498 
VOLT 
quillity, however, was soon interrupted, on occasion of a 
dispute between Maupertuis and Koenig; for though the 
king desired him not to interfere, he took part against Mau- 
pertuis, and Frederick sent him his dismission. During his 
absence on a visit to the duchess of Saxe-Gotha, Mauper¬ 
tuis, as he says, used his influence to lower him in the king’s 
estimation; and, therefore, instead of returning to Berlin, 
he proceeded towards France; but at Frankfort he was ar¬ 
rested by the king’s order, and obliged to restore his poems, 
with which he had been intrusted for correction, together 
with his key, cross, and the brevet for his pension. It was 
now his wish to reside at Paris; but he could not obtain 
permission for this purpose, as he had published a licentious 
poem, “ La Pucelle d’Orleans,” which had raised a violent 
outcry against him; and, therefore, after a year’s stay at Col¬ 
mar, he purchased a country-house near Geneva; and hav¬ 
ing gratified his petulant disposition by interfering in the 
political disputes of this place, he thought proper to remove, 
and bought an estate at Ferney, in the Pays de Gex. Here 
he lived, as one of his biographers has said, “ like a petty 
prince in his own territory;”—“ improving his own village 
by encouraging colonists, and introducing manufactures, 
which, through his influence, obtained a sale in many coun¬ 
tries of the continent .”—“ A declared enemy to tyranny and 
oppression of every kind, he undertook the protection of 
several sufferers from injustice, among whom were the family 
of Calas, a noted victim of religious bigotry. He made the 
enormity of these abuses of power known throughout Eu¬ 
rope, and set himself up as a kind of general censor, to 
whose tribunal the highest ranks were amenable.” He poured 
forth from this retreat a variety of works, which were sought 
after and generally read. In his retreat he was visited by 
the most distinguished persons who came near his abode, 
and he corresponded with some of the chief sovereigns of 
Europe. Nevertheless he was not happy. Impatient and 
restless in his disposition, and irritable in his temper, he 
was self-tormented. In advanced life he wished again to 
emerge from obscurity; and in February, 1778, he visited 
Paris, where he had many admirers, and where he was re¬ 
garded also with aversion and alarm. Here his vanity and 
love of admiration and praise must be fully gratified, by the 
manner in which he was received at the theatre, after the 
exhibition of his “ Irene,” which he had brought with him. 
As soon as he was seated in his box, after having received 
repeated plaudits in his way to it, an actor placed a crown 
on his head. When the play was concluded, the drawing 
up of the curtain displayed all the actors and actresses sur¬ 
rounding a bust of Voltaire, and by turns covering it with 
garlands of laurel; and Mad. Vestris, advancing to the front 
of the stage, pronounced some verses to his praise, composed 
on the spot by a nobleman, amid the shouts of the audience. 
This reception produced effects on his feeble frame, which 
probably hastened its dissolution. Of this Voltaire himself 
seems to have been apprised, when he said in a tone of deep 
melancholy, “ I am come to Paris to find glory and a tomb.” 
Unable to sleep, it is thought that he accelerated his death 
by taking too large a dose of opium. When he was thought 
to be near his last moments, the Marquis de Vilette, with 
whom he resided, sent for the rector of St. Sulpice to ad¬ 
minister the last offices which are thought essential to the 
safely of a Catholic Christian. What passed between Vol¬ 
taire and the rector on this occasion has been differently 
stated; but it is certain that he died, without the last sacra¬ 
ments, on the 30th of May, 1778, in the 85th year of his 
age. It is said that the archbishop of Paris absolutely re¬ 
fused to allow him Christian burial, and that his body was 
secretly conveyed for interment to Sellieres, an abbey of 
Bernardines, between Nogent and Troyes. It was thence 
brought, by a decree of the national assembly in 1791, to be 
reposited in St. Genevieve's at Paris. 
