1799-] ( 
ee en 
Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. 
VOLTAIRE AND His BOOKSELLER. 
E have had feveral anecdotes of 
Voltaire’s duplicity, in certain 
tranfa&tions with his bookfellers. The 
following one is not well known; but au- 
thentic. It is a curious inftance of that 
reciprocal imipofition which is fometimes 
practifed by certain authors and book- 
fellers; and in which it has happened, 
that the public becomes the dupe of both; 
it does, however, great honour to our 
avthor’s ingenuity. Voltaire having ac- 
cidentally feen, when at Bruffelles, ina 
Dutch newfpaper, the name of Van Du- 
ren, a bookfeller at the Hague, he deter - 
mined to fend him, as a gratuitous pre- 
fent, the manufcript of that political 
work, ‘* The Anti-Machiavel.” Shortly 
afterwards he went to his bookfeller, and 
very earneftly begged to have this MS. re- 
turned to him. As this was refufed, he of- 
fered for it two thoufand florins. Notwith- 
ftanding this liberal offer, and the re- 
peated interference of perfons of the firft 
refpectability, who interefted themfelves 
for Voltaire, the Dutchman was inflexible. 
Voltaire then exprefled a with only to 
make fome effential corrections. But 
thefe Van Duren would only allow to be 
dore in his fhop, and upon his defk. 
Though irritated at the harfhnefs of fuch 
behaviour, Voltaire was obliged to agree 
to this propofal. Having at length the 
MS. in hand, while the bookfeller con- 
cluded he was corre€ting it, he erafed 
whatever he thought proper, and filled up 
the gaping chafms with any nonfenfe that 
eccurred. At length, Van Duren difco- 
vers the trick ; he inatches the MS. from 
the author’s hands in this mutilated 
ftate. He threatens to print it with all its 
imperfections: but perceiving that this 
would ferve no purpofe, he configns it to 
one of his Paternofter-Row authors ; one 
of thofe repairers of bad works, though 
they cannot themfelves build; lardooners 
of meagrenefs. This writer heals the 
Jacerations, as fkilfully as he can. Two 
Anti-Machiavels appear at the fame time ; 
one by Voltaire, and the other by Van 
Duren. But the publication of Voltaire 
was by no means fo fuccefsful as the one 
by Van Duren; for it was got up in 
great hafte. Van Duren’s edition was ele- 
egant, and its chief materials drawn from 
Amelot de la Houffaie’s commentary on 
the Prince of Machiavel; and by an arti- 
fice (employed not feldom) the title-page 
was fo contrived as to make them appear 
to proceed from the pen of Voltaire. ‘The 
Montury Maa. No. xl. 
bookfeller’s edition was long fold before 
the impofition was dete&ted, while the au- 
thor’s own work was little attended to. 

THE DEVIL oN Two Sticks. 
Tie Gil Blas of Le Sage is a very*fu- 
perior compefition to his Devil on’ two 
Sticks, as the Englifh tranflater calls Le 
Diable Boiteux, or the Lame Devil. 
This laft work however had an honour 
paid to it, of avery peculiar kind. Du 
Radier tells us, that the frft edition went 
off with aftonifhing fuccefs, and the fe- 
cond was bought with equal eagernefs. 
Two noblemen, at the fame moment, en- 
tering the boekfeller’s fhop, to purchafe 
a copy, found only one unfold. Both of 
them claimed it; and they difputed it fo 
warmly, that at length they drew their 
{words ; blood would have been fhed, had 
not the bookfeller borrowed a copy, that 
the rival purchafers might be quieted ! 

THE ENMITY OF GENIUs. 
No enemy is fo terrible as a man of 
genixs. The memoirs of Philip de Co- 
mines are well known. The cauile of his 
enmity to the Duke of Burgundy in thefe 
memoirs has been diicovered by the mi- 
nute refearchers of anecdote. De Comines 
was born a fubjeét of the Duke cf Bur. 
gundy, and had been a favourite with 
that prince, for feven years. Afterwards 
De Comines attached himfelf to the 
Duke’s great enemy, the King of France. > 
He was induced to this by the following 
circumftance: One day, returning from 
hunting, with the Duke, (then Count de 
Charolois,) in familiar jocularity, he {at 
himfelf down before the prince, and ordered 
him to pull off his boots. This the counr 
did, and laughed, but in return, for bis 
princely amufement, dafthed the boot on 
Comines’s nofe, which bled. From that 
time he was mortified in the court of Bur- 
gundy by the nickname of the booted head 
Comines felt a rankling wound in his 
mind. He went over to the King of 
France, and amply exhaled his bile 
againft the Duke of Burgundy in thofe 
memoirs, which give to potterity a moft 
unfavourable likenefs of that prince, 
whom he ever cenfures for prefunition, 
obftinacy, pride, and cruelty. This Duke. 
of Burgundy, however, had but one oreat 
vice, that of ambition; but he had many 
virtues. A’ man of the world will not 
think that the impertinence of Comines 
was snaltiled with great feverity; but, 
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