Voltaire's Terrestrial Paradise at Berlin did not long continue perfect.
Scarcely had that grand Carrousel vanished in the azure firmaments,
when little clouds began rising in its stead; and before long, black
thunder-storms of a very strange and even dangerous character.
It must have been a painful surprise to Friedrich to hear from his
Voltaire, some few weeks after those munificences, That he, Voltaire,
was in very considerable distress of mind, from the bad, not to call it
the felonious and traitorous, conduct of M. D'Arnaud,--once Friedrich's
shoeing-horn and "rising-sun" for Voltaire's behoof; now a vague
flaunting creature, without significance to Friedrich or anybody! That
D'Arnaud had done this and done that, of an Anti-Voltairian, treasonous
nature;--and that, in short, life was impossible in the neighborhood of
such a D'Arnaud!"D'Arnaud has corrupted my Clerk (Prince Henri hungering
in vain for LA PUCELLE, has got sight of it, in this way); [Clerk was
dismissed accordingly (one Tinois, an ingenious creature),--and COLLINI
appointed in his stead.] D'Arnaud has been gossiping to Freron and the
Paris Newspapers; D'Arnaud has" [Voltaire to Friedrich (--OEuvres de
Frederic,--xxii. 257), undated, "November, 1750."]--Has, in effect,
been a flaunting young fool; of dissolute, esurient, slightly profligate
turn; occasionally helping in the Theatricals, and much studious to make
himself notable, and useful to the Princely kind. A D'Arnaud of nearly
no significance, to Friedrich or to anybody. A D'Arnaud whose bits of
fooleries and struttings about, in the peacock or jackdaw way, might
surely have been below the notice of a Trismegistus!
Friedrich, painfully made sensible what a skinless explosive
Trismegistus he has got on hand, answers, I suppose, in words little or
nothing,--in Letters, I observe, answers absolutely nothing, to Voltaire
repeating and re-repeating;--does simply dismiss D'Arnaud (a "BON
DIABLE," as Voltaire, to impartial people, calls him), or accept
D'Arnaud's demission, and cut the poor fool adrift. Who sallies out into
infinite space, to Paris latterly ("alive there in 1805"); and claims
henceforth perpetual oblivion from us and mankind. And now there will be
peace in our garden of the gods, and perpetual azure will return?
Alas, D'Arnaud is not well gone, when there has begun brewing in
threefold secrecy a mass of galvanic matter, which, in few weeks more,
filled the Heavens with miraculous foul gases and the blackness of
darkness;--which, in short, exploded about New-year's time, as the
world-famous VOLTAIRE-HIRSCH LAWSUIT, still remembered, though only as a
portent and mystery, by observant on-lookers. Of which it is now our sad
duty to say something; though nowhere, in the Annals of Jurisprudence,
is there a more despicable thing, or a deeper involved in lies and
deliriums by current reporters of it, about which the sane mind can be
called upon accidentally to speak a word. Beaten, riddled, shovelled,
washed in many waters, by a patient though disgusted Predecessor in
this field, there lies by me a copious but wearisome Narrative of this
matter;--the more vivid portions of which, if rightly disengaged, and
shown in sequence, may satisfy the curious.
Duvernet (who, I can guess, had talked with D'Arget on the subject) has,
alone of the French Biographers, some glimmer of knowledge about it;
Duvernet admits that it was a thing of Illegal Stock-jobbing; that--
1. "That M. de Voltaire had agreed with a Jew named Hirsch to go to
Dresden and, illegally, PURCHASE a good lot of STEUER-SCHEINE [Saxon
Exchequer Bills, which are payable in gold to a BONA FIDE PRUSSIAN
holding them, but are much in discount otherwise, as readers may
remember]; and given Hirsch a Draft on Paris, due after some weeks, for
payment of the same; Hirsch leaving him a stock of jewels in pledge till
the STEUER-SCHEINE themselves come to hand.
2. "That Hirsch, having things of his own in view with the money, sent
no STEUER-SCHEINE from Dresden, nothing but vague lying talk instead
of STEUER: so that Voltaire's suspicions naturally kindling, he stopped
payment of the Paris Draft, and ordered Hirsch to come home at once.
3. "That Hirsch coming, a settlement was tried: 'Give me back my Draft
on Paris, you objectionable blockhead of a Hirsch; there are your
Diamonds, there is something even for your expenses (some fair moiety,
I think); and let me never see your unpleasant face again!' To
which Hirsch, examining the diamonds, answered [says Duvernet, not
substantially incorrect hitherto, though stepping along in total
darkness, and very partial on Voltaire's behalf],--Hirsch, examining the
diamonds, answered, 'But you have changed some of them! I cannot take
these!'--and drove Voltaire quite to despair, and into the Law-Courts;
which imprisoned Hirsch, and made him do justice." [Duvernet (T.J.D.V.),
170, 173, 175:--vague utterly; dateless (tries one date, and is mistaken
even in the Year); wrong in nearly every detail; "the 'STAIRE or STEUER
was a BANK?" &c. &c.]
In which last clause, still more in the conclusion, that it was "to the
triumph of Voltaire," Duvernet does substantially mistake! And indeed,
except as the best Parisian reflex of this matter, his Account is
worth nothing:--though it may serve as Introduction to the following
irrefragable Documents and more explicit featurings. We learn from him,
and it is the one thing we learn of credible, That "Voltaire, when
it came to Law Procedures, begged Maupertuis to speak for him to M.
Jarriges," a Prussian Frenchman, "one of the Judges; and that Maupertuis
answered, 'I cannot interfere in a bad business (ME MELER D'UNE MAUVAISE
AFFAIRE).'" The other French Biographies, definable as "IGNOR-AMUS
speaking in a loud voice to IGNOR-ATIS," require to be altogether swept
aside in this matter. Even "Clog." jumbling Voltaire's undated LETTERS
into confusion thrice confounded, and droning out vituperatively in the
dark, becomes a MINUS quantity in these Friedrich affairs. In regard
to the Hirsch Process, our one irrefragable set of evidences is: The
Prussian LAW-REPORT by KLEIN,--especially the Documents produced in
Court, and the Sentence given. [Ernst Ferdinand Klein,--Annalen
der Gesetzgebung und Rechtsgelehrsamkeit in den Preussischen
Staaten--(Berlin und Stettin), 1790, v. 215-260.] Other lights are to
be gathered, with severe scrutiny and caution, from the circumambient
contemporary rumor,--especially from the PREFACE to a "Comedy" so called
of "TANTALE EN PROCES (Tantalus," Voltaire, "at Law");--which PREFACE is
evidently Hirsch's own Story, put into language for him by some humane
friend, and addressed to a "clear-seeing Public." [TANTALE EN PROCES
(ascribed to Friedrich himself, by some wonderful persons!) is
in--Supplement aux OEuvres Posthumes de Frederic II.--(Cologne, 1789),
i. 319 et seq. Among the weakest of Comedies (might be by D'Arnaud, or
some such hand); nothing in it worth reading except the Preface.] "And
in fine," says my Manuscript, "by sweeping out the distinctly false,
and well discriminating the indubitable from what is still in part
dubitable, sufficient twilight [abridgable in a high degree, I hope!]
rises over the Affair, to render it visible in all its main features."
THE VOLTAIRE-HIRSCH TRANSACTION: PART I. ORIGIN OF LAWSUIT (10th
November-25th December, 1750).
"Saxon STEUER-SCHEIN, some readers know, is, in the rough, equivalent to
Exchequer Bill. Payable at the Saxon Treasury; to Prussians, in gold; to
all other men, in paper only,--which (thanks to Bruhl and his unheard-of
expenditures and financierings) is now at a discount say of 25, or even
30 per cent. By Article Eleventh of the Dresden TREATY OF PEACE, King
Friedrich, if our readers have not forgotten, got stipulated, That all
Prussian holders of these SCHEINE should be paid in gold; interest
at the due days; and at the due days principal itself:--in gold they,
whatever became of others. No farther specifications, as to proof,
method, limits or conditions of any kind, occur in regard to this
Eleventh Article; which is a just one, beyond doubt, but most carelessly
drawn up. Apparently it trusts altogether to the personal honesty of all
Prussian subjects: 'Prove yourself a Prussian subject, and we pay your
Steuer-Schein in real money.' But now if a Saxon or other Non-Prussian,
who can get no payment save in paper, were to have his Note smuggled or
trafficked over into Prussia, and presented as a Prussian one? In our
time, such traffic would start on the morrow morning; and in a week or
two, all Notes whatsoever would be presented as Prussian, payable in
gold! Not so in those days;--though a small contraband of that kind does
by degrees threaten to establish itself, and Friedrich had to publish
severe rescripts (one before this Hirsch-Voltaire business, [10th
August, 1748 (Seyfarth, i. 62).] one still severer after), and menace
it down again. The malpractice seems to have proved menaceable in that
manner; nor was any new arrangement made upon it,--no change, till the
Steuer-Scheine, by their gradual terms, were all paid either in real
money or imaginary, and thus, in the course of years, the thing burnt to
the socket, and went out."
Voltaire's rash Adventure, dangerous Navigation and gradual Wreck,
in this Forbidden Sea of Steuer-Scheine,--will become conceivable to
readers, on study diligent enough of the following Documents and select
Details:--
DOCUMENT FIRST (a small Missive, in Voltaire's hand).
"Je prie instamment monsieur hersch de venir demain mardi matin a
potsdam pour affaire pressante, et d'aporter (SIC) avec luy les diamants
qui doivent servir pour la representation de la tragedie qui se jouera a
cinq heures de soir chez S.A.R. Monseigneur le Prince henri Ce lundy a
midy. VOLTAIRE."
Which being interpreted, rightly spelt, and dated (as by chance we can
do) with distinctness, will run as follows in English:--
"POTSDAM, Monday, 9th November, 1750. "I earnestly request Mr. Hirsch to
come to-morrow Tuesday morning to Potsdam, on business that is urgent;
and to bring with him the Diamonds needed for the Tragedy which is to
be represented, at five in the evening, in His Royal Highness Prince
Henry's Apartment." [Klein, v. 260.]
"On Tuesday the 10th," say the Old Newspapers, "was ROME SAUVEE;"--with
Voltaire, perceptible there as "CICERON," [Rodenbeck, i. 209.] in due
A glorious enough Cicero;--and such a piece of "urgent business" done
with your Hirsch, just before emerging on the stage!
"Hirsch, in that NARRATIVE, describes himself as a young innocent
creature. Not very old, we will believe: but as to innocence!--For
certain, he is named Abraham Hirsch, or Hirschel: a Berlin Jew of the
Period; whom one inclines to figure as a florid oily man, of Semitic
features, in the prime of life; who deals much in jewels, moneys, loans,
exchanges, all kinds of Jew barter; whether absolutely in old clothes,
we do not know--certainly not unless there is a penny to be turned. The
man is of oily Semitic type, not old in years,--there is a fraternal
Hirsch, and also a paternal, who is head of the firm;--and this
young one seems to be already old in Jew art. Speaks French and other
dialects, in a Hebrew, partially intelligible manner; supplies Voltaire
with diamonds for his stage-dresses, as we perceive. To all appearance,
nearly destitute of human intellect, but with abundance of vulpine
instead. Very cunning; stupid, seemingly, as a mule otherwise;--and,
on the whole, resembling in various points of character a mule put into
breeches, and made acquainted with the uses of money. He is come 'on
pressing business,'--perhaps not of stage-diamonds alone? Here now is
DOCUMENT SECOND; nearly of the same date; may be of the very same;--more
likely is a few days later, and betokens mysterious dialogue and
consultation held on Tuesday 10th. It is in two hands: written on some
scrap or TORN bit of paper, to judge by the length of the lines."
DOCUMENT SECOND.
"In Voltaire's hand, this part:--
--'Savoir s'il est encore tems de declarer les billets qu'on a sur la
steure. si on en specifie le numero dans la declaration.'--
'If it is still time to declare [to announce in Saxony and demand
payment for] Notes one holds on the Steuer? If one is to specify the No.
in the declaration?'
"In Hirsch's hand, this part:--
--'l'on peut declarer des billets sur la
steure, qu'on a en depost en pays etranger, et dont on ne pourra savoir
le numero que dans quinze jours ou trois Semaines.'--[Klein, 259.]
'One can declare Notes on the Steuer, which one holds in deposit in
Foreign Countries; and of which one cannot state the No. till after a
fortnight or three weeks.'
