Gibbon, for instance, visited Paris in the spring of 1763.

"The moment," he says, "was happily chosen.

At the close of a successful war the British name was respected on the continent; _clarum et venerabile nomen gentibus_.

Our opinions, our fashions, even our games were adopted in France, a ray of national glory illuminated each individual, and every Englishman was supposed to be born a patriot and philosopher." He mentions D'Alembert and Diderot as those among the men of letters whom he saw, who "held the foremost rank in merit, or at least in fame."[245] Horace Walpole was often in Paris, and often saw the philosophic circle, but it did not please his supercilious humour.
"There was no soul in Paris but philosophers, whom I wished in heaven, though they do not wish themselves so.

They are so overbearing and underbred....