Paul et Virginie. English

by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

how rapidly onestep towards the acquisition of fortune has precipitated us all to thelowest abyss of misery! You were opposed to it, it is true; but whowould not have thought that Virginia's voyage would terminate in herhappiness and your own? an invitation from a rich and aged relation, theadvice of a wise governor, the approbation of the whole colony, and thewell-advised authority of her confessor, decided the lot of Virginia.Thus do we run to our ruin, deceived even by the prudence of those whowatch over us: it would be better, no doubt, not to believe them, noreven to listen to the voice or lean on the hopes of a deceitful world.But all men,--those you see occupied in these plains, those who goabroad to seek their fortunes, and those in Europe who enjoy repose fromthe labours of others, are liable to reverses! not one is secure fromlosing, at some period, all that he most values,--greatness, wealth,wife, children, and friends. Most of these would have their sorrowincreased by the remembrance of their own imprudence. But you havenothing with which you can reproach yourself. You have been faithful inyour love. In the bloom of youth, by not departing from the dictates ofnature, you evinced the wisdom of a sage. Your views were just,because they were pure, simple, and disinterested. You had, besides, onVirginia, sacred claims which nothing could countervail. You have losther: but it is neither your own imprudence, nor your avarice, nor yourfalse wisdom which has occasioned this misfortune, but the will of God,who had employed the passions of others to snatch from you the object ofyour love; God, from whom you derive everything, who knows what is mostfitting for you, and whose wisdom has not left you any cause for therepentance and despair which succeed the calamities that are broughtupon us by ourselves.

  "Vainly, in your misfortunes, do you say to yourself, 'I have notdeserved them.' Is it then the calamity of Virginia--her death and herpresent condition that you deplore? She has undergone the fate allottedto all,--to high birth, to beauty, and even to empires themselves. Thelife of man, with all his projects, may be compared to a tower, at whosesummit is death. When your Virginia was born, she was condemned to die;happily for herself, she is released from life before losing her mother,or yours, or you; saved, thus from undergoing pangs worse than those ofdeath itself.

  "Learn then, my son, that death is a benefit to all men: it is the nightof that restless day we call by the name of life. The diseases, thegriefs, the vexations, and the fears, which perpetually embitter ourlife as long as we possess it, molest us no more in the sleep of death.If you inquire into the history of those men who appear to have been thehappiest, you will find that they have bought their apparent felicityvery dear; public consideration, perhaps, by domestic evils; fortune,by the loss of health; the rare happiness of being loved, by continualsacrifices; and often, at the expiration of a life devoted to the goodof others, they see themselves surrounded only by false friends, andungrateful relations. But Virginia was happy to her very last moment.When with us, she was happy in partaking of the gifts of nature; whenfar from us, she found enjoyment in the practice of virtue; and even atthe terrible moment in which we saw her perish, she still had causefor self-gratulation. For, whether she cast her eyes on the assembledcolony, made miserable by her expected loss, or on you, my son, who,with so much intrepidity, were endeavouring to save her, she must haveseen how dear she was to all. Her mind was fortified against the futureby the remembrance of her innocent life; and at that moment she receivedthe reward which Heaven reserves for virtue,--a courage superior todanger. She met death with a serene countenance.

  "My son! God gives all the trials of life to virtue, in order to showthat virtue alone can support them, and even find in them happiness andglory. When he designs for it an illustrious reputation, he exhibits iton a wide theatre, and contending with death. Then does the courage ofvirtue shine forth as an example, and the misfortunes to which it hasbeen exposed receive for ever, from posterity, the tribute of theirtears. This is the immortal monument reserved for virtue in a worldwhere every thing else passes away, and where the names, even of thegreater number of kings themselves, are soon buried in eternal oblivion.

