as cold to one another as the town to the Beggar's Opera. Pray Heaven I may prove a falfe prophet! but married love, and English mufic, are too domeftic to continue long in favour. "My duty to my dear mother: I am glad the has no complaint. You faynothing relating toyour own health, which makes me hope you are well. I as fondly love my brothers and sisters as if I was their parent. "There is no need of my concluding with a handfome period; you are above forced efforts of the head. I fhall therefore end this letter with a plain truth of the heart, that I am, Your most affectionate and dutiful son, G. L." “ Paris, Sept. 8, 1729. Dear Sir, Sunday by four o'clock we had the good news of a dauphin, and fince that time I have thought myfelf in Bedlam. The natural gaiety of the nation is fo improved on this occafion, that they are all ftark mad with joy, and do nothing but dance and fing about the streets by hundreds, and by thousands. The expreffions of their joy are admirable: one fellow gives notice to the public, that he defigns to draw teeth for a week together upon the Pont Neufgratis. The king is as proud of what he has done, as if he had gained a kingdom, and tells every body that he fees, qu'il fçaura bien faire des fils tant qu'il voudra. We are to have a fine fire work to-mor row, his majefty being to fup in town. "The Duke of Orleans was fincerely, and without any affecta tion, transported at the birth of the dauphin. "The fucceffion was a burthen too heavy for his indolence to fupport, and he pioufly fings hallelujah for his happy delivery from it. The good old cardinal cried for joy. It is very late, and I have not flept these three nights for the fquibs and crackers, and other noifes that the people make in the streets; fo muft beg leave to conclude, with affuring you that I am, dear Sir, Your affectionate and dutiful fon, "Dear Sir, Paris, Sept. 27. Mr. Stanhope is on his way to Spain. The caprice and ftubbornnefs of the King of Spain, which is not always to be governed even by his wife, made it neceffary to fend a minifter to that court, of too much weight and authority to be trifled with. It is a melancholy reflection, that the wifeft councils and beft measures for the public good are fometimes to be fruftrated by the folly and incapacity of one "How low is the fervitude of human kind, when they are reduced to refpect the extravagance, and court the pride of a fenfeless creature, who has no other charac ter of royalty, than power to do mifchief. "However, I hope all will turn out well, and that his catholic majefty will behave himself a little like a king, fince the queen will have him be one in fpite of his teeth. About three months ago, fhe caught him going down ftairs at midnight, to abdicate, in his night-gown. He was fo infensed at the furprife and disappointment, that he beat her cruelly, and would have ftrangled her if she had not called for help. "This attempt of his alarmed her terribly, and put her upon carrying him about Spain, to amufe him with feeing fights, in order to keep St. Ildefonfo out of his head. The journey has coft immenfe fums, fo that the indult and treasure they expect from Lime is already mort gaged, and the king more in debt than ever. "I am troubled and uneafy at my expences here, though you are fo good and generous not to mention them in your letters. I am guilty of no extravagance; but do not know how to fave, as fome people do. This is the time of my life in which money will be ill faved, and your goodness is lavish of it to me I think without offending your prudence. My dear Sir, I know no happiness but in your kindness; and if ever I lose that, I am the worft of wretches. I remain, Sir, Your dutiful fon, &c. only pity him; he has nothing more to be angry at. He is a man who pretends, that, in order to be more acquainted with the nature of the foul, we must go to the fouthern hemifphere, to diffect fome brains. of giants, twelve feet high, and fome hairy men who wear monkies tails. He would have us intoxicate people with opium, in order to obferve in their dreams, the fprings of the human understanding. He proposes the digging a large hole, to penetrate to the centre of the earth. He would have the fick befmeared with refin, and their flesh pierced with long needles, well contrived fo that the Phyfician fhall not be paid, if the patient be not cured. He pretends, that men might still live eight or nine hundred years, if they were preferved by the fame method that prevents eggs from being hatched. The maturity of man, he fays is not the age of manhood: it is death. This point of maturity needs only be retarded. Laftly he affures us, that it is as eafy to fee the future as the past: that predictions are of the fame nature as memory; that every one may prophefy; that this depends only on a greater degree of activity in the mind, and that we have nothing to do but to exalt our fouls. All his book is filled, from one end to the other, with ideas of this ftamp. Be no more, therefore, furprifed at any thing. He was at work on his book when he perfecuted you; and I can tell you, Sir, when he tormented me too, in an. other manner, the fame spirit infpired his work and his conduct. All this is unknown to thofe, who, charged with great affairs, occupied occupied with the government of ftates, and the duty of rendering men happy, cannot look down on quarrels and on works like these. But as for me, who am only a man of letters,-me, who have always preferred this title to all,me, whofe employment it has been for more than forty years, to love truth and to speak it boldly,I will not difguife what I think. It is faid, that your adversary is at prefent very ill; I am not lefs fo; and if he carries to his grave his injuftice and his book, I fhall carry to mine the justice which I think your due. I am, with as much truth as