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Sir, There are moments when the wheels of life, even of such a life as yours, run slow, and when mistrust and doubt overshadow even the most intrepid disposition. In such a moment, towards the ending of your days, you said to your son, M. Alexandre Dumas, I seem to see myself set on a pedestal which trembles as if it were founded on the sands. These sands, your uncounted volumes, are all of gold, and make a foundation more solid than the rock. As well might the singer of Odysseus, or the authors of the Arabian Nights , or the first inventors of the stories of Boccaccio, believe that their works were perishable (their names, indeed, have perished), as the creator of Les Trois Mousquetaires alarm himself with the thought that the world could ever forget Alexandre Dumas.