“The physiognomy of Voltaire,” says his biographer, 
“ was indicative of his disposition. It is said to have par¬ 
taken of the eagle and the monkey; and to the fire and ra¬ 
pidity of the former animal, he united the mischievous and 
AIRE. 
malicious propensities of the latter. With strong percep¬ 
tions of moral excellence and elevation, he was little and 
mean in conduct, a victim to petty passions and caprices; 
never at rest either in mind or body, never tranquil or se¬ 
date. If he was a philosopher, it vras in his opinions, not 
in his actions. He had been accustomed from liis youth to 
pay as much homage to rank and wealth as his vanity would 
permit; his tastes of life were vitiated, and his manners cor¬ 
rupted : he could not, therefore, be a consistent friend to 
virtue and liberty, though he might occasionally be capti¬ 
vated with her charms, and even zealous in their support. 
He was habitually avaricious, though he performed some 
generous acts, which, however, he took care to make known. 
He was too selfish to inspire love, and too capricious to 
merit esteem. He had numerous admirers, but probably not 
one friend.” 
As a poetical writer, he was distinguished by his “ Hen- 
riade,” which was considered as the principal epic poem in 
the French language, and by his tragedies, which are said 
to have more variety of style and subject than those of Cor¬ 
neille and Racine; but in comedy and lyric composition 
he was not equally successful. The morality of his moral 
epistles, which are excellent in their manner, is liable to 
many objections. As a prose writer, Voltaire has been 
commended for that kind of middle style, which is pure, 
unaffected, lively, precise, and always in good taste. In the 
department of history, his principal works are the “ Essai 
sur Histoire generale,” and the “ Siecles de Louis XIV. et 
de Louis XV.” His “ Histoire de Charles XII.” is a model 
of biography. All the works of Voltaire amount to 30 vols. 
4to. of the Genevan edition, and 71 vols. 8vo. in the more 
complete edition of Basil. Gen. Biog. 
VOLTAISM. See Galvanism and Electricity. 
VOLTERA, an inland town of Italy, in Tuscany, situated 
on high ground on the river Era; 24 miles south-by-west of 
Florence. Population 5000. 
VOLTERRA (Daniele di), the cognomen of an artist of 
great renown, whose real name was Daniele Ricciarelli. He 
was a native of Volterra, and born in 1509, and was first a 
disciple of Giovanni Antonio Razzi, called II Sodoma, and 
afterwards of Baldassare Peruzzi. Unemployed in his native 
city, and without means of improvement, he went to Rome, 
and wrought some time for cardinal Trivulzi, to whom a pic¬ 
ture of the Flagellation he had brought with him served as a 
recommendation. He afterwards assisted Pierino del Vaga 
in the capella Massimi at the Trinita da Monti; and in San 
Marcello, where he finished, from the designs of del Vaga, 
the four Evangelists, with various other figures, and orna¬ 
mental enrichments. From designs of the same master he 
also painted a frieze in the hall of the palazzo Massimi, and 
these works combined gave him so much renown, that sig¬ 
nora Elena Orsina was induced to employ him to adorn her 
family chapel in the church of the Trinita da Monti. 
He had in the mean time cultivated the friendship of 
Michel Angiolo and Sebastian del Piombo, and by their 
communion, and the study of their works, aggrandized his 
style and formed his manner; and the work which he pro¬ 
duced in the capella Orsini, the Descent from the Cross, 
testified how worthy he was of such society. The work of 
this chapel, which was adorned not only with an altar-piece, 
but also with various other designs historical and ornamental, 
and all in fresco, occupied him seven years. The merit of 
the principal picture above-mentioned, has placed it, in 
public estimation, on a level with the Transfiguration by 
Raffaelle, and the Communion of St. Jerome by Domini- 
chino ; and induced the French, in their rage for spoliation, 
to attempt the removal of it from the wall. And they effected 
it, though they never transported it to France, but in doing 
so, they cut away so much of the angles of the chapel that 
the roof fell in, but not till the picture had been removed out 
of danger. It was afterwards turned, so that its face was 
made visible, and an attempt was made by soma ignorant 
pretender to enliven the colours by means of oil or varnish : 
the consequence has been, that the surface is become black. 
