April 1776. "between taste and genius is immense! Shakspeare had an "amazing genius, but no taste: he has spoiled the taste of the "Nation. He has been their taste for two hundred years; and "what is the taste of a Nation for two hundred years will be so "for two thousand. This kind of taste becomes a religion; "there are, in your Country, a great many Fanatics for Shakspeare." Sherlock. "Were you personally acquainted with "Lord Bolingbroke?"

66

Voltaire. "Yes. His face was imposing, and so was his "voice; in his Works, there are many leaves, and little fruit; "distorted expressions, and periods intolerably long." (Taking down a Book.) "There, you see the Koran, which is well read, "at least." ("It was marked throughout with bits of paper.') "There are Historic Doubts, by Horace Walpole" (which had also several marks'); "here is the Portrait of Richard III.; you 66 see he was a handsome youth." Sherlock (making an abrupt transition). "You have built a Church?"

Voltaire. "True; and it is the only one in the Universe in "honour of God" (Deo erexit Voltaire, as we read above): "you "have plenty of Churches built to St. Paul, to St. Geneviève, "but not one to God." Exit Sherlock (to his Inn; makes jotting as above;—is to dine at Ferney tomorrow).

SCENE III. Dinner-Table of Voltaire.

'The next day, as we sat down to Dinner,' our Host in the above shining costume, ' he said, in English tolerably pronounced:

Voltaire. "We are here for liberty and property!" (parody of some old Speech in Parliament, let us guess,-liberty and property, my Lords!) "This Gentleman,-whom let me present to "Monsieur Sherlock,-is a Jesuit" (old Père Adam, whom I keep for playing Chess, in his old, unsheltered days); "he wears "his hat: I am a poor invalid,-I wear my nightcap."

'I do not now recollect why he quoted these verses, also in English, by Rochester, on Charles Second:

"Here lies the mutton-eating King,

Whose promise none relies on;

Who never said a foolish thing,

Nor ever did a wise one."

April 1776.

'But speaking of Racine, he quoted this Couplet (of Roscom'mon's Essay on Translated Verse):

"The weighty bullion of one sterling line

Drawn to French wire would through whole pages shine."

Sherlock. "The English prefer Corneille to Racine." Voltaire. "That is because the English are not sufficiently acquainted with the French tongue to feel the beauties of "Racine's style, or the harmony of his versification. Corneille 66 ought to please them more because he is more striking; but "Racine pleases the French because he has more softness and "tenderness."

Sherlock. "How did you find" (like) "the English fare (la "chère Anglaise?”—which Voltaire mischievously takes for "the dear Englishwoman"). Voltaire. "I found her very fresh

" and white,”—truly! (It should be remembered, that when he 'made this pun upon Women, he was in his eighty-third year).' Sherlock. "Their language?" Voltaire. "Energetic,

66

66 precise and barbarous; they are the only Nation that pro"nounces their a as e.' * * (And some time afterwards) Though I cannot perfectly pronounce English, my ear is sen"sible of the harmony of your language and of your versifica❝tion. Pope and Dryden have the most harmony in Poetry; "Addison in Prose." (Takes now the interrogating side.)

Voltaire. "How have you found (avez-vous trouvé) the "French?” Sherlock. "Amiable and witty. I only find one fault with them: they imitate the English too much." Voltaire. "How! Do you think us worthy to be originals "ourselves?" Sherlock. "Yes, Sir."

66

Voltaire. "So do I too:-but it is of your Government that we are envious."

Sherlock. "I have found the French freër than I expected.” Voltaire. "Yes, as to walking, or eating whatever he pleases, "or lolling in his elbow-chair, a Frenchman is free enough; but as to taxes-Ah, Monsieur, you are a lucky Nation; you can "do what you like; poor we are born in slavery: we cannot ❝even die as we will; we must have a Priest" (can't get buried otherwise; am often thinking of that!). "Well, if the "English do sell themselves, it is a proof that they are worth

*

April 1776.

"something: we French don't sell ourselves, probably because

Sherlock. "What is your opinion of the Éloise" (Rousseau's immortal Work)?

"twenty years hence."

Voltaire. "That it will not be read

Sherlock. "Mademoiselle de l'Enclos wrote some good Letters?" Voltaire. "She never wrote one; they were by the "wretched Crébillon" (my beggarly old 'Rival' in the Pompadour epoch)!

