FRANCIS AROUET DE, a celebrated French author, was born at Paris, February 20, 1694. His father, Francis Arouet, was ancien notaire au Chatelet, and treasurer of the chamber of accounts; his mother, Mary-Margaret Draumart. At the birth of this extraordinary man, who lived to the age of 85 years and some months, there was little probability of his being reared, and for a considerable time he continued remarkably feeble. In his earliest years he displayed a ready wit and a sprightly imagination; and, as he said of himself, made verses before he was out of his cradle. He was educated under Father Poré, in the college of Louis the Great; and such was his proficiency, that many of his essays are now existing, which, though written when he was between 12 and 14, show no marks of infancy. The famous Ninon de l'Enclos, to whom this ingenious boy was introduced, left him a legacy of 2000 livres to buy him a library. Having been sent to the equity schools on his quitting college, he was so disgusted with the dryness of the law, that he devoted himself entirely to the muses. He was admitted into the company of the abbé Chaulieu, the marquis de la Fare, the duke de Sully, the grand prior of Vendome, Marshal Villars, and the chevalier du Bouillon; and caught from them that easy taste and delicate humour which distinguished the court of Louis XIV. Voltaire had early imbibed a turn for satire; and, for some philippics against the government, was imprisoned almost a year in the Bastile. He had before this period produced the tragedy of Oedipus, which was represented in 1718 with great success; and the duke of Orleans happening to see it performed, was so delighted, that he obtained his release from prison. The poet waiting on the duke to return thanks; "Be wise (said the duke), and I will take care of you." "I am infinitely obliged (replied the young man); but I intreat your royal highness not to trouble yourself any farther about my lodging or board."

He began his Henriade before he was 18. Having one day read several cantos of this poem when on a visit to his intimate friend, the young president de Maisons, he was so teased with objections, that he lost patience, and threw his manuscript into the fire. The president Hennaut with difficulty rescued it. "Remember (said Mr Hennaut to him, in one of his letters) it was I that saved the Henriade, and that it cost me a handsome pair of ruffles." Some years after, several copies of this poem having got abroad, while it was only a sketch, an edition of it was published, with many chasms, under the title of The League. Instead of fame and friends, the author gained only enemies and mortification, by this first edition. The bigots took fire at it, and the poet was considered as highly criminal for praising Admiral Coligny and Queen Elizabeth. Endeavours were even used to get the piece suppressed; but this strange design proved abortive. His chagrin, on this occasion first inspired him with the thought of visiting England, in order to finish the work, and republish it in a land of liberty. He was right; for King George I. and more particularly the princess of Wales, afterwards queen of England, raised an immense subscription for him. Their liberality laid the foundation of his fortune; for on his return to France in 1728, he put his money into a lottery established by M. Desfortes, comptroller-general of the finances. The adventurers received a rent charge on the Hotel-de-Ville for their tickets; and the prizes were paid in ready money; so that if a society had taken all the tickets, it would have gained a million of livres. He joined with a numerous company of adventurers, and was fortunate.

