Letters of the Time of George III.."
says:--"Voltaire's name is so intimately connected in the minds of all
men with Infidelity, in the minds of most men with irreligion, and, in
the minds of all who are not well-informed, with these qualities alone,
that whoever undertakes to write his life and examine his claims to the
vast reputation which all the hostile feelings excited by him against
himself have never been able to destroy, or even materially to impair,
has to labor under a great load of prejudice, and can hardly expect, by
any detail of particulars, to obtain for his subject even common justice
at the hands of the general reader."

Voltaire was born in a corrupt age, and in a capital where it was
fashionable to be immoral. When he left College, he was introduced by
his own godfather, the Abbe de Chateauneuf, to the notorious Ninon de
l'Enclos, who, at her death, left him by will two thousand livres
to purchase books. In estimating the character of Voltaire, a due
consideration must be had for the period in which he lived, and of the
nature of the society amidst which he was reared. He lived twenty, years
under the reign of Louis XIV., and during the whole of the reign of the
infamous Louis XV., when kings, courtiers, and priests set the example
of the grossest immorality. It was then, as Voltaire said, "that to make
the smallest fortune, it was better to say four words to the mistress of
a king, than to write a hundred volumes."

Voltaire's life, from his youth upwards, was a stormy one. After he left
College, his father, finding him persist in writing poetry, and living
at large, forbade him his house. He insisted upon his son binding
himself to an attorney. But his restless disposition quite unfitted him
for regular employment, and he soon quitted the profession. He early made
the acquaintance of the most celebrated men of his time, but his genius,
his wit, and his sarcasm, soon raised up numerous enemies. At the age of
twenty-two, he was accused of having written a satire upon Louis XIV.,
who was just dead, and was thrown into the Bastile. But he was not cast
down. It was here that he sketched his poem of the "League," corrected
his tragedy of "Oedipus," and wrote some merry verses on the
misfortune, of being a prisoner. The Regent, Duke of Orleans, being
informed of his innocence, restored him to freedom, and granted him a
recompense. "I thank your royal highness," said Voltaire, "for having
provided me wit