troublesome passions, and procure him liberty of
reflecting on himself, instead of being hurried to and fro by his
passions: his meditations would be no more interrupted by the
emotions of the flesh, and therefore he would be more successful in
discovering the secrets of Nature. He reckons it as a great advantage
to him, that he would no more be the terror of husbands, and might
now lodge any where without being suspected. And forgets not to
acquaint him, that he might converse with the finest women without
any fear of those temptations which sometimes overpower even age
itself upon the sight of such objects. And, lastly, he would have the
happiness of being exempt from the illusions of sleep; which
exemption, according to him is a peculiar blessing.

It was with reason that Foulques reckons all these as advantages
very extraordinary in the life of an ecclesiastick. It is easy to
observe, that, to a person who devotes himself to continence, nothing
can be more happy than to be insensible to beauty and love, for they
who cannot maintain their chastity but by continual combats are very
unhappy. The life of such persons is uneasy, their state always
doubtful. They but too much feel the trouble of their warfare; and if
they come off victorious in an engagement, it is often with a great
many wounds. Even such of them as in a retired life are at the
greatest distance from temptations, by continually struggling with
their inclinations, setting barriers against the irruptions of the
flesh, are in a miserable condition. Their entrenchments are often
forced, and their conscience filled with sorrow and anxiety. What
progress might one make in the ways of virtue, who is not obliged to
fight an enemy for every foot of ground? Had _Abelard's_
misfortune made him indeed such as Foulques supposed, we should see
him in his _Letters_ express his motives of comfort with a
better grace. But though he now was in a condition not able to
satisfy a passion by which he had suffered so much, yet was he not
insensible at the sight of those objects which once gave him so much
pleasure. This discourse therefore of Foulques, far from comforting
_Abelard_ in his affliction, seems capable of producing the
contrary effect; and it is astonishing if _Abelard_ did not take
it so, and think he rather insulted him, and consequently resent it.

As to dreams, St. Austin informs us of the advantage Foulques
tells his friend he had gained. St. Austin implores the grace of God
to deliver him from this sort of weakness, and says, he gave consent
to those things in his sleep which he should abominate awake, and
laments exceedingly so great a regaining weakness.

But let us go on with this charitable friend's letter; it hath too
near a relation to this to leave any part of it untouched.
Matrimonial functions (continues Foulques) and the cares of a family,
will not now hinder your application to please God. And what a
happiness is it, not to be in a capacity of sinning? And then he
brings the examples of Origen, and other martyrs, who rejoice now in
heaven for their being upon earth in the condition _Abelard_
laments; as if the impossibility of committing a sin could secure any
one from desiring to do it. But one of the greatest motives of
comfort, and one upon which he insists the most is, because his
misfortune is irreparable. This is indeed true in fact, but the
consequence of his reasoning is not so certain; _Afflict not
yourself_ (says he) _because your misfortune is of such a nature
as is never to be repaired._

It must be owned, that the general topics of consolation have two
faces, and may therefore be considered very differently, even so as
to seem arguments for sorrow. As for instance, one might argue very
justly, that a mother should not yield too much to grief upon the
loss of a son, because her tears are unavailable; and tho' she should
kill herself with sorrow, she can never, by these means, bring her
son to life. Yet this very thing, that all she can do is useless, is
the main occasion of her grief; she could bear it patiently, could
she any ways retrieve her loss. When Solon lamented the death of his
son, and some friend, by way of comfort, told him his tears were
insignificant. _That_, said he, _is the very reason why I
weep_.

But Foulques argues much better afterwards; he says, _Abelard_
did not suffer this in the commission of an ill act, but sleeping
peaceably in his bed; that is he was not caught in any open fact,
such has cost others the like loss. This is indeed a much better
topic than the former, though it must be allowed that _Abelard_
had drawn this misfortune on himself by a crime as bad as adultery;
yet the fault was over, and he had made all the reparation in his
power, and when they maimed him he thought no harm to any body.

_Abelard's_ friend makes use likewise of other consolatory
reasons in his Letter, and represents to him, after a very moving
manner, the part which the Bishop and Canons, and all the
Ecclesiasticks of Paris, took in his disgrace, and the mourning there
was among the inhabitants and especially the women, upon this
occasion. But, in this article of consolation, how comes it to pass
that he makes no mention of _Heloise_? This ought not to appear
strange: she was the most injured, and therefore questionless, her
sorrows were sufficiently known to him; and it would be no news to
tell the husband that his wife was in the utmost affliction for him.
For as we observed before, though she was in a convent, she had not
renounced her husband, and those frequent visits he made her were not
spent in reading homilies. But let us make an end of our reflections
on Foulques's curious Letter, Foulques, after advising _Abelard_
not to think of carrying the matter before the Pope, by assuring him
that it required too great expence to obtain any satisfaction at that
court, concludes all with this last motive of consolation, that the
imagined happiness he had lost was always accompanied with abundance
of vexation; but if he persevered in his spirit of resignation, he
would, without doubt, at the last day obtain that justice he had now
failed of. 'Tis great pity we have not _Abelard's_ answer to
this delicate Letter, the matter then would look like one of Job's
Dialogues with his friends. _Abelard_ would generally have
enough to reply, and Foulques would often be but a sorry comforter.
However, it is certain this Letter was of some weight with _Abelard_;
for we find afterwards he never thought of making a voyage to Rome.
Resolved to hear his calamity patiently, he left to God the avenging
of the cruel and shameful abuse he had suffered.

But let us return to _Heloise_. 'Tis probable her friends of
the convent of Argenteuil concealed so heavy a misfortune from her
for some time; but at last she heard the fatal news. Though the rage
and fury of her uncle threatened her long since with some punishment,
yet could she never suspect any thing of this nature. It will be
saying too little to tell the reader she felt all the shame and
sorrow that is possible. She only can express those violent emotions
of her soul upon so severe an occasion.

In all probability this misfortune of _Abelard_ would have
been a thorough cure of her passion, if we might argue from like
cases: but there is no rule so general as not to admit of some
exceptions; and _Heloise's_ love upon this severe trial proved
like Queen Stratonice's, who was not less passionate for her
favourite Combabus, when she discovered his impotence, than she had
been before.

Shame and sorrow had not less seized _Abelard_ than _Heloise_,
nor dared he ever appear in the world; so that he resolved,
immediately upon his cure, to banish himself from the sight of men,
and hide himself in the darkness of a monastick life avoiding all
conversation with any kind of persons excepting his dear _Heloise_,
by whose company he endeavoured to comfort himself. But she at last
resolved to follow his example, and continue forever in the convent
of Argenteuil where she was. _Abelard_ himself confesses, that
shame rather than devotion had made him take the habit of a monk; and
that it was jealousy more than love which engaged him to persuade
_Heloise_ to be professed before he had made his vow. The
Letters which follow this history will inform us after what manner
and with what resolution they separated. _Heloise_ in the
twenty-second year of her age generously quitted the world, and
renounced all those pleasures she might reasonably have promised
herself, to sacrifice herself entirely to the fidelity and obedience
she owed her husband, and to procure him that ease of mind which he
said he could no otherwise hope for.

Time making _Abelard's_ misfortune familiar to him, he now
entertained thoughts of ambition, and of supporting the reputation he
had gained of the most learned man of the age. He began with
explaining the _Acts of the Apostles_ to the monks of the
monastery of St. _Dennis_ to which he had retired; but the
disorders of the abbey, and debauchees of the Abbot, which equally
with his dignity, were superior to those of the simple monks, quickly
drove him hence. He had made himself uneasy to them by censuring
their irregularity. They were glad to part with him, and he to leave
them.

As soon as he had obtained leave of the Abbot, he retired to
Thinbaud in Champaign, where he set up a school, persuading himself
that his reputation would bring him a great number of scholars. And
indeed they flocked to him, not only from the most distant provinces
of Prance, but also from Rome, Spain, England, and Germany, in such
number, that the towns could not provide accommodation, nor the
country provisions, enough for them*, But _Abelard_ did not
foresee, that this success and reputation would at the same time
occasion him new troubles. He had made himself two considerable
enemies at Laon, Alberic of Rheims, and Lotulf of Lombardy, who, as
soon as they perceived how prejudicial his reputation was to their
schools, sought all occasions to ruin him; and thought they had a
lucky handle to do so from a book of his, intituled, _The Mystery
of the Trinity_. This they pretended was heretical, and through
the Archbishop's means they procured a council at Soissons in
the year 1121; and without suffering _Abelard_ to make any
defence, ordered his book to be burnt by his own hands, and himself
to be confined to the convent of St. Medard. This sentence gave him
such grief, that he says himself, the unhappy fate of his writing
touched him more sensibly than the misfortune he had suffered through
Fulbert's means. Nor was it only his fatherly concern for his own
productions, but the indelible mark of heresy which by this means was
fixed on him, which so exceedingly troubled him.

* _Ad quas scholas tanta scholarium multitudo confluxit ut nec
locus hospitiis, nec terra sufficeret alimentis._ Abel.
Oper. p. 19

That the curious reader may have a complete knowledge of this
matter, I shall here give an account of that pretended heresy which
was imputed to _Abelard_. The occasion of his writing this book
was, that his scholars demanded * philosophical arguments on that
subject; often urging that it was impossible to believe what was not
understood; that it was to abuse the world, to preach a doctrine
equally unintelligible to the speaker and auditor; and that it was
for the blind to lead the blind. These young men were certainly
inclined to Sabellinism. _Abelard's_ enemies however did not
accuse him of falling into this, but another heresy as bad,
Tritheism; though indeed he was equally free from both: he explained
the unity of the Godhead by comparisons drawn from human things but
according to a passage of St. Bernard**, one of his greatest
enemies, he seemed to hold, that no one ought to believe what he
could not give a reason for. However _Abelard's_ treatise upon
this subject pleased every one except those of his own profession,
who, stung with envy that he should find out explanations which they
could not have thought of, raised such a cry of heresy upon him, that
he and some of his scholars had like to have been stoned by the mob***.
By their powerful cabals they prevailed with Conan bishop of Preneste,
the Pope's legate, who was president of the council, to condemn his
book, pretending that he asserted three Gods, which they might easily
suggest, when he was suffered to make no defence. 'Tis certain he was
very orthodox in the doctrine of the Trinity; and all this process
against him was only occasioned by the malice of his enemies. His
logical comparison (and logic was his masterpiece) proved rather the
three Divine Persons One, than multiplied the Divine Nature into
Three. His comparison is, that as the three proportions * in a
syllogism are but one truth, so the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are
but one Essence; and it is certain the inconveniences which may be
drawn from this parallel are not more than what may be drawn from the
comparison of the three dimensions of solids, so much insisted on by
the famous orthodox mathematician Dr. Wallis of England. But great
numbers of pious and learned divines, who have not been over-subtile
in politics, have been persecuted and condemned as well as _Abelard_
by the ignorance and malice of their brethren.

* _Humanas & philosophicas rationes requirebant & plus
quae inteligi, quam quae dici poffenter, efflagitabant._ Abel
Op.

** _Benardi Epist._ 190.

*** _Ita me in clero & populo diffamaverunt, ut pene me populos paucosque
qui advenerant ex discipulis nostris prima die nostri anventus
lapidarent; dicentes me tres Deos praedicare & scripsisse, sicut
ipsis persuasum fuerat._ Abel Oper. p. 20.

* _Sicut eadem oratio est, propositio, assumptio &
conuclusio, ita eadem Essentia est Pater, Filius, and Spiritus
Sanctis._ Ibid.

A little after his condemnation, _Abelard_ was ordered to
return to St. Dennis. The liberty he had taken to censure the vicious
lives of the monks had raised him a great many enemies. Amongst these
was St. Bernard, not upon the same motives as those monks, but
because _Abelard's_ great wit, joined with so loose and sensual
a life, gave him jealousy, who thought it impossible the heart should
be defiled without the head being likewise tainted.

Scarce had he returned to St. Dennis, when one day he dropped some
words, intimating he did not believe that the St. Dennis their patron
was the Areopagite mentioned in the Scripture, there being no
probability that he ever was in France. This was immediately carried
to the Abbot, who was full of joy, that he had now a handle to
heighten the accusations of heresy against him with some crime
against the state; a method frequently used by this sort of gentlemen
to make sure their revenge. In those times, too, the contradicting
the notions of the monks was enough to prove a man an atheist,
heretic, rebel, or any thing; learning signified nothing. If any one
of a clearer head and larger capacity had the misfortune to be
suspected of novelty, there was no way to avoid the general
persecution of the monks but voluntarily banishing himself. The Abbot
immediately assembled all the house, and declared he would deliver up
to the secular power a person who had dared to reflect upon the
honour of the kingdom and of the crown. _Abelard_ very rightly
judging that such threatenings were not to be despised, fled by night
to Champaign, to a cloister of the monks of Troies, and there
patiently waited till the storm should be over. After the death of
this Abbot, which, very luckily for him happened soon after his
flight, he obtained leave to live where he pleased, though it was not
without using some cunning. He knew the monks of so rich a house had
fallen into great excesses, and were very obnoxious to the court, who
would not fail to make their profit of it: he therefore procured it
should be represented to his council as very disadvantageous to his
Majesty's interest, that a person who was continually censuring
the lives of his brethren should continue any longer with them. This
was immediately understood, and orders given to some great men at
court to demand of the Abbot and monks why they kept a person in
their house whose conduct was so disagreeable to them; and, far from
being an ornament to the society, was a continual vexation, by
publishing their faults? This being very opportunely moved to the new
Abbot, he gave _Abelard_ leave to retire to what cloister he
pleased.

_Abelard_, who indeed had all the qualities which make a
great man, could not however bear, without repining, the numerous
misfortunes with which he saw himself embarrassed, and had frequent
thoughts of publishing a manifesto to justify himself from the
scandalous imputations his enemies had laid upon him and to undeceive
those whom their malice had prejudiced against him. But upon cooler
thought he determined, that it was better to say nothing and to shew
them by his silence how unworthy he thought them of his anger. Thus
being rather enraged than troubled at the injuries he had suffered,
he resolved to found a new society, consisting chiefly of monks. To
this purpose he chose a solitude in the diocese of Troies, and upon
some ground which was given by permission of the Bishop, he built a
little house and a chapel, which he dedicated to the most Holy
Trinity.

Men of learning were then scarce, and the desire of science was
beginning to spread itself. Our exile was inquired after and found;
scholars crowded to him from all parts: they built little huts, and
were very liberal to their master for his lectures; content to live
on herbs, and roots, and water, that they might have the advantage of
learning from so extraordinary a man; and with great zeal they
enlarged the chapel building that and their professor's house with
wood and stone.

Upon this occasion _Abelard_, to continue the memory of the
comfort he had received in this desart, dedicated his new built
chapel to the Holy Ghost, by the name of the Paraclete, or Comforter.
The envy of Alberic and Lotulf, which had long since persecuted him,
was strangely revived, upon seeing so many scholars flock to him from
all parts, notwithstanding the inconvenience of the place, and in
contempt of the masters who might so commodiously be found in the
towns and cities.

They now more than ever sought occasion to trouble him; the name
of Paraclete furnished them with one. They gave out that this novelty
was a consequence of his former heresy, and that it was no more
lawful to dedicate churches to the Holy Ghost than to God the Father:
that this title was a subtile art of instilling that poison which he
durst not spread openly, and a consequence of his heretical doctrine
which had been condemned already by a council. This report raised a
great clamour among numbers of people, whom his enemies employed on
all sides. But the persecution grew more terrible when St. Bernard
and St. Norbet declared against him; two great zealots, fired with
the spirit of Reformation, and who declared themselves restorers of
the primitive discipline, and had wonderfully gained upon the
affections of the populace. They spread such scandal against him that
they prejudiced his principal friends, and forced those who still
loved him not to shew it any ways; and upon these accounts made his
life so bitter to him that he was upon the point of leaving
Christendom*. But his unhappiness would not let him do a thing which
might have procur'd his ease; but made him still continue with
Christians, and with monks (as himself expresses it) worse than
Heathens**.

* _Saepe autem (Deus scit) in tantam lapsus sum desperationem ut
Christianorum finibus excessis, ad Gentes transire disponerem, atque
ibi quiete sub quacunque tributi pactione inter inimicos Christi
christiane vivere._  Abel Op. p. 32.

** _Incedi in
Christianos atque monachos Gentibus longe saeviores atque pejores._
 Abel Op. p. 20.

The Duke of Britany, informed of his misfortunes, and of the
barbarity of his enemies, named him to the abbey of St. Gildas, in
the diocese of Vannes, at the desire of the monks who had already
elected him for their superior. Here he thought he had found a refuge
from the rage of his enemies, but in reality he had only changed one
trouble for another. The profligate lives of the monks, and the
arbitrariness of a lord, who had deprived them of the greater part of
their revenues, so that they were obliged to maintain their
mistresses and children at their own private expence, occasioned him
a thousand vexations and dangers. They several times endeavoured to
poison him in his ordinary diet, but proving unsuccessful that way,
they cried to do it in the holy sacrament. Excommunications, with
which he threatened the most mutinous, did not abate the disorder. He
now feared the poniard more than poison, and compared his case to his
whom the tyrant of Saracuse caused to be seated at his table, with a
sword hanging over him, fastened only by a thread.

Whilst _Abelard_ thus suffered in his abbey by his monks, the
nuns of Argenteuil, of whom _Heloise_ was prioress, grew so
licentious, that Sugger, abbot of Dennis, taking advantage of their
irregularities, got possession of their monastery. He sent the
original writings to Rome; and having obtained the answer he desired,
he expelled the nuns, and established in their place monks of his
order.

Some censorious people upon reading this passage, will be apt to
entertain strong suspicions of _Heloise_, and judge it probable
that a governor does not behave well when dissoluteness is known to
reign in the society. I have never read that she was included by name
in the general scandal of the society, and therefore am cautious not
to bring any accusations against her. Our Saviour says, _No one
hath condemned thee, neither do I condemn thee._

_Heloise_, at her departure from the convent of Argenteuil,
applied to her husband; who by permission of the Bishop Troies,
gave her the house and chapel of the _Paraclete_, with its
appendages; and placing there some nuns, founded a nunnery. Pope
Innocent II. confirmed this donation in the year 1131. This is the
origin of the abbey of the _Paraclete_, of which _Heloise_
was the first abbess. Whatever her conduct was among the licentious
nuns of Argenteuil, it is certain she lived so regular in this her
new and last retreat, and behaved herself with that prudence, zeal,
and piety, that she won the hearts of all the world, and in a small
time had abundance of donations. _Abelard_ himself says she had
more in one year than he could have expected all his life, had he
lived there. The bishops loved her as their child, the abbesses as
their sister, and the world as their mother. It must be owned some
women have had wonderful talents for exciting Christian charity.
The abbesses which succeeded _Heloise_ have often been of the
greatest families in the kingdom. There is a list of them in
the _Notes_ of _Andrew du Chene_ upon _Abelard's_ works,
from the time of the foundation in 1130, to 1615; but he has not
thought fit to take notice of Jane Cabot, who died the 25th of June
1593, and professed the Protestant religion, yet without marrying, or
quitting her habit, though she was driven from her abbey.

After _Abelard_ had settled _Heloise_ here, he made
frequent journies from Britany to Champaign, to take care of the
interest of this rising house, and to ease himself from the vexations
of his own abbey. But slander so perpetually followed this unhappy
man, that though his present condition was universally known, he was
reproached with a remaining voluptuous passion for his former
mistress. He complains of his hard usage in one of his Letters; but
comforts himself by the example of St. Jerom, whose friendship with
Paula occasioned scandal too; and therefore he entirely confuted this
calumny, by remarking that even the most jealous commit their wives
to the custody of eunuchs.

The thing which gives the greatest handle to suspect _Heloise's_
prudence, and that _Abelard_ did not think himself safe with
her, is his making a resolution to separate himself forever from her.
During his being employed in establishing this new nunnery, and in
ordering their affairs, as well temporal as spiritual, he was
diligent in persuading her, by frequent and pious admonitions, to
such a separation; and insisted, that in order to make their
retirement and penitence more profitable, it was absolutely necessary
they should seriously endeavour to forget each other, and for the
future think on nothing but God. When he had given her directions for
her own conduct, and rules for the management of the nuns, he took
his last leave of her and returned to his abbey in Britany where he
continued a long time without her hearing any mention of him.

By chance, a letter he wrote to one of his friends, to comfort him
under some disgrace, wherein he had given him a long account of all
the persecutions he himself had suffered, fell into Heloise's
hands. She knew by the superscription from whom it came, and her
curiosity made her open it. The reading the particulars of a story
she was so much concerned in renewed all her passion, and she hence
took an occasion to write to him, complaining of his long silence.
_Abelard_ could not forbear answering her. This occasioned the
several Letters between them which follow this History; and in these
we may observe how high a woman is capable of railing the sentiments
of her heart when possessed of a great deal of wit and learning, at
well as a most violent love.

I shall not tire the reader with any farther reflections on the
Letters of those two lovers, but leave them entirely to his own
judgment; only remarking, that he ought not to be surprised to find
_Heloise's_ more tender, passionate, and expressive, than those
of _Abelard_. She was younger and consequently more ardent than
he. The sad condition he was in had not altered her love. Besides,
she retired only in complaisance to a man she blindly yielded to; and
resolving to preserve her fidelity inviolable, she strove to conquer
her desires, and make a virtue of necessity. But the weakness of her
sex continually returned, and she felt the force of love in spite of
all resistance. It was not the same with _Abelard_; for though
it was a mistake to think, that by not being in a condition of
satisfying his passion, he was as _Heloise_ imagined, wholly
delivered from the thorn of sensuality; yet he was truly sorry for
the disorders of his past life, he was sincerely penitent, and
therefore his Letters are less violent and passionate than those of
_Heloise_.

