,,diderot ,,and ,,the ,,encyclopaedists ,,by ,,john ,,morley ,,vol4 ,,ii4 ,london ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,,limited ,,new ,,york3 ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company #aije ,first published elsewhere ,new ,edition #ahhf4 ,reprinted #ahia1 #ahig1 #aije ,,contents ,,of ,,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,page ,,chapter ,i4 ,,other ,,dialogues4 7#a7 ,the ,conversations of a ,father with his ,children #a ,remarks upon it4 7#b7 ,the ,inconsistency of ,public ,judgment on ,private ,actions #h ,observations4 7#c7 ,supplement to ,bougainville's ,travels #ad ,philosophical qualities of the discussion not satisfactory #ai ,nothing gained by his criticism on marriage #ba ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,romance4 ,digression inevitable in dealing with ,diderot #bd ,richardson's influence in ,europe #bf ,diderot's ,eloge upon him #bh ,rousseau and ,richardson #bi ,diderot writes ,the ,nun 7#agif7 #ca ,circumstances of its composition #cb ,its intention #cc ,and characteristics #ce ,sterne #cf ,diderot writes ,jacques le ,fataliste #cg ,its history #ch ,goethe's criticism on it #ch ,nature of ,diderot's imitation of ,richardson and ,sterne #dj ,no true creation in ,jacques le ,fataliste #da ,its unredeemed grossness #dc ,its lack of poetry and of flavour #dd ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,art4 ,the ,salons #de ,qualities of their criticism #de ,deep foundation of ,diderot's critical quality #df ,french art-criticism #dh ,dufresnoy1 ,dubos1 ,webb1 ,andre1 ,batteux #dh1 #di ,travellers in ,italy #ej ,diderot never in ,italy #eb ,spirit of ,french art in his day #eb ,greuze1 ,diderot's favourite #ef ,greuze's ,accordee de ,village #eg ,hogarth would have displeased ,diderot #ei ,diderot's considerateness in criticism #fj ,boucher #fb ,fragonard #fb ,diderot adds literary charm to scientific criticism #fc ,his readiness for moral asides #fe ,his suggestions of pictorial subjects #fh ,his improved versions #fi ,illustration of his variety of approach #gb ,diderot's ,essay on ,painting #gc ,goethe's commentary #gc ,difference of type between ,goethe and ,diderot #gf ,diderot's ,essay on ,beauty #gh ,his anticipation of ,lessing #hb ,music #hc ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,st4 ,,petersburg ,,and ,,the ,,hague4 ,diderot's resolution to visit the ,empress of ,russia #hd ,the ,princess ,dashkow #hd ,prince ,galitzin #he ,diderot in ,holland 7#aggc7 #hf ,st4 ,petersburg and ,russian civilisation #hi ,the ,empress #ia ,accounts of her by men of affairs #ib ,her pursuit of ,french culture #id ,her interest in the ,french philosophic party #if ,partly the result of political calculation #ih ,the philosophers and the ,partition of ,poland #aja ,rulhiere's narrative of ,catherine's accession #ajb ,falconet1 the first ,frenchman welcomed by her #ajd ,diderot arrives at ,st4 ,petersburg 7#aggc7 #ajf ,his conversations with the ,empress #ajg ,not successful as a politician #ajh ,general impression of him #aji ,grimm outstrips him in court favour #aaj ,diderot's return to the ,hague #aab ,bjoernstaehl's report of him #aad ,contemporary literature in ,holland #aag ,hemsterhuys #aah ,the ,princess ,galitzin #aai ,diderot's return to ,paris #aba ,,chapter ,v4 ,,helvetius4 ,three works of which ,diderot was regarded as the inspirer #abc ,helvetius's ,l',esprit #abc ,contemporary protests against it #abc ,turgot's weighty criticism #abd ,real drift of the book #abg ,account of ,helvetius #abg ,the style of his book #acd ,the momentous principle contained in it #ace ,adopted from ,helvetius by ,bentham #acf ,helvetius's statement of doctrine of ,utility #acg ,miscarriage of the doctrine in his hands #aci ,his fallacy #adj ,true side of his objectionable position #adj ,helvetius's reckless presentation of a true theory #ada ,confusion of beneficence with self-love #adb ,imitation from ,mandeville #adc ,mean anecdotes #add ,nature of ,helvetius's errors #add ,explanation of them #adf ,positive side of his speculation #adg ,its true significance #adi ,second great paradox of ,l',esprit #adi ,benjamin ,constant's ,adolphe #aeb ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,holbach',s ,,system ,,of ,,nature4 ,publication of the ,system of ,nature 7#aggj7 #aee ,its startling effect #aef ,voltaire's alarm #aeh ,he never understood ,holbach's position #aei ,account of ,holbach #afj ,disregard of historic opinion in his book #afc ,its remarkable violence against the government #afe ,the sting of this violence #aff ,the doctrine from which ,holbach's book arose #afg ,account of ,holbach's ,naturalism #afh ,his proposition concerning ,man #agc ,he uses the orthodox language about the pride of man #agg ,his treatment of ,morals #agh ,onslaught upon the theory of ,free ,will #agh ,connection of necessarianism with humanity in punishment #aha ,his answer to some objections against necessarianism #aha ,chapter on the ,immortality of the ,soul #ahc ,his enthusiasm for reforms #ahe ,the literature of a political revolution #ahg ,misrepresentation of ,holbach's ethical theory #ahh ,the ,system of ,nature1 a protest against ascetic ideals #aia ,the subject of the second half of the book #aic ,repudiation of the a priori method #aid ,replies to the common charges against atheism #aig ,the chapter on the superiority of ,naturalism #aih ,political side of the indictment against religion #aii ,holbach's propagandism #bjb ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,raynal',s ,,history ,,of ,,the ,,indies4 ,contemporary estimate of ,the ,history of the ,indies #bjd ,account of ,raynal #bje ,composition of the book #bjg ,its varied popularity #bji ,frederick the ,great dislikes it #baj ,signal merit of the ,history #bac ,its shortcomings #bad ,its idyllic inventions #bae ,its animation and variety #bah ,superficial causes of its popularity #bbj ,its deeper source #bba ,catholicism in contact with the lower races #bbb ,the other side of this #bbc ,raynal's book a plea for justice and humanity #bbd ,morality towards subject races #bbf ,slavery #bbg ,raynal's conduct in the ,revolution #bbi ,his end #bca ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,diderot',s ,,closing ,,years4 ,diderot's meditation on life and death #bcb ,age overtakes him on his return from ,russia #bcc ,writes his life of ,seneca #bce ,its quality #bcf ,interest to ,diderot of ,seneca's career #bcg ,strange digression in the ,essay #bci ,reason for ,diderot's anger against ,rousseau #bdj ,his usual magnanimity #bda ,diderot's relations with ,voltaire #bdd ,naigeon #bdf ,romilly's account of ,diderot #bdg ,palissot and the conservative writers #bdi ,the ecclesiastical champions of the old system #bea ,the precursors gradually disappearing #bec ,galiani #bed ,beaumarchais's ,mariage de ,figaro #bee ,diderot's famous couplet #bef ,his fellow-townsmen at ,langres #beg ,last days #beh ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,conclusion4 ,the variety of ,diderot's topics #bfa 7#a7 ,thoughts on the ,interpretation of ,nature #bfb ,maupertuis's ,loi d',epargne #bfb ,general scope of ,diderot's aphorisms #bfc ,prophecy about geometry #bfd ,utility made to prescribe limits to speculation #bfg ,the other side of this principle #bfg ,on ,final ,causes #bfh ,adaptation of the ,leibnitzian law of economy #bfi 7#b7 ,d',alembert's ,dream #bga ,diderot not the originator of ,french materialism #bgb ,materialism of the three dialogues #bgc ,mdlle4 ,lespinasse's moral objections #bgd 7#c7 ,plan of a ,university for ,russia #bge ,religious instruction #bgf ,latin and ,greek #bgg ,letter to the ,countess of ,forbach #bgh 7#d7 ,conversation with the ,marechale de ---- #bgh ,parable of the young ,mexican #bgi 7#e7 ,letters to ,falconet #bha ,diderot defends the feeling for posterity #bhc ,,appendix4 ,rameau's ,nephew3 a ,translation #bhe ,,diderot4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,other ,,dialogues4 ,we may now pass to performances that are nearer to the accepted surface of things4 ,a short but charming example of ,diderot's taste for putting questions of morals in an interesting way1 is found in the ,conversation of a ,father with his ,children 7published in #aggc74 ,this little dialogue is perfect in the simple realism of its form4 ,its subject is the peril of setting one's own judgment of some special set of circumstances above the law of the land4 ,diderot's venerable and well-loved father is sitting in his arm-chair before the fire4 ,he begins the discussion by telling his two sons and his daughter1 who are tending him with pious care1 how very near he had once been to destroying their inheritance4 ,an old priest had died leaving a considerable fortune4 ,there was believed to be no will1 and the next of kin were a number of poor people whom the inheritance would have rescued from indigence for the rest of their days4 ,they appointed the elder ,diderot to guard their interests and divide the property4 ,he finds at the bottom of a disused box of ancient letters1 receipts1 and other waste-paper1 a will made long years ago1 and bequeathing all the fortune to a very rich bookseller in ,paris4 ,there was every reason to suppose that the old priest had forgotten the existence of the will1 and it involved a revolting injustice4 ,would not ,diderot be fulfilling the dead man's real wishes by throwing the unwelcome document into the flames8 ,at this point in the dialogue the doctor enters the room and interrupts the tale4 ,it appears that he is fresh from the bedside of a criminal who is destined to the gallows4 ,diderot the younger reproaches him for labouring to keep in the world an offender whom it were best to send out of it with all despatch4 ,the duty of the physician is to say to so execrable a patient--,i will not busy myself in restoring to life a creature whom it is enjoined upon me by natural equity1 the good of society1 the well-being of my fellow-creatures1 to give up4 ,die1 and let it never be said that through my skill there exists a monster the more on earth6 ,the doctor parries these energetic declamations with sufficient skill4 ,my business is to cure1 not to judge2 ,i shall cure him1 because that is my trade2 then the judge will have him hung1 because that is his trade4 ,this episodic discussion ended1 the story of the will is resumed4 ,the father1 when on the point of destroying it1 was seized with a scruple of conscience1 and hastened to a cure well versed in casuistry4 ,as in ,england the agents of the law itself not seldom play the part of arbitrary benevolence1 which the old ,diderot would fain have played against the law1 the scene may perhaps be worth transcribing3 ',nothing is more praiseworthy1 sir1 than the sentiment of compassion that touches you for these unfortunate people4 ,suppress the testament and succour them--good2 but on condition of restoring to the rightful legatee the exact sum of which you deprive him1 neither more nor less4 ,who authorised you to give a sanction to documents1 or to take it away8 ,who authorised you to interpret the intentions of the dead8' ',but then1 father ,bouin1 the old box8' ',who authorised you to decide whether the will was thrown away on purpose1 or mislaid by accident8 ,has it never happened to you to do such a thing1 and to find at the bottom of a chest some valuable paper that you had tossed there inadvertently8' ',but1 father ,bouin1 the far-off date of the paper1 and its injustice8' ',who authorised you to pronounce on the justice or injustice of the document1 and to regard the bequest as an unlawful gift1 rather than as a restitution or any other lawful act which you may choose to imagine8' ',but1 these poor kinsfolk here on the spot1 and that mere collateral1 distant and wealthy8' ',who authorised you to weigh in your balance what the dead man owed to his distant relations1 whom you don't know8' ',but1 father ,bouin1 that pile of letters from the legatee1 which the departed never even took the trouble to open8' ',there is neither old box1 nor date1 nor letters1 nor father ,bouin1 nor if1 nor but1 in the case4 ,no one has any right to infringe the laws1 to enter into the intention of the dead1 or to dispose of other people's property4 ,if providence has resolved to chastise either the heir or the legatee or the testator--we cannot tell which--by the accidental preservation of the will1 the will must remain4'#a #a ,oeuv41 v4 #bhi4 ,diderot the younger declaims against all this with his usual vehemence1 while his brother1 the abbe1 defends the supremacy of the law on the proper ground1 that to evade or defy it in any given case is to open the door to the sophistries of all the knaves in the universe4 ,at this point a journeyman of the neighbourhood comes in with a new case of conscience4 ,his wife has died after twenty years of sickness2 in these twenty years the cost of her illness has consumed all that he would otherwise have saved for the end of his days4 ,but1 as it happens1 the marriage portion that she brought him has lain untouched4 ,by law this ought to go to her family4 ,equity1 however1 seems to justify him in keeping what he might have spent if he had chosen4 ,he consults the party round the fire4 ,one bids him keep the money2 another forbids him2 a third thinks it fair for him to repay himself the cost of his wife's illness4 ,diderot's father cries out1 that since on his own confession the detention of the inheritance has brought him no comfort1 he had better surrender it as speedily as possible1 and eat1 drink1 sleep1 work1 and make himself happy so4 ',not ,i1' cried the journeyman abruptly1 ',i shall be off to ,geneva4' ',and dost thou think to leave remorse behind8' ',i can't tell1 but to ,geneva ,i go4' ',go where thou wilt1 there wilt thou find thy conscience4' ,the hatter went away2 his odd answer became the subject of our talk4 ,we agreed that perhaps distance of place and time had the effect of weakening all the feelings more or less1 and stifling the voice of conscience even in cases of downright crime4 ,the assassin transported to the shores of ,china is too far off to perceive the corpse that he has left bleeding on the banks of the ,seine4 ,remorse springs perhaps less from horror of self than from fear of others2 less from shame for the deed1 than from the blame and punishment that would attend its discovery4 ,and what clandestine criminal is tranquil enough in his obscurity not to dread the treachery of some unforeseen circumstance1 or the indiscretion of some thoughtless word8 ,what certainty can he have that he will not disclose his secret in the delirium of fever1 or in dreams8 ,people will understand him if they are on the scene of the action1 but those about him in ,china will have no key to his words4#b #b v4 #bie1 #bif4 ,two other cases come up4 ,does the husband or wife who is the first to break the marriage vow1 restore liberty to the other8 ,diderot answered affirmatively4 ,the second case arose from a story that the abbe had been reading4 ,a certain honest cobbler of ,messina saw his country overrun by lawlessness4 ,each day was marked by a crime4 ,notorious assassins braved the public exasperation4 ,parents saw their daughters violated2 the industrious saw the fruits of their toil ravished from them by the monopolist or the fraudulent tax-gatherer4 ,the judges were bribed1 the innocent were afflicted1 the guilty escaped unharmed4 ,the cobbler meditating on these enormities devised a plan of vengeance4 ,he established a secret court of justice in his shop2 he heard the evidence1 gave a verdict1 pronounced sentence1 and went out into the street with his gun under his cloak to execute it4 ,justice done1 he regained his stall1 rejoicing as though he had slain a rabid dog4 ,when some fifty criminals had thus met their doom1 the viceroy offered a reward of two thousand crowns for information of the slayer1 and swore on the altar that he should have full pardon if he gave himself up4 ,the cobbler presented himself1 and spoke thus3 ,i have done what was your duty4 ',tis ,i who condemned and put to death the miscreants that you ought to have punished4 ,behold the proofs of their crimes4 ,there you will see the judicial process which ,i observed4 ,i was tempted to begin with yourself2 but ,i respected in your person the august master whom you represent4 ,my life is in your hands3 dispose of it as you think right4 ,well1 cried the abbe1 the cobbler1 in spite of all his fine zeal for justice1 was simply a murderer4 ,diderot protested4 ,his father decided that the abbe was right1 and that the cobbler was an assassin4 ,nothing short of a transcript of the whole would convey a right idea of the dramatic ease of this delightful dialogue--its variety of illustration with unity of topic1 the naturalness of movement1 the pleasant lightness of touch4 ,at its close the old man calls for his nightcap2 ,diderot embraces him1 and in bidding him good-night whispers in his ear1 ,strictly speaking1 father1 there are no laws for the sage4 ,all being open to exception1 'tis for him to judge the cases in which we ought to submit to them1 or to throw them over4 ,i should not be sorry1 his father answers1 if there were in the town one or two citizens like thee2 but nothing would induce me to live there1 if they all thought in that way4 ,the conclusion is just1 and ,diderot might have verified it by the state of the higher society of his country at that very moment4 ,one cause of the moral corruption of ,france in the closing years of the old regime was undoubtedly the lax and shifting interpretations1 by which the ,jesuit directors had softened the rigour of general moral principles4 ,many generations must necessarily elapse before a habit of loosely superseding principles in individual cases produces widespread demoralisation1 but the result is inevitable1 sooner or later2 and this1 just in proportion as the principles are sound4 ,the casuists practically constructed a system for making the observance alike of the positive law1 and of the accepted ethical maxims1 flexible and conditional4 ,the ,diderot of the present dialogue takes the same attitude1 but has the grace to leave the demonstration of its impropriety to his wise and benevolent sire4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,ii4 ,we shall presently see that ,diderot did not shrink from applying a vigorous doubt to some of the most solidly established principles of modern society4 ,let us meanwhile in passing notice that short piece of plangent irony1 which did not appear until many years after his death 7#agih71 and which he or some one else entitled1 ,on the inconsistency of the ,public ,judgment on our ,private ,actions4 ,this too is in the form of dialogue1 but the argument of the story is in its pith as follows4 ,desroches1 first an abbe1 then a lawyer1 lastly a soldier1 persuades a rich and handsome widow to marry him4 ,she is aware of his previous gallantries1 and warns him in very dramatic style before a solemn gathering of friends1 that if he once wounds her by an infidelity1 she will shut herself up and speedily die of grief4 ,he makes such vows as most men would make under such circumstances2 he presses her hands ardently to his lips1 bedews them with his tears1 and moves the whole company to sympathy with his own agitation4 ,the scene is absurd enough1 or seems so to us dull people of phlegmatic habit4 ,yet ,diderot1 even for us1 redeems it by the fine remark3 ',tis the effect of what is good and virtuous to leave a large assembly with only one thought and one soul4 ,how all respect one another1 love one another in such moments6 ,for instance1 how beautiful humanity is at the play6 ,ah1 why must we part so quickly8 ,men are so good1 so happy1 when what is worthy unites all their suffrages1 melts them1 makes them one4#c ,for some time all went well1 and our pair were the happiest of men and women4 ,then various assaults were made on the faithfulness of ,desroches4 ,he resisted them1 until in endeavouring to serve a friend he was forced to sue for the goodwill of a lady with whom in his unregenerate days he had had passages of gallantry4 ,the old intrigue was renewed4 ,letters of damning proof fell by ill hazard into his wife's hands4 ,she reassembled her friends1 denounced the culprit1 and forthwith carried away her child to seek shelter with her aged mother4 ,desroches's fervent remorse was unheeded1 his letters were sent back unopened1 he was denied the door4 ,presently1 the aged mother died4 ,then the infant4 ,lastly1 the wife herself4 ,now1 says ,diderot to his interlocutor1 ,i pray you to turn your eyes to the public--that imbecile crowd that pronounces judgment on us1 that disposes of our honour1 that lifts us to the clouds or trails us through the mud4 ,opinion passed through every phase about ,desroches4 ,the shifting event is ever their one measure of praise and blame4 ,a fault which nobody thought more than venial became gradually aggravated in their eyes by a succession of incidents which it was impossible for ,desroches either to foresee or to prevent4 ,at first opinion was on his side1 and his wife was thought to have carried things with too high a hand4 ,then1 after she had fallen ill1 and her child had died1 and her aged mother had passed away in the fulness of years1 he began to be held answerable for all this sea of troubles4 ,why had not ,desroches written to his wife1 beset her doors1 waylaid her as she went to church8 ,he had1 as matter of fact1 done all these things1 but the public did not know it4 ,the important thing is1 not to know1 but to talk4 ,then1 as it befell1 his wife's brother took ,desroches's place in his regiment2 there he was killed4 ,more exclamations as to the misfortune of being connected with such a man4 ,how was ,desroches responsible for the death of his mother-in-law1 already well stricken in years8 ,how could he foresee that a hostile ball would pierce his brother-in-law in his first campaign8 ,but his wife8 ,he must be a barbarian1 a monster1 who had gradually pressed a poniard into the bosom of a divine woman1 his wife1 his benefactress1 and then left her to die1 without showing the least sign of interest or feeling4 ,and all this1 cries ,diderot1 for not knowing what was concealed from him1 and what was unknown and unsuspected even by those who were daily about her8 ,what presumption1 what bad logic1 what incoherence1 what unjustified veering and vacillation in all these public verdicts from beginning to end6 #c ,oeuv41 v4 #cdb4 ,yet we feel that ,diderot's impetuous taunts fail to press to the root of the matter4 ,diderot excels in opening a subject2 he places it in a new light2 he furnishes telling concrete illustrations2 he thoroughly disturbs and unsettles the medium of conventional association in which it has become fixed4 ,but he does not leave the question readjusted4 ,his mind was not of that quality which is slow to complain where it cannot explain2 which does not quit a discussion without a calm and orderly review of the conditions that underlie the latest exhibition of human folly1 shortsightedness1 or injustice4 ,the public condemnation of ,desroches for consequences that were entirely strange to his one offence1 was indefensible on grounds of strict logic4 ,but then men have imagination as well as reason4 ,imagination is stronger than reason with most of them4 ,their imagination was touched by the series of disasters that followed ,madame ,desroches's abandonment of her husband4 ,they admit no plea of remoteness of damage1 such as law courts allow4 ,in a way that was loose and unreasonable1 but still easily intelligible1 the husband became associated with a sequel for which he was not really answerable4 ,if the world's conduct in such cases were accurately expressed1 it would perhaps be found that people have really no intention to pronounce a judicial sentence2 they only mean that an individual's associations have become disagreeable and doubtful to them4 ,they may think proper to justify the grievously meagre definition of homo as animal rationale1 by varnishing their distaste with reasons2 the true reason is that the presence of a ,desroches disturbs their comfort1 by recalling questionable and disorderly circumstances4 ,that this selfish and rough method many a time inflicts horrible cruelty is too certain1 and those to whom the idea of conduct is serious and deep-reaching will not fall into it4 ,a sensible man is aware of the difficulty of pronouncing wisely upon the conduct of others1 especially where it turns upon the intricate and unknowable relations between a man and a woman4 ,he will not1 however1 on that account break down the permanent safeguards1 for the sake of leniency in a given case4 ,a great enemy to indifference1 a great friend to indulgence1 said ,turgot of himself2 and perhaps it is what we should all do well to be able to say of ourselves4 ,again1 though these ironical exposures of the fatuity and recklessness and inconsistency of popular verdicts are wholesome enough in their degree in all societies1 yet it has been1 and still remains1 a defect of some of the greatest ,french writers to expect a fruit from such performances which they can never bear4 ,in the long run a great body of men and women is improved less by general outcry against its collective characteristics than by the inculcation of broader views1 higher motives1 and sounder habits of judgment1 in such a form as touches each man and woman individually4 ,it is better to awaken in the individual a sense of responsibility for his own character than to do anything1 either by magnificent dithyrambs or penetrating satire1 to dispose him to lay the blame on ,society4 ,society is after all only a name for other people4 ,an instructive contrast might be drawn between the method of ,french writers of genius1 from ,diderot down to that mighty master of our own day1 ,victor ,hugo1 in pouring fulminant denunciations upon ,society1 and the other method of our best ,english writers1 from ,milton down to ,mill1 in impressing new ideas on the ,individual1 and exacting a vigorous personal answer to the moral or spiritual call4 ,one other remark may be worth making4 ,it is characteristic of the immense sociability of the eighteenth century1 that when he saw ,desroches sitting alone in the public room1 receiving no answers to his questions1 never addressed by any of those around him1 avoided1 coldly eyed1 and morally proscribed1 ,diderot never thought of applying the artificial consolation of the ,stoic4 ,he never dreamed of urging that expulsion from the society of friends was not a hardship1 a true punishment1 and a genuine evil4 ,no one knew better than ,diderot that a man should train himself to face the disapprobation of the world with steadfast brow and unflinching gaze2 but he knew also that this is only done at great cost1 and is only worth doing for clear and far-reaching objects4 ,life was real to ,diderot1 not in the modern canting sense of earnestness and making a hundred thousand pounds2 but in the sense of being an agitated scene of living passion1 interest1 sympathy1 struggle1 delight1 and woe1 in which the graceful ascetic commonplaces of the writer and the preacher barely touch the actual conditions of human experience1 or go near to softening the smart of chagrin1 failure1 mistake1 and sense of wrong1 any more than the sweet music of the birds poised in air over a field of battle can still the rage and horror of the plain beneath4 ,as was said by a good man1 who certainly did not fail to try the experiment1--,speciosa quidem ista sunt1 oblitaque rhetoricae et musicae melle dulcedinis2 tum tantum cum audiuntur oblectant4 ,sed miseris malorum altior sensus est4 ,itaque quum haec auribus insonare desierint1 insitus animum moeror praegravat4#d #d ,boethius4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,iii4 ,we may close this chapter with a short account of the ,supplement to ,bougainville's ,travels1 which was composed in #aggb1 and published twenty-four years later4 ,the second title is1 ,a dialogue on the disadvantage of attaching moral ideas to certain physical actions which do not really comport with them4 ,those who believe that the ruling system of notions about marriage represents the last word that is to be said as to the relations between men and women1 will turn away from ,diderot's dialogue with some impatience4 ,those1 on the contrary1 who hold that the present system is no more immovably fixed in ultimate laws of human nature1 no more final1 no more unimprovable1 no more sacred1 and no more indisputably successful1 than any other set of social arrangements and the corresponding moral ideas1 will find something to interest them1 though1 as it seems to the present writer1 very little to instruct4 ,bougainville was the first ,frenchman who sailed round the world4 ,he did in #agff-fi what ,captain ,cook did about the same time4 ,the narrative of his expedition appeared in #agga1 and the picture of life among the primitive people of the ,southern ,seas touched ,diderot almost as deeply as if he had been ,rousseau4 ,as one says so often in this history of the intellectual preparation for the ,revolution1 the corruption and artificiality of ,parisian society had the effect of colouring the world of primitive society with the very hues of paradise4 ,diderot was more free from this besetting weakness than any of his contemporaries4 ,he never fell into ,voltaire's fancy that ,china is a land of philosophers4#e ,but he did not look very critically into the real conditions of life in the more rudimentary stages of development1 and for the moment he committed the sociological anachronism of making the poor people of ,otaheite into wise and benevolent patriots and sound reasoners4 ,the literary merit of the dialogue is at least as striking as in any of the pieces of which we have already spoken4 ,the realism of the scenes between the ship-chaplain and his friendly savage1 with too kindly wife1 and daughters as kindly as either1 is full of sweetness1 simplicity1 and a sort of pathos4 ,a subject which easily takes on an air of grossness1 and which ,diderot sometimes handled very grossly indeed1 is introduced with an idyllic grace that to the pure will hardly be other than pure4 ,we have of course always to remember that ,diderot is an author for grown-up people1 as are the authors of the ,bible or any other book that deals with more than the surface of human experience4 ,our ,english practice of excluding from literature subjects and references that are unfit for boys and girls1 has something to recommend it1 but it undeniably leads to a certain narrowness and thinness1 and to some most nauseous hypocrisy4 ,all subjects are evidently not to be discussed by all2 and one result in our case is that some of the most important subjects in the world receive no discussion whatever4 #e ,see1 however1 above1 vol4 i4 p4 #bgd4 ,the position which ,diderot takes up in the present dialogue may be inferred from the following extract4 ,the ship-chaplain has been explaining to the astonished ,otaheitan the ,european usage of strict monogamy1 as the arrangement enjoined upon man by the ,creator of the universe1 and vigilantly guarded by the priest and the magistrate4 ,to which1 ,orou thus3 ,these singular precepts ,i find opposed to nature and contrary to reason4 ,they are contrary to nature because they suppose that a being who thinks1 feels1 and is free1 can be the property of a creature like itself4 ,dost thou not see that in thy land they have confounded the thing that has neither sensibility1 nor thought1 nor desire1 nor will2 that one leaves1 one takes1 one keeps1 one exchanges1 without its suffering or complaining--with a thing that is neither exchanged nor acquired1 that has freedom1 will1 desire1 that may give or may refuse itself for the moment2 that complains and suffers2 and that cannot become a mere article of commerce1 unless you forget its character and do violence to nature8 ,and they are contrary to the general law of things4 ,can anything seem more senseless to thee than a precept which proscribes the law of change that is within us1 and which commands a constancy that is impossible1 and that violates the liberty of the male and the female1 by chaining them together in perpetuity2--anything more senseless than are oaths of immutability1 taken by two creatures of flesh1 in the face of a sky that is not an instant the same1 under vaults that threaten ruin1 at the base of a rock crumbling to dust1 at the foot of a tree that is splitting asunder8444 ,you may command what is opposed to nature1 but you will not be obeyed4 ,you will multiply evil-doers and the unhappy by fear1 by punishment1 and by remorse2 you will deprave men's consciences2 you will corrupt their minds2 they will have lost the polar star of their pathway4 7#bbe47 ,after this declamation he proceeds to put some practical questions to the embarrassed chaplain4 ,are young men in ,france always continent1 and wives always true1 and husbands never libertines8 ,the chaplain's answers disclose the truth to the keen-eyed ,orou3 ,what a monstrous tissue is this that thou art unfolding to me6 ,and even now thou dost not tell me all2 for as soon as men allow themselves to dispose at their own will of the ideas of what is just and unjust1 to take away1 or to impose an arbitrary character on things2 to unite to actions or to separate from them the good and the evil1 with no counsellor save caprice--then come blame1 accusation1 suspicion1 tyranny1 envy1 jealousy1 deception1 chagrin1 concealment1 dissimulation1 espionage1 surprise1 lies2 daughters deceive their parents1 wives their husbands1 husbands their wives2 young women1 ,i don't doubt1 will smother their children2 suspicious fathers will despise and neglect their children2 mothers will leave them to the mercy of accident2 and crime and debauchery will show themselves in every guise4 ,i know all that1 as if ,i had lived among you4 ,it is so1 because it must be so2 and that society of thine1 in spite of thy chief who vaunts its fine order1 is nothing but a collection of hypocrites who secretly trample the laws under foot2 or of unfortunate wretches who make themselves the instrument of their own punishment1 by submitting to these laws2 or of imbeciles1 in whom prejudice has absolutely stifled the voice of nature4 7#bbg47 ,the chaplain has the presence of mind to fall back upon the radical difficulty of all such solutions of the problem of family union as were practised in ,otaheite1 or were urged by philosophers in ,paris1 or are timidly suggested in our own times in the droll-sounding form of marriages for terms of years with option of renewal4 ,that difficulty is the disposal of the children which are the fruit of such unions4 ,orou rejoins to this argument by a very eloquent account how valuable1 how sought after1 how prized1 is the woman who has her quiver full of them4 ,his contempt for the condition of ,europe grows more intense1 as he learns that the birth of a child among the bulk of the people of the west is rather a sorrow1 a perplexity1 a hardship1 than a delight and ground of congratulation4 ,the reader sees by this time that in the present dialogue ,diderot is really criticising the most fundamental and complex arrangement of our actual western society1 from the point of view of an arbitrary and entirely fanciful naturalism4 ,rousseau never wrote anything more picturesque1 nor anything more dangerous1 nor more anarchic and superficially considered4 ,it is true that ,diderot at the close of the discussion is careful to assert that while we denounce senseless laws1 it is our duty to obey them until we have procured their reform4 ,he who of his own private authority infringes a bad law1 authorises every one else to infringe good laws4 ,there are fewer inconveniences in being mad with the mad1 than in being wise by oneself4 ,let us say to ourselves1 let us never cease to cry aloud1 that people attach shame1 chastisement1 and infamy to acts that in themselves are innocent2 but let us abstain from committing them1 because shame1 punishment1 and infamy are the greatest of evils4 ,and we hear ,diderot's sincerest accents when he says1 ,above all1 one must be honest1 and true to a scruple1 with the fragile beings who cannot yield to our pleasures without renouncing the most precious advantages of society4#f #f ,oeuv41 ii4 #bdi4 ,this1 however1 does not make the philosophical quality of the discussion any more satisfactory4 ,whatever changes may ultimately come about in the relations between men and women1 we may at least be sure that such changes will be in a direction even still further away than the present conditions of marriage1 from anything like the naturalism of ,diderot and the eighteenth-century school4 ,even if--what does not at present seem at all likely to happen--the idea of the family and the associated idea of private property should eventually be replaced by that form of communism which is to be seen at ,oneida ,creek1 still the discipline of the appetites and affections of sex will necessarily on such a system be not less1 but far more rigorous to nature than it is under prevailing western institutions4#g ,orou would have been a thousand times more unhappy among the ,perfectionists under ,mr4 ,noyes than in ,paris or ,london4 ,we cannot pretend here to discuss the large group of momentous questions involved1 but we may make a short remark or two4 ,one reason why the movement1 if progressive1 must be in the direction of greater subordination of appetite1 is that all experience proves the position and moral worth of women1 taking society as a whole1 to be in proportion to the self-control of their male companions4 ,nobody doubts that man is instinctively polygamous4 ,but the dignity and self-respect1 and consequently the whole moral cultivation of women1 depends on the suppression of this vagrant instinct4 ,and there is no more important chapter in the history of civilisation than the record of the steps by which its violence has been gradually reduced4 #g ,see ,nordhoff's ,communistic ,societies of the ,united ,states 7,london3 ,murray1 #ahge71 pp4 #bei-bic4 ,this grave and most instructive book shows how modifiable are some of those facts of existing human character which are vulgarly deemed to be ultimate and ineradicable4 ,there is another side1 we admit4 ,the home1 of which sentimental philosophers love to talk1 is too often a ghastly failure4 ,the conjugal union1 so tender and elevating in its ideal1 is in more cases than we usually care to recognise1 the cruellest of bonds to the woman1 the most harassing1 deadening1 spirit-breaking of all possible influences to the man4 ,the purity of the family1 so lovely and dear as it is1 has still only been secured hitherto by retaining a vast and dolorous host of female outcasts4 ,when ,catholicism is praised for the additions which it has made to the dignity of womanhood and the family1 we have to set against that gain the frightful growth of this caste of poor creatures1 upon whose heads1 as upon the scapegoat of the ,hebrew ordinance1 we put all the iniquities of the children of the house1 and all their transgressions in all their sins1 and then banish them with maledictions into the foul outer wilderness and the land not inhabited4 ,on this side there is much wholesome truth to be told1 in the midst of the complacent social cant with which we are flooded4 ,but ,diderot does not help us4 ,nothing can possibly be gained by reducing the attraction of the sexes to its purely physical elements1 and stripping it of all the moral associations which have gradually clustered round it1 and acquired such force as in many cases among the highest types of mankind to reduce the physical factor to a secondary place4 ,such a return to the nakedness of the brute must be retrograde4 ,and ,diderot1 as it happened1 was the writer who1 before all others1 habitually exalted the delightful and consolatory sentiment of the family4 ,nobody felt more strongly the worth of domestic ties1 when faithfully cherished4 ,it can only have been in a moment of elated paradox that he made one of the interlocutors in the dialogue on ,bougainville pronounce ,constancy1 ,the poor vanity of two children who do not know themselves1 and who are blinded by the intoxication of a moment to the instability of all that surrounds them3 and ,fidelity1 ,the obstinacy and the punishment of a good man and a good woman3 and ,jealousy1 ,the passion of a miser2 the unjust sentiment of man2 the consequence of our false manners1 and of a right of property extending over a feeling1 willing1 thinking1 free creature4#h #h ,oeuv41 ii4 #bdc4 ,it is a curious example of the blindness which reaction against excess of ascetic doctrine bred in the eighteenth century1 that ,diderot should have failed to see that such sophisms as these are wholly destructive of that order and domestic piety1 to whose beauty he was always so keenly alive4 ,it is curious1 too1 that he should have failed to recognise that the erection of constancy into a virtue would have been impossible1 if it had not answered first1 to some inner want of human character at its best1 and second1 to some condition of fitness in society at its best4 ,how is it1 says one of the interlocutors1 that the strongest1 the sweetest1 the most innocent of pleasures is become the most fruitful source of depravation and misfortune8 ,this is indeed a question well worth asking4 ,and it is comforting after the anarchy of the earlier part of the dialogue to find so comparatively sensible a line of argument taken in answer as the following4 ,this evil result has been brought about1 he says1 by the tyranny of man1 who has converted the possession of woman into a property2 by manners and usages that have overburdened the conjugal union with superfluous conditions2 by the civil laws that have subjected marriage to an infinity of formalities2 by religious institutions that have attached the name of vices and virtues to actions that are not susceptible of morality4 ,if this means that human happiness will be increased by making the condition of the wife more independent in respect of property2 by treating in public opinion separation between husband and wife as a transaction in itself perfectly natural and blameless1 and often not only laudable1 but a duty2 and by abolishing that barbarous iniquity and abomination called restitution of conjugal rights1 then the speaker points to what has been justly described as the next great step in the improvement of society4 ,if it means that we do wrong to invest with the most marked1 serious1 and unmistakable formality an act that brings human beings into existence1 with uncounted results both to such beings themselves and to others who are equally irresponsible for their appearance in the world1 then the position is recklessly immoral1 and it is1 moreover1 wholly repugnant to ,diderot's own better mind4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,romance4 ,the ,president de ,brosses on a visit to ,paris1 in #aged1 was anxious to make the acquaintance of that furious metaphysical head1 as he styled ,diderot4 ,buffon introduced him4 ,he is a good fellow1 said the ,president1 very pleasant1 very amiable1 a great philosopher1 a strong reasoner1 but given to perpetual digressions4 ,he made twenty-five digressions yesterday in my room1 between nine o'clock and one o'clock4 ,and so it is that a critic who has undertaken to give an account of ,diderot1 finds himself advancing from digression to digression1 through a chain of all the subjects that are under the sun4 ,the same ,diderot1 however1 is present amid them all1 and behind each of them2 the same fresh enthusiasm1 the same expansive sympathy1 the same large hospitality of spirit4 ,always1 too1 the same habitual reference of ideas1 systems1 artistic forms1 to the complex realities of life1 and to these realities as they figured to sympathetic emotions4 ,it was inevitable that ,diderot should make an idol of the author of ,clarissa ,harlowe4 ,the spirit of reaction against the artificiality of the pseudo-classic drama1 which drove him to feel the way to a drama of real life in the middle class1 made him exult in the romance of ordinary private life which was invented by ,richardson4 ,it was no mere accident that the modern novel had its origin in ,england1 but the result of general social causes4 ,the modern novel essentially depends on the interest of the private life of ordinary men and women4 ,but this interest was only possible on condition that the feudal and aristocratic spirit had received its deathblow1 and it was only in ,england that such a revolution had taken place even partially4 ,it was only in ,england as yet that the middle class had conquered a position of consideration1 equality1 and independence4 ,only in ,england1 as has been said1 had every man the power of making the best of his own personality1 and arranging his own destiny according to his private goodwill and pleasure4#i ,the greatest of ,richardson's successors in the history of ,english fiction adds to this explanation4 ,those1 says ,sir ,walter ,scott1 who with patience had studied rant and bombast in the folios of ,scuderi1 could not readily tire of nature1 sense1 and genius in the octavos of ,richardson4 ,the old ,french romances in which ,europe had found a dreary amusement1 were stories of princes and princesses4 ,it was to be expected that the first country where princes and princesses were shorn of divinity and made creatures of an ,act of ,parliament1 would also be the country where imagination would be most likely to seek for serious passion1 realistic interest1 and all the material for pathos and tragedy in the private lives of common individuals4 ,it is true that ,marivaux1 the author of ,marianne1 was of the school of ,richardson before ,richardson wrote a word4 ,but this was an almost isolated appearance1 and not the beginning of a movement4 ,richardson's popularity stamped the opening of a new epoch4 ,it was the landmark of a great social1 no less than a great literary transition1 when all ,england went mad with enthusiasm over the trials1 the virtue1 the triumph of a rustic ladies'-maid4 #i ,hettner's ,literaturgeschichte1 i4 #dfb4 ,in the literary circles of ,france the enthusiasm for ,richardson was quite as great as it was in ,england4 ,there it was one of the signs of the certain approach of that transformation which had already taken place in ,england2 the transformation from feudalism to industrial democracy4 ,it may sound a paradox to say that a passion for ,richardson was a symbol that a man was truly possessed by the spirit of political revolution4 ,yet it is true4 ,voltaire was a revolter against superstition and the tyranny of the church1 but he never threw off the monarchic traditions of his younger days2 he was always a friend of great nobles2 he had no eye and no inclination for social overthrow4 ,and this is what ,voltaire said of ,clarissa ,harlowe3 ,it is cruel for a man like me to read nine whole volumes in which you find nothing at all4 ,i said--,even if all these people were my relations and friends1 ,i could take no interest in them4 ,i can see nothing in the writer but a clever man who knows the curiosity of the human race1 and is always promising something from volume to volume1 in order to go on selling them4 ,in the same way1 and for exactly the same reasons1 he could never understand the enthusiasm for the ,new ,heloisa1 the greatest of the romances that were directly modelled on ,richardson4 ,he had no vision for the strange social aspirations that were silently haunting the inner mind of his contemporaries4 ,of these aspirations1 in all their depth and significance1 ,diderot was the half-conscious oracle and unaccepted prophet4 ,it was not deliberate philosophical calculation that made him so1 but the spontaneous impulse of his own genius and temperament4 ,he was no conscious political destroyer1 but his soul was open to all those voices of sentiment1 to all those ideals of domestic life1 to those primary forces of natural affection1 which were so urgently pressing asunder the old feudal bonds1 and so swiftly ripening a vast social crisis4 ,thus his enthusiasm for ,richardson was1 at its root1 another side of that love of the life of peaceful industry1 which gave one of its noblest characteristics to the ,encyclopaedia4 ,to this enthusiasm ,diderot gave voice in half a dozen pages which are counted among his masterpieces4 ,richardson died in #agfa1 and ,diderot flung off a commemorative piece1 which is without any order and connection2 but this makes it more an echo1 as he called it1 of the tumult of his own heart4 ,here1 indeed1 he merits ,gautier's laudatory phrase1 and is as flamboyant as one could desire4 ,to understand the march of feeling in ,french literature1 and to measure the growth and expansion in criticism1 we need only compare ,diderot's eloge on ,richardson with ,fontenelle's eloge on ,dangeau or ,leibnitz4 ,the exaggerations of phrase1 the violences of feeling1 the broken apostrophes1 give to ,diderot's eloge an unpleasant tone of declamation4 ,some of us may still prefer the moderation1 the subtlety1 the nice discrimination1 of the critics of another school4 ,still it would be a sign of narrowness and short-sight not to discern the sincerity1 the movement1 the real meaning underneath all that profusion of glaring colour4 ,o ,richardson1 ,richardson1 unique among men in my eyes1 thou shalt be my favourite all my life long6 ,if ,i am hard driven by pressing need1 if my friend is overtaken by want1 if the mediocrity of my fortune is not enough to give my children what is necessary for their education1 ,i will sell my books2 but thou shalt remain to me1 thou shalt remain on the same shelf with ,moses1 ,homer1 ,euripides1 ,sophocles6 ,o ,richardson1 ,i make bold to say that the truest history is full of falsehoods1 and that your romance is full of truths4 ,history paints a few individuals2 you paint the human race4 ,history sets down to its few individuals what they have neither said nor done2 whatever you set down to man1 he has both said and done4444 ,no2 ,i say that history is often a bad novel2 and the novel1 as you have handled it1 is good history4 ,o painter of nature1 'tis you who are never false6 ,you accuse ,richardson of being long6 ,you must have forgotten how much trouble1 pains1 busy movement1 it costs to bring the smallest undertaking to a good issue1--to end a suit1 to settle a marriage1 to bring about a reconciliation4 ,think of these details what you please1 but for me they will be full of interest if they are only true1 if they bring out the passions1 if they display character4 ,they are common1 you say2 it is all what one sees every day4 ,you are mistaken2 'tis what passes every day before your eyes1 and what you never see4 ,in ,richardson's work1 he says1 as in the world1 men are divided into two classes1 those who enjoy and those who suffer1 and it is always to the latter that he draws the mind of the reader4 ,it is due to ,richardson1 he cries1 if ,i have loved my fellow-creatures better1 and loved my duties better2 if ,i have never felt anything but pity for the bad2 if ,i have conceived a deeper compassion for the unfortunate1 more veneration for the good1 more circumspection in the use of present things1 more indifference about future things1 more contempt for life1 more love for virtue4 ,the works of ,richardson are his touch-stone2 those who do not love them1 stand judged and condemned in his eyes4 ,yet in the midst of this tumult of admiration ,diderot admits that the number of readers who will feel all their value can never be great2 it requires too severe a taste1 and then the variety of events is such1 relations are so multiplied1 the management of them is so complicated1 there are so many things arranged1 so many personages6 ,o ,richardson2 if thou hast not enjoyed in thy lifetime all the reputation of thy deserts1 how great wilt thou be to our grandchildren when they see thee from the distance at which we now view ,homer6 ,then who will there be with daring enough to strike out a line of thy sublime work8#aj ,yet of the very moderate number of living persons who have ever read ,clarissa ,harlowe1 it would be safe to say that the large majority have read it in a certain abridgment in three volumes which appeared some years ago4 #aj ,the ,eloge de ,richardson is in ,diderot's ,works1 v4 #bab-bbg4 ,doctor ,johnson made the answer of true criticism to some one who complained to him that ,richardson is tedious4 ,why1 sir1 he said1 if you were to read ,richardson for the story1 your impatience would be so much frighted that you would hang yourself4 ,but you must read him for the sentiment1 and consider the story only as giving occasion to the sentiment4 ,and this is just what ,diderot and the ,paris of the middle of the eighteenth century were eager to do4 ,it was the sentiment that touched and delighted them in ,clarissa1 just as it was the sentiment that made the fortune of the great romance in their own tongue1 which was inspired by ,clarissa1 and yet was so different from ,clarissa4 ,rousseau threw into the ,new ,heloisa a glow of passion of which the ,london printer was incapable1 and he added a beauty of external landscape and a strong feeling for the objects and movement of wild natural scenery that are very different indeed from the atmosphere of the cedar-parlour and the ,flask ,walk at ,hampstead4 ,but the sentiment1 the adoration of the belle ame1 is the same1 and it was the belle ame that fascinated that curious society1 where rude logic and a stern anti-religious dialectic went hand-in-hand with the most tender and exalted sensibility4#aa ,it is singular that ,diderot says nothing about ,rousseau's famous romance1 and we can only suppose that his silence arose from his contempt for the private perversity and seeming insincerity of the author4 #aa ,the belle ame was the origin of the schoene ,seele that has played such a part in ,german literature and life4 ,the reader will find a history of the expression in an appendix to ,dr4 ,erich ,schmidt's study4 ,richardson1 ,rousseau1 und ,goethe 7,jena1 #ahge74 ,diderot made one attempt of his own1 in which we may notice the influence of the minute realism and the tearful pathos of ,richardson4 ,the ,nun was not given to the world until #agif1 when its author had been twelve years in his grave4 ,since then it has been reproduced in countless editions in ,france and ,belgium1 and has been translated into ,english1 ,spanish1 and ,german4 ,it fell in with certain passionate movements of the popular mind against some anti-social practices of the ,catholic ,church4 ,perhaps it is not unjust to suppose that the horrible picture of the depraved abbess has had some share in attracting a public4 ,it is thoroughly characteristic of ,diderot's dreamy1 heedless humour1 and of the sincerity both of his interest in his work for its own sake1 and of his indifference to the popular voice1 that he should have allowed this1 like so many other pieces1 to lie in his drawer1 or at most to circulate clandestinely among three or four of his more intimate friends4 ,it was written about #agfj1 and ingenious historians have made of it a signal for the great crusade against the ,church4 ,in truth1 as we have seen1 it was a strictly private performance1 and could be no signal for a public movement4 ,la ,religieuse was undoubtedly an expression of the strong feeling of the ,encyclopaedic school about celibacy1 renunciation of the world1 and the burial of men and women alive in the cloister4 ,the circumstances under which the story was written are worthy of a word or two4 ,among the friends of ,madame d',epinay1 ,grimm1 and ,diderot was a certain ,marquis de ,croismare4 ,he had deserted the circle1 and retired to his estates in ,normandy4 ,it occurred to one of them that it would be a pleasant stratagem for recalling him to ,paris1 to invent a personage who should be shut up in a convent against her will1 and then to make this personage appeal to the well-known courage and generosity of the ,marquis de ,croismare to rescue her4 ,a previous adventure of the ,marquis suggested the fiction1 and made its success the more probable4 ,diderot composed the letters of the imaginary nun1 and the conspirators had the satisfaction of making merry at supper over the letters which the loyal and unsuspecting ,marquis sent in reply4 ,at length the ,marquis's interest became so eager that they resolved that the best way of ending his torment was to make the nun die4 ,when the ,marquis de ,croismare returned to ,paris1 the plot was confessed1 the victim of the mystification laughed at the joke1 and the friendship of the party seemed to be strengthened by their common sorrow for the woes of the dead sister4 ,but ,diderot had been taken in his own trap4 ,his imagination1 which he had set to work in jest1 was caught by the figure and the situation4 ,one day while he was busy about the tale1 a friend paid him a visit1 and found him plunged in grief and his face bathed in tears4 ,what in the world can be the matter with you8 cried the friend4 ,what the matter8 answered ,diderot in a broken voice2 ,i am filled with misery by a story that ,i am writing6 ,this capacity of thinking of imaginary personages as if they were friends living in the next street1 had been stirred by ,richardson4 ,his acquaintances would sometimes notice anxiety and consternation on his countenance1 and would ask him if anything had befallen his health1 his friends1 his family1 his fortune4 ,o my friends1 he would reply1 ,pamela1 ,clarissa1 ,grandison 4446 ,it was in their world1 not in the ,rue ,taranne1 that he really lived when these brooding moods overtook him4 ,and while he was writing ,the ,nun1 ,sister ,susan and ,sister ,theresa1 the lady superior of ,longchamp1 and the libertine superior of ,saint ,eutropius1 were as alive to him as ,clarissa was alive to the score of correspondents who begged ,richardson to spare her honour1 not to let her die1 to make ,lovelace marry her1 or by no means to allow ,lovelace to marry her4 ,the ,nun professes to be the story of a young lady whose family have thrust her into a convent1 and her narrative1 with an energy and reality that ,diderot hardly ever surpassed1 presents the odious sides of monastic life1 and the various types of superstition1 tyranny1 and corruption that monastic life engenders4 ,yet ,diderot had far too much genius to be tempted into the exaggerations of more vulgar assailants of monkeries and nunneries4 ,he may have begun his work with the purpose of attacking a mischievous and superstitious system that mutilates human life1 but he certainly continued it because he became interested in his creations4 ,diderot was a social destroyer by accident1 but in intention he was a truly scientific moralist1 penetrated by the spirit of observation and experiment2 he shrunk from no excess in dissection1 and found nothing in human pathology too repulsive for examination4 ,yet ,the ,nun has none of the artificial violences of the modern ,french school1 which loves moral disease for its own sake4 ,the action is all very possible1 and the types are all sufficiently human and probable4 ,the close realistic touches which flowed from the intensity of the writer's illusion1 naturally convey a certain degree of the same illusion to the mind of the reader4 ,existence as it goes on in these strange hives is caught with what one knows to be true fidelity2 its dulness1 its littleness1 its goings and comings1 its spite1 its reduction of the spiritual to the most purely mechanical4 ,the first moments passed in mutual praises1 in questions about the house that ,i had quitted1 in experiments as to my character1 my inclinations1 my tastes1 my understanding4 ,they feel you all over2 there is a number of little snares that they set for you1 and from which they draw the most just conclusions4 ,for example1 they throw out some word of scandal1 and then they look at you2 they begin a story1 and then wait to see whether you will ask for the end or will leave it there2 if you make the most ordinary remark1 they declare that it is charming1 though they know well enough that it is nothing2 they praise or they blame you with a purpose2 they try to worm out your most hidden thoughts2 they question you as to what you read2 they offer you religious books and profane1 and carefully notice your choice2 they invite you to some slight infractions of the rule2 they tell you little confidences1 and throw out hints about the foibles of the ,lady ,superior4 ,all is carefully gathered up and told over again4 ,they leave you1 they take you up again2 they try to sound your sentiments about manners1 about piety1 about the world1 about religion1 about the monastic life1 about everything4 ,the result of all these repeated experiments is an epithet that stamps your character1 and is always added by way of surname to the name that you already bear4 ,i was called ,sister ,susan the ,reserved4#ab #ab ,la ,religieuse4 ,oeuv41 v4 #aaj4 ,the portraits we feel to be to the life4 ,the strongest of them all is undoubtedly the most disagreeable1 the most atrocious2 it is1 if you will1 the most infamous4 ,we can only endure it as we endure to traverse the ward for epileptics in an hospital for the insane4 ,it is appalling1 it fills you with horror1 it haunts you for days and nights1 it leaves a kind of stain on the memory4 ,it is a possibility of character of which the healthy1 the pure1 the unthinking have never dreamed4 ,such a portrait is not art1 that is true2 but it is science1 and that delivers the critic from the necessity of searching his vocabulary for the cheap superlatives of moral censure4 ,whether it be art or science1 however1 men cannot but ask themselves how ,diderot came to think it worth while to execute so painful a study4 ,the only answer is that the irregularities of human nature--those more shameful parts of it1 which in some characters survive the generations of social pressure that have crushed them down in civilised communities--had an irresistible attraction for the curiosity of his genius4 ,the whole story is full of power2 it abounds in phrases that have the stamp of genius2 and suppressed vehemence lends to it strength4 ,but it is fatally wanting in the elements of tenderness1 beauty1 and sympathy4 ,if we chance to take it up for a second or for a tenth time1 it infallibly holds us2 but nobody seeks to return to it of his own will1 and it holds us under protest4 ,if ,richardson created one school in ,france1 ,sterne created another4 ,the author of ,tristram ,shandy was himself only a follower of one of the greatest of ,french originals1 and a follower at a long distance4 ,even those who have the keenest relish for our good-humoured1 civil1 nonsensical1 ,shandean kind of a book1 ought to admit how far it falls behind ,rabelais in exuberance1 force1 richness of extravagance1 breadth of colour1 fulness of blood4 ,they may claim1 however1 for ,sterne what1 in comparison with these great elements1 are the minor qualities of simplicity1 tenderness1 precision1 and finesse4 ,these are the qualities that delighted the ,french taste4 ,in #agfb ,sterne visited ,paris1 and found ,tristram ,shandy almost as well known there as in ,london1 and he instantly had dinners and suppers for a fortnight on his hands4 ,among them were dinners and suppers at ,holbach's1 where he made the acquaintance of ,diderot1 and where perhaps he made the discovery that notwithstanding the ,french make such a pother about the word sentiment1 they have no precise idea attached to it4#ac ,the ,sentimental ,journey appeared in #agfh1 and was instantly pronounced by the critics in both countries to be inimitable4 ,it is no wonder that a performance of such delicacy of literary expression1 united with so much good-nature1 such easy1 humane1 amiable feeling1 went to the hearts of the ,french of the eighteenth century4 ,my design in it1 said ,sterne1 was to teach us to love the world and our fellow-creatures better than we do1 so it runs most upon those gentle passions and affections which aid so much to it4#ad ,this exactly fell in with the reigning ,parisian modes1 and with such sentiment as that of ,diderot most of all4 ,there were several ,french imitations of the ,sentimental ,journey1#ae but the only one that has survived in popular esteem1 if indeed this can be said to have survived1 is ,diderot's ,jacques le ,fataliste4 #ac ,sterne's ,letters1 ,may #bc1 #agfe4 #ad ,nov4 #ab1 #agfg4 #ae ,e4g4 ,le ,voyageur ,sentimental of ,vernes 7,grimm1 ,corr4 ,lit41 xiii4 #bbg74 ,it seems to have been composed about the time 7#aggc7 of ,diderot's journey to ,holland and ,st4 ,petersburg1 of which we shall have more to say in a later chapter4 ,its history is almost as singular as the history of ,rameau's ,nephew4 ,a contemporary speaks of a score of copies as existing in different parts of ,germany1 and we may conjecture that they found their way there from friends whom ,diderot made in ,holland1 and some of them were no doubt sent by ,grimm to his subscribers4 ,the first fragment of it that saw the light in print was in a translation that ,schiller made of its most striking episode1 in the year #aghe4 ,this is another illustration of the eagerness of the best minds of ,germany to possess and diffuse the most original products of ,french intelligence and hardihood4 ,diderot1 as we have said1 stands in the front rank along with ,rousseau1 along also with ,richardson1 ,sterne1 and ,goldsmith1 among those who in ,germany kindled the glow of sentimentalism1 both in its good and its bad forms4 ,it was in ,germany that the first complete version of the whole of ,jacques le ,fataliste appeared1 in #agib4 ,not until four years later did the ,french obtain an original transcript4 ,this they owed to the generosity of ,prince ,henri of ,prussia1 the brother of ,frederick the ,great2 he presented it to the ,institute4 ,there is going about here1 wrote ,goethe in #aghj1 while ,diderot was still alive1 a manuscript of ,diderot's called ,jacques le ,fataliste et son ,maitre1 and it is really first-rate--a very fine and exquisite meal1 prepared and dished up with great skill1 as if for the palate of some singular idol4 ,i set myself in the place of this ,bel1 and in six uninterrupted hours swallowed all the courses in the order1 and according to the intentions1 of this excellent cook and maitre d'hotel4#af ,he goes on to say that when other people came to read it1 some preferred one story1 and some another4 ,on the whole1 one is strongly inclined to judge that few modern readers will equal ,goethe's unsparing appetite4 ,the reader sighs in thinking of the brilliant and unflagging wit1 the verve1 the wicked graces of ,candide1 and we long for the ease and simplicity and light stroke of the ,sentimental ,journey4 ,diderot has the ,german heaviness4 ,perhaps this is because he had too much conscience1 and laboured too deeply under the burdensome problems of the world4 ,he could not emancipate himself sufficiently from the tumult of his own sympathies4 ,at many a page both of ,jacques le ,fataliste1 and of others of his pieces1 we involuntarily recall the writer's own contention that excess of sensibility makes a mediocre actor4 ,the same law is emphatically true of the artist4 ,diderot never writes as if his spirit were quite free--and perhaps it never was free4 ,if we are to enjoy these reckless outbursts of all that is bizarre and grotesque1 these defiances of all that is sane1 coherent1 and rational1 we must never feel conscious of a limitation1 or a possibility of stint or check4 ,the draught must seem to come from an exhaustless fountain of boisterous laughter1 irony1 and caprice4 ,perfect fooling is so rare an art1 that not half a dozen men in literature have really possessed it2 perhaps only ,aristophanes1 ,rabelais1 ,shakespeare4 ,candide1 wonderful as it is1 has many a stroke of malice1 and ,tristram ,shandy1 wonderful as that is too1 is not without tinges of self-consciousness2 and neither malice nor self-consciousness belongs to the greater gods of buffoonery4 ,cervantes and ,moliere1 those great geniuses of finest temper1 still have none of the reckless buffoonery of such scenes as that between ,prince ,henry and the drawer1 or the mad extravagances of the ,merry ,wives2 still less of the wild topsy-turvy of the ,birds or the ,peace4 ,they have not the note of true ,pantagruelism4 ,most critics1 again1 would find in ,swift a truculence1 sometimes latent and sometimes flagrant1 that would deprive him1 too1 of his place among these great masters of free and exuberant farce4 ,diderot1 at any rate1 must rank in the second class among those who have attempted to tread a measure among the whimsical zigzags of unreason4 ,the sincere sentimentalist makes a poor reveller4 #af ,quoted in ,rosenkranz1 ii4 #cbf4 ,we have spoken1 as many others have done before us1 of ,diderot as imitating our two ,english celebrities1 and in one sense that is a perfectly true description4 ,in ,jacques le ,fataliste whole sentences are transcribed in letter and word from ,tristram ,shandy4 ,yet imitation is hardly the right word for the process by which ,diderot showed that an author had seized and affected him4 ,la ,religieuse would not have been written if there had been no ,richardson1 nor ,jacques le ,fataliste if there had been no ,sterne2 yet ,diderot's work is not really like the work of either of his celebrated contemporaries4 ,they gave him the suggestion of a method and a sentiment to start from1 and he mused and brooded over it until1 from among the clouds of his imagination1 there began to loom figures of his own1 moving along a path which was also his own4 ,this was the history of his adaptation of ,the ,natural ,son from ,goldoni4 ,we can only be sure that nothing became blithe in its passage through his mind4 ,he was too much of a preacher to be an effective humorist4 ,there is in ,jacques le ,fataliste none of that gift of true creation which produced such figures as ,trim1 and my ,uncle ,toby1 and ,mr4 ,shandy4 ,jacques's master is a mere lay figure1 and ,jacques himself1 with his monotonous catchword1 ,il etait ecrit la-haut1 has no real personality2 he has none of the naturalness that wins us to ,corporal ,trim1 still less has he any touch of the profound humour of the immortal ,sancho4 ,the book is a series of stories1 rather than ,sterne's subtle amalgam of pathos1 gentle irony1 and frank buffoonery2 and the stories themselves are for the most part either insipid or obscene4 ,there is perhaps one exception4 ,the longest and the most elaborate of them1 that which ,schiller translated1 is more like one of the modern ,french novels of a certain kind1 than any other production of the eighteenth century4 ,the adventure of ,madame de ,pommeraye and the ,marquis d',arcis is a crude foreshadowing of a style that has been perfected by ,m4 ,feydeau and ,m4 ,flaubert4 ,the ,marquis has been the lover of ,madame de ,pommeraye2 he grows weary of her1 and in time the lady discovers the bitter truth4 ,resignation is not among her virtues1 