| François-Marie Arouet | |||||
| 弗朗索瓦-馬裏‧阿魯埃 | |||||
閱讀伏爾泰 Voltaire在小说之家的作品!!! | |||||
伏爾泰-個人概述
伏爾泰雕像
伏爾泰原名F.M.阿魯埃，1694年11月21日生於巴黎一個富裕的資産階級家庭。伏爾泰在求學時期受到自由主義思潮、特別是P.貝勒反對宗教狂熱著作的影響，中學畢業後致力於文學創作，發表揭露宮廷腐敗和教會專橫的諷刺詩，於1717年和1725年兩次被投入巴士底獄，並從1726年起被迫流亡英國。在英國，伏爾泰努力學習英國資産階級的先進思想，成為I.牛頓和J.洛剋的信徒。他熱情支持百科全書派的啓蒙運動。反對封建專製制度，主張由開明的君主執政，強調資産階級的自由和平等，批判天主教會的黑暗和腐朽。 伏爾泰與朋友聯手細緻地計算了政府發行的有奬抽簽的中選概率，並發現國傢發行的奬券隱含着一大漏洞：“如果買入奬券全額，你就可以中彩金100萬裏弗爾（貨幣計量單位）。” 於是，伏爾泰與朋友聯手藉款，用藉到的錢買進了所有的奬券。得知事情詳情的財政大臣立即命令停止支付奬金並狀告伏爾泰及其朋友詐欺罪。雖然當時還是專製時代，但國傢還是輸掉了這場官司。 最後，伏爾泰及其朋友們共獲得了50萬裏弗爾。
伏爾泰-生平簡介
伏爾泰青年
伏爾泰出生在巴黎一個富裕的中産階級家庭，父親是一位法律公證人，母親來自普瓦圖省的一個貴族家庭。伏爾泰在三兄弟中排行最末。伏爾泰先後在巴黎耶穌會和路易大帝高中（Collège Louis-le-Grand）接受教育。據說伏爾泰非常聰明，3歲能夠背誦文學名著，12歲能夠作詩。在高中時代，伏爾泰便掌握了拉丁文和希臘文，後來更通曉意大利語、西班牙語和英語。1711年至1713年間攻讀法律。投身文學之前，伏爾泰還為法國駐荷蘭大使當過秘書，並與一名法國女子墮入愛河。兩人私奔的計劃被伏爾泰的父親發現，被迫回國。
事實上，伏爾泰在高中畢業後便有從文的願望，但他的父親希望他讀法律。伏爾泰假裝在巴黎為一名律師擔任助手，實際上大多數時間用在創作諷刺詩上。這件事很快被他父親發現，將他送到外省（巴黎地區之外的地方）讀法律。然而，伏爾泰堅持寫作論文和作不太講究考證的歷史研究。伏爾泰的智慧很快就使他受不少貴族家庭的歡迎。伏爾泰的早期文學作品對王室及天主教會進行辛辣的諷刺，結果是多次的入獄及流亡。1717年，他因寫諷刺詩影射宮廷的淫亂生活，被投入巴士底獄關押了11個月。在獄中，伏爾泰完成了他的第一部劇本：關於路易十五的攝政，菲利普二世（奧爾良公爵）的《俄狄浦斯王》（Œdipe）。這部作品中，他首次使用了“伏爾泰”作為筆名，這來自他在法國南部的故鄉一座城堡的名字。出獄不久，劇本在巴黎上演，使他在文學界大露頭角。1726年，伏爾泰因遭誣告再次入獄，出獄後，伏爾泰被驅逐出境，流亡英國。
伏爾泰在英國流亡期間 (1726年-1728年) 對當地的政治、社會、宗教、科學等狀況非常感興趣。他詳細考察了君主立憲的政治制度，深入研究了洛剋的哲學著作和牛頓的科學成果，形成了反對封建專製主義的政治主張和自然神論的哲學觀點。
伏案工作的伏爾泰
回國後，伏爾泰發表了《英國書信集》 (英語：Letters Concerning the English Nation，法文：Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais) ，宣揚英國資産階級革命後的成就，抨擊法國的專製政體。書信集出版後即被查禁，巴黎法院下令逮捕作者。他逃至女友夏特萊侯爵夫人 在西雷村的莊園，隱居14年。這期間他一度被宮廷任命為史官，並於1746年當選為法蘭西學院院士。
伏爾泰結束流亡回到法國以後不久便開始與夏特萊侯爵夫人（Marquise du Châtelet, Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil）長達十五年的愛情關係。除了哲學上的討論以外，他們在同居處設立物理實驗室，一起研讀牛頓的《自然哲學的數學原理》，並且夏特萊侯爵夫人是最早把《自然哲學的數學原理》從拉丁文翻譯成法文的人。
1749年，夏特萊侯爵夫人 逝世。1750年，想在政治上有所作為的伏爾泰應當時普魯士國王腓特烈二世（腓特烈大帝）邀請到柏林，得到了一個不錯的職位，la clef de chambellan以及很好的待遇。他作為一名哲學家，與法語說的近乎完美的國王建立了友誼。但是這兩位朋友沒有能夠長時間地互相包容對方的主要特點，前者擁有高超的智力與犀利的性格，後者喜怒無常，習慣於別人的唯命是從。分歧的擴大不可避免，並且在1753年，伏爾泰與Maupertuis發生爭吵，後者支持國王。這一事件導致了他與國王關係的破裂，並促使他離開普魯士。他在居留柏林時期最重要的出版著作是《路易十四的世紀》（LE SIECLE DE LOUIS XIV)。
