[26] P. 111. Gabriel Gauchat (1709-1779), French ecclesiastical writer, was author of a number of works on religious subjects.
[27] P. 112. Nicholas Charles Joseph Trublet (1697-1770) was a French writer whose criticism of Voltaire was revenged in passages such as this one in Candide, and one in the Pauvre Diable beginning:
L'abbé Trublet avait alors le rage
D'être à Paris un petit personage.
[28] P. 120. Damiens, who attempted the life of Louis XV. in 1757, was born at Arras, capital of Artois (Atrébatie).
[29] P. 120. On May 14, 1610, Ravaillac assassinated Henry VI.
[30] P. 120. On December 27, 1594, Jean Châtel attempted to assassinate Henry IV.
[31] P. 122. This same curiously inept criticism of the war which cost France her American provinces occurs in Voltaire's Memoirs, wherein he says, "In 1756 England made a piratical war upon France for some acres of snow." See also his Précis du Siècle de Louis XV.
[32] P. 123. Admiral Byng was shot on March 14, 1757.
[33] P. 129. Commenting upon this passage, M. Sarcey says admirably: "All is there! In those ten lines Voltaire has gathered all the griefs and all the terrors of these creatures; the picture is admirable for its truth and power! But do you not feel the pity and sympathy of the painter? Here irony becomes sad, and in a way an avenger. Voltaire cries out with horror against the society which throws some of its members into such an abyss. He has his 'Bartholomew' fever; we tremble with him through contagion."
[34] P. 142. The following particulars of the six monarchs may prove not uninteresting. Achmet III. (b. 1673, d. 1739) was dethroned in 1730. Ivan VI. (b. 1740, d. 1762) was dethroned in 1741. Charles Edward Stuart, the Pretender (b. 1720, d. 1788). Auguste III. (b. 1696, d. 1763). Stanislaus (b. 1682, d. 1766). Theodore (b. 1690, d. 1755). It will be observed that, although quite impossible for the six kings ever to have met, five of them might have been made to do so without any anachronism.
[35] P. 149. François Leopold Ragotsky (1676-1735).
Typographical errors corrected in text:
Page xiv: Chapter XIII heading in Table of Contents amended to match chapter heading on page 54.
Page 2: metaphysicotheo-logico-cosmolo-nigology amended to metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology.
Page 158: Liebnitz amended to Leibnitz.
Page 168: perserved amended to preserved.
Page 172: rougish amended to roguish; crows amended to crowns.
Where there is an equal number of instances of a word being hyphenated and unhyphenated, both versions of the word have been retained: dung-hill/dunghill; and new-comers/newcomers.
A single footnote on page 90 has been moved to the endnotes, and the notes numbers re-indexed. A page reference was added to the moved footnote to match the format of other endnotes.
Modern Library blurb: "mail complete list of titles" left as is.
There are two instances of Massa Carara (pp. 43 and 45) and one instance of Massa-Carrara (page ix). As this latter is in the Introduction, i.e. distinct from the book proper, it has been retained.
The different spellings of Cunégonde (which occurs only in the Introduction (page viii)) and Robeck (which occurs in the Notes [p. 170]; spelt Robek in the text [p. 53]) have been retained for the same reason.