and in her rage and anguish she devises an elaborate plan of revenge1 which she carries out with the utmost tenacity and resolution4 ,it consists in leading him on1 by skilful incitements1 to marry a woman whom he supposes to be an angel of purity1 but whom ,madame de ,pommeraye triumphantly reveals to him on the morning after his marriage as a creature whose past history has been one of notorious depravity4 ,this disagreeable story1 of which ,balzac would have made a masterpiece1 is told in an interesting way1 and the humoristic machinery by which the narrative is managed is less tiresome than usual4 ,it is at least a story with meaning1 purpose1 and character4 ,it is neither a jumble without savour or point1 nor is it rank and gross like half the pages in the book4 ,your ,jacques1 ,diderot supposes some one to say to him1 is only a tasteless rhapsody of facts1 some real1 others imaginary1 written without grace1 and distributed without order4 ,how can a man of sense and conduct1 who prides himself on his philosophy1 find amusement in spinning out tales so obscene as these8#ag ,and this is exactly what the modern critic is bound to ask4 ,in ,rabelais there is at least puissant laughter2 in ,montaigne1 when he dwells on such matters1 there is naivete4 ,in ,diderot we do not even feel that he is having any enjoyment in his grossnesses2 they have not even the bad excuse of seeming spontaneous and coming from the fulness of his heart4 ,reader1 he says1 ,i amuse myself in writing the follies that you commit2 your follies make me laugh2 and my book puts you out of humour4 ,to speak frankly to you1 ,i find that the more wicked of us two is not myself4 ,unhappily1 he does not convey the impression of amusement to his readers2 it has no infection in it1 and if his book puts us out of humour1 it is not by its satire on mankind1 but by its essential want of point and want of meaning1 either moral or aesthetic4 ,the few masters of this style have known how to bind the heterogeneous elements together1 if not by some deep-lying purpose1 at least by some pervading mood of rich and mellow feeling4 ,in ,jacques le ,fataliste is neither4 #ag vi4 #bba1 #bbb4 ,that men of the stamp of ,goethe and ,schiller should have found such a book of delicious feast1 naturally makes the disparaging critic pause4 ,in truth1 we can easily see how it was4 ,like all the rest of ,diderot's work1 it breaks roughly in upon that starved formalism which had for long lain so heavily both on art and life4 ,its hardihood1 its very license1 its contempt of conventions1 its presentation of common people and coarse passions and rough lives1 all made it a dissolvent of the thin1 dry1 and frigid rules which tyrannised over the world1 and interposed between the artist or the thinker and the real existence of man on the earth4 ,when we think of what ,european literature was1 it ceases to be wonderful that ,goethe should have been unable for six whole hours to tear himself away from a book that so few men to-day1 save under some compulsion1 could persuade themselves to read through4 ,on great wholesome minds the grossness left no stain1 and the interest of ,diderot's singularities worked as a stimulus to a happier originality in men of more disciplined endowments4 ,and let us add1 of more poetic endowments4 ,it is the lack of poetry in ,jacques that makes its irony so heavy to us4 ,we only willingly suffer those to take us down into the depths who can also raise us on the wings of a beautiful fancy4 ,even ,rabelais has his poetic moments1 as in the picture of ,cupid self-disarmed before the industrious serenity of the ,muses4 ,a single lovely image1 like ,sterne's figure of the recording angel1 reconciles us to many a miry page4 ,but in ,jacques le ,fataliste1 ,diderot never raises his eye for an instant to the blue aether1 his ear catches no harmony of awe1 of hope1 nor even of a noble despair4 ,with a kind of clumsy jubilancy he holds us fast in the ways and language of thick and clogged sense4 ,the fatrasie of old ,france has its place in literature1 but it can never be restored in ages when a host of moral anxieties have laid siege to men's souls4 ,the uncommon is always welcome to the lover of art1 but it must justify itself4 ,jacques has the quality of the uncommon2 it is a curiously prepared dish1 as ,goethe said2 but it lacks the pinch of salt and the handful of herbs with sharp diffusive flavour4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,art4 ,in #agei ,diderot wrote for ,grimm the first of his criticisms on the exhibition of paintings in the ,salon4 ,at the beginning of the reign of ,lewis ,,xv4 these exhibitions took place every year1 as they take place now4 ,but from #agea onwards1 they were only held once in two years4 ,diderot has left his notes on every salon from #agei to #agha1 with the exception of that of #aggc1 when he was travelling in ,holland and ,russia4 ,we have already seen how ,grimm made ,diderot work for him4 ,the nine ,salons are one of the results of this willing bondage1 and they are perhaps the only part of ,diderot's works that has enjoyed a certain measure of general popularity4 ,mr4 ,carlyle describes them with emphatic enthusiasm3 ,what with their unrivalled clearness1 painting the picture over again for us1 so that we too see it1 and can judge it2 what with their sunny fervour1 inventiveness1 real artistic genius1 which wants nothing but a hand1 they are with some few exceptions in the ,german tongue1 the only ,pictorial ,criticisms we know of worth reading4#ah ,i only love painting in poetry1 ,madame ,necker said to ,diderot1 and it is into poetry that you have found out the secret of rendering the works of our modern painters1 even the commonest of them4 ,it would be a truly imperial luxury1 wrote ,a4 ,w4 ,schlegel1 to get a collection of pictures described for oneself by ,diderot4 #ah ,essays1 iv4 #cjc4 7,ed4 #ahfi47 ,there is a freshness1 a vivacity1 a zeal1 a sincerity1 a brightness of interest in his subject1 which are perhaps unique in the whole history of criticism4 ,he flings himself into the task with the perfection of natural abandonment to a joyous and delightful subject4 ,his whole personality is engaged in a work that has all the air of being overflowing pleasure1 and his pleasure is contagious4 ,his criticism awakens the imagination of the reader4 ,not only do we see the picture2 we hear ,diderot's own voice in ecstasies of praise and storms of boisterous wrath4 ,there is such mass in his criticism2 so little of the mincing and niggling of the small virtuoso4 ,in facility of expression1 in animation1 in fecundity of mood1 in fine improvisation1 these pieces are truly incomparable4 ,there is such an impetus animi et quaedam artis libido4 ,some of the charm and freedom may be due to the important circumstance that he was not writing for the public4 ,he was not exposed to the reaction of a large unknown audience upon style2 hence the absence of all the stiffness of literary pose4 ,but the positive conditions of such success lay in the resources of ,diderot's own character4 ,the sceptic1 the dogmatist1 the dialectician1 and the other personages of a heterogeneous philosophy who existed in ,diderot's head1 all disappear or fall back into a secondary place1 and he surrenders himself with a curious freedom to such imaginative beauty as contemporary art provided for him4 ,diderot was perhaps the one writer of the time who was capable on occasion of rising above the strong prevailing spirit of the time2 capable of forgetting for a season the passion of the great philosophical and ecclesiastical battle4 ,no one save ,diderot could have been moved by sight of a picture to such an avowal as this3 ,absurd rigorists do not know the effect of external ceremonies on the people2 they can never have seen the enthusiasm of the multitude at the procession of the ,fete ,dieu1 an enthusiasm that sometimes gains even me4 ,i have never seen that long file of priests in their vestments2 those young acolytes clad in their white robes1 with broad blue sashes engirdling their waists1 and casting flowers on the ground before the ,holy ,sacrament2 the crowd as it goes before and follows after them hushed in religious silence1 and so many with their faces bent reverently to the ground2 ,i have never heard that grave and pathetic chant1 as it is led by the priests and fervently responded to by an infinity of voices of men1 of women1 of girls1 of little children1 without my inmost heart being stirred1 and tears coming into my eyes4 ,there is in it something1 ,i know not what1 that is grand1 solemn1 sombre1 and mournful4 ,thus to find the material of religious reaction in the author of ,jacques le ,fataliste and the centre of the atheistic group1 completes the circle of ,diderot's immense and deep-lying versatility4 ,and in his account of such a mood1 we see how he came to be so great and poetical a critic2 we see the sincerity1 the alertness1 the profound mobility1 with which he was open to impressions of colour1 of sound1 of the pathos of human aspiration1 of the solemn concourses of men4 ,france has long been sovereign in criticism in its literary sense4 ,in that department she has simply never had1 and has not now1 any serious rival4 ,in the profounder historic criticism1 ,germany exhibits her one great1 peculiar1 and original gift4 ,in the criticism of art ,germany has at least three memorable names2 but save where history is concerned most modern ,german aesthetics are so clouded with metaphysical speculation as to leave the obscurity of a very difficult subject as thick as it was before4 ,in ,france the beginnings of art-criticism were literary rather than philosophic1 and with the exception of ,cousin's worthless eloquence1 and of the writers whose philosophy ,cousin dictated1 and of ,m4 ,taine's ingenious paradoxes1 ,diderot is the only writer who has deliberately brought a vivid spirit and a philosophic judgment to the discussion of the forms of ,beauty1 as things worthy of real elucidation4 ,as far back as the time of the ,english ,restoration1 ,dufresnoy had written in bad ,latin a poem on the art of ,painting1 which had the signal honour of being translated into good ,english by no less illustrious a master of ,english than ,dryden1 and it was again translated by ,mason1 the friend of ,reynolds and of ,gray4 ,imitations1 applied to the pictorial art1 of the immortal ,epistle to the ,pisos1 came thick in ,france in the eighteenth century4#ai ,but these effusions are merely literary1 and they are very bad literature indeed4 ,the abbe ,dubos published in #agai a volume of ,critical ,reflections on ,poetry and ,painting1 including observations also on the relations of those arts to ,music4 ,lessing is known to have made use of this work in his ,laocoeon1 and ,diderot gave it a place among the books which he recommended in his ,plan of a ,university4#bj ,this1 as it is the earliest1 seems to have been the best contribution to aesthetic thought before ,lessing and ,diderot4 ,daniel ,webb1 the ,english friend of ,raphael ,mengs1 published an ,enquiry into the ,beauties of ,painting 7#agfj71 and ,diderot wrote a notice of it1#ba but it appears to have made no mark on his mind4 ,andre1 a ,jesuit father1 wrote an ,essay on the ,beautiful 7#agda71 which distributed the kinds of art with precision1 but omitted to say in what the ,beautiful consists4 ,the abbe ,batteux wrote a volume reducing the fine arts to a single principle1 and another volume attempting a systematic classification of them4 ,the first of these was the occasion of ,diderot's ,letter on ,deaf ,mutes1 and ,diderot described their author as a good man of letters1 but without taste1 without criticism1 and without philosophy2 a ces bagatelles pres1 le plus joli garcon du monde4#bb #ai ,e4g4 ,watelet's poem1 ,sur l',art de ,peindre1 #agfj2 ,le ,mierre's ,sur la ,peinture1 #agfi2 ,marsy's ,pictura ,carmen1 #agcf4 ,see ,diderot's works1 xiii4 #ag1 etc4 #bj ,oeuv41 iii4 #dhf4 ,guhrauer1 ii4 #ae4 ,also ,bluemner's admirable edition of the ,laocoeon1 p4 #agc4 #ba xiii4 #cc4 #bb ,grimm1 ,corr4 ,lit41 iv4 #acf4 ,in another place in the same work either ,grimm or ,diderot makes a remark about ,batteux1 which is worth remembering in our own age of official vindications of orthodoxy4 ,the abbe had written a book about first causes4 ,i venture to observe moreover to ,m4 l'abbe ,batteux that when in this world a man has put on the dress of any sort of harlequin1 red or black1 with a pair of bands or a frill1 he ought to give up once for all every kind of philosophic discussion1 because it is impossible for him to speak according to his faith and his conscience2 and a writer of bad faith is all the more odious1 as nothing compelled him to break silence4 ,ib4 vi4 #abj4 ,travellers to the land where criticism of art has been so slight1 and where production has been so noble1 so bounteous1 so superb1 published the story of what ,italy had shown to them4 ,madame de ,pompadour designed to make her brother the ,superintendent of fine arts1 and she despatched ,cochin1 the great engraver of the day1 to accompany him in a studious tour through the holy land of the arts4 ,cochin was away nearly two years1 and on his return produced three little volumes 7#ageh71 in which he deals such blows to some vaunted immortalities as made the idolators by convention not a little angry4 ,the abbe ,richard 7#agff7 published six very stupid volumes on ,italy1 and such criticism on art as they contain is not worthy of serious remark4 ,the ,president de ,brosses spent a year in ,italy 7#agci-dj71 and wrote letters to his friends at home1 which may be read to-day with interest and pleasure for their graphic picture of ,italian society2 but the criticisms which they contain on the great works of art are those of a well-informed man of the world1 taking many things for granted1 rather than of a philosophical critic industriously using his own mind4 ,his book recalls to us how true the eighteenth century was to itself in its hatred of ,gothic architecture1 that symbol and associate of mysticism1 and of the age which the eighteenth century blindly abhorred as the source of all the tyrannical laws and cruel superstitions that still weighed so heavily on mankind4 ,you know the ,palace of ,saint ,mark at ,venice1 says ,de ,brosses3 c'est un vilain monsieur1 s'il eu fut jamais1 massif1 sombre1 et gothique1 du plus mechant gout6#bc #bc ,lettres ,familieres1 i4 #agd4 7,ed4 #ahfi47 ,dupaty1 like ,de ,brosses1 an eminent lawyer1 an acquaintance of ,diderot and an early friend of a conspicuous figure of a later time1 the ill-starred ,vergniaud1 travelled in ,italy almost immediately before the ,revolution 7#aghe71 and his letters1 when read with those of ,de ,brosses1 are a curious illustration of the change that had come over the spirit of men in the interval4 ,he leaves the pictures of the ,pitti collection at ,florence1 and plunges into meditation in the famous gardens behind the palace1 rejoicing with much expansion in the glories of light and air1 in greenery and the notes of birds1 and finally sums all up in one rapturous exclamation of the vast superiority of nature over art4#bd #bd ,dupaty's ,lettres sur l',italie1 ,no4 #dj4 ,in talking of ,rome1 he complains in a very ,diderotian spirit of the want of le beau moral4 ,on ne trouve ici dans les moeurs ni des hommes prives ni des hommes publics1 cette moralite1 cette bienseance1 dont les moeurs francoises sont pleines4 ,le beau moral est absolument inconnu4 ,or1 c'est pour atteindre a ce beau moral dans tous les genres que la sensibilite est la plus tourmentee2 qu'elle est en proie aux contentions de l'esprit1 aux emulations de l'ame 444 qu'elle pare avec tant de raffinement et de peine1 les ecrits1 les discours1 les passions1 enfin toute la vie publique et privee4' ,it is impossible1 in reading how deeply ,diderot was affected by fifth-rate paintings and sculpture1 not to count it among the great losses of literature that he saw few masterpieces4 ,he never made the great pilgrimage4 ,he was never at ,venice1 ,florence1 ,parma1 ,rome4 ,a journey to ,italy was once planned1 in which ,grimm and ,rousseau were to have been his travelling companions2#be the project was not realised1 and the strongest critic of art that his country produced never saw the greatest glories of art4 ,if ,diderot had visited ,florence and ,rome1 even the mighty painter of the ,last ,judgment and the creator of those sublime figures in the ,new ,sacristy at ,san ,lorenzo1 would have found an interpreter worthy of him4 ,but it was not to be4 ,it is rare1 he once wrote1 for an artist to excel without having seen ,italy1 just as a man seldom becomes a great writer or a man of great taste without having given severe study to the ancients4#bf ,diderot at least knew what he lost4 #be x4 #ead1 n4 #bf xi4 #bda4 ,french art was then1 as art usually is1 the mirror of its time1 reproducing such imaginative feeling as society could muster4 ,when the ,republic and the ,empire came1 and twenty years of battle and siege1 then the art of the previous generation fell into a degree of contempt for which there is hardly a parallel4 ,pictures that had been the delight of the town and had brought fortunes to their painters1 rotted on the quays or were sold for a few pence at low auctions4 ,fragonard1 who had been the darling of his age1 died in neglect and beggary4 ,david and his hideous art of the ,empire utterly effaced what had thrown the contemporaries of ,diderot into rapture4#bg ,every one knows all that can be said against the ,french paintings of ,diderot's time4 ,they are executed hastily and at random2 they abound in technical defects of colour1 of drawing1 of composition2 their feeling is light and shallow4 ,watteau died in #agba--;at the same premature age as ,raphael1--but he remained as the dominating spirit of ,french art through the eighteenth century4 ,of course the artists went to ,rome1 but they changed sky and not spirit4 ,the pupils of the academy came back with their portfolios filled with sketches in which we see nothing of the lone mother of dead empires1 nothing of the vast ruins and the great sombre desolate ,campagna1 but only ,rome turned into a decoration for the scenes of a theatre or the panels of a boudoir4 ,the ,olympus of ,homer and of ,virgil1 as has been well said1 becomes the ,olympus of ,ovid4 ,strength1 sublimity1 even stateliness disappeared1 unless we admit some of the first two qualities in the landscapes of ,vernet4 ,not only is beauty replaced by prettiness1 but by prettiness in season and out of season4 ,the common incongruity of introducing a spirit of elegance and literature into the simplicities of the true pastoral1 was condemned by ,diderot as a mixture of ,fontenelle with ,theocritus4 ,we do not know what name he would have given to that still more curious incongruity of taste1 which made a publisher adorn a treatise on ,differential and ,integral ,calculus with amusing plates by ,cochin1 and introduce dainty little vignettes into a ,demonstration of the ,properties of the ,cycloid4 #bg ,goncourt's ,l',art au #ah;ieme ,siecle1 i4 ,there is one true story that curiously illustrates the spirit of ,french art in those equivocal days4 ,when ,madame de ,pompadour made up her mind to play pander to the jaded appetites of the king1 she had a famous female model of the day introduced into a ,holy ,family1 which was destined for the private chapel of the queen4 ,the portrait answered its purpose2 it provoked the curiosity and desire of the king1 and the model was invited to the ,parc-aux-,cerfs4#bh ,this was typical of the service that painting was expected to render to the society that adored it and paid for it4 ,all is daintiness1 delicate caressing for delicate senses1 even down to the external decoration of life1 down to the sinuous lines1 the wanton apparel1 the refined commodity of rooms and furniture4 ,in such a place and in such company1 it is enough to be together to feel at ease4 ,their idleness does not weigh upon them2 life is their plaything4#bi #bh ,goncourt's ,art au #ah;ieme ,siecle1 i4 #bac4 #bi ,taine's ,ancien ,regime1 p4 #ahf4 ,only let us not1 while reserving our serious admiration for ,titian1 ,rembrandt1 ,raphael1 and the rest of the gods and demigods1 refuse at least a measure of historic tolerance to these light and graceful creations4 ,boucher1 whose dreams of rose and blue were the delight of his age1 came away from ,rome saying3 ,raphael is a woman1 ,michael ,angelo is a monster2 one is paradise1 the other is hell2 they are painters of another world2 it is a dead language that nobody speaks in our day4 ,we others are the painters of our own age3 we have not common sense1 but we are charming4 ,this account of them was not untrue4 ,they filled up the space between the grandiose pomp of ,le ,brun and the sombre pseudo-antique of ,david1 just as the incomparable grace and sparkle of ,voltaire's lighter verse filled up the space in literature between ,racine and ,chenier4 ,they have a poetry of their own2 they are cheerful1 sportive1 full of fancy1 and like everything else of that day1 intensely sociable4 ,they are1 at any rate1 even the most sportive of them1 far less unwholesome and degrading than the acres of martyrdoms1 emaciations1 bad crucifixions1 bad pietas1 that make some galleries more disgusting than a lazar-house4#cj #cj ,si tous les tableaux de martyrs que nos grands peintres ont si sublimement peints1 passaient a une posterite reculee1 pour qui nous prendrait-elle8 ,pour des betes feroces ou des anthropophages4--,diderot's ,pensees sur la ,peinture4 ,for ,watteau himself1 the deity of the century1 ,diderot cared very little4 ,i would give ten ,watteaus1 he said1 for one ,teniers4 ,this was as much to be expected1 as it was characteristic in ,lewis ,,xiv41 when some of ,teniers's pictures were submitted to him1 imperiously to command ces magots la to be taken out of his sight4 ,greuze 7b4 #agbe1 d4 #ahje7 of all the painters of the time was ,diderot's chief favourite4 ,diderot was not at all blind to ,greuze's faults1 to his repetitions1 his frequent want of size and amplitude1 the excess of gray and of violet in his colouring4 ,but all these were forgotten in transports of sympathy for the sentiment4 ,as we glance at a list of ,greuze's subjects1 we perceive that we are in the very heart of the region of the domestic1 the moral1 l'honnete1 the homely pathos of the common people4 ,the ,death of a father of a family1 regretted by his children2 ,the ,death of an unnatural father1 abandoned by his children2 ,the beloved mother caressed by her little ones2 ,a child weeping over its dead bird2 ,a ,paralytic tended by his family1 or the ,fruit of a ,good ,education3--,diderot was ravished by such themes4 ,the last picture he describes as a proof that compositions of that kind are capable of doing honour to the gifts and the sentiments of the artist4#ca ,the ,girl bewailing her dead bird throws him into raptures4 ,o1 the pretty elegy6 he begins1 the charming poem6 the lovely idyll6 and so forth1 until at length he breaks into a burst of lyric condolence addressed to the weeping child1 that would fill four or five of these pages4#cb #ca x4 #adc4 #cb x4 #cdc4 ,no picture of the eighteenth century was greeted with more enthusiasm than ,greuze's ,accordee de ,village1 which was exhibited in #agfa4 ,it seems to tell a story1 and therefore even to-day1 in spite of its dulled pink and lustreless blue1 it arrests the visitor to one of the less frequented halls of the ,louvre4#cc ,paris1 weary of mythology and sated with pretty indecencies1 was fascinated by the simplicity of ,greuze's village tale4 ,on se sent gagner d'une emotion douce en le regardant1 said ,diderot1 and this gentle emotion was dear to the cultivated classes in ,france at that moment of the century4 ,it was the year of the ,new ,heloisa4 #cc ,no4 #bfj of the ,french ,school4 ,the subject is of the simplest3 a peasant paying the dower-money of his daughter4 ,the father--it is prudent of us to borrow ,diderot's description--is seated in the great chair of the house4 ,before him his son-in-law standing1 and holding in his left hand the bag that contains the money4 ,the betrothed1 standing also1 with one arm gently passed under the arm of her lover1 the other grasped by her mother1 who is seated4 ,between the mother and the bride1 a younger sister standing1 leaning on the bride and with an arm thrown round her shoulders4 ,behind this group1 a child standing on tiptoes to see what is going on4 ,to the extreme left in the background1 and at a distance from the scene1 two women-servants who are looking on4 ,to the right a cupboard with its usual contents--all scrupulously clean4444 ,a wooden staircase leading to the upper floor4 ,in the foreground near the feet of the mother1 a hen leading her young ones1 to whom a little girl throws crumbs of bread2 a basin full of water1 and on the edge of it1 one of the small chickens with its beak up in the air so as to let the water go down4 ,diderot then proceeds to criticise the details1 telling us the very words that he hears the father addressing to the bridegroom1 and as a touch of observation of nature1 that while one of the old man's hands1 of which we see the back1 is tanned and brown1 the other1 of which we see the palm1 is white4 ,to the bride the painter has given a face full of charm1 of seemliness1 of reserve4 ,she is dressed to perfection4 ,that apron of white stuff could not be better2 there is a trifle of luxury in her ornament2 but then it is a wedding-day4 ,you should note how true are the folds and creases in her dress1 and in those of the rest4 ,the charming girl is not quite straight2 but there is a light and gentle inflexion in all her figure and her limbs that fills her with grace and truth4 ,indeed she is pretty and very pretty4 ,if she had leaned more towards her lover1 it would have been unbecoming2 more to her mother and her father1 and she would have been false4 ,she has her arm half passed under that of her future husband1 and the tips of her fingers rest softly on his hand2 that is the only mark of tenderness that she gives him1 and perhaps without knowing it herself3 it is a delicate idea in the painter4#cd #cd x4 #aea-aef4 ,dr4 ,waagen pronounces this picture to be as truly an expression of das ,nationalfranzoesiche as ,wilkie's paintings are of das ,englische4 ,see his ,kunstwerke und ,kuenstler in ,paris1 p4 #fge4 ,courage1 my good ,greuze1 he cries1 fais de la morale en peinture4 ,what1 has not the pencil been long enough and too long consecrated to debauchery and vice8 ,ought we not to be delighted at seeing it at last unite with dramatic poetry in instructing us1 correcting us1 inviting us to virtue8#ce ,it has been sometimes said that ,diderot would have exulted in the paintings of ,hogarth1 and we may admit that he would have sympathised with the spirit of such moralities as the ,idle and the ,industrious ,apprentice1 the ,rake's ,progress1 and ,mariage a la ,mode4 ,the intensity and power of that terrible genius would have had their attraction1 but the minute ferocities of ,hogarth's ruthless irony would certainly have revolted him4 ,such a scene as ,lord ,squanderfield's visit to the quack doctor1 or as the ,rake's debauch1 would have filled him with inextinguishable horror4 ,he could never have forgiven an artist who1 in the ghastly pathos of a little child straining from the arms of its nurse towards the mother1 as she lies in the very article of death1 could still find in his heart to paint on it the dark patches of foul disease4 ,he would have fled with shrieks from those appalling scenes of murder1 torture1 madness1 bestial drunkenness1 rapacity1 fury--from that delirium of scrofula1 palsy1 entrails1 the winding-sheet1 and the grave-worm4 ,diderot's method was to improve men1 not by making their blood curdle1 but by warming and softening the domestic affections4 #ce x4 #bjh4 ,diderot1 as a critic1 seems always to have remembered a pleasant remonstrance once addressed at the ,salon by the worthy ,chardin to himself and ,grimm3 ,gently1 good sirs1 gently6 ,out of all the pictures that are here seek the very worst2 and know that two thousand unhappy wretches have bitten their brushes in two with their teeth1 in despair of ever doing even as badly4 ,parrocel1 whom you call a dauber1 and who for that matter is a dauber1 if you compare him to ,vernet1 is still a man of rare talent relatively to the multitude of those who have flung up the career in which they started with him4 ,and then the artist recounts the immense labours1 the exhausting years1 the boundless patience1 attention1 tenacity1 that are the conditions even of a mediocre degree of mastery4 ,we are reminded of the scene in a famous work of art in our own day1 where ,herr ,klesmer begs ,miss ,gwendolen ,harleth to reflect1 how merely to stand or to move on the stage is an art that requires long practice4 ,o le triste et plat metier que celui de critique6 ,diderot cries on one occasion3 ,il est si difficile de produire une chose meme mediocre2 il est si facile de sentir la mediocrite4#cf ,no doubt1 as experience and responsibility gather upon us1 we learn how hard in every line is even moderate skill4 ,the wise are perhaps content to find what a man can do1 without making it a reproach to him that there is something else which he cannot do4 #cf x4 #agg4 ,but ,diderot knew well enough that ,chardin's kindly principle might easily be carried too far4 ,in general1 he said1 criticism displeases me2 it supposes so little talent4 ,what a foolish occupation1 that of incessantly hindering ourselves from taking pleasure1 or else making ourselves blush for the pleasure that we have taken6 ,and that is the occupation of criticism6#cg ,yet in one case he writes a score of pages of critical dialogue1 in which the chief interlocutor is a painter who avenges his own failure by stringent attacks on the work of happier rivals of the year4 ,and speaking in his own proper person1 ,diderot knows how to dismiss incompetence with the right word1 sometimes of scorn1 more often of good-natured remonstrance4 ,bad painters1 a ,parrocel1 a ,brenet1 fare as ill at his hands as they deserved to do4 ,he remarks incidentally that the condition of the bad painter and the bad actor is worse than that of the bad man of letters3 the painter hears with his own ears the expressions of contempt for his talent1 and the hisses of the audience go straight to the ears of the actor1 whereas the author has the comfort of going to his grave without a suspicion that you have cried out at every page3 ,the fool1 the animal1 the jackass6 and have at length flung his book into a corner4 ,there is nothing to prevent the worst author1 as he sits alone in his library1 and reads himself over and over again1 from congratulating himself on being the originator of a host of rare and felicitous ideas4#ch #cg xii4 #h1 #gi4 #ch xi4 #adi4 ,the one painter whom ,diderot never spares is ,boucher1 who was an idol of the time1 and made an income of fifty thousand livres a year out of his popularity4 ,he laughs at him as a mere painter of fans1 an artist with no colours on his palette save white and red4 ,he admits the fecundity1 the fougue1 the ease of ,boucher1 just as ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds admits his grace and beauty and good skill in composition4#ci ,boucher1 says ,diderot1 is in painting what ,ariosto is in poetry1 and he who admires the one is inconsistent if he is not mad for the other4 ,what is wanting is disciplined taste1 more variety1 more severity4 ,yet he cannot refuse to concede about one of ,boucher's pictures that after all he would be glad to possess it4 ,every time you saw it1 he says1 you would find fault with it1 yet you would go on looking at it4#dj ,this is perhaps what the severest modern amateur1 as he strolls carelessly through the ,french school at his leisure1 would not in his heart care to deny4 #ci ,see ,reynolds's ,twelfth ,discourse1 p4 #ajf4 #dj x4 #ajb4 ,fragonard1 whose picture of ,coresus and ,callirrhoe made a great sensation in its day1 and still attracts some small share of attention in the ,french school1 was not a favourite with ,diderot4 ,the ,callirrhoe inspired an elaborate but not very felicitous criticism4 ,then the painter changed his style in the direction of ,boucher1 and as far away as possible from l'honnete and le beau moral1 and ,diderot turned away from him2 at last describing an oval picture representing groups of children in heaven as une belle et grande omelette d'enfants1 heads1 legs1 thighs1 arms1 bodies1 all interlaced together among yellowish clouds--bien omelette1 bein douillette1 bein jaune1 et bien brulee4#da #da xi4 #bif4 ,for the ,callirrhoe1 see x4 #cig4 ,on the whole1 we cannot wonder either that painters hold literary talk about their difficult and complex art so cheap1 or that the lay public prizes it so much above its intrinsic worth4 ,it helps the sluggish imagination and dull sight of the one1 while it is apt to pass ignorantly over both the true difficulties and the true successes of the other4 ,diderot1 unlike most of those who have come after him1 had carefully studied the conditions prescribed to the painter by the material in which he works4 ,although he was a master of the literary criticism of art1 he had artists among his intimate companions1 and was too eager for knowledge not to wring from them the secrets of technique1 just as he extorted from weavers and dyers the secrets of their processes and instruments4 ,he makes no ostentatious display of this special knowledge1 yet it is present1 giving a firmness and accuracy to what would otherwise be too like mere arbitrary lyrics suggested by a painting1 and not really dealing with it4 ,his special gift was the transformation of scientific criticism into something with the charm of literature4 ,take1 for instance1 a picture by ,vien3 ,psyche approaching with her lamp to surprise ,love in his sleep4--,the two figures are of flesh and blood1 but they have neither the elegance1 nor the grace1 nor the delicacy that the subject required4 ,love seems to me to be making a grimace4 ,psyche is not like a woman who comes trembling on tiptoe4 ,i do not see on her face that mixture of surprise1 fear1 love1 desire1 and admiration1 which ought all to be there4 ,it is not enough to show in ,psyche a curiosity to see ,love2 ,i must also perceive in her the fear of awakening him4 ,she ought to have her mouth half open1 and to be afraid of drawing her breath4 ',tis her lover that she sees--that she sees for the first time1 at the risk of losing him for ever4 ,what joy to look upon him1 and to find him so fair6 ,oh1 what little intelligence in our painters1 how little they understand nature6 ,the head of ,psyche ought to be inclined towards ,love2 the rest of her body drawn back1 as it is when you advance towards a spot where you fear to enter1 and from which you are ready to flee back2 one foot planted on the ground and the other barely touching it4 ,and the lamp2 ought she to let the light fall on the eyes of ,love8 ,ought she not to hold it apart1 and to shield it with her hand to deaden its brightness8 ,moreover1 that would have lighted the picture in a striking way4 ,these good people do not know that the eyelids have a kind of transparency2 they have never seen a mother coming in the night to look at her child in the cradle1 with a lamp in her hand1 and fearful of awakening it4#db #db x4 #aba4 ,there have been many attempts to imitate this manner since ,diderot4 ,no less a person than ,m4 ,thiers tried it1 when it fell to him as a young writer for the newspapers to describe the ,salon of #ahbb4 ,one brilliant poet1 novelist1 traveller1 critic1 has succeeded1 and ,diderot's art-criticism is at least equalled in ,theophile ,gautier's pages on ,titian's ,assunta and ,bellini's ,madonna at ,venice1 or ,murillo's ,saint ,anthony of ,padua at ,seville4#dc #dc ,voyage en ,italie1 #bcj4 ,voyage en ,espagne1 #ccj4 ,see the same critic's ,abecedaire du ,salon de #ahfa4 ,just as in his articles in the ,encyclopaedia1 here too ,diderot is always ready to turn from his subject for a moral aside4 ,even the modern reader will forgive the discursive apostrophe addressed to the judges of the unfortunate ,calas1 the almost lyric denunciation of an atrocity that struck such deep dismay into the hearts of all the brethren of the ,encyclopaedia4#dd ,but ,diderot's asides are usually in less tragic matter4 ,a picture of ,michael ,van ,loo's reminds him that ,van ,loo had once a friend in ,spain4 ,this friend took it into his head to equip a vessel for a trading expedition1 and ,van ,loo invested all his fortune in his friend's vessel4 ,the vessel was wrecked1 the fortune was lost1 and the master was drowned4 ,when ,van ,loo heard of the disaster1 the first word that came to his mouth was--,i have lost a good friend4 ,and on this ,diderot sails off into a digression on the grounds of praise and blame4 #dd xi4 #cji4 ,here are one or two illustrations of the same moralising3 ,the effect of our sadness on others is very singular4 ,have you not sometimes noticed in the country the sudden stillness of the birds1 if it happens that on a fine day a cloud comes and lingers over the spot that was resounding with their music8 ,a suit of deep mourning in company is the cloud that1 as it passes1 causes the momentary silence of the birds4 ,it goes1 and the song is resumed4 ,we should divide a nation into three classes3 the bulk of the nation1 which forms the national taste and manners2 those who rise above these are called madmen1 originals1 oddities2 those who fall below are noodles4 ,the progress of the human mind causes the level to shift1 and a man often lives too long for his reputation4444 ,he who is too far in front of his generation1 who rises above the general level of the common manners1 must expect few votes2 he ought to be thankful for the oblivion that rescues him from persecution4 ,those who raise themselves to a great distance above the common level are not perceived2 they die forgotten and tranquil1 either like everybody else1 or far away from everybody else4 ,that is my motto4#de ,but ,vernet will never be more than ,vernet1 a mere man4 ,no1 and for that very reason all the more astonishing1 and his work all the more worthy of admiration4 ,it is1 no doubt1 a great thing1 is this universe2 but when ,i compare it with the energy of the productive cause1 if ,i had to wonder at aught1 it would be that its work is not still finer and still more perfect4 ,it is just the reverse when ,i think of the weakness of man1 of his poor means1 of the embarrassments and of the short duration of his life1 and then of certain things that he has undertaken and carried out4#df #de xi4 #bid4 #df xi4 #ajb4 ,these digressions are one source of the charm of ,diderot's criticism4 ,they impart ease and naturalness to it1 because they evidently reproduce the free movement of his mind as it really was1 and not as the supposed dignity of authorship might require him to pretend4 ,there is no stiffness nor sense1 as we have said1 of literary strain1 and yet there is no disturbing excess of what is random1 broken1 decousu4 ,the digression flows with lively continuity from the main stream and back again into it1 leaving some cheerful impression or curious suggestion behind it4 ,something1 we cannot tell what1 draws him off to wonder whether there is not as much verve in the first scene of ,terence and in the ,antinoues as in any scene of ,moliere or any work of ,michael ,angelo8 ,i once answered this question1 but rather too lightly4 ,every moment ,i am apt to make a mistake1 because language does not furnish me with the right expression for the truth at the moment4 ,i abandon a thesis for lack of words that shall supply my reasons4 ,i have one thing in the bottom of my heart1 and ,i find myself saying another4 ,there is the advantage of living in retirement and solitude4 ,there a man speaks1 asks himself questions1 listens to himself1 and listens in silence4 ,his secret sensation develops itself little by little4 ,then when he is about to speak of one of ,greuze's pictures1 he bethinks himself of ,greuze's vanity1 and this leads him to a vein of reflection which it is good for all critics1 whether public or private1 to hold fast in their minds4 ,if you take away ,greuze's vanity1 you will take away his verve1 you will extinguish his fire1 his genius will undergo an eclipse4 ,nos qualites tiennent de pres a nos defauts4 ,and of this important truth1 the base of wise tolerance1 there follow a dozen graphic examples4#dg #dg x4 #cdb4 ,he says elsewhere of ,greuze 7xviii4 #bdg7 that he is un excellent artiste1 mais une bien mauvaise tete4 ,gretry1 the composer1 more than once consulted ,diderot in moments of perplexity4 ,it was not always safe1 he says1 to listen to the glowing man when he allowed his imagination to run away with him1 but the first burst was of inspiration divine4#dh ,painters found his suggestions as potent and as hopeful as the musician found them4 ,he delighted in being able to tell an artist how he might change his bad picture into a good one4#di ,chardin1 ,la ,grenee1 ,greuze1 and others1 says ,diderot1 have assured me 7and artists are not given to flattering men of letters7 that ,i was about the only one whose images could pass at once to canvas1 almost exactly as they came into my head4 ,and he gives illustrations1 how he instantly furnished to ,la ,grenee a subject for a picture of ,peace2 to ,greuze1 a design introducing a nude figure without wounding the modesty of the spectator2 to a third1 a historical subject4#ej ,the first of the three is a curious example of the difficulty which even a strong genius like ,diderot had in freeing himself from artificial traditions4 ,for ,peace1 he cried to ,la ,grenee1 show me ,mars with his breastplate1 his sword girded on1 his head noble and firm4 ,place standing by his side a ,venus1 full1 divine1 voluptuous1 smiling on him with an enchanting smile2 let her point to his casque1 in which her doves have made their nest4 ,is it not singular that even ,diderot sometimes failed to remember that ,mars and ,venus are dead1 that they can never be the source of a fresh and natural inspiration1 and that neither artist nor spectator can be moved by cold and vapid allegories in an extinct dialect8 ,if ,diderot could have seen such a treatment of ,la ,grenee's subject as ,landseer's ,peace1 with its children playing at the mouth of the slumbering gun1 he would have been the first to cry out how much nearer this came to the spirit of his own aesthetic methods1 than all the pride of ,mars and all the beauty of ,venus4 ,he is truer to himself in the subject with which he met ,greuze's perplexity in the second of his two illustrations4 ,he bade ,greuze paint the ,honest ,model2 a girl sitting to an artist for the first time1 her poor garments on the ground beside her2 her head resting on one of her hands1 and a tear rolling down each cheek4 ,the mother1 whose dress betrays the extremity of indigence1 is by her side1 and with her own hands and one of the hands of her daughter covers her face4 ,the painter1 witness of the scene1 softened and touched1 lets his palette or his brush fall from his hand4 ,greuze at once exclaimed that he saw his subject2 and we may at least admit that this pretty bit of commonplace sentimentalism is more in ,diderot's vein than pagan gods and goddesses4 #dh ,quoted in ,diderot's ,oeuv41 v4 #dfj1 n4 #di ,e4g4 ,oeuv41 xi4 #beh4 #ej xi4 #gd4 ,diderot is never more truly himself than when he takes the subject of a picture that is before him1 and shows how it might have been more effectively handled4 ,thus3 ,the ,flight into ,egypt is treated in a fresh and piquant manner4 ,but the painter has not known how to make the best of his idea4 ,the ,virgin passes in the background of the picture1 bearing the infant ,jesus in her arms4 ,she is followed by ,joseph and the ass carrying the baggage4 ,in the foreground are the shepherds prostrating themselves1 their hands upturned towards her1 and wishing her a happy journey4 ,ah1 what a fine painting1 if the artist had known how to make mountains at the foot of which the ,virgin had passed2 if he had known how to make the mountains very steep1 escarped1 majestic2 if he had covered them with moss and wild shrubs2 if he had given to the ,virgin simplicity1 beauty1 grandeur1 nobleness2 if the road that she follows had led into the paths of some forest1 lonely and remote2 if he had taken his moment at the rise of day1 or at its fall6#ea #ea x4 #aae4 ,the picture of ,saint ,benedict by ,deshays--whom at one moment ,diderot pronounces to be the first painter in the nation--stirs the same spirit of emendation4 ,diderot thinks that in spite of the pallor of the dying saint's visage1 one would be inclined to give him some years yet to live4 ,i ask whether it would not have been better that his legs should have sunk under him2 that he should have been supported by two or three monks2 that he should have had the arms extended1 the head thrown back1 with death on his lips and ecstasy on his brow4 ,if the painter had given this strong expression to his ,saint ,benedict1 consider1 my friend1 how it would have reflected itself on all the rest of the picture4 ,that slight change in the principal figure would have influenced all the others4 ,the celebrant1 instead of being upright1 would in his compassion have leaned more forward2 distress and anguish would have been more strongly depicted in all the bystanders4 ,there is a piece from which you could teach young students that1 by altering one single circumstance1 you alter all others1 or else the truth disappears4 ,you could make out of it an excellent chapter on the force of unity3 you would have to preserve the same arrangement1 the same figures1 and to invite them to execute the picture according to the different changes that were made in the figure of the communicant4#eb #eb x4 #abe4 ,the admirable ,salons were not ,diderot's only contributions to aesthetic criticism4 ,he could not content himself with reproductions1 in eloquent language upon paper1 of the combinations of colour and form upon canvas4 ,no one was further removed from vague or indolent expansion4 ,he returns again and again to examine with keenness and severity the principles1 the methods1 the distinctions of the fine arts1 and though he is often a sentimentalist and a declaimer1 he can also1 when the time comes1 transform himself into an accurate scrutiniser of ideas and phrases1 a seeker after causes and differences1 a discoverer of kinds and classes in art1 and of the conditions proper to success in each of them4 ,in short1 the fact of being an eloquent and enthusiastic critic of pictures1 did not prevent him from being a truly philosophical thinker about the abstract laws of art1 with the thinker's genius for analysis1 comparison1 classification4 ,who that has read them can ever forget the dialogues that are set among the landscapes of ,vernet in the ,salons of #agfg8ec ,the critic supposes himself unable to visit the ,salon of the year1 and to be staying in a gay country-house amid some fine landscapes on the sea-coast4 ,he describes his walks among these admirable scenes1 and the strange and varying effects of light and colour1 and all the movements of the sky and ocean2 and into the descriptions he weaves a series of dialogues with an abbe1 a tutor of the children of the house1 upon art and landscape and the processes of the universe4 ,nothing can be more excellent and lifelike3 it is not until the end that he lets the secret slip that the whole fabric has been a flight of fancy1 inspired by no real landscape1 but by the sea-pieces sent to the exhibition by ,vernet4 #ec xi4 #ih-adi4 ,this is an illustration of the variety of approach which makes ,diderot so interesting1 so refreshing a critic4 ,he never sinks into what is mechanical1 and the evidence of this is that his mind1 while intent on the qualities of a given picture1 yet moves freely to the outside of the picture1 and is ever cordially open to the most general thoughts and moods1 while attending with workmanlike fidelity to what is particular in the object before him4#ed #ed ,e4g4 xi4 #bbc4 ,in the light of modern speculation upon the philosophy of the fine arts1 ,diderot makes no commanding figure1 because he is so egregiously unsystematic4 ,but as ,goethe said1 in a piece where he was withstanding ,diderot to the face1 die hoechste ,wirkung des ,geistes ist1 den ,geist hervorzurufen--the highest influence of mind is to call out mind4 ,this stimulating provocation of the intelligence was the master faculty in ,diderot4 ,for the sake of that men are ready to pardon all excesses1 and to overlook many offences against the law of ,measure4 ,from such a point of view1 ,goethe's treatment of ,diderot's ,essay on ,painting 7written in #agfe1 but not given to the world until #agif7 is an instructive lesson4 ,diderot's essay1 he wrote to ,schiller1 is a magnificent work1 and it speaks even more usefully to the poet than to the painter1 though for the painter1 too1 it is a torch of powerful illumination4 ,yet ,diderot's critical principle in the essay was exactly opposite to ,goethe's2 and when ,goethe translated some portions of it1 he was forced to add a commentary of stringent protest4 ,diderot1 as usual1 energetically extols nature1 as the one source and fountain of true artistic inspiration4 ,even in what looks to us like defect and monstrosity1 she is never incorrect4 ,if she inflicts on the individual some unusual feature1 she never fails to draw other parts of the system into co-ordination and a sort of harmony with the abnormal element4 ,we say of a man who passes in the street that he is ill-shapen4 ,yes1 according to our poor rules2 but according to nature1 it is another matter4 ,we say of a statue that it is of fine proportions4 ,yes1 according to our poor rules2 but according to nature8#ee #ee x4 #dha1 #dfb4 ,in the same vein1 he breaks out against the practice of drawing from the academic model4 ,all these academic positions1 affected1 constrained1 artificial1 as they are2 all these actions coldly and awkwardly expressed by some poor devil1 and always the same poor devil1 hired to come three times a week1 to undress himself1 and to play the puppet in the hands of the professor--what have these in common with the positions and actions of nature8 ,what is there in common between the man who draws water from the well in your courtyard1 and the man who pretends to imitate him on the platform of the drawing-school8 ,if ,diderot thought the seven years passed in drawing the model no better than wasted1 he was not any more indulgent to the practice of studying the minutiae of the anatomy of the human frame4 ,he saw the risk of the artist becoming vain of his scientific acquirement1 of his eye being corrupted1 of his seeking to represent what is under the surface1 of his forgetting that he has only the exterior to show4 ,a practice that is intended to make the student look at nature most commonly tends to make him see nature other than she really is4 ,to sum up1 mannerism would disappear from drawing and from colour1 if people would only scrupulously imitate nature4 ,mannerism comes from the masters1 from the academy1 from the school1 and even from the antique4#ef #ef x4 #dfg4 ,for a more respectful view of the antique1 and of ,winckelmann's position1 see ,salon de #agfe1 x4 #dah4 ,we may easily believe how many fallacies were discerned in such lessons as these by the author of ,iphigenie1 and the passionate admirer of the ancient marbles4 ,diderot's fundamental error1 said ,goethe1 is to confound nature and art1 completely to amalgamate nature with art4 ,now ,nature organises a living1 an indifferent being1 the ,artist something dead1 but full of significance2 ,nature something real1 the ,artist something apparent4 ,in the works of ,nature the spectator must import significance1 thought1 effect1 reality2 in a work of ,art he will and must find this already there4 ,a perfect imitation of ,nature is in no sense possible2 the ,artist is only called to the representation of the surface of an appearance4 ,the outside of the vessel1 the living whole that speaks to all our faculties of mind and sense1 that stirs our desire1 elevates our intelligence--that whose possession makes us happy1 the vivid1 potent1 finished ,beautiful--for all this is the ,artist appointed4 ,in other words1 art has its own laws1 as it has its own aims1 and these are not the laws and aims of nature4 ,to mock at rules is to overthrow the conditions that make a painting or a statue possible4 ,to send the pupil away from the model to the life of the street1 the gaol1 the church1 is to send him forth without teaching him for what to look4 ,to make light of the study of anatomy in art1 is like allowing the composer to forget thorough bass in his enthusiasm1 or the poet in his enthusiasm to forget the number of syllables in his verse4 ,again1 though art may profit by a free and broad method1 yet all artistic significance depends on the ,more and the ,less4 ,beauty is a narrow circle in which one may only move in modest measure4 ,and of this modest measure the academy1 the school1 the master1 above all the antique1 are the guardians and the teachers4#eg #eg ,diderot's ,versuch ueber die ,malerei4 ,goethe's ,werke1 xxv4 #cji1 etc4 ,it is unnecessary to labour the opposition between the two great masters of criticism4 ,goethe1 as usual1 must be pronounced to have the last word of reason and wisdom1 the word which comprehends most of the truth of the matter4 ,and it is delivered in that generous and loyal spirit which nobody would have appreciated more than the free-hearted ,diderot himself4 ,the drift of ,goethe's contention is1 in fact1 the thesis of ,diderot's ,paradox on the ,comedian4 ,but the state of painting in ,france--and ,goethe admits it--may have called for a line of criticism which was an exaggeration of what ,diderot1 if he had been in ,goethe's neutral position1 would have found in his better mind4#eh #eh ,and of course on occasion did actually find4 ,see xi4 #aja4 ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 who was too sincere a lover of his art not to be above mere patriotic prejudice1 describes the condition of things4 ,i have heard painters acknowledge that they could do better without nature than with her1 or1 as they expressed themselves1 it only put them out4 ,our neighbours1 the ,french1 are much in this practice of extempore invention1 and their dexterity is such as even to excite admiration1 if not envy2 but how rarely can this praise be given to their finished pictures6 ,twelfth ,discourse1 p4 #aje4 ,there is a passage in one of the ,salons which sheds a striking side-light on the difference between these two great types of genius4 ,the difference between the mere virtuoso and the deep critic is that1 in the latter1 behind views on art we discern far-reaching thoughts on life4 ,and in ,diderot1 no less than in ,goethe1 art is ever seen in its associations with character1 aspiration1 happiness1 and conduct4 ,the sun1 which was on the edge of the horizon1 disappeared2 over the sea there came all at once an aspect more sombre and solemn4 ,twilight1 which is at first neither day nor night--an image of our feeble thoughts1 and an image that warns the philosopher to stay in his speculations--warns the traveller too to turn his steps towards home4 ,so ,i turned back1 and as ,i continued the thread of my thoughts1 ,i began to reflect that if there is a particular morality belonging to each species1 so perhaps in the same species there is a different morality for different individuals1 or at least for different kinds and collections of individuals4 ,and in order not to scandalise you by too serious an example1 it came into my head that there is perhaps a morality peculiar to artists or to art1 and that this morality might well be the very reverse of the common morality4 ,yes1 my friend1 ,i am much afraid that man marches straight to misery by the very path that leads the imitator of nature to the sublime4 ,to plunge into extremes--that is the rule for poets4 ,to keep in all things the just mean--there is the rule for happiness4 ,one must not make poetry in real life4 ,the heroes1 the romantic lovers1 the great patriots1 the inflexible magistrates1 the apostles of religion1 the philosophers a toute outrance--all these rare and divine insensates make poetry in their life1 and that is their bane4 ,it is they who after death provide material for great pictures4 ,they are excellent to paint4 ,experience shows that nature condemns to misery the man to whom she has allotted genius1 and whom she has endowed with beauty2 it is they who are the figures of poetry4 ,then within myself ,i lauded the mediocrity that shelters one alike from praise and blame2 and yet why1 ,i asked myself1 would no one choose to let his sensibility go1 and to become mediocre8 ,o vanity of man6#ei #ei x4 #abd1 #abe4 ,goethe's ,tasso1 a work so full of finished poetry and of charm1 is the idealised and pathetic version of the figure that ,diderot has thus conceived for genius4 ,the dialogues between the hapless poet and ,antonio1 the man of the world1 are a skilful1 lofty1 and impressive statement of the problem that often vexed ,diderot4 ,goethe sympathised with ,antonio's point of view2 he had in his nature so much of the spirit of conduct1 of saneness1 of the common reason of the world4 ,and in art he was a lover of calm ideals4 ,in ,diderot1 as our readers by this time know1 these things were otherwise4 ,the essay on ,beauty in the ,encyclopaedia is less fertile than most of ,diderot's contributions to the subject4#fj ,it contains a careful account of two or three other theories1 especially that of ,hutcheson4 ,the object is to explain the source of ,beauty4 ,diderot's own conclusion is that this is to be found in relations4 ,our words for the different shades of the beautiful are expressive of notions 7acquired by experience through the senses7 of order1 proportion1 symmetry1 unity1 and so forth4 ,but1 after all1 the real question remains unanswered--what makes some relations beautiful1 and others not so2 and the same objects beautiful to me1 and indifferent to you2 and the same object beautiful to me to-day1 and indifferent or disgusting to me to-morrow8 ,diderot does1 it is true1 enumerate twelve sources of such diversity of judgment1 in different races1 ages1 individuals1 moods1 but their force depends upon the importation into the conception of beauty of some more definite element than the bare idea of relation4 ,some sentences show that he came very near to the famous theory of ,alison1 that beauty is only attributed to sounds and sights1 where1 and because1 they recall what is pleasing1 sublime1 pathetic1 and set our ideas and emotions flowing in one of these channels4 ,but he does not get fairly on the track of either ,alison's or any other decisive and marking adjective1 with which to qualify his rapports4 ,he wastes some time1 moreover1 in trying to bring within the four corners of his definition some uses of the terms of beauty1 which are really only applied to objects by way of analogy1 and are not meant to predicate the beautiful in any literal or scientific sense4 #fj ,oeuv41 x4 ,there is no more interesting department of aesthetic inquiry than the relations of the arts to one another1 and the nature of the delimitations of the provinces of poetry1 painting1 sculpture1 music4 ,diderot1 from the very beginning of his career1 had turned his thoughts to this intricate subject4 ,in his letter on ,deaf ,mutes 7#agea7 he had stated the problem--to collect the common beauties of poetry1 painting1 and music2 to show their analogies2 to explain how the poet1 the painter1 and the musician render the same image2 to seize the fugitive emblems of their expression4 ,why should a situation that is admirable in a poem become ridiculous in a painting8#fa ,for instance1 what is it that prevents a painter from reproducing the moment when ,neptune raises his head above the tossing waters1 as he is represented in ,virgil3 ,interea magno misceri murmure pontum4 ,emissamque hiemem sensit ,neptunus1 et imis ,stagna refusa vadis2 graviter commotus1 et alto ,prospiciens1 summa placidum caput extulit unda4 #fa ,it is to be observed also that he shows true perspicacity in connecting the difficulty of transforming a poetic into a pictorial description1 with the kindred difficulty of translating a finished poem in one language into another language4 ,see also xi4 #ajg4 ,diderot's answer to the question is an anticipation of the main position of the famous little book which appeared fifteen years afterwards1 and which has been well described as the ,organum of aesthetic cultivation4 ,in ,laocooen ,lessing contends against ,spence1 the author of ,polymetis against ,caylus1 and others of his contemporaries1 that poetry and painting are divided from one another in aim1 in effects1 in reach1 by the limits set upon each by the nature of its own material4#fb ,so ,diderot says that the painter could not seize the ,virgilian moment1 because a body that is partially immersed in water is disfigured by an effect of refraction1 which a faithful painter would be bound to reproduce2 because the image of the body could not be seen transparently through the stormy waters1 and therefore the god would have the appearance of being decapitated2 because it is indispensable1 if you would avoid the impression of a surgical amputation1 that some visible portion of hidden limbs should be there to inform us of the existence of the rest4#fc ,he takes another instance1 where a description that is admirable in poetry would be insupportable in painting4 ,who1 he asks1 could bear upon canvas the sight of ,polyphemus grinding between his teeth the bones of one of the companions of ,ulysses8 ,who could see without horror a giant holding a man in his enormous mouth1 with blood dripping over his head and breast8 #fb ,lessing appears to have been directly led to this by ,aristotle4 ,see ,gotschlich's ,lessing's ,aristotelische ,studien1 p4 #abj4 #fc ,oeuv41 i4 #chb1 #djc4 ,among the many passages in which ,diderot touches on the differences between poetry and painting1 none is more just and true than that in which he implores the poet not to attempt description of details3 ,true taste fastens on one or two characteristics1 and leaves the rest to imagination4 ',tis when ,armida advances with noble mien in the midst of the ranks of the army of ,godfrey1 and when the generals begin to look at one another with jealous eyes1 that ,armida is beautiful to us4 ,it is when ,helen passes before the old men of ,troy1 and they all cry out--it is then that ,helen is beautiful4 ,and it is when ,ariosto describes ,alcina from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet1 that notwithstanding the grace1 the facility1 the soft elegance of his verse1 ,alcina is not beautiful4 ,he shows me everything2 he leaves me nothing to do2 he makes me wearied and impatient4 ,if a figure walks1 describe to me its carriage and its lightness2 ,i will undertake the rest4 ,if it is stooping1 speak to me only of arms and shoulders2 ,i will take all else on myself4 ,if you do more1 you confuse the kinds of work2 you cease to be a poet1 and become a painter or sculptor4 ,one single trait1 a great trait2 leave the rest to my imagination4 ,that is true taste1 great taste4#fd ,and then he quotes with admiration ,ovid's line of the goddess of the seas3 ,nec brachia longo ,margine terrarum porrexerat ,amphitrite4 #fd ,oeuv41 xi4 #cbh4 ,quel image6 ,quels bras6 ,quel prodigieux mouvement6 ,quelle figure6 and so forth1 after ,diderot's manner4 ,nobody will compare these detached and fragmentary deliverances with the full and easy mastery which ,lessing1 in ,laocoeon and its unfinished supplements1 exhibits over the many ramifications of his central idea4 ,we can only notice that ,diderot had a foot on the track along which ,lessing afterwards made such signal progress4 ,the reader who cares to measure the advantage of ,lessing's more serious and concentrated attention to his subject1 may compare the twelfth chapter of ,laocoeon with ,diderot's criticism on ,doyen's painting of the ,battle between ,diomede and ,aeneas4#fe ,as we see how near ,diderot came to the real and decisive truths of all these matters1 and yet how far he remains from the full perception of what a little consecutive study must have revealed to his superior genius1 we can only think painfully of his avowal--,i have not the consciousness of having employed the half of my strength3 jusqu'a present je n'ai que baguenaude4 #fe ,salon de #agfa2 ,oeuv41 v4 #adj4 ,on the great art of music ,diderot has said little that is worth attending to4 ,bemetzrieder1 a ,german musician1 who taught ,diderot's daughter to play on the clavecin1 wrote an elementary book called ,lessons on the ,clavecin and ,principles of ,harmony4 ,this is pronounced by the modern teachers to be not less than contemptible4 ,diderot1 however1 with his usual boundless good nature1 took the trouble to set the book in a series of dialogues1 in which teacher1 pupil1 and a philosopher deal in all kinds of elaborate amenities1 and pay one another many compliments4 ,it reminds one of the old ,hebrew grammar which is couched in the form of ,conversations with a ,duchess--,your ,grace having kindly condescended to approve of the plan that ,i have sketched4 ,all this your ,grace probably knows already1 but your ,grace has probably never attempted1 and so forth4 ,the unwise things that men of letters have written from a good-natured wish to help their friends1 are not so numerous that we need be afraid of extending to them a good-natured pardon4 ,the beauty of ,diderot's ,salons is remarkable enough to cover a multitude of sins in other arts4 ,there are few other compositions in ,european literature which show so well how criticism of art itself may become a fine art4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,st4 ,,petersburg ,,and ,,the ,,hague4 ,what would you say of the owner of an immense palace1 who should spend all his life in going up from the cellars to the attics1 and going down from attics to cellar1 instead of sitting quietly in the midst of his family8 ,that is the image of the traveller4 ,yet ,diderot1 whose words these are1 resolved at the age of sixty to undertake no less formidable a journey than to the remote capital on the shores of the ,neva4 ,it had come into his head1 or perhaps others had put it into his head1 that he owed a visit to his imperial benefactress whose bounty had rendered life easier to him4 ,he had recently made the acquaintance of two ,russian personages of consideration4 ,one of them was the ,princess ,dashkow1 who was believed to have taken a prominent part in that confused conspiracy of #agfb1 which ended in the murder of ,peter ,,iii4 by ,alexis ,orloff1 and the elevation of ,catherine ,,ii4 to the throne4 ,her services at that critical moment had not prevented her disgrace1 if indeed they were not its cause1 and in #aggj the ,princess set out on her travels4 ,horace ,walpole has described the curiosity of the ,london world to see the ,muscovite ,alecto1 the accomplice of the northern ,athaliah1 the amazon who had taken part in a revolution when she was only nineteen4 ,in ,england she made a pleasant impression1 in spite of eyes of a very ,catiline fierceness4 ,she was equally delighted with ,england1 and when she went on from ,london to ,paris1 she took very little trouble to make friends in the capital of the rival nation4 ,diderot seems to have been her only intimate4 ,the ,princess 7#aggj7 called nearly every afternoon at his door1 carried him off to dinner1 and kept him talking and declaiming until the early hours of the next morning4 ,the hurricanes of his enthusiastic nature delighted her1 and she remembered for years afterwards how on one occasion she excited him to such a pitch that he sprang from his chair as if by machinery1 strode rapidly up and down the room1 and spat upon the floor with passion4#ff #ff ,memoirs of ,princess ,dashkoff 7vol4 ii474 ,by ,mrs4 ,bradford1 an ,english companion and friend of the ,princess4 7,london1 #ahdj47 ,see ,diderot's account of her1 ,oeuv41 xvii4 #dhg4 ,compare ,horace ,walpole's ,letters1 v4 #bff4 ,the ,prince ,galitzin was a ,russian friend of greater importance4 ,prince ,galitzin was one of those foreigners1 like ,holbach1 ,grimm1 ,galiani1 who found themselves more at home in ,paris than anywhere else in the world4 ,living mostly among artists and men of letters1 he became an established favourite4 ,with ,diderot's assistance 7#agfg7 he acquired for the ,empress many of the pictures that adorn the great gallery at ,st4 ,petersburg1 and ,diderot praises his knowledge of the fine arts1 the reason being that he has that great principle of true taste1 the belle ame4#fg ,he wrote eclogues in ,french1 and he attempted the more useful but more difficult task of writing in the half-formed tongue of his own country an account of the great painters of ,italy and ,holland4#fh ,diderot makes the pointed remark about him1 that he believed in equality of ranks by instinct1 which is better than believing in it by reflection4#fi ,it was through the medium of this friendly and intelligent man that the ,empress had acted in the purchase of ,diderot's library4 ,in #agfi he was appointed ,russian minister at the ,hague1 and his chief ground for delight at the appointment was that it brought him within reach of his friends in ,paris4 #fg ,oeuv41 xviii4 #bci4 #fh ,grimm1 ,cor4 ,lit41 xv4 #ah4 ,diderot1 xviii4 #bea4 #fi ,oeuv41 xix4 #bej4 ,diderot set out on his expedition some time in the summer of #aggc--the date also of ,johnson's memorable tour to the ,hebrides--and his first halt was at the ,dutch capital1 then at the distance of a four days' journey from ,paris4 ,here he remained for many weeks1 in some doubt whether or not to persist in the project of a more immense journey4 ,he passed most of his time with the ,prince and ,princess ,galitzin1 as between a good brother and a good sister4 ,their house1 he notices1 had once been the residence of ,barneveldt4 ,men like ,diderot are the last persons to think of their own historic position1 else we might have expected to find him musing on the saving shelter which this land of freedom and tolerance had given to more than one of his great precursors in the literature of emancipation4 ,descartes had found twenty years of priceless freedom 7#afbi-afdi7 among the ,dutch burghers4 ,the ruling ideas of the ,encyclopaedia came in direct line from ,bayle 7d4 #agjf7 and ,locke 7d4 #agjd71 and both ,bayle and ,locke1 though in different measures1 owed their security to the stout valour with which the ,dutch defended their own land1 and taught the ,english how to defend theirs1 against the destructive pretensions of ,catholic absolutism4 ,of these memories ,diderot probably thought no more than ,descartes thought about the learning of ,grotius or the art of ,rembrandt4 ,it was not the age1 nor was his the mind1 for historic sentimentalism4 ,the more ,i see of this country1 he wrote to his good friends in ,paris1 the more ,i feel at home in it4 ,the soles1 fresh herrings1 turbot1 perch1 are all the best people in the world4 ,the walks are charming2 ,i do not know whether the women are all very sage1 but with their great straw hats1 their eyes fixed on the ground1 and the enormous fichus spread over their bosoms1 they have the air of coming back from prayers or going to confession4 ,diderot did not fail to notice more serious things than this4 ,his remarks on the means of travelling with most profit are full of sense1 and the account which he wrote of ,holland shows him to have been as widely reflective and observant as we should have expected him to be4#gj ,it will be more convenient to say something on this in connection with the stay which he again made at the ,hague on his return from his pilgrimage to ,russia4 #gj ,oeuv41 xviii4 #cfe1 #dga4 ,after many hesitations the die was cast4 ,nariskin1 a court chamberlain1 took charge of the philosopher1 and escorted him in an excellent carriage along the dreary road that ended in the capital reared by ,peter the ,great among the northern floods4 ,it is worth while to digress for a few moments1 to mark shortly the difference in social and intellectual conditions between the philosopher's own city and the city for which he was bound1 and to touch on the significance of his journey4 ,we can only in this way understand the position of the ,encyclopaedists in ,europe1 and see why it is interesting to the student of the history of ,western civilisation to know something about them4 ,it is impossible to have a clear idea of the scope of the revolutionary philosophy1 as well as of the singular pre-eminence of ,paris over the western world1 until we have placed ourselves1 not only at ,ferney and ,grandval1 and in the parlours of ,madame ,geoffrin and ,mademoiselle ,lespinasse1 but also in palaces at ,florence1 ,berlin1 ,vienna1 and ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,from ,holland with its free institutions1 its peaceful industry1 its husbanded wealth1 its rich and original art1 its great political and literary tradition1 to go to ,russia was to measure an arc of ,western progress1 and to retrace the steps of the genius of civilisation4 ,the political capital of ,russia represented a forced and artificial union between old and new conditions4 ,in ,st4 ,petersburg1 says an onlooker1 were united the age of barbarism and the age of civilisation1 the tenth century and the eighteenth1 the manners of ,asia and the manners of ,europe1 the rudest ,scythians and the most polished ,europeans1 a brilliant and proud aristocracy and a people sunk in servitude4 ,on one side were elegant fashions1 magnificent dresses1 sumptuous repasts1 splendid feasts1 theatres like those which gave grace and animation to the select circles of ,london or ,paris3 on the other side1 shopkeepers in ,asiatic dress1 coachmen1 servants1 and peasants clad in sheepskins1 wearing long beards1 fur caps1 and long fingerless gloves of skin1 with short axes hanging from their leathern girdles4 ,the thick woollen bands round their feet and legs resembled a rude cothurnus1 and the sight of these uncouth figures reminded one who had seen the bas-reliefs on ,trajan's column at ,rome1 of the ,scythians1 the ,dacians1 the ,goths1 the ,roxolani1 who had been the terror of the ,empire4#ga ,literary cultivation was confined to almost the smallest possible area4 ,oriental as ,russia was in many respects1 it was the opposite of oriental in one3 women were then1 as they are still sometimes said to be in ,russia1 more cultivated and advanced than men4 ,many of them could speak half a dozen languages1 could play on several instruments1 and were familiar with the works of the famous poets of ,france1 ,italy1 and ,england4 ,among the men1 on the contrary1 outside of a few exceptional families about the court1 the vast majority were strangers to all that was passing beyond the limits of their own country4 ,the few who had travelled and were on an intellectual level with their century1 were as far removed from the rest of their countrymen as ,englishmen are removed from ,iroquois4 #ga ,segur's ,mem41 ii4 #bcj4 ,to paint the court of ,catherine in its true colours it has been said that one ought to have the pen of ,procopius4 ,it was a hot-bed of corruption1 intrigue1 jealousy1 violence1 hatred4 ,one day1 surrounded by twenty-seven of her courtiers1 ,catherine said3 ,if ,i were to believe what you all say about one another1 there is not one of you who does not richly deserve to have his head cut off4 ,a certain princess was notorious for her inhuman barbarity4 ,one day she discovered that one of her attendants was with child2 in a frenzy she pursued the hapless ,callisto from chamber to chamber1 came up with her1 dashed in her skull with a heavy weapon1 and finally in a delirium of passion ripped up her body4 ,when two nobles had a quarrel1 they fell upon one another then and there like drunken navvies1 and ,potemkin had an eye gouged out in a court brawl4 ,such horrors give us a measure of the superior humanity of ,versailles1 and enable us also in passing to see how duelling could be a sign of a higher civilisation4 ,the reigning passions were love of money and the gratification of a coarse vanity4 ,friendship1 virtue1 manners1 delicacy1 probity1 said one witness1 are here merely words1 void of all meaning4 ,the tone in public affairs was as low as in those of private conduct4 ,i might as well1 says ,sir ,g4 ,macartney1 quote ,clarke and ,tillotson at the divan of ,constantinople1 as invoke the authority of ,puffendorf and ,grotius here4 ,the character of the ,empress herself has been more disputed than that of the society in which she was the one imposing personage4 ,she stands in history with ,elizabeth of ,england1 with ,catherine de' ,medici1 with ,maria ,theresa1 among the women who have been like great men4 ,of her place in the record of the creation of that vast empire which begins with ,prussia and ends with ,china1 we have not here to speak4 ,the materials for knowing her and judging her are only in our own time becoming accessible4#gb ,as usual1 the mythic elements that surrounded her like a white fog from the northern seas out of which she loomed like a portent1 are rapidly disappearing1 and are replaced by the outlines of ordinary humanity1 with more than the ordinary human measure of firmness1 resolution1 and energetic grasp of the facts of her position in the world4 #gb ,the ,imperial ,historical ,society are publishing a ,recueil ,general of documents1 many of which shed an interesting light on ,catherine's intercourse with the men of letters4 ,in the ,archives of the ,house of ,woronzow 7especially vol4 xii471 amid much of what for our purpose is chaff1 are a few grains of what is interesting4 ,m4 ,rambaud1 the author of the learned work on the ,greek ,empire in the ,tenth ,century1 gave interesting selections from these sources in two articles in the ,revue des deux ,mondes for ,february and ,april1 #ahgg4 ,besides what is to be gathered from such well-known authorities as ,william ,tooke1 ,segur1 ,dashkoff1 there are many interesting pages in the memoirs of that attractive and interesting person1 the ,prince de ,ligne4 ,the passages from ,english and ,french despatches ,i have taken from an anonymous but authentic work published at ,berlin in #aheh1 ,la ,cour de la ,russie il y a cent ans3 #agbe-hc3 extraits des depeches des ,ambassadeurs anglais et francais4 ,catherine's own ,memoirs1 published in ,london in #ahei by ,alexander ,herzen1 are perhaps too doubtful4 ,we must go from the philosophers to the men of affairs for a true picture4 ,these tell us that she offered an unprecedented mixture of courage and weakness1 of knowledge and incompetence1 of firmness and irresolution2 passing in turn from the most opposite extremes1 she presented a thousand diverse surfaces1 until at last the observer had to content himself with putting her down as a consummate comedian4 ,she had no ready apprehension4 ,too refined a pleasantry was thrown away upon her1 and there was always a chance of her reversing its drift4 ,no playful reference to the finances1 or the military force1 or even to the climate of her empire1 was ever taken in good part4#gc ,the political part was the serious part of her nature4 ,catherine had the literary tastes1 but not the literary skill1 of ,frederick4 ,she is believed1 on good evidence1 to have written for the use of her grandsons not only an ,abridgment of ,russian ,history1 but a volume of ,moral ,tales4#gd ,the composition of moral tales was entirely independent of morality4 ,just as ,lewis ,,xv4 had a long series of ,chateauroux1 ,pompadours1 ,dubarrys1 so ,catherine had her ,orloffs and ,potemkins1 and a countless host of obscure and miscellaneous ,wassiltchikows1 ,zavadowskys1 ,zoriczes1 ,korsaks4 ,on the serious side1 ,lewis ,,xiv4 was her great pattern and idol4 ,she resented criticism on that renowned memory1 as something personal to herself4 ,to her business as sovereign--mon petit menage1 as she called the control of her huge formless empire--she devoted as much indefatigable industry as ,lewis himself had done in his best days4 ,notwithstanding all her efforts to improve her country1 she was not popular1 and never won the affection of her subjects2 but she probably cared less for the opinion and sentiment of ,russia than for the applause of ,europe4 ,tragedy displeases her1 writes the ,french ,minister1 and comedy wearies her2 she does not like music2 her table is without any sort of exquisiteness2 in a garden she cares only for roses2 her only taste is to build and to drill her court1 for the taste that she has for reigning1 and for making a great figure in the universe1 is really not so much taste as a downright absorbing passion4 #gc ,mem4 du ,prince de ,ligne1 p4 #aja4 #gd ,segur1 #bai4 ,gunning1 the ,english charge d'affaires1 insists that the motive of all her patriotic labours was not benevolence1 but an insatiable and unbounded thirst for fame4 ,if it were not so1 we must charge her with an inconsistency amounting to madness1 for undertaking so many immense works of public utility1 such as the foundation of colleges and academies on a most extensive plan and at an enormous outlay1 and then leaving them incomplete1 not even finishing the buildings for them4 ,they had served the purpose of making foreigners laud the glory of the ,semiramis of the north1 and that was enough4 ,the arts and sciences1 said the ,french ,minister1 have plenty of academies here1 but the academies have few subjects and fewer pupils4 ,how could there be pupils in a country where there is nobody who is not either a courtier1 a soldier1 or a slave8 ,the ,princess ,sophie of ,anhalt1 long before she dreamed of becoming the ,czarina ,catherine ,,ii41 had been brought up by a ,french governess1 and the tastes that her governess had implanted grew into a passion for ,french literature1 which can only be compared to the same passion in ,frederick the ,great4 ,catherine only continued a movement that had already in the reign of her predecessor gone to a considerable length4 ,the social reaction against ,german political predominance had been accompanied by a leaning to ,france4 ,french professors in art and literature had been tempted to ,moscow1 the nobles sent to ,paris for their clothes and their furniture1 and a ,french theatre was set up in ,st4 ,petersburg1 where the nobles were forced to attend the performances under pain of a fine4 ,absentees and loiterers were hurried to their boxes by horse-patrols4 ,catherine was more serious and intelligent than this in her pursuit of ,french culture4 ,she had begun with the books in which most of the salt of old ,france was to be found1 with ,rabelais1 ,scarron1 ,montaigne2 she cherished ,moliere and ,corneille2 and of the writers of the eighteenth century1 apart from ,voltaire1 the author of ,gil ,blas was her favourite4 ,such a list tells its own tale of a mind turned to what is masculine1 racy1 pungent1 and thoroughly sapid4 ,i am a ,gauloise of the north1 she said1 ,i only understand the old ,french2 ,i do not understand the new4 ,i made up my mind to get something out of your gentry1 the learned men in ist3 ,i have tried them2 ,i made some of them come here2 ,i occasionally wrote to them2 they wearied me to death1 and never understood me2 there was only my good protector1 ,voltaire4 ,do you know it was ,voltaire who made me the fashion8#ge ,this was a confidential revelation1 made long after most of the philosophers were dead4 ,we might have penetrated the secret of her friendship for such a man as ,diderot1 even with less direct evidence than this4 ,it was the vogue of the philosophers1 and not their philosophy that made ,catherine their friend4 ,they were the great interest of ,europe at this time1 just as ,greek scholars had been its interest in one century1 painters in another1 great masters of religious controversy in a third4 ,what makes the great merit of ,france1 said ,voltaire1 what makes its unique superiority1 is a small number of sublime or delightful men of genius1 who cause ,french to be spoken at ,vienna1 at ,stockholm1 and at ,moscow4 ,your ministers1 your intendants1 your chief secretaries have no part in all this glory4 ,this vogue of the philosophers brought the whole literature of their country into universal repute4 ,in the depths of the ,crimea a khan of the ,tartars took a delight in having ,tartufe and the ,bourgeois ,gentilhomme read aloud to him4#gf #ge ,to the ,prince de ,ligne4 #gf ,rambaud1 p4 #egc4 ,as soon as ,catherine came into power 7#agfb71 she at once applied herself to make friends in this powerful region4 ,it was a matter of course that she should begin with the omnipotent pontiff at ,ferney4 ,graceful verses from ,voltaire were as indispensable an ornament to a crowned head as a diadem1 and ,catherine answered with compliments that were perhaps more sincere than his verses4 ,she wonders how she can repay him for a bundle of books that he had sent to her1 and at last bethinks herself that nothing will please the lover of mankind so much as the introduction of inoculation into the great empire2 so she sends for ,dr4 ,dimsdale from ,england1 and submits to the unfamiliar rite in her own sacred person4 ,presents of furs are sent to the hermit of the ,alps1 and he is told how fortunate the imperial messenger counts himself in being despatched to ,ferney4 ,what flattered ,voltaire more than furs was ,catherine's promptitude and exactness in keeping him informed of her military and political movements against ,turkey4 ,it made him a centre of ,european intelligence in more senses than one1 and helped him in his lifelong battle to pose1 in his letters at least1 as the equal of his friend1 the ,king of ,prussia4 ,for ,d',alembert the ,empress professed an admiration only less than she felt for ,voltaire4 ,she was eager that he should come to ,russia to superintend the instruction of the young ,grand ,duke4 ,but ,d',alembert was too prudent to go to ,st4 ,petersburg1 as he was too prudent to go to ,berlin4 ,montesquieu had died five years before her accession1 but his influence remained4 ,she habitually called the ,spirit of ,laws the breviary of kings1 and when she drew up her ,instruction for a new code1 she acknowledged how much she had pillaged from ,montesquieu4 ,i hope1 she said1 that if from the other world he sees me at work1 he will forgive my plagiarism for the sake of the twenty millions of men who will benefit by it4 ,in truth the twenty millions of men got very little benefit indeed by the code4 ,montesquieu's own method might have taught her that not even absolute power can force the civil system of free labour into a society resting on serfdom4 ,but it is not surprising that ,catherine was no wiser than more democratic reformers who had drunk from the ,french springs4 ,or probably she had a lower estimate in her own heart of the value of her code for practical purposes than it suited her to disclose to a ,parisian philosopher4 ,catherine did not forget that1 though the ,french at this time were pre-eminent in the literature of new ideas1 yet there were meritorious and useful men in other countries4 ,one of her correspondents was ,zimmermann of ,hanover1 whose essay on ,solitude the shelves of no second-hand bookseller's shop is ever without4 ,she had tried hard to bribe ,beccaria to leave ,florence for ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,she succeeded in persuading ,euler to return to a capital whither he had been invited many years before by the first ,catherine1 and where he now remained4 ,both ,catherine's position and her temperament made the society of her own sex of little use or interest to her4 ,i don't know whether it is custom or inclination1 she wrote1 but somehow ,i can never carry on conversation except with men4 ,there are only two women in the world with whom ,i can talk for half an hour at once4 ,yet among her most intimate correspondents was one woman well known in the ,encyclopaedic circle4 ,she kept up an active exchange of letters with ,madame ,geoffrin--that interesting personage1 who though belonging to the bourgeoisie1 and possessing not a trace of literary genius1 yet was respectfully courted not only by ,catherine1 but by ,stanislas1 ,gustavus1 and ,joseph ,,ii4#gg #gg ,see ,m4 ,mouy's ,introduction to her ,correspondence with ,stanislas4 ,on the whole then we must regard ,catherine's ,european correspondence as at least in some measure the result of political calculation4 ,its purposes1 as has been said1 were partly those to which in our own times some governments devote a ,reptile-fund4 ,there is a letter from the ,duchesse de ,choiseul to ,madame du ,deffand1 her intimate friend1 and the friend of so many of the literary circle1 in which the secret of the relations between ,catherine and the men of letters is very plainly told4 ,all that1 she writes--protection of arts and sciences--is mere luxury and a caprice of fashion in our age4 ,all such pompous jargon is the product of vanity1 not of principles or of reflection4444 ,the ,empress of ,russia has another object in protecting literature2 she has had sense enough to feel that she had need of the protection of the men of letters4 ,she has flattered herself that their base praises would cover with an impenetrable veil in the eyes of her contemporaries and of posterity1 the crimes with which she has astonished the universe and revolted humanity4444 ,the men of letters1 on the other hand1 flattered1 cajoled1 caressed by her1 are vain of the protection that they are able to throw over her1 and dupes of the coquetries that she lavishes on them4 ,these people who say and believe that they are the instructors of the masters of the world1 sink so low as actually to take a pride in the protection that this monster seems in her turn to accord to them1 simply because she sits on a throne4#gh #gh ,corresp4 ,complete de ,mdme4 du ,deffand1 i4 #aae4 7,ed4 #ahgg47 ,june1 #agfg4 ,in short1 the monarchs of the north understood and used the new forces of the men of letters1 whom their own sovereign only recognised to oppress4 ,the contrast between the liberalism of the northern sovereigns1 and the obscurantism of the court of ,france1 was never lost from sight4 ,marmontel's ,belisarius was condemned by the ,sorbonne1 and burnt at the foot of the great staircase of the ,palace of ,justice2 in ,russia a group of courtiers hastened to translate it1 and the ,empress herself undertook one chapter of the work4 ,diderot1 who was not allowed to enter the ,french ,academy1 was an honoured guest at the ,russian palace4 ,for all this ,catherine was handsomely repaid4 ,when ,diderot visited ,st4 ,petersburg1 ,voltaire congratulated the ,empress on seeing that unique man2 but ,diderot is not1 he added1 the only ,frenchman who is an enthusiast for your glory4 ,we are lay missionaries who preach the religion of ,saint ,catherine1 and we can boast that our church is tolerably universal4#gi ,we have already seen ,catherine's generosity in buying ,diderot's books1 and paying him for guarding them as her librarian4 ,i should never have expected1 she says1 that the purchase of a library would bring me so many fine compliments2 all the world is bepraising me about ,m4 ,diderot's library4 ,but now confess1 you to whom humanity is indebted for the strong support that you have given to innocence and virtue in the person of ,calas1 that it would have been cruel and unjust to separate a student from his books4#hj ,ah1 madam1 replies the most graceful of all courtiers1 let your imperial majesty forgive me2 no1 you are not the aurora borealis2 you are assuredly the most brilliant star of the north1 and never was there one so beneficent as you4 ,andromeda1 ,perseus1 ,callisto are not your equals4 ,all these stars would have left ,diderot to die of starvation4 ,he was persecuted in his own country1 and your benefactions came thither to seek him6 ,lewis ,,xiv4 was less munificent than your majesty3 he rewarded merit in foreign countries1 but other people pointed it out to him1 whereas you1 madame1 go in search of it and find it for yourself4 ,your generous pains to establish freedom of conscience in ,poland are a piece of beneficence that the human race must ever celebrate4#ha #gi ,november #a1 #aggc4 #hj ,november #agff4 #ha ,december #bb1 #agff4 ,when the first ,partition of ,poland took place seven years later1 ,catherine found that she had not cultivated the friendship of the ,french philosophers to no purpose4 ,the action of the dominant party in ,poland enabled ,catherine to take up a line which touched the ,french philosophers in their tenderest part4 ,the ,polish oligarchy was ,catholic1 and imposed crushing disabilities on the non-,catholic part of the population4 ,at the slightest attempt in favour of the non-,catholics1 ,king ,stanislas writes to ,madame ,geoffrin1 of the ,diet of #agfd1 there arose such a cry of fanaticism6 ,the difficulty as to the naturalisation of foreigners1 the contempt for roturiers and the oppression of them1 and ,catholic intolerance1 are the three strongest national prejudices that ,i have to fight against in my countrymen2 they are at bottom good folk1 but their education and ignorance render them excessively stubborn on these three heads4#hb ,poland in short reproduced in an aggravated and more barbaric form those evils of ,catholic feudalism1 in which the philosophers saw the arch-curse of their own country4 ,catherine took the side of the ,dissidents1 and figured as the champion of religious toleration4 ,toleration was chief among the philosophic watchwords1 and seeing that great device on her banners1 the ,encyclopaedic party asked no further questions4 ,so1 with the significant exception of ,rousseau1 they all abstained from the cant about the ,partition which has so often been heard from ,european liberals in later days4 ,and so with reference to more questionable transactions of an earlier date1 no one could guess from the writings of the philosophers that ,catherine had ever been suspected of uniting with her husband in a plot to poison the ,empress ,elizabeth1 and then uniting with her lover in a plot to strangle her husband4 ,i am quite aware1 said ,voltaire1 that she is reproached with some bagatelles in the matter of her husband1 but these are family affairs with which ,i cannot possibly think of meddling4 #hb ,corresp41 pp4 #ace1 #add1 etc4 ,one curious instance of ,catherine's sensibility to ,european opinion is connected with her relations to ,diderot4 ,rulhiere1 afterwards well known in literature as a historian1 began life as secretary to ,breteuil1 in the ,french embassy at ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,an eyewitness of the tragedy which seated ,catherine on the throne1 he wrote an account of the events of the revolution of #agfb4 ,this piquant narrative1 composed by a young man who had read ,tacitus and ,sallust was circulated in manuscript among the salons of ,paris 7#agfh74 ,diderot had warned ,rulhiere that it was infinitely dangerous to speak about princes1 that not everything that is true is fit to be told1 that he could not be too careful of the feelings of a great sovereign who was the admiration and delight of her people4 ,catherine pretended that a mere secretary of an embassy could know very little about the real springs and motives of the conspiracy4 ,diderot had described the manuscript as painting her in a commanding and imperious attitude4 ,there was nothing of that sort1 she said2 it was only a question of perishing with a madman1 or saving oneself with the multitude who insisted on coming to the rescue4 ,what she saw was that the manuscript must be bought1 and she did her best first to buy the author and then1 when this failed1 to have him locked up in the ,bastille4 ,she succeeded in neither4 ,the ,french government were not sorry to have a scourge to their hands4 ,all that ,diderot could procure from ,rulhiere was a promise that the work should not be published during the ,empress's lifetime4 ,it was actually given to the world in #agig4 ,when ,diderot was at ,st4 ,petersburg1 the ,empress was importunate to know the contents of the manuscript1 which he had seen1 but of which she was unable to procure a copy4 ,as far as you are concerned1 he said1 if you attach great importance1 ,madame1 to the decencies and virtues1 the worn-out rags of your sex1 this work is a satire against you2 but if large views and masculine and patriotic designs concern you more1 the author depicts you as a great princess4 ,the ,empress answered that this only increased her desire to read the book4 ,diderot himself truly enough described it as a historic romance1 containing a mixed tissue of lies and truths that posterity would compare to a chapter of ,tacitus4#hc ,perhaps the only piece of it that posterity will really value is the page in which the writer describes ,catherine's personal appearance2 her broad and open brow1 her large and slightly double chin1 her hair of resplendent chestnut1 her eyes of a brilliant brown into which the reflections of the light brought shades of blue4 ,pride1 he says1 is the true characteristic of her physiognomy4 ,the amiability and grace which are there too only seem to penetrating eyes to be the effect of an extreme desire to please1 and these seductive expressions somehow let the design of seducing be rather too clearly seen4 #hc ,satire ,i4 sur les caracteres1 etc4 ,oeuv41 vi4 #cac4 ,the first ,frenchman whom ,catherine welcomed in person to her court was ,falconet1 of whose controversy with the philosopher we shall have a few words to say in a later chapter4 ,this introduction to her was due to ,diderot4 ,she had entreated him to find for her a sculptor who would undertake a colossal statue of ,peter the ,great4 ,falconet was at the height of his reputation in his own country2 in leaving it he seems to have been actuated by no other motive than the desire of an opportunity of erecting an immense monument of his art1 though ,diderot's eloquence was not wanting4 ,falconet had the proverbial temperament of artistic genius4 ,diderot called him the ,jean ,jacques of sculpture4 ,he had none of the rapacity for money which has distinguished so many artists in their dealings with foreign princes1 but he was irritable1 turbulent1 restless1 intractable4 ,he was a chivalrous defender of poorer brethren in art1 and he was never a respecter of persons4 ,his feuds with ,betzki1 the ,empress's faithful factotum1 were as acrid as the feuds between ,voltaire and ,maupertuis4 ,betzki had his own ideas about the statue that was to do honour to the founder of the ,empire1 and he insisted that the famous equestrian figure of ,marcus ,aurelius should be the model4 ,falconet was a man of genius1 and he retorted that what might be good for ,marcus ,aurelius would not be good for ,peter the ,great4 ,the courtly battle does not concern us1 though some of its episodes offer tempting illustrations of biting ,french malice4 ,falconet had his own way1 and after the labour of many years1 a colossus of bronze bestrode a charger rearing on a monstrous mass of unhewn granite4 ,catherine took the liveliest interest in her artist's work1 frequently visiting his studio1 and keeping up a busy correspondence4 ,with him1 as with the others1 she insisted that he should stand on no ceremony1 and should not spin out his lines with epithets on which she set not the smallest value4 ,she may be said to have encouraged him to pester her with a host of his obscure countrymen in search of a living1 and a little colony of ,frenchmen whose names tell us nothing1 hung about the ,russian capital4 ,diderot's account of this group of his countrymen at ,st4 ,petersburg recalls the picture of a corresponding group at ,berlin4 ,most of the ,french who are here rend and hate one another1 and bring contempt both on themselves and their nation3 'tis the most unworthy set of rascals that you can imagine4#hd #hd ,oeuv41 xx4 #eh4 ,diderot reached ,st4 ,petersburg towards the end of #aggc1 and he remained some five months1 until the beginning of ,march1 #aggd4 ,his impulsive nature was shocked by a chilly welcome from ,falconet1 but at the palace his reception was most cordial1 as his arrival had been eagerly anticipated4 ,the ,empress always professed to detest ceremony and state4 ,in a letter to ,madame ,geoffrin she insists1 as we have already seen her doing with ,falconet1 on being treated to no oriental prostrations1 as if she were at the court of ,persia4 ,there is nothing in the world so ugly and detestable as greatness4 ,when ,i go into a room1 you would say that ,i am the head of ,medusa3 everybody turns to stone4 ,i constantly scream like an eagle against such ways2 yet the more ,i scream1 the less are they at their ease4444 ,if you came into my room1 ,i should say to you1--,madame1 be seated2 let us chatter at our ease4 ,you would have a chair in front of me2 there would be a table between us4 ,et puis des batons rompus1 tant et plus1 c'est mon fort4 ,this is an exact description of her real behaviour to ,diderot4 ,on most days he was in her society from three in the afternoon until five or six4 ,etiquette was banished4 ,diderot's simplicity and vehemence were as conspicuous and as unrestrained at ,tsarskoe-selo as at ,grandval or the ,rue ,taranne4 ,if for a moment the torrent of his improvisation was checked by the thought that he was talking to a great lady1 ,catherine encouraged him to go on4 ,allons1 she cried1 entre hommes tout est permis4 ,the philosopher in the heat of exposition brought his hands down upon the imperial knees with such force and iteration1 that ,catherine complained that he made them black and blue4 ,she was sometimes glad to seek shelter from such zealous enforcement of truth1 behind a strong table4 ,watchful diplomatists could not doubt that such interviews must have reference to politics4 ,cathcart1 the ,english ambassador1 writes to his government that ,m4 ,diderot is still with the ,empress at ,tsarskoe-selo1 pursuing his political intrigues4 ,and1 amazing as it may seem1 the ,french minister and the ,french ambassador both of them believed that they had found in this dreaming rhapsodical genius a useful diplomatic instrument4 ,the interviews between ,catherine and ,diderot follow one another incessantly1 and go on from day to day4 ,he told me1 and ,i have reasons for believing that he is speaking the truth1 that he has painted the danger of the alliance of ,russia with the ,king of ,prussia1 and the advantage of an alliance with us4 ,the ,empress1 far from blaming this freedom1 encouraged him by word and gesture4 ',you are not fond of that prince1' she said to ,diderot4 ',no1' he replied1 'he is a great man1 but a bad king1 and a dealer in counterfeit coin4' ',oh1' said she laughing1 ',i have had my share of his coin4' ,the first ,partition of ,poland had been finally consummated in the ,polish ,diet in the autumn of #aggc1 a few weeks before ,diderot's arrival at ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,lewis ,,xv41 now drawing very near to his end1 and ,d',aiguillon1 his minister1 had some uneasiness at this opening of the great era of territorial revolution1 and looked about in a shiftless way for an ally against ,russia and ,prussia4 ,england sensibly refused to stir4 ,then ,france1 as we see1 was only anxious to detach ,catherine from ,frederick4 ,all was shiftless and feeble1 and the ,french government can have known little of the ,empress1 if they thought that ,diderot was the man to affect her strong and positive mind4 ,she told ,segur in later years what success ,diderot had with her as a politician4 ,i talked much and frequently with him1 said ,catherine1 but with more curiosity than profit4 ,if ,i had believed him1 everything would have been turned upside down in my kingdom2 legislation1 administration1 finances--all to be turned topsy-turvy to make room for impracticable theories4 ,yet as ,i listened more than ,i talked1 any witness who happened to be present1 would have taken him for a severe pedagogue1 and me for his humble scholar4 ,probably he thought so himself1 for after some time1 seeing that none of these great innovations were made which he had recommended1 he showed surprise and a haughty kind of dissatisfaction4 ,then speaking openly1 ,i said to him3 ,mr4 ,diderot1 ,i have listened with the greatest pleasure to all that your brilliant intelligence has inspired2 and with all your great principles1 which ,i understand very well1 one would make fine books1 but very bad business4 ,you forget in all your plans of reform the difference in our positions2 you only work on paper1 which endures all things2 it opposes no obstacle either to your imagination or to your pen4 ,but ,i1 poor ,empress as ,i am1 work on the human skin1 which is irritable and ticklish to a very different degree4 ,i am persuaded that from this moment he pitied me as a narrow and vulgar spirit4 ,for the future he only talked about literature1 and politics vanished from our conversation4#he #he ,segur1 iii4 #cd4 ,catherine was mistaken1 as we shall see1 in supposing that ,diderot ever thought her less than the greatest of men4 ,cathcart1 the ,english ambassador1 writes in a sour strain3 ,all his letters are filled with panegyrics of the ,empress1 whom he depicts as above humanity4 ,his flatteries of the ,grand ,duke have been no less gross1 but be it said to the young prince's honour1 he has shown as much contempt for such flatteries as for the mischievous principles of this pretended philosopher4 ,frederick tells ,d',alembert that though the ,empress overwhelms ,diderot with favours1 people at ,st4 ,petersburg find him tiresome and disputatious1 and talking the same rigmarole over and over again4 ,in her letters to ,voltaire1 ,catherine lets nothing of this be seen4 ,she finds ,diderot's imagination inexhaustible1 and ranks him among the most extraordinary men that have ever lived2 she delights in his conversation1 and his visits have given her the most uncommon pleasure4 ,all this was perhaps true enough4 ,catherine probably rated the philosopher at his true worth as a great talker and a singular and original genius1 but this did not prevent her1 any more than it need prevent us1 from seeing the limits and measure4 ,she was not one of the weaker heads who can never be content without either wholesale enthusiasm or wholesale disparagement4 ,diderot had a companion who pleased her better than ,diderot himself4 ,grimm came to ,st4 ,petersburg at this time to pay his first visit1 and had a great success4 ,the ,empress1 wrote ,madame ,geoffrin to ,king ,stanislas1 lavished all her graces on ,grimm4 ,and he has everything that is needed to make him worthy of them4 ,diderot has neither the fineness of perception1 nor the delicate tact that ,grimm has1 and so he has not had the success of ,grimm4 ,diderot is always in himself1 and sees nothing in other people that has not some reference to himself4 ,he is a man of a great deal of understanding1 but his nature and turn of mind make him good for nothing1 and1 more than that1 would make him a very dangerous person in any employment4 ,grimm is quite the contrary4#hf #hf ,mouy's ,corresp4 du roi ,stanislas1 p4 #eja4 ,in truth1 as we have said before1 ,grimm was one of the shrewdest heads in the ,encyclopaedic party2 he had much knowledge1 a judgment both solid and acute1 and a certain easy fashion of social commerce1 free from raptures and full of good sense4 ,yet he was as devoted and ecstatic in his feelings about the ,empress as his more impetuous friend4 ,here1 he says1 was no conversation of leaps and bounds1 in which idleness traverses a whole gallery of ideas that have no connection with one another1 and weariness draws you away from one object to skim a dozen others4 ,they were talks in which all was bound together1 often by imperceptible threads1 but all the more naturally1 as not a word of what was to be said had been led up to or prepared beforehand4 ,grimm cannot find words to describe her verve1 her stream of brilliant sallies1 her dashing traits1 her eagle's coup d'oeil4 ,no wonder that he used to quit her presence so electrified as to pass half the night in marching up and down his room1 beset and pursued by all the fine and marvellous things that had been said4 ,how much of all this is true1 and how much of it is the voice of the bewildered courtier1 it might be hard to decide4 ,but the rays of the imperial sun did not so far blind his prudence1 as to make him accept a pressing invitation to remain permanently in ,catherine's service4 ,when ,diderot quitted ,st4 ,petersburg1 ,grimm went to ,italy4 ,after an interlude there1 he returned to ,russia and was at once restored to high favour4 ,when the time came for him to leave her1 the ,empress gave him a yearly pension of two thousand roubles1 or about ten thousand livres1 and with a minute considerateness that is said not to be common among the great1 she presently ordered that it should be paid in such a form that he should not lose on the exchange between ,france and ,russia4 ,whether she had a special object in keeping ,grimm in good humour1 we hardly know4 ,what is certain is that from #aggf until the fall of the ,french monarchy she kept up a voluminous correspondence with him1 and that he acted as an unofficial intermediary between her and the ministers at ,versailles4 ,every day she wrote down what she wished to say to ,grimm1 and at the end of every three months these daily sheets were made into a bulky packet and despatched to ,paris by a special courier1 who returned with a similar packet from ,grimm4 ,this intercourse went on until the very height of the ,revolution1 when ,grimm at last1 in ,february1 #agib1 fled from ,paris4 ,the ,empress's helpful friendship continued to the end of her life 7#agif74hg #hg ,memoire ,historique1 printed in vol4 i4 of the new edition 7#ahgg7 of the ,correspondence of ,grimm and ,diderot1 by ,m4 ,maurice ,tourneux4 ,diderot arrived at the ,hague on his return from ,russia in the first week of ,april 7#aggd71 after making a rapid journey of seven hundred leagues in three weeks and a day4 ,d',alembert had been anxious that ,frederick of ,prussia should invite ,diderot to visit him at ,berlin4 ,frederick had told him that1 intrepid reader as he was1 he could not endure to read ,diderot's books4 ,there reigns in them a tone of self-sufficiency and an arrogance which revolt the instinct of my freedom4 ,it was not in such a style that ,plato1 ,aristotle1 ,cicero1 ,locke1 ,gassendi1 ,bayle1 and ,newton wrote4 ,d',alembert replied that the king would judge more favourably of the philosopher's person than of his works2 that he would find in ,diderot1 along with much fecundity1 imagination1 and knowledge1 a gentle heat and a great deal of amenity4#hh ,frederick1 however1 did not send the invitation1 and ,diderot willingly enough went homeward by the northern route by which he had come4 ,he passed ,koenigsberg1 where1 if he had known it1 ,kant was then meditating the ,critic of ,pure ,reason4 ,it is hardly probable that ,diderot met the famous worthy who was destined to deal so heavy a blow to the ,encyclopaedic way of thinking1 and to leave a name not less illustrious than ,frederick or ,catherine4 ,a court official was sent in charge of the philosopher4 ,the troubles of posting by the sea-road between ,koenigsberg and ,memel had moved him to the composition of some very bad verses on his first journey2 and the horror of crossing the ,dwina inspired others that were no better on his return4 ,the weather was hard2 four carriages were broken in the journey4 ,he expected to be drowned as the ice creaked under his horses' feet at ,riga1 and he thought that he had broken an arm and a shoulder as he crossed the ferry at ,mittau4 ,but all ended well1 and he found himself once more under the roof of ,prince ,galitzin at the ,hague4 ,hence he wrote to his wife and his other friends in ,paris1 that it must be a great consolation to them to know that he was only separated from them by a journey of four days4 ,that journey was not taken1 however1 for nearly four months4 ,diderot had promised the ,empress that he would publish a set of the regulations for the various institutions which she had founded for the improvement of her realm4 ,this could only be done1 or could best be done1 in ,holland4 ,his life there was spent as usual in the slavery of proof-sheets1 tempered by daily bursts of conversation1 rhapsody1 discussion1 and dreamy contemplation4 ,he made the acquaintance of a certain ,bjoernstaehl1 a professor of oriental languages at the university of ,lund in ,sweden1 and a few pages in this obscure writer's obscure book contain the only glimpse that we have of the philosopher on his travels4#hi ,diderot was as ecstatic in conversation1 as we know him to have been in his correspondence1 in praise of the august friend whom he had left4 ,the least of his compliments was that she united the charms of ,cleopatra to the soul of ,caesar1 or sometimes it was1 to the soul of ,brutus4 #hh ,d',alembert au ,roi de ,prusse4 ,feb4 #ad1 #aggd4 #hi ,briefe aus seinen auslaendischen ,reisen1 iii4 #bag-bcc4 7,leipsic1 #aghj--;a ,german translation from the ,swedish47 ,at the ,hague1 says ,bjoernstaehl1 we go about every day with ,m4 ,diderot4 ,he has views extending over an incredibly wide field1 possesses a vivacity that ,i cannot describe1 is pleasant and friendly in intercourse1 and has new and unusual observations to make on every subject4444 ,who could fail to prize him8 ,he is so bright1 so full of instruction1 has so many new thoughts and suggestions1 that nobody can help admiring him4 ,but willingly as he talks when one goes to him1 he shows to little advantage in large companies1 and that is why he did not please everybody at ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,you will easily see the reason why this incomparable man in such companies1 where people talk of fashion1 of clothes1 of frippery1 and all other sorts of triviality1 neither gives pleasure to others nor finds pleasure himself4 ,and the friendly ,swede rises to the height of generalisation in the quaint maxim1 ,where an empty head shines1 there a thoroughly cultivated man comes too short4 ,bjoernstaehl quotes a saying of ,voltaire1 that ,diderot would have been a poet if he had not wished to be a philosopher--a remark that was rather due perhaps to ,voltaire's habitual complaisance than to any serious consideration of ,diderot's qualities4 ,but if he could not be a poet himself1 at least he knew ,pindar and ,homer by heart1 and at the ,hague he never stirred out without a ,horace in his pocket4 ,and though no poet1 he was full of poetic sentiment4 ,scheveningen1 the little bathing-place a short distance from the ,hague1 was ,diderot's favourite spot4 ,it was there1 he writes1 that ,i used to see the horizon dark1 the sea covered with white haze1 the waves rolling and tumbling1 and far out the poor fishermen in their great clumsy boats2 on the shore a multitude of women frozen with cold or apprehension1 trying to warm themselves in the sun4 ,when the work was at an end and the boats had landed1 the beach was covered with fish of every kind4 ,these good people have the simplicity1 the openness1 the filial and fraternal piety of old time4 ,as the men come down from their boats1 their wives throw themselves into their arms1 they embrace their fathers and their little ones2 each loads himself with fish2 the son tosses his father a codfish or a salmon1 which the old man carries off in triumph to his cottage1 thanking heaven that it has given him so industrious and worthy a son4 ,when he has gone indoors1 the sight of the fish rejoices the old man's mate2 it is quickly cut in pieces1 the less lucky neighbours invited1 it is speedily eaten1 and the room resounds with thanks to ,god1 and cheerful songs4#ij #ij xvii4 #ddi4 ,these scenes1 with their sea-background1 their animation1 their broad strokes of the simple1 tender1 and real in life1 may well have been after ,diderot's own heart4 ,he often told me1 says ,bjoernstaehl1 that he never found the hours pass slowly in the company of a peasant1 or a cobbler1 or any handicraftsman1 but that he had many a time found them pass slowly enough in the society of a courtier4 ,for of the one1 he said1 one can always ask about useful and necessary things1 but the other is mostly1 so far as anything useful is concerned1 empty and void4 ,the characteristics of the ,european capitals a century ago were believed to be hit off in the saying1 that each of them would furnish the proper cure for a given defect of character4 ,the over-elegant were to go to ,london1 savages to ,paris1 bigots to ,berlin1 rebels to ,st4 ,petersburg1 people who were too sincere to ,rome1 the over-learned to ,brussels1 and people who were too lively to the ,hague4 ,yet the dulness thus charged against the ,hague was not universally admitted4 ,impartial travellers assigned to the talk of cultivated circles there a rank not below that of similar circles in ,france and ,england4 ,some went even farther1 and declared ,holland to have a distinct advantage1 because people were never embarrassed either by the levity and sparkling wit of ,france on the one hand1 nor by the depressing reserve and taciturnity of ,england on the other4#ia ,yet ,holland was fully within the sphere of the great intellectual commonwealth of the west1 and was as directly accessible to the literary influences of the time as it had ever been4 ,if ,diderot had inquired into the vernacular productions of the country1 he would have found that here also the wave of reaction against ,french conventions1 the tide of ,english simplicity and domestic sentimentalism1 had passed into literature4 ,the ,spectator and ,clarissa ,harlowe inspired the writers of ,holland1 as they had inspired ,diderot himself4#ib #ia ,george ,forster's ,ansichten vom ,niederrhein1 etc4 ii4 #cif 7#agij74 #ib ,jonckbloet's ,gesch4 d4 ,niederland4 ,lit4 7,german trans47 ii4 #ejb1 etc4 ,in erudition1 it was still what1 even after the death of ,scaliger1 it had remained through the seventeenth century1 the most learned state of ,europe2 and the elder ,hemsterhuys1 with such pupils as ,ruhnken and ,valckenaer1 kept up as well as he could the scholarly tradition of ,gronovius and ,graevius4 ,but the eighteenth century was not the century of erudition4 ,scholarship had given way to speculation4 ,among the interesting persons whom ,diderot saw at the ,hague1 the most interesting is the amiable and learned son of the elder ,hemsterhuys1 himself by the way not ,dutch1 but the son of a ,frenchman4 ,hemsterhuys had been greatly interested in what he had heard of ,diderot's character1#ic though we have no record of the impression that was made by personal acquaintance4 ,if ,diderot was playfully styled the ,french ,socrates1 the younger ,hemsterhuys won from his friends the name of the ,dutch ,plato4 ,the ,hollanders pointed to this meditative figure1 to his great attainments in the knowledge of ancient literature and art1 to his mellowed philosophising1 to his gracious and well-bred style1 as a proof that their country was capable of developing both the strength and the sensibility of human nature to their highest point4#id ,and he has a place in the history of modern speculation4 ,as we think of him and ,diderot discussing1 we feel ourselves to be placed at a point that seems to command the diverging streams and eddying currents of the time4 ,in this pair two great tides of thought meet for a moment1 and then flow on in their deep appointed courses4 ,for ,hemsterhuys1 born a ,platonist to the core1 became a leader of the reaction against the ,french philosophy of illumination--of sensation1 of experience1 of the verifiable4 ,he contributed a marked current to the mysticism and pietism which crept over ,germany before the ,french revolution1 and to that religious philosophy which became a point of patriotic honour both in ,germany and at the ,russian ,court1 after the revolutionary war had seemed to identify the rival philosophy of the ,encyclopaedists with the victorious fury of the national enemy4 ,jacobi1 a chief of the mystic tribe1 had begun the attack on the ,french with weapons avowedly borrowed from the sentimentalism of ,rousseau1 but by and by he found in ,hemsterhuys more genuinely intellectual arguments for his vindication of feeling and the heart against the ,encyclopaedist claim for the supremacy of the understanding4 #ic ,oeuv4 ,phil4 de ,fr4 ,hemsterhuys1 iii4 #ada4 7,ed4 ,meyboom47 #id ,forster1 ii4 #cih4 ,galiani1 ,corresp4 ii4 #ahi4 ,diderot's hostess at the ,hague is a conspicuous figure in the history of this movement4 ,prince ,galitzin had married the daughter of ,frederick's field-marshal1 ,schmettau4 ,goethe1 who saw her 7#agig7 many years after ,diderot was dead1 describes her as one of those whom one cannot understand without seeing2 as a person not rightly judged unless considered not only in connection1 but in conflict1 with her time4 ,if she was remarkable to ,goethe when fifty years had set their mark upon her1 she was even more so to the impetuous ,diderot in all the flush and intellectual excitement of her youth4 ,it was to the brilliance and versatility of the ,princess ,galitzin that her husband's house owed its consideration and its charm4 ,she is very lively1 said ,diderot1 very gay1 very intelligent2 more than young enough1 instructed and full of talents2 she has read2 she knows several languages1 as ,germans usually do2 she plays on the clavecin1 and sings like an angel2 she is full of expressions that are at once ingenuous and piquant2 she is exceedingly kind-hearted4#ie ,but he could not persuade her to take his philosophy on trust4 ,diderot is said1 by the ,princess's biographer1 to have been a fervid proselytiser1 eager to make people believe his poems about eternally revolving atoms1 through whose accidental encounter the present ordering of the world was developed4 ,the ,princess met his brilliant eloquence with a demand for proof4 ,her ever-repeated ,why8 and ,how8 are said to have shown the hero of atheism his complete emptiness and weakness4#if ,in the long run ,diderot was completely routed in favour of the rival philosophy4 ,hemsterhuys became bound to the ,princess by the closest friendship1 and his letters to her are as striking an illustration as any in literature of the peculiar devotion and admiration which a clever and sympathetic woman may arouse in philosophic minds of a certain calibre--in a ,condillac1 a ,joubert1 a ,d',alembert1 a ,mill4 ,though ,hemsterhuys himself never advanced from a philosophy of religion to the active region of dogmatic professions1 his disciple could not find contentment on his austere heights4 ,in the very year of ,diderot's death 7#aghd7 the ,princess ,galitzin became a catholic1 and her son became not only a catholic but a zealous missionary of the faith in ,america4 #ie ,oeuv41 xix4 #cdb4 #if ,dr4 ,katerkamp's ,denkwuerdigkeiten aus dem ,leben der ,furstinn ,amalie von ,gallitzin1 p4 #de4 ,this1 however1 was not yet4 ,the patriotic ,bjoernstaehl was very anxious that ,diderot should go to ,stockholm1 to see for himself that the ,holstein blood was as noble in ,sweden as it was in ,russia4 ,diderot replied that he would greatly have liked to see on the throne the sovereign 7,gustavus ,,iii47 who was so nearly coming to pay him a visit on his own fourth storey in ,paris4 ,but he confessed that he was growing homesick1 and ,stockholm must remain unvisited4 ,in ,september 7#aggd7 ,diderot set his face homewards4 ,i shall gain my fireside1 he wrote on the eve of his journey1 never to quit it again for the rest of my life4 ,the time that we count by the year has gone1 and the time that we must count by the day comes in its stead4 ,the less one's income1 the more important to use it well4 ,i have perhaps half a score of years at the bottom of my wallet4 ,in these ten years1 fluxions1 rheumatisms1 and the other members of that troublesome family will take two or three of them2 let us try to economise the seven that are left1 for the repose and the small happinesses that a man may promise himself on the wrong side of sixty4 ,the guess was a good one4 ,diderot lived ten years more1 and although his own work in the world was done1 they were years of great moment both to ,france and the world4 ,they witnessed the establishment of a republic in the ,american colonies1 and they witnessed the final stage in the decay of the old monarchy in ,france4 ,turgot had been made controller-general in the months before ,diderot's return1 and ,turgot's ministry was the last serious experiment in the direction of orderly reform4 ,the crash that followed resounded almost as loudly at ,st4 ,petersburg and in ,holland as in ,france itself1 and ,catherine1 in #agib1 ordered all the busts of ,voltaire that had adorned the saloons and corridors of her palace to be thrust ignominiously down into the cellars4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,helvetius4 ,before proceeding to the closing chapter of ,diderot's life1 ,i propose to give a short account of three remarkable books1 of all of which he was commonly regarded as the inspirer1 which were all certainly the direct and natural work of the ,encyclopaedic school1 and which all play a striking part in the intellectual commotions of the century4 ,the great attack on the ,encyclopaedia was made1 as we have already seen1 in #ageh1 after the publication of the seventh volume4 ,the same prosecution levelled an angrier blow at ,helvetius's famous treatise1 ,l',esprit4 ,it is not too much to say1 that of all the proscribed books of the century1 that excited the keenest resentment4 ,this arose partly because it came earliest in the literature of attack4 ,it was an audacious surprise4 ,the censor who had allowed it to pass the ordeal of official approval was cashiered1 and the author was dismissed from an honorary post in the ,queen's household4#ig ,the indictment described the book as the code of the most hateful and infamous passions1 as a collection into one cover of everything that impiety could imagine1 calculated to engender hatred against ,christianity and ,catholicism4 ,the court condemned the book to be burnt1 and1 as if to show that the motive was not mere discontent with ,helvetius's paradoxes1 the same fire consumed ,voltaire's fine poem on ,natural ,religion4 ,less prejudiced authorities thought nearly as ill of the book1 as the lawyers of the parliament and the doctors of the ,sorbonne had thought4 ,rousseau pronounced it detestable1 wrote notes in refutation of its principles1 and was inspired by hatred of its doctrine to compose some of the most fervid pages in the ,savoyard ,vicar's glowing ,profession of ,faith4#ih ,even ,diderot1 though his friendly feeling for the writer and his general leaning to speculative hardihood warped his judgment so far as to make him rank ,l',esprit along with ,montesquieu's ,spirit of ,laws1 and ,buffon's ,natural ,history1 among the great books of the century1 still perceived and showed that the whole fabric rested on a foundation of paradox1 and that1 though there might be many truths of detail in the book1 very many of its general principles are false4#ii ,turgot described it as a book of philosophy without logic1 literature without taste1 and morality without goodness4#ajj #ig ,barbier1 vii4 #acg4 #ih ,oeuv41 xii4 #cja4 #ii ,ib4 ii4 #bfg-bgd4 #ajj ,ib4 ii4 #gie4 ,in the same weighty piece of criticism1 which contains in two or three pages so much permanently valuable truth1 ,turgot proceeds3--,when people wish to attack intolerance and injustice1 it is essential in the first place to rest upon just ideas1 for inquisitors have an interest in being intolerant1 and viziers and subviziers have an interest in maintaining all the abuses of the government4 ,as they are the strongest1 you only give them a good excuse by sounding the tocsin against them right and left4 ,i hate despotism as much as most people2 but it is not by declamations that despotism ought to be attacked4 ,and even in despotism there are degrees2 there is a multitude of abuses in despotism1 in which the princes themselves have no interest2 there are others which they only allow themselves to practise1 because public opinion is not yet fixed as to their injustice1 and their mischievous consequences4 ,people deserve far better from a nation for attacking these abuses with clearness1 with courage1 and above all by interesting the sentiment of humanity1 than for any amount of eloquent reproach4 ,where there is no insult1 there is seldom any offence4444 ,there is no form of government without certain drawbacks1 which the governments themselves would fain have it in their power to remedy1 or without abuses which they nearly all intend to repress at least at some future day4 ,we may therefore serve them all by treating questions of the public good in a calm and solid style2 not coldly1 still less with extravagance1 but with that interesting warmth which springs from a profound feeling for justice and love of order4#aja #aja ,oeuv41 ii4 #gie-gih4 ,of course it is a question whether1 even in #ageh1 a generation before the convulsion1 it was possible for the ,french monarchy spontaneously to work out the long list of indispensable improvements2 still1 at that date1 ,turgot might be excused for thinking that the progress which he desired might be attained without the violence to which ,helvetius's diatribes so unmistakably pointed4 ,his words1 in any case1 are worth quoting for their own grave and universal sense1 and because they place us exactly at the point of view for regarding ,l',esprit rightly4 ,he seizes on its political aspect1 its assault on government1 and the social ordering of the time1 as containing the book's real drift4 ,in this1 as in the rest of the destructive literature of the first sixty years of the century1 the church was no doubt that part of the social foundations against which the assault was most direct and most vindictive1 and it was the church1 in the case of ,helvetius's book1 that first took alarm4 ,indeed1 we may say that1 from the very nature of things1 in whatever direction the revolutionary host moved1 they were sure to find themselves confronted by the church4 ,it lay across the track of light at every point4 ,voltaire pierced its dogma4 ,rousseau shamed its irreligious temper4 ,diderot brought into relief the vicious absoluteness of its philosophy4 ,then came ,helvetius and ,holbach1 not merely with criticism1 but with substitutes4 ,holbach brought a new dogma of the universe1 matter and motion1 and fortuitous shapes4 ,helvetius brought a theory of human character1 and a new analysis of morals--interest the basis of justice1 pleasure the true interpretation of interest1 and character the creature of education and laws4 ,to press such positions as these1 was to recast the whole body of opinions on which society rested4 ,as the church was the organ of the old opinions1 ,helvetius's book was instantly seized by the ecclesiastical authorities in accordance with a perfectly right instinct1 and was made the occasion for the first violent raid upon a wholesale scale4 ,when1 however1 we look beyond the smoke of the ecclesiastical battle1 and weigh ,l',esprit itself on its own merits1 we see quite plainly that ,helvetius was thinking less of the theological disputes of the day than of bringing the philosophy of sensation1 the philosophy of ,locke and ,condillac1 into the political field1 and of deriving from it new standards and new forces for social reconstruction4 ,and in spite of its shallowness and paradoxes1 his book did contain the one principle on which1 if it had been generally accepted1 the inevitable transition might have taken place without a ,reign of ,terror4 ,it was commonly said1 by his enemies and by his alarmed friends1 that vanity and a restless overweening desire for notoriety was the inspiring motive of ,helvetius4 ,he came from a ,german stock4 ,his great-grandfather settled in ,holland1 where he cured his patients by cunning elixirs1 by the powder of ground stag's horn1 and the subtle virtues of crocodiles' teeth4 ,his grandfather went to push his fortunes in ,paris1 where he persuaded the public to accept the healing properties of ipecacuanha1 and ,lewis ,,xiv4 7#afhi7 gave him a short patent for that drug4#ajb ,the medical tradition of the family was maintained in a third generation1 for ,helvetius's father was one of the physicians of the ,queen1 and on one occasion performed the doubtful service to humanity of saving the life of ,lewis ,,xv4 ,helvetius1 who was born in #agae1 turned aside from the calling of his ancestors1 and by means of the favour which his father enjoyed at court1 obtained a position as farmer-general4 ,this at once made him a wealthy man1 but wealth was not enough to satisfy him without fame4 ,he made attempts in various directions1 in each case following the current of popularity for the hour4 ,maupertuis was the hero of a day1 and ,helvetius accordingly applied himself to become a geometer4 ,voltaire's brilliant success brought poetry into fashion1 and so ,helvetius wrote half a dozen long cantos on ,happiness4 ,montesquieu caught and held the ear of the town by ,the ,spirit of ,laws 7#agdh71 and ,helvetius was acute enough to perceive that speculation upon society would be the great durable interest of his time4#ajc ,he at once set to work1 and this time he set to work without hurry4 ,in #agea he threw up his place as farmer-general1 and with it an income of between two or three thousand pounds a year1#ajd and he then devoted himself for the next seven years to the concoction of a work that was designed to bring him immortal glory4 ,helvetius sweated a long time to write a single chapter1 if we may believe one of his intimates4 ,he would compose and recompose a passage a score of times4 ,more facile writers looked at him with amazement in his country-house1 ruminating for whole mornings on a single page1 and pacing his room for hours to kindle his ideas1 or to strike out some curious form of expression4#aje ,the circle of his friends in ,paris amused themselves in watching his attempts to force the conversation into the channel of the question that happened to occupy him for the moment4 ,they gave him the satisfaction of discussion1 and then they drew him to express his own views4 ,then1 says ,marmontel1 he threw himself into the subject with warmth--as simple1 as natural1 as sincere as he is systematic and sophistic in his works4 ,nothing is less like the ingenuousness of his character and ordinary life1 than the artificial and premeditated simplicity of his works4 ,helvetius was the very opposite in his character of what he professes to believe2 he was liberal1 generous1 unostentatious1 and benevolent4#ajf #ajb ,see ,jal's ,dict4 ,crit41 p4 #fgf4 ,there is a comparison in ,l',esprit1 which we may assume to have been due to family reminiscence3 ,like those ,physicians who1 in their jealousy of the discovery of the emetic1 abused the credulity of a few prelates1 to excommunicate a remedy of which the service is so prompt and so salutary1 etc4--ii4 #bc4 #ajc ,hume1 however1 tells a story to the effect that ,helvetius tried to dissuade ,montesquieu from publishing his great book1 as being altogether unworthy of his previous reputation4 #ajd ,barbier v4 #eg4 #aje ,morellet1 i4 #ga4 #ajf ,marmontel1 ii1 #aaf4 ,as it happens1 there is a very different picture in one of ,diderot's writings4 ,while ,diderot was on a journey he fell in with a lady who knew ,helvetius's country4 ,she told us that the philosopher at his country seat was the unhappiest of men4 ,he is surrounded by peasants and by neighbours who hate him4 ,they break the windows of his mansion2 they ravage his property at night2 they cut his trees1 and break down his fences4 ,he dares not sally out to shoot a rabbit without an escort4 ,you will ask me why all this8 ,it comes of an unbridled jealousy about his game4 ,his predecessors kept the estate in order with a couple of men and a couple of guns4 ,helvetius has four-and-twenty1 and yet he cannot guard his property4 ,the men have a small premium for every poacher that they catch1 and they resort to every possible vexation in order to multiply their sorry profit4 ,they are1 for that matter1 no better than so many poachers who draw wages4 ,the border of his woods was peopled with the unfortunate wretches who had been driven from their homes into pitiful hovels4 ,it is these repeated acts of tyranny that have raised up against him enemies of every kind1 and all the more insolent1 as ,madame ,n4 said1 for having found out that the good philosopher is a trifle pusillanimous4 ,i cannot see what he has gained by such a way of managing his property2 he is alone on it1 he is hated1 he is in a constant state of fright4 ,ah1 how much wiser our good ,madame ,geoffrin1 when she said of a trial that tormented her3 ',finish my case4 ,they want my money8 ,i have some2 give them money4 ,and what can ,i do better with money than buy tranquillity with it8' ,in ,helvetius's place1 ,i should have said3 ',they kill a few hares1 or a few rabbits2 let them kill4 ,the poor creatures have no shelter save my woods1 let them remain there4'#ajg #ajg ,voyage a ,bourbonne4 ,oeuv41 xvii4 #cdd4 ,on the other hand1 there are well-attested stories of ,helvetius's munificence4 ,there is one remarkable testimony to his wide renown for good-nature4 ,after the younger ,pretender had been driven out of ,france1 he had special reasons on some occasion for visiting ,paris4 ,he wrote to ,helvetius that he had heard of him as a man of the greatest probity and honour in ,france1 and that to ,helvetius1 therefore1 he would trust himself4 ,helvetius did not refuse the dangerous compliment1 and he concealed the prince for two years in his house4#ajh ,he was as benevolent where his vanity was less pleasantly flattered4 ,more than one man of letters1 including ,marivaux1 was indebted to him for a yearly pension1 and his house was as open to the philosophic tribe as ,holbach's4 ,morellet has told us that the conversation was not so good and so consecutive as it was at the ,baron's4 ,the mistress of the house1 drawing to her side the people who pleased her best1 and not choosing the worst of the company1 rather broke the party up4 ,she was no fonder of philosophy than ,madame ,holbach was fond of it2 but the latter1 by remaining in a corner without saying a word1 or else chatting in a low voice with her friends1 was in nobody's way2 whereas ,madame ,helvetius1 with her beauty1 her originality1 and her piquant turn of nature1 threw out anything like philosophic discussion4 ,helvetius had not the art of sustaining or animating it4 ,he used to take one of us to a window1 open some question that he had in hand1 and try to draw out either some argument for his own view or some objection to it1 for he was always composing his book in society4 ,or more frequently still1 he would go out shortly after dinner to the opera or elsewhere1 leaving his wife to do the honours of the house4#aji ,in spite of all this1 ,helvetius's social popularity became considerable4 ,this1 however1 followed his attainment of celebrity1 for when ,l',esprit was published1 ,diderot scarcely met him twice in a year1 and ,d',alembert's acquaintance with him was of the slightest4 ,and there must1 we should suppose1 have been some difficulty in cordially admitting even a penitent member of the abhorred class of farmers-general among the esoteric group of the philosophic opposition4 ,there was much point in ,turgot's contemptuous question1 why he should be thankful to a declaimer like ,helvetius1 who showers vehement insults and biting sarcasms on governments in general1 and then makes it his business to send to ,frederick the ,great a whole colony of revenue clerks4 ,it was the stringent proceedings against his book that brought to ,helvetius both vogue with the public and sympathy from the ,encyclopaedic circle4 #ajh ,burton's ,hume1 ii4 #dfd4 #aji ,morellet1 i4 #ada4 ,a peculiarly graphic account of ,madame ,helvetius in her later years is to be found in ,mrs4 ,adam's ,letters1 quoted in ,parton's ,life of ,franklin1 ii4 #dbi4 ,to us it is interesting to know that ,helvetius had a great admiration for ,england4 ,holbach1 as we have already seen 7above1 vol4 i4 p4 #bgj71 did not share this1 and he explained his friend's enthusiasm by the assumption that what ,helvetius really saw in our free land was the persecution that his book had drawn upon him in ,france4#aaj ,horace ,walpole1 in one of his letters1 announced to ,sir ,horace ,mann that ,helvetius was coming to ,england1 bringing two ,miss ,helvetiuses with fifty thousand pounds a-piece1 to bestow on two immaculate members of our most august and incorruptible senate1 if he could find two in this virtuous age who would condescend to accept his money4 ,well1 he adds1 in a spirit of sensible protest against these unprofitable international comparisons1 we may be dupes to ,french follies1 but they are ten times greater fools to be the dupes of our virtues4#aaa ,gibbon met ,helvetius 7#agfc71 and found him a sensible man1 an agreeable companion1 and the worthiest creature in the world1 besides the merits of having a pretty wife and a hundred thousand livres a year4 ,warburton was invited to dine with him at ,lord ,mansfield's1 but he could not bring himself to countenance a professed patron of atheism1 a rascal1 and a scoundrel4#aab #aaj ,oeuv41 xix4 #ahg4 #aaa ,corresp41 iv4 #aai4 #aab ,walpole's ,corresp41 iv4 #bag4 ,let us turn to the book which had the honour of bringing all this censure upon its author4 ,whether vanity was or was not ,helvetius's motive1 the vanity of an author has never accounted for the interest of his public1 and we may be sure that neither those who approved1 nor those who abhorred1 would have been so deeply and so universally stirred1 unless they had