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diff --git a/old/15098-h.htm.2020-12-14 b/old/15098-h.htm.2020-12-14 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d41d5b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/15098-h.htm.2020-12-14 @@ -0,0 +1,12043 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <meta name="generator" content= + "HTML Tidy for Linux/x86 (vers 1st August 2004), see www.w3.org" /> + + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Diderot, by John Morley.</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ +</style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (Vol 1 of 2) +by John Morley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (Vol 1 of 2) + +Author: John Morley + +Release Date: February 18, 2005 [EBook #15098] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIDEROT *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, LN Yaddanapudi, Leonard Johnson and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1>DIDEROT AND THE + ENCYCLOPÆDISTS</h1> + + <h2>BY JOHN MORLEY</h2> + + <h3>VOL. I.</h3> + + <h4>LONDON<br /> + MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED<br /> + NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> + 1905</h4> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h4><i>First + published elsewhere<br /> + New Edition 1886. Reprinted 1891, 1897, 1905</i></h4> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + <p>The present work closes a series of studies on the literary + preparation for the French Revolution. It differs from the companion + volumes on Voltaire and Rousseau, in being much more fully + descriptive. In the case of those two famous writers, every educated + reader knows more or less of their performances. Of Diderot and his + circle, such knowledge cannot be taken for granted, and I have + therefore thought it best to occupy a considerable space, which I hope + that those who do me the honour to read these pages will not find + excessive, with what is little more than transcript or analysis. Such + a method will at least enable the reader to see what those ideas + really were, which the social and economic condition of France on the + eve of the convulsion made so welcome to men. The shortcomings of the + encyclopædic group are obvious enough. They have lately been + emphasised in the ingenious and one-sided exaggerations of that + brilliant man of letters, Mr. Taine. The social significance and the + positive quality of much of their writing is more easily missed, and + this side of their work it has been one of my principal objects, alike + in the case of Voltaire, of Rousseau, and of Diderot, to bring into + the prominence that it deserves in the history of opinion.</p> + + <p>The edition of Diderot's works to which the references are made, is + that in twenty volumes by the late Mr. Assézat and Mr. Maurice + Tourneux. The only other serious book on Diderot with which I am + acquainted is Rosenkranz's valuable <i>Diderot's Leben</i>, published + in 1866, and abounding in full and patient knowledge. Of the numerous + criticisms on Diderot by Raumer, Arndt, Hettner, Damiron, Bersot, and + above all by Mr. Carlyle, I need not make more particular mention.</p> + + <p><i>May, 1878.</i></p> + + <p>NOTE.</p> + + <div class="blockquot"> + <p>Since the following pages were printed, an American correspondent + writes to me with reference to the dialogue between Franklin and + Raynal, mentioned on page 218, Vol. II.:—"I have now before me Volume + IV. of the <i>American Law Journal</i>, printed at Philadelphia in + the year 1813, and at page 458 find in full, 'The Speech of Miss + Polly Baker, delivered before a court of judicature in + <i>Connecticut</i>, where she was prosecuted.'" Raynal, therefore, + would have been right if instead of Massachusetts he had said + Connecticut; and either Franklin told an untruth, or else Silas + Deane.</p> + + <p><i>September, 1878.</i></p> + </div> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2>CONTENTS OF VOL. I.</h2> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></p> + + <p>PRELIMINARY.</p> + + <p>The Church in the middle of the century<br /> + New phase in the revolt<br /> + The Encyclopædia, its symbol<br /> + End of the reaction against the Encyclopædia<br /> + Diderot's position in the movement<br /></p> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></p> + + <p>YOUTH.</p> + + <p>Birth and birthplace (1713)<br /> + His family<br /> + Men of letters in Paris<br /> + Diderot joins their company<br /> + His life in Paris: his friendly character<br /> + Stories of his good-nature<br /> + His tolerance for social reprobates<br /> + His literary struggles<br /> + Marriage (1743)<br /></p> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></p> + + <p>EARLY WRITINGS.</p> + + <p>Diderot's mismanagement of his own talents<br /> + Apart from this, a great talker rather than a great writer<br /> + A man of the Socratic type<br /> + Hack-work for the booksellers<br /> + The Philosophical Thoughts (1746)<br /> + Shaftesbury's influence<br /> + Scope of the Philosophical Thoughts<br /> + On the Sufficiency of Natural Religion (1747)<br /> + Explanation of the attraction of Natural Religion<br /> + Police supervision over men of letters<br /> + Two pictures of the literary hack<br /> + Seizure of the Sceptic's Walk (1747)<br /> + Its drift<br /> + A volume of stories (1748)<br /> + Diderot's view of the fate and character of women<br /></p> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></p> + + <p>THE NEW PHILOSOPHY.</p> + + <p>Voltaire's account of Cheselden's operation<br /> + Diderot publishes the Letter on the Blind (1749)<br /> + Its significance<br /> + Condillac and Diderot<br /> + Account of the Letter on the Blind<br /> + The pith of it, an application of Relativity to the conception<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">of God</span><br /> + Saunderson of Cambridge<br /> + Argument assigned to him<br /> + Curious anticipation of a famous modern hypothesis<br /> + Voltaire's criticism<br /> + Effect of Diderot's philosophic position on the system<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">of the Church</span><br /> + Not merely a dispute in metaphysics<br /> + Illustration of Diderot's practical originality<br /> + Points of literary interest<br /> + The Letter on Deaf Mutes (1751)<br /> + Condillac's Statue<br /> + Diderot imprisoned at Vincennes (1749)<br /> + Rousseau's visit to him<br /> + Breach with Madame de Puisieux<br /> + Diderot released from captivity<br /></p> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></p> + + <p>THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA.</p> + + <p>(1) ITS HISTORY.</p> + + <p>Previous examples of the Encyclopædic idea<br /> + True parentage of Diderot's Encyclopædia<br /> + Origin of the undertaking<br /> + Co-operation of D'Alembert: his history and character<br /> + Diderot and D'Alembert on the function of literature<br /> + Presiding characteristic of the Encyclopædia<br /> + Its more eminent contributors<br /> + The unsought volunteer<br /> + Voltaire's share in it<br /> + Its compliance with reigning prejudice<br /> + Its aim, not literature but life<br /> + Publication of first and second volumes (1751-52)<br /> + Affair of De Prades<br /> + Diderot's vindication of him (1752)<br /> + Marks rupture between the Philosophers and the Jansenists<br /> + Royal decree suppressing first two volumes (1752)<br /> + Failure of the Jesuits to carry on the work<br /> + Four more volumes published<br /> + The seventh volume (1757)<br /> + Arouses violent hostility<br /> + The storm made fiercer by Helvétius's <i>L'Esprit</i><br /> + Proceedings against the Encyclopædia<br /> + Their significance<br /> + They also mark singular reaction within the school of<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Illumination</span><br /> + Retirement of D'Alembert<br /> + Diderot continues the work alone for seven years<br /> + His harassing mortifications<br /> + The Encyclopædia at Versailles<br /> + Reproduction and imitations<br /> + Diderot's payment<br /></p> + + <p>(2) GENERAL CONTENTS.</p> + + <p>Transformation of a speculative into a social attack<br /> + Circumstances of practical opportuneness<br /> + Broad features of Encyclopædic revolution<br /> + Positive spirit of the Encyclopædia<br /> + Why we call it the organ of a political work<br /> + Articles on Agriculture<br /> + On the <i>Gabelle</i> and the <i>Taille</i><br /> + On Privilege<br /> + On the <i>Corveée</i><br /> + On the Militia<br /> + On Endowments, Fairs, and Industrial Guilds<br /> + On Game and the Chase<br /> + Enthusiasm for the details of industry<br /> + Meaning of the importance assigned to industry and science<br /> + Intellectual side of the change<br /> + Attitude of the Encyclopædia to religion<br /> + Diderot's intention under this head<br /> + How far the scheme fulfilled his intention<br /> + The Preliminary Discourse<br /> + Recognition of the value of discussion<br /> + And of toleration<br /></p> + + <p>(3) DIDEROT'S CONTRIBUTIONS.</p> + + <p>Their immense confusion<br /> + Constant insinuation of sound doctrines<br /> + And of practical suggestions<br /> + Diderot not always above literary trifling<br /> + No taste for barren erudition<br /> + On Montaigne and Bayle<br /> + Occasional bursts of moralising<br /> + Varying attitude as to theology<br /> + The practical arts<br /> + Second-hand sources<br /> + Inconsistencies<br /> + Treatment of metaphysics<br /> + On Spinosa<br /> + On Leibnitz<br /> + On Liberty<br /> + Astonishing self-contradiction<br /> + Political articles<br /> + On the mechanism of government<br /> + Anticipation of Cobdenic ideas<br /> + Conclusion<br /></p> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></p> + + <p>SOCIAL LIFE (1759-1770).</p> + + <p>Diderot's relations with Madame Voland<br /> + His letters to her<br /> + His Regrets on My Old Dressing-gown<br /> + Domestic discomfort<br /> + His indomitable industry<br /> + Life at Grandval<br /> + Meditations on human existence<br /> + Interest in the casuistry of human feeling<br /> + Various sayings<br /> + A point in rhetoric<br /> + Holbach's impressions of England<br /> + Two cases of conscience<br /> + A story of human wickedness<br /> + Method and Genius: an Apologue<br /> + Conversation<br /> + Annihilation<br /> + Characteristic of the century<br /> + Diderot's inexhaustible friendliness<br /> + The Abbé Monnier<br /> + Mademoiselle Jodin<br /> + Landois<br /> + Rousseau<br /> + Grimm<br /> + Diderot's money affairs<br /> + Succour rendered by Catherine of Russia<br /> + French booksellers in the eighteenth century<br /> + Dialogue between Diderot and D'Alembert<br /> + English opinion on Diderot's circle<br /></p> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></p> + + <p>THE STAGE.</p> + + <p>In what sense Diderot the greatest genius of the century<br /> + Mark of his theory of the drama<br /> + Diderot's influence on Lessing<br /> + His play, <i>The Natural Son</i> (1757)<br /> + Its quality illustrated<br /> + His sense of the importance of pantomime<br /> + The dialogues appended to <i>The Natural Son</i><br /> + His second play, <i>The Father of the Family</i> (1758)<br /> + One radical error of his dramatic doctrine<br /> + Modest opinion of his own experiments<br /> + His admiration for Terence<br /> + Diderot translates Moore's <i>Gamester</i><br /> + On Shakespeare<br /> + The Paradox on the Player<br /> + Account of Garrick<br /> + On the truth of the stage<br /> + His condemnation of the French classic stage<br /> + The foundations of dramatic art<br /> + Diderot claims to have created a new kind of drama<br /> + No Diderotian school<br /> + Why the Encyclopædists could not replace the classic<br /> + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">drama</span><br /> + The great drama of the eighteenth century<br /></p> + + <p><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></p> + + <p>"RAMEAU'S NEPHEW."</p> + + <p>The mood that inspired this composition<br /> + History of the text<br /> + Various accounts of the design of <i>Rameau's Nephew</i><br /> + Juvenal's Parasite<br /> + Lucian<br /> + Diderot's picture of his original<br /> + Not without imaginative strokes<br /> + More than a literary diversion<br /> + Sarcasms on Palissot<br /> + The musical controversy<br /></p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + <h2>DIDEROT.<br /> + <a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /> + PRELIMINARY.</h2> + + <p>There was a moment in the last century when the Gallican church + hoped for a return of internal union and prosperity. This brief era of + hope coincided almost exactly with the middle of the century. Voltaire + was in exile at Berlin. The author of the Persian Letters and the + Spirit of Laws was old and near his end. Rousseau was copying music in + a garret. The Encyclopædia was looked for, but only as a literary + project of some associated booksellers. The Jansenists, who had been + so many in number and so firm in spirit five-and-twenty years earlier, + had now sunk to a small minority of the French clergy. The great + ecclesiastical body at length offered an unbroken front to its rivals, + the great judicial bodies. A patriotic minister was indeed audacious + enough to propose a tax upon ecclesiastical property, but the Church + fought the battle and won. Troops had just been despatched to hunt and + scatter the Protestants of the desert, and bigots exulted in the + thought of pastors swinging on gibbets, and heretical congregations + fleeing for their lives before the fire of orthodox musketry. The + house of Austria had been forced to suffer spoliation at the hands of + the infidel Frederick, but all the world was well aware that the + haughty and devout Empress-Queen would seize a speedy opportunity of + taking a crushing vengeance; France would this time be on the side of + righteousness and truth. For the moment a churchman might be pardoned + if he thought that superstition, ignorance, abusive privilege, and + cruelty were on the eve of the smoothest and most triumphant days that + they had known since the Reformation.