]
VOLTAIRE
AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL.
Thomas Carlyle
Four Jousting Parties,
"headed each by a Prince of the Blood: -- with such a
"splendour of equipment for jewels, silver helmets, sashings,
"housings, as eye never saw. Prancing on their glorious
"battle-steeds (sham-battle, steeds not sham, but champing
"their bits as real quadrupeds with fire in their interior): --
"how many in all, I forgot to count. Perhaps, on the average,
"sixty in each Quadrille, fifteen of them practical Ritters;
"the rest mythologic winged standard-bearers, blackamoors,
"lictors, trumpeters, and shining melodious phantasms as
"escort, -- of this latter kind say in round numbers Two
"Hundred altogether; and of actual Ritters three-score. *
"Who run at rings, at Turks' heads, and at other objects
"with death-doing lance; and prance and flash and career
"along: glorious to see and hear. Under proud flourishings
* Blumenthal, Life of DeZiethen (Ziethen was in it, and gained a prize),
i. 257-26S et seq. ; Voltaire's Letters to Niece Denis ((Euwcs, lxxiv. 174,
179, 198); -- and two contemporary 4tos on the subject, with Drawings, &c,
which may well continue unknown to every reader.
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? 6 THE TEN TEARS OP PEACE. [bookxvt.
25th-27th Aug. 1750.
"of drums and trumpets, under bursts and breathings of
"wind-music; under the shine of Forty-thousand Lamps, for
"one item. All Berlin and the nocturnal firmament looking
"on, -- night rather gusty, 'which blew out many of the
"lamps,'insinuates Hanway.
"About midnight, Beauty in the form of Princess Amelia
"distributes the prizes; Music filling the air; and human
"'Euge's,' and the surviving lamps, doing their best. After
"which the Principalities and Ritters withdraw to their
"Palace, to their Balls and their Supper of the gods; and all
"the world and his wife goes home again, amid various com-
"mentary from high and low. 'Jamais, Never,' murmured
"one high Gentleman, of the Impromptu kind, at the Palace
"Supper-table, --
"Jamais dans Athene et dans Borne
"On n'eut de plus beaux jours, ni de plus digne prix.
"Fai vu le fits de Mars sous les trails de Paris,
"Et Venus qui donnait lapomme. " *
And Amphitheatre and Lamps lapse wholly into
darkness, and the thing has finished, for the time being.
August 27th, it was repeated by daylight; if possible,
more charming than ever; but not to be spoken of
further, under penalties. To be mildly forgotten again,
every jot and tittle of it, -- except one small insigni-
ficant iota, which, by accident, still makes it remark-
able. Namely, that Collini and the Barberinas were
there; and that not only was Voltaire again there
among the Princes and Princesses; but that Collini
saw Voltaire, and gives us transient sight of him, --
thanks to Collini. Thursday, 27th August 1750, was
the Daylight version of the Carrousel; which Collini,
* "Never in Athens or Rome were there braver sights or a worthier
prize: "I have seen the son of Mars" (King Friedrich) "with Paris's
features, "and Venus" (Amelia) "crowning the victorious. " (Euvres de
Voltaire, xvin. 820.
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 7
10th July-- 21st Sept. 1750.
if it were of any moment, takes to have preceded that
of the 40,000 Lamps. Sure enough Collini was there,
with eyes open:
"Madame de Cocceji" (so one may call her, though the
known alias isBarbcrina) "had engaged places; she invited
"me to come and see this Festivity. We went;" and very
grand it was. "The Palace Esplanade was changed" by
carpentries and draperies "into a vast Amphitheatre; the
"slopes of it furnished with benches for the spectators, and,
"at the four corners of it and at the bottom, magnificently
"decorated boxes for the Court. " Vast oval Amphitheatre,
the interior arena rectangular, with its Four Entrances, one
for each of the Four Quadrilles. "The assemblage was
"numerous and brilliant: all the Court had come fromPots-
"dam to Berlin.
"A little while before the King himself made appearance,
"there rose suddenly a murmur ot admiration, and I heard all
"round me, from everybody, the name'Voltaire! Voltaire! '
"Looking down, I saw Voltaire accordingly; among a group
"of great lords, who were walking over the Arena, towards
"one of the Court Boxes. He wore a modest countenance,
"but joy painted itself in his eyes: you cannot love glory,
"and not feel gratefully the prize attached to it," -- attained
as here. "I lost sight of him in few instants," as he ap-
proached his Box, "the place where I was, not permitting
"further view. " *
This was Collini's first sight of that great man
(de ce grand homme). With whom, thanks to Barberina,
he had, in a day or two, the honour of an Interview
(judgment favourable, he could hope); and before many
months, Accident also favouring, the inexpressible
honour of seeing himself the great man's Secretary, --
how far beyond hope or aspiration, in these Carrousel
days!
* Collini, Mon Sejour, p. 21.
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? THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
Voltaire had now been here some Seven Weeks, -- arrived 10th July, as we often note; -- after (on
his own part), a great deal of haggling, hesitating, and
negotiating; which we spare our readers. The poor
man having now become a Quasi-Widower; painfully rallying, with his whole strength, towards new arrange-
ments, -- now was the time for Friedrich to urge him:
"Come to me! Away from all that dismal imbroglio;
hither, I say! " To which Voltaire is not inattentive;
though he hesitates; cannot, in any case, come without
delay; -- lingers in Paris, readjusting many things, the
poor shipwrecked being, among kind D'Argentals and
friends. Poor Ishmael, getting gray; and his tent in the
desert suddenly carried off by a blast of wind!
To the legal Widower, M. le Marquis, he behaves
in money matters like a Prince; takes that Paris Do-
micile, in the Rue Traversiere, all to himself; institutes
a new household there, -- Niece Denis to be female
president. Niece Denis, widow without incumbrances;
whom, in her married state, wife to some kind of
Commissariat-Officer at Lille, we have seen transiently
in that City, her Uncle lodging with her as he passed.
A gadding, flaunting, unreasonable, would-be fashion-
able female -- (a Du Chatelet without the grace or
genius, and who never was in love with you! ) -- with
whom poor Uncle had a baddish life in time coming.
All which settled, he still lingers. Widowed, grown
old and less adventurous! That House in the Rue Traversiere, once his and Another's, now his alone, -- for the time being, it is probably more like a
Mausoleum than a House to him. And Versailles,
with its sulky Trajans, its Crdbillon cabals, what
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 9
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
charm is in Versailles? He thinks of going to Italy,
for a while; has never seen that fine Country: of
going to Berlin for a while: of going to -- In fact,
Berlin is clearly the place where he will land; but he
hesitates greatly about lifting anchor. Friedrich insists,
in a bright, bantering, kindly way: "You were due
to me a year ago; you said always, 'So soon as the
lying-in is over, I am yours:' -- and now, why don't
you come? "
Friedrich, since they met last, has had some ex-
periences of Voltaire, which he does not like. Their
roads, truly, -- one adulating Trajan in Versailles,
and growing great by "Farces of the Fair;" the other
battling for his existence, against men and devils,
Trajan and Company included, -- have lain far apart.
Their Correspondence perceptibly languishing, in con-
sequence, and even rumours rising on the subject,
Voltaire wrote once: "Give me a yard of ribbon, Sire"
(your Order of Merit, Sire), "to silence those vile
"rumours! " Which Friedrich, on such free-and-easy
terms, had silently declined. "A meddlesome, forward
kind of fellow; always getting into scrapes and brabbles! "
thinks Friedrich. But is really anxious, now that the
chance offers again, to have such a Levite for his Priest,
the evident pink of Human Intellect; and tries various
incitements upon him; -- hits at last (I know not whe-
ther by device or by accident) on one which, say the
French Biographers, did raise Voltaire and set him
under way.
