W*Xnr^C?C 
 
 
Columbia ftnitoergitp 
 
 STUDIES IN EOMANCE PHILOLOGY AND 
 LITERATUEE 
 
 THE SYMBOLISM 
 OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
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 UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
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THE SYMBOLISM 
 OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ZADIG 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM RALEIGH PRICE 
 
 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements 
 
 fob the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the 
 
 Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1911 
 
Copyright, 1911 
 By The Columbia University Press 
 
 Printed from type. Published September, 1911 
 
 Press of 
 
 The new Era Printing company 
 
 lancaster. pa 
 
si™ 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 In which is shown where a lacuna exists in the 
 study of Voltaire's novels, and how to fill it. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Voltaire's Symbolism 22 
 
 What it is. — Why he made use of it. — What 
 its sources are. His method of composition. 
 
 CHAPTER ni 
 Zadig 39 
 
 The provenience and significance of the name. 
 Probable sources and internal evidence from 
 the novel. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MOABDAR 87 
 
 Provenience and significance of the name. Vol- 
 taire 's pseudonym in connection with his sym- 
 bolism. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ASTARTE 114 
 
 Significance of Astarte for Voltaire's sym- 
 bolism. 
 
 v 
 
 227358 
 
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Abimazb 141 
 
 Significance of the name. Application to Vol- 
 taire 'a personal enemies. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 Arbogad 165 
 
 Interpretation of the name and the episode. 
 Identification of the character. Comparison with 
 other similar episodes and creations of Voltaire. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Jesead 230 
 
 Interpretation of the character. The episodes 
 of Itobad and Irax. 
 
 Bibliographical Note 266 
 
 Vita 270 
 
\ U\ 
 
 The Symbolism of Voltaire's Novels 
 
 With Special Reference to Zadig 
 
 CHAPTEK I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The purpose of this Introduction is to show, 
 (1) where a real lacuna exists in the study of 
 Voltaire's novels, and (2) how that lacuna is to 
 be filled. 
 
 In order to show this, I shall give a resume 
 and an analysis of what has been done by my 
 predecessors in the field. 
 
 Resume of the Bibliography 
 
 No less a scholar than Gaston Paris has treated 
 the episode of t he Angel and the Hermit (La 
 Poesie du moyen age, premiere serie, troisieme 
 edition, Paris, 1895, p. 151 ff.) as it has ap- 
 peared in literature from the earliest times 
 down. If he had connected this episode with 
 1 1 
 

 • *< 
 
 2 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 Voltaire's life and informed us just what Vol- 
 taire meant by it, there would be nothing more 
 to be said on this topic; but, unfortunately, he 
 neglected to do that. 
 
 There is a dissertation on the Sources of 
 Zadig, by Mr. W. Seele (Leipzig, 1891), which 
 is largely an elaboration of hints thrown out by 
 Dunlop and others. The author confines him- 
 self strictly to his subject of the sources, giving 
 nothing about Voltaire's purpose in writing the 
 novel. 
 
 In treating the general topic of the Orient in 
 French, German and English literatures, the 
 following authors have something to say about 
 Zadig: (1) Pierre Martino (U Orient dans la 
 litterature frangaise au XVII e et au XVIII 6 
 siecle, Paris, 1906) ; (2) A. J. F. Remy (The 
 Influence of India and Persia on the poetry of 
 Germany, New York, 1901) ; (3) Martha P. 
 Conant (The Oriental Tale in England in the 
 Eighteenth Century, New York, 1908). 
 
 M. Pierre Martino gives the impression that he 
 is not at all sure just what Zadig purports to be ; 
 he dismisses the subject of its realism by saying 
 that it is a capricious tale in the style of Crebil- 
 Ion fils, in which allusions to modern life crop 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 up unexpectedly and by way of contrast (p. 
 277 f.). Dr. Eemy points out the immediate 
 and the ultimate sources of the novel (p. 15), 
 and calls attention to the meaning of the name 
 of the hero as "Speaker of the truth" (follow- ZZsiJij 
 ing, in this interpretation, Hammer, GeschicMe 
 derschonenRedehunstePersiens). But neither 
 Remy nor Hammer attempted to show whether 
 Voltaire was familiar with this meaning, either 
 by citing his possible authorities, or by internal 
 evidence from the novel. Miss Conant says (p. 
 135) that Zadig is, "of course," Voltaire, but 
 she offers no evidence to substantiate her asser- 
 tion. She probably followed Parton's Life of 
 Voltaire, in which the Duchess of Maine is 
 quoted as authority for that application. Miss 
 Conant also indicates her belief that the other 
 characters, "with their fanciful Oriental 
 names," are Voltaire's court friends and 
 enemies. 
 
 Desnoiresterres has little to say about Vol- 
 taire's novels. He gives a paragraph of three 
 lines to Candide, and calls attention, in a note, 
 to the perfidious intention, the sly allusions, of 
 Zadig. In his well-known Life of Voltaire, 
 S. G. Tallentyre says that Candide is directed 
 
I SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 against Jean Jacques Kousseau, but fails to 
 specify in what way and to what extent. The 
 general histories of the novel are just as meagre, 
 with the exception of Dunlop, for the sources 
 of Zadig. Dunlop contrasts the successful in- 
 vestigation of the sources of Zadig with the fail- 
 ure to discover any literary sources for Candide. 
 
 There are a few magazine articles about Vol- 
 taire's novels, of which the following may be 
 mentioned: (1) Blackwood's Magazine, IV 
 (1819), p. 155 ff.; (2) Dublin University 
 Magazine, LXVII (1866), p. 64 ff., p. 184 ff.; 
 (3) Modern Language Notes, 10O6 (in which 
 Mr. Leon Fraser points out the earliest source 
 of the episode of the Dog and the Horse, in the 
 Talmud) . 
 
 Louis Moland (whose edition of Voltaire's 
 works will be referred to as M., followed by the 
 volume and the page number), gives excerpts 
 of the more important utterances about Vol- 
 taire's novels (in Vols. I and XXI, the latter 
 of which contains the novels). They deal prin- 
 cipally with the moral of the novels (i. e., the 
 philosophic thesis, what the Germans call the 
 Tendenz), or they are expressions of personal 
 impressions. Moland's edition also reproduces 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 the footnotes of his predecessors, and offers some 
 original ones. They give important indications 
 of the purpose of Voltaire in writing his novels, 
 but no general conclusions are drawn from them. 
 
 Analysis of the Bibliography 
 
 The above resume of the Bibliography shows 
 that the three points of view in literary criti^ 
 cism :. the historical, the. psychological, and the 
 impressionistic, are all represented, but in very 
 unequal proportions and by critics of widely 
 different significance. I shall treat them suc- 
 cessively under their proper headings. 
 
 The Historical Criticisms 
 
 The historical criticisms r deal, it will be 
 noticed, exclusively with the literary sources. 
 The problem that confronts us here is to deter- 
 mine the significance of such investigations for 
 the interpretation of Voltaire's novels. 
 
 No attempt is made by me to belittle the im- 
 portance of the investigation of sources' per se; 
 the point is,, whether such investigations are im- 
 portant for Voltaire's work. I shall attempt to 
 show that they have little or no importance. 
 
 In the first place, what have we accomplished 
 
6 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 when we have shown that every episode in 
 Zadig is imitated from this or that literary 
 source ? We have, at the most, confirmed Fre- 
 ron's charge (M. 21, p. 86, note 1), that Vol- 
 taire was a common plagiarist, lacking in in- 
 vention and devoid of imagination. That would 
 be a remarkable conclusion about the work of 
 a man like Voltaire, whose imagination re- 
 ceived such unstinted praise from his contem- 
 poraries, and which, even to us, sparkles and 
 effervesces through the printed words. 
 
 In the second place, if Zadig is a literary 
 patch-work, how are we to explain Candide, for 
 which no literary sources have been discovered ? 
 Is it likely that Voltaire's imagination, verve, 
 originality, invention were less in 1747 than in 
 1759 ? On the contrary, the conclusion is 
 absurd. 
 
 I consider it demonstrated that, the greater 
 and the better founded the charges of imitation 
 in Zadig seem, the less the significance of such 
 charges is for the interpretation of Voltaire's 
 work. 
 
 Now, if the significance of Voltaire's novels 
 is not in the sources, wherein does it consist? 
 I shall show that it consists in his symbolism. 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 In the first place, what has Voltaire to do 
 with Oriental fiction? or with fiction? or with 
 the Orient ? Is it not clear that the Orient is, 
 for him, but a symbol for the Occident, just as 
 he speaks of the bonzes and the Magians as 
 symbols of the priests of Trance ? We must 
 never lose sight of the intensely practical char- 
 acter of Voltaire's work; its very intimate con- 
 nection with his own life and the life of his 
 times. He was not the type of author who shut 
 himself up in his study and thought out or 
 sought out fine themes and situations for artistic 
 remaniment. Even his dramas have an inti- 
 mate connection with the thought, life, and 
 social conditions in which he lived. He was 
 probably inspired to compose (Edipe by the 
 relations of the Regent and his daughter, the 
 famous Duchess of Berry. He tells us that the 
 persecutions which he suffered during the period 
 of the Voltairomanie turned to tragic sentiments 
 and inspired the composition of Zulime and 
 Mahomet (M. 35, pp. 226-227). If that is 
 true of his dramas, how much more must it be 
 true of his novels! There is an edition of 
 Zadig of the year 1756 (cf. Bengesco, I, p. 438, 
 note) entitled: La destinee ou le theatre de la 
 
I 
 
 8 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 vie humaine, ouvrage historique de M. de Vol- 
 taire. The publisher of that edition took liber- 
 ties with Voltaire's title, but the character of 
 Voltaire's work justifies them. Destiny is but 
 the linking of cause and effect in a given en- 
 vironment. If, in Zadig, the Orient is a symbol 
 for the Occident, the characters, the scenes, the 
 incidents and episodes of the novel are also sym- 
 bolic, and the literary sources can have nothing 
 to do with the interpretation of the work. Vol- 
 taire seems to wish to indicate that the sig- 
 nificance of Zadig lies in its symbolism, when 
 he says, in the Epitre dedicatoire (M. 21, p. 
 32), that Vhistoire de Zadig (est un) ouvrage 
 qui dit plus quil ne serrible dire. 
 
 The conclusion which we have reached by an 
 analysis of the historical criticisms is fortified 
 by Voltaire's opinions about the novel in gen- 
 eral, and about particular novels. It is obvious 
 that one of the best indications as to what Vol- 
 taire's novels are likely to be, as well as what 
 they are likely not to be, is furnished by his 
 criticisms of other novels. The following are 
 the more important of these criticisms. 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 Voltaire's Criticisms of the Novel 
 He praises Gulliver (M. 33, p. 165; Febr. 
 1727), which had appeared the preceding year. 
 
 " C^estje _R^elaisjie t X4afiS§te^!§ 5 ma i s G ' es t 
 un Rabelais sans fatras, et ce livre serait amu- 
 sant par lui-meme, par les imaginations singu- 
 lieres dont il est plein, par la legerete de son 
 style, . . . quand il ne serait pas d'ailleurs la 
 satire du genre humain." 
 
 He does not understand the Esprit des Lois, 
 but he praises the Lettres persanes: "bon ouv- 
 rage que celui-la" (M. 1, p. 349). "Ces ouv- 
 rages d'ordinaire ne reussissent qu'a. la faveur 
 de Fair etranger; on met avec succes dans la 
 bouche d'un Asiatique la satire de notre pays, 
 qui serait bien moins accueillie dans la bouche 
 d'un compatriote; ce qui est commun par soi- 
 meme devient alors singulier" (M. 14, Cata- 
 logue des grands ecrivains, article Montesquieu). 
 
 Hej>rai§e8_the ..satire of contemporary events 
 and personages by Crebillon fils (Tanzai et 
 Neardane, ou V Ecumoire, histoire japonaise). 
 "L'Histoire japonaise m'a fort rejoui dans ma 
 solitude ; je ne sais rien de si fou que ce livre, 
 et rien de si sot que d' avoir mis Fauteur a, la Bas- 
 tille. Dans quel siecle vivons-nous done? On 
 
10 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 brulerait apparemment La Fontaine au- 
 jourd'hui" (M. 33, p. 461, note; p. 472). 
 They would have burned him (Voltaire), if 
 he had been the author, is the sentiment of his 
 friends. 
 
 There are scores of references for his scorn 
 J of the usual type of novel, with its imaginary 
 | events and personages. They are lacking in 
 imagination, full of portraits of people whom 
 the author does not know (M. 21, p. 48), and 
 spoil the taste of young people (M. 14, p. 142). 
 There is more in four pages of Ariosto than in 
 all these insipid writings which inundate 
 France. He is never tired of praising Ariosto's 
 \ admirable allegories, which make his poems im- 
 mortal. 
 
 The following letter to Marmontel, whose 
 Contes moraux were so popular in the latter 
 half of the 18th century, is a perfectly clear and 
 definite indication of Voltaire's conception of 
 the mission which fiction should fulfill (Janu- 
 ary 28, 1764) ; " Vous devriez bien nous faire 
 des contes philosophiques, ou vous rendriez 
 ridicules certains sots et certaines sottises, cer- 
 taines mechancetes et certains mechants; le 
 tout avec discretion, en prenant bien votre 
 
INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 temps, et en rognant les griffes de la bete quand 
 vous la trouverez un peu endormie." What 
 better plan, and what plan more in harmony 
 with all that we know of Voltaire, could be 
 chosen by the author of Zadig and Candide, 
 than the one indicated here: to draw his char- 
 acters and scenes from reality, subordinated to\/ 
 an anti-religious tendency ? It is significant for 
 his realism that he wrote to the Marquis de 
 Thibouville, author of love stories of Egypt 
 and Syria, that Mme. Denis was more inter- 
 ested in what was taking place in Germany dur- 
 ing the Seven Years' War, than in what was 
 going on at Memphis and Babylon (M. 39, p. 
 301). Frederick also shows that he was fully 
 cognizant of the realistic bearing of Voltaire's 
 works when he urges him to write an Ahakia 
 to flay the fools of Europe and their follies (M. 
 39, p. 434). There is no doubt that Voltaire 
 was following his advice when he composed 
 Candide. Frederick also gives testimony to the 
 presence of moral allegories in Zadig and Can- 
 dide (M. 1, p. 139; Eloge de Voltaire par le 
 roi de Prusse). 
 
 Enough has been quoted to show, in connec- 
 tion with the historical criticisms which we 
 
12 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 have analysed, that the significance of Vol- 
 taire's novels must consist in their relation to 
 his life and the life of his times. This is really 
 a problem in psychological criticism. 
 
 The Psychological Criticisms 
 
 The analysis of the Bibliography shows but 
 few and scattered traces of psychological criti- 
 cism. Where it appears is principally in con- 
 nection with the moral of the novels. This is 
 all well and good in the case of some of the 
 novels, as Micromegas, for example; here the 
 moral is everything. Take away the philo- 
 sophic idea of the relativity of things and there 
 would be nothing left. Likewise in ISIngenu, 
 with its dearth of characters and incident, and 
 its wealth of discussion and quotations, the 
 tendency of the novel is of paramount impor- 
 tance. But this is far from being the case in 
 Zadig and Candide, with their great variety of 
 characters and episodes. Here the moral does 
 not play so great a role, nor is it so easy to de- 
 termine just what that moral is. For example, 
 how much further are we advanced, if, like Mo- 
 land, we subscribe to Auger's explanation of the 
 moral of Zadig and Candide? (M. 21, p. IV of 
 
INTBODUCTION 13 
 
 the Avertissement) : " Zadig a pour objet de 
 demontrer que la Providence nous conduit par 
 des voies dont le secret lui appartient et dont 
 souvent s'indigne notre raison bornee et peu 
 soumise. Candide, tableau epouvantablement 
 gai des miseres de la vie humaine, est une refu- 
 tation du systeme de l'optimisme, deja combattu 
 par l'auteur dans son poeme du Desastre de Lis- 
 bonne." We need to define our terms here, or 
 Auger's words are either meaningless or mis- 
 leading. We must know what Voltaire means 
 by Providence in Zadig and by Optimism in 
 Candide, Is it not rather strange that the 
 author of the Essai sur les mceurs and of the 
 Dictionnaire philosophique, through both of 
 which the phrase, adorons la Providence et 
 soumettons-nous, runs like a mocking refrain, 
 should mean it seriously and literally, in the 
 Christian sense, in Zadig? And is it not just 
 as strange that Voltaire, who never changed his 
 mind about Pope's Essay on Man, which he 
 calls the finest didactic poem ever written, and 
 who himself was a cause- finalier, should refute 
 the system of Optimism, as a philosophic con- 
 ception, in Candide? 
 
 What is the secret of these and similar con- 
 
14 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 tradictions in Voltaire? Why, for example, 
 does the man of whom Marmontel truly said 
 (Memoires, Vol. 2; quoted from M. 1, p. 38; 
 Jugements sur Voltaire) : " Mais le plus grand 
 des biens, le repos, lui fut inconnu," appear in 
 the role of the Sybarite in the Mondainf Such 
 contradictions are only apparent contradictions. 
 Either the author takes only one phase of a 
 given conception, or philosophic system, and 
 uses it as a convenient thread on which he 
 strings a number of episodes, or, on the other 
 hand, it is not a bit different with his work 
 than with his descriptions of the court, for ex- 
 ample. At one time the court is the palais 
 d'Alcine; at another it is the palais du vice. It 
 all depends upon the author's personal experi- 
 ences within a given period and the purpose he 
 has in view in the composition of his works.* 
 Any judgment of his literary productions apart 
 from the experiences in which they are rooted is 
 bound to be false and misleading. Thus Faguet 
 charges him, from the title of one of his Epitres, 
 with continually arguing the Pour and the 
 Contre. There is a basis of truth in Faguet's 
 charge; Voltaire does argue for and against, 
 but he has good and sufficient reason for so 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 doing. The presentation of arguments for and 
 against in the same work is a frequent device 
 with him to keep the postern open when the 
 main entrance is garnished by the emissaries of 
 persecution; his enemies have mistaken the 
 interlocutors ; his own ideas are those of A, not 
 those of B. Voltaire alternately praises and 
 lashes his century, but the progress of reason 
 on the one hand, or the success of certain fools 
 and their follies on the other hand, are sufficient 
 explanation of his conduct. 
 
 There have been two fallacies in the psycho- 
 logical criticisms of Voltaire's novels. They 
 both have to do with the moral, or tendency of 
 the novels, and consist in its interpretation with- 
 out due consideration, first, of the various mean- 
 ings that may be attached to such words as 
 Providence, Destiny, Optimism, and second, of 
 the author's experiences in the period in which 
 his work was conceived and composed. Thus 
 the psychological point of view, as it has been 
 applied to Voltaire's novels, has produced little 
 more than impressionism. 
 
16 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 The Impressionistic Criticisms 
 
 It is axiomatic that the personal opinions of a 
 cldtic have no more authority than we are will- 
 ing, br than we are obliged by various con- 
 siderations, to concede to them; yet they are 
 often of value, in that they indicate a lacuna 
 for historical and psychological criticism to fill. 
 The very fact that the impressionist expresses 
 an opinion without having maturely investi- 
 gated the subject and without a show of evi- 
 dence to support his conclusion, leaves the field 
 open for confirmation or refutal. This is true, 
 in a remarkable degree, of the criticisms of 
 Voltaire's novels. 
 
 The Lacuna 
 
 The Duchess of Maine asserted, according 
 to Parton, that Zadig was Voltaire, and that 
 Moabdar was Louis XV. Such an expression 
 of opinion can not be disposed of offhand. 
 Many of Voltaire's novels were composed at 
 Sceaux, and the Duchess was in a position to 
 know intimately the character of these novels, 
 and especially that of Zadig. A large problem 
 is here suggested : the identification of the char- 
 acters of the novel with their actual or probable 
 
INTBODUCTION 17 
 
 prototypes. That most of the personages of the 
 novel are Voltaire's friends and enemies " under 
 fanciful Oriental names," as suggested by Miss 
 Conant, seems probable, first, in view of the 
 statement of the Duchess of Maine, second, be- 
 cause one character, Yebor, has long been iden- 
 tified with Boyer, and third, because, in all VoK 
 taire's novels, there are an infinity of allusions ^ 
 to contemporary events and personages. The 
 probabilities, then, are all in favor of the hy- 
 pothesis that Cador, for example, is a particular 
 friend of Voltaire, and that Arimaze is a par- 
 ticular Envieux. 
 
 What Desnoiresterres calls V intention perfide, 
 Vallusion sournpise suggests an equally impor- 
 tant lacuna ? intimately connected with the pre- 
 ceding. What was this intention? What are 
 these allusions? 
 
 The opinion of the King of Prussia that 
 Zadig and Candide contain moral allegories 
 suggests a third problem of no less importance : 
 the discovery and interpretation of these alle- 
 gories. 
 
 The opinion of Hammer and Remy that the 
 name Zadig is from the Arabic and means 
 " Speaker of the truth " suggests a fourth prob- 
 2 
 
 
18 SYMBOLISM OF VOlVTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 lem of equal significance: the interpretation of 
 the proper names of the novels. That a real 
 problem confronts us here is obvious, first, be- 
 cause, if Zadig meant the " Truth-teller " for 
 Voltaire, that meaning must have influenced the 
 conception and execution of his novel; second, 
 because one anagramme (Yebor for Boyer) has 
 been discovered in the novel ; third, because we 
 meet with such curious names in Voltaire's 
 novels : Orcan, Ogul, Arbogad, Cacambo, Thun- 
 der-ten-tronckh, among others, and it is hardly 
 conceivable that they mean nothing. 
 
 One of the most prominent traits of the litera- 
 tures that Voltaire is imitating in Zadig is the 
 I ready bestowal of epithets to commemorate cer- 
 \ tain events. Numerous instances of this will 
 \occur to any reader of the Bible. An Arab had 
 I as many epithets as he had characteristics. Be- 
 sides, Voltaire's chief argument that the 
 wretched Hebrews borrowed their cult from the 
 Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and the Babylon- 
 ians, was drawn from a study of their proper 
 names. They got their Adonai' from the Phce 
 nicians, their angels and devils from the Chal- 
 deans, their Enoch was the same as Janus, their 
 Eloa was the same root as Helios, etc. Voltaire 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 simply imitated the scholarship of his time, 
 wherever it suited his purpose. If it did not 
 suit his purpose, he discarded it with scorn and 
 irony. He then refers to it as the "demon of 
 etymologizing." Bochart and Calmet continu- 
 ally explained French words as derived from 
 the Hebrew. Bochart considered that Chinese 
 and German were the same language (M. 17, 
 p. 516). He made the Celts a colony of the 
 Egyptians (M. 18, p. 107). Voltaire charges 
 the authors of the Dictionnaire de Trevoux with 
 carrying this practice of etymologizing accord- 
 ing to sound to an absurd excess (M. 17, p. 
 126). Dome, they say, is from Samaritan 
 Doma, which means "better"; Phison is the 
 same as the Guadalquivir, because, " de Phison 
 on fait aisement Phaetis; de Phaetis on fait 
 Baetis, qui est precisement le Guadalquivir" 
 (M. 17, p. 275). 
 
 In view of Voltaire's known practice and 
 that of his contemporaries, it would seem im- 
 portant to determine the provenience of the 
 names of his characters. Take the name of the 
 angel Jesrad, for example. Can there be any 
 adequate interpretation of the episode in which 
 he appears, without an investigation of the name 
 
20 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 of this enigmatical creature, who is man and 
 angel, who speaks so wisely and acts so diabol- 
 ically, and who finally flies back to the tenth 
 sphere, which mythology has always assigned 
 as the abode of the supreme being? Or, con- 
 sider Arbogad, the robber. In Hebrew, gad 
 means both "robber" and "God." How can 
 a robber be God ? Or how can God be a robber ? 
 And what has arbo to do with the name ? 
 
 The names of the characters, the identifica- 
 tion of the characters, the interpretation of the 
 purpose of the author, of his allusions, of his 
 allegories, are all phases of one and the same 
 question, namely, Voltaire's symbolism. That 
 is the lacuna* 
 
 How this Lacuna is to be Filled 
 
 The question that must be answered now, is : 
 How is this lacuna to be filled ? I shall try to 
 fill it by a careful study of Voltaire's method of 
 composition. 
 
 I do not refer here to Voltaire's style ; I am 
 not concerned with the vivacity of his language, 
 the rapidity of his action, the lightness of his 
 touch, the precision of his comparisons. What 
 I wish to ascertain is, how he came to create 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 certain characters ; what they actually are, why 
 they are just what they are, i. e., what the au- 
 thor meant them to be, and why. The problem 
 is one of psychological analysis; the method is 
 a painstaking search for data; the data are 
 furnished by Voltaire's works in fifty large 
 octavo volumes. 
 
CHAPTEK II 
 
 VOLTAIRE'S SYMBOLISM 
 Irr this chapter I shall examine, (1) what 
 Voltaire's symbolism is; (2) what its sources 
 are; (3) why he made use of it; and (4) his 
 method of composition* 
 
 What Voltaire's Symbolism Is 
 I am not particularly concerned with symbol- 
 ism, as such, but rather with a certain type of 
 narrative, description, and characterization 
 which I think that I have discovered in Voltaire 
 and which, for want of a better name, I have 
 termed Voltaire's symbolism. I mean by it 
 simply his use of symbols. 
 
 What is a symbol? I use it in the sense of 
 anything which stands for another thing, or for 
 other things. In order to stand for another 
 thing, or for other things, a word, or term, or 
 sign must be, by established convention or by 
 individual use, a part of the idea or ideas for 
 which it is used as the representative; as, for 
 22 
 
VOLTAIRE'S SYMBOLISM 23 
 
 example, the cross, for Christianity. A symbol 
 may be, therefore, by its significance and con- 
 ventional use, or may be made, by an artificial 
 association, the representative of a score of 
 things, by virtue of certain similar or identical 
 characteristics. In this respect symbolism dif- 
 fers from the parable, which, by its etymology, 
 is quite the same word. In a parable there are 
 generally but two terms to the comparison, as: 
 " The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain 
 man," etc. The parable of the ewe lamb is in 
 point, because it shows the second step in sym- 
 bolism. When the High Priest says to David : 
 " Thou art the man," he has changed his simile 
 into a metaphor, into a simple equation. Sym- 
 bolism is, therefore, the use, or the abuse, if you 
 will, of a metaphor, and may itself be illus- 
 trated symbolically, as follows : If A is like B, 
 and B is like C, and C is like D, then, by 
 virtue of the element common to them all, 
 A = B = C = D. That is Voltaire's symbol- 
 ism reduced to its lowest terms. 
 
 The Sources of Voltaire's Symbolism 
 The sources of Voltaire's symbolism are to 
 be found ultimately in the names he gives to 
 
24 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 things. Now, the names that one gives to things 
 depend on the way one looks at things. It is 
 obvious that the cross can not mean for Vol- 
 taire what it meant for the Jansenists or the 
 Jesuits, and that he can not look upon David 
 with the eyes of the devout believer, as a man 
 after God's own heart. What was the cross for 
 him I It was in the same category as the sacred 
 cat among the Egyptians. How does he tell 
 the tragic story of the infamous martyrdom of 
 the Chevalier de La Barre ? A young man, who 
 failed to salute the sacred cat borne by the 
 hierophant in solemn procession, was killed a 
 coups de barre de fer. What was King David 
 for him? An infamous brigand who collected 
 a band of four hundred debauchees and usurped 
 the crown of a little kingdom of barbarians, 
 whose little tribal God was a man after the 
 King's own heart (M. 27, p. 232). 
 
 At best words are but symbols ; their meaning 
 and application are varying, subtile, elusive. 
 But how much so when an author plays with 
 them! It is obvious that an author can make 
 use of words in their etymological significance, 
 in their meaning by extension, and with any 
 connotations that they may have for him. How 
 
VOLTAIKE'S SYMBOLISM 25 
 
 can Voltaire make Jean Jacques Kousseau " un 
 sauvage M ? First, because Kousseau loved to 
 wander alone in the woods, and "sauvage" 
 means, etymologically, "he who lives in the 
 woods"; second, because he made himself the 
 prophet of man in a state of nature. What is 
 paradise for Voltaire? "Vivre eternellement 
 dans les cieux avec l'Etre supreme, ou aller se 
 promener dans le jardin, dans le paradis, fut 
 la meme chose pour les hommes, qui parlent 
 toujours sans s'entendre, et qui n'ont pu guere 
 avoir encore d'idees nettes ni depressions 
 justes" (M. 21, p. 392). These are simple il- 
 lustrations, but it is obvious from them that we 
 can know nothing of an author's symbolism 
 without knowing what meanings he gives to 
 words, how he associates them, how he makes 
 them equivalent, and by what name, sign, or 
 symbol in short, he calls this equivalence. An \ 
 author can make his symbolism as unintelli- 
 gible to us as a work in a foreign tongue, with 
 whose vocabulary and syntax we are unfamiliar. 
 But then he would be defeating his own pur- 
 pose, which is, of course, to be read and to in- 
 fluence his readers. Therefore the author of a 
 symbolic work generally indicates enough of 
 
26 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 his symbolism to half conceal, half reveal his 
 meaning and his purpose. It sets one thinking, 
 whets the curiosity, and finds everywhere appre- 
 ciation, because each reader takes of it what 
 appeals to him most. But this impressionistic, 
 purely subjective interpretation is not the 
 method of the serious literary student ; he must 
 determine the plan of the whole work, as well as 
 the reciprocal relation of all its parts. 
 
 Why Voltaire made Use of Symbolism 
 
 Why should Voltaire make use of symbolism, 
 I he, the great apostle of enlightenment ? The 
 reasons are both subjective and objective. 
 
 The subjective reason is that he was an 18th 
 century poet. The artificiality of this poetry is 
 one of its most marked characteristics. ~No bet- 
 ter indication of this can be found than Vol- 
 taire's characterization of poetic imagery, in his 
 letter to Frederick (M. 34, p. 359) : "Une idee 
 poetique c'est, comme le sait Votre Altesse 
 royale, une image brillante substitute a Fidee 
 naturelle de la chose dont on veut parler; par 
 exemple, je dirai en prose : il y a dans le monde 
 un jeune prince vertueux et plein de talents, qui 
 
VOLTAIRE'S SYMBOLISM 27 
 
 deteste l'envie et le fanatisme. Je dirai en 
 vers: 
 
 " Minerve ! 6 divine Astree I 
 
 Par vous sa jeunesse inspiree 
 
 Suivit les arts et les vertus; 
 
 L'Envie au coeur faux, a Poeil louche, 
 
 Et le fanatisme farouche, 
 
 Sous ses pieds tombent abattus." 
 
 One seems to hear the maitre de philosophic of the 
 Bourgeois gentilhomme explaining to M. Jour- 
 dain the difference between prose and poetry. 
 The idea that nothing which was natural conld 
 be poetic seems strange to us, but it was not 
 strange to Voltaire and his contemporaries. 
 Everywhere we find this love of figures, of alle- 
 gory, of brilliant imagery. It reminds one of the 
 preciosity of the hotel de Kambouillet; and, by 
 his education and training, although not by his 
 active participation in the life of his century, 
 Voltaire belongs to the Siecle de Louis XIV, 
 which he so extolled. He tells us that one of the 
 school exercises in his youth was the symbolic 
 interpretation of pictures, such as that of an 
 old man and a young girl (Essai sur les mceurs, 
 Beuchot 15, p. 219) : "L'un disait, c'est Phiver 
 et le printemps ; 1' autre, c'est la neige et le feu ; 
 
28 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 un autre, c'est la rose et l'epine, ou bien, c'est 
 la force et la f aiblesse : et celui qui avait trouve 
 le sens le plus eloigne du sujet, 1' application la 
 plus extraordinaire, gagnait le prix." 
 
 As early as 17&2 (M. 33, p. 60), we find him 
 writing to Jean Baptiste Rousseau, himself a 
 notable writer of allegories in the style of Boi- 
 leau, to explain the allegories in the Henriade: 
 " Les fictions y sont toutes allegoriques ; nos pas- 
 sions,, nos vertus, nos vices, y sont personnifies." 
 He defends their use by quoting from Boileau 
 (M. 8, p. 40). He explains the angel of light 
 that appeared to Jacques Clement (M. 8, p. 
 366) : "!Ne voyez-vous pas que cette apparition 
 poetique ne figure autre chose que l'imagination 
 egaree d'un moine ? " His predilection for alle- 
 gory in the novel has already been noted in the 
 Introduction. He takes Racine fils to task for 
 the omission of such figures in his poem on Re- 
 ligion (M. 23, p. 173) : " Tantot je voudrais 
 qu'il interrogeat la Sagesse eternelle, qui lui 
 repondrait du haut des cieux; tantot que le 
 Verbe lui-meme, descendu sur la terre, vint y 
 confondre Mahomet, Confucius, Zoroastre." 
 Even with such views, Voltaire was himself not 
 always prolific enough in poetic figures to suit 
 
VOLTAIBE'S SYMBOLISM 29 
 
 his critics. Just as the Envieux and his wife 
 say to Zadig that " he has not the good Oriental 
 style, because he does not make the hills dance 
 like lambs and the stars descend from the heav- 
 ens," so Desfontaines and the poet Koi, among 
 others, took Voltaire to task for the lack of 
 brilliant images in his poem on the Battle of 
 Fontenoy. These lovers of allegorical figures 
 called his poem une froide gazette. Voltaire 
 replied to them as follows (M. 8, p. 379) : " On 
 peut, deux mille ans apres la guerre de Troie, 
 faire apporter par Venus a Enee des armes que 
 Vulcain a forgees, et qui rendent ce heros invul- 
 nerable; on peut lui faire rendre son epee par 
 une divinite, pour la plonger dans le sein de son 
 ennemi ; tout le conseil des dieux peut s'assem- 
 bler, tout l'enfer peut se dechainer; Alecton 
 peut enivrer tous les esprits des venins de sa 
 rage; mais ni notre siecle, ni un evenement si 
 recent, ni un ouvrage si court, ne permettent 
 guere ces peintures devenues les lieux communs 
 de la poesie." 
 
 Nevertheless this love of figures, of brilliant 
 images substituted for natural ones, of allegory, 
 of symbolism in short, pervades all Voltaire's 
 work. One need only pick up any volume of his 
 
30 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 correspondence to convince oneself of this fact; 
 his letters are replete with figures. It was only 
 his good sound common-sense that kept him 
 from abusing them "in the good Oriental style" 
 mentioned above. 
 
 Before proceeding further, we need to define 
 allegory. The words means, at bottom, the same 
 as symbolism; it is "speaking of one thing 
 under the image of another." But you cannot 
 speak of one thing under the image of another 
 without comparing them, or without having 
 compared them. The only differences between 
 allegory and symbolism are conventional, or 
 they consist in the number of terms compared. 
 " I am the vine and ye are the branches " is an 
 allegory but the vine is here the symbol of 
 Christ, and the branches are symbolic of his 
 disciples. Allegory has come, however, to be 
 associated chiefly, if not exclusively, with the 
 personification of abstractions, as Peace, War, 
 Strife, etc. But if one were describing the war- 
 god, and brought under the symbol the Old 
 Testament Lord of Hosts, leading in person his 
 chosen people in battle and breaking the ranks 
 of their enemies, together with the militant 
 Machiavellian Prince, Frederick the Great, the 
 
VOLTAIBE'S SYMBOLISM 31 
 
 imagery is symbolism. If we are to make a dis- 
 tinction, then, it is this: allegory is the typic- 
 ally abstract, symbolism is the typically con- 
 crete. The one is out-of -nature, so to speak ; the 
 other exists, or may be conceived of as existing, 
 since it is typical without loss of individuality. 
 
 The other reasons for Voltaire's use of sym- 
 bolism are objective. 
 
 In the first place, it furnished him with a 
 relatively safe medium of carrying out his oft- 
 reiterated definition of liberty : fari quae sentiat 
 (M. 33, p. 381). This was no mean advantage 
 in a country under the bondage of a literary in- 
 quisition. Voltaire did not wish to spend his 
 life in the Bastille, nor did he wish to languish 
 in exile. Symbolism was his only recourse, un- 
 less he were willing to give up the career of a 
 man of letters. The latter alternative was not 
 to be thought of, even if it had been possible for 
 him to resist his dominant taste. At the time 
 of the first persecution to which he was sub- 
 jected, that for his verses about the Eegent and 
 his daughter, he was urged, he says (Lettres sur 
 (Edipe, M. 2, p. 13), to give up verse-writing. 
 To all such admonitions in prose and verse he 
 replied, he tells us, " par des vers." Much later 
 
32 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 he inserted the following significant paragraph 
 in his Lettres sur (Edipe: "Je me suis done 
 apercu de bonne heure qu'on ne peut ni resister 
 a son gout dominant ni vaincre sa destinee." 
 He preferred his " slavery " in France, as he 
 often calls his " malheurenx metier d'homme de 
 lettres," to liberty in foreign lands. " Pourquoi 
 faut-il," he sighs at the time of the persecution 
 for the English Letters, " pourquoi f aut-il subir 
 les rigueurs de l'esclavage dans le plus aimable 
 pays de Funivers, que Ton ne peut quitter, et 
 dans lequel il est si dangereux de vivre ! " Now, 
 by its very nature, one can hide beneath symbol- 
 ism as under a shield and deal out blows in all 
 directions; or at least in as many directions as 
 there are ideas of which the symbol forms a 
 part. For example, admitting that Pangloss is 
 a symbol for all the spoken and written nonsense 
 in Europe (for the word means " all tongues"), 
 he can range successively or in curious mixtures 
 the nonsense of as many individuals as he 
 chooses under this symbol. And who shall con- 
 vict him of satire ? Which of his enemies would 
 for a moment proclaim to the world that he 
 thought Voltaire was caricaturing him? He 
 possessed in a remarkable degree the gift of 
 
VOLTAIBE'S SYMBOLISM 33 
 
 seeing the ridiculous side of opinions, rather . 
 than of characters, and that is one of the well- 
 recognized reasons why he did not succeed in 
 comedy. It is also one of the best reasons for 
 his success in symbolism. It is by virtue of 
 certain conformities between the opinions, be- 
 liefs, and dogmas of the Christian religion and 
 those of certain Oriental religions that Yoltaire 
 can strike the bigots of France d'une main in- 
 directe, as Frederick expresses it. He says of 
 himself through one of his interlocutors (M. 27, 
 p. 21) : "II semble que vous vouliez parler de 
 nos moines sous le nom de bonzes. Vous auriez 
 grand tort ; ne seriex-vous pas un peu malin ? " 
 That is putting it weakly; he was the most 
 malin of all men. Everything that he wrote ^ 
 was looked upon with suspicion by his enemies, 
 because of the subtile and insinuating power of 
 suggestion oozing out of a thousand pores. 
 Everybody knew in his day, and certainly 
 everybody knows now, that he had the Christian 
 religion, more than Mohammedanism, in mind, ^1 
 when he composed Mahomet. But what choice 
 did the pope have, other than to accept his 
 dedication of the tragedy? If he had refused 
 it, Voltaire would have cried: "What! You 
 3 
 
34 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 defend that fanatical religion and its infamous 
 prophet ? Or do you acknowledge that there is 
 no difference between that religion and its 
 prophet on the one hand, and Christianity and 
 its founder on the other?" How plainly he 
 discloses his purpose in Mahomet, when he tells 
 us (M. 17, p. 103), that Mohammed was more 
 of a Jansenist than anything else. Therefore, 
 if Mohammed was a Jansenist, the God of 
 Mohammed was the God of the Jansenists. And 
 what was the God of the Jansenists ? Voltaire 
 tells us in his Discours en vers sur Vhomme (M. 
 9, p. 388) what kind of God the partisans of 
 absolute fatality worshipped : 
 
 " Les tristes partisans de ce dogme effroyable 
 Diraient-ils rien de plus s'ils adoraient le diable f " 
 
 One can easily see how far such association of 
 ideas can lead, when the author of Zadig can 
 mark here in a couplet the equivalence of God 
 and the devil. 
 \/ Voltaire's enemies were not deceived by his 
 methods, but they had no proof against him. 
 He often defied his enemies to find a single rep- 
 rehensible proposition in his works. He could 
 make his challenge with impunity. He was 
 
VOLTAIRE'S SYMBOLISM 35 
 
 past master in the choice and use of words. He 
 does not deny the fall of man and the necessity 
 of redemption; he simply says that hnman 
 reason can not prove it. " What have I done," 
 he exclaims, when the dogs of persecution bark 
 at his heels, "what have I done, except to put 
 revelation above reason ? " He can not ridicule 
 openly the innocence of our first parents, but 
 he can ridicule its allegorical meaning under the 
 Androgynes of Plato, under the symbolism of 
 Corisandre, Hermaphrodix, Conculix. He 
 does not deny the existence of the soul inde- 
 pendent of the body; he does not say that God 
 has given the faculty of thought to matter in 
 certain organizations; he simply says that hu- 
 man reason cannot prove that God could not 
 have done so. "What have I done," he cries 
 again when persecuted, "except to give public 
 confession of my belief in God's omnipotence ? " 
 And in the Princesse de Bdbylone he symbolizes 
 his conception under the form of the phoenix, 
 and explains what resurrection is (M. 21, p. 
 392). 
 