</p> + + <p>We now know how illusory this sanguine anticipation was destined to + prove, and how promptly. In little more than forty years after the + triumphant enforcement of the odious system of confessional + certificates, then the crowning event of ecclesiastical supremacy, + Paris saw the Feast of the Supreme Being, and the adoration of the + Goddess of Reason. The Church had scarcely begun to dream before she + was rudely and peremptorily awakened. She found herself confronted by + the most energetic, hardy, and successful assailants whom the spirit + of progress ever inspired. Compared with the new attack, Jansenism was + no more than a trifling episode in a family quarrel. Thomists and + Molinists became as good as confederates, and Quietism barely seemed a + heresy. In every age, even in the very depth of the times of faith, + there had arisen disturbers of the intellectual peace. Almost each + century after the resettlement of Europe by Charlemagne had procured + some individual, or some little group, who had ventured to question + this or that article of the ecclesiastical creed, to whom broken + glimpses of new truth had come, and who had borne witness against the + error or inconsistency or inadequateness of old ways of thinking. The + questions which presented themselves to the acuter minds of a hundred + years ago, were present to the acuter minds who lived hundreds of + years before that. The more deeply we penetrate into the history of + opinion, the more strongly are we tempted to believe that in the great + matters of speculation no question is altogether new, and hardly any + answer is altogether new. But the Church had known how to deal with + intellectual insurgents, from Abelard in the twelfth century down to + Giordano Bruno and Vanini in the seventeenth. They were isolated; they + were for the most part submissive; and if they were not, the arm of + the Church was very long and her grasp mortal. And all these + meritorious precursors were made weak by one cardinal defect, for + which no gifts of intellectual acuteness could compensate. They had + the scientific idea, but they lacked the social idea. They could have + set opinion right about the efficacy of the syllogism, and the virtue + of entities and quiddities. They could have taught Europe earlier than + the Church allowed it to learn that the sun does not go round the + earth, and that it is the earth which goes round the sun. But they + were wholly unfitted to deal with the prodigious difficulties of moral + and social direction. This function, so immeasurably more important + than the mere discovery of any number of physical relations, it was + the glory of the Church to have discharged for some centuries with as + much success as the conditions permitted. We are told indeed by + writers ignorant alike of human history and human nature, that only + physical science can improve the social condition of man. The common + sense of the world always rejects this gross fallacy. The acquiescence + for so many centuries in the power of the great directing organisation + of Western Europe, notwithstanding its intellectual inadequateness, + was the decisive expression of that rejection.</p> + + <p>After the middle of the last century the insurrection against the + pretensions of the Church and against the doctrines of Christianity + was marked in one of its most important phases by a new and most + significant feature. In this phase it was animated at once by the + scientific idea and by the social idea. It was an advance both in + knowledge and in moral motive. It rested on a conception which was + crude and imperfect enough, but which was still almost, like the great + ecclesiastical conception itself, a conception of life as a whole. + Morality, positive law, social order, economics, the nature and limits + of human knowledge, the constitution of the physical universe, had one + by one disengaged themselves from theological explanations. The final + philosophical movement of the century in France, which was represented + by Diderot, now tended to a new social synthesis resting on a purely + positive basis. If this movement had only added to its other contents + the historic idea, its destination would have been effectually + reached. As it was, its leaders surveyed the entire field with as much + accuracy and with as wide a range as their instruments allowed, and + they scattered over the world a set of ideas which at once entered + into energetic rivalry with the ancient scheme of authority. The great + symbol of this new comprehensiveness in the insurrection was the + Encyclopædia.</p> + + <p>The Encyclopædia was virtually a protest against the old + organisation, no less than against the old doctrine. Broadly stated, + the great central moral of it all was this: that human nature is good, + that the world is capable of being made a desirable abiding-place, and + that the evil of the world is the fruit of bad education and bad + institutions. This cheerful doctrine now strikes on the ear as a + commonplace and a truism. A hundred years ago in France it was a + wonderful gospel, and the beginning of a new dispensation. It was the + great counter-principle to asceticism in life and morals, to formalism + in art, to absolutism in the social ordering, to obscurantism in + thought. Every social improvement since has been the outcome of that + doctrine in one form or another. The conviction that the character and + lot of man are indefinitely modifiable for good, was the indispensable + antecedent to any general and energetic endeavour to modify the + conditions that surround him. The omnipotence of early instruction, of + laws, of the method of social order, over the infinitely plastic + impulses of the human creature—this was the maxim which brought men of + such widely different temperament and leanings to the common + enterprise. Everybody can see what wide and deep-reaching bearings + such a doctrine possessed; how it raised all the questions connected + with psychology and the formation of character; how it went down to + the very foundation of morals; into what fresh and unwelcome sunlight + it brought the articles of the old theology; with what new importance + it clothed all the relations of real knowledge and the practical arts; + what intense interest it lent to every detail of economics and + legislation and government.</p> + + <p>The deadly chagrin with which churchmen saw the encyclopedic fabric + rising was very natural. The teaching of the Church paints man as + fallen and depraved. The new secular knowledge clashed at a thousand + points, alike in letter and in spirit, with the old sacred lore. Even + where it did not clash, its vitality of interest and attraction drove + the older lore into neglected shade. To stir men's vivid curiosity and + hope about the earth was to make their care much less absorbing about + the kingdom of heaven. To awaken in them the spirit of social + improvement was ruin to the most scandalous and crying social abuse + then existing. The old spiritual power had lost its instinct, once so + keen and effective, of wise direction. Instead of being the guide and + corrector of the organs of the temporal power, it was the worst of + their accomplices. The Encyclopædia was an informal, transitory, and + provisional organisation of the new spiritual power. The school of + which it was the great expounder achieved a supreme control over + opinion by the only title to which control belongs: a more penetrating + eye for social exigencies and for the means of satisfying them.</p> + + <p>Our veteran humorist told us long ago in his whimsical way that the + importance of the Acts of the French Philosophes recorded in whole + acres of typography is fast exhausting itself, that the famed + Encyclopædical Tree has borne no fruit, and that Diderot the great has + contracted into Diderot the easily measurable. The humoristic method + is a potent instrument for working such contractions and expansions at + will. The greatest of men are measurable enough, if you choose to set + up a standard that is half transcendental and half cynical. A saner + and more patient criticism measures the conspicuous figures of the + past differently. It seeks their relations to the great forward + movements of the world, and asks to what quarter of the heavens their + faces were set, whether towards the east where the new light dawns, or + towards the west after the old light has sunk irrevocably down. Above + all, a saner criticism bids us remember that pioneers in the + progressive way are rare, their lives rude and sorely tried, and their + services to mankind beyond price. "Diderot is Diderot," wrote one + greater than Carlyle: "a peculiar individuality; whoever holds him or + his doings cheaply is a Philistine, and the name of them is legion. + Men know neither from God, nor from Nature, nor from their fellows, + how to receive with gratitude what is valuable beyond appraisement" + (<i>Goethe</i>). An intense Philistinism underlay the great spiritual + reaction that followed the Revolution, and not even such of its + apostles as Wordsworth and Carlyle wholly escaped the taint.</p> + + <p>Forty years ago, when Carlyle wrote, it might really seem to a + prejudiced observer as if the encyclopædic tree had borne no fruit. + Even then, and even when the critic happened to be a devotee of the + sterile transcendentalism then in vogue, one might have expected some + recognition of the fact that the seed of all the great improvements + bestowed on France by the Revolution, in spite of the woful evils + which followed in its train, had been sown by the Encyclopædists. But + now that the last vapours of the transcendental reaction are clearing + away, we see that the movement initiated by the Encyclopædia is again + in full progress. Materialistic solutions in the science of man, + humanitarian ends in legislation, naturalism in art, active faith in + the improvableness of institutions—all these are once more the marks + of speculation and the guiding ideas of practical energy. The + philosophical parenthesis is at an end. The interruption of eighty + years counts for no more than the twinkling of an eye in the history + of the transformation of the basis of thought. And the interruption + has for the present come to a close. Europe again sees the old enemies + face to face; the Church, and a Social Philosophy slowly labouring to + build her foundations in positive science. It cannot be other than + interesting to examine the aims, the instruments, and the degree of + success of those who a century ago saw most comprehensively how + profound and far-reaching a metamorphosis awaited the thought of the + Western world. We shall do this most properly in connection with + Diderot.</p> + + <p>Whether we accept or question Comte's strong description of Diderot + as the greatest genius of the eighteenth century, it is at least + undeniable that he was the one member of the great party of + illumination with a real title to the name of thinker. Voltaire and + Rousseau were the heads of two important schools, and each of them set + deep and unmistakable marks both on the opinion and the events of the + century. It would not be difficult to show that their influence was + wider than that of the philosopher who discerned the inadequateness of + both. But Rousseau was moved by passion and sentiment; Voltaire was + only the master of a brilliant and penetrating rationalism. Diderot + alone of this famous trio had in his mind the idea of scientific + method; alone showed any feeling for a doctrine, and for large organic + and constructive conceptions. He had the rare faculty of true + philosophic meditation. Though immeasurably inferior both to Voltaire + and Rousseau in gifts of literary expression, he was as far their + superior in breadth and reality of artistic principle. He was the + originator of a natural, realistic, and sympathetic school of literary + criticism. He aspired to impose new forms upon the drama. Both in + imaginative creation and in criticism, his work was a constant appeal + from the artificial conventions of the classic schools to the + actualities of common life. The same spirit united with the tendency + of his philosophy to place him among the very few men who have been + great and genuine observers of human nature and human existence. So + singular and widely active a genius may well interest us, even apart + from the important place that he holds in the history of literature + and opinion.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /> + YOUTH.</h2> + + <p>Denis Diderot was born at Langres in 1713, being thus a few months + younger than Rousseau (1712), nearly twenty years younger than + Voltaire (1694), nearly two years younger than Hume (1711), and eleven + years older than Kant (1724). His stock was ancient and of good + repute. The family had been engaged in the great local industry, the + manufacture of cutlery, for no less than two centuries in direct line. + Diderot liked to dwell on the historic prowess of his town, from the + days of Julius Cæsar and the old Lingones and Sabinus, down to the + time of the Great Monarch. With the taste of his generation for + tracing moral qualities to a climatic source, he explained a certain + vivacity and mobility in the people of his district by the great + frequency and violence of its atmospheric changes from hot to cold, + from calm to storm, from rain to sunshine. "Thus they learn from + earliest infancy to turn to every wind. The man of Langres has a head + on his shoulders like the weathercock at the top of the church spire. + It is never fixed at one point; if it returns to the point it has + left, it is not to stop there. With an amazing rapidity in their + movements, their desires, their plans, their fancies, their ideas, + they are cumbrous in speech. For myself, I belong to my country side." + This was thoroughly true. He inherited all the versatility of his + compatriots, all their swift impetuosity, and something of their want + of dexterity in expression.