LIFE

OF

M. DE VOLTAIRE.

TO attempt to write a strictly original life of the author of The Philosophical Dictionary, would be to attempt an impracticability, since the world is so universally informed of his character, life, and writings, through the biographical researches of his friend and pupil, the elegant, though unfortunate Condorcet; the leading features of whose relation, it will be our endeavour to delineate with conciseness and veracity.

Whether we regard Voltaire as a politician, whose influential writings created a new mode of thinking in the school of philosophy; or, as a poet, philosopher, and historian, he must be ranked as one of the brightest ornaments of the country which gave him birth.

While Voltaire was the object of jealousy, persecution, and hatred, to the priesthood and the bigotted, he was eloquently advocating the cause of freedom and religious toleration, and strenuously supporting his favourite maxim

Mankind are all stamp'd equal at their birth!
Virtue, alone, the difference makes on earth,

To account for such illiberality and injustice, is not at all difficult. Voltaire had boldly asserted his opinions, in defiance of the agents of tyranny and superstition: he had waged a deadly war against prejudice and ignorance: he had struck a fatal blow at the root of their power: and he had relaxed the hitherto