VOLITION,
Voltaire. gust 1750. On his arrival at Berlin, he was immediately presented with the Order of Merit, the key of chamberlain, and a pension of 20,000 livres. From the particular respect that was paid to him, his time was now spent in the most agreeable manner; his apartments were under those of the king, whom he was allowed to visit at stated hours, to read with him the best works of either ancient or modern authors, and to assist his majesty in the literary productions by which he relieved the cares of government. But a dispute which arose between him and Maupertuis soon brought on his disgrace. Maupertuis was at some pains to have it reported at court, that one day while General Manstein happened to be in the apartments of M. de Voltaire, who was then translating into French the Memoirs of Russia, composed by that officer, the king, in his usual manner, sent a copy of verses to be examined, when Voltaire said to Manstein, "Let us leave off for the present, my friend; you see the king has sent me his dirty linen to wash, I will wash your's another time." A single word is sometimes sufficient to ruin a man at court; Maupertuis imputed such a word to Voltaire, and succeeded. It was about this very time that Maupertuis published his very strange Philosophical Letters; and M. de Voltaire did not fail to heighten, with his utmost powers of raillery, every thing which he found, or could make, ridiculous, in the projects of M. Maupertuis, who was careful to unite his own cause with that of the king; Voltaire was considered as having failed in respect to his majesty; and therefore, in the most respectful manner, he returned to the king his chamberlain's key, and the cross of his Order of Merit: accompanied with four lines of verse; in which he, with great delicacy, compares his situation to that of a jealous lover, who sends back the picture of his mistress. The king returned the key and the ribbon; but they were not followed by an immediate reconciliation. Voltaire set out to pay a visit to her highness the duchess of Gotha, who honoured him with her friendship as long as she lived. While he remained at Gotha, Maupertuis employed all his batteries against him: Voltaire was arrested by the king's orders, but afterwards released.
He now settled near Geneva; but afterward being obliged to quit that republic, he purchased the castle of Ferney in France, about a league from the lake of Geneva. It was here that he undertook the defence of the celebrated family of Calas; and it was not long before he had a second opportunity of vindicating the innocence of another condemned family of the name of Sirven. It is somewhat remarkable, that in the year 1774, he had the third time a singular opportunity of employing that same zeal which he had the good fortune to display in the fatal catastrophe of the families of Calas and Sirven.
In this retreat M. Voltaire continued long to enjoy the pleasures of a rural life, accompanied with the admiration of a vast number of wits and philosophers throughout all Europe. Weaned at length, however, with his situation, or yielding to the importunities of friends, he came to Paris about the beginning of the year 1778, where he wrote a new tragedy called Irene. By this time his understanding seems to have been impaired, either through the infirmities of age, or continued intoxication by the flattery of others; and he ridiculously suffered himself to be crowned in public with laurel, in testimony of his great poetical merit. He did not
long survive this farce: for having overheated himself with receiving visits, and exhausted his spirits by supplying a perpetual fund of conversation, he was first seized with a spitting of blood; and at last becoming restless in the night-time, he was obliged to use a soporific medicine. Of this he unluckily one night took so large a dose, that he slept 36 hours, and expired a very short time after awakening from it.