Pope.—­I am much of your mind.  But I left in England some poets whom you, I know, will admire, not only for the harmony and correctness of style, but the spirit and genius you will find in their writings.

Boileau.—­France, too, has produced some very excellent writers since the time of my death.  Of one particularly I hear wonders.  Fame to him is as kind as if he had been dead a thousand years.  She brings his praises to me from all parts of Europe.  You know I speak of Voltaire.

Pope.—­I do; the English nation yields to none in admiration of his extensive genius.  Other writers excel in some one particular branch of wit or science; but when the King of Prussia drew Voltaire from Paris to Berlin, he had a whole academy of belles lettres in him alone.

Boileau.—­That prince himself has such talents for poetry as no other monarch in any age or country has ever possessed.  What an astonishing compass must there be in his mind, what an heroic tranquillity and firmness in his heart, that he can, in the evening, compose an ode or epistle in the most elegant verse, and the next morning fight a battle with the conduct of Caesar or Gustavus Adolphus!

Pope.—­I envy Voltaire so noble a subject both for his verse and his prose.  But if that prince will write his own commentaries, he will want no historian.  I hope that, in writing them, he will not restrain his pen, as Caesar has done, to a mere account of his wars, but let us see the politician, and the benignant protector of arts and sciences, as well as the warrior, in that picture of himself.  Voltaire has shown us that the events of battles and sieges are not the most interesting parts of good history, but that all the improvements and embellishments of human society ought to be carefully and particularly recorded there.

Boileau.—­The progress of arts and knowledge, and the great changes that have happened in the manners of mankind, are objects far more worthy of a leader’s attention than the revolutions of fortune.  And it is chiefly to Voltaire that we owe this instructive species of history.

Pope.—­He has not only been the father of it among the moderns, but has carried it himself to its utmost perfection.

Boileau.—­Is he not too universal?  Can any writer be exact who is so comprehensive?

Pope.—­A traveller round the world cannot inspect every region with such an accurate care as exactly to describe each single part.  If the outlines are well marked, and the observations on the principal points are judicious, it is all that can be required.

Boileau.—­I would, however, advise and exhort the French and English youth to take a fuller survey of some particular provinces, and to remember that although, in travels of this sort, a lively imagination is a very agreeable companion, it is not the best guide.  To speak without a metaphor, the study of history, both sacred and profane, requires a critical and laborious investigation.  The composer of a set of lively and witty remarks on facts ill-examined, or incorrectly delivered, is not an historian.