D'ALEMBEET. 463 



mony from a writer who cries out against the ' Ency- 

 clopedic.' as " an arsenal of irreligion," dispenses with 

 the necessity of adding proofs to show how fairly and 

 even kindly D'Alembert ever talked of Christianity in 

 public. But another and a more reverend authority 

 may be cited to the same effect. M. Coetloquest, 

 Bishop of Limoges, said that he had never seen him, 

 but that he had always heard that his morals were above 

 reproach ; and his Lordship added, " Quant & ses ouv- 

 rages je les lis souvent, et je n'y trouve que beaucoup 

 d'esprit, de grandes lumieres, et une bonne morale. 

 S'il ne pense pas aussi bien qu'il ecrit, il faudroit le 

 plaindre ; mais personne n'est en droit d'interroger sa 

 conscience." The detestation which D'Alembert ex- 



Eresses, even in his private letters, of the ' Systeme de 

 i Nature,' (XLI. 371. XVII. 225,) may be cited with 

 the same view, as may the horror of Atheism which he 

 repeatedly testifies.* And if in reality he was a zeal- 

 ous adversary of religion, it has been justly observed 

 by La Harpe, that his hostility was far more directed 

 against its ministers than against the system itself* 

 Nor ought we even to express our condemnation of 

 such conduct, or our regret for its injustice,' which view 

 soever we may take of this subject, without consider- 

 ing the extreme provocation which the French philo- 

 sophers of that age had to endure. Galas, old and in- 

 firm, broken on the wheel as the murderer of his son, 

 a robust young man, in the presence of many of his 

 family, to prevent him from abjuring Catholicism ; La 

 Barre condemned to have his tongue cut out, and dying 

 in agony, because while a boy he made faces at the 

 procession of the priests ; a poor creature condemned 

 to the galleys and pillory, and dying of the fright the 



* See especially in the Hist, de la Destruction des Jesuites, CEuv. v. 

 134. " Ce malheureux (1'athee) tres-coupable aux yeux de Dieu et de 

 raison, n'est nuisible qu'a lui-meme." It is clear from all he says of the 

 ' Systeme de la Nature,' that he never could have believed Diderot to be 

 the axxthor; perhaps not even D'Holbach. 



