Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-04-11
9eadina fur the. $abbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
THE DYING INFIDEL.
VOLTAIRE.

REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
THE DYING INFIDEL.
voLTAIRE.
1.-THE Frenchman first in literary fame,
Mention him, fyou please-Voltaire?-T same
With spirit, genius eloquence supplied,
Lived long, wrote much, laughed heartily, and
died.
The Scripture was his Jest book, whence he drew
An infidel in health; but what when sick?
O then text would touch him to the quick p
CowPER.
1t is we'll known that this celebrated in6del
labored through long life to difuse the poi
son of infdelity. In life he was preeminent
in guilt. and at death in misery. He had
been accustomed for years to call the adora.
BILE Saviour "the Wretch" and to avow that
he would crush him. He closed many of his
letters to his infidel friends with these words
"Crush the Wretch yet such is the detest'
able meanness, as we'll as wickedness of inf
deity, that during these efforts to destroy
Christianity, he was accustomed to receive
the sacrament, and to attend to some other
outward acts of religion, that he might be
enabled to deny his inidelity if accused of it
Such was he in health; but dangerous sick
ness and approaching death, though they
could not soften the hard heart of the hypo'
critic in6del into real penitence, filled it with
agony, remorse and despair.
Voltaire had risen, in poor, deluded France,
high in worldly prosperity and fame; but the
Most High appeared to permit him to rise to
the pinnacle of glory, only that he might
sink with deeper ruin to the CULTS below, and
thus afford more impressive warning Of the
effects of his folly and his sin.
The following awful description has been
given of his last hours:
ut was during Voltaire's last visit to Par
is, when his triumph was complete, and he
had even feared that he should die with glory
amidst the acclamations of an infatuated
theatre, that he was struck by the hand OF
Providence, and fated to make very differ
ent termination of his career.
I'm the midst of his triumphs, violent
bleeding raised apprehensions for his life.
D'Alem bert, Diderot and Marmontel, hasten
ed to support his resolution in his last mo-
ments but were only witnesses, to their mu-
tual ignominy, as we'll as to bis own.
"Here, let not the historian fear exaggera'
tion. Rage, remorse, reproach and blasphe-
my all accompany and characterize the long
agony of the dying atheist His death, the
most terrible that is ever recorded to have
stricken the impious man, will not be denied
by his companions in impiety. Their silence,
however much they may wish to deny it,, is
the least of those corroborative proofs that
could be adduced. Not one of them has
ever dared to mention any sign given of res
oution or tranquility, by the premier chief
during the space of three months which
elapsed from the time he was crowned in the
theatre until his decease. Such silence ex-
presses how great their humiliation was in his
death
"It was on his return from the theatre, and
in the midst Of the tolls he was resuming in
order to acquire fresh applause, when Voltaire
was warned that the long career of his impie'
ty was drawing to an end"
In spite of all the infdel philosophers who
tlocked around him, in the first days of his
illness, he gave signs of wishing to return to
the God that he had 80 often blasphemed.
He called for the priest, who ministered to
Him whom he had sworn to crush, under the
appellation Of "the Wretch" His danger
increasing, he wrote entreatiDg the Able
Gualter to visit him. He afterward made a
declaration, in which he, in fact, renounced
his infdelity.
This declaration was signed by himself and
two witnesses, one Of whom was the Marquis
de Vileveille, to whom, eleven years before,
Voltare was wont to write, Conceal your
march from the enemy, in your endeavors to
crush the Wretch"
Voltare had permitted this declaration to
be carried to the rector of St. Sulpice, and to
the archbishop of Paris, to know whether it
would be sufficient. When the Able Gual-
tier returned with the answer, it was impossi.
BILE for him to gain admittance to the patient.
The conspirators had strained every nerve to
hinder their chief from consummating his re-
cantation, and every avenue was shut to the
priest, whom Voltaire himself had sent for.
The demons haunted every access; rage sue
ceeded to fury and fury to rage again, during
the remainder of his life.
"Then it was with D'Alambert and Did.
erot, and about twenty others of the couspi-
rators, who beset his apartment, never ap
preached him but to witness their own ig
nominy and often he would curse them and
exclaim: Retire! 1t is you that have
brought me to my present state Begone
could have done without you all; but you
could not exist without me! And what a
wretched glory have you procured me!
"Then would succeed the horrid remem-
brance of his conspiracy. They could hear
him, the prey of anguish and dread, alter
natey supplcating or blaspheming that God
whom he had conspired against; and in
plaintive accents he would cry out: %,
Christ! o, Jesus Christ! and then complain
that he was abandoned by God and man.
The hand, which had traced in ancient writ,
the sentence of an impious and reviling king,
seemed to trace before his eyes, Crush then,
do crush the wretch In vain he turned his
head away the time was coming apace when
he was to appear before tie tribunal of Him
he had blasphemed and his physicians, par.
ticularly Mr.. Tronchin, calling in to admin
lister relief thunderstruck, retired, declaring
the death of the impious man to be terrible
indeed. The pride of the conspirators would
willing ly have suppressed these declarations,
but it was in vain. The Mareschal de Rich
ellen flies from the bedside, declaring it
sight too terrible to be sustained and Mr..
Tronchin, that the furies of Orestes could
give but faint idea of those of Voltaire."
In one of these visits the doctor found him
in the greatest agonies, excaiming, with the
utmost horror, Il am abandoned by God and
man." He then said, doctor, will give
you half of what am worth, if you will
give ME six months life" The doctor an
swered, "Sr, you cannot live six weeks"
Voltaire replied, "Then I shall 60 to hell,
and you will 60 with me" and soon after
expired.
Bay- In all the actions which man performs,