A certain M. Baculard d'Arnaud, a conceited,
foolish young fellow, much patronised by Voltaire,
and given to write verses, which are unknown to me,
has been, on Voltaire's recommending, "Literary Cor-
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? 10 THE TEN TEARS OP PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July-- 21st Sept. 1750.
respondent" to Friedrich (Paris Book-Agent and the
like) for some time past; corresponding much with
Potsdam, in a way found entertaining; and is now
(April 1750) actually going thither, to Friedrich's
Court, or perhaps has gone. At any rate, Friedrich,
-- by accident or by device, -- had answered some
rhymes of this D'Arnaud, "Yes; welcome, young sun-
rise, since Voltaire is about to set! "* I hope it was
by device; DArnaud is such a silly fellow; too absurd,
to reckon as morning to anybody's sunset. Except for
his involuntary service, for and against, in this Voltaire
Journey, his name would not now be mentionable at
all. "Sunset? " exclaimed Voltaire, springing out of
bed (say the Biographers), and skipping about in-
dignantly in his shirt: "I will show them, I am not
set yet! "** And instantly resolved on the Berlin
Expedition. Went to Compiegne, where the Court
then was; to bid his adieus; nay to ask fqrmally the
Royal leave, -- for we are Historiographer and titular
Gentleman of the Chamber, and King's servant in a
sense. Leave was at once granted him, almost huf-
fingly; we hope not with too much readiness? For
this is a ticklish point: one is going to Prussia "on a
Visit" merely (though it may be longish); one would
not have the door of France slammed-to behind one!
The tone at Court did seem a little succinct, something
almost of sneer in it. But from the Pompadour herself
all was friendly; mere witty, cheery graciosities, and
"My Compliments to his Majesty of Prussia," -- Com-
* (Euvres de Frederic, xiv. 95 (Verses "A D'Arnaui," of date December
1749).
** Duvernet (Second), p. 159.
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 11
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
pliments how answered when they came to hand: "Je
ne la connais pas! "
In short, M. de Voltaire made all his arrangements;
got under way; piously visited Fontenoy and the Battle-
fields in passing: and is here, since July 10th, -- in
very great splendour, as we see: -- on his Fifth Visit
to Friedrich. Fifth; which proved his Last, -- and is
still extremely celebrated in the world. Visit much
misunderstood in France and England, down to this
day. By no means sorted out into accuracy and in-
telligibility; but left as (what is saying a great deal! )
probably the wastest chaos of all the Sections of Fried-
rich's History. And has, alone of them, gone over the
whole world; being withal amusing to read, and there-
fore well and widely remembered, in that mendacious
and semi-intelligible state. To lay these goblins, full
of noise, ignorance and mendacity, and give some true
outline of the matter, with what brevity is consistent
with deciphering it at all, is now our sad task, --
laborious, perhaps disgusting: not impossible, if readers
will loyally assist.
Voltaire had taken every precaution that this Visit
should succeed, or at least be no loss to one of the
parties. In a preliminary Letter from Paris, -- prose
and verse, one of the cleverest diplomatic pieces ever
penned; Letter really worth looking at, cunning as the
song of Apollo, Voltaire symbolically intimates: "Well,
Sire, your old Danae, poor malingering old wretch, is
coming to her Jove. It is Jove she wants, not the
Shower of Jove; nevertheless" -- And Friedrich (thank
Hanbury, in part, for that bit of knowledge) had re-
mitted him in hard money 600 1. "to pay the tolls on
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? 12 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
23d Aug. 1750.
his road. "* As a high gentleman would; to have done
with those base elements of the business.
Nay furthermore, precisely two days before those
splendours of the Carrousel, Friedrich, -- in answer to
new cunning croakeries and contrivances ("Sire, this
Letter from my Niece, who is inconsolable that I should
think of staying here;" where, finding oneself so di-
vinised, one is disposed to stay), -- has answered him
like a King: By Gold Key of Chamberlain, Cross of the
Order of Merit, and Pension of 20,000 francs (850 /. )
a year, --conveyed in as royal a Letter of Business as
I have often read; melodious as Apollo, this too, though
all in business prose, and, like Apollo, practical God
of the Sun in this case. ** Dated 23d August 1750.
This Letter of Friedrich's I fancy to be what Voltaire
calls, "Your Majesty's gracious Agreement with me,"
and often appeals to, in subsequent troubles. Not
quite a Notarial Piece, on Friedrich's part; but strictly
observed by him as such.
Four days after which, Collini sees Voltaire serenely
shining among the Princes and Princesses of the world;
Amphitheatre all whispering with bated breath, "Vol-
taire! Voltaire! " But let us hear Voltaire himself, from
the interior of the Phenomenon, at this its culminating
point:
Voltaire to his D'Argentals, -- to Niece Denis even, with
whom, if with no other, he is quite without reserve, in showing
the bad and the good, -- continues radiantly eloquent in
* Walpole, i. 451 ("Had it from Princess Amelia herself''): see Voltaire
to Friedrich, "Paris, 9th June 1750;" Friedrich to Voltaire, "Potsdam,
24th May " (ffiuwes de Voltaire, Lxxrv. 158,155).
** "Berlin, 23d August 1750" ((. Enures de Fre'de'ric, xxn. 255); -- Vol-
taire to Niece Denis, "24th August" (misprinted "14th"); to D'Argental,
"28th August" ((Euvres de Voltaire, lxxiv. 185,196).
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? CHAP. VI.
] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 13
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
these first Months: * * "Carrousel, twice over; the like
"never seen for splendour, for" (rather copious on this
sublimity) -- "After which we played Rome Sauvee" (my
Anti-Crebillon masterpiece), "in a pretty little Theatre,
"which I have got constructed in the Princess Amelia's Ante-
"chamber. I, who speak to you, I played Cicero. " Yes;
and was manager and general stage-king and contriver;
being expert at this, if at anything. And these beautiful
Theatricals had begun weeks ago, and still lasted many
weeks;* -- with such divine consultings, directings, even
orderings of the brilliant Royalties concerned. -- Duvernet
(probably onDArget's authority) informs us that "once, in
'' one of the inter-acts, finding the soldiers allowed him for
"Pretorian Guards not to understand their business here,"
not here, as they did at Hohenfriedberg and elsewhere,
"Voltaire shrilled volcanically out to them (happily unin-
"telligible): lF--, Devil take it, 1 asked for men; and they
'"have sent me Germans (J'ai demande des hommes, et Von
"' m'envoie des Allemands)! ' At which the Princesses were
"good-natured enough to burst into laughter. "** Voltaire
continues: "There is an English Ambassador here, who
"knows Cicero's Orations In Catilinam by heart;" an ex-
cellent Etonian, surely. "It is not Milord Tyrconnell"
(blusterous Irish Jacobite, our Ambassador, note him, fat
Valori having been recalled); no, "it is the Envoy fromEng-
"land," Excellency Hanbury himself, who knows his Cicero
by heart. "He has sent me some fine Verses on Rome Sauvee;
"he says it is my best work. It is a Piece appropriate for
"Ministerial people; Madame la Chanceliere," Cocceii's
better half, "is well pleased with it. " *** "And then" --But
enough.
