à Bruxelles rue de la Grosse tour, ce 2 mars n. s. 1740

Dear s^r,

J take the liberty to send you my old follies having no wise things to present you with.
J am now at Bruxelles with the same lady Duchastelet who hinder'd me some years ago from paying a visit to you at Constantinople and whom j shall live with in all probability the greatest part of my life, since these ten years j have not departed from her. She is now at the trouble of a Damn'd suit in law that she pursues at Bruxelles. We have abandonn'd the most agreable retirement in the country, to bawl here in the grotte of the flemish chicane; the high dutch baron who takes upon himself to present you with this packet of french reveries, is one of the noble players whom the emperor sends into Turquy to represent the majesty of the Roman empire before the highness of the musulman power. J am persuaded you are become nowadais a perfect turk; you speak their language very well, and you keep to be sure a pretty harem. Yet j am affraid you want two provisions which j think necessary, to make that nauseous draught of life go down, j mean books, and friends. Should you be happy enough to have met at Pera, with men whose conversation agrees with y^r way of thinking? If so, you want for nothing, for you enjoy health, honours, and fortune. Healt, and places j have not, j regret the former, j am satisfied without the other. As to fortune j enjoy a very competent one, and j have a friend besides. Thus j compt my self happy, tho j am as sickly as you saw me at Wandsworth.

J hope jll return to Paris with my lady Duchastelet, in two years time. If about that season you return to y^r dear England by the way of Paris, j hope jll have the pleasure to see y^r dear excellency at her house which is without doubt the finest of Paris, and situated in a position worthy of Constantinople; for, it looks upon the river; and a long tract of lands interspers'd with pretty houses is to be seen from every window. Upon my word j would with all that, prefer the visto of the sea of Marmara before that of the Seine, and j would pass some months at Constantinople with you, if j could live without that Lady; whom j look as a great man, and as a most solid and respectable friend. She understands Newton, she despises superstition, in short she makes me happy. J have receiv'd this week two summons from a frenchman who intends to travel to Constantinople, he would fain intice me to that pleasant journey. But since, you could not, no body can. Farewell my dear friend! whom j will love and honour all my life's time, farewell. Tell me whow you fare, tell me you are happy. J am so if you continue to be so.

Y^r for ever

Voltaire