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man of talent, and an enlightened ruler. He maintainedpeace; and though the kingdom was convulsed duringhis regency by the system of Law, yet its generalprosperity was increased ; showing, however speculativeand wild a people may he in their financial schemes,yet, as long as they are preserved from war, no eventcan materially injure their prosperity. The regent was,to a certain degree, king Log, with this exception,—thathis libertinism offered a pernicious example, whichplunged Parisian society in immorality, while his to-leration gave encouragement to those men of talentwhose aim was to disseminate knowledge and liberalopinions.
On the death of Louis XIV. , young Arouet left St.Ange, and came up to Paris to witness the effects of thechange. He found the people in a delirium of joy;they celebrated the death of their sovereign by gettingdrunk with delight, and by manifesting their detest-ation of the Jesuits , who had so long tyrannised overthem. Paris became inundated with satires and epi-grams : the French , as in the days of the Fronde, wereapt to signalise their aversions in witty and libellousverses. Voltaire was accused of writing a piece of thiskind; it was entitled “ Les J’ai vu,” in which theauthor enumerates all the abuses and evils he hadwitnessed, and concludes by saying,—
J’ai vu ces maux, et je n'ai pas vingt ans.
Voltaire was two and twenty, but the difference was 1716.slight, and the verses were clever ; he was accused of iEtat..being their author, and thrown into the Bastille. Thesolicitations of his powerful friends were of no avail toliberate him. His father saw -with grief the melancholyaccomplishment of all his prognostics, and failed inhis efforts to obtain his release. It was not till the trueauthor of the verses, touched by remorse, confessed tohaving written them, that Voltaire was set free.
He passed a whole year in his prison without societyor books, or ink and paper. "VVe find no mention in his