[? January 1735]
My dear friend I receive just now yr letter and the good hope together to see you.
However, it is very likely I shan't see you at Paris for my present purpose is to stay a year or two in the country. I build a very pretty house for the Lady Duch. . . . This amusement indear'd to me by tyes of friendship will retain me from Paris with a great deal of pleasure. You know Apollo turn'd a builder when he was cast up from the heavens and I am in the heavens when I turn'd a builder for the sake of my friends. Therefore I begin with praying you earnestly d'apporter avec vous deux petites serrures d'Angleterre de cuivre extrêmement jolies, the fables of Dryden, deux ou trois volumes of these letters, and some few of the best books you know about priestood.
Si vous manquez d'argent pour ces commissions ayez la bonté d'en demander de ma part à mon ami Fakenear, qui tirera une lettre du change sur Mr Dumoulin, vis à vis St Gervais à Paris, et si vous pouvez avancer cet argent, Dumoulin a ordre de vous le rendre à votre retour. J'ignore la demeure de Fakenear. Je vous prie instamment de me la mander afin que je lui écrive. Au reste les emplettes dont je vous suplie de vous charger sont peu de chose, ce qui est de plus cher ce sont les deux serrures qui coûtent je crois une guinée pièce.
I do flatter my self my dear friend, you will come to see the house I build, but you never will talk about it. In winther time you may be my correspondence at Paris and live with yr brother but in the warmer season you must live with me, you must read together yr friend his plays, his operas, his epik poems, his philosophic follies, all that he has scribl'd in yr absense.
Misfortune never dejected me and my genius grew always bolder when they indeavour'd at submitting it. What a pleasure shall I enjoy when I will see you again, open to you my soul, and show you all my works. Litterature is nothing without a friend, and a friend illiterate is but a dry company but a friend like you is a treasure.
Are you inform'd which are the best journals in Holland, or in other countries, and would you be so kind as to give me notice of em, of their authors, and how the may be got? But especially write me of yr news. Come to Paris. Stay at yr brother all the winter, see me in the spring and love me for ever as I do you. The lady Duch understands English as well as I.