One of the most prolific sources of witticisms that is noticed in this collection, is the Patriarch's elevation to the dignity of temporal father of the Capuchins in his district. The cream of the whole, however, may be found in the following letter of his to M. De Richelieu.

contrive to see all these gentlemen together?" | spectators. The whole scene, says M. Grimm, M. Mercier, who had the same passion for reminded us of the classic days of Greece and fine speeches, told him one day, "You outdo Rome. But it became more truly touching at every body so much in their own way, that I the moment when its object rose to retire. am sure you will beat Fontenelle even, in Weakened and agitated by the emotions he longevity." "No, no, Sir!" answered the had experienced, his limbs trembled beneath Patriarch, "Fontenelle was a Norman; and, him; and, bending almost to the earth, he you may depend upon it, contrived to trick seemed ready to expire under the weigła of Nature out of her rights." years and honours that had been laid upon him. His eyes, filled with tears, still sparkled with a peculiar fire in the midst of his pale and faded countenance. All the beauty and all the rank of France crowded round hin in the lobbies and staircases, and literally bore him in their arms to the door of his carriage. Here the humbler multitude took their turn; and, calling for torches that all might get a sight of him, clustered round his coach, and followed it to the door of his lodgings, with vehement shouts of admiration and triumph. This is the heroic part of the scene;-but M. Grimm takes care also to let us know, that the Patriarch appeared on this occasion in long lace ruffles, and a fine coat of cut velvet, with a grey periwig of a fashion forty years old, which he used to comb every morning with his own hands, and to which nothing at all parallel had been seen for ages-except on the head of Bachaumont the novelist, who was known accordingly among the wits of Paris by the name of "Voltaire's wigblock.”

"Je voudrais bien, monseigneur, avoir le plaisir de vous donner ma bénédiction avant de mourir. L'expression vous paraîtra un peu forte: elle est pourtant dans la vérité. J'ai l'honneur d'être capucin. Notre général qui est à Rome, vient de m'envoyer mes patentes; mon titre est; Frère Spirituel et Père Temporel des Capucins. Mandez-moi laquelle de vos maîtresses vous voulez retirer du purgatoire: je vous jure sur ma barbe qu'elle n'y sera pas dans vingtquatre heures. Comme je dois me détacher des biens de ce monde, j'ai abandonné à mes parens ce qui m'est du par la succession de feu madame la princesse de Guise, et par M. votre intendant; ils iront à ce sujet prendre vos ordres qu'ils regarderont comme un bienfait. Je vous donne ma bénédiction. Signé VOLTAIRE, Capucin indigne, et qui n'a pas encore eu de bonne fortune de capucin."pp. 54, 55.

We have very full details of the last days of this distinguished person. He came to Paris, as is well known, after twenty-seven years' absence, at the age of eighty-four; and the very evening he arrived, he recited himself the whole of his Irene to the players, and passed all the rest of the night in correcting the piece for representation. A few days after, he was seized with a violent vomiting of blood, and instantly called stoutly for a priest, saying, that they should not throw him out on the dunghill. A priest was accordingly brought; and the Patriarch very gravely subscribed a profession of his faith in the Christian religion-of which he was ashamed, and attempted to make a jest, as soon as he recovered. He was received with unexampled honours at the Academy, the whole members of which rose together, and came out to the vestibule to escort him into the hall; while, on the exterior, all the avenues, windows, and roofs of houses, by which his carriage had to pass, were crowded with spectators, and resounded with acclamations. But the great scene of his glory was the theatre; in which he no sooner appeared, than the whole audience rose up, and continued for upwards of twenty minutes in thunders of applause and shouts of acclamation that filled the whole house with dust and agitation. When the piece was concluded, the curtain was again drawn up, and discovered the bust of their idol in the middle of the stage, while the favourite actress placed a crown of laurel on its brows, and recited some verses, the words of which could scarcely be distinguished amidst the tumultuous shouts of the

