chevalier, whose relations thereupon pro- was afterwards taken under the proteccured an order for his imprisonment. At tion of the pope himself (Benedict XIV), the end of six months, he was released and has remained upon the stage with at the intercession of the marchioness de the reputation of one of the best French Prie, the favorite of the regent, who ad- productions of its kind. His Mérope (1743) mired his poetical talents ; but he was was the first French drama which produced obliged to leave the kingdom. He went a strong effect without the aid of love. On to England, where his Henriade was pub- the representation of this piece, the custom lished by subscription, at the request of was introduced of calling for the appearking George I and the princess of Wales. ance of the writer. Before this time, From this he obtained considerable emol- Voltaire had gained the favor of the court ument. He became acquainted with by a political service. He corresponded many men of rank, and distinguished with the crown-prince of Prussia, afterscholars, but gave such license to his wit, wards Frederic the Great, who had a that it is said Pope's mother was some- great fondness for French literature. times driven away, by his conversation, When Frederic ascended the throne, in from her son's table. In 1728, he received 1740, an alliance with him was considered permission to return to France, where he desirable. Voltaire was sent to Berlin, put his acquisitions into a lottery. By and discovered the ground upon which this, as well as by other fortunate specu- Frederic had declined the advances which lations (he traded under the name of Du had been made him. The alliance was Moulin, and sent ships to Africa), he ob- concluded as soon as France had declared tained great wealth, so that, after he came herself against Austria. Voltaire now deinto possession of the estates of his father sired, as the reward of his services, some and brother, his income amounted to marks of favor from the court, to facilitate nearly 130,000 livres, which he employed his admission to the academy, which had in a praiseworthy manner: he particular- been opposed by his numerous enemies. ly aided youthful literary talent. In 1730, He was therefore invited to compose a he brought the tragedy of Brutus upon piece for the celebration of the nuptials the stage ; but, notwithstanding much of the dauphin, and wrote the Princess of merit, it did not please universally. His Navarre. The piece was approved, if talent for dramatic poetry was not by the public, at least by the court; doubted; and Fontenelle and La Motte and his reward was the place of gentiladvised him not to employ his genius homme ordinaire, and historian of France. any more in this manner. His answer As such, he planned a history of the then was the Zaïre, a play, which produced existing war of 1741. It was not, howa deep and universal impression, and is ever, until 1746 that he received a place still a favorite on the French stage. in the academy. In the mean time, he He afterwards attacked the pretensions of was persecuted with lampoons of all the church with such vehemence, in his kinds, so that he withdrew, with madame Lettres philosophiques, that the parliament du Chatelet, to the court of king Stanisof Paris condemned the book to be burnt; laus, at Luneville. During this time were and an order was issued for the arrest of produced his tragedies Sémiramis, Orestes, the author. He therefore passed some and Rome Sauvée, the subject of which years in concealment at Cirey, near Vassi, was the conspiracy of Catiline. After the in Champagne, where he was treated death of madame du Chatelet, in 1749, with the greatest kindness by the mistress Voltaire returned to Paris, where he conof the estate, the marchioness du Chat- tributed much to form the celebrated actor elet (q. v.), and wrote his Elémens de la Lekain. Frederic the Great had hitherto Philosophie de Newton, to make his coun- vainly invited him to Potsdam; but being trymen acquainted with the great discov- told that Frederic had called Arnaud the eries of the English philosopher. He rising and bim the setting sun, his selfwished, as he expressed it, to exhibit the love was so much touched that he sprang Briareus in miniature. But scientific out of bed, and exclaimed, “Frederic may labors were by no means so well adapted judge of affairs of state, but not of me! to his powers as the culture of the belles- Yes; I will go and show him that I am lettres. He soon returned to poetry, and not setting yet.” He went to Potsdam in wrote, in 1736, his Alzire, and, in 1741, June, 1750. Frederic treated him with