res de
Voltaire,--xxvii. 220 n.] Could there be a phenomenon more indisputably
of bramble nature?

"He had no success at Berlin, in spite of his merits; could not come
near the King at all; but assiduously frequented Maupertuis, the
flower of human thinkers in that era,--who was very humane to him in
consequence. 'How is it, O flower of human thinkers, that I cannot get
on with his Majesty, or make the least way?' (HELAS, MONSIEUR, you have
enemies!' answered he of the red wig; and told La Beaumelle (hear it, ye
Heavens), That M. de Voltaire had called his Majesty's attention to
the PENSEE given above, one evening at Supper Royal; 'heard it myself,
Monsieur--husht!' Upon which--

"'Upon which, see, paltry La Beaumelle has become my enemy for life!'
shrieks Voltaire many times afterwards: 'And it was false, I declare
to Heaven, and again declare; it was not I, it was D'Argens quizzing
me about it, that called his Majesty's attention to that PENSEE of
Blockhead La Beaumelle,--you treacherous Perpetual President, stirring
up enemies against me, and betraying secrets of the King's table.'
Sorrow on your red wig, and you!--It is certain La Beaumelle, soon after
this, left Berlin: not in love with Voltaire. And there soon appeared,
at Franfurt-on-Mayn, a Pirate Edition of our brand-new SIECLE DE LOUIS
QUATORZE (with Annotations scurrilous and flimsy);--La Beaumelle the
professed Perpetrator; 'who received for the job 7 pounds 10s. net!'
[Ib. xx.] asseverates the well-informed Voltaire. Oh, M. de Voltaire,
and why not leave it to him, then? Poor devil, he got put into the
Bastille too, by and by; Royal Persons being touched by some of his
stupid foot-notes.

"La Beaumelle had a long course of it, up and down the world, in and
out of the Bastille; writing much, with inconsiderable recompense, and
always in a wooden manure worthy of his First vocation in the Geneva
time. 'A man of pleasing physiognomy,' says Formey, 'and expressed
himself well. I received his visit 14th January, 1752,'--to which latter
small circumstance (welcome as a fixed date to us here) La Beaumelle's
Biography is now pretty much reduced for mankind. [Formey, ii. 221.] He
continued Maupertuis's adorer: and was not a bad creature, only a dull
wooden one, with obstinate temper. A LIFE OF MAUPERTUIS of his writing
was sent forth lately, [--Vie de Maupertuis--(cited above), Paris,
1866.] after lying hidden a hundred years: but it is dull, dead,
painfully lig