Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) 74B

This volume contains further full critical editions of some of Voltaire’s many and varied writings of 1772. When Voltaire hears that Gustav III has assumed power in Sweden after a coup d’état, he welcomes a new member to the club of enlightened rulers with the poem "Au roi de Suède, Gustave III". He returns to legal considerations, this time in their relation to religious toleration, in the "Réflexions philosophiques sur le procès de mademoiselle Camp", and the abuse of ecclesiastical privilege is attacked in "La Voix du curé sur le procès des serfs du Mont-Jura". The theme of religious intolerance surfaces again in his treatment of the Crusades in "Quelques petites hardiesses de Mr. Clair, à l’occasion d’un panégyrique de Saint Louis". He also publishes a treatise of sceptical deism, oddly entitled "Il faut prendre un parti ou le principe d’action". Voltaire continued to write poetry in a range of styles and genres: two verse satires, "Les Systèmes" and "Les Cabales", a slighter work, "Jean qui pleure et qui rit", and towards the end of the year, one of his most important poems, the "Epître à Horace", which shows him comparing notes with Horace as to how each of them will be treated by posterity: ‘J’ai vécu plus que toi; mes vers dureront moins.’