LISZT Franz (1811-1886) Lot n° 26

L.A.S. "F. Liszt", [May 1834], to Félicité de LAMENNAIS; 3 pages in-8. Beautiful and exalted letter on Paroles d'un croyant. "Dear father, Although it is almost impudence, and at least ridiculous to pay you admiring compliments, I cannot resist the need to tell you a little, (always very poorly, very weakly, it is true) how much your last pages have transported me, overwhelmed me, and torn me apart with pain and hope!... My God, how sublime all that is!... sublime, prophetic, divine!... What genius! What Charity!... From this day on, it is obvious, not only for a few select friends, who love you and have been following you for a long time, but for the whole world, it is obvious, of the last evidence, that Christianity in the 19th century, that is to say all the religious and political future of Humanity is in you. Your vocation is frightfully glorious"... He implores him, whatever the anguish and terror of his heart may be, not to fail in it. In this "populous desert, where boredom and affliction consume him", the memory of Lamennais returns to his heart like a fortifying balm, like a powerful consolation. Does he know that he loves him from the depths of his heart, and that the desire to devote himself to him agitates and torments him? "It is very young and very crazy to me, I feel it, but as one said it to me it is necessary sometimes to forgive me the too much"... He will ask her forgiveness at La Chesnaie where he will arrive, with Sainte-Beuve and Joseph d'Ortigue, towards the end of July... And he ends : " Farewell, dear father. May the peace and the blessing of Christ overflow in you ".