The draft is incomplete and represents just one part of Rousseau’s much longer ‘Lettre sur la providence’. The symbol at the beginning of the draft suggests that this manuscript may have been an addendum that was to be inserted into the final draft of the letter.

A series of scientific notes relating to the principles of Newtonian gravitation. The longest set of notes concerns the conclusions drawn by Voltaire from the work of Broadley on the progression of light and the movements of the Earth which were published in les Élémens de la philosophie de Neuton (Amsterdam, 1738). Another, illustrated with several figures and equations, reflects on the illumination of celestial bodies. The third recounts pendulum experiments of gravitation.