伏爾泰死前幾年就經常被公認是啓蒙時代最主要的哲學家，受到法國大多數人民的愛戴。
伏爾泰-職業生涯
伏爾泰畫像
伏爾泰於1729年回到法國，積極開展啓蒙宣傳活動。他在1730～1732年，連續發表了悲劇《布魯杜斯》、歷史著作《查理十二史》，對宗教偏執和封建專製主義作了尖銳的揭露和抨擊。1734年伏爾泰發表了《哲學通信》，全面論述了他的哲學和政治思想。這一重要著作出版後，立即遭到查禁，伏爾泰被迫逃亡到洛蘭省邊境的西雷城堡。在那裏，伏爾泰住了15年，完成了大量著述。主要哲學專著有：《形而上學論》、《牛頓哲學原理》等。1750年，伏爾泰應弗裏德裏希二世之邀，懷着勸說這位普魯士王推行開明政治的幻想來到柏林，在德國逗留了四、五年。這期間他出版了重要史學專著《路易十四朝紀事》，係統地論述了他關於實行開明君主制度的政治主張。但是，當伏爾泰終於認識到自己被這位偽善的專製君主欺騙和利用以後，便於1755年不辭而別，到法國和瑞士邊境一個偏僻地方凡爾那購置地産定居下來。從此，伏爾泰開始了反封建戰鬥生活的新階段。他加強了與國內外著名學者的聯繫，熱情支持百科全書派的D.狄德羅等新一代啓蒙學者，利用各種鬥爭形式抨擊宗教狂熱和封建王朝的罪行，推動了為民主自由而進行的鬥爭。這一時期他除繼續創作一係列戲劇作品外，還完成了歷史著作《彼得大帝治下的俄羅斯》、《議會史》，哲理詩《裏斯本的災難》，哲理小說《老實人》、 《天真漢》等。
隨着啓蒙運動的深入發展，伏爾泰的聲望愈來愈高。1778年為出席他的悲劇《伊雷娜》的首次公演而重返巴黎，受到人民群衆盛大歡迎，最終確立了他在18世紀法國啓蒙運動中的崇高地位。同年5月30日逝世。
伏爾泰-個人作品
《哲學通信》
《哲學辭典》（Dictionnaire philosophique）
《哲學通信》
《關於英吉利國的書信》（Letters Concerning the English Nation）
《論寬容》（Traité sur la tolérance）
《形而上學論》《牛頓哲學原理》等著作，其中最有影響的一本書是《哲學通信》被人稱為“投嚮舊制度的第一顆炸彈”。
小說
《憨第德》（Candide，又譯《老實人》）
《天真漢》
戲劇
Oedipe 《歐第伯》
La Henriade
《趙氏孤兒》（翻譯）
史詩《亨利亞德》《奧爾良少女》
歷史著作有《查理十二史》（１７３１）、《路易十四時代》（１７５１）和《風俗論》（１７５６）等
伏爾泰-個人榮譽
伏爾泰在朗誦自己的作品
伏爾泰的文學觀點和趣味，基本上承襲了17世紀古典主義的餘風，主要表現在詩歌和悲劇創作上。伏爾泰文學作品中最有價值的是哲理小說。這是他開創的一種新體裁，用戲謔的筆調講述荒誕不經的故事，影射和諷刺現實，闡明深刻的哲理。在《查第格或命運》中，伏爾泰藉助查第格的不幸遭遇揭露專製統治的黑暗，又以查第格的命運展示人類經歷的各種苦難最終會得到報償。在《老實人或樂觀主義》中，老實人及其意中人和他的老師在遭遇一係列無妄之災後，終於認識到這個世界並不完善，唯有“工作可以使我們免除煩悶、縱欲和饑寒三大害處”。小說還寫了一個政治清明、黃金遍地的奇異國土，寄托了伏爾泰的政治理想。伏爾泰寫了50多部劇本，其中大部分是悲劇。伏爾泰推崇中國文明。根據元人紀君祥的雜劇《趙氏孤兒》的法譯本，他寫了一部悲劇《中國孤兒》。他把故事挪到成吉思汗時代，寫中華民族的智慧和德行，最終感動了中國少數民族的領袖成吉思汗，使他製止屠殺，成為賢明的君主。
伏爾泰-主張觀點
伏爾泰與菲特烈
伏爾泰反對君主制度，提倡自然神論，批判天主教會，主張言論自由。他很有名的一句話：“我並不同意你的觀點，但是我誓死捍衛你說話的權利。（法文：Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire. 英文：I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.）”代表了他對於言論自由的主張（一說認為伏爾泰並沒有說這句話，而是Evelyn Beatrice Hall於1906年出版傳記《伏爾泰的朋友們》中表達伏爾泰主張時所記下的）
伏爾泰欣賞中國孔子，因為孔子是用道德的說服力來影響別人，而不是用宗教的狂熱和個人崇拜。崇拜中國儒傢思想，並將中國的政治體製視為最完美的政治體製。因為中國的文官制度能讓下層階級人民得以晉升為統治階層，但他對中國的認知淺薄，令他對中國始終擁有完美形象。他視孔子為真正的哲學家，他曾說“那個聖人是孔夫子，他自視清高，是人類的立法者，决不會欺騙人類。沒有任何立法者比孔夫子曾對世界宣佈了更有用的真理”
