Woolston’s discourses, written to prove that the miracles of the New Testament are as mythical and allegorical as the prophecies of the old, appeared at the same time, and had an enormous sale. Voltaire was much struck by this writer’s coarse and hardy way of dealing with the miraculous legends, and the article on Miracles in the Philosophical Dictionary shows how carefully he had read Woolston’s book.[66] We find references to Shaftesbury and Chubb in Voltaire’s letters and elsewhere, though they are not the references of an admirer,[67] and Bolingbroke was one of the most influential and intimate of his friends. It is not too much to say that Bolingbroke was the direct progenitor of Voltaire’s opinions in religion, and that nearly every one of the positive articles in Voltaire’s rather moderately sized creed was held and inculcated by that brilliant and disordered genius. He did not always accept Bolingbroke’s optimism, but even as late in the century as 1767 Voltaire thought it worth while to borrow his name for a volume of compendious attack on the popular religion.[68] Bolingbroke’s tone was peculiarly light and peculiarly well-bred. His infidelity was strictly infidelity for the upper classes;[69] ingenious, full of literature, and elegantly supercilious. He made no pretence to theological criticism in any sense that can be gravely admitted, but looked at the claims of revelation with the eye of a polished man of the world, and met its arguments with those general considerations of airy probability which go so far with men who insist on having plausible opinions on all subjects, while they will not take pains to work to the bottom of any.