God come up.

To form any idea of this attractive and bold conversation we must
consult the correspondence of the day, the short treatises and dialogues
of Diderot and Voltaire, whatever is most animated, most delicate, most
piquant and most profound in the literature of the century; and yet
this is only a residuum, a lifeless fragment. The whole of this written
philosophy was uttered in words, with the accent, the impetuosity, the
inimitable naturalness of improvisation, with the versatility of malice
and of enthusiasm. Even to day, chilled and on paper, it still excites
and seduces us. What must it have been then when it gushed forth alive
and vibrant from the lips of Voltaire and Diderot? Daily, in Paris,
suppers took place like those described by Voltaire,[4204].at which "two
philosophers, three clever intellectual ladies, M. Pinto the famous Jew,
the chaplain of the Batavian ambassador of the reformed church, the
secretary of the Prince de Galitzin of the Greek church, and a Swiss
Calvinist captain," seated around the same table, for four hours
interchanged their anecdotes, their flashes of wit, their remarks and
their decisions "on all subjects of interest relating to science and
taste." The most learned and distinguished foreigners daily visited, in
turn, the house of the Baron d'Holbach,--Hume, Wilkes, Sterne, Beccaria,
Veri, the Abbe Galiani, Garrick, Franklin, Priestley, Lord Shelburne,
the Comte de Creutz, the Prince of Brunswick and the future Elector
of Mayence. With respect to society in general the Baron entertained
Diderot, Rousseau, Helvetius, Duclos, Saurin, Raynal, Suard, Marmontel,
Boulanger, the Chevalier de Chastellux, the traveler La Condamine, the
physician Barthez, and Rouelle, the chemist. Twice a week, on Sundays
and Thursdays, "without prejudice to other days," they dine at his
house, according to custom, at two o'clock; a significant custom which
thus leaves to conversation and gaiety a man's best powers and the best
hours of the day. Conversation, in those days, was not relegated to
night and late hours; a man was not forced, as at the present day, to
subordinate it to the exigencies of work and money, of the Assembly and
the Exchange. Talking is the main business. "Entering at two o'clock,"
says Morellet,[4205] "we almost all remained until seven or eight
o'clock in the evening. . . . Here could be heard the most liberal, the
most animated, the most instructive conversation that ever took p