abyss between taste and genius is
immense! Shakspeare had an amazing genius, but no taste: he has spoiled
the taste of the Nation. He has been their taste for two hundred years;
and what is the taste of a Nation for two hundred years will be so for
two thousand. This kind of taste becomes a religion; there are, in your
Country, a great many Fanatics for Shakspeare.'

SHERLOCK. "'Were you personally acquainted with Lord Bolingbroke?'

VOLTAIRE. "'Yes. His face was imposing, and so was his voice; in his
WORKS there are many leaves and little fruit; distorted expressions,
and periods intolerably long. [TAKING DOWN A BOOK.] There, you see the
KORAN, which is well read, at least. [It was marked throughout with bits
of paper.] There are HISTORIC DOUBTS, by Horace Walpole [which had also
several marks]; here is the portrait of Richard III.; you see he was a
handsome youth.'

SHERLOCK (making an abrupt transition). "'You have built a Church?'

VOLTAIRE. "'True; and it is the only one in the Universe in honor of
God [DEO EREXIT VOLTAIRE, as we read above]: you have plenty of Churches
built to St. Paul, to St. Genevieve, but not one to God.'" EXIT Sherlock
(to his Inn; makes jotting as above;--is to dine at Ferney to-morrow).

SCENE III. DINNER-TABLE OF VOLTAIRE.

"The next day, as we sat down to Dinner," our Host in the above shining
costume, "he said, in English tolerably pronounced:--

VOLTAIRE. "'We are here for liberty and property! [parody of some old
Speech in Parliament, let us guess,--liberty and property, my Lords!]
This Gentleman--whom let me present to Monsieur Sherlock--is a Jesuit
[old Pere Adam, whom I keep for playing Chess, in his old, unsheltered
days]; he wears his hat: I am a poor invalid,--I wear my nightcap.'...

"I do not now recollect why he quoted these verses, also in English, by
Rochester, on CHARLES SECOND:--

'Here lies the mutton-eating King,

Who never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.'

But speaking of Racine, he quoted this Couplet (of Roscomman's ESSAY ON
TRANSLATED VERSE):--

'The weighty bullion of one sterling line
Drawn to French wire would through whole pages shine.

SHERLOCK. "'The English prefer Corneille to Racine.'

VOLTAIRE. "'That is because the English are not sufficiently acquainted
with the French tongue to feel the beauties of Racine's style, or
the harmony of his versification. Corneille ought to please them more
because he