"Which of these Two was the Serpent, which the Eve, in this
STEUER-SCHEIN Tree of Knowledge, that grew in the middle of Paradise,
remains entirely uncertain. Hirsch, of course, says it was Voltaire;
Voltaire (not aware that DOCUMENT SECOND remained in existence)
had denied that his Hirsch business was in any way concerned with
STEUER;--and must have been a good deal struck, when DOCUMENT SECOND
came to light; though what could he do but still deny! Hirsch asserts
himself to have objected the 'illegality, the King's anger;' but that
Voltaire answered in hints about his favor with the King; 'about his
power to make one a Court-Jeweller,' if he liked; and so at last
tempted the baby innocence of Hirsch;--for the rest, admits that the
Steuer-Notes were expected to yield a Profit--of 35 per cent:--and,
in fact, a dramatic reader can imagine to himself dialogue enough, at
different times, going on, partly by words, partly by hint, innuendo
and dumb-show, between this Pair of Stage-Beauties. But, for near a
fortnight after DOCUMENT FIRST, there is nothing dated, or that can be
clearly believed,--till,
"MONDAY, 23d NOVEMBER, 1750. It is credibly certain the Jew Hirsch
came again, this day, to the Royal Schloss of Potsdam, to Voltaire's
apartment there [right overhead of King Friedrich's, it is!]--where,
after such dialogue as can be guessed at, there was handed to Hirsch
by Voltaire, in the form of Two negotiable Bills, a sum of about 2,250
pounds; with which the Jew is to make at once for Dresden, and
buy Steuer-Scheine. [Hirsch's Narrative, in Preface to--Tantale en
Proces,--p. 340.] Steuer-Scheine without fail: 'but in talking or
corresponding on the matter, we are always to call them FURS
or DIAMONDS,'--mystery of mysteries being the rule for us. This
considerable sum of 2,250 pounds may it not otherwise, contrives
Voltaire, be called a 'Loan' to Jeweller Hirsch, so obliging a Jeweller,
to buy 'Furs' or 'Diamonds' with? At a gain of 35 per 100 Pieces, there
will be above 800 pounds to me, after all expenses cleared: a very
pretty stroke of business do-able in few days!"--
"Monday, 23d November:" The beautiful Wilhelmina, one remarks, is just
making her packages; right sad to end such a Visit as this had been!
Thursday night, from her first sleeping-place, there is a touching
Farewell to her Brother;--tender, melodiously sorrowful, as the Song
of the Swan. [Wilhelmina to Friedrich, "Brietzen, 26th November, JOUR
FUNESTE POUR MOI" (--OEuvres de Frederic,--xxvii. i. 197).] To Voltaire
she was always good; always liked Voltaire. Voltaire would be saying
his Adieus, in state, among the others, to that high Being,--just in the
hours while such a scandalous Hirsch-Concoction went, on underground!
"As to the Two Bills and Voltaire's security for them, readers are to
note as follows. Bill FIRST is a Draft, on Voltaire's Paris Banker for
40,000 livres (about 1,600 pounds), not payable for some weeks: 'This I
lend you, Monsieur Hirsch; mind, LEND you,--to buy Furs!' 'Yes, truly,
what we call Furs;--and before the Bill falls payable, there will be
effects for it in Monseigneur de Voltaire's hand; which is security
enough for Monseigneur.' The SECOND Bill, again"--Truth is, there were
in succession two Second Bills, an INTENDED-Second (of this same Monday
23d), which did not quite suit, and an ACTUAL-Second (two days later),
which did. INTENDED-Second Bill was one for 4,000 thalers (about 600
pounds), drawn by Voltaire on the Sieur Ephraim,--a very famous Jew
of Berlin now and henceforth, with whom as money-changer, if not yet
otherwise (which perhaps Ephraim thinks unlucky), Voltaire, it would
seem, is in frequent communication. This Bill, Ephraim would not accept;
told Hirsch he owed M. de Voltaire nothing; "turned me rudely away,"
says Hirsch (two of a trade, and no friends, he and I!)--so that there
is nothing to be said of this Ephraim Bill; and except as it elucidates
some dark portions of the whirlpools, need not have been noticed at all.
"Hirsch," continues my Authority, "got only Two available Bills; the
first on Paris for 1,600 pounds, payable in some weeks; and, after a day
or two, this other: The ACTUAL BILL SECOND; which is a Draft for 4,430
thalers (about 650 pounds), by old Father Hirsch, head of the Firm, on
Voltaire himself:--'Furs too with that, Monsieur Hirsch, at the rate
of 35 per piece, you understand?' 'Yea, truly, Monseigneur!'--Draft
accepted by Voltaire, and the cash for it now handed to Hirsch Son: the
only absolutely ready money he has yet got towards the affair.
"For these Two Bills, especially for this Second, I perceive, Voltaire
holds borrowed jewels (borrowed in theatrical times, or partly bought,
from the Hirsch Firm, and not paid for), which make him sure till he see
the STEUER Papers themselves.--(And now off, my good Sieur Hirsch; and
know that if you please ME, there are--things in my power which would
suit a man in the Jeweller and Hebrew line!) Hirsch pushes home to
Berlin; primed and loaded in this manner; Voltaire naturally auxious
enough that the shot may hit. Alas, the shot will not even go off, for
some time: an ill omen!
"SUNDAY, 29th NOVEMBER, Hirsch, we hear, is still in Berlin. Fancy the
humor of Voltaire, after such a week as last! (TUESDAY, December 1st)
Hirsch still is not off: 'Go, you son of Amalek!' urges Voltaire; and
sends his Servant Picard, a very sharp fellow, for perhaps the third
time,--who has orders now, as Hirsch discovers, to stay with him, not
quit sight of him till he do go. [Hirsch's Narrative; see Voltaire's
Letter to D'Arget (--OEuvres,--lxiv. 11).] Hirsch's hour of departure
for Dresden is not mentioned in the ACTS; but I guess he could hardly
get over Wednesday, with Picard dogging him on these terms; and must
have taken the diligence on Wednesday night: to arrive in Dresden about
December 4th. 'Well; at least, our shot is off; has not burst out, and
lodged in our person here,--thanked be all the gods!'
"Off, sure enough:--and what should we say if the whole matter were
already oozing out; if, on this same Sunday evening, November 29th) not
quite a week's time yet, the matter (as we learn long afterwards) had
been privately whispered to his Majesty: 'That Voltaire has sent off
a Jew to buy Steuer-Scheine, and has promised to get him made
Court-Jeweller!' [Voltaire,--OEuvres,--lxxiv. 314 ("Letter to Friedrich,
February, 1751,"--AFTER Catastrophe).], So; within a week, and before
Hirsch is even gone! For men are very porous; weighty secrets oozing out
of them, like quicksilver through clay jars. I could guess, Hirsch,
by way of galling insolent Ephraim, had blabbed something: and in the
course of five days, it has got to the very King,--this Kammerherr
Voltaire being such a favorite and famous man as never was; the
very bull's-eye of all kinds of Berlin gossip in these days. 'Hm,
Steuer-Scheine, and the Jew Hirsch to be Court-Jeweller, you say?'
thinks the King, that Sunday night; but locks the rumor in his Royal
mind, he, for his part; or dismisses it as incredible: 'There ought to
be impervious vessels too, among the porous!' Voltaire notices nothing
particular, or nothing that he speaks of as particular. This must
have been a horrid week to him, till Hirsch got away." Hirsch is away
(December 2d); in Dresden, safe enough; but--
"But, the fortnight that follows is conceivable as still worse. Hirsch
writing darkly, nothing to the purpose; Voltaire driving often into
Berlin, hearing from Ephraim hints about, 'No connection with that
House;' 'If Monseigneur have intrusted Hirsch with money,--may there be
a good account of it!' and the like. Black Care devouring Monseigueur;
but nothing definite; except the fact too evident, That Hirsch does not
send or bring the smallest shadow of Steuer-Scheine,--'Peltries,' or
'Diamonds,' we mean,--or any value whatever for that Paris Bill of ours,
payable shortly, and which he has already got cashed in Dresden. Nothing
but excuses, prevarications; stupid, incoherently deceptive jargon,
as of a mule intent on playing fox with you. Vivid Correspondence is
conceivable; but nothing of it definite to us, except this sample"
(which we give translated):--
DOCUMENT THIRD (torn fraction in Voltaire's hand: To Hirsch, doubtless;
early in December).... "Not proper (IL NE FALLAIT PAS) to negotiate
Bills of Exchange, and never produce a single diamond"--bit of peltry,
or ware of any kind, you son of Amalek! "Not proper to say: I have got
money for your bills of exchange, and I bring you nothing back; and I
will repay your money when you shall no longer be here [in Germany at
all]. Not proper to promise at 35 louis, and then say 30. To say 30,
and then next morning 25. You should at least have produced goods (IL
FALLAIT EN DONNER) at the price current; very easy to do when one was
on the spot. All your procedures have been faults hitherto. [Klein, v.
259.]
"These are dreadful symptoms. Steuer-Notes, promised at 35 discount, are
not to be had except at 30. Say 30 then, and get done with it, mule of
a scoundrel! Next day the 30 sinks to 25; and not a Steuer-Note, on any
terms, comes to hand. And the mule of a scoundrel has drawn money, in
Dresden yonder, for my Bill on Paris,--excellent to him for trade of his
own! What is to be done with such an Ass of Balaam? He has got the bit
in his teeth, it would seem. Heavens, he too is capable of stopping
short, careless of spur and cudgel; and miraculously speaking to a NEW
Prophet [strange new "Revealer of the Lord's Will," in modern dialect],
in this enlightened Eighteenth Century itself!--One thing the new
Prophet, can do: protest his Paris Bill.
"DECEMBER 12th [our next bit of certainty], Voltaire writes, haste,
haste, to Paris, 'Don't pay;' and intimates to Hirsch, 'You will have
to return your Dresden Banker his money for that Paris Bill. At Paris
I have protested it, mark me; and there it never will be paid to him
or you. And you must come home again instantly, job undone, lies not
untold, you--!' Hirsch, with money in hand, appears not to have wanted
for a briskish trade of his own in the Dresden marts. But this of
cutting off his supplies brings him instantly back:"--and at Berlin,
DECEMBER 16th, new facts emerge again of a definite nature.
"WEDNESDAY, 16th DECEMBER, 1750. 'To-day the King with Court and
Voltaire come to Berlin for the Carnival;' [Rodenbeck, i. 209.] to-day
also Voltaire, not in Carnival humor, has appointed his Jew to meet
him. In the Royal Palace itself,--we hope, well remote from Friedrich's
Apartment!--this sordid conference, needing one's choicest diplomacy
withal, and such exquisite handling of bit and spur, goes on. And
probably at great length. Of which, as the FINALE, and one clear
feature significant to the fancy, here is,--for record of what they call
'COMPLETE SETTLEMENT,' which it was far from turning out to be:--
DOCUMENT FOURTH (in Hirsch's hand, First Piece of it).
--"'Pour quittance generale promettant de rendre a Mr. de Voltaire tous
billets, ordres et lettres de change a moy donnez jusqu'a ce jour, 16
Decembre, 1750.--
"'Account all settled; I promising to return M. de
Voltaire all Letters, Orders and Bills of Exchange given me to this day,
16th December, 1750.
[Hirsch signs. But you have forgotten something, Monsieur Hirsch!
Whereupon]--et promets de donner a Mr. de Voltaire dans le jour de
demain ou apres au plustard deux cent guatre-vingt frederics d'or au
lieu de deux cent quatre-vingt louis d'or, que je lui ai payez, le tout
pour quittance generale, ce 16 Decembre, 1750, a berlin--And promise
to give M. de Voltaire, in the course of to-morrow, or the day after
to-morrow at latest, 280 FREDERICS D'OR, instead of 280 LOUIS D'OR [gold
FREDERICS the preferabe coin, say experts] which I have now paid him;
whereby All will be settled.
[Hirsch again signs; but has again forgotten something, most important
thing. And]--je lui remettrai surtout les 40,000 livres de billets de
change sur paris qu'il mavoit donnez et fiez'--I will especially return
him the Bill on Paris for 40,000 livres (1,600 pounds) which he had
given and trusted to me,'--but has since protested, as is too evident.
[And Hirsch signs for the last time]." [Klein, pp. 258, 260.]--
Symptomatic, surely, of a haggly settlement, these THREE shots instead
of one!--"Voltaire's return is:--
--"'Pour quittance generale de tout compte solde entre nous, tout paye
au sieur abraham hersch a berlin, 16 Decembre, 1750.--Voltaire'--
"'Account all settled between us, payment of the Sieur Abraham Hirsch in
full: Berlin, 16th Deember, 1750.'
[which Second Piece, we perceive, is to lie in Hirsch's hand, to keep,
if he find it valuable].
