A few months later, he released a poem, the full name of which is Poem on the Lisbon Disaster or Optimism.Įarlier Voltaire considered evil as a way to the good of mankind, now he decisively rejects such a view. This disaster shocked Voltaire, like many of his contemporaries. ![]() At least, sixty thousand inhabitants of Lisbon were killed. On 1 November 1755, a great earthquake destroyed and devastated the capital city of the Kingdom of Portugal. Réflexions d’une provinciale sur le discours de M. Rousseau, citoyen de Genève, touchant l’origine de l’inegalité des conditions parmi les hommes (BV 5– 116)). The Voltaire Library also contains a review of this Rousseau's work (Du Rey de Meynieres. The Discourse on Inequality aroused Voltaire's sincere interest (view the page: Discourse on Inequality. However, as I have lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel, unfortunately, that it is impossible for me to resume it… In reading your work one is seized with a desire to walk on all fours. No one has ever employed so much intellect to persuade men to be beasts. I have received your new book against the human race, and thank you for it. Concerning this book, Voltaire sent him a friendly, but highly ironic letter: In 1755, Jean-Jacques published his second famous treatise, Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men. A copy of this publication is available in the Voltaire Library, but there are no notes or other reading marks. ![]() Rousseau's 1750 famous Discourse on the Arts, in which he gave a negative answer to the question by the Académie de Dijon of "whether the reestablishment of the sciences and the arts contributed to purifying morals", gave rise to a flurry of denials in the press of the time, but did not attract much Voltaire's attention. Rousseau received from Voltaire а courteous reply. Rousseau, translated from the French by David Widger, London, Reeves and Turner. In the first place, I would not touch the words without the consent of the author, to whom I wrote upon the subject a very polite and respectful letter, such a one as was proper… de Richelieu thought of me, and sent to desire I would undertake the alterations and, that I might the better examine what there was to do, he gave me separately the poem and the music. Voltaire was in Lorraine, and Rameau also both of whom were employed on the opera of the Temple of Glory, and could not give their attention to this. This new subject required several changes to be made in the divertissements, as well in the poetry as in the music.Ī person capable of both was now sought after. Among the latter was the dramatic piece of Voltaire, entitled ‘La Princesse de Navarre’, the music by Rameau, the name of which has just been changed to that of ‘Fetes de Ramire’. In the winter which succeeded the battle of Fontenoy, there were many galas at Versailles, and several operas performed at the theater of the Little Stables. Rousseau recalled that time in his Confessions. Voltaire and Rousseau got acquainted by correspondence in 1745, they exchanged letters about the alteration of Voltaire's play The Princess of Navarre. Many Rousseau's books are covered with Voltaire's remarks, often quite poisonous. Some "potpourris" include Rousseau's writings and works about the "Citizen of Geneva". Voltaire called such collections on the topics that interested him "potpourris". The “Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar”, a text that at once attracted and antagonized Voltaire is found several times as part of miscellanies of various publications bound in one volume by Voltaire. ABC Books, Primers, Grammars, Dictionaries of the 16-17 Centuries
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