In Princess Amelia's Antechamber there or in other
celestial places, in Palace after Palace, it goes on. Gaiety
succeeding gaiety; mere Princesses and Princes doing parts;
in Rome Sauvee, and in masterpieces of Voltaire's, Voltaire
himself acting Cicero and elderly characters, Lusignan and
the like. Excellent in acting, say the witnesses; superlative,
* Rodenbeck, "August--October" 1750.
** Duvernet (Second), p. 162, -- time probably 15th October.
*** (Euvres, lxxiv. (Letters, to the D'Argentals and Denis, "20th August
-- 23d September 1750"), pp. 187, 219, 241, &c. &<<.
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? 14 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
for certain, as Preceptor of the art, -- though impatient now
and then. And wears such Jewel-ornaments (borrowed partly
from a Hebrew, of whom anon), such magnificence of tasteful
dress; -- and walks his minuet among the Morning Stars.
Not to mention the Suppers of the King: chosen circle, with
the King for centre; a radiant Friedrich flashing out to right
and left, till all kindles into coruscation round him; and it is
such a blaze of spiritual sheet-lightnings, -- wonderful to
think of; Voltaire especially electric. Never, or seldom,
were seen such suppers; such a life for a Supreme Man of
Letters, so fitted with the place due to him. Smelfungus
says:
"And so your Supreme of Literature has got into his due
"place at last, -- at the top of the world, namely; though,
"alas, but for moments or for months. The King's own
"Friend; he whom the King delights to honour. The most
"shining thing in Berlin, at this moment. Virtually a kind of
"Papa, or Intellectual Father of Mankind," sneers Smel-
fungus; "Pope improvised for the nonce. The new Fride-
"ricus Magnus does as the old Pipinus, old Carolus Magnus
"did: recognises his Pope, in despite of the base vulgar;
"elevates him aloft into worship,for the vulgar and for every-
body! Carolus Magnus did that thrice-salutary feat"
(sublimely human, if you think of it, and for long centuries
successful more or less); "Fridericus Magnus, under other
"omens, unconsciously does the like, -- the best he can!
"Let the Opera Fiddlers, theFrerons, Travenols and Des-
"fontaines-of-Sodom's Ghost look and consider! " --
Madame Denis, an expensive gay Lady, still only in her
thirties, improvable by rouge, carries on great work in the
Rue Traversiere; private theatricals, suppers, flirtations
with Italian travelling Marquises; -- finds Intendant Long-
champ much in her way, with his rigorous account-books,
and restriction to 100 louis per month; wishes even her Uncle
were back, and cautions him, Not to believe in Friedrich's
flattering unctions, or put his trust in Princes at all. Voltaire,
with the due preliminaries, shows Friedrich her Letter, one
of her Letters, * -- with result as we saw above.
* Now lost, as most of them are; Voltaire's Answer to it, already
cited, is, "24th August 1750" (misprinted "14th August," (Eueres, lxxiv.
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? CltAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 15
10th July --21st Sept. 1750.
Formey says: "In the Carnival time, which Voltaire
"usually passed at Berlin, in the Palace, people paid their
"court to him as to a declared Favourite. Princes, Marshals,
"Ministers of State, Foreign Ambassadors, Lords of the
"highest rank, attended his audience; and were received,"
says Formey, nowhere free from spite on this subject, "in a
"sufficiently lofty style (hauteur assez dedaigneuse). * A
"great Prince had the complaisance to play chess with him;
"and to let him win the pistoles that were staked. Some-
"times even the pistole disappeared before the end of the
"game," continues Formey, green with spite; -- and reports
that sad story of the candle-ends; bits of wax-candle, which
should have remained as perquisite to the valets, but which
were confiscated by Voltaire, and sent across to the wax-
chandler's. So, doubtless, the spiteful rumour ran; probably
little but spite and fable, Berlin being bitter in its gossip.
Stupid Thiebault repeats that of the candle-ends, like a thing
he had seen (twelve years before his arrival in those parts);
and adds that Voltaire "put them in his pocket," -- like one
both stupid and sordid. Alas, the brighter your shine, the
blacker is the shadow you cast.
Friedrich, with the knowledge he already had of
his yokefellow, -- one of the most skittish, explosive,
unruly creatures in harness, -- cannot be counted wise
to have plunged so heartily into such an adventure
with him. "An undoubted Courser of the Sun! " thought
Friedrich; -- and forgot too much the signs of bad going
he had sometimes noticed in him, on the common high-
ways. There is no doubt he was perfectly sincere and
simple in all this high treatment of Voltaire. "The fore-
most literary spirit of the world, a man to be honoured
by me, and by all men; the Trismegistus of Human
185; see 16. i. xxv. 135); King Friedrich's practical Answer (so munificent to Denis and Voltaire), "Your Majesty's gracious Agreement," bore date
"August 23d. "
* Formey, Souvenirs, i. 235, 236.
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? 16 . THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
Intellects, what a conquest to have made; how cheap
is a little money, a little patience and guidance, for
such solacement and ornament to one's barren Life! "
He had rashly hoped that the dreams of his youth could
hereby still be a little realised; and something of the
old Reinsberg Program become a fruitful and blessed
fact. Friedrich is loyally glad over his Voltaire; eager
in all ways to content him, make him happy; and keep
him here, as the Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and
the Golden Water, of intelligent mankind; the glory
of one's own Court, and the envy of the world. "Will
teach us the secret of the Muses, too; French Muses,
and help us in our bits of Literature! " This latter,
too, is a consideration with Friedrich, as why should
it not, -- though by no means the sole or chief one,
as the French give it out to be.
On his side, Voltaire is not disloyal either; but is
nothing like so completely loyal. He has, and con-
tinued always to have, not unmixed with fear, a real
admiration for Friedrich, that terrible practical Doer,
with the cutting brilliancies of mind and character, and
the irrefragable common sense; nay he has even a kind
of love to him, or something like it, -- love made up
of gratitude for past favours, and lively anticipation
of future. Voltaire is, by nature, an attached or at-
tachable creature; flinging out fond boughs to every
kind of excellence, and especially holding firm by old
ties he had made. One fancies in him a mixed set of
emotions, direct and reflex, -- the consciousness of safe
shelter, were there nothing more; of glory to oneself,
derived and still derivable from this high man: -- in
fine, a sum-total of actual desire to live with King
Friedrich, which might, surely, have almost sufficed
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 17
21st Sept. 1750.
even for Voltaire, in a quieter element. But the element
was not quiet, -- far from it; nor was Voltaire easily
sufficeable!
Perpetual President Maupertuis has a Visit from one
Konig, out of Holland, concerning the Infinitely
Little.
Whether Maupertuis, in red wig with yellow bottom,
saw these high gauderies of the Carrousel, the Plays
in Princess Amelia's Antechamber, and the rest of it,
I do not know: but if so, he was not in the top place;
nor did anybody take notice of him, as everybody did
of Voltaire. Meanwhile, I have something to quote,
as abridged and distilled from various sources, chiefly
from Formey; which will be of much concernment
farther on.
