Note 798 — Chapter XXVII
Reading edition
The great praise of this speech by Voltaire, in the Essay prefixed to his “Henriade,” 1726, first made the Araucana known beyond the Pyrenees; and if Voltaire had read the poem he pretended to criticize, he might have done something in earnest for its fame. (See his Works, ed. Beaumarchais, Paris, 1785, 8vo, Tom. X. pp. 394-401.) But his mistakes are so gross as to impair the value of his admiration.