This brilliant and protracted career, however, was fast drawing to a close,-Retaining to the last, that untameable spirit of activity and impatience which had characterized all his past life, he assisted at rehearsals and meetings of the Academy, with the zeal and enthusiasm of early youth. At one of the latter, some objections were started to his magnificent project, of giving an improved edition of their Dictionary ;—and he resolved to compose a discourse to obviate those objections. To strengthen himself for this task, he swallowed a prodigious quantity of strong coffee, and then continued at work for upwards of twelve hours without intermission. This imprudent effort brought on an inflammation in his bladder; and being told by M. De Richelieu, that he had been much relieved in a similar situation, by taking, at intervals, a few drops of laudanum, he provided himself with a large bottle of that medicine, and with his usual impatience, swallowed the greater part of it in the course of the night. The consequence was, as might naturally have been expected, that he fell into a sort of lethargy, and never recovered the use of his faculties, except for a few minutes at a time, till the hour of his death, which happened three days after, on the evening of the 30th of May, 1778. The priest to whom he had made his confession, and nother, entered his chamber a short time before he breathed his last. He recognized them with difficulty, and assured them of his respects. One of them coming close up to him, he threw his arm round his neck, as if to embrace him. But when M. le Curé, taking advantage of this cordiality, proceeded to urge him to make some sign or acknowledgment of his belief in

M

the Christian faith, he gently pushed him himself that all the powers of Europe hai back, and said, "Alas! let me die in peace.' ." their eyes fixed upon him as a most dangerThe priest turned to his companion, and with ous and portentous being, whom they should great moderation and presence of mind, ob- take the first opportunity to destroy. He was served aloud, "You see his faculties are quite also satisfied that M. de Choiseul had progone." They then quietly left the apartment; jected and executed the conquest of Corsica, -and the dying man, having testified his for no other purpose but to deprive him of the gratitude to his kind and vigilant attendants, honour of legislating for it; and that Prussia and named several times the name of his and Russia had agreed to partition Poland favourite niece Madame Denis, shortly after upon the same jealous and unworthy conexpired. sideration. While the potentates of Europe were thus busied in thwarting and mortifying him abroad, the philosophers, he was persuaded, were entirely devoted to the same project at home. They had spies, he firmly believed, posted round all his steps, and were continually making efforts to rouse the populace to insult and murder him. At the head of this conspiracy, of the reality of which he no more doubted than of his existence, he had placed the Duc de Choiseul, his physician Tronchin, M. D'Alembert, and our author!-But we must pass to characters less known or familiar.

Nothing can better mark the character of the work before us, and of its author, than to state, that the despatch which contains this striking account of the last hours of his illustrious patron and friend, terminates with an obscene epigram of M. Rulhiere, and a gay critique on the new administration of the opera Buffa! There are various epitaphs on Voltaire, scattered through the sequel of the volume-we prefer this very brief one, by a lady of Lausanne.

"Ci-git l'enfant gaté du monde qu'il gata."

Among the other proofs which M. Grimm has recorded of the celebrity of this extraordinary person, the incredible multitude of his portraits that were circulated, deserves to be noticed. One ingenious artist, in particular, of the name of Huber, had acquired such a facility in forming his countenance, that he could not only cut most striking likenesses of him out of paper, with scissars held behind his back, but could mould a little bust of him in half a minute, out of a bit of bread, and at last used to make his dog manufacture most excellent profiles, by making him bite off the edge of a biscuit which he held to him in three or four different positions!

There is less about Rousseau in these volumes, than we should expect from their author's early intimacy with that great writer. What there is, however, is candid and judicious. M. Grimm agrees with Madame de Staël, that Rousseau was nothing of a Frenchman in his character;-and accordingly he observes, that though the magic of his style and the extravagance of his sentiments procured him some crazy disciples, he never had any hearty partisans among the enlightened part of the nation. He laughs a good deal at his affectations and unpardonable animosities, but gives, at all times, the highest praise to his genius, and sets him above all his contemporaries, for the warmth, the elegance, and the singular richness of his style. He says, that the general opinion at Paris was, that he had poisoned himself;-that his natural disposition to melancholy had increased in an alarming degree after his return from England, and had been aggravated by the sombre and solitary life to which he had condemned himself; that mind, he adds, at once too strong and too weak to bear the burden of existence with tranquillity, was perpetually prolific of monsters and of phantoms, that haunted all his steps, and drove him to the borders of distraction.. There is no doubt, continues M. Grimm, that for many months before his death he had firmly persuaded