felt that he touched great questions at the very quick4 ,and1 first1 let a word be said as to the form of his book4 ,grimm was certainly right in saying that a man must be without taste or sense to find either the morality or the colouring of ,diderot in ,l',esprit4 ,it is tolerably clear that ,helvetius had the example of ,fontenelle before his eyes--,fontenelle1 who had taught astronomical systems in the forms of elegant literature1 and of whom it was said that il nous enjole a la verite1 he coaxes us to the truth4 ,l',esprit is perhaps the most readable book upon morals that ever was written1 for persons who do not care that what they read shall be scientifically true4 ,hume1 who1 by the way1 had been invited by ,helvetius to translate the book into ,english1 wrote to ,adam ,smith that it was worth reading1 not for its philosophy1 which he did not highly value1 but for its agreeable composition4#aac ,helvetius intended that it should be this1 and accordingly he stuffed it with stories and anecdotes4 ,many of them are very poor1 many are inapposite1 some are not very decent1 others are spoiled in telling1 but still stories and anecdotes they remain1 and they carry a light-minded reader more or less easily from page to page and chapter to chapter4 ,but an ingenuous student of ethics who should take ,helvetius seriously1 could hardly be reconciled by lively anecdotes to what1 in his particular formula1 seems a most depressing doctrine4 ,madame ,roland read the celebrated book in her romantic girlhood1 and her impression may be taken for that of most generous natures4 ,helvetius made me wretched3 he annihilated the most ravishing illusions2 he showed me everywhere repulsive self-interest4 ,yet what sagacity6 she continues4 ,i persuaded myself that ,helvetius painted men such as they had become in the corruption of society3 ,i judged that it was good to feed one's self on such an author1 in order to be able to frequent what is called the world1 without being its dupe4 ,but ,i took good care not to adopt his principles1 merely in order to know man properly so-called4 ,i felt myself capable of a generosity which he never recognises4 ,with what delight ,i confronted his theories with the great traits in history1 and the virtues of the heroes that history has immortalised4#aad #aac ,burton1 ii4 #eg4 #aad ,oeuv4 de ,mdme4 ,roland1 i4 #ajh4 ,we have ventured to say that ,l',esprit contained the one principle capable of supplying such a system of thinking about society as would have taught the ,french of that time in what direction to look for reforms4 ,there is probably no instance in literature of a writer coming so close to a decisive body of salutary truth1 and then losing himself in the by-ways of the most repulsive paradox that a perverse ingenuity could devise4 ,we are able to measure how grievous was this miscarriage by reflecting that the same instrument which ,helvetius actually held in his hand1 but did not know how to use1 was taken from him by a man of genius in another country1 and made to produce reforms that saved ,england from a convulsion4 ,nobody pretends that ,helvetius discovered ,utilitarianism4 ,hume's name1 for instance1 occurs too often in his pages for even the author himself to have dreamed that his principle of utility was a new invention of his own4 ,it would1 as ,mill has said1 imply ignorance of the history of philosophy and of general literature not to be aware that in all ages of philosophy one of its schools has been utilitarian1 not only from the time of ,epicurus1 but long before4 ,but what is certain1 and what would of itself be enough to entitle ,helvetius to consideration1 is that from ,helvetius the idea of general utility as the foundation of morality was derived by that strong and powerful ,english thinker1 who made utilitarianism the great reforming force of legislation and the foundation of jurisprudence4 ,bentham himself distinctly avowed the source of his inspiration4#aae #aae ,to that book ,l',esprit1 ,mr4 ,bentham has often been heard to say1 he stood indebted for no small portion of the zeal and ardour with which he advocated his happiness-producing theory4 ,it was from thence he took encouragement 444 it was there he learned to persevere1 etc4 etc4--,deontology1 i4 #bif4 ,a fatal discredit fastened upon a book which yet had in it so much of the root of the matter1 from the unfortunate circumstance that ,helvetius tacked the principle of utility on to the very crudest farrago to be found in the literature of psychology4 ,what happened1 then1 was that ,rousseau swept into the field with a hollow version of a philosophy of reform1 so eloquently1 loftily1 and powerfully enforced as to carry all before it4 ,the democracy of sentimentalism took the place that ought to have been filled in the literature of revolutionary preparation by the democracy of utility4 ,rousseau's fiction of the ,sovereignty of the ,people was an arbitrary and intrinsically sterile rendering of the real truth in ,helvetius's ill-starred book4 ,to establish the proper dependence of laws upon one another1 says ,helvetius1 it is indispensable to be able to refer them all to a single principle1 such as that of the ,utility of the ,public1 that is to say1 of the greatest number of men submitted to the same form of government3 a principle of which no one realises the whole extent and fertility2 a principle that contains all ,morality and ,legislation4#aaf #aaf ,disc4 ii4 chap4 xvii4 ,a man is just when all his actions tend to the public good4 ,to be virtuous1 it is necessary to unite nobleness of soul with an enlightened understanding4 ,whoever combines these gifts conducts himself by the compass of public utility4 ,this utility is the principle of all human virtues1 and the foundation of all legislations4 ,it ought to inspire the legislator1 and to force the nations to submit to his laws4#aag #aag ,ib4 ii4 #f4 ,the principle of public utility is invariable1 though it is pliable in its application to all the different positions in which1 in their succession1 a nation may find itself4#aah #aah ,disc4 ii4 #ag4 ,the public interest is that of the greatest number1 and this is the foundation on which the principles of sound morality ought invariably to rest4#aai #aai ,ib4 ii4 chap4 xxiii4 ,these extracts1 and extracts in the same sense might easily be multiplied1 show us the basis on which ,helvetius believed himself to be building4 ,why did ,bentham raise upon it a fabric of such value to mankind1 while ,helvetius covered it with useless paradox8 ,the answer is that ,bentham approached the subject from the side of a practical lawyer1 and proceeded to map out the motives and the actions of men in a systematic and objective classification1 to which the principle of utility gave him the key4 ,helvetius1 on the other hand1 instead of working out the principle1 that actions are good or bad according as they do or do not serve the public interest of the greatest number1 contented himself with reiterating in as many ways as possible the proposition that self-love fixes our measure of virtue4 ,the next thing to do1 after settling utility as the standard of virtue1 and defining interest as a term applied to whatever can procure us pleasures and deliver us from pains1#abj was clearly to do what ,bentham did1--to marshal pleasures and pains in logical array4 ,instead of this1 ,helvetius1 starting from the proposition that to judge is to feel1 launched out into a complete theory of human character1 which laboured under at least two fatal defects4 ,first1 it had no root in a contemplation of the march of collective humanity1 and second1 it considered only the purely egoistic impulses1 to the exclusion of the opposite half of human tendencies4 ,apart from these radical deficiencies1 ,helvetius fell headlong into a fallacy which has been common enough among the assailants of the principle of utility2 namely1 of confounding the standard of conduct with its motive1 and insisting that because utility is the test of virtue1 therefore the prospect of self-gratification is the only inducement that makes men prefer virtue to vice4 #abj ,ib4 ii4 #a1 note 7b74 ,this was what ,madame du ,deffand called telling everybody's secret4 ,we approve conduct in proportion as it conduces to our interest4 ,friendship1 esprit-de-corps1 patriotism1 humanity1 are names for qualities that we prize more or less highly in proportion as they come more or less close to our own happiness2 and the scale of our preferences is in the inverse ratio of the number of those who benefit by the given act4 ,if it affects the whole of humanity or of our country1 our approval is less warmly stirred than if it were an act specially devoted to our own exclusive advantage4 ,if you want therefore to reach men1 and to shape their conduct for the public good1 you must affect them through their pleasures and pains4 ,to this position1 which roused a universal indignation that amazed the author1 there is no doubt a true side4 ,it is worth remembering1 for instance1 that all penal legislation1 in so far as deterrent and not merely vindictive1 assumes in all who come whether actually or potentially within its sphere1 the very doctrine that covered ,helvetius with odium4 ,and there is more to be said than this4 ,as ,m4 ,charles ,comte has expressed it3 ,if the strength with which we resent injury were not in the ratio of the personal risk that we run1 we should hardly have the means of self-preservation2 and if the acts which injure the whole of humanity gave us pain equal to that of acts that injure us directly1 we should be of all beings the most miserable1 for we should be incessantly tormented by conduct that we should be powerless to turn aside4 ,and again1 if the benefits of which we are personally the object did not inspire in us a more lively gratitude than those which we spread over all mankind1 we should probably experience few preferences1 and extend few preferences to others1 and in that case egoism would grow to its most overwhelming proportions4#aba #aba ,traite de ,legislation1 i4 #bdc4 ,this aspect of ,helvetius's doctrine1 however1 is one of those truths which is only valid when taken in connection with a whole group of different truths1 and it was exactly that way of asserting a position1 in itself neither indefensible nor unmeaning1 which left the position open to irresistible attack4 ,helvetius's errors had various roots1 and may be set forth in as many ways4 ,the most general account of it is that even if he had insisted on making ,self-love the strongest ingredient in our judgment of conduct1 he ought at least to have given some place to ,sympathy4 ,for1 though it is possible to contend that sympathy is only an indirect kind of self-love1 or a shadow cast by self-love1 still it is self-love so transformed as to imply a wholly different set of convictions1 and to require a different name4 ,l',esprit is one of the most striking instances in literature of the importance of care in choosing the right way of presenting a theory to the world4 ,it seems as if ,helvetius had taken pains to surround his doctrine with everything that was most likely to warn men away from it4 ,for example1 he begins a chapter of cardinal importance with the proposition that personal interest is the only motive that could impel a man to generous actions4 ,it is as impossible for him to love good for good's sake as evil for the sake of evil4 ,the rest of the chapter consists of illustrations of this2 and what does the reader suppose that they are8 ,the first is ,brutus1 of all the people in the world4 ,he sacrificed his son for the salvation of ,rome1 because his passion for his country was stronger than his passion as a father2 and this passion for his country1 enlightening him as to the public interest1 made him see what a service his rigorous example would be to the state4 ,the other instances of the chapter point the same moral1 that true virtue consists in suppressing inducements to gratify domestic or friendly feeling1 when that gratification is hostile to the common weal4#abb #abb ,disc4 ii4 #e4 ,it may be true that the ultimate step in a strictly logical analysis reduces the devotion of the hero or the martyr to a deliberate preference for the course least painful to himself1 because religion or patriotism or inborn magnanimity have made self-sacrifice the least painful course to him4 ,but to call this heroic mood by the name of self-love1 is to single out what is absolutely the most unimportant element in the transaction1 and to insist on thrusting it under the onlooker's eye as the vital part of the matter4 ,and it involves the most perverse kind of distortion4 ,for the whole issue and difference between the virtuous man and the vicious man turns1 not at all upon the fact that each behaves in the way that habit has made least painful to him1 but upon the fact that habit has made selfishness painful to the first1 and self-sacrifice painful to the second2 that self-love has become in the first case transformed into an overwhelming interest in the good of others1 and in the second not so4 ,was there ever a greater perversity than to talk of self-interest1 when you mean beneficence1 or than to insist that because beneficence has become bound up with a man's self-love1 therefore beneficence is nothing but self-love in disguise8 ,as if the fruit or the flower not only depends on a root as one of the conditions among others of its development1 but is itself actually the root6 ,apart from the error in logic1 what an error in rhetoric1 to single out the formula best calculated to fill a doctrine with odious associations1 and then to make that formula the most prominent feature in the exposition4 ,without any gain in clearness or definiteness or firmness1 the reader is deliberately misled towards a form that is exactly the opposite of that which ,helvetius desired him to accept4 ,in other ways ,helvetius takes trouble to wound the generous sensibility and affront the sense of his public4 ,nothing can be at once more scandalously cynical and more crude than a passage intended to show that1 if we examine the conduct of women of disorderly life from the political point of view1 they are in some respects extremely useful to the public4 ,that desire to please1 which makes such a woman go to the draper1 the milliner1 and the dressmaker1 draws an infinite number of workmen from indigence4 ,the virtuous women1 by giving alms to mendicants and criminals1 are far less wisely advised by their religious directors than the other women by their desire to please2 the latter nourish useful citizens1 while the former1 who at the best are useless1 are often even downright enemies to the nation4#abc ,all this is only a wordy transcript of ,mandeville's coarse sentences about the sensual courtier that sets no limits to his luxury1 and the fickle strumpet that invents new fashions every week4 ,we cannot wonder that all people who were capable either of generous feeling or comprehensive thinking turned aside even from truth1 when it was mixed in this amalgam of destructive sophistry and cynical illustration4 #abc ,disc4 ii4 #ae4 ,we can believe how the magnanimous youth of ,madame ,roland and others was discouraged by pages sown with mean anecdote4 ,helvetius tells us1 with genuine zest1 of ,parmenio saying to ,philotas at the court of ,alexander the ,great--,my son1 make thyself small before ,alexander2 contrive for him now and again the pleasure of setting thee right2 and remember that it is only to thy seeming inferiority that thou wilt owe his friendship4 ,the ,king of ,portugal charged a certain courtier to draw up a despatch on an affair with which he had himself dealt4 ,comparing the two despatches1 the ,king found the courtier's much the better of the two3 the courtier makes a profound reverence1 and hastens to take leave of his friends3 ,it is all over with me1 he said1 the ,king has found out that ,i have more brains than he has4#abd ,only mediocrity succeeds in the world4 ,sir1 said a father to his son1 you are getting on in the world1 and you suppose you must be a person of great merit4 ,to lower your pride1 know to what qualities you owe this success3 you were born without vices1 without virtues1 without character2 your knowledge is scanty1 your intelligence is narrow4 ,ah1 what claims you have1 my son1 to the goodwill of the world4#abe #abd ,see ,diderot's truer version1 ,oeuv41 ii4 #dhb4 #abe ,disc4 iv4 #ac1 etc4 ,it lies beyond the limits of our task to enter into a discussion of ,helvetius's transgressions in the region of speculative ethics1 from any dogmatic point of view4 ,their nature is tolerably clear4 ,helvetius looked at man individually1 as if each of us came into the world naked of all antecedent predispositions1 and independent of the medium around us4 ,next1 he did not see that virtue1 justice1 and the other great words of moral science denote qualities that are directly related to the fundamental constitution of human character4 ,as ,diderot said1#abf he never perceived it to be possible to find in our natural requirements1 in our existence1 in our organisation1 in our sensibility1 a fixed base for the idea of what is just and unjust1 virtuous and vicious4 ,he clung to the facts that showed the thousand different shapes in which justice and injustice clothed themselves2 but he closed his eyes on the nature of man1 in which he would have recognised their character and origin4 ,again1 although his book was expressly written to show that only good laws can form virtuous men1 and that all the art of the legislator consists in forcing men1 through the sentiment of self-love1 to be just to one another1#abg yet ,helvetius does not perceive the difficulty of assuming in the moralising legislator a suppression of self-love which he will not concede to the rest of mankind4 ,the crucial problem of political constitutions is to counteract the selfishness of a governing class4 ,helvetius vaulted over this difficulty by imputing to a legislator that very quality of disinterestedness whose absence in the bulk of the human race he made the fulcrum of his whole moral system4#abh #abf ,oeuv41 ii4 #bgj4 #abg ,disc4 ii4 #bd4 #abh ,as ,mr4 ,henry ,sidgwick has put this3--,even the indefatigable patience and inexhaustible ingenuity of ,bentham will hardly succeed in defeating the sinister conspiracy of self-preferences4 ,in fact1 unless a little more sociality is allowed to an average human being1 the problem of combining these egoists into an organisation for promoting their common happiness1 is like the old task of making ropes of sand4 ,the difficulty that ,hobbes vainly tried to settle summarily by absolute despotism1 is hardly to be overcome by the democratic artifices of his more inventive successor4 ,into this field of criticism it is not1 ,i repeat1 our present business minutely to enter4 ,the only question for us1 attempting to study the history of opinion1 is what ,helvetius meant by his paradoxes1 and how they came into his mind4 ,no serious writer1 least of all a ,frenchman in the eighteenth century1 ever sets out with anything but such an intention for good1 as is capable of respectable expression4 ,and we ask ourselves what good end ,helvetius proposed to himself4 ,of what was he thinking when he perpetrated so singular a misconstruction of his own meaning as that inversion of beneficence into self-love of which we have spoken8 ,we can only explain it in one way4 ,in saying that it is impossible to love good for good's sake1 ,helvetius was thinking of the theologians4 ,their doctrine that man is predisposed to love evil for evil's sake1 removes conduct from the sphere of rational motive1 as evinced in the ordinary course of human experience4 ,helvetius met this by contending that both in good and bad conduct men are influenced by their interest and not by mystic and innate predisposition either to good or to evil4 ,he sought to bring morals and human conduct out of the region of arbitrary and superstitious assumption1 into the sphere of observation4 ,he thought he was pursuing a scientific1 as opposed to a theological spirit1 by placing interest at the foundation of conduct1 both as matter of fact and of what ought to be the fact1 instead of placing there the love of ,god1 or the action of grace1 or the authority of the ,church4 ,we may even say that ,helvetius shows a positive side1 which is wanting in the more imposing names of the century4 ,here1 for instance1 is a passage which in spite of its inadequateness of expression1 contains an unmistakable germ of true historical appreciation3--,however stupid we may suppose the ,peoples to be1 it is certain that1 being enlightened by their interests1 it was not without motives that they adopted the customs that we find established among some of them4 ,the bizarre nature of these customs is connected1 then1 with the diversity of interests among these ,peoples4 ,in fact1 if they have always understood1 in a confused way1 by the name of virtue the desire of public happiness2 if they have in consequence given the name of good to actions that are useful to the country2 and if the idea of utility has always been privately associated with the idea of virtue1 then we may be sure that their most ridiculous1 and even their most cruel1 customs have always had for their foundation the real or seeming utility of the public good4#abi #abi ,disc4 ii4 #ac4 ,if we contrast this with the universal fashion among ,helvetius's friends1 of denouncing the greater portion of the past history of the race1 we cannot but see that1 crude as is the language of such a passage1 it contains the all-important doctrine which ,voltaire1 ,rousseau1 and ,diderot alike ignored1 that the phenomena of the conduct of mankind1 even in its most barbarous phases1 are capable of an intelligible explanation1 in terms of motive that shall be related to their intellectual forms1 exactly as the motives of the most polished society are related to the intellectual forms of such a society4 ,there are not many passages in all the scores of volumes written in ,france in the eighteenth century on the origin of society where there is such an approach as this to the modern view4 ,helvetius's position was that of a man searching for a new basis for morals4 ,it was hardly possible for any one in that century to look to religion for such a base1 and least of all was it possible to ,helvetius4 ,it is fanaticism1 he says in an elaborately wrought passage1 that puts arms into the hands of ,christian princes2 it orders ,catholics to massacre heretics2 it brings out upon the earth again those tortures that were invented by such monsters as ,phalaris1 as ,busiris1 as ,nero2 in ,spain it piles and lights up the fires of the ,inquisition1 while the pious ,spaniards leave their ports and sail across distant seas1 to plant the ,cross and spread desolation in ,america4 ,turn your eyes to north or south1 to east or west2 on every side you see the consecrated knife of ,religion raised against the breasts of women1 of children1 of old men1 and the earth all smoking with the blood of victims immolated to false gods or to the ,supreme ,being1 and presenting one vast1 sickening1 horrible charnel-house of intolerance4 ,now what virtuous man1 what ,christian1 if his tender soul is filled with the divine unction that exhales from the maxims of the ,gospel1 if he is sensible of the cries of the unhappy and the outcast1 and has sometimes wiped away their tears--what man could fail at such a sight to be touched with compassion for humanity1 and would not use all his endeavour to found probity1 not on principles so worthy of respect as those of religion1 but on principles less easily abused1 such as those of personal interest would be8#acj #acj ,disc4 ii4 #bd4 ,this1 then1 is the point best worth seizing in a criticism of ,helvetius4 ,the direction of morality by religion had proved a failure4 ,helvetius1 as the organ of reaction against asceticism and against mysticism1 appealed to positive experience1 and to men's innate tendency to seek what is pleasurable and to avoid what is painful4 ,the scientific imperfection of his attempt is plain2 but that1 at any rate1 is what the attempt signified in his own mind4 ,the same feeling for social reform inspired the second great paradox of ,l',esprit4 ,this is to the effect that of all the sources of intellectual difference between one man and another1 organisation is the least influential4 ,intellectual differences are due to diversity of circumstance and to variety in education4 ,it is not felicity of organisation that makes a great man4 ,there is nobody1 in whom passion1 interest1 education1 and favourable chance1 could not have surmounted all the obstacles of an unpromising nature2 and there is no great man who1 in the absence of passion1 interest1 education1 and certain chances1 would not have been a blockhead1 in spite of his happier organisation4 ,it is only in the moral region that we ought to seek the true cause of inequality of intellect4 ,genius is no singular gift of nature4 ,genius is common2 it is only the circumstances proper to develop it that are rare4 ,the man of genius is simply the product of the circumstances in which he is placed4 ,the inequality in intelligence 7esprit7 that we observe among men1 depends on the government under which they live1 on the times in which their destiny has fallen1 on the education that they have received1 on the strength of their desire to achieve distinction1 and finally on the greatness and fecundity of the ideas which they happen to make the object of their meditations4#aca #aca ,disc4 iii4 ,here again it would be easy to show how many qualifications are needed to rectify this egregious overstatement of propositions that in themselves contain the germ of a wholesome doctrine4 ,diderot pointed out some of the principal causes of ,helvetius's errors1 summing them up thus3 ,the whole of this third discourse seems to imply a false calculation1 into which the author has failed to introduce all the elements that have a right to be there1 and to estimate the elements that are there at their right value4 ,he has not seen the insurmountable barrier that separates a man destined by nature for a given function1 from a man who only brings to that function industry1 interest1 and attention4#acb ,in a work published after his death 7#aggd71 and entitled ,de l',homme1 ,helvetius re-stated at greater length1 and with a variety of new illustrations1 this exaggerated position4 ,diderot wrote an elaborate series of minute notes in refutation of it1 taking each chapter point by point1 and his notes are full of acute and vigorous criticism4#acc ,every reader will perceive the kind of answers to which the proposition that character is independent of organisation lies open4 ,yet here1 as in his paradox about self-love1 ,helvetius was looking1 and looking1 moreover1 in the right direction1 for a rational principle of moral judgment1 moral education1 and moral improvement4 ,of the two propositions1 though equally erroneous in theory1 it was certainly less mischievous in practice to pronounce education and institutions to be stronger than original predisposition than to pronounce organisation to be stronger than education and institutions4 ,it was all-important at that moment in ,france to draw people's attention to the influence of institutions on character2 to do that was both to give one of the best reasons for a reform in ,french institutions1 and also to point to the spirit in which such a reform should be undertaken4 ,if ,helvetius had contented himself with saying that1 whatever may be the force of organisation in exceptional natures1 yet in persons of average organisation these predispositions are capable of being indefinitely modified by education1 by laws1 and by institutions1 then he would not only have said what could not be disproved1 but he would have said as much as his own object required4 ,william ,godwin drew one of the most important chapters of his once famous treatise on ,political ,justice from ,helvetius1 but what ,helvetius exaggerated into a paradox which nobody in his senses could seriously accept1 ,godwin expressed as a rational half-truth1 without which no reformer in education or institutions could fairly think it worth while to set to work4#acd #acb ,oeuv4 ii4 #bga4 #acc ,ib4 ii4 #bge-def4 #acd ,political ,justice1 bk4 i4 chap4 iv4--,the characters of men originate in their external circumstances4 ,the reader of ,benjamin ,constant's ,adolphe1 that sombre little study of a miserable passion1 may sometimes be reminded of ,helvetius4 ,it begins with the dry surprise of youth at the opening world1 for we need time1 he says1 to accustom ourselves to the human race1 such as affectation1 vanity1 cowardice1 interest have made it4 ,then we soon learn only to be surprised at our old surprise2 we find ourselves very well off in our new conditions1 just as we come to breathe freely in a crowded theatre1 though on entering it we were almost stifled4 ,yet the author of this parching sketch of the distractions of an egoism that just fell short of being complete1 suddenly flashes on us the unexpected but penetrating and radiant moral1 ,la grande question dans la vie1 c'est la douleur que l'on cause--the great question in life is the pain that we strike into the lives of others4 ,we are not seldom refreshed1 when in the midst of ,helvetius's narrowest grooves1 by some similar breath from the wider air4 ,among the host of sayings1 true1 false1 trivial1 profound1 which are scattered over the pages of ,helvetius1 is one subtle and far-reaching sentence1 which made a strong impression upon ,bentham4 ,in order to love mankind1 he writes1 we must expect little from them4 ,this might1 on the lips of a cynic1 serve for a formula of that kind of misanthropy which is not more unamiable than it is unscientific4 ,but in the mouth of ,helvetius it was a plea for considerateness1 for indulgence1 and1 above all1 it was meant for an inducement to patience and sustained endeavour in all dealings with masses of men in society4 ,every man1 he says1 so long as his passions do not obscure his reason1 will always be the more indulgent in proportion as he is enlightened4 ,he knows that men are what they must be1 that all hatred against them is unjust1 that a fool produces follies just as a wild shrub produces sour berries1 that to insult him is to reproach the oak for bearing acorns instead of olives4#ace ,all this is as wise and humane as words can be so1 and it really represents the aim and temper of ,helvetius's teaching4 ,unfortunately for him and for his generation1 his grasp was feeble and unsteady4 ,he had not the gift of accurate thinking1 and his book is in consequence that which1 of all the books of the eighteenth century1 unites most of wholesome truth with most of repellent error4 #ace ,disc4 ii4 #aj4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,holbach',s ,,system ,,of ,,nature4 ,the ,system of ,nature was published in #aggj1 eight years before the death of ,voltaire and of ,rousseau1 and it gathered up all the scattered explosives of the criticism of the century into one thundering engine of revolt and destruction4 ,it professed to be the posthumous work of ,mirabaud1 who had been secretary to the ,academy4 ,this was one of the common literary frauds of the time4 ,its real author was ,holbach4 ,it is too systematic and coherently compacted to be the design of more than one man1 and it is too systematic also for that one man to have been ,diderot1 as has been so often assumed4 ,at the same time there are good reasons for believing that not only much of its thought1 but some of the pages1 were the direct work of ,diderot4 ,the latest editor of the heedless philosopher has certainly done right in placing among his miscellanea the declamatory apostrophe which sums up the teachings of this remorseless book4 ,the rumour imputing the authorship to ,diderot was so common1 and ,diderot himself was so disquieted by it1 that he actually hastened away from ,paris to his native ,langres and to the ,baths of ,bourbonne1 in order to be ready to cross the frontier at the first hint of a warrant being out against him4#acf ,diderot has recorded his admiration of his friend's work4 ,i am disgusted1 he said1 with the modern fashion of mixing up incredulity and superstition4 ,what ,i like is a philosophy that is clear1 definite1 and frank1 such as you have in the ,system of ,nature4 ,the author is not an atheist in one page1 and a deist in another4 ,his philosophy is all of one piece4#acg #acf ,oeuv41 xvii4 #cbi4 #acg ,ib4 ii4 #cih4 ,no book has ever produced a more widespread shock4 ,everybody insisted on reading it1 and almost everybody was terrified4 ,it suddenly revealed to men1 like the blaze of lightning to one faring through darkness1 the formidable shapes1 the unfamiliar sky1 the sinister landscape1 into which the wanderings of the last fifty years had brought them unsuspecting4 ,they had had half a century of such sharp intellectual delight as had not been known throughout any great society in ,europe since the death of ,michael ,angelo1 and had perhaps north of the ,alps never been known at all4 ,and now it seemed to many of them1 as they turned over the pages of ,holbach's book1 as if they stood face to face with the devil of the mediaeval legend1 come to claim their souls4 ,satire of ,job and ,david1 banter about ,joshua's massacres and ,solomon's concubines1 invective against blind pastors of blinder flocks1 zeal to place ,newton on the throne of ,descartes and ,locke upon the pedestal of ,malebranche1 wishes that the last ,jansenist might be strangled in the bowels of the last ,jesuit--all this had given zest and savour to life4 ,in the midst of their high feast1 ,holbach pointed to the finger of their own divinity1 ,reason1 writing on the wall the appalling judgments that there is no ,god2 that the universe is only matter in spontaneous movement2 and1 most grievous word of all1 that what men call their souls die with the death of the body1 as music dies when the strings are broken4 ,galiani1 the witty ,neapolitan1 who had so many good friends in the philosophic circle1 anticipated the well-known phrase of a writer of our own day4 ,the author of the ,system of ,nature1 he said1 is the ,abbe ,terrai of metaphysics3 he makes deductions1 suspensions of payment1 and causes the very ,bankruptcy of knowledge1 of pleasure1 and of the human mind4 ,but you will tell me that1 after all1 there were too many rotten securities2 that the account was too heavily overdrawn2 that there was too much worthless paper on the market4 ,that is true1 too1 and that is why the crisis has come4#ach ,goethe1 then a student at ,strasburg1 has told us what horror and alarm the ,system of ,nature brought into the circle there4 ,but we could not conceive1 he says1 how such a book could be dangerous4 ,it came to us so gray1 so ,cimmerian1 so corpse-like1 that we could hardly endure its presence2 we shuddered before it as if it had been a spectre4 ,it struck us as the very quintessence of musty age1 savourless1 repugnant4#aci #ach ,corresp4 de ,galiani1 i4 #adb4 #aci ,wahrheit und ,dichtung1 bk4 xi4 ,if this was the light in which the book appeared to the young man who was soon to be the centre of ,german literature1 the brilliant veteran who had for two generations been the centre of the literature of ,france was both shocked by the audacity of the new treatise1 and alarmed at the peril in which it involved the whole ,encyclopaedic brotherhood1 with the ,patriarch at their head4 ,voltaire had no sooner read the ,system of ,nature than he at once snatched up his ever-ready pen and plunged into refutation4#adj ,at the same time he took care that the right persons should hear what he had done4 ,he wrote to his old patron and friend ,richelieu1 that it would be a great kindness if he would let the ,king know that the abused ,voltaire had written an answer to the book that all the world was talking about4 ,i think1 he says1 that it is always a good thing to uphold the doctrine of the existence of a ,god who punishes and rewards2 society has need of such an opinion4 ,there is a curious disinterestedness in the notion of ,lewis the ,fifteenth and ,richelieu1 two of the wickedest men of their time1 being anxious for the demonstration of a ,dieu vengeur4 ,voltaire at least had a very keen sense of the meaning of a court that rewarded and punished4 ,the author of the ,system of ,nature1 he wrote to ,grimm1 ought to have felt that he was undoing his friends1 and making them hateful in the eyes of the king and the court4#ada ,this came true in the case of the great philosopher-king himself4 ,frederick of ,prussia was offended by a book which spared political superstitions as little as theological dogma1 and treated kings as boldly as it treated priests4 ,though keenly occupied in watching the war then waging between ,russia and ,turkey1 and already revolving the partition of ,poland1 he found time to compose a defence of theism4 ',tis a good sign1 ,voltaire said to him1 when a king and a plain man think alike3 their interests are often so hostile1 that when their ideas do agree1 they must certainly be right4#adb #adj ,see the article ,dieu in the ,dict4 ,philosophique4 #ada ,voltaire's ,corr41 ,nov4 #a1 #aggj4 #adb ,july #bg1 #aggj4 ,the philosophic meaning of ,holbach's propositions was never really seized by ,voltaire4 ,he is1 as has been justly said1 the representative of ordinary common sense which1 with all its declamations and its appeals to the feelings1 is wholly without weight or significance as against a philosophic way of considering things1 however humble the philosophy may be4#adc ,he hardly took more pains to understand ,holbach than ,johnson took to understand ,berkeley4 ,in truth it was a characteristic of ,voltaire always to take the social1 rather than the philosophic view of the great issues of the theistic controversy4 ,one day1 when present at a discussion as to the existence of a deity1 in which the negative was being defended with much vivacity1 he astonished the company by ordering the servants to leave the room1 and then proceeding to lock the door4 ,gentlemen1 he explained1 ,i do not wish my valet to cut my throat to-morrow morning4 ,it was not the truth of the theistic belief in itself that ,voltaire prized1 but its supposed utility as an assistant to the police4 ,d',alembert1 on the other hand1 viewed the dispute as a matter of disinterested speculation4 ,as for the existence of a supreme intelligence1 he wrote to ,frederick the ,great1 ,i think that those who deny it advance far more than they can prove1 and scepticism is the only reasonable course4 ,he goes on to say1 however1 that experience invincibly proves both the materiality of the soul1 and a material deity--like that which ,mr4 ,mill did not repudiate--of limited powers1 and dependent on fixed conditions4#add #adc ,lange's ,gesch4 d4 ,materialismus1 i4 #cfi2 where the author shows how entirely ,voltaire failed to touch ,holbach's position as to the meaning of ,order in the universe4 #add ,oeuv41 v4 #bif1 #cjc1 etc4 ,let us now turn to the book itself4 ,and first1 as to its author4 ,the reader of the ,new ,heloisa will remember that the heroine1 after her repentance and her marriage1 has only one chagrin in the world2 that is the blank disbelief of her husband in the two great mysteries of a ,supreme ,being and another world4 ,wolmar1 the husband1 has always been supposed to stand for ,rousseau's version of ,holbach1 and ,holbach would hardly have complained of the portrait4 ,the ,wolmar of the novel is benevolent1 active1 patient1 tranquil1 friendly1 and trustful4 ,the nicely combined conjunction of the play of circumstance with the action of men pleases him1 just as the fine symmetry of a statue or the skilful contrivance of dramatic effects would please him4 ,if he has any dominant passion1 it is a passion for observation2 he delights in reading the hearts of men4#ade #ade ,nouvelle ,heloise1 ,,iv4 xii4 ,all this seems to have been as true of the real ,holbach as of the imaginary ,wolmar4 ,we have already seen him as the intimate friend and constant host of ,diderot4 ,he was one of the best-informed men of his time 7#agbc-hi74 ,he had an excellent library1 a collection of pictures1 and a valuable cabinet of natural history2 and his poorer friends were as freely welcome to the use of all of them as the richest4 ,his manners were cheerful1 courteous1 and easy2 he was a model of simplicity1 and kindliness was written on every feature4 ,his hospitality won him the well-known nickname of the maitre d'hotel of philosophy1 and his house was jestingly called the ,cafe de l',europe4 ,on ,sundays and ,thursdays1 without prejudice to other days1 from ten to a score of men of letters and eminent foreign visitors1 including ,hume1 ,wilkes1 ,shelburne1 ,garrick1 ,franklin1 ,priestley1 used to gather round his good dishes and excellent wine4 ,it was noted1 as a mark of the attractiveness of the company1 that the guests1 who came at two in the afternoon1 constantly remained until as late as seven and eight in the evening4 ,to one of those guests1 who afterwards became the powerful enemy of the ,encyclopaedic group1 the gaiety1 the irreverence1 the hardihood of speculation and audacity of discourse1 were all as gall and wormwood4 ,rousseau found their atheistic sallies offensive beyond endurance4 ,their hard rationalism was odious to the great emotional dreamer1 and after he had quarrelled with them all1 he transformed his own impressions of the dreariness of atheism into the passionate complaint of ,julie4 ,conceive the torment of living in retirement with the man who shares our existence1 and yet cannot share the hope that makes existence dear2 of never being able with him either to bless the works of ,god1 or to speak of the happy future that is promised us by the goodness of ,god2 of seeing him1 while doing good on every side1 still insensible to everything that makes the delight of doing good2 of watching him1 by the most bizarre of contradictions1 think with the impious1 and yet live like a ,christian4 ,think of ,julie walking with her husband2 the one admiring in the rich and splendid robe of the earth the handiwork and the bounteous gifts of the author of the universe2 the other seeing nothing in it all save a fortuitous combination1 the product of blind force6 ,alas6 she cries1 the great spectacle of nature1 for us so glorious1 so animated1 is dead in the eyes of the unhappy ,wolmar1 and in that great harmony of being where all speaks of ,god in accents so mild and so persuasive1 he only perceives eternal silence4#adf #adf ,nouvelle ,heloise1 ,v4 v4 ,yet it is fair to the author of this most eloquent ,ignoratio ,elenchi1 to notice that he honestly fulfilled the object with which he professed to set out--namely1 to show to both the religious and philosophical parties that their adversaries were capable of leading upright1 useful1 and magnanimous lives4 ,whether he would have painted the imaginary ,wolmar so favourably if he could have foreseen what kind of book the real ,holbach had in his desk1 is perhaps doubtful4 ,for ,holbach's opinions looked more formidable and sombre in the cold deliberateness of print than they had sounded amid the interruptions of lively discourse4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is needless to say1 to begin with1 that the writer has the most marked of the philosophic defects of the school of the century4 ,perhaps we might put it more broadly1 and call the disregard of historic opinion the natural defect of all materialistic speculation from ,epicurus downwards4#adg ,like all others of his school1 ,holbach has no perception nor sense of the necessity of an explanation how the mental world came to be what it is1 nor how men came to think and believe what they do think and believe4 ,he gives them what he deems unanswerable reasons for changing their convictions1 but he never dreams of asking himself in what elements of human character the older convictions had their root1 and from what fitness for the conduct of life they drew the current of their sap4 ,yet unless this aspect of things had been well considered1 his unanswerable reasons were sure to fall wide of the mark4 ,opinions1 as men began to remember1 after social movement had thrown the logical century into discredit1 have a history as well as a logic4 ,they are bound up with a hundred transmitted prepossessions1 and they have become identified with a hundred social customs that are the most dearly cherished parts of men's lives4 ,nature had as much to do with the darkness of yesterday as with the light of to-day2 she is as much the accomplice of superstition as she is the oracle of reason4 ,it was because they forgot all this that ,holbach's school now seem so shallow and superficial4 ,the whole past was one long working of the mystery of iniquity4 ,the sum of the woes of the human race was not diminished--on the contrary1 it was increased by its religions1 by its governments1 by its opinions1 in a word1 by all the institutions that it was led to adopt on the plea of ameliorating its lot4#adh ,on lui fit adopter6 ,but who were the on1 and how did they work8 ,with what instruments and what fulcrum8 ,never was the convenience of this famous abstract substantive more fatally abused4 ,and if religion1 government1 and opinion had all aggravated the miseries of the human race1 what had lessened them8 ,for the ,encyclopaedic school never attempted1 as ,rousseau did1 to deny that the world had1 as a matter of fact1 advanced towards happiness4 ,it was because the ,holbachians looked on mankind as slaves held in an unaccountable bondage1 which they must necessarily be eager to throw off1 that their movement1 after doing at the ,revolution a certain amount of good in a bad way1 led at last to a mischievous reaction in favour of ,catholicism4 #adg ,see ,lange1 i4 #he4 #adh ,syst4 de la ,nat41 ,i4 xvi4 ,far more immediately significant than the philosophy of the ,system of ,nature were the violence1 directness1 and pertinacity of its assault upon political government4 ,voltaire1 as has so often been noticed1 had always abstained from meddling with either the theory or the practical abuses of the national administration4 ,all his shafts had been levelled at ecclesiastical superstition4 ,rousseau1 indeed1 had begun the most famous of his political speculations by crying that man1 who was born free1 is now everywhere in chains4 ,but ,rousseau was vague1 abstract1 and sentimental4 ,in the ,system of ,nature we have a clear presage of the trenchant and imperious invective which1 twenty years after its publication1 rang in all men's ears from the gardens of the ,palais ,royal and the benches of the ,jacobins' ,hall4 ,the writer has plainly made up his mind that the time has at last come for dropping all the discreet machinery of apologue and parable1 and giving to his words the edge of a sharpened sword4 ,the vague disguises of political speculation1 and the mannered reservations of a ,utopia or ,new ,atlantis1 are exchanged for a passionate1 biting1 and loudly practical indictment4 ,all over the world men are under the yoke of masters who neglect the instruction of their people1 or only seek to cheat and deceive them4 ,the sovereigns in every part of the globe are unjust1 incapable1 made effeminate by luxury1 corrupted by flattery1 depraved by license and impunity1 destitute of talent1 manners1 or virtue4 ,indifferent to their duties1 which they usually know nothing about1 they are scarcely concerned for a single moment of the day with the well-being of their people2 their whole attention is absorbed by useless wars1 or by the desire to find at each instant new means of gratifying their insatiable rapacity4 ,the state of society is a state of war between the sovereign and all the rest of its members4 ,in every country alike the morality of the people is wholly neglected1 and the one care of the government is to render them timorous and wretched4 ,the common man desires no more than bread2 he wins it by the sweat of his brow2 joyfully would he eat it1 if the injustice of the government did not make it bitter in his mouth4 ,by the insanity of governments1 those who are swimming in plenty1 without being any the happier for it1 yet wring from the tiller of the soil the very fruits that his arms have won from it4 ,injustice1 by reducing indigence to despair1 drives it to seek in crime resources against the woes of life4 ,an iniquitous government breeds despair in men's souls2 its vexations depopulate the land1 the fields remain untilled1 famine1 contagion1 and pestilence stalk over the earth4 ,then1 embittered by misery1 men's minds begin to ferment and effervesce1 and what inevitably follows is the overthrow of a realm4#adi #adi ,syst4 de la ,nat41 ,i4 xiv41 xvi41 etc4 etc4 ,if ,france had been prosperous1 all this would have passed for the empty declamation of an excited man of letters4 ,as it was1 such declamation only described1 in language as accurate as it was violent and stinging1 the real position of the country4 ,in the urgency of a present material distress1 men were not over-careful that the basis of the indictment should be laid in the principles of a sound historical philosophy of society4 ,we can hardly wonder at it4 ,what is interesting1 and what we do not notice earlier in the century1 is that in the ,system of ,nature the revolt against the impotence of society1 and the revolt against the omnipotence of ,god1 made a firm coalition4 ,that coalition came to a bloody end for the time1 four-and-twenty years after ,holbach's book proclaimed it1 when the ,committee of ,public ,safety despatched ,hebert1 and better men than ,hebert1 to the guillotine for being atheists4 ,atheism1 as ,robespierre assured them1 was aristocratic4 ,holbach's work may be said to spring from the doctrine that the social deliverance of man depends on his intellectual deliverance1 and that the key to his intellectual deliverance is only to be found in the substitution of ,naturalism for ,theism4 ,what he means by ,naturalism we shall proceed shortly to explain4 ,the style1 we may remark1 notwithstanding the energy and coherence of the thought1 is often diffuse and declamatory4 ,some one said of the ,system of ,nature1 that it contained at least four times too many words4 ,yet ,voltaire1 while professing extreme dislike of its doctrine1 admitted that the writer had somehow caught the ear of the learned1 of the ignorant1 and of women4 ,he is often clear1 said ,voltaire1 and sometimes eloquent1 yet he may justly be reproached with declamation1 with repeating himself1 and with contradicting himself1 like all the rest of them4#aej ,galiani made an over-subtle criticism on it1 when he complained of the want of coolness and self-possession in the style1 and then said that it looked as if the writer were pressed less to persuade other people than to persuade himself4 ,this was a crude impression4 ,nobody can have any doubt of the writer's profound sincerity1 or of his earnest desire to make proselytes4 ,he knows his own mind1 and hammers his doctrines out with a hard and iterative stroke that hits its mark4 ,yet his literary tone1 in spite of its declamatory pitch1 not seldom sinks into a drone4 ,holbach's contemporaries were in too fierce contact with the tusks and hooked claws of the ,church1 to have any mind for the rhythm of a champion's sentences or the turn of his periods4 ,but now that the efforts of the heterodox have taught the ,churches to be better ,christians than they were a hundred years ago1 we can afford to admit that ,holbach is hardly more captivating in style1 and not always more edifying in temper1 than some of the ,christian ,fathers themselves4 #aej ,dict4 ,phil41 s4 v4 ,dieu1 ,sec4 #d4 ,what then is the system of ,nature1 and what is that ,naturalism which is to replace the current faith in the deities outside of observable nature8 ,the writer makes no pretence of feeling a tentative way towards an answer4 ,from the very outset his spirit is that of dogmatic confidence4 ,he is less a seeker than an expounder2 less a philosopher than a preacher2 and he boldly dismisses proof in favour of exhortation4 ,let man cease to search outside the world in which he dwells for beings who may procure him a happiness that nature refuses to grant2 let him study that nature1 let him learn her laws1 and contemplate the energy and the unchanging fixity with which she acts2 let him apply his discoveries to his own felicity1 and submit in silence to laws from which nothing can withdraw him2 let him consent to ignore the causes1 surrounded as they are for him by an impenetrable veil2 let him undergo without a murmur the decrees of universal force4 ,science derived from experience is the source of all wise action4 ,it is physical science 7la physique71 and experience1 that man ought to consult in religion1 morals1 legislature1 as well as in knowledge and the arts4 ,it is by our senses that we are bound to universal nature2 it is by our senses that we discover her secrets4 ,the moment that we first experience them we fall into a void where our imagination leads us endlessly astray4 ,movement is what establishes relations between our organs and external objects4 ,every object has laws of movement that are peculiar to itself4 ,everything in the universe is in movement2 no part of nature is really at rest4#aea #aea ,holbach confesses his obligation on this head to ,toland's ,letters to ,serena 7#agjd74 ,whence does nature receive this movement8 ,from herself1 since she is the great whole1 outside of which consequently nothing can exist4 ,motion is a fashion of being which flows necessarily from the essence of matter2 matter moves by its own energy2 its motion is due to forces inherent in it2 the variety of its movements1 and of the phenomena resulting from them1 comes from variation of the properties1 the qualities1 the combinations1 originally found in the different primitive matters of which nature is the assemblage4 ,whence came matter8 ,matter has existed from all eternity1 and a motion is one of the inherent and constitutive qualities of matter2 motion also has existed from eternity4 ,the abstract idea of matter must be decomposed4 ,instead of regarding matter as a unique existence1 rude1 passive1 incapable of moving itself1 of combining itself1 we ought to look upon it as a ,kind of existence1 of which the various individual members comprising the ,kind1 in spite of their having some common properties1 such as extension1 divisibility1 figure1 etc41 still ought not to be ranged in a single class1 nor comprised in a single denomination4 ,what is nature's process8 ,continual movement4 ,from the stone which is formed in the bowels of the earth by the intimate combination1 as they approach one another1 of analogous and similar molecules1 up to the sun1 that vast reservoir of heated particles that gives light to the firmament2 from the numb oyster up to man--we observe an uninterrupted progression1 a perpetual chain of combination and movements1 from which there result beings that only differ among one another by the variety of their elementary matters1 and of the combination and proportion of these elements4 ,from this variety springs an infinite diversity of ways of existing and acting4 ,in generation1 nutrition1 preservation1 we can see nothing but different sorts of matter differently combined1 each of them endowed with its own movements1 each of them regulated by fixed laws that cause them to undergo the necessary changes4 ,let us notice here three of the author's definitions4 7#a47 ,motion is an effort1 by which a body changes or tends to change its place4 7#b47 ,of the ultimate composition of ,matter1 ,holbach says nothing definite1 though he assumes molecular movement as its first law4 ,he contents himself1 properly enough perhaps in view of the destination of his treatise1 with a definition relatively to us4 ,relatively to us1 then1 ,matter in general is all that affects our senses in any fashion whatever2 and the qualities that we attribute to different kinds of matter1 are founded on the different impressions that they produce on us4 7#c47 ,when ,i say that ,nature produces an effect1 ,i do not mean to personify this ,nature1 which is an abstraction2 ,i mean that the effect of which ,i am speaking is the necessary result of the properties of some one of those beings that compose the great whole under our eyes4 ,thus1 when ,i say that ,nature intends man to work for his own happiness1 ,i mean by this that it is of the essence of a being who feels1 thinks1 wills1 and acts1 to work for his own happiness4 ,by ,essence ,i mean that which constitutes a being what it is1 the sum of its properties1 or the qualities according to which it exists and acts as it does4 ,all phenomena are necessary4 ,no creature in the universe1 in its circumstances and according to its given property1 can act otherwise than as it does act4 ,fire necessarily burns whatever combustible matter comes within the sphere of its action4 ,man necessarily desires what either is1 or seems to be1 conducive to his comfort and wellbeing4 ,there is no independent energy1 no isolated cause1 no detached activity1 in a universe where all beings are incessantly acting on one another1 and which is itself only one eternal round of movement1 imparted and undergone1 according to necessary laws4 ,in a storm of dust raised by a whirlwind1 in the most violent tempest that agitates the ocean1 not a single molecule of dust or of water finds its place by chance2 or is without an adequate cause for occupying the precise point where it is found4 ,so1 again1 in the terrible convulsions that sometimes overthrow empires1 there is not a single action1 word1 thought1 volition1 or passion in a single agent of such a revolution1 whether he be a destroyer or a victim1 which is not necessary1 which does not act precisely as it must act1 and which does not infallibly produce the effects that it is bound to produce1 conformably to the place occupied by the given agent in the moral whirlwind4#aeb #aeb ,almost the very words of this passage are to be found in ,diderot4 ,see above1 vol4 i4 p4 #bcg4 ,order and disorder are abstract terms1 and can have no existence in a ,nature1 where all is necessary and follows constant laws4 ,order is nothing more than necessity viewed relatively to the succession of actions4 ,disorder in the case of any being is nothing more than its passage to a new order2 to a succession of movements and actions of a different sort from those of which the given being was previously susceptible4 ,hence there can never be either monsters or prodigies1 either marvels or miracles1 in nature4 ,by the same reasoning1 we have no right to divide the workings of nature into those of ,intelligence and those of ,chance4 ,where all is necessary1 ,chance can mean nothing save the limitation of man's knowledge4 ,the writer next has a group of chapters 7vi4-x47 on ,man1 his composition1 relations1 and destiny4 ,the chief propositions are in rigorous accord with the general conceptions that have already been set forth4 ,all that man does1 and all that passes in him1 are effects of the energy that is common to him with the other beings known to us4 ,but1 before a true and comprehensive idea of the unity of nature was possible to him1 he was so seized by the variety and complication of his organism and its movements that it never came into his mind to realise that they existed in a chain of material necessity1 binding him fast to all other forces and modes of being4 ,men think that they remedy their ignorance of things by inventing words2 so they explained the working of matter1 in man's case1 by associating with matter a hypothetical substance1 which is in truth much less intelligible than matter itself4 ,they regarded themselves as double2 a compound of matter and something else miraculously united with it1 to which they give the name of mind or soul1 and then they proudly looked on themselves as beings apart from the rest of creation4 ,in plain truth1 ,mind is only an occult force1 invented to explain occult qualities and actions1 and really explaining nothing4 ,by ,mind they mean no more than the unknown cause of phenomena that they cannot explain naturally1 just as the ,red ,indians believed that it was spirits who produced the terrible effects of gunpowder1 and just as the ignorant of our own day believe in angels and demons4 ,how can we figure to ourselves a form of being1 which1 though not matter1 still acts on matter1 without having points of contact or analogy with it2 and on the other hand itself receives the impulsions of matter1 through the material organs that warn it of the presence of external objects8 ,how can we conceive the union of body and soul1 and how can this material body enclose1 bind1 constrain1 determine a fugitive form of being1 that escapes every sense8 ,to resolve these difficulties by calling them mysteries1 and to set them down as the effects of the omnipotence of a ,being still more inconceivable than the human ,soul itself1 is merely a confession of absolute ignorance4 ,it is worth noticing that with the characteristic readiness of the ,french materialist school to turn metaphysical and psychological discussion to practical uses1 ,holbach discerned the immense new field which the materialist account of mind opened to the physician4 ,if people consulted experience instead of prejudice1 medicine would furnish morality with the key of the human heart2 and in curing the body1 it would be often assured of curing the mind too4444 ,the dogma of the spirituality of the soul has turned morality into a conjectural science1 which does not in the least help us to understand the true way of acting on men's motives4444 ,man will always be a mystery for those who insist on regarding him with the prejudiced eyes of theology1 and on attributing his actions to a principle of which they can never have any clear ideas 7ch4 ix474 ,it is certainly true as a historical fact that the rational treatment of insane persons1 and the rational view of certain kinds of crime1 were due to men like ,pinel1 trained in the materialistic school of the eighteenth century4 ,and it was clearly impossible that the great and humane reforms in this field could have taken place before the decisive decay of theology4 ,theology assumes perversity as the natural condition of the human heart1 and could only regard insanity as an intolerable exaggeration of this perversity4 ,secondly1 the absolute independence of mind and body which theology brought into such overwhelming relief naturally excluded the notion that1 by dealing with the body1 you might be doing something to heal the mind4 ,perhaps we are now in some danger of overlooking the potency of the converse illustration of what ,holbach says3 namely1 the efficacy of mental remedies or preventives in the case of bodily disease4 ,if you complain--to resume our exposition--that the mechanism is not sufficient to explain the principle of the movements and faculties of the soul1 the answer is1 that it is in the same case with all the bodies in nature4 ,in them the simplest movements1 the most ordinary phenomena1 the commonest actions1 are inexplicable mysteries1 whose first principles are for ever sealed to us4 ,how shall we flatter ourselves that we know the first principle of gravity1 by virtue of which a stone falls8 ,what do we know of the mechanism that produces the attraction of some substances1 and the repulsion of others8 ,but surely the incomprehensibility of natural effects is no reason for assigning to them a cause that is still more incomprehensible than any of those within our cognisance4 ,it is not given to man to know everything2 it is not given to him to know his own origin1 nor to penetrate into the essence of things1 nor to mount up to the first principle of things4 ,what is given to him is to have reason1 to have good faith1 to concede frankly that he is ignorant of what he cannot know1 and not to supplement his lack of certainty by words that are unintelligible1 and suppositions that are absurd4 ,suns go out and planets perish2 new suns are kindled1 and new planets revolve in new paths2 and man--infinitely small portion of a globe that is itself only a small point in immensity--dreams that it is for him that the universe has been made1 imagines that he must be the confidant of nature1 and proudly flatters himself that he must be eternal6 ,o man1 wilt thou never conceive that thou art but an insect of a day8 ,all changes in the universe2 nature contains not a form that is constant2 and yet thou wouldst claim that thy species can never disappear1 and must be excepted from the great universal law of incessant change6 ,we may pause for a moment to notice how1 in their deliberate humiliation of the alleged pride of man1 the orthodox theologian and the atheistic ,holbach use precisely the same language4 ,but the rebuke of the latter was sincere2 it was indispensable in order to prepare men's minds for the conception of the universe as a whole4 ,with the theologian the rebuke has now become little more than a hollow shift1 in order to insinuate the miracle of ,grace4 ,the preacher of ,naturalism replaces a futile vanity in being the end and object of the creation1 by a fruitful reverence for the supremacy of human reason1 and a right sense of the value of its discreet and disciplined use4 ,the theologian restores this absurd and misleading egoism of the race1 by representing the ,creator as above all else concerned to work miracles for the salvation of a creature whose understanding is at once pitifully weak and odiously perverse1 and whose heart is from the beginning wicked1 corrupt1 and given over to reprobation4 ,the difference is plainly enormous4 ,the theologian discourages men2 they are to wait for the miracle of conversion1 inert or desperate4 ,the naturalist arouses them2 he supplies them with the most powerful of motives for the energetic use of the most powerful of their endowments4 ,men would always have ,grace1 says ,holbach1 with excellent sense1 if they were well educated and well governed4 ,and he exclaims on the strange morality of those who attribute all moral evil to ,original ,sin1 and all the good that we do to ,grace4 ,no wonder1 he says1 that a morality founded on hypotheses so ridiculous should prove to be of no efficacy4#aec #aec ,ch4 xi4 ,this brings us to ,holbach's treatment of ,morals4 ,the moment had come to ,france1 which was reached at an earlier period in ,english speculation1 when the negative course of thought in metaphysics drove men to consider the basis of ethics4 ,how were right and wrong to hold their own against the new mechanical conception of the ,universe8 ,the same question is again urgent in men's minds1 because the ,darwinian hypothesis1 and the mass of evidence for it1 have again given a tremendous shake to theological conceptions1 and startled men into a sense of the precariousness of the official foundations of virtue and duty4 ,holbach begins by a most unflinching exposure of the inconsistency with all that we know of nature1 of the mysterious theory of ,free ,will4 ,this remains one of the most effective parts of the book1 and perhaps the work has never been done with a firmer hand4 ,the conclusion is expressed with a decisiveness that almost seems crude4 ,there is declared to be no difference between a man who throws himself out of the window and the man whom ,i throw out1 except this1 that the impulse acting on the second comes from without1 and that the impulse determining the fall of the first comes from within his own mechanism4 ,you have only to get down to the motive1 and you will invariably find that the motive is beyond the actor's own power or reach4 ,the inexorable logic with which the author presses the ,free-,willer from one retreat to another1 and from shift to shift1 leaves his adversary at last exactly as naked and defenceless before ,holbach's vigorous and thoroughly realised ,naturalism as the same adversary must always be before ,jonathan ,edwards's vigorous theism4 ,the system of man's liberty1 ,holbach says 7,,ii4 ii471 with some pungency1 seems only to have been invented in order to put him in a position to offend his ,god1 and so to justify ,god in all the evil that he inflicted on man1 for having used the freedom which was so disastrously conferred upon him4 ,if man be not free1 what right have we to punish those who cannot help committing bad actions1 or to reward others who cannot help committing good actions8 ,holbach gives to this and the various other ways of describing fatalism as dangerous to society1 the proper and perfectly adequate answer4 ,he turns to the quality of the action1 and connects with that the social attitude of praise and blame4 ,merit and demerit are associated with conduct1 according as it is thought to affect the common welfare advantageously or the reverse4 ,my indignation and my approval are as necessary as the acts that excite these sentiments4 ,my feelings are neither more nor less spontaneous than the deciding motives of the actor4 ,whatever be the necessitating cause of our actions1 ,i have a right to do my best by praise and blame1 by reward and punishment1 to strengthen or to weaken1 to prolong or to divert1 the motives that are the antecedents of the action2 exactly as ,i have a right to dam up a stream1 or to divert its course1 or otherwise deal with it to suit my own convenience4 ,penal laws1 for instance1 are ways of offering to men strong motives1 to weigh in the scale against the temptation of an immediate personal gratification4 ,holbach does not make it quite distinct that the object of penal legislation is in some cases to give the offender1 as well as other people1 a strong reason for thinking twice before he repeats the offence2 yet in other cases1 where the punishment is capital1 the legislation does not aim at influencing the mind of the offender at all1 but the minds of other people only4 ,this is only a side illustration of a common weakness in most arguments on this subject4 ,a thorough vindication of the penal laws1 on the principles of a systematic fatalism1 can only be successful1 if we think less of the wrongdoer in any given case1 than of affecting general motives1 and building up a right habit of avoiding or accepting certain classes of action4 ,the writer then justly connects his scientific necessarianism in philosophy with humanity in punishment4 ,he protests against excessive cruelty in the infliction of legal penalties1 and especially against the use of torture1 on two grounds2 first1 that experience demonstrates the uselessness of these superfluous rigours2 and1 second1 that the habit of witnessing atrocious punishments familiarises both criminals and others with the idea of cruelty4 ,the acquiescence of ,paris for a few months in the cruelties of the ,terror was no doubt due1 on ,holbach's perfectly sound principle1 to the far worse cruelties with which the laws had daily made ,paris familiar down to the last years of the monarchy4 ,and ,holbach was