-- Only the whim of a sick man,
perhaps!
Thomas Carlyle
"* "He had been chosen for his rough
tongue," says Valori; our French Court being piqued
at Friedrich and his sarcasms. Tyrconnel gives splendid
dinners; Voltaire often of them; does not love Pots-
dam, nor is loved by it. Nay, I sometimes think a
certain Demon Newswriter (of whom by and by), but
do not know, may be some hungry Attache1 of Tyr-
connel's. Hungry Attach^, shut out from the divine
Suppers and upper planetary movements, and reduced
to look on them from his cold hutch, in a dog-like
angry and hungry manner? His flying allusions to
Voltaire, "son (Friedrich's) squelette d'Apollon, skeleton
of an Apollo," and the like, are barkings almost
rabid.
Of the military sort, about this time, Keith and
Rothenburg appear most frequently as guests or com-
panions. Rothenburg had a great deal of Friedrich's
regard. Winterfeld is more a practical Counsellor,
and does not shine in learned circles. A fiery soldier;
-- a man probably of many talents and qualities,
* Valori, n. 130, &c.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OP THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 81
April 1751--July 1752.
though of distinctly decipherable there is no record of
him or them. He had a Parisian Wife; who is some-
times on the point of coming with Niece Denis to
Berlin, and of setting up their two French households
there; but never did it, either of them, to make an
Uncle or a Husband happy. Rothenburg was bred a
Catholic: "he headed the subscription for the famous
'Katholische Kirche,'" so delightful to the Pope and
liberal Christians in those years; "but never gave a
sixpence of money," says Voltaire once: Catholic Kirk
was got completed with difficulty; stands there yet,
like a large wash-bowl set, bottom uppermost, on the
top of a narrowish tub; but none of Rothenburg's
money is in it. In Voltaire's Correspondence there is
frequent mention of him; not with any love, but with
a certain secret respect, rather inclined to be disrespect-
ful, if it durst or could: the eloquent vocal individual
not quite at ease beside the silent thinking and acting
one. What we know is, Friedrich greatly loved the
man. There is some straggle of Correspondence between
Friedrich and him left; but it is worth nothing; gives
no testimony of that, or of anything else noticeable: --
and that is the one fact now almost alone significant
of Eothenburg. Much loved and esteemed by the King;
employed diplomatically, now and then; perhaps talked
with on such subjects, which was the highest distinc-
tion. Poor man, he is in very bad health in these
months; has never rightly recovered of his wounds;
and dies in the last days of 1751, -- to the bitter
sorrow of the King, as is still on record. A highly re-
spectable dim figure, far more important in Friedrich's
History than he looks. As King's guest, he can in
these months play no part.
Carhjle, Frederick the Great. IX. <<
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? 82 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 --July 1752.
Highly respectable too, and well worth talking to,
though left very dim to us in the Books, is Marshal
Keith; who has been growing gradually with the King,
and with everybody, ever since he came to these parts
in 1747. A man of Scotch type; the broad accent,
with its sagacities, veracities, with its stedfastly fixed
moderation, and its sly twinkles of defensive humour,
is still audible to us through the foreign wrappages.
Not given to talk, unless there is something to be
said; but well capable of it then. Friedrich, the more
he knows him, likes him the better. On all manner of
subjects he can talk knowingly, and with insight of his
own. On Russian matters Friedrich likes especially
to hear him, -- though they differ in regard to the
worth of Russian troops. "Very considerable military
qualities in those Russians," thinks Keith: "imperturb-
ably obedient, patient; of a tough fibre, and are beauti-
fully strict to your order, on the parade-ground or off. "
"Pooh, mere rubbish, mon cher" thinks Friedrich al-
ways. To which Keith, unwilling to argue too long,
will answer: "Well, it is possible enough your Majesty
may try them, some day; if I am wrong, it will be all
the better for us! " Which Friedrich had occasion to
remember by and by. Friedrich greatly respects this
sagacious gentleman with the broad accent: his Brother,
the Lord Marischal, is now in France: Ambassador at
Paris, since September 1751:* "Lord Marischal, a
Jacobite, for Prussian Ambassador in Paris; Tyrconnel,
a Jacobite, for French Ambassador in Berlin! " grumble
the English.
* "Left Potsdam, 28th August" (Rddenbeck, i. 220).
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 83
April 1751 --July 1752.
Fractions of Events and Indications, from Voltaire him-
self, in this Time; more or less illuminative when reduced
to Order.
Here, selected from more, are a few "fire-flies," --
not dancing or distracted, but authentic all, and stuck
each on its spit; shedding a feeble glimmer over the
physiognomy of those Fifteen caliginous Months, to an
imagination that is diligent. Fractional utterances of
Voltaire to Friedrich and others (in abridged form,
abridgment indicated): the exact dates are oftenest ir-
retrievably gone; but the glimmer of light is indisput-
able, all the more as, on Voltaire's part, it is mostly
involuntary. Grouping and sequence must be other
than that of Time.
Potsdam, 5th June 1751. -- King is off on that Ost-Friesland
jaunt; Voltaire atPotsdam, "at what they call theMarquisat,"
in complete solitude, -- preparing to die before long, -- sends
his Majesty some poor trifles of Scribbling, proof of my love,
Sire: "since I live solitary, when you are not atPotsdam, it
"would seem I came for you only" (note that, your Majesty)!
* * "But in return for the rags here sent, I expect the Sixth
"Canto of your Art" (Art de la Guerre, one of the Two pupil-
and-schoolmaster "Specimens" mentioned above); "I expect
"the Roof to the Temple of Mars. It is for you, alone of men,
"to build that Temple; as it was for Ovid to sing of Love, and
"for Horace to give a. n Art of Poetry. " (Laying it on pretty
thick! ) * *
Then again, later (after severe study, ferula in hand):
"Sire, I return your Majesty your Six Cantos; I surrender at
"discretion (lui laisse carte-blanche) on that question of 'victoire. '
"The whole Poem is worthy of you: if I had made this
"Journey only to see a thing so unique, I ought not to regret
"my Country. " * * And again (still no date): "GrandDieu!
"is not all that" (History of the Great Elector, by your Majesty,
which I am devouring with such appetite) "neat, elegant,
6*
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? 84 THE TEN YEARS OP PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 --July 1752.
