Voltaire begins by saying that d’ Alembert has reassured him about the article for the Encyclopédie titled ‘Femme’. He then discusses the processes of creating such articles, questioning if there should be guidelines with regards length as d’ Alembert has complained of vague and methodless dissertations that several individuals have submitted to him. He asks why d’ Alembert did not issue authors with protocols regarding etymology, definitions, examples, reasons, clarity, and brevity stating that though he saw only a dozen articles, he could not find any of the above in them. Voltaire concludes, however, that such questioning wrongs d’ Alembert as there are bad soldiers in the army of a great general.

Voltaire then states that if he were in Paris, he would spend all his time in the king’s library so as to aid d’ Alembert in his Encyclopédie. He adds that he is interested in the work as it honours his homeland and is useful for the human race, but that he does not have access to any of the necessary books.

He then turns to the civil unrest in France and the civil wars of Germany, which he dubs sad and awful respectively. He notes that the next campaign will likely be a bloody one. Voltaire then mentions La Pucelle, noting that the ‘infamous’ edition afflicts him. He sends his and Madame Denis’ love, before concluding that the has received the entry for ‘Histoire’ and will return it in five days time.

An alternate version of Voltaire Foundation MS 15 (B). Besterman has incorrectly ordered the pages so p.2 should be read before p.1. Voltaire has included a second leaf, providing the text which forms lines 365-380 of chapter 38 (OCV, vol.13D). The reader therefore needs to read Wagnière’s text to the symbol, then read Voltaire’s addition, before returning to Wagnière’s text.

Voltaire writes that Quietism removed Cardinal de Bouillon from the court. He was the nephew of Turenne, to whom Voltaire notes that the king owed his salvation in the civil war. United by friendship with the Archbishop of Cambrai and charged with the king’s orders against him, he sought to reconcile his two duties and bring the two parties to conciliation. An Italian priest named Giori was a spy with the opposite faction and worked his way into Cardinal de Bouillon’s confidence, asking him for a thousand crowns which, after he had obtained them, he disappeared with. The letters between Giori and the Cardinal, Voltaire writes, were the Cardinal’s downfall at court, though he suggests that the Cardinal was punished wrongly. His letters show that he had conducted himself with wisdom and dignity, and that he had obeyed the orders of the king in condemning the mystics, whom Voltaire describes as the alchemists of religion. The king wrote a letter of reproach to Cardinal de Bouillon on 16th March 1699. After the rise of Telemachus in Europe, however, the Cardinal was recalled to court by the king but on the way he learned of the death of the Dean of the Sacred College in Rome and so instead took up the role instead. This embittered the king, who exiled the Cardinal for ten years. The Cardinal left France forever in 1710 at a time of great instability for Louis XIV and resigned from his position as the Grand Chaplain of France.

The letters dating from 1869-1875 were sent from Fort Abercrombie, the 1876 letter was sent from Fort Totten, Dakota Territory. Hunt and Thomas had both been Union brigadier generals during the Civil War, and were now regimental officers on frontier duty in the downsized postwar army. Hunt wrote most of these letters from Fort Abercrombie in North Dakota, a half-abandoned post with a company or two under his command. The first letter is meant to encourage a struggling old comrade with a message of patience: “The result of my experience of life, its ups and downs, has led me to adopt the rule of doing nothing whenever I was in doubt. … You certainly have been very unlucky in losing your post. … I mourn my removal, which I presume by fighting I might have avoided” (July 4, 1869). Thomas soon secured transfer to Hunt’s regiment, and was stationed at remote Fort Totten. The other letters reflect an old friendship of kindred spirits–sharing volumes of Augustine’s Confessions and Voltaire, and rumors of the regiment’s internal politics. The final letter is written after Hunt’s transfer to Fort Totten and the promotion of Hunt to major: “I congratulate you on your promotion and your luck in escaping a black regiment.” Commenting on politics, he adds that “Ulysses is driving the last nail into the coffin of the Republican Party … A party that might, decently managed, have ruled the country for 40 years.” Hunt consistently addresses Thomas by his old rank of “General.”.