VOLTAIRE. 13 



siderable emolument. His mother was of a noble 

 family, that of d'Aumart. A small estate possessed by 

 the father was called Voltaire ; and the custom in 

 those days being for the younger children of wealthy 

 commoners to take the name of their estate, leaving 

 the family name to the eldest, Francois Marie, as the 

 younger of two sons^ took the name of Voltaire, which 

 on his brother's death many years after he did not 

 change. He was born the 20th of February, 1 694 ; and 

 being so feeble that his life was not expected, he was 

 baptised immediately, the christening being deferred 

 till the 22d of November following. This has given 

 rise to doubts at which of the two periods his birth took 

 place. It has frequently been remarked as a singular 

 circumstance, that two eminent authors who have 

 lived to extreme old age, Fontenelle and Voltaire, 

 were both thus unlikely at their birth to live at all, 

 both being born almost in a dying condition ; yet not 

 only did they enjoy unusually long life, but they 

 retained their great faculties entire to the last, although 

 the one died in his eighty-fifth year, and the other 

 lived to within a few weeks of a hundred. 



When only twelve years of age, he distinguished 

 himself by the excellence of some begging verses to 

 the Dauphin from an invalid who had served under 

 the prince, and who applied for this help to the 

 Master of the College of Louis le Grand, where Vol- 

 taire then was. The master being busy, handed 

 him over to his promising scholar, as being quite able 

 to do what was desired. The lines are very good, and 

 the idea sufficiently happy. The old soldier is made 

 to say that the different heathen gods having given 



