be the delight of
all Paris; but for God's sake never appear upon any public stage.'

"This is a faithful account of my first interview with M. de Voltaire:
the second was more determinative, since he consented, after the most
earnest solicitations on my part, to receive me as his pensioner, and to
cause a small theatre to be erected near his dwelling, where he had the
kindness to let me play in company with his nieces, and the whole
society to which I belonged. He expressed great dissatisfaction at
learning that it had hitherto cost us a good deal of money to afford the
public and our friends amusement.

"The expense to which this establishment put M. de Voltaire, and the
disinterested offer that he had made me a few days before, proved to me,
in the strongest manner, that his conduct was as generous and noble as
his enemies were unjust, in attributing to him the vice of avarice.

"These are facts of which I have been the witness. I owe yet another
acknowledgment to truth. M. de Voltaire not only assisted me with his
advice, for more than six months that I lived with him, but he also
defrayed all my expenses during the same period; and since my admission
into the theatre, I can prove that I have received from his liberality
more than 2000 crowns. He calls me at this moment his _great actor_, his
_Garrick_, his _dear son_. These are titles that I owe entirely to his
kindness. I only presume to call myself his respectful pupil, who feels
every sentiment of gratitude for his disinterested acts of friendship.

"Ought I not so to feel, when it is to M. de Voltaire alone that I am
indebted for my first knowledge of the art I profess, and from respect
to him, that M. the Duc d'Aumont, granted the order for my debut in the
month of February, 1750?

"By constant perseverance upon every occasion I have now, in the month
of February, 1752, after a debut of seventeen months, surmounted all the
obstacles raised against me both by the city and the court, and procured
myself to be inserted on the list of King's comedians."

FOOTNOTES:

[E] This was M. de Voltaire's only nourishment, from five in the morning
till three in the afternoon.

LIFE OF WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ. AUTHOR OF THE BAEVIAD AND MAEVIAD, AND
TRANSLATOR OF JUVENAL.

(_Continued from page 367._)

The repetitions of which I speak were always attended with applause, and
sometimes with favours more substantial: little collections were now and
then made, a