Abstract

Special Correspondence

After some years, when time has done its work, nothing is more interesting than to read the correspondence of some great mind. Nothing can give more keenly, more painfully, the sensation of the vanity and folly of most human efforts. This article presents information on the second volume of the correspondence of French writer Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, which has just appeared, with the same sort of interest. The way in which this correspondence comes to light shows well the avidity and impatience of this time. The literary executors have not waited till, by their efforts and by the generosity of the correspondents of Sainte-Beuve, they should find themselves in possession of their whole object; no, they have published one volume as soon as they had matter enough for one volume. They now publish a second volume, because they can feed the public with a volume more; and they announce that during the printing, they have received new documents, which will furnish the materials for a supplementary volume. The letters of the second volume extend from 1805 to 1869.