VOLTAIRE'S ROMANCES
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
A NEW EDITION,
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
I choose that a story should be founded on probability, and notalways resemble a dream. I desire to find nothing in it trivial orextravagant; and I desire above all, that under the appearance offable there may appear some latent truth, obvious to the discerningeye, though it escape the observation of the vulgar.—Voltaire.
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY PETER ECKLER,
35 FULTON STREET.
1889.
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
Voltaire wrote what the people thought, and consequently his writingswere universally read. He wittily ridiculed established abuses, andkeenly satirized venerable absurdities. For this he was consigned to theBastile, and this distinction served to increase his popularity andextend his influence. He was thus enabled to cope successfully with thepapal hierarchy, and laugh at the murmurs of the Vatican. The strugglecommenced in his youth, and continued till his death. It was a struggleof light against darkness—of freedom against tyranny; and it ended inthe triumph of truth over error and of toleration over bigotry.
Educated by the Jesuits, he early learned their methods, and his greatability enabled him to circumvent their wiles. The ceremoniouspresentation of his tragedy of Mahomet[1] to Pope Benedict XIV., is anexample of his daring audacity;—his success with the "head of thechurch" shows his intellectual superiority—whilst the gracious reply of"his Holiness" fitly illustrates the pontiff's vanity. From priest tobishop, from cardinal to pope, all felt his intellectual power and alldreaded his merciless satire.
He was famous as poet, dramatist, historian, and philosopher. Anexperienced courtier and polished writer, he gracefully and politelyconquered his clerical opponents, and with courteous irony overthrew hisliterary critics. From his demeanor you could not judge of his thoughtsor intentions, and while listening to his compliments, you instinctivelydreaded his sarcasms. But venture to approach this grand seigneur, thiskeen man of the world, this intellectual giant, and plead in favor ofhuman justice—appeal to his magnanimity and love of toleration—and youthen had no cause to question his earnestness, no reason to doubt hissincerity. His blood boiled, says Macaulay,[2] at the sight of crueltyand injustice, and in an age of religious persecution, judicial torture,and arbitrary imprisonment, he made manful war, with every faculty hepossessed, on what