LETTER LII. 



EACH PLANT HAS ITS OWN TYPE, BUT MEN TRY TO FORM THEMSELVES 

 ON ONE SINGLE TYPE. 



If I sometimes appear to prefer trees and plants to men, I 

 will not tell you, as my sole reason, that I owe ever-reviving 

 pleasures to trees and flowers, and that men, with very few 

 exceptions, have always been to me obstacles or enemies; for 

 you know the human heart too well to be satisfied with this 

 reason, and no one could pretend with a worse grace than 1, 

 particularly to you, that our affections and antipathies are in 

 direct ratio with the good or evil we have received from the 

 persons or objects which have given birth to them. I, who 

 have given up all my life to one who has done me so much 

 injury; you, who are so fond of melons, which never fail to 

 repay your love for them with horrible cramps in the 

 stomach. 



I principally like trees and flowers, because both exhibit 

 themselves to me as they really are, whether near or at a 

 distance, winter or summer. I perceive at a distance a tree 

 covered with blossoms of flat white, and I know that it is a 

 cherry-tree ; I know that its rich panache will bloom under 



