1856. Other volumes in this set include ISBN number(s): 0766155129. Volume 1 of 2. This dictionary is from the French of M. de Voltaire, with additional notes, both critical and argumentative. The Philosophical Dictionary is one of the most lively, amusing and various books of fact and illustration now in existence; comprising information adapted to every taste and lines of study, delivered with the wit, animation, and ease for which its gifted author was unrivaled. There is scarcely a topic which has instructed or amused the world of letters which is not treated of; not any part of the varied shores which bound with the ever-revolving tide of human opinion, left unexplored.