ecclesiastical enemy--Socrates, Marcus Aurelius,
Trajan, Bacon, and the four great names that have just been cited.
Germany derives as much honour from Leibnitz alone, he concludes with
unconsidered enthusiasm, as Greece from Plato, Aristotle, and
Archimedes, all put together. As we have said, however, there is no
criticism, nor any other sign that Diderot had done more than survey the
facade of the great Leibnitzian structure admiringly from without.

The article on Liberty would be extremely remarkable, appearing where it
does, and coming from a thinker of Diderot's general capacity, if only
we could be sure that Diderot was sincere. As it happens, there is good
reason to suppose that he was wholly insincere. It is quite as shallow,
from the point of view of philosophy, as his article on the Jews or on
the Bible is from the point of view of erudition. One reason for this
might not be far to seek. We have repeatedly observed how paramount the
social aim and the social test are in Diderot's mind over all other
considerations. But this reference of all subjects of discussion to the
good of society, and this measurement of conclusions by their presumed
effect on society, is a method that has its own dangers. The aversion of
ecclesiastics to unfettered discussion, lest it should damage
institutions and beliefs deemed useful to mankind, is the great leading
example of this peril. Diderot, it might be said by those who should
contend that he wrote what he thought, did not escape exactly the same
predicament, as soon as ever he forgot that of all the things that are
good for society, Truth is the best. Now, who will believe that it is
Diderot, the persecuted editor of the Encyclopaedia, and the author of
the manly article on Intolerance, who introduces such a passage as the
following into the discussion of the everlasting controversy of Free
Will and Necessity: "Take away Liberty, and you leave no more vice nor
virtue nor merit in the world; rewards are ridiculous, and punishments
unjust. The ruin of Liberty overthrows all order and all police,
confounds vice and virtue, authorises every monstrous infamy,
extinguishes the last spark of shame and remorse, degrades and
disfigures beyond recovery the whole human race. _A doctrine of such
enormity as this ought not to be examined in the schools; it ought to be
punished by the magistrates._"[187] Of course, this was exactly what the
Jesuits said about a belief in God, about revela