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is undeniably true; that he carried on his conflict, whether with error or with truth, in an offensive manner, and by the use of unlawful weapons, has been freely admitted. But we owe to him the habit of scrutinizing, both in sacred matters and in profane, the merits of whatever is presented for our belief, of examining boldly the foundations of received opinions, of making probability a part of the consideration in all that is related, of calling in plain reason and common sense to assist in our councils when grave matters are under discussion; nor can any one since the days of Luther be named, to whom the spirit of free inquiry, nay, the emancipation of the human mind from spiritual tyranny, owes a more lasting debt of gratitude. No one beyond the pale of the Romish church ever denies his obligation to the great Reformer, whom he thanks and all but reveres for having broken the chains of her spiritual thraldom. All his coarseness, all his low ribaldry, all that makes the reading of his works in many places disgusting, in not a few offensive to common decency, and even to the decorum proper to the handling of pious topics, all his assaults upon things which should have been sacred from rude touch, as well as his adherence with unrestrained zeal to some of the most erroneous tenets of the Romish faith-all are forgiven, nay, forgotten, in contemplating the man

*

* See particularly his abominable sermon at Wittenberg, on marriage, actually preached, and of so immoral a tendency, as well as couched in such indelicate language, that it can only be referred to without translation, by Bishop Bossuet and others; also his Table-talk,' in those parts where he treats of women, and describes with ribaldry the most filthy his conflicts against the devil. Nothing in Rabelais is more coarse. Indeed these are passages unexampled in any printed book; but the original sermon must be consulted, for no translator would soil his page with them, and accordingly Audin and others give them only by allusion and circumlocution. 'Titzen-Rede,' p. 306 and 464, must itself be resorted to if we would see how the great Reformer wrote and spoke. His allowing the Landgrave of Hesse to marry a second wife while the first was living, and the grounds of the permission, are well known; and the attempt to deny this passage of his life is an entire failure.

of whom we can say "He broke our chains." Unhappily the bad parts of Voltaire's writings are not only placed as it were in a setting by the graces of his style, so that we unwillingly cast them aside, but embalmed for conservation in the spirit of his immortal wit. But if ever the time shall arrive when men, intent solely on graver matters, and bending their whole minds to things of solid importance, shall be careless of such light accomplishments, and the writings which now have so great a relish, more or less openly tasted, shall pass into oblivion, then the impression which this great genius has left will remain ; and while his failings are forgotten, and the influence of his faults corrected, the world, wiser and better because he lived, will continue still to celebrate his

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*The edition of Voltaire referred to in this 'Life' is that of Baudouin, at Paris, 1828, in 75 volumes.

APPENDIX.

I.

It would be improper to dismiss the subject of Voltaire without adverting to the somewhat ambitious work which Condorcet has written under the somewhat inaccurate title of his Life.' This is a defence and panegyric throughout; no admission of blame, or even error, is ever made; and there is a scorn of all details, facts, dates, which takes from the book its whole value as a biographical, while its unremitting partiality deprives it of all merit as a philosophical composition. Considering the importance of the subject, and the resources of the writer for either recording facts or giving a commentary, it may safely be asserted that there is no greater failure than this work, appealed to as it so often is, out of mere deference to the respectable name it bears. Condorcet was a man of science, no doubt, a good mathematician; but he was in other respects of a middling understanding and violent feelings. In the revolution they called him "le mouton enragé," by way of describing his feeble fury. He belonged to the class of literary men in France whose intolerance was fully equal to that of their pious adversaries-those denouncing as superstition all belief, these holding all doubt to be impious. Rather enamoured of Voltaire's irreligion than dazzled with his wit or his fine sense, he makes no distinction between his good and his bad writings in point of moral worth, nor indeed ever seems to admit that in point of merit one is or can be inferior to another. Witness his panegyric of the 'Pucelle,' which, after some passages were erased, he pronounces to be "a work for which the author of 'Mahomet' and 'Louis XIV.' had no longer any reason to blush" (Vie de Voltaire, 100). His credulity on material things is at least equal to his unbelief on spiritual. He gravely relates that hopes were held out from the court of Madame de Pompadour of

