asable curiosity to know;
irresistible impulse to impart knowledge; versatile capacity to do every
thing, carried to the verge, if not carried beyond the verge, of
incapacity to do any thing thoroughly well; quenchless zeal and
quenchless hope; levity enough of temper to keep its subject free from
those depressions of spirit and those cares of conscience which weigh
and wear on the over-earnest man; abundant physical health,--gifts such
as these made up the manifold equipment of Diderot for rowing and
steering the gigantic enterprise of the "Encyclopaedia" triumphantly to
the port of final completion, through many and many a zone of stormy
adverse wind and sea, traversed on the way. Diderot produced no signal
independent and original work of his own; probably he could not have
produced such a work. On the other hand, it is simply just to say that
hardly anybody but Diderot could have achieved the "Encyclopaedia." That,
indeed, may be considered an achievement not more to the glory, than to
the shame, of its author; but whatever its true moral character, in
whatever proportion shameful or glorious, it is inalienably and
peculiarly Diderot's achievement; at least in this sense, that without
Diderot the "Encyclopaedia" would never have been achieved.

We have already, in discussing Voltaire, adverted sufficiently to Mr.
John Morley's volumes in honor of Diderot and his compeers. Diderot is
therein ably presented in the best possible light to the reader; and we
are bound to say, that, despite Mr. Morley's friendly endeavors, Diderot
therein appears very ill. He married a young woman, whose simple and
touching self-sacrifice on her husband's behalf, he presently requited
by giving himself away, body and soul, to a rival. In his writings, he
is so easily insincere, that not unfrequently it is a problem, even for
his biographer, to decide when he is expressing his sentiments truly and
when not; insomuch that, once and again, Mr. Morley himself is obliged
to say, "This is probably hypocritical on Diderot's part," or something
to that effect. As for filthy communication out of his mouth and from
his pen,--not, of course, habitual, but occasional,--the subject will
not bear more than this mention. These be thy gods, O Atheism! one, in
reading Mr. Morley on Diderot, is tempted again and again to exclaim. To
offset such lowness of character in the man, it must in justice be added
that Diderot was, notwithstanding, of a generous, unc