,,critical ,,miscellanies   by  ,,john  
,,morley   ,,vol4 ,,ii4  ,essay #b3     
,turgot       ,london ,,macmillan ,,and 
,,co41 ,,limited ,new ,york3 ,the       
,mac,millan ,company #aije     ,,turgot4
   ,i4                                  
,,page  ,birth and family descent       
#da  ,his youth at the ,sorbonne        
#dg  ,intellectual training             
#eb  ,his college friends3 ,morellet1   
and ,lomenie de ,brienne     #ed        
,turgot refused to become an            
ecclesiastic                  #ef  ,his 
revolt against dominant sophisms of the 
time          #fj  ,letter to ,buffon   
#fa  ,precocity of his intellect        
#fe  ,letter to ,madame de ,graffigny   
#fe  ,illustrates the influence of      
,locke                        #fi       
,views on marriage                      
#gb  ,on the controversy opened by      
,rousseau                     #gb       
,turgot's power of grave suspense       
#gf   ,,ii4  ,first ,discourse at the   
,sorbonne                           #gh 

,analysis of its contents               
#hj  ,criticisms upon it                
#hf  ,it is one-sided                   
#hg  ,and not truly historic            
#hh  ,fails to distinguish doctrine from
 organisation           #hi  ,omits the 
,christianity of the ,east              
#ij  ,and economic conditions           
#ib  ,the contemporary position of the  
,church in ,europe         #ic   ,,iii4 
,second ,discourse at the ,sorbonne     
#if  ,its pregnant thesis of social     
causation                   #ig         
,compared with the thesis of ,bossuet   
#ii  ,and of ,montesquieu               
#ajj  ,analysis of the ,second          
,discourse                         #ajb 
,characteristic of ,turgot's idea of    
,progress              #ajf  ,its       
limitation                              
#ajh  ,great merit of the ,discourse1   
that it recognises ordered succession   
#aaj   ,,iv4  ,turgot appointed         
,intendant of the ,limousin             
#aaa  ,functions of an ,intendant       

#aab  ,account of the ,limousin         
#aad  ,turgot's passion for good        
government                     #aah  ,he
 attempts to deal with the ,taille      
#aai  ,the road ,corvee                 
#aba  ,turgot's endeavours to enlighten 
opinion                 #abf  ,military 
service                                 
#abi          transport                 
#aca  ,the collection of taxes          
#acb  ,turgot's private benevolence     
#acc  ,introduces the potato            
#acd  ,founds an academy                
#ace  ,encourages manufacturing industry
                        #acf            
,enlightened views on ,usury            
#acg  ,has to deal with a scarcity      
#ach  ,his plans                        
#aci  ,instructive facts connected with 
this famine             #adb  ,turgot's 
,reflections on the ,formation and      
,distribution of ,wealth                
#adi   ,v4  ,turgot made                
,controller-,general                    
#aej  ,his reforms                      

#aea  ,their reception                  
#aec  ,his unpopularity                 
#aef  ,difficulties with the king       
#aeg  ,his dismissal                    
#aeh  ,his pursuits in retirement       
#aei  ,conclusion                       
#afb     ,,turgot4  ,i4                 
,anne-,robert-,jacques ,turgot was born 
in ,paris on the #ajth of ,may #agbg4   
,he died in #agha4 ,his life covered    
rather more than half a century1        
extending1 if we may put it a little    
roughly1 over the middle fifty years of 
the eighteenth century4 ,this middle    
period marks the exact date of the      
decisive and immediate preparation for  
the ,revolution4 ,at its beginning      
neither the intellectual nor the social 
elements of the great disruption had    
distinctly appeared1 or commenced their 
fermentation4 ,at its close their work  
was completed1 and we may count the     
months thence until the overthrow of    
every institution in ,france4 ,it was   
between #agbg and #agha that the true   

revolution took place4 ,the events from 
'#hi were only finishing strokes1 the   
final explosion of a fabric under which 
every yard had been mined1 by the long  
endeavour for half a century of an army 
of destroyers deliberate and            
involuntary1 direct and oblique1 such as
 the world has never at any other time  
beheld4  ,in #agbg ,voltaire was        
returning from his exile in ,england1 to
 open the long campaign1 of which he was
 from that time forth to the close of   
his days the brilliant and indomitable  
captain4 ,he died in #aggh1 bright1     
resolute1 humane1 energetic1 to the     
last4 ,thus ,turgot's life was almost   
exactly contemporary with the pregnant  
era of ,voltaire's activity4 ,in the    
same spring in which ,turgot died1      
,maurepas too came to his end1 and      
,necker was dismissed4 ,the last event  
was the signal at which the floods of   
the deluge fairly began to rise1 and the
 revolutionary tide to swell4  ,it will 
be observed1 moreover1 that ,turgot was 

born half a generation after the first  
race of the speculative revolutionists4 
,rousseau1 ,diderot1 ,helvetius1        
,condillac1 ,d',alembert1 as well as the
 foreign ,hume1 so much the greatest of 
the whole band of innovators1 because   
penetrating so much nearer to the       
depths1 all came into the world which   
they were to confuse so unspeakably1 in 
the half dozen years between #agaa and  
#agag4 ,turgot was of later stock and   
comes midway between these fathers of   
the new church1 between ,hume1          
,rousseau1 ,diderot1 and the generation 
of its fiery practical apostles1        
,condorcet1 ,mirabeau1 ,robespierre4#a  
,the only other illustrious ,european of
 this decade was ,adam ,smith1 who was  
born in #agbc1 and between whose labours
 and some of the most remarkable of     
,turgot's there was so much community4  
,we cannot tell how far the gulf between
 ,turgot and the earlier band was fixed 
by the accident that he did not belong  
to their generation in point of time4   

,the accident is in itself only worth   
calling attention to1 in connection with
 his distance from them in other and    
more important points than time4        
,footnote #a3 ,born in #agdc1 #agdi1 and
 #agei respectively4  ,the years of     
,turgot exactly bridge the interval     
between the ministry of the infamous    
,dubois and the ministry of the         
inglorious ,calonne2 between the despair
 and confusion of the close of the      
regency1 and the despair and confusion  
of the last ten years of the monarchy4  
,in #agbg we stand on the threshold of  
that far-resounding fiery workshop1     
where a hundred hands wrought the       
cunning implements and ,cyclopean       
engines that were to serve in storming  
the hated citadels of superstition and  
injustice4 ,in #agha we emerge from     
these subterranean realms into the open 
air1 to find ourselves surrounded by all
 the sounds and portents of imminent    
ruin4 ,this1 then1 is the significance  
of the date of ,turgot's birth4         

99     99     99     99     99  ,his    
stock was ,norman1 and those who amuse  
themselves by finding a vital condition 
of the highest ability in antiquity of  
blood1 may quote the descent of ,turgot 
in support of their delusion4 ,his      
biographers speak of one ,togut1 a      
,danish ,prince1 who walked the earth   
some thousand years before the          
,christian era2 and of ,saint ,turgot in
 the eleventh century1 the ,prior of    
,durham1 biographer of ,bede1 and first 
minister of ,malcolm ,,iii4 of          
,scotland4 ,we shall do well not to     
linger in this too dark and frigid air4 
,let us pass over ,togut and ,saint     
,turgot2 and the founder of a hospital  
in the thirteenth century2 and the      
great-great-grandfather who sat as      
president of the ,norman nobles in the  
,states-,general of #afad1 and the      
grandfather who deserted arms for the   
toga4 ,history is hardly concerned in   
this solemn marshalling of shades4      
,even with ,michel-,etienne1 the father 

of ,turgot1 we have here no dealing4    
,let it suffice to say that he held high
 municipal office in ,paris1 and        
performed its duties with exceptional   
honour and spirit1 giving sumptuous     
fetes1 constructing useful public works1
 and on one occasion jeoparding his life
 with a fine intrepidity that did not   
fail in his son1 in appeasing a bloody  
struggle between two bodies of ,swiss   
and ,french guards4 ,there is in the    
library of the ,british ,museum a folio 
of #agdj1 containing elaborate plates   
and letterpress1 descriptive of the     
fetes celebrated by the city of ,paris  
with ,michel-,etienne ,turgot as its    
chief officer1 on the occasion of the   
marriage of ,louise-,elizabeth of       
,france to ,don ,philip of ,spain       
7,august #agci74 ,as one contemplates   
these courtly sumptuosities1 ,la        
,bruyere's famous picture recurs to the 
mind1 of far other scenes in the same   
gay land4 ',we see certain wild animals1
 male and female1 scattered over the    

fields1 black1 livid1 all burnt by the  
sun1 bound to the earth that they dig   
and work with unconquerable pertinacity2
 they have a sort of articulate voice1  
and when they rise on their feet1 they  
show a human face2 in fact they are     
men4' ,that these violent and           
humiliating contrasts are eternal and   
inevitable1 is the last word of the     
dominant philosophy of society2 and one 
of the reasons why ,turgot's life is    
worth studying1 is that he felt in so   
pre-eminent a degree the urgency of     
lightening the destiny of that livid1   
wild1 hardly articulate1 ever-toiling   
multitude4  ,the sum of the genealogical
 page is that ,turgot inherited that    
position which1 falling to worthy souls1
 is of its nature so invaluable1 a      
family tradition of exalted courage and 
generous public spirit4 ,there have been
 noble and patriotic men who lacked this
 inheritance1 but we may be sure that   
even these would have fought the battle 
at greater advantage1 if a magnanimous  

preference for the larger interests had 
come to them as a matter of instinctive 
prejudice1 instead of being acquired as 
a matter of reason4 ,the question of    
titular aristocracy is not touched by   
this consideration1 for titular         
aristocracies postpone the larger       
interests to the narrow interests of    
their order4 ,and ,turgot's family was  
only of the secondary noblesse of the   
robe4  ,turgot was the third son of his 
father4 ,as the employments which       
persons of respectable family could     
enter were definite and stereotyped1    
there was little room for debate as to  
the calling for which a youth should    
prepare himself4 ,arms1 civil           
administration1 and the church1         
furnished the only three openings for a 
gentleman4 ,the effects of this rigorous
 adherence to artificial and exclusive  
rules of caste were manifestly injurious
 to society1 as such caste rules always 
are after a society has passed beyond a 
certain stage4 ,to identify the         

interests of the richest and most       
powerful class with the interests of the
 church1 of the army1 and of a given    
system of civil government1 was indeed  
to give to that class the strongest     
motives for leaving the existing social 
order undisturbed4 ,it unfortunately    
went too far in this direction1 by      
fostering the strongest possible motives
 of hostility to such modifications in  
these gigantic departments as changing  
circumstances might make needful1 in the
 breasts of the only men who could      
produce these modifications without a   
violent organic revolution4 ,such a     
system left too little course to        
spontaneity1 and its curse is the curse 
of ,french genius4 ,some of its evil    
effects were obvious and on the surface4
 ,the man who should have been a soldier
 found himself saying mass and hearing  
confessions4 ,vauvenargues1 who was born
 for diplomacy or literature1 passed the
 flower of his days in the organised    
dreariness of garrisons and marches4 ,in

 our own day communities and men who    
lead them have still to learn that no   
waste is so profuse and immeasurable1   
even from the material point of view1 as
 that of intellectual energy1 checked1  
uncultivated1 ignored1 or left without  
its opportunity4 ,in ,france1 until a   
very short time before the ,revolution1 
we can hardly point to a single         
recognised usage which did not augment  
this waste4 ,the eldest son usually     
preserved the rank and status of the    
family1 whether civil or military4      
,turgot's eldest brother was to devote  
himself to civil administration1 the    
next to be a soldier1 and ,turgot       
himself to be an ecclesiastic4  ,the    
second of the brothers1 who began by    
following arms1 had as little taste for 
them as the future minister had for the 
church4 ,it is rather remarkable that he
 seems to have had the same passion for 
administration1 and he persuaded the    
government after the loss of ,canada    
that ,guiana1 to be called ,equinoctial 

,france1 would if well governed become  
some sort of equivalent for the northern
 possession4 ,he was made               
,governor-general1 but he had forgotten 
to take the climate into account1 and   
the scheme came to an abortive end1     
involving him in a mass of confused     
quarrels which lasted some years4 ,he   
had a marked love for botany1           
agriculture1 and the like2 was one of   
the founders of the ,society of         
,agriculture in #agfj2 and was the      
author of various pieces on points of   
natural history4#b  ,footnote #b3 ,among
 others1 of a little volume still to be 
met with in libraries1 ,sur la maniere  
de preparer les diverses curiosites     
d'histoire naturelle 7#ageh74  ,turgot  
went as a boarder first to the college  
of ,louis-le-,grand1 then to that of    
,plessis2 thence to the seminary of     
,saint ,sulpice1 where he took the      
degree of bachelor in theology2 and from
 ,saint ,sulpice to the ,sorbonne4 ,his 
childhood and youth1 like that of other 

men who have afterwards won love and    
admiration1 have their stories4 ,the    
affection of one biographer records how 
the pocket-money with which the young   
,turgot was furnished1 used always      
instantly to disappear1 no one knew how 
nor on what4 ,it was discovered that he 
gave it to poor schoolfellows to enable 
them to buy books4 ,condorcet justly    
remarks on this trait1 that 'goodness   
and even generosity are not rare        
sentiments in childhood2 but for these  
sentiments to be guided by such wisdom1 
this really seems the presage of an     
extraordinary man1 all whose sentiments 
should be virtues1 because they would   
always be controlled by reason4'#c ,it  
is at any rate certain that the union of
 profound benevolence with judgment1    
which this story prefigures1 was the    
supreme distinction of ,turgot's        
character4 ,it is less pleasant to learn
 that ,turgot throughout his childhood  
was always repulsed by his mother1 who  
deemed him sullen1 because he failed to 

make his bow with good grace1 and was   
shy and taciturn4 ,he fled from her     
visitors1 and would hide himself behind 
sofa or screen2 until dragged forth for 
social inspection4#d ,this is only worth
 recording1 because the same external   
awkwardness and lack of grace remained  
with ,turgot to the end1 and had        
something to do with the unpopularity   
that caused his fall4 ,perhaps he was   
thinking of his own childhood1 when he  
wrote that fathers are often            
indifferent1 or incessantly occupied    
with the details of business1 and that  
he had seen the very parents who taught 
their children that there is nothing so 
noble as to make people happy1 yet      
repulse the same children when urging   
some one's claim to charity or favour1  
and intimidate their young sensibility1 
instead of encouraging and training     
it4#e  ,footnote #c3 ,vie de ,turgot1 p4
 #h 7ed4 #ahdg74  ,footnote #d3         
,memoires de ,morellet1 i4 #ab 7ed4     
#ahbb74  ,footnote #e3 ,lettre a ,madame

 de ,graffigny4 ,o,euv4 ii4 #gic4       
,morellet1 one of the best known of the 
little group of friends and brother     
students at the ,sorbonne1 has recorded 
other authentic traits4 ,turgot1 he     
says1 united the simplicity of a child  
to a peculiar dignity that forced the   
respect of his comrades4 ,his modesty   
and reserve were those of a girl1 and   
those equivocal references in which the 
undisciplined animalism of youth often  
has a stealthy satisfaction1 always     
called the blood to his cheeks and      
covered him with embarrassment4 ,for all
 that1 his spirit was full of a frank   
gaiety1 and he would indulge in long    
bursts of laughter at a pleasantry or   
frolic that struck him4 ,we may be glad 
to know this1 because without express   
testimony to the contrary1 there would  
have been some reason for suspecting    
that ,turgot was defective in that most 
wholesome and human quality of a        
capacity for laughter4  ,the sensitive  
purity which ,morellet notices1 not     

without slight lifting of the eyebrow1  
remained with ,turgot throughout his    
life4 ,this was the more remarkable from
 the prevailing laxity of opinion upon  
this particular subject1 perhaps the    
worst blemish upon the feeling and      
intelligence of the revolutionary       
schools4 ,for it was not merely         
libertines1 like ,marmontel1 making a   
plea for their own dissoluteness1 who   
habitually spoke of these things with   
inconsiderate levity4 ,grave men of     
blameless life1 like ,condorcet1        
deliberately argued in favour of leaving
 a loose rein to the mutual inclinations
 of men and women1 and laughed at the   
time 'wasted in quenching the darts of  
the flesh4'#f ,it is true that at       
,d',holbach's house1 the headquarters of
 the dogmatic atheism in which the      
irreligious reaction culminated1 this   
was the only theme on which freedom of  
speech was sometimes curtailed4 ,but the
 fact that such a restriction should    
have been noticed1 suggests that it was 

exceptional4#g ,one good effect         
followed1 let us admit4 ,the            
virtuousness of continence was not      
treated as a superstition by those who  
vindicated it as ,turgot did1 but       
discussed like any other virtue2 and was
 defended not as an intuition of faith1 
but as a reasoned conclusion of the     
judgment4 ,it was permitted to occupy no
 solitary and mysterious throne1 apart  
and away from other conditions and parts
 of human excellence and social         
wellbeing4 ,there is intrinsically no   
harm in any virtue being accepted in the
 firm shape of a simple prejudice4 ,on  
the contrary1 there is a multitude of   
practical advantages in such a          
consolidated and spontaneously working  
order4 ,but in considering conduct and  
character1 and forming an opinion upon  
infractions of a virtue1 we cannot be   
just unless we have analysed its        
conditions1 and this is what the        
eighteenth century did defectively with 
regard to that particular virtue which  

so often usurps the name of all of the  
virtues together4 ,in this respect      
,turgot's original purity of character  
withdrew him from the error of the time4
  ,footnote #f3 ,letter to ,turgot1     
,o,euv4 de ,condorcet1 i4 #bbh4 ,see    
also vi4 #bfd1 and #ebc-ebf4  ,footnote 
#g3 ,morellet1 i4 #acc4  ,with the moral
 quality that we have seen1 ,morellet   
adds that for the intellectual side     
,turgot as a boy had a prodigious       
memory4 ,he could retain as many as a   
hundred and eighty lines of verse1 after
 hearing them twice1 or sometimes even  
once4 ,he knew by heart most of         
,voltaire's fugitive pieces1 and long   
passages in his poems and tragedies4    
,his predominant characteristics are    
described as penetration1 and that other
 valuable faculty to which penetration  
is an indispensable adjunct1 but which  
it by no means invariably implies--a    
spirit of broad and systematic          
co-ordination4 ,the unusual precocity of
 his intelligence was perhaps           

imperfectly appreciated by his          
fellow-students1 it led him so far      
beyond any point within their sight4 ,it
 has been justly said of him that he    
passed at once from infancy to manhood1 
and was in the rank of sages before he  
had shaken off the dust of the          
playground4 ,he was of the type of those
 who strangle serpents while yet in the 
cradle4 ,we know the temperament which  
from the earliest hour consumes with    
eager desire for knowledge1 and         
energises spontaneously with unceasing  
and joyful activity in that bright and  
pure morning of intellectual curiosity1 
which neither the dull tumultuous needs 
of life nor the mists of spiritual      
misgiving have yet come up to make dim4 
,of this temperament was ,turgot in a   
superlative degree1 and its fire never  
abated in him from college days1 down to
 the last hours while he lay racked with
 irremediable anguish4  ,to a certain   
extent this was the glorious mark of all
 the best minds of the epoch2 from      

,voltaire downwards1 they were inflamed 
by an inextinguishable and universal    
curiosity4 ,voltaire hardly left a      
single corner of the field entirely     
unexplored in science1 poetry1 history1 
philosophy4 ,rousseau wrote a comic     
opera and was an ardent botanist4       
,diderot wrote1 and wrote well and      
intelligently1 de omni scibili1 and was 
the author alike of the ,letters on the 
,blind and ,jacques le ,fataliste4 ,no  
era was ever so little the era of the   
specialist4         99     99     99    
99     99  ,the society of the ,sorbonne
 corresponded exactly to a college at   
one of our universities1 and will be    
distinguished by the careful reader from
 the faculty of theology in the         
university1 which was usually1 but not  
always1 composed of docteurs de         
,sorbonne4 ,it consisted of a large     
number of learned men in the position of
 fellows1 and a smaller number of       
younger students1 who lived together    
just as undergraduates do1 in separate  

apartments1 but with common hall1       
library1 and garden4 ,one of ,turgot's  
masters1 ,sigorgne1 was the first to    
teach in the university the ,newtonian  
principles of astronomy1 instead of the 
,cartesian hypothesis of vortices4 ,as  
is well known1 ,cartesianism had for    
various reasons taken a far deeper root 
in ,france than it ever did here1 and   
held its place a good generation after  
,newtonian ideas were accepted and      
taught at ,oxford and ,cambridge4#h     
,voltaire's translation of the          
,principia1 which he was prevented by   
the ,cartesian chancellor1              
,d',aguesseau1 from publishing until    
#agch1 overthrew the reigning system1   
and gave a strong impulse to scientific 
inquiry4  ,footnote #h3 ,whewell's      
,hist4 ,induct4 ,sciences1 ii4 #adg-aei4
  ,turgot mastered the new doctrine with
 avidity4 ,in the acute letter of       
criticism which1 while still at the     
,sorbonne1 he addressed to ,buffon1 he  
pointedly urged it as the first         

objection to that writer's theory of the
 formation and movements of the planets1
 that any attempt at fundamental        
explanations of this kind was a         
departure from 'the simplicity and safe 
reserve of the philosophy of ,newton4'#i
 ,he only1 however1 made a certain      
advance in mathematics4 ,he appears to  
have had no peculiar or natural aptitude
 for this study2 though he is said to   
have constantly blamed himself for not  
having gone more deeply into it4 ,it is 
hardly to be denied that mathematical   
genius and philosophic genius do not    
always go together4 ,the precision1     
definiteness1 and accurate limitations  
of the method of the one1 are usually   
unfriendly to the brooding1 tentative1  
uncircumscribed meditation which is the 
productive humour in the other4 ,turgot 
was essentially of the philosophising   
temper4 ,though the activity of his     
intelligence was incessant1 his manner  
of work was the reverse of quick4 ',when
 he applied to work1' says ,morellet1   

'when it was a question of writing or   
doing1 he was slow and loitering4 ,slow1
 because he insisted on finishing all he
 did perfectly1 according to his own    
conception of perfection1 which was most
 difficult of attainment1 even down to  
the minutest detail2 and because he     
would not receive assistance1 being     
never contented with what he had not    
done himself4 ,he also loitered a great 
deal1 losing time in arranging his desk 
and cutting his pens1 not that he was   
not thinking profoundly through all this
 trifling2 but mere thinking did not    
advance his work4'#aj ,we may admit1    
perhaps1 that the work was all the      
better for the thinking that preceded   
it1 and that the time which ,turgot     
seemed to waste in cutting his pens and 
setting his table in order was more     
fruitfully spent than the busiest hours 
of most men4  ,footnote #i3 ,o,euv4 de  
,turgot1 ii4 #ghc4 7,edition of ,messrs4
 ,eugene ,daire and ,h4 ,dussard1       
published in the ,collection des        

