Catherine De Medici
DEDICATION To Monsieur le Marquis de Pastoret, Member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts. When we think of the enormous number of volumes that have been published on the question as to where Hannibal crossed the Alps, without our being able to decide to-day whether it was (according to Whittaker and Rivaz) by Lyon, Geneva, the Great Saint-Bernard, and the valley of Aosta; or (according to Letronne, Follard, Saint-Simon and Fortia d'Urbano) by the Isere, Grenoble, Saint-Bonnet, Monte Genevra, Fenestrella, and the Susa passage; or (according to Larauza) by the Mont Cenis and the Susa; or (according to Strabo, Polybius and Lucanus) by the Rhone, Vienne, Yenne, and the Dent du Chat; or (according to some intelligent minds) by Genoa, La Bochetta, and La Scrivia,--an opinion which I share and which Napoleon adopted,--not to speak of the verjuice with which the Alpine rocks have been bespattered by other learned men,--is it surprising, Monsieur le marquis, to see modern history so bemuddled that many important points are still obscure, and the most odious calumnies still rest on names that ought to be
free mercy and to grant an everlasting inheritance unto such as would by
constant faith seek earnestly thereafter.
Long it was, ere that man knew; himself being destitute of GOD's grace,
so that all things waxed savage, the earth untilled, society neglected,
GOD's will not known, man against man, one against another, and all
against order. Some lived by spoil, some like brute beasts grazed upon
the ground, some went naked, some roamed like woodwoses [_mad wild men_],
none did anything by reason, but most did what they could by manhood. None
almost considered the everliving GOD; but all lived most commonly after
their own lust. By death, they thought that all things ended; by life,
they looked for none other living. None remembered the true observation
of wedlock, none tendered the education of their children; laws were note
regarded, true dealing was not once used. For virtue, vice bare place; for
right and equity, might used authority. And therefore whereas man through
reason might have used order, man through folly fell into error. And thus
for lack of skill and want of grace, evil so prevailed that the devil was
most esteemed; and GOD either almost unknown among them all or else
nothing feared among so many. Therefore--even now when man was thus past
all hope of amendment--GOD still tendering his own workmanship; stirred
up his faithful and elect, to persuade with reason all men to society;
and gave his appointed ministers knowledge both to see the natures of
men; and also granted to them the gift of utterance, that they might with
ease win folk at their will, and frame them by reason to all good order.
And therefore whereas men lived brutishly in open fields having neither
DEDICATION To Monsieur le Marquis de Pastoret, Member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts. When we think of the enormous number of volumes that have been published on the question as to where Hannibal crossed the Alps, without our being able to decide to-day whether it was (according to Whittaker and Rivaz) by Lyon, Geneva, the Great Saint-Bernard, and the valley of Aosta; or (according to Letronne, Follard, Saint-Simon and Fortia d'Urbano) by the Isere, Grenoble, Saint-Bonnet, Monte Genevra, Fenestrella, and the Susa passage; or (according to Larauza) by the Mont Cenis and the Susa; or (according to Strabo, Polybius and Lucanus) by the Rhone, Vienne, Yenne, and the Dent du Chat; or (according to some intelligent minds) by Genoa, La Bochetta, and La Scrivia,--an opinion which I share and which Napoleon adopted,--not to speak of the verjuice with which the Alpine rocks have been bespattered by other learned men,--is it surprising, Monsieur le marquis, to see modern history so bemuddled that many important points are still obscure, and the most odious calumnies still rest on names that ought to be