title: Voltaire and Rousseau against the atheists;
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VOLTAIRE FROM "IL FAUT PRENDRE UN PARTI"— WE MUST CHOOSE OUR SIDE. I do not allude to choosing sides between Russia and Turkey, for those countries will make peace sooner or later, without any in- terference of mine : Nor is the question whether we shall de- clare ourselves in favor of a British party against some other party, for both will soon disappear and make way for new ones : Nor do I propose to choose between the Christians of the Greek Church, the Armin- ians, the Eutychians, the Jacobites, the Chris- tians denominated Papists, the Lutherans, 4 VOLTAIRE. the Calvinists, the Anglicans, the Primitives styled Quakers, the Anabaptists, the Jan- senists, the Molinists, the Socinians, the Pie- tists, and so many other ists. I desire to keep on good terms with all these gentle- men when I meet them, and to enter into no dispute with them ; for there is not one among them all who, if he should have oc- casion to divide a guinea with me, would not perfectly understand how much was due him, or who would be willing to lose an obolus for the salvation of my soul or of his. I shall not take sides between the old and new parliaments of France, for a few years hence we shall hear no more of either : Nor between the ancients and the mod- erns, for that is a dispute which will never be settled : Nor between the Jansenists and the Mol- inists, for they exist no longer, and h\e or six thousand volumes of their controversial works have become, thank God, as useless as the works of Saint Ephraim : VOLTAIRE. 5 Nor between the French and Italian comic operas, for that is a matter of taste: But that to which I refer is a trifling little question, viz., — whether there is a God; — and this is what I am about to examine with great seriousness and good faith, for the sub- ject is interesting to me and you too. ON THE PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. Every thing is in motion ; every thing in nature acts and reacts. Our sun turns on its axis with a rapidity which amazes us, and other suns turn like- wise, while an innumerable multitude of planets revolve in their orbits around them. The blood circulates more than twenty times an hour in the lowest of our animals. A straw, borne by the wind, tends by its nature to the centre of the earth, as the earth is at- tracted by the sun, and the sun by it. The everlasting flux and reflux of the ocean is attributable to the same laws. It is in pur- Q VOLTAIRE. suance of the same laws that the vapors which form our atmosphere escape continu- ally from the earth and fall again in the shape of dew, rain, hail, snow, and thunder- storms. All is action; even death is active. The / bodies of the dead are decomposed, transform themselves into vegetables, and afford nour- ishment for the living, who, in their turn, nourish others in the same manner. What is the principle of this universal action ? That principle must be one. The con- stant uniformity discoverable in the laws * which regulate the revolutions of the hea- venly bodies and in the motion of our globe, and which is found to prevail also in every species and genus of animals, vegetables, and minerals, indicates one mover only. If there were two, they would be either different from each other, or hostile to each other, or similar to each other. Were they different, there w T ould be no mutual adaptation in the VOLTAIRE. 7 works of nature. Were they hostile, all things would destroy each other. If they are similar, it is as if there were but one : there is, in that case, one more than is required. I am confirmed in the belief that there is but a single principle, a single mover, the moment I direct my attention to the un- changing and uniform laws pervading all nature. The same gravitation penetrates into all the heavenly bodies, and impels them toward each other, not in proportion to their extent of surface (for that might result from the influence of a fluid), but in proportion to their mass or quantity of matter. The squares of the periodic times of the planets are to each other in the same pro- portion as the cubes of their distances from the sun ; and this, let me remark in passing, establishes what Plato had divined (I know not how), that the world is the work of the Everlasting Geometer.^ 8 VOLTAIRE. The rays of light are reflected and refract- ed through the whole extent of the universe. All mathematical truths must be such in the star Sirius, as much as in our little dwelling- place. If I turn my eyes upon the animal king- dom, I perceive that all quadrupeds and all bipeds without w 7 ings perpetuate their spe- cies by the same copulation, and that all their females are viviparous. The females of all birds are oviparous. All the species of the same genus propa- gate in the same manner and subsist on the same food. Plants of the same genus have the same fundamental properties. Assuredly the oak and the hazel have never contracted with each other that they would be reproduced and grow in the same way, any more than the planets, Mars and Saturn, have agreed with each other to be governed by the same laws. Then there exists one universal and pow- VOLTAIRE. 