Readers have heard of the PLACE DU CARROUSEL at Paris; and know probably
that Louis XIV. held world-famous Carrousel there (A.D. 1662); and,
in general, that Carrousel has something to do with Tourneying, or
the Shadow of Tourneying. It is, in fact, a kind of superb be-tailored
running at the ring, instead of be-blacksmithed running at one another.
A Second milder Edition of those Tournament sports, and dangerous trials
of strength and dexterity, which were so grand a business in the Old
iron Ages. Of which, in the form of Carrousel or otherwise, down
almost to the present day, there have been examples, among puissant
Lords;--though now it is felt to have become extremely hollow; perhaps
incapable of fully entertaining anybody, except children and their
nurses on a high occasion.
A century ago, before the volcanic explosion of so many things which
it has since become wearisome to think of in this earnest world, the
Tournament, emblem of an Age of Chivalry, which was gone: but had not
yet declared itself to be quite gone, and even to be turned topsy-turvy,
had still substance as a mummery,--not enough, I should say, to spend
much money upon. Not much real money: except, indeed, the money were
offered you gratis, from other parties interested? Sir Jonas kindly
informs us, by insinuation, that this was, to a good degree, Friedrich's
case in the now Carrousel: "a thing got up by the private efforts of
different great Lords and Princes of the blood;" each party tailoring,
harnessing and furbishing himself and followers; Friedrich contributing
little but the arena and general outfit. I know not whether even the
40,000 lamps (for it took place by night) were of his purchase, though
that is likely; and know only that the Suppers and interior Palace
Entertainments would be his. "Did not cost the King much money," says
Sir Jonas; which is satisfactory to know. For of the Carrousel kind,
or of the Royal-Mummery kind in general, there has been, for graceful
arrangement, for magnificence regardless of expense,--inviting your
amiable Lord Malton, and the idlers of all Countries, and awakening the
rapture of Gazetteers,--nothing like it since Louis the Grand's time.
Nothing,--except perhaps that Camp of Muhlberg or Radowitz, where we
once were. Done, this one, not at the King's expense alone, but at other
people's chiefly: that is an unexpected feature, welcome if true; and,
except for Sir Jonas, would not have helped to explain the puzzle
for us, as it did in the then Berlin circles. Muhlberg, in my humble
judgment, was worth two of this as a Mummery;--but the meritorious
feature of Friedrich's is, that it cost him very little.
It was, say all Gazetteers and idle eye-witnesses, a highly splendid
spectacle. By much the most effulgent exhibition Friedrich ever made of
himself in the Expensive-Mummery department: and I could give in extreme
detail the phenomena of it; but, in mercy to poor readers, will not.
Fancy the assiduous hammering and sawing on the Schloss-Platz, amid
crowds of gay loungers, giving cheerful note of preparation, in those
latter days of August, 1750. And, on WEDNESDAY NIGHT, 25th AUGUST,
look and see,--for the due moments only, and vaguely enough (as in the
following Excerpt):--
PALACE-ESPLANADE OF BERLIN, 25th AUGUST, 1750 (dusk sinking into dark):
"Under a windy nocturnal sky, a spacious Parallelogram, enclosed for
jousting as at Aspramont or Trebisond. Wide enough arena in the centre;
vast amphitheatre of wooden seats and passages, firm carpentry and
fitted for its business, rising all round; Audience, select though
multitudinous, sitting decorous and garrulous, say since half-past
eight. There is royal box on the ground-tier; and the King in it, King,
with Princess Amelia for the prizes: opposite to this is entrance for
the Chevaliers,--four separate entrances, I think. Who come,--lo, at
last!--with breathings and big swells of music, as Resuscitations from
the buried Ages.
