Voltaire wrote the section on History. The first page contained a Voltairean definition of sacred history which even an ignorant censor6 could hardly be expected to pass. “Sacred History is a series of operations, divine and miraculous10, by which it pleased God formerly11 to conduct the Jewish nation, and to-day to exercise our faith.” The iron hand beneath the velvet12 glove was too evident for this to pass the censorship. Vexatious delay and the enforced excision13 of important articles attended the progress of the work.
It was the attempted suppression of l'Encyclopcedie which showed Voltaire that the time had come for battle.
In 1757 a new edict was issued, threatening with death any one who wrote, printed, or sold any work attacking religion or the royal authority. The same edict assigned the penalty of the galleys14 to whoever published writings without legal permit. Within six months advocate Barbier recorded in his diary some terrible sentences. La Martelière, verse-writer, for printing clandestinely15 Voltaire’s Pucelle and other “such” works, received nine years in the galleys; eight printers and binders16 employed in the same printing office, the pillory17 and three years’ banishment18. Up to the period of the Revolution nothing could be legally printed in France, and no book could be imported, without Government authorisation. Mr. Lecky says, in his History of England in the Eighteenth Century: “During the whole of the reign19 of Lewis XV. there was scarcely a work of importance which was not burnt or suppressed, while the greater number of the writers who were at this time the special, almost the only, glory of France were imprisoned20, banished21, or fined.” Voltaire determined22 to render the bigots odious23 and contemptible24, and henceforth waged incessant26 war, continued to the day of his death. In satire27 on one of the bigots he issued his Narrative28 of the Sickness, Confession29, Death and Reappearance of the Jesuit Berthier, as rich a burlesque30 as that which Swift had written predicting and describing the death of the astrologer Partridge, in accordance with the prediction. Every sentence is a hit. A priest of a rival order is hastily summoned to confess the dying Jesuit, who is condemned31 to penance32 in purgatory33 for 333,333 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, and then will only be let out if some brother Jesuit be found humble34 and good enough to be willing to apply all his merits to Father Berthier. Even putting his enemy in purgatory, he only condemned the Jesuit every morning to mix the chocolate of a Jansenist, read aloud at dinner a Provincial35 Letter, and employ the rest of the day in mending the chemises of the nuns36 of Port Royal.
From Ferney he poured forth25 a wasp-swarm of such writings under all sorts of pen-names, and dated from London, Amsterdam, Berne, or Geneva. He had sufficient stimulus37 in the bigotry38, intolerance, and atrocious iniquities40 perpetrated in the name of religion.
Voltaire, moreover, determined himself to uphold the work of the Encyclop?dia in more popular form. He put forward first his Questions upon the Encyclop?dia, in which he deals with some important articles of that work, with others of his own. This was the foundation of the most important of all his works, the Philosophical41 Dictionary, which he is said to have projected in the days when he was with Frederick at Berlin. In this work he showed how a dictionary could be made the most amusing reading in the world. Under an alphabetical42 arrangement, he brought together a vast variety of sparkling essays on all sorts of subjects connected with literature, science, politics and religion. Some of his headings were mere43 stalking-horses, under cover of which he shot at the enemy. Some are concerned with matters now out of date; but, on the whole, the work presents a vivid picture of his versatile44 genius. An abridged45 edition, containing articles of abiding46 interest, would be a service to Free-thought at the present day.
Here is a slight specimen47 of his style taken from the article on Fanaticism49: “Some one spreads a rumor50 in the world that there is a giant in existence 70 feet high. Very soon all the doctors discuss the questions what color his hair must be, what is the size of his thumb, what the dimensions of his nails; there is outcry, caballing, fighting; those who maintain that the giant’s little finger is only an inch and a half in diameter, bring those to the stake who affirm that the little finger is a foot thick. ‘But, gentlemen, does your giant exist?’ says a bystander, modestly.
“‘What a horrible doubt!’ cry all the disputants; ‘what blasphemy51! what absurdity52!’ Then they all make a little truce53 to stone the bystander, and, after having assassinated54 him in due form, in a manner the most edifying55, they fight among themselves, as before, on the subject of the little finger and the nails.”
“L’Infame.”
