ideal of politics, as Fénélon was the ideal of Christianity.

Voltaire had the genius of criticism, that power of raillery which
withers all it overthrows. He had made human nature laugh at itself, had
felled it low in order to raise it, had laid bare before it all errors,
prejudices, iniquities, and crimes of ignorance; he had urged it to
rebellion against consecrated ideas, not by the ideal but by sheer
contempt. Destiny gave him eighty years of existence, that he might
slowly decompose the decayed age; he had the time to combat against
time, and when he fell he was the conqueror. His disciples filled
courts, academies, and saloons; those of Rousseau grew splenetic and
visionary amongst the lower orders of society. The one had been the
fortunate and elegant advocate of the aristocracy, the other was the
secret consoler and beloved avenger of the democracy. His book was the
book of all oppressed and tender souls. Unhappy and devotee himself, he
had placed God by the side of the people; his doctrines sanctified the
mind, whilst they led the heart to rebellion. There was vengeance in his
very accent, but there was piety also. Voltaire's followers would have
overturned altars, those of Rousseau would have raised them. The one
could have done without virtues, and made arrangements with thrones; the
other had absolute need of a God, and could only have founded republics.

Their numerous disciples progressed with their missions, and possessed
all the organs of public thought. From the seat of geometry to the
consecrated pulpit, the philosophy of the 18th century invaded or
altered every thing. D'Alembert, Diderot, Raynal, Buffon, Condorcet,
Bernardin Saint Pierre, Helvetius, Saint Lambert, La Harpe, were the
church of the new era. One sole thought animated these diverse
minds--the renovation of human ideas. Arithmetic, science, history,
economy, politics, the stage, morals, poetry, all served as the vehicle