The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-05-16

Petsdam Has,s in truth, what it was
eallsd by one its most illustrioua in
mates, the Palase of Alcina At the
first glance it seemed to be delightful
spot, where. every intellectual and phys
ical enjoyment awaited the happy adven-
turer. Every newcomer was received
with enger hospitality, intoxicated with
fattsry, encouraged to expect prospsri-
ty and greatness. 1t was in vain that
a long succession of favorites who had
entered that abode with delight and
hope, aud who, after a short term of'de-
lusive happiness, had been doomed to
expaite their folly BY years ofwretched-
ness and degradation, raised voices to
warn the aspirant who approached the
charmed threshold Some had wisdom
enough to discover the truth early, and
spirit enough to fly without looking
back; others fingered on to q cheerless
and unhenored old age. We have no
hesitation in saying that the poorest
author of that time in London. sleeping
on bulk, dining IN cellar, with
eravat of paper, and skeWer for a shirt
pin, was happier man than any ofthe
literary inmates of Frederick's court.
But of all who entered the enchanted
garden in the inebriatien of delight, and
quilted it in the agonies of rago and
g. p
shame, the most remarkable was Vol
taire. Many, circumstances bad made
him desirous of finding home at dis
tance from his country. His fame had
raised him up enemies. His sensibility
gave them q formidable advantage over
him. They were, indeed, contemptible
ASSISTANTS. OF. all that they wrote moth
ing has survived, except what he has
preserved But the constitutions of his
mind resemble6 the constitution of those
bodies in which the slightest scratch of
bramble or the sting of a gnat never
fails to tester. Though his reputation
was rather raised than lowered by the
abuse of such writers as Freron and Des
Fontaines-though the vengeance which
he took on Freron and Des Fontaines
was such that branding, scourging, pill
lorying would have been trifle to it
there is reasontto belive that they gave
him far more than he evor gave them
Though he enjoyed, during his own life
time, the reputation of elassic-though
he was sxto,led by his contemporaries
above all poets philosophers and histo
rians-though his works were read with
as much delight at Moscow and West
minister, at Florence and Stockholm, as
at Paris itself, yet he was tortured by
that restless jealousy which should seem
to belong only to minds burning with
the love of fame, and yet conscious of
impotence To men of letters who
could, by no possibility, be his rivals, he
was, if they behaved well to him, net
merely just, not merely kind, not mere
ly courteous, but often hearty friend,
munifeent benefactor. But to every
one who rose TO celebrity approaching
his own, he became either disguised
or an ayoNed enemy. He slyly depre-
ciated Montesquieu and Button. He
publicly, and with violent outrage, made
war on Jean Jacques Rousseau. Nor
had he the art of hiding his feelings un-
der the resemblance of good nature or of
contempt With all his great talents,
and all his long experience in the world
he had no more self-cemmand than q
petted child or a hySterical woman
Whenever he was mortified, he exhaust
ed the whole rhetoric of sorrow and an
ger to express his modification. His
torrents of bitter words; his stamping
J and cursing and his tears ofrage, were