family; and now
that I have named her, I cannot chuse but againe desire you to be
kinde to her; for, besides the merrit her family has on both sides,
she is as good a creature as ever lived. I beleeve she will passe
for a handsome woman in France, though she has not yett, since her
lying-inn, recovered that good shape she had before, and I am
affraide never will."--Dalxymple's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 26.

"The Count de Grammont fell dangerously ill in the year 1696; of
which the king (Louis XIV.) being informed, and knowing, besides,
that he was inclined to libertinism, he was pleased to send the
Marquis of Dangeau to see how he did, and to advise him to think of
God. Hereupon Count de Grammont, turning towards his wife, who had
ever been a very devout lady, told her, Countess, if you don't look
to it, Dangeau will juggle you out of my conversion. Madame de
l'Enclos having afterwards written to M. de St Evremond that Count
de Grammont was recovered, and turned devout,--I have learned,
answered he to her, with a great deal of pleasure, that Count de
Grammont has recovered his former health, and acquired a new
devotion. Hitherto I have been contented with being a plain honest
man; but I must do something more; and I only wait for your example
to become a devotee. You live in a country where people have
wonderful advantages of saving their souls, there vice is almost as
opposite to the mode as to virtue; sinning passes for ill-breeding,
and shocks decency and good manners, as much as religion, Formerly
it was enough to be wicked; now one must be a scoundrel withal, to
be damned in France. They who have not regard enough for another
life, are led to salvation by the consideration and duties of this."
--"But there is enough upon a subject in which the conversion of the
Count de Grammont has engaged me: I believe it to be sincere and
honest. It well becomes a man who is not young, to forget he has
been so."--Life of St. Evremond, by Des Marzeaux, p. 136; and St.
Evremond's Works, vol. ii. p. 431.]

PG EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

All day poring over his books, and went to bed soon
Ambition to pass for a wit, only established her tiresome
An affectation of purity of manners
As all fools are who have good memories
Better memory for injuries than for benefits
Better to know nothing at all, than to know too much
Be