his Mohammed. The attacks in the last the greatest distinction: in a moment of upon fanaticism displeased the clergy, enthusiasm, he even kissed his hand. and, by the advice of the minister, cardi- Voltaire occupied an apartment under nal Fleury, he withdrew the piece; yet it that of the king, with permission to visit him at certain hours, and had a table and reigned like a petty prince among his equipage at his command. He spent every subjects. Here he erected a new and day two hours with the king, and revised elegant church, with the inscription Deo his literary productions, when, as he him- erexit Voltaire. A decided enemy of tyrself said, he never failed to praise the anny and oppression, he afforded aid and good, and quietly to strike out the bad. protection to many persecuted persons; But this friendship. continued hardly a among others, to the family of Jean Calas, year. A quarrel between Maupertuis, who had fallen a victim to fanaticism. At president of the Berlin academy, and a that time, he wrote his masterly treatise mathematician named Konig, in which upon toleration. The granddaughter of Voltaire took part, drew upon him the the great Corneille also experienced his displeasure of Frederic, who caused his bounty. In the numerous writings which Akakia, a satire upon Maupertuis, to be he composed in this retreat, his free spirit burnt in the presence of the writer, and employed the weapons of ridicule, and sent him his dismission. Voltaire return- the boldest eloquence, against all which ed to the king the chamberlain's key and contravened his ideas of freedom and inthe cross of the order which had been dependence. To the clergy he was parconferred on him, with some verses, in ticularly hostile, on account of their intolwhich he compared himself to a lover erance and persecuting spirit. But he who sends back the portrait of his mis- often injured the cause of religion itself tress; but the king soon restored them. while he attacked its servants. His moVoltaire now made a visit to the duchess tives, moreover, were not always of the of Gotha. During his absence, Mauper- highest kind. In 1757, the first edition tuis succeeded in depriving him of the of his works appeared, prepared under his favor of the king, and he concluded to own eye. It reconciled him with Fredreturn to France. When he reached eric the Great. This monarch renewed Frankfort on the Maine, he was stopped his correspondence with Voltaire, and by order of Frederic, because he had sent him his own bust, of porcelain, with with him various productions of the king, the inscription Viro immortali. The emwho feared that he would use them to his press Catharine of Russia sent him, likeprejudice. He was likewise compelled wise, splendid presents, accompanied by to resign the chamberlain's key, his order, the most flattering letters. In return for and his promise of a pension of 22,000 an ivory box, made by herself, and for her livres. The breach between Frederic instructions (prepared for the direction of and Voltaire was now irreparable. Vol- a law commission which she had institaire wished to reside in Paris ; but his tuted), he sent her a bracelet netted by his Pucelle d'Orléans had excited so much own hands. In 1769, a medal was stampdispleasure, that he was not allowed to ed in honor of him, the inscription on remain in the capital. He now resided for which was a verse taken from the Henrisome years at Colmar, where he wrote ade : Il óte aux nations le bandeau de l'erthe Orphan of China, and bought a coun even Some French literati, together try seat in the neighborhood of Geneva. with Frederic, erected a statue to him, Jean Jacques Rousseau sent him his well- with the inscription Statue erigée à Volknown treatise which had gained the taire par les hommes de lettres ses compaprize of the academy of Dijon. Voltaire triotes ; and Louis XV said, “ He deserves returned him an answer which, among it.” All strangers of distinction who many flattering remarks, contained the passed by Ferney stopped to testify their following sentence: “When I read your esteem for this remarkable man. Joseph treatise, I desire to creep upon all-fours." II only did not visit him. Nevertheless, This ridicule made the author of Emile Voltaire was by no means happy. Too his irreconcilable enemy. Soon after, much accustomed to the constant admiraVoltaire took part in the political conten- tion of the world, he soon became weary tions then prevailing in Geneva ; and, of his quiet life, and went, even in his adhaving become involved in disputes with vanced age (February, 1778), once more many of the principal people, he thought to