126 VOLTAIRE. 



hand " To Sir Hanslone (Hans Sloane), from his 

 obedient servant, Voltaire." In his latter years he 

 spoke English with great difficulty, and seldom at- 

 tempted it ; but that he retained his familiarity with 

 the language, and could easily write it, we have the 

 clearest evidence in two excellent lines which he 

 wrote when in his eightieth year to Dr. Cradock, who 

 had sent him a copy of his drama, ' Zobeide,' chiefly 

 borrowed from Voltaire's * Scythes :' 



" Thanks to your muse, a foreign copper shines, 

 Turn'd into gold, and coin'd in sterling lines." 



Nor is our admiration of this facility of English dic- 

 tion lessened by the consideration that the idea is in 

 some degree imitated from Roscommon. H. Walpole 

 has indeed said, with a gross exaggeration, respecting his 

 letter to Lord Lyttelton, that not one word of it is 

 tolerable English ; but he may late in life have lost 

 the facility of writing in a language not acquired while 

 a child, as we know that both with Lord Loughborough 

 and Lord Erskine the Scottish accent returned in old 

 age, though they had got entirely rid of it during the 

 middle period of life. 



After the details of his life, and the full considera- 

 tion of his various works, it would be a very super- 

 fluous task to attempt summing up the character of 

 Voltaire, either as regards his intellectual or his moral 

 qualities. The judgment to be pronounced on these 

 must depend upon the details of fact and the particular 

 opinions already given, and no general reflections 

 could alter the impression which these must already 

 have produced. 



One part only of his composition has had no place, 

 and derived no illustration from the preceding pages 



