à Paris 17 may 1750 n. st.

You was beneficent to m^r Thompson, when he Liv'd, and you is so to me in favouring me with his works.
J was acquainted with the author when j stay'd in England. J discovered in him a great genius and a great simplicity, j lik'd in him the poet and the true philosofer, j mean the Lover of mankind. J think that without a good stock of such a philosofy a poet is just above a fidler, who amuses our ears and can not go to our soul.

J am not surpris'd y^r nation has done more justice to m^r Thompson's Seasons than to his dramatic performances. There is one kind of poetry of which the judicious readers and the men of taste are the proper judges. There is an other that depends upon the vulgar, great or small. Tragedy and comedy are of these last species. They must be suited to the turn of mind and to the ability of the multitude and proportion'd to their taste. Y^r nation, two hundred years since, is us'd to a wild scene, to a croud of tumultuous events, to an emphatical poetry mix'd with low and comical expressions, to murthers, to a lively representation of bloody deeds, to a kind of horrour which seems often barbarous and childish, all faults which never sullyd the greak, the roman or the french stage. And give me leave to say that the taste of y^r politest countrymen in point of tragedy differs not much in point of tragedy from the taste of the mob a bear garden. T'is true we have too much of words, if you have too much of action, and perhaps the perfection of the Art should consist in a due mixture of the french taste and english energy. M^r Adisson, who would have reach'd to that pitch of perfection had he succeeded in the amourous part of his tragedy as well as in the part of Cato, warn'd often y^r nation against the corrupted taste of the stage and since he could not reform the genius of the country, j am affraid the contagious distemper is past curing.

M^r Thompson's tragedies seems to me wisely intricated, and elegantly writ. They want perhaps some fire; and it may be that his heroes are neither moving nor busy enough. But taking him all in all, methinks he has the highest claim to the greatest esteem. Y^r friendship sir js a good wouschafer for his merit. J know what reputation you have acquir'd. If j am not mistaken, you have writ for y^r own sport many a thing that could raise a great fame to one who had in view that vain reward call'd glory. J have by some verses that pass under y^r name and which you are suppos'd to have writ in a journey to Paris. They reflect very justly on our nation and they run thus:

These verse deserve a good translator, and they should be learn'd by every french-man.

Give me leave to send you a little performance of mine. T'is but a pebble j do offer to you for y^r pretious stones.

J am with the highest respect

s^r

y^r most humble obed. servant

Voltaire