tenance fuch recal, the revengeful ministers were not so easily reconcileable, but became very ftrenuous oppofers of it. But Voltaire (ever an over-match in politics and genius, for thefe his enemies of ftate) wrote to fome powerful friends in Germany, and fuddenly got himfelf invested with a public character; I think it was either from the electorate of Cologn, or prince bifhop of Liege.

On obtaining this rank, he immediately fet off for the court of Verfailles, having previously got his credentials acknowledged before he prefented himself in public.

On his first appearance, the reader may well imagine what a buzz there was throughout the drawing-room of fuch an inquifitive court; and of courfe, his old enemies, from curiofity, and not affection, encircled him, and began, as ufual, their congratulations, each equally endeavouring to exculpate himfelf, and in general, themfelves, from any hand in his banishment. After hearing what they all had to offer, he faid: "By being thus exiled my country fo long, I am incapable of understanding your language now, with precifion. Bat, if you will talk with my fecretary here, or any of my train, they will inform me, when I get home, what kind services you mean to me."

At Manheim (where he refided after his difgrace at Berlin, if it may be fo called, when he chose his own difmiffion) he behaved with fuch imperioufnefs, or abfence of mind, that when the elector, who would honour him often with a vifit in his apartments, and even by his own appointment waited on him, he would pretend not to know him; and, but for that fovereign's infuperable benevolence, the friendship muft have ended.

His pardon was foon after fealed, and it is faid, that, by this infolence of his, as alfo his being honoured with a public character, (in which department he might equally ferve or injure them) that the very miniftry, once his enemies, were now the first leaders to his pardon..

A certain English oculift being at Berlin during Voltaire's refidence there, I will in few words introduce an anecdote of this clevalier, profeffor, and member of all the academies in Europe; which, as it is connected a little with Voltaire, is not outraie in this letter.

His majesty of Pruffia, for fome reafons, held the English then at arms length, and was fo little defirous of pleafing the country in general, that he would hardly be civil to any particular part of it, though backed with tile, or of fices of ftate. Lord D, earl St. t, the duke of St. —, and many great commoners, were then in the city of Berlin, but never once invited to court. Nay, fo flighted were they, that on the Parade (the general refort of all foreigners, while the guard mounts) the king would publicly fay to general Keith and lord Marshal, "What! are your countrymen not gone yet?" Obferve, as a further proof of his revenge; his ambaffa dor at Paris, and the French ambaffador to his court, were both attainted peers of this kingdom; namely, the lords Marshal and Tyrconnel; as the own and only

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brother

brother of the former was at that time alfo commander in chief of all his forces. But to the point: at the time the English nobility were thus whimfically excluded the court, our chevalier oculift was publicly admitted: nay, to render it more fatirical against us, with double honour, fuperior to what a perfon of that rank deferved; however, his ufual vanity might defire, or perhaps expect it. Obferve, that the faid doctor was then ftrongly fufpected of being employed by our miniftry, as a pri vate obferver on the actions of feveral princes; and his profeffion gave him thefe opportunities, as he was perpetually fluctuating between one court and another, and admitted to their prefence.

The oculift being introduced to the king, his majefty (with his ufual politenefs) afked him what favours he could confer on him, being ready to diftinguish all men of eminence like himself. The doctor only defired to have the honour of being oculift to his my; and which, to make fhort of, the king readily granted; add. ing, "as I do not love to fufpend any one's happinefs long, be at court to morrow early, and your patent fhall be ready."

The chevalier (flushed with this unexpected promife,) now appeared at court as by royal command; but notwithstanding a double parade of lacqueys and equipage, on his approach the king faid, You defire to be my oculift-there is your patent; you must take the ufual oaths on thefe occafions: that done, come to me again."

On reporting to the king, that all neceffary forms were gone thro', his majefty faid: "You defired to

be my oculift-you are fo; my eyes want no affiftance;-yet are you my oculift ;-but, if you touch the eyes of one of my fubjects, I will hang you up. I love my fubjects equally as myself.”

The chevalier departed (or was rather ordered to depart) in fix hours: he pleaded more time to pack up his eyes and implements, but was refufed; and a guard being fet over him, he was efcorted like any delinquent, to the borders of Saxony, that being the country moft contiguous. The refpect his majefty feemed firft to pay him in preference to all the English, (of which number the fmalleft was his fuperior) now appeared a ftill ftronger fatire against England, and proved that he fufpected the chevalier's other profeffion, in conjunction with thofe of oculift, orator, and profeffor of every science,

To bring this home to Voltaire, which was my intention, an epigram appeared from his pen, no doubt the fting of which was, " that the king had driven out of his dominions the only man who could have opened his eyes."

And now, to return to Fernex once more, where we fhall take leave of our hero, and leave him to the opinion of others, no less than his own opinion of himfelf; his great favourite is doctor Tronchin, whom he calls his Afculapius. The wife of his bookfeller feems very much to rule him, and alternately, one madame Relier, whofe husband is a leading man in the prefent affairs of Geneva: a place which Voltaire had fuch an aver fion to enter the walls of, that he has been known to fit in his coach at the very gates, and fend for thofe perfons he has any bufinefs

or

er connection with to the windowfide, and give them an audience with all the felf-fufficiency of an eaftern prince.

frequent walls may rather create a neceffary fhade.

He will fometimes drive more madly than Phaeton, and then at once falls into a folemnity of pace, as if compofing fome great work. An English gentleman who flept one night at his houfe, begged a book of him to amufe him when he rofe in the morning on which Voltaire gave him his Pucelle d'Orleans; adding, "A virgin in my houfe is no fmall rarity."

