CANDIDE, OR OPTIMISM ( ( Candide, ou l'Optimisme), Ican'ded, oo lop'te'nes'm, is one of the most characteristic works of Vol taire. It is the longest and the best known of the < Philosophic Tales' ('Contes Philoso phiques)), in which he let his incomparably nimble intelligence play over all questions of human interest,— politics, religion, morals. The story of the remarkable adventures of C 'de and his tutor Pangloss, in search of his e ove cousi , is mere e rea on are strung the flashing gems of his sit, his seize and his irony. In substance it is a pitiless attack on the easy optimism of °What ever is, is right.° Earlier Voltaire had shown decided leanings toward such a view. He had translated Pope's
The endless
and meanness is unro e ore us,— plague, pesti lence and famine, war, lust, reed, injustice, cruelty, disease. Pangloss, ac of optimism, long maintains in the face of each new disaster, that, after all, this is the best of all possible worlds. But even he is finally reduced to silence. Cunegondi, when found, is a mere wreck, diseased in body and soured in temper. Candide buys a little plot of ground and installs himself and his companions in a modest cottage. Life is a sorryarl. Phi losophy is powerless to untangle it. °To work without philosophizing is the only way of mak ing life tolerable,° is Candide's conclusion. And to every attempt of the incorrigible Pangloss to discuss °cause and effect° and other high problems he opposes the famous final word of experience and common sense; "II faut cultiver notre jandinp—uWe must attend to our hoeing.°