physics, pure and simple, in which he took great interest), into more or
less elaborate pamphlets, and to put at the service of the movement his
great position as the head of French and indeed of European letters. His
habitual inaccuracy, and the inferiority of his mind in strictly logical
faculty and in commanding range of view, disabled him from really
serious contributions to philosophy of any kind. The curious mixture of
defects and merits in this great writer is apt to render piecemeal
notice of him, such as is necessitated by the plan of this book,
apparently unfavourable. But no literary historian can take leave of
Voltaire with words of intentional disfavour. The mere fact that it has
been necessary to take detailed notice of him in every one of the last
six chapters, is roughly indicative of his unequalled versatility. But,
versatile as he is, there is perhaps no department of his work, save
serious poetry and criticism, in which from the literary point of view
he fails to attain all but the highest rank.

[Sidenote: The Encyclopaedia.]

Montesquieu and Voltaire were, as has been said, precursors rather than
members of the _philosophe_ group proper, which is identified with the
Encyclopaedia, and to this group it is now time to come. The history of
this famous book is rather curious. The English Cyclopaedia of Ephraim
Chambers had appeared in 1727. About fifteen years after its publication
a translation of it was offered to and accepted by the French
bookseller, Le Breton. But Le Breton was not satisfied with a bare
translation, and wished the book to be worked up into something more
extensive. He applied to different men of letters, and finally to
Diderot, who, enlisting the Chancellor d'Aguesseau in the plan,
obtaining privilege for the enlarged work, and mustering by degrees a
staff of contributors which included almost every man of letters of any
repute in France, succeeded in carrying it out. The task was anything
but a sinecure. It occupied nearly twenty years of Diderot's life; it
was repeatedly threatened and sometimes actually prohibited; and
D'Alembert (Diderot's principal coadjutor, and in fact co-editor)
actually retired from it in disgust at the obstacles thrown in their
way. The book so produced was by no means a mere pamphlet or
controversial work, though many of the articles were made polemical by
those to whom they were entrusted. The principal of its contributors
however--Voltaire himself was