VOLTAIRE, vol-tar, Jean Francois Marie Arouet, French author and free-thinker: b. Paris, 21 Nov. 1694; d. there, 30 May 1778. He was destined for the legal profession, but his inclination for literature was so decided that he never seriously entered upon it, and the suc cess of his first tragedy
the marchioness in 1749 deprived him of his retreat, and in the following year he accepted the often repeated invitation of Frederick the Great to come and live at his court at Potsdam. Here he was received with the greatest honor, but the good understanding with the king did not last long, and in 1753, after numerous un pleasant scenes, Voltaire quitted the Prussian court. Before returning to France he visited one or two of the minor courts of Germany. At FranIcfort, Frederick caused him to be de tained in order to recover from him a collec tion of poems by the king containing a number of satires on several pnnces, some of which Voltaire liad maliciously exhibited at the courts he had visited. Early in 1755 he removed to Geneva, and for the remainder of his life lived mainly either in Switzerland or close to its borders. About 1758 he fixed his residence with his niece, Madame Denis at Ferney, in the Pays de Gex, a district that at one time be longed to the counts of Geneva, and from this time this was his sole place of abode. 'Under his care the village of Ferney, which in 1758 was a part of an estate he acquired, contained only 49 peasants in a miserably poor condition, became a thriving place, and in 1778 numbered 1,3)0 inhabitants, among whom Voltaire lived almost as a sovereign prince. In his retire ment he became known to all Europe as the patriarch of Ferney, and received a constant succession of visits from persons of rank and fame, and kept up an immense correspondence, which included in its range most of the crowned heads of Europe. In February 1778, impelled by the desire of hearing once more the applause of multitudes, he went up to Paris, where he was hailed by all classes with bound less enthusiasm. But the sudden change in his manner of life was too great a strain on his strength and he soon collapsed. He was buried at the Abbey of Scellieres, between Nogent and Troyes, of which his nephew, the Abbe Mignot, was commendator. At the revolution his re mains were transferred to the Pantheon (1791).