Life, Letters, and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de LEnclos, the Celebrated Beauty of the Seventee | Page 6

fact is that the mother
attempted to prepare her daughter for a conventual life, a profession at
that period of the highest honor, and one that led to preferment, not
only in religious circles, but in the world of society. At that time,
conventual and monastic dignitaries occupied a prominent place in the
formation of public and private manners and customs, and if not
regarded impeccable, their opinions were always considered valuable in
state matters of the greatest moment, even the security of thrones, the
welfare and peace of nations sometimes depending upon their wisdom,
judgment, and decisions.
With this laudable object in view, Madame de l'Enclos carefully trained
her daughter in the holy exercises of her religion, to which she hoped to
consecrate her entire life. But the fond mother met with an impasse, an
insurmountable obstacle, in the budding Ninon herself, who, even in
the temples of the Most High, when her parent imagined her to be
absorbed in the contemplation of saintly things, and imbibing
inspiration from her "Hours," the "Lives of the Saints," or "An
Introduction to a Holy Life," a book very much in vogue at that period,
the child would be devouring such profane books as Montaigne,
Scarron's romances and Epicurus, as more in accordance with her trend
of mind.
Even at the early age of twelve years, she had mastered those authors,
and had laid out a course of life, not in accord with her good mother's
ideas, for it excluded the idea of religion as commonly understood, and
crushed out the sentiment of maternity, that crowning glory to which
nearly all young female children aspire, although in them, at a tender

age, it is instinctive and not based upon knowledge of its meaning.
This beginning of Ninon's departure from the beaten path should not be
a matter of surprise, for all the young open their hearts to ideas that
spring from the sentiments and passions, and anticipate in imagination
the parts they are to play in the tragedy or comedy of life.
It is this period of life which the moralist and educator justly contend
should be carefully guarded. It is really a concession to environment,
and a tacit argument against radical heredity as the foundation upon
which rest the character and disposition of the adult, and which is the
mainspring of his future moral conduct. It is impossible to philosophize
ourselves out of this sensible position.
In the case of Ninon, there was her mother, a woman of undoubted
virtue and exemplary piety, following the usual path in the training of
her only child and making a sad failure of it, or at least not making any
impression on the object of her solicitude. This was, however, not due
to the mother's intentions: her training was too weak to overcome that
coming from another quarter. It has been said that Ninon's father and
mother were as opposite as the Poles in character and disposition, and
Ninon was suspended like a pendulum to swing between two extremes,
one of which had to prevail, for there was no midway stopping place. It
may be that the disciple of heredity, the opponent of environment will
perceive in the result a strong argument in favor of his view of
humanity. Be that as it may, Ninon swung away from the extreme of
piety represented by her mother, and was caught at the other extreme
by the less intellectually monotonous ideas of her father. There was no
mental conflict in the young mind, nothing difficult; on the contrary,
she accepted his ideas as pleasanter and less conducive to pain and
discomfort. Too young to reason, she perceived a flowery pathway,
followed it, and avoided the thorny one offered her by her mother.
Monsieur de l'Enclos was an Epicurean of the most advanced type.
According to him, the whole philosophy of life, the entire scheme of
human ethics as evolved from Epicurus, could be reduced to the four
following canons:

First--That pleasure which produces no pain is to be embraced.
Second--That pain which produces no pleasure is to be avoided.
Third--That pleasure is to be avoided which prevents a greater pleasure,
or produces a greater pain.
Fourth--That pain is to be endured which averts a greater pain, or
secures a greater pleasure.
The last canon is the one that has always appealed to the religious
sentiments, and it is the one which has enabled an army of martyrs to
submit patiently to the most excruciating torments, to reach the
happiness of Paradise, the pleasure contemplated as a reward for
enduring the frightful pain. The reader can readily infer, however, from
his daily experiences with the human family, that this construction is
seldom put upon this canon, the world at large, viewing it from the
Epicurean interpretation, which meant earthly