Ever since 1759, when Voltaire wrote "Candide" in ridicule of the notionthat this is the best of all possible worlds, this world has been a gayerplace for readers. Voltaire wrote it in three days, and five or sixgenerations have found that its laughter does not grow old."Candide" has not aged. Yet how different the book would have looked ifVoltaire had written it a hundred and fifty years later than 1759. Itwould have been, among other things, a book of sights and sounds. Amodern writer would have tried to catch and fix in words some of thoseAtlantic changes which broke the Atlantic monotony of that voyage fromCadiz to Buenos Ayres. When Martin and Candide were sailing the lengthof the Mediterranean we should have had a contrast between nakedscarped Balearic cliffs and headlands of Calabria in their mists. Weshould have had quarter distances, far horizons, the altering silhouettesof an Ionian island. Colored birds would have filled Paraguay with theirsilver or acid cries.