Edward Bruce Hamley

“ A more sagacious policy might have endeavoured to conciliate so active a foe, but that was not the way of those who ruled France. To live a gay, easy, irresponsible life; to consider taxation as the one function of government, the one purpose for which the people existed ”

“ In 1760 a false report of Voltaire's death produced, in reply to attacks on his memory, a eulogy from Goldsmith, in the character of his Chinese philosopher. It is most generous and appreciative—he mourns the loss which the world suffers in the death of a philosopher of genius such as nature scarcely produces once in a century, praises his independence, rectitude, and detestation of sycophancy, and condemns his calumniators ”

“ The royal Prussian, D'Argens, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Fontenelle conspire in drawing the picture, in describing the friend of man, and the patron of every rising genius."
And (still through the medium of the contemplative Chinese) Goldsmith thus gently expresses his toleration of Voltaire's heresies: "I am not displeased with my brother because he happens to ask our Father for favours in a different manner from me." ”