HumanitiesWeb.org - History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great (Chapter XI. - Third Act and Catastrophe of the Voltaire Visit.) by Thomas Carlyle
History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great Chapter XI. - Third Act and Catastrophe of the Voltaire Visit.
by Thomas Carlyle
Meantime there has a fine Controversy risen, of mathematical,
philosophical and at length of very miscellaneous nature,
concerning that Konig-Maupertuis dissentience on the LAW OF THRIFT.
Wonderful Controversy, much occupying the so-called Philosophic or
Scientific world; especially the idler population that inhabit
there. Upon this item of the Infinitely Little,--which has in our
time sunk into Nothing-at-all, and but for Voltaire, and the
accident of his living near it, would be forgotten altogether,--we
must not enter into details; but a few words to render Voltaire's
share in it intelligible will be, in the highest degree, necessary.
Here, in brief form, rough and ready, are the successive stages of
the Business; the origin and first stage of which have been known
to us for some time past:--
"SEPTEMBER, 1750, Konig, his well-meant visit to Berlin proving so
futile, had left Maupertuis in the humor we saw;--pirouetting round
his Apartment, in tempests of rage at such contradiction of sinners
on his sublime Law of Thrift; and fulminating permission to Konig:
'No time to read your Paper of Contradictions; publish it in
Leipzig, in Jericho; anywhere in the Earth, in Heaven, in the Other
Place, where you have the opportunity!' Konig, returning on these
terms, had nothing for it but to publish his Paper; and did publish
it, in the Leipzig Acta Eruditorum for March,
1751. There it stands, legible to this day: and if any of the human
species should again think of reading it, I believe it will be
found a reasonable, solid and decisive Paper; of steadfast, openly
articulate, by no means insolent, tone; considerably modifying
Maupertuis's Law of Thrift, or Minimum of Action;--fatal to the
claim of its being a 'Sublime Discovery,' or indeed, so far as
TRUE, any discovery at all. [In Acta Eruditorum
(Lipsiae, 1751): "De universali Principio
AEquilibrii et Motus." By no means uncivil to
Maupertuis; though obliged to controvert him. For example:
"Quoe itaque de Minima Actionis in modificationibus modum obtinente
in genere proferuntur vehementer laudo;" "continent nempe facundum
longeque pulcherrimum Dynamices sublimioris principium, cujus vim
in difficillimis quoestionibus soepe expertus fui." ]
By way of finis to the Paper, there is given, what proves extremely
important to us, an Excerpt from an old LETTER OF LEIBNITZ'S; which
perhaps it will be better to present here IN CORPORE, as so much
turned on it afterwards. Konig thus winds up:--
"I add only a word, in finishing; and that is, that it appears
Mr. Leibnitz had a theory of Action, perhaps much more extensive
than one would suspect at present. There is a Letter written by him
to Mr. Hermann [an ancient mathematical sage at Basel], where he
uses these expressions: 'Action, is not what you think;
the consideration of Time enters into it; Action is as the product
of the mass by the space and the velocity, or as the time by the
VIS VIVA. I have remarked that in the modifications of motion, the
action becomes usually a maximum or a minimum:--and from this there
might several propositions of great consequence be deduced.
It might serve to determine the curves described by bodies under
attraction to one or more centres. I had meant to treat of these
things in the Second Part of my DYNAMIQUE; which I suppressed, the
reception of the First, by prejudice in many quarters, having
disgusted me.'" [MAUPERTUISIANA, No. ii. 22 (from Acta
Eruditorum, ubi supra). In MAUPERTUISIANA, No. iv.
166, is the whole Letter, "Hanover, 16th October, 1707;" no ADDRESS
left, judged to be to Hermann. MAUPERTUISIANA (Hamburg, 1753) is a
mere Bookseller's or even Bookbinder's Farrago, with printed TITLE-
PAGE and LIST, of the chief Pamphlets which had appeared on this
Business (sixteen by count, various type, all 8vo size, in my
copy). Of which only No. ii. (Konig's APPEL AU PUBLIC) and No. iv.
(2d edition of said APPEL, with APPENDIX OF CORRESPONDENCE) are
illuminative to read.] Your Minimum of Action, it would appear,
then, is in some cases a Maximum; nothing can be said but that, in
every case it is EITHER a Maximum or Minimum. What a stroke for our
LAW OF THRIFT, the "at last conclusive Proof" of an Intelligent
Creator, as the Perpetual President had fancied it! "So-ho, what is
this! My Discovery an Error? And Leibnitz discovered it, so far
as true?"--
"May 28th-8th OCTOBER, 1751. Maupertuis, compressing himself what
he can, writes to Konig: 'Very good, Monsieur. But please inform me
where is that Letter of Leibnitz's; I have never seen or heard of
it before,--and I want to make use of it myself.' To which Konig
answers: 'Henzi gave it me, in Copy [unfortunate Conspirator Henzi,
who lost his head three years ago, by sentence of the Oligarch
Government at Berne]: [Government by "The Two Hundred;" of Select-
Vestry nature, very stiff, arbitrary and become rife in abuses;
against whom had risen angry mutterings more than once, and in 1749
a Select Plot (not select ENOUGH, for they discovered it in time).
