THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

VOLTAIRE 185
draw from the war on political corruption and oppression. "Politics is
not in my line: I have always confined myself to doing my little best to
make men less foolish and more honorable." He knew how complex a
matter political philosophy can become, and he shed his certainties as he
grew. "I am tired of all these people who govern states from the recesses
of their garrets"; 95 "these legislators who rule the world at two cents a
sheet; . . . unable to govern their wives or their households they take
great pleasure in regulating the universe." 96 It is impossible to settle these
matters with simple and general formulae, or by dividing all people into
fools and knaves on the one hand, and on the other, ourselves. "Truth has
not the name of a party"; and he writes to Vauvenargues : "It is the
but not exclusions." 97
duty of a man like you to have preferences,
Being rich, he inclines towards conservatism, for no worse reason than
that which impels the hungry man to call for a change. His panacea is the
spread of property: ownership gives personality and an uplifting pride.
"The spirit of property doubles a man's strength. It is certain that the
possessor of an estate will cultivate his own inheritance better than that
of another." 98
He refuses to excite himself about forms of government. Theoretically
he prefers a republic, but he knows its flaws: it permits factions which,
if they do not bring on civil war, at least destroy national unity; it is
suited only to small states protected by geographical situation, and as yet
unspoiled and untorn with wealth; in general "men are rarely worthy to
govern themselves." Republics are transient at best; they
are the first
form of society, arising from the union of families; the American Indians
lived in tribal republics, and Africa is full of such democracies. But
differentiation of economic status puts an end to these egalitarian govern-
ments; and differentiation is the inevitable accompaniment of development.
"Which is better," he asks, "a monarchy or a republic?" and he
replies: "For four thousand years this question has been tossed about.
Ask the rich for an answer they all want aristocracy. Ask the people
they want democracy. Only the monarchs want monarchy. How then
has it come about that almost the entire earth is governed by monarchs?
Ask the rats who proposed to hang a bell about the neck of the cat." 99
But when a correspondent argues that monarchy is the best form of
government he answers: "Provided Marcus Aurelius is monarch; for
otherwise, what difference does it make to a poor man whether he is
devoured by a lion or by a hundred rats?"100
Likewise, he is almost indifferent to nationalities, like a traveled man;
he has hardly any patriotism in the usual sense of that word. Patriotism
commonly means, he says, that one hates every country but one's own* If
"Correspondence, Sept 18, 1763. ^In Pellissier, 237, note, and 236.
^Pellissier, 23 ; Morley, 86. ^Dictionary, art. "Property."
^Dictionary, art. "Fatherland." ^Correspondence. June 20, 1777.