o London, and quite given over to the
pleasures of indolence and friendshipp. The true and generous
affection of this man who soothes the bitterness of my life brings
me to love you more and more. All the instances of friendshipp
indear my friend Tiriot to me. I have seen often mylord and mylady
Bolinbroke; I have found their affection still the same, even
increased in proportion to my unhappiness; they offered me all,
their money, their house; but I have refused all, because they are
lords, and I have accepted all from Mr. Faulknear because he is a
single gentleman.

We know that the friendship thus begun continued for many years, but as
to who or what Everard Falkener was--besides the fact that he was a
'single gentleman'--we have only just information enough to make us wish
for more.

'I am here,' he wrote after Voltaire had gone, 'just as you left me,
neither merrier nor sadder, nor richer nor poorer, enjoying perfect
health, having everything that makes life agreeable, without love,
without avarice, without ambition, and without envy; and as long as all
this lasts I shall take the liberty to call myself a very happy man.'
This stoical Englishman was a merchant who eventually so far overcame
his distaste both for ambition and for love, as to become first
Ambassador at Constantinople and then Postmaster-General--has anyone,
before or since, ever held such a singular succession of offices?--and
to wind up by marrying, as we are intriguingly told, at the age of
sixty-three, 'the illegitimate daughter of General Churchill.'

We have another glimpse of Voltaire at Wandsworth in a curious document
brought to light by M. Lanson. Edward Higginson, an assistant master at
a Quaker's school there, remembered how the excitable Frenchman used to
argue with him for hours in Latin on the subject of 'water-baptism,'
until at last Higginson produced a text from St. Paul which seemed
conclusive.

Some time after, Voltaire being at the Earl Temple's seat in
Fulham, with Pope and others such, in their conversation fell on
the subject of water-baptism. Voltaire assumed the part of a
quaker, and at length came to mention that assertion of Paul. They
questioned there being such an assertion in all his writings; on
which was a large wager laid, as near as I remember of L500: and
Voltaire, not retaining where it was, had one of the Earl's horses,
and c