ld, LETTERS; Voltaire, Vie Privee.] Very sprightly indeed: and a
fund of good sense, a basis of practicality and fact, necessary to be
in it withal; though otherwise it can foam over (if some La Mettrie be
there, and a good deal of wine in him) to very great heights.

A DEMON NEWSWRITER GIVES AN "IDEA" OF FRIEDRICH; INTELLIGIBLE TO THE
KNOWING CLASSES IN ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE.

Practically, I can add only, That these Suppers of the gods begin
commonly at half-past eight ("Concert just over"); and last till towards
midnight,--not later conveniently, as the King must be up at five (in
Summer-time at four), and "needs between five and six hours of sleep."
Or would the reader care to consult a Piece expressly treating on all
these points; kind of MANUSCRIPT NEWSPAPER, fallen into my hands,
which seems to have had a widish circulation in its day. ["IDEE DE LA
PERSONNE, DE LA MANIERE DE VIVRE, ET DE LA COUR DU ROI DE PRUSSE: juin,
1752." In the--Robinson Papers--(one Copy) now in the British Museum.]
I have met with Two Copies of it, in this Country: one of them, to
appearance, once the property of George Selwyn. The other is among the
Robinson Papers: doubtless very luculent to Robinson, who is now home
in England, but remembers many a thing. Judging from various symptoms,
I could guess this MS. to have been much about, in the English
Aristocratic Circles of that time; and to have, in some measure, given
said Circles their "Idea" (as they were pleased to reckon it) of that
wonderful and questionable King:--highly distracted "Idea;" which, in
diluted form, is still the staple English one.

By the label, DEMON NEWSWRITER, it is not meant that the Author of
this poor Paper was an actual Devil, or infernal Spiritual Essence of
miraculous spectral nature. By no means! Beyond doubt, he is some poor
Frenchman, more or less definable as flesh-and-blood; gesturing about,
visibly, at Berlin in 1752; in cocked-hat and bright shoe-buckles;
grinning elaborate salutations to certain of his fellow-creatures there.
Possibly some hungry ATTACHE of Milord Tyrconnel's Legation; fatally
shut out from the beatitudes of this barbarous Court, and willing to
seek solacement, and turn a dishonest penny, in the PER-CONTRA course?
Who he is, we need not know or care: too evident, he has the sad quality
of transmuting, in his dirty organs, heavenly Brilliancy, more or less,
into infernal Darkness and Hatefulness; which I reckon to have been, at