"This 'COMPLETE SETTLEMENT,'--little less than miraculous to Voltaire
and us,--one finds, after sifting, to have been the fruit of Voltaire's
exquisite skill in treating and tuning his Hirsch (no harshness of
rebuke, rather some gleam of hope, of future bargains, help at Court):
(Your expenses; compensation for protesting of that Bill on Paris? Tush,
cannot we make all that good! In the first place, I will BUY of you
these Jewels [this one discovers to have been the essence of the
operation!], all or the best part of them, which I have here in pawn for
Papa's Bill: 650 pounds was it not? Well, suppose I on the instant take
450 pounds worth, or so, of these Jewels (I want a great many jewels);
and you to pay me down a 200 or so of gold LOUIS as balance,--gold
LOUIS, no, we will say FREDERICS rather. There now, that is settled.
Nothing more between us but settles itself, if we continue friends!'
Upon which Hirsch walked home, thankful for the good job in Jewels;
wondering only what the Allowance for Expenses and Compensation will
be. And Voltaire steps out, new-burnished, into the Royal Carnival
splendors, with a load rolled from his mind.
"This COMPLETE SETTLEMENT, meanwhile, rests evidently on two legs, both
of which are hollow. 'What will the handsome Compensation be, I wonder?'
thinks Hirsch;--and is horror-struck to find shortly, that Voltaire
considers 60 thalers (about 9 pounds) will be the fair sum! 'More than
ten times that!' is Hirsch's privately fixed idea. On the other hand,
Voltaire has been asking himself, 'My 450 pounds worth of Jewels, were
they justly valued, though?' Jew Ephraim (exaggerative and an enemy to
this Hirsch House) answers, 'Justly? I would give from 300 pounds to 250
pounds for them!'--So that the legs both crumbling to powder, Complete
Settlement crashes down into chaos: and there ensues,"--But we must
endeavor to be briefer!
There ensues, for about a week following, such an inextricable scramble
between the Sieur Hirsch and M. de Voltaire as,--as no reader, not
himself in the Jew-Bill line, or paid for understanding it, could
consent to have explained to him. Voltaire, by way of mending the bad
jewel-bargain, will buy of Hirsch 200 pounds worth more jewels; gets
the new 200 pounds worth in hand, cannot quite settle what articles will
suit: "This, think you? That, think you?" And intricately shuffles them
about, to Hirsch and back. Hirsch, singular to notice, holds fast by
that Protested Paris Bill; on frivolous pretexts, always forgets to
bring that: "May have its uses, that, in a Court of Justice yet!"
Meetings there are, almost daily, in the Voltaire Palace-Apartment;
DECEMBER 19th and DECEMBER 24th) there are Two DOCUMENTS (which we must
spare the reader, though he will hear of them again, as highly notable,
especially of one of them, as notable in the extreme!)--indicating the
abstrusest jewel-bargainings, scramblings, re-bargainings.
"My Jewels are truly valued!" asseverates Hirsch always: "Ephraim is my
enemy; ask Herr Reklam, chief Jeweller in Berlin, an impartial man!"
The meetings are occasionally of stormy character; Voltaire's patience
nearly out: "But did n't I return you that Topaz Ring, value 75 pounds?
And you have NOT deducted it; you--!" "One day, Picard and he pulled a
Ring [doubtless this Topaz] off my finger," says the pathetic Hirsch,
"and violently shoved me out of the room, slamming their door,"--and
sent me home, along the corridors, in a very scurvy humor! Thus, under a
skin of second settlement, there are two galvanic elements, getting ever
more galvanic, which no skin of settlement can prevent exploding before
long.
Explosion there accordingly was; most sad and dismal; which rang through
all the Court circles of Berlin; and, like a sound of hooting and of
weeping mixed, is audible over seas to this day. But let not the reader
insist on tracing the course of it henceforth. Klein, though faithful
and exact, is not a Pitaval; and we find in him errors of the press. The
acutest Actuary might spend weeks over these distracted Money-accounts,
and inconsistent Lists of Jewels bought and not bought; and would be
unreadable if successful. Let us say, The business catches fire at
this point; the Voltaire-Hirsch theatre is as if blown up into mere
whirlwinds of igneous rum and smoky darkness. Henceforth all plunges
into Lawsuit, into chaos of conflicting lies,--undecipherable, not worth
deciphering. Let us give what few glimpses of the thing are clearly
discernible at their successive dates, and leave the rest to picture
itself in the reader's fancy.
It appears, that Meeting of DECEMBER 24th, above alluded to, was
followed by another on Christmas-day, which proved the final one. Final
total explosion took place at this new meeting;--which, we find farther,
was at Chasot's Lodging (the CHAPEAU of Hanbury), who is now in Town,
like all the world, for Carnival. Hirsch does not directly venture on
naming Chasot: but by implication, by glimmers of evidence elsewhere,
one sufficiently discovers that it is he: Lieutenant-Colonel, King's
Friend, a man glorious, especially ever since Hohenfriedberg, and
that haul of the "sixty-seven standards" all at once. In the way of
Arbitration, Voltaire thinks Chasot might do something. In regard to
those 450 pounds worth of bought Jewels, there is not such a judge in
the world! Hirsch says: "Next morning [December 25th, morrow after that
jumbly Account, with probable slamming of the door, and still worse!],
Voltaire went to a Lieutenant-Colonel in the King's service; and ask
him to send for me." [Duvernet (Second), p. 172; Hirsch's Narrative
(in--Tantale,--p. 344).] This is Chasot; who knows these jewels well.
Duvernet,--who had talked a good deal with D'Arget, in latter years, and
alone of Frenchmen sometimes yields a true particle of feature in things
Prussian,--Duvernet tells us, these Jewels were once Chasot's own: given
him by a fond Duchess of Mecklenburg,--musical old Duchess, verging
towards sixty; HONI SOIT, my friend! What Hirsch gave Chasot for these
Jewels is not a doubtful quantity; and may throw conviction into Hirsch,
hopes Voltaire.
DECEMBER 25th, 1750. The interview at Chasot's was not lengthy, but it
was decisive. Hirsch never brings that Paris Bill; privately fixed,
on that point. Hirsch's claims, as we gradually unravel the intricate
mule-mind of him, rise very high indeed. "And as to the value of those
Jewels, and what I allowed YOU for them, Monsieur Chasot; that is no
rule: trade-profits, you know"--Nay, the mule intimates, as a last
shift, That perhaps they are not the same Jewels; that perhaps M. de
Voltaire has changed some of them! Whereupon the matter catches fire,
irretrievably explodes. M. de Voltaire's patience flies quite done; and,
fire-eyed fury now guiding, he springs upon the throat of Hirsch like a
cat-o'-mountain; clutches Hirsch by the windpipe; tumbles him about the
room: "Infamous canaille, do you know whom you have got to do with? That
it is in my power to stick you into a hole underground for the rest
of your life? Sirrah, I will ruin and annihilate you!"--and "tossed me
about the room with his fist on my throat," says Hirsch; "offering to
have pity nevertheless, if I would take back the Jewels, and return
all writings." [Narrative (in--Tantale--).] Eyes glancing like a
rattlesnake's, as we perceive; and such a phenomenon as Hirsch had not
expected, this Christmas! In short, the matter has here fairly exploded,
and is blazing aloft, as a mass of intricate fuliginous ruin, not to be
deciphered henceforth. Such a scene for Chasot on the Christmas-day at
Berlin! And we have got to
PART II. THE LAWSUIT ITSELF (30th December, 1750-18th and 26th February,
1751).
Hirsch slunk hurriedly home, uncertain whether dead or alive. Old
Hirsch, hearing of such explosion, considered his house and family
ruined; and, being old and feeble, took to bed upon it, threatening
to break his heart. Voltaire writes to Niece Denis, on the morrow; not
hinting at the Hirsch matter, far from that; but in uncommonly dreary
humor: "My splendor here, my glory, never was the like of it; MAIS,
MAIS," BUT, and ever again BUT, at each new item,--in fact, the humor of
a glorious Phoenix-Peacock suddenly douched and drenched in dirty water,
and feeling frost at hand! ["To Madame Denis" (lxxiv. 279, "Berlin
Palace, 26th December, 1750;"--and ib. 249, 257, &c. of other dates).]
Humor intelligible enough, when dates are compared.
Better than that, Voltaire is applying, on all points of the compass, to
Legal and Influential Persons, for help in a Court of Law. To Chancellor
Cocceji; to Jarriges (eminent Prussian Frenchman), President of Court;
to Maupertuis, who knows Jarriges, but "will not meddle in a bad
business;"--at last, even to dull reverend Formey, whom he had not
called on hitherto. Cocceji seems to have answered, to the effect, "Most
certainly: the Courts are wide open;"--but as to "help"! December
30th, the Suit, Voltaire VERSUS Hirsch, "comes to Protocol,"--that is,
Cocceji, Jarriges, Loper, three eminent men, have been named to try it;
and Herr Hofrath Bell, Advocate for Voltaire Plaintiff, hands in his
First Statement that day. Berlin resounds, we may fancy how! Rumor,
laughter and wonder are in all polite quarters; and continue, more or
less vivid, for above two months coming. Here is one direct glimpse of
Plaintiff, in this interim; which we will give, though the eyes are none
of the best: "The first visit I," Formey, "had from Voltaire was in the
afternoon of January 8th) 1751 [Suit begun ten days ago]. I had, at the
time, a large party of friends. Voltaire walked across the Apartment,
without looking at anybody; and, taking me by the hand, made me lead him
to a cabinet adjoining. His Lawsuit with a Jew was the matter on hand.
He talked to me at large about his Lawsuit, and with the greatest
vehemence; he wound up by asking me to speak to Law-President M. de
Jarriges (since Chancellor): I answered what was suitable;"--probably
did speak to Jarriges, but might as well have held my tongue. "Voltaire
then took his leave: stepping athwart the former Apartment with some
precipitation, he noticed my eldest little girl, then in her fourth
year, who was gazing at the diamonds on his Cross of the Order of
Merit. 'Bagatelles, bagatelles, MON ENFANT!' said he, and disappeared."
[Formey, i. 232.]
On New-Year's day, Friday, 1st January, 1751, Voltaire had legally
applied to Herr Minister von Bismark, for Warrant to arrest Hirsch, as
a person that will not give up Papers not belonging to him. Warrant was
granted, and Hirsch lodged in Limbo. Which worsens the state of poor old
Father Hirsch; threatening now really to die, of heart-break and other
causes. Hirsch Son, from the interior of Limbo, appeals to Bismark,
"Lord Chancellor Cocceji is seized of my Plea, your gracious
Lordship!"--"All the same," answers Bismark; "produce CAUTION, or you
can't get out." Hirsch produces caution; and gets out, after a day or
two;--and has been "brought to Protocol January 4th." No delay in this
Court: both parties, through their Advocates, are now brought to book;
the points they agree in will be sifted out, and laid on this side as
truth; what they differ in, left lying on that side, as a mixture of
lies to be operated on by farther processes and protocols.
We will not detail the Lawsuit;--what I chiefly admire in it is its
brevity. Cocceji has not reformed in vain. Good Advocates, none other
allowed; and no Advocate talks; he merely endeavors to think, see and
discover; holds his tongue if he can discover nothing: that doubtless
is one source of the brevity!--Many lies are stated by Hirsch, many by
Voltaire: but the Judges, without difficulty, shovel these aside; and
come step by step upon the truth. Hirsch says plainly, He was sent to
buy STEUER-SCHEINE at 35 per cent discount; Voltaire entirely denies
the Steuer-Notes; says, It was an affair of Peltries and Jewelries,
originating in loans of money to this ungrateful Jew. Which necessitates
much wriggling on the part of M. de Voltaire;--but he has himself
written in a Lawyer's Office, in his young days, and knows how to
twist a turn of expression. The Judges are not there to judge
about Steuer-Notes; but they give you to understand that Voltaire's
Peltry-and-Jewelry story is moonshine. Hirsch produces the Voltaire
Scraps of Writing, already known to our readers; Voltaire says,
"Mere extinct jottings; which Hirsch has furtively picked out of the
grate,"--or may be said to have picked; Papers annihilated by our
Bargain of December 16th, and which should have been in the grate, if
they were not; this felon never having kept his word in that respect.
Peltries and Jewelries, I say: he will not give me back that Paris
Bill which was protested; pays me the other 3,000 crowns (Draft of 650
pounds) in Jewels overvalued by half.--"Jewels furtively changed since
Plaintiff had them of me!" answers Hirsch;--and the steady Judges keep
their sieves going.
