Published in 1764, Voltaire&#39;s &quot;Philosophical Dictionary&quot; is a series of short essays, hortatory and propagandist, over an enormously wide range of subjects.<br /><br />&quot;Philosophical Dictionary&quot; was deliberately planned as a revolutionary book and was duly denounced on all sides and described as &#39;a deplorable monument of the extent to which intelligence and erudition can be abused&#39;. The subjects treated include <i>Abraham, Angel and Anthropophages; Baptism, Beauty and Beasts; Fables, Fraud and Fanaticism; Metempsychosis, Miracles and Moses</i>; all of them exposed to Voltaire&#39;s lucid scrutiny, his elegant irony and his passionate love of reason and justice.