Pope.—­We cannot, I think, deny that name to the author of the “Life of Charles XII., King of Sweden.”

Boileau.—­No, certainly.  I esteem it the very best history that this age has produced.  As full of spirit as the hero whose actions it relates, it is nevertheless most exact in all matters of importance.  The style of it is elegant, perspicuous, unaffected; the disposition and method are excellent; the judgments given by the writer acute and just.

Pope.—­Are you not pleased with that philosophical freedom of thought which discovers itself in all the works of Voltaire, but more particularly in those of an historical nature?

Boileau.—­If it were properly regulated, I should reckon it among their highest perfections.  Superstition, and bigotry, and party spirit are as great enemies to the truth and candour of history as malice or adulation.  To think freely is therefore a most necessary quality in a perfect historian.  But all liberty has its bounds, which, in some of his writings, Voltaire, I fear, has not observed.  Would to Heaven he would reflect, while it is yet in his power to correct what is faulty, that all his works will outlive him; that many nations will read them; and that the judgment pronounced here upon the writer himself will be according to the scope and tendency of them, and to the extent of their good or evil effects on the great society of mankind.

Pope.—­It would be well for all Europe if some other wits of your country, who give the tone to this age in all polite literature, had the same serious thoughts you recommend to Voltaire.  Witty writings, when directed to serve the good ends of virtue and religion, are like the lights hung out in a pharos, to guide the mariners safe through dangerous seas; but the brightness of those that are impious or immoral shines only to betray and lead men to destruction.

Boileau.—­Has England been free from all seductions of this nature?

Pope.—­No.  But the French have the art of rendering vice and impiety more agreeable than the English.

Boileau.—­I am not very proud of this superiority in the talents of my countrymen.  But as I am told that the good sense of the English is now admired in France, I hope it will soon convince both nations that true wisdom is virtue, and true virtue is religion.

Pope.—­I think it also to be wished that a taste for the frivolous may not continue too prevalent among the French.  There is a great difference between gathering flowers at the foot of Parnassus and ascending the arduous heights of the mountain.  The palms and laurels grow there, and if any of your countrymen aspire to gain them, they must no longer enervate all the vigour of their minds by this habit of trifling.  I would have them be perpetual competitors with the English in manly wit and substantial learning.  But let the competition be friendly.  There is nothing which so contracts and debases the mind as national envy.  True wit, like true virtue, naturally loves its own image in whatever place it is found.