The only Documents produced by Voltaire are Two; of 19th DECEMBER and of
24th DECEMBER;--which the reader has not yet seen, but ought now to gain
some notion of, if possible. They affect once more, as that of December
16th had done, to be "Final Settlements" (or Final Settlement of 19th,
with CODICIL of 24th); and turn on confused Lists of Jewels, bought,
returned, re-bought (that "Topaz ring" torn from one's hand, a
conspicuous item), which no reader would have patience to understand,
except in the succinct form. Let all readers note them, however,--at
least the first of them, that of December 19th; especially the words we
mark in Italics, which have merited a sad place for IT in the history
of human sin and misery. Klein has given both Documents in engraved
fac-simile; we must help ourselves by simpler methods. Berlin, December
19th, 1750; Voltaire writes, Hirsch signs;--and the Italics are believed
to be words foisted in by M. de Voltaire, weeks after, while the Hirsch
pleadings were getting stringent! Read,--a very sad memorial of M. de
Voltaire,--
DOCUMENT FIFTH (in Voltaire's hand, written at two times; and the old
writing MENDED in parts, to suit the new!).--"FOR PAYMENT OF 3,000
THALERS BY ME DUE, I have sold to M. de Voltaire, at the price
costing by estimation and tax, with 2 per cent for my commission ["OR
GRATIFICATION," written above], the following Diamonds, taxed [blotted
into "TAXABLE"], as here adjoined; viz."--seven pieces of jewelry,
pendeloques, &c., with price affixed, among which is the violated
Topaz,--"the whole estimated by him ["him" crossed out, and "ME" written
over it], being 3,640 thalers. Whereupon, received from Monsieur de
Voltaire [what is very strange; not intelligible without study!] the sum
of 2,940 thalers, and he has given me back the Topaz, with 60 crowns for
my trouble.--Berlin, 19th December, 1750." (Hitherto in Voltaire's hand;
after which Hirsch writes:) "APROUVE, A. Hirschel." [Sic: that is always
his SIGNATURE; "Abraham HirschEL," so given by Klein, while Klein and
everybody CALL him Hirsch (STAG), as we have done,--if only to save a
syllable on the bad bargain.] And between these two lines ("... 1750"
and "APPROVED..."), there is crushed in, as afterthought, "VALUED BY
MYSELF [Hirsch's self], 2,940, ADD 60, IS 3,000." And, in fine, below
the Hirsch signature, on what may be called the bottom margin, there
is,--I think, avowedly Voltaire's and subsequent,--this: "N.B. that
Hirsch's valuing of all the jewels [present lot and former lot] is, by
real estimation, between twice and thrice too high;" of which, it is
hoped, your Lordships will take notice!
Was there ever seen such a Paper; one end of it contradicting the other?
Payment TO M. de Voltaire, and payment BY M. de Voltaire;--with other
blottings and foistings, which print and italics will not represent!
Hirsch denies he ever signed this Paper. Is not that your writing, then:
"APROUVE, A. Hirschel"?--"No!" and they convict him of falsity in that
respect: the signature IS his, but the Paper has been altered since he
signed it. That is what the poor dark mortal meant to express; and in
his mulish way, he has expressed into a falsity what was in itself a
truth. There is not, on candid examination of Klein's Fac-similes and
the other evidence, the smallest doubt but Voltaire altered, added and
intercalated, in his own privacy, those words which we have printed in
italics; TAXES changed into TAXABLES ("estimated at" into "estimable
at"), HIM for ME, and so on; and above all, the now first line of the
Paper, FOR PAYMENT OF 3,000 THALERS BY ME DUE, and in last line
the words VALUED BY MYSELF, &c., are palpable interpolations, sheer
falsifications, which Hirsch is made to continue signing after his back
is turned!
No fact is more certain; and few are sadder in the history of M. de
Voltaire. To that length has he been driven by stress of Fortune. Nay,
when the Judges, not hiding their surprise at the form of this Document,
asked, Will you swear it is all genuine? Voltaire answered, "Yes,
certainly!"--for what will a poor man not do in extreme stress of
Fortune? Hirsch, as a Jew, is not permitted to make oath, where a
Quasi-Christian will swear to the contrary, or he gladly would; and
might justly. The Judges, willing to prevent chance of perjury, did not
bring Voltaire to swearing, but contrived a way to justice without that.
FEBRUARY 18th, 1751, the Court arrives at a conclusion. Hirsch's
Diamonds, whatever may have been written or forged, are not, nor
were, worth more than their value, think the Judges. The Paris Bill is
admitted to be Voltaire's, not Hirsch's, continue they;--and if Hirsch
can prove that Voltaire has changed the Diamonds, not a likely fact,
let him do so. The rest does not concern us. And to that effect, on the
above day, runs their Sentence: "You, Hirsch, shall restore the Paris
Bill; mutual Papers to be all restored, or legally annihilated. Jewels
to be valued by sworn Experts, and paid for at that price. Hirsch, if he
can prove that the Jewels were changed, has liberty to try it, in a new
Action. Hirsch, for falsely denying his Signature, is fined ten thalers
(thirty shillings), such lie being a contempt of court, whatever more."
"Ha, fined, you Jew Villain!" hysterically shrieks Voltaire: "in the
wrong, weren't you, then; and fined thirty shillings?" hysterically
trying to believe, and make others believe, that he has come off
triumphant. "Beaten my Jew, haven't I?" says he to everybody, though
inwardly well enough aware how it stands, and that he is a Phoenix
douched, and has a tremor in the bones! Chancellor Cocceji was far
from thinking it triumphant to him. Here is a small Note of Cocceji's,
addressed to his two colleagues, Jarriges and Loper, which has been
found among the Law Papers:
"BERLIN, 20th FEBRUARY, 1751. The Herr President von Jarriges and
Privy-Councillor Loper are hereby officially requested to bring the
remainder of the Voltaire Sentence to its fulfilment: I am myself not
well, and can employ my time much better. The Herr von Voltaire has
given in a desperate Memorial (EIN DESPERATES MEMORIAL) to this purport:
'I swear that what is charged to me [believed of me] in the Sentence is
true; and now request to have the Jewels valued.' I have returned
him this Paper, with notice that it must be signed by an
Advocate.--COCCEJI." [Klein, 256.]
So wrote Chancellor Cocceji, on the Saturday, washing his hands of this
sorry business. Voltaire is ready to make desperate oath, if needful. We
said once, M. de Voltaire was not given to lying; far the reverse.
But yet, see, if you drive him into a corner with a sword at his
throat,--alas, yes, he will lie a little! Forgery lay still less in his
habits; but he can do a stroke that way, too (one stroke, unique in his
life, I do believe), if a wild boar, with frothy tusks, is upon him.
Tell it not in Gath,--except for scientific purposes! And be judicial,
arithmetical, in passing sentence on it; not shrieky, mobbish, and
flying off into the Infinite!
Berlin, of course, is loud on these matters. "The man whom the King
delighted to honor, this is he, then!" King Friedrich has quitted Town,
some while ago; returned to Potsdam "January 30th." Glad enough,
I suppose, to be out of all this unmusical blowing of catcalls and
indecent exposure. To Voltaire he has taken no notice; silently leaves
Voltaire, in his nook of the Berlin Schloss, till the foul business get
done. "VOLTAIRE FILOUTE LES JUIFS (picks Jew pockets)," writes he once
to Wilhelmina: "will get out of it by some GAMBADE (summerset),"
writes he another time; "but" ["31st December, 1750" (--OEuvres de
Frederic,--xxvii, i. 198); "3d February, 1751" (ib. 201).]--And takes
the matter with boundless contempt, doubtless with some vexation, but
with the minimum of noise, as a Royal gentleman might. Jew Hirsch is
busy preparing for his new desperate Action; getting together proof that
the Jewels have been changed. In proof Jew Hirsch will be weak; but in
pleading, in public pamphlets, and keeping a winged Apollo fluttering
disastrously in such a mud-bath, Jew Hirsch will be strong. Voltaire,
"out of magnanimous pity to him," consents next week to an Agreement.
Agreement is signed on Thursday, 26th February, 1751:--Papers all to
be returned, Jewels nearly all, except one or two, paid at Hirsch's own
price. Whereby, on the whole, as Klein computes, Voltaire lost about 150
pounds;--elsewhere I have seen it computed at 187 pounds: not the least
matter which. Old Hirsch has died in the interim ("Of broken heart!"
blubbers the Son); day not known.
And, on these terms, Voltaire gets out of the business; glad to close
the intolerable rumor, at some cost of money. For all tongues were
wagging; and, in defect of a TIMES Newspaper, it appears, there had
Pamphlets come out; printed Satires, bound or in broadside;--sapid,
exhilarative, for a season, and interesting to the idle mind. Of which,
TANTALE EN PROCES may still, for the sake of that PREFACE to it, be
considered to have an obscure existence. And such, reduced to its
authenticities, was the Adventure of the Steuer-Notes. A very bad
Adventure indeed; unspeakably the worst that Voltaire ever tried, who
had such talent in the finance line. On which poor History is really
ashamed to have spent so much time; sorting it into clearness, in the
disgust and sorrow of her soul. But perhaps it needed to be done. Let
us hope, at least, it may not now need to be done again. [Besides the
KLEIN, the TANTALE EN PROCES and the Voltaire LETTERS cited above, there
is (in--OEuvres de Voltaire,--lxiv. pp. 61-106, as SUPPLEMENT there),
written off-hand, in the very thick of the Hirsch Affair, a considerable
set of NOTES TO D'ARGET, which might have been still more elucidative;
but are, in their present dateless topsy-turvied condition; a very
wonder of confusion to the studious reader!]
This is the FIRST ACT of Voltaire's Tragic-Farce at the Court of Berlin:
readers may conceive to what a bleared frost-bitten condition it
has reduced the first Favonian efflorescence there. He considerably
recovered in the SECOND ACT, such the indelible charm of the Voltaire
genius to Friedrich. But it is well known, the First Act rules all
the others; and here, accordingly, the Third Act failed not to prove
tragical. Out of First Act into Second the following EXTRACTS OF
CORRESPONDENCE will guide the reader, without commentary of ours.
Voltaire, left languishing at Berlin, has fallen sick, now that all is
over;--no doubt, in part really sick, the unfortunate Phoenix-Peafowl,
with such a tremor in his bones;--and would fain be near Friedrich and
warmth again; fain persuade the outside world that all is sunshine with
him. Voltaire's Letters to Friedrich, if he wrote any, in this Jew time,
are lost; here are Friedrich's Answers to Two,--one lost, which had
been written from Berlin AFTER the Jew affair was out of Court; and to
another (not lost) after the Jew affair was done.
1. KING FRIEDRICH TO VOLTAIRE AT BERLIN.
"POTSDAM, 24th February, 1751. "I was glad to receive you in my house; I
esteemed your genius, your talents and acquirements; and I had reason to
think that a man of your age, wearied with fencing against Authors, and
exposing himself to the storm, came hither to take refuge as in a safe
harbor.
"But, on arriving, you exacted of me, in a rather singular manner, Not
to take Freron to write me news from Paris; and I had the weakness, or
the complaisance, to grant you this, though it is not for you to decide
what persons I shall take into my service. D'Arnaud had faults towards
you; a generous man would have pardoned them; a vindictive man hunts
down those whom he takes to hating. In a word, though to me D'Arnaud had
done nothing, it was on your account that he had to go. You were
with the Russian Minister, speaking of things you had no concern with
[Russian Excellency Gross, off home lately, in sudden dudgeon, like an
angry sky-rocket, nobody can guess why! Adelung, vii. 133 (about 1st
December, 1750).]--and it was thought I had given you Commission." "You
have had the most villanous affair in the world with a Jew. It has made
a frightful scandal all over Town. And that Steuer-Schein business is so
well known in Saxony, that they have made grievous complaints of it to
me.
"For my own share, I have preserved peace in my house till your
arrival: and I warn you, that if you have the passion of intriguing and
caballing, you have applied to the wrong hand. I like peaceable composed
people; who do not put into their conduct the violent passions of
Tragedy. In case you can resolve to live like a Philosopher, I shall
be glad to see you; but if you abandon yourself to all the violences of
your passions, and get into quarrels with all the world, you will do me
no good by coming hither, and you may as well stay in Berlin." [Preuss,
xxii. 262 (WANTING in the French Editions).]--F.
To which Voltaire sighing pathetically in response, "Wrong, ah yes, your
Majesty;--and sick to death" (see farther down),--here is Friedrich's
Second in Answer:--
2. FRIEDRICH TO VOLTAIRE AGAIN.
"POTSDAM, 28th February, 1751. "If you wish to come hither, you can do
so. I hear nothing of Lawsuits, not even of yours. Since you have gained
it, I congratulate you; and I am glad that this scurvy affair is done.
