his destiny if it is unfortunate. I have never
piqued myself on being a philosopher; though I have made my efforts to
become so. The small progress I made did teach me to despise grandeurs
and riches: but I could never find in philosophy any cure for the wounds
of the heart, except that of getting done with our miseries by ceasing
to live. The state I am in is worse than death. I see the greatest
man of his age, my Brother, my friend, reduced to the frightfulest
extremity. I see my whole Family exposed to dangers and perhaps
destruction; my native Country torn by pitiless enemies; the Country
where I am [Reichs Army, Anspach, what not] menaced by perhaps similar
misfortune. Would to Heaven I were alone loaded with all the miseries I
have described to you! I would suffer them, and with firmness.

"Pardon these details. You invite me, by the part you take in what
regards me, to open my heart to you. Alas, hope is well-nigh banished
from it. Fortune, when she changes, is as constant in her persecutions
as in her favors. History is full of those examples:--but I have found
none equal to the one we now see; nor any War as inhuman and as cruel
among civilized nations. You would sigh if you knew the sad situation
of Germany and Preussen. The cruelties which the Russians commit in that
latter Country make nature shudder. [Details, horrible but authentic, in
_Helden-Geschichte, _ already cited.] How happy you in your Hermitage;
where you repose on your laurels, and can philosophize with a calm mind
on the deliriums of men! I wish you all the happiness imaginable. If
Fortune ever favor us again, count on all my gratitude. I will never
forget the marks of attachment which you have given; my sensibility is
your warrant; I am never half-and-half a friend, and I shall always be
wholly so of Brother Voltaire.--WILHELMINA.

"Many compliments to Madame Denis. Continue, I pray you, to write to the
King." [In _Voltaire,_ ii. 197-199; lxxvii. 57.]

VOLTAIRE TO WILHELMINA (Day uncertain: THE DELICES, SEPTEMBER,
1757).--"Madam, my heart is touched more than ever by the goodness and
the confidence your Royal Highness deigns to show me. How can I be but
melted by emotion! I see that it is solely your nobleness of soul that
renders you unhappy. I feel myself born to be attached with idolatry to
superior and sympathetic minds, who think like you. "You know how much
I have always, essentially and at heart, been attached to the King
your Brother