D'ALEMBERT. 435 



funeste, que j'ai cru pouvoir lire sans j trouver de 

 nouveaux sujets de douleur, et qui m'apprit que depuis 

 Imit ans au moins, je n'etois plus le premier objet de 

 votre coeur, malgre toute 1'assurance que vous m'en 

 aviez si souvent donnee ?" He then goes on naturally 

 enough to ask what security he could have, after this 

 discovery, that she ever had loved him ; and that she 

 had not been also playing upon his affections ("trompe 

 ma tendresse") during the eight or ten other years 

 which he had believed to be so filled with love for 

 him. (GEuv., Vol. I., p. 25.J 



Now, how can we possibly account for this but by 

 supposing, that she had made him believe her professed 

 affection for Mora was all a pretence ? But if so, what 

 did he think was the nature of her connexion with that 

 enthusiastic young Spaniard ? Assuredly he must have 

 been aware that Mora was in love with her. Then what 

 was her plan with respect to him? I confess I am 

 driven, how reluctantly soever, to the painful conclu- 

 sion, that he lent himself to the plan of her inveigling 

 the Spaniard into a marriage, and deceived himself into 

 a belief that her heart was still his own. Marmontel's 

 account is inaccurate enough in some particulars ; but 

 the story of D'Alembert's going for the young man's 

 letters cannot be a fiction. It is an office no one could 

 have easily invented for a lover. Besides, the apparent 

 passion for Mora was known to all Mdlle. de 1'Espinasse's 

 circle. She never could conceal such a feeling when it 

 took possession of her. That passion was not an affair 

 of a few weeks or months ; it lasted considerably more 

 than six years ; for in April, 1768, we find D'Alembert 

 introducing him to Voltaire as his dear friend, and the 

 young man's death was in May, 1774. (Corr. avec 

 Voltaire, CEuv. XVI, 49.) 



The fancy of this susceptible lady for Guibert was 

 equally well known. D'Alembert saw these demon- 

 strations of love as well as every one else ; but she 

 continued to make him believe that they were not real 



