Chapter 14

By early 1778, Voltaire was 84 and ailing, and there had even been stories that he had died. (His retort, even better than Mark Twain’s similar one, was that the reports were true, only premature.) In February, Franklin paid a ceremonial visit to his home and asked him to give his blessing to 7-year-old Benny Bache. As twenty awed disciples watched and shed “tears of tenderness,” Voltaire put his hands on the boy’s head and pronounced in English, “God and Liberty.” According to Condorcet, one of the witnesses, he added, “This is the only appropriate benediction for the grandson of Monsieur Franklin.”