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diff --git a/old/2127.txt b/old/2127.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3cd81f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2127.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4639 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Paul and Virginia, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Paul and Virginia + +Author: Bernardin de Saint Pierre + +Release Date: March 25, 2006 [EBook #2127] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL AND VIRGINIA *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny and John Bickers + + + + + +PAUL AND VIRGINIA + +by Bernardin de Saint Pierre + + +With A Memoir Of The Author + + + + +PREFACE + +In introducing to the Public the present edition of this well known +and affecting Tale,--the _chef d'oeuvre_ of its gifted author, the +Publishers take occasion to say, that it affords them no little +gratification, to apprise the numerous admirers of "Paul and Virginia," +that the _entire_ work of St. Pierre is now presented to them. All the +previous editions have been disfigured by interpolations, and mutilated +by numerous omissions and alterations, which have had the effect of +reducing it from the rank of a Philosophical Tale, to the level of a +mere story for children. + +Of the merits of "Paul and Virginia," it is hardly necessary to utter +a word; it tells its own story eloquently and impressively, and in a +language simple, natural and true, it touches the common heart of the +world. There are but few works that have obtained a greater degree +of popularity, none are more deserving it; and the Publishers cannot +therefore refrain from expressing a hope that their efforts in thus +giving a faithful transcript of the work,--an acknowledged classic by +the European world,--may be, in some degree, instrumental in awakening +here, at home, a taste for those higher works of Fancy, which, while +they seek to elevate and strengthen the understanding, instruct and +purify the heart. It is in this character that the Tale of "Paul and +Virginia" ranks pre-eminent. [Prepared from an edition published by +Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, U.S.A.] + + + + +MEMOIR OF BERNARDIN DE ST. PIERRE + +Love of Nature, that strong feeling of enthusiasm which leads to +profound admiration of the whole works of creation, belongs, it may be +presumed, to a certain peculiarity of organization, and has, no doubt, +existed in different individuals from the beginning of the world. The +old poets and philosophers, romance writers, and troubadours, had all +looked upon Nature with observing and admiring eyes. They have most of +them given incidentally charming pictures of spring, of the setting sun, +of particular spots, and of favourite flowers. + +There are few writers of note, of any country, or of any age, from +whom quotations might not be made in proof of the love with which +they regarded Nature. And this remark applies as much to religious and +philosophic writers as to poets,--equally to Plato, St. Francois de +Sales, Bacon, and Fenelon, as to Shakespeare, Racine, Calderon, or +Burns; for from no really philosophic or religious doctrine can the love +of the works of Nature be excluded. + +But before the days of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Buffon, and Bernardin +de St. Pierre, this love of Nature had not been expressed in all its +intensity. Until their day, it had not been written on exclusively. +The lovers of Nature were not, till then, as they may perhaps since be +considered, a sect apart. Though perfectly sincere in all the adorations +they offered, they were less entirely, and certainly less diligently and +constantly, her adorers. + +It is the great praise of Bernardin de St. Pierre, that coming +immediately after Rousseau and Buffon, and being one of the most +proficient writers of the same school, he was in no degree their +imitator, but perfectly original and new. He intuitively perceived the +immensity of the subject he intended to explore, and has told us that +no day of his life passed without his collecting some valuable materials +for his writings. In the divine works of Nature, he diligently sought +to discover her laws. It was his early intention not to begin to write +until he had ceased to observe; but he found observation endless, and +that he was "like a child who with a shell digs a hole in the sand to +receive the waters of the ocean." He elsewhere humbly says, that not +only the general history of Nature, but even that of the smallest plant, +was far beyond his ability. Before, however, speaking further of him as +an author, it will be necessary to recapitulate the chief events of his +life. + +HENRI-JACQUES BERNARDIN DE ST. PIERRE, was born at Havre in 1737. He +always considered himself descended from that Eustache de St. Pierre, +who is said by Froissart, (and I believe by Froissart only), to have so +generously offered himself as a victim to appease the wrath of Edward +the Third against Calais. He, with his companions in virtue, it is also +said, was saved by the intercession of Queen Philippa. In one of his +smaller works, Bernardin asserts this descent, and it was certainly one +of which he might be proud. Many anecdotes are related of his childhood, +indicative of the youthful author,--of his strong love of Nature, and +his humanity to animals. + +That "the child is the father of the man," has been seldom more strongly +illustrated. There is a story of a cat, which, when related by him many +years afterwards to Rousseau, caused that philosopher to shed tears. At +eight years of age, he took the greatest pleasure in the regular culture +of his garden; and possibly then stored up some of the ideas which +afterwards appeared in the "Fraisier." His sympathy with all living +things was extreme. + +In "Paul and Virginia," he praises, with evident satisfaction, their +meal of milk and eggs, which had not cost any animal its life. It has +been remarked, and possibly with truth, that every tenderly disposed +heart, deeply imbued with a love of Nature, is at times somewhat +Braminical. St. Pierre's certainly was. + +When quite young, he advanced with a clenched fist towards a carter +who was ill-treating a horse. And when taken for the first time, by his +father, to Rouen, having the towers of the cathedral pointed out to him, +he exclaimed, "My God! how high they fly." Every one present naturally +laughed. Bernardin had only noticed the flight of some swallows who had +built their nests there. He thus early revealed those instincts which +afterwards became the guidance of his life: the strength of which +possibly occasioned his too great indifference to all monuments of +art. The love of study and of solitude were also characteristics of +his childhood. His temper is said to have been moody, impetuous, and +intractable. Whether this faulty temper may not have been produced +or rendered worse by mismanagement, cannot not be ascertained. It, +undoubtedly became afterwards, to St. Pierre a fruitful source of +misfortune and of woe. + +The reading of voyages was with him, even in childhood, almost a +passion. At twelve years of age, his whole soul was occupied by Robinson +Crusoe and his island. His romantic love of adventure seeming to his +parents to announce a predilection in favour of the sea, he was sent +by them with one of his uncles to Martinique. But St. Pierre had +not sufficiently practised the virtue of obedience to submit, as was +necessary, to the discipline of a ship. He was afterwards placed with +the Jesuits at Caen, with whom he made immense progress in his studies. +But, it is to be feared, he did not conform too well to the regulations +of the college, for he conceived, from that time, the greatest +detestation for places of public education. And this aversion he has +frequently testified in his writings. While devoted to his books of +travels, he in turn anticipated being a Jesuit, a missionary or a +martyr; but his family at length succeeded in establishing him at Rouen, +where he completed his studies with brilliant success, in 1757. He soon +after obtained a commission as an engineer, with a salary of one hundred +louis. In this capacity he was sent (1760) to Dusseldorf, under the +command of Count St. Germain. This was a career in which he might have +acquired both honour and fortune; but, most unhappily for St. Pierre, +he looked upon the useful and necessary etiquettes of life as so many +unworthy prejudices. Instead of conforming to them, he sought to trample +on them. In addition, he evinced some disposition to rebel against his +commander, and was unsocial with his equals. It is not, therefore, to be +wondered at, that at this unfortunate period of his existence, he made +himself enemies; or that, notwithstanding his great talents, or the +coolness he had exhibited in moments of danger, he should have been sent +back to France. Unwelcome, under these circumstances, to his family, he +was ill received by all. + +It is a lesson yet to be learned, that genius gives no charter for the +indulgence of error,--a truth yet _to be_ remembered, that only a small +portion of the world will look with leniency on the failings of the +highly-gifted; and, that from themselves, the consequences of their +own actions can never be averted. It is yet, alas! _to be_ added to +the convictions of the ardent in mind, that no degree of excellence in +science or literature, not even the immortality of a name can exempt +its possessor from obedience to moral discipline; or give him happiness, +unless "temper's image" be stamped on his daily words and actions. St. +Pierre's life was sadly embittered by his own conduct. The adventurous +life he led after his return from Dusseldorf, some of the circumstances +of which exhibited him in an unfavourable light to others, tended, +perhaps, to tinge his imagination with that wild and tender melancholy +so prevalent in his writings. A prize in the lottery had just doubled +his very slender means of existence, when he obtained the appointment of +geographical engineer, and was sent to Malta. The Knights of the Order +were at this time expecting to be attacked by the Turks. Having already +been in the service, it was singular that St. Pierre should have had the +imprudence to sail without his commission. He thus subjected himself to +a thousand disagreeables, for the officers would not recognize him +as one of themselves. The effects of their neglect on his mind were +tremendous; his reason for a time seemed almost disturbed by the +mortifications he suffered. After receiving an insufficient indemnity +for the expenses of his voyage, St. Pierre returned to France, there to +endure fresh misfortunes. + +Not being able to obtain any assistance from the ministry or his family, +he resolved on giving lessons in the mathematics. But St. Pierre was +less adapted than most others for succeeding in the apparently easy, +but really ingenious and difficult, art of teaching. When education +is better understood, it will be more generally acknowledged, that, +to impart instruction with success, a teacher must possess deeper +intelligence than is implied by the profoundest skill in any one branch +of science or of art. All minds, even to the youngest, require, while +being taught, the utmost compliance and consideration; and these +qualities can scarcely be properly exercised without a true knowledge of +the human heart, united to much practical patience. St. Pierre, at this +period of his life, certainly did not possess them. It is probable that +Rousseau, when he attempted in his youth to give lessons in music, not +knowing any thing whatever of music, was scarcely less fitted for +the task of instruction, than St. Pierre with all his mathematical +knowledge. The pressure of poverty drove him to Holland. He was well +received at Amsterdam, by a French refugee named Mustel, who edited a +popular journal there, and who procured him employment, with handsome +remuneration. St. Pierre did not, however, remain long satisfied with +this quiet mode of existence. Allured by the encouraging reception given +by Catherine II. to foreigners, he set out for St. Petersburg. Here, +until he obtained the protection of the Marechal de Munich, and the +friendship of Duval, he had again to contend with poverty. The latter +generously opened to him his purse and by the Marechal he was introduced +to Villebois, the Grand Master of Artillery, and by him presented to the +Empress. St. Pierre was so handsome, that by some of his friends it was +supposed, perhaps, too, hoped, that he would supersede Orloff in the +favor of Catherine. But more honourable illusions, though they were +but illusions, occupied his own mind. He neither sought nor wished to +captivate the Empress. His ambition was to establish a republic on the +shores of the lake Aral, of which in imitation of Plato or Rousseau, +he was to be the legislator. Pre-occupied with the reformation of +despotism, he did not sufficiently look into his own heart, or seek to +avoid a repetition of the same errors that had already changed friends +into enemies, and been such a terrible barrier to his success in +life. His mind was already morbid, and in fancying that others did +not understand him, he forgot that he did not understand others. The +Empress, with the rank of captain, bestowed on him a grant of fifteen +hundred francs; but when General Dubosquet proposed to take him with him +to examine the military position of Finland, his only anxiety seemed to +be to return to France: still he went to Finland; and his own notes of +his occupations and experiments on that expedition prove, that he gave +himself up in all diligence to considerations of attack and defence. He, +who loved Nature so intently, seems only to have seen in the extensive +and majestic forests of the north, a theatre of war. In this instance, +he appears to have stifled every emotion of admiration, and to have +beheld, alike, cities and countries in his character of military +surveyor. + +On his return to St. Petersburg, he found his protector Villebois, +disgraced. St. Pierre then resolved on espousing the cause of the Poles. +He went into Poland with a high reputation,--that of having refused +the favours of despotism, to aid the cause of liberty. But it was his +private life, rather than his public career, that was affected by his +residence in Poland. The Princess Mary fell in love with him, and, +forgetful of all considerations, quitted her family to reside with +him. Yielding, however, at length, to the entreaties of her mother, +she returned to her home. St. Pierre, filled with regret, resorted to +Vienna; but, unable to support the sadness which oppressed him, and +imagining that sadness to be shared by the Princess, he soon went back +to Poland. His return was still more sad than his departure; for he +found himself regarded by her who had once loved him, as an intruder. +It is to this attachment he alludes so touchingly in one of his letters. +"Adieu! friends dearer than the treasures of India! Adieu! forests of +the North, that I shall never see again!--tender friendship, and the +still dearer sentiment which surpassed it!--days of intoxication and +of happiness adeiu! adieu! We live but for a day, to die during a whole +life!" + +This letter appears to one of St. Pierre's most partial biographers, +as if steeped in tears; and he speaks of his romantic and unfortunate +adventure in Poland, as the ideal of a poet's love. + +"To be," says M. Sainte-Beuve, "a great poet, and loved before he had +thought of glory! To exhale the first perfume of a soul of genius, +believing himself only a lover! To reveal himself, for the first time, +entirely, but in mystery!" + +In his enthusiasm, M. Sainte-Beuve loses sight of the melancholy sequel, +which must have left so sad a remembrance in St. Pierre's own mind. +His suffering, from this circumstance, may perhaps have conduced to his +making Virginia so good and true, and so incapable of giving pain. + +In 1766, he returned to Havre; but his relations were by this time dead +or dispersed, and after six years of exile, he found himself once +more in his own country, without employment and destitute of pecuniary +resources. + +The Baron de Breteuil at length obtained for him a commission as +Engineer to the Isle of France, whence he returned in 1771. In this +interval, his heart and imagination doubtless received the germs of his +immortal works. Many of the events, indeed, of the "Voyage a l'Ile de +France," are to be found modified by imagined circumstances in "Paul and +Virginia." He returned to Paris poor in purse, but rich in observation +and mental resources, and resolved to devote himself to literature. By +the Baron de Breteuil he was recommended to D'Alembert, who procured +a publisher for his "Voyage," and also introduced him to Mlle. de +l'Espinasse. But no one, in spite of his great beauty, was so ill +calculated to shine or please in society as St. Pierre. His manners +were timid and embarrassed, and, unless to those with whom he was very +intimate, he scarcely appeared intelligent. + +It is sad to think, that misunderstanding should prevail to such an +extent, and heart so seldom really speak to heart, in the intercourse of +the world, that the most humane may appear cruel, and the sympathizing +indifferent. Judging of Mlle. de l'Espinasse from her letters, and the +testimony of her contemporaries, it seems quite impossible that she +could have given pain to any one, more particularly to a man possessing +St. Pierre's extraordinary talent and profound sensibility. Both she and +D'Alembert were capable of appreciating him; but the society in which +they moved laughed at his timidity, and the tone of raillery in which +they often indulged was not understood by him. It is certain that he +withdrew from their circle with wounded and mortified feelings, and, in +spite of an explanatory letter from D'Alembert, did not return to it. +The inflictors of all this pain, in the meantime, were possibly as +unconscious of the meaning attached to their words, as were the birds of +old of the augury drawn from their flight. + +St. Pierre, in his "Preambule de l'Arcadie," has pathetically and +eloquently described the deplorable state of his health and feelings, +after frequent humiliating disputes and disappointments had driven him +from society; or rather, when, like Rousseau, he was "self-banished" +from it. + +"I was struck," he says, "with an extraordinary malady. Streams of fire, +like lightning, flashed before my eyes; every object appeared to me +double, or in motion: like OEdipus, I saw two suns. . . In the +finest day of summer, I could not cross the Seine in a boat without +experiencing intolerable anxiety. If, in a public garden, I merely +passed by a piece of water, I suffered from spasms and a feeling of +horror. I could not cross a garden in which many people were collected: +if they looked at me, I immediately imagined they were speaking ill of +me." It was during this state of suffering, that he devoted himself with +ardour to collecting and making use of materials for that work which was +to give glory to his name. + +It was only by perseverance, and disregarding many rough and +discouraging receptions, that he succeeded in making acquaintance with +Rousseau, whom he so much resembled. St. Pierre devoted himself to his +society with enthusiasm, visiting him frequently and constantly, till +Rousseau departed for Ermenonville. It is not unworthy of remark, that +both these men, such enthusiastic admirers of Nature and the natural +in all things, should have possessed factitious rather than practical +virtue, and a wisdom wholly unfitted for the world. St. Pierre asked +Rousseau, in one of their frequent rambles, if, in delineating St. +Preux, he had not intended to represent himself. "No," replied Rousseau, +"St. Preux is not what I have been, but what I wished to be." St. Pierre +would most likely have given the same answer, had a similar question +been put to him with regard to the Colonel in "Paul and Virginia." +This at least, appears the sort of old age he loved to contemplate, and +wished to realize. + +For six years, he worked at his "Etudes," and with some difficulty found +a publisher for them. M. Didot, a celebrated typographer, whose daughter +St. Pierre afterwards married, consented to print a manuscript which had +been declined by many others. He was well rewarded for the undertaking. +The success of the "Etudes de la Nature" surpassed the most sanguine +expectation, even of the author. Four years after its publication, St. +Pierre gave to the world "Paul and Virginia," which had for some time +been lying in his portfolio. He had tried its effect, in manuscript, +on persons of different characters and pursuits. They had given it no +applause; but all had shed tears at its perusal: and perhaps, few works +of a decidedly romantic character have ever been so generally read, or +so much approved. Among the great names whose admiration of it is on +record, may be mentioned Napoleon and Humboldt. + +In 1789, he published "Les Veoeux d'un Solitaire," and "La Suite des +Voeux." By the _Moniteur_ of the day, these works were compared to the +celebrated pamphlet of Sieyes,--"Qu'est-ce que le tiers etat?" which +then absorbed all the public favour. In 1791, "La Chaumiere Indienne" +was published: and in the following year, about thirteen days before +the celebrated 10th of August, Louis XVI. appointed St. Pierre +superintendant of the "Jardin des Plantes." Soon afterwards, the King, +on seeing him, complimented him on his writings and told him he was +happy to have found a worthy successor to Buffon. + +Although deficient in the exact knowledge of the sciences, and knowing +little of the world, St. Pierre was, by his simplicity, and the +retirement in which he lived, well suited, at that epoch, to the +situation. About this time, and when in his fifty-seventh year, he +married Mlle. Didot. + +In 1795, he became a member of the French Academy, and, as was just, +after his acceptance of this honour, he wrote no more against literary +societies. On the suppression of his place, he retired to Essonne. It is +delightful to follow him there, and to contemplate his quiet existence. +His days flowed on peaceably, occupied in the publication of "Les +Harmonies de la Nature," the republication of his earlier works, and +the composition of some lesser pieces. He himself affectingly regrets an +interruption to these occupations. On being appointed Instructor to the +Normal School, he says, "I am obliged to hang my harp on the willows +of my river, and to accept an employment useful to my family and my +country. I am afflicted at having to suspend an occupation which has +given me so much happiness." + +He enjoyed in his old age, a degree of opulence, which, as much as +glory, had perhaps been the object of his ambition. In any case, it is +gratifying to reflect, that after a life so full of chance and change, +he was, in his latter years, surrounded by much that should accompany +old age. His day of storms and tempests was closed by an evening of +repose and beauty. + +Amid many other blessings, the elasticity of his mind was preserved to +the last. He died at Eragny sur l'Oise, on the 21st of January, 1814. +The stirring events which then occupied France, or rather the whole +world, caused his death to be little noticed at the time. The Academy +did not, however, neglect to give him the honour due to its members. +Mons. Parseval Grand Maison pronounced a deserved eulogium on his +talents, and Mons. Aignan, also, the customary tribute, taking his seat +as his successor. + +Having himself contracted the habit of confiding his griefs and sorrows +to the public, the sanctuary of his private life was open alike to the +discussion of friends and enemies. The biographer, who wishes to be +exact, and yet set down nought in malice, is forced to the contemplation +of his errors. The secret of many of these, as well as of his miseries, +seems revealed by himself in this sentence: "I experience more pain from +a single thorn, than pleasure from a thousand roses." And elsewhere, +"The best society seems to me bad, if I find in it one troublesome, +wicked, slanderous, envious, or perfidious person." Now, taking into +consideration that St. Pierre sometimes imagined persons who were really +good, to be deserving of these strong and very contumacious epithets, +it would have been difficult indeed to find a society in which he could +have been happy. He was, therefore, wise, in seeking retirement, and +indulging in solitude. His mistakes,--for they were mistakes,--arose +from a too quick perception of evil, united to an exquisite and diffuse +sensibility. When he felt wounded by a thorn, he forgot the beauty and +perfume of the rose to which it belonged, and from which perhaps it +could not be separated. And he was exposed (as often happens) to the +very description of trials that were least in harmony with his defects. +Few dispositions could have run a career like his, and have remained +unscathed. But one less tender than his own would have been less soured +by it. For many years, he bore about with him the consciousness of +unacknowledged talent. The world cannot be blamed for not appreciating +that which had never been revealed. But we know not what the jostling +and elbowing of that world, in the meantime, may have been to him--how +often he may have felt himself unworthily treated--or how far that +treatment may have preyed upon and corroded his heart. Who shall +say that with this consciousness there did not mingle a quick and +instinctive perception of the hidden motives of action,--that he did +not sometimes detect, where others might have been blind, the +under-shuffling of the hands, in the by-play of the world? + +Through all his writings, and throughout his correspondence, there are +beautiful proofs of the tenderness of his feelings,--the most essential +quality, perhaps, in any writer. It is at least, one that if not +possessed, can never be attained. The familiarity of his imagination +with natural objects, when he was living far removed from them, is +remarkable, and often affecting. + +"I have arranged," he says to Mr. Henin, his friend and patron, "very +interesting materials, but it is only with the light of Heaven over +me that I can recover my strength. Obtain for me a _rabbit's hole_, in +which I may pass the summer in the country." And again, "With the _first +violet_, I shall come to see you." It is soothing to find, in passages +like these, such pleasing and convincing evidence that + + "Nature never did betray, + The heart that loved her." + +In the noise of a great city, in the midst of annoyances of many kinds +these images, impressed with quietness and beauty, came back to the mind +of St. Pierre, to cheer and animate him. + +In alluding to his miseries, it is but fair to quote a passage from +his "Voyage," which reveals his fond remembrance of his native land. "I +should ever prefer my own country to every other," he says, "not because +it was more beautiful, but because I was brought up in it. Happy he, +who sees again the places where all was loved, and all was lovely!--the +meadows in which he played, and the orchard that he robbed!" + +He returned to this country, so fondly loved and deeply cherished in +absence, to experience only trouble and difficulty. Away from it, he had +yearned to behold it,--to fold it, as it were, once more to his bosom. +He returned to feel as if neglected by it, and all his rapturous +emotions were changed to bitterness and gall. His hopes had proved +delusions--his expectations, mockeries. Oh! who but must look with +charity and mercy on all discontent and irritation consequent on such +a depth of disappointment: on what must have then appeared to him such +unmitigable woe. Under the influence of these saddened feelings, his +thoughts flew back to the island he had left, to place all beauty, as +well as all happiness, there! + +One great proof that he did beautify the distant, may be found in the +contrast of some of the descriptions in the "Voyage a l'Ile de France," +and those in "Paul and Virginia." That spot, which when peopled by the +cherished creatures of his imagination, he described as an enchanting +and delightful Eden, he had previously spoken of as a "rugged country +covered with rocks,"--"a land of Cyclops blackened by fire." Truth, +probably, lies between the two representations; the sadness of +exile having darkened the one, and the exuberance of his imagination +embellished the other. + +St. Pierre's merit as an author has been too long and too universally +acknowledged, to make it needful that it should be dwelt on here. A +careful review of the circumstances of his life induces the belief, that +his writings grew (if it may be permitted so to speak) out of his life. +In his most imaginative passages, to whatever height his fancy soared, +the starting point seems ever from a fact. The past appears to have been +always spread out before him when he wrote, like a beautiful landscape, +on which his eye rested with complacency, and from which his mind +transferred and idealized some objects, without a servile imitation +of any. When at Berlin, he had had it in his power to marry Virginia +Tabenheim; and in Russia, Mlle. de la Tour, the niece of General +Dubosquet, would have accepted his hand. He was too poor to marry +either. A grateful recollection caused him to bestow the names of the +two on his most beloved creation. Paul was the name of a friar, with +whom he had associated in his childhood, and whose life he wished to +imitate. How little had the owners of these names anticipated that +they were to become the baptismal appellations of half a generation in +France, and to be re-echoed through the world to the end of time! + +It was St. Pierre who first discovered the poverty of language +with regard to picturesque descriptions. In his earliest work, the +often-quoted "Voyages," he complains, that the terms for describing +nature are not yet invented. "Endeavour," he says, "to describe a +mountain in such a manner that it may be recognised. When you have +spoken of its base, its sides, its summit, you will have said all! +But what variety there is to be found in those swelling, lengthened, +flattened, or cavernous forms! It is only by periphrasis that all this +can be expressed. The same difficulty exists for plains and valleys. +But if you have a palace to describe, there is no longer any difficulty. +Every moulding has its appropriate name." + +It was St. Pierre's glory, in some degree, to triumph over this +dearth of expression. Few authors ever introduced more new terms into +descriptive writing: yet are his innovations ever chastened, and in good +taste. His style, in its elegant simplicity, is, indeed, perfection. It +is at once sonorous and sweet, and always in harmony with the sentiment +he would express, or the subject he would discuss. Chenier might well +arm himself with "Paul and Virginia," and the "Chaumiere Indienne," in +opposition to those writers, who, as he said, made prose unnatural, by +seeking to elevate it into verse. + +The "Etudes de la Nature" embraced a thousand different subjects, and +contained some new ideas on all. It is to the honour of human nature, +that after the uptearing of so many sacred opinions, a production like +this, revealing the chain of connection through the works of Creation, +and the Creator in his works, should have been hailed, as it was, with +enthusiasm. + +His motto, from his favourite poet Virgil, "Taught by calamity, I pity +the unhappy," won for him, perhaps many readers. And in its touching +illusions, the unhappy may have found suspension from the realities of +life, as well as encouragement to support its trials. For, throughout, +it infuses admiration of the arrangements of Providence, and a desire +for virtue. More than one modern poet may be supposed to have drawn a +portion of his inspiration, from the "Etudes." As a work of science it +contains many errors. These, particularly his theory of the tides,(*) +St. Pierre maintained to the last, and so eloquently, that it was said +at the time, to be impossible to unite less reason with more logic. + + (*) Occasioned, according to St. Pierre, by the melting of + the ice at the Poles. + +In "Paul and Virginia," he was supremely fortunate in his subject. It +was an entirely new creation, uninspired by any previous work; but which +gave birth to many others, having furnished the plot to six theatrical +pieces. It was a subject to which the author could bring all his +excellences as a writer and a man, while his deficiencies and defects +were necessarily excluded. In no manner could he incorporate politics, +science, or misapprehension of persons, while his sensibility, morals, +and wonderful talent for description, were in perfect accordance with, +and ornaments to it. Lemontey and Sainte-Beuve both consider success +to be inseparable from the happy selection of a story so entirely in +harmony with the character of the author; and that the most successful +writers might envy him so fortunate a choice. Buonaparte was in the +habit of saying, whenever he saw St. Pierre, "M. Bernardin, when do you +mean to give us more Pauls and Virginias, and Indian Cottages? You ought +to give us some every six months." + +The "Indian Cottage," if not quite equal in interest to "Paul and +Virginia," is still a charming production, and does great honour to the +genius of its author. It abounds in antique and Eastern gems of thought. +Striking and excellent comparisons are scattered through its pages; and +it is delightful to reflect, that the following beautiful and solemn +answer of the Paria was, with St. Pierre, the results of his own +experience:--"Misfortune resembles the Black Mountain of Bember, +situated at the extremity of the burning kingdom of Lahore; while you +are climbing it, you only see before you barren rocks; but when you have +reached its summit, you see heaven above your head, and at your feet the +kingdom of Cachemere." + +When this passage was written, the rugged, and sterile rock had been +climbed by its gifted author. He had reached the summit,--his genius had +been rewarded, and he himself saw the heaven he wished to point out to +others. + +SARAH JONES. + + [For the facts contained in this brief Memoir, I am indebted + to St. Pierre's own works, to the "Biographie Universelle," + to the "Essai sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Bernardin de St. + Pierre," by M. Aime Martin, and to the very excellent and + interesting "Notice Historique et Litteraire," of M. Sainte- + Beauve.] + + + + + +PAUL AND VIRGINIA + + +Situated on the eastern side of the mountain which rises above Port +Louis, in the Mauritius, upon a piece of land bearing the marks of +former cultivation, are seen the ruins of two small cottages. These +ruins are not far from the centre of a valley, formed by immense rocks, +and which opens only towards the north. On the left rises the mountain +called the Height of Discovery, whence the eye marks the distant sail +when it first touches the verge of the horizon, and whence the signal is +given when a vessel approaches the island. At the foot of this mountain +stands the town of Port Louis. On the right is formed the road which +stretches from Port Louis to the Shaddock Grove, where the church +bearing that name lifts its head, surrounded by its avenues of bamboo, +in the middle of a spacious plain; and the prospect terminates in a +forest extending to the furthest bounds of the island. The front view +presents the bay, denominated the Bay of the Tomb; a little on the right +is seen the Cape of Misfortune; and beyond rolls the expanded ocean, +on the surface of which appear a few uninhabited islands; and, among +others, the Point of Endeavour, which resembles a bastion built upon the +flood. + +At the entrance of the valley which presents these various objects, +the echoes of the mountain incessantly repeat the hollow murmurs of the +winds that shake the neighbouring forests, and the tumultuous dashing of +the waves which break at a distance upon the cliffs; but near the ruined +cottages all is calm and still, and the only objects which there meet +the eye are rude steep rocks, that rise like a surrounding rampart. +Large clumps of trees grow at their base, on their rifted sides, and +even on their majestic tops, where the clouds seem to repose. The +showers, which their bold points attract, often paint the vivid colours +of the rainbow on their green and brown declivities, and swell the +sources of the little river which flows at their feet, called the river +of Fan-Palms. Within this inclosure reigns the most profound silence. +The waters, the air, all the elements are at peace. Scarcely does the +echo repeat the whispers of the palm-trees spreading their broad leaves, +the long points of which are gently agitated by the winds. A soft light +illumines the bottom of this deep valley, on which the sun shines only +at noon. But, even at the break of day, the rays of light are thrown on +the surrounding rocks; and their sharp peaks, rising above the shadows +of the mountain, appear like tints of gold and purple gleaming upon the +azure sky. + +To this scene I loved to resort, as I could here enjoy at once the +richness of an unbounded landscape, and the charm of uninterrupted +solitude. One day, when I was seated at the foot of the cottages, and +contemplating their ruins, a man, advanced in years, passed near the +spot. He was dressed in the ancient garb of the island, his feet were +bare, and he leaned upon a staff of ebony; his hair was white, and the +expression of his countenance was dignified and interesting. I bowed to +him with respect; he returned the salutation; and, after looking at me +with some earnestness, came and placed himself upon the hillock on which +I was seated. Encouraged by this mark of confidence I thus +addressed him: "Father, can you tell me to whom those cottages once +belonged?"