to resent the malignity and manoeuvres of Maupertius, to be burnt by the common hangman. Voltaire resigned the key of Chamberlain, and the cross of the Order of Merit, in the hands of the king, who compelled him to resume them. For a moment they appeared to be reconciled, but the charm was broken, and the illusion dissipated. It was with the greatest difficulty that Voltaire obtained permission to take the waters of Plombieres, which were necessary for his health; and he set out with the firm resolution of never returning. During his residence in Prussia he had writtten the Age of Louis XIV. a part of the Essay on the Manners, &c. and he had revised the Pucelle. On his arrival at Frankfort, he was arrested upon the most frivolous pretext, and ignominiously treated by the agents of Frederic, who, ashamed of his conduct, disavowed their proceedings, but neglected to punish them. Voltaire escaped to Colmar. He remained during two years in Alsace, and published his Annals of the Empire, the materials for which he had discovered in the abbey of Senones, of which Calinet was the abbot. He was desirous of returning to Paris, but, having previously ascertained, that his visit would be obnoxious to the court, he proceeded to the baths of Aix, in Savoy. From thence he went to Geneva, to consult the celebrated physician, Tronchin, who assured him of his entire recovery if he would remain in his neighbourhood. This tempting promise, the beauty of the country, the freedom enjoyed by its inhabitants, and the necessity of repose after so many fatigues, determined him to fix his residence first at Tourney, then at Les Délices, and finally at Ferney.

The life of Voltaire now assumed a calmer aspect. From this time, entirely devoted to philosophy and litera

ture, he composed, in his retreat, the most numerous, if not the most brilliant, part of his writings. He completed his Essay on the Manners, &c. of Nations, the Orphan of China, Tancred, Olympia, the Triumvirate, the Scythes, the Guebres, the Laws of Minos, Don Pedro, the Pelopides, Irene, &c. &c. It was here he wrote most of his romances and tales, and that profusion of little detached pieces in prose and verse, which circulated so rapidly through every part of Europe. It was here that he also defended the lives or the memory of the Calas, the Chevalier de la Barre, Sirven, Martin, Montbailly, Lally, and Morangiès. Voltaire, whose heart was so little known, consecrated his time, his genius, and his fortune, to succour the oppressed, to relieve the unfortunate, and in the general exercise of benevolence. Ferney, which was before only a miserable village, he converted into a neat and well-built town, inhabited by a flourishing colony of clock-makers. By his efforts, the country of Gex was exempt from the tyranny of the farmers-general. He endeavoured to release the people of Mont-Jura from their fetters. He educated under his own eye, and suitably married a female descendant of the great Corneille. Ferney became the capital of literature, and the asylum of philosophy. The zealous partisans of Voltaire, the enthusiastic admirers of his opinions and his writings, resorted thither as so many pilgrims to a shrine. No stranger of distinction ever omitted visiting him. The old man received men of literature and genius with affability, the great with distinction, ladies with his usual grace, and all with politeness. Those young authors in whose success he interested himself, he retained with him for several months, and they studied or composed under his kind and vigilant eye. To these continual visits, extorted by his fame and his writings, was added an almost universal cox

respondence. The King of Prussia, with whom he was, to appearance at least, reconciled-the Empress of Russia, and other sovereigns-the learned and the literati of almost every country-many of the high nobility, and the most celebrated females of France, entertained with him a settled commerce of letters, in which he was always most distinguished for punctuality, politeness, and wit. His innumerable letters so remarkable for their sprightliness, humour, and grace, which would have occupied every moment of any other person, and which alone would have been sufficient for his glory, appear to have trespassed little on the time of this extraordinary man.

For many years Voltaire had been desirous of revisiting his native spot. He had recently bestowed Madame de Varicourt in marriage to M. de Villette, and he accompanied them to Paris. His residence in that city was a perpetual series of triumph and congratulation. In the streets, the enthusiastic crowds surrounded his carriage, repeating his name and passages from his works: Irene was represented before him, and his bust was crowned on the theatre, amidst the tears, the applauses, and the acclamations of thousands. So many triumphs appeared to re-animate his zeal, and redouble his activity-it seemed as if he felt it necessary to justify such an extraordinary reception by other productions. He proposed to the academy the plan of a new dictionary; selected for his own share the first letter of the alphabet, and devoted himself night and day to study. This excessive labour, and the acuteness of his feelings exalted to the highest pitch, overcame the little strength he had left. He was deprived of rest. To mitigate his sufferings, he swallowed opium to excess, and sunk into a lethargy from which he recovered only at long intervals, and for a few moments. He expired, at length, on the 30th of May, 1778, at the age of 84 years, 3 months, and 8 days.

The priests who attended during his illness were not able to draw from him any abjuration of his principles, or the acknowledgment of J. C. They refused to inter him in holy ground. One of his nephews, the Abbé Mignot, Abbot of Sellieres, secretly conveyed the body of his uncle to his own church, and it remained there till it was removed in 1792 to the Pantheon, where it is now deposited.