To Benjamin Franklin from the Chevalier de Pougens, 8 May 1780
From the Chevalier de Pougens
LS: American Philosophical Society
Ce 8 Mai 1780
Monsieur
J’ai l’honneur de vous envoïer un paquet que je suis chargé de vous remettre. Le mauvais état de ma santé et de ma vüe m’empeche de venir vous le porter moi même, n’aïant pas la certitude que vous Soiés visible, voulés vous bien me fixer le moment où je pourrai Sans indiscrétion venir vous offrir mes respects et mon admiration.
Je joins ici le plan d’un ouvrage dont je m’occupe depuis plusieurs années; je ne publie pas encore ce discours, peut être le but que je me propose vous interresserat-il, ne fut-ce même que par son immensité?7 J’attens vos ordres et Suis ainsi que toute l’Europe avec le respect que l’on doit à la vertu Monsieur Votre tres humble et très obeissant serviteur
LE CH. DE Pougens
hotel royal place du Palais Royal
M. le Deur. franklin.
Notation: De Fougere 8 may 1780.
7. As he explained in a follow-up note of May 29, he was enclosing the discours préliminaire of his projected Bibliographie encyclopédique. Turgot had also received a copy of this prospectus, and was less than enthusiastic about it, as he wrote to Du Pont on May 27. For all his erudition, the young man struck him as pedantic, confused, and too inclined to show off. Schelle, Œuvres de Turgot, V, 621. Pougens, who was eventually made a member of almost every academy in Europe, probably gave up on this particular project, which appears nowhere in his long list of publications. His May 29 request for an interview must have produced a favorable answer since Pougens wrote happily on [May 31] that he would visit the Doctor the following day, June 1. Both letters are at the APS. No further letter between them has survived but Pougens remained a lifelong friend and correspondent of WTF. In 1825, he published in Paris a book of reminiscences entitled Lettres Philosophiques à Madame ***sur divers sujets de morale et de littérature, in which he quotes BF on various topics.