Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle achieved the unusual feat of bridging two ages by dint of his exceptional longevity as well as by the key role he played as a highly successful, respected, and influential mediator between the classical ideal of polite and courtly elegance of expression and the new philosophical spirit of bold critical inquiry and scientific investigation. While siding with the "Moderns" in the famous Querelle des anciens et des modernes (Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns), he avoided the pitfall of subscribing without qualifications to the notion of progress. His remarkable talent as a popularizer of the new science had an enormous but not sufficiently acknowledged impact on the Enlightenment philosophes.

Fontenelle was born in Rouen, the capital of Normandy, on 11 February 1657, the son of a lawyer and member of the parlement of Rouen. His mother (née Marthe Corneille) was a sister of...