iographie
Universelle," published in 1817. The "System of Nature" is a book of
which Dugald Stewart speaks, as "the boldest, if not the ablest work of
the Parisian Atheists," and it has undoubtedly obtained great
popularity. Voltaire, who has written against the "System of Nature" in
a tone of bitter sarcasm, and who complains of its general dullness and
prolixity, yet admits that it is "often humorous, sometimes eloquent."
It certainly is not written in that lively, but rather superficial
style, which has characterized many of the French writers, but it speaks
in plain yet powerful language, evincing an extensive acquaintance with
the works of previous philosophers, and much thought in relation to the
subjects treated upon. Some of its pages exhibiting more vivacity than
the rest of the book, have been attributed to Diderot, who (it is
alleged by Marmontel and others) aided, by his pen and counsel, many of
the Freethinking works issued during his life.

The "System of Nature" was not published during the life-time of
Mirabaud, and it is therefore impossible to use any argument which might
have been based upon Mirabaud's conduct in relation to it.

Mirabaud died in Paris in 1760, at the advanced age of nearly eighty-six
years. Contemporary with him were D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Voltaire,
Diderot, Helvetius, Condorcet, Buffon, Rousseau, Frederick II. of
Prussia, Montesquieu, Grimm, Sir William Tempte, Toland, Tindel, Edmund
Halley, Hume, Gibbon, Adam Smith, Franklin, and Darwin, forming a _role_
of names, whose fame will be handed down to posterity for centuries to
come, as workers in the cause of man's redemption from mental slavery.
If (as it appears very probably) it be the fact that Mirabaud had but
little part in the authorship of "La Systeme de la Nature," D'Holbach,
in using the name of his deceased friend, only associated him with a
work which (judging from his other writings, the tenor of his life, and
the noble character of his associates) Mirabaud would have issued with
pride himself, had the book been really written by him.

BARON D'HOLBACH.

Paul Thyry, Baron D'Holbach, was born at Heidesheim, in the Palatinate,
in the month of January, 1723. His father appears to have been a
very wealthy man, and brought his son to Paris, for the purpose of
superintending his education, but died white he was still a child. In
his youth, D'Holbach appears to have been noted for his studious habits
and retentive facul