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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + + +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 Etext of Paul and Virginia, by de Saint Pierre + |