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A Mystery with a Moral by Laurence
Sterne Introduction to a Mystery with a Moral.

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The next mystery story is like no
other in these volumes. The edito's

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defense lies in the plea that Laurence
Stern is not like other writers of English.

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He is certainly one of the very
greatest, yet nowadays he is generally

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unknown. His rollicking, frankness,
his audacious on conventionality are enough to account

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for the neglect. Even the easy
manner at England of seventeen sixty opened its

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eyes in horror when Tristram Shandy appeared
a most unclerical clergyman. The public pronounced

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the Rector of Suttin and prependary of
York. Besides, his style was rambling

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to the last degree. Plot concerned
him least of all authors of fiction.

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For instance, it is more than
doubtful that the whimsical parson really intended a

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moral to be read into the adventures
of his se tuentimental journey that follow in

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these pages. He used to declare
that he never intended anything. He never

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knew whither his pen was leading.
The rash implement, once in hand,

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was likely to fly with him from
Yorkshire to Italy. Or to Paris,

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or across the road to Uncle Tuppy's. And what could the helpless author do

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but improve each occasion. So here
is one such occasion, thus improved by

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disjointed sequels, heedless, one would
say, and yet glittering with the unreturnable

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thrust of subtle wit, or softening
with simple emotion. Like a thousand immortal

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passages of this random philosopher. Even
the slightest turns of Sterne's pen bear inspiration

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no less a critique than the severe
haslet was satisfied that his works consist only

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of brilliant passages. And because the
editors of the present volumes found added to

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the mystery not only a solution,
but an application of worldly with wisdom and

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a contrast in Sterne's best vein of
quiet happiness, they have felt emboldened to

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ascribe the passage the mystery with a
moral as regards the application, stern knew

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whereof he wrote he sought the south
of France for health in seventeen sixty two,

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and was run after and fettered by
the most brilliant circles of Parisian literature.

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This foreign surgeon failed to cure his
long complaint, but suggested the idea

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to him of the Rambling and Charming
Sentimental Journey. Only three weeks after its

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publication, on March eighteenth, seventeen
sixty eight, Stern died alone in his

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London lodgings. Spite of all that
marred his genius, his work has lived

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and will live, if only for
the exquisite literary art which ever made great

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things out of little. The editor
A mystery with a moral Parisian experience of

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parson Yorick on his Sentimental Journey a
Riddle. I remained at the gate of

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the hotel for some time, looking
at every one who passed by, and

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forming conjectures upon them, till my
attention got fixed upon a single object which

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confounded all kinds of reasoning upon him. It was the tall figure of a

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philosophic, serious adult look which passed
and repassed sedately along the street, making

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a turn of about sixty paces on
each side of the gate of the hotel.

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The man was about fifty two,
had a small cane under his arm,

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was dressed in a dark drab colored
coat, waistcoat, and breeches which

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seemed to have seen some use service. They were still clean, and there

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was a little air of frugal PROPRIETI
throughout him by his pulling off his hat

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and his attitude of accosting a good
man in his way. I saw he

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was asking charity, so I got
a soussor two out of my pocket,

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ready to give him as he took
me in his turn. He passed by

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me without asking anything. And yet
he did not go five steps farther before

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he asked charity of a little woman. I was much more likely to have

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given of the two he had scarce
done with the woman. When he pulled

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his hat off to another who was
coming the same way. An ancient gentleman

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came slowly, and after him a
young smart one. He let them both

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pass and asked nothing. I stood
observing him half an hour, in which

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time he had made a dozen turns
backward and forward, and found that he

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invariably pursued the same plan. There
were two things very singular in this,

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which set my brain to work,
and to no purpose. The first was

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why the man should only tell his
story to the sex, and secondly what

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kind of a story it was,
and what species of eloquence it could be,

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which softened the hearts of the women
which he knew it was to no

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purpose to practice upon the men.
There were two other circumstances which entangled this

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mystery. The one was he told
every woman what he had to say in

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her ear, and in a way
which had much more the air of a

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secret than a petition. The other
was it was always successful. He never

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stopped a woman, but she pulled
out her purse and immediately gave him something.

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I could form no system to explain
the phenomenon. I had got a

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riddle to amuse me for the rest
of the evening. So I walked upstairs

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to my chamber overheard the man who
either disdains or fears to walk up a

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dark entry may be an excellent good
man, and fit for a hundred things,

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but he will not do to make
a sentimental traveler. I count little

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of the many things I see pass
at broad noon day in large and open

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streets. Nature is shy and hates
to act before spectators. But in such

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an unobservable corner you sometimes see a
single short scene of hers worth all the

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scenter imans of a dozen French plays
compounded together, and yet they are absolutely

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fine. And whenever I have a
more brilliant affair upon my hands than common.

