The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 2 (of 7)Malkin, Arthur Thomas
History
The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 2 (of 7)
Malkin, Arthur Thomas
Biography
inhabitants learned to bless the liberalities of their patron. His mind
continued to be embittered by literary quarrels, the most memorable
being that with J. J. Rousseau, commemorated in his poem, entitled
‘Guerre Civile de Genève’ (1768). He hated this unfortunate exile, as a
rival, as an enthusiast, and as a friend, comparatively speaking, to
Christianity. Nor were these his only disquietudes. The publication of
the infamous poem of La Pucelle, which he suffered in strict confidence
to circulate among his intimate friends, and which was printed by the
treachery of some of them, gave him much uneasiness. For its indecency
and impiety he might not have cared: but all who had offended him,
authors, courtiers, even the king and his mistress, were abused in it in
the grossest manner, and Voltaire had no wish to provoke the arm of
power. He had recourse to his usual process of disavowal, and as he
could not deny the whole, he asserted that the offensive parts had been
intercalated by his enemies. In other instances his zeal outran
discretion, and affected his comforts by producing apprehension for his
safety. Sometimes a panic terror of assassination took possession of
him, and it needed all the gentleness and assiduities of his adopted
daughter, Madame de Varicourt, to whom he was tenderly attached, to
bring back his usual levity of mind. At length, in 1778, Voltaire
yielding to the entreaties of his favourite niece, Madame Denis, came to
Paris, where at the theatre he was greeted by a numerous assemblage in a
manner resembling the crowning of an Athenian dramatic poet, more than
any modern exhibition of popular favour. Borne back to his hotel amidst
the acclamations of thousands, the aged man said feebly, “You are
suffocating me with roses.” He did not indeed long survive this
festival. Continued study, and the immoderate use of coffee, renewed a
strangury to which he had been subject, and he died May 30, 1778. He was
interred with the rites of Christian worship, a point concerning which
he had shown some solicitude, in the Abbaye de Scellières. In 1791 his
remains were removed by the Revolutionists, and deposited with great
pomp in the Pantheon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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