justified in expecting a greater degree of charitable and considerate judgment from the establishment in men's minds of a ,necessarian theory4 ,we are no longer vindictive against the individual doer2 we wax energetic against the defective training and the institutions which allowed wrong motives to weigh more heavily with him than right ones4 ,punishment on the theory of necessity ought always to go with prevention1 and is valued just because it is a force on prevention1 and not merely an element in retribution4 ,holbach answers effectively enough the common objection that his fatalism would plunge men's souls into apathy4 ,if all is necessary1 why shall ,i not let things go1 and myself remain quiet8 ,as if we could stay our hands from action1 if our feelings were trained to proper sensibility and sympathy4 ,as if it were possible for a man of tender disposition not to interest himself keenly in all that concerns the lot of his fellow-creatures4 ,how does our knowledge that death is necessary prevent us from deploring the loss of a beloved one8 ,how does my consciousness that it is the inevitable property of fire to burn1 prevent me from using all my efforts to avert a conflagration8 ,finally1 when people urge that the doctrine of necessity degrades man by reducing him to a machine1 and likening him to some growth of abject vegetation1 they are merely using a kind of language that was invented in ignorance of what constitutes the true dignity of man4 ,what is nature itself but a vast machine1 in which our human species is no more than one weak spring8 ,the good man is a machine whose springs are adapted so to fulfil their functions as to produce beneficent results for his fellows4 ,how could such an instrument not be an object of respect and affection and gratitude8 ,in closing this part of ,holbach's book1 while not dissenting from his conclusions1 we will only remark how little conscious he seems of the degree to which he empties the notions of praise and blame of the very essence of their old contents4 ,it is not a modification1 but the substitution of a new meaning under the old names4 ,praise in its new sense of admiration for useful and pleasure-giving conduct or motive1 is as powerful a force and as adequate an incentive to good conduct and good motives1 as praise in the old sense of admiration for a deliberate and voluntary exercise of a free-acting will4 ,but the two senses are different4 ,the old ethical association is transformed into something which usage and the requirements of social self-preservation must make equally potent1 but which is not the same4 ,if ,holbach and others who hold necessarian opinions were to perceive this more frankly1 and to work it out fully1 they would prevent a confusion that is very unfavourable to them in the minds of most of those whom they wish to persuade4 ,it is easy to see that the work next to be done in the region of morals1 is the readjustment of the ethical phraseology of the volitional stage1 to fit the ideas proper to the stage in which man has become as definitely the object of science as any of the other phenomena of the universe4 ,the chapter 7xiii47 on the ,immortality of the ,soul examines this memorable growth of human belief with great vigour1 and a most destructive penetration4 ,as we have seen1 the author repudiates the theory of a double energy in man1 one material and the other spiritual1 just as he afterwards repudiates the analogous hypothesis of a double energy in nature1 one of the two being due to a spiritual mover outside of the external phenomena of the universe4 ,consistently with this renunciation of a separate spiritual energy in man1 ,holbach will listen to no talk of a spiritual energy surviving the destruction of the mechanical framework4 ,to say that the soul will feel1 think1 enjoy1 suffer1 after the death of the body1 is to pretend that a clock broken into a thousand pieces can continue to strike or to mark the hours4 ,and having emphatically proclaimed his own refusal to share the common belief1 he proceeds with good success to carry the war into the country of those who profess that belief1 and defend it as the safeguard of society4 ,we need not go through his positions4 ,they are substantially those which are familiar to everybody who has read the ,third ,book of ,lucretius's poem1 and remembers those magnificent passages which are not more admirable in their philosophy than they are noble and moving in their poetic expression3-- ,nam veluti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis ,in tenebris metuunt1 sic nos in luce timemus ,interdum1 nilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam ,quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura4 ,hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest ,non radii solis neque lucida tela diei ,discutiant1 sed naturae species ratioque4 ,and so forth1 down to the exquisite lines-- ,jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta1 neque uxoi ,optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati ,praeripere1 et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent4 ,non poteris factis florentibus esse1 tuisque ,praesidium4 ,misero misere1 aiunt1 omnia ademit ,una dies infesta tibi tot praemia vitae4 ,illud in his rebus non addunt1 nec tibi earum ,jam desiderium rerum super insidet una4 ,quod bene si videant animo dictisque sequantur1 ,dissolvant animi magno se angore metuque4 ,tu quidem ut es leto sopitus1 sic eris aevi ,quod superest cunctis privatu' doloribus aegris3 ,at nos horrifico cinefactum te prope busto ,insatiabiliter deflevimus1 aeternumque ,nulla dies nobis maerorem e pectore demet4 ,illud ab hoc igitur quaerendum est1 quid sit amari ,tanto opere1 ad somnum si res redit atque quietem1 ,cur quisquam aeterno possit tabescere luctu4 ,we may regret that ,holbach1 in dealing with these solemn and touching things1 should have been so devoid of historic spirit as to buffet ,david1 ,mahomet1 ,chrysostom1 and other holy personages1 as superstitious brigands4 ,and we may believe that he has certainly been too sweeping in denying any deterrent efficacy whatever to the fires of hell4 ,but where ,holbach found one person in #aggj1 he would find a thousand in #ahhj1 to agree with him1 that it is possible to think of commendations and inducements to virtue1 that shall be at least as efficacious as the fiction of eternal torment1 without being as cruel1 as wicked1 as infamous to the gods1 and as degrading to men4 ,from his attack on ,immortality1 ,holbach naturally turns with new energy1 as do all who have passed beyond that belief1 to the improvement of the education1 the laws1 the institutions1 which are to strengthen and implant the true motives for turning men away from wrong and inspiring them to right4 ,he draws a stern and prolonged indictment against the kings of the earth1 in words that we have already quoted above1 as unjust1 incapable1 depraved by license and impunity4 ,one passage in this chapter is the scripture of a terrible prophecy1 the very handwriting on the wall1 which was to be so accurately fulfilled almost in the lifetime of the writer3--,the state of society is now a state of war of the ,sovereign against all1 and of each of its members against the other4 ,man is bad1 not because he was born bad1 but because he is made so2 the great and the powerful crush with impunity the needy and the unfortunate1 and these in turn seek to repay all the ill that has been done to them4 ,they openly or privily attack a native land that is a cruel stepmother to them2 she gives all to some of her children1 while others she strips of all4 ,sorely they punish her for her partiality2 they show her that the motives borrowed from another life are powerless against the passions and the bitter wrath engendered by a corrupt administration in the life here2 and that all the terror of the punishments of this world is impotent against necessity1 against criminal habits1 against a dangerous organisation that no education has ever been applied to correct 7ch4 xiv474 ,in another place3 ,a society enjoys all the happiness of which it is susceptible so soon as the greater number of its members are fed1 clothed1 housed2 are able1 in a word1 without an excessive toil1 to satisfy the wants that nature has made necessities to them4 ,their imagination is content so soon as they have the assurance that no force can ravish from them the fruits of their industry1 and that they labour for themselves4 ,by a sequence of human madness1 whole nations are forced to labour1 to sweat1 to water the earth with their tears1 merely to keep up the luxury1 the fancies1 the corruption of a handful of insensates1 a few useless creatures4 ,so have religious and political errors changed the universe into a valley of tears4 ,this is an incessant refrain that sounds with hoarse ground-tone under all the ethics and the metaphysics of the book4 ,there are scores of pages in which the same idea is worked out with a sombre vehemence1 that makes us feel as if ,robespierre were already haranguing in the ,national ,assembly1 ,camille ,desmoulins declaiming in the gardens of the ,palais ,royal1 and ,danton thundering at the ,club of the ,cordeliers4 ,we already watch the smoke of the flaming chateaux1 going up like a savoury and righteous sacrifice to the heavens4 ,from this point to the end of the first part of the book1 it is not so much philosophy as the literature of a political revolution4 ,there is a curious parenthesis in vindication not only of a contempt for death1 but even of suicide2 the writer pointing out with some malice that ,samson1 ,eleazar1 and other worthies caused their own death1 and that ,jesus ,christ himself1 if really the ,son of ,god1 dying of his own free grace1 was a suicide1 to say nothing of the various ascetic penitents who have killed themselves by inches4#aed ,the fear of death1 after all1 he says1 summing up his case1 will only make cowards2 the fear of its alleged consequences will only make fanatics or melancholy pietists1 as useless to themselves as to others4 ,death is a resource that we do ill to take away from oppressed virtue1 reduced1 as many a time it is1 by the injustice of men to desperation4 ,this was the doctrine in which the revolutionary generation were brought up1 and the readiness with which men in those days inflicted death on themselves and on others showed how profoundly it had entered their souls4#aee ,we think1 as we read1 of ,vergniaud and ,condorcet carrying their doses of poison1 of ,barbaroux with his pistol1 and ,valaze with his knife1 of ,roland walking forth from ,rouen among the trees on the ,paris road1 and there driving a cane-sword into his breast1 as calmly as if he had been throwing off a useless vesture4 #aed ,this is not original in ,holbach4 ,diderot's article on ,suicide in the ,encyclopaedia 7,oeuv41 xvii4 #bce7 contains the usual arguments of the ,church against suicide1 with some casuistic illustrations1 but it also contains an account of ,dr4 ,donne's vindication of ,suicide1 called ,bia-thanatos1 #afea1 in which these remarks of ,holbach occur verbatim4 ,hallam found ,donne's book so dull and pedantic that he declares no one would be induced to kill himself by reading such a book unless he were threatened with another volume4 #aee ,hume's suppressed ,essay on ,suicide 7see the edition by ,mr4 ,green and ,mr4 ,grose1 #ahge1 vol4 ii4 #dje7 is a much more exhaustive argument than ,holbach's1 though the language of the two pieces is sometimes curiously alike4 ,rousseau in this1 as in so many other moralities--marriage1 for instance--was on the side of the ,church1 only allowing suicide where a man happens to be stricken by a painful and incurable disease4 ,see the two famous letters in the ,new ,heloisa1 ,pt4 iii4 #ba1 #bb4 ,holbach has been accused of reducing virtue to a far-sighted egoism1#aef and detached and crude propositions may be quoted1 that perhaps give a literal warrant for the charge4 ,nominally he bases morality on happiness1 but his real base is the happiness of the greatest number4 ,to borrow ,mr4 ,sidgwick's classification1 ,holbach is a universalistic and not an egoistic ,hedonist4 ,the spirit of what he says is1 in fact1 not individualist but social4 ,the good man is he to whom true ideas have shown his own interest or his own happiness to lie in such a way of acting1 that others are forced to love and approve for their own interest4444 ,it is man who is most necessary to the well-being of man4444 ,merit and virtue are founded on the nature of man1 on his needs4444 ,it is by virtue that we are able to earn the goodwill1 the confidence1 the esteem1 of all those with whom we have relations2 in a word1 no man can be happy alone4444 ,to be virtuous is to place one's interest in what accords with the interest of others2 it is to enjoy the benefits and the delights that one is the means of diffusing among them4444 ,the sentiments of self-love become a hundred times more delicious when we see them shared by all those with whom our destiny binds us4 ,the habit of virtue excites wants within us that only virtue can satisfy2 thus it is that virtue is ever its own recompense1 and pays itself with the blessings that it procures for others 7ch4 xv47 #aef ,taine's ,ancien ,regime1 p4 #bhg4 ,surely it is a childish or pedantic misinterpretation to represent this as egoism1 whether armed or not with keen sight2 and still worse to talk of it as over-throwing the barriers that keep in the throng of selfish appetites4 ,every citizen should be made to feel that the section of which he is a member is a ,whole1 that cannot subsist and be happy without virtue2 experience should teach him at every moment that the wellbeing of the members can only result from that of the whole body 7ch4 xv47 ,to say of such a doctrine as this1 that it is to invite every individual to make himself happy after his own will and fashion1 and to pull down the barriers of the selfish appetites1 is the very absurdity of philosophic prejudice4 ,it is for us to look at ,holbach's ethical doctrine in its widest practical application1 and if we place ourselves at a social point of view1 we cannot but perceive that the principle laid down in the words that we have just quoted1 was the indispensable weapon against the anti-social selfishness of the oppressive privileged class4 ,these words represent the ethical side of every popular and democratic movement4 ,you may class ,holbach's morality as the morality of self-interest1 if you please2 but its true base lay in social sympathy4 ,to proclaim happiness as the test of virtue was to develop the doctrine of naturalism2 for happiness is the outcome of a conformity to the natural condition of things4 ,on the other hand1 to insist that virtue lies in promoting the happiness of the body social as a whole1 was to preach the most sovereign of all truths1 in a state of things where the body social as a whole was kept distracted and miserable by the selfishness of a scanty few of its members4 ,the ,church1 nominally built upon the morality of the ,golden ,rule1 was perverted into being the great organ of sinister self-interest4 ,the ,atheists1 apparently formulating the morality of the ,epicureans1 were in effect the teachers of public spirit and beneficence4 ,and1 taught in such circumstances1 public spirit could only mean revolution4 ,we may doubt whether ,holbach had thought out the very different questions that may be fused under the easy phrase of a basis for morals4 ,what are the sanctions of moral precepts8 ,why ought each to seek the happiness of all8 ,what is the mark of the difference between right and wrong8 ,what is the foundation of ,conscience1 or that habit of mind which makes right as such seem preferable to wrong8 ,clearly these are all entirely separate topics4 ,yet ,holbach1 it is obvious1 had not divided them in his own mind1 and he seems to think that one and the same answer will serve for what he mistook for one and the same question4 ,he found it enough to say that every individual wishes to be happy1 and that he cannot be happy unless he is on good terms with his neighbours2 this reciprocity of needs and services he called the basis of morals4 ,for a rough and common-sense view of the matter1 such as ,holbach sought to impress on his readers1 this perhaps will do very well2 but it is not the product of accurate and scientific thinking4 ,it is not necessary1 again1 to point out how ,holbach1 while expounding the ,system of ,nature1 left out of sight the great natural process by which the moral acquisition of one generation becomes the starting-point of further acquisitions in the next4 ,he forgot the stages4 ,he talks of ,man as if all the races and eras of man were alike1 and also as if each individual deliberately worked out sums in happiness on his own account4 ,it would not only have been more true1 according to modern opinions1 but more in accordance with ,holbach's own view of necessity1 and of the irremovable chain that binds a man's conduct fast to a series of conditions that existed before he was born1 if he had recognised conscience1 moral preferences1 interest in the public good1 and all that he called the basis of morals1 as coming to a man with the rest of the apparatus that the past imposes on the present1 and not as due to any process of personal calculation4 ,holbach had not clearly thought out the growth1 the changes1 varieties1 and transformations among moral ideals4 ,he was1 of course1 far too much in the full current of the eighteenth century not to feel that exultation in life and its most exuberant manifestations1 which the conventional moralists of the theological schools had set down and proscribed as worldliness and fleshliness4 ,action1 he says in this very chapter2 action is the true element of the human mind2 no sooner does man cease to act1 than he falls into pain and weariness of spirit4 ,no doubt this is too absolutely stated1 if we are to take some millions of orientals into our account of the human mind1 but it has been true of the nations of the west4 ,yet the recognition of this law did not prevent the writer from occasionally falling into some of the old canting commonplaces about people being happiest who have fewest wants4 ,as if1 on the contrary1 that action which he describes as the true element of man1 were not directly connected with the incessant multiplication of wants4 ,we may take this1 however1 as a casual lapse into the common form of moralists of ascetic ages4 ,in substance the ,system of ,nature is essentially a protest against ascetic and quietist ideals4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the second half of the ,system of ,nature treats of the ,deity2 the proofs of his existence2 his attributes2 the manner in which he influences the happiness of men4 ,what is remarkable is that here we have an onslaught1 not merely on the ,church with its overgrowth of abuses1 nor on ,christianity with its overgrowth of superstitions1 but on that great conception which is enthroned on unseen heights far above any ,church and any form of ,christianity4 ,it is theism1 in its purest as in its impurest shape1 that the writer condemns4 ,no more elaborate1 trenchant1 and unflinching attack on the very fundamental propositions of theology1 natural or revealed1 is to be found in literature4 ,pure rationalism has nothing to add to this destructive onslaught4 ,the tone is not truly philosophic1 because the writer habitually regards the notion of a ,god as an abnormal and morbid excrescence1 and not as a natural growth in human development4 ,he takes no trouble1 and it would have been an incredible departure from the mental fashion of the time if he had taken any trouble1 to explain theology1 or to penetrate behind its forms to those needs1 aspirations1 and qualities of human constitution in which theology had its best justification1 if not its earliest source4 ,he regards it as an enemy to be mercilessly routed1 not as a force with which he has to make his account4 ,still1 as a piece of rough and remorseless polemic1 the second part of the ,system of ,nature remains full of remarkable energy and power4 ,the most eager ,nescient or ,denier to be found in the ranks of the assailants of theology in our own day is timorous and moderate compared with this direct and on-pressing swordsman4 ,and the attack1 on its own purely rationalistic ground1 is thoroughly comprehensive4 ,it is not made on an outwork here1 or an outwork there2 it encircles the whole compass of the defence4 ,the conception of ,god is examined and resisted from every possible side--cosmological1 ethical1 metaphysical4 ,to say that the argument is one-sided1 is only to say that it is an attack4 ,but the fact that the writer omits the contributions made under the temporal shelter of theology to morality and civilisation1 does not alter the other fact that he states with unsurpassed vigour all that can be said against the intellectual absurdities and moral obliquities that theology has nourished and approved1 and only too firmly planted4 ,of the elaborate examination of the proofs of the existence of a ,god adduced by ,descartes1 ,samuel ,clarke1 ,malebranche1 and ,newton 7ch4 iv4 and v471 we need only say that its whole force might have been summed up in the single proposition that the author once for all repudiates any a priori basis for any beliefs whatever4 ,it would have been sufficient for philosophic purposes if he had contented himself with justifying and establishing that position4 ,the fabric of orthodox demonstration would have fallen to the ground after the destruction of its foundations4 ,holbach rejected the whole a priori system2 it was a matter of course therefore that he rejected each one of the twelve propositions which ,clarke had invented by the a priori method4 ,holbach held that experience is the source and limit of knowledge1 reasoning1 and belief1 and rejected as a fantastic impertinence of dreamy metaphysicians the assumption that our conceptions measure the necessities of objective existence4 ,from that point of view1 merely to state was to empty of all demonstrating quality such assertions as that something has existed from all eternity2 an independent and immutable ,being has existed from all eternity2 this immutable and independent ,being exists by himself1 and is incomprehensible2 the ,being existing necessarily is necessarily single and unique--and so forth4 ,even if we accept this a priori method1 and accept the first assumption that something must have existed from all eternity1 it was open to ,holbach to say1 as ,locke said on setting himself to examine ,descartes' proof of a ,god3 ,i found that1 by it1 senseless matter might be the first eternal being and cause of all things1 as well as an immaterial intelligent spirit4 ,but what we feel is that the whole controversy is being conducted between two disputants on two different planes of thought1 between two creatures dwelling in different elements4 ,to apply to ,clarke's propositions1 or to the slightly different propositions of ,malebranche1 the test of experience1 to measure them by the principle of relativity1 must be fatal in the minds of such persons as already accept experience as the only right test in such a matter4 ,it is exactly as if the action of an ,italian opera should be criticised in the light of the conditions of real life3 the whole performance must in an instant figure as an absurdity4 ,no partisan of the lyric drama would consent to have it so judged1 and the philosophic partisans of theology would perhaps have been wiser to keep clear of pretensions to prove their master thesis4 ,they might have been content to keep it as an emotional creation1 an imaginative hypothesis1 a noble simplification of the chimeras of the primitive consciousness of the race4 ,as it was1 neither side could be convinced by the other1 for they had no common criterion4 ,they had hardly even a common language4 ,the only effect of ,holbach's blows was to persuade the bystanders who thronged round the lists in that eager time1 that the so-called proofs with which the high philosophic names were associated1 were only proofs to those who accepted a way of thinking which it was the very characteristic of that age decisively to reject4 ,the controversial force of this part of the attack simply lay in the piercing thoroughness with which the irreconcilable discrepancies between the seventeenth century notion of demonstration1 and that notion in the eighteenth1 were forced upon the reader's attention4 ,one other remark may be made4 ,whatever we may think of the success of the author's assault on the theistic hypothesis of the universe1 it is impossible to deny that he at least succeeds in repelling the various assaults levelled on what is vulgarly termed atheism4 ,he rightly urges the unreasonableness of taxing those who have formed to themselves intelligible notions of the moving power of the universe1 with denying the existence of such a power2 the absurdity of charging the very men who found everything that comes to pass in the world on fixed and constant laws1 with attributing everything to chance4 ,if by ,atheist1 he says1 you mean a man who would deny the existence of a force inherent in matter1 and without which you cannot conceive nature1 and if to this moving force you give the name of ,god1 then an ,atheist would be a madman4 ,holbach then describes the sense in which ,atheists both exist and1 as he thinks1 may well justify their existence4 ,their qualities are as follows3 ,to be guided only by experience and the testimony of their senses1 and to perceive nothing in nature except matter1 essentially active and mobile and capable of producing all the beings that we see2 to forego all search for a chimerical cause1 and not to mistake for better knowledge of the moving force of the universe1 merely a separate attribution of it to a ,being placed outside of the great whole2 to confess in good faith that their mind can neither conceive nor reconcile the negative attributes and theological abstractions with the human and moral qualities that are ascribed to the ,divinity4 ,the chapter 7ix47 on the superiority of ,naturalism over ,theism as a basis for the most wholesome kind of ,morality1 is still worth reading by men in search of weapons against the presumptuous commonplaces of the pulpit4 ,in this sphere ,holbach is as earnest and severe as the most rigorous moralist that ever wrote4 ,people who talk of the moral levity of the destructive literature of the eighteenth century would be astonished1 if they could bring themselves to read the books about which they talk1 by the elevation of the ,system of ,nature4 ,the writer points out the necessarily evil influence upon morals of a ,book popularly taken to be inspired1 in which the ,divinity is represented as now prescribing virtue1 but now again prescribing crime and absurdity2 who is sometimes the friend1 and sometimes the enemy1 of the human race2 who is sometimes pictured as reasonable1 just1 and beneficent1 and at other times as insensate3 unjust1 capricious1 and despotic4 ,such divinities1 and the priests of such divinities1 are incapable of being the models1 types1 and arbiters of virtue and righteousness4 ,no2 we must seek a base for morality in the necessity of things4 ,whatever the ,cause that placed man in the abode in which he dwells1 and endowed him with his faculties--whether we regard the human species as the work of ,nature1 or of some intelligent ,being distinct from ,nature--the existence of man1 such as we see him to be1 is a fact4 ,we see in him a being who feels1 thinks1 has intelligence1 has self-love1 who strives to make life agreeable to himself1 and who lives in society with beings like himself2 beings whom by his conduct he may make his friends or his enemies4 ,it is on these universal sentiments that you ought to base morality1 which is nothing more nor less than the science of the duties of man living in society4 ,the moment you attempt to find a base for morals outside of human nature1 you go wrong2 no other is solid and sure4 ,the aid of the so-called sanctions of theology is not only needless1 but mischievous4 ,the alliance of the realities of duty with theological phantoms exposes duty to the same ruin which daylight brings to the superstition that has been associated with duty4 ,it sets up the arbitrary demands of a varying something1 named ,piety1 in place of the plain requirements of ,right4 ,as for saying that without ,god man cannot have moral sentiments1 or1 in other words1 cannot distinguish between vice and virtue1 it is as if one said that1 without the idea of ,god1 man would not feel the necessity of eating and drinking4 ,the writer then breaks out into a long and sustained contrast1 from which we may make a short extract to illustrate the heat to which the battle had now come3 ,nature invites man to love himself1 incessantly to augment the sum of his happiness3 ,religion orders him to love only a formidable ,god who is worthy of hatred2 to detest and despise himself1 and to sacrifice to his terrible idol the sweetest and most lawful pleasures4 ,nature bids man consult his reason1 and take it for his guide3 ,religion teaches him that this reason is corrupted1 that it is a faithless1 truthless guide1 implanted by a treacherous ,god1 to mislead his creatures4 ,nature tells man to seek light1 to search for the truth3 ,religion enjoins upon him to examine nothing1 to remain in ignorance4 ,nature says to man3 ',cherish glory1 labour to win esteem1 be active1 courageous1 industrious3' ,religion says to him3 ',be humble1 abject1 pusillanimous1 live in retreat1 busy thyself in prayer1 meditation1 devout rites2 be useless to thyself1 and do nothing for others4' ,nature proposes for her model1 men endowed with noble1 energetic1 beneficent souls1 who have usefully served their fellow-citizens3 ,religion makes a show and a boast of the abject spirits1 the pious enthusiasts1 the phrenetic penitents1 the vile fanatics1 who for their ridiculous opinions have troubled empires4444 ,nature tells children to honour1 to love1 to hearken to their parents1 to be the stay and support of their old age3 ,religion bids them prefer the oracle of their ,god1 and to trample father and mother under foot1 when divine interests are concerned4 ,nature commands the perverse man to blush for his vices1 for his shameless desires1 his crimes3 ,religion says to the most corrupt3 ',fear to kindle the wrath of a ,god whom thou knowest not3 but if against his laws thou hast committed crime1 remember that he is easy to appease and of great mercy3 go to his temple1 humble thyself at the feet of his ministers1 expiate thy misdeeds by sacrifices1 offerings1 prayers2 these will wash away thy stain in the eyes of the ,eternal4' ,of course1 philosophical criticism would have much to say about this glowing mass of furious propositions2 for the first voice of ,nature hardly whispers into the ear of the primitive man all these high and generous promptings4 ,but if by ,nature we here understand the ,encyclopaedists1 and by ,religion the ,catholic ,church in ,france at that moment1 then ,holbach's fiery antitheses are a tolerably fair account of the matter4 ,and the political side of the indictment was hardly less just1 though its hardihood appalled men like ,voltaire4 ,nature says to man1 ',thou art free1 and no power on earth can lawfully strip thee of thy rights3' ,religion cries to him that he is a slave condemned by ,god to groan under the rod of ,god's representatives4 ,nature bids man to love the country that gave him birth1 to serve it with all loyalty1 to bind his interests to hers against every hand that might be raised upon her3 ,religion commands him to obey without a murmur the tyrants that oppress his country1 to take their part against her1 to chain his fellow-citizens under their lawless caprices4 ,yet if the ,sovereign be not devoted enough to his priests1 ,religion instantly changes her tone2 she incites the subjects to rebellion1 she makes resistance a duty1 she cries aloud that we must obey ,god rather than man4444 ,if the nature of man were consulted on ,politics1 which supernatural ideas have so shamefully depraved1 it would contribute far more than all the religion in the world to make communities happy1 powerful1 and prosperous under reasonable authority4444 ,this nature would teach princes that they are men and not gods2 that they are citizens charged by their fellow-citizens with watching over the safety of all4444 ,instead of attributing to the divine vengeance all the wars1 the famines1 the plagues that lay nations low1 would it not have been more useful to show them that such calamities are due to the passions1 the indolence1 the tyranny of their princes1 who sacrifice the nations to their hideous delirium8 ,natural evils demand natural remedies2 ought not experience1 therefore1 long ago to have undeceived mortals as to those supernatural remedies1 those expiations1 prayers1 sacrifices1 fastings1 processions1 that all the peoples of the earth have so vainly opposed to the woes that overwhelmed them8444 ,let us recognise the plain truth1 then1 that it is these supernatural ideas that have obscured morality1 corrupted politics1 hindered the advance of the sciences1 and extinguished happiness and peace even in the very heart of man4 99 99 99 99 99 ,holbach was a vigorous propagandist4 ,two years after the appearance of his master-work he drew up its chief propositions in a short and popular volume1 called ,good sense2 or ,natural ,ideas opposed to ,supernatural4 ,his zeal led him to write and circulate a vast number of other tractates and short volumes1 the bare list of which would fill several of these pages1 all inciting their readers to an intellectual revolt against the reigning system in ,church and ,state4 ,he lived to get a glimpse of the very edge and sharp bend of the great cataract4 ,he died in the spring of #aghi4 ,if he had only lived five years longer1 he would have seen the great church of ,notre ,dame solemnly consecrated by legislative decree to the worship of ,reason1 bishops publicly trampling on crosier and ring amid universal applause1 and vast crowds exulting in processions whose hero was an ass crowned with a mitre4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,raynal',s ,,history ,,of ,,the ,,indies4 ,since ,montesquieu's ,esprit des ,lois1 says ,grimm in his chronicle1 our literature has perhaps produced no monument that is worthier to pass to the remotest posterity1 and to consecrate the progress of our enlightenment and diligence for ever1 than ,raynal's ,philosophical and ,political ,history of ,european settlements and commerce in the two ,indies4 ,yet it is perhaps safe to say that not one hundred persons now living have ever read two chapters of the book for which this immortal future was predicted4 ,when the revolutionary floods gradually subsided1 some of the monuments of the previous age began to show themselves above the surface of the falling waters4 ,they had lost amid the stormy agitation of the deluge the shining splendour of their first days2 still men found something to attract them after the revolution1 as their grandfathers had done before it1 in the pages of the ,spirit of ,laws1 of the ,new ,heloisa1 and the endless satires1 romances1 and poems of the great ,voltaire4 ,raynal's book was not among these dead glories that came to life again4 ,it disappeared utterly4 ,nor can it be said that it deserved a kinder fate4 ,its only interest now is for those who care to know the humour of men's minds in those prae-revolutionary days1 when they could devour a long political and commercial history as if it had been a novel or a play1 and when the turn of men's interests made of such a book the ,bible of two worlds for nearly twenty years4 ,raynal is no commanding figure4 ,born in #agaa1 he came to ,paris from southern ,france1 and joined the troop of needy priests who swarmed in the great city1 hopefully looking out for the prizes of the ,church4 ,raynal is the hero of an anecdote which is told of more than one abbe of the time2 whether literally true or not1 it is probably a correct illustration of the evil pass to which ecclesiastical manners had come4 ,he had1 it was said1 nothing to live upon save the product of a few masses4 ,the ,abbe ,prevost received twenty sous for saying a mass2 he paid the ,abbe ,laporte fifteen sous to be his deputy2 the ,abbe ,laporte paid eight sous to ,raynal to say it in his stead4 ,but the adventurer was not destined to remain in this abject case1 parasite humbly feeding on parasite4 ,he turned bookmaker1 and wrote a history of the ,stadtholderate1 a volume about the ,english ,parliament1 and1 of all curious subjects for a man of letters of that date1 an account of the divorce of ,king ,henry the ,eighth of ,england4 ,he visited this country more than once1 and had the honour in #aged of being chosen a fellow of the ,royal ,society of ,london4#aeg ,we have some difficulty in understanding how he came by such fame1 just as we cannot tell how the man who had been glad to earn a few pence by saying masses1 came shortly to be rich and independent4 ,he is believed to have engaged in some colonial ventures1 and to have had good luck4 ,his enemies spread the dark report that he had made money in the slave trade1 but in those days of incensed party spirit there was no limit to virulent invention4 ,it is at least undeniable that ,raynal put his money to generous uses4 ,among other things1 he had the current fancy of the time1 that the world could be made better by the copious writing of essays1 and he delighted in founding prizes for them at the provincial academies4 ,it was at ,lyons that he proposed the famous thesis1 not unworthy of consideration even at this day3 ,has the discovery of ,america been useful or injurious to the human race8 #aeg ,the ,biographie ,universelle1 followed by the ,encyclopaedia ,britannica1 tells a story of ,raynal visiting the ,house of ,commons2 the ,speaker1 says the writer1 learning that he was in the gallery1 suspended the discussion until a distinguished place had been found for the ,french philosopher4 ,this must be set down as a myth4 ,the journals have been searched1 and there is no official confirmation of the statement1 improbable enough on the face of it4 ,raynal was one of the most assiduous of the guests at the philosophic meals of ,baron ,holbach and ,helvetius2 he was very good-humoured1 easy to live with1 and free from that irritable self-consciousness and self-love which is too commonly the curse of the successful writer1 as of other successful persons4 ,he did not go into company merely to make the hours fly4 ,with him1 as with ,helvetius1 society was a workshop4 ,he pressed every one with questions as to all matters1 great or small1 with which the interlocutor was likely to be familiar4#aeh ,horace ,walpole met him at dull ,holbach's1 and the abbe at once began to tease him across the table as to the ,english colonies4 ,walpole knew as little about them as he knew about ,coptic1 so he made signs to his tormentor that he was deaf4 ,on another occasion ,raynal dined at ,strawberry ,hill1 and mortified the vanity of his host by looking at none of its wonders himself1 and keeping up such a fire of talk and cross-examination as to prevent anybody else from looking at them4 ,there never was such an impertinent and tiresome old gossip1 cried our own gossip4#aei #aeh ,morellet1 i4 #bba4 #aei ,walpole's ,corresp41 vi4 #adg and #dde4 ,raynal failed to give better men than ,horace ,walpole the sense of power4 ,when his greatest work took the public by storm1 nobody would believe that he had written it4 ,just as in the case of the ,system of ,nature1 so people set down the ,history of the ,indies to ,diderot1 and even the most moderate critics insisted that he had at any rate written not less than one-third of it4 ,many less conspicuous scribes were believed to have been ,raynal's drudges4 ,we can have no difficulty in supposing that so bulky a work engaged many hands4 ,there is no unity of composition1 no equal scale1 no regularity of proportion2 on the contrary1 rhapsody and sober description1 history and moral disquisition1 commerce1 law1 physics1 and metaphysics are all poured in1 almost as if by hazard4 ,we seem to watch half a dozen writers1 each dealing with matters according to his own individual taste and his own peculiar kind of knowledge4 ,indeed1 it is a curious and most interesting feature in the literary activity of ,france in the eighteenth century1 that the egoism and vanity of authorship were reduced by the conditions of the time to a lower degree than in any other generation since letters were invented4 ,the suppression of self by the ,jesuits was hardly more complete than the suppression of self by the most brilliant and effective of the insurgents against ,jesuitry4 ,such intimate association as exists in our day between a given book and a given personality1 was then thoroughly shaken by the constant necessity for secrecy4 ,as we have seen1 people hardly knew who set up that momentous landmark1 the ,system of ,nature4 ,voltaire habitually and vehemently denied every one of his most characteristic pieces1 and though in the buzz of ,parisian gossip the right name was surely hit upon for such unique performances as ,voltaire's1 yet the fame was far too broken and uncertain to reward his vanity1 if the better part of himself had not been fully and sincerely engaged in public objects in which vanity had no part4 ,rousseau was an exception1 but then ,rousseau was in truth a reactionist1 and not a loyal member of the great company of reformers4 ,as for ,diderot1 he valued the author's laurel so cheaply1 as we have seen1 that with a gigantic heedlessness and ,saturnian weariness of the plaudits or hisses of the audience1 while supremely interested in the deeper movements of the tragi-comic drama of the world1 he left some of his masterpieces lying unknown in forgotten chests4 ,again1 in the case of the ,encyclopaedia1 as we have also seen1 ,turgot as well as less eminent men bargained that their names should not be made public4 ,wherever a telling blow was to be dealt with the sword1 or a new stone to be laid with the trowel1 men were always found ready to spend themselves and be spent1 without taking thought whether their share in the work should be nicely measured and publicly identified1 or absorbed and lost in the whole of which it was a part4 ,whatever may have been the secret of the authorship of ,raynal's book1 and whether or no even the general conception of such a performance was due to ,raynal1 it is at least certain that the original author1 whoever he may have been1 divined a remarkable literary opportunity4 ,this divination is in authorship what felicity of experiment is to the scientific discoverer4 ,the book came into immediate vogue4 ,it was published in #aggb2 a second edition was demanded within a couple of years1 and it is computed that more than twenty editions1 as well as countless pirated versions1 were exhausted before the universal curiosity and interest were satisfied4 ,as the subject took the writer over the whole world1 so he found readers in every part of the habitable globe4 ,and among them were men for whom destiny had lofty parts in store4 ,zeal carried one young reader so far that he collected all the boldest passages into a single volume1 and published it as ,l',esprit de ,raynal2 an achievement for which1 as he was a member of a religious congregation1 he afterwards got into some trouble4#afj ,franklin read and admired the book in ,london4 ,black ,toussaint ,louverture in his slave-cabin at ,hayti laboriously spelled his way through its pages1 and found in their story of the wrongs of his race and their passionate appeal against slavery1 the first definite expression of thoughts which had already been dimly stirred in his generous spirit by the brutalities that were every day enacted under his eyes4 ,gibbon solemnly immortalised ,raynal by describing him1 in one of the great chapters of the ,decline and ,fall1 as a writer who with a just confidence had prefixed to his own history the honourable epithets of political and philosophical4#afa ,robertson1 whose excellent ,history of ,america1 covering part of ,raynal's ground1 was not published until #aggg1 complimented ,raynal on his ingenuity and eloquence1 and reproduced some of ,raynal's historical speculations4#afb #afj ,hedouin by name4 #afa ,ch4 xxi4 #afb ,works1 xii4 #ahi 7edition of #ahbb74 ,frederick the ,great began to read it1 and for some days spoke enthusiastically to his ,french satellites at dinner of its eloquence and reason4 ,all at once he became silent1 and he never spoke a word about the book again4 ,he had suddenly come across half a dozen pages of vigorous rhapsodising1 delivered for his own good3 ,oh ,frederick1 ,frederick6 thou wast gifted by nature with a bold and lively imagination1 a curiosity that knew no bounds1 a passion for industry4 ,humanity1 everywhere in chains1 everywhere cast down1 wiped away her tears at the sight of thy earliest labours1 and seemed to find a solace for all her woes in the hope of finding in thee her avenger4 ,on the dread theatre of war thy swiftness1 skill1 and order amazed all nations4 ,thou wast regarded as the model of warrior-kings4 ,there exists a still more glorious name3 the name of citizen-king4444 ,once more open thy heart to the noble and virtuous sentiments that were the delight of thy young days4 ,he then rebukes ,frederick for keeping money locked up in his military chest1 instead of throwing it into circulation1 for his violent and arbitrary administration1 and for the excessive imposts under which his people groaned4 ,dare still more2 give rest to the earth4 ,let the authority of thy mediation1 and the power of thy arms1 force peace on the restless nations4 ,the universe is the only country of a great man1 and the only theatre for thy genius2 become then the benefactor of nations4#afc #afc ,book v4 ,sec4 #ca4 ,in after days1 when ,raynal visited ,berlin1 overflowing with vanity and self-importance1 he succeeded with some difficulty in procuring an interview with the ,king1 and then ,frederick took his revenge4 ,he told ,raynal that years ago he had read the history of the ,stadtholderate1 and of the ,english ,parliament4 ,raynal modestly interposed that since those days he had written more important works4 ,i don't know them1 said the king1 in a tone that closed the subject4#afd #afd ,thiebault1 iii4 #agb2 where there is a long and most disparaging account of ,raynal1 by no means incredible1 though we must remember that a competent judge has pronounced ,thiebault to be stupid1 incorrect1 and the prey of stupidities4 ,more disinterested persons than ,frederick set as low a value on ,raynal's performance4 ,one writer even compares the book to a quack mounted on a waggon1 retailing to the gaping crowd a number of commonplaces against despotism and religion1 without a single curious thing about them except their hardihood4#afe ,but the instinct of the gaping crowd was sound4 ,measured by the standard and requirements of modern science1 ,raynal's history is no high achievement4 ,it may perhaps be successfully contended that the true conception of history has on the whole gone back1 rather than advanced1 within the last hundred years4 ,there have been many signs in our own day of its becoming narrow1 pedantic1 and trivial4 ,it threatens to degenerate from a broad survey of great periods and movements of human societies into vast and countless accumulations of insignificant facts1 sterile knowledge1 and frivolous antiquarianism1 in which the spirit of epochs is lost1 and the direction1 meaning1 and summary of the various courses of human history all disappear4 ,voltaire's ,essai sur les ,moeurs shows a perfectly true notion of what kind of history is worth either writing or reading4 ,robertson's ,view of the ,progress of ,society in ,europe from the ,fall of the ,roman ,empire to the ,sixteenth ,century is--with all its imperfections--admirably just1 sensible1 and historic in its whole scope and treatment4 ,raynal himself1 though far below such writers as ,voltaire and ,robertson in judgment and temper1 yet is not without a luminous breadth of outlook1 and does not forget the superior importance of the effect of events on ,european development1 over any possible number of minute particularities in the events themselves4 ,he does not forget1 for instance1 in describing the ,portuguese conquests in the ,east ,indies1 to point out that the most remarkable and momentous thing about them was the check that they inflicted on the growth of the ,ottoman ,power1 at a moment in ,european history when the ,christian states were least able to resist1 and least likely to combine against the designs of ,solyman4#aff ,this is really the observation best worth making about the ,portuguese conquests1 and it illustrates ,raynal's habit1 and the habit of the good minds of that century1 of incessantly measuring events by their consequences to western enlightenment and freedom1 and of dropping out of sight all irrelevancies of detail4 #afe ,senac de ,meilhan1 #abc4 #aff ,book i4 ,sec4 #g4 ,robertson works out this reflection in his ,historical ,disquisition concerning ,ancient ,india1 iv4 ,sec4 #h4 ,this signal merit need not blind us to ,raynal's shortcomings in the other direction4 ,there are very few dates4 ,the total absence of references and authorities was condemned by ,gibbon as the unpardonable blemish of what is otherwise a most entertaining book4 ,there is no criticism4 ,as ,raynal was a mere literary compiler1 it was not to be expected that he should rise above the common deficiencies in the thought and methods of his time4 ,it was not to be expected that he should deal with the various groups of phenomena among primitive races1 in the scientific spirit of modern anthropology4 ,it is true that he was contemporary with ,de ,brosses1 who ranks among the founders of the study of the origins of human culture4 ,one sentence of ,de ,brosses would have warned ,raynal against a vicious method1 which made nearly all that was written about primitive men by him and everybody else of the same school1 utterly false1 worthless1 and deluding4 ,it is not in possibilities1 said ,de ,brosses1 it is in man himself that we must study man3 it is not for us to imagine what man might have done1 or ought to have done1 but to observe what he did4 ,of the origin and growth of a myth1 for example1 ,raynal had no rational idea4 ,when he found a myth1 what he did was to reduce it to the terms of human action1 and then coolly to describe it as historical4 ,the ancient ,peruvian legend that laws and arts had been brought to their land by two divine children of the ,sun1 ,manco-,capac and his sister-wife ,manca-,oello1 is transformed into a grave and prosaic narrative1 in which ,manco-,capac's achievements are minutely described with as much assurance as if that sage had been ,frederick the ,great1 or ,pombal1 or any statesman living before the eyes of the writer4 ,endless illustrations1 some of them amusing enough1 might be given of this ,euhemeristic fashion of dealing with the primitive legends of human infancy4 ,on the other hand1 if ,raynal turns myth into history1 he constantly resorts to the opposite method1 and turns the hard prose of real life into doubtful poetry4 ,if he reduces the demi-gods to men1 he delights also in surrounding savage men with the joyous conditions of the pastoral demi-gods4 ,he can never resist an opportunity of introducing an idyll4 ,it was the fashion of the time1 begun by ,rousseau and perfected by the author of ,paul and ,virginia4 ,the taste for idylls of savage life had at least one merit2 it was a way of teaching people that the life of savages is something normal1 systematic1 coherent1 and not mere chaos1 formless1 and void1 unrelated to the life of civilisation4 ,a recent traveller had given an account of an annual ceremony in ,china1 which ,raynal borrowed without acknowledgment4#afg ,m4 ,poivre had described how the ,emperor once every year went forth into the fields1 and there with his own hand guided the plough as it traced the long furrows4 ,raynal elaborated this formality into a characteristic rhapsody on peace1 simplicity1 plenty1 and the father of his people4 ,as a caustic critic of ,m4 ,poivre remarked1 if a ,chinese traveller had arrived at ,versailles on the morning of ,holy ,thursday1 he would have found the ,king of ,france humbly washing the feet of twelve poor and aged men1 yet1 as ,frenchmen knew1 this would be no occasion for rapturous exultation over the lowliness and humanity of the ,french court4 #afg ,voyage d'un ,philosophe1 etc42 a work published in #agfh1 and in great vogue for some time1 partly because it furnished material for the speculations of ,raynal1 ,helvetius1 and the rest4 ,see ,de l',homme1 ,,ii4 xiii41 etc4 ,grimm1 v4 #dej4 ,in the same spirit ,raynal made no scruple in filling his pages with the sentimental declamations in which the reaction of that day against the burden of a decaying system of social artifice found such invariable relief and satisfaction4 ,none of these imaginary pieces of high sentiment was more popular than the episode of ,polly ,baker4 ,it occurs in the chapters which describe the foundation of ,new ,england4#afh ,the fanaticism and intolerance of the ,puritan ,fathers of that famous land are set forth with the holy rage that always moved the reformers of the eighteenth century against the reformers of the seventeenth4 ,religion is boldly spoken of as a dreadful malady1 whose severity extended even to the most indifferent objects4 ,it may be admitted that the cruel persecution of the ,quakers1 and the grotesque horrors of witch-finding in ,new ,salem1 gave ,raynal at least as good a text against ,protestantism as he had found against ,catholicism in the infernal doings in the ,west ,indian ,islands or in ,peru4 ,even after this bloody fever had abated1 says ,raynal1 the inhabitants still preserved a kind of rigorism that savours of the sombre days in which the ,puritan colonies had their rise4 ,he illustrates this by the case of a young woman who was brought before the authorities for the offence of having given birth to a child out of wedlock4 ,it was her fifth transgression4 ,raynal1 conceiving history after the manner of the author of the immortal speeches of ,pericles1 put into the mouth of the unfortunate sinner a long and eloquent apology4 ,at the risk of her life1 she cries1 she has brought five children into existence4 ,i have devoted myself with all the courage of a mother's solicitude to the painful toil demanded by their weakness and their tender years4 ,i have formed them to virtue1 which is only another name for reason4 ,already they love their country1 as ,i love it4444 ,is it a crime1 then1 to be fruitful1 as the earth is fruitful1 the common mother of us all8444 ,and how am ,i not to cry out against the injustice of my lot1 when ,i see that he who seduced and ruined me1 after being the cause of my destruction1 enjoys honour and power1 and is actually seated in the tribunal where they punish my misfortune with rods and with infamy8 ,who was that barbarous lawgiver who1 deciding between the two sexes1 kept all his wrath for the weaker2 for that luckless sex which pays for a single pleasure by a thousand dangers1--and so forth4 ,it need hardly be said that this is far too much in the vein1 and almost in the words of ,diderot1 to have any authenticity4 ,and as it happens1 there is a piece of external evidence on the matter1 which illustrates ,raynal's curious lightheartedness as to historic veracity4 ,franklin and ,silas ,deane were one day talking together about the many blunders in ,raynal's book1 when the author himself happened to step in4 ,they told him of what they had been speaking4 ,nay1 says ,raynal1 ,i took the greatest care not to insert a single fact for which ,i had not the most unquestionable authority4 ,deane then fell on the story of ,polly ,baker1 and declared of his own certain knowledge that there had never been a law against bastardy in ,massachusetts4 ,raynal persisted that he must have had the whole case from some source of indisputable trustworthiness1 until ,franklin broke in upon him with a loud laugh1 and explained that when he was a printer of a newspaper1 they were sometimes short of news1 and to amuse his customers he invented fictions that were as welcome to them as facts4 ,one of these fictions was the legend of ,raynal's heroine4 ,the abbe was not in the least disconcerted4 ,very well1 ,doctor1 he replied1 ,i would rather relate your stories than other men's truths4#afi #afh ,book xvii4 #afi ,jefferson1 quoted in ,parton's ,life of ,franklin1 ii4 #dah4 ,when all has been said that need be said about the glaring shortcomings of the ,history of the ,indies1 its popularity still remains to be accounted for4 ,if we ask for the causes of this striking success1 they are perhaps not very far to seek4 ,for one thing1 the book is remarkable both for its variety and its animation4 ,horace ,walpole wrote about it to ,lady ,aylesbury in terms that do not at all overstate its liveliness3 ,it tells one everything in the world2 how to make conquests1 invasions1 blunders1 settlements1 bankruptcies1 fortunes1 etc42 tells you the natural and historical history of all nations2 talks commerce1 navigation1 tea1 coffee1 china1 mines1 salt1 spices2 of the ,portuguese1 ,english1 ,french1 ,dutch1 ,danes1 ,spaniards1 ,arabs1 caravans1 ,persians1 ,indians1 of ,louis ,,xiv4 and the ,king of ,prussia1 of ,la ,bourdonnais1 ,dupleix1 and ,admiral ,saunders2 of rice1 and women that dance naked2 of camels1 gingham1 and muslin2 of millions of millions of lires1 pounds1 rupees1 and cowries2 of iron cables and ,circassian women2 of ,law and the ,mississippi2 and against all governments and religions4#agj #agj ,walpole's ,letters1 v4 #dba4 ,all this is really not too highly coloured4 ,and ,raynal's cosmorama exactly hit the tastes of the hour4 ,the readers of that day were full of a new curiosity about the world outside of ,france1 and the less known families of the human stock4 ,it was no doubt more like the curiosity of keen-witted children than the curiosity of science4 ,montesquieu first stirred this interest in the unfamiliar forms of custom1 institution1 creed1 motive1 and daily manners4 ,but while ,montesquieu treated such matters fragmentarily1 and in connection with a more or less abstract discussion on polity1 ,raynal made them the objects of a vivid and concrete picture1 and presented them in the easier shape of a systematic history4 ,again1 if the reading class in ,france were intelligently curious1 it must be added1 we fear1 that they were not without a certain lubricity of imagination1 which was pleasantly tickled by sensuous descriptions of the ways of life that were strange to the iron restraints of civilisation4 ,finally1 the public of that day always chose to veil and confuse the furtive voluptuousness of the time by moral disquisition1 and a light and busy meddling with the insoluble perplexities of philosophy4 ,here too the dexterous ,raynal knew how to please the fancies of his patrons1 and whether ,diderot was or was not the writer of those pages of moral sophism and paradox1 there is something in them which incessantly reminds us of his ,supplement to ,bougainville's ,voyages4 ,among the superficial causes of the popularity of ,raynal's ,history1 we cannot leave out the circumstance that it was composed after a very interesting and critical moment in the colonial relations of ,france4 ,the ,seven ,years' ,war ended in the expulsion of the ,french from ,canada and from their possessions in the ,east ,indies4 ,when the peace of #agfc was made1 this was counted the most disastrous part of that final record and sealing of misfortune4 ,when we see with what attachment the ordinary ,frenchman of to-day regards what is as yet the thankless possession of ,algeria1 we might easily have guessed1 even if the correspondence of the time had set it forth less distinctly than it does1 with what deep concern and mortification the ,french of that day saw the white flag and its lilies driven for ever from the banks of the ,st4 ,lawrence in the west1 and the coast of ,coromandel in the east4 ,raynal himself tells us with what zealous impatience the government attempted to make the nation forget its calamities1 by stirring the hope of a better fortune in the region to which they gave the magnificent name of ,equinoctial ,france4 ,the establishment of a free and national population among the scented forests and teeming swamps of ,guiana1 was to bring rich compensation for the icy tracts of ,canada4 ,this utopia of a brilliant settlement in ,guiana has steadily invested the minds of ,french statesmen from ,choiseul down to ,louis ,napoleon1 and its history is a striking monument of perversity and folly4 ,but from #agfc to #aggj1 while ,raynal was writing his book1 men's minds were full of the heroic design1 and this augmented their interest in the general themes which ,raynal handled--colonisation1 commerce1 and the overthrow and settlement of new worlds by the old4 ,however much all these things may have quickened the popularity of ,raynal's ,history1 yet the true source of it lay deeper2 lay in the fuel which the book supplied to the two master emotions of the hour--the hatred and contempt for religion1 and the passion for justice and freedom4 ,the subject easily lent itself to these two strong currents4 ,or we may say that hatred of religion1 and passion for justice and freedom1 were in fact the subjects1 and that the commercial establishments and political relations of the new worlds in the east and west were only the setting and framework4 ,raynal was perhaps the first person to see that the surest way of discrediting ,catholicism was to write some chapters of its history4 ,gibbon resorted to the same device shortly afterwards1 and found in the contemptuous analysis of heresies1 and the selfish and violent motives of councils and prelates1 as good an occasion of piercing the ,church as ,raynal found in painting the abominable fraud and cruelty that made the presence of ,christians so dire a curse to the helpless inhabitants of the new lands4 ,and the same reproachful background which ,gibbon so artistically introduced1 in the humane1 intelligent1 and happy epoch of the pagan ,antonines1 ,raynal invented for the same purpose of making ,christianity seem uglier1 in the imaginary simplicity and unbroken gladness of the native races whose blood was shed by ,christian aggressors as if it had been water4 ,it would perhaps have been singular at a moment when men were looking round on every side for such weapons as might come to their hand1 if they had missed the horrible action of ,catholicism when brought into contact with the lower races of mankind4 ,there is no more deplorable chapter in the annals of the race1 and there is none which the historian of ,christianity should be less willing to pass over lightly4 ,the ruthless cruelty of the ,spanish conquerors in the new world is a profoundly instructive illustration of the essential narrowness of the papal ,christianity1 its pitiful exclusiveness1 its low and bad morality1 and1 above all1 its incurable unfitness for dealing with the spirit and motives of men in face of the violent temptations with which the wealth of the new world now assailed and corrupted them4 ,catholicism had held triumphant possession of the conscience of ,europe for a dozen centuries and more4 ,the stories of the ,american ,archipelago1 of ,mexico1 of ,peru1 even if told by calmer historians than ,raynal1 show how little power1 amid all this triumph of the ecclesiastical letter1 had been won by the ,christian spirit over the rapacity1 the lust1 the bloody violence of the natural man4 ,they show what a superficial thing the professed religion of the ages of faith had been1 how enormous a task remained1 and how much the most arduous part of this task was to make ,catholicism itself civilised and moral4 ,for it is hardly denied that ,christianity had done worse than merely fail to provide an effective curb on the cruel passions of men4 ,the ,spanish conquerors showed that it had nursed a still more cruel passion than the rude interests of material selfishness had ever engendered1 by making the extermination or enslavement of these hapless people a duty to the ,catholic ,church1 and a savoury sacrifice in the nostrils of the ,most ,high4 ,it is true that a philosophic historian will have to take into account the important consideration that the reckless massacres perpetrated by the subjects of the ,most ,catholic ,king were less horrible and less permanently depraving than the daily offering of the bleeding hearts of human victims in the temples of ,huitzilopochtli and ,tezcatlipuk4 ,he would have to remember1 as even ,raynal does1 that if the slave-drivers and murderers were ,catholics1 so also was ,las ,casas1 the apostle of justice and mercy4 ,still the fact remains1 that the doctrine of moral obligations towards the lower races had not yet taken its place in ,europe1 any more than the doctrine of our obligation to the lower animals1 our ministers and companions1 has yet taken its place among ,italians and ,spaniards4 ,the fact remains1 that the old ,christianity in the sixteenth century was unable to deal effectively with the new conditions in which the world found itself4 ,as ,catholicism now in ,france in the eighteenth century proved itself unable to harmonise the new moral aspirations and new social necessities of the time with the ancient tradition1 ,raynal was right in telling over again the afflicting story of her earlier failure1 and in identifying the creed that murdered ,calas and ,la ,barre before their own eyes1 with the creed that had blasted the future of the fairest portion of the new world two centuries before4 ,the mere circumstance1 however1 that the book was one long and powerful innuendo against the ,church1 would not have been enough to secure its vast popularity4 ,attacks on the ,church had become cheap by this time4 ,the eighteenth century1 as it is one of the chief aims of these studies to show1 had a positive side of at least equal importance and equal strength with its negative side4 ,as we have so often said1 its writers were inspired by zeal for political justice1 for humanity1 for better and more equal laws1 for the amelioration of the common lot1--a zeal which in energy1 sincerity1 and disinterestedness1 has never been surpassed4 ,raynal's work was perhaps1 on the whole1 the most vigorous and sustained of all the literary expressions that were given to the great social ideas of the century4 ,it wholly lacked the strange and concentrated glow that burned in the pages of the ,social ,contract2 on the other hand1 it was more full of movement1 of reality1 of vivid and picturesque incident4 ,it was popular1 and it was concrete4 ,raynal's story went straight to the hearts of many people1 to whom ,rousseau's arguments were only half intelligible and wholly dreary4 ,it was that book of the eighteenth century which brought the lower races finally within the pale of right and duty in the common opinion of ,france4 ,the engravings that face the title-page in each of the seven volumes give the keynote to the effect that the seven volumes produced4 ,in one we see a philosopher writing on a column those old words of dolorous pregnancy1 ,auri sacra fames1 while in the distance ,spanish and ,portuguese ships ride at anchor1 and on the shore white men massacre blacks4 ,in another we see a fair woman1 typifying bounteous ,nature1 giving her nourishment to a white infant at one breast1 and to a black infant at the other1 while she turns a pitiful eye to a scene in the background1 where a gang of negro slaves work among the sugar-canes1 under the scourge and the goad of ruthless masters4 ,a third frontispiece gives us the story of ,inkle and ,yarico1 which ,raynal sets down to some ,english poet1 but as no ,english poet is known to have touched that moving tale until the younger ,colman dramatised it in #aghg1 we may suspect that ,raynal had remembered it from ,steele's paper in the ,spectator4 ,the last of these pieces represents a cultivated landscape1 adorned with villages1 and its ports thronged with shipping2 in the foreground are two ,quakers1 one of them benignly embracing some young ,indians1 the other casting indignantly away from him a bow and its arrows1 the symbols of division and war4 ,the most effective chapters in the book were1 in truth1 eloquent sermons on these simple and pathetic texts4 ,they brought ,negroes and ,indians within the relations of human brotherhood4 ,they preached a higher morality towards these poor children of bondage1 they inspired a new pity1 they moved more generous sympathies1 and they did this in such a way as not merely to affect men's feelings about ,indians and ,negroes1 slave-labour1 and the yet more hateful slave-trade1 but at the same time to develop and strengthen a general feeling for justice1 equality1 and beneficence in all the arrangements and relations of the social union all over the world4 ,the same movement which brought the suffering blacks of the new world within the sphere of moral duty1 and invested them with rights1 intensified the same notion of rights and duties in association with the suffering people of ,france4 ,this was the sentiment that reigned during the boyhood and youth of those who were destined1 some twenty years after ,raynal's book was first placed in their hands1 to carry that sentiment out into a fiery and victorious reality4 ,montesquieu had opened the various questions connected with slavery4 ,we can have no better measure of the increased heat in ,france between #agej and #aggj than the difference in tone between two authors so equal in popularity1 if so unequal in merit1 as ,raynal and ,montesquieu4 ,the latter1 without justifying the abuses or even the usage of slavery in any shape1 had still sought to give a rational account of its growth as an institution4#aga ,raynal could not read this with patience4 ,he typifies all the passion of the revolt against the historic method4 ,montesquieu1 he says1 could not make up his mind to treat the question of slavery seriously4 ,in fact1 it is a degradation of reason to employ it1 ,i will not say in defending1 but even in combating an abuse so contrary to all reason4 ,whoever justifies so odious a system deserves from the philosopher the deepest contempt1 and from the negro a dagger-stroke4 ',if you put a finger on me1 ,i will kill myself1' said ,clarissa to ,lovelace4 ,and ,i would say to the man that should assail my freedom3 ,if you come near me1 ,i poniard you4444 ,will any one tell me that he who seeks to make me a slave1 is only using his rights8 ,where are they1 these rights8 ,who has stamped on them a mark sacred enough to silence mine8 ,if thou thinkest thyself authorised to oppress me1 because thou art stronger and craftier than ,i--then do not complain when my strong arms shall tear thy