--"My son," replied the old man, "those heaps of rubbish, +and that untilled land, were, twenty years ago, the property of two +families, who then found happiness in this solitude. Their history is +affecting; but what European, pursuing his way to the Indies, will pause +one moment to interest himself in the fate of a few obscure individuals? +What European can picture happiness to his imagination amidst poverty +and neglect? The curiosity of mankind is only attracted by the +history of the great, and yet from that knowledge little use can +be derived."--"Father," I rejoined, "from your manner and your +observations, I perceive that you have acquired much experience of human +life. If you have leisure, relate to me, I beseech you, the history of +the ancient inhabitants of this desert; and be assured, that even +the men who are most perverted by the prejudices of the world, find +a soothing pleasure in contemplating that happiness which belongs to +simplicity and virtue." The old man, after a short silence, during which +he leaned his face upon his hands, as if he were trying to recall the +images of the past, thus began his narration:-- + +Monsieur de la Tour, a young man who was a native of Normandy, after +having in vain solicited a commission in the French army, or some +support from his own family, at length determined to seek his fortune in +this island, where he arrived in 1726. He brought hither a young woman, +whom he loved tenderly, and by whom he was no less tenderly beloved. She +belonged to a rich and ancient family of the same province: but he had +married her secretly and without fortune, and in opposition to the will +of her relations, who refused their consent because he was found guilty +of being descended from parents who had no claims to nobility. Monsieur +de la Tour, leaving his wife at Port Louis, embarked for Madagascar, in +order to purchase a few slaves, to assist him in forming a plantation on +this island. He landed at Madagascar during that unhealthy season which +commences about the middle of October; and soon after his arrival died +of the pestilential fever, which prevails in that island six months of +the year, and which will forever baffle the attempts of the European +nations to form establishments on that fatal soil. His effects were +seized upon by the rapacity of strangers, as commonly happens to persons +dying in foreign parts; and his wife, who was pregnant, found herself a +widow in a country where she had neither credit nor acquaintance, and no +earthly possession, or rather support, but one negro woman. Too delicate +to solicit protection or relief from any one else after the death of +him whom alone she loved, misfortune armed her with courage, and she +resolved to cultivate, with her slave, a little spot of ground, and +procure for herself the means of subsistence. + +Desert as was the island, and the ground left to the choice of the +settler, she avoided those spots which were most fertile and most +favorable to commerce: seeking some nook of the mountain, some secret +asylum where she might live solitary and unknown, she bent her way +from the town towards these rocks, where she might conceal herself +from observation. All sensitive and suffering creatures, from a sort of +common instinct, fly for refuge amidst their pains to haunts the +most wild and desolate; as if rocks could form a rampart against +misfortune--as if the calm of Nature could hush the tumults of the soul. +That Providence, which lends its support when we ask but the supply of +our necessary wants, had a blessing in reserve for Madame de la Tour, +which neither riches nor greatness can purchase:--this blessing was a +friend. + +The spot to which Madame de la Tour had fled had already been inhabited +for a year by a young woman of a lively, good-natured and affectionate +disposition. Margaret (for that was her name) was born in Brittany, of a +family of peasants, by whom she was cherished and beloved, and with +whom she might have passed through life in simple rustic happiness, if, +misled by the weakness of a tender heart, she had not listened to the +passion of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, who promised her marriage. +He soon abandoned her, and adding inhumanity to seduction, refused to +insure a provision for the child of which she was pregnant. Margaret +then determined to leave forever her native village, and retire, where +her fault might be concealed, to some colony distant from that country +where she had lost the only portion of a poor peasant girl--her +reputation. With some borrowed money she purchased an old negro slave, +with whom she cultivated a little corner of this district. + +Madame de la Tour, followed by her negro woman, came to this spot, where +she found Margaret engaged in suckling her child. Soothed and charmed by +the sight of a person in a situation somewhat similar to her own, Madame +de la Tour related, in a few words, her past condition and her present +wants. Margaret was deeply affected by the recital; and more anxious to +merit confidence than to create esteem, she confessed without disguise, +the errors of which she had been guilty. "As for me," said she, +"I deserve my fate: but you, madam--you! at once virtuous and +unhappy"--and, sobbing, she offered Madame de la Tour both her hut and +her friendship. That lady, affected by this tender reception, pressed +her in her arms, and exclaimed,--"Ah surely Heaven has put an end to my +misfortunes, since it inspires you, to whom I am a stranger, with more +goodness towards me than I have ever experienced from my own relations!" + +I was acquainted with Margaret: and, although my habitation is a league +and a half from hence, in the woods behind that sloping mountain, I +considered myself as her neighbour. In the cities of Europe, a street, +even a simple wall, frequently prevents members of the same family from +meeting for years; but in new colonies we consider those persons as +neighbours from whom we are divided only by woods and mountains; and +above all at that period, when this island had little intercourse with +the Indies, vicinity alone gave a claim to friendship, and hospitality +towards strangers seemed less a duty than a pleasure. No sooner was I +informed that Margaret had found a companion, than I hastened to her, in +the hope of being useful to my neighbour and her guest. I found Madame +de la Tour possessed of all those melancholy graces which, by +blending sympathy with admiration give to beauty additional power. +Her countenance was interesting, expressive at once of dignity and +dejection. She appeared to be in the last stage of her pregnancy. I told +the two friends that for the future interests of their children, and +to prevent the intrusion of any other settler, they had better divide +between them the property of this wild, sequestered valley, which is +nearly twenty acres in extent. They confided that task to me, and I +marked out two equal portions of land. One included the higher part of +this enclosure, from the cloudy pinnacle of that rock, whence springs +the river of Fan-Palms, to that precipitous cleft which you see on the +summit of the mountain, and which, from its resemblance in form to the +battlement of a fortress, is called the Embrasure. It is difficult to +find a path along this wild portion of the enclosure, the soil of which +is encumbered with fragments of rock, or worn into channels formed +by torrents; yet it produces noble trees, and innumerable springs and +rivulets. The other portion of land comprised the plain extending along +the banks of the river of Fan-Palms, to the opening where we are now +seated, whence the river takes its course between these two hills, until +it falls into the sea. You may still trace the vestiges of some meadow +land; and this part of the common is less rugged, but not more valuable +than the other; since in the rainy season it becomes marshy, and in dry +weather is so hard and unyielding, that it will almost resist the stroke +of the pickaxe. When I had thus divided the property, I persuaded my +neighbours to draw lots for their respective possessions. The higher +portion of land, containing the source of the river of Fan-Palms, became +the property of Madame de la Tour; the lower, comprising the plain +on the banks of the river, was allotted to Margaret; and each seemed +satisfied with her share. They entreated me to place their habitations +together, that they might at all times enjoy the soothing intercourse +of friendship, and the consolation of mutual kind offices. Margaret's +cottage was situated near the centre of the valley, and just on the +boundary of her own plantation. Close to that spot I built another +cottage for the residence of Madame de la Tour; and thus the two +friends, while they possessed all the advantages of neighbourhood lived +on their own property. I myself cut palisades from the mountain, and +brought leaves of fan-palms from the sea-shore in order to construct +those two cottages, of which you can now discern neither the entrance +nor the roof. Yet, alas! there still remains but too many traces for +my remembrance! Time, which so rapidly destroys the proud monuments of +empires, seems in this desert to spare those of friendship, as if to +perpetuate my regrets to the last hour of my existence. + +As soon as the second cottage was finished, Madame de la Tour was +delivered of a girl. I had been the godfather of Margaret's child, who +was christened by the name of Paul. Madame de la Tour desired me to +perform the same office for her child also, together with her friend, +who gave her the name of Virginia. "She will be virtuous," cried +Margaret, "and she will be happy. I have only known misfortune by +wandering from virtue." + +About the time Madame de la Tour recovered, these two little estates had +already begun to yield some produce, perhaps in a small degree owing +to the care which I occasionally bestowed on their improvement, but far +more to the indefatigable labours of the two slaves. Margaret's slave, +who was called Domingo, was still healthy and robust, though advanced in +years: he possessed some knowledge, and a good natural understanding. +He cultivated indiscriminately, on both plantations, the spots of ground +that seemed most fertile, and sowed whatever grain he thought most +congenial to each particular soil. Where the ground was poor, he strewed +maize; where it was most fruitful, he planted wheat; and rice in such +spots as were marshy. He threw the seeds of gourds and cucumbers at the +foot of the rocks, which they loved to climb and decorate with their +luxuriant foliage. In dry spots he cultivated the sweet potatoe; the +cotton-tree flourished upon the heights, and the sugar-cane grew in the +clayey soil. He reared some plants of coffee on the hills, where the +grain, although small, is excellent. His plantain-trees, which spread +their grateful shade on the banks of the river, and encircled the +cottages, yielded fruit throughout the year. And lastly, Domingo, to +soothe his cares, cultivated a few plants of tobacco. Sometimes he was +employed in cutting wood for firing from the mountain, sometimes in +hewing pieces of rock within the enclosure, in order to level the paths. +The zeal which inspired him enabled him to perform all these labours +with intelligence and activity. He was much attached to Margaret, and +not less to Madame de la Tour, whose negro woman, Mary, he had married +on the birth of Virginia; and he was passionately fond of his wife. Mary +was born at Madagascar, and had there acquired the knowledge of some +useful arts. She could weave baskets, and a sort of stuff, with long +grass that grows in the woods. She was active, cleanly, and, above all, +faithful. It was her care to prepare their meals, to rear the poultry, +and go sometimes to Port Louis, to sell the superfluous produce of these +little plantations, which was not however, very considerable. If you +add to the personages already mentioned two goats, which were brought up +with the children, and a great dog, which kept watch at night, you will +have a complete idea of the household, as well as of the productions of +these two little farms. + +Madame de la Tour and her friend were constantly employed in spinning +cotton for the use of their families. Destitute of everything which +their own industry could not supply, at home they went bare-footed: +shoes were a convenience reserved for Sunday, on which day, at an early +hour, they attended mass at the church of the Shaddock Grove, which +you see yonder. That church was more distant from their homes than Port +Louis; but they seldom visited the town, lest they should be treated +with contempt on account of their dress, which consisted simply of the +coarse blue linen of Bengal, usually worn by slaves. But is there, +in that external deference which fortune commands, a compensation for +domestic happiness? If these interesting women had something to suffer +from the world, their homes on that very account became more dear to +them. No sooner did Mary and Domingo, from this elevated spot, perceive +their mistresses on the road of the Shaddock Grove, than they flew to +the foot of the mountain in order to help them to ascend. They discerned +in the looks of their domestics the joy which their return excited. They +found in their retreat neatness, independence, all the blessings which +are the recompense of toil, and they received the zealous services +which spring from affection. United by the tie of similar wants, and the +sympathy of similar misfortunes, they gave each other the tender names +of companion, friend, sister. They had but one will, one interest, one +table. All their possessions were in common. And if sometimes a passion +more ardent than friendship awakened in their hearts the pang of +unavailing anguish, a pure religion, united with chaste manners, drew +their affections towards another life: as the trembling flame rises +towards heaven, when it no longer finds any ailment on earth. + +The duties of maternity became a source of additional happiness to these +affectionate mothers, whose mutual friendship gained new strength at +the sight of their children, equally the offspring of an ill-fated +attachment. They delighted in washing their infants together in the same +bath, in putting them to rest in the same cradle, and in changing the +maternal bosom at which they received nourishment. "My friend," cried +Madame de la Tour, "we shall each of us have two children, and each +of our children will have two mothers." As two buds which remain on +different trees of the same kind, after the tempest has broken all their +branches, produce more delicious fruit, if each, separated from the +maternal stem, be grafted on the neighbouring tree, so these two +infants, deprived of all their other relations, when thus exchanged +for nourishment by those who had given them birth, imbibed feelings of +affection still more tender than those of son and daughter, brother and +sister. While they were yet in their cradles, their mothers talked of +their marriage. They soothed their own cares by looking forward to the +future happiness of their children; but this contemplation often drew +forth their tears. The misfortunes of one mother had arisen from having +neglected marriage; those of the other from having submitted to its +laws. One had suffered by aiming to rise above her condition, the other +by descending from her rank. But they found consolation in reflecting +that their more fortunate children, far from the cruel prejudices of +Europe, would enjoy at once the pleasures of love and the blessings of +equality. + +Rarely, indeed, has such an attachment been seen as that which the +two children already testified for each other. If Paul complained of +anything, his mother pointed to Virginia: at her sight he smiled, and +was appeased. If any accident befel Virginia, the cries of Paul gave +notice of the disaster; but the dear little creature would suppress +her complaints if she found that he was unhappy. When I came hither, +I usually found them quite naked, as is the custom of the country, +tottering in their walk, and holding each other by the hands and under +the arms, as we see represented in the constellation of the Twins. At +night these infants often refused to be separated, and were found lying +in the same cradle, their cheeks, their bosoms pressed close together, +their hands thrown round each other's neck, and sleeping, locked in one +another's arms. + +When they first began to speak, the first name they learned to give each +other were those of brother and sister, and childhood knows no softer +appellation. Their education, by directing them ever to consider each +other's wants, tended greatly to increase their affection. In a short +time, all the household economy, the care of preparing their rural +repasts, became the task of Virginia, whose labours were always crowned +with the praises and kisses of her brother. As for Paul, always in +motion, he dug the garden with Domingo, or followed him with a little +hatchet into the woods; and if, in his rambles he espied a beautiful +flower, any delicious fruit, or a nest of birds, even at the top of the +tree, he would climb up and bring the spoil to his sister. When you met +one of these children, you might be sure the other was not far off. + +One day as I was coming down that mountain, I saw Virginia at the end of +the garden running towards the house with her petticoat thrown over her +head, in order to screen herself from a shower of rain. At a distance, +I thought she was alone; but as I hastened towards her in order to help +her on, I perceived she held Paul by the arm, almost entirely enveloped +in the same canopy, and both were laughing heartily at their being +sheltered together under an umbrella of their own invention. Those two +charming faces in the middle of a swelling petticoat, recalled to my +mind the children of Leda, enclosed in the same shell. + +Their sole study was how they could please and assist one another; for +of all other things they were ignorant, and indeed could neither read +nor write. They were never disturbed by inquiries about past times, nor +did their curiosity extend beyond the bounds of their mountain. They +believed the world ended at the shores of their own island, and all +their ideas and all their affections were confined within its limits. +Their mutual tenderness, and that of their mothers, employed all the +energies of their minds. Their tears had never been called forth by +tedious application to useless sciences. Their minds had never been +wearied by lessons of morality, superfluous to bosoms unconscious of +ill. They had never been taught not to steal, because every thing with +them was in common: or not to be intemperate, because their simple +food was left to their own discretion; or not to lie, because they had +nothing to conceal. Their young imaginations had never been terrified +by the idea that God has punishment in store for ungrateful children, +since, with them, filial affection arose naturally from maternal +tenderness. All they had been taught of religion was to love it, and if +they did not offer up long prayers in the church, wherever they were, in +the house, in the fields, in the woods, they raised towards heaven their +innocent hands, and hearts purified by virtuous affections. + +All their early childhood passed thus, like a beautiful dawn, the +prelude of a bright day. Already they assisted their mothers in the +duties of the household. As soon as the crowing of the wakeful cock +announced the first beam of the morning, Virginia arose, and hastened to +draw water from a neighbouring spring: then returning to the house she +prepared the breakfast. When the rising sun gilded the points of the +rocks which overhang the enclosure in which they lived, Margaret and her +child repaired to the dwelling of Madame de la Tour, where they offered +up their morning prayer together. This sacrifice of thanksgiving always +preceded their first repast, which they often took before the door of +the cottage, seated upon the grass, under a canopy of plantain: and +while the branches of that delicious tree afforded a grateful shade, its +fruit furnished a substantial food ready prepared for them by nature, +and its long glossy leaves, spread upon the table, supplied the place of +linen. Plentiful and wholesome nourishment gave early growth and vigour +to the persons of these children, and their countenances expressed the +purity and the peace of their souls. At twelve years of age the figure +of Virginia was in some degree formed: a profusion of light hair shaded +her face, to which her blue eyes and coral lips gave the most charming +brilliancy. Her eyes sparkled with vivacity when she spoke; but when she +was silent they were habitually turned upwards, with an expression of +extreme sensibility, or rather of tender melancholy. The figure of Paul +began already to display the graces of youthful beauty. He was taller +than Virginia: his skin was of a darker tint; his nose more aquiline; +and his black eyes would have been too piercing, if the long eye-lashes +by which they were shaded, had not imparted to them an expression of +softness. He was constantly in motion, except when his sister appeared, +and then, seated by her side, he became still. Their meals often passed +without a word being spoken; and from their silence, the simple elegance +of their attitudes, and the beauty of their naked feet, you might have +fancied you beheld an antique group of white marble, representing some +of the children of Niobe, but for the glances of their eyes, which were +constantly seeking to meet, and their mutual soft and tender smiles, +which suggested rather the idea of happy celestial spirits, whose nature +is love, and who are not obliged to have recourse to words for the +expression of their feelings. + +In the meantime Madame de la Tour, perceiving every day some unfolding +grace, some new beauty, in her daughter, felt her maternal anxiety +increase with her tenderness. She often said to me, "If I were to die, +what would become of Virginia without fortune?" + +Madame de la Tour had an aunt in France, who was a woman of quality, +rich, old, and a complete devotee. She had behaved with so much +cruelty towards her niece upon her marriage, that Madame de la Tour +had determined no extremity of distress should ever compel her to have +recourse to her hard-hearted relation. But when she became a mother, the +pride of resentment was overcome by the stronger feelings of maternal +tenderness. She wrote to her aunt, informing her of the sudden death of +her husband, the birth of her daughter, and the difficulties in which +she was involved, burthened as she was with an infant, and without means +of support. She received no answer; but notwithstanding the high spirit +natural to her character, she no longer feared exposing herself to +mortification; and, although she knew her aunt would never pardon her +for having married a man who was not of noble birth, however estimable, +she continued to write to her, with the hope of awakening her compassion +for Virginia. Many years, however passed without receiving any token of +her remembrance. + +At length, in 1738, three years after the arrival of Monsieur de la +Bourdonnais in this island, Madame de la Tour was informed that the +Governor had a letter to give her from her aunt. She flew to Port Louis; +maternal joy raised her mind above all trifling considerations, and +she was careless on this occasion of appearing in her homely attire. +Monsieur de la Bourdonnais gave her a letter from her aunt, in which she +informed her, that she deserved her fate for marrying an adventurer and +a libertine: that the passions brought with them their own punishment; +that the premature death of her husband was a just visitation from +Heaven; that she had done well in going to a distant island, rather than +dishonour her family by remaining in France; and that, after all, in +the colony where she had taken refuge, none but the idle failed to +grow rich. Having thus censured her niece, she concluded by eulogizing +herself. To avoid, she said, the almost inevitable evils of marriage, +she had determined to remain single. In fact, as she was of a very +ambitious disposition she had resolved to marry none but a man of +high rank; but although she was very rich, her fortune was not found +a sufficient bribe, even at court, to counterbalance the malignant +dispositions of her mind, and the disagreeable qualities of her person. + +After mature deliberations, she added, in a postscript, that she had +strongly recommended her niece to Monsieur de la Bourdonnais. This she +had indeed done, but in a manner of late too common which renders a +patron perhaps even more to be feared than a declared enemy; for, in +order to justify herself for her harshness, she had cruelly slandered +her niece, while she affected to pity her misfortunes. + +Madame de la Tour, whom no unprejudiced person could have seen without +feelings of sympathy and respect, was received with the utmost coolness +by Monsieur de la Bourdonnais, biased as he was against her. When she +painted to him her own situation and that of her child, he replied in +abrupt sentences,--"We shall see what can be done--there are so many to +relieve--all in good time--why did you displease your aunt?--you have +been much to blame." + +Madame de la Tour returned to her cottage, her heart torn with grief, +and filled with all the bitterness of disappointment. When she +arrived, she threw her aunt's letter on the table, and exclaimed to her +friend,--"There is the fruit of eleven years of patient expectation!" +Madame de la Tour being the only person in the little circle who could +read, she again took up the letter, and read it aloud. Scarcely had +she finished, when Margaret exclaimed, "What have we to do with your +relations? Has God then forsaken us? He only is our father! Have we not +hitherto been happy? Why then this regret? You have no courage." +Seeing Madame de la Tour in tears, she threw herself upon her neck, +and pressing her in her arms,--"My dear friend!" cried she, "my dear +friend!"--but her emotion choked her utterance. At this sight Virginia +burst into tears, and pressed her mother's and Margaret's hand +alternately to her lips and heart; while Paul, his eyes inflamed with +anger, cried, clasped his hands together, and stamped his foot, not +knowing whom to blame for this scene of misery. The noise soon brought +Domingo and Mary to the spot, and the little habitation resounded with +cries of distress,--"Ah, madame!--My good mistress!--My dear mother!--Do +not weep!" These tender proofs of affections at length dispelled the +grief of Madame de la Tour. She took Paul and Virginia in her arms, and, +embracing them, said, "You are the cause of my affliction, my children, +but you are also my only source of delight! Yes, my dear children, +misfortune has reached me, but only from a distance: here, I am +surrounded with happiness." Paul and Virginia did not understand this +reflection; but, when they saw that she was calm, they smiled, and +continued to caress her. Tranquillity was thus restored in this happy +family, and all that had passed was but a storm in the midst of fine +weather, which disturbs the serenity of the atmosphere but for a short +time, and then passes away. + +The amiable disposition of these children unfolded itself daily. One +Sunday, at day-break, their mothers having gone to mass at the church +of Shaddock Grove, the children perceived a negro woman beneath the +plantains which surrounded their habitation. She appeared almost wasted +to a skeleton, and had no other garment than a piece of coarse cloth +thrown around her. She threw herself at the feet of Virginia, who was +preparing the family breakfast, and said, "My good young lady, have pity +on a poor runaway slave. For a whole month I have wandered among these +mountains, half dead with hunger, and often pursued by the hunters and +their dogs. I fled from my master, a rich planter of the Black River, +who has used me as you see;" and she showed her body marked with scars +from the lashes she had received. She added, "I was going to drown +myself, but hearing you lived here, I said to myself, since there are +still some good white people in this country, I need not die yet." +Virginia answered with emotion,--"Take courage, unfortunate creature! +here is something to eat;" and she gave her the breakfast she had been +preparing, which the slave in a few minutes devoured. When her hunger +was appeased, Virginia said to her,--"Poor woman! I should like to go +and ask forgiveness for you of your master. Surely the sight of you +will touch him with pity. Will you show me the way?"