Voltaire. "The Italians are a Nation of brokers. Italy is an "Old-Clothes shop; in which there are many Old Dresses of exquisite taste. But we are still to know, Whether the subjects of the Pope or of the Grand Turk are the more ab"ject." (We have now gone to the Drawing-room, I think, though it is not jotted.)

66

'He talked of England and of Shakespeare; and explained 'to Madame Denis part of a Scene in Henry Fifth, where the " King makes love to Queen Catherine in bad French; and of ' another in which that Queen takes a lesson in English from her "Waiting-woman, and where there are several very gross double'entendres'—but, I hope, did not long dwell on these.

Voltaire. "When I see an Englishman subtle and fond of "law-suits, I say, 'There is a Norman, who came in with Wil"liam the Conqueror.' When I see a man good-natured and 66 polite, 'That is one who came with the Plantagenets;' a brutal "character, "That is a Dane:'-for your Nation, Monsieur, as "well as your Language, is a medley of many others.”

'After dinner, passing through a little Parlour where there I was a head of Locke, another of the Countess of Coventry, ' and several more, he took me by the arm and stopped me: "Do you know this Bust" (bust of Sir Isaac Newton)? "It "is the greatest genius that ever existed: if all the geniuses of "the Universe were assembled, he should lead the band."

'It was of Newton, and of his own Works, that M. de Vol'taire always spoke with the greatest warmth.'44 (Exit Sherlock, to jot down the above, and thence into Infinite Space.)

"Sherlock, Letters (London, 1802), i. 98-106.

Aug. Sept. 1774.

General or Fieldmarshal Conway, direct from the London Circles, attends one of Friedrich's Reviews (August-September 1774).

Now that Friedrich's Military Department is got completely into trim again, which he reckons to have been about 1770, his annual Reviews are becoming very famous over Europe; and intelligent Officers of all Countries are eager to be present, and instruct themselves there. The Review is beautiful as a Spectacle; but that is in no sort the intention of it. Rigorous business, as in the strictest of Universities examining for Degrees, would be nearer the definition. Sometimes, when a new manoeuvre or tactical invention of importance is to be tried by experiment, you will find for many miles the environs of Potsdam, which is usually the scene of such experiments, carefully shut in; sentries on every road, no unfriendly eye admitted; the thing done as with closed doors. Nor at any time can you attend without leave asked; though to Foreign Officers, and persons that have really business there, there appears to be liberality enough in granting it. The concourse of military strangers seems to keep increasing every year, till Friedrich's death.45 French, more and more in quantity, present themselves; multifarious German names; generally a few English too,-Burgoyne (of Saratoga finally), Cornwallis, Duke of York, Marshal Conway, of which last we have something farther to say at present.

In Summer 1774, Conway, the Marshal Conway, of whom Walpole is continually talking as of a considerable Soldier and Politician, though he was not in either

45 Rödenbeck, iii. in locis.

Aug.-Sept. 1774.

character considerable, but was Walpole's friend, and an honest modest man,—had made up his mind, perhaps partly on domestic grounds (for I have noticed glimpses of a "Lady C." much out of humour), to make a Tour in Germany, and see the Reviews, both Austrian and Prussian, Prussian especially. Two immense Letters of his on that subject have come into my hands,16 and elsewhere incidentally there is printed record of the Tour;47 unimportant as possible, both Tour and Letters, but capable, if squeezed into compass, of still being read without disadvantage here.

Sir Robert Murray Keith, that is, the younger Excellency Keith, now Minister at Dresden, whom we have sometimes heard of,-accompanies Conway on this Tour, or flies alongside of him, with frequent intersections at the principal points; and there is printed record by Sir Robert, but still less interesting than this of Conway, and perfectly conformable to it:-so that, except for some words about the Lord Marischal, which shall be given, Keith must remain silent, while the diffuse Conway strives to become intelligible. Indeed, neither Conway nor Keith tell us the least thing that is not abundantly, and even wearisomely known from German sources; but to readers here, a pair of English eyes looking on the matter (put straight in places by the help there is), may give it a certain freshness of meaning. Here are Conway's Two Letters, with the nine-parts of water charitably squeezed out of them, by a skilful friend of mine and his.

46 Kindly presented me by Charles Knight, Esq., the well-known Author and Publisher (who possesses a Collection by the same hand): these Two run to fourteen large pages in my Copy!

47 In Keith (Sir Robert Murray), Memoirs and Correspondence, ii. 21 et seq.