00 pounds at present; the richest literary
man ever heard of hitherto, as well as the remarkablest in some other
respects. But we have to mark the second phasis of his life [in which
Friedrich now sees him], and how it grew out of this first one.

"PHASIS SECOND (1728-1733).--Returning home as if quietly triumphant,
with such a talent in him, and such a sanction put upon it and him by a
neighboring Nation, and by all the world, Voltaire was warmly received,
in his old aristocratic circles, by cultivated France generally; and
now in 1728, in his thirty-second year, might begin to have definite
outlooks of a sufficiently royal kind, in Literature and otherwise. Nor
is he slow, far from it, to advance, to conquer and enjoy. He writes
successful literature, falls in love with women of quality; encourages
the indigent and humble; eclipses, and in case of need tramples down,
the too proud. He elegizes poor Adrienne Lecouvreur, the Actress,--our
poor friend the Comte de Saxe's female friend; who loyally emptied out
her whole purse for him, 30,000 pounds in one sum, that he might try
for Courland, and whether he could fall in love with her of the Swollen
Cheek there; which proved impossible. Elegizes Adrienne, slightly, and
even buries her under cloud of night: ready to protect unfortunate
females of merit. Especially theatrical females; having much to do in
the theatre, which we perceive to be the pulpit or real preaching-place
of cultivated France in those years. All manner of verse, all manner of
prose, he dashes off with surprising speed and grace: showers of light
spray for the moment; and always some current of graver enterprise,
_Siecle de Louis Quatorze_ or the like, going on beneath it. For he is a
most diligent, swift, unresting man; and studies and learns amazingly in
such a rackety existence. Victorious enough in some senses; defeat, in
Literature, never visited him. His Plays, coming thick on the heels of
one another, rapid brilliant pieces, are brilliantly received by the
unofficial world; and ought to dethrone dull Crebillon, and the sleepy
potentates of Poetry that now are. Which in fact is their result with
the public; but not yet in the highest courtly places;--a defect much to
be condemned and lamented.

"Numerous enemies arise, as is natural, of an envious venomous
description; this is another ever-widening shadow in the sunshine. In
fact we perceive he has, besides the inner obstacles and griefs, two
class