About ten years after _Abelard_ had retired to his abbey,
where study was his chief business, his enemies, who had resolved to
persecute him to the last, were careful not to let him enjoy the ease
of retirement. They thought he was not sufficiently plagued with his
monks, and therefore brought a new process of heresy against him
before the Archbishop of Sens. He desired he might have the liberty
of defending his doctrine before a public assembly, and it was
granted him. Upon this account the Council of Sens was assembled, in
which Louis the VII, assisted in person, in the year 1140. St.
Bernard was the accuser, and delivered to the assembly some
propositions drawn from _Abelard's_ book, which were read in the
Council. This accusation gave _Abelard_ such fears, and was
managed with such inveterate malice by his enemies, and with such
great unfairness, in drawing consequences he never thought of, that,
imagining he had friends at Rome who would protect his innocence, he
made an appeal to the Pope. The Council notwithstanding his appeal,
condemned his book, but did not meddle with his person; and gave an
account of the whole proceeding to Pope Innocent II. praying him to
confirm their sentence. St. Bernard had been so early in
prepossessing the Pontiff, that he got the sentence confirmed before
_Abelard_ heard any thing of it, or had any time to present
himself before the tribunal to which he had appealed. His Holiness
ordered besides, that _Abelard's_ books should be burnt, himself
confined, and for ever prohibited from teaching.

This passage of St. Bernard's life is not much for the honour of
his memory: and whether he took the trouble himself to extract the
condemned propositions from _Abelard's_ works, or intrusted it
to another hand, it is certain the paper he gave in contained many
things which _Abelard_ never wrote, and others which he did not
mean in the same sense imputed to him.

When a few particular expressions are urged too rigidly, and
unthought of consequences drawn from some assertions, and no regard
is had to the general intent and scope of an author, it is no
difficult matter to find errors in any book. For this reason,
Beranger of Poitiers, _Abelard's_ scholar defended his master
against St. Bernard, telling him he ought not to persecute others,
whose own writings were not exempt from errors; demonstrating, that
he himself had advanced a position which he would not have failed to
have inserted in this extract as a monstrous doctrine, if he had
found them in the writings of _Abelard_.

Some time after _Abelard's_ condemnation, the Pope was
appeased at the solicitation of the Abbot of Clugni, who received
this unfortunate gentleman into his monastery with great humanity,
reconciled him with St. Bernard, and admitted him to be a Religious
of his society.

This was _Abelard's_ last retirement, in which he found all
manner of kindness; he read lectures to the monks, and was equally
humble and laborious. At last growing weak, and afflicted with a
complication of diseases, he was sent to the priory of St. Marcel
upon the Saone, near Chalons, a very agreeable place, where he died
the 21st of April 1142, in the 63d year of his age. His corpse
was sent to the chapel of _Paraclete_, to _Heloise_, to be
interred, according to her former request of him, and to his own
desire. The Abbot of Clugni, when he sent the body to _Heloise_
according to the custom of those times, sent with it an absolution,
to be fixed, together with his epitaph, on his grave-stone, which
absolution was at follows:

"I Peter, Abbot of Clugni, having received Father _Abelard_
into the number of my Religions, and given leave that his body be
privately conveyed to the abbey of the Paraclete, to be disposed of
by _Heloise_ Abbess of the same abbey; do, by the authority of
God and all the saints, absolve the said _Abelard_ from all his
sins*."

* _Ego Petrus Cluniacensis Abbas, qui Pet. Abselardum in monacum
Cluniacensem recepi, & corpus ejus surtim delatum Heloissa
abbatissae & monialibus Paracleti concessi, authoritate
omnipotentis Dei & omnium sanctorum, absolvo eum pro officio ab
omnibus peccatis suis._

_Heloise_, who survived him twenty years, had all the leisure
that could be to effect the cure of her unhappy passion. Alas! she
was very long about it! she passed the rest of her days like a
religions and devout Abbess, frequent in prayers, and entirely
employed in the regulation of her society. She loved study; and being
a mistress of the learned languages, the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew,
she was esteemed a miracle of learning.

_Abelard_, in a letter he wrote to the Religious of his new
house, says expressly, that _Heloise_ understood these three
languages. The Abbot of Clugni, likewise, in a letter he wrote to
her, tells her, she excelled in learning not only all her sex, but
the greatest part of men**. And in the calendar of the house of
the Paraclete she is recorded in these words: _Heloise, mother and
first abbess of this place, famous for her learning and religion._
I must not here pass by a custom the Religious of the _Paraclete_
now have to commemorate how learned their first Abbess was in the
Greek, which is, that every year, on the day of Pentecost, they
perform divine service in the Greek tongue. What a ridiculous vanity!

** _Studio tuo & mulieres omnes eviciti, & pene viros
universos suparasti._ Abel Op.

Francis d'Amboise tells us how subtilely one day she
satisfied St. Bernard, upon asking her, why in her abbey,
when they recited the Lord's Prayer, they did not say, _Give
us this day our_ Daily _bread_, but _Give us this day our_
Supersubstantial _bread_, by an argument drawn from the
originals, affirming we ought to follow the Greek version of the
gospel of St. _Matthew_ wrote in _Hebrew_. Without doubt,
it was not a little surprising to St. Bernard, to hear a woman oppose
him in a controversy, by citing a _Greek_ text. 'Tis true, some
authors say, _Abelard_ made this answer to St. Bernard, after
hearing from _Heloise_ that objections were made to that form of
prayer. However the case was, a woman with a small competency of
learning might in those time pass for a miracle; and though she might
not equal those descriptions which have been given of her, yet she
may deservedly be placed in the rank of women of the greatest
learning. Nor was she less remarkable for her piety, patience, and
resignation, during her sicknesses in the latter part of her life.
She died the 17th of May 1163. 'Tis said she desired to be buried in
the same tomb with her _Abelard_, though that probably was not
executed. Francis d'Amboise says, he saw at the convent the
tombs of the founder and foundress near together. However a
manuscript of Tours gives us an account of an extraordinary
miracle which happened when _Abelard's_ grave was opened
for _Heloise's_ body, namely that _Abelard_ stretched out
his arms to receive her, and embraced her closely, though there were
twenty good years passed since he died. But that is a small matter to
a writer of miracles.

I shall conclude this history with an epitaph on _Abelard_,
which the Abbot of Clugni sent _Heloise_, and which is now to be
read on his tomb; it hath nothing in it delicate either for thought
or language, and will scarcely bear a translation. It is only added
here for the sake of the curious, and as an instance of the respect
paid to the memory of so great a man, and one whom envy had loaded
with the greatest defamations.

   "Petrus in hac petra latitat, quem mundus Homerum
   Clamabat, fed jam sidera sidus habent.
  Sol erat hic Gallis, sed eum jam fata tulerunt:
   Ergo caret Regio Gallica sole suo.
  Ille sciens quid quid fuit ulli scibile, vicit
   Artifices, artes absque docente docens.
  Undecimae Maij petrum rapuere Calendae,
   Privantes Logices atria Rege fuo.
  Est fatis, in tumulo Petrus hic jacit Abaelardus,
   Cui soli patuit scibile quid quid erat.

  Gallorum Socrates, Plato maximus Hesperianum
  Noster Aristoteles, Logicis (quicumque fuerunt)
  Aut par aut melior; studioium cognitus orbi
  Princeps, ingeuio varius, subtilius & acer,
  Omnia vi superans rationis & arte loquendi,
  Abaelardus erat. Sed nunc magis omnia vincit.
  Cum Cluniacensem monacum, moremque professus,
  Ad Christi veram transivit philosophiam,
  In qua longaevae bene complens ultima vitae,
  Philosophis quandoque bonis se connumerandum
  Spem dedit, undenas Maio renovante Calendas."




------------




LETTERS of ABELARD and HELOISE.


------


LETTER I.

_ABELARD to PHILINTUS._


   It may be proper to acquaint the reader, that the
   following Letter was written by _Abelard_ to a friend, to
   comfort him under some afflictions which had befallen him, by a
   recital of his own sufferings, which had been much heavier. It
   contains a particular account of his amour with _Heloise_, and
   the unhappy consequences of it. This Letter was written several years
   after _Abelard's_ separation from _Heloise_.


The last time we were together, _Philintus_, you gave me a
melancholy account of your misfortunes. I was sensibly touched with
the relation, and, like a true friend, bore a share in your griefs.
What did I not say to stop your tears? I laid before you all the
reasons Philosophy could furnish, which I thought might any ways
soften the strokes of Fortune: but all endeavours have proved
useless: grief I perceive, has wholly seized your spirits: and your
prudence, far from assisting, seems quite to have forsaken you. But
my skilful friendship has found out an expedient to relieve you.
Attend to me a moment; hear but the story of my misfortunes, and
yours, _Philintus_, will be nothing, if you compare them with
those of the loving and unhappy _Abelard_. Observe, I beseech
you, at what expence I endeavour to serve you: and think this no
small mark of my affection; for I am going to present you with the
relation of such particulars, as it is impossible for me to recollect
without piercing my heart with the most sensible affliction.

You know the place where I was born; but not perhaps that I was
born with those complexional faults which strangers charge upon our
nation, an extreme lightness of temper, and great inconstancy. I
frankly own it, and shall be as free to acquaint you with those good
qualities which were observed in me. I had a natural vivacity and
aptness for all the polite arts. My father was a gentleman, and a man
of good parts; he loved the wars, but differed in his sentiments from
many who followed that profession. He thought it no praise to be
illiterate, but in the camp he knew how to converse at the same time
with the Muses and Bellona. He was the same in the management of his
family, and took equal care to form his children to the study of
polite learning as to their military exercises. As I was his eldest,
and consequently his favourite son, he took more than ordinary care
of my education. I had a natural genius to study, and made an
extraordinary progress in it. Smitten with the love of books, and the
praises which on all sides were bestowed upon me, I aspired to no
reputation but what proceeded from learning. To my brothers I left
the glory of battles, and the pomp of triumphs; nay more, I yielded
them up my birthright and patrimony. I knew necessity was the great
spur to study, and was afraid I should not merit the title of
Learned, if I distinguished myself from others by nothing but a more
plentiful fortune. Of all the sciences, Logic was the most to my
taste. Such were the arms I chose to profess. Furnished with the
weapons of reasoning, I took pleasure in going to public disputations
to win trophies; and wherever I heard that this art flourished, I
ranged like another Alexander, from province to province, to seek new
adversaries, with whom I might try my strength.

The ambition I had to become formidable in logic led me at last to
Paris, the centre of politeness, and where the science I was so
smitten with had usually been in the greatest perfection. I put
myself under the direction of one _Champeaux_ a professor, who
had acquired the character of the most skilful philosopher of his
age, by negative excellencies only, by being the least ignorant. He
received me with great demonstrations of kindness, but I was not so
happy as to please him long: I was too knowing in the subjects he
discoursed upon. I often confuted his notions: often in our
disputations I pushed a good argument so home, that all his subtilty
was not able to elude its force. It was impossible he should see
himself surpassed by his scholar without resentment. It is sometimes
dangerous to have too much merit.

Envy increased against me proportionably to my reputation. My
enemies endeavoured to interrupt my progress, but their malice only
provoked my courage; and measuring my abilities by the jealousy I had
raised, I thought I had no farther occasion for Champeaux's lectures,
but rather that I was sufficiently qualified to read to others. I
stood for a place which was vacant at Melun. My master used all his
artifice to defeat my hopes, but in vain; and on this occasion I
triumphed over his cunning, as before I had done over his learning.
My lectures were always crouded, and beginnings so fortunate, that I
entirely obscured the renown of my famous master. Flushed with these
happy conquests, I removed to Corbeil to attack the masters there,
and so establish my character of the ablest Logician, the violence of
travelling threw me into a dangerous distemper, and not being able to
recover my strength, my physician, who perhaps were in a league with
Champeaux, advised me to retire to my native air. Thus I voluntarily
banished myself for some years. I leave you to imagine whether my
absence was not regretted by the better sort. At length I recovered
my health, when I received news that my greatest adversary had taken
the habit of a monk. You may think was an act of penitence for having
persecuted me; quite contrary, it was ambition; he resolved to raise
himself to some church-dignity therefore he fell into the beaten
track, and took on him the garb of feigned austerity; for this is the
easiest and and shortest way to the highest ecclesiastical dignities.
His wishes were successful, and he obtained a bishoprick: yet did he
not quit Paris, and the care of the schools. He went to his diocese
to gather in his revenues, but returned and passed the rest of his
time in reading lectures to those few pupils which followed him.
After this I often-engaged with him, and may reply to you as Ajax did
to the Greeks;

  "If you demand the fortune of that day,
  When stak'd on this right hand your honours lay
  If I did not oblige the foe to yield,
  Yet did I never basely quit the field."

About this time my father Beranger, who to the age of sixty had
lived very agreeably, retired from the world and shut himself up in a
cloister, where he offered up to Heaven the languid remains of a life
he could make no farther use of. My mother, who was yet young, took
the same resolution. She turned a Religious, but did not entirely
abandon the satisfactions of life. Her friends were continually at
the grate; and the monastery, when one has an inclination to make it
so, is exceeding charming and pleasant. I was present when my mother
was professed. At my return I resolved to study divinity, and
inquired for a director in that study. I was recommended to one
_Anselm_, the very oracle of his time; but to give you my own
opinion, one more venerable for his age and wrinkles than for his
genius or learning. If you consulted him upon any difficulty, the
sure consequence was to be much more uncertain in the point. Those
who only saw him admired him, but those who reasoned with him were
extremely dissatisfied. He was a great master of words, and talked
much, but meant nothing. His discourse was a fire, which, instead of
enlightening, obscured every thing with its smoke; a tree beautified
with variety of leaves and branches, but barren. I came to him with a
desire to learn, but found him like the fig-tree in the Gospel, or
the old oak to which Lucan compares Pompey. I continued not long
underneath his shadow. I took for my guides the primitive Fathers,
and boldly launched into the ocean of the Holy Scriptures. In a short
time I made such a progress, that others chose me for their director.
The number of my scholars were incredible, and the gratuities I
received from them were answerable to the great reputation I had
acquired. Now I found myself safe in the harbour; the storms were
passed, and the rage of my enemies had spent itself without effect.
Happy, had I known to make a right use of this calm! But when the
mind is most easy, it is most exposed to love, and even security here
is the most dangerous state.

And now, my friend, I am going to expose to you all my weaknesses.
All men, I believe, are under a necessity of paying tribute, at some
time or other, to Love, and it is vain to strive to avoid it. I was a
philosopher, yet this tyrant of the mind triumphed over all my
wisdom; his darts were of greater force than all my reasoning, and
with a sweet constraint he led me whither he pleased. Heaven, amidst
an abundance of blessings with which I was intoxicated, threw in a
heavy affliction. I became a most signal example of its vengeance;
and the more unhappy, because having deprived me of the means of
accomplishing my satisfaction, it left me to the fury of my criminal
desires. I will tell you, my dear friend, the particulars of my
story, and leave you to judge whether I deserved so severe a
correction. I had always an aversion for those light women whom it is
a reproach to pursue; I was ambitious in my choice, and wished to
find some obstacles, that I might surmount them with the greater
glory and pleasure.

There was in Paris a young creature, (ah! _Philintus_!)
formed in a prodigality of Nature, to show mankind a finished
composition; dear _Heloise_! the reputed niece of one _Fulbert_
a canon. Her wit and her beauty would have fired the dullest and most
insensible heart; and her education was equally admirable. _Heloise_
was a mistress of the most polite arts. You may easily imagine that
this did not a little help to captivate me. I saw her; I loved her; I
resolved to endeavour to gain her affections. The thirst of glory
cooled immediately in my heart, and all my passions were lost in this
new one. I thought of nothing but _Heloise_; every thing brought
her image to my mind. I was pensive, restless; and my passion was so
violent as to admit of no restraint. I was always vain and
presumptive; I flattered myself already with the most bewitching
hopes. My reputation had spread itself every where; and could a
virtuous lady resist a man that had confounded all the learned of the
age? I was young;--could she show an infallibility to those vows
which my heart never formed for any but herself? My person was
advantageous enough and by my dress no one would have suspected me
for a Doctor; and dress you know, is not a little engaging with
women. Besides, I had wit enough to write a _billet doux_, and
hoped, if ever she permitted my absent self to entertain her, she
would read with pleasure those breathings of my heart.

Filled with these notions, I thought of nothing but the means to
speak to her. Lovers either find or make all things easy. By the
offices of common friends I gained the acquaintance of Fulbert. And,
can you believe it, _Philintus_? he allowed me the privilege of
his table, and an apartment in his house. I paid him, indeed, a
considerable sum; for persons of his character do nothing without
money. But what would I not have given! You my dear friend, know what
love is; imagine then what a pleasure it must have been to a heart so
inflamed as mine to be always so near the dear object of desire! I
would not have exchanged my happy condition for that of the greatest
monarch upon earth. I saw _Heloise_, I spoke to her: each
action, each confused look, told her the trouble of my soul. And she,
on the other side, gave me ground to hope for every thing from her
generosity. Fulbert desired me to instruct her in philosophy; by this
means I found opportunities of being in private with her and yet I
was sure of all men the most timorous in declaring my passion.

As I was with her one day, alone, Charming _Heloise_, said I,
blushing, if you know yourself, you will not be surprised with what
passion you have inspired me with. Uncommon as it is, I can express
it but with the common terms;--I love you, adorable _Heloise_!
Till now I thought philosophy made us masters, of all our passions,
and that it was a refuge from the storms in which weak mortals are
tossed and shipwrecked; but you have destroyed my security, and
broken this philosophic courage. I have despised riches; honour and
its pageantries could never raise a weak thought in me; beauty alone
hath fired my soul. Happy, if she who raised this passion kindly
receives the declaration; but if it is an offence--No, replied
_Heloise_; she must be very ignorant of your merit who can be
offended at your passion. But, for my own repose, I wish either that
you had not made this declaration, or that I were at liberty not to
suspect your sincerity. Ah, divine _Heloise_, said I, flinging
myself at her feet, I swear by yourself--I was going on to
convince her of the truth of my passion, but heard a noise, and it
was Fulbert. There was no avoiding it, but I must do a violence to my
desire, and change the discourse to some other subject. After this I
found frequent opportunities to free _Heloise_ from those
suspicions which the general insincerity of men had raised in her;
and she too much desired what I said were truth, not to believe it.
Thus there was a most happy understanding between us. The same house,
the same love, united our persons and our desires. How many soft
moments did we pass together! We took all opportunities to express to
each other our mutual affections, and were ingenious in contriving
incidents which might give us a plausible occasion for meeting.
Pyramus and Thisbe's discovery of the crack in the wall was but a
slight representation of our love and its sagacity. In the dead of
night, when Fulbert and his domestics were in a sound sleep, we
improved the time proper to the sweets of love. Not contenting
ourselves, like those unfortunate loves, with giving insipid kisses
to a wall, we made use of all the moments of our charming interviews.
In the place where we met we had no lions to fear, and the study of
philosophy served us for a blind. But I was so far from making any
advances in the sciences that I lost all my taste of them; and when I
was obliged to go from the sight of my dear mistress to my
philosophical exercises, it was with the utmost regret and
melancholy. Love is incapable of being concealed; a word, a look, nay
silence, speaks it. My scholars discovered it first: they saw I had
no longer that vivacity thought to which all things were easy: I
could now do nothing but write verses to sooth my passion. I quitted
Aristotle and his dry maxims, to practise the precepts of the more
ingenious Ovid. No day passed in which I did not compose amorous
verses. Love was my inspiring Apollo. My songs were spread abroad,
and gained me frequent applauses. Those whom were in love as I was
took a pride in learning them; and, by luckily applying my thoughts
and verses, have obtained favours which, perhaps, they could not
otherwise have gained. This gave our amours such an _eclat_,
that the loves of _Heloise_ and _Abelard_ were the subject
of all conversations.

The town-talk at last reached Fulbert's ears. It was with great
difficulty he gave credit to what he heard, for he loved his niece,
and was prejudiced in my favour; but, upon closer examination, he
began to be less incredulous. He surprised us in one of our more soft
conversations. How fatal, sometimes, are the consequences of
curiosity! The anger of Fulbert seemed to moderate on this occasion,
and I feared in the end some more heavy revenge. It is impossible to
express the grief and regret which filled my soul when I was obliged
to leave the canon's house and my dear _Heloise_. But this
separation of our persons the more firmly united our minds; and the
desperate condition we were reduced to, made us capable of attempting
any thing.

My intrigues gave me but little shame, so lovingly did I esteem
the occasion. Think what the gay young divinities said, when Vulcan
caught Mars and the goddess of Beauty in his net, and impute it all
to me. Fulbert surprised me with _Heloise_, and what man that
had a soul in him would not have borne any ignominy on the same
conditions? The next day I provided myself of a private lodging near
the loved house, being resolved not to abandon my prey. I continued
some time without appearing publickly. Ah, how long did those few
moments seem to me! When we fall from a state of happiness, with what
impatience do we bear our misfortunes!

It being impossible that I could live without seeing _Heloise_,
I endeavoured to engage her servant, whose name was _Agaton_, in
my interest. She was brown, well shaped, a person superior to the
ordinary rank; her features regular, and her eyes sparkling; fit to
raise love in any man whose heart was not prepossessed by another
passion. I met her alone, and intreated her to have pity on a
distressed lover. She answered, she would undertake any thing to
serve me, but there was a reward.--At these words I opened my
purse and showed the shining metal, which lays asleep guards, forces
away through rocks, and softens the hearts of the most obdurate fair.
You are mistaken, said she, smiling, and shaking her head--you
do not know me. Could gold tempt me, a rich abbot takes his nightly
station, and sings under my window: he offers to send me to his
abbey, which, he says, is situate in the most pleasant country in the
world. A courtier offers me a considerable sum of money, and assures
me I need have no apprehensions; for if our amours have consequences,
he will marry me to his gentleman, and give him a handsome
employment. To say nothing of a young officer, who patroles about
here every night, and makes his attacks after all imaginable forms.
It must be Love only which could oblige him to follow me; for I have
not like your great ladies, any rings or jewels to tempt him: yet,
during all his siege of love, his feather and his embroidered coat
have not made any breach in my heart. I shall not quickly be brought
to capitulate, I am too faithful to my first conqueror--and then
she looked earnestly on me. I answered, I did not understand her
discourse. She replied, For a man of sense and gallantry you have a
very slow apprehension; I am in love with you _Abelard_. I know
you adore _Heloise_, I do not blame you; I desire only to enjoy
the second place in your affections. I have a tender heart as well as
my mistress; you may without difficulty make returns to my passion.
Do not perplex yourself with unfashionable scruples; a prudent man
ought to love several at the same time; if one should fail, he is not
then left unprovided.