The gayest, and the most naturally gay perhaps of all the coterie, was the Abbé Galiani, a Neapolitan, who had resided for many years in Paris, but had been obliged, very much against his will, to return to his own country about the time that this journal commenced. M. Grimm inserts a variety of his letters, in all of which the infantine petulance and freedom of his character are distinctly marked, as well as the singular acuteness and clearness of his understanding. The first is written immediately after his exile from Paris in 1770.

"Madame, je suis toujours inconsolable d'avoir quitté Paris; et encore plus inconsolable de n'avoir reçu aucune nouvelle ni de vous, ni du paresseux philosophe. Est-il possible que ce monstre, dans son impassibilitié, ne sente pas à quel point mon honneur, ma gloire, dont je me fiche, mon plaisir et celui de mes amis, dont je me soucie beaucoup, sont intéressés dans l'affaire que je lui ai confiée, et combien je suis impatient d'apprendre qu'en fin la pacotille a doublé le cap et passé le terrible défilé de la révision: car, après cela, je serai tranquille sur le reste.

46

Mon voyage a été très heureux sur la terre et sur l'onde; il a même été d'un bonheur inconcevable.

Je n'ai jamais eu chaud, et toujours le vent en poupe sur le Rhône et sur la mer; il paraît que tout me pousse à m'éloigner de tout ce que j'aime au monde. L'héroïsme sera donc bien plus grand et bien plus mémorable, de vaincre les élémens, la nature, les dieux conspirés, et de retourner à Paris en dépit d'eux. Oui, Paris est ma patrie; on aura beau m'en exiler, j'y retomberai. Attendez-vous done à me voir établi dans la rue Fromenteau, au quatrième, sur le derrière, chez la nommée.. fille majeure. Là demeurera le plus grand génie de notre âge, en pension à trente sous par jour; et il Je vous prie d'envoyer vos lettres toujours à l'hôtel sera heureux. Quel plaisir que de délirer! Adieu. de l'ambassadeur.

"Grimm est-il de retour de son voyage?"

the same tone.
Another to the Baron Holbach is nearly in

'Que faites-vous, mon cher baron? Vous amusezvous? La baronne se porte-t-elle bien? Comment vont vos enfans? La philosophie, dont vous êtes le premier maître d'hôtel, mange-t-elle toujours d'un aussi bon appétit ?

"Pour moi, je m'ennuie mortellement ici; je ne vois personne, excepté deux ou trois Français. Je suis le Gulliver revenu du pays des Hoyinhyims, qui ne fait plus société qu'avec ses deux chevaux. Je vais rendre des visites de devoir aux femmes des deux ministres d'état et de finances; et puis je dors ou je rêve. Quelle vie! Rien n'amuse ici : point d'édits, point de réductions, point de retenues, point de suspensions de paiemens: la vie y est d'une uniformité tuante; on ne dispute de rien, pas même de religion. Ah! mon cher Paris! ah! que je te regrette!

Donnez-moi quelques nouvelles littéraires, mais n'en attendez pas en revanche. Pour les grands événemens en Europe, je crois que nous en allons devenir le bureau. On dit, en effet, que la flotte Russe a enfin débarqué à Patras, que toute la Morée s'est révoltée et déclarée en faveur des débarqués, et que sans coup ferir ils s'en sont rendus maîtres, excepté des villes de Corinthe et de Napoli de Romanie cela mérite confirmation. Quelle avanture! Nous serons limitrophes des Russes; et d'Otrante à Pétersbourg il n'y aura plus qu'un pas, et un petit trajet de mer: Dux fœmina facti. Une femme aura fait cela! Cela est trop beau pour être vrai."

