1842] Sismondi and his History 71 



Madame Sismondi to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



CHENE, 8th June [1842]. 



... Sis has corrected 4 sheets of his last Vol. 29th, and 

 written a conclusion which I think wise, and very touching 

 excusing himself from going as far as he had promised, 

 by declaring his inability from suffering, and describing the 

 hard struggle he has made to make his work complete. 

 He judges himself modestly, yet conscious of his merits; 

 he speaks of his unflinching truth, his strict morality, his 

 impartiality, his scorn to flatter any nation at the expense 

 of those virtues, but declares that he has not worked 

 20 years for a people without becoming attached to them, 

 that he loves the French (I think that is visible enough 

 without his saying it), but it is not sufficient for then* grasp- 

 ing vanity. The prize Gaubert was refused him on the 

 ground of his enmity to the French and to the Catholic 

 religion. It is the fashion now in France to be very 

 Catholic without a spark of religion. I think S. never 

 wrote anything better than those few pages of conclusion. 

 There is something profoundly melancholy in the simul- 

 taneous disappearance of all, who for these last 20 years, 

 have worked together at that history. The author himself 

 driven from his labour in sight of the goal, only one Vol. 

 more and his task was done, his bookseller and faithful 

 friend, Mons. Wustz, who read over and made his observa- 

 tion on every sheet sent to him for printing, died this week 

 unexpectedly; his printer, Mons. Crapelet, a friend too, 

 and who has worked for him 30 years, correcting himself 

 the proof-sheets before sending them to S., retired from 

 business just at the same time from broken health, and 

 without having made his fortune after 30 years' indefatigable 

 labour. He too goes into Italy to recover, if that is pos- 

 sible, but when physicians send away it is but the knell 

 of death, the avowal they can do nothing. He talks, poor 

 fellow, of meeting us there. . . . 