"precise, and, above all, philosophical! " -- "Sire, you are
"adorable; I will pass my days at your feet. Oh, never
"make game of me {des niches) I" Has he been at that, say
you! "If the Kings of Denmark, Portugal, Spain, &c, did
"it, I should not care a pin; they are only Kings. But you
"are the greatest man that perhaps ever reigned. " *
Is on leave of absence, near by; wishes to be called again (No
date). -- "Sire, if you like free criticism, if you tolerate sin-
"cere praises, if you wish to perfect a Work" (Art de la
Guerre, or some other as sublime), "which you alone inEurope
"are capable of doing, you have only to bid a Hermit come
"upstairs. At your orders for all his life. "**
In Berlin Palace: please, don't turn me out! (No date) -- * *
"Next to you, I love work and retirement. Nobody whatever
"complains of me. I ask of your Majesty, in order to keep
"unaltered the happiness I owe to you, this favour, Not to
"turn me out of the Apartment you deigned to give me at
"Berlin, till I go for Paris" (always talking of that). "If I
"were to leave it, they would put in the Gazettes thatl" --
Oh, what wouldn't they put in, of one that, belonging to
King Friedrich, lives as it were in the Disc of the Sun, con-
spicuous to everybody! -- "I will go out" (of the Apartment),
"when some Prince, with a Suite needing it to lodge in,
"comes; and then the thing will be honourable. Chasot"
(gone to Paris) "has been talking" -- unguarded things of
me! "I have not uttered the least complaint of Chasot: Inever
"will of Chasot: nor of those who have set him on" (Mau-
pertuis belike): "I forgive everything, I! "***
Rothenburg is ill; Voltaire has been to see him("Berlin, 14th,"
no month; year, too surely, 1751, as we shall find! Letter is
in Verse). -- "Lieberkiihn was going to kill poor Rothenburg;
"to send him off to Pluto, -- for liking his dish a little; --
"monster Lieberkiihn! But Doctor Joyous," your reader,
La Mettrie, -- led by, need I say whom? -- "has brought him
In (Euvres de Frederic, xxn. 271, 273. ** lb. 281.
*** lb. 270.
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? CHAP. rx. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 85
April 1751--July 1752.
"back to us: -- think of Lieberkiihn's solemn stare! Pretty
"contrasts, those, of sublime Quacksalverism, with Sense
"under the mask of Folly. May the hemorrhoidal vein" --
(follows here, note it, exquisite reader, that of "cul de mon
heros" cited above! ) -- * *
And then (a day or two after; King, too hemorrhoidal to
come twenty miles, but anxious to know): "Sire, no doubt
"Doctor Joyous (le medecinjoyeux) has informed your Majesty
"that when we arrived, the Patient was sleeping tranquil; and
"Cothenius assured us, in Latin, that there was no danger. I
"know not what has passed since, but I am persuaded your
"Majesty approves my journey" (of a street or two), -- must
you speak of it, then!
Goes to an Evening-Party now and then (To Niece Denis). --
* * "Madame Tyrconnel" (French Excellency's Wife) "has
"plenty of fine people at her house on an evening; perhaps too
"many" (one of the first houses in Berlin, this of Milord Tyr-
connel's, which we frequent a good deal). * * "Madame got
"very well through her part of Andromaque" (in those old
playacting times of ours): "never saw actresses with finer
"eyes," -- how should you!
"As to Milord Tyrconnel, he is an Anglais of dignity,"
-- Irish in reality, and a thought blusterous. "He has a
"condensed (serre') caustic way of talk; and I know not what
"of frank which one finds in the English, and does not usually
"find in persons of his trade. French Tragedies played at
"Berlin, I myself taking part; an Englishman Envoy of France
"there: strange circumstances these, aren't they? "* Yes,
that latter especially; and Milord Mare'chal our Prussian En-
voy with you1 Which the English note, sulkily, as a weather-
symptom.
At Potsdam, BigDevils of Grenadiers (No date). -- * * "But,
"Sire; one isn't always perched on the summit of Parnassus;
"one is a man. There are sicknesses about; I did not bring
"an athlete's health to these parts; and the scorbutic humour
"which is eating my life renders me truly, of all that are sick,
"the sickest. lam absolutely alone from morning to night.
* To D'Argental this ((Buwes de Voltaire, lxxiv. 289. )
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? 86 THE TEN TEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 -- July 1752.
"My one solace is the necessary pleasure of taking the air.
"I bethink me of walking, and clearing my head a little, in
"your Gardens at Potsdam. I fancy it is a permitted thing;
"I present myself, musing; -- I find huge devils of Grenadiers,
"who clap bayonets in my belly, who cry Furt, Sacrament,
"and Der Konig" (Off, Sackerment, The King, quite tolerably spelt)! "And I take to my heels, as Austrians and Saxons
''would do before them. Have you ever read, that in Titus's
"or Marcus-Aurelius's Gardens, a poor devil of a Gaulish
"Poet" -- In short, it shall be mended. *
Have been laying it on too thick (No date; in Verse). --
"Marcus Aurelius was wont to" -- (Well, we know who that
is: What of Marcus, then? ) "A certain lover of his glory"
(still in verse) spoke once, at Supper, of a magnanimity of
"Marcus's; -- at which Marcus" (flattery too thick) "rather
"gloomed, and sat quite silent,--which was another fine saying
"of his" (ends verse, starts prose):
"Pardon, Sire, some hearts that are full of you! To justify
"myself, I dare supplicate your Majesty to give one glance at
"this Letter (lines pencil-marked), which has just come from
"M. de Chauvelin, Nephew of the famous Garde-des-Sceaux.
"Your Majesty cannot gloom at him, writing these from the
"fulness of his heart; nor at me, who" -- Pooh; no, then!
Perhaps do you a niche again, -- poor restless fellow! **
Potsdam Palace (No date): Sire, may I change my room? * *
"I ascend to your ante-chambers, to find some one by whom
"I may ask permission to speak with you. I find nobody; I
"have to return:" and what I wanted was this, "yourprotec-
"tion for my Stecle deLouis Quatorze, which I am about to print
"in Berlin. " Surely, -- but also this:
"I am unwell, I am asick man born. And withall am obliged
"to work, almost as much as your Majesty. I pass the whole
"day alone. If you would permit that I might shift to the
"Apartment next the one I have, -- to that where General
"Bredow slept last winter. -- I should work more commo-
"diously. My Secretary (Collini) and I could work together
"there. I should have a little more sun, which is a great point
* (Euvres de FrMMc, xxn. 273. ** lb. 280.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 87
April 1751--July 1752.
"for me.