The next is not such pure trifling.

vous voulez. Cela lui était d'autant plus aisé, que Marius, fondateur de ce parti, était de son pays. Il en fut même tenté, car il débuta par attaquer Sylla et par se lier avec les gens du parti de l'opposition, à la tête desquels, après la mort de Marius, étaient Claudius, Catilina, César. Mais le parti des grands avait besoin d'un jurisconsulte et d'un savant; car les grands seigneurs, en général, ne savent ni lire ni écrire; il sentit donc qu'on aurait plus besoin de lui dans le parti des grands, et qu'il y jouerait un rôle plus brillant. Il s'y jeta, et dès lors on vit un homme nouveau, un parvenu mêlé avec les patri. ciens. Figurez-vous en Angleterre un avocat dont la cour a besoin pour faire un chancelier, et qui suit par conséquent le parti du ministère. Cicéron brilla donc à côté de Pompée, etc., toutes les fois qu'il était question de choses de jurisprudence; mais il lui manquait la naissance, les richesses; et surtout n'étant pas homme de guerre, il jouait de ce côté-là un rôle subalterne. D'ailleurs, par inclination naturelle, il aimait le parti de César, et il était fatigué de la morgue des grands qui lui faisaient sentir souvent le prix des bienfaits dont on l'avait comblé. Il n'était pas pusillanime, il était incertain; il ne défendait pas des scélérats, il défendait les gens de son parti qui ne valaient guère mieux que ceux du parti contraire."

We shall add only the following.

"Vous avez reconnu Voltaire dans son sermon ; moi je n'y reconnais que l'écho de feu M. de Vol- "Le dialogue des tableaux du Louvre intéresse taire. Ah! il rabâche trop à présent. Sa Catherine peu à cinq cents lieues de Paris; le baron de Gleiest une maîtresse femme, parce qu'elle est intol-chen et moi, nous en avons ri: personnes ne nous érante et conquerante; tous les grands hommes ont été intolérans, et il faut l'être. Si l'on rencontre sur son chemin un prince sot, il faut lui prêcher la tolérance, afin qu'il donne dans le piège, et que le parti écrasé ait le temps de se relever par la tolérance qu'on lui accorde, et d'écraser son adversaire à son tour. Ainsi le sermon sur la tolérance est un sermon fait aux sots ou aux gens dupes, ou à des gens qui n'ont aucun intérêt dans la chose: voilà pour quoi, quelquefois, un prince séculier doit écouter la tolérance; c'est lorsque l'affaire intéresse les prêtres sans intéresser les souverains. Mais en Pologne, les évêques sont tout à la fois prêtres et souverains, et, s'ils le peuvent, ils feront fort bien de chasser les Russes, et d'envoyer au diable tous les Dissidens; et Catherine fera fort bien d'écraser les évêques si cela lui réussit. Moi je n'en crois rien ; je crois que les Russes écraseront les Turcs par contre-coup, et ne feront qu'agrandir et réveiller les Polonais, comme Philippe II. et la maison d'Autriche écrasèrent l'Allemagne et l'Italie, en voulant troubler la France qu'ils ne firent qu'ennoblir: voilà mes prophéties."

Votre lettre du 8 juin n'est point gaie; il s'en faut même beaucoup: vous avouez vous-même que vous n'avez que quelques lueurs de gaieté ; je crains que cela ne tienne au physique, et que vous ne vous portiez pas bien: voilà ce qui me fâche. Pour moi, je fais tout ce que je puis pour vous égayer, et ce n'est pas un petit effort pour moi: car je suis si ennuyé de mon existence ici, qu'en vérité je deviens homme d'affaires et homme grave de jour en jour davantage, et je finirai par devenir Nepolitain, tout comme un autre."

Another contains some admirable remarks on the character of Cicero, introduced in the same style of perfect ease and familiarity.

