Congreve thanked him; but at the same, time told Voltaire _he did
not choose to be considered as an author, but only as a private
gentleman, and in that light expected to be visited._ Voltaire answered,
_that if he had never been any thing but a private gentleman, in all
probability he had never been troubled with that visit._ He also
observes, in his own account of this affair, he was not a little
disgusted with so unseasonable a piece of vanity.
The memory of Voltaire and Rousseau is still cherished by the French
people with great fondness; their busts or figures in bronze or plaster
are frequently met with, and remind one of _Penates_, or household gods.
PHILO.
* * * * *
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
WITCHCRAFT.
(_For the Mirror_.)
--Why should the envious world
Throw all their scandalous malice upon me?
'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant;
And like a bow, buckled and bent together,
By some more strong in mischiefs than myself:
Must I for that be made a common sink
For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues,
To fall and run into? some call me witch;
And, being ignorant of myself, they go
About to teach me how to be one; urging
That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)
Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,
Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse;
This they enforce upon me; and in part
Make me to credit it.
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