A hundred years ago today a man died. He died immortal¹. He departed laden² with years, laden with works, laden with the most illustrious and the most fearful or responsibilities, the responsibility of the human conscience informed and rectifies³. 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 acclaim⁴ of contemporaries and of posterity⁵; on the other, that triumph of hooting⁶ and of hating which the implacable past bestows⁷ 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 Supreme⁸ 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 interval⁹ between the monarchy¹⁰ at its apogee¹¹ and the Revolution at its dawn. Whence was born, Luis XIV still reigned¹²; when he died, Louis of XVI already wore crown; so that his cradle saw the last rays of the great throne, and his coffin¹³ the first gleams from the great abyss.

In the presence of this society, frivolous¹⁴ and dismal¹⁵, 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......