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As they suit a preacher just as
well as a hero, I generally

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make my sermon out of them,
And for the text Cappadoccia, Pontes,

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and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia is
as good as anyone in the Bible.

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There is a long, dark passage
issuing out from the opera comique into a

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narrow street. It is trod by
a few who humbly wait for a fiacre

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note hackney coach, end of note, or wish to get off quietly of

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food when the opera is done.
At the end of it, toward the

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theater tis lighted by a small candle, the light of which is almost lost

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before you get half way down.
But near the door it is more for

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ornament than use. You see it
as a fixed star of the least magnitude.

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It burns, but does little good
to the world that we know of.

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In returning from the opera, along
this passage I discerned, as I

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approached within five or six paces of
the door, two ladies standing arm in

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arm with their backs against the wall, waiting, as I imagined, for

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a fiacre. As they were next
the door, I thought they had a

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prior right. So I edged myself
up within a yard or little more of

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them, and quietly took my stand. I was in black and scarce seen

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the lady next me was a tall, lean figure of a woman of about

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thirty six, the other of the
same size and make of about forty.

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There was no mark of wife or
widow in any one part of either of

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them. They seemed to be two
upright vestal sisters, unsapped by carresses,

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unbroken upon by tender salutations. I
could have wished to have made them happy.

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Their happiness was destined that night to
come from another quarter. A low

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voice, with a good turn of
expression, and sweet cattons. At the

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end of it, begged for a
twelve sous piece between them. For the

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love of heaven, I thought it
singular that a beggar should fix the quarter

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of alms, and that the sum
should be twelve times as much as well

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is usually given in the dark.
They both seemed astonished at it, as

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much as myself. Twelve sous,
said one. The twelve sou piece,

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said the other, and made no
reply. The poor man said he knew

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not how to ask less of ladies
of their rank, and bowed down his

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head to the ground. Pooh,
said they we have no money. The

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beggar remained silent for a moment or
two and renewed his supplication. Do not

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my fair young ladies, said he. Stop your good ears against me upon

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my word. Honest men, said
the younger. We have no change.

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Then God bless you, said the
poor man, and multiply those joys which

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you can give to others without change, I observed the older sister put her

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hand into her pocket. I will
see, said she. If I have

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a sou, a sou give twelve, said the suppliant nature has been bountiful

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to you, be bountiful to a
poor man. I would friend with all

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my heart, said the younger if
I had it. My fair charitable,

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said he, addressing himself to the
elder. What is it but your goodness

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and humanity which make your bright eyes
so sweet that they outshine the morning even

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in this dark passage? And what
was it which made the Marquis de Santerre

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and his brother say so much of
you? Both? As they just passed

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by, the two ladies seemed much
affected and impulsively at the same time.

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They put their hands into their pockets, and each took out a twelve sou

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piece. The contest between them and
the poor suppliant was no more. It

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was continued between themselves, which of
the two should give the twelve soupiece in

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charity, And to end the dispute, they both gave it together, and

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the men went away solution. I
stepped hastily after him. It was the

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very man whose success in asking charity
of the woman before the door of the

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hotel had so puzzled me, And
I found at once his secret, or

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at least the basis of it.
It was flattery, delicious essence. How

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refreshing are though to nature? How
strongly are all its powers and all its

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weaknesses on thy side? How sweetly
dost the mix with the blood and help

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it through the most difficult and tortuous
passages to the heart. The poor man,

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as he was not straitened for time, had given it here in a

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larger doos. It is certainly he
had a way of bringing it into less

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form, for the many certain causes
he had to do with in the streets.

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But how he contrived to correct,
sweeten, consenter, and qualify it.