Some four weeks after those Carrousel effulgencies, Per-
petual President Maupertuis had a visit (September 21st, just
while the Sun was crossing the Line; thanks to Formey for
the date, who keeps a Notebook, useful in these intricacies):
visit from Professor Konig, an effective mathematical man
from the Dutch parts. Whom readers have forgotten again;
though they saw him once: in violent quarrel, about the In-
finitely Little, with Madame Du Chatelet, Voltaire witness-
ing with pain; -- it was just as they quitted Cirey together,
ten years ago, for these new courses of adventure. Do
readers recal the circumstance? Maupertuis, referee in that
quarrel, had, with a bluntness offensive to the female mind,
declared Konig indisputably in the right; and there had fol-
lowed a dryness between the divine Emilie and the Flat-
tener of the Earth, scarcely to be healed by Voltaire's best
efforts.
Konig has gone his road since then; become a fine solid
fellow; Professor in a Dutch University; more latterly Li-
brarian to the Dutch Stadtholder: still frank of speech, and
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. IX. >>
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? 18 THE TEN YEAKS OP PEACE. [book XVI.
21st Sept. 1750.
with a rugged free-and-easy turn, but of manful manners;
really a person of various culture, and as is still noticeable, of
a solid geometric turn of mind. Having now, as Librarian at
the Hague, more leisure and more money, he has made a run
to Berlin, -- chiefly or entirely to see his Maupertuis again,
whom he still remembers gratefully as his firstPatron in older
times, and a man of sound parts, though rather blusterous
now and then. A little bit of scientific business also he has
with him. Konig is Member of the Berlin Academy, for some
years back; and there is a thing he would speak with the Per-
petual President upon. "Wants nothing else in Berlin,"
saysFormey: "hearing by the road that Maupertuis was not
"there, he had actually turned homewards again; but got
"truer tidings, and came on. " The more was the pity as per-
haps will appear! "He arrived, September 20th" (if you will
be particular on cheese-parings); "called on me that day,
"being lodged in my neighbourhood; and next day, found
"Maupertuis at home;" *-- and flew into his arms again, like
a good boy long absent.
Maupertuis, not many months ago, had, in Two successive
Papers, I think Two, communicated to the Academy a Disco-
very ofMetaphysico-Mathematical, or altogether Metaphysi-
cal nature, on the Laws of Motion;-- Discovery which he has,
since that, brought to complete perfection, and sent forth
to the Universe at large, in his sublime little Book of Cosmo-
logy;**-- grateful Academy striving to admire, and believe,
with its Perpetual President, that the Discovery was sublime
to a degree; second only to the flattening of the Earth; and
would probably stand thenceforth as a milestone in the
progress of Human Thought. "Which Discovery, then? " Be
not too curious, reader; take only of it what shall concern
you!
It is well known there have been, to the metaphysical
head, difficulties almost insuperable as to How, in the System
of Nature, Motion is? How, in the name of wonder, it can
? Pormey, I. 176-179.
** In La Beaumelle, Vie de Maupertuis (Paris, 1856), pp. 105-130, con-
fused account of this "Discovery," and of the gradual Publication of it to
mankind, -- very gradual; first of all in the old Paris times; in the Berlin
Academy latterly; and in fine, to all the world, in this Essai de Cosmologie
(Berlin, Summer of 1750).
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 19
21st Sept. 1750.
be; and even, Whether it is at all? Difficulties to the meta-
physical head, sticking its nose into the gutter there; -- not
difficult to my readers and me, who can at all times walk
across the room, and triumphantly get over them. But stick
your nose into any gutter, entity, or object, this of Motion or
another, with obstinacy, -- you will easily drown, if that be
your determination! -- Suffice it for us to know in this matter,
that Maupertuis, intensely watching Nature, has discovered,
That the key of her enigma (or at least the ultimate central
door, which hides all her Motional enigmas, the key to which
cannot even be imagined as discoverable! ) is, that "Nature is
"superlatively thrifty in this affair of Motion;" that she em-
ploys, for every Motion done or doable, "a Minimum of
"Action;" and that, if you well understand this, you will, at
least, announce all her procedures in one proposition, and
have found the door which leads to everything. Which will
be a comfort to you; still looking vainly for the key, if there
is still no key conceivable.
Perpetual President Maupertuis, having surprised Nature
in this manner, read Papers upon it to an Academy listening
with upturned eyes; new Papers, perfected out of old, -- for
he has long been hatching these Phcenix-eggs; and has sent
them out complete, quite lately, in a little Book called Cos-
mologie, where alone I have had the questionable benefit of
reading them. Grandly brief, as if coming from Delphi, the
utterance is; loftily solemn, elaborately modest, abstruse to
the now human mind; but intelligible, had it only been worth
understanding: -- a painful little Book, that Cosmologie, as
the Perpetual President's generally are. "Minimum of
"Action, Loi cCEpargne, Law of Thrift," he calls this sublime
Discovery;-- thinks it will be sovereign in Natural Theology
as well: "For ho w could Nature be a Save-all, without Designer
"present? " -- and speaks, of course, among other technical
points, about" Vis Viva, or Velocity multiplied by the Square
"of the Time:" which two points, "LoiaVEpargne", and that
"the Vis Viva is always a Minimum," the reader can take
along with him; I will permit him to shake the others into
Limbo again, as forgettable by human nature at this epoch
and henceforth.
In La Beaumelle's Vie deMaupertuis (printed at last, Paris,
1856, after lying nearly a century in manuscript, an obtuse
2*
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? 20 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
21st Sept. 1750.
worthless leaden little Book), there is much loud droning and
detailing, about this Cosmologie, this sublime 'Discovery,'
and the other sublime Discoveries, Insights and Apocalyptic
Utterances of Maupertuis; though in so confused a fashion, it
is seldom you can have the poor pleasure of learning exactly
when, or except by your own severe scrutiny, exactly what.
For reasons that will appear, certain of those Apocalyptic
Utterances by Perpetual President Maupertuis have since got
a new interest, and one has actually a kind of wish to read the
ipsissima verba of them, at this date! But in La Beaumelle
(his modern Editor lying fast asleep throughout) there is no
vestige of help. Nay Maupertuis's own Book,* luxurious
cream-paper Quartos, or Octavos made four-square by mar-
gin, -- which you buy for these and the cognate objects, --'
proves altogether worthless to you. The Maupertuis Quartos
are not readable for their own sake (solemnly emphatic state-
ment of what you already know; concentrated struggle to get
on wing, and failure by so narrow a miss; struggle which gets
only on tiptoe, and won't cease wriggling and flapping); and
then (to your horror) they prove to De carefully cleaned of all
the Maupertuis- Voltaire matter; -- edition being subsequent to
that world-famous explosion! Caveat emptor. -- Our Excerpt
proceeds:
"Industrious Konig, like other mathematical people, has
"been listening to these Oracles on the'Law of Minimum,' by
"the Perpetual President; and grieves to find, after study,
"That said Law does not quite hold; that in fact it is, like
"Descartes's old key or general door, worth little or nothing;
"as Leibnitz long ago seems to have transiently recognised.
"Konig has put his strictures on paper: but will not dream of
"publishing, till the Perpetual President have examined
"them and satisfied himself: -- and that is Konig's business
"at present, as he knocks on Maupertuis, while Solis crossing
''the Line. Maupertuis has a House of the due style; Wife a
"daughter of Minister Borck's, (high Borcks, 'old as the
"'Diuvel'), no children; -- his back courts always a good
"deal dirty with pelicans, bustards, perhaps snakes and
"other zoological wretches, which sometimes intrude into
"the drawing-rooms, otherwise very fine. A man of some
"whims, some habits; arbitrary by nature, but really honest
* (Enures de Maupertuis, Lyon, 1756, i voll. 4to.