 Another reason, and not the least important, 
 for Voltaire's use of symbolism, is its preval- 
 ence in Oriental literatures, especially in the 
 
36 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 Bible and in the thousand interpretations of 
 the dogmas of the Christian religion. Every- 
 thing in antiquity is allegorical, is symbolical, 
 he cries ; it would seem that all antiquity spoke 
 only in order not to be understood. He includes 
 Grecian mythology in the same class; indeed, 
 he makes the dreamings of Plato the very foun- 
 dation of the Christian religion. How was Vol- 
 taire to explain the double nature in man, the 
 two natures and the one will of Christ, the 
 Androgynes of Plato, except by the sodomy of 
 monasticism, "man by day and woman by 
 night?" How could Jesus be the son of his 
 mother and his own father, except by incest, 
 like that of (Edipus King ? How could Saturn 
 devour his own children, except as a symbol for 
 Time ? How could Rome be Babylon, except by 
 symbolism? How could Peter be a porter, a 
 fisherman, a rock, and the vicar of Christ, him- 
 self the vicar of God, except by symbolism? 
 How can all nations be blessed in the seed of 
 Abraham, from whom they do not descend? 
 How can the devil be a serpent? How can 
 Balaam's ass talk? What is the origin of all 
 metamorphoses, except the abuse of a metaphor ? 
 Such questions might be multiplied ad in- 
 finitum. 
 
VOLTAIEE'S SYMBOLISM 37 
 
 Voltaire's Method of Composition 
 Voltaire's method of composition has already 
 been indicated: it is the raising of individual 
 experiences into the realm of the typical, with 
 an anti-religious tendency. When he fights an 
 individual persecutor, he fights him, not as his 
 individual enemy, but as the enemy of man- 
 kind; he becomes for Voltaire the symbol of 
 persecution, but without losing his individual- 
 ity. He may appear as a symbol for the devil, 
 for the God of the Jansenists, for the inquisi- 
 tion of Borne, or the inquisition of the garde 
 des sceaux, as the personification of the fero- 
 cious rapacity of the clergy; in short, in as many 
 forms as Voltaire's imagination can create. 
 Fundamentally Voltaire has but two sets of 
 symbols: tolerance and intolerance: love and 
 hate: wisdom and folly: generosity and envy: 
 reason and religion: sense and nonsense; there 
 is a sort of duality in his symbolism, like the 
 duality of nature. He repeats over and over 
 the allegory of the garden of Eden. He repre- 
 sents himself, under the name of his chief char- 
 acter, in a variety of paradisiacal situations, out 
 of which he is kicked by some ambitious, envi- 
 ous, rapacious, or tyrannical brigand. This 
 
38 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 brigand is always Intolerance, under some form 
 or other, always the Infdme, in some way or 
 other ; and always, at the bottom of each episode, 
 incident and character, there is some particular 
 brigand whom the author has in mind especially. 
 The general plan of both Zadig and Candide is 
 this: Voltaire wants his definition of liberty: 
 fori quae sentiat. That is his Astarte, his 
 Cunegonde. Whoever interferes with that, the 
 finest privilege of humanity, is ipso facto ranged 
 under the symbol of the Infdme, without ceas- 
 ing, however, as I have already said, to be an 
 individual persecutor in a given situation. The 
 only way to fathom Voltaire's symbolism is, 
 therefore, to keep the type in mind and to trace 
 the association of ideas by which certain indi- 
 viduals, with whom he has come into close per- 
 sonal relations, are subsumed un,der the type. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ZADIG 
 The purpose of this chapter is to determine 
 the provenience of the name of the hero and its 
 significance, by citing Voltaire's probable au- 
 thorities and by internal evidence from the 
 novel. 
 
 The Pkovenience and Significance of 
 
 the Name 
 
 " Hammer, apropos of the mystic love-story of 
 Joseph and Zuleika, explains the name Zadig 
 as the " Speaker of the truth," from the epithet 
 given to Joseph when he had cleared himself of 
 the accusation of Potiphar's wife. Joseph 
 called upon a child in the cradle to testify for 
 him. The child, which had never spoken be- 
 fore, told Potiphar to see whether Joseph's coat 
 was ripped in front or in back. The coat was 
 found to be ripped from behind, and this fact 
 was considered conclusive evidence of the truth 
 39 
 
 
40 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 of Joseph's story. Hence, in the manner of the 
 Orient, of which numerous examples will oc- 
 cur to any reader of the Old Testament, Joseph 
 received a new name: He-who-renders-true- 
 witness, the Speaker-of-the-truth, or the Truth- 
 teller, as Remy, following Hammer, translates 
 it. But neither Remy nor Hammer assigned 
 any reasons for thinking that Voltaire's hero 
 was named in reminiscence of this episode. 
 
 I consider it of great importance to determine 
 whether this interpretation is correct; for, if it 
 is, it is bound to have influenced Voltaire in the 
 whole conduct of his novel. 
 
 In the first place, was Voltaire acquainted 
 with this episode? This question must be an- 
 swered in the affirmative. We may take it for 
 granted that he knew practically everything 
 that had any connection with the Bible; that 
 was his specialty. The story of Joseph and 
 Zuleika, as treated by the Persian poets, is 
 found, in considerable detail, in the Coran, and 
 we know that Voltaire was well acquainted with 
 the Mohammedan Bible. He would not have 
 undertaken his tragedy of Mahomet without in- 
 vestigating his prophet's Bible. This study 
 goes back as far as the period preceding his 
 
ZADIG 41 
 
 trip to England. While at Kiviere-Bourdet 
 Voltaire, Thieriot, and Mme. de Bernieres gave 
 themselves up to historical dilettantism. Thie- 
 riot undertook the compilation of a history of 
 Mohammed. While in England Voltaire was 
 asked by his friend to procure him certain 
 books bearing on the subject. The hunt for one 
 of them, which proved to be worthless (entitled 
 Improvement of the Human Reason; M. 33, p. 
 167), gave to Voltaire an opportunity of show- 
 ing how anglicized he had become. His letters 
 to Thieriot are in English, and he speaks of 
 that " damned book." 
 
 It was during his stay in England that he 
 became acquainted with the translation of the 
 Coran by Sale; the translation which he ever 
 afterward used, and which he frequently praises. 
 He showed to some visitors at Ferney, long after- 
 wards, this translation of the Coran, annotated 
 marginally and with numerous slips of paper 
 all through it for markings (M. 1, pp. 390-392 : 
 Documents biographiques) . As early as 1734 he 
 praised Sale's translation of the Coran (M. 27, 
 p. 318). Therefore there is no reason for Seele, 
 in his Sources of Zadig, to be uncertain whether 
 Voltaire was acquainted with the whole Coran. 
 
42 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 Voltaire could also have got, and probably did 
 get, knowledge of the episode of Joseph and 
 Zuleika from Herbelot. We know that he bor- 
 rowed the Bibliotheque orientate from d'Argen- 
 son (M. 36, p. 182), and that he kept it during 
 the period when we may suppose that he was 
 writing, or gathering material for, his Siecle 
 de Louis XIV, his Essai sur les mceurs, his 
 tragedy 8 emir amis, and his novel Zadig. 
 
 In the second place, what reasons are there 
 for thinking that Voltaire had this epithet in 
 mind, when he named his hero Zadig ? 
 
 There are several reasons which might be 
 adduced in support of this interpretation of the 
 name: first, it would seem to be apt for Vol- 
 taire's symbolism; second, there are evidences 
 of it in the character of some of the episodes; 
 third, the Providence which the story of Joseph 
 illustrates seems to be the Providence of the 
 novel. Let us consider these points in their 
 order. 
 
 The Aptness of the Epithet foe Voltaire's 
 Symbolism 
 Without giving Voltaire credit for a very 
 profound knowledge of Oriental literatures, we 
 
ZADIG 43 
 
 must acknowledge that he grasped quickly the 
 fundamental spirit of those literatures. " Every- 
 thing is figurative," he says repeatedly, " every- 
 thing is allegorical in the East." It would 
 seem that these people spoke only in order not 
 to be understood. This character of Oriental 
 thought was to him the secret of the abuse of the 
 Bible in later centuries: the figure was taken 
 for the letter, and the letter for the figure, to 
 suit the ambitious schemes of a few leaders of 
 the new sect of Christianity. The Jews called 
 a just man the son of God (M. 27, p. 90) ; in 
 that sense Jesus was the son of God. But how 
 that figure of speech has been perverted and 
 made the instrument of the " most cowardly and 
 most detestable of all superstitions " ! We can 
 see, then, how such an epithet as the "Truth- 
 teller " in a novel of the Orient would appeal to 
 Voltaire. He aimed to be the " Truth-teller " 
 par excellence. He was the ministre de la 
 verite, as Frederick called him. He appeals to 
 Venus Urania, verite sublime, as he apostro- 
 phizes the goddess. All the persecutions to 
 which he was subjected came from his message 
 of truth, as he saw it. And yet he rarely spoke 
 his message of truth except in symbolic words 
 
44 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 and figures. He could not do otherwise. To 
 tell his message of truth about the Bible in the 
 plain straightforward French prose, which he 
 could handle with such conciseness and clear- 
 ness, would be paving the way to a funeral 
 pyre ; to tell it in the manner of the Orient, in 
 figures, in allegories, in allusions, in innuendos, 
 in equivocal phraseology : what was that but the 
 manner that Voltaire assumed in nearly all his 
 publications, before his residence at the gates of 
 Geneva ? f He had learned early in the school 
 of experience to fight from covert, to bide his 
 time, to strike swiftly and escape, to act the 
 blind man and the deaf man on occasion. 
 
 Internal Evidence from the Novel 
 
 There are episodes in the novel that point to 
 the meaning of Zadig as the "Truth-teller." 
 At bottom, the episode of Joseph and Zuleika 
 illustrates a Solomonic judgment. Joseph's in- 
 nocence is established by a clever device. Sim- 
 ilar devices are met with in the novel, such as 
 the broken tablet, the love of two brothers for 
 their father, the love of two Magians for a 
 young girl, the debt, etc. The episode of the 
 
ZADIG 45 
 
 Ghien and the Cheval is also a case in point, 
 and needs to be considered in detail. 
 
 The Dog and the Horse 
 This episode illustrates, among other things, 
 the Oriental manner of telling the truth and the 
 dangers attending it. The common proverb in 
 the Orient, according to Herbelot (Vol. I, p. 
 581), used as an excuse by the people who are 
 afraid of getting into trouble for knowing and 
 for saying too much, is : Je riai vu ni le chameau 
 ni le chamelier; ou bien, je n'ai vu ni le chameau 
 ni son petit. The story which gave rise to this 
 proverb must be considered the immediate 
 source of Voltaire's episode. In his studies in 
 the sciences, in history, in philosophy, Voltaire 
 was afraid of saying too much. The premature 
 publication of his materials for the Steele de 
 Louis XIV aroused persecutions because of the 
 author's remarks about the court of Rome (M. 
 35, p. 361). His Lettres philosophiques, espe- 
 cially his remarks about Pascal and Locke, 
 caused him to be excommunicated and burned, 
 as he calls the decree of the Parliament against 
 his publication. He was afraid of saying too 
 much in his competitive essay for the prize 
 
46 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 offered by the Academy of Sciences, because the 
 philosophy of Descartes still ruled at Paris. 
 Mirepoix especially persecuted Voltaire for say- 
 ing, with Locke, that God could have given to 
 organized matter the faculty of thought, just as 
 matter is organized to have sensations. Vol- 
 taire's aim was to account naturally for the 
 fabulous being called the soul, just as he would 
 account naturally for the fabulous being called 
 the devil. These are two phases of one and the 
 same question. The Christian religion posits 
 the fall of man, into whose body the devil en- 
 tered, as an allegory of the evil in the world and 
 an explanation of the astonishing contradictions 
 in man. Voltaire replied, in his remarks on 
 Pascal, that one might just as well say that the 
 dog that caresses and bites has a double nature, 
 or that all horses were once in paradise until 
 one of them ate some oats and caused the whole 
 species to be condemned to a life of suffering. 
 Thus Voltaire is persecuted, like Zadig, even 
 by beings which do not exist. 
 
 This episode of the griffon is similar to the 
 one which we are considering. Everybody is 
 speaking about the griffon, although nobody 
 knows anything about it, not even whether it 
 
ZADIG 47 
 
 exists. Voltaire frequently refers to the Mosaic 
 law prohibiting the eating of the griffon, the 
 ixion (M. 25, p. 65 ; M. 18, p. 124, etc.). These 
 animals must have disappeared from the face 
 of the earth, if they ever existed. Voltaire else- 
 where (M. 9, p. 427) uses the name griffon as 
 celui qui griffonne, and Cador uses it here in 
 the sense of celui qui a des griffes. Zadig has, 
 he says, many griffons in his poultry yard, and 
 does not eat them. He refers to the cock, as is 
 evident from Voltaire's use of the word in his 
 reply to the criticism of the Abbe Foucher (M. 
 27, p. 435) : Ne tuons jamais le coq, etc. It is 
 simply one of Voltaire's numerous illustrations 
 of the persecutions to which one is subjected in 
 the name of beings which nobody understands, 
 and the very existence of which can not be 
 proven. 
 
 The episode of the Dog and the Horse is, like 
 that of the griffon, an outgrowth of Voltaire's 
 English Letters. Mirepoix had persecuted him 
 for saying that our faculties developed like 
 those of the other animals, by use, by experi- 
 ence. Voltaire's argument tended to insinuate 
 that if man had an immortal soul, then a dog 
 had one also, or a flea, if you will. There is 
 
48 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 something divine about a flea, he says; it can 
 jump fifty times its length. Thus this episode 
 is, first of all, an allegory of the way we see: 
 how we judge form, size, distance. Voltaire 
 was the first to report in France the theories of 
 light of Newton and the experiments of Chesel- 
 don (M. 18, p. 402 ff.). The latter proved, by 
 operating on a youth for cataract that the image 
 formed on the retina by an object did not enable 
 us, by itself, to see that object as it was. 
 Reaumur, who seems to be ridiculed by Voltaire 
 in the introductory paragraphs of this episode, 
 performed a similar experiment in France, but 
 the fruits of it were lost to science because the 
 operator made no experiments and allowed no 
 one else to make them. 
 
 There are probably other allusions in the epi- 
 sode, a few of which may be indicated here. 
 
 In speaking of his studies for the Siecle de 
 Louis XIV (M. 33, p. 513), Voltaire says that 
 he is like a painter who looks at objects a little 
 differently from other men, noticing lights and 
 shades which escape inexperienced eyes. That 
 is precisely the faculty that Zadig has acquired. 
 Voltaire arrived at the knowledge of the Man 
 with the Iron Mask during this period. The 
 
ZADIG 49 
 
 daughter of the Regent had secured from her 
 father, b j what a price ! the secret, or what pur- 
 ported to be the secret. Voltaire had, it would 
 seem, been persecuted by the Regent for " what 
 he had seen," namely, the incest and debauchery 
 of the Regent. In view of the name of the 
 King, Moabdar, reminiscent of the mere des 
 Modbites of Voltaire's early satires, it is prob- 
 able that the episode of the Dog and the Horse 
 is symbolical of the Regent and his daughter. 
 The episode of the escaped prisoner would then 
 be explainable as a reference to the Man with 
 the Iron Mask. 
 
 Another allusion in the episode is Voltaire's 
 characterization of the old arte de Mirepoix as a 
 cheval. His accoutrements are also as precious 
 as those of the cheval du roi des rois; he was in 
 every sense un opulent fripon, and in every 
 sense a cheval of the King. Voltaire arrived at 
 his name by the following equations : Chiron == 
 Preceptor of Achilles; Achilles = King ; Mire- 
 poix = Preceptor of King; Mirepoix = Chiron. 
 But Chiron was a horse with the head of a man, 
 while Mirepoix had no head; therefore Mire- 
 poix = cheval (cf. M. 36, p. 275). 
 
 Voltaire refers in the same way to the poet 
 4 
 
50 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 Eoi, who was chevalier de Vordre de saint 
 
 Michel, i. e., cheval. de saint Michel, i. e., 
 
 cheval, not roi, but at most the cheval du roi. 1 
 
 1 There is much in the correspondence of Voltaire at 
 this time about a chien and a chienne. Mile. Quinault 
 had given to Voltaire the subject of the Enfant prodigue, 
 which he composed, he tells us, to serve as a reply to the 
 impertinent Epitres of Jean Baptiste Eousseau. It is, 
 therefore, by a figure common to Voltaire, the child of 
 the poet and the actress (M. 34, p. 54, 55, 183, 184). 
 Great precautions are taken that there be no clique to 
 prevent its success. Voltaire does not wish it to be known 
 that he is the author; he has his reasons, he says, but 
 he fails to disclose them. Voltaire refers to his comedy 
 as his petit chien noir (M. 34, p. 142). He writes to 
 Mile. Quinault (M. 34, p. 558') that his petits chiens noirs 
 are called Zamore and Alzire (the names of the hero and 
 the heroine of his tragedy of Alzire, and evidently re- 
 garded as the offspring of the original chien, the Enfant 
 prodigue). He carries out the figure (M. 35, p. 48): 
 Zamore et Alzire vous saluent d quatre pattes. In his 
 letter of October 19, 1736 (M. 34, p. 150 f.), he calls his 
 two black dogs chien and chienne, brother and sister, who 
 are to go on producing from incest to incest. Other refer- 
 ences are (M. 35, p. 176) : " Alzire est grosse de Zamore. 
 Voulez-vous que le premier-ne s'appelle Eamire ?" And 
 (M. 35, p. 227): "J'aurai l'honneur de vous envoy er un 
 Eamire et vous nous donnerez la merveille des chiens que 
 vous promettez. ,, He feels that Zulime must be made 
 better pour depayser le monde. He says (M. 35, p. 456) : 
 "Nous avons d6ja nomine" les deux enfants de vos chiens 
 noirs, 1 'un Eamire, et 1 'autre Zulime. Mais j 'ai peur 
 que cela ne ressemble aux gentilshommes ruinSs de ce 
 pays-ci (t. e. } Brussels), qui se font appeler Votre Altesse; 
 
ZADIG 51 >. 
 
 Other Episodes which Illustrate Solo- 
 monic Judgments 
 The other episodes which illustrate Solomonic 
 judgments come under the relations of Zadig to 
 Moabdar's court or to the Arabian tribes of 
 Setoc. The first one of this nature is the decis- 
 ion of the question, to whom the prize of virtue 
 belongs. Voltaire had already indicated in his 
 Discours en vers sur Vhomme (M. 9, p. 388 f., 
 p. 423), who was entitled to be called virtuous. 
 That title belonged to Pucelle, who gave to his 
 younger brother the fortune that his mother had 
 
 il faut que l'on ait fait une grande fortune pour donner 
 ainsi son nom." 
 
 It is not easy to determine just what Voltaire meant 
 by this sort of figure. As offspring of Voltaire's genius, 
 his works were brother and sister, and if they kept on 
 producing from incest to incest, the thought is analogous 
 to the charge made by Rousseau against Voltaire (Epitre 
 d Thalie, CEuvres de Jean Baptiste Rousseau, Nouvelle 
 edition, Bruxelles, 1743, Vol. 3, p. 467) : 
 
 ' ' Loin tout rimeur enfle de beaux passages 
 Qui sur lui seul moulant ses personnages 
 Veut qu'ils aient tous autant d 'esprit que lui, 
 Et ne nous peint que soi-meme en autrui. " 
 It is certain that there is some connection between Rous- 
 seau and the chien or chienne of Voltaire's correspon- 
 dence and the episode in Zadig; that is already obvious 
 from the purpose Voltaire had in composing the Enfant 
 prodigue. It is probable that Mile. Quinault immediately 
 
52 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 deprived him of. This episode is found in 
 Zadig, with slight modifications and with an 
 obvious application to religion. It is a question 
 of the love of two sons for their father. Zadig 
 gives the prize to the one who has aided his sis- 
 ter: Voltaire wished to decide the question 
 over which the Jansenists and the Molinists 
 wrangled, as to who loved God best. His de- 
 cision establishes the superiority of good works 
 over vain monuments, as an indication of one's 
 love for the author of one's being. A similar 
 question is decided by him in reference to the 
 
 recognized Voltaire as the author of Zadig by means of 
 this episode, for he alludes to the ' 'black dog" only in 
 his letters to her. Voltaire wrote to d'Argental (M. 36, 
 p. 534; Oct. 10, 1748), that he did not wish to pass 
 for the author of Zadig ; why should people mention his 
 name in that connection! "Quinault, Quinault-comique 
 . . . ne cesse de dire que j'en suis l'auteur. Comme elle 
 n'y voit rien ne mal, elle le dit sans croire me nuire; 
 mais les coquins, qui veulent y voir du mal, en abusent. ' ' 
 If Mile. Quinault saw no harm in the episode, she must 
 have referred it to Voltaire 's Enfant prodigue. "When 
 this comedy appeared in published form, it was so muti- 
 lated by the publishers that Voltaire, by a figure common 
 to him, says that it is lame, so lame that it can hardly 
 walk (M. 34, p. 525, p. 531). In that respect it is like 
 the chienne de la reine. As it has given birth to a numer- 
 ous progeny it can also be compared to the chienne de la 
 reine, qui a fait depuis pen des chiens. 
 
ZADIG 53 
 
 two Magians who claim a woman whom they 
 have instructed in their mystic love ; she belongs 
 to the one who will bring up her child in the 
 duties of friendship and citizenship. 
 
 Voltaire had given the title of virtuous to 
 Pelisson, who defended Fouquet from the 
 depths of his prison. This appears also in 
 Zadig. The King had disgraced his prime min- 
 ister, and Zadig alone speaks well of him. 
 
 Voltaire gives the title of virtuous to Nor- 
 mand, to Cochin, whose eloquence protected the 
 orphan. He does not give it to" the indolent 
 Germont, who fears to speak for his friend when 
 Sejanus oppresses (reference to Thieriot, whose 
 luke-warmness in the period of the Voltairo- 
 manie Voltaire could hardly forgive) ; nor to 
 the babbling Griffon, whose mercenary pen 
 made an insipid libel instead of a jurist's brief 
 (reference to Mannory, at the time of Voltaire's 
 demeles with the poet Eoi and Desf ontaines) . 
 
 Zadig proves, just as Voltaire proved in 
 all his works, the puerility of religious dis- /• 
 putes and the folly of attaching importance 
 to religious ceremonies. Two parties had 
 quarreled for 1500 years about the manner 
 of entering the temple of Mithra. Voltaire 
 
54 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 shows by the date here that he has Christianity 
 in mind. He says (M. 27, p. 38), that Chris- 
 tianity is the only religion in the world in 
 which, for more than 1400 years, there has been 
 an almost continuous series of persecutions on 
 account of theological arguments. 
 
 There is probably a reference here to Vol- 
 taire's manner of entering the French Academy. 
 One of the virulent satires current at this time 
 was the Discours prononce a la porte de V Aca- 
 demic, in which Voltaire was scurrilously treated. 
 Voltaire had failed in several attempts to enter 
 the Temple of the Sun, and he desired to enter 
 now par la grande porte. In other words, he 
 wanted to enter the French Academy like Zadig: 
 a pieds joints. 
 
 The other illustrations of the wisdom of Solo- 
 mon are chiefly under the various episodes con- 
 nected with Setoc. Because Zadig has slain a 
 jealous fool, Cletofis, he is sold into slavery. 
 This is allegorical for the servitude of a man 
 of letters in France, of which Voltaire com- 
 plains so often in his correspondence. The only 
 way to break his chains is gradually to enlighten 
 his master, who was ignorant rather than 
 wicked. Zadig begins his work almost at once. 
 
ZADIG 55 
 
 His master has paid less for him than for his 
 valet. When Setoc is obliged to apportion the 
 burdens of a camel upon the backs of his slaves, 
 he laughs to see them walk with body bent for- 
 ward. Zadig informs him of the reason. He 
 tells him about the simplest physical laws, such 
 as the law of equilibrium, of specific gravity. 
 The allusion is, of course, to Voltaire's Ele- 
 ments de la philosophie de Newton, with the 
 famous law of gravitation which the French 
 were so slow in accepting. It is Voltaire in the 
 bondage of the garde des sceaux, the famous 
 d'Aguesseau, who refused his approbation for 
 the Elements, and who refused to give permis- 
 sion to print to the author of a novel in which 
 there was a heretic, unless said heretic should 
 be converted in the last chapter! It is quite 
 possible that Voltaire is punning on his name 
 (seau = sot) and on his function (garde des 
 sceaux = garde des sots), in the name Setoc. 
 Voltaire often laments that the simplest laws of 
 science were unknown to his countrymen until 
 the publication of his work. The following is 
 a typical example (M. 27, p. 188) : " II y a cent 
 mille ames dans Paris qui, en soufflant le feu 
 de leurs cheminees, n'ont jamais seulement 
 
56 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 pense a la mecanique par laquelle l'air entrant 
 dans leur soufflet, ferme ensuite la soupape qui 
 lui est attachee. . . . Le nombre est tres petit 
 de ceux qui cherchent a s'instruire des ressorts 
 \ de leur corps et de leur pensee. De la vient 
 qu'ils mettent souvent Fun et l'autre entre les 
 mains des charlatans." This is true of the 
 Seigneur Ogul, whose slaves seek a basilisk 
 which they intend to cook in rose water in order 
 to cure him of an indigestion. The Seigneur 
 Ogul has promised to marry the slave who shall 
 first find him a basilisk. "Son medecin, qui 
 n'a que peu de credit aupres de lui quand il 
 digere bien, le gouverne despotiquement quand 
 il a trop mange" (M. 21, p. 81). The allusion 
 is probably to the King, whose illness at Metz 
 caused so much excitement in court circles. The 
 doctor-confessor of the King prevailed upon him 
 to dismiss his mistress, Mme. de Chateauroux, 
 in order to appease the wrath of heaven and thus 
 be cured of his ailment. The name Ogul is 
 probably an anagramme for Gulo (since the 
 Seigneur Ogul is a glutton), with a reminis- 
 cence of Mogul. Thus everything, even to the 
 basilisk (the "little king" curer), points to the 
 Seigneur Louis XV. Zadig teaches this ignor- 
 
ZADIG 57 
 
 ant gourmand the virtues of the medicine bag, 
 i. e. y the value of exercise and sobriety, as the 
 only king-curers. Voltaire had already treated 
 this topic in his English Letters (M. 22, p. 50). 
 He explains how the idea of miraculous cures 
 arose. Sickness was observed to increase at the 
 full moon ; therefore the moon was the cause of 
 it. A sick man, who found himself better after 
 having eaten lobsters, gave rise to the belief 
 that they purified the blood because they were 
 red when boiled ! 
 
 One of the first things that Zadig teaches 
 Setoc is how to recover a debt from a Hebrew, 
 without having any proof of the indebtedness. 
 The money had been counted out to the Hebrew 
 on a large stone, and Zadig makes the stone tes- 
 tify for him. Since the Hebrew knows where 
 the stone is, the money must have been paid to 
 him. He is condemned to be bound to the stone, 
 without food or drink, until the money is paid. 
 The Hebrew soon disgorges, and Zadig and the 
 stone enjoy great renown in the desert. The 
 Hebrew who receives loans on the stone and who 
 appropriates everything he can as soon as there 
 are no witnesses to the transaction is the Church, 
 from the time of Pope Gregory down. Voltaire 
 
58 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 was the first to raise his voice, he tells us (M. 
 18, p. 441), against the pretensions of the 
 clergy. The way to make them disgorge is to 
 bind them to the stone ; if the stone, Peter, is in 
 the desert, they will pay rather than be bound 
 to it ; if it is in heaven, they will pay with even 
 greater celerity rather than be sent thither. 
 Pope Gregory's canonization in the eighteenth 
 century was fresh in Voltaire's mind at this 
 time, when he was composing the Essai sur les 
 mceurs (cf. Beuchot, 16, p. 89). The Pope, he 
 notes {ibid., p. 84), had sent the following mes- 
 sage to Eudolph, Duke of Suabia: Petra dedit, 
 Petrus diadema Rodolpho. 
 
 It is probable that there is some experience of 
 Voltaire at the bottom of the episode. The 
 Marquis de Luchet relates that Voltaire had lent 
 some money to a man who refused to pay him 
 because the poet had neglected to take the pre- 
 caution of having witnesses to the transaction, 
 and had nothing in writing to prove his claim. 
 Many people are sueing him, he says (M. 34, p. 
 88), for debts long since paid, in the hope that 
 he has lost his receipts in his numerous voyages. 
 That is especially true of Jore, the libraire du 
 clerge, publisher of the Lettres philosophiques 
 
ZADIG . 59 
 
 who tried to make Voltaire pay what he would 
 have gained if the edition had not been seized. 
 He was thrown into the Bastille until he should 
 give up the edition. It is possible that the Bas- 
 tille is the famous stone to which the bad credi- 
 tor was to be bound until he disgorged. 
 
 Setoc adores the stars because they are so 
 brilliant and so far away. Zadig lights a num- 
 ber of candles and adores them in the presence 
 of his master. Setoc penetrates the significance 
 of the action of his slave and adores, from then 
 on, the maker of the stars. Voltaire is alluding 
 to the idolatrous practices of the Christians in 
 the adoration of images, etc., as shown in the 
 Dictionnaire philosophique (M. 17, p. 61, 
 under Adorer) : "Dans d'autres pays, il faut a 
 midi allumer des flambeaux de cire, qu'on 
 avait en abomination dans les premiers temps," 
 and a convent, in which this cult of candles 
 should be abolished would cry out that the light 
 of the faith was extinguished and that the world 
 was coming to an end. 
 
 Zadig also puts an end to the burning of 
 widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands, 
 an abuse which exists simply because it is 
 
60 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 ancient. Voltaire makes the necessary rap- 
 prochement between the devotes of Malabar and 
 the devotes of France (M. 24, p. 247, also Precis 
 du Steele de Louis XV, M. 15, p. 327, and Bs- 
 sai sur les Mceurs, Beuchot, 15, p. 79), which 
 explains this episode. The former destroy 
 their bodies, the latter give up legitimate pleas- 
 ures and subject themselves to needless priva- 
 tions, and both act contrary to the purpose of 
 nature; both are dominated by the vain idea 
 that these bodies of theirs will arise more beau- 
 tiful than before. Let us consider this episode 
 in its relation to Voltaire's literary activity in 
 France. 
 
 The Episode of Almona 
 
 This episode is directed first of all against the 
 Jansenists, who would destroy all passions in 
 man, except that of religious fanaticism. Every 
 natural impulse towards the enjoyment of the 
 senses was for the Jansenites a mortal sin (cf. 
 M. 21, p. 275). In the second place, this same 
 tendency was manifested in the monastic sys- 
 tem, by which men and women dissociated 
 themselves from the activities for which they 
 were created, and buried themselves alive, so to 
 speak. Voltaire had no patience with such 
 
ZADIG • 61 
 
 abuses. He continually raises his voice against 
 them. Ever since his return from England he 
 had directed his attacks against the Jansenists: 
 in his English letters, in the Mondain, in the 
 Discours en vers sur Vhomme. In his fifth Dis- 
 cours {Sur la nature du plaisir), he uses a fig- 
 ure quite similar to the destruction by fire in 
 the episode of Almona. He admires, he says, 
 and does not pity, a heart that chains its de- 
 sires, " et s'arrache au genre humain pour Dieu 
 qui nous fit naitre . . . et brulant pour son 
 Dieu d'un amour devorant, fuit les plaisirs 
 permis pour un plaisir plus grand." But he 
 does protest against the intolerance of such 
 people. JLet them burn themselves if they wish, \ 
 but not make other people burn themselves, nor ; 
 despise in their hearts those whom they leave 
 behind* Such people are less the friends of J 
 God than the enemies of mankind- This ridicu- 
 lous master of the new stoics (i. e., Pascal), 
 wishes to destroy one's being, deprive one of 
 one's nature. Voltaire reminds him and his 
 followers of the daughters of Pelias, who, think- 
 ing to rejuvenate him, cut him up and boiled 
 him, but could not bring him to life again. 
 That is symbolic of the Jansenists, the poet 
 
62 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 cries; they wish to change man, and they de- 
 stroy him. 
 
 Thus Almona represents the victim of this 
 false conception of the Jansenists, who drew it, 
 as all Christians have drawn it, from the prom- 
 ises of Christ, that whoever should lose his life 
 shall find it, and whoever would save his life 
 shall lose it. It was this false conception of 
 self-renunciation which sent so many Christians 
 rejoicing to the funeral pyres of martyrdom and 
 which filled the monasteries and the convents. 
 
 Voltaire wished to belittle their motives, and, 
 in general, he undoubtedly was not far wrong. 
 They wished to attract attention to themselves, 
 to show that they were better than other people. 
 They wished to enjoy the consideration which 
 attends the odor of sanctity. Mme. Dorfise, the 
 Prude, in Voltaire's comedy of that name, acts 
 from such motives. The same is true of Baba- 
 bec and the fakirs (M. 21, p. 103) : "Bababec 
 perdait son credit dans le peuple ; les femmes ne 
 venaient plus le consulter: il quitta Omri, et 
 reprit ses clous pour avoir de la consideration." 
 The reason why the women of Malabar burn 
 themselves is that it is the custom, and one 
 would lose caste in not conforming to it (M. 18, 
 
ZADIG 63 
 
 p. 96; article on Suicide, published in 1739), 
 just as it the custom in Japan for a man who 
 has been insulted to open his own vitals, and 
 his opponent must do likewise or be forever 
 dishonored. The Christian renegade Pelle- 
 grinus burned himself in public for the same 
 reason that a fool among us sometimes dresses 
 up as an Armenian, in order to attract attention 
 to himself (M. 18, p. 37). But that is nothing, 
 Voltaire adds, in comparison with the 100,000 
 Europeans who have been burned by the Inqui- 
 sition for the greater glory of God and the sal- 
 vation of their immortal souls, and all for dog- 
 mas which nobody understands. 
 
 Zadig convinces Setoc that it is ruinous to the 
 state for widows to burn themselves ; they might 
 better give useful citizens to it. This reason is 
 one of the most frequent in Voltaire's works. 
 The following is a typical reference (M. 23, p. 
 504) : " Dans nos climats il nait plus de males 
 que de femelles, done il ne f aut pas f aire mourir 
 les femelles: or il est clair que e'est les faire 
 mourir pour la societe que de les enterrer dans 
 nos cloitres, ou elles sont perdues pour la race 
 presente, et ou elles aneantissent les races fu- 
 tures." Note the equivocal use of faire mourir 
 
44 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 and enterrer les files. The latter figure sug- 
 gests to Voltaire the comparison of nuns to des 
 terres incultes; il faut cultiver les unes et les 
 autres is his advice {Dialogue entre un philo- 
 sophe et un controleur general des finances, M. 
 23, p. 504). 
 
 The particular allusion in this episode of 
 Almona is probably to Voltaire's Epitre to the 
 Marquise de Kupelmonde, the widow with whom 
 he traveled to Holland in 1722 (M. 9, p. 357 
 ff.). Of her Duvernet says: "Elle joignait a 
 une ame pleine de candeur et un penchant ex- 
 treme pour la tendresse une grande incertitude 
 sur ce qu'elle devait croire." She confided her 
 doubts to Voltaire. To save her from the fate 
 of the devotes of Malabar and the devotes of 
 France, he composed the Epitre, successively 
 known as the Epitre a Julie, Epitre a Uranie, 
 and Le Pour et Le Contre. The Kehl editors 
 speak of it as follows (M. 9, p. 357) : This work 
 contains the principal reproaches against the 
 Christian religion and a refutation of the argu- 
 ments of the devots persuades et les devots po- 
 litiques. 
 
 The gist of the Epitre is this: there are no 
 horrors beyond the grave for the just; God 
 
ZADIG 65 
 
 does not demand the sacrifice of our being, but 
 the use of our talents. All homage is received 
 by God, but he demands none, and none honors 
 him. The pitiless Jansenist will find less clem- 
 ency at his throne, despite his sacrifices, than 
 the just man. 
 
 There was the menace of great danger in the 
 publication of this Epitre in 1732. Langlois, 
 the secretary of the Chancellor d'Aguesseau, 
 when asked his opinion of it, told his master 
 that Voltaire ought to be put where he would 
 never again have the opportunity to use pen and 
 ink. M. de Vintimille, Archbishop of Paris, 
 and famous for his gourmandise, complained 
 strongly to H. Herault, lieutenant general de 
 police. Voltaire jit le mort, as one editor ex- 
 presses it ; he took no notice of the lenten refu- 
 tations of his work. He denied to the Chancel- 
 lor that he was the author of it; he had heard 
 it recited, he said, by the Abbe de Chaulieu. 
 The authorities were not deceived, but they had 
 no case against him. 
 
 In Zadig Voltaire seems to have connected this 
 
 episode with all his other publications against the 
 
 Jansenists, especially his Lettres philosophiques. 
 
 The friends of Pascal were revolted that Voltaire 
 
 5 
 
66 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 should make fun of their master's ideas about re- 
 ligion and about poetry. Voltaire frequently 
 laughs at Pascal's examples of poetic beauty : bel 
 astre, merveille de nos jours, fatal laurier, etc. 
 That expression of bel astre, and Voltaire's re- 
 marks about Newton's law of gravitation, which 
 Voltaire called attraction, and which the ignorant 
 people of France took for the occult ideas of 
 antiquity, are the sources of the form in which 
 the accusation against Zadig is cast. He is ac- 
 cused of horrible blasphemies against the heav- 
 enly bodies, for which he must be burned, as well 
 as for having diverted from the priestly coffers 
 the spoils of the widows. So Voltaire's Lettres 
 philosophiques were condemned to be lacerated 
 and burned by the Parliaments of Paris and 
 Rouen, but Voltaire does not report it that way ; 
 he uses a figure of speech. It is he, the author, 
 who has been excommunicated and burned at 
 Paris and Rouen; if that continues he will be 
 burned twelve times (M. 33, p. 442). He fled 
 to Cirey, which he calls a desert ; in other words, 
 he is in Arable deserte, which he will soon trans- 
 form into Arable heureuse, the paradise of the 
 Mondaln, the philosophic tendency of which is 
 the same as that of the episode which we are 
 
ZADIG 67 
 
 considering. In this infdme persecution pour 
 un livre he is sustained by the friendship of 
 Mme. du Chatelet (M. 33, p. 426; May, 1734), 
 which surpasses by far the rage of his enemies. 
 He seems to have thought of her and of Mme. 
 de Richelieu as his "Almonas," since they 
 finally secured the cessation of this persecution. 
 "Voila Mme. de Richelieu qui va enfin etre 
 presentee. Elle ne quittera point votre garde 
 des sceaux qu'elle n'ait obtenu la paix " (M. 33, 
 p. 542). The manner in which Almona puts 
 the persecutors to shame is simply a vicious 
 dig at the clergy, with the Archbishop of Paris 
 at their head. It is no more to be taken seri- 
 ously than the titles which she gives to the Arch- 
 bishop (M. 21, Fils aine de la grande Ourse, 
 frere du Taureau, cousin du grand Chien). It 
 is in the same style as the manner in which 
 Zadig appeases the old Magian Yebor, by the 
 gift of a maid of honor a laquelle il avait fait, 
 un enfant. The old Bishop of Mirepoix had 
 made his way in the world through the influenc^ 
 of titled devotes, whose confessor he was. Such 
 hypocrites, says Voltaire (M. 18, p. 350), al- 
 ways had a little serail of six or seven old 
 devotes, who had been discarded by their lov- 
 
 / 
 
68 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 ers. So here with the priests of the stars ; they 
 are susceptible of no influence except that of 
 carnal lust. 
 
 My third reason for thinking that Voltaire 
 had the epithet of the " Speaker-of-the-truth " 
 in mind in naming his hero Zadig is drawn 
 from the philosophic tendency of the novel. As 
 applied to Joseph the epithet seems peculiarly 
 appropriate for the bearer of Voltaire's message 
 about Providence, whose ways are not our ways. 
 The story of the Patriarch is, in fact, an epi- 
 tome of the Providence of Christianity. It is 
 the lover of individual men and particular na- 
 tions, at the expense of other individual men 
 and other nations. Joseph was sent into Egypt, 
 according to the Biblical account, to prepare a 
 place for his brethren, that is, he was sent there 
 by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to 
 enslave a whole nation (the Egyptians, who 
 became, through Joseph, the slaves of the 
 Pharao), and all for the sake of a "vagabond 
 race, sullied with all the crimes known to the 
 history of human folly." 
 
