de la Haye (of the hedge); a third de la Tour, (of the tower); a fourth de la Fountaine (of the fountain); till, after every part of the house and garden is ranfacked for a fresh appellation, fhould the good lady bring another, they would call him, rather than not give some Nom de Guerre at the chriftening, de la Jartiere, from one of his mother's garters. But to return to Fernex: the parish church forming part of the quadrangle or grand cour to the old chateau; and Voltaire being thereby intercepted a view of the lake, fairly fawed the church in two, without any fpiritual licence for fo doing; or, without a with your leave, or by your leave of the bifhop or dean; but, as a falvo to the injury, he has put in very large capitals, diftinguishable from the great road to the town of Gex (and fo purpofely intended) thefe words: Deo Erexit Voltaire. Many epigrams, fonnets, and madrigals have been wrote on the occafion, but not one worthy of infertion; fuffice it, that as the rule of his conduct is, in general, every school-boy can throw his fquib of animadverfion. On the diffolution of the order of jefuits, and of course their dif. fipation, Voltaire felected one to be his table-companion, and fel. low chefs.player. The poor Pere Adam (that is his name) is forced to eat his pudding, and hold his tongue; for never was a Welsh curate fo much the butt of his fquire's arrows, as is this chaplain of his. I give him a title here Voltaire never intended him; but I know that the accidental reûidence of this jefuit in his houfe, has frequently given an handle for many to think and fay, that, however ludicrous our epic is in public, that in private he is not without his fears; which he proves by having this reverend chaplain in his house and at his elbow; whereas it is well known that both the vefpers and mattins of Monf. de Voltaire are chefs and back-gammon, piquet, or a game at quadrille. When he invited the poor Pere Adam to his houfe, it is faid he was ingenious enough to add, "if you can dare to live with a man who profeffes himself to have no religion at all, or, if any thing, is a ftricter difciple of Confucius than you can be of your humble mafter, then come to me." He feldom goes to bed till daybreak, drinking coffee almoft every half hour, and playing at chefs; next day he is never vifible till noon, and then difagreeably fo; having but too often a dirty banjan, and unpowdered tye-wig, with the knots before; and a cap over that, either of filk or velvet embroidered; and being naturally hafty and wafpifh, I am often reminded of Lear as reprefented in a strolling company, where the wardrobe furnishes the fame fuit for that infane king, as for the Mahomet of fome Turkish tragedy, incomplete at least, and at beft very fhabby. The Jefuit refiding with Monf. de Voltaire being rather a man of flight, than ftriking genius, often gives this head of the family an handle to make him the butt of converfation; however, the Pere Adam follows the the old adage of," eating his pudding, and holding his tongue." Voltaire fays of him often, I eft Pere Adam, mais pas le premier des hommes, He may be Father Adam, but is far from being the first of men. To draw up the curtain of Berlin once more (which feemed already dropt) 1 fhould inform the reader that Maupertuis and he had a real quarrel, and what the king of Pruffia began in a political jeft, had near ended in a very ferious manner. Indeed, the phlegmatic difpofition of Maupertuis, (a Norman) was a proper fubject for the king, in his hours of humour and raillery, to play off his artillery on, by means of the faid Maupertuis, againft the vivacity of a Frenchman, born fouthward, and differing more from the northern French in the feveral provinces of Normandy, Britany, Anjou, &c. than perhaps any country in the globe. To return, matters were carried fo high, that Maupertuis fent a challenge to Voltaire; then fick in bed. The exact words of his invitation to the field of battle I never faw, but his anfwer was almoft in these words. But I must also obferve to you, that a piftol ball will kill me, but can have no effect on you; lead will affimilate with your brain, and therefore we are not on an equal footing. I am, with all respect, VOLTAIRE. The quarrel, by thefe means, ended like that of Dr. Caius and Sir Hugh Evans. It became a party-affair of the moft laughable kind; fo that the very boys of Berlin upbraided Monf. de Maupertuis, for not fending a squirt to Monf. de Voltaire, instead of a challenge with ball and pistol. To return to our lord-paramount at the chateau de Fernex, where he may be truly called fuch; the gay part of Geneva take delight in vifiting him; but as he knows what is related to them, will reach the ears of their magiftracy, he never fails faying the feverett things an irritated genius