-- Only the whim of a sick man, perhaps! Well,
"even so, your Majesty will have pity on it. You promised to
"make me happy. *
I suspect that I am suspected (No date). -- "Sire, if Iamnot
"brief, forgive me. Yesterday the faithful D'Arget told me
"with sorrow that in Paris people were talking of your Poem. "
Horrible; but, oh Sire, -- me? -- "I showed him the eighteen
"Letters that I received yesterday. They are from Cadiz,"
all about Finance, no blabbing there! "Permit me to send
"you now the last six from my Niece, numbered by her own
"hand" (no forgery, no suppression); "deign to cast your
"eyes on the places! have underlined, where she speaks of
"your Majesty, ofD'Argens, of Potsdam, of D'Ammon" (to
whom she can't be Phyllis, innocent being)! -- Mon cher Vol-
taire, must I again do some niche upon you, then? Tie some
tin-canister to your too-sensitive tail? What an element you
inhabit within that poor skin of yours! **
Majesty invites us to a Literary Christening, Potsdam (No date.
These 'Six Twins' are the "Art de la Guerre," in Six Chants;
part of that revised Edition which is getting printed "Au
Donjon du Chateau;" time must be, well on in 1751). Friedrich
writes to Voltaire:
"I have just been brought to bed of Six Twins; which
"require to be baptised, in the name of Apollo, in the waters
"of Hippocrene. La Henriade is requested to become god-
"mother: you will have the goodness to bring her, this
"evening at five, to the Father's Apartment. D'Arget Lucina
"will be there; and the Imagination of Man-a-Machine will
"hold the poor infants over the Font. "***
Deign to say if I have offended. -- * * "As they write to
"me from Paris that I am in disgrace with you, I dare to beg
"very earnestly that you will deign to say if I have displeased
"in anything! May go wrong by ignorance or from over-
"zeal; but with my heart never! I live in the profoundest
"retreat; giving to study my whole" -- "Your assurances
"once vouchsafed" (famous Document of August 23d). "I
* (Euvres de Frederic, xm. 277. ** lb. 209.
**? lb. 266.
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? 88 THE TEN TEARS OF PEACE. [booKXVI.
April 1751 --July 1752.
"write only to my Niece. I" (a page more of this) -- have
my sorrows and merits, and absolutely no silence at all! *
"In the gift of Speech, he is the most brilliant of mankind,"
said Smelfungus; but in the gift of Silence, what a de-
ficiency! Fnedrich will have to do that for Two, it would
seem.
Berlin, 28th December 1751: Louis Quatorze; and Death of
Rothenburg. -- "Our Louis Quatorze is out. But, Heavens,
"see, your Majesty: a Pirate Printer, at Frankfurt-on-Oder,
"has been going on parallel with us, all the while; and here "is his foul blotch of an Edition on sale, too! Bielfeld,"
fantastic fellow, "had proof-sheets; Bielfeld sent them to a
"Professor there, though I don't blame Bielfeld: result too
"evident. Protect me, your Majesty; Order all wagons,
"especially wagons for Leipzig, to be stopped, to be searched,
"and the Books thrown out, -- it costs you but a word! "
Quite a simple thing: "All Prussia to the rescue! " thinks
an ardent Proprietor of these Proof-sheets. But then, next
day, hears that Rothenburg is dead. That the silent Rothen-
burg lay dying, while the vocal Voltaire was writing these
fooleries, to a King sunk in grief. "Repent, be sorry, be
ashamed! " he says to himself; and does instantly try; --
but with little success; Frankfurt-on-Oder, with its Bielfeld
proof-sheets, still jangling along, contemptibly audible, for
sometime. ** And afterwards, from Frankfurt-on-Mayn new
sorrow rises on Louis Quatorze, as will be seen. -- Friedrich's
frief for Rothenburg was deep and severe; "he had visited
im that last night, say the Books; "and quitted his bed-
side, silent, and all in tears. " It is mainly what of Biography
the silent Rothenburg now has.
From the current Narratives, as they are called,
readers will recollect, out of this Voltaire Period, two
small particles of Event amid such an ocean of noisy
froth, -- two and hardly more: that of the "Orange-
Skin," and that of the "Dirty Linen. " Let us put
these two, on their basis; and pass on:
* (Euvres de Frederic, xxn. 289. *? lb. 285-7.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 89
April 1751--July 1752.
The Orange-Skin (Potsdam, 2d September 1751, To Niece
Denis). -- Good Heavens, mon enfant, what is this I hear
(through the great Dionysius'-Ear I maintain, at such ex-
pense to myself)! * * "La Mettrie, a man of no consequence,
"who talks familiarly with the King after their reading; and
"with me too, now and then: La Mettrie swore to me, that
"speaking to the King, one of those days, of my supposed
"favour, and the bit of jealousy it excites, the King answered
"him: 'I shall want him still about a year: -- you squeeze
"' the orange, you throw away the skin (on enjette Vecorce)! '
Here is a pretty bit of babble (lie, most likely, and bit of
mischievous fun) from Dr. Joyous. "It cannot be true, No!
And yet -- and yet --? " Words cannot express the agonising
doubts, the questionings, occasionally the horror of Voltaire:
poor sick soul, keeping a Dionysius'-Ear to boot! This blurt
of La Mettrie's goes through him like a shot of electricity
through an elderly sick Household-Cat; and he speaks of it
again and ever again, -- though we will not farther.
Dirty Linen (Potsdam, 24th July 1752, To Niece Denis). --
* * "Maupertuis has discreetly set the rumour going, that I
"found the King's Works very bad; that I said to some one,
"on Verses from the King coming in, 'Will he never tire,
'"then, of sending me his dirty linen to wash? ' You obliging
"Maupertuis! "
Rumour says, it was General Mannstein, once Aide-de-
Camp in Russia, who had come to have his Work on Russia
revised (excellent Work, often quoted by us*), when the un-
fortunate Royal Verses came. Perhaps M. de Voltaire did
say it: -- whyiiot, had it only been prudent? He really
likes those Verses much more than I; but knows well enough,
sub rosd, what kind of Verses they are. This also is a hor-
rible suspicion; that the King should hear of this, -- as
doubtless the King did, though without going delirious upon
it at all. ** Thank you, my Perpetual President, not the
less! --
* Did get out at last, -- in England, through Lord Marischal, and
David Hume: see Preface to it (London, 1760).
** "To Niece Denis," dates as above ((Euvres de Voltaire, lxxiv. 408,
lxxv. 17).
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? 90 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 -- Jul? 1752.
