480 D'ALEMBERT. 



that of any other man of science in any age. Voltaire's 

 was little or nothing among philosophers; and prodigi- 

 ous as it always was as a poet and a literary man, his 

 opinions upon religious subjects were so generally known, 

 indeed so openly declared, that his reputation, how 

 great soever, was to a certain degree of a party caste. 

 D'Alembert, the first philosopher of the age, was like- 

 wise advantageously known among literary men, and 

 estimated above his deserts in letters on account of his 

 admitted superiority in science. During his life, too, 

 though attached to the party of the Free Thinkers by 

 his habits in society, he had never made himself ob- 

 noxious by any public declaration of his opinions ; and 

 was indeed never known to be an infidel till his corres- 

 pondence with Voltaire was published after his death. 

 There was no name, therefore, which carried such weight 

 among men as his; and while he lived, though cabals 

 among politicians now and then interfered against him, 

 as when his academical pension was delayed, because, in 

 a letter opened at the post-office, he was found to have 

 called the Due de Choiseul, Voltaire's proteg rather 

 than his protector; yet in general, full justice was done 

 to his transcendent merits, and his name was every- 

 where amply honoured. A letter of Abbe Galliani may 

 be cited as shewing the estimation he was held in even 

 at Naples, where one might have expected merit, such as 

 his, would be slow to penetrate. The Abbe thus gaily 

 refers to a letter some one had brought from the great 

 man : " Elle m'est si chere, me cause tant de plaisir, 

 me rend si glorieux, que c'est le meilleur present que 

 j'eusse pu recevoir de Paris. Si vous voyiez comme je 

 me rengorge endisant dans la compagnie, ' Je viens de 



