the troubles of his
life are buried in oblivion.

Mr. Watkinson turns his attention next to the French Revolution,
which he considers "as much a revolt against morals as it was against
despotism." If that is his honest opinion, he must be singularly
ignorant. The moral tone of the Revolutionists was purity itself
compared with the flagrant profligacy of the court, the aristocracy, and
the clergy, while Freethinkers were imprisoned, and heretics were broken
on the wheel. We have really no time to give Mr. Watkinson lessons in
French history, so we leave him to study it at his leisure.

It was natural that Voltaire should come in for his share of slander.
All Mr. Watkinson can see in him is that he wrote "an unseemly poem,"
by which we presume he means _La Pucelle_. But he ought to know that the
grosser parts of that poem were added by later hands, as may be seen at
a glance in any variorum edition. In any case, to estimate Voltaire's
_Pucelle_ by the moral standard of a century later is to show an
absolute want of judgment. Let it be compared with similar works of
_his_ age, and it will not appear very heinous. But Voltaire did a great
deal besides the composition of that poem. He fought despotism like a
hero, he stabbed superstition to the heart, he protected the victims
of ecclesiastical and political tyranny at the risk of his own life, he
sheltered with exquisite generosity a multitude of orphans and widows,
he assisted every genius who was trodden down by the age. These things,
and the great mass of his brilliant writings, will live in the memory of
mankind. Voltaire was not perfect; he shared some of the failings of his
generation. But he fought the battle of freedom and justice for sixty
years. Other men indulged in gallantry, other men wrote free verses. But
when Calas was murdered by the priests, and his family desolated, it was
Voltaire, and Voltaire alone, who faced the tyrants and denounced them
in the name of humanity. His superb attitude on that critical occasion
inspired the splendid eulogium of Carlyle, who was no friendly witness:
"The whole man kindled into one divine blaze of righteous indignation,
and resolution to bring help against the world."

ARE ATHEISTS CRUEL? *

* April 26,1891.

There seems to be an ineradicable malignancy in the heart of
professional Christianity. St. Paul, indeed in a fine passage of his
first epistle to the Corinthians, speaks with glowing eloquence of
the