Of Maupertuis, in successive Phases. -- * * "Maupertuis
"is not of very engaging ways; he takes my dimensions
"harshly with his quadrant: it is said there enters something
"of envy into his data. " * * "A somewhat surly gentleman;
"not too sociable; and, truth to say, considerably sunk here"
(assez baisse, my D'Argental).
* * "I endure Maupertuis, not having been able to soften
"him. In all countries there are insociable fellows, with
"whom you are obliged to live, though it is difficult. He has
"never forgiven me for" -- "omitting to cite him,"&c. -- "At
"Paris he had got the Academy of Sciences into trouble, and
"himself into general dislike (mtester); then came this Berlin
"offer. Old Fleuri, when Maupertuis called to take leave,
"repeated that verse of Virgil, Nee tibi regnandi veniat tain
"Aira cupido. Fleuri might have whispered as much to him-
"self: but he was a mild sovereign Lord, and reigned in a
"gentle polite manner. I swear to you, Maupertuis does
"not, in his shop" (the Academy here) -- "where, God be
"thanked, I never go.
"He has printed a little Pamphlet, on Happiness (Sur le
"Bonheur); it is very dry and miserable. Reminds you of
"Advertisements for things lost, -- so poor a chance of find-
"ing them again. Happiness is not what he gives to those
'' who read him, to those who live with him; he is not himself
"happy, and would be sorry that others were" (to Niece
"Denis this).
* * "A very sweet life here, Madame" (Madame d'Ar-
gental, an outside party): "it would have been more so, if
"Maupertuis had liked. The wish to please, is no part of his
"geometrical studies; the problem of being agreeable to live
"with, is not one he has solved. " * -- Add this Anecdote,
which is probably D'Arget's, and worth credit:
"Voltaire had dinner-party, Maupertuis one of them;
"party still in the drawing-room, dinner just coming up.
"'President, your Book, Sur le Bonheur, has given me
"'pleasure,' said Voltaire, politely" (very politely, consider-
ing what we have just read); '"given me pleasure, -- a
* (Euvres de Voltaire, lxxiv. 380, 504 (4th May 1751, and 14th March
1752), to the D'Argentals; -- to Niece Denis (6th November 1750, and 24th
August 1751), lxxiv. 250, 385.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 91
ApriU751 --July 1752.
"'few obscurities excepted, of which we will talk together
"' some evening. ' 'Obscurities ? ' said Maupertuis,in a gloomy
"arbitrary tone: 'There may be such for you, Monsieur! '
"Voltaire laid his hand on the President's shoulder" (yellow
wig near by), "looked at him in silence, with many-twinkling
"glance, gaiety the topmost expression, but by no means the
"sole one: 'President, I esteem you, Jevous estime, monPre-
"'Merit: you are brave; you want war: we will have it.
"' But, in the mean while, let us eat the King's roast meat. '" *
Friedrich's Answers to these Voltaire Letters, if he
wrote any, are all gone. Probably he answered almost
nothing; what we have of his, relates always to specific
business, receipt of Louis Quatorze, and the like; and
is always in friendly tone. Handsomely keeping Silence
for Two! Here is a snatch from him, on neutral figures
and movements of the time.
Friedrich to Wilhelmina (November 17th, 1751). "I think
"the Margraf of Anspach will not have stayed long with you.
"He is not made to taste the sweets of society: his passion
"for hunting, and the tippling life he leads this long time,
"throw him out when he comes among reasonable persons. "
* * "I expect my Sister of Brunswick, with the Duke and
"their eldest Girl, the 4th of next month," -- to Carnival
here. "It is seven years since the Queen (our Mamma) has
"seen her. She holds a small Board of Wit at Brunswick;
"of which your Doctor," -- (Doctor Superville, Dutch-
French, whose perennial merit now is, That he did not burn
Wilhelmina's Memoirs, but left them safe to posterity, for
long centuries), -- "of which your Doctor is the director and
"oracle. You would burst outright into laughing when she
"speaks of those matters. Her natural vivacity and haste
"has not left her time to get to the bottom of anything; she
"skips continually from one subject to the other, and gives
"twenty decisions in a minute. " **
? Duvernet (2d form of him, always), p. 176.
*? (Euvres de Frederic, xxvn. i. 202: -- On Superville, see Preuss's Note,
ib. 56.
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? 92 THE TEN TEARS OF PEACE. [BOOK XVI.
April 1751--July 1752.
About a month before Rothenburg's death, which was so
tragical to Friedrich, there had fallen out, with a hideous
dash of farce in it, the death of LaMettrie. Here are Two
Accounts, by different hands, -- which represent to us an im-
mensity of babble in the then Voltaire circle.
La Mettrie dies. -- Two accounts: 1? . King Friedrich's:
to Wilhelmina. "21st November 1751. ** We have lost
"poor La Mettrie. He died for a piece of fun: ate out of
"banter a whole pheasant-pie; had a horrible indigestion,
"took it into his head to have blood let, and convince the
"German Doctors that bleeding was good in indigestion.
"But it succeeded ill with him: he took a violent fever, which
"passed into putrid; and carried him off. He is regretted
"by all that knew him. He was gay; bon diable, good Doctor,
"and very bad Author: by avoiding to read his Books, one
"could manage to be well content with himself. " *
2? . Voltaire's: to Niece Denis (not his first to her): Pots-
dam, 24th December 1751. * * "No end to my astonishment.
"Milord Tyrconnel," always ailing (died here himself),
"sends to ask La Mettrie to come and see him, to cure him or
"amuse him. The King grudges to part with his Reader,
"who makes him laugh. LaMettrie sets out; arrives at his
"Patient's just when Madame Tyrconnel is sitting down to
"table: he eats and drinks, talks and laughs more than all
"the guests; when he has got crammed (en ajusqu'au menton),
"they bring him a pie, of eagle disguised as pheasant, which
"had arrived from the North, plenty of bad lard, pork-hash
"and ginger in it; my gentleman eats the whole pie, and dies
"next day at Lord Tyrconnel's, assisted by two Doctors,"
Cothenius and Lieberkiihn, "whom he used to mock at. * i* *
"How I should have liked to ask him, at the article of death,
"about that Orange-skin! " **
Add this trait, too, from authentic Nicolai, to complete
the matter: "An Irish Priest, Father Macmahon, Tyrconnel's
"Chaplain" (more power to him), "wanted to convert La
"Mettrie: he pushed into the sick-room; -- encouraged by
"some who wished to make La Mettrie contemptible to
"Friedrich" (the charitable souls). "LaMettrie would have
* (Euvres de Frederic, xxvu. i.
tongue," says Valori; our French Court being piqued
at Friedrich and his sarcasms. Tyrconnel gives splendid
dinners; Voltaire often of them; does not love Pots-
dam, nor is loved by it. Nay, I sometimes think a
certain Demon Newswriter (of whom by and by), but
do not know, may be some hungry Attache1 of Tyr-
connel's. Hungry Attach^, shut out from the divine
Suppers and upper planetary movements, and reduced
to look on them from his cold hutch, in a dog-like
angry and hungry manner? His flying allusions to
Voltaire, "son (Friedrich's) squelette d'Apollon, skeleton
of an Apollo," and the like, are barkings almost
rabid.