breast open to find thy heart2 do not complain when in thy spasm-riven bowels thou feelest the deadly doom which ,i have passed into them with thy food4 ,be thou a victim in thy turn1 and expiate the crime of the oppressor4#agb #aga ,book xv4 of the ,esprit des ,lois4 #agb ,book xi4 ,sec4 #cj4 ,raynal then asks the political question1 how we can hope to throw down an edifice that is propped up by universal passion1 by established laws1 by the rivalries of powerful nations1 and by the force of prejudices more powerful still4 ,to what tribunal1 he cries1 shall we carry the sacred appeal8 ,he can find no better answer than that of ,turgot and the ,economists4 ,it is to ,kings that we must look for the redress of these monstrous abominations4 ,it is for ,kings to carry fire and sword among the oppressors4 ,your armies1 he cries1 anticipating the famous expression of a writer of our own day1 will be filled with the holy enthusiasm of humanity4 ,in a more practical vein1 ,raynal then warns his public of the terrible reckoning which awaits the whites1 if the blacks ever rise to avenge their wrongs4 ,the ,negroes only need a chief courageous enough to lead them to vengeance and carnage4 ,where is he1 that great man1 whom ,nature owes to the honour of the human race8 ,where is he1 that new ,spartacus who will find no ,crassus8 ,then the ,black ,code will vanish2 how terrible will the ,white ,code be6 ,we may easily realise the effect which vehement words like these had upon ,toussaint1 and upon those for whom ,toussaint reproduced them4 ,men have constantly been asking themselves what the great literary precursors of the ,revolution would have thought1 and how they would have acted1 if they could have survived to the days of the ,terror4 ,what would ,voltaire have said of ,robespierre8 ,how would ,rousseau have borne himself at the ,jacobin ,club8 ,would ,diderot have followed the procession of the ,goddess of ,reason8 ,to ask whether these famous men would have sanctioned the ,terror1 is to insult great memories2 but there is no reason to suppose that their strong spirits would have faltered4 ,one or two of the younger generation of the famous philosophic party did actually see the break-up of the old order4 ,condorcet faced the storm with a heroism of spirit that has never been surpassed3 disgust at the violent excesses of bad men could never make him unfaithful to the beneficence of the movement which their frenzy distorted4 ,raynal was of weaker mould1 and showed that there had been a stratum of cant and borrowed formulas in his eloquence4 ,he lived into the very darkest days1 and watched the succession of events with a keen eye4 ,his heart began to quail very early4 ,long before the bloodier times of the internecine war between the factions1 and on the eve of the attempted flight of the king1 he addressed a letter to the ,national ,assembly 7,may #ca1 #agia74 ,the letter is not wanting in firm and courageous phrases4 ,i have long dared1 he began1 to tell kings of their duties4 ,let me to-day tell the people of its errors1 and the representatives of the people of the perils that menace us all4 ,he then proceeded to inveigh in his old manner1 but with a new purpose and a changed destination4 ,this time it was not kings and priests whom he denounced1 but a government enslaved by popular tyranny1 soldiers without discipline1 chiefs without authority1 ministers without resources1 the rudest and most ignorant of men daring to settle the most difficult political questions4 ,how comes it1 he asks1 that after declaring the dogma of the liberty of religious opinions1 you allow priests to be overwhelmed by persecution and outrage because they do not follow your religious opinions8 ,in the same energetic vein he protests against the failure of the ,constituent ,assembly to found a stable and vigorous government1 and to put an end to the vengeances1 the seditions1 the outbreaks1 that filled the air with confusion and menace4 ,it was in short a vigorous pamphlet1 written in the interest of ,malouet and the constitutional royalists4 ,the ,assembly listened1 but not without some rude interruptions4 ,robespierre hastened to the tribune4 ,after condemning the tone of ,raynal's letter1 he disclaimed any intention of calling down the severity either of the ,assembly or of public opinion upon a man who still preserved a great name2 he thought that a sufficient excuse for the writer's apostasy might be found in his advanced age4 ,the ,assembly agreed with ,robespierre1 and passed to the order of the day4#agc #agc ,hamel's ,robespierre i4 #def-deh4 ,raynal lived to see his predictions fulfilled with a terrible bitterness of fulfilment4 ,in spite of the anger which he had roused in the breasts of powerful personages1 the aged man was not guillotined2 he was not even imprisoned4 ,all his property was taken from him1 and he died in abject poverty in the spring of #agif4 ,let us hope that the misery of his end was assuaged by the recollection that he had once been a powerful pleader for noble causes4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,diderot',s ,,closing ,,years4 ,at the end of a long series of notes and questions on points in anatomy and physiology1 which he had been collecting for many years1 ,diderot wound up with a strange outburst3 ,i shall not know until the end what ,i have lost or gained in this vast gaming-house1 where ,i shall have passed some threescore years1 dice-box in hand1 tesseras agitans4 ,what do ,i perceive8 ,forms4 ,and what besides8 ,forms4 ,of the substance ,i know nothing4 ,we walk among shadows1 ourselves shadows to ourselves and to others4 ,if ,i look at a rainbow traced on a cloud1 ,i can perceive it2 for him who looks at it from another angle1 there is nothing4 ,a fancy common enough among the living is to dream that they are dead1 that they stand by the side of their own corpse1 and follow their own funeral4 ,it is like a swimmer watching his garments stretched out on the shore4 ,philosophy1 that habitual and profound meditation which takes us away from all that surrounds us1 which annihilates our own personality1 is another apprenticeship for death4#agd #agd ,elemens de ,physiologie1 ,oeuv41 ix4 #dbh4 ,this was now to be seen4 ,diderot1 as we have said1 came back from his expedition to ,russia in the autumn of #agdd1 tranquilly counting on half a score more years to make up the tale of his days4 ,he remained in temper and habit through this long evening of his life what he had been in its morning and noontide--friendly1 industrious1 cheerful1 exuberant in conversation1 keenly interested in the march of liberal and progressive ideas4 ,on his return his wife and daughter found him thin and altered4 ,a few months of absence so often suffice to reveal that our friend has grown old1 and that time is casting long shadows4 ,age seems to have come in a day1 like sudden winter4 ,he was as gay and as kindly as ever4 ,some of his friends had declared that he would never bethink himself of returning at all4 ,time and space in his eyes1 said ,galiani1 are as in the eyes of the ,almighty2 he thinks that he is everywhere1 and that he is eternal4#age ,they had predicted for ,diderot at ,st4 ,petersburg the fate of ,descartes at the court of ,queen ,christina4 ,but the philosopher triumphantly vindicated his character4 ,my good wife1 said he1 when he had reached the old familiar fourth floor1 prithee1 count my things2 thou wilt find no reason for scolding2 ,i have not lost a single handkerchief4#agf #age ,corresp41 ii4 #ahj4 #agf ,oeuv41 i4 #ed ,this cheerfulness1 however1 did not hide from his friends that he was subject to a languor which had been unknown before his journey to ,russia4 ,it was not the peevish fatigue that often brings life to an unworthy close4 ,he remained true to the healthy temper of his prime1 and found himself across the threshold of old age without repining4 ,as the veteran ,cephalus said to ,socrates1 regrets and complaints are not in a man's age1 but in his temper2 and he who is of a happy nature will scarcely feel the burden of the years4 ,in #agfb ,diderot had written to ,mdlle4 ,voland a page of affecting musings on the great pathetic theme3 ,you ask me why1 the more our life is filled up and busy1 the less are we attached to it8 ,if that is true1 it is because a busy life is for the most part an innocent life4 ,we think less about ,death1 and so we fear it less4 ,without perceiving it1 we resign ourselves to the common lot of all the beings that we watch around us1 dying and being born again in an incessant1 ever renewing circle4 ,after having for a season fulfilled the tasks that nature year by year imposes on us1 we grow weary of them1 and release ourselves4 ,energies fade1 we become feebler1 we crave the close of life1 as after working hard we crave the close of the day4 ,living in harmony with nature1 we learn not to rebel against the orders that we see in necessary and universal execution4444 ,there is nobody among us who1 having worn himself out in toil1 has not seen the hour of rest approach with supreme delight4 ,life for some of us is only one long day of weariness1 and death a long slumber1 and the coffin a bed of rest1 and the earth only a pillow where it is sweet1 when all is done1 to lay one's head1 never to raise it again4 ,i confess to you that1 when looked at in this way1 and after the long endless crosses that ,i have had1 death is the most agreeable of prospects4 ,i am bent on teaching myself more and more to see it so4#agg #agg ,letter to ,mdlle4 ,voland1 ,sept4 #bc1 #agfb4 xix4 #acf1 #acg4 ,again1 we are reminded by ,diderot's words on this last gentle epilogue to a harassing performance1 of ,plato's picture of aged ,cephalus sitting in a cushioned chair1 with the garland round his brows4 ,i was in the country almost alone1 free from cares and disquiet1 letting the hours flow on1 with no other object than to find myself by the evening as sometimes one finds one's self in the morning1 after a night that has been busy with a pleasant dream4 ,the years had left me none of the passions that are our torment1 none of the weariness that follows them2 ,i had lost my taste for all the frivolities that are made so important by our hope that we shall enjoy them long4 ,i said to myself3 ,if the little that ,i have done1 and the little that is left for me to do1 should perish with me1 what would the human race be the loser8 ,what should ,i be the loser myself8#agh #agh ,the dedication of the ,regnes de ,claude et de ,neron to ,naigeon1 iii4 #i4 ,this was the mood in which ,diderot wrote his singular apology for the life and character of ,seneca4 ,rosenkranz makes the excellent reflection that though ,diderot attained to a more free comprehension of ,greek art1 and especially of ,homer1 than most of his contemporaries1 yet even with him the ,roman element was dominant4 ,it was ,horace1 ,terence1 ,lucretius1 ,tacitus1 ,seneca1 who to the very end came closer to him than any of the ,greeks4 ,the moralising reflection1 the satirical tendency1 the declamatory form of the ,romans1 all had an irresistible attraction for him4#agi ,both ,roger ,bacon and ,francis ,bacon had preceded him in admiration for ,seneca1 and ,montaigne found ,cicero tiresome and unprofitable compared with the author of the ,epistles to ,lucilius4 ,when there comes any misfortune to a ,european1 says the imaginary oriental of ,montesquieu's ,persian ,letters1 his only resource is the reading of a philosopher called ,seneca4#ahj #agi ,diderot's ,leben1 ii4 #ceg4 #ahj ,see ,mr4 ,brewer's preface to ,roger ,bacon1 p4 #gc42 ,montaigne's chapter ,des ,livres1 and the ,defense de ,seneque et de ,plutarque42 ,let4 ,pers41 #cc4 ,but ,diderot was not a man to admire by halves1 and to literary praise of ,seneca's writings he added a thoroughgoing vindication of his career4 ,in his early days he had referred disparagingly to ,seneca1#aha but reflection or accident had made him change his mind4 ,the cheap severity of abstract ethics has always abounded against ,seneca1 and this severity was what ,diderot had all his life found insupportable4 ,holbach had induced ,lagrange1 a young man of letters whom he had rescued from want1 to undertake the translation of ,seneca1 and when ,lagrange died1 ,holbach prevailed on ,naigeon1 ,diderot's fervid disciple1 to complete and revise the work1 which still remains the best of the ,french versions4 ,that done1 then both ,holbach and ,naigeon urged ,diderot to write an account of the philosopher4 #aha ,essai sur le ,merite et la ,vertu4 ,oeuv41 i4 #aah1 note4 ,the ,essay on the ,reigns of ,claudius and ,nero#ahb is marked by as much vehemence1 as much sincerity of enthusiasm1 as if ,seneca had been ,diderot's personal friend4 ,there is a flame1 a passion1 about it1 an ingenuous air of conviction1 which are not common in historical apologies4 ,it is inevitable1 as the composition is ,diderot's1 that it should have many a rambling and declamatory page4 ,his paraphrases of ,tacitus are the most curious case in literature of the expansion of a style of sombre poetic concentration into the style of exuberant rhetoric4 ,both ,grimm and a ,russian princess of the blood urged him even to translate the whole of ,tacitus's works1 but it is certain that nobody in the world had ever less of ,tacitean quality4 ,still the history is alive4 ,i do not compose1 ,diderot said in the dedication4 ,i am no author2 ,i read or ,i converse2 ,i ask questions and ,i give answers4 ,the writer throws himself into the historic situation with the vivid freshness of a contemporary1 and if the criticism is sophistical1 at least the picture is admirably dramatic4 ,seneca's position as the minister of ,nero seemed exactly one of those cases which always excited ,diderot's deepest interest--a case1 we mean1 in which the general rules of morality condemn1 but common sense acquits4 #ahb ,the first edition 7#aggh7 was entitled ,essai sur la ,vie de ,seneque le philosophe1 sur ses ecrits1 et sur le regne de ,claude et de ,neron4 ,in the second edition 7#aghb7 this was changed into ,essai sur les regnes de ,claude et de ,neron1 et sur la vie et les ecrits de ,seneque4 ,diderot1 as we have already pointed out1#ahc was always very near to the position that there is no such thing as an absolute rule of right and wrong1 defining classes of acts unconditionally1 but each act must be judged on its merits with reference to all the circumstances of the given case4 ,seneca's career tests this way of looking at things very severely4 ,his connivance with the minor sensualities of ,nero's youth1 as a means of restraining him from downright crime1 and of keeping a measure of order in the government1 will perhaps be pardoned by most of those who realise the awful perils of the ,empire4 ,as ,diderot says1 nobody blames ,fenelon or ,bossuet for remaining at the court of ,lewis ,,xiv4 in its days of license4 ,but connivance with a king's amours1 however degrading it may be from a certain point of view1 is a very different thing from acquiescence in a king's murder of his mother4 ,even here ,diderot's impetuosity carries him in two or three bounds over every obstacle4 ,the various courses open to the minister1 after the murder of ,agrippina1 are discussed and dismissed4 ,what1 after ,nero had slain his mother1 was there nothing left to be done by a firm1 just1 and enlightened man1 with an immense burden of affairs on his back1 and capable by his courage and benevolence1 of bearing succour1 repairing misfortunes1 hindering depredations1 removing the incompetent1 and giving power to men of virtue1 knowledge1 and ability8 ,if he had only saved the honour of a single good woman1 or the life or fortune of a single good citizen2 if he could bring a day of tranquillity to the provinces1 or cross for a week the designs of the miscreants by whom the emperor was surrounded1 then ,seneca would have been blamed1 and would have deserved blame1 if he had either retired from court or put an end to his life4#ahd ,this is all true enough1 and if ,seneca had been only a statesman1 the world would probably have applauded him for clinging to the helm at all cost4 ,unhappily1 he was not only a statesman1 but a moralist4 ,the two characters are always hard to reconcile1 as perhaps any parliamentary candidate might tell us4 ,the contrast between lofty writing and slippery policy has been too violent for ,seneca's good fame1 as it was for ,francis ,bacon's4 ,it is ever at his own proper risk and peril that a man dares to present high ideals to the world4 #ahc ,above1 vol4 ii4 chap4 i4 #ahd iii4 #aaj1 #aaa4 ,one of the strangest of the many strange digressions in which the ,essay on ,claudius and ,nero abounds1 brings us within the glare of the great literary quarrel of the century4 ,soon after ,rousseau settled in ,paris for the last time1 on his return from ,england and the subsequent vagabondage1 it was known that he had written the ,confessions1 dealing at least as freely with the lives of others as with his own4 ,he had even in #aggj and #agga given readings of certain passages from them1 until ,madame d',epinay1 and perhaps also the ,marechale de ,luxemburg1 prevailed on the authorities to interfere4 ,no one was angrier than ,diderot1 and in the first edition of the ,essay1 published in the year of ,rousseau's death 7#aggh71 he incongruously placed in the midst of his disquisitions on the philosopher of the first century1 a long and acrimonious note upon the perversities of the reactionary philosopher of the eighteenth4 ,he was believed by those who talked to him to be in dread of the appearance of the ,confessions1 and we may accept this readily enough1 without assuming that ,diderot was conscious of hidden enormities which he was afraid of seeing publicly uncovered4 ,rousseau1 as ,diderot well knew1 was so wayward1 so strangely oblique both in vision and judgment1 that innocence was no security against malice and misrepresentation4 ,rousseau's name has never lacked fanatical partisans down to our own day1 and ,diderot was attacked by some of the earliest of them for his note of disparagement4 ,the first part of the ,confessions--all that ,diderot ever saw--appeared in #aghb1 and in the same year ,diderot published a second edition of the ,essay on ,claudius and ,nero1 so augmented by replies1 inserted in season and out of season1 to the diatribes of the party of ,rousseau1 that as it now stands the reader may well doubt whether the substance and foundation of the book is an apology for ,seneca or a vindication of ,denis ,diderot4 ,as ,grimm said1 we have to make up our minds to see the author suddenly pass from the palace of the ,caesars to the garret of ,,mm4 ,royou1 ,grosier1 and company2 from ,paris to ,rome1 and from ,rome back again to ,paris2 from the reign of ,claudius to the reign of ,lewis ,,xv42 from the college of the ,sorbonne to the college of the augurs2 to turn now to the masters of the world1 and now to the yelping curs of literature2 to see him in his dramatic enthusiasm making the one speak and the others answer2 apostrophising himself and apostrophising his readers1 and leaving them often enough in perplexity as to the personage who is speaking and the personage whom he addresses4#ahe ,we may agree with ,grimm that this gives an air of originality to the performance1 but such originality is of a kind to displease the serious student1 without really attracting the few readers who have a taste for rebelling against the pedantries of literary form4 ,we become confused by the long strain of uncertainty whether we are reading about the ,roman ,emperor or the ,french ,king2 about ,seneca1 ,burrhus1 and ,thrasea1 or ,turgot1 ,malesherbes1 and ,necker4 #ahe ,grimm1 ,corr4 ,lit41 xi4 #gg4 ,diderot's candour1 simplicity1 happy bonhommie1 and sincerity in real interests raised him habitually above the pettiness1 the bustling malice1 the vain self-consciousness1 the personalities that infest all literary and social cliques4 ,it is surprising at first that ,diderot1 who had all his life borne the sting of the gnats of ,grub ,street with decent composure1 should have been so moved by ,rousseau1 or by meaner assailants1 whom ,rousseau himself would have rudely disclaimed4 ,the explanation seems to lie in this fact of human character1 that a man of ,diderot's temperament1 while entirely heedless of criticism directed against his opinions or his public position1 is specially sensitive to innuendoes against his private benevolence and loyalty4 ,an insult to the force of his understanding was indifferent to him1 but an affront to one's belle ame is beyond pardon4 ,it was hard that a man who had prodigally thrown away the forces of his life for others should be charged with malignity of heart and an incapacity for friendship4 ,this was the harder1 because it was the moral fashion of that day to place friendliness1 amiability1 the desire to please and to serve1 at the very head of all the virtues4 ,the whole correspondence of the time is penetrated to an incomparable degree by a caressing spirit2 it is sometimes too elaborate and far-fetched in expression1 but it marks a vivid sociability1 and even a true humanity1 that softens and harmonises the sharpness of men's egotism4 ,again1 though ,diderot himself is not ungenerously handled in the ,confessions1 there are passages about ,madame d',epinay and ,madame d',houdetot which not only stamp ,rousseau with ingratitude towards two women who had treated him kindly1 but which were calculated to make practical mischief among people still living4 ,all this was atrocious in itself1 and the atrocity seemed more black to ,diderot than to others1 because he had for some years known ,madame d',epinay as a friendly creature1 and1 above all1 because ,grimm was her lover4 ,perhaps we may add among the reasons that stirred him to pen these diatribes1 a consciousness of the harm that ,rousseau's sentimentalism had done to sound and positive thinking4 ,but this1 we may be sure1 would be infinitely less potent than the motives that sprang from ,diderot's own sentimentalism4 ,the quarrel1 for all save a few foolish partisans1 is now dead1 and we may leave the dust once more to settle thick upon it4 ,diderot's own way of reading history is not unworthy of imitation1 and it is capable of application in spirit to private conduct no less than to the history of great public events4 ,does the narrative present me with some fact that dishonours humanity8 ,then ,i examine it with the most rigorous severity2 whatever sagacity ,i may be able to command1 ,i employ in detecting contradictions that throw suspicion on the story4 ,it is not so when an action is beautiful1 lofty1 noble4 ,then ,i never think of arguing against the pleasure that ,i feel in sharing the name of man with one who has done such an action4 ,i will say more2 it is to my heart1 and perhaps too it is only conformable to justice1 to hazard an opinion that tends to whiten an illustrious personage1 in the face of authorities that seem to contradict the tenour of his life1 of his doctrine1 and of his general repute4#ahf #ahf ,oeuv41 iii4 #eg4 ,the elaborate outbreak against ,rousseau is perhaps ,diderot's only breach of what ought thus to be a rule for all magnanimous men4 ,diderot1 or his shade1 paid the penalty4 ,la ,harpe retaliated for some slight wound to pitiful literary vanity1 by a lecture on ,seneca in which he raked up all the old accusations against ,seneca's champion4 ,la ,harpe1 for various reasons into which we need not now more particularly enter1 got the ear of the ,european public in the years of reaction after he had himself deserted his old philosophic friends1 and gone over to the conservative camp4 ,he found the world eager to listen to all that could be said against men who were believed to have corrupted their age2 and his bitter misrepresentations1 not seldom invigorated by lies1 were the origin of much of the vulgar prejudice that has only begun to melt away in our own generation4 ,rousseau died in #aggh4 ,the more versatile literary genius of the century had died a couple of months earlier in the same year4 ,it was not until the occasion of ,voltaire's triumphant visit to ,paris1 after an absence of seven-and-twenty years1 that he and ,diderot at length met4 ,their correspondence had been less constant and less cordial than was common where ,voltaire was concerned2 but though their sympathy was imperfect1 there was no lack of mutual goodwill and admiration4 ,the poet is said to have done his best to push ,diderot into the ,academy1 but the king was incurably hostile1 and ,diderot was not anxious for an empty distinction4 ,he had none of that vanity nor eagerness for recognition--pardonable enough1 for that matter--which such distinctions gratify4 ,and he perhaps agreed with ,voltaire himself1 who said of academies and parliaments that1 when men come together1 their ears instantly become elongated4 ,after ,diderot's return from ,russia ,voltaire wrote to him3 ,i am eighty-three years of age1 and ,i repeat that ,i am inconsolable at the thought of dying without ever having seen you4 ,i have tried to collect around me as many of your children as possible1 but ,i am a long way from having the whole family4444 ,we are not so far apart1 at bottom1 and it only needs a conversation to bring us to an understanding4#ahg #ahg ,dec4 #h1 #aggf4 ,of such conversations we have almost nothing to tell4 ,no sacred bard has commemorated the salutation of the heroes4 ,we only know that at the end of their first interview ,diderot's facility of discourse had been so copious that1 after he had taken his leave1 ,voltaire said3 ,the man is clever1 assuredly2 but he lacks one talent1 and an essential talent--that of dialogue4 ,diderot's remark about ,voltaire was more picturesque4 ,he is like one of those old haunted castles1 which are falling into ruins in every part2 but you easily perceive that it is inhabited by some ancient sorcerer4#ahh ,they had a dispute as to the merits of ,shakespeare1 and ,diderot displeased the patriarch by repeating the expression that we have already quoted 7vol4 i4 p4 #ccj7 about ,shakespeare being like the statue of ,st4 ,christopher at ,notre ,dame1 unshapely and rude1 but such a giant that ordinary men could pass between his legs without touching him4#ahi #ahh ,metra's ,corresp4 ,secrete1 vi4 #bib4 #ahi ,see ,diderot's ,oeuv41 xix4 #dfe1 note4 ,there was one man who might have told us a thousand interesting things both about ,diderot's conversations with ,voltaire1 and his relations with other men4 ,this man was ,naigeon1 to whom ,diderot gave most of his papers1 and who always professed1 down to his death in #ahad1 to be ,diderot's closest adherent and most authoritative expounder4 ,diderot was1 as he always knew and said1 less an author than a talker2 not a talker like ,johnson1 but like ,coleridge4 ,if ,naigeon could only have contented himself with playing reporter1 and could have been blessed by nature with the rare art of ,boswell4 ,we wanted1 as ,carlyle says1 to see and know how it stood with the bodily man1 the working and warfaring ,denis ,diderot2 how he looked and lived1 what he did1 what he said4 ,instead of which1 nothing but a dull1 sulky1 snuffling1 droning1 interminable lecture on ,atheistic ,philosophy1 delivered with the vehemence of some pulpit-drumming ,gowkthrapple1 or precious ,mr4 ,jabesh ,rentowel4 ,naigeon belonged to the too numerous class of men and women overabundantly endowed with unwise intellect4 ,he was acute1 diligent1 and tenacious2 fond of books1 especially when they had handsome margins and fine bindings2 above all things1 he was the most fanatical atheist1 and the most indefatigable propagandist and eager proselytiser which that form of religion can boast4 ,we do not know the date of his first acquaintance with ,diderot2#aij we only know that at the end of ,diderot's days he had no busier or more fervent disciple than ,naigeon4 ,to us1 at all events1 whatever it may have been to ,diderot1 the acquaintance and discipleship have proved good for very little4 #aij ,the ,biographie ,universelle1 after giving #agch as the date of ,naigeon's birth1 absurdly attributes to him the article on ,ame in the ,encyclopaedia1 which was published in #ageb1 when ,naigeon was fourteen years old4 ,our last authentic glimpse of ,diderot is from the pen of a humane and enlightened ,englishman1 whose memory must be held in perpetual honour among us4 ,samuel ,romilly1 then a young man of four-and-twenty1 visited ,paris in #agha4 ,he made the acquaintance of the namesake who had written the articles on watch-making in the ,encyclopaedia1 and whose son had written the more famous articles on ,toleration and ,virtue4 ,by this honest man ,romilly was introduced to ,d',alembert and ,diderot4 ,the former was in weak health and said very little4 ,diderot1 on the contrary1 was all warmth and eagerness1 and talked to his visitor with as little reserve as if he had been long and intimately acquainted with him4 ,he spoke on politics1 religion1 and philosophy4 ,he praised the ,english for having led the way to sound philosophy1 but the adventurous genius of the ,french1 he said1 had pushed them on before their guides4 ,you others1 he continued1 mix up theology with your philosophy2 that is to spoil everything1 it is to mix up lies with truth2 il faut sabrer la theologie--we must put theology to the sword4 ,he was ostentatious1 ,romilly says1 of a total disbelief in the existence of a ,god4 ,he quoted ,plato1 the author of all the good theology that ever existed in the world1 as saying that there is a vast curtain drawn over the heavens1 and that men must content themselves with what passes beneath that curtain1 without ever attempting to raise it2 and in order to complete my conversion from my unhappy errors1 he read me all through a little work of his own--of which we shall presently speak4 ,on politics he talked very eagerly1 and inveighed with great warmth against the tyranny of the ,french government4 ,he told me that he had long meditated a work upon the death of ,charles the ,first2 that he had studied the trial of that prince2 and that his intention was to have tried him over again1 and to have sent him to the scaffold if he had found him guilty1 but that he had at last relinquished the design4 ,in ,england he would have executed it1 but he had not the courage to do so in ,france4 ,d',alembert1 as ,i have observed was more cautious2 he contented himself with observing what an effect philosophy had in his own time produced on the minds of the people4 ,the birth of the ,dauphin 7known afterwards as ,lewis ,,xvii41 the unhappy prisoner of the ,temple7 afforded him an example4 ,he was old enough1 he said1 to remember when such an event had made the whole nation drunk with joy 7#agbi71 but now they regarded with great indifference the birth of another master4#aia #aia ,memoirs of ,sir ,samuel ,romilly1 i4 #fc1 #agi1 etc4 ,it was thus clear to the two veterans of the ,encyclopaedia that the change for which they had worked was at hand4 ,the press literally teemed with pamphlets1 treatises1 poems1 histories1 all shouting from the house-tops open destruction to beliefs which fifty years before were actively protected against so much as a whisper in the closet4 ,every form of literary art was seized and turned into an instrument in the remorseless attack on ,l',infame4 ,the conservative or religious opposition showed a weakness that is hardly paralleled in the long history of the mighty controversy4 ,ability1 adroitness1 vigour1 and character were for once all on one side4 ,palissot was perhaps1 after all1 the best of the writers on the conservative side4#aib ,with all his faults1 he had the literary sense4 ,some of what he said was true1 and some of the third-rate people whom he assailed deserved the assault4 ,his criticism on ,diderot's drama1 ,the ,natural ,son1 was not a whit more severe than that bad play demanded4#aic ,not seldom in the course of this work we have wished with ,palissot that the excellent ,diderot were less addicted to prophetic and apocalyptical turns of speech1 that there were less of chaos round his points of burning and shining light1 and that he had less title to the hostile name of the ,lycophron of philosophy4#aid ,but the comedy of ,the ,philosophers was a scandalous misrepresentation1 introducing ,diderot personally on the stage1 and putting into his mouth a mixture of folly and knavery that was as foreign to ,diderot as to any one else in the world4 ,in #aghb the satirist again attacked his enemy1 now grown old and weary4 ,in ,le ,satyrique1 ,valere1 a spiteful and hypocritical poetaster1 is intended partially at least for ,diderot4 ,a colporteur1 not ill-named as ,m4 ,pamphlet1 comes to urge payment of his bill4 #aib ,see above1 vol4 i4 p4 #cfb4 #aic ,petites ,lettres sur de ,grands ,philosophes1 ii4 #aid ,oeuv4 de ,palissot1 i4 #dde4 iv4 #bdd4 ,daignez avoir egard a mes vives instances4 ,je suis humilie d'y mettre tant de feu3 ,mais les temps sont si durs6 le comptoir rend si peu6 ,imprimeur1 ,colporteur1 ,relieur1 et ,libraire1 ,avec tous ces metiers1 je suis dans la misere3 ,mais j'ai toujours grand soin1 malgre ma pauvrete1 ,de ne peser mon gain qu'au poids de l'equite4 ,vous en allez juger par le susdit memoire4 ,il prend ses lunettes comme pour lire4 ,,valere4 7,avec humeur47 ,eh1 monsieur1 finissez4 ,m4 ,,pamphlet4 ,c'est trahir votre gloire ,que de vouloir caeher les immortels ecrits ,il lit4 ,dont vous etes l'auteur4 ,les ,boudoirs de ,paris1 ,on ,journal des ,abbes4 ,l',espion des ,coulisses1 ,ouvrage assez piquant sur les moeurs des actrices4 ,and the intention of the pleasantry is pointed by a malicious footnote1 to the effect that people who might be surprised that a serious man like ,valere should have written works of this licentious and frivolous kind1 will conceive that in a moment of leisure a philosopher should write ,les ,bijoux ,indiscrets1 for instance1 and the next day follow it by a treatise on morality1#aie--;as ,diderot unhappily had done4 #aie ,le ,satyrique1 iii4 p4 #hd4 note4 ,palissot was not so good as ,moliere1 ,boileau1 and ,pope1 as he was fatuous enough to suppose2 but he was certainly better than the scribbler who asked-- ,mais enfin de quoi se glorifie ,ce siecle de mollesse et de ,philosophie8 ,dites-moi3 le ,francais a-t-il un coeur plus franc ,plus prodigue a l'etat de son genereux sang1 ,plus ardent a venger la plaintive innocence ,contre l'iniquite que soutient la puissance8 ,le ,francais philosophe est-il plus respecte ,pour la foi1 la candeur1 l'exacte probite8 ,ou sont-ils ces ,heros1 ces vertueux modeles ,que l',encyclopedie a couve sous ses ailes8#aif #aif ,metra1 vi4 #abh4 ,tiresome doggrel of this kind was the strongest retort that the party of obscurantism could muster against the vigour1 grace1 and sparkle of ,voltaire4 ,the great official champions of the old system were not much wiser than their hacks in the press4 ,the churchmen were given over to a blind mind4 ,the great edition of ,voltaire's works which ,beaumarchais was printing over the frontier at ,kehl1 excited their anger to a furious pitch4 ,the infamous ,cardinal de ,rohan1 archbishop of ,strasburg 7#agha71 denounced the publication as sacrilege4 ,the archbishop of ,paris 7#aghe7 thundered against the monument of scandal and the work of darkness4 ,the archbishop of ,vienne forbade the faithful of his diocese to subscribe to it under pain of mortal sin4 ,in the general assembly of the clergy which opened in the summer of #aghj1 the bishops1 in memorials to the king1 deplored the homage paid to the famous writer who was less known for the beauty of his genius and the superiority of his talents1 than for the persevering and implacable war which for sixty years he had waged against the ,lord and his ,christ4 ,they cursed in solemn phrase the revolting blasphemies of ,raynal's ,history of the ,indies1 and declared that the publication of a new edition of that celebrated book with the name and the portrait of its author1 showed that the most elementary notions of shame and decency lay in profound sleep4 ,in the midst of those prolonged cries of distress1 we have no word of recognition that the only remedy for a moral disease is a moral remedy4 ,the single resource that occurred to their debilitated souls was the familiar armoury of suppression1 menace1 violence1 and tyranny4 ,sire1 they cried1 it is time to put a term to this deplorable lethargy4 ,they reminded the king of the declaration of #ageg1 which inflicted on all persons who printed or circulated writings hostile to religion1 the punishment of death4 ,but their paternal bowels shuddered at the sight of these severe enactments2 all that they sought was plenty of rigorous imprisonment1 ruinous fining1 and diligent espionage4#aig ,if the reader is revolted by the rashness of ,diderot's expectation of the speedy decay of the belief in a ,god1#aih he may well be equally revolted by the obstinate infatuation of the men who expected to preserve the belief in a ,god by the spies of the department of police4 ,much had no doubt been done for the church in past times by cruelty and oppression1 but the folly of the ,french bishops1 after the reign of ,voltaire and the apostolate of the ,encyclopaedia1 lay exactly in their blindness to the fact that the old methods were henceforth impossible in ,france1 and impossible for ever4 ,how can we wonder at the hatred and contempt felt by men of the social intelligence of ,diderot and ,d',alembert for this desperate union of impotence and malignity8 #aig ,see for abundant matter of the same kind1 ,m4 ,rocquain's ,l',esprit ,revolutionnaire avant la ,revolution1 bk4 x4 pp4 #chb1 #cij1 etc4 #aih ,montesquieu more sensibly had given the ,church not more than five hundred years to live4 ,let4 ,pers41 #aag4 ,one hundred and fifty of them have already passed4 ,the band of the precursors was rapidly disappearing4 ,grimm and ,holbach1 ,catherine and ,frederick1 still survived4#aii ,d',alembert1 tended to the last hour by ,condorcet with the lovable reverence of a son1 died at the end of ,october #aghc4 ,turgot1 gazing with eyes of astonished sternness on a society hurrying incorrigibly with joyful speed along the path of destruction1 had passed away two years before 7#agha74 ,voltaire1 the great intellectual director of ,europe for fifty years1 and ,rousseau1 the great emotional reactionist1 had both1 as we know1 died in #aggh4 ,the little companies in which1 from ,adrienne ,lecouvreur1 the ,marquise de ,lambert1 and ,madame de ,tencin1 in the first half of the century1 groups of intelligent men and women had succeeded in founding informal schools of disinterested opinion1 and in finally removing the centre of criticism and intellectual activity from ,versailles to ,paris1 had now nearly all come to an end4 ,madame du ,deffand died in #aghj1 ,madame ,geoffrin in #aggi1 and in #aggf ,mdlle4 ,lespinasse1 whose letters will long survive her1 as giving a burning literary note to the vagueness of suffering and pain of soul4 ,one of ,diderot's favourite companions in older days1 ,galiani1 the antiquary1 the scholar1 the politician1 the incomparable mimic1 the shrewdest1 wittiest1 and gayest of men after ,voltaire1 was feeling the dull grasp of approaching death under his native sky at ,naples4 ,galiani's ,dialogues on the ,trade in ,grain 7#agfi-gj7 contained1 under that most unpromising title1 a piece of literature which for its verve1 rapidity1 wit1 dialectical subtlety1 and real strength of thought1 has hardly been surpassed by masterpieces of a wider recognition4 ,voltaire vowed that ,plato and ,moliere must have combined to produce a book that was as amusing as the best of romances1 and as instructive as the best of serious books4 ,diderot1 who had a hand in retouching the ,dialogues for the press1#bjj went so far as to pronounce them worthy of a place along with the ,provincial ,letters of ,pascal1 and declared that1 like those immortal pieces1 ,galiani's dialogues would remain as a model of perfection in their own kind1 long after both the subject and the personages concerned had lost their interest4#bja ,the prophecy has not come quite true1 for the world is busy1 and heedless1 and much the prey of accident and capricious tradition in the books that it reads4 ,yet even now1 although ,galiani was probably wrong on the special issue between himself and the economists1 it would be well if people would turn to his demolition1 as wise as witty1 of the doctrine of absolute truths in political economy4 ,galiani's constant correspondent was ,madame d',epinay1 the kindly benefactress of ,rousseau a quarter of a century earlier1 the friend of ,diderot1 the more than friend of ,grimm4 ,in #aghc she died1 and either in that year or the next1 ,mademoiselle ,voland1 who had filled so great a space in the life of ,diderot4 ,the ghosts and memories of his friends became the majority1 and he consoled himself that he should not long survive4 #aii ,grimm died in #ahjg1 ,holbach in #aghi1 ,catherine in #agif1 and ,frederick in #aghf4 #bjj ,see ,oeuv41 xix4 #cag1 #cbf4 #bja ,oeuv41 vi4 #ddb1 where ,diderot gives a sketch of this interesting man4 ,the days of intellectual excitement and philanthropic hope seemed at their very height1 but in fact they were over4 ,nobody1 said ,talleyrand1 who has not lived before #aghi1 knows how sweet life can be4 ,the old world had its last laugh over the ,marriage of ,figaro 7,april #aghd71 but in the laugh of ,figaro there is a strange ring4 ,under all its gaiety1 its liveliness1 its admirable naivete1 was something sombre4 ,it was pregnant with menace4 ,its fooling was the ironical enforcement of ,raynal's trenchant declaration that the law is nothing1 if it be not a sword gliding indistinctly over the heads of all1 and striking down whatever rises above the horizontal plane along which it moves4 ,diderot himself is commonly accused of having fomented an atrocious spirit by the horrible couplet-- ,et ses mains ourdiraient les entrailles du pretre1 ,au defaut d'un cordon pour etrangler les rois4#bjb #bjb ,is it not possible that the virtuous and moderate proposal to strangle the last ,jesuit in the bowels of the last ,jansenist might do something towards reconciling matters8--,voltaire to ,helvetius1 ,may #aa1 #agfa4 ,that the verses could have actually excited the spirit of the ,terrorists is impossible1 for they were not given to the world until #agie4 ,and in the second place1 so far as ,diderot's intention is concerned1 any one who reads the piece from which the lines are taken1 will perceive that the whole performance is in a vein of playful phantasy1 and that the particular verses are placed dramatically in the mouth of a proclaimed ,eleutheromane1 or maniac for liberty4#bjc ,diderot was not likely to foresee that what he designed for an illustration of the frenzy of the ,pindaric dithyramb1 would so soon be mistaken for a short formula of practical politics4#bjd #bjc ,les ,eleutheromanes1 ou les ,furieux de la ,liberte4 ,oeuv41 ix4 #af4 #bjd ,it is a curious illustration of the carelessness with which the so-called negative school have been treated1 that so conscientious a writer as ,m4 ,henri ,martin 7,hist4 de ,france1 xvi4 #adf7 should have taxed ,diderot1 among other sinister maxims1 with this1 that the public punishment of a king changes the spirit of a nation for ever4 ,now the words occur in a collection of observations on government1 which ,diderot wrote on the margin of his copy of ,tacitus1 and which are entitled ,principes de ,politique des ,souverains 7#agge74 ,some of the most pungent maxims are obviously intended for irony on the military and ,machiavellian policy of ,frederick the ,great1 while others on the policy of the ,roman emperors are shrewd and sagacious4 ,the maxim from which ,m4 ,martin quotes is the #adgth1 and in it the sombre words of his quotation follow this3--,let the people never see royal blood flow for any cause whatever4 ,the public punishment of a king1 etc46 ,see ,oeuv41 ii4 #dhf4 ,in #aghj his townsmen of ,langres paid him a compliment1 which showed that the sage was not without honour in his own country4 ,they besought him to sit for his portrait1 to be placed among the worthies in the town hall4 ,diderot replied by sending them ,houdon's bronze bust1 which was received with all distinction and honour4 ,naigeon hints that in the last years of his life ,diderot paid more attention to money than he had ever done before2#bje not that he became a miser1 but because1 like many other persons1 he had not found out until the close of a life's experience that care of money really means care of the instrument that procures some of the best ends in life4 ,for a moment we may regret that he was too much occupied in attending to his affairs to take the unwise ,naigeon's wise counsel1 that he should devote himself to a careful revision of all that he had written4 ,perhaps ,diderot's instinct was right4 ,among the distractions of old age1 he had turned back to his ,letter on the ,blind1 and read it over again without partiality4 ,he found1 as was natural1 some defects in a piece that was written three-and-thirty years before1 but he abstained from attempting to remove them1 for fear that the page of the young man should be made the worse by the retouching of the old man4 ,there comes a time1 he reflects1 when taste gives counsels whose justice you recognise1 but which you have no longer strength to follow4 ,it is the pusillanimity that springs from consciousness of weakness1 or else it is the idleness that is one of the results of weakness and pusillanimity1 which disgusts me with a task that would be more likely to hurt than to improve my work4 ,solve senescentem mature sanus equum1 ne ,peccet ad extremum ridendus et ilia ducat4 ,and so he contented himself with some rough notes of phenomena that were corroborative of the speculation of his youth4#bjf #bje ,mem4 sur la ,vie et les ,ouvrages de ,diderot1 p4 #dab4 #bjf ,grimm1 ,corr4 ,lit41 xi4 #abj4 ,in the early spring of #aghd ,diderot had an attack which he knew to be the presage of the end4 ,dropsy set in1 and he lingered until the summer4 ,the priest of ,saint ,sulpice1 the centre of the philosophic quarter1 came to visit him two or three times a week1 hoping to achieve at least the semblance of a conversion4 ,diderot did not encourage conversation on theology1 but when pressed he did not refuse it4 ,one day when they found1 as two men of sense will always find1 that they had ample common ground in matters of morality and good works1 the priest ventured to hint that an exposition of such excellent maxims1 accompanied by a slight retractation of ,diderot's previous works1 would have a good effect on the world4 ,i daresay it would1 monsieur le cure1 but confess that ,i should be acting an impudent lie4 ,and no word of retractation was ever made4 ,as the end came suddenly1 the priest escaped from the necessity of denying the funeral rites of the ,church4 ,for thirty years ,diderot had been steadfast to his quarters on an upper floor in the ,rue ,taranne1 and even now1 when the physicians told him that to climb such length of staircase was death to him1 he still could not be induced to stir4 ,it would have been easier1 his daughter says1 to effect a removal from ,versailles itself4 ,grimm at length asked the ,empress of ,russia to provide a house for her librarian1 and when the request was conceded1 ,diderot1 who could never be ungracious1 allowed himself to be taken from his garret to palatial rooms in the ,rue de ,richelieu4 ,he enjoyed them less than a fortnight4 ,though visibly growing weaker every day1 he did all that he could to cheer the people around him1 and amused himself and them by arranging his pictures and his books4 ,in the evening1 to the last1 he found strength to converse on science and philosophy to the friends who were eager as ever for the last gleanings of his prolific intellect4 ,in the last conversation that his daughter heard him carry on1 his last words were the pregnant aphorism that the first step towards philosophy is incredulity4 ,on the evening of the #cjth of ,july #aghd he sat down to table1 and at the end of the meal took an apricot4 ,his wife1 with kindly solicitude1 remonstrated4 ,mais quel diable de mal veux-tu que cela me fasse8 he said1 and ate the apricot4 ,then he rested his elbow on the table1 trifling with some sweetmeats4 ,his wife asked him a question2 on receiving no answer1 she looked up and saw that he was dead4 ,he had died as the ,greek poet says that men died in the golden age--,greek3 thneskon d' hos hypno dedmemenoi1 they passed away as if mastered by sleep4 ,it had always been his opinion that an examination of the organs after death is a useful practice1 and his wish that the operation should take place in his own case was respected4 ,nothing interesting or remarkable was revealed1 and his remains were laid in the vaults of the church of ,saint ,roche4 ,so the curtain fell upon this strange tragi-comedy of a man of letters4 ,there is no better epilogue than words of his own3--,we fix our gaze on the ruins of a triumphal arch1 of a portico1 a pyramid1 a temple1 a palace1 and we return upon ourselves4 ,all is annihilated1 perishes1 passes away4 ,it is only the world that remains2 only time that endures4 ,i walk between two eternities4 ,to whatever side ,i turn my eyes1 the objects that surround me tell of an end1 and teach me resignation to my own end4 ,what is my ephemeral existence in comparison with that of the crumbling rock and the decaying forest8 ,i see the marble of the tomb falling to dust1 and yet ,i cannot bear to die6 ,am ,i to grudge a feeble tissue of fibres and flesh to a general law1 that executes itself inexorably even on very bronze6 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,conclusion4 ,a few more pages must be given to one or two of ,diderot's writings which have not hitherto been mentioned4 ,an exhaustive survey of his works is out of the question1 nor would any one be repaid for the labour of criticism4 ,a mere list of the topics that he handled would fill a long chapter4 ,a redaction of a long treatise on harmony1 a vast sheaf of notes on the elements of physiology1 a collection of miscellanea on the drama1 a still more copious collection of miscellanea on a hundred points in literature and art1 a fragment on the exercise of young ,russians1 an elaborate plan of studies for a proposed ,russian ,university1--no less panurgic and less encyclopaedic a critic than ,diderot himself could undertake to sweep with ever so light a wing over this vast area4 ,everybody can find something to say about the collection of tales1 in which ,diderot thought that he was satirising the manners of his time1 after the fashion of ,rabelais1 ,montaigne1 ,la ,mothe-le-,vayer1 and ,swift4 ,but not everybody is competent to deal1 for instance1 with the five memoirs on different subjects in mathematics 7#agdh71 with which ,diderot hoped to efface the scandal of his previous performance4 ,i4 ,decidedly the most important of the pieces of which we have not yet spoken must be counted the ,thoughts on the ,interpretation of ,nature 7#aged74 ,his study of ,bacon and the composition of the introductory prospectus of the ,encyclopaedia had naturally filled ,diderot's mind with ideas about the universe as a whole4 ,the great problem of man's knowledge of this universe1--the limits1 the instruments1 the meaning of such knowledge1 came before him with a force that he could not evade4 ,maupertuis had in #agea1 under the assumed name of ,baumann1 an imaginary doctor of ,erlangen1 published a dissertation on the ,universal ,system of ,nature1 in which he seems to have maintained that the mechanism of the universe is one and the same throughout1 modifying itself1 or being modified by some vital element within1 in an infinity of diverse ways4#bjg ,leibnitz's famous idea1 of making nature invariably work with the minimum of action1 was seized by ,maupertuis1 expressed as the ,law of ,thrift1 and made the starting-point of speculations that led directly to ,holbach and the ,system of ,nature4#bjh ,the ,loi d',epargne evidently tended to make unity of all the forces of the universe the keynote or the goal of philosophical inquiry4 ,at this time of his life1 ,diderot resisted ,maupertuis's theory of the unity of vital force in the universe1 or perhaps we should rather say that he saw how open it was to criticism4 ,his resistance has none of his usual air of vehement conviction4 ,however that may be1 the theory excited his interest1 and fitted in with the train of meditation which his thoughts about the ,encyclopaedia had already set in motion1 and of which the ,pensees ,philosophiques of #agdf were the cruder prelude4 #bjg ,as to the precise drift of ,maupertuis's theme1 see ,lange1 ,gesch4 d4 ,materialismus1 i4 #dac1 n4 #cg4 ,also ,rosenkranz1 i4 #acd4 #bjh ,in #agfe ,grimm describes the principle of ,leibnitz and ,maupertuis as gaining on us on every side4--,corr4 ,lit41 iv4 #ahf4 ,the ,thoughts on the ,interpretation of ,nature are1 in form as in title1 imitated from those famous ,aphorismi de ,interpretatione ,naturae et ,regni ,hominis1 which are more shortly known to all men as ,bacon's ,novum ,organum4#bji ,the connection between the aphorisms is very loosely held4 ,diderot began by premising that he would let his thoughts follow one another under his pen1 in the order in which the subjects came up in his mind2 and he kept his word4 ,their general scope1 so far as it is capable of condensed expression1 may be described as a reconciliation between the two great classes into which ,diderot found thinkers upon ,nature to be divided2 those who have many instruments and few ideas1 and those who have few instruments and many ideas1--in other words1 between men of science without philosophy1 and philosophers without knowledge of experimental science4 #bji ,palissot1 in the ,philosophers1 concocted some very strained satire on the too pompous opening of the ,interpretation of ,nature4 ,act ,i4 sc4 #b4 ,in the region of science itself1 again1 ,diderot foresees as great a change as in the relations between science and philosophy4 ,we touch the moment of a great revolution in the sciences4 ,from the strong inclination of men's minds towards morals1 literature1 the history of nature and experimental physics1 ,i would almost venture to assert that before the next hundred years are over1 there will not be three great geometers to be counted in ,europe4 ,this science will stop short where the ,bernouillis1 the ,eulers1 the ,maupertuis1 the ,clairauts1 the ,fontaines1 the ,d',alemberts1 the ,lagranges have left it4 ,they will have fixed the ,pillars of ,hercules4 ,people will go no further4 ,those who have read ,comte's angry denunciations of the perversions of geometry by means of algebra1 and of the waste of intellectual force in modern analysis1#baj will at least understand how such a view as ,diderot's was possible4 ,and no one will be likely to deny that1 whether or not the pillars of the geometrical ,hercules were finally set a hundred years ago1 the great discoveries of the hundred years since ,diderot have been1 as he predicted1 in the higher sciences4 ,the great misfortune of ,france was that the supremacy of geometry coincided with the opening of the great era of political discussion4 ,the definitions of ,montesquieu's famous book1 which opened the political movement in literature1 have been shown to be less those of a jurisconsult than of a geometer4#baa ,social truths1 with all their profound complexity1 were handled like propositions in ,euclid1 and logical deductions from arbitrary premises were treated as accurate representations of real circumstance4 ,the repulse of geometry to its proper rank came too late4 #baj ,comte's ,system of ,positive ,polity1 i4 #chj1 etc4 ,english translation1 #ahge4 #baa ,by ,f4 ,sclopis1 quoted in ,m4 ,vian's ,hist4 de ,montesquieu1 p4 #ea4 ,comte always liberally recognised ,diderot's genius1 and any reader of ,comte's views on the necessities of subjective synthesis will discern the germ of that doctrine in the following remarkable section3 ,when we compare the infinite multitude of the phenomena of nature with the limits of our understandings and the weakness of our organs1 can we ever expect anything else from the slowness of our work1 from the long and frequent interruptions1 and from the rarity of creative genius than a few broken and separated pieces of the great chain that binds all things together8 ,experimental philosophy might work for centuries of centuries1 and the materials that it had heaped up1 finally reaching in their number beyond all combination1 would still be far removed from an exact enumeration4 ,how many volumes would it not need to contain the mere terms by which we should designate the distinct collections of phenomena1 if the phenomena were known8 ,when will the philosophic language be complete8 ,if it were complete1 who among men would be able to know it8 ,if the ,eternal1 to manifest his power still more plainly than by the marvels of nature1 had deigned to develop the universal mechanism on pages traced by his own hand1 do you suppose that this great book would be more comprehensible to us than the universe itself8 ,how many pages of it all would have been intelligible to the philosopher who1 with all the force of head that had been conferred upon him1 was not sure of having grasped all the conclusions by which an old geometer determined the relation of the sphere to the cylinder8 ,we should have in such pages a fairly good measure of the reach of men's minds1 and a still more pungent satire on our vanity4 ,we should say1 ,fermat went to such a page1 ,archimedes went a few pages further4 ,what then is our end8 ,the execution of a work that can never be achieved1 and which would be far beyond human intelligence if it were achieved4 ,are we not more insensate than the first inhabitants of the plain of ,shinar8 ,we know the immeasurable distance between the earth and the heavens1 and still we insist on rearing our tower4 ,but can we presume that there will not come a time when our pride will abandon the work in discouragement8 ,what appearance is there that1 narrowly lodged and ill at its ease here below1 our pride should obstinately persist in constructing an uninhabitable palace beyond the earth's atmosphere8 ,even if it should so insist1 would it not be arrested by the confusion of tongues1 which is already only too perceptible and too inconvenient in natural history8 ,besides1 it is utility that circumscribes all4 ,it will be utility that in a few centuries will set bounds to experimental physics1 as it is on the eve of setting bounds to geometry4 ,i grant centuries to this study1 because the sphere of its utility is infinitely more extensive than that of any abstract science1 and it is without contradiction the base of our real knowledge4#bab #bab ,oeuv41 ii4 #ab1 #ac1 ,sec4 #f4 ,see the same idea in the ,encyclopaedia1 above1 vol4 i4 pp4 #bbe-bbg4 ,we cannot wonder that when ,comte drew up his list of the hundred and fifty volumes that should form the good ,positivist's library in the nineteenth century1 he should have placed ,diderot's ,interpretation of ,nature on one side of ,descartes' ,discourse on ,method1 with ,bacon's ,novum ,organum on the other4 ,the same spirit finds even stronger and more distinct expression in a later aphorism3--,since the reason cannot understand everything1 imagination foresee everything1 sense observe everything1 nor memory retain everything2 since great men are born at such remote intervals1 and the progress of science is so interrupted by revolution1 that whole ages of study are passed in recovering the knowledge of the centuries that are gone1--to observe everything in nature without distinction is to fail in duty to the human race4 ,men who are beyond the common run in their talents ought to respect themselves and posterity in the employment of their time4 ,what would posterity think of us if we had nothing to transmit to it save a complete insectology1 an immense history of microscopic animals8 ,no--to the great geniuses great objects1 little objects to the little geniuses 7,sec4 #ed74 ,diderot1 while thus warning inquirers against danger on one side1 was alive to the advantages of stubborn and unlimited experiment on the other4 ,when you have formed in your mind1 he says1 one of those systems which require to be verified by experience1 you ought neither to cling to it obstinately nor abandon it lightly4 ,people sometimes think their conjectures false1 when they have not taken the proper measures to find them true4 ,obstinacy1 even1 has fewer drawbacks than the opposite excess4 ,by multiplying experiments1 if you do not find what you want1 it may happen that you will come on something better4 ,never is time employed in interrogating nature entirely lost 7,sec4 #db74 ,the reader will not fail to observe that this maxim is limited by the condition of verifiableness4 ,of any system that could not be verified by experience ,diderot would have disdained to speak in connection with the interpretation of nature4 ,this1 of course1 did not prevent him from hypothesis and prophecy which he himself had not the means of justifying4 ,for example1 he said that just as in mathematics1 by examining all properties of a curve we find that they are one and the same property presented under different faces1 so in nature when experimental physics are more advanced1 people will recognise that all the phenomena1 whether of weight1 or elasticity1 or magnetism1 or electricity1 are only different sides of the same affection 7,sec4 #dd74 ,but he was content to leave it to posterity1 and to build no fabric on unproved propositions4 ,in the same scientific spirit he penetrated the hollowness of every system dealing with ,final ,causes3 ,the physicist1 whose profession is to instruct and not to edify1 will abandon the ,why1 and will busy himself only with the ,how4444 ,how many absurd ideas1 false suppositions1 chimerical notions in those hymns which some rash defenders of final causes have dared to compose in honour of the ,creator8 ,instead of sharing the transports of admiration of the prophet1 and crying out at the sight of the unnumbered stars that light up the midnight sky1 ,the heavens declare the glory of ,god1 and the firmament sheweth his handiwork1 they have given themselves up to the superstition of their conjectures4 ,instead of adoring the ,all-,powerful in the creation of nature1 they have prostrated themselves before the phantoms of their imagination4 ,if any one doubts the justice of my reproach1 ,i invite him to compare ,galen's treatise on the use of parts of the human body1 with the physiology of ,boerhaave1 and the physiology of ,boerhaave with that of ,haller2 ,i invite posterity to compare the systematic or passing views of ,haller with what will be the physiology of future times4 ,man praises the ,eternal for his own poor views2 and the ,eternal who hears from the elevation of his throne1 and who knows his own design1 accepts the silly praise and smiles at man's vanity 7,sec4 #ef74 ,the world has advanced rapidly along this path since ,diderot's day1 and has opened out many new and unsuspected meanings by the way4 ,perhaps the advance has been less satisfactory in working out1 in a scientific way1 the philosophy that is implied in the following adaptation of the ,leibnitzian and ,maupertuisian suggestion of the law of economy in natural forces3--,astonishment often comes from our supposing several marvels1 where in truth there is only one2 from our imagining in nature as many particular acts as we can count phenomena1 whilst nature has perhaps in reality never produced more than one single act4 ,it seem even that1 if nature had been under the necessity of producing several acts1 the different results of such acts would be isolated2 that there would be collections of phenomena independent of one another1 and that the general chain of which philosophy assumes the continuity1 would break in many places4 ,the absolute independence of a single fact is incompatible with the idea of an ,all2 and without the idea of a ,whole1 there can be no ,philosophy 7,sec4 #aa74 ,at length ,diderot concludes by a series of questions which he thinks that philosophers may perhaps count worthy of discussion4 ,what is the difference1 for example1 between living matter and dead8 ,does the energy of a living molecule vary by itself1 or according to the quantity1 the quality1 the forms of the dead or living matter with which it is united8 ,we need not continue the enumeration1 because ,diderot himself suddenly brings them to an end with a truly admirable expression of his sense of how unworthy they are of the attention of serious men1 who are able to measure the difference between a wise and beneficent use of intelligence1 and a foolish and wasteful misuse of it4 ,when ,i turn my eyes1 he says1 to the works of men1 and see the cities that are built on every side1 all the elements yoked to our service1 languages fixed1 nations civilised1 harbours constructed1 lands and skies measured--then the world seems to me very old4 ,when ,i find man uncertain as to the first principles of medicine and agriculture1 as to the properties of the commonest substances1 as to knowledge of the maladies that afflict him1 as to the pruning of trees1 as to the best form for the plough1 then it seems as if the earth had only been inhabited yesterday4 ,and if men were wise1 they would at last give themselves up to such inquiries as bear on their wellbeing1 and would not take the trouble to answer my futile questions for a thousand years at the very soonest2 or perhaps1 even1 considering the very scanty extent that they occupy in space and time1 they would never deign to answer them at all4 ,,ii4 ,in #agfi ,diderot composed three dialogues1 of which he said that1 with a certain mathematical memoir1 they were the only writings of his own with which he was contented4 ,the first is a dialogue between himself and ,d',alembert2 the second is ,d',alembert's ,dream1 in which ,d',alembert in his sleep continues the discussion1 while ,mdlle4 ,lespinasse1 who is watching by his bedside1 takes down the dreamer's words2 in the third1 ,mdlle4 ,lespinasse and the famous physician1 ,bordeu1 conclude the matter4#bac ,it is impossible1 ,diderot said to ,mdlle4 ,voland1 to be more profound and more mad3 it is at once a supreme extravagance1 and the most deep-reaching philosophy4 ,he congratulated himself on the cleverness of placing his ideas in the mouth of a man who dreams1 on the ground that we must often give to wisdom the air of madness1 in order to secure admittance4 ,mdlle4 ,lespinasse was not so complacent4 ,she made ,d',alembert insist that the dialogue should be destroyed1 and ,diderot believed that he had burned the only existing copy4 ,as a matter of fact1 the manuscript was not published until #ahcj1 when all the people concerned had long been reduced to dust4 ,there are five or six pages1 ,diderot said to ,mdlle4 ,voland1 which would make your sister's hair stand on end4 ,a man may be much less squeamish than ,mdlle4 ,voland's sister1 and still pronounce the imaginative invention of ,d',alembert's ,dream1 and the sequel1 to be as odious as anything since the freaks of filthy ,diogenes in his tub4 ,two remarks may be made on this strange production4 ,first1 ,diderot never intended the dialogues for the public eye4 ,he would have been as shocked as the ,archbishop of ,paris himself1 if he had supposed that they would become accessible to everybody who knows how to read4 ,second1 though they are in form the most ugly and disgusting piece in the literature of philosophy1 they testify in their own way to ,diderot's sincerity of interest in his subject4 ,science is essentially unsparing and unblushing1 and ,d',alembert's ,dream plunged exactly into those parts of physiology which are least fit to be handled in literature4 ,the attempt to give an air of polite comedy to functions and secretions must be pronounced detestable1 in spite of the dialectical acuteness and force with which ,diderot pressed his point4 #bac ,oeuv41 ii4 ,it would be impossible1 in a book not exclusively designed for a public of professors1 to give a full account of these three dialogues4 ,it is indispensable to describe their drift1 because it is here that ,diderot figures definitely as a materialist4 ,diderot was in no sense the originator of the ,french materialism of the eighteenth century4 ,he was preceded by ,maupertuis1 by ,robinet1 and by ,la ,mettrie2 and we have already seen that when he composed the ,thoughts on the ,interpretation of ,nature 7#aged71 he did not fully accept ,maupertuis's materialistic thesis4 ,lange has shown that at a very early period in the movement the most consistent materialism was ready and developed1 while such leaders of the movement as ,voltaire and ,diderot still leaned either on deism1 or on a mixture of deism and scepticism4#bad ,the philosophy of ,d',alembert's ,dream is definite enough1 and far enough removed alike from deism and scepticism4 #bad ,gesch4 d4 ,materialismus1 i4 #cji1 #caj1 etc4 ,the thinking man is like a musical instrument4 ,suppose a clavecin to have sensibility and memory1 and then say whether it would not repeat of itself the airs that you have played on its keys4 ,we are instruments endowed with sensibility and memory4 ,our senses are so many keys1 pressed by the nature that surrounds them1 and they often press one another2 and this1 according to my judgment1 is all that passes in a clavecin organised as you and ,i are organised4 ,there is only one substance in the world4 ,the marble of the statue makes the flesh of the man1 and conversely4 ,reduce a block of marble to impalpable powder2 mix this powder with humus1 or vegetable earth2 knead them well together2 water the mixture2 let it rot for a year1 two years--time does not count4 ,in this you sow the plant1 the plant nourishes the man1 and hence the passage from marble to tissue4 ,do you see this egg8 ,with that you overturn all the schools of theology and all the temples of the earth4 ,it is an insensible mass before the germ is introduced into it2 and1 after the germ is introduced1 there is still an insensible mass1 for the germ itself is only an inert fluid4 ,how does this mass pass to another organisation1 to life1 to sensibility8 ,by heat4 ,what will produce heat8 ,movement4 ,what will be the successive effects of movement8 ,first1 an oscillating point1 a thread that extends1 the flesh1 the beak1 and so forth4 ,then follows the application of the same ideas to the reproduction of man--a region whither it is not convenient to follow the physiological inquirer4 ,the result as to the formation of the organic substance in man is as unflinching as the materialism of ,buechner4 ,but doctor1 cries ,mdlle4 ,lespinasse1 what becomes of vice and virtue8 ,virtue1 that word so holy in all languages1 that idea so sacred among all nations8 ,,bordeu4 ,we must transform it into beneficence1 and its opposite into the idea of maleficence4 ,a man is happily or unhappily born2 people are