E, under which name
it is still known over all the world;--and printed it; published it
here, by subscription, in 1726; one of the first things he undertook.
Very splendid subscription; headed by Princess Caroline, and much
favored by the opulent of quality. Which yielded an unknown but very
considerable sum of thousands sterling, and grounded not only the
world-renown but the domestic finance of M. de Voltaire. For the fame of
the 'new epic,' as this HENRIADE was called, soon spread into all lands.
And such fame, and other agencies on his behalf, having opened the way
home for Voltaire, he took this sum of Thousands Sterling along with
him; laid it out judiciously in some city lottery, or profitable scrip
then going at Paris, which at once doubled the amount: after which he
invested it in Corn-trade, Army Clothing, Barbary-trade, Commissariat
Bacon-trade, all manner of well-chosen trades,--being one of the
shrewdest financiers on record;--and never from that day wanted
abundance of money, for one thing. Which he judged to be extremely
expedient for a literary man, especially in times of Jesuit and other
tribulation. 'You have only to watch,' he would say, 'what scrips,
public loans, investments in the field of agio, are offered; if you
exert any judgment, it is easy to gain there: do not the stupidest of
mortals gain there, by intensely attending to it?'

"Voltaire got almost nothing by his Books, which he generally had to
disavow, and denounce as surreptitious supposititious scandals, when
some sharp-set Book-seller, in whose way he had laid the savory
article as bait, chose to risk his ears for the profit of snatching
and publishing it. Next to nothing by his Books; but by his fine
finance-talent otherwise, he had become possessed of ample moneys. Which
were so cunningly disposed, too, that he had resources in every Country;
and no conceivable combination of confiscating Jesuits and dark fanatic
Official Persons could throw him out of a livelihood, whithersoever he
might be forced to run. A man that looks facts in the face; which is
creditable of him. The vulgar call it avarice and the like, as their way
is: but M. de Voltaire is convinced that effects will follow causes; and
that it well beseems a lonely Ishmaelite, hunting his way through the
howling wildernesses and confused ravenous populations of this world, to
have money in his pocket. He died with a revenue of some 7,000 pounds a
year, probably as good as 20,0