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diff --git a/39124-0.txt b/39124-0.txt index a037d48..ad8ff82 100644 --- a/39124-0.txt +++ b/39124-0.txt @@ -1,28 +1,4 @@ - VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: Voltaire: A Sketch of his Life and Works - -Author: J. M. Wheeler and G. W. Foote - -Release Date: March 10, 2012 [EBook #39124] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE -AND WORKS *** - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39124 *** Produced by David Widger. @@ -3331,372 +3307,4 @@ The consolation of life is to say out what one thinks. ———— -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE -AND WORKS *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39124 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: Voltaire: A Sketch of his Life and Works - -Author: J. M. Wheeler and G. W. Foote - -Release Date: March 10, 2012 [EBook #39124] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE -AND WORKS *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger. - - - - - *VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS* - - _WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS_ - - _By_ - - *J. M. Wheeler & G. W. Foote.* - - - _London_ - - _1891_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - INTRODUCTION - PREFACE - EARLY LIFE - HEGIRA TO ENGLAND - EXAMPLES FROM ENGLAND - AT CIREY - "CANDIDE" - THE ENCYCLOPDIA - LAST DAYS - HIS CHARACTER AND SERVICES - TRIBUTES TO VOLTAIRE - SELECTIONS FROM VOLTAIRE'S WORKS - History - Wars - Politics - The Population Question - Nature's Way - Prayer - Doubt and Speculation - Dr. Pangloss and the Dervish - Motives for Conduct - Self-Love - Go From Your Village - Religious Prejudices - Sacred History - Dupe And Rogue - "Delenda Est Carthago" - Jesus and Mohammed - How Faiths Spread - Superstition - The Bible - Transubstantiation - Dreams and Ghosts - Mortifying the Flesh - Heaven - Magic - DETACHED THOUGHTS - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -My share in this little book on Voltaire is a very minor one. My old -friend and colleague, Mr. J. M. Wheeler, had written the greater part of -the following pages before he brought the enterprise to my attention. I -went through his copy with him, and assisted him in making some -alterations and additions. I also read the printer's proofs, and -suggested some further improvements--if I may call them so without -egotism. This is all I have done. The credit for all the rest belongs to -him. My name is placed on the title-page for two reasons. The first is, -that I may now, as on other occasions, be associated with a dear friend -and colleague in this tribute to Voltaire. The second is, that whatever -influence I possess may be used in helping this volume to the -circulation it deserves. - - G. W. FOOTE. - -November, 1891 - - - - -PREFACE - - -He would be a bold person who should attempt to say something entirely -new on Voltaire. His life has often been written, and many are the -disquisitions on his character and influence. This little book, which at -the bicentenary of his birth I offer as a Freethinker's tribute to the -memory of the great liberator, has no other pretension than that of -being a compilation seeking to display in brief compass something of the -man's work and influence. But it has its own point of view. It is as a -Freethinker, a reformer, and an apostle of reason and universal -toleration that I esteem Voltaire, and I have considered him mainly -under this aspect. For the sketch of the salient points of his career I -am indebted to many sources, including Condorcet, Duvernet, -Desnoisterres, Parton, Espinasse, Collins, and Saintsbury, to whom the -reader, desirous of fuller information, is referred. Mr. John Morley's -able work and Col. Hamley's sketch may also be recommended. - -That we are this year celebrating the bicentenary of Voltaire's birth -should remind us of how far our age has advanced from his, and also of -how much we owe to our predecessors. The spread of democracy and the -advance of science which distinguish our time both owe very-much to the -brilliant iconoclasts of the last century, of whom Voltaire was the -chief. In judging the work of the laughing sage of France we must -remember that in his day the feudal laws still obtained in France, and a -man might be clapped in prison for life without any trial. The poor were -held to be born into the world for the service of the rich, and it was -their duty to be subject to their masters, not only to the good and -gentle, but also to the froward. Justice was as easily bought as jewels. -The Church was omnipotent and freethought a crime. If Voltaire's -influence is no longer what it was, it is because he has altered that. -We can no longer keenly feel the evils against which he contended. His -work is, however, by no means fully accomplished. While any remnant of -superstition, intolerance, and oppression remains, his unremitting -warfare against _l'infme_ should be an inspiration to all who are -fighting for the liberation and progress of humanity. - -Nov. 1894. J. M. WHEELER. - - - - -EARLY LIFE - - -Two hundred years ago, on November 21st, 1604, a child emerged on the -world at Paris. The baptismal register on the following day gave the -name Franois Marie Arouet, and the youth afterwards christened himself -Voltaire.(1) The flesh was so weakly that the babe was _ondovc_ (the -term employed for informal sprinkling with water at home), lest there -might be no time for the ecclesiastical rite. - - 1. He was a younger son. The name Voltaire is, perhaps, an - anagram of the Arouet 1. j. (le jeune) the u being converted - into r, and the j into r. In like manner, an old college- tutor - of his, Pre Thouli, transformed himself, by a similar - anagrammatic process, into the Abb Olivet-- omitting the - unnecessary h from his original name. This method of reforming a - plebeian name into one more distinguished-looking seems not to - have been uncommon in those times, as Jean Baptiste Pocquelin - took the name of Molire, and Charles Secondt that of - Montesquieu. - -Something may have been wrong with the performance of the sacred -ceremony, since the child certainly grew up to think more of "the world, -the flesh, and the devil" than of the other trinity of Father, Son, and -Holy Ghost. His father was a respectable attorney, and his mother came -of noble family. His godfather and early preceptor was the Abb de -Chateauneuf, who made no pietist of him, but introduced him to his -friend, the famous Ninon l'Enclos, the antiquated Aspasia who is said to -have inspired a passion in the l'Abb Gedouin at the age of eighty, and -who was sufficiently struck with young Voltaire to leave him a legacy of -two thousand francs, wherewith to provide himself a library. - -Voltaire showed when quite a child an unsurpassed facility for -verse-making. He was educated at a Jesuit college, and the followers of -Jesus have ever since reproached him with Jesuitism. Possibly he did -imbibe some of their "policy" in the propaganda of his ideas. Certainly -he saw sufficient of the hypocrisy and immorality of religious -professors to disgust him with the black business, and he said in -after-life that the Jesuits had taught him nothing worth learning. - -He learnt a certain amount of Latin and a parcel of stupidities. But, -indifferent as this education was, it served to encourage his already -marked literary tendency. Voltaire is said to have told his father when -he left college, at the age of fifteen, "I wish to be a man of letters, -and nothing else." "That," M. Arouet is reported to have replied, "is -the profession of a man who wishes to be a burden to his family and to -die of starvation." He would have no such nonsense. Francois must study -law; and to Paris he went with that intent. For three years he was -supposed to do so, but he bestowed more attention on the gay society of -the Temple, to which his godfather introduced him, "the most amusing -fellow in the world," and which was presided over by the Abb de -Chaulieu. The time which he was compelled to spend in law studies, and -at the desk of a _procureur_, was by no means lost to his future -fortunes, whether in the pursuit of fame or wealth. During that hated -apprenticeship he doubtless caught up some knowledge of law and -business, which stood him in good stead in after years. He tells us that -his father thought him lost, because he mixed with good society and -wrote verses. For these he got sufficient reputation to be first exiled -to Tulle, then to Sully, and finally thrown into the Bastille on -suspicion of having written lampoons on the government. The current -story tells how the Regent, walking one day in the Palais Royal, met -Voltaire, and accosted him by offering to bet that he would show him -what he had never seen before. "What is that?" asked Voltaire. "The -Bastille." "Ah, monseigneur! I will take the Bastille as seen." On the -next morning, in May, 1717, Voltaire was arrested in his bedroom and -lodged in the Bastille. - -After nearly a year's imprisonment, during which he gave the finishing -touches to his tragedy of _OEdipus_, and sketched the epic _Henriade_, -in which he depicts the massacre of Bartholomew, the horrors of -religious bigotry, and the triumph of toleration under Henry IV., he was -released and conducted to the Regent. While Voltaire awaited audience -there was a thunderstorm. "Things could not go on worse," he said aloud, -"if there was a Regency above." His conductor, introducing him to the -Regent, said, repeating the remark, "I bring you a young man whom your -Highness has just released from the Bastille, and whom you should send -back again." The Regent laughed, and promised, if he behaved well, to -provide for him. "I thank your Highness for taking charge of my board," -returned Voltaire, "but I beseech you not to trouble yourself any more -about my lodging." - -In his first play, _OEdipe_, appeared the celebrated couplet: - - _"Nos prtres ne sont pas ce qu'un vain peuple pense!_ - - _Notre crdulit fait toute leur science." (1)_ - - 1. "Our priests are not what foolish people suppose; all their - science is derived from our credulity." - -These lines were afterwards noted by Condorcet as "the first signal of a -war, which not even the death of Voltaire could extinguish." It was at -this period that he first took the name of Arouet de Voltaire. He -produced two more tragedies, _Artemire_ and _Mariamne_; a comedy, _The -Babbler_; and prepared his world-famous _Henriade._ A portrait, painted -by Largillire at about this period, has often been engraved. It -exhibits a handsome young gentleman, full of grace and spirit, with a -smiling mouth, animated eyes, intellectual forehead, and a fine hand in -a fine ruffle. - - - - -HEGIRA TO ENGLAND - - -The story of how Voltaire came to England is worth the telling, as it -illustrates the condition of things in France in the early part of last -century. Voltaire left France for England, which his acquaintance with -Lord Bolingbroke induced him to desire to visit. It was his Hegira, -whence he returned a full-fledged Prophet of the French. He went a poet, -he returned a philosopher. Dining at the Duke of Sully's table he -presumed to differ from the Chevalier de Rohan--Chabot, a relative of -Cardinal Rohan. The aristocrat asked, "Who is that young fellow who -talks so loudly?" "Monsieur le Chevalier," replied Voltaire, "it is a -man who does not bear a great name but who knows how to honor the name -he does bear."(1) It was insufferable that the son of a bourgeois should -thus speak his mind to a Rohan. A few days afterwards, when again dining -with the Duke, he was called out by a false message, and seized and -caned by ruffians until a voice cried "Enough." That word was a fresh -blow, for the young poet recognised the voice of the Chevalier. He -returned to the Duke and asked him to assist in obtaining redress. His -grace shrugged his shoulders and took no further notice of this insult -to his guest. Voltaire never visited the Duke again, and, it is said, -erased his ancestor's name from the _Henriade_. He was equally -unsuccessful in seeking redress from the Regent. "You are a poet, and -you have had a good thrashing; what can be more natural?" He retired, to -study English and fencing; and reappeared with a challenge to the -Chevalier, who accepted it, but informed his relations. It was against -the law for a commoner to challenge a nobleman. Next morning, instead of -meeting de Rohan, he met officers armed with a _lettre de cachet_ -consigning him to the Bastille. After nearly a month's incarceration he -was liberated on condition that he left the country. Having no wish to -spend a second year in prison, he had himself applied for permission to -visit England. Voltaire felt keenly the indignity to which he had been -subjected. In a letter of instruction written from England to his agent -he says: "If my debtors profit by my misfortune and absence to refuse -payment, you must not trouble to bring them to reason: 'tis but a -trifle." Yet a book has been written on Voltaire's avarice. - - 1. Some of the accounts say that Voltaire said, "You, my lord, - are the last of your house; I am the first of mine." - -Voltaire was conducted to Calais and arrived in England on Whit-Monday, -1726. He landed near Greenwich and witnessed the Fair. All seemed -bright. The park and river were full of animation. Here there was no -Bastille, no fear of the persecution of the great or the spies of the -police. He had excellent introductions. Bolingbroke he had met in exile -at La Source in 1721, and he had learnt to regard the illustrious -Englishman who possessed "all the learning of his country and all the -politeness of ours." Voltaire, like Pope, may be said to have been, at -any rate for a time, an eager disciple of the exiled English statesman. -Now Voltaire was the exile; Bolingbroke, for a while, the host, at -Dawley, near Uxbridge. But he had other English friends, notably Mr. -(afterwards Sir Everard) Falkener, an English merchant trading in the -Levant, from whose house at Wandsworth most of his letters are dated. -For Sir Everard, Voltaire always retained the warmest feelings of -friendship, and forty years later returned hospitality to his sons. - -Voltaire spent two years and eight months in England, living during part -of the time in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, and during another part at -Wandsworth. This visit was probably the most important event in his -life. It was here he lit the torch of Freethought with which he fired -the continent. Here he mastered the arguments of the English deists, -Bolingbroke, Toland, Tindal, Shaftesbury, Chubb, Collins, and Woolston, -which he afterwards used with such effect. Here he saw the benefits of -parliamentary government. Here he imbibed the philosophy of Locke and -the science of Newton. Indeed it may be said there is hardly one of -Voltaire's important works but bears traces of his visit to our country. -Yet of this momentous epoch of his life the records are scanty. When he -grew famous every letter and anecdote was preserved, but in 1727 -Voltaire was but a young man of promise. Carlyle, in the tenth book of -his _Frederick the Great_, says: "But mere inanity and darkness visible -reign in all his Biographies over this period of his life, which was -above all others worth investigating." Messrs. J. C. Collins and A. -Ballantyne have since done much to elucidate this noteworthy period. - -Pope was one of the persons Voltaire desired to see. He had already -described him as "the most elegant, most correct, and most harmonious -poet they ever had in England." Pope could only speak French with -difficulty, and Voltaire could not make himself understood. The result -being unsatisfactory, Voltaire did not seek further company until he had -acquired the language. An anecdote in Chetworth's _History of the Stage_ -relates that he was in the habit of attending the theatre with the play -in his hand. By this method he obtained more proficiency in the language -in a week than he could otherwise have obtained in a month. Madame de -Genlis had the audacity to assert that Voltaire never knew English, yet -it is certain he could, before he was many months in this country, both -speak and write it with facility. By Nov. 16, 1726, he wrote to Pope, -after that poet's accident while driving near Bolingbroke's estate at -Dawley. In writing to his friend Thieriot, in France, he sometimes used -English, for the same reason, he said, that Boileau wrote in Latin--not -to be understood by too curious people. Voltaire is said to have once -found his knowledge of English of practical use. The French were -unpopular, and in one of his rambles he was menaced by a mob. He said: -"Brave Englishmen, am I not already unhappy enough in not having been -born among you?" His eloquence had such success that, according to -Longchamp and Wagnire, the people wished to carry him on their -shoulders to his house. - -While in this country he wrote in English a portion of his tragedy -_Brutus_, inspired by and dedicated to Bolingbroke, - -and two essays, one on the Civil Wars of France, and one on Epic Poetry. -In the introduction to the essays he expresses his conception of his own -position as a man of letters in a foreign country. As these essays, -although popular at the time, are now rare, I transcribe a paragraph or -two from them: - -"The true aim of a relation is to instruct men, not to gratify their -malice. We should be busied chiefly in giving a faithful account of all -the useful things and extraordinary persons, whom to know, and to -imitate, would be a benefit to our country. A traveller who writes in -that spirit is a merchant of a nobler kind, who imports into his native -country the arts and virtues of other nations." - -In his _Essay on Epic Poetry_ Voltaire shows he had made a study of -Milton, though his criticism can scarcely, be considered an advance upon -that of Addison. He displays constant admiration for Tasso, to whom he -was perhaps attracted by his sufferings at the hands of an ignoble -nobility. He says: - -"The taste of the English and of the French, though averse to any -machinery grounded upon enchantment, must forgive, nay commend, that of -Armida, since it is the source of so many beauties. Besides, she is a -Mahometan, and the Christian religion allows us to believe that those -infidels are under the immediate influence of the devil." In this essay -appears the first mention of the story of Newton and the apple tree. - -Voltaire closely studied all branches of English literature. He read -Shakespeare, and admired his "genius" while censuring his -"irregularity." He was the first to introduce him to his countrymen, -though he subsequently sought to lessen what he considered their -exorbitantly high opinion. The works of Dryden, Waller, Prior, Congreve, -Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Rochester and Addison were all devoured, and he -took an especial interest in Butler's witty _Hudibras_. He was -acquainted with the popular sermons of Archbishop Tillotson and the -speculations of Berkeley. He had read the works of Shaftesbury, Tindal, -Chubb, Garth, Mandeville and Woolston. - -Voltaire became acquainted with most of the celebrities in England. He -visited the witty Congreve, who begged his guest to consider him not as -an author but as a gentleman. Voltaire answered with spirit: "If you had -the misfortune to be merely a gentleman, I should never have come to see -you." He knew James Thomson of _The Seasons_, and "discovered in him a -great genius and a great simplicity." With didactic Young, of the _Night -Thoughts_, who glorified God with his "egoism turned heavenward," he -formed a friendship which remained unbroken despite their differences of -opinion on religion. He pushed among his English friends the -subscription list for the _Henriade_, which proved a great -success--although King George II. was not fond of "boetry"--reaching -three editions in a short period. The money thus obtained formed the -foundation of the fortune which Voltaire accumulated, not by his -writings, but by his ability in finance. At that time, in France, as our -author remarked, "to make the smallest fortune it was better to say four -words to the mistress of a king than to write a hundred volumes." His -sojourn in England may be said to have secured him both independence of -mind and independence of fortune. - -What pleased him most in England was liberty of discussion. In the year -in which he came over, Elwall was acquitted on a charge of blasphemy, -the collected works of Toland were published, and also Collins's _Scheme -of Literal Prophecy_, and the First Discourse of Woolston on Miracles. -The success of this last work, which boldly applied wit and ridicule to -the Gospel narrative, struck him with admiration. In the very month, -however, when Voltaire left England (March 1729) Woolston was tried and -sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of 100. Voltaire -volunteered a third of the sum, but the brave prisoner refused to give -an assurance that he would not offend again, and died in prison in 1733. -Voltaire always spoke of Woolston with the greatest respect. - -Voltaire retained his esteem for England and the English to the last. -Oliver Goldsmith relates that he was in his company one evening when one -of the party undertook to revile the English language and literature. -Diderot defended them, but not brilliantly. Voltaire listened awhile in -silence, which was, as Goldsmith remarks, surprising, for it was one of -his favorite topics. However, about midnight, "Voltaire appeared at last -roused from his reverie. His whole frame seemed animated. He began his -defence with the utmost elegance mixed with spirit, and now and then he -let fall his finest strokes of raillery upon his antagonist; and his -harangue lasted until three in the morning. I must confess that, whether -from national partiality or from the elegant sensibility of his manner, -I never was more charmed, nor did I ever remember so absolute a victory -as he gained in this dispute." - -Voltaire corresponded with English friends to the latest period of his -life. Among his correspondents were Lord and Lady Bolingbroke, Sir E. -Falkener, Swift, Hume, Robertson, Horace Walpole, George Colman and Lord -Chatham. We find him asking Falkener to send him the _London Magazine_ -for the past three years. To the same friend he wrote from Potsdam in -1752, hoping that his _Vindication of Bolingbroke_ was translated, as it -would annoy the priests, "whom I have hated, hate, and shall hate till -doomsday." In the next year, writing from Berlin, he says: "I hope to -come over myself, in order to print my true works, and to be buried in -the land of freedom. I require no subscription, I desire no benefit. If -my works are neatly printed, and cheaply sold, I am satisfied." - -To Thieriot he said: "Had I not been obliged to look after my affairs in -France, depend upon it I would have spent the rest of my days in -London." Long afterwards he wrote to his friend Keate: "Had I not fixed -the seat of my retreat in the free corner of Geneva, I would certainly -live in the free corner of England; I have been for thirty years the -disciple of your ways of thinking." At the age of seventy he translated -Shakespeare's _Julius Coesar_. Mr. Collins says: "The kindness and -hospitality which he received he never forgot, and he took every -opportunity of repaying it. To be an Englishman was always a certain -passport to his courteous consideration." He compared the English to -their own beer, "the froth atop, dregs at bottom, but the bulk -excellent." When Martin Sherlock visited him at Ferney in 1776, he found -the old man, then in his eighty-third year, still full of his visit to -England. His gardens were laid out in English fashion, his favorite -books were the English classics, the subject to which he persistently -directed conversation was the English nation. - -The memory of Voltaire has been but scurvily treated in the land he -loved so well. For over a century, calumny and obloquy were poured upon -him. Johnson said of Rousseau: "I would sooner sign a sentence for his -transportation than that of any felon who has gone from the Old Bailey -these many years." _Boswell_: "Sir, do you think him as bad a man as -Voltaire?" _Johnson_: "Why, sir, it is difficult to settle the -proportion of iniquity between them." And this represents an opinion -which long endured among the religious classes. But it is at length -being recognised that, with all his imperfections, which were after all -those of the age in which he lived, he devoted his brilliant genius to -the cause of truth and the progress of humanity. He made his exile in -England an occasion for accumulating those stores of intelligence with -which he so successfully combated the prejudices of the past and -promulgated the principles of freedom, and justified his being ranked -foremost among the liberators of the human mind. - - - - -EXAMPLES FROM ENGLAND - - -Several incidents combined to direct Voltaire's attention to clericalism -as the enemy of progress and humanity. Soon after his return to France, -the famous actress, Adrienne Lecouvreur, for whom he had a high esteem, -and who had represented the heroines of his plays, died. The clergy of -Paris refused her Christian burial because of her profession, and her -corpse was put in a ditch in a cattle-field on the banks of the Seine. -Voltaire, who regarded the theatre as one of the most potent instruments -of culture and civilisation, at once avenged and consecrated her memory -in a fine ode, burning with the fire of a deep pathos, in which he takes -occasion to contrast the treatment in England of Mrs. Oldfield, the -actress, who was buried in Westminster Abbey. Mr. Lecky says: "The man -who did more than any other to remove the stigma that rested upon actors -was unquestionably Voltaire. There is, indeed, something singularly -noble in the untiring zeal with which he directs poetry and eloquence, -the keenest wit, and the closest reasoning to the defence of those who -had so long been friendless and despised." - -When Voltaire published his _Letters on the English Nation_ the copies -were seized by the Government and the publisher was thrown into the -Bastille. The author would have again tasted the discomforts of that -abode if he had not had timely warning from his friend D'Argental, and -taken refuge in Lorraine, and afterwards on the Rhine, while his book -was torn to pieces and burned in Paris by the public executioner, as -offensive to religion, good morals, and respect for authority. Voltaire -had apparently good reason to apprehend treatment of unusual rigor if he -had obeyed the summons to give himself up into custody, as he took good -care not to do. "I have a mortal aversion to prison," he wrote to -D'Argental. "I am ill; a confined air would have killed me, and I should -probably have been thrust into a dungeon." - -Voltaire's _Letters on the English_ reads at the present day as so mild -a production that it is hard to understand its suppression. Yet it was a -true instinct which detected that the work was directed against the -principle of authority. The introduction of English thought was destined -to become an explosive element shattering the feudalism of Europe. There -were, moreover, some hard hits at the state of things in France. "The -English nation," says Voltaire, "is the only one which has succeeded in -restricting the power of kings by resisting it." Again: "How I love the -English boldness, how I love men who say what they think!" - -Voltaire gives a peculiar reason for the non-appreciation by the English -of Molire's _Tartuffe_, the original of Mawworm if not of Uriah Heep. -He says they are not pleased with the portrayal of characters they do -not know. "One there hardly knows the name of devotee, but they know -well that of honest man. One does not see there imbeciles who put their -souls into others' hands, nor those petty ambitious men who establish a -despotic sway over women formerly wanton and always weak, and over men -yet more weak and contemptible." We fancy Voltaire must have seen -society mainly as found among the Freethinkers. Could he give so -favorable a verdict did he visit us now? The same remark applies to his -statement that there was "no privilege of hunting in the grounds of a -citizen, who, at the same time, is not permitted to fire a gun in his -own field." But this, as well as the more important passage that "no one -is exempted from taxation for being a nobleman or priest," was probably -intended exclusively for the benefit of his compatriots. He was, -however, not without a little touch of ridicule at the incongruities he -detected in our countrymen. Thus he notes in one of his letters: "They -learn Vanini and translate Lucretius for Monsieur le Dauphin to get by -heart, and then, while they deride the polytheism of the ancients, they -worship the Congregation of the Saints." - -Those educated in the current delusion that Voltaire was a mere mocker -will be surprised to find the temperate way in which he speaks of the -Quakers. Here, where there was such excellent opportunity for raillery, -Voltaire shows he had a genuine admiration for their simplicity of life, -the courage of their convictions, their freedom from priestcraft, and -their distaste for warfare. In these _Letters,_ as in all his writings, -he proves how far he was the embodiment of the new era by his boldly -expressed preference for industrial over military pursuits. - -In his remarks on the Church of England, Voltaire, however, gives an -unmistakable touch of his quality: "One cannot have public employment in -England or Ireland, without being of the number of faithful Anglicans. -This reason, which is an excellent proof, has converted so many -Nonconformists that not a twentieth part of the nation is out of the -pale of the dominant church." - -After alluding to the "holy zeal" of ministers against dissenters, and -of the lower House of Convocation, who "from time to time burnt impious -books, that is, books against themselves," he says: "When they learn -that, in France, young fellows noted only for debauchery and raised to -the prelacy by female intrigue, openly pursue their amours, compose -love-songs, give every day elaborate delicate suppers, then go to -implore the illumination of the Holy Spirit, boldly calling themselves -the successors of the Apostles--they thank God they are Protestants. But -they are abominable heretics, to be burnt by all the devils, as Master -Franois Rabelais says; and that is why I do not meddle with their -affairs." - -The Presbyterians fare little better, for Voltaire relates that, when -King Charles surrendered to the Scots, they made that unfortunate -monarch undergo four sermons a day. To them it is owing that only -genteel people play cards on Sunday: "the rest of the nation go either -to church, to the tavern, or to see their mistresses." - -His admiration for English philosophy was startling to the French mind. -Locke's Essay became his philosophical gospel. "For thirty years," he -writes in 1768, "I have been persecuted by a crowd of fanatics because I -said that Locke is the Hercules of Metaphysics, who has fixed the -boundaries of the human mind." - - - - -AT CIREY - - -A common admiration for Locke and Newton cemented his attachment to the -Marquise du Chtelet, a lady distinguished from others of her age by her -love of the sciences. With her Voltaire lived for over fifteen years at -the Chateau of Cirey, in Campagne, "far from the madding crowd's ignoble -strife," and, as Voltaire phrased it, "nine miles from a lemon." -Voltaire was at the outset forty and Madame twenty-seven, neither -handsome nor well-formed, yet pleasing. She united learning with a zest -for pleasure, and with the handsome fortune which Voltaire brought to -the establishment was enabled to satisfy both tastes. Life at Cirey was -varied by jaunts to Paris, Brussels and Sceaux, at which last place he -wrote _Zadig_, one of his lightest and most characteristic burlesque -stories. - -Madame du Chtelet has been much laughed at; but in the days when ladies -take prizes in mathematics, that should be a thing of the past. Hard -intellectual labor rather than the pursuit of pleasure characterised -life at Cirey, or rather its inmates found their pleasure in their work. -Madame would be translating Newton or studying Leibnitz. Her -mathematical tutor worked at physical science in a gallery which had -been built expressly for him. Voltaire would be aiding each in turn, or, -ever faithful to his first love the drama, occupied with the writing or -production of a tragedy or comedy for the theatre also attached to the -premises. His production was as ever incessant. At the time of his first -settlement there, Pope's _Essay on Man_ had been published. It suggested -a _Discourse on Man_, in which he sought not to justify the ways of God -to man, but to make man contented with his lot, not vainly inquiring -into the why and wherefore of things. With Madame he wrote _Elements of -the Newtonian Philosophy_, a work highly praised by Lord Brougham, who -says: "The power of explaining an abstract subject in easy and accurate -language, language not in any way beneath the dignity of science, though -quite suited to the comprehension of uninformed persons, is -unquestionably shown in a manner which only makes it a matter of regret -that the singularly gifted author did not carry his torch into all the -recesses of natural philosophy." The French Government, despite the -influence of aristocratic friends, refused to print a work opposed to -the system of Descartes, and the volume had to be printed in Holland. -For Madame, who despised the "old almanack" histories then current, in -place of which Voltaire aimed at producing something more profitable to -the readers, he wrote his _Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations_, -in which for the first time in modern literature he applied philosophy -to the teaching of history. He dissipated the dull dreams and deceits of -the monks, and fixed attention on the real condition of things. With -Voltaire, the commonest invention which improves the human lot is of -more importance than battles and sieges. He gives importance to the -physical and intellectual improvement of man. Brougham remarks that -Voltaire's Philosophy of History was written as a prelude to the Essay -on the Spirit of Nations, but the whole work deserves that title. Buckle -classes him with Bolingbroke and Montesquieu, the fathers of modern -history, and all sceptics; and even now, says Lecky, no historian can -read him without profit. Other contributions to history were the -_History of Charles XII._, a masterpiece of vivid and vigorous -narrative, and _The Age of Louis XIV_. It was here he wrote his too -famous _Pucelle_, which he afterwards described as "piggery," as well as -some of the most famous of his plays, including. _Ilzire, Zuline, -L'Enfant Prodigue, Mahomet and Mrope_, the best of his tragedies. With -that impish spirit in which he ever delighted, he induced the Pope to -accept the dedication of his play of _Mahomet_, and then laughed at his -infallible Holiness for being unable to see that the shafts supposed to -be directed at the impostor of Arabia were really aimed at fanaticism in -another quarter. - -To his first and last love, the French theatre, Voltaire contributed -nearly sixty pieces, the majority of which are tragedies. _Zaire_ and -_Mrope_ suffice to show the excellence he obtained in the classic -drama. The first-named was written in three weeks, a wonderful _tour de -force. Olympic_--written in old age--occupied but six days, though in -this we must agree with the friend who told the author that he should -not have rested on the seventh day. Voltaire's plays indeed contain -occasional fine passages, but they have not the rich delineation of -character necessary for works of the first rank. It has been well -remarked that in his dramas, as in history, he sought to portray not so -much individuals as epochs. In _Mahomet_ his subject is a great -fanaticism; in _Alzire_, the conquest of America; in _Brutus_, the -formation of the Roman power; in the _Death of Coesar_, the rise of the -empire or the ruin of that power. It is noteworthy that, despite his -excess of comic talent, Voltaire preferred to devote his mind to tragedy -rather than to comedy, in which one might have fancied he would have -excelled. In truth, his desire to support the dignity of the stage stood -in the way of his shining in comedy. Voltaire also at this period wrote -a _Life of Molire_, in which he mingled criticism with biography. - -Madame de Grafigny, who visited at Cirey, says he was so greedy of his -time, so intent upon his work, that it was sometimes necessary to tear -him from his desk for supper. "But when at table, he always has -something to tell, very facetious, very odd, very droll, which would -often not sound well except in his mouth, and which shows him still as -he has painted himself for us-- - - _Toujours un pied dans le cercueil,_ - - _De l'autre faisant des gambades."(1)_ - - 1. Ever one foot in the grave, - - And gambolling with the other. - -"To be seated beside him at supper, how delightful!" she adds. Voltaire -at Cirey was out of harm's way, and could and did devote himself to his -natural bent in literary work. Madame du Chtelet was sometimes "gey ill -to live with." but she preserved him from many annoyances and helped him -somewhat at Court. Thanks to the Duc de Richelieu, his patron and -debtor, he was appointed historiographer-royal in 1745, with a salary of -two thousand livres attached, and in the following year was elected one -of the Forty of the French Academy. - -His life with Madame du Chtelet had shown him the possibility of woman -being man's intellectual companion. With what scorn does he make a lady, -who claims equal rights in the matter of divorce with her husband, say: - -"My husband replies that he is my head and my superior, that he is -taller than me by more than an inch, that he is hairy as a bear, and -that, consequently, I owe him everything and that he owes me nothing." -This was long before woman's rights were thought of. - -Voltaire and Frederick the Great. - -While still at Cirey, Voltaire received many a flattering invitation -from the Prince Royal of Prussia. Their correspondence, in the words of -Carlyle, "sparkles notably with epistolary grace and vivacity," though -now mainly interesting as an illustration of two memorable characters -and of their century. Voltaire helped him with his _Anti-Machiavelli_, -remarking afterwards that had Machiavelli had a prince for a pupil, the -very first thing he would have advised him to do would have been so to -write. Frederick was bent on having the personal acquaintance and -attendance of the renowned poet and philosopher. Much incense and mutual -admiration passed, and at length, when he ascended the throne, Voltaire -paid him several visits. On one occasion it was a diplomatic one, to -cement a union between France and Prussia. Macaulay sneers at this -"childish craving for political distinction," and Frederick remarks that -he brought no credentials with him. The correspondence and mutual -admiration continued. Carlyle characteristically says: "Admiration -sincere on both sides, most so on the Prince's, and extravagantly -expressed on both sides, most so on Voltaire's." In one of his letters, -Frederick says "there can be in nature but one God and one Voltaire." If -Voltaire was more extravagant than this, at least the paint was laid on -more delicately. Frederick's flattery, indeed, was not very carefully -done. Thus, in writing to Voltaire he says: "You are like the white -elephant for which the King of Persia and the Great Mogul make war; and -the possession of which forms one of their titles. If you come here you -will see at the head of mine, 'Frederick by the Grace of God, King of -Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Possessor of Voltaire, &c., &c.'" But -the Marquise du Chtelet considered that no King should displace a lady. -She loved him; _"jamais pour deux"_ she says; and perhaps, at the bottom -of her heart, regretted the reputation which must have been ever a -rival. At her death, Frederick renewed his invitation, expressing -himself as now "one of your oldest friends," and Voltaire, cut loose -from his moorings, submitted to be tempted to the atmosphere of a court -which he had before found little suited to a lover of truth, justice, -and liberty. - -The first of these visits, in September 1740, is thus satirically -described by Voltaire: "I was conducted into his majesty's apartment, in -which I found nothing but four bare walls. By the light of a wax candle -I perceived a small truckle bed, two feet and a half wide, in a closet, -upon which lay a little man, wrapped up in a morning gown of blue cloth. -It was his majesty, who lay sweating and shaking, beneath a beggarly -coverlet, in a violent ague fit. I made my bow, and began my -acquaintance by feeling his pulse, as if I had been his first physician. -The fit left him, and he rose, dressed himself, and sat down to table -with Algarotti, Keizerling, Maupertuis, the ambassador to the -states-general, and myself; where, at supper, we treated most profoundly -on the immortality of the soul, natural liberty, and the _Androgynes_ of -Plato." Frederick says, in a letter to Jordan, dated September 24th: "I -have at length seen Voltaire, whom I was so anxious to become acquainted -with; but, alas! I saw him when I was under the influence of my fever, -and when my mind and my body were equally languid. Now, with persons -like him, one must not be ill; on the contrary, one must be very well, -and even, if possible, in better health than usual. He has the eloquence -of Cicero, the mildness of Pliny, and the wisdom of Agrippa: he unites, -in a word, all that is desirable of the virtues and talents of three of -the greatest men of antiquity. His intellect is always at work; and -every drop of ink that falls from his pen, is transformed at once into -wit. He declaimed to us _Mahomet_, an admirable tragedy he has composed, -which transported us with delight: for myself, I could only admire in -silence." - -The intercourse and disruption of the friendship between Voltaire and -Frederick--"the two original men of their century," as Carlyle calls -them--has been inimitably told by that great writer whose temperament -and training enabled him to do so much justice to the one and so little -to the other. Voltaire must be excused for wishing to lead the King in -the path of reason and enlightened toleration to peace. But the Court of -Potsdam was in truth no place for him, and the Frenchmen not unnaturally -regarded him as a deserter. Macaulay says: "We have no hesitation in -saying that the poorest author of that time in London, sleeping in a -hulk, dining in a cellar with a cravat of paper and a skewer for a -shirt-pin, was a happier man than any of the literary inmates of -Frederick's Court." Voltaire's position was sure to excite jealousy, and -his scathing wit was bound to get him in trouble. He could touch up the -King's French verses for a consideration, but could not be kept from -laughing at his poetry. "I have here a bundle of the King's dirty linen -to bleach," he said once, pointing to the MSS. sent to him for -correction; and the bearers of course conveyed the sarcasm to his -Majesty. On the other side Voltaire heard from Julien Offray de la -Mettrie, author of _Man a Machine_, whom Voltaire called the most frank -atheist in Europe, that the King had said: "I still want Voltaire for -another year--one sucks the orange before throwing away the skin." That -orange-skin stuck in Voltaire's throat, and when atheist La Mettrie died -11th November, - -1751, from eating a pie supposed to be of pheasant but in reality of -eagle and pork, Voltaire observes: "I should have liked to put to La -Mettrie, in the article of death, fresh inquiries about the orange-skin. -That fine soul, on the point of quitting the world, would not have dared -to-lie. There is much reason to suppose that he spoke the truth." -Voltaire could neither submit to the domination of the Court coterie nor -to that of their master. He offended Frederick, not so much by writing -as by publishing his merciless ridicule of Maupertuis, the President of -the Berlin Academy of Sciences--an institution suggested by Voltaire, -who had indeed recommended Maupertuis as President--in his inimitable -_Diatribe of Doctor Akakia, Physician to the Pope_, which Macaulay says, -even at this time of day, it is not easy for any person who has the -least perception of the ridiculous to read without laughing till he -cries. But a public insult to the President of his Academy was an insult -to the King, and the work was publicly burnt and Voltaire placed under -arrest. But the matter blew over, though Voltaire sent back his cross -and key of office, which the King returned. Voltaire wisely tried to rid -himself of the intolerable constraint, and made ill-health the pretext -of flight, going first to Plombires to take the waters. But he could -not resist sending another shot at poor Maupertuis; and the King, -perhaps considering he had forfeited claim to consideration, resolved to -punish him. At Frankfort, nominally a free city but really dominated by -a Prussian resident, he was arrested, together with his niece Madame -Denis, and detained in an inn, even after he had given up his gold key -as chamberlain, his cross and ribbon of the Order of Merit, and his copy -of a privately printed volume of the royal rhymester's poetry, for which -he was ordered to be arrested. The volume was evidently the most -important article in such mischievous hands, especially as it was said -to contain satires on reigning potentates. Voltaire had left it at -Leipsic, and had to wait, guarded by soldiers, till it arrived, and also -till the King's permission was accorded him to pass on to France. -Voltaire relieved his rage by composing what he called _Memoirs of the -Life of M. de Voltaire_, in which all the king's faults and foibles, -real and imaginary, as well as his literary pretensions, were -unsparingly ridiculed. Frederick forgave Voltaire for having been -ill-used by him, and some time after took the first step in -reconciliation by sending him back the volume of poems. An amicable -correspondence was renewed, though probably each felt they were better -at a distance. Voltaire, even while he kept in his desk this libellous -_Life_ which perhaps he never, intended to publish, was generous and -far-sighted enough to seek to make peace between Prussia and France at a -time when Frederick was at the lowest ebb of his fortunes; while -Frederick was great enough to permit the free circulation of the libel -in Berlin. Morley says: "To have really contributed in the humblest -degree, for instance, to a peace between Prussia and her enemies, in -1759, would have been an immeasurably greater performance for mankind -than any given book which Voltaire could have written. And, what is -still better worth observing, Voltaire's books would not have been the -powers they were but for this constant desire in him to come into the -closest contact with the practical affairs of the world." "What -sovereign in Europe do you fear the most?" was once asked of Frederick, -who frankly replied "_Le roi Voltaire_," for here he knew was a -potentate whose kingdom had no bounds, and who would transmit his -influence to posterity. Frederick lived to pronounce a panegyric upon -him before the Berlin Academy, in the year of his death. "The renown of -Voltaire," he predicted, "will grow from age to age, transmitting his -name to immortality." - - - - -"CANDIDE" - - -After this disastrous termination of court life Voltaire determined to -try complete independence. Permission to establish himself in France -being refused, he purchased an estate near Geneva. His residence here -brought him into correspondence, at first amicable, with the most famous -of her citizens, Jean Jacques Rousseau. There was a natural -incompatibility of temper which speedily led to a quarrel. Both were -sensitive, and Rousseau could not bear even kindly-meant banter. On -Rousseau's _Social Contract_ Voltaire said it so convinced him of the -beauty of man in a state of nature that, after reading it, he ran round -me room on all fours. His reply to Rousseau's rebuke for his pessimist -poem on the earthquake of Lisbon was the immortal _Candide_, and -Rousseau's revenge was to say, slightingly, that he had not read it. -When Rousseau thought fit to include Voltaire in the imaginary -machinations against him, with which he absurdly changed Hume, Voltaire -wrote to D'Alembert: "I have nothing to reproach myself with, save -having thought and spoken too well of him." - -Voltaire at first seems to have been captivated by the doctrine of -Pope's _Essay on Man._ He, however, afterwards wrote: "Those who exclaim -that all is well are charlatans. Shaftesbury, who first made the fable -fashionable, was a very unhappy man. I have seen Bolingbroke a prey to -vexation and rage, and Pope, whom he induced to put this sorry jest into -verse, was as much to be pitied as any man I have ever known, misshapen -in body, dissatisfied in mind, always ill, always a burden to himself, -and harassed by a hundred enemies to his very last moment. Give me, at -least, the names of some happy men who will tell me 'All is well.'" His -optimism got injured during his journey through life, and was completely -shattered by the earthquake at Lisbon in 1755. On this subject he -produced a grave poem, notable for its confession of the difficult -reconciling the evil of the world with the Beneficence of God? The same -subject was dealt with in grotesque fashion in _Candide_, one of the -wisest as well as one of the wittiest of works. A philosophy was never -more triumphantly reasoned and ridiculed out of court than is optimism -in _Candide_. Incident crowds on incident, argument jostles satire, -illustration succeeds raillery, all to show the miseries of existence -disprove this being the best of all possible worlds. At one moment we -are forced to tears at contemplating the atrocities of inhumanity; the -next we are forced to laugh at its absurdities. Prudes may be shocked at -some incidents. Voltaire said he was not born to sing the praises of -saints. He was himself no saint, but rather one of those sinners who had -done the world more good than all its saints. But the influence of the -work is profoundly good. It is purely humanitarian, War, persecution for -religion, slavery, torture, and all forms of cruelty are made hateful by -a recital of their facts; and all this is done in so charming, even -flippant a manner, that we are laughing all the while we are most -profoundly moved. Schopenhauer and Hartmann both enjoyed life, while -Voltaire was an invalid most of his days; but they never threw into -their pessimism the gaiety of _Candide_. And his peculiarity is, that he -makes all man's lower instincts ridiculous as well as detestable. - -This character appears in all his work, but, as a fantastic tale, -_Candide_ stands alone. It brings out Voltaire's most characteristic -qualities: his keen eye for whimsicalities and weaknesses; his -abhorrence of cruelty and iniquity in high places; his contempt for -shams and absence of all veneration for the majesty of nonsensical -custom. For mordant satire it is surpassed by _Gulliver's Travels_. But -it is briefer; the touch is lighter, and instinct not with morose -misanthropy, but hearty philanthropy. The characters are gross -caricatures. Was there ever so preposterous an absurdity as Dr. -Pangloss? And the incidents are improbable. Was ever so luckless a hero -as Candide? What a succession of misfortunes! Candide travels the world -in search of his lost beloved Cungonde, meeting war, the Inquisition, -torture, shipwreck, piracy, and slavery, with all their attendant -horrors. Even the earthquake of Lisbon is brought in; yet with whimsical -pertinacity, Pangloss clings to his flimsy philosophy. - -When he re-meets Candide, who had left his tutor as dead, he thus -relates his adventures: "But," my dear Pangloss, "how happens it that I -see you again?" said Candide. "It is true," answered Pangloss, "you saw -me hanged; I ought properly to have been burnt; but, you remember, it -rained in torrents when they were going to roast me. The storm was so -violent they despaired of kindling the fire; so I was hanged, because -they could do no better. A surgeon bought my body, carried it home, and -dissected me. He made first a crucial incision from the navel to the -neck. One could not have been more badly hanged than I. The executioner -of the Holy Inquisition was a sub-deacon, and truly burnt people -capitally, but, as for hanging, he was a novice; the cord was wet, and -not slipping properly, the noose did not join--in short, I still -continued to breathe. The crucial incision made me shriek so that my -surgeon fell back, and, imagining it was the devil he was dissecting, -ran away in mortal fear, tumbling downstairs in his fright. His wife, -hearing the noise, flew from the next room, and saw me stretched upon -the table with my crucial incision. Still more terrified than her -husband, she ran down also, and fell upon him. When they had a little -recovered themselves, I heard her say to the surgeon, 'My dear, how -could you think of dissecting a heretic? Don't you know that the devil -is always in them? I'll run directly to a priest, to come and exorcise -the evil spirit.' I trembled from head to foot at hearing her talk in -this manner, and exerted what little strength I had left to cry out, -'Have pity on me!' At length, the Portuguese barber took courage, sewed -up my wound, and his wife even nursed me. I was upon my legs in about a -fortnight. The barber got me a place as lacquey to a Knight of Malta, -who was going to Venice; but finding my master had no money to pay me my -wages, I entered into the service of a Venetian merchant, and went with -him to Constantinople. One day I took the fancy to enter a mosque, where -I saw no one but an old Iman and a very pretty young female devotee, who -was saying her prayers. Her neck was quite bare, and in her bosom she -had a fine nosegay of tulips, roses, anemones, ranunculuses, hyacinths, -and auriculas. She let fall her bouquet. I ran to take it up, and -presented it to her with a bow. I was so long in replacing it, that the -Iman began to be angry, and, perceiving I was a Christian, he cried out -for help. They took me before the Cadi, who ordered me to receive one -hundred bastinadoes, and sent me to the galleys. We were continually -whipt, and received twenty lashes a day, when the concatenation of -sublunary events brought you on board our galley to ransom us from -slavery." - -"Well, my dear Pangloss," said Candide to him, "now you have been -hanged, dissected, whipped, and tugging at the oar, do you continue to -think that everything in this world happens for the best?" "I have -always abided by my first opinion," replied Pangloss; "for, after all, I -am a philosopher; it would not become me to retract. Leibnitz could not -be wrong, and 'pre-established harmony' is, besides, the finest thing in -the world, as well as a 'plenum' and the 'materia subtilis'." - -When Cungonde is at last found, she is no longer beautiful--but -sunburnt, blear-eyed, haggard, withered, and scrofulous. Though ready to -fulfil his promise, her brother, a baron whom Candide has rescued from -slavery, declares that sister of his shall never marry a person of less -rank than a baron. The book is a mass of seeming extravagance, with a -deep vein of gold beneath. All flows so smoothly, the reader fancies -such fantastic nonsense could not only be easily written, but easily -improved. Yet when he notices how every sally and absurdity adds to the -effect, how every lightest touch tells, he sees that only the most -consummate wit and genius could thus deftly dissect a philosophy of the -universe for the amusement of the multitude. - -Voltaire tried to save England from the judicial murder of Admiral Byng, -who was sacrificed to national pride and political faction in 1757, yet -how lightly he touches the history in a sentence: "Dans ce pays ci il -est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres." -The pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war had no charms for -Voltaire. He shows it in its true colors as multitudinous murder and -rapine. Religious intolerance and hypocrisy, court domination and -intrigue, the evils attendant on idlers, soldiers and priests, are all -sketched in lightest outline, and the reader of this fantastic story -finds he has traversed the history of last century, seen it at its -worst, and seen, too, the forces that tended to make it better, and is -ready to exclaim: Would we had another Voltaire now! - -The philosophy of _Candide_ is that of Secularism. The world as we find -it abounds in misery and suffering. If any being is responsible for it, -his benevolence can only be vindicated by limiting his power, or his -power credited by limiting his goodness. Our part is simply to make the -best of things and improve this world here and now. "Work, then, without -disputing; it is the only way to render life supportable." - -Carlyle did much to impair the influence of Voltaire in England. Yet -what is Carlyle's essential doctrine but "Do the work nearest hand," and -what is this but a translation of the conclusion of _Candide_: "Il faut -cultiver ntre jardin"? - -Those who forget how far more true it is that man is an irrational -animal than that he is a rational one, may wonder how Voltaire, having -in _Candide_ sapped the foundations of belief in an all-good God by a -portrayal of the evils afflicting mankind, could yet remain a Theist. -The truth seems to be that Voltaire had neither taste nor talents for -metaphysics. In the _Ignorant Philosopher_ Voltaire seeks to answer -Spinoza, without fully understanding his monistic position. He appears -to have remained a dualist or modern Manichean--an opinion which James -Mill considered was the only Theistic view consistent with the facts. -Writing to D'Alembert on the 15th of August, 1767, Voltaire says: "Give -my compliments to the Devil, for it is he who governs the world." It is -curious that on the day he was writing these lines, one Napoleon -Bonaparte had just entered upon the world. - -Voltaire appears to have been satisfied with the design argument as -proving a deity, though he considered speculation as to the nature of -deity useless. He showed the Positivist spirit in his rejection of -metaphysical subtleties. "When," he writes, "we have well disputed over -spirit and matter, we end ever by no advance. No philosopher has been -able to raise by his own efforts the veil which nature has spread over -the first principles of things." Again: "I do not know the _quo modo_, -true. I prefer to stop short rather than to lose myself." Also: -"Philosophy consists in stopping where physics fail us. I observe the -effects of nature, but I confess I know no more than you do about first -principles." But a deist he ever remained. - -Baron de Gleichen, who visited him in 1757, relates that a young author, -at his wits' end for the means of living, knocked one day at the poet's -door, and to recommend himself said: "I am an apprentice atheist at your -service." Voltaire replied: "I have the honor to be a master deist; but -though our trades are opposed, I will give you some supper to-night and -some work to-morrow. I wish to avail myself of your arms and not of your -head." - -He thought both atheism and fanaticism inimical to society; but, said -he, "the atheist, in his error, preserves reason, which cuts his claws, -while those of the fanatic are sharpened in the incessant madness which -afflicts him." - -Voltaire seems to have been at bottom agnostic holding on to the narrow -ledge of theism and afraid to drop. - -He says: "For myself, I am sure of nothing. I believe that there is an -intelligence, a creative power, a God. I express an opinion to-day; I -doubt of it to-morrow; the day after I repudiate it. All honest -philosophers have confessed to me, when they were warmed with wine, that -the great Being has not given to them one particle more evidence than to -me." He believed in the immortality of the soul, yet expresses himself -dubiously, saying to Madame du Deffand that he knew a man who believed -that when a bee died it ceased to hum. That man was himself. - -On the appearance, however, in 1770 of the Baron d'Holbach's _System of -Nature_--in which he was very considerably helped by Diderot--Voltaire -took alarm at its openly pronounced atheism. "The book," he wrote, - -"has made all the philosophers execrable in the eyes of the King and his -court. Through this fatal work philosophy is lost for ever in the eyes -of all magistrates and fathers of families." He accordingly took in hand -to combat its atheism, which he does in the article _Dieu_ in the -_Philosophical Dictionary_, and in his _History of Jenni_ (Johnny), a -lad supposed to be led on a course of vice by atheism and reclaimed to -virtue by the design argument. Voltaire's real attitude seems fairly -expressed in his celebrated mot: "S'il n'y avait pas un dieu, il -fraudrait l'inventer"--"If there was not a God it would be necessary to -invent one," which, Morin remarks, was exactly what had been done. -Morley says: "It was not the truth of the theistic belief in itself that -Voltaire prized, but its supposed utility as an assistant to the -police." - - - - -THE ENCYCLOPDIA - - -Voltaire was a great stimulator of the French _Encyclopdia_, a work -designed to convey to the many the information of the few. Here again -the inspiration was English. It was the success of the _Cyclopcedia of -Arts and Sciences_, edited by the Freethinker Ephraim Chambers, in 1728, -which suggested the yet more famous work carried out by Diderot and -D'Alembert, with the assistance of such men as Helvetius, Buffon, -Turgot, and Condorcet. Voltaire took an ardent interest in the work, and -contributed many important articles. The leading contributors were all -Freethinkers, but they were under the necessity of advancing their ideas -in a tentative way on account of the vigilant censorship. Voltaire not -only wrote for the _Encyclopdia_, but gave valuable hints and -suggestions to Diderot and D'Alembert, as well as much sound advice. He -cautioned them, for instance, against patriotic bias. "Why," he asks -D'Alembert, "do you say that the sciences are more indebted to France -than to any other nation? Is it to the French that we are indebted for -the quadrant, the fire-engine, the theory of light, inoculation, the -seed-sower? _Parbleu!_ you are jesting! We have invented only the -wheelbarrow." - -Voltaire wrote the section on History. The first page contained a -Voltairean definition of sacred history which even an ignorant censor -could hardly be expected to pass. "Sacred History is a series of -operations, divine and miraculous, by which it pleased God formerly to -conduct the Jewish nation, and to-day to exercise our faith." The iron -hand beneath the velvet glove was too evident for this to pass the -censorship. Vexatious delay and the enforced excision of important -articles attended the progress of the work. - -It was the attempted suppression of _l'Encyclopcedie_ which showed -Voltaire that the time had come for battle. - -In 1757 a new edict was issued, threatening with death any one who -wrote, printed, or sold any work attacking religion or the royal -authority. The same edict assigned the penalty of the galleys to whoever -published writings without legal permit. Within six months advocate -Barbier recorded in his diary some terrible sentences. La Martelire, -verse-writer, for printing clandestinely Voltaire's _Pucelle_ and other -"such" works, received nine years in the galleys; eight printers and -binders employed in the same printing office, the pillory and three -years' banishment. Up to the period of the Revolution nothing could be -legally printed in France, and no book could be imported, without -Government authorisation. Mr. Lecky says, in his _History of England in -the Eighteenth Century_: "During the whole of the reign of Lewis XV. -there was scarcely a work of importance which was not burnt or -suppressed, while the greater number of the writers who were at this -time the special, almost the only, glory of France were imprisoned, -banished, or fined." Voltaire determined to render the bigots odious and -contemptible, and henceforth waged incessant war, continued to the day -of his death. In satire on one of the bigots he issued his _Narrative of -the Sickness, Confession, Death and Reappearance of the Jesuit -Berthier_, as rich a burlesque as that which Swift had written -predicting and describing the death of the astrologer Partridge, in -accordance with the prediction. Every sentence is a hit. A priest of a -rival order is hastily summoned to confess the dying Jesuit, who is -condemned to penance in purgatory for 333,333 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, -and 3 days, and then will only be let out if some brother Jesuit be -found humble and good enough to be willing to apply all his merits to -Father Berthier. Even putting his enemy in purgatory, he only condemned -the Jesuit every morning to mix the chocolate of a Jansenist, read aloud -at dinner a Provincial Letter, and employ the rest of the day in mending -the chemises of the nuns of Port Royal. - -From Ferney he poured forth a wasp-swarm of such writings under all -sorts of pen-names, and dated from London, Amsterdam, Berne, or Geneva. -He had sufficient stimulus in the bigotry, intolerance, and atrocious -iniquities perpetrated in the name of religion. - -Voltaire, moreover, determined himself to uphold the work of the -_Encyclopdia_ in more popular form. He put forward first his _Questions -upon the Encyclopdia_, in which he deals with some important articles -of that work, with others of his own. This was the foundation of the -most important of all his works, the _Philosophical Dictionary_, which -he is said to have projected in the days when he was with Frederick at -Berlin. In this work he showed how a dictionary could be made the most -amusing reading in the world. Under an alphabetical arrangement, he -brought together a vast variety of sparkling essays on all sorts of -subjects connected with literature, science, politics and religion. Some -of his headings were mere stalking-horses, under cover of which he shot -at the enemy. Some are concerned with matters now out of date; but, on -the whole, the work presents a vivid picture of his versatile genius. An -abridged edition, containing articles of abiding interest, would be a -service to Free-thought at the present day. - -Here is a slight specimen of his style taken from the article on -Fanaticism: "Some one spreads a rumor in the world that there is a giant -in existence 70 feet high. Very soon all the doctors discuss the -questions what color his hair must be, what is the size of his thumb, -what the dimensions of his nails; there is outcry, caballing, fighting; -those who maintain that the giant's little finger is only an inch and a -half in diameter, bring those to the stake who affirm that the little -finger is a foot thick. 