Letters on England | Page 4

through the sharpness of his pen, and at last, accused of verse that
satirised the Regent, he was locked up--on the 17th of May, 1717--in
the Bastille. There he wrote the first two books of his Henriade, and
finished a play on OEdipus, which he had begun at the age of eighteen.
He did not obtain full liberty until the 12th of April, 1718, and it was at
this time--with a clearly formed design to associate the name he took
with work of high attempt in literature--that Francois Marie Arouet,
aged twenty-four, first called himself Voltaire.
Voltaire's OEdipe was played with success in November, 1718. A few
months later he was again banished from Paris, and finished the
Henriade in his retirement, as well as another play, Artemise, that was
acted in February, 1720. Other plays followed. In December, 1721,
Voltaire visited Lord Bolingbroke, who was then an exile from
England, at the Chateau of La Source. There was now constant literary
activity. From July to October, 1722, Voltaire visited Holland with
Madame de Rupelmonde. After a serious attack of small- pox in

November, 1723, Voltaire was active as a poet about the Court. He was
then in receipt of a pension of two thousand livres from the king, and
had inherited more than twice as much by the death of his father in
January, 1722. But in December, 1725, a quarrel, fastened upon him by
the Chevalier de Rohan, who had him waylaid and beaten, caused him
to send a challenge. For this he was arrested and lodged once more, in
April, 1726, in the Bastille. There he was detained a month; and his
first act when he was released was to ask for a passport to England.
Voltaire left France, reached London in August, 1726, went as guest to
the house of a rich merchant at Wandsworth, and remained three years
in this country, from the age of thirty-two to the age of thirty-five. He
was here when George I. died, and George II. became king. He
published here his Henriade. He wrote here his "History of Charles
XII." He read "Gulliver's Travels" as a new book, and might have been
present at the first night of The Beggar's Opera. He was here whet Sir
Isaac Newton died.
In 1731 he published at Rouen the Lettres sur les Anglais, which
appeared in England in 1733 in the volume from which they are here
reprinted.
H.M.

LETTERS ON ENGLAND

LETTER I.--ON THE QUAKERS

I was of opinion that the doctrine and history of so extraordinary a
people were worthy the attention of the curious. To acquaint myself
with them I made a visit to one of the most eminent Quakers in
England, who, after having traded thirty years, had the wisdom to
prescribe limits to his fortune and to his desires, and was settled in a
little solitude not far from London. Being come into it, I perceived a

small but regularly built house, vastly neat, but without the least pomp
of furniture. The Quaker who owned it was a hale, ruddy-complexioned
old man, who had never been afflicted with sickness because he had
always been insensible to passions, and a perfect stranger to
intemperance. I never in my life saw a more noble or a more engaging
aspect than his. He was dressed like those of his persuasion, in a plain
coat without pleats in the sides, or buttons on the pockets and sleeves;
and had on a beaver, the brims of which were horizontal like those of
our clergy. He did not uncover himself when I appeared, and advanced
towards me without once stooping his body; but there appeared more
politeness in the open, humane air of his countenance, than in the
custom of drawing one leg behind the other, and taking that from the
head which is made to cover it. "Friend," says he to me, "I perceive
thou art a stranger, but if I can do anything for thee, only tell me."
"Sir," said I to him, bending forwards and advancing, as is usual with
us, one leg towards him, "I flatter myself that my just curiosity will not
give you the least offence, and that you'll do me the honour to inform
me of the particulars of your religion." "The people of thy country,"
replied the Quaker, "are too full of their bows and compliments, but I
never yet met with one of them who had so much curiosity as thyself.
Come in, and let us first dine together." I still continued to make some
very unseasonable ceremonies, it not being easy to disengage one's self
at once from habits we have been long used to; and after taking part in
a frugal meal, which began and ended with a prayer to God,