Enlightened Ideas^321

things, as Diderot put it, are
equally subject to criticism. By
elevating mankind to the cen­
ter of human inquiry, the 140
authors of the Encyclopedia—
including Rousseau, who
penned 344 articles—sought
to achieve Diderot s goal, “to
change the general way of
thinking,” as well as to bring

glory to France.

Voltaire had set a goal for
the Enlightenment itself: to
educate the literate and intel­

lectually curious of the social
elite, and perhaps people far­
ther down the social scale as

well. The Encyclopedia at least
partially fulfilled that goal.
Published over a period of
more than twenty years begin­
ning in 1751, it consisted of
60,000 articles and 2,885
illustrations in 28 volumes. Depiction of an eighteenth-century canal with

Subtitled “A Classified Dictio- locks, from Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia.

nary of the Sciences, Arts and

Trades,” this first such compilation in the West was a bold attempt to orga­

nize and classify all knowledge gathered from “over the face of the earth.”

Its authors insisted that by learning more about the universe, men and

women could improve the world. This marked a departure from the assump­

tion that mankind’s ability to penetrate the secrets of the universe was lim­

ited. Montesquieu contributed sections on artistic taste, Rousseau on

music, Voltaire on literature, and Buffon on nature. Diderot gave particular

credit to the everyday contributions of artisans by describing how and why

ingeniously simple tools and machines could make tasks easier.

The Encyclopedia generated sufficient excitement that advance sales

alone financed its publication. It earned its publishers a handsome profit.

After the first edition, subsequent editions with less expensive paper and

fewer illustrations became available at about a sixth of the original price.

Lawyers, officials, and rentiers (people living from property income) were

more likely to own a copy than merchants or manufacturers, who could

afford the volumes but seemed less interested. What began as a luxury

product ended up on the shelves of the “middling sort.”

The philosophes wanted the Encyclopedia to carry the Enlightenment far

beyond the borders of France. Although only about one in ten volumes