'But, gentlemen, does your giant exist?' says a -bystander, modestly. - -"'What a horrible doubt!' cry all the disputants; 'what blasphemy! what -absurdity!' Then they all make a little truce to stone the bystander, -and, after having assassinated him in due form, in a manner the most -edifying, they fight among themselves, as before, on the subject of the -little finger and the nails." - -"L'Infme." - -Voltaire had other provocations to his attack on the bigots, and as he -greatly concerned himself with these, they must be briefly mentioned. In -1761 a tragedy of mingled judicial bigotry, ignorance, and cruelty was -enacted in Languedoc. On October 13th of that year, Marc Antoine, the -son of Jean Calas, a respectable Protestant merchant in Toulouse, a -young man of dissolute habits, who had lived the life of a scapegrace, -hanged himself in his father's shop while the family were upstairs. The -priestly party got hold of the case and turned it into a religious -crime. The Huguenot parents were charged with murdering their son to -prevent his turning Catholic. Solemn services were held for the repose -of the soul of Marc Antoine, and his body was borne to the grave with -more than royal pomp, as that of a martyr to the holy cause of religion. -In the church of the White Penitents a hired skeleton was exhibited, -holding in one hand a branch of palm, emblem of martyrdom, and in the -other an inscription, in large letters, "abjuration of heresy.'' The -populace, who were accustomed yearly to celebrate with rejoicing the -Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572, were excited against the -family. The father, who for sixty years had lived without reproach, was -arrested, with his wife and children. The court before whom the case was -brought, at first was disposed to put the whole family to the torture, -never doubting that the murder would be confessed by one or other of -them. But they ended by only condemning the father to be tortured, in -order to extract a confession of guilt before being broken on the wheel, -after which his body was to be burned and the ashes scattered to the -winds. He was submitted first to the _question ordinaire_. In sight of -the rack he was asked to reveal his crime. His answer was that no crime -had been committed. He was stretched on the rack until every limb was -dislocated and the body drawn out several inches beyond. He was then -subjected to the _question extraordinaire_. This consisted in pouring -water into his mouth from a horn, while his nose was pinched, till his -body was swollen to twice its size, and the sufferer endured the anguish -of a hundred drownings. He submitted without flinching to all the -excruciating agony. Finally, he was placed upon a tumbril and carried -through the howling mob to the place of execution. "I am innocent." he -muttered from time to time. At the scaffold he was exhorted to confess -by a priest: "What!" said he, "you, too, believe a father can kill his -own son!" They bound him to a wooden cross, and the executioner, with an -iron bar, broke each of his limbs in two places, striking eleven blows -in all, and then left him for two hours to die. The executioner -mercifully strangled him at last, before burning the body at the stake. -To the last he persisted in his innocence: he had no confession to make. -By his unutterable agony he saved the lives of his wife and family. Two -daughters were thrown into a convent, and the property was confiscated. -The widow and son escaped, and were provided for by Voltaire. - -He spared no time, trouble, or money to arrive at the truth, and that -once reached, he was as assiduous in his search for justice. He went to -work with an energy and thoroughness all his own. He interested the -Pompadour herself in the case. By his own efforts he forced justice to -be heard. "The worst of the worthy sort of people," he said, "is that -they are such cowards. A man groans over his wrong, shuts his lips, -takes his supper, and forgets." Voltaire was not of that fibre. Wrong -went as a knife to his heart. He suffered with the victim, and might -have justly used the words of Shelley, who compared himself unto "a -nerve, o'er which do creep the else unfelt oppressions of the world." -Voltaire had to fire others with his own fervor. He issued pamphlet -after pamphlet in which the shameful story was told with pathetic -simplicity. He employed the best lawyers he could find to vindicate the -memory of the murdered man. For three years he left no stone unturned, -until all that was possible was done to right the foul wrong of those in -authority. During this time no smile escaped him of which he did not -reproach himself as a crime. Carlyle speaks of this as "Voltaire's -noblest outburst, into mere transcendant blaze of pity, virtuous wrath, -and determination to bring rescue and help against the whole world." - -He had his pamphlets on the Calas case, seven in number, translated and -published in England and Germany, where they produced a profound effect. -A subscription for the Calas family was headed by the young Queen of -George III. When at length judgment was given, reversing the sentence, -he wrote to Damilaville: "My dear brother, there is, then, justice upon -the earth! There is, then, such a thing as humanity! Men are not all -wicked rascals, as they say! It is the day of your triumph, my dear -brother; you have served the family better than anyone." - -It was while the Calas case was pending that Voltaire composed his noble -_Treatise on Toleration_, a work which, besides its great effect in -Europe, caused Catherine II. to promise, if not to grant, universal -religious toleration throughout the vast empire she governed. - -This Calas case was scarce ended when another, almost as bad an -exhibition of intolerance, occurred. Sirven, a respectable Protestant -land surveyor, had a Catholic housekeeper, who, with the assent of the -Bishop of Castres, spirited away his daughter for the good of her soul, -and placed her in a convent, with a view to her conversion. She returned -to her parents in a state of insanity, her body covered with the marks -of the whip. She never recovered from the cruelties she had endured at -the convent. One day, when her father was absent on his professional -duties, she threw herself into a well, at the bottom of which she was -found drowned. It was obvious to the authorities that the parents had -murdered their child because she wished to become a Roman Catholic. They -most wisely did not appear, and were sentenced to be hanged when they -could be caught. In their flight the married daughter gave premature -birth to a child, and Madame Sirven died in despair. - -It took Voltaire eight years to get this abominable sentence reversed, -and to turn wrong into right. He was now between seventy and eighty -years of age, yet he threw himself into the cause of the Sirvens with -the zeal and energy which has vindicated Calas; appealing to Paris and -Europe, issuing pamphlets, feeing lawyers, and raising a handsome -subscription for the family. - -Another case was that of the Chevalier de la Barre. In 1766 a crucifix -was injured--perhaps wantonly, perhaps by accident. The Bishop of Amiens -called for vengeance. Two young officers were accused; one escaped, and -obtained by Voltaire's request a commission in the Prussian service. The -other, La Barre, was tortured to confess, and then condemned to have his -tongue cut out, his hand cut off, and to be burned alive. Voltaire, -seventy years old, devoted himself with untiring energy to save him. -Failing in that, he wrote one of his little pamphlets, a simple, graphic -_Narrative of the Death of Chevalier de la Barre_, which stirred every -humane heart in France. For twelve years this infidel vindicated the -memory of the murdered man and exposed his oppressors. One of the -authorities concerned in this judicial atrocity threatened Voltaire with -vengeance for holding them up to the execration of Europe. Voltaire -replied by a Chinese anecdote. "I forbid you," said a tyrannical emperor -to the historiographer, "to speak a word more of me." The mandarin began -to write. "What are you doing now?" asked the emperor. "I am writing -down the order that your majesty has just given me." Voltaire had sought -to save Admiral Byng. He contended in a similar case at home. Count -Lally had failed to save India from the English, had been taken -prisoner, but allowed to go to Paris to clear his name from charges made -against him. The French people, infuriate at the loss of their -possession, demanded a victim, and Lally, after a process tainted with -every kind of illegality, was condemned to death on the vague charge of -abuse of authority. The murdered man's son, known in the Revolution as -Lally Tollendal, was joined by Voltaire in the honorable work of -procuring revision of the proceedings, and one of the last crowning -triumphs of Voltaire's days was the news brought to him on his dying bed -that his long effort had availed. - -"Ecrasez L'infme." - -These are samples of what was occuring when Voltaire was exhorting his -friends to _crush the infamous_--a phrase which gave rise to much -misunderstanding, and which priests have even alleged was applied to -Jesus, their idol. A sufficient disproof, if any were needed, is that -Voltaire treats "l'infme" as feminine. _Si vous pouvez craser -l'infme, ecrasez-la, et aimez-moi." That oft-repeated phrase was -directed at no person. Nor was it, as some Protestants have alleged, -directed only at Roman Catholicism. As Voltaire saw and said, "fanatic -Papists and fanatic Calvanism are tarred with one brush." "L'infme" was -Christian superstition claiming supernatural authority and enforcing its -claim, as it has ever sought to do, by pains and penalties. He meant by -it the whole spirit of exclusiveness, intolerance, and bigotry, -persecuting and privileged orthodoxy, which he saw-as the outcome of the -divine faith. Practically, as D. F. Strauss justly remarked, "when -Voltaire writes to D'Alembert that he wishes to see the 'Infme' reduced -in France to the same condition in which she finds herself in England, -and when Frederick writes to Voltaire that philosophers flourished -amongst the Greeks and Romans, because their religion had no -dogmas--'*mais les dogmes de notre infme gtent tout_'--it is clear we -must understand by the 'Infme,' whose destruction was the watchword of -the Voltairian circle, the Christian Church, without distinction of -communions, Catholic or Protestant." - -The Catholic Joseph de Maistre shrieks: "With a fury without example, -this insolent blasphemer declared himself the personal enemy of the -Savior of men, dared from the depths of his nothingness to give him a -name of ridicule, and that adorable law which the Man-God brought to -earth he called 'l'infame.'" This is a judgment worthy of a bigot, who -dares not look into the reason why his creed is detested. Let us try and -understand this insolent blasphemer to-day. - -Voltaire looked deep into the heart of the atrocities that wrung his -every nerve with anguish. They were not new: only the humanity and -courage that assailed them were new. They were the natural outcome of -what had been Christian teaching. It was not simply that, as a matter of -fact, priests and theologians were the opponents of every kind of -rational progress, but their intolerance was the logical result of their -creed. These atrocities could not have been perpetrated had not priests -and magistrates had behind them a credulous and fanatical populace, -whose minds were suborned from childhood to believing that they had -themselves the one and divine faith, and that all heretics were enemies -of God. He saw that to destroy the intolerance he must sap the -superstition from which it sprang. He saw that the core of the Christian -superstition lay in Bibliolatry, and that while Christians believed they -had an exclusive and infallibly divine revelation, they would deem all -opposition to their own beliefs a sin, meriting punishment. Mr. Morley -says, with truth: "If we find ourselves walking amid a generation of -cruel, unjust, and darkened spirits, we may be assured that it is their -beliefs on what they deem highest that have made them so. There is no -counting with certainty on the justice of men who are capable of -fashioning and worshipping an unjust divinity; nor on their humanity, so -long as they incorporate inhuman motives in their most sacred dogma; nor -on their reasonableness, while they rigorously decline to accept reason -as a test of truth." - -Voltaire warred on Christian superstition because he keenly felt its -evils. He saw that intolerance naturally flowed from the exclusive and -dogmatic claims which alone differentiated it from other faiths. Its -inducements to right-doing he found to be essentially ignoble, appealing -either to brutal fear of punishment or base expectation of reward, and -in each case alike mercenary. He saw that terrorism engendered -brutality, that a savage will think nothing of slaughtering hundreds to -appease his angry God. He saw that it had been a fine religion for -priests and monks--those caterpillars of the commonwealth, living on the -fat of the land while pretending to hold the keys of heaven, a race of -parasites on the people, who toil not neither do they spin, and whose -direct interest lay in fostering their dupes ignorance and credulity. -The Christian tree was judged, as its founder said it should be, by its -fruits. Men do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. He -saw Christianity as Tacitus described it--"a maleficent superstition." -It was a upas tree, to be cut down; and hence he reiterated his terrible -_Delenda est Carthago,_ "Ecrasez l'Infme"--"Destroy the monster." - -He wrote to D'Alembert from Ferney: "For forty years I have endured the -outrages of bigots and scoundrels. I have found there is nothing to gain -by moderation, and that it is a deception. I must wage war openly and -die nobly, 'on a crowd of bigots slaughtered at my feet.'" His war was -relentless and unremitting. He assailed "l'Infme" with every weapon -which learning, wit, industry, and indignation could supply. - -Frederick wrote to him from the midst of his own wars: "Your zeal burns -against the Jesuits and superstitions. You do well to combat error, but -do you credit that the world will change? The human mind is weak. -Three-fourths of mankind are formed to be the slaves of the absurdest -fanaticism. The fear of the devil and hell is fascinating to them, and -they detest the sage who wishes to enlighten them. I look in vain among -them for the image of God, of which the theologians assure us they carry -the imprint." Madame du Deffand wrote in a similar strain. She assured -him that every person of sense thought as he did; why then continue? No -remonstrance moved him. He had enlisted for the war, and might have said -with Luther: _Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders_. - -Much nonsense has been written about Voltaire's employment of ridicule -against religious beliefs. I am reminded of Bishop South's remark to a -dull brother bishop, who reproved him for sprinkling his sermon with -witticisms. "Now, my lord, do you really mean to say that, if God had -given you any wit, you would not have used it?" Voltaire ridiculed what -he esteemed ridiculous. But there is nothing more galling to -superstitionists than to find that others find food for mirth in their -absurdities. - -"You mock at sacred things," said the Jesuits to Pascal when he exposed -their casuistry. Doubtless the priests of Baal said the same when Elijah -asked them whether their God was asleep, or peradventure on a journey. -The artifice of inculcating a solemn and reverential manner of treating -absurdities is the perennial recipe for sanctifying and perpetuating -superstition. "Priests of all persuasions," says Oliver Goldsmith, "are -enemies to ridicule, because they know it to be a formidable antagonist -to fanaticism, and they preach up gravity to conceal their own -shallowness of imposture." Approach the mysteries of the faith with -reverence and you concede half the battle. Christian missionaries do not -thus treat the fetishism and sorcery of heathen lands. To overcome it -they must expose its absurdities. Ridicule has been a weapon in the -hands of all the great liberators, Luther, Erasmus, Rabelais, Bruno, -Swift, but none used it more effectively than Voltaire. Buckle well -says; "He used ridicule, not as the test of truth, but as the scourge of -folly." And he adds: "His irony, his wit, his pungent and telling -sarcasms produce more effect than the gravest arguments could have done; -and there can be no doubt he was fully justified in using those great -resources with which nature had endowed him, since by their aid he -advanced the interests of truth, and relieved men from some of their -most inveterate prejudices." Victor Hugo puts the case in poetic fashion -when he declares that Voltaire was irony incarnate for the salvation of -mankind. "Ridicule is not argument"! Well, it is a pointed form of -polemic, the _argumentum ad absurdum_. "Mustapha," said Voltaire, "does -not believe, but he believes that he believes." To shame him out of -hypocrisy, there is nothing better than laughter; and if a true -believer, laughter will best free him from terror of his bogey devil and -no less bogey god. Ridicule can hurt no reality. You cannot make fun of -the multiplication table. The fun begins when the theologians assert -that three times one are one. Shaftesbury, who maintained that ridicule -was a test of truth, remarked with justice, "'tis the persecuting spirit -that has raised the bantering one." Ridicule is the natural retort to -those who seek not to convert but to convict and punish. Ridicule comes -like a stream of sunlight to dissipate the fogs of preconceived -prejudice. A laugh, if no argument, is a splendid preparative. Often, in -Voltaire, ridicule takes an argumentative form. Thus, alluding to a -Monsieur Esprit's book on the Falsity of Human Virtues, he says: "That -great genius, Mons. Esprit, tells us that neither Cato, Aristotle, -Marcus Aurelius, nor Epictetus were good men, and a good reason why, -good men are only found among Christians. Again, among the Christians, -Catholics alone are virtuous, and of the Catholics, the Jesuits, enemies -of the Oratorians, must be excepted. Therefore, there is scarce any -virtue on earth, except among the enemies of the Jesuits." - -All his characteristic scorn and ridicule come out when dealing with the -fetish book of his adversaries. The _Philosophical Dictionary_ is full -of wit upon biblical subjects. I content myself with an excerpt from the -less known _Sermon of Fifty_: "If Moses changed the waters into blood, -the sages of Pharoah did the same. He made frogs come upon the land; -this also they were able to do. But when lice were concerned, they were -vanquished; in the matter of lice, the Jews knew more and could do more -than the other nations." - -"Finally, Adona caused every first-born in Egypt to die, in order that -his people might be at their ease. For his people the sea is cloven in -twain; and we must confess it is the least that could be done on this -occasion. All the other marvels are of the same stamp. The Jews wander -in the desert. Some husbands complain of their wives. Immediately water -is found, which makes every woman who has been faithless to her husband -swell and burst. In the desert the Jews have neither bread nor dough, -but quails and manna are rained upon them. Their clothes are preserved -unworn for forty years; as the children grow, their clothes grow with -them. Samson, because he had not undergone the operation of shaving, -defeats a thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass. He ties -together three hundred foxes, which, as a matter of course, come quite -readily to his hand. - -"There is scarcely a page in which tales of this sort are not found. The -ghost of Samuel appears, summoned by the voice of a witch. The shadow of -a dial--as if miserable creatures like the Jews had dials--goes back ten -degrees at the prayer of Hezekiah, who, with great judgment, asks for -this sign. God gives him the choice of making the hour advance or -recede, and the learned Hezekiah thinks that it is not difficult to make -the shadow advance, but very difficult to make it recede. Elijah mounts -to heaven in a chariot of fire; children sing in a hot and raging -furnace. I should never stop if I entered into the detail of all the -monstrous extravagances with which this book swarms. Never was common -sense outraged so vehemently and indecently." Noticing the comparison in -the Song of Solomon, "Her nose is like the tower of Damascus," etc., he -says: "This, I own, is not in the style of the Eclogues of the author of -the neid; but all have not a like style, and a Jew is not obliged to -write like Virgil." - -This, it may be objected, is caricature and not criticism. But all that -Voltaire sought was that his blows should tell. He did not expect to be -taken _au pied du lettre_. Some of his biblical criticism is faulty, but -it is hard for the reader to recover from the tone of banter and -contempt with which he treats the sacred book. When the idol is -shattered, it is not much use saying its mouth was not quite so big and -ugly as it was represented to be. Priests have never yet been troubled -by dull criticism. They left Tindal and Chubb alone; but when Woolston, -Annet and Paine added liveliness to their infidelity, they loudly called -for the police. - -Leslie Stephen well says: "Men have venerated this or that grotesque -monstrosity because they have always approached it with half-shut eyes -and grovelling on their faces in the dust: a single hearty laugh will -encourage them to stand erect and to learn the latest of lessons--that -of seeing what lies before them. And if your holy religion does really -depend upon preserving the credit of Jonah's whale, upon justifying all -the atrocities of the Jews, and believing that a census was punished by -a plague, ridicule is not only an effective but an appropriate mode of -argument." - -Voltaire is often sneered at as a mere destructive. The charge is not -true, and, even if it were, he would none the less deserve the -admiration of posterity for his destructive work. It is as necessary for -the gardener to clear away the rubbish and keep down the weeds as to sow -and water. Mr. Morley justly observes: "He had imagination enough and -intelligence enough to perceive that they are the most pestilent of all -the enemies of mankind, the sombre hierarchs of misology, who take away -the keys of knowledge, thrusting truth down to the second place, and -discrowning sovereign reason to be the serving drudge of superstition or -social usuage." - -Voltaire was the arch iconoclast of his age, a mere destructive, if you -will. Buckie truly remarks: "All great reforms have consisted, not in -making something new, but in unmaking something old." W. J. Fox -eloquently said: "The destruction of tyranny is political freedom. The -destruction of bigotry is spiritual and mental emancipation. Positive -and negative are mere forms. Creation and destruction, as we call them, -are just one and the same work, the work which man has to do--the -extraction of good from evil." - -Much has been made of the pseudonymous character of his attacks on -Christianity, and of the subterfuges and fibs with which he sought to -evade responsibility. One might as well complain of ironclads wearing -armor in warfare. - -It was the necessity of his position. He wanted to do his work, not to -become a martyr, leaving it to unknown hands. It should be remembered -that Voltaire had sometimes to bribe publishers to bring out his -writings; and, in such circumstances, the pseudonymity is surely open to -no suspicion of baseness. His poem on _Natural Religion_ was condemned -to the flames by the decree of the Parliament of Paris, 23rd January, -1759. His _Important Examination of the Scriptures_, which he falsely -attributed to Lord Bolingbroke, was condemned with five other of his -pieces by a decree of the Court of Rome, 29th November, 1771. Could the -author have been caught, he would have had a good chance, if not of -sharing the fate of his book, at least of permanent lodgment in the -Bastille, of which he had already sufficient taste. He knew that -although Bolingbroke had no hand in its composition he largely shared -its ideas, and he obtained at once publicity and security by attributing -it to the dead friend who, Morley says, "was the direct progenitor of -Voltaire's opinions in religion." If he stuck at no subterfuge to -achieve his work, his lies injured no one. One of the funniest was the -signing one of his heterodox publications as the Archbishop of -Canterbury, a lie which may remind us of the drunken Sheridan announcing -himself as William Wilberforce. Voltaire had been Bastilled twice, and -verily believed that another taste would end his days. "I am," he said, -"a friend of truth, but no friend at all to martyrdom." Shelter behind -any ambush was necessary in such guerilla warfare as his. Over fifty of -his works were condemned, and placed upon the Index. Voltaire used no -fewer than one hundred and thirty different pen-names, which have -enabled bibliographers to display their erudition.(1) But for this -underground method, he might have been laid by the heels instead of -living to old age, with the satisfaction of seeing the world becoming a -little more humane and tolerant through his efforts. In such warfare the -only test is success, and the fact remains that Voltaire's blows told. -He cleared the course for modern science, and it is not for those who -benefit by his labors to sneer because he did not become a martyr in the -struggle. - - 1. Special mention should be made of the _Bibliographie - Voltairienne_ of M. L. Querard, and _Voltaire: Bibliographie de - ses OEuvres_, in four volumes, by M. G. Bengesco, 1882- 1890. - -Condorcet says: "His zeal against a religion which he regarded as the -cause of the fanaticism which has desolated Europe since its birth, of -the superstition which had burst about it, and as the source of the -mischief which the enemies of human nature still continued to do, seemed -to double his activity and his forces. 'I am tired,' he said one day, -'of hearing it repeated that twelve men were enough to establish -Christianity. I want to show them that one will be enough to destroy -it.'" What one man could do he did. But it took not twelve legendary -apostles, but the labor of countless thousands of men, through many -ages, to build up the great complex of Christianity, and it will need -the labors of as many to destroy it. Voltaire himself came to see this, -and wrote, in the year before his death, "I now perceive that we must -still wait three or four hundred years. One day it cannot but be that -good men will win their cause; but before that glorious day arrives, how -many disgusts have we to undergo, how many dark persecutions, without -reckoning the La Barres of whom they will make an _auto de fe_ from time -to time." - -John Morley remarks: "The meaner partisans of an orthodoxy, which can -only make wholly sure of itself by injustice to adversaries, has always -loved to paint the Voltairean school in the characters of demons, -enjoying their work of destruction with a sportive and impish delight. -They may have rejoiced in their strength so long as they cherished the -illusion that those who first kindled the torch should also complete the -long course and bear the lamp to the goal. When the gravity of the -enterprise showed itself before them, they remained alert with all -courage, but they ceased to fancy that courage necessarily makes men -happy. The mantle of philosophy was rent in a hundred places, and bitter -winds entered at a hundred holes; but they only drew it the more closely -around them." - -It may remain an inspiration to others, as it assuredly is a proof of -the temperance and moderation of his own life, that much of Voltaire's -best work was done after he had reached his sixtieth year. _Candide_, -his masterpiece, was written at the age of sixty-four. Four years later -he produced his _Sermon of the Fifty_, and he was sixty-nine when he -published his epoch-making _Treatise upon Toleration_, and _Saul_, the -wittiest of his burlesque dramas. At the age of seventy he issued his -most important work, the _Philosophical Dictionary_, and his burlesque -upon existing superstitions, which he entitled _Pot-Pourri_. This was, -indeed, the period of his greatest literary activity against "l'Infame." -His _Questions on the Miracles_, his _Examination of Lord Bolingbroke_, -the _Questions of Zapata_, the _Dinner of Count de Boulainvilliers_ (the -charming _resum_ of Voltaire's religious opinions, which had the honor -to be burnt by the hand of the hangman), the _Canonisation of St. -Cucufin_, the romance of the _Princess of Babylon_, the _A. B. and C._, -the collection of _Ancient Gospels_, and his _God and Men_, all being -issued while he was between seventy and seventy-five. It was at this -time he edited the _Recueil Ncessaire avec l'Evangile de la Raison_, a -collection of anti-Christian tracts dated Leipsic and London, but -printed at Amsterdam. He was eighty when he put forth his _White Bull_ -(one of the funniest of his pieces, which was translated by Jeremy -Bentham), and his ridiculous skit on Bababec and the Fakirs; eighty-two -when he wrote _The Bible Explained_ and _A Christian against Six Jews_; -and eighty-three when he published his _History of the Establishment of -Christianity_. - -It was thus in the last twenty years of his long life that Voltaire did -his best work for the destruction of prejudice and the spread of -enlightenment. At the same time he maintained a large correspondence, -both with the principal sovereigns of Europe, whom he urged in the -direction of tolerance, and with the leading writers, whom he wished to -combine in a great and systematic attempt to sap the creed he believed -to be at the root of superstition and intolerance. - -It is in his lengthy and varied correspondence with intimates, extending -over sixty years, that Voltaire most truly reveals himself. He is -therein his own minute biographer, revealing not only his actions, but -their actuation. We see him therein not merely the prince of -_persifleurs_, but the serious sensitive thinker, keenly alive to -friendship, love, and work for the higher interests of humanity. His -letters are among the most varied, interesting, and delightful of any -left by a great man of letters. Like all his other productions, they -display the fertility of his genius. Over ten thousand separate letters -are catalogued by Bengesco. Their very extent prevents their being -widely read, but they reveal the perennial brightness of his mind, his -delight in work, his love of literature and liberty, his constant gaiety -and goodness of heart, with here and there only a flash of indignation -and contempt. They are imbued with the spirit of friendship, abound in -anecdotes and pleasantries, mingled with a passionate earnestness for -the interest of mankind. Constantly we find him endeavoring to elevate -the literary class, to raise the drama, continually seeking to encourage -talent, to relieve suffering, and to defend the oppressed. - - - - -LAST DAYS - - -With the authorities at Geneva Voltaire had got into dispute, owing to -his attempt to establish a private theatre in the territory still -dominated by the ghost of Calvin. Moreover, he was continually reminding -them of Servetus. When D'Alembert's article on Geneva appeared the -citizens were enraged, and Voltaire thought proper to also purchase an -estate near Lausanne, in the Vaud Canton, which was somewhat less -austere in theatrical matters. Here Gibbon was also residing at the -time. - -Stupid stories have been told of Gibbon's attempts to see Voltaire, and -of their mutual laughter at each other's ugliness. Voltaire is said to -have refused himself to the young Englishman, which is very unlikely, -and that he replied: "You are like the Christian God: he permits one to -eat and drink, but will never show himself." It is said that he got -Voltaire's mare let loose on purpose to see the old man chase after him. -Voltaire sent a servant to charge him twelve sous for seeing the great -beast, whereupon he gave twenty-four, with the remark, "that will pay -for a second visit." Gibbon himself, speaking of the winter of 1757-58, -which he spent in the neighborhood of Lausanne, says: "My desire of -beholding Voltaire, whom I then rated above his real magnitude, was -easily gratified. He received me with civility as an English youth, but -I cannot boast of any peculiar notice or distinction. The highest -gratification which I derived from Voltaire's residence at Lausanne was -the uncommon circumstance of hearing a great poet declaim his own -productions on the stage. He had formed a company of gentlemen and -ladies, some of whom were not destitute of talents. My ardor, which soon -became conspicuous, seldom failed of procuring me a ticket.... The wit -and philosophy of Voltaire, his table and theatre, refined in a visible -degree the manners of Lausanne; and, however addicted to study, I -enjoyed my share of the amusements of society." - -This taste for directing theatrical representations was shared, perhaps -we might say followed, by his great German admirer Goethe. It was -Voltaire's relaxation. One of his most particular friends was the great -actor Le Kain. The drama was with him an instrument of education. He -believed it to be a means both of softening and refining manners, and -also of dispersing intolerance and superstition. - -Voltaire soon afterwards purchased a third estate at Ferney, just a -little over the French border, and here, eventually, he lived _en grande -seigneur_, and was known as the "patriarch of Ferney." A philosopher, he -said, with hounds at his heels, like a fox should never trust to one -hole. Accordingly, he had within easy distance the choice of three -distinct governments wherein to find a place of refuge, for, as Carlyle -remarks, he "had to keep his eyes open and always have covert within -reach, under pain of being torn to pieces, while he went about in the -flesh, or rather in the bones, poor lean being." He now had wealth, -independence, and an assurance of safety, and had come to that time of -life when most men who are able think they may fairly retire from their -labors. But now was the time when he, casting aside all other pleasures -and ambitions, threw himself with unflagging energy and unsurpassed -industry into the great task of his life. It was from Ferney he issued -all the remarkable works of his later years. - -At Ferney, the old church obstructing his view of the Alps, he built a -new one, and got into trouble for doing so. He had inscribed on it, "Deo -erexit Voltaire, 1761," a phrase which betrayed rather patronage than -devotion. - -"It is," he remarked, "the only church dedicated to God alone; all the -others are dedicated to saints. For my part, I would rather worship the -master than the valets." On another occasion, he said: "Yes, I adore -God; but not monsieur his son, and madame his mother." It was observed -of the inscription that he had only a single word between himself and -God. From the wall of his church he also built a tomb for himself. "The -wicked will say that I am neither inside nor outside," he remarked. Of -the church he remarked: "The wicked will say, no doubt, that I am -building this church in order to throw down the one which conceals a -beautiful prospect, and to have a grand avenue; but I let the impious -talk, and go on working out my salvation." If the wicked made the -remarks predicted, they doubtless spoke the truth. It was even reported -that Voltaire personally superintended the removal of the old ruinous -one, saying, "Take away that gibbet" when pointing to the crucifix. The -_cure_ of Moens, the parish adjoining Ferney, cited Voltaire before the -ecclesiastical official of Gex as guilty of impiety and sacrilege, and -Wagnire, Voltaire's secretary, says: "Those gentlemen indulged the -confident hope that M. de Voltaire would be burned, or at least hanged, -for the greater glory of God and the edification of the faithful. This -they said publicly." Voltaire was enabled to strike terror to his -persecutor by producing a royal ordinance of 1627 forbidding a _cure_ to -serve either as prosecutor or judge in such cases. The church remains, -but the celebrated inscription was effaced during the Restoration of the -Monarchy. - -Ferney became an asylum for the oppressed both from France and -Switzerland. Many of these Voltaire located in and about his chteau, -but, as their number increased, he built nice stone houses, and, in a -little time, the miserable hamlet which before his arrival had been a -wilderness, became a prosperous colony of twelve hundred individuals and -a veritable free State. There were both Protestants and Catholics among -them, but such was the unanimity in which they lived under his -protection, that we are told no one could conceive that different -religions existed among them. Among this colony he established the -manufacture of weaving and of watches, by means of which his people -presently became wealthy; the Empress Catherine II., even when engaged -in her Turkish campaigns, paying her _bon ami_ Voltaire the compliment -of assisting the Ferney colony by an order for watches to the value of -some thousand roubles. He pushed the work of his colonists into repute -throughout the world, and was justified in saying to the Duke of -Richelieu, "Give me a fair chance, and I am the man to build a city." - -Though everywhere maligned as an infidel and a scoffer, his life was one -long act of benevolence. The watches of Ferney became known as those of -Geneva. "Fifteen years ago," said a visitor, "there were barely at -Ferney three or four cottages and forty inhabitants; now it is -astonishing to see a numerous and civilised colony, a theatre, and more -than a hundred pretty houses." "His charities," says General Hamley, -"were munificent. When the Order of Jesuits was suppressed he took one -of the body, Father Adam, into his house, and made him his almoner, a -post which was far from being a sinecure." Hearing that Mademoiselle -Corneille, the grandniece of the poet, was in poverty, Voltaire, in the -most delicate manner, invited her to his house, treated her as a -relation, and gave her an education suitable to her descent. "It is," he -said, "the duty of an old soldier to be useful to the daughter of his -general." That she might not feel under personal obligation, he devoted -to her dowry the profits of his _Commentaries on Corneille_. - -"A description is given of him in his last days at Ferney, seated under -a vine, on the occasion of a _fte_, and receiving the congratulations -and complimentary gifts of his tenantry and neighbors, when a young -lady, whom he had adopted, brought him in a basket a pair of white doves -with pink beaks, as her offering. He afterwards entertained about 200 -guests at a splendid repast, followed by illuminations, songs, and -dances, and was himself so carried away in an access of gaiety as to -throw his hat into the air. But his merriment ended in a tempest of -wrath; for learning, in the course of the evening, that the two doves -which had figured so prettily in the _fte_ had been killed for the -table, his indignation at the stolid cruelty which could shed the blood -of the creatures they had all just admired and caressed, knew no -bounds." - -Diderot, who shares with Voltaire the glory of being the intellectual -landmark of last century, and who equalled him as an artist and excelled -him as a philosopher, only met Voltaire a little before his death. The -fame of Voltaire's wealth had kept him from Ferney. Speaking of Voltaire -in old age, Diderot says: "He is like one of those old haunted castles, -which are falling into ruins in every part; but you easily perceive that -it is inhabited by some ancient magician." Diderot was the better -critic, and controverted the patriarch as to the merits of Shakespeare, -whom he compared to the statue of Saint Christopher at Notre -Dame--unshapely and rude; but: such a colossus that ordinary petty men -could pass between his legs without touching him. - -Late in life, Voltaire adopted Reine Philiberte de Vericourt, a young -girl of noble but poor family, whom he had rescued from a convent life, -installed in his own house, and married to the Marquis de Villette. Her -pet name was _Belle et Bonne_, and no one had more to do with the -happiness of the last years of Voltaire than she. She watched by the -dying Voltaire's bedside, and Lady Morgan thus records her report: "To -his last moment everything he said and did breathed the benevolence and -goodness of his character. All announced in him tranquility, peace, -resignation; except a little moment of ill-humor which he showed to the -_cure_ of St. Sulpice when he begged him to withdraw, and said, 'Let me -die in peace.'" - -Voltaire himself wrote to Mme. du Deffand: "They say sometimes of a man, -'He died like a dog'; but, truly, a dog is very happy to die without all -the ceremony with which they persecute the last moments of our lives. If -they had a little charity for us, they would let us die without saying -anything about it. The worst is that we are then surrounded by -hypocrites, who worry us to make us think as they do not in the least -think; or else by imbeciles, who desire us to be as stupid as they are. -All this is very disgusting. The only pleasure of life at Geneva is that -people can die there as they like; many worthy persons summon no priest -at all. People kill themselves if they please, without any one -objecting; or they await the last moment, and no one troubles them about -it." - -Under suffering, age, and impending death, Voltaire's bearing, as -Carlyle acknowledges, "one must say is rather beautiful." Voltaire had -all his life "enjoyed" bad health. He had always a feeble constitution, -and was a confirmed invalid for the greater part of his life, suffering -from bladder disorder, and a variety of other diseases that would have -soon finished an ordinary man. We may say he was sustained by his work, -which was ever gay, even when most pessimistic. "My eyes are as red as a -drunkard's," he writes, "and I have not the honor to be one." His wit -lasted in old age. A visitor to Ferney, hearing him praise Haller -enthusiastically, told him that Haller did not do him equal justice. -"Ah," said Voltaire, lightly, "perhaps we are both mistaken." To Bailly, -the astronomer, he wrote, at the age of eighty-one: "A hundred thanks -for the book of medicine which you sent me, together with your own -[_History of Ancient Astronomy_], when I was very unwell. I have not -opened the first. The second I have read and feel much better." He kept -himself at work with coffee. His interest was ever in his work. At the -very last, the new dictionary he had proposed to the Academy was on his -mind; it was not proceeding as rapidly as his indefatigable spirit -desired. "J'ai fait un pen de bien; c'est mon meilleur ouvrage"--"I have -done a little good; that is my best work," was one of his latest -utterances. - -His physicians gave their opinion that he might have lived even longer -than he did had he not been lured to Paris by his niece (unprepossessing -Madame Denis) to superintend the production of his last tragedy _Irene_. -Asked at the barrier if there was anything contraband in the carriage, -he replied, "Only myself." On entering Paris he received a shock in the -news that his friend Le Kain, the actor, had been buried the day before. -He was visited by Benjamin Franklin, who brought his grandson, whom they -desired to kneel for the patriarch's blessing. Pronouncing in English -the words, "God, Liberty, Toleration"--"this," said Voltaire, "is the -most suitable benediction for the grandson of Franklin." Poems, -addresses and deputations came thick upon him, and his hotel was -thronged with visitors of rank and eminence. The popular voice hailed -the aged patriarch, especially as the defender of Calas, the apostle of -universal toleration; and this title was more gratifying to him than any -other. - -In one house where Voltaire called on his last visit to Paris, the -mistress reproached him for the obstinacy with which, in extreme old age -(over eighty-three), he continued to assail the Church and its beliefs. -"Be moderate and generous," said she, "after the victory. What can you -fear now from such adversaries? The fanatics are prostrate (_ terre_). -They can no longer injure. Their reign is over." Voltaire replied: "You -are in error, madame; it is a fire that is covered but not extinguished. -Those fanatics, those Tartuffes, are mad dogs. They are muzzled, but -they have not lost their teeth. It is true they bite no more; but on the -first opportunity, if their teeth are not drawn, you will see if they -will not bite." All that one man could do was done by Voltaire. More -than any other, he helped to muzzle the mad dog of religious -intolerance, lassoing it dexterously with his finespun silken thread, -since replaced by a stronger cord. But the beast even yet is not dead; -its teeth are not all drawn. Give it a chance and it will still bite. -What we have to thank Voltaire for is, that he has left works which, as -he himself said, are "scissors and files to file the teeth and pare the -talons of the monsters." - -Voltaire was, as he said, stifled in roses. He sat up at night -perfecting _Irene_, and his unwearied activity induced him at his great -age to begin a Dictionary upon a novel plan which he prevailed upon the -French Academy to take up. At the performance of his tragedy he was -crowned with laurel in his box, amid the plaudits of the audience. To -keep himself up under the excitement, he exceeded even his usual excess -of coffee. These labors and dissipation brought on spitting of blood, -and sleeplessness, to obviate which he took opium. Condorcet says the -servant mistook one of the doses, which threw him into a state of -lethargy, from which he never recovered. He lingered for some time, but -at length expired on the 30th of May, 1778, in his eighty-fourth year. - -Of course lying tales of dying horrors were floated, and disbelieved in -by all who knew him. He wished to rest in his own churchyard, and let -the _abb_ Gaultier and the _cur_ de St. Sulpice squabble as to who -should have, the honor of his conversion. His secretary, being alone -with him, begged him to state what his view continued to be when he -believed himself dying; and received this written declaration: "I die -adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, detesting -superstition"--"Je meurs eti adorant dieu, en aimant mes amis, en ne -baissant pas mes ennemis, de testant superstition." This dying -declaration may be seen at the _Bibliothque Nationale_, Paris (Fr. -11,460), written, signed and dated by him in a still firm hand, -February, 1778. - -Into the stories told of Voltaire's dying moments and many similar -legends, my colleague, Mr. G. W. Foote, has fully entered in his -_Infidel Deathbeds_. He quotes the following extract from a letter by -Dr. Burard, who, as assistant physician, was constantly about Voltaire -in his last moments: - -"I feel happy in being able, while paying homage to truth, to destroy -the effect of the lying stories which have been told respecting the last -moments of Mons. de Voltaire. I was, by office, one of those who were -appointed to watch the whole progress of his illness, with MM. -Tron-chin, Lorry, and Try, his medical attendants. I never left him for -an instant during his last moments, and I can certify that we invariably -observed in him the same strength of character, though his disease was -necessarily attended with horrible pain. (Here follow the details of his -case.) We positively forbade him to speak, in order to prevent the -increase of a spitting of blood, with which he was attacked; still he -continued to communicate with us by means of little cards, on which he -wrote his questions; we replied to him verbally, and if he was not -satisfied, he always made his observations to us in writing. He -therefore retained his faculties up to the last moment, and the -fooleries which have been attributed to him are deserving of the -greatest contempt. It could not even be said that such or such person -had related any circnmstance of his death, as being witness to it; for -at the last, admission to his chamber was forbidden to any person. Those -who came to obtain intelligence respecting the patient, waited in the -saloon, and other apartments at hand. The proposition, therefore, which -has been put in the mouth of Marshal Richelieu is as unfounded as the -rest. - -"Paris, April 3rd, 1819. - -"(Signed) Burard." - -The actual facts are thus told by Mr. Parton: "Ten minutes before he -breathed his last he roused from his slumber, took the hand of his -valet, pressed it, and said to him: 'Adieu, my dear Morand; I am dying.' -These were his last words." - -D'Alembert, in a letter to Frederick, written after Voltaire's death, -thus recorded the impression made on him by the dying man. Having -described the stupefying effects of the opium which left his head clear -only for brief intervals, D'Alembert, who saw him during one of them, -proceeds: "He recognised me and even spoke to me some friendly words. -But the moment after he fell back into his state of stupor, for he was -almost always dying. He awoke only to complain and to say 'he had come -to Paris to die.'" Throughout his illness, D'Alembert adds, "he -exhibited, to the extent which his condition permitted, much tranquility -of mind, although he seemed to regret life. I saw him again the day -before his death, and to some friendly words of mine he replied, -pressing my hand, 'You are my consolation.'" - -It is certain the heads of the French Church did not consider that -Voltaire had made a death-bed conversion, for they refused his body -burial in consecrated ground. They had anathematised him when alive and -proscribed him when dead. He had prepared a tomb for himself under the -sky, where he had grown old and done good, but he was cheated out of his -rights, and it was decided that he who built the church had no right to -have his bones bleach in the cemetery. Letters were sent to the Bishop -of Annecy, in whose diocese Ferney was, enjoining him to prohibit the -_cure_ thereof from giving Voltaire's remains Christian burial in his -own churchyard. Voltaire's nephew, the _abb_ Mignot, held a ruined -abbey at Scillieres, in Champagne, a hundred miles or so from Paris; and -here the body was secretly hurried off and interred. On the very day of -interment the Bishop of the diocese wrote to the Prior forbidding the -burial. There was even some talk of having the body exhumed, and the -clergy clamored for the expulsion of the Prior. Grimm relates that "the -players were forbidden to act M. de Voltaire's pieces till further -orders, the editors of the public papers to speak of his death in any -terms, either favorable or unfavorable, and the preceptors of the -colleges to suffer any of their scholars to learn his verses." - -In 1791, by a decree of the National Assembly and amid the acclamation -of the people, his body was brought and placed in the Pantheon, where it -rested beside that of Rousseau. At the Restoration in 1814 some bigoted -Royalist stole away the bones, which were thrown into a hole with lime -poured on them. - -In person Voltaire was always slim, with the long head which, Carlyle -says, "is the best sign of intelligence." His thinness is commemorated -by the poor but well-known epigram attributed to Young, and identifying -him at once with "Satan, Death, and Sin." In old age he became a mere -skeleton, with eyes of great brilliancy peering beneath his wig. He was -sober and temperate save in coffee, which he drank as inveterately as -Johnson did tea. Conversation and literature were, as with Johnson, the -gods of his idolatry. - - - - -HIS CHARACTER AND SERVICES - - -Bolingbroke finely said of Marlborough: "He was so great a man that I -forget his errors." One can as justly say the same of Voltaire. I have -scant sympathy with those who, dealing with great men, seek every -opportunity of bringing them down to the common level. Voltaire was by -no means a faultless character. He was far indeed from being an -immaculate hero: he had the failings of his age and of his training. But -they form no essential part of his work. How much has been made of the -coarseness and immorality of Luther by men like Father Anderdon! All men -have the defects of their qualities. Condorcet, in his _Life of -Voltaire_, has placed on record this just criticism: "The happy -qualities of Voltaire were often obscured and distorted by a natural -mobility, aggravated by the habit of writing tragedies. He passed in a -moment from anger to sympathetic emotion; from indignation to -pleasantry. His passions, naturally violent, sometimes transported him -too far; and his excessive mobility deprived him of the advantages -ordinarily attached to passionate tempers--firmness in conduct--courage -which no terrors can withhold from action, and which no dangers, -anticipated beforehand, can shake by their actual presence. Voltaire has -often been seen to expose himself rashly to the storm--seldom to meet it -with fortitude. These alternations of audacity and weakness have often -afflicted his friends, and prepared unworthy triumphs for his envenomed -enemies." - -He was too ready to lash the curs who barked at his heels, thereby -stimulating them to further noise. Scandalous ex-Jesuit Desfontaines, -L'Ane de Mirepoix, Thersites Frron and the rest, would be forgotten had -he not condescended to apply the whip. Voltaire was always something of -a spoilt child, over-sensitive to every reproach. His petulance impelled -him to absurd displays of weakness and frenzy, which he was the first to -regret. He was generous even to his enemies when they were in trouble. -The weaknesses of Voltaire were, like his smile, on the surface, but -there was a great human heart beating beneath. - -The restlessness of Voltaire has been contrasted with the repose of -Goethe, and Gallic fury with calm Teutonic strength. But which of the -two men did most for humanity? Voltaire might have been as calm as -Goethe had he been indifferent to everything but his own culture and -comfort. No! he loved the fight. When the battle of freedom raged, there -was he in the thick of it, considering not his reputation, but what he -could do to crush the infamous. An enemy said of him: "He is the first -man in the world at writing down what other people have thought." Mr. -Morley justly considers this high and sufficient praise. - -The life of a writer was defined by Pope as "a warfare upon earth." -Never was this truer than in the case of Voltaire, who himself said: -"_La vie 'un homme de lettres est un combat perptuel et on meurt les -armes la main._" He was ever in the midst of the fight, and usually -alone and surrounded by enemies. And his unfailing resources not merely -kept them at bay, but compelled their surrender of an immense territory. -His was a life of creation and contest. In the war against despotism and -Christianity he achieved a new kingship of public opinion, and proved -that the pen was indeed mightier than the sword. - -Heine said: "We should forgive our enemies--but not until they are -hung." Voltaire forgave his when he had gibbeted them in his writings. -People who find it difficult to understand his bitterness against -"L'Infme" should remember the revolting cruelty of which religious -bigotry was still capable in his day. The Revocation of the Edict of -Nantes, the prolonged horrors of the Thirty Years' War, and the Massacre -of St. Bartholomew vibrated still. Condorcet wrote: "The blood of many -millions of men, massacred in the name of God, still steams up to heaven -around us. The earth on which we tread is everywhere covered with the -bones of the victims of barbarous intolerance." His rhetoric expressed -the feeling of a generation who knew by experience the evils of -religious bigotry and fanaticism. - -It is as a champion of Freethought that Voltaire deserves chiefly to be -remembered. In that capacity I can only find words of praise. Complaints -of his flippancy, his _persiflage_, his ridicule, his scurrility, his -etc., came, and still come, from the enemy, and show that his blows told -and tell. If he did not crush the infamous he at least crippled it. No -doubt, under different circumstances, - -Voltaire would have fought differently. But he would never have thought -of treating atrocities without indignation, or absurdities without -ridicule. Gravity is a part of the game of imposture, and there is -nothing the hypocrites and humbugs resent so much as having their solemn -pretensions laughed at. . - -He knew the subtle power of ridicule. It was the most effective weapon, -not only for the time and the nation in which he wrote, but for our time -also. His blows were all dealt with grace and agility; his pills were -sugar-coated. Grimm well said of him: "He makes arrows of every kind of -wood, brilliant and rapid in their flight, but with a keen, unerring -point. Under his sparkling pen, erudition ceases to be ponderous and -becomes full of life. If he cannot sweep the grand chords of the lyre, -he can j strike on golden medals his favorite maxims, and is j -irreproachable in the lighter order of poetry." But, I contend, there -was a fundamental earnestness in his character; he was the apostle of -plain every-day common sense and good feeling. - -Voltaire is judged by the character which distinguishes him from other -writers, his light touch and superficial raillery. Because he is _par -excellence_ a _persifleur_, he is set down as merely a _persifleur_. -Never was there a greater mistake. It is forgotten that he did not write -witty tales and squibs only; that he made France acquainted with the -philosophy of Locke and the science of Newton; that he wrote the _Age of -Louis XIV._, the _History of the Parliament of Paris_, and the _Essay on -Manners_ (which revived the historic method), and that he wrote more -than twenty tragedies which transformed the French theatre. Voltaire was -no mere mocker: his _manner_ was that of a _persifleur_, but his matter -was as solid as that of any theologian. - -M. Louis de Brouckere, of the University of Brussels, justly claims for -Voltaire a double share in the formation of modern culture and the -development of modern science. He contributed to it directly by his -personal works, and indirectly by antagonising the forces retarding -knowledge and creating an intellectual environment eminently favorable -to the formation of synthetic knowledge, and a new public opinion common -to the intellectual _lite_ of Europe. - -Voltaire knew how to marshal against reigning prejudices and errors all -the resources of vast learning and an incomparable wit; but no one more -clearly than he saw that the doctrines he destroyed must be replaced by -others, that humanity cannot get along without a body of common beliefs; -and he contributed more than any one else to the elaboration of the new -intellectual code by uniting and harmonising the efforts of special -_savants_ and isolated thinkers, by giving them a clear consciousness -that what they aimed at was the same thing and common to them all. - -He never slackened his efforts to appease the quarrels which broke out -in the camp of the philosophers, to group all his _spiritual brothers_ -in one compact bundle, capable of joint action, to unite them in a laic -_church_ which could be utilised to oppose existing churches. The words -I here italicise were underlined by him; they are found on every page of -his correspondence, and he loses no opportunity to reiterate them and -explain their meaning precisely. - -If the publication of the _Encyclopoedia_ was the work of Diderot, the -union of the group of men who rendered that publication possible was, in -great measure, the work of Voltaire. If Condorcet wrote just before his -death his immortal _Sketch_, Voltaire took a preponderating part in the -creation of the intellectual atmosphere in which Condorcet lived and -could develop his genius. - -Voltaire was assuredly not so coarse as Luther, nor even as his -contemporary Warburton. He carried lighter guns than Luther, but was -more alert and equally persistent. His war against superstition and -intolerance was life-long. Luther smote powerful blows at the church -with a bludgeon; Voltaire made delicate passes with a rapier. Catholics -often declaim against the coarseness of the monk-trained Protestant -champion. They also protest against the trickery of the Jesuit-trained -Freethinker. It is sufficient to say Luther could not have done his work -had he not been coarse. Nor could Voltaire have done his had he not been -a tricksy spirit. Judged by his work, he was one of the best of men, -because he did most good to his fellows, and because in his heart was -the most burning love of truth, of justice and toleration. In the words -of Lecky, he did "more to destroy the greatest of human curses than any -other of the sons of men." His numerous volumes are the fruit and -exposition of a spirit of encyclopaedic curiosity. He assimilated all -the thought and learning of his time, and brought to bear on it a wit -and common sense that was all his own. - -Voltaire is never so passionately in earnest as when he speaks against -cruelty and oppression. Every sentence quivers with humanity. He -denounces war as no "moralist for hire" in a pulpit has ever done, as a -scourge of the poor, the weak, and the helpless, to whom he is ever -tender. Whenever he sees tyranny or injustice, he attacks it. He wrote -against torture when its employment was an established principle of law. -He denounced duelling when that form of murder was the chief feature of -the code of honor. He waged warfare upon war when, it was considered -man's highest glory. - -His attacks on the judicial iniquity of torture--so often callously -employed on those supposed instruments of Satan, heretics and -witches--were incessant, and it was owing to his influence that the -practice was abolished in France by Turgot, his friend, as it had been -in Prussia by Frederick, and in Russia by Catherine, his disciples. He -advocated the abolition of mutilation, and all forms of cruelty in -punishment. He satirised the folly of punishing murder and robbery by -the same capital penalty, and thus making assassination the interest of -the thief; the barbarity of confiscating the property of children for -the crime of the father; and the intricacies and consequent injustice of -legal methods. He sought to abolish the sale of offices, to equalise -taxation, and to restrict the power of priests to prescribe degrading -penances and excessive abstinences. He wrote with fervor against the -remnants of serfdom, and defended the rights of the serfs in the Jura -against their monastic oppressors. Mr. Lecky says: "His keen and -luminous intellect judged with admirable precision most of the popular -delusions of his time. He exposed with great force the common error -which confounds all wealth with the precious metals. He wrote against -sumptuary laws. He refuted Rousseau's doctrine of the evil of all -luxury." - -Voltaire's work went deeper than political reform. He dealt with ideas, -not institutions. In a little treatise called the _Voyage of Reason_, -which he wrote as late as 1774, he enumerates with exultation the -triumphs of reforms which he himself had witnessed. He had previously -written, in 1764: "Everything I see scatters the seeds of a revolution -which will indubitably arrive, and which I shall not have the happiness -to witness." Buckle notes that "the further he advanced in years, the -more pungent were his sarcasms against ministers, the more violent were -his invectives against despotism"; and it was said of him in the early -days of the Revolution, when it was sanguine but not yet sanguinary, "He -did not see what has been done, but he did all that we see." - -He teaches no mystery, but the open secret of Secularism--_il faut -cultiver ntre jardin_ (we must cultivate our garden). "Life," he said, -"is thickly sown with thorns. I know no other remedy than to pass -rapidly over them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is -their power to harm us." Economy, he declared, is the source of -liberality, and this maxim he reduced to practice. He ridiculed all -pretences; those of the physician as well as of the metaphysician. "What -have you undertaken?" he said, smiling, to a young man, who answered -that he was studying medicine. "Why, to convey drugs of which you know -little into a body of which you know less!" "Regimen," said he, "is -better than physic. Everyone should be his own physician. Eat with -moderation what you know by experience agrees with your constitution. -Nothing is good for the body but what we can digest. What medicine can -procure digestion? Exercise. What recruit strength? Sleep. What -alleviate incurable evils? Patience." - -The tone of Voltaire is not fervid or heroic, like, for instance, that -of Carlyle; but he worked, as Carlyle did not, for a great cause. He -felt for suffering outside himself. Without mysticism or fanaticism, -aiming at no remote or impracticable ideal, he ever insisted on meeting -the problems of life with practical good sense, toleration, and -humanity. He sought always for clear ideas, tangible results, and as Mr. -Lecky says, "labored steadily within the limits of his ideals and of his -sympathies, to make the world wiser, happier, and better place than he -found it." - -Voltaire wrote: "My motto is, 'Straight to the fact,'" and this was a -characteristic which equally marked him and Frederick. He had a horror -of phrases. "Your fine phrases," said one to him. "My fine phrases! -Learn that I never made one in my life." His style is indeed marked by -restraint and simplicity of diction. He wrote to D'Alembert: "You will -never succeed in delivering men from error by means of metaphysics. You -must prove the truth by facts." As an instance of his apt mingling of -fact with reason and ridicule, take his treatment of the doctrine of the -Resurrection in the _Philosophical Dictionary_. "A Breton soldier goes -to Canada. He finds by chance he falls short of food. He is forced to -eat an Iroquois he has killed over-night. This Iroquois had nourished -himself on Jesuits during two or three months, a great part of his body -has become Jesuit. So there is the body of this soldier composed of -Iroquois, Jesuit, and whatever he had eaten before. How will each resume -precisely what belonged to him?" - -Magnify his failings as you may, you cannot obliterate his one -transcendent merit, his humanity ever responsive to every claim of -suffering or wrong. He stood for the rights of conscience, for the -dignity of human reason, for the gospel of Freethought. - -Voltaire may not be placed with the great inspiring teachers of mankind. -But it must be acknowledged that, as Mr. George Saintsbury, no mean -critic, says: "In literary craftsmanship, at once versatile and -accomplished, he has no superior and scarcely a rival." - -He declared that he loved the whole of the nine Muses, and that the -doors of the soul should be open to all sciences and all sentiments. He -employed every species of composition--poetry, prose, tragedy, comedy, -history, dialogue, epistle, essay or epigram--as it suited his purpose, -and he excelled in all. Argument or raillery came alike. He made reason -amusing, and none like him could ridicule the ridiculous. His charm as a -writer has been the occasion of the obloquy attached to his name by -bigots. They can never forgive that he forced people to smile at their -superstition. - -Much, of course, of Voltaire's multitudinous work was directed to -immediate ends, and but for his grace of style would be of little -present interest. But after all winnowings by the ever-swaying fan of -time much is left of enduring value. The name of Voltaire will ever be a -mighty one in literature: a glorious example of what a man may achieve -who is strong in his love of humanity. - - - - -TRIBUTES TO VOLTAIRE - - -As a contrast to the views of Dr. Johnson and De Maistre, which for -generations represented the current opinion of Protestants and -Catholics, I bring together a few independent testimonies. As time goes -on his admirers increase in volume, while his detractors now are mainly -those who have an interest in or secret sympathy with the abuses he -destroyed. And first, I will give the testimony of Goldsmith who had met -him. It was written while Voltaire was alive, but when a false report of -his death had been received in England. "Should you look for the -character of Voltaire among the journalists and illiterate writers of -the age, you will find him there characterised as a monster, with a head -turned to wisdom, and a heart inclining to vice--the powers of his mind -and the baseness of his principles forming a detestable contrast. But -seek for his character among writers like himself, and you will find him -very differently described. You perceive him, in their accounts, -possessed of good nature, humanity, greatness of soul, fortitude, and -almost every virtue: in this description those who might be supposed -best acquainted with his character are unanimous. The royal Prussian, -D'Argens, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Fontenelle conspire in drawing the -picture, in describing the friend of man, and the patron of every rising -genius." - -Lord Byron's lines on Voltaire and Gibbon (_Childe Harold_, iii., -105-107) are well known. He says: - - They were gigantic minds, and their steep aim - Was, Titan-like, on daring doubts to pile - Thoughts which should call down thunder, and the flame - Of Heaven again assail'd, if Heaven the while - On man and man's research could deign do more than smile. - - The one was fire and fickleness, a child - Most mutable in wishes, but in mind - A wit as various,--gay, grave, sage, or wild,-- - Historian, bard, philosopher, combined; - He multiplied himself among mankind, - The Proteus of their talents: - But his own - Breathed most in ridicule,--which, as the wind, - Blew where it listed, laying all things prone,-- - Now to o'erthrow a fool, and now to shake a throne. - - The other, deep and slow, exhausting thought, - And having wisdom with each studious year, - In meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, - And shaped his weapon with an edge severe, - Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer; - The lord of iron,--that master-spell, - Which stung his foes to wrath, which grew from fear, - And doom'd him to the zealot's ready Hell, - Which answers to all doubts so eloquently well. - -Warton, the learned critic and author of a _History of Poetry_ -(Dissertation I.) remarked: "Voltaire, a writer of much deeper research -than is imagined, and the first who has displayed the literature and -customs of the dark ages with any degree of penetration and -comprehension." Robertson, the historian, similarly observed that, had -Voltaire only given his authorities, "many of his readers who only -consider him as an entertaining and lively writer would have found that -he is a learned and well informed historian." - -Lord Holland wrote, in his account of the _Life and