Walker opens by noting that he has passed on Caldwell’s enquiry concerning Voltaire to Mr Hayley. He then goes on to discuss a passage from the ‘Life of Milton’ that puzzled him, before thanking Caldwell for his letter of introduction to Mr Malone which has since been forwarded to Mr Irwin. Walker next discusses several artists, before turning to an accident involving Lord Meath and his hopes that the ‘ball’ can be safely removed.

The text features a number of revisions which would eventually form the published text. It is a draft of the ‘Catalogue de la plupart des écrivans français qui ont paru dans le siècle de Louis XIV, pour servir a l’histoire littéraire de ce temps’. Voltaire discusses the writers and artists who flourished under Louis XIV and claims that he could not discuss the l’Abbé de Saint-Pierre because the Annales of l’Abbé de Saint-Pierre were not printed until 1757. These Annals, Voltaire writes, are a satire of the government and the monarch who deserved more esteem and are not written well enough to forgive them their injustice. The family of l’Abbé Saint-Pierre urged the author to conceal the work from the public and it was only printed after l’Abbé Saint-Pierre’s death. Voltaire therefore defends himself against the claims of l’Abbé Sabatier who has claimed that Voltaire drew heavily on the Annals for his Siècle. This passage concludes by Voltaire writing that l’Abbé Sabatier came to Paris to work as a slanderer for money and it is therefore difficult to hope for paradise for him. It is even a great effort, Voltaire notes, to wish him this.