Baron d'Holbach published most of his works under pseudonyms, which helped to keep him safe but also condemned him to centuries of philosophical obscurity (except in the officially godless Soviet Union).
Much of his reasoning will be familiar to the devotees of anti-clerical writers such as Voltaire or openly godless ones such as Russell, but the overall structure of his approach is new.
Like genetics today, "galvanic forces" were then at the leading edge of the quest to uncover the secret of life, with implications both thrilling and terrifying: the promise of scientific miracles or the threat of godless abominations.