To M. le Baron Barchou de Penhoen.

  Among all the pupils of the Oratorian school at Vendome, we are, I
  think, the only two who have afterwards met in mid-career of a
  life of letters—we who once were cultivating Philosophy when by
  rights we should have been minding our De viris. When we met, you
  were engaged upon your noble works on German philosophy, and I
  upon this study. So neither of us has missed his vocation; and
  you, when you see your name here, will feel, no doubt, as much
  pleasure as he who inscribes his work to you.—Your old
  schoolfellow,

  1840 De Balzac.