CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
There was a moment in the last century when the Gallican church hoped for a return of internal union and prosperity.

This brief era of hope coincided almost exactly with the middle of the century.

Voltaire was in exile at Berlin.

The author of the Persian Letters and the Spirit of Laws was old and near his end.

Rousseau was copying music in a garret.
The Encyclopaedia was looked for, but only as a literary project of some associated booksellers.