AKRON, OHIO
VOLTAIRE
ROMANCES
IN THREE VOLUMES
Vol. III.
- CONTENTS
- [I.] André Des Touches in Siam … 5
- [II.] The Blind As Judges of Color … 13
- [III.] The Clergyman and His Soul … 15
- [IV.] A Conversation With a Chinese … 28
- [V.] Memnon the Philosopher … 33
- [VI.] Plato’s Dream … 42
- [VII.] An Adventure in India … 47
- [VIII.] Bababec … 51
- [IX.] Ancient Faith and Fable … 56
- [X.] The Two Comforters … 61
- [XI.] Dialogue Between Marcus Aurelius and a Recollet Friar … 64
- [XII.] Dialogue Between a Brahmin and a Jesuit … 70
- [XIII.] Dialogues Between Lucretius and Posidonius … 76
- [XIV.] Dialogue Between a Client and His Lawyer … 95
- [XV.] Dialogue Between Madame De Maintenon and Mdlle. De L’enclos … 101
- [XVI.] Dialogue Between a Savage and a Bachelor of Arts … 108
- [A TREATISE ON TOLERATION.]
- [In 1762 Jean Calas, a Protestant of Toulouse, was done to death by torture on the wheel on the false charge of having slain his son, a suicide. His widow and children were put to the torture to extort a confession, in utter lack of evidence. Voltaire devoted years of unremitting labor to agitating the terrible crime and raising money compensation for the victims. His pamphlets aroused substantial sympathy and protests in England and over the Continent. His efforts led to the writing of over one hundred plays, poems, and pamphlets on the case. Voltaire had the satisfaction of witnessing the triumph of his long struggle. He narrates the facts in this Treatise, which expands into a sweeping exposure of the cruelties committed in the name of religion, in all ages and countries.]
- LIST OF PLATES
VOL. IV- Memnon and the Lady’s Uncle … [Frontispiece]
- The Disconsolate Woman … [62]
- The Maid of Orleans at the Stake … [144]
- Widow Calas Appeals to the King … [286]
ANDRÉ DES TOUCHES IN SIAM.
André Des Touches was a very agreeable musician in the brilliant reign of Louis XIV., before the science of music was perfected by Rameau, and before it was corrupted by those who prefer the art of surmounting difficulties to nature and the real graces of composition.
Before he had recourse to these talents he had been a musketeer, and before that, in 1688, he went into Siam with the Jesuit Tachard, who gave him many marks of his affection, for the amusement he afforded on board the ship; and Des Touches spoke with admiration of Father Tachard for the rest of his life.