VOLTAIRE WORSHIP.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 267, 14 June 1878, Page 9

VOLTAIRE WORSHIP.

(From the Westminster Gazette.") The impious section of French society, the literary and politica rf£f!S f dlOmmated l Ommate *he BJnwh Press to so large an extent, have, after many failures, succeeded m raising a sufficient fund to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Voltaire's death. A committee, consisting of the leading Atheists and Rationalists, has been formed in Paris to do honour to his infamous memory. The purpose of this celebrati.n has been pointedly and audaciously avowed. It is not intSw s+£ <?^' ° V °} ta^. for bis Utoary renown; it is not as the author of the « Philosophical Dictionary " that his memory is invoked, but as the implacable hater of the Christian name, as the flippant and impious reviler of all that is holy in religion and sacred in life Xc Atheists of France to-day are the sons of Voltaire ; they have inhentedhis hatred of the Christ, though not his brilliant talents ; they repeat m their feebler language and more vulgar tongue the sentiments of one the burden of whose writings was ecrasezV Infame There is no more hideous or abominable a spectacle than to see so large a section of a nation like France paying public homage to a writer who has done more than any man in France to corrupt whole generations of Frenchmen, and to breed in their minds the revolting levity which knows no reverence for God or man. His brilliant gifts of wit and imagination were stained in their source by a moral corruption which has made Voltaire a scandal to the human race He seemed m his spiteful and eccentric nature more like an ane possessed of a lost soul than a fallen human being. He had lost not oaly the sense of reverence for God, but- all respect for the dio-nity of humanity He exhibited a levity which surpassed all bounds, and invaded ruthlessly and shamelessly the sanctities of life. The French language was a potent instrument for evil in his mouth. AU its bsauties, its clearness, its terse vigour were prostituted by Voltaire : and his works, owing to the beauty and precision of their lanjmaee have gone home to the minds of countless thousands of Frenchmen, and have left an indelible stain on the imagination of half a nation. In order to complete the work of moral and religious corruption, "?« £ se^ vc c tne minds and imaginations of those in France who are efcill ferae to the Christian Faith, the Voltairean Committee in Paris are about to issue a centenary edition of selections from his writings, and at such a low price as to force by their very cheapness his most infamous attacks against Christianity, and his biting ridicule of all things sacred into the homes of Frenchmen still nncorrupted. It is tnerr aim that no man or woman in France who can read, shall be V 'T?T a maailial of impious blasphemy and of profligate ribaldry. And these men claim to be regenerators of the human race, the reformers of abuses, the pioneers of civilisation in a land which they boast, under their guidance, shall surpass all other nations in liberty, honour, prosperity and enlightenment— poor fools who take Voltaire as a prophet, and deny the existence of a God.