"On peut regarder Cicéron comme littérateur, comme philosophe et comme homme d'état. Il a été un des plus grands littérateurs qui aient jamais été; il savait tout ce qu'on savait de son temps, excepté la géométrie et autres sciences de ce genre. Il était médiocre philosophe: car il savait tout ce que les Grecs avaient pensé, et le rendait avec une clarté admirable, mais il ne pensait rien et n'avait pas la force de rien imaginer. Comme homme d'état, Cicéron, étant d'une basse extraction, et voulant parvenir, aurait dû se jeter dans le parti de l'opposition, de la chambre basse ou du peuple, si

aurait entendus. Au reste, à propos des tableaux, je remarque que le caractère dominant des Français perce toujours; ils sont causeurs, raisonneurs, badins par essence. Un mauvais tableau enfante une bonne brochure; ainsi vous parlerez mieux des arts que vous ne les cultiverez jamais. Il se trouvera au bout du compte, dans quelques siècles, que vous aurez le mieux raisonné, le mieux discuté ce que toutes les autres nations auront fait de mieux. Chérissez donc l'imprimerie, c'est votre lot dans ce bas monde. Mais vous avez mis un impôt sur le papier. Quelle sottise! Plaisanterie à part, un impôt sur le papier est la faute en politique la plus forte que se soit commise en France depuis un siècle. Il valait mieux faire la banqueroute universelle, et laisser au Français le plaisir de parler à l'Europe à peu de frais. Vous avez plus conquis de pays par les livres que par les armes. Vous ne devez la gloire de la nation qu'à vos ouvrages, et vous voulez vous forcer à vous taire!"

Ma belle dame, s'il servait à quelque chose de pleurer les morts, je viendrais pleurer avec vous la perte de notre Helvétius; mais la mort n'est autre chose que le regret des vivans; si nous ne le regret. tons pas, il n'est pas mort: tout comme si nous ne l'avions jamais ni connu ni aimé, il ne serait pas né. Tout ce qui existe, existe en nous par rapport à nous. Souvenez-vous que le petit prophète faisait de la métaphysique lorsqu'il était triste; j'en fais de même à présent. Mais enfin le mal de la perte d'Helvétius est le vide qu'il laisse dans la ligne du bataillon. Serrons donc les lignes, aimons-nous davantage, nous qui restons, et il n'y paraîtra pas. Moi qui suis le major de ce malheureux régiment, je vous crie à tous: serrez les lignes, avancez, feu! On ne s'apercevra pas de notre perte. Ses enfans n'ont perdu ni jeunesse ni beauté par la mort de leur père; elles ont gagné la qualité d'héritières; pourquoi diable allez-vous pleurer sur leur sort? Elles se marieront, n'en doutez pas cet oracle est plus sur que celui de Calchas. Sa femme est plus à plaindre, à moins qu'elle ne rencontre un gendre aussi raisonnable que son mari, ce qui n'est pas bien aisé, mais plus aisé à Paris qu'ailleurs. Il y a encore bien des mœurs, des vertus, de l'héroïsme dans votre Paris; il y en a plus qu'ailleurs, croyezmoi: c'est ce qui me le fait regretter, et me le fera peut-être revoir un jour."

The notice of the death of Helvetius, contained in this last extract, leads us naturally

Nobody knows a better or a more amiable figure in this book, than Madame GEOFFRIN. Active, reasonable, indulgent, and munificent beyond example for a woman in private life, she laid a sure claim to popularity by taking for her maxim the duty of "giving and forgiving;" and showed herself so gentle in her

she had not been overcome with an unlucky passion for intrigue aud notoriety, she might have afforded one exception at least to the general heartlessness of the society to which she belonged. Some of the repartees recorded of her in these volumes, are very remarkable. M. de Rulhiere threatened to make public, certain very indiscreet remarks on the court of Russia, from the sale of which he expected great profits. Madame Geoffrin, who thought he would get into difficulties by taking such a step, offered him a very handsome sum to put his manuscript in the fire. He answered her with many lofty and animated observations on the meanness and unworthiness of taking money to suppress truth. To all which the lady listened with the utmost complacency; and merely replied, "Well! say yourself how much more you must have." Another mot of hers became an established canon at all the tables of Paris. The Comte de Coigny was wearying her one evening with some interminable story, when, upon somebody sending for a part of the dish before him, he took a little knife out of his pocket, and began to carve, talking all the time as before. "Monsieur le Comte," said Madame Goeffrin, a little out of patience, "at table there should only be large knives and short stories. In her old age she was seized with apoplexy; and her daughter, during her illness, refused access to the philosophers. When she recovered a little, she laughed at the precaution, and made her daughter's apology-by saying, "She had done like Godfrey of Bouillon-defended her tomb from the Infidels." The idea of her ending in devotion, however, occasioned much merriment and some scandal among her philosophical associates.

