But the fits did not last.

They left no sour sediment, and this is the sign of health in temperament, provided it be not due to mere callousness.

From that horrible quality Diderot assuredly was the furthest removed of any one of his time.

Now and always he walked with a certain large carelessness of spirit.

He measured life with a roving and liberal eye.
Circumstance and conventions, the words under which men hide things, the oracles of common acceptance, the infinitely diversified properties of human character, the many complexities of our conduct and destiny--all these he watched playing freely around him, and he felt no haste to compress his experience into maxims and system.