narrow, correct, icy circle of French classical taste into the wider world of nature and passion, glimpses of which we obtain in the situations and characters of his finest poetic plays, "Zaire, ," "Alzire," "Mahomet," and "The Orphan of China;" while the inspiration which actuated him in several of his pamphlet plays, such as the "Brutus," was derived from his admiration of the spirit of liberty which reigned in the England, contrasted with the France of his epoch. The Voltarian drama is neither so poetically noble or chastely beautiful as that of Corneille or Racine; its importance must be viewed in connexion with the intellectual progress of his age. His chief works are designed to illustrate and popularize the leading ideas for which he combated in his prose philosophy, the equality of man under the laws of human civilization, under the dominion of conscience, and freedom of thought. Thus they may be regarded as monuments of the intellectual battle of the age in which he led the van, and in which he was victorious. The causes he pleaded are causes gained. With Voltaire the drama was an instrument of war and element of education-a theatrical encyclopædia through its means, as in his other works of poetry, philosophy, and history, by raillery, invective, and anathema, he agitated and revolutionized his epoch, awaking the minds of his countrymen, and inspiring them with that passion for truth and justice which exorcised the spirit of the middle age, and eventuated in the dissolution and amelioration of their institutions. If those tragedies do not display the highest poetic genius, they at least exhibit talents of the first order. In Voltaire's mind reason predominated over imagination, hence, he has seldom, except in some of the scenes in "Zaire," into which he tells us he threw his whole heart, been able to attain the abandon on which all great creative effects in poetry depend. In each successive theatrical production of a serious order, while his dramatic art becomes more perfect, we observe a gradual relaxation in the style; this, indeed, is seen in his prose as well as poetry, his first drama "Edipe," being evolved in more vigorous verse than any of his 66 later productions, just as the prose Voltaire's merits as an epic poet louche, "Là, git la sombre envie a l'œil-timide et Versant sur des lauriers les poisons de sa bouche, Le jour blesse ses veux dans l'ombre etincelans, Triste amante des morts, elle hait les vivans." In one of the prefaces to the Henriad-which remains the only 7* 100 epic poem which France has produced-Voltaire has some just remarks on the peculiar genius of the French language, which he has shown presents an insuperable barrier to the creation of a work of this order which could compete with the masterpieces of Greece, Rome, Italy, England, and Spain. The Henriad is the Versailles of Voltaire, a monument more remarkable for ambitious effort than grandeur or beauty of architecture-with descriptive passages which resemble the scenery of its stately park as contrasted with that of the virgin forest, and groups of statues, which however accurate as historical portraits, are collectively inferior to a single cluster of bas-reliefs on the pediment of the Parthenon. It was in didactic poetry, and that of humour and fancy, that the genius of the philosopher and wit naturally excelled; and here it is grateful to turn from his epic, which with all its merits must be considered a failure when contrasted with Virgil, not to speak of Homer, Tasso, or Milton, to some of his compositions of the above order, and to his Poems and Discourses in Verse. them among par excellence In those, of which there are seven, he treats of the equality of conditions among humanity, of liberty, envy, of moderation, of the nature of pleasure, of the nature of man, and of true virtue. For originality of philosophic reflection, beauty, and depth of thought-above all, for the exalted and benevolent spirit towards humanity which they exhibit, those fine compositions must be placed at the head of all his poetic efforts. Voltaire's life was passed partly in contemplating truth in the quiet air of the secluded study, partly in combating error, or what he conceived to be error, in the external world; his head and heart appear to have been frequently in conflict, but whenever the latter became predominant, we find in him a genuine appreciation and enthusiastic admiration of all excellence. Amid the chaos of ideas and opinions, sometimes true, frequently erroneous, which constitute the greater part of his philosophical works, those discourses in verse seem to us to exhibit the truest and serenest reflection of the soul of Voltaire, and to illustrate his real aims and opinions. They are a monument of the medita [Jan. tive thinker, as the Treatise on Toleration is one of the active man of the world, the heroic humanitarian. spersed with broad philosophical While these discourses are interviews