au Siècle d'Auguste_; it is a dry but learned work on ancient times. Read all Hugo; read Lamartine, but only the _Méditations_ and the _Harmonies._ Then write an essay on the passages you think beautiful and those you think bad; and show it to me on my return. Finally, always keep yourself occupied, and rest yourself by the variety of your occupations. Take care of your health _and be wise._ Good-bye, my dear lad. I told D to give you twenty francs for a New Year's gift. ALEXANDRE DUMAS" _P.S.--_Tell Collin that, as soon as my piece is received, I will write to Buloz to arrange the business of his introduction to the Théâtre-Français. Go to Tresse, at the Palais Royal; get from him at my expense the poems of Hugo, and his dramas, and Molière of the Panthéon; the Lamartine I will give you on my return. Read Molière often, much, always; with Saint-Simon and Madame Sévigné he is the supreme type of the language of the time of Louis XIV. Learn by heart certain passages of _Tartuffe_, the _Femmes savantes_ and the _Misanthrope_: there have been and there will be other masterpieces of style, but nothing will ever exceed these in beauty. Learn by heart the monologue of Charles Quint from _Hernani_, all _Marion Delorme_, the monologue of Saint-Vallier and that of Triboulet in _Le Roi s'amuse_, the speech of Angelo on Venice; in conclusion, although I have few things to mention in comparison with the works I have just pointed out to you, learn the recital of Stella, in my _Caligula_; Yaqoub's lion-hunt, as well as the whole scene between the Comte, the King and Agnes Sorel, in the third act of _Charles VII._ Read de Vigny's _Othello_ and _Roméo_; read de Musset without being carried away by his great facility and his inaccuracy, which in him might almost be reckoned a virtue, but which, in another, would be a serious fault. These are the ancient and modern writers I advise you to study. Later you shall pass on from these to a wider range. Adieu, you see I am treating you as though you were a grown-up youth and reasoning with you. You will soon be fifteen, and what I have said is quite easy to understand--your health, your health before all things: health is the foundation of everything in your future, and especially of talent. "A. D." I hope the sincerity and impartiality of my opinion upon others will be believed, when it is seen with what sincerity and impartiality I speak of myself.