his, entitled _Eponine_, caused him a second term of imprisonment, from
which he was released when the terrible reign of anarchy, lasting eighteen
months, ended.

The industrious philosopher Denis Diderot wrote _Lettres sur les Aveugles
a l'usage de ceux qui voient_ (1749, in-12). There were "those who saw"
and were not blind to its defects, and proceeded to incarcerate Diderot in
the Castle of Vincennes, where he remained six months, and where he
perceived that this little correction was necessary to cure him of his
philosophical folly. He was a very prolific writer, and subsequently with
D'Alembert edited the first French Encyclopaedia (1751-1772, 17 vols.).
This was supposed to contain statements antagonistic to the Government and
to Religion, and its authors and booksellers and their assistants were all
sent to the Bastille. _Chambers' Cyclopaedia_ had existed in England some
years before a similar work was attempted in France, and the idea was
first started by an Englishman, John Mills. This man was ingeniously
defrauded of the work, which owed its conception and execution entirely to
him. Perhaps on the whole he might have been congratulated, as he escaped
the Bastille, to which the appropriators of his work were consigned.

An author who dares to combat the popular superstitious beliefs current in
his time often suffers in consequence of his courage, as Balthazar Bekker
discovered to his cost. This writer was born in West Friezland in 1634,
and died at Amsterdam in 1698. He was a pastor of the Reformed Church of
Holland, and resided during the greater part of his life at Amsterdam,
where he produced his earlier work _Recherches sur les Cometes_ (1683), in
which he combated the popular belief in the malign influence of comets.
This work was followed a few years later by his more famous book _De
Betoverde Weereld_, or _The Enchanted World_, [Footnote: _Le Monde
enchante, ou Examen des sentimens touchant les esprits, traduit du flamand