</p> + + <p>His father was one of the bravest, most upright, most patient, most + sensible of men. Diderot never ceased to regret that the old man's + portrait had not been taken with his apron on, his spectacles pushed + up, and a hand on the grinder's wheel. After his death, none of his + neighbours could speak of him to his son without tears in their eyes. + Diderot, wild and irregular as were his earlier days, had always a + true affection for his father. "One of the sweetest moments of my + life," he once said, "was more than thirty years ago, and I remember + it as if it were yesterday, when my father saw me coming home from + school, my arms laden with the prizes I had carried off, and my + shoulders burdened with the wreaths they had given me, which were too + big for my brow and had slipped over my head. As soon as he caught + sight of me some way off, he threw down his work, hurried to the door + to meet me, and fell a-weeping. It is a fine sight—a grave and + sterling man melted to tears."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id= + "FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class= + "fnanchor">[1]</a> Of his mother we know less. He had a + sister, who seems to have possessed the rough material of his own + qualities. He describes her as "lively, active, cheerful, decided, + prompt to take offence, slow to come round again, without much care + for present or future, never willing to be imposed on by people or + circumstance; free in her ways, still more free in her talk; she is a + sort of Diogenes in petticoats.... She is the most original and the + most strongly-marked creature I know; she is goodness itself, but with + a peculiar physiognomy."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id= + "FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> + His only brother showed some of the same native stuff, but of thinner + and sourer quality. He became an abbé and a saint, peevish, + umbrageous, and as excessively devout as his more famous brother was + excessively the opposite. "He would have been a good friend and a good + brother," wrote Diderot, "if religion had not bidden him trample under + foot such poor weaknesses as these. He is a good Christian, who proves + to me every minute of the day how much better it would be to be a good + man. He shows that what they call evangelical perfection is only the + mischievous art of stifling nature, which would most likely have + spoken as lustily in him as in me."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id= + "FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class= + "fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + + <p>Diderot, like so many others of the eighteenth-century reformers, + was a pupil of the Jesuits. An ardent, impetuous, over-genial + temperament was the cause of frequent irregularities in conduct. But + his quick and active understanding overcame all obstacles. His + teachers, ever wisely on the alert for superior capacity, hoped to + enlist his talents in the Order. Either they or he planned his escape + from home, but his father got to hear of it. "My grandfather," says + Diderot's daughter, "kept the profoundest silence, but as he went off + to bed took with him the keys of the yard door." When he heard his son + going downstairs, he presented himself before him, and asked whither + he was bound at twelve o'clock at night. "To Paris," replied the + youth, "where I am to join the Jesuits." "That will not be to-night; + but your wishes shall be fulfilled. First let us have our sleep." The + next morning his father took two places in the coach, and carried him + to Paris to the Collége d'Harcourt. He made all the arrangements, and + wished his son good-bye. But the good man loved the boy too dearly to + leave him without being quite at ease how he would fare; he had the + patience to remain a whole fortnight, killing the time and half dead + of weariness in an inn, without ever seeing the one object of his + stay. At the end of the fortnight he went to the college, and Diderot + used many a time to say that such a mark of tenderness and goodness + would have made him go to the other end of the world if his father had + required it. "My friend," said his father, "I am come to see if you + are well, if you are satisfied with your superiors, with your food, + with your companions, and with yourself. If you are not well or not + happy, we will go back together to your mother. If you had rather stay + where you are, I am come to give you a word, to embrace you, and to + leave you my blessing." The boy declared he was perfectly happy; and + the principal pronounced him an excellent scholar, though already + promising to be a troublesome one.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id= + "FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class= + "fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + + <p>After a couple of years the young Diderot, like other sons of Adam, + had to think of earning his bread. The usual struggle followed between + youthful genius and old prudence. His father, who was a man of + substance, gave him his choice between medicine and law. Law he + refused because he did not choose to spend his days in doing other + people's business; and medicine, because he had no turn for killing. + His father resolutely declined to let him have more money on these + terms, and Diderot was thrown on his wits.</p> + + <p>The man of letters shortly before the middle of the century was as + much an outcast and a beggar in Paris as he was in London. Voltaire, + Gray, and Richardson were perhaps the only three conspicuous writers + of the time, who had never known what it was to want a meal or to go + without a shirt. But then none of the three depended on his pen for + his livelihood. Every other man of that day whose writings have + delighted and instructed the world since, had begun his career, and + more than one of them continued and ended it, as a drudge and a + vagabond. Fielding and Collins, Goldsmith and Johnson, in England; + Goldoni in Italy; Vauvenargues, Marmontel, Rousseau, in France; + Winckelmann and Lessing in Germany, had all alike been doubtful of + dinner, and trembled about a night's lodging. They all knew the life + of mean hazard, sorry shift, and petty expedient again and again + renewed. It is sorrowful to think how many of the compositions of that + time that do most to soothe and elevate some of the best hours of our + lives, were written by men with aching hearts, in the midst of haggard + perplexities. The man of letters, as distinguished alike from the + old-fashioned scholar and the systematic thinker, now first became a + distinctly marked type. Macaulay has contrasted the misery of the Grub + Street hack of Johnson's time, with the honours accorded to men like + Prior and Addison at an earlier date, and the solid sums paid by + booksellers to the authors of our own day. But these brilliant + passages hardly go lower than the surface of the great change. Its + significance lay quite apart from the prices paid for books. The + all-important fact about the men of letters in France was that they + constituted a new order, that their rise signified the transfer of the + spiritual power from ecclesiastical hands, and that, while they were + the organs of a new function, they associated it with a new substitute + for doctrine. These men were not only the pupils of the Jesuits; they + were also their immediate successors as the teachers, the guides, and + the directors of society. For two hundred years the followers of + Ignatius had taken the intellectual and moral control of Catholic + communities out of the failing hands of the Popes and the secular + clergy. Their own hour had now struck. The rationalistic historian has + seldom done justice to the services which this great Order rendered to + European civilisation. The immorality of many of their maxims, their + too frequent connivance at political wrong for the sake of power, + their inflexible malice against opponents, and the cupidity and + obstructiveness of the years of their decrepitude, have blinded us to + the many meritorious pages of the Jesuit chronicle. Even men like + Diderot and Voltaire, whose lives were for years made bitter by Jesuit + machinations, gave many signs that they recognised the aid which had + been rendered by their old masters to the cultivation and + enlightenment of Europe. It was from the Jesuit fathers that the men + of letters whom they trained, acquired that practical and social habit + of mind which made the world and its daily interests so real to them. + It was perhaps also his Jesuit preceptors whom the man of letters had + to blame for a certain want of rigour and exactitude on the side of + morality.</p> + + <p>What was this new order which thus struggled into existence, which + so speedily made itself felt, and at length so completely succeeded in + seizing the lapsed inheritance of the old spiritual organisation? Who + is this man of letters? A satirist may easily describe him in epigrams + of cheap irony; the pedant of the colleges may see in him a frivolous + and shallow profaner of the mysteries of learning; the intellectual + coxcomb who nurses his own dainty wits in critical sterility, despises + him as Sir Piercie Shafton would have despised Lord Lindsay of the + Byres. This notwithstanding, the man of letters has his work to do in + the critical period of social transition. He is to be distinguished + from the great systematic thinker, as well as from the great + imaginative creator. He is borne on the wings neither of a broad + philosophic conception nor of a lofty poetic conception. He is only + the propagator of portions of such a conception, and of the minor + ideas which they suggest. Unlike the Jesuit father whom he replaced, + he has no organic doctrine, no historic tradition, no effective + discipline, and no definite, comprehensive, far-reaching, concentrated + aim. The characteristic of his activity is dispersiveness. Its + distinction is to popularise such detached ideas as society is in a + condition to assimilate; to interest men in these ideas by dressing + them up in varied forms of the literary art; to guide men through them + by judging, empirically and unconnectedly, each case of conduct, of + policy, or of new opinion as it arises. We have no wish to exalt the + office. On the contrary, I accept the maxim of that deep observer who + warned us that "the mania for isolation is the plague of the human + throng, and to be strong we must march together. You only obtain + anything by developing the spirit of discipline among men."<a name= + "FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class= + "fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + + <p>But there are ages of criticism when discipline is impossible, and + the evils of isolation are less than the evils of rash and premature + organisation. Fontenelle was the first and in some respects the + greatest type of this important class. He was sceptical, learned, + ingenious, eloquent. He stretched hands (1657-1757) from the famous + quarrel between Ancients and Moderns down to the Encyclopædia, and + from Bossuet and Corneille down to Jean Jacques and Diderot. When he + was born, the man of letters did not exist. When he died, the man of + letters was the most conspicuous personage in France. But when Diderot + first began to roam about the streets of Paris, this enormous change + was not yet complete.</p> + + <p>For some ten years (1734-1744) Diderot's history is the old tale of + hardship and chance; of fine constancy and excellent faith, not wholly + free from an occasional stroke of rascality. For a time he earned a + little money by teaching. If the pupil happened to be quick and + docile, he grudged no labour, and was content with any fee or none. If + the pupil happened to be dull, Diderot never came again, and preferred + going supperless to bed. His employers paid him as they chose, in + shirts, in a chair or a table, in books, in money, and sometimes they + never paid him at all. The prodigious exuberance of his nature + inspired him with a sovereign indifference to material details. From + the beginning he belonged to those to whom it comes by nature to count + life more than meat, and the body than raiment. The outward things of + existence were to him really outward. They never vexed or absorbed his + days and nights, nor overcame his vigorous constitutional instinct for + the true proportions of external circumstance. He was of the humour of + the old philosopher who, when he heard that all his worldly goods had + been lost in a shipwreck, only made for answer, <i>Jubet me fortuna + expeditius philosophari</i>. Once he had the good hap to be appointed + tutor to the sons of a man of wealth. He performed his duties + zealously, he was well housed and well fed, and he gave the fullest + satisfaction to his employer. At the end of three months the + mechanical toil had grown unbearable to him. The father of his pupils + offered him any terms if he would remain. "Look at me, sir," replied + the tutor; "my face is as yellow as a lemon. I am making men of your + children, but each day I am becoming a child with them. I am a + thousand times too rich and too comfortable in your house; leave it I + must. What I want is not to live better, but to avoid dying." Again he + plunged from comfort into the life of the garret. If he met any old + friend from Langres, he borrowed, and the honest father repaid the + loan. His mother's savings were brought to him by a faithful creature + who had long served in their house, and who now more than once trudged + all the way from home on this errand, and added her own humble + earnings to the little stock. Many a time the hours went very slowly + for the necessitous man. One Shrove Tuesday he rose in the morning, + and found his pockets empty even of so much as a halfpenny. His + friends had not invited him to join their squalid Bohemian revels. + Hunger and thoughts of old Shrovetide merriment and feasting in the + far-off home made work impossible. He hastened out of doors and walked + about all day visiting such public sights as were open to the + penniless. When he returned to his garret at night, his landlady found + him in a swoon, and with the compassion of a good soul she forced him + to share her supper. "That day," Diderot used to tell his children in + later years, "I promised myself that if ever happier times should + come, and ever I should have anything, I would never refuse help to + any living creature, nor ever condemn him to the misery of such a day + as that."