"8. I am not in any connection with France; I have nothing to fear nor to hope from France. If you would like, I will make a Panegyric on Louis XV. without a word of truth in it: but as to political business, there is, at present, none to bring us together;and neither is it I that am to speak first. When they put a question to me, it will he time to reply: but you, who are so much a man of sense, you see well what a ridiculous business it would he if, without ground given me, I set to prescribing projects of policy to France, and even put them on paper with my own hand!
MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE.
"9. Do whatsoever you may please, I shall always love your Majesty with my whole heart."MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH.
"9. I love you with all my heart; I esteem you: I will do all to have you, except follies, and things which would make me forever ridiculous over Europe, and at bottom would he contrary to my interests and my glory. The only commission I can give you for France, is to advise them to behave with more wisdom than they have done hitherto. That Monarchy is a body with much strength, but without, soul or energy (NERF)."And so you may give it to Valori to put in cipher, my illustrious Messenger from the Spheres. [<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, <end italic> lxxiii. 101-105 (see Ib. ii. 55); <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxii. 141-144.]
Worth reading, this, rather well. Very kingly, and characteristic of the young Friedrich. Saved by Beaumarchais, who did not give it in his famous Kehl Edition of VOLTAIRE, but "had it in Autograph ever after, and printed it in his DECADE PHILOSOPHIQUE, 10Messidor, An vii. [Summer, 1799j: Beaumarchais had several other Pieces of the same sort;" which, as bits of contemporary photographing, one would have liked to see.
FRIEDRIC VISITS BAIREUTH: ON A PARTICULAR ERRAND;--VOLTAIREATTENDING, AND PRIVATELY REPORTING.
This "BIRIBI" Document, I suppose to have been delivered perhaps on the 7th; and that Friedrich HAD it, but had not yet answered it, when he wrote the following Letter:--"POTSDAM, 8th SEPTEMBER, 1743 [Friedrich to Voltaire].--I dare not speak to a son of Apollo about horses and carriages, relays and such things; these are details with which the gods do not concern themselves, and which we mortals take upon us. You will set out on Monday afternoon, if you like the journey, for Baireuth, and you will dine with me in passing, if you please [at Potsdam here].
"The rest of my MEMOIRE [Paper before given?] is so blurred and in so bad a state, I cannot yet send it you.--I am getting Cantos 8and 9 of LA PUCELLE copied; I at present have Cantos 1, 2, 4, 5, 8and 9: I keep them under three keys, that the eye of mortal may not see them.
"I hear you supped yesternight in good company [great gathering in some high house, gone all asunder now];"The finest wits of the Canton All collected in your name, People all who could not but be pleased with you, All devout believers in Voltaire, Unanimously took you For the god of their Paradise.
"'Paradise,' that you may not be scandalized, is taken here in a general sense for a place of pleasure and joy. See the 'remark' on the last verse of the MONDAIN." [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxii. 144; Voltaire, lxxiii. 100 (scandalously MISdated in Edition 1818, xxxix. 466). As to MONDAIN, and "remark" upon it,--the ghost of what was once a sparkle of successful coterie-speech and epistolary allusion,--take this: "In the MONDAIN Voltaire had written, 'LE PARADIS TERRESTRE EST OU JE SUIS;' and as the Priests made outcry, had with airs of orthodoxy explained the phrase away,"--as Friedrich now affects to do; obliquely quizzing, in the Friedrich manner.
Voltaire is to go upon the Baireuth Journey, then, according to prayer. Whether Voltaire ever got that all-important "word which he could show," I cannot say: though there is some appearance that Friedrich may have dashed off for him the Panegyric of Louis, in these very hours, to serve his turn, and have done with him.
Under date 7th September, day before the Letter just read, here are snatches from another to the same address:--"POTSDAM, 7th SEPTEMBER, 1743 [Friedrich to Voltaire].--You tell me so much good of France and of its King, it were to be wished all Sovereigns had subjects like you, and all Commonwealths such citizens,--[you can show that, I suppose?] What a pity France and Sweden had not had Military Chiefs of your way of thinking! But it is very certain, say what you will, that the feebleness of their Generals, and the timidity of their counsels, have almost ruined in public repute two Nations which, not half a century ago, inspired terror over Europe."--... "Scandalous Peace, that of Fleury, in 1735; abandoning King Stanislaus, cheating Spain, cheating Sardinia, to get Lorraine! And now this manner of abandoning the Emperor [respectable Karl VII. of your ******]; sacrificing Bavaria; and reducing that worthy Prince to the lowest poverty,--poverty, I say not, of a Prince, but into the frightfulest state for a private man!" Ah, Monsieur.
"And yet your France is the most charming of Nations; and if it is not feared, it deserves well to be loved. A King worthy to command it, who governs sagely, and acquires for himself the esteem of all Europe,--[there, won't that do!] may restore its ancient splendor, which the Broglios, and so many others even more inept, have a little eclipsed. That is assuredly a work worthy of a Prince endowed with such gifts! To reverse the sad posture of affairs, nobly repairing what others have spoiled; to defend his country against furious enemies, reducing them to beg Peace, instead of scornfully rejecting it when offered: never was more glory acquirable by any King! I shall admire whatsoever this great man [CE GRAND HOMME, Louis XV., not yet visibly tending to the dung-heap, let us hope better things!] may achieve in that way; and of all the Sovereigns of Europe none will be less jealous of his success than I:"--there, my spheral friend, show that!
