If there is in a work, in a character, in a painting, in a statue, a single fine bit, then on that my eyes fasten; I see only that: that is all I remember; the rest is as good as forgotten."[15] This is the secret of a rare and admirable temperament.

It carried Diderot well through the trial and ordeal of the ragged apprenticeship of letters.

What to other men comes by culture, came to him by inborn force and natural capaciousness.

We do not know in what way Diderot trained and nourished his understanding.

The annotations to his translation of Shaftesbury, as well as his earliest original pieces, show that he had read Montaigne and Pascal, and not only read but meditated on them with an independent mind.