vault of some temple ; it is not there that we must raise her monument; it is not there that her Shade will love to wander. Banks of the Savonni^re, meadows of Vaucluse, regions where the souls of Laura and La Suze still breathe, ye are too far away from us. Let us rather choose some
solitary grove, through which a rivulet, gently flowing o'er its pebbles, shall murmur ever in its plaintive tones. Come, we will raise a monument, simple as herself, a marble column, broken off breast-high, o'er which the cypresses shall stretch their melancholy arms— But no! it is the tomb of the sinner that needs to go beyond the sight of men. Let us choose for her beside some travelled road a little hill, planted with shrubs, at foot of which a limpid spring shall gush; a path, all green, shall lead there ; so that the weary traveller, finding shade and water, may rest him with delight and bless her memory, still, like herself, beneficent and on her tomb be these words graven : —
To the Memory
of Claire-Françoise de Lespinasse,
Taken May 23, 1776,
From her friends, whose happiness she made ;
From a choice Society of which she was the bond ;
From Letters which she cultivated without pretension :
From the Unhappy, whom she never approached without consoling them.
She died at the age of 42 years. But if to think, to love,
to suffer, in that which composes life, she lived in those few years many centuries.
