VOLTAIRE. 121 



nor was there ever, it may truly be asserted, a poet at 

 the age of eighty-four capable of so signal an exertion. 

 It is, indeed, only one of the many proofs which remain 

 of the inextinguishable activity of his great mind. He 

 added a passage to the introductory chapters of his 

 ' Louis XIV.,' which shows that it was written a few 

 weeks before his decease, for it gives an account of 

 Hook's publication which appeared in 1778.* 



After an absence of above seven and twenty years 

 he revisited Paris with his niece, who, at the beginning 

 of 1778, wished to accompany thither a young lady, 

 recently married to M. Vilette. Voltaire had just 

 finished ' Irene,' and had a desire to see its represen- 

 tation. The reception he met with in every quarter 

 was enthusiastic. He had outlived all his enemies, 

 all his detractors, all his quarrels. The Academy, 

 which had, under the influence of court intrigues, now 

 long forgotten, delayed his admission till his fifty- 

 second year, seemed now anxious to repair its fault, 

 and received him with honours due rather to the great 

 chief than to a fellow-citizen in the commonwealth of 

 letters. All that was most eminent in station or most 

 distinguished in talents all that most shone in 

 society or most ruled at court, seemed to bend before 

 him. The homage of every class and of every rank 

 was tendered to him, and it seemed as if one universal 

 feeling prevailed, the desire of having it hereafter to 

 say " I saw Voltaire." But, in a peculiar manner, 

 his triumphant return was celebrated at the theatre. 

 Present at the third night of ' Irene,' all eyes were 



* Siecle de Louis XIV., i. p. 25. 