Poor Ex-Captain Henzi, "Clerk *of the Salt-Office," most frugal,
studious and quiet of men; a very miracle, It would appear, of
genius, solid learning, philosophy and piety,--not the chief or
first of the conspirators, but by far the most distinguished,--was
laid hold of, July 2d, 1749, and beheaded, with another of them, a
day or two after. Much bewailed in a private way, even by the
better kinds of people. (Copious account of him in
Adelung, vii. 86-91.)]--he, poor fellow, had no end of
Papers and Excerpts; had, as we know, above a hundred volumes of
the latter kind; this, and some other Letters of Leibnitz's, among
them,--I send you the whole Letter, copied faithfully from his
Copy.' ["The Hague, 26th June," in Maupertuisiana,
No. iv. 130.] To that effect, still in perfect good-humor,
was Konig's reply to his Maupertuis.
"'Hm, Copy? By Henzi?' grumbles Maupertuis to himself:--'Search in
Berne, then; it must be there, if anywhere!' To Konig Maupertuis
answers nothing: but sulkily resolves on having Search made;--and,
to give solemnity to the matter, requests his Excellency Marquis de
Paulmy, the French Ambassador at Berne, to ask the Government
there,--Government having seized all Henzi's Papers, on beheading
him. Excellency Paulmy does, accordingly, make inquiry in the
highest quarter; some inquiries up and down. Not the least account
of this, or of any Leibnitz Letter, to be had from among Henzi's
Papers,--the 'hundred volumes,' seemingly, exist no longer;--
Original of this Leibnitz Piece is nowhere. For eight months the
highest Authorities have been looking about (with one knows not
what vivacity or skill in searching), and have found nothing
whatever." Stage second of the Business finishes in this manner.
How lucky for the Perpetual President, had he stopped here!
To Konig and the common contradiction of sinners he could have
opposed, as it was apparently his purpose to do, an Olympian
silence, "Pshaw!" Whereby the small matter, interesting to few,
would have dropped gently into dubiety, into oblivion, and been got
well rid of. But this of the great Leibnitz, touching on one's LAW
OF THRIFT; and not only "discovering" it, half a century
beforehand, but discovering that it was not true: to Leibnitz one
must speak;--and the abstruse question is, What is one to say?
"Find me the original; let us be certain, first:" that you can say;
that is one dear point; and pretty much the only one. The rest, at
this time, as I conjecture, may have been not a little abstruse to
the Perpetual President!
And now, had the Perpetual President but stopped here, there might
still have rested a saving shadow of suspicion on Konig's Excerpt,
That it was not exact, that it might be wrong in some vital point:
--"You never showed me the Original, Monsieur!" Unluckily, the
Perpetual President did not stop. One cannot well fancy him
believing, now or ever, that Konig had forged the Excerpt.
Most likely he had the fatal persuasion that these were Leibnitz's
words; and the question, What was to be said or done, if the
Original SHOULD turn up? might justly be alarming to a Son of the
Pure Sciences. But at this point a new door of escape disclosed
itself: "Where is the Original, I say!"--and he rushed, full speed,
into that; galloping triumphantly, feeling all safe.
"OCTOBER 7th (1751), Maupertuis summons his Academy: 'Messieurs,
permit me to submit a case perhaps requiring your attention. One of
our number dissents from your President's Discovery of the Law of
Thrift; which surely he is free to do: but furthermore he gives an
Excerpt purporting to be from Leibnitz; whereby it would appear
that your President's Discovery, sanctioned in your Acts as new, is
not new, but Leibnitz's (so far as it is good for anything),--
possibly stolen, therefore; and, at any rate, fifty-four years old.
In self-defence, I have demanded to see the Original of said
Excerpt; and the Honorable Member in question does not produce it.
What say you?' 'Shame to him!' say they all [there seem to be but
few Scientific Members, and most of them, it is insinuated, have
Pensions from the King through their Perpetual President];--and
determine to make a Star-chamber matter of it!
"Accordingly, next day, OCTOBER 8th) Secretary Formey writes
officially to Konig, 'Produce that Letter within one month,'--and
has got his Majesty to order, That our Prussian Minister at the
Hague shall take charge of delivering such message, and shall mark
on what day. Thing serious, you see!--Prussian Minister at the
Hague delivers, and dockets accordingly. To Konig's astonishment;
who is in a scene of deep trouble at this time; Royal Highness the
Stadtholder suddenly dead, or dying: 'died October 22d; leaving a
very young Heir, and a very sorrowful Widow and Country.' Much to
think of, that lies apart from the Maupertuis matter! Which latter,
however, is so very serious too, his Prussian Majesty's Minister at
Berne is now charged to make new perquisition for the Leibnitz
Original there: In short, within one month that Document is
peremptorily wanted at Berlin."
High proceedings these;--and calculated to have one result, if no
other. Namely, that, at this point, as readers can fancy, the idler
Public, seeing a street-quarrel in progress, began to take interest
in the Question of MINIMUM; and quasi-scientific gentlemen to
gather round, and express, with cheery capable look, their
opinions,--still legible in the vanished JUGEMENS LIBRES (of
Hamburg), GAZETTE DE SAVANS (Leipzig), and other poor Shadows of
JOURNALS, if you daringly evoke them from the other side of Styx.
