Voltaire

vol-ter' (1694-1778), a famous French writer. He was born at Paris, November 21, 1694, and died there May 30, 1778. The greater part of his life, however, was passed abroad,--at London, Berlin, and Geneva. His father was a French notary, a man of property. The young man abandoned the family name of Arouet for Voltaire, the origin of which is unknown. He was educated at the famous Jesuit College of Louis-le-Grand. He was a brilliant student. His wit, lively manners, and his father's wealth procured him entrance to the so-called best society of Paris. His biting tongue got him into trouble frequently. Twice he was confined in the Bastille. He made a pretense of studying law, but, like Irving, Scott, Lowell, and many another man of letters, he spent his time in reading, and finally abandoned the law for literature. A successful tragedy or two made him the fashionable poet of Paris. He was too free spoken, however, to enjoy France.

In 1726 he went to England, where he remained for two years. He then lived for two years in the household of a widow in Champagne. Upon her death, he accepted an invitation from Frederick the Great to take up his residence at Berlin. Voltaire and Frederick met almost as lovers. They lived together three years and parted bitter enemies. The French government forbade Voltaire's return to France. He wandered about, finally taking up his residence in 1756 at Geneva. He purchased an estate in the suburban village of Ferny, where he spent the remainder of his life. He found the village a wretched place containing forty-nine peasants. He left it a thriving, happy town of 1,200 inhabitants, among whom he lived in the character of a patriarch and benefactor.

The list of Voltaire's works is a long one, in all seventy-two volumes. He tried his hand at tragedy, lyric poetry, oratory, essays, political pamphlets, novels, history, and even science. All his works were permeated with bitter hostility to Christianity, particularly Catholicism, and arbitrary government. He was a great admirer of the institutions of England.

Voltaire was a fighter. No matter whether a wrong was committed in Paris, London, Berlin, or Rome, a stinging rebuke was sure to follow from Voltaire's pen. He was hated as few men have been hated. He was a contributor to the famous French Encyclopedia. Without doubt he did much to bring on the French Revolution, at the close of which the French authorities brought home his body and buried it in the Pantheon of Paris. He wrote in French. Voltaire's works are now seldom quoted. He was a master of satire. Macaulay characterizes him as follows:

Voltaire is the prince of buffoons. His merriment is without disguise or restraint. He gambols; he grins; he shakes his sides; he points the finger; he turns up the nose; he shoots out the tongue. . . . The nature of Voltaire was indeed, not inhuman; but he venerated nothing. Neither in the masterpieces of art nor in the purest examples of virtue, neither in the Great First Cause nor in the awful enigma of the grave, could he see anything but subjects for drollery. The more solemn and august the theme, the more monkey-like was his grimacing and chattering.

SAYINGS.