To Benjamin Franklin from Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis, [c. 5 August 1779]
From Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis6
AL: American Philosophical Society
[c. August 5, 1779]7
Mr. L’Abbé Morellet se Rendra chez mr. franklin avant midy et ne Lui donnera pas La peine de venir Le prendre. Voici La nouvelle heloïse. Mr L’abbé de La Roche va à paris. Tout auteuil salue messrs. franklin.
6. Identified by the handwriting. He was acting as secretary for the abbé Morellet.
7. In an undated, unsigned note sent to WTF apparently on the previous day, Cabanis, once again in his capacity as secretary for Morellet, had asked the Franklins to give him and the abbé a ride “to the party” since there was so much mud. APS. That note can be dated through its allusion to the imminent death of Mme Helvétius’s brother-in-law. He was the farmer-general François Baudon, husband of her sister Charlotte-Anne de Ligniville, and died on Aug. 5, 1779. Information kindly provided by Dorothy Medlin. Baudon’s funeral was announced in the Jour. de Paris, Aug. 7.