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VOL from the dangerous fascinations of Paris, his father obtained for him an appointment in the suite of the marquis of Chateauneuf—the French ambassador at the Hague. An entanglement in love resulted in his speedy return to Paris. It was thus early in his career that, in conversation with an old man who could recount to him the doings of Henry IV. and the acts of Louis XIV., Voltaire conceived the idea of two of his most noted works—the "Henriade," and the "Age of Louis XIV." The grand monarch, once the idol of the people, had then lately died in disesteem. Voltaire, already known as a wit, was accused of being the writer of one of the many satires that had appeared, as if to insult the memory of the late king. On the ground of this suspicion he was committed to the Bastile, where he employed himself in digesting several of his literary enterprises. He owed his release to the intervention of M. the duke d'Orléans. The tragedy, "Œdipus," was performed at Paris in 1718. The author was then in his twenty-fourth year. It won its success only after the young writer had submitted to a pedantic addition, in compliance with the false taste of the age. But it was this price that provoked an animosity which, through a course of sixty years, did not for a moment cease to pursue him. The provocation was couched in the lines—

His next play was not received with favour, and perhaps gave his envious competitors a pretext for the malice of which his genius had made him the object. In 1722 Voltaire, on his way to Holland, visited J. J. Rousseau; but the transient friendship of the two men of genius ended in jealousy, and on the part of Rousseau in a sort of brutal malice, which years did not abate. Two years later an imperfect, and it appears, a surreptitious edition of the "Henriade," under the title of "The League," appeared. It was the first epic poem which French literature had produced. Abounding as this poem does in passages which convey just and noble sentiments, and principles little understood in France at that time, the "Henriade" will fail to engage the feelings of the reader, or to win for its hero any vivid admiration. In its corrected form it was first printed in London, 1728, and was dedicated to the queen—Caroline, wife of George II. A casual personal affront which the French law, as it was then interpreted, would not avenge, had the effect of sending Voltaire again to the Bastile, and at the end of a six months' imprisonment he was ordered to quit Paris. In the end he found his ample revenge in that homage which his country, and Europe also, rendered to his genius. He found an asylum in England; and his sojourn there, beside that it availed to give him knowledge and command of the language, filled him with admiration of that liberty, civil and religious, in which his own country was so deplorably deficient. In England he learned to admire, and perhaps to understand, Newton, Locke, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Pope, and other noted writers of the same and of the preceding age. In truth, it was in England that Voltaire found for himself a standing on the ground of philosophic deism, from which he was not afterwards dislodged by either the reasoning or the ridicule of the atheists of the Encyclopedia. At no point of his course in after life did the virulence of his hatred of Christianity impel him to abandon this position. It is a mistake to confound Voltaire with the godless men who led forward the Revolution. A mistake also would it be to imagine that, as to its consequences on the popular mind, antichristian deism will differ at all from antichristian atheism. During his stay in England—about three years—Voltaire composed the tragedy of "Brutus;" and afterwards, in imitation of the Julius Cæsar of Shakspeare, a tragedy which he did not venture to bring into public on the theatre.

Voltaire had inherited a fortune sufficient to render him independent of literature as a profession. It is affirmed also that he had acquired property in some dealings in the funds; and on this ground of personal independence he took his stand, as the determined adversary of the frivolous superstitions, the despotism, the blind and profligate hypocrisy, of the court and of its adherents. The theatre was then the only court open to genius and to freedom. On this arena a writer so brilliant as Voltaire might almost defy his powerful assailants. He did so in the "Zaïre," composed in little more than a fortnight, the success of which carried the author to the pinnacle of popular favour. He had, in this tragedy, broken away from the usages of his art, and had asserted, and had used, the privilege of genius to shape its own course, and to enact laws which it will obey and illustrate. The failure of several other pieces did not either overthrow the author's repute or discourage him; the less so because the versatility of his genius, and the great range and compass of his acquirements, made it easy for him to win triumphs in several independent walks of literature. During his sojourn in England he had collected materials for the history of Charles XII. of Sweden; and he also prepared himself for writing the "Lettres sur les Anglais," which appeared at a later time, and which brought to the knowledge of his countrymen what was then strange to all but a very few of them. "La Pucelle," liable as it is to severe criticism as offensive to morality, gave umbrage anew to the author's alarmed opponents, who threatened him with their vengeance in case of its publication entire; for at first a few passages only from it had been handed about. "Write what you will," said one of these to Voltaire, "you will not destroy the christian religion." "We shall see about that," was his reply. There was here a mistake on both sides. This brilliant writer mistook the superstition, the hypocrisy, the intolerance, which disgraced the nation and its government, for Christianity. He did overthrow the despotism and the falseness of the court and of the church. The Christianity which he quite failed to understand has survived his assaults and those of more able men. His opponents, on their side, misjudging the facts in a similar manner, believed, as such men are wont to believe, that the gospel, which itself survives all attacks, would indulgently defend them and their follies in maintaining a false position. These infatuated officials little thought how near at hand was the time when Voltaire's pointed predictions would be verified. Somebody had been sent to the Bastile by means of a forged lettre de cachet. "What do you do with those," asked Voltaire, "who forge lettres de cachet?" "Oh, we hang them!" "That is well so far; until the time comes for hanging those who write the genuine lettres de cachet." He resolved at length to put himself out of the reach of these repeated persecutions. He had formed an intimacy with a literary and philosophic lady—the Marchioness du Chatelet—accomplished, perhaps learned, and enthusiastic—a reader also of Leibnitz and of Newton; she and her illustrious friend believed that they should find retirement from the world not irksome. They found a retreat at Cirey, a place on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine. It was here that he put together a popular exposition of the discoveries of Newton in astronomy and optics. The Cartesian philosophy was professed and supported by the learned bodies of France, and therefore its undisputed supremacy was with them a point of honour. The author was accordingly denied the privilege needed for the publication of his book. As he had occupied himself with the physical sciences, he became a candidate for the prize of the Academy, which in fact was awarded to Euler. He won, however, the approval of the Academy for a memoir in which he ranged himself on the side of Descartes and Newton, against Leibnitz and Bernouilli; but what he did on this ground did not avail to enhance his reputation. Of this fact he became conscious; and following the advice of a friend, he returned to his proper course in poetry and literature. While in his retirement at Cirey, Voltaire composed his "Alzire," "Zulime," and "Mahomet;" his essay on man also, and his history of Charles of Sweden. He prepared himself also for his history of Louis XIV., and the essay on the manners and spirit of nations.

It was during his residence at Cirey that commenced a correspondence between Voltaire and the prince royal of Prussia, afterwards Frederick (called the Great). The prince, himself ambitious of literary fame, and especially desiring celebrity as a writer of French, opened the correspondence by asking his criticism of a something he had composed. Adulation on the one side, vanity on the other, gave animation to this unevenly matched friendship, which was again and again broken off by the fitful egotism of both parties. This friendship was not deepened by the personal intimacy which took place at Potsdam, at the invitation of Frederick. A consequence of this friendship was, that on a difficult occasion Voltaire was sent to Berlin by the government for the purpose of engaging Frederick in the interests of France. In this errand he was in part successful, yet failed to win the favour of his employers. But in 1746, through the influence of Madame de Pompadour, he was admitted a member of the French Academy, in the room of Bouhier. He was also appointed historiographer of France, and gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi. At Luneville he made the