l,--last year of
George I.'s reign, and first of George II.'s. But mere inanity and
darkness visible reign, in all his Biographies, over this period of his
life, which was above all others worth investigating: seek not to know
it; no man has inquired into it, probably no competent man now ever
will. By hints in certain Letters of the period, we learn that he
lodged, or at one time lodged, in 'Maiden Lane, Covent Garden;' one of
those old Houses that yet stand in Maiden Lane: for which small fact
let us be thankful. His own Letters of the period are dated now and
then from 'Wandsworth.' Allusions there are to Bolingbroke; but the
Wandsworth is not Bolingbroke's mansion, which stood in Battersea; the
Wandsworth was one Edward Fawkener's; a man somewhat admirable to young
Voltaire, but extinct now, or nearly so, in human memory. He had been a
Turkey Merchant, it would seem, and nevertheless was admitted to speak
his word in intellectual, even in political circles; which was wonderful
to young Voltaire. This Fawkener, I think, became Sir Edward Fawkener,
and some kind of 'Secretary to the Duke of Cumberland:'--I judge it to
be the same Fawkener; a man highly unmemorable now, were it not for the
young Frenchman he was hospitable to. Fawkener's and Bolingbroke's
are perhaps the only names that turn up in Voltaire's LETTERS of
this English Period: over which generally there reigns, in the French
Biographies, inane darkness, with an intimation, half involuntary, that
it SHOULD have been made luminous, and would if perfectly easy.

"We know, from other sources, that he had acquaintance with many men
in England, with all manner of important men: Notes to Pope in
Voltaire-English, visit of Voltaire to Congreve, Notes even to such as
Lady Sundon in the interior of the Palace, are known of. The brightest
young fellow in the world did not want for introductions to the highest
quarters, in that time of political alliance, and extensive private
acquaintance, between his Country and ours. And all this he was the
man to improve, both in the trivial and the deep sense. His bow to the
divine Princess Caroline and suite, could it fail in graceful reverence
or what else was needed? Dexterous right words in the right places,
winged with ESPRIT so called: that was the man's supreme talent,
in which he had no match, to the last. A most brilliant, swift,
far-glancing young man, disposed to make himself generally agreeable.
For the rest, his wond