伏爾泰尖刻地抨擊天主教會的黑暗統治。他把教皇比作“兩足禽獸”，把教士稱作“文明惡棍”，說天主教是“一些狡猾的人佈置的一個最可恥的騙人羅網”。他號召“每個人都按照自己的方式同駭人聽聞的宗教狂熱作鬥爭，一些人咬住他的耳朵；另一些人踩住他的肚子，還有一些人從遠處痛駡他。”
他曾公開嘲笑艾薩剋 牛頓（Sir Isaac Newton）。有一天，牛頓根據但以理書十二章4節和那鴻書二章4節作出一個預言：“有朝一日，人類將能夠以每小時 40 英裏的速度前進。”伏爾泰回應：“你看，基督教可以讓聰明如牛頓這樣的人變得如此的愚笨。他難道不知道如果一個人以每小時 40 英裏的速度前進，他將會窒息，而他的心髒會停止跳動嗎？”
不過伏爾泰並不是一個無神論者，而是一個自然神論者，提倡對不同的宗教信仰采取寬容的態度，終生與宗教偏見作鬥爭，但又認為宗教作為抑製人類情欲和惡習的手段是必不可少的。他認為要統治人民；宗教是不可缺少的。他說“即使沒有上帝；也要造出一個上帝來”。
伏爾泰信奉自然權利說，認為“人們本質上是平等的”，要求人人享有“自然權利”。他主張人人在法律面前平等，但又認為財産權利的不平等是不可避免的。他把英國的君主立憲製理想化了，認為最理想的是由“開明”的君主按哲學家的意見來治理國傢。伏爾泰在啓蒙運動的思想傢中，反映上層資産階級的利益，主張開明君主製。他在哲學上信奉英國唯物主義哲學家洛剋的經驗論。
在哲學上，他承認物質世界的客觀存在，肯定認識采源於感覺經驗，但他又認為神是宇宙的“第一推動者”。他對勞動人民是十分鄙視的，認為他們衹能幹粗活，不能思考，說“當庶民都思考時，那一切都完了”。
伏爾泰在反封建的啓蒙運動中作出的巨大的貢獻，是值得人們永遠紀念的。
伏爾泰-社會影響
《伏爾泰坐像》
伏爾泰所堅持的哲學觀點，是自然神論形態的唯物主義。這種哲學的基本內容，是從洛剋那裏接受的經驗論，承認外部世界的客觀存在，承認外物作用於感官所産生的經驗是認識的來源。伏爾泰雖然對於洛剋的學說沒有多少推進，但是他在剋服洛剋“內省經驗”的唯物主義不徹底性的同時，卻發揮了這個學說的戰鬥性。一方面，他批判了G.W.萊布尼茨為宗教神學張目的“前定和諧”論和R.笛卡爾的“天賦觀念”論，又反對G.巴剋萊“存在即被感知”的主觀唯心論。另一方面，他從唯物主義經驗論出發，否定了宗教神學關於靈魂不滅並可脫離肉體而存在的教義。他在接受牛頓關於自然界都受引力定律統一支配時，沒有陷入宿命論，反而批評宿命論和絶對機械决定論，從而為政治上爭取個人自由確立了理論根據。根據這種哲學觀點，伏爾泰無情地揭露和抨擊了教會的黑暗和反動。
伏爾泰認為宗教迷誤和教會統治是人類理性的主要敵人，一切社會罪惡都源於教會散布的蒙昧主義，是它造成了社會上普遍的愚昧和宗教狂熱。雖然他沒有真正弄清宗教産生的社會歷史根源和階級根源，衹是比較膚淺地把宗教産生的原因歸結為人們的無知和僧侶的欺騙，但是他從人類理性和歷史事實兩個方面對宗教教義的荒誕不經和教權主義罪惡的揭露和批判還是相當深刻的。他指出，基督耶穌不過是一個凡人，《聖經》不過是一些荒誕透頂的神話故事，而一部教會史就是充滿迫害、搶劫、謀殺的罪惡史。因而，他針對教會提出了著名的戰鬥口號：“打倒醜類”，在團结反宗教力量方面起了重要作用。
伏爾泰-人物評價
在伏爾泰的主要活動時期，封建勢力很強大，法國資産階級處於相對劣勢，這决定了他的思想的時代局限性。在哲學上，他始終沒有擺脫神，還沒有達到公開的唯物論和無神論；在歷史觀方面，他宣傳抽象的民主、自由、平等，以救世主自居，蔑視群衆，沒有擺脫歷史唯心論；在政治方面，他在揭露封建專製制度時，對共和思想持曖昧態度，長期幻想依靠開明君主實行自上而下的改革。
伏爾泰-名言名句
我可能不同意你的觀點,但我誓死捍衛你說話的權利
人類最寶貴的財産——自由。
書讀得多而不思考，你會覺得自己知道的很多。書讀得多而思考，你會覺得自己不懂的越多。
偉大的事業需要始終不渝的精神。
這裏是我的心髒，但到處是我的精神
即使沒有上帝,也要創造一位上帝
神諭的最了不起的作用在於保證戰爭的勝利
預言從來都衹是為大人物而作的，小民無此必要
任何人想以道理曉喻他的同胞，都會受到迫害，除非他是最強者。然而最強者卻幾乎總是加強無知的鎖鏈，而不是去把它砸斷。
圖書館是人類知識與謬誤的寶庫
堅強的信心,能使平凡的人做出驚人的事業。
無論天資有多麽高,他仍需學會了技巧來發揮那些天資
一個家庭沒有書籍,如同這個房間沒有窗戶
伏爾泰與中國
伏爾泰推崇中國文明。他認真研究了中國的儒傢思想。熱情歌頌中國是一個理性主義國傢。他根據元雜劇《趙氏孤兒》的法譯本，寫了一部悲劇《中國的孤兒》，贊揚了中華民族的智慧和德行，在法國引起了很大反響. <<關於中國禮儀的爭論 這些爭論怎樣促使中國取締基督教>>出現在其著作<<路易十四時代>>最後一章.