9 erful Intelligence, which always acts by un- varying laws. No one, on seeing an armillary sphere, a painted landscape, drawings in which ani- mals are represented, or anatomical prepa- rations of colored wax, doubts that they are the productions of skilful artists. Can it be that these copies imply an intelligent maker, and that the originals do nothing of the kind'? This of itself appears to me the most con- vincing demonstration of the existence of a God, and I cannot conceive in what way it can be answered. OF THE PRINCIPLE OF ACTION AS NECESSARY AND ETERNAL. This one mover is very powerful, other- wise he could not regulate so vast and com- plicated a machine. He is very intelligent, since we, wiio are < intelligent, can produce nothing equal to the least of the springs of this machine. 10 VOLTAIRE. He is a necessary being, inasmuch as the^ machine could not exist, but for him. He is eternal, for he cannot have sprung from nonentity, which being nothing can [ produce nothing ; and as soon as something exists, it is clear that something has existed from all eternity. This sublime truth has now become trite. Such has been the pro- gress of the human mind in our times, not- withstanding the efforts our teachers of ig- norance have put forth during so many ages to degrade us. WHERE IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE ? IS IT INFINITE ? When the animal called a man demon- strates to me a geometrical proposition, or when he raises a weight, I do not see the first principle of his intelligence and his mo- tions. Still I believe that there is one within him, inferior being as he is. I cannot dis- cover whether this first principle is in his heart, or his head, or his blood, or his whole VOLTAIRE. 11 body. In the same manner I infer that there is a first principle in nature, and I see that it is impossible that that principle should not be everlasting. But where is it 1 If it animates all that IS, it must be in all that IS. This seems unquestionable. It is in all that exists, as motion is in all the body of an animal, if I may be permitted to make use of so inadequate a comparison. But if it is in what exists, can it be in what does not exist ? Is the universe infi- nite 1 So we are told ; but who can prove it? # # * * % # I know no reason why God should be infinite. His nature, I apprehend, is to be wherever there is any thing ; but why and how should existing things be infinite? Newton has proved the possibility of a va- cuum, which till then had only been suppo- sed. If there is vacuity in nature, there can be vacuity beyond the limits of nature. What necessity is there that beings should have |2 VOLTAIRE. infinite extension 1 What is infinite exten- sion ? There can be no such thing, any more than any number is infinite. There is no number and no degree of extension to which additions cannot be made. On this point the opinions of Cudworth are more correct than those of Clarke. God, says Clarke, is present every where. Yes, doubtless, every where where any thing is, but not where there is nothing at all. To be present to nothing seems to me a contra- diction, an absurdity. I am forced to admit eternity, but I am not forced to admit that there is such a thing as infinity. In fine, what matters it to me, whether space be a real being or a mere conception of my understanding? What matters it, whether the necessary, intelligent, powerful, J t eternal, all-creating Being be or be not in^, that imaginary space % In either case, am I the less his work ? Am I the less depend- ent upon him 1 Is he the less my master 1 , I perceive this master of the universe with VOLTAIRE. 13 the eyes of my understanding ; but I cannot perceive him beyond the bounds of the uni- verse. The dispute, whether infinite space be a real being or not, still continues. I am not willing to found my opinion on so unsafe a basis — on a controversy worthy of the school- men ; nor am I willing to make God's throne rest in imaginary space. To compare once more small things which seem great to us, w T ith what is great in real- ity, let us suppose that an alguazil at Ma- drid should endeavor to convince one of his Castilian neighbors that the king of Spain is master of the sea which lies north of Cal- ifornia, and should contend that whoever doubts this is guilty of high treason. The Castilian might answer, " I do not even know that there is any sea on the other side of California ; and it is of little importance to me whether there be or not, so long as I have the means of living at Madrid. No discovery of that sea is required to teach me 14 VOLTAIRE. that I am under obligation to be faithful to the king, my master, on the banks of the Manc,anares. Whether there be or be not any ships beyond Hudson's bay, his right to command me here remains unchanged. I feel my dependence on him at Madrid, be- cause I know that he is the master of the city." So, too, we are dependent on the Great Being, not because he is present out of the '"* world, but because he is present in it. I have only to entreat the forgiveness of the Ruler of Nature for having compared him to a frail man, that I might the better illustrate my meaning. THAT THE FIRST PRINCIPLE, THE ETERNAL BEING, ARRANGED ALL VOLUNTARILY. It is manifest that the Supreme, Necessa-'X ry, and Active Intelligence has a will, and that he has ordered all things because he has so willed. For how could he act and form VOLTAIRE. 