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"headed each by a Prince of the Blood: -- with such a
"splendour of equipment for jewels, silver helmets, sashings,
"housings, as eye never saw. Prancing on their glorious
"battle-steeds (sham-battle, steeds not sham, but champing
"their bits as real quadrupeds with fire in their interior): --
"how many in all, I forgot to count. Perhaps, on the average,
"sixty in each Quadrille, fifteen of them practical Ritters;
"the rest mythologic winged standard-bearers, blackamoors,
"lictors, trumpeters, and shining melodious phantasms as
"escort, -- of this latter kind say in round numbers Two
"Hundred altogether; and of actual Ritters three-score. *
"Who run at rings, at Turks' heads, and at other objects
"with death-doing lance; and prance and flash and career
"along: glorious to see and hear. Under proud flourishings
* Blumenthal, Life of DeZiethen (Ziethen was in it, and gained a prize),
i. 257-26S et seq. ; Voltaire's Letters to Niece Denis ((Euwcs, lxxiv. 174,
179, 198); -- and two contemporary 4tos on the subject, with Drawings, &c,
which may well continue unknown to every reader.
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? 6 THE TEN TEARS OP PEACE. [bookxvt.
25th-27th Aug. 1750.
"of drums and trumpets, under bursts and breathings of
"wind-music; under the shine of Forty-thousand Lamps, for
"one item. All Berlin and the nocturnal firmament looking
"on, -- night rather gusty, 'which blew out many of the
"lamps,'insinuates Hanway.
"About midnight, Beauty in the form of Princess Amelia
"distributes the prizes; Music filling the air; and human
"'Euge's,' and the surviving lamps, doing their best. After
"which the Principalities and Ritters withdraw to their
"Palace, to their Balls and their Supper of the gods; and all
"the world and his wife goes home again, amid various com-
"mentary from high and low. 'Jamais, Never,' murmured
"one high Gentleman, of the Impromptu kind, at the Palace
"Supper-table, --
"Jamais dans Athene et dans Borne
"On n'eut de plus beaux jours, ni de plus digne prix.
"Fai vu le fits de Mars sous les trails de Paris,
"Et Venus qui donnait lapomme. " *
And Amphitheatre and Lamps lapse wholly into
darkness, and the thing has finished, for the time being.
August 27th, it was repeated by daylight; if possible,
more charming than ever; but not to be spoken of
further, under penalties. To be mildly forgotten again,
every jot and tittle of it, -- except one small insigni-
ficant iota, which, by accident, still makes it remark-
able. Namely, that Collini and the Barberinas were
there; and that not only was Voltaire again there
among the Princes and Princesses; but that Collini
saw Voltaire, and gives us transient sight of him, --
thanks to Collini. Thursday, 27th August 1750, was
the Daylight version of the Carrousel; which Collini,
* "Never in Athens or Rome were there braver sights or a worthier
prize: "I have seen the son of Mars" (King Friedrich) "with Paris's
features, "and Venus" (Amelia) "crowning the victorious. " (Euvres de
Voltaire, xvin. 820.
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 7
10th July-- 21st Sept. 1750.
if it were of any moment, takes to have preceded that
of the 40,000 Lamps. Sure enough Collini was there,
with eyes open:
"Madame de Cocceji" (so one may call her, though the
known alias isBarbcrina) "had engaged places; she invited
"me to come and see this Festivity. We went;" and very
grand it was. "The Palace Esplanade was changed" by
carpentries and draperies "into a vast Amphitheatre; the
"slopes of it furnished with benches for the spectators, and,
"at the four corners of it and at the bottom, magnificently
"decorated boxes for the Court. " Vast oval Amphitheatre,
the interior arena rectangular, with its Four Entrances, one
for each of the Four Quadrilles. "The assemblage was
"numerous and brilliant: all the Court had come fromPots-
"dam to Berlin.
"A little while before the King himself made appearance,
"there rose suddenly a murmur ot admiration, and I heard all
"round me, from everybody, the name'Voltaire! Voltaire! '
"Looking down, I saw Voltaire accordingly; among a group
"of great lords, who were walking over the Arena, towards
"one of the Court Boxes. He wore a modest countenance,
"but joy painted itself in his eyes: you cannot love glory,
"and not feel gratefully the prize attached to it," -- attained
as here. "I lost sight of him in few instants," as he ap-
proached his Box, "the place where I was, not permitting
"further view. " *
This was Collini's first sight of that great man
(de ce grand homme). With whom, thanks to Barberina,
he had, in a day or two, the honour of an Interview
(judgment favourable, he could hope); and before many
months, Accident also favouring, the inexpressible
honour of seeing himself the great man's Secretary, --
how far beyond hope or aspiration, in these Carrousel
days!
* Collini, Mon Sejour, p. 21.
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? THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
Voltaire had now been here some Seven Weeks, -- arrived 10th July, as we often note; -- after (on
his own part), a great deal of haggling, hesitating, and
negotiating; which we spare our readers. The poor
man having now become a Quasi-Widower; painfully rallying, with his whole strength, towards new arrange-
ments, -- now was the time for Friedrich to urge him:
"Come to me! Away from all that dismal imbroglio;
hither, I say! " To which Voltaire is not inattentive;
though he hesitates; cannot, in any case, come without
delay; -- lingers in Paris, readjusting many things, the
poor shipwrecked being, among kind D'Argentals and
friends. Poor Ishmael, getting gray; and his tent in the
desert suddenly carried off by a blast of wind!
To the legal Widower, M. le Marquis, he behaves
in money matters like a Prince; takes that Paris Do-
micile, in the Rue Traversiere, all to himself; institutes
a new household there, -- Niece Denis to be female
president. Niece Denis, widow without incumbrances;
whom, in her married state, wife to some kind of
Commissariat-Officer at Lille, we have seen transiently
in that City, her Uncle lodging with her as he passed.
A gadding, flaunting, unreasonable, would-be fashion-
able female -- (a Du Chatelet without the grace or
genius, and who never was in love with you! ) -- with
whom poor Uncle had a baddish life in time coming.
All which settled, he still lingers. Widowed, grown
old and less adventurous! That House in the Rue Traversiere, once his and Another's, now his alone, -- for the time being, it is probably more like a
Mausoleum than a House to him. And Versailles,
with its sulky Trajans, its Crdbillon cabals, what
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 9
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
charm is in Versailles? He thinks of going to Italy,
for a while; has never seen that fine Country: of
going to Berlin for a while: of going to -- In fact,
Berlin is clearly the place where he will land; but he
hesitates greatly about lifting anchor. Friedrich insists,
in a bright, bantering, kindly way: "You were due
to me a year ago; you said always, 'So soon as the
lying-in is over, I am yours:' -- and now, why don't
you come? "
Friedrich, since they met last, has had some ex-
periences of Voltaire, which he does not like. Their
roads, truly, -- one adulating Trajan in Versailles,
and growing great by "Farces of the Fair;" the other
battling for his existence, against men and devils,
Trajan and Company included, -- have lain far apart.
Their Correspondence perceptibly languishing, in con-
sequence, and even rumours rising on the subject,
Voltaire wrote once: "Give me a yard of ribbon, Sire"
(your Order of Merit, Sire), "to silence those vile
"rumours! " Which Friedrich, on such free-and-easy
terms, had silently declined. "A meddlesome, forward
kind of fellow; always getting into scrapes and brabbles! "
thinks Friedrich. But is really anxious, now that the
chance offers again, to have such a Levite for his Priest,
the evident pink of Human Intellect; and tries various
incitements upon him; -- hits at last (I know not whe-
ther by device or by accident) on one which, say the
French Biographers, did raise Voltaire and set him
under way.
