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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Reading for Thinking Readers, July 21, 2000
I have kept this book by my bedside at many points in my life. I should first acknowldege that I also refer to the Bible occasionally, so I tend to draw strength and inspiration from dispirate sources. Voltaire was one of the true intellectual giants of his age, as well-read, erudite and witty as any personage in literary history. This book represents a distillation of all his writings, his "encyclopedic" entries, his treatises, his histories, etc. Reading these musings, you will well understand his occasional need to flee France for more liberal principalities (Prussia and Geneva, primarily). Voltaire (the pen-name for Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), like Gibbon, is no champion of Christianity. As a case-in-point, the Emperor Julian, who attempted unsuccessfully to restore the ancient cults in early Byzantium, and opposed the newly state-sanctioned "cult" of Christ, was Voltaire's paragon. For those readers interested in an interesting account of Julian's rule and of this era, Gore Vidal's "Julian" is a very well-written, but slightly flawed (in terms of its scholarship) account of the 4th Century ruler. I particularly love Voltaire's take on "enthusiasm,": "Or was that word enthusiasm, from disturbance of the entrails, first given to that Pythia who, on the tripod at Delphi, received the spirit of Apollo through a part which seems made only to receive bodies?...It is the rarest of thing to unite reason with enthusiasm." No doubt the religious wars and persecutions that were a part and parcel of his era and French history for the preceeding two centuries no doubt had some bearing on his analysis. To me, Voltaire is the precursor of Nietsche. In fact, Nietsche, though he rarely acknowledges Voltaire, makes practically the identical points that Voltaire makes here in his "The Anti Christ" and "The Twilight of the Idols." They were definitely on the same page in defining faith, vs. skepticism. There are term-papers and research papers galore out there waiting to be explored in this area. In response to my erudite German friend, Nietsche does in fact speak in glowing terms of Voltaire and even goes as far to say that he is his most admired French philosopher, so my comparison is not inappropriate. This is not the only area that Voltaire investigates in this wide-ranging book. Ever wonder about the account of Gog, Magog, of which you might be only vaguely familiar? Voltaire is here to explain it to you. World Religions, the "Chinese Catechism," "Miracles," "Anthropophages," "Liebniz," "the souls of animals," "the tower of Babel," "Apis," "The Great Flood," and "The Spanish Inquisition;" all are covered and much more. If you do not complete this book marvelling at how truly encyclopaedic a mind you are dealing with (who better, together with Diderot to compile the first truly meaningful one in the Western World?), then you might not be as open-minded as you think. Even though some of Voltaire's statements of fact are dubious in light of subsequent discoveries, one must still marvel at the range of his intellect and curiosity.
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by Voltaire
by Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu
by Denis Diderot
by Francois Voltaire
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