But how much more severe would it be to sustain your
anger! The hatred of the Graces brings down misfortune on men
of letters; and when he embroils himself with Venus and the Muses
he is a lost being; as, for instance, M. Dorat, who incessantly
slanders his mistresses, and writes nothing but puerilities.
"I have been very cautious, in my long career, how I committed
such a fault. If perchance I have lightly assailed the common cry
of scribblers or pendants who were worthless, I have never ceased
to burn incense on the altars of the ladies; them I have always sung
when I--could not do otherwise. Independently, madame, of the
profound respect I bear all your sex I profess a particular regard
towards all those who approach our sovereign, and whom he
invests with his confidence: in this I prove myself no less a
faithful subject than a gallant Frenchman; and I venerate the God
I serve in his constant friendships as I would do in his caprices.
Thus I was far from outraging and insulting you still more
grievously by composing a hateful work which I detest with my
whole heart, and which makes me shed tears of blood when I think
that people did not blush to attribute it to me.
"Believe in my respectful attachment, madame, no less than in
my cruel destiny, which renders me odious to those by whom I
would be loved. My enemies, a portion of whom are amongst yours,
certainly succeed each other with frightful eagerness to try my wind.
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