Paris. Here he found many admirers, it best to leave the place. He therefore who adored bim, and many bitter enepurchased the estate of Ferney, in the Pays mies. He was sensible of the dislike ende Gex, where he resided the rest of his tertained towards him; and, therefore, life, with his niece, madame Denis. He when stopped by the officers of the cusdrew manufacturers, and other settlers, toms, with the inquiry if he had any coninto his district, obtained for them, through traband goods with him, he replied, “ No, his influence, important advantages, and no; there is nothing contraband here but VOL. XIII. 3 reur. myself.” The inquiry of the king, on his therefore interred secretly at Scellières, a arrival, if the decree of the parliament Bernardine abbey, between Nogent and was still in force against him, made him Troyes. By a decree of the national asanxious; but nothing further was done to sembly (1791), his remains were placed in molest him. The French academy sent the Pantheon, in Paris, near those of J. J. three of their members to welcome him, Rousseau and other great men.— The exthough, in similar cases, it was customary terior of Voltaire was quite characteristic. to send but one. The actors waited upon In his countenance, as has been said, him in a body: “We have come,” said there was a mixture of the eagle and the they, “to beseech you to inspire us with monkey; and, in character, he united the your odes.” “I live only for you and boldness of the one with something of the through you” was his answer-a proof malice of the other. He was impetuous, that he considered his dramas as his chief irritable, sensitive, but also mild, compasproductions; and, in truth, dramatic sionate, benevolent, cheerful, and lively works were his last labors. He wrote his from principle. With noble views and Tancrède in the sixty-sixth year of his age. principles, his actions were not always The calls upon him were so constant that the most praiseworthy; and many of his he felt hiniself oppressed by them. “I good deeds did not flow from the purest am suffocated,” said he, “but it is with sources. He had something vacillating roses.” Franklin came, with his grand- in his character; and, notwithstanding his son, to see Voltaire: “My son,” said he, hatred of prejudice, he frequently bowed “fall upon your knees before this great to it in a manner which did him little man." Voltaire gave the boy his bless- honor. From vanity he flattered the ing, with the words “God and freedom.” great, and often sought their company for He had brought with him a new tragedy, the same reason. His fame did not beIrène, which was performed on the 16th come great till after his retirement from of May. The royal family was present, court. He was too selfish to inspire love, and the piece was received with unbound- and avarice is said to have had much ased applause. The French academy sent cendency over him. Yet he was, in his him their gratulations on this occasion, latter years, the friend of the poor, and and placed his bust by the side of Cor- the protector of the oppressed. Notwithneille. At the sixth representation, he standing all his admirers, he gained no came into the theatre; and, when he had friend. He had great talents, but not an sat down in his box, a player entered, and elevated character; and his writings want presented him with a laurel wreath; and, the charm which only a great soul can at the conclusion of the piece, his bust give. Nevertheless, he often acted nobly. was also crowned in the theatre. All T'he abbé Desfontaines, to whom he had these excitements, together with incessant shown much kindness, published, without literary labors, and the change from his any authority, an edition of the Henriade accustomed manner of life, affected his from a very imperfect manuscript. Deshealth so much that it seemed as if he fontaines became unfortunate, repented could not live much longer. He perceiv- of what he had done, and Voltaire became ed this plainly: "I have come to Paris," again his benefactor. Being arrested on lie said, “ to find my glory and my grave.” account of a dishonorable accusation, the lle could not sleep; and a large dose of abbé owed to Voltaire's influence with opium, which he took without the advice madam de Prie his freedom, his honor, of his physician, is thought to bave has- and perhaps his life. Desfontaines rectened his death. When his tenants heard ompensed this favor by a severe criticism of his sickness, they wished to go to Par- and a bitter lampoon. To a peasant, deis, and carry hiin, in a litter, to Ferney. prived, by an unjust sentence, of his land, He resided in