139).] The truth is, he is growing very old; and though a piercing radiance, as of stars, bursts occasionally from the central part of him, the outworks are getting decayed and dim; obstruction more and more accumulating, and the immeasurable Night drawing nigh.

Well does Voltaire himself, at all moments, know this; and his bearing under it, one must say, is rather beautiful.

There is a tenderness, a sadness, in these his later Letters to Friedrich; instead of emphasis or strength, a beautiful shrill melody, as of a woman, as of a child; he grieves unappeasably to have lost Friedrich; never will forgive Maupertuis:--poor old man! Friedrich answers in a much livelier, more robust tone: friendly, encouraging, communicative on small matters;--full of praises,--in fact, sincerely glad to have such a transcendent genius still alive with him in this world.

Praises to the most liberal pitch everything of Voltaire's,--except only the Article on WAR, which occasionally (as below) he quizzes a little, to the Patriarch or his Disciple.
As we have room for nothing of all this, and perhaps shall not see Voltaire again,--there are Two actual Interviews with him, which, being withal by Englishmen, though otherwise not good for much, we intend for readers here.

In these last twenty years D'Alembert is Friedrich's chief Correspondent.