to turn to the passage in M. Grimm in which this event is commemorated; and we there find a very full and curious account of this zealous philosopher. Helvetius was of Dutch extraction; and his father having been chief physician to the Queen, the son was speedily appointed to the very lucrative situation of Farmer-general of the Finances. He was re-deportment to children and servants, that if markably good tempered, benevolent, and liberal; and passed his youth in idle and voluptuous indulgence, keeping a sort of seraglio as a part of his establishment, and exercising himself with universal applause in the noble science of dancing, in which he attained such eminence, that he is said to have several times supplied the place of the famous Dupré in the ballets at the opera. An unhappy passion for literary glory came, however, to disturb this easy life. The paradoxes and effrontery of Maupertuis had brought science into fashion; and for a season, no supper was thought complete at Paris without a mathematician. Helvetius, therefore, betook himself immediately to the study of geometry: But he could make no hand of it; and fortunately the rage passed away before he had time to expose himself in the eyes of the initiated. Next came the poetical glory of Voltaire; and Helvetius instantly resolved to be a poet-and did with great labour produce a long poem on happiness, which was not published however till after his death, and has not improved his chance for immortality. But it was the success of the President Montesquieu's celebrated Esprit des Loix, that finally decided the literary vocation of Helvetius. That work appeared in 1749; and in 1750 the Farmer-general actually resigned his office; married, retired into the country, spent ten long years in digesting his own book De l'Esprit, by which he fondly expected to rival the fame of his illustrious predecessor. In this, however, he was wofully disappointed. The book appeared to philosophers to be nothing but a paradoxical and laborious repetition of truths and difficulties with which all good thinkers had long been familiar; and it probably would have fallen into utter oblivion, had it not been for the injudicious clamour which was raised against it by the bigots and devotees of the court. Poor Helvetius, who had meant nothing more than to make himself remarkable, was as much surprised at the outcries of the godly, as at the silence of the philosophers; and never perfectly recovered the shock of this double disappointment. He still continued, however, his habits of kindness and liberality-gave dinners to the men of letters when at Paris, and hunted and compiled philosophy with great perseverance in the country. His temper was so good, that his society could not fail to be agreeable; but his conversation, it seems, was not very captivating; he loved to push every matter of discussion to its very last results; and reasoned at times so very loosely and largely, as to be in danger of being taken for a person very much overtaken with liquor. He died of gout in his stomach, at the age of fifty-six; and, as an author, is now completely forgotten.

The name of Marmontel occurs very often in this collection; but it is not attended with any distinguished honours. M. Grimm accuses him of want of force or passion in his style, and of poverty of invention and littleness of genius. He says something, however, of more importance on occasion of the first representation of that writer's foolish little piece, entitled, "Silvain." The courtiers and sticklers for rank, he observes, all pretended to be mightily alarmed at the tendency of this little opera in one act; and the Duc de Noailles took the trouble to say, that its plain object was to show that a gentleman could do nothing so amiable as to marry his maid servant, and let his cottagers kill his game at their pleasure. It is really amusing, continues M. Grimm, to observe, how positive many people are, that all this is the result of a deep plot on the part of the Encyclopedistes, and tha. this silly farce is the fruit of a solemn conspiracy against the privileged orders, and in

support of the horrible doctrine of universal equality. If they would only condescend to consult me, however, he concludes, I could oblige them with a much simpler, though lessa ville; ni de paix, ni de guerre; ni de religion,