伏爾泰-伏爾泰的故事
註：本故事見房竜的《寬容》。
伏爾泰晚年定居在法國和瑞士邊境的費爾奈莊園。其間，法國發生宗教上的派性鬥爭，造成大批逃亡者。伏爾泰在自己的莊園內，先後收留過上百戶難民。他還多次打抱不平，替窮苦人伸張正義，平反冤案。影響最大的一次，莫過於卡拉事件。1761年10月13日，圖盧茲市菲拉蒂埃街的一個住傢發生了一場可怕的悲劇。這傢的主人讓·卡拉是頗受人尊敬的鬍格諾派（新教的加爾文派）的商人。
當天深夜，讓·卡拉發現長子馬剋—安東尼在店鋪懸梁自盡，一時全家慌了手腳，母親失聲痛哭，驚動四鄰。突然，在圍觀的人群中有人說道：“馬剋—安東尼是被他父母殺死的，因為他選擇了天主教。”天主教與新教經歷了16世紀的宗教戰爭，至今已有兩百多年，但對立依然十分尖銳。
圖盧茲一位法官（註意：是法官，不是教會）聞訊趕來，一不調查，二不審訊，甚至連現場也沒看上一眼，便將“謀殺”事件那天晚上在傢的人全部拘捕歸案。
馬剋—安東尼為什麽自殺？（既未調查清楚，怎敢說他就是自殺？）原來，這位28歲的青年曾學過法律，一心想當律師，但因無法弄到天主教徒的證明書，被迫從事商業。他想從父親那兒得到一筆錢作生意，遭父親拒絶，失望之餘，天天上咖啡館藉酒澆愁，後因債務纏身，更覺前途渺茫，一念之差便尋了短見。
頭髮斑白、年近古稀的老人怎能吊死一個年輕力壯的小夥子？（上文既說他是自殺，這裏又為何要懷疑是他殺？）“謀殺”之罪顯然難以成立。檢察官（不是教會）迪庫大義凜然，出庭替老卡拉辯護，卻被停職三個月。律師（不是教會）絮德爾想闡明事實真相，但陷入狂熱興奮中的法官（不是教會）卻不屑一聽，反倒認為這位律師無能。審判長（不是教會）濫施權力，逼迫卡拉供出同謀，卡拉義正辭嚴，斷然地說：“既然沒有犯罪，何來同謀？”
1762年3月10日，法庭不顧一切無罪的證據，粗暴地判决卡拉車裂之刑。臨刑前，老卡拉（新教徒）悲憤地說：“我已經說明真相，我死得無辜……”
事發不久，伏爾泰便聽到各種傳聞。他對教會（上文一直說的是法官、法院，怎麽突然出現了教會？）歷來持懷疑態度，認為無論天主教還是新教，都是無恥之徒。（那他還為何為新教徒辯護？卡拉是新教徒）
卡拉老漢的悲慘遭遇，激起了他對教會（是教會審理這個案件嗎？）和司法當局的無比憤慨，他决心為維護人的尊嚴、為爭取信仰自由而奮鬥。（這個案件涉及到信仰自由了嗎？）
他通過各種渠道，沉着冷靜地親自調查和搜集證據，並將被流放到日內瓦的卡拉的兩個兒子召到費爾奈，根據他們兩人提供的詳情和從過往旅客中聽到的反映加以比較，從而對整個事件作出個人的判斷。其間，他發表了卡拉兩兄弟的口供，寫了揭露這起慘無人道的冤案的小册子，並為卡拉太太提供一切費用，把她接到巴黎，以引起輿論的註意。1763年2月3日，伏爾泰親自寫了上訴書，作出“我敢肯定這傢人無辜”的結論。3月7日，樞密院下令重審此案，蒙受不白之冤的卡拉老漢及其一傢終於得到昭雪。
（這個故事的不合情理與不合邏輯之處，請大傢仔細思考。此人寫這個故事，目的是為了說明什麽？是為了反對基督教嗎？那為何又說伏爾泰提倡信仰自由？是為了反對教會嗎？可是根本沒有提說教會審理此案，而且教會根本無權審理民事和刑事案件。）
Voltaire was one of several Enlightenment figures (along with Montesquieu, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Émilie du Châtelet) whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.
Early career
François Marie Arouet was born in Paris, the youngest of the five children (only three of whom survived) of François Arouet (1650 – 1 January 1722), a notary who was a minor treasury official, and his wife, Marie Marguerite d'Aumart (ca. 1660 – 13 July 1701), from a noble family of the province of Poitou. Voltaire was educated by Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (1704–1711), where he learned Latin and Greek; later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish and English.
By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, who wanted him to become a notary. Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father found him out, he sent Voltaire to study law, this time in Caen (Normandy). Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies. Voltaire's wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. His father then obtained a job for him as a secretary to the French ambassador in the Netherlands, where Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. Their scandalous elopement was foiled by Voltaire's father and he was forced to return to France.
Most of Voltaire's early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for even mild critiques of the government and the Catholic Church. These activities were to result in numerous imprisonments and exiles. One satirical verse about the Régent thought to be by him led to his imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months, until the real author came forward. While there, he wrote his debut play, Œdipe. Its success established his reputation.
The name "Voltaire"
The name "Voltaire", which the author adopted in 1718, is an anagram of "AROVET LI," the Latinized spelling of his surname, Arouet, and the initial letters of "le jeune" ("the younger"). The name also echoes in reverse order the syllables of the name of a family château in the Poitou region: "Airvault". The adoption of the name "Voltaire" following his incarceration at the Bastille is seen by many to mark Voltaire's formal separation from his family and his past.
Richard Holmes supports this derivation of the name, but adds that a writer such as Voltaire would have intended it to also convey its connotations of speed and daring. These come from associations with words such as "voltige" (acrobatics on a trapeze or horse), "volte-face" (a spinning about to face one's enemies), and "volatile" (originally, any winged creature). "Arouet" was not a noble name fit for his growing reputation, especially given that name's resonance with "à rouer" ("for thrashing") and "roué" (a "débauché").
In a letter to Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (not to be confused with Jean-Jacques Rousseau) in March 1719, Voltaire concludes by asking that if Rousseau wishes to send him a return letter, he do so by addressing it to Monsieur de Voltaire. A post-scriptum explains: "J'ai été si malheureux sous le nom d'Arouet que j'en ai pris un autre surtout pour n'être plus confondu avec le poète Roi", which translates as, "I was so unhappy under the name d'Arouet that I took another, primarily so that I would cease to be confused with the poet Roi." This probably refers to Adenes le Roi, and the 'oi' diphthong was then pronounced as modern French pronounces 'ai', so the similarity to 'Arouet' is clear, and thus, it could well have been part of his rationale. Indeed, Voltaire is additionally known to have used at least 178 separate pen names during his lifetime.
