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THE LOVE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE

[Illustration]




THE LOVE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE


_Translated from the original latin and now reprinted from the
edition of 1722: together with a brief account of their lives and
work_

RALPH FLETCHER SEYMOURA.CHICAGO

  Copyright 1903
  by
  Ralph Fletcher Seymour




THE STORY OF ABELARD AND HELOISE.


It sometimes happens that Love is little esteemed by those who choose
rather to think of other affairs, and in requital He strongly
manifests His power in unthought ways. Need is to think of Abelard
and Heloise: how now his treatises and works are memories only, and
how the love of her (who in lifetime received little comfort
therefor) has been crowned with the violet crown of Grecian Sappho
and the homage of all lovers.

The world itself was learning a new love when these two met; was
beginning to heed the quiet call of the spirit of the Renaissance,
which, at its consummation, brought forth the glories of the
Quattrocento.

It was among the stone-walled, rose-covered gardens and clustered
homes of ecclesiastics, who served the ancient Roman builded pile of
Notre Dame, that Abelard found Heloise.

From his noble father's home in Brittany, Abelard, gifted and
ambitious, came to study with William of Champeaux in Paris. His
advancement was rapid, and time brought him the acknowledged
leadership of the Philosophic School of the city, a prestige which
received added lustre from his controversies with his later
instructor