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• 1 media/letter_thumbnail_generic.jpeg term 2016-12-16T22:21:44-08:00 Frederick to Voltaire - 1766 August 13 12 See a translation of this letter. plain 2017-10-09T19:25:44-07:00 52.4284455,12.9573734 1766 August 13
  In Potsdam, 13 August 1766
  
  E/
  1          I expect that you will already have received my reply
  2          to your penultimate letter. I cannot consider the execution
  3          at Amiens as dreadful as the unjust torture of Calas; 
  4          Calas was innocent: a victim sacrificed by fanaticism,
  5          and nothing in this atrocious action can serve as an excuse for the
  6          judges. Far from it. They evade the formalities associated with legal
  7          proceedings, and they condemn to torture without
  8          evidence, convictions or witnesses. 
  9                      What has just happened in Amiens is of a very different nature. 
  10        You will not contest that every citizen
  11        must fall in line with the laws of his country; and yet, there are
  12        punishments established by lawmakers for those who disturb
  13        the faith adopted by the nation. Discretion, decency,
  14        and especially the respect that every citizen owes to the laws, require
  15        therefore that received faith is not insulted, and that
  16        scandal and insolence be avoided.  Reform should begin with these bloodthirsty laws,
  17        and the punishment should be proportionate
  18        to the crime.  But, as long as these stringent laws remain
  19        established, magistrates are under an obligation to pronounce
  20        their judgment accordingly.
  21                    The religious zealots, in France, rail against the philosophers,
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  22        and accuse them of being the cause of all the evil that happens. 
  23        In the last war, there were madmen who asserted
  24        that the Encyclopédie caused the misfortunes
  25        of the French armies.  During this excitement
  26        it happened that the Ministry at Versailles needed money,
  27        and so the philosophers who had none and could give none
  28        were sacrificed to the clergy who promised it.  As for me,
  29        who asks for neither money nor benedictions, I offer refuge
  30        to the philosophers, so long as they behave themselves and
  31        are as peace-loving as is implied by the noble title
  32        with which they adorn themselves, because all the truths
  33        that they announce are not worth tranquility of the soul,
  34        which is the only good thing that men can enjoy on the atom
  35        they inhabit. For my part, as a reasoner
  36        without fervor, I would like men to be
  37        reasonable and above all peaceable.
  38                    We know the crimes that religious fanaticism
  39        has caused to be committed. Let us be careful not to introduce
  40        this fanaticism into philosophy; its character should be
  41        that of gentleness and moderation. It should deplore
  42        the tragic end of a young man who behaved
  43        extravagantly; it should point out
  
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  44        the excessive harshness of a law made in a boorish and
  45        ignorant age; but Philosophy must not
  46        encourage such actions, nor should it criticize
  47        the judges who could not have given a sentence different from what they gave. 
  48                    Socrates did not worship the deos majores and minors
  49        gentium; however, he attended public sacrifices; 
  50        Gassendi went to mass, and Newton to sermons.
  51                    In a society, tolerance should guarantee
  52        each individual the freedom to believe what he wishes;
  53        but this tolerance should not be extended so far as
  54        to authorize the impudence and the lack of respect from young
  55        scatterbrains who audaciously insult what the
  56        people revere.   These are my opinions, which
  57        conform with what assures liberty and
  58        public safety, the primary goal of all legislation.
  59                    I bet that, as you read this, you think: This
  60        is all very German, and very typical of the phlegm
  61        of a nation that has only embryonic passions.  
  62        We are, in truth, a species of plant
  63        when compared to the French; for which reason we have
  64        neither produced Jerusalem Delivered, nor Henriade . 
  65        Ever since Emperor Charlemagne thought fit
                                                                                                  to
  
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  66        to turn us into Christians by cutting our throats, we have
  67        remained so; Perhaps our ever
  68        cloudy sky, and our long winters’ chills
  69        have contributed to produce this effect. In the end, take us
  70        as we are. Ovid became well accustomed to the manners
  71        of the people of Tomis[1]; and I have enough vainglory
  72        to persuade myself that the province of Clèves
  73        is worth more than \ the place / where the Danube flows through its seven
  74        mouths into the Black Sea.  Whereupon, I pray
  75        God that he keep you in his holy and august protection. / .
  
  F_i
   
   

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  [1] Constanța, historically known as Tomis, is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Romania.