Domingo, and one of my redhandkerchiefs for Mary. I also send with this packet some kernels, andseeds of various kinds of fruits which I gathered in the abbey parkduring my hours of recreation. I have also sent a few seeds of violets,daisies, buttercups, poppies and scabious, which I picked up in thefields. There are much more beautiful flowers in the meadows of thiscountry than in ours, but nobody cares for them. I am sure that you andmy mamma Margaret will be better pleased with this bag of seeds, thanyou were with the bag of piastres, which was the cause of our separationand of my tears. It will give me great delight if you should one daysee apple trees growing by the side of our plantains, and elms blendingtheir foliage with that of our cocoa trees. You will fancy yourself inNormandy, which you love so much.
"You desired me to relate to you my joys and my griefs. I have nojoys far from you. As far as my griefs, I endeavour to soothe them byreflecting that I am in the situation in which it was the will of Godthat you should place me. But my greatest affliction is, that no onehere speaks to me of you, and that I cannot speak of you to any one. Myfemmes de chambre, or rather those of my aunt, for they belong moreto her than to me, told me the other day, when I wished to turn theconversation 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 wasborn and where you dwell! It is this country which is to me a land ofsavages, for I live alone, having no one to whom I can impart thosefeelings 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 ofmy 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 herdearest sentiments for the end.
In a postscript, Virginia particularly recommended to Paul's attentiontwo kinds of seed,--those of the violet and the scabious. She gave himsome instructions upon the natural characters of these flowers, andthe spots most proper for their cultivation. "The violet," she said,"produces a little flower of a dark purple colour, which delights toconceal itself beneath the bushes; but it is soon discovered by itswide-spreading perfume." She desired that these seeds might be sownby the border of the fountain, at the foot of her cocoa-tree. "Thescabious," she added, "produces a beautiful flower of a pale blue, and ablack ground spotted with white. You might fancy it was in mourning; andfor this reason it is also called the widow's flower. It grows best inbleak spots, beaten by the winds." She begged him to sow this upon therock 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 Rockof Adieus.
She had put these seeds into a little purse, the tissue of which wasexceedingly simple; but which appeared above all price to Paul, whenhe saw on it a P and a V entwined together, and knew that the beautifulhair which formed the cypher was the hair of Virginia.
The whole family listened with tears to the reading of the letter ofthis amiable and virtuous girl. Her mother answered it in the name ofthe little society, desiring her to remain or to return as she thoughtproper; and assuring her, that happiness had left their dwelling sinceher departure, and that, for herself, she was inconsolable.
Paul also sent her a very long letter, in which he assured her that hewould arrange the garden in a manner agreeable to her taste, and mingletogether in it the plants of Europe with those of Africa, as she hadblended their initials together in her work. He sent her some fruit fromthe cocoa-trees of the fountain, now arrived at maturity telling her,that he would not add any of the other productions of the island, thatthe desire of seeing them again might hasten her return. He conjured herto comply as soon as possible with the ardent wishes of her family, andabove all, with his own, since he could never hereafter taste happinessaway from her.
Paul sowed with a careful hand the European seeds, particularly theviolet and the scabious, the flowers of which seemed to bear someanalogy to the character and present situation of Virginia, by whom theyhad been so especially recommended; but either they were dried up inthe voyage, or the climate of this part of the world is unfavourable totheir growth, for a very small number of them even came up, and not onearrived at full perfection.
In the meantime, envy, which ever comes to embitter human happiness,particularly in the French colonies, spread some reports in the islandwhich gave Paul much uneasiness. The passengers in the vessel whichbrought Virginia's letter, asserted that she was upon the point of beingmarried, 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 takenplace, and that they themselves had witnessed the ceremony. Paul atfirst despised the report, brought by a merchant vessel, as he knew thatthey often spread erroneous intelligence in their passage; but some ofthe inhabitants of the island, with malignant pity, affecting to bewailthe event, he was soon led to attach some degree of belief to this cruelintelligence. Besides, in some of the novels he had lately read, he hadseen that perfidy was treated as a subject of pleasantry; and knowingthat these books contained pretty faithful representations of Europeanmanners, he feared that the heart of Virginia was corrupted, and hadforgotten its former engagements. Thus his new acquirements had alreadyonly served to render him more miserable; and his apprehensions weremuch increased by the circumstance, that though several ships touchedhere from Europe, within the six months immediately following thearrival of her letter, not one of them brought any tidings of Virginia.
This unfortunate young man, with a heart torn by the most cruelagitation, often came to visit me, in the hope of confirming orbanishing his uneasiness, by my experience of the world.
I live, as I have already told you, a league and a half from thispoint, upon the banks of a little river which glides along the SlopingMountain: there I lead a solitary life, without wife, children, orslaves.
After having enjoyed, and lost the rare felicity of living with acongenial mind, the state of life which appears the least wretched isdoubtless that of solitude. Every man who has much cause of complaintagainst his fellow-creatures seeks to be alone. It is also remarkablethat all those nations which have been brought to wretchedness by theiropinions, their manners, or their forms of government, have producednumerous classes of citizens altogether devoted to solitude andcelibacy. Such were the Egyptians in their decline, and the Greeks ofthe Lower Empire; and such in our days are the Indians, the Chinese,the modern Greeks, the Italians, and the greater part of the eastern andsouthern nations of Europe. Solitude, by removing men from the miserieswhich follow in the train of social intercourse, brings them in somedegree back to the unsophisticated enjoyment of nature. In the midst ofmodern society, broken up by innumerable prejudices, the mind is in aconstant turmoil of agitation. It is incessantly revolving in itself athousand tumultuous and contradictory opinions, by which the members ofan ambitious and miserable circle seek to raise themselves above eachother. But in solitude the soul lays aside the morbid illusions whichtroubled her, and resumes the pure consciousness of herself, of nature,and of its Author, as the muddy water of a torrent which has ravaged theplains, coming to rest, and diffusing itself over some low grounds outof its course, deposits there the slime it has taken up, and, resumingits wonted transparency, reflects, with its own shores, the verdure ofthe earth and the light of heaven. Thus does solitude recruit the powersof the body as well as those of the mind. It is among hermits that arefound the men who carry human existence to its extreme limits; suchare the Bramins of India. In brief, I consider solitude so necessary tohappiness, even in the world itself, that it appears to me impossibleto derive lasting pleasure from any pursuit whatever, or to regulateour conduct by any pursuit whatever, or to regulate our conduct byany s
table principle, if we do not create for ourselves a mental void,whence our own views rarely emerge, and into which the opinionsof others never enter. I do not mean to say that man ought to liveabsolutely alone; he is connected by his necessities with all mankind;his labours are due to man: and he owes something too to the rest ofnature. But, as God has given to each of us organs perfectly adapted tothe elements of the globe on which we live,--feet for the soil, lungsfor the air, eyes for the light, without the power of changing the useof any of these faculties, he has reserved for himself, as the Author oflife, that which is its chief organ,--the heart.
I thus passed my days far from mankind, whom I wished to serve, and bywhom I have been persecuted. After having travelled over many countriesof Europe, and some parts of America and Africa, I at length pitched mytent in this thinly-peopled island, allured by its mild climate and itssolitudes. A cottage which
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