You cannot imagine, _Philintus_, how much I was surprised at
these words. So entirely did I love _Heloise_ that without
reflecting whether Agaton spoke any thing reasonable or not, I
immediately left her. When I had gone a little way from her I looked
back, and saw her biting her nails in the rage of disappointment,
which made me fear some fatal consequences. She hastened to Fulbert,
and told him the offer I had made her, but I suppose concealed the
other part of the story. The Canon never forgave this affront. I
afterwards perceived he was more deeply concerned for his niece than
I at first imagined. Let no lover hereafter follow my example, A
woman rejected is an outrageous creature. Agaton was day and night at
her window on purpose to keep me at a distance from her mistress, and
so gave her own gallants opportunity enough to display their several
abilities.

I was infinitely perplexed what course to take; at last I applied
to _Heloise_ singing-master. The shining metal, which had no
effect on Agaton, charmed him; he was excellently qualified for
conveying a billet with the greatest dexterity and secrecy. He
delivered one of mine to _Heloise_, who, according to my
appointment was ready at the end of a garden, the wall of which I
scaled by a ladder of ropes. I confess to you all my failings,
_Philintus_. How would my enemies, Champeaux and Anselm, have
triumphed, had they seen the redoubted philosopher in such a wretched
condition? Well--I met my soul's joy, my _Heloise_. I shall
not describe our transports, they were not long; for the first
news _Heloise_ acquainted me with plunged me in a thousand
distractions. A floating _delos_ was to be sought for, where she
might be safely delivered of a burthen she began already to feel.
Without losing much time in debating, I made her presently quit the
Canon's house, and at break of day depart for Britany; where, she
like another goddess, gave the world another Apollo, which my sister
took care of.

This carrying off _Heloise_ was sufficient revenge upon
Fulbert. It filled him with the deepest concern, and had like to have
deprived him of all the little share of wit which Heaven had allowed
him. His sorrow and lamentation gave the censorious an occasion of
suspecting him for something more than the uncle of _Heloise_.

In short, I began to pity his misfortune, and think this robbery
which love had made me commit was a sort of treason. I endeavoured to
appease his anger by a sincere confession of all that was past, and
by hearty engagements to marry _Heloise_ secretly. He gave me
his consent and with many protestations and embraces confirmed our
reconciliation. But what dependence can be made on the word of an
ignorant devotee. He was only plotting a cruel revenge, as you will
see by what follows.

I took a journey into Britany, in order to bring back my dear
_Heloise_, whom I now considered as my wife. When I had
acquainted her with what had passed between the Canon and me, I found
she was of a contrary opinion to me. She urged all that was possible
to divert me from marriage: that it was a bond always fatal to a
philosopher; that the cries of children, and cares of a family, were
utterly inconsistent with the tranquility and application which the
study of philosophy required. She quoted to me all that was written
on the subject by Theophrastus, Cicero, and, above all, insisted on
the unfortunate Socrates, who quitted life with joy, because by that
means he left Xantippe. Will it not be more agreeable to me, said
she, to see myself your mistress than your wife? and will not love
have more power than marriage to keep our hearts firmly united?
Pleasures tasted sparingly, and with difficulty, have always a higher
relish, while every thing, by being easy and common, grows flat and
insipid.

I was unmoved by all this reasoning. _Heloise_ prevailed upon
my sister to engage me. Lucille (for that was her name) taking me
aside one day, said, What do you intend, brother? Is it possible that
_Abelard_ should in earnest think of marrying _Heloise_?
She seems indeed to deserve a perpetual affection; beauty, youth, and
learning, all that can make a person valuble, meet in her. You may
adore all this if you please; but not to flatter you, what is beauty
but a flower, which may be blasted by the least fit of sickness? When
those features, with which you have been so captivated, shall be
sunk, and those graces lost, you will too late repent that you have
entangled yourself in a chain, from which death only can free you. I
shall see you reduced to the married man's only hope of survivorship.
Do you think learning ought to make _Heloise_ more amiable? I
know she is not one of those affected females who are continually
oppressing you with fine speeches, criticising books, and deciding
upon the merit of authors, When such a one is in the fury of her
discourse, husbands, friends, servants, all fly before her. _Heloise_
has not this fault; yet it is troublesome not to be at liberty to use
the least improper expression before a wife, that you bear with
pleasure from a mistress.

But you say, you are sure of the affections of _Heloise_ I
believe it; she has given you no ordinary proofs. But can you be sure
marriage will not be the tomb of her love? The name of Husband and
Master are always harsh, and _Heloise_ will not be the phenix
you now think her. Will she not be a woman? Come, come, the head of a
philosopher is less secure than those of other men. My sister grew
warm in the argument, and was going to give me a hundred more reasons
of this kind; but I angrily interrupted her, telling her only, that
she did not know _Heloise_.

A few days after, we departed together from Britany, and came to
Paris, where I completed my project. It was my intent my marriage
should be kept secret, and therefore _Heloise_ retired among the
nuns of Argenteuil.

I now thought Fulbert's anger disarmed; I lived in peace: but,
alas! our marriage proved but a weak defence against his revenge.
Observe, _Philintus_, to what a barbarity he pursued it! He
bribed my servants; an assassin came into my bed chamber by night
with a razor in his hand, and found me in a deep sleep. I suffered
the most shameful punishment that the revenge of an enemy could
invent; in short without losing my life, I lost my manhood. I was
punished indeed in the offending part; the desire was left me, but
not the possibility of satisfying the passion. So cruel an action
escaped not unpunished; the villain suffered the same infliction;
poor comfort for so irretrievable an evil; I confess to you, shame,
more than any sincere penitence; made me resolve to hide myself from
my _Heloise_. Jealousy took possession of my mind; at the very
expence of her happiness I decreed to disappoint all rivals. Before I
put myself in a cloister, I obliged her to take the habit, and
retire into the nunnery of Argenteuil. I remember somebody would have
opposed her making such a cruel sacrifice of herself, but she
answered in the words of Cornelia, after the death of Pompey the
Great;

   "--O conjux, ego te scelereta peremi,
   --Te fata extrema petente
   Vita digna fui? Moriar----&c.

   O my lov'd lord! our fatal marriage draws
   On thee this doom, and I the guilty cause!
   Then whilst thou go'st th' extremes
      of Fate to prove,
   I'll share that fate, and expiate thus my love."

Speaking these verses, she marched up to the altar, and took the
veil with a constancy which I could not have expected in a woman who
had so high a taste of pleasure which she might still enjoy. I
blushed at my own weakness; and without deliberating a moment longer,
I buried myself in a cloister, resolving to vanquish a fruitless
passion. I now reflected that God had chastised me thus grievously,
that he might save me from that destruction in which I had like to
have been swallowed up. In order to avoid idleness, the unhappy
incendiary of those criminal flames which had ruined me in the world,
I endeavoured in my retirement to put those talents to a good use
which I had before so much abused. I gave the novices rules of
divinity agreeable to the holy fathers and councils. In the mean
while, the enemies which my fame had raised up, and especially
Alberic and Lotulf, who after the death of their masters Champeaux
and Anselm affirmed the sovereignty of learning, began to attack me.
They loaded me with the falsest imputations, and, notwithstanding all
my defence, I had the mortification to see my books condemned by a
council and burnt. This was a cutting sorrow, and, believe me,
_Philintus_, the former calamity suffered by the cruelty of
Fulbert was nothing in comparison to this.

The affront I had newly received, and the scandalous debaucheries
of the monks, obliged me to banish myself, and retire near Nogent. I
lived in a desart, where I flattered myself I should avoid fame, and
be secure from the malice of my enemies. I was again deceived. The
desire of being taught by me, drew crowds of auditors even thither.
Many left the towns and their houses, and came and lived in tents;
for herbs, coarse fare, and hard lodging, they abandoned the
delicacies of a plentiful table and easy life. I looked like a
prophet in the wilderness attended by his disciples. My lectures were
perfectly clear from all that had been condemned. And happy had it
been if our solitude had been inaccessible to Envy! With the
considerable gratuities I received I built a chapel, and dedicated it
to the Holy Ghost, by the name of the Paraclete. The rage of my
enemies now awakened again, and forced me to quit this retreat. This
I did without much difficulty. But first the Bishop of Troies gave me
leave to establish there a nunnery, which I did, and committed the
care of it to my dear _Heloise_. When I had settled her here,
can you believe it, _Philintus_? I left her without taking any
leave. I did not wander long without settled habitation; for the Duke
of Britany, informed of my misfortunes, named me to the Abbey of
_Guildas_, where I now am, and where I now suffer every day
fresh persecutions.

I live in a barbarous country, the language of which I do not
understand. I have no conversation with the rudest people. My walks
are on the inaccessible shore of a sea which is perpetually stormy.
My monks are known by their dissoluteness, and living without rule or
order. Could you see the abbey _Philintus_, you would not call
it one. The doors and walls are without any ornament except the heads
of wild boars and hinds' feet, which are nailed up against them, and
the heads of frightful animals. The cells are hung with the skins of
deer. The monks have not so much as a bell to wake them; the cocks
and dogs supply that defect. In short, they pass their whole days in
hunting; would to Heaven that were their greatest fault, or that
their pleasures terminated there! I endeavour in vain to recall them
to their duty; they all combine against me, and I only expose myself
to continual vexations and dangers. I imagine that every moment a
naked sword hang over my head. Sometimes they surround me and load me
with infinite abuses; sometimes they abandon me, and I am left alone
to my own tormenting thoughts. I make it my endeavour to merit by my
sufferings, and to appease an angry God. Sometimes I grieve for the
house of the _Paraclete_, and wish to see it again. Ah,
_Philintus_! does not the love of _Heloise_ still burn in
my heart_?_ I have not yet triumphed over that happy passion. In
the midst of my retirement I sigh, I weep, I pine, I speak the dear
name of _Heloise_, pleased to hear the sound, I complain of the
severity of Heaven. But, oh! let us not deceive ourselves: I have not
made a right use of grace. I am thoroughly wretched. I have not yet
torn from my heart deep roots which vice has planted in it. For if my
conversion was sincere, how could I take a pleasure to relate my past
follies? Could I not more easily comfort myself in my afflictions?
Could I not turn to my advantage those words of God himself, _If
they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if the world
hate you, ye know that it hated me also_? Come _Philintus_,
let us make a strong effort, turn our misfortunes to our advantage,
make them meritorious, or at least wipe out our offences; let us
receive, without murmuring, what comes from the hand of God, and let
us not oppose our will to his. Adieu. I give you advice, which could
I myself follow, I should be happy.




LETTER II.

_HELOISE to ABELARD._


   The foregoing Letter would probably not have produced any
   others, if it had been delivered to the person to whom it was
   directed; but falling by accident into _Heloise's_ hands, who
   knew the character she opened it and read it; and by that means her
   former passion being awakened, she immediately set herself to write
   to her husband as follows.

   *To her Lord, her Father; her Husband, her Brother; his
   Servant his Child; his Wife, his Sister; and to express all that is
   humble, respectful and loving to her _Abelard_, _Heloise_
   writes this.

   _Domino suo, imo Patri; Conjugi suo, imo Fratri;
   Ancilla sua, imo Filia; ipsius Uxor, imo Soror; Abaelardo Heloisa,
   &c. Abel. Op._

A consolatory letter of yours to a friend happened some days since
to fall into my hands. My knowledge of the character, and my love of
the hand, soon gave me the curiosity to open it. In justification of
the liberty I took, I flattered myself I might claim a sovereign
privilege over every thing which came from you nor was I scrupulous
to break thro' the rules of good breeding, when it was to hear news
of _Abelard_. But how much did my curiosity cost me? what
disturbance did it occasion? and how was I surprised to find the
whole letter filled with a particular and melancholy account of our
misfortunes? I met with my name a hundred times; I never saw it
without fear: some heavy calamity always, followed it, I saw yours
too, equally unhappy. These mournful but dear remembrances, puts my
spirits into such a violent motion, that I thought it was too much to
offer comfort to a friend for a few slight disgraces by such
extraordinary means, as the representation of our sufferings and
revolutions. What reflections did I not make, I began to consider the
whole afresh, and perceived myself pressed with the same weight of
grief as when we first began to be miserable. Tho' length of time
ought to have closed up my wounds, yet the seeing them described by
your hand was sufficient to make them all open and bleed afresh.
Nothing can ever blot from my memory what you have suffered in
defence of your writings. I cannot help thinking of the rancorous
malice of Alberic and Lotulf. A cruel uncle and an injured lover,
will be always present to my aking sight. I shall never forget what
enemies your learning, and what envy your glory, raised against you.
I shall never forget your reputation, so justly acquired, torn to
pieces, and blasted by the inexorable cruelty of half-learned
pretenders to science. Was not your Treatise of Divinity condemned to
be burnt? Were you not threatened with perpetual imprisonment? In
vain you urged in your defence, that your enemies imposed on you
opinions quite different from your meaning; in vain you condemned
those opinions; all was of no effect towards your justification; it
was resolved you should be a heretic. What did not those two false
prophets** accuse you of, who declaimed so severely against you
before the Council of Sens? What scandals were vented on occasion of
the name Paraclete given to your chapel? What a storm was raised
against you by the treacherous monks, when you did them the honour to
be called their Brother? This history of our numerous misfortunes,
related in so true and moving a manner, made my heart bleed within
me. My tears, which I could not restrain, have blotted half your
letter: I wish they had effaced the whole and that I had returned it
to you in that condition. I should then have been satisfied with the
little time; kept it, but it was demanded of me too soon.

** St. Bernard and St. Norbet.

I must confess I was much easier in my mind before I read your
letter. Sure all the misfortunes of lovers are conveyed to them thro'
their eyes. Upon reading your letter I felt all mine renewed, I
reproached myself for having been so long without venting my sorrows,
when the rage of our unrelenting enemies still burns with the same
fury. Since length of time, which disarms the strongest hatred, seems
but to aggravate theirs; since it is decreed that your virtue shall
be persecuted till it takes refuge in the grave, and even beyond
that, your ashes perhaps, will not be suffered to rest in peace,--let
me always meditate on your calamities, let me publish them thro' all
the world, if possible, to shame an age that has not known how to
value you. I will spare no one, since no one would interest himself
to protect you, and your enemies are never weary of oppressing your
innocence, Alas! my memory is perpetually filled with bitter
remembrances of past evils, and are there more to be feared still?
shall my _Abelard_ be never mentioned without tears? shall thy
dear name be never spoken but with sighs? Observe, I beseech you, to
what a wretched condition you have reduced me: sad, afflicted,
without any possible comfort, unless it proceed from you. Be not then
unkind, nor deny, I beg you that little relief which you can only
give. Let me have a faithful account of all that concerns you. I
would know every thing, be it ever so unfortunate. Perhaps, by
mingling my sighs with yours, I may make your sufferings less, if
that observation be true, that all sorrows divided are made lighter.

Tell me not, by way of excuse, you will spare our tears; the tears
of women, shut up in a melancholy place, and devoted to penitence,
are not to be spared. And if you wait for an opportunity to write
pleasant and agreeable things to us, you will delay writing too long.
Prosperity seldom chuses the side of the virtuous; and Fortune is so
blind, that in a crowd in which there is perhaps but one wife and
brave man, it is not to be expected she should single him out. Write
to me then immediately, and wait not for miracles; they are too
scarce, and we too much accustomed to misfortunes to expect any happy
turn. I shall always have this, if you please, and this will be
always agreeable to me, that when I receive any letters from you, I
shall know you still remember me. Seneca, (with whose writings you
made me acquainted,) as much a Stoic as he was, seemed to be so very
sensible of this kind of pleasure, that upon opening any letters from
Lucilius, he imagined he felt the same delight as when they conversed
together.

I have made it an observation, since our absence, that we are much
fonder of the pictures of those we love, when they are at a great
distance, than when they are near to us. It seems to me, as if the
farther they are removed their pictures grow the more finished, and
acquire a greater resemblance; at least, our imagination, which
perpetually figures them to us by the desire we have of seeing them
again, makes us think so. By a peculiar power, Love can make that
seem life itself, which, as soon as the loved object returns, is
nothing but a little canvas and dead colours. I have your picture in
my room; I never pass by it without stopping to look at it; and yet
when you were present with me, I scarce ever cast my eyes upon it. If
a picture, which is but a mute representation of an object, can give
such pleasure, what cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can
speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the
transports of the heart; they have all the fire of our passions; they
can raise them as much as if the persons themselves were present;
they have all the softness and delicacy of speech, and sometimes a
boldness of expression even beyond it.

We may write to each other; so innocent a pleasure is not
forbidden us. Let us not lose, through negligence, the only happiness
which is left us, and the only one, perhaps, which the malice of our
enemies can never ravish from us. I shall read that you are my
husband, and you shall see me address you as a wife. In spite of all
your misfortunes, you may be what you please in your letter. Letters
were first invented for comforting such solitary wretches as myself.
Having lost the substantial pleasures of seeing and possessing you, I
shall in some measure compensate this loss by the satisfaction I
shall find in your writing. There I shall read your most secret
thoughts; I shall carry them always about me; I shall kiss them every
moment: if you can be capable of any jealousy, let it be for the fond
caresses I shall bestow on your letters, and envy only the happiness
of those rivals. That writing may be no trouble to you, write always
to me carelessly, and without study: I had rather read the dictates
of the heart than of the brain. I cannot live if you do not tell me
you always love me; but that language ought to be so natural to you,
that I believe you cannot speak otherwise to me without great
violence to yourself. And since, by that melancholy relation to your
friend, you have awakened all my sorrows, it is but reasonable you
should allay them by some marks of an inviolable love.

I do not, however, reproach you for the innocent artifice you made
use of to comfort a person in affliction, by comparing his misfortune
to another much greater. Charity is ingenious in finding out such
pious artifices, and to be commended for using them. But do you owe
nothing more to us than to that friend, be the friendship between you
ever so intimate? We are called your sisters; we call ourselves your
Children; and if it were possible to think of any expression which
could signify a dearer relation, or a more affectionate regard and
mutual obligation between us, we would use them: if we could be so
ungrateful as not to speak our just acknowledgments to you, this
church, these altars, these Walls, would reproach our silence, and
speak for us, But without leaving it to that, it will be always a
pleasure to me to say, that you only are the founder of this house;
it is wholly your work. You, by inhabiting here, have given fame and
function to a place known before only for robberies and murders. You
have, in the literal sense, made the den of thieves a house of
prayer. These cloisters owe nothing to public charities; our walls
were not raised by the usury of publicans, nor their foundations laid
in base extortion. The God whom we serve sees nothing but innocent
riches and harmless votaries, whom you have placed here. Whatever
this young vineyard is, is owing all to you; and it is your part to
employ your whole care to cultivate and improve it; this ought to be
one of the principal affairs of your life. Though our holy
renunciation, our vows, and our manner of life, seem to secure us
from all temptations; though our walls and grates prohibit all
approaches, yet it is the outside only, the bark of the tree is
covered from injuries; while the sap of original corruption may
imperceptibly spread within, even to the heart, and prove fatal to
the most promising plantation, unless continual care be taken to
cultivate and secure it. Virtue in us is grafted upon Nature and the
Woman; the one is weak, and the other is always changeable. To plant
the Lord's vine is a work of no little labour; and after it is
planted it will require great application and diligence to manure it.
The Apostle of the Gentiles; as great a labourer as he was, says, _He
hath planted, and Apollo hath watered; but it is God that giveth the
increase._ Paul had planted the Gospel among the Corinthians, by
his holy and earnest preaching; _Apollos_, a zealous disciple of
that great master, continued to cultivate it by frequent
exhortations; and the grace of God, which their constant prayers,
implored for that church, made the endeavours of both successful.

This ought to be an example for your conduct towards us. I know
you are not slothful; yet your labours are not directed to us; your
cares are wasted upon a set of men whose thoughts are only earthly,
and you refuse to reach out your hand to support those who are weak
and staggering in their way to heaven, and who, with all their
endeavours, can scarcely preserve themselves from falling. You fling
the pearls of the gospel before swine, when you speak to those who
are filled with the good things of this world, and nourished with the
fatness of the earth; and you neglect the innocent sheep, who, tender
as they are, would yet follow you thro' deserts and mountains. Why
are such pains thrown away upon the ungrateful, while not a thought
is bestowed upon your children, whose souls would be filled with a
sense of your goodness? But why should I intreat you in the name of
your children? Is it possible I should fear obtaining any thing of
you, when I ask it in my own name? And must I use any other prayers
than my own to prevail upon you? The St. Austins, Tertullians, and
Jeromes, have wrote to the Eudoxas, Paulas, and Melanias; and can you
read those names, though of saints, and not remember mine? Can it be
criminal for you to imitate St. Jerome, and discourse with me
concerning the Scripture? or Tertullian, and preach mortification? or
St. Austin, and explain to me the nature of grace? Why should I only
reap no advantage from your learning? When you write to me, you will
write to your wife. Marriage has made such a correspondence lawful;
and since you can, without giving the least scandal, satisfy me, why
will you not? I have a barbarous uncle, whose inhumanity is a
security against any criminal desire which tenderness and the
remembrance of our past enjoyments might inspire. There is nothing
that can cause you any fear; you need not fly to conquer. You may see
me, hear my sighs, and be a witness of all my sorrows, without
incurring any danger, since you can only relieve me with tears and
words. If I have put myself into a cloister with reason, persuade me
to continue in it with devotion: you have been the occasion of all my
misfortunes, you therefore must be the instrument of all my comforts.

You cannot but remember, (for what do not lovers remember?) with
what pleasure I have past whole days in hearing your discourse. How,
when you were absent, I shut myself from everyone to write to you;
how uneasy I was till my letter had come to your hands; what artful
management it required to engage confidents. This detail, perhaps,
surprises you, and you are in pain for what will fellow. But I am no
longer ashamed that my passion has had no bounds for you; for I have
done more than all this: I have hated myself that I might love you; I
came hither to ruin myself in a perpetual imprisonment, that I might
make you live quiet and easy. Nothing but virtue, joined to a love
perfectly disengaged from the commerce of the senses, could have
produced such effect. Vice never inspires any thing like this; it is
too much enslaved to the body. When we love pleasures, we love the
living, and not the dead; we leave off burning with desire for those
who can no longer burn for us. This was my cruel uncle's notions; he
measured my virtue by the frailty of my sex, and thought it was the
man, and not the person, I loved. But he has been guilty to no
purpose. I love you more than ever; and to revenge myself of him, I
will still love you with all the tenderness of my soul till the last
moment of my life. If formerly my affection for you was not so pure,
if in those days the mind and the body shared in the pleasure of
loving you, I often told you, even then, that I was more pleased with
possessing your heart than with any other happiness, and the man was
the thing I least valued in you.