--"Angel of heaven!" +answered the poor negro woman, "I will follow you where you please!" +Virginia called her brother, and begged him to accompany her. The slave +led the way, by winding and difficult paths, through the woods, over +mountains, which they climbed with difficulty, and across rivers, +through which they were obliged to wade. At length, about the middle of +the day, they reached the foot of a steep descent upon the borders of +the Black River. There they perceived a well-built house, surrounded by +extensive plantations, and a number of slaves employed in their various +labours. Their master was walking among them with a pipe in his mouth, +and a switch in his hand. He was a tall thin man, of a brown complexion; +his eyes were sunk in his head, and his dark eyebrows were joined +in one. Virginia, holding Paul by the hand, drew near, and with much +emotion begged him, for the love of God, to pardon his poor slave, who +stood trembling a few paces behind. The planter at first paid little +attention to the children, who, he saw, were meanly dressed. But when +he observed the elegance of Virginia's form, and the profusion of her +beautiful light tresses which had escaped from beneath her blue cap; +when he heard the soft tone of her voice, which trembled, as well as her +whole frame, while she implored his compassion; he took his pipe from +his mouth, and lifting up his stick, swore, with a terrible oath, that +he pardoned his slave, not for the love of Heaven, but of her who asked +his forgiveness. Virginia made a sign to the slave to approach her +master; and instantly sprang away followed by Paul. + +They climbed up the steep they had descended; and having gained the +summit, seated themselves at the foot of a tree, overcome with fatigue, +hunger and thirst. They had left their home fasting, and walked five +leagues since sunrise. Paul said to Virginia,--"My dear sister, it is +past noon, and I am sure you are thirsty and hungry: we shall find no +dinner here; let us go down the mountain again, and ask the master +of the poor slave for some food."--"Oh, no," answered Virginia, "he +frightens me too much. Remember what mamma sometimes says, 'The bread +of the wicked is like stones in the mouth.' "--"What shall we do then," +said Paul; "these trees produce no fruit fit to eat; and I shall not be +able to find even a tamarind or a lemon to refresh you."--"God will take +care of us," replied Virginia; "he listens to the cry even of the little +birds when they ask him for food." Scarcely had she pronounced these +words when they heard the noise of water falling from a neighbouring +rock. They ran thither and having quenched their thirst at this crystal +spring, they gathered and ate a few cresses which grew on the border +of the stream. Soon afterwards while they were wandering backwards and +forwards in search of more solid nourishment, Virginia perceived in +the thickest part of the forest, a young palm-tree. The kind of cabbage +which is found at the top of the palm, enfolded within its leaves, +is well adapted for food; but, although the stock of the tree is not +thicker than a man's leg, it grows to above sixty feet in height. The +wood of the tree, indeed, is composed only of very fine filaments; but +the bark is so hard that it turns the edge of the hatchet, and Paul was +not furnished even with a knife. At length he thought of setting fire to +the palm-tree; but a new difficulty occurred: he had no steel with which +to strike fire; and although the whole island is covered with rocks, +I do not believe it is possible to find a single flint. Necessity, +however, is fertile in expedients, and the most useful inventions have +arisen from men placed in the most destitute situations. Paul determined +to kindle a fire after the manner of the negroes. With the sharp end of +a stone he made a small hole in the branch of a tree that was quite dry, +and which he held between his feet: he then, with the edge of the same +stone, brought to a point another dry branch of a different sort of +wood, and, afterwards, placing the piece of pointed wood in the small +hole of the branch which he held with his feet and turning it rapidly +between his hands, in a few minutes smoke and sparks of fire issued +from the point of contact. Paul then heaped together dried grass and +branches, and set fire to the foot of the palm-tree, which soon fell to +the ground with a tremendous crash. The fire was further useful to him +in stripping off the long, thick, and pointed leaves, within which the +cabbage was inclosed. Having thus succeeded in obtaining this fruit, +they ate part of it raw, and part dressed upon the ashes, which they +found equally palatable. They made this frugal repast with delight, +from the remembrances of the benevolent action they had performed in the +morning: yet their joy was embittered by the thoughts of the uneasiness +which their long absence from home would occasion their mothers. +Virginia often recurred to this subject; but Paul, who felt his strength +renewed by their meal, assured her, that it would not be long before +they reached home, and, by the assurance of their safety, tranquillized +the minds of their parents. + +After dinner they were much embarrassed by the recollection that they +had now no guide, and that they were ignorant of the way. Paul, whose +spirit was not subdued by difficulties, said to Virginia,--"The sun +shines full upon our huts at noon: we must pass, as we did this morning, +over that mountain with its three points, which you see yonder. Come, +let us be moving." This mountain was that of the Three Breasts, so +called from the form of its three peaks. They then descended the steep +bank of the Black River, on the northern side; and arrived, after an +hour's walk, on the banks of a large river, which stopped their further +progress. This large portion of the island, covered as it is with +forests, is even now so little known that many of its rivers and +mountains have not yet received a name. The stream, on the banks of +which Paul and Virginia were now standing, rolls foaming over a bed of +rocks. The noise of the water frightened Virginia, and she was afraid +to wade through the current: Paul therefore took her up in his arms, and +went thus loaded over the slippery rocks, which formed the bed of +the river, careless of the tumultuous noise of its waters. "Do not be +afraid," cried he to Virginia; "I feel very strong with you. If that +planter at the Black River had refused you the pardon of his slave, +I would have fought with him."--"What!" answered Virginia, "with that +great wicked man? To what have I exposed you! Gracious heaven! how +difficult it is to do good! and yet it is so easy to do wrong." + +When Paul had crossed the river, he wished to continue the journey +carrying his sister: and he flattered himself that he could ascend +in that way the mountain of the Three Breasts, which was still at the +distance of half a league; but his strength soon failed, and he was +obliged to set down his burthen, and to rest himself by her side. +Virginia then said to him, "My dear brother, the sun is going down; you +have still some strength left, but mine has quite failed: do leave me +here, and return home alone to ease the fears of our mothers."--"Oh no," +said Paul, "I will not leave you if night overtakes us in this wood, I +will light a fire, and bring down another palm-tree: you shall eat the +cabbage, and I will form a covering of the leaves to shelter you." In +the meantime, Virginia being a little rested, she gathered from the +trunk of an old tree, which overhung the bank of the river, some long +leaves of the plant called hart's tongue, which grew near its root. Of +these leaves she made a sort of buskin, with which she covered her feet, +that were bleeding from the sharpness of the stony paths; for in her +eager desire to do good, she had forgotten to put on her shoes. Feeling +her feet cooled by the freshness of the leaves, she broke off a branch +of bamboo, and continued her walk, leaning with one hand on the staff, +and with the other on Paul. + +They walked on in this manner slowly through the woods; but from the +height of the trees, and the thickness of their foliage, they soon lost +sight of the mountain of the Three Breasts, by which they had hitherto +directed their course, and also of the sun, which was now setting. At +length they wandered, without perceiving it, from the beaten path in +which they had hitherto walked, and found themselves in a labyrinth of +trees, underwood, and rocks, whence there appeared to be no outlet. +Paul made Virginia sit down, while he ran backwards and forwards, half +frantic, in search of a path which might lead them out of this thick +wood; but he fatigued himself to no purpose. He then climbed to the top +of a lofty tree, whence he hoped at least to perceive the mountain of +the Three Breasts: but he could discern nothing around him but the tops +of trees, some of which were gilded with the last beams of the setting +sun. Already the shadows of the mountains were spreading over the +forests in the valleys. The wind lulled, as is usually the case at +sunset. The most profound silence reigned in those awful solitudes, +which was only interrupted by the cry of the deer, who came to their +lairs in that unfrequented spot. Paul, in the hope that some hunter +would hear his voice, called out as loud as he was able,--"Come, come to +the help of Virginia." But the echoes of the forest alone answered his +call, and repeated again and again, "Virginia--Virginia." + +Paul at length descended from the tree, overcome with fatigue and +vexation. He looked around in order to make some arrangement for passing +the night in that desert; but he could find neither fountain, nor +palm-tree, nor even a branch of dry wood fit for kindling a fire. He was +then impressed, by experience, with the sense of his own weakness, and +began to weep. Virginia said to him,--"Do not weep, my dear brother, or +I shall be overwhelmed with grief. I am the cause of all your sorrow, +and of all that our mothers are suffering at this moment. I find we +ought to do nothing, not even good, without consulting our parents. Oh, +I have been very imprudent!"--and she began to shed tears. "Let us pray +to God, my dear brother," she again said, "and he will hear us." They +had scarcely finished their prayer, when they heard the barking of a +dog. "It must be the dog of some hunter," said Paul, "who comes here at +night, to lie in wait for the deer." Soon after, the dog began barking +again with increased violence. "Surely," said Virginia, "it is Fidele, +our own dog: yes,--now I know his bark. Are we then so near home?--at +the foot of our own mountain?" A moment after, Fidele was at their feet, +barking, howling, moaning, and devouring them with his caresses. Before +they could recover from their surprise, they saw Domingo running towards +them. At the sight of the good old negro, who wept for joy, they began +to weep too, but had not the power to utter a syllable. When Domingo +had recovered himself a little,--"Oh, my dear children," said he, "how +miserable have you made your mothers! How astonished they were when they +returned with me from mass, on not finding you at home. Mary, who was at +work at a little distance, could not tell us where you were gone. I ran +backwards and forwards in the plantation, not knowing where to look +for you. At last I took some of your old clothes, and showing them to +Fidele, the poor animal, as if he understood me, immediately began to +scent your path; and conducted me, wagging his tail all the while, to +the Black River. I there saw a planter, who told me you had brought back +a Maroon negro woman, his slave, and that he had pardoned her at your +request. But what a pardon! he showed her to me with her feet chained to +a block of wood, and an iron collar with three hooks fastened round her +neck! After that, Fidele, still on the scent, led me up the steep bank +of the Black River, where he again stopped, and barked with all his +might. This was on the brink of a spring, near which was a fallen +palm-tree, and a fire, still smoking. At last he led me to this very +spot. We are now at the foot of the mountain of the Three Breasts, +and still a good four leagues from home. Come, eat, and recover your +strength." Domingo then presented them with a cake, some fruit, and +a large gourd, full of beverage composed of wine, water, lemon-juice, +sugar, and nutmeg, which their mothers had prepared to invigorate and +refresh them. Virginia sighed at the recollection of the poor slave, +and at the uneasiness they had given their mothers. She repeated several +times--"Oh, how difficult it is to do good!" While she and Paul were +taking refreshment, it being already night, Domingo kindled a fire: and +having found among the rocks a particular kind of twisted wood, called +bois de ronde, which burns when quite green, and throws out a great +blaze, he made a torch of it, which he lighted. But when they prepared +to continue their journey, a new difficulty occurred; Paul and Virginia +could no longer walk, their feet being violently swollen and inflamed. +Domingo knew not what to do; whether to leave them and go in search of +help, or remain and pass the night with them on that spot. "There was +a time," said he, "when I could carry you both together in my arms! +But now you are grown big, and I am grown old." When he was in this +perplexity, a troop of Maroon negroes appeared at a short distance from +them. The chief of the band, approaching Paul and Virginia, said to +them,--"Good little white people, do not be afraid. We saw you pass this +morning, with a negro woman of the Black River. You went to ask pardon +for her of her wicked master; and we, in return for this, will carry you +home upon our shoulders." He then made a sign, and four of the strongest +negroes immediately formed a sort of litter with the branches of trees +and lianas, and having seated Paul and Virginia on it, carried them upon +their shoulders. Domingo marched in front with his lighted torch, and +they proceeded amidst the rejoicings of the whole troop, who overwhelmed +them with their benedictions. Virginia, affected by this scene, said +to Paul, with emotion,--"Oh, my dear brother! God never leaves a good +action unrewarded." + +It was midnight when they arrived at the foot of their mountain, on the +ridges of which several fires were lighted. As soon as they began to +ascend, they heard voices exclaiming--"Is it you, my children?" They +answered immediately, and the negroes also,--"Yes, yes, it is." A moment +after they could distinguish their mothers and Mary coming towards them +with lighted sticks in their hands. "Unhappy children," cried Madame +de la Tour, "where have you been? What agonies you have made us +suffer!"--"We have been," said Virginia, "to the Black River, where we +went to ask pardon for a poor Maroon slave, to whom I gave our breakfast +this morning, because she seemed dying of hunger; and these Maroon +negroes have brought us home." Madame de la Tour embraced her daughter, +without being able to speak; and Virginia, who felt her face wet with +her mother's tears, exclaimed, "Now I am repaid for all the hardships I +have suffered." Margaret, in a transport of delight, pressed Paul in +her arms, exclaiming, "And you also, my dear child, you have done a +good action." When they reached the cottages with their children, they +entertained all the negroes with a plentiful repast, after which the +latter returned to the woods, praying Heaven to shower down every +description of blessing on those good white people. + +Every day was to these families a day of happiness and tranquillity. +Neither ambition nor envy disturbed their repose. They did not seek +to obtain a useless reputation out of doors, which may be procured +by artifice and lost by calumny; but were contented to be the sole +witnesses and judges of their own actions. In this island, where, as +is the case in most colonies, scandal forms the principal topic of +conversation, their virtues, and even their names were unknown. The +passer-by on the road to Shaddock Grove, indeed, would sometimes ask the +inhabitants of the plain, who lived in the cottages up there? and +was always told, even by those who did not know them, "They are good +people." The modest violet thus, concealed in thorny places sheds all +unseen its delightful fragrance around. + +Slander, which, under an appearance of justice, naturally inclines +the heart to falsehood or to hatred, was entirely banished from their +conversation; for it is impossible not to hate men if we believe them +to be wicked, or to live with the wicked without concealing that hatred +under a false pretence of good feeling. Slander thus puts us ill at ease +with others and with ourselves. In this little circle, therefore, the +conduct of individuals was not discussed, but the best manner of doing +good to all; and although they had but little in their power, their +unceasing good-will and kindness of heart made them constantly ready to +do what they could for others. Solitude, far from having blunted these +benevolent feelings, had rendered their dispositions even more +kindly. Although the petty scandals of the day furnished no subject of +conversation to them, yet the contemplation of nature filled their minds +with enthusiastic delight. They adored the bounty of that Providence, +which, by their instrumentality, had spread abundance and beauty amid +these barren rocks, and had enabled them to enjoy those pure and simple +pleasures, which are ever grateful and ever new. + +Paul, at twelve years of age, was stronger and more intelligent than +most European youths are at fifteen; and the plantations, which Domingo +merely cultivated, were embellished by him. He would go with the old +negro into the neighbouring woods, where he would root up the young +plants of lemon, orange, and tamarind trees, the round heads of which +are so fresh a green, together with date-palm trees, which produce fruit +filled with a sweet cream, possessing the fine perfume of the orange +flower. These trees, which had already attained to a considerable size, +he planted round their little enclosure. He had also sown the seed of +many trees which the second year bear flowers or fruit; such as the +agathis, encircled with long clusters of white flowers which hang from +it like the crystal pendants of a chandelier; the Persian lilac, which +lifts high in air its gray flax-coloured branches; the pappaw tree, +the branchless trunk of which forms a column studded with green +melons, surmounted by a capital of broad leaves similar to those of the +fig-tree. + +The seeds and kernels of the gum tree, terminalia, mango, alligator +pear, the guava, the bread-fruit tree, and the narrow-leaved rose-apple, +were also planted by him with profusion: and the greater number of these +trees already afforded their young cultivator both shade and fruit. +His industrious hands diffused the riches of nature over even the most +barren parts of the plantation. Several species of aloes, the Indian +fig, adorned with yellow flowers spotted with red, and the thorny torch +thistle, grew upon the dark summits of the rocks, and seemed to aim at +reaching the long lianas, which, laden with blue or scarlet flowers, +hung scattered over the steepest parts of the mountain. + +I loved to trace the ingenuity he had exercised in the arrangement of +these trees. He had so disposed them that the whole could be seen at a +single glance. In the middle of the hollow he had planted shrubs of +the lowest growth; behind grew the more lofty sorts; then trees of +the ordinary height; and beyond and above all, the venerable and lofty +groves which border the circumference. Thus this extensive enclosure +appeared, from its centre, like a verdant amphitheatre decorated with +fruits and flowers, containing a variety of vegetables, some strips +of meadow land, and fields of rice and corn. But, in arranging these +vegetable productions to his own taste, he wandered not too far from +the designs of Nature. Guided by her suggestions, he had thrown upon the +elevated spots such seeds as the winds would scatter about, and near +the borders of the springs those which float upon the water. Every +plant thus grew in its proper soil, and every spot seemed decorated by +Nature's own hand. The streams which fell from the summits of the rocks +formed in some parts of the valley sparkling cascades, and in others +were spread into broad mirrors, in which were reflected, set in verdure, +the flowering trees, the overhanging rocks, and the azure heavens. + +Notwithstanding the great irregularity of the ground, these plantations +were, for the most part, easy of access. We had, indeed, all given +him our advice and assistance, in order to accomplish this end. He had +conducted one path entirely round the valley, and various branches from +it led from the circumference to the centre. He had drawn some advantage +from the most rugged spots, and had blended, in harmonious union, level +walks with the inequalities of the soil, and trees which grow wild with +the cultivated varieties. With that immense quantity of large pebbles +which now block up these paths, and which are scattered over most of the +ground of this island, he formed pyramidal heaps here and there, at +the base of which he laid mould, and planted rose-bushes, the Barbadoes +flower-fence, and other shrubs which love to climb the rocks. In a short +time the dark and shapeless heaps of stones he had constructed were +covered with verdure, or with the glowing tints of the most beautiful +flowers. Hollow recesses on the borders of the streams shaded by the +overhanging boughs of aged trees, formed rural grottoes, impervious +to the rays of the sun, in which you might enjoy a refreshing coolness +during the mid-day heats. One path led to a clump of forest trees, in +the centre of which sheltered from the wind, you found a fruit-tree, +laden with produce. Here was a corn-field; there, an orchard; from one +avenue you had a view of the cottages; from another, of the inaccessible +summit of the mountain. Beneath one tufted bower of gum trees, +interwoven with lianas, no object whatever could be perceived: while the +point of the adjoining rock, jutting out from the mountain, commanded +a view of the whole enclosure, and of the distant ocean, where, +occasionally, we could discern the distant sail, arriving from Europe, +or bound thither. On this rock the two families frequently met in the +evening, and enjoyed in silence the freshness of the flowers, the gentle +murmurs of the fountain, and the last blended harmonies of light and +shade. + +Nothing could be more charming than the names which were bestowed upon +some of the delightful retreats of this labyrinth. The rock of which +I have been speaking, whence they could discern my approach at a +considerable distance, was called the Discovery of Friendship. Paul and +Virginia had amused themselves by planting a bamboo on that spot; and +whenever they saw me coming, they hoisted a little white handkerchief, +by way of signal of my approach, as they had seen a flag hoisted on the +neighbouring mountain on the sight of a vessel at sea. The idea struck +me of engraving an inscription on the stalk of this reed; for I never, +in the course of my travels, experienced any thing like the pleasure +in seeing a statue or other monument of ancient art, as in reading a +well-written inscription. It seems to me as if a human voice issued from +the stone, and, making itself heard after the lapse of ages, addressed +man in the midst of a desert, to tell him that he is not alone, and that +other men, on that very spot, had felt, and thought, and suffered like +himself. If the inscription belongs to an ancient nation, which no +longer exists, it leads the soul through infinite space, and strengthens +the consciousness of its immortality, by demonstrating that a thought +has survived the ruins of an empire. + +I inscribed then, on the little staff of Paul and Virginia's flag, the +following lines of Horace:-- + + Fratres Helenae, lucida sidera, + Ventorumque regat pater, + Obstrictis, aliis, praeter Iapiga. + +"May the brothers of Helen, bright stars like you, and the Father of the +winds, guide you; and may you feel only the breath of the zephyr." + +There was a gum-tree, under the shade of which Paul was accustomed to +sit, to contemplate the sea when agitated by storms. On the bark of this +tree, I engraved the following lines from Virgil:-- + + Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestes! + +"Happy are thou, my son, in knowing only the pastoral divinities." + +And over the door of Madame de la Tour's cottage where the families so +frequently met, I placed this line:-- + + At secura quies, et nescia fallere vita. + +"Here dwell a calm conscience, and a life that knows not deceit." + +But Virginia did not approve of my Latin: she said, that what I had +placed at the foot of her flagstaff was too long and too learned. "I +should have liked better," added she, "to have seen inscribed, EVER +AGITATED, YET CONSTANT."--"Such a motto," I answered, "would have been +still more applicable to virtue." My reflection made her blush. + +The delicacy of sentiment of these happy families was manifested in +every thing around them. They gave the tenderest names to objects +in appearance the most indifferent. A border of orange, plantain and +rose-apple trees, planted round a green sward where Virginia and Paul +sometimes danced, received the name of Concord. An old tree, beneath +the shade of which Madame de la Tour and Margaret used to recount their +misfortunes, was called the Burial-place of Tears. They bestowed the +names of Brittany and Normandy on two little plots of ground, where they +had sown corn, strawberries, and peas. Domingo and Mary, wishing, in +imitation of their mistresses, to recall to mind Angola and Foullepoint, +the places of their birth in Africa, gave those names to the little +fields where the grass was sown with which they wove their baskets, +and where they had planted a calabash-tree. Thus, by cultivating +the productions of their respective climates, these exiled families +cherished the dear illusions which bind us to our native country, and +softened their regrets in a foreign land. Alas! I have seen these trees, +these fountains, these heaps of stones, which are now so completely +overthrown,--which now, like the desolated plains of Greece, present +nothing but masses of ruin and affecting remembrances, all called into +life by the many charming appellations thus bestowed upon them! + +But perhaps the most delightful spot of this enclosure was that called +Virginia's resting-place. At the foot of the rock which bore the name +of The Discovery of Friendship, is a small crevice, whence issues a +fountain, forming, near its source, a little spot of marshy soil in the +middle of a field of rich grass. At the time of Paul's birth I had made +Margaret a present of an Indian cocoa which had been given me, and which +she planted on the border of this fenny ground, in order that the tree +might one day serve to mark the epoch of her son's birth. Madame de la +Tour planted another cocoa with the same view, at the birth of Virginia. +These nuts produced two cocoa-trees, which formed the only records of +the two families; one was called Paul's tree, the other, Virginia's. +Their growth was in the same proportion as that of the two young +persons, not exactly equal: but they rose, at the end of twelve years, +above the roofs of the cottages. Already their tender stalks were +interwoven, and clusters of young cocoas hung from them over the basin +of the fountain. With the exception of these two trees, this nook of the +rock was left as it had been decorated by nature. On its embrowned and +moist sides broad plants of maiden-hair glistened with their green and +dark stars; and tufts of wave-leaved hart's tongue, suspended like long +ribands of purpled green, floated on the wind. Near this grew a chain +of the Madagascar periwinkle, the flowers of which resemble the red +gilliflower; and the long-podded capsicum, the seed-vessels of which are +of the colour of blood, and more resplendent than coral. Near them, the +herb balm, with its heart-shaped leaves, and the sweet basil, which has +the odour of the clove, exhaled the most delicious perfumes. From the +precipitous side of the mountain hung the graceful lianas, like floating +draperies, forming magnificent canopies of verdure on the face of +the rocks. The sea-birds, allured by the stillness of these retreats, +resorted here to pass the night. At the hour of sunset we could perceive +the curlew and the stint skimming along the seashore; the frigate-bird +poised high in air; and the white bird of the tropic, which abandons, +with the star of day, the solitudes of the Indian ocean. Virginia took +pleasure in resting herself upon the border of this fountain, decorated +with wild and sublime magnificence. She often went thither to wash +the linen of the family beneath the shade of the two cocoa-trees, and +thither too she sometimes led her goats to graze. While she was making +cheeses of their milk, she loved to see them browse on the maiden-hair +fern which clothes the steep sides of the rock, and hung suspended by +one of its cornices, as on a pedestal. Paul, observing that Virginia +was fond of this spot, brought thither, from the neighbouring forest, a +great variety of bird's nests. The old birds following their young, soon +established themselves in this new colony. Virginia, at stated times, +distributed amongst them grains of rice, millet, and maize. As soon as +she appeared, the whistling blackbird, the amadavid bird, whose note is +so soft, the cardinal, with its flame coloured plumage, forsook +their bushes; the parroquet, green as an emerald, descended from the +neighbouring fan-palms, the partridge ran along the grass; all advanced +promiscuously towards her, like a brood of chickens: and she and Paul +found an exhaustless source of amusement in observing their sports, +their repasts, and their loves. + +Amiable children! thus passed your earlier days in innocence, and in +obeying the impulses of kindness. How many times, on this very spot, +have your mothers, pressing you in their arms, blessed Heaven for the +consolation your unfolding virtues prepared for their declining years, +while they at the same time enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing you begin +life under the happiest auspices! How many times, beneath the shade +of those rocks, have I partaken with them of your rural repasts, which +never cost any animal its life! Gourds full of milk, fresh eggs, cakes +of rice served up on plantain leaves, with baskets of mangoes, oranges, +dates, pomegranates, pineapples, furnished a wholesome repast, the +most agreeable to the eye, as well as delicious to the taste, that can +possibly be imagined. + +Like the repast, the conversation was mild, and free from every thing +having a tendency to do harm. Paul often talked of the labours of the +day and of the morrow. He was continually planning something for the +accommodation of their little society. Here he discovered that the paths +were rugged; there, that the seats were uncomfortable: sometimes the +young arbours did not afford sufficient shade, and Virginia might be +better pleased elsewhere. + +During the rainy season the two families met together in the cottage, +and employed themselves in weaving mats of grass, and baskets of bamboo. +Rakes, spades, and hatchets, were ranged along the walls in the most +perfect order; and near these instruments of agriculture were heaped its +products,--bags of rice, sheaves of corn, and baskets of plantains. Some +degree of luxury usually accompanies abundance; and Virginia was taught +by her mother and Margaret to prepare sherbert and cordials from the +juice of the sugar-cane, the lemon and the citron. + +When night came, they all supped together by the light of a lamp; after +which Madame de la Tour or Margaret related some story of travellers +benighted in those woods of Europe that are still infested by banditti; +or told a dismal tale of some shipwrecked vessel, thrown by the tempest +upon the rocks of a desert island. To these recitals the children +listened with eager attention, and earnestly hoped that Heaven would one +day grant them the joy of performing the rites of hospitality towards +such unfortunate persons. When the time for repose arrived, the two +families separated and retired for the night, eager to meet again the +following morning. Sometimes they were lulled to repose by the beating +of the rains, which fell in torrents upon the roofs of their cottages, +and sometimes by the hollow winds, which brought to their ear the +distant roar of the waves breaking upon the shore. They blessed God for +their own safety, the feeling of which was brought home more forcibly to +their minds by the sound of remote danger. + +Madame de la Tour occasionally read aloud some affecting history of the +Old or New Testament. Her auditors reasoned but little upon these sacred +volumes, for their theology centred in a feeling of devotion towards +the Supreme Being, like that of nature: and their morality was an active +principle, like that of the Gospel. These families had no particular +days devoted to pleasure, and others to sadness. Every day was to them +a holyday, and all that surrounded them one holy temple, in which they +ever adored the Infinite Intelligence, the Almighty God, the Friend of +human kind. A feeling of confidence in his supreme power filled their +minds with consolation for the past, with fortitude under present +trials, and with hope in the future. Compelled by misfortune to return +almost to a state of nature, these excellent women had thus developed in +their own and their children's bosoms the feelings most natural to the +human mind, and its best support under affliction. + +But, as clouds sometimes arise, and