Voltaire had other provocations56 to his attack on the bigots, and as he greatly concerned himself with these, they must be briefly57 mentioned. In 1761 a tragedy of mingled58 judicial59 bigotry, ignorance, and cruelty was enacted60 in Languedoc. On October 13th of that year, Marc Antoine, the son of Jean Calas, a respectable Protestant merchant in Toulouse, a young man of dissolute habits, who had lived the life of a scapegrace, hanged himself in his father’s shop while the family were upstairs. The priestly party got hold of the case and turned it into a religious crime. The Huguenot parents were charged with murdering their son to prevent his turning Catholic. Solemn services were held for the repose61 of the soul of Marc Antoine, and his body was borne to the grave with more than royal pomp, as that of a martyr62 to the holy cause of religion. In the church of the White Penitents63 a hired skeleton was exhibited, holding in one hand a branch of palm, emblem64 of martyrdom, and in the other an inscription65, in large letters, “abjuration of heresy66.’’ The populace, who were accustomed yearly to celebrate with rejoicing the Massacre67 of St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572, were excited against the family. The father, who for sixty years had lived without reproach, was arrested, with his wife and children. The court before whom the case was brought, at first was disposed to put the whole family to the torture, never doubting that the murder would be confessed by one or other of them. But they ended by only condemning68 the father to be tortured, in order to extract a confession of guilt69 before being broken on the wheel, after which his body was to be burned and the ashes scattered70 to the winds. He was submitted first to the question ordinaire. In sight of the rack he was asked to reveal his crime. His answer was that no crime had been committed. He was stretched on the rack until every limb was dislocated and the body drawn71 out several inches beyond. He was then subjected to the question extraordinaire. This consisted in pouring water into his mouth from a horn, while his nose was pinched, till his body was swollen72 to twice its size, and the sufferer endured the anguish73 of a hundred drownings. He submitted without flinching74 to all the excruciating agony. Finally, he was placed upon a tumbril and carried through the howling mob to the place of execution. “I am innocent.” he muttered from time to time. At the scaffold he was exhorted75 to confess by a priest: “What!” said he, “you, too, believe a father can kill his own son!” They bound him to a wooden cross, and the executioner, with an iron bar, broke each of his limbs in two places, striking eleven blows in all, and then left him for two hours to die. The executioner mercifully strangled him at last, before burning the body at the stake. To the last he persisted in his innocence77: he had no confession to make. By his unutterable agony he saved the lives of his wife and family. Two daughters were thrown into a convent, and the property was confiscated78. The widow and son escaped, and were provided for by Voltaire.
He spared no time, trouble, or money to arrive at the truth, and that once reached, he was as assiduous in his search for justice. He went to work with an energy and thoroughness all his own. He interested the Pompadour herself in the case. By his own efforts he forced justice to be heard. “The worst of the worthy79 sort of people,” he said, “is that they are such cowards. A man groans80 over his wrong, shuts his lips, takes his supper, and forgets.” Voltaire was not of that fibre. Wrong went as a knife to his heart. He suffered with the victim, and might have justly used the words of Shelley, who compared himself unto “a nerve, o’er which do creep the else unfelt oppressions of the world.” Voltaire had to fire others with his own fervor81. He issued pamphlet after pamphlet in which the shameful82 story was told with pathetic simplicity83. He employed the best lawyers he could find to vindicate84 the memory of the murdered man. For three years he left no stone unturned, until all that was possible was done to right the foul85 wrong of those in authority. During this time no smile escaped him of which he did not reproach himself as a crime. Carlyle speaks of this as “Voltaire’s noblest outburst, into mere transcendant blaze of pity, virtuous86 wrath87, and determination to bring rescue and help against the whole world.”
He had his pamphlets on the Calas case, seven in number, translated and published in England and Germany, where they produced a profound effect. A subscription88 for the Calas family was headed by the young Queen of George III. When at length judgment89 was given, reversing the sentence, he wrote to Damilaville: “My dear brother, there is, then, justice upon the earth! There is, then, such a thing as humanity! Men are not all wicked rascals90, as they say! It is the day of your triumph, my dear brother; you have served the family better than anyone.”
It was while the Calas case was pending91 that Voltaire composed his noble Treatise92 on Toleration, a work which, besides its great effect in Europe, caused Catherine II. to promise, if not to grant, universal religious toleration throughout the vast empire she governed.
This Calas case was scarce ended when another, almost as bad an exhibition of intolerance, occurred. Sirven, a respectable Protestant land surveyor, had a Catholic housekeeper93, who, with the assent94 of the Bishop95 of Castres, spirited away his daughter for the good of her soul, and placed her in a convent, with a view to her conversion96. She returned to her parents in a state of insanity97, her body covered with the marks of the whip. She never recovered from the cruelties she had endured at the convent. One day, when her father was absent on his professional duties, she threw herself into a well, at the bottom of which she was found drowned. It was obvious to the authorities that the parents had murdered their child because she wished to become a Roman Catholic. They most wisely did not appear, and were sentenced to be hanged when they could be caught. In their flight the married daughter gave premature98 birth to a child, and Madame Sirven died in despair.
