In this essay, published in 1738, Voltaire explains the philosophies of not only Newton, but in a large part Descartes because of his contributions in the fields of geometry. In Voltaire's concise explanation of Newton's and other philosophers' paradigms related in the fields of astronomy and physics, he employs geometry through diagrams and pictures and proves his statements with calculus. Voltaire in fact mentions that this essay is for the people who have the desire to teach themselves, and makes the intent of the book as a textbook.

In 25 chapters, and every bit of 357 pages, as well as six pages of definitions, Voltaire explains Newton's discoveries in the field of optics, the rainbow spectrum and colors, musical notes, the Laws of Attraction, disproving the philosophy of Descarte's cause of gravity and structure of...