8 VOLTAIRE. 



participation of that priest in the attributes of the God- 

 head. Let us be just towards the youth who was 

 placed in these circumstances, and let us not condemn 

 him for hastily rejecting the wheat with the chaff, 

 before we endeavour to place ourselves in the same 

 situation, asking what effect would be produced on our 

 minds by severe denunciations against us should we 

 doubt the priest's power, or refuse an explicit assent to 

 his dogmas, which our reason, nay our senses rejected, 

 while he refused all access to the inspired volumes 

 which contained, or were said to contain, their only 

 warrant. Rejecting the false doctrines, the chances 

 are many that our faith would be shaken in the true. 

 How many Protestants were made in the sixteenth 

 century by the sale of indulgences ! But how many 

 unbelievers in Christianity have been made in all 

 ages of the Church by the grosser errors of Rome, 

 the exorbitant usurpations of her bishops, and the 

 preposterous claims of her clergy ! 



It is also to be observed that Voltaire was, through 

 his whole life, a sincere believer in the existence and 

 attributes of the Deity. He was a firm and decided, 

 and an openly declared unbeliever in Christianity, but 

 he was, without any hesitation or any intermission, a 

 theist. Then in examining, the justice of the charge 

 of blasphemy it is to be borne in mind that not one 

 irreverent expression is to be found in all his number- 

 less writings towards the Deity in whom he believed. 

 He has more ably than most writers stated and illus- 

 trated the arguments in favour of that belief. He has 

 consecrated some of his noblest poetry to celebrate the 



