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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow THE REQUISITES TO HAPPINESS. - The Works of Voltaire, Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems).

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THE REQUISITES TO HAPPINESS. - Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems). [1901]

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From The Works of Voltaire, A Contemporary Version, (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901), A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming. Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems).

Part of: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols.

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THE REQUISITES TO HAPPINESS.

    • A man must think, or else the brute
    • May his superior worth dispute;
    • A man must love, for were it not
    • For love, most hard would be his lot.
    • A man must always have a friend,
    • To whose advice he may attend;
    • Whose friendly sympathy still knows
    • Our bliss to increase, assuage our woes.
    • He must at the approach of night,
    • Still sup with freedom and delight;
    • Drink the best wine, and dainties eat,
    • And make before he’s drunk, retreat.
    • Each night he must his love declare,
    • With raptures to the yielding fair;
    • Must when awake her charms adore.
    • And when he sleeps must dream them o’er.
    • My friends, you surely will allow,
    • That I true bliss have shown you now;
    • And when my Sylvia I addressed,
    • I soon was of such bliss possessed.