He had no knowledge of natural science and he had no artistic susceptibility.

The philosophers of the Encyclopaedia did not go so far, but they tended in this direction.

They were cold and indifferent towards speculative science, and they were inclined to set higher value on artisans than on artists.
In his religious ideas the Abbe differed from Voltaire and the later social philosophers in one important respect, but this very difference was a consequence of his utilitarianism.

Like them he was a Deist, as we saw; he had imbibed the spirit of Bayle and the doctrine of the English rationalists, which were penetrating French society during the later part of his life.

His God, however, was more than the creator and organiser of the Encyclopaedists, he was also the "Dieu vengeur et remunerateur" in whom Voltaire believed.