 Joseph was sold into slavery by his brethren 
 from envy; here appeared the role of the ftrir 
 vieux, as it appears in Zadig, and as it appeared 
 
ZADIG 69 
 
 in Voltaire's life. The heroes experience sever- 
 ally all its potentialities, even to the slavery 
 motif, which is so often reflected in Voltaire's 
 correspondence. Joseph was finally united to 
 his Zuleika, Zadig to his Astarte, and Voltaire 
 finally bowed to the Church in order to get into 
 the French Academy. Each hero had emerged 
 triumphantly from all his trials and tribula- 
 tions. Rousseau and Desfontaines were in their 
 graves, Roi was the execration of all honorable 
 men, Mirepoix was sent into semi-exile, in order 
 to relieve him of the danger of choosing badly 
 among the servants of God for the posts of honor 
 in the French capital (M. 36, p. 357), while 
 Voltaire, covered with the aegis of the vicar 
 of Christ, had become one of the Immortals, 
 historiographer of France, and gentilhomme 
 ordinaire de la chambre du roi, with the privi- 
 lege of selling his patent (which brought him 
 about 60,000 francs) and retaining the title. 
 And how had he accomplished it all ? Not dif- 
 ferently from the symbolism of Zadig, with the 
 hero's submission to Providence, not differently 
 from the Patriarch Joseph, with his riddles. 
 The Princesse de Navarre and the favor of the 
 Pompadour on the one hand, and Voltaire's 
 
70 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 submission to the Church on the other, had ac- 
 complished what all his serious work, his real 
 services, had failed to accomplish. 
 
 In Voltaire's first open letter to prove his 
 orthodoxy (M. 36, p. 191), Voltaire proclaims 
 his love of religion, "a religion which makes 
 one great family of all men, and whose practices 
 are founded on tolerance and good works." 
 Zadig does the same thing at Bassora (M. 21, p. 
 61) : "II lui paraissait que l'univers etait une 
 grande famille qui se rassemblait a Bassora." 
 He convinces the representatives of all sects, all 
 of whom are merchants, that they are, at bottom, 
 of one faith; they adore the Maker of the Uni- 
 verse, and not those who have constituted them- 
 selves his prophets and instructed mankind in 
 his name. Voltaire had already given expres- 
 sion to a similar thought in Holland, whither he 
 had gone with Mme. de Eupelmonde (M. 33, 
 p. 74). The cities of Holland, like Bassora, 
 were great commercial centers, and like the Bas- 
 sora of Zadig all cults seemed to flourish side 
 by side. " Je vois des ministres calvinistes, des 
 arminiens, des sociniens, des rabbins, des ana- 
 baptistes, qui parlent tous a merveille, et qui, 
 en verite, ont tous raison." So Zadig speaks of 
 
ZADIG 71 
 
 the sects of Bassora; lie tells them that they 
 are all agreed, all are right, without knowing it. 
 
 This episode was probably suggested to Vol- V 
 taire by his letter above mentioned and by his 
 remarks while at The Hague. It is probable 
 that Bassora is meant to be a linguistic equiva- 
 lent for the Netherlands. 
 
 Voltaire's idea of a religion which made one 
 great family of all men was not the religion 
 which could open the doors of the Academy to 
 him. In order that the grace efficace should 
 descend, to speak in the phraseology which he 
 likes to use, he had to give evidence of his love 
 of the Christian religion as understood and 
 practiced in his day. That Voltaire accom- 
 plished by dedicating Mahomet to the Pope 
 and by a profession of faith and orthodoxy, in 
 his open letter to the Jesuits. 
 
 In addition to the reasons which have already 
 been given in support of the interpretation of 
 the name Zadig as the " Truth-teller," there are 
 others of less significance, to which, however, 
 attention might be called. He writes to Cide- 
 ville about his poem on the Battle of Fontenoy, 
 in reference to the Marechal de Noailles, who, 
 having no command (although he ranked the 
 
72 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 Marechal de Saxe, the commanding officer), 
 was obliged to look on while others won imper- 
 ishable glory (M. 36, p. 366) : "Les deux vers 
 qui expriment qu'il n'est point jaloux et qu'il 
 ne regarde que l'interet de la France sont un 
 petit trait de politique, si ce n'en est pas un de 
 poesie; et ce sont precisement ces verites qui 
 donnent a penser a, un lecteur judicieux. Ces 
 traits si eloignes des lieux communs, et ces allu- 
 sions aux f aits qu'on ne doit pas dire hautement, 
 mais qu'on doit f aire entendre ; ce sont la, dis-je, 
 ces petites finesses qui plaisent aux hommes 
 comme vous, et qui echappent a ceux qui ne 
 sont que gens de lettres." 
 
 Apropos of a problem which he has stated in 
 the form of a riddle, as to which of the three 
 princesses which the Queen of Poland has given 
 to reigning houses of Europe is the most vir- 
 tuous and brings the greatest happiness to her 
 subjects, he says (M. 36, p. 495): "Kien ne 
 prouve mieux combien il est difficile de savoir 
 au juste la verite dans ce monde ; et puis, mon- 
 sieur, les personnes qui la savent le mieux sont 
 tou jours celles qui la disent le moins." 
 
 Perhaps nowhere in Zadig does Voltaire show 
 more clearly his method of attesting the truth 
 
ZADIG 73 
 
 in the form of equivocal phrases than in the 
 address of the hero to the judges after the cheval 
 du roi des wis et la chienne de la reine have 
 been found. Zadig has been fined four hundred 
 ounces of gold for having seen (with his judg- 
 ment) what he had not seen (with his eyes). 
 He propitiates his judges and satirizes the juris- 
 prudence of France in the following speech, full 
 of equivoques: "Etoiles de justice, abimes de 
 science, miroirs de verite, qui avez la pesanteur 
 du plomb, la durete du fer, l'eclat du diamant, 
 et beaucoup d'affinite avec For," etc. The equi- 
 voques are charming, and none the less doubly 
 edged with satire. Voltaire had become dis- 
 gusted with the jurisprudence of France in his 
 early apprenticeship in a lawyer's office. He 
 lauds Desbarreaux, who threw the documents 
 of a lawsuit into the fire and paid the plaintiff 
 the amount for which the suit was brought. He 
 reproduces a similar episode in Zadig, He 
 likewise lauded his friend and guardian angel 
 d'Argental, who, disgusted with the absurd 
 forms and barbarity of the law, gave up his 
 charge of conseiller au parlement and retained 
 only the title of conseiller d'honneur. It was fit- 
 ting, Voltaire said, that he should bear the title 
 of his estate ! 
 
74 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 The epithet of the "Witness-bearer" or the 
 " Truth-teller " was also given by the Arabs to 
 Aboubecre, father-in-law of Mohammed, to 
 Jesus Christ, to the Virgin Mary, and to Aicha, 
 the only "virgin" wife of Mohammed. They 
 all refer to the attestation of revealed truth. 
 Aboubecre attested the truth of Mohammed's 
 mission, of the divine origin of the Coran, of 
 the Prophet's journey on his horse Borac 
 through the heavens, etc. His daughter, the 
 Pucelle, obtained the title by attesting the au- 
 thenticity of various traditions regarding Mo- 
 hammed, just as the Virgin Mary obtained it 
 by attesting the divine birth and mission of 
 Jesus Christ. So Zadig really gets the title, it 
 would seem, from his interview with the angel 
 Jesrad ; at least not until then is he able to com- 
 pass his ends. It is a strong testimony to the 
 power of revelation over the minds of his coun- 
 trymen, as indeed over the whole human race. 
 
 In all these applications of the name it is a 
 question of a new cult. Voltaire could take the 
 epithet seriously. His message to the world, or 
 to be more explicit, to France, was in the inter- 
 est of a new cult : the cult of reason. Voltaire 
 likened himself to Jesus Christ, persecuted for 
 
ZADIG 75 
 
 truth and righteousness (in his letter to Mire- 
 poix, M. 36, p. 193 if.). After such an example 
 of submission to tribulation and death in the 
 interests of truth, Voltaire can not complain. 
 It it true, however, he adds, that one should 
 defend oneself; not for the vain satisfaction of 
 humbling and silencing an opponent, mais pour 
 rendre gloire a la verite. 
 
 These are some of the reasons for thinking 
 that Voltaire had the epithet of the "Truth- 
 teller " in mind in composing his novel. I will 
 now consider some of the reasons for believing 
 that this significance was not the only one in- 
 tended by the author. 
 
 Othee Connotations in the Name Zadig 
 There are good reasons for believing that Vol- 
 taire was not wholly concerned with the episode 
 of Joseph and Zuleika in the creation of his 
 novel and the name of his hero. In the first 
 place, he is not likely to have chosen the name 
 from any one source, for he would then have 
 kept it in the form in which he found it. Her- 
 belot (Vol. 1, p. 76) makes a clear distinction 
 between Sadik and Seddik (or Siddik). The 
 former means the "just" man, he says, while 
 
 v 
 
76 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 the latter means " temoin fidele et authentiquesL" 
 There may have been a confusion between the 
 two, due to the marking of the vowel points, 
 but we must consider Herbelot as Voltaire's 
 chief source. The first objection, therefore, to 
 the interpretation of Remy and Hammer is 
 based on linguistic grounds. 
 
 There are also internal evidences from the 
 novel which point to the connotation of the just 
 man in the name, if not its significance as such. 
 The author stresses that characteristic in his 
 hero. At the very beginning of the novel Zadig 
 practices charity, in accordance with the pre- 
 cept of Zoroaster: "When you eat, give to eat 
 to the dogs, though they bite you." The Mo- 
 hammedans consider the giving of alms "une 
 action de justice aussi bien que de charite" 
 (Herbelot, description of the book " Sadik " or 
 " Sadikat " of Abou-Haian, which treats of 
 justice and alms-giving). Also, at the very end 
 of the novel it is distinctly stated that the reign 
 of Zadig and Astarte was the reign of " justice 
 and love." Of course, one may object, there 
 can be no reign of justice and love until the 
 truth has been established on its throne. Fur- 
 ther, what causes Zadig to murmur against 
 
ZADIG 77 
 
 Providence, after Itobad has stolen his white 
 armor and made himself King of Babylon and 
 husband of Astarte, is that all his " justice " 
 has not only not brought him any reward, but 
 has served only to his misfortune. Here again 
 the reply is forthcoming: Zadig accomplishes 
 his ends only after he has constituted himself a 
 "temoin fidele et authentique." After he has 
 joined the ranks of the faithful adorers and 
 given witness to revealed religion persecution 
 ceases, and, it would seem, also the epithet of 
 "just," since the angel says that the just man 
 is always persecuted. 
 
 This connotation in the name is strengthened 
 by the probable influence of the Hebrew Sadoc 
 or Zadoc, which means the just man. As 
 founder of the sect of the Sadducees, the rul- 
 ing priestly class among the Jews, Sadoc would 
 seem to stand for a philosophy which, in part, 
 is reflected in the episode of the Angel and the 
 Hermit. This sect believed, like the Jews 
 under Moses, only in temporal rewards and 
 punishments, Voltaire was greatly interested 
 in the topic, both because of its connection with 
 the mission of Christ, and because of Warbur- 
 ton's book on the mission of Moses. Warburton 
 
78 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 started with the premise that a nation could not 
 exist without the dogma of rewards and punish- 
 ments after death, if it were not under a special 
 Providence, i. e., led by God in person, and re- 
 warded and punished immediately. Since the 
 books of Moses do not contain this dogma, the 
 Jews must have been guided by this special 
 Providence. For this specious reasoning War- 
 burton was made a peer of the realm, with an 
 enormous pension, and Voltaire sighs : II n'y a 
 quheur et malheur dans le monde. 
 
 It will be noticed that there is no question of. 
 rewards and punishments after death in the 
 episode of the Angel Jesrad. Everything is 
 temporal: either reward, or punishment, or 
 trial, or foresight. The hero is exactly in the 
 position of Job: he has been given over to the 
 devil for trial of his faith, and he is rewarded 
 when the caprice of his master is ended. 
 
 Besides the influences which have already 
 been noted in the name of Voltaire's hero, there 
 is the probability of influence from the name of 
 the Persian poet Sadi or Saadi, both as regards 
 the name and the character. We know that Vol- 
 taire was acquainted with the Persian poet. It is 
 under his name that he masks himself in the 
 
ZADIG 79 
 
 Epitre dedicatoire of the novel. Voltaire men- 
 tions a French translation of the Gulistan, and 
 he himself translated a score of verses either from 
 the original or from some Latin or Dutch transla- 
 tion. Without ascribing to him any profound 
 knowledge of Persian literature, we may safely 
 assume that he knew about as much of Saadi 
 as was to be found in published books in his 
 time. If he had had no other source than Her- 
 belot he would have been fairly familiar with 
 the character and the contents of the works of 
 the illustrious Persian, because Herbelot quotes 
 copiously from him. 
 
 There are a certain number of correspond- 
 ences between the Persians and the French. 
 Voltaire realized this in making Persepolis the 
 symbol for Paris in his novel Babouc. The pun 
 on Persans and Parisiens was too obvious for 
 him not to make it, since he makes one on Paris 
 (Parisis) and Isis, the Egyptian diety (M. 21, 
 p. 417) . Montesquieu had already given promi- 
 nence to this similarity in his Lettres persanes. 
 There are also a number of correspondences 
 between the Persian Saadi and Voltaire. Saadi 
 hated injustice, violence, and fanaticism (cf. 
 Introduction to translation of the Boustan by 
 
80 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 A. C. Barbier de Meymard, Paris, 1880) ; he 
 rails at the Envieux as does Voltaire; he is re- 
 plete with moral allegories illustrating the ad- 
 vantage of silence, or of speaking the truth as 
 Saadi alone knows how, or pointed with allu- 
 sions to the injustice of kings and the evils of 
 religious fanaticism. The following are some 
 of his maxims which find close parallels in 
 Zadig or other works of Voltaire which show an 
 Orientalizing tendency. 
 
 As Zadig shows the King of Serendib that he 
 has only one honest aspirant to the post of 
 controleur general des -finances in seventy-four, 
 so Saadi says to his sultan (cf. Boustan, op. cit, 
 p. 18) : " Sur cent agents tu trouveras a peine 
 un honnete homme. ,, 
 
 As Arimaze is deficient in the divine spark 
 which distinguishes man from the beast, so 
 Saadi says (p. 51) : " Ce n'est pas le titre 
 d'homme qui donne la superiorite sur la brute, 
 puisque celle-ci vaut mieux que l'homme crimi- 
 nel. Le sage seul est superieur aux betes 
 fauves." 
 
 Arimaze, le maTheureux, is contrasted with 
 Zadig, Vheureux. Voltaire says, in reference 
 to the persecutors whom he has known (M. 25, 
 
ZADIG 81 
 
 p. 466) : " Jai connu des hommes bien mechants, 
 bien atroces; je n'en ai jamais vu un seul 
 heureux." So Saadi says (p. 51): "Mais de 
 ma vie, je n'ai vu la felicite veritable etre le 
 partage des mechants." 
 
 Voltaire's usual practice of biding his time 
 until he could take his enemy off his guard and 
 then striking swiftly and with the greatest ve- 
 hemence, finds an admirable parallel in the ad- 
 vice of Saadi (p. 71): "L'empire du monde 
 appartient a l'habilete et a la ruse; 1 baise la 
 main que tu ne peux mordre; prodigue les 
 caresses a ton ennemi, comme tu le ferais a ton 
 ami, en attendant Poccasion de l'ecorcher vif ! " 
 How that would have appealed to Voltaire when 
 he had to submit to men like Fleury, Herault, 
 Maurepas, and Mirepoix! It is not different 
 from the fate that Frederick foresaw for the old 
 dne de Mirepoix in case Voltaire ever succeeded 
 in getting into the Academy. He writes to Vol- 
 taire (M. 36, p. 237) : 
 
 " Malheur a Mirepoix si son panegyrique 
 Se prononce jamais en style academique! 
 Les arts qu'il offensa, pour venger leurs chagrins, 
 
 1 This conviction is repeated in a score of places in 
 Voltaire's Essai sur les Mceurs. 
 6 
 
82 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 Renverseront sa tombe avec leurs propres mains; 
 
 Et la fade oraison que lui fera Neuville 
 
 Aura meme en sa bouche un air de vaudeville." 
 
 The fable that Saadi relates of the negro and 
 the peri (p. 284) is a closer parallel to the 
 episode of Missouf and Cletofis than the episode 
 in Moliere (Le mariage force), which has been 
 considered its source. When Saadi drives off 
 the negro, the capricious beauty turns upon him 
 like a fury and he barely escapes her claws. He 
 draws this lesson from his adventure, which is 
 an admirable statement of the lesson that Zadig 
 draws from his adventure with Missouf: "De 
 telles disgraces n'arrivent pas a qui s'occupe 
 tranquillement de ses affaires. De ma mesa- 
 venture j'ai tire une lecon: desormais je fer- 
 merai les yeux sur les torts les plus averes 
 d'autrui." The giant negro and the brilliant 
 peri seemed like the embrace of night and dawn. 
 Voltaire used this comparison also in the Prin- 
 cesse de Babylone (M. 21, p. 431), where the 
 King of Ethiopia, in the upper Egypt where the 
 episode of Missouf takes place, is surprised by 
 Amazan as he is about to ravish Formosante. 
 
 Compare the following figure with the adven- 
 ture of Zadig with Azora, who wished to " cut 
 
ZADIG 83 
 
 off his nose " : " Pourquoi la main d'une f emme, 
 quand elle touche an fruit defendu, epargnerait- 
 elle le visage de son epoux ? Si tu vois que ta 
 compagne ne se resigne pas a la retraite, la 
 raison et la prudence te defendent de vivre plus 
 longtemps avec elle" (p. 297). 
 
 The following is a good epitome of Voltaire's 
 diatribes against the Envieux (p. 305): "Tel 
 homme mene une vie retire: on lui reproche de 
 dedaigner la societe de ses semblables, on Pac- 
 cuse de f aussete et d'hypocrisie. i C'est un dive 
 qui fuit le genre humani.' S'il est d'un carac- 
 tere facile et sociable, on lui refuse Phonnetete 
 des moeurs et la sagesse. Le riche est dechire 
 a belles dents ; ' s'il y a un pharaon en ce monde, 
 c'est lui.' Le pauvre, dont la vie se consume 
 dans la misere, est un miserable, un vagabond ; 
 le derviche aux prises avec le denuement, un 
 etre vil et disgracie du sort. Qu'une grande 
 fortune vienne a s'ecrouler, ils s'en rejouissent 
 et disent : ' C'est un bienf ait du Ciel ; tant de 
 f aste et d'orgueil ne pouvait durer ; les desastres 
 suivent de pres la prosperite.' Qu'un homme 
 pauvre et sans appui parvienne a un rang eleve, 
 leurs dents noires de venin dechirent 'cet in- 
 fame, ce parvenu objet/ As-tu produit une 
 
84 SYMBOLISM OP VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 ceuvre utile et lucrative, tu es un ambitieux, 
 un avare. Preferes-tu la meditation a la vie 
 active, tu n'es plus qu'un mendiant, un parasite. 
 Si tu paries, ils te comparent a un tambour 
 sonore et creux ; si tu gardes le silence, a une de 
 ces figures peintes sur les murs des bains. 
 L'homme patient est a leurs yeux un lache, a 
 qui la crainte fait courber la tete ; mais devant 
 la hardiesse et l'energie, ils fuient en traitant le 
 courage de folie." 
 
 These envious detractors of Saadi, whom he 
 lashes without pity, listen disdainfully to his 
 poetry. A hundred delicate and charming traits 
 leave them insensible, "mais vienne une de- 
 faillance, ils poussent des cris d'horreur." The 
 only source of their evil will is envy, he says, 
 which conceals from them the perception of the 
 beautiful. 
 
 The episode in Zadig of the fisherman, while 
 primarily the outcome of Voltaire's Epitre sur 
 Vegalite des conditions (one of the Discours en 
 vers sur l'homme), is in strict conformity with 
 Saadi's views. The moral of one of his stories 
 is that everybody has his misfortunes, irre- 
 spective of temporal possessions. 
 
 In the Gulistan occurs the story of the drop 
 
ZADIG 85 
 
 of water which became sad at the prospect of 
 being lost in the immensity of the ocean. God 
 took pity on it and made it a pearl which 
 adorned the crown of the Great Mogul. This 
 is, at bottom, the same apologue as the grain of 
 sand in the episode of Arbogad in Zadig. Vol- 
 taire elsewhere (M. 17, p. 570) makes use of 
 this apologue of the drop of water in the same 
 sense as the one of the grain of sand. Vol- 
 taire never believed in the equality of earthly 
 possessions, nor of physical and intellectual en- 
 dowment. He tells us, first in the case of Abbe 
 Linant, preceptor of the son of Mme. du Chate- 
 let, and later in the case of Jean Jacques Rous- 
 seau, what the proud exponent of the equality 
 of man must do: either he must work, or beg, 
 or rob, or die of hunger. If the Creator has not 
 made him a pearl, or a diamond, and if He does 
 not do so on request, let him be content to remain 
 a grain of sand or a drop of water; he is in 
 numerous company. 
 
 It should also be noticed that Zadig is rep- 
 resented as a poet, whose verses come easily, 
 impromptu, and that his misfortune comes from 
 an envious man who makes use of these verses to 
 compass his ruin. That, and the parallels which 
 
86 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 we have noted, together with the signature of the 
 
 r 
 
 Epitre dedicatoire, would seem to be conclusive 
 evidence of some influence of the poet Saadi on the 
 name and character of Zadig. As I have already- 
 said, Zadig is probably not chosen from any one 
 name, since it appears in exactly the form of 
 none that we have been able to discover. It is 
 undoubtedly made up from several, and the 
 more important sources of it have undoubtedly 
 been indicated here. As to the character Zadig, 
 there can be no question that it is Voltaire. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MOABDAR 
 
 The purpose of this chapter is to determine 
 the provenience and the significance of the name 
 Moabdar, King of Babylon. 
 
 In the first place, what is Babylon ? Does the 
 author refer to the Babylon of the ancient Chal- 
 deans, to the Egyptian Babylon, to the Babylon 
 of the Mohammedan califs (i. e., Bagdad), or 
 to the Babylon of Saint Peter (i. e., Rome) ? 
 He may refer to them all, but if he does so it 
 is by virtue of the significance of the name : the 
 City of Baal, and the City of Babel. He uses 
 Babylon in both senses, the one being the literal 
 significance of the name, and the other the re- 
 sult of a pun. Both meanings are closely allied, 
 since most of the " babel " in the world is about 
 the deity, under whatever name it be called. 
 Voltaire might just as well have referred to 
 Babylon as the " City where Pangloss is the 
 preceptor of the human race." The King of 
 Babylon may, therefore, be considered the King 
 87 
 
88 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 of the Land of Pangloss, the King of the City of 
 the Confusion of Tongues — God, in other words, 
 either as God, or as represented by his vicars on 
 earth : the Pope, on the one hand, and the vari- 
 ous Kings, on the other. All of them are gods 
 on earth, wielders of the thunder, authors of 
 good and evil, and chiefly the latter. 
 
 It would seem obvious that Moabdar has 
 some connection with Voltaire's early satires on 
 the Regent and his daughter, the modern Lot 
 and his daughter, mere des Moabites. Herbe- 
 lot gives the significance of dar as house, palace, 
 residence, sojourn, place. The name Moabdar 
 would then signify the " King-of-the-house-of- 
 Moab," i. e., the descendant of Lot. The theme 
 is one of incest, like that of Voltaire's satires on 
 the Regent, like that of (Edipe, like that of the 
 Pucelle, like that of Candide, and other works. 
 
 There is, I think, no reason to doubt that 
 Voltaire was inspired to compose (Edipe by the 
 incestuous relations of the Regent and his 
 daughter, nor is there any reason to doubt, I 
 think, that the same theme appears in the Pu- 
 celle. Voltaire seems to indicate this in the 
 short-story of the Comte de Boursoufle (M. 32, 
 p. 447). One of the reasons why the hero of 
 
MOABDAE 89 
 
 that story can not get into the French Academy 
 is the fact that he has discovered why Jeanne 
 d'Arc was called the Pucelle a" Orleans. He 
 seems to mean that the Pucelle a" Orleans is the 
 Pucelle du due d' Orleans, is the Pucelle of the 
 New Testament. As in his narrative of the 
 expulsion of the Jesuits from China, Voltaire 
 wished to ridicule in the Pucelle the cult of 
 virginity, the birth of a god who is his own 
 father by his mother, who is thus father and 
 son and husband all in one, and also, by virtue 
 of the reconciliation of the genealogy of Jesus, 
 was the brother of Mary. This god of love, who 
 is to rule the world, is symbolized by the winged 
 ass of Saint Denis, who finally gets the favors 
 of the Pucelle. As a phallic animal the ass is 
 the god of love, and was the symbol, in reality 
 or by a vicious invention of the enemies of the 
 new cult, of the early Christians of Constanti- 
 nople and Rome. Voltaire seems to indicate 
 the association with the Bible in those enigmat- 
 ical verses of his about Joachim Prepucier, for 
 which no explanation has ever been offered (M. 
 32, p. 386). While the hero who governs 
 France (i. e., the Regent) , defender of the State 
 and the King, is bringing back abundance into 
 
90 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 the land, Joachim Prepucier also wishes to 
 make two young hearts content. His prepara- 
 tions to unite Daphnis and Cloe surprise the 
 god of marriage; Joachim is not the person to 
 unite a couple, but rather to separate them, tak- 
 ing them both for himself. The only way in 
 which Daphnis and Cloe can avoid dissatisfac- 
 tion with the dangerous master who has united 
 them is to be friends, after having been lovers. 
 
 The genealogy of Christ was reconciled, Vol- 
 taire says (M. 32, p. 590 f.), in the following 
 way : Joachim is the father of the Virgin ; Elie 
 is the father of Joseph; but Elie = Joachim, 
 since (1), Elie is an abbreviation of Eliachim, 
 and (2), from Eliachim you easily get Joachim. 
 But Joachim Prepucier, as the name indicates, 
 is the phallic god, who, like Hermaphrodix and 
 Conculix, loves both sexes, and is a symbol for 
 the Regent on the one hand, and the God of the 
 Christians (as conceived by Voltaire) on the 
 other. 
 
 In the Pucelle Voltaire represents the Regent 
 as giving the signal for debauchery : 
 
 " Vous repondez a, ce signal, 
 Jeune Daphne, bel astre de la cour; 
 Vous repondez du sein du Luxembourg, 
 
MOABDAR 91 
 
 Vous que Bacchus et le Dieu de la table 
 Menent au lit, escorte par Y Amour." 
 
 The bel astre de la cour was the Regent's 
 daughter, the famous Duchess of Berry. 
 
 It was for satiric epigrammes against the 
 Regent and his daughter that Voltaire was ex- 
 iled May 4, 1716 (M. 1, p. 300), to Tulle, 
 which was changed, at the request of his father, 
 to Sully-sur-Loire. The order for this exile 
 bore the significant words: "ou ses parents 
 pourront corriger son imprudence et temperer 
 sa vivacite." 
 
 The following is the epigramme against the 
 Regent : 
 
 " Ce n'est point le fils, c'est le pere ; 
 C'est la fille et non point la mere; 
 A cela pres tout va des mieux. 
 lis ont deja fait ^teocle; 
 S'il vient a perdre les deux yeux, 
 C'est le vrai sujet de Sophocle." 
 
 The Regent was in fact, at this time, in dan- 
 ger of becoming blind. The epigramme against 
 the Duchess of Berry is as follows: 
 
 a Enfin votre esprit est gueri 
 Des craintes du vulgaire; 
 
92 SYMBOLISM. OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 Belle duchesse de Berry, 
 
 Achevez le mystere. 
 
 Un nouveau Lot vous sert d'epoux, 
 
 Mere des Moabites; 
 
 Puisse bientot naitre de vous 
 
 Un peuple d' Ammonites." 
 
 If, as is probable, this episode was the inspi- 
 ration of CEdipe, the poet did not let it appear 
 in his tragedy. He was not the man to give in 
 dramatic form an episode of dissolute morals; 
 nor was he the man to treat the subject of Sopho- 
 cles as all his predecessors had done. He made 
 of it his first sermon against the Jansenists and 
 the God of the Jansenists, in whose religion the 
 future of every individual is established, like 
 the interacting cogs of a huge machine which 
 turns, forever hidden, except for the present 
 moment, beneath the blackness of an impene- 
 trable veil; the theory of predestination. 
 CEdipe is inceste et parricide, et pourtant vertu- 
 eux. Jocaste reminds him that, in the midst of 
 the horrors of destiny which overwhelm them, 
 she has made the gods blush for having forced 
 them into crime. It is important to notice that 
 Voltaire makes the God of the Jansenists evil 
 raised to the infinite, and the author of all evil 
 (cf. M. 17, p. 476, 577, 581). 
 
MOABDAE 93 
 
 After the ban of exile had been removed from 
 him in 1716, Voltaire seems to have been under 
 surveillance. While rehearsals of (Edipe were 
 going on he was betrayed by the French officer 
 and spy of the Regent, M. Solenne de Beaure- 
 gard. He was arrested Jour de Pentecote, he 
 says in his poem on the Bastille, but we can not, 
 in view of his mania of connecting everything 
 that happened to him with the Bible, be sure 
 that he did not invent this trait in order to get 
 in a bit of satire on the Holy Ghost. He had 
 satirized the Father, in his epigrammes on the 
 Regent; he had satirized the Son, in his Puero 
 Regnante; it was now the turn of the Holy 
 Ghost. His valet awakens him to tell him that 
 the Saint Esprit is come. "Et moi de dire 
 alors entre mes dents : gentil puine de l'essence 
 supreme, Beau Paraclet, soyez le bienvenu; 
 n'etes-vous pas celui qui fait qu'on aime ? " But 
 instead of the gentle dove of the Holy Ghost, 
 he finds twenty ravens who have come to take 
 him off to one of the King's castles; the King 
 has heard of his verses and bons mots, and de- 
 sires to give him free board and lodging. The 
 poet protests in vain that he is not a court poet, 
 and that he does not wish to become one. He 
 
94 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 is carried off, forsaken by everyone, even by his 
 mistress. 
 
 In a neatly turned epigramme, probably 
 written at this time, Voltaire excused himself 
 from the imputation of the authorship of the 
 satires on the Regent, and invokes the testimony 
 of the Duke of Brancas, through whose hands 
 the verses on Joachim Prepucier also passed : 
 
 "Non, monseigneur, en verite, 
 Ma muse n'a jamais chante 
 Ammonites ni Moabites. 
 Brancas vous repondra de moi. 
 Un rimeur sorti des Jesuites, 
 Des peuples de Pancienne loi 
 Ne connait que des Sodomites." 
 
 No better indication of Voltaire's daring 
 could be found ; for this apology was, in itself, 
 a new satire on the morals of the Regent, who 
 calls himself un Socrate a cheveux gris. 
 
 Voltaire, in his Lettres sur (Edipe, tries to 
 give the impression that the Regent was con- 
 vinced of his innocence of the satires imputed 
 to him. He knows better, and he shows it by 
 saying that the Regent gave him a pension of 
 2000 livres, not so much to recompense him, 
 as to induce him to merit his protection. How 
 
MOABDAR 95 
 
 could he merit that protection ? Only by drop- 
 ping once for all the line of personal satire in 
 which he had engaged. He tries, in his Lettres 
 sur (Edipe, to give the impression that it was 
 for the satire Les j'ai vu that he was persecuted. 
 But the report of Beauregard (M. 1, p. 300) 
 shows distinctly that the source of the watchful- 
 ness of the Kegent was in the satires on his 
 relations to his daughter. Voltaire hates the 
 Regent for having exiled him in 1716 ; the Re- 
 gent hates Voltaire for having shown que sa 
 Messaline de fille etait une p. . . . In his 
 references to Les j'ai vu Voltaire is, I think, 
 simply playing on words. This satire was three 
 years old, and Voltaire could hardly have been 
 suspected of being its author, and less likely to 
 have been persecuted for it at that late date. 
 What he is really thinking of is the persecution 
 for ce quil avait vu, namely, the incest of the 
 Regent. I have already indicated my belief that 
 it was in reminiscence of this persecution, which 
 was unpleasantly recalled to his mind by the 
 Voltairomanie of Desfontaines, that Voltaire in- 
 cluded in his novel the episode of the Cheval du 
 roi des rois etla chienne sacree de la reine. 
 I think that this episode with the Regent has 
 
96 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 much to do with Voltaire's name, and, as it is 
 intimately connected with his symbolism, I will 
 include here my theory of it. 
 
 Voltaire's Name 
 The last letter in which he signs himself 
 Arouet is dated from Chatenay, April 15, and 
 this letter is probably the first that the poet 
 wrote after his release from the Bastille and on 
 beginning his short exile. The next letter in 
 the correspondence, if properly classified (since 
 it is undated), is the first in which the new 
 name Voltaire occurs. It is to the Eegent, and 
 the name Voltaire occurs both in the body of the 
 letter and at the end, and without the least 
 word of explanation for the change. Since Vol- 
 taire explained to Jean Baptiste Eousseau his 
 reasons for adopting a new name, is it probable 
 that he would have been silent on this topic to 
 the Regent, especially since all his misfortunes, 
 of which he complains to Eousseau, came from 
 the Eegent? We may safely assume that he 
 would not, and that he must have given to the 
 Eegent, before being released from the Bastille, 
 some assurance of his future conduct. He ad- 
 mits, in this letter, that the Eegent has corrected 
 
. MOABDAE 97 
 
 him by a year in the Bastille; that is, that the 
 purpose of the first exile, pour corriger son im- 
 prudence et temperer sa vivacite, has been ac- 
 complished by his imprisonment. I take it that 
 this name, Voltaire, is to be for him an ever 
 present reminder of this fact, especially since 
 he was so volontaire by nature. He will be 
 from now on, not M. de Volontaire, but M . de 
 Voltaire, a man vowed to circumspection. This 
 interpretation of the name is not at all far- 
 fetched, in view of Voltaire's habit of punning 
 on names. He notes similar names in his 
 works. Tasso called himself Pentito, to mark 
 his repentance for the years which he had 
 wasted in the study of law. Scarron called his 
 income from his books the rents from his terre 
 de Quinet, that being the name of his publisher. 
 D'Argental, as conseiller d'honneur au parle- 
 ment, bears the name of his estate. Chabanon, 
 because he composed an excellent exposition of 
 a tragedy, which Voltaire calls a vestibule, is 
 dubbed M. du Vestibule. Maupertuis is called 
 M. le marquis du cercle polaire. In short, 
 scores of such examples could be given. 
 
 Voltaire tells Kousseau that he had two rea- 
 sons for adopting another name: he had been 
 
98 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 so unhappy under the name of Arouet that he 
 wished to see if his fate would be more pro- 
 pitious under a new name, and he wished to 
 distinguish himself from the poet Roi. It seems 
 that the name Roi was pronounced at that time 
 quite the same as the last syllable of Arouet (cf. 
 Nyrop). Thus Arouet is a king, but a king 
 without a land. What does he do? He takes 
 one, he steals one, not literally, like the other 
 kings, but figuratively, like Scarron's terre de 
 Quinet, and d'Argental's terre d'honneur, etc. 
 His land is in the Republic of Letters. He will 
 not give up the career of a man of letters, as he 
 had been urged ; on the contrary, he will become 
 king of it, by symbolism ! He was noble, on his 
 mother's side; he was noble by sentiments and 
 instincts ; he was noble by talents. He lived in 
 the plus grand monde, as one author expresses 
 it, and was enrage d'etre bourgeois. By the as- 
 sumption of a place name he raised himself 
 into the ranks of conventional nobility. He was 
 better than his noble associates, for the entire 
 nobility of Europe, from the greatest kings 
 down, owed their titles, in extremo, to theft. 
 This thought is repeated in a score of places 
 in Voltaire's works ; even the kingdom of heaven 
 
MOABDAR 99 
 
 was not different from the kingdoms of the 
 earth: violenti rapiunt illud. No better expo- 
 sition of this can be found than in the episode 
 of Arbogad. 
 
 Voltaire made use of a variation on his name 
 in the pseudonym under which he traveled in 
 Holland : M. de Revol. He undoubtedly uses a 
 combination of the name of Mme. de Rupel- 
 monde, widow of M. de Recourt, and his name 
 of Voltaire. He had been in Holland with her 
 in 1722 ; he has to fly back there at the time of 
 the persecution for the Mondain: he is M. de 
 Revol, with a play on voler, to fly, and court, 
 from courir, to run. 
 
 The name Voltaire would be, then, a clever 
 equivoque, like all the symbolic names of which 
 he makes use. It marks the author's desire to 
 be a noble, both in the conventional sense and 
 in the Republic of Letters ; it marks his symbol- 
 ism ; it marks his plan of eluding persecution. 
 
 In connection with his satires on the Regent 
 Voltaire took a characteristically bold attitude : 
 he determined to dedicate his tragedy to the 
 Regent, and actually did dedicate it to the wife 
 of the Regent. This procedure is a genuine 
 Voltaire-trait, exactly paralleled by his dedi- 
 
100 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 cation of Mahomet to the Pope. Voltaire chose, 
 in both cases, the protector whom he had really 
 outraged, and the only one capable of protecting 
 him. 
 
 The opening of the novel falls, therefore, in 
 the period of Voltaire's demeles with the Re- 
 gent, whose debauchery was so famous. It is 
 the same association of ideas with Lot, and 
 Sodom and Gomorra, that is at the bottom of 
 the symbolism of Babouc. The angel Ituriel 
 sends Babouc to Persepolis to see if there are 
 enough just men in it to warrant its preserva- 
 tion. The idea is taken from the visit of the 
 angels to the two cities of Palestine. Dealing, 
 as Voltaire's novels do, with his enemies in the 
 Republic of Letters, in religion, and in political 
 despotism, no better or rather no more fitting 
 theme could have been chosen by him, in view 
 of the reputation of the Church that he assails, 
 and that of such men as the Regent, Frederick, 
 Desfontaines, Rousseau. 
 
 It is probable, then, that Moabdar is the suc- 
 cessor of Lot, i. e., Louis XV, the successor of 
 the Regent. 
 
 The chief point to be noticed in reference to 
 Moabdar is that his madness and death lead to 
 
MOABDAE 101 
 
 a war of succession. This fact, if we keep in 
 mind the timeliness of all Voltaire's work, 
 points to the war of the Austrian succession, of 
 which Voltaire was historiographer. Charles 
 VI was the type of monarch that Voltaire holds 
 up to the condemnation of the world. In his 
 Ode sur la mort de VEmpereur Charles VI (M. 
 8, p. 447), Voltaire compares this roi des rois 
 to a cedar whose head defied so long the tem- 
 pests and whose branches overshadowed so 
 many states ; his very name is now effaced, de- 
 voured by the grave in which he is buried. If 
 he had conducted his armies in person and by 
 his valor strengthened the Empire, whose glory 
 is expiring beneath the proud Ottoman; if he 
 had been terrible to the Turks, instead of being 
 terrible to his generals, whose death he sought 
 for concluding peace ; or if, better still, he had 
 caused the arts to flourish, like the second of the 
 Caesars, then Voltaire, instead of holding him 
 up as a warning to kings, would, as the herald 
 of truth, have showered upon him the praises of 
 immortal verse, whose light pierces the depths 
 of the night of time. 
 
 How could Voltaire associate Charles VI 
 under the same symbol with Louis XV? He 
 
102 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 makes many historical rapprochements, such as 
 that of Frederick with Solomon, with the Em- 
 peror Frederick III (cf. Annates de r Empire, 
 Beauchot 23, p. 392), and with the Emperor 
 Frederick II. That is but natural. In dis- 
 cussing the sacrament of marriage and the inter- 
 ference of the popes with the bed of kings, he 
 naturally ranges all historical instances of this 
 under one heading. It was but natural, in the 
 war of 1741, that Voltaire should think of the 
 wars of succession in France, two of which he 
 had already treated poetically, one in the Hen- 
 riade, the other in the Pucelle. In the canto 
 of the Pucelle entitled the Capilotade, Voltaire 
 has satirized many of his enemies under names 
 which appear (in editions published in the life- 
 time of the author) to be those of poets under 
 the reign of Charles VI. His association of 
 ideas seems plain: Charles VI, le bien-aime, is, 
 by virtue of his epithet, Louis XV, le bien-aime. 
 But the Emperor was also Charles VI, there- 
 fore he is also Moabdar. When Louis XV fell 
 ill at Metz and dismissed his mistress through 
 the machinations of "un sot" (M. 9, p. 220), 
 some other fool gave him the title of bien-aime. 
 As soon as he became the bien-aime he became, 
 
MOABDAR 103 
 
 for Voltaire's symbolism, Charles VI, the mad 
 King of France, and Charles VI, the Emperor, 
 whose death had become the signal for the 
 war of the Austrian Succession. 
 
 This symbolism is quite obvious from the 
 eposide of Missouf and Cletofis. As Zadig 
 nears the first village of Egypt he sees a woman 
 in tears, of touching beauty, somewhat like 
 Astarte, being maltreated by a jealous brute. 
 She calls upon Zadig to save her. Zadig remon- 
 strates with the jealous lover, who, accusing 
 him of being one of her favorites, turns upon 
 him with blind and passionate vehemence. Za- 
 dig is forced to kill him. Thereupon the ca- 
 pricious lady breaks out in execrations upon 
 him for killing her lover. Zadig is dumb- 
 founded at her conduct. Shortly afterward the 
 emissaries of Moabdar appear and take Missouf 
 for Astarte, in pursuit of whom they had been 
 despatched in all directions. Voltaire is here 
 referring to the fool Fitz-James who caused the 
 dismissal of Mme. de Chateauroux, and who 
 was himself the instrument of Maurepas. The 
 name of the brute, Cletofis, seems to be a hybrid 
 formed from the following elements: -fis = 
 fils = fitz (of FUz-James) ; CUto— (Para)- 
 
104 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 diet, celui qui fait quon aime, as Voltaire inter- 
 I prets it in his poem on the Bastille, and is a 
 translated pun on the last component part of 
 the name Fitz-James. Cletofis is, therefore, 
 the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of the Clergy, 
 I a spirit which Voltaire had attacked often 
 enough, and in consequence of which he was 
 reduced to a position of servitude in his own 
 country. 
 
