VOLTAIRE.

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appeared to believe my simple word, and saw theilhess I suffered, in consequence, with regret. He oftenvisited me in my room, shed tears, and said that hewas miserable at being the cause of my suffering. Hehas never once entered my room without the humblestand most pathetic apologies; he redoubled his carethit I should be well attended; he even said thatmadame du Chatelet was a terrible woman — that shehad no flexibility of heart, though it was good. Inshort, I have every reason to be content with Voltaire .”

Such was the paradise of Cirey. The arduous studyand ill health of Voltaire , the mental labours of hisfriend, their very accomplishments and wit, tended,probably, to irritate tempers, irritable in themselves. Asto the poem, the cause of the storm, it had certainlybetter never have been written than occasion so muchfear, and pain, and misconduct. We confess we havenever read it. Its framework is indecency and ridiculeof sacred things; chiefly, indeed, of the legends ofthe saints, which is more excusable; but still thewhole is conceived in bad taste. We cannot under-stand the state of manners when such a poem could beread aloud to women ; and we feel that we are scarcelyfair judges of persons living in a system and actuatedby motives so contrary to our own : so that, while wethank God we are not like them, we must be indulgentto .faults which we have not any temptation to commit.

Voltaire ’s residence at Cirey was marked by thecommencement of his correspondence with Frederic theGreat, then prince royal of Prussia. It is well knownthat this sovereign passed a youth of great suffering —that he was imprisoned for an endeavour to escape fromthe state of servitude to which his father reduced him.His dearest friend was executed before his eyes, andmeasures taken that he himself should be condemned todeath. To avoid a recurrence of these misfortunes, helived in a most retired manner during the remainder ofhis father’s life ; given up to the cultivation of poetryand the study of philosophy. He shared the universald 2