IX.
CONVERSATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS OF MME. DE MAINTENON AT SAINT-CYR.
[The following reports were written down by the mistresses, occasionally by the pupils, and corrected by Mme. de Maintenon herself, in order to make them more worthy of being read and re-read by the mistresses in after days.]
Advice to the Young Ladies on the letters they write. Brevity and simplicity recommended.
January, 1695.
As you order us to write down what was said yesterday at recreation we shall do so as exactly and simply as we can. Mme. de Maintenon was good enough to come here expressly to correct our letters, as our mistresses had begged her to do. She first made all the young ladies surround her, and those whose letters were to be corrected stood nearest to her. She showed them, one after another, the faults in those presented to her, making us particularly notice how a simple, natural style, without turns of phrase, was the best, and the one that all persons of intellect used; telling us that the principal thing in order to write well is to express simply and clearly what one thinks. She gave us as an example M. le Duc du Maine, whom she taught to write, when she had the care of him, by the time he was five years old. She related to us that having told him one day to write to the king, he answered, quite embarrassed, that he did not know how to write letters. Mme. de Maintenon said, “But have you nothing in your heart that you want to tell him?”
“I am very sorry he has gone,” he replied.
“Well,” she said, “write that, it is very good.” Next she said, “Is that all you are thinking? have you nothing else to say to him?”
“I shall be very glad when he comes back,” replied the Duc du Maine.