Some of his English Readers may perhaps be dissatisfied at his not expatiating farther on their Constitution and their Laws, which most of them revere almost to Idolatry; but, this Reservedness is an effect of M. de Voltaire’s Judgment.  He contented himself with giving his opinion of them in general Reflexions, the Cast of which is entirely new, and which prove that he had made this Part of the British Polity his particular Study.  Besides, how was it possible for a Foreigner to pierce thro’ their Politicks, that gloomy Labyrinth, in which such of the English themselves as are best acquainted with it, confess daily that they are bewilder’d and lost?

Nothing could be more characteristic of the attitude, not only of Voltaire himself, but of the whole host of his followers in the later eighteenth century, towards the actual problems of politics.  They turned away in disgust from the ‘gloomy labyrinth’ of practical fact to take refuge in those charming ‘general Reflexions’ so dear to their hearts, ’the Cast of which was entirely new’—­and the conclusion of which was also entirely new, for it was the French Revolution.

It was, indeed, typical of Voltaire and of his age that the Lettres Philosophiques should have been condemned by the authorities, not for any political heterodoxy, but for a few remarks which seemed to call in question the immortality of the soul.  His attack upon the ancien regime was, in the main, a theoretical attack; doubtless its immediate effectiveness was thereby diminished, but its ultimate force was increased.  And the ancien regime itself was not slow to realise the danger:  to touch the ark of metaphysical orthodoxy was in its eyes the unforgiveable sin.  Voltaire knew well enough that he must be careful.

Il n’y a qu’une lettre touchant M. Loke [he wrote to a friend].  La seule matiere philosophique que j’y traite est la petite bagatelle de l’immortalite de l’ame; mais la chose a trop de consequence pour la traiter serieusement.  Il a fallu l’egorger pour ne pas heurter de front nos seigneurs les theologiens, gens qui voient si clairement la spiritualite de l’ame qu’ils feraient bruler, s’ils pouvaient, les corps de ceux qui en doutent.

Nor was it only ‘M.  Loke’ whom he felt himself obliged to touch so gingerly; the remarkable movement towards Deism, which was then beginning in England, Voltaire only dared to allude to in a hardly perceivable hint.  He just mentions, almost in a parenthesis, the names of Shaftesbury, Collins, and Toland, and then quickly passes on.  In this connexion, it may be noticed that the influence upon Voltaire of the writers of this group has often been exaggerated.  To say, as Lord Morley says, that ’it was the English onslaught which sowed in him the seed of the idea ... of a systematic and reasoned attack’ upon Christian theology, is to misjudge the situation.  In the first place it is certain both that Voltaire’s opinions upon those matters were fixed, and that his proselytising habits had begun, long before he came to England.  There is curious evidence of this in an anonymous letter, preserved among the archives of the Bastille, and addressed to the head of the police at the time of Voltaire’s imprisonment.