Note 681 — Chapter II · THE CONTEMPORARIES OF VOLTAIRE.
Reading edition
The gibe of Gautier (Caprices et Zigzags, “Un tour en Belgique”), where he calls the Sun “un astre à qui M. de Malfilâtre fait une ode trouvée admirable par D’Alembert” contains no doubt something of youthful Romantic naughtiness in it: but also something more. The ode has a frigid Akensidish grace; but there is too much about axes and orbits therein: and it is to be feared that this, rather than the poetry, attracted the philosophe critic.