No notice of Montesquieu; nor of some others, the absence of whom is a little unexpected.

Probably it was want of knowledge mainly; for his appetite was not fastidious at this time.

And certainly he did hit the centre of the mark, and get into the very kernel of French literature, when, in 1736, hardly yet established in his new quarters, he addressed himself to the shining figure known to us as "Arouet Junior" long since, and now called M.DE VOLTAIRE; which latter is still a name notable in Friedrich's History and that of Mankind.

Friedrich's first Letter, challenging Voltaire to correspondence, dates itself 8th August, 1736; and Voltaire's Answer--the Reinsberg Household still only in its second month--was probably the brightest event which had yet befallen there.
On various accounts it will behoove us to look a good deal more strictly into this Voltaire; and, as his relations to Friedrich and to the world are so multiplex, endeavor to disengage the real likeness of the man from the circumambient noise and confusion which in his instance continue very great.

"Voltaire was the spiritual complement of Friedrich," says Sauerteig once: "what little of lasting their poor Century produced lies mainly in these Two.