Montesquieu contributed articles to Diderot’s Encyclopédie and was a close friend, though he avoided over-familiarity with Parisian circles. He visited Swift and Pope during a visit to England, and corresponded with Montagu. His good friend Helvétius tried to dissuade him from publishing some of his opinions, and kept quiet when the book became a public success. Montesquieu was a regular guest of d’Épinay.