18th century Enlightenment was not utterly blind to irrational human
impulses and childishl optimistism .
For instance Montesquieu did not lack insight
into the power of nonrational customs; and he influenced the Enlighteners. Diderot
said that "everything, even among the greatest sons of man, is incomplete, mixed,
relative; everything is possible in the way of contradiction and limits; every virtue
neighbors elements of uncongenial alloy; all heroism may hide points of littleness; all
genius has its days of shortened vision"
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