Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-01-29
3 PLEASANT Etory.
BERNARDIN DE ST. PIERRE.

Who Of us can read without emo
ton, and not read again with interest,
the life and troubles of Paul and Vir-
ginia? What delightful picture of
friendship! What an interesting de-
scription of love commencing in child
hood, and continuing until death!-
What frightful representation Of
ambition, which destroys two families
that Providence had brought together,
to assist each other. How can we a.
void blaming Madame De la Jour, and
interesting ourselves for Paul, and
weeping for Virginia? Ambitious
mothers may hence receive a lesson,
while it portrays, in affecting colors,
the attachment of their domestics.
This work has been translated into
several languages, and its author has
had the pleasure Of seeing it perused
as far as the distant rivers whence he
took his picture. Bernardin de Saint
Pierre, after having painted the riches
of nature, wished to gratify his read
ers by picture of felicity that he had
found in private and humble life, and
accordingly commenced his Indian
Cottage.
Devoted to this work, he felt that it
was only in the midst of fields that he
should be able to give to it all that
coloring and truth, which can only be
drawn from nature. He left Paris,
and took up his abode in the village
of Etoile, situated between the Seine
and the forest of Sennart. His home
was in castle which was owned by an
opulent man of high rank, one whose
happiness was heightened by an asso-
citation with the most distinguished
artists and writes of the day. Saint
Pierre's room being in wing of the
castle, it was separated from the rest,
and formed a delightful retreat. From
one window was beheld the village Of
Corbeil, with its beautiful environs,
and from the other, part of an i'm
mense forest, which contrasted beau
tifully with the rich and varied plain
through which the Seine flows, bear
ing on its CLASSY bosom, to the capital,
the productions of the most fertile
provinces of France.
Sometimes, Saint Pierre seated upon
the banks of the river, would give him.
self up to the charms of deep reve-
rie, at others, he would ramble to-
wards the forest of Sennart, and gratify
his love of nature, by viewing the raw
ines and wild scenery he met in his way.
| This walk had more attraction for
him than any other: here his imagina-
ton could assimilate each scene and
object to the sloping hills and silent
deserts of Africa, where he had so of
ten meditated upon the gorgeous beau
ties of creation.
If he walked in a pleasant valley,
crossed by limpid stream, he found
himself III the Isle of France, near the
river of Latiniers. If he climbed a
hill covered with old trees, from which
he saw the clock of the village, it
brought again to his fancy the hills of
Port Louis, from which he could see
the church of Pamplemousses; if he
met, at short distance from each 9TH
er, two cottages of shepherds, he stop
ped and beheld the dwellings of Mag
ueritte and Madame De la Jour, while
the echoes resound;ng from the cries
of the woodmen and swains, seemed
to repeat the dear names of Paul and
Virginia. One day in autumn, when
the rising of the sun gave the promise
of clear and beautiful day, Saint
Pierre, attracted by its charms, left
the village of Etoile to walk in the
forest, without remarking the road he
took. Wrapped in the beauties of the
landscape, it was not till fatigue and
hunger recalled him to the recollec-
ton of his home, he then found that
he had wandered so far from his ac-
customed path, that all traces Of re-
turn We're lost III the labyrinths of the
forest, while he perceived by the rays
of sun, which shone less obliquely up
on his head, that the day was far adj