Which, the whole matter being now so indisputably extinct, shadowy,
Stygian, we will not here be guilty of doing; but hasten to the
catastrophes, that have still a memorability.
"Konig, having in fact nothing more to say about the Leibnitz
Excerpt, was in no breathless haste to obey his summons; he sat
almost two months before answering anything. Did then write
however, in a friendly strain to Maupertuis (December 10th, 1751).
[ Maupertuisiana, No. iv. 132.] Almost on
which same day, as it chanced, the ACADEMIE, after two months'
dignified waiting, had in brief terms repeated its order on Konig.
[December 11th, 1751 (Ib. 137). To which Konig makes no special
answer (having as good as answered the day before);--but does
silently send off to Switzerland to make inquiries; and does write
once or twice more, when there is occasion for explaining;--always
in a clear, sonorous, manfully firm and respectful tone: 'That he
himself had, or has, no kind of reason to doubt the authenticity of
the Leibnitz Letter; that to himself (and, so far as he can judge,
to Maupertuis) the question of its authenticity is without special
interest;--he, Konig, having thrown it in as a mere marginal
illustration, which decides nothing, either for or against the Law
of Thrift. That he has, in obedience to the Academy, caused search
to be made in Switzerland, especially at Basel, where he judged the
chance might lie; but that of this particular Letter nothing has
come to light; that he has two other Leibnitz Letters, of
indifferent tenor, in the late Henzi's hand, if these will serve in
aught, [ Maupertuisiana, No. iv. 155; and ib.
172-192, the two Letters themselves.]--but what farther can he do?'
In short, Konig speaks always in a clear business-like manful tone;
the one person that makes a really respectful and respectable
figure in this Controversy of the Infinitely Little. A man whom,
viewed from this quiet distance, it seems almost inconceivably
absurd to have suspected of forging for so small an object. Oh, my
President, that DIRA REGNANDI CUPIDO!--
"Question is, however, What the Academy will do? One Member, 'the
best Geometer among them' [whose name is not given, but which the
Berlin Academy should write in big letters across this sad Page of
their Annals, by way of erasure to the same], dissented from the
high line of procedure; asserting Konig's innocence in this matter;
nay, hinting agreement with Konig's opinion. But was met by such a
storm, that he withdrew from the deliberations; which henceforth
went their own bad course, unanimous though slow. And so the matter
pendulates all through Winter, 1751-52, and was much the theme of
idle men."
Voltaire heard of it vaguely all along; but not with distinctness
till the end of July following. As Spring advanced, Maupertuis had
fallen ill of lungs,--threatened with spitting of blood ("owing to
excess of brandy," hints the malicious Voltaire, "which is
fashionable at St. Malo," birthplace of Maupertuis),--and could not
farther direct the Academy in this affair. The Academy needs no
direction farther. Here, very soon, for a sick President's
consolation, is what the Academy decides on, by way
of catastrophe:--
THURSDAY EVENING, 13th APRIL, 1752, The Academy met; Curator
Monsieur de Keith, presiding; about a score of acting Members
present. To whom Curator de Keith, as the first thing, reads a
magnanimous brief Letter from our Perpetual President: "That, for
two reasons, he cannot attend on this important occasion:
First, because he is too ill, which would itself be conclusive;
but secondly, and A FORTIORI, because he is in some sense a party
to the cause, and ought not if he could." Whereupon, Secretary
Formey having done his Documentary flourishings, Curator Euler--
(great in Algebra, apparently not very great in common sense and
the rules of good temper)--reads considerable "Report;" [Is No. 1
of Maupertuisiana. ] reciting, not in a
dishonest, but in a dim wearisome way, the various steps of the
Affair, as readers already know them; and concludes with this
extraordinary practical result: "Things being so (LES CHOSES ETANT
TELLES): the Fragment being of itself suspect [what could Leibnitz
know of Maxima and Minima? They were not developed till one Euler
did it, quite in late years!], [ Maupertuisians,
No. i. 22.] of itself suspect; and Monsieur Konig having
failed to" &c. &c.,--"it is assuredly manifest that his cause is
one of the worst (DES PLUS MAUVAISES), and that this Fragment has
been forged." Singular to think! "And the Academy, all things duly
considered, will not hesitate to declare it false (SUPPOSE), and
thereby deprive it publicly of all authority which may have been
ascribed to it" (HEAR, HEAR! from all parts).
Curator de Keith then collects the votes,--twenty-three in all;
some sixteen are of working Members; two are from accidental
Strangers ("travelling students," say the enemy); the rest from
Curators of Quality:--Vote is unanimous, "Adopt the Report.
Fragment evidently forged, and cannot have the least shadow of
authority (AUCUNE OMBRE D'AUTHORITE). Forged by whom, we do not now
ask; nor what the Academy could, on plain grounds, now do to
Monsieur Konig [NOT nail his ears to the pump, oh no!]; enough, it
IS forged, and so remains." Signed, "Curator de Keith," and Six
other Office-bearers; "Formey, Perpetual Secretary"' closing
the list.
At the name Keith, a slight shadow (very slight, for how could
Keith help himself?) crosses the mind: "Is this, by ill luck, the
Feldmarschall Keith?" No, reader; this is Lieutenant-Colonel Keith;
he of Wesel, with "Effigy nailed to the Gallows" long since;
whom none of us cares for. Sulzer, I notice too, is of this long-
eared Sanhedrim. ACH, MEIN LIEBER SULZER, you don't know (do you,
then?) DIESE VERDAMMTE RACE, to what heights and depths of stupid
malice, and malignant length of ear, they are capable of going.