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> And the real interest of the + story lies in the fact that no oath was ever more faithfully kept. + There is no greater test of the essential richness of a man's nature + than that this squalid adversity, not of the sentimental introspective + kind but hard and grinding, and not even kept in countenance by + respectability, fails to make him a savage or a miser or a + misanthrope.</p> + + <p>Diderot had his bitter moments. He knew the gloom and despondency + that have their inevitable hour in every solitary and unordered life. + But the fits did not last. They left no sour sediment, and this is the + sign of health in temperament, provided it be not due to mere + callousness. From that horrible quality Diderot assuredly was the + furthest removed of any one of his time. Now and always he walked with + a certain large carelessness of spirit. He measured life with a roving + and liberal eye. Circumstance and conventions, the words under which + men hide things, the oracles of common acceptance, the infinitely + diversified properties of human character, the many complexities of + our conduct and destiny—all these he watched playing freely around + him, and he felt no haste to compress his experience into maxims and + system. He was absolutely uncramped by any of the formal mannerisms of + the spirit. He was wholly uncorrupted by the affectation of culture + with which the great Goethe infected part of the world a generation + later. His own life was never made the centre of the world. + Self-development and self-idealisation as ends in themselves would + have struck Diderot as effeminate drolleries. The daily and hourly + interrogation of experience for the sake of building up the fabric of + his own character in this wise or that, would have been + incomprehensible and a little odious to him in theory, and impossible + as a matter of practice. In the midst of all the hardships of his + younger time, as afterwards in the midst of crushing Herculean + taskwork, he was saved from moral ruin by the inexhaustible geniality + and expansiveness of his affections. Nor did he narrow their play by + looking only to the external forms of human relation. To Diderot it + came easily to act on a principle which most of us only accept in + words: he looked not to what people said, nor even to what they did, + but wholly to what they were.</p> + + <p>Those whom he had once found reason to love and esteem might do him + many an ill turn, without any fear of estranging him. Any one can + measure character by conduct. It is a harder thing to be willing, in + cases that touch our own interests, to interpret conduct by previous + knowledge of character. His father, for instance, might easily have + spared money enough to save him from the harassing privations of + Bohemian life in Paris. A less full-blooded and generous person than + Diderot would have resented the stoutness of the old man's + persistency. Diderot on the contrary felt and delighted to feel, that + this conflict of wills was a mere accident which left undisturbed the + reality of old love. "The first few years of my life in Paris," he + once told an acquaintance, "had been rather irregular; my behaviour + was enough to irritate my father, without there being any need to make + it worse by exaggeration. Still calumny was not wanting. People told + him—well what did they not tell him? An opportunity for going to see + him presented itself. I did not give it two thoughts. I set out full + of confidence in his goodness. I thought that he would see me, that I + should throw myself into his arms, that we should both of us shed + tears, and that all would be forgotten. I thought rightly."<a name= + "FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class= + "fnanchor">[7]</a> We may be sure of a stoutness of native stuff in + any stock where so much tenacity united with such fine confidence on + one side, and such generous love on the other. It is a commonplace how + much waste would be avoided in human life if men would more freely + allow their vision to pierce in this way through the distorting veils + of egoism, to the reality of sentiment and motive and + relationship.</p> + + <p>Throughout his life Diderot was blessed with that divine gift of + pity, which one that has it could hardly be willing to barter for the + understanding of an Aristotle. Nor was it of the sentimental type + proper for fine ladies. One of his friends had an aversion for women + with child. "What monstrous sentiment!" Diderot wrote; "for my part, + that condition has always touched me. I cannot see a woman of the + common people so, without a tender commiseration."<a name= + "FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class= + "fnanchor">[8]</a> And Diderot had delicacy and respect in his pity. + He tells a story in one of his letters of a poor woman who had + suffered some wrong from a priest; she had not money enough to resort + to law, until a friend of Diderot took her part. The suit was gained; + but when the moment came for execution, the priest had vanished with + all his goods. The woman came to thank her protector, and to regret + the loss he had suffered. "As she chatted, she pulled a shabby + snuff-box out of her pocket, and gathered up with the tip of her + finger what little snuff remained at the bottom: her benefactor says + to her 'Ah, ah! you have no more snuff; give me your box, and I will + fill it.' He took the box and put into it a couple of louis, which he + covered up with snuff. Now there's an action thoroughly to my taste, + and to yours too! Give, but, if you can, spare to the poor the shame + of holding out a hand."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id= + "FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> + And the important thing, as we have said, is that Diderot was as good + as his sentiment. Unlike most of the fine talkers of that day, to him + these homely and considerate emotions were the most real part of life. + Nobody in the world was ever more eager to give succour to others, nor + more careless of his own ease.</p> + + <p>One singular story of Diderot's heedlessness about himself has + often been told before, but we shall be none the worse in an egoistic + world for hearing it told again. There came to him one morning a young + man, bringing a manuscript in his hand. He begged Diderot to do him + the favour of reading it, and to make any remarks he might think + useful on the margin. Diderot found it to be a bitter satire upon his + own person and writings. On the young man's return, Diderot asked him + his grounds for making such an attack. "I am without bread," the + satirist answered, "and I hoped you might perhaps give me a few crowns + not to print it." Diderot at once forgot everything in pity for the + starving scribbler. "I will tell you a way of making more than that by + it. The brother of the Duke of Orleans is one of the pious, and he + hates me. Dedicate your satire to him, get it bound with his arms on + the cover; take it to him some fine morning, and you will certainly + get assistance from him." "But I don't know the prince, and the + dedicatory epistle embarrasses me." "Sit down," said Diderot, "and I + will write one for you." The dedication was written, the author + carried it to the prince, and received a handsome fee.<a name= + "FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" + class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + + <p>Marmontel assures us that never was Diderot seen to such advantage + as when an author consulted him about a work. "You should have seen + him," he says, "take hold of the subject, pierce to the bottom of it, + and at a single glance discover of what riches and of what beauty it + was susceptible. If he saw that the author missed the right track, + instead of listening to the reading, he at once worked up in his head + all that the author had left crude and imperfect. Was it a play, he + threw new scenes into it, new incidents, new strokes of character; and + thinking that he had actually heard all that he had dreamed, he + extolled to the skies the work that had just been read to him, and in + which, when it saw the light, we found hardly anything that he had + quoted from it.... He who was one of the most enlightened men of the + century, was also one of the most amiable; and in everything that + touched moral goodness, when he spoke of it freely, I cannot express + the charm of his eloquence. His whole soul was in his eyes and on his + lips; never did a countenance better depict the goodness of the + heart."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Morellet is equally loud + in praise, not only of Diderot's conversation, its brilliance, its + vivacity, its fertility, its suggestiveness, its sincerity, but also + his facility and indulgence to all who sought him, and of the + sympathetic readiness with which he gave the very best of himself to + others.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + + <p>It is needless to say that such a temper was constantly abused. + Three-fourths of Diderot's life were reckoned by his family to have + been given up to people who had need of his purse, his knowledge, or + his good offices. His daughter compares his library to a shop crowded + by a succession of customers, but the customers took whatever wares + they sought, not by purchase, but by way of free gift. Luckily for + Diderot, he was thus generous by temperament, and not because he + expected gratitude. Any necessitous knave with the gift of tears and + the mask of sensibility could dupe and prey upon him. In one case he + had taken a great deal of trouble for one of these needy and + importunate clients; had given him money and advice, and had devoted + much time to serve him. At the end of their last interview Diderot + escorts his departing friend to the head of the staircase. The + grateful client then asks him whether he knows natural history. "Well, + not much," Diderot replies; "I know an aloe from a lettuce, and a + pigeon from a humming-bird." "Do you know about the <i>Formica + leo?</i> No? Well, it is a little insect that is wonderfully + industrious; it hollows out in the ground a hole shaped like a funnel, + it covers the surface with a light fine sand, it attracts other + insects, it takes them, it sucks them dry, and then it says to them, + 'M. Diderot, I have the honour to wish you good day.'"<a name= + "FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" + class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + + <p>Yet insolence and ingratitude made no difference to Diderot. His + ear always remained as open to every tale of distress, his sensibility + always as quickly touched, his time, money, and service always as + profusely bestowed. I know not whether to say that this was made more, + or that it was made less, of a virtue by his excess of tolerance for + social castaways and reprobates. Our rough mode of branding a man as + bad revolted him. The common appetite for constituting ourselves + public prosecutors for the universe, was to him one of the worst of + human weaknesses. "You know," he used to say, "all the impetuosity of + the passions; you have weighed all circumstance in your everlasting + balance; you pass sentence on the goodness or the badness of + creatures; you set up rewards and penalties among matters which have + no proportion nor relation with one another. Are you sure that you + have never committed wrong acts, for which you pardoned yourselves + because their object was so slight, though at bottom they implied more + wickedness than a crime prompted by misery or fury? Even magistrates, + supported by experience, by the law, by conventions which force them + sometimes to give judgment against the testimony of their own + conscience, still tremble as they pronounce the doom of the accused. + And since when has it been lawful for the same person to be at once + judge and informer?"<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id= + "FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class= + "fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + + <p>Such reasoned leniency is the noblest of traits in a man. "I am + more affected," he said, in words of which better men that Diderot + might often be reminded, "by the charms of virtue than by the + deformity of vice. I turn mildly away from the bad, and I fly to + embrace the good. If there is in a work, in a character, in a + painting, in a statue, a single fine bit, then on that my eyes fasten; + I see only that: that is all I remember; the rest is as good as + forgotten."<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + + <p>This is the secret of a rare and admirable temperament. It carried + Diderot well through the trial and ordeal of the ragged apprenticeship + of letters. What to other men comes by culture, came to him by inborn + force and natural capaciousness. We do not know in what way Diderot + trained and nourished his understanding. The annotations to his + translation of Shaftesbury, as well as his earliest original pieces, + show that he had read Montaigne and Pascal, and not only read but + meditated on them with an independent mind. They show also that he had + been impressed by the Civitas Dei of Augustine, and had at least + dipped into Terence and Horace, Cicero and Tacitus. His subsequent + writings prove that, like the other men of letters of his day, he + found in our own literature the chief external stimulant to thought. + Above all, he was impressed by the magnificent ideas of the + illustrious Bacon, and these ideas were the direct source of the great + undertaking of Diderot's life. He is said to have read little and to + have meditated much —the right process for the few men of his potent + stamp. The work which he had to do for bread was of the kind that + crushes anything short of the strongest faculty. He composed sermons. + A missionary once ordered half-a-dozen of them for consumption in the + Portuguese colonies, and paid him fifty crowns apiece, which Diderot + counted far from the worst bargain of his life. All this was beggarly + toil for a man of genius, but Diderot never took the trouble to think + of himself as a man of genius, and was quite content with life as it + came. If he found himself absolutely without food and without pence, + he began moodily to think of abandoning his books and his pen, and of + complying with the wishes of his father. A line of Homer, an idea from + the Principia, an interesting problem in algebra or geometry, was + enough to restore the eternally invincible spell of knowledge. And no + sooner was this commanding interest touched, than the cloud of + uncomfortable circumstance vanished from before the sun, and calm and + serenity filled his spirit.