THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

VOLTAIRE 177
his head, or in his heart, the seeds of a revolution against this enthronement
of reason; a revolution which, armed with the impressive obscurities
of Immanuel Kant, would soon capture every citadel of philosophy.
Naturally enough, Voltaire, who was interested in everything, and had
a hand in every fight, was caught up for a time in the circle of the
Encyclopedists; they were glad to call him their leader; and he \vas not
averse to their incense, though some of their ideas needed a little pruning.
They asked him to write articles for their great undertaking, and he
responded with a facility and fertility which delighted them. When he
had finished this work he set about making an encyclopedia of his own,
which he called a Philosophic Dictionary; with unprecedented audacity
he took subject after subject as the alphabet suggested them, and poured
out under each heading part of his inexhaustible resources of knowledge
and wisdom. Imagine a man writing on everything, and producing a
classic none the less the most readable and ;
sparkling of Voltaire's works
aside from his romances; every article a model of brevity, clarity, and
wit. "Some men can be prolix in one small volume; Voltaire is terse
through a hundred." 56 Here at last Voltaire proves that he is a philos-
opher.
He begins, like Bacon, Descartes and Locke and all the moderns, with
doubt and a (supposedly) clean slate. C
T have taken as my patron saint
St. Thomas of Didymus, who always insisted on an examination with his
own hands." 57 He thanks Bayle for having taught him the art of doubt. He
rejects all systems, and suspects that "every chief of a sect in philosophy
has been a little of a quack." 58 "The further I go, the more I am confirmed
in the idea that systems of metaphysics are for philosophers what
novels are for women. 9 ' 59 It is only charlatans who are certain. We know
nothing of first principles. It is truly extravagant to define God, angels,
and minds, and to know precisely why God formed the \vorld, when we
do not know why we move our arms at will. Doubt is not a very agreeable
state, but certainty is a ridiculous one. 5 ' 60 "I do not know how I was
made., and how I was born. I did not know at all, during a quarter of
my life, the causes of what I saw, or heard, or felt. ... I have seen
that which is called matter, both as the star Sinus, and as the smallest
atom which can be perceived with the microscope; and I do not know
what this matter is." 61
He tells a story of "The Good Brahmin," who says, "I wish I had never
been born!"
"Why
so?" said I.
"Because," he replied, "I have been studying these forty years, and I find
that it has been so much time lost. ... I believe that I am composed of
"Robertson, 87. ^Philosophic Dictionary, New York, 1901; vol. ix, p. 198.
wln Pellissier, n, note.
**Ibid t> 42.
^Robertson, 122. ^-Dictionary, article "Ignorance."