Haller had written to Frederick the Great that a monarch who succeeded in the unhappy enterprise of proscribing the language of Cicero and Virgil from the republic of letters would raise a deathless monument to his own ignorance.  If men of letters require a universal language to communicate with one another, Latin is certainly the best, for Greek and Arabic do not adapt themselves in the same way to the genius of modern civilization.

Haller was a good poet of the Pindaric kind; he was also an excellent statesman, and had rendered great services to his country.  His morals were irreproachable, and I remember his telling me that the only way to give precepts was to do so by example.  As a good citizen he was an admirable paterfamilias, for what greater proof could he give of his love of country than by presenting it with worthy subjects in his children, and such subjects result from a good education.  His wife was still young, and bore on her features the marks of good nature and discretion.  He had a charming daughter of about eighteen; her appearance was modest, and at table she only opened her mouth to speak in a low tone to a young man who sat beside her.  After dinner, finding myself alone with M. Haller, I asked him who this young man was.  He told me he was his daughter’s tutor.

“A tutor like that and so pretty a pupil might easily become lovers.”

“Yes, please God.”

This Socratic reply made me see how misplaced my remark had been, and I felt some confusion.  Finding a book to my hand I opened it to restore my composure.

It was an octavo volume of his works, and I read in it: 

“Utrum memoria post mortem dubito.”

“You do not think, then,” said I, “that the memory is an essential part of the soul?”

“How is that question to be answered?” M. de Haller replied, cautiously, as he had his reasons for being considered orthodox.

During dinner I asked if M. de Voltaire came often to see him.  By way of reply he repeated these lines of the poet:—­

“Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum vulgarit arcanum sub usdem sit trabibus.”

I spent three days with this celebrated man, but I thought myself obliged to refrain from asking his opinion on any religious questions, although I had a great desire to do so, as it would have pleased me to have had his opinion on that delicate subject; but I believe that in matters of that kind M. Haller judged only by his heart.  I told him, however, that I should consider a visit to Voltaire as a great event, and he said I was right.  He added, without the slightest bitterness,

“M. de Voltaire is a man who ought to be known, although, in spite of the laws of nature, many persons have found him greater at a distance than close at hand.”

M. de Haller kept a good and abundant though plain table; he only drank water.  At dessert only he allowed himself a small glass of liqueur drowned in an enormous glass of water.  He talked a great deal of Boerhaave, whose favourite pupil he had been.  He said that after Hypocrates, Boerhaave was the greatest doctor and the greatest chemist that had ever existed.