Voltaire thanks Gravesande for the figure he sent him of the machine used to fix the image of the sun. He notes that he will have one made according to the design and will be freed from great embarassment because he is clumsy and has lots of trouble in his dark room with his mirrors. He remarks that the package from Gravesande also included the work he had asked for in which his adversary uses c.300 pages on the subject of some thoughts of Pascal that Voltaire had examined in less than one sheet. He goes on to provide some excerpts of quotes that the editors of Pascal’s works suppressed from print. Voltaire claims that Pascal was blighted by melancholy, stating that Leibnitz makes this claim a little harshly. Voltaire then discusses the original sin, melancholy states, and the nature of the soul.

De Missy writes to Voltaire about his edition of Voltaire’s tragedy Mahomet. De Missy divides the letter into a series of numbered points. Point One concerns the beginning of Act Three which is in need of revision. De Missy says that he could have corrected the Act himself but did not want to taint Voltaire’s writing. Point Two concerns a few passages that De Missy notes he will not punctuate in line with Voltaire’s intentions. He notes that this is particularly relevant to the first verses of p.55 in At IV. Point Three concerns various corrections in Voltaire’s copy that are in the London edition, and some passages in this edition that have been more heavily corrected than Voltaire’s version. He draws attention to p.7, p.33, p.42, p.45, p.48, and p.50. He asks Voltaire how he would like these sections to read, and whether or not he should follow the example of the London edition. Point Four concerns p.28 where the printer had written ‘They sit’ and Voltaire had not corrected it. De Missy asks if Voltaire’s lack of correction was intentional or not. Point Five concerns a verse on p.13, about which De Missy questions Voltaire’s phrasing. There then follow two paragraphs that are left incomplete, with large gaps in the copy suggesting that De Missy intended to expand on them and complete them. The paragraphs concern the topics of gender, virtues, and vices, with De Missy noting that men and women alike have both vices and virtues, and that one gender cannot be said to be more virtuous than the other. De Missy then goes on to discuss religion, and the ways in which divides between various religious denominations are largely artificial because human action traverses them. He states that he does not want to go to America but would do so tomorrow if they were the place that hated fraud and tyranny. He says he should like to do this journey with Voltaire. De Missy makes mention of the letter to Frederick II that Voltaire had sent him [D2386], adding some further details about the people mentioned in the letter: The Dias brothers, James Shepherd, and Luther. He then turns to Muhammad himself, questioning why Christians should be offended by Voltaire’s play when it shows Islam in a bad light as it was, he writes, founded on deceit and violence, not Christianity which was established with, he suggests, the best faith, great sweetness, and patience. De Missy then turns to Pascal’s comments on inconceivable proposals, problematising Voltaire’s understanding of this notion. De Missy ends his letter with a discussion of a Warning in the English papers from a wife whose husband had left home and not returned, with the wife claiming that if he came back within three days he would be graciously received. He writes that he had discussed this with a friend who concluded that the woman perhaps beat her husband. By means of an ending, he summarises his earlier questions about his edition of Mahomet, and this copy is left unfinished at the reiteration of Point Four.

Voltaire writes that he did not receive de Missy’s letter dated 18 November until yesterday and answers it as quickly as he can. He says that there must have been a lost sheet in the Third Act of Mahomet that de Missy received so he sends a copy of the entire scene exactly as it must be printed. He answers each of the other concerns raised by de Missy in his letter [D2689] and then goes on to discuss Blaise Pascal and Jansenism. He concludes by asking how he might send de Missy a copy of the small Geneva edition of his writings that are full of printing errors that he will correct by hand, and attaches a copy of the third act of Mahomet.