Paris with the marquis de who applied to Voltaire for assistance, he Villette. The latter sent to the principal gave 3000 livres, and invited him to settle clergyman of St. Sulpice, to induce him in Ferney. In company, Voltaire was to beg Voltaire to submit to the ceremony agreeable, polite, and a complete courtier. which Catholic Christians undergo on The activity of his temperament was so leaving the world. The circumstances great that he often labored all night. of the case have been related differently; Even in his eightieth year, he worked but it is certain that Voltaire died without fourteen hours a day. Among his works, receiving the sacrament, in the eighty- his dramas hold the first place. He is the fifth year of his age, May 30, 1778. The worthy rival of Racine and Corneille, and archbishop of Paris is said to have denied his pieces are still favorites with the the corpse Christian burial; and it was French. Notwithstanding his great wit, a a however, Voltaire was not distinguished lished an edition of Voltaire's works, in in comedy. The Henriade has many 70 volumes. A tolerably complete, but perstriking passages, but wants true epic haps not entirely impartial review of the characters, and is faulty in its plan. Among numerous literary contests of Voltaire, is his historical works, the Siècle de Louis given in the Tableau philosophique de l'EsXIV e XV, and the Histoire de Charles prit de M. de Voltaire (Geneva, 1771). XII , the Essai sur l'Histoire générale, sur les VOLTERRA; a town of Tuscany, twenMeurs et l’Esprit des Nations, abound in ty-four miles south-west of Florence, with penetrating views. His merits are not those 5000 inhabitants. It is the see of a bishof thorough investigation, but of striking op, and has a public seminary of educaand happy description, and sagacious ob- tion. The ancient Volaterra was one of servation. His prevailing defect is the ex- the twelve principal cities of Etruria, and aggerated estimation of the superiority of had 100,000 inhabitants. Some Etruscan the French over other modern nations. monuments still remain : among these His philosophical romances, treatises, are its walls, with a gate, dedicated to smaller poems, narratives, dialogues, &c., Hercules ; and the fish-pond, constructed show a comprebensive spirit , and great of enormous blocks of stone. (See Etruria.) felicity of execution. In the department VOLUME (Latin volumen). The volume of fugitive pieces, be is unique. As a of a body has reference to the space prose writer, he is unequalled, so beauti- which it occupies. To have a correct idea ful and polished is his expression, so co- of this, imagine a body immersed entirely · pious his wit. Among all the French wri- in a liquid, which neither changes nor ters, he, perhaps, displays, in the fullest penctrates it. If it is now taken out, and degree, the peculiarities of his nation. we add new liquid, to raise the contents The accomplished marchioness du Chate- of the vessel as high as they were when let, as we have already said, was his inti- the body was immersed, the amount of mate friend : hence the Lettres inédites de the newly-added liquid will give us the la Marq. du Chatelet et Supplément à la volume of the body. Thus we have a Correspondance de Voltaire avec le Roi de simple means of ascertaining the volume Prusse, etc., avec des Notes histor. (Paris, of small bodies, the irregularity of which 1818), is an important addition to his bi- presents some difficulty in the way of deography.--See La Vie de Voltaire par Con- termining it by ordinary means. Volume dorcet; also La Vie de Voltaire par M. must not be confounded with mass. On (Mercier) (Geneva, 1788); Examen des the volume also depends the difference of Ourrages de M. de Voltaire par M. Linguet the absolute and specific gravity. (q. v.) (Brussels, 1788); Vie littéraire de Voltaire VOLUMNIA. (See Coriolanus.) rédigée par de Luchet. The abbe Du- VOLUNTEER, in military language ; one vernet describes him more particularly as who serves in the arıny, or undertakes a a man, and a private man, in his Vie de particular duty without being obliged so Voltaire suivie d'Anecdotes qui composent to do: thus officers not unfrequently take sa Vie privée (Paris, 1797); see also Mé- part in a campaign, as volunteers. When moires sur Voltaire et sur ses Ouvrages par an enterprise of peculiar danger is to be Wagnière et Longchamp, ses Secrétaires undertaken, as the assault of a formidable (1826, two vols.). Wagniére was directed battery, the taking of a square, &c., a call by the empress Catharine, who bought Vol- is made for volunteers ; and 'those who taire's library, to