History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11 [43]
here in English,
connected with the Sciences, say with water-carriage, the
typographies, or one need not know what; "you will see where the
question stands.
"When we both left Cleve,"--14th of the month, Wednesday last;
18th is Sunday, in this old cobwebby Palace, where I am correcting
ANTI-MACHIAVEL,--"and you took to the right,"--King, homewards,
got to HAM that evening,--"I could have thought I was at the Last
Judgment, where the Bon Dieu separates the elect from the damned.
DIVUS FREDERICUS said to you, 'Sit down at my right hand in the
Paradise of Berlin;' and to me, 'Depart, thou accursed, into
Holland.'
"Here I am accordingly in this phlegmatic place of punishment, far
from the divine fire which animates the Friedrichs, the
Maupertuis, the Algarottis. For God's love, do me the charity of
some sparks in these stagnant waters where I am,"--stiffening,
cooling,--"stupefying to death. Instruct me of your pleasures, of
your designs. You will doubtless see M. de Valori,"--readers know
de Valori; his Book has been published; edited, as too usual, by a
Human Nightmare, ignorant of his subject and indeed of almost all
other things, and liable to mistakes in every page; yet partly
readable, if you carry lanterns, and love "MON GROS VALORI:"--
"offer him, I pray you, my respects. If I do not write to him, the
reason is, I have no news to send: I should be as exact as I am
devoted, if my correspondence could be useful or agreeable to him.
"Won't you have me send you some Books? If I be still in Holland
when your orders come, I will obey in a moment. I pray you do not
forget me to M. de Keyserling,"--Caesarion whom we once had at
Cirey; a headlong dusky little man of wit (library turned topsy-
turvy, as Wilhelmina called him), whom we have seen.
"Tell me, I beg, if the enormous monad of Volfius--[Wolf, would
the reader like to hear about him? If so, he has only to speak!]
is arguing at Marburg, at Berlin, or at Hall [HALLE, which is a
very different place].
"Adieu, Monsieur: you can address your orders to me 'At the
Hague:' they will be forwarded wherever I am; and I shall be,
anywhere on earth,--Yours forever (A VOUS POUR JAMAIS)."
[Voltaire, lxxii. 252.]
Letter Second, of which a fragment may be given, is to one
Cideville, a month later; all the more genuine as there was no
chance of the King's hearing about this one. Cideville, some kind
of literary Advocate at Rouen (who is wearisomely known to the
reader of Voltaire's Letters), had done, what is rather an
endemical disorder at this time, some Verses for the King of
Prussia, which he wished to be presented to his Majesty.
The presentation, owing to accidents, did not take place;
hear how Voltaire, from his cobweb Palace at the Hague, busy with
ANTI-MACHIAVEL, Van Duren and many other things,--18th October,
1740, on which day we find him writing many Letters,--explains the
sad accident:--
VOLTAIRE TO M. DE CIDEVILLE (at Rouen).
"AT THE HAGUE, KING OF PRUSSIA'S PALACE,
18th October, 1740.
"... This is my case, dear Cideville. When you sent me, enclosed
in your Letter, those Verses (among which there are some of
charming and inimitable turn) for our Marcus Aurelius of the
North, I did well design to pay my court to him with them. He was
at that time to have come to Brussels incognito: we expected him
there; but the Quartan Fever, which unhappily he still has,
deranged all his projects. He sent me a courier to Brussels,"--
mark that point, my Cideville;--"and so I set out to find him in
the neighborhood of Cleve.
"It was there I saw one of the amiablest men in the world, who
forms the charm of society, who would be everywhere sought after
if he were not King; a philosopher without austerity; full of
sweetness, complaisance and obliging ways (AGREMENS);
not remembering that he is King when he meets his friends; indeed
so completely forgetting it that he made me too almost forget it,
and I needed an effort of memory to recollect that I here saw
sitting at the foot of my bed a Sovereign who
connected with the Sciences, say with water-carriage, the
typographies, or one need not know what; "you will see where the
question stands.
"When we both left Cleve,"--14th of the month, Wednesday last;
18th is Sunday, in this old cobwebby Palace, where I am correcting
ANTI-MACHIAVEL,--"and you took to the right,"--King, homewards,
got to HAM that evening,--"I could have thought I was at the Last
Judgment, where the Bon Dieu separates the elect from the damned.
DIVUS FREDERICUS said to you, 'Sit down at my right hand in the
Paradise of Berlin;' and to me, 'Depart, thou accursed, into
Holland.'
"Here I am accordingly in this phlegmatic place of punishment, far
from the divine fire which animates the Friedrichs, the
Maupertuis, the Algarottis. For God's love, do me the charity of
some sparks in these stagnant waters where I am,"--stiffening,
cooling,--"stupefying to death. Instruct me of your pleasures, of
your designs. You will doubtless see M. de Valori,"--readers know
de Valori; his Book has been published; edited, as too usual, by a
Human Nightmare, ignorant of his subject and indeed of almost all
other things, and liable to mistakes in every page; yet partly
readable, if you carry lanterns, and love "MON GROS VALORI:"--
"offer him, I pray you, my respects. If I do not write to him, the
reason is, I have no news to send: I should be as exact as I am
devoted, if my correspondence could be useful or agreeable to him.
"Won't you have me send you some Books? If I be still in Holland
when your orders come, I will obey in a moment. I pray you do not
forget me to M. de Keyserling,"--Caesarion whom we once had at
Cirey; a headlong dusky little man of wit (library turned topsy-
turvy, as Wilhelmina called him), whom we have seen.
"Tell me, I beg, if the enormous monad of Volfius--[Wolf, would
the reader like to hear about him? If so, he has only to speak!]
is arguing at Marburg, at Berlin, or at Hall [HALLE, which is a
very different place].
"Adieu, Monsieur: you can address your orders to me 'At the
Hague:' they will be forwarded wherever I am; and I shall be,
anywhere on earth,--Yours forever (A VOUS POUR JAMAIS)."
[Voltaire, lxxii. 252.]
Letter Second, of which a fragment may be given, is to one
Cideville, a month later; all the more genuine as there was no
chance of the King's hearing about this one. Cideville, some kind
of literary Advocate at Rouen (who is wearisomely known to the
reader of Voltaire's Letters), had done, what is rather an
endemical disorder at this time, some Verses for the King of
Prussia, which he wished to be presented to his Majesty.
The presentation, owing to accidents, did not take place;
hear how Voltaire, from his cobweb Palace at the Hague, busy with
ANTI-MACHIAVEL, Van Duren and many other things,--18th October,
1740, on which day we find him writing many Letters,--explains the
sad accident:--
VOLTAIRE TO M. DE CIDEVILLE (at Rouen).
"AT THE HAGUE, KING OF PRUSSIA'S PALACE,
18th October, 1740.
"... This is my case, dear Cideville. When you sent me, enclosed
in your Letter, those Verses (among which there are some of
charming and inimitable turn) for our Marcus Aurelius of the
North, I did well design to pay my court to him with them. He was
at that time to have come to Brussels incognito: we expected him
there; but the Quartan Fever, which unhappily he still has,
deranged all his projects. He sent me a courier to Brussels,"--
mark that point, my Cideville;--"and so I set out to find him in
the neighborhood of Cleve.
"It was there I saw one of the amiablest men in the world, who
forms the charm of society, who would be everywhere sought after
if he were not King; a philosopher without austerity; full of
sweetness, complaisance and obliging ways (AGREMENS);
not remembering that he is King when he meets his friends; indeed
so completely forgetting it that he made me too almost forget it,
and I needed an effort of memory to recollect that I here saw
sitting at the foot of my bed a Sovereign who