This copy was produced for the Beaumarchais-Kehl edition.

A note at the end of the MS suggests that the text was ‘copié sur l’imprimé de 15 pages in 12.’ An octavo edition of the text is not known, but it is possible that the copyist was referring to a small octavo version. This MS features several variants.

The text follows a copy of the Testament de Jean Meslier. A note on the first page reads: ‘On a cru à propos de joindre ce sermon comme pendant au Testament de J: M: tant pour presque les mêmes choses, dont traite l’un et l’autre, que pour la hardiesse des expressions avec la quelle la créance juive et chrétienne y est également attaquée. On a présumé que le lecteur se prêtera à repasser ci-suivant le même, engagé par l’agrément du style mieux ramassé et de l’aisance avec laquelle cette matière est maniée. B.’ A note on the volume title page suggests that the copy was made at the Royal Library of Prague in 1811.

The MS is bound with three other texts by Voltaire which once formed part of the Boissy d’Anglas album. These texts are:

• (a) a letter in verse to Algarotti and a letter to the comte d’Argental
• (b) Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne
• (d) Résumé historique et critique.

The MS has been corrected throughout by Voltaire. It is almost identical to the print edition, except for l.21-27. Here, multiple versions have been crossed out and written over so extensively that only incomplete sentences are legible.

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.