cast a gloom over the best regulated +tempers, so whenever any member of this little society appeared to be +labouring under dejection, the rest assembled around, and endeavoured +to banish her painful thoughts by amusing the mind rather than by grave +arguments against them. Each performed this kind office in their own +appropriate manner: Margaret, by her gaiety; Madame de la Tour, by the +gentle consolations of religion; Virginia, by her tender caresses; Paul, +by his frank and engaging cordiality. Even Mary and Domingo hastened +to offer their succour, and to weep with those that wept. Thus do weak +plants interweave themselves with each other, in order to withstand the +fury of the tempest. + +During the fine season, they went every Sunday to the church of the +Shaddock Grove, the steeple of which you see yonder upon the plain. Many +wealthy members of the congregation, who came to church in palanquins, +sought the acquaintance of these united families, and invited them +to parties of pleasure. But they always repelled these overtures with +respectful politeness, as they were persuaded that the rich and powerful +seek the society of persons in an inferior station only for the sake of +surrounding themselves with flatterers, and that every flatterer must +applaud alike all the actions of his patron, whether good or bad. On the +other hand, they avoided, with equal care, too intimate an acquaintance +with the lower class, who are ordinarily jealous, calumniating, and +gross. They thus acquired, with some, the character of being timid, and +with others, of pride: but their reserve was accompanied with so much +obliging politeness, above all towards the unfortunate and the unhappy, +that they insensibly acquired the respect of the rich and the confidence +of the poor. + +After service, some kind office was often required at their hands by +their poor neighbours. Sometimes a person troubled in mind sought their +advice; sometimes a child begged them to its sick mother, in one of the +adjoining hamlets. They always took with them a few remedies for the +ordinary diseases of the country, which they administered in that +soothing manner which stamps a value upon the smallest favours. Above +all, they met with singular success in administrating to the disorders +of the mind, so intolerable in solitude, and under the infirmities of a +weakened frame. Madame de la Tour spoke with such sublime confidence of +the Divinity, that the sick, while listening to her, almost believed him +present. Virginia often returned home with her eyes full of tears, and +her heart overflowing with delight, at having had an opportunity of +doing good; for to her generally was confided the task of preparing and +administering the medicines,--a task which she fulfilled with angelic +sweetness. After these visits of charity, they sometimes extended their +walk by the Sloping Mountain, till they reached my dwelling, where I +used to prepare dinner for them on the banks of the little rivulet which +glides near my cottage. I procured for these occasions a few bottles of +old wine, in order to heighten the relish of our Oriental repast by +the more genial productions of Europe. At other times we met on the +sea-shore, at the mouth of some little river, or rather mere brook. We +brought from home the provisions furnished us by our gardens, to which +we added those supplied us by the sea in abundant variety. We caught +on these shores the mullet, the roach, and the sea-urchin, lobsters, +shrimps, crabs, oysters, and all other kinds of shell-fish. In this +way, we often enjoyed the most tranquil pleasures in situations the most +terrific. Sometimes, seated upon a rock, under the shade of the velvet +sunflower-tree, we saw the enormous waves of the Indian Ocean break +beneath our feet with a tremendous noise. Paul, who could swim like a +fish, would advance on the reefs to meet the coming billows; then, at +their near approach, would run back to the beach, closely pursued by the +foaming breakers, which threw themselves, with a roaring noise, far on +the sands. But Virginia, at this sight, uttered piercing cries, and said +that such sports frightened her too much. + +Other amusements were not wanting on these festive occasions. Our +repasts were generally followed by the songs and dances of the two young +people. Virginia sang the happiness of pastoral life, and the misery +of those who were impelled by avarice to cross the raging ocean, rather +than cultivate the earth, and enjoy its bounties in peace. Sometimes she +performed a pantomime with Paul, after the manner of the negroes. The +first language of man is pantomime: it is known to all nations, and is +so natural and expressive, that the children of the European inhabitants +catch it with facility from the negroes. Virginia, recalling, from among +the histories which her mother had read to her, those which had affected +her most, represented the principal events in them with beautiful +simplicity. Sometimes at the sound of Domingo's tantam she appeared upon +the green sward, bearing a pitcher upon her head, and advanced with a +timid step towards the source of a neighbouring fountain, to draw water. +Domingo and Mary, personating the shepherds of Midian forbade her to +approach, and repulsed her sternly. Upon this Paul flew to her succour, +beat away the shepherds, filled Virginia's pitcher, and placing it upon +her heard, bound her brows at the same time with a wreath of the red +flowers of the Madagascar periwinkle, which served to heighten the +delicacy of her complexion. Then joining in their sports, I took upon +myself the part of Raguel, and bestowed upon Paul, my daughter Zephora +in marriage. + +Another time Virginia would represent the unhappy Ruth, returning poor +and widowed with her mother-in-law, who, after so prolonged an absence, +found herself as unknown as in a foreign land. Domingo and Mary +personated the reapers. The supposed daughter of Naomi followed their +steps, gleaning here and there a few ears of corn. When interrogated by +Paul,--a part which he performed with the gravity of a patriarch,--she +answered his questions with a faltering voice. He then, touched +with compassion, granted an asylum to innocence, and hospitality to +misfortune. He filled her lap with plenty; and, leading her towards us +as before the elders of the city, declared his purpose to take her +in marriage. At this scene, Madame de la Tour, recalling the desolate +situation in which she had been left by her relations, her widowhood, +and the kind reception she had met with from Margaret, succeeded now +by the soothing hope of a happy union between their children, could not +forbear weeping; and these mixed recollections of good and evil caused +us all to unite with her in shedding tears of sorrow and of joy. + +These dramas were performed with such an air of reality that you +might have fancied yourself transported to the plains of Syria or of +Palestine. We were not unfurnished with decorations, lights, or an +orchestra, suitable to the representation. The scene was generally +placed in an open space of the forest, the diverging paths from which +formed around us numerous arcades of foliage, under which we were +sheltered from the heat all the middle of the day; but when the sun +descended towards the horizon, its rays, broken by the trunks of the +trees, darted amongst the shadows of the forest in long lines of light, +producing the most magnificent effect. Sometimes its broad disk appeared +at the end of an avenue, lighting it up with insufferable brightness. +The foliage of the trees, illuminated from beneath by its saffron beams, +glowed with the lustre of the topaz and the emerald. Their brown and +mossy trunks appeared transformed into columns of antique bronze; and +the birds, which had retired in silence to their leafy shades to pass +the night, surprised to see the radiance of a second morning, hailed the +star of day all together with innumerable carols. + +Night often overtook us during these rural entertainments; but the +purity of the air and the warmth of the climate, admitted of our +sleeping in the woods, without incurring any danger by exposure to the +weather, and no less secure from the molestations of robbers. On our +return the following day to our respective habitations, we found them in +exactly the same state in which they had been left. In this island, then +unsophisticated by the pursuits of commerce, such were the honesty and +primitive manners of the population, that the doors of many houses were +without a key, and even a lock itself was an object of curiosity to not +a few of the native inhabitants. + +There were, however, some days in the year celebrated by Paul and +Virginia in a more peculiar manner; these were the birth-days of their +mothers. Virginia never failed the day before to prepare some wheaten +cakes, which she distributed among a few poor white families, born +in the island, who had never eaten European bread. These unfortunate +people, uncared for by the blacks, were reduced to live on tapioca in +the woods; and as they had neither the insensibility which is the result +of slavery, nor the fortitude which springs from a liberal education, +to enable them to support their poverty, their situation was deplorable. +These cakes were all that Virginia had it in her power to give away, but +she conferred the gift in so delicate a manner as to add tenfold to +its value. In the first place, Paul was commissioned to take the cakes +himself to these families, and get their promise to come and spend the +next day at Madame de la Tour's. Accordingly, mothers of families, with +two or three thin, yellow, miserable looking daughters, so timid that +they dared not look up, made their appearance. Virginia soon put them +at their ease; she waited upon them with refreshments, the excellence +of which she endeavoured to heighten by relating some particular +circumstance which in her own estimation, vastly improved them. One +beverage had been prepared by Margaret; another, by her mother: her +brother himself had climbed some lofty tree for the very fruit she was +presenting. She would then get Paul to dance with them, nor would she +leave them till she saw that they were happy. She wished them to partake +of the joy of her own family. "It is only," she said, "by promoting the +happiness of others, that we can secure our own." When they left, she +generally presented them with some little article they seemed to fancy, +enforcing their acceptance of it by some delicate pretext, that she +might not appear to know they were in want. If she remarked that their +clothes were much tattered, she obtained her mother's permission to +give them some of her own, and then sent Paul to leave them, secretly at +their cottage doors. She thus followed the divine precept,--concealing +the benefactor, and revealing only the benefit. + +You Europeans, whose minds are imbued from infancy with prejudices at +variance with happiness, cannot imagine all the instruction and pleasure +to be derived from nature. Your souls, confined to a small sphere of +intelligence, soon reach the limit of its artificial enjoyments: but +nature and the heart are inexhaustible. Paul and Virginia had neither +clock, nor almanack, nor books of chronology, history or philosophy. +The periods of their lives were regulated by those of the operations of +nature, and their familiar conversation had a reference to the changes +of the seasons. They knew the time of day by the shadows of the trees; +the seasons, by the times when those trees bore flowers or fruit; +and the years, by the number of their harvests. These soothing images +diffused an inexpressible charm over their conversation. "It is time to +dine," said Virginia, "the shadows of the plantain-trees are at their +roots:" or, "Night approaches, the tamarinds are closing their leaves." +"When will you come and see us?" inquired some of her companions in +the neighbourhood. "At the time of the sugar-canes," answered Virginia. +"Your visit will be then still more delightful," resumed her young +acquaintances. When she was asked what was her own age and that of +Paul,--"My brother," said she, "is as old as the great cocoa-tree of the +fountain; and I am as old as the little one: the mangoes have bore fruit +twelve times and the orange-trees have flowered four-and-twenty times, +since I came into the world." Their lives seemed linked to that of the +trees, like those of Fauns or Dryads. They knew no other historical +epochs than those of the lives of their mothers, no other chronology +than that of doing good, and resigning themselves to the will of Heaven. + +What need, indeed, had these young people of riches or learning such +as ours? Even their necessities and their ignorance increased their +happiness. No day passed in which they were not of some service to one +another, or in which they did not mutually impart some instruction. Yes, +instruction; for if errors mingled with it, they were, at least, not of +a dangerous character. A pure-minded being has none of that description +to fear. Thus grew these children of nature. No care had troubled their +peace, no intemperance had corrupted their blood, no misplaced passion +had depraved their hearts. Love, innocence, and piety, possessed their +souls; and those intellectual graces were unfolding daily in their +features, their attitudes, and their movements. Still in the morning of +life, they had all its blooming freshness: and surely such in the garden +of Eden appeared our first parents, when coming from the hands of God, +they first saw, and approached each other, and conversed together, like +brother and sister. Virginia was gentle, modest, and confiding as Eve; +and Paul, like Adam, united the stature of manhood with the simplicity +of a child. + +Sometimes, if alone with Virginia, he has a thousand times told me, he +used to say to her, on his return from labour,--"When I am wearied, the +sight of you refreshes me. If from the summit of the mountain I perceive +you below in the valley, you appear to me in the midst of our orchard +like a blooming rose-bud. If you go towards our mother's house, the +partridge, when it runs to meet its young, has a shape less beautiful, +and a step less light. When I lose sight of you through the trees, I +have no need to see you in order to find you again. Something of you, I +know not how, remains for me in the air through which you have passed, +on the grass where you have been seated. When I come near you, you +delight all my senses. The azure of the sky is less charming than the +blue of your eyes, and the song of the amadavid bird less soft than the +sound of your voice. If I only touch you with the tip of my finger, +my whole frame trembles with pleasure. Do you remember the day when we +crossed over the great stones of the river of the Three Breasts? I was +very tired before we reached the bank: but, as soon as I had taken you +in my arms, I seemed to have wings like a bird. Tell me by what charm +you have thus enchanted me! Is it by your wisdom?--Our mothers have more +than either of us. Is it by your caresses?--They embrace me much oftener +than you. I think it must be by your goodness. I shall never forget how +you walked bare-footed to the Black River, to ask pardon for the poor +run-away slave. Here, my beloved, take this flowering branch of a +lemon-tree, which I have gathered in the forest: you will let it remain +at night near your bed. Eat this honey-comb too, which I have taken for +you from the top of a rock. But first lean on my bosom, and I shall be +refreshed." + +Virginia would answer him,--"Oh, my dear brother, the rays of the sun in +the morning on the tops of the rocks give me less joy than the sight of +you. I love my mother,--I love yours; but when they call you their son, +I love them a thousand times more. When they caress you, I feel it more +sensibly than when I am caressed myself. You ask me what makes you love +me. Why, all creatures that are brought up together love one another. +Look at our birds; reared up in the same nests, they love each other as +we do; they are always together like us. Hark! how they call and answer +from one tree to another. So when the echoes bring to my ears the air +which you play on your flute on the top of the mountain, I repeat the +words at the bottom of the valley. You are dear to me more especially +since the day when you wanted to fight the master of the slave for me. +Since that time how often have I said to myself, 'Ah, my brother has a +good heart; but for him, I should have died of terror.' I pray to +God every day for my mother and for yours; for you, and for our +poor servants; but when I pronounce your name, my devotion seems to +increase;--I ask so earnestly of God that no harm may befall you! Why +do you go so far, and climb so high, to seek fruits and flowers for +me? Have we not enough in our garden already? How much you are +fatigued,--you look so warm!"--and with her little white handkerchief +she would wipe the damps from his face, and then imprint a tender kiss +on his forehead. + +For some time past, however, Virginia had felt her heart agitated by +new sensations. Her beautiful blue eyes lost their lustre, her cheek +its freshness, and her frame was overpowered with a universal langour. +Serenity no longer sat upon her brow, nor smiles played upon her lips. +She would become all at once gay without cause for joy, and melancholy +without any subject for grief. She fled her innocent amusements, her +gentle toils, and even the society of her beloved family; wandering +about the most unfrequented parts of the plantations, and seeking every +where the rest which she could no where find. Sometimes, at the sight +of Paul, she advanced sportively to meet him; but, when about to accost +him, was overcome by a sudden confusion; her pale cheeks were covered +with blushes, and her eyes no longer dared to meet those of her brother. +Paul said to her,--"The rocks are covered with verdure, our birds begin +to sing when you approach, everything around you is gay, and you only +are unhappy." He then endeavoured to soothe her by his embraces, but +she turned away her head, and fled, trembling towards her mother. The +caresses of her brother excited too much emotion in her agitated heart, +and she sought, in the arms of her mother, refuge from herself. Paul, +unused to the secret windings of the female heart, vexed himself in +vain in endeavouring to comprehend the meaning of these new and strange +caprices. Misfortunes seldom come alone, and a serious calamity now +impended over these families. + +One of those summers, which sometimes desolate the countries situated +between the tropics, now began to spread its ravages over this island. +It was near the end of December, when the sun, in Capricorn, darts over +the Mauritius, during the space of three weeks, its vertical fires. +The southeast wind, which prevails throughout almost the whole year, +no longer blew. Vast columns of dust arose from the highways, and hung +suspended in the air; the ground was every where broken into clefts; +the grass was burnt up; hot exhalations issued from the sides of +the mountains, and their rivulets, for the most part, became dry. No +refreshing cloud ever arose from the sea: fiery vapours, only, during +the day, ascended from the plains, and appeared, at sunset, like the +reflection of a vast conflagration. Night brought no coolness to +the heated atmosphere; and the red moon rising in the misty horizon, +appeared of supernatural magnitude. The drooping cattle, on the sides +of the hills, stretching out their necks towards heaven, and panting for +breath, made the valleys re-echo with their melancholy lowings: even the +Caffre by whom they were led threw himself upon the earth, in search of +some cooling moisture: but his hopes were vain; the scorching sun +had penetrated the whole soil, and the stifling atmosphere everywhere +resounded with the buzzing noise of insects, seeking to allay their +thirst with the blood of men and of animals. + +During this sultry season, Virginia's restlessness and disquietude were +much increased. One night, in particular, being unable to sleep, she +arose from her bed, sat down, and returned to rest again; but could find +in no attitude either slumber or repose. At length she bent her way, by +the light of the moon, towards her fountain, and gazed at its spring, +which, notwithstanding the drought, still trickled, in silver threads +down the brown sides of the rock. She flung herself into the basin: its +coolness reanimated her spirits, and a thousand soothing remembrances +came to her mind. She recollected that in her infancy her mother and +Margaret had amused themselves by bathing her with Paul in this very +spot; that he afterwards, reserving this bath for her sole use, had +hollowed out its bed, covered the bottom with sand, and sown aromatic +herbs around its borders. She saw in the water, upon her naked arms and +bosom, the reflection of the two cocoa trees which were planted at her +own and her brother's birth, and which interwove above her head their +green branches and young fruit. She thought of Paul's friendship, +sweeter than the odour of the blossoms, purer than the waters of the +fountain, stronger than the intertwining palm-tree, and she sighed. +Reflecting on the hour of the night, and the profound solitude, her +imagination became disturbed. Suddenly she flew, affrighted, from those +dangerous shades, and those waters which seemed to her hotter than the +tropical sunbeam, and ran to her mother for refuge. More than once, +wishing to reveal her sufferings, she pressed her mother's hand within +her own; more than once she was ready to pronounce the name of Paul: but +her oppressed heart left her lips no power of utterance, and, leaning +her head on her mother's bosom, she bathed it with her tears. + +Madame de la Tour, though she easily discerned the source of her +daughter's uneasiness, did not think proper to speak to her on the +subject. "My dear child," said she, "offer up your supplications to God, +who disposes at his will of health and of life. He subjects you to trial +now, in order to recompense you hereafter. Remember that we are only +placed upon earth for the exercise of virtue." + +The excessive heat in the meantime raised vast masses of vapour from the +ocean, which hung over the island like an immense parasol, and gathered +round the summits of the mountains. Long flakes of fire issued from time +to time from these mist-embosomed peaks. The most awful thunder soon +after re-echoed through the woods, the plains, and the valleys: the +rains fell from the skies in cataracts; foaming torrents rushed down the +sides of this mountain; the bottom of the valley became a sea, and the +elevated platform on which the cottages were built, a little island. The +accumulated waters, having no other outlet, rushed with violence through +the narrow gorge which leads into the valley, tossing and roaring, and +bearing along with them a mingled wreck of soil, trees, and rocks. + +The trembling families meantime addressed their prayers to God all +together in the cottage of Madame de la Tour, the roof of which cracked +fearfully from the force of the winds. So incessant and vivid were the +lightnings, that although the doors and window-shutters were securely +fastened, every object without could be distinctly seen through +the joints in the wood-work! Paul, followed by Domingo, went with +intrepidity from one cottage to another, notwithstanding the fury of the +tempest; here supporting a partition with a buttress, there driving in +a stake; and only returning to the family to calm their fears, by the +expression of a hope that the storm was passing away. Accordingly, in +the evening the rains ceased, the trade-winds of the southeast pursued +their ordinary course, the tempestuous clouds were driven away to the +northward, and the setting sun appeared in the horizon. + +Virginia's first wish was to visit the spot called her Resting-place. +Paul approached her with a timid air, and offered her the assistance +of his arm; she accepted it with a smile, and they left the cottage +together. The air was clear and fresh: white vapours arose from the +ridges of the mountain, which was furrowed here and there by the courses +of torrents, marked in foam, and now beginning to dry up on all +sides. As for the garden, it was completely torn to pieces by deep +water-courses, the roots of most of the fruit trees were laid bare, and +vast heaps of sand covered the borders of the meadows, and had choked +up Virginia's bath. The two cocoa trees, however, were still erect, and +still retained their freshness; but they were no longer surrounded by +turf, or arbours, or birds, except a few amadavid birds, which, upon the +points of the neighbouring rocks, were lamenting, in plaintive notes, +the loss of their young. + +At the sight of this general desolation, Virginia exclaimed to +Paul,--"You brought birds hither, and the hurricane has killed them. +You planted this garden, and it is now destroyed. Every thing then +upon earth perishes, and it is only Heaven that is not subject to +change."--"Why," answered Paul, "cannot I give you something that +belongs to Heaven? but I have nothing of my own even upon the earth." +Virginia with a blush replied, "You have the picture of Saint Paul." +As soon as she had uttered the words, he flew in quest of it to his +mother's cottage. This picture was a miniature of Paul the Hermit, which +Margaret, who viewed it with feelings of great devotion, had worn at her +neck while a girl, and which, after she became a mother, she had placed +round her child's. It had even happened, that being, while pregnant, +abandoned by all the world, and constantly occupied in contemplating +the image of this benevolent recluse, her offspring had contracted some +resemblance to this revered object. She therefore bestowed upon him the +name of Paul, giving him for his patron a saint who had passed his life +far from mankind by whom he had been first deceived and then forsaken. +Virginia, on receiving this little present from the hands of Paul, said +to him, with emotion, "My dear brother, I will never part with this +while I live; nor will I ever forget that you have given me the only +thing you have in the world." At this tone of friendship,--this unhoped +for return of familiarity and tenderness, Paul attempted to embrace +her; but, light as a bird, she escaped him, and fled away, leaving him +astonished, and unable to account for conduct so extraordinary. + +Meanwhile Margaret said to Madame de la Tour, "Why do we not unite our +children by marriage? They have a strong attachment for each other, and +though my son hardly understands the real nature of his feelings, yet +great care and watchfulness will be necessary. Under such circumstances, +it will be as well not to leave them too much together." Madame de la +Tour replied, "They are too young and too poor. What grief would it +occasion us to see Virginia bring into the world unfortunate children, +whom she would not perhaps have sufficient strength to rear! Your negro, +Domingo, is almost too old to labor; Mary is infirm. As for myself, my +dear friend, at the end of fifteen years, I find my strength greatly +decreased; the feebleness of age advances rapidly in hot climates, and, +above all, under the pressure of misfortune. Paul is our only hope: let +us wait till he comes to maturity, and his increased strength enables +him to support us by his labour: at present you well know that we have +only sufficient to supply the wants of the day: but were we to send Paul +for a short time to the Indies, he might acquire, by commerce, the +means of purchasing some slaves; and at his return we could unite him to +Virginia; for I am persuaded no one on earth would render her so happy +as your son. We will consult our neighbour on this subject." + +They accordingly asked my advice, which was in accordance with Madame +de la Tour's opinion. "The Indian seas," I observed to them, "are calm, +and, in choosing a favourable time of the year, the voyage out is seldom +longer than six weeks; and the same time may be allowed for the return +home. We will furnish Paul with a little venture from my neighbourhood, +where he is much beloved. If we were only to supply him with some raw +cotton, of which we make no use for want of mills to work it, some +ebony, which is here so common that it serves us for firing, and some +rosin, which is found in our woods, he would be able to sell those +articles, though useless here, to good advantage in the Indies." + +I took upon myself to obtain permission from Monsieur de la Bourdonnais +to undertake this voyage; and I determined previously to mention the +affair to Paul. But what was my surprise, when this young man said to +me, with a degree of good sense above his age, "And why do you wish me +to leave my family for this precarious pursuit of fortune? Is there any +commerce in the world more advantageous than the culture of the ground, +which yields sometimes fifty or a hundred-fold? If we wish to engage +in commerce, can we not do so by carrying our superfluities to the town +without my wandering to the Indies? Our mothers tell me, that Domingo +is old and feeble; but I am young, and gather strength every day. If +any accident should happen during my absence, above all to Virginia, who +already suffers--Oh, no, no!--I cannot resolve to leave them." + +So decided an answer threw me into great perplexity, for Madame de la +Tour had not concealed from me the cause of Virginia's illness and want +of spirits, and her desire of separating these young people till they +were a few years older. I took care, however, not to drop any thing +which could lead Paul to suspect the existence of these motives. + +About this period a ship from France brought Madame de la Tour a letter +from her aunt. The fear of death, without which hearts as insensible as +hers would never feel, had alarmed her into compassion. When she wrote +she was recovering from a dangerous illness, which had, however, left +her incurably languid and weak. She desired her niece to return to +France: or, if her health forbade her to undertake so long a voyage, +she begged her to send Virginia, on whom she promised to bestow a good +education, to procure for her a splendid marriage, and to leave +her heiress of her whole fortune. She concluded by enjoining strict +obedience to her will, in gratitude, she said, for her great kindness. + +At the perusal of this letter general consternation spread itself +through the whole assembled party. Domingo and Mary began to weep. +Paul, motionless with surprise, appeared almost ready to burst with +indignation; while Virginia, fixing her eyes anxiously upon her mother, +had not power to utter a single word. "And can you now leave us?" cried +Margaret to Madame de la Tour. "No, my dear friend, no, my beloved +children," replied Madame de la Tour; "I will never leave you. I have +lived with you, and with you I will die. I have known no happiness but +in your affection. If my health be deranged, my past misfortunes are the +cause. My heart has been deeply wounded by the cruelty of my relations, +and by the loss of my beloved husband. But I have since found more +consolation and more real happiness with you in these humble huts, than +all the wealth of my family could now lead me to expect in my country." + +At this soothing language every eye overflowed with tears of delight. +Paul, pressing Madame de la Tour in his arms, exclaimed,--"Neither will +I leave you! I will not go to the Indies. We will all labour for you, +dear mamma; and you shall never feel any want with us." But of the whole +society, the person who displayed the least transport, and who probably +felt the most, was Virginia; and during the remainder of the day, the +gentle gaiety which flowed from her heart, and proved that her peace of +mind was restored, completed the general satisfaction. + +At sun-rise the next day, just as they had concluded offering up, as +usual, their morning prayer before breakfast, Domingo came to inform +them that a gentleman on horseback, followed by two slaves, was coming +towards the plantation. It was Monsieur de la Bourdonnais. He entered +the cottage, where he found the family at breakfast. Virginia had +prepared, according to the custom of the country, coffee, and rice +boiled in water. To these she had added hot yams, and fresh plantains. +The leaves of the plantain-tree, supplied the want of table-linen; and +calabash shells, split in two, served for cups. The governor exhibited, +at first, some astonishment at the homeliness of the dwelling; then, +addressing himself to Madame de la Tour, he observed, that although +public affairs drew his attention too much from the concerns of +individuals, she had many claims on his good offices. "You have an aunt +at Paris, madam," he added, "a woman of quality, and immensely rich, who +expects that you will hasten to see her, and who means to bestow upon +you her whole fortune." Madame de la Tour replied, that the state of her +health would not permit her to undertake so long a voyage. "At least," +resumed Monsieur de la Bourdonnais, "you cannot without injustice, +deprive this amiable young lady, your daughter, of so noble an +inheritance. I will not conceal from you, that your aunt has made use of +her influence to secure your daughter being sent to her; and that I have +received official letters, in which I am ordered to exert my authority, +if necessary, to that effect. But as I only wish to employ my power for +the purpose of rendering the inhabitants of this country happy, I expect +from your good sense the voluntary sacrifice of a few years, upon which +your daughter's establishment in the world, and the welfare of your +whole life depends. Wherefore do we come to these islands? Is it not to +acquire a fortune? And will it not be more agreeable to return and find +it in your own country?" + +He then took a large bag of piastres from one of his slaves, and placed +it upon the table. "This sum," he continued, "is allotted by your aunt +to defray the outlay necessary for the equipment of the young lady for +her voyage." Gently reproaching Madame de la Tour for not having had +recourse to him in her difficulties, he extolled at the same time her +noble fortitude. Upon this Paul said to the governor,--"My mother did +apply to you, sir, and you received her ill."