,principaux ,economistes1 published by  
,guillaumin1 #ahdd47  ,footnote #aj3    
,memoires1 i4 #af4  ,we know the books  
which ,turgot and his friends devoured  
with ardour4 ,locke1 ,bayle1 ,voltaire1 
,buffon1 relieved ,clarke1 ,leibnitz1   
,spinosa1 ,cudworth2 and constant       
discussions among themselves both       
cleared up and enlarged what they       
read4#aa ,one of the disputants1        
certainly not the least amiable1 has    
painted his own part in these           
discussions3 ',i was violent in         
discussion1' says the good ,morellet1 as
 he was pleasantly called1 'but without 
my antagonist being able to reproach me 
with a single insult2 and sometimes ,i  
used to spit blood1 after a debate in   
which ,i had not allowed a single       
personality to escape me4'#ab  ,footnote
 #aa3 ,ib4 i4 #bj4  ,footnote #ab3 ,ib4 
i4 #ai4  ,another member of the circle  
was ,lomenie de ,brienne1 who1 in long  
years after1 was chief minister of      
,france for a narrow space through the  

momentous winter of #aghg and the spring
 of the next year1 filling the gap      
between ,calonne and ,necker in a       
desperate and fatal manner4 ,lomenie's  
ambition dated from his youth2 and it   
was always personal and mean4 ,while    
,turgot1 his friend1 was earnestly      
meditating on the destinies of the race 
and the conditions of their development1
 ,lomenie was dreaming only of the      
restoration of his ancestral chateau of 
,brienne4 ,though quite without means1  
he planned this in his visions on a     
scale of extreme costliness and         
magnificence4 ,the dreams fell true4    
,money came to the family1 and the      
chateau was built exactly as he had     
projected it1 at a cost of two million  
francs4#ac ,his career was splendid4 ,he
 was clever1 industrious1 and           
persevering after his fashion1 astute1  
lively1 pretentious1 a person ever by   
well-planned hints leading you to       
suppose his unrevealed profundity to be 
bottomless2 in a word1 in all respects  

an impostor4#ad ,he espoused that richly
 dowered bride the ,church1 rose to be  
,archbishop of ,toulouse1 and would have
 risen to be ,archbishop of ,paris1 but 
for the ,king's over-scrupulous         
conviction that 'an ,archbishop of      
,paris must at least believe in ,god4'  
,he became an immense favourite with    
,marie ,antoinette and the court1 was   
made ,minister 'like ,richelieu and     
,mazarin1' and after having postured and
 played tricks in face of the bursting  
deluge1 and given the government the    
final impulse into the abyss of         
bankruptcy1 was dismissed with the rich 
archbishopric of ,sens and a cardinal's 
hat for himself1 and good sinecures for 
his kinsfolk4 ,his last official act was
 to send for the #bj1jjj livres for his 
month's salary1 not fully due4 ,his     
brother1 the ,count of ,brienne1        
remained in office as ,minister of ,war4
 ,he was a person of no talent1 his     
friends allowed1 but 'assisted by a good
 chief clerk1 he would have made a good 

minister2 he meant well4' ,this was     
hardly a sufficient reason for letting  
him take #ajj1jjj francs out of an      
impoverished treasury for the furniture 
of his residence4 ,the hour1 however1   
was just striking1 and the knife was    
sharpened4  ,footnote #ac3 ,morellet's  
,memoires1 i4 #ag-ba2 #bfb-bgj2 and ii4 
#ae4  ,footnote #ad3 ,marmontel's       
,memoires1 bk4 xiii42 ,morellet1        
however1 with persevering friendliness1 
denies the truth of ,marmontel's picture
 7ii4 #dfe74  ,all his paltry honour and
 glory ,lomenie de ,brienne enjoyed for 
a season1 until the ,jacobins laid      
violent hands upon him4 ,he poisoned    
himself in his own palace1 just as a    
worse thing was about to befall him4    
,alas1 poetic justice is the exception  
in history1 and only once in many       
generations does the drama of the state 
criminal rise to an artistic fifth act4 
,this was in #agid4 ,in #agej a farewell
 dinner had been given in the rooms of  
the ,abbe de ,brienne at the ,sorbonne1 

and the friends made an appointment for 
a game of tennis behind the church of   
the ,sorbonne in the year #ahjj4ae ,the 
year came1 but no ,lomenie1 nor ,turgot1
 and the ,sorbonne itself had vanished4 
,footnote #ae3 ,morellet1 i4 #ba4  ,when
 the time arrived for his final         
acceptance of an ecclesiastical         
destination1 ,turgot felt that          
honourable repugnance1 which might have 
been anticipated alike from his morality
 and his intelligence1 to enter into an 
engagement which would irrevocably bind 
him for the rest of his life1 either    
always to hold exactly the same         
opinions1 or else to continue to preach 
them publicly after he had ceased to    
hold them privately4 ,no certainty of   
worldly comfort and advantage could in  
his eyes counterbalance the possible    
danger and shame of a position1 which   
might place him between the two         
alternatives of stifling his            
intelligence and outraging his          
conscience--the one by blind1           

unscrutinising1 and immovable acceptance
 of all the dogmas and sentiments of the
 ,church2 the other by the inculcation  
as truths of what he believed to be     
false1 and the proscription as          
falsehoods of what he believed to be    
true4 ,the horror and disgrace of such a
 situation were too striking for one who
 used his mind and acted on principle1  
to run any risk of that situation       
becoming his own4 ,an ambitious         
timeserver like ,lomenie1 or a contented
 adherent of use and wont like          
,morellet1 might well regard such       
considerations as the products of a weak
 and eccentric scrupulosity4 ,turgot was
 of other calibre1 holding it to be only
 a degree less unprincipled than the    
avowed selfishness of the adventurer1 to
 contract so serious an engagement on   
the strength of common hearsay and      
current usage1 without deliberate       
personal reflection and inquiry4  ,at   
the close of his course at the          
,sorbonne1 he wrote a letter to his     

father giving the reasons for this      
resolution to abandon all idea of an    
ecclesiastical career and the           
advancement which it offered him1 and   
seeking his consent for the change from 
,church to law4 ,his father approved of 
the resolution1 and gave the required   
consent4 ,as ,turgot had studied law as 
well as theology1 no time was lost1 and 
he formally entered the profession of   
the law as ,deputy-,counsellor of the   
,procureur-,general at the beginning of 
#ageb4  ,his college friends had        
remonstrated warmly at this surrender of
 a brilliant prospect4 ,a little        
deputation of young abbes1 fresh from   
their vows1 waited on him at his rooms2 
in that humour of blithe and sagacious  
good-will which comes so naturally to   
men who believe they have just found out
 ,fortune's trick and yoked her fast for
 ever to the car1 they declared that he 
was about to do something opposed to his
 own interest and inconsistent with his 
usual good sense4 ,he was a younger son 

of a ,norman house1 and therefore poor2 
the law without a competency involved no
 consideration1 and he could hope for no
 advancement in it3 whereas in the      
,church his family1 being possessed of  
influence and credit1 would have no     
difficulty in procuring for him         
excellent abbeys and in good time a rich
 bishopric2 here he could realise all   
his fine dreams of administration1 and  
without ceasing to be a churchman could 
play the statesman to his heart's       
content4 ,in one profession he would    
waste his genius in arguing trifling    
private affairs1 while in the other he  
would be of the highest usefulness to   
his country1 and would acquire the      
greatest reputation4 ,turgot1 however1  
insisted on placing genius and          
reputation below the necessity of being 
honest4 ,the object of an oath might be 
of the least important kind1 but he     
could neither allow himself to play with
 it1 nor believe that a man could abase 
his profession in public opinion1       

without at the same time abasing        
himself4 ',you shall do as you will1' he
 said2 'for my own part1 it is          
impossible for me to wear a mask all my 
life4'#af  ,footnote #af3 ,dupont de    
,nemours4 ,condorcet's ,vie de ,turgot1 
pp4 #h-aj4  ,his clear intelligence     
revolted from the dominant sophisms of  
that time1 by which philosophers as well
 as ecclesiastics brought falsehood and 
hypocrisy within the four corners of a  
decent doctrine of truth and morality4  
,the churchman manfully argued that he  
could be most useful to the world if he 
were well off and highly placed4 ,the   
philosopher contended that as the world 
would punish him if he avowed what he   
had written or what he believed1 he was 
fully warranted in lying to the world as
 to his writing and belief2 for is not  
the right to have the truth told to you1
 a thing forfeitable by tyranny and     
oppression8#ag ,truth is not mocked1 and
 these sophisms bore their fruit in due 
season4 ,perhaps if there had been found

 on either side in ,france a hundred    
righteous men like ,turgot1 who would   
not fight in masks1 the end might have  
been other than it was4 ,the lesson     
remains for those who dream that by     
reducing pretence to a nicely graduated 
system1 and by leaving an exactly       
measured margin between what they really
 believe and what they feign to believe1
 they are serving the great cause of    
order4 ,french history informs us what  
becomes of social order so served4      
,after all1 no man can be sure that it  
is required of him to save society2     
every man can be sure that he is called 
upon to keep himself clean from         
mendacity and equivoke4 ,such was       
,turgot's view4  ,footnote #ag3 ',la    
necessite de mentir pour desavouer un   
ouvrage est une extremite qui repugne   
egalement a la conscience et a la       
noblesse du caractere2 mais le crime est
 pour les hommes injustes qui rendent ce
 desaveu necessaire a la surete de celui
 qu'ils y forcent4 ,si vous avez erige  

en crime ce qui n'en est pas un1 si vous
 avez porte atteinte1 par des lois      
absurdes ou par des lois arbitraires1 au
 droit naturel qu'ont tous les hommes1  
non seulement d'avoir une opinion1 mais 
de la rendre publique1 alors vous       
meritez de perdre celui qu'a chaque     
homme d'entendre la verite de la bouche 
d'un autre1 droit qui fonde seule       
l'obligation rigoureuse de ne pas       
mentir4'--,condorcet1 ,vie de ,voltaire 
7,o,euv4 iv4 #cc1 #cd74  ,we have said  
that ,turgot disdained to fight under a 
mask4 ,there was one exception1 and only
 one4 ,in #aged there appeared two      
letters1 nominally from an ecclesiastic 
to a magistrate1 and entitled ,le       
,conciliateur4 ,here it is enough to say
 that they were intended to enforce the 
propriety and duty of religious         
toleration4 ,in a letter to a friend we 
find ,turgot saying1 ',although the     
,conciliator is of my principles1 and   
those of our friend1 ,i am astonished at
 your conjectures2 it is neither his    

style nor mine4'#ah ,yet ,turgot had    
written it4 ,this is his one public     
literary equivocation4 ,let us1 at all  
events1 allow that it was resorted to1  
not to break the law with safety1 nor to
 cloak a malicious attack on a person1  
but to give additional weight by means  
of a harmless prosopopoeia1 to an       
argument for the noblest of             
principles4#ai  ,footnote #ah3 ,o,euv4  
ii4 #fhe4 ,morellet says that it was    
written by ,lomenie de ,brienne1 #ai4   
,footnote #ai3 ,see the note of ,dupont 
de ,nemours1 ad loc4         99     99  
99     99     99  ,before ,turgot       
entered the great world1 he had already 
achieved an amount of success in        
philosophic speculation1 which placed   
him in the front rank of social         
thinkers4 ,to that passion for study and
 the acquisition of knowledge which is  
not uncommon in youth1 as it is one of  
the most attractive of youth's          
qualities1 there was added in him what  
is unhappily not common in men and women

 of any age--an active impulse to use   
his own intelligence upon the           
information which he gained from books  
and professors4 ,he was no conceited or 
froward caviller at authority1 nor born 
rebel against established teachers and  
governors4 ,his understanding seriously 
craved a full and independent           
satisfaction1 and could draw this only  
from laborious meditation1 which should 
either disclose the inadequacy of the   
grounds for an opinion1 or else         
establish it1 with what would be to him 
a new and higher because an             
independently acquired1 conclusiveness4 
,his letter to ,buffon1 to which we have
 already referred1 is an illustration of
 this wise1 and never captious nor      
ungracious1 caution in receiving ideas4 
,neither ,buffon's reputation1 nor the  
glow of his style1 nor the dazzling     
ingenuity and grandeur of his           
conceptions--all of them so well        
calculated1 at one-and-twenty1 to throw 
even a vigilant intelligence off its    

guard--could divert ,turgot from the    
prime scientific duty of confronting a  
theory with facts4 ,buffon was for      
explaining the formation of the earth   
and the other planets1 and their lateral
 movement1 by the hypothesis that a     
comet had fallen obliquely on to the    
sun1 driven off certain portions of its 
constituent matter in a state of fusion1
 and that these masses1 made spherical  
by the mutual attraction of their parts1
 were carried to different distances in 
proportion to their mass and the force  
originally impressed on them4 ,buffon   
may have been actuated1 both here and in
 his other famous hypothesis of         
reproduction1 by a desire1 less to      
propound a true and durable explanation1
 than to arrest by a bold and           
comprehensive generalisation that       
attention1 which is only imperfectly    
touched by mere collections of          
particular facts4 ,the enormous impulse 
which even the most unscientific of the 
speculations of ,descartes had given to 

,european thought1 was a standing       
temptation to philosophers1 not to      
discard nor relax patient observation1  
but to bind together the results which  
they arrived at by this process1 by     
means of some hardy hypothesis4 ,it     
might be true or not1 but it was at any 
rate sure to strike the imagination1    
which ever craves wholes2 and to        
stimulate discussion and further        
discovery1 by sending assailants and    
defenders alike in search of new facts1 
to confirm or overthrow the position4#bj
  ,footnote #bj3 ,see ,condorcet's eloge
 on ,buffon 7,o,euv4 iii4 #cce72 and a  
passage from ,bourdon1 quoted in        
,whewell's ,hist4 ,induct4 ,sci4 iii4   
#cdh4  ,turgot was less sensible of     
these possible advantages1 than he was  
alive to the certain dangers of such a  
method4 ,he perceived that to hold a    
theory otherwise than as an inference   
from facts1 is to have a strong motive  
for looking at the facts in a           
predetermined light1 or for ignoring    

them2 an involuntary predisposition most
 fatal to the discovery of truth1 which 
is nothing more than the conformity of  
our conception of facts to their        
adequately observed order4 ,why1 he     
asks1 do you replunge us into the night 
of hypotheses1 justifying the           
,cartesians and their three elements and
 their vortices8 ,and whence comes your 
comet8 ,was it within the sphere of the 
sun's attraction8 ,if not1 how could it 
fall from the sphere of the other       
bodies1 and fall on the sun1 which was  
not acting on it8 ,if it was1 it must   
have fallen perpendicularly1 not        
obliquely2 and1 therefore1 if it        
imparted a lateral movement1 this       
direction must have been impressed on   
it4 ,and1 if so1 why should not ,god    
have impressed this movement upon the   
planets directly1 as easily as upon the 
comet to communicate it to them8        
,finally1 how could the planets have    
left the body of the sun without falling
 back into it again8 ,what curve did    

they describe in leaving it1 so as never
 to return8 ,can you suppose that       
gravitation could cause the same body to
 describe a spiral and an ellipse8 ,in  
the same exact spirit1 ,turgot brings   
known facts to bear on ,buffon's theory 
of the arrangement of the terrestrial   
and marine divisions of the earth's     
surface4 ,the whole criticism he sent to
 ,buffon anonymously1 to assure him that
 the writer had no other motive than the
 interest he took in the discovery of   
truth and the perfection of a great     
work4#ba  ,footnote #ba3 ,october1      
#agdh4 ,o,euv4 ii4 #ghb-ghd4  ,turgot's 
is probably the only case where the     
biographer has1 in emerging from the    
days of school and college1 at once to  
proceed to expound and criticise the    
intellectual productions of his hero1   
and straightway to present fruit and    
flower of a time that usually does no   
more than prepare the unseen roots4     
,there is1 perhaps1 a wider and more    
stimulating attraction of a dramatic    

kind in the study of characters which   
present a history of active and         
continuous growth2 which1 while         
absolutely free from flimsy caprice and 
disordered eccentricity1 are ever       
surprising our attention by an          
unsuspected word of calm judgment or    
fertile energy1 a fresh interest or an  
added sympathy1 by the disappearance of 
some crudity or the assimilation of some
 new and richer quality4 ,of such       
gradual rise into full maturity we have 
here nothing to record4 ,as a student   
,turgot had already formed the list of a
 number of works which he designed to   
execute2 poems1 tragedies1 philosophic  
romances1 vast treatises on physics1    
history1 geography1 politics1 morals1   
metaphysics1 and language4#bb ,of some  
he had drawn out the plan1 and even     
these plans and fragments possess a     
novelty and depth of view that belong   
even to the integrity of few works4     
,footnote #bb3 ,condorcet's ,vie de     
,turgot1 #ad4  ,before passing on to the

 more scientific speculations of this   
remarkable intelligence1 it is worth    
while to notice his letter to ,madame de
 ,graffigny1 both for the intrinsic     
merit and scope of the ideas it contains
 and for the proof it furnishes of the  
interest1 at once early and profound1   
which he took in moral questions lying  
at the very bottom1 as well of sound    
character1 as of a healthy society4     
,turgot's early passion for literature  
had made him seize an occasion of being 
introduced to even so moderately        
renowned a professor of it as ,madame de
 ,graffigny4 ,he happened to be intimate
 with her niece1 who afterwards became  
the lively and witty wife of ,helvetius1
 somewhat to the surprise of ,turgot's  
friends4 ,for although he persuaded     
,mademoiselle de ,ligniville to present 
him to her aunt1 and though he          
assiduously attended ,madame de         
,graffigny's literary gatherings1       
,turgot would constantly quit the circle
 of men of letters for the sake of a    

game of battledore with the comely and  
attractive niece4 ,hence the            
astonishment of men that from such      
familiarity there grew no stronger      
passion1 and that whatever the causes of
 such reserve1 the only issue was a     
tender and lasting friendship4#bc       
,footnote #bc3 ,morellet1 i4 #adj4      
,madame de ,graffigny had begged        
,turgot's opinion upon the manuscript of
 a work composed1 as so many others     
were1 after the pattern of              
,montesquieu's ,lettres ,persanes1--now 
nearly thirty years old1--and bearing   
the accurately imitative title of       
,lettres ,peruviennes4 ,a ,peruvian     
comes to ,europe1 and sends to a friend 
or mistress in ,peru a series of remarks
 on civilisation4 ,goldsmith's          
delightful ,citizen of the ,world is the
 best known type in our own literature  
of this primitive form of social        
criticism4 ,the effect upon common      
opinion of criticism cast in such a     
mould1 presenting familiar habits1      

institutions1 and observances1 in a     
striking and unusual light1 was to give 
a kind of ,socratic stimulus to people's
 ideas about education1 civilisation1   
conduct1 and the other topics springing 
from a comparison between the manners of
 one community and another4 ,that one of
 the two1 whether ,peru1 or ,china1 or  
,persia1 was a community drawn mainly   
from the imagination1 did not render the
 contrast any the less effective in     
stirring men's minds4  ,by the middle of
 the century the air was full of ideas  
upon these social subjects4 ,the        
temptation was irresistible to turn from
 the confusion of squalor1 oppression1  
license1 distorted organisation1        
penetrative disorder1 to ideal states   
comprising a little range of simple     
circumstances1 and a small number of    
types of virtuous and unsophisticated   
character4 ,much came of the relief thus
 sought and found4 ,it was the beginning
 of the subversive process1 for it      
taught men to look away from ideas of   

practical amelioration4 ,the genius of  
,rousseau gave these dreams the shape   
which1 in many respects1 so             
unfortunately for ,france1 finally      
attracted the bulk of the national      
sentiment and sympathy4 ,but the vivid1 
humane1 and inspiring pages of ,emile   
were not published until ten years after
 ,turgot's letter to ,madame de         
,graffigny3#bd a circumstance which may 
teach us that in moral as in physical   
discoveries1 though one man may take the
 final step and reap the fame1 the      
conditions have been prepared           
beforehand4 ,it is almost discouraging  
to think that we may reproduce such     
passages as the following1 without being
 open to the charge of slaying the      
slain1 though one hundred and twenty    
years have elapsed since it was written4
  ,footnote #bd3 ,written in #agea4     
,o,euv4 ii4 #ghe-gid4  ',let ,zilia show
 that our too arbitrary institutions    
have too often made us forget nature2   
that we have been the dupes of our own  

handiwork1 and that the savage who does 
not know how to consult nature knows how
 to follow her4 ,let her criticise our  
pedantry1 for it is this that           
constitutes our education of the present
 day4 ,look at the ,rudiments2 they     
begin by insisting on stuffing into the 
heads of children a crowd of the most   
abstract ideas4 ,those whom nature in   
her variety summons to her by all her   
objects1 we fasten up in a single spot1 
we occupy them on words which cannot    
convey any sense to them1 because the   
sense of words can only come with ideas1
 and ideas only come by degrees1        
starting from sensible objects4#be ,but1
 besides1 we insist on their acquiring  
them without the help that we have had1 
we whom age and experience have formed4 
,we keep their imagination prisoner1 we 
deprive them of the sight of objects by 
which nature gives to the savage his    
first notions of all things1 of all the 
sciences even4 ,we have not the         
coup-d'oeil of nature4  ,footnote #be3  