"They are in four 'Quadrilles,' so termed: Romans, Persians,
Carthaginians, Greeks. Four Jousting Parties, headed each by a Prince
of the Blood:--with such a splendor of equipment for jewels, silver
helmets, sashings, housings, as eye never saw. Prancing on their
glorious battle-steeds (sham-battle, steeds not sham, but champing their
bits as real quadrupeds with fire in their interior):--how many in all,
I forgot to count. Perhaps, on the average, sixty in each Quadrille,
fifteen of them practical Ritters; the rest mythologic winged
standard-bearers, blackamoors, lictors, trumpeters and shining melodious
phantasms as escort,--of this latter kind say in round numbers Two
Hundred altogether; and of actual Ritters threescore. [Blumenthal,--Life
of De Ziethen--(Ziethen was in it, and gained a prize), i. 257-263 et
seq.; Voltaire's LETTERS to Niece Denis (--OEuvres,--lxxiv. 174, 179,
198);--and two contemporary 4tos on the subject, with Drawings &c.,
which may well continue unknown to every reader.] Who run at rings, at
Turks' heads, and at other objects with death-doing lance; and prance
and flash and career along: glorious to see and hear. Under proud
flourishings of drums and trumpets, under bursts and breathings of
wind-music; under the shine of Forty Thousand Lamps, for one item. All
Berlin and the nocturnal firmament looking on,--night rather gusty,
'which blew out many of the lamps,' insinuates Hanway.
"About midnight, Beauty in the form of Princess Amelia distributes the
prizes; Music filling the air; and human 'EUGE'S,' and the surviving
lamps, doing their best. After which the Principalities and Ritters
withdraw to their Palace, to their Balls and their Supper of the gods;
and all the world and his wife goes home again, amid various commentary
from high and low. 'JAMAIS, Never,' murmured one high Gentleman, of the
Impromptu kind, at the Palace Supper-table:--
--'Jamais dans Athene et dans Rome
On n'eut de plus beaux jours, ni de plus digne prix.
J'ai vu le fils de Mars sous les traits de Paris,
Et Venus qui donnait la pomme.'"--
["Never in Athens or Rome were there braver sights or a worthier prize:
I have seen the son of Mars [King Friedrich] with Paris's features, and
Venus [Amelia] crowning the victorious." (--OEuvres de Voltaire,--xviii.
320.)]
And Amphitheatre and Lamps lapse wholly into darkness, and the thing has
finished, for the time being. August 27th, it was repeated by daylight:
if possible, more charming than ever; but not to be spoken of farther,
under penalties. To be mildly forgotten again, every jot and tittle
of it,--except one small insignificant iota, which, by accident, still
makes it remarkable. Namely, that Collini and the Barberinas were
there; and that not only was Voltaire again there, among the Princes and
Princesses; but that Collini saw Voltaire, and gives us transient
sight of him,--thanks to Collini. Thursday, 27th August, 1750, was the
Daylight version of the Carrousel; which Collini, if it were of any
moment, takes to have PRECEDED that of the 40,000 Lamps. Sure enough
Collini was there, with eyes open:--
"Madame de Cocceji [so one may call her, though the known alias is
Barberina] had engaged places; she invited me to come and see this
Festivity. We went;" and very grand it was. "The Palace-Esplanade was
changed" by carpentries and draperies "into a vast Amphitheatre; the
slopes of it furnished with benches for the spectators, and at the four
corners of it and at the bottom, magnificently decorated boxes for the
Court." Vast oval Amphitheatre, the interior arena rectangular, with its
Four Entrances, one for each of the Four Quadrilles. "The assemblage was
numerous and brilliant: all the Court had come from Potsdam to Berlin.
"A little while before the King himself made appearance, there rose
suddenly a murmur of admiration, and I heard all round me, from
everybody, the name 'Voltaire! Voltaire!' Looking down, I saw Voltaire
accordingly; among a group of great lords, who were walking over the
Arena, towards one of the Court Boxes. He wore a modest countenance,
but joy painted itself in his eyes: you cannot love glory, and not feel
gratefully the prize attached to it,"--attained as here. "I lost sight
of him in few instants," as he approached his Box "the place where I was
not permitting farther view." [Collini,--Mon Sejour,--p. 21.]
This was Collini's first sight of that great man (DE CE GRAND HOMME).
With whom, thanks to Barberina, he had, in a day or two, the honor of an
Interview (judgment favorable, he could hope); and before many months,
Accident also favoring, the inexpressible honor of seeing himself the
great man's Secretary,--how far beyond hope or aspiration, in these
Carrousel days!
Voltaire had now been here some Seven Weeks,--arrived 10th July, as
we often note;--after (on his own part) a great deal of haggling,
hesitating and negotiating; which we spare our readers. The poor man
having now become a Quasi-Widower; painfully rallying, with his whole
strength, towards new arrangements,--now was the time for Friedrich to
urge him: "Come to me! Away from all that dismal imbroglio; hither, I
say!" To which Voltaire is not inattentive; though he hesitates; cannot,
in any case, come without delay;--lingers in Paris, readjusting many
things, the poor shipwrecked being, among kind D'Argentals and friends.
