Philosophical Dictionary (Vol. 2)

Did Marguerite de Valois, wife of Henry IV, secretly give birth to two children during her marriage? One could fill volumes with such singularities.

It is really worth the effort to conduct so much research to discover things so useless to the human race! Let us look for how we can cure scrofula, gout, kidney stones, gravel, and a thousand chronic or acute diseases. Let us look for remedies against the diseases of the soul, no less deadly and no less fatal; let us work to perfect the arts, to diminish the misfortunes of the human species; and let us leave aside the Ana, the Anecdotes, the Curious Histories of our Time, the New Choice of Verses so poorly chosen, cited at every moment in the Trévoux Dictionary, and the Collections of Alleged Witty Sayings, etc., and the Letters from a Friend to a Friend; and the Anonymous Letters; and the Reflections on the New Tragedy, etc. etc. etc.

I read in a new book that Louis XIV exempted all newlyweds from the taille land tax for five years. I have not found this fact in any collection of edicts, or in any memoir of the time.

I read in the same book that the King of Prussia has fifty crowns given to all pregnant girls. One could not, in truth, place one's money better, nor encourage propagation more effectively; but I do not believe this royal profusion is true; at least I have not seen it.

Here is an older anecdote that happens to fall into my hands