V

VOLTAIRE

(1694-1778)

BY ADOLPHE COHN

OLTAIRE, whose real name was François Marie Arouet, is certainly the most influential of the numerous writers that have been produced by France. He was born in Paris on November 21st, 1694, and died in the same city on May 30th, 1778. At the time of his birth Louis XIV. was still the absolute ruler of France; no one dared to question his divine right to the crown, or to resist his clearly expressed will. When he died, public opinion had become so irresistible a power that King Louis XVI. had been compelled, much against his desire, to assist the revolted colonies of North America in their struggle against the English King; and that eleven years later the French also determined to begin a revolution, the object of which was to establish free and equal government over the ruins of the old system. Of the transformation which had taken place between the dates of 1694 and 1778, Voltaire had been the chief artisan.

His family, like that of most of the great writers of France, belonged to the ranks of the middle class. His father had, as a notary and as the confidential legal adviser of numerous influential families, amassed a comfortable fortune; and occupied late in life an hon orable official position, which connected him with the highest court of law in France, -the Parliament of Paris. His mother, Catherine Daumars, was connected with several families of the nobility. He received the best education which a French bourgeois could then give to his son. His chief educators were the Jesuit Fathers, -in whose best college, the College Louis-le-Grand, he received all his early schooling,- and a certain Abbé de Châteauneuf, a worldly abbé of aristocratic birth, to whose care he had been intrusted by his mother, whom he lost when only seven years of age. The abbé made it his business to introduce his young charge into the most aristocratic and witty, but withal, dissolute circles of French society. The young man's wit and inborn charm of manners, his ease in composing pleasing and light verses, his close attention whenever older people spoke of whatever important events they had acted in or witnessed, made him at once a very great favorite.

Louis XIV. died in 1715, when young Arouet was just coming of age. He had not published anything yet, but had already determined. to make a name for himself as a man of letters, and not simply to increase the family's fortune as a law practitioner, according to his father's desire. He already possessed more worldly experience than a great many older men. A journey in Holland, which he had made as secretary to the French ambassador there, Marquis de Châteauneuf,- and which had come abruptly to an end on account of a somewhat pathetic love affair with a Protestant maiden, Mademoiselle Olympe Dunoyer,—had enabled him to acquire a knowledge of what was perhaps most interesting in Europe at that time: the republican government of the Netherlands, and the society of Huguenot refugees who had left France twenty or thirty years before rather than abandon their faith.

He was then ready to present to the public whatever ideas of his he deemed sufficiently matured for publication. But he was soon to discover, at his own expense, what is the, meaning of absolute power, and what a disturbing force it becomes in the hands of incompetent rulers. The duties of royalty were then performed by the Duke of Orleans, regent of France during the minority of his child cousin, King Louis XV. Able and witty, but without any principle of morality, the regent laid himself open to criticism of the sharpest kind; and young Arouet was not the most merciful of his judges. Twice the young man, on account of his freedom of utterance, received peremptory orders to leave Paris and reside at some spot designated by the government; a third time, for a Latin inscription which he had written, and some French verses, the authorship of which he was erroneously credited with, he was arrested and sent as a State prisoner to the Bastille, where he remained nearly a year (1717–18). A few months after the end of his imprisonment he suddenly became famous. His tragedy of (Edipus' had been performed with the greatest success, and he was hailed as the legitimate successor of Corneille and Racine (1718).

Several years followed of intense literary activity, during which he gave a number of plays and composed numerous poems, two of which for the first time presented some of the ideas with which his name has become identified,- the 'Epistle to Urania,' which sets forth some of the principles of natural religion, and the epic poem which later, when more developed, became the 'Henriade.' The latter work, of which King Henry IV. of France is the hero, is from beginning to end an eloquent plea for religious toleration, and a not less eloquent denunciation of religious fanaticism. Its most celebrated passage is the narrative of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew's night, related by Henry of Navarre to Queen Elizabeth.

He was soon sent to the Bastille again (1726), on account of a quarrel with a disreputable young nobleman, the Chevalier de Rohan, who had had Voltaire beaten almost to death by his servants. He was released, however, a few days later, on a promise that he would at once set out for England, where he resided a little over two years (1726-28). These were for him years of study. He managed to acquaint himself with the language, literature, institutions, and social life of England, as few travelers have ever done in so short a time. Before he left the country he succeeded in writing English very creditably; as is shown by two essays that he published while there, one on the civil wars of France, the other on epic poetry. Their object was to prepare the English public for the issuing of a new and enlarged edition of his poem on Henry IV., which was dedicated to the Queen of England.