Writings of Lope de -Vega_: "Till Voltaire appeared there was no nation more ignorant of its -neighbors' literature than the French. He first exposed and then -corrected this neglect in his countrymen. There is no writer to whom the -authors of other nations, especially of England, are so indebted for the -extension of their fame in France, and, through France, in Europe. There -is no critic who has employed more time, wit, ingenuity, and diligence -in promoting the literary intercourse between country and country, and -in celebrating in one language the triumphs of another. His enemies -would fain persuade us that such exuberance of wit implies a want of -information; but they only succeed in showing that a want of wit by no -means implies an exuberance of information." - -Goethe said: "Voltaire will ever be regarded as the greatest name in -literature in modern times, and perhaps even in all ages, as the most -astonishing creation of nature, in which she united, in one frail human -organisation, all the varieties of talent, all the glories of genius, -all the potencies of thought. If you wish depth, genius, imagination, -taste, reason, sensibility, philosophy, elevation, originality, nature, -intellect, fancy, rectitude, facility, flexibility, precision, art, -abundance, variety, fertility, warmth, magic, charm, grace, force, an -eagle sweep of vision, vast understanding, instruction rich, tone -excellent, urbanity, suavity, delicacy, correctness, purity, cleanness, -eloquence, harmony, brilliancy, rapidity, gaiety, pathos, sublimity and -universality--perfection indeed--behold Voltaire." - -Lord Brougham, in his _Lives of Men of Letters and Science who -flourished in the time of George III_., devotes a considerable section -to Voltaire. After censuring "the manner in which he devoted himself to -crying down the sacred things of his country," he continues: "But, -though it would be exceedingly wrong to pass over this great and -prevailing fault without severe reprobation, it would be equally unjust, -nay, ungrateful, ever to forget the immense obligations under which -Voltaire has laid mankind by his writings, the pleasure derived from his -fancy and his wit, the amusement which his singular and original humor -bestows, even the copious instruction with which his historical works -are pregnant, and the vast improvement in the manner of writing history -which we owe to him. Yet, great as these services are--among the -greatest that can be rendered by a man of letters--they are really of -far inferior value to the benefits which have resulted from his long and -arduous struggle against oppression, especially against tyranny in the -worst form which it can assume, the persecution of opinion, the -infraction of the sacred right to exercise the reason upon all subjects, -unfettered by prejudice, uncontrolled by authority, whether of great -names or of temporal power." - -Macaulay, in his _Essay on Frederick the Great_, observes: "In truth, of -all the intellectual weapons which have ever been wielded by man, the -most terrible was the mockery of Voltaire. Bigots and tyrants, who had -never been moved by the wailing and cursing of millions, turned pale at -his name." - -Carlyle, in his depreciatory essay, acknowledged: "Perhaps there is no -writer, not a mere compiler, but writing from his own invention or -elaboration, who has left so many volumes behind him; and if to the -merely arithmetical we add a critical estimate, the singularity is still -greater; for these volumes are not written without an appearance of due -care and preparation; perhaps there is not one altogether feeble and -confused treatise, nay, one feeble and confused sentence to be found in -them." And at the end he admits: "He gave the death-stab to modern -Superstition! _That_ horrid incubus, which dwelt in darkness, shunning -the light, is passing away; with all its racks and poison chalices, and -foul sleeping-draughts, is passing away without return. It was a most -weighty service." - -One of the strangest of tributes to Voltaire is that from Ruskin, the -disciple of Carlyle. In his _Fors Clavigera_ (vol. viii., p. 76) he -says: "There are few stronger adversaries to St. George than Voltaire. -But my scholars are welcome to read as much of Voltaire as they like. -His voice is mighty among the ages." - -Dr. D. F. Strauss wrote: "Voltaire's historical significance has been -illustrated by the observation of Goethe that, as in families whose -existence has been of long duration, Nature sometimes at length produces -an individual who sums up in himself the collective qualities of all his -ancestors, so it happens also with nations, whose collective merits (and -demerits) sometimes appear epitomised in one individual person. Thus in -Louis XIV. stood forth the highest figure of a French monarch. Thus, in -Voltaire, the highest conceivable and congenial representative of French -authorship. We may extend the observation farther, if, instead of the -French nation only, we take into view the whole European generation on -which Voltaire's influence was exercised. From this point of view we may -call Voltaire emphatically the representative writer of the eighteenth -century, as Goethe called him, in the highest sense, the representative -writer of France." - -Victor Hugo, in the magnificent oration which he pronounced on the -centenary of Voltaire's death, said: "Voltaire waged the splendid kind -of warfare, the war of one alone against all--that is to say, the grand -warfare; the war of thought against matter; the war of reason against -prejudice; the war of the just against the unjust; the war of the -oppressed against the oppressor; the war of goodness; the war of -kindness. He had the tenderness of a woman and the wrath of a hero. He -was a great mind and an immense heart. He conquered the old code and the -old dogma. He conquered the feudal lord, the Gothic judge, the Roman -priest. He raised the populace to the dignity of people. He taught, -pacified, and civilised. He fought for Sirven and Montbailly, as for -Calas and La Barre. He accepted all the menaces, all the persecutions, -calumny, and exile. He was indefatigable and immovable. He conquered -violence by a smile, despotism by sarcasm, infallibility by irony, -obstinacy by perseverance, ignorance by truth." - -Buckle, in his _History of Civilisation_ (vol. ii., p. 304) says: "It -would be impossible to relate all the original remarks of Voltaire, -which, when he made them, were attacked as dangerous paradoxes, and are -now valued as sober truths. He was the first historian who recommended -universal freedom of trade; and although he expresses himself with great -caution, still, the mere announcement of the idea is a popular history -forms an epoch in the progress of the French mind. He is the originator -of that important distinction between the increase of population and the -increase of food, to which political economy has been greatly indebted, -a principle adopted several years later by Townsend, and then used by -Malthus as the basis of his celebrated work. He has, moreover, the merit -of being the first who dispelled the childish admiration with which the -Middle Ages had been hitherto regarded. In his works the Middle Ages are -for the first time represented as what they really were--a period of -ignorance, ferocity, and licentiousness; a period when injuries were -unredressed, crime unpunished, and superstition unrebuked." Again (page -308): "No one reasoned more closely than Voltaire when reasoning suited -his purpose. But he had to deal with men impervious to argument; men -whose inordinate reverence for antiquity had only left them two ideas, -namely, that everything old is right, and that everything new is wrong. -To argue against these opinions would be idle indeed; the only other -resource was to make them ridiculous, and weaken their influence by -holding up their authors to contempt. This was one of the tasks Voltaire -set himself to perform; and he did it well. He therefore used ridicule, -not as the test of truth, but as the scourge of folly. And with such -effect was the punishment administered that not only did the pedants and -theologians of his own time wince under the lash, but even their -successors feel their ears tingle when they read his biting words; and -they revenge themselves by reviling the memory of the great writer whose -works are as a thorn in their side, and whose very name they hold in -undisguised abhorrence." - -Mr. Lecky, in his _History of Rationalism in Europe_ (vol. ii., p. 66) -says: "Voltaire was at all times the unflinching opponent of -persecution. No matter how powerful was the persecutor, no matter how -insignificant was the victim, the same scathing eloquence was launched -against the crime, and the indignation of Europe was soon concentrated -upon the oppressor. The fearful storm of sarcasm and invective that -avenged the murder of Calas, the magnificent dream in the _Philosophical -Dictionary_ reviewing the history of persecution from the slaughtered -Canaanites to the latest victim who had perished at the stake, the -indelible stigma branded upon the persecutors of every age and of every -creed, all attested the intense and passionate earnestness with which -Voltaire addressed himself to his task. On other subjects a jest or a -caprice could often turn him aside. When attacking intolerance he -employed, indeed, every weapon; but he employed them all with the -concentrated energy of a profound conviction. His success was equal to -his zeal; the spirit of intolerance sank blasted beneath his genius. -Wherever his influence passed, the arm of the inquisitor was palsied, -the chain of the captive riven, the prison door flung open. Beneath his -withering irony, persecution appeared not only criminal but loathsome, -and since his time it has ever shrunk from observation and masked its -features under other names. He died, leaving a reputation that is indeed -far from spotless, but having done more to destroy the greatest of human -curses than any other of the sons of men." - -Mr. Lecky, in his _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_ (v., -312), observes: "No previous writer can compare with him in the wideness -and justness of his conceptions of history, and even now no historian -can read without profit his essays on the subject. No one before had so -strongly urged that history should not be treated as a collection of -pictures or anecdotes relating to courts or battles, but should be made -a record and explanation of the true development of nations, of the -causes of their growth and decay, of their characteristic virtues and -vices, of the changes that pass over their laws, customs, opinions, -social and economical conditions, and over the relative importance and -well-being of their different classes... (p. 315). Untiring industry, an -extraordinary variety of interests and aptitudes, a judgment at once -sound, moderate, and independent, a rare power of seizing in every -subject the essential argument or facts, a disposition to take no old -opinions on trust and to leave no new opinions unexamined, combined in -him with the most extraordinary literary talent. Never, perhaps, was -there an intellect at once so luminous, versatile, and flexible, which -produced so much, which could deal with such a vast range of difficult -subjects without being ever obscure, tangled, or dull." - -Colonel Hamley wrote: "But after the winnowings of generations, a wide -and deep repute still remains to him; nor will any diminution which it -may have suffered be without compensation, for, with the fading of old -prejudices, and with better knowledge, his name will be regarded with -increased liking and respect. Yet it must not be supposed that he is -here held up as a pattern man. He was, indeed, an infinitely better one -than the religious bigots of that time. He believed, with far better -effect on his practice than they could boast, in a Supreme Ruler. He was -the untiring and eloquent advocate at the bar of the universe of the -rights of humanity." - -Mr. Swinburne has well expressed this characteristic. "Voltaire's great -work," he says, "was to have done more than any other man on record to -make the instinct of cruelty not only detestable, but ludicrous; and so -to accomplish what the holiest and the wisest of saints and philosophers -had failed to achieve: to attack the most hideous and pernicious of -human vices with a more effective weapon than preaching and -denunciation: to make tyrants and torturers look not merely horrible and -hateful, but pitiful and ridiculous." - -Edgar Quinet, in his lectures on the Church, says: "I watch for forty -years the reign of one man who is himself the spiritual direction, not -of his country, but of his age. From the corner of his chamber he -governs the realm of mind. Everyday intellects are regulated by his; one -word written by his hand traverses Europe. Princes love and kings fear -him. Nations repeat the words that fall from his pen. Who exercises this -incredible power which has nowhere been seen since the Middle Ages? Is -he another Gregory VII? Is he a Pope? No--Voltaire." - -And Lamartine, in similar strain, remarks: "If we judge of men by what -they have _done_, then Voltaire is incontestibly the greatest writer of -modern Europe. No one has caused, through the powerful influence of his -genius alone and the perseverance of his will, so great a commotion in -the minds of men. His pen aroused a sleeping world, and shook a far -mightier empire than that of Charlemagne, the European empire of a -theocracy. His genius was not _force_, but _light_. Heaven had destined -him not to destroy, but to illuminate; and wherever he trod, light -followed him, for Reason--which is light--had destined him to be, first -her poet, then her apostle, and lastly her idol." - -Mr. Alexander A. Knox, writing in the _Nineteenth Century_ (October -1882), says: "That the man's aspirations were in the main noble and -honorable to humanity, I am sure. I am equally so that few men have -exercised so great an influence upon their fellow creatures.... The -wonderful old man! When he was past eighty years of age he set to work, -like another Jeremy Bentham, to abolish the admission of hearsay -evidence into French legal proceedings. But his great work was that by -his wit and irony he broke down the _principle of authority_ which had -been so foully abused in France. Would the most strictly religious man -wish to see religion as it was in France in the eighteenth century? -Would the greatest stickler for authority wish to find a country -governed as France was governed in the days of Voltaire?" - -Du Bois-Reymond, the eminent German scientist, remarks: "Voltaire is so -little to us at present because the things he fought for, 'toleration, -spiritual freedom, human dignity, justice,' have become, as it were, the -air we breathe, and do not think of except when we are deprived of it." - -Col. R. G. Ingersoll, in his fine _Oration on Voltaire_, observes: -"Voltaire was perfectly equipped for his work. A perfect master of the -French language, knowing all its moods, tenses, and declinations--in -fact and in feeling playing upon it as skilfully as Paganini on his -violin, finding expression for every thought and fancy, writing on the -most serious subjects with the gaiety of a harlequin, plucking jests -from the mouth of death, graceful as the waving of willows, dealing in -double meanings that covered the asp with flowers and flattery, master -of satire and compliment, mingling them often in the same line, always -interested himself, therefore interesting others, handling thoughts, -questions, subjects as a juggler does balls, keeping them in the air -with perfect ease, dressing old words in new meanings, charming, -grotesque, pathetic, mingling mirth with tears, wit and wisdom, and -sometimes wickedness, logic and laughter. With a woman's instinct, -knowing the sensitive nerves--just where to touch--hating arrogance of -place, the stupidity, of the solemn, snatching masks from priest and -king, knowing the springs of action and ambition's ends, perfectly -familiar with the great world, the intimate of kings and their -favorites, sympathising with the oppressed and imprisoned, with the -unfortunate and poor, hating tyranny, despising superstition, and loving -liberty with all his heart. Such was Voltaire, writing _OEdipus_ at -seventeen, _Irne_ at eighty-three, and crowding between these two -tragedies the accomplishment of a thousand lives." - -The Right Hon. John Morley testifies: "Voltaire was the very eye of -modern illumination. It was he who conveyed to his generation in a -multitude of forms the consciousness at once of the power and the rights -of human intelligence. Another might well have said of him what he -magnanimously said of his famous contemporary, Montesquieu, that -humanity had lost its title-deeds, and he had recovered them. The -four-score volumes which he wrote are the monument, as they were the -instrument, of a new renascence. They are the fruit and representation -of a spirit of encyclopaedic curiosity and productiveness. Hardly a page -of all these countless leaves is common form. Hardly a sentence is there -which did not come forth alive from Voltaire's own mind, or which was -said because some one else had said it before. Voltaire was a stupendous -power, not only because his expression was incomparably lucid, or even -because his sight was exquisitely keen and clear, but because he saw -many new things, after which the spirits of others were unconsciously -groping and dumbly yearning. Nor was this all. Voltaire was ever in the -front and centre of the fight. His life was not a mere chapter in a -history of literature. He never counted truth a treasure to be -discreetly hidden in a napkin. He made it a perpetual war cry, and -emblazoned it on a banner that was many a time rent, but was never out -of the field." We may fitly conclude with Browning's incisive lines in -_The Two Poets of Croisie_:-- - - _"Ay, sharpest, shrewdest steel that ever stabbed_ - - _To death Imposture through the armour joints."_ - - - - -SELECTIONS FROM VOLTAIRE'S WORKS - - - - -History - - -The world is old, but history is of yesterday.--_Mlanges Historiques_. - -If you would put to profit the present time, one must not spend his life -in propagating ancient fables.--_Ibid_. - -A mature man who has serious business does not repeat the tales of his -nurse.--_Ibid_. - -Search through all nations and you will not find one whose history does -not begin with stories worthy of the Four Sons of Aymon and of Robert -the Devil.--_Politique et Legislation._ - -Ancient histories are enigmas proposed by antiquity to posterity, which -understands them not--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. "Histoire"). - -A real fact is of more value than a hundred antitheses.--_Melanges -Historiques_. - -I have a droll idea. It is that only people who have written tragedies -can throw interest into our dry and barbarous history. There is -necessary in a history, as in a drama, exposition, knotty plot, and -_dnouement_, with agreeable episode.--_Corr. gn._ 1740. - -They have made but the history of the kings, not that of the nation. It -seems that during fourteen hundred years there were only kings, -ministers, and generals among the Gauls. But our morals, our laws, our -customs, our intelligence--are these then nothing?--_Corr_., 1740. - -Is fraud sanctified by being antiquated?--_Sottisier_. - -I have ever esteemed it charlatanry to paint, other than by facts, -public men with whom we have had no connection.--_Corr. gen._, 1752. - -If one surveys the history of the world, one finds weaknesses punished, -but great crimes fortunate, and the world is a vast scene of brigandages -abandoned to fortune.--_Essai sur les Moeurs_, c. 191. - -Since the ancient Romans, I have known no nation enriched by -victories.--_Contant d' Orville_, i. 337. - -To buy peace from an enemy is to furnish him with the sinews of -war.--_Ibid_, p. 334. - -The grand art of surprising, killing, and robbing is a heroism of the -highest antiquity.--_Dial_. 24. - -Murderers are punished, unless they kill in grand company to the sound -of trumpets; that is the rule.--_Dict. Phil_. (Art. "Droit"). - -We formerly made war in order to eat; but in the long run, all the -admirable institutions degenerate.--_Dial._ 24. - -It suffices often that a mad Minister of State shall have bitten another -Minister for the rabies to be communicated in a few months to five -hundred thousand men.--_Ibid_. - -In this world there (are) only offensive wars; defensive ones are only -resistance to armed robbers.--_Ibid._ - -Twenty volumes in folio never yet made a revolution. It is the portable -little shilling books that are to be feared. If the Gospel cost twelve -hundred sesterces, the Christian religion would never have been -established.--_Correspondence with D1 Alembert_, 1765. - - - - -Wars - - -C.: What, you do not admit there are just wars? - -A.: I have never known any of the kind; to me it appears contradictory -and impossible. - -C.: What! when the Pope Alexander VI. and his infamous son Borgia -pillaged the Roman States, strangled and poisoned the lords of the land, -while according them indulgences: was it not permissible to arm against -these monsters? - -A.: Do you not see that it was these monsters who made war? Those who -defended themselves from aggression but sustained it. There are -constantly only offensive wars in this world; the defensive is nothing -but resistance to armed robbers. - -C.: You mock us. Two princes dispute an heritage, their right is -litigious, their reasons equally plausible; it is necessary then that -war should decide, and this war is just on both sides. - -A.: It is you who mock. It is physically impossible that both are right, -and it is absurd and barbarous that the people should perish because one -of these two princes has reasoned badly. Let them fight together in a -closed field if they wish, but that an entire people should be -sacrificed to their interests, there is the horror.--_l' A.B.C._ - - - - -Politics - - -They have discovered in their fine politics the art of causing those to -die of hunger who, by cultivating the earth, give the means of life to -others.--_Sottisier._ - -Society has been too long like a game of cards, where the rogues cheat -the dupes, while sensible people dare not warn the losers that they are -deceived.--_Questions sur les Miracles_. - -They have only inculcated belief in absurdities to men in order to -subdue them.--_Ibid._ - -The most tolerable of all governments is doubtless the republican, since -that approaches the nearest towards natural equality.--_Ides -Rpublicaines._ - -A Republican is ever more attached to his country than a subject to his, -for the same reason that one loves better his own possessions than those -of a master.--_Penses sur le Gouvernement._ - -Give too much power to anybody and be sure they will abuse it. Were the -monks of La Trappe spread throughout the world, let them confess -princesses, educate youth, preach and write, and in about ten years they -would be similar to the Jesuits, and it would be necessary to repress -them.--_Ml. Balance Egale_. - -What are politics beyond the art of lying a propos?--_Contant -D'Orville_. - -"Reasons of State" is a phrase invented to serve as excuse for -tyrants.--_Commentaire sur le trait des Dlits._ - -The best government is that where there are the fewest useless -men.--Dial. 4. - -Man is born free. The best government is that which most preserves to -each mortal this gift of nature.--_Histoire de Russie_. - -To be free, to have only equals, is the true life, the natural life of -man; all other is an unworthy artifice, a poor comedy, where one plays -the rle of master, the other of slave, this one a parasite, and that -other a pander.--_Dial. 24._ - -Why is liberty so rare? Because it is the best possession.--_Dict. -Phil_. ("Venise"). - -Those who say that all men are equal, say truth if they mean that men -have an equal right to liberty, to the property of their own goods, and -the protection of the laws. They are much deceived if they think that -men should be equal in their employments, since they are not so by their -faculties.--_Essai sur les Moeurs_, i. - -Despotism is the punishment of the bad conduct of men. If a community is -mastered by one man or by several, it is plainly because it has not the -courage and ability necessary for self-government.--_Ides -Republic-aines_, 1765. - -I do not give myself up to my fellow-citizens without reserve. I do not -give them the power to kill or to rob me by plurality of votes. I submit -to help them, and to be aided, to do justice, and to receive it. No -other agreement.--_Notes on Rousseau's "Social Contract"_ - - - - -The Population Question - - -_The Man of Forty Crowns_: I have heard much talk of population. Were we -to take it into our heads to beget double the number of children we now -do; were our country doubly peopled, so that we had forty millions of -inhabitants instead of twenty, what would happen? - -_The Geometrician_: Each would have, instead of forty, but twenty crowns -to live upon; or the land would have to produce the double of what it -now does; or there would be the double of the nation's industry, or of -gain from foreign countries; or one half of the nation sent to America; -or the one half of the nation should eat the other.--_The Man of Forty -Crowns._ - - - - -Nature's Way - - -Nature cares very little for individuals. There are other insects which -do not live above one day, but of which the species is perpetual. Nature -resembles those great princes who reckon as nothing the loss of four -hundred thousand men, so they but accomplish their august designs.-- -_The Man of Forty Crowns._ - - - - -Prayer - - -When the man of forty crowns saw himself the father of a son, he began -to think himself a man of some weight in the state; he hoped to furnish, -at least, ten subjects to the king, who should all prove useful. He made -the best baskets in the world, and his wife was an excellent sempstress. -She was born in the neighborhood of a rich abbey of a hundred thousand -livres a year. Her husband asked me, one day, why those gentlemen, who -were so few in number, had swallowed so many of the forty crown lots? -"Are they more useful to their country than I am?"--"No, dear -neighbor."--"Do they, like me, contribute at least to the population of -it?"--"No, not to appearance, at least."--"Do they cultivate the land? -Do they defend the state when it is attacked?"--"No, they pray to God -for us."--"Well, then, I will pray to God for them, and let us go -snacks."--_The Man of Forty Crowns._ - - - - -Doubt and Speculation - - -_The Man of Forty Crowns_: I have sometimes a great mind to laugh at all -I have been told. - -_The Geometrician_: And a very good mind it is. I advise you to doubt of -everything, except that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two -right ones, and that triangles which have the same bases and height are -equal to one another; or like propositions, as, for example, that two -and two make four. - -_The Man of Forty Crowns_: Yes; I hold it very wise to doubt; but I am -curious since I have made my fortune and have leisure. I could wish, -when my will moves my arm or my leg, to discover the spring, for surely -there is one, by which my will moves them. I wonder sometimes why I can -lift or lower my eyes, yet cannot move my ears. I think--and I wish I -could know a little how--I mean,--there, to have my thought palpable to -me, to touch it, as it were. That would surely be very curious. I want -to find out whether I think from myself, or whether it is God that gives -me my ideas; whether my soul came into my body at six weeks, or at one -day old; how it lodged itself in my brain; whether I think much when in -a profound sleep, or in a lethargy. I torture my brains to know how one -body impels another. My sensations are no less a wonder to me; I find -something divine in them, and especially in pleasure. I have striven -sometimes to imagine a new sense, but could never arrive at it. -Geometricians know all these things; kindly be so good as to teach me. - -_The Geometrician_: Alas! We are as ignorant as you. Apply to the -Sorbonne. - - - - -Dr. Pangloss and the Dervish - - -In the neighborhood lived a very famous dervish, who was deemed the best -philosopher in Turkey; him they went to consult. Pangloss was spokesman -and addressed him thus:-- - -"Master, we come to beg you to tell us why so strange an animal as man -has been formed?" - -"Why do you trouble your head about it?" said the dervish; "is it any -business of yours?" - -"But, reverend father," said Candide, "there is a horrible amount of -evil on the earth." - -"What signifies it," says the dervish, "whether there is evil or good? -When His Highness sends a ship to Egypt does he trouble whether the rats -aboard are comfortable or not?" - -"What is to be done, then?" says Pangloss. - -"Be silent," answers the dervish. - -"I flattered myself," replied Pangloss, "to have reasoned a little with -you on causes and effects, the best of possible worlds, the origin of -evil, the nature of the soul, and on pre-established harmony." - -At these words the dervish shut the door in their faces.--_Candide_. - - - - -Motives for Conduct - - -_Countess_: Apropos, I have forgotten to ask your opinion upon a matter -which I read yesterday in a story by these good Mohammedans, which much -struck me. Hassan, son of Ali, being bathing, one of his slaves threw -over him by accident some boiling water. His servants wished to impale -the culprit. Hassan, instead, gave him twenty pieces of gold. "There -is," said he, "a degree of glory in Paradise for those who repay -services, a greater one for those who forgive evil, and a still greater -one for those who recompense involuntary evil." What think you of his -action and his speech? - -_The Count_: I recognise there my good Moslems of the first ages. - -_Abb_: And I, my good Christians. - -_M. Frret_: And I am sorry that the scalded Hassan, son of Ali, should -have given twenty pieces of gold in order to have glory in Paradise. I -do not like interested fine actions. I should have wished that Hassan -had been sufficiently virtuous and humane to have consoled the despair -of the slave without even dreaming of being placed in the third rank in -Paradise.--_Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers_. - - - - -Self-Love - - -Self-love and all its off-shoots are as necessary to man as the blood -which flows in his veins. Those who would take away his passions because -they are dangerous resemble those who would deplete a man of all his -blood lest he should fall into apoplexy.--_Trait de Metaphysique._ - - - - -Go From Your Village - - -A stupid said: "I must think like my _bonze_ (priest), for all my -village agrees with him." Go from your village, poor man, and you will -find ten thousand others who have each their _bonze_, and who all think -differently. - - - - -Religious Prejudices - - -If your nurse has told you that Ceres presides over corn, or that Vishnu -or Sakyamuni became men several times, or that Odin awaits you in his -hall towards Jutland, or that Mohammed or some other travelled to -Heaven; if, moreover, your preceptor deepens in your brain what the -nurse, has engraved, you will hold it all your life. Should your -judgment rise against these prejudices, your neighbors, above all your -female neighbors, will cry out at the impiety and frighten you. Your -dervish, fearing the diminution of his revenue, may accuse you before -the Cadi, and this Cadi impale you if he can, since he desires to rule -over fools, believing fools obey better than others; and this will -endure till your neighbors, and the dervish, and the Cadi begin to -understand that folly is good for nothing and that persecution is -abominable.--_Dictionnaire Philosophique_. - - - - -Sacred History - - -I abandon to the declaimer Bossuet the politics of the Kings of Judah -and Samaria, who only understood assassination, beginning with their -King David (who took to the trade of brigand to make himself king, and -assassinated Uriah when he was his master); and to wise Solomon, who -began by assassinating Adonijah, his own brother, at the foot of the -altar. I am tired of the absurd pedantry which consecrates the history -of such a people to the instruction of children.--_l'A.B.C._ - - - - -Dupe And Rogue - - -Are there theologians of good faith? Yes, as there have been men who -believed themselves sorcerers.--_Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers._ - -Enthusiasm begins, roguery ends. It is with religion as with gambling. -One begins by being dupe, one ends by being rogue.--_Le Diner du Comte -de Boulainvilliers._ - -Every country has its bonzes. But I recognise that there are as many of -them deceived as deceivers. The majority are those blinded by enthusiasm -in their youth, and who never recover sight; there are others who have -preserved one eye, and see all squintingly. These are the stupid -charlatans.--_Entre deux Chinois._ - - - - -"Delenda Est Carthago" - - -Theology must absolutely be destroyed, just as judicial astrology, -magic, the divining rod, and the Star Chamber have been -destroyed.--_l'A.B.C._ - - - - -Jesus and Mohammed - - -_L'Abb_: How could Christianity have established itself so high if it -had nothing but fanaticism and fraud at its base? - -_Le Comte_: And how did Mohammedanism establish itself. Mohammed at -least could write and fight, and Jesus knew neither writing nor -self-defence. Mohammed had the courage of Alexander, with the mind of -Numa; and your Jesus, sweat, blood, and water. Mohammedanism has never -changed, while you have changed your religion twenty times. There is -more difference between it, as it is to-day, from what it was in the -first ages, than there is between your customs and those of King -Dagobert.--_Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers._ - - - - -How Faiths Spread - - -But how do you think, then, that my religion became established? Like -all the rest. A man of strong imagination made himself followed by some -persons of weak imagination. The flock increased; fanaticism commences, -fraud achieves. A powerful man comes; he sees a crowd, ready bridled and -with a bit in its teeth; he mounts and leads it.--_Dial, et entr. ph., -Dialogue 19._ - - - - -Superstition - - -The superstitious man is to the knave what the slave is to the tyrant; -nay, further, the superstitious man is governed by the fanatic, and -becomes one.--_Dict. Phil. (Art. "Superstition")_. - - - - -The Bible - - -If there are many difficulties we cannot solve, mysteries we cannot -comprehend, adventures which we cannot credit, prodigies which display -the credulity of the human mind, and contradictions which it is -impossible to reconcile, it is in order to exercise our faith and -to-humiliate our reason.--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. "Contradictions"). - - - - -Transubstantiation - - -Julius II. makes and eats God; but with armor on his back and helmet on -his head he wades in blood and carnage. Leo X. holds God in his body, -his mistresses in his arms, and the money extorted by the sale of -indulgences in his coffers, and those of his sister.--_Dict. Phil._ -(Art. "Eucharist"). - - - - -Dreams and Ghosts - - -Have you not found, like me, that they are the origin of the opinion so -generally diffused throughout antiquity touching spectres and manes? A -man deeply afflicted at the death of his wife, or his son, sees them in -his sleep; they have the same characteristics; he speaks to them, they -reply; they have certainly appeared to him. Other men have had similar -dreams. It is impossible, then, to doubt that the dead return; but it is -certain at the same time that these dead--whether buried or reduced to -ashes, or lost at sea--could not reappear in their bodies. It is, then, -their soul that has been seen. This soul must be extended, light, -impalpable, since in speaking with it we cannot embrace it. _Effugit -imago per levibus vetitis_ (Virgil). It is moulded, designed upon the -body which it habited, since it perfectly resembles it. It is given the -name of shade or manes, and from all this a confused idea remains in the -head, which perpetuates itself all the better because nobody understands -it.--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. "Somnambulists and Dreams" ). - - - - -Mortifying the Flesh - - -Had vanity never any share in the public mortifications which attended -the eyes of the multitude? "I scourge myself, but 'tis to expiate your -faults; I go stark naked, but 'tis to reproach the luxury of your -garments; I feed on herbs and snails to correct your vice of gluttony; I -put an iron ring on my body to make you blush at your lewdness. -Reverence me as a man cherished by the gods, who can draw down their -favors on you. When accustomed to reverence, it will not be hard to obey -me; I become your master in the name of the gods; and if you transgress -my will in the least particular, I will have you impaled to appease the -wrath of heaven." If the first fakirs did not use these words, they -probably had them engraven at the bottom of their hearts.--_Dict. Phil._ -(Art. "Austerities"). - - - - -Heaven - - -_Kon._: What is meant by "the heaven and the earth: mount up to heaven, -be worthy of heaven"? - -_Cu Su._: 'Tis but stupidity, there is no heaven; each planet is -surrounded by its atmosphere, and rolls in space around its sun. Each -sun is the centre of several planets which travel continually around it. -There is no up nor down, ascension nor descent. You perceive that if the -inhabitants of the moon said that some one ascended to the earth, that -one must render himself worthy of earth, he would talk nonsense. We do -so likewise when we say we must be worthy of heaven; it is as if we said -we must be worthy of air, worthy of the constellation of the Dragon, -worthy of space.--_Catchisme chinois._ - - - - -Magic - - -All the fathers of the Church, without exception, believed in the power -of magic. The Church always condemned magic, but she always believed it; -she excommunicated sorcerers, not as deluded madmen, but as men who -really had intercourse with devils.--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. -"Superstition"). - - - - -DETACHED THOUGHTS - - -There are vices which it is better to ignore than to punish. - -One should not pronounce a word in public which an honest woman cannot -repeat. - -I know no great men but those who have rendered great services to -humanity. - -Honor has ever achieved greater things than interest. - -Occupation and work are the only resources against misfortune. - -My maxim is to fulfil all my duties to-day, because I am not sure of -living to-morrow. - -Most men die before having lived. - -It is necessary to combat nature and fortune till the last moment, and -to never despair till one is dead. - -Work without disputing; it is the only way to render life supportable. - -Passions are the winds that swell the sails of the ship. It is true, -they sometimes sink her, but without them she could not sail at all. The -bile makes us sick and choleric; but without the bile we could not live. -Everything in this world is dangerous, and yet everything in it is -necessary. - -We should introduce into our existence all imaginable modes, and open -every door of the minds to all kinds of knowledge, and all sorts of -feelings. So long as it does not all go in pell-mell, there is room -enough for all. - -It is the part of a man like you [Vauvenargues] to have preferences, but -no exclusions. - -The unwise value every word in an author of repute. - -Opinion governs the world, and philosophers in the long run govern -opinion. - -We enjoin mankind to conquer their passions. Make the experiment of only -depriving a man, in the habit of taking it, of his pinch of snuff. - -Do we not nearly all resemble the aged General of ninety years, who, -seeing some young fellows larking with the girls, said to them angrily: -"Gentlemen, is that the example which I give you?" - -Passions are diseases. To cure a man of a criminal intention, we should -give him not counsel, but a dose of physic. - -Women are like windmills, fixed while they revolve. - -I fear lest marriage may not rather be one of the seven deadly sins than -one of the seven sacraments. - -Divorce is probably of about the same date as marriage. - -I believe, however, that marriage is several weeks the elder. - -War is an epitome of all wickedness. - -The race of preachers inveigh against little vices, and pass over great -ones in silence. They never sermonise against war. - -What strange rage possesses some people to insist on our all being -miserable? They are like a quack, who would fain have us believe we are -ill, in order to sell us his pills. Keep thy drugs, my friend, and leave -me my health. - -Can one change their character? Yes, if one changes their body. - -Men are fools, but ecclesiastics are their leaders. - -I do not believe even eye-witnesses when they tell me things opposed to -common sense. - -The fanatics begin with humility and kindness, and have all ended with -pride and carnage. - -The Pope is an idol, whose hands are tied and whose feet are kissed. - -What an immense book might be composed on all the things once believed, -of which it is necessary to doubt. - -That which can be explained in many ways does not merit being explained -in any. - -Theology is in religion what poison is among food. - -Theology has only served to upset brains, and sometimes States. - -That which is an eternal subject of dispute is an eternal inutility. - -To pray is to flatter oneself that one will change entire nature with -words. - -Names of sects; names of error. Truth has no sect. - -No man is called an Euclidian. - -Henry IV., after his victories, his abjuration, and his coronation, -caused a cross to be erected in Rome, with the following inscription: -_In hoc signa vincis_. The wood of the cross was the carriage of a -cannon. - -A revolution has been accomplished in the human mind which nothing again -can ever arrest. - -It is never by metaphysics that you will succeed in delivering men from -error; you must prove the truth by facts. - -If fortune brings to pass one of a hundred events predicted by roguery, -all the others are forgotten, and that one remains as a pledge of the -favor of God, and as the proof of a prodigy. - -Every one is born with a nose and five fingers, and no one is born with -a knowledge of God. This may be deplorable or not, but it is certainly -the human condition. - -If God made us in his own image, we have well returned him the -compliment. - -Nature preserves the species, and cares but very little for individuals. - -To fast, to pray, a priest's virtue; to succor, virtue of a citizen. - -When Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, wished to ascend to heaven to -discover the secrets of the gods, a fly stung Pegasus, and he was -thrown. - -"Why do you receive so many fools in your order?" was said to a Jesuit. -"We need saints." - -Rousseau [J. B.] having shown his antagonist [Voltaire] his _Ode to -Posterity_, the latter said: "My friend, here is a letter which will -never reach its address." - -If a tulip could speak, and said, "My vegetation and I are two distinct -beings, evidently joined together," would you not mock at the tulip? - -Why all these pleasantries on religion? They are never made on morality. - -A fanatic of good faith, always a dangerous kind of man. - -The consolation of life is to say out what one thinks. - - ---- - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE -AND WORKS *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39124 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. 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- :PG.Id: 39124
- :PG.Title: Voltaire: A Sketch of his Life and Works
- :PG.Released: 2012-03-10
- :PG.Rights: Public Domain
- :PG.Producer: David Widger
- :DC.Creator: J. M. Wheeler
- :DC.Creator: G. W. Foote
- :DC.Title: Voltaire: A Sketch of his Life and Works
- :DC.Language: en
- :DC.Created: 1894
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-========================================
-VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS
-========================================
-
-.. pgheader::
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-.. class:: center
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- | :xlarge-bold:`VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS`
- |
- | :small-caps:`WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS`
- |
- | `By`
- |
- | :xlarge-bold:`J. M. Wheeler & G. W. Foote.`
- |
- |
- | :smallit:`London`
- |
- | :small-caps:`1891`
-
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-.. clearpage::
-
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-
-
-.. contents:: CONTENTS
- :depth: 1
- :backlinks: entry
-
-
-
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION
-============
-
-.. dropcap:: M My
-
-
-My share in this little book on Voltaire is a very minor one. My old
-friend and colleague, Mr. J. M. Wheeler, had written the greater part of
-the following pages before he brought the enterprise to my attention.
-I went through his copy with him, and assisted him in making some
-alterations and additions. I also read the printer’s proofs, and
-suggested some further improvements—if I may call them so without
-egotism. This is all I have done. The credit for all the rest belongs to
-him. My name is placed on the title-page for two reasons. The first is,
-that I may now, as on other occasions, be associated with a dear friend
-and colleague in this tribute to Voltaire. The second is, that
-whatever influence I possess may be used in helping this volume to the
-circulation it deserves.
-
-G. W. FOOTE.
-
-November, 1891
-
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-PREFACE
-=======
-
-.. dropcap:: H He
-
-
-He would be a bold person who should attempt to say something entirely
-new on Voltaire. His life has often been written, and many are the
-disquisitions on his character and influence. This little book, which at
-the bicentenary of his birth I offer as a Freethinker’s tribute to
-the memory of the great liberator, has no other pretension than that of
-being a compilation seeking to display in brief compass something of the
-man’s work and influence. But it has its own point of view. It is as
-a Freethinker, a reformer, and an apostle of reason and universal
-toleration that I esteem Voltaire, and I have considered him mainly
-under this aspect. For the sketch of the salient points of his career
-I am indebted to many sources, including Condorcet, Duvernet,
-Desnoisterres, Parton, Espinasse, Collins, and Saintsbury, to whom the
-reader, desirous of fuller information, is referred. Mr. John Morley’s
-able work and Col. Hamley’s sketch may also be recommended.
-
-That we are this year celebrating the bicentenary of Voltaire’s birth
-should remind us of how far our age has advanced from his, and also of
-how much we owe to our predecessors. The spread of democracy and the
-advance of science which distinguish our time both owe very-much to
-the brilliant iconoclasts of the last century, of whom Voltaire was
-the chief. In judging the work of the laughing sage of France we must
-remember that in his day the feudal laws still obtained in France, and a
-man might be clapped in prison for life without any trial. The poor were
-held to be born into the world for the service of the rich, and it was
-their duty to be subject to their masters, not only to the good and
-gentle, but also to the froward. Justice was as easily bought as jewels.
-The Church was omnipotent and freethought a crime. If Voltaire’s
-influence is no longer what it was, it is because he has altered that.
-We can no longer keenly feel the evils against which he contended. His
-work is, however, by no means fully accomplished. While any remnant
-of superstition, intolerance, and oppression remains, his unremitting
-warfare against *l'infâme* should be an inspiration to all who are
-fighting for the liberation and progress of humanity.
-
-Nov. 1894. J. M. WHEELER.
-
-
-
-
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-
-
-EARLY LIFE
-==========
-
-.. dropcap:: T Two
-
-
-Two hundred years ago, on November 21st, 1604, a child emerged on the
-world at Paris. The baptismal register on the following day gave the
-name François Marie Arouet, and the youth afterwards christened himself
-Voltaire.(1) The flesh was so weakly that the babe was *ondovc* (the
-term employed for informal sprinkling with water at home), lest there
-might be no time for the ecclesiastical rite.
-
- 1. He was a younger son. The name Voltaire is, perhaps, an
- anagram of the Arouet 1. j. (le jeune) the u being converted
- into r, and the j into r. In like manner, an old college-
- tutor of his, Père Thoulié, transformed himself, by a
- similar anagrammatic process, into the Abbé Olivet—
- omitting the unnecessary h from his original name. This
- method of reforming a plebeian name into one more
- distinguished-looking seems not to have been uncommon in
- those times, as Jean Baptiste Pocquelin took the name of
- Molière, and Charles Secondât that of Montesquieu.
-
-Something may have been wrong with the performance of the sacred
-ceremony, since the child certainly grew up to think more of “the world,
-the flesh, and the devil” than of the other trinity of Father, Son,
-and Holy Ghost. His father was a respectable attorney, and his mother
-came of noble family. His godfather and early preceptor was the Abbé
-de Chateauneuf, who made no pietist of him, but introduced him to his
-friend, the famous Ninon l'Enclos, the antiquated Aspasia who is said to
-have inspired a passion in the l’Abbé Gedouin at the age of eighty,
-and who was sufficiently struck with young Voltaire to leave him a
-legacy of two thousand francs, wherewith to provide himself a library.
-
-Voltaire showed when quite a child an unsurpassed facility for
-verse-making. He was educated at a Jesuit college, and the followers
-of Jesus have ever since reproached him with Jesuitism. Possibly he
-did imbibe some of their “policy” in the propaganda of his ideas.
-Certainly he saw sufficient of the hypocrisy and immorality of religious
-professors to disgust him with the black business, and he said in
-after-life that the Jesuits had taught him nothing worth learning.
-
-He learnt a certain amount of Latin and a parcel of stupidities. But,
-indifferent as this education was, it served to encourage his already
-marked literary tendency. Voltaire is said to have told his father when
-he left college, at the age of fifteen, “I wish to be a man of
-letters, and nothing else.” “That,” M. Arouet is reported to have
-replied, “is the profession of a man who wishes to be a burden to
-his family and to die of starvation.” He would have no such nonsense.
-Francois must study law; and to Paris he went with that intent. For
-three years he was supposed to do so, but he bestowed more attention on
-the gay society of the Temple, to which his godfather introduced him,
-“the most amusing fellow in the world,” and which was presided over
-by the Abbé de Chaulieu. The time which he was compelled to spend in
-law studies, and at the desk of a *procureur*, was by no means lost to
-his future fortunes, whether in the pursuit of fame or wealth. During
-that hated apprenticeship he doubtless caught up some knowledge of law
-and business, which stood him in good stead in after years. He tells us
-that his father thought him lost, because he mixed with good society and
-wrote verses. For these he got sufficient reputation to be first
-exiled to Tulle, then to Sully, and finally thrown into the Bastille
-on suspicion of having written lampoons on the government. The current
-story tells how the Regent, walking one day in the Palais Royal, met
-Voltaire, and accosted him by offering to bet that he would show him
-what he had never seen before. “What is that?” asked Voltaire.
-“The Bastille.” “Ah, monseigneur! I will take the Bastille as
-seen.” On the next morning, in May, 1717, Voltaire was arrested in his
-bedroom and lodged in the Bastille.
-
-After nearly a year’s imprisonment, during which he gave the finishing
-touches to his tragedy of *Œdipus*, and sketched the epic *Henriade*,
-in which he depicts the massacre of Bartholomew, the horrors of
-religious bigotry, and the triumph of toleration under Henry IV., he was
-released and conducted to the Regent. While Voltaire awaited audience
-there was a thunderstorm. “Things could not go on worse,” he said
-aloud, “if there was a Regency above.” His conductor, introducing
-him to the Regent, said, repeating the remark, “I bring you a young
-man whom your Highness has just released from the Bastille, and whom
-you should send back again.” The Regent laughed, and promised, if he
-behaved well, to provide for him. “I thank your Highness for taking
-charge of my board,” returned Voltaire, “but I beseech you not to
-trouble yourself any more about my lodging.”
-
-In his first play, *Œdipe*, appeared the celebrated couplet:
-
- | `“Nos prêtres ne sont pas ce qu’un vain peuple pense!`
-
- | `Notre crédulité fait toute leur science.” (1)`
-
-
- 1. “Our priests are not what foolish people suppose; all
- their science is derived from our credulity.”
-
-These lines were afterwards noted by Condorcet as “the first signal of
-a war, which not even the death of Voltaire could extinguish.” It was
-at this period that he first took the name of Arouet de Voltaire. He
-produced two more tragedies, *Artemire* and *Mariamne*; a comedy, *The
-Babbler*; and prepared his world-famous *Henriade.* A portrait, painted
-by Largillière at about this period, has often been engraved. It
-exhibits a handsome young gentleman, full of grace and spirit, with a
-smiling mouth, animated eyes, intellectual forehead, and a fine hand in
-a fine ruffle.
-
-
-
-
-HEGIRA TO ENGLAND
-=================
-
-.. dropcap:: T The
-
-
-The story of how Voltaire came to England is worth the telling, as it
-illustrates the condition of things in France in the early part of last
-century. Voltaire left France for England, which his acquaintance with
-Lord Bolingbroke induced him to desire to visit. It was his Hegira,
-whence he returned a full-fledged Prophet of the French. He went a poet,
-he returned a philosopher. Dining at the Duke of Sully’s table he
-presumed to differ from the Chevalier de Rohan—Chabot, a relative of
-Cardinal Rohan. The aristocrat asked, “Who is that young fellow who
-talks so loudly?” “Monsieur le Chevalier,” replied Voltaire, “it
-is a man who does not bear a great name but who knows how to honor the
-name he does bear.”(1) It was insufferable that the son of a bourgeois
-should thus speak his mind to a Rohan. A few days afterwards, when again
-dining with the Duke, he was called out by a false message, and seized
-and caned by ruffians until a voice cried “Enough.” That word was a
-fresh blow, for the young poet recognised the voice of the Chevalier. He
-returned to the Duke and asked him to assist in obtaining redress. His
-grace shrugged his shoulders and took no further notice of this insult
-to his guest. Voltaire never visited the Duke again, and, it is said,
-erased his ancestor’s name from the *Henriade*. He was equally
-unsuccessful in seeking redress from the Regent. “You are a poet, and
-you have had a good thrashing; what can be more natural?” He retired,
-to study English and fencing; and reappeared with a challenge to the
-Chevalier, who accepted it, but informed his relations. It was against
-the law for a commoner to challenge a nobleman. Next morning, instead
-of meeting de Rohan, he met officers armed with a *lettre de cachet*
-consigning him to the Bastille. After nearly a month’s incarceration
-he was liberated on condition that he left the country. Having no wish
-to spend a second year in prison, he had himself applied for permission
-to visit England. Voltaire felt keenly the indignity to which he had
-been subjected. In a letter of instruction written from England to his
-agent he says: “If my debtors profit by my misfortune and absence to
-refuse payment, you must not trouble to bring them to reason: ’tis but
-a trifle.” Yet a book has been written on Voltaire’s avarice.
-
- 1. Some of the accounts say that Voltaire said, “You, my
- lord, are the last of your house; I am the first of mine.”
-
-Voltaire was conducted to Calais and arrived in England on Whit-Monday,
-1726. He landed near Greenwich and witnessed the Fair. All seemed
-bright. The park and river were full of animation. Here there was no
-Bastille, no fear of the persecution of the great or the spies of the
-police. He had excellent introductions. Bolingbroke he had met in
-exile at La Source in 1721, and he had learnt to regard the illustrious
-Englishman who possessed “all the learning of his country and all the
-politeness of ours.” Voltaire, like Pope, may be said to have been, at
-any rate for a time, an eager disciple of the exiled English statesman.
-Now Voltaire was the exile; Bolingbroke, for a while, the host, at
-Dawley, near Uxbridge. But he had other English friends, notably Mr.
-(afterwards Sir Everard) Falkener, an English merchant trading in the
-Levant, from whose house at Wandsworth most of his letters are dated.
-For Sir Everard, Voltaire always retained the warmest feelings of
-friendship, and forty years later returned hospitality to his sons.
-
-Voltaire spent two years and eight months in England, living during part
-of the time in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, and during another part at
-Wandsworth. This visit was probably the most important event in his
-life. It was here he lit the torch of Freethought with which he fired
-the continent. Here he mastered the arguments of the English deists,
-Bolingbroke, Toland, Tindal, Shaftesbury, Chubb, Collins, and Woolston,
-which he afterwards used with such effect. Here he saw the benefits of
-parliamentary government. Here he imbibed the philosophy of Locke and
-the science of Newton. Indeed it may be said there is hardly one of
-Voltaire’s important works but bears traces of his visit to our
-country. Yet of this momentous epoch of his life the records are scanty.
-When he grew famous every letter and anecdote was preserved, but in 1727
-Voltaire was but a young man of promise. Carlyle, in the tenth book
-of his *Frederick the Great*, says: “But mere inanity and darkness
-visible reign in all his Biographies over this period of his life, which
-was above all others worth investigating.” Messrs. J. C. Collins and
-A. Ballantyne have since done much to elucidate this noteworthy period.
-
-Pope was one of the persons Voltaire desired to see. He had already
-described him as “the most elegant, most correct, and most harmonious
-poet they ever had in England.” Pope could only speak French with
-difficulty, and Voltaire could not make himself understood. The result
-being unsatisfactory, Voltaire did not seek further company until he
-had acquired the language. An anecdote in Chetworth’s *History of the
-Stage* relates that he was in the habit of attending the theatre with
-the play in his hand. By this method he obtained more proficiency in
-the language in a week than he could otherwise have obtained in a month.
-Madame de Genlis had the audacity to assert that Voltaire never knew
-English, yet it is certain he could, before he was many months in this
-country, both speak and write it with facility. By Nov. 16, 1726,
-he wrote to Pope, after that poet's accident while driving near
-Bolingbroke’s estate at Dawley. In writing to his friend Thieriot, in
-France, he sometimes used English, for the same reason, he said, that
-Boileau wrote in Latin—not to be understood by too curious people.
-Voltaire is said to have once found his knowledge of English of
-practical use. The French were unpopular, and in one of his rambles he
-was menaced by a mob. He said: “Brave Englishmen, am I not already
-unhappy enough in not having been born among you?” His eloquence had
-such success that, according to Longchamp and Wagnière, the people
-wished to carry him on their shoulders to his house.
-
-While in this country he wrote in English a portion of his tragedy
-*Brutus*, inspired by and dedicated to Bolingbroke,
-
-and two essays, one on the Civil Wars of France, and one on Epic Poetry.
-In the introduction to the essays he expresses his conception of his
-own position as a man of letters in a foreign country. As these essays,
-although popular at the time, are now rare, I transcribe a paragraph or
-two from them:
-
-“The true aim of a relation is to instruct men, not to gratify their
-malice. We should be busied chiefly in giving a faithful account of
-all the useful things and extraordinary persons, whom to know, and to
-imitate, would be a benefit to our country. A traveller who writes in
-that spirit is a merchant of a nobler kind, who imports into his native
-country the arts and virtues of other nations.”
-
-In his *Essay on Epic Poetry* Voltaire shows he had made a study of
-Milton, though his criticism can scarcely, be considered an advance upon
-that of Addison. He displays constant admiration for Tasso, to whom
-he was perhaps attracted by his sufferings at the hands of an ignoble
-nobility. He says:
-
-“The taste of the English and of the French, though averse to any
-machinery grounded upon enchantment, must forgive, nay commend, that of
-Armida, since it is the source of so many beauties. Besides, she is a
-Mahometan, and the Christian religion allows us to believe that those
-infidels are under the immediate influence of the devil.” In this
-essay appears the first mention of the story of Newton and the apple
-tree.
-
-Voltaire closely studied all branches of English literature. He
-read Shakespeare, and admired his “genius” while censuring his
-“irregularity.” He was the first to introduce him to his countrymen,
-though he subsequently sought to lessen what he considered their
-exorbitantly high opinion. The works of Dryden, Waller, Prior, Congreve,
-Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Rochester and Addison were all devoured, and
-he took an especial interest in Butler’s witty *Hudibras*. He was
-acquainted with the popular sermons of Archbishop Tillotson and the
-speculations of Berkeley. He had read the works of Shaftesbury, Tindal,
-Chubb, Garth, Mandeville and Woolston.
-
-Voltaire became acquainted with most of the celebrities in England. He
-visited the witty Congreve, who begged his guest to consider him not as
-an author but as a gentleman. Voltaire answered with spirit: “If you
-had the misfortune to be merely a gentleman, I should never have come to
-see you.” He knew James Thomson of *The Seasons*, and “discovered
-in him a great genius and a great simplicity.” With didactic Young,
-of the *Night Thoughts*, who glorified God with his “egoism turned
-heavenward,” he formed a friendship which remained unbroken despite
-their differences of opinion on religion. He pushed among his English
-friends the subscription list for the *Henriade*, which proved a great
-success—although King George II. was not fond of “boetry”—reaching
-three editions in a short period. The money thus obtained formed
-the foundation of the fortune which Voltaire accumulated, not by his
-writings, but by his ability in finance. At that time, in France, as our
-author remarked, “to make the smallest fortune it was better to say
-four words to the mistress of a king than to write a hundred volumes.”
-His sojourn in England may be said to have secured him both independence
-of mind and independence of fortune.
-
-What pleased him most in England was liberty of discussion. In the year
-in which he came over, Elwall was acquitted on a charge of blasphemy,
-the collected works of Toland were published, and also Collins’s
-*Scheme of Literal Prophecy*, and the First Discourse of Woolston on
-Miracles. The success of this last work, which boldly applied wit and
-ridicule to the Gospel narrative, struck him with admiration. In the
-very month, however, when Voltaire left England (March 1729) Woolston
-was tried and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and a fine of £100.
-Voltaire volunteered a third of the sum, but the brave prisoner refused
-to give an assurance that he would not offend again, and died in prison
-in 1733. Voltaire always spoke of Woolston with the greatest respect.
-
-Voltaire retained his esteem for England and the English to the last.
-Oliver Goldsmith relates that he was in his company one evening when one
-of the party undertook to revile the English language and literature.
-Diderot defended them, but not brilliantly. Voltaire listened awhile in
-silence, which was, as Goldsmith remarks, surprising, for it was one of
-his favorite topics. However, about midnight, “Voltaire appeared at
-last roused from his reverie. His whole frame seemed animated. He began
-his defence with the utmost elegance mixed with spirit, and now and then
-he let fall his finest strokes of raillery upon his antagonist; and his
-harangue lasted until three in the morning. I must confess that, whether
-from national partiality or from the elegant sensibility of his manner,
-I never was more charmed, nor did I ever remember so absolute a victory
-as he gained in this dispute.”
-
-Voltaire corresponded with English friends to the latest period of his
-life. Among his correspondents were Lord and Lady Bolingbroke, Sir E.
-Falkener, Swift, Hume, Robertson, Horace Walpole, George Colman and Lord
-Chatham. We find him asking Falkener to send him the *London Magazine*
-for the past three years. To the same friend he wrote from Potsdam in
-1752, hoping that his *Vindication of Bolingbroke* was translated, as it
-would annoy the priests, “whom I have hated, hate, and shall hate till
-doomsday.” In the next year, writing from Berlin, he says: “I hope
-to come over myself, in order to print my true works, and to be buried
-in the land of freedom. I require no subscription, I desire no benefit.
-If my works are neatly printed, and cheaply sold, I am satisfied.”
-
-To Thieriot he said: “Had I not been obliged to look after my affairs
-in France, depend upon it I would have spent the rest of my days in
-London.” Long afterwards he wrote to his friend Keate: “Had I not
-fixed the seat of my retreat in the free corner of Geneva, I would
-certainly live in the free corner of England; I have been for thirty
-years the disciple of your ways of thinking.” At the age of seventy
-he translated Shakespeare’s *Julius Cœsar*. Mr. Collins says: “The
-kindness and hospitality which he received he never forgot, and he
-took every opportunity of repaying it. To be an Englishman was always
-a certain passport to his courteous consideration.” He compared the
-English to their own beer, “the froth atop, dregs at bottom, but the
-bulk excellent.” When Martin Sherlock visited him at Ferney in 1776,
-he found the old man, then in his eighty-third year, still full of his
-visit to England. His gardens were laid out in English fashion, his
-favorite books were the English classics, the subject to which he
-persistently directed conversation was the English nation.
-
-The memory of Voltaire has been but scurvily treated in the land he
-loved so well. For over a century, calumny and obloquy were poured upon
-him. Johnson said of Rousseau: “I would sooner sign a sentence for his
-transportation than that of any felon who has gone from the Old Bailey
-these many years.” *Boswell*: “Sir, do you think him as bad a man
-as Voltaire?” *Johnson*: “Why, sir, it is difficult to settle the
-proportion of iniquity between them.” And this represents an opinion
-which long endured among the religious classes. But it is at length
-being recognised that, with all his imperfections, which were after all
-those of the age in which he lived, he devoted his brilliant genius to
-the cause of truth and the progress of humanity. He made his exile in
-England an occasion for accumulating those stores of intelligence
-with which he so successfully combated the prejudices of the past and
-promulgated the principles of freedom, and justified his being ranked
-foremost among the liberators of the human mind.
-
-
-
-
-EXAMPLES FROM ENGLAND
-=====================
-
-.. dropcap:: S Several
-
-
-Several incidents combined to direct Voltaire’s attention to
-clericalism as the enemy of progress and humanity. Soon after his return
-to France, the famous actress, Adrienne Lecouvreur, for whom he had a
-high esteem, and who had represented the heroines of his plays,
-died. The clergy of Paris refused her Christian burial because of her
-profession, and her corpse was put in a ditch in a cattle-field on the
-banks of the Seine. Voltaire, who regarded the theatre as one of the
-most potent instruments of culture and civilisation, at once avenged and
-consecrated her memory in a fine ode, burning with the fire of a deep
-pathos, in which he takes occasion to contrast the treatment in England
-of Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, who was buried in Westminster Abbey. Mr.
-Lecky says: “The man who did more than any other to remove the stigma
-that rested upon actors was unquestionably Voltaire. There is, indeed,
-something singularly noble in the untiring zeal with which he directs
-poetry and eloquence, the keenest wit, and the closest reasoning to the
-defence of those who had so long been friendless and despised.”
