, that have neither understanding nor sense.

Brutes are deprived of the high advantages which we have; but they
have some which we have not. They have not our hopes, but they are
without our fears; they are subject like us to death, but without
knowing it; even most of them are more attentive than we to
self-preservation, and do not make so bad a use of their passions.

Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies, governed by invariable
laws. As an intelligent being, he incessantly transgresses the laws
established by God, and changes those of his own instituting. He is
left to his private direction, tho a limited being, and subject, like
all finite intelligences, to ignorance and error; even his imperfect
knowledge he loses; and as a sensible creature, he is hurried away by
a thousand impetuous passions. Such a being might every instant forget
his Creator; God has therefore reminded him of his duty by the laws of
religion. Such a being is liable every moment to forget himself;
philosophy has provided against this by the laws of morality. Formed
to live in society, he might forget his fellow creatures; legislators
have therefore by political and civil laws confined him to his duty.

FRANCOIS AROUET VOLTAIRE

Born in Paris in 1694, died in 1778; his original name
Arouet; educated at the College of Louis-le-Grand; exiled
because of his freedom of speech; twice imprisoned in the
Bastille; resided in England in 1726-29; went to Prussia at
the invitation of Frederick the Great in 1750, remaining
three years, the friendship ending in bitter enmity; wrote
in Prussia his "Le Siecle de Louis XIV"; settled at Geneva
in 1756, and two years later at Ferney, where he lived until
his death in 1778; visited Paris in 1778, being received
with great honors; his works very numerous, one edition
comprizing seventy-two volumes.

I

OF BACON'S GREATNESS[40]

Not long since the trite and frivolous question following was debated
in a very polite and learned company, viz., Who was the greatest man,
Caesar, Alexander, Tamerlane, Cromwell, etc.?

[Footnote 40: From the "Letters on England." Voltaire's visit to
England followed immediately upon his release from imprisonment in the
Bastille. During the two years he spent there, he acquired an intimate
knowledge of English life, and came to know most of the eminent
Englishmen of the time.

An English version of Vol