It took Voltaire eight years to get this abominable99 sentence reversed, and to turn wrong into right. He was now between seventy and eighty years of age, yet he threw himself into the cause of the Sirvens with the zeal100 and energy which has vindicated101 Calas; appealing to Paris and Europe, issuing pamphlets, feeing lawyers, and raising a handsome subscription for the family.
Another case was that of the Chevalier de la Barre. In 1766 a crucifix was injured—perhaps wantonly, perhaps by accident. The Bishop of Amiens called for vengeance102. Two young officers were accused; one escaped, and obtained by Voltaire’s request a commission in the Prussian service. The other, La Barre, was tortured to confess, and then condemned to have his tongue cut out, his hand cut off, and to be burned alive. Voltaire, seventy years old, devoted103 himself with untiring energy to save him. Failing in that, he wrote one of his little pamphlets, a simple, graphic104 Narrative of the Death of Chevalier de la Barre, which stirred every humane105 heart in France. For twelve years this infidel vindicated the memory of the murdered man and exposed his oppressors. One of the authorities concerned in this judicial atrocity106 threatened Voltaire with vengeance for holding them up to the execration107 of Europe. Voltaire replied by a Chinese anecdote108. “I forbid you,” said a tyrannical emperor to the historiographer, “to speak a word more of me.” The mandarin109 began to write. “What are you doing now?” asked the emperor. “I am writing down the order that your majesty110 has just given me.” Voltaire had sought to save Admiral Byng. He contended in a similar case at home. Count Lally had failed to save India from the English, had been taken prisoner, but allowed to go to Paris to clear his name from charges made against him. The French people, infuriate at the loss of their possession, demanded a victim, and Lally, after a process tainted111 with every kind of illegality, was condemned to death on the vague charge of abuse of authority. The murdered man’s son, known in the Revolution as Lally Tollendal, was joined by Voltaire in the honorable work of procuring112 revision of the proceedings113, and one of the last crowning triumphs of Voltaire’s days was the news brought to him on his dying bed that his long effort had availed.
“Ecrasez L'infàme.”
These are samples of what was occuring when Voltaire was exhorting114 his friends to crush the infamous—a phrase which gave rise to much misunderstanding, and which priests have even alleged115 was applied116 to Jesus, their idol117. A sufficient disproof, if any were needed, is that Voltaire treats “l’infàme” as feminine. Si vous pouvez écraser l'infame, ecrasez-la, et aimez-moi.” That oft-repeated phrase was directed at no person. Nor was it, as some Protestants have alleged, directed only at Roman Catholicism. As Voltaire saw and said, “fanatic48 Papists and fanatic Calvanism are tarred with one brush.” “L’infàme” was Christian118 superstition119 claiming supernatural authority and enforcing its claim, as it has ever sought to do, by pains and penalties. He meant by it the whole spirit of exclusiveness, intolerance, and bigotry, persecuting120 and privileged orthodoxy, which he saw-as the outcome of the divine faith. Practically, as D. F. Strauss justly remarked, “when Voltaire writes to D’Alembert that he wishes to see the ‘Infame’ reduced in France to the same condition in which she finds herself in England, and when Frederick writes to Voltaire that philosophers flourished amongst the Greeks and Romans, because their religion had no dogmas—‘*mais les dogmes de notre infàme gatent tout’—it is clear we must understand by the ‘Infame,’ whose destruction was the watchword of the Voltairian circle, the Christian Church, without distinction of communions, Catholic or Protestant.”
The Catholic Joseph de Maistre shrieks121: “With a fury without example, this insolent122 blasphemer declared himself the personal enemy of the Savior of men, dared from the depths of his nothingness to give him a name of ridicule123, and that adorable law which the Man-God brought to earth he called ‘l’infame.’” This is a judgment worthy of a bigot, who dares not look into the reason why his creed124 is detested125. Let us try and understand this insolent blasphemer to-day.
