Brewer's: Voltaire

His proper name was Francois Marie Arouet. The word Voltaire is simply an anagram of Arouet L. I. (le jeune). Thus have we Stella, Astrophel (q.v.), Vanessa and Cadenus (q.v.), and a host of other names in anagrams.

Nor he who, for the bane of thousands born, Built God a church, and laughed His Word to scron.

Thou art so witty, profligate and thin, Thou seemst a Milton, with his Death and Sin.

An excellent comparison between Voltaire and Gibbon is given by Byron in Childe $$$, canto iii. 106, 107.

Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813).

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