Of the military sort, about this time, Keith and
Rothenburg appear most frequently as guests or com-
panions. Rothenburg had a great deal of Friedrich's
regard. Winterfeld is more a practical Counsellor,
and does not shine in learned circles. A fiery soldier;
-- a man probably of many talents and qualities,
* Valori, n. 130, &c.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OP THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 81
April 1751--July 1752.
though of distinctly decipherable there is no record of
him or them. He had a Parisian Wife; who is some-
times on the point of coming with Niece Denis to
Berlin, and of setting up their two French households
there; but never did it, either of them, to make an
Uncle or a Husband happy. Rothenburg was bred a
Catholic: "he headed the subscription for the famous
'Katholische Kirche,'" so delightful to the Pope and
liberal Christians in those years; "but never gave a
sixpence of money," says Voltaire once: Catholic Kirk
was got completed with difficulty; stands there yet,
like a large wash-bowl set, bottom uppermost, on the
top of a narrowish tub; but none of Rothenburg's
money is in it. In Voltaire's Correspondence there is
frequent mention of him; not with any love, but with
a certain secret respect, rather inclined to be disrespect-
ful, if it durst or could: the eloquent vocal individual
not quite at ease beside the silent thinking and acting
one. What we know is, Friedrich greatly loved the
man. There is some straggle of Correspondence between
Friedrich and him left; but it is worth nothing; gives
no testimony of that, or of anything else noticeable: --
and that is the one fact now almost alone significant
of Eothenburg. Much loved and esteemed by the King;
employed diplomatically, now and then; perhaps talked
with on such subjects, which was the highest distinc-
tion. Poor man, he is in very bad health in these
months; has never rightly recovered of his wounds;
and dies in the last days of 1751, -- to the bitter
sorrow of the King, as is still on record. A highly re-
spectable dim figure, far more important in Friedrich's
History than he looks. As King's guest, he can in
these months play no part.
Carhjle, Frederick the Great. IX. <<
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? 82 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 --July 1752.
Highly respectable too, and well worth talking to,
though left very dim to us in the Books, is Marshal
Keith; who has been growing gradually with the King,
and with everybody, ever since he came to these parts
in 1747. A man of Scotch type; the broad accent,
with its sagacities, veracities, with its stedfastly fixed
moderation, and its sly twinkles of defensive humour,
is still audible to us through the foreign wrappages.
Not given to talk, unless there is something to be
said; but well capable of it then. Friedrich, the more
he knows him, likes him the better. On all manner of
subjects he can talk knowingly, and with insight of his
own. On Russian matters Friedrich likes especially
to hear him, -- though they differ in regard to the
worth of Russian troops. "Very considerable military
qualities in those Russians," thinks Keith: "imperturb-
ably obedient, patient; of a tough fibre, and are beauti-
fully strict to your order, on the parade-ground or off. "
"Pooh, mere rubbish, mon cher" thinks Friedrich al-
ways. To which Keith, unwilling to argue too long,
will answer: "Well, it is possible enough your Majesty
may try them, some day; if I am wrong, it will be all
the better for us! " Which Friedrich had occasion to
remember by and by. Friedrich greatly respects this
sagacious gentleman with the broad accent: his Brother,
the Lord Marischal, is now in France: Ambassador at
Paris, since September 1751:* "Lord Marischal, a
Jacobite, for Prussian Ambassador in Paris; Tyrconnel,
a Jacobite, for French Ambassador in Berlin! " grumble
the English.
* "Left Potsdam, 28th August" (Rddenbeck, i. 220).
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 83
April 1751 --July 1752.
Fractions of Events and Indications, from Voltaire him-
self, in this Time; more or less illuminative when reduced
to Order.
Here, selected from more, are a few "fire-flies," --
not dancing or distracted, but authentic all, and stuck
each on its spit; shedding a feeble glimmer over the
physiognomy of those Fifteen caliginous Months, to an
imagination that is diligent. Fractional utterances of
Voltaire to Friedrich and others (in abridged form,
abridgment indicated): the exact dates are oftenest ir-
retrievably gone; but the glimmer of light is indisput-
able, all the more as, on Voltaire's part, it is mostly
involuntary. Grouping and sequence must be other
than that of Time.
Potsdam, 5th June 1751. -- King is off on that Ost-Friesland
jaunt; Voltaire atPotsdam, "at what they call theMarquisat,"
in complete solitude, -- preparing to die before long, -- sends
his Majesty some poor trifles of Scribbling, proof of my love,
Sire: "since I live solitary, when you are not atPotsdam, it
"would seem I came for you only" (note that, your Majesty)!
* * "But in return for the rags here sent, I expect the Sixth
"Canto of your Art" (Art de la Guerre, one of the Two pupil-
and-schoolmaster "Specimens" mentioned above); "I expect
"the Roof to the Temple of Mars. It is for you, alone of men,
"to build that Temple; as it was for Ovid to sing of Love, and
"for Horace to give a. n Art of Poetry. " (Laying it on pretty
thick! ) * *
Then again, later (after severe study, ferula in hand):
"Sire, I return your Majesty your Six Cantos; I surrender at
"discretion (lui laisse carte-blanche) on that question of 'victoire. '
"The whole Poem is worthy of you: if I had made this
"Journey only to see a thing so unique, I ought not to regret
"my Country. " * * And again (still no date): "GrandDieu!
"is not all that" (History of the Great Elector, by your Majesty,
which I am devouring with such appetite) "neat, elegant,
6*
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? 84 THE TEN YEARS OP PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 --July 1752.