15 every thing without willing ? He would be, on that supposition, a mere machine, and that machine would imply another first prin- ciple — another mover. We should still have to recur to some primary being endowed with intelligence. We exercise volition, we act, we construct, machines in pursuance of our will ; and so the great and mighty Demi- ourgos* created all because he so willed. Spinoza himself recognizes in nature an intelligent and necessary power. But an intelligence destitute of will would be an ab- surdity, for it would serve no end and would effect nothing ; the will to effect any thing being wanting. Consequently, the great and necessary Being has willed all that he has done. * Demiourgos, workman, maker. It was often applied to the Deity by the Greek philosophers, as : * * * y AXX ovxoj ye ay.o7Tovfievo) navv eoixs xavxa oocpov rivbq S rj ill ov qy ox ttal cpiXo^wov xexv^aaxt. — Xenophon, {Mem. Soc.} Oeol -frewv, wv iyoi drj inov Qybq, v.. x. X. — Plato, (TimcBUS.) MijxoC- vvv xov ye &ebv a^ioHJcapev rtoxe &vrix6)V 8t\^iovqy (av cpavXo- xegov, x. x. X. — Plato, (De Legg.) Translator. 16 VOLTAIRE. I have before remarked that he created all necessarily ; for if his works were not neces- sary, they would be useless. But does this necessity nullify his free will 1 Certainly not. I necessarily will that I may be happy. I do not will this the less because I necessa- rily will it ; on the contrary, I will it only the more forcibly from the fact that my will is invincible. Does this necessity deprive him of his free agency ? Not at all. Free agency is noth- ing else than the power of acting. As then the Supreme Being is powerful in the high- est degree, he is the freest of beings. Thus, therefore, the great Artificer of the universe is shown to be necessary, eternal,. ( intelligent, powerful, capable of volition, and free. VOLTAIRE. 17 FROM " LE PHILOSOPHE IGNORANT.' ONE SUPREME ARTIFICER. A large part of mankind, seeing moral and physical evil spread throughout the globe, imagined that there were two pow- erful beings ; one of whom wrought all the good, and the other all the evil. s~ If two such beings existed, they would exist necessarily ; they would be everlasting and independent ; they would also occupy all space, would exist, therefore, in the same place, and each would penetrate the other ; which is absurd. The notion of these two conflicting pow- ers must have originated in the examples we witness on earth. We see around us some men that are mild, and others that are fero- cious, useful animals and noxious ones, kind masters and tyrants. This suggested the idea of two hostile powers presiding over nature, which is but an Asiatic romance. 18 VOLTAIRE. All nature exhibits unity of purpose. The laws of motion and gravity are invariable. It is impossible that two supreme artificers, entirely opposed to each other, should have followed the same laws. This argument is, in my judgment, sufficient of itself to over- throw the doctrine of the Manicheans, and there is no need of encountering them with cumbrous volumes. There exists, therefore, a Power, unique, eternal, with whom every thing is connected, on whom every thing depends, but whose nature I am unable to comprehend. FROM "TOUT EN DIEU." Commentaire sur Malebranche. GOD THE CAUSE OF ALL THINGS. It is certain that we cannot give ourselves any sensation ; we cannot even imagine any except such as we have experienced. VOLTAIRE. 19 Though every academy in Europe should offer a prize for the invention of a new sense, the prize would never be awarded. We can do nothing purely of ourselves, whether there be an invisible and intangible being in our cerebellum or not. And it must be confess- ed, whatever system we adopt, that the Au- thor of nature has bestowed upon us all that we have — organs, sensations — and ideas, which are the consequence of the latter. As we are thus placed at his disposal, / Malebranche, notwithstanding all his errors, was right in declaring, philosophically, that we are in God, and that we behold every thing in God. Saint Paul says the same thing in the language of theology, and Ara- tus and Cato in that of the moralists. What, then, are we to understand by the expression, behold every thing in God 7* * The doctrine of Malebranche, if I rightly apprehend the opinions of that subtle metaphysician, is briefly as follows: That ideas are not mere modes, properties, or attributes, but real entities : 20 VOLTATRE. Either these are unmeaning words, or they signify that all our ideas are from God f\y That God must have created each of his works in pursu- ance of a previous idea in himself: That there exists a kind of repository of ideas (or etendue intelligible, as Malebranche denominates it), which is embo- somed, as it were, in God, and is a part of