LA METTRIE, DIDEROT. 253 rousing the love of honor. The good man, who subor- dinates his own welfare to that of society, acts under the same necessity as the evil-doer; hence repentance and pangs of conscience, which increase the amount of pain in the world, but are incapable of effecting amendment, are use- less and reprehensible : the criminal is an ill man, and must not be more harshly punished than the safety of society requires. Materialism humanizes and exercises a tranquil- izing influence on the mind, as the religious view of the world, with its incitement to hatred, disturbs it; materialism frees us from the sense of guilt and responsibility, and from the fear of future suffering. A state composed of atheists is not only possible, as Bayle argued, but it would be the happiest of all states. Among the editors of the Encyclopedia, the mathematician D'Alembert {Elements of PhilosopJiy, 1758) remained loyal to skeptical views. Neither matter nor spirit is in its essence knowable; the world is probably quite different from our sensuous conception of it. As Diderot (1713-84), and the Encyclopedia with him, advanced from skepticism to materialism, D'Alembert retired from the editorial board (1757), after Rousseau, also, had separated himself from the Encyclopedists. Diderot* was the leading spirit in the second half of the eighteenth century, as Voltaire in the first half. His lively and many-sided receptivity, active industry, clever and combative eloquence, and enthusiastic disposition qualified him for this role beyond all his contemporaries, who testify that they owe even more to his stimulating conversation than to his writings. He com- menced by bringing Shaftesbury's Inquiry into Virtue and Merit to the notice of his countrymen ; and then turned his sword, on the one hand, against the atheists, to refute whom, he thought, a single glance into the microscope was sufficient, and, on the other, against the traditional belief in a God of anger and revenge, who takes pleasure in bathing in the tears of mankind. Then followed a period of skepticism, which is well illustrated by the prayer in the
- Works in twenty-two vols., Paris, Briere, 1821 ; latest edition, 1875 j^t;. Cf.
on Diderot the fine work by Karl Rosenkranz, Diderots Leben und Werke, 1866.