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I vex not my spirit with the
inquiry. It is enough the beggar

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gained two twelve sou pieces, and
they can best tell the rest to have

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gained much greater matters by it application. We get forward in the world,

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not so much by doing services as
receiving them. You take a withering twig

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and put it in the ground,
and then you water it because you have

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planted it. Monsieur le Comte de
Bill, merely because he had done me

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one kindness in the affair of my
passport, would go on and do me

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another. A few days he was
at Paris in making me known to a

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few people of frank and they were
to present me to others, and so

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on. I had got master of
my secret just in time to turn those

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harness to some little account. Otherwise, as is commonly the case, I

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should have dined or subbed a single
time or two round, and then,

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by translating French looks and attitudes into
plain English, I should presently have seen

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that I had got hold of the
couvert note, plate, napkin, knife,

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fork and spoon, and of note
of some more entertaining guests, and

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in course of time should have resigned
all my places one after another, merely

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upon the principle that I could not
keep them. As it was, things

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did not go much amiss. I
had the honor of being introduced to the

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old Marquis de b in days of
yore. He had signalized himself by some

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small feats of chivalry in the Cours
des Mours, and had dressed himself out

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to the idea of tilts and tournaments. Ever since. The Marquis de b

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wished to have it. Thought the
affair was somewhere else than in his brain.

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He could like to take a trip
to England and ask much of the

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English ladies. Stay where you are. I beseech you, Monsieur de Marquis,

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said I le monsieuroneles can scarce get
a kind look from them? As

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it is, the Marquis invited me
to supper. Monsieur p the Farmer General,

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was just as inquisitive about our taxes. They were very considerable, he

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heard. If we knew but how
to collect them, said I, making

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him a low bow. I could
never have been invited to Monsieur Pile's concerts

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upon any other terms. I had
been misrepresented to Madame de Quiux as Aesbrit.

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Madame de Cux was an his prit
herself she burned with impatience to see

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me and hear me talk. I
had not taken my seat before I saw

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she did not care a soue whether
I had any wit or no. I

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was led in to be convinced.
She had I call heaven to witness.

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I never once opened the door of
my lips. Madame de Ville vowed to

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every creature she met she had never
had a more improving conversation with the men

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in her life. There are three
epochs in the empire of a frenchwoman.

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She is coquette than the east,
than devout. The empire during these is

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never lost. She only changes her
subjects when thirty five years and more,

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having peopled her dominion of the slaves
of love, she rep peoples it with

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slaves of infidelity, and then with
the slaves of the church. Madame de

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v was vibrating between the first of
these epochs. The color of the ruse

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was fading fast away. She ought
to have been a dazed five years before

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the time I had the honor to
pay my first visit. She placed me

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upon the same sofa with her,
for the sake of disputing the point of

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religion more closely. In short.
Madame de Vie told me she believed nothing.

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I told Madame de vill it might
be her principle, but I was

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sure it could not be her interest
to level the artworks, without which I

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could not conceive how such a citadel
as hers could be defended. That there

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was not a more dangerous thing in
the world than for a beauty to be

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a yeast, And it was a
tebt. I owed my creed not to

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conceal it from her that I had
not been five minutes upon the sofa beside

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her before I had begun to form
designs. And what is it but the

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sentiments of religion and the persuasion they
had existed in her breast, which could

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have checked them as they rose up. We are not adamant, said I,

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taking hold of her hand, and
there is need of all restraints till

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aging her own time steals in and
lays them on us. But my dear

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lady, said I, kissing her
hand. It is too too soon.

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I declare I had the credit all
over Paris of unperverting Madame de Vie.

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She affirmed to Monsieur d and the
abbe M that in one half hour I

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had said more for revealed religion than
all the encyclopedia had said against it.

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I was listed directly into Madame de
Ville's cattery, and she put off the

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epoch of Daism for two years.
I remember it was in this cuttery,

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in the middle of a discourse in
which I was showing the necessity of a

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first cause, that the young Count
de Fignan took me by the hand to

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the farthest corner of the room to
tell me that my solitaire was pinned too

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straight about my neck. It should
be plu badino, said the count,

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looking down upon his own But a
word, Monsieur euryc to the wise,

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and from the wise, Monsieur le
Comte replied, I making him a bow

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is enough. The Count de Fignan
embraced me with more ardor than ever I

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was embraced by mortal men. For
three weeks together, I was of every

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man's opinion. I met Pardi,
So Monsieur Eurica wut on ispriqua uzutre irison

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bian said another Sitta. Bonovon said
a third, And at this price I

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could have eaten and drunk and been
merry all the days of my life at

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Paris. But it was a disonest
reckoning. I grew ashamed of it.

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It was the gain of a slave. Every sentiment of honor revolted against it.

