Voltaire discusses Candide as if he is not the author of it. Voltaire begins by acknowledging receipt of Thiériot’s letter, as well as some brochures, and a further letter from Mme. Bellot. He asks Thiériot for Mme. Bellot’s address as she has not dated her letter and so he neither knows when it was sent nor where she now lives. Voltaire notes that he will repay the ‘small advances’ Thiériot had given him to ‘decorate’ his mind. He then turns to Candide and writes that he has read the text and that it amuses him more than Histoire générale des Huns, des Turcs… by Guignes and all of Thiériot’s essays on trade and finance. Voltaire recounts that two young people from Paris told him that they look like Candide and Voltaire adds that he thinks he resembles Mr. Pococurante, but that God saves him ‘from having the slightest part in this work.’ He concludes that it is likely that Mr. Joly de Fleury will convince the assembled chambers that Candide is a book against morals, laws, and religion and thus that it would be better to live in the land of Oreillons than in Paris. He quips that Parisians used to be like monkeys who frolic but now want to be roaring oxen, something Voltaire does not feel suits them. Voltaire ends the letter with a latin phrase reading: ‘si quid novi, scribe, et cum otiosus eris, veni, et vale.’