67 - Maurice BLONDEL (1861–1949), philosopher

Maurice BLONDEL (1861–1949), philosopher Autograph letter on the back and autograph manuscript, Aix-en-Provence, November 21, 1922, to Frédéric LEFÈVRE, editor of *Nouvelles littéraires*; 2 pages, small quarto, and 1 page, octavo, with envelope. Fatigue and his reservations about Bergsonism prevent him from praising BERGSON, “especially since theologians, ready to forgive anything to unbelievers, would take advantage of my praise to cry out that I have betrayed them in favor of a work that has been entirely placed on the Index!” ” He sent a brief testimonial in which he avoided “having to express reservations and criticisms, since I refer the reader to the *Itinéraire*, where they are outlined”... The manuscript, written in the third person, recounts—as described in his *Itinéraire philosophique*—his first encounter with Bergson, which reminded him “of the springtime blossoming of Ionian thought, of a second *novitas florida mundi*, the sudden reawakening of a vitality lifting the weight of twenty-five centuries of science, whose sediments threatened to stifle the spirit.”