 Missouf is carried to Babylon and has the 
 good fortune to please the King, who makes her 
 his wife. Then she shows the significance of 
 her name : she is la telle capricieuse, who gives 
 free rein to all her extravagant fancies. These 
 consist principally in awarding positions of 
 honor to those who are particularly unfit for 
 them. She asked the High Priest, who was old 
 and gouty, to dance before her, and, on his re- 
 fusal, persecuted him violently. She ordered the 
 Head Groom to make her a tart. It was in vain 
 for him to protest that he was not a pastry- 
 cook; he had to make the tart, and was dis- 
 charged because it was burned. She gave his 
 charge to the court fool, and the place of Chan- 
 cellor to a page. 
 
 Voltaire had been ambitious to play a role at 
 
MOABDAE 105 
 
 court. He had found in England men of letters 
 honored with the highest offices in the gift of 
 the crown. The Comte de Maurepas had aided 
 him to win his cause against the Abbe Desfon- 
 taines, and the poet counted on the protection 
 of the Minister to get into the French Academy. 
 At the time of the persecutions of Mirepoix 
 Voltaire was designated by the King to visit 
 the court of Frederick on a semi-diplomatic 
 mission. Amelot was Minister of Foreign Af- 
 fairs at this time, and Voltaire acted under his 
 immediate instructions, although the correspond- 
 ence passed through the hands of Mme. du 
 Chatelet. It seems that Mme. de Chateauroux 
 was jealous that the negotiations had not passed 
 through her hands, and she caused Amelot to be 
 dismissed. Voltaire had hoped to make his 
 real services to France serve his ambition to get 
 into the French Academy, but the disgrace of 
 Amelot, and the discontent of the King's mis- 
 tress, together with the enmity of Maurepas, 
 wrecked his hopes. To Maurepas Voltaire had 
 addressed an Epitre, now known as the Epitre a 
 un ministre d'Etat sur V Encouragement des 
 arts, in the hope of enlisting his support, but 
 Maurepas hated even more than Fleury tout ce 
 
106 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 qui selevait au-dessus des hommes ordinaires, 
 says Condorcet, and Voltaire's hints seem to 
 have produced a bad effect on him. On the 
 death of Fleury Maurepas joined Mirepoix, ac- 
 cording to Voltaire (Memoires pour servir a 
 la vie de Voltaire), to prevent the poet's elec- 
 tion to the place made vacant by the Cardinal's 
 death. He is reported to have said to the poet : 
 Je vous ecraserai. Now, in the Epitre of Vol- 
 taire, the patronage of the court is compared to 
 the casting of lots in the household of the Duke 
 of Mazarin for the posts pf honor, just about as 
 Missouf distributes them. 
 
 " On compte que l'epoux de la celebre Hortense 
 Signala plaisamment sa sainte extravagance: 
 Craignant de f aire un choix par sa f aible raison, 
 II tirait aux trois des les rangs de sa maison. 
 Le sort, d'un postilion, faisait un secretaire; 
 Son cocher etonne devint homme d' affaire; 
 Un docteur hibernois, son tres-digne aumonier, 
 Rendit grace au destin qui le fit euisinier." 
 
 It was undoubtedly in reminiscence of this 
 vain attempt to arouse in Maurepas a sense of 
 duty towards men of letters and especially 
 towards himself, that Voltaire created the char- 
 acter of Missouf. Her name is probably either 
 
MOABDAR 107 
 
 an anagramme for Miss Fou, or it is from the 
 
 Greek, meaning " She-who-hates-philosophy." 
 
 Philosophy is the love of truth, therefore Mis- 
 
 souf hates the Speaker-of-the-truth, i. e., Zadig 
 
 and Voltaire. Her resemblance to Astarte is 
 
 I 
 
 explained in an episode of the Pucelle (M. 9, 
 p. 270), where Voltaire describes the two kinds 
 of imagination. Missouf is not the goddess, 
 Venus Urania, who presides over immortal 
 works, 
 
 " Mais celle-la qui abjure le bon sens, 
 Cette etourdie, effaree, insipide, 
 Que tant d'auteurs approchent de si pres, 
 Qui les inspire," etc. 
 
 Her finest favors are showered on novels, new 
 comic operas, on Scuderi, Lemoine, Desmarets, 
 etc. All the characters of the Pucelle are in 
 her domain, where a scene similar to that of 
 Missouf takes place : 
 
 " Comme ils couraient dans ce vaste pourpris, 
 L'un se saignant, l'autre tout en larmes, 
 Ils sont frappes des plus lugubres cris. 
 Un jeune objet, touchant, rempli de charmes, 
 Avec frayeur embrassait les genoux 
 D'un chevalier qui, couvert de ses armes, 
 I/allait bientot immoler sous ses coups." 
 
108 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 Here everybody is crazy ; they are just like the 
 Sorbonne professors: lis sont tous fous quand 
 Us sont sur les bancs. In short, the episode here, 
 as in Zadig, deals with the capricious folly of 
 literature, of religion, of politics. This episode 
 has also a pendant in the Diable antique, nomme 
 rinconstance (= caprice) of the Guerre civile 
 de Geneve (M. 9, p. 527). 
 
 It is possible that the name Missouf may have 
 been influenced by the extravagance of the im- 
 agination of the Abbe de Voisenon in his novel 
 Le Sultan Misapouf et la princesse Grisemine, 
 and Cletofis by the Don Cleofas of Le Sage's 
 Diable boiteux. 
 
 One can easily see how Voltaire rounds out 
 his symbolism. Not only is Louis XV, as soon 
 as he becomes le bien-aime, the mad King of 
 France, Charles VI, but, as a mad king, he 
 must necessarily be the lover of Miss Fou, of 
 Folly, of Extravagance, of Wild Imaginings. 
 
 It should be noticed that it is really Missouf 
 who causes the war in the novel, and that Vol- 
 taire ascribed the part of France in this war to 
 Mme. de Chateauroux, as he ascribed the peace 
 of 1748, and the beginning of European felic- 
 ity, to Mme. de Pompadour. In each case it is 
 
MOABDAR 109 
 
 love, of different natures, but also similar, which 
 produces these two effects. 
 
 In the canto of the Pucelle, the Capilotade, 
 Voltaire compares himself to Charles VII, be- 
 cause the enemies of both were the faction of 
 the parlementaires, the Jansenists, the convul- 
 sionnaires of both epochs. That Voltaire always 
 looked upon these people as his particular ene- 
 mies is evident from his numerous publications 
 against them. This seems to have been so from 
 the earliest times that we have any knowledge 
 of him. His designation for his elder brother, 
 whom he certainly did not love, is son jansen- 
 iste de frere. He frequently calls them crazy, 
 mad, capable of the crimes of the wretched 
 Seide. He writes to Fleury (M. 36, p. 148; 
 August 22, 1742) : " C'est une fatalite pour moi 
 que les seuls hommes qui aient voulu troubler 
 votre heureux ministere soient les seuls qui 
 m'aient persecute, jusque-la que la cabale des 
 convulsionnaires, c'est-a-dire ce qu'il y a de 
 plus abject dans le rebut du genre humain, a 
 obtenu la suppression injurieuse d'un ouvrage 
 honore de votre approbation, et represente de- 
 vant les premiers magistrats de Paris." Vol- 
 taire indicates the application of his satire in 
 
110 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 the Pucelle to the Jansenists by making Saint 
 Austin (or Augustin) the representative of the 
 Parlement, of the friends of the mad King 
 Charles, of the English usurpers, in the council 
 of Heaven. He sings of the God of vengeance, 
 of the exterminating angel, of twenty thousand 
 Jews cut to pieces pour un veau, of Joaz killed 
 by Josabad, son of Atrobad, et Athalie, si me- 
 chamment mise a mort par J odd. Saint Denis, 
 on the other hand, celebrates the God of clem- 
 ency, of love, and wins the prize. The treat- 
 ment that Saint Augustin receives is like the 
 treatment to which Itobad is subjected in 
 Zadig. 
 
 " Austin rougit, il f uit en tapinois : 
 Chacun en rit, le paradis le hue. 
 Tel fut hue dans les murs de Paris 
 Un pedant sec, a face de Thersite, 
 Vil delateur, insolent hypocrite, 
 Qui fut paye de haine et de mepris 
 Quand il osa, dans ses phrases vulgaires, 
 Fletrir les arts et condamner nos freres." 
 
 There are some other correspondences between 
 the reign of Charles VI and that of Louis XV 
 to which attention should be called. During 
 the early reign of Charles VI we meet with the 
 
! MOABDAR 111 
 
 Duke of Orleans whose character is quite sim- 
 ilar to that of the Regent. Both are reproached 
 for their debauchery, both are accused of plot- 
 ting against the reigning house. The question 
 of succession was often raised in both periods. 
 The mad King of Spain, Philip V, plotted to 
 oust the Regent from the throne in the event of 
 the death of Louis XV. During the madness 
 of Charles VI the nation was plunged into the 
 greatest misery. Two dauphins were dead, the 
 third was only thirteen years old. Three par- 
 ties formed in Paris, about like the three parties 
 in Zadig, to dispute the throne. Charles VI 
 formed suspicions of the fidelity of his wife, 
 like those of Moabdar. In one of his lucid in- 
 tervals he saw the Seigneur Boisbourdon com- 
 ing out of the apartments of his wife. The 
 King had him seized, put to torture, sewed up in 
 a sack, in the manner of the typical Oriental 
 despot, and thrown into the Seine. He did not 
 attempt to poison the Queen, as Moabdar did; 
 but he had her imprisoned, and it was her im- 
 prisonment, like that of Astarte, which led to 
 the most astonishing revolution since the days 
 of Charlemagne (Essai sur les mceurs, Beuchot 
 16, p. 387 ff.). It placed the crown of Prance 
 
112 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 on the head of the English King. Just as 
 Moabdar's madness and the disorders attending 
 it caused the people to believe him smitten of 
 God, so the King of England proclaimed that 
 the afflictions of the French marked the designs 
 of Providence to place the crown on his head 
 (Beuchot 16, p. 402). And if it is not the 
 Queen, Isabelle of Bavaria, who marries the 
 King of England, as Astarte marries Zadig, it 
 is her daughter who brings to him France as a 
 dowry; and who says daughter, in the House 
 of Moab, says wife. Thus it is all one for Vol- 
 taire's symbolism whether Marie Therese, of 
 Bavaria, is the daughter or the wife of the 
 Emperor Charles VI, just as it is all one in the 
 case of the King Charles VI. 
 
 The question at issue in the period of Charles 
 VI, King of France, as in the case of Charles 
 VI, Emperor, is the salic law on the one hand, 
 and the Pragmatic Sanction on the other: the 
 right of inheritance through the female line. 
 The fact that the Dauphine, for whom Voltaire 
 composed the Princesse de Navarre and Semi- 
 ramis, was named Marie-Therese, like the 
 daughter of Charles VI, must have aided Vol- 
 
MOABDAR 113 
 
 taire's imagination in making himself, under 
 the name of Zadig, her humble adorer. 
 
 Aside from the similarity of motives which 
 we find in these two epochs, there is another and 
 not unimportant reason for believing that Vol- 
 taire associated these characters under one 
 symbol. The Epitre dedicatoire of Zadig is 
 meant for the Marquise de Pompadour, who 
 always wished to be considered the Agnes Sorel 
 of her century. She even dressed up as a 
 musketeer and followed the King to Flanders, 
 about as Agnes is represented in the Pucelle, 
 donning Jeanne's armor over Chandos' panta- 
 loons. Now, this Epitre bears the date of 837 
 of the Hegira. While Voltaire was not always 
 exact in computing the corresponding dates of 
 the Mohammedan and the Christian eras, he 
 was never far wrong. He is not likely to have 
 chosen this date without a good and sufficient 
 reason. It would fall certainly in the period 
 of the struggle of Charles VII for the throne 
 of his ancestors, and would be, if Voltaire were 
 exact in his computation, approximately the 
 date of the triumphal entry of the King into 
 Paris (1437). 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 ASTARTE 
 
 The purpose of the present chapter is to de- 
 termine the significance of Astarte for Voltaire's 
 symbolism. 
 
 By virtue of the equations already made in 
 the case of Moabdar, it is obvious that Astarte 
 is the wife of Louis XV, the wife of Charles 
 VI, King of France, and, as a result of the in- 
 cest theme, the daughter of Charles VI, Em- 
 peror. But what Astarte is for Moabdar does 
 not explain what she is for Voltaire and for 
 Zadig. 
 
 Zadig had loved before, as had Voltaire, and 
 neither has any patience with the tender pas- 
 sion. 
 
 Zadig' s first experience is with the beautiful 
 Semire, who is carried off by Orcan, or rather, 
 who deserts Zadig when he is sorely wounded 
 by Orcan, and herself yields to the ravisher. 
 
 There is a good deal of personal satire in the 
 episode of Semire and Orcan. In the first place, 
 114 
 
ASTABTE 115 
 
 Voltaire satirizes the ladies of the court, les 
 hegueules titrees de la cour, as he calls them in 
 his letter to Mme. de Bernieres (M. 33, p. 125), 
 against whom Paris is inundated with chansons 
 (M. 33, p. 89). That is the primary signifi- 
 cance of the episode; Zadig suffers such a ter- 
 rible caprice of a girl brought up at court. 
 
 In the second place, Voltaire satirizes the 
 noblemen. Orcan has neither the graces nor 
 the wit of Zadig; he is vain, jealous and envious, 
 persuaded that everything is permitted to him 
 because he is the nephew of a minister. 
 
 In the third place, he satirizes the doctors, 
 Moliere's old hobby. Hermes could have cured 
 Zadig if his wound had been in the right eye. 
 The personal reference here is to Borelli, who 
 claimed (M. 17, p. 224) that the left eye was 
 much stronger than the right, although there 
 were not wanting skillful physicians who took 
 the part of the right eye against him. When 
 the abscess breaks and heals of itself, Hermes 
 writes a book to prove that Zadig ought not to 
 have recovered. The elements of this satire are 
 to be found in Voltaire's correspondence. At 
 the time when he was trying to recover from his 
 love for the Marechale de Villars by wrapping 
 
116 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 himself in a mantel of philosophy, he wrote to 
 the Marquise de Mimeure for a plaster for le 
 bouton qui lui est verm sur Vceil. That is the 
 starting point for the episode of Semire. Con- 
 dorcet says that Voltaire always spoke of his 
 love for the beautiful Marechale with regret, 
 almost with remorse, because it took him from 
 his work. It is her husband who writes to Vol- 
 taire to be on his guard against Dr. Vinache 
 (M. 33, p. 65), "quoique ses discours sedui- 
 sants, Fart de reunir l'innuence des sept planetes 
 avec les mineraux et les sept parties nobles du 
 corps, et le besoin de trois ou quatre Javottes, 
 donne de l'admiration." It is also at the house 
 of her sister, in the Chateau de Maisons, that 
 Voltaire is stricken with small-pox. It was in 
 reference to this malady of his that a long letter 
 to Mme. du Chatelet's father was printed in the 
 Mercure of December, 1723 (M. 33, p. 100), 
 in which Voltaire takes the doctors to task. 
 They fail to realize that a man who recovers by 
 taking a certain remedy may have recovered in 
 spite of the remedy, in cases where the vital 
 organs are not affected, since nature is the great 
 restorer. They then treat all cases with the same 
 remedy, failing to realize that every malady 
 
ASTAETB 117 
 
 must be as different in different individuals as 
 les traits de nos visages, 
 
 Zadig is beaten by the satellites of Orcan, 
 and then forsaken by Semire on account of the 
 danger he is in of becoming blind in one eye. 
 So Voltaire, when he thought of the marks left 
 on his face by his terrible malady, feared the 
 desertion of his fair lady (M. 10, p. 256; M. 
 32, p. 399) : 
 
 " Mais, Ciel ! quel souvenir vient iei me surprendre ! 
 Cette aimable beaute qui m'a donne sa foi, 
 Qui m'a jure toujours une amitie si tendre, 
 Daignera-t-elle encor jeter les yeux sur moi? 
 
 M'aurait-elle oublie? serait-elle volage? 
 
 Que dis-je? malheureux! ou vais-je m'engager? 
 
 Quand on porte sur le visage 
 D'un mal si redoute le fatal temoignage, 
 Est-ee a l'amour qu'il faut songer?" 
 
 The poet calls upon the pitiless gods of the 
 underworld not to cut short his days; they are 
 devoted to his love, if she is constant. This 
 trait suggests the interpretation of the name 
 Orcan: he is the god of the under-world, who 
 assailed Voltaire's life, and who took his love, 
 Adrienne Lecouvreur. The personal applica- 
 
118 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 tion then becomes obvious. Voltaire had been 
 assaulted by the Chevalier de Eohan-Chabot 
 after having said, it is reported, that "he did 
 not bear as great a name as the Chevalier, but 
 he honored the one he bore." Voltaire may 
 have referred to the meaning of the name of the 
 Chevalier. Chabot means the Ore, i. e., Cha- 
 bot = Orcan. Whether the marks on Voltaire's 
 face are made by the canes of the "six coupe- 
 j arrets du brave Chevalier de Rohan-Chabot," 
 or by the malady of the god of the under-world 
 is all one for Voltaire's symbolism; it is the 
 devil in either case, Voltaire's first symbol of 
 the author of evil in his novel. Orcan is a court 
 devil, an aristocratic devil, protected by the 
 noble house of Rohan, the head of which, Car- 
 dinal Rohan, enjoyed the greatest distinction. 
 
 Just what connection Adrienne Lecouvreur 
 had with the episode is not known, but that 
 she was involved in it is evident from the letter 
 of the President Bouhier (M. 1, p. 304). The 
 name Semire seems to have been chosen from 
 Semiramis, the tragedy which Voltaire com- 
 posed for the Dauphine. Voltaire often refers 
 to actresses by the title roles of the plays in 
 which they appear. At the time he was com- 
 
ASTABTE 119 
 
 posing Semiramis the Dauphine died, although 
 Voltaire (as in the episode of Semire), had ex- 
 pected to die himself (M. 36, p. 466). Voltaire 
 seems to have made the equivalence of Orcan, 
 Chabot, Dauphin, which is justifiable liguistic- 
 ally. Thus Semire became the bride of Orcan 
 in whichever way you take it. 
 
 There is no doubt that Voltaire loved Adri- 
 enne Lecouvreur, if only on account of her tal- 
 ent. He had to yield to more illustrious rivals, 
 as is evident from a passage in the short story 
 of the Comte de Boursoufle (M. 32, p. 447), 
 and from the following verses (M. 32, p. 404) : 
 
 " Recevez dans vos bras mes illustres rivaux * 
 C'est un mal necessaire et je vous le pardonne." 
 
 The desperate atrocity to which Voltaire had 
 been subjected by Rohan-Chabot is, if anything, 
 even greater than the malady of the small-pox 
 from which Voltaire suffered. He seems to in- 
 dicate this in the wording of the episode : " ... 
 sa douleur le mit au bord du tombeau; il fut 
 longtemps malade, mais enfin la raison l'emporta 
 sur son affliction ; et l'atrocite de ce qu'il eprou- 
 vait servit meme a, le consoler." There is cer- 
 tainly no atrocity in being abandoned by one's 
 
A 
 
 120 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 mistress, as was Zadig; but there is no greater 
 atrocity than to be assassinated by a cowardly 
 nobleman and abandoned by one's friends, as 
 was Voltaire in this experience. Immediately 
 after it Voltaire wrote to Mme. de Bernieres 
 (M. 33, p. 156) that he had been a Vextremite, 
 and was only awaiting his recovery to abandon 
 forever the court. Thus Semire is a symbol for 
 the caprice of the court, un si cruel caprice d'une 
 fille elevee a la cour, as Zadig expresses it. 
 
 After this experience Zadig has enough of the 
 court. " Puisque j'ai essuye un si cruel caprice 
 d'une fille elevee a la cour," he said to himself, 
 " il faut que j'epouse une citoyenne." He picks 
 out Azora, " la plus sage et la mieux nee de la 
 ville." She proves, after a few weeks of do- 
 mestic felicity, that she is quite willing to play 
 the role of a second Matron of Ephesus. Cador, 
 Zadig's dear friend, readily persuades her to 
 cut off Zadig's nose in order to cure her new 
 lover of a disorder of the spleen. 
 
 Voltaire refers here, I think, to his experi- 
 ence with Mile. Livry, a young actress who be- 
 came his mistress, but soon transferred her pas- 
 sion to his dear friend G-enonville. Her life is 
 like the adventures of a novel. She had to 
 
AST ARTE 121 
 
 leave the Theatre-Francais for some reason, ac- 
 companied a troupe of actors to England, and 
 became stranded there. The Marquis de Gou- 
 vernet heard about her grace and modesty, 
 offered her his hand in marriage, and was re- 
 fused because her union with him would be a 
 mesalliance. Voltaire speaks of the fortune 
 which she won from lottery tickets (M. 33, p. 
 135; Nov., 1724). That was a device of the 
 Marquis to equalize their fortunes. He gave 
 her the tickets and had a false drawing-list 
 printed in which her tickets won a great sum. 
 Voltaire often refers to her passion for his 
 friend, as in the Pucelle, and in the following 
 verses (M. 10, p. 245 f.) : 
 
 " Toi, dont la delieatesse, 
 Par un sentiment fort humain, 
 Aima mieux ravir ma maitresse 
 Que de la tenir de ma main." 
 
 The conduct of his friend Genonville was re- 
 peated by two other friends of Voltaire: Thie- 
 riot, in the case of Mme. de Bernieres, and 
 d'Argental, in the case of Mile. Lecouvreur. 
 D'Argental even went so far as to wish to make 
 the famous actress his wife. The name Cador 
 
122 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 is probably formed from the name d'Argental, 
 on the analogy of Castor; Voltaire calls the 
 brothers d'Argental and Pont-de-Veyle Castor 
 and Pollux. Cador is a "golden" friend, as 
 were also the two brothers d'Argenson, whose 
 name may come under the symbolism. The 
 name Azora is probably taken from the cant of 
 the stage: appeler azor, to hiss. Besides being 
 symbolic of Voltaire's relations to Mile. Livry, 
 the episode embodies Voltaire's ideas of love in 
 the drama. He had no use for the tender pas- 
 sion, as is well known. 
 
 The next stage in Voltaire's relations to the 
 fair sex is represented by his Temple de VAmitie, 
 from which all have been driven except him and 
 his amie. Friendship is the only passion of the 
 sage, friendship and the love of letters. He 
 writes to Cideville (M. 33, p. 403): "Les 
 belles-lettres sont pour moi ce que les belles 
 sont pour vous, elles sont ma consolation et le 
 soulagement de mes douleurs." It is not love 
 but friendship that retains him at the side of 
 Mme. du Chatelet. Frederick has made fun of 
 him for his attachment to her; he refused to 
 believe that his relations were purely Platonic. 
 Voltaire replies (M. 35, p. 564) : 
 
ASTAETE 123 
 
 " Un ridicule amour n'embrase point mon ame, 
 Cythere n'est point mon sejour; 
 Je n'ai point quitte votre adorable cour 
 Pour soupirer en sot aux genoux d'une femme. ,, 
 
 Voltaire paid a noble tribute to his muse in 
 the verses which he added to his fifth Discours 
 en vers sur Vhomme (Sur la nature du plaisir) : 
 
 " Quand sur les bords du Mein deux ecumeurs bar- 
 bares, 
 Des lois des nations violateurs avares, 
 Deux fripons a brevets, brigands accredites, 
 ^puisaient contre moi leurs laches cruautes, 
 Le travail occupait ma fermete tranquille; 
 Des arts qu'ils ignoraient leur antre fut Pasile. 
 Ainsi le dieu des bois enflait ses chalumeaux, 
 Quand le voleur Cacus enlevait ses troupeaux: 
 II n'interrompit point sa douce melodie. 
 Heureux qui jusqu'au temps du terme de sa vie, 
 Des beaux-arts amoureux, peut cultiver leurs fruits. 
 II brave l'injustice, il ealme ses ennuis; 
 II pardonne aux humains, il rit de leur delire, 
 Et de sa main mourante il touche encor sa lyre." 
 
 With this idea of his muse as the basis of 
 his symbolism Voltaire can bring in allusions 
 from a half dozen different personages. The 
 Queen of Babylon is now Marie Leczinska, now 
 Marie Therese, now Isabelle of Bavaria, now 
 the Pompadour, who was Queen of Love in 
 
124 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 very truth, now Mme. du Chatelet, who was 
 Voltaire's divinity and the symbol of his muse, 
 etc. It seems to be part of Voltaire's sly inten- 
 tion to make a sort of Anne of Austria out of 
 the devout Marie Leczinska. A brief resume of 
 his life as a courtier and his relations to the 
 Pompadour and to his divine Emilie will be 
 necessary to show the realistic basis of the vari- 
 ous episodes of the novel. 
 
 Voltaire was something of a courtier before 
 his atrocious experience with the Chevalier de 
 Rohan-Chabot. He writes from Fontainebleau 
 (Sept. 17, 1725 ; M. 33, p. 148) to Mme. de 
 Bernieres that he has prepared a little Divertisse- 
 ment for the marriage of Marie Leczinska, but 
 he intends to wait until all the fracas is over in 
 order to pay his court to her. He is going to 
 dedicate (Edipe to her also (which would enable 
 him to bring her under the incest theme of the 
 house of Moab). A little later he writes (M. 
 33, p. 151) to Thieriot: " J'ai ete ici tres-bien 
 recu de la reine. Elle a pleure a Marianne, elle 
 a ri a Vlndiscret; elle me parle souvent; elle 
 m'appelle mon pauvre Voltaire/' A fool would 
 be content with that, he adds, but that is only 
 a stepping stone for something more substantial. 
 
ASTAETE 125 
 
 In the dedicatory verses which he sent to the 
 Queen with Marianne (M. 10, p. 259) he com- 
 pares her to Pallas Athene, protectrice of the 
 arts (i. e. } she is his muse). She has the bear- 
 ing and the graces of the goddess. Voltaire 
 apologizes for the seeming impropriety of send- 
 ing to her a tragedy, the theme of which deals 
 with the brutal jealousy of Herod, since she is 
 the delight of the King's heart. Some charac- 
 teristics of Herod and Marianne may well have 
 found their way into the King and Queen of 
 Babylon. In Voltaire's realistic comedy of the 
 Envieux Cleon and Hortense are very similar 
 to Herod and Marianne. 
 
 It is well known that Voltaire, who had 
 lived in the " plus grand monde " up to the time 
 of his forced voyage to England, lived thereafter 
 with only a few chosen friends. His life with 
 Mme. du Chatelet at Cirey was one of profound 
 seclusion, troubled only by the machinations of 
 various envious persons, of whom Rousseau and 
 Desfontaines were the chiefs. Cirey was for 
 him the terrestrial paradise, Vasile des beaux- 
 arts, as he expressed it in the verses which he 
 had engraved over the portal. Then came the 
 period of his residence at Brussels, his trip to 
 
126 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 Berlin in the service of the French ministry of 
 foreign affairs, his assistance to Frederick in the 
 publication of the Anti-Machiavel. He is now 
 the satellite of Venus (i. e., of Mme. du Chate- 
 let). Frederick writes him (M. 36, p. 181) : 
 "Vous circulez a 1'entour de cette planete et 
 suivez le cours que cet astre decrit de Paris a 
 Bruxelles, et de Bruxelles a Cirey." 
 
 On the death of Fleury Voltaire entertained 
 well-founded hopes of being elected to his place 
 in the French Academy (M. 36, p. 187) : " Le roi 
 m'a donne son agrement pour etre de PAcademie 
 en cas qu'on veuille de moi. Je veux qu'on f asse 
 succeder un pauvre diable au premier ministre." 
 That Voltaire counted greatly on getting elected 
 to the vacancy left by Fleury is evident from his 
 letter to d'Argental (M. 36, p. 190), in which 
 he says that his life depends upon it. He had 
 enough "science," but not enough "religion," 
 as he expresses it in the short story of the Comte 
 de Boursoufle; Maurepas and Mirepoix, Lan- 
 guet, Archbishop of Sens, and the Cardinal de 
 Rohan, Archbishop of Strasburg, the griffon, 
 and the cheval du roi des rois et la chienne de la 
 reine prevented his election. Persecuted on all 
 sides (M. 36, p. 195), he wishes at least to have 
 
ASTABTE 127 
 
 the public in his favor, i. e., by his numerous 
 dramas which he composed in this period. Such 
 triumphs as those of Alzire, Zaire, and espe- 
 cially Merope, are symbolized in the Combats 
 in Zadig; it is a joust with all claimants to the 
 laurel crown. His enemies steal from him the 
 reward which was his due, as does Itobad in the 
 novel. Voltaire writes to d'Argental (M. 36, 
 p. 196): "Deux hommes puissants se sont 
 reunis pour m'arracher un agrement frivole, la 
 seule recompense que je demandais apres trente 
 annees de travail.'' The ignorant, opulent and 
 rascally " cheval " de Mirepoix can not be paci- 
 fied even by Voltaire's confession of orthodoxy ; 
 he is as cruel as he is ambitious and avaricious 
 (M. 36, p. 211) : "Le premier benifice qu'il a 
 eu apres la mort du cardinal vaut pres de quatre- 
 vingt mille livres de rente ; le premier apparte- 
 ment qu'il a eu, a, Paris, est celui de la reine, et 
 tout le monde s'attend a voir, au premier jour, 
 sa tete, que votre Majeste appelle si bien une 
 tete d'ane, ornee d'une calotte rouge apportee de 
 Rome." Voltaire consoles himself, however; 
 the Pope may give him a cardinal's hat, but he 
 can not give him a head. 
 
 In order to become an elu in the French Acad- 
 
128 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 emy and in le saint paradis, equivalent terms 
 for Voltaire, lie dedicates his tragedy of Ma- 
 homet to the Pope, after having expressed his 
 determination to dedicate it to Frederick; it 
 was all the same thing, after all, as will be seen 
 in the chapter on Arbogad. At the same time, 
 after the forced resignation of Amelot (in 
 1744), through whom Voltaire had carried on 
 his negotiations with Frederick, and who was 
 succeeded by Voltaire's friend and protector, 
 the Marquis d'Argenson, the poet intrigued at 
 the French court as well as at the court of Rome. 
 He considered himself, in fact, the favorite at 
 three courts : at France, at Rome, and at Berlin. 
 The King is content with him, Mirepoix can 
 not harm him now about the griffon, and he is 
 on such excellent terms with His Holiness, that 
 he can say (M. 36, p. 357) : " C'est a present 
 aux devots a me demander ma protection pour 
 ce monde-ci et pour l'autre." In other words, 
 he is le ministre, as in Zadig. He is over- 
 whelmed with the bontees du roi (M. 36, p. 
 358; May 3, 1745). He pays assiduous court 
 to the new Queen of Love, Mme. d'Etiolles, nee 
 Poisson, whom the King had taken from her 
 husband about as the Seigneur Orcan took the 
 
AST ARTE 129 
 
 wife of the fisherman in the novel. After the 
 battle of Fontenoy Voltaire actually compares 
 himself to a minister of State (M. 36, p. 366) : 
 "La tete me tourne; je ne sais comment faire 
 avec les dames, qui veulent que je loue leurs 
 cousins et leurs greluchons. On me traite 
 comme un ministre ; je fais des mecontents." 
 
 There appeared at this time a number of at- 
 tacks on Voltaire in prose and verse (M. 36, p. 
 372). He is particularly concerned about the 
 rivalry of the poet Eoi, le cheval Eoi, as Vol- 
 taire calls him. The Queen protects him, and 
 is not well disposed to Voltaire, who had been 
 paying too much court to the King's mistress, 
 another chienne de la reine. The time is past 
 when she called Voltaire mon pauvre Voltaire, 
 and showed so markedly her disapproval of the 
 claque against Marianne in the pre-English 
 period. Voltaire feels that he must pay his 
 court to her, at least indirectly. He uses the 
 good offices of Moncrif , lecteur de la reine, whose 
 enmity to Eoi was greater than his friendship 
 to Voltaire. Through him Voltaire lets the 
 Queen know (M. 36, p. 374), that the Temple 
 de la Gloire and Voltaire's incense is worth 
 more than the maussaderie of the Chevalier 
 9 
 
130 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 de Saint-Michel, who has joined his voice to that 
 of the Abbe de Bicetre (i. e., Desfontaines, 
 author of Avis a M. de Voltaire, sur la sixieme 
 edition de sa Bataille de Fontenoy). The 
 medallions of the Pope, the impression of the 
 Bataille de Fontenoy at the Louvre, and other 
 marks of favor which Voltaire has received or 
 is to receive, will be the best reply that Voltaire 
 can make to such men as Desfontaines (M. 36, 
 p. 390). 
 
 Then came the final struggle to get into the 
 French Academy. The first reference to it is 
 probably the three lines to Mme. d'Argental (M. 
 36, p. 410; end of 1745): "Impossible, im- 
 possible. Mais il faut absolument que 1' autre 
 ange vienne dans mon enfer. Vraiment, j'ai de 
 grandes choses a lui dire." The preliminaries 
 of peace have just been signed at Turin (M. 36, 
 p. 412), so that the historical event, presaging 
 the close of the war, fits into the symbolism of 
 the coming triumphs of Voltaire and of Zadig. 
 The only enemy that he has now is Roi, for he 
 has appeased all court and clerical hostility. 
 Roi has taken on the appearance of virtue to 
 insinuate himself into the good graces of the 
 Queen (M. 36, p. 431) : C'est la seule maniere 
 
ASTARTE 131 
 
 de la tromper. Voltaire wishes to dislodge him 
 from this favor by taking on the appearance of 
 orthodoxy; that is the only way to deceive her. 
 Eoi is a monster of hell (M. 36, p. 422), qui 
 pretend quon lui a rendu la lyre, et qui fait 
 imprinter le libelle diffamatoire le plus punis- 
 sable contre VAcademie et contre moi. The ref- 
 erence is to Roi's libellous Discours prononce a 
 la porte de VAcademie frangaise and the Tri- 
 omphe poetique, a sort of burlesque Odyssey 
 of all Voltaire's trials and tribulations during 
 his long career as a man of letters, including 
 the beatings which he had received. Here is 
 plainly the character of Itobad, who claims to 
 be, not merely the poet Roi, but roi de Baby- 
 lone, qui pretend quon lui a rendu la lyre, i. e., 
 who claims to be the husband of Astarte. 
 
 After Voltaire's triumph, his entrance into 
 the Academy par la grande porte (i. e., by 
 twenty-eight out of twenty-nine votes cast), he 
 bends every effort to discover the publishers 
 and distributors of the satires of Roi. That 
 leads him back to his old enemy Desfontaines, 
 from whom Louis Travenol had received them. 
 Thus they become the echo of the V oltairomanie. 
 By the very nature of these libels, with their 
 
132 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 enumeration of all the evils that had befallen 
 Voltaire during his chequered life and their 
 ironical references to his poetic triumphs and 
 his futile attempts to get into the Academy, 
 Voltaire is led, it seems to me, to compose his 
 version of his Triomphe poetique; that is, to 
 compose his novel Zadig. Here it is not the 
 satirist who presents the facts of his life, but 
 the " Truth-teller," the "Witness-bearer." "le 
 temoin fidele et authentique." But Voltaire does 
 not compose with the crude art of his rivals ; it 
 takes no art, in fact, to compose a libel. But 
 it is the climax of art to give an actual, con- 
 temporaneous historical background to his fic- 
 tions, to make these fictions represent the actual 
 experiences through which he had himself 
 passed, and to raise the whole out of the domain 
 of the personal, the individual, into the realm 
 of the typical, the universal, and all in accord- 
 ance with a philosophic tendency. 
 
 Some features of Voltaire's experiences after 
 his election to the Academy may have found 
 their way into his novel. To put down this up- 
 start, who threatened to eclipse all the court 
 poets, jealous voices and mercenary pens were 
 active as never before. In order to get him 
 
V 
 
 ASTARTE 133 
 
 away from the court it was necessary to neutral- 
 ize the favor of the Pompadour. The old poet 
 Crebillon was put forward as the Sophocles of the 
 century. Finally, towards the end of 1747, -Mme. 
 du Chatelet, while playing cards at the Queen's 
 table, lost an enormous sum. Voltaire's incon- 
 siderate remark: Vous jouez avec des fripons, 
 caused the poet and his Emilie to make a pre- 
 cipitate retreat from Fontainebleau. Voltaire 
 took refuge with the Duchess of Maine at Sceaux, 
 where he remained in the strictest seclusion, cor- 
 responding with Mme. du Chatelet only in a 
 roundabout way, and by special courier, until 
 her appearance one day relieved him of his en- 
 forced confinement (cf. Desnoiresterres, Vol- 
 taire a la cour, p. 137, 139, 141). 
 
 Voltaire was often obliged to make sudden 
 and hurried flights, in which he was separated 
 from his divine Emilie, as at the time of the 
 persecution for the Leitres philosophiques, and 
 later for the Mondain, so that the scene de- 
 scribed above could only favor his symbolism in 
 Zadig. 
 
 It is thought that Zadig was composed at 
 Sceaux during Voltaire's confinement there. 
 Desnoiresterres (op. cit., p. 146 f.) shows that 
 
134 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 Zadig (or rather Memnon, the name under 
 which the novel first appeared) could not have 
 been published before 1748, as he did not leave 
 Sceaux until the last days of December, 1747. 
 If the first edition, that of Memnon, is dated 
 1747, it is not because it was put on sale in that 
 year, but because it was composed in that year 
 and sent, perhaps, to the publishers before the 
 close of the year. It is not unusual for Voltaire 
 to antedate his works in this manner. Long- 
 champs tells a strange story about the publica- 
 tion of Zadig. He says that the work was 
 given, in two different sections, to two differ- 
 ent publishers, and the printed copies then bound 
 together by Voltaire in order to give the first 
 copies to his friends, before the general public 
 should receive them (cf . Desnoiresterres, op. cit., 
 p. 146 f.). There seems to me to be a basis 
 of truth in this story, to be accounted for by 
 Voltaire's pun on the names. Memnon = meme 
 nom, i. e., it is the same as Zadig. The com- 
 mentators have dismissed the statement of 
 Longchamps, on the ground that the first edi- 
 tion of the work was not called Zadig, but 
 Memnon, whereas Voltaire's secretary speaks of 
 Zadig. When he says then, that Zadig was 
 
ASTABTE 135 
 
 printed in two different sections, he probably 
 bad in mind the version Memnon and tbe ver- 
 sion Zadig, which, by a pun, probably well 
 known to him at the time but which he had later 
 forgotten, were really the same work. 
 
 In this connection it should be said that the 
 little skit Memnon, ou la Sagesse, is misdated 
 in all the editions of the novels. Beuchot thinks 
 that it was composed in 1750, but the letter of 
 Stanislas to Voltaire (M. 36, p. 569 ; Jan. 31, 
 1749) speaks of Memnon and of Zadig, and in 
 terms which can not apply to Zadig under the 
 title of Memnon. Besides, there would be no 
 object in sending to Stanislas at that late date 
 both the old Memnon (the first edition of Zadig) 
 and the same work, with some additions, under 
 the title of Zadig. 
 
 The composition of Zadig as Sceaux is im- 
 portant to bear in mind. It was the Duchess 
 of Maine who induced Voltaire to treat the same 
 subject as Crebillon le barbare, to avenge Cicero 
 for the insults to which the old Tragique sub- 
 jected him in making him le Mercure de sa fille. 
 Voltaire could not forgive Crebillon for two 
 things : first, for his refusal of an approbation to 
 Mahomet, and second, his usurpation of the 
 
136 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 favor of the Pompadour. That is why, in view 
 of Voltaire's jousts with him in all the subjects 
 which he had treated, Zadig is so appropriately 
 dedicated to the Pompadour, and it accounts 
 also for the burlesque form of approbation which 
 prefaced the first editions of the novel: "Je 
 soussigne, qui me suis fait passer pour savant, 
 et meme pour homme d'esprit, ai lu ce manu- 
 scrit, que j'ai trouve, malgre moi, curieux, 
 amusant, moral, philosophique, digne de plaire 
 a ceux meme qui haissent les romans. Ainsi je 
 l'ai decrie, et j'ai assure M. le cadi-lesquier que 
 c'est un ouvrage detestable." The cadi-lesquier 
 is the commander-in-chief of half of the Turk- 
 ish empire (there being one for European Tur- 
 key and one for Asiatic Turkey). The refer- 
 ence is probably to the garde des sceaux, and 
 more particularly to the Chancellor d'Aguesseau 
 (who was garde des sceaux), whose severity for 
 the Elements de la philosophie de Newton (M. 
 1, p. 213) Voltaire could not easily forgive, and 
 whose severity for novels with heretical person- 
 ages could only arouse Voltaire's scorn and 
 pity. 
 