Great Britain
The aptitude for quick, perceptive, cutting and witty critical repartee for which Voltaire is known today made him highly unpopular with some of his contemporaries, including certain members of the French aristocracy. These sharp-tongued retorts were responsible for Voltaire's exile from France, during which he resided in Great Britain.
After Voltaire retorted to an insult given to him by the young French nobleman Chevalier de Rohan in late 1725, the aristocratic Rohan family obtained a royal lettre de cachet, an irrevocable and often arbitrary penal decree signed by the French King (Louis XV, in the time of Voltaire) that was often bought by members of the wealthy nobility to dispose of undesirables. They then used this warrant to force Voltaire into imprisonment in the Bastille without holding a trial or giving him an opportunity to defend himself. Fearing an indefinite prison sentence, Voltaire suggested his own exile to England as an alternative punishment, an idea the French authorities accepted. This incident marked the beginning of Voltaire's attempts to improve the French judicial system.
Voltaire's exile in Great Britain lasted nearly three years, and his experiences there greatly influenced many of his ideas. The young man was intrigued by Britain's constitutional monarchy in contrast to the French absolute monarchy, as well as the country's relative support of the freedoms of speech and religion. He was also influenced by several of the neoclassical writers of the age, and developed an interest in earlier English literature, especially the works of Shakespeare, still little known in continental Europe at the time. Despite pointing out his deviations from neoclassical standards, Voltaire saw Shakespeare as an example French writers might look up to, since drama in France, despite being more polished, lacked on-stage action. Later, however, as Shakespeare's influence was being increasingly felt in France, Voltaire would endeavour to set a contrary example with his own plays, decrying what he considered Shakespeare's barbarities.
After almost three years in exile, Voltaire returned to Paris and published his views on British attitudes towards government, literature, and religion in a collection of essays in letter form entitled the Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (Philosophical Letters on the English). Because he regarded the British constitutional monarchy as more developed and more respectful of human rights (particularly religious tolerance) than its French counterpart, these letters met great controversy in France, to the point where the book was burnt and Voltaire was forced again to flee.
Château de Cirey
In the frontispiece to their translation of Newton, Émilie du Châtelet appears as Voltaire's muse, reflecting Newton's heavenly insights down to Voltaire.
Voltaire's next destination was the Château de Cirey, located on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine. The building was renovated with his money, and here he began a relationship with the Marquise du Châtelet, Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil (famous in her own right as Émilie du Châtelet). Cirey was owned by the Marquise's husband, Marquis Florent-Claude du Chatelet, who sometimes visited his wife and her lover at the chateau. The relationship, which lasted for fifteen years, had a significant intellectual element. Voltaire and the Marquise collected over 21,000 books, an enormous number for the time. Together, they studied these books and performed experiments in the "natural sciences" in his laboratory. Voltaire's experiments included an attempt to determine the elements of fire.
Having learned from his previous brushes with the authorities, Voltaire began his future habit of keeping out of personal harm's way, and denying any awkward responsibility. He continued to write many plays, such as Mérope (or "La Mérope française") and began his long researches into science and history. Again, a main source of inspiration for Voltaire were the years of his British exile, during which he had been strongly influenced by the works of Sir Isaac Newton. Voltaire strongly believed in Newton's theories, especially concerning optics (Newton’s discovery that white light is composed of all the colours in the spectrum led to many experiments at Cirey), and gravity (Voltaire is the source of the famous story of Newton and the apple falling from the tree, which he had learned from Newton's niece in London and first mentioned in his Essai sur la poésie épique, or Essay on Epic Poetry). Although both Voltaire and the Marquise were curious about the philosophies of Gottfried Leibniz, a contemporary and rival of Newton, they remained essentially "Newtonians", despite the Marquise's adoption of certain aspects of Leibniz's arguments against Newton. She translated Newton's Latin Principia in full, adjusting a few errors along the way, and hers remained the definitive French translation well into the 20th century. Voltaire's book Eléments de la philosophie de Newton (Elements of Newton's Philosophy), which was probably co-written with the Marquise, made Newton accessible to a far greater public. It is often considered the work that finally brought about general acceptance of Newton's optical and gravitational theories.
Voltaire and the Marquise also studied history—particularly those persons who had contributed to civilization. Voltaire's second essay in English had been Essay upon the Civil Wars in France. It was followed by La Henriade, an epic poem on the French king Henri IV, glorifying his attempt to end the Catholic-Protestant massacres with the Edict of Nantes, and by a historical novel on King Charles XII of Sweden. These, along with his Letters on England mark the beginning of Voltaire's open criticism of intolerance and established religions. Voltaire and the Marquise also worked with philosophy, particularly with metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that deals with being, and what is beyond the material realm such as whether or not there is a God or souls, etc. Voltaire and the Marquise analyzed the Bible, trying to discover its validity in their time. Voltaire's critical views on religion are reflected in his belief in separation of church and state and religious freedom, ideas that he had formed after his stay in England.
Though deeply committed to the Marquise, Voltaire by 1744 found life at the château confining. On a visit to Paris that year, he found a new love: his niece. At first, his attraction to Marie Louise Mignot was clearly sexual, as evidenced by his letters to her (only discovered in 1937). Much later, they lived together, perhaps platonically, and remained together until Voltaire's death. Meanwhile, the Marquise also took a lover, the Marquis de Saint-Lambert.
Sanssouci
Die Tafelrunde by Adolph von Menzel. Guests of Frederick the Great, in Marble Hall at Sanssouci, include members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and Voltaire (seated, third from left).
