hough I sometimes saw them in
the country, either at my own house or that of some neighbor, such for
instance as the Abbes de Condillac and De Malby, M. de Mairan, De la
Lalive, De Boisgelou, Vatelet, Ancelet, and others. I will also pass
lightly over that of M. de Margency, gentleman in ordinary of the king,
an ancient member of the 'Coterie Holbachique', which he had quitted as
well as myself, and the old friend of Madam d'Epinay from whom he had
separated as I had done; I likewise consider that of M. Desmahis, his
friend, the celebrated but short-lived author of the comedy of the
Impertinent, of much the same importance. The first was my neighbor in
the country, his estate at Margency being near to Montmorency. We were
old acquaintances, but the neighborhood and a certain conformity of
experience connected us still more. The last died soon afterwards. He
had merit and even wit, but he was in some degree the original of his
comedy, and a little of a coxcomb with women, by whom he was not much
regretted.

I cannot, however, omit taking notice of a new correspondence I entered
into at this period, which has had too much influence over the rest of my
life not to make it necessary for me to mark its origin. The person in
question is De Lamoignon de Malesherbes of the 'Cour des aides', then
censor of books, which office he exercised with equal intelligence and
mildness, to the great satisfaction of men of letters. I had not once
been to see him at Paris; yet I had never received from him any other
than the most obliging condescensions relative to the censorship, and I
knew that he had more than once very severely reprimanded persons who had
written against me. I had new proofs of his goodness upon the subject of
the edition of Eloisa. The proofs of so great a work being very
expensive from Amsterdam by post, he, to whom all letters were free,
permitted these to be addressed to him, and sent them to me under the
countersign of the chancellor his father. When the work was printed he
did not permit the sale of it in the kingdom until, contrary to my wishes
an edition had been sold for my benefit. As the profit of this would on
my part have been a theft committed upon Rey, to whom I had sold the
manuscript, I not only refused to accept the present intended me, without
his consent, which he very generously gave, but persisted upon dividing
with him the hundred pistoles (a thousand livres--forty pounds), the
amount of