You cannot but be entirely persuaded of this by the extreme
unwillingness I showed to marry you: tho' I knew that the name of
Wife was honourable in the world, and holy in religion, yet the name
of your mistress had greater charms, because it was more free. The
bonds of matrimony, however honourable, still bear with them a
necessary engagement; and I was very unwilling to be necessitated to
love always a man who, perhaps, would not always love me. I despised
the name of Wife, that I might live happy with that of Mistress; and
I find, by your letter to your friend, you have not forgot that
delicacy of passion in a woman who loved you always with the utmost
tenderness, and yet wished to love you more, you have very justly
observed in your letter, that I esteemed those public engagements
insipid which form alliances only to be dissolved by death, and which
put life and love under the same unhappy necessity. But you have not
added how often I have made protestations that it was infinitely
preferable to me to live with _Abelard_ as his mistress than
with any other as empress of the world, and that I was more happy in
obeying you, than I should have been in lawfully captivating the lord
of the universe. Riches and pomp are not the charms of love. True
tenderness make us to separate the lover from all that is external to
him, and setting aside his quality, fortune, and employments,
consider him singly by himself.

'Tis not love, but the desire of riches and honour, which makes
women run into the embraces of an indolent husband. Ambition, not
affection, forms such marriages. I believe indeed they may be
followed with some honours and advantages, but I can never think that
this is the way to enjoy the pleasures of an affectionate union, nor
to feel those secret and charming emotions of hearts that have long
strove to be united. These martyrs of marriage pine always for large
fortunes, which they think they have lost. The wife sees husbands
richer that her own, and the husband wives better portioned than his.
Their interested vows occasion regret, and regret produces hatred.
They soon part, or always desire it. This restless and tormenting
passion punishes them for aiming at other advantages of love than
love itself.

If there is any thing which may properly be called happiness here
below, I am persuaded it is in the union of two persons who love each
other with perfect liberty, who are united by a secret inclination,
and satisfied with each other's merit; their hearts are full and
leave no vacancy for any other passion; they enjoy perpetual
tranquillity, because they enjoy content.

If I could believe you as truly persuaded of my merit as I am of
yours, I might say there has been such a time when we were such a
pair. Alas! how was it possible I should not be certain of your
merit? If I could ever have doubted it, the universal esteem would
have made me determine in your favour. What country, what city, has
not desired your presence? Could you ever retire but you drew the
eyes and hearts of all after you? Did not every one rejoice in having
seen you? Even women, breaking through the laws of decorum, which
custom had imposed upon them, showed manifestly they felt something
more for you than esteem. I have known some who have been profuse in
their husband's praises, who have yet envied my happiness, and given
strong intimations they could have refused you nothing. But what
could resist you? Your reputation, which so much soothed the vanity
of our sex; your air, your manner; that life in your eyes, which so
admirably expressed the vivacity of your mind; your conversation with
that ease and elegance which gave every thing you spoke such an
agreeable and insinuating turn; in short, every thing spoke for you;
very different from some mere scholars, who, with all their learning,
have not the capacity to keep up an ordinary conversation, and with
all their wit cannot win the affection of women who have a much less
share than themselves.

With what ease did you compose verses? and yet those ingenious
trifles, which were but a recreation after your more serious studies,
are still the entertainment and delight of persons of the best taste.
The smallest song, nay, the least sketch of any thing you made for
me, had a thousand beauties capable of making it last as long as
there are love or lovers in the world. Thus those songs will be sung
in honour of other women which you designed only for me? and those
tender and natural expressions which spoke your love will help others
to explain their passion, with much more advantage than what they
themselves are capable of.

What rivals did your gallantries of this kind occasion me? How
many ladies laid claim to them? 'Twas a tribute their self-love paid
to their beauty. How many have I seen with sighs declare their
passion for you, when, after some common visit you had made them,
they chanced to be complimented for the Sylvia of your poems? others,
in despair and envy, have reproached me, that I had no charms but
what your wit bestowed on me, nor in any thing the advantage over
them but in being beloved by you. Can you believe if I tell you,
that, notwithstanding the vanity of my sex, I thought myself
peculiarly happy in having a lover to whom I was obliged for my
charms, and took a secret pleasure in being admired by a man who,
when he pleased, could raise his mistress to the character of a
goddess? Pleased with your glory only, I read with delight all those
praises you offered me, and without reflecting how little I deserved,
I believed myself such as you described me, that I might be more
certain I pleased you.

But oh! where is that happy time fled? I now lament my lover, and
of all my joys there remains nothing but the painful remembrance that
_they are past_. Now learn, all you my rivals who once viewed my
happiness with such jealous eyes, that he you once envied me can
never more be yours or mine. I loved him, my love was his crime, and
the cause of his punishment. My beauty once charmed him: pleased with
each other, we passed our brightest days in tranquillity and
happiness. If that was a crime, 'tis a crime I am yet fond of, and I
have no other regret, than that against my will I must necessarily be
innocent. But what do I say? My misfortune was to have cruel
relations, whose malice disturbed the calm we enjoyed. Had they been
capable of the returns of reason, I had now been happy in the
enjoyment of my dear husband. Oh! how cruel were they when their
blind fury urged a villain to surprise you in your sleep! Where was
I? Where was your _Heloise_ then? What joy should I have had in
defending my lover! I would have guarded you from violence, though at
the expence of my life; my cries and the shrieks alone would have
stopped the hand.--! Oh! whither does the excess of passion
hurry me? Here love is shocked, and modesty, joined with despair,
deprive me of words. 'Tis eloquence to be silent, where no expression
can reach the greatness of the misfortune.

But, tell me, whence proceeds your neglect of me since my being
professed? You know nothing moved me to it but your disgrace, nor did
I give any consent but yours. Let me hear what is the occasion of
your coldness, or give me leave to tell you now my opinion. Was it
not the sole view of pleasure which engaged you to me? and has not my
tenderness, by leaving you nothing to wish for, extinguished your
desires? Wretched _Heloise_! You could please when you wished to
avoid it; you merited incense, when you could remove to a distance
the hand that offered it; but since your heart has been softened, and
has yielded; since you have devoted and sacrificed yourself, you are
deserted and forgotten. I am convinced, by sad experience, that
it is natural to avoid those to whom we have been too much obliged;
and that uncommon generosity produces neglect rather than
acknowledgement. My heart surrendered too soon to gain the esteem of
the conqueror; you took it without difficulty, and give it up easily.
But, ungrateful as you are, I will never content to it. And though in
this place I ought not to retain a wish of my own, yet I have ever
secretly preserved the desire of being beloved by you. When I
pronounced my sad vow, I then had about me your last letter, in which
you protested you would be wholly mine, and would never live but to
love me. 'Tis to you, therefore, I have offered myself; you had my
heart, and I had yours; do not demand any thing back; you must bear
with my passion as a thing which of right belongs to you, and from
which you can no ways be disengaged.

Alas! what folly is it to talk at this rate? I see nothing here
but marks of the Deity, and I speak of nothing but man! You have been
the cruel occasion of this by your conduct. Unfaithful man! ought you
at once to break off loving me. Why did you not deceive me for a
while, rather than immediately abandon me? If you had given me at
least but some faint signs even of a dying passion, I myself had
favoured the deception. But in vain would I flatter myself that you
could be constant; you have left me no colour of making your excuse.
I am earnestly desirous to see you; but if that be impossible, I will
content myself with a few lines from your hand. Is it so hard for one
who loves to write? I ask for none of your letters filled with
learning, and writ for reputation; all I desire is such letters as
the heart dictates, and which the hand can scarce write fast enough.
How did I deceive myself with the hopes that you would be wholly mine
when I took the veil, and engaged myself to live for ever under your
laws? For in being professed, I vowed no more than to be yours only,
and I obliged myself voluntarily to a confinement in which you
desired to place me. Death only then can make me leave the place
where you have fixed me; and then too, my ashes shall rest, here and
wait for your, in order to shew my obedience and devotedness to you
to the latest moment possible.

Why should I conceal from you the secret of my call? You know it
was neither zeal nor devotion which led me to the cloister. Your
conscience is too faithful a witness to permit you to disown it. Yet
here I am, and here I will remain; to this place an unfortunate love,
and my cruel relations, have condemned me. But if you do not continue
your concern for me, If I lose your affection, what have I gained by
my imprisonment? What recompense can I hope for? The unhappy
consequence of a criminal conduit, and your disgraces, have put on me
this habit of chastity, and not the sincere desire of being truly
penitent. Thus I strive and labour in vain. Among those whose are
wedded to God I serve a man: among the heroic supporters of the
Cross, I am a poor slave to a human passion: at the head of a
religious community I am devoted to _Abelard_ only. What a
prodigy am I? Enlighten me, O Lord! Does thy grace or my own despair
draw these words from me? I am sensible I am in the Temple of
Chastity, covered only with the ashes of that fire which hath
consumed us. I am here, I confess, a sinner, but one who, far from
weeping for her sins, weeps only for her lover; far from abhorring
her crimes, endeavours only to add to them; and who, with a weakness
unbecoming the state I am in, please myself continually with the
remembrance of past actions, when it is impossible to renew them.

Good God! what is all this! I reproach myself for my own faults, I
accuse you for yours, and to what purpose? Veiled as I am, behold in
what a disorder you have plunged me! How difficult is it to fight
always for duty against inclination? I know what obligations this
veil lays on me, but I feel more strongly what power a long habitual
passion has over my heart. I am conquered by my inclination. My love
troubles my mind, and disorders my will. Sometimes I am swayed by the
sentiments of piety which arise in me, and the next moment I yield up
my imagination to all that is amorous and tender. I tell you to-day
what I would not have said to you yesterday. I had resolved to love
you no more; I considered I had made a vow, taken the veil, and am as
it were dead and buried; yet there rises unexpectedly from the bottom
of my heart a passion which triumphs over all these notions, and
darkens all my reason and devotion. You reign in such inward retreats
of my soul, that I know not where to attack you. When I endeavour to
break those chains by which I am bound to you, I only deceive myself,
and all the efforts I am able to make serve but to bind them the
faster. Oh, for Pity's sake help a wretch to renounce her desires
herself, and if it be possible, even to renounce you! If you are a
lover, a father, help a mistress, comfort a child! These tender
names, cannot they move you? Yield either to pity or love. If you
gratify my request I shall continue a Religious without longer
profaning my calling. I am ready to humble myself with you to the
wonderful providence of God, who does all things for our
sanctification; who, by his grace, pacifies all that is vicious and
corrupt in the principle, and; by the inconceivable riches of his
mercy, draws us to himself against our wishes, and by degrees opens
our eyes to discern the greatness of his bounty, which at first we
would not understand.

I thought to end my letter here. But now I am complaining against
you, I must unload my heart, and tell you all its jealousies, and
reproaches. Indeed I thought it something hard, that when we had both
engaged to consecrate ourselves to Heaven, you should insist upon
doing it first. Does _Abelard_ then, said I, suspect he shall
see renewed in me the example of Lot's wife, who could not forbear
looking back when she left Sodom? If my youth and sex might give
occasion of fear that I should return to the world, could not my
behaviour, my fidelity, and this heart which you ought to know, could
not banish such ungenerous apprehensions? This distrustful foresight
touched me sensibly. I said to myself, there was a time when he could
rely upon my bare word, and does he now want vows to secure himself
of me? What occasion have I given him in the whole course of my life
to admit the least suspicion? I could meet him at all his
assignations, and would I decline following him to the feats of
holiness? I who have not refused to be a victim of pleasure to
gratify him, can he think I would refuse to be a sacrifice of honour
to obey him? Has Vice such charms to well-born souls? and, when we
have once drank of the cup of sinners, is it with such difficulty
that we take the chalice of saints? Or did you believe yourself a
greater master to teach vice than virtue, or did you think it was
more easy to persuade me to the first than the latter? No, this
suspicion would be injurious to both. Virtue is too amiable not to be
embraced, when you reveal her charms; and Vice too hideous not to be
avoided, when you show her deformities. Nay, when you please, any
thing seems lovely to me, and nothing is frightful or difficult when
you are by. I am only weak when I am alone and unsupported by you,
and therefore it depends on you alone that I may be such as you
desire. I wish to Heav'n you had not such a power over me. If you had
any occasion to fear, you would be less negligent. But what is there
for you to fear? I have done too much, and now have nothing more to
do but to triumph over your ingratitude. When we lived happy
together, you might have made it doubt whether pleasure or affection
united me more to you; but the place from whence I write to you must
now have entirely taken away that doubt. Even here I love you as much
as ever I did in the world. If I had loved pleasures, could I not yet
have found means to have gratified myself? I was not above twenty-two
years old; and there were other men left though I was deprived of
_Abelard_ and yet did I not bury myself alive in a nunnery, and
triumph over love, at an age capable of enjoying it in its full
latitude? 'Tis to you I sacrifice these remains of a transitory
beauty, these widowed nights and tedious days which I pass without
seeing you; and since you cannot possess them, I take them from you
to offer them to Heaven, and to make, alas! but a secondary oblation
of my heart, my days, and my life!

I am sensible I have dwelt too long on this head; I ought to speak
less to you of your misfortunes, and of my own sufferings, for love
of you. We tarnish the lustre of our most beautiful actions when we
applaud them ourselves. This is true, and yet there is a time when we
may with decency commend ourselves; when we have to do with those
whom base ingratitude has stupefied, we cannot too much praise our
own good actions. Now, if you were of this sort of men, this would be
a home-reflection on you. Irresolute as I am, I still love you, and
yet I must hope for nothing, I have renounced life, and stripped
myself of every thing, but I find I neither have nor can renounce my
_Abelard_. Though I have lost my lover, I still preserve my
love. O vows! O convent! I have not lost my humanity under your
inexorable discipline! You have not made me marble by changing my
habit. My heart is not totally hardened by my perpetual imprisonment;
I am still sensible to what has touched me, though, alas I ought
not to be so. Without offending your commands, permit a lover to
exhort me to live in obedience to your rigorous rules. Your yoke will
be lighter, if that hand support me under it; your exercises will be
amiable, if he shows me their advantage. Retirement, solitude! you
will not appear terrible, if I may but still know I have any place in
his memory. A heart which has been so sensibly affected as mine
cannot soon be indifferent. We fluctuate long between love and hatred
before we can arrive at a happy tranquillity, and we always flatter
ourselves with some distant hope that we shall not be quite
forgotten.

Yes, _Abelard_, I conjure you by the chains I bear here to
ease the weight of them, and make them as agreeable as I wish they
were to me. Teach me the maxims of divine love. Since you have
forsaken me, I glory in being wedded to Heaven. My heart adores that
title, and disdains any other. Tell me how this divine love is
nourished, how it operates, and purifies itself. When we were tossed
in the ocean of the world, we could hear of nothing but your verses,
which published every where our joys and our pleasures: now we are in
the haven of grace, is it not fit that you should discourse to me of
this happiness, and teach me every thing which might improve and
heighten it? Shew me the same complaisance in my present condition as
you did when we were in the world. Without changing the ardour of our
affections, let us change their object; let us leave our songs, and
sing hymns; let us lift up our hearts to God, and have no transports
but for his glory.

I expect this from you as a thing you cannot refuse me. God has a
peculiar right over the hearts of great men which he has created.
When he pleases to touch them, he ravishes them, and lets them not
speak nor breathe but for his glory. Till that moment of grace
arrives, O think of me----do not forget me;--remember my love,
my fidelity, my constancy; love me as your mistress, cherish
me as your child, your sister, your wife. Consider that I still love
you, and yet strive to avoid loving you. What a word, what a design
is this! I shake with horror, and my heart revolts against what I
say. I shall blot all my paper with tears--I end my long letter,
wishing you, if you can desire it, (would to Heaven I could,) for
ever adieu.




ADVERTISEMENT.


That the reader may make a right judgment on the following Letter,
it is proper he should be informed of the condition _Abelard_
was in when he wrote it. The Duke of Britany whose subject he was
born, jealous of the glory of France, which then engrossed all the
most famous scholars of Europe, and being, besides, acquainted with
the persecution _Abelard_ had suffered from his enemies, had
nominated him to the Abbey of St. Gildas, and, by this benefaction
and mark of his esteem, engaged him to past the rest of his days in
his dominions. He received this favour with great joy, imagining,
that by leaving France he should lose his passion, and gain a new
turn of mind upon entering into his new dignity. The Abbey of St.
Gildas is seated upon a rock, which the sea beats with its waves.
_Abelard_, who had lain on himself the necessity of vanquishing
a passion which absence had in a great measure weakened, endeavoured
in this solitude to extinguish the remains of it by his tears. But
upon his receiving the foregoing letter he could not resist so
powerful an attack, but proves as weak and as much to be pitied as
_Heloise_. 'Tis not then a master or director that speaks to
her, but a man who had loved her, and loves her still: and under this
character we are to consider _Abelard_ when he wrote the
following Letter. If he seems, by some passages in it, to have begun
to feel the motions of divine grace they appear as yet to be only by
starts, and without any uniformity.




LETTER III.

_Abelard_ to _Heloise._


Could I have imagined that a letter not written to yourself could
have fallen into your hands, I had been more cautious not to have
inserted any thing in it which might awaken the memory of our past
misfortunes. I described with boldness the series of my disgraces to
a friend, in order to make him less sensible of the loss he had
sustained. If by this well meaning artifice I have disturbed you, I
purpose here to dry up those tears which the sad description
occasioned you to shed: I intend to mix my grief with yours, and pour
out my heart before you; in short, to lay open before your eyes all
my trouble, and the secrets of my soul, which my vanity has hitherto
made me conceal from the rest of the world, and which you now force
from me, in spite of my resolutions to the contrary.

It is true, that in a sense of the afflictions which had befallen
us, and observing that no change of our condition was to be expected;
that those prosperous days which had seduced us were now past, and
there remained nothing but to eraze out of our minds, by painful
endeavours, all marks and remembrance of them, I had wished to find
in philosophy and religion a remedy for my disgrace; I searched out
an asylum to secure me from love. I was come to the sad experiment of
making vows to harden my heart. But what have I gained by this? If my
passion has been put under a restraint, my ideas yet remain. I
promise myself that I will forget you, and yet cannot think of it
without loving you; and am pleased with that thought. My love is not
at all weakened by those reflections I make in order to free myself.
The silence I am surrounded with makes me more sensible to its
impressions; and while I am unemployed with any other things, this
makes itself the business of my whole vacation; till, after a
multitude of useless endeavours, I begin to persuade myself that it
is a superfluous trouble to drive to free myself; and that it is
wisdom sufficient if I can conceal from every one but you my
confusion and weakness.

I removed to a distance from your person, with an intention of
avoiding you as an enemy; and yet I incessantly seek for you in my
mind; I recall your image in my memory; and in such different
disquietudes I betray and contradict myself. I hate you: I love you.
Shame presses me on all sides: I am at this moment afraid lest I
should seem more indifferent than you, and yet I am ashamed to
discover my trouble.

How weak are we in ourselves, if we do not support ourselves on
the cross of Christ? Shall we have so little courage, and shall that
uncertainty your heart labours with, of serving two masters, affect
mine too? You see the confusion I am in, what I blame myself for, and
what I suffer. Religion commands me to pursue virtue, since I have
nothing to hope for from love. But love still preserves its dominion
in my fancy, and entertains itself with past pleasures. Memory
supplies the place of a mistress. Piety and duty are not always the
fruits of retirement; even in deserts, when the dew of heaven falls
not on us, we love what we ought no longer to love. The passions,
stirred up by solitude, fill those regions of death and silence; and
it is very seldom that what ought to be is truly followed there, and
that God only is loved and served. Had I always had such notions as
these, I had instructed you better. You call me your Master 'tis
true, you were intrusted to my care. I saw you, I was earnest to
teach you vain sciences; it cost you your innocence, and me my
liberty. Your uncle, who was fond of you, became therefore me enemy,
and revenge himself on me. If now, having lost the power of
satisfying my passion, I had lost too that of loving you, I should
have some consolation. My enemies would have given me that
tranquillity which Origen purchased by a crime. How miserable am I!
My misfortune does not loose my chains, my passion grows furious by
impotence; and that desire I still have for you amidst all my
disgraces makes me more unhappy than the misfortune itself. I find
myself much more guilty in my thoughts of you, even amidst my tears,
than in possessing yourself when I was in full liberty. I continually
think of you, I continually call to mind that day when you bestowed
on me the first marks of your tenderness. In this condition, O Lord!
if I run to prostrate myself before thy altars, if I beseech thee to
pity me, why does not the pure flame of thy Spirit consume the
sacrifice that is offered to thee? Cannot this habit of penitence
which I wear interest Heaven to treat me more favourably? But that is
still inexorable; because my passion still lives in me, the fire is
only covered over with deceitful ashes, and cannot be extinguished
but by extraordinary graces. We deceive men, but nothing is hid from
God.

You tell me, that it is for me you live under that veil which
covers you; why do you profane your vocation with such words? Why
provoke a jealous God by a blasphemy? I hoped, after our separation,
you would have changed your sentiments; I hoped too, that God would
have delivered me from the tumult of my senses, and that contrariety
which reigns in my heart. We commonly die to the affections of those
whom we see no more, and they to ours: absence is the tomb of love.
But to me absence is an unquiet remembrance of what I once loved,
which continually torments me. I flattered myself, that when I should
see you no more, you would only rest in my memory, without giving any
trouble to my mind; that Britany and the sea would inspire other
thoughts; that my fasts and studies would by degrees eraze you out of
my heart; but in spite of severe fasts and redoubled studies, in
spite of the distance of three hundred miles which separates us, your
image, such as you describe yourself in your veil, appears to me, and
confounds all my resolutions.

