"Ever since 1759, when Voltaire wrote 'Candide' in ridicule of the notion that this is the best of all possible worlds, this world has been a gayer place for readers. Voltaire wrote it in three days, and five or six generations have found that its laughter does not grow old. 'Candide' is a full book. It is filled with mockery, with inventiveness, with things as concrete as things to eat and coins. It has time for the newest intellectual and verbal clickings. It is never hurried and it moves with amazing rapidity. It has the rapidity of high spirits playing a game. The dry, high spirits of this destroyer of optimism make most optimists look damp and depressed. His book on optimism is one of the gayest books in the world. Gaiety has been scattered everywhere up and down its pages by Voltaire's lavish hand, by his thin fingers."

PHILIP LITTELL.