Poor Ishmael, getting gray; and his tent in the desert suddenly carried
off by a blast of wind!
To the legal Widower, M. le Marquis, he behaves in money matters like
a Prince; takes that Paris Domicile, in the Rue Traversiere, all to
himself; institutes a new household there,--Niece Denis to be female
president. Niece Denis, widow without encumbrances; whom in her married
state, wife to some kind of Commissariat-Officer at Lille, we have seen
transiently in that City, her Uncle lodging with her as he passed. A
gadding, flaunting, unreasonable, would-be fashionable female--(a Du
Chatelet without the grace or genius, and who never was in love with
you!)--with whom poor Uncle had a baddish life in time coming. All which
settled, he still lingers. Widowed, grown old and less adventurous!
'That House in the Rue Traversiere, once his and Another's, now his
alone,--for the time being, it is probably more like a Mausoleum than
a House to him. And Versailles, with its sulky Trajans, its Crebillon
cabals, what charm is in Versailles? He thinks of going to Italy for a
while; has never seen that fine Country: of going to Berlin for a while:
of going to--In fact, Berlin is clearly the place where he will land;
but he hesitates greatly about lifting anchor. Friedrich insists, in a
bright, bantering, kindly way; "You were due to me a year ago; you said
always, 'So soon as the lying-in is over, I am yours:'--and now, why
don't you come?"
Friedrich, since they met last, has had some experiences of Voltaire,
which he does not like. Their roads, truly--one adulating Trajan
in Versailles, and growing great by "Farces of the Fair;" the other
battling for his existence against men and devils, Trajan and Company
included--have lain far apart. Their Correspondence perceptibly
languishing, in consequence, and even rumors rising on the subject,
Voltaire wrote once: "Give me a yard of ribbon, Sire [your ORDER OF
MERIT, Sire], to silence those vile rumors!" Which Friedrich, on such
free-and-easy terms, had silently declined. "A meddlesome, forward kind
of fellow; always getting into scrapes and brabbles!" thinks Friedrich.
But is really anxious, now that the chance offers again, to have such
a Levite for his Priest, the evident pink of Human Intellect; and tries
various incitements upon him;--hits at last (I know not whether by
device or by accident) on one which, say the French Biographers, did
raise Voltaire and set him under way.
A certain M. Baculard d'Arnaud, a conceited, foolish young fellow, much
patronized by Voltaire, and given to write verses, which are unknown to
me, has been, on Voltaire's recommending, "Literary Correspondent"
to Friedrich (Paris Book-Agent and the like) for some time past;
corresponding much with Potsdam, in a way found entertaining; and is now
(April, 1750) actually going thither, to Friedrich's Court, or perhaps
has gone. At any rate, Friedrich--by accident or by device--had answered
some rhymes of this D'Arnaud, "Yes; welcome, young sunrise, since
Voltaire is about to set!" [--OEuvres de Frederic,--xiv. 95 (Verses "A
D'ARNAUD," of date December, 1749.)] I hope it was by device; D'Arnaud
is such a silly fellow; too absurd, to reckon as morning to anybody's
sunset. Except for his involuntary service, for and against, in
this Voltaire Journey, his name would not now be mentionable at
all. "Sunset?" exclaimed Voltaire, springing out of bed (say the
Biographers), and skipping about indignantly in his shirt: "I will
show them I am not set yet!" [Duvernet (Second), p. 159.] And instantly
resolved on the Berlin Expedition. Went to Compiegne, where the Court
then was; to bid his adieus; nay to ask formally the Royal leave,--for
we are Historiographer and titular Gentleman of the Chamber, and King's
servant in a sense. Leave was at once granted him, almost huffingly; we
hope not with too much readiness? For this is a ticklish point: one is
going to Prussia "on a Visit" merely (though it may be longish); one
would not have the door of France slammed to behind one! The tone at
Court did seem a little succinct, something almost of sneer in it.
But from the Pompadour herself all was friendly; mere witty,
cheery graciosities, and "My Compliments to his Majesty of
Prussia,"--Compliments how answered when they came to hand: "JE NE LA
CONNAIS PAS!"
