Secondary sourceSpeech1895
Voltaire: A Lecture
Robert Green Ingersoll · 1895
An 1895 printed lecture by orator Robert G. Ingersoll praising Voltaire as an enemy of superstition.
A later lecture praising Voltaire's role as a critic of superstition, showing his posthumous reputation.
PDF · 86 pagesAbout this source
What it is
This is a printed lecture delivered and published by Robert G. Ingersoll, a famous American orator, in 1895. It is a published edition of his spoken lecture about Voltaire.
Why it matters
Written more than a century after Voltaire's death, this lecture shows how Voltaire was remembered and admired by later freethinkers. Ingersoll quotes Carlyle's claim that Voltaire dealt a death blow to superstition, showing how Voltaire's reputation as a critic of religion and tradition continued to grow long after he died.
Look closer
- Why might a 19th-century lecturer choose Voltaire as his subject?
- What does the quotation from Carlyle on the title page suggest about how Voltaire was viewed?
- How might the purpose of a public lecture differ from that of a history book?
This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Voltaire on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.
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