he was broken on the wheel. His case was thus beyond the reach of remedy; but the same judgment had condemned his family to infamy. Voltaire, utterly disbelieving even the possibility of the alleged crime, used his credit, his friends, and his money in behalf of the family, employed advocates, and himself urged their innocence in various appeals. He thus obtained a revision and reversal of the sentence. In a similar case, that of Sirven, he saved the life, by his indefatigable efforts, of the accused man; and afterwards obtained the acquittal of a woman whose husband had, on an incredible charge, been broken on the wheel, and who had been condemned with him. The case of Lally, who was executed in Paris under circumstances of atrocious injustice, is also well known: in this instance Voltaire's efforts failed of success, yet he had the satisfaction, many years afterwards, of seeing the sentence condemned, on a revision obtained by the victim's son. Other cases are recorded in which his sympathy with the oppressed had impelled him to untiring efforts in their behalf. It must be admitted that, though he alone can be called perfectly good who fulfils two orders of duties, one of these, his duty to his fellow-man, was performed with unusual spirit by Voltaire.
All this time the increasing weight of years by no means diminished the activity of his pen. In 1757 the whole of his works were for the first time published in an authorised and complete edition, under his direction at Geneva. He wrote in this last epoch of his life the Essay on the "Philosophy of History," from which extracts have been already given; added a sketch of the "Age of Louis XV." to its predecessor; wrote a history