--"Have you another child, +madam?" said Monsieur de la Bourdonnais to Madame de la Tour. "No, Sir," +she replied; "this is the son of my friend; but he and Virginia are +equally dear to us, and we mutually consider them both as our own +children." "Young man," said the governor to Paul, "when you have +acquired a little more experience of the world, you will know that it +is the misfortune of people in place to be deceived, and bestow, in +consequence, upon intriguing vice, that which they would wish to give to +modest merit." + +Monsieur de la Bourdonnais, at the request of Madame de la Tour, placed +himself next to her at table, and breakfasted after the manner of the +Creoles, upon coffee, mixed with rice boiled in water. He was delighted +with the order and cleanliness which prevailed in the little cottage, +the harmony of the two interesting families, and the zeal of their old +servants. "Here," he exclaimed, "I discern only wooden furniture; but I +find serene countenances and hearts of gold." Paul, enchanted with the +affability of the governor, said to him,--"I wish to be your friend: for +you are a good man." Monsieur de la Bourdonnais received with pleasure +this insular compliment, and, taking Paul by the hand, assured him he +might rely upon his friendship. + +After breakfast, he took Madame de la Tour aside and informed her +that an opportunity would soon offer itself of sending her daughter to +France, in a ship which was going to sail in a short time; that he would +put her under the charge of a lady, one of the passengers, who was +a relation of his own; and that she must not think of renouncing an +immense fortune, on account of the pain of being separated from her +daughter for a brief interval. "Your aunt," he added, "cannot live +more than two years; of this I am assured by her friends. Think of it +seriously. Fortune does not visit us every day. Consult your friends. +I am sure that every person of good sense will be of my opinion." She +answered, "that, as she desired no other happiness henceforth in the +world than in promoting that of her daughter, she hoped to be allowed to +leave her departure for France to her own inclination." + +Madame de la Tour was not sorry to find an opportunity of separating +Paul and Virginia for a short time, and provide by this means, for their +mutual felicity at a future period. She took her daughter aside, and +said to her,--"My dear child, our servants are now old. Paul is still +very young, Margaret is advanced in years, and I am already infirm. If +I should die what would become of you, without fortune, in the midst +of these deserts? You would then be left alone, without any person who +could afford you much assistance, and would be obliged to labour +without ceasing, as a hired servant, in order to support your wretched +existence. This idea overcomes me with sorrow." Virginia answered,--"God +has appointed us to labour, and to bless him every day. Up to this time +he has never forsaken us, and he never will forsake us in time to come. +His providence watches most especially over the unfortunate. You have +told me this very often, my dear mother! I cannot resolve to leave you." +Madame de la Tour replied, with much emotion,--"I have no other aim than +to render you happy, and to marry you one day to Paul, who is not really +your brother. Remember then that his fortune depends upon you." + +A young girl who is in love believes that every one else is ignorant of +her passion; she throws over her eyes the veil with which she covers the +feelings of her heart; but when it is once lifted by a friendly hand, +the hidden sorrows of her attachment escape as through a newly-opened +barrier, and the sweet outpourings of unrestrained confidence succeed +to her former mystery and reserve. Virginia, deeply affected by this new +proof of her mother's tenderness, related to her the cruel struggles +she had undergone, of which heaven alone had been witness; she saw, +she said, the hand of Providence in the assistance of an affectionate +mother, who approved of her attachment; and would guide her by her +counsels; and as she was now strengthened by such support, every +consideration led her to remain with her mother, without anxiety for the +present, and without apprehension for the future. + +Madame de la Tour, perceiving that this confidential conversation had +produced an effect altogether different from that which she expected, +said,--"My dear child, I do not wish to constrain you; think over it at +leisure, but conceal your affection from Paul. It is better not to let a +man know that the heart of his mistress is gained." + +Virginia and her mother were sitting together by themselves the same +evening, when a tall man, dressed in a blue cassock, entered their +cottage. He was a missionary priest and the confessor of Madame de la +Tour and her daughter, who had now been sent to them by the governor. +"My children," he exclaimed as he entered, "God be praised! you are +now rich. You can now attend to the kind suggestions of your benevolent +hearts, and do good to the poor. I know what Monsieur de la Bourdonnais +has said to you, and what you have said in reply. Your health, dear +madam, obliges you to remain here; but you, young lady, are without +excuse. We must obey our aged relations, even when they are unjust. +A sacrifice is required of you; but it is the will of God. Our Lord +devoted himself for you; and you in imitation of his example, must give +up something for the welfare of your family. Your voyage to France will +end happily. You will surely consent to go, my dear young lady." + +Virginia, with downcast eyes, answered, trembling, "If it is the command +of God, I will not presume to oppose it. Let the will of God be done!" +As she uttered these words, she wept. + +The priest went away, in order to inform the governor of the success of +his mission. In the meantime Madame de la Tour sent Domingo to request +me to come to her, that she might consult me respecting Virginia's +departure. I was not at all of opinion that she ought to go. I consider +it as a fixed principle of happiness, that we ought to prefer the +advantages of nature to those of fortune, and never go in search of that +at a distance, which we may find at home,--in our own bosoms. But what +could be expected from my advice, in opposition to the illusions of a +splendid fortune?--or from my simple reasoning, when in competition with +the prejudices of the world, and an authority held sacred by Madame de +la Tour? This lady indeed only consulted me out of politeness; she had +ceased to deliberate since she had heard the decision of her confessor. +Margaret herself, who, notwithstanding the advantages she expected for +her son from the possession of Virginia's fortune, had hitherto opposed +her departure, made no further objections. As for Paul, in ignorance of +what had been determined, but alarmed at the secret conversations which +Virginia had been holding with her mother, he abandoned himself to +melancholy. "They are plotting something against me," cried he, "for +they conceal every thing from me." + +A report having in the meantime been spread in the island that fortune +had visited these rocks, merchants of every description were seen +climbing their steep ascent. Now, for the first time, were seen +displayed in these humble huts the richest stuffs of India; the fine +dimity of Gondelore; the handkerchiefs of Pellicate and Masulipatan; +the plain, striped, and embroidered muslins of Dacca, so beautifully +transparent: the delicately white cottons of Surat, and linens of all +colours. They also brought with them the gorgeous silks of China, +satin damasks, some white, and others grass-green and bright red; pink +taffetas, with the profusion of satins and gauze of Tonquin, both plain +and decorated with flowers; soft pekins, downy as cloth; and white and +yellow nankeens, and the calicoes of Madagascar. + +Madame de la Tour wished her daughter to purchase whatever she liked; +she only examined the goods, and inquired the price, to take care that +the dealers did not cheat her. Virginia made choice of everything she +thought would be useful or agreeable to her mother, or to Margaret and +her son. "This," said she, "will be wanted for furnishing the cottage, +and that will be very useful to Mary and Domingo." In short, the bag of +piastres was almost emptied before she even began to consider her own +wants; and she was obliged to receive back for her own use a share of +the presents which she had distributed among the family circle. + +Paul, overcome with sorrow at the sight of these gifts of fortune, which +he felt were a presage of Virginia's departure, came a few days after to +my dwelling. With an air of deep despondency he said to me--"My sister +is going away; she is already making preparations for her voyage. I +conjure you to come and exert your influence over her mother and +mine, in order to detain her here." I could not refuse the young man's +solicitations, although well convinced that my representations would be +unavailing. + +Virginia had ever appeared to me charming when clad in the coarse +cloth of Bengal, with a red handkerchief tied round her head: you +may therefore imagine how much her beauty was increased, when she was +attired in the graceful and elegant costume worn by the ladies of this +country! She had on a white muslin dress, lined with pink taffeta. +Her somewhat tall and slender figure was shown to advantage in her new +attire, and the simple arrangement of her hair accorded admirably with +the form of her head. Her fine blue eyes were filled with an expression +of melancholy; and the struggles of passion, with which her heart was +agitated, imparted a flush to her cheek, and to her voice a tone of deep +emotion. The contrast between her pensive look and her gay habiliments +rendered her more interesting than ever, nor was it possible to see or +hear her unmoved. Paul became more and more melancholy; and at length +Margaret, distressed at the situation of her son, took him aside and +said to him,--"Why, my dear child, will you cherish vain hopes, which +will only render your disappointment more bitter? It is time for me to +make known to you the secret of your life and of mine. Mademoiselle de +la Tour belongs, by her mother's side, to a rich and noble family, while +you are but the son of a poor peasant girl; and what is worse you are +illegitimate." + +Paul, who had never heard this last expression before, inquired with +eagerness its meaning. His mother replied, "I was not married to your +father. When I was a girl, seduced by love, I was guilty of a weakness +of which you are the offspring. The consequence of my fault is, that you +are deprived of the protection of a father's family, and by my flight +from home you have also lost that of your mother's. Unfortunate child! +you have no relations in the world but me!"--and she shed a flood of +tears. Paul, pressing her in his arms, exclaimed, "Oh, my dear mother! +since I have no relation in the world but you, I will love you all the +more. But what a secret have you just disclosed to me! I now see the +reason why Mademoiselle de la Tour has estranged herself so much from me +for the last two months, and why she has determined to go to France. Ah! +I perceive too well that she despises me!" + +The hour of supper being arrived, we gathered round the table; but +the different sensations with which we were agitated left us little +inclination to eat, and the meal, if such it may be called, passed +in silence. Virginia was the first to rise; she went out, and seated +herself on the very spot where we now are. Paul hastened after her, +and sat down by her side. Both of them, for some time, kept a profound +silence. It was one of those delicious nights which are so common +between the tropics, and to the beauty of which no pencil can do +justice. The moon appeared in the midst of the firmament, surrounded +by a curtain of clouds, which was gradually unfolded by her beams. Her +light insensibly spread itself over the mountains of the island, and +their distant peaks glistened with a silvery green. The winds were +perfectly still. We heard among the woods, at the bottom of the valleys, +and on the summits of the rocks, the piping cries and the soft notes of +the birds, wantoning in their nests, and rejoicing in the brightness +of the night and the serenity of the atmosphere. The hum of insects was +heard in the grass. The stars sparkled in the heavens, and their lurid +orbs were reflected, in trembling sparkles, from the tranquil bosom of +the ocean. Virginia's eye wandered distractedly over its vast and gloomy +horizon, distinguishable from the shore of the island only by the red +fires in the fishing boats. She perceived at the entrance of the harbour +a light and a shadow; these were the watchlight and the hull of the +vessel in which she was to embark for Europe, and which, all ready for +sea, lay at anchor, waiting for a breeze. Affected at this sight, she +turned away her head, in order to hide her tears from Paul. + +Madame de la Tour, Margaret, and I, were seated at a little distance, +beneath the plantain-trees; and, owing to the stillness of the night, we +distinctly heard their conversation, which I have not forgotten. + +Paul said to her,--"You are going away from us, they tell me, in three +days. You do not fear then to encounter the danger of the sea, at the +sight of which you are so much terrified?" "I must perform my duty," +answered Virginia, "by obeying my parent." "You leave us," resumed +Paul, "for a distant relation, whom you have never seen." "Alas!" cried +Virginia, "I would have remained here my whole life, but my mother would +not have it so. My confessor, too, told me it was the will of God that I +should go, and that life was a scene of trials!--and Oh! this is indeed +a severe one." + +"What!" exclaimed Paul, "you could find so many reasons for going, and +not one for remaining here! Ah! there is one reason for your departure +that you have not mentioned. Riches have great attractions. You will +soon find in the new world to which you are going, another, to whom you +will give the name of brother, which you bestow on me no more. You will +choose that brother from amongst persons who are worthy of you by their +birth, and by a fortune which I have not to offer. But where can you go +to be happier? On what shore will you land, and find it dearer to you +than the spot which gave you birth?--and where will you form around you +a society more delightful to you than this, by which you are so much +accustomed? What will become of her, already advanced in years, when +she no longer sees you at her side at table, in the house, in the walks, +where she used to lean upon you? What will become of my mother, who +loves you with the same affection? What shall I say to comfort them when +I see them weeping for your absence? Cruel Virginia! I say nothing to +you of myself; but what will become of me, when in the morning I shall +no more see you; when the evening will come, and not reunite us?--when +I shall gaze on these two palm trees, planted at our birth, and so +long the witnesses of our mutual friendship? Ah! since your lot is +changed,--since you seek in a far country other possessions than the +fruits of my labour, let me go with you in the vessel in which you +are about to embark. I will sustain your spirits in the midst of those +tempests which terrify you so much even on shore. I will lay my head +upon your bosom: I will warm your heart upon my own; and in France, +where you are going in search of fortune and of grandeur, I will wait +upon you as your slave. Happy only in your happiness, you will find +me, in those palaces where I shall see you receiving the homage and +adoration of all, rich and noble enough to make you the greatest of all +sacrifices, by dying at your feet." + +The violence of his emotions stopped his utterance, and we then heard +Virginia, who, in a voice broken by sobs, uttered these words:--"It is +for you that I go,--for you whom I see tired to death every day by the +labour of sustaining two helpless families. If I have accepted this +opportunity of becoming rich, it is only to return a thousand-fold +the good which you have done us. Can any fortune be equal to your +friendship? Why do you talk about your birth? Ah! if it were possible +for me still to have a brother, should I make choice of any other than +you? Oh, Paul, Paul! you are far dearer to me than a brother! How much +has it cost me to repulse you from me! Help me to tear myself from what +I value more than existence, till Heaven shall bless our union. But +I will stay or go,--I will live or die,--dispose of me as you will. +Unhappy that I am! I could have repelled your caresses; but I cannot +support your affliction." + +At these words Paul seized her in his arms, and, holding her pressed +close to his bosom, cried, in a piercing tone, "I will go with +her,--nothing shall ever part us." We all ran towards him; and Madame de +la Tour said to him, "My son, if you go, what will become of us?" + +He, trembling, repeated after her the words,--"My son!--my son! You my +mother!" cried he; "you, who would separate the brother from the sister! +We have both been nourished at your bosom; we have both been reared upon +your knees; we have learnt of you to love another; we have said so a +thousand times; and now you would separate her from me!--you would send +her to Europe, that inhospitable country which refused you an asylum, +and to relations by whom you yourself were abandoned. You will tell me +that I have no right over her, and that she is not my sister. She is +everything to me;--my riches, my birth, my family,--all that I have! I +know no other. We have had but one roof,--one cradle,--and we will have +but one grave! If she goes, I will follow her. The governor will prevent +me! Will he prevent me from flinging myself into the sea?--will he +prevent me from following her by swimming? The sea cannot be more fatal +to me than the land. Since I cannot live with her, at least I will +die before her eyes, far from you. Inhuman mother!--woman without +compassion!--may the ocean, to which you trust her, restore her to you +no more! May the waves, rolling back our bodies amid the shingles +of this beach, give you in the loss of your two children, an eternal +subject of remorse!" + +At these words, I seized him in my arms, for despair had deprived him +of reason. His eyes sparkled with fire, the perspiration fell in great +drops from his face; his knees trembled, and I felt his heart beat +violently against his burning bosom. + +Virginia, alarmed, said to him,--"Oh, my dear Paul, I call to witness +the pleasures of our early age, your griefs and my own, and every thing +that can for ever bind two unfortunate beings to each other, that if I +remain at home, I will live but for you; that if I go, I will one day +return to be yours. I call you all to witness;--you who have reared me +from my infancy, who dispose of my life, and who see my tears. I swear +by that Heaven which hears me, by the sea which I am going to pass, by +the air I breathe, and which I never sullied by a falsehood." + +As the sun softens and precipitates an icy rock from the summit of +one of the Appenines, so the impetuous passions of the young man were +subdued by the voice of her he loved. He bent his head, and a torrent of +tears fell from his eyes. His mother, mingling her tears with his, +held him in her arms, but was unable to speak. Madame de la Tour, half +distracted, said to me, "I can bear this no longer. My heart is quite +broken. This unfortunate voyage shall not take place. Do take my son +home with you. Not one of us has had any rest the whole week." + +I said to Paul, "My dear friend, your sister shall remain here. +To-morrow we will talk to the governor about it; leave your family to +take some rest, and come and pass the night with me. It is late; it is +midnight; the southern cross is just above the horizon." + +He suffered himself to be led away in silence; and, after a night of +great agitation, he arose at break of day, and returned home. + +But why should I continue any longer to you the recital of this history? +There is but one aspect of human pleasure. Like the globe upon which we +revolve, the fleeting course of life is but a day; and if one part of +that day be visited by light, the other is thrown into darkness. + +"My father," I answered, "finish, I conjure you, the history which you +have begun in a manner so interesting. If the images of happiness are +the most pleasing, those of misfortune are the more instructive. Tell me +what became of the unhappy young man." + +The first object beheld by Paul in his way home was the negro woman +Mary, who, mounted on a rock, was earnestly looking towards the sea. As +soon as he perceived her, he called to her from a distance,--"Where is +Virginia?" Mary turned her head towards her young master, and began to +weep. Paul, distracted, retracing his steps, ran to the harbour. He was +there informed, that Virginia had embarked at the break of day, and +that the vessel had immediately set sail, and was now out of sight. He +instantly returned to the plantation, which he crossed without uttering +a word. + +Quite perpendicular as appears the wall of rocks behind us, those green +platforms which separate their summits are so many stages, by means of +which you may reach, through some difficult paths, that cone of sloping +and inaccessible rocks, which is called The Thumb. At the foot of that +cone is an extended slope of ground, covered with lofty trees, and so +steep and elevated that it looks like a forest in the air, surrounded by +tremendous precipices. The clouds, which are constantly attracted round +the summit of the Thumb, supply innumerable rivulets, which fall to so +great a depth in the valley situated on the other side of the mountain, +that from this elevated point the sound of their cataracts cannot be +heard. From that spot you can discern a considerable part of the island, +diversified by precipices and mountain peaks, and amongst others, +Peter-Booth, and the Three Breasts, with their valleys full of woods. +You also command an extensive view of the ocean, and can even perceive +the Isle of Bourbon, forty leagues to the westward. From the summit of +that stupendous pile of rocks Paul caught sight of the vessel which was +bearing away Virginia, and which now, ten leagues out at sea, appeared +like a black spot in the midst of the ocean. He remained a great part of +the day with his eyes fixed upon this object: when it had disappeared, +he still fancied he beheld it; and when, at length, the traces which +clung to his imagination were lost in the mists of the horizon, he +seated himself on that wild point, forever beaten by the winds, which +never cease to agitate the tops of the cabbage and gum trees, and the +hoarse and moaning murmurs of which, similar to the distant sound of +organs, inspire a profound melancholy. On this spot I found him, his +head reclined on the rock, and his eyes fixed upon the ground. I had +followed him from the earliest dawn, and, after much importunity, I +prevailed on him to descend from the heights, and return to his family. +I went home with him, where the first impulse of his mind, on seeing +Madame de la Tour, was to reproach her bitterly for having deceived him. +She told us that a favourable wind having sprung up at three o'clock in +the morning, and the vessel being ready to sail, the governor, attended +by some of his staff and the missionary, had come with a palanquin to +fetch her daughter; and that, notwithstanding Virginia's objections, her +own tears and entreaties, and the lamentations of Margaret, every body +exclaiming all the time that it was for the general welfare, they had +carried her away almost dying. "At least," cried Paul, "if I had bid +her farewell, I should now be more calm. I would have said to +her,--'Virginia, if, during the time we have lived together, one word +may have escaped me which has offended you, before you leave me forever, +tell me that you forgive me.' I would have said to her,--'Since I am +destined to see you no more, farewell, my dear Virginia, farewell! Live +far from me, contented and happy!'" When he saw that his mother and +Madame de la Tour were weeping,--"You must now," said he, "seek some +other hand to wipe away your tears;" and then, rushing out of the house, +and groaning aloud, he wandered up and down the plantation. He hovered +in particular about those spots which had been most endeared to +Virginia. He said to the goats, and their little ones, which followed +him, bleating,--"What do you want of me? You will see with me no more +her who used to feed you with her own hand." He went to the bower called +Virginia's Resting-place, and, as the birds flew around him, exclaimed, +"Poor birds! you will fly no more to meet her who cherished you!"--and +observing Fidele running backwards and forwards in search of her, he +heaved a deep sigh, and cried,--"Ah! you will never find her again." +At length he went and seated himself upon a rock where he had conversed +with her the preceding evening; and at the sight of the ocean upon which +he had seen the vessel disappear which had borne her away, his heart +overflowed with anguish, and he wept bitterly. + +We continually watched his movements, apprehensive of some fatal +consequence from the violent agitation of his mind. His mother and +Madame de la Tour conjured him, in the most tender manner, not to +increase their affliction by his despair. At length the latter soothed +his mind by lavishing upon him epithets calculated to awaken his +hopes,--calling him her son, her dear son, her son-in-law, whom she +destined for her daughter. She persuaded him to return home, and to take +some food. He seated himself next to the place which used to be occupied +by the companion of his childhood; and, as if she had still been +present, he spoke to her, and made as though he would offer her whatever +he knew as most agreeable to her taste: then, starting from this +dream of fancy, he began to weep. For some days he employed himself in +gathering together every thing which had belonged to Virginia, the last +nosegays she had worn, the cocoa-shell from which she used to drink; and +after kissing a thousand times these relics of his beloved, to him the +most precious treasures which the world contained, he hid them in his +bosom. Amber does not shed so sweet a perfume as the veriest trifles +touched by those we love. At length, perceiving that the indulgence of +his grief increased that of his mother and Madame de la Tour, and that +the wants of the family demanded continual labour, he began, with the +assistance of Domingo, to repair the damage done to the garden. + +But, soon after, this young man, hitherto indifferent as a Creole to +every thing that was passing in the world, begged of me to teach him +to read and write, in order that he might correspond with Virginia. He +afterwards wished to obtain a knowledge of geography, that he might form +some idea of the country where she would disembark; and of history, that +he might know something of the manners of the society in which she would +be placed. The powerful sentiment of love, which directed his present +studies, had already instructed him in agriculture, and in the art of +laying out grounds with advantage and beauty. It must be admitted, that +to the fond dreams of this restless and ardent passion, mankind are +indebted for most of the arts and sciences, while its disappointments +have given birth to philosophy, which teaches us to bear up under +misfortune. Love, thus, the general link of all beings, becomes the +great spring of society, by inciting us to knowledge as well as to +pleasure. + +Paul found little satisfaction in the study of geography, which, instead +of describing the natural history of each country, gave only a view of +its political divisions and boundaries. History, and especially modern +history, interested him little more. He there saw only general and +periodical evils, the causes of which he could not discover; wars +without either motive or reason; uninteresting intrigues; with nations +destitute of principle, and princes void of humanity. To this branch +of reading he preferred romances, which, being chiefly occupied by the +feelings and concerns of men, sometimes represented situations similar +to his own. Thus, no book gave him so much pleasure as Telemachus, from +the pictures it draws of pastoral life, and of the passions which are +most natural to the human breast. He read aloud to his mother and Madame +de la Tour, those parts which affected him most sensibly; but sometimes, +touched by the most tender remembrances, his emotion would choke his +utterance, and his eyes be filled with tears. He fancied he had found +in Virginia the dignity and wisdom of Antiope, united to the misfortunes +and the tenderness of Eucharis. With very different sensations he +perused our fashionable novels, filled with licentious morals and +maxims, and when he was informed that these works drew a tolerably +faithful picture of European society, he trembled, and not without some +appearance of reason, lest Virginia should become corrupted by it, and +forget him. + +More than a year and a half, indeed, passed away before Madame de la +Tour received any tidings of her aunt or her daughter. During that +period she only accidently heard that Virginia had safely arrived in +France. At length, however, a vessel which stopped here on its way to +the Indies brought a packet to Madame de la Tour, and a letter written +by Virginia's own hand. Although this amiable and considerate girl +had written in a guarded manner that she might not wound her mother's +feelings, it appeared evident enough that she was unhappy. The letter +painted so naturally her situation and her character, that I have +retained it almost word for word. + +"MY DEAR AND BELOVED MOTHER, + +"I have already sent you several letters, written by my own hand, but +having received no answer, I am afraid they have not reached you. I have +better hopes for this, from the means I have now gained of sending you +tidings of myself, and of hearing from you. + +"I have shed many tears since our separation, I who never used to weep, +but for the misfortunes of others! My aunt was much astonished, when, +having, upon my arrival, inquired what accomplishments I possessed, I +told her that I could neither read nor write. She asked me what then I +had learnt, since I came into the world; and when I answered that I +had been taught to take care of the household affairs, and to obey your +will, she told me that I had received the education of a servant. The +next day she placed me as a boarder in a great abbey near Paris, where +I have masters of all kinds, who teach me, among other things, history, +geography, grammar, mathematics, and riding on horseback. But I have +so little capacity for all these sciences, that I fear I shall make but +small progress with my masters. I feel that I am a very poor creature, +with very little ability to learn what they teach. My aunt's kindness, +however, does not decrease. She gives me new dresses every season; and +she had placed two waiting women with me, who are dressed like fine +ladies. She has made me take the title of countess; but has obliged me +to renounce the name of LA TOUR, which is as dear to me as it is to you, +from all you have told me of the sufferings my father endured in order +to marry you. She has given me in place of your name that of your +family, which is also dear to me, because it was your name when a girl. +Seeing myself in so splendid a situation, I implored her to let me send +you something to assist you. But how shall I repeat her answer! Yet you +have desired me always to tell you the truth. She told me then that +a little would be of no use to you, and that a great deal would only +encumber you in the simple life you led. As you know I could not write, +I endeavoured upon my arrival, to send you tidings of myself by another +hand; but, finding no person here in whom I could place confidence, I +applied night and day to learn to read and write, and Heaven, who saw my +motive for learning, no doubt assisted my endeavours, for I succeeded in +both in a short time. I entrusted my first letters to some of the ladies +here, who, I have reason to think, carried them to my aunt. This time I +have recourse to a boarder, who is my friend. I send you her direction, +by means of which I shall receive your answer. My aunt has forbid me +holding any correspondence whatever, with any one, lest, she says, it +should occasion an obstacle to the great views she has for my advantage. +No person is allowed to see me at the grate but herself, and an old +nobleman, one of her friends, who, she says is much pleased with me. +I am sure I am not at all so with him, nor should I, even if it were +possible for me to be pleased with any one at present. + +"I live in all the splendour of affluence, and have not a sous at +my disposal. They say I might make an improper use of money. Even my +clothes belong to my femmes de chambre, who quarrel about them before I +have left them off. In the midst of riches I am poorer than when I lived +with you; for I have nothing to give away. When I found that the great +accomplishments they taught me would not procure me the power of doing +the smallest good, I had recourse to my needle, of which happily you had +taught me the use. I send several pairs of stockings of my own making +for you and my mamma Margaret, a cap for Domingo, and one of my red +handkerchiefs for Mary. I also send with this packet some kernels, and +seeds of various kinds of fruits which I gathered in the abbey park +during my hours of recreation. I have also sent a few seeds of violets, +daisies, buttercups, poppies and scabious, which I picked up in the +fields. There are much more beautiful flowers in the meadows of this +country than in ours, but nobody cares for them. I am sure that you and +my mamma Margaret will be better pleased with this bag of seeds, than +you were with the bag of piastres, which was the cause of our separation +and of my tears. It will give me great delight if you should one day +see apple trees growing by the side of our plantains, and elms blending +their foliage with that of our cocoa trees. You will fancy yourself in +Normandy, which you love so much. + +"You desired me to relate to you my joys and my griefs. I have no +joys far from you. As far as my griefs, I endeavour to soothe them by +reflecting that I am in the situation in which it was the will of God +that you should place me. But my greatest affliction is, that no one +here speaks to me of you, and that I cannot speak of you to any one. My +femmes de chambre, or rather those of my aunt, for they belong more +to her than to me, told me the other day, when I wished to turn the +conversation upon the objects most dear to me: 'Remember, mademoiselle, +that you are a French woman, and must forget that land of savages.' Ah! +sooner will I forget myself, than forget the spot on which I was +born and where you dwell! It is this country which is to me a land of +savages, for I live alone, having no one to whom I can impart those +feelings of tenderness for you which I shall bear with me to the grave. +I am, + +"My dearest and beloved mother, + +"Your affectionate and dutiful daughter, + +"VIRGINIE DE LA TOUR." + +"I recommend to your goodness Mary and Domingo, who took so much care of +my infancy; caress Fidele for me, who found me in the wood." + +Paul was astonished that Virginia had not said one word of him,--she, +who had not forgotten even the house-dog. But he was not aware that, +however long a woman's letter may be, she never fails to leave her +dearest sentiments for the end. + +In a postscript, Virginia particularly recommended to Paul's attention +two kinds of seed,--those of the violet and the scabious. She gave him +some instructions upon the natural characters of these flowers, and +the spots most proper for their cultivation. "The violet," she said, +"produces a little flower of a dark purple colour, which delights to +conceal itself beneath the bushes; but it is soon discovered by its +wide-spreading perfume." She desired that these seeds might be sown +by the border of the fountain, at the foot of her cocoa-tree. "The +scabious," she added, "produces a beautiful flower of a pale blue, and a +black ground spotted with white. You might fancy it was in mourning; and +for this reason it is also called the widow's flower. It grows best in +bleak spots, beaten by the winds." She begged him to sow this upon the +rock where she had spoken to him at night for the last time, and that, +in remembrance of her, he would henceforth give it the name of the Rock +of Adieus. + +She had put these seeds into a little purse, the tissue of which was +exceedingly simple; but which appeared above all price to Paul, when +he saw on it a P and a V entwined together, and knew that the beautiful +hair which formed the cypher was the hair of Virginia. + +The whole family listened with tears to the reading of the letter of +this amiable and virtuous girl. Her mother answered it in the name of +the little society, desiring her to remain or to return as she thought +proper; and assuring her, that happiness had left their dwelling since +her departure, and that, for herself, she was inconsolable. + +Paul also sent her a very long letter, in which he assured her that he +would arrange the garden in a manner agreeable to her taste, and mingle +together in it the plants of Europe with those of Africa, as she had +blended their initials together in her work. He sent her some fruit from +the cocoa-trees of the fountain, now arrived at maturity telling her, +that he would not add any of the other productions of the island, that +the desire of seeing them again might hasten her return. He conjured her +to comply as soon as possible with the ardent wishes of her family, and +above all, with his own, since he could never hereafter taste happiness +away from her. + +Paul sowed with a careful hand the European seeds, particularly the +violet and the scabious, the flowers of which seemed to bear some +analogy to the character and present situation of Virginia, by whom they +had been so especially recommended; but either they were dried up in +the voyage, or the climate of this part of the world is unfavourable to +their growth, for a very small number of them even came up, and not one +arrived at full perfection. + +In the meantime, envy, which ever comes to embitter human happiness, +particularly in the French colonies, spread some reports in the island +which gave Paul much uneasiness. The passengers in the vessel which +brought Virginia's letter, asserted that she was upon the point of being +married, and named the nobleman of the court to whom she was engaged. +Some even went so far as to declare that the union had already taken +place, and that they themselves had witnessed the ceremony. Paul at +first despised the report, brought by a merchant vessel, as he knew that +they often spread erroneous intelligence in their passage; but some of +the inhabitants of the island, with malignant pity, affecting to bewail +the event, he was soon led to attach some degree of belief to this cruel +intelligence. Besides, in some of the novels he had lately read, he had +seen that perfidy was treated as a subject of pleasantry; and knowing +that these books contained pretty faithful representations of European +manners, he feared that the heart of Virginia was corrupted, and had +forgotten its former engagements. Thus his new acquirements had already +only served to render him more miserable; and his apprehensions were +much increased by the circumstance, that though several ships touched +here from Europe, within the six months immediately following the +arrival of her letter, not one of them brought any tidings of Virginia. + +This unfortunate young man, with a heart torn by the most cruel +agitation, often came to visit me, in the hope of confirming or +banishing his uneasiness, by my experience of the world. + +I live, as I have already told you, a league and a half from this +point, upon the banks of a little river which glides along the Sloping +Mountain: there I lead a solitary life, without wife, children, or +slaves. + +After having enjoyed, and lost the rare felicity of living with a +congenial mind, the state of life which appears the least wretched is +doubtless that of solitude. Every man who has much cause of complaint +against his fellow-creatures seeks to be alone. It is also remarkable +that all those nations which have been brought to wretchedness by their +opinions, their manners, or their forms of government, have produced +numerous classes of citizens altogether devoted to solitude and +celibacy. Such were the Egyptians in their decline, and the Greeks of +the Lower Empire; and such in our days are the Indians, the Chinese, +the modern Greeks, the Italians, and the greater part of the eastern and +southern nations of Europe. Solitude, by removing men from the miseries +which follow in the train of social intercourse, brings them in some +degree back to the unsophisticated enjoyment of nature. In the midst of +modern society, broken up by innumerable prejudices, the mind is in a +constant turmoil of agitation. It is incessantly revolving in itself a +thousand tumultuous and contradictory opinions, by which the members of +an ambitious and miserable circle seek to raise themselves above each +other. But in solitude the soul lays aside the morbid illusions which +troubled her, and resumes the pure consciousness of herself, of nature, +and of its Author, as the muddy water of a torrent which has ravaged the +plains, coming to rest, and diffusing itself over some low grounds out +of its course, deposits there the slime it has taken up, and, resuming +its wonted transparency, reflects, with its own shores, the verdure of +the earth and the light of heaven. Thus does solitude recruit the powers +of the body as well as those of the mind. It is among hermits that are +found the men who carry human existence to its extreme limits; such +are the Bramins of India. In brief, I consider solitude so necessary to +happiness, even in the world itself, that it appears to me impossible +to derive lasting pleasure from any pursuit whatever, or to regulate +our conduct by any pursuit whatever, or to regulate our conduct by +any stable principle, if we do not create for ourselves a mental void, +whence our own views rarely emerge, and into which the opinions +of others never enter. I do not mean to say that man ought to live +absolutely alone; he is connected by his necessities with all mankind; +his labours are due to man: and he owes something too to the rest of +nature. But, as God has given to each of us organs perfectly adapted to +the elements of the globe on which we live,--feet for the soil, lungs +for the air, eyes for the light, without the power of changing the use +of any of these faculties, he has reserved for himself, as the Author of +life, that which is its chief organ,--the heart. + +I thus passed my days far from mankind, whom I wished to serve, and by +whom I have been persecuted. After having travelled over many countries +of Europe, and some parts of America and Africa, I at length pitched my +tent in this thinly-peopled island, allured by its mild climate and its +solitudes. A cottage which I built in the woods, at the foot of a tree, +a little field which I cleared with my own hands, a river which glides +before my door, suffice for my wants and for my pleasures. I blend with +these enjoyments the perusal of some chosen books, which teach me to +become better. They make that world, which I have abandoned, still +contribute something to my happiness. They lay before me pictures of +those passions which render its inhabitants so miserable; and in the +comparison I am thus led to make between their lot and my own, I feel a +kind of negative enjoyment. Like a man saved from shipwreck, and thrown +upon a rock, I contemplate, from my solitude, the storms which rage +through the rest of the world; and my repose seems more profound from +the distant sound of the tempest. As men have ceased to fall in my way, +I no longer view them with aversion; I only pity them. If I sometimes +fall in with an unfortunate being, I try to help him by my counsels, as +a passer-by on the brink of a torrent extends his hand to save a +wretch from drowning. But I have hardly ever found any but the innocent +attentive to my voice. Nature calls the majority of men to her in vain. +Each of them forms an image of her for himself, and invests her with his +own passions. He pursues during the whole of his life this vain phantom, +which leads him astray; and he afterwards complains to Heaven of the +misfortunes which he has thus created for himself. Among the many +children of misfortune whom I have endeavoured to lead back to the +enjoyments of nature, I have not found one but was intoxicated with his +own miseries. They have listened to me at first with attention, in the +hope that I could teach them how to acquire glory or fortune, but when +they found that I only wished to instruct them how to dispense with +these chimeras, their attention has been converted into pity, because I +did not prize their miserable happiness. They blamed my solitary life; +they alleged that they alone were useful to men, and they endeavoured to +draw me into their vortex. But if I communicate with all, I lay myself +open to none. It is often sufficient for me to serve as a lesson to +myself. In my present tranquillity, I pass in review the agitating +pursuits of my past life, to which I formerly attached so much +value,--patronage, fortune, reputation, pleasure, and the opinions which +are ever at strife over all the earth. I compare the men whom I have +seen disputing furiously over these vanities, and who are no more, to +the tiny waves of my rivulet, which break in foam against its rocky +bed, and disappear, never to return. As for me, I suffer myself to +float calmly down the stream of time to the shoreless ocean of futurity; +while, in the contemplation of the present harmony of nature, I elevate +my soul towards its supreme Author, and hope for a more happy lot in +another state of existence. + +Although you cannot descry from my hermitage, situated in the midst of +a forest, that immense variety of objects which this elevated spot +presents, the grounds are disposed with peculiar beauty, at least to +one who, like me, prefers the seclusion of a home scene to great and +extensive prospects. The river which glides before my door passes in a +straight line across the woods, looking like a long canal shaded by all +kinds of trees. Among them are the gum tree, the ebony tree, and that +which is here called bois de pomme, with olive and cinnamon-wood trees; +while in some parts the cabbage-palm trees raise their naked stems +more than a hundred feet high, their summits crowned with a cluster of +leaves, and towering above the woods like one forest piled upon another. +Lianas, of various foliage, intertwining themselves among the trees, +form, here, arcades of foliage, there, long canopies of verdure. Most +of these trees shed aromatic odours so powerful, that the garments of a +traveller, who has passed through the forest, often retain for hours the +most delicious fragrance. In the season when they produce their lavish +blossoms, they appear as if half-covered with snow. Towards the end +of summer, various kinds of foreign birds hasten, impelled by some +inexplicable instinct, from unknown regions on the other side of immense +oceans, to feed upon the grain and other vegetable productions of the +island; and the brilliancy of their plumage forms a striking contrast to +the more sombre tints of the foliage embrowned by the sun. Among these +are various kinds of parroquets, and the blue pigeon, called here the +pigeon of Holland. Monkeys, the domestic inhabitants of our forests, +sport upon the dark branches of the trees, from which they are easily +distinguished by their gray and greenish skin, and their black visages. +Some hang, suspended by the tail, and swing themselves in air; others +leap from branch to branch, bearing their young in their arms. The +murderous gun has never affrighted these peaceful children of nature. +You hear nothing but sounds of joy,--the warblings and unknown notes of +birds from the countries of the south, repeated from a distance by the +echoes of the forest. The river, which pours, in foaming eddies, over +a bed of rocks, through the midst of the woods, reflects here and there +upon its limpid waters their venerable masses of verdure and of shade, +along with the sports of their happy inhabitants. About a thousand paces +from thence it forms several cascades, clear as crystal in their fall, +but broken at the bottom into frothy surges. Innumerable confused sounds +issue from these watery tumults, which, borne by the winds across the +forest, now sink in distance, now all at once swell out, booming on the +ear like the bells of a cathedral. The air, kept ever in motion by +the running water, preserves upon the banks of the river, amid all the +summer heats, a freshness and verdure rarely found in this island, even +on the summits of the mountains. + +At some distance from this place is a rock, placed far enough from the +cascade to prevent the ear from being deafened with the noise of its +waters, and sufficiently near for the enjoyment of seeing it, of feeling +its coolness, and hearing its gentle murmurs. Thither, amidst the heats +of summer, Madame de la Tour, Margaret, Virginia, Paul, and myself, +sometimes repaired, to dine beneath the shadow of this rock. Virginia, +who always, in her most ordinary actions, was mindful of the good of +others, never ate of any fruit in the fields without planting the seed +or kernel in the ground. "From this," said she, "trees will come, which +will yield their fruit to some traveller, or at least to some bird." +One day, having eaten of the papaw fruit at the foot of that rock, she +planted the seeds on the spot. Soon after, several papaw trees sprang +up, among which was one with female blossoms, that is to say, a +fruit-bearing tree. This tree, at the time of Virginia's departure, was +scarcely as high as her knee; but, as it is a plant of rapid growth, in +the course of two years it had gained the height of twenty feet, and +the upper part of its stem was encircled by several rows of ripe fruit. +Paul, wandering accidentally to the spot, was struck with delight at +seeing this lofty tree, which had been planted by his beloved; but the +emotion was transient, and instantly gave place to a deep melancholy, +at this evidence of her long absence. The objects which are habitually +before us do not bring to our minds an adequate idea of the rapidity of +life; they decline insensibly with ourselves: but it is those we behold +again, that most powerfully impress us with a feeling of the swiftness +with which the tide of life flows on. Paul was no less over-whelmed and +affected at the sight of this great papaw tree, loaded with fruit, than +is the traveller when, after a long absence from his own country, he +finds his contemporaries no more, but their children, whom he left at +the breast, themselves now become fathers of families. Paul sometimes +thought of cutting down the tree, which recalled too sensibly the +distracting remembrance of Virginia's prolonged absence. At other times, +contemplating it as a monument of her benevolence, he kissed its trunk, +and apostrophized it in terms of the most passionate regret. Indeed, +I have myself gazed upon it with more emotion and more veneration than +upon the triumphal arches of Rome. May nature, which every day destroys +the monuments of kingly ambition, multiply in our forests those which +testify the beneficence of a poor young girl! + +At the foot of this papaw tree I was always sure to meet with Paul when +he came into our neighbourhood. One day, I found him there absorbed in +melancholy and a conversation took place between us, which I will relate +to you, if I do not weary you too much by my long digressions; they are +perhaps pardonable to my age and to my last friendships. I will relate +it to you in the form of a dialogue, that you may form some idea of the +natural good sense of this young man. You will easily distinguish the +speakers, from the character of his questions and of my answers. + +_Paul._--I am very unhappy. Mademoiselle de la Tour has now been gone +two years and eight months and a half. She is rich, and I am poor; +she has forgotten me. I have a great mind to follow her. I will go +to France; I will serve the king; I will make my fortune; and then +Mademoiselle de la Tour's aunt will bestow her niece upon me when I +shall have become a great lord. + +_The Old Man._--But, my dear friend, have not you told me that you are +not of noble birth? + +_Paul._--My mother has told me so; but, as for myself, I know not what +noble birth means. I never perceived that I had less than others, or +that others had more than I. + +_The Old Man._--Obscure birth, in France, shuts every door of access to +great employments; nor can you even be received among any distinguished +body of men, if you labour under this disadvantage. + +_Paul._--You have often told me that it was one source of the greatness +of France that her humblest subject might attain the highest honours; +and you have cited to me many instances of celebrated men who, born in +a mean condition, had conferred honour upon their country. It was your +wish, then, by concealing the truth to stimulate my ardour? + +_The Old Man._--Never, my son, would I lower it. I told you the truth +with regard to the past; but now, every thing has undergone a great +change. Every thing in France is now to be obtained by interest alone; +every place and employment is now become as it were the patrimony of a +small number of families, or is divided among public bodies. The king +is a sun, and the nobles and great corporate bodies surround him like so +many clouds; it is almost impossible for any of his rays to reach you. +Formerly, under less exclusive administrations, such phenomena have been +seen. Then talents and merit showed themselves every where, as newly +cleared lands are always loaded with abundance. But great kings, who can +really form a just estimate of men, and choose them with judgment, are +rare. The ordinary race of monarchs allow themselves to be guided by the +nobles and people who surround them. + +_Paul._--But perhaps I shall find one of these nobles to protect me. + +_The Old Man._--To gain the protection of the great you must lend +yourself to their ambition, and administer to their pleasures. You would +never succeed; for, in addition to your obscure birth, you have too much +integrity. + +_Paul._--But I will perform such courageous actions, I will be so +faithful to my word, so exact in the performance of my duties, so +zealous and so constant in my friendships, that I will render myself +worthy to be adopted by some one of them. In the ancient histories, you +have made me read, I have seen many examples of such adoptions. + +_The Old Man._--Oh, my young friend! among the Greeks and Romans, even +in their decline, the nobles had some respect for virtue; but out of +all the immense number of men, sprung from the mass of the people, in +France, who have signalized themselves in every possible manner, I +do not recollect a single instance of one being adopted by any great +family. If it were not for our kings, virtue, in our country, would +be eternally condemned as plebeian. As I said before, the monarch +sometimes, when he perceives it, renders to it due honour; but in the +present day, the distinctions which should be bestowed on merit are +generally to be obtained by money alone. + +_Paul._--If I cannot find a nobleman to adopt me, I will seek to please +some public body. I will espouse its interests and its opinions: I will +make myself beloved by it. + +_The Old Man._--You will act then like other men?--you will renounce +your conscience to obtain a fortune? + +_Paul._--Oh no! I will never lend myself to any thing but the truth. + +_The Old Man._--Instead of making yourself beloved, you would become an +object of dislike. Besides, public bodies have never taken much interest +in the discovery of truth. All opinions are nearly alike to ambitious +men, provided only that they themselves can gain their ends. + +_Paul._--How unfortunate I am! Every thing bars my progress. I am +condemned to pass my life in ignoble toil, far from Virginia. + +As he said this he sighed deeply. + +_The Old Man._--Let God be your patron, and mankind the public body +you would serve. Be constantly attached to them both. Families, +corporations, nations and kings have, all of them, their prejudices and +their passions; it is often necessary to serve them by the practice of +vice: God and mankind at large require only the exercise of the virtues. + +But why do you wish to be distinguished from other men? It is hardly a +natural sentiment, for, if all men possessed it, every one would be at +constant strife with his neighbour. Be satisfied with fulfilling your +duty in the station in which Providence has placed you; be grateful for +your lot, which permits you to enjoy the blessing of a quiet conscience, +and which does not compel you, like the great, to let your happiness +rest on the opinion of the little, or, like the little, to cringe to the +great, in order to obtain the means of existence. You are now placed +in a country and a condition in which you are not reduced to deceive or +flatter any one, or debase yourself, as the greater part of those who +seek their fortune in Europe are obliged to do; in which the exercise +of no virtue is forbidden you; in which you may be, with impunity, good, +sincere, well-informed, patient, temperate, chaste, indulgent to others' +faults, pious and no shaft of ridicule be aimed at you to destroy your +wisdom, as yet only in its bud. Heaven has given you liberty, health, a +good conscience, and friends; kings themselves, whose favour you desire, +are not so happy. + +_Paul._--Ah! I only want to have Virginia with me: without her I have +nothing,--with her, I should possess all my desire. She alone is to me +birth, glory, and fortune. But, since her relations will only give her +to some one with a great name, I will study. By the aid of study and of +books, learning and celebrity are to be attained. I will become a man of +science: I will render my knowledge useful to the service of my country, +without injuring any one, or owning dependence on any one. I will become +celebrated, and my glory shall be achieved only by myself. + +_The Old Man._--My son, talents are a gift yet more rare than either +birth or riches, and undoubtedly they are a greater good than either, +since they can never be taken away from us, and that they obtain for +us every where public esteem. But they may be said to be worth all +that they cost us. They are seldom acquired but by every species of +privation, by the possession of exquisite sensibility, which often +produces inward unhappiness, and which exposes us without to the malice +and persecutions of our contemporaries. The lawyer envies not, in +France, the glory of the soldier, nor does the soldier envy that of the +naval officer; but they will all oppose you, and bar your progress to +distinction, because your assumption of superior ability will wound +the self-love of them all. You say that you will do good to men; but +recollect, that he who makes the earth produce a single ear of corn +more, renders them a greater service than he who writes a book. + +_Paul._--Oh! she, then, who planted this papaw tree, has made a more +useful and more grateful present to the inhabitants of these forests +than if she had given them a whole library. + +So saying, he threw his arms around the tree, and kissed it with +transport. + +_The Old Man._--The best of books,--that which preaches nothing but +equality, brotherly love, charity, and peace,--the Gospel, has served as +a pretext, during many centuries, for Europeans to let loose all their +fury. How many tyrannies, both public and private, are still practised +in its name on the face of the earth! After this, who will dare to +flatter himself that any thing he can write will be of service to his +fellow men? Remember the fate of most of the philosophers who have +preached to them wisdom. Homer, who clothes it in such noble verse, +asked for alms all his life. Socrates, whose conversation and example +gave such admirable lessons to the Athenians, was sentenced by them to +be poisoned. His sublime disciple, Plato was delivered over to slavery +by the order of the very prince who protected him; and, before them, +Pythagoras, whose humanity extended even to animals, was burned alive +by the Crotoniates. What do I say?--many even of these illustrious names +have descended to us disfigured by some traits of satire by which +they became characterized, human ingratitude taking pleasure in thus +recognising them; and if, in the crowd, the glory of some names is come +down to us without spot or blemish, we shall find that they who have +borne them have lived far from the society of their contemporaries; +like those statues which are found entire beneath the soil in Greece +and Italy, and which, by being hidden in the bosom of the earth, have +escaped uninjured, from the fury of the barbarians. + +You see, then, that to acquire the glory which a turbulent literary +career can give you, you must not only be virtuous, but ready, if +necessary, to sacrifice life itself. But, after all, do not fancy that +the great in France trouble themselves about such glory as this. Little +do they care for literary men, whose knowledge brings them neither +honours, nor power, nor even admission at court. Persecution, it +is true, is rarely practised in this age, because it is habitually +indifferent to every thing except wealth and luxury; but knowledge and +virtue no longer lead to distinction, since every thing in the state +is to be purchased with money. Formerly, men of letters were certain +of reward by some place in the church, the magistracy, or the +administration; now they are considered good for nothing but to write +books. But this fruit of their minds, little valued by the world at +large, is still worthy of its celestial origin. For these books +is reserved the privilege of shedding lustre on obscure virtue, of +consoling the unhappy, of enlightening nations, and of telling the truth +even to kings. This is, unquestionably, the most august commission with +which Heaven can honour a mortal upon this earth. Where is the author +who would not be consoled for the injustice or contempt of those who are +the dispensers of the ordinary gifts of fortune, when he reflects that +his work may pass from age to age, from nation to nation, opposing a +barrier to error and to tyranny; and that, from amidst the obscurity +in which he has lived, there will shine forth a glory which will efface +that of the common herd of monarchs, the monuments of whose deeds perish +in oblivion, notwithstanding the flatterers who erect and magnify them? + +_Paul._--Ah! I am only covetous of glory to bestow it on Virginia, and +render her dear to the whole world. But can you, who know so much, tell +me whether we shall ever be married? I should like to be a very learned +man, if only for the sake of knowing what will come to pass. + +_The Old Man._--Who would live, my son, if the future were revealed +to him?--when a single anticipated misfortune gives us so much useless +uneasiness--when the foreknowledge of one certain calamity is enough +to embitter every day that precedes it! It is better not to pry too +curiously, even into the things which surround us. Heaven, which has +given us the power of reflection to foresee our necessities, gave us +also those very necessities to set limits to its exercise. + +_Paul._--You tell me that with money people in Europe acquire dignities +and honours. I will go, then, to enrich myself in Bengal, and afterwards +proceed to Paris, and marry Virginia. I will embark at once. + +_The Old Man._--What! would you leave her mother and yours? + +_Paul._--Why, you yourself have advised my going to the Indies. + +_The Old Man._--Virginia was then here; but you are now the only means +of support both of her mother and of your own. + +_Paul._--Virginia will assist them by means of her rich relation. + +_The Old Man._--The rich care little for those, from whom no honour is +reflected upon themselves in the world. Many of them have relations +much more to be pitied than Madame de la Tour, who, for want of their +assistance, sacrifice their liberty for bread, and pass their lives +immured within the walls of a convent. + +_Paul._--Oh, what a country is Europe! Virginia must come back here. +What need has she of a rich relation? She was so happy in these huts; +she looked so beautiful and so well dressed with a red handkerchief or +a few flowers around her head! Return, Virginia! leave your sumptuous +mansions and your grandeur, and come back to these rocks,--to the shade +of these woods and of our cocoa trees. Alas! you are perhaps even now +unhappy!"