lace.
. . . There was no political or religious temerity which was not brought
forward and discussed pro and con. . . . Frequently some one of the
company would begin to speak and state his theory in full, without
interruption. At other times it would be a combat of one against one, of
which the rest remained silent spectators. Here I heard Roux and Darcet
expose their theory of the earth, Marmontel the admirable principles he
collected together in his 'Elements de La Litterature,' Raynal, telling
us in livres, sous and deniers, the commerce of the Spaniards with
Vera-Crux and of the English with their colonies." Diderot improvises on
the arts and on moral and metaphysical subjects, with that incomparable
fervor and wealth of expression, that flood of logic and of
illustration, those happy hits of style and that mimetic power which
belonged to him alone, and of which but two or three of his works
preserve even the feeblest image. In their midst Galiani, secretary of
the Neapolitan Embassy, a clever dwarf; a genius, "a sort of Plato or
Machiavelli with the spirit and action of a harlequin," inexhaustible in
stories, an admirable buffoon, and an accomplished skeptic, "having no
faith in anything, on anything or about anything,"[4206] not even in
the new philosophy, braves the atheists of the drawing-room, beats down
their dithyrambs with puns, and, with his perruque in his hand, sitting
cross-legged on the chair on which he is perched, proves to them in a
comic apologia that they raisonnent (reason) or resonnent (resound or
echo) if not as cruches (blockheads) at least as cloches (bells);" in
any event almost as poorly as theologians. One of those present says,
"It was the most diverting thing possible and worth the best of plays."

How can the nobles, who pass their lives in talking, refrain from the
society of people who talk so well? They might as well expect their
wives, who frequent the theater every night, and who perform at home,
not to attract famous actors and singers to their receptions,
Jelyotte, Sainval, Preville, and young Mole who, quite ill and needing
restoratives, "receives in one day more than 2,000 bottles of wine
of different sorts from the ladies of the court," Mlle. Clairon, who,
consigned to prison in Fort l'Eveque, attracts to it "an immense crowd
of carriages," presiding over the most select company in the best
apartment of the prison[4207]. With life thus regarded, a philosopher
with his ideas is