The French philosophical movement--the "Illumination"--of the eighteenth century, proceeds in part from the empiricism of Locke, in part from the remarkable development of physical and natural science; it incorporated the conclusions of English deism, and advanced from deism to atheism. An intellectual centre for the movement was provided by the _Encyclopedie_; a social centre was found in Parisian _salons_. It was sustained and invigorated by the passion for freedom and for justice asserting itself against the despotism and abuses of government and against the oppressions and abuses of the Church. The opposing forces were feeble, incompetent, disorganised. The methods of government were, in truth, indefensible; religion had surrendered dogma, and lost the austerity of morals; within the citadel of the Church were many professed and many secret allies of the philosophers. While in England an apologetic literature arose, profound in thought and adequate in learning, in France no sustained resistance was offered to the inroad of free thought. Episcopal fulminations rolled like stage thunder; the Bastille and Vincennes were holiday retreats for fatigued combatants; imprisonment was tempered with cajoleries; the censors of the press connived with their victims. The Chancellor D'AGUESSEAU (1668-1751), an estimable magistrate, a dignified orator, maintained the old seriousness of life and morals, and received the reward of exile. The good ROLLIN (1661-1741) dictated lessons to youth drawn from antiquity and Christianity, narrated ancient history, and discoursed admirably on a plan of studies with a view to form the heart and mind; an amiable Christian Nestor, he was not a man-at-arms. The Abbe Guenee replied to Voltaire with judgment, wit, and erudition, in his _Lettres de quelques Juifs_ (1769), but it was a single victory in a campaign of many battles. The satire of Gilbert, _Le Dix-huitieme Siecle_, is rudely vigorous; but Gilbert was only an angry youth, disappointed of his fame. Freron, the "Wasp" (_frelon_) of Voltaire's _L'Ecossaise_, might sting in his _Annee Litteraire_, but there were sharper stings in satire and epigram which he must endure. Palissot might amuse the theatrical spectators of 1760 with his ridiculous philosophers; the _Philosophes_ was taken smilingly by Voltaire, and was sufficiently answered by Morellet's pamphlet and the _bouts-rimes_ of Marmontel or Piron. The _Voltairomanie_ of Desfontaines is only the outbreak of resentment of the accomplished and disreputable Abbe against a benefactor whose offence was to have saved him from the galleys.