Voltaire looked deep into the heart of the atrocities127 that wrung128 his every nerve with anguish. They were not new: only the humanity and courage that assailed129 them were new. They were the natural outcome of what had been Christian teaching. It was not simply that, as a matter of fact, priests and theologians were the opponents of every kind of rational progress, but their intolerance was the logical result of their creed. These atrocities could not have been perpetrated had not priests and magistrates130 had behind them a credulous131 and fanatical populace, whose minds were suborned from childhood to believing that they had themselves the one and divine faith, and that all heretics were enemies of God. He saw that to destroy the intolerance he must sap the superstition from which it sprang. He saw that the core of the Christian superstition lay in Bibliolatry, and that while Christians132 believed they had an exclusive and infallibly divine revelation, they would deem all opposition133 to their own beliefs a sin, meriting punishment. Mr. Morley says, with truth: “If we find ourselves walking amid a generation of cruel, unjust, and darkened spirits, we may be assured that it is their beliefs on what they deem highest that have made them so. There is no counting with certainty on the justice of men who are capable of fashioning and worshipping an unjust divinity; nor on their humanity, so long as they incorporate inhuman134 motives135 in their most sacred dogma; nor on their reasonableness, while they rigorously decline to accept reason as a test of truth.”
Voltaire warred on Christian superstition because he keenly felt its evils. He saw that intolerance naturally flowed from the exclusive and dogmatic claims which alone differentiated136 it from other faiths. Its inducements to right-doing he found to be essentially137 ignoble138, appealing either to brutal139 fear of punishment or base expectation of reward, and in each case alike mercenary. He saw that terrorism engendered140 brutality141, that a savage142 will think nothing of slaughtering143 hundreds to appease144 his angry God. He saw that it had been a fine religion for priests and monks—those caterpillars145 of the commonwealth146, living on the fat of the land while pretending to hold the keys of heaven, a race of parasites147 on the people, who toil148 not neither do they spin, and whose direct interest lay in fostering their dupes ignorance and credulity. The Christian tree was judged, as its founder149 said it should be, by its fruits. Men do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs150 from thistles. He saw Christianity as Tacitus described it—“a maleficent superstition.” It was a upas tree, to be cut down; and hence he reiterated151 his terrible Delenda est Carthago, “Ecrasez l’Infàme”—“Destroy the monster.”
He wrote to D’Alembert from Ferney: “For forty years I have endured the outrages152 of bigots and scoundrels. I have found there is nothing to gain by moderation, and that it is a deception153. I must wage war openly and die nobly, 'on a crowd of bigots slaughtered154 at my feet.’” His war was relentless155 and unremitting. He assailed “l’Infàme” with every weapon which learning, wit, industry, and indignation could supply.
Frederick wrote to him from the midst of his own wars: “Your zeal burns against the Jesuits and superstitions156. You do well to combat error, but do you credit that the world will change? The human mind is weak. Three-fourths of mankind are formed to be the slaves of the absurdest fanaticism. The fear of the devil and hell is fascinating to them, and they detest126 the sage157 who wishes to enlighten them. I look in vain among them for the image of God, of which the theologians assure us they carry the imprint158.” Madame du Deffand wrote in a similar strain. She assured him that every person of sense thought as he did; why then continue? No remonstrance159 moved him. He had enlisted160 for the war, and might have said with Luther: Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders.
Much nonsense has been written about Voltaire’s employment of ridicule against religious beliefs. I am reminded of Bishop South’s remark to a dull brother bishop, who reproved him for sprinkling his sermon with witticisms161. “Now, my lord, do you really mean to say that, if God had given you any wit, you would not have used it?” Voltaire ridiculed162 what he esteemed163 ridiculous. But there is nothing more galling164 to superstitionists than to find that others find food for mirth in their absurdities165.