 The link of association between Mme. du 
 Chatelet and Mme. de Pompadour, aside from 
 
ASTARTE 137 
 
 Voltaire's relations to both "divinities," is to 
 be found, I think, in a pun. Astarte, as Vol- 
 taire tells us in the Avertissement de Samson, 
 was deesse de Syrie; Mme. du Chatelet was 
 deesse de Cirey, and therefore equivalent to the 
 Pompadour. The Syrians worshipped a pois- 
 son; so did Voltaire, Louis XV, and all the 
 courtiers, for the Pompadour was Mile. Pois- 
 son. Voltaire's enemies, especially the Envieux, 
 had attempted to get him into trouble with 
 Mme. du Chatelet, as well as with the Queen 
 and the Pompadour. The relations of the poet 
 to Mme. du Chatelet are symbolized in the 
 comedy of the Envieux about as they appear in 
 the novel for Zadig and Astarte. Ariston, who 
 figures Voltaire, is the friend of Hortense, who 
 figures Mme. du Chatelet. Cleon, representing 
 M. du Chatelet, is provincial governor, of a 
 tyrannical and brutally jealous disposition, like 
 Moabdar in Zadig. The Envieux takes advan- 
 tage of this situation to arouse in Cleon sus- 
 picions like those of Moabdar. Ariston is 
 warned to flee, and is about to be seized, when 
 a fortunate confession of the accomplice of the 
 Envieux clears the atmosphere. The publica- 
 tion of the Mondain, with its reference to the 
 
138 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 terrestrial paradise at Cirey, the dedication of 
 Alzire to Mme. du Chatelet, and the aspersions 
 of Desfontaines (who had made similar accu- 
 sations against Voltaire in reference to Mme. de 
 Bernieres), as indeed the mere residence of 
 Voltaire with the amiable Marquise, gave rise to 
 suspicions of a relation quite different from an 
 innocent Platonic friendship. 
 
 The situation must not, however, be taken too 
 literally ; Voltaire simply wished to give a dra- 
 matic presentation of the malignant activity of 
 the Envieux, whose attacks did not spare per- 
 sonal honor. The same situation reappears in 
 Zadig: it is Itobad who steals Zadig's white 
 armor, and puts his green armor in its place. 
 In his earliest satire, Le Bourbier, Voltaire had 
 represented these brigands of the forest of Par- 
 nassus throwing mud at the great men of let- 
 ters, i. e.j besmirching their reputation. 
 
 Astarte then is primarily Voltaire's muse. 
 His love for her is his love for the belles-lettres. 
 He first makes her acquaintance at the time of 
 the Kegency. Although she is Queen, she is 
 at the same time the slave of a despot. The 
 desire to possess her favors in full, i. e., the 
 desire for liberty of speech for the man of 
 
ASTARTE 139 
 
 letters, brings disaster upon her and her lover: 
 cest V avilissement des beaux-arts et le servi- 
 tude de Vhomme de lettres of which Voltaire so 
 often complains. The type of literature repre- 
 sented by the inspiration of Missouf takes her 
 place. The folly and madness of war, droit des 
 brigands que nous nommons heros, complete her 
 degradation, whether it is caused by the warring 
 of kings or of literary men. But there is no 
 doubt about her final triumph and her union 
 with one of the Immortals, i. e., not merely a 
 member of the French Academy, but an author 
 whose works will live for aeons of time. 
 
 We meet with precisely the same symbolism 
 in Candide. Voltaire sought at Frederick's 
 court the freedom of thought which was refused 
 him in France. The burning of the AJcakia 
 was enough to cause him to flee that country for 
 ever. Cunegonde is comparable in every re- 
 spect to Astarte ; it is the satire and the personal 
 application that account for any differences in 
 the two characters. When Voltaire arrived on 
 the shores of Lake Leman he would have pre- 
 ferred to live the quiet life of a country gentle- 
 man; he did not want Cunegonde any more. 
 He took her only to spite the young baron 
 
140 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 Thunder-ten-tronckh. So Voltaire continued his 
 attacks, or rather redoubled them, against the 
 symbol of intolerance, less from love of letters 
 than from hatred of persecution. 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 
 AEIMAZE 
 
 Arimaze, the Envious, is one of the charac- 
 ters of Zadig which shows prima facie evidence 
 that Voltaire had his own life and its experi- 
 ences as the basis of his novel. There is no 
 epithet in his correspondence with which he is 
 so prodigal ; all his enemies are des envieux et 
 des ingrats. His comedy of the Envieux, his 
 Ode sur V Ingratitude, as well as his Discours 
 sur VEnvie (one of the Discours en vers sur 
 rhomme), are sufficient evidence of a personal 
 application of the episode of Zadig to his envi- 
 ous detractors in general, and to Desfontaines, 
 Rousseau, and Roi in particular. 
 
 What is the meaning of the symbol? Ari- 
 maze is the Arimane of the Magians, the evil 
 principle, the devil. The devil is represented 
 as a fallen angel, who rebelled against God 
 from envy. Arimaze is described under the 
 traits of the evil one. " Vis-a-vis de sa maison 
 demeurait Arimaze, personnage dont la mechante 
 141 
 
142 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 ame etait Deinte sux sa^grossiere physionomie. 
 II etait ronge de'M et bouffi d'orgueil, et pour 
 comble, c'etait un bel esprit ennuyeux." He is 
 represented as distorting and perverting every- 
 thing that Zadig does. Besides, Voltaire could 
 not well lay his scene among the ancient Magians 
 without some such character. It afforded him 
 an excellent opportunity to show the parallelism 
 between the Zoroastrian cult and Christianity, 
 and to explain, by the creation of a symbolic 
 character, all such allegories as the good and the 
 evil principle, God and the devil, good angel 
 and bad, etc. 
 
 Apart from these considerations Voltaire was 
 persecuted by people whose God was more like 
 our conception of the devil than anything else. 
 
 This persecution began after Voltaire's re- 
 turn from England with the publication of 
 the Lettres philosophiques, in one of which he 
 attacked Pascal on the subject of the fall of 
 man. Voltaire's attack on the Jansenists is 
 due to his occupation with the philosophy 
 of the English Optimists. Voltaire embraced 
 this philosophy in its great features; he says 
 that Pope's Essay on Man is a poetic repre- 
 sentation of his Thoughts on Pascal. In so 
 
ARIMAZE 143 
 
 far as this philosophy did not include the fall 
 of man and did not lead people to believe that 
 things were all right for man in a state of so- 
 ciety and not only need not but could not be 
 changed, Voltaire embraced it heartily. Let 
 me outline the main features of this philosophy 
 as Voltaire conceived them. 
 
 In the first place, it proved that man is as he 
 always has been, a creature subject to death, 
 like every other created thing; for an immortal 
 man, except in a symbolic sense, was a contra- 
 diction in terms. It was the height of folly, 
 absurdity and madness to imagine that man was 
 a beautiful creature once, in a place where there 
 was no evil, until he ate an apple, whereupon 
 God kicked him out of paradise. Pascal con- 
 tended that the Biblical narrative of the fall of 
 man must be true, because it alone explained 
 the astonishing contradictions in man. Voltaire 
 replied that the Androgynes of Plato, the good 
 and evil principle of the Magians, Osiris and 
 {Typhon among the Egyptians, Prometheus and 
 Pandora among the Greeks, etc., offered similar 
 explanations. That was no proof of the verity 
 of religion. It was just as foolish to offer these 
 explanations for the evil in the world as it 
 
144 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 would be to say of horses, for example, that 
 they were beautiful and good and had no work 
 to do until one of them took it into his head to 
 eat some oats, whereupon all horses were con- 
 demned to a life of suffering and torment. If 
 man is necessarily mortal, it is but natural that 
 he should be crushed if a boulder should fall 
 upon him, that he should be killed if the light- 
 ning struck him, that he should be drowned if 
 he fell into the water and could not swim and 
 there were no one to aid him. For God, then, 
 there was no mat physique. There was physical 
 suffering, to be sure, but that was a different 
 thing, a necessary consequence of man's state- 
 of-being-man, exactly comparable to the phys- 
 ical suffering of all the other animals from the 
 flea to the mammoth. 
 
 In the second place, man is endowed, like 
 all the other animals, with needs, and hence 
 with passions. Passion means, etymologically, 
 suffering, because there is no feeling-of-the- 
 lack-of-a-thing without the suffering occa- 
 sioned by that lack, the absence, of the 
 thing desired. Thus man, without passions, 
 as depicted in the paradisiacal state, is a con- 
 tradiction in terms, and must always have been 
 
AEIMAZE 
 
 so. Man is endowed of necessity wit 
 otherwise he would be not-man, wol 
 entirely different order of creation, 
 given us two fine main-springs of oul ^emg 
 passions to make us act, and reason to control 
 our passions; self-love to enable us to conserve 
 our being and strive for our well-being, and 
 pity, " bienveillance," to keep us from inflicting 
 needless injury on our fellow beings and to in- 
 cline us to aid them. Thus there is for God 
 no mal moral; man could not be made on 'a 
 better plan. There is moral suffering, to be 
 sure, just as there is physical suffering, but 
 that is an inevitable consequence of man's 
 being-man. 
 
 Voltaire's opponents, the Jansenists, with 
 Racine fils and Rousseau and his associate Des- 
 fontaines at their head, together with the old 
 Bishop of Mirepoix, seemed to consider that 
 Voltaire was the apologist of chance, "le has- 
 ard." Voltaire was not, however; the word is 
 senseless, he says (M. 23, p. 177). Certainly, 
 a man who falls into the river because he ven- 
 tured out on a broken bridge did not fall "by 
 chance," any more than a man who threw him- 
 self from the top of a tower would be killed " by 
 10 
 
146 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 chance." There is no such thing as " chance " ; 
 everything is in accordance with eternal laws. 
 The difference between Voltaire's philosophy on 
 the one hand, and that of the Jansenists, and, 
 in general, of the Christians, on the other, is 
 the assigning of motives-of-the-divinity to all 
 that is. The man who aims at the heart of an 
 innocent fellow-being does so, to be sure, in ac- 
 cordance with, because not contrary to, divine 
 laws; but to say with the partisans of absolute 
 fatality, whether among the Jansenists or among 
 the Mohammedans, that it is God who strikes 
 by their hands, who pillages, burns, kills, steals, 
 rapes, through their humble ministry, what is 
 that but worshipping the devil ? And Voltaire 
 does not hesitate to speak the word in his Dis- 
 cours en vers mr I'homme: 
 
 " Les tristes partisans de ce dogme effroyable 
 Diraient-ils rien de plus s'ils adoraient le diable? " 
 
 This exposition belongs more properly under 
 the chapter on the Angel Jesrad, but it is neces- 
 sary here in order to show why Voltaire em- 
 bodied his characterization of his persecutors 
 under the symbol of the devil of the ancient 
 Magians. 
 
AEIMAZE 147 
 
 Now, for Voltaire's enemies, the man who 
 proved the existence of God but denied the fall 
 of man was an atheist; he sapped the founda- 
 tions of Christianity, for, if there was no fall 
 of man, there was no necessity for redemption, 
 and the mission of Jesus Christ was an impos- 
 ture born of madness and stupidity. To combat 
 Pascal, with his premise of a man-without-pas- 
 sions, into whose body the devil entered and who 
 goes about the world like a raging lion seeking 
 whom he may devour, was to confess oneself an 
 atheist. To write the Mondain, proving that 
 the terrestrial paradise was in the present siecle 
 de fer rather than in the fabled age d'or, was to 
 advocate atheism. To say, as did Voltaire, 
 that God could have given the faculty of thought 
 to matter in certain organization, just as matter 
 is organized to have sensations, was to deny the 
 existence of the soul independent of the body, 
 and hence to confess oneself an atheist. For, 
 be it always remembered, the religious fanatics 
 of all times and of all lands, have been blinded 
 by this fallacious belief : If you do not believe 
 in my God, you do not believe in any God. 
 
 Now what does Voltaire do in Zadig? He 
 gives us, in his own way, the various conceptions 
 
148 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 of the devil: he is Orcan, Arimaze, the Prince 
 d'Hyrcanie, Cletofis, Arbogad, Itobad, and 
 finally, the Angel Jesrad. Each devil has his 
 particular characteristics, his particular field of 
 activity, like the characterization by Calmet (M. 
 Sjl P* 434), or that of Le Sage, in the Diable 
 
 ^oileiix. "Orcan is the court devil; Arimaze is 
 the devil of Parnassus ; the Prince d'Hyrcanie 
 is either the Prince of the Hyrcinian forests, 
 i. e., the Prince of darkness, or he is the north- 
 wind, the typhoon; Cletofis is Asmodeus. 
 
 By what association of ideas did Voltaire 
 make Arimaze the devil of the Republic of Let- 
 ters? It is my theory that he read into the 
 name Arimane the significance of un dne qui 
 rime, a poetaster, and that Arimaze is its equiva- 
 lent, i. e., that -aze, from asinus, represents -ane, 
 for dne. My purpose is to show, (1), the readi- 
 ness of Voltaire to see the connotation of dne 
 in any syllable fairly like it, and (2), the same 
 significance for -aze. Then I shall show in 
 what way he applied the epithet to Rousseau, 
 Desfontaines, and Roi. 
 
 One of the earliest illustrations of the conno- 
 tation of dne in a similar syllable is found in a 
 letter to Thieriot (M. 33, p. 87 ; early in 1723) : 
 
AEIMAZE 149 
 
 " Je m'en retourne ce soir a la Riviere (i. e., 
 Riviere-Bourdet, residence of Mme. la presi- 
 dente de Bernieres, near Rouen), pour partager 
 mes soins entre une dnesse et Marianne/' Vol- 
 taire seems to be punning on the final syllable 
 of Marianne. 
 
 Boyer signed himself anc. (for ancien) eveque 
 de Mirepoix, which gave Voltaire his dne de 
 Mirepoix. 
 
 Freron, author of the Annee litteraire, is 
 dubbed the dne litteraire. 
 
 The Bescrit de VEmpereur de la Chine, a 
 satire on Jean Jacques Rousseau and Mauper- 
 tuis, is dated the first day of the month of Hi 
 Han (i. e., the bray of the ass, equivalent to 
 April Tool). 
 
 The Extrait de la sacree congregation de Vin- 
 quisition de Borne (M. 23, p. 464) is signed: 
 Coglione-Coglionaccio, cardinal-president. Et 
 plus has (these words appear in the signature 
 to indicate the obscene allusion in the names) 
 Cazzo-Qulo, secretaire du Saint-Office. 
 
 Voltaire's Lettre de Demad (M. 24, p. 91), 
 like the Bescrit de VEmpereur de la Chine, is 
 dated April 1, but the Hi Han of the latter is 
 replaced by Zastrou. 
 
150 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 The allusions are evidently to the dne and 
 asinus as a phallic animal. The Pucelle is ade- 
 quate illustration of this. Besides the dne aile 
 of Saint Denis we have the muleteer, metamor- 
 phosed into an ass, and serving, (1) to trans- 
 form the passionateless "virgin" Corisandre 
 into a voluptuous matron, and (2) to minister 
 to the lust of Hermaphrodix in his double qual- 
 ity of man and woman. 
 
 That Voltaire should see the connotation of 
 rimer, rimailler in Arimaze is not surprising 
 to one who notes his fondness for a pun. Some 
 illustrations of this habit may well be in place 
 here. 
 
 The French Eesident at Geneva, M. Hennin, 
 was involved in the dissensions of the little Re- 
 public. Voltaire refers to the civil war of 
 Geneva as la guerre a" Hennin, i. e., la guerre 
 des nains. 
 
 Vade, the name of a writer of short-stories, is 
 one of the names assumed by Voltaire. He 
 puns on it as though it were Latin : vade retro; 
 vade mecum. He entitles his work published 
 under that name, from a pun on it: Fadaises. 
 
 A fellow by the name of Coge, who, with Ri- 
 ballier, headed the opposition against Harmon- 
 
AEIMAZE 151 
 
 tel's Belisaire, in which the author dared to 
 assert that the great and noble men of antiquity 
 were not burning in hell, is apostrophized as 
 Coge pecus: Collect your flock (*. e., your horde 
 of persecutors, your herd of sheep, asses, swine, 
 etc.). 
 
 Freron is a frelon. French frelon = English 
 wasp. He appears under the latter name in the 
 Ecossaise. 
 
 Morellet, one of the staunch defenders of the 
 philosophical party, is urged on to more vigor- 
 ous attacks by a pun on his name: Mords-les! 
 
 Clement, successor of Desfontaines, is not 
 Clement Marot, but Clement Maraud. 
 
 Omer Joly de Fleury, who assailed the En- 
 cyclopedic and its authors, is neither Homere, 
 nor joli, nor fleuri. The next step in Voltaire's 
 association of ideas is that he is a thorn without 
 the flower, just as Mirepoix is a cheval without 
 a head. He is therefore called Acanthos: flos 
 espinosa, a thorny shrub. 
 
 The last illustration is similar to the Ahahia. 
 I have never seen it mentioned that Haupertuis 
 himself gave occasion to Voltaire to form this 
 name. In his Lettres sur les progres des sci- 
 ences, Maupertuis said that he was willing to 
 
152 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 publish these reveries provided the reader took 
 them sans malice. He evidently did not know 
 Voltaire. Because Maupertuis had said some 
 foolish things about doctors, Voltaire makes a 
 doctor take up the cudgels for his profession. 
 How appropriate to take the name of a doctor of 
 Frangois I er ! (i. e., Voltaire's doctor, as Fran- 
 Qois Arouet). But sans malice is not the only 
 connotation in the name. The Ahahia is like 
 the Acanthos: it is of the prickly species, from 
 which is extracted something like the poix resine 
 by which Maupertuis would arrive at the age of 
 the Biblical patriarchs, or that of the inhabitants 
 of Eldorado. It is also a word like that applied 
 to the philosophers: Cacouacs, the "bad" peo- 
 ple ; Ahakia is " against bad people," " against 
 badness," a remedy for evil humors, then, by ex- 
 tension, the good doctor who purges Maupertuis 
 of his evil humours, like Diafoirus of the 
 Malade imaginaire. 
 
 How did Voltaire associate Rousseau, Des- 
 fontaines, and the poet Roi under the symbol 
 of Arimaze ? 
 
 The obvious association is their character as 
 Envieux, but there are other reasons. It was 
 Voltaire's uniform practice to get the inspira- 
 
AEIMAZE 153 
 
 tion for his satire from the writings of his ene- 
 mies. " I avenged myself on Rousseau by quot- 
 ing his verses," he says. That he studied the 
 works of Rousseau is evident from a number of 
 references throughout his correspondence and 
 some parallels which I shall point out. Refer- 
 ring to the Enfant prodigue he writes to Cide- 
 ville (M. 34, p. 183 f.) : " J'ai fait cet enfant 
 pour repondre a une partie des impertinentes 
 epitres de Rousseau, ou cet auteur des A'ieux 
 chimeriques et des plus mauvaises pieces de 
 theatre que nous ayons, ose donner des regies 
 sur la comedie. J'ai voulu faire voir a ce doc- 
 teur flamand que la comedie pouvait tres-bien 
 reunir Finteret et le plaisant." The A'ieux 
 chimeriques of Rousseau is based on the associa- 
 tion of names by similarity in sound. Galba- 
 non, one of the characters, is explained as c'est 
 comme qui dirait nom de Galba. The Comtesse 
 de Critognac traces her ancestry back to a noble 
 Auvergnac, mentioned in Caesar's Commen- 
 taries. The Jew Esdras blossoms out as the 
 noble Adramon. Dorante traces his ancestry 
 back to Dorus, son of Doris and Jupiter, King 
 of the Dorians (CEuvres de Jean-Baptiste Rous- 
 seau, Nouvelle edition, 1743, Vol. 3, p. 7 fl\). 
 
154 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 What more natural than that the " malin" 
 Voltaire should trace Rousseau's ancestry back 
 to the devil ? 
 
 Rousseau defends his comedy against the 
 Abbe d'Olivet (op. cit., p. 361), who had criti- 
 cised his play on names as contrary to reality. 
 He expresses surprise that the Abbe has not 
 found the original of the Comtesse de Critognac 
 in Paris, as it the most common thing in the 
 world for people to seek their origin in the simi- 
 larity of names more far-fetched than those of 
 his comedy seem to be. " C'est de quoi M. Le 
 Laboureur, qu'on vient de reimprimer, se plaint 
 en une infinite d'endroits de ses additions, et 
 pour peu qu'on ait lu de livres de genealogies, 
 on y trouvera des originaux d' extravagance plus 
 extraordinaires que tout ce que j'ai pu imaginer 
 dans ma copie. Cela est si vrai que la plus grande 
 partie des bons mots de la piece que vous avez 
 lue, sont pris de contes que j'ai oui' faire autre- 
 fois a la cour, de la feue Marechale de . . . , 
 de la vieille Marquise de . . . , et d'autres ; et si 
 vous en doutez, vous n'avez qu'a mettre votre 
 amie Mad. de Castelnau sur le chapitre de cette 
 premiere, vous en reconnaitrez plusieurs, et vous 
 verrez que ce n'est point par le defaut d'origi- 
 naux que la piece peche." 
 
AEIMAZE 155 
 
 It would seem that Voltaire chose the names 
 of his Enfant prodigue in allusion to the char- 
 acters of Rousseau's comedy. To an audience 
 thoroughly familiar with the demeles of the 
 two authors, Fierenfat, president de Cognac, 
 and Mme. la baronne de Croupillac, must have 
 recalled the noble Auvergnac and Mme. la com- 
 tesse de Critognac. Voltaire realized the insinu- 
 ating effect of allusion as did no other author; 
 his satires are inexhaustible in them. In view 
 of his reasons for composing the Enfant pro- 
 digue, it would seem to me to be very likely 
 that his names are chosen to resemble those of 
 Rousseau's comedie sifflee. 
 
 Another imitation from Rousseau's works at 
 this time lends color to the foregoing. In an 
 Epitre to Mile. Gaussin (M. 10, p. 512), who 
 played the role of Alzire, Voltaire writes : 
 
 " Ce n'est pas moi qu'on applaudit, 
 C'est vous qu'on aime et qu'on admire; 
 Et vous damnez, charmante Alzire, 
 Tous ceux que Guzman convertit." 
 
 It is significant for Voltaire's occupation with 
 Rousseau's works at this time (the date of the 
 Epitre is 1736), that these verses are imitated 
 
156 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 from Rousseau's "Vers envoyes a. une De- 
 moiselle le jour de St. Denis sa fete" ((Euvres 
 de Rousseau, op. cit, Vol. 2, p. 220) : 
 
 "Vous eussiez fait donner aux Diables 
 Tous ceux qu'il fit donner a, Dieu." 
 
 It was Rousseau himself who gave Voltaire 
 the idea of associating him with the devil. In 
 his allegory L' Opera de Naples Rousseau had 
 represented a hypocritical devil as theater poet, 
 driving away all lovers of the drama. It must 
 have seemed to Voltaire that Rousseau had 
 painted himself, the author of several comedies 
 sifflees. I think that Voltaire's scathing satire 
 on Rousseau, the Crepinade, is the result of 
 this comparison, and an imitation of the Opera 
 de Naples. Rousseau represents the Lord as 
 dissatisfied with the attraction of the opera in 
 Naples, as it took the people from his worship. 
 He resolved to make use of the devil to put a 
 stop to it. He puts the devil into the body of 
 an Abbe and sends him to Manchine, the di- 
 rector of the Opera. He is engaged as theater 
 poet, and his bad versification soon drives away 
 all the habitues. Voltaire uses the same idea: 
 he is formed by the devil, possessed by his spirit, 
 
ABIMAZE 157 
 
 and commanded to rimailler, just as Rousseau's 
 devil is commanded to versifier. 
 
 It will not be necessary for me to go deeply 
 into the relations of Voltaire and Rousseau. I 
 need only point out the references to him which 
 prove him to be for Voltaire a diabolical poet- 
 aster, i. e., (1) a devil, (2) an ass, and (3) a 
 rhymester. 
 
 Voltaire's earliest reference to Rousseau (M. 
 33, p. 46; 1716) emphasizes the fact that he 
 is possessed of the devil and that his arguments 
 are false: "Ce qui m'indigne, c'est le mauvais 
 coeur qui perce a chaque ligne . . . je crois y 
 voir plutot un enrage qu'un poete. II n'est pas 
 inspire, il est possede . . . teint de la bile qui 
 le devore . . . Son epitre a Marot . . . roule 
 sur un raisonnement faux. II veut prouver que 
 tout homme d'esprit est honnete homme et que 
 tout sot est fripon." 
 
 As early as 1723 (M. 33, p. 85) Voltaire re- 
 ferred to him as the devil qui se fait ermite. 
 
 Voltaire composed a life of Rousseau in which 
 he is represented as having denied his father. 
 Then the devil takes possession of him. 
 
 " Aussitot entra dans son corps 
 Le diable nonime Couplegor; 
 
158 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 Son poil devint roux, son <Bil louche. 
 II lui mit de travers la bouche; 
 Et de sa bouche de travers 
 Sortaient des crapauds et des vers." 
 
 Voltaire emphasizes the fact that Kousseau is 
 devoid of logic. The real poet sketches his 
 works first (M. 18, p. 554) ; la raison alors tient 
 le crayon. Afterwards the Imagination is free 
 to move within the limits prescribed by reason. 
 Rousseau did not do that; he gave himself up 
 to Vampoule, le gigantesque, le galimatias. 
 Darts tons ses ouvrages raisonnes, il ny a nulle 
 raison . . . il prouve toujours mat ce quil veut 
 prouver (M. 33, p. 279). Rousseau himself 
 gave Voltaire reasons, apart from the quality of 
 his logic, for this charge. In the last of his 
 epigrammes Rousseau says that "Phoebus had 
 not endowed him with great knowledge but he 
 knows how to touch the lyre." There are scores 
 of references to Rousseau as rimailleur, versir 
 ficateur, rimeur. Even his lyric gift is now 
 taken from his (M. 8, p. 586) : 
 
 "II [i. e., Apollo] t'ote le peu de genie 
 Dont tu dis qu'il t'avais fait don : 
 II te prive de l'harmonie; 
 Et tu n'as plus rien aujourd'hui 
 
ARIMAZE 159 
 
 Que la fureur et la manie 
 De rimer encore malgre lui 
 Des vers tudesques qu'il renie." 
 
 Rousseau is simply un rimeur (M. 34, p. 
 128) ; ce rimeur atrabiliaire (M. 34, p. 152) ; 
 ce vieux rimeur couverl^dfignominie (M. 34, p. 
 131) ; rimeur satirique,peu d' esprit" in phrases 
 pillaged from Marot and Eabelais (M. 9, p. 
 395) ; veteran rimailleur . . . quitte la rime, 
 Apollon te revoque: il t'aima peintre, et te hait 
 barbouilleur (M. 32, p. 411) ; " The God that 
 rhymes is the only God that loves him" (M. 
 8, p. 585) ; il ne sait que rimer (M. 8, p. 566) ; 
 "Even Lamotte surpasses him in wit and rea- 
 son" (M. 8, p. 565) ; "Apollon lui 6te le talent 
 de la poesie, comme on degrade un pretre avant 
 de le livrer au bras seculier. C'est un scelerat 
 qui avait le vernis de l'esprit : le vernis s'en est 
 alle et le coquin demeure" (M. 34, p. 214), etc. 
 
 Voltaire makes Rousseau and Desfontaines 
 associates. Rousseau is the Desfontaines des 
 poetes; whenever you see bad prose against Vol- 
 taire, it is by Desfontaines ; bad verse, by Rous- 
 seau. Both are considered not merely Voltaire's 
 enemies, but the enemies of the human race (M. 
 36, p. 187), the enemies of all nations (M. 34, 
 
160 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 p. 205). Voltaire says that he has spoiled his 
 Ode sur V Ingratitude by leaving out the name 
 of his enemy (M. 34, p. 124) : Je peignais 
 Venfer, et j'oubliais Asmodee. In the short 
 fragment of a letter that has come down to us, 
 addressed to Mme. du Chatelet, Rousseau, as 
 the devil, receives a peculiar sacrifice from the 
 poet (M. 34, p. 193), through his chaise percee. 
 He has been kicked out of his terrestrial para- 
 dise by the devil, a common figure with him. 
 
 Arimaze wished to ruin Zadig, because the 
 latter was happy. Voltaire writes to the Abbe 
 d'Olivet (M. 34, p. 123) that Rousseau can not 
 hinder Voltaire's works from being good and 
 famous, and that he is the happiest person in 
 the world, par ma fortune, par ma situation, et 
 V pur mes amis. This thought is repeated in a 
 letter to Frederick, whose friendship for the 
 poet was another cause of envy (M. 34, p. 582) : 
 Voltaire is completely happy; he has money, 
 love, friendship, and his little paradise is per- 
 fect. 
 
 The enmity of Arimaze is due largely to his 
 inability to get into good society; nobody cares 
 for his company; his presence corrupts the joy 
 of the guests, as the harpies corrupt the meats. 
 
AEIMAZE 161 
 
 " Un autre jour, causant avec lui dans le palais, 
 ils aborderent un ministre qui pria Zadig a 
 souper, et ne pria point Arimaze. Les plus im- 
 placables haines n'ont pas souvent des fonde- 
 ments plus important." Voltaire made this 
 charge of being social outcasts, and therefore 
 envious of Voltaire, against both Kousseau and 
 Desfontaines. Desfontaines can no more get 
 into good society in Paris (M. 35, p. 334), than 
 Eousseau in Brussels. Rousseau a ete retranche 
 de la societe depuis longtemps (M. 34, p. 128). 
 Desfontaines is a bouc gros et gras, who will 
 never be invited to dinner (M. 36, p. 319) : 
 
 " Jamais Egle, jamais Sylvie, 
 Jamais Lise a souper ne prie 
 Un pedant a citations. 
 Sans gout, sans grace, et sans genie 
 Sa personne, en tous lieux honnie, 
 Est reduite a ses noirs gitons. 
 Helas! les indigestions 
 Sont pour la bonne compagnie." 
 
 We have similar scenes in Voltaire's comedy 
 of the Envieux. The Envieux is a composite 
 portrait of Desfontaines and Rousseau. A 
 laquais appears with a message. "For me?" 
 says the Envieux. The laquais replies : 
 11 
 
162 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 "Nbn pas, c'est pour Ariston, votre ami. 
 Le due d'Elbourg l'attend a quelques pas d'ici. 
 On doit souper ce soir chez madame Tullie, 
 Qui nous donne le bal avec la comedie." 
 
 The Envieux is not invited, and plots to ruin 
 Ariston- Voltaire, just as the Envieux of Zadig 
 plots to ruin the hero. Eousseau had accused 
 Voltaire of having calumniated him to the Due 
 d'Aremberg, who is, I think, figured here under 
 the name of Elbourg. 
 
 The type of causes of the hatred of Arimaze, 
 insignificant as they are, is well illustrated by 
 Voltaire's version of the enmity between him 
 and Rousseau. This enmity began at the time 
 of Voltaire's visit to Brussels with Mme. de 
 Rupelmonde. Voltaire read to Rousseau his 
 Epitre a Julie (later known as the Epitre a 
 JJ ramie, and finally as Le Pour et le Contre). 
 The old satirist, formerly a vile debauchee, pre- 
 tended to be indignant at Voltaire's abuse of 
 his sainte religion. Rousseau read to Voltaire 
 his Ode a la posterite, and Voltaire said that 
 " his letter would not reach its address." 
 
 The enmity of Rousseau and Desfontaines 
 culminated in the libel of the latter, known as 
 the Voltairomanie. Voltaire never forgot this 
 
AEIMAZB 163 
 
 persecution. In his satire Le Russe a Paris 
 (M. 10, p. 129 f.), the Russian is made to ask 
 whether there is no great genius among the 
 Parisians. Voltaire replies that if there were 
 one his life would not be safe. 
 
 "Le fripon le plus vil, le plus deshonore, 
 Dans la basse debauche obscurement vautre, 
 S'il a du bel esprit la jalouse manie, 
 Intrigue, parle, ecrit, denonce, calomnie, 
 En crimes odieux travestit les vertus." 
 
 That is the exact portrait of the Arimaze of the 
 novel Zadig. 
 
 Arimaze truncates verses of Zadig, a charge 
 which Voltaire repeatedly makes against Des- 
 fontaines. That sort of literary brigandage 
 began with Desfontaines' edition of the Hen- 
 riade (M. 25, p. 584). 
 
 The only incident that seems at all foreign to 
 my interpretation of Arimaze is the episode of 
 the wife of the rhymster. She is the occasion 
 of the disgrace and flight of the hero, because 
 he does not respond to her advances. Voltaire 
 probably had in mind the poet Roi, his com- 
 petitor for a place among the Immortals. Vol- 
 taire treats him horribly in the following epi- 
 gramme (M. 10, p. 530 f. ; about 1744) : 
 
164 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 " Connaissez-vous certain rimeur obscur, 
 Sec et guinde, souvent froid, toujours dur, 
 Ayant la rage et non l'art de medire, 
 Qui ne peut plaire, et peut encor moins nuire; 
 Par ses mefaits dans la geole encage, 
 A Saint-Lazare apres ce fustige, 
 Chasse, battu, deteste pour ses crimes, 
 Honni, berne, conspue pour ses rimes, 
 Cocu, content, parlant toujours de soi? 
 Chacun s'ecrie: Eh! c'est le poete Roi." 
 
 The point to be noticed here is that Koi was 
 cocu. Desnoiresterres says of him (Voltaire a 
 la cour, p. 61, and note) : " II passait pour avoir 
 vendu sa femme a un financier du nom de I^e 
 Kiche, ou du moins pour souffrir qu'elle fut 
 ostensiblement entretenue par ce parvenu du 
 Systeme." 
 
 A final parallel is offered by the criticism of 
 Zadig's style by Arimaze and his wife, to which 
 attention has already been called in the chapter 
 on Voltaire's Symbolism. Both Roi and Des- 
 fontaines took the author of the Bataille de 
 Fontenoy to task for the omission of brilliant 
 figures of speech, drawn from antiquity. While 
 the passage in Zadig is aimed chiefly at the 
 style of the Bible, its basis is none the less in 
 the criticism of the Envieux. 
 
CHAPTEK VII 
 
 AEBOGAD 
 
 What is the significance of the name and the 
 episode of Arbogad? Gad, in Hebrew, means 
 God and also robber. How can God be a rob- 
 ber? How can a robber be God? And what 
 has Arbo- to do with the name? How can a 
 robber be the God of the trees, or God be the 
 robber of the trees ? And why does not the God- 
 robber, or the robber-God, live among the trees 
 of which he is the robber or the God, or both, 
 instead of living on the confines of Syria and 
 Arabie Petree? 
 
 It is not possible that Voltaire is composing 
 here without a purpose; there is too much 
 method in his madness : the episode is too clear 
 cut, too natural, too well-wrought, and, in addi- 
 tion, it bears too strong a resemblance to other 
 variations on the theme of brigandage in Vol- 
 taire's works, as Martinguerre in the Pucelle, 
 Vanderdendur and Thunder-ten-tronckh in 
 Candide, and the brigandage of literature 
 165 
 
166 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 throughout the poet's correspondence. The epi- 
 sode should not be dismissed offhand as one of 
 Voltaire's caprices ; on the contrary, it deserves 
 to be investigated with the utmost care. Let us, 
 therefore, consider the episode as the author 
 gives it. 
 
 This is the episode (M. 21, p. 71 ff.) : "En 
 arrivant aux frontieres qui separent l'Arabie 
 Petree de la Syrie, comme il passait pres d'un 
 chateau assez fort, des Arabes armes en sorti- 
 rent. II se vit entoure ; on lui criait : l Tout ce 
 que vous avez nous appartient, et votre personne 
 appartient a notre maitre.' Zadig, pour re- 
 ponse, tira son epee; son valet, qui avait du 
 courage, en fit autant. lis renverserent morts 
 les premiers Arabes qui mirent la main sur eux ; 
 le nombre redoubla: ils ne s'etonnerent point, 
 et resolurent de perir en combattant. On voyait 
 deux hommes se def endre contre une multitude ; 
 un tel combat ne pouvait durer longtemps. Le 
 maitre du chateau, nomme Arbogad, ayant vu 
 d'une fenetre les prodiges de valeur que f aisait 
 Zadig, concut de l'estime pour lui. II descendit 
 en hate, et vint lui-meme ecarter ses gens, et 
 deliverer les deux voyageurs. 'Tout ce qui 
 passe sur mes terres est a moi, dit-il, aussi bien 
 
AEBOGAD 167 
 
 que ce que je trouve sur les terres des autres; 
 mais vous me paraissez un si brave homme que 
 je vous exempte de la loi commune.' II le fit 
 entrer son chateau, ordonnant a ses gens de le 
 bien traiter; et, le soir, Arbogad voulut souper 
 avec Zadig. 
 
 "Le seigneur du chateau etait un de ces 
 Arabes qu'on appelle voleurs; mais il faisait 
 quelquefois de bonnes actions parmi une foule 
 de mauvaises; il volait avec une rapacite 
 furieuse, et donnait liberalement : intrepide dans 
 Faction, assez doux dans le commerce, debauche 
 a table, gai dans la debauche, et surtout plein de 
 franchise. Zadig lui plut beaucoup; sa con- 
 versation, qui s'anima, fit durer le repas; enfin 
 Arbogad lui dit : ' Je vous conseille de vous en- 
 roler sous moi, vous ne sauriez mieux f aire ; ce 
 metier-ci n'est pas mauvais; vous pourrez un 
 jour devenir ce que je suis.' 
 
 " — Puis-je vous demander, dit Zadig, de- 
 puis quel temps vous exercez cette noble pro- 
 fession ? 
 
 " — Des ma plus tendre jeunesse, reprit le 
 seigneur. J'etais valet d'un Arabe assez ha- 
 bile ; ma situation m'etait insupportable. J'etais 
 au desespoir de voir que, dans toute la terre 
 
16 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 qui appartient egalement aux hommes, la des- 
 tinee ne m'eiit pas reserve ma portion. Je 
 confiai mes peines a un vieil Arabe, qui me dit : 
 ' Mon fils, ne desesperez pas ; il y avait autrefois 
 un grain de sable qui se lamentait d'etre un 
 atome ignore dans les deserts; au bout de quel- 
 ques annees il devint diamant, et il est a present 
 le plus bel ornement de la couronne du roi des 
 Indes.' Ce discours me fit impression; j'etais 
 le grain de sable, je resolus de devenir diamant. 
 Je commencai par voler deux chevaux; je 
 m'associai des camarades; je me mis en etat de 
 voler de petites caravanes : ainsi je fis cesser peu 
 a peu la disproportion qui etait d'abord entre 
 les hommes et moi. J'eus ma part aux biens 
 de ce monde, et je fus meme dedommage avec 
 usurer on me consider a beaucoup: je devins 
 seigneur brigand; j 'acquis ce cnateau par voie 
 de fait. Le satrape de Syrie voulut m'en dis- 
 posseder; mais j'etais deja trop riche pour avoir 
 rien a craindre; jedonnai del'argent au satrape, 
 moyennant quoi je conservai ce chateau, et 
 j'agrandis mes domaines; il me nomma meme 
 tresorier des tributs que l'Arabie Petree payait 
 au roi des rois. Je fis ma charge de receveur, 
 et point du tout celle de payeur." 
 
ARBOGAD 169 
 
 Arbogad also informs Zadig that the times are 
 especially good for plundering, now that Moab- 
 dar is dead. Everything is in confusion in 
 Babylon. He does not know, and does not care, 
 what has become of Astarte; she may have 
 passed through his hands. He seized every- 
 thing that he could, but he did not keep it, he 
 sold it to the highest bidder. He has heard, 
 however, of the incursions of the Prince d'Hyr- 
 canie, perhaps she is among his concubines. 
 While talking he drank with so much courage 
 that his ideas became confused. He kept re- 
 peating that he was the happiest of men, and 
 urged Zadig not to worry any more about the 
 fate of Astarte. Finally, gradually made 
 drowsy by the fumes of the wine, he went to 
 bed and slept tranquilly all night. Zadig, how- 
 ever, passed the night in the greatest agitation, 
 continually contrasting the fate of his Astarte 
 with that of the robber Arbogad. The next 
 morning he inquired of all the inhabitants of 
 the chateau if they knew anything of Astarte, 
 but they were too busy to pay any attention to 
 him. They had taken new booty during the 
 night, and the most that he could obtain from 
 them was the permission to depart. He availed 
 
170 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 himself of this permission without delay, and 
 started on his way to Babylon. 
 
 The question that confronts us now is, what 
 did Voltaire mean by this episode? It is ob- 
 vious that we must determine from his works 
 to whom he most consistently gives the epithet 
 of voleur, and be guided by an analysis of the 
 episode itself in our interpretation of it. 
 
