I have spent much money here, and I can hardly receive any until after September. I have by me two chests full of MSS. by the best men; a kind favour you could do me, Monsieur, would be to find me some bookseller willing to print them. I shall tell you in confidence that I have found M. Mortier so honest a man that I should very much like him to take them, and this is what I had purposed to do: to give them to him to clear an account standing between him and M. de Bavi and for which it is just he should be requited. I had even thought of proposing that after agreeing on the price of an MS. he should pay me half in money and keep the other half in deduction from what is owing to him until entire receipt of the sum, which is not considerable.
But besides his being busy printing many good books, my present situation is too pressing to allow me to make the proposal, so I have told him nothing about it. I shall always have occasion to provide him whenever he chooses. Thus, Monsieur, you may, if you think fit, offer any bookseller you like without mentioning my name the select MSS., the list of which I am taking the liberty of sending you.
I do not know whether a small volume that I printed in Paris under the title of Divers Writings on Love and Friendship, on Voluptuousness and Politeness, the Theory of Pleasant Feelings and some Miscellaneous Thoughts of the late Marquis de Charost,[303] has reached you. The book appeared, and Maréchal de Noailles and Duc de Villars complaining that they thought they had found their characters portrayed in the Miscellaneous Thoughts, the Cardinal[304] tried to stop the sale. Nevertheless, two editions came out within four months. The book, in fact, has been found charming—I may well praise it since there are but two pieces of mine, all the rest being by the best authors. I am told that the book has not been reprinted in Holland. You might ask some bookseller to do so. I shall send a revised copy, and the author of the Theory of Feelings having rewritten the work, I shall write to get what I know is now a very considerable piece. The bookseller will pay only for what he prints, and I shall send him wherewith to make up a second and even a third volume of Miscellanies no less interesting; for instance:
The pamphlet by M. de la Rivierre on his marriage with Mme la Marquise de Coligny, daughter of Bussi Rabutin, which is admirably written.
The Letters of that Marquise to M. de la Rivierre.
Other Letters of M. de la Rivierre to Mme la Marquise de Lambert and others, both in verse and prose, which are quite unknown or at least known only to a few.
Essays by M. de la Rivierre on love.
A Letter of Heloise to Abelard by the same.
Sundry short Treatises and Letters by the late Mme la Marquise de Lambert.
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