[342] Some other interesting references to Voltaire in Rousseau's letters are--ii. 170 (Nov. 29, 1760), denouncing Voltaire as "that trumpet of impiety, that fine genius, and that low soul," and so forth; iii. 29 (Oct. 30, 1762), accusing Voltaire of malicious intrigues against him in Switzerland; iii. 168 (Mar. 21, 1763), that if there is to be any reconciliation, Voltaire must make first advances; iii. 280 (Dec., 1763), described a trick played by Voltaire; iv. 40 (Jan. 31, 1765) 64; _Corr._, v. 74 (Jan. 5, 1767), replying to Voltaire's calumnious account of his early life; note on this subject giving Voltaire the lie direct, iv. 150 (May 31, 1765); the _Lettre à D'Almbert_, p. 193, etc. [343] Bernardin St. Pierre, xii. 96. In the same sense, in Dusaulx, _Mes Rapports avec J.J.R._, (Paris: 1798), p. 101. See also _Corr._, iv. 254. Dec. 30, 1765. And again, iv. 276, Feb. 28, 1766, and p. 356. [344] Dusaulx, p. 102. [345] This part of D'Alembert's article is reproduced in Rousseau's preface, and the whole is given at the end of the volume in M. Auguis's edition, p. 409. [346] Goncourt, _Femme au 18ième siècle_, p. 256. Grimm, _Corr. Lit._, vi. 248. [347] _Maximes sur la Comédie_, §15, etc. They were written in reply to a plea for Comedy by Caffaro, a Jesuit father. [348] The letter may be conveniently divided into three parts: I. pp. 1-89, II. pp. 90-145, III. pp. 146 to the end. Of course if Rousseau in saying that tragedy leads to pity through terror, was thinking of the famous passage in the sixth chapter of Aristotle's _Poetics_, he was guilty of a shocking mistranslation. [349] Some of the arguments seem drawn from Plato; see, besides the well-known passages in the _Republic_, the _Laws_, iv. 719, and still more directly, _Gorgias_, 502. [350] Yet D'Alembert in his very cool and sensible reply (p. 245) repeats the old saws, as that in _Catilina_ we learn the lesson of the harm which may be done to the human race by the abuse of great talents, and so forth. [351] _Lettre à M. J.J. Rousseau_, p. 258. [352] D'Alembert's _Lettre à J.J. Rousseau_, p. 277. Rousseau has a passage to the same effect, that false people are always sober, in the _Nouv. Hél., _Pt. I. xxiii. 123. [353] Tronchin, for instance, in a letter to Rousseau, in M. Streckeisen-Moultou's collection, i. 325. [354] A troop of comedians had been allowed to play for a short time in Geneva, with many protests, during the mediation of 1738. In 1766, eight years after Rousseau's letter, the government gave permission for the establishment of a theatre in the town. It was burnt down in 1768, and Voltaire spitefully hinted that the catastrophe was the result of design, instigated by Rousseau (_Corr._ v. 299, April 26, 1768). The theatre was not re-erected until 1783, when the oligarchic party regained the ascendancy and brought back with them the drama, which the democrats in their reign would not permit. [355] _Lettre à J.J. Rousseau_, pp. 265-271. [356] _Oeuv._, x. 121.