',on sera surpris que je compte l'etude 
des langues au nombre des inutilites de 
l'education1' etc4--,emile1 bk4 ii4     
',it is the same with morality2 general 
ideas again spoil all4 ,people take     
great trouble to tell a child that he   
must be just1 temperate1 and virtuous2  
and has it the least idea of virtue8 ,do
 not say to your son1 ,be virtuous1 but 
make him find pleasure in being so2     
develop within his heart the germ of    
sentiments that nature has placed       
there4#bf ,there is often much more need
 for bulwarks against education1 than   
against nature4 ,give him opportunities 
of being truthful1 liberal1             
compassionate2 rely on the human heart2 
leave these precious seeds to bloom in  
the air which surrounds them2 do not    
stifle them under a quantity of frames  
and network4 ,i am not one of those who 
want to reject general and abstract     
ideas2 they are necessary2 but ,i by no 
means think them in their place in our  
method of instruction4 ,i would have    

them come to children as they come to   
men1 by degrees4  ,footnote #bf3 ,see   
,locke1 ,of ,education1 ,sec4,sec4 #ha1 
#ahd1 etc4  ',another article of our    
education1 which strikes me as bad and  
ridiculous1 is our severity towards     
these poor children4 ,they do something 
silly2 we take them up as if it were    
extremely important4 ,there is a        
multitude of these follies1 of which    
they will cure themselves by age alone4 
,but people do not count on that2 they  
insist that the son should be well bred1
 and they overwhelm him with little     
rules of civility1 often frivolous1     
which can only harass him1 as he does   
not know the reason for them4 ,i think  
it would be enough to hinder him from   
being troublesome to the persons that he
 sees4#bg ,the rest will come1 little by
 little4 ,inspire him with the desire of
 pleasing2 he will soon know more of the
 art than all the masters could teach   
him4 ,people wish again that a child    
should be grave2 they think it wise for 

it not to run1 and fear every moment    
that it will fall4 ,what happens8 ,you  
weary and enfeeble it4 ,we have         
especially forgotten that it is a part  
of education to form the body4'#bh      
,footnote #bg3 ',la seule lecon de      
morale qui convienne a l'enfance1 et la 
plus importante a tout age1 est de ne   
jamais faire de mal a personne1' etc4   
,emile1 bk4 ii4 ',never trouble yourself
 about these faults in them1 which you  
know age will cure4 ,and therefore want 
of well-fashioned civility in the       
carriage 444 should be the parents'     
least care while they are young4 ,if his
 tender mind be filled with a veneration
 for his parents and teachers1 which    
consists in love and esteem and a fear  
to offend them2 and with respect and    
good-will to all people2 that respect   
will of itself teach these ways of      
expressing it1 which he observes most   
acceptable1' etc4--,locke1 ,of          
,education1 ,sec4,sec4 #fc1 #fg1 etc4   
,footnote #bh3 ',vous donnez la science1

 a la bonne heure2 moi je m'occupe de   
l'instrument propre a l'acquerir1'      
etc4--,emile4  ,the reader who remembers
 ,locke's ,thoughts concerning          
,education 7published in #afij71 and the
 particularly homely prescriptions upon 
the subjects of the infant body with    
which that treatise opens1 will         
recognise the source of ,turgot's       
inspiration4 ,the same may be said of   
the other wise passages in this letter1 
upon the right attitude of a father     
towards his child4 ,it was not merely   
the metaphysics of the sage and positive
 ,locke which laid the revolutionary    
train in ,france4 ,this influence       
extended over the whole field1 and even 
,rousseau confesses the obligations of  
the imaginary governor of ,emile to the 
real ,locke4  ,we are again plainly in  
the ,lockian atmosphere1 when ,turgot   
speaks of men being the dupes of        
'general ideas1 which are true because  
drawn from nature1 but which people     
embrace with a narrow stiffness that    

makes them false1 because they no longer
 combine them with circumstances1 taking
 for absolute what is only the          
expression of a relation4' ,the merit of
 this and the other educational parts of
 the piece1 is not their originality1   
but that kind of complete and finished  
assimilation which is all but tantamount
 to independent thought1 and which in   
certain conditions may be much more     
practically useful4  ,not less important
 to the happiness of men than the manner
 of their education1 is their own       
cultivation of a wise spirit of         
tolerance in conduct4 ',i should like to
 see explained1' ,turgot says1 'the     
causes of alienation and disgust between
 people who love one another4 ,i believe
 that after living awhile with men1 we  
perceive that bickerings1 ill-humours1  
teasings on trifles1 perhaps cause more 
troubles and divisions among them than  
serious things4 ,how many bitternesses  
have their origin in a word1 in         
forgetfulness of some slight            

observances4 ,if people would only weigh
 in an exact balance so many little     
wrongs1 if they would only put          
themselves in the place of those who    
have to complain of them1 if they would 
only reflect how many times they have   
themselves given way to humours1 how    
many things they have forgotten6 ,a     
single word spoken in disparagement of  
our intelligence is enough to make us   
irreconcilable1 and yet how often have  
we been deceived in the very same       
matter4 ,how many persons of            
understanding have we taken for fools8  
,why should not others have the same    
privilege as ourselves8444 ,ah1 what    
address is needed to live together1 to  
be compliant without cringing1 to expose
 a fault without harshness1 to correct  
without imperious air1 to remonstrate   
without ill-temper6' ,all this is wise  
and good1 but1 alas1 as ,turgot had     
occasion by and by to say1 little comes 
of giving rules instead of breeding     
habits4  ,it is curious that ,turgot as 

early in his career as this should have 
protested against one of the most       
dangerous doctrines of the philosophe   
school4 ',i have long thought1' he says1
 'that our nation needs to have marriage
 and true marriage preached to it4 ,we  
contract marriages ignobly1 from views  
of ambition or interest2 and as many of 
them are unhappy in consequence1 we may 
see growing up from day to day a fashion
 of thinking that is extremely          
mischievous to the community1 to        
manners1 to the stability of families1  
and to domestic happiness and           
virtue4'#bi ,looseness of opinion as to 
the family and the conditions of its    
wellbeing and stability1 was a flaw that
 ran through the whole period of        
revolutionary thought4 ,it was not      
surprising that the family should come  
in for its share of destructive         
criticism1 along with the other elements
 of the established system1 but it is a 
proof of the solidity of ,turgot's      
understanding that he should from the   

first have detected the mischievousness 
of this side of the great social attack4
 ,nor did subsequent discussion with the
 champions of domestic license have any 
effect upon his opinion4  ,footnote #bi3
 ii4 #gij4  ,he makes the protest which 
the moralist makes1 and has to make in  
every age1 against the practice of      
determining the expediency of a marriage
 by considerations of money or rank4    
,there is a great abuse1 he says1 in the
 manner in which marriages are made     
without the two persons most concerned  
having any knowledge of one another1 and
 solely under the authority of the      
parents1 who are guided either by       
fortune1 or else by station1 that will  
one day translate itself into fortune4  
',i know1' he says1 'that even marriages
 of inclination do not always succeed4  
,so from the fact that sometimes people 
make mistakes in their choice1 it is    
concluded that we ought never to        
choose4' ,condorcet1 we may remember1   
many years after1 insisted on the       

banishment by public opinion of         
avaricious and mercenary considerations 
from marriage1 as one of the most       
important means of diminishing the great
 inequalities in the accumulation of    
wealth4#cj  ,footnote #cj3 ,o,euv4 de   
,condorcet1 vi4 #bde4  ,in the same     
letter he took sides by anticipation in 
another cardinal controversy of the     
epoch1 by declaring a preference for the
 savage over the civilised state to be a
 'ridiculous declamation4' ,this strange
 and fatal debate had been opened by    
,rousseau's memorable first ,discourse1 
which was given to the world in #agej4  
,preference for the savage state was the
 peculiar form assumed by emotional     
protests against the existing system of 
the distribution of wealth4 ,turgot from
 first to last resisted the whole spirit
 of such protests4 ,in this letter1     
where he makes his first approach to the
 subject1 he insists on inequality of   
conditions1 as alike necessary and      
useful4 ,it is necessary 'because men   

are not born equal2 because their       
strength1 their intelligence1 their     
passions1 would be perpetually          
overthrowing that momentous equilibrium 
among them1 which the laws might have   
established4'  ',what would society be  
without this inequality of conditions8  
,each individual would be reduced to    
mere necessaries1 or rather there would 
be very many to whom mere necessaries   
would be by no means assured4 ,men      
cannot labour without implements and    
without the means of subsistence1 until 
the gathering in of the produce4 ,those 
who have not had intelligence enough1 or
 any opportunity to acquire these       
things1 have no right to take them away 
from one who has earned and deserved    
them by his labour4 ,if the idle and    
ignorant were to despoil the industrious
 and the skilful1 all works would be    
discouraged1 and misery would become    
universal4 ,it is alike more just and   
more useful that all those who have     
fallen behind either in wit or in good  

fortune1 should lend their right arms to
 those who know how best to employ them1
 who can pay them a wage in advance1 and
 guarantee them a share in the future   
profits4444 ,there is no injustice in   
this1 that a man who has discovered a   
productive kind of work1 and who has    
supplied his assistants with sustenance 
and the necessary implements1 who for   
this has only made free contracts with  
them1 should keep back the larger part1 
and that as payment for his advances he 
should have less toil and more leisure4 
,it is this leisure which gives him a   
better chance of revolving schemes1 and 
still further increasing his lights2 and
 what he can economise from his share of
 the produce1 which is with entire      
equity a larger share1 augments his     
capital1 and adds to his power of       
entering into new undertakings4444      
',what would become of society1 if      
things were not so1 and if each person  
tilled his own little plot8 ,he would   
also have to build his own house1 and   

make his own clothes4 ,what would the   
people live upon1 who dwell in lands    
that produce no wheat8 ,who would       
transport the productions of one country
 to another country8 ,the humblest      
peasant enjoys a multitude of           
commodities often got together from     
remote climes4444 ,this distribution of 
professions necessarily leads to        
inequality of conditions4'  ,so early   
was the rational answer ready for those 
socialistic sophisms which for so many  
years misled the most generous part of  
,french intelligence4 ,we may regret    
perhaps that in demolishing the vision  
of perfect social equality1 ,turgot did 
not show a more lively sense of the need
 for lessening and softening unavoidable
 inequalities of condition4 ,however    
capable these inequalities may be of    
scientific defence1 they are none the   
less on that account in need of         
incessant and strenuous practical       
modification2 and it is one of the most 
serious misfortunes of society1 and is  

unhappily long likely to remain so1 that
 since the absorbing question of the    
reformation of the economic conditions  
of the social union has come more and   
more prominently to the front1 gradually
 but irresistibly thrusting behind both 
its religious and its political         
conditions1 zeal for the amelioration of
 the common lot has in so few auspicious
 instances been according to knowledge2 
while the professors of science have    
been more careful to compose narrow     
apologies for individual selfishness1   
than to extend as widely as possible the
 limits set by demonstrable principle to
 the improvement of the common life4    
,we may notice too in this ,letter1 what
 so many of ,turgot's allies and friends
 were disposed to complain of1 but what 
will commend him to a less newly        
emancipated and therefore a less        
fanatical generation4 ,there is a       
conspicuous absence of that peculiar    
boundlessness of hope1 that zealous     
impatience for the instant realisation  

and fruition of all the inspirations of 
philosophic intelligence1 which carried 
others immediately around him so        
excessively far in the creed of         
,perfectibility4 ',liberty6 ,i answer   
with a sigh1 maybe that men are not     
worthy of thee6 ,equality6 ,they would  
yearn after thee1 but cannot attain6'   
,compared with the confident exultation 
and illimitable sense of the worth of   
man which distinguished that time1 there
 is something like depression here1 as  
in many other places in ,turgot's       
writings4 ,it is usually less           
articulate1 and is rather conveyed by a 
running undertone1 which so often       
reveals more of a writer's true mood and
 temper than is seen in his words1      
giving to them1 by some unconscious and 
inscrutable process1 living effects upon
 the reader's sense like those of eye   
and voice and accompanying gesture4     
,dejection1 however1 is perhaps not the 
most proper word for the humour of      
reserved and grave suspense1 natural in 

those rare spirits who have recognised  
how narrow is the way of truth and how  
few there be that enter therein1 and    
what prolonged concurrence of favouring 
hazards with gigantic endeavour is      
needed for each smallest step in the    
halting advancement of the race4 ,with  
,turgot this was not the result of mere 
sentimental brooding4 ,it had a         
deliberate and reasoned foundation in   
historical study4 ,he was patient and   
not hastily sanguine as to the speedy   
coming of the millennial future1 exactly
 because history had taught him to      
measure the laggard paces of the past4  
,the secret of the intense hopefulness  
of that time lay in the mournfully      
erroneous conviction that the one       
condition of progress is plenteous      
increase of light4 ,turgot saw very     
early that this is not so4 ',it is not  
error1' he wrote1 in a saying that every
 champion of a new idea should have ever
 in letters of flame before his eyes1   
'which opposes the progress of truth3 it

 is indolence1 obstinacy1 the spirit of 
routine1 everything that favours        
inaction4'#ca  ,footnote #ca3 ,o,euv4   
ii4 #fgb4  ,the others left these potent
 elements of obstruction out of         
calculation and account4 ,with ,turgot  
they were the main facts to be          
considered1 and the main forces to be   
counteracted4 ,it is the mark of the    
highest kind of union between sagacious1
 firm1 and clear-sighted intelligence1  
and a warm and steadfast glow of social 
feeling1 when a man has learnt how      
little the effort of the individual can 
do either to hasten or direct the       
current of human destiny1 and yet finds 
in effort his purest pleasure and his   
most constant duty4 ,if we owe honour to
 that social endeavour which is         
stimulated and sustained by an          
enthusiastic confidence in speedy and   
full fruition1 we surely owe it still   
more to those1 who knowing how remote   
and precarious and long beyond their own
 days is the hour of fruit1 yet need no 

other spur nor sustenance than bare     
hope1 and in this strive and endeavour  
and still endeavour4 ,here lies the true
 strength1 and it was the possession of 
this strength and the constant call and 
strain upon it1 which gave ,turgot in   
mien and speech a gravity that revolted 
the frivolous or indifferent1 and seemed
 cold and timorous to the enthusiastic  
and urgent4 ,turgot had discovered that 
there was a law in the history of men1  
and he knew how this law limited and    
conditioned progress4     ,,ii4   ,in   
#agej ,turgot1 then only in his         
twenty-fourth year1 was appointed to the
 honorary office of ,prior of the       
,sorbonne1 an elective distinction      
conferred annually1 as it appears1 on   
some meritorious or highly connected    
student4 ,it was held in the following  
year by ,lomenie de ,brienne4 ,in this  
capacity ,turgot read two ,latin        
dissertations1 one at the opening of the
 session1 and the other at its close4   
,the first of these was upon ',the      

,advantages that the ,establishment of  
,christianity has conferred upon the    
,human ,race4'         99     99     99 
99     99  ,its value1 as might well    
have been expected from the             
circumstances of its production1 is not 
very high4 ,it is pitched in a tone of  
exaltation that is eminently            
unfavourable to the permanently         
profitable treatment of such a subject4 
,there are in it too many of those      
eloquent and familiar commonplaces of   
orthodox history1 by which the doubter  
tries to warm himself into belief1 and  
the believer dreams that he is          
corroborating faith by reason4 ,the     
assembly for whom his discourse was     
prepared1 could hardly have endured the 
apparition in the midst of them of what 
both rigorous justice and accurate      
history required to have taken into     
account on the other side4 ,it was not  
to be expected that a young student     
within the precincts of the ,sorbonne   
should have any eyes for the evil with  

which the forms of the ,christian       
religion1 like other growths of the     
human mind1 from the lowest forms of    
savage animism upwards1 have ever       
alloyed its good4 ,the absence of all   
reference to one half of what the annals
 of the various ,christian churches have
 to teach us1 robs the first of         
,turgot's discourses of that serious and
 durable quality which belongs to all   
his other writings4  ,it is fair to     
point out that the same vicious         
exclusiveness was practised by the      
enemies of the ,church1 and that if     
history was to one of the two contending
 factions an exaggerated enumeration of 
the blessings of ,christianity1 it was  
to their passionate rivals only a       
monotonous catalogue of curses4 ,of this
 temper we have a curious illustration  
in the circumstance that ,dupont1       
,turgot's intimate friend of later      
years1 who collected and published his  
works1 actually took the trouble to     
suppress the opening of this very       

,discourse1 in which ,turgot had replied
 to the reproach often made against     
,christianity1 of being useful only for 
a future life4#cb  ,footnote #cb3       
,o,euv4 ii4 #ehf1 n4  ,in the first     
,discourse1 ,turgot considers the       
influence of ,christianity first upon   
human nature1 and secondly on political 
societies4 ,one feature at least        
deserves remark1 and this is that in    
spite both of a settled partiality1 and 
a certain amount of the common form of  
theology1 yet at bottom and putting some
 phrases apart1 religion is handled1 and
 its workings traced1 much as they would
 have been if treated as admittedly     
secular forces4 ,and this was somewhat4 
,let us proceed to analyse what ,turgot 
says4  #a4 ,before the preaching and    
acceptance of the new faith1 all nations
 alike were plunged into the most       
extravagant superstitions4 ,the most    
frightful dissoluteness of manners was  
encouraged by the example of the gods   
themselves4 ,every passion and nearly   

every vice was the object of a monstrous
 deification4 ,a handful of philosophers
 existed1 who had learnt no better      
lesson from their reason1 than to       
despise the multitude of their fellows4 
,in the midst of the universal          
contagion1 the ,jews alone remained     
pure4 ,even the ,jews were affected with
 a narrow and sterile pride1 which      
proved how little they appreciated the  
priceless treasure that was entrusted to
 their keeping4 ,what were the effects  
of the appearance of ,christ1 and the   
revelation of the gospel8 ,it inspired  
men with a tender zeal for the truth1   
and by establishing the necessity of a  
body of teachers for the instruction of 
nations1 made studiousness and          
intellectual application indispensable  
in a great number of persons4           
,consider1 again1 the obscurity1        
incertitude1 and incongruousness1 that  
marked the ideas of the wisest of the   
ancients upon the nature of man and of  
,god1 and the origin of creation2 the   

,ideas of ,plato1 for instance1 the     
,numbers of ,pythagoras1 the theurgic   
extravagances of ,plotinus and ,porphyry
 and ,iamblichus2 and then measure the  
contributions made by the scholastic    
theologians1 whose dry method has       
undergone so much severe condemnation1  
to the instruments by which knowledge is
 enlarged and made accurate4 ,it was the
 ,church1 moreover1 which civilised the 
,northern barbarians1 and so preserved  
the ,west from the same barbarism and   
desolation with which the triumphs of   
,mahometanism replaced the knowledge and
 arts and prosperity of the ,east4 ,it  
is to the services of the ,church that  
we owe the perpetuation of a knowledge  
of the ancient tongues1 and if this     
knowledge1 and the possession of the    
masterpieces of thought and feeling and 
form1 the flower of the ancient         
,european mind1 remained so long        
unproductive1 still religious           
organisation deserves our gratitude     
equally for keeping these great         

treasures for happier times4 ,they      
survived1 as trees stripped by winter of
 their leaves survive through frost and 
storm1 to give new blossoms in a new    
spring4  ,this much on the intellectual 
side2 but how can we describe the moral 
transformation which the new faith      
brought to pass8 ,men who had hitherto  
only regarded gods as beings to be      
entreated to avert ill or bestow        
blessing1 now learnt the nobler emotion 
of devout love for a divinity of supreme
 power and beneficence4 ,the new faith1 
besides kindling love for ,god1 inflamed
 the kindred sentiment of love for men1 
all of whom it declared to be the       
children of ,god1 one vast family with a
 common father4 ,julian himself bore    
witness to the fidelity with which the  
,christians1 whose faith he hated or    
despised1 tended the sick and fed the   
poor1 not only of their own association1
 but those also who were without the    
fold4 ,the horrible practice of exposing
 new-born infants1 which outraged       

nature1 and yet did not touch the heart 
nor the understanding of a ,numa1 an    
,aristotle1 a ,confucius1 was first     
proscribed by the holy religion of      
,christ4 ,if shame and misery still     
sometimes1 in the hearts of poor outcast
 mothers1 overpower the horror which    
,christianity first inspired1 it is     
still the same religion which has opened
 sheltering places for the unhappy      
victims of such a practice1 and provided
 means for rearing foundlings into      
useful citizens4  ,christian teaching1  
by reviving the principles of           
sensibility within the breast1 may be   
said 'to have in some sort unveiled     
human nature to herself4' ,if the       
cruelty of old manners has abated1 do we
 not owe the improvement to such        
courageous priests as ,ambrose1 who     
refused admission into the church to    
,theodosius1 because in punishing a     
guilty city he had hearkened to the     
voice rather of wrath than of justice2  
or as that ,pope who insisted that      

