not
know how to write." Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de
Motteville, however, both express the very opposite opinion. The first
remarks, speaking of the Countess de Maure:--"The precision and the
polish of her style would be incomparable if Madame de Longueville had
never written." The second declares that "this lady has ever written as
well as any one living." The fact is, so far as may be judged from those
of her letters which have come down to us, that Madame de Longueville's
style bore the reflex of her conversation: there are some passages very
remarkable in their force, some phrases altogether trite and
insignificant. This opinion is quite beside the consideration of her
diction in a grammatical point of view. In her written as in her spoken
language, she seems to have been impassive or to have kindled into
animation according as her thoughts were "dead or living," to use her
own phrase. Speaking and writing, however, are two very different
things, both requiring an especial cultivation; and as Madame de
Longueville was defective in anything like what is termed "regular
education" or "sound instruction," that fact became apparent so soon as
she took her pen in hand. Her great natural endowments shone on paper
with difficulty, through faults of every kind which escaped her notice.
It is really no small gift to be able to express one's sentiments and
ideas in their natural order, and with all their true and various
shades, in terms neither too homely nor far-fetched, or which neither
enfeeble nor exaggerate them. It is by no means rare to meet with men in
society remarkable for intelligence, nerve, and grace when they speak,
but who become unintelligible when they commit their thoughts to
writing. The fact is, that writing is an art--a very difficult art, and
one which must be carefully learned. Madame de Longueville was ignorant
of this, as were some of the most eminent women of her time. There
exists unquestionable evidence to prove that the Princess Palatine was a
person of large intelligence, who was able to hold her own with men of
the greatest capacity. De Retz and Bossuet tell us so. Some letters of
the Palatine, however, are extant in which, whilst there is no lack of
solidity, refinement, and ingenuity of thought, it will be seen that
they often abound with errors, obscure phraseology, and not unfrequently
outrageously violate even the commonest rules of orthography. It must
not, however, by any me