this period the talk of the town, both in Paris and in
London, ran on colonies and the tremendous wealth to be gained from them
as the Spaniards and the Dutch had done. During the minority of Louis
XV, even the Prince Regent of France dabbled in colonial investments.
The stock market became suddenly a prominent feature of politics. John
Law planned his dazzling "Mississippi Scheme," by which all Frenchmen
were to become millionaires. Only, unfortunately, the bubble burst, and
the industrious were ruined instead.[3] England had its "South Sea
Bubble," with the same madness of speculation, vanishing fortunes, and
blasted reputations.[4] The nobility having been driven by gunpowder
from their ancient occupation as warrior chiefs, having lost to kings
and people their rights as governors, became traders instead. We
approach a period in which they cease to be the leading order of
society, we approach the "reign of the middle classes."

From England, according to the English view, sprang also the great
intellectual movement of the age. Voltaire visited the England of
Addison and Pope; Montesquieu studied the English Constitution of 1689;
and these two men were the writers who overthrew absolutism in Europe,
who paved the way for the epoch of Revolution that was to follow.
Montesquieu's _Persian Letters_, satirizing French society, appeared as
early as 1721. Voltaire's sarcasms and witty sneers got him into trouble
with the French Government as early as 1715. He was imprisoned in the
Bastille, but released and at last driven from his country, a firebrand
cast loose upon Europe to spread the doctrine of man's equality, to cry
out everywhere for justice against oppression, and to mock with almost
satanic ingenuity against the religion in whose name Europe had plunged
into so many wars. By 1740 Voltaire was the most prominent figure of his
world, if we except perhaps the quarrelling sovereigns, Maria Theresa
and Frederick the Great. He dwelt for a time with Frederick in Berlin;
but the two disagreed as great potentates will, and Voltaire withdrew to
Geneva (1755), the little independent city republic which had served as
a refuge to so many fugitives on France's border.[5]

From Geneva, Voltaire corresponded with most of the crowned heads of
Europe. His advice was eagerly sought by "benevolent despotism." The aid
of his mighty pen was claimed by every victim of oppression. In Paris,
Diderot and his companions brought out the famou