After the death of the Marquise in childbirth in September 1749, Voltaire briefly returned to Paris and in 1750 moved to Potsdam to join Frederick the Great, a close friend and admirer of his. The king had repeatedly invited him to his palace, and now gave him a salary of 20,000 francs a year. Though life went well at first—in 1752 he wrote Micromégas, perhaps the first piece of science fiction involving ambassadors from another planet witnessing the follies of humankind—his relationship with Frederick the Great began to deteriorate and he encountered other difficulties. An argument with Maupertuis, the president of the Berlin Academy of Science, provoked Voltaire's Diatribe du docteur Akakia (Diatribe of Doctor Akakia), which satirized some of Maupertuis' theories and his abuse of power in his persecutions of a mutual acquaintance, Samuel Koënig. This greatly angered Frederick, who had all copies of the document burned and arrested Voltaire at an inn where he was staying along his journey home.
Geneva and Ferney
Voltaire headed toward Paris, but Louis XV banned him from the city, so instead he turned to Geneva, near which he bought a large estate (Les Délices). Though he was received openly at first, the law in Geneva which banned theatrical performances and the publication of The Maid of Orleans against his will made him move at the end of 1758 out of Geneva across the French border to Ferney, where he had bought an even larger estate, and led to Voltaire's writing of Candide, ou l'Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism) in 1759. This satire on Leibniz's philosophy of optimistic determinism remains the work for which Voltaire is perhaps best known. He would stay in Ferney for most of the remaining 20 years of his life, frequently entertaining distinguished guests, like James Boswell, Giacomo Casanova, and Edward Gibbon. In 1764 he published his most important philosophical work, the Dictionnaire Philosophique, a series of articles mainly on Christian history and dogmas, a few of which were originally written in Berlin.
Voltaire's château at Ferney, France.
From 1762 he began to champion unjustly persecuted people, the case of Jean Calas being the most celebrated. This Huguenot merchant had been tortured to death in 1763, supposedly because he had murdered his son for wanting to convert to Catholicism. His possessions were confiscated and his remaining children were taken from his widow and were forced to become members of a monastery. Voltaire, seeing this as a clear case of religious persecution, managed to overturn the conviction in 1765.
Death and burial
The Paris house in which Voltaire died
In February 1778, Voltaire returned for the first time in 20 years to Paris, among other reasons to see the opening of his latest tragedy, Irene. The 5-day journey was too much for the 83-year old, and he believed he was about to die on February 28, writing "I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition." However, he recovered, and in March saw a performance of Irene where he was treated by the audience as a returning hero. He soon became ill again and died on 30 May 1778. His last words were: "For God's sake, let me die in peace."
Voltaire's tomb in Paris' Pantheon
Because of his well-known criticism of the church, which he had refused to retract before his death, Voltaire was denied a Christian burial, but friends managed to bury his body secretly at the abbey of Scellières in Champagne before this prohibition had been announced. His heart and brain were embalmed separately. On 11 July 1791, the National Assembly, which regarded him as a forerunner of the French revolution, had his remains brought back to Paris to enshrine him in the Panthéon. It is estimated that a million people attended the procession, which stretched throughout Paris. There was an elaborate ceremony, complete with an orchestra, and the music included a piece that André Grétry composed specially for the event, which included a part for the "tuba curva". This was an instrument that originated in Roman times as the cornu but had been recently revived under a new name.
A widely repeated story that the remains of Voltaire were stolen by religious fanatics in 1814 or 1821 during the Pantheon restoration and thrown into a garbage heap is false. Such rumours resulted in the coffin being opened in 1897, which confirmed that his remains were still present.
Writings
History
Voltaire had an enormous influence on the development of historiography through his demonstration of fresh new ways to look at the past. His best-known histories are The Age of Louis XIV (1752), and Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations (1756). He broke from the tradition of narrating diplomatic and military events, and emphasized customs, social history and achievements in the arts and sciences. The Essay on customs traced the progress of world civilization in a universal context, thereby rejecting both nationalism and the traditional Christian frame of reference. Influenced by Bossuet's Discourse on the Universal history (1682), he was the first scholar to make a serious attempt to write the history of the world, eliminating theological frameworks, and emphasizing economics, culture and political history. He treated Europe as a whole, rather than a collection of nations. He was the first to emphasize the debt of medieval culture to Arab civilization, but otherwise was weak on the Middle Ages. Although he repeatedly warned against political bias on the part of the historian, he did not miss many opportunities to ridicule the Catholic Church. Voltaire advised scholars that anything contradicting the normal course of nature was not to be believed. Although he found evil in the historical record, he fervently believed reason and educating the illiterate masses would lead to progress.
Voltaire explains his view of historiography in his article on "History" in Diderot's Encyclopédie:
"One demands of modern historians more details, better ascertained facts, precise dates, more attention to customs, laws, mores, commerce, finance, agriculture, population."
Voltaire's histories imposed the values of the Enlightenment on the past, but he helped free historiography from antiquarianism, Eurocentrism, and a concentration on great men, diplomacy, and warfare.
Poetry
From an early age, Voltaire displayed a talent for writing verse and his first published work was poetry. He wrote two book-long epic poems, including the first ever written in French, the Henriade, and later, The Maid of Orleans, besides many other smaller pieces.
The Henriade was written in imitation of Virgil, using the Alexandrine couplet reformed and rendered monotonous for modern readers but it was a huge success in the 18th and early 19th century, with sixty-five editions and translations into several languages. The epic poem transformed French King Henry IV into a national hero for his attempts at instituting tolerance with his Edict of Nantes. La Pucelle, on the other hand, is a burlesque on the superhuman powers attributed to virginity in the legend of Joan of Arc. Voltaire's minor poems are generally considered superior to either of these two works.
