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A Daughter of Eve-Part4_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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to a sense of a new self. This crisis of her life, the subject of this



Scene, would be incomprehensible without certain explanations, which

may extenuate in the eyes of women the wrong-doing of this young



countess, a happy wife, a happy mother, who seems, at first sight,

inexcusable.



Life results from the action of two opposing principles; when one of

them is lacking the being suffers. Vandenesse, by satisfying every



need, had suppressed desire, that king of creation, which fills an

enormous place in the moral forces. Extreme heat, extreme sorrow,



complete happiness, are all despotic principles that reign over spaces

devoid of production; they insist on being solitary; they stifle all



that is not themselves. Vandenesse was not a woman, and none but women

know the art of varying happiness; hence their coquetry, refusals,



fears, quarrels, and the all-wise clever foolery with which they put

in doubt the things that seemed to be without a cloud the night



before. Men may weary by their constancy, but women never. Vandenesse

was too thoroughly kind by nature to worry deliberately the woman he



loved; on the contrary, he kept her in the bluest and least cloudy

heaven of love. The problem of eternal beatitude is one of those whose



solution is known only to God. Here, below, the sublimest poets have

simply harassed their readers when attempting to picture paradise.



Dante's reef was that of Vandenesse; all honor to such courage!

Felix's wife began to find monotony in an Eden so well arranged; the



perfect happiness which the first woman found in her terrestrial

paradise gave her at length a sort of nausea of sweet things, and made



the countess wish, like Rivarol reading Florian, for a wolf in the

fold. Such, judging by the history of ages, appears to be the meaning



of that emblematic serpent to which Eve listened, in all probability,

out of ennui. This deduction may seem a little venturesome to



Protestants, who take the book of Genesis more seriously than the Jews

themselves.



The situation of Madame de Vandenesse can, however, be explained

without recourse to Biblical images. She felt in her soul an enormous



power that was unemployed. Her happiness gave her no suffering; it

rolled along without care or uneasiness; she was not afraid of losing



it; each morning it shone upon her, with the same blue sky, the same

smile, the same sweet words. That clear, still lake was unruffled by



any breeze, even a zephyr; she would fain have seen a ripple on its

glassy surface. Her desire had something so infantine about it that it



ought to be excused; but society is not more indulgent than the God of

Genesis. Madame de Vandenesse, having now become intelligently clever,



was aware that such sentiments were not permissible, and she refrained

from confiding them to her "dear little husband." Her genuine



simplicity had not invented any other name for him; for one can't call

up in cold blood that delightfully exaggerated language which love



imparts to its victims in the midst of flames.

Vandenesse, glad of this adorable reserve, kept his wife, by



deliberate calculations, in the temperate regions of conjugal

affection. He never condescended to seek a reward or even an



acknowledgment of the infinite pains which he gave himself; his wife

thought his luxury and good taste her natural right, and she felt no



gratitude for the fact that her pride and self-love had never

suffered. It was thus in everything. Kindness has its mishaps; often



it is attributed to temperament; people are seldom willing to

recognize it as the secret effort of a noble soul.



About this period of her life, Madame Felix de Vandenesse had attained

to a degree of worldly knowledge which enabled her to quit the



insignificant role of a timid, listening, and observing supernumerary,

--a part played, they say, for some time, by Giulia Grisi in the



chorus at La Scala. The young countess now felt herself capable of

attempting the part of prima-donna, and she did so on several



occasions. To the great satisfaction of her husband, she began to




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