CANDIDE; OR, THE OPTIMIST.
[To fully appreciate "Candide," the most exquisite piece of philosophical banter ever penned, it should be remembered that Rousseau and Pope had been preaching the creed that "whatever is, is right," in this "best of all possible worlds." The terrible earthquake at Lisbon thundered a scathing commentary on this comfortable gospel. Voltaire gave it noble expression in his poem on that calamity, which should be read before "Candide" is enjoyed. The dignified eloquence and force of the poem moved Rousseau to attempt a reply in an ingenious letter upholding the doctrine so shaken in its base. Disdaining a serious rejoinder Voltaire retorted in this, the drollest of profoundly philosophic queer stories, which throws a merciless search-light on the flimsier optimism of the period, and stands as a perfect example of literary style, razing a Babel tower by the wave of a feather.]