Opening of Voltaire's grave, 1899
Prose
Frontispiece and first page of chapter one of an early English translation by T. Smollett et al. of Voltaire's "Candide", printed by J. Newbery, 1762
Many of Voltaire's prose works and romances, usually composed as pamphlets, were written as polemics. Candide attacks the passivity inspired by Leibniz's philosophy of optimism; L'Homme aux quarante ecus (The Man of Forty Crowns), certain social and political ways of the time; Zadig and others, the received forms of moral and metaphysical orthodoxy; and some were written to deride the Bible. In these works, Voltaire's ironic style, free of exaggeration, is apparent, particularly the restraint and simplicity of the verbal treatment. Candide in particular is the best example of his style. Voltaire also has, in common with Jonathan Swift, the distinction of paving the way for science fiction's philosophical irony, particularly in his Micromégas.
Voltaire at Frederick the Great's Sanssouci. Engraving by Pierre Charles Baquoy.
In general criticism and miscellaneous writing, Voltaire's writing was comparable to his other works. Almost all of his more substantive works, whether in verse or prose, are preceded by prefaces of one sort or another, which are models of his caustic yet conversational tone. In a vast variety of nondescript pamphlets and writings, he displays his skills at journalism. In pure literary criticism his principal work is the Commentaire sur Corneille, although he wrote many more similar works – sometimes (as in his Life and notices of Molière) independently and sometimes as part of his Siècles.
Voltaire's works, especially his private letters, frequently contain the word "l'infâme" and the expression "écrasez l'infâme," or "crush the infamous". The phrase refers to abuses to the people by royalty and the clergy that Voltaire saw around him, and the superstition and intolerance that the clergy bred within the people. He had felt these effects in his own exiles, in the confiscations of his books, and the hideous sufferings of Calas and La Barre. He also stated that (one of his most famous quotes) "Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them".
The most oft-cited Voltaire quotation is apocryphal. He is incorrectly credited with writing, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” These were not his words, but rather those of Evelyn Beatrice Hall, written under the pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre in her 1906 biographical book The Friends of Voltaire. Hall intended to summarize in her own words Voltaire's attitude towards Claude Adrien Helvétius and his controversial book De l'esprit, but her first-person expression was mistaken for an actual quotation from Voltaire. Her interpretation does capture the spirit of Voltaire’s attitude towards Helvetius; it had been said Hall's summary was inspired by a quotation found in a 1770 Voltaire letter to an Abbot le Roche, in which he was reported to have said, “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.” Nevertheless, scholars believe there must have again been misinterpretation, as the letter does not seem to contain any such quote.
Voltaire's first major philosophical work in his battle against "l'infâme" was the Treatise on Tolerance, exposing the Calas affair, along with the tolerance exercised by other faiths and in other eras (for example, by the Jews, the Romans, the Greeks and the Chinese). Then, in his Dictionnaire philosophique, containing such articles as "Abraham", "Genesis", "Church Council", he wrote about what he perceived as the human origins of dogmas and beliefs, as well as inhuman behavior of religious and political institutions in shedding blood over the quarrels of competing sects.
Amongst other targets, Voltaire criticized France's colonial policy in North America, dismissing the vast territory of New France as "a few acres of snow" ("quelques arpents de neige").
Letters
Voltaire also engaged in an enormous amount of private correspondence during his life, totaling over 20,000 letters. Theodore Besterman's collected edition of these letters, completed only in 1964, fills 102 volumes. One historian called the letters "a feast not only of wit and eloquence but of warm friendship, humane feeling, and incisive thought."
Philosophy
Religion
Voltaire at 70. Engraving from 1843 edition of his Philosophical Dictionary.
Voltaire did not believe that any single religious text or tradition of revelation was needed to believe in God. Voltaire's focus was rather on the idea of a universe based on reason and a respect for nature which reflected the contemporary pantheism.
Like other key thinkers during the European Enlightenment, Voltaire considered himself a deist, expressing the idea: "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason."
As for religious texts, Voltaire's opinion of the Bible was mixed. Although influenced by Socinian works such as the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, Voltaire's skeptical attitude to the Bible separated him from Unitarian theologians like Fausto Sozzini or even Biblical-political writers like John Locke.
This did not hinder his religious practice, though it did win for him a bad reputation among religious fundamentalists. The deeply Catholic Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his father the year of Voltaire's death, saying, "The arch-scoundrel Voltaire has finally kicked the bucket...."
Views of Islam and its prophet, Muhammad, can be found in Voltaire's writings. In a letter recommending his play Fanaticism, or Mahomet to Pope Benedict XIV, Voltaire described the founder of Islam as "the founder of a false and barbarous sect" and "a false prophet." Later, his views were more generous, often praising the relative tolerance of Muslim behavior in the lands they conquered (as opposed to the Christian Inquisitions) and the fact that its doctrines were written by its founder himself, not based on hearsay, and had not endured the innumerable changes Christian doctrine had. His Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des Nations, contains much fuller accounts on Muhammad and the founding and spread of his religion as do a number of his polemical works on religion.
From translated works on Confucianism and Legalism, Voltaire drew on Chinese concepts of politics and philosophy (which were based on rational principles), to look critically at European organized religion and hereditary aristocracy.
There is an apocryphal story that his home at Ferney was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society and used for printing Bibles, but this appears to be due to a misunderstanding of the 1849 annual report of the American Bible Society. Voltaire's chateau is now owned and administered by the French Ministry of Culture.
In the Scottish Enlightenment the Scots began developing a uniquely practical branch of humanism to the extent that Voltaire said "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation".
In a letter to Frederick II, King of Prussia, dated 5 January 1767 he wrote that,
“ Le christianisme est la plus ridicule, la religion la plus absurde et sanglante qui ait jamais infecté le monde.
(Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that ever infected the world.) ”
Attitude toward Jews
Though many books have been written taxing Voltaire with anti-semitism, they do not explain, nor usually even mention, the numerous pamphlets he wrote attacking anti-semitism itself. This apparent contradiction led many to conclude that his remarks were in fact anti-Biblical and not anti-semitic. His "Sermon du rabbin Akib", for example, is a scathing attack on Christian persecution of the Jews, and similar remarks can be found scattered throughout his 200-odd pamphlets and books on religion.
It has been pointed out that thirty of the 118 articles in his Dictionnaire Philosophique described the ancient Jews in consistently negative ways, as barbarous, absurd and deeply superstitious; however, this ignores his qualifiers, in which he points out that "all of antiquity was", as a rule.
Peter Gay, the best known contemporary authority on the Enlightenment, wrote that "Voltaire struck at the Jews to strike at Christianity," a view shared by certain leading Jewish Voltairians—indeed, the point usually is, if the Jews were cruel and absurd, what can be made of other faiths that declare their histories sacred, yet persecute them? "When I see Christians cursing Jews," he wrote in his English Notebook, "methinks I see children beating their fathers." And posing as a freshly minted Spanish priest in Les Questions de Zapata, he asks his superiors how he should go about explaining that the Jews, whom they burn by the hundreds, were the chosen people of God for four thousand years, and why we chant their prayers while burning them. Voltaire grew exceedingly vocal against the Church during the campaign for tolerance of his later years, openly writing that it had been the "consistently implacable enemy of progress, decency, humanity and rationality" and that it had been the Church's interest to "keep people as ignorant and submissive as children".
Freemasonry
Voltaire was initiated into Freemasonry one month before his death. On April 4, 1778 Voltaire accompanied his close friend Benjamin Franklin into Loge des Neuf Soeurs in Paris, France and became an Entered Apprentice Freemason, perhaps only to please Franklin.
Legacy
Bust of Voltaire by Houdon.
Voltaire perceived the French bourgeoisie to be too small and ineffective, the aristocracy to be parasitic and corrupt, the commoners as ignorant and superstitious, and the church as a static and oppressive force useful only on occasion as a counterbalance to the rapacity of kings, although all too often, more rapacious itself. Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses. Voltaire long thought only an enlightened monarch could bring about change, given the social structures of the time and the extremely high rates of illiteracy, and that it was in the king's rational interest to improve the education and welfare of his subjects. But his disappointments and disillusions with Frederick the Great changed his philosophy somewhat, and soon gave birth to one of his most enduring works, his novella, Candide, ou l'Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism, 1759), which ends with a new conclusion: "It is up to us to cultivate our garden". His most polemical and ferocious attacks on intolerance and religious persecutions indeed began to appear a few years later. Candide was also subject to censorship and Voltaire jokingly claimed the actual author was a certain "Demad" in a letter, where he reaffirmed the main polemical stances of the text.
Voltaire also believed that Africans were a separate species inferior to the white Europeans and closer to monkeys.
Voltaire is also known for many memorable aphorisms, such as: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer" ("If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him"), contained in a verse epistle from 1768, addressed to the anonymous author of a controversial work, "The Three Impostors." But far from being the cynical remark it is often taken for, it was meant as a retort to the atheistic clique of d'Holbach, Grimm, and others.
Voltaire is remembered and honored in France as a courageous polemicist who indefatigably fought for civil rights—the right to a fair trial and freedom of religion—and who denounced the hypocrisies and injustices of the ancien régime. The ancien régime involved an unfair balance of power and taxes between the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobles), and the Third Estate (the commoners and middle class, who were burdened with most of the taxes).
Voltaire has had his detractors among his later colleagues. The Scottish Victorian writer Thomas Carlyle argued that, while Voltaire was unsurpassed in literary form, not even the most elaborate of his works were of much value for matter and that he never uttered an original idea of his own. Nietzsche, however, called Carlyle a muddlehead who had not even understood the Enlightenment values he thought he was promoting.
He often used China, Siam and Japan as examples of brilliant non-European civilizations and harshly criticized slavery,.
The town of Ferney, where Voltaire lived out the last 20 years of his life, is now named Ferney-Voltaire in honor of its most famous resident. His château is a museum.
Voltaire's library is preserved intact in the National Library of Russia at St. Petersburg, Russia.
In Zurich 1916, the theater and performance group who would become the early avant-garde movement Dada named their theater The Cabaret Voltaire. A late-20th-century industrial music group then named themselves after the theater.
A character based on Voltaire plays an important role in The Age of Unreason, a series of four alternative history novels written by American science fiction and fantasy author Gregory Keyes.
Voltaire was also known to have been an advocate for coffee, as he was purported to have drunk the beverage at least 30 times per day. It has been suggested that high amounts of caffeine acted as a mental stimulant to his creativity.
His great grand-niece was the mother of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a famous writer and Jesuit priest.
Works
Major works
Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733), revised as Letters on the English (circa 1778)
Le Mondain (1736)
Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
Zadig (1747)
Micromégas (1752)
Candide (1759)
Treatise on Tolerance (1763)
Ce qui plaît aux dames (1764)
Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
L'Ingénu (1767)
La Princesse de Babylone (1768)
Plays
Voltaire wrote between fifty and sixty plays, including a few unfinished ones. Among them are these:
Œdipe (1718)
Zaïre (1732)
Eriphile (1732)
Irène
Socrates
Mahomet
Mérope
Nanine
The Orphan of China (1755)
Historical
History of Charles XII, King of Sweden (1731)
The Age of Louis XIV (1751)
The Age of Louis XV (1746–1752)
Annals of the Empire - Charlemagne, A.D. 742 - Henry VII 1313, Vol. I (1754)
Annals of the Empire - Louis of Bavaria, 1315 to Ferdinand II 1631 Vol. II (1754)
' Essay on the Manners of Nations (or 'Universal History') (1756)
History of the Russian Empire Under Peter the Great (Vol. I 1759; Vol. II 1763)