I have put in my letter, &c. &c.” [As an answer to the Diatribe of Dr. Akahia, M. de Maupertuis wrote the following letter, to which M. de Voltaire gave the reply annexed.] you on your good health, but I am not fo ftrong as you: I have kept my bed for a fortnight, and I beg you to defer the little experiment in natural philofophy that you wish to make. You want, perhaps, to diffect me; but confider I am not a Patagonian, and my brain is fo small that the discovery of its fibres will give you no new idea of the foul. Befides, if you kill me, be fo good as to remember, that M. de la Beaumelle has promifed to pursue me even to hell: he will not fail to go thither in queft of me. Though the hole which is to be dug by your order, to the centre of the earth, and which is to lead directly to hell, be not yet begun, there are other ways of going to it, and he will find that I shall be as illtreated in the other world, as you have perfecuted me in this. Would you, Sir, carry your animofity fo far? Again, be fo good as to attend a little. Little as you are pleased to exalt your foul to fee diftin&tly into futurity, you will fee, that, if you come to affaffinate me at Leipfic, where you are not more beloved than any where elfe, and where your letter is depofited, you run some risk of being hanged; which will too much forward the moment of your maturity, and would be very unfuitable to the prefident of an academy. I advise you first to have the letter of Beaumelle declared forged, and derogatory to your glory, in one of your affemblies: after which you will, perhaps, be more at li berty to kill me as a disturber of your felf-love. To conclude, I am ftill very weak: you will find me in bed, and I can only throw at your head my fquirt and my chamberpot. But as foon as I have recover. de a little ftrength, I will charge my It is nothing more than giving of one's fuperfluity fomething to one's neighbour; but to be the advocate of humankind, the defender of oppreffed innocence, that is, indeed the way to immortalize you. The two caufes of Calas and Sirven, have given you the veneration due to fuch miracles. You have combated the united enemies of mankind, fuperftition, fanaticism, ignorance, chicane, bad judges, and the power reposed in them all together. To furmount such obstacles, required both talents and virtue. You have fhewn the world that you poffeffed both. You have carried your point. You defire, Sir, fome relief for the Sirven family. Can I poffibly refuse it? Or fhould you praise me for the action, would there be the leaft_ room for it? I own to you, that I should be much better pleased if my bill of exchange could pass unknown. Nevertheless, if you think that my name, unhar monious as it is, may be of ufe to those victims of the fpirit of perfecution, I leave it to your difcretion, and you may announce me, provided it be no way prejudicial to the parties." any with this reflection. The death of M. de Longueville, de Guitry, de Nogent, and of feveral others; the wounds of the Prince Royal, Marcillac, Vivonne, Monrevel, Thevel, Count de Saux, Termes, and of a thousand unknown perfons, have given me a frightful idea of war. I cannot understand the paffage of the Rhine by fwimming. To throw themselves in on horseback, like dogs after a ftag, and neither be drowned nor killed in landing, furpaffes my imagination fo far, that the very thought of it is like to turn my brain. God has hitherto preferved my fon ; but how uncer tain is the life of a foldier!. Adieu, my dear coufin; dinner waits me. """ that one often makes feveral campaigns without drawing a sword, and one is often in a battle without feeing an enemy. For example, when one is in the fecond line, or in the rear-guard, and the firft line decides the conteft, as it happened in the battle of Dunes, in 1658: In a field engagement, the officers of the horse run the greatest hazard; and, in a fiege, the officers of foot are a thousand times more expofed. But, to divert your fears on this head, I fhall relate a saying of Maurice Prince of Orange, told me by Marshal Turenne: Young girls think a lover is always ready, (en état) and churchmen that a foldier's fword is always in his hand. The concern you have in the army has produced the melancholy reflections you fent me. If your fon Count de Buy to Madame de Se- had not been there you would have ・vigny. "Chafeu, June 26, 1672. HOW many think like you, Madam, that military men only are mortal! The truth however is, that war only haftens the death of fome who might perhaps have lived a little longer. For my own part, I have been prefent on feveral pretty perilous occafions, without having received a fingle wound. My misfortunes proceed from another fource; and, to speak freely, I am better pleafed to live lefs happy, than not to live at all. Many men have been killed in their firft encounter, and as many in their fecond : Cofi l' bà voluto il fato. "Such was the will of fate." But I fee you all in alarm: let me therefore affure you, Madam, confidered the paffage of the Rhine without emotion: it would have appeared lefs a rafh than a bold action; and, like a thoufand others," would foon have been forgot. Be lieve me, my dear coufin, things in general are neither great nor little but as the mind makes them fo. The fwimming over the Rhine is a gallant action, but by no means fo wonderful as you fuppofe. Two thousand horfe pafs over to attack four or five hundred: the two thoufand are fupported by a large army, and the king in perfon; while the four or five hundred are troops intimidated by the vigorous manner in which we began the campaign. Had the Dutch been braver, they might indeed have killed a few more men in that rencounter; but that would have been all they must at last have been overpowered by numbers. Had the Prince of Orange been on the other fide of the |