In short, M. de Voltaire made all his arrangements; got under way;
piously visited Fontenoy and the Battle-fields in passing: and is here,
since July 10th,--in very great splendor, as we see:--on his Fifth Visit
to Friedrich. Fifth; which proved his Last,--and is still extremely
celebrated in the world. Visit much misunderstood in France and
England, down to this day. By no means sorted out into accuracy and
intelligibility; but left as (what is saying a great deal!) probably the
wastest chaos of all the Sections of Friedrich's History. And has, alone
of them, gone over the whole world; being withal amusing to read,
and therefore well and widely remembered, in that mendacious and
semi-intelligible state. To lay these goblins, full of noise, ignorance
and mendacity, and give some true outline of the matter, with what
brevity is consistent with deciphering it at all, is now our sad
task,--laborious, perhaps disgusting; not impossible, if readers will
loyally assist.
Voltaire had taken every precaution that this Visit should succeed, or
at least be no loss to one of the parties. In a preliminary Letter from
Paris,--prose and verse, one of the cleverest diplomatic pieces ever
penned; Letter really worth looking at, cunning as the song of Apollo,
Voltaire symbolically intimates: "Well, Sire, your old Danae, poor
malingering old wretch, is coming to her Jove. It is Jove she wants,
not the Shower of Jove; nevertheless"--And Friedrich (thank Hanbury,
in part, for that bit of knowledge) had remitted him in hard money 600
pounds "to pay the tolls on his road." [Walpole, i. 451 ("Had it from
Princess Amelia herself"); see Voltaire to Friedrich, "Paris, 9th
June, 1750;" Friedrich to Voltaire, "Potsdam, 24th May" (--OEuvres de
Voltaire,--lxxiv. 158, 155).] As a high gentleman would; to have done
with those base elements of the business.
Nay furthermore, precisely two days before those splendors of the
Carrousel, Friedrich,--in answer to new cunning croakeries and
contrivances ("Sire, this Letter from my Niece, who is inconsolable that
I should think of staying here;" where, finding oneself so divinized,
one is disposed to stay),--has answered him like a King: By Gold Key of
Chamberlain, Cross of the Order of Merit, and Pension of 20,000 francs
(850 pounds) a year,--conveyed in as royal a Letter of Business as I
have often read; melodious as Apollo, this too, though all in business
prose, and, like Apollo, practical God of the SUN in this case.
["Berlin, 23d August, 1750" (--OEuvres de Frederic,--xxii.
255);--Voltaire to Niece Denis, "24th August" (misprinted "14th"); to
D'Argental, "28th August" (--OEuvres de Voltaire,--lxxiv. 185, 196).]
Dated 23d August, 1750. This Letter of Friedrich's I fancy to be what
Voltaire calls, "Your Majesty's gracious Agreement with me," and often
appeals to, in subsequent troubles. Not quite a Notarial Piece, on
Friedrich's part; but strictly observed by him as such.
Four days after which, Collini sees Voltaire serenely shining among the
Princes and Princesses of the world; Amphitheatre all whispering with
bated breath, "Voltaire! Voltaire!" But let us hear Voltaire himself,
from the interior of the Phenomenon, at this its culminating point:--
Voltaire to his D'Argentals,--to Niece Denis even, with whom, if with
no other, he is quite without reserve, in showing the bad and the
good,--continues radiantly eloquent in these first months: ...
"Carrousel, twice over; the like never seen for splendor, for [rather
copious on this sublimity]--After which we played ROME SAUVEE [my
Anti-Crebillon masterpiece], in a pretty little Theatre, which I have
got constructed in the Princess Amelia's Antechamber. I, who speak to
you, I played CICERO." Yes; and was manager and general stage-king and
contriver; being expert at this, if at anything. And these beautiful
Theatricals had begun weeks ago, and still lasted many weeks;
[Rodenbeck, "August-October," 1750.]--with such divine consultings,
directings, even orderings of the brilliant Royalties concerned.--
Duvernet (probably on D'Arget's authority) informs us that "once, in one
of the inter-acts, finding the soldiers allowed him for Pretorian Guards
not to understand their business here," not here, as they did at
Hohenfriedberg and elsewhere, "Voltaire shrilled volcanically out to
them [happily unintelligible): 'F----, Devil take it, I asked for men;
and they have sent me Germans (J'AI DEMANDE DES HOMMES, ET L'ON M'ENVOIE
DES ALLEMANDS)!' At which the Princesses were good-natured enough to
burst into laughter." [Duvernet (Second), p. 162,--time probably 15th
October.] Voltaire continues: "There is an English Ambassador here who
knows Cicero's Orations IN CATILINAM by heart;" an excellent Etonian,
surely. "It is not Milord Tyrconnell" (blusterous Irish Jacobite), OUR
Ambassador, note him, fat Valori having been recalled); no, "it is the
Envoy from England," Excellency Hanbury himself, who knows his Cicero by
heart. "He has sent me some fine verses on ROME SAUVEE; he says it is my
best work. It is a Piece appropriate for Ministerial people; Madame la
Chanceliere," Cocceji's better half, "is well pleased with it.