“You mock at sacred things,” said the Jesuits to Pascal when he exposed their casuistry. Doubtless the priests of Baal said the same when Elijah asked them whether their God was asleep, or peradventure on a journey. The artifice166 of inculcating a solemn and reverential manner of treating absurdities is the perennial167 recipe for sanctifying and perpetuating168 superstition. “Priests of all persuasions,” says Oliver Goldsmith, “are enemies to ridicule, because they know it to be a formidable antagonist169 to fanaticism, and they preach up gravity to conceal170 their own shallowness of imposture171.” Approach the mysteries of the faith with reverence172 and you concede half the battle. Christian missionaries173 do not thus treat the fetishism and sorcery of heathen lands. To overcome it they must expose its absurdities. Ridicule has been a weapon in the hands of all the great liberators, Luther, Erasmus, Rabelais, Bruno, Swift, but none used it more effectively than Voltaire. Buckle174 well says; “He used ridicule, not as the test of truth, but as the scourge175 of folly176.” And he adds: “His irony177, his wit, his pungent178 and telling sarcasms179 produce more effect than the gravest arguments could have done; and there can be no doubt he was fully76 justified180 in using those great resources with which nature had endowed him, since by their aid he advanced the interests of truth, and relieved men from some of their most inveterate181 prejudices.” Victor Hugo puts the case in poetic182 fashion when he declares that Voltaire was irony incarnate183 for the salvation184 of mankind. “Ridicule is not argument”! Well, it is a pointed185 form of polemic186, the argumentum ad absurdum. “Mustapha,” said Voltaire, “does not believe, but he believes that he believes.” To shame him out of hypocrisy187, there is nothing better than laughter; and if a true believer, laughter will best free him from terror of his bogey188 devil and no less bogey god. Ridicule can hurt no reality. You cannot make fun of the multiplication189 table. The fun begins when the theologians assert that three times one are one. Shaftesbury, who maintained that ridicule was a test of truth, remarked with justice, “’tis the persecuting spirit that has raised the bantering190 one.” Ridicule is the natural retort to those who seek not to convert but to convict and punish. Ridicule comes like a stream of sunlight to dissipate the fogs of preconceived prejudice. A laugh, if no argument, is a splendid preparative. Often, in Voltaire, ridicule takes an argumentative form. Thus, alluding192 to a Monsieur Esprit’s book on the Falsity of Human Virtues193, he says: “That great genius, Mons. Esprit, tells us that neither Cato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, nor Epictetus were good men, and a good reason why, good men are only found among Christians. Again, among the Christians, Catholics alone are virtuous, and of the Catholics, the Jesuits, enemies of the Oratorians, must be excepted. Therefore, there is scarce any virtue194 on earth, except among the enemies of the Jesuits.”
All his characteristic scorn and ridicule come out when dealing195 with the fetish book of his adversaries196. The Philosophical Dictionary is full of wit upon biblical subjects. I content myself with an excerpt197 from the less known Sermon of Fifty: “If Moses changed the waters into blood, the sages198 of Pharoah did the same. He made frogs come upon the land; this also they were able to do. But when lice were concerned, they were vanquished199; in the matter of lice, the Jews knew more and could do more than the other nations.”
“Finally, Adona? caused every first-born in Egypt to die, in order that his people might be at their ease. For his people the sea is cloven in twain; and we must confess it is the least that could be done on this occasion. All the other marvels200 are of the same stamp. The Jews wander in the desert. Some husbands complain of their wives. Immediately water is found, which makes every woman who has been faithless to her husband swell201 and burst. In the desert the Jews have neither bread nor dough202, but quails203 and manna are rained upon them. Their clothes are preserved unworn for forty years; as the children grow, their clothes grow with them. Samson, because he had not undergone the operation of shaving, defeats a thousand Philistines204 with the jaw-bone of an ass3. He ties together three hundred foxes, which, as a matter of course, come quite readily to his hand.
“There is scarcely a page in which tales of this sort are not found. The ghost of Samuel appears, summoned by the voice of a witch. The shadow of a dial—as if miserable205 creatures like the Jews had dials—goes back ten degrees at the prayer of Hezekiah, who, with great judgment, asks for this sign. God gives him the choice of making the hour advance or recede206, and the learned Hezekiah thinks that it is not difficult to make the shadow advance, but very difficult to make it recede. Elijah mounts to heaven in a chariot of fire; children sing in a hot and raging furnace. I should never stop if I entered into the detail of all the monstrous207 extravagances with which this book swarms208. Never was common sense outraged209 so vehemently210 and indecently.” Noticing the comparison in the Song of Solomon, “Her nose is like the tower of Damascus,” etc., he says: “This, I own, is not in the style of the Eclogues of the author of the ?neid; but all have not a like style, and a Jew is not obliged to write like Virgil.”
This, it may be objected, is caricature and not criticism. But all that Voltaire sought was that his blows should tell. He did not expect to be taken au pied du lettre. Some of his biblical criticism is faulty, but it is hard for the reader to recover from the tone of banter191 and contempt with which he treats the sacred book. When the idol is shattered, it is not much use saying its mouth was not quite so big and ugly as it was represented to be. Priests have never yet been troubled by dull criticism. They left Tindal and Chubb alone; but when Woolston, Annet and Paine added liveliness to their infidelity, they loudly called for the police.
Leslie Stephen well says: “Men have venerated211 this or that grotesque212 monstrosity because they have always approached it with half-shut eyes and grovelling213 on their faces in the dust: a single hearty214 laugh will encourage them to stand erect215 and to learn the latest of lessons—that of seeing what lies before them. And if your holy religion does really depend upon preserving the credit of Jonah’s whale, upon justifying216 all the atrocities of the Jews, and believing that a census217 was punished by a plague, ridicule is not only an effective but an appropriate mode of argument.”