Him, and which contains the archetypes or model-ideas, not only of all that is, has been, or will be, but of all that can be ; — of all things that are possible : That when we look on external objects, we do not see the objects themselves, but the intimate union between the hu- man soul and God enables us to perceive the ideal exem- plars of those objects in that portion of God's substance which constitutes the etendue intelligible; and we may therefore be said to see God, and to see all things in God. The following passage, which I translate from the work of Malebranche entitled Dela Recherche de la Verite, will per- haps exhibit his views more clearly. It is from the chapter, " Que nous voyons toutes choses en Dieu." "A great number of passages may be found in the writings of St. Augustine, by which he attempts to prove that we see God, even in this life, by the knowledge which we possess of eternal truths. Truth, he observes, is uncreated, immuta- ble, immeasurable, everlasting, superior to all else. It is true by its own nature ; its perfection is not derived from any thing ; it renders created beings more perfect ; and all spirits naturally endeavor to become acquainted with it. Nothing but God can possess all these perfections. Then Truth is God. VOLTAIRE. 21 What is meant by receiving ideas ? When we receive, we do not create them ; then they are created by God, just as it is God, not we, who originates motion. All, therefore, is but the action of God upon his creatures. a We see some of these immutable and eternal truths. Then we see God. " Such is St. Augustine's mode of reasoning. My own is somewhat different, and I would not unfairly take advantage of the authority of so great a name to support my own views. " My opinion, then, is that truths, far from being God him- self, are not even substantive beings ; and that this is the case even with those which are eternal, such as that twice two make four. For it is apparent that this truth consists mere- ly in a relation of equality between 4 and twice 2. I say, therefore, that we see God, not as St. Augustine maintains, when we see these truths, but when we perceive the ideas of them, for the ideas are actual beings ; while the equality between the ideas, which is the truth itself, is not a real be- ing. When, for example, we measure a piece of cloth and say that it is three ells long, the cloth and the ells are real beings. But the equality between the three ells and the cloth is not a real being ; it is a mere relation. When we say that twice 2 are 4, the ideas of the numbers are actual entities ; but the equality between them is only a relation. Thus, according to my view, we see God when we perceive everlasting truths ; not that these truths are God, but be- cause the ideas on which they depend are in God," &c, &c. Translator, 22 VOLTAIRE. GOD INSEPARABLE FROM ALL NATURE. It must not thence be inferred that he re- mains in perpetual contact with his works by particular acts and exercises of volition. We are prone always to make God in our likeness. Sometimes we represent him as an absolute monarch issuing orders to the servants in his palace; sometimes as a work- man attending to the wheels of his machine. But can the man who makes a right use of his reason, conceive of God as aught else than an ever active principle % If he was once a principle, he must be so every mo- ment, for his nature cannot change. The comparison of the sun and its light to God and his productions is, no doubt, imperfect ; but it furnishes an idea, however faint and defective, of an ever-subsisting cause and its ever-subsisting effects. In short, it is merely as a parrot or an idiot that I utter the name of God, if I have not the idea of a cause which is necessary, VOLTAIRE. 23 immeasurable, active, present to all its ef- fects, in all places, and at all times. I cannot here be met with the objections advanced against Spinoza. He was told that he had made a God at once intelligent and stupid, spirit and squash, wolf and lamb, who robbed and was robbed, murdered and was murdered ; that his God was a perpet- ual contradiction. But I do not make the universe God. I hold that the universe is an emanation from him, and would observe (to recur again to the feeble comparison of which I have spoken), that a beam of light darted from the sun, and absorbed in the fil- thiest of sewers, does not leave the small- est stain upon the luminary from which it proceeds, nor does the sewer prevent the sun from vivifying all nature throughout our globe. It may be objected, however, that the beam, being an emanation from the sun, comes from its very substance ; and that if God's works are emanations from him, they 24 VOLTAIRE. are parts of him. Hence I should fear to convey a false idea of God, by appearing to consider him as composed of parts — and those, too, unconnected parts — parts hostile to each other. On this point I repeat what I have already remarked, that my compari- son is extremely imperfect, and that it serves only to furnish a faint image of what cannot be represented by images. I might say, moreover, that a sunbeam passing into the mire does not mingle with the latter, but preserves its invisible essence. Yet it is better to confess that even the purest light is not an adequate emblem of the Deity. Light emanates from the sun, and all things emanate from God. We know not how it is ; but, I repeat, we cannot conceive of God except as the necessary Being from whom all emanates. The multitude regard him as a despot who keeps bailiffs in his ante- chamber. I consider all other images which have been employed to shadow forth this Princi- VOLTAIRE. 