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The higher I got, the more
was I forced upon my beggarly system,

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the better the colery, the more
children of art I languished for those

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of nature. And one night,
after our most vile prostitution of myself to

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half a dozen different people, I
grew sick, went to bed, and

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ordered horses in the morning to set
out for Italy. Contrast, a shoe

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coming loose from the forefoot of the
thill horse at the beginning of the ascent

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of Mount Torriira, the postgion dismounted, twisted the shoe off and put it

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in his pocket. As the ascent
was of five or six miles, and

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that horse our main dependence, I
made a point of having the shoe fastened

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on again as well as we could. But the postilion had thrown away the

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nails and the hammer in the chaise
box. Being of no great use without

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them, I submitted to go on. He had not mounted half a mile

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higher, when coming to a flinty
piece of froot, the poor devil lost

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a second shoe, and from off
his other fore foot. I then got

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out of the chaise in good earnest, and, seeing a house about a

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quarter of a mile to the left
hand, with a great deal to do,

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iveiled upon the postilion to turn up
to it. The look of the

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house and of everything about it,
as we drew nearer, soon reconciled me

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to the disaster. It was a
little farmhouse, surrounded with about twenty acres

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of vine yard, about as much
corn, and close to the house.

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On one side was a potagerie of
an acre and a half full of everything

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which could make plenty in a French
peasant's house. And on the other side

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was a little wood which furnished wherewithal
to dress it. It was about eight

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in the evening when I got to
the house, so I left the postinion

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to manage his point as he could, and for mine I walked directly into

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the house. The family consisted of
an old gray headed man and his wife,

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with five or six sons and sons
in laws, and their several wives,

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and a joyous genealogy out of them. They were all sitting down together

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to their lentil soup. A large
wheaten loaf was in the middle of the

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table, and a flaten of wine
at each end of it promised joy through

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the stages of the repast. It
was a feast of love. The old

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man rose up to meet me,
and with a respectful cordiality, would have

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me sit down at the table.
My heart was set down the moment I

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entered the room. So I sat
down at once, like a son of

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the family, and to invest myself
in the character as speedily as I could,

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I instantly burrowed the old man's knife, and taking up the loaf,

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cut myself a hearty luncheon. And
as I did it, I saw it

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testimony in every eye, not only
of an honest welcome, but of a

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welcome mixed with thanks that I had
not seemed to doubt. It was it

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this, or tell me nature,
what else it was that made this morsel

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so sweet? And to what magic? I owe it that the droat I

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took of their flagon was so delicious
with it that they remained upon my pallet

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to this hour. If the supper
was to my taste, the grace which

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followed it was much more so.
When supper was over, the old man

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gave a knock upon the table with
the haft of his knife to bid them

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prepare for the dance. The moment
the signal was given, the women and

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girls ran all together into a back
apartment to tie up their hair, and

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the young men to the door to
wash their faces and change their seboats.

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And in three minutes every soul was
ready upon a little esplanade before the house

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to begin. The old man and
his wife came out last, and,

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placing me betwixt them, sat down
upon a sofa of turf by the door.

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The old man had, some fifty
years ago been no mean performer upon

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the vielle note a small violin such
as was used by the wandering janclars of

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the middle aged editor end of note. And at the age he was enough

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touched well enough for the purpose.
His wife sang now and then a little

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to the tune, then intermitted and
joined her old men again, as their

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children and grandchildren danced before them.
It was not till the middle of the

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second dance, when, from some
poses in the movement wherein they all seemed

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to look up, I fancied I
could distinguish an elevation of spirit different from

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that which is the cause or the
effect of simple jollity. In a word,

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I thought I beheld religion mixing in
the dance. But as I had

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never seen her so engaged, I
should have looked upon it now as one

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of the illusions of an imagination which
is eternally misleading me. Had not.

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The old man, as soon as
the dance ended, said that this was

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their constant way, and that all
his life long he had made it a

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rule after supper was over, to
call out his family to dance and rejoice.

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Believing. He said that a cheerful
and contented mind was the best sort

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of things to heaven that an illiterate
peasant could pay or learned prelate either,

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said I. When you have gained
the top of Mount Terira, you run

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presently down to lyons Addiere, then
to all rapid movements. It is a

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journey of caution, and it fares
better with sentiments not to be in a

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hurry with them. So I contracted
with a vulterine to take his time with

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a couple of mules and convey me
in my own chaise safe to Turin through

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savoy, poor, patient, quiet, honest people, fear not your poverty.

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The treasury of your simple virtues will
not be envied you by the world,

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nor will your values be invaded by
it nature in the midst of thy

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disorders, though art still friendly to
the scantiness, Though as created with all

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thy great works about thee little hast
thou left to give either to the scythe

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or to the sickle, But to
that little The grandest safety and protection and

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sweet are the dwellings which stand so
sheltered