s from
Marburg, his "Philosophy" and he supreme among mankind: this, and other
extinct points, the reader's fancy will endeavor to rekindle in some
slight measure:--

TO M. DE VOLTAIRE, AT CIREY (from the Crown-Prince).

"BERLIN, 8th August, 1736.

"MONSIEUR,--Although I have not the satisfaction of knowing you
personally, you are not the less known to me through your Works. They
are treasures of the mind, if I may so express myself; and they reveal
to the reader new beauties at every fresh perusal. I think I have
recognized in them the character of their ingenious Author, who does
honor to our age and to human nature. If ever the dispute on the
comparative merits of the Moderns and the Ancients should be revived,
the modern great men will owe it to you, and to you only, that the scale
is turned in their favor. With the excellent quality of Poet you join
innumerable others more or less related to it. Never did Poet before
put Metaphysics into rhythmic cadence: to you the honor was reserved of
doing it first.

"This taste for Philosophy manifested in your writings, induces me to
send you a translated Copy of the _Accusation and defence of M. Wolf,_
the most celebrated Philosopher of our days; who, for having carried
light into the darkest places of Metaphysics, is cruelly accused of
irreligion and atheism. Such is the destiny of great men; their superior
genius exposes them to the poisoned arrows of calumny and envy. I am
about getting a Translation made of the _Treatise on God, the Soul,
and the World,"_--Translation done by an Excellency Suhm, as has been
hinted,--"from the pen of the same Author. I will send it you when it
is finished; and I am sure that the force of evidence in all his
propositions, and their close geometrical sequence, will strike you.

"The kindness and assistance you afford to all who devote themselves to
the Arts and Sciences, makes me hope that you will not exclude me from
the number of those whom you find worthy of your instructions:--it is so
I would call your intercourse by Correspondence of Letters; which cannot
be other than profitable to every thinking being....

... "beauties without number in your works. Your HENRIADE delights me.
The tragedy of CESAR shows us sustained characters; the sentiments in it
are magnificent and grand, and one feels that Brutus is either a Roman,
or else an Englishman _(ou un Romain ou un Anglais)._ Your ALZIRE, to
the graces of novelty adds...

"Monsi