Voltaire is often sneered218 at as a mere destructive. The charge is not true, and, even if it were, he would none the less deserve the admiration220 of posterity221 for his destructive work. It is as necessary for the gardener to clear away the rubbish and keep down the weeds as to sow and water. Mr. Morley justly observes: “He had imagination enough and intelligence enough to perceive that they are the most pestilent of all the enemies of mankind, the sombre hierarchs of misology, who take away the keys of knowledge, thrusting truth down to the second place, and discrowning sovereign reason to be the serving drudge222 of superstition or social usuage.”
Voltaire was the arch iconoclast223 of his age, a mere destructive, if you will. Buckie truly remarks: “All great reforms have consisted, not in making something new, but in unmaking something old.” W. J. Fox eloquently224 said: “The destruction of tyranny is political freedom. The destruction of bigotry is spiritual and mental emancipation225. Positive and negative are mere forms. Creation and destruction, as we call them, are just one and the same work, the work which man has to do—the extraction of good from evil.”
Much has been made of the pseudonymous character of his attacks on Christianity, and of the subterfuges226 and fibs with which he sought to evade228 responsibility. One might as well complain of ironclads wearing armor in warfare229.
It was the necessity of his position. He wanted to do his work, not to become a martyr, leaving it to unknown hands. It should be remembered that Voltaire had sometimes to bribe230 publishers to bring out his writings; and, in such circumstances, the pseudonymity is surely open to no suspicion of baseness. His poem on Natural Religion was condemned to the flames by the decree of the Parliament of Paris, 23rd January, 1759. His Important Examination of the Scriptures231, which he falsely attributed to Lord Bolingbroke, was condemned with five other of his pieces by a decree of the Court of Rome, 29th November, 1771. Could the author have been caught, he would have had a good chance, if not of sharing the fate of his book, at least of permanent lodgment in the Bastille, of which he had already sufficient taste. He knew that although Bolingbroke had no hand in its composition he largely shared its ideas, and he obtained at once publicity232 and security by attributing it to the dead friend who, Morley says, “was the direct progenitor233 of Voltaire’s opinions in religion.” If he stuck at no subterfuge227 to achieve his work, his lies injured no one. One of the funniest was the signing one of his heterodox publications as the Archbishop of Canterbury, a lie which may remind us of the drunken Sheridan announcing himself as William Wilberforce. Voltaire had been Bastilled twice, and verily believed that another taste would end his days. “I am,” he said, “a friend of truth, but no friend at all to martyrdom.” Shelter behind any ambush234 was necessary in such guerilla warfare as his. Over fifty of his works were condemned, and placed upon the Index. Voltaire used no fewer than one hundred and thirty different pen-names, which have enabled bibliographers to display their erudition.(1) But for this underground method, he might have been laid by the heels instead of living to old age, with the satisfaction of seeing the world becoming a little more humane and tolerant through his efforts. In such warfare the only test is success, and the fact remains235 that Voltaire’s blows told. He cleared the course for modern science, and it is not for those who benefit by his labors236 to sneer219 because he did not become a martyr in the struggle.
1. Special mention should be made of the Bibliographie Voltairienne of M. L. Querard, and Voltaire: Bibliographie de ses ?uvres, in four volumes, by M. G. Bengesco, 1882- 1890.
Condorcet says: “His zeal against a religion which he regarded as the cause of the fanaticism which has desolated238 Europe since its birth, of the superstition which had burst about it, and as the source of the mischief239 which the enemies of human nature still continued to do, seemed to double his activity and his forces. ‘I am tired,’ he said one day, ‘of hearing it repeated that twelve men were enough to establish Christianity. I want to show them that one will be enough to destroy it.’” What one man could do he did. But it took not twelve legendary240 apostles, but the labor237 of countless241 thousands of men, through many ages, to build up the great complex of Christianity, and it will need the labors of as many to destroy it. Voltaire himself came to see this, and wrote, in the year before his death, “I now perceive that we must still wait three or four hundred years. One day it cannot but be that good men will win their cause; but before that glorious day arrives, how many disgusts have we to undergo, how many dark persecutions, without reckoning the La Barres of whom they will make an auto242 de fe from time to time.”
