Voltaire and the Royal Society of London

VOLTAIRE AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON HARCOURT BROWN JN the twenty-fourth and last of his Letters Concerning the Eng/ish Nation, first published in English translation in 1733, Voltaire turns from the theatre and "The Regard that ought to be shown to Men of Letters" to the topic of academies. Here he makes special reference to .the Royal Society of London, and in the latter part of the chapter to the functions performed by the three most important French bodies, the Academie Franc;:aise, the Academie des Sciences, and the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. The reader of the mercurial Voltaire has learned not to expect a formal conclusion in his works; there is neither conclusion drawn from the preceding chapters, nor resume of the book's contents. The tempting possibilities of a witty analysis of the English character or of a sage prediction of the ultimate results of the process of mutual accommodation then visible in the ranks of the leisured class of. each country, do not tempt Voltaire to that perilous literary sport, skating on the thin ice of generalizations over the uncertain waters of national differences. It is typical of his procedure, as of his mind in general, that he shoots his bolt on each topic in the chapter he devotes to it, and shows no desire to coordinate his findings into a larger and perhaps more revealing whole. For him the world is a place where countless independent processes go on together, offering small hold for the mind that must seek a unity to relate the parts to each other or to a hidden purpose. Such is his way in'the historical works, the Age of Louis XIV and the Histoire du Parlement: a chapter seemingly chosen at random brings the text to an end, and leaves the reader to his own conclusions , to think about the problem as it may please his fancy. One can forgive the witty endings of Micromegas, Zadig, and Candide, which tie the knot of the tale without ending the train of thought. But in the last of these brilliant and often profound letters, with its curiou$ reversal of the general effect of Voltaire's judgment on English institutions and its avoidance of any examination of the deeper grounds underlying the different forms taken by scientific and literary organizations in Paris and London respectively , the reader feels legitimately that more might and should have been said. He is willing therefore to admit that when Voltaire 25 26 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY settled down at Cirey seriously to rework his early wnttngs, he was justified in destroying the structure and identity of his book, in revising many of its chapters, in deleting others, and in republishing the remnant with other matter under a noncommittal title. Voltaire must have felt that a man who already had a sound piece of work to his credit, the History of C!Jarles XII, who had announced a Siecle de Louis X I V on revolutionary lines, and who had plans for a universal history as well as various contributions in philosophy, could well spare what added reputation these uneven and ill-assorted letters would bring. Students of the literary history of France have always been aware of the connection between the biography of Voltaire and the succession of his books, between his social and public relationships and the changing points of view perceptible even in the more objective of his works. Although one is tempted at times to see a weakness in the changing of his point of view, it is surprising how often the converse is true, how often his revised attitude shows courage in avowing conversion to an unpopular cause, and in insistence on the need for an appeal against an accepted verdict. The purpose of this paper, which conforms in part to a pattern familiar in Voltaire studies, is to trace another facet of his growth, an area in which public esteem, the counsel of his friends, the pressure of changes in his subject-matter, working simultaneously on the poet's own irritability, produce changes in his views, in his books, and bring him ultimately to adopt a friendly...