What means have I not used? I have armed my own hands against
myself? I have exhausted my strength in constant exercises; I comment
upon St. Paul; I dispute with Aristotle; in short, I do all I used to
do before I loved you, but all in vain; nothing can be successful
that opposes you. Oh! do not add to my miseries by your constancy;
forget, if you can, your favours, and that right which they claim
over me; permit me to be indifferent. I envy their happiness who have
never loved; how quiet and easy are they! But the tide of pleasures
has always a reflux of bitterness. I am but too much convinced now of
this; but though I am no longer deceived by love, I am not cured:
while my reason condemns it, my heart declares for it. I am
deplorable that I have not the ability to free myself from a passion
which so many circumstances, this place, my person, and my disgraces,
tend to destroy. I yield, without considering that a resistance would
wipe out my past offences, and would procure me in their stead merit
and repose. Why should you use eloquence to reproach me for my
flight, and for my silence? Spare the recital of our assignations,
and your constant exactness to them; without calling up such
disturbing thoughts, I have enough to suffer. What great advantages
would philosophy give us over other men, if by studying it we could
learn to govern our passions? but how humbled ought we to be when we
cannot master them? What efforts, what relapses, what agitations, do
we undergo? and how long are we tossed in this confusion, unable to
exert our reason, to possess our souls, or to rule our affections?

What a troublesome employment is love! and how valuable is virtue
even upon consideration of our own ease! Recoiled your extravagances
of passion, guess at my distractions: number up our cares, if
possible, our griefs, and our inquietudes; throw these things out of
the account, and let love have all its remaining softness and
pleasure. How little is that? and, yet for such shadows of
enjoyments, which at first appeared to us, are we so weak our whole
lives that we cannot now help writing to each other, covered as we
are with sackcloth and ashes! How much happier should we be, if, by
our humiliation and tears, we could make our repentance sure! The
love of pleasure is not eradicated out of the soul but by
extraordinary efforts; it has so powerful a party in our breasts,
that we find it difficult to condemn it ourselves. What abhorrence
can I be said to have of my sins, if the objects of them are always
amiable to me? How can I separate from the person I love the passion
I must detest? Will the tears I shed be sufficient to render it
odious to me? I know not how it happens, there is always a pleasure
in weeping for a beloved object. 'Tis difficult in our sorrow to
distinguish penitence from love. The memory of the crime, and the
memory of the object which has charmed us, are too nearly related to
be immediately separated: and the love of God in its beginning does
not wholly annihilate the love of the creature. But what excuses
could I not find in you, if the crime were excusable? Unprofitable
honour, troublesome riches, could never tempt me; but those charms,
that beauty, that air, which I yet behold at this instant, have
occasioned my fall. Your looks were the beginning of my guilt; your
eyes, your discourse, pierced my heart; and in spite of that ambition
and glory which filled it, and offered to make defence, love soon
made itself master. God, in order to punish me, forsook me. His
providence permitted those consequences which have since happened.
You are no longer of the world; you have renounced it; I am a
Religious, devoted to solitude; shall we make no advantage of our
condition? Would you destroy my piety in its infant-state? Would you
have me forsake the convent into which I am but newly entered? Must I
renounce my vows? I have made them in the presence of God; whither
shall I fly from his wrath if I violate them? Suffer me to seek for
ease in my duty; how difficult it is to procure that! I pass whole
days and nights alone in this cloister, without closing my eyes. My
love burns fiercer, amidst the happy indifference of those who
surround me, and my heart is at once pierced with your sorrows and
its own. Oh what a loss have I sustained, when I consider your
constancy! What pleasures have I missed enjoying! I ought not to
confess this weakness to you: I am sensible I commit a fault: if I
could have showed more firmness of mind, I should, perhaps, have
provoked your resentment against me, and your anger might work that
effect in you which your virtue could not. If in the world I
published my weakness by verses and love-songs, ought not the dark
cells of this house to conceal that weakness, at least, under an
appearance of piety? Alas! I am still the same! or if I avoid the
evil, I cannot do the good; and yet I ought to join both, in order to
make this manner of living profitable. But how difficult is this in
the trouble which surrounds me? Duty, reason, and decency, which,
upon other occasions have such power over me, are here entirely
useless. The gospel is a language I do not understand, when it
opposes my passion. Those oaths which I have taken before the holy
altar, are feeble helps when opposed to you. Amidst so many voices
which call me to my duty, I hear and obey nothing but the secret
dictates of a desperate passion. Void of all relish for virtue, any
concern for my condition, or any application to my studies, I am
continually present by my imagination where I ought not to be, and I
find I have no power, when I would at any time correct it. I feel a
perpetual strife between my inclination and my duty. I find myself
entirely a distracted lover; unquiet in the midst of silence, and
restless in this abode of peace and repose. How shameful is such a
condition!

Consider me no more, I intreat you, as a founder, or any great
personage; your encomiums do but ill agree with such multiplied
weaknesses. I am a miserable sinner, prostrate before my Judge, and,
with my face pressed to the earth, I mix my tears and my sighs in the
dust, when the beams of grace and reason enlighten me. Come, see me
in this posture, and solicit me to love you! Come, if you think fit,
and in your holy habit thrust yourself between God and me and be a
wall of separation! Come, and force from me those sighs, thoughts,
and vows, which I owe to him only. Assist the evil spirits, and be
the instrument of their malice. What cannot you induce a heart to,
whose weakness you so perfectly know? But rather withdraw yourself,
and contribute to my salvation. Suffer me to avoid destruction, I
intreat you, by our former tenderest affection, and by our common
misfortune. It will always be the highest love to show none. I here
release you of all your oaths and engagements. Be God's wholly, to
whom you are appropriated; I will never oppose so pious a design. How
happy shall I be if I thus lose you! then shall I be indeed a
Religious, and you a perfect example of an Abbess.

Make yourself amends by so glorious a choice; make your virtue a
spectacle worthy men and angels: be humble among your children,
assiduous in your choir, exact in your discipline, diligent in your
reading; make even your recreations useful. Have you purchased your
vocation at so slight a rate, as that you should not turn it to the
best advantage? Since you have permitted yourself to be abused by
false doctrine, and criminal instructions, resist not those
good-counsels which grace and religion inspire me with. I will
confess to you, I have thought myself hitherto an abler master to
instill vice than to excite virtue, My false eloquence has only set
off false good. My heart drunk with voluptuousness, could only
suggest terms proper and moving to recommend that. The cup of sinners
overflows with so inchanting a sweetness and we are naturally so much
inclined to taste it, that it needs only be offered to us. On the
other hand, the chalice of saints is filled with a bitter draught,
and nature starts from it. And yet you reproach me with cowardice for
giving it you first; I willingly submit to these accusations. I
cannot enough admire the readiness you showed to take the religious
habit: bear, therefore, with courage the Cross, which you have taken
up so resolutely. Drink of the chalice of saints, even to the bottom,
without turning your eyes with uncertainty upon me, Let me remove far
from you, and obey the apostle, who hath said, _Fly._

You intreat me to return, under a pretence of devotion, Your
earnestness in this point creates a suspicion in me, and makes me
doubtful how to answer you. Should I commit an error here, my words
would blush, if I may say so, after the history of my misfortunes.
The Church is jealous of its glory, and commands that her children
should be induced to the practice of virtue by virtuous means. When
we have approached God after an unblameable manner, we may then with
boldness invite others to him. But to forget _Heloise_, to see
her no more, is what Heaven demands of _Abelard_; and to expect
nothing from _Abelard_, to lose him even in idea, is what Heaven
enjoins _Heloise_. To forget in the case of love is the most
necessary penitence, and the most difficult. It is easy to recount
our faults. How many through indiscretion have made themselves a
second pleasure of this, instead of confessing them with humility.
The only way to return to God is, by neglecting the creature which we
have adored, and adoring God whom we have neglected. This may appear
harsh, but it must be done if we would be saved.

To make it more easy, observe why I pressed you to your vow before
I took mine; and pardon my sincerity, and the design I have of
meriting your neglect and hatred, if I conceal nothing from you of
the particular you inquire after. When I saw myself so oppressed with
my misfortune, my impotency made me jealous, and I considered all
men as my rivals. Love has more of distrust than assurance. I was
apprehensive of abundance of things, because I saw I had abundance of
defects; and being tormented with fear from my own example, I
imagined your heart, which had been so much accustomed to love, would
not be long without entering into a new engagement. Jealousy can
easily believe to most dreadful consequences, I was desirous to put
myself out of a possibility of doubting you. I was very urgent to
persuade you, that decency required you should withdraw from the
envious eyes of the world; that modesty, and our friendship, demanded
it; nay, that your own safety obliged you to it; and, that after such
a revenge taken upon me, you could expect to be secure no where but
in a convent.

I will do you justice; you were very easily persuaded to it. My
jealousy secretly triumphed over your innocent compliance; and yet,
triumphant as I was, I yielded you up to God with an unwilling heart.
I still kept my gift as much as was possible, and only parted with it
that I might effectually put it out of the power of men. I did not
persuade you to religion out of any regard to your happiness, but
condemned you to it, like an enemy who destroys what he cannot carry
off. And yet you heard my discourses with kindness; you sometimes
interrupted me with tears, and pressed me to acquaint you which of
the convents was most in my esteem. What a comfort did I feel in
seeing you shut up! I was now at ease, and took a satisfaction in
considering that you did not continue long in the world after my
disgrace, and that you would return into it no more.

But still this was doubtful. I imagined women were incapable of
maintaining any constant resolutions, unless they were forced by the
necessity of fixed vows. I wanted those vows, and Heaven itself, for
your security, that I might no longer distrust you. Ye holy mansions,
ye impenetrable retreats, from what numberless apprehensions have you
freed me? Religion and Piety keep a strict guard round your grates
and high walls. What a haven of rest is this to a jealous mind? and
with what impatience did I endeavour it! I went every day trembling
to exhort you to this sacrifice; I admired, without daring to mention
it then, a brightness in your beauty which I had never observed
before. Whether it was the bloom of a rising virtue, or an
anticipation of that great loss I was going to suffer, I was not
curious in examining the cause, but only hastened your being
professed. I engaged your Prioress in my guilt by a criminal bribe,
with which I purchased the right of burying you. The professed of the
house were also bribed, and concealed from you, by my directions, all
their scruples and disgusts. I omitted nothing, either little or
great: and if you had escaped all my snares, I myself would not have
retired: I was resolved to follow you every where. This shadow of
myself would always have pursued your steps, and continually
occasioned either your confusion or fear, which would have been a
sensible gratification to me.

But, thanks to Heaven, you resolved to make a vow; I accompanied
you with terror to the foot of the altar: and while you stretched out
your hand to touch the sacred cloth, I heard you pronounce distinctly
those fatal words which for ever separated you from all men. 'Till
then your beauty and youth seemed to oppose my design, and to
threaten your return into the world. Might not a small temptation
have changed you? Is it possible to renounce one's self entirely at
the age of two and twenty? at an age which claims the most absolute
liberty, could you think the world no longer worthy of your regard?
How much did I wrong you, and what weakness did I impute to you? You
were in my imagination nothing but lightness and inconstancy. Might
not a young woman, at the noise of the flames, and the fall of Sodom,
look back, and pity some one person? I took notice of your eyes, your
motion, your air; I trembled at every thing. You may call such a
self-interested conduct treachery, perfidiousness, murder. A love
which was so like to hatred ought to provoke the utmost contempt and
anger.

It is fit you should know, that the very moment when I was
convinced of your being entirely devoted to me, when I saw you were
infinitely worthy of all my love and acknowledgement, I imagined I
could love you no more; I thought it time to leave off giving you any
marks of affection; and I considered, that by your holy espousals you
were now the peculiar care of Heaven, even in the quality of a wife.
My jealousy seemed to be extinguished. When God only is our rival, we
have nothing to fear: and being in greater tranquillity than ever
before, I dared even to offer up prayers, and beseech him to take you
away from my eyes: but it was not a time to make rash prayers; and my
faith was too imperfect to let them be heard. He who sees the depth
and secrets of all men's hearts, saw mine did not agree with my
words. Necessity and despair were the springs of this proceeding.
Thus I inadvertently offered an insult to Heaven rather than a
sacrifice. God rejected my offering and my prayers, and continued my
punishment, by suffering me to continue my love. Thus, under the
guilt of your vows, and of the passion which preceded them, I must be
tormented all the days of my life.

If God spoke to your heart, as to that of a Religious, whose
innocence had first engaged him to heap on it a thousand favours, I
should have matter of comfort; but to see both of us victims of a
criminal love; to see this love insult us, and invest itself with our
very habits, as with spoils it has taken from our devotion, fills me
with horror and trembling. Is this a state of reprobation? or are
these the consequences of a long drunkenness in profane love? We
cannot say love is a drunkenness and a poison till we are illuminated
by grace; in the mean time, it is an evil which we dote on. When we
are under such a mistake the knowledge of our misery is the first
step towards amendment. Who does not know that it is for the glory of
God to find no other foundation in man for his mercy than man's very
weakness? When he has shewed us this weakness, and we bewail it, he
is ready to put forth his omnipotence to assist us. Let us say for
our comfort that what we suffer is one of those long and terrible
temptations which have sometimes disturbed the vocations of the most
Holy.

God can afford his presence to men, in order to soften their
calamities, whenever he shall think fit. It was his pleasure when you
took the veil, to draw you to him by his grace. I saw your eyes, when
you spoke your last farewell, fixed upon the cross. It was above six
months before you wrote me a letter, nor during all that time did I
receive any message from you. I admired this silence, which I durst
not blame, and could not imitate. I wrote to you; you returned me no
answer. Your heart was then shut; but this guardian of the spouse is
now opened, he is withdrawn from it, and has left you alone. By
removing from you, he has made trial of you; call him back and strive
to regain him. We must have the assistance of God that we may break
our chains; we have engaged too deeply in love to free ourselves. Our
follies have penetrated even into the most sacred places. Our amours
have been matter of scandal to a whole kingdom. They are read and
admired; love which produced them has caused them to be described. We
shall be a consolation for the failings of youth hereafter. Those who
offend after us will think themselves less guilty. We are criminals
whose repentance is late. O may it be sincere! Let us repair, as far
is possible, the evils we have done; and let France, which has been
the witness of our crimes, be astonished at our penitence. Let us
confound all who would imitate our guilt, let us take the part of God
against ourselves, and by so doing prevent his judgment. Our former
irregularities require tears, shame, and sorrow to expiate them. Let
us offer up these sacrifices from our hearts; let us blush, let us
weep. If in these weak beginnings, Lord, our heart is not entirely
thine, let it at least be made sensible that it ought to be so!

Deliver yourself, _Heloise_, from the shameful remains of a
passion which has taken too deep root. Remember that the least
thought for any other than God is adultery. If you could see me here,
with my meagre face and melancholy air, surrounded with numbers of
persecuting monks, who are alarmed at my reputation for learning, and
offended at my lean visage, as if I threatened them with a
reformation; what would you say of my base sighs, and of those
unprofitable tears which deceive these credulous men? Alas! I am
humbled under love, and not under the Cross. Pity me, and free
yourself. If your vocation be, as you say, my work, deprive me not of
the merit of it by your continual inquietudes. Tell me that you, will
honour the habit which covers you, by an inward retirement. Fear God,
that you may be delivered from your frailties. Love him, if you would
advance in virtue. Be not uneasy in the cloister, for it is the
dwelling of saints. Embrace your bands, they are the chains of Christ
Jesus: he will lighten them, and bear them with you, if you bear them
with humility.

Without growing severe to a passion which yet possesses you, learn
from your own misery to succour your weak sisters; pity them upon
consideration of your own faults. And if any thoughts too natural
shall importune you, fly to the foot of the Cross, and beg for mercy;
there are wounds open; lament before the dying Deity. At the head of
a religious society be not a slave, and having rule over queens,
begin to govern yourself. Blush at the least revolt of your senses.
Remember, that even at the foot of the altar we often sacrifice to
lying spirits, and that no incense can be more agreeable to them than
that which in those places burns in the heart of a Religious still
sensible of passion and love. If, during your abode in the world,
your soul has acquired a habit of loving, feel it now no more but for
Jesus Christ, Repent of all the moments of your life which you have
wasted upon the world, and upon pleasure; demand them of me, it is a
robbery which I am guilty of; take courage and boldly reproach me
with it.

I have been indeed your master, but it was only to teach you sin.
You call me your Father; before I had any claim to this title I
deserved that of Parricide. I am your brother, but it is the
affinity of our crimes that has purchased me that distinction. I am
called your Husband, but it is after a public scandal. If you have
abused the sanctity of so many venerable names in the superscription
of your letters, to do me honour, and flatter your own passion, blot
them out, and place in their stead those of a Murtherer, a Villain,
an Enemy, who has conspired against your honour, troubled your quiet,
and betrayed your innocence. You would have perished thro' my means,
but by an extraordinary act of grace, which that you might be saved,
has thrown me down in the middle of my course.

This is the idea that you ought to have of a fugitive, who
endeavours to deprive you of the hope of seeing him any more. But
when love has once been sincere, how difficult it is to determine to
love no more? 'Tis a thousand times more easy to renounce the world
than love. I hate this deceitful faithless world; I think no more of
it; but my heart, still wandering, will eternally make me feel the
anguish of having lost you, in spite of all the convictions of my
understanding. In the mean time tho' I so be so cowardly as to
retract what you have read, do not suffer me to offer myself to your
thoughts but under this last notion. Remember my last endeavours were
to seduce your heart. You perished by my means, and I with you. The
same waves swallowed us both up. We waited for death with
indifference, and the same death had carried us headlong to the same
punishments. But Providence has turned off this blow, and our
shipwreck has thrown us into an haven. There are some whom the mercy
of God saves by afflictions. Let my salvation be the fruit of your
prayers! let me owe it to your tears, or exemplary holiness! Tho' my
heart, Lord! be filled with the love of one of thy creatures, thy
hand can, when it pleases, draw out of it those ideas which fill its
whole capacity. To love _Heloise_ truly is to leave her entirely
to that quiet which retirement and virtue afford. I have resolved it:
this letter shall be my last fault. Adieu.

If I die here, I will give orders that my body be carried to the
house of the Paraclete. You shall see me in that condition; not to
demand tears from you, it will then be too late; weep rather for me
now, to extinguish that fire which burns me. You shall see me, to
strengthen your piety by the horror of this carcase; and my death,
then more eloquent than I can be, will tell you what you love when
you love a man. I hope you will be contented, when you have finished
this mortal life, to be buried near me. Your cold ashes need then
fear nothing, and my tomb will, by that means, be more rich and more
renowned.



LETTER IV.

_HELOISE to ABELARD._


   In the following Letter the passion of _Heloise_
   breaks, out with more violence than ever. That which she had received
   from _Abelard_, instead of fortifying her resolutions, served
   only to revive in her memory all their past endearments and
   misfortunes. With this impression she writes again to her husband;
   and appears now, not so much in the charter of a Religious, striving
   with the remains of her former weakness, as in that of an unhappy
   woman abandoned to all the transport of love and despair.

   To _Abelard_, her well beloved in Christ Jesus, from
   _Heloise_, his well-beloved, in the same Christ Jesus.

I read the letter I received from you with abundance of
impatience. In spite of all my misfortunes, I hoped to find nothing
in it besides arguments of comfort; but how ingenious are lovers in
tormenting themselves! Judge of the exquisite sensibility and force
of my love by that which causes the grief of my soul; I was disturbed
at the superscription of your letter! why did you place the name of
_Heloise_ before that of _Abelard_? what means this most
cruel and unjust distinction? 'Twas your name only, the name of
Father, and of a Husband, which my eager eyes sought after. I did not
look for my own, which I much rather, if possible, forget, as being
the cause of your misfortune. The rules of decorum, and the character
of Master and Director which you have over me, opposed that
ceremonious manner of addressing me; and Love commanded you to banish
it. Alas! you know all this but too well.

Did you write thus to me before Fortune had ruined my happiness? I
see your heart has deserted me, and you have made greater advances in
the way of devotion than I could wish. Alas! I am too weak to follow
you; condescend at least to stay for me, and animate me with your
advice. Will you have the cruelty to abandon me? The fear of this
stabs my heart: but the fearful presages you make at the latter end
of your Letter, those terrible images you draw of your death, quite
distracts me. Cruel _Abelard_! you ought to have stopped my
tears, and you make them flow; you ought to have quieted the disorder
of my heart, and you throw me into despair.

You desire that after your death I should take care of your ashes,
and pay them the last duties. Alas! in what temper did you conceive
these mournful ideas? and how could you describe them to me? Did not
the apprehension of causing my present death make the pen drop from
your hand? You did not reflect, I suppose, upon all those' torments
to which you were going to deliver me. Heaven, as severe as it has
been against me, is not in so great a degree so, as to permit me to
live one moment after you. Life without my _Abelard_ is an
unsupportable punishment, and death a most exquisite happiness, if by
that means I can be united with him. If Heaven hears the prayers I
continually make for you, your days will be prolonged, and you will
bury me.

Is it not your part to prepare me, by your powerful exhortations
against that great crisis, which shakes the most resolute and
confirmed minds? Is it not your part to receive my last sighs; take
care of my funeral, and give an account of my manners and faith? Who
but you can recommend us worthily to God; and by the fervour and
merit of your prayers, conduct those souls to him which you have
joined to his worship by solemn contracts? We expect these pious
offices from your paternal charity. After this you will be free from
those disquietudes which now molest you, and you will quit life with
more ease, whenever it shall please God to call you away. You may
follow us, content with what you have done, and in a full assurance
of our happiness: but till then, write not to me any such terrible
things. Are we not already sufficiently miserable? must we aggravate
our sorrows? Our life here is but a languishing death? will you
hasten it? Our present disgraces are sufficient to employ our
thoughts continually, and shall we seek new arguments of grief in
futurities? How void of reason are men, said Seneca, to make distant
evils present by reflection, and to take pains before death to lose
all the comforts of life?

When you have finished your course here below, you say it is your
desire that your body be carried to the house of the Paraclete, to
the intent that, being always exposed to my eyes, you may be for ever
present to my mind; and that your dear body may strengthen our piety,
and animate our prayers. Can you think that the traces you have drawn
in my heart can ever be worn out? or that any length of time can
obliterate the memory we have here of your benefits? And what time
shall I find for those prayers you speak of? Alas! I shall then be
filled with other cares. Can so heavy a misfortune leave me a
moment's quiet? can my feeble reason resist such powerful assaults?
When I am distracted and raving, (if I dare to say it,) even against
Heaven itself, I shall not soften it by my prayers, but rather
provoke it by my cries and reproaches! But how should I pray! or how
bear up against my grief? I should be more urgent to follow you than
to pay you the sad ceremonies of burial. It is for you for _Abelard_,
that I have resolved to live; if you are ravished from me, what use
can I make of my miserable days? Alas! what lamentations should I
make, if Heaven, by a cruel pity, should preserve me till that
moment? When I but think of this last separation; I feel all the
pangs of death; what shall I be then, if I should see this dreadful
hour? Forbear, therefore, to infuse into my mind such mournful
thoughts, if not for love, at least for pity.

