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• 1 media/letter_thumbnail_generic.jpeg term 2016-12-16T22:25:17-08:00 Frederick to Voltaire - 1766 September 13 8 See a translation of this letter. plain 2017-10-09T21:09:57-07:00 51.3500,7.8833 1766 September 13 [In pencil] From Freder[ick] t[he] Gr[eat]
  At Sans Souci, 13 September, 1766.
  
  
  E/
  
  1                      You have no need to recommend
  2          philosophers to me; they will all be well received, provided
  3          they be moderate and peaceable. I cannot give them
  4          what I have not: I do not have the gift of miracles
  5          nor can I bring back to life the woods of Cleves Park, which the
  6          French have cut down and burnt; but, on the other hand, they will find there
  7          a refuge and safety. I remember having read in
  8          the burnt book that you mention to me that it was printed
  9          at Berne;  the Bernese have therefore exercised a legitimate jurisdiction
  10       over this work. They have burned councils,
  11       controversies, fanatics and the writings of popes; which,
  12       as a heretic, I very much applaud \ x /. To roast
  12       men is beyond a joke, to throw paper into
  14       the fire is mere peevishness.  By way of reprisal you ought
  15       have an auto-da-fé at Ferney and condemn to
  16       the flames all the works of theology and
  17       controversy in your neighborhood, and gather
  18       around the blaze theologians of every sect
  19       to regale them with this pleasing spectacle.  For
  20       my part, as I am of lukewarm faith, I tolerate everyone
  21       on condition that I myself be tolerated and need not concern myself
  22       with other people’s faith. Your missionaries
   
   
  \ x / in line 12,  refers the reader to the marginalia in the left margin:
  “ce ne sont que / des niaiseries / en comparison / de ce qui vient / d’arriver a / amiens”
  “These are / the merest stupidities / in comparison / to what has / just happened in / Amiens.”
  
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  23       will open the eyes of a few young people who will
  24       may their works or frequent their company; but how many fools
  25       are there, in the world, who do not think!  How many people are there
  26       who indulge in pleasure and who are wearied by the act of reasoning! How
  27       many ambitious men remain absorbed in their plans! In all this vast
  28       number how few are there who care to learn
  29       and to become enlightened! The thick fog which blinded
  30       humanity from the 10^th to the 13^th century is dispersed; yet
  31       most eyes are short-sighted. others some have
  32       their eyelids stuck closed. In France you have
  33       the Convulsionists, in Holland they have the Pharisees[1], here
  34       we have the Pietists.  As long as
  35       the world will last these species will exist, just as sterile oaks are found
  36       in forests, and hornets among bees.  Believe me,
  37       if some philosophers founded a government,
  38       within half a century the people would create
  39       new superstitions and would turn its
  40       faith to some object striking to the senses;
  41       or it would create little idols, or it would revere the
  42       tombs of its founders, or it would invoke the
  43       sun, or some similar absurdity would prevail
  44       over the pure and simple worship of the Supreme Being.
                                                                                                  The
  
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  45       Superstition is a weakness of the human mind
  46       in which it is inherent; it
  47       always has been, it always will be. The objects
  48       of adoration may change like your French fashions;
  49       but what does it matter to me whether people prostrate themselves
  50       before a piece of unleavened bread, before the ox
  51       Apis, before the Ark of the Convenant, or before a
  52       statue? The choice is not worth the trouble;
  53       superstition is the same, and \ reason / gains nothing.
  54       But to be in good health at seventy, to have
  55       independence of mind, to be still the ornament of Parnassus at
  56       this age, as in early youth, these
  57       are not matters of indifference. I
  58       wish that you may long enjoy all of this and may
  59       you be as happy as human nature permits
  60       On which, I pray God to take you
  61       into his holy protection . /.
                                                  F:       
  
   

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  [1] Note 2 in EE: This was the term (from the colloquial fijner) applied to the pharisees; see e. g. Roelof Mums, La Hollande et les Hollandais au XVII^e et au XVIII^e siècles, vus par les Français (Paris 1925), pp. 222–223. (Theodore D. N. Besterman, 1973)/