,lewis the ,seventh should expiate by a 
rigorous penance the sack and burning of
 ,vitry4#cc ,it is not to a ,titus1 a   
,trajanus1 an ,antoninus1 that we owe   
the abolition of the bloody gladiatorial
 games2 it is to ,jesus ,christ4        
,virtuous unbelievers have not seldom   
been the apostles of benevolence and    
humanity1 but we rarely see them in the 
asylums of misery4 ,reason speaks1 but  
it is religion that makes men act4 ,how 
much dearer to us than the splendid     
monuments of antique taste1 power1 and  
greatness1 are those ,gothic edifices   
reared for the poor and the orphan1     
those far nobler monuments of the piety 
of ,christian princes and the power of  
,christian faith4 ,the rudeness of their
 architecture may wound the delicacy of 
our taste1 but they will be ever beloved
 by feeling hearts4 ',let others admire 
in the retreat prepared for those who   
have sacrificed in battle their lives or
 their health for the ,state1 all the   
gathered riches of the arts1 displaying 

in the eyes of all the nations the      
magnificence of ,lewis the ,fourteenth1 
and carrying our renown to the level of 
that of ,greece and ,rome4 ,what ,i will
 admire is such a use of those arts2 the
 sublime glory of serving the weal of   
men raises them higher than they had    
ever been at ,rome or at ,athens4'      
,footnote #cc3 ,see ,martin's ,hist4 de 
la ,france1 iii4 #dbb4 ,or ,morison's   
,life of ,saint ,bernard1 bk4 iii4 ch4  
vi4  #b4 ,let us turn from the action of
 the ,christian faith in modifying the  
passions of the individual1 to its      
influence upon societies of men4 ,how   
has ,christianity ameliorated the great 
art of government1 with reference to the
 two characteristic aims of that art1   
the happiness of communities1 and their 
stability8 ',nature has given all men   
the right of being happy1' but the old  
lawgivers abandoned nature's wise       
economy1 by which she uses the desires  
and interests of individuals to fulfil  
her general plans and ensure the common 

weal4 ,men like ,lycurgus destroyed all 
idea of property1 violated the laws of  
modesty1 and annihilated the tenderest  
ties of blood4 ,a false and mischievous 
spirit of system seduced them away from 
the true method1 the feeling after      
experience4#cd ,a general injustice     
reigned in the laws of all nations2     
among all of them what was called the   
public good was confined to a small     
number of men4 ,love of country was less
 the love of fellow-citizens than a     
common hatred towards strangers4 ,hence 
the barbarities practised by the        
ancients upon their slaves1 hence that  
custom of slavery once spread over the  
whole earth1 those horrible cruelties in
 the wars of the ,greeks and the        
,romans1 that barbarous inequality      
between the two sexes which still reigns
 in the ,east2 hence the tyranny of the 
great towards the common people in      
hereditary aristocracies1 the profound  
degradation of subject peoples4 ,in     
short1 everywhere the stronger have made

 the laws and have crushed the weak2 and
 if they have sometimes consulted the   
interests of a given society1 they have 
always forgotten those of the human     
race4 ,to recall right and justice1 a   
principle was necessary that could raise
 men above themselves and all around    
them1 that could lead them to survey all
 nations and all conditions with an     
equitable gaze1 and in some sort with   
the eyes of ,god himself4 ,this is what 
religion has done4 ,what other principle
 could have fought and vanquished both  
interests and prejudice united8         
,footnote #cd3 ,les hommes en tout ne   
s'eclairent que par le tatonnement de   
l'experience4 ,p4 #eic4  ,nothing but   
the ,christian religion could have      
worked that general revolution in men's 
minds1 which brought the rights of      
humanity out into full day1 and         
reconciled an affectionate preference   
for the community of which one makes a  
part1 with a general love for mankind4  
,even the horrors of war were softened1 

and humanity began to be spared such    
frightful sequels of triumph1 as towns  
burnt to ashes1 populations put to the  
sword1 the wounded massacred in cold    
blood1 or reserved to give a ghastly    
decoration to triumph4 ,slavery1 where  
it was not abolished1 was constantly and
 effectively mitigated by ,christian    
sentiment1 and the fact that the ,church
 did not peremptorily insist on its     
universal abolition was due to a wise   
reluctance to expose the constitution of
 society to so sudden and violent a     
shock4 ,christianity without formal     
precepts1 merely by inspiring a love of 
justice and mercy in men's hearts1      
prevented the laws from becoming an     
instrument of oppression1 and held a    
balance between the strong and the      
feeble4  ,if the history of the ancient 
republics shows that they hardly knew   
the difference between liberty and      
anarchy1 and if even the profound       
,aristotle seemed unable to reconcile   
monarchy with a mild government1 is not 

the reason to be found in the fact that 
before the ,christian era1 the various  
governments of the world only presented 
either an ambition without bound or     
limit1 or else a blind passion for      
independence8 a perpetual balance       
between oppression on the one side1 and 
revolt on the other8 ,in vain did       
lawgivers attempt to arrest this        
incessant struggle of conflicting       
passions by laws which were too weak for
 the purpose1 because they were in too  
imperfect an accord with opinions and   
manners4 ,religion1 by placing man under
 the eyes of an all-seeing ,god1 imposed
 on human passions the only rein capable
 of effectually bridling them4 ,it gave 
men internal laws1 that were stronger   
than all the external bonds of the civil
 laws4 ,by means of this internal       
change1 it has everywhere had the effect
 of weakening despotism1 so that the    
limits of ,christianity seem to mark    
also the limits of mild government and  
public felicity4 ,kings saw the supreme 

tribunal of a ,god who should judge them
 and the cause of their people4 ,thus   
the distance between them and their     
subjects became as nothing in the       
infinite distance between kings and     
subjects alike1 and the divinity that   
was equally elevated above either4 ,they
 were both in some sort equalised by a  
common abasement4 ',ye nations1 be      
subject to authority1' cried the voice  
of religion to the one2 and to the other
 it cried1 ',ye kings1 who judge the    
earth1 learn that ,god has only         
entrusted you with the image of power   
for the happiness of your peoples4'  ,an
 eloquent description of the efficacy of
 ,christianity in raising human nature1 
and impressing on kings the obligation  
of pursuing above all things the        
wellbeing of their subjects1 closes with
 a courtly official salutation of the   
virtues of that ,very ,christian ,king1 
,lewis the ,fifteenth4         99     99
     99     99     99  ',it is ill      
reasoning against religion1' an         

illustrious contemporary of ,turgot's   
had said1 in a deprecatory sentence that
 serves to mark the spirit of the time2 
'to compile a long list of the evils    
which it has inflicted1 without doing   
the same for the blessings which it has 
bestowed4'#ce ,conversely we may well   
think it unphilosophical and            
unconvincing to enumerate all the       
blessings without any of the evils2 to  
tell us how the ,christian doctrine     
enlarged the human spirit1 without      
observing what narrowing limitations it 
imposed2 to dwell on all the mitigating 
influences with which the ,christian    
churches have been associated1 while    
forgetting all the ferocities which they
 have inspired4 ,the history of         
,european belief offers a double record 
since the decay of polytheism1 and if   
for a certain number of centuries this  
record shows the civilisation of men's  
instincts by ,christianity1 it reveals  
to us in the centuries subsequent1 the  
reverse process of the civilisation of  

,christianity by men's instincts4       
,turgot's piece treats half the subject 
as if it were the whole4 ,he extends    
down to the middle of the eighteenth    
century a number of propositions and    
implied inferences1 which are only true 
up to the beginning of the fourteenth4  
,footnote #ce3 ,esprit des ,lois1 bk4   
xxiv4 ch4 ii4  ,even within this        
limitation there are many questions that
 no student of ,turgot's capacity would 
now overlook1 yet of which he and the   
most reasonable spirits of his age took 
no cognisance4 ,the men of neither side 
in the eighteenth century knew what the 
history of opinion meant4 ,all alike    
concerned themselves with its truth or  
falsehood1 with what they counted to be 
its abstract fitness or unfitness4 ,a   
perfect method places a man where he can
 command one point of view as well as   
the other1 and can discern not only how 
far an idea is true and convenient1 but 
also how1 whether true and convenient or
 otherwise1 it came into its place in   

men's minds4 ,we ought to be able to    
separate in thought the question of the 
grounds and evidence for a given dogma  
being true1 from the distinct and purely
 historic question of the social and    
intellectual conditions which made men  
accept it for true4  ,where1 however1   
there was any question of the two       
religions whose document and standards  
are professedly drawn from the ,bible1  
there the ,frenchmen of that time       
assumed not a historic attitude1 but one
 exclusively dogmatic4 ,everybody was so
 anxious to prove1 that he had neither  
freedom nor humour to observe4 ,the     
controversy as to the exact measure of  
the supernatural force in ,judaism and  
its ,christian development was so       
overwhelmingly absorbing1 as to leave   
without light or explanation the wide   
and independent region of their place as
 simply natural forces4 ,it may be said1
 and perhaps it is true1 that people    
never allow the latter side of the      
inquiry to become prominent in their    

minds until they have settled the       
former1 and settled it in one way3 they 
must be indifferent to the details of   
the natural operations of a religion1   
until they are convinced that there are 
none of any other kind4 ,be this as it  
may1 we have to record the facts4 ,and  
it is difficult to imagine a ,frenchman 
of the era of the ,encyclopaedia asking 
himself the sort of questions which now 
present themselves to the student in    
such abundance4 ,for instance1 has one  
effect of ,christianity been to exalt a 
regard for the ,sympathetic over the    
,a,esthetic side of action and          
character8 ,and if so1 to what elements 
in the forms of ,christian teaching and 
practice is this due8 ,and is such a    
transfer of the highest place from the  
beauty to the lovableness of conduct to 
be accounted a gain1 when contrasted    
with the relative position of the two   
sides among the ,greeks and ,romans8    
,again1 we have to draw a distinction   
between the ,christian idea and the     

outward ,christian organisation1 and    
between the consequences to human nature
 and society which flowed from the      
first1 and the advantages which may be  
traced to the second4 ,there was on the 
one hand a doctrine1 stirring dormant   
spiritual instincts1 and satisfying     
active spiritual needs2 on the other an 
external institution1 preserving1       
interpreting1 developing1 and applying  
the doctrine4 ,each of the two has its  
own origin1 its own history1 its own    
destiny in the memories of the race4 ,we
 may attempt to estimate the functions  
of the one1 without pronouncing on the  
exact value of the other4 ,if the idea  
was the direct gift of heaven1 the      
policy was due to the sagacity and      
mother-wit of the great ecclesiastical  
statesmen4 ,if the doctrine was a       
supernatural boon1 at least the forms in
 which it came gradually to overspread  
,europe were to be explained on rational
 and natural grounds4 ,and if historical
 investigation of these forms and their 

influences should prove that they are   
the recognisable roots of most of the   
benign growths which are vaguely styled 
results of ,christianity1 then such a   
conclusion would seriously attenuate the
 merits of the supernatural ,christian  
doctrine in favour of the human         
,christian policy4  ,if there had been  
in the ,christian idea the mysterious   
self-sowing quality so constantly       
claimed for it1 how came it that in the 
,eastern part of the ,empire it was as  
powerless for spiritual or moral        
regeneration as it was for political    
health and vitality1 while in the       
,western part it became the organ of the
 most important of all the past         
transformations of the civilised world8 
,is not the difference to be explained  
by the difference in the surrounding    
medium1 and what is the effect of such  
an explanation upon the supernatural    
claims of the ,christian idea8 ,does    
such an explanation reduce that idea to 
the rank of one of the historic forces1 

which arise and operate and expand      
themselves in accordance with strictly  
natural conditions8 ,the ,christianity  
of the ,east was probably as degraded a 
form of belief1 as lowering for human   
character1 and as mischievous to social 
wellbeing1 as has ever been held by     
civilised peoples4 ,yet the ,east1      
strangely enough1 was the great home and
 nursery of all that is most distinctive
 in the constituent ideas of the        
,christian faith4 ,why1 in meditating on
 ,christianity1 are we to shut our eyes 
to the depravation that overtook it when
 placed amid unfavourable social        
conditions1 and to confine our gaze to  
the brighter qualities which it         
developed in the healthier atmosphere of
 the ,west8  ,further1 ,turgot might    
have asked with much profit to the cause
 of historic truth1 and perhaps in more 
emancipated years he did ask1 whether   
economic circumstances have not had more
 to do with the dissolution of slavery  
than ,christian doctrines3--whether the 

rise of rent from free tenants over the 
profits to be drawn from slave-labour by
 the landowner1 has not been a more     
powerful stimulant to emancipation1 than
 the moral maxim that we ought to love  
one another1 or the ,christian          
proposition that we are all equals      
before the divine throne and co-heirs of
 salvation3--whether a steady and       
permanent fall in the price of          
slave-raised productions had not as much
 to do with the decay of slavery in     
,europe1 as the love of ,god or the     
doctrine of human brotherhood4#cf ,that 
the influence of ,christianity1 so far  
as it went1 and1 so far as it was a real
 power1 tended both to abolish slavery1 
and1 where it was too feeble to press in
 this direction1 at any rate tended to  
mitigate the harshness of its usages1 is
 hardly to be denied by any fair-minded 
person4 ,the true issue is what this    
influence amounted to4 ,the orthodox    
historian treats it as single and       
omnipotent4 ,his heterodox brother--in  

the eighteenth century they both usually
 belonged to one family--leaves it out4 
,footnote #cf3 ,see on this subject     
,finlay's ,mediaeval ,greece and        
,trebizond1 p4 #aig2 and also1 on the   
other hand1 p4 #ef4  ,the crowded annals
 of human misology1 as well as the more 
terrible chronicle of the consequences  
when misology has impatiently betaken   
itself to the cruel arm of flesh1 show  
the decisive importance of the precise  
way in which a great subject of debate  
is put4 ,now the whole question of      
religion was in those days put with     
radical incompleteness1 and ,turgot's   
dissertation was only in a harmony that 
might have been expected with the       
prevailing error4 ,the champions of     
authority1 like the leaders of the      
revolt1 insisted on inquiring           
absolutely1 not relatively2 on judging  
religion with reference to human nature 
in the abstract1 instead of with        
reference to the changing varieties of  
social institution and circumstance4 ,we

 ought to place ourselves where we can  
see both lines of inquiry to be         
possible4 ,we ought to place ourselves  
where we can ask what the tendencies of 
,christian influence have been1 without 
mixing up with that question the further
 and distinct inquiry what these        
tendencies are now1 or are likely to be4
 ,the nineteenth century has hitherto   
leaned to the historical and relative   
aspect of the great controversy4 ,the   
eighteenth was characteristically       
dogmatic1 and the destroyers of the     
faith were not any less dogmatic in     
their own way1 than those who professed 
to be its apologists4         99     99 
99     99     99  ,probably it was not  
long after the composition of this      
apologetic thesis1 before ,turgot became
 alive to the precise position of a     
creed which had come to demand          
apologetic theses4 ,this was1 indeed1   
one of the marked and critical moments  
in the great transformation of religious
 feeling and ecclesiastical order in    

,europe1 of which our own age1 four     
generations later1 is watching a very   
decisive1 if not a final stage4         
,turgot's demonstration of the          
beneficence of ,christianity was        
delivered in ,july #agej--;almost the   
exact middle of the eighteenth century4 
,the death of the ,emperor ,charles the 
,sixth1 ten years before1 had given the 
signal for the break-up of the ,european
 system4 ,the iron army of ,prussia made
 its first stride out of the narrow     
northern borders1 into the broad arena  
of the ,west1 and every new illustration
 of the fortitude and depth and         
far-reaching power of ,prussia has been 
a new blow to the old ,catholic         
organisation4 ,the first act of this    
prodigious drama closed while ,turgot   
was a pupil at the ,sorbonne4 ,the court
 of ,france had blundered into alliances
 against the retrograde and ,catholic   
house of ,austria1 while ,england1 with 
equal blindness1 had stumbled into      
friendship with it4 ,before the opening 

of the second act or true climax--that  
is1 before the ,seven ,years' ,war      
began--interests and forces became more 
naturally adjusted4 ,france1 ,spain1 and
 ,austria1 ,bourbons and ,hapsburgs1 the
 great pillars of the ,church1 were     
ranged against ,england and ,prussia1   
the half-conscious representatives of   
those industrial and individualist      
principles which replaced1 whether for a
 time or permanently1 the decaying      
system of aristocratic caste in temporal
 things1 and an ungrowing ,catholicism  
in things spiritual4 ,in #agej          
ecclesiastical far-sightedness1 court   
intrigue1 and family ambitions1 were    
actively preparing the way for the      
,austrian alliance in the mephitic air  
of ,versailles4 ,the issue at stake was 
the maintenance of the supremacy of the 
,church1 and the ancient ,christian     
organisation of ,france and of ,europe4 
,we now know how this long battle has   
gone4 ,the ,jesuit ,churchmen lost their
 lead1 and were thrown back out of the  

civil and political sphere4 ,we know1   
too1 what effect these blows to the     
,catholic organisation have had upon the
 activity of the ,catholic idea4 ,with  
the decline and extermination of the    
predominance of ,churchmen in civil     
affairs1 there began a tendency1 which  
has since become deeper and stronger1 in
 the ,church to withdraw herself and her
 sons from a sphere where she could no  
longer be sovereign and queen4          
,religion1 since the ,revolution1       
isolates the most devout ,catholics from
 political action and political         
interests4 ,this great change1 however1 
this return of the leaders of the       
,christian society upon the original    
conceptions of the ,christian faith1 did
 not come to pass in ,turgot's time4 ,he
 watched the struggle of the ,church for
 the maintenance of its temporal        
privilege and honour1 and for the       
continued protection by secular power of
 its spiritual supremacy4 ,the outcome  
of the struggle was later4  ,we may say1

 in fine1 that if this first public     
composition of ,turgot's is extremely   
imperfect1 it was better to exaggerate  
the services of ,christianity1 alike as 
an internal faith and as a peculiar form
 of social organisation1 than to        
describe ,gregory the ,great and        
,innocent1 ,hildebrand and ,bernard1 as 
artful and vulgar tyrants1 and ,aquinas 
and ,roger ,bacon as the products of a  
purely barbarous1 stationary1 and dark  
age4 ,there is at first sight something 
surprising in the respect which         
,turgot's ablest contemporaries paid to 
the contributions made to progress by   
,greece and ,rome1 compared with their  
angry disparagement of the dark ages4   
,the reason of this contrast we soon    
discover to be that the passions of     
present contests gave their own colour  
to men's interpretation of the          
circumstances of the remote middle time1
 between the ,roman ,empire and the     
commencement of the revolutionary       
period4 ,turgot escaped these passions  

more completely than any man of his time
 who was noble enough to be endowed with
 the capacity for passion4 ,he never    
forgot that it is as wise and just to   
confess the obligations of mankind to   
the ,catholic monotheism of the ,west1  
as it is shallow and unjust in          
professors of ,christianity to despise  
or hate the lower theological systems   
which guide the humbler families of     
mankind4  ,let us observe that only     
three years after this academic         
discourse in praise of the religion of  
the time1 ,turgot was declaring that    
'the greatest of the services of        
,christianity to the world was that it  
had both enlightened and propagated     
natural religion4'#cg  ,footnote #cg3   
,lettres sur la ,tolerance1 ,,ii4 vol4  
ii4 #fhg4     ,,iii4   ,turgot's inquiry
 into the extent and quality of the debt
 of ,european civilisation to           
,christianity was marked by a certain   
breadth and largeness1 in spite of the  
bonds of circumstance and subject--for  

who1 after all1 can consider            
,christianity to any purpose1 apart from
 other conditions of general progress1  
or without free comparison with other   
dogmatic systems8 ,it is not surprising1
 then1 to find the same valuable gifts  
of vision coming into play with a       
thousand times greater liberty and      
power1 when the theme was widened so as 
to comprehend the successive steps of   
the advancement of the human mind in all
 its aspects4 ,the ,second and more     
famous of the two ,discourses at the    
,sorbonne was read in ,december #agej1  
and professes to treat the ,successive  
,advances of the ,human ,mind4#ch ,the  
opening lines are among the most        
pregnant1 as they were among the most   
original1 in the history of literature1 
and reveal in an outline1 standing clear
 against the light1 a thought which     
revolutionised old methods of viewing   
and describing the course of human      
affairs1 and contained the germs of a   
new and most fruitful philosophy of     

society4  ,footnote #ch3 ,sur les       
progres successifs de l'esprit humain4  
,o,euv4 ii4 #eig-faa4  ',the phenomena  
of nature1 subjected as they are to     
constant laws1 are enclosed in a circle 
of revolutions that remain the same for 
ever4 ,all comes to life again1 all     
perishes again2 and in these successive 
generations1 by which vegetables and    
animals reproduce themselves1 time does 
no more than bring back at each moment  
the image of what it has just dismissed4
  ',the succession of men1 on the       
contrary1 offers from age to age a      
spectacle of continual variations4      
,reason1 freedom1 the passions1 are     
incessantly producing new events4 ,all  
epochs are fastened together by a       
sequence of causes and effects1 linking 
the condition of the world to all the   
conditions that have gone before it4    
,the gradually multiplied signs of      
speech and writing1 giving men an       
instrument for making sure of the       
continued possession of their ideas1 as 

well as of imparting them to others1    
have formed out of the knowledge of each
 individual a common treasure1 which    
generation transmits to generation1 as  
an inheritance constantly augmented by  
the discoveries of each age2 and the    
human race1 observed from its first     
beginning1 seems in the eyes of the     
philosopher to be one vast whole1 which1
 like each individual in it1 has its    
infancy and its growth4'  ,this was not 
a mere casual reflection in ,turgot's   
mind1 taking a solitary and separate    
position among those various and        
unordered ideas1 which spring up and go 
on existing without visible fruit in    
every active intelligence4 ,it was one  
of the systematic conceptions which     
shape and rule many groups of facts1    
fixing a new and high place of their own
 for them among the great divisions of  
knowledge4 ,in a word1 it belonged to   
the rare order of truly creative ideas1 
and was the root or germ of a whole body
 of vigorous and connected thought4     

,this quality marks the distinction1 in 
respect of the treatment of history1    
between ,turgot1 and both ,bossuet and  
the great writers of history in ,france 
and ,england in the eighteenth century4 
,many of the sayings to which we are    
referred for the origin of the modern   
idea of history1 such as ,pascal's for  
instance1 are the fortuitous glimpses of
 men of genius into a vast sea1 whose   
extent they have not been led to        
suspect1 and which only make a passing  
and momentary mark4 ,bossuet's talk of  
universal history1 which has been so    
constantly praised1 was fundamentally1  
and in substance1 no more than a bit of 
theological commonplace splendidly      
decorated4 ,he did indeed speak of 'the 
concatenation of human affairs1' but    
only in the same sentence with 'the     
sequence of the counsels of ,god4' ,the 
gorgeous rhetorician of the ,church was 
not likely to rise philosophically into 
the larger air of universal history1    
properly so called4 ,his famous         

,discourse is a vindication of divine   
foresight1 by means of an intensely     
narrow survey of such sets of facts as  
might be thought not inconsistent with  
the deity's fixed purpose to make one   
final and decisive revelation to men4   
,no one who looks upon the vast         
assemblage of stupendous human          
circumstances1 from the first origin of 
man upon the earth1 as merely the       
ordained antecedent of what1 seen from  
the long procession of all the ages1    
figures in so diminutive a consummation 
as the ,catholic ,church1 is likely to  
obtain a very effective hold of that    
broad sequence and many-linked chain of 
events1 to which ,bossuet gave a right  
name1 but whose real meaning he never   
was even near seizing4 ,his merit is    
that he did in a small and rhetorical   
way what ,montesquieu and ,voltaire     
afterwards did in a truly comprehensive 
and philosophical way2 he pressed       
forward general ideas in connection with
 the recorded movements of the chief    

races of mankind4 ,for a teacher of     
history to leave the bare chronicler's  
road so far as to declare1 for example1 
the general principle1 inadequate and   
over-stated as it is1 that 'religion and
 civil government are the two points on 
which human things revolve1'--even this 
was a clear step in advance4 ,the       
dismissal of the long series of emperors
 from ,augustus to ,alexander ,severus  
in two or three pages was to show a ripe
 sense of large historic proportion4    
,again1 ,bossuet's expressions of 'the  
concatenation of the universe1' of the  
interdependence of the parts of so vast 
a whole1 of there coming no great change
 without having its causes in foregoing 
centuries1 and of the true object of    
history being to observe1 in connection 
with each epoch1 those secret           
dispositions of events which prepared   
the way for great changes1 as well as   
the momentous conjunctures which more   
immediately brought them to             
pass#ci--;all these phrases seem to     

point to a true and philosophic survey4 
,but they end in themselves1 and lead   
nowhither4 ,the chain is an arbitrary   
and one-sided collection of facts4 ,the 
writer does not cautiously follow and   
feel after the successive links1 but    
forges and chooses and arrays them after
 a pattern of his own1 which was fixed  
independently of them4 ,a scientific    
term or two is not enough to disguise   
the purely theological essence of the   
treatise4  ,footnote #ci3 ,discours sur 
l',histoire ,universelle1 part iii4 ch4 
ii4  ,montesquieu and ,voltaire were    
both far enough removed from ,bossuet's 
point of view1 and the ,spirit of ,laws 
of the one1 and the ,essay on the       
,manners and ,character of ,nations of  
the other1 mark a very different way of 
considering history from the lofty and  
confident method of the orthodox        
rhetorician4 ,the ,spirit of ,laws was  
published in #agdh1 that is to say a    
couple of years before ,turgot's        
,discourse at the ,sorbonne4 ,voltaire's

