They show also that he had been impressed by the Civitas Dei of Augustine, and had at least dipped into Terence and Horace, Cicero and Tacitus.

His subsequent writings prove that, like the other men of letters of his day, he found in our own literature the chief external stimulant to thought.

Above all, he was impressed by the magnificent ideas of the illustrious Bacon, and these ideas were the direct source of the great undertaking of Diderot's life.

He is said to have read little and to have meditated much--the right process for the few men of his potent stamp.

The work which he had to do for bread was of the kind that crushes anything short of the strongest faculty.