timonium adversus arma, an illi (les autres protestants) quando statutis temporibus, ad mandatum magistratus officinas reserandi et pro prosperitate armorum ejusdem orandi, vel Deo gratias agendi pro hac vel illa reportata victoria, suas officinas obserant et in suas congregationes conveniunt, quo pacto, in omnibus, iis qui pugnas et certamina approbant, similes se faciunt, an vero nosqui haec eadem conscientiae causa praestare non possumus… ? » (Barclay, 368).
Le Prof. Hales, dans son article intitulé Voltaire in Hampstead (the Hampstead Annual, 1903, p. 82), a signalé et cité une curieuse anecdote relative aux relations de Voltaire et des quakers. Sur son indication, j’ai recherché le morceau dans le journal où il a d’abord paru, the Yorkshireman, a religious and literary Journal, by a Friend (Luke Howard, F. R. S.), Pontefract, 1833, t. I, n° xi, seventh Day, 15th twelfth Mo. 1832, p. 167-169. Art. II. Original anecdote of Voltaire and a quaker.
« I have received from an old friend and schoolfellow the following anecdote for publication. The Reader, who may hâve informed himself therefore, respecting the character to which it relates, will be ready probably, with my friend, to pro nounce it characteristic and curious. It is a fact familiar to members of our society, that Voltaire, afer some interviews with us in this country, thought proper to write in disparagement of the quaker System, and that he was replie d to by our friend Josiah Martin, in a publication which is still extant. (ed.)
« Edward Higginson’s Account of a conversation with Voltaire[1].
- ↑ On trouvera la traduction de ce morceau dans mon article intitulé : Voltaire et les Lettres philosophiques, Revue de Paris, 1908.