 ,essay on ,manners did not come out    
until #ageg1 or seven years later than  
the ,discourse2 but ,voltaire himself   
has told us that its composition dates  
from #agdj1 when he prepared this new   
presentation of ,european history for   
the service of ,madame du ,chatelet4#dj 
,we may hence fairly consider the       
cardinal work of ,montesquieu1 and the  
cardinal historical work of ,voltaire1  
as virtually belonging to the same time4
 ,and they possess a leading character  
in common1 which separates them both    
from ,turgot1 and places them relatively
 to his idea in a secondary rank4 ,in a 
word1 ,montesquieu and ,voltaire1 if we 
have to search their most distinctive   
quality1 introduced into history        
systematically1 and with full and       
decisive effect1 a broad generality of  
treatment4 ,they grouped the facts of   
history2 and they did not group them    
locally or in accordance with mere      
geographical or chronological division1 
but collected the facts in social       

classes and orders from many countries  
and times4 ,their work was a work of    
classification4 ,it showed the          
possibility of arranging the manifold   
and complex facts of society1 and of the
 movements of communities1 under heads  
and with reference to definite general  
conditions4  ,footnote #dj3 ,preface to 
,essai sur les ,moeurs1 ,o,euv4 xx4     
,there is no need here to enter into any
 criticism of ,montesquieu's great work1
 how far the merits of its execution    
equalled the merit of its design1 how   
far his vicious confusion of the senses 
of the word 'law' impaired the worth of 
his book1 as a contribution to inductive
 or comparative history4 ,we have only  
to seek the difference between the      
philosophic conception of ,montesquieu  
and the philosophic conception of       
,turgot4 ,the latter may be considered a
 more liberal completion of the former4 
,turgot not only sees the operation of  
law in the movements and institutions of
 society1 but he interprets this law in 

a positive and scientific sense1 as an  
ascertainable succession of social      
states1 each of them being the cause and
 effect of other social states4 ,turgot 
gives its deserved prominence to the    
fertile idea of there being an ordered  
movement of growth or advance among     
societies2 in other words1 of the       
civilisation of any given portion of    
mankind having fixed conditions         
analogous to those of a physical        
organism4 ,finally1 he does not limit   
his thought by fixing it upon the laws  
and constitutions only of countries1 but
 refers historical philosophy to its    
veritable and widest object and concern1
 the steps and conditions of the        
progression of the human mind4  ,how1 he
 inquires1 can we seize the thread of   
the progress of the human mind8 ,how    
trace the road1 now overgrown and       
half-hidden1 along which the race has   
travelled8 ,two ideas suggest           
themselves1 which lay foundations for   
this inquiry4 ,for one thing1 the       

resources of nature and the fruitful    
germ of all sorts of knowledge are to be
 found wherever men are to be found4    
',the sublimest attainments are not1 and
 cannot be1 other than the first ideas  
of sense developed or combined1 just as 
the edifice whose height most amazes the
 eye1 of necessity reposes on the very  
earth that we tread2 and the same       
senses1 the same organs1 the spectacle  
of the same universe1 have everywhere   
given men the same ideas1 as the same   
needs and the same dispositions have    
everywhere taught them the same arts4'  
,or it might be put in other words4     
,there is identity in human nature1 and 
repetition in surrounding circumstance  
means the reproduction of social        
consequences4 ,for another thing1 'the  
actual state of the universe1 by        
presenting at the same moment on the    
earth all the shades of barbarism and   
civilisation1 discloses to us as in a   
single glance the monuments1 the        
footprints of all the steps of the human

 mind1 the measure of the whole track   
along which it has passed1 the history  
of all the ages4'  ,the progress of the 
human mind means to ,turgot the progress
 of knowledge4 ,its history is the      
history of the growth and spread of     
science and the arts4 ,its advance is   
increased enlightenment of the          
understanding4 ,from ,adam and ,eve down
 to ,lewis the ,fourteenth1 the record  
of progress is the chronicle of the     
ever-increasing additions to the sum of 
what men know1 and the accuracy and     
fulness with which they know4 ,the chief
 instrument in this enlightenment is the
 rising up from time to time of some    
lofty and superior intelligence2 for    
though human character contains         
everywhere the same principle1 yet      
certain minds are endowed with a        
peculiar abundance of talent that is    
refused to others4 ',circumstances      
develop these superior talents1 or leave
 them buried in obscurity2 and from the 
infinite variety of these circumstances 

springs the inequality among nations4'  
,the agricultural stage goes immediately
 before a decisively polished state1    
because it is then first that there is  
that surplus of means of subsistence1   
which allows men of higher capacity the 
leisure for using it in the acquisition 
of knowledge1 properly so called4  ,one 
of the greatest steps was the precious  
invention of writing1 and one of the    
most rapid was the constitution of      
mathematical knowledge4 ,the sciences   
that came next matured more slowly1     
because in mathematics the explorer has 
only to compare ideas among one another1
 while in the others he has to test the 
conformity of ideas to objective facts4 
,mathematical truths1 becoming more     
numerous every day1 and increasingly    
fruitful in proportion1 lead to the     
development of hypotheses at once more  
extensive and more exact1 and point to  
new experiments1 which in their turn    
furnish new problems to solve4 ',so     
necessity perfects the instrument2 so   

mathematics finds support in physics1 to
 which it lends its lamp2 so all        
knowledge is bound together2 so1        
notwithstanding the diversity of their  
advance1 all the sciences lend one      
another mutual aid2 and so1 by force of 
feeling a way1 of multiplying systems1  
of exhausting errors1 so to speak1 the  
world at length arrives at the knowledge
 of a vast number of truths4' ,it might 
seem as if a prodigious confusion1 as of
 tongues1 would arise from so enormous  
an advance along so many lines4 ',the   
different sciences1 originally confined 
within a few simple notions common to   
all1 can now1 after their advance into  
more extensive and difficult ideas1 only
 be surveyed apart4 ,but an advance1    
greater still1 brings them together     
again1 because that mutual dependence of
 all truths is discovered1 which1 while 
it links them one to another1 throws    
light on one by another4'  ,alas1 the   
history of opinion is1 in one of its    
most extensive branches1 the history of 

error4 ,the senses are the single source
 of our ideas1 and furnish its models to
 the imagination4 ,hence that nearly    
incorrigible disposition to judge what  
we are ignorant of by what we know2     
hence those deceptive analogies to which
 the primitive rudeness of men          
surrenders itself4 ',as they watched    
nature1 as their eyes wandered to the   
surface of a profound ocean1 instead of 
the far-off bed hidden under the waters1
 they saw nothing but their own         
likeness4 ,every object in nature had   
its god1 and this god formed after the  
pattern of men1 had men's attributes and
 men's vices4'#da ,here1 in             
anthropomorphism1 or the transfer of    
human quality to things not human1 and  
the invention of spiritual existences to
 be the recipients of this quality1     
,turgot justly touched the root of most 
of the wrong thinking that has been as a
 manacle to science4  ,footnote #da3 ,p4
 #fja4  ,his admiration for those epochs
 in which new truths were most          

successfully discovered1 and old        
fallacies most signally routed1 did not 
prevent ,turgot from appreciating the   
ages of criticism and their services to 
knowledge4 ,he does full justice to     
,alexandria1 not only for its astronomy 
and geometry1 but for that peculiar     
studiousness 'which exercises itself    
less on things than on books2 whose     
strength lies less in producing and     
discovering1 than in collecting and     
comparing and estimating what has been  
produced and discovered2 which does not 
press forward1 but gazes backward along 
the road that has already been          
traversed4 ,the studies that require    
most genius1 are not always those which 
imply most progress in the mass of men4 
,there are minds to which nature has    
given a memory capable of comparing     
truths1 of suggesting an arrangement    
that places these truths in the fullest 
light2 but to which1 at the same time1  
she has refused that ardour of genius   
which insists on inventing and opening  

out for itself new lines of discovery4  
,made to unite former discoveries under 
a single point of view1 to surround them
 with light1 and to exhibit them in     
entire perfection1 if they are not      
luminaries that burn and sparkle of     
themselves1 at least they are like      
diamonds that reflect with dazzling     
brilliance a borrowed light4'  ,thus    
,turgot's conception of progress regards
 it mainly1 if not entirely1 as a       
gradual dawn and diffusion of light1 the
 spreading abroad of the rays of        
knowledge4 ,he does not assert1 as some 
moderns have crudely asserted1 that     
morality is of the nature of a fixed    
quantity2 still he hints something of   
the kind4 ',morality1' he says1 speaking
 of ,greece in the time of its early    
physical speculation1 'though still     
imperfect1 still kept fewer relics of   
the infancy of reason4 ,those           
everspringing necessities which so      
incessantly recall man to society1 and  
force him to bend to its laws1 that     

instinct1 that sentiment of what is good
 and right1 which ,providence has       
engraved in all hearts1 and which       
precedes reason1 all lead the thinkers  
of every time back to the same          
fundamental principles of the science of
 morals4'  ,we meet with this limitation
 of the idea of progress in every member
 of the school to which1 more than to   
any other1 ,turgot belonged4 ,even in   
the vindication of the claims of        
,christianity to the gratitude of       
mankind1 he had forborne from laying    
stress on any original contribution1    
supposed to be made by that religion to 
the precious stock of ethical ideas4 ,he
 dwells upon the 'tender zeal for the   
progress of truth that the ,christian   
religion inspired1' and recounts the    
various circumstances in which it spread
 and promoted the social and political  
conditions most favourable to           
intellectual or scientific activity4    
,whatever may be the truth or the value 
of ,christianity as a dogmatic system1  

there can be little doubt that its      
weight as a historic force is to be     
looked for1 not so much in the          
encouragement it gave to science and    
learning1 in respect of which ,western  
,europe probably owes more to           
,mahometanism1 as in the high and       
generous types of character which it    
inspired4 ,a man of rare moral depth1   
warmth1 or delicacy1 may be a more      
important element in the advance of     
civilisation1 than the newest and truest
 deduction from what ,turgot calls 'the 
fundamental principles of the science of
 morals4' ,the leading of souls to do   
what is right and humane1 is always more
 urgent than mere instruction of the    
intelligence as to what exactly is the  
right and the humane4 ,the saint after  
all has a place in positive history2 but
 the men of the eighteenth century      
passionately threw him out from their   
calendar1 as the mere wooden idol of    
superstition4 ,they eagerly recognised  
the genius of scientific discovery2 but 

they had no eyes for the genius of moral
 holiness4 ,turgot1 far as he was from  
many of the narrownesses of his time1   
yet did not entirely transcend this1 the
 worst of them all4 ,and because he     
could not perceive there to be any new  
growths in moral science1 he left out   
from a front place among the forces that
 have given strength and ripeness to the
 human mind1 the superior capacity of   
some men for kindling1 by word and      
example1 the glowing love and devout    
practice of morality in the breasts of  
many generations of their fellows4  ,the
 mechanical arts1 ,turgot says1 were    
preserved in the dark ages by the       
necessities of existence1 and because   
'it is impossible but that out of the   
crowd of artisans practising them1 there
 should arise from time to time one of  
those men of genius who are found       
mingled with other men1 as gold is found
 mingled with the earth of a mine4'     
,surely in the same way holy men arose1 
with keener feeling for the spiritual   

necessities of the time1 and finer      
knowledge to train and fit the          
capacities of human nature to meet these
 needs1 and make their satisfaction the 
basis for yet loftier standards and     
holier aspirations and nobler and more  
careful practice4 ,the work of all such 
men deserved a place in an outline of   
the progressive forces of the human     
mind1 as much as the work of those who  
invented bills of exchange1 the art of  
musical notation1 windmills1 clocks1    
gunpowder1 and all the other material   
instruments for multiplying the powers  
of man and the conveniences of life4    
,even if we give ,turgot the benefit of 
the doubt whether he intended to        
describe more than the progress of the  
human intelligence1 or the knowing part 
of the mind1 the omission of the whole  
moral side is still a defect4 ,for as he
 interprets knowledge to be the         
conformity of our ideas to facts1 has   
there not been a clearly recognisable   
progress in the improved conformity of  

our ideas to the most momentous facts of
 all1 the various circumstances of human
 action1 its motives and consequences8  
,no factor among the constituents of a  
progressive civilisation deserves more  
carefully to be taken into account1 than
 the degree in which the current opinion
 and usage of a society recognise the   
comprehensiveness of moral obligation4  
,more than upon anything else1 does     
progress depend on the kinds of conduct 
which a community classifies as moral or
 immoral1 and upon the wider or narrower
 inclusiveness within rigid ethical     
boundaries of what ought or ought not to
 be left open and indifferent4 ,the     
conditions which create and modify these
 ethical regulations1--their law in a   
word1--form a department of the history 
of the human mind1 which can be almost  
less readily dispensed with than any    
other4 ,what sort of a history of       
,europe would that be1 which should     
omit1 for example1 to consider the      
influence of the moral rigour of        

,calvinism upon the growth of the       
nations affected by it8  ,moreover1     
,turgot expressly admits the            
ever-present wants of society to be the 
stimulating agents1 as well as the      
guides1 of scientific energy4 ,he       
expressly admits1 too1 that they are    
constantly plucking men by the skirt1   
and forcing them back to social rules of
 conduct4 ,it is certain1 therefore1    
that as the necessities of society      
increase in number and complexity1      
morality will be developed to correspond
 with them1 and the way in which new    
applications of ethical sentiments to   
the demands of the common weal are made1
 is as interesting and as deserving of a
 place in any scientific inquiry into   
social progress1 as the new applications
 of physical truths to satisfy material 
needs and to further material           
convenience4 ,turgot justly points to   
the perfecting of language as one of the
 most important of the many processes   
that go to the general advancement of   

the race4#db ,not less1 but more1       
important is the analogous work of      
perfecting our ideas of virtue and duty4
 ,surely this chamber1 too1 in the great
 laboratory deserves that the historian 
should unseal its door and explore its  
recesses4  ,footnote #db3 ,p4 #fjc4     
,the characteristic merits of the second
 of the two discourses at the ,sorbonne 
may be briefly described in this way4   
,it recognises the idea of ordered      
succession in connection with the facts 
of society4 ,it considers this          
succession as one1 not of superficial   
events1 but of working forces4 ,thus    
,bolingbroke1 writing fifteen years     
before1 had said that 'as to events that
 stand recorded in history1 we see them 
all1 we see them as they followed one   
another1 or as they produced one        
another1 causes or effects1 immediate or
 remote4'#dc ,but it is very evident    
from his illustrations that by all this 
he understood no more than the immediate
 connection between one transaction and 

another4 ,he thought1 for example1 of   
the ,revolution of #afhh being a        
consequence of the bad government of    
,james the ,second2 of this bad         
government springing from the king's    
attachment to popery2 this in turn being
 caused by the exile of the royal       
family2 this exile having its source in 
,cromwell's usurpation2 and so forth1   
one may suppose1 down to the ,noachian  
flood1 or the era when the earth was    
formless and void4 ,it is mere futility 
to talk of cause and effect in          
connection with a string of arbitrarily 
chosen incidents of this sort4 ,cause   
and effect1 in ,turgot's sense of       
history1 describe a relation between    
certain sets or groups of circumstances1
 that are of a peculiarly decisive kind1
 because the surface of events conforms 
itself to their inner working4 ,his     
account of these deciding circumstances 
was not what we should be likely to     
accept now1 because he limited them too 
closely to purely intellectual          

acquisitions1 as we have just seen1 and 
because he failed to see the necessity  
of tracing the root of the whole growth 
to certain principles in the mental     
constitution of mankind4 ,but1 at all   
events1 his conception of history rose  
above merely individual concerns1       
embraced the successive movements of    
societies and their relations to one    
another1 and sought the spring of       
revolutions in the affairs of a         
community in long trains of preparing   
conditions1 internal and external4      
,above all1 history was a whole4 ,the   
fortunes and achievements of each nation
 were scrutinised for their effect on   
the growth of all mankind4  ,footnote   
#dc3 ,study of ,history1 ,letter ii4    
,,iv4   ,in the year #agfa1 ,turgot1    
then in his thirty-fourth year1 was     
appointed to the office of ,intendant in
 the ,generality of ,limoges4 ,there    
were three different divisions of       
,france in the eighteenth century3 first
 and oldest1 the diocese or             

ecclesiastical circumscription2 second1 
the province or military government2 and
 third1 the ,generality1 or a district  
defined for fiscal and administrative   
purposes4 ,the ,intendant in the        
government of the last century was very 
much what the ,prefect is in the        
government of our own time4 ,perhaps1   
however1 we understand ,turgot's        
position in ,limousin best1 by comparing
 it to that of the ,chief ,commissioner 
of some great district in our ,indian   
,empire4 ,for example1 the first task   
which ,turgot had to perform was to     
execute a new land-assessment for       
purposes of imperial revenue4 ,he had to
 construct roads1 to build barracks1 to 
administer justice1 to deal with a      
famine1 just as the ,english civilian   
has to do in ,orissa or ,behar4 ,much of
 his time was taken up in elaborate     
memorials to the central government1 and
 the desk of the controller-general at  
,versailles was loaded with minutes and 
reports exactly like the voluminous     

papers which fill the mahogany boxes of 
the ,members of ,council and the ,home  
,secretary at ,calcutta4 ,the           
fundamental conditions of the two       
systems of government were much alike2  
absolute political authority1 and an    
elaborately centralised civil           
administration for keeping order and    
raising a revenue4 ,the direct authority
 of an ,intendant was not considerable4 
,his chief functions were the settlement
 of detail in executing the general     
orders that he received from the        
minister2 a provisional decision on     
certain kinds of minor affairs2 and a   
power of judging some civil suits1      
subject to appeal to the ,council4 ,but 
though the ,intendant was so strictly a 
subordinate1 yet he was the man of the  
government1 and thoroughly in its       
confidence4 ,the government only saw    
with his eyes1 and only acted on the    
faith of his reports1 memorials1 and    
requisitions2 and this in a country     
where the government united in itself   

all forms of power1 and was obliged to  
be incessantly active and to make itself
 felt at every point4  ,of all the      
thirty-two great districts in which the 
authority of the ,intendant stood       
between the common people and the       
authority of the minister at            
,versailles1 the ,generality of ,limoges
 was the poorest1 the rudest1 the most  
backward1 and the most miserable4 ,to   
the eye of the traveller with a mind for
 the picturesque1 there were parts of   
this central region of ,france whose    
smiling undulations1 delicious          
water-scenes1 deep glens extending into 
amphitheatres1 and slopes hung with     
woods of chestnut1 all seemed to make a 
lovelier picture than the cheerful      
beauty of prosperous ,normandy1 or the  
olive-groves and orange-gardens of      
,provence4 ,arthur ,young thought the   
,limousin the most beautiful part of    
,france4 ,unhappily for the cultivator1 
these gracious conformations belonged to
 a harsh and churlish soil4 ,for him the

 roll of the chalk and the massing of   
the granite would have been well        
exchanged for the fat loams of level    
,picardy4 ,the soil of the ,limousin was
 declared by its inhabitants to be the  
most ungrateful in the whole kingdom1   
returning no more than four net for one 
of seed sown1 while there was land in   
the vale of the ,garonne that returned  
thirty-fold4 ,the two conditions for    
raising tolerable crops were abundance  
of labour and abundance of manure4 ,but 
misery drove the men away1 and the stock
 were sold to pay the taxes4 ,so the    
land lacked both the arms of the tiller1
 and the dressing whose generous        
chemistry would have transmuted the dull
 earth into fruitfulness and plenty4    
,the extent of the district was         
estimated at a million and a half of    
hectares1 equivalent to nearly four     
millions of ,english acres3 yet the     
population of this vast tract was only  
five hundred thousand souls4 ,even      
to-day it is not more than eight hundred

 thousand4  ,the common food of the     
people was the chestnut1 and to the     
great majority of them even the coarsest
 rye-bread was a luxury that they had   
never tasted4 ,maise and buckwheat were 
their chief cereals1 and these1 together
 with a coarse radish1 took up hundreds 
of acres that might under a happier     
system have produced fine wheat and     
nourished fruit-trees4 ,there had once  
been a certain export of cattle1 but    
that had now come to an end1 partly     
because the general decline of the      
district had impaired the quality of the
 beasts1 and partly because the         
,parisian butchers1 who were by much the
 greatest customers1 had found the      
markets of ,normandy more convenient4   
,the more the trade went down1 the      
heavier was the burden of the cattle-tax
 on the stock that remained4 ,the       
stock-dealer was thus ruined from both  
sides at once4 ,in the same way1 the    
,limousin horses1 whose breed had been  
famous all over ,france1 had ceased to  

be an object of commerce1 and the       
progressive increase of taxation had    
gradually extinguished the trade4       
,angoumois1 which formed part of the    
,generality of ,limoges1 had previously 
boasted of producing the best and finest
 paper in the world1 and it had found a 
market not only throughout ,france1 but 
all over ,europe4 ,there had been a time
 when this manufacture supported sixty  
mills2 at the death of ,lewis ,,xiv4    
their number had fallen from sixty to   
sixteen4 ,an excise duty at the mill1 a 
duty on exportation at the provincial   
frontier1 a duty on the importation of  
rags over the provincial frontier1--all 
these vexations had succeeded in        
reducing the trade with ,holland1 one of
 ,france's best customers1 to one-fourth
 of its previous dimensions4 ,nor were  
paper and cattle the only branches of   
trade that had been blighted by fiscal  
perversity4 ,the same burden arrested   
the transport of saffron across the     
borders of the province1 on its way to  

,hungary and ,prussia and the other cold
 lands where saffron was a favourite    
condiment4 ,salt which came up the      
,charente from the marshes by the coast1
 was stripped of all its profit1 first  
by the duty paid on crossing from the   
,limousin to ,perigord and ,auvergne1   
and next by the right possessed by      
certain of the great lords on the banks 
of the ,charente to help themselves at  
one point and another to portions of the
 cargo4 ,iron was subject to a harassing
 excise in all those parts of the       
country that were beyond the            
jurisdiction of the parlement of        
,bordeaux4 ,the effect of such positive 
hindrances as these to the transit of   
goods was further aided1 to the         
destruction of trade1 by the absence of 
roads4 ,there were four roads in the    
province1 but all of them so bad that   
the traveller knew not whether to curse 
more lustily the rocks or the swamps    
that interrupted his journey            
alternately4 ,there were two rivers1 the