John Morley remarks: “The meaner partisans243 of an orthodoxy, which can only make wholly sure of itself by injustice244 to adversaries, has always loved to paint the Voltairean school in the characters of demons245, enjoying their work of destruction with a sportive and impish delight. They may have rejoiced in their strength so long as they cherished the illusion that those who first kindled246 the torch should also complete the long course and bear the lamp to the goal. When the gravity of the enterprise showed itself before them, they remained alert with all courage, but they ceased to fancy that courage necessarily makes men happy. The mantle247 of philosophy was rent in a hundred places, and bitter winds entered at a hundred holes; but they only drew it the more closely around them.”
It may remain an inspiration to others, as it assuredly is a proof of the temperance and moderation of his own life, that much of Voltaire’s best work was done after he had reached his sixtieth year. Candide, his masterpiece, was written at the age of sixty-four. Four years later he produced his Sermon of the Fifty, and he was sixty-nine when he published his epoch-making Treatise upon Toleration, and Saul, the wittiest248 of his burlesque dramas. At the age of seventy he issued his most important work, the Philosophical Dictionary, and his burlesque upon existing superstitions, which he entitled Pot-Pourri. This was, indeed, the period of his greatest literary activity against “l’Infame.” His Questions on the Miracles, his Examination of Lord Bolingbroke, the Questions of Zapata, the Dinner of Count de Boulainvilliers (the charming resumé of Voltaire’s religious opinions, which had the honor to be burnt by the hand of the hangman), the Canonisation of St. Cucufin, the romance of the Princess of Babylon, the A. B. and C., the collection of Ancient Gospels, and his God and Men, all being issued while he was between seventy and seventy-five. It was at this time he edited the Recueil Nécessaire avec l'Evangile de la Raison, a collection of anti-Christian tracts249 dated Leipsic and London, but printed at Amsterdam. He was eighty when he put forth his White Bull (one of the funniest of his pieces, which was translated by Jeremy Bentham), and his ridiculous skit250 on Bababec and the Fakirs; eighty-two when he wrote The Bible Explained and A Christian against Six Jews; and eighty-three when he published his History of the Establishment of Christianity.
It was thus in the last twenty years of his long life that Voltaire did his best work for the destruction of prejudice and the spread of enlightenment. At the same time he maintained a large correspondence, both with the principal sovereigns of Europe, whom he urged in the direction of tolerance39, and with the leading writers, whom he wished to combine in a great and systematic251 attempt to sap the creed he believed to be at the root of superstition and intolerance.
It is in his lengthy252 and varied253 correspondence with intimates, extending over sixty years, that Voltaire most truly reveals himself. He is therein his own minute biographer, revealing not only his actions, but their actuation. We see him therein not merely the prince of persifleurs, but the serious sensitive thinker, keenly alive to friendship, love, and work for the higher interests of humanity. His letters are among the most varied, interesting, and delightful254 of any left by a great man of letters. Like all his other productions, they display the fertility of his genius. Over ten thousand separate letters are catalogued by Bengesco. Their very extent prevents their being widely read, but they reveal the perennial brightness of his mind, his delight in work, his love of literature and liberty, his constant gaiety and goodness of heart, with here and there only a flash of indignation and contempt. They are imbued255 with the spirit of friendship, abound256 in anecdotes257 and pleasantries, mingled with a passionate258 earnestness for the interest of mankind. Constantly we find him endeavoring to elevate the literary class, to raise the drama, continually seeking to encourage talent, to relieve suffering, and to defend the oppressed.
