Max JACOB (1876-1944). L.A.S., St Benoît-sur-Loire January 16, 1940, to his "dear Marcel"; 2pages in-4. Beautiful, long letter. "I told you in my last letter to think of God, to give you a gravity that can only make your talent flourish, for nothing is good (even and especially comedy) than what comes from the serious. Comedy benefits from having crossed the bridge of gravity. Perhaps, in spite of myself, I was a bit of a prophet, and the same God who has protected you up to now is sending you, in the midst of the trials of war, an even more painful trial, that of the death of your old father, whom you seemed to love very much. God warns you of the need for pain to acquire gravity. He gives the same warning to France, to the whole world: "Convert! renounce the easy and spiritual life in the bad sense of the word! think of my Justice!" For God is good, but he is a slave to his justice. He cannot forgive when his justice has seen the truth. These are harsh words when I owe you words of condolence. I feel it necessary to write them. You are too happy, and the purpose of life is not that, but the purpose of life is to seek what is God's will for each individual. You have a belief in God, you're too intelligent not to have it [...] but if you believe in God you must fear his justice and hope in his goodness only if you deserve it. God is hitting you today with a misfortune common to all sons, but he's hitting you right now because general misfortune isn't enough to make you think. Marcel, it's not enough to be loved, lovable and full of talent: that's the earth, from which you're doing very well! There's death, you see, and you have to think about your soul. I wish I'd thought of mine sooner, so I wouldn't have to live in (salutary but belated) fear of God's immutable Justice"...