LAMARTINE Alphonse de (1790-1869). L.A.S. " Lamartine ", Macon July 13, 1830 to Charles NODIER; 4 pages in-4. Superb letter at the time of the publication of Harmonies poétiques. Lamartine thanks Nodier for his eulogistic article in the Quotidienne : " I see well through the superb formulas of praise which will have their effect on the public and especially on the family public that you are not completely happy with these poor Harmonies. I am like you and more than you. I feel that they must be reproached with reason, monotony, dryness, pomp, pathos &c. I am too close to the agreed tone of the ancient Cantique and not close enough to the true tone of St Augustine and Ste-Beuve. I prefer the Consolations en toute vérité " He leaves at once for Savoy, Switzerland, Italy. He then alludes to the events of the day, and to "the inevitable crisis that is brewing", in spite of the success of the expedition of Algiers: "But does one succeed for a long time in beating one's century, that is what the history of centuries does not prove. I consider the battle as won if it is given; but what about the victory? There is a big cloud to see pass. May God grant that only noise and lightning come out of it [] I would like to see humanity on a good path, although every path leads to death"... Then he returns to poetry: "I feel poetry rising in me in purer and stronger streams. I will, if some god gives us leisure, give myself over to it during the last years that youth still colors, but I will not publish any more before 10 or 15 years. The Meditations and Harmonies will be my Bucoliques, it is necessary to think of the Divine Comedy which has been fermenting in me for so long. Then he encourages Nodier to write: "Write a work or fragments because everything is fragment even the Whole; it does not matter, make your mark, and let it not be said that we had one of the great writers and thinkers of the 19th century who amused himself by watching and applauding actors less good than him!"