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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO M. J. J. AMPÈRE. - Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, vol. 2

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TO M. J. J. AMPÈRE. - 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 M. J. J. AMPÈRE.

My dear Friend,

I must tell you plainly, that your last letter fills me with delight.*

Never shall I have been more enchanted to see you, though I have never been less capable of enjoying your society. For my wife’s throat is in such a state, that she is forced almost always to use a slate, and I can scarcely put one foot before another. I only whisper, and that but little. After being read to for a very short time, I can listen no more. Yet I say, come; come. For nothing is more selfish than great friendship, except one other passion, which no one, in my state, ever mentions. We shall instantly prepare your bed. Your neighbour will be the only one of us who can speak and write—my brother Edward. My feelings are greater than my strength; so I say no more.

THE END.

[*]In that letter, M. Ampère announced that he was leaving Rome for Cannes, to pass some time with his friend. He left Rome so soon afterwards, that he crossed this letter. It is the last that Tocqueville wrote.