one--became gradually recognised as
representing the criticism of existing institutions, many of which, it
must be confessed, were so bad at the time that simple examination of
them was in itself the severest censure. It becomes necessary,
therefore, to mention the names and works of the most remarkable of this
group who have not found or will not find a place elsewhere.

[Sidenote: Diderot.]

Denis Diderot was born at Langres, on the 15th October, 1713. He was
brilliantly successful at school, but on being required to choose a
profession rejected both church and law. It appears, however, that he
studied medicine. His father, a man of affectionate temper but strong
will, refused to support him unless he chose a regular mode of life, and
Diderot at once set up for himself and attempted literature. Not much is
authentically known of his life till, in 1743, he married; but he seems
to have lived partly by taking pupils, partly by miscellaneous literary
hack-work. After his marriage his household expenses (and others)
quickened his literary activity, and before long he received, in the
editorship of the Encyclopaedia, a charge which, though ridiculously ill
paid and very laborious, practically secured him from want for many
years, while it gave him a very important position. He made many
friends, and was especially intimate with the Baron d'Holbach, a rich
and hospitable man, and a great adept in chemistry and atheism. Before
this Diderot had had some troubles, being even imprisoned at Vincennes
for his _Essai sur les Aveugles_, 1749. Besides his Encyclopaedia work
Diderot was lavish in contributing, often without either remuneration or
acknowledgment of any kind, to the work of other men, and especially to
the correspondence by which his friend Grimm kept the sovereigns of
Germany and Russia informed of the course of things in Paris. The most
remarkable of these contributions--criticisms of literature and
art--have been noticed elsewhere, as have Diderot's historical and
fictitious productions. As he grew old his necessities were met by a
handsome act of Catherine of Russia, who bought his library, left him
the use of it, and gave him a pension nominally as payment for his
trouble as caretaker. He made, in 1773, a journey to St. Petersburg to
pay his thanks, and on his return stayed for some time in Holland. He
died in Paris in 1784. Diderot's miscellaneous works are, like
Voltaire's, penetrated by the _philosophe_ spiri