e has given weight to my
verdicts on matters. Probably I never could have written this Book at
Paris.' A consolation for one's exile, MON ENFANT." [To Niece Denis
(--OEuvres,--lxxiv. 247, &c. &c.), "28th October, 1750," and subsequent
dates.]

It is proper also to observe that, besides shining at the King's Suppers
like no other, Voltaire applies himself honestly to do for his Majesty
the small work required of him,--that of Verse-correcting now and then.
Two Specimens exist; two Pieces criticised, ODE AUX PRUSSIENS, and THE
ART OF WAR: portions of that Reprint now going on ("to the extent of
Twelve Copies,"--woe lies in one of them, most unexpected at this time!)
"AU DONJON DU CHATEAU;"--under benefit of Voltaire's remarks. Which
one reads curiously, not without some surprise. [In--OEuvres de
Frederic,--x. 276-303.] Surprise, first at Voltaire's official fidelity;
his frankness, rigorous strictness in this small duty: then at the kind
of correcting, instructing and lessoning, that had been demanded of him
by his Royal Pupil. Mere grammatical stylistic skin-deep work: nothing
(or, at least, in these Specimens nothing) of attempt upon the interior
structure, or the interior harmony even of utterance: solely the
Parisian niceties, graces, laws of poetic language, the FAS and the
NEFAS in regard to all that: this is what his Majesty would fain be
taught from the fountain-head;--one wonders his Majesty did not learn
to spell, which might have been got from a lower source!--And all this
Voltaire does teach with great strictness. For example, in the very
first line, in the very first word, set, before him:--

"PRUSSIENS, QUE LA VALEUR CONDUISIT A LA GLOIRE," so Friedrich had
written (ODE AUX PRUSSIENS, which is specimen First); and thus Voltaire
criticises: "The Hero here makes his PRUSSIENS of two syllables; and
afterwards, in another strophe, he grants them three. A King is master
of his favors. At the same time, one does require a little uniformity;
and the IENS are usually of two syllables, as LIENS, SILESIENS,
AUTRICHIENS; excepting the monosyllables BIEN, RIEN"--Enough, enough!--A
severe, punctual, painstaking Voltaire, sitting with the schoolmaster's
bonnet on head; ferula visible, if not actually in hand. For which, as
appears, his Majesty was very grateful to the Trismegistus of men.

Voltaire's flatteries to Friedrich, in those scattered little Billets
with their snatches of verse, are the prettiest in the world,-