Answer again Anchises began with a gathering tear :- VOLTAIRE. VOLTAIRE, FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE, a celebrated French wit, historian, and general writer; born at Paris, November 21, 1694; died there, May 30, 1778. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Louis le Grand, and being introduced into the gay, witty, and licentious society of Paris, soon made himself famous by his biting satires. One of these, written at twenty-one, entitled "I Have Seen," excited the anger of the Regent, the Duke of Orléans. Two days later Voltaire was shut up in the Bastile, where he remained eleven months, and wrote the first part of his epic poem, "The Henriade." Soon after being released from the Bastile François Arouet took the name of Voltaire, from a small estate belonging to the family. The tragedy "Edipe," which he had written in the Bastile, was produced, and was soon followed by the tragedies "Artémise" and "Marianne," the comedy "L'Indiscret," a continuation of "The Henriade," and numerous small poems. In 1726 he went to England, where he remained three years. Here he finished "The Henriade," which was published in London, under royal patronage, and in 1729 was permitted to return to France. Before three years had passed he published the commencement of his "History of Charles XII. of Sweden," produced the tragedies of "Brutus," "Eriphyle," "The Death of Cæsar," and "Zaire." But he soon fell into disfavor by the publication of his "Lettres Philosophiques sur les Anglais." The Sorbonne directed the book to be burned, and the Parlément of Paris ordered the arrest of the author. Voltaire took refuge in one place and another; sometimes in a French province, sometimes in Switzerland, Holland, or Lorraine. He wrote numerous works during these years, notable among which are the tragedies of "Alzire," "Mérope," and "Mahomet," and the series of essays on the "Philosophy of History "the best of all his prose works. He made innumerable enemies in every quarter. In 1746 he barely succeeded in his candidature for membership in the French Academy; in 1750 he offered himself for the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Inscriptions, and was rejected by both. He went to Berlin in 1750-he being then approaching threescore, his residence there continuing nearly four years. Voltaire lived a quarter of a century after this Prussian episode, finally taking up his residence at Ferney, on the lake of Geneva in Switzerland. He left Paris in 1750, and never saw it again until 1778. He arrived at Paris on February 10th. Never had a great writer received such an ovation as awaited him. He died on May 30th. His last appearance in public was at the representation of his own tragedy of "Irene." The standard Life of Voltaire is that by Gustave Desnoiresterres (1887). THE IRREPRESSIBLE KING. (From the "History of Charles XII., King of Sweden.") To complete the misfortunes of Sweden, her King persisted in remaining at Demotica, and still lived on the hope of aid from Turkey which he was never to receive. Ibrahim-Molla, the haughty vizier who decreed the war against the Muscovites, against the wish of the Sultan's favorite, was suffocated between two doors. The place of vizier had become so dangerous that no one dared fill it; it remained vacant for six months: at last the favorite, Ali Coumourgi, took the title. Then all the hopes of the King of Sweden were dashed he knew Coumourgi the better because that schemer had served him when their interests accorded with his own. He had been eleven months at Demotica, buried in idleness and neglect; this extreme inertia, following the most violent exertions, had at last given him the malady that he feigned. All Europe believed him dead; the council of regency at Stockholm heard no news of him. The senate came in a body to entreat his sister, Princess Ulrica Eleonora, to assume the regency during his prolonged absence. She accepted it; but when she saw that the senate would constrain her to make peace with the Czar Peter the Great, and with the King of Denmark, who were attacking Sweden on all sides, she, rightly thinking that her brother would never consent, resigned her office, and sent to Turkey a detailed account of the affair. The King received the packet from his sister at Demotica. His inborn spirit of despotism made him forget that formerly Sweden had been free, and that the senate had governed the realm conjointly with the kings. He regarded this body as a troop of servants who aspired to rule the house in their master's absence; and wrote them that if they pretended to govern, he would send them one of his boots to convey his orders! To forestall therefore these supposed attempts to defy his authority in Sweden, and to defend his country, -as he hoped nothing