</p> + + <p>Montesquieu used to declare that he had never known a chagrin which + half an hour of a book was not able to dispel. Diderot had the same + fortunate temper.</p> + + <p>Yet Diderot was not essentially a man of books. He never fell into + the characteristic weakness of the follower of letters, by treating + books as ends in themselves, or placing literature before life. + Character, passion, circumstance, the real tragi-comedy, not its + printed shadow and image, engrossed him. He was in this respect more + of the temper of Rousseau, than he was like Voltaire or Fontenelle. + "Abstraction made," he used to say, "of my existence and of the + happiness of my fellows, what does the rest of nature matter to me?" + Yet, as we see, nobody that ever lived was more interested in + knowledge. His biographer and disciple remarked the contrast in him + between his ardent impetuous disposition and enthusiasm, and his + spirit of close unwearied observation. <i>Faire le bien, connaître le + vrai</i>, was his formula for the perfect life, and defined the only + distinction that he cared to recognise between one man and another. + And the only motive he ever admitted as reasonable for seeking truth, + was as a means of doing good. So strong was his sense of practical + life, in the midst of incessant theorising.</p> + <hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + <p>At the moment when he had most difficulty in procuring a little + bread each day for himself, Diderot conceived a violent passion for a + seamstress, Antoinnette Champion by name, who happened to live in his + neighbourhood. He instantly became importunate for marriage. The + mother long protested with prudent vigour against a young man of such + headstrong impetuosity, who did nothing and who had nothing, save the + art of making speeches that turned her daughter's head. At length the + young man's golden tongue won the mother as it had won the daughter. + It was agreed that his wishes should be crowned, if he could procure + the consent of his family. Diderot fared eagerly and with a sanguine + heart to Langres. His father supposed that he had seen the evil of his + ways, and was come at last to continue the honest tradition of their + name. When the son disclosed the object of his visit, he was treated + as a madman and threatened with malediction. Without a word of + remonstrance he started back one day for Paris. Madame Champion warned + him that his project must now be for ever at an end. Such unflinching + resoluteness is often the last preliminary before surrender. Diderot + fell ill. The two women could not bear to think of him lying sick in a + room no better than a dog-kennel, without broths and tisanes, lonely + and sorrowful. They hastened to nurse him, and when he got well, what + he thought the great object of his life was reached. He and his adored + were married (1743).<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id= + "FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class= + "fnanchor">[16]</a> As has been said, "Choice in marriage is a great + match of cajolery between purpose and invisible hazard: deep criticism + of a game of pure chance is time wasted." In Diderot's case destiny + was hostile.</p> + + <p>His wife was over thirty. She was dutiful, sage, and pious. She had + plenty of that devotion which in small things women so seldom lack. + While her husband went to dine out, she remained at home to dine and + sup on dry bread, and was pleased to think that the next day she would + double the little ordinary for him. Coffee was too dear to be a + household luxury, so every day she handed him a few halfpence to have + his cup, and to watch the chess-players at the Café de la Régence. + When after a year or two she went to make her peace with her + father-in-law at Langres, she wound her way round the old man's heart + by her affectionate caresses, her respect, her ready industry in the + household, her piety, her simplicity. It is, however, unfortunately + possible for even the best women to manifest their goodness, their + prudence, their devotion, in forms that exasperate. Perhaps it was so + here. Diderot at fifty was an orderly and steadfast person, but at + thirty the blood of vagabondage was still hot within him. He needed in + his companion a robust patience, to match his own too robust activity. + One may suppose that if Mirabeau had married Hannah More, the union + would have turned out ill, and Diderot's marriage was unluckily of + such a type. His wife's narrow pieties and homely solicitudes fretted + him. He had not learned to count the cost of deranging the fragile + sympathy of the hearth. While his wife was away on her visit to his + family, he formed a connection with a woman (Madame Puisieux) who + seems to have been as bad and selfish as his wife was the opposite. + She was the authoress of some literary pieces, which the world + willingly and speedily let die; but even very moderate pretensions to + <i>bel-esprit</i> may have seemed wonderfully refreshing to a man + wearied to death by the illiterate stupidity of his daily + companion.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> This lasted some three or + four years down to 1749. As we shall see, he discovered the infidelity + of his mistress and broke with her. But by this time his wife's + virtues seem to have gone a little sour, as disregarded prudence and + thwarted piety are so apt to do. It was too late now to knit up again + the ravelled threads of domestic concord. During a second absence of + his wife in Champagne (1754), he formed a new attachment to the + daughter of a financier's widow (Mdlle. Voland). This lasted to the + end of the lady's days (1783 or 1784).</p> + + <p>There is probably nothing very profitable to be said about all this + domestic disorder. We do not know enough of the circumstances to be + sure of allotting censure in exact and rightful measure. We have to + remember that such irregularities were in the manners of the time. To + connect them by way of effect with the new opinions in religion, would + be as impertinent as to trace the immoralities of Dubois or Lewis the + Fifteenth or the Cardinal de Rohan to the old opinions.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /> + EARLY WRITINGS.</h2> + + <p>La Rochefoucauld, expressing a commonplace with the penetrative + terseness that made him a master of the apophthegm, pronounced it "not + to be enough to have great qualities: a man must have the economy of + them." Or, as another writer says: "Empire in this world belongs not + so much to wits, to talents, and to industry, as to a certain skilful + economy and to the continual management that a man has the art of + applying to all his other gifts."<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id= + "FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class= + "fnanchor">[18]</a> Notwithstanding the peril that haunts superlative + propositions, we are inclined to say that Diderot is the most striking + illustration of this that the history of letters or speculation has to + furnish. If there are many who have missed the mark which they or + kindly intimates thought them certain of attaining, this is mostly not + for want of economy, but for want of the great qualities which were + imputed to them by mistake. To be mediocre, to be sterile, to be + futile, are the three fatal endings of many superbly announced + potentialities. Such an end nearly always comes of exaggerated + faculty, rather than of bad administration of natural gifts. In + Diderot were splendid talents. It was the art of prudent stewardship + that lay beyond his reach. Hence this singular fact, that he perhaps + alone in literature has left a name of almost the first eminence, and + impressed his greatness upon men of the strongest and most different + intelligence, and yet never produced a masterpiece; many a fine page, + as Marmontel said, but no one fine work.</p> + + <p>No man that ever wrote was more wholly free from that unquiet + self-consciousness which too often makes literary genius pitiful or + odious in the flesh. He put on no airs of pretended resignation to + inferior production, with bursting hints of the vast superiorities + that unfriendly circumstance locked up within him. Yet on one + occasion, and only on one, so far as evidence remains, he indulged a + natural regret. "And so," he wrote when revising the last sheets of + the Encyclopædia (July 25, 1765), "in eight or ten days I shall see + the end of an undertaking that has occupied me for twenty years; that + has not made my fortune by a long way; that has exposed me many a time + to the risk of having to quit my country or lose my freedom; and that + has consumed a life that I might have made both more useful and more + glorious. The sacrifice of talent to need would be less common, if it + were only a question of self. One could easily resolve rather to drink + water and eat dry crusts and follow the bidding of one's genius in a + garret. But for a woman and for children, what can one not resolve? If + I sought to make myself of some account in their eyes, I would not + say—I have worked thirty years for you: I would say—I have for you + renounced for thirty years the vocation of my nature; I have preferred + to renounce my tastes in doing what was useful for you, instead of + what was agreeable to myself. That is your real obligation to me, and + of that you never think."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id= + "FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class= + "fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + + <p>It is a question, nevertheless, whether Diderot would have achieved + masterpieces, even if the pressure of housekeeping had never driven + him to seek bread where he could find it. Indeed it is hardly a + question. His genius was spacious and original, but it was too + dispersive, too facile of diversion, too little disciplined, for the + prolonged effort of combination which is indispensable to the greater + constructions whether of philosophy or art. The excellent talent of + economy and administration had been denied him; that thrift of + faculty, which accumulates store and force for concentrated occasions. + He was not encyclopædic by accident, nor merely from external + necessity. The quality of rapid movement, impetuous fancy, versatile + idea, which he traced to the climate of his birthplace, marked him + from the first for an encyclopædic or some such task. His interest was + nearly as promptly and vehemently kindled in one subject as in + another; he was always boldly tentative, always fresh and vigorous in + suggestion, always instant in search. But this multiplicity of active + excitements—and with Diderot every interest rose to the warmth of + excitement—was even more hostile to masterpieces than were the + exigencies of a livelihood. It was not unpardonable in a moment of + exhaustion and chagrin to fancy that he had offered up the treasures + of his genius to the dull gods of the hearth. But if he had been + childless and unwedded, the result would have been the same. He is the + munificent prodigal of letters, always believing his substance + inexhaustible, never placing a limit to his fancies nor a bound to his + outlay. "It is not they who rob me of my life," he wrote; "it is I who + give it to them. And what can I do better than accord a portion of it + to him who esteems me enough to solicit such a gift? I shall get no + praise for it, 'tis true, either now while I am here, nor when I shall + exist no longer; but I shall esteem myself for it, and people will + love me all the better for it. 'Tis no bad exchange, that of + benevolence, against a celebrity that one does not always win, and + that nobody wins without a drawback. I have never once regretted the + time that I have given to others; I can scarcely say as much for; the + time that I have used for myself."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id= + "FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class= + "fnanchor">[20]</a> Remembering how uniformly men of letters take + themselves somewhat too seriously, we may be sorry that this unique + figure among them, who was in other respects constituted to be so + considerable and so effective, did not take himself seriously + enough.</p> + + <p>Apart from his moral inaptitude for the monumental achievements of + authorship, Diderot was endowed with the gifts of the talker rather + than with those of the writer. Like Dr. Johnson, he was a great + converser rather than the author of great books. If we turn to his + writings, we are at some loss to understand the secret of his + reputation. They are too often declamatory, ill-compacted, broken by + frequent apostrophes, ungainly, dislocated, and rambling. He has been + described by a consummate judge as the most German of all the French. + And his style is deeply marked by that want of feeling for the + exquisite, that dulness of edge, that bluntness of stroke, which is + the common note of all German literature, save a little of the very + highest. In conversation we do not insist on constant precision of + phrase, nor on elaborate sustension of argument. Apostrophe is made + natural by the semi-dramatic quality of the situation. Even vehement + hyperbole, which is nearly always a disfigurement in written prose, + may become impressive or delightful, when it harmonises with the + voice, the glance, the gesture of a fervid and exuberant converser. + Hence Diderot's personality invested his talk, as happened in the case + of Johnson and of Coleridge, with an imposing interest and a power of + inspiration which we should never comprehend from the mere perusal of + his writings.