When I went to lodge in
the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, opposite to my windows at the Hotel
de Pontchartrain, there was a sun-dial, on which for a whole month I
used all my efforts to teach her to know the hours; yet, she
scarcely knows them at present. She never could enumerate the twelve
months of the year in order, and cannot distinguish one numeral from
another, notwithstanding all the trouble I took endeavoring to teach
them to her. She neither knows how to count money, nor to reckon the
price of anything. The word which when she speaks, presents itself
to her mind, is frequently opposite to that of which she means to make
use. I formerly made a dictionary of her phrases, to amuse M. de
Luxembourg, and her qui pro quos often became celebrated among those
with whom I was most intimate. But this person, so confined in her
intellects, and, if the world pleases, so stupid, can give excellent
advice in cases of difficulty. In Switzerland, in England, and in
France, she frequently saw what I had not myself perceived; she has
often given me the best advice I could possibly follow; she has
rescued me from dangers into which I had blindly precipitated
myself, and in the presence of princes and the great, her
sentiments, good sense, answers, and conduct have acquired her
universal esteem, and myself the most sincere congratulations on her
merit. With persons whom we love, sentiment fortifies the mind as well
as the heart; and they who are thus attached, have little need of
searching for ideas elsewhere.
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