a hundred years ago today a man died. he died immortal. he departed laden with years, laden with works, laden with the most illustrious and the most fearful or responsibilities, the responsibility of the human conscience informed and rectifies. he went cursed and blessed, cursed by the past, blessed by the future; and these are two super forms of glory. on the deathbed he had, on the one hand, the acclaim of contemporaries and of posterity; on the other, that triumph of hooting and of hating which the implacable past bestows on those who have combated it. he was more than a man was; he was an age. he had exercised functions and fulfilled a mission. he had been evidently chosen for the work, which he had done by the supreme will, which manifests itself as visibly in the laws of destiny as in the laws of nature.
the eighty-four years, which this man lived, span the interval between the monarchy at its apogee and the revolution at its dawn. whence was born, luis xiv still reigned; when he died, louis of xvi already wore crown; so that his cradle saw the last rays of the great throne, and his coffin the first gleams from the great abyss.
in the presence of this society, frivolous and dismal, voltaire alone, having before his eyes those united forces, the court, the nobility, capital; that unconscious power, the blind multitude ...
一百年前的今天，一个人去世了。但他是永生的。他离开人世间时已是古稀之年，但其著作丰富。他肩负着的责任既是世界上最感光荣的，也是最令人畏惧的。他让人们懂得良知并教化他们。对于他的去世，有人诅咒，也有人祝福。旧时代的人们诅咒他，而只有新时代的人才祝福他。无论诅咒也罢，祝福也罢，这两者对于他都是光荣和至高无上的。他临终时，受到了当代人和他们后代的赞美，但另一方面，像许多同旧时代战斗过的人一样，他也受到了对他恨之入骨的旧时代的高声大骂。他不仅是他一个人，而且是一个时代。他曾尽责尽职，完成了一项使命。显然是天意助他完成这一项大事的。命运法则和自然法则都清楚地显示了上天的这个旨意cb法则和住这位伟人所生活的八十四年，从专制统治的鼎盛时期一直延续到革命的萌芽阶段。他诞生之际，路易十四仍大权在握；他去世时，路易十六已戴上皇冠。因此，王朝鼎盛时期的余辉照耀过他的摇篮，从那深渊里透出最初的光芒映照着他的灵柩。
伏尔泰一个人，在这个无聊惨淡的时代，只身面对着宫廷、贵族和资本家的联合力量，面对着那群毫无觉醒意识的暴力、盲目的民众......