"Thursday, 13th April," this is Forger Konig's doom:--and, what is
observable, next morning, with a crash audible through Nature, the
Powder-Magazine flew aloft, killing several persons! [Supra,
p. 203.] Had no hand, he, I hope, in that latter atrocity?
On authentic sight of this Sentence (for which Konig had at once,
on hearing of it, applied to Formey, and which comes to him,
without help of Formey, through the Public Newspapers) Konig, in a
brief, proud enough, but perfectly quiet, mild and manful manner,
resigns his Membership. "Ceases, from this day (June 18th, 1752),
to have the honor of belonging to your Academy; 'an honor I had
been the prouder of, as it came to me unasked;'--and will wish,
you, from the outside henceforth, successful campaigns in the field
of Science." [ Maupertuisiana, No. iv. 129.]
And sets about preparing his Pamphlet to instruct mankind on the
subject. Maupertuis, it appears, did write, and made others write
to Konig's Sovereign Lady, the Dowager Princess of Orange, "How
extremely handsome it would be, could her Most Serene Highness, a
friend to Pure Science, be pleased to induce Monsieur Konig not to
continue this painful Controversy, but to sit quiet with what he
had got." [Voltaire (infra).] Which her Most Serene Highness by no
mean thought the suitable course. Still less did Konig himself;
whose APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC, with DEFENCE OF APPEAL,--reasonably
well done, as usual, and followed and accompanied by the multitude
of Commentators,--appeared in due course. ["September, 1752,
Konig's APPEL" (Preuss, in OEuvres de Frederic,
xv. 60 n.).] Till, before long, the Public was thoroughly
instructed; and nobody, hardly the signing Curators, or thin Euler
himself, not to speak of Perpetual Formey, who had never been
strong in the matter, could well believe in "forgery" or care to
speak farther on such a subject. Subject gone wholly to the Stygian
Fens, long since; "forgery" not now imaginable by anybody!
The rumor of these things rose high and wide; and the quantity of
publishing upon them, quasi-scientifically and otherwise, in the
serious vein and the jocose, was greater than we should fancy.
["Letter from a Marquis;" "Letter from Mr. T--- to M. S---" (Mr. T.
lives in London;--"JE TRAVERSE LE Queen's Square, ET JE RENCONTRE
NOTRE AMI D---: 'AVEZ-VOUS LA l'Appel au Public?' DIT-IL"--);
"Letter by Euler in the Berlin Gazette," &c. &c. (in
Maupertuisiana ).] Voltaire, for above a month past,
had been fully aware of the case (24th July, 1752, writing to
Niece, "heard yesterday"); not without commentary to oneself and
others. Voltaire, with a kind of love to Konig, and a very real
hatred to Maupertuis and to oppression generally, took pen himself,
among the others (Konig's APPEAL just out),--could not help doing
it, though he had better not! The following small Piece is perhaps
the one, if there be one, still worth resuscitating from the Inane
Kingdoms. Appeared in the BIBLIOTHEQUE RAISONNEE (mild-shining
Quarterly Review of those days), JULY-SEPTEMBER Number.
"ANSWER FROM [VERY PRIVATELY VOLTAIRE, CALLING HIMSELF] A
BERLIN ACADEMICIAN TO A PARIS ONE.
"BERLIN, 18th SEPTEMBER, 1752. This is the exact truth, in reply to
your inquiry. M. Moreau de Maupertuis in a Pamphlet entitled ESSAI
DE COSMOLOGIE, pretended that the only proof of the Existence of
God is the circumstance that AR+nRB is a Minimum. (p.212 Book XVI)
He asserts that in all possible cases, 'Action is a
Minimum,' what has been demonstrated false; and he says, 'He
discovered this Law of Minimum,' what is not less false.
"M. Konig, as well as other Mathematicians, wrote against this
strange assertion; and, among other things, M. Konig cited some
sentences of a Letter by Leibnitz, in which that great man says,
He has observed 'that, in the modifications of motion, the Action
usually becomes either a Maximum or else a Minimum.'
"M. Moreau de Maupertuis imagined that, by producing this Fragment,
it had been intended to snatch from him the glory of his pretended
discovery,--though Leibnitz says precisely the contrary of what he
advances. He forced some pensioned members of the Academy, who are
dependent on him, to summon M. Koinig"-- As we know too well;
and cannot bear to have repeated to us, even in the briefest and
spiciest form! "Sentence (JUGEMENT) on M. Konig, which declares him
guilty of having assaulted the glory of the Sieur Moreau Maupertuis
by FORGING a Leibnitz Letter.--Wrote then, and made write, to her
Serene Highness the Princess of Orange, who was indignant at so
insolent"-- ... and in fine,
"Thus the Sieur Moreau Maupertuis has been convicted, in the face
of Scientific Europe, not only of plagiarism and blunder, but of
having abused his place to suppress free discussion, and to
persecute an honest man who had no crime but that of not being of
his opinion. Several members of our Academy have protested against
so crying a procedure; and would leave the Academy, were it not for
fear of displeasing the King, who is protector of it."
