Oh, yes, I certainly remember that letter and the soul quote was from around the same time ... let me go and find it ... okay, so, surprisingly, next to Countess Camas and Duhan, who got the quote above, it was Maupertuis who got multiple letters in a row in which Fritz shared his grief. (Maupertuis had just returned from France and was about to marry.) The quote is from October 6th: I am obliged, my dear Maupertuis, for your good morals; it is not the precepts that embarrass me, but the practice. Keyserling and I had only one soul, it seemed to me that we should die together; all of a sudden I learn that he is no more. [...] (In another letter he also says that while he somewhat expected Jordan's death, Keyserlingk's caught him completely unawares.)
Also, because we were talking about Fritz and friendship, D'Argens got this letter on August 31:
Unfortunately, I am not of your opinion on friendship. I think a true friend is a godsend. Alas! I lost two that I will regret all my life, and whose memory will only end with my duration. You make many eloquent paralogisms. You say that a Carthusian can be happy; I dare to tell you affirmatively that it is not so. A man who cultivates the sciences, and who lives without friends, is a learned werewolf. In short, according to my way of thinking, friendship is essential to our happiness. Whether one thinks the same way or differently, whether one is lively, the other melancholy, it all does not matter to friendship. But the honest man is the first quality which unites souls, and without which there is no intimate union. It seems to me that we have to find our interest in these tight knots that we form, interest of pleasure, of knowledge, of consolation, of utility, etc. This is my feeling.
Re: Keyserlingk, sensational gossip, and Royal Reader request
Also, because we were talking about Fritz and friendship, D'Argens got this letter on August 31:
Unfortunately, I am not of your opinion on friendship. I think a true friend is a godsend. Alas! I lost two that I will regret all my life, and whose memory will only end with my duration. You make many eloquent paralogisms. You say that a Carthusian can be happy; I dare to tell you affirmatively that it is not so. A man who cultivates the sciences, and who lives without friends, is a learned werewolf. In short, according to my way of thinking, friendship is essential to our happiness. Whether one thinks the same way or differently, whether one is lively, the other melancholy, it all does not matter to friendship. But the honest man is the first quality which unites souls, and without which there is no intimate union. It seems to me that we have to find our interest in these tight knots that we form, interest of pleasure, of knowledge, of consolation, of utility, etc. This is my feeling.