Particulars of her journey from Marseilles to Nice. Her health beginning to improve. Nice an ideal place for health-seekers. Everyone she met spoke highly of Franklin. The Count d'Estaing is very popular with the sailors and the people in general in the different ports she visited.
Reflections on the shortness of human life and the vanity and uselessness of our desires and wishes which make life seem still shorter. We should make the best use neither stop time nor hasten its course. We should make the best use of it by acquiring wisdom and loving our friends.
Cannot take breakfast with him. Is still weak and much affected by the disaster which has happened to the Bouffé house. The ladies of that house were her friends.
Last letter she will write to Franklin from this place. Returns to Passy next Monday. Is often dissatisfied with her own letters; do not fully express her sentiments. Will continue, however, to write them to Franklin who should soon have a volume of them.
Fully appreciates the extent of the victory gained and the possible consequences thereof. Does not exult however over it, as war is so uncertain. Is always careful not to appear presumptuous or overconfident lest fortune might change. Kind inquires about Mme. Brillon from nearly every person he meets. No longer covets his neighbor's (M. Brillon's) house, but still covets his neighbor's wife. Dined at Chaillot this Christmas day. Weather was mild and balmy, could not be finer at Nice.
The pleasures of anticipation; wisdom of living in the present; her efforts to become a philosopher; her adoration of her friends; delights in his letters; promises to write him once a week.
Is displeased at not having heard from Franklin. Hopes he will see his error and repent. Her brother invites Franklin's son to spend a few days with them in the country and to go hunting.
Complains of Franklin's forgetfulness of her. Has learned that he was at the opera on the day the building was burned down. How uncertain is life and by what a slender thread it hangs. Without the sweets of friendship, life would not be worth living.
Is happy amongst her kindred and friends, surrounded by the beauties of Nature, but is not wholly contented, as she thinks of her absent friends. Prefers the quiet pleasures of country life to the excitement and pleasures of the city.
Hopeful outlook for America. Crisis in the life of France; begs Franklin to pray for her country. His plan to retire to the country; her own joy in a primitive life. Messages to his grandson. News of her own family.
Recommending a friend, M. Hennet, who had furnished some supplies of arms for Congress and who wishes to offer his services to some gentlemen from Virginia.
Acknowledging his letter to the Editors of the Journal of Paris; wishes he had added his "advice to those seeking to go to America." Prevented from going to the country by M. Brillon's gout; desires Franklin, though a heretic, to pray for him.
Reflections on her travels and their influence on her mind and character. Narration of a trip on sea in a fishing boat to visit a Spanish frigate which had put into Villefranche. Encloses a memorandum by M. Breton on the possibilities of trade between Marseilles and the United States. Recommends M. Breton as a correspondent or agent at Marseilles in case the United States needs one.