His Lettres Philosophiques, abounding in bold expressions and indecent witticisms against religion, having been burnt by a decree of the parliament of Paris, and a warrant being issued for apprehending the author in 1733, Voltaire prudently withdrew; and was sheltered by the marchioness du Chatelet, in her castle of Cirey, on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine, who entered with him on the study of the system of Leibnitz, and the Principia of Newton. A gallery was built, in which Voltaire formed a good collection of natural history, and made an infinite number of experiments on light and electricity. He laboured in the mean time on his Elements of the Newtonian Philosophy, then totally unknown in France, and which the numerous admirers of Des Cartes were little desirous should be known. In the midst of these philosophic pursuits he produced the tragedy of Alzira. He was now in the meridian of his age and genius, as was evident from the tragedy of Mahomet, first acted in 1741; but it was represented to the procureur general as a performance offensive to religion; and the author, by order of Cardinal Flury, withdrew it from the stage. Merope, played two years after, 1743, gave an idea of a species of tragedy, of which few models had existed. It was at the representation of this tragedy, that the pit and boxes were clamorous for a sight of the author; yet it was severely criticised when it came from the press. He now became a favourite at court, through the interest of Madame d'Etiolé, afterwards marchioness of Pompadour. He was appointed a gentleman of the bed-chamber in ordinary, and historiographer of France. He had frequently attempted to gain admittance into the Academy of Sciences, but could not obtain his wish till 1746, when he was the first who broke through the absurd custom of filling an inaugural speech with the fulsome adulation of Richelieu; an example soon followed by other academicians. From the satires occasioned by this innovation he felt so much uneasiness, that he was glad to retire with the marchioness du Chatelet to Lunéville, in the neighbourhood of King Stanislaus. The marchioness dying in 1749, Voltaire returned to Paris, where his stay was but short. The king of Prussia now gave Voltaire an invitation to live with him, which he accepted towards the end of Au- On his arrival at Berlin, he was immediately presented with the Order of Merit, the key of chamberlain, and a pension of 20,000 livres. From the particular respect that was paid to him, his time was now spent in the most agreeable manner; his apartments were under those of the king, whom he was allowed to visit at stated hours, to read with him the best works of either ancient or modern authors, and to assist his majesty in the literary productions by which he relieved the cares of government. But a dispute which arose between him and Maupertuis soon brought on his disgrace. Maupertuis was at some pains to have it reported at court, that one day while General Manstein happened to be in the apartments of M. de Voltaire, who was then translating into French the Memoirs of Russia, composed by that officer, the king, in his usual manner sent a copy of verses to be examined, when Voltaire said to Manstein, "Let us leave off for the present, my friend; you see the king has sent me his dirty linen to wash, I will wash yours another time." A single word is sometimes sufficient to ruin a man at court; Maupertuis imputed such a word to Voltaire, and succeeded. It was about this very time that Maupertuis published his very strange Philosophical Letters; and M. de Voltaire did not fail to heighten, with his utmost powers of railery, everything which he found, or could make ridiculous, in the projects of M. Maupertuis, who was careful to unite his own cause with that of the king; Voltaire was considered as having failed in respect to his majesty; and therefore, in the most respectful manner, he returned to the king his chamberlain's key, and the cross of his Order of Merit; accompanied with four lines of verse, in which he, with great delicacy, compares his situation to that of a jealous lover, who sends back the picture of his mistress. The king returned the key and the ribbon; but they were not followed by an immediate reconciliation. Voltaire set out to pay a visit to her highness the duchess of Gotha, who honoured him with her friendship as long as she lived. While he remained at Gotha, Maupertuis employed all his batteries against him: Voltaire was arrested by the king's orders, but afterwards released.

He now settled near Geneva; but afterward being obliged to quit that republic, he purchased the castle of Ferney in France, about a league from the lake of Geneva. It was here that he undertook the defense of the celebrated family of Calas; and it was not long before he had a second opportunity of vindicating the innocence of another condemned family of the name of Sirven. It is somewhat remarkable, that in the year 1774, he had the third time a singular opportunity of employing that same zeal which he had the good fortune to display in the fatal catastrophe of the families of Calas and Sirven.

In this retreat M. Voltaire continued long to enjoy the pleasures of a rural life, accompanied with the admiration of a vast number of wits and philosophers throughout all Europe. Weary at length, however, with his situation, or yielding to the importunities of friends, he came to Paris about the beginning of the year 1778, where he wrote a new tragedy called Irene. By this time his understanding seems to have been impaired, either through the infirmities of age, or continued intoxication by the flattery of others; and he ridiculously suffered himself to be crowned in public with laurel, in testimony of his great poetical merit. He did not long survive this farce: for having overheated himself with receiving visits, and exhausted his spirits by supplying a perpetual fund of conversation, he was first seized with a spitting of blood; and at last becoming restless in the night-time, he was obliged to use a soporific medicine. Of this he unluckily one night took so large a dose, that he slept 36 hours, and expired a very short time after awakening from it.