"
Voltaire brought the frost. He got into a disreputable quarrel with a
Jew, and meddled in other affairs, until something very like a quarrel
arose between him and Frederick. The king wrote him a severe letter of
reprimand. The poet apologized. But immediately afterwards his
irrepressible spirit of mischief broke out in a new place. It was his
ill-humor with Maupertuis which now led him astray. He wrote a pamphlet,
full of wit and as full of bitterness, called "La diatribe du docteur
Akakia," so evidently satirizing Maupertuis that the king grew furious.
It was printed anonymously, and circulated surreptitiously in Berlin,
but a copy soon fell into Frederick's hand, who knew at once that but
one man in the kingdom was capable of such a production. He wrote so
severely to Voltaire that the malicious satirist was frightened and gave
up the whole edition of the pamphlet, which was burnt before his eyes in
the king's own closet, though Frederick could not help laughing at its
wit.
But Voltaire's daring was equal to a greater defiance than Frederick
imagined.
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