possessed the lost art of talking to women as women love to be talked to. A portrait painted by Largillière when Voltaire was about twenty-four, shows him, says his eulogist Houssaye, "full of grace and spirit, with a mocking mouth, refined profile, the air of a gentleman, a luminous forehead, a fine hand in a fine ruffle." The print in the quarto edition of his works, from a later portrait, confirms this description: there is extraordinary spirit and animation in the eyes and semi-cynical yet bright and good-humoured smile. His rather tall figure was uncommonly thin. The Duchess of Berry called him "that wicked mummy;" but then the Duchess had reasons for taking an unfriendly view of him. But despite his meagreness, no young man of that day was so qualified to give what was specially demanded by the society of the salons. The social success of the notary's son was remarkable. "We are all princes and poets here," he observed one day at table; yet amid such enjoyments and distractions he found time for the acquisition of uncommonly varied knowledge, and for planning works which made him famous.
The pieces of verse which he wrote at this time are all distinguished by his peculiar grace, and are still read with pleasure. He addresses one of these epistles to the Comtesse de Fontaine; another to Madame de Montbrun-Villefranche; another to the Duc de la Feuillade, so dreadfully caustic that he can hardly be supposed to have confided it to that nobleman, especially as we afterwards find the satirist a visitor at his chateau. Prince Eugene, George I., and Cardinal Dubois are all, at this time, the objects of his poetical addresses. What is very notable is the number and the character of the