 ,vienne and the ,vezere1 and these     
might seem to an enthusiast for the     
famous argument from ,design1 as if     
,nature had intended them for the       
transport of timber from the immense    
forests that crowned the ,limousin      
hills4 ,unluckily1 their beds were so   
thickly bestrewn with rock that neither 
of them was navigable for any           
considerable part of its long course    
through the ill-starred province4  ,the 
inhabitants were as cheerless as the    
land on which they lived4 ,they had none
 of the fiery energy1 the eloquence1 the
 mobility of the people of the south4   
,still less were they endowed with the  
apt intelligence1 the ease1 the social  
amiability1 the openness1 of their      
neighbours on the north4 ',the dwellers 
in ,upper ,limousin1' said one who knew 
them1 'are coarse and heavy1 jealous1   
distrustful1 avaricious4' ,the dwellers 
in ,lower ,limousin had a less repulsive
 address1 but they were at least as     
narrowly self-interested at heart1 and  

they added a capacity for tenacious and 
vindictive hatred4 ,the ,limousins had  
the superstitious doctrines of other    
semi-barbarous populations1 and they had
 their vices4 ,they passed abruptly and 
without remorse from a penitential      
procession to the tavern and the        
brothel4 ,their ,christianity was as    
superficial as that of the peasant of   
the ,eifel in our own day1 or of the    
,finnish converts of whom we are told   
that they are even now not beyond       
sacrificing a foal in honour of the     
,virgin ,mary4 ,saint ,martial and      
,saint ,leonard were the patron saints  
of the country1 and were the objects of 
an adoration in comparison with which   
the other saints1 and even ,god himself1
 were thrust into a secondary place4    
,in short1 the people of the ,generality
 of ,limoges represented the most       
unattractive type of peasantry4 ,they   
were deeply superstitious1 violent in   
their prejudices1 obstinate withstanders
 of all novelty1 rude1 dull1 stupid1    

perverse1 and hardly redeeming a narrow 
and blinding covetousness by a stubborn 
and mechanical industry4 ,their country 
has been fixed upon as the cradle of    
,celtic nationality in ,france1 and     
there are some who believe that here the
 old ,gaulish blood kept itself purer   
from external admixture than was the    
case anywhere else in the land4 ,in our 
own day1 when an orator has occasion to 
pay a compliment to the townsmen of     
,limoges1 he says that the genius of the
 people of the district has ever been   
faithful to its source2 it has ever held
 the balance true between the ,frank    
tradition of the north1 and the ,roman  
tradition of the south4 ,this makes an  
excellent period for a rhetorician1 but 
the fact which it conveys made ,limousin
 all the severer a task for an          
administrator4 ,almost immediately after
 his appointment1 ,turgot had the chance
 of being removed to ,rouen1 and after  
that to ,lyons4 ,either of these        
promotions would have had the advantages

 of a considerable increase of income1  
less laborious duties1 and a much more  
agreeable residence4 ,turgot1 with a    
high sense of duty that probably seemed 
quixotic enough to the                  
,controller-,general1 declined the      
preferment1 on the very ground of the   
difficulty and importance of the task   
that he had already undertaken4 ',poor  
peasants1 poor kingdom6' had been       
,quesnay's constant exclamation1 and it 
had sunk deep into the spirit of his    
disciple4 ,he could have little thought 
of high salary or personal ease1 when he
 discerned an opportunity of improving  
the hard lot of the peasant1 and        
softening the misfortunes of the realm4 
,turgot was one of the men to whom good 
government is a religion4 ,it might be  
said to be the religion of all the best 
men of that century1 and it was natural 
that it should be so4 ,the decay of a   
theology that places our deepest        
solicitudes in a sphere beyond this1 is 
naturally accompanied by a transfer of  

these high solicitudes to a nearer      
scene4 ,but though the desire for good  
government1 and a right sense of its    
cardinal importance1 were common ideas  
of the time in all the best heads from  
,voltaire downwards1 yet ,turgot had a  
patience which in them was universally  
wanting4 ,there are two sorts of        
mistaken people in the world3 those who 
always think that something could and   
ought to have been done to prevent      
disaster1 and those who always think    
that nothing could have been done4      
,turgot was very far removed indeed from
 the latter class1 but1 on the other    
side1 he was too sagacious not to know  
that there are some evils of which we do
 well to bear a part1 as the best means 
of mitigating the other part4 ,though he
 respected the writings of ,rousseau and
 confessed his obligations to them1     
,turgot abhorred declamation4 ,he had no
 hope of clearing society of the        
intellectual and moral debris of ages at
 a stroke4 ,nor had he abstract         

standards of human bliss4 ,the keyword  
to his political theory was not ,pity   
nor ,benevolence1 but ,justice4 ',we are
 sure to go wrong1' he said once1 when  
pressed to confer some advantage on the 
poor at the cost of the rich1 'the      
moment we forget that justice alone can 
keep the balance true among all rights  
and all interests4' ,let us proceed to  
watch this principle actively applied in
 a field where it was grievously needed4
  ,as everybody knows1 the great fiscal 
grievance of old ,france was the taille1
 a tax raised on property and income1   
but only on the property and income of  
the unprivileged classes4 ,in the       
,limousin ,turgot's predecessor tried to
 substitute for the arbitrary taille1 a 
tax systematically assessed in          
proportion to the amount of the person's
 property4 ,such a design involved a    
complete re-measurement and re-valuation
 of all the land of the ,generality1 and
 this was a task of immense magnitude   
and difficulty4 ,it was very imperfectly

 performed1 and ,turgot found the       
province groaning under a mass of fiscal
 anomalies and disorders4 ,assessment1  
collection1 exemption1 were all alike   
conducted without definite principles or
 uniform system4 ,besides these abuses1 
the total sum demanded from the         
,generality by the royal government was 
greatly in excess of the local          
resources4 ,the district was heavily    
overcharged1 relatively to other        
districts around it4 ,no deduction had  
been made from the sum exacted by the   
treasury1 though the falling off in     
prosperity was great and notorious4     
,turgot computed that 'the king's share'
 was as large as that of the            
proprietors2 in other words1 taxation   
absorbed one half of the net products of
 the land4 ,the government listened to  
these representations1 and conceded to  
the ,generality about half of the       
remissions that ,turgot had solicited4  
,a greater operation was the            
re-adjustment of the burden1 thus       

lightened1 within the province4 ,the    
people were so irritated by the         
disorders which had been introduced by  
the imperfect operation of the          
proportional taille1 that with the      
characteristic impatience of a rude and 
unintelligent population1 they were     
heedlessly crying out for a return to   
the more familiar1 and therefore more   
comfortable1 disorders of the arbitrary 
taille4 ,turgot1 as was natural1        
resisted this slovenly reaction1 and    
applied himself with zealous industry to
 the immense and complex work of        
effecting a complete revision and       
settlement of the regulations for       
assessment1 and1 what was a more        
gigantic enterprise1 of carrying out a  
new survey and new valuation of lands   
and property1 to serve as a true base   
for the application of an equitable     
assessment4 ,at the end of thirteen     
years of indomitable toil the work was  
still unfinished1 chiefly owing to want 
of money for its execution4 ,the court  

wasted more in a fortnight in the easy  
follies of ,versailles1 than would have 
given to the ,limousin the instrument of
 a finished scheme of fiscal order4     
,turgot's labour was not wholly thrown  
away4 ,the worst abuses were corrected1 
and the most crying iniquities swept    
away1 save that iniquity of the         
exemption of the privileged orders1     
which ,turgot could not yet venture to  
touch4  ,let us proceed to another of   
the master abuses of the old system4    
,the introduction of the ,corvee1 in the
 sense in which we have to speak of it1 
dates no further back than the beginning
 of the eighteenth century4 ,it was an  
encroachment and an innovation on the   
part of the bureaucracy1 and the odd    
circumstance has been remarked that the 
first mention of the road corvees in any
 royal ,act is the famous edict of      
#aggf1 which suppressed them4 ,until the
 ,regency this famous word had described
 only the services owed by dependents to
 their lords4 ,it meant so many days'   

labour on the lord's lands1 and so many 
offices of domestic duty4 ,when1 in the 
early part of the century1 the          
advantages of a good system of          
high-roads began to be perceived by the 
government1 the convenient idea came    
into the heads of the more ingenious    
among the ,intendants of imposing1 for  
the construction of the roads1 a royal  
or public corvee analogous to that of   
private feudalism4 ,few more mischievous
 imposts could have been devised4  ,that
 undying class who are contented with   
the shallow presumptions of a priori    
reasoning in economic matters1 did1 it  
is true1 find specious pleas even for   
the road corvee4 ,there has never been  
an abuse in the history of the world1   
for which something good could not be   
said4 ,if men earned money by labour and
 the use of their time1 why not require 
from them time and labour instead of    
money8 ,by the latter device1 are we not
 assured against malversation of the    
funds8 ,those who substitute words for  

things1 and verbal plausibilities for   
the observation of experience1 could    
prolong these arguments indefinitely4   
,the evils of the road corvee1 meanwhile
 remained patent and indisputable4 ,in  
,england at the same period1 it is true1
 the country people were obliged to give
 six days in the year to the repair of  
the highways1 under the management of   
the justices of the peace4 ,and in      
,england the business was performed     
without oppression4 ,but then this only 
illustrates the unwisdom of arguing     
about economic arrangements in the      
abstract4 ,all depends on the conditions
 by which the given arrangement is      
surrounded1 and a practice that in      
,england was merely clumsy1 was in      
,france not only clumsy but a gross     
cruelty4 ,there the burden united almost
 all the follies and iniquities with    
which a public service could be loaded4 
,the ,french peasant had to give1 not   
six1 but twelve or fifteen days of      
labour every year for the construction  

and repair of the roads of his          
neighbourhood4 ,if he had a horse and   
cart1 they too were pressed into the    
service4 ,he could not choose the time1 
and he was constantly carried away at   
the moment when his own poor harvest    
needed his right arm and his            
supervision4 ,he received no pay1 and   
his days on the roads were days of      
hunger to himself and his family4 ,he   
had the bitterness of knowing that the  
advantage of the high-road was slight1  
indirect1 and sometimes null to himself1
 while it was direct and great to the   
town merchants and the country          
gentlemen1 who contributed not an hour  
nor a sou to the work4 ,it was exactly  
the most indigent upon whose backs this 
slavish load was placed4 ,there were a  
hundred abuses of spite or partiality1  
of favouritism or vengeance1 in the     
allotment of the work4 ,the wretch was  
sent to the part of the road most       
distant from his own house2 or he was   
forced to work for a longer time than   

fell fairly to his share2 or he saw a   
neighbour allowed to escape on payment  
of a sum of money4 ,and at the end of   
all the roads were vile4 ,the labourers1
 having little heart in work for which  
they had no wage1 and weakened by want  
of food1 did badly what they had to do4 
,there was no scientific                
superintendence1 no skilled direction1  
no system in the construction1 no       
watchfulness as to the maintenance4 ,the
 rains of winter and the storms of      
summer did damage that one man could    
have repaired by careful industry from  
day to day1 and that for lack of this   
one man went on increasing1 until the   
road fell into holes1 the ditches got   
filled up1 and deep pools of water stood
 permanently in the middle of the       
highway4 ,the rich disdained to put a   
hand to the work2 the poor1 aware that  
they would be forced to the hated task  
in the following autumn or spring1      
naturally attended to their own fields1 
and left the roads to fall to ruin4  ,it

 need not be said that this barbarous   
slovenliness and disorder meant an      
incredible waste of resources4 ,it was  
calculated that a contractor would have 
provided and maintained fine roads for  
little more than one-third of the cost  
at which the corvee furnished roads that
 were execrable4 ,condorcet was right in
 comparing the government in this matter
 to a senseless fellow1 who indulges in 
all the more lavish riot1 because by    
paying for nothing1 and getting         
everything at a higher price on credit1 
he is never frightened into sense by    
being confronted with a budget of his   
prodigalities4  ,it takes fewer words to
 describe ,turgot's way of dealing with 
this oriental mixture of extravagance1  
injustice1 and squalor4 ,the ,intendant 
of ,caen had already proposed to the    
inhabitants of that district the        
alternative plan of commuting the corvee
 into a money payment4 ,turgot adopted  
and perfected this great transformation4
 ,he substituted for personal service on

 the roads a yearly rate1 proportional  
in amount to the taille4 ,he instituted 
a systematic survey and direction of the
 roads1 existing or required in the     
,generality1 and he committed the       
execution of the approved plans to      
contractors on exact and business-like  
principles4 ,the result of this change  
was not merely an immense relief to the 
unfortunate men who had been every year 
harassed to death and half-ruined by the
 old method of forced labour1 but so    
remarkable an improvement both in the   
goodness and extension of the roads1    
that when ,arthur ,young went over them 
five and twenty years afterwards1 he    
pronounced them by far the noblest      
public ways to be found anywhere in     
,france4  ,two very instructive facts   
may be mentioned in connection with the 
suppression of the corvees in the       
,limousin4 ,the first is that the       
central government assented to the      
changes proposed by the young           
,intendant1 as promptly as if it had    

been a committee of the ,convention1    
instead of being the nominee of an      
absolute king4 ,the other is that the   
people in the country1 when ,turgot had 
his plans laid before them in their     
parish meetings held after mass on      
,sundays1 listened with the keenest     
distrust and suspicion to what they     
insisted on regarding as a sinister     
design for exacting more money from     
them4 ,well might ,condorcet say that   
very often it needs little courage to do
 men harm1 for they constantly suffer   
harm tranquilly enough2 but when you    
take it into your head to do them some  
service1 then they revolt and accuse you
 of being an innovator4 ,it is fair1    
however1 to remember how many good      
grounds the ,french countryman had for  
distrusting the professions of any agent
 of the government4 ,for even in the    
case of this very reform1 though ,turgot
 was able to make an addition to the    
taille in commutation of the work on the
 roads1 he was not able to force a      

contribution1 either to the taille or   
any other impost1 from the privileged   
classes1 the very persons who were best 
able to pay4 ,this is only an           
illustration of what is now a well-known
 fact1 that revolution was made         
necessary less by despotism than by     
privilege on the one side1 and by       
intense political distrust on the other 
side4  ,turgot was thoroughly awake to  
the necessity of penetrating public     
opinion4 ,the first principle of the    
school of ,economists was an            
'enlightened people4' ,nothing was to be
 done by them2 everything was to be done
 for them4 ,but they were to be trained 
to understand the grounds of the        
measures which a central authority      
conceived1 shaped1 and carried into     
practice4 ,rousseau was the only writer 
of the revolutionary school who had the 
modern democratic faith in the virtue   
and wisdom of the common people4        
,voltaire habitually spoke of their     
bigotry and prejudice with the natural  

bitterness of a cultivated man towards  
the incurable vices of ignorance4 ,the  
,economists admitted ,voltaire's view as
 true of an existing state of things1   
but they looked to education1 meaning by
 that something more than primary       
instruction1 to lead gradually to the   
development of sound political          
intelligence4 ,hence when ,turgot come  
into full power as the minister of      
,lewis ,,xvi41 twelve years after he    
first went to his obscure duties in the 
,limousin1 he introduced the method of  
prefacing his edicts by an elaborate    
statement of the reasons on which their 
policy rested4 ,and on the same         
principle he now adopted the only means 
at his disposal for instructing and     
directing opinion4 ,the book-press was  
at that moment doing tremendous work    
among the classes with education and    
leisure4 ,but the newspaper press hardly
 existed1 and even if it had existed1   
however many official journals ,turgot  
might have had under his inspiration1   

the people whose minds he wished to     
affect were unable to read4 ,there was  
only one way of reaching them1 and that 
was through the priests4 ,religious life
 among the ,limousins was1 as we have   
seen1 not very pure1 but it is a        
significant law of human nature that the
 less pure a religion is1 the more      
important in it is the place of the     
priest and his office4 ,turgot pressed  
the cures into friendly service4 ,it is 
a remarkable fact1 not without a        
parallel in other parts of modern       
history1 that of the two great          
conservative corporations of society1   
the lawyers did all they could to thwart
 his projects1 and the priests did all  
they could to advance them4 ,in truth   
the priests are usually more or less    
sympathetic towards any form of         
centralised authority2 it is only when  
the people take their own government    
into their own hands that the clergy are
 sure to turn cold or antipathetic      
towards improvement4 ,there is one other

 reservation1 as ,turgot found out in   
#agge1 when he had been transferred to a
 greater post1 and the clergy had joined
 his bitterest enemies4 ,then he touched
 the corporate spirit1 and perceived    
that for authority to lay a hand on     
ecclesiastical privilege is to          
metamorphose goodwill into the most     
rancorous malignity4 ,meanwhile1 the    
letters in which ,turgot explained his  
views and wishes to the cures1 by them  
to be imparted to their parishes1 are   
masterpieces of the care1 the patience1 
the interest1 of a good ruler4 ,those   
impetuous and peremptory spirits who see
 in ,frederick or ,napoleon the only    
born rulers of men1 might find in these 
letters1 and in the acts to which they  
refer1 the memorials of a far more      
admirable and beneficent type4          
99     99     99     99     99  ,the    
corvee1 vexatious as it was1 yet excited
 less violent heats and inflicted less  
misery than the abuses of military      
service4 ,there had been a militia in   

the country as far back as the time of  
the ,merovingians1 but the              
militia-service with which ,turgot had  
to deal only dated from #agbf4 ,each    
parish was bound to supply its quota of 
men to this service1 and the obligation 
was perhaps the most odious grievance1  
though not the most really mischievous1 
of all that then afflicted the realm4   
,the hatred which it raised was due to  
no failure of the military spirit in the
 people4 ,from ,frederick the ,great    
downwards1 everybody was well aware that
 the disasters to ,france which had     
begun with the shameful defeat of       
,rossbach and ended with the loss of    
,canada in the west and the ,indies in  
the east 7#ageg-agfc71 were due to no   
want of valour in the common soldier4   
,it was the generals1 as ,napoleon said 
fifty years afterwards1 who were        
incapable and inept4 ,and it was the    
ineptitude of the administrative chiefs 
that made the militia at once           
ineffective and abhorred4 ,first1 they  

allowed a great number of classified    
exemptions from the ballot4 ,the noble1 
the tonsured clerk1 the counsellor1 the 
domestic of noble1 tonsured clerk1 and  
counsellor1 the eldest son of the lawyer
 and the farmer1 the tax collector1 the 
schoolmaster1 were all exempt4 ,hence   
the curse of service was embittered by a
 sense of injustice4 ,this was one of   
the many springs in the old regime that 
fed the swelling and vehement stream of 
passion for social equality1 until at   
length when the day came1 it made such  
short and furious work with the         
structure of envious partition between  
citizen and citizen4  ,again1 by a      
curious perversity of official pedantry1
 the government insisted on each man who
 drew the black ticket in the abhorred  
lottery1 performing his service in      
person4 ,it forbade substitution4 ,under
 a modern system of universal military  
service1 this is perfectly intelligible 
and just4 ,but1 as we have seen1        
military service was only made          

obligatory on those who were already    
ground down by hardships4 ,as a         
consequence of this prohibition1 those  
who were liable to be drawn lived in    
despair1 and as no worse thing than the 
black ticket could possibly befall them1
 they had every inducement to run away  
from their own homes and villages4 ,at  
the approach of the commissary of the   
government1 they fled into the woods and
 marshes1 as if they had been pursued by
 the plague4 ,this was a signal for a   
civil war on a small scale4 ,those who  
were left behind1 and whose chance of   
being drawn was thus increased1 hastened
 to pursue the fugitives with such      
weapons as came to their hands4 ,in the 
,limousin the country was constantly the
 scene of murderous disorders of this   
kind4 ,what was worse1 was not only that
 the land was infested by vagabonds and 
bad characters1 but that villages became
 half depopulated1 and the soil lost its
 cultivators4 ,finally1 as is uniformly 
the case in the history of bad          

government1 an unjust method produced a 
worthless machine4 ,the milice supplied 
as bad troops as the corvee supplied bad
 roads4 ,the force was recruited from   
the lowest class of the population1 and 
as soon as its members had learned a    
little drill1 they were discharged and  
their places taken by raw batches       
provided at random by blind lot4        
,turgot proposed that a character both  
of permanence and locality should be    
given to the provincial force2 that each
 parish or union of parishes should be  
required to raise a number of men2 that 
these men should be left at home and in 
their own districts1 and only called out
 for exercise for a certain time each   
year2 and that they should be retained  
as a reserve force by a small payment4  
,in this way1 he argued that the        
government would secure a competent     
force1 and by stimulating local pride   
and point of honour would make service  
popular instead of hateful4 ,as the     
government was too weak and distracted  

to take up so important a scheme as     
this1 ,turgot was obliged to content    
himself with evading the existing       
regulations2 and it is a curious        
illustration of the pliancy of          
,versailles1 that he should have been   
allowed to do so openly and without     
official remonstrance4 ,he permitted the
 victim of the ballot to provide a      
voluntary substitute1 and he permitted  
the parish to tempt substitutes by      
payment of a sum of money on enrolment4 
,this may seem a very obvious course to 
follow2 but no one who has tried to     
realise the strength and obstinacy of   
routine1 will measure the service of a  
reformer by the originality of his      
ideas4 ,in affairs of government1 the   
priceless qualities are not merely      
originality of resource1 but a sense for
 things that are going wrong1 and a     
sufficiently vigorous will to set them  
right4  ,one general expression serves  
to describe this most important group of
 ,turgot's undertakings4 ,the reader has

 probably already observed that what    
,turgot was doing1 was to take that step
 which is one of the most decisive in   
the advance of a society to a highly    
organised industrial stage4 ,he         
displaced imposts in kind1 that rudest  
and most wasteful form of contribution  
to the public service1 and established  
in their stead a system of money        
payments1 and of having the work of the 
government done on commercial           
principles4 ,thus1 as if it were not    
enough to tear the peasant away from the
 soil to serve in the militia1 as if it 
were not enough to drag away the farmer 
and his cattle to the public highways1  
the reigning system struck a third blow 
at agriculture by requiring the people  
of the localities that happened to be   
traversed by a regiment on the march1 to
 supply their waggons and horses and    
oxen for the purposes of military       
transport4 ,in this case1 it is true1 a 
certain compensation in money was       
allowed1 but how inadequate was this    

