GRESSET Jean-Baptiste-Louis (1709-1777) poet... - Lot 86 - Drouot Estimations

Lot 86
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GRESSET Jean-Baptiste-Louis (1709-1777) poet... - Lot 86 - Drouot Estimations
GRESSET Jean-Baptiste-Louis (1709-1777) poet and playwright (Académie française). Autograph MANUSCRIT, Réponse de M. Gresset Directeur de l'Académie Françoise au discours prononcé par M. d'Alembert, [1754]; 8 pages in4. Speech at the reception of D'ALEMBERT at the Académie Française (December 16, 1754). Gresset, director of the Academy for a few months, welcomes D'Alembert. He passes quickly over the praise of the incredulous d'Alembert, and concentrates his speech on the panegyric of his predecessor, Jean-Baptiste SURIAN (1670-1754), bishop of Vence, worthy heir of Bossuet and Fléchier. He draws the portrait of a "peaceful solitary, Christian philosopher, without cabal, without protector", who possessed that imperious voice "which subdues reason, which silences the mind, which speaks to the heart and commands duty", and whose true eloquence joined that of morals. Surian was "not one of these frivolous and contemptible preachers who, in front of the very altars, seek less the palms of the sanctuary than the laurels of the spectacles [...] these pleasant and profane pontiffs formerly feared by Despréaux, and who [...] came to walk their scandalous uselessness among the vices, the luxury and the softness of the capital or came to crawl at the court"... [This attack on the academic bishops, who did not reside in the capital and preferred the mundane, caused a great stir and displeased Louis XV]. And Gresset concluded by affirming that "letters and talents have no real and lasting glory unless reason and religion are united to them"...
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