Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—V

Voltaire

His proper name was Francois Marie Arouet. The word Voltaire is simply an anagram of Arouet L. I. (le jeune). Thus have we Stella, Astrophel (q.v.), Vanessa and Cadenus (q.v.), and a host of other names in anagrams.

Voltaire,
the infidel, built the church at Ferney, which has this inscription: “Deo erexit Voltaire.” Cowper alludes to this anomaly in the following lines:

Nor he who, for the bane of thousands born,
Built God a church, and laughed His Word to scron.

Voltaire.
Dr. Young said of him -

Thou art so witty, profligate and thin,
Thou seemst a Milton, with his Death and Sin.

An excellent comparison between Voltaire and Gibbon is given by Byron in Childe $$$, canto iii. 106, 107.

The German Voltaire.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1838).

Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813).

The Polish Voltaire.
Ignatius Krasicki (1774-1801).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Volume
Voltaic Battery
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