Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/358

1776] I will efface from your mind the sad and melancholy ideas that this fatal event has put there. We will philosophize together on the nothingness of life, on the folly of men, on the vanity of stoicism and of all our being. These are inex- haustible topics with which to compose many in-folios. Nevertheless, I beg you to make all the efforts of which you are capable to prevent the excess of pain from injuring your health, about which I interest myself too much to think of it with indifference.

D'Alemhert to the King of Prussia.

Paris, August 15, 1776. My soul and pen have no expression to testify to your Majesty the deep and tender gratitude with which the letter you have deigned to write to me has filled me, — a letter so full of truth and interest, feeling and reason combined. Permit me, Sire, this expression of friendship — for why should I not venture to use with a great king the word which makes that great king so dear to my heart ? I should not have delayed a moment in replying to this fresh mark, so touching for me, of the kindness with which your Majesty honours me, and in reiterating to you more warmly than ever the expression of feelings which I owe to you, if that expression would not have drawn me, in spite of myself, into fresh paroxysms of sorrow ; which your Majesty would doubt- less have pardoned, but which might have troubled the sweet and proper satisfaction which your Majesty is now enjoying. The newspapers announce the visit of the Grand-duke of Eussia to Berlin, and the union that you are about to con- tract with that young prince, so worthy, it is said, for his rare qualities, to unite himself with you. [The Grand-duke Paul married the niece of Frederick the Great.] I have waited for his departure to pour my soul, once more into that