cutting them. In
those days the witnesses were cross-examined with instruments of
torture; the church was the arsenal of superstition; miracles, relics,
angels, and devils were as common as lies.

Voltaire was of the people. In the language of that day, he had no
ancestors. His real name was Francois Marie Arouet. His mother was
Marguerite d'Aumard. This mother died when he was seven years of age.
He had an elder brother, Armand, who was a devotee, very religious and
exceedingly disagreeable. This brother used to present offerings to
the church, hoping to make amends for the unbelief of his brother. So
far as we know none of his ancestors were literary people. The Arouets
had never written a line. The Abbe le Chaulieu was his godfather, and,
although an abbe, was a deist who cared nothing about his religion
except in connection with his salary. Voltaire's father wanted to make
a lawyer of him, but he had no taste for law. At the age of 10 he
entered the college of Louis le Grand. This was a Jesuit school, and
here he remained for seven years, leaving at 17, and never attending
any other school. According to Voltaire he learned nothing at this
school but a little Greek, a good deal of Latin, and a vast amount of
nonsense.

In this college of Louis le Grand they did not teach geography,
history, mathematics, or any science. This was a Catholic institution,
controlled by the Jesuits. In that day the religion was defended, was
protected, or supported by the state. Behind the entire creed were the
bayonet, the ax, the wheel, the fagot, and the torture chamber. While
Voltaire was attending the college of Louis le Grand the soldiers of
the king were hunting Protestants in the mountains of Cevennes for
magistrates to hang on gibbets, to put to torture, to break on the
wheel or to burn at the stake.

There is but one use for law, but one excuse for government--the
preservation of liberty--to give to each man his own, to secure to the
farmer what he produces from the soil, the mechanic what he invents and
makes, to the artist what he creates, to the thinker the right to
express his thoughts. Liberty is the breath of progress. In France
the people were the sport of a king's caprice. Everywhere was the
shadow of the Bastille. It fell upon the sunniest field, upon the
happiest home. With the king walked the headsman; back of the throne
was the chamber of torture. The church appealed to the rack, and faith