Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, marquis de COND... Lot n° 12

(1743-1794) mathematician, philosopher, and economist; deputy, conventioneer (Aisne), he was arrested as a Girondin and poisoned himself. L.A., Thursday [early January 1785], to Jean-Baptiste TARGET; 2 pages small in-4. Interesting letter to the lawyer Target, who is running for the French Academy. [Target had been defeated by the abbé Maury on December 16, 1784. The election of Target to Abbé Arnaud's chair, on January 13, 1785, marked the reconciliation of the Academy with the Bar]. "You have made a small mistake [...] and it must be repaired. Several academicians said that you were presented to them, but that even though they were there you did not enter. They thought they saw in it a kind of new visit and contrary to the custom, so you must see again those who thought that something was missing from the formality, that is to say Marmontel, Beauzée, Bailly, Lemierre, the Abbé Millot, M. de Brequigny", as well as the Mal de Beauvau and Saint-Lambert and Chamfort... ". I am very angry that this fell on Marmontel, the others would not have thought of it, but he made them a great difficulty of it; and one should not let him take advantage of it. There is nothing extraordinary about this step; you will tell those you meet that you thought you had to clear up all the clouds that could be raised, that you did not know that it was not enough to come in person with a ticket, and that it would be ridiculous to suspect you of having wanted to do in half what the other academics have done in full. [...] You have until Monday morning inclusive.