Address panel with seal and postmark (Geneve) and addressed to Helvétius in Paris.
Possible location of writing from postmark. Letters written from Ferney can also be postmarked Geneve (see MA 1752.23).
Year added to date in an unknown hand. See Smith and Besterman.
Part of a collection of letters from Voltaire to the philosopher Claude Adrien Helvétius. Letters in the collection have been cataloged individually; see collection-level record for more information.
Stating that in France one wins his case with the help of fun and ridicule; illustrating his point with M. de Fontenelle's response to attacks on his work [Histoire des oracles and La Relation curieuse de l'île de Borneo]; telling him that reason will inevitably win France over; listing the concepts France has already taken from Britain; saying that it is in the interest of the King [Louis XV] and of the State that Philosophers influence society; encouraging him to stay in France and spread the Enlightenment.