aux Délices 16 janvier 1760 n. s.

You are not dear s^r like most of y^r countrymen who forget their friendships contracted in terra so soon as they are pent up in their island.
You remember me. J am indeed y^r friend, since you are a man without prejudices, a man of every country. Had j not fix'd the seat of my retreat in the free corner of Geneva, j would certainly live in the free Kingdom of England, for tho j do not like the monstruous irregularities of Shakespear, tho j admire but some lively and masterly strokes in his performances, yet j am confident no body in the world looks with a greater veneration on y^r good philosophers, on the croud of y^r good authors, and j am these thirty years the disciple of y^r way of thinking. Y^r nation is at once a people of warriours and of philosophers. You are now at the pitch of glory, in regard to pùblick affairs; but j know not wether you have preserv'd the reputation y^r island enjoyd in point of litterature when Adisson, Congreve, Pope, Suift were alive. However you kan not be so low as we are. Poor France at the present time has neither navy nor money, nor plate, nor fame, nor wit. We are at the ebb of all.

J have read the life of mad^e de Pompadour printed at London. Indeed s^r t'is a scurrilous book. J assure you there is not one page of truth.

Pray, in case some good book appears in to y^r world, let me be inform'd of it.

Adieu mon cher jeune philosophe, je compte sur votre souvenir et je vous aimerai toujours.

Y^r for ever

Voltaire