Autograph manuscript by poet Thomas Love Peacock about Hermann and de Lamennais

PEACOCK, Thomas Love (1785-1866). Autograph manuscript fragment comparing Gottfried Hermann and Felicite de Lamennais. Undated.

Single sheet folded to form four pages, 115 x 180 mm, written in ink on the first and third pages only. Unsigned, with deletions, interlinear additions and numbered marginal instructions reordering part of the text. A collector's attribution, "[Autograph of Thomas Love Peacock.]", appears above the opening paragraph in another hand, with a red "C" in the upper left corner. Light toning and occasional spotting, with minor handling wear; otherwise in very good condition.

A prose manuscript by the novelist, poet and friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley, comparing the German classical scholar Gottfried Hermann (1772-1848) with the French religious and political thinker Felicite de Lamennais (1782-1854).

Peacock identifies their shared love of truth, industry, perseverance, enduring friendships and indifference to titles and honours. Hermann, he observes, would remain simply "Godofredus Hermannus" regardless of the academic distinctions available to him. Lamennais likewise refused to subordinate the interests of the people to those of "Kings and Priests", despite the advancement such compliance might have secured within the Catholic Church.

Their circumstances provide a stark contrast: Hermann enjoyed a comparatively happy scholarly life, while Lamennais endured "one prolonged struggle with private misfortune and political oppression". Peacock praises the conviction and "inflexible moral courage" that sustained Lamennais despite his frail constitution and failing health. Peacock referred to Gottfried Hermann as 'The Great Hermann' in his works Crotchett Castle in 1831.