insignificant allowance1 we may easily  
understand4 ,the payment was only for   
one day1 but the day's march was often  
of many miles1 and the oxen1 which in   
the ,limousin mostly did the work of    
horses1 were constantly seen to drop    
down dead in the roads4 ,there was not  
only the one day's work4 ,often two1    
three1 or five days were needed to reach
 the place of appointment1 and for these
 days not even the paltry twenty sous   
were granted4 ,nor could any payment of 
this kind recompense the peasant for the
 absence of his beasts of burden on the 
great days when he wanted to plough his 
fields1 to carry the grain to the barns1
 or to take his produce to market4 ,the 
obvious remedy here1 as in the corvees  
was to have the transport effected by a 
contractor1 and to pay him out of a rate
 levied on the persons liable4 ,this was
 what ,turgot ordered to be done4  ,of  
one other burden of the same species he 
relieved the cultivator4 ,this          
unfortunate being was liable to be      

called upon to collect1 as well as to   
pay1 the taxes4 ,once nominated1 he     
became responsible for the amount at    
which his commune was assessed4 ,if he  
did not produce the sum1 he lost his    
liberty4 ,if he advanced it from his own
 pocket1 he lost at least the interest  
on the money4 ,in collecting the money  
from his fellow taxpayers1 he not only  
incurred bitter and incessant           
animosities1 but1 what was harder to    
bear1 he lost the priceless time of     
which his own land was only too sorely  
in need4 ,in the ,limousin the luckless 
creature had a special disadvantage1 for
 here the collector of the taille had   
also to collect the twentieths1 and the 
twentieths were a tax for which even the
 privileged classes were liable4 ,they1 
as might be supposed1 cavilled1         
disputed1 and appealed4 ,the appeal lay 
to a sort of county board1 which was    
composed of people of their own kind1   
and before which they too easily made   
out a plausible case against a clumsy   

collector1 who more often than not knew 
neither how to read nor to write4       
,turgot's reform of a system which was  
always harassing and often ruinous to an
 innocent individual1 consisted in the  
creation of the task of collection into 
a distinct and permanent office1        
exercised over districts sufficiently   
large to make the poundage1 out of which
 the collectors were paid1 an inducement
 to persons of intelligence and spirit  
to undertake the office as a profession4
 ,however moderate and easy each of     
these reforms may seem by itself1 yet   
any one may see how the sum of them     
added to the prosperity of the land1    
increased the efficiency of the public  
service1 and tended to lessen the       
grinding sense of injustice among the   
common people4  ,apart from these1 the  
greatest and most difficult of all      
,turgot's administrative reforms1 we may
 notice in passing his assiduity in     
watching for the smaller opportunities  
of making life easier to the people of  

his province4 ,his private benevolence  
was incessant and marked4 ,one case of  
its exercise carries our minds at a word
 into the very midst of the storm of    
fire which purified ,france of the evil 
and sordid elements1 that now and for   
his life lay like a mountain of lead on 
all ,turgot's aims and efforts4 ,a      
certain foreign contractor at ,limoges  
was ruined by the famine of #aggj4 ,he  
had a clever son1 whom ,turgot          
charitably sent to school1 and          
afterwards to college in ,paris4 ,the   
youth grew up to be the most eloquent   
and dazzling of the ,girondins1 the     
high-souled ,vergniaud4 ,it was not1    
however1 in good works of merely private
 destination that ,turgot mostly        
exercised himself4 ,in #agfg the        
district was infested by wolves4 ,the   
,intendant imposed a small tax for the  
purpose of providing rewards for the    
destruction of these tormentors1 and in 
reading the minutes on the subject we   
are reminded of the fact1 which was not 

without its significance when the       
peasants rose in vengeance on their     
lords two and twenty years later1 that  
the dispersion of the hamlets and the   
solitude of the farms had made it       
customary for the people to go about    
with fire-arms4 ,besides encouraging the
 destruction of noxious beasts1 ,turgot 
did something for the preservation of   
beasts not noxious4 ,the first          
veterinary school in ,france had been   
founded at ,lyons in #agfb4 ,to this he 
sent pupils from his province1 and      
eventually he founded a similar school  
at ,limoges4 ,he suppressed a tax on    
cattle1 which acted prejudicially on    
breeding and grazing2 and he introduced 
clover into the grass-lands4 ,the potato
 had been unknown in ,limousin4 ,it was 
not common in any part of ,france2 and  
perhaps this is not astonishing when we 
remember that the first field crop even 
in agricultural ,scotland is supposed   
only to have been sown in the fourth    
decade of that century4 ,people would   

not touch it1 though the experiment of  
persuading them to cultivate this root  
had been frequently tried4 ,in the      
,limousin the people were even more     
obstinate in their prejudice than       
elsewhere4 ,but ,turgot persevered1     
knowing how useful potatoes would be in 
a land where scarcity of grain was so   
common4 ,the ordinary view was that they
 were hardly fit for pigs1 and that in  
human beings they would certainly breed 
leprosy4 ,some of the ,english ,puritans
 would not eat potatoes because they are
 not mentioned in the ,bible1 and that  
is perhaps no better a reason than the  
other4 ,when1 however1 it was seen that 
the ,intendant had the hated vegetable  
served every day at his own table1 the  
opposition grew more faint2 men were at 
last brought to consent to use potatoes 
for their cattle1 and after a time even 
for themselves4  ,it need scarcely be   
said that among ,turgot's efforts for   
agricultural improvement1 was the       
foundation of an agricultural society4  

,this was the time when the passion for 
provincial academies of all sorts was at
 its height4 ,when we consider that     
,turgot's society was not practical but 
deliberative1 and what themes he        
proposed for discussion by it1 we may   
believe that it was one of the less     
useful of his works4 ,what the farmers  
needed was something much more directly 
instructive in the methods of their     
business1 than could come of discussions
 as to the effects of indirect taxation 
on the revenues of landowners1 or the   
right manner of valuing the income of   
land in the different kinds of          
cultivation4 ',in that most unlucky path
 of ,french exertion1' says ,arthur     
,young1 'this distinguished patriot was 
able to do nothing4 ,this society does  
like other societies2 they meet1        
converse1 offer premiums1 and publish   
nonsense4 ,this is not of much          
consequence1 for the people instead of  
reading their memoirs are not able to   
read at all4 ,they can1 however1 see1   

and if a farm was established in that   
good cultivation which they ought to    
copy1 something would be presented from 
which they might learn4 ,i asked        
particularly if the members of this     
society had land in their own hands1 and
 was assured that they had2 but the     
conversation presently explained it4    
,they had metayers round their country  
seats1 and this was considered as       
farming their own lands1 so that they   
assume something of a merit from the    
identical circumstance1 which is the    
curse and ruin of the whole country4'   
,the record of what ,turgot did for     
manufacturing industry and commerce is  
naturally shorter than that of his      
efforts for the relief of the land and  
its cultivators4 ,in the eyes of the    
modern economist1 with his horror of    
government encouragement to industry1 no
 matter in what time1 place1 or         
circumstance1 some of ,turgot's actions 
will seem of doubtful wisdom4 ,at       
,brives1 for example1 with all the      

authority of an ,intendant1 he urged the
 citizens to provide buildings for      
carrying on a certain manufacture which 
he and others thought would be          
profitable to the town2 and1 as the     
money for the buildings did not come in 
very readily1 he levied a rate both on  
the town and on the inhabitants of the  
suburbs4 ,his argument was that the new 
works would prove indirectly beneficial 
to the whole neighbourhood4 ,he was not 
long1 however1 in finding out1 as the   
authors of such a policy generally find 
out1 how difficult it is to reconcile   
the interests of aided manufactures with
 those of the taxpayers4 ,it is         
characteristic1 we may remark1 of the   
want of public spirit in the great      
nobles1 that one of ,turgot's first     
difficulties in the affair was to defeat
 an unjust claim made by no less a      
personage than the ,marshal de          
,noailles1 to a piece of public land on 
which the proposed works were to be     
built4 ,a more important industry in the

 history of ,limoges sprang from the    
discovery1 during ,turgot's tenure of   
office1 of the china clay which has now 
made the porcelain of ,limoges only     
second among the ,french potteries to   
that of ,sevres itself4 ,the modern     
pottery has been developed since the    
close of the ,revolution1 which checked 
the establishments and processes that   
had been directed1 encouraged1 and      
supervised by ,turgot4  ,to his superior
 enlightenment in another part of the   
commercial field we owe one of the most 
excellent of ,turgot's pieces1 his      
,memorial on ,loans of ,money4 ,this    
plea for free trade in money has all the
 sense and liberality of the brightest  
side of the eighteenth century          
illumination4 ,it was suggested by the  
following circumstance4 ,at ,angouleme  
four or five rogues associated together1
 and drew bills on one another4 ,on     
these bills they borrowed money1 the    
average rate of interest being from     
eight to ten per cent4 ,when the bills  

fell due1 instead of paying them1 they  
laid informations against the lenders   
for taking more than the legal rate of  
interest4 ,the lenders were ruined1     
persons who had money were afraid to    
make advances1 bills were protested1    
commercial credit was broken1 and the   
trade of the district was paralysed4    
,turgot prevailed upon the ,council of  
,state to withdraw the cases from the   
local jurisdiction2 the proceedings     
against the lenders were annulled1 and  
the institution of similar proceedings  
forbidden4 ,this was a characteristic   
course4 ,the royal government was       
generally willing in the latter half of 
the eighteenth century to redress a     
given case of abuse1 but it never felt  
itself strong enough1 or had leisure    
enough1 to deal with the general source 
from which the particular grievance     
sprang4 ,turgot's ,memorial is as cogent
 an exposure of the mischief of ,usury  
,laws to the public prosperity1 as the  
more renowned pages either of ,bentham  

or ,j4 ,b4 ,say on the same subject1 and
 it has the merit of containing an      
explanation at once singularly patient  
and singularly intelligent1 of the      
origin of the popular feeling about     
usury and its adoption by the           
legislator4  ,after he had been eight   
years at his post1 ,turgot was called   
upon to deal with the harassing problems
 of a scarcity of food4 ,in #aggj even  
the maize and black grain1 and the      
chestnuts on which the people supported 
life1 failed almost completely1 and the 
failure extended over two years4 ,the   
scarcity very speedily threatened to    
become a famine1 and all its conditions 
were exasperated by the unwisdom of the 
authorities1 and the selfish rapacity of
 the landlords4 ,it needed all the      
firmness and all the circumspection of  
which ,turgot was capable1 to overcome  
the difficulties which the strong forces
 of ignorance1 prejudice1 and greediness
 raised up against him4  ,his first     
battle was on an issue which is         

painfully familiar to our own ,indian   
administrators at the present time4 ,in 
#agfd1 an edict had been promulgated    
decreeing free trade in grain1 not with 
foreign countries1 but among the        
different provinces of the kingdom4     
,this edict had not made much way in the
 minds either of the local officials or 
of the people at large1 and the presence
 of famine made the free and unregulated
 export of food seem no better than a   
cruel and outrageous paradox4 ,the      
parlement of ,bordeaux at once suspended
 the edict of #agfd4 ,they ordered that 
all dealers in grain1 farmers of land1  
owners of land1 of whatever rank1       
quality1 or condition1 should forthwith 
convey to the markets of their district 
'a sufficient quantity' of grain to     
provision the said markets4 ,the same   
persons were forbidden to sell either by
 wholesale or retail any portion of the 
said grain at their own granaries4      
,turgot at once procured from the       
,council at ,versailles the proper      

instrument for checking this impolitic  
interference with the free circulation  
of grain1 and he contrived this         
instrument in such conciliatory terms as
 to avoid any breach with the parlement1
 whose motives1 for that matter1 were   
respectable enough4 ,in spite1 however1 
of the action of the government1 popular
 feeling ran high against free markets4 
,tumultuous gatherings of famishing men 
and women menaced the unfortunate       
grain-dealers4 ,waggoners engaged in    
carrying grain away from a place where  
it was cheaper1 to another place where  
it was dearer1 were violently arrested  
in their business1 and terrified from   
proceeding4 ,hunger prevented people    
from discerning the unanswerable force  
of the argument that if the grain       
commanded a higher price somewhere else1
 that was a sure sign of the need there 
being more dire4 ,the local officials   
were as hostile as their humbler        
neighbours4 ,at the town of ,turenne1   
they forbade grain to be taken away1 and

 forced the owners of it to sell it on  
the spot at the market rate4 ,at the    
town of ,angouleme the lieutenant of    
police took upon himself to order that  
all the grain destined for the ,limousin
 should be unloaded and stored at       
,angouleme4 ,turgot brought a heavy hand
 to bear on these breakers of           
administrative discipline1 and readily  
procured such sanction as his authority 
needed from the ,council4  ,one of the  
most interesting of the measures to     
which ,turgot resorted in meeting the   
destitution of the country1 was the     
establishment of the ,charitable        
,workshops4 ,some of the advocates of   
the famous ,national ,workshops of #ahdh
 have appealed to this example of the   
severe patriot1 for a sanction to their 
own economic policy4 ,it is not clear   
that the logic of the ,socialist is here
 more remorseless than usual4 ,if the   
,state may set up workshops to aid      
people who are short of food because the
 harvest has failed1 why should it not  

do the same when people are short of    
food because trade is bad1 work scarce1 
and wages intolerably low8 ,of course   
,turgot's answer would have been that   
remorseless logic is the most improper  
instrument in the world for a business  
of rough expedients1 such as government 
is4 ,there is a vital difference in     
practice between opening a public       
workshop in the exceptional emergency of
 a famine1 and keeping public workshops 
open as a normal interference with the  
free course of industrial activity4 ,for
 the moment the principle may appear to 
be the same1 but in reality the         
application of the principle means in   
the latter case the total               
disorganisation of industry2 in the     
former it means no more than a temporary
 breach of the existing principles of   
organisation1 with a view to its        
speedier revival4 ,to invoke ,turgot as 
a dabbler in ,socialism because he      
opened ateliers de charite1 is as       
unreasonable as it would be to make an  

,english minister who should suspend the
 ,bank ,charter ,act in a crisis1 into  
the champion of an inconvertible paper  
currency4 ,turgot always regarded the   
sums paid in his works1 not as wages1   
but as alms4 ,all that he urged was that
 'the best and most useful kind of alms 
consists in providing means for earning 
them4' ,to prevent the workers from     
earning aid with as little trouble to   
themselves as possible1 he recommended  
payment by the piece and not by the day4
 ,to check workers from flocking in from
 their regular employments1 he insisted 
on the wages being kept below the       
ordinary rate1 and he urged the         
propriety of driving as sharp bargains  
as possible in fixing the price of the  
piece of work4 ,to prevent the          
dissipation of earnings at the tavern1  
he paid not in money1 but in leathern   
tokens1 that were only current in       
exchange for provisions4 ,all these     
regulations mark a wide gulf between the
 ,economist of #aggj and the ,socialist 

of #ahdh4 ,nobody was sterner than      
,turgot against beggars1 the inevitable 
scourge of every country where the evils
 of vicious economic arrangements are   
aggravated by the mischievous views of  
the ,catholic clergy1 first1 as to the  
duties of promiscuous almsgiving1 and   
second1 as to the virtue of improvident 
marriages4 ,in #afad the ,states        
,general had been for hanging all       
mendicants1 and ,colbert had sent them  
to the galleys4 ,turgot was less        
rigorous than that1 but he would not    
suffer his efforts for the economic     
restoration of his province to be       
thwarted by the influx of these         
devouring parasites1 and he sent every  
beggar on whom hands could be laid to   
prison4  ,the story of the famine in the
 ,limousin brings to light some         
instructive facts as to the temper of   
the lords and rich proprietors on the   
eve of the changes that were to destroy 
them4 ,turgot had been specially anxious
 that as much as possible of what was   

necessary for the relief of distress    
should be done by private persons4 ,he  
knew the straits of the government4 ,he 
knew how hard it would be to extract    
from it the means of repairing a deficit
 in his own finances4 ,accordingly he   
invited the landowners1 not merely to   
contribute sums of money in return for  
the public works carried on in their    
neighbourhood1 but also1 by way of      
providing employment to their indigent  
neighbours1 to undertake such works as  
they should find convenient on their own
 estates4 ,the response was             
disappointing4 ',the districts1' he     
wrote in #aggb1 'where ,i have works on 
foot1 do not give me reason to hope for 
much help on the side of the generosity 
of the nobles and the rich landowners4  
,the ,prince de ,soubise is so far the  
only person who has given anything for  
the works that have been executed in his
 duchy4' ,nor was abstinence from       
generosity the worst part of this       
failure in public spirit4 ,the same     

nobles and landowners who refused to    
give1 did not refuse to take away4 ,most
 of them proceeded at once to dismiss   
their metayers1 the people who farmed   
their lands in consideration of a fixed 
proportion of the produce4 ,turgot1 in  
an ordinance of admirable gravity1      
remonstrated against this harsh and     
impolitic proceeding4 ,he pointed out   
that the unfortunate wretches1 thus     
stripped of every resource1 would have  
to leave the district1 abandoning their 
wives and children to the charity of    
villages that were already overburdened 
with the charge of their own people4 ,to
 cast this additional load on the       
villages was all the more unjust1       
because the owners of land had been     
exempted from one-half of the taxes     
levied on the owners of other property1 
exactly because the former were expected
 to provide for their own peasants4 ,it 
was a claim less of humanity than of    
bare justice1 that the landowners should
 do something for men with whom their   

relations had been so close as to be    
almost domestic1 and to whose hard toil 
their masters owed all that they        
possessed4 ,as a mere matter of         
self-interest1 moreover1 apart alike    
from both justice and humanity1 the     
death or flight of the labourers would  
leave the proprietors helpless when the 
next good season came1 and for want of  
hands the land would be doomed to       
barrenness for years to come1 to the    
grievous detriment no less of the       
landowners than of the whole people of  
the realm4 ,accordingly1 ,turgot ordered
 all those who had dismissed their      
metayers to take them back again1 and he
 enacted generally that all proprietors1
 of whatever quality or condition1 and  
whether privileged or not1 should be    
bound to keep and support until the next
 harvest all the labourers who had been 
on their land in the previous ,october1 
as well women and children as men4      
,turgot's policy in this matter is more 
instructive as to the social state of   

,france1 than it may at first sight     
appear4 ,at first sight we are          
astonished to find the austere economist
 travelling so far from the orthodox    
path of free contract as to order a     
landowner to furnish at his own cost    
subsistence for his impoverished        
tenants4 ,but the truth is that the     
metayer was not a free tenant in the    
sense which we attach to the word4 ',in 
,limousin1' says ,arthur ,young1 'the   
metayers are considered as little better
 than menial servants4' ,and it is not  
going beyond the evidence to say that   
they were even something lower than     
menial servants2 they were really a kind
 of serf-caste4 ,they lived in the      
lowest misery4 ,more than half of them  
were computed to be deeply in debt to   
the proprietors4 ,in many cases they    
were even reduced every year to borrow  
from their landlord1 before the harvest 
came round1 such coarse bread of mixed  
rye and barley as he might choose to    
lend them4 ,what ,turgot therefore had  

in his mind was no relation of free     
contract1 though it was that legally1   
but a relation which partly resembled   
that of a feudal lord to his retainer1  
and partly--as ,sir ,henry ,maine has   
hinted--that of a planter to his        
negroes4 ,it is less surprising1 then1  
that ,turgot should have enforced some  
of the responsibilities of the lord and 
the planter4  ,the nobles had resort to 
a still more indefensible measure than  
the expulsion of their metayers4 ,most  
of the lands in the ,generality of      
,limoges were charged with dues in kind 
payable to the lords4 ,as the           
cultivators had for the most part no    
grain even for their own bread1 they    
naturally had no grain for the lord's   
dues4 ,the lords then insisted on       
payment in cash1 and they insisted on   
estimating this payment at the famine   
price of the grain4 ,most of them were  
really as needy as they were idle and   
proud1 and nothing is so inordinately   
grasping as the indigence of            

class-pride4 ,the effect of their       
proceedings now was to increase their   
revenue fourfold and fivefold out of    
public calamity and universal misery4   
,and unfortunately the liability of the 
cultivators in a given manor was        
solidaire2 they were jointly and        
severally responsible1 and the effect of
 this was that even those who were in   
circumstances to pay the quadrupled     
dues1 were ruined and destroyed without 
mercy in consequence of having also to  
pay the quadrupled dues of their        
beggared neighbours4 ,turgot arrested   
this odious process by means of an old  
and forgotten decree1 which he prevailed
 upon the parlement of ,bordeaux to     
revive in good and due form1 to the     
effect that the arrears of dues in kind 
for #agfi should be paid at the market  
price of grain when the dues were       
payable2 that is1 before the scarcity   
had declared itself4  ,when we consider 
the grinding and extortionate spirit    
thus shown in face of a common calamity1

 we may cease to wonder at the ferocity 
with which1 when the hour struck1 the   
people tore away privilege1 distinction1
 and property itself from classes that  
had used all three only to ruin the land
 and crush its inhabitants into the     
dust4 ,and the moment that the lord had 
thus transformed himself into a mere    
creditor1 and a creditor for goods      
delivered centuries ago1 and long since 
consumed and forgotten1 then it was     
certain that1 if political circumstances
 favoured the growing economic          
sentiment1 there would be heard again   
the old cry of the ,roman plebs for an  
agrarian law and novae tabulae4 ,nay1   
something was heard that is amazingly   
like the cry of the modern ,irish       
peasant4 ,in #aggf two noteworthy       
incidents happened4 ,a certain ,marquis 
de ,vibraye threw into prison a peasant 
who refused to pay the droit de cens4   
,immediately between thirty and forty   
peasants came to the rescue1 armed      
themselves1 besieged the chateau1 took  

it and sacked it1 and drove the ,marquis
 de ,vibraye away in terror4 ,still more
 significant is the second incident1    
which happened shortly after4 ,a        
relative of the ,duke of ,mortemart1    
shooting on his property1 was attacked  
by peasants who insisted that he should 
cease his sport4 ,they treated him with 
much brutality1 and even threatened to  
fire on him and his attendants1         
'claiming to be free masters of their   
lands4' ,here was the main root of the  
great ,french ,revolution4 ,a fair      
consideration of the details of such an 
undertaking as ,turgot's administration 
of the ,limousin helps us to understand 
two things3 first1 that all the ideas   
necessary for the pacific transformation
 of ,french society were there in the   
midst of it2 second1 that the system of 
privilege had fostered such a spirit in 
one class1 and the reaction against the 
inconsiderate manifestation of that     
spirit was so violent in the other      
class1 that good political ideas were   

