New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-05


seeking revenge by caustic verses. and hnaly
lamenting the hardness of Frederic, is not credit
| able on the score of manliness We find HIM
| here, writing in roundabout fashion to the Mar
| gravinc, begging her to intercede for nm NJ
| Berlin 1t is not o pleasant spectacle. Inc sage
| of Fcrney groveling before oil TINS tlhsei Oh
| royalty and bewailing with lavish wordihess Tie
misfortune which dcprivcs him Of Frederics 1avor
and bounty. does not appear digni6cd, nor do
| his grimaces and gesticuations and gcnuf1cxlons
| appeal to our sympathy. Nor, to speak frahky'
| is his sincerity conspicuously in evidence IN any
of these letters. They are full OF hlgh-hown
phrases and graceful homage and professions oil
desolation and despair, and the rest of the fun
merry which in those days passed for esprit
and polish, but nowhere is there trace of candor
nowhere does the man Voltaire address himself
10 the woman Wilhelmine, nowhere is there any
approach to that converse between souls which
alone can give life and substance and value to any
| correspondence.
| The letters are frivolous with few exceptions.
Voltaire on one side Wghelmine on the other, stand
| posturine bowling, and Sinking in what is no
! doubt the highest style Of department., but they
are intensely artificial, hopelessly unnatural,
fagrantly masquerading This applies to all Vol
| taires letters OF the Margarine it must be said
that when her brothers fortunes are sunk to
| the lowest ebb when his foes are gathering round
to give him the coup de grace, when he appears
to have reached the end Of his career-and just
before one Of his most signal successes, as 1t
proved-ths devoted sister DROPS all her court
articles and stiffness pours forth the story Of her
bitter grcfs with complete unrestraint. and gives
us glimpse Of capacities which would surely
have made her felt more senSbly in her time,
could the powerful stimulus of deep emotion have
/
simply, frankly and we'll when the
occasion was too serious to waste
time in turning pretty phrases. But as TO Vol
taire, he is never caught with the mask off. Per
haps there was mask in his case. Perhaps the
artificial style had become a second nature with
him. One wonders whether his mechanical adula-
| ton, his automatic sugared swectnesses," really
deceived his royal correspondents Assuredly
| they did not always deceive Frederic, who, having
once found out how unpleasantly like his own
traits were several Of Voltaires, sternly and I'M
ainchngly refused to renew the old relations, and
held at arms length the poor suppliant who so
pitifully signed himself Formerly Brother Vol
taire."
Dr. Horn does not seem to have made up his
mind as to the character of the poets feelings
| toward the King, for he employs expressions re-
garding the subject which cannot be reconcied.
| In one place he says: Voltare was truly devoted
to the Margarine, but equally so to the King.
He loved him with the passion poet displays for
his hero" etc. Elsewhere he observes that vol
taire unable to separate the interests and feel
! ings of his own person in judging Of things ne
was never consistent except in his negation Of all
that was positive. On the one hand he spread ms
Icious reports about Frederic, whilst on the
| other he battered him. One day he speaks of
having invented new weapon OF war against
him, and the next he extols his victories with
| pride" This does not look much like love- ana
least of all does 1t resemble passionate love- The
truth is that Voltaires vanity was fattered by
his intimacy with Frederic, but the cynical old
philosopher cared little enough for the King His
real feeling showed itself most frankly when he
was spreading malicious reports about his hero
or making fun of the royal verses and the royal
aphorisms Wilhemine was far more ingenious
creature than either her brother his correspond
ent She possessed O noble nature, which was
much warped and stunted by the morbid condi-
tons Of her life, and by the misery which had en-
| oompassed her youth like atmosphere With
a good husband she might have outgrown all
these adverse influences, but the Margrave proved
unfaithful to her, and her suffering was enhanced
by the fact that her successful rival Of her
own ladies'
| She indeed loved her brother sincerely and de-
votedy and he returned her affection, as DR.. Horn
saws to the full extent of his capacity which
in that direction was never vigorous. Wilhemine
died on the disastrous day Of HochlIirch. She was
unaware of Frederic's rout, but possibly some oc-
cult sympathy depressed her already low vital
| forces beyond recovery. The King learned his
great loss while he was yet dazed with his defeat
We have the testimony of eyewitness to the
genuincness of his grief and the force of his emo
ton: and vet there is something hollow and the
atrical about the scene. lie is represented as de-
claiming some verses from Iphigenia" when the
sad intelligence was brought him. Surely deep
grief does not often find expression in such melo-
| dramatic ways. 1t must not be forgotten that
the age was one of much sentiment, and that II
this sentiment had not been generally so artificial
the grim realities of the French Revolution might
have been averted. But the character of the
times was illustrated in the fate of Damnens-the
| particulars of whose offence are not quite accu-
rateIy stated by Dr. Horn. That so-called regcide
really just scratched the august cuticle of Louis
| the Fifteenth, and he was condemned to the most
awful torments that could be Embellishments
which kept him alive in agony whole day, and
which were witnessed and gloated over by
thousands Of the people whose sensitive souls
| gushed in over every triviality. 1t was an
age when princesscs and great ladies contended for
| the privilege of reading La Pucelle' in manu-
script; when perhaps the basest prostitution of
genius known to literature accounted a great
achievement; when Pompadour the arbiter
of French destiny.
In closing his editorial 1abors DR. Horn OBJ
serves If these pages should have been able to
show the better and nobler side Of Voltaire's char
acter and by SO doing soften the severe criticism it
generally meets with, then object has been at
tanned" To us it appears that the letters here
published contribute nothing toward the formation
of such an opinion. On the contrary, they exhibit
Voltaire at his worst instead of at his best If
wish to study the better and noblec side' of his
character, we must turn to the records of the