He carried back to France a small volume, the effect of which on the reading public of continental Europe, but especially of France, cannot be overestimated. It is a collection of twenty-four letters, which were first published in an English translation with the title of 'Letters concerning the English Nation,' and afterwards in France under a different title,-Philosophical Letters.' His object in this work was to show to his countrymen that national peace, happiness, and power, were not dependent upon the existence of such a government as they were living under. The main points to which he called their attention were individual liberty, as protected by the habeas corpus act; political liberty, as secured by the Magna Charta; religious toleration, as demonstrated by the existence in the country of numerous Christian denominations, living at peace with each other; respect for men of letters, as shown by the high positions filled in the State by such men as Joseph Addison and Matthew Prior; the existence of an English literature, then all-but unknown in France, which heard from him for the first tim the name of Shakespeare; the existence of English philosophy with Locke, and of English science with Sir Isaac Newton, whose theory of universal attraction he popularized through years of untiring efforts; etc. No wonder such a book was not very acceptable to the autocratic government of France. Its publication was not authorized; an unauthorized edition however appeared in 1734, and Voltaire, as the writer had come to call himself since the performance of Edipus,' came near being sent to the Bastille for the third time.

He was then a rich man. Influential friends had helped him to invest his share of his father's estate partly in speculative ventures, partly in military contracts. He lived in a somewhat grand style in the château of Cirey, in Lorraine; which was the property of a great admirer of his, the Marquise du Châtelet, who translated Newton's 'Principia into French. He composed there a number of plays.

He had already had, however, his greatest dramatic triumph with 'Zaïre'; a play in which, even more than in his Brutus,' we can discern the influence of Shakespeare. Among the plays that followed, the most remarkable were 'Mahomet,' a plea against fanaticism, which he dedicated to Pope Benedict XIV.; and 'Alzire,' a new plea for religious toleration, hardly less eloquent than the 'Henriade.' He had also published his first historical work, a history of Charles XII. of Sweden; a marvelous piece of narrative, in which the philosophical historian already appears in many a reflection upon the folly of war and the sufferings it entails upon the people. The ideas he stood for were more clearly expressed, however, in such works as his philosophical poems; 'Discourses upon Man,' an imitation of Pope's 'Essay on Man'; and his Elements of the Philosophy of Newton.' His increasing popularity compelled even the court to grant him recognition. In 1745 he was appointed historiographer of France, in 1746 he was elected a member of the French Academy, and in the same year made by the King a gentleman of his bedchamber. This constituted him a member of the nobility.

His favor at court lasted but a short time, however. He had soon to hide in the residence of his friend, the Duchesse du Maine, where he wrote his first philosophical tales, Zadig' and 'Micromegas'; new vehicles for the ideas that had already been expressed in the 'Henriade,' the Philosophical Letters,' the Charles XII.,' etc.

Madame du Châtelet's death (1749) brought about a great change in his life. After a short stay in Paris he accepted an invitation from King Frederick II. of Prussia, who had since 1736 been one of his regular correspondents, and who had for years begged him to take up his residence at the Prussian court. Voltaire lived at Berlin and Potsdam about three years, the most important event in which was his publication of the 'Age of Louis XIV.'; a historical work which he had been perfecting for upwards of twenty years, and which was received by the public as no historical work had ever been. Even to-day it retains its rank as one of the most interesting and one of the broadest books of history ever written. To his contemporaries, who knew only the dreariest compilations of literary hacks and pedants, it was a revelation of what history could be. Voltaire did not simply narrate, he passed judgment; though undoubtedly prejudiced in favor of Louis XIV., he severely censured his love of war and expenditure and his terrible religious fanaticism. His information, which he had collected with the utmost industry, and made use of with the greatest candor, was extensive and remarkably accurate for the time.

Had he done nothing else in Berlin, he and Frederick might have remained good friends. But he mercilessly ridiculed another Frenchman, the learned Maupertuis, whom Frederick had made president of