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that I was called upon by my vocation to avenge Cicero and Sophocles —■ Rome and Greece — from the attacksof a barbarian.”
This ardour for composition, and these pleasures,were suddenly arrested by the afflicting event of madamedu Chatelet ’s death. She died soon after her confine-ment, unexpectedly, when all danger seemed past.Whatever might have been the disputes of the friends,these did not shake their friendship ; and if theyclouded, at intervals, the happiness they derived, theyleft no evil trace behind. Voltaire was plunged in thedeepest affliction; the expressions he uses mark thetruth of his regrets. “ I do not fear my grief,” hewrites to his friend, the marquis d’Argental ; “ I do notfly from objects that speak to me of her. I love Cirey ;and although I cannot bear Luneville , where I lost her inso /rightful a manner, yet the places which she adornedare dear to me. I have not lost a mistress ; I havelost the half of myself, — a soul for which mine wasmade, — a friend of twenty years. I feel as the mostaffectionate father would towards an only daughter. Ilove to find her image everywhere; to converse withher husband and her son.” — “I have tried to returnto ‘ Catiline ;' but I have lost the ardour I felt when Icould show her an act every two days. Ideas fly fromme ; I find myself, for hours together, unable to write ;without a thought for my work : one idea occupies meday and night.” To these laments he adds her eulogy,in another letter, with which we may conclude the sub-ject. Her errors were the effect of the times in whichshe lived, and of an ardent temper. We would depre-cate any return to a state of society that led the wisestinto such grievous faults, hut we will not defraud thevictim of the system of the praise which, on otherscores, she individually merited.* “ A woman,” writes
* It is difficult to decide on madame du Chatelet’s character. Withregard to the immorality of her liaison with Voltaire , we will merely referto the clever preface of the English editor to madame du Duffand”s cor-respondence with Horace Walpole , in which the state of society im thatage is so well described; and only remark, that such ivas the system;, that