[ OEuvres de Voltaire, lxiii. 227 (in
Maupertuisiana, No. xvi).]
King Friedrich's position, in the middle of all this, was becoming
uncomfortable. Of the controversy he understood, or cared to
understand, nothing; had to believe steadily that his Academy must
be right; that Konig was some loose bird, envious of an eagle
Maupertuis, sitting aloft on his high Academic perch:
this Friedrich took for the truth of the matter;--and could not let
himself imagine that his sublime Perpetual President, who was
usually very prudent and Jove-like, had been led, by his truculent
vanity (which Friedrich knew to be immense in the man, though kept
well out of sight), into such playing of fantastic tricks before
high Heaven and other on-lookers. This view of the matter had
hitherto been Friedrich's; nor do I know that he ever inwardly
departed from it;--as outwardly he, for certain, never did;
standing, King-like, clear always for his Perpetual President, till
this hurricane of Pamphlets blew by. Voltaire's little Piece,
therefore, was the unwelcomest possible.
This new bolt of electric fire, launched upon the storm-tost
President from Berlin itself, and even from the King's House
itself,--by whom, too clearly recognizable,--what an irritating
thing! Unseemly, in fact, on Voltaire's part; but could not be
helped by a Voltaire charged with electricity. Friedrich evidently
in considerable indignation, finding that public measures would but
worsen the uproar, took pen in hand; wrote rapidly the indignant
LETTER FROM AN ACADEMICIAN OF BERLIN TO AN ACADEMICIAN OF PARIS:
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xv. 59-64 (not dated;
datable "October, 1752").] which Piece, of some length, we cannot
give here; but will briefly describe as manifesting no real
knowledge of the LAW-OF-THRIFT Controversy; but as taking the above
loose view of it, and as directed principally against "the
pretended Member of our Academy" (mischievous Voltaire, to wit),
whom it characterizes as "such a manifest retailer of lies," a
"concocter of stupid libels:" "have you ever seen an action more
malicious, more dastardly, more infamous?"--and other hard terms,
the hardest he can find. This is the privilege of anonymity, on
both sides of it.
But imagine now a King and his Voltaire doing witty discourse over
their Supper of the gods (as, on the set days, is duly the case);
with such a consciousness, burning like Bude light, though close
veiled, on the part of Host and Guest! The Friedrich-Voltaire
relation is evidently under sore stress of weather, in those
winter-autumn months of 1752,--brown leaves, splashy rains and
winds moaning outwardly withal. And, alas, the irrepressibly
electric Voltaire, still far from having ended, still only just
beginning his Anti-Maupertuis discharges, has, in the interim,
privately got his DOCTOR AKAKIA ready. Compared to which, the
former missile is as a popgun to a park of artillery shotted with
old nails and broken glass!--Such a constraint, at the Royal
dinner-table, amid wine and wit, could not continue. The credible
account is, it soon cracked asunder; and, after the conceivable
sputterings, sparklings and flashings of various complexion, issued
in lambent airs of "tacit mutual understanding; and in reading of
AKAKIA together,--with peals of laughter from the King," as the
common French Biographers assert.
"Readers know AKAKIA," [DIATRIBE DU DOCTEUR AKAKIA (in Voltaire,
OEuvres, lxi. 19-62).] says Smelfungus:
"it is one of the famous feats of Satirical Pyrotechny; only too
pleasant to the corrupt Race of Adam! There is not much, or indeed
anything, of true poetic humor in it: but there is a gayety of
malice, a dexterity, felicity, inexhaustibility of laughing mockery
and light banter, capable of driving a Perpetual President
delirious. What an Explosion of glass-crackers, fire-balls,
flaming-serpents;--generally, of sleeping gunpowder, in its most
artistic forms,--flaming out sky-high over all the Parish, on a
sudden! The almost-sublime of Maupertuis, which exists in large
quantities, here is a new artist who knows how to treat it.
The engineer of the Sublime (always painfully engineering
thitherward without effect),--an engineer of the Comic steps in on
him, blows him up with his own petards in a most unexampled manner.
Not an owlery has that poor Maupertuis, in the struggle to be
sublime (often nearly successful, but never once quite), happened
to drop from him, but Voltaire picks it up; manipulates it, reduces
it to the sublimely ridiculous; lodges it, in the form of burning
dust, about the head of MON PRESIDENT. Needless to say of the Comic
engineer that he is unfair, perversely exaggerative, reiterative,
on the owleries of poor Maupertuis;--it is his function to BE all
that. Clever, but wrong, do you say? Well, yes:--and yet the
ridiculous does require ridicule; wise Nature has silently so
ordered. And if ever truculent President in red wig, with his
absurd truculences, tyrannies and perpetual struggles after the
sublime, did deserve to be exploded in laughter, it could not have
been more consummately done;--though perversely always, as must
be owned.
"'The hole bored through the Earth,' for instance: really, one
sometimes reflects on such a thing; How you would see daylight, and
the antipodal gentleman (if he bent a little over) foot to foot;
how a little stone flung into it would exactly (but for air and
friction) reach the other side of the world; would then, in a
computable few moments, come back quiescent to your hand, and so
continue forevermore;--with other the like uncriminal fancies.
