after. In writing to Garrick [17:25] he says some hard but true things
about Rousseau, who on his part never really defamed Holbach but
depicted him as the virtuous atheist under the guise of Wolmar in
the _Nouvelle Heloise_. Their personal incompatibility is best explained
on the grounds of the radical differences in their temperaments and
types of mind and by the fact that Rousseau was too sensitive to get
on with anybody for any great length of time.

Two other great Frenchmen, Buffon and d'Alembert, were for a time
members of Holbach's society, but, for reasons that are not altogether
clear, gradually withdrew. Grimm suggests that Buffon did not find
the young philosophers sufficiently deferential to him and to the
authorized powers, and feared for his dignity,--and safety, in
their company. D'Alembert, on the other hand, was a recluse by
nature, and, after giving up his editorship on the Encyclopedia,
easily dropped out of Diderot's society and devoted himself to
Mlle. Lespinasse and Mme. Geoffrin. Holbach and Helvetius were
life-long friends and spent much time together reading at Helvetius's
country place at Vore. After his death in 1774, Holbach frequented
Mme. Helvetius' salon where he knew and deeply influenced Volney,
Cabanis, de Tracy, and the first generation of the Ideologists who
continued his and Helvetius' philosophical doctrines. Among the
other Frenchmen of the day who were on intimate relations with
Holbach and frequented his salon were La Condamine, Condillac,
Condorcet, Turgot, Morellet, Raynal, Grimm, Marmontel, Colardeau,
Saurin, Suard, Saint-Lambert, Thomas, Duclos, Chastellux, Boulanger,
Darcet, Roux, Rouelle, Barthes, Venel, Leroy, Damilaville, Naigeon,
Lagrange and lesser names,--but well known in Paris in the eighteenth
century,--d'Alinville, Chauvelin, Desmahis, Gauffecourt, Margency,
de Croismare, de Pezay, Coyer, de Valory, Charnoi, not to mention a