Philosophical Letters (Letters on the English)

Twenty-five short letters in which Voltaire reports on England, where he lived from 1726 to 1728, and uses it to criticise France. The first letters describe the Quakers with amused sympathy, then the Anglicans, Presbyterians and Antitrinitarians; the point is that many sects living side by side keep the peace, as merchants of every faith do at the London Exchange. Letters on Parliament, government and trade praise English liberty, the limits on royal power and the respect paid to merchants. A letter on smallpox inoculation urges France to adopt it. Voltaire then introduces French readers to Bacon, to Locke's account of the soul and knowledge, and to Newton, contrasting his physics of attraction with Descartes' vortices. Later letters cover tragedy, Shakespeare, comedy, Pope and the honour England pays to writers and scientists. The last letter attacks Pascal's Pensées and his bleak view of human nature. The French edition was condemned by the Paris Parlement and burned.

It is a short, witty manifesto of the Enlightenment, showing how toleration, commerce, science and free inquiry were presented to a continental public.