Paul VALÉRY (1871-1945). L.A.S., Châteauneuf-les-bains August 11, 1923, to Paul Souday; 4 pages in-8, envelope. On vacation in the Puy de Dôme, "a torrid and sulfurous hole", he received the news of his nomination (to the Legion of Honor), and this morning "the print signed by Bérard and annotated by you, which I thought was a rather pretty piece for Charavay". The letter carrier is inundated with letters of congratulation. Valéry ponders, on the subject of Pascal, "our little polemic with Strowski", marveling at "the paving stone that the Str. bear swings at Pascal's skull - and the disdain with which a professor of rhetoric pronounces the word rhetoric". He doesn't have the courage to answer, it's too hot: "I cook - therefore, I don't think"... He admires Souday's courage in his chronicles, where he opposes the feeling of art to the intellectual nonsense in vogue: "These people I'm talking about don't want Pascal to have been (unfortunately) a rather small mind governing a vast and strong intelligence. He is the opposite of a philosopher. He curses curiosity and grand views. He sees better than anyone else, he writes better than anyone else [...] I prefer the Leonards and the Descartes, my dear Souday, those are truly great"...