"'The Latin Town,' again: truly, if learning the Ancient Languages
be human Education, it might, with a Greek Ditto, supersede the
Universities, and prove excellently serviceable in our struggle
Heavenward by that particular route. I can assure M. de Voltaire,
it was once practically proposed to this King's Great-grandfather,
the Grosse Kurfurst;--who looked into it, with face puckered to the
intensest, in his great care for furtherance of the Terrestrial
Sciences and Wisdoms; but forbore for that time. [Minute details
about it in Stenzel, ii. 234-238; who quotes "Erman" (a poor old
friend of ours) "SUR LE PROJET D'UNE VILLE SAVANTE DANS LE
BRANDEBOURG (Berlin, 1792):" date of the Project was 1667.] Then as
to 'Dissecting the Brains of Patagonians;' what harm, if you can
get them gross enough? And as to that of (exalting your mind to
predict the future,' does not, in fact, man look BEFORE and AFTER;
are not Memory and (in a small degree) Prophecy the Two Faculties
he has?
"These things--which are mostly to be found in the 'LETTRES DE
MAUPERTUIS' (Dresden, 1752, then a brand-new Book), but are now
clipt out from the Maupertuis Treatises--we can fancy to be almost
sublimities.--Almost, unfortunately not altogether. And then there
is such a Sisyphus-effort visible in dragging them aloft so far:
and the nimble wicked Voltaire so seizes his moment, trips poor
Sisyphus; and sends him down, heels-over-head, in a torrent of
roaring debris! 'From gradual transpiration of our vital force
comes Death; which perhaps, by precautions, might be indefinitely
retarded,' says Maupertuis. 'Yes, truly,' answers the other: 'if we
got ourselves japanned, coated with resinous varnish (INDUITS DE
POIX RESINEUX); who knows!' Not a sublime owlery can you drop, but
it is manipulated, ground down, put in rifled cannon, comes back on
you as tempests of burning dust." Enough to send Maupertuis
pirouetting through the world, with red wig unquenchably on fire!
Peals of laughter (once you are allowed to be non-official) could
not fail, as an ovation, from the King;--so report the French
Biographers. But there was, besides, strict promise that the Piece
should be suppressed: "Never do to send our President pirouetting
through the world in this manner, with his wig on fire; promise me,
on your honor!" Voltaire promised. But, alas, how could Voltaire
perform! Once more the Rhadamanthine fact is: Voltaire, as King's
Chamberlain, was bound, without any promise, to forbear, and
rigidly suppress such an AKAKIA against the King's Perpetual
President. But withal let candid readers consider how difficult it
was to do. The absurd blusterous Turkey-cock, who has, every now
and then, been tyrannizing over you for twenty years, here you have
him filled with gunpowder, so to speak, and the train laid.
There wants but one spark,--(edition printed in Holland, edition
done in Berlin, plenty of editions made or makable by a little
surreptitious legerdemain,--and I never knew whether it was AKAKIA
in print, or AKAKIA in manuscript, that King and King's Chamberlain
were now reading together, nor does it matter much):--your Turkey
surreptitiously stuffed with gunpowder, I say; train ready waiting;
one flint-spark will shoot him aloft, scatter him as flaming ruin
on all the winds: and you are, once and always, to withhold said
spark. Perhaps, had AKAKIA not yet been written--But all lies ready
there; one spark will do it, at any moment;--and there are
unguarded moments, and the Tempter must prevail!--
On what day AKAKIA blazed out at Berlin, surreptitiously forwarded
from Holland or otherwise, I could never yet learn (so stupid these
reporters). But "on November 2d" the King makes a Visit to sick
Maupertuis, which is published in all the Newspapers; [Rodenbeck,
IN DIE; Helden-Geschichte, iii. 531,
"2d November, 1752, 5 P.M."]--and one might guess the AKAKIA
conflagration, and cruel haha-ings of mankind, to have been tacitly
the cause. Then or later, sure enough, AKAKIA does blaze aloft
about that time; and all Berlin, and all the world, is in
conversation over Maupertuis and it,--30,000 copies sold in Paris:
--and Friedrich naturally was in a towering passion at his
Chamberlain. Nothing for the Chamberlain but to fly his presence;
to shriek, piteously, "Accident, your Majesty! Fatal treachery and
accident; after such precautions too!"--and fall sick to death
(which is always a resource one has); and get into private lodgings
in the TAUBEN-STRASSE, [At a "Hofrath Francheville's" (kind of
subaltern Literary Character, see Denina, ii. 67), "TAUBEN-STRASSE
(Dove Street), No. 20:" stayed there till "March, 1753" (Note by
Preuss, OEuvres de Frederic, xxii. 306 n.).]
till one either die, or grow fit to be seen again: "Ah, Sire"--let
us give the Voltaire shriek of NOT-GUILTY, with the Friedrich
Answer; both dateless unluckily:--
VOLTAIRE. "AH, MON DIEU, Sire, in the state I am in! I swear to you
again, on my life, which I could renounce without pain, that it is
a frightful calumny. I conjure you to summon all my people, and
confront them. What? You will judge me without hearing me! I demand
justice or death."
