The demon which torments her is even more Voltairian than materialistic.
Other influences, more sincere and at the same time more dangerous, were simultaneously undermining men's minds.

The group of Encyclopaedists, less prudent and less temperate than Voltaire, flaunted openly the flag of revolt.

At the head marched Diderot, the most daring of all, the most genuinely affected by his own ardor, without perhaps being the most sure of his ground in his negations.

His was an original and exuberant nature, expansively open to all new impressions.

"In my country," he says, "we pass within twenty-four hours from cold to hot, from calm to storm, and this changeability of climate extends to the persons.