can invent. A gentleman's equipage not coming punctually, who was on a vifit to him, he asked if the coachman was a Genevite; and being anfwered in the affirmative, he re plied, "Oh! there the very fervants are kings; no wonder you are fo tyrannically used." At another time (the reader muft obfervé that Geneva has no territory) he said, fuppofing each free citizen of this great republic had a shirt, and would lend it on the occafion, they might cover their dominion with their own linen. His houfe is a receptacle for all foreigners; and, as every fuch vifitor trains his genius to entertain him, no wonder, by fuch a quick fucceffion of all the feveral inhabiF tants tants of the four quarters of the world, that Voltaire has fuch an univerfal knowledge of mankind. His converfation among men generally turns (and too unhappily fo) on blafphemous fubjects; and (which argues a great want of politenefs) he generally increafes this vein if any churchmen are prefent; nay, according to their rank, he augments or decreases his fallies of what he falfely calls pleafantry. Thus a ftory which would be a good one for a poor curé and abbé, must be enriched for a mitred brow or cardinal; and Pere Adam (the good fimple Jefuit) whatever little he may fay on the occafion, pays it off in thinking. Yet, to keep up appearances, he has given an altar to the church adjoining to his houfe, and fome. rich vestments to the facrifty; and will, occafionally, attend the fervice; particularly on a wedding, which fhall happen in his own family. his late works will verify this; and I rather think that the fweepings of his brain, fo lately published, are more owing to his flattering bookfeller and his wife; who, like Fr in Dublin, never care if Voltaire or Dean Swift fuffer, fo he or they can have venison in the proper feafon. The Julle à manger at Voltaire's is very dirty in general. And you will fee fervants waiting in wait. coats, and women at work (in not the most delicate of needle employment) while company of the firftrank are at dinner. But his drawing-room, and other apartments, make ample amends for this care lefsnefs; fcarce any nobleman having a more elegant fuite of chambers, either for fate or convenience. You would be furprised to fee on what fcraps of paper he writes his beft hints for material works. I am amazed he can find them in the diffipated manner they lie. While he writes he always fits with his back to the fire; which is, perhaps, to fave his eyes. When he does drefs (which is rare) no man produces a more va-: riegated wardrobe: but fo eccentric is he, that, in a fuit of velvet and embroidery, I have feen him join the dance of fome fervants in the hall, on hearing the violin give the fummons. The archbishop of Troyes din ing with him one day, Voltaire was, as ufual, playing off all his artillery against the prelate, who was alfo a cardinal. The good divine immediately became the gentleman, and faid, "the world have fuch obligations to men of genius, that a particular allowance is ever made to them, in return for their productions; though I don't doubt yet but Monf. de Voltaire will be. But let me not dare by these mia good convert to us before he nutie to think of leffening the vas dies." Voltaire immediately an lue of fo great a matter of the pen, fwered, "My lord! if ever I am On the contrary, Dean Swift had, made a convert of, it must be, like in his private hours, more of this St. Paul, on horseback.". vein than even Voltaire; defcend...With ladies, he is rather inde- ing often to chufe mere trifles,in cent; as with the church, he is but order the better, perhaps, to tise too apt to he ludicrous. Many of in fentiment afterwards. Pope cer, ...tainly tainly means this, when he fo elegantly pays this compliment to lord Bolingbroke: "Teach me, like thee, in various nature wife, "To fall with dignity, with tem per rife." There is a monarchical, defpotic ftate in this great man, which appears in his minutest actions. Thus, at table, he never comes in with the rest of the company; but will delay about any trife; and, on entrance, loves to recal all the dishes, and disturb every part of the table, with placing and mifplacing them, after every one elfe has been fatis fied; which is rather difagreeable, when the appetite of others has been fatisfied; nothing being fo unwelcome as the remnants of dishes half fpoiled, and fcraps of delicacies; which, by thefe means, no longer are fuch. Land being cheap in this part of Burgundy (called properly the pais de Gex) it is amazing what a quantity of acres he has on his eftate; and he feems to value himfelf on this, in preference to a fmaller share of territory more cultivated. He pretends to fhew a turn for English improvements, from obfervations he made, or pretended to make in England, when he was there. But