[--OEuvres,--lxxiv. (LETTERS, to the D'Argentals and Denis,
"20th August-23d September, 1750"), pp. 187, 219, 231, &c. &c.]
And then,"--But enough.
In Princess Amelia's Antechamber, there or in other celestial places,
in Palace after Palace, it goes on. Gayety succeeding gayety; mere
Princesses and Princes doing parts; in ROME SAUVEE, and in masterpieces
of Voltaire's, Voltaire himself acting CICERO and elderly characters,
LUSIGNAN and the like. Excellent in acting, say the witnesses;
superlative, for certain, as Preceptor of the art,--though impatient now
and then. And wears such Jewel-ornaments (borrowed partly from a Hebrew,
of whom anon), such magnificence of tasteful dress;--and walks his
minuet among the Morning Stars. Not to mention the Suppers of the King:
chosen circle, with the King for centre; a radiant Friedrich flashing
out to right and left, till all kindles into coruscation round him; and
it is such a blaze of spiritual sheet-lightnings,--wonderful to think
of; Voltaire especially electric. Never, or seldom, were seen such
suppers; such a life for a Supreme Man of Letters so fitted with the
place due to him. Smelfungus says:--
"And so your Supreme of Literature has got into his due place at
last,--at the top of the world, namely; though, alas, but for moments or
for months. The King's own Friend; he whom the King delights to honor.
The most shining thing in Berlin, at this moment. Virtually a kind
of PAPA, or Intellectual Father of Mankind," sneers Smelfungus; "Pope
improvised for the nonce. The new Fridericus Magnus does as the old
Pipinus, old Carolus Magnus did: recognizes his Pope, in despite of the
base vulgar; elevates him aloft into worship, for the vulgar and for
everybody! Carolus Magnus did that thrice-salutary feat [sublimely
human, if you think of it, and for long centuries successful more or
less]; Fridericus Magnus, under other omens, unconsciously does the
like,--the best he can! Let the Opera Fiddlers, the Frerons, Travenols
and Desfontaines-of-Sodom's Ghost look and consider!"--
Madame Denis, an expensive gay Lady, still only in her thirties,
improvable by rouge, carries on great work in the Rue Traversiere;
private theatricals, suppers, flirtations with Italian travelling
Marquises;--finds Intendant Longchamp much in her way, with his rigorous
account-books, and restriction to 100 louis per month; wishes even
her Uncle were back, and cautions him, Not to believe in Friedrich's
flattering unctions, or put his trust in Princes at all. Voltaire, with
the due preliminaries, shows Friedrich her Letter, one of her Letters,
[Now lost, as most of them are; Voltaire's Answer to it, already cited,
is "24th August, 1750" (misprinted "14th August,"--OEuvres,--lxxiv. 185;
see IB. lxxv. 135); King Friedrich's PRACTICAL Answer (so munificent
to Denis and Voltaire), "Your Majesty's gracious Agreement," bore date
"August 23d."]--with result as we saw above.
Formey says: "In the Carnival time, which Voltaire usually passed at
Berlin, in the Palace, people paid their court to him as to a declared
Favorite. Princes, Marshals, Ministers of State, Foreign Ambassadors,
Lords of the highest rank, attended his audience; and were received,"
says Formey, nowhere free from spite on this subject, "in a sufficiently
lofty style (HAUTEUR ASSEZ DEDAIGNEUSE). [Formey,--Souvenirs,--i. 235,
236.] A great Prince had the complaisance to play chess with him; and
to let him win the pistoles that were staked. Sometimes even the pistole
disappeared before the end of the game," continues Formey, green
with spite;--and reports that sad story of the candle-ends; bits of
wax-candle, which should have remained as perquisite to the valets,
but which were confiscated by Voltaire and sent across to the
wax-chandler's. So, doubtless, the spiteful rumor ran; probably little
but spite and fable, Berlin being bitter in its gossip. Stupid Thiebault
repeats that of the candle-ends, like a thing he had seen (twelve years
BEFORE his arrival in those parts); and adds that Voltaire "put them in
his pocket,"--like one both stupid and sordid. Alas, the brighter your
shine, the blacker is the shadow you cast.
