VOLTAIRE. 5 



person carelessly gives way to a prevailing unbelief, 

 and does not apply his faculties to the inquiry with 

 that sober attention, that conscientious diligence, 

 which its immense importance demands of all rational 

 creatures. No man is accountable for the opinion he 

 may form, the conclusion at which he may arrive, 

 provided that he has taken due pains to inform his 

 mind and fix his judgment. But for the conduct of 

 his understanding he certainly is responsible. He 

 does more than err if he negligently proceeds in the 

 inquiry ; he does more than err if he allows any 

 motive to sway his mind save the constant and single 

 desire of finding the truth ; he does more than err if 

 he suffers the least influence of temper or of weak 

 feeling to warp his judgment ; he does more than err 

 if he listens rather to ridicule than reason, unless it be 

 that ridicule which springs from the contemplation of 

 gross and manifest absurdity, and which is in truth 

 argument and not ribaldry. 



Now by these plain rules we must try Voltaire ; and 

 it is impossible to deny that he possessed such sufficient 

 information, and applied his mind with such sufficient 

 anxiety to the discovery of truth, as gave him a right 

 to say that he had formed his opinions, how 

 erroneous soever they might be, after inquiring, and 

 not lightly. The story which is related of the Master 

 in the Jesuits' Seminary of Louis le Grand, where he 

 was educated, having foretold that he would be the 

 Corypheus of deists, if true, only proves that he had 

 very early begun to think for himself; and whoever 

 doubted the real presence, or questioned the power of 

 absolution, was at once set down for an infidel in 



