It preached doubt, egotism, materialism.

It laid for some time an impure and blasting hand upon noble and beautiful phases of human life.

But if the eighteenth century had done only that, if such had been merely its chief characteristic, can any one suppose that it would have carried in its wake so many and such important matters, that it would have so moved the world?
It was far superior to all its sceptics, to all its cynics.

What do I say?
Superior?
Nay, it was essentially opposed to them and continually gave them the lie.

Despite the weakness of its morals, the frivolity of its forms, the mere dry bones of such and such of its doctrines, despite its critical and destructive tendency, it was an ardent and a sincere century, a century of faith and disinterestedness.