SOURCE: Wade, Ira O. “The Intellectual Atmosphere at Cirey.” In Voltaire and Madame du Châtelet: An Essay on the Intellectual Activity at Cirey, pp. 13-47. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941.

In this excerpt, Wade discusses du Châtelet's influence on Voltaire's work in physics and metaphysics, particularly his Traité de métaphysique.

[In] the years 1733-49, the intellectual atmosphere at Cirey was compounded of a strong English influence (Addison, Pope, Swift, Mandeville, Locke, Newton, Shakespeare, Collins, Clarke, Woolston, and Middleton), a continuous traditional influence (Bayle, Fontenelle, La Fare, Chaulieu, Boulainvilliers, Fréret, Mirabaud, Meslier, Dumarsais, and Calmet), and constant intellectual stimuli from contemporary cultural centers (Paris, Brussels, Lunéville, London, Amsterdam, Anet, and Sceaux); contemporary books (Pemberton, Melon, Dutot, La Bletterie), and contemporary acquaintances (Frederick, Hénault, Helvétius, Maupertuis, Clairaut, Mairan). So many individuals, works, interests, currents and cross-currents were meeting, that the natural consequence would be...