Friedrich, with the knowledge he already had of his yoke-fellow,--one
of the most skittish, explosive, unruly creatures in harness,--cannot
be counted wise to have plunged so heartily into such an adventure with
him. "An undoubted Courser of the Sun!" thought Friedrich;--and forgot
too much the signs of bad going he had sometimes noticed in him on the
common highways. There is no doubt he was perfectly sincere and simple
in all this high treatment of Voltaire. "The foremost, literary
spirit of the world, a man to be honored by me, and by all men; the
Trismegistus of Human Intellects, what a conquest to have made; how
cheap is a little money, a little patience and guidance, for such
solacement and ornament to one's barren Life!" He had rashly hoped that
the dreams of his youth could hereby still be a little realized; and
something of the old Reinsberg Program become a fruitful and blessed
fact. Friedrich is loyally glad over his Voltaire; eager in all ways to
content him, make him happy; and keep him here, as the Talking Bird, the
Singing Tree and the Golden Water of intelligent mankind; the glory of
one's own Court, and the envy of the world. "Will teach us the secret
of the Muses, too; French Muses, and help us in our bits of Literature!"
This latter, too, is a consideration with Friedrich, as why should it
not,--though by no means the sole or chief one, as the French give it
out to be.
On his side, Voltaire is not disloyal either; but is nothing like so
completely loyal. He has, and continued always to have, not unmixed with
fear, a real admiration for Friedrich, that terrible practical Doer,
with the cutting brilliances of mind and character, and the irrefragable
common sense; nay he has even a kind of love to him, or something like
it,--love made up of gratitude for past favors, and lively anticipation
of future. Voltaire is, by nature, an attached or attachable creature;
flinging out fond boughs to every kind of excellence, and especially
holding firm by old ties he had made. One fancies in him a mixed set of
emotions, direct and reflex,--the consciousness of safe shelter, were
there nothing more; of glory to oneself, derived and still derivable
from this high man:--in fine, a sum-total of actual desire to live
with King Friedrich, which might, surely, have almost sufficed even for
Voltaire, in a quieter element. But the element was not quiet,--far from
it; nor was Voltaire easily sufficeable!
PERPETUAL PRESIDENT MAUPERTUIS HAS A VISIT FROM ONE KONIG, OUT OF
HOLLAND, CONCERNING THE INFINITELY LITTLE.
Whether Maupertuis, in red wig with yellow bottom, saw these high
gauderies of the Carrousel, the Plays in Princess Amelia's Antechamber,
and the rest of it, I do not know: but if so, he was not in the top
place; nor did anybody take notice of him, as everybody did of Voltaire.
Meanwhile, I have something to quote, as abridged and distilled from
various sources, chiefly from Formey; which will be of much concernment
farther on.
Some four weeks after those Carrousel effulgencies, Perpetual President
Maupertuis had a visit (September 21st, just while the Sun was crossing
the Line; thanks to Formey for the date, who keeps a Note-book,
useful in these intricacies): visit from Professor Konig, an effective
mathematical man from the Dutch parts. Whom readers have forgotten
again; though they saw him once: in violent quarrel, about the
Infinitely Little, with Madame du Chatelet, Voltaire witnessing with
pain;--it was just as they quitted Cirey together, ten years ago, for
these new courses of adventure. Do readers recall the circumstance?
Maupertuis, referee in that quarrel, had, with a bluntness offensive to
the female mind, declared Konig indisputably in the right; and there had
followed a dryness between the divine Emilie and the Flattener of the
Earth, scarcely to be healed by Voltaire's best efforts.
Konig has gone his road since then; become a fine solid fellow;
Professor in a Dutch University; more latterly Librarian to the Dutch
Stadtholder: still frank of speech, and with a rugged free-and-easy
turn, but of manful manners; really a person of various culture, and as
is still noticeable, of a solid geometric turn of mind. Having now, as
Librarian at the Hague, more leisure and more money, he has made a run
to Berlin,--chiefly or entirely to see his Maupertuis again, whom he
still remembers gratefully as his first Patron in older times, and a man
of sound parts, though rather blusterous now and then, A little bit of
scientific business also he has with him. Konig is Member of the Berlin
Academy, for some years back; and there is a thing he would speak with
the Perpetual President upon. "Wants nothing else in Berlin," says
Formey: a hearing by the road that Maupertuis was not there, he had
actually turned homewards again: but got truer tidings, and came on.
