Lunéville, at the court of Lorraine 5 no^bre n. s. [1748]

Dear s^r,

Y^r letter has afforded me the most sensible satisfaction.
For, when my friendship to you began, t'was a bargain for life. Time that alters all things, and chiefly my poor tattered body, has not altered my sentiments. You acquaint me you are a husband and a father, and j hope you are an happy one. It behoves a secretary to a great general, to marry a great officers's daughter and really j am transported with joy to see the blood of Marlborough mix'd with that of my dearest Fawkenear. J do present y^r lady with my most humble respects, and j kiss y^r child. You are a lusty husband; and j a weak batchelor as such unhealthy as you saw me, but some twenty years older. Yet j have a kind of conformity with you; for if you are attach'd to a hero, so j am in the retinue of another; tho not so intimately as you are; my King has appointed me one of the ordinary gentlemen of his chamber. Y^r post is more profitable. Yet j am satisfied with mine, because if it gives not a great income, it leaves me at my full liberty, which j prefer to Kings. The King of Prussia would once give me one thousand pounds s^terl per annum to live at his court; and j dit not accept of the bargain, because the court of a King is not comparable to the house of friend. I live these twenty years since whith the same friends, and you know what pouver friendship gets over a tender soul and over a philosophical one. I find a great delight in opening my heart to you, and in giving thus you an account of my conduct. I'll tell you that being appointed too historiografer of France j do write the history of the late fatal war which did much harm to all the parties, and did good only to the King of Prussia. J wish j could shouv you what j have writ upon that subject. J hope j have done justice to the great duke of Cumberland. My history shall not be the work of a courtier, not that of a partial man; but that of a lover of mankind.

As to the tragedy of Semiramis j'll send it you whithin a month or two. J'll remember alluvais with great pleasure j dedicated to you the tender tragedy of Zaïre. This Semiramis is quite of an'other kind. J have try'd, tho it was a hard task, to change our french petitsmaitres into athenian hearers. The transformation is not quite perform'd; but the piece has met with great applause. It has the fate of moral books that please many, without mending any body.

J am now my dear friend at the court of king Stanislas, where j have pass'd some months with all the ease and cheerfulness that j enjoy'd once at Wands-worth; for you must know that king Stanislas is a kind of Fawkenear. He is indeed the best man living, but for fear you should take me for a wanderer of courts, and a vagabond courtier, j'll tell you j am here, with the very friend whom j never parted from for these twenty years past. The lady du Chastellet, who comments Newton, and is now about printing a french translation of it, is the friend j mean.

J have at Paris some ennemies such as Pope had at London, and j despise them as he did. In short, j live as happy as my condition can permit.

J return you a thousand thanks my dearest and worthy friend. J wish you all the happiness you deserve, and j'll be y^rs for ever.

Voltaire