|
Why does Voltaire label enthusiasm a disease? (Note that the 18th-centuryFrench use of this term is not identical with contemporary Englishusage.) His story about the young man so carried away by a tragedythat he decides to write one himself is a self-mocking comment:he wrote many tragedies. Ovid\'s The Art of Love and TheLoves are cynical observations on love affairs, whereas Sappho\'spoetry is filled with passion. She was said in ancient times tohave committed suicide for love. How does he contrast reason withreligion? What sort of people are said to unite reason with enthusiasm?
|