-
-When Voltaire published his *Letters on the English Nation* the copies
-were seized by the Government and the publisher was thrown into the
-Bastille. The author would have again tasted the discomforts of that
-abode if he had not had timely warning from his friend D’Argental, and
-taken refuge in Lorraine, and afterwards on the Rhine, while his book
-was torn to pieces and burned in Paris by the public executioner, as
-offensive to religion, good morals, and respect for authority. Voltaire
-had apparently good reason to apprehend treatment of unusual rigor if he
-had obeyed the summons to give himself up into custody, as he took good
-care not to do. “I have a mortal aversion to prison,” he wrote to
-D’Argental. “I am ill; a confined air would have killed me, and I
-should probably have been thrust into a dungeon.”
-
-Voltaire’s *Letters on the English* reads at the present day as so
-mild a production that it is hard to understand its suppression. Yet it
-was a true instinct which detected that the work was directed against
-the principle of authority. The introduction of English thought was
-destined to become an explosive element shattering the feudalism of
-Europe. There were, moreover, some hard hits at the state of things
-in France. “The English nation,” says Voltaire, “is the only
-one which has succeeded in restricting the power of kings by resisting
-it.” Again: “How I love the English boldness, how I love men who say
-what they think!”
-
-Voltaire gives a peculiar reason for the non-appreciation by the English
-of Molière’s *Tartuffe*, the original of Mawworm if not of Uriah
-Heep. He says they are not pleased with the portrayal of characters they
-do not know. “One there hardly knows the name of devotee, but they
-know well that of honest man. One does not see there imbeciles who put
-their souls into others’ hands, nor those petty ambitious men who
-establish a despotic sway over women formerly wanton and always weak,
-and over men yet more weak and contemptible.” We fancy Voltaire must
-have seen society mainly as found among the Freethinkers. Could he give
-so favorable a verdict did he visit us now? The same remark applies to
-his statement that there was “no privilege of hunting in the grounds
-of a citizen, who, at the same time, is not permitted to fire a gun in
-his own field.” But this, as well as the more important passage that
-“no one is exempted from taxation for being a nobleman or priest,”
-was probably intended exclusively for the benefit of his compatriots.
-He was, however, not without a little touch of ridicule at the
-incongruities he detected in our countrymen. Thus he notes in one of his
-letters: “They learn Vanini and translate Lucretius for Monsieur le
-Dauphin to get by heart, and then, while they deride the polytheism of
-the ancients, they worship the Congregation of the Saints.”
-
-Those educated in the current delusion that Voltaire was a mere mocker
-will be surprised to find the temperate way in which he speaks of the
-Quakers. Here, where there was such excellent opportunity for raillery,
-Voltaire shows he had a genuine admiration for their simplicity of life,
-the courage of their convictions, their freedom from priestcraft, and
-their distaste for warfare. In these *Letters,* as in all his writings,
-he proves how far he was the embodiment of the new era by his boldly
-expressed preference for industrial over military pursuits.
-
-In his remarks on the Church of England, Voltaire, however, gives an
-unmistakable touch of his quality: “One cannot have public employment
-in England or Ireland, without being of the number of faithful
-Anglicans. This reason, which is an excellent proof, has converted so
-many Nonconformists that not a twentieth part of the nation is out of
-the pale of the dominant church.”
-
-After alluding to the “holy zeal” of ministers against dissenters,
-and of the lower House of Convocation, who “from time to time burnt
-impious books, that is, books against themselves,” he says: “When
-they learn that, in France, young fellows noted only for debauchery and
-raised to the prelacy by female intrigue, openly pursue their amours,
-compose love-songs, give every day elaborate delicate suppers, then
-go to implore the illumination of the Holy Spirit, boldly calling
-themselves the successors of the Apostles—they thank God they are
-Protestants. But they are abominable heretics, to be burnt by all the
-devils, as Master François Rabelais says; and that is why I do not
-meddle with their affairs.”
-
-The Presbyterians fare little better, for Voltaire relates that, when
-King Charles surrendered to the Scots, they made that unfortunate
-monarch undergo four sermons a day. To them it is owing that only
-genteel people play cards on Sunday: “the rest of the nation go either
-to church, to the tavern, or to see their mistresses.”
-
-His admiration for English philosophy was startling to the French mind.
-Locke’s Essay became his philosophical gospel. “For thirty years,”
-he writes in 1768, “I have been persecuted by a crowd of fanatics
-because I said that Locke is the Hercules of Metaphysics, who has fixed
-the boundaries of the human mind.”
-
-
-
-
-AT CIREY
-========
-
-.. dropcap:: A A common
-
-
-A common admiration for Locke and Newton cemented his attachment to the
-Marquise du Châtelet, a lady distinguished from others of her age by
-her love of the sciences. With her Voltaire lived for over fifteen years
-at the Chateau of Cirey, in Campagne, “far from the madding crowd’s
-ignoble strife,” and, as Voltaire phrased it, “nine miles from a
-lemon.” Voltaire was at the outset forty and Madame twenty-seven,
-neither handsome nor well-formed, yet pleasing. She united learning
-with a zest for pleasure, and with the handsome fortune which Voltaire
-brought to the establishment was enabled to satisfy both tastes. Life at
-Cirey was varied by jaunts to Paris, Brussels and Sceaux, at which last
-place he wrote *Zadig*, one of his lightest and most characteristic
-burlesque stories.
-
-Madame du Chàtelet has been much laughed at; but in the days when
-ladies take prizes in mathematics, that should be a thing of the
-past. Hard intellectual labor rather than the pursuit of pleasure
-characterised life at Cirey, or rather its inmates found their pleasure
-in their work. Madame would be translating Newton or studying Leibnitz.
-Her mathematical tutor worked at physical science in a gallery which had
-been built expressly for him. Voltaire would be aiding each in turn, or,
-ever faithful to his first love the drama, occupied with the writing or
-production of a tragedy or comedy for the theatre also attached to the
-premises. His production was as ever incessant. At the time of his
-first settlement there, Pope’s *Essay on Man* had been published. It
-suggested a *Discourse on Man*, in which he sought not to justify the
-ways of God to man, but to make man contented with his lot, not vainly
-inquiring into the why and wherefore of things. With Madame he wrote
-*Elements of the Newtonian Philosophy*, a work highly praised by Lord
-Brougham, who says: “The power of explaining an abstract subject in
-easy and accurate language, language not in any way beneath the dignity
-of science, though quite suited to the comprehension of uninformed
-persons, is unquestionably shown in a manner which only makes it a
-matter of regret that the singularly gifted author did not carry
-his torch into all the recesses of natural philosophy.” The French
-Government, despite the influence of aristocratic friends, refused to
-print a work opposed to the system of Descartes, and the volume had to
-be printed in Holland. For Madame, who despised the “old almanack”
-histories then current, in place of which Voltaire aimed at producing
-something more profitable to the readers, he wrote his *Essay on the
-Manners and Spirit of Nations*, in which for the first time in modern
-literature he applied philosophy to the teaching of history. He
-dissipated the dull dreams and deceits of the monks, and fixed attention
-on the real condition of things. With Voltaire, the commonest invention
-which improves the human lot is of more importance than battles and
-sieges. He gives importance to the physical and intellectual improvement
-of man. Brougham remarks that Voltaire’s Philosophy of History was
-written as a prelude to the Essay on the Spirit of Nations, but the
-whole work deserves that title. Buckle classes him with Bolingbroke and
-Montesquieu, the fathers of modern history, and all sceptics; and
-even now, says Lecky, no historian can read him without profit.
-Other contributions to history were the *History of Charles XII.*, a
-masterpiece of vivid and vigorous narrative, and *The Age of Louis
-XIV*. It was here he wrote his too famous *Pucelle*, which he afterwards
-described as “piggery,” as well as some of the most famous of
-his plays, including. *Ilzire, Zuline, L'Enfant Prodigue, Mahomet and
-Mérope*, the best of his tragedies. With that impish spirit in which he
-ever delighted, he induced the Pope to accept the dedication of his
-play of *Mahomet*, and then laughed at his infallible Holiness for being
-unable to see that the shafts supposed to be directed at the impostor of
-Arabia were really aimed at fanaticism in another quarter.
-
-To his first and last love, the French theatre, Voltaire contributed
-nearly sixty pieces, the majority of which are tragedies. *Zaire* and
-*Mérope* suffice to show the excellence he obtained in the classic
-drama. The first-named was written in three weeks, a wonderful *tour de
-force. Olympic*—written in old age—occupied but six days, though in
-this we must agree with the friend who told the author that he should
-not have rested on the seventh day. Voltaire’s plays indeed contain
-occasional fine passages, but they have not the rich delineation of
-character necessary for works of the first rank. It has been well
-remarked that in his dramas, as in history, he sought to portray not
-so much individuals as epochs. In *Mahomet* his subject is a great
-fanaticism; in *Alzire*, the conquest of America; in *Brutus*, the
-formation of the Roman power; in the *Death of Cœsar*, the rise of the
-empire or the ruin of that power. It is noteworthy that, despite his
-excess of comic talent, Voltaire preferred to devote his mind to tragedy
-rather than to comedy, in which one might have fancied he would have
-excelled. In truth, his desire to support the dignity of the stage stood
-in the way of his shining in comedy. Voltaire also at this period wrote
-a *Life of Molière*, in which he mingled criticism with biography.
-
-Madame de Grafigny, who visited at Cirey, says he was so greedy of his
-time, so intent upon his work, that it was sometimes necessary to
-tear him from his desk for supper. “But when at table, he always has
-something to tell, very facetious, very odd, very droll, which would
-often not sound well except in his mouth, and which shows him still as
-he has painted himself for us—
-
- | `Toujours un pied dans le cercueil,`
-
- | `De l’autre faisant des gambades.”(1)`
-
-
- 1. Ever one foot in the grave,
-
- And gambolling with the other.
-
-
-“To be seated beside him at supper, how delightful!” she adds.
-Voltaire at Cirey was out of harm’s way, and could and did devote
-himself to his natural bent in literary work. Madame du Châtelet was
-sometimes “gey ill to live with.” but she preserved him from many
-annoyances and helped him somewhat at Court. Thanks to the Duc de
-Richelieu, his patron and debtor, he was appointed historiographer-royal
-in 1745, with a salary of two thousand livres attached, and in the
-following year was elected one of the Forty of the French Academy.
-
-His life with Madame du Châtelet had shown him the possibility of woman
-being man’s intellectual companion. With what scorn does he make a
-lady, who claims equal rights in the matter of divorce with her husband,
-say:
-
-“My husband replies that he is my head and my superior, that he is
-taller than me by more than an inch, that he is hairy as a bear, and
-that, consequently, I owe him everything and that he owes me nothing.”
-This was long before woman’s rights were thought of.
-
-Voltaire and Frederick the Great.
-
-While still at Cirey, Voltaire received many a flattering invitation
-from the Prince Royal of Prussia. Their correspondence, in the words
-of Carlyle, “sparkles notably with epistolary grace and vivacity,”
-though now mainly interesting as an illustration of two memorable
-characters and of their century. Voltaire helped him with his
-*Anti-Machiavelli*, remarking afterwards that had Machiavelli had a
-prince for a pupil, the very first thing he would have advised him to do
-would have been so to write. Frederick was bent on having the personal
-acquaintance and attendance of the renowned poet and philosopher. Much
-incense and mutual admiration passed, and at length, when he ascended
-the throne, Voltaire paid him several visits. On one occasion it was a
-diplomatic one, to cement a union between France and Prussia. Macaulay
-sneers at this “childish craving for political distinction,”
-and Frederick remarks that he brought no credentials with him.
-The correspondence and mutual admiration continued. Carlyle
-characteristically says: “Admiration sincere on both sides, most so
-on the Prince's, and extravagantly expressed on both sides, most so on
-Voltaire’s.” In one of his letters, Frederick says “there can
-be in nature but one God and one Voltaire.” If Voltaire was more
-extravagant than this, at least the paint was laid on more delicately.
-Frederick’s flattery, indeed, was not very carefully done. Thus, in
-writing to Voltaire he says: “You are like the white elephant
-for which the King of Persia and the Great Mogul make war; and the
-possession of which forms one of their titles. If you come here you
-will see at the head of mine, ‘Frederick by the Grace of God, King of
-Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Possessor of Voltaire, &c., &c.’”
-But the Marquise du Chàtelet considered that no King should displace
-a lady. She loved him; *“jamais pour deux”* she says; and perhaps, at
-the bottom of her heart, regretted the reputation which must have been
-ever a rival. At her death, Frederick renewed his invitation, expressing
-himself as now “one of your oldest friends,” and Voltaire, cut loose
-from his moorings, submitted to be tempted to the atmosphere of a court
-which he had before found little suited to a lover of truth, justice,
-and liberty.
-
-The first of these visits, in September 1740, is thus satirically
-described by Voltaire: “I was conducted into his majesty’s
-apartment, in which I found nothing but four bare walls. By the light of
-a wax candle I perceived a small truckle bed, two feet and a half wide,
-in a closet, upon which lay a little man, wrapped up in a morning gown
-of blue cloth. It was his majesty, who lay sweating and shaking, beneath
-a beggarly coverlet, in a violent ague fit. I made my bow, and began my
-acquaintance by feeling his pulse, as if I had been his first physician.
-The fit left him, and he rose, dressed himself, and sat down to
-table with Algarotti, Keizerling, Maupertuis, the ambassador to the
-states-general, and myself; where, at supper, we treated most profoundly
-on the immortality of the soul, natural liberty, and the *Androgynes* of
-Plato.” Frederick says, in a letter to Jordan, dated September 24th:
-“I have at length seen Voltaire, whom I was so anxious to become
-acquainted with; but, alas! I saw him when I was under the influence of
-my fever, and when my mind and my body were equally languid. Now, with
-persons like him, one must not be ill; on the contrary, one must be very
-well, and even, if possible, in better health than usual. He has the
-eloquence of Cicero, the mildness of Pliny, and the wisdom of Agrippa:
-he unites, in a word, all that is desirable of the virtues and talents
-of three of the greatest men of antiquity. His intellect is always at
-work; and every drop of ink that falls from his pen, is transformed at
-once into wit. He declaimed to us *Mahomet*, an admirable tragedy he has
-composed, which transported us with delight: for myself, I could only
-admire in silence.”
-
-The intercourse and disruption of the friendship between Voltaire and
-Frederick—“the two original men of their century,” as Carlyle calls
-them—has been inimitably told by that great writer whose temperament
-and training enabled him to do so much justice to the one and so little
-to the other. Voltaire must be excused for wishing to lead the King in
-the path of reason and enlightened toleration to peace. But the Court of
-Potsdam was in truth no place for him, and the Frenchmen not unnaturally
-regarded him as a deserter. Macaulay says: “We have no hesitation in
-saying that the poorest author of that time in London, sleeping in
-a hulk, dining in a cellar with a cravat of paper and a skewer for
-a shirt-pin, was a happier man than any of the literary inmates of
-Frederick’s Court.” Voltaire’s position was sure to excite
-jealousy, and his scathing wit was bound to get him in trouble. He could
-touch up the King’s French verses for a consideration, but could not
-be kept from laughing at his poetry. “I have here a bundle of the
-King’s dirty linen to bleach,” he said once, pointing to the MSS.
-sent to him for correction; and the bearers of course conveyed the
-sarcasm to his Majesty. On the other side Voltaire heard from Julien
-Offray de la Mettrie, author of *Man a Machine*, whom Voltaire called
-the most frank atheist in Europe, that the King had said: “I still
-want Voltaire for another year—one sucks the orange before throwing
-away the skin.” That orange-skin stuck in Voltaire’s throat, and
-when atheist La Mettrie died 11th November,
-
-1751, from eating a pie supposed to be of pheasant but in reality of
-eagle and pork, Voltaire observes: “I should have liked to put to La
-Mettrie, in the article of death, fresh inquiries about the orange-skin.
-That fine soul, on the point of quitting the world, would not have dared
-to-lie. There is much reason to suppose that he spoke the truth.”
-Voltaire could neither submit to the domination of the Court coterie nor
-to that of their master. He offended Frederick, not so much by writing
-as by publishing his merciless ridicule of Maupertuis, the President of
-the Berlin Academy of Sciences—an institution suggested by Voltaire,
-who had indeed recommended Maupertuis as President—in his inimitable
-*Diatribe of Doctor Akakia, Physician to the Pope*, which Macaulay says,
-even at this time of day, it is not easy for any person who has the
-least perception of the ridiculous to read without laughing till he
-cries. But a public insult to the President of his Academy was an insult
-to the King, and the work was publicly burnt and Voltaire placed under
-arrest. But the matter blew over, though Voltaire sent back his cross
-and key of office, which the King returned. Voltaire wisely tried to rid
-himself of the intolerable constraint, and made ill-health the pretext
-of flight, going first to Plombières to take the waters. But he could
-not resist sending another shot at poor Maupertuis; and the King,
-perhaps considering he had forfeited claim to consideration, resolved to
-punish him. At Frankfort, nominally a free city but really dominated
-by a Prussian resident, he was arrested, together with his niece Madame
-Denis, and detained in an inn, even after he had given up his gold key
-as chamberlain, his cross and ribbon of the Order of Merit, and his copy
-of a privately printed volume of the royal rhymester’s poetry, for
-which he was ordered to be arrested. The volume was evidently the most
-important article in such mischievous hands, especially as it was said
-to contain satires on reigning potentates. Voltaire had left it at
-Leipsic, and had to wait, guarded by soldiers, till it arrived, and
-also till the King’s permission was accorded him to pass on to France.
-Voltaire relieved his rage by composing what he called *Memoirs of the
-Life of M. de Voltaire*, in which all the king’s faults and
-foibles, real and imaginary, as well as his literary pretensions,
-were unsparingly ridiculed. Frederick forgave Voltaire for having
-been ill-used by him, and some time after took the first step in
-reconciliation by sending him back the volume of poems. An amicable
-correspondence was renewed, though probably each felt they were better
-at a distance. Voltaire, even while he kept in his desk this libellous
-*Life* which perhaps he never, intended to publish, was generous and
-far-sighted enough to seek to make peace between Prussia and France at
-a time when Frederick was at the lowest ebb of his fortunes; while
-Frederick was great enough to permit the free circulation of the libel
-in Berlin. Morley says: “To have really contributed in the humblest
-degree, for instance, to a peace between Prussia and her enemies, in
-1759, would have been an immeasurably greater performance for mankind
-than any given book which Voltaire could have written. And, what is
-still better worth observing, Voltaire’s books would not have been the
-powers they were but for this constant desire in him to come into the
-closest contact with the practical affairs of the world.” “What
-sovereign in Europe do you fear the most?” was once asked of
-Frederick, who frankly replied “*Le roi Voltaire*,” for here he knew
-was a potentate whose kingdom had no bounds, and who would transmit his
-influence to posterity. Frederick lived to pronounce a panegyric upon
-him before the Berlin Academy, in the year of his death. “The renown
-of Voltaire,” he predicted, “will grow from age to age, transmitting
-his name to immortality.”
-
-
-
-
-“CANDIDE”
-=========
-
-.. dropcap:: A After
-
-
-After this disastrous termination of court life Voltaire determined to
-try complete independence. Permission to establish himself in France
-being refused, he purchased an estate near Geneva. His residence here
-brought him into correspondence, at first amicable, with the most
-famous of her citizens, Jean Jacques Rousseau. There was a natural
-incompatibility of temper which speedily led to a quarrel. Both were
-sensitive, and Rousseau could not bear even kindly-meant banter. On
-Rousseau’s *Social Contract* Voltaire said it so convinced him of the
-beauty of man in a state of nature that, after reading it, he ran round
-me room on all fours. His reply to Rousseau’s rebuke for his pessimist
-poem on the earthquake of Lisbon was the immortal *Candide*, and
-Rousseau’s revenge was to say, slightingly, that he had not read
-it. When Rousseau thought fit to include Voltaire in the imaginary
-machinations against him, with which he absurdly changed Hume, Voltaire
-wrote to D’Alembert: “I have nothing to reproach myself with, save
-having thought and spoken too well of him.”
-
-Voltaire at first seems to have been captivated by the doctrine of
-Pope’s *Essay on Man.* He, however, afterwards wrote: “Those who
-exclaim that all is well are charlatans. Shaftesbury, who first made
-the fable fashionable, was a very unhappy man. I have seen Bolingbroke
-a prey to vexation and rage, and Pope, whom he induced to put this sorry
-jest into verse, was as much to be pitied as any man I have ever known,
-misshapen in body, dissatisfied in mind, always ill, always a burden to
-himself, and harassed by a hundred enemies to his very last moment.
-Give me, at least, the names of some happy men who will tell me 'All is
-well.’” His optimism got injured during his journey through life,
-and was completely shattered by the earthquake at Lisbon in 1755. On
-this subject he produced a grave poem, notable for its confession of
-the difficult reconciling the evil of the world with the Beneficence of
-God? The same subject was dealt with in grotesque fashion in *Candide*,
-one of the wisest as well as one of the wittiest of works. A philosophy
-was never more triumphantly reasoned and ridiculed out of court than
-is optimism in *Candide*. Incident crowds on incident, argument jostles
-satire, illustration succeeds raillery, all to show the miseries of
-existence disprove this being the best of all possible worlds. At
-one moment we are forced to tears at contemplating the atrocities of
-inhumanity; the next we are forced to laugh at its absurdities. Prudes
-may be shocked at some incidents. Voltaire said he was not born to sing
-the praises of saints. He was himself no saint, but rather one of those
-sinners who had done the world more good than all its saints. But the
-influence of the work is profoundly good. It is purely humanitarian,
-War, persecution for religion, slavery, torture, and all forms of
-cruelty are made hateful by a recital of their facts; and all this is
-done in so charming, even flippant a manner, that we are laughing all
-the while we are most profoundly moved. Schopenhauer and Hartmann both
-enjoyed life, while Voltaire was an invalid most of his days; but
-they never threw into their pessimism the gaiety of *Candide*. And his
-peculiarity is, that he makes all man’s lower instincts ridiculous as
-well as detestable.
-
-This character appears in all his work, but, as a fantastic tale,
-*Candide* stands alone. It brings out Voltaire’s most characteristic
-qualities: his keen eye for whimsicalities and weaknesses; his
-abhorrence of cruelty and iniquity in high places; his contempt for
-shams and absence of all veneration for the majesty of nonsensical
-custom. For mordant satire it is surpassed by *Gulliver's Travels*.
-But it is briefer; the touch is lighter, and instinct not with
-morose misanthropy, but hearty philanthropy. The characters are
-gross caricatures. Was there ever so preposterous an absurdity as Dr.
-Pangloss? And the incidents are improbable. Was ever so luckless a hero
-as Candide? What a succession of misfortunes! Candide travels the world
-in search of his lost beloved Cunégonde, meeting war, the Inquisition,
-torture, shipwreck, piracy, and slavery, with all their attendant
-horrors. Even the earthquake of Lisbon is brought in; yet with whimsical
-pertinacity, Pangloss clings to his flimsy philosophy.
-
-When he re-meets Candide, who had left his tutor as dead, he thus
-relates his adventures: “But,” my dear Pangloss, “how happens
-it that I see you again?” said Candide. “It is true,” answered
-Pangloss, “you saw me hanged; I ought properly to have been burnt;
-but, you remember, it rained in torrents when they were going to roast
-me. The storm was so violent they despaired of kindling the fire; so I
-was hanged, because they could do no better. A surgeon bought my body,
-carried it home, and dissected me. He made first a crucial incision from
-the navel to the neck. One could not have been more badly hanged than
-I. The executioner of the Holy Inquisition was a sub-deacon, and truly
-burnt people capitally, but, as for hanging, he was a novice; the cord
-was wet, and not slipping properly, the noose did not join—in short, I
-still continued to breathe. The crucial incision made me shriek so that
-my surgeon fell back, and, imagining it was the devil he was dissecting,
-ran away in mortal fear, tumbling downstairs in his fright. His wife,
-hearing the noise, flew from the next room, and saw me stretched upon
-the table with my crucial incision. Still more terrified than her
-husband, she ran down also, and fell upon him. When they had a little
-recovered themselves, I heard her say to the surgeon, ‘My dear, how
-could you think of dissecting a heretic? Don’t you know that the devil
-is always in them? I’ll run directly to a priest, to come and exorcise
-the evil spirit.’ I trembled from head to foot at hearing her talk
-in this manner, and exerted what little strength I had left to cry out,
-‘Have pity on me!’ At length, the Portuguese barber took courage,
-sewed up my wound, and his wife even nursed me. I was upon my legs in
-about a fortnight. The barber got me a place as lacquey to a Knight of
-Malta, who was going to Venice; but finding my master had no money to
-pay me my wages, I entered into the service of a Venetian merchant, and
-went with him to Constantinople. One day I took the fancy to enter
-a mosque, where I saw no one but an old Iman and a very pretty young
-female devotee, who was saying her prayers. Her neck was quite bare,
-and in her bosom she had a fine nosegay of tulips, roses, anemones,
-ranunculuses, hyacinths, and auriculas. She let fall her bouquet. I
-ran to take it up, and presented it to her with a bow. I was so long in
-replacing it, that the Iman began to be angry, and, perceiving I was
-a Christian, he cried out for help. They took me before the Cadi,
-who ordered me to receive one hundred bastinadoes, and sent me to the
-galleys. We were continually whipt, and received twenty lashes a day,
-when the concatenation of sublunary events brought you on board our
-galley to ransom us from slavery.”
-
-“Well, my dear Pangloss,” said Candide to him, “now you have been
-hanged, dissected, whipped, and tugging at the oar, do you continue to
-think that everything in this world happens for the best?” “I have
-always abided by my first opinion,” replied Pangloss; “for, after
-all, I am a philosopher; it would not become me to retract. Leibnitz
-could not be wrong, and ‘pre-established harmony’ is, besides, the
-finest thing in the world, as well as a ‘plenum’ and the ‘materia
-subtilis’.”
-
-When Cunégonde is at last found, she is no longer beautiful—but
-sunburnt, blear-eyed, haggard, withered, and scrofulous. Though ready to
-fulfil his promise, her brother, a baron whom Candide has rescued from
-slavery, declares that sister of his shall never marry a person of less
-rank than a baron. The book is a mass of seeming extravagance, with a
-deep vein of gold beneath. All flows so smoothly, the reader fancies
-such fantastic nonsense could not only be easily written, but easily
-improved. Yet when he notices how every sally and absurdity adds to
-the effect, how every lightest touch tells, he sees that only the most
-consummate wit and genius could thus deftly dissect a philosophy of the
-universe for the amusement of the multitude.
-
-Voltaire tried to save England from the judicial murder of Admiral Byng,
-who was sacrificed to national pride and political faction in 1757, yet
-how lightly he touches the history in a sentence: “Dans ce pays ci
-il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les
-autres.” The pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war had no
-charms for Voltaire. He shows it in its true colors as multitudinous
-murder and rapine. Religious intolerance and hypocrisy, court domination
-and intrigue, the evils attendant on idlers, soldiers and priests, are
-all sketched in lightest outline, and the reader of this fantastic
-story finds he has traversed the history of last century, seen it at its
-worst, and seen, too, the forces that tended to make it better, and is
-ready to exclaim: Would we had another Voltaire now!
-
-The philosophy of *Candide* is that of Secularism. The world as we find
-it abounds in misery and suffering. If any being is responsible for it,
-his benevolence can only be vindicated by limiting his power, or his
-power credited by limiting his goodness. Our part is simply to make
-the best of things and improve this world here and now. “Work, then,
-without disputing; it is the only way to render life supportable.”
-
-Carlyle did much to impair the influence of Voltaire in England. Yet
-what is Carlyle’s essential doctrine but “Do the work nearest
-hand,” and what is this but a translation of the conclusion of
-*Candide*: “Il faut cultiver nôtre jardin”?
-
-Those who forget how far more true it is that man is an irrational
-animal than that he is a rational one, may wonder how Voltaire, having
-in *Candide* sapped the foundations of belief in an all-good God by a
-portrayal of the evils afflicting mankind, could yet remain a Theist.
-The truth seems to be that Voltaire had neither taste nor talents for
-metaphysics. In the *Ignorant Philosopher* Voltaire seeks to answer
-Spinoza, without fully understanding his monistic position. He appears
-to have remained a dualist or modern Manichean—an opinion which James
-Mill considered was the only Theistic view consistent with the facts.
-Writing to D’Alembert on the 15th of August, 1767, Voltaire says:
-“Give my compliments to the Devil, for it is he who governs the
-world.” It is curious that on the day he was writing these lines, one
-Napoleon Bonaparte had just entered upon the world.
-
-Voltaire appears to have been satisfied with the design argument as
-proving a deity, though he considered speculation as to the nature
-of deity useless. He showed the Positivist spirit in his rejection of
-metaphysical subtleties. “When,” he writes, “we have well disputed
-over spirit and matter, we end ever by no advance. No philosopher has
-been able to raise by his own efforts the veil which nature has spread
-over the first principles of things.” Again: “I do not know the *quo
-modo*, true. I prefer to stop short rather than to lose myself.” Also:
-“Philosophy consists in stopping where physics fail us. I observe the
-effects of nature, but I confess I know no more than you do about first
-principles.” But a deist he ever remained.
-
-Baron de Gleichen, who visited him in 1757, relates that a young author,
-at his wits’ end for the means of living, knocked one day at the
-poet’s door, and to recommend himself said: “I am an apprentice
-atheist at your service.” Voltaire replied: “I have the honor to be a
-master deist; but though our trades are opposed, I will give you some
-supper to-night and some work to-morrow. I wish to avail myself of your
-arms and not of your head.”
-
-He thought both atheism and fanaticism inimical to society; but, said
-he, “the atheist, in his error, preserves reason, which cuts his
-claws, while those of the fanatic are sharpened in the incessant madness
-which afflicts him.”
-
-Voltaire seems to have been at bottom agnostic holding on to the narrow
-ledge of theism and afraid to drop.
-
-He says: “For myself, I am sure of nothing. I believe that there is
-an intelligence, a creative power, a God. I express an opinion to-day;
-I doubt of it to-morrow; the day after I repudiate it. All honest
-philosophers have confessed to me, when they were warmed with wine, that
-the great Being has not given to them one particle more evidence than to
-me.” He believed in the immortality of the soul, yet expresses himself
-dubiously, saying to Madame du Deffand that he knew a man who believed
-that when a bee died it ceased to hum. That man was himself.
-
-On the appearance, however, in 1770 of the Baron d’Holbach’s
-*System of Nature*—in which he was very considerably helped by
-Diderot—Voltaire took alarm at its openly pronounced atheism. “The
-book,” he wrote,
-
-“has made all the philosophers execrable in the eyes of the King and
-his court. Through this fatal work philosophy is lost for ever in the
-eyes of all magistrates and fathers of families.” He accordingly took
-in hand to combat its atheism, which he does in the article *Dieu* in
-the *Philosophical Dictionary*, and in his *History of Jenni* (Johnny),
-a lad supposed to be led on a course of vice by atheism and reclaimed to
-virtue by the design argument. Voltaire’s real attitude seems fairly
-expressed in his celebrated mot: “S’il n’y avait pas un dieu,
-il fraudrait l’inventer”—“If there was not a God it would be
-necessary to invent one,” which, Morin remarks, was exactly what had
-been done. Morley says: “It was not the truth of the theistic belief
-in itself that Voltaire prized, but its supposed utility as an assistant
-to the police.”
-
-
-
-
-THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA
-================
-
-.. dropcap:: V Voltaire
-
-
-Voltaire was a great stimulator of the French *Encyclopædia*, a work
-designed to convey to the many the information of the few. Here again
-the inspiration was English. It was the success of the *Cyclopcedia of
-Arts and Sciences*, edited by the Freethinker Ephraim Chambers, in 1728,
-which suggested the yet more famous work carried out by Diderot and
-D’Alembert, with the assistance of such men as Helvetius, Buffon,
-Turgot, and Condorcet. Voltaire took an ardent interest in the work, and
-contributed many important articles. The leading contributors were all
-Freethinkers, but they were under the necessity of advancing their ideas
-in a tentative way on account of the vigilant censorship. Voltaire
-not only wrote for the *Encyclopædia*, but gave valuable hints and
-suggestions to Diderot and D’Alembert, as well as much sound advice.
-He cautioned them, for instance, against patriotic bias. “Why,” he
-asks D’Alembert, “do you say that the sciences are more indebted
-to France than to any other nation? Is it to the French that we are
-indebted for the quadrant, the fire-engine, the theory of light,
-inoculation, the seed-sower? *Parbleu!* you are jesting! We have
-invented only the wheelbarrow.”
-
-Voltaire wrote the section on History. The first page contained a
-Voltairean definition of sacred history which even an ignorant censor
-could hardly be expected to pass. “Sacred History is a series of
-operations, divine and miraculous, by which it pleased God formerly to
-conduct the Jewish nation, and to-day to exercise our faith.” The
-iron hand beneath the velvet glove was too evident for this to pass
-the censorship. Vexatious delay and the enforced excision of important
-articles attended the progress of the work.
-
-It was the attempted suppression of *l'Encyclopcedie* which showed
-Voltaire that the time had come for battle.
-
-In 1757 a new edict was issued, threatening with death any one who
-wrote, printed, or sold any work attacking religion or the royal
-authority. The same edict assigned the penalty of the galleys to whoever
-published writings without legal permit. Within six months advocate
-Barbier recorded in his diary some terrible sentences. La Martelière,
-verse-writer, for printing clandestinely Voltaire’s *Pucelle* and
-other “such” works, received nine years in the galleys; eight
-printers and binders employed in the same printing office, the pillory
-and three years’ banishment. Up to the period of the Revolution
-nothing could be legally printed in France, and no book could be
-imported, without Government authorisation. Mr. Lecky says, in his
-*History of England in the Eighteenth Century*: “During the whole of
-the reign of Lewis XV. there was scarcely a work of importance which
-was not burnt or suppressed, while the greater number of the writers
-who were at this time the special, almost the only, glory of France were
-imprisoned, banished, or fined.” Voltaire determined to render the
-bigots odious and contemptible, and henceforth waged incessant war,
-continued to the day of his death. In satire on one of the bigots
-he issued his *Narrative of the Sickness, Confession, Death and
-Reappearance of the Jesuit Berthier*, as rich a burlesque as that which
-Swift had written predicting and describing the death of the astrologer
-Partridge, in accordance with the prediction. Every sentence is a hit. A
-priest of a rival order is hastily summoned to confess the dying Jesuit,
-who is condemned to penance in purgatory for 333,333 years, 3 months, 3
-weeks, and 3 days, and then will only be let out if some brother Jesuit
-be found humble and good enough to be willing to apply all his merits to
-Father Berthier. Even putting his enemy in purgatory, he only condemned
-the Jesuit every morning to mix the chocolate of a Jansenist, read aloud
-at dinner a Provincial Letter, and employ the rest of the day in mending
-the chemises of the nuns of Port Royal.
-
-From Ferney he poured forth a wasp-swarm of such writings under all
-sorts of pen-names, and dated from London, Amsterdam, Berne, or Geneva.
-He had sufficient stimulus in the bigotry, intolerance, and atrocious
-iniquities perpetrated in the name of religion.
-
-Voltaire, moreover, determined himself to uphold the work of the
-*Encyclopædia* in more popular form. He put forward first his
-*Questions upon the Encyclopædia*, in which he deals with some
-important articles of that work, with others of his own. This was the
-foundation of the most important of all his works, the *Philosophical
-Dictionary*, which he is said to have projected in the days when he was
-with Frederick at Berlin. In this work he showed how a dictionary could
-be made the most amusing reading in the world. Under an alphabetical
-arrangement, he brought together a vast variety of sparkling essays on
-all sorts of subjects connected with literature, science, politics and
-religion. Some of his headings were mere stalking-horses, under cover of
-which he shot at the enemy. Some are concerned with matters now out
-of date; but, on the whole, the work presents a vivid picture of his
-versatile genius. An abridged edition, containing articles of abiding
-interest, would be a service to Free-thought at the present day.
-
-Here is a slight specimen of his style taken from the article on
-Fanaticism: “Some one spreads a rumor in the world that there is a
-giant in existence 70 feet high. Very soon all the doctors discuss the
-questions what color his hair must be, what is the size of his thumb,
-what the dimensions of his nails; there is outcry, caballing, fighting;
-those who maintain that the giant’s little finger is only an inch and
-a half in diameter, bring those to the stake who affirm that the little
-finger is a foot thick. ‘But, gentlemen, does your giant exist?’
-says a bystander, modestly.
-
-“‘What a horrible doubt!’ cry all the disputants; ‘what blasphemy!
-what absurdity!’ Then they all make a little truce to stone the
-bystander, and, after having assassinated him in due form, in a manner
-the most edifying, they fight among themselves, as before, on the
-subject of the little finger and the nails.”
-
-“L’Infâme.”
-
-Voltaire had other provocations to his attack on the bigots, and as he
-greatly concerned himself with these, they must be briefly mentioned. In
-1761 a tragedy of mingled judicial bigotry, ignorance, and cruelty was
-enacted in Languedoc. On October 13th of that year, Marc Antoine, the
-son of Jean Calas, a respectable Protestant merchant in Toulouse, a
-young man of dissolute habits, who had lived the life of a scapegrace,
-hanged himself in his father’s shop while the family were upstairs.
-The priestly party got hold of the case and turned it into a religious
-crime. The Huguenot parents were charged with murdering their son to
-prevent his turning Catholic. Solemn services were held for the repose
-of the soul of Marc Antoine, and his body was borne to the grave with
-more than royal pomp, as that of a martyr to the holy cause of religion.
-In the church of the White Penitents a hired skeleton was exhibited,
-holding in one hand a branch of palm, emblem of martyrdom, and in the
-other an inscription, in large letters, “abjuration of heresy.’’
-The populace, who were accustomed yearly to celebrate with rejoicing
-the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572, were excited against the
-family. The father, who for sixty years had lived without reproach, was
-arrested, with his wife and children. The court before whom the case was
-brought, at first was disposed to put the whole family to the torture,
-never doubting that the murder would be confessed by one or other of
-them. But they ended by only condemning the father to be tortured, in
-order to extract a confession of guilt before being broken on the wheel,
-after which his body was to be burned and the ashes scattered to the
-winds. He was submitted first to the *question ordinaire*. In sight of
-the rack he was asked to reveal his crime. His answer was that no crime
-had been committed. He was stretched on the rack until every limb was
-dislocated and the body drawn out several inches beyond. He was then
-subjected to the *question extraordinaire*. This consisted in pouring
-water into his mouth from a horn, while his nose was pinched, till his
-body was swollen to twice its size, and the sufferer endured the anguish
-of a hundred drownings. He submitted without flinching to all the
-excruciating agony. Finally, he was placed upon a tumbril and
-carried through the howling mob to the place of execution. “I am
-innocent.” he muttered from time to time. At the scaffold he was
-exhorted to confess by a priest: “What!” said he, “you, too,
-believe a father can kill his own son!” They bound him to a wooden
-cross, and the executioner, with an iron bar, broke each of his limbs
-in two places, striking eleven blows in all, and then left him for two
-hours to die. The executioner mercifully strangled him at last,
-before burning the body at the stake. To the last he persisted in his
-innocence: he had no confession to make. By his unutterable agony he
-saved the lives of his wife and family. Two daughters were thrown into
-a convent, and the property was confiscated. The widow and son escaped,
-and were provided for by Voltaire.
-
-He spared no time, trouble, or money to arrive at the truth, and that
-once reached, he was as assiduous in his search for justice. He went
-to work with an energy and thoroughness all his own. He interested the
-Pompadour herself in the case. By his own efforts he forced justice to
-be heard. “The worst of the worthy sort of people,” he said, “is
-that they are such cowards. A man groans over his wrong, shuts his lips,
-takes his supper, and forgets.” Voltaire was not of that fibre. Wrong
-went as a knife to his heart. He suffered with the victim, and might
-have justly used the words of Shelley, who compared himself unto
-“a nerve, o’er which do creep the else unfelt oppressions of the
-world.” Voltaire had to fire others with his own fervor. He issued
-pamphlet after pamphlet in which the shameful story was told with
-pathetic simplicity. He employed the best lawyers he could find to
-vindicate the memory of the murdered man. For three years he left no
-stone unturned, until all that was possible was done to right the foul
-wrong of those in authority. During this time no smile escaped him of
-which he did not reproach himself as a crime. Carlyle speaks of this as
-“Voltaire’s noblest outburst, into mere transcendant blaze of pity,
-virtuous wrath, and determination to bring rescue and help against the
-whole world.”
-
-He had his pamphlets on the Calas case, seven in number, translated and
-published in England and Germany, where they produced a profound effect.
-A subscription for the Calas family was headed by the young Queen of
-George III. When at length judgment was given, reversing the sentence,
-he wrote to Damilaville: “My dear brother, there is, then, justice
-upon the earth! There is, then, such a thing as humanity! Men are not
-all wicked rascals, as they say! It is the day of your triumph, my dear
-brother; you have served the family better than anyone.”
-
-It was while the Calas case was pending that Voltaire composed his noble
-*Treatise on Toleration*, a work which, besides its great effect in
-Europe, caused Catherine II. to promise, if not to grant, universal
-religious toleration throughout the vast empire she governed.
-
-This Calas case was scarce ended when another, almost as bad an
-exhibition of intolerance, occurred. Sirven, a respectable Protestant
-land surveyor, had a Catholic housekeeper, who, with the assent of the
-Bishop of Castres, spirited away his daughter for the good of her soul,
-and placed her in a convent, with a view to her conversion. She returned
-to her parents in a state of insanity, her body covered with the marks
-of the whip. She never recovered from the cruelties she had endured at
-the convent. One day, when her father was absent on his professional
-duties, she threw herself into a well, at the bottom of which she was
-found drowned. It was obvious to the authorities that the parents had
-murdered their child because she wished to become a Roman Catholic. They
-most wisely did not appear, and were sentenced to be hanged when they
-could be caught. In their flight the married daughter gave premature
-birth to a child, and Madame Sirven died in despair.
-
-It took Voltaire eight years to get this abominable sentence reversed,
-and to turn wrong into right. He was now between seventy and eighty
-years of age, yet he threw himself into the cause of the Sirvens with
-the zeal and energy which has vindicated Calas; appealing to Paris
-and Europe, issuing pamphlets, feeing lawyers, and raising a handsome
-subscription for the family.
-
-Another case was that of the Chevalier de la Barre. In 1766 a crucifix
-was injured—perhaps wantonly, perhaps by accident. The Bishop of Amiens
-called for vengeance. Two young officers were accused; one escaped, and
-obtained by Voltaire’s request a commission in the Prussian service.
-The other, La Barre, was tortured to confess, and then condemned to have
-his tongue cut out, his hand cut off, and to be burned alive. Voltaire,
-seventy years old, devoted himself with untiring energy to save him.
-Failing in that, he wrote one of his little pamphlets, a simple, graphic
-*Narrative of the Death of Chevalier de la Barre*, which stirred every
-humane heart in France. For twelve years this infidel vindicated the
-memory of the murdered man and exposed his oppressors. One of the
-authorities concerned in this judicial atrocity threatened Voltaire
-with vengeance for holding them up to the execration of Europe. Voltaire
-replied by a Chinese anecdote. “I forbid you,” said a tyrannical
-emperor to the historiographer, “to speak a word more of me.”
-The mandarin began to write. “What are you doing now?” asked the
-emperor. “I am writing down the order that your majesty has just
-given me.” Voltaire had sought to save Admiral Byng. He contended in
-a similar case at home. Count Lally had failed to save India from the
-English, had been taken prisoner, but allowed to go to Paris to clear
-his name from charges made against him. The French people, infuriate
-at the loss of their possession, demanded a victim, and Lally, after a
-process tainted with every kind of illegality, was condemned to death on
-the vague charge of abuse of authority. The murdered man’s son, known
-in the Revolution as Lally Tollendal, was joined by Voltaire in the
-honorable work of procuring revision of the proceedings, and one of the
-last crowning triumphs of Voltaire’s days was the news brought to him
-on his dying bed that his long effort had availed.
-
-“Ecrasez L'infàme.”
-
-These are samples of what was occuring when Voltaire was exhorting
-his friends to *crush the infamous*—a phrase which gave rise to much
-misunderstanding, and which priests have even alleged was applied to
-Jesus, their idol. A sufficient disproof, if any were needed, is that
-Voltaire treats “l’infàme” as feminine. *Si vous pouvez écraser
-l'infâme, ecrasez-la, et aimez-moi.” That oft-repeated phrase was
-directed at no person. Nor was it, as some Protestants have alleged,
-directed only at Roman Catholicism. As Voltaire saw and said,
-“fanatic Papists and fanatic Calvanism are tarred with one brush.”
-“L’infàme” was Christian superstition claiming supernatural
-authority and enforcing its claim, as it has ever sought to do, by
-pains and penalties. He meant by it the whole spirit of exclusiveness,
-intolerance, and bigotry, persecuting and privileged orthodoxy, which
-he saw-as the outcome of the divine faith. Practically, as D. F. Strauss
-justly remarked, “when Voltaire writes to D’Alembert that he wishes
-to see the ‘Infâme’ reduced in France to the same condition
-in which she finds herself in England, and when Frederick writes to
-Voltaire that philosophers flourished amongst the Greeks and Romans,
-because their religion had no dogmas—‘*mais les dogmes de notre
-infàme gâtent tout*’—it is clear we must understand by the
-‘Infâme,’ whose destruction was the watchword of the Voltairian
-circle, the Christian Church, without distinction of communions,
-Catholic or Protestant.”
-
-The Catholic Joseph de Maistre shrieks: “With a fury without example,
-this insolent blasphemer declared himself the personal enemy of the
-Savior of men, dared from the depths of his nothingness to give him a
-name of ridicule, and that adorable law which the Man-God brought to
-earth he called ‘l’infame.’” This is a judgment worthy of a
-bigot, who dares not look into the reason why his creed is detested. Let
-us try and understand this insolent blasphemer to-day.
-
-Voltaire looked deep into the heart of the atrocities that wrung his
-every nerve with anguish. They were not new: only the humanity and
-courage that assailed them were new. They were the natural outcome of
-what had been Christian teaching. It was not simply that, as a matter
-of fact, priests and theologians were the opponents of every kind of
-rational progress, but their intolerance was the logical result of their
-creed. These atrocities could not have been perpetrated had not priests
-and magistrates had behind them a credulous and fanatical populace,
-whose minds were suborned from childhood to believing that they had
-themselves the one and divine faith, and that all heretics were
-enemies of God. He saw that to destroy the intolerance he must sap the
-superstition from which it sprang. He saw that the core of the Christian
-superstition lay in Bibliolatry, and that while Christians believed they
-had an exclusive and infallibly divine revelation, they would deem all
-opposition to their own beliefs a sin, meriting punishment. Mr. Morley
-says, with truth: “If we find ourselves walking amid a generation of
-cruel, unjust, and darkened spirits, we may be assured that it is their
-beliefs on what they deem highest that have made them so. There is
-no counting with certainty on the justice of men who are capable of
-fashioning and worshipping an unjust divinity; nor on their humanity, so
-long as they incorporate inhuman motives in their most sacred dogma; nor
-on their reasonableness, while they rigorously decline to accept reason
-as a test of truth.”
-
-Voltaire warred on Christian superstition because he keenly felt its
-evils. He saw that intolerance naturally flowed from the exclusive and
-dogmatic claims which alone differentiated it from other faiths. Its
-inducements to right-doing he found to be essentially ignoble, appealing
-either to brutal fear of punishment or base expectation of reward,
-and in each case alike mercenary. He saw that terrorism engendered
-brutality, that a savage will think nothing of slaughtering hundreds
-to appease his angry God. He saw that it had been a fine religion for
-priests and monks—those caterpillars of the commonwealth, living on the
-fat of the land while pretending to hold the keys of heaven, a race of
-parasites on the people, who toil not neither do they spin, and whose
-direct interest lay in fostering their dupes ignorance and credulity.
-The Christian tree was judged, as its founder said it should be, by its
-fruits. Men do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles.
-He saw Christianity as Tacitus described it—“a maleficent
-superstition.” It was a upas tree, to be cut down; and hence
-he reiterated his terrible *Delenda est Carthago,* “Ecrasez
-l’Infàme”—“Destroy the monster.”
-
-He wrote to D’Alembert from Ferney: “For forty years I have endured
-the outrages of bigots and scoundrels. I have found there is nothing to
-gain by moderation, and that it is a deception. I must wage war openly
-and die nobly, 'on a crowd of bigots slaughtered at my feet.’” His
-war was relentless and unremitting. He assailed “l’Infàme”
-with every weapon which learning, wit, industry, and indignation could
-supply.
-
-Frederick wrote to him from the midst of his own wars: “Your zeal
-burns against the Jesuits and superstitions. You do well to combat
-error, but do you credit that the world will change? The human mind is
-weak. Three-fourths of mankind are formed to be the slaves of the
-absurdest fanaticism. The fear of the devil and hell is fascinating to
-them, and they detest the sage who wishes to enlighten them. I look in
-vain among them for the image of God, of which the theologians assure us
-they carry the imprint.” Madame du Deffand wrote in a similar strain.
-She assured him that every person of sense thought as he did; why then
-continue? No remonstrance moved him. He had enlisted for the war, and
-might have said with Luther: *Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders*.
-
-Much nonsense has been written about Voltaire’s employment of ridicule
-against religious beliefs. I am reminded of Bishop South’s remark to
-a dull brother bishop, who reproved him for sprinkling his sermon with
-witticisms. “Now, my lord, do you really mean to say that, if God had
-given you any wit, you would not have used it?” Voltaire ridiculed
-what he esteemed ridiculous. But there is nothing more galling to
-superstitionists than to find that others find food for mirth in their
-absurdities.
-
-“You mock at sacred things,” said the Jesuits to Pascal when he
-exposed their casuistry. Doubtless the priests of Baal said the same
-when Elijah asked them whether their God was asleep, or peradventure on
-a journey. The artifice of inculcating a solemn and reverential manner
-of treating absurdities is the perennial recipe for sanctifying and
-perpetuating superstition. “Priests of all persuasions,” says Oliver
-Goldsmith, “are enemies to ridicule, because they know it to be a
-formidable antagonist to fanaticism, and they preach up gravity to
-conceal their own shallowness of imposture.” Approach the mysteries
-of the faith with reverence and you concede half the battle. Christian
-missionaries do not thus treat the fetishism and sorcery of heathen
-lands. To overcome it they must expose its absurdities. Ridicule has
-been a weapon in the hands of all the great liberators, Luther, Erasmus,
-Rabelais, Bruno, Swift, but none used it more effectively than Voltaire.
-Buckle well says; “He used ridicule, not as the test of truth, but as
-the scourge of folly.” And he adds: “His irony, his wit, his pungent
-and telling sarcasms produce more effect than the gravest arguments
-could have done; and there can be no doubt he was fully justified in
-using those great resources with which nature had endowed him, since by
-their aid he advanced the interests of truth, and relieved men from some
-of their most inveterate prejudices.” Victor Hugo puts the case in
-poetic fashion when he declares that Voltaire was irony incarnate for
-the salvation of mankind. “Ridicule is not argument”! Well, it is a
-pointed form of polemic, the *argumentum ad absurdum*. “Mustapha,”
-said Voltaire, “does not believe, but he believes that he believes.”
-To shame him out of hypocrisy, there is nothing better than laughter;
-and if a true believer, laughter will best free him from terror of his
-bogey devil and no less bogey god. Ridicule can hurt no reality. You
-cannot make fun of the multiplication table. The fun begins when the
-theologians assert that three times one are one. Shaftesbury, who
-maintained that ridicule was a test of truth, remarked with justice,
-“’tis the persecuting spirit that has raised the bantering one.”
-Ridicule is the natural retort to those who seek not to convert but
-to convict and punish. Ridicule comes like a stream of sunlight to
-dissipate the fogs of preconceived prejudice. A laugh, if no argument,
-is a splendid preparative. Often, in Voltaire, ridicule takes an
-argumentative form. Thus, alluding to a Monsieur Esprit’s book on the
-Falsity of Human Virtues, he says: “That great genius, Mons. Esprit,
-tells us that neither Cato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, nor Epictetus
-were good men, and a good reason why, good men are only found among
-Christians. Again, among the Christians, Catholics alone are virtuous,
-and of the Catholics, the Jesuits, enemies of the Oratorians, must be
-excepted. Therefore, there is scarce any virtue on earth, except among
-the enemies of the Jesuits.”
-
-All his characteristic scorn and ridicule come out when dealing with the
-fetish book of his adversaries. The *Philosophical Dictionary* is full
-of wit upon biblical subjects. I content myself with an excerpt from the
-less known *Sermon of Fifty*: “If Moses changed the waters into blood,
-the sages of Pharoah did the same. He made frogs come upon the land;
-this also they were able to do. But when lice were concerned, they were
-vanquished; in the matter of lice, the Jews knew more and could do more
-than the other nations.”
-
-“Finally, Adonaï caused every first-born in Egypt to die, in order
-that his people might be at their ease. For his people the sea is cloven
-in twain; and we must confess it is the least that could be done on this
-occasion. All the other marvels are of the same stamp. The Jews wander
-in the desert. Some husbands complain of their wives. Immediately water
-is found, which makes every woman who has been faithless to her husband
-swell and burst. In the desert the Jews have neither bread nor dough,
-but quails and manna are rained upon them. Their clothes are preserved
-unworn for forty years; as the children grow, their clothes grow with
-them. Samson, because he had not undergone the operation of shaving,
-defeats a thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass. He ties
-together three hundred foxes, which, as a matter of course, come quite
-readily to his hand.
-
-“There is scarcely a page in which tales of this sort are not found.
-The ghost of Samuel appears, summoned by the voice of a witch.
-The shadow of a dial—as if miserable creatures like the Jews had
-dials—goes back ten degrees at the prayer of Hezekiah, who, with great
-judgment, asks for this sign. God gives him the choice of making the
-hour advance or recede, and the learned Hezekiah thinks that it is not
-difficult to make the shadow advance, but very difficult to make it
-recede. Elijah mounts to heaven in a chariot of fire; children sing in a
-hot and raging furnace. I should never stop if I entered into the detail
-of all the monstrous extravagances with which this book swarms. Never
-was common sense outraged so vehemently and indecently.” Noticing
-the comparison in the Song of Solomon, “Her nose is like the tower of
-Damascus,” etc., he says: “This, I own, is not in the style of the
-Eclogues of the author of the Æneid; but all have not a like style, and
-a Jew is not obliged to write like Virgil.”
-
-This, it may be objected, is caricature and not criticism. But all that
-Voltaire sought was that his blows should tell. He did not expect to be
-taken *au pied du lettre*. Some of his biblical criticism is faulty,
-but it is hard for the reader to recover from the tone of banter
-and contempt with which he treats the sacred book. When the idol is
-shattered, it is not much use saying its mouth was not quite so big and
-ugly as it was represented to be. Priests have never yet been troubled
-by dull criticism. They left Tindal and Chubb alone; but when Woolston,
-Annet and Paine added liveliness to their infidelity, they loudly called
-for the police.
-
-Leslie Stephen well says: “Men have venerated this or that grotesque
-monstrosity because they have always approached it with half-shut eyes
-and grovelling on their faces in the dust: a single hearty laugh will
-encourage them to stand erect and to learn the latest of lessons—that
-of seeing what lies before them. And if your holy religion does really
-depend upon preserving the credit of Jonah’s whale, upon justifying
-all the atrocities of the Jews, and believing that a census was punished
-by a plague, ridicule is not only an effective but an appropriate mode
-of argument.”
-
-Voltaire is often sneered at as a mere destructive. The charge is
-not true, and, even if it were, he would none the less deserve the
-admiration of posterity for his destructive work. It is as necessary for
-the gardener to clear away the rubbish and keep down the weeds as to sow
-and water. Mr. Morley justly observes: “He had imagination enough and
-intelligence enough to perceive that they are the most pestilent of all
-the enemies of mankind, the sombre hierarchs of misology, who take away
-the keys of knowledge, thrusting truth down to the second place, and
-discrowning sovereign reason to be the serving drudge of superstition or
-social usuage.”
-
-Voltaire was the arch iconoclast of his age, a mere destructive, if you
-will. Buckie truly remarks: “All great reforms have consisted, not
-in making something new, but in unmaking something old.” W. J. Fox
-eloquently said: “The destruction of tyranny is political freedom. The
-destruction of bigotry is spiritual and mental emancipation. Positive
-and negative are mere forms. Creation and destruction, as we call
-them, are just one and the same work, the work which man has to do—the
-extraction of good from evil.”
-
-Much has been made of the pseudonymous character of his attacks on
-Christianity, and of the subterfuges and fibs with which he sought to
-evade responsibility. One might as well complain of ironclads wearing
-armor in warfare.
-
-It was the necessity of his position. He wanted to do his work, not to
-become a martyr, leaving it to unknown hands. It should be remembered
-that Voltaire had sometimes to bribe publishers to bring out his
-writings; and, in such circumstances, the pseudonymity is surely open to
-no suspicion of baseness. His poem on *Natural Religion* was condemned
-to the flames by the decree of the Parliament of Paris, 23rd January,
-1759. His *Important Examination of the Scriptures*, which he falsely
-attributed to Lord Bolingbroke, was condemned with five other of his
-pieces by a decree of the Court of Rome, 29th November, 1771. Could
-the author have been caught, he would have had a good chance, if not
-of sharing the fate of his book, at least of permanent lodgment in
-the Bastille, of which he had already sufficient taste. He knew that
-although Bolingbroke had no hand in its composition he largely shared
-its ideas, and he obtained at once publicity and security by attributing
-it to the dead friend who, Morley says, “was the direct progenitor of
-Voltaire’s opinions in religion.” If he stuck at no subterfuge to
-achieve his work, his lies injured no one. One of the funniest was
-the signing one of his heterodox publications as the Archbishop of
-Canterbury, a lie which may remind us of the drunken Sheridan announcing
-himself as William Wilberforce. Voltaire had been Bastilled twice, and
-verily believed that another taste would end his days. “I am,”
-he said, “a friend of truth, but no friend at all to martyrdom.”
