The letter relates to family affairs. Nathaniel tells his mother that his sister Louisa is content and pleased to attend a dance school, and that he has learned to swim. He mentions his uncles, and notes that he wishes his older sister, Elizabeth, would write to him. A list of Voltaire’s works has been added to the verso of the letter, presumably in his mother’s hand.

The MS features three designs of different elevations for a building designed for Voltaire and drawn in ink. The initial pencil sketches are visible beneath the ink sketches.

Voltaire asked Hersch to purchase bonds on his behalf. Voltaire gave Hersch notes to do so and in return Hersh deposited jewellery with Voltaire for security. Finding a more favourable deal elsewhere, however, Voltaire withdrew from the deal and Hersch was subsequently arrested. In this document, Hersch presents his side of the story, stating that Voltaire had been spreading lies and seducing the public with misinformation.

Headings given to the notes include: “The florid rich, first ? phases of poetry, as in the Oriental poems” (Camden Edition, vi, 96) ; “Europe” (vi, 218) ; “Milton —1608 —1674”; “The Teutonic includes the Scandinavian” (vi, 210); “(passing through the town of Borgo in old Finland, Russia,)” (vi, 95-96); “Specimen Days” (Diary in Canada, page 64); “—the story of Dante’s ‘Journey through Hell’ ” (Camden Edition, vii, 11) ; “Mithras, the grand deity of ancient Persians, supposed to be the sun” (vii, 22); ” ‘law’ ‘lex’ ‘lux’ light? Alcoran signifies law” (vi, 214); “Of the Democratic Party 58—’59—60.” On verso of “Europe”: “Two Samples of Voltaires writings” (Camden Edition, vi, 218); notes on Voltaire. On verso of “Milton —1608 —1674”: “Burns, born 1757 died 1796—aged 39” (vii, 8). Miscellaneous jottings on poetry and on the geography and population of Europe, a list of synonyms for the word “poet,” geographical and ethnological definitions, observations on Finland copied from the New York Tribune for October, 1855, notes on events in 1854 and 1855 intended as a reminder for Specimen Days, names of Italian poets, scraps on Mithras and various religions of the Orient, a vitriolic remark on the planks of the Democratic platform, 1858-1860, and notes on literary men.