Voltaire
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Voltaire was born in 1694 to a notary and his wife. Voltaires father wanted him to study law, but Voltaires passion was to be a writer. He gained a reputation writing satires and odes. (p.1) Voltaire spent six months in the Bastille for writing satires on the Regent. After his release, Parisians saw his first tragedy, Oedipe performed in 1718. Voltaire was imprisoned once more in the Bastille and upon that release; he spent three years in England.
Returning to France in 1729, he set out to write Letters on England, which the sale of the book was restricted in France due to restrictive censorship laws. When Voltaire died at the age of 84, he had gained the respect and reverence of the French as one of the greatest writers to come out of the country. Voltaire was motivated to make France a better country and attempted to do so in this book by talking about faiths/religions other than Catholicism, enlightening people about the small pox inoculation and the brilliant mind of Sir Isaac Newton.
Letters on England, published in 1733, is a composition of stories covering a range of topics. Voltaire covered a variety of topics ranging from government to religion to smallpox to commerce to science. The author of the book, Francois-Marie Arouet, whose pen name was Voltaire, wrote the book to tell the people of France the faults of their very own government.
In the time of Voltaire, France was dominated by Catholisism. If you were not Catholic you were persecuted. One theory that Voltaire stood for and tried to push on the French was the idea of religious tolerance. The first seven letters in his book explore all types of religions, except Catholicism. He talks with a Quaker, whose ideas and mannerisms were bazzare to Voltaire. They have no minister to lead the congregation, they call other men “Brother”, instead of “Sir”, and they dont wear buttons or cuffs on their coats. Despite these charachteristics, Voltaire likes the Quakers and the religion.
Another religion Voltaire studies is the Anglican Church. Although Voltaire doesnt talk as highly of this religion as the Quaker man, he dissects the faith and even goes as far as to say that the morals of the clergy are more righteous than those of the French. Voltaire takes the time to write about all of these religions because he wants the French to open their eyes and realize that there are more faiths than just Catholicism.
The letter on the small pox vaccination probably raised quite a few brows back then. The thought of deliberately giving someone small pox might have been considered attempted murder. Voltaire does a wonderful job telling the origins of this practice and even tells of English royalty performing the procedure on their own children. He wanted the French to know that preventing disease was not interfering with the work of God and