Ask Crebillon, the Abby de Voisenon, La Harpe, anyone you like, and they will all tell you the same thing.

Voltaire was the first to have recourse to that art in the small pieces in which his prose is truly charming.

For instance, the epistle to Madame du Chatelet, which is magnificent.

Read it, and if you find a single hemistich in it I will confess myself in the wrong." I felt some curiosity about the matter, and I asked Crebillon about it.
He told me that Fatu was right, but he added that he had never practised that art himself.
Patu wished very much to take me to the opera in order to witness the effect produced upon me by the performance, which must truly astonish an Italian.

'Les Fetes Venitiennes' was the title of the opera which was in vogue just then--a title full of interest for me.