Volume I Part 2 (2/2)

True virtue is but a habit, and I have no hesitation in saying that the really virtuous are those persons who can practice virtue without the slightest trouble; such persons are always full of toleration, and it is to them that my Memoirs are addressed

I have written in French, and not in Italian, because the French language is more universal than mine, and the purists, who ht, but only in case it should prevent the me clearly The Greeks admired Theophrastus in spite of his Eresian style, and the Rohted in their Livy in spite of his Patavinity Provided I amuse ence After all, every Italian reads Algarotti with pleasure, although his works are full of French idio worthy of notice: of all the living languages belonging to the republic of letters, the French tongue is the only one which has been condemned by its masters never to borrow in order to becoh richer in words than the French, plunder from it words and constructions of sentences, whenever they find that by such robbery they add so to their own beauty Yet those who borrow thethe poverty of that language, very likely thinking that such an accusation justifies their depredations It is said that the French language has attained the apogee of its beauty, and that the sn loan would spoil it, but I h it certainly is the reat teher than it has gone We all recollect that, in the days of Lulli, there was but one opinion of his ed The new iiven to the French nation may open new and unexpected horizons, and new beauties, fresh perfections,up from new combinations and froressions, and all the coe upon my various exploits: 'Nequidquam sapit qui sibi non sapit' For the sareat desire to receive praise and applause from polite society:

'Excitat auditor stadiuloria calcar habet

I would willingly have displayed here the proud axiom: 'Nemo laeditur nisi a se ipso', had I not feared to offend the i with them, are wont to exclaim, ”It is no fault of mine!” I cannot deprive them of that small particle of comfort, for, were it not for it, they would soon feel hatred for themselves, and self-hatred often leads to the fatal idea of self-destruction

As for e ood or of every evil which may befallmy own pupil, and ready to love my teacher

THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA

VENETIAN YEARS

EPISODE 1 -- CHILDHOOD

CHAPTER I

My Faree--My Childhood

Don Jacob Casanova, the illegitiosa, the capital of Aragon, and in the year of 1428 he carried off Dona Anna Palofax from her convent, on the day after she had taken the veil He was secretary to King Alfonso He ran aith her to Rome, where, after one year of imprisonment, the pope, Martin III, released Anna fro at the instance of Don Juan Casanova, majordomo of the Vatican, and uncle of Don Jacob All the children born froe died in their infancy, with the exception of Don Juan, who, in 1475, married Donna Eleonora Albini, by who killed an officer of the king of Naples, was compelled to leave Ro left that city to seek his fortune, he died while traveling with Christopher Columbus in the year 1493

Marco Antonio became a noted poet of the school of Martial, and was secretary to Cardinal Poainst Giulio de Medicis, which we find in his works, having made it necessary for him to leave Rome, he returned to Como, where hebecome pope under the name of Clement VII, pardoned hi been taken and ransacked by the Imperialists in 1526, Marco Antonio died there froue; otherwise he would have died oftaken all he possessed Pierre Valerien speaks of him in his work 'de infelicitate litteratoruave birth to Jacques Casanova, who died in France at a great age, colonel in the ar of Navarre, afterwards king of France He had left in the city of Parma a son who married Theresa Conti, from whom he had Jacques, who, in the year 1681, married Anna Roli Jacques had two sons, Jean-Baptiste and Gaetan-Joseph-Jacques The eldest left Parma in 1712, and was never heard of; the other also went away in 1715, being only nineteen years old

This is all I have found in my father's diary: fro particulars:

Gaetan-Joseph-Jacques left his faoletta, who performed the cha by ave hi, and five years afterwards beca himself conspicuous by his conduct still more than by his talent

Whether frooletta, and joined in Venice a troop of co performances at the Saint-Samuel Theatre Opposite the house in which he had taken his lodging resided a shoemaker, by name Jerohter--a perfect beauty sixteen years of age The young actor fell in love with this girl, succeeded in gaining her affection, and in obtaining her consent to a runawayan actor, he never could have had Marzia's consent, still less Jerome's, as in their eyes a player was alovers, provided with the necessary certificates and accompanied by titnesses, presented themselves before the Patriarch of Venice, who perfore cereood deal of exclamation, and the father died broken-hearted

I was born nine months afterwards, on the 2nd of April, 1725