Paul Henri Thiery, Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789), was the center of the radical wing of the _philosophes_. He was friend, host, and patron to a wide circle that included Diderot, D'Alembert, Helvetius, and Hume. Holbach wrote, translated, edited, and issued a stream of books and pamphlets, often under other names, that has made him the despair of bibliographers but has connected his name, by innuendo, gossip, and association, with most of what was written in defense of atheistic materialism in late eighteenth-century France. Holbach is best known for _The System of Nature_ (1770) and deservedly, since it is a clear and reasonably systematic exposition of his main ideas. His initial position d…
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