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language, but her inclination led her to prefer the studyof metaphysics and mathematics. Her ardour for theacquisition of knowledge was unspeakably great, andshe longed for retirement, where she might dedicate herwhole time to study. Voltaire taught her English : sheread Leibnitz and Newton. Both she and her friendaspired to the prize given by the Academy of Science ,for a treatise on fire ; and their essays were mentionedwith praise, though the prize was gained by the cele-brated Euler. Voltaire was told, however, by an en-lightened friend, that he would never be great in science.He was glad of this. The arguments and taste ofmadame du Chatelet , and his own love of all that wasabsolutely and demonstrably true, led him to cultivateabstruse science; but the bent of his genius and ima-gination, fertile of plot, situation, and development ofpassion, made him turn with delight to the compositionof tragedies, the investigation of the philosophy of his-tory, and the writing lighter productions, in which hegave full scope to his sarcastic spirit, his wit, and, wegrieve to add, the impurity of his imagination: for thiswas the great defect of Voltaire , arising from his in-ability to appreciate the sublime, and his contempt ofwhat he considered monkish virtues, that he loved to in-dulge in jests, the point of which lay in the grossest in-decency. Having broken loose from the fetters of ma-thematics, he wrote “Alzire,” “Merope,” “TheProdigalChild," and “ Mahomet.” He laboured at his “ Essayon the Manners and Spirit of Nations; ” he collectedmaterials for the “ History of the Age of Louis XIV. ;”and he relaxed from these labours by writing the “ Pu-celle d’Orleans.” One of his chief amusements, also, wasbringing out his tragedies a$ his private theatre. Hewas a good actor , and an admirable teacher of the art.
Somewhat in contrast to the sort of fairy splendourand paradisaical happiness which, from his memoirsand letters, we might judge to have been the portion ofthe inhabitants of Cirey, we have another account, whichdoes not indeed derogate from the character of Voltaire