A deaf Ear to Adulation re- Anecdote of a Painter, 390 POETICAL ESSAYS. On the Death of Rev. Jofeph Epitaph, 391 392 394 Character of Rapin, Hume, STATE PAPERS. Refolve of Congress refpe&ing the State of the national debt, MONTHLY CHRONOLOGY. 397 Foreign News, 399 American News, 400 Proceedings of the General Court, 401 406 Meteorological Obfervations, for July, 1784, No. II. With the following EMBELLISHMENTS, viz. B Printed and Sold by GREENLEAF and FREEMAN, WE E acknowledge our Obligations to Correfpondents for their Attention to our Requeft in forwarding their Favours for this Month in that Seafon that we are enabled to Publish this Number fo early in the Month; we hope they will thus continue to be mindful of us. The Piece, however,on the Different Organs of the Human Body which should have been continued from page 326, came too late for Infertion, will find a Place in our next. Daphne, on Libertinifm, the Story of Elvira and Jacintha, with feveral other Performances, fhall be duely attended to. Some of the most important Sketches of the Character and Death of that very celebrated French Author, Monfieur · Voltaire. V "OLTAIRE was a man Tomewhat above the mid die fize, of an arid, bodily conftitution, a meagre countenance, and a flender form. His eye was ardent, quick, and penetrating an air of pleafantry, inged with malignity, reigned in his features the quickness and vivacity of his animal (pirits were fingular beyond expreffion, and the predomi nant force of his intellectual powers was always verging towards pleafan try. It was this fpirit of pleafantry that rendered him to extremely fociable; he frequented the great, to Rudy their follies and their vices, and to colleЯ anecdotes, either of an agreable or malignant nature, to embellish his writings, and enable him to take the lead in converfation. In difcourfes and in his manners, he united the eafe of Ariflippus with the cynical spirit of Diogenes. He was inconftant in his friendships, if any name; and he carried, even into the folitude of his philofophical retire fycophant. He was reftfefs and inment, the fpirit of a courtier and a Conftant in all his ways...had no fixed tenor of character or condu&t--had fits of reafon and principle, as well as of caprice and paffion. His head was clear, his imagination was lively, but his heart, it is to be feared, was exceedingly corrupt. He treated every thing connected with religion, with conftant derifion. His pretenfions to humanity and benevolence were great; he undertook and performed noble things in behalf of the moft effential rights, privileges, and interefts of mankind, but thefe fplendid virtues were tarnifhed by an exceffive vanity and boundless avarice. of his connections ever deferved that He was ambitious of adding to his well deferved fame; as a poet, the reputation of a profound philofopher, and eminent hiftorian. The opinions of the learned have been greatly dis vided about the degree of merit due to him in thefe three charaners. As a poet, he had certainly more wit than genius; and,generally fpeaking, he was more pleafing than arduous. and and fublime. His verfification is easy and melodious; his defcriptions liveJy and touching. His tragedies, in general, are excellent; his Henriade 36 a fine poem; his Pucelle, or Maid of Orleans, ought to be hid in a privy on the fummit of Parnaffus; but it is very fingular, that with fuch an abundant and rich vein of pleafantry and humour as he poffeffed, he was incapable of making any figure in come. dy. He was not a profound philo fopher, and yet he was far from being ignorant in the fciences; he was a 2olerable metaphyfician of the fecond clafs; and he had, in the earlier parts of his life, made fome proficiency in natural philofophy. We must not look upon him as a mean hiftorian, because he disfigured the life and reign of Peter the Great, and compofed a flovenly hiftory of Ruffia; for his Age of Lewis XIV, and hisEffay on Univerfal Hiflory, will give him a very confiderable and permanent re putation among the hiftorians of the Frefent age, His knowledge was extenfive, his reading prodigious, and his attainments in polite and elegant literature were very great. Notwith Randing all this, he is faid to have been fuperficial; and, this, may be more or less true; for though his ap: plication to ftudy was keen and affiduous, yet his reftieffners and incon, fancy of mind were fuch as rendered him incapable of dwelling long enough upon any, fubject to under Band it thoroughly... His profe is highly and defervedly efteemed few of the French writers equal him in purity, elegance, facility, and attic falt, fimplicity reigns even in thofe phrafes, where his wit is most lively, and his expreffion is moft in genius. It must be confeffed, and the circumdance is fingular, that though his imagination was active, versatile and lively, he had little invention. His repetitions are fhameful; he is ever melting old thoughts into new forms; nay, often he is not even at the pains of varying the forms. There are various accounts given of the caufes of his death; it is probable, that a decay of nature, owing to old age, and his being hurried into variety of amufements, to which he had not latterly been accuftomed, were amongst the principal. Other accounts add, that he had conceived a plan of reforming, and correcting the French language; on which he laboured from fix to nine hours in a day, for fome weeks before his death, taking no other (uftenance but coffee, which had been a favorite refreshment with him many years. Complaining one day, to the Duke de Richelieu, that he found himself deprived of fleep; that nobleman recommended him to take fome opium, and faid, he took a certain quantity every day. Voltaire, however, thought he could take a larger dofe, which he did, without confulting any of the faculty, and thereby certainly haftened his death. The Marquis de Villette, with whom Voltaire refided in Paris, when he perceived his victim's death approaching, fent for Monf. Bennet, Curate of St. Sulpice,to perfuade him, if poffible, to comply with the ufual cuftoms of their religion, in or der that the proper honours might be paid to his remains. The Curate began by queftioning Voltaire," if he be lieved in the divinity of Jefus Chrift," but was haftily flopped by the wit's faying, "Ah! M. le Cur, if I pafe that article to you, you will demand if I do not alfo believe in the Holy Ghoft, and fo on, until you finish by the Bull Unigenitus." The Curate departed; but in a few hours after a great change appearing he came a fecond time, and began with putting his hand on the dying man's head as he lay in bed; upon which Voltaire warfed his own hand to the curate's head, and pushed him away, faying, "I came into the world without a bonnet, and will go out, without one, therefore jet me die in peace !" He accordingly turned his back toward the curate, and died in a few minutes, without fpeaking another word, on the 30th of May. The Archbishop of Paris refufed every application that was made to him for the rites of chriftian burial. The Marquis de Villette, and Voltaire's nephew, contefted with the Archbishop fome days, and the refult was, that Voltaire fhould be taken in a coach, as if living, to his nephew's, Abbey at Sellieres, in Champagne, accompanied by himself and the Marquis, where ha |