North, 1736-1737 (to prove the Earth flattened there). Vivid
Narrative; somewhat gesticulative, but duly brief. The only Book of
that great Maupertuis which is now readable to human nature.] M. de
Maupertuis, home from the Polar regions and from measuring the Earth
there; the sublimest miracle in Paris society at present. Might build,
new-build, an ACADEMY OF SCIENCES at Berlin for your Royal Highness,
one day? suggests Voltaire, on this occasion: and Friedrich, as we shall
see, takes the hint. One passage of the Crown-Prince's Answer is in
these terms;--fixing this Loo visit to its date for us, at any rate:--

"LOO IN HOLLAND, 6th AUGUST, 1739.... I write from a place where there
lived once a great man [William III. of England, our Dutch William];
which is now the Prince of Orange's House. The demon of Ambition sheds
its unhappy poisons over his days. He might be the most fortunate of
men; and he is devoured by chagrins in his beautiful Palace here, in the
middle of his gardens and of a brilliant Court. It is pity in truth;
for he is a Prince with no end of wit (INFINIMENT D'ESPRIT), and has
respectable qualites." Not Stadtholder, unluckily; that is where the
shoe pinches; the Dutch are on the Republican tack, and will not have
a Stadtholder at present. No help for it in one's beautiful gardens and
avenues of oak and linden.

"I have talked a great deal about Newton with the Princess,"--about
Newton; never hinted at Amelia; not permissible!--"from Newton we passed
to Leibnitz; and from Leibnitz to the Late Queen of England," Caroline
lately gone, "who, the Prince told me, was of Clarke's sentiment" on
that important theological controversy now dead to mankind.--And of
Jenkins and his Ear did the Princess say nothing? That is now becoming a
high phenomenon in England! But readers must wait a little.

Pity that we cannot give these two Letters in full; that no reader,
almost, could be made to understand them, or to care for them when
understood. Such the cruelty of Time upon this Voltaire-Friedrich
Correspondence, and some others; which were once so rosy, sunny, and are
now fallen drearily extinct,--studiable by Editors only! In itself
the Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence, we can see, was charming; very
blossomy at present: businesses increasing; mutual admiration now risen
to a great height,--admiration sincere on both sides, most so on
the Prince's, and extravagantly expressed on both sides, most so on
Voltaire's.