Heloise to Abelard

Abstract

I do not wish to give you the slightest reason to accuse me of disobedience in anything. So following your command, I have put a rein on the outpouring of my boundless grief, in this way restraining myself, at least in my letters, from writing words against which it is not merely difficult but impossible to guard oneself in speech. For nothing is less in our power than the heart, and we must obey it since we cannot rule it. When its urgings goad us, we are unable to repress it. Nor can we prevent the heart’s sudden impulses from breaking out into action, and expressing themselves still more readily in words, which are, it is said, the most spontaneous “signs of the passions.”¹ As Matthew writes (12:34): “It is from the heart’s overflow that the mouth speaks.” I shall, therefore, keep my hand from writing what I cannot keep my tongue from saying. If only the suffering heart were as ready to obey as the writer’s hand!