Francois Marie Arouet (1694-1778), who took the pen-name of Voltaire, is one of the most remarkable writers of Europe. Competent critics pronounce him the best poet of his age--an age not rich in great poets, however--and in history (_The Age of Louis XIV_), tragedy, and treatment of actual problems (_Letters on the English_, _Philosophical Dictionary_, etc.) he had no superior. But it is as a prose-writer, particularly as a caustic critic of the creed of his country, that he made a reputation which filled the world and has made his name one of the most familiar even in our own time. Such sparkling wit as he had when allied with high poetic talent, profound knowledge of human nature, and rare power of construction formed an ideal equipment for the work to which he chiefly devoted his life. As in the case of Shakespeare, it is useless to write a few paragraphs about him. What little one could write would be known to the reader. Voltaire has to be read, for you cannot adequately describe the flash and sparkle of his prose. I have translated a few of his smaller pieces (_Selections from Voltaire_) so as to give the general reader an idea of his versatility, and several of his stories (read, especially, _Candide_, a satire on foolish optimism) can be had in the Big Blue Book series (Nos. B-6 and B-30). The world will never tire of reading Voltaire. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), his contemporary (but not friend), was a constructive thinker and emotional writer. His _Social Contract_ is a classic of sociological literature, and his _Confessions_ is one of the most masterly autobiographies ever written, as well as one of the most candid. His _Émile_ and _The New Heloise_, a treatise on education, are hardly less distinguished though now little read. Two such writers at one time would enrich any country, but Count Buffon (1707-88) must be associated with them as a great writer as well as the most learned naturalist of his time. His _Natural History_, in twenty-four volumes, is a literary masterpiece as well as a scientific encyclopedia. At the same time lived Denis Diderot (1713-84) and a group of writers associated with him. Though none of these is a classic in the literary sense, the great _Encyclopedia_ which they jointly wrote is very notable in the history of letters and thought. A little later, during the Revolution, were Mme. de Stael, a French woman married to a Swede, whose novels were long considered to be great literature, and Chateaubriand, an orthodox Catholic, who (though I find his name omitted from most literary histories) was a writer of great power and often of rare beauty. His _Genius of Christianity_ was certainly esteemed a classic for the next half century.