'Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Rouen 1657 - Parijs 1757, was the son of a Normandic lawyer and a cousin of Corneille. During the conflict between the Olds and Moderns Fontenelle was siding, contrary to La Bruyère, the'Moderns' (Digression sur les anciens et les modernes, 1688), due too his cartesianism as by his loyalty to Corneille. His first important work is rather conventional: the 36 Dialogues des morts, anciens et modernes (1683). After this he wrote more important and original works whom were intended to contribute to create 'enlightned spirits' to falter traditions . His Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (1686), designed in the form of dialogues between a Marquise and a philosopher, is the first attempt to use fiction for the goal of making modern science more popular to the masses and to promote the Copernican worldview in combination with Cartesian physics. In doing so Fontenelle is acting against the prevailing antropocentrism and is putting himself to the question of the limits of our knowledge'. Moderne encyclopedie der wereldliteratuur, 3, pp. 86-87