Eloisa Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: and it is generally esteemed the best preservative against the noxious air of a country infected -with gallantry. They even attribute an electrical quality to th... more »ese talismans, which is very singular, but which acts only upon faithful lovers. They say it communicates the impression of kisses from one to the other, though at the distance of an hundred leagues. I do not pretend to warrant the success of this charm from expe. rience ; only, this I know, it is your own fault if you do not put it to the proof. Calm your fears with regard to my two gallants or pretenders, call them which you please. They are gone : peace be with them ! I shall no longer hate them, since they are out of my sight. LETTER LXXXVI. TO ELOISA. And so, my Eloisa, you insist on a description of these Parisian ladies ? Vain girl! but it is a homage due to your charms. Notwithstanding all your affected jealousy, your modesty, and your love, I have discovered more vanity than fear disguised under this curiosity. Be it as it will, I shall be just; I may safely speak the truth, but I should undertake the task with better spirits, if I had more to praise. Why are they not a hundred times more lovely ? Would they had sufficient charms to reflect new excellence upon yours by the comparison ! You complain of my silence : good heaven ! what could I have written ? When you have read this letter, you will perceive why I take pleasure in speaking of your neighbours, the Valesian ladies, and why I have hitherto neglected to mention those of this country : the first continually remindme of yon, my Eloisa; but the others—read, and you will know. Few people think of the French ladies as I do, if, indeed, I am not quite singular in my opinion. Equity obliges me, therefore, to give you this hint, that you may suppos...« less