y heart leaped at the sight of so
extraordinary a man. He had just then quitted his Garden, and was
crossing the court before his House. Seeing my chaise, and me on the
point of mounting it, he made a sign to his servant who had been my
CICERONE, to go to him; in order, I suppose, to inquire who I was.
After they had exchanged a few words together, he," M. de Voltaire,
"approached the place where I was standing motionless, in order to
contemplate his person as much as I could while his eyes were turned
from me; but on seeiug him move towards me, I found myself drawn by
some irresistible power towards him; and, without knowing what I did, I
insensibly met him half-way.

"It is not easy to conceive it possible for life to subsist in a form
so nearly composed of mere skin and bone as that of M. de Voltaire."
Extremely lean old Gentleman! "He complained of decrepitude, and said,
He supposed I was anxious to form an idea of the figure of one walking
after death. However, his eyes and whole countenance are still full
of fire; and though so emaciated, a more lively expression cannot be
imagined.

"He inquired after English news; and observed that Poetical squabbles
had given way to Political ones; but seemed to think the spirit of
opposition as necessary in poetry as in politics. _'Les querelles
d'auteurs sont pour le bien de la litterature, comme dans un
gouvernement libre les querelles des grands, et les clameurs des petits,
sont necessaires a la liberte._' And added, 'When critics are silent, it
does not so much prove the Age to be correct, as dull.' He inquired
what Poets we had now; I told him we had Mason and Gray. 'They write
but little,' said he: 'and you seem to have no one who lords it over the
rest, like Dryden, Pope and Swift.' I told him that it was one of the
inconveniences of Periodical Journals, however well executed, that they
often silenced modest men of genius, while impudent blockheads were
impenetrable, and unable to feel the critic's scourge: that Mr. Gray and
Mr. Mason had both been illiberally treated by mechanical critics, even
in newspapers; and added, that modesty and love of quiet seemed in these
gentlemen to have got the better even of their love of fame.

"During this conversation, we approached the buildings that he was
constructing near the road to his Chateau. 'These,' said he, pointing
to them, 'are the most innocent, and perhaps the most useful, of all
my works.' I observed that he had oth