</p> + + <p>His admirers declared his head to be the ideal head of an Aristotle + or a Plato. His brow was wide, lofty, open, gently rounded. The arch + of the eyebrow was full of delicacy; the nose of masculine beauty; the + habitual expression of the eyes kindly and sympathetic, but as he grew + heated in talk, they sparkled like fire; the curves of the mouth + bespoke an interesting mixture of finesse, grace, and geniality. His + bearing was nonchalant enough, but there was naturally in the carriage + of his head, especially when he talked with action, much dignity, + energy, and nobleness. It seemed as if enthusiasm were the natural + condition for his voice, for his spirit, for every feature. He was + only truly Diderot when his thoughts had transported him beyond + himself. His ideas were stronger than himself; they swept him along + without the power either to stay or to guide their movement. "When I + recall Diderot," wrote one of his friends, "the immense variety of his + ideas, the amazing multiplicity of his knowledge, the rapid flight, + the warmth, the impetuous tumult of his imagination, all the charm and + all the disorder of his conversation, I venture to liken his character + to nature herself, exactly as he used to conceive her—rich, fertile, + abounding in germs of every sort, gentle and fierce, simple and + majestic, worthy and sublime, but without any dominating principle, + without a master and without a God."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id= + "FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class= + "fnanchor">[21]</a> Grétry, the musical composer, declares that + Diderot was one of the rare men who had the art of blowing the spark + of genius into flame; the first impulses stirred by his glowing + imagination were of inspiration divine.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id= + "FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class= + "fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + + <p>Marmontel warns us that he who only knows Diderot in his writings, + does not know him at all. We should have listened to his persuasive + eloquence, and seen his face aglow with the fire of enthusiasm. It was + when he grew animated in talk, and let all the abundance of his ideas + flow freely from the source, that he became truly ravishing. In his + writings, says Marmontel with obvious truth, he never had the art of + forming a whole, and this was because that first process of arranging + everything in its place was too slow and too tiresome for him. The + want of ensemble vanished in the free and varied course of + conversation.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + + <p>We have to remember then that Diderot was in this respect of the + Socratic type, though he was unlike Socrates, in being the + disseminator of positive and constructive ideas. His personality + exerted a decisive force and influence. In reading the testimony of + his friends, we think of the young Aristides saying to Socrates: "I + always made progress whenever I was in your neighbourhood, even if I + were only in the same house, without being in the same room; but my + advancement was greater if I were in the same room with you, and + greater still if I could keep my eyes fixed upon you."<a name= + "FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" + class="fnanchor">[24]</a> It has been well said that Diderot, like + Socrates, had about him a something dæmonic. He was possessed, and so + had the first secret of possessing others. But then to reach + excellence in literature, one must also have self-possession; a double + current of impulse and deliberation; a free stream of ideas + spontaneously obeying a sense or order, harmony, and form. Eloquence + in the informal discourse of the parlour or the country walk did not + mean in Diderot's case the empty fluency and nugatory emphasis of the + ordinary talker of reputation. It must have been both pregnant and + copious; declamatory in form, but fresh and substantial in matter; + excursive in arrangement, but forcible and pointed in intention. No + doubt, if he was a sage, he was sometimes a sage in a frenzy. He would + wind up a peroration by dashing his nightcap passionately against the + wall, by way of clencher to the argument. Yet this impetuosity, this + turn for declamation, did not hinder his talk from being directly + instructive. Younger men of the most various type, from Morellet down + to Joubert, men quite competent to detect mere bombast or ardent + vagueness, were held captive by the cogency of his understanding. His + writings have none of this compulsion. We see the flame, but through a + veil of interfused smoke. The expression is not obscure, but it is + awkward; not exactly prolix, but heavy, overcharged, and opaque. We + miss the vivid precision and the high spirits of Voltaire, the glow + and the brooding sonorousness of Rousseau, the pomp of Buffon. To + Diderot we go not for charm of style, but for a store of fertile + ideas, for some striking studies of human life, and for a vigorous and + singular personality.</p> + + <p>Diderot's knowledge of our language now did him good service. One + of the details of the method by which he taught himself English is + curious. Instead of using an Anglo-French dictionary, he always used + one in Anglo-Latin. The sense of a Latin or Greek word, he said, is + better established, more surely fixed, more definite, less liable to + capricious peculiarities of convention, than the vernacular words + which the whim or ignorance of the lexicographer may choose. The + reader composes his own vocabulary, and gains both correctness and + energy.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> However this may be, his + knowledge of English was more accurate than is possessed by most + French writers of our own day. Diderot's first work for the + booksellers after his marriage seems to have been a translation in + three volumes of Stanyan's History of Greece. For this, to the + amazement of his wife, he got a hundred crowns. About the same time + (1745) he published Principles of Moral Philosophy, or an Essay of Mr. + S. on Merit and Virtue. The initial stands for Shaftesbury, and the + book translated was his Inquiry concerning Virtue and Merit.</p> + + <p>Towards the same time, again, Diderot probably made acquaintance + with Madame de Puisieux, of whom it has been said with too patent + humour that she was without either the virtue or the merit on which + her admirer had just been declaiming. We are told that it was her need + of money which inspired him with his first original work. As his + daughter's memoir, from which the tale comes, is swarming with + blunders, this may not be more true than some of her other statements. + All that we know of Diderot's sense and sincerity entitles him to the + benefit of the doubt. The Philosophical Thoughts (1746) are a + continuation of the vein of the annotations on the Essay. He is said + to have thrown these reflections together between Good Friday and + Easter Sunday. Nor is there anything incredible in such rapid + production, when we remember the sweeping impetuosity with which he + flung himself into all that he undertook. The Thoughts are evidently + the fruits of long meditation, and the literary arrangement of them + may well have been an easy task. They are a robuster development of + the scepticism which was the less important side of Shaftesbury. The + parliament of Paris ordered the book to be burnt along with some + others (July 7, 1746), partly because they were heterodox, partly + because the practice of publishing books without official leave was + gaining an unprecedented height of license.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" + id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class= + "fnanchor">[26]</a> This was Diderot's first experience of that hand + of authority, which was for thirty years to surround him with + mortification and torment. But the disapproval of authority did not + check the circulation or influence of the Thoughts. They were + translated into German and Italian, and were honoured by a shower of + hostile criticism. In France they were often reprinted, and even in + our own day they are said not wholly to have lost their vogue as a + short manual of scepticism.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id= + "FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class= + "fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + + <p>The historians of literature too often write as if a book were the + cause or the controlling force of controversies in which it is really + only a symbol, or a proclamation of feelings already in men's minds. + We should never occupy ourselves in tracing the thread of a set of + opinions, without trying to recognise the movement of living men and + concrete circumstance that accompanied and caused the progress of + thought. In watching how the beacon-fire flamed from height to + height—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <span>φάος δε τηέπομπον ουκ ηναίνετο<br /></span> <span>φρορα, + προσαιθρίζουσα πόμπιμονφλόγα—<br /></span> + </div> + </div> + + <p>we should not forget that its source and reference lie in action, + in the motion and stirring of confused hosts and multitudes of men. A + book, after all, is only the mouthpiece of its author, and the author + being human is moved and drawn by the events that occur under his eye. + It was not merely because Bacon and Hobbes and Locke had written + certain books, that Voltaire and Diderot became free-thinkers and + assailed the church. "So long," it has been said, "as a Bossuet, a + Fénelon, an Arnauld, a Nicole, were alive, Bayle made few proselytes; + the elevation of Dubois and its consequences multiplied unbelievers + and indifferents."<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id= + "FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class= + "fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + + <p>The force of speculative literature always hangs on practical + opportuneness. The economic evils of monasticism, the increasing + flagrancy and grossness of superstition, the aggressive factiousness + of the ecclesiastics, the cruelty of bigoted tribunals—these things + disgusted and wearied the more enlightened spirits, and the English + philosophy only held out an inspiring intellectual + alternative.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + + <p>Nor was it accident that drew Diderot's attention to Shaftesbury, + rather than to any other of our writers. That author's essay on + Enthusiasm had been suggested by the extravagances of the French + prophets, poor fanatics from the Cevennes, who had fled to London + after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and whose paroxysms of + religious hysteria at length brought them into trouble with the + authorities (1707). Paris saw an outbreak of the same kind of ecstasy, + though on a much more formidable scale, among the Jansenist fanatics, + from 1727 down to 1758, or later. Some of the best attested miracles + in the whole history of the supernatural were wrought at the tomb of + the Jansenist deacon, Paris.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id= + "FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class= + "fnanchor">[30]</a> The works of faith exalted multitudes into + convulsive transports; men and women underwent the most cruel + tortures, in the hope of securing a descent upon them of the divine + grace. The sober citizen, whose journal is so useful a guide to + domestic events in France from the Regency to the Peace of 1763, tells + us the effect of this hideous revival upon public sentiment. People + began to see, he says, what they were to think of the miracles of + antiquity. The more they went into these matters, whether miracles or + prophecies, the more obscurity they discovered in the one, the more + doubt about the other. Who could tell that they had not been + accredited and established in remote times with as little foundation + as what was then passing under men's very eyes? Just in the same way, + the violent and prolonged debates, the intrigue, the tergiversation, + which attended the acceptance of the famous Bull Unigenitus, taught + shrewd observers how it is that religions establish themselves. They + also taught how little respect is due in our minds and consciences to + the great points which the universal church claims to have + decided.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + + <p>These are the circumstances which explain the rude and vigorous + scepticism of Diderot's first performances. And they explain the + influence of Shaftesbury over him. Neither Diderot nor his + contemporaries were ready at once to plunge into the broader and + firmer negation to which they afterwards committed themselves. No + doubt some of the politeness which he shows to Christianity, both in + the notes to his translation of Shaftesbury, and in his own + Philosophic Thoughts, is no more than an ironical deference to + established prejudices. The notes to the Essay on Merit and Virtue + show that Diderot, like all the other French revolters against + established prejudice, had been deeply influenced by the shrewd-witted + Montaigne. But the ardour of the disciple pressed objections home with + a trenchancy that is very unlike the sage distillations of the master. + It was from Shaftesbury, however, that he borrowed common sense as a + philosophic principle. Shaftesbury had indirectly drawn it from Locke, + and through Hutcheson it became the source and sponsor of the Scottish + philosophy of that century. This was a weapon exactly adapted for + dealing with a theology that was discredited in the eyes of all cool + observers by the hysterical extravagances of one set of religionists, + and the factious pretensions of their rivals. And no other weapon was + at hand. The historic or critical method of investigation was + impossible, for the age did not possess the requisite learning. The + indirect attack from the side of physical science was equally + impossible. The bearing of Newton's great discovery on the current + conceptions of the Creator and the supposed system of the divine + government, was not yet fully realised. The other scientific ideas + which have since made the old hypothesis less credible, were not at + that time even conceived.