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A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 By: Unknown (1694-1778) |
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VOLUME I By VOLTAIRE
EDITION DE LA PACIFICATION THE WORKS OF VOLTAIRE A CONTEMPORARY VERSION
With Notes by Tobias Smollett, Revised and Modernized
New Translations by William F. Fleming, and an
Introduction by Oliver H.G. Leigh
A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY BY THE RT. HON. JOHN MORLEY FORTY THREE VOLUMES
One hundred and sixty eight designs, comprising reproductions
of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures,
and curious fac similes
VOLUME V E.R. DuMONT PARIS LONDON NEW YORK CHICAGO 1901
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. LIST OF PLATES VOL. I VOLTAIRE AT THE AGE OF THIRTY Frontispiece MAHOMET LOUIS AND MDLLE. DE LA VALLIÈRE ANCIENT GREECE
A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.
The DICTIONNAIRE PHILOSOPHIQUE is Voltaire's principal essay in
philosophy, though not a sustained work. The miscellaneous articles he
contributed to Diderot's ENCYCLOPÉDIE 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. OLIVER H.G. LEIGH
[Illustration: Voltaire at the age of thirty] VOLTAIRE A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. VOL. I A, B, C APPARITION
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.
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... Continue reading book >>
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