-Shelter behind any ambush was necessary in such guerilla warfare as
-his. Over fifty of his works were condemned, and placed upon the Index.
-Voltaire used no fewer than one hundred and thirty different pen-names,
-which have enabled bibliographers to display their erudition.(1) But for
-this underground method, he might have been laid by the heels instead of
-living to old age, with the satisfaction of seeing the world becoming a
-little more humane and tolerant through his efforts. In such warfare the
-only test is success, and the fact remains that Voltaire’s blows told.
-He cleared the course for modern science, and it is not for those who
-benefit by his labors to sneer because he did not become a martyr in the
-struggle.
-
- 1. Special mention should be made of the *Bibliographie
- Voltairienne* of M. L. Querard, and *Voltaire: Bibliographie
- de ses Œuvres*, in four volumes, by M. G. Bengesco, 1882-
- 1890.
-
-Condorcet says: “His zeal against a religion which he regarded as the
-cause of the fanaticism which has desolated Europe since its birth,
-of the superstition which had burst about it, and as the source of the
-mischief which the enemies of human nature still continued to do, seemed
-to double his activity and his forces. ‘I am tired,’ he said one
-day, ‘of hearing it repeated that twelve men were enough to establish
-Christianity. I want to show them that one will be enough to destroy
-it.’” What one man could do he did. But it took not twelve legendary
-apostles, but the labor of countless thousands of men, through many
-ages, to build up the great complex of Christianity, and it will need
-the labors of as many to destroy it. Voltaire himself came to see this,
-and wrote, in the year before his death, “I now perceive that we must
-still wait three or four hundred years. One day it cannot but be that
-good men will win their cause; but before that glorious day arrives, how
-many disgusts have we to undergo, how many dark persecutions, without
-reckoning the La Barres of whom they will make an *auto de fe* from time
-to time.”
-
-John Morley remarks: “The meaner partisans of an orthodoxy, which can
-only make wholly sure of itself by injustice to adversaries, has always
-loved to paint the Voltairean school in the characters of demons,
-enjoying their work of destruction with a sportive and impish delight.
-They may have rejoiced in their strength so long as they cherished the
-illusion that those who first kindled the torch should also complete
-the long course and bear the lamp to the goal. When the gravity of
-the enterprise showed itself before them, they remained alert with all
-courage, but they ceased to fancy that courage necessarily makes men
-happy. The mantle of philosophy was rent in a hundred places, and bitter
-winds entered at a hundred holes; but they only drew it the more closely
-around them.”
-
-It may remain an inspiration to others, as it assuredly is a proof of
-the temperance and moderation of his own life, that much of Voltaire’s
-best work was done after he had reached his sixtieth year. *Candide*,
-his masterpiece, was written at the age of sixty-four. Four years later
-he produced his *Sermon of the Fifty*, and he was sixty-nine when he
-published his epoch-making *Treatise upon Toleration*, and *Saul*, the
-wittiest of his burlesque dramas. At the age of seventy he issued his
-most important work, the *Philosophical Dictionary*, and his burlesque
-upon existing superstitions, which he entitled *Pot-Pourri*. This
-was, indeed, the period of his greatest literary activity against
-“l’Infame.” His *Questions on the Miracles*, his *Examination of
-Lord Bolingbroke*, the *Questions of Zapata*, the *Dinner of Count
-de Boulainvilliers* (the charming *resumé* of Voltaire’s religious
-opinions, which had the honor to be burnt by the hand of the hangman),
-the *Canonisation of St. Cucufin*, the romance of the *Princess of
-Babylon*, the *A. B. and C.*, the collection of *Ancient Gospels*, and
-his *God and Men*, all being issued while he was between seventy and
-seventy-five. It was at this time he edited the *Recueil Nécessaire
-avec l'Evangile de la Raison*, a collection of anti-Christian tracts
-dated Leipsic and London, but printed at Amsterdam. He was eighty when
-he put forth his *White Bull* (one of the funniest of his pieces, which
-was translated by Jeremy Bentham), and his ridiculous skit on Bababec
-and the Fakirs; eighty-two when he wrote *The Bible Explained* and *A
-Christian against Six Jews*; and eighty-three when he published his
-*History of the Establishment of Christianity*.
-
-It was thus in the last twenty years of his long life that Voltaire
-did his best work for the destruction of prejudice and the spread of
-enlightenment. At the same time he maintained a large correspondence,
-both with the principal sovereigns of Europe, whom he urged in the
-direction of tolerance, and with the leading writers, whom he wished to
-combine in a great and systematic attempt to sap the creed he believed
-to be at the root of superstition and intolerance.
-
-It is in his lengthy and varied correspondence with intimates, extending
-over sixty years, that Voltaire most truly reveals himself. He is
-therein his own minute biographer, revealing not only his actions,
-but their actuation. We see him therein not merely the prince of
-*persifleurs*, but the serious sensitive thinker, keenly alive to
-friendship, love, and work for the higher interests of humanity. His
-letters are among the most varied, interesting, and delightful of any
-left by a great man of letters. Like all his other productions, they
-display the fertility of his genius. Over ten thousand separate letters
-are catalogued by Bengesco. Their very extent prevents their being
-widely read, but they reveal the perennial brightness of his mind, his
-delight in work, his love of literature and liberty, his constant gaiety
-and goodness of heart, with here and there only a flash of indignation
-and contempt. They are imbued with the spirit of friendship, abound in
-anecdotes and pleasantries, mingled with a passionate earnestness for
-the interest of mankind. Constantly we find him endeavoring to elevate
-the literary class, to raise the drama, continually seeking to encourage
-talent, to relieve suffering, and to defend the oppressed.
-
-
-
-
-LAST DAYS
-=========
-
-.. dropcap:: W With
-
-
-With the authorities at Geneva Voltaire had got into dispute, owing
-to his attempt to establish a private theatre in the territory still
-dominated by the ghost of Calvin. Moreover, he was continually reminding
-them of Servetus. When D’Alembert’s article on Geneva appeared the
-citizens were enraged, and Voltaire thought proper to also purchase
-an estate near Lausanne, in the Vaud Canton, which was somewhat less
-austere in theatrical matters. Here Gibbon was also residing at the
-time.
-
-Stupid stories have been told of Gibbon’s attempts to see Voltaire,
-and of their mutual laughter at each other’s ugliness. Voltaire is
-said to have refused himself to the young Englishman, which is very
-unlikely, and that he replied: “You are like the Christian God: he
-permits one to eat and drink, but will never show himself.” It is said
-that he got Voltaire’s mare let loose on purpose to see the old man
-chase after him. Voltaire sent a servant to charge him twelve sous for
-seeing the great beast, whereupon he gave twenty-four, with the remark,
-“that will pay for a second visit.” Gibbon himself, speaking of the
-winter of 1757-58, which he spent in the neighborhood of Lausanne, says:
-“My desire of beholding Voltaire, whom I then rated above his real
-magnitude, was easily gratified. He received me with civility as an
-English youth, but I cannot boast of any peculiar notice or distinction.
-The highest gratification which I derived from Voltaire’s residence at
-Lausanne was the uncommon circumstance of hearing a great poet declaim
-his own productions on the stage. He had formed a company of gentlemen
-and ladies, some of whom were not destitute of talents. My ardor, which
-soon became conspicuous, seldom failed of procuring me a ticket....
-The wit and philosophy of Voltaire, his table and theatre, refined in a
-visible degree the manners of Lausanne; and, however addicted to study,
-I enjoyed my share of the amusements of society.”
-
-This taste for directing theatrical representations was shared, perhaps
-we might say followed, by his great German admirer Goethe. It was
-Voltaire’s relaxation. One of his most particular friends was the
-great actor Le Kain. The drama was with him an instrument of education.
-He believed it to be a means both of softening and refining manners, and
-also of dispersing intolerance and superstition.
-
-Voltaire soon afterwards purchased a third estate at Ferney, just a
-little over the French border, and here, eventually, he lived *en
-grande seigneur*, and was known as the “patriarch of Ferney.” A
-philosopher, he said, with hounds at his heels, like a fox should never
-trust to one hole. Accordingly, he had within easy distance the choice
-of three distinct governments wherein to find a place of refuge, for, as
-Carlyle remarks, he “had to keep his eyes open and always have covert
-within reach, under pain of being torn to pieces, while he went about
-in the flesh, or rather in the bones, poor lean being.” He now had
-wealth, independence, and an assurance of safety, and had come to that
-time of life when most men who are able think they may fairly retire
-from their labors. But now was the time when he, casting aside all
-other pleasures and ambitions, threw himself with unflagging energy and
-unsurpassed industry into the great task of his life. It was from Ferney
-he issued all the remarkable works of his later years.
-
-At Ferney, the old church obstructing his view of the Alps, he built
-a new one, and got into trouble for doing so. He had inscribed on
-it, “Deo erexit Voltaire, 1761,” a phrase which betrayed rather
-patronage than devotion.
-
-“It is,” he remarked, “the only church dedicated to God alone; all
-the others are dedicated to saints. For my part, I would rather worship
-the master than the valets.” On another occasion, he said: “Yes, I
-adore God; but not monsieur his son, and madame his mother.” It was
-observed of the inscription that he had only a single word between
-himself and God. From the wall of his church he also built a tomb for
-himself. “The wicked will say that I am neither inside nor outside,”
-he remarked. Of the church he remarked: “The wicked will say, no
-doubt, that I am building this church in order to throw down the one
-which conceals a beautiful prospect, and to have a grand avenue; but
-I let the impious talk, and go on working out my salvation.” If the
-wicked made the remarks predicted, they doubtless spoke the truth. It
-was even reported that Voltaire personally superintended the removal of
-the old ruinous one, saying, “Take away that gibbet” when pointing
-to the crucifix. The *cure* of Moens, the parish adjoining Ferney, cited
-Voltaire before the ecclesiastical official of Gex as guilty of impiety
-and sacrilege, and Wagnière, Voltaire’s secretary, says: “Those
-gentlemen indulged the confident hope that M. de Voltaire would be
-burned, or at least hanged, for the greater glory of God and the
-edification of the faithful. This they said publicly.” Voltaire
-was enabled to strike terror to his persecutor by producing a royal
-ordinance of 1627 forbidding a *cure* to serve either as prosecutor or
-judge in such cases. The church remains, but the celebrated inscription
-was effaced during the Restoration of the Monarchy.
-
-Ferney became an asylum for the oppressed both from France and
-Switzerland. Many of these Voltaire located in and about his château,
-but, as their number increased, he built nice stone houses, and, in a
-little time, the miserable hamlet which before his arrival had been a
-wilderness, became a prosperous colony of twelve hundred individuals and
-a veritable free State. There were both Protestants and Catholics
-among them, but such was the unanimity in which they lived under his
-protection, that we are told no one could conceive that different
-religions existed among them. Among this colony he established the
-manufacture of weaving and of watches, by means of which his people
-presently became wealthy; the Empress Catherine II., even when engaged
-in her Turkish campaigns, paying her *bon ami* Voltaire the compliment
-of assisting the Ferney colony by an order for watches to the value of
-some thousand roubles. He pushed the work of his colonists into repute
-throughout the world, and was justified in saying to the Duke of
-Richelieu, “Give me a fair chance, and I am the man to build a
-city.”
-
-Though everywhere maligned as an infidel and a scoffer, his life was one
-long act of benevolence. The watches of Ferney became known as those of
-Geneva. “Fifteen years ago,” said a visitor, “there were barely
-at Ferney three or four cottages and forty inhabitants; now it is
-astonishing to see a numerous and civilised colony, a theatre, and
-more than a hundred pretty houses.” “His charities,” says General
-Hamley, “were munificent. When the Order of Jesuits was suppressed
-he took one of the body, Father Adam, into his house, and made him his
-almoner, a post which was far from being a sinecure.” Hearing that
-Mademoiselle Corneille, the grandniece of the poet, was in poverty,
-Voltaire, in the most delicate manner, invited her to his house, treated
-her as a relation, and gave her an education suitable to her descent.
-“It is,” he said, “the duty of an old soldier to be useful to
-the daughter of his general.” That she might not feel under personal
-obligation, he devoted to her dowry the profits of his *Commentaries on
-Corneille*.
-
-“A description is given of him in his last days at Ferney, seated
-under a vine, on the occasion of a *fête*, and receiving the
-congratulations and complimentary gifts of his tenantry and neighbors,
-when a young lady, whom he had adopted, brought him in a basket a
-pair of white doves with pink beaks, as her offering. He afterwards
-entertained about 200 guests at a splendid repast, followed by
-illuminations, songs, and dances, and was himself so carried away in
-an access of gaiety as to throw his hat into the air. But his merriment
-ended in a tempest of wrath; for learning, in the course of the evening,
-that the two doves which had figured so prettily in the *fête* had been
-killed for the table, his indignation at the stolid cruelty which could
-shed the blood of the creatures they had all just admired and caressed,
-knew no bounds.”
-
-Diderot, who shares with Voltaire the glory of being the intellectual
-landmark of last century, and who equalled him as an artist and excelled
-him as a philosopher, only met Voltaire a little before his death.
-The fame of Voltaire’s wealth had kept him from Ferney. Speaking
-of Voltaire in old age, Diderot says: “He is like one of those old
-haunted castles, which are falling into ruins in every part; but you
-easily perceive that it is inhabited by some ancient magician.”
-Diderot was the better critic, and controverted the patriarch as to
-the merits of Shakespeare, whom he compared to the statue of Saint
-Christopher at Notre Dame—unshapely and rude; but: such a colossus that
-ordinary petty men could pass between his legs without touching him.
-
-Late in life, Voltaire adopted Reine Philiberte de Vericourt, a young
-girl of noble but poor family, whom he had rescued from a convent life,
-installed in his own house, and married to the Marquis de Villette.
-Her pet name was *Belle et Bonne*, and no one had more to do with the
-happiness of the last years of Voltaire than she. She watched by the
-dying Voltaire’s bedside, and Lady Morgan thus records her report:
-“To his last moment everything he said and did breathed the
-benevolence and goodness of his character. All announced in him
-tranquility, peace, resignation; except a little moment of ill-humor
-which he showed to the *cure* of St. Sulpice when he begged him to
-withdraw, and said, 'Let me die in peace.’”
-
-Voltaire himself wrote to Mme. du Deffand: “They say sometimes of
-a man, 'He died like a dog’; but, truly, a dog is very happy to die
-without all the ceremony with which they persecute the last moments of
-our lives. If they had a little charity for us, they would let us
-die without saying anything about it. The worst is that we are then
-surrounded by hypocrites, who worry us to make us think as they do not
-in the least think; or else by imbeciles, who desire us to be as stupid
-as they are. All this is very disgusting. The only pleasure of life at
-Geneva is that people can die there as they like; many worthy persons
-summon no priest at all. People kill themselves if they please, without
-any one objecting; or they await the last moment, and no one troubles
-them about it.”
-
-Under suffering, age, and impending death, Voltaire’s bearing, as
-Carlyle acknowledges, “one must say is rather beautiful.” Voltaire
-had all his life “enjoyed” bad health. He had always a feeble
-constitution, and was a confirmed invalid for the greater part of his
-life, suffering from bladder disorder, and a variety of other diseases
-that would have soon finished an ordinary man. We may say he was
-sustained by his work, which was ever gay, even when most pessimistic.
-“My eyes are as red as a drunkard’s,” he writes, “and I have not
-the honor to be one.” His wit lasted in old age. A visitor to Ferney,
-hearing him praise Haller enthusiastically, told him that Haller did not
-do him equal justice. “Ah,” said Voltaire, lightly, “perhaps we
-are both mistaken.” To Bailly, the astronomer, he wrote, at the age of
-eighty-one: “A hundred thanks for the book of medicine which you sent
-me, together with your own [*History of Ancient Astronomy*], when I was
-very unwell. I have not opened the first. The second I have read and
-feel much better.” He kept himself at work with coffee. His interest
-was ever in his work. At the very last, the new dictionary he had
-proposed to the Academy was on his mind; it was not proceeding as
-rapidly as his indefatigable spirit desired. “J'ai fait un pen de
-bien; c'est mon meilleur ouvrage”—“I have done a little good; that
-is my best work,” was one of his latest utterances.
-
-His physicians gave their opinion that he might have lived even longer
-than he did had he not been lured to Paris by his niece (unprepossessing
-Madame Denis) to superintend the production of his last tragedy *Irene*.
-Asked at the barrier if there was anything contraband in the carriage,
-he replied, “Only myself.” On entering Paris he received a shock
-in the news that his friend Le Kain, the actor, had been buried the day
-before. He was visited by Benjamin Franklin, who brought his grandson,
-whom they desired to kneel for the patriarch’s blessing. Pronouncing
-in English the words, “God, Liberty, Toleration”—“this,”
-said Voltaire, “is the most suitable benediction for the grandson of
-Franklin.” Poems, addresses and deputations came thick upon him, and
-his hotel was thronged with visitors of rank and eminence. The popular
-voice hailed the aged patriarch, especially as the defender of Calas,
-the apostle of universal toleration; and this title was more gratifying
-to him than any other.
-
-In one house where Voltaire called on his last visit to Paris, the
-mistress reproached him for the obstinacy with which, in extreme old age
-(over eighty-three), he continued to assail the Church and its beliefs.
-“Be moderate and generous,” said she, “after the victory. What
-can you fear now from such adversaries? The fanatics are prostrate (*à
-terre*). They can no longer injure. Their reign is over.” Voltaire
-replied: “You are in error, madame; it is a fire that is covered but
-not extinguished. Those fanatics, those Tartuffes, are mad dogs. They
-are muzzled, but they have not lost their teeth. It is true they bite
-no more; but on the first opportunity, if their teeth are not drawn, you
-will see if they will not bite.” All that one man could do was done
-by Voltaire. More than any other, he helped to muzzle the mad dog of
-religious intolerance, lassoing it dexterously with his finespun silken
-thread, since replaced by a stronger cord. But the beast even yet is not
-dead; its teeth are not all drawn. Give it a chance and it will still
-bite. What we have to thank Voltaire for is, that he has left works
-which, as he himself said, are “scissors and files to file the teeth
-and pare the talons of the monsters.”
-
-Voltaire was, as he said, stifled in roses. He sat up at night
-perfecting *Irene*, and his unwearied activity induced him at his great
-age to begin a Dictionary upon a novel plan which he prevailed upon
-the French Academy to take up. At the performance of his tragedy he was
-crowned with laurel in his box, amid the plaudits of the audience. To
-keep himself up under the excitement, he exceeded even his usual excess
-of coffee. These labors and dissipation brought on spitting of blood,
-and sleeplessness, to obviate which he took opium. Condorcet says
-the servant mistook one of the doses, which threw him into a state of
-lethargy, from which he never recovered. He lingered for some time, but
-at length expired on the 30th of May, 1778, in his eighty-fourth year.
-
-Of course lying tales of dying horrors were floated, and disbelieved in
-by all who knew him. He wished to rest in his own churchyard, and let
-the *abbé* Gaultier and the *curé* de St. Sulpice squabble as to who
-should have, the honor of his conversion. His secretary, being alone
-with him, begged him to state what his view continued to be when he
-believed himself dying; and received this written declaration: “I
-die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, detesting
-superstition”—“Je meurs eti adorant dieu, en aimant mes amis, en
-ne baissant pas mes ennemis, de testant superstition.” This dying
-declaration may be seen at the *Bibliothèque Nationale*, Paris
-(Fr. 11,460), written, signed and dated by him in a still firm hand,
-February, 1778.
-
-Into the stories told of Voltaire’s dying moments and many similar
-legends, my colleague, Mr. G. W. Foote, has fully entered in his
-*Infidel Deathbeds*. He quotes the following extract from a letter by
-Dr. Burard, who, as assistant physician, was constantly about Voltaire
-in his last moments:
-
-“I feel happy in being able, while paying homage to truth, to destroy
-the effect of the lying stories which have been told respecting the last
-moments of Mons. de Voltaire. I was, by office, one of those who
-were appointed to watch the whole progress of his illness, with MM.
-Tron-chin, Lorry, and Try, his medical attendants. I never left him for
-an instant during his last moments, and I can certify that we invariably
-observed in him the same strength of character, though his disease was
-necessarily attended with horrible pain. (Here follow the details of
-his case.) We positively forbade him to speak, in order to prevent the
-increase of a spitting of blood, with which he was attacked; still he
-continued to communicate with us by means of little cards, on which
-he wrote his questions; we replied to him verbally, and if he was
-not satisfied, he always made his observations to us in writing.
-He therefore retained his faculties up to the last moment, and the
-fooleries which have been attributed to him are deserving of the
-greatest contempt. It could not even be said that such or such person
-had related any circnmstance of his death, as being witness to it; for
-at the last, admission to his chamber was forbidden to any person. Those
-who came to obtain intelligence respecting the patient, waited in the
-saloon, and other apartments at hand. The proposition, therefore, which
-has been put in the mouth of Marshal Richelieu is as unfounded as the
-rest.
-
-“Paris, April 3rd, 1819.
-
-“(Signed) Burard.”
-
-The actual facts are thus told by Mr. Parton: “Ten minutes before
-he breathed his last he roused from his slumber, took the hand of his
-valet, pressed it, and said to him: ‘Adieu, my dear Morand; I am
-dying.’ These were his last words.”
-
-D’Alembert, in a letter to Frederick, written after Voltaire’s
-death, thus recorded the impression made on him by the dying man. Having
-described the stupefying effects of the opium which left his head clear
-only for brief intervals, D’Alembert, who saw him during one of them,
-proceeds: “He recognised me and even spoke to me some friendly words.
-But the moment after he fell back into his state of stupor, for he was
-almost always dying. He awoke only to complain and to say ‘he had come
-to Paris to die.’” Throughout his illness, D’Alembert adds, “he
-exhibited, to the extent which his condition permitted, much tranquility
-of mind, although he seemed to regret life. I saw him again the day
-before his death, and to some friendly words of mine he replied,
-pressing my hand, ‘You are my consolation.’”
-
-It is certain the heads of the French Church did not consider that
-Voltaire had made a death-bed conversion, for they refused his body
-burial in consecrated ground. They had anathematised him when alive and
-proscribed him when dead. He had prepared a tomb for himself under the
-sky, where he had grown old and done good, but he was cheated out of his
-rights, and it was decided that he who built the church had no right to
-have his bones bleach in the cemetery. Letters were sent to the Bishop
-of Annecy, in whose diocese Ferney was, enjoining him to prohibit the
-*cure* thereof from giving Voltaire’s remains Christian burial in his
-own churchyard. Voltaire’s nephew, the *abbé* Mignot, held a ruined
-abbey at Scillieres, in Champagne, a hundred miles or so from Paris; and
-here the body was secretly hurried off and interred. On the very day of
-interment the Bishop of the diocese wrote to the Prior forbidding the
-burial. There was even some talk of having the body exhumed, and the
-clergy clamored for the expulsion of the Prior. Grimm relates that
-“the players were forbidden to act M. de Voltaire’s pieces till
-further orders, the editors of the public papers to speak of his death
-in any terms, either favorable or unfavorable, and the preceptors of the
-colleges to suffer any of their scholars to learn his verses.”
-
-In 1791, by a decree of the National Assembly and amid the acclamation
-of the people, his body was brought and placed in the Pantheon, where it
-rested beside that of Rousseau. At the Restoration in 1814 some bigoted
-Royalist stole away the bones, which were thrown into a hole with lime
-poured on them.
-
-In person Voltaire was always slim, with the long head which,
-Carlyle says, “is the best sign of intelligence.” His thinness is
-commemorated by the poor but well-known epigram attributed to Young, and
-identifying him at once with “Satan, Death, and Sin.” In old age he
-became a mere skeleton, with eyes of great brilliancy peering beneath
-his wig. He was sober and temperate save in coffee, which he drank as
-inveterately as Johnson did tea. Conversation and literature were, as
-with Johnson, the gods of his idolatry.
-
-
-
-
-HIS CHARACTER AND SERVICES
-==========================
-
-.. dropcap:: B Bolingbroke
-
-
-Bolingbroke finely said of Marlborough: “He was so great a man that I
-forget his errors.” One can as justly say the same of Voltaire. I
-have scant sympathy with those who, dealing with great men, seek every
-opportunity of bringing them down to the common level. Voltaire was
-by no means a faultless character. He was far indeed from being an
-immaculate hero: he had the failings of his age and of his training. But
-they form no essential part of his work. How much has been made of the
-coarseness and immorality of Luther by men like Father Anderdon! All
-men have the defects of their qualities. Condorcet, in his *Life of
-Voltaire*, has placed on record this just criticism: “The happy
-qualities of Voltaire were often obscured and distorted by a natural
-mobility, aggravated by the habit of writing tragedies. He passed in
-a moment from anger to sympathetic emotion; from indignation to
-pleasantry. His passions, naturally violent, sometimes transported
-him too far; and his excessive mobility deprived him of the advantages
-ordinarily attached to passionate tempers—firmness in conduct—courage
-which no terrors can withhold from action, and which no dangers,
-anticipated beforehand, can shake by their actual presence. Voltaire has
-often been seen to expose himself rashly to the storm—seldom to meet it
-with fortitude. These alternations of audacity and weakness have often
-afflicted his friends, and prepared unworthy triumphs for his envenomed
-enemies.”
-
-He was too ready to lash the curs who barked at his heels, thereby
-stimulating them to further noise. Scandalous ex-Jesuit Desfontaines,
-L’Ane de Mirepoix, Thersites Fréron and the rest, would be forgotten
-had he not condescended to apply the whip. Voltaire was always something
-of a spoilt child, over-sensitive to every reproach. His petulance
-impelled him to absurd displays of weakness and frenzy, which he was the
-first to regret. He was generous even to his enemies when they were
-in trouble. The weaknesses of Voltaire were, like his smile, on the
-surface, but there was a great human heart beating beneath.
-
-The restlessness of Voltaire has been contrasted with the repose of
-Goethe, and Gallic fury with calm Teutonic strength. But which of the
-two men did most for humanity? Voltaire might have been as calm as
-Goethe had he been indifferent to everything but his own culture and
-comfort. No! he loved the fight. When the battle of freedom raged, there
-was he in the thick of it, considering not his reputation, but what he
-could do to crush the infamous. An enemy said of him: “He is the first
-man in the world at writing down what other people have thought.” Mr.
-Morley justly considers this high and sufficient praise.
-
-The life of a writer was defined by Pope as “a warfare upon earth.”
-Never was this truer than in the case of Voltaire, who himself said:
-“*La vie à'un homme de lettres est un combat perpétuel et on meurt
-les armes à la main.*” He was ever in the midst of the fight, and
-usually alone and surrounded by enemies. And his unfailing resources
-not merely kept them at bay, but compelled their surrender of an immense
-territory. His was a life of creation and contest. In the war against
-despotism and Christianity he achieved a new kingship of public opinion,
-and proved that the pen was indeed mightier than the sword.
-
-Heine said: “We should forgive our enemies—but not until they are
-hung.” Voltaire forgave his when he had gibbeted them in his writings.
-People who find it difficult to understand his bitterness against
-“L'Infàme” should remember the revolting cruelty of which religious
-bigotry was still capable in his day. The Revocation of the Edict
-of Nantes, the prolonged horrors of the Thirty Years’ War, and the
-Massacre of St. Bartholomew vibrated still. Condorcet wrote: “The
-blood of many millions of men, massacred in the name of God, still
-steams up to heaven around us. The earth on which we tread is everywhere
-covered with the bones of the victims of barbarous intolerance.” His
-rhetoric expressed the feeling of a generation who knew by experience
-the evils of religious bigotry and fanaticism.
-
-It is as a champion of Freethought that Voltaire deserves chiefly to be
-remembered. In that capacity I can only find words of praise. Complaints
-of his flippancy, his *persiflage*, his ridicule, his scurrility, his
-etc., came, and still come, from the enemy, and show that his blows told
-and tell. If he did not crush the infamous he at least crippled it. No
-doubt, under different circumstances,
-
-Voltaire would have fought differently. But he would never have thought
-of treating atrocities without indignation, or absurdities without
-ridicule. Gravity is a part of the game of imposture, and there is
-nothing the hypocrites and humbugs resent so much as having their solemn
-pretensions laughed at. .
-
-He knew the subtle power of ridicule. It was the most effective weapon,
-not only for the time and the nation in which he wrote, but for our time
-also. His blows were all dealt with grace and agility; his pills were
-sugar-coated. Grimm well said of him: “He makes arrows of every kind
-of wood, brilliant and rapid in their flight, but with a keen, unerring
-point. Under his sparkling pen, erudition ceases to be ponderous and
-becomes full of life. If he cannot sweep the grand chords of the
-lyre, he can j strike on golden medals his favorite maxims, and is j
-irreproachable in the lighter order of poetry.” But, I contend, there
-was a fundamental earnestness in his character; he was the apostle of
-plain every-day common sense and good feeling.
-
-Voltaire is judged by the character which distinguishes him from other
-writers, his light touch and superficial raillery. Because he is *par
-excellence* a *persifleur*, he is set down as merely a *persifleur*.
-Never was there a greater mistake. It is forgotten that he did not write
-witty tales and squibs only; that he made France acquainted with the
-philosophy of Locke and the science of Newton; that he wrote the *Age of
-Louis XIV.*, the *History of the Parliament of Paris*, and the *Essay
-on Manners* (which revived the historic method), and that he wrote more
-than twenty tragedies which transformed the French theatre. Voltaire was
-no mere mocker: his *manner* was that of a *persifleur*, but his matter
-was as solid as that of any theologian.
-
-M. Louis de Brouckere, of the University of Brussels, justly claims
-for Voltaire a double share in the formation of modern culture and the
-development of modern science. He contributed to it directly by his
-personal works, and indirectly by antagonising the forces retarding
-knowledge and creating an intellectual environment eminently favorable
-to the formation of synthetic knowledge, and a new public opinion common
-to the intellectual *élite* of Europe.
-
-Voltaire knew how to marshal against reigning prejudices and errors all
-the resources of vast learning and an incomparable wit; but no one more
-clearly than he saw that the doctrines he destroyed must be replaced by
-others, that humanity cannot get along without a body of common beliefs;
-and he contributed more than any one else to the elaboration of the
-new intellectual code by uniting and harmonising the efforts of special
-*savants* and isolated thinkers, by giving them a clear consciousness
-that what they aimed at was the same thing and common to them all.
-
-He never slackened his efforts to appease the quarrels which broke out
-in the camp of the philosophers, to group all his *spiritual brothers*
-in one compact bundle, capable of joint action, to unite them in a laic
-*church* which could be utilised to oppose existing churches. The words
-I here italicise were underlined by him; they are found on every page
-of his correspondence, and he loses no opportunity to reiterate them and
-explain their meaning precisely.
-
-If the publication of the *Encyclopœdia* was the work of Diderot, the
-union of the group of men who rendered that publication possible was, in
-great measure, the work of Voltaire. If Condorcet wrote just before his
-death his immortal *Sketch*, Voltaire took a preponderating part in the
-creation of the intellectual atmosphere in which Condorcet lived and
-could develop his genius.
-
-Voltaire was assuredly not so coarse as Luther, nor even as his
-contemporary Warburton. He carried lighter guns than Luther, but was
-more alert and equally persistent. His war against superstition and
-intolerance was life-long. Luther smote powerful blows at the church
-with a bludgeon; Voltaire made delicate passes with a rapier. Catholics
-often declaim against the coarseness of the monk-trained Protestant
-champion. They also protest against the trickery of the Jesuit-trained
-Freethinker. It is sufficient to say Luther could not have done his work
-had he not been coarse. Nor could Voltaire have done his had he not been
-a tricksy spirit. Judged by his work, he was one of the best of men,
-because he did most good to his fellows, and because in his heart was
-the most burning love of truth, of justice and toleration. In the words
-of Lecky, he did “more to destroy the greatest of human curses than
-any other of the sons of men.” His numerous volumes are the fruit and
-exposition of a spirit of encyclopaedic curiosity. He assimilated all
-the thought and learning of his time, and brought to bear on it a wit
-and common sense that was all his own.
-
-Voltaire is never so passionately in earnest as when he speaks against
-cruelty and oppression. Every sentence quivers with humanity. He
-denounces war as no “moralist for hire” in a pulpit has ever done, as
-a scourge of the poor, the weak, and the helpless, to whom he is ever
-tender. Whenever he sees tyranny or injustice, he attacks it. He wrote
-against torture when its employment was an established principle of law.
-He denounced duelling when that form of murder was the chief feature
-of the code of honor. He waged warfare upon war when, it was considered
-man’s highest glory.
-
-His attacks on the judicial iniquity of torture—so often callously
-employed on those supposed instruments of Satan, heretics and
-witches—were incessant, and it was owing to his influence that the
-practice was abolished in France by Turgot, his friend, as it had been
-in Prussia by Frederick, and in Russia by Catherine, his disciples.
-He advocated the abolition of mutilation, and all forms of cruelty in
-punishment. He satirised the folly of punishing murder and robbery by
-the same capital penalty, and thus making assassination the interest of
-the thief; the barbarity of confiscating the property of children for
-the crime of the father; and the intricacies and consequent injustice
-of legal methods. He sought to abolish the sale of offices, to equalise
-taxation, and to restrict the power of priests to prescribe degrading
-penances and excessive abstinences. He wrote with fervor against the
-remnants of serfdom, and defended the rights of the serfs in the Jura
-against their monastic oppressors. Mr. Lecky says: “His keen and
-luminous intellect judged with admirable precision most of the popular
-delusions of his time. He exposed with great force the common error
-which confounds all wealth with the precious metals. He wrote against
-sumptuary laws. He refuted Rousseau’s doctrine of the evil of all
-luxury.”
-
-Voltaire’s work went deeper than political reform. He dealt with
-ideas, not institutions. In a little treatise called the *Voyage of
-Reason*, which he wrote as late as 1774, he enumerates with exultation
-the triumphs of reforms which he himself had witnessed. He had
-previously written, in 1764: “Everything I see scatters the seeds of a
-revolution which will indubitably arrive, and which I shall not have the
-happiness to witness.” Buckle notes that “the further he advanced
-in years, the more pungent were his sarcasms against ministers, the more
-violent were his invectives against despotism”; and it was said of him
-in the early days of the Revolution, when it was sanguine but not yet
-sanguinary, “He did not see what has been done, but he did all that we
-see.”
-
-He teaches no mystery, but the open secret of Secularism—*il faut
-cultiver nôtre jardin* (we must cultivate our garden). “Life,” he said,
-“is thickly sown with thorns. I know no other remedy than to pass
-rapidly over them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is
-their power to harm us.” Economy, he declared, is the source of
-liberality, and this maxim he reduced to practice. He ridiculed all
-pretences; those of the physician as well as of the metaphysician. “What
-have you undertaken?” he said, smiling, to a young man, who answered
-that he was studying medicine. “Why, to convey drugs of which you know
-little into a body of which you know less!” “Regimen,” said he, “is
-better than physic. Everyone should be his own physician. Eat with
-moderation what you know by experience agrees with your constitution.
-Nothing is good for the body but what we can digest. What medicine can
-procure digestion? Exercise. What recruit strength? Sleep. What
-alleviate incurable evils? Patience.”
-
-The tone of Voltaire is not fervid or heroic, like, for instance, that
-of Carlyle; but he worked, as Carlyle did not, for a great cause. He
-felt for suffering outside himself. Without mysticism or fanaticism,
-aiming at no remote or impracticable ideal, he ever insisted on
-meeting the problems of life with practical good sense, toleration, and
-humanity. He sought always for clear ideas, tangible results, and as Mr.
-Lecky says, “labored steadily within the limits of his ideals and of
-his sympathies, to make the world wiser, happier, and better place than
-he found it.”
-
-Voltaire wrote: “My motto is, ‘Straight to the fact,’” and this
-was a characteristic which equally marked him and Frederick. He had a
-horror of phrases. “Your fine phrases,” said one to him. “My fine
-phrases! Learn that I never made one in my life.” His style is indeed
-marked by restraint and simplicity of diction. He wrote to D’Alembert:
-“You will never succeed in delivering men from error by means of
-metaphysics. You must prove the truth by facts.” As an instance of his
-apt mingling of fact with reason and ridicule, take his treatment of
-the doctrine of the Resurrection in the *Philosophical Dictionary*.
-“A Breton soldier goes to Canada. He finds by chance he falls short
-of food. He is forced to eat an Iroquois he has killed over-night. This
-Iroquois had nourished himself on Jesuits during two or three months, a
-great part of his body has become Jesuit. So there is the body of this
-soldier composed of Iroquois, Jesuit, and whatever he had eaten before.
-How will each resume precisely what belonged to him?”
-
-Magnify his failings as you may, you cannot obliterate his one
-transcendent merit, his humanity ever responsive to every claim of
-suffering or wrong. He stood for the rights of conscience, for the
-dignity of human reason, for the gospel of Freethought.
-
-Voltaire may not be placed with the great inspiring teachers of mankind.
-But it must be acknowledged that, as Mr. George Saintsbury, no mean
-critic, says: “In literary craftsmanship, at once versatile and
-accomplished, he has no superior and scarcely a rival.”
-
-He declared that he loved the whole of the nine Muses, and that the
-doors of the soul should be open to all sciences and all sentiments. He
-employed every species of composition—poetry, prose, tragedy, comedy,
-history, dialogue, epistle, essay or epigram—as it suited his purpose,
-and he excelled in all. Argument or raillery came alike. He made reason
-amusing, and none like him could ridicule the ridiculous. His charm as
-a writer has been the occasion of the obloquy attached to his name by
-bigots. They can never forgive that he forced people to smile at their
-superstition.
-
-Much, of course, of Voltaire’s multitudinous work was directed to
-immediate ends, and but for his grace of style would be of little
-present interest. But after all winnowings by the ever-swaying fan of
-time much is left of enduring value. The name of Voltaire will ever be
-a mighty one in literature: a glorious example of what a man may achieve
-who is strong in his love of humanity.
-
-
-
-
-TRIBUTES TO VOLTAIRE
-====================
-
-.. dropcap:: A As
-
-
-As a contrast to the views of Dr. Johnson and De Maistre, which
-for generations represented the current opinion of Protestants and
-Catholics, I bring together a few independent testimonies. As time goes
-on his admirers increase in volume, while his detractors now are mainly
-those who have an interest in or secret sympathy with the abuses he
-destroyed. And first, I will give the testimony of Goldsmith who had met
-him. It was written while Voltaire was alive, but when a false report
-of his death had been received in England. “Should you look for the
-character of Voltaire among the journalists and illiterate writers of
-the age, you will find him there characterised as a monster, with a head
-turned to wisdom, and a heart inclining to vice—the powers of his mind
-and the baseness of his principles forming a detestable contrast. But
-seek for his character among writers like himself, and you will find
-him very differently described. You perceive him, in their accounts,
-possessed of good nature, humanity, greatness of soul, fortitude, and
-almost every virtue: in this description those who might be supposed
-best acquainted with his character are unanimous. The royal Prussian,
-D’Argens, Diderot, D’Alembert, and Fontenelle conspire in drawing
-the picture, in describing the friend of man, and the patron of every
-rising genius.”
-
-Lord Byron’s lines on Voltaire and Gibbon (*Childe Harold*, iii.,
-105-107) are well known. He says::
-
- They were gigantic minds, and their steep aim
- Was, Titan-like, on daring doubts to pile
- Thoughts which should call down thunder, and the flame
- Of Heaven again assail’d, if Heaven the while
- On man and man’s research could deign do more than smile.
-
- The one was fire and fickleness, a child
- Most mutable in wishes, but in mind
- A wit as various,—gay, grave, sage, or wild,—
- Historian, bard, philosopher, combined;
- He multiplied himself among mankind,
- The Proteus of their talents:
- But his own
- Breathed most in ridicule,—which, as the wind,
- Blew where it listed, laying all things prone,—
- Now to o’erthrow a fool, and now to shake a throne.
-
- The other, deep and slow, exhausting thought,
- And having wisdom with each studious year,
- In meditation dwelt, with learning wrought,
- And shaped his weapon with an edge severe,
- Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer;
- The lord of iron,—that master-spell,
- Which stung his foes to wrath, which grew from fear,
- And doom’d him to the zealot’s ready Hell,
- Which answers to all doubts so eloquently well.
-
-Warton, the learned critic and author of a *History of Poetry*
-(Dissertation I.) remarked: “Voltaire, a writer of much deeper
-research than is imagined, and the first who has displayed the
-literature and customs of the dark ages with any degree of penetration
-and comprehension.” Robertson, the historian, similarly observed that,
-had Voltaire only given his authorities, “many of his readers who only
-consider him as an entertaining and lively writer would have found that
-he is a learned and well informed historian.”
-
-Lord Holland wrote, in his account of the *Life and Writings of Lope de
-Vega*: “Till Voltaire appeared there was no nation more ignorant of
-its neighbors’ literature than the French. He first exposed and then
-corrected this neglect in his countrymen. There is no writer to whom the
-authors of other nations, especially of England, are so indebted for the
-extension of their fame in France, and, through France, in Europe. There
-is no critic who has employed more time, wit, ingenuity, and diligence
-in promoting the literary intercourse between country and country, and
-in celebrating in one language the triumphs of another. His enemies
-would fain persuade us that such exuberance of wit implies a want of
-information; but they only succeed in showing that a want of wit by no
-means implies an exuberance of information.”
-
-Goethe said: “Voltaire will ever be regarded as the greatest name in
-literature in modern times, and perhaps even in all ages, as the most
-astonishing creation of nature, in which she united, in one frail human
-organisation, all the varieties of talent, all the glories of genius,
-all the potencies of thought. If you wish depth, genius, imagination,
-taste, reason, sensibility, philosophy, elevation, originality, nature,
-intellect, fancy, rectitude, facility, flexibility, precision, art,
-abundance, variety, fertility, warmth, magic, charm, grace, force,
-an eagle sweep of vision, vast understanding, instruction rich, tone
-excellent, urbanity, suavity, delicacy, correctness, purity, cleanness,
-eloquence, harmony, brilliancy, rapidity, gaiety, pathos, sublimity and
-universality—perfection indeed—behold Voltaire.”
-
-Lord Brougham, in his *Lives of Men of Letters and Science who
-flourished in the time of George III*., devotes a considerable section
-to Voltaire. After censuring “the manner in which he devoted himself
-to crying down the sacred things of his country,” he continues:
-“But, though it would be exceedingly wrong to pass over this great and
-prevailing fault without severe reprobation, it would be equally unjust,
-nay, ungrateful, ever to forget the immense obligations under which
-Voltaire has laid mankind by his writings, the pleasure derived from his
-fancy and his wit, the amusement which his singular and original humor
-bestows, even the copious instruction with which his historical works
-are pregnant, and the vast improvement in the manner of writing history
-which we owe to him. Yet, great as these services are—among the
-greatest that can be rendered by a man of letters—they are really of
-far inferior value to the benefits which have resulted from his long and
-arduous struggle against oppression, especially against tyranny in
-the worst form which it can assume, the persecution of opinion, the
-infraction of the sacred right to exercise the reason upon all subjects,
-unfettered by prejudice, uncontrolled by authority, whether of great
-names or of temporal power.”
-
-Macaulay, in his *Essay on Frederick the Great*, observes: “In truth,
-of all the intellectual weapons which have ever been wielded by man, the
-most terrible was the mockery of Voltaire. Bigots and tyrants, who had
-never been moved by the wailing and cursing of millions, turned pale at
-his name.”
-
-Carlyle, in his depreciatory essay, acknowledged: “Perhaps there is
-no writer, not a mere compiler, but writing from his own invention or
-elaboration, who has left so many volumes behind him; and if to the
-merely arithmetical we add a critical estimate, the singularity is still
-greater; for these volumes are not written without an appearance of due
-care and preparation; perhaps there is not one altogether feeble and
-confused treatise, nay, one feeble and confused sentence to be found in
-them.” And at the end he admits: “He gave the death-stab to modern
-Superstition! *That* horrid incubus, which dwelt in darkness, shunning
-the light, is passing away; with all its racks and poison chalices, and
-foul sleeping-draughts, is passing away without return. It was a most
-weighty service.”
-
-One of the strangest of tributes to Voltaire is that from Ruskin, the
-disciple of Carlyle. In his *Fors Clavigera* (vol. viii., p. 76) he
-says: “There are few stronger adversaries to St. George than Voltaire.
-But my scholars are welcome to read as much of Voltaire as they like.
-His voice is mighty among the ages.”
-
-Dr. D. F. Strauss wrote: “Voltaire’s historical significance has
-been illustrated by the observation of Goethe that, as in families whose
-existence has been of long duration, Nature sometimes at length produces
-an individual who sums up in himself the collective qualities of all his
-ancestors, so it happens also with nations, whose collective merits (and
-demerits) sometimes appear epitomised in one individual person. Thus in
-Louis XIV. stood forth the highest figure of a French monarch. Thus, in
-Voltaire, the highest conceivable and congenial representative of French
-authorship. We may extend the observation farther, if, instead of the
-French nation only, we take into view the whole European generation on
-which Voltaire’s influence was exercised. From this point of view
-we may call Voltaire emphatically the representative writer of the
-eighteenth century, as Goethe called him, in the highest sense, the
-representative writer of France.”
-
-Victor Hugo, in the magnificent oration which he pronounced on the
-centenary of Voltaire’s death, said: “Voltaire waged the splendid
-kind of warfare, the war of one alone against all—that is to say, the
-grand warfare; the war of thought against matter; the war of reason
-against prejudice; the war of the just against the unjust; the war of
-the oppressed against the oppressor; the war of goodness; the war of
-kindness. He had the tenderness of a woman and the wrath of a hero. He
-was a great mind and an immense heart. He conquered the old code and
-the old dogma. He conquered the feudal lord, the Gothic judge, the Roman
-priest. He raised the populace to the dignity of people. He taught,
-pacified, and civilised. He fought for Sirven and Montbailly, as for
-Calas and La Barre. He accepted all the menaces, all the persecutions,
-calumny, and exile. He was indefatigable and immovable. He conquered
-violence by a smile, despotism by sarcasm, infallibility by irony,
-obstinacy by perseverance, ignorance by truth.”
-
-Buckle, in his *History of Civilisation* (vol. ii., p. 304) says: “It
-would be impossible to relate all the original remarks of Voltaire,
-which, when he made them, were attacked as dangerous paradoxes, and are
-now valued as sober truths. He was the first historian who recommended
-universal freedom of trade; and although he expresses himself with great
-caution, still, the mere announcement of the idea is a popular history
-forms an epoch in the progress of the French mind. He is the originator
-of that important distinction between the increase of population and the
-increase of food, to which political economy has been greatly indebted,
-a principle adopted several years later by Townsend, and then used by
-Malthus as the basis of his celebrated work. He has, moreover, the merit
-of being the first who dispelled the childish admiration with which the
-Middle Ages had been hitherto regarded. In his works the Middle Ages
-are for the first time represented as what they really were—a period
-of ignorance, ferocity, and licentiousness; a period when injuries were
-unredressed, crime unpunished, and superstition unrebuked.” Again
-(page 308): “No one reasoned more closely than Voltaire when reasoning
-suited his purpose. But he had to deal with men impervious to argument;
-men whose inordinate reverence for antiquity had only left them two
-ideas, namely, that everything old is right, and that everything new is
-wrong. To argue against these opinions would be idle indeed; the only
-other resource was to make them ridiculous, and weaken their influence
-by holding up their authors to contempt. This was one of the tasks
-Voltaire set himself to perform; and he did it well. He therefore used
-ridicule, not as the test of truth, but as the scourge of folly. And
-with such effect was the punishment administered that not only did the
-pedants and theologians of his own time wince under the lash, but even
-their successors feel their ears tingle when they read his biting words;
-and they revenge themselves by reviling the memory of the great writer
-whose works are as a thorn in their side, and whose very name they hold
-in undisguised abhorrence.”
-
-Mr. Lecky, in his *History of Rationalism in Europe* (vol. ii., p.
-66) says: “Voltaire was at all times the unflinching opponent of
-persecution. No matter how powerful was the persecutor, no matter how
-insignificant was the victim, the same scathing eloquence was launched
-against the crime, and the indignation of Europe was soon concentrated
-upon the oppressor. The fearful storm of sarcasm and invective that
-avenged the murder of Calas, the magnificent dream in the *Philosophical
-Dictionary* reviewing the history of persecution from the slaughtered
-Canaanites to the latest victim who had perished at the stake, the
-indelible stigma branded upon the persecutors of every age and of every
-creed, all attested the intense and passionate earnestness with which
-Voltaire addressed himself to his task. On other subjects a jest or
-a caprice could often turn him aside. When attacking intolerance he
-employed, indeed, every weapon; but he employed them all with the
-concentrated energy of a profound conviction. His success was equal to
-his zeal; the spirit of intolerance sank blasted beneath his genius.
-Wherever his influence passed, the arm of the inquisitor was palsied,
-the chain of the captive riven, the prison door flung open. Beneath his
-withering irony, persecution appeared not only criminal but loathsome,
-and since his time it has ever shrunk from observation and masked its
-features under other names. He died, leaving a reputation that is indeed
-far from spotless, but having done more to destroy the greatest of human
-curses than any other of the sons of men.”
-
-Mr. Lecky, in his *History of England in the Eighteenth Century* (v.,
-312), observes: “No previous writer can compare with him in the
-wideness and justness of his conceptions of history, and even now no
-historian can read without profit his essays on the subject. No one
-before had so strongly urged that history should not be treated as a
-collection of pictures or anecdotes relating to courts or battles,
-but should be made a record and explanation of the true development
-of nations, of the causes of their growth and decay, of their
-characteristic virtues and vices, of the changes that pass over their
-laws, customs, opinions, social and economical conditions, and over the
-relative importance and well-being of their different classes... (p.
-315). Untiring industry, an extraordinary variety of interests and
-aptitudes, a judgment at once sound, moderate, and independent, a rare
-power of seizing in every subject the essential argument or facts,
-a disposition to take no old opinions on trust and to leave no new
-opinions unexamined, combined in him with the most extraordinary
-literary talent. Never, perhaps, was there an intellect at once so
-luminous, versatile, and flexible, which produced so much, which could
-deal with such a vast range of difficult subjects without being ever
-obscure, tangled, or dull.”
-
-Colonel Hamley wrote: “But after the winnowings of generations, a wide
-and deep repute still remains to him; nor will any diminution which it
-may have suffered be without compensation, for, with the fading of old
-prejudices, and with better knowledge, his name will be regarded with
-increased liking and respect. Yet it must not be supposed that he is
-here held up as a pattern man. He was, indeed, an infinitely better one
-than the religious bigots of that time. He believed, with far better
-effect on his practice than they could boast, in a Supreme Ruler. He was
-the untiring and eloquent advocate at the bar of the universe of the
-rights of humanity.”
-
-Mr. Swinburne has well expressed this characteristic. “Voltaire’s
-great work,” he says, “was to have done more than any other man
-on record to make the instinct of cruelty not only detestable, but
-ludicrous; and so to accomplish what the holiest and the wisest of
-saints and philosophers had failed to achieve: to attack the most
-hideous and pernicious of human vices with a more effective weapon
-than preaching and denunciation: to make tyrants and torturers look not
-merely horrible and hateful, but pitiful and ridiculous.”
-
-Edgar Quinet, in his lectures on the Church, says: “I watch for forty
-years the reign of one man who is himself the spiritual direction,
-not of his country, but of his age. From the corner of his chamber he
-governs the realm of mind. Everyday intellects are regulated by his; one
-word written by his hand traverses Europe. Princes love and kings fear
-him. Nations repeat the words that fall from his pen. Who exercises this
-incredible power which has nowhere been seen since the Middle Ages? Is
-he another Gregory VII? Is he a Pope? No—Voltaire.”
-
-And Lamartine, in similar strain, remarks: “If we judge of men by what
-they have *done*, then Voltaire is incontestibly the greatest writer of
-modern Europe. No one has caused, through the powerful influence of his
-genius alone and the perseverance of his will, so great a commotion
-in the minds of men. His pen aroused a sleeping world, and shook a
-far mightier empire than that of Charlemagne, the European empire of a
-theocracy. His genius was not *force*, but *light*. Heaven had destined
-him not to destroy, but to illuminate; and wherever he trod, light
-followed him, for Reason—which is light—had destined him to be, first
-her poet, then her apostle, and lastly her idol.”
-
-Mr. Alexander A. Knox, writing in the *Nineteenth Century* (October
-1882), says: “That the man’s aspirations were in the main noble
-and honorable to humanity, I am sure. I am equally so that few men have
-exercised so great an influence upon their fellow creatures.... The
-wonderful old man! When he was past eighty years of age he set to
-work, like another Jeremy Bentham, to abolish the admission of hearsay
-evidence into French legal proceedings. But his great work was that by
-his wit and irony he broke down the *principle of authority* which had
-been so foully abused in France. Would the most strictly religious man
-wish to see religion as it was in France in the eighteenth century?
-Would the greatest stickler for authority wish to find a country
-governed as France was governed in the days of Voltaire?”
-
-Du Bois-Reymond, the eminent German scientist, remarks: “Voltaire
-is so little to us at present because the things he fought for,
-‘toleration, spiritual freedom, human dignity, justice,' have become,
-as it were, the air we breathe, and do not think of except when we are
-deprived of it.”
-
-Col. R. G. Ingersoll, in his fine *Oration on Voltaire*, observes:
-“Voltaire was perfectly equipped for his work. A perfect master of
-the French language, knowing all its moods, tenses, and declinations—in
-fact and in feeling playing upon it as skilfully as Paganini on his
-violin, finding expression for every thought and fancy, writing on the
-most serious subjects with the gaiety of a harlequin, plucking jests
-from the mouth of death, graceful as the waving of willows, dealing in
-double meanings that covered the asp with flowers and flattery, master
-of satire and compliment, mingling them often in the same line, always
-interested himself, therefore interesting others, handling thoughts,
-questions, subjects as a juggler does balls, keeping them in the
-air with perfect ease, dressing old words in new meanings, charming,
-grotesque, pathetic, mingling mirth with tears, wit and wisdom, and
-sometimes wickedness, logic and laughter. With a woman’s instinct,
-knowing the sensitive nerves—just where to touch—hating arrogance of
-place, the stupidity, of the solemn, snatching masks from priest and
-king, knowing the springs of action and ambition’s ends, perfectly
-familiar with the great world, the intimate of kings and their
-favorites, sympathising with the oppressed and imprisoned, with the
-unfortunate and poor, hating tyranny, despising superstition, and loving
-liberty with all his heart. Such was Voltaire, writing *Œdipus* at
-seventeen, *Irène* at eighty-three, and crowding between these two
-tragedies the accomplishment of a thousand lives.”
-
-The Right Hon. John Morley testifies: “Voltaire was the very eye
-of modern illumination. It was he who conveyed to his generation in a
-multitude of forms the consciousness at once of the power and the rights
-of human intelligence. Another might well have said of him what he
-magnanimously said of his famous contemporary, Montesquieu, that
-humanity had lost its title-deeds, and he had recovered them. The
-four-score volumes which he wrote are the monument, as they were the
-instrument, of a new renascence. They are the fruit and representation
-of a spirit of encyclopaedic curiosity and productiveness. Hardly a page
-of all these countless leaves is common form. Hardly a sentence is there
-which did not come forth alive from Voltaire’s own mind, or which was
-said because some one else had said it before. Voltaire was a stupendous
-power, not only because his expression was incomparably lucid, or even
-because his sight was exquisitely keen and clear, but because he saw
-many new things, after which the spirits of others were unconsciously
-groping and dumbly yearning. Nor was this all. Voltaire was ever in
-the front and centre of the fight. His life was not a mere chapter in
-a history of literature. He never counted truth a treasure to be
-discreetly hidden in a napkin. He made it a perpetual war cry, and
-emblazoned it on a banner that was many a time rent, but was never out
-of the field.” We may fitly conclude with Browning’s incisive lines
-in *The Two Poets of Croisie*:—
-
- | `“Ay, sharpest, shrewdest steel that ever stabbed`
-
- | `To death Imposture through the armour joints.”`
-
-
-
-
-SELECTIONS FROM VOLTAIRE’S WORKS
-================================
-
-
-
-History
-=======
-
-.. dropcap:: T The
-
-
-The world is old, but history is of yesterday.—*Mélanges Historiques*.
-
-If you would put to profit the present time, one must not spend his life
-in propagating ancient fables.—*Ibid*.
-
-A mature man who has serious business does not repeat the tales of his
-nurse.—*Ibid*.
-
-Search through all nations and you will not find one whose history does
-not begin with stories worthy of the Four Sons of Aymon and of Robert
-the Devil.—*Politique et Legislation.*
-
-Ancient histories are enigmas proposed by antiquity to posterity, which
-understands them not—*Dict. Phil.* (Art. “Histoire”).
-
-A real fact is of more value than a hundred antitheses.—*Melanges
-Historiques*.
-
-I have a droll idea. It is that only people who have written tragedies
-can throw interest into our dry and barbarous history. There is
-necessary in a history, as in a drama, exposition, knotty plot, and
-*dénouement*, with agreeable episode.—*Corr. gén.* 1740.
-
-They have made but the history of the kings, not that of the nation.
-It seems that during fourteen hundred years there were only kings,
-ministers, and generals among the Gauls. But our morals, our laws, our
-customs, our intelligence—are these then nothing?—*Corr*., 1740.
-
-Is fraud sanctified by being antiquated?—*Sottisier*.
-
-I have ever esteemed it charlatanry to paint, other than by facts,
-public men with whom we have had no connection.—*Corr. gen.*, 1752.
