The Online Library of Liberty A Project Of Liberty Fund, Inc. Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) [1764] The Online Library Of Liberty This E-Book (PDF format) is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a private, non-profit, educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. 2010 was the 50th anniversary year of the founding of Liberty Fund. It is part of the Online Library of Liberty web site http://oll.libertyfund.org, which was established in 2004 in order to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. To find out more about the author or title, to use the site's powerful search engine, to see other titles in other formats (HTML, facsimile PDF), or to make use of the hundreds of essays, educational aids, and study guides, please visit the OLL web site. 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DuMont, 1901). In 21 vols. Vol. III. Author: Voltaire Introduction: Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh Translator: William F. Fleming About This Title: Volume 1 of the Philosophical Dictionary with entries from “A to Calends” The Philosophical Dictionary first appeared in 1764 in a “pocket edition” designed to be carried about one’s person. It consists of a series of short essays on a variety of topics all of which are tied together as examples of Voltaire’s withering criticism of “the infamous thing” - examples of tyranny and persecution by a privileged orthodoxy in Church and State of those individuals who disagree. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 2 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/352 Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) About Liberty Fund: Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright Information: The text is in the public domain. Fair Use Statement: This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 3 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/352 Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) Table Of Contents Voltaire a Philosophical Dictionary Vol. Iii — Part I A Philosophical Dictionary.: A. A, B, C, Or Alphabet. AbbÉ. Abbey—abbot. Able—ability. Abraham. Abuse. Abuse of Words. Academy. Adam. Adoration. Adultery. Affirmation Or Oath. Agar, Or Hagar. Alchemy. Alkoran; Or, More Properly, the Koran. Alexander. Alexandria. Algiers. Allegories. Almanac. Altars, Temples, Rites, Sacrifices, Etc. Amazons. Ambiguity—equivocation. America. Amplification. Ancients and Moderns. Anecdotes. Angels. Annals. Annats. Anthropomorphites. Anti-lucretius. Antiquity. Apis. Apocalypse. Anti-trinitarians. Apocrypha—apocryphal. (from the Greek Word Signifying Hidden.) Apostate. Apostles. Apparition. Voltaire a Philosophical Dictionary Vol. Iii — Part Ii Appearance. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 4 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/352 Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) Apropos. Arabs; And, Occasionally, On the Book of Job. Ararat. Arianism. Aristeas. Aristotle. Arms—armies. Arot and Marot. With a Short Review of the Koran. Art of Poetry. Arts—fine Arts. [article Dedicated to the King of Prussia.] Asmodeus. Asphaltus. Asphaltic Lake.—sodom. Ass. Assassin—assassination. Astrology. Astronomy, With a Few More Reflections On Astrology. Atheism. Atheist. Atoms. Avarice. Augury. Augustine. Augustus (octavius). Avignon. Austerities. Mortifications, Flagellations. Authors. Authority. Axis. Babel. Bacchus. Bacon (roger). Banishment. Baptism. Baruch, Or Barak, and Deborah; And, Incidentally, On Chariots of War. Battalion. Bayle. Bdellium. Beard. Beasts. Beautiful (the). Bees. Beggar—mendicant. Bekker, “the World Bewitched,” the Devil, the Book of Enoch, and Sorcerers. Belief. Bethshemesh. Bilhah—bastards. Bishop. Blasphemy. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 5 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/352 Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) Body. Books. Bourges. Brachmans—brahmins. Bread-tree. Buffoonery—burlesque—low Comedy. Bulgarians. Bull. Bull (papal). CÆsar. Calends. The WORKS Of VOLTAIRE “Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization.” VICTOR HUGO. Voltaire at Thirty PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 6 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/352 Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) [Back to Table of Contents] VOLTAIRE A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY Vol. III — Part I A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. TheDictionnaire Philosophiqueis Voltaire’s principal essay in philosophy, though not a sustained work. The miscellaneous articles he contributed to Diderot’sEncyclopédie which compose this Dictionary embody a mass of scholarly research, criticism, and speculation, lit up with pungent sallies at the formal and tyrannous ecclesiasticism of the period and the bases of belief on which it stood. These short studies reflect every phase of Voltaire’s sparkling genius. Though some of the views enunciated in them are now universally held, and others have become obsolete through extended knowledge, they were startlingly new when Voltaire, at peril of freedom and reputation, spread them before the people of all civilized nations, who read them still with their first charm of style and substance. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 7 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/352 Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) [Back to Table of Contents] A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. A. The letter A has been accounted sacred in almost every nation, because it was the first letter. The Egyptians added this to their numberless superstitions; hence it was that the Greeks of Alexandria called it hier’alpha; and, as omega was the last of the letters, these words alpha and omega signified the beginning and the end of all things. This was the origin of the cabalistic art, and of more than one mysterious folly. The letters served as ciphers, and to express musical notes. Judge what an infinity of useful knowledge must thus have been produced. A, b, c, d, e, f, g, were the seven heavens; the harmony of the celestial spheres was composed of the seven first letters; and an acrostic accounted for everything among the ever venerable Ancients. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 8 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/352 Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) [Back to Table of Contents] A, B, C, OR ALPHABET. Why has not the alphabet a name in any European language? Alphabet signifies nothing more than A, B, and A, B, signifies nothing, or but indicates two sounds, which two sounds have no relation to each other. Beta is not formed from alpha; one is first, the other is second, and no one knows why. How can it have happened that terms are still wanting to express the portal of all the sciences? The knowledge of numbers, the art of numeration, is not called the one-two; yet the first rudiment of the art of expressing our thoughts has not in all Europe obtained a proper designation. The alphabet is the first part of grammar; perhaps those who are acquainted with Arabic, of which I have not the slightest notion, can inform me whether that language, which is said to contain no fewer than eighty words to express a horse, has one which signifies the alphabet. I protest that I know no more of Chinese than of Arabic, but I have read, in a small Chinese vocabulary, that this nation has always had two words to express the catalogue or list of the characters of its language: one is ko-tou, the other hai-pien; we have neither ko-tou nor hai-pien in our Occidental tongues. The Greeks, who were no more adroit than ourselves, also said alphabet. Seneca, the philosopher, used the Greek phrase to designate an old man who, like me, asks questions on grammar, calling him Skedon analphabetos. Now the Greeks had this same alphabet from the Phœnicians—from that people called the letter nation by the Hebrews themselves, when the latter, at so late a period, went to settle in their neighborhood. It may well be supposed that the Phœnicians, by communicating their characters to the Greeks, rendered them a great service in delivering them from the embarrassment occasioned by the Egyptian mode of writing taught them by Cecrops. The Phœnicians, in the capacity of merchants, sought to make everything easy of comprehension; while the Egyptians, in their capacity of interpreters of the gods, strove to make everything difficult.