89
habited it. In the midst of this turmoil, Voltaire leda laborious life. His health was feeble. During thewinters, which the neighbourhood of the eternal snowsrender peculiarly severe, he was nearly always confinedto his bed. But physical suffering never tamed hisspirit. From the bed of sickness, he sent abroad vari-ous writings, some in support of the best interests of hu-manity (as in the cases of Calas, &c.), others historicaland poetic, and not a few replete with that maliciouspleasantry that caused him to be universally feared.
Few things occurred to interrupt the tenour of his 17 66 .
life. At one time, his niece, madame Denis, and his -®tat.
/- 3 3 19
proteges, monsieur and madame Dupuis, left him to
visit Paris , and he was left for nearly two years alonein his retreat. A thousand reports were current as tothe cause of this separation; but, in time, it became ac-knowledged that Voltaire ’s own account of it was true.
“ I have been,” he wrote to madame du Deffand , “ theinnkeeper of Europe for fourteen years, and I am tiredof the trade. I have received three or four hundredEnglish , who are so fond of their country, that not onehas recollected me since their departure, except aScotchman, pf the name of Brown, who has writtenagainst me. I have had French colonels, with theirofficers, who have remained a month, but who servetheir king so well, that they have never written to me.
I have built a chateau and a church. I have spent fivehundred thousand francs in these pious and profaneworks; and my illustrious debtors in Paris and Ger-many , conceiying that these acts of magnificence didn6t become me, have thought proper to curtail mymeans to teach me wisdom. I found myself suddenlyalmost reduced to philosophy. I have sent madameDenis to urge the generous French ; I have taken thegenerous Germans on myself. My seventy-four yearsand continual illnesses condemn me to seclusion andmoderation. This life cannot suit madame Denis, whoacted against the grain in coming to Jive with me inthe country. She needs perpetual company and plea-