re really incomparable in their kind; not equalled in
graceful felicity even by Goethe, and by him alone of Poets approached
in that respect. At Berlin, Autumn 1743, Three consummate Madrigals:--

1. TO PRINCESS ULRIQUE.

"Souvent un peu de verite
Se mele au plus grossier mensonge:
Cette nuit, dans l'erreur d'un songe,
Au rang des rois j'etais monte.
Je vous aimais, Princesse, et j'osais vous le dire!
Les dieux a mon reveil ne m'ont pas tout ote,
Je n'ai perdu que mon empire."

2. TO PRINCESSES ULRIQUE AND AMELIA.

"Si Paris venait sur la terre
Pour juger entre vos beaux yeux,
Il couperait la pomme en deux,
Et ne produirait pas de guerre."

3. TO PRINCESSES ULRIQUE, AMELIA AND WILHELMINA.

"Pardon, charmante Ulrique; pardon, belle Amelie;
J'ai cru n'aimer que vous la reste de ma vie,
Et ne servir que sous vos lois;
Mais enfin j'entends et je vois
Cette adorable Soeur dont l'Amour suit les traces:
Ah, ce n'est pas outrager les Trois Graces
Que de les aimer toutes trois!"

[1. "A grain of truth is often mingled with the stupidest delusion.
Yesternight, in the error of a dream, I had risen to the rank of king;
I loved you, Princess, and had the audacity to say so! The gods, at my
awakening, did not strip me wholly; my kingdom was all they took from
me." 2. "If Paris [of Troy] came back to decide on the charms of you
Two, he would halve the Apple, and produce no War." 3. "Pardon, charming
Ulrique; beautiful Amelia, pardon: I thought I should love only you for
the rest of my life, and serve under your laws only: but at last I hear
and see this adorable Sister, whom Love follows as Page:--Ah, it is not
offending the Three Graces to love them all three!" --In _Oeuvres de
Voltaire,_ xviii.: No. 1 is, p. 292 (in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xiv.
90-92, the ANSWERS to it); No. 2 is, p. 320; No. 3, p. 321.]

BRUNSWICK, 16th October (blazing sunset, as it proved, but brighter
almost than meridian), a LETTER FROM VOLTAIRE TO MAUPERTUIS (still in
France since that horrible Mollwitz-Pandour Business).

"In my wanderings I received the Letter where my dear Flattener of this
Globe deigns to remember me with so much friendship. Is it possible
that--... I made your compliments to all your friends at Berlin; th