the attachment to French ornaments ftill prevails; and a flower-plat and fountain are, to him, greater embellishments than all the woods and waters of a Chatsworth, a Caftle-Howard, or a Sturton. His favourite work is the Pucelle d'Orleans; which, in fact, is the Hudibras of the French poetry and language. His picture is often drawn looking on his Henriade, but I believe he has not that af fection for it he has for many other of his performances. Being asked which of his tragedies he most affected, he replied, Olympia; "for the fame reafon," fays he," that a man is proud of having a child at feventy-five.?' He has many carriages, according to the French cuftom, but not one fit to ride in. No nation (elegant as they are at Paris in these conveniences) is fo careless distant from the metropolis. If you- are carried, or (as is the common expreffion) lifted out of the dirt, it is all they think of; ftained linings, ragged fringes, broken windows, make up the fum of a French country equipage; and Mr. Shandy (in a late volume) gives this under his hand in his obfervations, during a French perambulation. Though Voltaire never would accept a title from any monarch, yet does he much attach himself to perfonages fo adorned; nay, in the very opening of his letters, he will give a preference of reading to thofe with ducal coronets, over those of common earls, vifcounts, or barons. He complains much of an unconquerable drynefs in his habit of body; "which," fays he, "one day or other, muft end me;" as if but for that he might live a century longer; and I am told, that in illness no man is fo afraid of the devil's claws as himself; infomuch, that the moft ignorant and mendicant priest can, at that time, have a fway over him, which, in perfect health, the infallible head of the. church would fail of. The many presents from the great, of wine, and every delicacy which F 2 which fo many different countries afford, allow him to keep a better table than many of his equals in fortune; and, whether their favours arife from fear or love, he is qually gainer. Moft people think him, at leaft, twenty years older than he really is; appearing on the theatre of life fo early (for he published at fixteen) many imagine him a man from that æra; when, in fact, he was only a tripling. Nor do I now believe him to be above feventy. However, being one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber to the king, his age may eafily be afcertained; for a man cannot enter on fuch a poft till of a certain age; and, by the date of his commiffion, it will appear when he obtained that honour. His affection to the elector-palatine feems beyond that of any other monarch; he refided with him a year under his roof at Manheim, and had every honour of a prince of the blood; but mingling in politics, the minority there grew jealous of him; and fo he retired to his territory near Ge neva. The elector had feveral bufts of him executed by Mr. Verchetfel, the most eminent ftatuary now living, and who is governor of the fculpture academy at Manheim; but, to keep him in good humour, fome ladies of the court were always near him; or he would not have had patience to go through the ceremony of a model. In fhort, he is fuch a mixture of dignity and littlenefs; fuch a contraft of the trifler and man of judgment; that he feems, as Falstaff fays fo wittily of himself, a double man. As his various works prove him the great man. I have only touched on thofe anecdotes which fhew him in another light; perhaps, unknown to the world, and which, blended with his other character, make him as he is a mortal man; and not that deity the minor writers would fain raife him to. If I have been too fevere, attribute it to a punctuality in my nature; and when he dies, let us fay of him, what prince Henry said over even his enemy: "Thy ignominy fleep with thee in the grave, "But not remember'd in thy epitaph."/ By ignominy, I mean his univerfal diflike to all religion; in which he is not content (for this I could forgive him) to think only; but he loves to vent his opinion in public; and the world are left to judge, with the attachment people are too apt to have towards men of genius, what an infinite number of profelytes he is capable of drawing to himself in thefe days of libertinifm and diffipation. Being exiled the kingdom of France (fome people only fay, the court) he paffed over to England, the fureft, as the happieft afylum, to a gentleman and a genius. He raised fubfcriptions there, unknown to any native; and which, in an enemy's country might, or is, indeed, called contributions. On his wishing to return home, on fome private affairs, he ftrongly folicited the then French miniftry to obtain leave for fuch a favour to himself; but, however publicly his majesty might approve and coun tenance |