25 pie — a Principle all-pervading, necessarily self-existent, necessarily active throughout immeasurable extension — as still more in- correct than the comparison drawn from the sun and his rays. He has been described as riding the winds, borne on the clouds, surrounded with thunders and lightnings, holding converse with the elements, swell- ing the waves of the ocean. All this is but the expression of our littleness. It is, in truth, highly ridiculous to place in the midst of a fog, half a league from our petty globe, the everlasting Principle of all the millions of globes revolving in immensity. Our light- nings and thunders, which are seen and heard in a circuit of not more than four or five leagues at farthest, are but insignificant effects which are lost in the great whole; and this great whole is what we ought to bear in mind when speaking of God. (it must be the same power which passes from our planetary system to the other plan- etary systems thousands and thousands of 2 26 VOLTAIRE, times more remote from us than our globe is from Saturn. The stars are all governed by the same eternal laws, for if the centripetal and centrifugal forces influence our world, they influence the neighbouring one ; and so on, throughout the universe. The light of Sirius must be the same with that of our sun ; it must possess the same degree of tenuity, the same velocity, the same force ; it must likewise be emitted on all sides in right lines ; and its intensity, also, must vary in- versely as the square of the distance. As the light of the fixed stars, which are so many suns, reaches us in a given time ; so in reciprocation, that of our sun reaches them in a given time. As the rays and beams of our sun are subject to refraction, so, unquestionably, the rays of the other suns, darted in like manner upon their attending planets, are refracted in precisely the same mode, if they strike the same media. ^^.As this refraction is necessary to sight, these planets must contain beings possessing VOLTAIRE. 21 the faculty of seeing. It is not probable that so excellent a way of turning light to ac- count is left unemployed in the other globes. The instrument being there, we may reason- ably suppose that it is used. Let us always set out with these two principles — (that noth- ing is uselessjand that the great laws of na- ture are every where the same — and it will follow that the innumerable suns kindled in the immensity of space dispense light to in- numerable planets ; that the rays have the same properties as on our little earth ; and that animals enjoy the benefit of them. Of all beings and of all the forms in which the Great Being manifests himself, light is that which gives us the most enlarged idea of the Divinity, far as it is from fully representing him. In truth, when we have surveyed the ana- tomical structure of the animals of our globe, we know not whether the inhabitants of the other globes possess similar organs : when 28 VOLTAIRE, we have made ourselves acquainted with the weight, elasticity, and uses of our atmos- phere, we are ignorant whether the orbs revolving around Sirius or Aldebaran are encompassed with air resembling ours : our briny ocean does not prove that there are oceans in the other planets : but light is ev- ery where. Our nights are illuminated by a host of suns. It is by light that from a cor- ner of this little ball on w T hich man crawls, a perpetual correspondence is kept up be- tween all those worlds and us. Saturn Jooks upon us, and we upon Saturn. Sirius, which we behold, may also behold us, and certain- ly does behold our sun, although there inter- venes between the two a distance such that a cannon ball, moving at the rate of twelve hundred yards in a second, could not trav- erse it in a hundred and four billions of years. Light is, in reality, a swift messenger fly- ing through the great whole, from world to world. It has some of the properties of VOLTAIRE. 29 matter and some that are higher than those; and if any thing can afford some faint, inci- pient idea, some imperfect apprehension of God, it is light, which, like him, is every where, and, like him, operates everywhere.