1 30 VOLTAIRE. 



have held the books which should have been written." 

 But there is a perpetual appeal from the calm reason of 

 the reflecting few to the laugh of the thoughtless many ; 

 a substitution often, generally an addition, of sneer, 

 and gibe, and coarse ridicule, to argumentation ; a 

 determination to cry down and laugh down the dogmas 

 which, with his learning and his reason, he was also 

 assaulting in lawful combat. And the consequence 

 has been, that although nothing can be more inaccurate 

 than the notion that he never argues, never produces 

 any proofs which make their appeal to the understand- 

 ing, yet he passes with the bulk of mankind for a profane 

 scoffer, and little more. The belief of D'Alembert 

 was exactly the same with his own ; he has left 

 abundance of letters which show that he had as much 

 zeal against religion as his master, and entered with 

 as much delight into all his endless ribaldry at the 

 expense of the faith and the faithful ;* but because he 

 never publicly joined in the assault, we find even those 

 who most thoroughly knew his opinions, nay, bishops 

 themselves, concurring in the chant of his praises, as the 



* See especially such letters as that in which he speaks of the 

 ' Dictionnaire Philosophique,' calling it the Dictionnaire de Satan : 

 " Si j'avais des connaissances a I'imprimerie de Belzebuth, je m'em- 

 presserai de m'en procurer un exemplaire ; car cette lecture m'a fait 

 un plaisir de tous les diables." He says he has swallowed it, 

 " Gloutonnement, en mettant les morceaux en double ;" and adds 

 " Assurement si 1'auteur va dans les etats de celui qui a fait impri- 

 mer cet ouvrage infernal, il sera au moins son premier ministre : per- 

 sonne ne lui a rendu des services plus importans." (Cor. d'AL, 274.) 

 The flippancy of this work, which threw D'Alembert into such rap- 

 tures, is nearly equal to its great learning and ability. Thus, vol. vi. 

 p. 274 : " Bon jour, mon ami Job ! tu es un des plus grands ori- 

 ginaux," &c. &c. 



