Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1850-10-17
Nolsaire-Iiis Character. aud the Nature and Or
isin Of his lnfidelity.

isin Of his infidelity.
To many, indeed, the examination of ne.
cnliari'ies in his character seem. super
fluoms. .Vnltaire was an intidel and an arch
teacher of intidelity; and as such to be cas-,
aside with one general mark Of reproba
lion. We would willingl, remain at peace
with critics such as these. for we respect
their feelings. nay, >ympa,hise with them,
far too sincerely 10 condemn or sneer a,
them: we travel by more ardnous and
doubtful road than they hut It is to meet
at the same point, If possible, at last, BIZ,
We would. nevertheless, ask those who
imagine that the mere fact Of his infidelity
ai~p.nsos with all x.sin,aa -:af.;.- -.
its tenets and motives, by implying
utter perversi,y aud wor,hlessne<s of i,dg
ment, what else they would have had hrm
hut an infiiel? lie was endowed with
clear spiri, and penetrating genius: he
could n". have remained among the name
less millions who live and die in nominal
belief. Was he to be Jealous Romanist
Of his own time and country? Was he'o
acqniesce in the religion a Ia Maintenon
which was in fashion in his young years,
that lowest and worst Of hypocri>ie>,-
when coarse, deliberate vice, unexcusel
by passion. was not only vanished over
by outward decency, but actually intro
duced among religion. observances, with
the respectful acqnie>cence, at least, of
the prelates and saints Of an age which
| the Due de Noailles, Christian writer
is not ashamed Ia indicate, in his recen,
Life Of Madame lie Main,enon.' as a mod
Il for ours? Wonld they have had him
reverence Christianity under the Cardi-
nails hat of Dubois, or Alteroni or Fl-u
~? or in the wretched series of low in
trigues, craven tempers, and obscure am.
! billions, which characterised the last years
Of the company Of Jesnits before their dis
solution? Was he 10 join one half of the
sincere believers of Paris in prosecuting
the other half. in the affair of the Janse-
nists? or was he TO side with the martyrs
in their one-s sided orthodoxy mingled with
| creduity of the most contemplate order?
All this was impossible. There was. no
doubt. an alternative. There wa. then,
| in Romanist France, as there has been.
and ever is, in Christian countries of
| whatever persuasion, the small company
Of Gods chosen servants-of those to
whom it is given to extract truth even from
the midst Of bewildering errors of those
who are rarely known 10 the world, and
can bnt seldom even know aud recognise
each other in it. Bn. to saw Of any one
| that he was not member ofthis invisible
Church is scarcely reproach; and be-
tween this and unbeliefthere was no rest :
ing place for mind like Voltaire'., and
in his day.
The open and literal character of his
unbelief. wherein he differs from all other
really great men, was a consequence Of a
certain necessity both of his moral and in
tel'ectual nature. He could never utter
half his thought. II he could have done
so, he might have avoided his thirty years
Of exile, or have spent them under the
shadow Of royalty at Berlin. And his
thought wen, always directly to its point.
When once the apparent loeica! truth was
reached, he had no conception Of the pos
sibility Of error from too wide generalisa-
ton in the premises, and entertained the
greatest contempt for all who suggested
it. II was utterly impossible that he
should frame for himself any of,hose more
or less hazy a'mo<pheres Of mixed .en,i-
ment and reasoning mixed faith and in
crrdulity-in which so many minds of a
different. perhaps a superior order, have
been and are involved. In attacking the
letter Of the Bible, he had no doubt what
| ever that he was dealing direct blows at
the foundation Of religion. His reasoning
or the one side was as concise as the pop
nlar reasoning Of that day, and Of ours, on
the other. There il a revelation from
God, says the common syllogism: there
| fore every word Of the Bible i. true in its
literal sense. Much Of the Bible i. de-
mon.trably false in its literal sense, says
Voltaire, therefore there is no revealed
religion. His judgment needed no fur