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praises lavished on him by kings, by literary men, andby the rest of the world. Profound and just in hisjudgment on the works of others ; full of amenity,kindness, and grace, in the intercourse of daily life, hewas inflexible in his aversion to those who had offendedhim. He was an admirable actor . I have seen him putnew life into the part of Cicero , in the fourth act of' Rome Sauvee,’ when we brought out that piece atSceaux , in the August of 1750. Nothing could be moretrue, more pathetic, more enthusiastic, than he was inthis part.” Voltaire instructed the actors when theyperformed his own tragedies ; his criticisms were just,and given with that earnestness and vividness of illus-tration that marked the liveliness of his sensations.“ Remember,” he said to an actor who whined out thepart of Brutus, “ remember that you are Brutus, thefirmest of Romans, and that you must not make himaddress the god Mars as if you were saying, “ O holyVirgin ! grant that I may gain a prize of a hundredfrancs in the lottery.” He insisted with mademoiselleDumesnil that she should put more energy into thepart of Merope. “ One must be possessed by thedevil,” said the actress, “ to declaim with such vehe-mence.”— “ You are right,” said Voltaire ; “ and onemust be possessed to succeed in any art.”
Voltaire passionately loved theatrical representations.The tragedies of Corneille, and, above all, of Racine,inspired him with sensations of the warmest delight.He wrote his own plays in transports of enthusiasm,and corrected them with intense labour. But he had afurther intention in erecting his theatre; he aimed atpopularity and at court favour, as a safeguard frompersecution, and as insuring his personal safety if heshould excite ministerial displeasure by any philoso-phical works. It was for this cause that he endeavouredto propitiate the new mistress of Louis XV., madamede Pompadour . He had known her before she at-tracted the king’s attention ; and after she became theroyal mistress, she continued for a time on a familiare 4