--and he began to shed tears. "My father," continued he, "hide +nothing from me; if you cannot tell me whether I shall marry Virginia, +tell me at least if she loves me still, surrounded as she is by noblemen +who speak to the king, and who go to see her." + +_The Old Man._--Oh, my dear friend! I am sure, for many reasons, that +she loves you; but above all, because she is virtuous. At these words he +threw himself on my neck in a transport of joy. + +_Paul._--But do you think that the women of Europe are false, as they +are represented in the comedies and books which you have lent me? + +_The Old Man._--Women are false in those countries where men are +tyrants. Violence always engenders a disposition to deceive. + +_Paul._--In what way can men tyrannize over women? + +_The Old Man._--In giving them in marriage without consulting their +inclinations;--in uniting a young girl to an old man, or a woman of +sensibility to a frigid and indifferent husband. + +_Paul._--Why not join together those who are suited to each other,--the +young to the young, and lovers to those they love? + +_The Old Man._--Because few young men in France have property enough +to support them when they are married, and cannot acquire it till the +greater part of their life is passed. While young, they seduce the wives +of others, and when they are old, they cannot secure the affections of +their own. At first, they themselves are deceivers: and afterwards, they +are deceived in their turn. This is one of the reactions of that eternal +justice, by which the world is governed; an excess on one side is sure +to be balanced by one on the other. Thus, the greater part of Europeans +pass their lives in this twofold irregularity, which increases +everywhere in the same proportion that wealth is accumulated in the +hands of a few individuals. Society is like a garden, where shrubs +cannot grow if they are overshadowed by lofty trees; but there is this +wide difference between them,--that the beauty of a garden may result +from the admixture of a small number of forest trees, while the +prosperity of a state depends on the multitude and equality of its +citizens, and not on a small number of very rich men. + +_Paul._--But where is the necessity of being rich in order to marry? + +_The Old Man._--In order to pass through life in abundance, without +being obliged to work. + +_Paul._--But why not work? I am sure I work hard enough. + +_The Old Man._--In Europe, working with your hands is considered a +degradation; it is compared to the labour performed by a machine. The +occupation of cultivating the earth is the most despised of all. Even an +artisan is held in more estimation than a peasant. + +_Paul._--What! do you mean to say that the art which furnishes food for +mankind is despised in Europe? I hardly understand you. + +_The Old Man._--Oh! it is impossible for a person educated according to +nature to form an idea of the depraved state of society. It is easy to +form a precise notion of order, but not of disorder. Beauty, virtue, +happiness, have all their defined proportions; deformity, vice, and +misery have none. + +_Paul._--The rich then are always very happy! They meet with no +obstacles to the fulfilment of their wishes, and they can lavish +happiness on those whom they love. + +_The Old Man._--Far from it, my son! They are, for the most part +satiated with pleasure, for this very reason,--that it costs them no +trouble. Have you never yourself experienced how much the pleasure of +repose is increased by fatigue; that of eating, by hunger; or that of +drinking, by thirst? The pleasure also of loving and being loved is +only to be acquired by innumerable privations and sacrifices. Wealth, by +anticipating all their necessities, deprives its possessors of all these +pleasures. To this ennui, consequent upon satiety, may also be added +the pride which springs from their opulence, and which is wounded by +the most trifling privation, when the greatest enjoyments have ceased to +charm. The perfume of a thousand roses gives pleasure but for a moment; +but the pain occasioned by a single thorn endures long after the +infliction of the wound. A single evil in the midst of their pleasures +is to the rich like a thorn among flowers; to the poor, on the contrary, +one pleasure amidst all their troubles is a flower among a wilderness +of thorns; they have a most lively enjoyment of it. The effect of every +thing is increased by contrast; nature has balanced all things. Which +condition, after all, do you consider preferable,--to have scarcely any +thing to hope, and every thing to fear, or to have every thing to hope +and nothing to fear? The former condition is that of the rich, +the latter, that of the poor. But either of these extremes is with +difficulty supported by man, whose happiness consists in a middle +station of life, in union with virtue. + +_Paul._--What do you understand by virtue? + +_The Old Man._--To you, my son, who support your family by your labour, +it need hardly be defined. Virtue consists in endeavouring to do all the +good we can to others, with an ultimate intention of pleasing God alone. + +_Paul._--Oh! how virtuous, then, is Virginia! Virtue led her to seek for +riches, that she might practise benevolence. Virtue induced her to quit +this island, and virtue will bring her back to it. + +The idea of her speedy return firing the imagination of this young man, +all his anxieties suddenly vanished. Virginia, he was persuaded, had not +written, because she would soon arrive. It took so little time to come +from Europe with a fair wind! Then he enumerated the vessels which had +made this passage of four thousand five hundred leagues in less than +three months; and perhaps the vessel in which Virginia had embarked +might not be more than two. Ship-builders were now so ingenious, and +sailors were so expert! He then talked to me of the arrangements he +intended to make for her reception, of the new house he would build for +her, and of the pleasures and surprises which he would contrive for her +every day, when she was his wife. His wife! The idea filled him with +ecstasy. "At least, my dear father," said he, "you shall then do no more +work than you please. As Virginia will be rich, we shall have plenty of +negroes, and they shall work for you. You shall always live with us, and +have no other care than to amuse yourself and be happy;"--and, his heart +throbbing with joy, he flew to communicate these exquisite anticipations +to his family. + +In a short time, however, these enchanting hopes were succeeded by the +most cruel apprehensions. It is always the effect of violent passions to +throw the soul into opposite extremes. Paul returned the next day to my +dwelling, overwhelmed with melancholy, and said to me,--"I hear nothing +from Virginia. Had she left Europe she would have written me word of her +departure. Ah! the reports which I have heard concerning her are but +too well founded. Her aunt has married her to some great lord. She, +like others, has been undone by the love of riches. In those books which +paint women so well, virtue is treated but as a subject of romance. If +Virginia had been virtuous, she would never have forsaken her mother +and me. I do nothing but think of her, and she has forgotten me. I am +wretched, and she is diverting herself. The thought distracts me; I +cannot bear myself! Would to Heaven that war were declared in India! I +would go there and die." + +"My son," I answered, "that courage which prompts us to court death is +but the courage of a moment, and is often excited by the vain applause +of men, or by the hopes of posthumous renown. There is another +description of courage, rarer and more necessary, which enables us to +support, without witness and without applause, the vexations of life; +this virtue is patience. Relying for support, not upon the opinions +of others, or the impulse of the passions, but upon the will of God, +patience is the courage of virtue." + +"Ah!" cried he, "I am then without virtue! Every thing overwhelms me +and drives me to despair."--"Equal, constant, and invariable virtue," +I replied, "belongs not to man. In the midst of the many passions which +agitate us, our reason is disordered and obscured: but there is an +everburning lamp, at which we can rekindle its flame; and that is, +literature. + +"Literature, my dear son, is the gift of Heaven, a ray of that wisdom by +which the universe is governed, and which man, inspired by a celestial +intelligence, has drawn down to earth. Like the rays of the sun, it +enlightens us, it rejoices us, it warms us with a heavenly flame, and +seems, in some sort, like the element of fire, to bend all nature to +our use. By its means we are enabled to bring around us all things, all +places, all men, and all times. It assists us to regulate our manners +and our life. By its aid, too, our passions are calmed, vice is +suppressed, and virtue encouraged by the memorable examples of great and +good men which it has handed down to us, and whose time-honoured images +it ever brings before our eyes. Literature is a daughter of Heaven who +has descended upon earth to soften and to charm away all the evils of +the human race. The greatest writers have ever appeared in the worst +times,--in times in which society can hardly be held together,--the +times of barbarism and every species of depravity. My son, literature +has consoled an infinite number of men more unhappy than yourself: +Xenophon, banished from his country after having saved to her ten +thousand of her sons; Scipio Africanus, wearied to death by the +calumnies of the Romans; Lucullus, tormented by their cabals; and +Catinat, by the ingratitude of a court. The Greeks, with their +never-failing ingenuity, assigned to each of the Muses a portion of the +great circle of human intelligence for her especial superintendence; +we ought in the same manner, to give up to them the regulation of our +passions, to bring them under proper restraint. Literature in this +imaginative guise, would thus fulfil, in relation to the powers of +the soul, the same functions as the Hours, who yoked and conducted the +chariot of the Sun. + +"Have recourse to your books, then, my son. The wise who have written +before our days are travellers who have preceded us in the paths of +misfortune, and who stretch out a friendly hand towards us, and invite +us to join in their society, when we are abandoned by every thing else. +A good book is a good friend." + +"Ah!" cried Paul, "I stood in no need of books when Virginia was here, +and she had studied as little as myself; but when she looked at me, and +called me her friend, I could not feel unhappy." + +"Undoubtedly," said I, "there is no friend so agreeable as a mistress +by whom we are beloved. There is, moreover, in woman a liveliness and +gaiety, which powerfully tend to dissipate the melancholy feelings of a +man; her presence drives away the dark phantoms of imagination produced +by over-reflection. Upon her countenance sit soft attraction and tender +confidence. What joy is not heightened when it is shared by her? What +brow is not unbent by her smiles? What anger can resist her tears? +Virginia will return with more philosophy than you, and will be quite +surprised to find the garden so unfinished;--she who could think of its +embellishments in spite of all the persecutions of her aunt, and when +far from her mother and from you." + +The idea of Virginia's speedy return reanimated the drooping spirits of +her lover, and he resumed his rural occupations, happy amidst his toils, +in the reflection that they would soon find a termination so dear to the +wishes of his heart. + +One morning, at break of day, (it was the 24th of December, 1744,) +Paul, when he arose, perceived a white flag hoisted upon the Mountain +of Discovery. This flag he knew to be the signal of a vessel descried at +sea. He instantly flew to the town to learn if this vessel brought any +tidings of Virginia, and waited there till the return of the pilot, +who was gone, according to custom, to board the ship. The pilot did not +return till the evening, when he brought the governor information that +the signalled vessel was the Saint-Geran, of seven hundred tons burthen, +and commanded by a captain of the name of Aubin; that she was now +four leagues out at sea, but would probably anchor at Port Louis the +following afternoon, if the wind became fair: at present there was a +calm. The pilot then handed to the governor a number of letters which +the Saint-Geran had brought from France, among which was one addressed +to Madame de la Tour, in the hand-writing of Virginia. Paul seized upon +the letter, kissed it with transport, and placing it in his bosom, flew +to the plantation. No sooner did he perceive from a distance the family, +who were awaiting his return upon the rock of Adieus than he waved the +letter aloft in the air, without being able to utter a word. No sooner +was the seal broken, than they all crowded round Madame de la Tour, +to hear the letter read. Virginia informed her mother that she had +experienced much ill-usage from her aunt, who, after having in vain +urged her to a marriage against her inclination, had disinherited +her, and had sent her back at a time when she would probably reach +the Mauritius during the hurricane season. In vain, she added, had she +endeavoured to soften her aunt, by representing what she owed to her +mother, and to her early habits; she was treated as a romantic girl, +whose head had been turned by novels. She could now only think of the +joy of again seeing and embracing her beloved family, and would have +gratified her ardent desire at once, by landing in the pilot's boat, if +the captain had allowed her: but that he had objected, on account of the +distance, and of a heavy swell, which, notwithstanding the calm, reigned +in the open sea. + +As soon as the letter was finished, the whole of the family, transported +with joy, repeatedly exclaimed, "Virginia is arrived!" and mistresses +and servants embraced each other. Madame de la Tour said to Paul,--"My +son, go and inform our neighbour of Virginia's arrival." Domingo +immediately lighted a torch of bois de ronde, and he and Paul bent their +way towards my dwelling. + +It was about ten o'clock at night, and I was just going to extinguish my +lamp, and retire to rest, when I perceived, through the palisades round +my cottage, a light in the woods. Soon after, I heard the voice of Paul +calling me. I instantly arose, and had hardly dressed myself, when +Paul, almost beside himself, and panting for breath, sprang on my neck, +crying,--"Come along, come along. Virginia is arrived. Let us go to the +port; the vessel will anchor at break of day." + +Scarcely had he uttered the words, when we set off. As we were passing +through the woods of the Sloping Mountain, and were already on the +road which leads from the Shaddock Grove to the port, I heard some one +walking behind us. It proved to be a negro, and he was advancing with +hasty steps. When he had reached us, I asked him whence he came, and +whither he was going with such expedition. He answered, "I come from +that part of the island called Golden Dust; and am sent to the port, to +inform the governor that a ship from France has anchored under the Isle +of Amber. She is firing guns of distress, for the sea is very rough." +Having said this, the man left us, and pursued his journey without any +further delay. + +I then said to Paul,--"Let us go towards the quarter of the Golden Dust, +and meet Virginia there. It is not more than three leagues from hence." +We accordingly bent our course towards the northern part of the island. +The heat was suffocating. The moon had risen, and was surrounded by +three large black circles. A frightful darkness shrouded the sky; but +the frequent flashes of lightning discovered to us long rows of thick +and gloomy clouds, hanging very low, and heaped together over the centre +of the island, being driven in with great rapidity from the ocean, +although not a breath of air was perceptible upon the land. As we walked +along, we thought we heard peals of thunder; but, on listening more +attentively, we perceived that it was the sound of cannon at a distance, +repeated by the echoes. These ominous sounds, joined to the tempestuous +aspect of the heavens, made me shudder. I had little doubt of their +being signals of distress from a ship in danger. In about half an hour +the firing ceased, and I found the silence still more appalling than the +dismal sounds which had preceded it. + +We hastened on without uttering a word, or daring to communicate to +each other our mutual apprehensions. At midnight, by great exertion, we +arrived at the sea shore, in that part of the island called Golden +Dust. The billows were breaking against the bench with a horrible noise, +covering the rocks and the strand with foam of a dazzling whiteness, +blended with sparks of fire. By these phosphoric gleams we +distinguished, notwithstanding the darkness, a number of fishing canoes, +drawn up high upon the beach. + +At the entrance of a wood, a short distance from us, we saw a fire, +round which a party of the inhabitants were assembled. We repaired +thither, in order to rest ourselves till the morning. While we were +seated near the fire, one of the standers-by related, that late in +the afternoon he had seen a vessel in the open sea, driven towards the +island by the currents; that the night had hidden it from his view; and +that two hours after sunset he had heard the firing of signal guns +of distress, but that the surf was so high, that it was impossible to +launch a boat to go off to her; that a short time after, he thought he +perceived the glimmering of the watch-lights on board the vessel, which, +he feared, by its having approached so near the coast, had steered +between the main land and the little island of Amber, mistaking the +latter for the Point of Endeavour, near which vessels pass in order to +gain Port Louis; and that, if this were the case, which, however, he +would not take upon himself to be certain of, the ship, he thought, +was in very great danger. Another islander informed us, that he had +frequently crossed the channel which separates the isle of Amber from +the coast, and had sounded it, that the anchorage was very good, and +that the ship would there lie as safely as in the best harbour. "I +would stake all I am worth upon it," said he, "and if I were on board, +I should sleep as sound as on shore." A third bystander declared that +it was impossible for the ship to enter that channel, which was scarcely +navigable for a boat. He was certain, he said, that he had seen the +vessel at anchor beyond the isle of Amber; so that, if the wind rose +in the morning, she would either put to sea, or gain the harbour. +Other inhabitants gave different opinions upon this subject, which +they continued to discuss in the usual desultory manner of the indolent +Creoles. Paul and I observed a profound silence. We remained on this +spot till break of day, but the weather was too hazy to admit of our +distinguishing any object at sea, every thing being covered with fog. +All we could descry to seaward was a dark cloud, which they told us was +the isle of Amber, at the distance of a quarter of a league from the +coast. On this gloomy day we could only discern the point of land on +which we were standing, and the peaks of some inland mountains, which +started out occasionally from the midst of the clouds that hung around +them. + +At about seven in the morning we heard the sound of drums in the woods: +it announced the approach of the governor, Monsieur de la Bourdonnais, +who soon after arrived on horseback, at the head of a detachment of +soldiers armed with muskets, and a crowd of islanders and negroes. He +drew up his soldiers upon the beach, and ordered them to make a general +discharge. This was no sooner done, than we perceived a glimmering light +upon the water which was instantly followed by the report of a cannon. +We judged that the ship was at no great distance and all ran towards +that part whence the light and sound proceeded. We now discerned through +the fog the hull and yards of a large vessel. We were so near to her, +that notwithstanding the tumult of the waves, we could distinctly hear +the whistle of the boatswain, and the shouts of the sailors, who cried +out three times, VIVE LE ROI! this being the cry of the French in +extreme danger, as well as in exuberant joy;--as though they wished +to call their princes to their aid, or to testify to him that they are +prepared to lay down their lives in his service. + +As soon as the Saint-Geran perceived that we were near enough to render +her assistance, she continued to fire guns regularly at intervals of +three minutes. Monsieur de la Bourdonnais caused great fires to be +lighted at certain distances upon the strand, and sent to all the +inhabitants of the neighbourhood, in search of provisions, planks, +cables, and empty barrels. A number of people soon arrived, accompanied +by their negroes loaded with provisions and cordage, which they had +brought from the plantations of Golden Dust, from the district of La +Flaque, and from the river of the Ram part. One of the most aged of +these planters, approaching the governor, said to him,--"We have heard +all night hollow noises in the mountain; in the woods, the leaves of the +trees are shaken, although there is no wind; the sea-birds seek refuge +upon the land: it is certain that all these signs announce a hurricane." +"Well, my friends," answered the governor, "we are prepared for it, and +no doubt the vessel is also." + +Every thing, indeed, presaged the near approach of the hurricane. The +centre of the clouds in the zenith was of a dismal black, while their +skirts were tinged with a copper-coloured hue. The air resounded with +the cries of the tropic-birds, petrels, frigate-birds, and innumerable +other sea-fowl, which notwithstanding the obscurity of the atmosphere, +were seen coming from every point of the horizon, to seek for shelter in +the island. + +Towards nine in the morning we heard in the direction of the ocean the +most terrific noise, like the sound of thunder mingled with that of +torrents rushing down the steeps of lofty mountains. A general cry was +heard of, "There is the hurricane!" and the next moment a frightful +gust of wind dispelled the fog which covered the isle of Amber and its +channel. The Saint-Geran then presented herself to our view, her deck +crowded with people, her yards and topmasts lowered down, and her flag +half-mast high, moored by four cables at her bow and one at her stern. +She had anchored between the isle of Amber and the main land, inside +the chain of reefs which encircles the island, and which she had passed +through in a place where no vessel had ever passed before. She presented +her head to the waves that rolled in from the open sea, and as each +billow rushed into the narrow strait where she lay, her bow lifted to +such a degree as to show her keel; and at the same moment her stern, +plunging into the water, disappeared altogether from our sight, as if it +were swallowed up by the surges. In this position, driven by the winds +and waves towards the shore, it was equally impossible for her to return +by the passage through which she had made her way; or, by cutting her +cables, to strand herself upon the beach, from which she was separated +by sandbanks and reefs of rocks. Every billow which broke upon the coast +advanced roaring to the bottom of the bay, throwing up heaps of shingle +to the distance of fifty feet upon the land; then, rushing back, laid +bare its sandy bed, from which it rolled immense stones, with a hoarse +and dismal noise. The sea, swelled by the violence of the wind, rose +higher every moment; and the whole channel between this island and the +isle of Amber was soon one vast sheet of white foam, full of yawning +pits of black and deep billows. Heaps of this foam, more than six feet +high, were piled up at the bottom of the bay; and the winds which swept +its surface carried masses of it over the steep sea-bank, scattering it +upon the land to the distance of half a league. These innumerable white +flakes, driven horizontally even to the very foot of the mountains, +looked like snow issuing from the bosom of the ocean. The appearance of +the horizon portended a lasting tempest; the sky and the water seemed +blended together. Thick masses of clouds, of a frightful form, swept +across the zenith with the swiftness of birds, while others appeared +motionless as rocks. Not a single spot of blue sky could be discerned in +the whole firmament; and a pale yellow gleam only lightened up all the +objects of the earth, the sea, and the skies. + +From the violent rolling of the ship, what we all dreaded happened at +last. The cables which held her bow were torn away: she then swung to a +single hawser, and was instantly dashed upon the rocks, at the distance +of half a cable's length from the shore. A general cry of horror issued +from the spectators. Paul rushed forward to throw himself into the +sea, when, seizing him by the arm, "My son," I exclaimed, "would you +perish?"--"Let me go to save her," he cried, "or let me die!" Seeing +that despair had deprived him of reason, Domingo and I, in order to +preserve him, fastened a long cord around his waist, and held it fast +by the end. Paul then precipitated himself towards the Saint-Geran, +now swimming, and now walking upon the rocks. Sometimes he had hopes of +reaching the vessel, which the sea, by the reflux of its waves, had left +almost dry, so that you could have walked round it on foot; but suddenly +the billows, returning with fresh fury, shrouded it beneath mountains of +water, which then lifted it upright upon its keel. The breakers at the +same moment threw the unfortunate Paul far upon the beach, his legs +bathed in blood, his bosom wounded, and himself half dead. The moment +he had recovered the use of his senses, he arose, and returned with new +ardour towards the vessel, the parts of which now yawned asunder from +the violent strokes of the billows. The crew then, despairing of their +safety, threw themselves in crowds into the sea, upon yards, planks, +hen-coops, tables, and barrels. At this moment we beheld an object +which wrung our hearts with grief and pity; a young lady appeared in the +stern-gallery of the Saint-Geran, stretching out her arms towards him +who was making so many efforts to join her. It was Virginia. She had +discovered her lover by his intrepidity. The sight of this amiable girl, +exposed to such horrible danger, filled us with unutterable despair. As +for Virginia, with a firm and dignified mien, she waved her hand, as +if bidding us an eternal farewell. All the sailors had flung themselves +into the sea, except one, who still remained upon the deck, and who +was naked, and strong as Hercules. This man approached Virginia with +respect, and, kneeling at her feet, attempted to force her to throw +off her clothes; but she repulsed him with modesty, and turned away +her head. Then were heard redoubled cries from the spectators, "Save +her!--save her!--do not leave her!" But at that moment a mountain +billow, of enormous magnitude, ingulfed itself between the isle of Amber +and the coast, and menaced the shattered vessel, towards which it rolled +bellowing, with its black sides and foaming head. At this terrible +sight the sailor flung himself into the sea; and Virginia, seeing death +inevitable, crossed her hands upon her breast, and raising upwards her +serene and beauteous eyes, seemed an angel prepared to take her flight +to Heaven. + +Oh, day of horror! Alas! every thing was swallowed up by the relentless +billows. The surge threw some of the spectators, whom an impulse of +humanity had prompted to advance towards Virginia, far upon the beach, +and also the sailor who had endeavoured to save her life. This man, +who had escaped from almost certain death, kneeling on the sand, +exclaimed,--"Oh, my God! thou hast saved my life, but I would have given +it willingly for that excellent young lady, who had persevered in not +undressing herself as I had done." Domingo and I drew the unfortunate +Paul to the ashore. He was senseless, and blood was flowing from his +mouth and ears. The governor ordered him to be put into the hands of a +surgeon, while we, on our part, wandered along the beach, in hopes +that the sea would throw up the corpse of Virginia. But the wind having +suddenly changed, as it frequently happens during hurricanes, our search +was in vain; and we had the grief of thinking that we should not be able +to bestow on this sweet and unfortunate girl the last sad duties. We +retired from the spot overwhelmed with dismay, and our minds wholly +occupied by one cruel loss, although numbers had perished in the wreck. +Some of the spectators seemed tempted, from the fatal destiny of this +virtuous girl, to doubt the existence of Providence: for there are in +life such terrible, such unmerited evils, that even the hope of the wise +is sometimes shaken. + +In the meantime Paul, who began to recover his senses, was taken to a +house in the neighbourhood, till he was in a fit state to be removed +to his own home. Thither I bent my way with Domingo, to discharge the +melancholy duty of preparing Virginia's mother and her friend for the +disastrous event which had happened. When we had reached the entrance of +the valley of the river of Fan-Palms, some negroes informed us that +the sea had thrown up many pieces of the wreck in the opposite bay. We +descended towards it and one of the first objects that struck my sight +upon the beach was the corpse of Virginia. The body was half covered +with sand, and preserved the attitude in which we had seen her perish. +Her features were not sensibly changed, her eyes were closed, and her +countenance was still serene; but the pale purple hues of death were +blended on her cheek with the blush of virgin modesty. One of her hands +was placed upon her clothes: and the other, which she held on her heart, +was fast closed, and so stiffened, that it was with difficulty that I +took from its grasp a small box. How great was my emotion when I saw +that it contained the picture of Paul, which she had promised him never +to part with while she lived! As for Domingo, he beat his breast, and +pierced the air with his shrieks. With heavy hearts we then carried the +body of Virginia to a fisherman's hut, and gave it in charge of some +poor Malabar women, who carefully washed away the sand. + +While they were employed in this melancholy office, we ascended the hill +with trembling steps to the plantation. We found Madame de la Tour and +Margaret at prayer; hourly expecting to have tidings from the ship. As +soon as Madame de la Tour saw me coming, she eagerly cried,--"Where +is my daughter--my dear daughter--my child?" My silence and my tears +apprised her of her misfortune. She was instantly seized with a +convulsive stopping of the breath and agonizing pains, and her voice was +only heard in sighs and groans. Margaret cried, "Where is my son? I do +not see my son!" and fainted. We ran to her assistance. In a short time +she recovered, and being assured that Paul was safe, and under the care +of the governor, she thought of nothing but of succouring her friend, +who recovered from one fainting fit only to fall into another. Madame de +la Tour passed the whole night in these cruel sufferings, and I became +convinced that there was no sorrow like that of a mother. When she +recovered her senses, she cast a fixed, unconscious look towards heaven. +In vain her friend and myself pressed her hands in ours: in vain we +called upon her by the most tender names; she appeared wholly insensible +to these testimonials of our affection, and no sound issued from her +oppressed bosom, but deep and hollow moans. + +During the morning Paul was carried home in a palanquin. He had now +recovered the use of his reason, but was unable to utter a word. His +interview with his mother and Madame de la Tour, which I had dreaded, +produced a better effect than all my cares. A ray of consolation gleamed +on the countenances of the two unfortunate mothers. They pressed close +to him, clasped him in their arms, and kissed him: their tears, which +excess of anguish had till now dried up at the source, began to flow. +Paul mixed his tears with theirs; and nature having thus found relief, +a long stupor succeeded the convulsive pangs they had suffered, and +afforded them a lethargic repose, which was in truth, like that of +death. + +Monsieur de la Bourdonnais sent to apprise me secretly that the corpse +of Virginia had been borne to the town by his order, from whence it was +to be transferred to the church of the Shaddock Grove. I immediately +went down to Port Louis, where I found a multitude assembled from all +parts of the island, in order to be present at the funeral solemnity, +as if the isle had lost that which was nearest and dearest to it. The +vessels in the harbour had their yards crossed, their flags half-mast, +and fired guns at long intervals. A body of grenadiers led the funeral +procession, with their muskets reversed, their muffled drums sending +forth slow and dismal sounds. Dejection was depicted in the countenance +of these warriors, who had so often braved death in battle without +changing colour. Eight young ladies of considerable families of the +island, dressed in white, and bearing palm-branches in their hands, +carried the corpse of their amiable companion, which was covered with +flowers. They were followed by a chorus of children, chanting hymns, and +by the governor, his field officers, all the principal inhabitants of +the island, and an immense crowd of people. + +This imposing funeral solemnity had been ordered by the administration +of the country, which was desirous of doing honour to the virtues of +Virginia. But when the mournful procession arrived at the foot of this +mountain, within sight of those cottages of which she had been so long +an inmate and an ornament, diffusing happiness all around them, and +which her loss had now filled with despair, the funeral pomp was +interrupted, the hymns and anthems ceased, and the whole plain resounded +with sighs and lamentations. Numbers of young girls ran from the +neighbouring plantations, to touch the coffin of Virginia with their +handkerchiefs, and with chaplets and crowns of flowers, invoking her as +a saint. Mothers asked of heaven a child like Virginia; lovers, a heart +as faithful; the poor, as tender a friend; and the slaves as kind a +mistress. + +When the procession had