Among Franklin’s many reputations was that of a legendary and lecherous old lover who had many mistresses among the ladies of Paris. The reality was, truth be told, somewhat less titillating. His famed female friends were mistresses only of his mind and soul. Yet that hardly made their relationships less intriguing.
The first of these was with a talented and high-strung neighbor in Passy, Madame Brillon de Jouy, an accomplished musician who was noted for her performances on the harpsichord and the new pianos that were becoming fashionable in France. Madame Brillon, who was 33 when she met Franklin, was buffeted by conflicting passions and variable moods. Her husband, 24 years her senior (but 14 years younger than Franklin), was wealthy, doting and unfaithful. She had two daughters with beautiful singing voices and one of the most elegant estates in Passy, yet she was prone to fits of depression and self-pity. Although she spoke no English, she and Franklin exchanged more than 130 letters in French during their eight-year relationship, and she was able not only to enchant him but also to manipulate him.
Madame Brillon’s letters were suggestive. “I know my penitent’s weak spot, I shall tolerate it! As long as he loves God, America, and me above all things, I absolve him of all of his sins, present, past and future.” She went on to describe the seven cardinal sins, merrily noting that he had conquered well the first six, ranging from pride to sloth. When she got to the seventh, the sin of lust, she became a bit coy: “The seventh—I shall not name it. All great men are tainted with it…You have loved, my dear brother; you have been kind and lovable; you have been loved in return! What is so damnable about that?”
Franklin responded with his own revision of the Ten Commandments.
TO MADAME BRILLON, MARCH 10, 1778
I am charmed with the goodness of my spiritual guide, and resign myself implicitly to her conduct, as she promises to lead me to heaven in a road so delicious, when I could be content to travel thither even in the roughest of all the ways with the pleasure of her company.
How kindly partial to her penitent, in finding him, on examining his conscience, guilty of only one capital sin, and to call that by the gentle name of a foible!
I lay fast hold of your promise to absolve me of all sins past, present, and future, on the easy and pleasing condition of loving God, America, and my Guide above all things. I am in raptures when I think of being absolved of the future.
People commonly speak of Ten Commandments. I have been taught that there are twelve. The first was, Increase and multiply and replenish the Earth. The twelfth is a new Commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. It seems to me that they are a little misplaced, and that the last should have been the first. However, I never made any difficulty about that, but was always willing to obey them both whenever I had an opportunity. Pray tell me, my dear Casuist, whether my keeping religiously these two commandments, though not in the Decalogue, may not be accepted in compensation for my breaking so often one of the ten, I mean that which forbids coveting my neighbor’s wife, and which I confess I break constantly, God forgive me, as often as I see or think of my lovely Confessor: And I am afraid I should never be able to repent of the Sin, even if I had the full possession of her.
And now I am consulting you upon a case of conscience, I will mention the opinion of a certain father of the church, which I find myself willing to adopt, though I am not sure it is orthodox. It is this, that the most effectual way to get rid of a certain temptation, is, as often as it returns, to comply with and satisfy it. Pray instruct me how far, I may venture to practice upon this principle?
But why should I be so scrupulous, when you have promised to absolve me of the future! Adieu, my charming Conductress, and believe me ever, with the sincerest Esteem and Affection,