“Simple-minded” Voltaire in brief
On the evening of July 1689, the abbe de Cercabon was walking with his sister along the seashore in his little prior in Lower Brittany, and was reflecting on the bitter fate of his brother and his wife, who had sailed from that very shore to Canada and disappeared there for twenty years. At that moment, a ship docks in the bay and lands a young man in the clothes of an Indian who seems Simplehearted, as his English friends called him for sincerity and unfailing honesty. He impresses the respectable priory with courtesy and sanity, and he is invited to dinner in a house where the Simple-minded person is introduced to the local community. The next day, wanting to thank his hosts for hospitality, the young man presents them with a mascot: portraits of people unknown to him on the shoestring, in which the prior knows with excitement the brother-captain and his wife, who disappeared in Canada. The simplehearted did not know his parents, and he was raised by the Huron Indians. Finding in the
First of all, a good Prior and his neighbors decide to christen the Simple-minded. But at first it was necessary to enlighten him, since one can not convert an adult person into a new religion without his knowledge. The simple reader reads the Bible, and thanks to natural insight, and also because his childhood was not burdened with trivia and absurdities, his brains perceived all objects in undistorted form. The godmother, according to the wish of the Simple-minded, was invited to the charming Mlle de Saint Ives, the sister of their abbe’s neighbor. However, the mystery was suddenly threatened, since the young man was sincerely convinced that it was possible to be baptized only in the river, following the example of the Bible characters. Unsuspended by convention, he refused to admit that the fashion for baptism could change. With the help of the charming Saint-Yves the Simple-minded still managed to persuade to be baptized in a font. In a gentle conversation, Following the baptism, the Simple-minded and Mlle
In a gloomy despondency the Simple-minded wanders along the shore when suddenly sees a retreating Frenchman in panic. It turned out that the English squadron had treacherously landed and was about to attack the town. He gallantly throws himself at the British, injures the admiral and inspires the French soldiers to victory. The town was saved, but the Simple-minded is glorified. In a rapture of battle, he decides to storm the monastery and rescue his bride. This is why they keep him and advise him to go to Versailles to the king, and then receive a reward for saving the province from the British. After such an honor, no one can prevent him from marrying Mlle de Saint-Ives.
The way of the Simple-minded to Versailles lies through a small town of Protestants who just lost all their rights after the cancellation of the Edict of Nantes and forcibly converted to Catholicism. Residents with tears leave the city, and the Simple-minded tries to understand the cause of their misfortunes: why the great king goes on about the pope and deprives himself for the sake of the Vatican six hundred thousand faithful citizens. The simple-minded is convinced that the guilt of all the machinations of the Jesuits and the unworthy advisers who surrounded the king. How else could he indulge the pope, his open enemy? The simple-minded promises to the inhabitants that, having met the king, he will reveal the truth to him, and having learned the truth, in the opinion of the young man, one can not but follow it. To his misfortune, a disguised Jesuit, who was a detective at the King’s confessor, Father Lachaise, the main persecutor of poor Protestants, was present at the table during the conversation. The detective set up the letter, and the Simple-minded came to Versailles almost at the same time as this letter. The naive young man sincerely believed that upon arrival he would immediately be able to see the king, tell him about his services, obtain permission to marry Saint-Ives and open his eyes to the situation of the Huguenots. But with difficulty, the Simple-minded man succeeds in getting a reception from one court official who tells him that, at best, he will be able to buy a lieutenant’s rank. The young man is indignant that he still has to pay for the right to risk his life and fight, and promises to complain about the stupid official to the king. The official decides that the Simple-minded is out of his mind, and does not attach importance to his words. On this day, Father Lachaise receives letters from his detective and relatives of St. Ives, where the Simple-minded is called a dangerous troublemaker who told him to burn monasteries and steal girls. At night, soldiers attack a sleeping youth and,
Gordon, the kindest father who later brought so much light and consolation to our hero, was imprisoned without a court for refusing to recognize the pope as the unlimited ruler of France. The elder had great knowledge, and the young man had a great desire to acquire knowledge. Their conversations become more instructive and entertaining, while the naivety and common sense of the Simple-minded puzzle the old philosopher. He reads historical books, and history seems to him a continuous chain of crimes and misfortunes. After reading “The Quest for Truth” by Malebranche, he decides that everything is a wheel of a huge mechanism, whose soul is God. God was the cause of both sin and grace. the mind of a young man is strengthened, he is mastering mathematics, physics, geometry and at every step expresses cleverness and a sensible mind. He writes down his reasoning, the old philosopher is horrified. Looking at the Simple-minded, Gordon seems that over half a century of his education he only strengthened prejudice, and the naive young man, recognizing only the simple voice of nature, was able to come closer to the truth much closer. Free from deceptive representations, he proclaims man’s freedom his most important right. He condemns the Gordon sect, suffering and persecuted because of disputes not about truth, but dark errors, because all the important truths God has already given to people. Gordon realizes that he has condemned himself to misfortune for the sake of some kind of nonsense, and the Simple-minded does not find wise those who expose themselves to persecution because of empty scholastic disputes. Thanks to the outpourings of a young man in love, a severe philosopher learned to see in love a noble and tender feeling capable of elevating the soul and engendering virtue. At this time, the beautiful lover of the Simple-minded one decides to go to Versailles in search of his beloved. She is released from the monastery in order to marry, and she slips right into the wedding day. Once in the royal residence, the poor beauty in complete confusion tries to obtain admission from various tall faces, and finally she manages to find out that the Simple-minded is imprisoned in the Bastille. The official who opened it to her says with pity that he has no power to do good, and he can not help her. But the assistant to the all-powerful minister, Mr. de Saint-Poignes, creates both good and evil. The approved St. Yves hurries to Saint-Poignus, and he, fascinated by the beauty of the girl, hints that at the price of her honor she could cancel the order to arrest the Simple-minded. Friends also push her for the sacred duty to sacrifice female honor. Virtue forces her to fall. At the price of shame, she frees her lover, but tormented by the consciousness of her sin, the tender St. Ives can not survive the fall, and, seized by a fatal fever, dies in the hands of the Simple-minded. At this moment, Saint-Poignage himself appears, and in a fit of remorse swears to make amends for the misfortune caused.
Time softens everything. The simple-minded became an excellent officer and, until the end of his life, honored the memory of the beautiful St. Ives.
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