VOLTAIRE. 109 



a charm that its repeated perusal never wearies, we are 

 left in doubt whether most to admire the plain, sound 

 sense, above all cant, of some parts, or the rich fancy 

 of others ; the singular felicity of the design for the 

 purposes it is intended to serve, or the natural yet 

 striking graces of the execution. The lightness of the 

 touch with which all the effects are produced the 

 constant affluence of the most playful wit the humour 

 wherever it is wanted, abundant, and never overdone 

 the truth and accuracy of each blow that falls, always 

 on the head of the right nail the quickness and yet 

 the ease of the transitions the lucid clearness of the 

 language, pure, simple, entirely natural the perfect 

 conciseness of diction as well as brevity of composition, 

 so that there is not a line, or even a word, that seems 

 ever to be superfluous, and a point, a single phrase, 

 sometimes a single word, produces the whole effect 

 intended ; these are qualities that we shall in vain look 

 for in any other work of the same description, per- 

 haps in any other work of fancy. That there is a cari- 

 cature throughout, no one denies ; but the design is to 

 caricature, and the doctrines ridiculed are themselves 

 a gross and intolerable exaggeration. That there occur 

 here and there irreverent expressions is equally true ; but 

 that there is anything irreligious in the ridicule of a 

 doctrine which is in itself directly at variance with all 

 religion, at least with all the hopes of a future state, 

 the most valuable portion of every religious system, 

 may most confidently be denied. We have already 

 seen Voltaire's sober and enlightened view of this 

 subject in his moral poems, and those views agree with 

 the opinions of the most pious Christians, as well as 

 the most enlightened philosophers, who, unable to 



