oks is worth to them the sale of a hundred copies. I take the
liberty to send you herewith a humble volume. You may, perhaps,
find in it some over-crude tones, some raw shades; but do not
forbear to exercise your critical perspicuity. I submit myself in
advance to your reproaches and to your reservations; to be
censured by you is even a piece of good fortune, as your
reprimands themselves are adorned with courtesy and grace."

"Sir,--I admire you the more because our opinions are not the
same; they may be said to be contrary; but extremes meet, and we
join hands on a great many points: are we not both of us
vanquished? Chateaubriand sympathized, nay, more, fraternized,
with Armand Carrel. I am not Carrel, but you may be Chateaubriand
before a very long while. I would beg to lay before you the book
which goes with this note; some passages of it may, perhaps, wound
your honorable regrets, your chivalrous respects, but they are
sincere; and this sincerity I have never better understood and
practised than when I assure you that I am your most assiduous
reader and most fervent admirer."

"Sir,--Do not judge me, I pray you, from the newspapers in which,
to my great regret, I write: imperious circumstances, old
acquaintance, and--why shall I not confess it?--the necessities of
Parisian life, have driven me to appear to have enlisted on the
side of the most numerous battalions. But I have in the Provinces
a good old mother who reads no newspaper but yours; one of my
uncles is a Chevalier de Saint Louis; another served in Conde's
army; my Aunt Veronica is a pious woman, who would forever look
kindly upon me, if she should ever perceive through her spectacles
her nephew's name followed by praise from your pen. For I need not
say that you are her favorite author, as, of a truth, you are of
everybody; for who can remain insensible to those treasures of....
[Here my modesty refuses to copy the text before me]. There is but
one opinion upon this subject. Royalists and democrats, disciples
of tradition or fanatics of fancy, _voltigeurs_ of the old
monarchy or reformers of the future, are all unanimous in
saluting, as a rising glory of our literature, the pure and noble
talent which.... [Here my modesty again refuses to copy the text
before me].

"P.S. I send you herewith two copies of m