SOURCE: Plumb, J. H. “The Age of Optimism.” Spectator, no. 7401 (2 May 1970): 586–87.

In the following review, Plumb argues that The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, Volume II: The Science of Freedom represents an important “turning point” in historical accounts of eighteenth-century thought.

For generations now the philosophers of the Enlightenment have suffered in public esteem because of the disrepute into which they fell during the nineteenth century. They were dismissed as superficial thinkers who could never resist a witticism; mockers who scoffed at the sacredness of belief; blind optimists who ignored the sinfulness and bestiality of man; lackeys of authority who pandered to the foibles of despots; armchair revolutionaries and sofa cynics.

At the head of the family was Voltaire, grinning toothlessly and maliciously at the follies of men, yet ignoring their grandeur. Rousseau presented difficulties, for his very obscurity seemed to hint at profundity. But his total lack of judgment...