  "Meanwhile Virginia still exists. My son, you see that every thingchanges on this earth, but that nothing is ever lost. No art of man canannihilate the smallest particle of matter; can, then, that whichhas possessed reason, sensibility, affection, virtue, and religion besupposed capable of destruction, when the very elements with which it isclothed are imperishable? Ah! however happy Virginia may have been withus, she is now much more so. There is a God, my son; it is unnecessaryfor me to prove it to you, for the voice of all nature loudly proclaimsit. The wickedness of mankind leads them to deny the existence of aBeing, whose justice they fear. But your mind is fully convinced ofhis existence, while his works are ever before your eyes. Do you thenbelieve that he would leave Virginia without recompense? Do youthink that the same Power which inclosed her noble soul in a form sobeautiful,--so like an emanation from itself, could not have saved herfrom the waves?--that he who has ordained the happiness of man here, bylaws unknown to you, cannot prepare a still higher degree of felicityfor Virginia by other laws, of which you are equally ignorant? Beforewe were born into this world, could we, do you imagine, even if we werecapable of thinking at all, have formed any idea of our existence here?And now that we are in the middle of this gloomy and transitory life,can we foresee what is beyond the tomb, or in what manner we shall beemancipated from it? Does God, like man, need this little globe,the earth, as a theatre for the display of his intelligence and hisgoodness?--and can he only dispose of human life in the territory ofdeath? There is not, in the entire ocean, a single drop of water whichis not peopled with living beings appertaining to man: and does thereexist nothing for him in the heavens above his head? What! is there nosupreme intelligence, no divine goodness, except on this little spotwhere we are placed? In those innumerable glowing fires,--in thoseinfinite fields of light which surround them, and which neither stormsnor darkness can extinguish, is there nothing but empty space and aneternal void? If we, weak and ignorant as we are, might dare to assignlimits to that Power from whom we have received every thing, we mightpossibly imagine that we were placed on the very confines of his empire,where life is perpetually struggling with death, and innocence for everin danger from the power of tyranny!

  "Somewhere, then, without doubt, there is another world, where virtuewill receive its reward. Virginia is now happy. Ah! if from the abode ofangels she could hold communication with you, she would tell you, as shedid when she bade you her last adieus,--'O, Paul! life is but a scene oftrial. I have been obedient to the laws of nature, love, and virtue. Icrossed the seas to obey the will of my relations; I sacrificedwealth in order to keep my faith; and I preferred the loss of life todisobeying the dictates of modesty. Heaven found that I had fulfilled myduties, and has snatched me for ever from all the miseries I might haveendured myself, and all I might have felt for the miseries of others. Iam placed far above the reach of all human evils, and you pity me! Iam become pure and unchangeable as a particle of light, and you wouldrecall me to the darkness of human life! O, Paul! O, my beloved friend!recollect those days of happiness, when in the morning we felt thedelightful sensations excited by the unfolding beauties of nature; whenwe seemed to rise with the sun to the peaks of those rocks, and thento spread with his rays over the bosom of the forests. We experienced adelight, the cause of which we could not comprehend. In the innocence ofour desires, we wished to be all sight, to enjoy the rich colours ofthe early dawn; all smell, to taste a thousand perfumes at once; allhearing, to listen to the singing of our birds; and all heart, to becapable of gratitude for those mingled blessings. Now, at the sourceof the beauty whence flows all that is delightful upon earth, my soulintuitively sees, hears, touches, what before she could only be madesensible of through the medium of our weak organs. Ah! what language candescribe these shores of eternal bliss, which I inhabit for ever! Allthat infinite power and heavenly goodness could create to console theunhappy: all that the friendship of numberless beings, exulting in thesame felicity can impart, we enjoy in
unmixed perfection. Support,then, the trial which is now allotted to you, that you may heighten thehappiness of your Virginia by love which will know no termination,--by aunion which will be eternal. There I will calm your regrets, I will wipeaway your tears. Oh, my beloved friend! my youthful husband! raise yourthoughts towards the infinite, to enable you to support the evils of amoment.'"

  My own emotion choked my utterance. Paul, looking at me steadfastly,cried,--"She is no more! she is no more!" and a long fainting fitsucceeded these words of woe. When restored to himself, he said, "Sincedeath is good, and since Virginia is happy, I will die too, and beunited to Virginia." Thus the motives of consolation I had offered,only served to nourish his despair. I was in the situation of a manwho attempts to save a friend sinking in the midst of a flood, and whoobstinately refuses to swim. Sorrow had completely overwhelmed hissoul.