An Autograph Manuscript, perhaps from an Emerson notebook,

discussing key figures of the French Enlightenment and the Academie, 241 x 182 mm, laid into a larger sheet, ink on light blue paper, one page, numbered "80" in upper right corner, [c.1853?], tape to verso at fold. Headed "Academie," the manuscript gives a brief relation of major French thinkers to the Academie Francaise: Richelieu "wd not have established it if he cd have seen revolution in it."; Saint-Pierre "induced the Acad to substitute Hope of great men for frivolous subjects"; Montesquieu "said, the academie had no other functions than to chatter without end." Emerson had visited Paris during the revolution of 1848 and held a high opinion of the French. It is possible that this manuscript was produced in 1853 in conjunction with an important series of lectures Emerson would give beginning in January 1854, including "France, or Urbanity." In Fine condition.