VOLTAIRE. 77 



and inconveniences of a bad digestion. There was 

 therefore a sufficient foundation for frequent recourse 

 to the state of his health. But he writes as if he was 

 not merely in constant danger : he is generally at the 

 point of death ; and it is observable that the more 

 deeply he is engaged in any vexatious dispute, and the 

 more he has, or thinks he has, occasion to complain of 

 maltreatment, the more regularly and the more vehe- 

 mently does he describe his alarming, nay, his dying 

 condition. In such circumstances it is a figure never 

 wanting to round a period, or to fill up the measure 

 of his own wrongs, and his adversary's oppressions. 

 It is singular that a man of his genius, one especially 

 who had so well studied the human heart, and painted 

 so strikingly the dignity of our nature, should inva- 

 riably, and even with the least worthy antagonist, 

 prefer being plaintiff to being powerful, and rather 

 delight in being the object of compassion than of 

 terror. 



After above fourteen years had passed in the manner 

 which has been described, accidental circumstances 

 led to the formation of an intimacy between the 

 family of M. du Chatelet and Stanislaus Leczinski, 

 formerly King of Poland, and father of the reigning 

 Queen of France. He resided at Luneville, where 

 he kept an hospitable mansion as a great noble, rather 

 than held his court as a Prince. He was fond of letters, 

 and, though exceedingly devout, never departed from 

 the principles of toleration, or the feelings of charity. 

 In February, 1748, the Du Chatelets, accompanied by 

 Voltaire, went to visit the King, and were so pleased 

 with the reception which they received for some weeks, 



