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162 - Anne-Robert-Jacques TURGOT (1727–1781).
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,500
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Description
Anne-Robert-Jacques TURGOT (1727–1781). L.A., Limoges, 14 January 1774, [to the Marquis de Condorcet]; 3¼ pages, quarto (slight water stain at the centre fold). A fine letter from a moralist. He had asked Julie de Lespinasse to stop writing to him: ‘I am, to my great regret, obliged to retract this’. He has fallen ill and is postponing his departure until he has recovered. ‘I am not entirely of the opinion that virtues are opposed to one another, except when by ‘virtues’ one means certain active qualities which are perhaps as much talents as they are virtues; moreover, all these terms have been used in so many different senses, and have almost always been so poorly defined, that one could easily argue about these matters for centuries without reaching agreement. Morality hinges even more on duties than on these active virtues, which, being tied to character and passions, are in fact rarely found in high degree in the same individual. But all duties are in harmony with one another. No virtue, however one takes the word, exempts one from justice. And I have no greater regard for people who accomplish great deeds at the expense of justice than for poets who imagine they can produce great beauties of the imagination without accuracy. I am well aware that excessive precision somewhat dampens the fire of composition and that of action. But there is a middle ground in all things’... etc. He is concerned that people are not judging the Beaumarchais affair: ‘Gentlemen apparently fear to judge rashly’. He then speaks of Voltaire, who ‘has fared better than I could have hoped from the proposal to work on the eulogy of the Ma[réch]al de Richelieu in the Gallery of Illustrious Men’...
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part I
Auction location
Auction time 10/13/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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