An ornate woodcut headpiece features symmetrical floral scrolls, leaves, and central decorative elements.

THE LETTERS OF PIERRE GASSENDI,

YOUR letter was delivered to me (Most Illustrious PIBRAC) at a time when I would have preferred you yourself to be returned to our Province. Gassendi is writing from Provence in southern France. I certainly embraced your letter with the greatest joy of mind. But immortal God! What an ecstasy of mind it would have been if I could have embraced you in person? Yet the fates carried it thus. You did not have to protest too sharply for an injury (which a Wise Man cannot suffer), nor did we have to grieve too intensely that Jupiter envied us you as our messenger. original: "caduceatorem," a herald or messenger, like Mercury who carries the caduceus staff. The loss certainly seems heavier because the consensus of many in wishing for you was followed by such consternation at your rejection of our prayers. I, to confess frankly, seemed to promise myself the age of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius was the Roman "Philosopher King." I hoped this Province would be happy, having a President who practiced philosophy. But since our Apollo A reference to Pibrac as a source of light and leader of the Muses. has been withdrawn from our Muses, Philosophy herself almost fell away from us, had she not been a little more spirited. I indeed raised my spirits, imitating your constancy. I began to be ashamed of my weakness, if I were depressed under the clouds while you, whom it concerned, were treading upon the harsh thunders. You are remarkably composed, as befits your sublime mind, having retained such laudable peace of mind. original: "ataraxiam," a state of serene calmness and freedom from emotional disturbance. I, however, had to be spared, as one striving for, but not yet attaining, that undisturbed greatness of a wise mind. For although I always held myself so, as it seemed,

after your departure, I saw that the empire of fortune is entirely blind. Especially in this great darkness of affairs, that which is less hoped for is more to be feared. I was not yet of such a Skeptical mind original: "Pyrrhoneo," referring to the followers of Pyrrho, the founder of ancient skepticism. that my feelings would not almost bend my assent to the other side. This single undisturbed peace original: "ataraxia" was missing for me to seem a rival of Sextus Empiricus. Sextus Empiricus was a physician and philosopher who recorded the tenets of ancient skepticism. Because of this, I studied indeed before; but now I study more every day to live entirely for the day, and never to conduct my business with sealed contracts. original: "obsignatis tabulis," a metaphor for acting with absolute certainty or rigid legalism. What is expedient I commit to the Gods. As for the rest, I follow my own nature not unwillingly. I feared before that which happened. After it happened, I could not prevent myself from being moved. Now I am almost sorry for my prayers, whenever I recall that the wishes of your people were contrary to mine. Because of this state of affairs, it was glorious not to achieve what was owed to your merits. Perhaps greater things await you in a happier age. Most importantly, perhaps it was better to wish you that tranquil retreat which your most illustrious grandfather chose in his final age, and which your most wise father so ardently sought. Far be it then that I should anxiously seek what end the Gods have given to you or to me. Let them weigh what is suitable for us and useful for our affairs. Perhaps they will grant the most desirable things in place of the pleasant. But so much for this. You deigned to remember me and to transmit across such distances of road that symbol of your love (I mean the Christian Treatises of Charron, which you knew I had not yet seen). Pierre Charron was a French theologian and philosopher known for his work "On Wisdom." It truly cannot be said at what value I have held it. Surely such is your kindness, such is your singular love for letters and the cultivators of letters. I devoured those small works greedily enough. You did not guess wrongly that the character and genius of that author would please me. Although, to profess freely what I feel, while everything pleases me greatly, nothing however charms me as much as Wisdom itself, which he described in the Preface