A certain M. Baculard d'Arnaud, a conceited,
foolish young fellow, much patronised by Voltaire,
and given to write verses, which are unknown to me,
has been, on Voltaire's recommending, "Literary Cor-
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? 10 THE TEN TEARS OP PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July-- 21st Sept. 1750.
respondent" to Friedrich (Paris Book-Agent and the
like) for some time past; corresponding much with
Potsdam, in a way found entertaining; and is now
(April 1750) actually going thither, to Friedrich's
Court, or perhaps has gone. At any rate, Friedrich,
-- by accident or by device, -- had answered some
rhymes of this D'Arnaud, "Yes; welcome, young sun-
rise, since Voltaire is about to set! "* I hope it was
by device; DArnaud is such a silly fellow; too absurd,
to reckon as morning to anybody's sunset. Except for
his involuntary service, for and against, in this Voltaire
Journey, his name would not now be mentionable at
all. "Sunset? " exclaimed Voltaire, springing out of
bed (say the Biographers), and skipping about in-
dignantly in his shirt: "I will show them, I am not
set yet! "** And instantly resolved on the Berlin
Expedition. Went to Compiegne, where the Court
then was; to bid his adieus; nay to ask fqrmally the
Royal leave, -- for we are Historiographer and titular
Gentleman of the Chamber, and King's servant in a
sense. Leave was at once granted him, almost huf-
fingly; we hope not with too much readiness? For
this is a ticklish point: one is going to Prussia "on a
Visit" merely (though it may be longish); one would
not have the door of France slammed-to behind one!
The tone at Court did seem a little succinct, something
almost of sneer in it. But from the Pompadour herself
all was friendly; mere witty, cheery graciosities, and
"My Compliments to his Majesty of Prussia," -- Com-
* (Euvres de Frederic, xiv. 95 (Verses "A D'Arnaui," of date December
1749).
** Duvernet (Second), p. 159.
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 11
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
pliments how answered when they came to hand: "Je
ne la connais pas! "
In short, M. de Voltaire made all his arrangements;
got under way; piously visited Fontenoy and the Battle-
fields in passing: and is here, since July 10th, -- in
very great splendour, as we see: -- on his Fifth Visit
to Friedrich. Fifth; which proved his Last, -- and is
still extremely celebrated in the world. Visit much
misunderstood in France and England, down to this
day. By no means sorted out into accuracy and in-
telligibility; but left as (what is saying a great deal! )
probably the wastest chaos of all the Sections of Fried-
rich's History. And has, alone of them, gone over the
whole world; being withal amusing to read, and there-
fore well and widely remembered, in that mendacious
and semi-intelligible state. To lay these goblins, full
of noise, ignorance and mendacity, and give some true
outline of the matter, with what brevity is consistent
with deciphering it at all, is now our sad task, --
laborious, perhaps disgusting: not impossible, if readers
will loyally assist.
Voltaire had taken every precaution that this Visit
should succeed, or at least be no loss to one of the
parties. In a preliminary Letter from Paris, -- prose
and verse, one of the cleverest diplomatic pieces ever
penned; Letter really worth looking at, cunning as the
song of Apollo, Voltaire symbolically intimates: "Well,
Sire, your old Danae, poor malingering old wretch, is
coming to her Jove. It is Jove she wants, not the
Shower of Jove; nevertheless" -- And Friedrich (thank
Hanbury, in part, for that bit of knowledge) had re-
mitted him in hard money 600 1. "to pay the tolls on
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? 12 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
23d Aug. 1750.
his road. "* As a high gentleman would; to have done
with those base elements of the business.
Nay furthermore, precisely two days before those
splendours of the Carrousel, Friedrich, -- in answer to
new cunning croakeries and contrivances ("Sire, this
Letter from my Niece, who is inconsolable that I should
think of staying here;" where, finding oneself so di-
vinised, one is disposed to stay), -- has answered him
like a King: By Gold Key of Chamberlain, Cross of the
Order of Merit, and Pension of 20,000 francs (850 /. )
a year, --conveyed in as royal a Letter of Business as
I have often read; melodious as Apollo, this too, though
all in business prose, and, like Apollo, practical God
of the Sun in this case. ** Dated 23d August 1750.
This Letter of Friedrich's I fancy to be what Voltaire
calls, "Your Majesty's gracious Agreement with me,"
and often appeals to, in subsequent troubles. Not
quite a Notarial Piece, on Friedrich's part; but strictly
observed by him as such.
Four days after which, Collini sees Voltaire serenely
shining among the Princes and Princesses of the world;
Amphitheatre all whispering with bated breath, "Vol-
taire! Voltaire! " But let us hear Voltaire himself, from
the interior of the Phenomenon, at this its culminating
point:
Voltaire to his D'Argentals, -- to Niece Denis even, with
whom, if with no other, he is quite without reserve, in showing
the bad and the good, -- continues radiantly eloquent in
* Walpole, i. 451 ("Had it from Princess Amelia herself''): see Voltaire
to Friedrich, "Paris, 9th June 1750;" Friedrich to Voltaire, "Potsdam,
24th May " (ffiuwes de Voltaire, Lxxrv. 158,155).
** "Berlin, 23d August 1750" ((. Enures de Fre'de'ric, xxn. 255); -- Vol-
taire to Niece Denis, "24th August" (misprinted "14th"); to D'Argental,
"28th August" ((Euvres de Voltaire, lxxiv. 185,196).
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? CHAP. VI.
] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 13
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
these first Months: * * "Carrousel, twice over; the like
"never seen for splendour, for" (rather copious on this
sublimity) -- "After which we played Rome Sauvee" (my
Anti-Crebillon masterpiece), "in a pretty little Theatre,
"which I have got constructed in the Princess Amelia's Ante-
"chamber. I, who speak to you, I played Cicero. " Yes;
and was manager and general stage-king and contriver;
being expert at this, if at anything. And these beautiful
Theatricals had begun weeks ago, and still lasted many
weeks;* -- with such divine consultings, directings, even
orderings of the brilliant Royalties concerned. -- Duvernet
(probably onDArget's authority) informs us that "once, in
'' one of the inter-acts, finding the soldiers allowed him for
"Pretorian Guards not to understand their business here,"
not here, as they did at Hohenfriedberg and elsewhere,
"Voltaire shrilled volcanically out to them (happily unin-
"telligible): lF--, Devil take it, 1 asked for men; and they
'"have sent me Germans (J'ai demande des hommes, et Von
"' m'envoie des Allemands)! ' At which the Princesses were
"good-natured enough to burst into laughter. "** Voltaire
continues: "There is an English Ambassador here, who
"knows Cicero's Orations In Catilinam by heart;" an ex-
cellent Etonian, surely. "It is not Milord Tyrconnell"
(blusterous Irish Jacobite, our Ambassador, note him, fat
Valori having been recalled); no, "it is the Envoy fromEng-
"land," Excellency Hanbury himself, who knows his Cicero
by heart. "He has sent me some fine Verses on Rome Sauvee;
"he says it is my best work. It is a Piece appropriate for
"Ministerial people; Madame la Chanceliere," Cocceii's
better half, "is well pleased with it. " *** "And then" --But
enough.