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VOL. II.

a cardinal's hat for Voltaire when he was instructed to translate some psalms, a task which he performed with such admirable address, though in perfect good faith, that they excited a general horror, and were condemned to be burnt. It is none of the least absurd parts of Condorcet's work, that he, being so well versed in physical and mathematical science, passes without any particular observation the writings of Voltaire on physical subjects, when he was so competent to pronounce an opinion upon their merits. But the strangest part of the matter is, that the author of Voltaire's 'Life' should apparently never have read his voluminous and various correspondence, from which alone the real materials for such a work are to be obtained. He might as well have undertaken the 'Life' of Rousseau without reading the 'Confessions.'

The publication in 1820 of Madame de Grafigny's 'Letters,' while residing for six months at Cirey, entitled, not accurately, 'Vie privée de Voltaire et de Madame du Chatelet,' adds some curious particulars to our former knowledge of Madame du Chatelet and of her household, always supposing that we can entirely rely on the testimony of a woman whose own character was very far from respectable, and who professedly acted the very unworthy part of an eaves-dropper for so considerable a time, pleading only as her excuse the extreme penury from which the hospitality that she violated afforded her a shelter. On Voltaire's character it casts no new light whatever, except that it tends to raise our admiration of his talents, if that be possible, and also of his kindly disposition. Of Madame du Chatelet it gives a far less amiable picture.

II.

I HAVE been favoured, by the great kindness of Mr. Stanford, F.R.S., with part of a series of letters which Voltaire wrote to the Duchess Louisa of Saxe Gotha, grandmother of the late Duke, and of which his Serene Highness was graciously pleased to allow him to make a copy. By Mr. Stanford's permission I am enabled to add some of them; and I have selected the six following, which are now

for the first time made public. They will be found very interesting.

MADAME,

No. 1.

À Swetzingen, près de Manheim, 1754. Je m'approche du midy à pas lents en regrettant cette Turinge que votre Altesse Sérénissime embelissait à mes yeux, et ou elle faisait naître de si beau jours, qu'il semble que vos bontez aient donné: j'ai trouvé à la cour de Manheim une image de ces bontez, dont j'ai été comblé à Gotha: cela ne sert qu'à redoubler mes regrets; je les porterai partout. Il faut enfin aller à Plombières suivant les ordres des médecins et des rois, deux espèces très respectables, avec lesquelles on prétend que la vie humaine est quelquefois en danger; mais je supplie votre Altesse Sérénissime de considérer combien je luy suis fidèle: il n'y a point d'ancien chevalier errant qui ait si constamment tenu sa promesse. J'ai achevé Charles Quint tantôt à Mayence, tantôt à Manheim; j'ai été jusqu'au Chimiste Rodolphe Second; j'ai songé de cour en cour, de cabaret en cabaret, que j'avais des ordres de Madame la Duchesse de Gotha; je voiage avec des livres comme les héroïnes de roman voiageaient avec des diamants et du linge sale; je trouverai à Strasbourg des secours pour achever ce que mon obéissance à vos ordres a commencé; mais, Madame, qu'il sera dur de vous obéir de si loin!

Je ne ferai jamais qu'une seule prière à Dieu: je luy diray, Donnez moy la santé pour que je retourne à Gotha. Je me flatte que la Grande Maîtresse des Cours me conserve toujours ses bontez; qu'elle me protège toujours auprès de votre Altesse Sérénissime. Je me mets à vos pieds, Madame, avec quarante Empereurs, préférant assurément la vie heureuse de Gotha à toutes leurs aventures. Je serai attaché le reste de ma vie à votre Altesse Sérénissime, avec le plus profond respect, et une reconnaissance inalterable. Permettez moy, Madame, de présenter les mêmes sentimens à Monseigneur le Duc et à votre auguste famille.

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