I hope you will have no more quarrels, neither with the OLD nor with the
New TESTAMENT. Such worryings (CES SORTES DE COMPROMIS) leave their mark
on a man; and with the talents of the finest genius in France, you will
not cover the stains which this conduct would fasten on your reputation
in the long-run. A Bookseller Gosse [read JORE, your Majesty? Nobody
ever heard of Gosse as an extant quantity: Jore, of Rouen, you mean, and
his celebrated Lawsuit, about printing the HENRIADE, or I know not what,
long since] [Unbounded details on the Jore Case, and from 1731 to 1738
continual LETTERS on it, in--OEuvres de Voltaire;----came to a head
in 1736 (ib. lxix. 375); Jore penitent, 1738 (ib. i. 262), &c. &c.], a
Bookseller Jore, an Opera Fiddler [poor Travenol, wrong dog pincered by
the ear], and a Jeweller Jew, these are, of a surety, names which in
no sort of business ought to appear by the side of yours. I write this
Letter with the rough common-sense of a German, who speaks what he
thinks, without employing equivocal terms, and loose assuagements which
disfigure the truth: it is for you to profit by it.--F." [--OEuvres de
Frederic,--xxii. 265.]
So that Voltaire will have to languish: "Wrong, yes;--and sick, nigh
dead, your Majesty! Ah, could not one get to some Country Lodge near
you, 'the MARQUISAT' for instance? Live silent there, and see your face
sometimes?" [In--OEuvres de Frederic--(xxii. 259-261, 263-266) are Four
lamenting and repenting, wheedling and ultimately whining, LETTERS from
Voltaire, none of them dated, which have much about "my dreadful state
of health," my passion" for reposing in that MARQUISAT," &c.;--to one
of which Four, or perhaps to the whole together, the above No. 2 of
Friedrich seems to have been Answer. Of that indisputable "MARQUISAT" no
Nicolai says a word; even careful Preuss passes "Gosse" and it with shut
lips.] Languishing very much;--gives cosy little dinners, however. Here
are two other Excerpts; and these will suffice:--
VOLTAIRE TO FORMEY ("BERLIN PALACE;" DATABLE, FIRST DAYS OF MARCH):
"Will you, Monsieur, come and eat the King's roast meat (ROT DU ROI),
to-day, Thursday, at two o'clock, in a philosophic, warm and comfortable
manner (PHILOSOPHIQUEMENT ET CHAUDEMENT ET DOUCEMENT). A couple of
philosophers, without being courtiers, may dine in the Palace of a
Philosopher-King: I should even take the liberty of sending one of his
Majesty's Carriages for you,-at two precise. After dinner, you would be
at hand for your Academy meeting." [Formey, i. 234.]--V. How cosy!--And
King Friedrich has relented, too; grants me the Marquisat; can refuse me
nothing!
VOLTAIRE TO D'ARGENTAL (POTSDAM, 15th MARCH 1751).... "I could not
accompany our Chamberlain [Von Ammon, gone as Envoy to Paris, on a small
matter ["Commercial Treaty;" which he got done. See LONGCHAMP, if any
one is curious otherwise about this Gentleman: "D'Hamon" they call
him, and sometimes "DAMON",--to whom Niece Denis wanted to be Phyllis,
according to Longchamp.]], through the muds and the snows,--where I
should have been buried; I was ill," and had to go to the MARQUISAT.
"D'Arnaud and the pack of Scribblers would have been too glad. D'Arnaud,
animated with the true love of glory, and not yet grown sufficiently
illustrious by his own immortal Works, has done ONE of that kind,"--by
his behavior here. Has behaved to me--oh, like a miserable, envious,
intriguing, lying little scoundrel; and made Berlin too hot for him:
seduced Tinois my Clerk, stole bits of the Pucelle (brief SIGHT of bits,
for Prince Henri's sake) to ruin me.
"D'Arnaud sent his lies to Freron for the Paris meridian [that is his
real crime]; delightful news from canaille to canaille: 'How Voltaire
had lost a great Lawsuit, respectable Jew Banker cheated by Voltaire;
that Voltaire was disgraced by the King,' who of course loves Jews;
'that Voltaire was ruined; was ill; nay at last, that Voltaire was
dead.'" To the joy of Freron, and the scoundrels that are printing one's
PUCELLE. "Voltaire is still in life, however, my angels; and the King
has been so good to me in my sickness, I should be the ungratefulest
of men if I didn't still pass some months with him. When he left Berlin
[30th January, six weeks ago], and I was too ill to follow him, I was
the sole animal of my species whom he lodged in his Palace there [what
a beautiful bit of color to lay on!]--He left me equipages, cooks ET
CETERA; and his mules and horses carted out my temporary furniture
(MEUBLES DE PASSADE) to a delicious House of his, close by Potsdam
[MARQUISAT to wit, where I now stretch myself at ease; Niece Denis
coming to live with me there,--talks of coming, if my angels knew
it],--and he has reserved for me a charming apartment in his Palace of
Potsdam, where I pass a part of the week.
"And, on close view, I still admire this Unique Genius; and he deigns to
communicate himself to me;--and if I were not 300 leagues from you, and
had a little health, I should be the happiest of men." [--OEuvres de
Voltaire,--lxxiv. 320.]... Oh, my angels--
And, in short, better or worse, my SECOND ACT is begun, as you
perceive!--And certain readers will be apt to look in again, before all
is over.
Chapter VIII. OST-FRIESLAND AND THE SHIPPING INTERESTS.
Two Foreign Events, following on the heel of the Hirsch Lawsuit, were of
interest to our Berlin friends, though not now of much to us or anybody.
April 5th, 1751, the old King of Sweden, Landgraf of Hessen-Cassel,
died; whereby not only our friend Wilhelm, the managing Landgraf,
becomes Landgraf indeed (if he should ever turn up on us again), but
Princess Ulrique is henceforth Queen of Sweden, her Husband the
new King. No doubt a welcome event to Princess Ulrique, the high
brave-minded Lady; but which proved intrinsically an empty one, not to
say worse than empty, to herself and her friends, in times following.
Friedrich's connection with Sweden, which he had been tightening lately
by a Treaty of Alliance, came in the long-run to nothing for him, on the
Swedish side; and on the Russian has already created umbrages, kindled
abstruse suspicions, indignations,--Russian Excellency Gross, abruptly,
at Berlin, demanding horses, not long since, and posting home without
other leave-taking, to the surprise of mankind;--Russian Czarina
evidently in the sullens against Friedrich, this long while; dull
impenetrable clouds of anger lodging yonder, boding him no good. All
which the Accession of Queen Ulrique will rather tend to aggravate than
otherwise. [Adelung, vii. 205 (Accession of Adolf Friedrich); ib. 133
(Gross's sudden Departure).]
The Second Foreign Event is English, about a week prior in date, and
is of still less moment: March 31st, 1751, Prince Fred, the Royal
Heir-Apparent, has suddenly died. Had been ill, more or less, for an
eight days past; was now thought better, though "still coughing, and
bringing up phlegm,"--when, on "Wednesday night between nine and ten,"
in some lengthier fit of that kind, he clapt his hand on his breast; and
the terrified valet heard him say, "JE SUIS MORT!"--and before his
poor Wife could run forward with a light, he lay verily dead. [Walpole,
GEORGE THE SECOND, i. 71.] The Rising Sun in England is vanished,
then. Yes; and with him his MOONS, and considerable moony workings, and
slushings hither and thither, which they have occasioned, in the muddy
tide-currents of that Constitutional Country. Without interest to us
here; or indeed elsewhere,--except perhaps that our dear Wilhelmina
would hear of it; and have her sad reflections and reminiscences
awakened by it; sad and many-voiced, perhaps of an almost doleful
nature, being on a sick-bed at this time, poor Lady. She quitted Berlin
months ago, as we observed,--her farewell Letter to Friedrich, written
from the first stage homewards, and melodious as the voice of sorrowful
true hearts to us and him, dates "November 24th," just while Voltaire
(whom she always likes, and in a beautiful way protects, "FRERE
VOLTAIRE," as she calls him) was despatching Hirsch on that ill-omened
Predatory STEUER-Mission. Her Brother is in real alarm for Wilhelmina,
about this time; sending out Cothenius his chief Doctor, and the like:
but our dear Princess re-emerges from her eclipse; and we shall see her
again, several times, if we be lucky.
And so poor Fred is ended;--and sulky people ask, in their cruel way,
"Why not?" A poor dissolute flabby fellow-creature; with a sad destiny,
and a sadly conspicuous too. Could write Madrigals; be set to make
Opposition cabals. Read this sudden Epitaph in doggerel; an uncommonly
successful Piece of its kind; which is now his main monument with
posterity. The "Brother" (hero of Culloden), the "Sister" (Amelia,
our Friedrich's first love, now growing gossipy and spiteful, poor
Princess), are old friends:--
"Here lies Prince Fred,
Who was alive and is dead:
Had it been his Father,
I had much rather;
Had it been his Brother,
Sooner than any other;
Had it been his Sister,
There's no one would have missed her;
Had it been his whole generation,
Best of all for the Nation:
But since it's only Fred,
There's no more to be said." [Walpole, i. 436.]
FRIEDRIAH VISITS OST-FRIESLAND.
A thing of more importance to us, two months after that catastrophe in
London, is Friedrich's first Visit to Ost-Friesland. May 31st, having
done his Berlin-Potsdam Reviews and other current affairs, Friedrich
sets out on this Excursion. With Ost-Friesland for goal, but much
business by the way. Towards Magdeburg, and a short visit to the
Brunswick Kindred, first of all. There is much reviewing in the
Magdeburg quarter, and thereafter in the Wesel; and reviewing and
visiting all along: through Minden, Bielfeld, Lingen: not till July
13th does he cross the Ost-Friesland Border, and enter Embden. His
three Brothers, and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, were with him.
[--Helden-Geschichte,--iii. 506; Seyfarth, ii. 145; Rodenbeck, i. 216
(who gives a foolish German myth, of Voltaire's being passed off for the
King's Baboon, &c.; Voltaire not being there at all).] On catching view
of Ost-Friesland Border, see, on the Border-Line, what an Arch got
on its feet: Triumphal Arch, of frondent ornaments, inscriptions and
insignia; "of quite extraordinary magnificence;" Arch which "sets
every one into the agreeablest admiration." Above a hundred such
Arches spanned the road at different points; multitudinous enthusiasm
reverently escorting, "more than 20,000" by count: till we enter Embden;
where all is cannon-salvo, and three-times-three; the thunder-shots
continuing, "above 2,000 of them from the walls, not to speak of
response from the ships in harbor." Embden glad enough, as would appear,
and Ost-Friesland glad enough, to see their new King. July 13th, 1751;
after waiting above six years.
Next day, his Majesty gave audience to the new "Asiatic Shipping
Company" (of which anon), to the Stande, and Magisterial persons;--with
many questions, I doubt not, about your new embankments, new
improvements, prospects; there being much procedure that way, in all
manner of kinds, since the new Dynasty came in, now six years ago.
Embankments on your River, wide spaces changed from ooze to meadow; on
the Dollart still more, which has lain 500 years hidden from the
sun. Does any reader know the Dollart? Ost-Friesland has awakened to
wonderful new industries within these six years; urged and guided by
the new King, who has great things in view for it, besides what are in
actual progress.
That of dikes, sea-embankments, for example; to Ost-Friesland, as to
Holland, they are the first condition of existence; and, in the past
times, of extreme Parliamentary vitality, have been slipping a good deal
out of repair. Ems River, in those flat rainy countries, has ploughed
out for itself a very wide embouchure, as boundary between Groningen
and Ost-Friesland. Muddy Ems, bickering with the German Ocean, does not
forget to act, if Parliamentary Commissioners do. These dikes, 120
miles of dike, mainly along both banks of this muddy Ems River, are now
water-tight again, to the comfort of flax and clover: and this is but
one item of the diking now on foot. Readers do not know the Dollart,
that uppermost round gulf, not far from Embden itself, in the waste
embouchure of Ems with its continents of mud and tide. Five hundred
years ago, that ugly whirl of muddy surf, 100 square miles in area, was
a fruitful field, "50 Villages upon it, one Town, several Monasteries
and 50,000 souls:" till on Christmas midnight A.D. 1277, the winds and
the storm-rains having got to their height, Ocean and Ems did, "about
midnight," undermine the place, folded it over like a friable bedquilt
or monstrous doomed griddle-cake, and swallowed it all away. Most of
it, they say, that night, the whole of it within ten years coming;
[Busching,--Erdbeschreibung,--v. 845, 846; Preuss, i. 308, 309.]--and
there it has hung, like an unlovely GOITRE at the throat of Embden,
ever since. One little dot of an Island, with six houses on it, near
the Embden shore, is all that is left. Where probably his Majesty landed
(July 15th, being in a Yacht that day); but did not see, afar off, the
"sunk steeple-top," which is fabled to be visible at low-water.
