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diff --git a/39124-8.txt b/39124-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 001e6a5..0000000 --- a/39124-8.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: 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 ENCYCLOPÆDIA - 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'infâme_ 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 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 _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 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 - - -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 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 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 - - -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 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 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" - - -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 - - -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 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 _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 - - -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 - - -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 _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 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 - - -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, _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 - - -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 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.--_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 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.--_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 - - -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. - -_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 - - -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 - - -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'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 - - -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.--_Catéchisme 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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