"The more was the pity, as perhaps will appear!"He arrived September 20th
[if you will be particular on cheese-parings]; called on me that day,
being lodged in my neighborhood; and next day, found Maupertuis at
home;" [Formey, i. 176-179.]--and flew into his arms again, like a good
boy long absent.
Maupertuis, not many months ago, had, in Two successive Papers, I think
Two, communicated to the Academy a Discovery of Metaphysico-Mathematical
or altogether Metaphysical nature, on the Laws of Motion;--Discovery
which he has, since that, brought to complete perfection, and sent forth
to the Universe at large, in his sublime little Book of COSMOLOGY; [In
La Beaumelle,--Vie de Maupertuis--(Paris, 1856), pp. 105-130, confused
account of this "Discovery," and of the gradual Publication of it to
mankind,--very gradual; first of all in the old Paris times; in the
Berlin ACADEMY latterly; and in fine, to all the world, in this ESSAI
DE COSMOLOGIE (Berlin, Summer of 1750).]--grateful Academy striving to
admire, and believe, with its Perpetual President, that the Discovery
was sublime to a degree; second only to the flattening of the Earth; and
would probably stand thenceforth as a milestone in the Progress of Human
Thought. "Which Discovery, then?" Be not too curious, reader; take only
of it what shall concern you!
It is well known there have been, to the metaphysical head, difficulties
almost insuperable as to How, in the System of Nature, Motion is?
How, in the name of wonder, it can be; and even, Whether it is at all?
Difficulties to the metaphysical head, sticking its nose into the gutter
there;--not difficult to my readers and me, who can at all times walk
across the room, and triumphantly get over them. But stick your nose
into any gutter, entity, or object, this of Motion or another,
with obstinacy,--you will easily drown, if that be your
determination!--Suffice it for us to know in this matter, that
Maupertuis, intensely watching Nature, has discovered, That the key of
her enigma (or at least the ultimate central DOOR, which hides all
her Motional enigmas, the key to WHICH cannot even be imagined as
discoverable!) is, that "Nature is superlatively THRIFTY in this affair
of motion;" that she employs, for every Motion done or do-able, "a
MINIMUM OF ACTION;" and that, if you well understand this, you will, at
least, announce all her procedures in one proposition, and have found
the DOOR which leads to everything. Which will be a comfort to you;
still looking vainly for the key, if there is still no key conceivable.
Perpetual President Maupertuis, having surprised Nature in this manner,
read Papers upon it to an Academy listening with upturned eyes; new
Papers, perfected out of old,--for he has long been hatching these
Phoenix-eggs; and has sent them out complete, quite lately, in a little
Book called COSMOLOGIE, where alone I have had the questionable benefit
of reading them. Grandly brief, as if coming from Delphi, the utterance
is; loftily solemn, elaborately modest, abstruse to the now human mind;
but intelligible, had it only been worth understanding:--a painful
little Book, that COSMOLOGIE, as the Perpetual President's generally
are. "Minimum of Action, LOI D'EPARGNE, Law of Thrift," he calls this
sublime Discovery;--thinks it will be Sovereign in Natural Theology
as well: "For how could Nature be a Save-all, without Designer
present?"--and speaks, of course, among other technical points, about
"VIS VIVA, or Velocity multiplied by the Square of the Time:" which two
points, "LOI D'EPARGNE," and that "the VIS VIVA is always a Minimum,"
the reader can take along with him; I will permit him to shake the
others into Limbo again, as forgettable by human nature at this epoch
and henceforth.
