Imatges de pàgina
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Voltaire is certainly a writer of great vanity indeed he has fome reafon to be vain;

SIR,

Whatever reluctance a man may feel in speaking of himself before the public, and however vain all the little interefts of an author may be, you will judge, perhaps, that there are circumtances in which a man who has had the misfortune to write, ought, at least in the quality of a citizen, to refute calumny. It is not of any great importance to the public, that fome obfcure people have, for these ten years paft, published their works under the name of an obfcure man like me; but I may be allowed to fay, that pamphlets from Paris have often been brought to me in my retreat, that bear my name, with the words in the title, Printed at Geneva.

I can fafely proteft, not only that none of these pamphlets are mine, but that nothing is printed at Geneva without the exprefs permiffion of three magiftrates; and that all these puerilities, to fay no worse of them, are abfolutely unknown in that country, where the people are only employed in their refpective duties, in trade and in agriculture, and where the charms of fociety are never imbittered by the quarrels of authors.

Those who have thus resolved to disturb the repofe of my old age, have imagined that I live M. 4

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vain; for, befides the friendship of monarchs and the acquaintance of princes

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at Geneva. It is true, I have long enjoyed a state of retirement, that I might no longer be the butt of the cabals and calumnies, which at Paris are the bane of literature; but it is not true that I am retired to Geneva; my natural habitation is fituated on the estate I poffefs on the frontiers of France, to which his majefty has granted privileges and immunities that render those lands extremely dear to me: there my principal employment, as is well known in the country, is to cultivate my fields in peace, and not to be useless to fome of the unfortunate. I am fo far from sending any work to Paris, that I carry on no correfpondence, directly or indirectly, with any bookfeller, or even any man of letters, at Paris; and, except a kind of tragedy, entitled The Orphan of China, which a valuable friend extorted from me about five or fix years ago, and of which trifle I made a prefent to the actors of your theatre, I have really done nothing that has been printed in that city.

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I was much furprized at receiving, laft December, a fheet of a pe iodical pamphlet, entitled, L'Année Literaire, of the exiftence of which, I, in my retreat, was entirely ignorant. This sheet

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and the great, he has by writing gained a fortune of near two thousand pounds a year.

He

was accompanied with a final! comedy called The Woman in the Right, acted at Karonge, wrote by M. de V. and printed at Geneva.

There are in this title three falfities: That piece, disfigured as it is by the bookfeller, is certainly not my work; it has never been printed at Geneva; there is no place in that country called Karonge: And I add, that the bookfeller of Paris who has printed it under my name, without my confent, is very blameable.

But in anfwer to the civilities of the Literary year, I muft obferve, that the piece he believes to be new, was played about twelve years ago, at Luneville, in the king of Poland's palace, where I had the honour to refide. The greateft perfonages in the kingdom, with respect to birth, who are perhaps alfo the moft diftinguifhed by their wit and tafte, played it in the prefence of that monarch: It is fufficient to fay, that the marchionefs du Chatelet acted the Woman in the Right, with univerfal applaufe. I shall be filent with refpect to the names of the other illuftrious perfonages, who are ftill living, from the fear of offending their modefty. Such an affembly knows, perhaps, as well as the author of the Literary

Year,

He has certainly been the author of feveral very generous actions; among

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others,

Year, what is agreeable pleafantry, and what deTwo thirds of the piece were composed by a man, whofe talents I might envy, had not a juft indignation for the malice of authors, and the cabals of the theatre, made him renounce an art in which he difcovered much genius. I performed the last part of the work, and at length reduced the whole into three acts, and made fome flight alterations which that form required.. This finall entertainment of three acts was never defigned for the public, and is very different from the piece which they have very improperly printed under my name.

You fee, Sir, that I am not the only perfon who owe thanks to the author of the Literary Year for the fine imputations of which he is so lavith, of Teutonic coarfenefs, low fluff, and indecency. The king of Poland, the princes, and ladies of the first quality in the kingdom, ought to take their share with equal gratitude; and the refpectable author who affitted me in this entertainment, fhould be filled with the fame fentiments.

I have enquired what fort of a piece the Literary Year is, and have been told, that it is a work in which the moit celebrated perfons, at prefent:

others, his treatment of the great Corneille's grand-daughter is very meri

torious.

prefent in the literary world, are frequently abufed; this is a new subject for my thanks. I have run over a few pages of the pamphlet, and have found fome ftrokes that are a little fevere against M. le Mierre: He is treated as a manvoid of genius, a plagiary, and a juggler, becaufe that worthy young man has gained threeprizes in our Academy, and has fucceeded in a tragedy, that has been long honoured by the encouraging approbation of the public.

I may fay, in general, and without having any perfon in view, that a man muft have a little affurance before he can conftitute himself a judge of all works; and that he would do much better,. was he himself to write fome good ones.

Satire in verse, and even in good verse, is at prefent in difcredit; and more juftly ftill fatire inprofe, especially when the fuccefs is as much worfe as it is more eafy to write it in that pitiful manner. I am here very far from characterizing the author of the Literary Year, who is abfolutely unknown to me. I am told that he has long been my enemy; fo much the better: For my part, I affure you that I know nothing of it.

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