The Editress has set forth so fully, in the introductory sketch of
Madame de Sévigné’s Life and Times, her object in offering this book to
the American public, that any further prologue may seem superfluous;
yet there are one or two things to be said which seem to find their
most proper expression in a Preface. Since the date of the first
edition, the changes in the manners and feelings of the time have been
rapid and continuous; and they have operated in a twofold manner.
In the first place, we have become as a nation more thoroughly
acquainted with French literature, and better able to appreciate
that world of the past in which the great letter-writer lived.
Madame de Sévigné was a woman who lived in and for others,--for her
daughter, her friends, and, at a greater distance, for the brilliant
circle of distinguished men and women of which she herself was so
important a figure. Her letters are made up of incident, of meetings,
of conversations: they are full of references to the topics then
uppermost; they draw half their charm from the personality of the
writer. Literature of this sort cannot stand alone. To enjoy it to
the full we must know with some minuteness the history of the times
in which it was written, and of the people to whom it was written.
The knowledge of these things is now spreading wider every year,
as we become familiar, through originals or translations, with the
masterpieces of foreign languages. For instance, probably the best
French sketch of Madame de Sévigné is from the pen of M. Sainte-Beuve,
the great critic whom Mr. Arnold acknowledges for his master. This
sketch has been translated by Miss Preston, and published within the
last year.[1] Our limits forbid quotation; but to every one who can
enjoy a criticism at once delicate and profound, we recommend this
incomparable study.
[1] Sainte-Beuve’s Portraits of Celebrated Women.
Again, the times themselves in which we live call for the exercise of
just such an influence upon the mind and style as might be wielded by
these letters. We in America are almost all educated up to a certain
point; few of us, unfortunately, are educated beyond it. The national
character is pushing, energetic, ambitious; setting great value upon
money and material luxuries, but without appreciation of the refined
enjoyments that consist with a moderate purse, or the delicacy of
feeling that marks a sensitive but well-balanced mind. The vortex of
politics or of business draws into it all our energies; we have nothing
to spare for reflection, for the observances of friendship, for the
amenities of social intercourse. A life so vulgarizing alike to the
mind and to the style, finds its best antidote in the letters of Madame
de Sévigné. Here is a beautiful existence centred in home and friends;
here are thoughts occupied by love for the dear ones around, and by
sympathy with their joys and sorrows. The tumult of the outer world is
heard faintly. The writer’s mind is busied in a calmer sphere, and the
exquisite tenderness of her heart gives that transparent grace to her
style that has been the wonder and the despair of two centuries.
We are a letter-writing people; and no better models for letters exist
than Madame de Sévigné’s. We are a practical and energetic people;
and no better complement to such virtues can be found than the tender
affection and delicate refinement of Madame de Sévigné.
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 26, 1868.