Outside of their garden is a world full of chaos and confusion: lives are haplessly destroyed, young children die of illness, and the ill-fated are doomed to failure and ultimately death. This world of constant turmoil is unsettling to the human mind and soul, and it is imperative that we create this garden, regardless of what it may be: freedom of expression, art, physical exercise, or literature. For safety and sanity we cultivate an aspect of comfort and stability, so that our lives may have m

On the surface, cultivating the land served several specific roles, “Our work [cultivation] keeps us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and poverty” (119 Voltaire) Or as Pangloss would say, to prevent man from being idle – for man must always have some duty or work which needs tending. However, Candide alludes to some greater benefit of the garden besides keeping man out of trouble. The garden represents not only a literal garden, but one of philosophical merit too. Seeing a similar goal, Martin refutes Pangloss: “Lets work without theorizing, it’s the only way to make life bearable” Compellingly honest, yet submissive to the nature of life.

Voltaire took an intellectual view of the world, convinced that salvation comes by dealing with the practical and beneficial work. The commonly impractical philosophy was useless and one should apply his mind to concrete gardens that it can grasp. Everyone should concentrate on improving this life and stop focusing on the externals and aspects out of our control. Human beings are a tiny fragment of the huge universe and the human mind is incapable of coping with abstraction

Some topics in this essay:
Voltaire Pangloss, , outside garden, people live, world outside garden, humans desire, world outside, stability lives, human mind, tend garden,