In Princess Amelia's Antechamber there or in other
celestial places, in Palace after Palace, it goes on. Gaiety
succeeding gaiety; mere Princesses and Princes doing parts;
in Rome Sauvee, and in masterpieces of Voltaire's, Voltaire
himself acting Cicero and elderly characters, Lusignan and
the like. Excellent in acting, say the witnesses; superlative,
* Rodenbeck, "August--October" 1750.
** Duvernet (Second), p. 162, -- time probably 15th October.
*** (Euvres, lxxiv. (Letters, to the D'Argentals and Denis, "20th August
-- 23d September 1750"), pp. 187, 219, 241, &c. &<<.
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? 14 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
for certain, as Preceptor of the art, -- though impatient now
and then. And wears such Jewel-ornaments (borrowed partly
from a Hebrew, of whom anon), such magnificence of tasteful
dress; -- and walks his minuet among the Morning Stars.
Not to mention the Suppers of the King: chosen circle, with
the King for centre; a radiant Friedrich flashing out to right
and left, till all kindles into coruscation round him; and it is
such a blaze of spiritual sheet-lightnings, -- wonderful to
think of; Voltaire especially electric. Never, or seldom,
were seen such suppers; such a life for a Supreme Man of
Letters, so fitted with the place due to him. Smelfungus
says:
"And so your Supreme of Literature has got into his due
"place at last, -- at the top of the world, namely; though,
"alas, but for moments or for months. The King's own
"Friend; he whom the King delights to honour. The most
"shining thing in Berlin, at this moment. Virtually a kind of
"Papa, or Intellectual Father of Mankind," sneers Smel-
fungus; "Pope improvised for the nonce. The new Fride-
"ricus Magnus does as the old Pipinus, old Carolus Magnus
"did: recognises his Pope, in despite of the base vulgar;
"elevates him aloft into worship,for the vulgar and for every-
body! Carolus Magnus did that thrice-salutary feat"
(sublimely human, if you think of it, and for long centuries
successful more or less); "Fridericus Magnus, under other
"omens, unconsciously does the like, -- the best he can!
"Let the Opera Fiddlers, theFrerons, Travenols and Des-
"fontaines-of-Sodom's Ghost look and consider! " --
Madame Denis, an expensive gay Lady, still only in her
thirties, improvable by rouge, carries on great work in the
Rue Traversiere; private theatricals, suppers, flirtations
with Italian travelling Marquises; -- finds Intendant Long-
champ much in her way, with his rigorous account-books,
and restriction to 100 louis per month; wishes even her Uncle
were back, and cautions him, Not to believe in Friedrich's
flattering unctions, or put his trust in Princes at all. Voltaire,
with the due preliminaries, shows Friedrich her Letter, one
of her Letters, * -- with result as we saw above.
* Now lost, as most of them are; Voltaire's Answer to it, already
cited, is, "24th August 1750" (misprinted "14th August," (Eueres, lxxiv.
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? CltAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 15
10th July --21st Sept. 1750.
Formey says: "In the Carnival time, which Voltaire
"usually passed at Berlin, in the Palace, people paid their
"court to him as to a declared Favourite. Princes, Marshals,
"Ministers of State, Foreign Ambassadors, Lords of the
"highest rank, attended his audience; and were received,"
says Formey, nowhere free from spite on this subject, "in a
"sufficiently lofty style (hauteur assez dedaigneuse). * A
"great Prince had the complaisance to play chess with him;
"and to let him win the pistoles that were staked. Some-
"times even the pistole disappeared before the end of the
"game," continues Formey, green with spite; -- and reports
that sad story of the candle-ends; bits of wax-candle, which
should have remained as perquisite to the valets, but which
were confiscated by Voltaire, and sent across to the wax-
chandler's. So, doubtless, the spiteful rumour ran; probably
little but spite and fable, Berlin being bitter in its gossip.
Stupid Thiebault repeats that of the candle-ends, like a thing
he had seen (twelve years before his arrival in those parts);
and adds that Voltaire "put them in his pocket," -- like one
both stupid and sordid. Alas, the brighter your shine, the
blacker is the shadow you cast.
Friedrich, with the knowledge he already had of
his yokefellow, -- one of the most skittish, explosive,
unruly creatures in harness, -- cannot be counted wise
to have plunged so heartily into such an adventure
with him. "An undoubted Courser of the Sun! " thought
Friedrich; -- and forgot too much the signs of bad going
he had sometimes noticed in him, on the common high-
ways. There is no doubt he was perfectly sincere and
simple in all this high treatment of Voltaire. "The fore-
most literary spirit of the world, a man to be honoured
by me, and by all men; the Trismegistus of Human
185; see 16. i. xxv. 135); King Friedrich's practical Answer (so munificent to Denis and Voltaire), "Your Majesty's gracious Agreement," bore date
"August 23d. "
* Formey, Souvenirs, i. 235, 236.
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? 16 . THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
10th July--21st Sept. 1750.
Intellects, what a conquest to have made; how cheap
is a little money, a little patience and guidance, for
such solacement and ornament to one's barren Life! "
He had rashly hoped that the dreams of his youth could
hereby still be a little realised; and something of the
old Reinsberg Program become a fruitful and blessed
fact. Friedrich is loyally glad over his Voltaire; eager
in all ways to content him, make him happy; and keep
him here, as the Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and
the Golden Water, of intelligent mankind; the glory
of one's own Court, and the envy of the world. "Will
teach us the secret of the Muses, too; French Muses,
and help us in our bits of Literature! " This latter,
too, is a consideration with Friedrich, as why should
it not, -- though by no means the sole or chief one,
as the French give it out to be.
On his side, Voltaire is not disloyal either; but is
nothing like so completely loyal. He has, and con-
tinued always to have, not unmixed with fear, a real
admiration for Friedrich, that terrible practical Doer,
with the cutting brilliancies of mind and character, and
the irrefragable common sense; nay he has even a kind
of love to him, or something like it, -- love made up
of gratitude for past favours, and lively anticipation
of future. Voltaire is, by nature, an attached or at-
tachable creature; flinging out fond boughs to every
kind of excellence, and especially holding firm by old
ties he had made. One fancies in him a mixed set of
emotions, direct and reflex, -- the consciousness of safe
shelter, were there nothing more; of glory to oneself,
derived and still derivable from this high man: -- in
fine, a sum-total of actual desire to live with King
Friedrich, which might, surely, have almost sufficed
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 17
21st Sept. 1750.
even for Voltaire, in a quieter element. But the element
was not quiet, -- far from it; nor was Voltaire easily
sufficeable!
Perpetual President Maupertuis has a Visit from one
Konig, out of Holland, concerning the Infinitely
Little.
Whether Maupertuis, in red wig with yellow bottom,
saw these high gauderies of the Carrousel, the Plays
in Princess Amelia's Antechamber, and the rest of it,
I do not know: but if so, he was not in the top place;
nor did anybody take notice of him, as everybody did
of Voltaire. Meanwhile, I have something to quote,
as abridged and distilled from various sources, chiefly
from Formey; which will be of much concernment
farther on.
Some four weeks after those Carrousel effulgencies, Per-
petual President Maupertuis had a visit (September 21st, just
while the Sun was crossing the Line; thanks to Formey for
the date, who keeps a Notebook, useful in these intricacies):
visit from Professor Konig, an effective mathematical man
from the Dutch parts. Whom readers have forgotten again;
though they saw him once: in violent quarrel, about the In-
finitely Little, with Madame Du Chatelet, Voltaire witness-
ing with pain; -- it was just as they quitted Cirey together,
ten years ago, for these new courses of adventure. Do
readers recal the circumstance? Maupertuis, referee in that
quarrel, had, with a bluntness offensive to the female mind,
declared Konig indisputably in the right; and there had fol-
lowed a dryness between the divine Emilie and the Flat-
tener of the Earth, scarcely to be healed by Voltaire's best
efforts.
