GUIBERT Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de (1743-1790) officer, tactician and writer. Autograph MANUSCRIT, Letter from M. le Cte de Guibert to M. de Voltaire in reply to his Tactique en vers, dated 6 Xbre 1773; 3 pages and a quarter in-4 (slight cracks in the folds). Reply to VOLTAIRE's poem La Tactique, inspired by the reading of the Essai de tactique générale by the comte de Guibert. [This Essay of general tactics was deeply admired by Frederick II and Napoleon Bonaparte]. "It is not to you, Sir, that one must answer in verse. You take away the courage to do it [] You do not leave to self-love more resources in prose; but I need to show you my gratitude and prose is the language which belongs to all men. [] Continue, Sir, to abhor war, denounced to the execration of the centuries to come the kings who make it unjustly. Scourge the warriors who do not groan at the evils of which their duty makes them instruments; but do not confuse with it a science which makes it less harmful. War existed before the art was created, and in the time when people were slaughtering each other without a method, they were all the more cruel. The happiest centuries are those in which warriors study even their sad profession. All the lights touch each other, and one is not more ferocious as soon as one is enlightened"... Etc. This manuscript presents some variants with the published text. Two old copies of La Tactique en vers de VOLTAIRE are enclosed, one of which is followed by the copy of Guibert's letter and various extracts from Voltaire's letters; plus eight old copies of Voltaire's letters. Provenance : Archives of the Count of GUIBERT (sale 14 October 1993, n° 59).