VOLTAIRE. 15 



of classical study, and he had lived in a society fre- 

 quented by the Abbe his godfather, who appears to 

 have been a person of loose morals and of sceptical 

 opinions. The extreme bigotry which Madame de 

 Maintenon had introduced into the Court of Versailles 

 when the declining faculties and health of Louis 

 XIV. had rendered him the victim of superstitious 

 terrors, and, through these, the tool of priestly intole- 

 rance, gave rise to a reaction in the gay circles of 

 Paris ; and in resisting the inroads of that gloom by 

 which the asceticism of the ancient mistress had signa- 

 lised her late repentance, the Contis, the Chaulieus, 

 the Sullys, the La Feres, carried their opposition 

 further than they perhaps at first intended, or even 

 afterwards were aware of: they patronised universal 

 discussion, even of the most sacred subjects, and best 

 received opinions, until a fashion of free thinking was 

 set ; and from being at first revolted at the intolerance 

 which destroyed Catinat at Court, notwithstanding 

 his genius and his probity, on account of his supposed 

 infidelity, and ascribed the defeats of Vendome to his 

 occasional absence from mass, without reflecting that 

 Marlborough was a heretic and Eugene a deist ; the 

 frequenters of the most polished society in the world 

 became accustomed to believe more sparingly than 

 Catinat, and see less of the Host than Vendome. 



It w r as in this association that Voltaire, then a boy, 

 became inured to the oblivion both of his law books 

 and of his religious principles, when his parent made 

 a last effort to save him, and restore him to the 

 learned profession, and to the bosom of the church, 

 by sending him as page or attache to the French am- 



