I wonder how Voltaire managed to hold his own amidst the aristocracy without having any official title. I knew he was able to keep the company of many who must have liked to have his wit, flair for conversation and his ability to write down in play form the social intercourse of the day.He must also have been a tremendous upset for the old guard of the day for he was bent on their overthrow even if was as indirect as the philosophy text I was reading suggested. Voltaire was arrested several times because he challenged the aristocracy, they were men just like himself and not as “divine” as they had brainwashed the general public.

Voltaire would grow up fighting illness and yet living long enough to see the French Revolution and the overthrow of the aristocracy. But Napoleon would not have been pleased to have him around during his escapades probably because he would have felt threatened too for wanting to be an Emperor. Voltaire and Rousseau sought to change the order of the day and put some reason and natural order into the minds of the French public so that aristocracy could not return to the abusive power they had.