Keyword: Melancholy

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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.

Repository: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France
Date: 1 August 1741
CMV: cmv33827