s real in it. But it is in no sense consciously affected,
and conscious affectation was the bane of the period.

[Sidenote: Voltaire.]

The three examples which have been chosen of the masculine
letter-writing of the period are of somewhat wider range. Mademoiselle
Aisse and Mademoiselle de Lespinasse show in various forms the amiable
weaknesses of womankind, Madame du Deffand its unamiable strength. The
letters of Voltaire, of Diderot, and of the Abbe Galiani are not so
typical of a sex, but are more representative of individuals and at the
same time of the age. Voltaire's correspondence is simply enormous in
point of bulk. Fresh letters of his are constantly being discovered and
edited even now. His long life, his extraordinary industry, his position
during nearly half a century as first one of the leading men of letters,
and then unquestionably the leading man of letters of Europe, the
curious diversity of his interests, even the prosperity in point of
fortune which made him command the services of secretaries and
under-strappers, while humbler men of letters had to do the mechanical
work of composition for themselves, all contributed to bring about this
fecundity. The consequence is, that not only is the correspondence of
Voltaire of vast extent but it is also of the most various character. We
have from him early love-letters, letters to private friends of all
dates, business letters, literary letters, letters to great persons,
letters intended for publication, letters not intended for publication,
flattering letters, insulting letters, benevolent letters, patronising
letters, begging letters, letters of almost every sort and kind that the
ingenuity of human imagination can conceive or the diversity of human
relationships and circumstances require. Partial critics have contended
that the singular quality of Voltaire's genius might be sufficiently
exemplified from his letters, if no other documents were forthcoming.
Without going quite so far as this, it may be allowed that his
correspondence is a remarkable monument of those qualities in literature
which enable a man to express himself happily and rapidly on any subject
that happens to present itself. The letters of Voltaire do not perhaps
supply any ground for disputing Carlyle's sentence on Voltaire (a
sentence which has excited the wrath of French critics) that there is
not one great thought in all his works. But they enable us, even better
than any other divisi