further from the Ottoman Porte, and could count only on himself, he informed the grand vizier that he wished to depart, and to return home by way of Germany. M. Désaleurs, the French ambassador, who had taken the affairs of Sweden in hand, made the request in his own person. "Very good," said the vizier to Count Désaleurs: "did I not rightly say that before the year was out, the King of Sweden would ask leave to depart? Tell him to go or stay, as he chooses; but let him come to a decision, and fix the day of his departure, lest he plunge us a second time into the embarrassment he caused us at Bender." Count Désaleurs softened this harsh message to the King. The day was set; but Charles wished, before leaving Turkey, to display the pomp of a great king, although he lived in the squalor of a fugitive. He gave to Grothusen the title of ambassador extraordinary, and sent him to take leave in due form at Constantinople, followed by eighty persons all superbly attired. The secret springs which he touched to obtain the money for this outlay were more humiliating than the embassy was magnificent. Count Désaleurs lent the King forty thousand pieces; Grothusen had agents in Constantinople, who borrowed of a Jew at fifty per cent interest a thousand pieces, a hundred thousand pieces of an English merchant, a thousand francs of a Turk. Thus were brought together the means of playing before the divan the brilliant comedy of the Swedish embassy. Grothusen received all the honors that the Porte is wont to show ambassadors extraordinary on their day of audience. The purpose of all this performance was to obtain money from the grand vizier; but that minister was inexorable. Grothusen proposed to borrow a million from the Porte: the vizier answered dryly that his master knew how to give when he pleased, and that it was beneath his dignity to lend; that the King would be abundantly furnished with whatever was necessary for his journey, in a manner worthy of the giver; perhaps the Porte would even make him some present in uncoined gold, but he must not count upon it. At last, on the 1st of October, 1714, the King of Sweden started on his journey: a grand chamberlain with six Turkish officers came to escort him from the castle of Demirtash, where he had passed several days; he was presented in the name of the Sultan with a large tent of scarlet embroidered in gold, a sabre with precious stones set in the hilt, and eight perfect Arab steeds, with superb saddles and spurs of massive silver. Let history condescend to observe that the Arab groom in charge related their genealogy to the King: this is a long-established custom with these people, who seem to pay far more attention to the high breeding of horses than of men; and perhaps not altogether without reason, since animals that receive care and are without mixture never degenerate. Sixty chariots filled with all sorts of provisions, and three hundred horses, formed the procession. The Turks, to show greater regard for their guest, made him advance by brief stages; but this respectful rate of speed exasperated the King. He rose during the journey at three o'clock in the morning, according to his custom; as soon as he was dressed he himself awoke the chamberlain and the officers, and ordered the march resumed in complete darkness. Turkish conventionality was disturbed by this new way of travelling; but the King enjoyed the discomfort of the Turks, and said that he was avenging in a measure the affair of Bender. Arrived on the borders of Germany, the King of Sweden learned that the Emperor had ordered him to be received with suitable magnificence in all lands under his authority; the towns and villages where the sergeants had marked out his route in advance made preparations to receive him. All these people looked forward with impatience to seeing the extraordinary man whose victories and misfortunes, whose least actions and very repose, had made such a stir in Europe and in Asia. But Charles had no wish to wade through all this pomp, nor to furnish a spectacle as the prisoner of Bender; he had even determined never to re-enter Stockholm without bringing better fortunes. "I have left," he remarked to his intimates, "my dressing-gown and slippers at Stockholm; I wish to buy no others till I return there." When he reached Tergowitz on the Transylvanian frontier, after bidding farewell to his Turkish escort he assembled his suite in a barn; and told them all to take no trouble for his person, but to make their way to Stralsund in Pomerania, on the Baltic Sea, about three hundred leagues from the place where they were. He took with him only Düring, and gayly left all his suite plunged in astonishment, terror, and sadness. He used a black perruque for a disguise, as he always wore his own hair, put on |