128 VOLTAIRE. 



outline of a long visit, which he seemed fated to see 

 filled up, " Ah, Monsieur ! je suis horriblement vieux. 

 Ne pourriez vous pas tacher les voir tous le meme jour ?'' 

 The sketch probably was left unfinished by this inter- 

 ruption. So when an English traveller who had been 

 to see Haller, heard Voltaire speak loudly in his praise, 

 and expressed admiration of this candour, saying 

 Haller spoke not so well of him : " Helas !" was the ad- 

 mirable answer, " il se peut bien que nous avons tort, tous 

 les deux." A graver rebuke was administered by him 

 to an old lady who expressed her horror at finding 

 herself under the same roof with a declared enemy of 

 the Supreme Being, as she was pleased to term Vol- 

 taire : " Sachez, madame, que j'ai dit plus de bien de 

 Dieu dans un seul de mes vers que vous n'en penserez de 

 votre etre." 



A striking picture of his powers of conversation is 

 given by Goldsmith, who passed an evening in his 

 company about the year 1754. He describes it, after 

 saying generally that no man whom he had ever seen 

 exceeded him ; and Goldsmith had lived with the most 

 famous wits of the world, especially of his own country 

 with Burke, Windham, Johnson, Beauclerk, Fox. 

 There arose a dispute in the party upon the English 

 taste and literature. Diderot was the first to join 

 battle with Fontenelle, who defeated him easily, the 

 knowledge of the former being very limited on the 

 subject of the controversy. " Voltaire," says Gold- 

 smith, " remained silent and passive for a long while, 

 as if he wished to bear no part in the argument which 

 was going on. At last, about midnight, he began, and 

 spoke for nearly three hours, but in a manner not to 