-
-If one surveys the history of the world, one finds weaknesses punished,
-but great crimes fortunate, and the world is a vast scene of brigandages
-abandoned to fortune.—*Essai sur les Mœurs*, c. 191.
-
-Since the ancient Romans, I have known no nation enriched by
-victories.—*Contant d' Orville*, i. 337.
-
-To buy peace from an enemy is to furnish him with the sinews of
-war.—*Ibid*, p. 334.
-
-The grand art of surprising, killing, and robbing is a heroism of the
-highest antiquity.—*Dial*. 24.
-
-Murderers are punished, unless they kill in grand company to the sound
-of trumpets; that is the rule.—*Dict. Phil*. (Art. “Droit”).
-
-We formerly made war in order to eat; but in the long run, all the
-admirable institutions degenerate.—*Dial.* 24.
-
-It suffices often that a mad Minister of State shall have bitten another
-Minister for the rabies to be communicated in a few months to five
-hundred thousand men.—*Ibid*.
-
-In this world there (are) only offensive wars; defensive ones are only
-resistance to armed robbers.—*Ibid.*
-
-Twenty volumes in folio never yet made a revolution. It is the portable
-little shilling books that are to be feared. If the Gospel cost
-twelve hundred sesterces, the Christian religion would never have been
-established.—*Correspondence with D1 Alembert*, 1765.
-
-
-
-Wars
-====
-
-
-C.: What, you do not admit there are just wars?
-
-A.: I have never known any of the kind; to me it appears contradictory
-and impossible.
-
-C.: What! when the Pope Alexander VI. and his infamous son Borgia
-pillaged the Roman States, strangled and poisoned the lords of the land,
-while according them indulgences: was it not permissible to arm against
-these monsters?
-
-A.: Do you not see that it was these monsters who made war? Those
-who defended themselves from aggression but sustained it. There are
-constantly only offensive wars in this world; the defensive is nothing
-but resistance to armed robbers.
-
-C.: You mock us. Two princes dispute an heritage, their right is
-litigious, their reasons equally plausible; it is necessary then that
-war should decide, and this war is just on both sides.
-
-A.: It is you who mock. It is physically impossible that both are right,
-and it is absurd and barbarous that the people should perish because one
-of these two princes has reasoned badly. Let them fight together in
-a closed field if they wish, but that an entire people should be
-sacrificed to their interests, there is the horror.—*l' A.B.C.*
-
-
-
-Politics
-========
-
-.. dropcap:: T They
-
-
-They have discovered in their fine politics the art of causing those to
-die of hunger who, by cultivating the earth, give the means of life to
-others.—*Sottisier.*
-
-Society has been too long like a game of cards, where the rogues cheat
-the dupes, while sensible people dare not warn the losers that they are
-deceived.—*Questions sur les Miracles*.
-
-They have only inculcated belief in absurdities to men in order to
-subdue them.—*Ibid.*
-
-The most tolerable of all governments is doubtless the republican,
-since that approaches the nearest towards natural equality.—*Idées
-Républicaines.*
-
-A Republican is ever more attached to his country than a subject to his,
-for the same reason that one loves better his own possessions than those
-of a master.—*Pensées sur le Gouvernement.*
-
-Give too much power to anybody and be sure they will abuse it. Were
-the monks of La Trappe spread throughout the world, let them confess
-princesses, educate youth, preach and write, and in about ten years they
-would be similar to the Jesuits, and it would be necessary to repress
-them.—*Mél. Balance Egale*.
-
-What are politics beyond the art of lying a propos?—*Contant
-D'Orville*.
-
-“Reasons of State” is a phrase invented to serve as excuse for
-tyrants.—*Commentaire sur le traité des Délits.*
-
-The best government is that where there are the fewest useless
-men.—Dial. 4.
-
-Man is born free. The best government is that which most preserves to
-each mortal this gift of nature.—*Histoire de Russie*.
-
-To be free, to have only equals, is the true life, the natural life of
-man; all other is an unworthy artifice, a poor comedy, where one plays
-the rôle of master, the other of slave, this one a parasite, and that
-other a pander.—*Dial. 24.*
-
-Why is liberty so rare? Because it is the best possession.—*Dict.
-Phil*. (“Venise”).
-
-Those who say that all men are equal, say truth if they mean that men
-have an equal right to liberty, to the property of their own goods, and
-the protection of the laws. They are much deceived if they think that
-men should be equal in their employments, since they are not so by their
-faculties.—*Essai sur les Mœurs*, i.
-
-Despotism is the punishment of the bad conduct of men. If a community is
-mastered by one man or by several, it is plainly because it has not
-the courage and ability necessary for self-government.—*Idées
-Republic-aines*, 1765.
-
-I do not give myself up to my fellow-citizens without reserve. I do not
-give them the power to kill or to rob me by plurality of votes. I submit
-to help them, and to be aided, to do justice, and to receive it. No
-other agreement.—*Notes on Rousseau's “Social Contract”*
-
-
-
-The Population Question
-=======================
-
-
-*The Man of Forty Crowns*: I have heard much talk of population. Were we
-to take it into our heads to beget double the number of children we now
-do; were our country doubly peopled, so that we had forty millions of
-inhabitants instead of twenty, what would happen?
-
-*The Geometrician*: Each would have, instead of forty, but twenty crowns
-to live upon; or the land would have to produce the double of what it
-now does; or there would be the double of the nation’s industry, or of
-gain from foreign countries; or one half of the nation sent to America;
-or the one half of the nation should eat the other.—*The Man of Forty
-Crowns.*
-
-
-
-Nature’s Way
-============
-
-.. dropcap:: N Nature
-
-
-Nature cares very little for individuals. There are other insects which
-do not live above one day, but of which the species is perpetual. Nature
-resembles those great princes who reckon as nothing the loss of four
-hundred thousand men, so they but accomplish their august designs.—
-*The Man of Forty Crowns.*
-
-
-
-Prayer
-======
-
-.. dropcap:: W When
-
-
-When the man of forty crowns saw himself the father of a son, he began
-to think himself a man of some weight in the state; he hoped to furnish,
-at least, ten subjects to the king, who should all prove useful. He made
-the best baskets in the world, and his wife was an excellent sempstress.
-She was born in the neighborhood of a rich abbey of a hundred thousand
-livres a year. Her husband asked me, one day, why those gentlemen, who
-were so few in number, had swallowed so many of the forty crown lots?
-“Are they more useful to their country than I am?”—“No, dear
-neighbor.”—“Do they, like me, contribute at least to the population
-of it?”—“No, not to appearance, at least.”—“Do they cultivate
-the land? Do they defend the state when it is attacked?”—“No, they
-pray to God for us.”—“Well, then, I will pray to God for them, and
-let us go snacks.”—*The Man of Forty Crowns.*
-
-
-
-Doubt and Speculation
-=====================
-
-
-*The Man of Forty Crowns*: I have sometimes a great mind to laugh at all
-I have been told.
-
-*The Geometrician*: And a very good mind it is. I advise you to doubt of
-everything, except that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two
-right ones, and that triangles which have the same bases and height are
-equal to one another; or like propositions, as, for example, that two
-and two make four.
-
-*The Man of Forty Crowns*: Yes; I hold it very wise to doubt; but I am
-curious since I have made my fortune and have leisure. I could wish,
-when my will moves my arm or my leg, to discover the spring, for surely
-there is one, by which my will moves them. I wonder sometimes why I can
-lift or lower my eyes, yet cannot move my ears. I think—and I wish I
-could know a little how—I mean,—there, to have my thought palpable to
-me, to touch it, as it were. That would surely be very curious. I want
-to find out whether I think from myself, or whether it is God that gives
-me my ideas; whether my soul came into my body at six weeks, or at one
-day old; how it lodged itself in my brain; whether I think much when in
-a profound sleep, or in a lethargy. I torture my brains to know how one
-body impels another. My sensations are no less a wonder to me; I find
-something divine in them, and especially in pleasure. I have striven
-sometimes to imagine a new sense, but could never arrive at it.
-Geometricians know all these things; kindly be so good as to teach me.
-
-*The Geometrician*: Alas! We are as ignorant as you. Apply to the
-Sorbonne.
-
-
-
-Dr. Pangloss and the Dervish
-============================
-
-.. dropcap:: I In
-
-
-In the neighborhood lived a very famous dervish, who was deemed the best
-philosopher in Turkey; him they went to consult. Pangloss was spokesman
-and addressed him thus:—
-
-“Master, we come to beg you to tell us why so strange an animal as man
-has been formed?”
-
-“Why do you trouble your head about it?” said the dervish; “is it
-any business of yours?”
-
-“But, reverend father,” said Candide, “there is a horrible amount
-of evil on the earth.”
-
-“What signifies it,” says the dervish, “whether there is evil or
-good? When His Highness sends a ship to Egypt does he trouble whether
-the rats aboard are comfortable or not?”
-
-“What is to be done, then?” says Pangloss.
-
-“Be silent,” answers the dervish.
-
-“I flattered myself,” replied Pangloss, “to have reasoned a little
-with you on causes and effects, the best of possible worlds, the origin
-of evil, the nature of the soul, and on pre-established harmony.”
-
-At these words the dervish shut the door in their faces.—*Candide*.
-
-
-
-Motives for Conduct
-===================
-
-
-*Countess*: Apropos, I have forgotten to ask your opinion upon a matter
-which I read yesterday in a story by these good Mohammedans, which much
-struck me. Hassan, son of Ali, being bathing, one of his slaves threw
-over him by accident some boiling water. His servants wished to impale
-the culprit. Hassan, instead, gave him twenty pieces of gold. “There
-is,” said he, “a degree of glory in Paradise for those who repay
-services, a greater one for those who forgive evil, and a still greater
-one for those who recompense involuntary evil.” What think you of his
-action and his speech?
-
-*The Count*: I recognise there my good Moslems of the first ages.
-
-*Abbé*: And I, my good Christians.
-
-*M. Fréret*: And I am sorry that the scalded Hassan, son of Ali, should
-have given twenty pieces of gold in order to have glory in Paradise. I
-do not like interested fine actions. I should have wished that Hassan
-had been sufficiently virtuous and humane to have consoled the despair
-of the slave without even dreaming of being placed in the third rank in
-Paradise.—*Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers*.
-
-
-
-Self-Love
-=========
-
-.. dropcap:: S Self
-
-
-Self-love and all its off-shoots are as necessary to man as the blood
-which flows in his veins. Those who would take away his passions because
-they are dangerous resemble those who would deplete a man of all his
-blood lest he should fall into apoplexy.—*Traité de Metaphysique.*
-
-
-
-Go From Your Village
-====================
-
-.. dropcap:: A A stupid
-
-
-A stupid said: “I must think like my *bonze* (priest), for all my
-village agrees with him.” Go from your village, poor man, and you will
-find ten thousand others who have each their *bonze*, and who all think
-differently.
-
-
-
-Religious Prejudices
-====================
-
-.. dropcap:: I If
-
-
-If your nurse has told you that Ceres presides over corn, or that Vishnu
-or Sakyamuni became men several times, or that Odin awaits you in
-his hall towards Jutland, or that Mohammed or some other travelled to
-Heaven; if, moreover, your preceptor deepens in your brain what the
-nurse, has engraved, you will hold it all your life. Should your
-judgment rise against these prejudices, your neighbors, above all your
-female neighbors, will cry out at the impiety and frighten you. Your
-dervish, fearing the diminution of his revenue, may accuse you before
-the Cadi, and this Cadi impale you if he can, since he desires to rule
-over fools, believing fools obey better than others; and this will
-endure till your neighbors, and the dervish, and the Cadi begin to
-understand that folly is good for nothing and that persecution is
-abominable.—*Dictionnaire Philosophique*.
-
-
-
-Sacred History
-==============
-
-.. dropcap:: I I abandon
-
-
-I abandon to the declaimer Bossuet the politics of the Kings of Judah
-and Samaria, who only understood assassination, beginning with their
-King David (who took to the trade of brigand to make himself king, and
-assassinated Uriah when he was his master); and to wise Solomon, who
-began by assassinating Adonijah, his own brother, at the foot of the
-altar. I am tired of the absurd pedantry which consecrates the history
-of such a people to the instruction of children.—*l'A.B.C.*
-
-
-
-Dupe And Rogue
-==============
-
-.. dropcap:: A Are
-
-
-Are there theologians of good faith? Yes, as there have been men who
-believed themselves sorcerers.—*Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers.*
-
-Enthusiasm begins, roguery ends. It is with religion as with gambling.
-One begins by being dupe, one ends by being rogue.—*Le Diner du Comte
-de Boulainvilliers.*
-
-Every country has its bonzes. But I recognise that there are as many of
-them deceived as deceivers. The majority are those blinded by enthusiasm
-in their youth, and who never recover sight; there are others who
-have preserved one eye, and see all squintingly. These are the stupid
-charlatans.—*Entre deux Chinois.*
-
-
-
-“Delenda Est Carthago”
-======================
-
-.. dropcap:: T Theology
-
-
-Theology must absolutely be destroyed, just as judicial
-astrology, magic, the divining rod, and the Star Chamber have been
-destroyed.—*l’A.B.C.*
-
-
-
-Jesus and Mohammed
-==================
-
-
-*L'Abbé*: How could Christianity have established itself so high if it
-had nothing but fanaticism and fraud at its base?
-
-*Le Comte*: And how did Mohammedanism establish itself. Mohammed
-at least could write and fight, and Jesus knew neither writing nor
-self-defence. Mohammed had the courage of Alexander, with the mind of
-Numa; and your Jesus, sweat, blood, and water. Mohammedanism has never
-changed, while you have changed your religion twenty times. There is
-more difference between it, as it is to-day, from what it was in
-the first ages, than there is between your customs and those of King
-Dagobert.—*Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers.*
-
-
-
-How Faiths Spread
-=================
-
-.. dropcap:: B But
-
-
-But how do you think, then, that my religion became established? Like
-all the rest. A man of strong imagination made himself followed by some
-persons of weak imagination. The flock increased; fanaticism commences,
-fraud achieves. A powerful man comes; he sees a crowd, ready bridled and
-with a bit in its teeth; he mounts and leads it.—*Dial, et entr. ph.,
-Dialogue 19.*
-
-
-
-Superstition
-============
-
-.. dropcap:: T The
-
-
-The superstitious man is to the knave what the slave is to the tyrant;
-nay, further, the superstitious man is governed by the fanatic, and
-becomes one.—*Dict. Phil. (Art. “Superstition”)*.
-
-
-
-The Bible
-=========
-
-.. dropcap:: I If
-
-
-If there are many difficulties we cannot solve, mysteries we cannot
-comprehend, adventures which we cannot credit, prodigies which display
-the credulity of the human mind, and contradictions which it is
-impossible to reconcile, it is in order to exercise our faith and
-to-humiliate our reason.—*Dict. Phil.* (Art. “Contradictions”).
-
-
-
-Transubstantiation
-==================
-
-.. dropcap:: J Julius
-
-
-Julius II. makes and eats God; but with armor on his back and helmet on
-his head he wades in blood and carnage. Leo X. holds God in his body,
-his mistresses in his arms, and the money extorted by the sale of
-indulgences in his coffers, and those of his sister.—*Dict. Phil.* (Art.
-“Eucharist”).
-
-
-
-Dreams and Ghosts
-=================
-
-.. dropcap:: H Have
-
-
-Have you not found, like me, that they are the origin of the opinion so
-generally diffused throughout antiquity touching spectres and manes? A
-man deeply afflicted at the death of his wife, or his son, sees them in
-his sleep; they have the same characteristics; he speaks to them, they
-reply; they have certainly appeared to him. Other men have had similar
-dreams. It is impossible, then, to doubt that the dead return; but it is
-certain at the same time that these dead—whether buried or reduced to
-ashes, or lost at sea—could not reappear in their bodies. It is,
-then, their soul that has been seen. This soul must be extended, light,
-impalpable, since in speaking with it we cannot embrace it. *Effugit
-imago per levibus vetitis* (Virgil). It is moulded, designed upon the
-body which it habited, since it perfectly resembles it. It is given the
-name of shade or manes, and from all this a confused idea remains in the
-head, which perpetuates itself all the better because nobody understands
-it.—*Dict. Phil.* (Art. “Somnambulists and Dreams” ).
-
-
-
-Mortifying the Flesh
-====================
-
-.. dropcap:: H Had
-
-
-Had vanity never any share in the public mortifications which attended
-the eyes of the multitude? “I scourge myself, but ’tis to expiate
-your faults; I go stark naked, but ’tis to reproach the luxury of your
-garments; I feed on herbs and snails to correct your vice of gluttony;
-I put an iron ring on my body to make you blush at your lewdness.
-Reverence me as a man cherished by the gods, who can draw down their
-favors on you. When accustomed to reverence, it will not be hard to obey
-me; I become your master in the name of the gods; and if you transgress
-my will in the least particular, I will have you impaled to appease the
-wrath of heaven.” If the first fakirs did not use these words, they
-probably had them engraven at the bottom of their hearts.—*Dict. Phil.*
-(Art. “Austerities”).
-
-
-
-Heaven
-======
-
-
-*Kon.*: What is meant by “the heaven and the earth: mount up to
-heaven, be worthy of heaven”?
-
-*Cu Su.*: ’Tis but stupidity, there is no heaven; each planet is
-surrounded by its atmosphere, and rolls in space around its sun. Each
-sun is the centre of several planets which travel continually around it.
-There is no up nor down, ascension nor descent. You perceive that if the
-inhabitants of the moon said that some one ascended to the earth, that
-one must render himself worthy of earth, he would talk nonsense. We do
-so likewise when we say we must be worthy of heaven; it is as if we said
-we must be worthy of air, worthy of the constellation of the Dragon,
-worthy of space.—*Catéchisme chinois.*
-
-
-
-Magic
-=====
-
-.. dropcap:: A All
-
-
-All the fathers of the Church, without exception, believed in the power
-of magic. The Church always condemned magic, but she always believed
-it; she excommunicated sorcerers, not as deluded madmen, but as men
-who really had intercourse with devils.—*Dict. Phil.* (Art.
-“Superstition”).
-
-
-
-
-DETACHED THOUGHTS
-=================
-
-.. dropcap:: T There
-
-
-There are vices which it is better to ignore than to punish.
-
-One should not pronounce a word in public which an honest woman cannot
-repeat.
-
-I know no great men but those who have rendered great services to
-humanity.
-
-Honor has ever achieved greater things than interest.
-
-Occupation and work are the only resources against misfortune.
-
-My maxim is to fulfil all my duties to-day, because I am not sure of
-living to-morrow.
-
-Most men die before having lived.
-
-It is necessary to combat nature and fortune till the last moment, and
-to never despair till one is dead.
-
-Work without disputing; it is the only way to render life supportable.
-
-Passions are the winds that swell the sails of the ship. It is true,
-they sometimes sink her, but without them she could not sail at all. The
-bile makes us sick and choleric; but without the bile we could not
-live. Everything in this world is dangerous, and yet everything in it is
-necessary.
-
-We should introduce into our existence all imaginable modes, and open
-every door of the minds to all kinds of knowledge, and all sorts of
-feelings. So long as it does not all go in pell-mell, there is room
-enough for all.
-
-It is the part of a man like you [Vauvenargues] to have preferences, but
-no exclusions.
-
-The unwise value every word in an author of repute.
-
-Opinion governs the world, and philosophers in the long run govern
-opinion.
-
-We enjoin mankind to conquer their passions. Make the experiment of only
-depriving a man, in the habit of taking it, of his pinch of snuff.
-
-Do we not nearly all resemble the aged General of ninety years, who,
-seeing some young fellows larking with the girls, said to them angrily:
-“Gentlemen, is that the example which I give you?”
-
-Passions are diseases. To cure a man of a criminal intention, we should
-give him not counsel, but a dose of physic.
-
-Women are like windmills, fixed while they revolve.
-
-I fear lest marriage may not rather be one of the seven deadly sins than
-one of the seven sacraments.
-
-Divorce is probably of about the same date as marriage.
-
-I believe, however, that marriage is several weeks the elder.
-
-War is an epitome of all wickedness.
-
-The race of preachers inveigh against little vices, and pass over great
-ones in silence. They never sermonise against war.
-
-What strange rage possesses some people to insist on our all being
-miserable? They are like a quack, who would fain have us believe we are
-ill, in order to sell us his pills. Keep thy drugs, my friend, and leave
-me my health.
-
-Can one change their character? Yes, if one changes their body.
-
-Men are fools, but ecclesiastics are their leaders.
-
-I do not believe even eye-witnesses when they tell me things opposed to
-common sense.
-
-The fanatics begin with humility and kindness, and have all ended with
-pride and carnage.
-
-The Pope is an idol, whose hands are tied and whose feet are kissed.
-
-What an immense book might be composed on all the things once believed,
-of which it is necessary to doubt.
-
-That which can be explained in many ways does not merit being explained
-in any.
-
-Theology is in religion what poison is among food.
-
-Theology has only served to upset brains, and sometimes States.
-
-That which is an eternal subject of dispute is an eternal inutility.
-
-To pray is to flatter oneself that one will change entire nature with
-words.
-
-Names of sects; names of error. Truth has no sect.
-
-No man is called an Euclidian.
-
-Henry IV., after his victories, his abjuration, and his coronation,
-caused a cross to be erected in Rome, with the following inscription:
-*In hoc signa vincis*. The wood of the cross was the carriage of a
-cannon.
-
-A revolution has been accomplished in the human mind which nothing again
-can ever arrest.
-
-It is never by metaphysics that you will succeed in delivering men from
-error; you must prove the truth by facts.
-
-If fortune brings to pass one of a hundred events predicted by roguery,
-all the others are forgotten, and that one remains as a pledge of the
-favor of God, and as the proof of a prodigy.
-
-Every one is born with a nose and five fingers, and no one is born with
-a knowledge of God. This may be deplorable or not, but it is certainly
-the human condition.
-
-If God made us in his own image, we have well returned him the
-compliment.
-
-Nature preserves the species, and cares but very little for individuals.
-
-To fast, to pray, a priest’s virtue; to succor, virtue of a citizen.
-
-When Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, wished to ascend to heaven to
-discover the secrets of the gods, a fly stung Pegasus, and he was
-thrown.
-
-“Why do you receive so many fools in your order?” was said to a
-Jesuit. “We need saints.”
-
-Rousseau [J. B.] having shown his antagonist [Voltaire] his *Ode to
-Posterity*, the latter said: “My friend, here is a letter which will
-never reach its address.”
-
-If a tulip could speak, and said, “My vegetation and I are two
-distinct beings, evidently joined together,” would you not mock at the
-tulip?
-
-Why all these pleasantries on religion? They are never made on morality.
-
-A fanatic of good faith, always a dangerous kind of man.
-
-The consolation of life is to say out what one thinks.
-
-
-
-
-----------------------
-
-.. pgfooter::
-
-
-
diff --git a/39124.txt b/39124.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 21aeb24..0000000 --- a/39124.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3710 +0,0 @@ - VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: Voltaire: A Sketch of his Life and Works - -Author: J. M. Wheeler and G. W. Foote - -Release Date: March 10, 2012 [EBook #39124] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE -AND WORKS *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger. - - - - - *VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS* - - _WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS_ - - _By_ - - *J. M. Wheeler & G. W. Foote.* - - - _London_ - - _1891_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - INTRODUCTION - PREFACE - EARLY LIFE - HEGIRA TO ENGLAND - EXAMPLES FROM ENGLAND - AT CIREY - "CANDIDE" - THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA - LAST DAYS - HIS CHARACTER AND SERVICES - TRIBUTES TO VOLTAIRE - SELECTIONS FROM VOLTAIRE'S WORKS - History - Wars - Politics - The Population Question - Nature's Way - Prayer - Doubt and Speculation - Dr. Pangloss and the Dervish - Motives for Conduct - Self-Love - Go From Your Village - Religious Prejudices - Sacred History - Dupe And Rogue - "Delenda Est Carthago" - Jesus and Mohammed - How Faiths Spread - Superstition - The Bible - Transubstantiation - Dreams and Ghosts - Mortifying the Flesh - Heaven - Magic - DETACHED THOUGHTS - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -My share in this little book on Voltaire is a very minor one. My old -friend and colleague, Mr. J. M. Wheeler, had written the greater part of -the following pages before he brought the enterprise to my attention. I -went through his copy with him, and assisted him in making some -alterations and additions. I also read the printer's proofs, and -suggested some further improvements--if I may call them so without -egotism. This is all I have done. The credit for all the rest belongs to -him. My name is placed on the title-page for two reasons. The first is, -that I may now, as on other occasions, be associated with a dear friend -and colleague in this tribute to Voltaire. The second is, that whatever -influence I possess may be used in helping this volume to the -circulation it deserves. - - G. W. FOOTE. - -November, 1891 - - - - -PREFACE - - -He would be a bold person who should attempt to say something entirely -new on Voltaire. His life has often been written, and many are the -disquisitions on his character and influence. This little book, which at -the bicentenary of his birth I offer as a Freethinker's tribute to the -memory of the great liberator, has no other pretension than that of -being a compilation seeking to display in brief compass something of the -man's work and influence. But it has its own point of view. It is as a -Freethinker, a reformer, and an apostle of reason and universal -toleration that I esteem Voltaire, and I have considered him mainly -under this aspect. For the sketch of the salient points of his career I -am indebted to many sources, including Condorcet, Duvernet, -Desnoisterres, Parton, Espinasse, Collins, and Saintsbury, to whom the -reader, desirous of fuller information, is referred. Mr. John Morley's -able work and Col. Hamley's sketch may also be recommended. - -That we are this year celebrating the bicentenary of Voltaire's birth -should remind us of how far our age has advanced from his, and also of -how much we owe to our predecessors. The spread of democracy and the -advance of science which distinguish our time both owe very-much to the -brilliant iconoclasts of the last century, of whom Voltaire was the -chief. In judging the work of the laughing sage of France we must -remember that in his day the feudal laws still obtained in France, and a -man might be clapped in prison for life without any trial. The poor were -held to be born into the world for the service of the rich, and it was -their duty to be subject to their masters, not only to the good and -gentle, but also to the froward. Justice was as easily bought as jewels. -The Church was omnipotent and freethought a crime. If Voltaire's -influence is no longer what it was, it is because he has altered that. -We can no longer keenly feel the evils against which he contended. His -work is, however, by no means fully accomplished. While any remnant of -superstition, intolerance, and oppression remains, his unremitting -warfare against _l'infame_ should be an inspiration to all who are -fighting for the liberation and progress of humanity. - -Nov. 1894. J. M. WHEELER. - - - - -EARLY LIFE - - -Two hundred years ago, on November 21st, 1604, a child emerged on the -world at Paris. The baptismal register on the following day gave the -name Francois Marie Arouet, and the youth afterwards christened himself -Voltaire.(1) The flesh was so weakly that the babe was _ondovc_ (the -term employed for informal sprinkling with water at home), lest there -might be no time for the ecclesiastical rite. - - 1. He was a younger son. The name Voltaire is, perhaps, an - anagram of the Arouet 1. j. (le jeune) the u being converted - into r, and the j into r. In like manner, an old college- tutor - of his, Pere Thoulie, transformed himself, by a similar - anagrammatic process, into the Abbe Olivet-- omitting the - unnecessary h from his original name. This method of reforming a - plebeian name into one more distinguished-looking seems not to - have been uncommon in those times, as Jean Baptiste Pocquelin - took the name of Moliere, and Charles Secondat that of - Montesquieu. - -Something may have been wrong with the performance of the sacred -ceremony, since the child certainly grew up to think more of "the world, -the flesh, and the devil" than of the other trinity of Father, Son, and -Holy Ghost. His father was a respectable attorney, and his mother came -of noble family. His godfather and early preceptor was the Abbe de -Chateauneuf, who made no pietist of him, but introduced him to his -friend, the famous Ninon l'Enclos, the antiquated Aspasia who is said to -have inspired a passion in the l'Abbe Gedouin at the age of eighty, and -who was sufficiently struck with young Voltaire to leave him a legacy of -two thousand francs, wherewith to provide himself a library. - -Voltaire showed when quite a child an unsurpassed facility for -verse-making. He was educated at a Jesuit college, and the followers of -Jesus have ever since reproached him with Jesuitism. Possibly he did -imbibe some of their "policy" in the propaganda of his ideas. Certainly -he saw sufficient of the hypocrisy and immorality of religious -professors to disgust him with the black business, and he said in -after-life that the Jesuits had taught him nothing worth learning. - -He learnt a certain amount of Latin and a parcel of stupidities. But, -indifferent as this education was, it served to encourage his already -marked literary tendency. Voltaire is said to have told his father when -he left college, at the age of fifteen, "I wish to be a man of letters, -and nothing else." "That," M. Arouet is reported to have replied, "is -the profession of a man who wishes to be a burden to his family and to -die of starvation." He would have no such nonsense. Francois must study -law; and to Paris he went with that intent. For three years he was -supposed to do so, but he bestowed more attention on the gay society of -the Temple, to which his godfather introduced him, "the most amusing -fellow in the world," and which was presided over by the Abbe de -Chaulieu. The time which he was compelled to spend in law studies, and -at the desk of a _procureur_, was by no means lost to his future -fortunes, whether in the pursuit of fame or wealth. During that hated -apprenticeship he doubtless caught up some knowledge of law and -business, which stood him in good stead in after years. He tells us that -his father thought him lost, because he mixed with good society and -wrote verses. For these he got sufficient reputation to be first exiled -to Tulle, then to Sully, and finally thrown into the Bastille on -suspicion of having written lampoons on the government. The current -story tells how the Regent, walking one day in the Palais Royal, met -Voltaire, and accosted him by offering to bet that he would show him -what he had never seen before. "What is that?" asked Voltaire. "The -Bastille." "Ah, monseigneur! I will take the Bastille as seen." On the -next morning, in May, 1717, Voltaire was arrested in his bedroom and -lodged in the Bastille. - -After nearly a year's imprisonment, during which he gave the finishing -touches to his tragedy of _OEdipus_, and sketched the epic _Henriade_, -in which he depicts the massacre of Bartholomew, the horrors of -religious bigotry, and the triumph of toleration under Henry IV., he was -released and conducted to the Regent. While Voltaire awaited audience -there was a thunderstorm. "Things could not go on worse," he said aloud, -"if there was a Regency above." His conductor, introducing him to the -Regent, said, repeating the remark, "I bring you a young man whom your -Highness has just released from the Bastille, and whom you should send -back again." The Regent laughed, and promised, if he behaved well, to -provide for him. "I thank your Highness for taking charge of my board," -returned Voltaire, "but I beseech you not to trouble yourself any more -about my lodging." - -In his first play, _OEdipe_, appeared the celebrated couplet: - - _"Nos pretres ne sont pas ce qu'un vain peuple pense!_ - - _Notre credulite fait toute leur science." (1)_ - - 1. "Our priests are not what foolish people suppose; all their - science is derived from our credulity." - -These lines were afterwards noted by Condorcet as "the first signal of a -war, which not even the death of Voltaire could extinguish." It was at -this period that he first took the name of Arouet de Voltaire. He -produced two more tragedies, _Artemire_ and _Mariamne_; a comedy, _The -Babbler_; and prepared his world-famous _Henriade._ A portrait, painted -by Largilliere at about this period, has often been engraved. It -exhibits a handsome young gentleman, full of grace and spirit, with a -smiling mouth, animated eyes, intellectual forehead, and a fine hand in -a fine ruffle. - - - - -HEGIRA TO ENGLAND - - -The story of how Voltaire came to England is worth the telling, as it -illustrates the condition of things in France in the early part of last -century. Voltaire left France for England, which his acquaintance with -Lord Bolingbroke induced him to desire to visit. It was his Hegira, -whence he returned a full-fledged Prophet of the French. He went a poet, -he returned a philosopher. Dining at the Duke of Sully's table he -presumed to differ from the Chevalier de Rohan--Chabot, a relative of -Cardinal Rohan. The aristocrat asked, "Who is that young fellow who -talks so loudly?" "Monsieur le Chevalier," replied Voltaire, "it is a -man who does not bear a great name but who knows how to honor the name -he does bear."(1) It was insufferable that the son of a bourgeois should -thus speak his mind to a Rohan. A few days afterwards, when again dining -with the Duke, he was called out by a false message, and seized and -caned by ruffians until a voice cried "Enough." That word was a fresh -blow, for the young poet recognised the voice of the Chevalier. He -returned to the Duke and asked him to assist in obtaining redress. His -grace shrugged his shoulders and took no further notice of this insult -to his guest. Voltaire never visited the Duke again, and, it is said, -erased his ancestor's name from the _Henriade_. He was equally -unsuccessful in seeking redress from the Regent. "You are a poet, and -you have had a good thrashing; what can be more natural?" He retired, to -study English and fencing; and reappeared with a challenge to the -Chevalier, who accepted it, but informed his relations. It was against -the law for a commoner to challenge a nobleman. Next morning, instead of -meeting de Rohan, he met officers armed with a _lettre de cachet_ -consigning him to the Bastille. After nearly a month's incarceration he -was liberated on condition that he left the country. Having no wish to -spend a second year in prison, he had himself applied for permission to -visit England. Voltaire felt keenly the indignity to which he had been -subjected. In a letter of instruction written from England to his agent -he says: "If my debtors profit by my misfortune and absence to refuse -payment, you must not trouble to bring them to reason: 'tis but a -trifle." Yet a book has been written on Voltaire's avarice. - - 1. Some of the accounts say that Voltaire said, "You, my lord, - are the last of your house; I am the first of mine." - -Voltaire was conducted to Calais and arrived in England on Whit-Monday, -1726. He landed near Greenwich and witnessed the Fair. All seemed -bright. The park and river were full of animation. Here there was no -Bastille, no fear of the persecution of the great or the spies of the -police. He had excellent introductions. Bolingbroke he had met in exile -at La Source in 1721, and he had learnt to regard the illustrious -Englishman who possessed "all the learning of his country and all the -politeness of ours." Voltaire, like Pope, may be said to have been, at -any rate for a time, an eager disciple of the exiled English statesman. -Now Voltaire was the exile; Bolingbroke, for a while, the host, at -Dawley, near Uxbridge. But he had other English friends, notably Mr. -(afterwards Sir Everard) Falkener, an English merchant trading in the -Levant, from whose house at Wandsworth most of his letters are dated. -For Sir Everard, Voltaire always retained the warmest feelings of -friendship, and forty years later returned hospitality to his sons. - -Voltaire spent two years and eight months in England, living during part -of the time in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, and during another part at -Wandsworth. This visit was probably the most important event in his -life. It was here he lit the torch of Freethought with which he fired -the continent. Here he mastered the arguments of the English deists, -Bolingbroke, Toland, Tindal, Shaftesbury, Chubb, Collins, and Woolston, -which he afterwards used with such effect. Here he saw the benefits of -parliamentary government. Here he imbibed the philosophy of Locke and -the science of Newton. Indeed it may be said there is hardly one of -Voltaire's important works but bears traces of his visit to our country. -Yet of this momentous epoch of his life the records are scanty. When he -grew famous every letter and anecdote was preserved, but in 1727 -Voltaire was but a young man of promise. Carlyle, in the tenth book of -his _Frederick the Great_, says: "But mere inanity and darkness visible -reign in all his Biographies over this period of his life, which was -above all others worth investigating." Messrs. J. C. Collins and A. -Ballantyne have since done much to elucidate this noteworthy period. - -Pope was one of the persons Voltaire desired to see. He had already -described him as "the most elegant, most correct, and most harmonious -poet they ever had in England." Pope could only speak French with -difficulty, and Voltaire could not make himself understood. The result -being unsatisfactory, Voltaire did not seek further company until he had -acquired the language. An anecdote in Chetworth's _History of the Stage_ -relates that he was in the habit of attending the theatre with the play -in his hand. By this method he obtained more proficiency in the language -in a week than he could otherwise have obtained in a month. Madame de -Genlis had the audacity to assert that Voltaire never knew English, yet -it is certain he could, before he was many months in this country, both -speak and write it with facility. By Nov. 16, 1726, he wrote to Pope, -after that poet's accident while driving near Bolingbroke's estate at -Dawley. In writing to his friend Thieriot, in France, he sometimes used -English, for the same reason, he said, that Boileau wrote in Latin--not -to be understood by too curious people. Voltaire is said to have once -found his knowledge of English of practical use. The French were -unpopular, and in one of his rambles he was menaced by a mob. He said: -"Brave Englishmen, am I not already unhappy enough in not having been -born among you?" His eloquence had such success that, according to -Longchamp and Wagniere, the people wished to carry him on their -shoulders to his house. - -While in this country he wrote in English a portion of his tragedy -_Brutus_, inspired by and dedicated to Bolingbroke, - -and two essays, one on the Civil Wars of France, and one on Epic Poetry. -In the introduction to the essays he expresses his conception of his own -position as a man of letters in a foreign country. As these essays, -although popular at the time, are now rare, I transcribe a paragraph or -two from them: - -"The true aim of a relation is to instruct men, not to gratify their -malice. We should be busied chiefly in giving a faithful account of all -the useful things and extraordinary persons, whom to know, and to -imitate, would be a benefit to our country. A traveller who writes in -that spirit is a merchant of a nobler kind, who imports into his native -country the arts and virtues of other nations." - -In his _Essay on Epic Poetry_ Voltaire shows he had made a study of -Milton, though his criticism can scarcely, be considered an advance upon -that of Addison. He displays constant admiration for Tasso, to whom he -was perhaps attracted by his sufferings at the hands of an ignoble -nobility. He says: - -"The taste of the English and of the French, though averse to any -machinery grounded upon enchantment, must forgive, nay commend, that of -Armida, since it is the source of so many beauties. Besides, she is a -Mahometan, and the Christian religion allows us to believe that those -infidels are under the immediate influence of the devil." In this essay -appears the first mention of the story of Newton and the apple tree. - -Voltaire closely studied all branches of English literature. He read -Shakespeare, and admired his "genius" while censuring his -"irregularity." He was the first to introduce him to his countrymen, -though he subsequently sought to lessen what he considered their -exorbitantly high opinion. The works of Dryden, Waller, Prior, Congreve, -Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Rochester and Addison were all devoured, and he -took an especial interest in Butler's witty _Hudibras_. He was -acquainted with the popular sermons of Archbishop Tillotson and the -speculations of Berkeley. He had read the works of Shaftesbury, Tindal, -Chubb, Garth, Mandeville and Woolston. - -Voltaire became acquainted with most of the celebrities in England. He -visited the witty Congreve, who begged his guest to consider him not as -an author but as a gentleman. Voltaire answered with spirit: "If you had -the misfortune to be merely a gentleman, I should never have come to see -you." He knew James Thomson of _The Seasons_, and "discovered in him a -great genius and a great simplicity." With didactic Young, of the _Night -Thoughts_, who glorified God with his "egoism turned heavenward," he -formed a friendship which remained unbroken despite their differences of -opinion on religion. He pushed among his English friends the -subscription list for the _Henriade_, which proved a great -success--although King George II. was not fond of "boetry"--reaching -three editions in a short period. The money thus obtained formed the -foundation of the fortune which Voltaire accumulated, not by his -writings, but by his ability in finance. At that time, in France, as our -author remarked, "to make the smallest fortune it was better to say four -words to the mistress of a king than to write a hundred volumes." His -sojourn in England may be said to have secured him both independence of -mind and independence of fortune. - -What pleased him most in England was liberty of discussion. In the year -in which he came over, Elwall was acquitted on a charge of blasphemy, -the collected works of Toland were published, and also Collins's _Scheme -of Literal Prophecy_, and the First Discourse of Woolston on Miracles. -The success of this last work, which boldly applied wit and ridicule to -the Gospel narrative, struck him with admiration. In the very month, -however, when Voltaire left England (March 1729) Woolston was tried and -sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of L100. Voltaire -volunteered a third of the sum, but the brave prisoner refused to give -an assurance that he would not offend again, and died in prison in 1733. -Voltaire always spoke of Woolston with the greatest respect. - -Voltaire retained his esteem for England and the English to the last. -Oliver Goldsmith relates that he was in his company one evening when one -of the party undertook to revile the English language and literature. -Diderot defended them, but not brilliantly. Voltaire listened awhile in -silence, which was, as Goldsmith remarks, surprising, for it was one of -his favorite topics. However, about midnight, "Voltaire appeared at last -roused from his reverie. His whole frame seemed animated. He began his -defence with the utmost elegance mixed with spirit, and now and then he -let fall his finest strokes of raillery upon his antagonist; and his -harangue lasted until three in the morning. I must confess that, whether -from national partiality or from the elegant sensibility of his manner, -I never was more charmed, nor did I ever remember so absolute a victory -as he gained in this dispute." - -Voltaire corresponded with English friends to the latest period of his -life. Among his correspondents were Lord and Lady Bolingbroke, Sir E. -Falkener, Swift, Hume, Robertson, Horace Walpole, George Colman and Lord -Chatham. We find him asking Falkener to send him the _London Magazine_ -for the past three years. To the same friend he wrote from Potsdam in -1752, hoping that his _Vindication of Bolingbroke_ was translated, as it -would annoy the priests, "whom I have hated, hate, and shall hate till -doomsday." In the next year, writing from Berlin, he says: "I hope to -come over myself, in order to print my true works, and to be buried in -the land of freedom. I require no subscription, I desire no benefit. If -my works are neatly printed, and cheaply sold, I am satisfied." - -To Thieriot he said: "Had I not been obliged to look after my affairs in -France, depend upon it I would have spent the rest of my days in -London." Long afterwards he wrote to his friend Keate: "Had I not fixed -the seat of my retreat in the free corner of Geneva, I would certainly -live in the free corner of England; I have been for thirty years the -disciple of your ways of thinking." At the age of seventy he translated -Shakespeare's _Julius Coesar_. Mr. Collins says: "The kindness and -hospitality which he received he never forgot, and he took every -opportunity of repaying it. To be an Englishman was always a certain -passport to his courteous consideration." He compared the English to -their own beer, "the froth atop, dregs at bottom, but the bulk -excellent." When Martin Sherlock visited him at Ferney in 1776, he found -the old man, then in his eighty-third year, still full of his visit to -England. His gardens were laid out in English fashion, his favorite -books were the English classics, the subject to which he persistently -directed conversation was the English nation. - -The memory of Voltaire has been but scurvily treated in the land he -loved so well. For over a century, calumny and obloquy were poured upon -him. Johnson said of Rousseau: "I would sooner sign a sentence for his -transportation than that of any felon who has gone from the Old Bailey -these many years." _Boswell_: "Sir, do you think him as bad a man as -Voltaire?" _Johnson_: "Why, sir, it is difficult to settle the -proportion of iniquity between them." And this represents an opinion -which long endured among the religious classes. But it is at length -being recognised that, with all his imperfections, which were after all -those of the age in which he lived, he devoted his brilliant genius to -the cause of truth and the progress of humanity. He made his exile in -England an occasion for accumulating those stores of intelligence with -which he so successfully combated the prejudices of the past and -promulgated the principles of freedom, and justified his being ranked -foremost among the liberators of the human mind. - - - - -EXAMPLES FROM ENGLAND - - -Several incidents combined to direct Voltaire's attention to clericalism -as the enemy of progress and humanity. Soon after his return to France, -the famous actress, Adrienne Lecouvreur, for whom he had a high esteem, -and who had represented the heroines of his plays, died. The clergy of -Paris refused her Christian burial because of her profession, and her -corpse was put in a ditch in a cattle-field on the banks of the Seine. -Voltaire, who regarded the theatre as one of the most potent instruments -of culture and civilisation, at once avenged and consecrated her memory -in a fine ode, burning with the fire of a deep pathos, in which he takes -occasion to contrast the treatment in England of Mrs. Oldfield, the -actress, who was buried in Westminster Abbey. Mr. Lecky says: "The man -who did more than any other to remove the stigma that rested upon actors -was unquestionably Voltaire. There is, indeed, something singularly -noble in the untiring zeal with which he directs poetry and eloquence, -the keenest wit, and the closest reasoning to the defence of those who -had so long been friendless and despised." - -When Voltaire published his _Letters on the English Nation_ the copies -were seized by the Government and the publisher was thrown into the -Bastille. The author would have again tasted the discomforts of that -abode if he had not had timely warning from his friend D'Argental, and -taken refuge in Lorraine, and afterwards on the Rhine, while his book -was torn to pieces and burned in Paris by the public executioner, as -offensive to religion, good morals, and respect for authority. Voltaire -had apparently good reason to apprehend treatment of unusual rigor if he -had obeyed the summons to give himself up into custody, as he took good -care not to do. "I have a mortal aversion to prison," he wrote to -D'Argental. "I am ill; a confined air would have killed me, and I should -probably have been thrust into a dungeon." - -Voltaire's _Letters on the English_ reads at the present day as so mild -a production that it is hard to understand its suppression. Yet it was a -true instinct which detected that the work was directed against the -principle of authority. The introduction of English thought was destined -to become an explosive element shattering the feudalism of Europe. There -were, moreover, some hard hits at the state of things in France. "The -English nation," says Voltaire, "is the only one which has succeeded in -restricting the power of kings by resisting it." Again: "How I love the -English boldness, how I love men who say what they think!" - -Voltaire gives a peculiar reason for the non-appreciation by the English -of Moliere's _Tartuffe_, the original of Mawworm if not of Uriah Heep. -He says they are not pleased with the portrayal of characters they do -not know. "One there hardly knows the name of devotee, but they know -well that of honest man. One does not see there imbeciles who put their -souls into others' hands, nor those petty ambitious men who establish a -despotic sway over women formerly wanton and always weak, and over men -yet more weak and contemptible." We fancy Voltaire must have seen -society mainly as found among the Freethinkers. Could he give so -favorable a verdict did he visit us now? The same remark applies to his -statement that there was "no privilege of hunting in the grounds of a -citizen, who, at the same time, is not permitted to fire a gun in his -own field." But this, as well as the more important passage that "no one -is exempted from taxation for being a nobleman or priest," was probably -intended exclusively for the benefit of his compatriots. He was, -however, not without a little touch of ridicule at the incongruities he -detected in our countrymen. Thus he notes in one of his letters: "They -learn Vanini and translate Lucretius for Monsieur le Dauphin to get by -heart, and then, while they deride the polytheism of the ancients, they -worship the Congregation of the Saints." - -Those educated in the current delusion that Voltaire was a mere mocker -will be surprised to find the temperate way in which he speaks of the -Quakers. Here, where there was such excellent opportunity for raillery, -Voltaire shows he had a genuine admiration for their simplicity of life, -the courage of their convictions, their freedom from priestcraft, and -their distaste for warfare. In these _Letters,_ as in all his writings, -he proves how far he was the embodiment of the new era by his boldly -expressed preference for industrial over military pursuits. - -In his remarks on the Church of England, Voltaire, however, gives an -unmistakable touch of his quality: "One cannot have public employment in -England or Ireland, without being of the number of faithful Anglicans. -This reason, which is an excellent proof, has converted so many -Nonconformists that not a twentieth part of the nation is out of the -pale of the dominant church." - -After alluding to the "holy zeal" of ministers against dissenters, and -of the lower House of Convocation, who "from time to time burnt impious -books, that is, books against themselves," he says: "When they learn -that, in France, young fellows noted only for debauchery and raised to -the prelacy by female intrigue, openly pursue their amours, compose -love-songs, give every day elaborate delicate suppers, then go to -implore the illumination of the Holy Spirit, boldly calling themselves -the successors of the Apostles--they thank God they are Protestants. But -they are abominable heretics, to be burnt by all the devils, as Master -Francois Rabelais says; and that is why I do not meddle with their -affairs." - -The Presbyterians fare little better, for Voltaire relates that, when -King Charles surrendered to the Scots, they made that unfortunate -monarch undergo four sermons a day. To them it is owing that only -genteel people play cards on Sunday: "the rest of the nation go either -to church, to the tavern, or to see their mistresses." - -His admiration for English philosophy was startling to the French mind. -Locke's Essay became his philosophical gospel. "For thirty years," he -writes in 1768, "I have been persecuted by a crowd of fanatics because I -said that Locke is the Hercules of Metaphysics, who has fixed the -boundaries of the human mind." - - - - -AT CIREY - - -A common admiration for Locke and Newton cemented his attachment to the -Marquise du Chatelet, a lady distinguished from others of her age by her -love of the sciences. With her Voltaire lived for over fifteen years at -the Chateau of Cirey, in Campagne, "far from the madding crowd's ignoble -strife," and, as Voltaire phrased it, "nine miles from a lemon." -Voltaire was at the outset forty and Madame twenty-seven, neither -handsome nor well-formed, yet pleasing. She united learning with a zest -for pleasure, and with the handsome fortune which Voltaire brought to -the establishment was enabled to satisfy both tastes. Life at Cirey was -varied by jaunts to Paris, Brussels and Sceaux, at which last place he -wrote _Zadig_, one of his lightest and most characteristic burlesque -stories. - -Madame du Chatelet has been much laughed at; but in the days when ladies -take prizes in mathematics, that should be a thing of the past. Hard -intellectual labor rather than the pursuit of pleasure characterised -life at Cirey, or rather its inmates found their pleasure in their work. -Madame would be translating Newton or studying Leibnitz. Her -mathematical tutor worked at physical science in a gallery which had -been built expressly for him. Voltaire would be aiding each in turn, or, -ever faithful to his first love the drama, occupied with the writing or -production of a tragedy or comedy for the theatre also attached to the -premises. His production was as ever incessant. At the time of his first -settlement there, Pope's _Essay on Man_ had been published. It suggested -a _Discourse on Man_, in which he sought not to justify the ways of God -to man, but to make man contented with his lot, not vainly inquiring -into the why and wherefore of things. With Madame he wrote _Elements of -the Newtonian Philosophy_, a work highly praised by Lord Brougham, who -says: "The power of explaining an abstract subject in easy and accurate -language, language not in any way beneath the dignity of science, though -quite suited to the comprehension of uninformed persons, is -unquestionably shown in a manner which only makes it a matter of regret -that the singularly gifted author did not carry his torch into all the -recesses of natural philosophy." The French Government, despite the -influence of aristocratic friends, refused to print a work opposed to -the system of Descartes, and the volume had to be printed in Holland. -For Madame, who despised the "old almanack" histories then current, in -place of which Voltaire aimed at producing something more profitable to -the readers, he wrote his _Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations_, -in which for the first time in modern literature he applied philosophy -to the teaching of history. He dissipated the dull dreams and deceits of -the monks, and fixed attention on the real condition of things. With -Voltaire, the commonest invention which improves the human lot is of -more importance than battles and sieges. He gives importance to the -physical and intellectual improvement of man. Brougham remarks that -Voltaire's Philosophy of History was written as a prelude to the Essay -on the Spirit of Nations, but the whole work deserves that title. Buckle -classes him with Bolingbroke and Montesquieu, the fathers of modern -history, and all sceptics; and even now, says Lecky, no historian can -read him without profit. Other contributions to history were the -_History of Charles XII._, a masterpiece of vivid and vigorous -narrative, and _The Age of Louis XIV_. It was here he wrote his too -famous _Pucelle_, which he afterwards described as "piggery," as well as -some of the most famous of his plays, including. _Ilzire, Zuline, -L'Enfant Prodigue, Mahomet and Merope_, the best of his tragedies. With -that impish spirit in which he ever delighted, he induced the Pope to -accept the dedication of his play of _Mahomet_, and then laughed at his -infallible Holiness for being unable to see that the shafts supposed to -be directed at the impostor of Arabia were really aimed at fanaticism in -another quarter. - -To his first and last love, the French theatre, Voltaire contributed -nearly sixty pieces, the majority of which are tragedies. _Zaire_ and -_Merope_ suffice to show the excellence he obtained in the classic -drama. The first-named was written in three weeks, a wonderful _tour de -force. Olympic_--written in old age--occupied but six days, though in -this we must agree with the friend who told the author that he should -not have rested on the seventh day. Voltaire's plays indeed contain -occasional fine passages, but they have not the rich delineation of -character necessary for works of the first rank. It has been well -remarked that in his dramas, as in history, he sought to portray not so -much individuals as epochs. In _Mahomet_ his subject is a great -fanaticism; in _Alzire_, the conquest of America; in _Brutus_, the -formation of the Roman power; in the _Death of Coesar_, the rise of the -empire or the ruin of that power. It is noteworthy that, despite his -excess of comic talent, Voltaire preferred to devote his mind to tragedy -rather than to comedy, in which one might have fancied he would have -excelled. In truth, his desire to support the dignity of the stage stood -in the way of his shining in comedy. Voltaire also at this period wrote -a _Life of Moliere_, in which he mingled criticism with biography. - -Madame de Grafigny, who visited at Cirey, says he was so greedy of his -time, so intent upon his work, that it was sometimes necessary to tear -him from his desk for supper. "But when at table, he always has -something to tell, very facetious, very odd, very droll, which would -often not sound well except in his mouth, and which shows him still as -he has painted himself for us-- - - _Toujours un pied dans le cercueil,_ - - _De l'autre faisant des gambades."