Max JACOB (1876-1944). Autograph manuscript, " From God, from others, what do you come to claim, fragile soul... "; 1 page in-fol., number 234 written on the back in red pencil. Very beautiful unpublished meditation on the beauty of life. "From God, from others, what do you claim, fragile soul, mortal body? You live and your blood beats and your senses are there functioning, by miracle, by a daily miracle! You live! O sublime gift and made to confound me, I live! O my heart, swell with love in my chest: I live; and God allows that I still subsist! My God has pushed back the limits of my life, he makes me hope to live again one day and to live perhaps in him after my death. I live! Ah! tell me why you have put me in this world! I search in vain why you gave me life, my God. [...] At this moment my poor body is full of you, but who knows in the future at the slightest encounter if I will not forget my duty, your name. Who knows with what sin the world will blacken me, in front of what crime I will go: this life that you gave me, to what black passion will I make it serve "...