 To me the salient points in this episode are 
 the following: 
 
 First: Arbogad's motto is: Ceite terre est a 
 moi. He is the absolute lord of it; he is the 
 Seigneur. 
 
 Second: Arbogad has no right to his lands 
 except that of brigandage; the right of might 
 or ruse. 
 
 Third : Arbogad owes his elevation in ultimo 
 to an apologue, the grain of sand which became 
 diamond. The ultimate source of all his ac- 
 tions is the envy which the grain of sand bears 
 toward the diamond. 
 
 Fourth: Arbogad was not only lord of his 
 own lands, but was the fermier-general of others ; 
 he is receveur but not payeur of the tribute of 
 Arabie Petree. 
 
 Fifth: Arbogad's portrait: he has some good 
 
AEBOGAD 171 
 
 qualities among a host of evil ones. He honors 
 valor; he comes to the aid of Zadig against his 
 own troops. Although he robbed with furious 
 rapacity, he gave liberally. He was intrepid in 
 battle, rather pleasant in social intercourse ; de- 
 bauched at table, but gay in his debauche; a 
 wine-bibber and great eater, lingering long at 
 dinner; good raconteur, remarkable for his 
 frankness, and always eager to enroll new re- 
 cruits. 
 
 Now it seems to me that the key to Voltaire's 
 symbolism in this episode is Arbogad's motto: 
 Cette terre est a moi. Let us consider this 
 symbolism, with all its probable ramifications. 
 
 In the first place, who is entitled to say: 
 " Cette terre est a moi seul ; tout ce qui vient sur 
 mes terres est a moi; tout ce que vous avez 
 m'appartient ; votre personne m'appartient ? " 
 Clearly, for Voltaire, there can be but one inter- 
 pretation, in ultimo, of the symbol: it is the 
 symbol of the Infame, the symbol of Intoler- 
 ance, le vil tyran de Vesprit. Where did he 
 meet this symbol ? Everywhere : in religion, in 
 politics, in literature; it was the spirit of the 
 18th century. But keeping to the literal sig- 
 nificance of the motto: Cette terre est a moi, 
 
172 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 who was entitled to raise that cry, or who arro- 
 gated to himself that right ? Clearly there were 
 only three classes of persons who could repeat 
 Arbogad's motto, namely, (1), the gods, (2), 
 their vicars on earth, especially the kings and 
 the popes, and (3), the vicars of the vicars of the 
 gods, les serviteurs des serviteurs de Dieu, and 
 of the kings; in short, whoever speaks in their 
 name and with their authority. These terms 
 are mutually equivalent, for the title of the 
 popes is le serviteur des serviteurs de Dieu; the 
 popes are kings of the earth ; the popes are gods 
 on earth, as are also the kings ; every ecclesias- 
 tical prince, as also every nobleman, is king of 
 his own territory; even the fermiers-generaux 
 are called plebeian kings in Bdbouc. 
 
 There is danger of equivocation here, unless 
 we define our terms. I am not concerned with 
 any philosophical or metaphysical discussion of 
 the divinity that shapes our ends, or of the God 
 of any sect ; I am concerned solely with the idea 
 of God and of his vicars on earth that pervades 
 all Voltaire's works. To him the God of the 
 Christians was a monster of intolerance, by vir- 
 tue of his cry ; "lam thy God and thou shalt 
 have no other God but me." Cf. M. 17, p. 476, 
 
ARBOGAD 173 
 
 577, 581. Voltaire says also (Essai sur les 
 mceurs, Beuchot 18, pp. 144-145) that Chris- 
 tianity has produced only crimes and assassina- 
 tions by its intolerance : quiconque ne pense pas 
 comme nous est reprouve, et il faut avoir les 
 reprouves en horreur. If Voltaire had been con- 
 vinced that God had revealed himself to the 
 wretched Jews, and that their God was really 
 the Creator of the universe, his attitude would 
 have been different. But he looked upon their 
 God as a man after David's own heart: a re- 
 morseless brigand, a debauchee, passionate even 
 to bestiality, rapacious as Joseph, their first 
 fermier-general, and the type of the Jews of all 
 times, reducing man body and soul to a state of 
 abject slavery. Wherever we find in Voltaire 
 a symbol of tyranny, of exclusive domination, 
 of intolerance in short, we will find inevitably 
 at the bottom of it the God of the Garden, insa- 
 tiable of our misfortunes in this world and in 
 the next. It is impossible not to recognize him 
 in Arbogad and his motto. "You are mine, 
 body and soul, and all that you have is mine; 
 believe in me, enroll yourself under me, spread 
 my gospel with fire and sword, and you will be 
 saved; otherwise you will be damned in this 
 
174 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 life and the next and burn forever in hell-fire." 
 It is impossible not to recognize him in the 
 name of the Westphalian Baron Thunder-ten- 
 tronckh, the thunderer among the trees of the 
 garden, who, whether Senior or Junior, whether 
 of the Old Testament or of the New, wants 
 everything for himself, especially whatever is 
 dearest to man : liberty, life, happiness, wealth, 
 etc. He appears in Voltaire's works in a score 
 of forms, like the old Proteus of the Greeks, 
 but he can always be held fast by the trail of his 
 rapacious tyranny. 
 
 Of course there is a sense in which one can 
 say of God that everything is his, to give and to 
 take away as he pleases. There is a sense in 
 which every man can say with Job : " The Lord 
 hath given, the Lord hath taken away; blessed 
 be the name of the Lord." That is an eternal 
 verity which nobody will contest, in a certain 
 sense. But certainly the Creator of the uni- 
 verse has not given to any one of our fellow- 
 beings the right to speak in his name, to rob 
 in his name, to burn, to rape, and slay in his 
 name and for his greater glory, the right to cry 
 (M. 9, p. 388) : 
 
AEBOGAD 175 
 
 * Ce n'est pas moi, c'est lui qui manque a ma parole, 
 Qui frappe par mes mains, pille, brule, vicile" 
 
 Could the partisans of such a frightful dogma, 
 Voltaire asks, say more, if they worshipped the 
 devil? 
 
 To Voltaire the origin of evil in the world 
 was to be traced, not to man's passions as such, 
 but to the fact that they became justified, in 
 the course of time, through the misuse of the 
 name of the Deity. What will the people not 
 endure from the tyranny of a king, if they are 
 persuaded that he is the Lord's anointed, that he 
 rules by divine right, that he, like the pope, 
 can do no wrong ? Efface such a conception : let 
 the people see that the Deity has nothing to do 
 with the manner in which man conducts him- 
 self, that his reason has been given him to serve 
 as his criterion as to what is best for him, and 
 tyranny, and persecution in the name of God 
 will cease utterly. To all legislators who spoke 
 to the people in the name of the Deity, Voltaire 
 would speak thus (Essai sur les Moeurs, Beu- 
 chot 15, p. 243) : " Arrete, ne compromets pas 
 ainsi la Divinite; tu veux me tromper si tu la 
 f ais descendre pour enseigner ce que nous savons 
 
176 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 tous; tu veux sans doute la faire servir a quel- 
 que autre usage; tu veux te prevaloir de mon 
 consentement a des verites eternelles pour ar- 
 racher de moi mon consentement a ton usurpa- 
 tion. Je te defere au peuple comme un tyran 
 qui blaspheme." 
 
 The example of Arbogad's motto: Cette terre 
 est a moi, which will be most readily recalled, 
 is that of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob : " All that land I give unto thee and thy 
 descendants forever." The oracles of the Jews 
 promised them not only the land of Canaan, 
 flowing with milk and honey, but the dominion 
 of the earth; they, whose number was as small 
 and insignificant as a few scattered grains of 
 sand, were to be as the grains of sand of the 
 desert : uncounted millions ; the whole world was 
 to be blessed in the seed of Abraham. These 
 oracles they took in a literal sense (Essai sur 
 les moeurs, Beuchot 15, p. 138), but the Chris- 
 tians interpreted them in a figurative sense. 
 The Jews, enriched in Egypt by farming the 
 revenues, their favorite occupation ever since, 
 robbed the Egyptians of their golden vessels, 
 were led into the deserts by their Arbogad, 
 where they languished for forty years, and 
 
AEBOGAD 177 
 
 finally took possession of a little kingdom by 
 the most odious rapacities in history. 1 They 
 told the Moabites that their God had given 
 them this land, just as the God of the Moabites 
 had given them their land. The God of the 
 Jews was so thoroughly a tribal God that he 
 could conquer on the mountains, but not in the 
 valleys. So the God of every little nation was 
 thoroughly a tribal God, made in the image of 
 the brigand who first used the name of the deity 
 to justify his usurpation. The literal meaning 
 of the name of the Egyptian deity Osiris, Vol- 
 taire tells us (M. 18, p. 358), is the motto of 
 Arbogad: Cette terre est a moi. In every war 
 in historical times, and even the wars of which 
 mythology tells us, the tribal gods fought at the 
 head of the tribes to determine the question: 
 A qui est cette terre f They were all made in 
 man's own image, but with his passions infi- 
 nitely magnified: infinitely jealous, envious, 
 avaricious, brutal, etc. One can easily see in 
 what a variety of forms Voltaire can present 
 such a conception of the divinity. He is Sacro- 
 
 1 It may not be out of place to emphasise the fact that 
 this interpretation of the Jews and their God is Vol- 
 taire's; I merely reproduce it. 
 12 
 
178 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 gorgon in the Pucelle: the grand inquisitor 
 whose Medusa head turns men's hearts to stone. 
 He is Martinguerre in the same poem, voleur 
 de jour, voleur de nuit, mais saintement a la 
 vierge attache, who, in times of confusion seizes 
 everything that he can lay his hands on, and 
 whose head is cut off by an intrepid English- 
 woman : symbolic of England's deliverance from 
 the papacy in the war started by Martin Luther. 
 He appears in Vanderdendur, the lover of 
 riches and the perpetrator of inhuman cruelties 
 to secure them. He is particularly the lover of 
 virgins; witness Voltaire's Pucelle and the 
 origin of Christianity. The Jews were com- 
 manded by their Arbogad to kill every living 
 J\ thing, except des jeunes filles nubiles. He is 
 the lover of old women who have fallen once or 
 more times; he takes them unto himself, and 
 incidentally their wealth also. As the God who 
 spoke to Moses face to face but still showed 
 himself only par derriere, he is Hermaphrodix, 
 Conculix, Cacambo, like Diafoirus, qui riest 
 pas accoutume a parler aux visages. He is the 
 God of incest, since he is the father of himself 
 by his mother, as in Voltaire's first symbolic 
 work, (JEdipe. As the phallic God, what is his 
 
ARBOGAD 179 
 
 symbol ? The winged ass of the Pucelle, whose 
 favors he finally gets. 
 
 For Voltaire the three impostors, Moses, 
 Jesus Christ, and Mohammed, all followed 
 identical plans: those of Arbogad. They all 
 raised his cry : Cette terre est a moi. " The 
 earth is mine and the fullness thereof." Vol- 
 taire says (M. 25, p. 131) : " Christianity was 
 established by imposture and madness. An im- 
 postor harangues the dregs of society in a barn, 
 and the impostors who succeed him soon inhabit 
 palaces." Yet Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mo- 
 hammed, came after the earth had been appor- 
 tioned; the lots had been cast; everybody was 
 in peaceful possession of his own. But the 
 dregs of society ran eagerly after an ambitious 
 impostor who told them that he had come to 
 save them, and that theirs should be the domin- 
 ion of the earth. Cf. especially Idees repub- 
 licaines, M. 24, p. 414, where the parallel be- 
 tween Arbogad and the robber-God of the Chris- 
 tians is very clear. He aroused their envy and 
 their cupidity. The impostors of the new sect 
 of Christianity used the oracles of the Jews 
 about the sands of the desert to designate the 
 world dominion of the new sect (M. 18, p. 427 
 
180 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 f.). Peter is the grain of sand, or the stone, 
 of the desert, which became diamond. It was 
 no use to tell the choleric Gregory VII, Pope 
 Hildebrand, or, as the Germans call him, Pope 
 Hollenbrand, that it was only a question of the 
 celestial empire. Maudit dwmne, he cried, il 
 s'agit du terrestre, et il vous damnait, et il vous 
 faisait pendre s'il pouvodt. More profound 
 minds, Voltaire adds, went further in their 
 demonstrations: if Jesus had renounced the 
 kingdom of the earth, it must all the more be- 
 long to his vicar the Pope. Who had a better 
 claim to what the master cast off than the loyal 
 servant of that master ? So the papal Arbogad 
 claimed the dominion of the whole world. 
 There was not a single usurpation since the time 
 of Gregory that did not get its authorization 
 from the vicar of Christ (Essai sur les Mceurs, 
 Beuchot 16, p. 260). And the deposed king 
 was expected to say : " The Lord hath given, the 
 Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of 
 the Lord." The Lord was Arbogad. Even the 
 new kingdoms, discovered and conquered by 
 horrible atrocities, in the New World, were 
 parceled out by Arbogad, who stole with such 
 furious rapacity and gave so liberally. 
 
AEBOGAD 181 
 
 In what way is Arbogad the symbol of the 
 kings of Europe? By divine right; they are 
 the Lord's anointed. Christ means anointed; 
 therefore every king is a Christ, an Arbogad. 
 In what respect is a king a robber ? Every first 
 king is a robber, a brigand, voleur de grand 
 chemin, as Voltaire says in a score of places 
 (cf. Annates de VEmpire, Beuchot 23, p. 93; 
 and Essai sur les Mamrs, Beuchot 17, p. 447). 
 In the second place, the kings with whom Vol- 
 taire came into contact, especially Louis XV 
 and Frederick, were despots, were like any 
 voleur de grand chemin. " A prince who, with- 
 out justice, and without the formality of estab- 
 lished laws, imprisons or puts away a citizen, 
 is a highwayman, whom we call Your Majesty" 
 (M. 23, p. 530). Voltaire had gone almost as 
 far as that in his English Letters (M. 22, p. 
 103 f.) : "The English are the only nation of 
 the earth that has succeeded in limiting the 
 power of the king by law, and leaving him all 
 liberty to do good, has tied his hands to do evil. 
 Other nations have shed as much blood as the 
 English in the cause of liberty, but it has only 
 served to cement their bondage." It is plain, 
 therefore, that Arbogad, qui faisait quelquefois 
 
182 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 de bonnes actions parmi une foule de mauvaises, 
 is every king of Europe, and of the world, ex- 
 cept the English king. 
 
 Kings and popes have their subordinate brig- 
 ands. Every ecclesiastical prince of Germany 
 was an Arbogad; every religious order, exempt 
 from taxation, had as its head an Arbogad, de- 
 voured with the rage of amassing wealth. 
 Every fermier-general, to whom a portion of 
 the kingdom was given pour le travailler en 
 finance, as Voltaire calls it (M. 10, p. 57), was 
 an Arbogad, who robbed and ravaged in the 
 name of his master. The Arbogad of Zadig 
 says that he was appointed receiver of the 
 tribute which Arable Petree paid to the King 
 of Kings. The King of Kings was, in one sense, 
 the Pope. The ecclesiastical princes and the 
 religious orders, especially those of Germany, 
 collected Peter's pence, i. e., the tribute of 
 Arabie Petree, but did not always turn it into 
 the coffers of the King of Kings. It was this 
 tribute, Voltaire says, which turned Germany, 
 Holland, and England away from the Holy 
 Roman Catholic Church. In another sense the 
 King of France was the King of Kings. The 
 kings of whom he was the king are called by Vol- 
 
ARBOGAD 183 
 
 taire in Bdbouc (M. 21, p. 7) "forty plebeyan 
 kings." One could quote a score of passages 
 from Voltaire's works where he has raised his 
 voice against the traitants, who laid waste the 
 kingdom and kept nine-tenths of their ill-gotten 
 gains. Babouc concluded from the shameless 
 traffic in the dignities of the empire and from 
 the depredations of the plebeyan kings, that the 
 Angel Ituriel would not have to destroy Perse- 
 polis, for the inhabitants would exterminate 
 themselves by their evil internal administra- 
 tion. Thus every little roitelet of the fermiers- 
 generaux was entitled to raise the cry of Arbo- 
 gad: Cette terre est a moi et tout ce que vous 
 avez m'appartient de droit divin. 
 
 Voltaire had just had an unpleasant experi- 
 ence with one of them, whose name, Michel, as 
 that of the messenger and agent of the Biblical 
 Arbogad, fitted most happily into his symbolism. 
 "Un certain Michel, a qui j'avais conne" une 
 partie de ma fortune, s'est avise de faire la 
 plus horrible banqueroute que mortel financier 
 puisse faire. C'etait un receveur general des 
 finances de Sa Majeste. Or je ne concois que 
 mediocrement comment un receveur general des 
 finances peut faire banqueroute sans etre un 
 
184 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 fripon " (Letter to Cideville from Brussels, Oct. 
 28, 1741 ; M. 36, p. 104). Voltaire had already 
 written to Thieriot (M. 36, p. 102) that Michel 
 had taken 32500 livres, " soit en rentes, soit en 
 argent comptant ; mais je le crois plus a plaindre 
 que moi," he adds. "II vivait splendidement 
 du bien d'autrui, et il sera reduit a ne le de- 
 penser qu'a la sourdine." He consoles himself 
 with the words of Job, adding that one can sub- 
 mit to Providence without being devot (M. 35, 
 p. 481). He ends the episode with the pious 
 wish that the devil may get Michel (Letter to 
 Mme. Denis, Sept. 9, 1752) ; and that is where 
 all his symbolism ends: in the equivalence of 
 God and the devil. 
 
 The question as to the identity of Arbogad 
 is not yet answered, however. There are sev- 
 eral other applications which show how far- 
 reaching Voltaire's symbolism was. Voltaire 
 was met on every hand by the symbol of Arbo- 
 gad: Cette terre est a moi. In the first place, 
 he had to leave his little paradise of Cirey and 
 spend several years in Brussels or in its neig- 
 borhood on account of the lawsuit of Mme. du 
 Chatelet. A second cousin of M. du Chatelet, 
 named M. le marquis de Trichateau, had died 
 
ARBOGAD 185 
 
 a widower, without children, at Cirey, and 
 Mme. du Chatelet claimed the inheritance. Her 
 claim was disputed by the House of Honsbrook, 
 so that Voltaire had to defend himself against 
 the symbol of Arbogad: Cette terre est a moi. 
 It was due to his efforts that, after long litiga- 
 tion, Mme. du Chatelet, although she had to 
 renounce the little principality and the title of 
 princess which would have gone with it, re- 
 ceived a large sum of money in settlement of 
 her claim. The successful heirs of the Marquis 
 de Trichateau were connected with Arbogad, 
 not merely by their cry: Cette terre est a moi, 
 but also, I think, by a pun on the name of the 
 Marquis. Voltaire poses, in the Pucelle, as M. 
 de Tritheme. He claims that the book De 
 tribus impost oribus, which Des Vignes, the 
 chancellor of the Emperor Frederick II, is sup- 
 posed to have written, was found by a M. de 
 Trawsmandorf (M. 17, p. 468). He is evi- 
 dently punning, in both cases, on the trinity 
 (tri-, tris, trois, trine, tritheisme). It is likely, 
 therefore, that Trichateau is thought of by Vol- 
 taire as the chateau of the trinity, i. e., of 
 Arbogad. , 
 
 We still have to examine the portrait of 
 
186 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 Arbogad in order to determine who he was. We 
 are aided in this analysis by another circum- 
 stance. Who was, in Voltaire's time, the par- 
 ticular King who raised the cry : " Cette terre 
 est a moi ? " With what particular King, who 
 raised that cry, did Voltaire come into relations ? 
 What particular King was intrepid in action, 
 pleasant in social relations, debauched at table, 
 gay in his debauch, a lingerer at rather famous 
 soupers, something of a wine-bibber, good ra- 
 conteur, animated in speech until overcome by 
 the fumes of wine, characterized by his frank- 
 ness, eager to enroll recruits, and especially 
 eager to have Voltaire in his entourage? 
 
 The answer is beyond the shadow of a doubt : 
 it was Frederick the Great, whom Voltaire per- 
 sisted in calling the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, a God who believed in no God except 
 himself. 
 
 The question: A qui est cette terre ? was a 
 burning one at the time. It is not necessary 
 that I should describe the situation of Europe ; 
 I need only refer the reader to Voltaire's Precis 
 du siecle de Louis XV. The various claimants 
 to slices of the Austrian succession prepared, in 
 spite of the Pragmatic sanction of Charles VI, 
 
AEBOGAD 187 
 
 to which they had all agreed, to enforce their 
 claims by resort to arms. These claims had 
 already been pleaded in publications through- 
 out the whole Christian world (M. 15, p. 
 191 ff.). "Tous les princes, tous les particu- 
 liers, y prenaient interet. On s'attendait a une 
 guerre universelle; mais ce qui confondit la 
 politique humaine, c'est que Forage commenca 
 d'un cote on personne n'avait tourne les yeux." 
 That was the invasion of Silesia by Frederick 
 the Great. Frederick's ancestors had laid claim 
 to four duchies in Silesia, which they had been 
 obliged to renounce because they were weak. 
 Frederick's father had governed his kingdom 
 in the one end of making it strong; he turned 
 everything into soldiers and into money. He 
 brought up the crown prince in the same single 
 aim, namely, that he might make good the claim 
 of Arbogad: Gette terre est a moi. Before his 
 invasion of Silesia Frederick and Voltaire had 
 met at the old chateau de Moiland, near Cleves, 
 in Khenish Prussia, and very near the little 
 principality of Trichateau, names most appro- 
 priate for Voltaire's symbolism. At Voltaire'3 
 arrival, or shortly thereafter, two thousand sol- 
 diers of Frederick departed at a gallop, with a 
 
188 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 summons written by Voltaire, to enforce Fred- 
 erick's claim against the Bishop of Liege on the 
 Principality of Herstall (M. 23, p. 153, and 
 Memoires pour servir a la vie de Voltaire). 
 Voltaire calls the two thousand soldiers of Fred- 
 erick "two thousand demonstrations of his 
 claim." This is the starting point of the episode 
 in Zadig: Comme il passait pres oVun chateau 
 assez fort, des Arabes armes en sortirent. The 
 fiction by which Zadig is represented as being 
 attacked by them is due to symbolism, since 
 Voltaire was always warring against the symbol 
 of Arbogad : Intolerance, a war in which Fred- 
 erick himself came to his aid. There is justi- 
 fication for this symbolism even in the summons 
 which Voltaire wrote against the Bishop ot 
 Liege, since every ecclesiastical prince of Ger- 
 many was an Arbogad. How could a member 
 of the sect of Christ, whose vow bound him to 
 poverty and humility, arrive at princely dignity 
 except by the methods of Arbogad ? Frederick 
 refers to Voltaire's prowess in this little war 
 against the " prince-eveque," and against the 
 arch-robber in the Republic of Letters, Van 
 Duren, the publisher of the Anti-Machiavel (M. 
 35, p. 535) : Le Liegeois que vous abattez, Van 
 
AEBOGAD 189 
 
 Duren que vous retenez, etc. In still another 
 sense Frederick had aided Voltaire against 
 Arbogad, namely, in the litigation of Mme. du 
 Chatelet about the principality of Trichateau. 
 The real significance of Frederick's aid to Vol- 
 taire, as symbolized in this episode, is to be 
 sought, however, in the cause of Voltaire's first 
 visit to Berlin. Voltaire's .fight against the 
 symbol of Arbogad culminated in his tragedy 
 Mahomet, which, he tells us, was inspired by 
 the persecutions of the epoch of the Voltairo- 
 manie. Mohammed was the greatest non-Jew- 
 ish, non-Christian brigand of history (cf. Vol- 
 taire's parallel between Mohammed and his suc- 
 cessors on the one hand and the Jews and their 
 God on the other : Essai sur les mceurs, Beuchot 
 15, p. 323). Voltaire's tragedy, symbolic of 
 the poet's defense of his person from the attacks 
 of religious fanaticism, was being played at 
 Lille, when the author received news of Fred- 
 erick's victory of Molwitz. He immediately 
 announced the news to the audience, in the ex- 
 pectation, he says, that Frederick's victory 
 would contribute to the success of his drama, 
 i. e., that Arbogad would come to his rescue. 
 Further, when Voltaire was being persecuted in 
 
190 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 Paris by the enemies of his tragedy, the parte- 
 mentaires, the convulsionnaires, the traducer 
 Desfontaines, the old poet Crebillon, Maurepas 
 and Mirepoix, the Archbishop of Sens and the 
 Archbishop of Strasburg, it was Frederick, the 
 Arbogad of Silesia, as well as the Pope, the 
 Arbogad of Kome, who came to his rescue. Vol- 
 taire went to the court of Frederick ostensibly 
 to escape from the persecutions of his enemies 
 in Paris, and he dedicated his tragedy to the 
 pope. Thus Arbogad, having witnessed the pro- 
 digious valor of Zadig, one man against a multi- 
 tude, pushed aside his own soldiers and rescued 
 the hero. 
 
 Frederick, half humorously, half seriously, 
 claimed that Voltaire belonged to him by di- 
 vine right (M. 36, p. 179; Nov. 18, 1742) and 
 that he could seize him wherever he found him. 
 If he had followed his own inclinations he 
 would long ago have printed a manifesto to this 
 effect. Thus the soldiers of Arbogad cry : Tout 
 ce que vous avez nous appartient, et voire per- 
 sonne appartient a notre maxtre. Such refer- 
 ences run all through Frederick's correspond- 
 ence with Voltaire. He threatens to carry him 
 off. He sends him wine, which he drinks, and 
 
AEBOGAD 191 
 
 by virtue of which, in Candide, he becomes an 
 unwilling recruit of the Bulgarian captain. It 
 is the recruiting mania of Frederick's father 
 for tall men, and of Frederick for great men. 
 Voltaire uses the expression de grands hommes 
 in an equivocal sense in his letter to Maupertuis 
 (M. 35, p. 468) : the six-foot physical giants 
 of the father have given way to the six-foot in- 
 tellectual giants of the son. Frederick did 
 everything in his power to make Voltaire's 
 return to France impossible (M. 36, p. 211) : 
 " Mon intention est de brouiller Voltaire si bien 
 en France qu'il ne lui reste de parti a prendre 
 que celui de venir chez moi." Voltaire was not 
 his dupe this time (M. 36, p. 253) : "Ne pou- 
 vant me gagner autrement, il croit m'acquerir 
 en me perdant en France ; mais je vous jure que 
 j'aimerais mieux vivre dans un village suisse 
 que de jouir a ce prix de la favour dangereuse 
 d'un roi capable de mettre de la trahison dans 
 l'amitie meme : ce serait en ce cas un trop grand 
 malheur de lui plaire. Je ne veux point du 
 palais d'Alcine, ou Ton est esclave parce qu'on 
 a ete aime." 
 
 Zadig has difficulty in getting clear and pre- 
 cise information out of Arbogad about Moabdar, 
 
192 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 Astarte, and the trend of events in the Empire. 
 He informs him, however, that Moabdar is dead, 
 after having gone mad, that Babylon is a great 
 coupe-gorge, que V empire est desole, and that 
 the time is most opportune for pillaging, qu'il 
 y a de beaux coups a faire, et que pour ma part 
 fen ai fait d'admirables. So Frederick, not 
 more than a month and a half after his first 
 meeting with Voltaire, wrote (M. 35, p. 540; 
 Oct. 26, 1740) that the death of the Emperor 
 had disarranged all his pacific plans ; the affair 
 with the Bishop of Liege (which had been set- 
 tled peaceably by an agreement signed at Berlin, 
 Oct. 20) was nothing at all in comparison to 
 the death of the Emperor, which meant the 
 bouleversement de V Europe. In the words of 
 Arbogad: "Jamais la saison de voler n'a ete 
 meilleure, depuis que Moabdar est tue, et que 
 tout est en confusion dans Babylon." At the 
 time of his semi-diplomatic mission to the court 
 of Frederick Voltaire had the same difficulty as 
 Zadig in getting precise information out of 
 Frederick. He finally learned, after many jest- 
 ing or evasive replies of the King had sorely 
 tried his patience, that Frederick's hesitation 
 about renewing the alliance with France was 
 
AEBOGAD 193 
 
 due to the fact that Louis XV had not declared 
 war on his uncle, King George of England. 
 Twenty days after this declaration was made 
 Frederick and Louis XV renewed their alliance 
 (March, 1744). Thus Voltaire was instrumen- 
 tal in uniting the two most pronounced Arbo- 
 gad kings of Europe. 
 
 The other features of Arbogad's portrait cor- 
 respond with those of Frederick. Arbogad's 
 frankness is especially emphasized. So Fred- 
 erick writes to Voltaire (M. 34, p. 164) that 
 the Germans are distinguished for their good- 
 sense, their candor, and the veracity of their 
 speech. The frankness of the King is often 
 brutal, and shows a cynical disbelief in any 
 virtue except self-interest. Voltaire fears that 
 Frederick despises too much mankind (M. 36, 
 p. 107), since he paints so well les nobles fripon- 
 neries des politiques, les soins interesses des 
 courtisans. That was, according to the French 
 Ambassador at the court of Frederick, M. de 
 Valori, the particular fault in Frederick's char- 
 acter. Again, the debauchery of Arbogad a 
 souper, is a reminiscence of the famous soupers 
 of Frederick, in which nnbr idled license reigned, 
 especially in the brutal frankness of the King's 
 13 
 
194 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 jests, whether spoken or acted. " Ce gouverne- 
 ment singulier, ces moeurs encore plus etranges, 
 ce contraste de stoi'cisme et d'epicureisme, de 
 severite dans la discipline militaire, et de mol- 
 lesse dans Pinterieur du palais, des pages avec 
 lesquels on s'amusait dans son cabinet, et des 
 soldats qu'on faisait passer trente-six fois par 
 les baguettes sous les fenetres du monarque qui 
 les regardait, des discours de morale, et une 
 licence effrenee, tout cela composait un tableau 
 bizarre que peu de personnes connaissaient alors, 
 et qui depuis a perce dans l'Europe " (Memoires 
 pour servir a la vie de Voltaire, M. 1, p. 29). 
 
 There are some features of the episode of 
 Arbogad which do not apply to Frederick either 
 in his capacity as King or in his character as 
 the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but in 
 his capacity as a man of letters. I wish to show 
 how Voltaire connected him with the symbol 
 of the brigandage of literature. 
 
 Frederick had the mania of verse-making, the 
 rage of writing ; he was possessed with " ce desir 
 insurmontable, cette fureur . . . de produire 
 ses premiers ouvrages" (M. 34, p. 164). As 
 crown-prince he had begun the composition of 
 the Anti-Machiavel, with the publication of 
 
AEBOGAD 195 
 
 which Voltaire was entrusted. Voltaire picked 
 out a publisher, whose name was later to serve 
 his symbolism, a certain Van Duren, of The 
 Hague, the "publisher of the most horrible 
 calumnies against the Regent, the most signal 
 rogue of Europe." When Frederick became 
 King, and especially when he realized what a 
 fine opportunity he had to put into practice the 
 principles of Machiavelli's prince, which he had 
 so eloquently refuted in his work, he wished to 
 withdraw it from publication. Voltaire's con- 
 duct in this negotiation is not above criticism. 
 There is not a doubt in the first place, that he 
 wished to have the AntirMachiavel published as 
 a guarantee to the world of Frederick's attach- 
 ment to the principles of honor, justice, and 
 humanity (M. 35, p. 541) : " J'ai ete bien aise," 
 he writes, "qu'un roi ait fait ainsi, entre mes 
 mains, serment a l'univers d'etre bon et juste." 
 It was his purpose to make it impossible for 
 Frederick, after the publication of the Anti- 
 Machiavel, to act the part of Machiavelli's 
 prince. At the same time he had the positive 
 instructions of the King to withdraw the manu- 
 script. What did he do? He did everything 
 he could to excite the cupidity of Van Duren, 
 
196 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 by vague references to the royal author, in spite 
 of the King's prohibition to mention him. He 
 succeeded so well that Van Duren refused, for 
 any consideration whatever, to desist from his 
 purpose of publishing the work. With that ob- 
 ject accomplished, Voltaire could do anything 
 he liked to justify himself in Frederick's eyes 
 as a good and faithful servant. He offered Van 
 Duren large sums, which he increased at three 
 different times; he secured possession of the 
 manuscript, folio by folio, on the plea of mak- 
 ing necessary corrections, and inserted what- 
 ever he liked, ostensibly to make the manuscript 
 useless to Van Duren. Then, after having con- 
 vinced the King that he had done all in his 
 power to prevent the publication and failed, he 
 secures the permission of Frederick to publish 
 his own version. That was just what Voltaire 
 aimed at, I feel sure, for he made so many 
 changes in the King's work that the author not 
 only disavowed the edition of Van Duren but 
 also that of Voltaire. But here Voltaire fell 
 into a snare from which he had great difficulty 
 in extricating himself. By the law of the land, 
 it seems (M. 35, p. 527), Van Duren had the 
 exclusive right to publish and sell the Anti- 
 
ABBOGAD 197 
 
 Machiavel and for the sole reason that he had 
 been the first to announce his intention of pub- 
 lishing and selling it. That constitutes Vol- 
 taire's great grief against Van Duren, and it 
 connects him with the symbol of Arbogad : Cette 
 terre est a moi. Although Voltaire rages and 
 fumes he gives Van Duren credit for his busi- 
 ness perspicacity (M. 35, p. 523) : "II a raison 
 d'en user ainsi; ces deux editions et les sui- 
 vantes feraient sa fortune, et je suis sur qu'un 
 libraire qui aurait seul le droit de copie en 
 Europe gagnerait trente-mille ducats au moins." 
 That was Van Duren's plan, to possess himself 
 of both manuscripts (M. 35, p. 523) : "H vou- 
 lait imprimer et le manuscript que j'ai tente de 
 retirer de ses mains et celui meme que j'ai cor- 
 rige. H veut f riponner sous le manteau de la loi." 
 His legal right was that of Arbogad : Cette terre 
 est a moi, an association for which Frederick 
 was himself responsible. After giving Voltaire 
 permission to go ahead with his own edition and 
 to make whatever changes he wishes so that 
 it may appear as an entirely new and authentic 
 edition and cause that of Van Duren to fall, he 
 says that he will also have to disputer le ter- 
 rain a toutes sortes de Van Duren politiques. 
 
198 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 Thus Frederick not only uses a figure equiva- 
 lent to Cette terre est a moi as a symbol for 
 himself and his brother kings, but he gives a 
 typical, a symbolic, meaning, to the name Van 
 Duren. 
 
 This episode of Van Duren receives signifi- 
 cance by the use the poet made of it in Candide, 
 where the connection of the symbol with Fred- 
 erick is certain. As it has an intimate bearing 
 on the symbolism of Arbogad, I will discuss it 
 here in some detail. 
 
 The Episode of Vanderdendur in Candide 
 As Cacambo and Candide approach the Dutch 
 city and trading station Surinam they come 
 upon a negro stretched on the ground. He is 
 dressed in rags, and is minus the right leg and 
 the left hand. The famous Dutch merchant 
 Vanderdendur has treated him thus; it is the 
 custom there; it is at this cost that the people 
 of Europe eat sugar. Candide sheds sincere 
 tears over the fate of the poor negro and con- 
 tinues on his way to Surinam. Here Vander- 
 dendur offers him transportation to Venice, 
 which he sells successively for 10,000, 20,000, 
 and 30,000 piasters. His cupidity has been 
 
AEBOGAD 199 
 
 aroused by the readiness with which Candide 
 agrees to all his demands. He conspires to get 
 possession of all that Candide calls his own and 
 then to sail away. He succeeds in doing this. 
 Candide appeals to the courts. The judge 
 begins by fining him 10,000 piasters for con- 
 tempt, another 10,000 as costs, and then gra- 
 ciously promises to look into the matter when 
 Vanderdendur shall have returned. " Ce pro- 
 cede acheva de desesperer Candide; il avait a 
 la verite essuye des malheurs mille fois plus 
 douloureux; mais le sangfroid du juge, et celui 
 du patron dont il etait vole, alluma sa bile, et 
 le plongea dans une noire melancholic La 
 mechancete des hommes se presentait a son 
 esprit dans toute sa laideur, il ne se nourrissait 
 que d'idees tristes." 
 
 It is impossible not to recognize here the Van 
 Duren of The Hague, to whom Voltaire had 
 offered successively 1000, 2000, 3000 florins, et 
 enfin jusqua mille ducats (Letter of Voltaire 
 to M. Cyrille Le Petit, Oct. 3, 1741; M. 35, 
 p. 516), and who plotted so cleverly to get 
 possession of both manuscripts of the Ardi- 
 Machiavel. Voltaire had had a lawsuit with 
 him at The Hague, and he was sued by him 
 
200 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 again at Frankfort at the time of the poet's 
 detention there in 1753. Van Duren presented 
 a bill for an old account, which Voltaire, with 
 his accustomed malice, ascribes to Frederick 
 (M. 1, p. 43 ; Memoir es pour servir a la vie de 
 Voltaire) : " II pretendait que sa Majeste lui 
 redevait une vingtaine de ducats, et que j'en 
 etais responsable. II comptait l'interet, et 
 l'interet de l'interet. Le sieur Fichard, bourg- 
 mestre de Francfort, qui etait meme le bourg- 
 mestre regnant, comme cela se dit, trouva, en 
 qualite be bourgmestre, le compte tres-juste, et, 
 en qualite de regnant, il me fit debourser trente 
 ducats, en prit vingt-six pour lui, et en donna 
 quatre au fripon de libraire." 
 
 Voltaire's symbolism here is obscured by the 
 name Vanderdendur, and the poet probably in- 
 tended this to be so. It is not Van Duren, but 
 Frederick the Great that Voltaire has in mind ; 
 it is not Surinam, but (Francfort) sur-Main, 
 for which Surinam is an exact anagramme. 
 The following considerations will demonstrate 
 this, in so far as one can speak of a demonstra- 
 tion here. 
 
 In the first place, Voltaire is here confronted 
 with the old symbolism of Arbogad : Cette terre 
 
AEBOGAD 201 
 
 est a moi. In the land of the Francs, in the city 
 of the Free, in a Free Imperial City, Francfort, 
 Frederick had no rights except those of Arbogad. 
 He had no jurisdiction there, except that of the 
 brigand. Voltaire complained, and never ceased 
 complaining, of this violation of international 
 rights. But to all his representations he received 
 the reply that Frederick had more authority in 
 Francfort than the Emperor. His appeals to 
 the Emperor were not even answered, it seems: 
 Arbogad was supreme. 
 
 In the second place, the poor mutilated negro, 
 whose left leg and right hand had been cut off 
 by Vanderdendur, is simply a variation on the 
 episode of Candide among the Bulgarians, 
 which, in turn, represents Voltaire among the 
 Prussians. Voltaire considered that his ex- 
 perience at the court of Frederick was symbol- 
 ized by the experience of the poor Franc-Com- 
 tois, Courtils, whose tragedy he relates in the 
 Memoires pour servir a la vie de Voltaire. 
 Courtils, like Voltaire, had been enticed to the 
 court of Berlin on the promise of being made 
 chamberlain to his majesty, Frederick Wil- 
 liam, but was put in a regiment of giants in- 
 stead. Courtils deserted, was caught, brought 
 
202 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 back, made to run the gauntlet of a regiment 
 of soldiers armed with ram-rods, had his nose 
 and his ears cut off, after which he was thrown 
 in the military prison of Spandau, from which 
 Voltaire's eloquent verse secured his release. 
 The negro had lost an arm and a leg for assert- 
 ing his right to the noblest privilege of human- 
 ity: liberty; Courtils had lost his nose and his 
 ears for the same reason; Candide had been 
 made to passer trente-six fois par les baguettei 
 for the same reason; and Voltaire had been 
 plunged into the black flood of the Styx and 
 made to drink the bitterness of death for the 
 same cause. In reference to the grand drame 
 de sa vie, as Desnoiresterres calls the Francforl 
 episode, Voltaire writes (M. 9, p. 269), epito 
 mizing the episode of Candide in Eldorado, fol- 
 lowed by Candide in Surinam: 
 
 " An haut des cieux ils vous menent d'abord, 
 Puis on vous plonge au fond de l'onde noire, 
 Et vous buvez l'amertume et la mort." 
 
 Like the poor negro, like Courtils, like Candide, 
 Voltaire had in vain tried to escape from Arbo- 
 gad. Freytag and Schmidt, Frederick's ac- 
 credited brigands, deux ecumeurs barbares, 
 
ABBOttAD 203 
 
 caught him at the frontiers of Mainz, brought 
 him back, searched and robbed him, treated him 
 with cruel indignities, first at the home of 
 Schmidt, then in the Bockshorn, aux comes de 
 houc, fit symbol of the great god Pan, the flute- 
 player Frederick, the god of the trees, of the 
 garden, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was 
 made to sign an affidavit that he had sinned 
 against his royal master in trying to escape, and 
 that Freytag and Schmidt were justified in tak- 
 ing the measures which they had taken ; further, 
 that he would never speak or write about this 
 matter, and that, if he failed to return all the 
 writings which might later be found with which 
 the King of Prussia had honored him, he would 
 submit to any measures which the King might 
 see fit to take, no matter where he might be 
 located at the time. One can not help hearing 
 the words of Arbogad's brigands: Tout ce que 
 vous avez nous appartient, et voire personne ap- 
 partient a notre maitre. 
 