Methinks, I fee him now with his whip in his hand, calling the whole houfe to go a hunting (à la chaffe, à la chaffe), and when he had affembled every body, it was only to walk round his houfe, and brush down the fpiders and their webs, which the fervants had neglected among the pillars of each portico of his building.

He will talk much of what the writers will fay after his death; and often hints, that the converfation of Monfieur de Voltaire on his death-bed, cooked up by fome Jefuit, will be a moft delicious morfel for the Paris bookfellers; "and the rafcals will pick up many a good meal of my bones," fays he, bare as I am."

His kitchen-garden at Fernex is very large and convenient, but divided and fubdivided fo often by walls, looks rather unfightly an open plat of ground would be too much expofed to heat, perhaps, to forward culinary productions; the

His favourite productions in our language are, Garth's Difpenfatory; Prior's Henry and Emma; Pope's Prologue to Cato; and the fmalleft works of Pope: but as to Shakspear and Milton, he can hardly fpeak of them with any degree of patience.

As he writes much from hearfay, no wonder he is so subject to errors in chronology, and even facts. In a late production of his, which he calls Contes or Tales, he declares, when writing a critique on the play of the Orphan, that Chamont, as a proof of the barbarity of the English ftage, afks his fifter, the fair and virtuous Monimia, if he has not loft her maidenhead; and affirms, that Polydore twice pulls his beloved and lovely orphan by the hair of her head across the stage,

Whether any young English gentleman, from defign or ignorance, drew him into the fcrape of committing this to the prefs I can. not fay; but fo it is-and I wish fome comic genius of our inland did not do it purposely to expofe him, as, having endeavoured, or rather dared, as they would call it, to draw a picture of the English ftage, without ever knowing its mere out-lines.

In his obfervations on the tragedy of Hamlet, fa play he utterly defpifes) he has hit on a blunder of F 4

Our

our great English dramatic writer, which I could wish had not been fo vifible: viz.

"And now," fays he," the first act ends with the king giving his royal orders (and which mult never be disobeyed) to fire all the cannon round the ramparts, two hundred years before gunpowder was invented."

The famous foliloquy of, "To be, or not to be," he has variously burlefqued; as thus:

"To dance, or not to dance, "To drink, or not to drink, "To drefs, or not to dress, "To ride, or not to ride, "To pay, or not to pay, "To fing, or not to fing, that is the question."

On an English gentleman's taking leave of him, to go to London, he faid: "Well Sir! I will come and fee you when you are got home -but that is after I am dead: there 'are above twenty ghofts in the tragedy of Macbeth, why fhould I not be one among them."

On addreffing a lady, who had juft lain in, he faid, " And who was your midwife?" On her telling him Dr. B- -r, a man, he fmiled; and faid, "Well! give my refpects to your hufband, and tell him he is half a cuckold.”

He gives no regular livery; fo that his fervants often wearing that of the last place they lived at, have the appearance of feveral gentlemens fervants attending as on a vifit to him.

He is fond of hawks; and as the adjacent Alps, and the vaft chain of mountains, known by the name of Mont Jura, afford various fpecies of thefe birds, his houfe is a menagerie of that kind; and he will fometimes amuse himself with

letting them fly at a pigeon or tame fowl, about his houfe, calling them kings who tear the innocent fubjects to pieces.

His houfe was built by an architect of Geneva, called Billion; but in this, he was only the bricklayer or stone mason, for the model is very common all over France.

Though he is of a noble family, yet he is ever fhy of mentioning it; nor can any one learn what part of France he was born and bred in perhaps, he thinks, if too many particulars were known, that it would be publifhed before his death, as dying fpeeches often are, and he would not wish to hear he was fo near dying.

His love of English humour is fo ftrong, that he will invite the moft common and blackguard ftories; and by taking proper memorandums of them, one would think he meaned to new drefs them, and thereby make them his own, in fome future book of tales.

A certain English general officer led fo diffipated a life, that he often drank tokay of a guinea a quart, even when alone. Upon which his lady would often fay, "My dear general, whatever you do for the honour of the crown, and in compliment to ftate days, do not drink fuch expenfive wine when by yourfelf; for what muft your poor children do?" "Oh!" fays the general, "I am eafy as to that, let them fmell at the corks.”

It being neceffary to tap him fome time after for the dropfy,' he went through the operation like a foldier; but afking what the furgeons had found, and they replying water, he faid, "How can that be? I never drank a drop of water in all my life. But how

long will it be before I must be tapped again?" On being anfwered fix months, he replied, "It is impoffible! no veffel in my house ever held above fix weeks."

In fhart, his life was fo profligate, that his lady at laft faying "Why! general, you will not leave a fhilling to bury you :" he anfwered, "Oh! I'll ftink them into good manners."

Voltaire rubbed his hands for joy, immediately fet pen to paper, and an elegant tale on that fubject, with all the English bon mots, is now to be feen at Fernex.

But again I repeat, and ever fhall, that, with all thefe littleneffes, he is at intervals the very greateft genius of this century. When he does compofe, which is rare, he is fo amazingly attentive, that he has been known to write a five act tragedy in as many days; and I have heard him fay of comedy, that he could write it fafter

than any actors could reprefent it, if he had good and quick fecretaries.

With respect to the building at Fernex, (was it not for having committed the folly of preferving the gateways, and fome towers capped with pinnacles, according to the French manner of building) it would be a very magnificent fabric; but an error of the fame nature is in point, as the lawyers fay, near Bridgewater, in Somersetfhire; where, to keep up a gateway of lord Rochefter's, the building of a a very great and ingenious architect and nobleman is entirely fpoilt, I mean earl E―t.

I have no other anecdotes of Monf. de Voltaire, but what would offend the one or other part of human nature, if related; I therefore beg to be excufed any farther, obfervations on fo great, or fo little

a man.

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