In La Beaumelle's--Vie de Maupertuis--(printed at last, Paris, 1856,
after lying nearly a century in manuscript, an obtuse worthless leaden
little Book), there is much loud droning and detailing, about this
COSMOLOGIE, this sublime "Discovery," and the other sublime Discoveries,
Insights and Apocalyptic Utterances of Maupertuis; though in so confused
a fashion, it is seldom you can have the poor pleasure of learning
exactly when, or except by your own severe scrutiny, exactly what. For
reasons that will appear, certain of those Apocalyptic Utterances by
Perpetual President Maupertuis have since got a new interest, and one
has actually a kind of wish to read the IPSISSIMA VERBA of them, at
this date! But in La Beaumelle (his modern Editor lying fast asleep
throughout) there is no vestige of help. Nay Maupertuis's own Book,
[--OEuvres de Maupertuis,--Lyon, 1756, 4 vols. 4to.] luxurious
cream-paper Quartos, or Octaves made four-square by margin,--which you
buy for these and the cognate objects,--proves altogether worthless
to you. The Maupertuis Quartos are not readable for their own sake
(solemnly emphatic statement of what you already know; concentrated
struggle to get on wing, and failure by so narrow a miss; struggle which
gets only on tiptoe, and won't cease wriggling and flapping); and
then (to your horror) they prove to be carefully cleaned of all
the Maupertuis-VOLTAIRE matter;--edition being SUBSEQUENT to that
world-famous explosion. CAVEAT EMPTOR.--Our Excerpt proceeds:--
"Industrious Konig, like other mathematical people, has been listening
to these Oracles on the 'Law of Minimum,' by the Perpetual President;
and grieves to find, after study, That said Law does not quite hold;
that in fact it is, like Descartes's old key or general door, worth
little or nothing; as Leibnitz long ago seems to have transiently
recognized. Konig has put his strictures on paper: but will not dream
of publishing, till the Perpetual President have examined them and
satisfied himself; and that is Konig's business at present, as he knocks
on Maupertuis, while Sol is crossing the Line. Maupertuis has a House of
the due style: Wife a daughter of Minister Borck's (high Borcks, 'old
as the DIUVEL'); no children;--his back courts always a good deal dirty
with pelicans, bustards, perhaps snakes and other zoological wretches,
which sometimes intrude into the drawing-rooms, otherwise very fine. A
man of some whims, some habits; arbitrary by nature, but really honest,
though rather sublimish in his interior, with red Wig and yellow bottom.
"Konig, all filial gladness, is received gladly;--though, by degrees,
with some surprise, on the paternal part, to find Konig ripened out of
son, client and pupil, into independent posture of a grown man. Frankly
certain enough about himself, and about the axioms of mathematics.
Standing, evidently, on his own legs; kindly as ever, but on these
new terms,--in fact rather an outspoken free-and-easy fellow (I should
guess), not thinking that offence can be taken among friends. Formey
confesses, this was uncomfortable to Maupertuis; in fact, a shock which
he could not recover from. They had various meetings, over dinner aud
otherwise, at the Perpetual President's, for perhaps two weeks at
this time (dates all to be had in Formey's Note-book, if anybody would
consult); in the whole course of which the shock to the Perpetual
President increased, instead of diminishing. Republican freedom and
equality is evidently Konig's method; Konig heeds not a whit the
oracular talent or majestic position of Maupertuis; argues with the
frankest logic, when he feels dissent;--drives a majestic Perpetual
President, especially in the presence of third parties, much out of
patience. Thus, one evening, replying to some argument of the Perpetual
President's, he begins: 'My poor friend, MON PAUVRE AMI, don't you
perceive, then'--Upon which Maupertuis sprang from his chair, violently
stamping, and pirouetted round the room, 'Poor friend, poor friend?
are you so rich: then!' frank Konig merely grinning till the paroxysm
passed. [Formey, i. 177.] Konig went home again, RE INFECTA about the
end of the month."
Such a Konig--had better not have come! As to his strictures on the LAW
OF THRIFT, the arguings on them, alone together, or with friends by,
merely set Maupertuis pirouetting: and as to the Konig Manuscripts
on them "to be published in the Leipzig ACTA, after your remarks and
permission," Maupertuis absolutely refused to look at said Manuscripts:
"Publish them there, here, everywhere, in the Devil and his
Grandmother's name; and then there is an end, Monsieur!" Konig went his
ways therefore, finding nothing else for it; published his strictures,
in the Leipzig ACTA in March next,--and never saw Maupertuis again, for
one result, out of several that followed! I have no doubt he was out to
Voltaire, more than once, in this fortnight; and eat "the King's roast"
pleasantly with that eminent old friend. Voltaire always thought him
a BON GARCON (justly, by all the evidence I have); and finds his talk
agreeable, and his Berlin news--especially that of Maupertuis and his
explosive pirouettings. Adieu, Herr Professor; you know not, with
your Leipzig ACTA and Fragment of Leibnitz, what an explosion you are
preparing!