The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal — Read

. Alors que Vesper vient embrunir nos yeux, / Tout épris d'avenir, je contemple les cieux, / En qui Dieu nous escrit, par notes non obscures. / Les sorts et les destins de toutes créatures. / Car lui, du fond des deux regardant un humain. / Parfois mû de pitié, lui montre le chemin; / Par les astres du ciel qui sont ses caractères, / Les choses nous prédit et bonnes et contraires; / Mais les hommes chargés de terre et de trépas, / Méprisent tel écrit, et ne le lisent pas. / Ronsard

The Marchese professed a vigorous hatred of enlightenment: "It is ideas," he used to say, "that have ruined Italy"; he did not know quite how to reconcile this holy horror of instruction with his desire to see his son Fabrizio perfect the education so brilliantly begun with the Jesuits. In order to incur the least possible risk, he charged the good Priore Blanès, parish priest of Grianta, with the task of continuing Fabrizio's Latin studies. For this it was necessary that the priest should himself know that language; whereas it was to him an object of scorn; his knowledge in the matter being confined to the recitation, by heart, of the prayers in his missal, the meaning of which he could interpret more or less to his flock. But this priest was nevertheless highly respected and indeed feared throughout the district; he had always said that it was by no means in thirteen weeks, nor even in thirteen months that they would see the fulfilment of the famous prophecy of San Giovita, the patron saint of Brescia. He added, when he was speaking to friends whom he could trust, that this number thirteen was to be interpreted in a fashion which would astonish many people, if it were permitted to say all that one knew (1813).