Which character represents Voltaire in Candide?

Critics feel
that if any character is a model of its author, the Scholar, who plays a very minor role, acts
as the voice of .  In fact, this character is often overlooked when he appears in Chapter XXII,
but sometimes the reader is struck by the change in the novel's tone when the scholar
speaks.

In this chapter, Voltaire joins others in playing faro while he is
Paris and loses money. There "a wise man of taste," who supports the hostess, the
Marchioness of Parolignac, sitting by her and responding to the naive 's mistaking him for
another Pangloss who studied cause and effect. After Candide asks him,

Sir, you think doubtless that all is for the best in the moral and
physical world, and that nothing could be otherwise than it is?

he replies,

I know nothing of all that; I find
that all goes awry with me; that no one knows either what is his rank, nor what is his
condition, what he does nor what he ought to do; and that except supper, which is always gay,
and where there appears to be enough  href="https://www.owleyes.org/text/candide/read/chapter-i-candide-brought-magnificent">concord,
all the rest of the time is passed in impertinent quarrels;  href="https://www.owleyes.org/text/candide/read/chapter-i-candide-brought-magnificent">Jansenist against  href="https://www.owleyes.org/text/candide/read/chapter-i-candide-brought-magnificent">Molinist,
Parliament against the Church, men of letters against men of letters,  href="https://www.owleyes.org/text/candide/read/chapter-i-candide-brought-magnificent">courtesans against
courtesans, financiers against the people, wives against husbands, relatives against relativesit
is eternal war.

Reflective of Voltaire's thoughts, the
scholar expresses no concern for metaphysico-theologo-cosmonigology as does Pangloss, who is
convinced that it is the best of possible worlds. Instead, he views a confused world, with
constant turmoil and conflict among men.