It seems to me, said George Eliot, much better to read a man's own writings, than to read what others say about him, especially when the man is first-rate and the others third-rate. In these words lie perhaps the best reason for a translation of the Letters of Voltaire.S. G. Tallentyre is the author of The Life of Mirabeau, The Life of Voltaire, and The Friends of Voltaire.