vain and inapplicable4  ,it is curious  
to find that1 in the midst of his       
beneficent administration1 ,turgot was  
rating practical work very low in       
comparison with the achievements of the 
student and the thinker4 ',you are very 
fortunate1' ,condorcet said to him1 'in 
having a passion for the public good1   
and in being able to satisfy it2 it is a
 great consolation1 and of a very       
superior order to the consolation of    
mere study4' ',nay1' replied ,turgot1 in
 his next letter1 'whatever you may say1
 ,i believe that the satisfaction       
derived from study is superior to any   
other kind of satisfaction4 ,i am       
perfectly convinced that one may be1    
through study1 a thousand times more    
useful to men than in any of our        
subordinate posts4 ,there we torment    
ourselves1 and often without any        
compensating success1 to secure some    
small benefits1 while we are the        
involuntary instrument of evils that are
 by no means small4 ,all our small      

benefits are transitory1 while the light
 that a man of letters is able to       
diffuse must1 sooner or later1 destroy  
all the artificial evils of the human   
race1 and place it in a position to     
enjoy all the goods that nature offers4'
 ,it is clear that we can only accept   
,turgot's preference1 on condition that 
the man of letters is engaged on work   
that seriously advances social interests
 and adds something to human stature4   
,most literature1 nearly all literature1
 is distinctly subordinate and          
secondary2 it only serves to pass the   
time of the learned or cultured class1  
without making any definite mark either 
on the mental habits of men and women1  
or on the institutions under which they 
live4 ,compared with such literature as 
this1 the work of an administrator who  
makes life materially easier and more   
hopeful to the half-million of persons  
living in the ,generality of ,limoges or
 elsewhere1 must be pronounced          
emphatically the worthier and more      

justly satisfactory4#dd  ,footnote #dd3 
,see vol4 i4 p4 #bij4  ,turgot himself1 
however1 found time1 in his industry at 
,limoges1 to make a contribution to a   
kind of literature which has seriously  
modified the practical arrangements and 
social relations of the western world4  
,in #agff he published his ,essay on the
 ,formation and ,distribution of        
,wealth--a short but most pithy         
treatise1 in which he anticipated some  
of the leading economic principles of   
that greater work by ,adam ,smith1 which
 was given to the world ten years later4
 ,turgot's ,essay has none of the       
breadth of historic outlook1 and none of
 the amplitude of concrete illustrations
 from real affairs1 which make the      
,wealth of ,nations so deeply fertile1  
so persuasive1 so interesting1 so       
thoroughly alive1 so genuinely enriching
 to the understanding of the judicious  
reader4 ,but the comparative dryness of 
,turgot's too concise form does not     
blind the historian of political economy

 to the merit of the substance of his   
propositions4 ,it was no small proof of 
originality and enlightenment to precede
 ,adam ,smith by ten years in the       
doctrines of free trade1 of free        
industry1 of loans on interest1 of the  
constitutive elements of price1 of the  
effects of the division of labour1 of   
the processes of the formation of       
capital4 ,the passage on interest will  
bear reproducing once more3--',we may   
regard the rate of interest as a kind of
 level1 below which all labour1 all     
cultivation1 all industry1 all commerce 
ceases4 ,it is like a sea spreading out 
over a vast district2 the tops of the   
mountains rise above the waters and form
 fertile and cultivated islands4 ,if the
 sea by any chance finds an outlet1 then
 in proportion as it goes down1 first   
the slopes1 next the plains and valleys1
 appear and clothe themselves with      
productions of every kind4 ,it is enough
 that the sea rises or falls by a foot1 
to inundate vast shores1 or to restore  

them to cultivation and plenty4' ,there 
are not many illustrations at once so   
apt and so picturesque as this1 but most
 of the hundred paragraphs that make up 
the ,reflections are1 notwithstanding   
one or two of the characteristic        
crotchets of ,quesnai's school1 both    
accurate and luminous4     ,v4   ,in    
,may #aggd ,lewis ,,xv4 died4 ,his      
successor was only twenty years old2 he 
was sluggish in mind1 vacillating in    
temper1 and inexperienced in affairs4   
,maurepas was recalled1 to become the   
new king's chief adviser2 and ,maurepas1
 at the suggestion of one of ,turgot's  
college friends1 summoned the ,intendant
 from ,limoges1 and placed him at the   
head of the department of marine4 ,this 
post ,turgot only held for a couple of  
months2 he was then preferred to the    
great office of ,controller-,general4   
,the condition of the national finance  
made its administration the most        
important of all the departments of the 
government4 ,turgot's policy in this    

high sphere belongs to the general      
history of ,france1 and there is no     
occasion for us to reproduce its details
 here4 ,it was mainly an attempt to     
extend over the whole realm the kind of 
reforms which had been tried on a small 
scale in the ,limousin4 ,he suppressed  
the corvees1 and he tacked the money    
payment which was substituted for that  
burden on to the ,twentieths1 an impost 
from which the privileged class was not 
exempt4 ',the weight of this charge1' he
 made the king say in the edict of      
suppression1 'now falls and must fall   
only on the poorest classes of our      
subjects4' ,this truth only added to the
 exasperation of the rich1 and perhaps  
might well have been omitted4 ,along    
with the corvees were suppressed the    
jurandes1 or exclusive industrial       
corporations or trade-guilds1 whose     
monopolies and restrictions were so     
mischievous an impediment to the        
wellbeing of the country4 ,in the       
preamble to this edict we seem to be    

breathing the air1 not of ,versailles in
 #agge1 but of the ,convention in       
#agic3--';,god1 when he made man with   
wants1 and rendered labour an           
indispensable resource1 made the right  
of work the property of every individual
 in the world1 and this property is the 
first1 the most sacred1 and the most    
imprescriptible of all kinds of         
property4 ,we regard it as one of the   
first duties of our justice1 and as one 
of the acts most of all worthy of our   
benevolence1 to free our subjects from  
every infraction of that inalienable    
right of humanity4'  ,again1 ,turgot    
removed a tax from certain forms of     
lease1 with a view to promote the       
substitution of a system of farming for 
the system of metayers4 ,he abolished an
 obstructive privilege by which the     
,hotel ,dieu had the exclusive right of 
selling meat during ,lent4 ,the whole of
 the old incoherent and vexatious police
 of the corn-markets was swept away4    
,finally1 he inspired the publication of

 a short but most important writing1    
,boncerf's ,inconvenients des ,droits   
,feodaux1 in which1 without criticising 
the origin of the privileges of the     
nobles1 the author showed how much it   
would be to the advantage of the lords  
to accept a commutation of their feudal 
dues4 ,what was still more exasperating 
both to nobles and lawyers1 was the     
author's hardy assertion that if the    
lords refused the offer of their        
vassals1 the king had the power to      
settle the question for them by his own 
legislative authority4 ,this was the    
most important and decisive of the      
pre-revolutionary tracts4  ,equally     
violent prejudices and more sensitive   
interests were touched by two other sets
 of proposals4 ,the minister began to   
talk of a new territorial contribution1 
and a great survey and re-assessment of 
the land4 ,then followed an edict       
restoring in good earnest the free      
circulation of corn within the kingdom4 
,turgot was a partisan of free trade in 

its most entire application2 but for the
 moment he contented himself with the   
free importation of grain and its free  
circulation at home1 without sanctioning
 its exportation abroad4 ,apart from    
changes thus organically affecting the  
industry of the country1 ,turgot dealt  
sternly with certain corruptions that   
had crept into the system of            
tax-farming1 as well as with the        
monstrous abuses of the system of       
court-pensions4  ,the measures we have  
enumerated were all excellent in        
themselves1 and the state of the kingdom
 was such as urgently to call for them4 
,they were steps towards the            
construction of a fabric of freedom and 
justice4 ,but they provoked a host of   
bitter and irreconcilable enemies1 while
 they raised up no corresponding host of
 energetic supporters4 ,the reason of   
the first of these circumstances is     
plain enough1 but the second demands a  
moment's consideration4 ,that the       
country clergy should denounce the      

,philosopher1 as they called him1 from  
the pulpit and the steps of the altar1  
was natural enough4 ,many even of his   
old colleagues of the ,encyclopaedia had
 joined ,necker against the minister4   
,the greatest of them all1 it is true1  
stood by ,turgot with unfailing         
staunchness2 a shower of odes1          
diatribes1 dialogues1 allegories1       
dissertations1 came from the ,patriarch 
of ,ferney to confound and scatter the  
enemies of the new reforms4 ,but the    
people were unmoved4 ,if ,turgot        
published an explanation of the high    
price of grain1 they perversely took    
explanation for gratulation1 and thought
 the ,controller preferred to have bread
 dear4 ,if he put down seditious risings
 with a strong hand1 they insisted that 
he was in nefarious league with the     
corn-merchants and the bakers4 ,how was 
it that the people did not recognise the
 hand of a benefactor8 ,the answer is   
that they suspected the source of the   
new reforms too virulently to judge them

 calmly4 ,for half a century1 as        
,condorcet says pregnantly1 they had    
been undergoing the evils of anarchy1   
while they supposed that they were      
feeling those of despotism4 ,the error  
was grave1 but it was natural1 and one  
effect of it was to make every measure  
that proceeded from the court odious4   
,hence1 when the parlements took up     
their judicial arms in defence of abuses
 and against reforms1 the common people 
took sides with them1 for no better     
reason than that this was to take sides 
against the king's government4          
,malesherbes in those days1 and good    
writers since1 held that the only safe  
plan was to convoke the                 
,states-,general4 ,they would at least  
have shared the responsibility with the 
crown4 ,turgot rejected this opinion4   
,by doctrine1 no less than by           
temperament1 he disliked the control of 
a government by popular bodies4         
,everything for the people1 nothing by  
the people3 this was the maxim of the   

,economists1 and ,turgot held it in all 
its rigour4 ,the royal authority was the
 only instrument that he could bring    
himself to use4 ,even if he could have  
counted on a ,frederick or a ,napoleon1 
the instrument would hardly have served 
his purposes2 as things were1 it was a  
broken reed1 not a fine sword1 that he  
had to his hand4  ,the ,national        
,assembly and the ,convention went to   
work exactly in the same stiff and      
absolute spirit as ,turgot4 ,they were  
just as little disposed to gradual1     
moderate1 and compromising ways as he4  
,but with them the absolute authority on
 which they leaned was real and most    
potent2 with him it was a shadow4 ,we   
owe it to ,turgot that the experiment   
was complete3 he proved that the        
monarchy of divine right was incapable  
of reform4#de ,as it has been           
sententiously expressed1 ',the part of  
the sages was now played out2 room was  
now for the men of destiny4'  ,footnote 
#de3 ,foncin's ,ministere de ,turgot1 p4

 #egd4  ,if the repudiation of a popular
 assembly was the cardinal error in     
,turgot's scheme of policy1 there were  
other errors added4 ,the publication of 
,boncerf's attack on the feudal dues1   
with the undisguised sanction of the    
minister1 has been justly condemned as a
 grave imprudence1 and as involving a   
forgetfulness of the true principles of 
government and administration1 that     
would certainly not have been committed 
either by ,colbert1 in whom ,turgot     
professed to seek his model1 nor by     
,gournai1 who had been his master4 ,it  
was a broad promise of reforms which    
,turgot was by no means sure of being   
able to persuade the king and his       
council to adopt4 ,by prematurely       
divulging his projects1 it augmented the
 number of his adversaries1 without     
being definite enough to bring new      
friends4#df ,again1 ,turgot did nothing 
to redeem it by personal                
conciliatoriness in carrying out the    
designs of a benevolent absolutism4 ,the

 ,count of ,provence1 afterwards ,lewis 
,,xviii41 wrote a satire on the         
government during ,turgot's ministry1   
and in it there is a picture of the     
great reformer as he appeared to his    
enemies3 ',there was then in ,france an 
awkward1 heavy1 clumsy creature2 born   
with more rudeness than character1 more 
obstinacy than firmness1 more           
impetuosity than tact2 a charlatan in   
administration no less than in virtue1  
exactly formed to get the one decried   
and to disgust the world with the other2
 made harsh and distant by his          
self-love1 and timid by his pride2 as   
much a stranger to men1 whom he had     
never known1 as to the public weal1     
which he had never seen aright2 this man
 was called ,turgot4'  ,footnote #df3   
,see ,mauguin's ,etudes ,historiques sur
 l',administration de l',agriculture1 i4
 #cec4  ,it is a mistake to take the    
word of political adversaries for a     
man's character1 but adversaries        
sometimes only say out aloud what is    

already suspected by friends4 ,the      
coarse account given by the ,count of   
,provence shows us where ,turgot's      
weakness as a ruler may have lain4 ,he  
was distant and stiff in manner1 and    
encouraged no one to approach him4 ,even
 his health went against him1 for at a  
critical time in his short ministry he  
was confined to bed by gout for four    
months1 and he could see nobody save    
clerks and secretaries4 ,the very       
austerity1 loftiness1 and purity1 which 
make him so reverend and inspiring a    
figure in the pages of the noble-hearted
 ,condorcet1 may well have been         
impediments in dealing with a society   
that1 in the fatal words of the ,roman  
historian1 could bear neither its       
disorders nor their remedies4  ,the king
 had once said pathetically3 ',it is    
only ,m4 ,turgot and ,i who love the    
people4' ,but even with the king1 there 
were points at which the minister's     
philosophic severity strained their     
concord4 ,turgot was the friend of      

,voltaire and ,condorcet2 he counted    
,christianity a form of superstition2   
and he1 who as a youth had refused to go
 through life wearing the mask of the   
infidel abbe1 had too much self-respect 
in his manhood to practise the rites and
 uses of a system which he considered a 
degradation of the understanding4 ,one  
day the king said to ,maurepas3 ',you   
have given me a ,controller-general who 
never goes to mass4' ',sire1' replied   
that ready worldling1 'the ,abbe ,terray
 always went'--and ,terray had brought  
the government to bankruptcy4 ,but      
,turgot hurt the king's conscience more 
directly than by staying away from mass 
and confession4 ,faithful to the long   
tradition of his ancestors1 ,lewis      
,,xvi4 wished the ceremony of his       
coronation to take place at ,rheims4    
,turgot urged that it should be         
performed at ,paris1 and as cheaply as  
possible4 ,and he advanced on to still  
more delicate ground4 ,in the rite of   
consecration1 the usage was that the    

king should take an oath to pursue all  
heretics4 ,turgot demanded the          
suppression of this declaration of      
intolerance4 ,it was pointed out to him 
that it was only a formality4 ,but      
,turgot was one of those severe and     
scrupulous souls1 to whom a wicked      
promise does not cease to be degrading  
by becoming hypocritical4 ,and he was   
perfectly justified4 ,it was only by the
 gradual extinction of the vestiges of  
her ancient barbarisms1 as occasion     
offered1 that the ,church could have    
escaped the crash of the ,revolution4   
,meanwhile1 the king and the priests had
 their own way3 the king was crowned at 
,rheims1 and the priests exacted from   
him an oath to be unjust1 oppressive1   
and cruel towards a portion of his      
subjects4 ,turgot could only            
remonstrate2 but the philosophic        
memorial in which he protested in favour
 of religious freedom and equality1 gave
 the king a serious shock4  ,we have no 
space1 nor would it be worth while1 to  

describe the intrigues which ended in   
the minister's fall4 ,already in the    
previous volume1 we have referred to the
 immediate and decisive share which1 the
 queen had in his disgrace4#dg ,he was  
dismissed in the beginning of ,may      
#aggf1 having been in power little more 
than twenty months4 ',you are too       
hurried1' ,malesherbes had said to him4 
',you think you have the love of the    
public good2 not at all2 you have a rage
 for it1 for a man must be nothing short
 of enraged to insist on forcing the    
hand of the whole world4' ,turgot       
replied1 more pathetically perhaps than 
reasonably1 ',what1 you accuse me of    
haste1 and you know that in my family we
 die of gout at fifty6'  ,footnote #dg3 
,see vol4 i4 p4 #ca4  ,there is         
something almost tragic in the joy with 
which ,turgot's dismissal was received  
on all sides4 ',i seem1' said           
,marmontel1 'to be looking at a band of 
brigands in the forest of ,bondy1 who   
have just heard that the provost-marshal

 has been discharged4' ,voltaire and    
,condorcet were not more dismayed by the
 fall of the minister1 than by the      
insensate delight which greeted the     
catastrophe4 ',this event1' wrote       
,condorcet1 'has changed all nature in  
my eyes4 ,i have no longer the same     
pleasure in looking at those fair       
landscapes over which he would have shed
 happiness and contentment4 ,the sight  
of the gaiety of the people wrings my   
heart4 ,they dance and sport1 as if they
 had lost nothing4 ,ah1 we have had a   
delicious dream1 but it has been all too
 short4' ,voltaire was equally          
inconsolable1 and still more violent in 
the expression of his grief4 ,when he   
had become somewhat calmer1 he composed 
those admirable verses1--,to a ,man3    
,philosophe indulgent1 ministre citoyen1
     ,qui ne cherchas le vrai que pour  
faire le bien1     ,qui d'un peuple     
leger et trop ingrat peut-etre          
,preparais le bonheur et celui de son   
maitre1     ,ce qu'on nomme disgrace a  

paye tes bienfaits4     ,le vrai prix de
 travail n'est que de vivre en paix4    
,turgot at first showed some just and   
natural resentment at the levity with   
which he had been banished from power1  
and he put on no airs of theatrical     
philosophy4 ,he would have been untrue  
to the sincerity of his character1 if he
 had affected indifference or           
satisfaction at seeing his beneficent   
hopes for ever destroyed4 ,but chagrin  
did not numb his industry or his wide   
interests4 ,condorcet went to visit him 
some months after his fall4 ,he         
describes ,turgot as reading ,ariosto1  
as making experiments in physics1 and as
 having forgotten all that had passed   
within the last two years1 save when the
 sight of evils that he would have      
mitigated or removed1 happened to remind
 him of it4 ,he occupied himself busily 
with chemistry and optics1 with         
astronomy and mechanics1 and above all  
with meteorology1 which was a new       
science in those days1 and the value of 

which to the study of the conditions of 
human health1 of the productions of the 
earth1 of navigation1 excited his most  
ardent anticipations4 ,turgot also was  
so moved by the necessity for a new     
synthesis of life and knowledge as to   
frame a plan for a great work 'on the   
human soul1 the order of the universe1  
the ,supreme ,being1 the principles of  
societies1 the rights of men1 political 
constitutions1 legislation1             
administration1 physical education1 the 
means of perfecting the human race      
relatively to the progressive advance   
and employment of their forces1 to the  
happiness of which they are susceptible1
 to the extent of the knowledge to which
 they may attain1 to the certainty1     
clearness1 and simplicity of the        
principles of conduct1 to the purity of 
the feelings that spring up in men's    
souls4' ,while his mind was moving      
through these immense spaces of thought1
 he did not forget the things of the    
hour4 ,he invented a machine for serving

 ship's cables4 ,he wrote a plea for    
allowing ,captain ,cook's vessel to     
remain unmolested during the ,american  
war4 ,with ,adam ,smith1 with ,dr4      
,price1 with ,franklin1 with ,hume1 he  
kept up a grave and worthy              
correspondence4 ,of his own countrymen1 
,condorcet was his most faithful friend 
and disciple1 and it is much to         
,condorcet's credit that this was so1   
for ,turgot never gave way to the       
passionate impulses of the philosophic  
school against what ,voltaire called the
 ,infamous1 that is to say1 against the 
,church1 her doctrines1 her morality1   
her history4  ,we have already said that
 the keyword to ,turgot's political aims
 and social theory was not ,pity nor    
,benevolence1 but ,justice4 ,it was     
,justice also1 not temporary ,prejudice 
nor ,passion1 that guided his judgment  
through the heated issues of the time4  
,this justice and exact reasonableness  
it was impossible to surprise or throw  
off its guard4 ,his sublime intellectual

 probity never suffered itself to be    
tempted4 ,he protested against the      
doctrines of ,helvetius's book1 de      
l',esprit1 and of ,d',holbach's ,systeme
 de la ,nature1 at a moment when some of
 his best friends were enthusiastic in  
admiration1 for no better reason than   
that the doctrines of the two books were
 hateful to the ecclesiastics and       
destructive of the teaching of the      
,church4 ,in the course of a discussion1
 ,condorcet had maintained that in      
general scrupulous persons are not fit  
for great things3 a ,christian1 he said1
 will waste in subduing the darts of the
 flesh time that he might have employed 
upon things that would have been useful 
to humanity2 he will never venture to   
rise against tyrants1 for fear of having
 formed a hasty judgment1 and so forth  
in other cases4 ',no virtue1' replies   
,turgot1 'in whatever sense you take the
 word1 can dispense with justice2 and ,i
 think no better of the people who do   
your great things at the cost of        

justice1 than ,i do of poets who fancy  
that they can produce great wonders of  
imagination without order and           
regularity4 ,i know that excessive      
precision tends to deaden the fire alike
 of action and of composition2 but there
 is a medium in everything4 ,there has  
never been any question in our          
controversy of a capuchin wasting his   
time in quenching the darts of the      
flesh1 though1 by the way1 in the whole 
sum of time wasted1 the term expressing 
the time lost in satisfying the         
appetites of the flesh would probably be
 found to be decidedly the greater of   
the two4' ,this parenthesis is one of a 
hundred illustrations of ,turgot's      
habitual refusal to be carried out of   
the narrow path of exact rationality1 or
 to take for granted a single word of   
the common form of the dialect even of  
his best friends and closest associates4
 ,and the readiness with which men fall 
into common form1 the levity with which 
they settle the most complex and        

difficult issues1 stirred in ,turgot    
what ,michelet calls ferocite1 and ,mr4 
,matthew ,arnold calls soeva indignatio4
 ',turgot was filled with an astonished1
 awful1 oppressive sense of the immoral 
thoughtlessness of men2 of the heedless1
 hazardous way in which they deal with  
things of the greatest moment to them2  
of the immense1 incalculable misery     
which is due to this cause' 7,m4        
,arnold74  ,turgot died on the #bjth of 
,march #agha1 leaving to posterity the  
memory of a character which was more    
perfect and imposing than his           
performances4 ,condorcet saw in this    
harmonious union and fine balance of    
qualities the secret of his             
unpopularity4 ',envy1' he says1 'seems  
more closely to attend a character that 
approaches perfection1 than one that1   
while astonishing men by its greatness1 
yet by exhibiting a mixture of defects  
and vices1 offers a consolation that    
envy seeks4'   ,transcribers' ,notes3   
,minor printer errors 7omitted or       

incorrect punctuation7 have been amended
 without note4 ,minor inconsistencies in
 hyphenation have been resolved where   
possible1 or retained where there was no
 way to determine which was correct1    
again without note4 ,other errors have  
been amended1 and are listed below4     
,,oe_/oe ligatures have not been        
retained in this version4   ,list of    
,amendments3  ,page #ej--superstitution 
amended to superstition--444 treated as 
superstition by those 444  ,page        
#abf--;devolopment amended to           
development--444 lead gradually to the  
development of sound 444