Frederick the Great to Voltaire - 1742 March 23
To M. de Voltaire
E/
1. My dear Voltaire, I fear to write to you because I
2. have no news to send you except for the type of news
3. for which you care but very little, or such as you abhor;
4. if I were to tell you, for example, that the people of two
5. different regions of Germany came out from the depths of their
6. dwellings to be cut-throats with other people
7. whose very name they are ignorant and that they
8. sought in distant lands: why?
9. Because their master has entered into a contract
10. with another prince, and because these two wanted to murder
11. a third: you will tell me that these people are lunatics, stupid
12. and raging mad to lend themselves to the whims and
13. brutality of their master.
14. Were I to inform you that we are most carefully
15. preparing to destroy a few walls constructed
16. at great expense, that we are reaping where we
17. have not sown, and that we are masters where no one
18. is strong enough to resist us, you would exclaim, oh!
19. barbarians! oh bandits! Inhuman as you are
20. you would say, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
21. of heaven according to Saint Matthew, Chap. 12, v. 24[1].
22. Since I foresee all that you would tell me about these
23. subjects I shall not mention them to you. I shall satisfy myself
24. with informing you that a rather crazy man of whom you
25. have heard mention by the name of the king of Prussia,
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26. when being told that the provinces of his ally, the Emperor, were ruined
27. by the Queen of Hungary, flew to his aid, that he has
28. joined his forces with those of the king of Poland to
29. effect a diversion in lower Austria, and that he was so
30. successful that he shortly expects to fight against the
31. main forces of the Queen of Hungary so as to enter into the service of
32. his ally. This is generosity, you will say, this is
33. heroism. However, dear Voltaire, this picture
34. and the former are the one and the same. It is the same woman
35. first seen at night in her night-cap when she is
36. stripped of her charms, and then with her make-up,
37. her teeth, and her pompoms.
38. Under how many ways are
39. objects considered! How much do judgments
40. vary! Men condemn in the evening
41. what they approved in the morning. This same sun that
42. they liked at its dawn tires them at its setting.
43. This is the same of those reputations, established, erased, and which
44. yet recover, and we are foolish enough
45. to busy ourselves, during our whole lives, in the acquisition of fame.
46. Is it possible that we
47. will not be disabused of this counterfeit currency
48. from the time it is known?
49. I do not write to you in verse because
50. I do not have the time to measure syllables and
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51. it would be akin to entertaining a nightingale
52. by the cries of a donkey to send verses to you
53. who write them so divinely;
54. Suffer me to remind you of the
55. history of Louis 14. I threaten you with
56. excommunication from Parnassus, vengeance from
57. Tisiphone[2], and the horrible barking of Cerberus, and
58. of cruel condemnations from Ixion[3] if you do not finish
59. this book. I read it constantly, but
60. I always find myself stopped at page 226.
61. Farewell dear Voltaire, please bestow a little love
62. on the renegade of Apollo who has enlisted
63. under Bellona. He may perhaps return one day to serve
64. under his old flags.
65. I am always your admirer
66. and friend,
[Rare fF840 V935 d][4]
[1] EE, Editorial Note 1: “Or rather, I Corinthians vi.9.” (D2600)
[2] In Greek mythology, Tisiphone (avenger of murder) was one of the three Erinyes (greek: Erinues), the Greek infernal goddesses of vengeance and punishment, principally in cases of murder within the family but also of other breaches of natural order such as filial disobedience, inhospitality, and oath-breaking. For more information, see Tisiphone.
[3] In Greek mythology, Ixion, a Thessalian king and the ruler of the Lapiths (the most ancient tribe of Thessaly, in central Greece), was the first mortal to shed a kinsman's blood. Subsequently, he tried to rape Hera, Zeus’s wife. Zeus punished him by crucifying him on the four spokes of an ever-turning wheel of fire. For more information, see Ixion.
[4] This line is penciled at the bottom of page 4, below the University Library Seal. The rest of this page is blank.
