LONDON,April 73,O.S.1752
MY DEAR FRIEND:I receive this moment your letter of the 19th,N.S.,with the inclosed pieces relative to the present dispute between the King and the parliament.I shall return them by Lord Huntingdon,whom you will soon see at Paris,and who will likewise carry you the piece,which I forgot in making up the packet I sent you by the Spanish Ambassador.The representation of the parliament is very well drawn,'suaviter in modo,fortiter in re'.They tell the King very respectfully,that,in a certain case,WHICH THEY SHOULD THINK ITCRIMINAL To SUPPOSE,they would not obey him.This hath a tendency to what we call here revolution principles.I do not know what the Lord's anointed,his vicegerent upon earth,divinely appointed by him,and accountable to none but him for his actions,will either think or do,upon these symptoms of reason and good sense,which seem to be breaking out all over France:but this I foresee,that,before the end of this century,the trade of both king and priest will not be half so good a one as it has been.Du Clos,in his "Reflections,"hath observed,and very truly,'qu'il y a un germe de raison qui commence a se developper en France';--a developpement that must prove fatal to Regal and Papal pretensions.Prudence may,in many cases,recommend an occasional submission to either;but when that ignorance,upon which an implicit faith in both could only be founded,is once removed,God's Vicegerent,and Christ's Vicar,will only be obeyed and believed,as far as what the one orders,and the other says,is conformable to reason and to truth.
I am very glad (to use a vulgar expression)that You MAKE AS IF YOU WERENOT WELL,though you really are;I am sure it is the likeliest way to keep so.Pray leave off entirely your greasy,heavy pastry,fat creams,and indigestible dumplings ;and then you need not confine yourself to white meats,which I do not take to be one jot wholesomer than beef,mutton,and partridge.
Voltaire sent me,from Berlin,his 'History du Siecle de Louis XIV.It came at a very proper time;Lord Bolingbroke had just taught me how history should be read;Voltaire shows me how it should be written.
I am sensible that it will meet with almost as many critics as readers.
Voltaire must be criticised;besides,every man's favorite is attacked:
for every prejudice is exposed,and our prejudices are our mistresses;reason is at best our wife,very often heard indeed,but seldom minded.
It is the history of the human understanding,written by a man of parts,for the use of men of parts.Weak minds will not like it,even though they do not understand it;which is commonly the measure of their admiration.Dull ones will want those minute and uninteresting details with which most other histories are encumbered.He tells me all I want to know,and nothing more.His reflections are short,just,and produce others in his readers.Free from religious,philosophical,political and national prejudices,beyond any historian I ever met with,he relates all those matters as truly and as impartially,as certain regards,which must always be to some degree observed,will allow him;for one sees plainly that he often says much less than he would say,if he might.He hath made me much better acquainted with the times of Lewis XIV.,than the innumerable volumes which I had read could do;and hath suggested this reflection to me,which I have never made before--His vanity,not his knowledge,made him encourage all,and introduce many arts and sciences in his country.He opened in a manner the human understanding in France,and brought it to its utmost perfection;his age equalled in all,and greatly exceeded in many things (pardon me,Pedants!)the Augustan.This was great and rapid;but still it might be done,by the encouragement,the applause,and the rewards of a vain,liberal,and magnificent prince.
