That change had also a constructive side.
If one of its elements was hate, another and more important element was hope.

This constructive and reforming spirit which made its way in the intelligence of the leading men in France from 1750 to 1789, was represented in the encyclopaedic confederation, and embodied in their forty folios.

And, to return to our first point, it was directly and inseparably associated with the philosophy of Bacon and Locke.

What is the connection between their speculations and a vehement and energetic spirit of social reform?
We have no space here to do more than barely hint the line of answer.
The broad features of the speculative revolution of which the Encyclopaedia was the outcome, lie on the surface of its pages and cannot be mistaken.

The transition from Descartes to Newton meant the definite substitution of observation for hypothesis.