During his whole life Voltaire was an inde fatigable writer. The long list of his produc tions embraces works in almost every branch of literature: in poetry, .the drama, romance, history, philosophy, criticism and even science. Nearly all his works are strongly anunatedhy a spirit of hostility to the Christian religion and its representatives. This brought him into conflict with the religious element and the gov ernment, and a great part of his later years was spent in exile on account of his-extreme rabid criticism of religious thought and belief. It was mainly in order to be out of reach of the government that he lived so much at a distance from Paris, on the frontiers of France, whence he could easily make his escape for a while, when he thought it ad visable, into Holland or Switzerland. At Cirey and Ferney he could be more outspoken than he had dared to be when he lived chiefly at Paris. From Ferney he issued all his most direct attacks upon Christianity and C.atholi cism, the 'Sermon des Cinquante,) (Extrait des Sentiments de Jean Meslier,) (La Bible enfin Expliquie.) At the same time he was a chief contributor to the (Encyclopedie,) and indeed its leading spirit. Yet he had no sympathy with the atheistical views that are found ex pressed in some parts of that work. He upheld theism with as much zeal as he denounced Christianity and priestcraft, and even came to be looked upon as reactionary by. the atheistical spirit of the time. It ought to be mentioned also that his hatred of fanaticism, although often the cause of violence and injustice on his part, was the mainspring of some of the most honorable actions of his life, as in the case of the Calas family. See C.AEAs, JEAN.
The works of Voltaire on which his literary fame is now generally held to rest, are his philosophical novels such as (Zadig,) (Can dide,) (L'Ingenu); his histories ('Siecle de Louis XIV,> (Histoire de Charles XIP), his correspondence, and more than all, perhaps, his poetical epistles, satires and occasional poems of a light character, in which the typical Frenchman is exhibited in his most complete manifestation, full of wit, gaiety, vivacity, ease and grace.- Several of his tragedies, among
which may be mentioned (Zaire) (usually reckoned his masterpiece in the dramatic art), (Merope,) (Mahomet) (translated into German by Goethe), and (Rome Sauvee,) had great success in their own day, but the French do not assign to them a high place in their literature. Voltaire attempted comedy also, but in this he was still less successful. He seems to have been deficient in a sense of humor. The best of his comedies is (L'Enfant Prodigue.) We should not omit to mention that Voltaire was always a great lover of the drama, and that wherever he settled for any length of time one of his first aims was to get a theatre established in the place, sometimes in his own house. Occasionally he acted himself. The