ich-Voltaire Letters--liable perhaps
to be considered contraband at BOTH ends of their course--do not go by
the Post; but by French-Prussian Ministers, by Hamburg Merchants, and
other safe subterranean channels. Voltaire, with enthusiasm, and no
doubt promptly, answers within three weeks:--

TO THE CROWN-PRINCE, AT REINSBERG (from Voltaire).

"CIREY, 26th August, 1736.

"MONSEIGNEUR,--A man must be void of all feeling who were not infinitely
moved by the Letter which your Royal Highness has deigned to honor me
with. My self-love is only too much flattered by it: but my love of
Mankind, which I have always nourished in my heart, and which, I venture
to say, forms the basis of my character, has given me a very much purer
pleasure,--to see that there is, now in the world, a Prince who thinks
as a man; a PHILOSOPHER Prince, who will make men happy.

"Permit me to say, there is not a man on the earth but owes thanks for
the care you take to cultivate by sound philosophy a soul that is born
for command. Good kings there never were except those that had begun by
seeking to instruct themselves; by knowing-good men from bad; by loving
what was true, by detesting persecution and superstition. No Prince,
persisting in such thoughts, but might bring back the golden age into
his Countries! And why do so few Princes seek this glory? You feel it,
Monseigneur, it is because they all think more of their Royalty than of
Mankind. Precisely the reverse is your case:--and, unless, one day,
the tumult of business and the wickedness of men alter so divine a
character, you will be worshipped by your People, and loved by the whole
world. Philosophers, worthy of the name, will flock to your States;
thinkers will crowd round that throne, as the skilfulest artisans do to
the city where their art is in request. The illustrious Queen Christina
quitted her kingdom to go in search of the Arts; reign you, Monseigneur,
and the Arts will come to seek you.

"May you only never be disgusted with the Sciences by the quarrels of
their Cultivators! A race of men no better than Courtiers; often
enough as greedy, intriguing, false and cruel as these," and still more
ridiculous in the mischief they do. "And how sad for mankind that the
very Interpreters of Heaven's commandments, the Theologians, I mean,
are sometimes the most dangerous of all! Professed messengers of the
Divinity, yet men sometimes of obscure ideas and pernicious behavior;
their soul blown