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A compact miscellany of short essays, anecdotes, prayers, poems, and biographical sketches that collects reflections on grief, maternal love, benevolence, virtue, taste, and historical episodes. The pieces alternate personal memories, moral aphorisms, humorous and touching anecdotes, and brief portraits of public figures, often framed as letters, epitaphs, or short narratives. Recurring themes include the effects of sorrow and joy, domestic affection, charity, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the consolations of faith and art. The tone moves between intimate recollection and light moralizing, presenting varied, self-contained vignettes meant to instruct, console, and amuse.
The taciturnity of the Spaniards is attributed by Voltaire, to their horror of the influence of the Inquisition. Hence, a general jealousy and suspicion took possession of all people; friendship and sociability were all at an end; brothers were afraid of brothers, fathers of their children.