er, we can see, was kept awake; wonder readily
inclining, in his circumstances, towards admiration. The stereotype
figure of the Englishman, always the same, which turns up in Voltaire's
WORKS, is worth noting in this respect. A rugged surly kind of fellow,
much-enduring, not intrinsically bad; splenetic without complaint,
standing oddly inexpugnable in that natural stoicism of his; taciturn,
yet with strange flashes of speech in him now and then, something which
goes beyond laughter and articulate logic, and is the taciturn elixir of
these two, what they call 'humor' in their dialect: this is pretty much
the REVERSE of Voltaire's own self, and therefore all the welcomer to
him; delineated always with a kind of mockery, but with evident love.
What excellences are in England, thought Voltaire; no Bastille in it,
for one thing! Newton's Philosophy annihilated the vortexes of Descartes
for him; Locke's Toleration is very grand (especially if all is
uncertain, and YOU are in the minority); then Collins, Wollaston and
Company,--no vile Jesuits here, strong in their mendacious mal-odorous
stupidity, despicablest yet most dangerous of creatures, to check
freedom of thought! Illustrious Mr. Pope, of the _Essay on Man,_ surely
he is admirable; as are Pericles Bolingbroke, and many others. Even
Bolingbroke's high-lacquered brass is gold to this young French friend
of his.--Through all which admirations and exaggerations the progress of
the young man, toward certain very serious attainments and achievements,
is conceivable enough.

"One other man, who ought to be mentioned in the Biographies, I find
Voltaire to have made acquaintance with, in England: a German
M. Fabrice, one of several Brothers called Fabrice or
Fabricius,--concerning whom, how he had been at Bender, and how Voltaire
picked CHARLES DOUSE from the memory of him, there was already mention.
The same Fabrice who held poor George I. in his arms while they drove,
galloping, to Osnabriick, that night, IN EXTREMIS:--not needing mention
again. The following is more to the point.

"Voltaire, among his multifarious studies while in England, did not
forget that of economics: his Poem LA LIGUE,--surreptitiously printed,
three years since, under that title (one Desfontaines, a hungry
Ex-Jesuit, the perpetrator), [1723, VIE, par T. J. D. V. (that is, "M--"
in the second form), p. 59.]--he now took in hand for his own benefit;
washed it clean of its blots; christened it HENRIAD