You desire me to give myself up to my duty, and to be wholly
God's, to whom I am consecrated. How can I do that when you frighten
me with apprehensions that continually possess my mind day and night?
When an evil threatens us, and it is impossible to ward it off, why
do we give up ourselves to the unprofitable fear of it, which is yet
even more tormenting than the evil itself?

What have I to hope for after this loss of you? what can confine
me to earth when Death shall have taken away from me all that was
dear upon it? I have renounced without difficulty all the charms of
life, preserving only my love, and the secret pleasure of thinking
incessantly of you, and hearing that you live; and yet alas! you do
not live for me, and I dare not even flatter myself with the hopes
that I shall ever enjoy a sight of you more. This is the greatest of
my afflictions. Merciless Fortune! hast thou not persecuted me
enough? Thou dost not give me any respite? thou hast exhausted all
thy vengeance upon me, and reserved thyself nothing whereby thou
mayst appear terrible to others. Thou hast wearied thyself in
tormenting me, and others have nothing now to fear from thy anger.
But to what purpose dost thou still arm thyself against me? The
wounds I have already received leave no room for new ones; why cannot
I urge thee to kill me? or dost thou fear, amidst the numerous
torments thou heapest on me, dost thou fear that such a stroke would
deliver me from all? Therefore thou preservest me from death, in
order to make me die every moment.

Dear _Abelard_, pity my despair! Was ever any thing so
miserable! The higher you raised me above other women who envied me
your love, the more sensible am I now of the loss of your heart. I
was exalted to the top of happiness, only that I might have a more
terrible fall. Nothing could formerly be compared to my pleasures,
and nothing now can equal my misery. My glory once raised the envy of
my rivals; my present wretchedness moves the compassion of all that
see me. My fortune has been always in extremes, she has heaped on me
her most delightful favours, that she might load me with the greatest
of her afflictions. Ingenious in tormenting me, she has made the
memory of the joys I have lost, an inexhaustible spring of my tears.
Love, which  possest was her greatest gift, being taken away,
occasions all my sorrow. In short, her malice has entirely succeeded,
and I find my present afflictions proportionably bitter as the
transports which charmed me were sweet.

But what aggravates my sufferings yet more, is, that we began to
be miserable at a time when we seemed the least to deserve it. While
we gave ourselves up to the enjoyment of a criminal love, nothing
opposed our vicious pleasures. But scarce had we retrenched what was
unlawful in our passion, and taken refuge in marriage against that
remorse which might have pursued us, but the whole wrath of heaven
fell on us in all its weight. But how barbarous was your punishment?
The very remembrance makes me shake with horror. Could an outrageous
husband make a villain suffer more that had dishonoured his bed? Ah!
What right had a cruel uncle over us? We were joined to each other
even before the altar, which should have protected you from the rage
of your enemies. Must a wife draw on you that punishment which ought
not to fall on any but an adulterous lover? Besides, we were
separated; you were busy in your exercises, and instructed a learned
auditory in mysteries which the greatest geniuses before you were not
able to penetrate; and I, in obedience to you, retired to a cloister.
I there spent whole days in thinking of you, and sometimes meditating
on holy lessons, to which I endeavoured to apply myself. In this very
juncture you became the victim of the most unhappy love. You alone
expiated the crime common to us both: You only were punished, though
both of us were guilty. You, who were least so, was the object of the
whole vengeance of a barbarous man. But why should I rave at your
assassins? I, wretched I, have ruined you, I have been the original
of all your misfortunes! Good Heaven! Why was I born to be the
occasion of so tragical an accident? How dangerous is it for a great
man to suffer himself to be moved by our sex! He ought from his
infancy to be inured to insensibility of heart, against all our
charms. _Hearken, my Son_, (said formerly the wisest of Men)
_attend and keep my instructions; if   a beautiful woman by her
looks endeavour to intice thee, permit not thyself to be overcome by
a corrupt inclination; reject the poison she offers, and follow not
the paths which she directs. Her house is the gate of destruction and
death_. I have long examined things, and have found that death
itself is a less dangerous evil than beauty. 'Tis the shipwreck of
liberty, a fatal snare, from which it is impossible ever to get free.
'Twas woman which threw down the first man from that glorious
condition in which heaven had placed him. She who was created in
order to partake of his happiness, was the sole cause of his ruin.
How bright had been the glory, _Sampson_, if thy heart had been
as firm against the charms of _Dalilah_, as against the weapons
of the _Philistines_! A woman disarmed and betrayed thee, who
hadst been a glorious conqueror of armies. Thou saw'st thyself
delivered into the hands of they enemies; thou wast deprived of thy
eyes, those inlets of love into thy soul: distracted and despairing
didst thou die, without any consolation but that of involving thy
enemies in thy destruction. _Solomon_, that he might please
women, forsook the care of pleasing God. That king, whose wisdom
princes came from all parts to admire, he whom God had chose to build
him a temple, abandoned the worship of those very alters he had had
defended, and proceeded to such a pitch of folly as even to burn
incense to idols. _Job_ had no enemy more cruel than his wife:
what temptations did he not bear? The evil spirit, who had declared
himself his persecutor, employed a woman as an instrument to shake
his constancy; and the same evil spirit made _Heloise_ an
instrument to ruin _Abelard_! All the poor comfort I have is,
that I am not the voluntary cause of your misfortune. I have not
betrayed you; but my constancy and love have been destructive to you.
If I have committed a crime in having loved you with constancy, I
shall never be able to repent of that crime. Indeed I gave myself up
too much to the captivity of those soft errors into which my rising
passion seduced me. I have endeavoured to please you even at the
expence of my virtue, and therefore deserve those pains I feel. My
guilty transports could not but have a tragical end. As soon as I was
persuaded of your love, alas! I scarce delayed a moment, resigning
myself to all your protestations. To be beloved by _Abelard_
was, in my esteem, too much glory, and I too impatiently desired it
not to believe it immediately. I endeavoured at nothing but
convincing you of my utmost passion. I made no use of those defences
of disdain and honour; those enemies of pleasure which tyrannize over
our sex, made in me but a weak and unprofitable resistance. I
sacrificed all to my love, and I forced my duty to give place to the
ambition of making happy the most gallant and learned person of the
age. If any consideration had been able to stop me, it would have
been without doubt the interest of my love. I feared, lest having
nothing further for you to desire, your passion might become languid,
and you might seek for new pleasures in some new conquest. But it was
easy for you to cure me of a suspicion so opposite to my own
inclination. I ought to have forseen other more certain evils, and to
have considered, that the idea of lost enjoyments would be the
trouble of my whole life.

How happy should I be could I wash out with my tears the memory of
those pleasures which yet I think of with delight? At least I will
exert some generous endeavour, and, by smothering in my heart those
desires to which the frailty of my nature may give birth, I will
exercise torments upon myself, like those the rage of your enemies
has made you suffer. I will endeavour by that means to satisfy you at
least, if I cannot appease an angry God. For, to show you what a
deplorable condition I am in, and how far my repentance is from being
available, I dare even accuse Heaven every moment of cruelty for
delivering you into those snares which were prepared for you. My
repinings kindle the divine wrath, when I should endeavour to draw
down mercy.

In order to expiate a crime, it is not sufficient that we bear the
punishment; whatever we suffer is accounted as nothing, if the
passions still continue, and the heart is inflamed with the same
desires. It is an easy matter to confess a weakness, and to inflict
some punishment upon ourselves; but it is the last violence to our
nature to extinguish the memory of pleasures which, by a sweet habit,
have gained absolute possession of our minds. How many persons do we
observe who make an outward confession of their faults, yet, far from
being afflicted for them, take a new pleasure in the relating them.
Bitterness of heart ought to accompany the confession of the mouth,
yet that very rarely happens. I, who have experienced so many
pleasures in loving you, feel, in spite of myself that I cannot
repent of them, nor forbear enjoying them over again as much as is
possible, by recollecting them in my memory. Whatever endeavours I
use, on whatever side I turn me, the sweet idea still pursues me and
every object brings to my mind what I ought to forget. During the
still night, when my heart ought to be in quiet in the midst of
sleep, which suspends the greatest disturbances, I cannot avoid those
illusions my heart entertains. I think I am still with my dear
_Abelard_. I see him, I speak to him, and hear him answer.
Charmed with each other, we quit our philosophic studies to entertain
ourselves with our passion. Sometimes, too, I seem to be a witness of
the bloody enterprise of your enemies; I oppose their fury; I fill
our apartment with fearful cries, and in a moment I wake in tears.
Even in holy places before the altar I carry with me the memory of
our guilty loves. They are my whole business, and, far from lamenting
for having been seduced, I sigh for having lost them.

I remember (for nothing is forgot by lovers) the time and place in
which you first declared your love to me, and swore you would love me
till death. Your words, your oaths, are all deeply graven in my
heart. The disorder of my discourse discovers to everyone the trouble
of my mind. My sighs betray me; and your name is continually in my
mouth. When I am in this condition, why dost not thou, O Lord, pity
my weakness, and strengthen me by thy grace? You are happy, _Abelard_;
this grace has prevented you; and your misfortune has been the
occasion of your finding rest. The punishment of your body has cured
the deadly wounds of your soul. The tempest has driven you into the
haven. God who seemed to lay his hand heavily upon you, fought only
to help you: he is a father chastising, and not an enemy revenging; a
wife physician, putting you to some pain in order to preserve your
life. I am a thousand times more to be lamented than you; I have a
thousand passions to combat with. I must resist those fires which
Jove kindles in a young heart. Our sex is nothing but weakness, and I
have the greater difficulty to defend myself, because the enemy that
attacks me pleases. I dote on the danger which threatens me, how then
can I avoid falling?

In the midst of these struggles I endeavour at least to conceal my
weakness from those you have entrusted to my care. All who are about
me admired my virtue, but could their eyes penetrate into my heart,
what would they not discover? My passions there are in a rebellion; I
preside over others, but cannot rule myself. I have but a false
covering, and this seeming virtue is a real vice. Men judge me
praise-worthy, but I am guilty before God, from whose all-seeing eye
nothing is hid, and who views, through all their foldings, the
secrets of all hearts. I cannot escape his discovery. And yet it is a
great deal to me to maintain even this appearance of virtue. This
troublesome hypocrisy is in some sort commendable. I give no scandal
to the world, which is so easy to take bad impressions. I do not
shake the virtue of these feeble ones who are under my conduct. With
my heart full of the love of man, I exhort them at least to love only
God: charmed with the pomp of worldly pleasures, I endeavour to show
them that they are all deceit and vanity. I have just strength enough
to conceal from them my inclinations, and I look upon that as a
powerful effect of grace. If it is not sufficient to make me embrace
virtue, it is enough to keep me from committing sin.

And yet it is in vain to endeavour to separate those two things.
They must be guilty who merit nothing; and they depart from virtue
who delay to approach it. Besides, we ought to have no other motive
than the love of God. Alas! what can I then hope for? I own, to my
confusion, I fear more the offending of man than the provoking of
God, and study less to please him than you. Yes, it was your command
only, and not a sincere vocation, as is imagined, that shut me up in
these cloisters. I fought to give you ease, and not to sanctify
myself. How unhappy am I? I tear myself from all that pleases me? I
bury myself here alive, I exercise my self in the most rigid
fastings; and such severities as cruel laws impose on us; I feed
myself with tears and sorrows, and, notwithstanding this, I deserve
nothing for all the hardships I suffer. My false piety has long
deceived you as well as others. You have thought me easy, and yet I
was more disturbed than ever. You persuaded yourself I was wholly
taken up with my duty, yet I had no business but love. Under this
mistake you desire my prayers; alas! I must expect yours. Do not
presume upon my virtue and my care. I am wavering, and you must fix
me by your advice. I am yet feeble, you must sustain and guide me by
your counsel.

What occasion had you to praise me? praise is often hurtful to
those on whom it is bestowed. A secret vanity springs up in the
heart, blinds us, and conceals from us wounds that are ill cured. A
seducer flatters us, and at the same time, aims at our destruction. A
sincere friend disguises nothing from us, and from passing a light
hand over the wound, makes us feel it the more intensely, by applying
remedies. Why do you not deal after this manner with me? Will you be
esteemed a base dangerous flatterer; or, if you chance to see any
thing commendable in me, have you no fear that vanity, which is so
natural to all women, should quite efface it? but let us not judge of
virtue by outward appearances, for then the reprobates as well as the
elect may lay claim to it. An artful impostor may, by his address
gain more admiration than the true zeal of a saint.

The heart of man is a labyrinth, whose windings are very difficult
to be discovered. The praises you give me are the more dangerous, in
regard that I love the person who gives them. The more I desire to
please you, the readier am I to believe all the merit you attribute
to me. Ah, think rather how to support my weaknesses by wholesome
remonstrances! Be rather fearful than confident of my salvation: say
our virtue is founded upon weakness, and that those only will be
crowned who have fought with the greatest difficulties: but I seek
not for that crown which is the reward of victory, I am content to
avoid only the danger. It is easier to keep off than to win a battle.
There are several degrees in glory, and I am not ambitious of the
highest; those I leave to souls of great courage, who have been often
victorious. I seek not to conquer, out of fear lest I should be
overcome. Happy enough, if I can escape shipwreck, and at last gain
the port. Heaven commands me to renounce that fatal passion which
unites me to you; but oh! my heart will never be able to consent to
it. Adieu.




LETTER V.

_HELOISE to ABELARD._


   _Heloise_ had been dangerously ill at the Convent of
   the Paraclete: immediately upon her recovery she wrote this Letter to
   _Abelard_, She seems now to have disengaged herself from him,
   and to have resolved to think of nothing but repentance; yet
   discovers some emotions, which make it doubtful whether devotion had
   entirely triumphed over her passion.

Dear _Abelard_, you expect, perhaps, that I should accuse you
of negligence. You have not answered my last letter; and thanks to
Heaven, in the condition I now am, it is a happiness to me that you
show so much insensibility for the fatal passion which had engaged
me to you. At last _Abelard_, you have lost _Heloise_ for ever.
Notwithstanding all the oaths I made to think of nothing but
you only, and to be entertained with nothing but you, I have banished
you from my thoughts, I have forgot you. Thou charming idea of a
lover I once adored, thou wilt no more be my happiness! Dear image of
_Abelard_! thou wilt no more follow me every where; I will no
more remember thee. O celebrated merit of a man, who, in spite of his
enemies is the wonder of his age! O enchanting pleasures, to which
_Heloise_ entirely resigned herself, you, you have been my
tormentors! I confess _Abelard_, without a blush, my infidelity;
let my inconstancy teach the world that there is no depending upon
the promises of women; they are all subject to change. This troubles
you, _Abelard_; this news, without doubt, surprises you; you
could never imagine _Heloise_, should be inconstant. She was
prejudiced by so strong an inclination to you, that you cannot
conceive how time could alter it. But be undeceived; I am going to
discover to you my falseness, though instead of reproaching me, I
persuade myself you will shed tears of joy. When I shall have told
you what rival hath ravished my heart from you, you will praise my
inconstancy, and will pray this rival to fix it. By this you may
judge that it is God alone that takes _Heloise_ from you. Yes,
my dear _Abelard_, he gives my mind that tranquillity which a
quick remembrance of our misfortunes would not suffer me to enjoy.
Just Heaven! what other rival could take me from you? Could you
imagine it possible for any mortal to blot you from my heart? Could
you think me guilty of sacrificing the virtuous and learned _Abelard_
to any other but to God? No, I believe you have done me justice in
this point. I question not but you are impatient to know what means
God used to accomplish so great an end; I will tell you, and wonder
at the secret ways of Providence. Some few days after you sent me
your last letter I fell dangerously ill; the physicians gave me over;
and I expected certain death. Then it was that my passion, which
always before seemed innocent, appeared criminal to me. My memory
represented faithfully to me all the past actions of my life, and I
confess to you my love was the only pain I felt. Death which till
then I had always considered as at a distance, now presented itself
to me such as it appears to sinners. I began to dread the wrath of
God, now I was going to experience it; and I repented I had made no
better use of his grace. Those tender letters I have wrote to you,
and those passionate conversations I have had with you, gave me as
much pain now as they formerly did pleasure. Ah! miserable _Heloise_,
said I, if it is a crime to give one's self up to such soft
transports, and if after this life is ended punishment certainly
follows them, why didst thou not resist so dangerous an inclination?
Think on the tortures that are prepared for thee; consider with
terror that store of torments, and recollect at the same time those
pleasures which thy deluded soul thought so entrancing. Ah! pursued
I, dost thou not almost despair for having rioted in such false
pleasure? In short, _Abelard_, imagine all the remorse of mind I
suffered, and you will not be astonished at my change.

Solitude is insupportable to a mind which is not easy, its
troubles increase in the midst of silence, and retirement heightens
them. Since I have been shut up within these walls, I have done
nothing but wept for our misfortunes. This cloister has resounded
with my cries, and like a wretch condemned to eternal slavery, I have
worn out my days in grief and sighing. Instead of fulfilling God's
merciful design upon me, I have offended him; I have looked upon this
sacred refuge like a frightful prison, and have borne with
unwillingness the yoke of the Lord. Instead of sanctifying myself by
a life of penitence, I have confirmed my reprobation. What a fatal
wandering! But _Abelard_, I have torn off the bandage which
blinded me, and if I dare rely upon the emotions which I have felt, I
have made myself worthy of your esteem. You are no more that amorous
_Abelard_, who, to gain a private conversation with me by night,
used incessantly to contrive new ways to deceive the vigilance of our
observers. The misfortune, which happened to you after so many happy
moments, gave you a horror for vice, and you instantly consecrated
the rest of your days to virtue and seemed to submit to this
necessity willingly. I indeed, more tender than you, and more
sensible of soft pleasures, bore this misfortune with extreme
impatience. You have heard my exclamations against your enemies; you
have seen my whole resentment in those Letters I wrote to you; it was
this, without doubt, which deprived me of the esteem of my _Abelard_.
You were alarmed at my transport, and if you will confess the truth,
you, perhaps, despaired of my salvation. You could not foresee that
_Heloise_ would conquer so reigning a passion; but you have been
deceived, _Abelard_; my weakness, when supported by grace, hath
not hindered me from obtaining a complete victory. Restore me, then,
to your good opinion; your own piety ought to solicit you to this.

But what secret trouble rises in my soul, what unthought-of motion
opposes the resolution I formed of sighing no more for _Abelard_?
Just Heaven! have I not yet triumphed over my love? Unhappy _Heloise_!
as long as thou drawest a breath it is decreed thou must love
_Abelard_: weep unfortunate wretch that thou art, thou never had
a more just occasion. Now I ought to die with grief. Grace had
overtaken me, and I had promised to be faithful to it, but I now
perjure myself, and sacrifice even grace to _Abelard_. This
sacrilegious Sacrifice fills up the measure of my iniquities. After
this can I hope God should open to me the treasures of his mercy?
Have I not tired out his forgiveness? I began to offend him from the
moment I first saw _Abelard_; an unhappy sympathy engaged us
both in a criminal commerce; and God raised us up an enemy to
separate us. I lament and hate the misfortune which hath lighted upon
us and adore the cause. Ah! I ought rather to explain this accident
as the secret ordinance of Heaven, which disapproved of our
engagement, and apply myself to extirpate my passion. How much better
were it entirely to forget the object of it, than to preserve the
memory of it, so fatal to the quiet of my life and salvation? Great
God! shall _Abelard_ always possess my thoughts? can I never
free myself from those chains which bind me to him? But, perhaps, I
am unreasonably afraid; virtue directs all my motions, and they are
all subject to grace, Fear no more, dear _Abelard_; I have no
longer any of those sentiments which, being described in my Letters,
have occasioned you so much trouble. I will no more endeavour, by the
relation of those pleasures our new-born passion gave us, to awaken
that criminal fondness you may have for me; I free you from all your
oaths; forget the names of Lover and husband but keep always that of
Father. I expect no more from you those tender protestations, and
those letters so proper to keep up the commerce of love. I demand
nothing of you but spiritual advice and wholesome directions. The
path of holiness, however thorny it may be, will yet appear agreeable
when I walk in your steps. You will always find me ready to follow
you. I shall read with more pleasure the letters in which you shall
describe to me the advantages of virtue than ever I did those by
which you so artfully instilled the fatal poison of our passion. You
cannot now be silent without a crime. When I was possessed with so
violent a love, and pressed you so earnestly to write to me, how many
letters did I send you before I could obtain one from you? You denied
me in my misery the only comfort which was left me, because you
thought it pernicious. You endeavoured by severities to force me to
forget you; nor can I blame you; but now you have nothing to fear. A
lucky disease which providence seemed to have chastised me with for
my sanctification, hath done what all human efforts, and your cruelty
in vain attempted. I see now the vanity of that happiness which we
had set our hearts upon, as if we were never to have lost it. What
fears, what uneasiness, have we been obliged to suffer!

No, Lord, there is no pleasure upon earth but that which virtue
gives! The heart, amidst all worldly delights, feels a sting; it is
uneasy and restless till fixed on thee. What have I not suffered,
_Abelard_, while I kept alive in my retirement those fires which
ruined me in the world? I saw with horror the walls which surrounded
me; the hours seemed as long as years. I repented a thousand times
the having buried myself here; but since grace has opened my eyes all
the scene is changed. Solitude looks charming, and the tranquillity
which I behold here enters my very heart. In the satisfaction of
doing my duty I feel a pleasure above all that riches, pomp, or
sensuality, could afford. My quiet has indeed cost me dear; I have
bought it even at the price of my love; I have offered a violent
sacrifice, and which seemed above my power. I have torn you from my
heart; and, be not jealous, God reigns there in your stead, who ought
always to have possessed it entire. Be content with having a place in
my mind, which you shall never lose; I shall always take a secret
pleasure in thinking of you and esteem it a glory to obey those rules
you shall give me.

