Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 36.djvu/78

60  Could all love's joys and cares rehearse, In softer and more pleasing verse; Cytherian chaplets graced his head, With hoary honors overspread. The god had a great affection for these gentlemen, especially for those who piqued themselves upon nothing. He hinted to Chaulieu that he should look upon himself as the first of careless and negligent poets, not as the first of good poets.

They conversed with some of the most amiable men of their age. Their conversations were equally free from the affectation of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and from the confusion which reigns amongst our young fellows.  From here with equal shame are chased The affected and pedantic taste, The stiff and syllogistic air, The rage which strives to overbear. There gracefully we see unite, Learning profound with humor light; And with precision close we find, The follies of the human mind. Genius takes various forms there, It jests and knows a jest to bear; For fear of tiring there the wise, Put on even pleasantry's disguise. Chapelle was there; that genius more debauched than delicate; more natural than polite; an easy versifier, incorrect in his style and licentious in his thoughts. He constantly answered the God of Taste in the same rhymes. 'Tis said that God once answered him thus;