the house of Holbach, and of the history of the Encyclopædia, in the
following period, and shall only now mention at the conclusion of the
present, and that very slightly, some of the other clever societies
of Parisians who were all in their day celebrated in Europe. It is
scarcely possible for us to judge of the charm which these societies
possessed in the great world. This may be best learned from their
own writings and conversation, a specimen of which may be found
in Marmontel's 'Memoirs,' and formed the subject of a conversation
between him and the Duke of Brunswick (who fell at Jena in 1806) and
his duchess.

The society of _beaux esprits_ which met at the house of Madame de
Poplinière, in the time of Madame de Tencin, was only short-lived,
like the good fortune of the lady herself. In her house there
assembled members of the great world who were addicted to carousing
and debauchery, and learned men who sought to obtain their favor
and approbation. The same sort of society was afterward kept up in
the house of Holbach. A smaller society, which frequented the house
of the farmer-general Pelletier, consisted of unmarried people,
who were known as persons who indulged in malicious and licentious
conversation. Collé, the younger Crébillon and Bernard, who,
notwithstanding his helplessness, was called _le gentil_, played the
chief characters in this reunion, and the Gascon nature of Marmontel,
which was always forward and intrusive, helped him into this society
also. Baron Holbach, who was a native of the Palatinate, and the
able Helvetius who was wanton merely from vanity, brought together
expressly and intentionally at a later period, around their
well-spread table, all those who declared open war against religion
and morality. We must, however, return to these men in the following
period.