The Friends of Voltaire

Voltaire · en
_From an Engraving, after Michon, in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris._


CONDORCET                                                           " 268

_From an Engraving by Lemort, after the Bust by St.
Aubin._




SOME SOURCES OF INFORMATION


  D’Alembert. _Joseph Bertrand._
  Œuvres et Correspondance inédites. _D’Alembert._
  Correspondance avec d’Alembert. _Marquise du Deffand._
  Diderot and the Encyclopædists. _John Morley._
  Éloge de d’Alembert. _Condorcet._
  Œuvres. _Diderot._
  Diderot. _Reinach._
  Diderot, l’Homme et l’Ecrivain. _Ducros._
  Diderot. _Scherer._
  Diderot et Catherine II. _Tourneux._
  Ferdinando Galiani, Correspondance, Étude, etc. _Perrey et Maugras._
  Lettres de l’Abbé Galiani. _Eugène Asse._
  Mémoires et Correspondance. _Madame d’Épinay._
  Jeunesse de Madame d’Épinay. _Perrey et Maugras._
  Dernières Années de Madame d’Épinay. _Perrey et Maugras._
  Mémoires. _Marmontel._
  Mémoires. _Morellet._
  Causeries du Lundi. _Sainte-Beuve._
  Vauvenargues. _Paléologue._
  Œuvres et Éloge de Vauvenargues. _D. L. Gilbert._
  Melchior Grimm. _Scherer._
  Rousseau. _John Morley._
  Miscellanies. _John Morley._
  Correspondance Littéraire. _Grimm et Diderot._
  Turgot. _Léon Say._
  Turgot. _W. B. Hodgson._
  Œuvres. _Turgot._
  Vie de Turgot. _Condorcet._
  Correspondance inédite de Condorcet et Turgot. _C. Henry._
  La Marquise de Condorcet. _Guillois._
  Vie de Condorcet. _Robinet._
  Beaumarchais et Son Temps. _Loménie._
  Beaumarchais. _Hallays._
  Théâtre de Beaumarchais.
  La Fin de l’Ancien Régime. _Imbert de Saint-Amand._
  French Revolution. _Carlyle._
  Critical Essays. _Carlyle._
  Correspondance. _Voltaire._
  Portraits Littéraires du XVIIIe Siècle. _La Harpe._
  Cours de Littérature. _La Harpe._
  Mémoire sur Helvétius. _Damiron._
  Le Salon de Madame Helvétius. _Guillois._
  Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne. _Buhle._
  Life of Hume. _Burton._
  The Private Correspondence of Garrick with Celebrated Persons.
  Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire de la Philosophie. _Damiron._
  Letters. _Laurence Sterne._




THE FRIENDS OF VOLTAIRE




I

_D’ALEMBERT: THE THINKER_


Of that vast intellectual movement which prepared the way for the most
stupendous event in history, the French Revolution, Voltaire was the
creative spirit.

But there was a group of men, less famous but not less great, who also
heralded the coming of the new heaven and the new earth; who were in a
strict sense friends and fellow-workers of Voltaire, although one or two
of them were personally little known to him; whose aim was his aim, to
destroy from among the people ‘ignorance, the curse of God,’ and who
were, as he was, the prophets and the makers of a new dispensation.

That many of these light bringers were themselves full of darkness, is
true enough; but they brought the light not the less, and in their own
breasts burnt one cleansing flame, the passion for humanity.