Litchfield enquirer., 1881-07-28

the fashion of the young mensof the time;t
 La Barre was horribly tortured, his hand WIS
 struck of, his tongue was ordered torn oit
 by the roots (the executioner only made pre- tense of doing this) and he was then beheade1 Just before hisdeath he said, T did not Ee- lieve young gentleman could be put to death for SO little a thing" The scandal of such
 scenes and the indefatigable efforts of V,l-
 taire finally brought about the abolition of
 torture and great amelioration of the perhl procedure.
 We have left ourselves no space to con- ment on the remarkable incidents of Voltalrs's lite his early career; his long connection
 with Madame De Chaleet; his stay in Prus- sia; his retreat in Ferney; his triumphant
 return to Paris; his death, ''stif1ed unGer
 roses :" the removal of his body to the PRn- l theon, and it's secret dissertation under the re- stored Bourbons. All this is wonderful and
 most interesting story admirably told by the first of American biographers- No mdre vivid picture has ever been sketched ofa most wonderful literary and social career, in | state of society one can hardly belieie real it is so different from our own. Although sympathizing with Voltaire's hatred of he Rom ish church, MT. Parton seems to have fairly set forth the faults as we'll as the yir
 tues of his subject He condemns almost as
 often as he praises, and he makes manifest
 the peculiar weakness as we'll as the peculiar
 strength of Voltaire's character
 It is not difficult, after the event, to cit-
 icise the work of the reformers who paved ibe
 way for the French Revolution Votaires
 grand mistake is obvious enough. He evil
 dently thought an able despotism, minus re-
 ligion, the best attainable form of government. dom, but he seems not to have favored rep resentative government for continental ceun- tries He attacked the corrupt church which
 was but secondary cause, and not the cor rupt despotism which was the primary cause of the troubles in France He was in sym- pathy with Frederick and Catherine who were able despots wlth.ne religion; he de- spised Louis XIV because he was weak, and bigot Could he have lived so long, very possibly Robespierre might have guillotned him for an enemy of the people, On the other hand his eyes were wide open to the miseries and the corruptions of his time. He was not singular in seeing but little way into the fu- ture Nor was his mission purely destuc- tive. In the management of his own estate and of his people at Ferney he showed a re- markable capacity for building up.
 Voltaire is a name that is greatly hated among us. He is regarded as the arch infdel who turned half Europe away from religion. Of the real character of the man, of what gave him his immense influence over his age, little is generally known among English speaking people. The good that he did, how he fought intolerance, how he succored the op- pressed, how he helped every Protestant in France to ''breathe freer and live easier." Protestant England scarcely recollects Mir. Parton has not been able to rehablitate the name of Veltaire as thoroughly as VolAire rehabilitated the name of Jean Calas, but we think his efforts for mitigation of sentence are not wholly undeserving of success.