y, and which comes to him, without help
of Formey, through the Public Newspapers) Konig, in a brief, proud
enough, but perfectly quiet, mild and manful manner, resigns his
Membership. "Ceases, from this day (June 18th, 1752), to have the honor
of belonging to your Academy; 'an honor I had been the prouder of, as it
came to me unasked;'--and will wish, you, from the outside henceforth,
successful campaigns in the field of Science." [--Maupertuisiana,--No.
iv. 129.] And sets about preparing his Pamphlet to instruct mankind on
the subject. Maupertuis, it appears, did write, and made others write to
Konig's Sovereign Lady, the Dowager Princess of Orange, "How extremely
handsome it would be, could her Most Serene Highness, a friend to
Pure Science, be pleased to induce Monsieur Konig not to continue this
painful Controversy, but to sit quiet with what he had got." [Voltaire
(infra).] Which her Most Serene Highness by no mean thought the suitable
course. Still less did Konig himself; whose APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC, with
DEFENCE OF APPEAL,--reasonably well done, as usual, and followed and
accompanied by the multitude of Commentators,--appeared in due course.
["September, 1752, Konig's APPEL" (Preuss, in--OEuvres de Frederic,--xv.
60 n.).] Till, before long, the Public was thoroughly instructed; and
nobody, hardly the signing Curators, or thin Euler himself, not to speak
of Perpetual Formey, who had never been strong in the matter, could well
believe in "forgery" or care to speak farther on such a subject.
Subject gone wholly to the Stygian Fens, long since; "forgery" not now
imaginable by anybody!

The rumor of these things rose high and wide; and the quantity of
publishing upon them, quasi-scientifically and otherwise, in the serious
vein and the jocose, was greater than we should fancy. ["Letter from a
Marquis;" "Letter from Mr. T---to M. S---" (Mr. T. lives in London;--"JE
TRAVERSE LE Queen's Square, ET JE RENCONTRE NOTRE AMI D---: 'AVEZ-VOUS
LA l'Appel au Public?' DIT-IL"--); "Letter by Euler in the Berlin
Gazette," &c. &c. (in--Maupertuisiana--).] Voltaire, for above a month
past, had been fully aware of the case (24th July, 1752, writing to
Niece, "heard yesterday"); not without commentary to oneself and others.
Voltaire, with a kind of love to Konig, and a very real hatred to
Maupertuis and to oppression generally, took pen himself, among the
others (Konig's APPEAL just out),--could not help doing it, though he
had better n