FRIEDRICH. "Your effrontery astonishes me. After what you have
done, and what is clear as day, you persist, instead of owning
yourself culpable. Do not imagine you will make people believe that
black is white; when one does not see, the reason
is, one does not want to see everything. But if you drive the
affair to extremity,--all shall be made public; and it will be seen
whether, if your Works deserve statues, your conduct does not
deserve chains." [ OEuvres de Frederic, xxii.
302, 301.]
Most dark element (not in date only), with terrific thunder-and-
lightning. Nothing for it but to keep one's room, mostly one's
bed,--"Ah, Sire, sick to death!"
December 24th, 1752, there is one thing dismally distinct, Voltaire
himself looking on (they say), from his windows in Dove Street:
the Public Burning of AKAKIA, near there, by the common Hangman.
Figure it; and Voltaire's reflections on it:--haggardly clear that
Act Third is culminating; and that the final catastrophe is
inevitable and nigh. We must be brief. On the eighth day after this
dread spectacle (New-year's-day 1753), Voltaire sends, in a Packet
to the Palace, his Gold Key and Cross of Merit. On the interior
wrappage is an Inscription in verse: "I received them with loving
emotion, I return them with grief; as a broken-hearted Lover
returns the Portrait of his Mistress:--
Je les recus avec tendresse,
Je vous les rends avec douleur;
C'est ainsi qu'un amant, dans son extreme ardeur,
Rend le portrait de sa maitresse."
And--in a Letter enclosed, tender as the Song of Swans--has one
wish: Permission for the waters of Plonbieres, some alleviations
amid kind nursing friends there; and to die craving blessings on
your Majesty. [Collini, p. 48; LETTER, in OEuvres de
Frederic, xxii. 305.]
Friedrich, though in hot wrath, has not quite come that length.
Friedrich, the same day, towards evening, sends Fredersdorf to him,
with Decorations back. And a long dialogue ensues between
Fredersdorf and Voltaire; in which Collini, not eavesdropping,
"heard the voice of M. de Voltaire at times very loud."
Precise result unknown. After which, for three months more, follows
waiting and hesitation and negotiation, also quite obscure.
Confused hithering and thithering about permission for Plombieres,
about repentance, sorrow, amendment, blame; in the end,
reconciliation, or what is to pass for such. Recorded for us in
that whirl of misdated Letter-clippings; in those Narratives,
ignorant, and pretending to know: perhaps the darkest Section in
History, Sacred or Profane,--were it of moment to us, here
or elsewhere!
Voltaire has got permission to return to Potsdam; Apartment in the
Palace ready again: but he still lingers in Dove Street; too ill,
in real truth, for Potsdam society on those new terms. Does not
quit Francheville's "till March 5th;" and then only for another
Lodging, called "the Belvedere", of suburban or rural kind.
His case is intricate to a degree. He is sick of body;
spectre-haunted withal, more than ever;--often thinks Friedrich,
provoked, will refuse him leave. And, alas, he would so fain NOT
go, as well as go! Leave for Plombieres ,--leave in the angrily
contemptuous shape, "Go, then, forever and a day!"--Voltaire can at
once have: but to get it in the friendly shape, and as if for a
time only? His prospects at Paris, at Versailles, are none of the
best; to return as if dismissed will never do! Would fain not go,
withal;--and has to diplomatize at Potsdam, by D'Argens, De Prades,
and at Paris simultaneously, by Richelieu, D'Argenson and friends.
He is greatly to be pitied;--even Friedrich pities him, the martyr
of bodily ailments and of spiritual; and sends him "extract of
quinquina" at one time. [Letter of Voltaire's.] Three miserable
months; which only an OEdipus could read, and an OEdipus who had
nothing else to do! The issue is well known. Of precise or
indisputable, on the road thither, here are fractions that
will suffice:--
VOLTAIRE TO ONE BAGIEU HIS DOCTOR AT PARIS ("Berlin, 19th
December," 1752, week BEFORE his AKAKIA was burnt). ... "Wish I
could set out on the instant, and put myself into your hands and
into the arms of my family! I brought to Berlin about a score of
teeth, there remain to me something like six; I brought two eyes,
I have nearly lost one of them; I brought no erysipelas, and I have
got one, which I take a great deal of care of. ... Meanwhile I have
buried almost all my Doctors; even La Mettrie. Remains only that I
bury Codenius [Cothenius], who looks too stiff, however,"--and, at
any rate, return to you in Spring, when roads and weather improve.
[ OEuvres de Voltaire, lxxxv. 141.]
FRIEDRICH TO VOLTAIRE (Potsdam, uncertain date). "There was no need
of that pretext about the waters of Plombieres, in demanding your
leave (CONGE). You can quit my service when you like: but, before
going, be so good as return me the Contract of your Engagement, the
Key [Chamberlain's], the Cross [of Merit], and the Volume of Verses
which I confided to you.
"I wish my Works, and only they, had been what you and Konig
attacked. Them I sacrifice, with a great deal of willingness, to
persons who think of increasing their own reputation by lessening
that of others. I have not the folly nor vanity of certain Authors.
The cabals of literary people seem to me the disgrace of
Literature. I do not the less esteem honorable cultivators of
Literature; it is only the caballers and their leaders that are
degraded in my eyes. On this, I pray God to have you in his holy
and worthy keeping.--FRIEDRICH." [In De Prades's hand;
OEuvres de Frederic, xxii. 308, 309: Friedrich's own
Minute to De Prades has, instead of these last three lines: "That I
have not the folly and vanity of authors, and that the cabals of
literary people seem to me the depth of degradation," &c.]
