Chapter LXXIII: Letter LXII: LIVRI, Friday, July 16, 1677

I wish, my dear child, that you had a tutor for your son; it is a pity his mind should be left uncultivated. I doubt whether he is yet of an age to eat all sorts of food promiscuously; we should examine whether children are strong and robust, before we give them strong meats; otherwise we run the hazard of injuring their stomachs, which is of great consequence. My son stays behind to take leave of his friends; he will then come to me here; he must afterward join the army, and after that he may go and drink the waters. An officer, named M. D****, has lately been cashiered for absenting himself; I know the answer you will make, but this instance sufficiently shows the severity of military discipline. Adieu, my dear child; be comforted for the loss of your son; nobody is to blame concerning him. His death was occasioned by teething, and not by a defluxion upon the lungs; when children have not strength sufficient to force out the teeth at a proper time, they are never able to bear the necessary motion to make them all come at once; I talk learnedly. You know the answer of Sully’s green bed to M. de Coulanges, made by Guillerague; it is droll enough; Madame de Thianges repeated it to the king, who sings it; it was said at first, that he had ruined himself by it; but it is not true, it will perhaps make his fortune. If this discourse does not come from a green mind, it comes from a green head, which is the same, and the color of the thing can not be disputed.