Correspondence Between Lord Saint-Evremond and Ninon de L'Enclos When Over Eighty Years of Age
I
Saint-Evremond to Ninon de l'Enclos
Lovers and Gamblers have Something in Common
I have been trying for more than a year to obtain news of you from everybody, but nobody can give me any. M. de la Bastille tells me that you are in good health, but adds, that if you have no more lovers, you are satisfied to have a greater number of friends.
The falsity of the latter piece of news casts a doubt upon the verity of the former, because you are born to love as long as you live. Lovers and gamblers have something in common: Who has loved will love. If I had been told that you had become devout, I might have believed it, for that would be to pass from a human passion to the love of God, and give occupation to the soul. But not to love, is a species of void, which can not be consistent with your heart.
Ce repos languissant ne fut jamais un bien;
C'est trouver sans mouvoir l'êtat où l'on n'est rien.
('Twas never a good this languishing rest;
'Tis to find without search a state far from blest.)
I want to know about your health, your occupations, your inclinations, and let it be in a long enough letter, with moralizing and plenty of affection for your old friend.
The news here is that the Count de Grammont is dead, and it fills me with acute sorrow.