Editing Jean le Rond d'Alembert (section)

==Early years==
Born in Paris, d'Alembert was the [[illegitimate child|natural son]] of the writer [[Claudine Guérin de Tencin]] and the chevalier [[Louis-Camus Destouches]], an [[artillery]] officer. Destouches was abroad at the time of d'Alembert's birth. Days after birth his mother left him on the steps of the {{Interlanguage link multi|Saint-Jean-le-Rond de Paris|fr|3=Église Saint-Jean-le-Rond de Paris}} church. According to custom, he was named after the [[patron saint]] of the church. D'Alembert was placed in an [[orphanage]] for [[child abandonment|foundling]] children, but his father found him and placed him with the wife of a [[glazier]], Madame Rousseau, with whom he lived for nearly 50 years.<ref>{{harvnb|Hall|1906|p=5}}.</ref> She gave him little encouragement. When he told her of some discovery he had made or something he had written she generally replied,

{{quote|You will never be anything but a philosopher—and what is that but an ass who plagues himself all his life, that he may be talked about after he is dead.<ref>''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge'', Vol I, London, Charles Knight, 1847, p.417.</ref>}}

Destouches secretly paid for the education of Jean le Rond, but did not want his [[Paternity (law)|paternity]] officially recognised.