"precise, and, above all, philosophical! " -- "Sire, you are
"adorable; I will pass my days at your feet. Oh, never
"make game of me {des niches) I" Has he been at that, say
you! "If the Kings of Denmark, Portugal, Spain, &c, did
"it, I should not care a pin; they are only Kings. But you
"are the greatest man that perhaps ever reigned. " *
Is on leave of absence, near by; wishes to be called again (No
date). -- "Sire, if you like free criticism, if you tolerate sin-
"cere praises, if you wish to perfect a Work" (Art de la
Guerre, or some other as sublime), "which you alone inEurope
"are capable of doing, you have only to bid a Hermit come
"upstairs. At your orders for all his life. "**
In Berlin Palace: please, don't turn me out! (No date) -- * *
"Next to you, I love work and retirement. Nobody whatever
"complains of me. I ask of your Majesty, in order to keep
"unaltered the happiness I owe to you, this favour, Not to
"turn me out of the Apartment you deigned to give me at
"Berlin, till I go for Paris" (always talking of that). "If I
"were to leave it, they would put in the Gazettes thatl" --
Oh, what wouldn't they put in, of one that, belonging to
King Friedrich, lives as it were in the Disc of the Sun, con-
spicuous to everybody! -- "I will go out" (of the Apartment),
"when some Prince, with a Suite needing it to lodge in,
"comes; and then the thing will be honourable. Chasot"
(gone to Paris) "has been talking" -- unguarded things of
me! "I have not uttered the least complaint of Chasot: Inever
"will of Chasot: nor of those who have set him on" (Mau-
pertuis belike): "I forgive everything, I! "***
Rothenburg is ill; Voltaire has been to see him("Berlin, 14th,"
no month; year, too surely, 1751, as we shall find! Letter is
in Verse). -- "Lieberkiihn was going to kill poor Rothenburg;
"to send him off to Pluto, -- for liking his dish a little; --
"monster Lieberkiihn! But Doctor Joyous," your reader,
La Mettrie, -- led by, need I say whom? -- "has brought him
In (Euvres de Frederic, xxn. 271, 273. ** lb. 281.
*** lb. 270.
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? CHAP. rx. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 85
April 1751--July 1752.
"back to us: -- think of Lieberkiihn's solemn stare! Pretty
"contrasts, those, of sublime Quacksalverism, with Sense
"under the mask of Folly. May the hemorrhoidal vein" --
(follows here, note it, exquisite reader, that of "cul de mon
heros" cited above! ) -- * *
And then (a day or two after; King, too hemorrhoidal to
come twenty miles, but anxious to know): "Sire, no doubt
"Doctor Joyous (le medecinjoyeux) has informed your Majesty
"that when we arrived, the Patient was sleeping tranquil; and
"Cothenius assured us, in Latin, that there was no danger. I
"know not what has passed since, but I am persuaded your
"Majesty approves my journey" (of a street or two), -- must
you speak of it, then!
Goes to an Evening-Party now and then (To Niece Denis). --
* * "Madame Tyrconnel" (French Excellency's Wife) "has
"plenty of fine people at her house on an evening; perhaps too
"many" (one of the first houses in Berlin, this of Milord Tyr-
connel's, which we frequent a good deal). * * "Madame got
"very well through her part of Andromaque" (in those old
playacting times of ours): "never saw actresses with finer
"eyes," -- how should you!
"As to Milord Tyrconnel, he is an Anglais of dignity,"
-- Irish in reality, and a thought blusterous. "He has a
"condensed (serre') caustic way of talk; and I know not what
"of frank which one finds in the English, and does not usually
"find in persons of his trade. French Tragedies played at
"Berlin, I myself taking part; an Englishman Envoy of France
"there: strange circumstances these, aren't they? "* Yes,
that latter especially; and Milord Mare'chal our Prussian En-
voy with you1 Which the English note, sulkily, as a weather-
symptom.
At Potsdam, BigDevils of Grenadiers (No date). -- * * "But,
"Sire; one isn't always perched on the summit of Parnassus;
"one is a man. There are sicknesses about; I did not bring
"an athlete's health to these parts; and the scorbutic humour
"which is eating my life renders me truly, of all that are sick,
"the sickest. lam absolutely alone from morning to night.
* To D'Argental this ((Buwes de Voltaire, lxxiv. 289. )
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? 86 THE TEN TEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 -- July 1752.
"My one solace is the necessary pleasure of taking the air.
"I bethink me of walking, and clearing my head a little, in
"your Gardens at Potsdam. I fancy it is a permitted thing;
"I present myself, musing; -- I find huge devils of Grenadiers,
"who clap bayonets in my belly, who cry Furt, Sacrament,
"and Der Konig" (Off, Sackerment, The King, quite tolerably spelt)! "And I take to my heels, as Austrians and Saxons
''would do before them. Have you ever read, that in Titus's
"or Marcus-Aurelius's Gardens, a poor devil of a Gaulish
"Poet" -- In short, it shall be mended. *
Have been laying it on too thick (No date; in Verse). --
"Marcus Aurelius was wont to" -- (Well, we know who that
is: What of Marcus, then? ) "A certain lover of his glory"
(still in verse) spoke once, at Supper, of a magnanimity of
"Marcus's; -- at which Marcus" (flattery too thick) "rather
"gloomed, and sat quite silent,--which was another fine saying
"of his" (ends verse, starts prose):
"Pardon, Sire, some hearts that are full of you! To justify
"myself, I dare supplicate your Majesty to give one glance at
"this Letter (lines pencil-marked), which has just come from
"M. de Chauvelin, Nephew of the famous Garde-des-Sceaux.
"Your Majesty cannot gloom at him, writing these from the
"fulness of his heart; nor at me, who" -- Pooh; no, then!
Perhaps do you a niche again, -- poor restless fellow! **
Potsdam Palace (No date): Sire, may I change my room? * *
"I ascend to your ante-chambers, to find some one by whom
"I may ask permission to speak with you. I find nobody; I
"have to return:" and what I wanted was this, "yourprotec-
"tion for my Stecle deLouis Quatorze, which I am about to print
"in Berlin. " Surely, -- but also this:
"I am unwell, I am asick man born. And withall am obliged
"to work, almost as much as your Majesty. I pass the whole
"day alone. If you would permit that I might shift to the
"Apartment next the one I have, -- to that where General
"Bredow slept last winter. -- I should work more commo-
"diously. My Secretary (Collini) and I could work together
"there. I should have a little more sun, which is a great point
* (Euvres de FrMMc, xxn. 273. ** lb. 280.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 87
April 1751--July 1752.
"for me.