 In the third place, Voltaire betrays his sym- 
 bolism by his reference, in the episode of Van- 
 derdendur, to Candide's baggage. Combien 
 voulez-vous, he says to the brigand, pour me 
 mener en droiture a Venise, moi, mes gens, mon 
 
204 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 bagage, et les deux moutons que voila. Now, 
 Candide had no baggage on arriving at Surinam. 
 He had nothing but the two red sheep loaded 
 with the diamonds of the King of Eldorado. 
 Here again the reference is unmistakable. The 
 Xing of Prussia had written to his military 
 agent at Francfort, the Baron von Freytag, to 
 hold Voltaire a prisoner until his baggage should 
 have arrived, and in case it had already passed 
 Francfort, or had been forwarded by another 
 route, to detain him, under arrest, if necessary, 
 until it should have been brought back and thor- 
 oughly searched for the ceuvre de poesJiie du 
 roi mon maxtre, as Freytag is represented as 
 saying, or, as Voltaire ironically calls the dia- 
 monds of the King's pen, les joyaux de la 
 couronne brandebourgeoise. Freytag promised 
 to allow Voltaire to depart on the arrival of the 
 Leipzig baggage, in which the ceuvre de poeshie 
 was contained, but he plotted to get all of Vol- 
 taire's baggage, just as Vanderdendur plots to 
 get all of the baggage of Candide. Thus the 
 reference to the baggage of the hero, unjustified 
 in the episode taken by itself, receives its raison 
 d'etre from Voltaire's experience at Francfort. 
 In the last place, Voltaire betrays his sym- 
 
AEBOGAD 205 
 
 bolism by Candida's appeal to the law of the 
 land. The only satisfaction he obtained was the 
 gracious promise to look into the matter when 
 Vanderdendur should have returned. What 
 question can there be in the episode of the re- 
 turn of the brigand? None at all; he who 
 steals enough to buy up twenty kingdoms can 
 not be expected to run off with his plunder only 
 to return with it. The reference receives sig- 
 nificance only when applied to Frederick. Vol- 
 taire had appealed to the Imperial Council of 
 Francfort against the usurpation of Frederick, 
 but Freytag and Schmidt defeated his purpose 
 by representing that they were awaiting new 
 orders from the king. Frederick was no longer 
 at Potsdam ; he had gone to Konigsberg. Noth- 
 ing could be done until he returned. So Vol- 
 taire's imprisonment was prolonged until the 
 archrobber Arbogad could be consulted. 
 
 I referred above to Voltaire's epitome of his 
 experience at the court of Frederick, followed 
 by that of Francfort, as symbolized in the ex- 
 perience of Candide in Eldorado and Surinam. 
 
 " Au haut des cieux ils vous menent d'abord, 
 Puis on vous plonge au fond de Ponde noire, 
 Et vous buvez Pamertume et la mort." 
 
206 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 I may be excused for following up this line of 
 thought to explain the symbolism of Eldorado, 
 as it is connected with the question of inequality 
 in society which aroused Arbogad's envy and 
 started him on his career of pillage. It is 
 hardly a digression, therefore, since Voltaire's 
 symbolism is like a spider's web : everything is 
 connected with everything else. It is that fact 
 which makes the difficulty of presentation so 
 great. His symbolism is like the system of 
 Leibnitz and the ideas of Pascal, who claimed 
 that it was impossible to understand anything 
 in the universe because, everything being con- 
 nected with everything else, one can not grasp 
 the significance of any part without knowing 
 the whole ; and since a knowledge of the whole 
 universe is, on the face of it, impossible to mor- 
 tal man, therefore the knowledge of any part of 
 it is impossible. 
 
 The Episode of Eldorado 
 The "diamonds" of the Imagination, the 
 " jewels " of literature, is a common figure with 
 Voltaire. One of his earliest uses of it is the 
 following (M. 33, p. 210) : Plus on a fait 'pro- 
 vision des richesses de Vantiquite, et plus on 
 
AEBOGAD 207 
 
 est dans I 'obligation de les transporter en son 
 pays. In reference to an Epitre of Formont 
 (M. 33, p. 477), he says: Devant les indigents 
 votre main accumule les vastes tresors de 
 Cresus. This theme appears most frequently 
 and persistently in Frederick's correspondence 
 with Voltaire. The very first letter of the 
 Crown Prince (M. 34, p. 101) contains it. 
 Frederick refers, not to Voltaire's ouvrages, but 
 to his voyages, in which he finds des tresors 
 a" esprit. At the time of this letter Voltaire's 
 muse was in Perou, i. e., Voltaire had gone on 
 a literary expedition to Perou, just as La Con- 
 damine had gone there on a scientific expedi- 
 tion (M. 10, p. 511) : 
 
 " Ma muse et son compas sont tous deux au Perou : 
 II suit, il examine, et je peins la nature. 
 Je m'occupe a chanter les pays qu'il mesure : 
 Qui de nous deux est le plus fou? " 
 
 It is by such a figure of speech that he can say 
 that he has traversed the whole world ; and more : 
 by his fictions, in which representatives of other 
 planets come to this little " heap of mud " called 
 the earth, and other fictions by which he is 
 caught up into the air and is carried from 
 
208 SYMBOLISM OP VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 planet to planet, he can say that he has tra- 
 versed the universe. It is likely that, by such 
 fictions, he desired to show his contemporaries 
 the real significance, and at the same time the 
 abuse that had been made of it, of the miracu- 
 lous episode of the Bible, by which Elias was 
 transfigured, or that of Mohammed, who trav- 
 eled, on his horse Borac, through the air. When 
 Voltaire reads Marmontel's book on the Incas 
 much later, he refers to it as the vessel which 
 transported him to Mexico and Perou with Mar- 
 montel. 
 
 Frederick refers to Voltaire's works : La Pu- 
 celle, Le Steele de Louis XIV, Les Elements 
 de la phihsophie de Newton (M. 34, p. 263) 
 as the Golden Fleece; his Traite de Metaphy- 
 sique is likened to the great diamond of Pitt, or 
 the Sanci, qui, dans leur petit volume, renfer- 
 ment des tresors immenses. He would believe 
 himself richer in possessing Voltaire's works 
 than in possessing all the wealth of the world, 
 which the same fortune gives and takes away 
 (M. 34, p. 104). He says (M. 35, p. 424): 
 "Mon cher Voltaire, les gallions de Bruxelles 
 m'ont apporte des tresors qui sont pour moi au- 
 dessus de tout prix. Je m'etonne de la prodigi- 
 
AEBOGAD 209 
 
 euse fecondite de votre Perou, qui parait ine- 
 puisable." 
 
 These references might be multiplied, but 
 enough has been given to show the basis, or one 
 of the elements, of the episode of Eldorado. It 
 is first of all the Land of the Imagination, the 
 diamonds of which are des tresors cT esprit. One 
 of its applications is certainly to the court of 
 Frederick, and for the following reasons. 
 
 In the first place, Voltaire's very first letter 
 to the Prince says that Frederick can bring 
 back the age d'or, i. e., Eldorado, into his king- 
 dom (M. 34, p. 107). 
 
 In the second place, Voltaire calls Frederick 
 the God of Paradise, which is a way of saying 
 that he is the King of Eldorado, and by the 
 following associations: Cirey is the terrestrial 
 paradise (cf. Le Mondain), Cirey is also Eldo- 
 rado, i. e., the Perou of Voltaire's Imagination, 
 from the inexhaustible mines of which he ex- 
 tracts his tresors oV esprit. But Frederick is the 
 King, and the only King, in the Kepublic of 
 Letters, i. e. f in the Land of the Imagination; 
 he is the only roi qui se mele d'ecrire. He is 
 therefore the King of Eldorado. He is " Divus 
 Federicus" (M. 34, 426, p. 561), he is the 
 14 
 
210 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 " God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob " (M. 34, 
 p. 317), i. e., he is the King, or the God of the 
 Garden, the King, or the God of Paradise ; the 
 King or the God of the New Jerusalem, in short, 
 of the Utopia ou tout est hien, "where all is 
 well." 
 
 In the third place, Frederick's father had 
 amassed des tonneaux d'or, Voltaire says (M. 
 10, p. 312 and Marmontel's Memoires, 1, pp. 
 265—266) ; he converted everything into money, 
 all of which Frederick inherited. When Vol- 
 taire came to Frederick's court he desired to 
 have his share of this wealth. He drove a hard 
 bargain with the King. He tried to get posses- 
 sion of Saxon securities at a low figure, in de- 
 fiance of the King's orders that there should be 
 no speculation in them. (Cf. Herrig's Archiv, 
 Vol. 16 (1906), pp. 429 ff.) Finally, he sent 
 all his money out of the kingdom and prepared to 
 leave the court for ever. He had, or he claimed 
 to have had, the greatest difficulty in getting per- 
 mission from the King to leave. Here, in the 
 episode of Eldorado, Voltaire gives free vent to 
 his terrible irony. Of course the King of Eldo- 
 rado would not think of detaining a traveler in 
 his kingdom ; Candide was at liberty to depart. 
 
AEBOGAD 211 
 
 He may also take with him the King's tresors 
 d' esprit, le livre de poeshie du roi mon maitre. 
 He is raised to the top of the heavens, au haut 
 des cieux, in a remarkable fashion; he departs 
 with the " Golden Fleece," with " the great dia- 
 mond of Pitt," with the " Sanci," with the " in- 
 exhaustible treasures of the mines of Perou," 
 all securely encased in red-bound sheep-skin, 
 like the magnificent red-Morocco-bound volumes 
 of the AntirMachiavel which Van Duren was to 
 send to the court of un tres-grand prince d'Al- 
 lemagne. When he arrives at Surinam, i. e., 
 when Voltaire arrives at Francfort, the one has 
 to give up to Vanderdendur the two red sheep 
 with their immense treasures, the other has to 
 give up die von seiner Kbniglichen Majestat 
 hbchst eigenen Handen viele Brief e und SJcrip- 
 turen (cf. Voltaire in Frankfurt, 1753, Zsc. f. 
 fr. Sp. u. XL, Vol. 27, by Hermann Haupt), 
 and, according to the Memoires pour servir a 
 la vie de Voltaire, large sums of money, the 
 equivalence of all that Voltaire had obtained 
 from Frederick during his stay in Prussia. Thus 
 the King of Eldorado, in the person of Vander- 
 dendur, proves himself to be the God and the 
 Robber of the Garden, i. e., Arbogad, who thun- 
 
212 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 ders, from among the trees of the Garden about 
 Voltaire's "trunks," who had already kicked 
 Candideout of the wooded Westphali an Garden, 
 in the person of the old Baron Thunder-ten- 
 tronckh, who proves himself to be "le roi des 
 Bulgares" and "le roi des bougres," whose 
 symbols are the flute of the satyr and great war- 
 god Pan, i. e., the thunderer of the mountains, 
 and the " cornes du bouc " of the God of Moses, 
 of Socrates, of Theodore de Beze, of Candide, 
 whom the Genevan prophet and successor of 
 Calvin loved, etc. One could make a series of 
 equations several pages long for the protean 
 forms of association under which Frederick ap- 
 pears in Voltaire's novels. 
 
 The assimilation of Frederick as Arbogad 
 with the Dutch publisher Van Duren, the robber 
 of the literary garden of Eden in which Vol- 
 taire's imagination roved and from which he 
 drew his tresors d'esprit leads us here to an in- 
 vestigation of the literary brigandage of which 
 Voltaire so often complained. How clearly the 
 secret of Voltaire's symbolism comes out in the 
 following couplet from his Discours sur VEnvie 
 (M. 9, p. 395) : 
 
AEBOGAD 213 
 
 " vous qui de Phonneur entrez dans la carriere, 
 Cette route a vous seul appartient-elle entieret n 
 
 In other words, in the words of Arbogad, who 
 gave you the right to say : Cette terre est a moi ? 
 Is that land yours alone ? Who constituted you 
 the despot of the Garden of the Imagination? 
 By what right do you justify your claim to be 
 lord of all that you survey? What right has 
 a publisher to seize Voltaire's work and deface 
 it, and sell it to the world without rendering 
 an account to the author? What right has a 
 critic, like Desfontaines, to keep open booth, 
 where he sells praise and blame to the highest 
 bidder? What right has Rousseau to decry 
 Zaire as a sermon against the grace efficace of 
 the Jansenists? What right has Lefranc de 
 Pompignan to pillage Metastasio, as Rousseau 
 pillaged Marot and Rabelais? What right, if 
 not the usurpation and tyranny of Arbogad, 
 with his cry : Cette terre est a moi ? 
 
 Like all the scribblers of Europe, Frederick 
 was not a diamond of literature "by the grace 
 of God." He hoped to become one, however, 
 as did his conferes, with practice and with Vol- 
 taire, i. e., with Cunegonde, Voltaire's muse, as 
 blanchisseuse de son linge sale. What does the 
 
214 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 " grain of sand in the Kepublic of Letters " do ? 
 Does he desist from writing? Is he content to 
 remain, by convention, what he is by nature, an 
 unknown atom in the immensity of the desert 
 or of the ocean ? Voltaire tells us what he does 
 in another apologue, quite similar to the one 
 which started Arbogad on his career of plunder 
 (M. 17, p. 570). In view of the enormous 
 number of books in the world, he says, one 
 would think that the person tempted to write 
 would be discouraged and desist; but, on the 
 contrary, he says to himself : " Those books are 
 not read, and mine may be." He compares 
 himself to the drop of water that complained 
 at the thought of being lost in the immensity of 
 the ocean. A spirit took pity on it and had it 
 swallowed by an oyster. In a few years it 
 became a beautiful pearl and graced the throne 
 of the Great Mogul. So the wretched scribbler 
 works away in his garret in the hope of becom- 
 ing a pearl. Such people never think, they 
 compile, they pillage the living and the dead, 
 they rob the diamonds and the possessors of the 
 diamonds, they besmirch the reputation of the 
 great and noble and travesty virtue into vice. 
 Voltaire makes, in his Discours sur VEnvie, 
 
ARBOGAD 215 
 
 an appeal to the gens de lettres to live without 
 dissensions. They would then be like the noble 
 trees of the mount of Parnassus, the lofty pines 
 and the noble oaks, whose peaks touch the heav- 
 ens, whose roots descend into the realm of the 
 dead, whose branches cover the earth, and in 
 whose shadow the vile serpents, the ravenous 
 wolves, the envious robbers and brigands, give 
 battle to each other and moisten their roots with 
 their impure blood. The composition of this 
 discourse points to the application of the rob- 
 bers of the literary garden to the calumnies of 
 Desfontaines and Rousseau. Voltaire images 
 Rousseau under the picture of the hungry and 
 tyrannical wolf of the forest, and Desfontaines 
 under the serpent. It is the epoch of the Vol- 
 tairomanie. Voltaire tells us that the persecu- 
 tions to which he was subjected at this time in- 
 spired him to write Mahomet It is, at first, 
 difficult to see the connection between the Vol- 
 tairomanie and Mahomet It is plain from the 
 motto and the episode of Arbogad. C'est la 
 rnanie de voler la terre, c'est-a-dire, la Yol- 
 tairomanie. It is the period of the gobbling- 
 up of lands and the gobbling-up of Voltaire. 
 The mania manifested itself in Frederick lit- 
 
216 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 erally and equivocally; he seized Silesia, and 
 he tried to seize Voltaire. The mania mani- 
 fested itself in the religious persecutions to 
 which Voltaire was subjected in the name of 
 the God of the Garden for the Lettres philo- 
 sophiques, for the Mondain, for the Elements de 
 la philosophie de Newton. Above all, the mania 
 manifested itself in the Voltairomanie of Des- 
 fontaines, when Voltaire seemed to be deserted 
 by all his friends, even those who owed him the 
 greatest obligations. 
 
 The success of Alzire, against the hope of 
 Lefranc de Pompignan who had stolen the sub- 
 ject and who had expected to present his trag- 
 edy at the Theatre-Frangais before Voltaire, 
 aroused the enemies of the poet as never before. 
 As Condorcet says, Cirey hid his person, but 
 not his glory; he excited so much envy that he 
 might be considered a prince. The culmination 
 of this enmity and envy was the Voltairomanie 
 of Desfontaines. "After that," he is repre- 
 sented as saying, " Voltaire has nothing left to 
 do except to go hang himself." To add to the 
 despair of the poet, which was never more acute 
 than at this time, unless it be at the time of his 
 detention at Francfort, his best friends turned 
 
AEBOGAD 217 
 
 against him, especially Thieriot, who, like Arbo- 
 gad, wished to drink his Champagne in peace 
 (M. 35, p. 105, 147, 149) and amuse himself 
 in the house of the fermier-general, La Pope- 
 liniere, himself an Arbogad. Thieriot, the rob- 
 ber of the subscriptions of the Henriade, seems 
 to have associated himself with Desfontaines, 
 who began the brigandage of which Voltaire 
 complains by his fraudulent edition of the 
 Henriade (M. 25, p. 584). Thus they come 
 under the symbolism as a composite character. 
 Even Voltaire's publishers turned against him. 
 Mme. du Chatelet writes (M. 35, p. 265) that 
 she has been obliged to keep from him Vhor- 
 reur de ses libraires. Anonymous publications, 
 forged by Rousseau and consummated by Des- 
 fontaines, accusing him of atheism, found their 
 way to the chief men in power at court, and 
 Voltaire lived in fear of a lettre de cachet 
 False devots joined them and covered their fury 
 of injuring him with the mantle of religion. 
 Rumors that copies of the Pucelle were being 
 circulated caused him mortal fear, as is so 
 graphically described by Mme. de Grafigny. 
 The mania of the French, probably justified by 
 the practice of 18th century French authors, 
 
218 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 of seeing allusions to themselves in his char- 
 acters is also the subject of his complaints. No 
 career of honor was open to a man of letters in 
 France, as in England. Addison would have 
 been persecuted in France, because somebody 
 would have recognized some traits of the por- 
 trait d'un portier d'un homme en place in Cato. 
 No sooner had Voltaire arrived in Paris, after 
 an absence of about three years, when some one 
 told Fleury that he had composed a life of the 
 old Nestor-Cardinal. He was in the position 
 of Damocles ; a trifle could prove his ruin. 
 
 Voltaire had to fight against the brigandage 
 of literature not only with his pen; or the at- 
 tacks, at all events, were not limited to that in- 
 strument. At least twice he had suffered assault 
 and battery. The earliest case was that of the 
 French officer and spy of the Regent, M. Solenne 
 de Beauregard. The brigand Saint-Hyacinthe, 
 whom Voltaire had known in Paris at the time 
 of (Edipe, and whom he had met and expelled 
 from his house as a common thief in London 
 (i. e., if we are to believe his account, which, 
 like so many of his accusations, is only true by 
 symbolism), had written up this episode of 
 Beauregard under the title of La Deification du 
 
AKBOGAD 219 
 
 docteur Aristarchus Masso, and had appended 
 it to his new edition of Le chef-d'oeuvre d'un 
 inconnu, ou Mathanasius in 1732 (M. 22, p. 
 257 f.). In other words, it was, for Voltaire, 
 the deification of the robber in the Republic of 
 Letters, i. e., Arhogad. It seems that this satire 
 on the poet was not known to him until Desfon- 
 taines repeated it in the Voltairomanie (M. 23, 
 p. 40, note). In that case, the letter of Voltaire 
 which first makes mention of it (M. 33, p. 484) 
 is certainly misdated and misplaced (Febru- 
 ary 26, 1735 should be February 26, 1739). 
 When Voltaire learned of it he sought a retrac- 
 tion from Saint-Hyacinthe. He even threat- 
 ened to take Saint-Hyacinthe's life if he did not 
 signify that he did not have Voltaire in mind 
 in the composition of his Deification. He tries 
 to get a signed statement from Mile. Quinault 
 that he had not been the victim of Beauregard, 
 and that the story of Saint-Hyacinthe and its 
 application to Voltaire was a calumny (M. 35, 
 p. 155 f., and elsewhere). She showed him 
 that there might be additional ridicule heaped 
 upon him by such a declaration signed by mem- 
 bers of the Comedie-Frangaise. Finally Vol- 
 taire succeeded in getting from his enemy a 
 
220 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 declaration which is so good a characterization 
 of Voltaire's own method of composition that I 
 insert it here. It runs as follows (M. 35, 
 p. 267) : 
 
 "La Deification dont on parle n'est qu'un 
 ouvrage d'imagination, un tissu de fictions qu'on 
 a lie ensemble pour en f aire un recit suivi. On 
 y a eu en vue de marquer en general les def auts 
 oii tombent les savants de divers genres et de 
 diverses nations. On y a done ete obliger d'i- 
 maginer des choses particulieres, qui, quoique 
 rapportees comme des choses particulieres, ne 
 doivent etre regardees que comme des genera- 
 lites applicables a tous les savants qui peuvent 
 tomber dans ces defauts. On ne peut f aire une 
 allegorie ni un caractere que l'imagination d'un 
 lecteur ne puisse appliquer a quelqu'un que 
 Pauteur meme n'aura jamais vu. Ainsi ce qui 
 n'aura, dans un ouvrage de fiction, qu'un objet 
 general, en devient un particulier par la malig- 
 nite d'une fausse interpr6tation. Si cela est 
 permis, monsieur, il ne f aut plus songer a 6crire, 
 a moins que le public, plus reserve, ne juge de 
 l'intention d'un auteur conformement au but 
 general de l'ouvrage, et qu'il ne fasse retomber 
 sur Pinterprete la malignite de rinterpretation." 
 
ABBOGAD 221 
 
 That is as far as Saint-Hyacinthe would ever 
 go, and, as a matter of fact, he could not go fur- 
 ther without dishonoring himself; for it is un- 
 doubted that he did have Voltaire in mind. It 
 seems that Voltaire never made use of this ex- 
 position of the methods of the realistic-symbolic 
 author of the eighteenth century. It would not 
 have convinced anybody, if he had. It would 
 never have occurred to any one, even to the 
 most malin faiseur oV interpretations to apply 
 the Deification to a person whom the author 
 had never known, as he suggests in his apology. 
 In the literary wars of the eighteenth century 
 one did not fire into the blue air ; one aimed at 
 the heart of one's enemy. 
 
 It is very likely that Voltaire had Beaure- 
 gard in mind in the composition of the episode 
 of Arbogad, and for the following reasons, (1) 
 because Arbogad is an exact anagramme of 
 Beauregard, with the equivalence of the diph- 
 thong and the simple vowel "o" admitted, (2) 
 because Beauregard was a spy and officer in the 
 service of the Regent, the "God-Father," the 
 Joachim Prepucier, father and husband of the 
 Pucelle, and (3), because Voltaire has described 
 in Zadig the other beating to which he was sub- 
 
222 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 jected, that of Rohan-Chabot, under similar 
 symbolism, that of Orcan. 
 
 Voltaire rounds out his symbolism in many 
 ways and makes connections which it is not 
 easy to follow. He realized, as did few authors 
 in the century of Rousseau, that there was no 
 possibility of equality among men. He praises 
 the sentiment of Milton (M. 36, p. 107) : 
 " Amongst equals no society.",, That, to him, 
 was an obvious proof that the paradise of our 
 first parents was foolish. What Voltaire proved, 
 in one of his Discours en vers sur I'homme, was 
 the equality of conditions. There is no reason 
 why the grain of sand in the desert should not 
 be just as good and just as happy as the dia- 
 mond in the crown of the Great Mogul. There 
 must be grains of sand and drops of water. If 
 the grains of sand and the drops of water are 
 not just as happy and just as good as the dia- 
 monds and the pearls, it is because of envy. 
 With their eyes green with envy they raise their 
 cry for equality of temporal possessions. "Row 
 both the Rousseau had incurred Voltaire's en- 
 mity by their meditations on the origin of ine- 
 quality among men (cf. Voltaire's reference to 
 the elder Rousseau's galimatias M. 24, p. 223 : 
 
ARBOGAD 223 
 
 Paralelle d' Horace, de Boileau, dePope). They 
 both paint the state of nature as a paradise 
 where all is well, because all were equal. Com- 
 pare the following quotations from Jean-Bap- 
 tiste Rousseau with the famous paradoxes of 
 Jean- Jacques (CEuvres de Jean Baptiste Rous- 
 seau, Vol. 1, p. 468 ff.) : 
 
 " lis vivaient tous egalement heureux ; 
 Et la nature etait riche pour eux. 
 Toute la terre etait leur heritage. 
 L'egalite faisait tout leur partage. 
 Chacun etait et son juge et son roi." 
 
 Then discord was produced by intellectual 
 curiosity, by scientific aspirations. People be- 
 gan to ask themselves these questions : Comment 
 s'est fait tout ce que nous voyons? Pourquoi 
 ce ciel, ces astres, ces rayons® Then Rousseau 
 apostrophizes Reason: 
 
 " Folle raison ! lumiere deplorable 
 Qui n'insinue a l'homme miserable 
 Que le mepris d'une simplicity 
 Si necessaire a sa f elicite ! " 
 
 As a result of this intellectual curiosity ques- 
 tions, doubts, discussions, disputes, factions 
 arose, and with them inequality. 
 
224 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 u Ainsi ehacun ne songeant plus qu'a soi, 
 On eut besoin pour prevenir les guerres 
 De recourir au partage des terres; 
 Et d'un seul peuple, on vit dans l'univers, 
 Naitre en un jour mille peuples divers." 
 
 With the division of the surface of the earth 
 and the formation of different peoples all the 
 bonds of friendship were broken by self-interest ; 
 avarice, theft, treason, perjury, were visible on 
 all sides. To better establish her empire Moro- 
 sophie (i. e., Folly) invented the art of writ- 
 ing, and a thousand other arts more detestable 
 still, from which was born the most detestable 
 of all our enemies, Luxury, which makes the 
 poor man feel his poverty : 
 
 " Le luxe, ami de Foisive mollesse, 
 Qui parmi nous signalant sa souplesse, 
 Introduisit par cent divers canaux 
 La pauvrete, le plus dur de nos maux." 
 
 That was just the opposite of Voltaire's phil- 
 osophy, and, indeed, the Mondain was composed 
 purely and simply as a sermon against just 
 such ideas. Likewise, the old Rousseau was 
 constantly mingling Providence with his 
 wretched little affairs, proving, to his own 
 satisfaction, that this world, as in the system 
 
AEBOGAD 225 
 
 of Leibnitz and the religion of the Jansenists, 
 was under the immediate direction of God, and 
 that the prosperity of the wicked was only the 
 effect of God's wrath, which would be visited 
 upon their heads in ways which we know not 
 (op. cit., p. 445) : 
 
 " Et qu'en un mot se desordre apparent 
 Dont ici bas le cahos vous surprend, 
 Est un nuage, un voile necessaire 
 Qui confondant votre orgueil temeraire, 
 Cache a vos yeux de tenebres ecuverts 
 L'ordre regie qui regit Punivers." 
 
 His ordre regie, however, was the "individual- 
 istic" Providence of the Jansenists. 
 
 The same thoughts are at the bottom of Jean 
 Jacques Kousseau's diatribes against inequality 
 and in favor of Providence. 
 
 Curiosity, the origin of the arts and sciences, 
 the necessity of leisure, luxury, all these things 
 hang together in the relation of cause and effect. 
 The poor man is poor just because the rich man 
 is rich, and the rich man enjoys his wealth only 
 in proportion to the misery of the poor man! 
 "II faut des jus dans nos cuisines, voila pour- 
 quoi tant de malades manquent de bouillon; il 
 faut des liqueurs sur nos tables ; voila pourquoi 
 15 
 
226 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 le paysan ne boit que de l'eau; il faut de la 
 poudre a nos perruques ; voila pourquoi tant de 
 pauvres n'ont point de pain." To this M. 
 Bordes well replies: "S'il n'y avait point de 
 luxe, il n'y aurait que des pauvres." The whole 
 argument of his prize discourse is that God 
 placed us in a state of ignorance, covering 
 from our eyes all the operations of nature with 
 a heavy veil as if to warn us not to seek to 
 penetrate her secrets; there are no kinds of 
 knowledge which are not hidden from us; the 
 sciences are like dangerous weapons which a 
 mother snatches from her children and hides 
 from them. 
 
 Voltaire had connected the old Rousseau 
 with his symbolism of Arbogad; he had much 
 more reason to connect the young Rousseau 
 with similar creations in Candide. The old 
 Rousseau, writing against Zaire and weeping 
 from envy, himself the author of comedies 
 sifflees, and the young Rousseau, thundering 
 against the comedy from his old donjon open to 
 the four winds of heaven, likewise the author 
 of comedies sifflees, were too much alike not to 
 be associated by Voltaire, even if they were not 
 already associated by virtue of their name. 
 
AEBOGAD 227 
 
 Pangloss, in Candide, is a composite portrait 
 of the two Rousseau, and the younger Rousseau 
 appears in several other characters and episodes 
 of the novel, namely, wherever there is a symbol 
 of spoken nonsense, of carnosity, of intolerance, 
 of envy, of wine-bibbing, of inequality in the 
 person of a domestic, and as part and parcel of 
 Thunder-ten-tronckh and the King of Eldorado. 
 It would seem as if Jean Jacques had read 
 and mistaken the import of the episode of Arbo- 
 gad. Voltaire lashed in this character the 
 symbol of brigandage and of tyranny. He had 
 come after the lots had been cast, had dispos- 
 sessed the rightful owners, had robbed and slain 
 in the name of the Deity in him incorporate. 
 It would seem that Jean Jacques saw in it 
 nothing but the source of all our ills, as the 
 bearer of the idea of ownership, without refer- 
 ence to the manner in which ownership was 
 attained. He begins the second part of his 
 Discours sur Vorigine et les fondements de 
 Vinegalite parmi les hommes with the symbol 
 of Arbogad : " The man who first staked out a 
 portion of the earth and said: This land is 
 mine, and found people to believe him, is the 
 source of all our woes. He would have been 
 
228 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 the greatest benefactor of the race who should 
 have pulled up his stakes and said to him: 
 Les fruits sont a tons, la terre nest a personnel 
 Voltaire annotated Rousseau's fine paradoxes 
 with marginal remarks. This is his note to the 
 above (M. 32, p. 470): "Quoi! celui qui a 
 plante, seme, et enclos, n'a pas le droit aux 
 fruits de sa peine? Quoi! un homme in juste 
 et voleur aurait ete le bienfaiteur du genre 
 humain ! Voila la philosophic d'un gueux ! " 
 In other words, voila la philosophie d f Arbogad. 
 And when this gueux, this "Arbogad," began 
 to put his philosophy into practice; when he 
 began to declaim against Voltaire's pet hobby, 
 the theatre; when, in conjunction with other 
 Arbogad, he began to cause persecution against 
 Voltaire and the Encyclopedists, so that the 
 author of Zadig felt obliged to give up his little 
 estate within the territory of Geneva, and mi- 
 grate to Ferney, where Arbogad could not say : 
 Cette terre est a moi et tout ce que vous avez 
 m'appartient de droit divin; then, indeed, it 
 was time for the author of the episode of Arbo- 
 gad to get his symbols out of the cedar chest 
 and set them into motion on his miniature 
 theatre de la vie humaine. That is just what 
 
AEBOGAD 229 
 
 he did in Candide, where Arbogad appears pri- 
 marily in Thunder-ten-tronckh ; for the brigand 
 has raised again his well known cry : Cette terre 
 est a moi. Frederick was thundering at the 
 gates of Leipzig, the birth-place of Leibnitz; 
 Eousseau was thundering at the gates of Les 
 Delices, which, like the home of Leibnitz, was 
 the 'pays ou tout est bien. The Socinians of 
 Geneva and the Jesuits and the Jansenists had 
 united to thunder at the gates of the Encyclo- 
 pedia; in short, from the straits of Gibraltar 
 to the straits of Magellan and the farthest In- 
 dies the Lord of Hosts was hurling his thunder- 
 bolts, i. e., Arbogad was supreme. 
 
CHAPTEK VIII 
 
 JESKAD 
 
 The episode of the Angel and the Hermit has 
 always been considered as the bearer of the phil- 
 osophic thesis of the novel Zadig. It is im- 
 portant, therefore, that we consider it in some 
 detail. 
 
 This is the episode. 
 
 In the tournament to decide who shall be 
 King of Babylon and husband of Astarte. Zadig 
 has triumphed over all contestants. While he 
 is resting from the fatigues of the day, Itobad, 
 the most vain and the most ridiculous of all the 
 combatants, steals the white armor given to 
 Zadig by the Queen, and puts his own green 
 armor in its place. He then presents himself 
 to the chief Magian, declaring that an Jiomme 
 comme lui is the victor, and is proclaimed King 
 of Babylon while Zadig is still sleeping. When 
 Zadig awakes he is obliged to don the green 
 armor of Itobad, because he has nothing else to 
 put on. He sallies forth in it and is ill-treated 
 230 
 
JESEAD 231 
 
 by the rabble, who mistake him for Itobad. 
 Zadig finally breaks through the ranks of his 
 persecutors and walks, in great perturbation, 
 
 .along the banks of the Euphrates, persuaded 
 
 J that his evil star destines him to irremediable 
 
 Imisfortune. 
 
 ^That's what comes of waking up too late," 
 he says to himself. "If I had slept less I 
 should now be King of Babylon and husband 
 of Astarte." He murmurs against Providence. 
 He feels that all his wisdom, his morals, his 
 courage, avail him nothing; on the contrary, 
 they only serve to his misfortune. 
 
 In this mood he exchanges his green armor 
 for a long robe and a cowl, and then continues 
 his walk along the Euphrates. He soon meets 
 a venerable hermit, who is reading in the book 
 of fate. Zadig is versed in many languages, 
 but he finds himself unable to read a word in 
 this book. The hermit asks Zadig for permis- 
 sion to accompany him; he has sometimes, he 
 says, been a source of consolation to the unfor- 
 tunate. Zadig feels respect for the venerable 
 air of the hermit, for his beard, and for his 
 book, and is glad to have his company. The 
 hermit discourses on destiny, justice, morality, 
 
232 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 the sovereign good, human frailty, vice, virtue, 
 and with such lively eloquence that Zadig is 
 more and more attracted to him, and finally, at 
 the request of the hermit, promises not to quit 
 him for three days, no matter what may happen. 
 The two travelers are received the first night 
 in the castle of a great lord, who exercises lavish 
 hospitality for the sake of vanity and ostenta- 
 tion. The hermit steals from him a large basin 
 of gold, adorned with emeralds and rubies. 
 Zadig is surprised, but says nothing. They 
 next come to the house of a rich miser, who has 
 some bad food given to them in a stable, where 
 a servant watches them that they may not steal 
 anything. To this servant the hermit gives 
 two gold pieces which he had received from his 
 host of the night before, and asks to be brought 
 into the presence of his master. The hermit 
 thanks profusely the rich miser for his hospi- 
 tality and presents to him the precious basin 
 which he had stolen. The miser nearly faints. 
 The hermit and Zadig take advantage of his 
 confusion and depart. Zadig can no longer 
 contain his surprise; he asks the meaning of 
 such strange conduct. His companion assures 
 him that their first host, whose hospitality was 
 
JESEAD 233 
 
 due to his vanity, will be wiser in the future, 
 while the miser will be hospitable to strangers 
 from this time on. Zadig could not determine 
 whether he had to do with a madman or with 
 the wisest of men, and he continued to follow 
 him. 
 
 They arrive at the house of a philosopher who 
 was neither prodigal nor avaricious, and who 
 cultivated wisdom and virtue without ever feel- 
 ing bored by them. His treatment of the 
 strangers is simple, courteous, hospitable. The 
 conversation turns on Providence and the pas- 
 sions of men. " How baneful the passions are," 
 exclaims Zadig. The hermit assures him that 
 they are the winds which swell the sails of the 
 vessel; they submerge it sometimes, it is true, 
 but it could not sail without them. The bile 
 makes one choleric and ill, but without it we 
 could not live. Everything is necessary here 
 below, and everything is dangerous. He con- 
 tends that men are wrong to " juger d'un tout, 
 dont ils n'apergoivent que la plus petite partie." 
 The next morning, as a mark of esteem for his 
 host, the hermit sets fire to his house and flees, 
 drawing Zadig after him. Dieu merci, dit-il, 
 voila la maison de mon cher hote detruite de 
 
234 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELb 
 
 fond en comble! L'heureux homme! At these 
 words Zadig is tempted to burst out laughing, 
 to reproach the reverend pere, to beat him, and 
 to run away, all at the same time; but he does 
 none of these things, he continues to follow him 
 to their last stopping place. 
 
 They are taken in by a charitable and virtu- 
 ous widow, who has a nephew of fourteen, her 
 only hope and consolation. The next morning 
 she orders the youth, in the kindness of her 
 heart, to accompany her guests to a bridge, 
 which, recently broken, might prove dangerous 
 passage to them. The hermit, as a mark of 
 gratitude to his hostess, catches her nephew by 
 the hair and throws him into the river, where 
 he drowns miserably. Zadig breaks out in 
 horror at this treacherous act; he calls his com- 
 panion a monster and the most execrable of men. 
 The hermit interrupts him and deigns to ex- 
 plain. Under the ruins of the house to which 
 Providence has set fire the philosopher will find 
 an immense treasure. The youth whose neck 
 Providence has wrung, would, had he lived, 
 have assassinated his good aunt within a year, 
 and Zadig within two. Qui te Va dit, barbare ? 
 cries Zadig ; et quand tu aurais lu cet evenement 
 
JESEAD 235 
 
 dans ton livre des destinies, t'est-il permis de 
 noyer un enfant qui ne fa point fait de mat? 
 While Zadig is still speaking he perceives that 
 the hermit is being metamorphosed: his beard 
 has disappeared, his features have grown youth- 
 ful, four fair wings cover a majestic body re- 
 splendent with light. Zadig prostrates himself, 
 crying: envoy e du ciell 6 ange divin! tu es 
 done descendu de Vempyree pour apprendre a 
 un faible mortel a se soumettre aux ordres 
 eternelsf 
 
 Les hommes, said the angel Jesrad, jugent de 
 tout sans rien connaitre: tu etais celui de tous 
 les hommes qui meritais le plus d'etre eclaire. 
 
 Zadig asks permission to question the angel; 
 he lacked confidence, he said, in his own judg- 
 ment, and wished to have his doubts cleared up. 
 
 "Would it not have been better," he asks, 
 "to have corrected that youth, and made him 
 virtuous, than to drown him ? " 
 
 "If he had become virtuous," replied the 
 angel, "and had lived it would have been his 
 destiny to have been assassinated himself, with 
 the woman whom he would have married, and 
 the child that was to be born of their union." 
 
 Zadig asks: "But why is it necessary that 
 
236 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 there should be crimes and misfortunes, and 
 that good people should be their victims ? " 
 
 The angel replied that the wicked were always 
 unhappy. "They serve to try the small num- 
 ber of the just scattered about the earth. Be- 
 sides," he added, "there is no evil from which 
 good does not result." 
 
 " But if there were only good, and no evil ? " 
 asks Zadig. 
 
 " Then," replied the angel, " this earth would 
 be a different earth, the concatenation of events 
 would be a different order of wisdom ; and that 
 order, which would be perfect, could only be in 
 the eternal abode of the supreme being, whom 
 evil can not approach. He has created millions 
 of worlds, of which no one can resemble the 
 other. This immense variety is an attribute 
 of his immense power. There are no two leaves 
 of a tree on the earth, nor two globes in the 
 infinite space of the heavens, which are alike, 
 and all that you see on the little atom where you 
 were born, had to be, in the time and place 
 fixed for it, according to the immutable laws 
 of him who embraces everything. Men think 
 that that child, who has just been drowned, fell 
 into the water by chance, but there is no chance ; 
 

 JESEAD 237 
 
 everything is ' trial, or punishment, or reward, 
 or foresight.' Remember the fisherman whom 
 you thought the most unfortunate of all men. 
 Orosmade sent you to change his destiny. 
 Feeble mortal! cease to dispute against what 
 you must adore." 
 
 "But . . . ," said Zadig; but as he said 
 " but," the angel Jesrad took his flight towards 
 the tenth sphere. Zadig, on his knees, adored 
 Providence, and submitted. The angel cried to 
 him from the heights of the air to take his way 
 back to Babylon. 
 
