s acute and flexible logic
could support, with equal address, and perhaps with equal indifference,
the adverse sides of every possible question. His spirit was active,
but his pen had been indolent. Mr. Allamand had exposed himself to much
scandal and reproach, by an anonymous letter (1745) to the Protestants
of France; in which he labours to persuade them that public worship
is the exclusive right and duty of the state, and that their numerous
assemblies of dissenters and rebels were not authorized by the law or
the gospel. His style is animated, his arguments specious; and if the
papist may seem to lurk under the mask of a protestant, the philosopher
is concealed under the disguise of a papist. After some trials in France
and Holland, which were defeated by his fortune or his character, a
genius that might have enlightened or deluded the world, was buried in
a country living, unknown to fame, and discontented with mankind.
Est sacrificulus in pago, et rusticos decipit. As often as private or
ecclesiastical business called him to Lausanne, I enjoyed the pleasure
and benefit of his conversation, and we were mutually flattered by our
attention to each other. Our correspondence, in his absence, chiefly
turned on Locke's metaphysics, which he attacked, and I defended;
the origin of ideas, the principles of evidence, and the doctrine of
liberty;

And found no end, in wandering mazes lost.

By fencing with so skilful a master, I acquired some dexterity in the
use of my philosophic weapons; but I was still the slave of education
and prejudice. He had some measures to keep; and I much suspect that he
never showed me the true colours of his secret scepticism.

Before I was recalled from Switzerland, I had the satisfaction of
seeing the most extraordinary man of the age; a poet, an historian, a
philosopher, who has filled thirty quartos, of prose and verse, with his
various productions, often excellent, and always entertaining. Need I
add the name of Voltaire? After forfeiting, by his own misconduct, the
friendship of the first of kings, he retired, at the age of sixty, with
a plentiful fortune, to a free and beautiful country, and resided two
winters (1757 and 1758) in the town or neighbourhood of Lausanne.
My desire of beholding Voltaire, whom I then rated above his real
magnitude, was easily gratified. He received me with civility as an
English youth; but I cannot boast of any peculiar notice or distinction,
Virg