VOLTAIRE. 131 



most inoffensive, and even moral of men ; while Voltaire, 

 who never said worse than D'Alembert freely but pri- 

 vately wrote, raises in their minds the idea of an ema- 

 nation from the father of all evil. It may be hard to 

 define the bounds which should contain the free dis- 

 cussion of sacred subjects. Those who are the most 

 firmly convinced of religious truth are, generally speak- 

 ing, the most careless to what extent the liberty of as- 

 sailing it, in examining its grounds, shall be carried ; 

 but without attempting to lay down any such rule, 

 we may safely admit that Voltaire offended, and 

 offended grievously, by the manner in which he de- 

 voted himself to crying down the sacred things of his 

 country, whether we regard the interests of society at 

 large, or the interests of the particular system which 

 he desired to establish. 



But though it would be exceedingly wrong to pass 

 over this great and prevailing fault without severe re- 

 probation, it would be equally unjust, nay, ungrateful, 

 ever to forget the immense obligations under which 

 Voltaire has laid mankind by his writings, the pleasure 

 derived from his fancy and his wit, the amusement 

 which his singular and original humour bestows, even 

 the copious instruction with which his historical 

 works are pregnant, and the vast improvement in the 

 manner of writing history which we owe to him. Yet 

 great as these services are among the greatest that 

 can be rendered by a man of letters they are really of 

 far inferior value to the benefits which have resulted 

 from his long and arduous struggle against oppression, 

 especially against tyranny in the worst form which it 

 can assume, the persecution of opinion, the infraction of 



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