12 VOLTAIRE. 



Christians whose piety and virtue, and whose orthodoxy, 

 are beyond all suspicion : "The proper punishment," 

 says Lardner, "of a low, mean, indecent, scurrilous 

 way of writing, seems to be neglect, contempt, scorn, and 

 final indignation" (Letter to the Bishop of Chester on the 

 Prosecution of Wookton, 1729). "Blasphemy" (says 

 Taylor) " is in aliena republica, a matter of another 

 world. You may as well cure the colic by brushing a 

 man's clothes, or fill a man's belly with a syllogism, as 

 prosecute for blasphemy. Some men have believed it 

 the more as being provoked into a confidence and vexed 

 into a resolution. Force in matters of opinion can do 

 no good, but is very apt to do hurt ; for no man can 

 change his opinion when he will. But if a man 

 cannot change his opinion when he list, nor ever does 

 heartily or resolutely but when he cannot do other- 

 wise, then to use force may make him a hypocrite, 

 but never to be a right believer ; and so, instead of 

 erecting a trophy to God and true religion, we build 

 a monument for the devil" (Liberty of Prophesying, 

 s.xiii. 19.) Bishop Warburton says plainly, "he should 

 have been ashamed of even projecting to write in 

 defence of Moses had he not thought that all infidels 

 had equal liberty to attack him." (Dedication to the 

 Divine Legation.) 



These things being premised, we may now proceed 

 with more ease and less interruption from controversial 

 topics, to examine the extraordinary history of this 

 eminent person. 



He was the son of the Sieur Arouet, a person of 

 respectable family, filling the place of treasurer in the 

 Chamber of Accounts, an exchequer office of con- 



