"Abstraction made," he used to say, "of my existence and of the happiness of my fellows, what does the rest of nature matter to me ?" Yet, as we see, nobody that ever lived was more interested in knowledge.

His biographer and disciple remarked the contrast in him between his ardent impetuous disposition and enthusiasm, and his spirit of close unwearied observation.

_Faire le bien, connaitre le vrai_, was his formula for the perfect life, and defined the only distinction that he cared to recognise between one man and another.

And the only motive he ever admitted as reasonable for seeking truth, was as a means of doing good.

So strong was his sense of practical life, in the midst of incessant theorising.
* * * * * At the moment when he had most difficulty in procuring a little bread each day for himself, Diderot conceived a violent passion for a seamstress, Antoinnette Champion by name, who happened to live in his neighbourhood.