The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
Your short letter of July 3d was all the more pleasing, madame, since your heart
spoke in it as well as your mind. Happy the man who can enjoy your society! But do
not make fun of my little pamphlet; its author does not wish for the sinner’s death, but
for him to give up his infidelity. Kings renounce their independence because they are
true philosophers and prefer life to honor; if an exception to the rule of the century
looms up, we can approve the pride that induced it, but its author has to be brought
down to the consciousness of what he owes to others. It is doing him no harm. Quite
the contrary, in goading everywhere the spirit of independence, allies are prepared for
those who fight for the freedom of nations. You will say, perhaps, that this is cutting
politics too fine. But I am no politician, madam, and, besides, I am but expressing the
ideas of the author—not very foreign to mine, however. I think that one must risk
everything, sacrifice everything, for the sake of national honor, for when that is lost
nothing remains.
[?]Translation.—Since there is for you no France outside of Paris, and since access to
that city is forbidden you, it seems to me that you have nothing left but to choose
another fatherland. I am sure, however, that you will never decide to become a Swiss.
There is no doubt that the country is very beautiful, and its inhabitants most
courageous; there is much good to be said of it, but, all the same, I hardly think that
you can be induced to spend your life there. Besides, Napoleon is going on at such a
rate that, if he does not recoil, all Europe will soon be France, with the exception of
the British Islands, which, for want of a bridge, the imperial armies cannot reach.
Thus, ceasing to be French, you will have to become English or American. Now
English society is a little too cold, and, besides, if you have to cross the sea at all,
either to go to England or to come here, it all reduces itself to a question of a shorter
or longer voyage. Therefore, madame, I flatter myself that next spring you will cross
over to America. To that end you will embark, about the middle of April, at Nantes,
with your son, for New York. Upon arriving, you will come straight here, to begin a
refreshing milk-diet. About the beginning of July you will start on a tour of inspection
over your estates and other people’s. You will return to us in the middle of
September, to rest from your fatigues, to pluck our peaches, to take walks, to write
verses, novels; in a word, to do all you care for. When my hermitage shall have lost its
attractiveness you will settle in town, where, a good cook helping, you will keep a
dainty table. There, as everywhere else, they manage to spend the time digesting,
cracking jokes, gossiping, and so forth. After all, madame, life is about the same all
the world over. Everywhere circumstances have something to do with it, the rest
depends on the turn of mind, on the manner of considering things, on the art of
occupying one’s self; finally, on friendship, the ties of which bind us to life and rob it
of its wearisomeness. You will perhaps laugh at this sketch, in which, among the
pleasures of life, the figure of love has no place. Well, place it in the picture yourself.
I beg that you will accept, madame, the homage of my respect and of my sincere
attachment.
[?]Translation.—Occupations are essential to happiness. Man gets weary of doing
good, and tired of his pleasures; if I may be allowed to speak of that weakling, my
own self, you must know that I am just recovering from an access of gout. It was
thirteen years ago that gout paid me its first call. I have not now, as I had then, a
friend to console me; I will keep her remembrance ever green. As for my occupations,
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