en in boyhood, that his priestly preceptor predicted that he would prove
a Coryphaeus of deism. His rare precocity of intellect early acquired for
him a reputation in the world of letters. Compelled to become an exile in
England,(518) he studied its politics, its science, and its scepticism. On
his return to France, he endeavoured to introduce among his countrymen the
cosmical and mathematical doctrines of Newton; and made himself
conspicuous in history, in poetry, in fiction, and above all, in theology,
by his attacks on revealed religion and the French church. About the
middle of the century, accepting an invitation to the court of Frederick
the Great of Prussia, he aided thence the introduction of infidel
doctrines in Germany. A few years later he withdrew into retirement at
Ferney, but was able from his seclusion to wield an intellectual power
throughout Europe.

It was from this retirement that he denounced the acts of tyranny, or
supposed injustice, inflicted by the French church. His indignant
denunciations in the cases of the Sirven,(519) of La Barre,(520) and above
all of the Calas,(521) gained for him the commendation and sympathy of
Europe, and remain as monuments of the power of the pen.

Such was his life. Let us search in it for the secret of his power, and
inquire what were his views in the department which we are studying.

His character has been analysed by so many critics, especially by one of
our own countrymen in an essay of rare power, now become classical, that
the opportunity of original investigation is impossible, and the attempt
undesirable.(522)

In the opinion of this writer, the secret of Voltaire's strength was the
tact which he displayed in expressing the wants of his time to his
countrymen in the precise mode most suited to them.(523) He belonged to
the class of those who exercise their influence in their own lifetime--men
of the present, not men of the future; accordingly, whether he be viewed
as a man, in his own personal qualities, in the moral and intellectual
properties which constituted his character, or as an artist, in the manner
in which he conveyed his thoughts to the world, he will be found to be the
loftiest exponent and type of the spirit of his age. It was an age without
originality, without spiritual insight, careful of manners rather than
morals, corrupted by selfishness, led by ambition, dissatisfied with the
present, and anxious for deliverance; but unable to espy the