A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 01

Voltaire · en
_Par quel destin faut-il, par quel étrange loi_
       _Qu' à tous ceux qui sont nés pour porter la couronne_
       _Ce soil l'Usurpateur qui donne_
     _L'exemple des vertus que doit avoir un Roi?_

     Here lies the man who trod on rightful power,
     Favored by heaven to his latest hour;
     Whose virtues merited a nobler fate
     Than that of ruling criminally great.

     What wondrous destiny can so ordain,
     That among all whose fortune is to reign,
     The _usurper_ only to his sceptre brings
     The virtues vainly sought in _lawful kings_.

These verses were never made for Cromwell, but for King William. They
are not an epitaph, but were written under a portrait of that monarch.
Instead of _Ci-gît_ (Here lies) it was:

     _Tel fut le destructeur d'un pouvoir légitime._
     _Such was_ the man who trod on rightful power.

No one in France was ever so stupid as to say that Cromwell had ever set
an example of virtue. It is granted that he had valor and genius; but
the title of virtuous was not his due. A thousand stories--a thousand
_faceticæ_--have been travelling about the world for the last thirty
centuries. Our books are stuffed with maxims which come forth as new,
but are to be found in Plutarch, in Athenæus, in Seneca, in Plautus, in
all the ancients.

These are only mistakes, as innocent as they are common; but wilful
falsehoods--historical lies which attack the glory of princes and the
reputation of private individuals--are serious offences. Of all the
books that are swelled with false anecdotes, that in which the most
absurd and impudent lies are crowded together, is the pretended
_"Mémoires de Madame de Maintenon"_. The foundation of it was true: the
author had several of that lady's letters, which had been communicated
to him by a person of consequence at St. Cyr; but this small quantity of
truth is lost in a romance of seven volumes.

In this work the author shows us Louis XIV. supplanted by one of his
valets-de-chambre. It supposes letters from Mdlle. Mancini (afterwards
Madame Colonne) to Louis XIV., in one of which he makes this niece of
Cardinal Mazarin say to the king: "You obey a priest--you are unworthy
of me if you submit to serve another. I love you as I love the light of
heaven, but I love your glory still better." Most certainly the author
had not the original of this letter.

[Illustration: Louis at Mdlle de la Vallière's feet.]