The indirect attack from the side of physical science was equally impossible.

The bearing of Newton's great discovery on the current conceptions of the Creator and the supposed system of the divine government, was not yet fully realised.

The other scientific ideas which have since made the old hypothesis less credible, were not at that time even conceived.
Diderot did indeed perceive even so early as this that the controversy was passing from the metaphysicians to the physicists.

Though he for the moment misinterpreted the ultimate direction of the effect of experimental discovery, he discerned its potency in the field of theological discussion.

"It is not from the hands of the metaphysician," he said, "that atheism has received the weightiest strokes.