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CHAPTER XXIV.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA.
A memorable work, in which Voltaire was greatly interested, was at this time attracting public attention. The 'French Encyclopedia,' which counts for something more than a great literary achievement, had its origin in a translation of the 'English Encyclopedia' of Chambers, published in 1728. Some of the most eminent men of letters in France took part in the French work, forming a body that came to be known as the Encyclopedists—a title which in its later acceptation signified enunciators of bold and subversive modes of thought. D'Alembert, a man of science, and a friend of Voltaire, whose junior he was by more than twenty years, and Diderot, already famous in philosophy and letters, first gave distinct form to the project, which was to bring together in one work full information respecting all the sciences, and all the arts, in their existing stages and conditions, and thus to render it a delineation of the progress of the human mind and of civilisation. The extent and numerous branches of this design rendered necessary the co-operation of many skilled writers: some of the most noted men of science and of letters in France took part, as Helvetius,
