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TO THE COMTE DE CIRCOURT. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, vol. 2 [1861]

Edition used:

Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville. Translated from the French by the translator of Napoleon’s Correspondence with King Joseph. With large Additions. In Two Volumes (London: Macamillan, 1861). 2 vols.

Part of: Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, 2 vols.

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TO THE COMTE DE CIRCOURT.

My Dear M. de Circourt,

I cannot thank you enough for the letters you wrote to me when I could not answer them. Of all my friends, you have best understood that a man whose hand cannot use a pen, may still have ears for what is interesting, and sense enough to comprehend and to enjoy such a correspondence as yours. The state which I have described is precisely that in which the mind values most all that can excite and amuse it. A thousand thanks, therefore, and I pray you not to tire of your intellectual charity. I am beginning, too, to regain the power of writing, and I soon shall be able to send satisfactory answers. My strength is quickly returning, and if the climate of Cannes will be kind enough to perform the promises that are made for it, I have no doubt but that my improvement will be rapid.

Now for a matter that much affects me. The interest in me which the Duchesse de Rauzan has lately expressed, touches me very much. Pray give her this message, which is sincerely felt. Her two little notes show a real anxiety for me. I shall never forget these proofs of her friendship—a friendship which I prize highly. I shall write to her as soon as I am again among the living. I am now a thing which is struggling into life.

Though a sort of shadow, I am still silly enough to feel an interest in the political and even in the literary affairs of the world; all that you can tell me on either of these subjects will be gratefully received. Has any new book come out, that I can send for?

I am beginning to be tired. Remember me affectionately to Madame de Circourt.