Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net VOLTAIRE BY JOHN MORLEY LONDON MACMILLAN AND CO. 1886 _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. NOTE. The edition to which the references are made in the following pages is that published by Baudouin in 1826, in seventy-five volumes. This edition is to be distinguished from that known as the first Baudouin edition, published 1824-34, in ninety-seven volumes. The extent of the difference between them, which is entirely in favour of the more voluminous form, may be seen in M. Quérard’s _Bibliographie Voltairienne_ (p. 107). The large number of complete and elaborate editions of Voltaire’s works, which were undertaken and executed in the years between the overthrow of the Empire and the overthrow of the Monarchy in 1830, is one of the most striking facts in the history of books. 1872. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY. PAGE Importance of Voltaire’s name 1 Catholicism, Calvinism, and the Renaissance 1 Voltairism the Renaissance of the eighteenth century 4 His power the result of his sincerity, penetration, and courage 6 Different tempers proper for different eras 11 Voltaire’s freedom from intellectual cowardice 12 And from worldly indifference to truth and justice 13 Reason and humanity only a single word to him 15 His position towards the purely literary life 17 Enervating regrets that the movement had not a less violent leader 19 The share of chance in providing leaders 20 Combination of favourable circumstances in Voltaire’s case 22 Occasion and necessity of the movement 24 Age of Lewis XIV. entirely loyal to its own ideas 25 Subsequent discredit of these ideas 26 Preparation for abandonment of the old system by Descartes and Bayle 29 Voltaire continues the work, not wholly to the disadvantage of the old system 31 No ascetic element in the Voltairean revolt 33 Why primarily an intellectual movement 34 The hostile memory of Christians for it 37 Comte’s estimate of it 37 The estimate of culture 40 Some pleas on the other side 40