 Zadig returned to Babylon, still in cowl and 
 gown, or, as he calls it, in bonnet de nuit et robe 
 de chambre, and met with a most loving recep- 
 tion ; the people feasted their eyes on him. He 
 easily divined the enigmas of time and life, 
 and then, still in gown and cowl, easily over- 
 came Itobad, thus making himself King of 
 Babylon and husband of Astarte. Under the 
 reign of Zadig and Astarte the empire enjoyed 
 peace, glory, and abundance, because it was 
 governed by Justice and Love. People blessed 
 Zadig, Zadig blessed heaven, and adored Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 The question of the interpretation of this 
 
238 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 episode has already been, in a large measure, 
 disposed of, but the arguments that have been 
 presented may be summed up here, and, wher- 
 ever necessary, elaborated. The chief point to 
 be kept in mind is that, in view of all that has 
 gone before, this episode must be considered in 
 reference to Voltaire's life. The immediate 
 point of contact between this episode and Vol- 
 taire's life is his efforts to get into the French 
 Academy : he wanted to become one of the elus, 
 but "many are called and few chosen." He 
 had every quality, with the sole exception of 
 religion. He proceeded to remedy this defect. 
 He wrote to the Archbishop of Sens, on whom 
 he so often emptied the vials of his ridicule, to 
 give public testimony to his submission to the 
 dogmas of the Christian religion (M. 36, p. 
 191 ff.), but he was not explicit enough. He 
 wrote to Mirepoix in the same vein. Frederick 
 expressed his astonishment at this turn of af- 
 fairs (M. 36, p. 208) : 
 
 "Depuis quand, dites-moi, Voltaire, 
 Etes-vous d6genere? 
 Chez un philosophe epure, 
 Quoi! la grace efficace opere! 
 Par Mirepoix endoctrine, 
 
JESEAD 239 
 
 Et tout asperge d'eau benite, 
 Abattu d'un jeiine obstine, 
 Allez-vous devenir ermite? 
 D'un ton saintement nasillard, 
 Et marmottant quelque priere, 
 En baillant lisant le breviaire, 
 On vous enrole a Saint-Medard, 
 Avec indulgence pleniere." 
 
 Voltaire writes to Cideville from The Hague, 
 indicating how he intended to become one of 
 the elus (M. 36, p. 215) : 
 
 " Je veux, en partant de Berlin, 
 Demander justice au saint-pere; 
 J'irai baiser son pied divin 
 Et chez vous je viendrai soudain 
 Avec indulgence pleniere. 
 Je veux avoir enfin Rome pour mon amie, 
 Et, malgre quelques vers hardis, 
 Je veux etre un elu dans le saint paradis, 
 Si je suis reprouve dans votre Academic" 
 
 Frederick calls this hypocrisy of Voltaire the 
 "bending of the knee of the minister of truth 
 to the idol of superstition" (M. 36, p. 208). 
 
 That Voltaire realized the import of what he 
 was doing and submitted to it only as one sub- 
 mits to the inevitable is obvious from his letters 
 to the Comte d'Argenson and to Thieriot. To 
 
240 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 the former he writes (M. 36, p. 221) : II (t. e,, 
 Mirepoix) prend assurement un bien mauvais 
 parti, et il fait plus de mat quil ne pense. II 
 devrait savoir que c'est un metier bien triste de 
 faire des hypocrites. To the latter he expresses 
 himself similarly (M. 36, p. 297) : II faudrait 
 que la vertu ne fut point oblige de rendre horn- 
 mage au fanatisme et a Vhypocrisie. 
 
 Before continuing with the episode of Jesrad, 
 it will be necessary to explain the episode of the 
 Combats, in which the opposition to Voltaire's 
 candidacy to the French Academy is symbolized 
 in the character of Itobad. It is only because 
 Itobad stole the honor due to their merit that 
 Voltaire and Zadig are obliged to have recourse 
 to the divine. 
 
 The Episode of Itobad 
 In his Memoire against the libels to which he 
 had been subjected in 1739, and which were 
 renewed by the poet Roi in 1744, Voltaire seems 
 to point to Desfontaines and Jean Jacques Le- 
 f ranc de Pompignan, with the possible inclusion 
 of the old poet Crebillon. He protests that he 
 is not a satirist (M. 32, p. 460 f.), and that he 
 never refused praise and honor where they were 
 
JESEAD 241 
 
 due. Lefranc need only publish his tragedy, 
 on the same theme as Voltaire's Alzire, to see 
 how ready Voltaire will be to show appreciation 
 of his talents. Crebillon need only produce his 
 Oatilina to meet with the same generous treat- 
 ment. At the end of the Memoire he seizes the 
 pen from the hand of the copyist to inform the 
 world in his own hand what he intends to do 
 in the face of persecution : he will take a lesson 
 from the characters that he has created in 
 Alzire; he will arm himself with that probity 
 which he has depicted in all his works, comme 
 ces anciens qui se couvraient des armes fabri- 
 quees par leurs mains. That is, since he is 
 speaking of the tragedy which he had dedi- 
 cated to Mme. du Chatelet, his muse, he 
 will arm himself with the white armor given 
 to him by Astarte, Queen of Babylon. In 
 Zadig that armor was stolen from him by 
 Itobad; but who, in Voltaire's life is repre- 
 sented by Itobad? Certainly the man or men 
 who forced him to play the role of the hypo- 
 crite, and the man or men who besmirched his 
 honor. They were Maurepas and Mirepoix, the 
 Archbishop of Sens and the Archbishop of 
 Strasburg; they were Lefranc de Pompignan 
 16 
 
242 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 who stole the subject of Alzire, and of whose 
 persecutions Voltaire complains frequently in 
 this period ; Crebillon, who opposed his tragedy 
 Mahomet, and especially Desfontaines who de- 
 nounced this tragedy, who accused Voltaire of 
 atheism, who furnished to Voltaire's enemies in 
 1744 the satires which the poet Roi made use of 
 to defeat Voltaire's candidacy to the French 
 Academy, and of whom Voltaire wrote (M. 8, 
 p. 423) : 
 
 " Mais Pingrat devore d'envie, 
 Trompette de la calomnie, 
 Qui cherche a fletrir mon honneur, 
 Voila le ravisseur coupable, 
 Voila le larcin detestable." 
 
 In other words: Voila le larcin a" Itobad, le 
 ravisseur des armes blanches de Zadig. 
 
 Now there are two circumstances that offer 
 unmistakable proof of the application of Itobad 
 to such men as those already mentioned: his 
 fatuity, his repetition of the phrase un homme 
 comme moi, and his title of monseigneur. 
 These two circumstances show that Itobad is a 
 composite character, made up of the fatuous 
 man of letters and the dignitary of the church. 
 The following references will establish that. 
 
JESRAD 243 
 
 The very first instance of the expression un 
 homme comme moi to be found in Voltaire's 
 correspondence is the use made of it by Des- 
 fontaines in his first letter to Voltaire (M. 33, 
 p. 110). This wretched scribbler writes as fol- 
 lows to his benefactor : " Je suis trop connu 
 dans le monde pour qu'il convienne a un homme 
 comme moi de me taire apres un si execrable 
 affront." Later, after the beginning of hostili- 
 ties between him and Voltaire, he wrote to the 
 poet in the most fatuous vein (M. 33, p. 569) : 
 "Qui vous jugera, si vous vous recusez? Je 
 veux bien que vous sachiez qu'en toutes sortes 
 de matieres, et meme sur vos ouvrages de poesie, 
 je suis en etat de vous donner des conseils, ay ant 
 l'etude et le jugement necessaires, et un gout 
 qui passe pour assez sur." He refers to Vol- 
 taire's apology for the tutoiement of the Mort 
 de Cesar, which, he says, has given rise to a 
 thousand jests. He asks him if he remembers 
 that the tutoiement was the source of his affair 
 of 1725, and adds: Le vers de Lamotte: taisez- 
 vous, me dis-tu, me parait admirable au- 
 jourd'Jiui. He tells Voltaire that he does not 
 wish to have any quarrel with him, but if there 
 is one he will get the better of him both by the 
 
244 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 justice of his reasons and by the authority 
 which he has acquired in the Eepublic of Letters, 
 and will make him pass pour le Claudien du 
 siecle: car, en matiere de theatre, il ne serait 
 pas settlement question de vous. 
 
 It is a matter of the greatest astonishment to 
 us that this obscure wretch, whose very name 
 would have been forgotten but for Voltaire, 
 should have used such language. His fatuous 
 use of un homme comme mot, and his reference 
 to the tutoiement which caused Voltaire's 
 "affaire of 1725" and the verse of Lamotte: 
 taisez-vous, me dis-tu, indicate the meaning of 
 the name Itobad. Voltaire uses an anagramme, 
 Iro, to represent the name of the poet Eoi, whose 
 fatuity we will discuss in a moment. Herbelot 
 gives the significance of bad as " wind," and we 
 have seen that Herbelot is largely Voltaire's 
 authority. Is is not likely that Itobad means 
 the blatant fellow who is always saying of him- 
 self, moi, moi, un homme comme moi, and of 
 other people and to them: toi, toi, un homme 
 comme toi; a fellow who criticizes Voltaire's 
 tragedy for the tutoiement, and who points to 
 some misfortunes which the use of tu, toi, 
 brought upon Voltaire in 1725 ? And what was 
 
JESEAD 245 
 
 this misfortune ? We know of no affair except 
 that of Rohan-Chabot. Is it possible that Vol- 
 taire's misfortune was caused by some use of 
 the second personal pronoun to the worthless 
 cadet of a great house? Or did Rohan-Chabot 
 resent Voltaire's tutoiement of Mile. Lecouv- 
 reur? At all events this interpretation of the 
 name and its application to Desfontaines is 
 strengthened by Desfontaines' fatuous refer- 
 ences to himself in the Volt air omanie. He calls 
 himself un homme de qualite, says Voltaire (M. 
 23, p. 25), parce quil a un frere auditeur des 
 comptes a Rouen; homme de bonnes moeurs, 
 because he was only a few days at Bicetre; he 
 compares himself to Despreaux, because he com- 
 posed a work in verse ; he boasts that he always 
 goes with a laquais, but neglects to say whether 
 the laquais is before or behind. 
 
 The fatuity of Desfontaines was not the ex- 
 ception but the rule among Voltaire's enemiea. 
 At the time that he was bending every effort to 
 get into the French Academy the Abbe" de 
 Bernis, who had just been elected, and whose 
 meteoric career of favor with the Pompadour 
 was rising to its apogee, was preparing to praise, 
 in his Discours de reception, that other symbol 
 
246 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 of Envie, the poet Koi (M. 36, p. 330). Vol- 
 taire can scarce restrain his indignation. He 
 writes to d'Argental to see Bernis and get him 
 to omit his praise. " Roi de grands talents ! 
 quatre ou cinq scenes de ballet; des vers medi- 
 ocres, dans un genre tres-mediocre : voila de 
 plaisants talents! Y a-t-il de quoi racheter les 
 horreurs de sa vie ? " Roi himself writes to 
 the lieutenant general de police, (M. 36, p. 437) 
 as follows: "Au retour de la campagne, ou 
 j'etais alle ensevelir mon chagrin sur la mort 
 de ma soeur, j'ai appris que ma reputation etait 
 vivement attaquee par le sieur de Voltaire. . . . 
 L'homme qui veut etre a toute force mon ennemi 
 me choisit entre tous les siens pour m'imputer 
 tout ce qui s'ecrit contre lui : il craint que je ne 
 fusse son concurrent a l'Academie, moi dont 
 >u la retenue sur ce vain titre est 
 
 connu de toute la France. ... II pretexte sa 
 calomnie de Penvie que me doit causer son ta- 
 lent, et du chagrin qu'il me fait en donnant ses 
 ouvrages lyriques a la cour et a la ville. En 
 verite, monsieur, ai-je perdu a la comparaison, 
 et dois-je etre mortifie ? " And he is the fellow 
 who claimed that Voltaire "lui avait rendu la 
 lyre!" 
 
JESRAD 247 
 
 ? 
 
 But perhaps the greatest fatuity was observed ^ \ 
 in Lef ranc de Pompignan, whose very name has 
 something of the pretentious, the pompous, 
 about it. At the time when he stole Voltaire's 
 subject of Alzire and prepared to have his 
 tragedy presented before Voltaire's at the 
 Theatre-Frangais, the comedians desired to hear 
 his tragedy read a second time to them be- 
 fore proceeding with the distribution of the 
 roles. This little provincial, who had produced 
 nothing but his tragedy of Didon, who was a 
 plagiary, Voltaire says, and known largely for 
 his friendship for Rousseau and Desfontaines, 
 wrote as follows to the directors of the Theatre- 
 Frangais (M. 10, p. 105): "Je suis fort sur- 
 pris, messieurs, que vous exigez une seconde 
 lecture d'une tragedie telle que Zoraide. Si 
 vous ne vous connaissez pas en merite, je me 
 connais en procedes, et je me souviendrai assez 
 longtemps des votres pour ne plus m'occuper 
 d'un theatre ou Ton distingue si peu les per- 
 sonnes et les talents." 
 
 Voltaire had already described this type of 
 man in his English Letters (M. 22, p. Ill): 
 "Whoever comes from the provinces with 
 money and a name in -ac or -ille, can say : Un 
 
248 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 homme comme moi, un homme de qualite. Such 
 a man despises a merchant; he would never 
 think of working for a living. He is like the 
 numerous descendants of the noble houses of 
 Germany who have nothing but their name and 
 sovereign pride." 
 
 One of the contradictions that Voltaire notes 
 in France (M. 22, p. 25) is that a bishop, who 
 preaches humility and is vowed to poverty, re- 
 fuses his door to anyone who does not call him 
 Monseigneur, whereas a marshal of France, who 
 commands 100,000 men, is content with Mon- 
 sieur. So Itobad has himself called Monsei- 
 gneur by his servants. Voltaire follows his usual 
 practice, in raising individual enemies in the 
 Republic of Letters into the domain of religion : 
 Itobad becomes the representative of the bla- 
 tancy of the clergy. This seems all the more 
 probable from a similar episode, that of Irax, 
 which was first published by the Kehl editors, 
 and which we will consider here. 
 
 The Episode of Ibax 
 Complaints came every day to the court 
 against the Itimadoulet de Medie, named Irax. 
 " C'etait un grand seigneur dont le f onds n'etait 
 
JESEAD 249 
 
 pas mauvais, mais qui etait corrompu par la 
 vanite et par la volupte. II souffrait rarement 
 qu'on lui parlat, et jamais qu'on l'osat contre- 
 dire. Les paons ne sont pas plus vains, les 
 colombes ne sont pas plus voluptueuses, les tor- 
 tues ont moms de paresse; il ne respirait que 
 la fausse gloire et les faux plaisirs." Zadig 
 undertook to correct him. He sent him a music 
 master, with twelve voices and twenty-four 
 violinists, a chef, with six cooks and four cham- 
 berlains, who were never to quit Irax for a 
 moment. The musicians were to sing a cantata, 
 lasting two hours, the refrain of which, recur- 
 ring at intervals of three minutes, was as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 u Que son merite est extreme ! 
 
 Que de graces! que de grandeur! 
 Ah! combien monseigneur 
 
 Doit etre content de lui-meme ! " 
 
 After the execution of the cantata a chamber- 
 lain made a harangue of three quarters of an 
 hour in which Irax was praised expressly for 
 the qualities which he lacked. Then he was 
 conducted to dinner at the sound of instruments. 
 The dinner lasted three hours, and as soon as 
 Irax opened his mouth to speak, the first cham- 
 
250 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 berlain said: II aura raison. Hardly had he 
 uttered four words when the second chamber- 
 lain cried : II a raison. The other two chamber- 
 lains laughed loudly at the bons mots which 
 Irax said or which he ought to have said. After 
 dinner the cantata was repeated. At first Irax 
 thought that the King was honoring him ac- 
 cording to his merit, but he soon got tired of the 
 regime, and promised to be less vain and to 
 apply himself to some useful labor. II se fit 
 moins encenser, eut moins de fetes, et jut plus 
 heureux; car, comme dit le Sadder, toujours 
 du plaisir nest pas du plaisir. 
 
 The realistic basis of this episode is obvious 
 when it is applied to Jean Jacques Lefranc de 
 Pompignan. Marmontel visited Voltaire at 
 Ferney when the Patriarch was " hunting Pom- 
 pignan every morning, in accordance with his 
 doctor's orders, for his health." Indeed, Mar- 
 montel says, Voltaire seemed to have grown ten 
 years younger from this exercise. Of Lefranc 
 Marmontel says (Memoires, Vol. I, p. 413) : 
 " L'exces de sa vanite, de sa presomtion, de son 
 ambition l'avait enivre. Malheureusement trop 
 flatte dans ses academies de Montauban et de 
 Toulouse, accoutume a s'y entendre applaudir 
 
JESRAD 251 
 
 des qu'il ouvrait la boucbe, et meme avant 
 qu'il eut parle vante dans les journaux dont 
 il savait gagner ou payer la f aveur, il se croyait 
 un homme d'importance en litterature; et par 
 malheur encore il avait ajoute a l'arrogance 
 d'un seigneur de paroisse l'orgueil d'un presi- 
 dent de cour superieure dans sa ville de Mon- 
 tauban; ce qui formait un personnage ridicule 
 dans tous les points. D'apres l'opinion qu'il 
 avait de lui-meme, il avait trouve malbonnete 
 qu'a la premiere envie qu'il avait temoignee 
 d'etre de l'Academie franchise, on ne se fut 
 pas empresse a l'y recevoir; et, lorsqu'en 1758, 
 Sainte-Palaye y avait eu sur lui la preference, 
 il en avait marque un superbe depit. Deux 
 ans apres, l'Academie n'avait pas laisse de 
 lui accorder ses souffrages; et il n'y avait pour 
 lui que de l'agrement dans l'unanimite de son 
 election; mais, au lieu de la modestie que les 
 plus grands bommes eux-memes affectaient, au 
 moins en y entrant, il y apporta l'humeur de 
 l'orgueil offense, avec un exces d'aprete et de 
 bauteur inconcevable." 
 
 Voltaire undertook to correct ce grave magis- 
 trat, qui vint de Montauban pour gouverner 
 VEtat (M. 10, p. 415), wbo tbougbt tbe wbole 
 
252 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 universe occupied with his literary productions. 
 He did this in the series of satires known as 
 the Monosyllables, the verses on Vanity, the 
 Hymne chante au village de Pompignan, etc. 
 Of these satires we may quote from the Qui and 
 from the Hymne. The first is typical of the 
 Monosyllables (M. 10, p. 562) : 
 
 " Qui pilla jadis Metastase, 
 Et Qui crut imiter Maron? 
 Qui, bouffi d'ostentation, 
 Sur ses ecrits est en extase? 
 Qui si longuement paraphrase 
 David en depit d'Apollon, 
 Pretendant passer pour un vase 
 Qu'on appelle d'eleetion? 
 Qui, parlant a sa nation, 
 Et Pinsultant avec emphase, 
 Pense etre au haut de FHelicon 
 Lorsqu'il barbote dans la vase? 
 Qui dans plus d'une pgriphrase 
 A ses maitres fait la leeon? 
 Entre nous, je crois que son nom 
 Commence en V, et finit en aze." 
 
 The Hymne chante au village de Pompignan 
 (M. 10, p. 569) probably furnished the idea 
 for the cantata of the episode of Irax. The fol- 
 lowing verses show its nature : 
 
JESEAD 263 
 
 "Je suis marquis, robin, poete, 
 
 Mes chers amis; 
 Vous voyez que je suis prophete 
 
 En mon pays. 
 A Paris c'est tout autrement. 
 Et vive le roi, et Simon Le Franc, 
 
 Son favori, son f avoid! 
 u J'ai fait un psautier judai'que, 
 
 On n'en sait rien; 
 J'ai fait un beau panegyrique, 
 
 Et e'est le mien : 
 De moi je suis content. 
 Et vive le roi, et Simon Le Franc, 
 
 Son favori, son favori." 
 
 The part of the episode dealing with the 
 harangue and the dinner was probably sug- 
 gested by the satire of Voltaire (M. 24, p. 461), 
 entitled Relation du Voyage de M. le Marquis 
 Lefranc de Pompignan depuis Pompignan 
 jusqu'a Fontainebleau. Pompignan is repre- 
 sented as speaking. He describes a sermon and 
 procession of which he was the hero; also a 
 repast of twenty-six covers dont il sera parte a 
 jamais. In this sermon (M. 24, p. 459) it ia 
 said that Dieu a donne a ce marquis la jeunesse 
 et les ailes de Vaigle, quit est assis pres des 
 astres, que Vimpie rampe a ses pieds dans la 
 boue, qu'il est admire de Vunivers, et que son 
 
254 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 genie brille d'un eclat immortel. That is the 
 justice that the Marquis renders to himself. 
 
 Pompignan tried to defend himself from Vol- 
 taire's attacks, hut he only made himself more 
 ridiculous. "Il addressa un memoire au roi; 
 son memoire fut bafoue. Voltaire parut ra- 
 jeunir pour s'egayer a ses depens; en vers, en 
 prose, sa malice fut plus legere, plus piquante, 
 plus feconde en idees originales et plaisantes 
 qu'elle n'avait jamais ete. Une saillie n'atten- 
 dait pas 1' autre. Le public ne cessa de rire aux 
 depens du triste Le Franc. Oblige de se tenir 
 enferme chez lui, pour ne pas entendre chanter 
 sa chanson dans le monde, et, pour ne pas se 
 voir montrer au doigt, il finit par aller s'en- 
 sevelir dans son chateau, ou. il est mort, sans 
 avoir jamais ose reparaitre a l'Academie" 
 (Marmontel, Memoires, Vol. 1, p. 413). In 
 other words, the cure of Irax, itimadoulet de 
 Medie, was effected. Voltaire says of Lefranc 
 (M. 10, p. 104, Le pauvre Diahle), what he 
 says of Irax, dont le fonds netait pas mauvais: 
 he gives him credit for being a man of merit, 
 with the exception of the vanity and vainglory 
 of his Discours de reception. This note is of 
 
JESEAD 255 
 
 1771, and is thus an indication of the time of 
 the composition of the episode of Irax. 
 
 The only other character of whom Voltaire 
 uses language comparable to that of the epi- 
 sode and of the satire on Pompignan, is the 
 pope (M. 21, p. 416), who is always right, no 
 matter what he says or does. It is likely that 
 he meant the episode of Irax to be typical of 
 the pope, thus giving it a larger significance. 
 The name is explainable on this basis as an 
 anagramme of Archi (mage). This association 
 was the more easily made by the poet since Le- 
 franc and his brother were compared to Moses 
 and Aaron, destined to lead the chosen people 
 of God, and since Voltaire calls him " Simon " 
 Lefranc, i. e., Simon Bar j one, i. e., Peter, as 
 the vicar of Christ. 
 
 I have already referred to the same type as 
 Itobad in Saint Austin in the Pucelle, who 
 sings of the God of vengeance, of the exter- 
 minating angel, of twenty thousand Jews cut 
 to pieces for a veau, of Joaz killed by Josabad, 
 son of Atrobad, et Athalie, si mechamment mise 
 a mort par Joad. He receives the treatment 
 that was accorded to Itobad: 
 
256 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIEE'S NOVELS 
 
 " Austin rougit, il f uit en tapinois : 
 Chacun en rit, le paradis le hue. 
 Tel fut hue dans les murs de Paris 
 Un pedant sec, a face de Thersite, 
 Vil delateur, insolent hypocrite, 
 Qui fut paye" de haine et de mepris 
 Quand il osa, dans ses phrases vulgaires, 
 FlStrir les arts et eondamner nos freres." 
 
 Lefranc had imitated Rousseau and Des- 
 fontaines in composing paraphrases of the 
 psalms, and Voltaire's description of the mod- 
 ern David (M. 24, p. 125) is similar to his 
 description of Saint Augustin : 
 
 " Le cruel Amalec tombe 
 Sous le fer de Josue; 
 L'orgueilleux Jabin succombe 
 Sous le fer d'Albinoe. 
 Issacar a pris les armes: 
 Zabulon court aux alarmes," etc. 
 
 The verdict of the spectators is mentis non 
 compos. He is to he put on a strict regime in 
 his native province until he recovers his balance. 
 I think that the chief reason why the episode 
 of Irax was introduced into Voltaire's novel 
 is that the character is of the same general type 
 as that of Itobad, and Lefrance had been, in 
 part, designated by Itobad. Voltaire repeats 
 
JESEAD 257 
 
 against Lefranc the same jests that he made 
 against Desfontaines, (1) that he was a pla- 
 giarist, a robber in the Republic of Letters, (2) 
 that he went derriere un Jesuit e, and (3) that 
 his nobility was assumed. In the Car (M. 24, 
 p. 261), he says: Ne faites point le grand seig- 
 neur, car vous etes d'une bonne bourgeoisie. 
 The fact that Lefranc's theft of the subject of 
 Alzire occurred at a time when Desfontaines 
 and Rousseau were trying to overwhelm the 
 poet would readily lead him to subsume them 
 under the same symbol. They all proclaim 
 their supremacy, their preeminence, but they 
 are unable to prove it by their deeds. The 
 burden of many a line of Voltaire is : Enter the 
 arena, show your prowess, avenge yourself on 
 your rival by surpassing him, not by robbing 
 him, traducing him, or besmirching his honor. 
 In the combats for the supremacy in Baby- 
 lon there are only three contestants whose names 
 are given: Zadig, Itobad, and Ornate. There 
 are good reasons for thinking that Ornate is an 
 anagramme for Mahomet. In the chapter on 
 Arbogad I have shown the intimate connection 
 between the V oltairomanie of Desfontaines and 
 the tragedy Mahomet of Voltaire: they are 
 17 
 
258 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 equivalent symbols, the symbol of exclusive 
 domination. By the composition of his tragedy 
 Voltaire becomes the victor of Mahomet and 
 Zadig the victor of Ornate. But Desfontaines, 
 both by the composition of the Voltairomanie, 
 and by his efforts, in conjunction with the other 
 enemies of Voltaire, to suppress the tragedy in 
 Paris, can claim the victory over Voltaire's 
 Mahomet, just as Itobad claims the victory over 
 Ornate. This is effected, however, only by 
 rapine, by treachery, by traducing virtue into 
 vice, by robbing the real victor of the fruit of 
 his victory. That is the ultimate significance 
 of the episode. Voltaire's only recourse, then, 
 was to withdraw from the combat entirely, or 
 to enroll himself under the banner of the cross. 
 He chose the latter course : he donned cowl and 
 gown, he bowed his head and adored. 
 
 But what did he adore ? 
 
 There is always a sense in which everything 
 that Voltaire says is true. Undoubtedly every- 
 thing in this world is, from the point of view 
 of man, "reward, or punishment, or trial, or 
 foresight." If we did not learn from experi- 
 ence the race would never advance, any more 
 than the individual. One does not have to be 
 
JESEAD 259 
 
 devout to bow to Providence, or Destiny, or 
 whatever one may call the spirit that rules the 
 universe. It is the knowledge of what destiny 
 is: that is, the inevitable linking of cause and 
 effect in a given environment, that makes man 
 prudent. It was that knowledge that induced 
 Henry IV to say: Paris vaut bien une messe. 
 And it was that knowledge which induced Vol- 
 taire to think that a place among the Immortals 
 was worth his submission to the angel Jesrad. 
 
 I think that this name is influenced by several 
 sources, namely, (1) by the name Jesus, (2) 
 by the name Jezad among the Persians, (3) 
 by the Hebrew Yezer (cf. Jewish Encyclopedia, 
 Vol. 12, pp. 601-602, in the Talmud), and (4) 
 by the Jezidae, worshippers of the devil. 
 
 Voltaire wished, I think, to characterize 
 especially the spirit of Christ and of the Chris- 
 tians, the new stoics, as he calls them. The 
 passions of man are given to him as a necessary 
 mainspring of his being ; without them he would 
 not act. But when man, whether in the form of 
 Christ, Moses, or Mohammed, or the followers 
 of any religious prophet, speaks in the name of 
 the Deity, and justifies the exercise of his pas- 
 
260 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIRE'S NOVELS 
 
 sions by the divinity of his mission: when he 
 cries, in short, of the Diety : 
 
 " Ce n'est pas moi, c'est lui qui manque d ma parole, 
 Qui frappe par mes mains, pille, brute, viole" 
 
 then he makes his passions divine ; he makes the 
 devil his God. Voltaire does not hesitate to 
 draw this conclusion (M. 9, p. 388) : 
 
 u Les tristes partisans de ce dogme effroyable 
 Diraient-ils rien de plus s'ils adoraient le diablef ,}1 
 
 Of course there is a sense in which God draws 
 
 the bow, the arrow of which pierces an innocent 
 
 and virtuous heart. That action is not done 
 
 contrary to God's will, for that would involve 
 
 a contradiction in terms ; therefore it was God's 
 
 will. Of course Providence is responsible for 
 
 all that is; it was Providence that robbed the 
 
 rich and hospitable man and gave to the rich 
 
 miser; it was Providence that burnt down the 
 
 philosopher's house; it was Providence that 
 
 wrung the neck of the nephew of the poor widow. 
 
 1 Voltaire seems to wish to indicate the equivalence of 
 Jesus and the devil when he says (Annates de I' Empire, 
 Beuchot, 23, p. 121 — repeated in Essay sur les Mceurs, 
 Beuchot, 16, p. 3) that to invoke the devil and not 
 believe in Jesus is a contradiction. 
 
JESEAD 261 
 
 But the man, whether Moses, or Mohammed, or 
 Christ, who claimed to have a special mission, 
 a special revelation, and, in short, whoever 
 nsed the Deity as a justification of his own 
 actions, was simply abusing this eternal verity. 
 He was either a madman or an impostor. Zadig 
 judges the actions of Jesrad by his reason and 
 condemns them, just as we would judge them 
 and condemn them in any one of our fellow 
 beings. It is only after the metamorphosis of 
 the monk into the angel of light ; it is only when 
 we are made to hear the voice of the Deity, the 
 voice of revelation, that murder, pillage, rapine, 
 become justified. Then, in order to reconcile 
 our ideas of right and justice with whatever 
 conflicts with them, we assign motives to the 
 Deity. God had a particular purpose in the 
 death of Henry IV, for example, or in the mur- 
 der of the poor widow's nephew. We must 
 acknowledge that purpose, since our religion 
 tells us that God is omniscient, omnipotent and 
 ubiquitous, and not a hair can fall from our 
 heads without his will. 
 
 Voltaire's first purpose, in the creation of 
 this episode, was, I think, to turn the weapons 
 of his enemies against them. He had accom- 
 
262 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 plished his purpose: he was King of Babylon 
 and husband of Astarte. He could now say to 
 his enemies: That is the result of Providence. 
 
 His second purpose seems to me to be to mark 
 the equivalence of the principles of good and 
 evil. Either one is a Manichaean, i. e., a be- 
 liever in two eternally warring principles, or a 
 Christian, i. e., a believer in an omniscient, 
 omnipotent, and all-good God, who has, how- 
 ever, given the world over to the devil (cf. M. 
 18, p. 165), or one believes in one God, the 
 author of all that is. In the first case we really 
 have two gods instead of one; in the second 
 case the real ruler of the world is the devil ; in 
 the third case God is the devil and vice versa. 
 Now Voltaire's philosophy was very simple. 1 
 Considering, as he did, that there is no evil in 
 the world except "par rapport a nous," it was 
 absurd to speak of the justice or injustice of 
 God; we might just as well speak of him as 
 blue, or round, or square. Man has no reason 
 to think that God owed him any more happiness 
 than falls to his lot ; God has made no pact with 
 him. Rather than be surprised that God has 
 made us so limited in power and capacity, we 
 
 1 Cf. Traite de Metaphysique. 
 
JESEAD 263 
 
 should be grateful that our limitations are not 
 less than they are. 
 
 Voltaire's third purpose was, I think, to lash 
 the Providence of the Christians. I deduce this 
 conclusion from the name of the angel Jesrad, 
 and from his doctrine. The name is compar- 
 able, I think, to any such formation as Henri- 
 ade, Crepinade, Koussade: it is the satire of 
 Jesus. His doctrine is that of the Christians: 
 the assigning of motives to God to account for 
 evil to man. The philosopher loses a beloved 
 child in the bloom of youth; he bears his loss 
 as best he may, but he would never for a mo- 
 ment consider that God had a special purpose 
 in taking his child from him. He would not 
 try to console himself by saying that his son 
 might have become a wicked man had he lived. 
 The Christian, on the other hand, whether he 
 formulates his reasons or not, considers that God 
 has a special design in everything, whether it 
 be the death of his child or the burning of his 
 house. His child has been taken from him, be- 
 cause he loved it more than God, etc. His 
 house has been burned down, because he cared 
 too much for temporal possessions. This 
 marked for Voltaire the type of the man-god : a 
 
264 SYMBOLISM OP VOLTAIKE'S NOVELS 
 
 god with the passions of man infinitely magni- 
 fied, jealous like us, envious of our happiness, 
 insulted if we did not take off our hats to 
 him, etc. 
 
 The name of the angel was influenced, in all 
 probability, by the name of the indwelling spirit 
 of man, as characterized in the Talmud. This 
 spirit, Yezer (cf. Jewish Encyclopedia), is both 
 good and evil. In the second place, Voltaire 
 found in Hyde's Religion of the ancient Per- 
 sians the name Jezad, both alone and in com- 
 position, both as the name of an angel and as 
 the name of God. He found there also a de- 
 scription of the cult of the Jezidae, or Jezidi, 
 who worshipped the devil, whom they called 
 Pavo-Angelus, Peacock Angel. These sectar- 
 ians are neither Christians nor Mohammedans, 
 but they are closer to the former than to the 
 latter, says Hyde. Their Jezid, from whom 
 they derive their name, is considered by some 
 to be the same as Jesus Christ. 
 
 As I have already said, there is a sense in 
 which everything is reward, or punishment, or 
 trial, or foresight; everything has some reac- 
 tion upon man, which may be ranged under one 
 or the- other of these headings. Especially the 
 

 JESEAD 265 
 
 word "trial" (epreuve) lets the Christian out 
 of many difficulties. Voltaire says (M. 18, p. 
 266) "if there are difficulties that cannot be 
 explained away and things that revolt our 
 reason, they are merely to try our faith." But 
 we can not understand this episode of the angel 
 Jesrad unless we look upon it as a principle, 
 philosophy, or religion in action in the person 
 of some mortal man, who justifies his crimes as 
 in the verses already quoted from the Discours 
 en vers sur Phomme: 
 
 " Ce n'est pas moi, c'est lui qui manque a ma parole, 
 Qui frappe par mes mains, pille, brule, viole" 
 
 The partisans of this frightful dogma could not 
 
 say more if they worshipped the devil. 1 
 
 1 The only episodes of Zadig that I have not treated 
 are those dealing with the King of Serendib, and these 
 will form part of a future companion volume dealing 
 specially with Candide. 
 
BIBLIOGEAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 As I have already indicated in the Introduction, the 
 warp and woof of my study is a first-hand investiga- 
 tion of Voltaire's works, all of which I have read in 
 the sole view of interpreting his novels. I have used 
 the Moland edition (Paris, 1877-85, 50 volumes, with 
 two extra containing an index), except where it was 
 not available, namely for the Annales de PEmpire 
 and the Essai sur les Mceurs, where I used Beuchot 
 (Paris, 1829-40, 70 volumes, with two extra contain- 
 ing the index). For the bibliography of Voltaire's 
 works I have consulted Bengesco where there has 
 been any necessity of determining the date of a par- 
 ticular work. 
 
 In addition the following books have been quoted 
 or referred to in the body of my work: 
 
 General Works 
 
 Marmontel, Jean Frangois. CEuvres. Paris, 1818: 
 especially his Memoires and History of the Re- 
 gency. 
 Maupertius, Pierre Louis Moreau. CEuvres. Lyon, 
 1756: especially his Essais sur les progres des 
 sciences. 
 Rousseau, Jean Baptiste. CEuvres. London, 1723, 
 and Brussels, 1743. 
 
 266 
 
BIBLIOGEAPHICAL NOTE 267 
 
 Rousseau, Jean Jacques. CEuvres. Neuchatel, 1764 : 
 especially his Discours " Si le Retablissement des 
 arts a contribue a epurer les mceurs" and that 
 " Sur l'origine et les f ondements de Pinegalite 
 parmi les homines." 
 
 Biographies 
 
 Desnoiresterres, G-. Voltaire et la societe au 18 e 
 
 Siecle. 8 vols. Paris, 18J1-76. 
 Luchet, marquis de (Jean Pierre Louis La Roche du 
 
 Maine). Histoire litteraire de M. de Voltaire. 
 
 6 vols. Cassel, 1780. 
 Morley, John. (Life of) Voltaire. 1 vol. London, 
 
 1897, and (Life of) Rousseau (J. J.). 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1873. 
 Parton, James. Life of Voltaire. 2 vols. Boston, 
 
 1882. 
 Straus, D. F. Sechs Vortrage iiber Voltaire (vol. 11 
 
 of Gesammelte Schriften). Bonn, 1876-78. 
 Tallentyre, S. G. The Life of Voltaire. 2 vols. New 
 
 York, 1903. 
 
 Criticism 
 
 A. Histories of Literature 
 
 Hettner, H. Geschichte der franz. Litt. im 18. Jahr. 
 5. verb. Auf. Braunschweig, 1894. 
 
 Lanson, Gh Histoire de la litterature francaise. 
 Paris, 1898. 
 
 Petit de Julleville. Histoire de la langue et de la litt. 
 francaise des origines a 1900: chapter on the 
 novel in the seventeenth and the eighteenth cen- 
 turies. 
 
268 SYMBOLISM OF VOLTAIBE'S NOVELS 
 
 B. Histories of Fiction 
 
 Crane, T. F. Introduction to Boileau's "Les Heros 
 
 de Roman." Ginn & Co., 1902. , 
 Dunlop, J. C. History of Prose Fiction. Ed. by 
 
 Wilson. London, 1896. 
 Le Breton, A. Le Roman au 17 e siecle. Paris, 1890. 
 Morillot, P. Le Roman en France depuis 1610 
 
 jusqu'a nos jours. Paris, n. d. 
 Warren, . History of the Novel previous to the 
 
 seventeenth century. New York, 1895. 
 
 C. Dealing with the Orient 
 
 Conant, Martha P. The Oriental Tale in England in 
 the eighteenth century. New York, 1908. 
 
 Hammer-Purgstall. Geschichte der schonen Rede- 
 ktinste Persiens. Wien, 1818; Tiber die Namen 
 der Araber and Geisterlehre der Moslinen, in 
 Denksschriften der K. Akad. der Wissenschaften, 
 dritter Band, Wien, 1852. 
 
 Herbelot, Barthelemie. Bibliotheque orientale. La 
 Haye, 1777-79. 
 
 Hyde, Thomas. Veterum Persarum et Parthorum et 
 Medorum Religionis Historia. Editio Secunda, 
 1760. 
 
 Martino, Pierre. L'Orient dans la litterature fran- 
 chise au 17 e et au 18 e siecle. Paris, 1906. 
 
 Meynard, Barbier de. Introduction to, and transla- 
 tion of, Le Boustan ou Verger, poeme persan de 
 Saadi. Paris, 1880. 
 
 Remy, A. J. F. The Influence of India and Persia 
 on the Poetry of Germany. New York, 1901. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 269 
 
 Special Works 
 
 Bonnefon, P. "One inimitie litteraire au 18 e siecle. 
 Voltaire et Jean Baptiste Rousseau. Revue 
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 Haupt, H. Voltaire in Frankfurt, 1753. Zsc. f. fr. 
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 Mangold, W. Voltaires Rechtstreit mit dem K. 
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 1905. Reviewed in Herrigs Archiv, Vol. 16 
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 Seele, F. W. Voltaires Roman Zadig ou la destinee; 
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VITA 
 
 William Raleigh Price was born in Barbour 
 County, W. Va., August 7, 1875. When he 
 was thirteen years old his parents moved to 
 Buffalo, 23T. Y., where he attended the public 
 schools. He graduated from the Central High 
 School in 1894 and Won a scholarship for Cor- 
 nell University. He spent the winter term of 
 his senior year in Paris, where he prepared his 
 bachelor's essay on Realism and Naturalism in 
 French Fiction. On graduating from Cornell 
 in 1898, with the degree of A.B., he was 
 awarded a Traveling Fellowship in Romance 
 Languages, and spent a year in study at Berlin 
 and Paris. He married Catherine Mathilde 
 Felicite Bartels at Wolfenbiittel, Germany, Jan- 
 uary 14, 1899. Since September, 1899, he has 
 taught continuously French and German at the 
 following institutions: Westerleigh Collegiate 
 Institute, Staten Island, 1899-1900; Male 
 High School, Louisville, Ky., 1900-1902; 
 East High School, Rochester, EL Y. (and 
 270 
 
VITA 271 
 
 Kochester University), 1902-1906 ;High School 
 of Commerce, New York City, 1906-1911. He 
 was appointed, after a competitive examination 
 in which he stood highest, State Inspector in 
 Modern Languages, in the New York State Edu- 
 cation Department, April 8, 1911. He is 
 the author of an edition of Pailleron's Le Monde 
 ou Ton s'ennuie, Ginn & Co., 1906, and has 
 aided in the preparation of the following edi- 
 tions of text-books for schools and colleges: 
 Professor Crane's edition of Boileau's Les 
 Heros de Eoman, Ginn & Co., 1902 ; Professor 
 Olmsted's edition of Moliere's Le Malade Ima- 
 ginaire, Ginn & Co., 1905, and Spanish Leg- 
 ends, Tales, and Poems (of Becquer), Ginn & 
 Co., 1907. 
 
 Since October, 1906, he has been continu- 
 ously in residence at Columbia University. 
 
ytv* py 
 
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