reached the place of interment, some negresses +of Madagascar and Caffres of Mozambique placed a number of baskets of +fruit around the corpse, and hung pieces of stuff upon the adjoining +trees, according to the custom of their several countries. Some Indian +women from Bengal also, and from the coast of Malabar, brought cages +full of small birds, which they set at liberty upon her coffin. +Thus deeply did the loss of this amiable being affect the natives +of different countries, and thus was the ritual of various religions +performed over the tomb of unfortunate virtue. + +It became necessary to place guards round her grave, and to employ +gentle force in removing some of the daughters of the neighbouring +villagers, who endeavoured to throw themselves into it, saying that +they had no longer any consolation to hope for in this world, and that +nothing remained for them but to die with their benefactress. + +On the western side of the church of the Shaddock Grove is a small copse +of bamboos, where, in returning from mass with her mother and Margaret, +Virginia loved to rest herself, seated by the side of him whom she then +called her brother. This was the spot selected for her interment. + +At his return from the funeral solemnity, Monsieur de la Bourdonnais +came up here, followed by part of his numerous retinue. He offered +Madame de la Tour and her friend all the assistance it was in his power +to bestow. After briefly expressing his indignation at the conduct of +her unnatural aunt, he advanced to Paul, and said every thing which he +thought most likely to soothe and console him. "Heaven is my witness," +said he, "that I wished to insure your happiness, and that of your +family. My dear friend, you must go to France; I will obtain a +commission for you, and during your absence I will take the same care +of your mother as if she were my own." He then offered him his hand; but +Paul drew away and turned his head aside, unable to bear his sight. + +I remained for some time at the plantation of my unfortunate friends, +that I might render to them and Paul those offices of friendship that +were in my power, and which might alleviate, though they could not heal +the wounds of calamity. At the end of three weeks Paul was able to +walk; but his mind seemed to droop in proportion as his body gathered +strength. He was insensible to every thing; his look was vacant; and +when asked a question, he made no reply. Madame de la Tour, who was +dying said to him often,--"My son, while I look at you, I think I see my +dear Virginia." At the name of Virginia he shuddered, and hastened away +from her, notwithstanding the entreaties of his mother, who begged him +to come back to her friend. He used to go alone into the garden, and +seat himself at the foot of Virginia's cocoa-tree, with his eyes fixed +upon the fountain. The governor's surgeon, who had shown the most humane +attention to Paul and the whole family, told us that in order to cure +the deep melancholy which had taken possession of his mind, we must +allow him to do whatever he pleased, without contradiction: this, he +said, afforded the only chance of overcoming the silence in which he +persevered. + +I resolved to follow this advice. The first use which Paul made of his +returning strength was to absent himself from the plantation. Being +determined not to lose sight of him I set out immediately, and desired +Domingo to take some provisions and accompany us. The young man's +strength and spirits seemed renewed as he descended the mountain. He +first took the road to the Shaddock Grove, and when he was near the +church, in the Alley of Bamboos, he walked directly to the spot where +he saw some earth fresh turned up; kneeling down there, and raising +his eyes to heaven, he offered up a long prayer. This appeared to me +a favourable symptom of the return of his reason; since this mark of +confidence in the Supreme Being showed that his mind was beginning to +resume its natural functions. Domingo and I, following his example, fell +upon our knees, and mingled our prayers with his. When he arose, he bent +his way, paying little attention to us, towards the northern part of the +island. As I knew that he was not only ignorant of the spot where the +body of Virginia had been deposited, but even of the fact that it had +been recovered from the waves, I asked him why he had offered up his +prayer at the foot of those bamboos. He answered,--"We have been there +so often." + +He continued his course until we reached the borders of the forest, when +night came on. I set him the example of taking some nourishment, and +prevailed on him to do the same; and we slept upon the grass, at the +foot of a tree. The next day I thought he seemed disposed to retrace his +steps; for, after having gazed a considerable time from the plain upon +the church of the Shaddock Grove, with its long avenues of bamboos, he +made a movement as if to return home; but suddenly plunging into the +forest, he directed his course towards the north. I guessed what was his +design, and I endeavoured, but in vain, to dissuade him from it. About +noon we arrived at the quarter of Golden Dust. He rushed down to the +sea-shore, opposite to the spot where the Saint-Geran had been wrecked. +At the sight of the isle of Amber, and its channel, when smooth as +a mirror, he exclaimed,--"Virginia! oh my dear Virginia!" and fell +senseless. Domingo and I carried him into the woods, where we had some +difficulty in recovering him. As soon as he regained his senses, he +wished to return to the sea-shore; but we conjured him not to renew his +own anguish and ours by such cruel remembrances, and he took another +direction. During a whole week he sought every spot where he had once +wandered with the companion of his childhood. He traced the path by +which she had gone to intercede for the slave of the Black River. He +gazed again upon the banks of the river of the Three Breasts, where she +had rested herself when unable to walk further, and upon that part of +the wood where they had lost their way. All the haunts, which recalled +to his memory the anxieties, the sports, the repasts, the benevolence +of her he loved,--the river of the Sloping Mountain, my house, the +neighbouring cascade, the papaw tree she had planted, the grassy fields +in which she loved to run, the openings of the forest where she used to +sing, all in succession called forth his tears; and those very echoes +which had so often resounded with their mutual shouts of joy, now +repeated only these accents of despair,--"Virginia! oh, my dear +Virginia!" + +During this savage and wandering life, his eyes became sunk and hollow, +his skin assumed a yellow tint, and his health rapidly declined. +Convinced that our present sufferings are rendered more acute by the +bitter recollection of bygone pleasures, and that the passions gather +strength in solitude, I resolved to remove my unfortunate friend from +those scenes which recalled the remembrance of his loss, and to lead him +to a more busy part of the island. With this view, I conducted him to +the inhabited part of the elevated quarter of Williams, which he had +never visited, and where the busy pursuits of agriculture and commerce +ever occasioned much bustle and variety. Numbers of carpenters were +employed in hewing down and squaring trees, while others were sawing +them into planks; carriages were continually passing and repassing on +the roads; numerous herds of oxen and troops of horses were feeding on +those wide-spread meadows, and the whole country was dotted with the +dwellings of man. On some spots the elevation of the soil permitted the +culture of many of the plants of Europe: the yellow ears of ripe corn +waved upon the plains; strawberry plants grew in the openings of +the woods, and the roads were bordered by hedges of rose-trees. The +freshness of the air, too, giving tension to the nerves, was favourable +to the health of Europeans. From those heights, situated near the middle +of the island, and surrounded by extensive forests, neither the sea, nor +Port Louis, nor the church of the Shaddock Grove, nor any other object +associated with the remembrance of Virginia could de discerned. Even +the mountains, which present various shapes on the side of Port +Louis, appear from hence like a long promontory, in a straight and +perpendicular line, from which arise lofty pyramids of rock, whose +summits are enveloped in the clouds. + +Conducting Paul to these scenes, I kept him continually in action, +walking with him in rain and sunshine, by day and by night. I sometimes +wandered with him into the depths of the forests, or led him over +untilled grounds, hoping that change of scene and fatigue might divert +his mind from its gloomy meditations. But the soul of a lover finds +everywhere the traces of the beloved object. Night and day, the calm +of solitude and the tumult of crowds, are to him the same; time itself, +which casts the shade of oblivion over so many other remembrances, in +vain would tear that tender and sacred recollection from the heart. The +needle, when touched by the loadstone, however it may have been moved +from its position, is no sooner left to repose, than it returns to the +pole of its attraction. So, when I inquired of Paul, as we wandered +amidst the plains of Williams,--"Where shall we now go?" he pointed to +the north, and said, "Yonder are our mountains; let us return home." + +I now saw that all the means I took to divert him from his melancholy +were fruitless, and that no resource was left but an attempt to +combat his passion by the arguments which reason suggested I answered +him,--"Yes, there are the mountains where once dwelt your beloved +Virginia; and here is the picture you gave her, and which she held, when +dying, to her heart--that heart, which even in its last moments only +beat for you." I then presented to Paul the little portrait which he +had given to Virginia on the borders of the cocoa-tree fountain. At this +sight a gloomy joy overspread his countenance. He eagerly seized the +picture with his feeble hands, and held it to his lips. His oppressed +bosom seemed ready to burst with emotion, and his eyes were filled with +tears which had no power to flow. + +"My son," said I, "listen to one who is your friend, who was the friend +of Virginia, and who, in the bloom of your hopes, has often endeavoured +to fortify your mind against the unforeseen accidents of life. What +do you deplore with so much bitterness? Is it your own misfortunes, or +those of Virginia, which affect you so deeply? + +"Your own misfortunes are indeed severe. You have lost the most amiable +of girls, who would have grown up to womanhood a pattern to her sex, one +who sacrificed her own interests to yours: who preferred you to all that +fortune could bestow, and considered you as the only recompense worthy +of her virtues. + +"But might not this very object, from whom you expected the purest +happiness, have proved to you a source of the most cruel distress? +She had returned poor and disinherited; all you could henceforth +have partaken with her was your labour. Rendered more delicate by her +education, and more courageous by her misfortunes, you might have beheld +her every day sinking beneath her efforts to share and lighten your +fatigues. Had she brought you children, they would only have served to +increase her anxieties and your own, from the difficulty of sustaining +at once your aged parents and your infant family. + +"Very likely you will tell me that the governor would have helped you; +but how do you know that in a colony where governors are so +frequently changed, you would have had others like Monsieur de la +Bourdonnais?--that one might not have been sent destitute of good +feeling and of morality?--that your young wife, in order, to procure +some miserable pittance, might not have been obliged to seek his favour? +Had she been weak you would have been to be pitied; and if she had +remained virtuous, you would have continued poor: forced even to +consider yourself fortunate if, on account of the beauty and virtue of +your wife, you had not to endure persecution from those who had promised +you protection. + +"It would have remained to you, you may say, to have enjoyed a pleasure +independent of fortune,--that of protecting a loved being, who, in +proportion to her own helplessness, had more attached herself to you. +You may fancy that your pains and sufferings would have served to endear +you to each other, and that your passion would have gathered strength +from your mutual misfortunes. Undoubtedly virtuous love does find +consolation even in such melancholy retrospects. But Virginia is no +more; yet those persons still live, whom, next to yourself, she held +most dear; her mother, and your own: your inconsolable affliction is +bringing them both to the grave. Place your happiness, as she did hers, +in affording them succour. My son, beneficence is the happiness of the +virtuous: there is no greater or more certain enjoyment on the earth. +Schemes of pleasure, repose, luxuries, wealth, and glory are not suited +to man, weak, wandering, and transitory as he is. See how rapidly one +step towards the acquisition of fortune has precipitated us all to the +lowest abyss of misery! You were opposed to it, it is true; but who +would not have thought that Virginia's voyage would terminate in her +happiness and your own? an invitation from a rich and aged relation, the +advice of a wise governor, the approbation of the whole colony, and the +well-advised authority of her confessor, decided the lot of Virginia. +Thus do we run to our ruin, deceived even by the prudence of those who +watch over us: it would be better, no doubt, not to believe them, nor +even to listen to the voice or lean on the hopes of a deceitful world. +But all men,--those you see occupied in these plains, those who go +abroad to seek their fortunes, and those in Europe who enjoy repose from +the labours of others, are liable to reverses! not one is secure from +losing, at some period, all that he most values,--greatness, wealth, +wife, children, and friends. Most of these would have their sorrow +increased by the remembrance of their own imprudence. But you have +nothing with which you can reproach yourself. You have been faithful in +your love. In the bloom of youth, by not departing from the dictates of +nature, you evinced the wisdom of a sage. Your views were just, +because they were pure, simple, and disinterested. You had, besides, on +Virginia, sacred claims which nothing could countervail. You have lost +her: but it is neither your own imprudence, nor your avarice, nor your +false wisdom which has occasioned this misfortune, but the will of God, +who had employed the passions of others to snatch from you the object of +your love; God, from whom you derive everything, who knows what is most +fitting for you, and whose wisdom has not left you any cause for the +repentance and despair which succeed the calamities that are brought +upon us by ourselves. + +"Vainly, in your misfortunes, do you say to yourself, 'I have not +deserved them.' Is it then the calamity of Virginia--her death and her +present condition that you deplore? She has undergone the fate allotted +to all,--to high birth, to beauty, and even to empires themselves. The +life of man, with all his projects, may be compared to a tower, at whose +summit is death. When your Virginia was born, she was condemned to die; +happily for herself, she is released from life before losing her mother, +or yours, or you; saved, thus from undergoing pangs worse than those of +death itself. + +"Learn then, my son, that death is a benefit to all men: it is the night +of that restless day we call by the name of life. The diseases, the +griefs, the vexations, and the fears, which perpetually embitter our +life as long as we possess it, molest us no more in the sleep of death. +If you inquire into the history of those men who appear to have been the +happiest, you will find that they have bought their apparent felicity +very dear; public consideration, perhaps, by domestic evils; fortune, +by the loss of health; the rare happiness of being loved, by continual +sacrifices; and often, at the expiration of a life devoted to the good +of others, they see themselves surrounded only by false friends, and +ungrateful relations. But Virginia was happy to her very last moment. +When with us, she was happy in partaking of the gifts of nature; when +far from us, she found enjoyment in the practice of virtue; and even at +the terrible moment in which we saw her perish, she still had cause +for self-gratulation. For, whether she cast her eyes on the assembled +colony, made miserable by her expected loss, or on you, my son, who, +with so much intrepidity, were endeavouring to save her, she must have +seen how dear she was to all. Her mind was fortified against the future +by the remembrance of her innocent life; and at that moment she received +the reward which Heaven reserves for virtue,--a courage superior to +danger. She met death with a serene countenance. + +"My son! God gives all the trials of life to virtue, in order to show +that virtue alone can support them, and even find in them happiness and +glory. When he designs for it an illustrious reputation, he exhibits it +on a wide theatre, and contending with death. Then does the courage of +virtue shine forth as an example, and the misfortunes to which it has +been exposed receive for ever, from posterity, the tribute of their +tears. This is the immortal monument reserved for virtue in a world +where every thing else passes away, and where the names, even of the +greater number of kings themselves, are soon buried in eternal oblivion. + +"Meanwhile Virginia still exists. My son, you see that every thing +changes on this earth, but that nothing is ever lost. No art of man can +annihilate the smallest particle of matter; can, then, that which +has possessed reason, sensibility, affection, virtue, and religion be +supposed capable of destruction, when the very elements with which it is +clothed are imperishable? Ah! however happy Virginia may have been with +us, she is now much more so. There is a God, my son; it is unnecessary +for me to prove it to you, for the voice of all nature loudly proclaims +it. The wickedness of mankind leads them to deny the existence of a +Being, whose justice they fear. But your mind is fully convinced of +his existence, while his works are ever before your eyes. Do you then +believe that he would leave Virginia without recompense? Do you +think that the same Power which inclosed her noble soul in a form so +beautiful,--so like an emanation from itself, could not have saved her +from the waves?--that he who has ordained the happiness of man here, by +laws unknown to you, cannot prepare a still higher degree of felicity +for Virginia by other laws, of which you are equally ignorant? Before +we were born into this world, could we, do you imagine, even if we were +capable of thinking at all, have formed any idea of our existence here? +And now that we are in the middle of this gloomy and transitory life, +can we foresee what is beyond the tomb, or in what manner we shall be +emancipated from it? Does God, like man, need this little globe, +the earth, as a theatre for the display of his intelligence and his +goodness?--and can he only dispose of human life in the territory of +death? There is not, in the entire ocean, a single drop of water which +is not peopled with living beings appertaining to man: and does there +exist nothing for him in the heavens above his head? What! is there no +supreme intelligence, no divine goodness, except on this little spot +where we are placed? In those innumerable glowing fires,--in those +infinite fields of light which surround them, and which neither storms +nor darkness can extinguish, is there nothing but empty space and an +eternal void? If we, weak and ignorant as we are, might dare to assign +limits to that Power from whom we have received every thing, we might +possibly imagine that we were placed on the very confines of his empire, +where life is perpetually struggling with death, and innocence for ever +in danger from the power of tyranny! + +"Somewhere, then, without doubt, there is another world, where virtue +will receive its reward. Virginia is now happy. Ah! if from the abode of +angels she could hold communication with you, she would tell you, as she +did when she bade you her last adieus,--'O, Paul! life is but a scene of +trial. I have been obedient to the laws of nature, love, and virtue. I +crossed the seas to obey the will of my relations; I sacrificed +wealth in order to keep my faith; and I preferred the loss of life to +disobeying the dictates of modesty. Heaven found that I had fulfilled my +duties, and has snatched me for ever from all the miseries I might have +endured myself, and all I might have felt for the miseries of others. I +am placed far above the reach of all human evils, and you pity me! I +am become pure and unchangeable as a particle of light, and you would +recall me to the darkness of human life! O, Paul! O, my beloved friend! +recollect those days of happiness, when in the morning we felt the +delightful sensations excited by the unfolding beauties of nature; when +we seemed to rise with the sun to the peaks of those rocks, and then +to spread with his rays over the bosom of the forests. We experienced a +delight, the cause of which we could not comprehend. In the innocence of +our desires, we wished to be all sight, to enjoy the rich colours of +the early dawn; all smell, to taste a thousand perfumes at once; all +hearing, to listen to the singing of our birds; and all heart, to be +capable of gratitude for those mingled blessings. Now, at the source +of the beauty whence flows all that is delightful upon earth, my soul +intuitively sees, hears, touches, what before she could only be made +sensible of through the medium of our weak organs. Ah! what language can +describe these shores of eternal bliss, which I inhabit for ever! All +that infinite power and heavenly goodness could create to console the +unhappy: all that the friendship of numberless beings, exulting in the +same felicity can impart, we enjoy in unmixed perfection. Support, +then, the trial which is now allotted to you, that you may heighten the +happiness of your Virginia by love which will know no termination,--by a +union which will be eternal. There I will calm your regrets, I will wipe +away your tears. Oh, my beloved friend! my youthful husband! raise your +thoughts towards the infinite, to enable you to support the evils of a +moment.'" + +My own emotion choked my utterance. Paul, looking at me steadfastly, +cried,--"She is no more! she is no more!" and a long fainting fit +succeeded these words of woe. When restored to himself, he said, "Since +death is good, and since Virginia is happy, I will die too, and be +united to Virginia." Thus the motives of consolation I had offered, +only served to nourish his despair. I was in the situation of a man +who attempts to save a friend sinking in the midst of a flood, and who +obstinately refuses to swim. Sorrow had completely overwhelmed his +soul. Alas! the trials of early years prepare man for the afflictions of +after-life; but Paul had never experienced any. + +I took him back to his own dwelling, where I found his mother and Madame +de la Tour in a state of increased languor and exhaustion, but Margaret +seemed to droop the most. Lively characters, upon whom petty troubles +have but little effect, sink the soonest under great calamities. + +"O my good friend," said Margaret, "I thought last night I saw Virginia, +dressed in white, in the midst of groves and delicious gardens. She said +to me, 'I enjoy the most perfect happiness:' and then approaching Paul +with a smiling air, she bore him away with her. While I was struggling +to retain my son, I felt that I myself too was quitting the earth, and +that I followed with inexpressible delight. I then wished to bid my +friend farewell, when I saw that she was hastening after me, accompanied +by Mary and Domingo. But the strangest circumstance remains yet to be +told; Madame de la Tour has this very night had a dream exactly like +mine in every possible respect." + +"My dear friend," I replied, "nothing, I firmly believe, happens in this +world without the permission of God. Future events, too, are sometimes +revealed in dreams." + +Madame de la Tour then related to me her dream which was exactly the +same as Margaret's in every particular; and as I had never observed in +either of these ladies any propensity to superstition, I was struck with +the singular coincidence of their dreams, and I felt convinced that +they would soon be realized. The belief that future events are sometimes +revealed to us during sleep, is one that is widely diffused among the +nations of the earth. The greatest men of antiquity have had faith in +it; among whom may be mentioned Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, +the Scipios, the two Catos, and Brutus, none of whom were weak-minded +persons. Both the Old and the New Testament furnish us with numerous +instances of dreams that came to pass. As for myself, I need only, on +this subject, appeal to my experience, as I have more than once had good +reason to believe that superior intelligences, who interest themselves +in our welfare, communicate with us in these visions of the night. +Things which surpass the light of human reason cannot be proved by +arguments derived from that reason; but still, if the mind of man is an +image of that of God, since man can make known his will to the ends of +the earth by secret missives, may not the Supreme Intelligence which +governs the universe employ similar means to attain a like end? One +friend consoles another by a letter, which, after passing through many +kingdoms, and being in the hands of various individuals at enmity with +each other, brings at last joy and hope to the breast of a single human +being. May not in like manner the Sovereign Protector of innocence come +in some secret way, to the help of a virtuous soul, which puts its trust +in Him alone? Has He occasion to employ visible means to effect His +purpose in this, whose ways are hidden in all His ordinary works? + +Why should we doubt the evidence of dreams? for what is our life, +occupied as it is with vain and fleeting imaginations, other than a +prolonged vision of the night? + +Whatever may be thought of this in general, on the present occasion the +dreams of my friends were soon realized. Paul expired two months after +the death of his Virginia, whose name dwelt on his lips in his expiring +moments. About a week after the death of her son, Margaret saw her last +hour approach with that serenity which virtue only can feel. She bade +Madame de la Tour a most tender farewell, "in the certain hope," she +said, "of a delightful and eternal re-union. Death is the greatest of +blessings to us," added she, "and we ought to desire it. If life be a +punishment, we should wish for its termination; if it be a trial, we +should be thankful that it is short." + +The governor took care of Domingo and Mary, who were no longer able to +labour, and who survived their mistresses but a short time. As for poor +Fidele, he pined to death, soon after he had lost his master. + +I afforded an asylum in my dwelling to Madame de la Tour, who bore +up under her calamities with incredible elevation of mind. She had +endeavoured to console Paul and Margaret till their last moments, as if +she herself had no misfortunes of her own to bear. When they were not +more, she used to talk to me every day of them as of beloved friends, +who were still living near her. She survived them however, but one +month. Far from reproaching her aunt for the afflictions she had caused, +her benign spirit prayed to God to pardon her, and to appease that +remorse which we heard began to torment her, as soon as she had sent +Virginia away with so much inhumanity. + +Conscience, that certain punishment of the guilty, visited with all its +terrors the mind of this unnatural relation. So great was her torment, +that life and death became equally insupportable to her. Sometimes she +reproached herself with the untimely fate of her lovely niece, and with +the death of her mother, which had immediately followed it. At other +times she congratulated herself for having repulsed far from her two +wretched creatures, who, she said, had both dishonoured their family +by their grovelling inclinations. Sometimes, at the sight of the many +miserable objects with which Paris abounds, she would fly into a rage, +and exclaim,--"Why are not these idle people sent off to the colonies?" +As for the notions of humanity, virtue and religion, adopted by all +nations, she said, they were only the inventions of their rulers, to +serve political purposes. Then, flying all at once to the other extreme, +she abandoned herself to superstitious terrors, which filled her +with mortal fears. She would then give abundant alms to the wealthy +ecclesiastics who governed her, beseeching them to appease the wrath of +God by the sacrifice of her fortune,--as if the offering to Him of the +wealth she had withheld from the miserable could please her Heavenly +Father! In her imagination she often beheld fields of fire, with burning +mountains, wherein hideous spectres wandered about, loudly calling on +her by name. She threw herself at her confessor's feet, imagining every +description of agony and torture; for Heaven--just Heaven, always sends +to the cruel the most frightful views of religion and a future state. + +Atheist, thus, and fanatic in turn, holding both life and death in equal +horror, she lived on for several years. But what completed the torments +of her miserable existence, was that very object to which she had +sacrificed every natural affection. She was deeply annoyed at perceiving +that her fortune must go, at her death, to relations whom she hated, and +she determined to alienate as much of it as she could. They, however, +taking advantage of her frequent attacks of low spirits, caused her to +be secluded as a lunatic, and her affairs to be put into the hands of +trustees. Her wealth, thus completed her ruin; and, as the possession +of it had hardened her own heart, so did its anticipation corrupt the +hearts of those who coveted it from her. At length she died; and, to +crown her misery, she retained enough reason at last to be sensible that +she was plundered and despised by the very persons whose opinions had +been her rule of conduct during her whole life. + +On the same spot, and at the foot of the same shrubs as his Virginia, +was deposited the body of Paul; and round about them lie the remains of +their tender mothers and their faithful servants. No marble marks the +spot of their humble graves, no inscription records their virtues; +but their memory is engraven upon the hearts of those whom they have +befriended, in indelible characters. Their spirits have no need of the +pomp, which they shunned during their life; but if they still take an +interest in what passes upon earth, they no doubt love to wander beneath +the roofs of these humble dwellings, inhabited by industrious virtue, to +console poverty discontented with its lot, to cherish in the hearts +of lovers the sacred flame of fidelity, and to inspire a taste for +the blessings of nature, a love of honest labour, and a dread of the +allurements of riches. + +The voice of the people, which is often silent with regard to the +monuments raised to kings, has given to some parts of this island names +which will immortalize the loss of Virginia. Near the isle of Amber, in +the midst of sandbanks, is a spot called The Pass of the Saint-Geran, +from the name of the vessel which was there lost. The extremity of that +point of land which you see yonder, three leagues off, half covered with +water, and which the Saint-Geran could not double the night before the +hurricane, is called the Cape of Misfortune; and before us, at the end +of the valley, is the Bay of the Tomb, where Virginia was found buried +in the sand; as if the waves had sought to restore her corpse to her +family, that they might render it the last sad duties on those shores +where so many years of her innocent life had been passed. + +Joined thus in death, ye faithful lovers, who were so tenderly united! +unfortunate mothers! beloved family! these woods which sheltered you +with their foliage,--these fountains which flowed for you,--these +hill-sides upon which you reposed, still deplore your loss! No one has +since presumed to cultivate that desolate spot of land, or to rebuild +those humble cottages. Your goats are become wild: your orchards are +destroyed; your birds are all fled, and nothing is heard but the cry of +the sparrow-hawk, as it skims in quest of prey around this rocky basin. +As for myself, since I have ceased to behold you, I have felt friendless +and alone, like a father bereft of his children, or a traveller who +wanders by himself over the face of the earth. + +Ending with these words, the good old man retired, bathed in tears; and +my own, too, had flowed more than once during this melancholy recital. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Paul and Virginia, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL AND VIRGINIA *** + +***** This file should be named 2127.txt or 2127.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/2127/ + +Produced by Dagny; John Bickers and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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