-- Only the whim of a sick man, perhaps! Well,
"even so, your Majesty will have pity on it. You promised to
"make me happy. *
I suspect that I am suspected (No date). -- "Sire, if Iamnot
"brief, forgive me. Yesterday the faithful D'Arget told me
"with sorrow that in Paris people were talking of your Poem. "
Horrible; but, oh Sire, -- me? -- "I showed him the eighteen
"Letters that I received yesterday. They are from Cadiz,"
all about Finance, no blabbing there! "Permit me to send
"you now the last six from my Niece, numbered by her own
"hand" (no forgery, no suppression); "deign to cast your
"eyes on the places! have underlined, where she speaks of
"your Majesty, ofD'Argens, of Potsdam, of D'Ammon" (to
whom she can't be Phyllis, innocent being)! -- Mon cher Vol-
taire, must I again do some niche upon you, then? Tie some
tin-canister to your too-sensitive tail? What an element you
inhabit within that poor skin of yours! **
Majesty invites us to a Literary Christening, Potsdam (No date.
These 'Six Twins' are the "Art de la Guerre," in Six Chants;
part of that revised Edition which is getting printed "Au
Donjon du Chateau;" time must be, well on in 1751). Friedrich
writes to Voltaire:
"I have just been brought to bed of Six Twins; which
"require to be baptised, in the name of Apollo, in the waters
"of Hippocrene. La Henriade is requested to become god-
"mother: you will have the goodness to bring her, this
"evening at five, to the Father's Apartment. D'Arget Lucina
"will be there; and the Imagination of Man-a-Machine will
"hold the poor infants over the Font. "***
Deign to say if I have offended. -- * * "As they write to
"me from Paris that I am in disgrace with you, I dare to beg
"very earnestly that you will deign to say if I have displeased
"in anything! May go wrong by ignorance or from over-
"zeal; but with my heart never! I live in the profoundest
"retreat; giving to study my whole" -- "Your assurances
"once vouchsafed" (famous Document of August 23d). "I
* (Euvres de Frederic, xm. 277. ** lb. 209.
**? lb. 266.
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? 88 THE TEN TEARS OF PEACE. [booKXVI.
April 1751 --July 1752.
"write only to my Niece. I" (a page more of this) -- have
my sorrows and merits, and absolutely no silence at all! *
"In the gift of Speech, he is the most brilliant of mankind,"
said Smelfungus; but in the gift of Silence, what a de-
ficiency! Fnedrich will have to do that for Two, it would
seem.
Berlin, 28th December 1751: Louis Quatorze; and Death of
Rothenburg. -- "Our Louis Quatorze is out. But, Heavens,
"see, your Majesty: a Pirate Printer, at Frankfurt-on-Oder,
"has been going on parallel with us, all the while; and here "is his foul blotch of an Edition on sale, too! Bielfeld,"
fantastic fellow, "had proof-sheets; Bielfeld sent them to a
"Professor there, though I don't blame Bielfeld: result too
"evident. Protect me, your Majesty; Order all wagons,
"especially wagons for Leipzig, to be stopped, to be searched,
"and the Books thrown out, -- it costs you but a word! "
Quite a simple thing: "All Prussia to the rescue! " thinks
an ardent Proprietor of these Proof-sheets. But then, next
day, hears that Rothenburg is dead. That the silent Rothen-
burg lay dying, while the vocal Voltaire was writing these
fooleries, to a King sunk in grief. "Repent, be sorry, be
ashamed! " he says to himself; and does instantly try; --
but with little success; Frankfurt-on-Oder, with its Bielfeld
proof-sheets, still jangling along, contemptibly audible, for
sometime. ** And afterwards, from Frankfurt-on-Mayn new
sorrow rises on Louis Quatorze, as will be seen. -- Friedrich's
frief for Rothenburg was deep and severe; "he had visited
im that last night, say the Books; "and quitted his bed-
side, silent, and all in tears. " It is mainly what of Biography
the silent Rothenburg now has.
From the current Narratives, as they are called,
readers will recollect, out of this Voltaire Period, two
small particles of Event amid such an ocean of noisy
froth, -- two and hardly more: that of the "Orange-
Skin," and that of the "Dirty Linen. " Let us put
these two, on their basis; and pass on:
* (Euvres de Frederic, xxn. 289. *? lb. 285-7.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 89
April 1751--July 1752.
The Orange-Skin (Potsdam, 2d September 1751, To Niece
Denis). -- Good Heavens, mon enfant, what is this I hear
(through the great Dionysius'-Ear I maintain, at such ex-
pense to myself)! * * "La Mettrie, a man of no consequence,
"who talks familiarly with the King after their reading; and
"with me too, now and then: La Mettrie swore to me, that
"speaking to the King, one of those days, of my supposed
"favour, and the bit of jealousy it excites, the King answered
"him: 'I shall want him still about a year: -- you squeeze
"' the orange, you throw away the skin (on enjette Vecorce)! '
Here is a pretty bit of babble (lie, most likely, and bit of
mischievous fun) from Dr. Joyous. "It cannot be true, No!
And yet -- and yet --? " Words cannot express the agonising
doubts, the questionings, occasionally the horror of Voltaire:
poor sick soul, keeping a Dionysius'-Ear to boot! This blurt
of La Mettrie's goes through him like a shot of electricity
through an elderly sick Household-Cat; and he speaks of it
again and ever again, -- though we will not farther.
Dirty Linen (Potsdam, 24th July 1752, To Niece Denis). --
* * "Maupertuis has discreetly set the rumour going, that I
"found the King's Works very bad; that I said to some one,
"on Verses from the King coming in, 'Will he never tire,
'"then, of sending me his dirty linen to wash? ' You obliging
"Maupertuis! "
Rumour says, it was General Mannstein, once Aide-de-
Camp in Russia, who had come to have his Work on Russia
revised (excellent Work, often quoted by us*), when the un-
fortunate Royal Verses came. Perhaps M. de Voltaire did
say it: -- whyiiot, had it only been prudent? He really
likes those Verses much more than I; but knows well enough,
sub rosd, what kind of Verses they are. This also is a hor-
rible suspicion; that the King should hear of this, -- as
doubtless the King did, though without going delirious upon
it at all. ** Thank you, my Perpetual President, not the
less! --
* Did get out at last, -- in England, through Lord Marischal, and
David Hume: see Preface to it (London, 1760).
** "To Niece Denis," dates as above ((Euvres de Voltaire, lxxiv. 408,
lxxv. 17).
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? 90 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
April 1751 -- Jul? 1752.