irresistibly drawn on by the general torrent that conducts one to glory1 the other to ignominy4 ,,mdlle4 ,,lespinasse4 ,and self-esteem1 and shame1 and remorse8 ,,bordeu4 ,proclivities1 founded on the ignorance or the vanity of a being who imputes to himself the merit or the demerit of a necessary instant4 ,,mdlle4 ,,lespinasse4 ,and rewards and punishments8 ,,bordeu4 ,means of correcting the modifiable being that we call bad1 and encouraging the other that we call good4#bae #bae ,oeuv41 ii4 #agf4 ,the third dialogue we must leave4 ,the fact that ,german books are written for a public of specialists allows ,dr4 ,rosenkranz to criticise these dialogues with a freedom equal to ,diderot's own1 and his criticism is as full as usual of candour1 patience1 and weight4 ,an ,english writer must be content to pass on1 and his contentment may well be considerable1 for the subject is perhaps that on which1 above all others1 it is most difficult to say any wise word4 ,,iii4 ,the ,plan of a ,university for the ,government of ,russia was the work of ,diderot's last years1 but no copy of it was given to the public before #ahac-ad1 when ,m4 ,guizot published extracts from an autograph manuscript confided to him by ,suard4 ,diderot1 with a characteristic respect for competence1 with which no egotism can ever interfere in minds of such strength and veracity as his1 began by urging the ,empress to consult ,ernesti of ,leipsic1 the famous editor of ,cicero1 and no less famous in his day 7#agjg-agha7 for the changes that he introduced into the system of teaching in the ,german universities4 ,of ,oxford and ,cambridge ,diderot spoke more kindly than they then deserved4 ,the one strongly marked idea of the plan is what might have been expected from the editor of the ,encyclopaedia1 namely1 the elevation of what the ,germans call real or technological instruction1 and the banishment of pure literature as a subject of study from the first to the last place in the course4 ,in the faculty of arts the earliest course begins with arithmetic1 algebra1 the calculation of probabilities1 and geometry4 ,next follow physics and mechanics4 ,then astronomy4 ,fourthly1 natural history and experimental physics4 ,in the fifth class1 chemistry and anatomy4 ,in the sixth1 logic and grammar4 ,in the seventh1 the language of the country4 ,and it was not until the eighth1 that ,greek and ,latin1 eloquence and poetry1 took their place among the objects or instruments of education4 ,parallel with this course1 the student was to follow the first principles of metaphysics1 of universal morality1 and of natural and revealed religion4 ,here1 too1 history and geography had a place4 ,in a third parallel1 perspective and drawing accompanied the science of the first1 and the philosophy and history of the second4 ,in the thorny field of religious instruction1 ,diderot expresses no opinion of his own1 beyond saying that it is natural for the ,empress's subjects to conform to her way of thinking4 ,as her majesty thinks that the fear of pains to come has much influence on men's actions1 and is persuaded that the total of small daily advantages produced by belief outweighs the total of evils wrought by sectarianism and intolerance1 therefore students ought to be instructed in the mystery of the distinction of the two substances1 in the immortality of the soul1 and so forth4#baf #baf ,oeuv41 iii4 #dij4 ,there is a story that one evening at ,st4 ,petersburg1 ,diderot was declaiming with stormy eloquence against the baseness of those who flatter kings2 for such1 he said1 there ought to be a deeper and a fiercer hell4 ,tell me1 ,diderot1 said the ,empress by and by1 what they say in ,paris about the death of my husband4 ,instead of telling her the plain truth that everybody said that ,peter had been murdered by her orders1 the philosopher poured out a stream of the smoothest things4 ,come now1 said ,catherine suddenly1 confess1 if you are not walking along the path that leads to your deep hell1 you are certainly coming very close to purgatory4 ,diderot's elaborate concessions to her majesty's political religion would1 it is to be feared1 have brought him still further in the same sulphureous track4 ,as we have often had to bewail ,diderot's diffuseness1 it is as well to remark that a long passage in the sketch of which we are speaking shows how close and concentrated he could be upon occasion4 ,the two pages in which he demolishes the incorrigible superstition about ,latin and ,greek1#bag contain a thoroughly exhaustive summary of all the arguments and the answers4 ,in the immense discussion about ,latin and ,greek that has taken place in the hundred years since ,diderot's time1 it is tolerably safe to say that not a single point has been brought forward which ,diderot did not in these most pithy and conclusive pages attempt to deal with4 ,he winds up with the position that1 even for the man of letters1 the present system of teaching ,latin and ,greek is essentially sterile4 ,i am perfectly sure1 he says1 that ,voltaire1 who is not exactly a mediocrity as a man of letters1 knows extremely little ,greek1 and that he is not twentieth nor even hundredth among the ,latinists of the day4#bah #bag ,ib4 iii4 #dfi-dga4 #bah ,oeuv41 iii4 #dgc4 ,following this sketch is printed a letter to the ,countess of ,forbach on the education of children4 ,it is full of rich wisdom on its special subject4 ,nobody can read it without feeling that quality in ,diderot which made his friends love him4 ,and we see how1 when he was called to practical counsel1 he banished into their own sphere the explosive paradoxes with which he delighted to amuse his hours of speculative dreaming4 ,,iv4 ,romilly has told us that ,diderot was bent on converting him from the error of his religious ways1 and with that intention read to him a ,conversation with the ,marechale de----4#bai ,it is believed to be an idealised version of a real conversation with ,madame de ,broglie1 and was first printed1 almost as soon as written 7#aggg71 in the correspondence in which ,metra1 in imitation of ,grimm1 informed a circle of foreign subscribers what was going on in ,paris4 ,the admirers of ,diderot profess to look on this ,conversation as one of the most precious pearls in his philosophic casket4 ,it turns upon the conditions of belief and unbelief1 represented by the two interlocutors respectively1 and is a terse and graphic summary of the rationalistic objections to the creed of the church4 ,the most conspicuous literary passage in it is a parable which has been attributed to ,rousseau1 but with which ,rousseau had really nothing to do1 beyond reproducing the spirit of its argument in the ever famous creed of the ,savoyard ,vicar4 #bai ,ib4 ii4 #eje-ebh4 ,a young ,mexican1 tired of his work1 was sauntering one day on the seashore4 ,he spied a plank1 with one end resting on the land1 and the other dipping into the water4 ,he sat down on the plank1 and there gazing over the vast space that lay spread out before him1 he said to himself3 ,it is certain that my old grandmother is talking nonsense1 with her history of ,i know not what inhabitants1 who1 at ,i know not what time1 landed here from ,i know not where1 from some country far beyond our seas4 ,it is against common sense3 do ,i not see the ocean touch the line of the sky8 ,and can ,i believe1 against the evidence of my senses1 an old fable of which nobody knows the date1 which everybody arranges according to his fancy1 and which is only a tissue of absurdities1 about which people are ready to tear out one another's eyes4 ,as he was reasoning in this way1 the waters rocked him gently on his plank1 and he fell asleep4 ,as he slept1 the wind rose1 the waves carried away the plank on which he was stretched out1 and behold our youthful reasoner embarked on a voyage4 ,la ,marechale4--,alas1 that is the image of all of us2 we are each on our plank2 the wind blows1 and the flood carries us away4 ,c4--,he was already far from the mainland when he awoke4 ,no one was ever so surprised as our young ,mexican1 to find himself out on the open sea1 and he was mightily surprised1 too1 when having lost from sight the shore on which he had been idly walking only an instant before1 he saw the sea touching the line of the sky on every side4 ,then he began to suspect that he might have been mistaken1 and that1 if the wind remained in the same quarter1 perhaps he would be borne to that very shore and among those dwellers on it1 about whom his grandmother had so often told him4 ,la ,marechale4--,and of his anxiety you say nothing4 ,c4--,he had none4 ,he said to himself3 ,what does it matter1 provided that ,i find land8 ,i have reasoned like a giddy-pate1 granted2 but ,i have been sincere with myself1 and that is all that can be required of me4 ,if it is no virtue to have understanding1 at any rate it is no crime to be without it4 ,meanwhile the wind continued1 the man and the plank floated on1 and the unknown shore came into sight4 ,he touched it1 and behold him again on land4 ,la ,marechale4--,ah1 we shall all of us see one another there1 one of these days4 ,c4--,i hope so1 madam2 wherever it may be1 ,i shall always be very proud to pay you my homage4 ,hardly had he quitted his plank1 and put his foot on the sand1 when he perceived a venerable old man standing by his side4 ,he asked him where he was1 and to whom he had the honour of speaking4 ,i am the sovereign of the country1 replied the old man2 you have denied my existence8--,yes1 it is true4--,and that of my empire8--,it is true6--,i forgive you1 because ,i am he who sees the bottom of all hearts1 and ,i have read at the bottom of yours that you are of good faith2 but the rest of your thoughts and your actions are not equally innocent4 ,then the old man1 who held him by the ear1 recalled to him all the errors of his life2 and as each was mentioned1 the young ,mexican bowed himself upon the ground1 beat his breast1 and besought forgiveness4 ,v4 ,of ,falconet1#bbj we have already spoken1 as a sculptor of genius1 and as one of ,diderot's most intimate friends4 ,writing to ,sophie ,voland 7,nov4 #ba1 #agfe71 ,diderot informs her that some pleasantries of ,falconet's have induced him to undertake very seriously the defence of the sentiment of immortality and respect for posterity4#bba ,this apology was carried on in an energetic correspondence which lasted from the end of #agfe to #agfg4 ,falconet's letters were burned by his grand-daughter for reasons unknown1 and we have only such passages from them as are more specially referred to by ,diderot himself4 ,falconet flattered himself that he had the best of the argument1 and was eager that they should be published1 but ,diderot was sluggish or busy4 ,the correspondence was imparted to ,catherine of ,russia1 who took a lively interest in it1 and to some others1 but it was not given to the public--and then only partially--until #ahcj4 #bbj ,above1 vol4 ii4 p4 #ajd4 #bba xix4 #bjj4 ,diderot's position in these twelve letters may be described in general terms as being that the sentiment of immortality and respect for posterity move the heart and elevate the soul2 they are two germs of great things1 two promises as solid as any other1 and two delights as real as most of the delights of life1 but more noble1 more profitable1 and more virtuous4 ,what ,diderot means by immortality is not the religious dogma1 that the individual personality will be objectively preserved and prolonged in some other mode of existence4 ,on the contrary1 it was his disbelief in this dogma of the churches that gave a certain keenness to his pleading for that other kind of immortality1 which prolongs our personality only in the grateful and admiring memories of other people who come after us4 ,he intended by the sentiment of immortality the desire to surround one's name with lustre among posterity2 to be the admiration and the talk of centuries to come2 to obtain after death the same honours as we pay to those who have gone before us2 to furnish a fine line to the historian2 to inscribe one's own name by the side of those which we never pronounce without shedding a tear1 heaving a sigh1 or being touched by regret2 to secure for ourselves the blessings that we have such a thrill in bestowing on ,sully1 ,henry ,,iv41 and all the other benefactors of the human race4#bbb ,the sphere that surrounds us1 and in which the world admires us1 the time in which we exist and listen to praise1 the number of those who directly address to us the eulogy that we have deserved of them--all this is too small for the capacity of our ambitious souls4 ,by the side of those whom we see prostrated before us1 we place those who are not yet in the world4 ,it is only this uncounted throng of adorers that can satisfy a mind whose impulses are ever towards the infinite4 ,at night it is sweet to hear a distant concert1 of which only snatches reach the ear1 all to be bound into a melodious whole by the imagination1 which is all the more charmed as the work is in the main its own4 ,even if all this were but the sweetness of a lovely dream1 is then the sweetness of a dream as nothing8 ,and am ,i to count for nothing a sweet dream that lasts as long as my life1 and holds me in perpetual intoxication8 #bbb xviii4 #id4 ,falconet's answer was hard and positive4 ,contemporary glory suffices4 ,what is fame1 if ,i am not there to enjoy8 ,the fear of contempt and disgrace is as strong a motive as you need1 to incite men to great work4 ,glory after death is chimerical and uncertain4 ,think of all the great names that are clean forgotten1 of all the great workers whose achievements are lost or effaced1 of all the others whose works are attributed to those who did not execute them6 ,your posterity is no better than a lottery4 ,no1 cries ,diderot1 with redoubled eloquence1 rising to his noblest height1#bbc the present is an indivisible point that cuts in two the length of an infinite line4 ,it is impossible to rest on this point and to glide gently along with it1 never looking on in front1 and never turning the head to gaze behind4 ,the more man ascends through the past1 and the more he launches into the future--the greater he will be4444 ,and all these philosophers1 and ministers1 and truth-telling men1 who have fallen victims to the stupidity of nations1 the atrocities of priests1 the fury of tyrants1 what consolation was left for them in death8 ,this1 that prejudice would pass1 and that posterity would pour out the vial of ignominy upon their enemies4 ,o posterity1 holy and sacred6 ,stay of the unhappy and the oppressed1 thou who art just1 thou who art incorruptible1 who avengest the good man1 who unmaskest the hypocrite1 who draggest down the tyrant1 may thy sure faith1 thy consoling faith1 never1 never abandon me6 ,posterity is for the philosopher what the other world is for the devout6 #bbc xviii4 pp4 #aac and #ajj4 ,,appendix4 ,,rameau',s ,,nephew3 ,a ,,translation4 ,see vol4 i4 p4 #cdh4 ,i have omitted such pages in the following translation as refer simply to personages who have lost all possibility of interest for our generation2 nor did any object seem to be served by reproducing the technical points of the musical discussion4 ,enough is given1 and given as faithfully as ,i know how1 to show the reader what ,rameau's ,nephew is4 ,in all weathers1 wet or fine1 it is my practice to go1 towards five o'clock in the evening1 to take a turn in the ,palais ,royal4 ,i am he whom you may see any afternoon sitting by himself and musing in ,d',argenson's seat4 ,i keep up talk with myself about politics1 love1 taste1 or philosophy2 ,i leave my mind to play the libertine unchecked2 and it is welcome to run after the first idea that offers1 sage or gay1 just as you see our young beaux in the ,foy passage following the steps of some gay nymph1 with her saucy mien1 face all smiles1 eyes all fire1 and nose a trifle turned up2 then quitting her for another1 attacking them all1 but attaching themselves to none4 ,my thoughts1--these are the wantons for me4 ,if the weather be too cold or too wet1 ,i take shelter in the ,regency coffee-house4 ,there ,i amuse myself by looking on while they play chess4 ,nowhere in the world do they play chess so skilfully as in ,paris1 and nowhere in ,paris as they do at this coffee-house2 'tis here you see ,legal the profound1 ,philidor the subtle1 ,mayot the solid2 here you see the most astounding moves1 and listen to the sorriest talk1 for if a man may be at once a wit and a great chess-player1 like ,legal1 you may also be a great chess-player and a sad simpleton1 like ,joubert and ,mayot4 ,one day ,i was there after dinner1 watching intently1 saying little1 and hearing the very least possible1 when there approached me one of the most eccentric figures in the country1 where ,god has not made them lacking4 ,he is a mixture of elevation and lowness1 of good sense and madness2 the notions of good and bad must be mixed up together in strange confusion in his head1 for he shows the good qualities that nature has bestowed on him without any ostentation1 and the bad ones without the smallest shame4 ,for the rest1 he is endowed with a vigorous frame1 a particular warmth of imagination1 and an astonishing strength of lungs4 ,if you ever meet him1 and if you are not arrested by his originality1 you will either stuff your fingers into your ears1 or else take to your heels4 ,heavens1 what a monstrous pipe6 ,nothing is so little like him as himself4 ,one time he is lean and wan1 like a patient in the last stage of consumption2 you could count his teeth through his cheeks2 you would say he must have passed several days without tasting a morsel1 or that he is fresh from ,la ,trappe4 ,a month after1 he is stout and sleek1 as if he had been sitting all the time at the board of a financier1 or had been shut up in a ,bernardine monastery4 ,to-day in dirty linen1 his clothes torn or patched1 with barely a shoe to his foot1 he steals along with a bent head2 you are tempted to hail him and fling him a shilling4 ,to-morrow all powdered1 curled1 in a fine coat1 he marches past with head erect and open mien1 and you would almost take him for a decent worthy creature4 ,he lives from day to day1 from hand to mouth1 downcast or sad1 just as things may go4 ,his first care in a morning1 when he gets up1 is to know where he will dine2 and after dinner1 he begins to think where he may pick up a supper4 ,night brings disquiets of its own4 ,either he climbs to a shabby garret that he has1 unless the landlady1 weary of waiting for her rent1 has taken the key away from him2 or else he slinks to some tavern on the outskirts of the town1 where he waits for daybreak over a piece of bread and a mug of beer4 ,when he has not threepence in his pocket1 as sometimes happens1 he has recourse either to a hackney carriage belonging to a friend1 or to the coachman of some man of quality1 who gives him a bed on the straw beside the horses4 ,in the morning1 he still has bits of his mattress in his hair4 ,if the weather is mild1 he measures the ,champs ,elysees all night long4 ,with the day he reappears in the town1 dressed over night for the morrow1 and from the morrow sometimes dressed for the rest of the week4 ,i do not rate these originals very highly4 ,other people make familiar acquaintances1 and even friends1 of them4 ,they detain me perhaps once in a twelvemonth1 if ,i happen to fall in with them4 ,their character stands out from the rest of the world1 and breaks that wearisome uniformity which our bringing-up1 our social conventions1 and our arbitrary fashions have introduced4 ,if one of them makes his appearance in a company1 he is a piece of leaven which ferments and restores to each a portion of his natural individuality4 ,he stirs people up1 moves them1 invites to praise or blame2 he is the means of bringing out the truth1 he gives honest people a chance of showing themselves1 he unmasks the rogues2 this is the time when a man of sense listens1 and distinguishes his company4 ,i had known my present man long ago4 ,he used to frequent a house to which his clever parts had opened the door4 ,there was an only daughter4 ,he swore to the father and mother that he would marry their daughter4 ,they shrugged their shoulders1 laughed in his face1 told him he was out of his senses1 and ,i saw in an instant that his business was done4 ,he wanted to borrow a few crowns from me1 which ,i gave him4 ,he worked his way1 ,i cannot tell how1 into some houses where he had his plate laid for him1 but on condition that he should never open his lips without leave4 ,he held his tongue and ate away in a towering rage3 it was excellent to watch him in this state of constraint4 ,if he could not resist breaking the treaty1 and ever began to open his mouth1 at the first word all the guests called out ,rameau6 ,then fury sparkled in his eyes1 and he turned to his plate in a worse passion than ever4 ,you were curious to know the man's name1 and now you know it3 'tis ,rameau1 pupil of the famous man who delivered us from the plain-song that we had been used to chant for over a hundred years2 who wrote so many unintelligible visions and apocalyptic truths on the theory of music1 of which neither he nor anybody else understood a word2 and from whom we have a certain number of operas that are not without harmony1 refrains1 random notions1 uproar1 triumphs1 glories1 murmurs1 breathless victories1 and dance-tunes that will last to all eternity2 and who1 after burying ,lulli1 the ,florentine1 will be himself buried by the ,italian virtuosi1--a fate that he had a presentiment of1 which made him gloomy and chagrined2 for nobody is in such ill-humour1 not even a pretty woman who awakes with a pimple on her nose1 as an author threatened with loss of his reputation4 ,he comes up to me4 ,ah1 ah6 here you are1 my philosopher6 ,and what are you doing among this pack of idlers8 ,can it be possible that you too waste your time in pushing the wood8444 ,i4--,no1 but when ,i have nothing better to do1 ,i amuse myself by watching people who push it well4 ,he4--,in that case you are amusing yourself with a vengeance4 ,except ,philidor and ,legal1 there is not one of them who knows anything about it4 ,i4--,what of ,m4 de ,bussy8 ,he4--,he is as a chess-player what ,mademoiselle ,clairon is as an actress2 they know of their playing1 one and the other1 as much as anybody can learn4 ,i4--,you are hard to please1 and ,i see you can forgive nothing short of the sublimities4 ,he4--,true1 in chess1 women1 poetry1 eloquence1 music1 and all such fiddle-faddle4 ,what is the use of mediocrity in these matters8 ,i4--,little enough1 ,i agree4 ,but the thing is that there must be a great number of men at work1 for us to make sure of the man of genius3 he is one out of a multitude4 ,but let that pass4 ',tis an age since ,i have seen you4 ,though ,i do not often think about you when you are out of sight1 yet it is always a pleasure to me to meet you4 ,what have you been about8 ,he4--,what you1 ,i1 and everybody else are about--some good1 some bad1 and nothing at all4 ,then1 ,i have been hungry1 and ,i have eaten when opportunity offered2 after eating1 ,i have been thirsty1 and now and then have had something to drink4 ,besides that1 my beard grew1 and as it grew ,i had it shaved4 ,i4--,there you were wrong2 it is the only thing wanting to make a sage of you4 ,he4--,ay1 ay2 ,i have a wide and furrowed brow1 a glowing eye1 a firm nose1 broad cheeks1 a black and bushy eyebrow1 a clean cut mouth1 a square jaw4 ,cover this enormous chin with amplitude of beard1 and ,i warrant you it would look vastly well in marble or in bronze4 ,i4--,by the side of a ,caesar1 a ,marcus ,aurelius1 a ,socrates4 ,he4--,nay1 ,i should be better between ,diogenes1 ,lais1 and ,phryne4 ,i am brazenfaced as the one1 and ,i am happy to pay a visit to the others4 ,i4--,are you always well8 ,he4--,yes1 commonly2 but ,i am no great wonders to-day4 ,i4--,why1 you have a paunch like ,silenus1 and a face like4444 ,he4--,a face you might take for ,i don't know what4 ,the ill humour that dries up my dear master seems to fatten his dear pupil4 ,i4--,and this dear master1 do you ever see him now8 ,he4--,yes1 passing along the street4 ,i4--,does he do nothing for you8 ,he4--,if he has done anything for anybody1 it is without knowing it4 ,he is a philosopher after his fashion4 ,he thinks of nobody but himself4 ,his wife and his daughter may die as soon as they please2 provided the church bells that toll for them continue to sound the twelfth and the seventeenth1 all will be well4 ,it is lucky for him1 and that is what ,i especially prize in your men of genius4 ,they are only good for one thing2 outside of that1 nothing4 ,they do not know what it is to be citizens1 fathers1 mothers1 kinsfolk1 friends4 ,between ourselves1 it is no bad thing to be like them at every point1 but we should not wish the grain to become common4 ,we must have men2 but men of genius1 no2 no1 on my word2 of them we need none4 ',tis they who change the face of the globe2 and in the smallest things folly is so common and so almighty1 that you cannot mend it without an infinite disturbance4 ,part of what they have dreamt comes to pass1 and part remains as it was2 hence two gospels1 the dress of a harlequin4 ,the wisdom of ,rabelais's moral is the true wisdom both for his own repose and that of other people3 to do one's duty so so1 always to speak well of the prior1 and to let the world go as it lists4 ,it must go well1 for most people are content with it4 ,if ,i knew history enough1 ,i should prove to you that evil has always come about here below through a few men of genius1 but ,i do not know history1 no more than ,i know anything else4 ,the deuce take me1 if ,i have learnt anything1 or if ,i find myself a pin the worse for not having learnt anything4 ,i was one day at the table of the minister of the ,king of----1 who has brains enough for four1 and he showed as plain as one and one make two1 that nothing was more useful to people than falsehood1 nothing more mischievous than truth4 ,i don't remember his proofs very clearly1 but it evidently followed from them that men of genius are detestable1 and that if a child at its birth bore on its brow the mark of that dangerous gift of nature1 it ought to be smothered or else thrown to the ducks4 ,i4--,yet such people1 foes as they are to genius1 all lay claim to it4 ,he4--,i daresay they think so in their own minds1 but ,i doubt if they would venture to admit it4 ,i4--,ah1 that is their modesty4 ,so you conceived from that a frightful antipathy to genius4 ,he4--,one that ,i shall never get over4 ,i4--,yet ,i have seen the time when you were in despair at the thought of being only a common man4 ,you will never be happy if the pro and the con distress you alike4 ,you should take your side1 and keep to it4 ,though people will agree with you that men of genius are usually singular1 or as the proverb says1 there are no great wits without a grain of madness1 yet they will always look down on ages that have produced no men of genius4 ,they will pay honour to the nations among whom they have existed2 sooner or later1 they rear statues to them1 and regard them as the benefactors of the human race4 ,with all deference to the sublime minister whom you have cited1 ,i still believe that if falsehood may sometimes be useful for a moment1 it is surely hurtful in the long-run2 and so1 on the other hand1 truth is surely useful in the long-run1 though it may sometimes chance to be inconvenient for the moment4 ,whence ,i should be tempted to conclude that the man of genius who cries down a general error1 or wins credit for a great truth1 is always a creature that deserves our veneration4 ,it may happen that such an one falls a victim to prejudice and the laws2 but there are two sorts of laws1 the one of an equity and generality that is absolute1 the other of an incongruous kind1 which owe all their sanction to the blindness or exigency of circumstance4 ,the latter only cover the culprit who infringes them with passing ignominy1 an ignominy that time pours back on the judges and the nations1 there to remain for ever4 ,whether is ,socrates1 or the authority that bade him drink the hemlock1 in the worst dishonour in our day8 ,he4--,not so fast4 ,was he any the less for that condemned8 ,or any the less put to death8 ,or any the less a bad citizen8 ,by his contempt for a bad law did he any the less encourage blockheads to despise good ones8 ,or was he any the less an audacious eccentric8 ,you were close there upon an admission that would have done little for men of genius4 ,i4--,but listen to me1 my good man4 ,a society ought not to have bad laws1 and if it had only good ones1 it would never find itself persecuting a man of genius4 ,i never said to you that genius was inseparably bound up with wickedness1 any more than wickedness is with genius4 ,a fool is many a time far worse than a man of parts4 ,even supposing a man of genius to be usually of a harsh carriage1 awkward1 prickly1 unbearable2 even if he be thoroughly bad1 what conclusion do you draw8 ,he4--,that he ought to be drowned4 ,i4--,gently1 good man4 ,now ,i will not take your uncle ,rameau for an instance2 he is harsh1 he is brutal1 he has no humanity1 he is a miser1 he is a bad father1 bad husband1 bad uncle2 but it has never been settled that he is particularly clever1 that he has advanced his art1 or that there will be any talk of his works ten years hence4 ,but ,racine1 now8 ,he at any rate had genius1 and did not pass for too good a man4 ,and ,voltaire8 ,he4--,beware of pressing me1 for ,i am not one to shrink from conclusions4 ,i4--,which of the two would you prefer2 that he should have been a worthy soul1 identified with his till1 like ,briasson1 or with his yard measure1 like ,barbier1 each year producing a lawful babe1 good husband1 good father1 good uncle1 good neighbour1 decent trader1 but nothing more2 or that he should have been treacherous1 ambitious1 envious1 spiteful1 but the author of ,andromaque1 ,britannicus1 ,iphigenie1 ,phedre1 ,athalie8 ,he4--,for his own sake1 on my word1 perhaps of the two men it would have been a great deal better that he should have been the first4 ,i4--,that is even infinitely more true than you think4 ,he4--,ah1 there you are1 you others6 ,if we say anything good and to the purpose1 'tis like madmen or creatures inspired1 by a hazard2 it is only you wise people who know what you mean4 ,yes1 my philosopher1 ,i know what ,i mean as well as you do4 ,i4--,let us see4 ,now why did you say that of him8 ,he4--,because all the fine things he did never brought him twenty thousand francs1 and if he had been a silk merchant in the ,rue ,saint ,denis or ,saint ,honore1 a good wholesale grocer1 an apothecary with plenty of customers1 he would have amassed an immense fortune1 and in amassing it1 he could have enjoyed every pleasure in life2 he would have thrown a pistole from time to time to a poor devil of a droll like me2 we should have had good dinners at his house1 played high play1 drunk first-rate wines1 first-rate liqueurs1 first-rate coffee1 had glorious excursions into the country4 ,now you see ,i know what ,i meant4 ,you laugh8 ,but let me go on4 ,it would have been better for everybody about him4 ,i4--,no doubt it would1 provided that he had not put to unworthy use what gain he had made in lawful commerce1 and had banished from his house all those gamesters1 all those parasites1 all those idle flatterers1 all those depraved ne'er-do-wells1 and had bidden his shop-boys give a sound beating to the officious creature who offers to play pander4 ,he4--,a beating1 sir1 a beating6 ,no one is beaten in any well-governed town4 ,it is a decent enough trade2 plenty of people with fine titles meddle with it4 ,and what the deuce would you have him do with his money1 if he is not to have a good table1 good company1 good wines1 handsome women1 pleasures of every colour1 diversion of every sort8 ,i would as lief be a beggar as possess a mighty fortune without any of these enjoyments4 ,but go back to ,racine4 ,he was only good for people who did not know him1 and for a time when he had ceased to exist4 ,i4--,granted1 but weigh the good and bad4 ,a thousand years from now he will draw tears1 he will be the admiration of men in all the countries of the earth2 he will inspire compassion1 tenderness1 pity4 ,they will ask who he was1 and to what land he belonged1 and ,france will be envied4 ,he brought suffering on one or two people who are dead1 and in whom we take hardly any interest2 we have nothing to fear from his vices or his foibles4 ,it would have been better1 no doubt1 that he should have received from nature the virtues of a good man1 instead of the talents of a great one4 ,he is a tree which made a few other trees planted near him wither up1 and which smothered the plants that grew at his feet2 but he reared his height to the clouds1 and his branches spread far2 he lends his shadow to all who came1 or come now1 or ever shall come1 to repose by his majestic trunk2 he brought forth fruits of exquisite savour which are renewed again and again without ceasing4 ,we might wish that ,voltaire had the mildness of ,duclos1 the ingenuousness of the ,abbe ,trublet1 the rectitude of the ,abbe d',olivet4 ,but as that cannot be1 let us look at the thing on the side of it that is really interesting2 let us forget for an instant the point we occupy in space and time1 and let us extend our vision over centuries to come1 and peoples yet unborn1 and distant lands yet unvisited4 ,let us think of the good of our race3 if we are not generous enough1 at least let us forgive nature for being wiser than ourselves4 ,if you throw cold water on ,greuze's head1 very likely you will extinguish his talent along with his vanity4 ,if you make ,voltaire less sensitive to criticism1 he will lose the art that took him to the inmost depths of the soul of ,merope1 and will never stir a single emotion in you more4 ,he4--,but if nature be as powerful as she is wise1 why did she not make them as good as she made them great8 ,i4--,do you not see how such reasoning as that overturns the general order1 and that if all were excellent here below1 then there would be nothing excellent4 ,he4--,you are right4 ,the important point is that you and ,i should be here2 provided only that you and ,i are you and ,i1 then let all besides go as it can4 ,the best order of things1 in my notion1 is that in which ,i was to have a place1 and a plague on the most perfect of worlds1 if ,i don't belong to it6 ,i would rather exist1 and even be a bad hand at reasoning1 than not exist at all4 ,i4--,there is nobody but thinks as you do1 and whoever brings his indictment against the order of things1 forgets that he is renouncing his own existence4 ,he4--,that is true4 ,i4--,so let us accept things as they are2 let us see how much they cost us and how much they give us1 and leave the whole as it is1 for we do not know it well enough either to praise or blame it2 and perhaps after all it is neither good nor ill1 if it is necessary1 as so many good folk suppose4 ,he4--,now you are going beyond me4 ,what you say seems like philosophy1 and ,i warn you that ,i never meddle with that4 ,all that ,i know is that ,i should be very well pleased to be somebody else1 on the chance of being a genius and a great man2 yes1 ,i must agree4 ,i have something here that tells me so4 ,i never in my life heard a man praised1 that his eulogy did not fill me with secret fury4 ,i am full of envy4 ,if ,i hear something about their private life that is a discredit to them1 ,i listen with pleasure3 it brings us nearer to a level2 ,i bear my mediocrity more comfortably4 ,i say to myself3 ,ah1 thou couldst never have done ,mahomet1 nor the eulogy on ,maupeou4 ,so ,i have always been1 and ,i always shall be1 mortified at my own mediocrity4 ,yes1 ,i tell you ,i am mediocre1 and it provokes me4 ,i never heard the overture to the ,indes galantes performed1 nor the ,profonds abimes de ,tenare1 ,nuit1 eternelle nuit1 sung without saying to myself3 ,that is what thou wilt never do4 ,so ,i was jealous of my uncle4 ,i4--,if that is the only thing that chagrins you1 it is hardly worth the trouble4 ,he4--',tis nothing1 only a passing humour4 ,then he set himself to hum the overture and the air he had spoken of1 and went on3 ,the something which is here and speaks to me says3 ,rameau1 thou wouldst fain have written those two pieces3 if thou hadst done those two pieces1 thou wouldst soon do two others2 and after thou hadst done a certain number1 they would play thee and sing thee everywhere4 ,in walking1 thou wouldst hold thy head erect1 thy conscience would testify within thy bosom to thy own merit2 the others would point thee out1 ,there goes the man who wrote the pretty gavottes and he hummed the gavottes4 ,then with the air of a man bathed in delight and his eyes shining with it1 he went on1 rubbing his hands3 ,thou shalt have a fine house he marked out its size with his arms1 a famous bed he stretched himself luxuriously upon it1 capital wines he sipped them in imagination1 smacking his lips1 a handsome equipage he raised his foot as if to mount1 a hundred varlets who will come to offer thee fresh incense every day and he fancied he saw them all around him1 ,palissot1 ,poinsinet1 the two ,frerons1 ,laporte1 he heard them1 approved of them1 smiled at them1 contemptuously repulsed them1 drove them away1 called them back2 then he continued3 ,and it is thus they would tell thee on getting up in a morning that thou art a great man2 thou wouldst read in the ,histoire des ,trois ,siecles that thou art a great man1 thou wouldst be convinced of an evening that thou art a great man1 and the great man ,rameau would fall asleep to the soft murmur of the eulogy that would ring in his ears2 even as he slept he would have a complacent air2 his chest would expand1 and rise1 and fall with comfort2 he would move like a great man 444 and as he talked he let himself sink softly on a bench1 he closed his eyes1 and imitated the blissful sleep that his mind was picturing4 ,after relishing the sweetness of this repose for a few instants he awoke1 stretched his arms1 yawned1 rubbed his eyes1 and looked about him for his pack of vapid flatterers4 ,i4--,you think1 then1 the happy mortal has his sleep8 ,he4--,think so6 ,a sorry wretch like me6 ,at night when ,i get back to my garret1 and burrow in my truckle-bed1 ,i shrink up under my blanket1 my chest is all compressed1 and ,i can hardly breathe2 it seems like a moan that you can barely hear4 ,now a banker makes the room ring and astonishes a whole street4 ,but what afflicts me to-day1 is not that ,i snore and sleep meanly and shabbily1 like a paltry outcast4 ,i4--,yet that is a sorry thing enough4 ,he4--,what has befallen me is still more so4 ,i4--,what is that8 ,he4--,you have always taken some interest in me1 because ,i am a bon diable1 whom you rather despise at bottom1 but who diverts you4 ,i4--,well1 that is the plain truth4 ,he4--,i will tell you4 ,before beginning he heaved a profound sigh1 and clasped his brow with his two hands4 ,then he recovers his tranquillity and says3 ,you know that ,i am an ignoramus1 a fool1 a madman1 an impertinent1 a sluggard1 a glutton4444 ,i4--,what a panegyric6 ,he4--',tis true to the letter1 there is not a word to take away2 prithee1 no debate on that4 ,no one knows me better4 ,i know myself and ,i do not tell the whole4 ,i4--,i have no wish to cross you1 and ,i will agree to anything4 ,he4--,well1 ,i used to live with people1 who took a liking for me1 plainly because ,i was gifted with all these qualities to such a rare degree4 ,i4--,that is curious4 ,until now ,i always thought that people hid these things even from themselves1 or else that they granted themselves pardon1 while they despised them in others4 ,he4--,hide them from themselves6 ,can men do that8 ,you may be sure that when ,palissot is all alone and returns upon himself1 he tells a very different tale2 you may be sure that when he talks quietly with his colleague1 they candidly admit that they are only a pair of mighty rogues4 ,despise such things in others6 ,my people were far more equitable1 and they took my character for a perfect nonesuch2 ,i was in clover2 they feasted me1 they did not lose me from their sight for a single instant without sighing for my return4 ,i was their excellent ,rameau1 their dear ,rameau1 their ,rameau the mad1 the impertinent1 the lazy1 the greedy1 the merry-man1 the lout4 ,there was not one of these epithets which did not bring me a smile1 a caress1 a tap on the shoulder1 a cuff1 a kick2 at table1 a titbit tossed on to my plate2 away from the table1 a freedom that ,i took without consequences1 for1 do you see1 ,i am a man without consequence4 ,they do with me and before me and at me whatever they like1 without my standing on any ceremony4 ,and the little presents that showered on me6 ,the great hound that ,i am1 ,i have lost all6 ,i have lost all for having had common sense once1 one single time in my life4 ,ah6 if that ever chances again6 ,i4--,what was the matter1 then8 ,he4--,rameau1 ,rameau1 did they ever take you for that8 ,the folly of having had a little taste1 a trifle of wit1 a spice of reason2 ,rameau1 my friend1 that will teach you the difference between what ,god made you1 and what your protectors wanted you to be4 ,so they took you by the shoulder1 they led you to the door1 and cried3 ,be off1 rascal2 never appear more4 ,he would fain have sense1 reason1 wit1 ,i declare6 ,off with you2 we have all these qualities and to spare6 ,you went away biting your thumb2 it was your infernal tongue1 that you ought to have bitten before all this4 ,for not bethinking you of that1 here you are in the gutter without a farthing1 or a place to lay your head4 ,you were well housed1 and now you will be lucky if you get your garret again2 you had a good bed1 and now a truss of straw awaits you between ,m4 de ,soubise's coachman and friend ,robbe4 ,instead of the gentle quiet slumber that you had1 you will have the neighing and stamping of horses all night long--you wretch1 idiot1 possessed by a million devils6 ,i4--,but is there no way of setting things straight8 ,is the fault you committed so unpardonable8 ,if ,i were you1 ,i should go find my people again4 ,you are more indispensable to them than you suppose4 ,he4--,oh1 as for that1 ,i know that now they have me no longer to make fun for them1 they are dull as ditch-water4 ,i4--,then ,i should go back3 ,i would not give them time enough to learn how to get on without me1 or to turn to some more decent amusement4 ,for who knows what may happen8 ,he4--,that is not what ,i am afraid of3 that will never come to pass4 ,i4--,but sublime as you may be1 some one else may replace you4 ,he4--,hardly4 ,i4--,hardly1 it is true4 ,still ,i would go with that lacklustre face1 those haggard eyes1 that open breast1 that tumbled hair1 in that downright tragic state in which you are now4 ,i would throw myself at the feet of the divinity1 and without rising ,i would say with a low and sobbing voice3 ,forgive me1 madam6 ,forgive me6 ,i am the vilest of creatures4 ,it was only one unfortunate moment1 for you know ,i am not subject to common sense1 and ,i promise you1 ,i will never have it again so long as ,i live4 ,the diverting part of it was that1 while ,i discoursed to him in this way1 he executed it pantomimically1 and threw himself on the ground2 with his eyes fixed on the earth1 he seemed to hold between his two hands the tip of a slipper1 he wept1 he sobbed1 he cried3 ,yes1 my queen1 yes1 ,i promise1 ,i never will1 so long as ,i live1 so long as ever ,i live4444 ,then recovering himself abruptly1 he went on in a serious and deliberate tone3 ,he4--,yes1 you are right2 ,i see it is the best4 ,yet to go and humiliate one's self before a hussy1 cry for mercy at the feet of a little actress with the hisses of the pit for ever in her ears6 ,i1 ,rameau1 son of ,rameau1 the apothecary of ,dijon1 who is a good man and never yet bent his knee to a creature in the world6 ,i1 ,rameau1 who have composed pieces for the piano that nobody plays1 but which will perhaps be the only pieces ever to reach posterity1 and posterity will play them--,i1 ,i1 must go6 ,stay1 sir1 it cannot be and striking his right hand on his breast1 he went on3 ,i feel here something that rises and tells me3 ,never1 ,rameau1 never4 ,there must be a certain dignity attached to human nature that nothing can stifle2 it awakes a propos des bottes2 you cannot explain it2 for there are other days when it would cost me not a pang to be as vile as you like1 and for a halfpenny there is nothing too dirty for me to do4 ,i4--,then if the expedient ,i have suggested to you is not to your taste1 have courage enough to remain a beggar4 ,he4--',tis hard being a beggar1 while there are so many rich fools at whose expense one can live4 ,and the contempt for one's self1 it is insupportable4 ,i4--,do you know that sentiment8 ,he4--,know it6 ,how many times have ,i said to myself3 ,what1 ,rameau1 there are ten thousand good tables in ,paris1 with fifteen or twenty covers apiece1 and of these covers not one for thee6 ,there are purses full of gold which is poured out right and left1 and not a crown of it falls to thee6 ,a thousand witlings without parts and without worth1 a thousand paltry creatures without a charm1 a thousand scurvy intriguers1 are all well clad1 while thou must go bare6 ,canst thou be such a nincompoop as all this8 ,couldst thou not flatter as well as anybody else8 ,couldst thou not find out how to lie1 swear1 forswear1 promise1 keep or break1 like anybody else8 ,couldst thou not favour the intrigue of my lady1 and carry the love-letter of my lord1 like anybody else8 ,couldst thou not find out the trick of making some shopkeeper's daughter understand how shabbily dressed she is1 how two fine earrings1 a touch of rouge1 some lace1 and a ,polish gown would make her ravishing2 that those little feet were not made for trudging through the mud2 that there is a handsome gentleman1 young1 rich1 in a coat covered with lace1 with a superb carriage and six fine lackeys1 who once saw her as he passed1 who thought her charming and wonderful1 and that ever since that day he has taken neither bite nor sup1 cannot sleep at nights1 and will surely die of it8444 ,he comes1 he pleases1 the little maid vanishes1 and ,i pocket my two thousand crowns4 ,what1 thou hast a talent like this1 and yet in want of bread8 ,shame on thee1 wretch6 ,i recalled a crowd of scoundrels who were not a patch upon me1 and yet were rolling in money4 ,there was ,i in serge1 and they in velvet2 they leaned on gold-headed canes1 and had fine rings on their fingers4 ,and what were they8 ,wretched bungling strummers1 and now they are a kind of fine gentlemen4 ,at such times ,i felt full of courage1 my soul inflamed and elevated1 my wits alert and subtle1 and capable of anything in the world4 ,but this happy turn did not last1 it would seem1 for so far ,i have not been able to make much way4 ,however that may be1 there is the text of my frequent soliloquies1 which you may paraphrase as you choose1 provided you are sure that ,i know what self-contempt is1 and that torture of conscience which comes of the usefulness of the gifts that heaven has bestowed on us2 that is the cruellest stroke of all4 ,a man might almost as well never have been born4 ,i had listened to him all the time1 and as he enacted the scene with the poor girl1 with my heart moved by two conflicting emotions1 ,i did not know whether to give myself up to the longing ,i had to laugh1 or to a transport of indignation4 ,i was distressingly perplexed between two humours2 twenty times an uncontrollable burst of laughter kept my anger back1 and twenty times the anger that was rising from the bottom of my soul suddenly ended in a burst of laughter4 ,i was confounded by so much shrewdness and so much vileness1 by ideas now so just and then so false1 by such general perversity of sentiments1 such complete turpitude1 and such marvellously uncommon frankness4 ,he perceived the struggle going on within me3 ,what ails you8 said he4 ,i4--,nothing4 ,he4--,you seem to be disturbed4 ,i4--,and ,i am4 ,he4--,but now1 after all1 what do you advise me to do8 ,i4--,to change your way of talking4 ,you unfortunate soul1 to what abject state have you fallen6 ,he4--,i admit it4 ,and yet1 do not let my state touch you too deeply2 ,i had no intention1 in opening my mind to you1 to give you pain4 ,i managed to scrape up a few savings when ,i was with the people4 ,remember that ,i wanted nothing1 not a thing1 and they made me a certain allowance for pocket-money4 ,he again began to tap his brow with one of his fists1 to bite his lips1 and to roll his eyes towards the ceiling1 going on to say3 ,but 'tis all over2 ,i have put something aside2 time has passed1 and that is always so much gained4 ,i4--,so much lost1 you mean4 ,he4--,no1 no2 gained4 ,people grow rich every moment2 a day less to live1 or a crown to the good1 'tis all one4 ,when the last moment comes1 one is as rich as another2 ,samuel ,bernard1 who by pillaging and stealing and playing bankrupt1 leaves seven and twenty million francs in gold1 is just like ,rameau1 who leaves not a penny1 and will be indebted to charity for a shroud to wrap round him4 ,the dead man hears not the tolling of the bell2 'tis in vain that a hundred priests bawl dirges for him1 and that a long file of blazing torches go before3 his soul walks not by the side of the master of the ceremonies4 ,to moulder under marble1 or to moulder under clay1 'tis still to moulder4 ,to have around one's bier children in red and children in blue1 or to have not a creature1 what matters it8 ,and then1 look at this wrist1 it was stiff as the devil2 the ten fingers1 they were so many sticks fastened into a metacarpus made of wood2 and these muscles were like old strings of catgut1 drier1 stiffer1 harder to bend than if that they had been used for a turner's wheel2 but ,i have so twisted and broken and bent them4 ,what1 thou wilt not go8 ,and ,i say that thou shalt4444 ,and at this1 with his right hand he seized the fingers and wrist of his left hand1 and turned them first up and then down4 ,the extremity of the fingers touched the arm1 till the joints cracked again4 ,i was afraid every instant that the bones would remain dislocated4 ,i4--,take care1 you will do yourself a mischief4 ,he4--,don't be afraid1 they are used to it4 ,for ten years ,i have given it them in a very different style4 ,they had to accustom themselves to it1 however they liked it1 and to learn to find their place on the keys and to leap over the strings4 ,so now they go where they must4 ,at the same moment he threw himself into the attitude of a violin-player2 he hummed an allegro of ,locatelli's2 his right arm imitated the movement of the bow2 his left hand and his fingers seemed to be feeling along the handle4 ,if he makes a false note1 he stops1 tightens or slackens his string1 and strikes it with his nail1 to make sure of its being in tune1 and then takes up the piece where he left off4 ,he beats time with his foot1 moves his head1 his feet1 his hands1 his arms1 his body1 as you may have seen ,ferrari or ,chiabran1 or some other virtuoso in the same convulsions1 presenting the image of the same torture1 and giving me nearly as much pain2 for is it not a painful thing to watch the torture of a man who is busy painting pleasure for my benefit8 ,draw a curtain to hide the man from me1 if he must show me the spectacle of a victim on the rack4 ,in the midst of all these agitations and cries1 if there occurred one of those harmonious passages where the bow moves slowly over several of the strings at once1 his face put on an air of ecstasy1 his voice softened1 he listened to himself with perfect ravishment2 it is undoubted that the chorus sounded both in his ears and mine4 ,then replacing his imaginary instrument under his left arm with the same hand by which he held it1 and letting his right hand drop with the bow in it1 said3 ,well1 what do you think of it8 ,i4--,wonderful6 ,he4--,not bad1 ,i fancy2 it sounds pretty much like the others4444 ,and then he stooped down1 like a musician placing himself at the piano4 ,i4--,nay1 ,i beg you to be merciful both to me and to yourself4 ,he4--,no1 no2 now that ,i have got you1 you shall hear me4 ,i will have no vote that is given without your knowing why4 ,you will say a good word for me with more confidence1 and that will be worth a new pupil to me4 ,i4--,but ,i am so little in the world1 and you will tire yourself all to no purpose4 ,he4--,i am never tired4 ,as ,i saw that it was useless to have pity on my man1 for the sonata on the violin had bathed him in perspiration1 ,i resolved to let him do as he would4 ,so behold him seated at the piano1 his legs bent1 his head thrown back towards the ceiling1 where you would have thought he saw a score written up1 humming1 preluding1 dashing off a piece of ,alberti's or ,galuppi's1 ,i forget which4 ,his voice went like the wind1 and his fingers leapt over the imaginary keys4 ,the various passions succeeded one another on his face2 you observed on it tenderness1 anger1 pleasure1 sorrow2 you felt the piano notes1 the forte notes1 and ,i am sure that a more skilful musician than myself would have recognised the piece by the movement and the character1 by his gestures1 and by a few notes of airs which escaped from him now and again4 ,but the absurd thing was to see him from time to time hesitate and take himself up as if he had gone wrong4 ,now1 you perceive1 said he1 rising and wiping away the drops of sweat which rolled down his cheeks1 that we know how to place our third1 our superfluous fifth1 and that we know all about our dominants4 ,those enharmonic passages1 about which the dear uncle makes such fuss1 they are not like having the sea to swallow2 we can manage them well enough4 ,i4--,you have given yourself a great deal of trouble to show me that you are uncommonly clever2 but ,i would have taken your word for it4 ,he4--,uncommonly clever2 oh no6 ,for my trade1 ,i know it decently1 and that is more than one wants2 for in this country is one obliged to know all that one shows8 ,i4--,no more than to know all that one teaches4 ,he4--,that is true1 most thoroughly true4 ,now1 sir philosopher1 your hand on your conscience1 speak the truth2 there was a time when you were not a man of such substance as you are to-day4 ,i4--,i am not so very substantial even now4 ,he4--,but you would not go now to the ,luxembourg in summer-time4444 ,you remember8 ,i4--,no more of that4 ,yes1 ,i do remember4 ,he4--,in an overcoat of gray shag8 ,i4--,ay1 ay4 ,he4--,terribly worn at one side1 with one of the sleeves torn2 and black woollen stockings mended at the back with white thread4 ,i4--,yes1 anything you like4 ,he4--,what were you doing in the alley of ,sighs8 ,i4--,cutting a shabby figure enough1 ,i daresay4 ,he4--,you used to give lessons in mathematics8 ,i4--,without knowing a word about them4 ,is not that what you want to come to8 ,he4--,exactly so4 ,i4--,i learnt by teaching others1 and ,i turned out some good pupils4 ,he--,that may be2 but music is not like algebra or geometry4 ,now that you are a substantial personage4444 ,i4--,not so substantial1 ,i tell you4 ,he4--,and have a good lining to your purse4444 ,i4--,not so good4 ,he4--,let your daughter have masters4 ,i4--,not yet2 it is her mother who looks to her education1 for one must have peace in one's house4 ,he4--,peace in one's house8 ,you have only that1 when you are either master or servant1 and it should be master4 ,i had a wife--may heaven bless her soul--but when it happened sometimes that she played malapert1 ,i used to mount the high horse1 and bring out my thunder4 ,i used to say like the ,creator3 ,let there be light1 and there was light4 ,so for four years we had not ten times in all one word higher than another4 ,how old is your child8 ,i4--,that has nothing to do with the matter4 ,he4--,how old is your child1 ,i say8 ,i4--,the devil take you1 leave my child and her age alone1 and return to the master she is to have4 ,he4--,i know nothing so pig-headed as a philosopher4 ,in all humility and supplication1 might one not know from his highness the philosopher1 about what age her ladyship1 his daughter1 may be8 ,i4--,i suppose she is eight4 ,he4--,eight6 ,then four years ago she ought to have had her fingers on the keys4 ,i4--,but perhaps ,i have no fancy for including in the scheme of her education a study that takes so much time and is good for so little4 ,he4--,and what will you teach her1 if you please8 ,i4--,to reason justly1 if ,i can2 a thing so uncommon among men1 and more uncommon still among women4 ,he4--,oh1 let her reason as ill as she chooses1 if she is only pretty1 amusing1 and coquettish4 ,i4--,as nature has been unkind enough to give her a delicate organisation with a very sensitive soul1 and to expose her to the same troubles in life as if she had a strong organisation and a heart of bronze1 ,i will teach her1 if ,i can1 to bear them courageously4 ,he4--,let her weep and give herself airs1 and have nerves all on edge like the rest1 if only she is pretty1 amusing1 and coquettish4 ,what1 is she to learn no dancing nor deportment8 ,i4--,yes1 just enough to make a curtsey1 to have a good carriage1 to enter a room gracefully1 and to know how to walk4 ,he4--,no singing8 ,i4--,just enough to pronounce her words well4 ,he4--,no music8 ,i4--,if there were a good teacher of harmony1 ,i would gladly entrust her to him two hours a day for two or three years1 not any more4 ,he4--,and instead of the essential things that you are going to suppress8444 ,i4--,i place grammar1 fables1 history1 geography1 a little drawing1 and a great deal of morality4 ,he4--,how easy it would be for me to prove to you the uselessness of all such knowledge in a world like ours8 ,uselessness1 do ,i say8 ,perhaps even the danger6 ,but ,i will for the moment ask you a single question1 will she not require one or two masters8 ,i4--,no doubt4 ,he4--,and you hope that these masters will know the grammar1 the fables1 the history1 the geography1 the morality1 in which they will give her lessons8 ,moonshine1 my dear mentor1 sheer moonshine6 ,if they knew these things well enough to teach them to other people1 they never would teach them8 ,i4--,and why8 ,he4--,because they would have spent all their lives in studying them4 ,it is necessary to be profound in art and science1 to know its elements thoroughly4 ,classical books can only be well done by those who have grown gray in harness2 it is the middle and the end which light up the darkness of the beginning4 ,ask your friend ,d',alembert1 the coryphaeus of mathematics1 if he thinks himself too good to write about the elements4 ,it was not till after thirty or forty years of practice that my uncle got a glimpse of the profundities and the first rays of light in musical theory4 ,i4--,o madman1 arch-madman1 ,i cried1 how comes it that in thine evil head such just ideas go pell-mell with such a mass of extravagances8 ,he4--,who on earth can find that out8 ',tis chance that flings them to you1 and they remain4 ,if you do not know the whole of a thing1 you know none of it well2 you do not know whither one thing leads1 nor whence another has come1 where this and that should be placed1 which ought to pass the first1 and where the second would be best4 ,can you teach well without method8 ,and method1 whence comes that8 ,i vow to you1 my dear philosopher1 ,i have a notion that physics will always be a poor science1 a drop of water raised by a needle-point from the vast ocean1 a grain loosened from an ,alpine chain4 ,and then1 seeking the reasons of phenomena6 ,in truth1 one might every whit as well be ignorant1 as know so little and know it so ill2 and that was exactly my doctrine when ,i gave myself out for a music-master4 ,what are you musing over8 ,i4--,i am thinking that all you have told me is more specious than solid4 ,but that is no matter4 ,you taught1 you say1 accompaniment and composition4 ,he4--,yes4 ,i4--,and you knew nothing about either4 ,he4--,no1 i' faith2 and that is why there were worse than ,i was1 namely those who fancied they knew something4 ,at any rate1 ,i did not spoil either the child's taste or its hands4 ,when they passed from me to a good master1 if they had learnt nothing1 at all events they had nothing to unlearn1 and that was always so much time and so much money saved4 ,i4--,what did you do8 ,he4--,what they all do6 ,i got there1 ,i threw myself into a chair4 ,what shocking weather6 ,how tiring the streets are6 ,then some gossip3 ,mademoiselle ,lemierre was to have taken the part of ,vestal in the new opera1 but she is in an interesting condition for the second time1 and they do not know who will take her place4 ,mademoiselle ,arnould has just left her little ,count3 they say she is negotiating with ,bertin4444 ,that poor ,dumesnil no longer knows either what he is saying or what he is doing4444 ,now1 ,miss1 take your book4 ,while ,miss1 who is in no hurry1 is looking for her book1 which is lost1 while they call the housemaid and scold and make a great stir1 ,i continue--,the ,clairon is really incomprehensible4 ,they talk of a marriage which is outrageously absurd3 'tis that of ,miss 444 what is her name8 a little creature that used to live with so and so1 etcetera1 etcetera3--,come1 ,rameau1 you are talking nonsense2 it is impossible4--,i don't talk nonsense at all2 they even say it is done4 ,there is a rumour that ,voltaire is dead1 and so much the better4--,and pray1 why so much the better8--,because he must be going to give us something more laughable than usual2 it is always his custom to die a fortnight before4 ,what more shall ,i tell you8 ,i used to tell certain naughtinesses that ,i brought from houses where ,i had been1 for we are all of us great fetchers and carriers4 ,i played the madman1 they listened to me1 they laughed1 they called out3 ,how charming he is6 ,meanwhile ,missy's book had been found under the sofa1 where it had been pulled about1 gnawed1 torn by a puppy or a kitten4 ,she sat down to the piano4 ,at first she made a noise on it by herself2 then ,i went towards her1 after giving her mother a sign of approbation4 ,the mother3 ,that is not bad2 people have only to be in earnest1 but they are not in earnest2 they would rather waste their time in chattering1 in disarranging things1 in gadding hither and thither1 and ,i know not what besides4 ,your back is no sooner turned1 ,m4 ,rameau1 than the book is shut up1 not to be opened until your next visit2 still you never scold her4 ,then1 as something had to be done1 ,i took hold of her hands and placed them differently2 ,i got out of temper1 ,i called out ,sol1 ,sol1 ,sol1 ,miss1 it is a ,sol4 ,the mother3 ,have you no ear8 ,i am not at the piano1 and ,i can't see your book1 yet ,i know it ought to be a ,sol4 ,you are most troublesome to your teacher2 ,i can't tell how he is so patient2 you do not remember a word of what he says to you2 you make no progress4444 ,then ,i would lower my tone rather1 and throwing my head on one side1 would say3 ,pardon me1 madam1 all would go very well if the young lady liked1 if she only studied a little more2 but it is not bad4 ,the mother3 ,if ,i were you1 ,i should keep her at one piece for a whole year4 ,oh1 as for that1 she shall not leave it before she has mastered every difficulty1 and that will not be as long as you may think4 ,monsieur ,rameau1 you flatter her1 you are too good4 ,that is the only part of the lesson which she will keep in mind1 and she will take care to repeat it to me upon occasion4444 ,and so the time got over2 my pupil presented me my little fee1 with the curtsey she had learnt from the dancing master4 ,i put it into my pocket while the mother said3 ,very well done1 mademoiselle2 if ,favillier were here1 he would applaud you4 ,i chattered a moment or two for politeness' sake1 and behold1 that was what they call a music lesson4 ,i4--,well1 and now it is quite another thing8 ,he4--,another thing6 ,i should think so1 indeed4 ,i get there4 ,i am deadly grave2 ,i take off my cuffs hastily1 ,i open the piano1 ,i run my fingers over the keys1 ,i am always in a desperate hurry4 ,if they keep me waiting a moment1 ,i cry out as if they were robbing me of a crown piece3 in an hour from now ,i must be so and so2 in two hours1 with the duchess of so and so2 ,i am expected to dine with a handsome marchioness1 and then1 on leaving her1 there is a concert at the baron's4444 ,i4--,and all the time nobody is expecting you anywhere at all8 ,he4--,no4 ,i4--,what vile arts6 ,he4--,vile1 forsooth6 ,why vile8 ,they are customary among people like me2 ,i don't lower myself in doing like everybody else4 ,i was not the inventor of them1 and it would be most absurd and stupid in me not to conform to them4 ,of course1 ,i know very well that if you go to certain principles of some morality or other1 which all the world have in their mouths1 and which none of them practise1 you will find black is white1 and white will become black4 ,but1 my philosopher1 there is a general conscience1 just as there is a general grammar2 and then the exceptions in each language that you learned people call--what is it you call them8 ,i4--,idioms4 ,he4--,ah1 exactly2 well1 each condition of life has its exceptions to the general conscience1 to which ,i should like to give the title of idioms of vocation4 ,i4--,i understand4 ,fontenelle speaks well1 writes well1 though his style swarms with ,french idioms4 ,he4--,and the sovereign1 the minister1 the banker1 the magistrate1 the soldier1 the man of letters1 the lawyer1 the merchant1 the artisan1 the singing master1 the dancing master1 are all most worthy folk1 though their practice strays in some points from the general conscience1 and abounds in moral idioms4 ,the older the institution1 the more the idioms2 the worse the times1 the more do idioms multiply4 ,the man is worth so much1 his trade is worth the same2 and reciprocally4 ,at last1 the trade counts for so much1 the man for the same4 ,so people take care to make the trade go for as much as they can4 ,i4--,all that ,i gather clearly from this twisted stuff is1 that there are very few callings honestly carried on1 and very few honest men in their callings4 ,he4--,good1 there are none at all2 but in revenge1 there are few rogues out of their own shops2 and all would go excellently but for a certain number of persons who are called assiduous1 exact1 fulfilling their strict duty most rigorously1 or1 what comes to the same thing1 for ever in their shops1 and carrying on their trade from morning until night1 and doing nothing else in the world4 ,so they are the only people who grow rich and are esteemed4 ,i4--,by force of idioms4 ,he4--,that is it2 ,i see you understand me4 ,now1 an idiom that belongs to nearly all conditions--for there are some that are common to all countries and all times1 just as there are follies that are universal--a common idiom1 is to procure for one's self as many customers as one possibly can2 a common folly is to believe that he is cleverest who has most of them4 ,there are two exceptions to the general conscience1 with which you must comply4 ,there is a kind of credit2 it is nothing in itself1 but it is made worth something by opinion4 ,they say1 good character is better than golden girdle3 yet the man who has a good character has not a golden girdle1 and ,i see nowadays that the golden girdle hardly stands in much need of character4 ,one ought1 if possible1 to have both girdle and character1 and that is my object when ,i give myself importance by what you describe as vile arts1 and poor unworthy tricks4 ,i give my lesson and ,i give it well2 behold the general rule4 ,i make them think ,i have more lessons to give than the day has hours2 behold the idiom4 ,i4--,and the lesson2 you do give it well8 ,he4--,yes1 not ill2 passably4 ,the thorough bass of the dear master has simplified all that4 ,in old days ,i used to steal my pupil's money4 ,yes1 ,i stole it1 that is certain2 now ,i earn it1 at least like my neighbours4 ,i4--,and did you steal it without remorse8 ,he4--,oh1 without remorse4 ,they say that if one thief pilfers from another1 the devil laughs4 ,the parents were bursting with a fortune1 which had been got the ,lord knows how4 ,they were people about the court1 financiers1 great merchants1 bankers4 ,i helped to make them disgorge1 ,i and the rest of the people they employed4 ,in nature1 all species devour one another2 so all ranks devour one another in society4 ,we do justice on one another1 without any meddling from the law4 ,the other day it was ,deschamps1 now it is ,guimard1 who avenges the prince of the financier2 and it is the milliner1 the jeweller1 the upholsterer1 the hosier1 the draper1 the lady's-maid1 the cook1 the saddler1 who avenge the financier of ,deschamps4 ,in the midst of it all1 there is only the imbecile or the sloth who suffers injury without inflicting it4 ,whence you see that these exceptions to the general conscience1 or these moral idioms about which they make such a stir1 are nothing1 after all1 and that you only need to take a clear survey of the whole4 ,i4--,i admire yours4 ,he4--,and then misery6 ,the voice of conscience and of honour is terribly weak1 when the stomach calls out4 ,enough to say that if ever ,i grow rich ,i shall be bound to restore1 and ,i have made up my mind to restore in every possible fashion1 by eating1 drinking1 gambling1 and whatever else you please4 ,i4--,i have some fears about your ever growing rich4 ,he4--,i have suspicions myself4 ,i4--,but if things should fall so1 what then8 ,he4--,i would do like all other beggars set on horseback3 ,i would be the most insolent ruffler that has ever been seen4 ,then ,i should recall all that they have made me go through1 and should pay them back with good interest all the advances that they have been good enough to make me4 ,i am fond of command1 and ,i will command4 ,i am fond of praise1 and ,i will make them praise me4 ,i will have in my pay the whole troop of flatterers1 parasites1 and buffoons1 and ,i'll say to them1 as has been said to me3 ,come1 knaves1 let me be amused1 and amused ,i shall be2 ,pull me some honest folk to pieces1 and so they will be1 if honest folk can be found4 ,we will be jolly over our cups1 we will have all sorts of vices and whimsies2 it will be delicious4 ,we will prove that ,voltaire has no genius2 that ,buffon1 everlastingly perched upon his stilts1 is only a turgid declaimer2 that ,montesquieu is nothing more than a man with a touch of ingenuity2 we will send ,d',alembert packing to his fusty mathematics4 ,we will welcome before and behind all the pigmy ,catos like you1 whose modesty is the prop of pride1 and whose sobriety is a fine name for not being able to help yourselves4 ,i4--,from the worthy use to which you would put your riches1 ,i perceive what a pity it is that you are a beggar4 ,you would live thus in a manner that would be eminently honourable to the human race1 eminently useful to your countrymen1 and eminently glorious for yourself4 ,he4--,you are mocking me1 sir philosopher4 ,but you do not