Voltaire's book commanded a wide audience, according to Feingold, because "he was neither a mathematician nor a physicist, but a literary giant aloof from the academic disputes over Newtonian ideas".

根据法因戈尔德的说法，伏尔泰的书吸引了广泛的读者，因为“他既不是数学家也不是物理学家，而是一个远离牛顿思想学术之争的文学巨人”。