Charles Testut tells Léona Queyrouze that he will not be able to attend her lecture because he does not have the proper attire. He quotes Voltaire, noting that ‘Poverty is worse than vice’, before concluding by saying that he feels his destiny will change. Testut encloses a poem titled ‘Récit d’un rêve’.

The copybook includes copies of Charles Pierre Callardeau’s ‘Epitre D’heloise’, religious poems by Racine le Fils, and works by Rousseau and Voltaire.