(though finely caressed in the Parisian circles) these were
provoking months;--enough to make a man forswear Literature, and
try some other Jacob's-Ladder in this world. Which Voltaire had
actual thoughts of, now and then. We may ask, Are these things of a
nature to create love of the Hierarchy in M. de Voltaire?
"Your Academy is going to be a Seminary of Priests," says
Friedrich. The lynx-eyed animal,--anxiously asking itself,
"Whitherward, then, out of such a mess?"--walks warily about, with
its paws of velvet; but has, IN POSSE, claws under them, for
certain individuals and fraternities.

Nor, alas, is the Du Chatelet relation itself so celestial as it
once was. Madame has discovered, think only with what feelings,
that this great man does not love her as formerly! The great man
denies, ready to deny on the Gospels, to her and to himself;
and yet, at bottom, if we read with the microscope, there are
symptoms, and it is not deniable. How should it? Leafy May, hot
June, by degrees comes October, sere, yellow; and at last, a quite
leafless condition,--not Favonius, but gray Northeast, with its
hail-storms (jealousies, barren cankered gusts), your main wind
blowing. "EMILIE FAIT DE L'ALGEBRE," sneers he once, in an
inadvertent moment, to some Lady-friend: "Emilie doing? Emilie is
doing Algebra; that is Emilie's employment,--which will be of great
use to her in the affairs of Life, and of great charm in Society."
[Letter of Voltaire "To Madame Chambonin," end of 1742
( OEuvres, Edition in 40 vols., Paris, 1818,
xxxii. 148);--is MISSED in the later Edition (97 vols., Paris,
1837), to which our habitual reference is.] Voltaire (if you read
with the microscope) has, on this side also, thoughts of being off.
"Off on this side?" Madame flies mad, becomes Megaera, at the