his lifetime, has approached nearest to this
extent of popularity. Sovereigns courted and corresponded with him; his
own countrymen were enthusiastic in his praise; and so general was a
knowledge of the French language, that a large majority of the
well-educated throughout Europe, were familiar with his writings. But
much of this popularity was the popularity of partisanship. He served a
cause, and for such service, and not alone as the meed of genius, were
honours lavished upon him. The people of France, by whom he was almost
deified in his latter years, regarded him less as the literary marvel of
their land, than as the man once persecuted by despotism, and the ablest
assailant of those institutions which they were endeavouring to
undermine. But Voltaire, with all his popularity, has left impressed on
literature scarcely any distinguishable traces of his power. He
exhibited no marked originality of style--he founded no school--and as
for his imitators, where are they? To justify the admiration he excited,
one must consider not merely how well, but how much and how variously he
has written. With the exception of Voltaire, and perhaps of Lord Byron,
there is scarcely a writer whose popularity, while he lived, passed
beyond the precincts of his own country. This, until latterly, was
scarcely possible. Till near the middle of the eighteenth century, what
had been long called the "Republic of Letters" existed only in name. It
is not truly applicable but to the present period, when the transmission
of knowledge is rapid and easy, and no work of unquestionable genius can
excite much interest in any country, without the vibration being quickly
felt to the uttermost limits of the civilized world. How little this was
previously the case is evident from the fact, that numerous and
important as were the political relations of England with the continent,
and successfully as we had attended to the cultivation of letters, yet
it is scarcely more than a hundred years since we were first known on
the continent to have what might deserve to be called "a Literature."
Shakspeare, Dryden, and Pope, successively enjoyed in their own country
the highest popularity as writers. Of these, it may reasonably be
doubted whether the name of the first had been ever heard out of it. We
can find no evidence which shows that the second had a wider fame. Pope
was indeed better known; for literature had been made conspicuous
through honours paid to it by