</p> + + <p>Diderot did indeed perceive even so early as this that the + controversy was passing from the metaphysicians to the physicists. + Though he for the moment misinterpreted the ultimate direction of the + effect of experimental discovery, he discerned its potency in the + field of theological discussion. "It is not from the hands of the + metaphysician," he said, "that atheism has received the weightiest + strokes. The sublime meditations of Malebranche and Descartes were + less calculated to shake materialism than a single observation of + Malpighi's. If this dangerous hypothesis is tottering in our days, it + is to experimental physics that such a result is due. It is only in + the works of Newton, of Muschenbroek, of Hartzoeker, and of + Nieuwentit, that people have found satisfactory proofs of the + existence of a being of sovereign intelligence. Thanks to the works of + these great men, the world is no longer a god; it is a machine with + its cords, its pulleys, its springs, its weights."<a name= + "FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" + class="fnanchor">[32]</a> In other words, Diderot had as yet not made + his way beyond the halting-place which has been the favourite goal of + English physicists from Newton down to Faraday.<a name= + "FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" + class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Consistent materialism had not yet + established itself in his mind. Meanwhile he laid about him with his + common sense, just as Voltaire did, though Diderot has more + weightiness of manner. If his use of the weapon cannot be regarded as + a decisive settlement of the true issues, we have to remember that he + himself became aware in a very short time of its inadequateness, and + proceeded to the discussion, as we shall presently see, from another + side.</p> + + <p>The scope of the Philosophical Thoughts, and the attitude of + Diderot's mind when they were written, may be shown in a few brief + passages. The opening words point to the significance of the new time + in one direction, and they are the key-note to Diderot's whole + character. "People are for ever declaiming against the passions; they + set down to them all the pains that man endures, and quite forget that + they are also the source of all his pleasures. It is regarded as an + affront to reason if one dares to say a word in favour of its rivals. + Yet it is only passions, and strong passions, that can raise the soul + to great things. Sober passions produce only the commonplace. Deadened + passions degrade men of extraordinary quality. Constraint annihilates + the greatness and energy of nature. See that tree; 'tis to the luxury + of its branches that you owe the freshness and the wide-spreading + breadth of its shade, which you may enjoy till winter comes to despoil + it of its leafy tresses. An end to all excellence in poetry, in + painting, in music, as soon as superstition has once wrought upon + human temperament the effect of old age! It is the very climax of + madness to propose to oneself the ruin of the passions. A fine design + truly in your pietist, to torment himself like a convict in order to + desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing; and he would end by + becoming a true monster, if he were to succeed!"<a name= + "FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" + class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Many years afterwards he wrote in the same + sense to Madame Voland. "I have ever been the apologist of strong + passions; they alone move me. Whether they inspire me with admiration + or horror, I feel vehemently. If atrocious deeds that dishonour our + nature are due to them, it is by them also that we are borne to the + marvellous endeavour that elevates it. The man of mediocre passion + lives and dies like the brute." And so forth, until the writer is + carried to the perplexing position that "if we were bound to choose + between Racine, a bad husband, a bad father, a false friend, and a + sublime poet, and Racine, good father, good husband, good friend, and + dull worthy man, I hold to the first. Of Racine, the bad man, what + remains? Nothing. Of Racine, the man of genius? The work is + eternal."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Without attempting to + solve this problem in casuistry, we recognise Diderot's mood, and the + hatred with which it would be sure to inspire him for the starved and + mutilated passions of the Christian type. The humility, chastity, + obedience, indolent solitude, which had for centuries been glorified + by the Church, were monstrous to this vehement and energetic spirit. + The church had placed heroism in effacement. Diderot, borne to the + other extreme, left out even discipline. To turn from his maxims on + the foundation of conduct, to his maxims on opinion. As we have said, + his attitude is that of the sceptic:—</p> + + <p>What has never been put in question, has not been proved. What + people have not examined without prepossessions, they have not + examined thoroughly. Scepticism is the touchstone. (§ 31.)</p> + + <p>Incredulity is sometimes the vice of a fool, and credulity the + defect of a man of intelligence. The latter sees far into the + immensity of the Possible; the former scarcely sees anything possible + beyond the Actual. Perhaps this is what produces the timidity of the + one, and the temerity of the other.</p> + + <p>A demi-scepticism is the mark of a feeble understanding. It reveals + a pusillanimous reasoner, who suffers himself to be alarmed by + consequences; a superstitious creature, who thinks he is honouring God + by the fetters which he imposes on his reason; a kind of unbeliever + who is afraid of unmasking himself to himself. For if truth has + nothing to lose by examination, as is the demi-sceptic's conviction, + what does he think in the bottom of his heart of those privileged + notions which he fears to sound, and which are placed in one of the + recesses of his brain, as in a sanctuary to which he dares not draw + nigh? (§ 34.)</p> + + <p>Scepticism does not suit everybody. It supposes profound and + impartial examination. He who doubts because he does not know the + grounds of credibility, is no better than an ignoramus. The true + sceptic has counted and weighed the reasons. But it is no light matter + to weigh arguments. Who of us knows their value with any nicety? Every + mind has its own telescope. An objection that disappears in your eyes, + is a colossus in mine: you find an argument trivial that to me is + overwhelming.... If then it is so difficult to weigh reasons, and if + there are no questions which have not two sides, and nearly always in + equal measure, how come we to decide with such rapidity? (§ 24.)</p> + + <p>When the pious cry out against scepticism, it seems to me that they + do not understand their own interest, or else that they are + inconsistent. If it is certain that a true faith to be embraced, and a + false faith to be abandoned, need only to be thoroughly known, then + surely it must be highly desirable that universal doubt should spread + over the surface of the earth, and that all nations should consent to + have the truth of their religions examined. Our missionaries would + find a good half of their work done for them. (§ 36.)</p> + + <p>One thing to be remembered is that Diderot, like Vauvenargues, + Voltaire, Condorcet, always had Pascal in his mind when dealing with + apologetics. They all recognised in him a thinker with a love of + truth, as distinguished from the mere priest, Catholic, Anglican, + Brahman, or another. "Pascal," says Diderot, "was upright, but he was + timid and inclined to credulity. An elegant writer and a profound + reasoner, he would doubtless have enlightened the world, if Providence + had not abandoned him to people who sacrificed his talents to their + own antipathies. How much to be regretted, that he did not leave to + the theologians of his time the task of settling their own + differences; that he did not give himself up to the search for truth, + without reserve and without the fear of offending God by using all the + intelligence that God had given him. How much to be regretted that he + took for masters men who were not worthy to be his disciples, and was + foolish enough to think Arnauld, De Sacy, and Nicole, better men than + himself." (§ 14.) The Philosophic Thoughts are designed for an answer + in form to the more famous Thoughts of this champion of popular + theology. The first of the following extracts, for instance, recalls a + memorable illustration of Pascal's sublime pessimism. A few passages + will illustrate sufficiently the line of argument which led the + foremost men at the opening of the philosophic revolution to reject + the pretensions of Christianity:—</p> + + <p>What voices! what cries! what groans! Who is it that has shut up in + dungeons all these piteous souls? What crimes have the poor wretches + committed? Who condemns them to such torments? <i>The God whom they + have offended</i>. Who then is this God? <i>A God full of + goodness</i>. But would a God full of goodness take delight in bathing + himself in tears? If criminals had to calm the furies of a tyrant, + what would they do more?... There are people of whom we ought not to + say that they fear God, but that they are horribly afraid of him.... + Judging from the picture they paint of the Supreme Being, from his + wrath, from the rigour of his vengeance, from certain comparisons + expressive of the ratio between those whom he leaves to perish and + those to whom he deigns to stretch out a hand, the most upright soul + would be tempted to wish that such a being did not exist. (§§ + 7-9.)</p> + + <p>You present to an unbeliever a volume of writings of which you + claim to show him the divinity. But, before going into your proofs, he + will be sure to put some questions about your collection. Has it + always been the same? Why is it less ample now than it was some + centuries ago? By what right have they banished this work or that, + which another sect reveres, and preserved this or that, which the + other has repudiated?... You only answer all these difficulties by the + avowal that the first foundations of the faith are purely human; that + the choice between the manuscripts, the restoration of passages, + finally the collection, has been made according to rules of criticism. + Well, I do not refuse to concede to the divinity of the sacred books a + degree of faith proportioned to the certainty of these rules. (§ + 59.)</p> + + <p>People agree that it is of the last importance to employ none but + solid arguments for the defence of a creed. Yet they would gladly + persecute those who attempt to cry down the bad arguments. What then, + is it not enough to be a Christian? Am I also to be one upon wrong + grounds? (§57.)</p> + + <p>The less probability a fact has, the more does the testimony of + history lose its weight. I should have no difficulty in believing a + single honest man who should tell me that the king had just won a + complete victory over the allies. But if all Paris were to assure me + that a dead man had come to life again, I should not believe a word of + it. That a historian should impose upon us, or that a whole people + should be mistaken—there is no miracle in that. (§46.)</p> + + <p>What is God? A question that we put to children, and that + philosophers have much trouble to answer. We know the age at which a + child ought to learn to read, to sing, to dance, to begin Latin or + geometry. It is only in religion that you take no account of his + capacity. He scarcely hears what you say, before he is asked, What is + God? It is at the same instant, from the same lips, that he learns + that there are ghosts, goblins, were-wolves—and a God. (§25.)</p> + + <p>The diversity of religious opinions has led the deists to invent an + argument that is perhaps more singular than sound. Cicero, having to + prove that the Romans were the most warlike people in the world, + adroitly draws this conclusion from the lips of their rivals. Gauls, + to whom if to any, do you yield the palm for courage? To the Romans. + Parthians, after you, who are the bravest of men? The Romans. + Africans, whom would you fear, if you were to fear any? The Romans. + Let us interrogate the religionists in this fashion, say the deists. + Chinese, what religion would be the best, if your own were not the + best? Naturalism. Mussulmans, what faith would you embrace, if you + abjured Mahomet? Naturalism. Christians, what is the true religion, if + it be not Christianity? Judaism. But you, O Jews, what is the true + religion, if Judaism be false? Naturalism. Now those, continues + Cicero, to whom the second place is awarded by unanimous consent, and + who do not in turn concede the first place to any—it is those who + incontestably deserve that place. (§62.)</p> + <hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + <p>In all this we notice one constant characteristic of the eighteenth + century controversy about revealed religion. The assailant demands of + the defender an answer to all the intellectual or logical objections + that could possibly be raised by one who had never been a Christian, + and who refused to become a Christian until these objections could be + met. No account is taken of the mental conditions by which a creed is + engendered and limited; nor of the train of historic circumstance + which prepares men to receive it. The modern apologist escapes by + explaining religion; the apologist of a hundred years ago was required + to prove it. The end of such a method was inevitably a negation. The + objective propositions of a creed with supernatural pretensions can + never be demonstrated from natural or rationalistic premisses. And if + they could be so demonstrated, it would only be on grounds that are + equally good for some other creeds with the same pretensions. The + sceptic was left triumphantly weighing one revealed system against + another in an equal balance.