on the problems of nature and life, the theist, Voltaire, has breathed into them the highest spirit of Christian morality. Faith in God, hope, charity, tolerance, benevolence, are the leading ideas which they inculcate; and, generally speaking, their principles are as true and sound as their sentiments are noble and beautiful. In that on the Equality of Conditions he expresses the drift of this fine dissertation in the lines:"Avoir les memes droits à la felicité, C'est pour nous la parfaite et seule egalité." which the Supreme Being has conThat on Liberty, the attribute ferred on man, whose mind renders him the king of the earth, and which subordinates all Nature to his will, which is finely argued, concludes with the following individual sentiments on the conduct of life, alike wise and tolerant : "Ferine en tes sentiments, et simple dans ton cœur, Aime la vértite, mais pardonne à l'erreur, Ce mortel que s'egare est un homme, est Soi sage pour toi seul, compatissant pour Fais ton bonheur, enfin, par le bonheur Nowhere is there a nobler precept : "La gloire d'un rival s'obstine à t'outrager, And from the same : "Voila le vrai mérite, il parle avec can- L'envie est à ses pieds, la paix est dans sou cœur. Qu'il est grand, qu'il est doux, de se dire Je ne point d'ennemis, j'ai des rivaux Je prends part à leur gloire, à leur maux, a leur biens; Les arts nous ont unis, leur beaux jours Nothing is great or little in the universe of God- an idea which Thackeray has introduced into one of the animated philosophical conversations between Pen and Warrington in his novel. Few who knew Voltaire only as the antagonist of creeds are aware that his serious poetry contains some of the noblest passages on the spirit of Christianity and the character of Christ which can be found in layistical literature. In one of his earliest philosophical poems, "Le Pour et le Contre," the young sceptic, after stating some of the usual shallow arguments which infidel criticisms has elicited from the letter of Holy Writ, thus sketches the Christ whom his heart reverenced : "Cependant quel objet se presente à ma vue! Le voila, c'est le Christ puissant et glorieux. Aupres de lui dans une nue. L'etendard de sa mort, la croix brille à mes yeux; Sous ses pieds triomphans la mort est abattue, De portes de l'enfer il sort victorieux; Son regne est annonce par la voix des oracles, Son trone est cimente par la sang des martyres; Tous les pas de ses saints sont autant de miracles; Il leur promet des biens plus grand que leur desirs, Les exemples sont saints, sa morale est divine; Il console en secret les cœurs qu'il illumine, Dans les plus grands malheurs il leur offre un appui, Et si sur l'imposture il fond sa doctrine, C'est un bonheur encor d'etre trompe par lui!". The drift of his views respecting Christ are identical with those which he has expressed respecting the existence of a God,-if he did not exist, it would be necessary to create a conception so essential to the well-being of mankind. Voltaire, indeed, in many places asserts that his object was not to attack religious belief, but that which he believed to be the errors of religion, as it existed in the France of his day. Still finer are the following appreciative recognition of the divine character of Christ in one of those discourses-that on True Virtue in which he has reflected his individual philosophy. After sketching, with his usual aculeate pencil, the contrast between a religion of love, charity, beauty, and action, and one lost in ceremonial, concludes with the lines: "Malgre la santite de son auguste emploi C'est n'etre bon a rien, de n'etre bon qui a soi." He pictures the sacred being of Christ opposed to the temporal pow. ers of the earth : "Quand l'ennemi divin des cribes et des pretres Chez Pilate autrefois fut trainé par des traitres ; De cet air insolent qu'on nomme dignite, Le Romain demanda- Qu'est-ce que Verite?' L'Homme-Dieu, qui pouvait l'instruire ou le confondre, A ce juge orgueilleux dedaigna de repondres, Son silence eloquent disait assez a tous, Que ce vrai tant cherchez ne fut point fait pour nous. Mais lorsque penétré d'une ardeur ingenue, Un simple citoyen l'aborda dans la rue, Et que, disciple sage, il pretendit savoir Quel est l'etat de l'homme, et quel est son devoir; Sur ce grand interet, sur ce point que nous touche, Celui que savait tout, ouvrit alors la bouche; Pierced the abysses of infinity, Girt with the labours of immortal mind, And, malgre thousand worldly wars in sooth, Keep my mind free, concentrating its might On studies, each its glory and delight;Still seeking pure felicity below, Which heaven on human souls will ne'er bestow." The poem on the Nature of Pleasure also which contains an invocation expressive of the feelings and mode of life in which he delighted : "Dieu des etres pensant, Dieu des cœurs fortunes, Conservez les desirs que vous m'avez donnes, Ce gout de l'amitie, cette ardeur pour l'etude, Cet