(1)_ - - 1. Ever one foot in the grave, - - And gambolling with the other. - -"To be seated beside him at supper, how delightful!" she adds. Voltaire -at Cirey was out of harm's way, and could and did devote himself to his -natural bent in literary work. Madame du Chatelet was sometimes "gey ill -to live with." but she preserved him from many annoyances and helped him -somewhat at Court. Thanks to the Duc de Richelieu, his patron and -debtor, he was appointed historiographer-royal in 1745, with a salary of -two thousand livres attached, and in the following year was elected one -of the Forty of the French Academy. - -His life with Madame du Chatelet had shown him the possibility of woman -being man's intellectual companion. With what scorn does he make a lady, -who claims equal rights in the matter of divorce with her husband, say: - -"My husband replies that he is my head and my superior, that he is -taller than me by more than an inch, that he is hairy as a bear, and -that, consequently, I owe him everything and that he owes me nothing." -This was long before woman's rights were thought of. - -Voltaire and Frederick the Great. - -While still at Cirey, Voltaire received many a flattering invitation -from the Prince Royal of Prussia. Their correspondence, in the words of -Carlyle, "sparkles notably with epistolary grace and vivacity," though -now mainly interesting as an illustration of two memorable characters -and of their century. Voltaire helped him with his _Anti-Machiavelli_, -remarking afterwards that had Machiavelli had a prince for a pupil, the -very first thing he would have advised him to do would have been so to -write. Frederick was bent on having the personal acquaintance and -attendance of the renowned poet and philosopher. Much incense and mutual -admiration passed, and at length, when he ascended the throne, Voltaire -paid him several visits. On one occasion it was a diplomatic one, to -cement a union between France and Prussia. Macaulay sneers at this -"childish craving for political distinction," and Frederick remarks that -he brought no credentials with him. The correspondence and mutual -admiration continued. Carlyle characteristically says: "Admiration -sincere on both sides, most so on the Prince's, and extravagantly -expressed on both sides, most so on Voltaire's." In one of his letters, -Frederick says "there can be in nature but one God and one Voltaire." If -Voltaire was more extravagant than this, at least the paint was laid on -more delicately. Frederick's flattery, indeed, was not very carefully -done. Thus, in writing to Voltaire he says: "You are like the white -elephant for which the King of Persia and the Great Mogul make war; and -the possession of which forms one of their titles. If you come here you -will see at the head of mine, 'Frederick by the Grace of God, King of -Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Possessor of Voltaire, &c., &c.'" But -the Marquise du Chatelet considered that no King should displace a lady. -She loved him; _"jamais pour deux"_ she says; and perhaps, at the bottom -of her heart, regretted the reputation which must have been ever a -rival. At her death, Frederick renewed his invitation, expressing -himself as now "one of your oldest friends," and Voltaire, cut loose -from his moorings, submitted to be tempted to the atmosphere of a court -which he had before found little suited to a lover of truth, justice, -and liberty. - -The first of these visits, in September 1740, is thus satirically -described by Voltaire: "I was conducted into his majesty's apartment, in -which I found nothing but four bare walls. By the light of a wax candle -I perceived a small truckle bed, two feet and a half wide, in a closet, -upon which lay a little man, wrapped up in a morning gown of blue cloth. -It was his majesty, who lay sweating and shaking, beneath a beggarly -coverlet, in a violent ague fit. I made my bow, and began my -acquaintance by feeling his pulse, as if I had been his first physician. -The fit left him, and he rose, dressed himself, and sat down to table -with Algarotti, Keizerling, Maupertuis, the ambassador to the -states-general, and myself; where, at supper, we treated most profoundly -on the immortality of the soul, natural liberty, and the _Androgynes_ of -Plato." Frederick says, in a letter to Jordan, dated September 24th: "I -have at length seen Voltaire, whom I was so anxious to become acquainted -with; but, alas! I saw him when I was under the influence of my fever, -and when my mind and my body were equally languid. Now, with persons -like him, one must not be ill; on the contrary, one must be very well, -and even, if possible, in better health than usual. He has the eloquence -of Cicero, the mildness of Pliny, and the wisdom of Agrippa: he unites, -in a word, all that is desirable of the virtues and talents of three of -the greatest men of antiquity. His intellect is always at work; and -every drop of ink that falls from his pen, is transformed at once into -wit. He declaimed to us _Mahomet_, an admirable tragedy he has composed, -which transported us with delight: for myself, I could only admire in -silence." - -The intercourse and disruption of the friendship between Voltaire and -Frederick--"the two original men of their century," as Carlyle calls -them--has been inimitably told by that great writer whose temperament -and training enabled him to do so much justice to the one and so little -to the other. Voltaire must be excused for wishing to lead the King in -the path of reason and enlightened toleration to peace. But the Court of -Potsdam was in truth no place for him, and the Frenchmen not unnaturally -regarded him as a deserter. Macaulay says: "We have no hesitation in -saying that the poorest author of that time in London, sleeping in a -hulk, dining in a cellar with a cravat of paper and a skewer for a -shirt-pin, was a happier man than any of the literary inmates of -Frederick's Court." Voltaire's position was sure to excite jealousy, and -his scathing wit was bound to get him in trouble. He could touch up the -King's French verses for a consideration, but could not be kept from -laughing at his poetry. "I have here a bundle of the King's dirty linen -to bleach," he said once, pointing to the MSS. sent to him for -correction; and the bearers of course conveyed the sarcasm to his -Majesty. On the other side Voltaire heard from Julien Offray de la -Mettrie, author of _Man a Machine_, whom Voltaire called the most frank -atheist in Europe, that the King had said: "I still want Voltaire for -another year--one sucks the orange before throwing away the skin." That -orange-skin stuck in Voltaire's throat, and when atheist La Mettrie died -11th November, - -1751, from eating a pie supposed to be of pheasant but in reality of -eagle and pork, Voltaire observes: "I should have liked to put to La -Mettrie, in the article of death, fresh inquiries about the orange-skin. -That fine soul, on the point of quitting the world, would not have dared -to-lie. There is much reason to suppose that he spoke the truth." -Voltaire could neither submit to the domination of the Court coterie nor -to that of their master. He offended Frederick, not so much by writing -as by publishing his merciless ridicule of Maupertuis, the President of -the Berlin Academy of Sciences--an institution suggested by Voltaire, -who had indeed recommended Maupertuis as President--in his inimitable -_Diatribe of Doctor Akakia, Physician to the Pope_, which Macaulay says, -even at this time of day, it is not easy for any person who has the -least perception of the ridiculous to read without laughing till he -cries. But a public insult to the President of his Academy was an insult -to the King, and the work was publicly burnt and Voltaire placed under -arrest. But the matter blew over, though Voltaire sent back his cross -and key of office, which the King returned. Voltaire wisely tried to rid -himself of the intolerable constraint, and made ill-health the pretext -of flight, going first to Plombieres to take the waters. But he could -not resist sending another shot at poor Maupertuis; and the King, -perhaps considering he had forfeited claim to consideration, resolved to -punish him. At Frankfort, nominally a free city but really dominated by -a Prussian resident, he was arrested, together with his niece Madame -Denis, and detained in an inn, even after he had given up his gold key -as chamberlain, his cross and ribbon of the Order of Merit, and his copy -of a privately printed volume of the royal rhymester's poetry, for which -he was ordered to be arrested. The volume was evidently the most -important article in such mischievous hands, especially as it was said -to contain satires on reigning potentates. Voltaire had left it at -Leipsic, and had to wait, guarded by soldiers, till it arrived, and also -till the King's permission was accorded him to pass on to France. -Voltaire relieved his rage by composing what he called _Memoirs of the -Life of M. de Voltaire_, in which all the king's faults and foibles, -real and imaginary, as well as his literary pretensions, were -unsparingly ridiculed. Frederick forgave Voltaire for having been -ill-used by him, and some time after took the first step in -reconciliation by sending him back the volume of poems. An amicable -correspondence was renewed, though probably each felt they were better -at a distance. Voltaire, even while he kept in his desk this libellous -_Life_ which perhaps he never, intended to publish, was generous and -far-sighted enough to seek to make peace between Prussia and France at a -time when Frederick was at the lowest ebb of his fortunes; while -Frederick was great enough to permit the free circulation of the libel -in Berlin. Morley says: "To have really contributed in the humblest -degree, for instance, to a peace between Prussia and her enemies, in -1759, would have been an immeasurably greater performance for mankind -than any given book which Voltaire could have written. And, what is -still better worth observing, Voltaire's books would not have been the -powers they were but for this constant desire in him to come into the -closest contact with the practical affairs of the world." "What -sovereign in Europe do you fear the most?" was once asked of Frederick, -who frankly replied "_Le roi Voltaire_," for here he knew was a -potentate whose kingdom had no bounds, and who would transmit his -influence to posterity. Frederick lived to pronounce a panegyric upon -him before the Berlin Academy, in the year of his death. "The renown of -Voltaire," he predicted, "will grow from age to age, transmitting his -name to immortality." - - - - -"CANDIDE" - - -After this disastrous termination of court life Voltaire determined to -try complete independence. Permission to establish himself in France -being refused, he purchased an estate near Geneva. His residence here -brought him into correspondence, at first amicable, with the most famous -of her citizens, Jean Jacques Rousseau. There was a natural -incompatibility of temper which speedily led to a quarrel. Both were -sensitive, and Rousseau could not bear even kindly-meant banter. On -Rousseau's _Social Contract_ Voltaire said it so convinced him of the -beauty of man in a state of nature that, after reading it, he ran round -me room on all fours. His reply to Rousseau's rebuke for his pessimist -poem on the earthquake of Lisbon was the immortal _Candide_, and -Rousseau's revenge was to say, slightingly, that he had not read it. -When Rousseau thought fit to include Voltaire in the imaginary -machinations against him, with which he absurdly changed Hume, Voltaire -wrote to D'Alembert: "I have nothing to reproach myself with, save -having thought and spoken too well of him." - -Voltaire at first seems to have been captivated by the doctrine of -Pope's _Essay on Man._ He, however, afterwards wrote: "Those who exclaim -that all is well are charlatans. Shaftesbury, who first made the fable -fashionable, was a very unhappy man. I have seen Bolingbroke a prey to -vexation and rage, and Pope, whom he induced to put this sorry jest into -verse, was as much to be pitied as any man I have ever known, misshapen -in body, dissatisfied in mind, always ill, always a burden to himself, -and harassed by a hundred enemies to his very last moment. Give me, at -least, the names of some happy men who will tell me 'All is well.'" His -optimism got injured during his journey through life, and was completely -shattered by the earthquake at Lisbon in 1755. On this subject he -produced a grave poem, notable for its confession of the difficult -reconciling the evil of the world with the Beneficence of God? The same -subject was dealt with in grotesque fashion in _Candide_, one of the -wisest as well as one of the wittiest of works. A philosophy was never -more triumphantly reasoned and ridiculed out of court than is optimism -in _Candide_. Incident crowds on incident, argument jostles satire, -illustration succeeds raillery, all to show the miseries of existence -disprove this being the best of all possible worlds. At one moment we -are forced to tears at contemplating the atrocities of inhumanity; the -next we are forced to laugh at its absurdities. Prudes may be shocked at -some incidents. Voltaire said he was not born to sing the praises of -saints. He was himself no saint, but rather one of those sinners who had -done the world more good than all its saints. But the influence of the -work is profoundly good. It is purely humanitarian, War, persecution for -religion, slavery, torture, and all forms of cruelty are made hateful by -a recital of their facts; and all this is done in so charming, even -flippant a manner, that we are laughing all the while we are most -profoundly moved. Schopenhauer and Hartmann both enjoyed life, while -Voltaire was an invalid most of his days; but they never threw into -their pessimism the gaiety of _Candide_. And his peculiarity is, that he -makes all man's lower instincts ridiculous as well as detestable. - -This character appears in all his work, but, as a fantastic tale, -_Candide_ stands alone. It brings out Voltaire's most characteristic -qualities: his keen eye for whimsicalities and weaknesses; his -abhorrence of cruelty and iniquity in high places; his contempt for -shams and absence of all veneration for the majesty of nonsensical -custom. For mordant satire it is surpassed by _Gulliver's Travels_. But -it is briefer; the touch is lighter, and instinct not with morose -misanthropy, but hearty philanthropy. The characters are gross -caricatures. Was there ever so preposterous an absurdity as Dr. -Pangloss? And the incidents are improbable. Was ever so luckless a hero -as Candide? What a succession of misfortunes! Candide travels the world -in search of his lost beloved Cunegonde, meeting war, the Inquisition, -torture, shipwreck, piracy, and slavery, with all their attendant -horrors. Even the earthquake of Lisbon is brought in; yet with whimsical -pertinacity, Pangloss clings to his flimsy philosophy. - -When he re-meets Candide, who had left his tutor as dead, he thus -relates his adventures: "But," my dear Pangloss, "how happens it that I -see you again?" said Candide. "It is true," answered Pangloss, "you saw -me hanged; I ought properly to have been burnt; but, you remember, it -rained in torrents when they were going to roast me. The storm was so -violent they despaired of kindling the fire; so I was hanged, because -they could do no better. A surgeon bought my body, carried it home, and -dissected me. He made first a crucial incision from the navel to the -neck. One could not have been more badly hanged than I. The executioner -of the Holy Inquisition was a sub-deacon, and truly burnt people -capitally, but, as for hanging, he was a novice; the cord was wet, and -not slipping properly, the noose did not join--in short, I still -continued to breathe. The crucial incision made me shriek so that my -surgeon fell back, and, imagining it was the devil he was dissecting, -ran away in mortal fear, tumbling downstairs in his fright. His wife, -hearing the noise, flew from the next room, and saw me stretched upon -the table with my crucial incision. Still more terrified than her -husband, she ran down also, and fell upon him. When they had a little -recovered themselves, I heard her say to the surgeon, 'My dear, how -could you think of dissecting a heretic? Don't you know that the devil -is always in them? I'll run directly to a priest, to come and exorcise -the evil spirit.' I trembled from head to foot at hearing her talk in -this manner, and exerted what little strength I had left to cry out, -'Have pity on me!' At length, the Portuguese barber took courage, sewed -up my wound, and his wife even nursed me. I was upon my legs in about a -fortnight. The barber got me a place as lacquey to a Knight of Malta, -who was going to Venice; but finding my master had no money to pay me my -wages, I entered into the service of a Venetian merchant, and went with -him to Constantinople. One day I took the fancy to enter a mosque, where -I saw no one but an old Iman and a very pretty young female devotee, who -was saying her prayers. Her neck was quite bare, and in her bosom she -had a fine nosegay of tulips, roses, anemones, ranunculuses, hyacinths, -and auriculas. She let fall her bouquet. I ran to take it up, and -presented it to her with a bow. I was so long in replacing it, that the -Iman began to be angry, and, perceiving I was a Christian, he cried out -for help. They took me before the Cadi, who ordered me to receive one -hundred bastinadoes, and sent me to the galleys. We were continually -whipt, and received twenty lashes a day, when the concatenation of -sublunary events brought you on board our galley to ransom us from -slavery." - -"Well, my dear Pangloss," said Candide to him, "now you have been -hanged, dissected, whipped, and tugging at the oar, do you continue to -think that everything in this world happens for the best?" "I have -always abided by my first opinion," replied Pangloss; "for, after all, I -am a philosopher; it would not become me to retract. Leibnitz could not -be wrong, and 'pre-established harmony' is, besides, the finest thing in -the world, as well as a 'plenum' and the 'materia subtilis'." - -When Cunegonde is at last found, she is no longer beautiful--but -sunburnt, blear-eyed, haggard, withered, and scrofulous. Though ready to -fulfil his promise, her brother, a baron whom Candide has rescued from -slavery, declares that sister of his shall never marry a person of less -rank than a baron. The book is a mass of seeming extravagance, with a -deep vein of gold beneath. All flows so smoothly, the reader fancies -such fantastic nonsense could not only be easily written, but easily -improved. Yet when he notices how every sally and absurdity adds to the -effect, how every lightest touch tells, he sees that only the most -consummate wit and genius could thus deftly dissect a philosophy of the -universe for the amusement of the multitude. - -Voltaire tried to save England from the judicial murder of Admiral Byng, -who was sacrificed to national pride and political faction in 1757, yet -how lightly he touches the history in a sentence: "Dans ce pays ci il -est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres." -The pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war had no charms for -Voltaire. He shows it in its true colors as multitudinous murder and -rapine. Religious intolerance and hypocrisy, court domination and -intrigue, the evils attendant on idlers, soldiers and priests, are all -sketched in lightest outline, and the reader of this fantastic story -finds he has traversed the history of last century, seen it at its -worst, and seen, too, the forces that tended to make it better, and is -ready to exclaim: Would we had another Voltaire now! - -The philosophy of _Candide_ is that of Secularism. The world as we find -it abounds in misery and suffering. If any being is responsible for it, -his benevolence can only be vindicated by limiting his power, or his -power credited by limiting his goodness. Our part is simply to make the -best of things and improve this world here and now. "Work, then, without -disputing; it is the only way to render life supportable." - -Carlyle did much to impair the influence of Voltaire in England. Yet -what is Carlyle's essential doctrine but "Do the work nearest hand," and -what is this but a translation of the conclusion of _Candide_: "Il faut -cultiver notre jardin"? - -Those who forget how far more true it is that man is an irrational -animal than that he is a rational one, may wonder how Voltaire, having -in _Candide_ sapped the foundations of belief in an all-good God by a -portrayal of the evils afflicting mankind, could yet remain a Theist. -The truth seems to be that Voltaire had neither taste nor talents for -metaphysics. In the _Ignorant Philosopher_ Voltaire seeks to answer -Spinoza, without fully understanding his monistic position. He appears -to have remained a dualist or modern Manichean--an opinion which James -Mill considered was the only Theistic view consistent with the facts. -Writing to D'Alembert on the 15th of August, 1767, Voltaire says: "Give -my compliments to the Devil, for it is he who governs the world." It is -curious that on the day he was writing these lines, one Napoleon -Bonaparte had just entered upon the world. - -Voltaire appears to have been satisfied with the design argument as -proving a deity, though he considered speculation as to the nature of -deity useless. He showed the Positivist spirit in his rejection of -metaphysical subtleties. "When," he writes, "we have well disputed over -spirit and matter, we end ever by no advance. No philosopher has been -able to raise by his own efforts the veil which nature has spread over -the first principles of things." Again: "I do not know the _quo modo_, -true. I prefer to stop short rather than to lose myself." Also: -"Philosophy consists in stopping where physics fail us. I observe the -effects of nature, but I confess I know no more than you do about first -principles." But a deist he ever remained. - -Baron de Gleichen, who visited him in 1757, relates that a young author, -at his wits' end for the means of living, knocked one day at the poet's -door, and to recommend himself said: "I am an apprentice atheist at your -service." Voltaire replied: "I have the honor to be a master deist; but -though our trades are opposed, I will give you some supper to-night and -some work to-morrow. I wish to avail myself of your arms and not of your -head." - -He thought both atheism and fanaticism inimical to society; but, said -he, "the atheist, in his error, preserves reason, which cuts his claws, -while those of the fanatic are sharpened in the incessant madness which -afflicts him." - -Voltaire seems to have been at bottom agnostic holding on to the narrow -ledge of theism and afraid to drop. - -He says: "For myself, I am sure of nothing. I believe that there is an -intelligence, a creative power, a God. I express an opinion to-day; I -doubt of it to-morrow; the day after I repudiate it. All honest -philosophers have confessed to me, when they were warmed with wine, that -the great Being has not given to them one particle more evidence than to -me." He believed in the immortality of the soul, yet expresses himself -dubiously, saying to Madame du Deffand that he knew a man who believed -that when a bee died it ceased to hum. That man was himself. - -On the appearance, however, in 1770 of the Baron d'Holbach's _System of -Nature_--in which he was very considerably helped by Diderot--Voltaire -took alarm at its openly pronounced atheism. "The book," he wrote, - -"has made all the philosophers execrable in the eyes of the King and his -court. Through this fatal work philosophy is lost for ever in the eyes -of all magistrates and fathers of families." He accordingly took in hand -to combat its atheism, which he does in the article _Dieu_ in the -_Philosophical Dictionary_, and in his _History of Jenni_ (Johnny), a -lad supposed to be led on a course of vice by atheism and reclaimed to -virtue by the design argument. Voltaire's real attitude seems fairly -expressed in his celebrated mot: "S'il n'y avait pas un dieu, il -fraudrait l'inventer"--"If there was not a God it would be necessary to -invent one," which, Morin remarks, was exactly what had been done. -Morley says: "It was not the truth of the theistic belief in itself that -Voltaire prized, but its supposed utility as an assistant to the -police." - - - - -THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA - - -Voltaire was a great stimulator of the French _Encyclopaedia_, a work -designed to convey to the many the information of the few. Here again -the inspiration was English. It was the success of the _Cyclopcedia of -Arts and Sciences_, edited by the Freethinker Ephraim Chambers, in 1728, -which suggested the yet more famous work carried out by Diderot and -D'Alembert, with the assistance of such men as Helvetius, Buffon, -Turgot, and Condorcet. Voltaire took an ardent interest in the work, and -contributed many important articles. The leading contributors were all -Freethinkers, but they were under the necessity of advancing their ideas -in a tentative way on account of the vigilant censorship. Voltaire not -only wrote for the _Encyclopaedia_, but gave valuable hints and -suggestions to Diderot and D'Alembert, as well as much sound advice. He -cautioned them, for instance, against patriotic bias. "Why," he asks -D'Alembert, "do you say that the sciences are more indebted to France -than to any other nation? Is it to the French that we are indebted for -the quadrant, the fire-engine, the theory of light, inoculation, the -seed-sower? _Parbleu!_ you are jesting! We have invented only the -wheelbarrow." - -Voltaire wrote the section on History. The first page contained a -Voltairean definition of sacred history which even an ignorant censor -could hardly be expected to pass. "Sacred History is a series of -operations, divine and miraculous, by which it pleased God formerly to -conduct the Jewish nation, and to-day to exercise our faith." The iron -hand beneath the velvet glove was too evident for this to pass the -censorship. Vexatious delay and the enforced excision of important -articles attended the progress of the work. - -It was the attempted suppression of _l'Encyclopcedie_ which showed -Voltaire that the time had come for battle. - -In 1757 a new edict was issued, threatening with death any one who -wrote, printed, or sold any work attacking religion or the royal -authority. The same edict assigned the penalty of the galleys to whoever -published writings without legal permit. Within six months advocate -Barbier recorded in his diary some terrible sentences. La Marteliere, -verse-writer, for printing clandestinely Voltaire's _Pucelle_ and other -"such" works, received nine years in the galleys; eight printers and -binders employed in the same printing office, the pillory and three -years' banishment. Up to the period of the Revolution nothing could be -legally printed in France, and no book could be imported, without -Government authorisation. Mr. Lecky says, in his _History of England in -the Eighteenth Century_: "During the whole of the reign of Lewis XV. -there was scarcely a work of importance which was not burnt or -suppressed, while the greater number of the writers who were at this -time the special, almost the only, glory of France were imprisoned, -banished, or fined." Voltaire determined to render the bigots odious and -contemptible, and henceforth waged incessant war, continued to the day -of his death. In satire on one of the bigots he issued his _Narrative of -the Sickness, Confession, Death and Reappearance of the Jesuit -Berthier_, as rich a burlesque as that which Swift had written -predicting and describing the death of the astrologer Partridge, in -accordance with the prediction. Every sentence is a hit. A priest of a -rival order is hastily summoned to confess the dying Jesuit, who is -condemned to penance in purgatory for 333,333 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, -and 3 days, and then will only be let out if some brother Jesuit be -found humble and good enough to be willing to apply all his merits to -Father Berthier. Even putting his enemy in purgatory, he only condemned -the Jesuit every morning to mix the chocolate of a Jansenist, read aloud -at dinner a Provincial Letter, and employ the rest of the day in mending -the chemises of the nuns of Port Royal. - -From Ferney he poured forth a wasp-swarm of such writings under all -sorts of pen-names, and dated from London, Amsterdam, Berne, or Geneva. -He had sufficient stimulus in the bigotry, intolerance, and atrocious -iniquities perpetrated in the name of religion. - -Voltaire, moreover, determined himself to uphold the work of the -_Encyclopaedia_ in more popular form. He put forward first his -_Questions upon the Encyclopaedia_, in which he deals with some -important articles of that work, with others of his own. This was the -foundation of the most important of all his works, the _Philosophical -Dictionary_, which he is said to have projected in the days when he was -with Frederick at Berlin. In this work he showed how a dictionary could -be made the most amusing reading in the world. Under an alphabetical -arrangement, he brought together a vast variety of sparkling essays on -all sorts of subjects connected with literature, science, politics and -religion. Some of his headings were mere stalking-horses, under cover of -which he shot at the enemy. Some are concerned with matters now out of -date; but, on the whole, the work presents a vivid picture of his -versatile genius. An abridged edition, containing articles of abiding -interest, would be a service to Free-thought at the present day. - -Here is a slight specimen of his style taken from the article on -Fanaticism: "Some one spreads a rumor in the world that there is a giant -in existence 70 feet high. Very soon all the doctors discuss the -questions what color his hair must be, what is the size of his thumb, -what the dimensions of his nails; there is outcry, caballing, fighting; -those who maintain that the giant's little finger is only an inch and a -half in diameter, bring those to the stake who affirm that the little -finger is a foot thick. 'But, gentlemen, does your giant exist?' says a -bystander, modestly. - -"'What a horrible doubt!' cry all the disputants; 'what blasphemy! what -absurdity!' Then they all make a little truce to stone the bystander, -and, after having assassinated him in due form, in a manner the most -edifying, they fight among themselves, as before, on the subject of the -little finger and the nails." - -"L'Infame." - -Voltaire had other provocations to his attack on the bigots, and as he -greatly concerned himself with these, they must be briefly mentioned. In -1761 a tragedy of mingled judicial bigotry, ignorance, and cruelty was -enacted in Languedoc. On October 13th of that year, Marc Antoine, the -son of Jean Calas, a respectable Protestant merchant in Toulouse, a -young man of dissolute habits, who had lived the life of a scapegrace, -hanged himself in his father's shop while the family were upstairs. The -priestly party got hold of the case and turned it into a religious -crime. The Huguenot parents were charged with murdering their son to -prevent his turning Catholic. Solemn services were held for the repose -of the soul of Marc Antoine, and his body was borne to the grave with -more than royal pomp, as that of a martyr to the holy cause of religion. -In the church of the White Penitents a hired skeleton was exhibited, -holding in one hand a branch of palm, emblem of martyrdom, and in the -other an inscription, in large letters, "abjuration of heresy.'' The -populace, who were accustomed yearly to celebrate with rejoicing the -Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572, were excited against the -family. The father, who for sixty years had lived without reproach, was -arrested, with his wife and children. The court before whom the case was -brought, at first was disposed to put the whole family to the torture, -never doubting that the murder would be confessed by one or other of -them. But they ended by only condemning the father to be tortured, in -order to extract a confession of guilt before being broken on the wheel, -after which his body was to be burned and the ashes scattered to the -winds. He was submitted first to the _question ordinaire_. In sight of -the rack he was asked to reveal his crime. His answer was that no crime -had been committed. He was stretched on the rack until every limb was -dislocated and the body drawn out several inches beyond. He was then -subjected to the _question extraordinaire_. This consisted in pouring -water into his mouth from a horn, while his nose was pinched, till his -body was swollen to twice its size, and the sufferer endured the anguish -of a hundred drownings. He submitted without flinching to all the -excruciating agony. Finally, he was placed upon a tumbril and carried -through the howling mob to the place of execution. "I am innocent." he -muttered from time to time. At the scaffold he was exhorted to confess -by a priest: "What!" said he, "you, too, believe a father can kill his -own son!" They bound him to a wooden cross, and the executioner, with an -iron bar, broke each of his limbs in two places, striking eleven blows -in all, and then left him for two hours to die. The executioner -mercifully strangled him at last, before burning the body at the stake. -To the last he persisted in his innocence: he had no confession to make. -By his unutterable agony he saved the lives of his wife and family. Two -daughters were thrown into a convent, and the property was confiscated. -The widow and son escaped, and were provided for by Voltaire. - -He spared no time, trouble, or money to arrive at the truth, and that -once reached, he was as assiduous in his search for justice. He went to -work with an energy and thoroughness all his own. He interested the -Pompadour herself in the case. By his own efforts he forced justice to -be heard. "The worst of the worthy sort of people," he said, "is that -they are such cowards. A man groans over his wrong, shuts his lips, -takes his supper, and forgets." Voltaire was not of that fibre. Wrong -went as a knife to his heart. He suffered with the victim, and might -have justly used the words of Shelley, who compared himself unto "a -nerve, o'er which do creep the else unfelt oppressions of the world." -Voltaire had to fire others with his own fervor. He issued pamphlet -after pamphlet in which the shameful story was told with pathetic -simplicity. He employed the best lawyers he could find to vindicate the -memory of the murdered man. For three years he left no stone unturned, -until all that was possible was done to right the foul wrong of those in -authority. During this time no smile escaped him of which he did not -reproach himself as a crime. Carlyle speaks of this as "Voltaire's -noblest outburst, into mere transcendant blaze of pity, virtuous wrath, -and determination to bring rescue and help against the whole world." - -He had his pamphlets on the Calas case, seven in number, translated and -published in England and Germany, where they produced a profound effect. -A subscription for the Calas family was headed by the young Queen of -George III. When at length judgment was given, reversing the sentence, -he wrote to Damilaville: "My dear brother, there is, then, justice upon -the earth! There is, then, such a thing as humanity! Men are not all -wicked rascals, as they say! It is the day of your triumph, my dear -brother; you have served the family better than anyone." - -It was while the Calas case was pending that Voltaire composed his noble -_Treatise on Toleration_, a work which, besides its great effect in -Europe, caused Catherine II. to promise, if not to grant, universal -religious toleration throughout the vast empire she governed. - -This Calas case was scarce ended when another, almost as bad an -exhibition of intolerance, occurred. Sirven, a respectable Protestant -land surveyor, had a Catholic housekeeper, who, with the assent of the -Bishop of Castres, spirited away his daughter for the good of her soul, -and placed her in a convent, with a view to her conversion. She returned -to her parents in a state of insanity, her body covered with the marks -of the whip. She never recovered from the cruelties she had endured at -the convent. One day, when her father was absent on his professional -duties, she threw herself into a well, at the bottom of which she was -found drowned. It was obvious to the authorities that the parents had -murdered their child because she wished to become a Roman Catholic. They -most wisely did not appear, and were sentenced to be hanged when they -could be caught. In their flight the married daughter gave premature -birth to a child, and Madame Sirven died in despair. - -It took Voltaire eight years to get this abominable sentence reversed, -and to turn wrong into right. He was now between seventy and eighty -years of age, yet he threw himself into the cause of the Sirvens with -the zeal and energy which has vindicated Calas; appealing to Paris and -Europe, issuing pamphlets, feeing lawyers, and raising a handsome -subscription for the family. - -Another case was that of the Chevalier de la Barre. In 1766 a crucifix -was injured--perhaps wantonly, perhaps by accident. The Bishop of Amiens -called for vengeance. Two young officers were accused; one escaped, and -obtained by Voltaire's request a commission in the Prussian service. The -other, La Barre, was tortured to confess, and then condemned to have his -tongue cut out, his hand cut off, and to be burned alive. Voltaire, -seventy years old, devoted himself with untiring energy to save him. -Failing in that, he wrote one of his little pamphlets, a simple, graphic -_Narrative of the Death of Chevalier de la Barre_, which stirred every -humane heart in France. For twelve years this infidel vindicated the -memory of the murdered man and exposed his oppressors. One of the -authorities concerned in this judicial atrocity threatened Voltaire with -vengeance for holding them up to the execration of Europe. Voltaire -replied by a Chinese anecdote. "I forbid you," said a tyrannical emperor -to the historiographer, "to speak a word more of me." The mandarin began -to write. "What are you doing now?" asked the emperor. "I am writing -down the order that your majesty has just given me." Voltaire had sought -to save Admiral Byng. He contended in a similar case at home. Count -Lally had failed to save India from the English, had been taken -prisoner, but allowed to go to Paris to clear his name from charges made -against him. The French people, infuriate at the loss of their -possession, demanded a victim, and Lally, after a process tainted with -every kind of illegality, was condemned to death on the vague charge of -abuse of authority. The murdered man's son, known in the Revolution as -Lally Tollendal, was joined by Voltaire in the honorable work of -procuring revision of the proceedings, and one of the last crowning -triumphs of Voltaire's days was the news brought to him on his dying bed -that his long effort had availed. - -"Ecrasez L'infame." - -These are samples of what was occuring when Voltaire was exhorting his -friends to _crush the infamous_--a phrase which gave rise to much -misunderstanding, and which priests have even alleged was applied to -Jesus, their idol. A sufficient disproof, if any were needed, is that -Voltaire treats "l'infame" as feminine. _Si vous pouvez ecraser -l'infame, ecrasez-la, et aimez-moi." That oft-repeated phrase was -directed at no person. Nor was it, as some Protestants have alleged, -directed only at Roman Catholicism. As Voltaire saw and said, "fanatic -Papists and fanatic Calvanism are tarred with one brush." "L'infame" was -Christian superstition claiming supernatural authority and enforcing its -claim, as it has ever sought to do, by pains and penalties. He meant by -it the whole spirit of exclusiveness, intolerance, and bigotry, -persecuting and privileged orthodoxy, which he saw-as the outcome of the -divine faith. Practically, as D. F. Strauss justly remarked, "when -Voltaire writes to D'Alembert that he wishes to see the 'Infame' reduced -in France to the same condition in which she finds herself in England, -and when Frederick writes to Voltaire that philosophers flourished -amongst the Greeks and Romans, because their religion had no -dogmas--'*mais les dogmes de notre infame gatent tout_'--it is clear we -must understand by the 'Infame,' whose destruction was the watchword of -the Voltairian circle, the Christian Church, without distinction of -communions, Catholic or Protestant." - -The Catholic Joseph de Maistre shrieks: "With a fury without example, -this insolent blasphemer declared himself the personal enemy of the -Savior of men, dared from the depths of his nothingness to give him a -name of ridicule, and that adorable law which the Man-God brought to -earth he called 'l'infame.'" This is a judgment worthy of a bigot, who -dares not look into the reason why his creed is detested. Let us try and -understand this insolent blasphemer to-day. - -Voltaire looked deep into the heart of the atrocities that wrung his -every nerve with anguish. They were not new: only the humanity and -courage that assailed them were new. They were the natural outcome of -what had been Christian teaching. It was not simply that, as a matter of -fact, priests and theologians were the opponents of every kind of -rational progress, but their intolerance was the logical result of their -creed. These atrocities could not have been perpetrated had not priests -and magistrates had behind them a credulous and fanatical populace, -whose minds were suborned from childhood to believing that they had -themselves the one and divine faith, and that all heretics were enemies -of God. He saw that to destroy the intolerance he must sap the -superstition from which it sprang. He saw that the core of the Christian -superstition lay in Bibliolatry, and that while Christians believed they -had an exclusive and infallibly divine revelation, they would deem all -opposition to their own beliefs a sin, meriting punishment. Mr. Morley -says, with truth: "If we find ourselves walking amid a generation of -cruel, unjust, and darkened spirits, we may be assured that it is their -beliefs on what they deem highest that have made them so. There is no -counting with certainty on the justice of men who are capable of -fashioning and worshipping an unjust divinity; nor on their humanity, so -long as they incorporate inhuman motives in their most sacred dogma; nor -on their reasonableness, while they rigorously decline to accept reason -as a test of truth." - -Voltaire warred on Christian superstition because he keenly felt its -evils. He saw that intolerance naturally flowed from the exclusive and -dogmatic claims which alone differentiated it from other faiths. Its -inducements to right-doing he found to be essentially ignoble, appealing -either to brutal fear of punishment or base expectation of reward, and -in each case alike mercenary. He saw that terrorism engendered -brutality, that a savage will think nothing of slaughtering hundreds to -appease his angry God. He saw that it had been a fine religion for -priests and monks--those caterpillars of the commonwealth, living on the -fat of the land while pretending to hold the keys of heaven, a race of -parasites on the people, who toil not neither do they spin, and whose -direct interest lay in fostering their dupes ignorance and credulity. -The Christian tree was judged, as its founder said it should be, by its -fruits. Men do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. He -saw Christianity as Tacitus described it--"a maleficent superstition." -It was a upas tree, to be cut down; and hence he reiterated his terrible -_Delenda est Carthago,_ "Ecrasez l'Infame"--"Destroy the monster." - -He wrote to D'Alembert from Ferney: "For forty years I have endured the -outrages of bigots and scoundrels. I have found there is nothing to gain -by moderation, and that it is a deception. I must wage war openly and -die nobly, 'on a crowd of bigots slaughtered at my feet.'" His war was -relentless and unremitting. He assailed "l'Infame" with every weapon -which learning, wit, industry, and indignation could supply. - -Frederick wrote to him from the midst of his own wars: "Your zeal burns -against the Jesuits and superstitions. You do well to combat error, but -do you credit that the world will change? The human mind is weak. -Three-fourths of mankind are formed to be the slaves of the absurdest -fanaticism. The fear of the devil and hell is fascinating to them, and -they detest the sage who wishes to enlighten them. I look in vain among -them for the image of God, of which the theologians assure us they carry -the imprint." Madame du Deffand wrote in a similar strain. She assured -him that every person of sense thought as he did; why then continue? No -remonstrance moved him. He had enlisted for the war, and might have said -with Luther: _Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders_. - -Much nonsense has been written about Voltaire's employment of ridicule -against religious beliefs. I am reminded of Bishop South's remark to a -dull brother bishop, who reproved him for sprinkling his sermon with -witticisms. "Now, my lord, do you really mean to say that, if God had -given you any wit, you would not have used it?" Voltaire ridiculed what -he esteemed ridiculous. But there is nothing more galling to -superstitionists than to find that others find food for mirth in their -absurdities. - -"You mock at sacred things," said the Jesuits to Pascal when he exposed -their casuistry. Doubtless the priests of Baal said the same when Elijah -asked them whether their God was asleep, or peradventure on a journey. -The artifice of inculcating a solemn and reverential manner of treating -absurdities is the perennial recipe for sanctifying and perpetuating -superstition. "Priests of all persuasions," says Oliver Goldsmith, "are -enemies to ridicule, because they know it to be a formidable antagonist -to fanaticism, and they preach up gravity to conceal their own -shallowness of imposture." Approach the mysteries of the faith with -reverence and you concede half the battle. Christian missionaries do not -thus treat the fetishism and sorcery of heathen lands. To overcome it -they must expose its absurdities. Ridicule has been a weapon in the -hands of all the great liberators, Luther, Erasmus, Rabelais, Bruno, -Swift, but none used it more effectively than Voltaire. Buckle well -says; "He used ridicule, not as the test of truth, but as the scourge of -folly." And he adds: "His irony, his wit, his pungent and telling -sarcasms produce more effect than the gravest arguments could have done; -and there can be no doubt he was fully justified in using those great -resources with which nature had endowed him, since by their aid he -advanced the interests of truth, and relieved men from some of their -most inveterate prejudices." Victor Hugo puts the case in poetic fashion -when he declares that Voltaire was irony incarnate for the salvation of -mankind. "Ridicule is not argument"! Well, it is a pointed form of -polemic, the _argumentum ad absurdum_. "Mustapha," said Voltaire, "does -not believe, but he believes that he believes." To shame him out of -hypocrisy, there is nothing better than laughter; and if a true -believer, laughter will best free him from terror of his bogey devil and -no less bogey god. Ridicule can hurt no reality. You cannot make fun of -the multiplication table. The fun begins when the theologians assert -that three times one are one. Shaftesbury, who maintained that ridicule -was a test of truth, remarked with justice, "'tis the persecuting spirit -that has raised the bantering one." Ridicule is the natural retort to -those who seek not to convert but to convict and punish. Ridicule comes -like a stream of sunlight to dissipate the fogs of preconceived -prejudice. A laugh, if no argument, is a splendid preparative. Often, in -Voltaire, ridicule takes an argumentative form. Thus, alluding to a -Monsieur Esprit's book on the Falsity of Human Virtues, he says: "That -great genius, Mons. Esprit, tells us that neither Cato, Aristotle, -Marcus Aurelius, nor Epictetus were good men, and a good reason why, -good men are only found among Christians. Again, among the Christians, -Catholics alone are virtuous, and of the Catholics, the Jesuits, enemies -of the Oratorians, must be excepted. Therefore, there is scarce any -virtue on earth, except among the enemies of the Jesuits." - -All his characteristic scorn and ridicule come out when dealing with the -fetish book of his adversaries. The _Philosophical Dictionary_ is full -of wit upon biblical subjects. I content myself with an excerpt from the -less known _Sermon of Fifty_: "If Moses changed the waters into blood, -the sages of Pharoah did the same. He made frogs come upon the land; -this also they were able to do. But when lice were concerned, they were -vanquished; in the matter of lice, the Jews knew more and could do more -than the other nations." - -"Finally, Adonai caused every first-born in Egypt to die, in order that -his people might be at their ease. For his people the sea is cloven in -twain; and we must confess it is the least that could be done on this -occasion. All the other marvels are of the same stamp. The Jews wander -in the desert. Some husbands complain of their wives. Immediately water -is found, which makes every woman who has been faithless to her husband -swell and burst. In the desert the Jews have neither bread nor dough, -but quails and manna are rained upon them. Their clothes are preserved -unworn for forty years; as the children grow, their clothes grow with -them. Samson, because he had not undergone the operation of shaving, -defeats a thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass. He ties -together three hundred foxes, which, as a matter of course, come quite -readily to his hand. - -"There is scarcely a page in which tales of this sort are not found. The -ghost of Samuel appears, summoned by the voice of a witch. The shadow of -a dial--as if miserable creatures like the Jews had dials--goes back ten -degrees at the prayer of Hezekiah, who, with great judgment, asks for -this sign. God gives him the choice of making the hour advance or -recede, and the learned Hezekiah thinks that it is not difficult to make -the shadow advance, but very difficult to make it recede. Elijah mounts -to heaven in a chariot of fire; children sing in a hot and raging -furnace. I should never stop if I entered into the detail of all the -monstrous extravagances with which this book swarms. Never was common -sense outraged so vehemently and indecently." Noticing the comparison in -the Song of Solomon, "Her nose is like the tower of Damascus," etc., he -says: "This, I own, is not in the style of the Eclogues of the author of -the AEneid; but all have not a like style, and a Jew is not obliged to -write like Virgil." - -This, it may be objected, is caricature and not criticism. But all that -Voltaire sought was that his blows should tell. He did not expect to be -taken _au pied du lettre_. Some of his biblical criticism is faulty, but -it is hard for the reader to recover from the tone of banter and -contempt with which he treats the sacred book. When the idol is -shattered, it is not much use saying its mouth was not quite so big and -ugly as it was represented to be. Priests have never yet been troubled -by dull criticism. They left Tindal and Chubb alone; but when Woolston, -Annet and Paine added liveliness to their infidelity, they loudly called -for the police. - -Leslie Stephen well says: "Men have venerated this or that grotesque -monstrosity because they have always approached it with half-shut eyes -and grovelling on their faces in the dust: a single hearty laugh will -encourage them to stand erect and to learn the latest of lessons--that -of seeing what lies before them. And if your holy religion does really -depend upon preserving the credit of Jonah's whale, upon justifying all -the atrocities of the Jews, and believing that a census was punished by -a plague, ridicule is not only an effective but an appropriate mode of -argument." - -Voltaire is often sneered at as a mere destructive. The charge is not -true, and, even if it were, he would none the less deserve the -admiration of posterity for his destructive work. It is as necessary for -the gardener to clear away the rubbish and keep down the weeds as to sow -and water. Mr. Morley justly observes: "He had imagination enough and -intelligence enough to perceive that they are the most pestilent of all -the enemies of mankind, the sombre hierarchs of misology, who take away -the keys of knowledge, thrusting truth down to the second place, and -discrowning sovereign reason to be the serving drudge of superstition or -social usuage." - -Voltaire was the arch iconoclast of his age, a mere destructive, if you -will. Buckie truly remarks: "All great reforms have consisted, not in -making something new, but in unmaking something old." W. J. Fox -eloquently said: "The destruction of tyranny is political freedom. The -destruction of bigotry is spiritual and mental emancipation. Positive -and negative are mere forms. Creation and destruction, as we call them, -are just one and the same work, the work which man has to do--the -extraction of good from evil." - -Much has been made of the pseudonymous character of his attacks on -Christianity, and of the subterfuges and fibs with which he sought to -evade responsibility. One might as well complain of ironclads wearing -armor in warfare. - -It was the necessity of his position. He wanted to do his work, not to -become a martyr, leaving it to unknown hands. It should be remembered -that Voltaire had sometimes to bribe publishers to bring out his -writings; and, in such circumstances, the pseudonymity is surely open to -no suspicion of baseness. His poem on _Natural Religion_ was condemned -to the flames by the decree of the Parliament of Paris, 23rd January, -1759. His _Important Examination of the Scriptures_, which he falsely -attributed to Lord Bolingbroke, was condemned with five other of his -pieces by a decree of the Court of Rome, 29th November, 1771. Could the -author have been caught, he would have had a good chance, if not of -sharing the fate of his book, at least of permanent lodgment in the -Bastille, of which he had already sufficient taste. He knew that -although Bolingbroke had no hand in its composition he largely shared -its ideas, and he obtained at once publicity and security by attributing -it to the dead friend who, Morley says, "was the direct progenitor of -Voltaire's opinions in religion." If he stuck at no subterfuge to -achieve his work, his lies injured no one. One of the funniest was the -signing one of his heterodox publications as the Archbishop of -Canterbury, a lie which may remind us of the drunken Sheridan announcing -himself as William Wilberforce. Voltaire had been Bastilled twice, and -verily believed that another taste would end his days. "I am," he said, -"a friend of truth, but no friend at all to martyrdom." Shelter behind -any ambush was necessary in such guerilla warfare as his. Over fifty of -his works were condemned, and placed upon the Index. Voltaire used no -fewer than one hundred and thirty different pen-names, which have -enabled bibliographers to display their erudition.(1) But for this -underground method, he might have been laid by the heels instead of -living to old age, with the satisfaction of seeing the world becoming a -little more humane and tolerant through his efforts. In such warfare the -only test is success, and the fact remains that Voltaire's blows told. -He cleared the course for modern science, and it is not for those who -benefit by his labors to sneer because he did not become a martyr in the -struggle. - - 1. Special mention should be made of the _Bibliographie - Voltairienne_ of M. L. Querard, and _Voltaire: Bibliographie de - ses OEuvres_, in four volumes, by M. G. Bengesco, 1882- 1890. - -Condorcet says: "His zeal against a religion which he regarded as the -cause of the fanaticism which has desolated Europe since its birth, of -the superstition which had burst about it, and as the source of the -mischief which the enemies of human nature still continued to do, seemed -to double his activity and his forces. 'I am tired,' he said one day, -'of hearing it repeated that twelve men were enough to establish -Christianity. I want to show them that one will be enough to destroy -it.'" What one man could do he did. But it took not twelve legendary -apostles, but the labor of countless thousands of men, through many -ages, to build up the great complex of Christianity, and it will need -the labors of as many to destroy it. Voltaire himself came to see this, -and wrote, in the year before his death, "I now perceive that we must -still wait three or four hundred years. One day it cannot but be that -good men will win their cause; but before that glorious day arrives, how -many disgusts have we to undergo, how many dark persecutions, without -reckoning the La Barres of whom they will make an _auto de fe_ from time -to time." - -John Morley remarks: "The meaner partisans of an orthodoxy, which can -only make wholly sure of itself by injustice to adversaries, has always -loved to paint the Voltairean school in the characters of demons, -enjoying their work of destruction with a sportive and impish delight. -They may have rejoiced in their strength so long as they cherished the -illusion that those who first kindled the torch should also complete the -long course and bear the lamp to the goal. When the gravity of the -enterprise showed itself before them, they remained alert with all -courage, but they ceased to fancy that courage necessarily makes men -happy. The mantle of philosophy was rent in a hundred places, and bitter -winds entered at a hundred holes; but they only drew it the more closely -around them." - -It may remain an inspiration to others, as it assuredly is a proof of -the temperance and moderation of his own life, that much of Voltaire's -best work was done after he had reached his sixtieth year. _Candide_, -his masterpiece, was written at the age of sixty-four. Four years later -he produced his _Sermon of the Fifty_, and he was sixty-nine when he -published his epoch-making _Treatise upon Toleration_, and _Saul_, the -wittiest of his burlesque dramas. At the age of seventy he issued his -most important work, the _Philosophical Dictionary_, and his burlesque -upon existing superstitions, which he entitled _Pot-Pourri_. This was, -indeed, the period of his greatest literary activity against "l'Infame." -His _Questions on the Miracles_, his _Examination of Lord Bolingbroke_, -the _Questions of Zapata_, the _Dinner of Count de Boulainvilliers_ (the -charming _resume_ of Voltaire's religious opinions, which had the honor -to be burnt by the hand of the hangman), the _Canonisation of St. -Cucufin_, the romance of the _Princess of Babylon_, the _A. B. and C._, -the collection of _Ancient Gospels_, and his _God and Men_, all being -issued while he was between seventy and seventy-five. It was at this -time he edited the _Recueil Necessaire avec l'Evangile de la Raison_, a -collection of anti-Christian tracts dated Leipsic and London, but -printed at Amsterdam. He was eighty when he put forth his _White Bull_ -(one of the funniest of his pieces, which was translated by Jeremy -Bentham), and his ridiculous skit on Bababec and the Fakirs; eighty-two -when he wrote _The Bible Explained_ and _A Christian against Six Jews_; -and eighty-three when he published his _History of the Establishment of -Christianity_. - -It was thus in the last twenty years of his long life that Voltaire did -his best work for the destruction of prejudice and the spread of -enlightenment. At the same time he maintained a large correspondence, -both with the principal sovereigns of Europe, whom he urged in the -direction of tolerance, and with the leading writers, whom he wished to -combine in a great and systematic attempt to sap the creed he believed -to be at the root of superstition and intolerance. - -It is in his lengthy and varied correspondence with intimates, extending -over sixty years, that Voltaire most truly reveals himself. He is -therein his own minute biographer, revealing not only his actions, but -their actuation. We see him therein not merely the prince of -_persifleurs_, but the serious sensitive thinker, keenly alive to -friendship, love, and work for the higher interests of humanity. His -letters are among the most varied, interesting, and delightful of any -left by a great man of letters. Like all his other productions, they -display the fertility of his genius. Over ten thousand separate letters -are catalogued by Bengesco. Their very extent prevents their being -widely read, but they reveal the perennial brightness of his mind, his -delight in work, his love of literature and liberty, his constant gaiety -and goodness of heart, with here and there only a flash of indignation -and contempt. They are imbued with the spirit of friendship, abound in -anecdotes and pleasantries, mingled with a passionate earnestness for -the interest of mankind. Constantly we find him endeavoring to elevate -the literary class, to raise the drama, continually seeking to encourage -talent, to relieve suffering, and to defend the oppressed. - - - - -LAST DAYS - - -With the authorities at Geneva Voltaire had got into dispute, owing to -his attempt to establish a private theatre in the territory still -dominated by the ghost of Calvin. Moreover, he was continually reminding -them of Servetus. When D'Alembert's article on Geneva appeared the -citizens were enraged, and Voltaire thought proper to also purchase an -estate near Lausanne, in the Vaud Canton, which was somewhat less -austere in theatrical matters. Here Gibbon was also residing at the -time. - -Stupid stories have been told of Gibbon's attempts to see Voltaire, and -of their mutual laughter at each other's ugliness. Voltaire is said to -have refused himself to the young Englishman, which is very unlikely, -and that he replied: "You are like the Christian God: he permits one to -eat and drink, but will never show himself." It is said that he got -Voltaire's mare let loose on purpose to see the old man chase after him. -Voltaire sent a servant to charge him twelve sous for seeing the great -beast, whereupon he gave twenty-four, with the remark, "that will pay -for a second visit." Gibbon himself, speaking of the winter of 1757-58, -which he spent in the neighborhood of Lausanne, says: "My desire of -beholding Voltaire, whom I then rated above his real magnitude, was -easily gratified. He received me with civility as an English youth, but -I cannot boast of any peculiar notice or distinction. The highest -gratification which I derived from Voltaire's residence at Lausanne was -the uncommon circumstance of hearing a great poet declaim his own -productions on the stage. He had formed a company of gentlemen and -ladies, some of whom were not destitute of talents. My ardor, which soon -became conspicuous, seldom failed of procuring me a ticket.... The wit -and philosophy of Voltaire, his table and theatre, refined in a visible -degree the manners of Lausanne; and, however addicted to study, I -enjoyed my share of the amusements of society." - -This taste for directing theatrical representations was shared, perhaps -we might say followed, by his great German admirer Goethe. It was -Voltaire's relaxation. One of his most particular friends was the great -actor Le Kain. The drama was with him an instrument of education. He -believed it to be a means both of softening and refining manners, and -also of dispersing intolerance and superstition. - -Voltaire soon afterwards purchased a third estate at Ferney, just a -little over the French border, and here, eventually, he lived _en grande -seigneur_, and was known as the "patriarch of Ferney." A philosopher, he -said, with hounds at his heels, like a fox should never trust to one -hole. Accordingly, he had within easy distance the choice of three -distinct governments wherein to find a place of refuge, for, as Carlyle -remarks, he "had to keep his eyes open and always have covert within -reach, under pain of being torn to pieces, while he went about in the -flesh, or rather in the bones, poor lean being." He now had wealth, -independence, and an assurance of safety, and had come to that time of -life when most men who are able think they may fairly retire from their -labors. But now was the time when he, casting aside all other pleasures -and ambitions, threw himself with unflagging energy and unsurpassed -industry into the great task of his life. It was from Ferney he issued -all the remarkable works of his later years. - -At Ferney, the old church obstructing his view of the Alps, he built a -new one, and got into trouble for doing so. He had inscribed on it, "Deo -erexit Voltaire, 1761," a phrase which betrayed rather patronage than -devotion. - -"It is," he remarked, "the only church dedicated to God alone; all the -others are dedicated to saints. For my part, I would rather worship the -master than the valets." On another occasion, he said: "Yes, I adore -God; but not monsieur his son, and madame his mother." It was observed -of the inscription that he had only a single word between himself and -God. From the wall of his church he also built a tomb for himself. "The -wicked will say that I am neither inside nor outside," he remarked. Of -the church he remarked: "The wicked will say, no doubt, that I am -building this church in order to throw down the one which conceals a -beautiful prospect, and to have a grand avenue; but I let the impious -talk, and go on working out my salvation." If the wicked made the -remarks predicted, they doubtless spoke the truth. It was even reported -that Voltaire personally superintended the removal of the old ruinous -one, saying, "Take away that gibbet" when pointing to the crucifix. The -_cure_ of Moens, the parish adjoining Ferney, cited Voltaire before the -ecclesiastical official of Gex as guilty of impiety and sacrilege, and -Wagniere, Voltaire's secretary, says: "Those gentlemen indulged the -confident hope that M. de Voltaire would be burned, or at least hanged, -for the greater glory of God and the edification of the faithful. This -they said publicly." Voltaire was enabled to strike terror to his -persecutor by producing a royal ordinance of 1627 forbidding a _cure_ to -serve either as prosecutor or judge in such cases. The church remains, -but the celebrated inscription was effaced during the Restoration of the -Monarchy. - -Ferney became an asylum for the oppressed both from France and -Switzerland. Many of these Voltaire located in and about his chateau, -but, as their number increased, he built nice stone houses, and, in a -little time, the miserable hamlet which before his arrival had been a -wilderness, became a prosperous colony of twelve hundred individuals and -a veritable free State. There were both Protestants and Catholics among -them, but such was the unanimity in which they lived under his -protection, that we are told no one could conceive that different -religions existed among them. Among this colony he established the -manufacture of weaving and of watches, by means of which his people -presently became wealthy; the Empress Catherine II., even when engaged -in her Turkish campaigns, paying her _bon ami_ Voltaire the compliment -of assisting the Ferney colony by an order for watches to the value of -some thousand roubles. He pushed the work of his colonists into repute -throughout the world, and was justified in saying to the Duke of -Richelieu, "Give me a fair chance, and I am the man to build a city." - -Though everywhere maligned as an infidel and a scoffer, his life was one -long act of benevolence. The watches of Ferney became known as those of -Geneva. "Fifteen years ago," said a visitor, "there were barely at -Ferney three or four cottages and forty inhabitants; now it is -astonishing to see a numerous and civilised colony, a theatre, and more -than a hundred pretty houses." "His charities," says General Hamley, -"were munificent. When the Order of Jesuits was suppressed he took one -of the body, Father Adam, into his house, and made him his almoner, a -post which was far from being a sinecure." Hearing that Mademoiselle -Corneille, the grandniece of the poet, was in poverty, Voltaire, in the -most delicate manner, invited her to his house, treated her as a -relation, and gave her an education suitable to her descent. "It is," he -said, "the duty of an old soldier to be useful to the daughter of his -general." That she might not feel under personal obligation, he devoted -to her dowry the profits of his _Commentaries on Corneille_. - -"A description is given of him in his last days at Ferney, seated under -a vine, on the occasion of a _fete_, and receiving the congratulations -and complimentary gifts of his tenantry and neighbors, when a young -lady, whom he had adopted, brought him in a basket a pair of white doves -with pink beaks, as her offering. He afterwards entertained about 200 -guests at a splendid repast, followed by illuminations, songs, and -dances, and was himself so carried away in an access of gaiety as to -throw his hat into the air. But his merriment ended in a tempest of -wrath; for learning, in the course of the evening, that the two doves -which had figured so prettily in the _fete_ had been killed for the -table, his indignation at the stolid cruelty which could shed the blood -of the creatures they had all just admired and caressed, knew no -bounds." - -Diderot, who shares with Voltaire the glory of being the intellectual -landmark of last century, and who equalled him as an artist and excelled -him as a philosopher, only met Voltaire a little before his death. The -fame of Voltaire's wealth had kept him from Ferney. Speaking of Voltaire -in old age, Diderot says: "He is like one of those old haunted castles, -which are falling into ruins in every part; but you easily perceive that -it is inhabited by some ancient magician." Diderot was the better -critic, and controverted the patriarch as to the merits of Shakespeare, -whom he compared to the statue of Saint Christopher at Notre -Dame--unshapely and rude; but: such a colossus that ordinary petty men -could pass between his legs without touching him. - -Late in life, Voltaire adopted Reine Philiberte de Vericourt, a young -girl of noble but poor family, whom he had rescued from a convent life, -installed in his own house, and married to the Marquis de Villette. Her -pet name was _Belle et Bonne_, and no one had more to do with the -happiness of the last years of Voltaire than she. She watched by the -dying Voltaire's bedside, and Lady Morgan thus records her report: "To -his last moment everything he said and did breathed the benevolence and -goodness of his character. All announced in him tranquility, peace, -resignation; except a little moment of ill-humor which he showed to the -_cure_ of St. Sulpice when he begged him to withdraw, and said, 'Let me -die in peace.'" - -Voltaire himself wrote to Mme. du Deffand: "They say sometimes of a man, -'He died like a dog'; but, truly, a dog is very happy to die without all -the ceremony with which they persecute the last moments of our lives. If -they had a little charity for us, they would let us die without saying -anything about it. The worst is that we are then surrounded by -hypocrites, who worry us to make us think as they do not in the least -think; or else by imbeciles, who desire us to be as stupid as they are. -All this is very disgusting. The only pleasure of life at Geneva is that -people can die there as they like; many worthy persons summon no priest -at all. People kill themselves if they please, without any one -objecting; or they await the last moment, and no one troubles them about -it." - -Under suffering, age, and impending death, Voltaire's bearing, as -Carlyle acknowledges, "one must say is rather beautiful." Voltaire had -all his life "enjoyed" bad health. He had always a feeble constitution, -and was a confirmed invalid for the greater part of his life, suffering -from bladder disorder, and a variety of other diseases that would have -soon finished an ordinary man. We may say he was sustained by his work, -which was ever gay, even when most pessimistic. "My eyes are as red as a -drunkard's," he writes, "and I have not the honor to be one." His wit -lasted in old age. A visitor to Ferney, hearing him praise Haller -enthusiastically, told him that Haller did not do him equal justice. -"Ah," said Voltaire, lightly, "perhaps we are both mistaken." To Bailly, -the astronomer, he wrote, at the age of eighty-one: "A hundred thanks -for the book of medicine which you sent me, together with your own -[_History of Ancient Astronomy_], when I was very unwell. I have not -opened the first. The second I have read and feel much better." He kept -himself at work with coffee. His interest was ever in his work. At the -very last, the new dictionary he had proposed to the Academy was on his -mind; it was not proceeding as rapidly as his indefatigable spirit -desired. "J'ai fait un pen de bien; c'est mon meilleur ouvrage"--"I have -done a little good; that is my best work," was one of his latest -utterances. - -His physicians gave their opinion that he might have lived even longer -than he did had he not been lured to Paris by his niece (unprepossessing -Madame Denis) to superintend the production of his last tragedy _Irene_. -Asked at the barrier if there was anything contraband in the carriage, -he replied, "Only myself." On entering Paris he received a shock in the -news that his friend Le Kain, the actor, had been buried the day before. -He was visited by Benjamin Franklin, who brought his grandson, whom they -desired to kneel for the patriarch's blessing. Pronouncing in English -the words, "God, Liberty, Toleration"--"this," said Voltaire, "is the -most suitable benediction for the grandson of Franklin." Poems, -addresses and deputations came thick upon him, and his hotel was -thronged with visitors of rank and eminence. The popular voice hailed -the aged patriarch, especially as the defender of Calas, the apostle of -universal toleration; and this title was more gratifying to him than any -other. - -In one house where Voltaire called on his last visit to Paris, the -mistress reproached him for the obstinacy with which, in extreme old age -(over eighty-three), he continued to assail the Church and its beliefs. -"Be moderate and generous," said she, "after the victory. What can you -fear now from such adversaries? The fanatics are prostrate (_a terre_). -They can no longer injure. Their reign is over." Voltaire replied: "You -are in error, madame; it is a fire that is covered but not extinguished. -Those fanatics, those Tartuffes, are mad dogs. They are muzzled, but -they have not lost their teeth. It is true they bite no more; but on the -first opportunity, if their teeth are not drawn, you will see if they -will not bite." All that one man could do was done by Voltaire. More -than any other, he helped to muzzle the mad dog of religious -intolerance, lassoing it dexterously with his finespun silken thread, -since replaced by a stronger cord. But the beast even yet is not dead; -its teeth are not all drawn. Give it a chance and it will still bite. -What we have to thank Voltaire for is, that he has left works which, as -he himself said, are "scissors and files to file the teeth and pare the -talons of the monsters." - -Voltaire was, as he said, stifled in roses. He sat up at night -perfecting _Irene_, and his unwearied activity induced him at his great -age to begin a Dictionary upon a novel plan which he prevailed upon the -French Academy to take up. At the performance of his tragedy he was -crowned with laurel in his box, amid the plaudits of the audience. To -keep himself up under the excitement, he exceeded even his usual excess -of coffee. These labors and dissipation brought on spitting of blood, -and sleeplessness, to obviate which he took opium. Condorcet says the -servant mistook one of the doses, which threw him into a state of -lethargy, from which he never recovered. He lingered for some time, but -at length expired on the 30th of May, 1778, in his eighty-fourth year. - -Of course lying tales of dying