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1
stimulator
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| n.刺激物，刺激者 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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censor
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| n./vt.审查，审查员；删改 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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inoculation
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| n.接芽；预防接种 | |
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miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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excision
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| n.删掉；除去 | |
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galleys
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| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
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clandestinely
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| adv.秘密地，暗中地 | |
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binders
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| n.（司机行话）刹车器；（书籍的）装订机( binder的名词复数 )；（购买不动产时包括预付订金在内的）保证书；割捆机；活页封面 | |
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17
pillory
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| n.嘲弄；v.使受公众嘲笑；将…示众 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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30
burlesque
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| v.嘲弄，戏仿；n.嘲弄，取笑，滑稽模仿 | |
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31
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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32
penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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33
purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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34
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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38
bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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39
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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40
iniquities
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| n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 )；极不公正 | |
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41
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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42
alphabetical
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| adj.字母（表）的，依字母顺序的 | |
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43
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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44
versatile
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| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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45
abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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46
abiding
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| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
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47
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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48
fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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49
fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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50
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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51
blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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52
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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53
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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54
assassinated
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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55
edifying
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| adj.有教训意味的，教训性的，有益的v.开导，启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
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56
provocations
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| n.挑衅( provocation的名词复数 )；激怒；刺激；愤怒的原因 | |
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57
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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58
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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59
judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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60
enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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63
penitents
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| n.后悔者( penitent的名词复数 )；忏悔者 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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66
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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67
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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68
condemning
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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69
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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70
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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71
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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72
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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73
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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74
flinching
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的现在分词 ) | |
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75
exhorted
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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77
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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78
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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80
groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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81
fervor
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| n.热诚；热心；炽热 | |
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82
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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83
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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84
vindicate
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| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
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85
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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86
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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87
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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88
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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89
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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90
rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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91
pending
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| prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的 | |
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92
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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93
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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97
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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99
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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100
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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101
vindicated
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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102
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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103
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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104
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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105
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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106
atrocity
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| n.残暴，暴行 | |
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107
execration
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| n.诅咒，念咒，憎恶 | |
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108
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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109
Mandarin
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| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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110
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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111
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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112
procuring
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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113
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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114
exhorting
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的现在分词 ) | |
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115
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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116
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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117
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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118
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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119
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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120
persecuting
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的现在分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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121
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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122
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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123
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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124
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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125
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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126
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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127
atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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128
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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129
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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130
magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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131
credulous
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| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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132
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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133
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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134
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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135
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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136
differentiated
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| 区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征 | |
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137
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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138
ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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139
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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140
engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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141
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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142
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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143
slaughtering
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 ) | |
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144
appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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145
caterpillars
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| n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带 | |
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146
commonwealth
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| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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147
parasites
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| 寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫 | |
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148
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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149
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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150
figs
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| figures 数字，图形，外形 | |
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151
reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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152
outrages
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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153
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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154
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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155
relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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156
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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157
sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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158
imprint
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| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
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159
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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160
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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161
witticisms
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| n.妙语，俏皮话( witticism的名词复数 ) | |
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162
ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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163
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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164
galling
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| adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的 | |
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165
absurdities
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| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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166
artifice
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| n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计 | |
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167
perennial
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| adj.终年的；长久的 | |
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168
perpetuating
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| perpetuate的现在进行式 | |
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169
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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170
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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171
imposture
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| n.冒名顶替，欺骗 | |
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172
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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173
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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174
buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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175
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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176
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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177
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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178
pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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179
sarcasms
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，挖苦( sarcasm的名词复数 ) | |
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180
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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181
inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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182
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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183
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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184
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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185
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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186
polemic
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| n.争论，论战 | |
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187
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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188
bogey
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| n.令人谈之变色之物；妖怪，幽灵 | |
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189
multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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190
bantering
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| adj.嘲弄的v.开玩笑，说笑，逗乐( banter的现在分词 )；（善意地）取笑，逗弄 | |
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191
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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192
alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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193
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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194
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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195
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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196
adversaries
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|
| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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197
excerpt
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| n.摘录，选录，节录 | |
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198
sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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199
vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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200
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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201
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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202
dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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203
quails
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| 鹌鹑( quail的名词复数 )； 鹌鹑肉 | |
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204
philistines
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| n.市侩，庸人( philistine的名词复数 )；庸夫俗子 | |
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205
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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206
recede
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| vi.退(去)，渐渐远去；向后倾斜，缩进 | |
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207
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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208
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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209
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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210
vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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211
venerated
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| 敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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212
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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213
grovelling
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| adj.卑下的，奴颜婢膝的v.卑躬屈节，奴颜婢膝( grovel的现在分词 )；趴 | |
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214
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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215
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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216
justifying
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| 证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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217
census
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| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
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218
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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219
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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220
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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221
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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222
drudge
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| n.劳碌的人；v.做苦工，操劳 | |
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223
iconoclast
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| n.反对崇拜偶像者 | |
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224
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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225
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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226
subterfuges
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| n.（用说谎或欺骗以逃脱责备、困难等的）花招，遁词( subterfuge的名词复数 ) | |
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227
subterfuge
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| n.诡计；藉口 | |
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228
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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229
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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230
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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231
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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232
publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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233
progenitor
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| n.祖先，先驱 | |
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234
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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235
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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236
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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237
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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238
desolated
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| adj.荒凉的，荒废的 | |
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239
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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240
legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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241
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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242
auto
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| n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
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243
partisans
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| 游击队员( partisan的名词复数 )； 党人； 党羽； 帮伙 | |
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244
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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245
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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246
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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247
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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248
wittiest
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| 机智的，言辞巧妙的，情趣横生的( witty的最高级 ) | |
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249
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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250
skit
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| n.滑稽短剧；一群 | |
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251
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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252
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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253
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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254
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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255
imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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256
abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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257
anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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258
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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