VOLTAIRE. 9 



powers of the Godhead.* Whatever exceptionto this 

 assertion may seem to be found in those writings will, 

 on consideration, prove to be only apparent. It will 

 be found that he is speaking only of the Deity as 

 represented in systems of religion which he dis- 

 believed \ consequently he is there ridiculing only the 

 idols, the work of men's hands, and the objects of 

 superstitious worsftip, not the great Being in whom he 

 believed and whom he adored. Even his ' Candide,' 

 one of his greatest, perhaps his most perfect work, is 

 only intended to expose the extravagance of the optimist 

 doctrine ; and however we may lament its tone in some 

 sort, it is certainly not chargeable with ridiculing any- 

 thing which a philosophic theist must necessarily 

 believe. 



But no one can exempt Voltaire from blame for the 

 manner in which he attacked religious opinions, and 

 outraged the feelings of believers. There he is without 

 defence. Had all men been prepared to make the step 



* His dramatic compositions abound in such religious sentiments, 

 clothed in the noblest language of poetical abstraction ; but his 

 celebrated verses, said to have been written extempore in a com- 

 pany that were admiring the firmament one summer's evening, may 

 be placed by the side of the finest compositions in that kind 



" Tous ces vastes pays d'azur et de lumiere, 

 Tires du sein du vide, formes sans matiere, 

 Guides sans compas, tournans sans pivot, 

 N'ont a peine coute la depense d'un mot." 



When I once cited these to my illustrious friend Monti, who never 

 would allow any poetical merit to the French, he objected to the 

 last phrase, which he called the pivot, as low and prosaic, and as 

 affording a proof of his constant position that the French have no 

 poetical language. 