horrors were floated, and disbelieved in -by all who knew him. He wished to rest in his own churchyard, and let -the _abbe_ Gaultier and the _cure_ de St. Sulpice squabble as to who -should have, the honor of his conversion. His secretary, being alone -with him, begged him to state what his view continued to be when he -believed himself dying; and received this written declaration: "I die -adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, detesting -superstition"--"Je meurs eti adorant dieu, en aimant mes amis, en ne -baissant pas mes ennemis, de testant superstition." This dying -declaration may be seen at the _Bibliotheque Nationale_, Paris (Fr. -11,460), written, signed and dated by him in a still firm hand, -February, 1778. - -Into the stories told of Voltaire's dying moments and many similar -legends, my colleague, Mr. G. W. Foote, has fully entered in his -_Infidel Deathbeds_. He quotes the following extract from a letter by -Dr. Burard, who, as assistant physician, was constantly about Voltaire -in his last moments: - -"I feel happy in being able, while paying homage to truth, to destroy -the effect of the lying stories which have been told respecting the last -moments of Mons. de Voltaire. I was, by office, one of those who were -appointed to watch the whole progress of his illness, with MM. -Tron-chin, Lorry, and Try, his medical attendants. I never left him for -an instant during his last moments, and I can certify that we invariably -observed in him the same strength of character, though his disease was -necessarily attended with horrible pain. (Here follow the details of his -case.) We positively forbade him to speak, in order to prevent the -increase of a spitting of blood, with which he was attacked; still he -continued to communicate with us by means of little cards, on which he -wrote his questions; we replied to him verbally, and if he was not -satisfied, he always made his observations to us in writing. He -therefore retained his faculties up to the last moment, and the -fooleries which have been attributed to him are deserving of the -greatest contempt. It could not even be said that such or such person -had related any circnmstance of his death, as being witness to it; for -at the last, admission to his chamber was forbidden to any person. Those -who came to obtain intelligence respecting the patient, waited in the -saloon, and other apartments at hand. The proposition, therefore, which -has been put in the mouth of Marshal Richelieu is as unfounded as the -rest. - -"Paris, April 3rd, 1819. - -"(Signed) Burard." - -The actual facts are thus told by Mr. Parton: "Ten minutes before he -breathed his last he roused from his slumber, took the hand of his -valet, pressed it, and said to him: 'Adieu, my dear Morand; I am dying.' -These were his last words." - -D'Alembert, in a letter to Frederick, written after Voltaire's death, -thus recorded the impression made on him by the dying man. Having -described the stupefying effects of the opium which left his head clear -only for brief intervals, D'Alembert, who saw him during one of them, -proceeds: "He recognised me and even spoke to me some friendly words. -But the moment after he fell back into his state of stupor, for he was -almost always dying. He awoke only to complain and to say 'he had come -to Paris to die.'" Throughout his illness, D'Alembert adds, "he -exhibited, to the extent which his condition permitted, much tranquility -of mind, although he seemed to regret life. I saw him again the day -before his death, and to some friendly words of mine he replied, -pressing my hand, 'You are my consolation.'" - -It is certain the heads of the French Church did not consider that -Voltaire had made a death-bed conversion, for they refused his body -burial in consecrated ground. They had anathematised him when alive and -proscribed him when dead. He had prepared a tomb for himself under the -sky, where he had grown old and done good, but he was cheated out of his -rights, and it was decided that he who built the church had no right to -have his bones bleach in the cemetery. Letters were sent to the Bishop -of Annecy, in whose diocese Ferney was, enjoining him to prohibit the -_cure_ thereof from giving Voltaire's remains Christian burial in his -own churchyard. Voltaire's nephew, the _abbe_ Mignot, held a ruined -abbey at Scillieres, in Champagne, a hundred miles or so from Paris; and -here the body was secretly hurried off and interred. On the very day of -interment the Bishop of the diocese wrote to the Prior forbidding the -burial. There was even some talk of having the body exhumed, and the -clergy clamored for the expulsion of the Prior. Grimm relates that "the -players were forbidden to act M. de Voltaire's pieces till further -orders, the editors of the public papers to speak of his death in any -terms, either favorable or unfavorable, and the preceptors of the -colleges to suffer any of their scholars to learn his verses." - -In 1791, by a decree of the National Assembly and amid the acclamation -of the people, his body was brought and placed in the Pantheon, where it -rested beside that of Rousseau. At the Restoration in 1814 some bigoted -Royalist stole away the bones, which were thrown into a hole with lime -poured on them. - -In person Voltaire was always slim, with the long head which, Carlyle -says, "is the best sign of intelligence." His thinness is commemorated -by the poor but well-known epigram attributed to Young, and identifying -him at once with "Satan, Death, and Sin." In old age he became a mere -skeleton, with eyes of great brilliancy peering beneath his wig. He was -sober and temperate save in coffee, which he drank as inveterately as -Johnson did tea. Conversation and literature were, as with Johnson, the -gods of his idolatry. - - - - -HIS CHARACTER AND SERVICES - - -Bolingbroke finely said of Marlborough: "He was so great a man that I -forget his errors." One can as justly say the same of Voltaire. I have -scant sympathy with those who, dealing with great men, seek every -opportunity of bringing them down to the common level. Voltaire was by -no means a faultless character. He was far indeed from being an -immaculate hero: he had the failings of his age and of his training. But -they form no essential part of his work. How much has been made of the -coarseness and immorality of Luther by men like Father Anderdon! All men -have the defects of their qualities. Condorcet, in his _Life of -Voltaire_, has placed on record this just criticism: "The happy -qualities of Voltaire were often obscured and distorted by a natural -mobility, aggravated by the habit of writing tragedies. He passed in a -moment from anger to sympathetic emotion; from indignation to -pleasantry. His passions, naturally violent, sometimes transported him -too far; and his excessive mobility deprived him of the advantages -ordinarily attached to passionate tempers--firmness in conduct--courage -which no terrors can withhold from action, and which no dangers, -anticipated beforehand, can shake by their actual presence. Voltaire has -often been seen to expose himself rashly to the storm--seldom to meet it -with fortitude. These alternations of audacity and weakness have often -afflicted his friends, and prepared unworthy triumphs for his envenomed -enemies." - -He was too ready to lash the curs who barked at his heels, thereby -stimulating them to further noise. Scandalous ex-Jesuit Desfontaines, -L'Ane de Mirepoix, Thersites Freron and the rest, would be forgotten had -he not condescended to apply the whip. Voltaire was always something of -a spoilt child, over-sensitive to every reproach. His petulance impelled -him to absurd displays of weakness and frenzy, which he was the first to -regret. He was generous even to his enemies when they were in trouble. -The weaknesses of Voltaire were, like his smile, on the surface, but -there was a great human heart beating beneath. - -The restlessness of Voltaire has been contrasted with the repose of -Goethe, and Gallic fury with calm Teutonic strength. But which of the -two men did most for humanity? Voltaire might have been as calm as -Goethe had he been indifferent to everything but his own culture and -comfort. No! he loved the fight. When the battle of freedom raged, there -was he in the thick of it, considering not his reputation, but what he -could do to crush the infamous. An enemy said of him: "He is the first -man in the world at writing down what other people have thought." Mr. -Morley justly considers this high and sufficient praise. - -The life of a writer was defined by Pope as "a warfare upon earth." -Never was this truer than in the case of Voltaire, who himself said: -"_La vie a'un homme de lettres est un combat perpetuel et on meurt les -armes a la main._" He was ever in the midst of the fight, and usually -alone and surrounded by enemies. And his unfailing resources not merely -kept them at bay, but compelled their surrender of an immense territory. -His was a life of creation and contest. In the war against despotism and -Christianity he achieved a new kingship of public opinion, and proved -that the pen was indeed mightier than the sword. - -Heine said: "We should forgive our enemies--but not until they are -hung." Voltaire forgave his when he had gibbeted them in his writings. -People who find it difficult to understand his bitterness against -"L'Infame" should remember the revolting cruelty of which religious -bigotry was still capable in his day. The Revocation of the Edict of -Nantes, the prolonged horrors of the Thirty Years' War, and the Massacre -of St. Bartholomew vibrated still. Condorcet wrote: "The blood of many -millions of men, massacred in the name of God, still steams up to heaven -around us. The earth on which we tread is everywhere covered with the -bones of the victims of barbarous intolerance." His rhetoric expressed -the feeling of a generation who knew by experience the evils of -religious bigotry and fanaticism. - -It is as a champion of Freethought that Voltaire deserves chiefly to be -remembered. In that capacity I can only find words of praise. Complaints -of his flippancy, his _persiflage_, his ridicule, his scurrility, his -etc., came, and still come, from the enemy, and show that his blows told -and tell. If he did not crush the infamous he at least crippled it. No -doubt, under different circumstances, - -Voltaire would have fought differently. But he would never have thought -of treating atrocities without indignation, or absurdities without -ridicule. Gravity is a part of the game of imposture, and there is -nothing the hypocrites and humbugs resent so much as having their solemn -pretensions laughed at. . - -He knew the subtle power of ridicule. It was the most effective weapon, -not only for the time and the nation in which he wrote, but for our time -also. His blows were all dealt with grace and agility; his pills were -sugar-coated. Grimm well said of him: "He makes arrows of every kind of -wood, brilliant and rapid in their flight, but with a keen, unerring -point. Under his sparkling pen, erudition ceases to be ponderous and -becomes full of life. If he cannot sweep the grand chords of the lyre, -he can j strike on golden medals his favorite maxims, and is j -irreproachable in the lighter order of poetry." But, I contend, there -was a fundamental earnestness in his character; he was the apostle of -plain every-day common sense and good feeling. - -Voltaire is judged by the character which distinguishes him from other -writers, his light touch and superficial raillery. Because he is _par -excellence_ a _persifleur_, he is set down as merely a _persifleur_. -Never was there a greater mistake. It is forgotten that he did not write -witty tales and squibs only; that he made France acquainted with the -philosophy of Locke and the science of Newton; that he wrote the _Age of -Louis XIV._, the _History of the Parliament of Paris_, and the _Essay on -Manners_ (which revived the historic method), and that he wrote more -than twenty tragedies which transformed the French theatre. Voltaire was -no mere mocker: his _manner_ was that of a _persifleur_, but his matter -was as solid as that of any theologian. - -M. Louis de Brouckere, of the University of Brussels, justly claims for -Voltaire a double share in the formation of modern culture and the -development of modern science. He contributed to it directly by his -personal works, and indirectly by antagonising the forces retarding -knowledge and creating an intellectual environment eminently favorable -to the formation of synthetic knowledge, and a new public opinion common -to the intellectual _elite_ of Europe. - -Voltaire knew how to marshal against reigning prejudices and errors all -the resources of vast learning and an incomparable wit; but no one more -clearly than he saw that the doctrines he destroyed must be replaced by -others, that humanity cannot get along without a body of common beliefs; -and he contributed more than any one else to the elaboration of the new -intellectual code by uniting and harmonising the efforts of special -_savants_ and isolated thinkers, by giving them a clear consciousness -that what they aimed at was the same thing and common to them all. - -He never slackened his efforts to appease the quarrels which broke out -in the camp of the philosophers, to group all his _spiritual brothers_ -in one compact bundle, capable of joint action, to unite them in a laic -_church_ which could be utilised to oppose existing churches. The words -I here italicise were underlined by him; they are found on every page of -his correspondence, and he loses no opportunity to reiterate them and -explain their meaning precisely. - -If the publication of the _Encyclopoedia_ was the work of Diderot, the -union of the group of men who rendered that publication possible was, in -great measure, the work of Voltaire. If Condorcet wrote just before his -death his immortal _Sketch_, Voltaire took a preponderating part in the -creation of the intellectual atmosphere in which Condorcet lived and -could develop his genius. - -Voltaire was assuredly not so coarse as Luther, nor even as his -contemporary Warburton. He carried lighter guns than Luther, but was -more alert and equally persistent. His war against superstition and -intolerance was life-long. Luther smote powerful blows at the church -with a bludgeon; Voltaire made delicate passes with a rapier. Catholics -often declaim against the coarseness of the monk-trained Protestant -champion. They also protest against the trickery of the Jesuit-trained -Freethinker. It is sufficient to say Luther could not have done his work -had he not been coarse. Nor could Voltaire have done his had he not been -a tricksy spirit. Judged by his work, he was one of the best of men, -because he did most good to his fellows, and because in his heart was -the most burning love of truth, of justice and toleration. In the words -of Lecky, he did "more to destroy the greatest of human curses than any -other of the sons of men." His numerous volumes are the fruit and -exposition of a spirit of encyclopaedic curiosity. He assimilated all -the thought and learning of his time, and brought to bear on it a wit -and common sense that was all his own. - -Voltaire is never so passionately in earnest as when he speaks against -cruelty and oppression. Every sentence quivers with humanity. He -denounces war as no "moralist for hire" in a pulpit has ever done, as a -scourge of the poor, the weak, and the helpless, to whom he is ever -tender. Whenever he sees tyranny or injustice, he attacks it. He wrote -against torture when its employment was an established principle of law. -He denounced duelling when that form of murder was the chief feature of -the code of honor. He waged warfare upon war when, it was considered -man's highest glory. - -His attacks on the judicial iniquity of torture--so often callously -employed on those supposed instruments of Satan, heretics and -witches--were incessant, and it was owing to his influence that the -practice was abolished in France by Turgot, his friend, as it had been -in Prussia by Frederick, and in Russia by Catherine, his disciples. He -advocated the abolition of mutilation, and all forms of cruelty in -punishment. He satirised the folly of punishing murder and robbery by -the same capital penalty, and thus making assassination the interest of -the thief; the barbarity of confiscating the property of children for -the crime of the father; and the intricacies and consequent injustice of -legal methods. He sought to abolish the sale of offices, to equalise -taxation, and to restrict the power of priests to prescribe degrading -penances and excessive abstinences. He wrote with fervor against the -remnants of serfdom, and defended the rights of the serfs in the Jura -against their monastic oppressors. Mr. Lecky says: "His keen and -luminous intellect judged with admirable precision most of the popular -delusions of his time. He exposed with great force the common error -which confounds all wealth with the precious metals. He wrote against -sumptuary laws. He refuted Rousseau's doctrine of the evil of all -luxury." - -Voltaire's work went deeper than political reform. He dealt with ideas, -not institutions. In a little treatise called the _Voyage of Reason_, -which he wrote as late as 1774, he enumerates with exultation the -triumphs of reforms which he himself had witnessed. He had previously -written, in 1764: "Everything I see scatters the seeds of a revolution -which will indubitably arrive, and which I shall not have the happiness -to witness." Buckle notes that "the further he advanced in years, the -more pungent were his sarcasms against ministers, the more violent were -his invectives against despotism"; and it was said of him in the early -days of the Revolution, when it was sanguine but not yet sanguinary, "He -did not see what has been done, but he did all that we see." - -He teaches no mystery, but the open secret of Secularism--_il faut -cultiver notre jardin_ (we must cultivate our garden). "Life," he said, -"is thickly sown with thorns. I know no other remedy than to pass -rapidly over them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is -their power to harm us." Economy, he declared, is the source of -liberality, and this maxim he reduced to practice. He ridiculed all -pretences; those of the physician as well as of the metaphysician. "What -have you undertaken?" he said, smiling, to a young man, who answered -that he was studying medicine. "Why, to convey drugs of which you know -little into a body of which you know less!" "Regimen," said he, "is -better than physic. Everyone should be his own physician. Eat with -moderation what you know by experience agrees with your constitution. -Nothing is good for the body but what we can digest. What medicine can -procure digestion? Exercise. What recruit strength? Sleep. What -alleviate incurable evils? Patience." - -The tone of Voltaire is not fervid or heroic, like, for instance, that -of Carlyle; but he worked, as Carlyle did not, for a great cause. He -felt for suffering outside himself. Without mysticism or fanaticism, -aiming at no remote or impracticable ideal, he ever insisted on meeting -the problems of life with practical good sense, toleration, and -humanity. He sought always for clear ideas, tangible results, and as Mr. -Lecky says, "labored steadily within the limits of his ideals and of his -sympathies, to make the world wiser, happier, and better place than he -found it." - -Voltaire wrote: "My motto is, 'Straight to the fact,'" and this was a -characteristic which equally marked him and Frederick. He had a horror -of phrases. "Your fine phrases," said one to him. "My fine phrases! -Learn that I never made one in my life." His style is indeed marked by -restraint and simplicity of diction. He wrote to D'Alembert: "You will -never succeed in delivering men from error by means of metaphysics. You -must prove the truth by facts." As an instance of his apt mingling of -fact with reason and ridicule, take his treatment of the doctrine of the -Resurrection in the _Philosophical Dictionary_. "A Breton soldier goes -to Canada. He finds by chance he falls short of food. He is forced to -eat an Iroquois he has killed over-night. This Iroquois had nourished -himself on Jesuits during two or three months, a great part of his body -has become Jesuit. So there is the body of this soldier composed of -Iroquois, Jesuit, and whatever he had eaten before. How will each resume -precisely what belonged to him?" - -Magnify his failings as you may, you cannot obliterate his one -transcendent merit, his humanity ever responsive to every claim of -suffering or wrong. He stood for the rights of conscience, for the -dignity of human reason, for the gospel of Freethought. - -Voltaire may not be placed with the great inspiring teachers of mankind. -But it must be acknowledged that, as Mr. George Saintsbury, no mean -critic, says: "In literary craftsmanship, at once versatile and -accomplished, he has no superior and scarcely a rival." - -He declared that he loved the whole of the nine Muses, and that the -doors of the soul should be open to all sciences and all sentiments. He -employed every species of composition--poetry, prose, tragedy, comedy, -history, dialogue, epistle, essay or epigram--as it suited his purpose, -and he excelled in all. Argument or raillery came alike. He made reason -amusing, and none like him could ridicule the ridiculous. His charm as a -writer has been the occasion of the obloquy attached to his name by -bigots. They can never forgive that he forced people to smile at their -superstition. - -Much, of course, of Voltaire's multitudinous work was directed to -immediate ends, and but for his grace of style would be of little -present interest. But after all winnowings by the ever-swaying fan of -time much is left of enduring value. The name of Voltaire will ever be a -mighty one in literature: a glorious example of what a man may achieve -who is strong in his love of humanity. - - - - -TRIBUTES TO VOLTAIRE - - -As a contrast to the views of Dr. Johnson and De Maistre, which for -generations represented the current opinion of Protestants and -Catholics, I bring together a few independent testimonies. As time goes -on his admirers increase in volume, while his detractors now are mainly -those who have an interest in or secret sympathy with the abuses he -destroyed. And first, I will give the testimony of Goldsmith who had met -him. It was written while Voltaire was alive, but when a false report of -his death had been received in England. "Should you look for the -character of Voltaire among the journalists and illiterate writers of -the age, you will find him there characterised as a monster, with a head -turned to wisdom, and a heart inclining to vice--the powers of his mind -and the baseness of his principles forming a detestable contrast. But -seek for his character among writers like himself, and you will find him -very differently described. You perceive him, in their accounts, -possessed of good nature, humanity, greatness of soul, fortitude, and -almost every virtue: in this description those who might be supposed -best acquainted with his character are unanimous. The royal Prussian, -D'Argens, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Fontenelle conspire in drawing the -picture, in describing the friend of man, and the patron of every rising -genius." - -Lord Byron's lines on Voltaire and Gibbon (_Childe Harold_, iii., -105-107) are well known. He says: - - They were gigantic minds, and their steep aim - Was, Titan-like, on daring doubts to pile - Thoughts which should call down thunder, and the flame - Of Heaven again assail'd, if Heaven the while - On man and man's research could deign do more than smile. - - The one was fire and fickleness, a child - Most mutable in wishes, but in mind - A wit as various,--gay, grave, sage, or wild,-- - Historian, bard, philosopher, combined; - He multiplied himself among mankind, - The Proteus of their talents: - But his own - Breathed most in ridicule,--which, as the wind, - Blew where it listed, laying all things prone,-- - Now to o'erthrow a fool, and now to shake a throne. - - The other, deep and slow, exhausting thought, - And having wisdom with each studious year, - In meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, - And shaped his weapon with an edge severe, - Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer; - The lord of iron,--that master-spell, - Which stung his foes to wrath, which grew from fear, - And doom'd him to the zealot's ready Hell, - Which answers to all doubts so eloquently well. - -Warton, the learned critic and author of a _History of Poetry_ -(Dissertation I.) remarked: "Voltaire, a writer of much deeper research -than is imagined, and the first who has displayed the literature and -customs of the dark ages with any degree of penetration and -comprehension." Robertson, the historian, similarly observed that, had -Voltaire only given his authorities, "many of his readers who only -consider him as an entertaining and lively writer would have found that -he is a learned and well informed historian." - -Lord Holland wrote, in his account of the _Life and Writings of Lope de -Vega_: "Till Voltaire appeared there was no nation more ignorant of its -neighbors' literature than the French. He first exposed and then -corrected this neglect in his countrymen. There is no writer to whom the -authors of other nations, especially of England, are so indebted for the -extension of their fame in France, and, through France, in Europe. There -is no critic who has employed more time, wit, ingenuity, and diligence -in promoting the literary intercourse between country and country, and -in celebrating in one language the triumphs of another. His enemies -would fain persuade us that such exuberance of wit implies a want of -information; but they only succeed in showing that a want of wit by no -means implies an exuberance of information." - -Goethe said: "Voltaire will ever be regarded as the greatest name in -literature in modern times, and perhaps even in all ages, as the most -astonishing creation of nature, in which she united, in one frail human -organisation, all the varieties of talent, all the glories of genius, -all the potencies of thought. If you wish depth, genius, imagination, -taste, reason, sensibility, philosophy, elevation, originality, nature, -intellect, fancy, rectitude, facility, flexibility, precision, art, -abundance, variety, fertility, warmth, magic, charm, grace, force, an -eagle sweep of vision, vast understanding, instruction rich, tone -excellent, urbanity, suavity, delicacy, correctness, purity, cleanness, -eloquence, harmony, brilliancy, rapidity, gaiety, pathos, sublimity and -universality--perfection indeed--behold Voltaire." - -Lord Brougham, in his _Lives of Men of Letters and Science who -flourished in the time of George III_., devotes a considerable section -to Voltaire. After censuring "the manner in which he devoted himself to -crying down the sacred things of his country," he continues: "But, -though it would be exceedingly wrong to pass over this great and -prevailing fault without severe reprobation, it would be equally unjust, -nay, ungrateful, ever to forget the immense obligations under which -Voltaire has laid mankind by his writings, the pleasure derived from his -fancy and his wit, the amusement which his singular and original humor -bestows, even the copious instruction with which his historical works -are pregnant, and the vast improvement in the manner of writing history -which we owe to him. Yet, great as these services are--among the -greatest that can be rendered by a man of letters--they are really of -far inferior value to the benefits which have resulted from his long and -arduous struggle against oppression, especially against tyranny in the -worst form which it can assume, the persecution of opinion, the -infraction of the sacred right to exercise the reason upon all subjects, -unfettered by prejudice, uncontrolled by authority, whether of great -names or of temporal power." - -Macaulay, in his _Essay on Frederick the Great_, observes: "In truth, of -all the intellectual weapons which have ever been wielded by man, the -most terrible was the mockery of Voltaire. Bigots and tyrants, who had -never been moved by the wailing and cursing of millions, turned pale at -his name." - -Carlyle, in his depreciatory essay, acknowledged: "Perhaps there is no -writer, not a mere compiler, but writing from his own invention or -elaboration, who has left so many volumes behind him; and if to the -merely arithmetical we add a critical estimate, the singularity is still -greater; for these volumes are not written without an appearance of due -care and preparation; perhaps there is not one altogether feeble and -confused treatise, nay, one feeble and confused sentence to be found in -them." And at the end he admits: "He gave the death-stab to modern -Superstition! _That_ horrid incubus, which dwelt in darkness, shunning -the light, is passing away; with all its racks and poison chalices, and -foul sleeping-draughts, is passing away without return. It was a most -weighty service." - -One of the strangest of tributes to Voltaire is that from Ruskin, the -disciple of Carlyle. In his _Fors Clavigera_ (vol. viii., p. 76) he -says: "There are few stronger adversaries to St. George than Voltaire. -But my scholars are welcome to read as much of Voltaire as they like. -His voice is mighty among the ages." - -Dr. D. F. Strauss wrote: "Voltaire's historical significance has been -illustrated by the observation of Goethe that, as in families whose -existence has been of long duration, Nature sometimes at length produces -an individual who sums up in himself the collective qualities of all his -ancestors, so it happens also with nations, whose collective merits (and -demerits) sometimes appear epitomised in one individual person. Thus in -Louis XIV. stood forth the highest figure of a French monarch. Thus, in -Voltaire, the highest conceivable and congenial representative of French -authorship. We may extend the observation farther, if, instead of the -French nation only, we take into view the whole European generation on -which Voltaire's influence was exercised. From this point of view we may -call Voltaire emphatically the representative writer of the eighteenth -century, as Goethe called him, in the highest sense, the representative -writer of France." - -Victor Hugo, in the magnificent oration which he pronounced on the -centenary of Voltaire's death, said: "Voltaire waged the splendid kind -of warfare, the war of one alone against all--that is to say, the grand -warfare; the war of thought against matter; the war of reason against -prejudice; the war of the just against the unjust; the war of the -oppressed against the oppressor; the war of goodness; the war of -kindness. He had the tenderness of a woman and the wrath of a hero. He -was a great mind and an immense heart. He conquered the old code and the -old dogma. He conquered the feudal lord, the Gothic judge, the Roman -priest. He raised the populace to the dignity of people. He taught, -pacified, and civilised. He fought for Sirven and Montbailly, as for -Calas and La Barre. He accepted all the menaces, all the persecutions, -calumny, and exile. He was indefatigable and immovable. He conquered -violence by a smile, despotism by sarcasm, infallibility by irony, -obstinacy by perseverance, ignorance by truth." - -Buckle, in his _History of Civilisation_ (vol. ii., p. 304) says: "It -would be impossible to relate all the original remarks of Voltaire, -which, when he made them, were attacked as dangerous paradoxes, and are -now valued as sober truths. He was the first historian who recommended -universal freedom of trade; and although he expresses himself with great -caution, still, the mere announcement of the idea is a popular history -forms an epoch in the progress of the French mind. He is the originator -of that important distinction between the increase of population and the -increase of food, to which political economy has been greatly indebted, -a principle adopted several years later by Townsend, and then used by -Malthus as the basis of his celebrated work. He has, moreover, the merit -of being the first who dispelled the childish admiration with which the -Middle Ages had been hitherto regarded. In his works the Middle Ages are -for the first time represented as what they really were--a period of -ignorance, ferocity, and licentiousness; a period when injuries were -unredressed, crime unpunished, and superstition unrebuked." Again (page -308): "No one reasoned more closely than Voltaire when reasoning suited -his purpose. But he had to deal with men impervious to argument; men -whose inordinate reverence for antiquity had only left them two ideas, -namely, that everything old is right, and that everything new is wrong. -To argue against these opinions would be idle indeed; the only other -resource was to make them ridiculous, and weaken their influence by -holding up their authors to contempt. This was one of the tasks Voltaire -set himself to perform; and he did it well. He therefore used ridicule, -not as the test of truth, but as the scourge of folly. And with such -effect was the punishment administered that not only did the pedants and -theologians of his own time wince under the lash, but even their -successors feel their ears tingle when they read his biting words; and -they revenge themselves by reviling the memory of the great writer whose -works are as a thorn in their side, and whose very name they hold in -undisguised abhorrence." - -Mr. Lecky, in his _History of Rationalism in Europe_ (vol. ii., p. 66) -says: "Voltaire was at all times the unflinching opponent of -persecution. No matter how powerful was the persecutor, no matter how -insignificant was the victim, the same scathing eloquence was launched -against the crime, and the indignation of Europe was soon concentrated -upon the oppressor. The fearful storm of sarcasm and invective that -avenged the murder of Calas, the magnificent dream in the _Philosophical -Dictionary_ reviewing the history of persecution from the slaughtered -Canaanites to the latest victim who had perished at the stake, the -indelible stigma branded upon the persecutors of every age and of every -creed, all attested the intense and passionate earnestness with which -Voltaire addressed himself to his task. On other subjects a jest or a -caprice could often turn him aside. When attacking intolerance he -employed, indeed, every weapon; but he employed them all with the -concentrated energy of a profound conviction. His success was equal to -his zeal; the spirit of intolerance sank blasted beneath his genius. -Wherever his influence passed, the arm of the inquisitor was palsied, -the chain of the captive riven, the prison door flung open. Beneath his -withering irony, persecution appeared not only criminal but loathsome, -and since his time it has ever shrunk from observation and masked its -features under other names. He died, leaving a reputation that is indeed -far from spotless, but having done more to destroy the greatest of human -curses than any other of the sons of men." - -Mr. Lecky, in his _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_ (v., -312), observes: "No previous writer can compare with him in the wideness -and justness of his conceptions of history, and even now no historian -can read without profit his essays on the subject. No one before had so -strongly urged that history should not be treated as a collection of -pictures or anecdotes relating to courts or battles, but should be made -a record and explanation of the true development of nations, of the -causes of their growth and decay, of their characteristic virtues and -vices, of the changes that pass over their laws, customs, opinions, -social and economical conditions, and over the relative importance and -well-being of their different classes... (p. 315). Untiring industry, an -extraordinary variety of interests and aptitudes, a judgment at once -sound, moderate, and independent, a rare power of seizing in every -subject the essential argument or facts, a disposition to take no old -opinions on trust and to leave no new opinions unexamined, combined in -him with the most extraordinary literary talent. Never, perhaps, was -there an intellect at once so luminous, versatile, and flexible, which -produced so much, which could deal with such a vast range of difficult -subjects without being ever obscure, tangled, or dull." - -Colonel Hamley wrote: "But after the winnowings of generations, a wide -and deep repute still remains to him; nor will any diminution which it -may have suffered be without compensation, for, with the fading of old -prejudices, and with better knowledge, his name will be regarded with -increased liking and respect. Yet it must not be supposed that he is -here held up as a pattern man. He was, indeed, an infinitely better one -than the religious bigots of that time. He believed, with far better -effect on his practice than they could boast, in a Supreme Ruler. He was -the untiring and eloquent advocate at the bar of the universe of the -rights of humanity." - -Mr. Swinburne has well expressed this characteristic. "Voltaire's great -work," he says, "was to have done more than any other man on record to -make the instinct of cruelty not only detestable, but ludicrous; and so -to accomplish what the holiest and the wisest of saints and philosophers -had failed to achieve: to attack the most hideous and pernicious of -human vices with a more effective weapon than preaching and -denunciation: to make tyrants and torturers look not merely horrible and -hateful, but pitiful and ridiculous." - -Edgar Quinet, in his lectures on the Church, says: "I watch for forty -years the reign of one man who is himself the spiritual direction, not -of his country, but of his age. From the corner of his chamber he -governs the realm of mind. Everyday intellects are regulated by his; one -word written by his hand traverses Europe. Princes love and kings fear -him. Nations repeat the words that fall from his pen. Who exercises this -incredible power which has nowhere been seen since the Middle Ages? Is -he another Gregory VII? Is he a Pope? No--Voltaire." - -And Lamartine, in similar strain, remarks: "If we judge of men by what -they have _done_, then Voltaire is incontestibly the greatest writer of -modern Europe. No one has caused, through the powerful influence of his -genius alone and the perseverance of his will, so great a commotion in -the minds of men. His pen aroused a sleeping world, and shook a far -mightier empire than that of Charlemagne, the European empire of a -theocracy. His genius was not _force_, but _light_. Heaven had destined -him not to destroy, but to illuminate; and wherever he trod, light -followed him, for Reason--which is light--had destined him to be, first -her poet, then her apostle, and lastly her idol." - -Mr. Alexander A. Knox, writing in the _Nineteenth Century_ (October -1882), says: "That the man's aspirations were in the main noble and -honorable to humanity, I am sure. I am equally so that few men have -exercised so great an influence upon their fellow creatures.... The -wonderful old man! When he was past eighty years of age he set to work, -like another Jeremy Bentham, to abolish the admission of hearsay -evidence into French legal proceedings. But his great work was that by -his wit and irony he broke down the _principle of authority_ which had -been so foully abused in France. Would the most strictly religious man -wish to see religion as it was in France in the eighteenth century? -Would the greatest stickler for authority wish to find a country -governed as France was governed in the days of Voltaire?" - -Du Bois-Reymond, the eminent German scientist, remarks: "Voltaire is so -little to us at present because the things he fought for, 'toleration, -spiritual freedom, human dignity, justice,' have become, as it were, the -air we breathe, and do not think of except when we are deprived of it." - -Col. R. G. Ingersoll, in his fine _Oration on Voltaire_, observes: -"Voltaire was perfectly equipped for his work. A perfect master of the -French language, knowing all its moods, tenses, and declinations--in -fact and in feeling playing upon it as skilfully as Paganini on his -violin, finding expression for every thought and fancy, writing on the -most serious subjects with the gaiety of a harlequin, plucking jests -from the mouth of death, graceful as the waving of willows, dealing in -double meanings that covered the asp with flowers and flattery, master -of satire and compliment, mingling them often in the same line, always -interested himself, therefore interesting others, handling thoughts, -questions, subjects as a juggler does balls, keeping them in the air -with perfect ease, dressing old words in new meanings, charming, -grotesque, pathetic, mingling mirth with tears, wit and wisdom, and -sometimes wickedness, logic and laughter. With a woman's instinct, -knowing the sensitive nerves--just where to touch--hating arrogance of -place, the stupidity, of the solemn, snatching masks from priest and -king, knowing the springs of action and ambition's ends, perfectly -familiar with the great world, the intimate of kings and their -favorites, sympathising with the oppressed and imprisoned, with the -unfortunate and poor, hating tyranny, despising superstition, and loving -liberty with all his heart. Such was Voltaire, writing _OEdipus_ at -seventeen, _Irene_ at eighty-three, and crowding between these two -tragedies the accomplishment of a thousand lives." - -The Right Hon. John Morley testifies: "Voltaire was the very eye of -modern illumination. It was he who conveyed to his generation in a -multitude of forms the consciousness at once of the power and the rights -of human intelligence. Another might well have said of him what he -magnanimously said of his famous contemporary, Montesquieu, that -humanity had lost its title-deeds, and he had recovered them. The -four-score volumes which he wrote are the monument, as they were the -instrument, of a new renascence. They are the fruit and representation -of a spirit of encyclopaedic curiosity and productiveness. Hardly a page -of all these countless leaves is common form. Hardly a sentence is there -which did not come forth alive from Voltaire's own mind, or which was -said because some one else had said it before. Voltaire was a stupendous -power, not only because his expression was incomparably lucid, or even -because his sight was exquisitely keen and clear, but because he saw -many new things, after which the spirits of others were unconsciously -groping and dumbly yearning. Nor was this all. Voltaire was ever in the -front and centre of the fight. His life was not a mere chapter in a -history of literature. He never counted truth a treasure to be -discreetly hidden in a napkin. He made it a perpetual war cry, and -emblazoned it on a banner that was many a time rent, but was never out -of the field." We may fitly conclude with Browning's incisive lines in -_The Two Poets of Croisie_:-- - - _"Ay, sharpest, shrewdest steel that ever stabbed_ - - _To death Imposture through the armour joints."_ - - - - -SELECTIONS FROM VOLTAIRE'S WORKS - - - - -History - - -The world is old, but history is of yesterday.--_Melanges Historiques_. - -If you would put to profit the present time, one must not spend his life -in propagating ancient fables.--_Ibid_. - -A mature man who has serious business does not repeat the tales of his -nurse.--_Ibid_. - -Search through all nations and you will not find one whose history does -not begin with stories worthy of the Four Sons of Aymon and of Robert -the Devil.--_Politique et Legislation._ - -Ancient histories are enigmas proposed by antiquity to posterity, which -understands them not--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. "Histoire"). - -A real fact is of more value than a hundred antitheses.--_Melanges -Historiques_. - -I have a droll idea. It is that only people who have written tragedies -can throw interest into our dry and barbarous history. There is -necessary in a history, as in a drama, exposition, knotty plot, and -_denouement_, with agreeable episode.--_Corr. gen._ 1740. - -They have made but the history of the kings, not that of the nation. It -seems that during fourteen hundred years there were only kings, -ministers, and generals among the Gauls. But our morals, our laws, our -customs, our intelligence--are these then nothing?--_Corr_., 1740. - -Is fraud sanctified by being antiquated?--_Sottisier_. - -I have ever esteemed it charlatanry to paint, other than by facts, -public men with whom we have had no connection.--_Corr. gen._, 1752. - -If one surveys the history of the world, one finds weaknesses punished, -but great crimes fortunate, and the world is a vast scene of brigandages -abandoned to fortune.--_Essai sur les Moeurs_, c. 191. - -Since the ancient Romans, I have known no nation enriched by -victories.--_Contant d' Orville_, i. 337. - -To buy peace from an enemy is to furnish him with the sinews of -war.--_Ibid_, p. 334. - -The grand art of surprising, killing, and robbing is a heroism of the -highest antiquity.--_Dial_. 24. - -Murderers are punished, unless they kill in grand company to the sound -of trumpets; that is the rule.--_Dict. Phil_. (Art. "Droit"). - -We formerly made war in order to eat; but in the long run, all the -admirable institutions degenerate.--_Dial._ 24. - -It suffices often that a mad Minister of State shall have bitten another -Minister for the rabies to be communicated in a few months to five -hundred thousand men.--_Ibid_. - -In this world there (are) only offensive wars; defensive ones are only -resistance to armed robbers.--_Ibid._ - -Twenty volumes in folio never yet made a revolution. It is the portable -little shilling books that are to be feared. If the Gospel cost twelve -hundred sesterces, the Christian religion would never have been -established.--_Correspondence with D1 Alembert_, 1765. - - - - -Wars - - -C.: What, you do not admit there are just wars? - -A.: I have never known any of the kind; to me it appears contradictory -and impossible. - -C.: What! when the Pope Alexander VI. and his infamous son Borgia -pillaged the Roman States, strangled and poisoned the lords of the land, -while according them indulgences: was it not permissible to arm against -these monsters? - -A.: Do you not see that it was these monsters who made war? Those who -defended themselves from aggression but sustained it. There are -constantly only offensive wars in this world; the defensive is nothing -but resistance to armed robbers. - -C.: You mock us. Two princes dispute an heritage, their right is -litigious, their reasons equally plausible; it is necessary then that -war should decide, and this war is just on both sides. - -A.: It is you who mock. It is physically impossible that both are right, -and it is absurd and barbarous that the people should perish because one -of these two princes has reasoned badly. Let them fight together in a -closed field if they wish, but that an entire people should be -sacrificed to their interests, there is the horror.--_l' A.B.C._ - - - - -Politics - - -They have discovered in their fine politics the art of causing those to -die of hunger who, by cultivating the earth, give the means of life to -others.--_Sottisier._ - -Society has been too long like a game of cards, where the rogues cheat -the dupes, while sensible people dare not warn the losers that they are -deceived.--_Questions sur les Miracles_. - -They have only inculcated belief in absurdities to men in order to -subdue them.--_Ibid._ - -The most tolerable of all governments is doubtless the republican, since -that approaches the nearest towards natural equality.--_Idees -Republicaines._ - -A Republican is ever more attached to his country than a subject to his, -for the same reason that one loves better his own possessions than those -of a master.--_Pensees sur le Gouvernement._ - -Give too much power to anybody and be sure they will abuse it. Were the -monks of La Trappe spread throughout the world, let them confess -princesses, educate youth, preach and write, and in about ten years they -would be similar to the Jesuits, and it would be necessary to repress -them.--_Mel. Balance Egale_. - -What are politics beyond the art of lying a propos?--_Contant -D'Orville_. - -"Reasons of State" is a phrase invented to serve as excuse for -tyrants.--_Commentaire sur le traite des Delits._ - -The best government is that where there are the fewest useless -men.--Dial. 4. - -Man is born free. The best government is that which most preserves to -each mortal this gift of nature.--_Histoire de Russie_. - -To be free, to have only equals, is the true life, the natural life of -man; all other is an unworthy artifice, a poor comedy, where one plays -the role of master, the other of slave, this one a parasite, and that -other a pander.--_Dial. 24._ - -Why is liberty so rare? Because it is the best possession.--_Dict. -Phil_. ("Venise"). - -Those who say that all men are equal, say truth if they mean that men -have an equal right to liberty, to the property of their own goods, and -the protection of the laws. They are much deceived if they think that -men should be equal in their employments, since they are not so by their -faculties.--_Essai sur les Moeurs_, i. - -Despotism is the punishment of the bad conduct of men. If a community is -mastered by one man or by several, it is plainly because it has not the -courage and ability necessary for self-government.--_Idees -Republic-aines_, 1765. - -I do not give myself up to my fellow-citizens without reserve. I do not -give them the power to kill or to rob me by plurality of votes. I submit -to help them, and to be aided, to do justice, and to receive it. No -other agreement.--_Notes on Rousseau's "Social Contract"_ - - - - -The Population Question - - -_The Man of Forty Crowns_: I have heard much talk of population. Were we -to take it into our heads to beget double the number of children we now -do; were our country doubly peopled, so that we had forty millions of -inhabitants instead of twenty, what would happen? - -_The Geometrician_: Each would have, instead of forty, but twenty crowns -to live upon; or the land would have to produce the double of what it -now does; or there would be the double of the nation's industry, or of -gain from foreign countries; or one half of the nation sent to America; -or the one half of the nation should eat the other.--_The Man of Forty -Crowns._ - - - - -Nature's Way - - -Nature cares very little for individuals. There are other insects which -do not live above one day, but of which the species is perpetual. Nature -resembles those great princes who reckon as nothing the loss of four -hundred thousand men, so they but accomplish their august designs.-- -_The Man of Forty Crowns._ - - - - -Prayer - - -When the man of forty crowns saw himself the father of a son, he began -to think himself a man of some weight in the state; he hoped to furnish, -at least, ten subjects to the king, who should all prove useful. He made -the best baskets in the world, and his wife was an excellent sempstress. -She was born in the neighborhood of a rich abbey of a hundred thousand -livres a year. Her husband asked me, one day, why those gentlemen, who -were so few in number, had swallowed so many of the forty crown lots? -"Are they more useful to their country than I am?"--"No, dear -neighbor."--"Do they, like me, contribute at least to the population of -it?"--"No, not to appearance, at least."--"Do they cultivate the land? -Do they defend the state when it is attacked?"--"No, they pray to God -for us."--"Well, then, I will pray to God for them, and let us go -snacks."--_The Man of Forty Crowns._ - - - - -Doubt and Speculation - - -_The Man of Forty Crowns_: I have sometimes a great mind to laugh at all -I have been told. - -_The Geometrician_: And a very good mind it is. I advise you to doubt of -everything, except that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two -right ones, and that triangles which have the same bases and height are -equal to one another; or like propositions, as, for example, that two -and two make four. - -_The Man of Forty Crowns_: Yes; I hold it very wise to doubt; but I am -curious since I have made my fortune and have leisure. I could wish, -when my will moves my arm or my leg, to discover the spring, for surely -there is one, by which my will moves them. I wonder sometimes why I can -lift or lower my eyes, yet cannot move my ears. I think--and I wish I -could know a little how--I mean,--there, to have my thought palpable to -me, to touch it, as it were. That would surely be very curious. I want -to find out whether I think from myself, or whether it is God that gives -me my ideas; whether my soul came into my body at six weeks, or at one -day old; how it lodged itself in my brain; whether I think much when in -a profound sleep, or in a lethargy. I torture my brains to know how one -body impels another. My sensations are no less a wonder to me; I find -something divine in them, and especially in pleasure. I have striven -sometimes to imagine a new sense, but could never arrive at it. -Geometricians know all these things; kindly be so good as to teach me. - -_The Geometrician_: Alas! We are as ignorant as you. Apply to the -Sorbonne. - - - - -Dr. Pangloss and the Dervish - - -In the neighborhood lived a very famous dervish, who was deemed the best -philosopher in Turkey; him they went to consult. Pangloss was spokesman -and addressed him thus:-- - -"Master, we come to beg you to tell us why so strange an animal as man -has been formed?" - -"Why do you trouble your head about it?" said the dervish; "is it any -business of yours?" - -"But, reverend father," said Candide, "there is a horrible amount of -evil on the earth." - -"What signifies it," says the dervish, "whether there is evil or good? -When His Highness sends a ship to Egypt does he trouble whether the rats -aboard are comfortable or not?" - -"What is to be done, then?" says Pangloss. - -"Be silent," answers the dervish. - -"I flattered myself," replied Pangloss, "to have reasoned a little with -you on causes and effects, the best of possible worlds, the origin of -evil, the nature of the soul, and on pre-established harmony." - -At these words the dervish shut the door in their faces.--_Candide_. - - - - -Motives for Conduct - - -_Countess_: Apropos, I have forgotten to ask your opinion upon a matter -which I read yesterday in a story by these good Mohammedans, which much -struck me. Hassan, son of Ali, being bathing, one of his slaves threw -over him by accident some boiling water. His servants wished to impale -the culprit. Hassan, instead, gave him twenty pieces of gold. "There -is," said he, "a degree of glory in Paradise for those who repay -services, a greater one for those who forgive evil, and a still greater -one for those who recompense involuntary evil." What think you of his -action and his speech? - -_The Count_: I recognise there my good Moslems of the first ages. - -_Abbe_: And I, my good Christians. - -_M. Freret_: And I am sorry that the scalded Hassan, son of Ali, should -have given twenty pieces of gold in order to have glory in Paradise. I -do not like interested fine actions. I should have wished that Hassan -had been sufficiently virtuous and humane to have consoled the despair -of the slave without even dreaming of being placed in the third rank in -Paradise.--_Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers_. - - - - -Self-Love - - -Self-love and all its off-shoots are as necessary to man as the blood -which flows in his veins. Those who would take away his passions because -they are dangerous resemble those who would deplete a man of all his -blood lest he should fall into apoplexy.--_Traite de Metaphysique._ - - - - -Go From Your Village - - -A stupid said: "I must think like my _bonze_ (priest), for all my -village agrees with him." Go from your village, poor man, and you will -find ten thousand others who have each their _bonze_, and who all think -differently. - - - - -Religious Prejudices - - -If your nurse has told you that Ceres presides over corn, or that Vishnu -or Sakyamuni became men several times, or that Odin awaits you in his -hall towards Jutland, or that Mohammed or some other travelled to -Heaven; if, moreover, your preceptor deepens in your brain what the -nurse, has engraved, you will hold it all your life. Should your -judgment rise against these prejudices, your neighbors, above all your -female neighbors, will cry out at the impiety and frighten you. Your -dervish, fearing the diminution of his revenue, may accuse you before -the Cadi, and this Cadi impale you if he can, since he desires to rule -over fools, believing fools obey better than others; and this will -endure till your neighbors, and the dervish, and the Cadi begin to -understand that folly is good for nothing and that persecution is -abominable.--_Dictionnaire Philosophique_. - - - - -Sacred History - - -I abandon to the declaimer Bossuet the politics of the Kings of Judah -and Samaria, who only understood assassination, beginning with their -King David (who took to the trade of brigand to make himself king, and -assassinated Uriah when he was his master); and to wise Solomon, who -began by assassinating Adonijah, his own brother, at the foot of the -altar. I am tired of the absurd pedantry which consecrates the history -of such a people to the instruction of children.--_l'A.B.C._ - - - - -Dupe And Rogue - - -Are there theologians of good faith? Yes, as there have been men who -believed themselves sorcerers.--_Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers._ - -Enthusiasm begins, roguery ends. It is with religion as with gambling. -One begins by being dupe, one ends by being rogue.--_Le Diner du Comte -de Boulainvilliers._ - -Every country has its bonzes. But I recognise that there are as many of -them deceived as deceivers. The majority are those blinded by enthusiasm -in their youth, and who never recover sight; there are others who have -preserved one eye, and see all squintingly. These are the stupid -charlatans.--_Entre deux Chinois._ - - - - -"Delenda Est Carthago" - - -Theology must absolutely be destroyed, just as judicial astrology, -magic, the divining rod, and the Star Chamber have been -destroyed.--_l'A.B.C._ - - - - -Jesus and Mohammed - - -_L'Abbe_: How could Christianity have established itself so high if it -had nothing but fanaticism and fraud at its base? - -_Le Comte_: And how did Mohammedanism establish itself. Mohammed at -least could write and fight, and Jesus knew neither writing nor -self-defence. Mohammed had the courage of Alexander, with the mind of -Numa; and your Jesus, sweat, blood, and water. Mohammedanism has never -changed, while you have changed your religion twenty times. There is -more difference between it, as it is to-day, from what it was in the -first ages, than there is between your customs and those of King -Dagobert.--_Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers._ - - - - -How Faiths Spread - - -But how do you think, then, that my religion became established? Like -all the rest. A man of strong imagination made himself followed by some -persons of weak imagination. The flock increased; fanaticism commences, -fraud achieves. A powerful man comes; he sees a crowd, ready bridled and -with a bit in its teeth; he mounts and leads it.--_Dial, et entr. ph., -Dialogue 19._ - - - - -Superstition - - -The superstitious man is to the knave what the slave is to the tyrant; -nay, further, the superstitious man is governed by the fanatic, and -becomes one.--_Dict. Phil. (Art. "Superstition")_. - - - - -The Bible - - -If there are many difficulties we cannot solve, mysteries we cannot -comprehend, adventures which we cannot credit, prodigies which display -the credulity of the human mind, and contradictions which it is -impossible to reconcile, it is in order to exercise our faith and -to-humiliate our reason.--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. "Contradictions"). - - - - -Transubstantiation - - -Julius II. makes and eats God; but with armor on his back and helmet on -his head he wades in blood and carnage. Leo X. holds God in his body, -his mistresses in his arms, and the money extorted by the sale of -indulgences in his coffers, and those of his sister.--_Dict. Phil._ -(Art. "Eucharist"). - - - - -Dreams and Ghosts - - -Have you not found, like me, that they are the origin of the opinion so -generally diffused throughout antiquity touching spectres and manes? A -man deeply afflicted at the death of his wife, or his son, sees them in -his sleep; they have the same characteristics; he speaks to them, they -reply; they have certainly appeared to him. Other men have had similar -dreams. It is impossible, then, to doubt that the dead return; but it is -certain at the same time that these dead--whether buried or reduced to -ashes, or lost at sea--could not reappear in their bodies. It is, then, -their soul that has been seen. This soul must be extended, light, -impalpable, since in speaking with it we cannot embrace it. _Effugit -imago per levibus vetitis_ (Virgil). It is moulded, designed upon the -body which it habited, since it perfectly resembles it. It is given the -name of shade or manes, and from all this a confused idea remains in the -head, which perpetuates itself all the better because nobody understands -it.--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. "Somnambulists and Dreams" ). - - - - -Mortifying the Flesh - - -Had vanity never any share in the public mortifications which attended -the eyes of the multitude? "I scourge myself, but 'tis to expiate your -faults; I go stark naked, but 'tis to reproach the luxury of your -garments; I feed on herbs and snails to correct your vice of gluttony; I -put an iron ring on my body to make you blush at your lewdness. -Reverence me as a man cherished by the gods, who can draw down their -favors on you. When accustomed to reverence, it will not be hard to obey -me; I become your master in the name of the gods; and if you transgress -my will in the least particular, I will have you impaled to appease the -wrath of heaven." If the first fakirs did not use these words, they -probably had them engraven at the bottom of their hearts.--_Dict. Phil._ -(Art. "Austerities"). - - - - -Heaven - - -_Kon._: What is meant by "the heaven and the earth: mount up to heaven, -be worthy of heaven"? - -_Cu Su._: 'Tis but stupidity, there is no heaven; each planet is -surrounded by its atmosphere, and rolls in space around its sun. Each -sun is the centre of several planets which travel continually around it. -There is no up nor down, ascension nor descent. You perceive that if the -inhabitants of the moon said that some one ascended to the earth, that -one must render himself worthy of earth, he would talk nonsense. We do -so likewise when we say we must be worthy of heaven; it is as if we said -we must be worthy of air, worthy of the constellation of the Dragon, -worthy of space.--_Catechisme chinois._ - - - - -Magic - - -All the fathers of the Church, without exception, believed in the power -of magic. The Church always condemned magic, but she always believed it; -she excommunicated sorcerers, not as deluded madmen, but as men who -really had intercourse with devils.--_Dict. Phil._ (Art. -"Superstition"). - - - - -DETACHED THOUGHTS - - -There are vices which it is better to ignore than to punish. - -One should not pronounce a word in public which an honest woman cannot -repeat. - -I know no great men but those who have rendered great services to -humanity. - -Honor has ever achieved greater things than interest. - -Occupation and work are the only resources against misfortune. - -My maxim is to fulfil all my duties to-day, because I am not sure of -living to-morrow. - -Most men die before having lived. - -It is necessary to combat nature and fortune till the last moment, and -to never despair till one is dead. - -Work without disputing; it is the only way to render life supportable. - -Passions are the winds that swell the sails of the ship. It is true, -they sometimes sink her, but without them she could not sail at all. The -bile makes us sick and choleric; but without the bile we could not live. -Everything in this world is dangerous, and yet everything in it is -necessary. - -We should introduce into our existence all imaginable modes, and open -every door of the minds to all kinds of knowledge, and all sorts of -feelings. So long as it does not all go in pell-mell, there is room -enough for all. - -It is the part of a man like you [Vauvenargues] to have preferences, but -no exclusions. - -The unwise value every word in an author of repute. - -Opinion governs the world, and philosophers in the long run govern -opinion. - -We enjoin mankind to conquer their passions. Make the experiment of only -depriving a man, in the habit of taking it, of his pinch of snuff. - -Do we not nearly all resemble the aged General of ninety years, who, -seeing some young fellows larking with the girls, said to them angrily: -"Gentlemen, is that the example which I give you?" - -Passions are diseases. To cure a man of a criminal intention, we should -give him not counsel, but a dose of physic. - -Women are like windmills, fixed while they revolve. - -I fear lest marriage may not rather be one of the seven deadly sins than -one of the seven sacraments. - -Divorce is probably of about the same date as marriage. - -I believe, however, that marriage is several weeks the elder. - -War is an epitome of all wickedness. - -The race of preachers inveigh against little vices, and pass over great -ones in silence. They never sermonise against war. - -What strange rage possesses some people to insist on our all being -miserable? They are like a quack, who would fain have us believe we are -ill, in order to sell us his pills. Keep thy drugs, my friend, and leave -me my health. - -Can one change their character? Yes, if one changes their body. - -Men are fools, but ecclesiastics are their leaders. - -I do not believe even eye-witnesses when they tell me things opposed to -common sense. - -The fanatics begin with humility and kindness, and have all ended with -pride and carnage. - -The Pope is an idol, whose hands are tied and whose feet are kissed. - -What an immense book might be composed on all the things once believed, -of which it is necessary to doubt. - -That which can be explained in many ways does not merit being explained -in any. - -Theology is in religion what poison is among food. - -Theology has only served to upset brains, and sometimes States. - -That which is an eternal subject of dispute is an eternal inutility. - -To pray is to flatter oneself that one will change entire nature with -words. - -Names of sects; names of error. Truth has no sect. - -No man is called an Euclidian. - -Henry IV., after his victories, his abjuration, and his coronation, -caused a cross to be erected in Rome, with the following inscription: -_In hoc signa vincis_. The wood of the cross was the carriage of a -cannon. - -A revolution has been accomplished in the human mind which nothing again -can ever arrest. - -It is never by metaphysics that you will succeed in delivering men from -error; you must prove the truth by facts. - -If fortune brings to pass one of a hundred events predicted by roguery, -all the others are forgotten, and that one remains as a pledge of the -favor of God, and as the proof of a prodigy. - -Every one is born with a nose and five fingers, and no one is born with -a knowledge of God. This may be deplorable or not, but it is certainly -the human condition. - -If God made us in his own image, we have well returned him the -compliment. - -Nature preserves the species, and cares but very little for individuals. - -To fast, to pray, a priest's virtue; to succor, virtue of a citizen. - -When Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, wished to ascend to heaven to -discover the secrets of the gods, a fly stung Pegasus, and he was -thrown. - -"Why do you receive so many fools in your order?" was said to a Jesuit. -"We need saints." - -Rousseau [J. B.] having shown his antagonist [Voltaire] his _Ode to -Posterity_, the latter said: "My friend, here is a letter which will -never reach its address." - -If a tulip could speak, and said, "My vegetation and I are two distinct -beings, evidently joined together," would you not mock at the tulip? - -Why all these pleasantries on religion? They are never made on morality. - -A fanatic of good faith, always a dangerous kind of man. - -The consolation of life is to say out what one thinks. - - ---- - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE -AND WORKS *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39124 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. 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