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• Voltaire a Philosophical Dictionary Vol. V — Part I
• Fanaticism.
• Fancy.
• Fasti. of the Different Significations of This Word.
• Fathers—mothers—children. Their Duties.
• Favor. of What Is Understood By the Word.
• Favorite.
• Feasts.
• Ferrara.
• Fever.
• Fiction.
• FiertÉ.
• Figure.
• Figured—figurative.
• Figure In Theology.
• Final Causes.
• Finesse, Fineness, Etc. of the Different Significations of the Word.
• Fire.
• Firmness.
• Flattery.
• Force (physical).
• Force—strength.
• Franchise.
• Francis Xavier.
• Franks—france—french
• Fraud. Whether Pious Frauds Should Be Practised Upon the People.
• Free-will.
• French Language.
• Friendship.
• Frivolity.
• Gallant.
• Gargantua.
• Gazette.
• Genealogy.
• Genesis.
• Genii.
• Genius.
• Geography.
• Glory—glorious.
• Goat—sorcery.
• God—gods.
• Good—the Sovereign Good, a Chimera.
• Good..
• Gospel.
• Government.
• Gourd Or Calabash.
• Grace.
• Grace (of).
• Grave—gravity.
• Great—greatness. of the Meaning of These Words.
• Greek. Observations Upon the Extinction of the Greek Language At Marseilles.
• Guarantee.
• Gregory VII.
• Voltaire a Philosophical Dictionary Vol. V—part Ii
• Happy—happily.
• Heaven (ciel MatÉriel).
• Heaven of the Ancients.
• Hell.
• Hell (descent Into).
• Heresy.
• Hermes. Hermes, Or Ermes, Mercury Trismegistus, Or Thaut, Or Taut, Or Thot.
• Historiographer.
• History.
• Honor.
• Humility.
• Hypatia.
• Idea.
• Identity.
• Idol—idolater—idolatry.
• Ignatius Loyola.
• Ignorance.
• Imagination.
• Impious.
• Impost.
• Impotence.
• Inalienation—inalienable.
• Incest.
• Incubus.
• Infinity.
• Influence.
• Initiation. Ancient Mysteries.
• Innocents. of the Massacre of the Innocents.
• Inquisition.
• Instinct.
• Interest.
• Intolerance.
• Inundation.
• Jehovah.
• Jephthah.
• Jesuits; Or Pride.
• Jews.
• Job.

FIRMNESS.

Firmness comes from firm, and has a different signification from solidity and hardness; a squeezed cloth, a beaten negro, have firmness without being hard or solid.

It must always be remembered that modifications of the soul can only be expressed by physical images; we say firmness of soul, and of mind, which does not signify that they are harder or more solid than usual.

Firmness is the exercise of mental courage; it means a decided resolution; while obstinacy, on the contrary, signifies blindness. Those who praise the firmness of Tacitus are not so much in the wrong as P. Bouhours pretends; it is an accidental ill-chosen term, which expresses energy and strength of thought and of style. It may be said that La Bruyère has a firm style, and that many other writers have only a hard one.