Eloquence in the informal discourse of the parlour or the country walk did not mean in Diderot's case the empty fluency and nugatory emphasis of the ordinary talker of reputation.

It must have been both pregnant and copious; declamatory in form, but fresh and substantial in matter; excursive in arrangement, but forcible and pointed in intention.

No doubt, if he was a sage, he was sometimes a sage in a frenzy.

He would wind up a peroration by dashing his nightcap passionately against the wall, by way of clencher to the argument.

Yet this impetuosity, this turn for declamation, did not hinder his talk from being directly instructive.