This very moment I receive a letter from you: I will read it, and
answer it immediately. You shall see, by my exactness in writing to
you, that you are always dear to me.--You very obligingly
reproach me for delaying so long to write you any news; my illness
must excuse that. I omit no opportunities of giving you marks of my
remembrance. I thank you for the uneasiness you say my silence caused
you, and the kind fears you express concerning my health. Yours, you
tell me is but weakly, and you thought lately you should have died.
With what indifference, cruel man! do you acquaint me with a thing so
certain to afflict me? I told you in my former letter how unhappy I
should be if you died; and if you loved me, you would moderate the
rigour of your austere life. I represented to you the occasion I had
for your advice, and consequently, the reason there was you should
take care of yourself. But I will not tire you with the repetition of
the same thing. _You desire us not to forget you in your prayers._
Ah! dear _Abelard_, you may depend upon the zeal of this
society; it is devoted to you, and you cannot justly charge it with
forgetfulness. You are our father, we your children; you are our
guide, and we resign ourselves with assurance in your piety. We
impose no pennance on ourselves but what you recommend, lest we
should rather follow an indiscreet zeal than solid virtue. In a
word, nothing is thought rightly done if without _Abelard's_
approbation. You inform me of one thing that perplexes me, that you
have heard that some of our sisters gave bad examples, and that there
is a general looseness amongst them. Ought this to seem strange to
you, who know how monasteries are filled now-a-days? Do fathers
consult the inclinations of their children when they settle them? Are
not interest and policy their only rules? This is the reason that
monasteries are often filled with those who are a scandal to them.
But I conjure you to tell me what are the irregularities you have
heard of, and to teach me a proper remedy for them. I have not yet
observed that looseness you mention; when I have, I will take due
care. I walk my rounds every night, and make those I catch abroad
return to their chambers; for I remember all the adventures which
happened in the monasteries near Paris. You end your letter with a
general deploring of your unhappiness, and wish for death as the end
of a troublesome life. Is it possible a genius so great as yours
should never get above his past misfortunes? What would the world say
should they read your letters as I do? would they consider the noble
motive of your retirement, or not rather think you had shut yourself
up only to lament the condition to which my uncle's revenge had
reduced you? What would your young pupils say who came so far to hear
you, and prefer your severe lectures to the softness of a worldly
life, if they should see you secretly a slave to your passions, and
sensible of all those weakness from which your rules can secure them?
This _Abelard_ they so much admire, this great personage which
guides them, would lose his fame, and become the scorn of his pupils.
If these reasons are not sufficient to give you constancy in your
misfortunes, cast your eyes upon me, and admire my resolution of
shutting myself up by your example. I was young when we were
separated, and (if I dare believe what you were always telling me)
worthy of any gentleman's affections. If I had loved nothing in
_Abelard_ but sensual pleasure, a thousand agreeable young men
might have comforted me upon my loss of him. You know what I have
done, excuse me therefore from repeating it. Think of those
assurances I gave you of loving you with the utmost tenderness. I
dried your tears with kisses; and because you were less powerful I
became less reserved. Ah! if you had loved with delicacy the oaths I
made, the transports I accompanied them with, the innocent caresses I
profusely gave you, all this, sure, might have comforted you. Had you
observed me to grow by degrees indifferent to you, you might have had
reason to despair; but you never received greater marks of my passion
than after that cruel revenge upon you.

Let me see no more in your letters, dear _Abelard_, such
murmurs against Fortune; you are not the only one she has persecuted,
and you ought to forget her outrages. What a shame is it for a
philosopher not to be comforted for an accident which might happen to
any man! Govern yourself by my example. I was born with violent
passions; I daily strive with the most tender emotions, and glory in
triumphing and subjecting them to reason. Must a weak mind fortify
one that is so much superior? But whither am I transported? Is this
discourse directed to my dear _Abelard_? one that practices all
those virtues he teaches? If you complain of Fortune, it is not so
much that you feel her strokes, as that you cannot show your enemies
how much to blame they were in attempting to hurt you. Leave them,
_Abelard_, to exhaust their malice, and continue to charm your
auditors. Discover those treasures of learning Heaven seems to have
reserved for you: your enemies, struck with the splendor of your
reasoning, will do you justice. How happy should I be could I see all
the world as entirely persuaded of your probity as I am! Your
learning is allowed by all the world; your greatest enemies confess
you are ignorant of nothing that the mind of man is capable of
knowing.

My dear husband! (this is the last time I shall use that
expression) shall I never see you again? shall I never have the
pleasure of embracing you before death? What doth thou say, wretched
_Heloise_? dost thou know what thou desirest? Canst thou behold
those lovely eyes without recollecting those amorous glances which
have been so fatal to thee? canst thou view that majestic air of
_Abelard_ without entertaining a jealousy of every one that sees
so charming a man? that mouth, which cannot be looked upon without
desire? In short all the person of _Abelard_ cannot be viewed by
any woman without danger. Desire therefore no more to see _Abelard_.
If the memory of him has caused thee so much trouble, _Heloise_,
what will not his presence do? what desires will it not excite in thy
soul? how will it be possible for thee to keep thy reason at the
sight of so amiable a man? I will own to you what makes the greatest
pleasure I have in my retirement: After having passed the day in
thinking of you, full of the dear idea, I give myself up at night to
sleep. Then it is that _Heloise_, who dares not without
trembling think of you by day, resigns herself entirely to the
pleasure of hearing you and speaking to you. I see you, _Abelard_,
and glut my eyes with the sight. Sometimes you entertain me with the
story of your secret troubles and grievances, and create in me a
sensible sorrow; sometimes forgetting the perpetual obstacles to our
desires, you press me to make you happy, and I easily yield to your
transports. Sleep gives you what your enemies rage has deprived you
of; and our souls, animated with the same passion, are sensible of
the same pleasure. But, oh! you delightful illusion, soft errors, how
soon do you vanish away! At my awaking I open my eyes and see no
_Abelard_; I stretch out my arm to take hold of him, but he is
not there; I call him, he hears me not. What a fool am I to tell you
my dreams, who are sensible of these pleasures? But do you, _Abelard_,
never see _Heloise_ in your sleep? how does she appear to you?
do you entertain her with the same language as formerly when Fulbert
committed her to your care? when you awake are you pleased or sorry?
Pardon me; _Abelard_, pardon a mistaken lover. I must no more
expect that vivacity from you which once animated all your actions.
'Tis no more time to require from you a perfect correspondence of
desires. We have bound ourselves to severe austerities, and must
follow them, let them cost us ever so dear. Let us think of our
duties in these rigours, and make a good use of that necessity which
keeps us separate. You _Abelard_, will happily finish your
course; your desires and ambition will be no obstacles to your
salvation. _Heloise_ only must lament, she only must weep,
without being certain whether all her tears will be available or not
to her salvation.

I had like to have ended my letter without acquainting you with
what happened here a few days ago. A young nun, who was one of those
who are forced to take up with a convent without any examination.
whether it will suit with their tempers or not, is by a stratagem I
knew nothing of, escaped, and, as they say, fled with a young
gentleman she was in love with into England. I have ordered all the
house to conceal the matter. Ah, _Abelard_! if you were near us
these disorders would not happen. All the sisters, charmed with
seeing and hearing you, would think of nothing but practicing your
rules and directions. The young nun had never formed so criminal a
design as that of breaking her vows, had you been at our head to
exhort us to live holily. If your eyes were witnesses of our actions,
they would be innocent. When we slipt, you would lift us up, and
establish us by your counsels; we should march with sure steps in the
rough paths of virtue. I begin to perceive; _Abelard_, that I
take too much pleasure in writing to you. I ought to burn my letter.
It shows you I am still engaged in a deep passion for you, though at
the beginning of it I designed to persuade you of the contrary. I am
sensible of the motions both of grace and passion, and by turns
yield to each. Have pity, _Abelard_, of the condition to which
you have brought me, and make, in some measure, the latter days of my
life as quiet as the first have been uneasy and disturbed.




LETTER VI.

_ABELARD to HELOISE._


   _Abelard_, having at last conquered the remains of
   his unhappy passion, had determined to put an end to so dangerous a
   correspondence as that between _Heloise_ and himself. The
   following Letter therefore, though written with no less concern than
   his former, is free from mixtures of a worldly passion, and is full
   of the warmest sentiments of piety, and the most moving exhortations.

Write no more to me, _Heloise_; write no more to me; it is a
time to end a commerce which makes our mortifications of no advantage
to us. We retired from the world to sanctify ourselves; and by a
conduit directly contrary to Christian morality, we become odious to
Jesus Christ. Let us no more deceive ourselves; by flattering
ourselves with the remembrance of our past pleasures, we shall make
our lives troublesome, and we shall be incapable of relishing the
sweets of solitude. Let us make a good use of our austerities, and no
longer preserve the ideas of our crimes amongst the severities of
penitence. Let a mortification of body and mind, a strick fasting,
continual solitude, profound and holy meditations, and a sincere love
of God, succeed our former irregularities.

Let us try to carry religious perfection to a very difficult
point. 'Tis beautiful to find, in Christianity minds so disengaged
from the earth, from the creatures and themselves, that they seem to
act independently of those bodies they are joined to, and to use them
as their slaves. We can never raise ourselves to too great heights
when God is the object. Be our endeavours ever so great, they will
always come short of reaching that exalted dignity, which even our
apprehensions cannot reach. Let us act for God's glory, independent
of the creatures or ourselves, without any regard to our own desires,
or the sentiments of others. Were we in this temper of mind, _Heloise_,
I would willingly make my abode at the Paraclete. My earnest care for
a house I have founded would draw a thousand blessings on it. I would
instruct it by my words, and animate it by my example. I would watch
over the lives of my sisters, and would command nothing but what I
myself would perform. I would direct you to pray, meditate, labour
and keep vows of silence; and I would myself pray, meditate, labour
and be silent.

However, when I spoke, it should be to lift you up when you should
fall, to strengthen you in your weaknesses, to enlighten you in that
darkness and obscurity which might at any time surprise you. I would
comfort you under those severities used by persons of great virtue. I
would moderate the vivacity of your zeal and piety, and give your
virtue an even temperament. I would point out those duties which you
ought to know, and satisfy you in those doubts which the weakness of
your reason might occasion. I would be your master and father; and,
by a marvellous talent, I would become lively, flow, soft or severe,
according to the different characters of those I should guide in the
painful path of Christian perfection.

But whither does my vain imagination carry me?

Ah? _Heloise_! how far are we from such a happy temper? Your
heart still burns with that fatal fire which you cannot extinguish,
and mine is full of trouble and uneasiness. Think not, _Heloise_,
that I enjoy here a perfect peace: I will, for the last time open my
heart to you. I am not yet disengaged from you; I fight against my
excessive tenderness for you; yet in spite of all endeavours, the
remaining fraility makes me but too sensible of your sorrows, and
gives me a share in them. Your Letters have indeed moved me; I could
not read with indifference characters wrote by that dear hand. I
sigh, I weep, and all my reason is, scarce sufficient to conceal my
weakness from my pupils. This, unhappy _Heloise_! is the
miserable condition of _Abelard_. The world, which generally
errs in its notion, thinks I am easy, and as if I had loved only in
you the gratification of sense, imagines I have now forgot you; but
what a mistake is this! People, indeed, did not mistake in thinking,
when we separated, that shame and grief for having been so cruelly
used made me abandon the world. It was not, as you know, a sincere
repentance for having offended God which inspired me with a design of
retiring; however, I considered the accident which happened to us as
a secret design of Providence to punish our crimes; and only looked
upon Fulbert as the instrument of Divine vengeance. Grace drew me
into an asylum, where I might yet have remained, if the rage of my
enemies would have permitted. I have endured all their persecutions,
not doubting but God himself raised them up in order to purify me.

When he saw me perfectly obedient to his holy will, he permitted
that I should justify my doctrine. I made its purity public, and
showed in the end that my faith was not only orthodox, but also
perfectly clear from even the suspicion of novelty.

I should be happy if I had none to fear but my enemies, and no
other hinderance to my salvation but their calumny: but, _Heloise_,
you make me tremble. Your Letters declare to me that you are enslaved
to a fatal passion; and yet if you cannot conquer it you cannot be
saved; and what part would you have me take in this case? Would you
have me stifle the inspirations of the Holy Ghost? shall I, to soothe
you dry up those tears which the evil spirit makes you shed? Shall
this be the fruit of my meditations? No; let us be more firm in our
resolutions. We have not retired but in order to lament our sins, and
to gain heaven; let us then resign ourselves to God with all our
heart.

I know every thing in the beginning is difficult, but it is
glorious to undertake the beginning of a great action, and that glory
increases proportionably as the difficulties are more considerable.
We ought upon this account to surmount bravely all obstacles which
might hinder us in the practice of Christian virtue. In a monastery
men are proved as gold in the furnace. No one can continue long there
unless he bear worthily the yoke of our Lord.

Attempt to break those shameful chains which bind you to the
flesh; and, if by the assistance of grace you are so happy as to
accomplish this, I intreat you to think of me in your prayers.
Endeavour with all your strength to be the pattern of a perfect
Christian. It is difficult, I confess, but not impossible; and I
expect this beautiful triumph from your teachable disposition. If
your first endeavours prove weak, give not yourself up to despair;
that would be cowardice: besides, I would have you informed, that you
must necessarily take great pains; because you drive to conquer a
terrible enemy, to extinguish raging fire, and to reduce to
subjection your dearest affections. You must fight against your own
desires; be not therefore pressed down with the weight of your
corrupt nature: you have to do with a cunning adversary, who will use
all means to seduce you; be always upon your guard; While we live we
are exposed to temptations: this made a great saint say, that _the
whole life of man was a temptation._ The devil, who never sleeps,
walks continually around us, in order to surprise us on some
unguarded side, and enters into our soul to destroy it.

However perfect any one may be, yet he may fall into temptations,
and, perhaps, into such as may be useful. Nor is it wonderful that
men should never be exempt from them, because he hath always within
himself their force, concupiscence. Scarce are we delivered from one
temptation, but another attacks us. Such is the lot of the posterity
of Adam, that they should always have something to suffer, because
they have forfeited their primitive happiness. We vainly flatter
ourselves that we shall conquer temptations by flying; if we join not
patience and humility, we shall torment ourselves to no purpose. We
shall more certainly compass our end by imploring God's assistance
than by using any means drawn from ourselves.

Be constant, _Heloise_; trust in God, and you will fall into
few temptations: whenever they shall come, stifle them in their
birth; let them not take root in your heart. Apply remedies to a
disease, said an Ancient, in its beginning; for when it hath gained
strength medicines will be unavailable. Temptations have their
degrees; they are at first mere thoughts, and do not appear
dangerous; the imagination receives them without any fears; a
pleasure is formed out of them; we pause upon it, and at last we
yield to it.

Do you now, _Heloise_, applaud my design of making you walk
in the steps of the saints? do my words give you any relish for
penitence? have you not remorse for your wanderings? and do you not
wish you could like Magdalen, wash our Saviour's feet with your
tears? If you have not these ardent emotions, pray that he would
inspire them. I shall never cease to recommend you in my prayers, and
always beseech him to assist you in your design of dying holily. You
have quitted the world, and what object was worthy to detain you
there? Lift up your eyes always to him so whom you have consecrated
the rest of your days. Life upon this earth is misery. The very
necessities to which our body is subject here are matter of
affliction to a saint. _Lord,_ said the Royal Prophet, _deliver
me from my necessities_! They are wretched who do not know
themselves for such, and yet they are more wretched who know their
misery, and do not hate the corruption of the age. What fools are men
to engage themselves to earthly things! they will be undeceived one
day, and will know but too late how much they have been too blame in
loving such false good. Persons truly pious do not thus mistake, they
are disengaged from all sensual pleasures, and raise their desires to
heaven. Begin _Heloise_; put your design in execution without
delay; you have yet time enough to work out your salvation. Love
Christ, and despise yourself for his sake. He would possess your
heart, and be the sole object of your sighs and tears; seek for no
comfort but in him. If you do not free yourself from me, you will
fall with me; but if you quit me, and give up yourself to him, you
will be stedfast and immoveable. If you force the Lord to forsake
you, you will fall into distress; but if you be ever faithful to him,
you will always be in joy. Magdalen wept, as thinking the Lord had
forsaken her; but Martha said, See, the Lord calls you. Be diligent
in your duty, and obey faithfully the motions of his grace, and Jesus
will remain always with you.

Attend, _Heloise_, to some instructions I have to give you.
You are at the head of a society, and you know there is this
difference between those who lead a private life and such as are
charged with the conduct of others; that the first need only labour
for their own sanctification, and, in acquitting themselves of their
duties, are not obliged to practise all the virtues in such an
apparent manner; whereas they who have the conduct of others intruded
to them, ought by their example to engage them to do all the good
they are capable of in their condition. I beseech you to attend to
this truth, and so to follow it, as that your whole life may be a
perfect model of that of a religious recluse.

God, who heartily desires our salvation, hath made all the means
of it easy to us; In the _Old Testament_ he hath written in the
Tables of the Law what he requires of us, that we might not be
bewildered in seeking after his will. In the _New Testament_ he
hath written that law of grace in our hearts, to the intent that it
might be always present with us; and, knowing the weakness and
incapacity of our nature, he hath given us grace to perform his will;
and, as if this were not enough, he hath, at all times, in all dates
of the church, raised up men who, by their exemplary life, might
excite others to their duty. To effect this, he hath chosen persons
of every age, sex, and condition. Strive now to unite in yourself all
those virtues which have been scattered in these different states.
Have the purity of virgins, the austerity of anchorites, the zeal of
pastors and bishops, and the constancy of martyrs. Be exact in the
course of your whole life to fulfil the duties of a holy and
enlightened superior, and then death, which is commonly considered as
terrible, will appear agreeable to you.

_The death of his saints_, says the Prophet, _is precious
in the sight of the Lord._ Nor is it difficult to comprehend why
their death should have this advantage over that of sinners. I have
remarked three things which might have given the Prophet an occasion
of speaking thus. First, Their resignation to the will of God.
Secondly, The continuation of their good works. And, lastly, The
triumph they gain over the devil.

A saint, who has accustomed himself to submit to the will of God,
yields to death without reluctance. He waits with joy (says St.
Gregory) for the Judge who is to reward him; he fears not to quit
this miserable mortal life, in order to begin an immortal happy one.
It is not so with the sinner, says the same Father; he fears, and
with reason, he trembles, at the approach of the least sickness;
death is terrible to him, because he cannot bear the presence of an
offended Judge; and having so often abused the grace of God, he sees
no way to avoid the punishment due to his sins.

The saints have besides this advantage over sinners that having
made works of piety familiar to them during their life, they exercise
them without trouble, and having gained new strength against the
devil every time they overcome him, they will find themselves in a
condition at the hour of death to obtain that victory over him, on
which depends all eternity, and the blessed union of their souls with
their Creator.

I hope, _Heloise_, that after having deplored the
irregularities of your past life, you will die (as the Prophet
prayed) the death of the righteous. Ah! how few are there who make
their end after this manner! and why? It is because there are so few
who love the Cross of Christ. Every one would be saved, but few will
use those means which Religion prescribes. And yet we can be saved by
nothing but the Cross, why then do we refuse to bear it? Hath not our
Saviour borne it before us, and died for us, to the end that we might
also bear it and desire to die also? All the saints have been
afflicted; and our Saviour himself did not pass one hour of his life
without some sorrow. Hope not, therefore to be exempted from
sufferings. The Cross, _Heloise_, is always at hand, but take
care that you do not bear it with regret; for by so doing you will
make it more heavy, and you will be oppressed by it unprofitably. On
the contrary, if you bear it with affection and courage, all your
sufferings will create in you a holy confidence, whereby you will
find comfort in God. Hear our Saviour who says: "My child
renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow me." Oh,
_Heloise_! do you doubt? Is not your soul ravished at so saving
a command? are you deaf to his voice? are you insensible to words so
full of kindness? Beware, _Heloise_, of refusing a husband who
demands you, and is more to be feared, if you slight his affection,
than any profane lover. Provoked at your contempt and ingratitude, he
will turn his love into anger, and make you feel his vengeance, How
will you sustain his presence when you shall stand before his
tribunal? He will reproach you for having despised his grace; he will
represent to you his sufferings for you. What answer can you make? he
will then be implacable. He will say to you, Go, proud creature,
dwell in everlasting flames. I separated you from the world to purify
you in solitude, and you did not second my design; I endeavoured to
save you, and you took pains to destroy yourself; go wretch, and take
the portion of the reprobates.

Oh, _Heloise_, prevent these terrible words, and avoid by a
holy course, the punishment prepared for sinners. I dare not give you
a description of those dreadful torments which ere the consequences
of a life of guilt. I am filled with horror when they offer
themselves to my imagination: and yet _Heloise_ I can conceive
nothing which can reach the tortures of the damned. The fire which we
see upon earth is but the shadow of that which burns them; and
without enumerating their endless pains, the loss of God which they
feel increases all their torments. Can any one sin who is persuaded
of this? My God! can we dare to offend thee? Tho' the riches of thy
mercy could not engage us to love thee, the dread of being thrown
into such an abyss of misery would restrain us from doing any thing
which might displease thee?

I question not, _Heloise_, but you will hereafter apply
yourself in good earnest to the business of your salvation: this
ought to be your whole concern. Banish me, therefore, for ever from
your heart; it is the best advice I can give you: for the remembrance
of a person we have loved criminally cannot but be hurtful, whatever
advances we have made in the ways of virtue. When you have extirpated
your unhappy inclination towards me, the practice of every virtue
will become easy; and when at last your life is conformable to that
of Christ, death will be desireable to you. Your soul will joyfully
leave this body, and direct its flight to heaven. Then you will
appear with confidence before your Saviour. You will not read
characters of your reprobation written in the book of life; but you
will hear your Saviour say, Come, partake of my glory, and enjoy the
eternal reward I have appointed for those virtues you have practised.

Farewell _Heloise_. This is the last advice of your dear
_Abelard_; this is the last time, let me persuade you to follow
the holy rules of the Gospel. Heaven grant that your heart, once so
sensible of my love, may now yield to be directed by my zeal! May the
idea of your loving _Abelard_, always present to your mind, be
now changed into the image of _Abelard_ truly penitent! and may
you shed as many tears for your salvation as you have done during the
course of our misfortunes!




----------------


ELOISA to ABELARD

BY MR POPE.


