Excerpt from Voltaire's Essay on Epic Poetry: A Study and an Edition The subject of this dissertation was suggested to me in 1906 by Mr. Lucien Foulet, at that time professor of French in Bryn Mawr College. Under him the work was begun. I wish to express my warm appreciation of his stimulating advice and interest. I worked upon the subject in Paris and in London in the summers of 1907 and 1911. In 1913, since Mr. Foulet had left America some years before, Professor A. Schinz, now head of the Department of French at Smith College, under whom I had worked in another field at Bryn Mawr, was kind enough to take over the direction of my dissertation at the request of the Graduate Committee of Bryn Mawr. I am the more appreciative of his courtesy in doing so since he is not a specialist in Voltaire. In the direction of this work he has given his attention particularly to form and presentation of the subject-matter. I have to thank him for unfailing kindness and much helpful criticism. I am also indebted to Dr. S. C. Chew Jr. of the Department of English of Bryn Mawr for valuable suggestions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.