yep

What a shame it is not calorie-less!

Do you think Voltaire meant that ice cream's pleasures would be enhanced if it were enjoyed like a drug..? Then again, there was no such thing as an illegal drug in the 18th century....So, what do you think he really means?   

I think it was the former and maybe he meant you should have to bring ice cream up when you went to confession.

And his ice cream would've been made with pure cream, butter, eggs, and real vanilla/chocolate/strawberries.

Irritable1, it seems it was most likely gelato - and served here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procopio_Cut%C3%B2

It took me 25 mins, but i finally found the original quote.

"La glace est exquise - quel dommage il n'est pas illégal."

Since "ice cream" is not glace, but crème glacée, the more careful translation would be the now archaic term "water ice," or what modern English happily calls gelato. 

(Wow. I'm such a food geek, because i had so much fun looking this up!)

I don't even know what my point was with the little excursion into ingredients above. Something like... maybe it would have been better than anything we're aware of today?

I started from your wikipedia link, trying to figure out what makes gelato different from ice cream, and couldn't... but then it's late. It seems like the butterfat content (which is what I thought made the difference) can overlap, so it's not that.

Yes, Your point was a good one - no soy lecithin, or anything industrial

As for the difference, it's a bit of a modern mess, since in the last twenty years or so cream or milk was introduced to water ices, turning gelato into something it never was – a version of ice cream.

Prosper Montagné to the rescue! Here is a paragraph from Larousse Gastronomique, under the original French entry for Glaces:

"ICE CREAM VERSUS WATER ICE MIXTURES – These mixtures are of three kinds: those with a syrup base, which are used in the preparations of water ices [i.e. gelato and sorbet], flavored with fruit juices, essences of liqueurs; those with a custard base [i.e. ice cream], made from a mixture of egg yolks, sugar and milk or cream; and thirdly, those with a mousse base [i.e. sherbet and spoom]."[1]

Oh that's interesting. What is the diff between sorbet and old-style gelato then? Because I'm too lazy to track it down myself 

Nothing. The dif is one is an Italian word, and sorbet is French