Upon this Dollart itself there is now to be diking tried; King's
Domain-Kammer showing the example. Which Official Body did accordingly
(without Blue-Books, but in good working case otherwise) break
ground, few months hence; and victoriously achieved a POLDER, or Diked
Territory, "worth about 2,000 pounds annually;" "which, in 1756, was
sold to the STANDE;" at twenty-five years purchase, let us say, or for
50,000 pounds. An example of a convincing nature; which many others, and
ever others, have followed since; to gradual considerable diminution of
the Dollart, and relief of Ost-Friesland on this side. Furtherance of
these things is much a concern of Friedrich's. The second day after his
arrival, those audiences and ceremonials done, Friedrich and suite got
on board a Yacht, and sailed about all over this Dollart, twenty miles
out to sea; dined on board; and would have, if the weather was bright
(which I hope), a pleasantly edifying day. The harbor is much in need
of dredging, the building docks considerably in disrepair; but shall
be refitted if this King live and prosper. He has declared Embden a
"Free-Haven," inviting trade to it from all peaceable Nations;--and
readers do not know (though Sir Jonas Hanway and the jealous mercantile
world well did) what magnificent Shipping Companies and Sea-Enterprises,
of his devising, are afoot there. Of which, one word, and no second
shall follow:
"September 1st, 1750, those Carrousel gayeties scarce done, 'The Asiatic
Trading Company' stept formally into existence; Embden the Head-quarters
of it; [Patent, or FREYHEITS-BRIEF in--Helden-Geschichte,--iii. 457,
458.] chief Manager a Ritter De la Touche; one of the Directors
our fantastic Bielfeld, thus turned to practical value. A Company
patronized, in all ways, by the King; but, for the rest, founded, not on
his money; founded on voluntary shares, which, to the regret of Hanway
and others, have had much popularity in commercial circles. Will trade
to China. A thing looked at with umbrage by the English, by the Dutch.
A shame that English people should encourage such schemes, says
Hanway. Which nevertheless many Dutch and many English private persons
do,--among the latter, one English Lady (name unknown, but I always
suspect 'Miss Barbara Wyndham, of the College, Salisbury'), concerning
whom there will be honorable notice by and by.
"At the time of Friedrich's visit, the Asiatic Company is in full vogue;
making ready its first ship for Canton. First ship, KONIG VON PREUSSEN
(tons burden not given), actually sailed 17th February next (1752); and
was followed by a second, named TOWN OF EMBDEN, on the 19th of September
following; both of which prosperously reached Canton, and prosperously
returned with cargoes of satisfactory profit. The first of them, KONIG
VON PREUSSEN, had been boarded in the Downs by an English Captain
Thomson and his Frigate, and detained some days,--till Thomson 'took
Seven English seamen out of her.' 'Act of Parliament, express!' said
his Grace of Newcastle. Which done, Thomson found that the English
jealousies would have to hold their hand; no farther, whatever one's
wishes may be.
"Nay within a year hence, January 24th, 1753, Friedrich founded another
Company for India: 'BENGALISCHE HANDELS-GESELLSCHAFT;' which also sent
out its pair of ships, perhaps oftener than once; and pointed, as the
other was doing, to wide fields of enterprise, for some time. But
luck was wanting. And, 'in part, mismanagement,' and, in whole, the
Seven-Years War put an end to both Companies before long. Friedrich is
full of these thoughts, among his other Industrialisms; and never quits
them for discouragement, but tries again, when the obstacles cease to
be insuperable. Ever since the acquisition of Ost-Friesland, the
furtherance of Sea-Commerce had been one of Friedrich's chosen objects.
'Let us carry our own goods at least, Silesian linens, Memel timbers,
stock-fish; what need of the Dutch to do it?' And in many branches his
progress had been remarkable,--especially in this carrying trade, while
the War lasted, and crippled all Anti-English belligerents. Upon which,
indeed, and the conduct of the English Privateers to him, there is a
Controversy going on with the English Court in those years (began
in 1747), most distressful to his Grace of Newcastle;--which in part
explains those stingy procedures of Captain Thomson ('Home, you
seven English sailors!') when the first Canton ship put to sea. That
Controversy is by no means ended after three years, but on the contrary,
after two years more, comes to a crisis quite shocking to his Grace
of Newcastle, and defying all solution on his Grace's side,--the other
Party, after such delays, five years waiting, having settled it for
himself!" Of which, were the crisis come, we will give some account.
On the third day of his Visit, Friedrich drove to Aurich, the seat
of Government, and official little capital of Ost-Friesland; where
triumphal arches, joyful reverences, concourses, demonstrations,
sumptuous Dinner one item, awaited his Majesty: I know not if, in the
way thither or back, he passed those "Three huge Oaks [or the rotted
stems or roots of them] under which the Ancient Frisians, Lords of all
between Weser and Rhine, were wont to assemble in Parliament" (WITHOUT
Fourth Estate, or any Eloquence except of the purely Business sort),--or
what his thoughts on the late Ost-Friesland Bandbox Parliaments may
have been! He returned to Embden that night; and on the morrow started
homewards; we may fancy, tolerably pleased with what he had seen.
"King Friedrich's main Objects of Pursuit in this Period," says a
certain Author, whom we often follow, "I define as being Three. 1.
Reform of the Law; 2. Furtherance of Husbandry and Industry in all
kinds, especially of Shipping from Embden; 3. Improvement of his own
Domesticities and Household Enjoyments,"--renewal of the Reinsberg
Program, in short.
"In the First of these objects," continues he, "King Friedrich's success
was very considerable, and got him great fame in the world. In his
Second head of efforts, that of improving the Industries and Husbandries
among his People, his success, though less noised of in foreign parts,
was to the near observer still more remarkable. A perennial business
with him, this; which, even in the time of War, he never neglects; and
which springs out like a stemmed flood, whenever Peace leaves him free
for it. His labors by all methods to awaken new branches of industry,
to cherish and further the old, are incessant, manifold, unwearied; and
will surprise the uninstructed reader, when he comes to study them.
An airy, poetizing, bantering, lightly brilliant King, supposed to be
serious mainly in things of War, how is he moiling and toiling, like
an ever-vigilant Land-Steward, like the most industrious City Merchant,
hardest-working Merchant's Clerk, to increase his industrial Capital by
any the smallest item!
"One day, these things will deserve to be studied to the bottom; and to
be set forth, by writing hands that are competent, for the instruction
and example of Workers,--that is to say, of all men, Kings most of all,
when there are again Kings. At present, I can only say they astonish me,
and put me to shame: the unresting diligence displayed in them, and the
immense sum-total of them,--what man, in any the noblest pursuit, can
say that he has stood to it, six-and-forty years long, in the style of
this man? Nor did the harvest fail; slow sure harvest, which sufficed
a patient Friedrich in his own day; harvest now, in our day, visible to
everybody: in a Prussia all shooting into manufactures, into commerces,
opulences,--I only hope, not TOO fast, and on more solid terms than are
universal at present! Those things might be didactic, truly, in various
points, to this Generation; and worth looking back upon, from its
high LAISSEZ-FAIRE altitudes, its triumphant Scrip-transactions and
continents of gold-nuggets,--pleasing, it doubts not, to all the gods.
To write well of what is called 'Political Economy' (meaning thereby
increase of money's-worth) is reckoned meritorious, and our nearest
approach to the rational sublime. But to accomplish said increase in
a high and indisputable degree; and indisputably very much by your own
endeavors wisely regulating those of others, does not that approach
still nearer the sublime?
"To prevent disappointment, I ought to add that Friedrich is the reverse
of orthodox in 'Political Economy;' that he had not faith in Free-Trade,
but the reverse;--nor had ever heard of those ultimate Evangels,
unlimited Competition, fair Start, and perfervid Race by all the world
(towards 'CHEAP-AND-NASTY,' as the likeliest winning-post for all the
world), which have since been vouchsafed us. Probably in the world there
was never less of a Free-Trader! Constraint, regulation, encouragement,
discouragement, reward, punishment; these he never doubted were the
method, and that government was good everywhere if wise, bad only if not
wise. And sure enough these methods, where human justice and the earnest
sense and insight of a Friedrich preside over them, have results, which
differ notably from opposite cases that can be imagined! The desperate
notion of giving up government altogether, as a relief from human
blockheadism in your governors, and their want even of a wish to be just
or wise, had not entered into the thoughts of Friedrich; nor driven
him upon trying to believe that such, in regard to any Human Interest
whatever, was, or could be except for a little while in extremely
developed cases, the true way of managing it. How disgusting,
accordingly, is the Prussia of Friedrich to a Hanbury Williams; who has
bad eyes and dirty spectacles, and hates Friedrich: how singular and
lamentable to a Mirabeau Junior, who has good eyes, and loves him!
No knave, no impertinent blockhead even, can follow his own beautiful
devices here; but is instantly had up, or comes upon a turnpike strictly
shut for him. 'Was the like ever heard of?' snarls Hanbury furiously (as
an angry dog might, in a labyrinth it sees not the least use for): 'What
unspeakable want of liberty!'--and reads to you as if he were lying
outright; but generally is not, only exaggerating, tumbling upside down,
to a furious degree; knocking against the labyrinth HE sees not the
least use for. Mirabeau's Gospel of Free-Trade, preached in 1788,
[MONARCHIE PRUSSIENNE he calls it (A LONDRES, privately Paris, 1788),
8 vols. 8vo; which is a Dead-Sea of Statistics, compiled by industrious
Major Mauvillon, with this fresh current of a "Gospel" shining through
it, very fresh and brisk, of few yards breadth;--dedicated to Papa, the
true PROTevangelist of the thing.]--a comparatively recent Performance,
though now some seventy or eighty years the senior of an English
(unconscious) Fac-simile, which we have all had the pleasure of
knowing,--will fall to be noticed afterwards [not by this Editor, we
hope!]
"Many of Friedrich's restrictive notions,--as that of watching with such
anxiety that 'money' (gold or silver coin) be not carried out of the
Country,--will be found mistakes, not in orthodox Dismal Science as now
taught, but in the nature of things; and indeed the Dismal Science will
generally excommunicate them in the lump,--too. heedless that Fact has
conspicuously vindicated the general sum-total of them, and declared it
to be much truer than it seems to the Dismal Science. Dismal Science
(if that were important to me) takes insufficient heed, and does not
discriminate between times past and times present, times here and times
there."
Certain it is, King Friedrich's success in National Husbandry was very
great. The details of the very many new Manufactures, new successful
ever-spreading Enterprises, fostered into existence by Friedrich; his
Canal-makings, Road-makings, Bog-drainings, Colonizings and unwearied
endeavorings in that kind, will require a Technical Philosopher one day;
and will well reward such study, and trouble of recording in a human
manner; but must lie massed up in mere outline on the present occasion.
Friedrich, as Land-Father, Shepherd of the People, was great on the
Husbandry side also; and we are to conceive him as a man of excellent
practical sense, doing unweariedly his best in that kind, all his life
long. Alone among modern Kings; his late Father the one exception; and
even his Father hardly surpassing him in that particular.
In regard to Embden and the Shipping interests, Ost-Friesland awakened
very ardent speculations, which were a novelty in Prussian affairs;
nothing of Foreign Trade, except into the limited Baltic, had been heard
of there since the Great Elector's time. The Great Elector had ships,
Forts on the Coast of Africa; and tried hard for Atlantic Trade,--out of
this same Embden; where, being summoned to protect in the troubles, he
had got some footing as Contingent Heir withal, and kept a "Prussian
Battalion" a good while. And now, on much fairer terms, not less
diligently turned to account, it is his Great-Grandson's turn.
Friedrich's successes in this department, the rather as Embden and
Ost-Friesland have in our time ceased to be Prussian, are not much worth
speaking of; but they connect themselves with some points still slightly
memorable to us. How, for example, his vigilantes and endeavors on this
score brought him into rubbings, not collisions, but jealousies and
gratings, with the English and Dutch, the reader will see anon.
