rns of fate,
that MAHOMET could be acted a fourth time in Paris, and thereafter AD
LIBITUM down to this day. [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ ii. 137 n.; &c. &c.]

Such tempest in a teapot is not unexampled, nay rather is very frequent,
in that Anarchic Republic called of Letters. Confess, reader, that you
too would have needed some patience in M. de Voltaire's place; with
such a Heaven's own Inspiration of a MAHOMET in your hands, and such a
terrestrial Doggery at your heels. Suppose the bitterest of your barking
curs were a Reverend Desfontaines of Sodom, whom you yourself had
saved from the gibbet once, and again and again from starving? It is
positively a great Anarchy, and Fountain of Anarchies, all that, if you
will consider; and it will have results under the sun. You cannot help
it, say you; there is no shutting up of a Reverend Desfontaines, which
would be so salutary to himself and to us all? No:--and when human
reverence (daily going, in such ways) is quite gone from the world;
and your lowest blockhead and scoundrel (usually one entity) shall have
perfect freedom to spit in the face of your highest sage and hero,--what
a remarkably Free World shall we be!

Voltaire, keeping good silence as to all this, and minded for Brussels
again, receives the King of Prussia's invitation; lays it at his
Eminency Fleury's feet; will not accept, unless his Eminency and my own
King of France (possibly to their advantage, if one might hint such a
thing!) will permit it. [Ib. lxxii. 555 (Letter to Fleury, "Paris, Aug.
22d").] "By all means; go, and"--The rest is in dumb-show; meaning, "Try
to pump him for us!" Under such omens, Voltaire and his divine Emilie
return to their Honsbruck Lawsuit: "Silent Brussels, how preferable
to Paris and its mad cries!" Voltaire, leaving the divine Emilie at
Brussels, September 2d, sets out for Aix,--Aix attainable within the
day. He is back at Brussels late in the evening, September 9th:--how
he had fared, and what extent of pumping there was, learn from the
following Excerpts, which are all dated the morrow after his return:--

THREE LETTERS OF VOLTAIRE, DATED BRUSSELS, 10th SEPT. 1742.

1. TO CIDEVILLE (the Rouen Advocate, who has sometimes troubled us)....
"I have been to see the King of Prussia since I began this Letter
[beginning of it dates September 1st]. I have courageously resisted
his fine proposals. He offers me a beautiful House in Berlin, a pretty
Estate; but I prefer my second-f