It is consistent with your habits to act the reverse of common mortals,
and as the country will soon be charming, I presume you will return to
Paris. Be kind enough, therefore, to advise me of your movements.
I am pondering and asking myself if I shall go to the Academy Thursday
to be an aid or a hindrance, after the fashion of an Immortal. Between
M. Henri Martin, M. Cuvillier-Fleury, and M. de Champagny, one does not
know exactly what to do. The latter, however, is a little too clerical
for me, and I bear him a grudge, moreover, for having written on Roman
history in journalistic style. M. Guizot, apparently, is the reigning
star. He wishes to make us swallow the entire _Journal des Savants_: M.
Paradol, then M. de Sacy and M. Saint-Marc. At any rate, they have
humour, and a great deal of intelligence. Have you read anything of
Cuvillier-Fleury? If so, tell me your opinion of him. If you will give
me a genuine reward besides, I will vote for whomsoever you may
designate.
English novels, meaning modern ones, are beginning to bore me to death.
They were our great resource at Cannes, where M. Murray, the well-known
bookseller, sends boxes of books twice a week. Do you know of anything
which will while away the time for a poor devil who dares not show his
face out of doors after sunset?
Good-bye, dear friend. Think of me sometimes, and send me some news of
yourself.
CCLXXXIX
PARIS, _June 24, 1866_.
What has become of you? The cholera, it seems, is very bad at Amiens. I
do not know what is in store for us at the Luxembourg, and it may be
that the Senate-Council, with which we are threatened, will oblige me to
return here until the middle of the month.
To console myself, I have bought the twenty-seven volumes of the
_Mémoires du XVIIIe Siècle_, which I shall have bound. Is there in
them anything which you would like? Your Klincksieck has nothing that
one asks for; I shall inquire of Vieweg, who may have, perhaps, what I
want. Unfortunately, the edition of the _Mémoires de F. Auguste_, which
was published in Leipzig, is in the hands of M. de Bismarck.
I was surprised to receive the book you returned to me. I was afraid
that you had added it to those which you have already taken from me.
When will you come and choose another? In spite of the heat, I am far
from well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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