Law-reform is gloriously prosperous; Husbandry the like, and Shipping
Interest itself as yet. But in the Third grand Head, that of realizing
the Reinsberg Program, beautifying his Domesticities, and bringing his
own Hearth and Household nearer the Ideal, Friedrich was nothing like
so successful; in fact had no success at all. That flattering Reinsberg
Program, it is singular how Friedrich cannot help trying it by every
new chance, nor cast the notion out of him that there must be a kind
of Muses'-Heaven realizable on Earth! That is the Biographic Phenomenon
which has survived of those Years; and to that we will almost
exclusively address ourselves, on behalf of ingenuous readers.
Chapter IX.--SECOND ACT OF THE VOLTAIRE VISIT.
Voltaire's Visit lasted, in all, about Thirty-two Months; and is
divisible into Three Acts or Stages. The first we have seen: how
it commenced in brightness as of the sun, and ended, by that Hirsch
business, in whirlwinds of smoke and soot,--Voltaire retiring, on his
passionate prayer, to that silent Country-house which he calls the
Marquisat; there to lie in hospital, and wash himself a little, and let
the skies wash themselves.
The Hirsch business having blown over, as all things do, Voltaire
resumed his place among the Court-Planets, and did his revolutions;
striving to forget that there ever was a Hirsch, or a soot-explosion of
that nature. In words nobody reminded him of it, the King least of all:
and by degrees matters were again tolerably glorious, and all might have
gone well enough; though the primal perfect splendor, such fuliginous
reminiscence being ineffaceable, never could be quite re-attained. The
diamond Cross of Merit, the Chamberlain gold Key, hung bright upon the
man; a man the admired of men. He had work to do: work of his own which
he reckoned priceless (that immortal SIECLE DE LOUIS QUATORZE; which
he stood by, and honestly did, while here; the one fixed axis in those
fooleries and whirlings of his);--work for the King, "two hours,
one hour, a day," which the King reckoned priceless in its sort. For
Friedrich himself Voltaire has, with touches of real love coming out
now and then, a very sincere admiration mixed with fear; and delights
in shining to him, and being well with him, as the greatest pleasure now
left in life. Besides the King, he had society enough, French in type,
and brilliant enough: plenty of society; or, at his wish, what was still
better, none at all. He was bedded, boarded, lodged, as if beneficent
fairies had done it for him; and for all these things no price asked,
you might say, but that he would not throw himself out of window! Had
the man been wise--But he was not wise. He had, if no big gloomy devil
in him among the bright angels that were there, a multitude of ravening
tumultuary imps, or little devils very ILL-CHAINED; and was lodged,
he and his restless little devils, in a skin far too thin for him and
them!--
Reckoning up the matter, one cannot find that Voltaire ever could have
been a blessing at Berlin, either for Friedrich or himself; and it is to
be owned that Friedrich was not wise in so longing for him, or clasping
him so frankly in his arms. As Friedrich, by this time, probably begins
to discover;--though indeed to Friedrich the thing is of finite moment;
by no means of infinite, as it was to Voltaire. "At worst, nothing but
a little money thrown away!" thinks Friedrich: "Sure enough, this is a
strange Trismegistus, this of mine: star fire-work shall we call him, or
terrestrial smoke-and-soot work? But one can fence oneself against the
blind vagaries of the man; and get a great deal of good by him, in the
lucid intervals." To Voltaire himself the position is most agitating;
but then its glories, were there nothing more! Besides he is always
thinking to quit it shortly; which is a great sedative in troubles.
What with intermittencies (safe hidings in one's MARQUISAT, or vacant
interlunar cave), with alternations of offence and reconcilement; what
with occasional actual flights to Paris (whitherward Voltaire is always
busy to keep a postern open; and of which there is frequent talk, and
almost continual thought, all along), flights to be called "visits,"
and privately intending to be final, but never proving so,--the
Voltaire-Friedrich relation, if left to itself, might perhaps long have
staggered about, and not ended as it did.
But, alas, no relation can be left to itself in this world,--especially
if you have a porous skin! There were other French here, as well as
Voltaire, revolving in the Court-circle; and that, beyond all others,
proved the fatal circumstance to him. "NE SAVEZ-VOUS PAS, Don't you
know," said he to Chancellor Jarriges one day, "that when there are two
Frenchmen in a Foreign Court or Country, one of them must die (FAUT QUE
L'UN DES DEUX PERISSE)?" [Seyfarth, ii. 191; &c. &c.] Which shocked the
mind of Jarriges; but had a kind of truth, too. Jew Hirsch, run into for
low smuggling purposes, had been a Cape of Storms, difficult to weather;
but the continual leeshore were those French,--with a heavy gale on, and
one of the rashest pilots! He did strike the breakers there, at last;
and it is well known, total shipwreck was the issue. Our Second Act,
holding out dubiously, in continual perils, till Autumn, 1752, will have
to pass then into a Third of darker complexion, and into a Catastrophe
very dark indeed.
Catastrophe which, by farther ill accident, proved noisy in the extreme;
producing world-wide shrieks from the one party, stone-silence from the
other; which were answered by unlimited hooting, catcalling and haha-ing
from all parts of the World-Theatre, upon both the shrieky and the
silent party; catcalling not fallen quite dead to this day. To Friedrich
the catcalling was not momentous (being used to such things); though to
poor Voltaire it was unlimitedly so:--and to readers interested in this
memorable Pair of Men, the rights and wrongs of the Affair ought to
be rendered authentically conceivable, now at last. Were it humanly
possible,--after so much catcalling at random! Smelfungus has a right to
say, speaking of this matter:--
"Never was such a jumble of loud-roaring ignorances, delusions and
confusions, as the current Records of it are. Editors, especially French
Editors, treating of a Hyperborean, Cimmerian subject, like this, are
easy-going creatures. And truly they have left it for us in a wonderful
state. Dateless, much of it, by nature; and, by the lazy Editors,
MISdated into very chaos; jumbling along there, in mad defiance of top
and bottom; often the very Year given wrong:--full everywhere of lazy
darkness, irradiated only by stupid rages, ill-directed mockeries:--and
for issue, cheerfully malicious hootings from the general mob of
mankind, with unbounded contempt of their betters; which is not
pleasant to see. When mobs do get together, round any signal object; and
editorial gentlemen, with talent for it, pour out from their respective
barrel-heads, in a persuasive manner, instead of knowledge, ignorance
set on fire, they are capable of carrying it far!--Will it be possible
to pick out the small glimmerings of real light, from this mad dance of
will-o'-wisps and fire-flies thrown into agitation?"
It will be very difficult, my friend;--why did not you yourself do it?
Most true, "those actual Voltaire-Friedrich LETTERS of the time are
a resource, and pretty much the sole one: Letters a good few, still
extant; which all HAD their bit of meaning; and have it still, if well
tortured till they give it out, or give some glimmer of it out:"--but
you have not tortured them; you have left it to me, if I would! As
I assuredly will not (never fear, reader!)--except in the thriftiest
degree.
DETACHED FEATURES (NOT FABULOUS) OF VOLTAIRE AND HIS BERLIN-POTSDAM
ENVIRONMENT IN 1751-1752.
To the outside crowd of observers, and to himself in good moments,
Voltaire represents his situation as the finest in the world:--
"Potsdam is Sparta and Athens joined in one; nothing but reviewing and
poetry day by day. The Algarottis, the Maupertuises, are here; have each
his work, serious for himself; then gay Supper with a King, who is a
great man and the soul of good company."... Sparta and Athens, I tell
you: "a Camp of Mars and the Garden of Epicurus; trumpets and violins,
War and Philosophy. I have my time all to myself; am at Court and in
freedom,--if I were not entirely free, neither an enormous Pension, nor
a Gold Key tearing out one's pocket, nor a halter (LICOU), which they
call CORDON of an ORDER, nor even the Suppers with a Philosopher who
has gained Five Battles, could yield me the least happiness."
[--OEuvres,--lxxiv. 325, 326, 333 (Letters, to D'Argental and others,
"27th April-8th May, 1751").] Looked at by you, my outside friends,--ah,
had I health and YOU here, what a situation!
But seen from within, it is far otherwise. Alongside of these warblings
of a heart grateful to the first of Kings, there goes on a series
of utterances to Niece Denis, remarkable for the misery driven into
meanness, that can be read in them. Ill-health, discontent, vague
terror, suspicion that dare not go to sleep; a strange vague terror,
shapeless or taking all shapes--a body diseased and a mind diseased.
Fear, quaking continually for nothing at all, is not to be borne in a
handsome manner. And it passes, often enough (in these poor LETTERS),
into transient malignity, into gusts of trembling hatred, with a
tendency to relieve oneself by private scandal of the house we are in.
Seldom was a miserabler wrong-side seen to a bit of royal tapestry. A
man hunted by the little devils that dwell unchained within himself;
like Pentheus by the Maenads, like Actaeon by his own Dogs. Nay, without
devils, with only those terrible bowels of mine, and scorbutic gums,
it is bad enough: "Glorious promotions to me here," sneers he bitterly;
"but one thing is indisputable, I have lost seven of my poor residue of
teeth since I came!" In truth, we are in a sadly scorbutic state; and
that, and the devils we lodge within ourselves, is the one real evil.
Could not Suspicion--why cannot she!--take her natural rest; and all
these terrors vanish? Oh, M. de Voltaire!--The practical purport, to
Niece Denis, always is: Keep my retreat to Paris open; in the name of
Heaven, no obstruction that way!
Miserable indeed; a man fatally unfit for his present element! But he
has Two considerable Sedatives, all along; two, and no third visible
to me. Sedative FIRST: that, he can, at any time, quit this illustrious
Tartarus-Elysium, the envy of mankind;--and indeed, practically, he is
always as if on the slip; thinking to be off shortly, for a time, or in
permanence; can be off at once, if things grow too bad. Sedative SECOND
is far better: His own labor on LOUIS QUATORZE, which is steadily going
on, and must have been a potent quietus in those Court-whirlwinds inward
and outward.
From Berlin, already in Autumn, 1750, Voltaire writes to D'Argental:
"I sha'n't go to Italy this Autumn [nor ever in my life], as I had
projected. But I will come to see YOU in the course of November" (far
from it, I got into STEUER-SCHEINE then!)--And again, after some
weeks: "I have put off my journey to Italy for a year. Next Winter too,
therefore, I shall see you," on the road thither. "To my Country, since
you live in it, I will make frequent visits," very!" Italy and the
King of Prussia are two old passions with me; but I cannot treat
Frederic-le-Grand as I can the Holy Father, with a mere look in
passing." [To D'Argental, "Berlin, 14th September,--Potsdam, 15th
October, 1750" (--OEuvres,--lxxiv. 220, 237).] Let this one, to which
many might be added, serve as sample of Sedative First, or the power and
intention to be off before long.
In regard to Sedative Second, again:... "The happiest circumstance is,
brought with me all my LOUIS-FOURTEENTH Papers and Excerpts. 'I get
from Leipzig, if no nearer, whatever Books are needed;'" and labor
faithfully at this immortal Production. Yes, day by day, to see growing,
by the cunning of one's own right hand, such perennial Solomon's-Temple
of a SIECLE DE LOUIS QUATORZE:--which of your Kings, or truculent,
Tiglath-Pilesers, could do that? To poor me, even in the Potsdam
tempests, it is possible: what ugliest day is not beautiful that sees
a stone or two added there!--Daily Voltaire sees himself at work on his
SIECLE, on those fine terms; trowel in one hand, weapon of war in the
other. And does actually accomplish it, in the course of this Year
1751,--with a great deal of punctuality and severe painstaking; which
readers of our day, fallen careless of the subject, are little aware of,
on Voltaire's behalf. Voltaire's reward was, that he did NOT go mad in
that Berlin element, but had throughout a bower-anchor to ride by. "The
King of France continues me as Gentleman of the Chamber, say you; but
has taken away my Title of Historiographer? That latter, however, shall
still be my function. 'My present independence has given weight to my
verdicts on matters. Probably I never could have written this Book at
Paris.' A consolation for one's exile, MON ENFANT." [To Niece Denis
(--OEuvres,--lxxiv. 247, &c. &c.), "28th October, 1750," and subsequent
dates.]
It is proper also to observe that, besides shining at the King's Suppers
like no other, Voltaire applies himself honestly to do for his Majesty
the small work required of him,--that of Verse-correcting now and then.
Two Specimens exist; two Pieces criticised, ODE AUX PRUSSIENS, and THE
ART OF WAR: portions of that Reprint now going on ("to the extent of
Twelve Copies,"--woe lies in one of them, most unexpected at this time!)