Of Maupertuis, in successive Phases. -- * * "Maupertuis
"is not of very engaging ways; he takes my dimensions
"harshly with his quadrant: it is said there enters something
"of envy into his data. " * * "A somewhat surly gentleman;
"not too sociable; and, truth to say, considerably sunk here"
(assez baisse, my D'Argental).
* * "I endure Maupertuis, not having been able to soften
"him. In all countries there are insociable fellows, with
"whom you are obliged to live, though it is difficult. He has
"never forgiven me for" -- "omitting to cite him,"&c. -- "At
"Paris he had got the Academy of Sciences into trouble, and
"himself into general dislike (mtester); then came this Berlin
"offer. Old Fleuri, when Maupertuis called to take leave,
"repeated that verse of Virgil, Nee tibi regnandi veniat tain
"Aira cupido. Fleuri might have whispered as much to him-
"self: but he was a mild sovereign Lord, and reigned in a
"gentle polite manner. I swear to you, Maupertuis does
"not, in his shop" (the Academy here) -- "where, God be
"thanked, I never go.
"He has printed a little Pamphlet, on Happiness (Sur le
"Bonheur); it is very dry and miserable. Reminds you of
"Advertisements for things lost, -- so poor a chance of find-
"ing them again. Happiness is not what he gives to those
'' who read him, to those who live with him; he is not himself
"happy, and would be sorry that others were" (to Niece
"Denis this).
* * "A very sweet life here, Madame" (Madame d'Ar-
gental, an outside party): "it would have been more so, if
"Maupertuis had liked. The wish to please, is no part of his
"geometrical studies; the problem of being agreeable to live
"with, is not one he has solved. " * -- Add this Anecdote,
which is probably D'Arget's, and worth credit:
"Voltaire had dinner-party, Maupertuis one of them;
"party still in the drawing-room, dinner just coming up.
"'President, your Book, Sur le Bonheur, has given me
"'pleasure,' said Voltaire, politely" (very politely, consider-
ing what we have just read); '"given me pleasure, -- a
* (Euvres de Voltaire, lxxiv. 380, 504 (4th May 1751, and 14th March
1752), to the D'Argentals; -- to Niece Denis (6th November 1750, and 24th
August 1751), lxxiv. 250, 385.
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? CHAP. IX. ] SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT. 91
ApriU751 --July 1752.
"'few obscurities excepted, of which we will talk together
"' some evening. ' 'Obscurities ? ' said Maupertuis,in a gloomy
"arbitrary tone: 'There may be such for you, Monsieur! '
"Voltaire laid his hand on the President's shoulder" (yellow
wig near by), "looked at him in silence, with many-twinkling
"glance, gaiety the topmost expression, but by no means the
"sole one: 'President, I esteem you, Jevous estime, monPre-
"'Merit: you are brave; you want war: we will have it.
"' But, in the mean while, let us eat the King's roast meat. '" *
Friedrich's Answers to these Voltaire Letters, if he
wrote any, are all gone. Probably he answered almost
nothing; what we have of his, relates always to specific
business, receipt of Louis Quatorze, and the like; and
is always in friendly tone. Handsomely keeping Silence
for Two! Here is a snatch from him, on neutral figures
and movements of the time.
Friedrich to Wilhelmina (November 17th, 1751). "I think
"the Margraf of Anspach will not have stayed long with you.
"He is not made to taste the sweets of society: his passion
"for hunting, and the tippling life he leads this long time,
"throw him out when he comes among reasonable persons. "
* * "I expect my Sister of Brunswick, with the Duke and
"their eldest Girl, the 4th of next month," -- to Carnival
here. "It is seven years since the Queen (our Mamma) has
"seen her. She holds a small Board of Wit at Brunswick;
"of which your Doctor," -- (Doctor Superville, Dutch-
French, whose perennial merit now is, That he did not burn
Wilhelmina's Memoirs, but left them safe to posterity, for
long centuries), -- "of which your Doctor is the director and
"oracle. You would burst outright into laughing when she
"speaks of those matters. Her natural vivacity and haste
"has not left her time to get to the bottom of anything; she
"skips continually from one subject to the other, and gives
"twenty decisions in a minute. " **
? Duvernet (2d form of him, always), p. 176.
*? (Euvres de Frederic, xxvn. i. 202: -- On Superville, see Preuss's Note,
ib. 56.
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? 92 THE TEN TEARS OF PEACE. [BOOK XVI.
April 1751--July 1752.
About a month before Rothenburg's death, which was so
tragical to Friedrich, there had fallen out, with a hideous
dash of farce in it, the death of LaMettrie. Here are Two
Accounts, by different hands, -- which represent to us an im-
mensity of babble in the then Voltaire circle.
La Mettrie dies. -- Two accounts: 1? . King Friedrich's:
to Wilhelmina. "21st November 1751. ** We have lost
"poor La Mettrie. He died for a piece of fun: ate out of
"banter a whole pheasant-pie; had a horrible indigestion,
"took it into his head to have blood let, and convince the
"German Doctors that bleeding was good in indigestion.
"But it succeeded ill with him: he took a violent fever, which
"passed into putrid; and carried him off. He is regretted
"by all that knew him. He was gay; bon diable, good Doctor,
"and very bad Author: by avoiding to read his Books, one
"could manage to be well content with himself. " *
2? . Voltaire's: to Niece Denis (not his first to her): Pots-
dam, 24th December 1751. * * "No end to my astonishment.
"Milord Tyrconnel," always ailing (died here himself),
"sends to ask La Mettrie to come and see him, to cure him or
"amuse him. The King grudges to part with his Reader,
"who makes him laugh. LaMettrie sets out; arrives at his
"Patient's just when Madame Tyrconnel is sitting down to
"table: he eats and drinks, talks and laughs more than all
"the guests; when he has got crammed (en ajusqu'au menton),
"they bring him a pie, of eagle disguised as pheasant, which
"had arrived from the North, plenty of bad lard, pork-hash
"and ginger in it; my gentleman eats the whole pie, and dies
"next day at Lord Tyrconnel's, assisted by two Doctors,"
Cothenius and Lieberkiihn, "whom he used to mock at. * i* *
"How I should have liked to ask him, at the article of death,
"about that Orange-skin! " **
Add this trait, too, from authentic Nicolai, to complete
the matter: "An Irish Priest, Father Macmahon, Tyrconnel's
"Chaplain" (more power to him), "wanted to convert La
"Mettrie: he pushed into the sick-room; -- encouraged by
"some who wished to make La Mettrie contemptible to
"Friedrich" (the charitable souls). "LaMettrie would have
* (Euvres de Frederic, xxvu. i.
