Pierre-Jean de BÉRANGER (1780-1857). L.A.S., [1835, to Napoléon Peyrat]; 3pages in-8. After dissuading his young friend from retiring from the world, he paints a fine portrait of LAMENNAIS: "He is a poetic, eloquent nature, more suited to speeches than to argumentation. The depths of his heart are excellent, despite certain habits which smell of the egoism natural to dress, but which in him could only take root on the surface. [...] You have to give him absolute freedom. The slightest hindrance would upset his love of independence". He urges Peyrat to go and see him: "When you're young, you must never neglect these encounters: there comes a time when you are astonished by the streaks of light they leave in your mind. [...] The little I'm worth, I owe much more to the men I've cultivated than to the books I've read". He invites Peyrat to come and stay with him at La Grenadière. Then he talks about a book by Victor HUGO (Les Chants du crépuscule): "I've read some fragments that didn't satisfy me very much; but I don't know anything about it anymore".