Frederick begins by saying that he is not the only one who notices that genius and talents are rarer in Europe in the current century than they were at the end of the previous one. He adds that there are three poets remaining, though they are of the second order: La Harpe; Marmontal, and Saint-Lambert. He then discusses outbreaks of violence and death warrants, before turning to an article Voltaire had written, remarking that he enjoyed it but that he would have liked Voltaire to have been more considerate of the Abbé de La Bletterie. He then talks of Jansenism.