   In these deep solitudes and awful cells.
   Where heav'nly-pensive Contemplation dwells,
   And ever-musing Melancholy reigns;
   What means this tumult in a Vestal's veins?
   Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?
   Why feels my heart its long-forgotten beat?
   Yet, yet I love!----From _Abelard_ it came,
   And _Eloisa_ yet must kiss the name.
      Dear fatal name! rest ever onreveal'd,
   Nor pass those lips in holy
   silence seas'd:
   Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise,
   Where mix'd with God's, his lov'd idea lyes;
   Oh write it not, my hand--the name appears
   Already written--wash it out, my tears!
   In vain lost _Eloisa_ weeps and prays,
   Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeys.
     Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains
   Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains:
   Ye rugged rocks! which holy knees have worn;
   Ye grotes and caverns shagg'd with horrid thorn!
   Shrines! where their vigils pale-ey'd virgins keep,
   And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep!
   Tho' cold like you unmov'd and silent grown,
   I have not yet forgot myself to stone.
   Heav'n claims me all in vain, while he has part,
   Still rebel Nature holds out half my heart;
   Nor pray'rs nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain,
   Nor tears, for ages taught to flow in vain.
     Soon as thy Letters, trembling, I unclose,
   That well-known name awakens all my woes.
   Oh name for ever sad! for ever dear!
   Still breath'd in sighs, still utter'd with a tear.
   I tremble too where'er my own I find,
   Some dire misfortune follows close behind.
   Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow,
   Led through a sad variety of woe:
   Now warm in love, now with'ring in thy bloom,
   Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!
   There stern religion quench'd th' unwilling flame.
   There died the best of passions, love and same.
     Yet write, oh write me all, that I may join
   Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine.
   Nor foes nor fortune take this pow'r away;
   And is my _Abelard_ less kind than they?
   Tears still are mine, and those I need not spare,
   Love but demands what else were shed in pray'r;
   No happier talk these faded eyes pursue;
   To read and weep is all they now can do.
     Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief;
   Ah, more than share it! give me all thy grief.
   Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid,
   Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid;
   They live they speak, they breathe what love inspires,
   Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires,
   The virgin's wish without her fears impart,
   Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart,
   Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
   And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.
     Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame,
   When Love approach'd me under Friendship's name;
   My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind,
   Some emanations of th' all-beauteous Mind.
   Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring every ray,
   Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day.
   Guiltless I gaz'd; Heav'n listen'd while you sung;
   And truths divine came mended from that tongue,
   From lip like those what precepts fail'd to move?
   Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love:
   Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran,
   Nor wish'd an angel whom I lov'd a man.
   Dim and remote the joys of saints I see,
   Nor envy them that heav'n I lose for thee.

   How oft', when prest to marriage, have I said,
   Curse on all laws but those which Love has made!
   Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,
   Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.
   Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame,
   August her deed, and sacred be her fame;
   Before true passion all those views remove,
   Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to love?
   The jealous God, when we profane his fires,
   Those restless passions in revenge inspires,
   And bids them make mistaken mortals groan,
   Who seek in love for ought but love alone.
   Should at my feet the world's great master fall,
   Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn 'em all;
   Not _Ceasar's_ empress would I deign to prove;
   No, make me mistress to the man I love;
   If there be yet another name more free,
   More fond, than Mistress, make me that to thee!
   Oh happy state! when souls each other draw.
   When love is liberty, and nature law,
   All then is full possessing and possess'd,
   No craving void left akeing in the breast?
   Ev'n thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part,
   And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart.
   This sure is bliss, (if bliss on earth there be,)
   And once the lot of _Abelard_ and me.

   Alas, how chang'd! what sudden horrors rise!
   A naked lover bound and bleeding lyes!
   Where, where was _Eloisa_? her voice, her hand,
   Her poinard, had oppos'd the dire command.
   Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke restrain;
   The crime was common, common be the pain.
   I can no more; by shame, by rage, suppress'd,
   Let tears and burning blushes speak the rest.

   Canst thou forget that sad, that solemn day,
   When victims at yon altar's foot we lay?
   Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell,
   When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell?
   As, with cold lips I kiss'd the sacred veil,
   The shrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale:
   Heav'n scarces believ'd the conquest it survey'd,
   And saints with wonder heard the vows I made.
   Yet then, to those dread altars as I drew,
   Not on the Cross my eyes were fix'd, but you:
   Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call,
   And if I lose thy love, I lose my all.
   Come! with thy looks, thy words, relieve my woe;
   Those still at least are left thee to bestow.
   Still on that breast enamour'd let me lye,
   Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,
   Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be press'd;
   Give all thou canst----and let me dream the rest,
   Ah, no! instruct me other joys to prize,
   With other beauties charm my partial eyes.
   Full in my view set all the bright abode,
   And make my soul quit _Abelard_ for God.

   Ah! think at least thy flock deserves thy care,
   Plants of thy hand, and children of thy pray'r.
   From the false world in early youth they fled,
   By thee to mountains, wilds, and deserts led.
   You rais'd these hallow'd walls; the desart smil'd,
   And Paradise was open'd in the wild.
   No weeping orphan saw his father's stores
   Our shines irradiate, or emblaze the floors:
   No silver saints, by dying misers given,
   Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited Heav'n:
   But such plain roofs as piety could raise,
   And only vocal with the maker's praise.
   In these lone walls (their days eternal bound)
   These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crown'd,
   Where awful arches make a noon-day night,
   And the dim windows shed a solemn light;
   Thy eyes diffus'd a reconciling ray,
   And gleams of glory brighten'd all the day,
   But now no face divine contentment wears,
   'Tis all blank sadness, or continual tears.
   See how the force of others' pray'rs I try,
   (Oh pious fraud of am'rous charity!)
   But why should I on others' prayers depend?
   Come thou, my Father, Brother, Husband, Friend!
   Ah, let thy Handmaid, Sister, Daughter, move,
   And all those tender Names in one, thy Love!
   The darksome pines, that o'er yon rocks reclin'd
   Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind,
   The wand'ring streams that shine between the hills,
   The grotes that echo to the tinkling rills,
   The dying gales that pant upon the trees,
   The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze;
   No more these scenes my meditation aid,
   Or lull to rest the visionary maid.
   But o'er the twilight groves, and dusky caves,
   Long founding aisles, and intermingled graves,
   Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws
   A death like silence, and a dread repose:
   Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene.
   Shades ev'ry flow'r, and darkens ev'ry green,
   Deepens the murmur of the falling floods,
   And breathes a browner horror on the woods,

   Yet here for ever, ever must I stay;
   Sad proof how well a lover can obey!
   Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;
   And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain;

   Here all its frailties, all its flames resign,
   And wait, till 'tis no sin to mix with thine.

   Ah, wretch! believ'd the spouse of God in vain,
   Confess'd within the slave of love and man.
   Assist me, Heav'n! But whence, arose that pray'r?
   Sprung it from piety, or from despair?
   Ev'n here, where frozen Chastity retires,
   Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.
   I ought to grieve, but cannot what I ought;
   I mourn the lover, not lament the fault;
   I view my crime, but kindle at the view,
   Repent old pleasures, and solicit new;
   Now turn'd to Heav'n, I weep my past offence,
   Now think of thee, and curse my innocence.
   Of all Affliction taught a lover yet,
   'Tis sure the hardest science to forget!
   How shall I lose the sin, yet, keep the sense.
   And love th' offender, yet detest th' offence?
   How the dear object from the crime remove,
   Or how distinguish penitence from love?
   Unequal talk! a passion to resign,
   For hearts so touched, so pierc'd, so lost as mine.
   Ere such a soul regains its peaceful slate.
   How often must it love, how often hate!
   How often hope, despair, resent, regret.
   Conceal, disdain--do all things but forget!
   But let Heav'n seize it, all at once 'tis fir'd,
   Not touched but rapt; not waken'd but inspir'd!
   Oh come! oh teach me nature to subdue.
   Renounce my love, my life, myself--and you.
   Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he
   Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.

   How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot?
   The world forgetting, by the world forgot:
   Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
   Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
   Labour and rest, that equal periods keep,
   'Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;
   Desires compos'd, affections ever even;
   Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heav'n.
   Grace shines around her with serenest beams,
   And whisp'ring angels prompt her golden dreams,
   For her the house prepares the bridal ring,
   For her white virgins _hymeneals_ sing,
   For her th' unfading rose of Eden blooms,
   And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes;
   To sounds of heavenly harps she dies away,
   And melts in visions of eternal day.
     Far other dreams my erring soul employ,
   Far other raptures of unholy joy:
   When at the close of each sad sorrowing day
   Fancy restores what Vengeance snatch'd away,
   Then Conscience sleeps, and leaving Nature free,
   All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee.
   O curs'd dear horrors of all-conscious Night!
   How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight!
   Provoking daemons all restraint remove,
   And stir within me ev'ry source of love,
   I hear thee, view thee, gaze o'er all thy charms,
   And round thy phantoms glue my clasping arms.
   I wake----no more I hear, no more I view,
   The phantom flies me as unkind as you.
   I call aloud; it hears not what I say;
   I stretch my empty arms; it glides away.
   To dream once more I close my willing eyes;
   Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise!
   Alas no more!----Methinks we wand'ring go,
   Thro' dreary waftes, and weep each other's woe
   Where round some moulding tow'r pale ivy creeps,
   And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps.
   Sudden you mount, you beckon from the skies:
   Clouds interpose, waves roar, and winds arise.
   I shriek, start up, the same sad prospect find
   And wake to all the griefs I left behind.

   For thee the fates, severely kind, ordain
   A cool suspence from pleasure and from pain;
   Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose;
   No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows;
   Still as the sea, ere winds were taught to blow,
   Or moving Spirit bade the waters flow;
   Soft as the slumbers of a saint forgiv'n,
   And mild as opening gleams of promis'd heav'n.
     Come, _Abelard_! for what hast thou to dread?
   The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.
   Nature stands check'd; Religion disapproves;
   Ev'n thou art cold----yet _Eloisa_ loves.
   Ah hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn.
   To light the dead, and warm th' unfruitful urn.
   What scenes appear! where e'er I turn my view.
   The dear ideas where I fly pursue,
   Rise in the grove, before the altar rise,
   Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes.
   I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
   Thy image steals between my God and me;
   Thy voice I seem in ev'ry hymn to hear,
   With ev'ry bead I drop too soft a tear.
   When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll,
   And swelling organs lift the rising soul,
   One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight,
   Priests, tapers, temples; swim before my sight:
   In seas of flame my plunging soul is drown'd,
   While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.
   While prostrate here in humble grief I lye
   Kind, virtuous drops, just gathering in my eye,
   While praying, trembling, in the dust I roll,
   And dawning grace is opening on my soul:
   Come, if thou dar'st, all charming as thou art!
   Oppose thyself to Heav'n; dispute my heart;
   Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes
   Blot out each bright idea of the skies;
   Take back that grace, those sorrows, and those tears;
   Take back my fruitless penitence and prayers;
   Snatch me, just mounting, from the blest abode;
   Assist the fiend, and tear me from my God!

   No, fly me! fly me! far as pole from pole;
   Rise Alps between us, and whose oceans roll!
   Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,
   Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee,
   Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;
   Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine.
   Fair eyes, and tempting looks, which yet I view!
   Long-liv'd ador'd ideas, all adieu!
   O grace serene! oh virtue heav'nly fair!
   Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care!
   Fresh blooming Hope, gay daughter of the sky!
   And faith, our early immortality!
   Enter, each mild, each amicable guest;
   Receive and wrap me in eternal rest!
     See in her cell sad _Eloisa_ spread,
   Propt on some tomb, a neighbour of the dead!
   In each low wind methinks a spirit calls,
   And more than echoes talk along the walls,
   Here, as I watch'd the dying lamps around,
   From yonder shrine I heard a hollow sound:
   'Come, sister, come I (it said, or seem'd to say,)
   'Thy place is here, sad sister come away!
   'Once like thyself I trembled, wept, and pray'd,
   'Love's victim then, though now a sainted maid:
   'But all is calm in this eternal sleep;
   'Here Grief forgets to groan, and Love to weep;
   'Ev'n Superstition loses ev'ry fear:
   'For God, not man, absolves our frailties here.'

   I come, I come! prepare your roseat bow'rs,
   Celestial palm, and ever-blooming flow'rs.
   Thither, were sinners may have rest, I go,
   Where flames refin'd in breasts seraphic glow:
   Thou, _Abelard_! the last sad office pay,
   And smooth my passage to the realms of day;
   See my lips tremble, and my eye-balk roll,
   Suck my last breath, and catch the flying soul!
   Ah no----in sacred vestments may'st thou stand,
   The hallow'd taper trembling in thy hand,
   Present the Cross before my lifted eye,
   Teach me at once, and learn of me to die.
   Ah then, the once lov'd _Eloisa_ see!
   It will be then no crime to gaze on me.
   See from my cheek the transient roses fly!
   See the last sparkle languish in my eye!
   'Till ev'ry motion, pulse, and breath be o'er;
   And ev'n my _Abelard_. be lov'd no more.
   O death, all eloquent! you only prove
   What dust we dote on, when 'tis man we love.
     Then too, when Fate shall thy fair frame destroy?
   (That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy)
   In trance ecstatic may the pangs be drown'd,
   Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee round,
   From opening skies may streaming glories shine,
   And saints embrace thee with a love like mine.

   May one kind grave unite each hapless name,
   And graft my love immortal on thy fame!
   Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er,
   When this rebellious heart shall beat no more.
   If ever Chance two wand'ring lovers brings
   To _Paraclete's_ white walls and silver springs,
   O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads.
   And drink the falling tears each other sheds;
   Then sadly say, with mutual pity mov'd,
   "Oh may we never love as these have lov'd!"
   From the full choir, when loud Hosannas rise,
   And swell the pomp of dreadful sacrifice,
   Amid that scene, if some relenting eye
   Glance on the stone where our cold relics lye,
   Devotion's self shall steal a thought from heav'n,
   One human tear shall drop, and be forgiven.
   And sure, if Fate some future bard shall join
   In sad similitude of griefs like mine,
   Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
   Andimage charms he must behold no more;
   Such if there be, who loves so long, so well;
   Let him our sad, our tender, story tell;
   The well-sung woes will smooth my pensive ghost:
   He best can paint e'm, who shall feel 'em most.




   ------------------------


ABELARD to ELOISA

BY MRS MADAN.


   In my dark cell, low prostrate on the ground,
   Mourning my crimes, thy Letter entrance found;
   Too soon my soul the well-known name confest,
   My beating heart sprang fiercely in my breast,
   Thro' my whole frame a guilty transport glow'd,
   And streaming torrents from my eyes fast flow'd:
     O _Eloisa_! art thou still the same?
   Dost thou still nourish this destructive flame?
   Have not the gentle rules of Peace and Heav'n,
   From thy soft soul this fatal passion driv'n?
   Alas! I thought you disengaged and free;
   And can you still, still sigh and weep for me?
   What powerful Deity, what hallow'd Shrine,
   Can save me from a love, a faith like thine?
   Where shall I fly, when not this awful Cave,
   Whose rugged feet the surging billows lave;
   When not these gloomy cloister's solemn walls,
   O'er whose rough sides the languid ivy crawls,
   When my dread vews, in vain, their force oppose?
   Oppos'd to live--alas!--how vain are vows!
   In fruitless penitence I wear away
   Each tedious night, and sad revolving day;
   I fast, I pray, and, with deceitful art,
   Veil thy dear image in my tortur'd heart;
   My tortur'd heart conflicting passions move.
   I hope despair, repent----yet still I love:
   A thousand jarring thoughts my bosom tear;
   For, thou, not God, O _Eloise!_ art there.
   To the false world's deluding pleasures dead,
   Nor longer by its wand'ring fires misled,
   In learn'd disputes harsh precepts I infuse,
   And give the counsel I want pow'r to use.
   The rigid maxims of the grave and wife
   Have quench'd each milder sparkle of my eyes:
   Each lovley feature of this once lov'd face,
   By grief revers'd, assumes a sterner grace;
   O _Eloisa_! should the fates once more,
   Indulgent to my view, thy charms restore,
   How from my arms would'st thou with horror start
   To miss the form familiar to thy heart;
   Nought could thy quick, thy piercing judgment see,
   To speak me _Abelard_--but love to thee.
   Lean Abstinence, pale Grief, and haggard Care.
   The dire attendants of forlorn Despair,
   Have _Abelard_, the young, the gay, remov'd,
   And in the Hermit funk the man you lov'd,
   Wrapt in the gloom these holy mansions shed,
   The thorny paths of Penitence I tread;
   Lost to the world, from all its int'rests free,
   And torn from all my soul held dear in thee,
   Ambition with its train of frailties gone,
   All loves and forms forget----but thine alone,
   Amid the blaze of day, the dusk of night,
   My _Eloisa_ rises to my sight;
   Veil'd as in Paraclete's secluded tow'rs,
   The wretched mourner counts the lagging hours;
   I hear her sighs, see the swift falling tears,
   Weep all her griefs, and pant with all her cares.
   O vows! O convent! your stern force impart,
   And frown the melting phantom from my heart;
   Let other sighs a worthier sorrow show,
   Let other tears from sin repentance flow;
   Low to the earth my guilty eyes I roll,
   And humble to the dust my heaving soul,
   Forgiving Pow'r! thy gracious call I meet,
   Who first impower'd this rebel heart to heart;
   Who thro' this trembling, this offending frame,
   For nobler ends inspir'd life's active flame.
   O! change the temper of this laboring breast,
   And form anew each beating pulse to rest!
   Let springing grace, fair faith, and hope remove
   The fatal traces of destructive love!
   Destructive love from his warm mansions tear,
   And leave no traits of _Eloisa_ there!

   Are these the wishes of my inmost soul?
   Would I its soft, its tend'rest sense controul?
   Would I, thus touch'd, this glowing heart refine,
   To the cold substance of this marble shrine?
   Transform'd like these pale swarms that round me move,
   Of blest insensibles--who know no love?
   Ah! rather let me keep this hapless flame;
   Adieu! false honour, unavailing fame!
   Not your harsh rules, but tender love, supplies
   The streams that gush from my despairing eyes;
   I feel the traitor melt about my heart,
   And thro' my veins with treacherous influence dart;
   Inspire me, Heav'n! assist me, Grace divine,
   Aid me, ye Saints! unknown to pains like mine;
   You, who on earth serene all griefs could prove,
   All but the tort'ring pangs of hopeless love;
   A holier rage in your pure bosoms dwelt,
   Nor can you pity what you never felt:
   A sympathising grief alone can lure,
   The hand that heals, must feel what I endure.
   Thou, _Eloise_ alone canst give me ease,
   And bid my struggling soul subside to peace;
   Restore me to my long lost heav'n of rest,
   And take thyself from my reluctant breast;
   If crimes like mine could an allay receive,
   That blest allay thy wond'rons charms might give.
   Thy form, that first to love my heart inclin'd,
   Still wanders in my lost, my guilty mind.
   I saw thee as the new blown blossoms fair,
   Sprightly as light, more soft than summer's air,
   Bright as their beams thy eyes a mind disclose,
   Whilst on thy lips gay blush'd the fragrant rose;
   Wit, youth, and love, in each dear feature shone;
   Prest by my fate, I gaz'd--and was undone.
     There dy'd
   the gen'rous fire, whose vig'rous flame
   Enlarged my soul, and urg'd me on to same;
   Nor fame, nor wealth, my soften'd heart could move,
   Dully insensible to all but love.
   Snatch'd from myself, my learning tasteless grew;
   Vain my philosophy, oppos'd to you;
   A train of woes succeed, nor should we mourn,
   The hours that cannot, ought not to return.

   As once to love I sway'd your yielding mind,
   Too fond, alas! too fatally inclin'd,
   To virtue now let me your breast inspire,
   And fan, with zeal divine, the heav'nly fire;
   Teach you to injur'd Heav'n all chang'd to turn,
   And bid the soul with sacred rapture burn.
   O! that my own example might impart
   This noble warmth to your soft trembling heart!
   That mine, with pious undissembled care,
   Could aid the latent virtue struggling there;

   Alas! I rave--nor grace, nor zeal divine,
   Burn in a heart oppress'd with crimes like mine,
   Too sure I find, while I the tortures prove
   Of feeble piety, conflicting love,
   On black despair my forc'd devotion's built;
   Absence for me has sharper pangs than guilt.
   Yet, yet, my _Eloisa_, thy charms I view,
   Yet my sighs breath, my tears pour forth for you;
   Each weak resistance stronger knits my chain,
   I sigh, weep, love, despair, repent----in vain,
   Haste, _Eloisa_, haste, your lover free,
   Amidst your warmest pray'r----O think on me!
   Wing with your rising zeal my grov'ling mind,
   And let me mine from your repentance find!
   Ah! labour, strife, your love, your self control!
   The change will sure affect my kindred soul;
   In blest consent our purer sighs shall breath,
   And Heav'n assisting, shall our crimes forgive,
   But if unhappy, wretched, lost in vain,
   Faintly th' unequal combat you sustain;
   If not to Heav'n you feel your bosom rise,
   Nor tears refin'd fall contrite from your eyes;
   If still, your heart its wonted passions move,
   If still, to speak all pains in one--you love;
   Deaf to the weak essays of living breath,
   Attend the stronger eloquence of Death.
   When that kind pow'r this captive soul shall free,
   Which only then can cease to doat on thee;
   When gently sunk to my eternal sleep,
   The Paraclete my peaceful urn shall keep!
   Then, _Eloisa_, then your lover view,
   See his quench'd eyes no longer gaze on you;
   From their dead orbs that tender utt'rance flown,
   Which first to thine my heart's soft fate made known,
   This breast no more, at length to ease consign'd,
   Pant like the waving aspin in the wind;
   See all my wild, tumultuous passion o'er,
   And thou, amazing change! belov'd no more;
   Behold the destin'd end of human love--
   But let the fight your zeal alone improve;
   Let not your conscious soul, to sorrow mov'd,
   Recall how much, how tenderly I lov'd:
   With pious care your fruitless griefs restrain,
   Nor let a tear your sacred veil profane;
   Not ev'n a sigh on my cold urn bestow;
   But let your breast with new-born raptures glow;
   Let love divine, frail mortal love dethrone,
   And to your mind immortal joys make known;
   Let Heav'n relenting strike your ravish'd view,
   And still the bright, the blest pursuit renew!
   So with your crimes shall your misfortune cease,
   And your rack'd soul be calmly hush'd to peace.


   THE END







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