The Online Library of Liberty

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• The Works of Voltaire
• The Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. X— Part I
• ZaÏre
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• An Epistle Dedicatory to Mr. Falkener, an English Merchant, Since Ambassador At Constantinople, With the Tragedy of Zaïre.
• A Second Letter to Mr. Falkener, Then Ambassador to Constantinople.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• CÆsar.
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• The Prodigal
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Preface to Mariamne.
• Preface to Orestes.
• Preface to Catiline.
• Preface to MÉrope.
• Preface to the Prodigal.
• Preface to Nanine.
• 1 Preface to Socrates.
• Note On Mahomet.
• Preface to Julius CÆsar.
• Voltaire the Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems Vol. X— Part Ii
• Author’s Preface to the Lisbon Earthquake.
• The Lisbon Earthquake. *
• Preface to the Poem On the Law of Nature.
• The Law of Nature.
• The Temple of Taste. *
• The Temple of Friendship.
• Thoughts On the Newtonian Philosophy, Addressed to the Marchioness Du ChÂtelet.
• On the Death of Adrienne Lecouvreur, a Celebrated Actress.
• To the King of Prussia On His Accession to the Throne.
• From Love to Friendship.
• The Worldling. *
• On Calumny.
• The King of Prussia to M. Voltaire.
• The Answer.
• On the English Genius.
• What Pleases the Ladies.
• The Education of a Prince.
• The Education of a Daughter.
• The Three Manners.
• Thelema and Macareus.
• Azolan.
• The Origin of Trades.
• The Battle of Fontenoy.
• The Man of the World. *
• The Padlock. *
• In Camp Before Philippsburg, July 3, 1734.
• Answer to a Lady, Or a Person Who Wrote to Voltaire As Such. *
• Envy.
• The Nature of Virtue.
• To the King of Prussia.
• To M. De Fontenelle.
• To Count Algarotti At the Court of Saxony.
• To Cardinal Quirini.
• To Her Royal Highness, the Princess of ***.
• To M. De Cideville.
• To ****.
• Epistle XIII. *
• To the Duke of Richelieu, Marshal of France, In Whose Honor the Senate of Genoa Had Just Before Caused a Statue to Be Erected. *
• To Madam De ***, On the Manner of Living At Paris and Versailles.
• To the Prince of Vendôme.
• To Madam De Gondoin, Afterward Countess of Toulouse, On the Danger She Had Been Exposed to In Passing the Loire In 1719.
• To the Duke Delafeuillade.
• To Marshal Villars. *
• To Monsieur Genonville.
• To the Countess of Fontaine-martel. *
• Written From PlombiÉres to M. Pallu, Intendant of Lyons.
• The Nature of Pleasure.
• The Utility of Sciences to Princes. to the Prince Royal of Prussia, Since King of Prussia.
• Epistle In Answer to a Letter, With Which, Upon His Accession to the Throne, the King of Prussia Honored the Author.
• Epistle to the King, Presented to His Majesty At the Camp Before Freiburg.
• On the Death of the Emperor Charles.
• To the Queen of Hungary.
• Inscribed to the Gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences, Who Sailed to the Polar Circle and the Equator, In Order to Ascertain the Figure of the Earth.
• To M. De Gervasi, the Physician. *
• The Requisites to Happiness.
• To a Lady, Very Well Known to the Whole Town.
• Fanaticism. *
• On Peace Concluded In 1736.
• To AbbÉ Chaulieu. *
• Answer to the Foregoing.
• To President HÉnault, Author of an Excellent Work Upon the History of France.
• Canto of an Epic Poem. *
• Epistle On the Newtonian Philosophy. * to the Marchioness of ChÂtelet.

ANSWER TO A LADY, OR A PERSON WHO WROTE TO VOLTAIRE AS SUCH.*

• The highest praises you bestow me,
• And finish with desires to know me;
• You’ll praise me less when I am known;
• But what I am I’ll freely own.
• Three revolutions of the sphere
• Will bring about my fortieth year;
• Phœbus presided at the time
• That I was born, I lisped in rhyme;
• The potent god approved my wit,
• And to his presence did admit;
• My heart was by the god subdued,
• I worshipped him through gratitude.
• Their inclinations some excite,
• But fate ordained that I should write.
• My soul was by each taste possessed,
• Each noble art inflamed my breast;
• Painting delights me; oft I’ve been,
• At the king’s or duke’s palace, seen
• Gazing on works with raptured eye,
• Where art with nature seems to vie;
• Paul Veronese’s noble fire
• And skill divine I much admire;
• Poussin and Raphael, my sight
• Ravish with exquisite delight.
• From those rooms to the opera, I
• Upon the wings of pleasure fly;
• What there gives pleasure, from me draws
• The tribute of deserved applause.
• In music, Mauret’s sprightly strain,
• Destouches’s grace, my praise obtain,
• Pelissier’s art, le More’s fine voice,
• Pleasing by turns, suspend my choice.
• Sometimes I to that science soar
• Which teaches nature to explore,
• Following great Newton through the sky
• I to find natural causes try;
• I’d know if Cynthia in her course
• Is by a changeful central force
• Towards us made to gravitate,
• And coming near acquires new weight;
• I read philosophers profound,
• Who nature by their reason found;
• I see Clairaut, Maupertuis, rise
• By calculation to the skies;
• And I indeed too often find
• Such studies but perplex my mind.
• Obscure researches set apart,
• I study next the human heart.
• I often Pascal’s works review,
• A genius singular and new;
• That satirist, devout and sage,
• Against mankind too prone to rage.
• I, his austerity oppose;
• He’d have men to themselves be foes.
• A friend to man, I strive to show
• How he to love himself may know.
• I’m free from passion, care, and strife;
• The muse diversifies my life;
• My day begins with joy, and ends
• In cheerful suppers with my friends.
• I now no more of love complain,
• Reason at last has broke my chain;
• I follow Cupid now no more,
• The happy age of love is o’er;
• With love’s flame must I no more burn?
• Each art I cultivate in turn,
• Indolent languor to avoid;
• But all this can’t fill up the void,
• For notwithstanding all my pains
• Still there a craving void remains.

[* ] In 1732, a gentleman of Brittany, for a frolic, wrote letters to several of the wits of Paris, and signed them with a woman’s name. This artifice imposed upon everybody, and gave occasion to the present answer.