-/ FROM THE "HOMELIES." (Premiere Homelie.) ■ * # * Destroy men's belief in an avenging and remunerating Deity, and Sylla and Marius bathe with delight in the blood of their fellow-citizens ; the cruelties of Au- gustus, Antonius and Lepidus, surpass the atrocities of Sylla ; Nero in cold blood caus- es his mother to be put to death. It is cer- tain that the fear of an avenging God had then disappeared among the Romans. Athe- ism was prevalent, and it would not be dif- ficult to prove from history that atheism may sometimes produce as much evil as the most barbarous superstitions; 30 VOLTAIRE. Think you that Pope Alexander VI. be-, lieved there was a God, when, to promote the interests of his son, the offspring of incest, he had recourse in turn to treachery, open violence, the stiletto, the halter, and poison; and when, in mockery of the superstitious weakness of those whom he assassinated, he gave them absolution and indulgences in the midst of the convulsions of death % Certainly, these horrible barbarities upon men w 7 ere insults to the Divinity whom he derided. Let us all confess that in reading the history of this monster and his detestable son, we experience a wish that they may be punish- ed. The idea of an avenging God is neces- sary therefore. It may and does too often happen that, though convinced of God's justice, men give way to the fury of their passions. They are then in a state of intoxication. Remorse does not come upon them until reason has resumed her authority, but then it torments the guilty. The atheist may feel, instead VOLTAIRE. 31 of remorse, that secret and gloomy horror which accompanies the commission of great crimes. The condition of his soul is harass- ing and unhappy. A man who is stained with blood can no longer taste the sweets of society ; his spirit becomes ruffianly, and enjoys none of the delights of life ; he is frantic as a madman; — but he does not re- pent. He has no fear of being called to an account for the victims he has made. He will always be wicked, and will become hardened in ferocity. On the contrary, the man who believes in God will recover from his excitement. He can be violent but for a moment, while the atheist is a monster all his life. Why 1 Be- cause there is a check which restrains the former, while the latter has nothing to con- trol him. uWe do not read that the Archbishop of Troll, who caused all the magistrates of Stockholm to be murdered before his eyes, ever condescended even to pretend to atone 32 VOLTAIRE. for his crime by the slightest penitence. An atheist, provided he be sure of impunity so far as man is concerned, reasons and acts consistently in being dishonest, ungrateful, a slanderer, a robber, and a murderer. For if there is no God, this monster is his own god, and sacrifices to his purposes whatever he de- sires and whatever stands as an obstacle in his path. The most moving entreaties, the most cogent arguments have no more effect upon him than on a wolf thirsting for blood. | When the two Medici were assassinated by order of Pope Sixtus IV., in a church, at the instant when the god adored by the multitude was raised that they might look upon him, the pope, tranquil in his palace, had nothing to fear, whether the plot should succeed or miscarry. He well knew that the Florentines would never dare avenge themselves; that he could excommunicate them at his ease, and that they would kneel and ask his forgiveness for having ventured to complain. VOLTAIRE. 33 It is altogether probable that all the pow- erful men who have passed their lives in that round of crimes which fools denominate strokes of policy, revolutionary remedies, art of governing, &c, have been atheists, f * FROM THE " HONNETETES LITTE- RAIRES." (Vingt-septieme HonnHete.) I have always been convinced that athe- ism cannot do any good, and may do very great harm. I have pointed out the infinite difference between the sages who have writ- ten against superstition and the madmen who have written against God. \There is neither philosophy nor morality in any sys- tem of atheism. In none do I see any philosophy : for, in truth, is it reasoning to recognize the evi- dences of genius in one of the spheres of Ar- 2* 34 VOLTAIRE. chimedes or Posidonius, and in one of those orreries that are sold in England, and yet to recognize no such evidences in the work- manship of the universe? — to admire the copy, and yet persist in refusing to see any intelligence in the original from which the copy is taken % Is not this more absurd than if one were to say that the engravings from Raphael's paintings were made by an intel- ligent artist, but that the paintings made O themselves ! *7t* */v* *?? w *a* *n* FROM " DIEU ET LES HOMMES." aWhat other restraint could be laid on cu- 'pidity and on secret and unpunished trans- gressions than the idea of an eternal master who sees us, and will judge even our most hidden thoughts 1 I know not who was the first to teach men this doctrine. If I did, VOLTAIRE. 35 and were sure that he did not go farther and corrupt the medicine which he offered to mankind, I would erect an altar in his honor. FROxM THE "DICTIONNAIRE PHILO- SOPHIQUE." (Article u Dieu") /For my part, in nature as in art, I see nothing but final causes ; and I as much be- lieve that apple-trees were made for the purpose of bearing apples, as that watches are made for the purpose of showing the time of day. FROM A LETTER TO M. MARTIN KAHLE. I shall always be of the opinion that a clock proves a clock-maker, and that the universe proves a God. 36 VOLTAIRE. FROM THE "HISTOIRE DE JENNI." * * * Italy, in the fifteenth cen~y tury, was full of atheists — and what was the consequence ? Cases of poisoning were as common as invitations to supper ; and there was no more hesitation in plunging a stiletto into the heart of one's friend than in embra- cing him. There were teachers of crime, just as there are now teachers of music or mathematics. * * * FROM THE SAME. Birton — With you, I will call that intelli- ,. gent and powerful Principle which animates all nature, God. But has he deigned to make himself known to us 1 Friend — Yes, in his works. Birton — Has he dictated to us his laws ? Has he spoken to us 1 VOLTAIRE. 