arrange it in St. Peters- survive receive rewards of money, or burg, as it had stood in Ferney. The Vie medals, swords, &c.or promotion. Somede Voltaire, by Mazure, is very partial. times there are also bodies of troops conHis works were published by Beaumar- sisting entirely of volunteers; e. g. the chais, at Kehl, 1784, seq. in 70 vols. 410 Prussian volunteer riflemen, attached to . and 8vo, and 92 vols. 12mo; and, by Pal- each battalion in the campaigns of 1813, issot, with notes, at Paris, 1796, seq. The '14 and '15, and the volunteer compaPièces inédites appeared at Paris in 1820. nies of citizens raised, in 1794, in EngSince 1817, seven editions of the works land. These mostly laid down their arms of Voltaire have been published (the in 1801 ; but when the war broke out cheapest by Touquet, 1820). In 1823, again in 1803, and the intention of the some uopublished works of his, were French to effect a landing was found in the imperial hermitage, at Peters- nounced, the inhabitants of Great Britain burg: the most important are a bitter rose anew, and the ministers spoke of commentary upon Rousseau's Contrat nearly 500,000 volunteers being in arms. Social, and a tale; the latter has since Volutes. (See Architecture, vol. I, p. 340.) been published. Dupont has lately pub- Von; a German preposition, meaning, an in some cases, from, or of. It is prefixed mountain), which belongs to the Noric a dyer, who secretly seceded to the ProtVondel, Joost van der, one of the most estant communion. Conrad was sent to celebrated poets of Holland, of which, Haerlem and Heidelberg, at which unihowever, he was not a native, was born versity he was created a doctor of diviniat Cologne, in 1587. His parents, who ty. After giving lectures on theology, at were Anabaptists, removed to Holland Geneva, in 1596, be accepted a professorwhile he was a child, and the poet him- ship at Steinfurt, until 1610, when he reself afterwards went over to the Arminians ceived a call to succeed Arminius in the (q. v.), and finally died in the bosom of the professorship of theology at Leyden. Roman Catholic church, in 1659. Nature Having accepted this offer, he soon behad endowed him with extraordinary tal- came involved in the controversial war ents, and he derived little aid from edu- which raged in the Netherlands; and the cation. He has been called the Dutch Gomarists, taking advantage of a book Shakspeare. Devoting himself entirely which he had published, entitled Tractato the cultivation of poetry, Vondel first tus Theologicus de Deo, accused him of learned Latin and French in the thirtieth heresy. James I, on receiving the book year of his age, read the Roman and of Vorstius, drew up a catalogue of hereFrench writers, and endeavored to supply sies from it, which he sent to his minister the deficiencies of his early education. at the Hague, with an order to certify to His works display genius and elevated the states how much he detested those alimagination ; but the language is often in- leged errors. He also caused his book to correct. His poems compose nine vols. be burnt in London, and informed the quarto, and include metrical versions of states, who said they would inquire into the Psalms, of Virgil and of Ovid, to- the case, that if they did not dismiss gether with satires and tragedies. Among Vorstius, none of his subjects should visit the latter, Palamedes, an allegorical piece Leyden. The appearance of a work, by relating to the death of Barneveldt, and some of his disciples, entitled De Officio the Conquest of Amsterdam, are consid- Christiani Hominis, which contained some ered the inasterpieces of Dutch tragedy. anti-Trinitarian doctrines,although formalCamper has treated of Vondel, in a Latin ly disclaimed by Vorstius, excited against prize essay, published at Leyden, in 1818. him so much odium, that he was banished, VORARLBERG ; a mountainous district, by the states of Holland, from their terrinow forming a circle of the Tyrol, sur- tories. (See Arminius, and Arminians.) rounded by the Tyrol, Switzerland, lake He lived for more than two years in seConstance, and Bavaria. It has its own crecy, frequently changing his abode, in separate constitution, and consists of the fear for his life, and died, in 1622, at the lordships of Bregenz, Feldkirch, Pludenz, age of fifty-three. and Hohenems, with a population of Vortices of DESCARTES. (See Des86,754 souls, on 1578 square miles. The cartes.) Vorarlberg lordships derive their name Vosges; a chain of mountains in the from the Arlberg, or Adlersberg (Eagle east of France, extending from north to |
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