The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1Edgeworth, Maria
General
The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1
Edgeworth, Maria
Edgeworth, Maria, 1768-1849; Novelists, Irish -- 19th century -- Biography
Pastoret, her husband, a man of diplomatic knowledge; Lord Henry Petty,
son of Lord Lansdowne, with whom my father had much conversation; the
Swiss Ambassador, whose name I will not attempt to spell; M. Dumont,
[Footnote: M. Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont, tutor to Lord Henry Petty
(afterwards the famous second Marquis of Lansdowne), had translated
Bentham's _Traités sur la Législation_, and _Théorie des Peines et des
Récompenses._ He became an intimate friend and much-valued critic of
Miss Edgeworth.] a Swiss gentleman, travelling with Lord Henry Petty,
very sensible and entertaining, I am sorry that he has since left Paris;
M. d'Etaing, of whom I know nothing; and last, but indeed not least, the
Abbé Morellet, [Footnote: The author of several works on political
economy and statistics; born 1727, died 1819.] of whom you have heard my
father speak. O! my dear Aunt Mary, how you would love that man, and we
need not be afraid of loving him, for he is near eighty. But it is
impossible to believe that he is so old when one either hears him speak,
or sees him move. He has all the vivacity, and feeling, and wit of
youth, and all the gentleness that youth ought to have. His conversation
is delightful, nothing too much or too little; sense, and gaiety, and
learning, and reason, and that perfect knowledge of the world which
mixes so well but so seldom with a knowledge of books. He invited us to
breakfast, and this morning we spent with him. My dearest Aunt Mary, I
do wish you had been with us; I know that you would have been so much
pleased. The house so convenient, so comfortable, so many inventions the
same as my father's. He has a sister living with him, Madame de
Montigny, an amiable, sensible woman: her daughter was married to
Marmontel, who died a few years ago: she alas! is not at Paris.
My father did not present any of his letters of introduction till
yesterday, because he wished that we should be masters and mistresses of
our own time to see sights before we saw people. We have been to
Versailles--melancholy magnificence--La petite Trianon: the poor Queen!
and at the Louvre, or as it is now called, La Musée, to see the
celebrated gallery of pictures. I was entertained, but tired with seeing
so many pictures, all to be admired, and all in so bad a light, that my
little neck was almost broken, and my little eyes almost strained out,
trying to see them. We were all extremely interested yesterday seeing
what are called Les Monuments Français--all the statues and monuments of
the great men of France, arranged according to their dates in the
apartments of the ancient Monastery des Augustins. Here we saw old Hugh
Capet, with his nose broken, and King Pepin, with his nose flattened by
time, and Catherine de Medicis, in full dress, but not in full beauty,
and Francis I., and dear Henry IV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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