Nothing, except in the mutual admiration, which one perceives to be sincere on both sides; and also, in the mutual practical estrangement: "Nothing more of you,--especially of YOU, Madam,--as a practical domestic article!" After long reading, with Historical views, in this final section of the Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence, at first so barren otherwise and of little entertainment, one finds that this too, when once you CAN "read" it (that is to say, when the scene and its details are visible to you), becomes highly dramatic, Shakspearean-comic or more, for this is Nature's self, who far excels even Shakspeare;--and that the inextricably dark condition of these Letters is a real loss to the ingenuous reader, and especially to the student of Friedrich.

Among the frequently recurring topics, one that oftenest turns up on Voltaire's side is that of Peace: Oh, if your Majesty would but make Peace! Does it depend on me?
thinks Friedrich always; and is, at last, once provoked to say so:-- FRIEDRICH TO VOLTAIRE.
"REICH-HENNERSDORF, 2d July, 1759, [shortly before Schmottseifen, while waiting Daun's slow movements].
"Asking ME for Peace: there is a bitter joke!--[In verse, this; flings off a handful of crackers on the BIEN-AIME, whose Chamberlain you are, on the HONGROISE QUI'IL ADORE, on the Russian QUE J'ABHORRE;--then continues in prose]: "It is to him," the Well-beloved Louis, "that you must address yourself, or to his Amboise in Petticoats [his Pompadour, acting the Cardinal-Premier on this occasion].

But these people have their heads filled with ambitious projects: these people are the difficulty; they wish to be the sovereign arbiters of sovereigns;--and that is what persons of my way of thinking will by no means put up with.

I love Peace quite as much as you could wish; but I want it good, solid and honorable.

Socrates or Plato would have thought as I do on this subject, had they found themselves placed in the accursed position which is now mine in the world.
"Think you there is any pleasure in leading this dog of a life [CHIENNE, she-dog]?
In seeing and causing the butchery of people you know nothing of; in losing daily those you do know and love; in seeing perpetually your reputation exposed to the caprices of chance; in passing year after year in disquietudes and apprehensions; in risking, without end, your life and your fortune?
"I know right well the value of tranquillity, the sweets of society, the charms of life; and I love to be happy, as much as anybody whatever.