Konig has gone his road since then; become a fine solid
fellow; Professor in a Dutch University; more latterly Li-
brarian to the Dutch Stadtholder: still frank of speech, and
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. IX. >>
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? 18 THE TEN YEAKS OP PEACE. [book XVI.
21st Sept. 1750.
with a rugged free-and-easy turn, but of manful manners;
really a person of various culture, and as is still noticeable, of
a solid geometric turn of mind. Having now, as Librarian at
the Hague, more leisure and more money, he has made a run
to Berlin, -- chiefly or entirely to see his Maupertuis again,
whom he still remembers gratefully as his firstPatron in older
times, and a man of sound parts, though rather blusterous
now and then. A little bit of scientific business also he has
with him. Konig is Member of the Berlin Academy, for some
years back; and there is a thing he would speak with the Per-
petual President upon. "Wants nothing else in Berlin,"
saysFormey: "hearing by the road that Maupertuis was not
"there, he had actually turned homewards again; but got
"truer tidings, and came on. " The more was the pity as per-
haps will appear! "He arrived, September 20th" (if you will
be particular on cheese-parings); "called on me that day,
"being lodged in my neighbourhood; and next day, found
"Maupertuis at home;" *-- and flew into his arms again, like
a good boy long absent.
Maupertuis, not many months ago, had, in Two successive
Papers, I think Two, communicated to the Academy a Disco-
very ofMetaphysico-Mathematical, or altogether Metaphysi-
cal nature, on the Laws of Motion;-- Discovery which he has,
since that, brought to complete perfection, and sent forth
to the Universe at large, in his sublime little Book of Cosmo-
logy;**-- grateful Academy striving to admire, and believe,
with its Perpetual President, that the Discovery was sublime
to a degree; second only to the flattening of the Earth; and
would probably stand thenceforth as a milestone in the
progress of Human Thought. "Which Discovery, then? " Be
not too curious, reader; take only of it what shall concern
you!
It is well known there have been, to the metaphysical
head, difficulties almost insuperable as to How, in the System
of Nature, Motion is? How, in the name of wonder, it can
? Pormey, I. 176-179.
** In La Beaumelle, Vie de Maupertuis (Paris, 1856), pp. 105-130, con-
fused account of this "Discovery," and of the gradual Publication of it to
mankind, -- very gradual; first of all in the old Paris times; in the Berlin
Academy latterly; and in fine, to all the world, in this Essai de Cosmologie
(Berlin, Summer of 1750).
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? CHAP. VI. ] VOLTAIRE AT THE BERLIN CARROUSEL. 19
21st Sept. 1750.
be; and even, Whether it is at all? Difficulties to the meta-
physical head, sticking its nose into the gutter there; -- not
difficult to my readers and me, who can at all times walk
across the room, and triumphantly get over them. But stick
your nose into any gutter, entity, or object, this of Motion or
another, with obstinacy, -- you will easily drown, if that be
your determination! -- Suffice it for us to know in this matter,
that Maupertuis, intensely watching Nature, has discovered,
That the key of her enigma (or at least the ultimate central
door, which hides all her Motional enigmas, the key to which
cannot even be imagined as discoverable! ) is, that "Nature is
"superlatively thrifty in this affair of Motion;" that she em-
ploys, for every Motion done or doable, "a Minimum of
"Action;" and that, if you well understand this, you will, at
least, announce all her procedures in one proposition, and
have found the door which leads to everything. Which will
be a comfort to you; still looking vainly for the key, if there
is still no key conceivable.
Perpetual President Maupertuis, having surprised Nature
in this manner, read Papers upon it to an Academy listening
with upturned eyes; new Papers, perfected out of old, -- for
he has long been hatching these Phcenix-eggs; and has sent
them out complete, quite lately, in a little Book called Cos-
mologie, where alone I have had the questionable benefit of
reading them. Grandly brief, as if coming from Delphi, the
utterance is; loftily solemn, elaborately modest, abstruse to
the now human mind; but intelligible, had it only been worth
understanding: -- a painful little Book, that Cosmologie, as
the Perpetual President's generally are. "Minimum of
"Action, Loi cCEpargne, Law of Thrift," he calls this sublime
Discovery;-- thinks it will be sovereign in Natural Theology
as well: "For ho w could Nature be a Save-all, without Designer
"present? " -- and speaks, of course, among other technical
points, about" Vis Viva, or Velocity multiplied by the Square
"of the Time:" which two points, "LoiaVEpargne", and that
"the Vis Viva is always a Minimum," the reader can take
along with him; I will permit him to shake the others into
Limbo again, as forgettable by human nature at this epoch
and henceforth.
In La Beaumelle's Vie deMaupertuis (printed at last, Paris,
1856, after lying nearly a century in manuscript, an obtuse
2*
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? 20 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
21st Sept. 1750.
worthless leaden little Book), there is much loud droning and
detailing, about this Cosmologie, this sublime 'Discovery,'
and the other sublime Discoveries, Insights and Apocalyptic
Utterances of Maupertuis; though in so confused a fashion, it
is seldom you can have the poor pleasure of learning exactly
when, or except by your own severe scrutiny, exactly what.
For reasons that will appear, certain of those Apocalyptic
Utterances by Perpetual President Maupertuis have since got
a new interest, and one has actually a kind of wish to read the
ipsissima verba of them, at this date! But in La Beaumelle
(his modern Editor lying fast asleep throughout) there is no
vestige of help. Nay Maupertuis's own Book,* luxurious
cream-paper Quartos, or Octavos made four-square by mar-
gin, -- which you buy for these and the cognate objects, --'
proves altogether worthless to you. The Maupertuis Quartos
are not readable for their own sake (solemnly emphatic state-
ment of what you already know; concentrated struggle to get
on wing, and failure by so narrow a miss; struggle which gets
only on tiptoe, and won't cease wriggling and flapping); and
then (to your horror) they prove to De carefully cleaned of all
the Maupertuis- Voltaire matter; -- edition being subsequent to
that world-famous explosion! Caveat emptor. -- Our Excerpt
proceeds:
"Industrious Konig, like other mathematical people, has
"been listening to these Oracles on the'Law of Minimum,' by
"the Perpetual President; and grieves to find, after study,
"That said Law does not quite hold; that in fact it is, like
"Descartes's old key or general door, worth little or nothing;
"as Leibnitz long ago seems to have transiently recognised.
"Konig has put his strictures on paper: but will not dream of
"publishing, till the Perpetual President have examined
"them and satisfied himself: -- and that is Konig's business
"at present, as he knocks on Maupertuis, while Solis crossing
''the Line. Maupertuis has a House of the due style; Wife a
"daughter of Minister Borck's, (high Borcks, 'old as the
"'Diuvel'), no children; -- his back courts always a good
"deal dirty with pelicans, bustards, perhaps snakes and
"other zoological wretches, which sometimes intrude into
"the drawing-rooms, otherwise very fine. A man of some
"whims, some habits; arbitrary by nature, but really honest
* (Enures de Maupertuis, Lyon, 1756, i voll. 4to.
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