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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO HENRY REEVE, ESQ. - Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, vol. 2

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TO HENRY REEVE, ESQ. - 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 HENRY REEVE, ESQ.

My dear Reeve,

It is an age since I wrote to you. I could not do so. All January passed in a frightful crisis. No month in my whole life deserved to be marked with so black a cross. But let me forget, if it be possible, those cruel days and still more cruel nights, and only pray God never again to inflict such sufferings on me, or on my friends. During the last three weeks February has been repairing the mischief of January. I feel that I am going on as well as possible; much of my strength has returned. The bronchial tubes are quickly recovering. Let us talk of them no more.

Let me talk of an excellent article on the Catacombs, which I have just read in the Edinburgh Review. I have always felt interested in the subject. Yet, perhaps, I should not have read the article if I had not known that it was yours. A letter from Circourt deprived me of the pleasure of detecting you, which I hope that I should have done. However that be, the article is most interesting. You could not have given to your readers a more agreeable contribution.

Although I followed you underground with curiosity, what is now passing on the surface of our little globe deserves attention. I am posted here on one of the great military roads which led us in times past to Italy, and it is doing so now.

The length and desultory character of this letter are the best evidence of the state of my health. I am going to write to Mr. Grote. Remember me particularly to Sir George Lewis and to Lady Theresa. I hope that Lord Hatherton does not forget me. A thousand and a thousand regards to all the Seniors. I need not repeat them to Mrs. and Miss Reeve.

Ever yours from my heart.