UPIDO. Fleuri might
have whispered as much to himself: but he was a mild sovereign lord, and
reigned in a gentle polite manner. I swear to you, Maupertuis does not,
in his shop [the Academy here]--where, God be thanked, I never go.

"He has printed a little Pamphlet on Happiness (SUR LE BONHEUR); it
is very dry and miserable. Reminds you of Advertisements for things
lost,--so poor a chance of finding them again. Happiness is not what
he gives to those who read him, to those who live with him; he is not
himself happy, and would be sorry that others were [to Niece Denis
this].

... "A very sweet life here, Madame [Madame d'Argental, an outside
party]: it would have been more so, if Maupertuis had liked. The wish
to please, is no part of his geometrical studies; the problem of
being agreeable to live with, is not one he has solved." [--OEuvres de
Voltaire,--lxxiv. 330, 504 (4th May, 1751, and 14th March, 1752), to the
D'Argentals; to Niece Denis (6th November, 1750, and 24th August, 1751),
lxxiv. 250, 385.]--Add this Anecdote, which is probably D'Arget's, and
worth credit:--

"Voltaire had dinner-party, Maupertuis one of them; party still in the
drawing-room, dinner just coming up. 'President, your Book, SUR LE
BONHEUR, has given me pleasure,' said Voltaire, politely [very politely,
considering what we have just read]; given me pleasure,--a few
obscurities excepted, of which we will talk together some evening.'
'Obscurities?' said Maupertuis, in a gloomy arbitrary tone: 'There may
be such for you, Monsieur!' Voltaire laid his hand on the President's
shoulder [yellow wig near by], looked at him in silence, with
many-twinkling glance, gayety the topmost expression, but by no means
the sole one: 'President, I esteem you, JE VOUS ESTIME, MON PRESIDENT:
you are brave; you want war: we will have it. But, in the mean while,
let us eat the King's roast meat.'" [Duvernet (2d FORM of him, always,
p. 176.]

Friedrich's Answers to these Voltaire Letters, if he wrote any, are all
gone. Probably he answered almost nothing; what we have of his relates
always to specific business, receipt of LOUIS QUATORZE, and the like;
and is always in friendly tone. Handsomely keeping Silence for Two! Here
is a snatch from him, on neutral figures and movements of the time:--

FRIEDRICH TO WIILHELMINA (November 17th, 1751).--"I think the Margraf of
Anspach will not have stayed long with you. He is not made to taste the
sweets of society: his passi