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for the king is lost in sympathy with the misfortunes of the man . How comes it , however , that Voltaire and Rousseau are the joint tenants of these vaults ? Are they the two greatest names in the honourable roll of French literati ? "Were they great poets ? great
statesmen ? or were they beneficent contributors to the advancement of either science or art ? "We may most positively deny that they were any of these—not even poets , although they wrote much rhyme . "What were they , then ? Our reply is a strange one—they were only philosophers . "Words vary in their signification chronologically , and we speak of the days when the encyclopaedists defined
the true meaning of everything , and called each other by the titles of " great man or " universal genius , " to be addressed in their turn as " my philosopher , " which their modesty would have illustrated by such names as Plato , Socrates , and their own . They spoke from tribunes , counted years by decades , and , had they dared , would have masqueraded in togas for the election of their consuls !
These two names suggest very different reflections ; although both laboured in the same cause of destruction to all that through seventeen centuries had acquired veneration or value , still it was by different paths , and with much opposition to each other . According to Rousseau , the world had been going wrong from the days when man first associated with man : order and societv meant onlv despotism
and spoliation ; civilization was a curse , the arts a proof of corrupt society , and the only hope of regeneration discovered in the disruption of all religious , national , and social ties ; so that he proclaimed " the savage state the trae state of man . " Voltaire , on the contrary , limited his panacea to the first . He would build more theatres , but from the ruins of the churches ; religion was the great
evil against which he levelled his severest censures , with an intensity of hate in proportion to their biblical foundation . No terms were sufficiently bad for Judaism or Christianity ; Hindooism and Paganism he could excuse ; the . Egyptians were philosophers , and the Koran only below the Vedas as it approximated to the Mosaic narrative . Constantine and Theodosius were classed with some other
" blackguards " ( scelerats ) of the Lower Empire ; but no panegyric is sufficient for the incomparable Julian ! Vet the field of labour was the same , and these names the representatives of those who fancied a new golden age of happiness at the very doors , and themselves the happy omens of its approach . cC The
young are fortunate ; they will see fine things , " said Voltaire . " We are approaching the age of revolutions . All that men have made , men niay destroy , " said Rousseau , in his " Emile . " Both declaimed against every hindrance to the new faith , the dogmas of which were laid down by the encyclopa ) dists at petits soupers , and the philosophic reunions of women , whose living lie to domestic virtue placed them
on terms of easy equality with the author of the " Contrat Social , " the courtly admirer of Catherine ( the philosopher of the North ) , of Madame de Pompadour , and the panegyrist of Dubarry !
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
for the king is lost in sympathy with the misfortunes of the man . How comes it , however , that Voltaire and Rousseau are the joint tenants of these vaults ? Are they the two greatest names in the honourable roll of French literati ? "Were they great poets ? great
statesmen ? or were they beneficent contributors to the advancement of either science or art ? "We may most positively deny that they were any of these—not even poets , although they wrote much rhyme . "What were they , then ? Our reply is a strange one—they were only philosophers . "Words vary in their signification chronologically , and we speak of the days when the encyclopaedists defined
the true meaning of everything , and called each other by the titles of " great man or " universal genius , " to be addressed in their turn as " my philosopher , " which their modesty would have illustrated by such names as Plato , Socrates , and their own . They spoke from tribunes , counted years by decades , and , had they dared , would have masqueraded in togas for the election of their consuls !
These two names suggest very different reflections ; although both laboured in the same cause of destruction to all that through seventeen centuries had acquired veneration or value , still it was by different paths , and with much opposition to each other . According to Rousseau , the world had been going wrong from the days when man first associated with man : order and societv meant onlv despotism
and spoliation ; civilization was a curse , the arts a proof of corrupt society , and the only hope of regeneration discovered in the disruption of all religious , national , and social ties ; so that he proclaimed " the savage state the trae state of man . " Voltaire , on the contrary , limited his panacea to the first . He would build more theatres , but from the ruins of the churches ; religion was the great
evil against which he levelled his severest censures , with an intensity of hate in proportion to their biblical foundation . No terms were sufficiently bad for Judaism or Christianity ; Hindooism and Paganism he could excuse ; the . Egyptians were philosophers , and the Koran only below the Vedas as it approximated to the Mosaic narrative . Constantine and Theodosius were classed with some other
" blackguards " ( scelerats ) of the Lower Empire ; but no panegyric is sufficient for the incomparable Julian ! Vet the field of labour was the same , and these names the representatives of those who fancied a new golden age of happiness at the very doors , and themselves the happy omens of its approach . cC The
young are fortunate ; they will see fine things , " said Voltaire . " We are approaching the age of revolutions . All that men have made , men niay destroy , " said Rousseau , in his " Emile . " Both declaimed against every hindrance to the new faith , the dogmas of which were laid down by the encyclopa ) dists at petits soupers , and the philosophic reunions of women , whose living lie to domestic virtue placed them
on terms of easy equality with the author of the " Contrat Social , " the courtly admirer of Catherine ( the philosopher of the North ) , of Madame de Pompadour , and the panegyrist of Dubarry !