VOLTAIRE SPECTRALLY GIVEN (Collini LOQUITUR). "One evening walking
in the garden [at rural Belvedere,--after March 5th], talking of
our situation, he asked me, 'Could you drive a coach-and-two?'
I stared at him a moment; but knowing that there must be no direct
contradiction of his ideas, I said 'Yes.'--'Well, then, listen;
I have thought of a method for getting away. You could buy two
horses; a chariot after that. So soon as we have horses, it will
not appear strange that we lay in a little hay.'--'Yes, Monsieur;
and what should we do with that?' said I. 'LE VOICI (this is it).
We will fill the chariot with hay. In the middle of the hay we will
put all our baggage. I will place myself, disguised, on the top of
the hay; and give myself out for a Calvinist Curate going to see
one of his Daughters married in the next Town. You shall drive:
we take the shortest road for the Saxon Border; safe there, we sell
chariot, horses, hay; then straight to Leipzig, by post.' At which
point, or soon after, he burst into laughing." [Collini, p. 53.]
VOLTAIRE TO FRIEDRICH ("Berlin, Belvedere," rural lodging, ["In the
STRALAUER VORSTADT (HODIE, Woodmarket Street):" Preuss's Note to
this Letter, OEuvres de Frederic, xxii.
306 n.] "12th March," 1753). "Sire, I have had a Letter from Konig,
quite open, as my heart is. I think it my duty to send your Majesty
a duplicate of my Answer. ... Will submit to you every step of my
conduct; of my whole life, in whatever place I end it. I am Konig's
friend; but assuredly I am much more attached to your Majesty;
and if he were capable the least in the world of failing in respect
[as is rumored], I would"--Enough!
FRIEDRICH RELENTS (To Voltaire; De Prades writing, Friedrich
covertly dictating: no date). "The King has held his Consistory;
and it has there been discussed, Whether your case was a mortal sin
or a venial? In truth, all the Doctors owned that it was mortal,
and even exceedingly confirmed as such by repeated lapses and
relapses. Nevertheless, by the plenitude of the grace of Beelzebub,
which rests in the said King, he thinks he can absolve you, if not
in whole, yet in part. This would be, of course, in virtue of some
act of contrition and penitence imposed on you: but as, in the
Empire of Satan, there is a great respect had of genius, I think,
on the whole, that, for the sake of your talents, one might pardon
a good many things which do discredit to your heart. These are the
Sovereign Pontiff's words; which I have carefully taken down. They
are a Prophecy rather." [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xxii. 307.]
VOLTAIRE TO DE PRADES ("Belvedere, 15th March," 1753). "Dear Abbe,
--Your style has not appeared to me soft. You are a frank Secretary
of State:--nevertheless I give you warning, it is to be a settled
point that I embrace you before going. I shall not be able to kiss
you; my lips are too choppy from my devil of a disorder [SCURVY, I
hear]. You will easily dispense with my kisses; but don't dispense,
I pray you, with my warm and true friendship.
"I own I am in despair at quitting you, and quitting the King;
but it is a thing indispensable. Consider with our dear Marquis
[D'Argens], with Fredersdorf,--PARBLEU, with the King himself, How
you can manage that I have the consolation of seeing him before I
go. I absolutely will have it; I will embrace with my two arms the
Abbe and the Marquis. The Marquis sha'n't be kissed, any more than
you; nor the King either. But I shall perhaps fall blubbering;
I am weak, I am a drenched hen. I shall make a foolish figure:
never mind; I must, once more, have sight of you two. If I cannot
throw myself at the King's feet, the Plombieres waters will kill
me. I await your answer, to quit this Country as a happy or as a
miserable man. Depend on me for life.--V." [Ib. 308.]--This is the
last of these obscure Documents.
Three days after which, "evening of March 18th", [Collini, pp. 55,
56.] Voltaire, Collini with him and all his packages, sets out for
Potsdam; King's guest once more. Sees the King in person "after
dinner, next day;" stays with him almost a week, "quite gay
together," "some private quizzing even of Maupertuis" (if we could
believe Collini or his master on that point); means "to return in
October, when quite refitted,"--does at least (note it, reader), on
that ground, retain his Cross and Key, and his Gift of the OEUVRE
DE POESIES: which he had much better have left! And finally,
morning of March 25th) 1753, [Collini, p. 56; see Rodenbeck,
i. 252.] drives off,--towards Dresden, where there are Printing
Affairs to settle, and which is the nearest safe City;--and
Friedrich and he, intending so or not, have seen one another for
the last time. Not quite intending that extremity, either of them,
I should think; but both aware that living together was a thing to
be avoided henceforth.
"Take care of your health, above all; and don't forget that I
expect to see you again after the Waters!" such was Friedrich's
adieu, say the French Biographers, [Collini, p. 57; Duvernet,
p. 186; OEuvres de Voltaire, lxxv. 187 ("will
return in October").] "who is himself just going off to the
Silesian Reviews", add they;--who does, in reality, drive to Berlin
that day; but not to the Silesian Reviews till May following.
As Voltaire himself will experience, to his cost!
