CHAP. i.i REVIEWING FOR MR. AND MRS. GRIFFITHS.
and an instalment of thirteen thousand lines appeared;* df 1757.
which certainly one line (Eripuityue Jovi.fulmen, Plicebogtie 2Et. 29.
sagittas, which the worthy cardinal had himself stolen froin
Marcus Manilius), having since suggested Franklin's epitaph
(Eripuit ccelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis)^ has a good
chance to live. To the August number of the Review, among
other matters, Goldsmith contributed a lively paper I on
those new volumes of Voltaire's Universal History -which so
delighted Walpole and Gray; but in the September number,,
where he remarks on Odes by Mr* Gray,"I. find opinions
which place in lively contrast the obscure Oliver and the
brilliant Horace. ;
Walpole called himself a whig, in compliment to his
father; but except in very rare humours he hated, while he
envied, all things popular. "I am more humbled," was his
cry, when thirsting for every kind of notoriety, "I am more
* See Grimm's Anecdotes, L 455. I may add, that, ten years after the present
date, "George Canning, of the Middle Temple, Esq," father of the statesman,
published a poor translation of the Cardinal's first three books.
t Turgot's biographer, Condorcet, quotes this line as the only Latin verse com-
posed by the great French economist; but Turgot had only " adapted " it, and from
Polignac no doubt, to place under a portrait of Franklin. The line of Manilius,
the bar from •which both wires are drawn, is that in which he speaks of Epicurus,
" Eriptutque Jovi fulmen, viresque Tonanti." Asbron. lib. v. line 104.
I In the form of a. letter to the authors of the Monthly Review (xvii. 154,
August 1757). Gray "disliked Voltaire's opinions generally, "but this," says
Mr. Nichols, " did not prevent his paying the full tribute of admiration due to
' his genius. He was delighted with his pleasantry; approved his historical
' compositions, particularly his Essai sur Vlfistoire Uhiverselle j and placed his
' tragedies next in rank to those of Shakspeare." Works, v. 32, 83. In a letter
;o Wharton (July 10, 1764) he talks of his having been reading " half-a-dozen
' new works of that inexhaustible, eternal, entertaining scribbler Voltaire, who at
' last (I fear) will go to Heaven, for to Mm entirely it is owing that the king of
' France and his council have received and set aside the decision of the parliament
' of Thoulouse in the affair of Calas . . . you see, a scribbler may be of some use in
' the world." Worlcs, iv. 35, 36. Let me add to this note that Gray's Mgh
opinion of Voltaire's tragedies is shared by one of our greatest authorities on such a
matter now living, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, whom I have often heard maintain
the marked superiority of Voltaire over all Ms countrymen in the knowledge of
dramatic art, and the power of producing theatrical effects.