know whom you are laughing at4 ,you do not suspect that at this moment ,i represent the most important part of the town and the court4 ,our millionaires in all ranks have1 or have not1 said to themselves exactly the same things as ,i have just confided to you2 but the fact is1 the life that ,i should lead is precisely their life4 ,what a notion you people have2 you think that the same sort of happiness is made for all the world4 ,what a strange vision6 ,yours supposes a certain romantic spirit that we know nothing of1 a singular character1 a peculiar taste4 ,you adorn this incongruous mixture with the name of philosophy2 but now1 are virtue and philosophy made for all the world8 ,he has them who can get them1 and he keeps them who can4 ,imagine the universe sage and philosophical2 agree that it would be a most diabolically gloomy spot4 ,come1 long live philosophy6 ,the wisdom of ,solomon for ever6 ,to drink good wines1 to cram one's self with dainty dishes1 to rest in beds of down3 except that1 all1 all is vanity and vexation of spirit4 ,i4--,what1 to defend one's native land8 ,he4--,vanity2 there is native land no more2 ,i see nought from pole to pole but tyrants and slaves4 ,i4--,to help one's friends8 ,he4--,vanity2 has one any friends8 ,if one had1 ought we to turn them into ingrates8 ,look well1 and you will see that this is all you get by doing services4 ,gratitude is a burden1 and every burden is made to be shaken off4 ,i4--,to have a position in society and fulfil its duties8 ,he4--,vanity2 what matters it whether you have a position or not1 provided you are rich1 since you only seek a position to become rich8 ,to fulfil one's duties1 what does that lead to8 ,to jealousy1 trouble1 persecution4 ,is that the way to get on8 ,nay1 indeed3 to see the great1 to court them1 study their taste1 bow to their fancies1 serve their vices1 praise their injustice--there is the secret4 ,i4--,to watch the education of one's children8 ,he4--,vanity2 that is a tutor's business4 ,i4--,but if this tutor1 having picked up his principles from you1 happens to neglect his duties1 who will pay the penalty8 ,he4--,not ,i1 at any rate1 but most likely the husband of my daughter1 or the wife of my son4 ,i4--,but suppose that they both plunge into vice and debauchery8 ,he4--,that belongs to their position4 ,i4--,suppose they bring themselves into dishonour8 ,he4--,you never come into dishonour1 if you are rich1 whatever you do4 ,i4--,suppose they ruin themselves8 ,he4--,so much the worse for them4 ,i4--,you will not pay much heed to your wife8 ,he4--,none whatever1 if you please4 ,the best compliment1 ,i think1 that a man can pay his dearer half1 is to do what pleases himself4 ,in your opinion1 would not society be mightily amusing if everybody in it was always attending to his duties8 ,i4--,why not8 ,the evening is never so fair to me as when ,i am satisfied with my morning4 ,he4--,and to me also4 ,i4--,what makes the men of the world so dainty in their amusements1 is their profound idleness4 ,he4--,pray do not think that2 they are full of trouble4 ,i4--,as they never tire themselves1 they are never refreshed4 ,he4--,don't suppose that either4 ,they are incessantly worn out4 ,i4--,pleasure is always a business for them1 never the satisfaction of a necessity4 ,he4--,so much the better2 necessity is always a trouble4 ,i4--,they wear everything out4 ,their soul gets blunted1 weariness seizes them4 ,a man who should take their life in the midst of all their crushing abundance would do them a kindness4 ,the only part of happiness that they know is the part that loses its edge4 ,i do not despise the pleasures of the senses3 ,i have a palate1 too1 and it is tickled by a well-seasoned dish or a fine wine2 ,i have a heart and eyes1 and ,i like to see a handsome woman4 ,sometimes with my friends1 a gay party1 even if it waxes somewhat tumultuous1 does not displease me4 ,but ,i will not dissemble from you that it is infinitely pleasanter to me to have succoured the unfortunate1 to have ended some thorny business1 to have given wholesome counsel1 done some pleasant reading1 taken a walk with some man or woman dear to me1 passed instructive hours with my children1 written a good page1 fulfilled the duties of my position1 said to the woman that ,i love a few soft things that bring her arm round my neck4 ,i know actions which ,i would give all that ,i possess to have done4 ,mahomet is a sublime work2 ,i would a hundred times rather have got justice for the memory of the ,calas4 ,a person of my acquaintance fled to ,carthagena2 he was the younger son in a country where custom transfers all the property to the eldest4 ,there he learns that his eldest brother1 a petted son1 after having despoiled his father and mother of all that they possessed1 had driven them out of the castle1 and that the poor old souls were languishing in indigence in some small country town4 ,what does he do--this younger son who in consequence of the harsh treatment he had received at the hand of his parents had gone to seek his fortune far away8 ,he sends them help2 he makes haste to set his affairs in order1 he returns with his riches1 he restores his father and mother to their home1 and finds husbands for his sisters4 ,ah1 my dear ,rameau1 that man looked upon this period as the happiest in his life2 he had tears in his eyes when he spoke to me of it1 and even as ,i tell you the story1 ,i feel my heart beat faster1 and my tongue falter for sympathy4 ,he4--,singular beings1 you are6 ,i4--',tis you who are beings much to be pitied1 if you cannot imagine that one rises above one's lot1 and that it is impossible to be unhappy under the shelter of good actions4 ,he4--,that is a kind of felicity with which ,i should find it hard to familiarise myself1 for we do not often come across it4 ,but1 then1 according to you1 we should be good4 ,i4--,to be happy1 assuredly4 ,he4--,yet ,i see an infinity of honest people who are not happy1 and an infinity of people who are happy without being honest4 ,i4--,you think so4 ,he4--,and is it not for having had common sense and frankness for a moment1 that ,i don't know where to go for a supper to-night8 ,i4--,nay1 it is for not having had it always2 it is because you did not perceive in good time that one ought first and foremost to provide a resource independent of servitude4 ,he4--,independent or not1 the resource ,i had provided is at any rate the most comfortable4 ,i4--,and the least sure and least decent4 ,he4--,but the most conformable to my character of sloth1 madman1 and good-for-nought4 ,i4--,just so4 ,he4--,and since ,i can secure my happiness by vices which are natural to me1 which ,i have acquired without labour1 which ,i preserve without effort1 which go well with the manners of my nation1 which are to the taste of those who protect me1 and are more in harmony with their small private necessities than virtues which would weary them by being a standing accusation against them from morning to night1 why1 it would be very singular for me to go and torment myself like a lost spirit1 for the sake of making myself into somebody other than ,i am1 to put on a character foreign to my own1 and qualities which ,i will admit to be highly estimable1 in order to avoid discussion1 but which it would cost me a great deal to acquire1 and a great deal to practise1 and would lead to nothing1 or possibly to worse than nothing1 through the continual satire of the rich among whom beggars like me have to seek their subsistence4 ,we praise virtue1 but we hate it1 and shun it1 and know very well that it freezes the marrow of our bones--and in this world one must have one's feet warm4 ,and then all that would infallibly fill me with ill-humour2 for why do we so constantly see religious people so harsh1 so querulous1 so unsociable8 ',tis because they have imposed a task upon themselves which is not natural to them4 ,they suffer1 and when people suffer1 they make others suffer too4 ,that is not my game1 nor that of my protectors either2 ,i have to be gay1 supple1 amusing1 comical4 ,virtue makes itself respected1 and respect is inconvenient2 virtue insists on being admired1 and admiration is not amusing4 ,i have to do with people who are bored1 and ,i must make them laugh4 ,now it is absurdity and madness which make people laugh1 so mad and absurd ,i must be2 and even if nature had not made me so1 the simplest plan would still be to feign it4 ,happily1 ,i have no need to play hypocrite2 there are so many already of all colours1 without reckoning those who play hypocrite with themselves4444 ,if your friend ,rameau were to apply himself to show his contempt for fortune1 and women1 and good cheer1 and idleness1 and to begin to ,catonise1 what would he be but a hypocrite8 ,rameau must be what he is--a lucky rascal among rascals swollen with riches1 and not a mighty paragon of virtue1 or even a virtuous man1 eating his dry crust of bread1 either alone1 or by the side of a pack of beggars4 ,and1 to cut it short1 ,i do not get on with your felicity1 or with the happiness of a few visionaries like yourself4 ,i4--,i see1 my friend1 that you do not even know what it is1 and that you are not even made to understand it4 ,he4--,so much the better1 ,i declare2 so much the better4 ,it would make me burst with hunger and weariness1 and may be1 with remorse4 ,i4--,very well1 then1 the only advice ,i have to give you1 is to find your way back as quickly as you can into the house from which your impudence drove you out4 ,he4--,and to do what you do not disapprove absolutely and yet is a little repugnant to me relatively8 ,i4--,what a singularity6 ,he4--,nothing singular in it at all2 ,i wish to be abject1 but ,i wish to be so without constraint4 ,i do not object to descend from my dignity4444 ,you laugh8 ,i4--,yes1 your dignity makes me laugh4 ,he4--,everybody has his own dignity4 ,i do not object to come down from mine1 but it must be in my own way1 and not at the bidding of others4 ,must they be able to say to me1 ,crawl--and behold me1 forced to crawl8 ,that is the worm's way1 and it is mine2 we both of us follow it--the worm and ,i--when they leave us alone1 but we turn when they tread on our tails4 ,they have trodden on my tail1 and ,i mean to turn4 ,and then you have no idea of the creature we are talking about4 ,imagine a sour and melancholy person1 eaten up by vapours1 wrapped twice or thrice round in his dressing-gown1 discontented with himself1 and discontented with every one else2 out of whom you hardly wring a smile1 if you put your body and soul out of joint in a hundred different ways2 who examines with a cold considering eye the droll grimaces of my face1 and those of my mind1 which are droller still4 ,i may torment myself to attain the highest sublime of the lunatic asylum1 nothing comes of it4 ,will he laugh1 or will he not8 ,that is what ,i am obliged to keep saying to myself in the midst of my contortions2 and you may judge how damaging this uncertainty is to one's talent4 ,my hypochondriac1 with his head buried in a night-cap that covers his eyes1 has the air of an immovable pagod1 with a string tied to its chin1 and going down under his chair4 ,you wait for the string to be pulled1 and it is not pulled2 or if by chance the jaws open1 it is only to articulate some word that shows he has not seen you1 and that all your drolleries have been thrown away4 ,this word is the answer to some question which you put to him four days before2 the word spoken1 the mastoid muscle contracts1 and the jaw sticks4 ,then he set himself to imitate his man4 ,he placed himself on a chair1 his head fixed1 his hat coming over his eyebrows1 his eyes half-shut1 his arms hanging down1 moving his jaw up and down like an automaton3 ,gloomy1 obscure1 oracular as destiny itself--such is our patron4 ,at the other side of the room is a prude who plays at importance1 to whom one could bring one's self to say that she is pretty1 because she is pretty1 though she has a blemish or two upon her face4 ,item1 she is more spiteful1 more conceited1 and more silly than a goose4 ,item1 she insists on having wit4 ,item1 you have to persuade her that you believe she has more of it than anybody else in the world4 ,item1 she knows nothing1 and she has a turn for settling everything out of hand4 ,item1 you must applaud her decisions with feet and hands1 jump for joy1 and scream with admiration3--,how fine that is1 how delicate1 well said1 subtly seen1 singularly felt6 ,where do women get that8 ,without study1 by mere force of instinct1 and pure light of nature6 ,that is really like a miracle6 ,and then they want us to believe that experience1 study1 reflection1 education1 have anything to do with the matter6444 ,and other fooleries to match1 and tears and tears of joy2 ten times a day to kneel down1 one knee bent in front of the other1 the other leg drawn back1 the arms extended towards the goddess1 to seek one's desire in her eyes1 to hang on her lips1 to wait for her command1 and then start off like a flash of lightning4 ,where is the man who would subject himself to play such a part1 if it is not the wretch1 who finds there two or three times a week the wherewithal to still the tribulation of his inner parts8 ,i4--,i should never have thought you were so fastidious4 ,he4--,i am not4 ,in the beginning ,i watched the others1 and ,i did as they did1 even rather better1 because ,i am more frankly impudent1 a better comedian1 hungrier1 and better off for lungs4 ,i descend apparently in a direct line from the famous ,stentor4444 ,and to give me a just idea of the force of his organ1 he set off laughing1 with violence enough to break the windows of the coffee-house1 and to interrupt the chess-players4 ,i4--,but what is the good of this talent8 ,he4--,you cannot guess8 ,i4--,no2 ,i am rather slow4 ,he4--,suppose the debate opened1 and victory uncertain2 ,i get up1 and1 displaying my thunder1 ,i say3 ,that is as mademoiselle asserts4444 ,that is worth calling a judgment4 ,there is genius in the expression4 ,but one must not always approve in the same manner2 one would be monotonous1 and seem insincere1 and become insipid4 ,you only escape that by judgment and resource2 you must know how to prepare and place your major and most peremptory tones1 to seize the occasion and the moment4 ,when1 for instance1 there is a difference in feeling1 and the debate has risen to its last degree of violence1 and you have ceased to listen to one another1 and all speak at the same time1 you ought to have your place at the corner of the room which is farthest removed from the field of battle1 to have prepared the way for your explosion by a long silence1 and then suddenly to fall like a thunder-clap over the very midst of the combatants4 ,nobody possesses this art as ,i do4 ,but where ,i am truly surprising is in the opposite way--,i have low tones that ,i accompany with a smile1 and an infinite variety of approving tricks of face2 nose1 lips1 brow1 eyes1 all make play2 ,i have a suppleness of reins1 a manner of twisting the spine1 of shrugging the shoulders1 extending the fingers1 inclining the head1 closing the eyes1 and throwing myself into a state of stupefaction1 as if ,i had heard a divine angelic voice come down from heaven2 that is what flatters4 ,i do not know whether you seize rightly all the energy of that last attitude4 ,i did not invent it1 but nobody has ever surpassed me in its execution4 ,behold1 behold6 ,i4--,truly1 it is unique4 ,he4--,think you there is a woman's brain that could stand that8 ,i4--,it must be admitted that you have carried the talent of playing the madman1 and of self-debasement1 as far as it can possibly be carried4 ,he4--,try as hard as they will1 they will never touch me--not the best of them4 ,palissot1 for instance1 will never be more than a good learner4 ,but if this part is amusing at first1 and if you have some relish in inwardly mocking at the folly of the people whom you are intoxicating1 in the long run that ceases to be exciting1 and then after a certain number of discoveries one is obliged to repeat one's self4 ,wit and art have their limits4 ',tis only ,god ,almighty and some rare geniuses1 for whom the career widens as they advance4 ,i4--,with this precious enthusiasm for fine things1 and this facility of genius of yours1 is it possible that you have invented nothing8 ,he4--,pardon me2 for instance1 that admiring attitude of the back1 of which ,i spoke to you2 ,i regard it as my own1 though envy may contest my claim4 ,i daresay it has been employed before3 but who has felt how convenient it was for laughing in one's sleeve at the ass for whom one was dying of admiration6 ,i have more than a hundred ways of opening fire on a girl under the very eyes of her mother1 without the latter suspecting a jot of it2 yes1 and even of making her an accomplice4 ,i had hardly begun my career before ,i disdained all the vulgar fashions of slipping a billet-doux2 ,i have ten ways of having them taken from me1 and out of the number ,i venture to flatter myself there are some that are new4 ,i possess in an especial degree the gift of encouraging a timid young man2 ,i have secured success for some who had neither wit nor good looks4 ,if all that was written down1 ,i fancy people would concede me some genius4 ,i4--,and would do you singular honour4 ,he4--,i don't doubt it4 ,i4--,in your place1 ,i would put those famous methods on paper4 ,it would be a pity for them to be lost4 ,he4--,it is true2 but you could never suppose how little ,i think of method and precepts4 ,he who needs a protocol will never go far4 ,your genius reads little1 experiments much1 and teaches himself4 ,look at ,caesar1 ,turenne1 ,vauban1 the ,marquise de ,tencin1 her brother the cardinal1 and the cardinal's secretary1 the ,abbe ,trublet1 and ,bouret6 ,who is it that has given lessons to ,bouret8 ,nobody2 'tis nature that forms these rare men4 ,i4--,well1 but you might do this in your lost hours1 when the anguish of your empty stomach1 or the weariness of your stomach overloaded1 banishes slumber4 ,he4--,i'll think of it4 ,it is better to write great things than to execute small ones4 ,then the soul rises on wings1 the imagination is kindled2 whereas it shrivels in amazement at the applause which the absurd public lavishes so perversely on that mincing creature of a ,dangeville1 who plays so flatly1 who walks the stage nearly bent double1 who stares affectedly and incessantly into the eyes of every one she talks to1 and who takes her grimaces for finesse1 and her little strut for grace2 or on that emphatic ,clairon1 who becomes more studied1 more pretentious1 more elaborately heavy1 than ,i can tell you4 ,that imbecile of a pit claps hands to the echo1 and never sees that we are a mere worsted ball of daintinesses 7',tis true the ball grows a trifle big1 but what does it matter871 that we have the finest skin1 the finest eyes1 the prettiest bill2 little feeling inside1 in truth2 a step that is not exactly light1 but which for all that is not as awkward as they say4 ,as for sentiment1 on the other hand1 there is not one of these stage dames whom we cannot cap4 ,i4--,what do you mean by all that8 ,is it irony or truth8 ,he4--,the worst of it is that this deuced sentiment is all internal1 and not a glimpse of it appears outside2 but ,i who am now talking to you1 ,i know1 and know well1 that she has it4 ,if it is not that1 you should see1 if a fit of ill-humour comes on1 how we treat the valets1 how the waiting-maids are cuffed and trounced1 what kicks await our good friend1 if he fails in an atom of that respect which is our due4 ',tis a little demon1 ,i tell you1 full of sentiment and dignity4 ,ah1 you don't quite know where you are1 eh8 ,i4--,i confess ,i can hardly make out whether you are speaking in good faith or in malice4 ,i am a plain man4 ,be kind enough to be a little more outspoken1 and to leave your art behind for once4444 ,he4--,what is it8 why it is what we retail before our little patroness about the ,dangeville or the ,clairon1 mixed up here and there with a word or two to put you on the scent4 ,i will allow you to take me for a good-for-nothing1 but not for a fool2 and 'tis only a fool1 or a man eaten up with conceit1 who could say such a parcel of impertinences seriously4 ,i4--,but how do people ever bring themselves to say them8 ,he4--,it is not done all at once1 but little by little you come to it4 ,ingenii largitor venter4 ,i4--,then hunger must press you very hard4 ,he4--,that may be2 yet strong as you may think them1 be sure that those to whom they are addressed are much more accustomed to listen to them than we are to hazard them4 ,i4--,is there anybody who has courage to be of your opinion8 ,he4--,what do you mean by anybody8 ,it is the sentiment and language of the whole of society4 ,i4--,those of you who are not great rascals must be great fools4 ,he4--,fools6 ,i assure you there is only one1 and that is he who feasts us to cheat him4 ,i4--,but how can people allow themselves to be cheated in such gross fashion8 ,for surely the superiority of the ,dangeville and the ,clairon is a settled thing4 ,he4--,we swallow until we are full to the throat any lie that flatters us1 and take drop by drop a truth that is bitter to us4 ,and then we have the air of being so profoundly penetrated1 so true4 ,i4--,yet you must once1 at any rate1 have sinned against the principles of art1 and let slip1 by an oversight1 some of those bitter truths that wound2 for1 in spite of the wretched1 abject1 vile1 abominable part you play1 ,i believe you have at bottom some delicacy of soul4 ,he4--,i6 not the least in the world4 ,deuce take me if ,i know what ,i am6 ,in a general way1 ,i have a mind as round as a ball1 and a character fresh as a water-willow4 ,never false1 little interest as ,i have in being true2 never true1 little interest as ,i have in being false4 ,i say things just as they come into my head2 sensible things1 then so much the better2 impertinent things1 then people take no notice4 ,i let my natural frankness have full play4 ,i never in all my life gave a thought1 either beforehand1 what to say1 or while ,i was saying it1 or after ,i had said it4 ,and so ,i offend nobody4 ,i4--,still that did happen with the worthy people among whom you used to live1 and who were so kind to you4 ,he4--,what would you have8 ,it is a mishap1 an unlucky moment1 such as there always are in life2 there is no such thing as unbroken bliss3 ,i was too well off1 it could not last4 ,we have1 as you know1 the most numerous and the best chosen company4 ,it is a school of humanity1 the renewal of hospitality after the antique4 ,all the poets who fall1 we pick them up2 all decried musicians1 all the authors who are never read1 all the actresses who are hissed1 a parcel of beggarly1 disgraced1 stupid1 parasitical souls1 and at the head of them all ,i have the honour of being the brave chief of a timorous flock4 ,it is ,i who exhort them to eat the first time they come1 and ,i who ask for drink for them--they are so shy4 ,a few young men in rags who do not know where to lay their heads1 but who have good looks2 a few scoundrels who bamboozle the master of the house1 and put him to sleep1 for the sake of gleaning after him in the fields of the mistress of the house4 ,we seem gay1 but at bottom we are devoured by spleen and a raging appetite4 ,wolves are not more famishing1 nor tigers more cruel4 ,like wolves when the ground has been long covered with snow1 we raven over our food1 and whatever succeeds we rend like tigers4 ,never was seen such a collection of soured1 malignant1 venomous beasts4 ,you hear nothing but the names of ,buffon1 ,duclos1 ,montesquieu1 ,rousseau1 ,voltaire1 ,d',alembert1 ,diderot2 and ,god knows the epithets that bear them company6 ,nobody can have any parts if he is not as stupid as ourselves4 ,that is the plan on which ,palissot's play of ,the ,philosophers has been conceived4 ,and you are not spared in it1 any more than your neighbours4 ,i4--,so much the better4 ,perhaps they do me more honour than ,i deserve4 ,i should be humiliated if those who speak ill of so many clever and worthy people took it into their heads to speak well of me4 ,he4--,everybody must pay his scot4 ,after sacrificing the greater animals1 then we immolate the others4 ,i4--,insulting science and virtue for a living1 that is dearly-earned bread6 ,he4--,i have already told you1 we are without any consistency2 we insult all the world1 and afflict nobody4 ,we have sometimes the heavy ,abbe d',olivet1 the big ,abbe ,le ,blanc1 the hypocrite ,batteux4 ,the big abbe is only spiteful before he has had his dinner2 his coffee taken1 he throws himself into an arm-chair1 his feet against the ledge of the fireplace1 and sleeps like an old parrot on its perch4 ,if the noise becomes violent he yawns1 stretches his arms1 rubs his eyes1 and says3 ,well1 well1 what is it8 ,it is whether ,piron has more wit than ,voltaire4 ,let us understand2 is it wit that you are talking about1 or is it taste8 ,for as to taste1 your ,piron has not a suspicion of it4 ,not a suspicion of it8 ,no4 ,and there we are1 embarked in a dissertation upon taste4 ,then the patron makes a sign with his hand for people to listen to him1 for if he piques himself upon one thing more than another1 it is taste4 ,taste1 he says1 taste is a thing4444 ,but1 on my soul1 ,i don't know what thing he said that it was1 nor does he4 ,then sometimes we have friend ,robbe4 ,he regales us with his equivocal stories1 with the miracles of the convulsionnaires which he has seen with his own eyes1 and with some cantos of a poem on a subject that he knows thoroughly4 ,his verses ,i detest1 but ,i love to hear him recite them--he has the air of an energumen4 ,they all cry out around him3 ,there is a poet worth calling a poet6444 ,then there comes to us also a certain noodle with a dull and stupid air1 but who has the keenness of a demon1 and is more mischievous than an old monkey4 ,he is one of those figures that provoke pleasantries and sarcasms1 and that ,god made for the chastisement of those who judge by appearances1 and who ought to have learnt from the mirror that it is as easy to be a wit with the air of a fool as to hide a fool under the air of a wit4 ',tis a very common piece of cowardice to immolate a good man to the amusement of the others2 people never fail to turn to this man2 he is a snare that we set for the new-comers1 and ,i have scarcely known one of them who was not caught 444 ,i was sometimes amazed at the justice of my madman's observations on men and characters1 and ,i showed him my surprise4 ,that is1 he answered1 because one derives good out of bad company1 as one does out of libertinism4 ,you are recompensed for the loss of your innocence by that of your prejudices2 in the society of the bad1 where vice shows itself without a mask1 you learn to understand them4 ,and then ,i have read a little4 ,i4--,what have you read8 ,he4--,i have read1 and ,i read1 and ,i read over and over again ,theophrastus and ,la ,bruyere and ,moliere4 ,i4--,excellent works1 all of them4 ,he4--,they are far better than people suppose2 but who is there who knows how to read them8 ,i4--,everybody does1 according to the measure of his intelligence4 ,he4--,no2 hardly anybody4 ,could you tell me what people look for in them8 ,i4--,amusement and instruction4 ,he4--,but what instruction1 for that is the point8 ,i4--,the knowledge of one's duties1 the love of virtue1 the hatred of vice4 ,he4--,for my part1 ,i gather from them all that one ought to do1 and all that one ought not to say4 ,thus1 when ,i read the ,avare1 ,i say to myself3 ,be a miser if thou wilt1 but beware of talking like the miser4 ,when ,i read ,tartufe1 ,i say3 ,be a hypocrite if thou wilt1 but do not talk like a hypocrite4 ,keep the vices that are useful to thee1 but avoid their tone and the appearances that would make thee laughable4 ,to preserve thyself from such a tone and such appearances1 it is necessary to know what they are4 ,now these authors have drawn excellent pictures of them4 ,i am myself1 and ,i remain what ,i am1 but ,i act and ,i speak as becomes the character4 ,i am not one of those who despise moralists2 there is a great deal of profit to be got from them1 especially with those who have applied morality to action4 ,vice only hurts men from time to time2 the characteristics of vice hurt them from morning to night4 ,perhaps it would be better to be insolent than to have an insolent expression4 ,one who is insolent in character only insults people now and again2 one who is insolent in expression insults them incessantly4 ,and do not imagine that ,i am the only reader of my kind4 ,i have no other merit in this respect than having done on system1 from a natural integrity of understanding1 and with true and reasonable vision1 what most others do by instinct4 ,and so their readings make them no better than ,i am1 and they remain ridiculous in spite of themselves1 while ,i am only so when ,i choose1 and always leave them a vast distance behind me2 for the same art which teaches me how to escape ridicule on certain occasions teaches me also on certain others how to incur it happily4 ,then ,i recall to myself all that the others said1 and all that ,i read1 and ,i add all that issues from my own originality1 which is in this kind wondrous fertile4 ,i4--,you have done well to reveal these mysteries to me1 for otherwise ,i should have thought you self-contradictory4 ,he4--,i am not so in the least1 for against a single time when one has to avoid ridicule1 happily there are a hundred when one has to provoke it4 ,there is no better part among the great people than that of fool4 ,for a long time there was the king's fool2 at no time was there ever the king's sage1 officially so styled4 ,now ,i am the fool of ,bertin and many others1 perhaps yours at the present moment1 or perhaps you are mine4 ,a man who meant to be a sage would have no fool1 so he who has a fool is no sage2 if he is not a sage he is a fool1 and perhaps1 even were he the king himself1 the fool of his fool4 ,for the rest1 remember that in a matter so variable as manners1 there is nothing absolutely1 essentially1 and universally true or false2 if not that one must be what interest would have us be1 good or bad1 wise or mad1 decent or ridiculous1 honest or vicious4 ,if virtue had happened to be the way to fortune1 then ,i should either have been virtuous1 or ,i should have pretended virtue1 like other persons4 ,as it was1 they wanted me to be ridiculous1 and ,i made myself so2 as for being vicious1 nature alone had taken all the trouble that was needed in that4 ,when ,i use the term vicious1 it is for the sake of talking your language2 for1 if we came to explanations1 it might happen that you called vice what ,i call virtue1 and virtue what ,i call vice4 ,then we have the authors of the ,opera ,comique1 their actors and their actresses1 and oftener still their managers1 all people of resource and superior merit4 ,and ,i forget the whole clique of scribblers in the gazettes1 the ,avant ,coureur1 the ,petites ,affiches1 the ,annee litteraire1 the ,observateur litteraire4 ,i4--,the ,annee litteraire1 the ,observateur litteraire6 ,but they detest one another4 ,he4--,quite true1 but all beggars are reconciled at the porringer4 ,that cursed ,observateur litteraire1 ,i wish the devil had had both him and his sheet6 ,it was that dog of a miserly priest who caused my disaster4 ,he appeared on our horizon for the first time2 he arrived at the hour that drives us all out of our dens1 the hour for dinner4 ,when it is bad weather1 lucky the man among us who has a shilling in his pocket to pay for a hackney-coach6 ,he is free to laugh at a comrade for coming besplashed up to his eyes and wet to the skin1 though at night he goes to his own home in just the same plight4 ,there was one of them some months ago who had a violent brawl with the ,savoyard at the door4 ,they had a running account2 the creditor insisted on being paid1 and the debtor was not in funds1 and yet he could not go upstairs without passing through the hands of the other4 ,dinner is served2 they do the honours of the table to the abbe--they place him at the upper end4 ,i come in and see this4 ,what1 abbe1 you preside8 ,that is all very well for to-day1 but to-morrow you will come down1 if you please1 by one plate2 the day after by another plate1 and so on from plate to plate1 now to right and now to left1 until from the place that ,i occupied one time before you1 ,freron once after me1 ,dorat once after ,freron1 ,palissot once after ,dorat1 you become stationary beside me1 poor rascal as you are--che siedo sempre come--an ,italian proverb not to be decently reproduced4 ,the abbe1 who is a good fellow1 and takes everything in good part1 bursts out laughing2 ,mademoiselle1 struck by my observation and by the aptness of my comparison1 bursts out laughing2 everybody to right and left burst out laughing1 except the master of the house1 who flies into a huff1 and uses language that would have meant nothing if we had been by ourselves-- ,rameau1 you are an impertinent4 ,i know ,i am1 and it is on that condition that ,i was received here4 ,you are a scoundrel4 ,like anybody else4 ,a beggar4 ,should ,i be here1 if ,i were not8 ,i will have you turned out of doors4 ,after dinner ,i will go of my own will4 ,i recommend you to go4 ,we dined3 ,i did not lose a single toothful4 ,after eating well and drinking amply1 for after all ,messer ,gaster is a person with whom ,i have never sulked1 ,i made up my mind what to do1 and ,i prepared to go2 ,i had pledged my word in presence of so many people that ,i was bound to keep it4 ,for a considerable time ,i hunted up and down the room for my hat and cane in every corner where they were not likely to be1 reckoning all the time that the master of the house would break out into a new torrent of injuries1 that somebody would interpose1 and that we should at last make friends by sheer dint of altercation4 ,i turned on this side and that1 for ,i had nothing on my heart2 but the master1 more sombre and dark-browed than ,homer's ,apollo as he lets his arrows fly among the ,greeks1 with his cap plucked farther over his head than usual1 marched backwards and forwards up and down the room4 ,mademoiselle approaches me3 ,but1 mademoiselle1 say ,i1 what has happened beyond what happens every day8 ,have ,i been different from what ,i am on other days8 ,i insist on his leaving the house4--,i am leaving4444 ,but ,i have given no ground of offence4--,pardon me2 we invite the abbe and4444 ,it was he who was wrong to invite the abbe1 while at the same time he was receiving me1 and with me so many other creatures of my sort4--,come1 friend ,rameau1 you must beg the abbe's pardon4--,i shall not know what to do with his pardon4--,come1 come1 all will be right4--,they take me by the hand1 and drag me towards the abbe's chair2 ,i look at him with a kind of admiring wonder1 for who before ever asked pardon of the abbe8 ,all this is very absurd1 abbe2 confess1 is it not8 ,and then ,i laugh1 and the abbe laughs too4 ,so that is my forgiveness on that side2 but ,i had next to approach the other1 and that was a very different thing4 ,i forget exactly how it was that ,i framed my apology4--,sir1 here is the madman4444--,he has made me suffer too long2 ,i wish to hear no more about him4--,he is sorry4--,yes1 ,i am very sorry4--,it shall not happen again4--,until the first rascal4444--,i do not know whether he was in one of those days of ill-humour when mademoiselle herself dreads to go near him1 or whether he misunderstood what ,i said1 or whether ,i said something wrong3 things were worse than before4 ,good heavens1 does he not know me8 ,does he not know that ,i am like children1 and that there are some circumstances in which ,i let anything and everything escape me8 ,and then1 ,god help me1 am ,i not to have a moment of relief8 ,why1 it would wear out a puppet made of steel1 to keep pulling the string from night to morning1 and from morning to night6 ,i must amuse them1 of course1 that is the condition2 but ,i must now and then amuse myself4 ,in the midst of these distractions there came into my head a fatal idea1 an idea that gave me confidence1 that inspired me with pride and insolence3 it was that they could not do without me1 and that ,i was indispensable4 ,i4--,yes1 ,i daresay that you are very useful to them1 but that they are still more useful to you4 ,you will not find as good a house every day2 but they1 for one madman who falls short1 will find a hundred to take his place4 ,he4--,a hundred madmen like me1 sir philosopher2 they are not so common1 ,i can tell you6 ,flat fools--yes4 ,people are harder to please in folly than in talent or virtue4 ,i am a rarity in my own kind1 a great rarity4 ,now that they have me no longer1 what are they doing8 ,they find time as heavy as if they were dogs4 ,i am an inexhaustible bagful of impertinences4 ,every minute ,i had some fantastic notion that made them laugh till they cried2 ,i was a whole ,bedlam in myself4 ,i4--,well1 at any rate you had bed and board1 coat and breeches1 shoes1 and a pistole a month4 ,he4--,that is the profit side of the account2 you say not a word of the cost of it all4 ,first1 if there was a whisper of a new piece 7no matter how bad the weather71 one had to ransack all the garrets in ,paris1 until one had found the author2 then to get a reading of the play1 and adroitly to insinuate that there was a part in it which would be rendered in a superior manner by a certain person of my acquaintance4--,and by whom1 if you please8--,by whom8 a pretty question6 ,there are graces1 finesse1 elegance4--,ah1 you mean ,mademoiselle ,dangeville8 ,perhaps you know her8--,yes1 a little2 but 'tis not she4--,who is it1 then8--,i whispered the name very low4 ,she8--,yes1 she1 ,i repeated with some shame1 for sometimes ,i do feel a touch of shame2 and at this name you should have seen how long the poet's face grew1 if indeed he did not burst out laughing in my face4 ,still1 whether he would or not1 ,i was bound to take my man to dine2 and he1 being naturally afraid of pledging himself1 drew back1 and tried to say ,no1 thank you4 ,you should have seen how ,i was treated1 if ,i did not succeed in my negotiation6 ,i was a blockhead1 a fool1 a rascal2 ,i was not good for a single thing2 ,i was not worth the glass of water which they gave me to drink4 ,it was still worse at their performance1 when ,i had to go intrepidly amid the cries of a public that has a good judgment of its own1 whatever may be said about it1 and make my solitary clap of the hand audible1 draw every eye to me1 and sometimes save the actress from hisses1 and hear people murmur around me--,he is one of the valets in disguise belonging to the man who4444 ,will that knave be quiet8 ,they do not know what brings a man to that2 they think it is stupidity1 but there is one motive that excuses anything4 ,i4--,even the infraction of the civil laws4 ,he4--,at length1 however1 ,i became known1 and people used to say3 ,oh1 it is ,rameau6 ,my resource was to throw out some words of irony to save my solitary applause from ridicule1 by making them interpret it in an opposite sense4 ,now agree that one must have a mighty interest to make one thus brave the assembled public1 and that each of these pieces of hard labour was worth more than a paltry crown8 ,and then at home there was a pack of dogs to tend1 and cats for which ,i was responsible4 ,i was only too happy if ,micou favoured me with a stroke of his claw that tore my cuff or my wrist4 ,criquette is liable to colic2 'tis ,i who have to rub her4 ,in old days mademoiselle used to have the vapours2 to-day1 it is her nerves4 ,she is beginning to grow a little stout2 you should hear the fine tales they make out of this4 ,i4--,you do not belong to people of this sort1 at any rate8 ,he4--,why not8 ,i4--,because it is indecent to throw ridicule on one's benefactors4 ,he4--,but is it not worse still to take advantage of one's benefits to degrade the receiver of them8 ,i4--,but if the receiver of them were not vile in himself1 nothing would give the benefactor the chance4 ,he4--,but if the personages were not ridiculous in themselves they would not make subjects for good tales4 ,and then1 is it my fault if they mix with rascaldom8 ,is it my fault if1 after mixing themselves up with rascaldom1 they are betrayed and made fools of8 ,when people resolve to live with people like us1 if they have common sense1 there is an infinite quantity of blackness for which they must make up their minds4 ,when they take us1 do they not know us for what we are1 for the most interested1 vile1 and perfidious of souls4 ,then if they know us1 all is well4 ,there is a tacit compact that they shall treat us well1 and that sooner or later we shall treat them ill in return for the good that they have done us4 ,does not such an agreement subsist between a man and his monkey or his parrot8444 ,if you take a young provincial to the menagerie at ,versailles1 and he takes it into his head for a freak to push his hands between the bars of the cage of the tiger or the panther1 whose fault is it8 ,it is all written in the silent compact1 and so much the worse for the man who forgets or ignores it4 ,how ,i could justify by this universal and sacred compact the people whom you accuse of wickedness1 whereas it is in truth yourselves whom you ought to accuse of folly4444 ,but while we execute the just decrees of ,providence on folly1 you who paint us as we are1 you execute its just decrees on us4 ,what would you think of us1 if we claimed1 with our shameless manners1 to enjoy public consideration8 ,that we are out of our senses4 ,and those who look for decent behaviour from people who are born vicious and with vile and bad characters--are they in their senses8 ,everything has its true wages in this world4 ,there are two ,public ,prosecutors1 one at your door1 chastising offences against society2 nature is the other4 ,nature knows all the vices that escape the laws4 ,give yourself up to debauchery1 and you will end with dropsy2 if you are crapulous1 your lungs will find you out2 if you open your door to ragamuffins1 and live in their company1 you will be betrayed1 laughed at1 despised4 ,the shortest way is to resign1 one's self to the equity of these judgments1 and to say to one's self3 ,that is as it should be2 to shake one's ears and turn over a new leaf1 or else to remain what one is1 but on the conditions aforesaid4444 ,i4--,you cannot doubt what judgment ,i pass on such a character as yours8 ,he4--,not at all2 ,i am in your eyes an abject and most despicable creature2 and ,i am sometimes the same in my own eyes1 though not often3 ,i more frequently congratulate myself on my vices than blame myself for them2 you are more constant in your contempt4 ,i4--,true2 but why show me all your turpitude8 ,he4--,first1 because you already know a good deal of it1 and ,i saw that there was more to gain than to lose1 by confessing the rest4 ,i4--,how so1 if you please8 ,he4--,it is important in some lines of business to reach sublimity2 it is especially so in evil4 ,people spit upon a small rogue1 but they cannot refuse a kind of consideration to a great criminal2 his courage amazes you1 his atrocity makes you shudder4 ,in all things1 what people prize is unity of character4 ,i4--,but this estimable unity of character you have not quite got3 ,i find you from time to time vacillating in your principles2 it is uncertain whether you get your wickedness from nature or study1 and whether study has brought you as far as possible4 ,he4--,i agree with you1 but ,i have done my best4 ,have ,i not had the modesty to recognise persons more perfect in my own line than myself4 ,have ,i not spoken to you of ,bouret with the deepest admiration8 ,bouret is the first person in the world for me4 ,i4--,but after ,bouret you come4 ,he4--,no4 ,i4--,palissot1 then8 ,he4--,palissot1 but not ,palissot alone4 ,i4--,and who is worthy to share the second rank with him8 ,he4--,the ,renegade of ,avignon4 ,i4--,i never heard of the ,renegade of ,avignon1 but he must be an astonishing man4 ,he4--,he is so1 indeed4 ,i4--,the history of great personages has always interested me4 ,he4--,i can well believe it4 ,this hero lived in the house of a good and worthy descendant of ,abraham1 promised to the father of the faithful in number equal to the stars in the heavens4 ,i4--,in the house of a ,jew8 ,he4--,in the house of a ,jew4 ,he had at first surprised pity1 then goodwill1 then entire confidence1 for that is how it always happens3 we count so strongly on our kindness1 that we seldom hide our secrets from anybody on whom we have heaped benefits4 ,how should there not be ingrates in the world1 when we expose this man to the temptation of being ungrateful with impunity8 ,that is a just reflection which our ,jew failed to make4 ,he confided to the renegade that he could not conscientiously eat pork4 ,you will see the advantage that a fertile wit knew how to get from such a confession4 ,some months passed1 during which our renegade redoubled his attentions2 when he believed his ,jew thoroughly touched1 thoroughly captivated1 thoroughly convinced that he had no better friend among all the tribes of ,israel 444 now admire the circumspection of the man6 ,he is in no hurry2 he lets the pear ripen before he shakes the branch2 too much haste might have ruined his design4 ,it is because greatness of character usually results from the natural balance between several opposite qualities4 ,i4--,pray leave your reflections1 and go straight on with your story4 ,he4--,that is impossible4 ,there are days when ,i cannot help reflecting2 'tis a malady that must be allowed to run its course4 ,where was ,i8 ,i4--,at the intimacy that had been established between the ,jew and the renegade4 ,he4--,then the pear was ripe4444 ,but you are not listening2 what are you dreaming about8 ,i4--,i am thinking of the curious inequality in your tone1 now so high1 now so low4 ,he4--,how can a man made of vices be one and the same8444 ,he reaches his friend's house one night1 with an air of violent perturbation1 with broken accents1 a face as pale as death1 and trembling in every limb4 ,what is the matter with you8--,we are ruined4 ,ruined1 how8--,ruined1 ,i tell you1 beyond all help4--,explain4--,one moment1 until ,i have recovered from my fright4--,come1 then1 recover yourself1 says the ,jew4444 ,a traitor has informed against us before the ,holy ,inquisition1 you as a ,jew1 me as a renegade1 an infamous renegade4444 ,mark how the traitor does not blush to use the most odious expressions4 ,it needs more courage than you may suppose to call one's self by one's right name2 you do not know what an effort it costs to come to that4 ,i4--,no1 ,i daresay not4 ,but the infamous renegade---- ,he4--,he is false1 but his falsity is adroit enough4 ,the ,jew takes fright1 tears his beard1 rolls on the ground1 sees the officers at his door1 sees himself clad in the ,sanbenito1 sees his auto-da-fe all made ready4 ,my friend1 he cries1 my good1 tender friend1 my only friend1 what is to be done8 ,what is to be done8 ,why show ourselves1 affect the greatest security1 go about our business just as we usually do4 ,the procedure of the tribunal is secret but slow2 we must take advantage of its delays to sell all you have4 ,i will hire a boat1 or ,i will have it hired by a third person--that will be best2 in it we will deposit your fortune1 for it is your fortune that they are most anxious to get at2 and then we will go1 you and ,i1 and seek under another sky the freedom of serving our ,god1 and following in security the law of ,abraham and our own consciences4 ,the important point in our present dangerous situation is to do nothing imprudent4 ,no sooner said than done4 ,the vessel is hired1 victualled1 and manned1 the ,jew's fortune put on board2 on the morrow1 at dawn1 they are to sail1 they are free to sup gaily and to sleep in all security2 on the morrow they escape their prosecutors4 ,in the night1 the renegade gets up1 despoils the ,jew of his portfolio1 his purse1 his jewels1 goes on board1 and sails away4 ,and you think that this is all8 ,good3 you are not awake to it4 ,now when they told me the story1 ,i divined at once what ,i have not told you1 in order to try your sagacity4 ,you were quite right to be an honest man2 you would never have made more than a fifth-rate scoundrel4 ,up to this point the renegade is only that2 he is a contemptible rascal whom nobody would consent to resemble4 ,the sublimity of his wickedness is this1 that he was himself the informer against his good friend the ,israelite1 of whom the ,inquisition took hold when he awoke the next morning1 and of whom a few days later they made a famous bonfire4 ,and it was in this way that the renegade became the tranquil possessor of the fortune of the accursed descendant of those who crucified our ,lord4 ,i4--,i do not know which of the two is most horrible to me--the vileness of your renegade1 or the tone in which you speak of it4 ,he4--,and that is what ,i said3 the atrocity of the action carries you beyond contempt1 and hence my sincerity4 ,i wished you to know to what a degree ,i excelled in my art1 to extort from you the admission that ,i was at least original in my abasement1 to rank me in your mind on the line of the great good-for-noughts1 and to hail me henceforth--,vivat ,mascarillus1 fourbum imperator6 ,here the discussion is turned aside1 by ,rameau's pantomimic performance of a fugue1 to various topics in music4#bbd #bbd ,vol4 v4 pp4 #deg-dfh4 ,i4--,how does it happen that with such fine tact1 such great sensibility for the beauties of the musical art1 you are so blind to the fine things of morality1 so insensible to the charms of virtue8 ,he4--,it must be because there is for the one a sense that ,i have not got1 a fibre that has not been given to me1 a slack string that you may play upon as much as you please1 but it never vibrates4 ,or it may be because ,i have always lived with those who were good musicians but bad men1 whence it has come to pass that my ear has grown very fine1 and my heart has grown very deaf4 ,and then there is something in race4 ,the blood of my father and the blood of my uncle is the same blood2 my blood is the same as that of my father2 the paternal molecule was hard and obtuse1 and that accursed first molecule has assimilated to itself all the rest4 ,i4--,do you love your child8 ,he4--,do ,i love it1 the little savage6 ,i dote on it4 ,i4--,will you not then seriously set to work to arrest in it the consequences of the accursed paternal molecule8 ,he4--,i shall labour in vain1 ,i fancy4 ,if he is destined to grow into a good man1 ,i shall not hurt him2 but if the molecule meant him for a ne'er-do-well like his father1 then all the pains that ,i might have taken to make a decent man of him would only be very hurtful to him1 ,education incessantly crossing the inclination of the molecule1 he would be drawn as it were by two contrary forces1 and would walk in zigzags along the path of life1 as ,i see an infinity of other people doing1 equally awkward in good and evil4 ,these are what we call especes1 of all epithets the most to be dreaded1 because it marks mediocrity and the very lowest degree of contempt4 ,a great scoundrel is a great scoundrel1 but he is not an espece4 ,before the paternal molecule had got the upper hand1 and had brought him to the perfect abjection at which ,i have arrived1 it would take endless time1 and he would lose his best years4 ,i do not meddle at present2 ,i let him come on4 ,i examine him2 he is already greedy1 cunning1 idle1 lying1 and a cheat2 ,i'm much afraid that he is a chip of the old block4 ,i4--,and you will make him a musician1 so that the likeness may be exact8 ,he4--,a musician6 ,sometimes ,i look at him and grind my teeth1 saying3 ,if thou wert ever to know a note of music1 ,i believe ,i would wring thy neck4 ,i4--,and why so1 if you please8 ,he4--,music leads to nothing4 ,i4--,it leads to everything4 ,he4--,yes1 when people are first-rate4 ,but who can promise himself that his child shall be first-rate4 ,the odds are ten thousand to one that he will never be anything but a wretched scraper of catgut4 ,are you aware that it would perhaps be easier to find a child fit to govern a realm1 fit to be a great king1 than one fit for a great violin player4 ,i4--,it seems to me that agreeable talents1 even if they are mediocre1 among a people who are without morals1 and are lost in debauchery and luxury1 get a man rapidly on in the path of fortune4 ,he4--,no doubt1 gold and gold2 gold is everything1 and all the rest without gold is nothing4 ,so instead of cramming his head with fine maxims which he would have to forget1 on pain of remaining a beggar all the days of his life1 what ,i do is this3 when ,i have a louis1 which does not happen to me often1 ,i plant myself in front of him1 ,i pull the louis out of my pocket1 ,i show it to him with signs of admiration1 ,i raise my eyes to heaven1 ,i kiss the louis before him1 and to make him understand still better the importance of the sacred coin1 ,i point to him with my finger all that he can get with it1 a fine frock1 a pretty cap1 a rich cake2 then ,i thrust the louis into my pocket1 ,i walk proudly up and down1 ,i raise the lappet of my waistcoat1 ,i strike my fob2 and in that way ,i make him see that it is the louis in it that gives me all this assurance4 ,i4--,nothing could be better4 ,but suppose it were to come to pass that1 being so profoundly penetrated by the value of the louis1 he were one day4444 ,he4--,i understand you4 ,one must close one's eyes to that2 there is no moral principle without its own inconvenience4 ,at the worst 'tis a bad quarter of an hour1 and then all is over4 ,i4--,even after hearing views so wise and so bold1 ,i persist in thinking that it would be good to make a musician of him4 ,i know no other means of getting so rapidly near great people1 of serving their vices better1 or turning your own to more advantage4 ,he4--,that is true2 but ,i have plans for a speedier and surer success4 ,ah1 if it were only a girl6 ,but as we cannot do all that we should like1 we must take what comes1 and make the best of it1 and not be such idiots as most fathers1 who could literally do nothing worse1 supposing them to have deliberately planned the misery of their children--namely1 give the education of ,lacedaemon to a child who is destined to live in ,paris4 ,if the education is bad1 the morals of my country are to blame for that1 not ,i4 ,answer for it who may2 ,i wish my son to be happy1 or what is the same thing1 rich1 honoured1 and powerful4 ,i know something about the easiest ways of reaching this end1 and ,i will teach them to him betimes4 ,if you blame me1 you sages1 the multitude and success will acquit me4 ,he will put money in his purse1 ,i can tell you4 ,if he has plenty of that1 he will lack nothing else1 not even your esteem and respect4 ,i4--,you may be mistaken4 ,he4--,then perhaps he will do very well without it1 like many other people4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there was in all this a good deal of what passes through many people's minds1 and much of the principle according to which they shape their own conduct2 but they never talk about it4 ,there1 in short1 is the most marked difference between my man and most of those about us4 ,he avowed the vices that he had1 and that others have2 but he was no hypocrite4 ,he was neither more nor less abominable than they2 he was only more frank1 and more consistent1 and sometimes he was profound in the midst of his depravity4 ,i trembled to think what his child might become under such a master4 ,it is certain that after ideas of bringing-up1 so strictly traced on the pattern of our manners1 he must go far1 unless prematurely stopped on the road4 ,he4--,oh1 fear nothing4 ,the important point1 the difficult point1 to which a good father ought to attend before everything else1 is not to give to his child vices that enrich1 or comical tricks such as make him valuable to people of quality--all the world does that1 if not on system as ,i do1 at least by example and precept4 ,the important thing is to impress on him the just proportion1 the art of keeping out of disgrace and the arm of the law4 ,there are certain discords in the social harmony that you must know exactly how to place1 to prepare1 and to hold4 ,nothing so tame as a succession of perfect chords2 there needs something that stimulates1 that resolves the beam1 and scatters its rays4 ,i4--,quite so2 by your image you bring me back from morals to music1 and ,i am very glad1 for1 to be quite frank with1 you1 ,i like you better as musician than as moralist4 ,he4--,yet1 ,i am a mere subaltern in music1 and a really superior figure in morals4 ,i4--,i doubt that2 but even if it were so1 ,i am an honest man1 and your principles are not mine4 ,he4--,so much the worse for you4 ,ah1 if ,i only had your talents6 ,i4--,never mind my talents2 let us return to yours4 ,he4--,if ,i could only express myself like you6 ,but ,i have an infernally absurd jargon--half the language of men of the world and of letters1 half of ,billingsgate4 ,i4--,nay1 ,i am a poor talker enough4 ,i only know how to speak the truth1 and that does not always answer1 as you know4 ,he4--,but it is not for speaking the truth--on the contrary1 it is for skilful lying that ,i covet your gift4 ,if ,i knew how to write1 to cook up a book1 to turn a dedicatory epistle1 to intoxicate a fool as to his own merits1 to insinuate myself into the good graces of women6 ,i4--,and you do know all that a thousand times better than ,i4 ,i should not be worthy to be so much as your pupil4 ,he4--,how many great qualities lost1 of which you do not know the price4 ,i4--,i get the price that ,i ask4 ,he4--,if that were true1 you would not be wearing that common suit1 that rough waistcoat1 those worsted stockings1 those thick shoes1 that ancient wig4 ,i4--,i grant that2 a man must be very maladroit not to be rich1 if he sticks at nothing in order to become rich4 ,but the odd thing is that there are people like me who do not look on riches as the most precious thing in the world2 bizarre people1 you know4 ,he4--,bizarre enough4 ,a man is not born with such a twist as that4 ,he takes the trouble to give it to himself1 for it is not in nature4 ,i4--,in the nature of man8 ,he4--,no2 for everything that lives1 without exception1 seeks its own wellbeing at the expense of any prey that is proper to its purpose2 and ,i am perfectly sure that if ,i let my little savage grow up without saying a word to him on the matter1 he would wish to be richly clad1 sumptuously fed1 cherished by men1 loved by women1 and to heap upon himself all the happiness of life4 ,i4--,if your little savage were left to himself1 let him only preserve all his imbecility1 and add to the scanty reason of the child in the cradle the violent passions of a man of thirty--why he would strangle his father and dishonour his own mother4 ,he4--,that proves the necessity of a good education1 and who denies it8 ,and what is a good education but one that leads to all sorts of enjoyments without danger and without inconvenience8 ,i4--,i am not so far from your opinion1 only let us keep clear of explanations4 ,he4--,why8 ,i4--,because ,i am afraid that we only agree in appearance1 and that if we once begin to discuss what are the dangers and the inconveniences to avoid1 we should cease to understand one another4 ,he4--,what of that8 ,i4--,let us leave all this1 ,i tell you2 what ,i know about it ,i shall never get you to learn1 and you will more easily teach me what ,i do not know1 and you do know1 in music4 ,let us talk about music1 dear ,rameau1 and tell me how it has come about that with the faculty for feeling1 retaining1 and rendering the finest passages in the great masters1 with the enthusiasm that they inspire in you1 and that you transmit to others1 you have done nothing that is worth4444 ,instead of answering me1 he shrugged his shoulders1 and pointing to the sky with his finger1 he cried3 ,the star6 the star6 ,when ,nature made ,leo1 ,vinci1 ,pergolese1 ,duni1 she smiled4 ,she put on a grave and imposing air in shaping my dear uncle ,rameau1 who for half a score years they will have called the great ,rameau1 and of whom very soon nobody will say a word4 ,when she tricked up his nephew1 she made a grimace1 and a grimace1 and again a grimace4 ,and as he said this1 he put on all sorts of odd expressions3 contempt1 disdain1 irony2 and he seemed to be kneading between his fingers a piece of paste1 and to be smiling at the ridiculous shapes that he gave it2 that done1 he flung the incongruous pagod#bbe away from him1 and said3 ,it was thus she made me1 and flung me by the side of the other pagods1 some with huge wrinkled paunches1 and short necks1 and great eyes projecting out of their heads1 stamped with apoplexy2 others with wry necks2 some again with wizened faces1 keen eyes1 hooked noses4 ,all were ready to split with laughing when they espied me1 and ,i put my hands to my sides and split with laughter when ,i espied them1 for fools and madmen tickle one another2 they seek and attract one another4 ,if when ,i got among them1 ,i had not found ready-made the proverb about the money of fools being the patrimony of people with wits1 they would have been indebted to me for it4 ,i felt that nature had put my lawful inheritance into the purses of the pagods1 and ,i devised a thousand means of recovering my rights4 #bbe ,these little china images of gods1 with nodding heads1 were then a fashionable toy in ,paris4 ,i4--,yes1 ,i know all about your thousand means2 you have told me of them1 and ,i have admired them vastly4 ,but with so many resources1 why not have tried that of a fine work8444 ,he4--,when ,i am alone ,i take up my pen and intend to write2 ,i bite my nails and rub my brow2 your humble servant1 good-bye1 the god is absent4 ,i had convinced myself that ,i had genius2 at the end of the time ,i discover that ,i am a fool1 a fool1 and nothing but a fool4 ,but how is one to feel1 to think1 to rise to heights1 to paint in strong colours1 while haunting with such creatures as those whom one must see if one is to live2 in the midst of such talk as one has to make and to hear1 and such idle gossip3 ,how charming the boulevard was to-day6 ,have you heard the little ,marmotte8 ,her playing is ravishing4 ,mr4 ,so-and-so had the handsomest pair of grays in his carriage that you can possibly imagine4 ,the beautiful ,mrs4 ,so-and-so is beginning to fade2 who at the age of five-and-forty would wear a headdress like that8 ,young ,such-and-such is covered with diamonds1 and she gets them cheap4 ,you mean she gets them dear4 ,no1 ,i do not4 ,where did you see her8 ,at the play4 ,the scene of despair was played as it had never been played before4 ,the ,polichinelle of the ,fair has a voice1 but no delicacy1 no soul4 ,madame ,so-and-so has produced two at a birth2 each father will have his own child4444 ,and yet you suppose that this kind of thing1 said and said again1 and listened to every day of the week1 sets the soul aglow and leads to mighty things4 ,i4--,nay1 it were better to turn the key of one's garret1 drink cold water1 eat dry bread1 and seek one's true self4 ,he4--,maybe1 but ,i have not the courage4 ,and then the idea of sacrificing one's happiness for the sake of a success that is doubtful6 ,and the name that ,i bear8 ,rameau6 ,it is not with talents as it is with nobility2 nobility transmits itself1 and increases in lustre by passing from grandfather to father1 and from father to son1 and from son to grandson1 without the ancestor impressing a spark of merit on his descendant2 the old stock ramifies into an enormous crop of fools2 but what matter8 ,it is not so with talents4 ,merely to obtain the renown of your father1 you must be cleverer than he was2 you must have inherited his fibre4 ,the fibre has failed me1 but the wrist is nimble1 the fiddle-bow scrapes away1 and the pot boils2 if there is not glory1 there is broth4 ,i4--,if ,i were in your place1 ,i would not take it for granted2 ,i would try4444 ,whatever it be that a man applies himself to1 nature meant him for it4 ,he4--,she makes mighty blunders4 ,for my part1 ,i do not look down from heights1 whence all seems confused and blurred1--the man who prunes a tree with his knife1 all one with the caterpillar who devours its leaf2 a couple of insects1 each at his proper task4 ,do you1 if you choose1 perch yourself on the epicycle of the planet ,mercury1 and thence distribute creation1 in imitation1 of ,reaumur2 he1 the classes of flies into seamstresses1 surveyors1 reapers2 you1 the human species into joiners1 dancers1 singers1 tilers4 ,that is your affair1 and ,i will not meddle with it4 ,i am in this world1 and in this world ,i rest4 ,but if it is in nature to have an appetite--for it is always to appetite that ,i come back1 and to the sensation that is ever present to me--then ,i find that it is by no means consistent with good order not to have always something to eat4 ,what a precious economy of things6 ,men who are over-crammed with everything under the sun1 while others1 who have a stomach just as importunate as they1 a hunger that recurs as regularly as theirs1 have not a bite4 ,the worst is the constrained posture to which want pins us down4 ,the needy man does not walk like anybody else2 he jumps1 he crawls1 he wriggles1 he limps1 he passes his whole life in taking and executing artificial postures4 ,i4--,what are postures8 ,he4--,ask ,noverre4#bbf ,the world offers far more of them than his art can imitate4 #bbf ,a famous dancing-master of the time4 ,i4--,ah1 there are you too--to use your expression or ,montaigne's--perched on the epicycle of ,mercury1 and eyeing the various pantomimes of the human race4 ,he4--,no1 no1 ,i tell you2 ,i'm too heavy to raise myself so high4 ,no sojourn in the fogs for me4 ,i look about me1 and ,i assume my postures1 or ,i amuse myself with the postures that ,i see others taking4 ,i am an excellent pantomime as you shall judge4 99 99 99 99 99 ,then he set himself to smile1 to imitate the admirer1 the suppliant1 the fawning complaisant2 he expects a command1 receives it1 starts off like an arrow1 returns1 the order is executed1 he reports what he has done2 he is attentive to everything2 he picks up something that has fallen2 he places a pillow or a footstool2 he holds a saucer2 he brings a chair1 opens a door1 closes a window1 draws the curtains1 gazes on the master and mistress2 he stands immovable1 his arms hanging by his side1 his legs exactly straight2 he listens1 he seeks to read their faces1 and then he adds3--,that is my pantomime1 very much the same as that of all flatterers1 courtiers1 valets1 and beggars4 ,the buffooneries of this man1 the stories of the abbe ,galiani1 the extravagances of ,rabelais1 have sometimes thrown me into profound reveries4 ,they are three stores whence ,i have provided myself with ridiculous masks that ,i place on the faces of the gravest personages1 and ,i see ,pantaloon in a prelate1 a satyr in a president1 a pig in a monk1 an ostrich in a minister1 a goose in his first clerk4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i4--,but according to your account1 ,i said to my man1 there are plenty of beggars in the world1 and yet ,i know nobody who is not acquainted with some of the steps of your dance4 ,he4--,you are right4 ,in a whole kingdom there is only one man who walks1 and that is the sovereign4 ,i4--,the sovereign8 ,there is something to be said on that4 ,for do you suppose that one may not from time to time find even by the side of him1 a dainty foot1 a pretty neck1 a bewitching nose1 that makes him execute his pantomime4 ,whoever has need of another is indigent1 and assumes a posture4 ,the king postures before his mistress1 and before ,god he treads his pantomimic measure4 ,the minister dances the step of courtier1 flatterer1 valet1 and beggar before his king4 ,the crowd of the ambitious cut a hundred capers1 each viler than the rest1 before the minister4 ,the abbe1 with his bands and long cloak1 postures at least once a week before the patron of livings4 ,on my word1 what you call the pantomime of beggars is only the whole huge bustle of the earth4444 ,he4--,but let us bethink ourselves what o'clock it is1 for ,i must go to the opera4 ,i4--,what is going on8 ,he4--,dauvergne's ,trocqueurs4 ,there are some tolerable things in the music2 the only pity is that he has not been the first to say them4 ,among those dead1 there are always some to dismay the living4 ,what would you have8 ,quisque suos patimur manes4 ,but it is half-past five1 ,i hear the bell ringing my vespers4 ,good day1 my philosopher2 always the same1 am ,i not8 ,i4--,alas1 you are2 worse luck4 ,he4--,only let me have that bad luck for forty years to come6 ,who laughs last has the best of the laugh4 ,,the ,,end4 ,printed by ,r4 ,r4 ,,clark1 ,,limited1 ,edinburgh4 ---------------------------------------- ---------------------- ,,collected ,,edition ,,of ,,the ,,works ,,of ,,john ,,morley ,in #ab ,vols4 ,globe #hvo4 #ds4 net each4 ,eversley ,series4 ,,voltaire4 #a ,vol4 ,,rousseau4 #b ,vols4 ,,diderot ,,and ,,the ,,encyclopaedists4 #b ,vols4 ,,on ,,compromise4 #a ,vol4 ,,miscellanies4 #c ,vols4 ,,burke4 #a ,vol4 ,,studies ,,in ,,literature4 #a ,vol4 ,,oliver ,,cromwell4 #a ,vol ,,the ,,life ,,of ,,william ,,ewart ,,gladstone4 #c ,vols4 #hvo4 #dbs4 net4 ,,oliver ,,cromwell4 #hvo4 #ajs4 net4 ,illustrated ,edition4 ,extra ,crown #hvo4 #ads4 net ,,life ,,of ,,walpole4 ,crown #hvo4 #bs4 #f;d4 ,twelve ,english ,statesmen4 ,,life ,,of ,,burke4 ,crown #hvo4 ,library ,edition1 #bs4 net2 ,popular ,edition1 #as4 #f;d42 sewed1 #as4 ,english ,men of ,letters4 ,,machiavelli4 #hvo4 #bs4 #f;d4 net4 ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co41 ,,ltd41 ,,london4 ---------------------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------- ,transcriber's ,notes ,errata ,italic text is enclosed in underscores 774 ,bold text is enclosed in 'equals' signs 774 ',,oe' and 'oe' ligatures have been transcribed as 'o' and 'e'1 and ',o' and 'e'4 ,the following words were found in both unhyphenated and hyphenated forms4 ,the number of instances of each are given in parentheses4 apiece 7#a7 a-piece 7#a7 demigods 7#a7 demi-gods 7#b7 nightcap 7#a7 night-cap 7#a7 wellbeing 7#d7 well-being 7#c7 ,the following typographical errors have been corrected4 ,error ,correction sociey society ,it would1 as ,mill has said1 ,it would1 as ,mill has said1 imply ignorance of the imply ignorance of the history of philosophy and history of philosophy and of general literature not of general literature not to be aware that in all to be aware that in all ages of philosophy and of ages of philosophy one of general literature1 not its schools has been to be aware that in all utilitarian1 not only from ages of philosophy one of the time of ,epicurus1 but its schools has been long before4 utilitarian1 not only from the time of ,epicurus1 but long before4 beween between sense how sense of how arbitary arbitrary ---------------------------------------- ----------------------