amour des beaux-arts, et de la solitude Who braves injustice, calms ennui the while, And pardoning man, half spirit and half mire; His faults, awards his folly but a smile, And with a dying hand still strikes the lyre. The Horatian tone of sentiment in those latter lines of the poet and satirist recalls the well known verses in the ode to Apollo : Latoe dones et precor, integra Of his other larger poems, that on the Law of Nature, addressed to Frederick II., is a brilliant resume of the theistic and philosophic speculations. which have agitated the minds of men from the earliest antiquity; many fine reflections are scattered through it, together with much of the satirical tone in which he excelled; but it is like several of the others, deistic in spirit. written in answer to Pope's "Essay on The poem on the Lisbon Earthquake, Man," is an attack on Optimism, a doctrine which is directly opposed to Christianity, and which, by encouraging a belief in fatality, would tend to arrest the development of humanity in every department of life. The fearful disaster of Lisbon had the effect of awaking the same train of ideas respecting the existence of physical and moral evil in the mind of Goethe as of Voltaire; but the latter in his poem has assailed the theme with the daring logic of a rebel angel. As to the poem on the Battle of Fontenoy, it was the production of Voltaire, the court flatterer, and is fied translations from Ecclesiastes and quite as devoid of merit as those versithe Canticles, which he wrote at the suggestion of Madame de Pompadour, when religion had become the court fashion for the time, and as a preparation, it is said, for offering him a cardinal's hat. Voltaire's lighter titudinous collection of occasional poetry, his cantos in verse, and mulverses on all sort of subjects are, as might be expected from his exhaustless powers of fancy and wit, full of sparkle, grace, and attraction. As a writer of complimentary verses he has no equal; such, for instance, as "Les Vous et Les Tu," addressed to Ma damoiselle de Livry, after she had become Marchioness de Gouvernet, which reminds us somewhat of Beranger's "N'es plus Lissette." Innumerable little gems of this sort, some sentimental, some complimentary, in verses ranging from the song to the epigram, addressed to his immense European acquaintance, male and female, in courts, in theatres, and on thrones, or beside them, are scattered through his works and correspondence. Among the earliest conserved are the verses to the Duchess de Villiers (who wept over dipe those tears which revenged him on his enemies,) and in whose park, when a poet of twenty or thereabouts, he wandered so many a moonlight night commencing "Divinite que le ciel fit pour plaire Vous qu'il orna des charmes le plus doux, Vous qui l'Amour prend tonjours pour sa mere," When in his old age, when Madame Du Bari sent him her portrait, with two kisses, Voltaire immediately wrote— Quoi! deux baisirs sur la fin de ma vei! Quel passe-port vous daignez m'envoyer! Dieu, c'est trop plus, adorable Egerie Je serais mort de plaisir au premier." taire as poet and philosopher, the Whatever may be thought of Volgeneral suffrage of criticism points to him as the greatest wit of whom we have a record in literature. In him this faculty is Protean in its manifestations. But its prevailing spirit is that of contempt and indifference, ex And alluding to the present of the pressed in the lightest touches and portrait "C'est aux mortels d'adorer votre image, L'original etait fait pour des dieux." Some of the most perfect poems of this sort are those addressed to Madame du Chastellet. Of the gallant cluster which, during his residence at Potsdam, he sent to those three Graces, the Princesses Ulrique, Amelia, and Wilhelmina, sisters of the hero king and philosopher, Frederick II., we quote the following imperfect translation, in the absence of the original : "TO THE PRINCESS ULRIQUE. I mounted to the rank of kings, brings; "Tis but my empire that is gone. the fewest words. His general manner is to state an absurdity clearly, and then by ironically assuming its defence, expose it the more; but, indeed, his methods are as multiform as the definitions of this indefinable faculty. Sometimes it is allied to fancy, sometimes to reason, sometimes it is expressed in a comparison, a turn, or a word. It would be endless to make selections illustrative of the dominant power of his intellect from the hundred volumes which remain as its monument; but we believe the speciality of its character will be found to be that of contempt. When he wishes to annihilate an idea or individual, a single flash is sufficient, and the fewest words used, as though the subject were unworthy of more. Some of his epigrams are illustrativesuch as that on Piron. Voltaire had long felt himself injuriously treated by being excluded from the French Academy; Piròn, his enemy and an inferior poet, also attempted to ob |