37 Friend— Yes, by the voice of our con- science. Is it not the fact that, if you had killed your father and mother, your con- science would harrow up your soul with remorse as terrible as it would be involun- tary 1 Is not this truth felt and admitted by the whole world ? Now let us descend to crimes of less magnitude, Is there one which does not alarm you at the first glance — which does not make you turn pale, the first time that you commit it — or which does not leave within you the sting of repentance % •ii. >A£, AU »ii» -i£* -it. -SL* -TV -TF "W *7f" Tv TV" 'Tv /-God, by addressing himself to your heart, has expressly commanded you never to de- base yourself by doing what is manifestly criminal. And as to all those equivocal acts which some condemn and others justify, what better rule can we adopt than to ad- here to that great maxim of the first of the Zoroasters, which has been so much dwelt upon in our time by a French author : ? mm - a " " nMitt M " "" a " 38 VOLTAIRE. which you contemplate be good or bad, abstain from itJl, FROM THE "TRAITE DE META- PHYSIQUE." I propose to institute an inquiry into the nature of the thinking faculty in the differ- ent species of men ; to examine whence we derive our ideas ; whether we have a soul distinct from the body ; whether the soul is immortal ; whether it is free ; whether it has virtues and vices, &c. But as the great- er part of these questions are connected with that of the existence or non-existence of God, it seems proper to begin by endeavor- ing to fathom the abyss of this great subject. Now, more than ever, let us divest ourselves of all passion and prejudice, and see in good faith what solution we can obtain by our reason, of the inquiry, Is there, or is there not, a God? VOLTAIRE. 39 I observe, in the first place, that there are nations who have no knowledge of a cre- ating Deity. These people are barbarous, it is true, and few in number ; but still they are men : and if the knowledge of God's ex- istence were a necessary attribute of human nature, the savage Hottentots would have as sublime an idea of a supreme being as we ourselves. Moreover, among civilized na- tions, children have not the least conception of a God. It is difficult to make them com- prehend the idea ; they often pronounce the word God all their lives without attaching to it any definite meaning. We find, also, that men differ as much in their notions of God as in their religions and laws. Hence I cannot refrain from saying to myself, " Is it possible that the knowledge of God, our creator, our preserver, our all, is less neces- sary to man than his corporeal members — than a nose and the five fingers of each hand, for example 7 Every man comes into the world with a nose and five fingers, but 40 VOLTAIRE. not one possesses at birth any knowledge of God. Whether it be a subject for regret or not, the fact is undeniable." Let us examine whether we ultimately acquire this knowledge in the same way as we attain to an acquaintance with mathe- matical principles, and with some metaphys- ical ideas. In so important an inquiry, what more judicious course can we pursue than to weigh whatever can be urged on either side, and adopt the conclusion which shall appear to us to be most in conformity with our reason ? SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. There are two modes of arriving at the idea of a being who presides over the uni- verse. The one which to ordinary minds is the most natural and complete, is to direct the attention not only to the order which reigns in the universe, but also to the end VOLTAIRE. 41 with an eye to which every thing appears to have been created. Many a huge volume has been written on this subject, yet the contents of them all may be reduced to the following reasoning : When I see a watch, the hand of which marks the hours, I conclude that an intelli- gent being arranged the springs of this piece of mechanism loith a vieio to the indication of the hours by the hand. So, when I see the springs of the human body, I conclude that an intelligent being arranged these organs to be received and nourished nine months in the womb ; that eyes were fur- nished for the purpose of seeing ; hands, that objects might be grasped, &c. But from this consideration alone, I can onJy infer the probability that an intelligent and superior being has skilfully prepared and fashioned matter. I cannot conclude from it alone that this being created matter out of nothing, or that he is infinite in every respect. I strive in vain to trace in my mind any connec- 42 VOLTAIRE. 