"The Age of Voltaire" by Will & Ariel Durante

It recently occurred to me as I neared completion of this book, Volume IX of Will and Ariel Durant's History of Civilization, that I've certainly read more of their writing than any other writer.  And I absolutely love them.  Only two more volumes to go and I would be more than happy to move right back to Volume I (which I've already read twice) and start over again.  This work is amazing.

This particular volume covers the first half of 18th century Europe when the Enlightenment came into full swing.  The overriding theme is that of reason overtaking faith as the leading guide to man and society.

And what a time period it was!  I won't attempt to retell it here, but this is when science legitimately coupled with industry to produce inventions that propelled society forward.  Science became an actual practice, not just a theoretical exercise.  Inventions impacted man and made real, marked and persistent change in their lives.  The world has never been the same since.

Voltaire was the leading figure of the era, but he was certainly not alone.  Equally impactful - and equally interesting to me - is that of Diderot, the driving force behind the Encyclopedie that attempted to chronicle all scientific thought at the time.  Nothing like it had ever been attempted; I remember my early fascination with it more than a decade ago when I read a biography of Catherine the Great of Russia, a distant, though emphatic, supporter of Diderot.

Diderot was less known, less refined than Voltaire.  But he was also more of a workhorse who covered more ground in his writings. His fellow philosophes felt Diderot was more influential in the progress that led to the Revolution.

Although war was certainly present during this time, it was not on the scale of European war in preceding centuries.  Instead of a conquest for land, Europe was on a conquest for the hearts and minds of mankind.  Religion had been the singular guiding light of man's life for more than a millennia.  For the first time, the 18th century officially raised the idea of reason as the primary (or sole) directive for men and society.

A fascinating time when everything came into question.  The best world most certainly should include both faith and reason; but the Enlightenment swung the pendulum farther in the direction of reason than ever before.