Note 148 — Chapter II · 1635 to 1642.

Observe the style in which he writes from Grasse, the 18th December, 1637, to Mademoiselle de Bourbon: “Mademoiselle, I am proud to learn that she, who occupies all hearts, should fear that she is not in my memory. Though it were a temple, you should there have a place; judge, then, whether I have no interest in preserving you in it, in order that you may render it precious, poor and unfaithful as it was before. It is principally at the altar, Mademoiselle, that you are present with me. I truly ask God to add other lilies to those of your crown, but I ask him, also, to mingle with them the love of the thorns of his Son, and to strengthen you in the generous contempt of the grandeur in which I have seen (an allusion to the thought entertained by Mademoiselle de Bourbon of becoming a Carmelite).” Elsewhere, May 3, 1641...... “Our Lord is very good, but he is jealous, and he would prefer that we should never have tasted his spirit, than to become disgusted with it, and suffer it to be quenched. Roses have thorns which defend their beauty, but princesses are in the midst of roses which do not secure them against the temptations which the pleasures of the world inspire....” See Letters of M. Godeau, Bishop of Vence, on different subjects; Paris, 1718, p. 17 and p. 148.