Autobiography; a collection of the most instructive and amusing lives ever published Volume 2 - Softcover
Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1826 edition. Excerpt: ...poem presents to us characters drawn with greater strength and dignity, and without offence to historical fact? What other contains morality more pure, humanity more enlightened, or is more free from the errors of prejudice and vulgar passion? Whether the poet causes his characters to act or speak, whether he paints the crimes of fanaticism, or the charms and the dangers of love, whether he transports his hearer to the field of battle, or into that heaven which he himself created, he is every where a philosopher, and is every where deeply intent on promoting the true interests o( the human race. In the very palace of fiction, we behold truth sublimely rise, and always painted in the most splendid and purest colours. The " Henriade," " CEdipus," and "Mariamne" had placed Voltaire much above his contemporaries; and seemed to secure a life of fame, when his repose was troubled by a fatal accident. He had returned a satirical answer to some contemptuous words which had been spoken by a courtier, who revenged himself by causing Voltaire to be insulted by his servants without endangering his personal safety. The outrage was committed at the gate of the hotel de Sully, where he had dined; nor did the duke de Sully deign to show any resentment; being, no doubt, persuaded that the descendants of the Franks had preserved the right ot life and death over the Gauls. Justice remained mute; the parliament of Paris, which had caused far less misdemeanours to be punished when committed against one of its own subalterns, imagined nothing was due to an undignified citizen, although the greatest man of literature the nation possessed, and kept silence. Voltaire was desirous of taking those means to revenge offended honour which the manners of modern nations have...
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