"AU DONJON DU CHATEAU;"--under benefit of Voltaire's remarks. Which
one reads curiously, not without some surprise. [In--OEuvres de
Frederic,--x. 276-303.] Surprise, first at Voltaire's official fidelity;
his frankness, rigorous strictness in this small duty: then at the kind
of correcting, instructing and lessoning, that had been demanded of him
by his Royal Pupil. Mere grammatical stylistic skin-deep work: nothing
(or, at least, in these Specimens nothing) of attempt upon the interior
structure, or the interior harmony even of utterance: solely the
Parisian niceties, graces, laws of poetic language, the FAS and the
NEFAS in regard to all that: this is what his Majesty would fain be
taught from the fountain-head;--one wonders his Majesty did not learn
to spell, which might have been got from a lower source!--And all this
Voltaire does teach with great strictness. For example, in the very
first line, in the very first word, set, before him:--
"PRUSSIENS, QUE LA VALEUR CONDUISIT A LA GLOIRE," so Friedrich had
written (ODE AUX PRUSSIENS, which is specimen First); and thus Voltaire
criticises: "The Hero here makes his PRUSSIENS of two syllables; and
afterwards, in another strophe, he grants them three. A King is master
of his favors. At the same time, one does require a little uniformity;
and the IENS are usually of two syllables, as LIENS, SILESIENS,
AUTRICHIENS; excepting the monosyllables BIEN, RIEN"--Enough, enough!--A
severe, punctual, painstaking Voltaire, sitting with the schoolmaster's
bonnet on head; ferula visible, if not actually in hand. For which, as
appears, his Majesty was very grateful to the Trismegistus of men.
Voltaire's flatteries to Friedrich, in those scattered little Billets
with their snatches of verse, are the prettiest in the world,--and
approach very near to sincerity, though seldom quite attaining it.
Something traceable of false, of suspicious, feline, nearly always, in
those seductive warblings; which otherwise are the most melodious
bits of idle ingenuity the human brain has ever spun from itself. For
instance, this heading of a Note sent from one room to another,--perhaps
with pieces of an ODE AUX PRUSSIENS accompanying:--
--"Vou gui daignez me departir
Les fruits d'une Muse divine,
O roi! je ne puis consentir
Que, sans daigner m'en avertir,
Vous alliez prendre medecine.
Je suis votre malade-ne,
Et sur la casse et le sene,
J'ai des notions non communes.
Nous sommes de mene metier;
Faut-il de moi vous defier,
Et cacher vos bonnes fortunes?"--
Was there ever such a turn given to taking physic! Still better is this
other, the topic worse,--HAEMORRHOIDS (a kind of annual or periodical
affair with the Royal Patient, who used to feel improved after):--
... (Ten or twelve verses on another point; then suddenly--)
--"Que la veine hemorroidale
De votre personne royale
Cesse de troubler le repos!
Quand pourrai-je d'une style honnete
Dire: 'Le cul de mon heros
Va tout aussi bien que sa tete'?"--
[In--OEuvres de Frederic,--xxii. 283, 267.]
A kittenish grace in these things, which is pleasant in so old a cat.
Smelfungus says: "He is a consummate Artist in Speech, our Voltaire:
that, if you take the word SPEECH in its widest sense, and consider the
much that can be spoken, and the infinitely more that cannot and should
not, is Voltaire's supreme excellency among his fellow-creatures; never
rivalled (to my poor judgment) anywhere before or since,--nor worth
rivalling, if we knew it well."
Another fine circumstance is, that Voltaire has frequent leave of
absence; and in effect passes a great deal of his time altogether by
himself, or in his own way otherwise. What with Friedrich's Review
Journeys and Business Circuits, considerable separations do occur of
themselves; and at any time, Voltaire has but to plead illness, which he
often does; with ground and without, and get away for weeks, safe
into the distance more or less remote. He is at the Marquisat (as
we laboriously make out); at Berlin, in the empty Palace, perhaps in
Lodgings of his own (though one would prefer the GRATIS method); nursing
his maladies, which are many; writing his LOUIS QUATORZE; "lonely
altogether, your Majesty, and sad of humor,"--yet giving his cosy
little dinners, and running out, pretty often, if well invited, into the
brilliancies and gayeties. No want of brilliant social life here,
which can shine, more or less, and appreciate one's shining. The King's
Supper-parties--Yes, and these, though the brightest, are not the only
bright things in our Potsdam-Berlin world. Take with you, reader, one
or two of the then and there Chief Figures; Voltaire's fellow-players;
strutting and fretting their hour on that Stage of Life. They are mostly
not quite strangers to you.
We know the sublime Perpetual President in his red wig, and sublime
supremacy of Pure Science. A gloomy set figure; affecting the
sententious, the emphatic and a composed impregnability,--like the Jove
of Science. With immensities of gloomy vanity, not compressible at all
times. Friedrich always strove to honor his Perpetual President, and
duly adore the Pure Sciences in him; but inwardly could not quite manage
it, though outwardly he failed in nothing. Impartial witnesses confess,
the King had a great deal of trouble with his gloomings and him. "Who is
this Voltaire?" gloomily thinks the Perpetual President to himself. "A
fellow with a nimble tongue, that is all. Knows nothing whatever of Pure
Sciences, except what fraction or tincture he has begged or stolen from
myself. And here is the King of the world in raptures with him!"
Voltaire from of old had faithfully done his kowtows to this King of
the Sciences; and, with a sort of terror, had suffered with incredible
patience a great deal from him. But there comes an end to all things;
Voltaire's patience not excepted. It lay in the fates that Maupertuis
should steadily accumulate, day after day, and now more than ever
heretofore, upon the sensitive Voltaire. Till, as will be seen, the
sensitive Voltaire could endure it no longer; but had to explode upon
this big Bully (accident lending a spark); to go off like a Vesuvius of
crackers, fire-serpents and sky-rockets; envelop the red wig, and much
else, in delirious conflagration;--and produce the catastrophe of this
Berlin Drama.
D'Argens, poor dissolute creature, is the best of the French lot. He has
married, after so many temporary marriages with Actresses, one Actress
in permanence, Mamsell Cochois, a patient kind being; and settled now,
at Potsdam here, into perfectly composed household life. Really loves
Friedrich, they say; the only Frenchman of them that does. Has abundance
of light sputtery wit, and Provencal fire and ingenuity; no ill-nature
against any man. Never injures anybody, nor lies at all about anything.
A great friend of fine weather; regrets, of his inheritances in
Provence, chiefly one item, and this not overmuch,--the bright southern
sun. Sits shivering in winter-time, wrapping himself in more and more
flannel, two dressing-gowns, two nightcaps:--loyal to this King, in good
times and in evil.
Was the King's friend for thirty years; helped several meritorious
people to his Majesty's notice; and never did any man a mischief in that
quarter. An erect, guileless figure; very tall; with vivid countenance,
chaotically vivid mind: full of bright sallies, irregular ingenuities;
had a hot temper too, which did not often run away with him, but
sometimes did. He thrice made a visit to Provence,--in fact ran away
from the King, feeling bantered and roasted to a merciless degree,--but
thrice came back. "At the end of the first stage, he had always
privately forgiven the King, and determined that the pretended visit
should really be a visit only." "Reads the King's Letters," which
are many to him, "always bare-headed, in spite of the draughts!"
[Nicolai,--Anekdoten,--i. 11-75, &c. &c.]
Algarotti is too prudent, politely egoistic and self-contained, to take
the trouble of hurting anybody, or get himself into trouble for love or
hatred. He fell into disfavor not long after that unsuccessful little
mission in the first Silesian War, of which the reader has lost
remembrance. Good for nothing in diplomacy, thought Friedrich, but
agreeable as company. "Company in tents, in the seat of War, has its
unpleasantness," thought Algarotti;--and began very privately sounding
the waters at Dresden for an eligible situation; so that there has
ensued a quarrel since; then humble apologies followed by profound
silence,--till now there is reconcilement. It is admitted Friedrich had
some real love for Algarotti; Algarotti, as we gather, none at all for
him; but only for his greatness. They parted again (February, 1753)
without quarrel, but for the last time; [Algarotti-Correspondence
(--OEuvres de Frederic,--xviii. 86).]--and I confess to a relief on the
occasion.
Friedrich, readers know by this time, had a great appetite for
conversation: he talked well, listened well; one of his chief enjoyments
was, to give and receive from his fellow-creatures in that way. I hope,
and indeed have evidence, that he required good sense as the staple;
but in the form, he allowed great latitude. He by no means affected
solemnity, rather the reverse; goes much upon the bantering vein; far
too much, according to the complaining parties. Took pleasure (cruel
mortal!) in stirring up his company by the whip, and even by the whip
applied to RAWS; for we find he had "established," like the Dublin
Hackney-Coachman, "raws for himself;" and habitually plied his implement
there, when desirous to get into the gallop. In an inhuman manner, said
the suffering Cattle; who used to rebel against it, and go off in the
sulks from time to time. It is certain he could, especially in his
younger years, put up with a great deal of zanyism, ingenious foolery
and rough tumbling, if it had any basis to tumble on; though with years
he became more saturnine.
By far his chief Artist in this kind, indeed properly the only one, was
La Mettrie, whom we once saw transiently as Army-Surgeon at Fontenoy: he
is now out of all that (flung out, with the dogs at his heels); has been
safe in Berlin for three years past. Friedrich not only tolerates the
poor madcap, but takes some pleasure in him: madcap we say, though poor
La Mettrie had remarkable gifts, exuberant laughter one of them, and
was far from intending to be mad. Not Zanyism, but Wisdom of the highest
nature, was what he drove at,--unluckily, with open mouth, and mind all
in tumult. La Mettrie had left the Army, soon after that busy Fontenoy
evening: Chivalrous Grammont, his patron and protector, who had saved
him from many scrapes, lay shot on the field. La Mettrie, rushing on
with mouth open and mind in tumult, had, from of old, been continually
getting into scrapes. Unorthodox to a degree; the Sorbonne greedy
for him long since; such his audacities in print, his heavy hits,
boisterous, quizzical, logical. And now he had set to attacking the
Medical Faculty, to quizzing Medicine in his wild way; Doctor Astruc,
Doctor This and That, of the first celebrity, taking it very ill. So
that La Mettrie had to demit; to get out of France rather in a hurry,
lest worse befell.
He had studied at Leyden, under Boerhaave. He had in fact considerable
medical and other talent, had he not been so tumultuous and
open-mouthed. He fled to Leyden; and shot forth, in safety there, his
fiery darts upon Sorbonne and Faculty, at his own discretion,--which was
always a MINIMUM quantity:--he had, before long, made Leyden also too
hot for him. His Books gained a kind of celebrity in the world; awoke
laughter and attention, among the adventurous of readers; astonishment
at the blazing madcap (a BON DIABLE, too, as one could see); and are
still known to Catalogue-makers,--though, with one exception, L'HOMME
MACHINE, not otherwise, nor read at all. L'HOMME MACHINE (Man a Machine)
is the exceptional Book; smallest of Duodecimos to have so much wildfire
in it, This MAN A MACHINE, though tumultuous La Mettrie meant nothing
but open-mouthed Wisdom by it, gave scandal in abundance; so that even
the Leyden Magistrates were scandalized; and had to burn the afflicting
little Duodecimo by the common hangman, and order La Mettrie to
disappear instantly from their City.
Which he had to do,--towards King Friedrich, usual refuge of the
persecuted; seldom inexorable, where there was worth, even under bad
forms, recognizable; and not a friend to burning poor men or their
books, if it could be helped. La Mettrie got some post, like D'Arget's,
or still more nominal; "readership;" some small pension to live upon;
and shelter to shoot forth his wildfire, when he could hold it no
longer: fire, not of a malignant incendiary kind, but pleasantly
lambent, though maddish, as Friedrich perceived. Thus had La Mettrie
found a Goshen;--and stood in considerable favor, at Court and in Berlin
Society in the years now current. According to Nicolai, Friedrich never
esteemed La Mettrie, which is easy to believe, but found him a jester
and ingenious madcap, out of whom a great deal of merriment could be
had, over wine or the like. To judge by Nicolai's authentic specimen,
their Colloquies ran sometimes pretty deep into the cynical, under
showers of wildfire playing about; and the high-jinks must have been
highish. [--Anekdoten,--vi. 197-227.] When there had been enough of
this, Friedrich would lend his La Mettrie to the French Excellency,
Milord Tyrconnel, to oblige his Excellency, and get La Mettrie out
of the way for a while. Milord is at Berlin; a Jacobite Irishman, of
blusterous Irish qualities, though with plenty of sagacity and rough
sense; likes La Mettrie; and is not much a favorite with Friedrich.