Such was the public opinion which Voltaire braved; and his first attempt to brave it was not very successful. Soon after his arrival he arranged a _salle de spectacle_ inside the city walls, and organized a performance of ‘L’Orphelin de la Chine.’ The Consistory growled out a hostile resolution, and he dropped the enterprise, but proceeded to educate opinion from a safe distance; that is to say, he set up his theatre at Lausanne, and wrote insinuating letters about its management to his friends among the Genevan pastors. We have Gibbon’s testimony to the fact that this theatre ‘refined in a visible degree the manners of Lausanne’; and we have a letter in which Voltaire gives the pastor, Vernés, sound reasons for coming to witness the performances. ‘In your quality of minister of the Gospel,’ he writes, ‘you might very well be present at the rendering of a piece taken from the Gospel itself, and hear the word of God from the mouth of the Marquise de Gentil, Madame d’Aubonne, and Madame d’Hermenches, who are as worthy women as the three Magdalens, and more respectable.’ And he adds: ‘At the first representation we had all the ministers of the Holy Gospel in the Town, and all the candidates for Holy Orders.’ It was a pretty good beginning; but there was still to be trouble and controversy before the educational process was completed. In this field, as in the field of theology, d’Alembert, with his encyclopædia article, stirred Camerina. He said that it was a pity that comedy should be neglected in such a centre of civilization, but added that the thing that the Genevans dreaded was not the demoralizing influence of plays, but the dissolute behaviour of players. And he suggested that this difficulty be got over by means of stringent regulations as to the conduct of comedians. By this means, he said, Geneva might have both good morals and good theatres, and derive as much advantage from the one as from the other. For the moment it looked as though this ingeniously ironical proposal would escape attention, the theologians being too excited about their impugned orthodoxy to notice anything else. Rousseau, however, saw it, and decided to reply to it, and in due course launched his ‘Lettre sur les Spectacles.’ Being himself a dramatic author of some note, he was not an ideal champion of the cause which he represented; but in the stir caused by his intervention no one seems to have thought of that. His rhetoric made just as lively an impression as though his actions had always been in keeping with it. The Genevans took sides; and Voltaire--as though for the express purpose of giving them something tangible to fight about--established a theatre close to their gates, outside the jurisdiction of their magistrates, at Tournay.