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id= + "FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class= + "fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + + <p>The position of the writer of the Philosophical Thoughts is + distinctly theistic. Yet there is at least one striking passage to + show how forcibly some of the arguments on the other side impressed + him. "I open," says Diderot, "the pages of a celebrated professor, and + I read—'Atheists, I concede to you that movement is essential to + matter; what conclusion do you draw from that? That the world results + from the fortuitous concourse of atoms? You might as well say that + Homer's Iliad, or Voltaire's Henriade, is a result of the fortuitous + concourse of written characters.' Now for my part, I should be very + sorry to use that reasoning to an atheist; the comparison would give + him a very easy game to play. According to the laws of the analysis of + chances, he would say to me, I ought not to be surprised that a thing + comes to pass when it is possible, and the difficulty of the event is + compensated by the number of throws. There is a certain number of + throws in which I would safely back myself to bring 100,000 sixes at + once with 100,000 dice. Whatever the definite number of the letters + with which I am invited fortuitously to produce the Iliad, there is a + certain definite number of throws which would make the proposal + advantageous for me; nay, my advantage would be infinite if the + quantity of throws accorded to me were infinite. Now, you grant to me + that matter exists from all eternity, and that movement is essential + to it. In return for this concession, I will suppose with you that the + world has no limits; that the multitude of atoms is infinite, and that + this order, which astonishes you, nowhere contradicts itself. Well, + from these reciprocal admissions there follows nothing else unless it + be this, that the possibility of engendering the universe fortuitously + is very small, but that the number of throws is infinite, or in other + words, that <i>the difficulty of the event is more than sufficiently + compensated by the multitude of the throws. Therefore, if anything + ought to be repugnant to reason, it is the supposition that,—matter + being in motion from all eternity, and there being perhaps in the + infinite number of possible combinations an infinite number of + admirable arrangements,—none of these admirable arrangements would + have been met with, out of the infinite multitude of all those which + matter successively took on. Therefore the mind ought to be more + astonished at the hypothetical duration of chaos."</i><a name= + "FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" + class="fnanchor">[37]</a> (§ 21.)</p> + + <p>In a short continuation of the Philosophical Thoughts entitled On + the Sufficiency of Natural Religion, Diderot took the next step, and + turned towards that faith which the votaries of each creed allow to be + the best after their own. Even here he is still in the atmosphere of + negation. He desires no more than to show that revealed religion + confers no advantages which are not already secured by natural + religion. "The revealed law contains no moral precept which I do not + find recommended and practised under the law of nature; therefore it + has taught us nothing new upon morality. The revealed law has brought + us no new truth; for what is a truth but a proposition referring to an + object, conceived in terms which present clear ideas to me, and the + connection of which with one another is intelligible to me? Now + revealed religion has introduced no such propositions to us. What it + has added to the natural law consists of five or six propositions + which are not a whit more intelligible to me than if they were + expressed in ancient Carthaginian, inasmuch as the ideas represented + by the terms, and the connection among these ideas, escape me + entirely."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + + <p>There is no sign in this piece that Diderot had examined the + positive grounds of natural religion, or that he was ready with any + adequate answer to the argument which Butler had brought forward in + the previous decade of the century. We do not see that he is aware as + yet of there being as valid objections on his own sceptical principles + to the alleged data of naturalistic deism, as to the pretensions of a + supernatural religion. He was content with Shaftesbury's position.</p> + + <p>Shaftesbury's influence on Diderot was permanent. It did not long + remain so full and entire as it was now in the sphere of religious + belief, but the traces of it never disappeared from his notions on + morals and art. Shaftesbury's cheerfulness and geniality in + philosophising were thoroughly sympathetic to Diderot. The optimistic + harmony which the English philosopher, coming after Leibnitz, assumed + as the starting-point of his ethical and religious ideas, was not only + highly congenial to Diderot's sanguine temperament; it was a most + attractive way of escape from the disorderly and confused theological + wilderness of sin, asceticism, miracle, and the other monkeries. This + naturalistic religion may seem a very unsafe and comfortless + halting-place to us. But to men who heard of religion only in + connection with the Bull Unigenitus and confessional certificates, + with some act of intolerance or cruelty, with futile disputes about + grace and the Five Propositions, the naturalism which Shaftesbury + taught in prose and Pope versified was like the dawn after the + foulness of night. Those who wished to soften the inhuman rigour of + the criminal procedure of the time<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id= + "FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class= + "fnanchor">[39]</a> used to appeal from customary ordinances and + written laws to the law natural. The law natural was announced to have + preceded any law of human devising. In the same way, those who wished + to disperse the darkness of unintelligible dogmas and degraded + ecclesiastical usages, appealed to the simplicity, light, and purity + of that natural religion which was supposed to have been overlaid and + depraved by the special superstitions of the different communities of + the world.</p> + + <p>"Pope's Essay on Man," wrote Voltaire after his return from England + (1728), "seems to me the finest didactic poem, the most useful, the + most sublime, that was ever written in any tongue. 'Tis true the whole + substance of it is to be found in Shaftesbury's Characteristics, and I + do not know why Pope gives all the honour of it to Bolingbroke, + without saying a word of the celebrated Shaftesbury, the pupil of + Locke."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> The ground of this + enthusiastic appreciation of the English naturalism was not merely + that it made morality independent of religion, which Shaftesbury took + great pains to do. It also identified religion with all that is + beautiful and harmonious in the universal scheme. It surrounded the + new faith with a pure and lofty poetry, that enabled it to confront + the old on more than equal terms of dignity and elevation. + Shaftesbury, and Diderot after him, ennobled human nature by placing + the principle of virtue, the sense of goodness, within the breast of + man. Diderot held to this idea throughout, as we shall see. That he + did so explains a kind of phraseology about virtue and morality in his + letters to Madame Voland and elsewhere, which would otherwise sound + disagreeably like cant. Finally, Shaftesbury's peculiar attribution of + beauty to morality, his reference of ethical matters to a kind of + taste, the tolerably equal importance attributed by him to a sense of + beauty and to the moral sense, all impressed Diderot with a mark that + was not effaced. In the text of the Inquiry the author pronounces it a + childish affectation in the eyes of any man who weighs things maturely + to deny that there is in moral beings, just as in corporeal objects, a + true and essential beauty, a real sublime. The eagerness with which + Diderot seized on this idea from the first, is shown in the + declamatory foot-note which he here appends to his original.<a name= + "FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" + class="fnanchor">[41]</a> It was the source, by a process of inverted + application, of that ethical colouring in his criticisms on art which + made them so new and so interesting, because it carried æsthetic + beyond technicalities, and associated it with the real impulses and + circumstances of human life.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id= + "FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class= + "fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + + <p>One of Diderot's writings composed about our present date (1747), + the Promenade du Sceptique, did not see the light until after his + death. His daughter tells us that a police agent came one day to the + house, and proceeded to search the author's room. He found a + manuscript, said, "Good, that is what I am looking for," thrust it + into his pocket, and went away. Diderot did his best to recover his + piece, but never succeeded.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id= + "FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class= + "fnanchor">[43]</a> A copy of it came into the hands of Naigeon, and + it seems to have been retained by Malesherbes, the director of the + press, out of goodwill to the author. If it had been printed, it would + certainly have cost him a sojourn in Vincennes.</p> + + <p>We have at first some difficulty in realising how he police could + know the contents of an obscure author's desk. For one thing we have + to remember that Paris, though it had been enormously increased in the + days of Law and the System (1719-20), was still of a comparatively + manageable size. In 1720, though the population of the whole realm was + only fourteen or fifteen millions, that of Paris had reached no less a + figure than a million and a half. After the explosion of the System, + its artificial expansion naturally came to an end. By the middle of + the century the highest estimate of the population does not make it + much more than eight hundred thousand.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id= + "FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class= + "fnanchor">[44]</a> This, unlike the socially unwholesome and + monstrous agglomerations of Paris or London in our own time, was a + population over which police supervision might be made tolerably + effective. It was more like a very large provincial town. Again, the + inhabitants were marked off into groups or worlds with a definiteness + that is now no longer possible. One-fifth of the population, for + instance, consisted of domestic servants.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id= + "FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class= + "fnanchor">[45]</a> There were between twenty-eight and thirty + thousand professional beggars.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id= + "FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class= + "fnanchor">[46]</a> The legal circle was large, and was deeply + engrossed by its own interests and troubles. The world of authorship, + though extremely noisy and profoundly important, still made only a + small group. One effect of a censorship is to produce much gossip and + whispering about suspected productions before they see the light, and + these whispers let the police into as many secrets as they choose to + know.</p> + + <p>In Diderot's case, his unsuspecting good-nature to all comers made + his affairs accessible enough. His house was the resort of all the + starving hacks in Paris, and he has left us more than one graphic + picture of the literary drudge of that time. He writes, for instance, + about a poor devil to whom he had given a manuscript to copy. "The + time for which he had promised it to me expired, and as my man did not + appear, I became uneasy, and started in search of him. I found him in + a hole about as big as my fist, almost pitch-dark, without the + smallest scrap of curtain or hanging to cover the nakedness of his + walls, a couple of straw-bottomed chairs, a truckle-bed with a quilt + riddled by the moths, a box in the corner of the chimney and rags of + every sort stuck upon it, a small tin lamp to which a bottle served as + support, and on a shelf some dozen first-rate books. I sat talking + there for three-quarters of an hour. My man was as bare as a worm, + lean, black, dry, but perfectly serene. He said nothing, but munched + his crust of bread with good appetite, and bestowed a caress from time + to time on his beloved, on the miserable bedstead that took up + two-thirds of his room. If I had never learnt before that happiness + resides in the soul, my Epictetus of Hyacinth Street would have taught + it me right thoroughly."<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id= + "FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class= + "fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + + <p>The history of one of these ragged clients is to our point. "Among + those," he wrote to Madame Voland,<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id= + "FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class= + "fnanchor">[48]</a> "whom chance and misery sent to my address was one + Glénat, who knew mathematics, wrote a good hand, and was in want of + bread. I did all I could to extricate him from his embarrassments. I + went begging for customers for him on every side. If he came at + meal-times, i would not let him go; if he lacked shoes, I gave him + them; now and then I slipped a shilling into his hands as well. he had + the air of the worthiest man in the world, and he even bore his + neediness with a certain gaiety that used to amuse me. I was fond of + chatting with him; he seemed to set little store by fortune, fame, and + most of the other things that charm or dazzle us in life. Seven or + eight days ago Damilaville wrote to send this man to him, for one of + his friends who had a manuscript for him to copy. I send him; the + manuscript is entrusted to him—a work on religion and government. i do + not know how it came about, but that manuscript is now in the hands of + the lieutenant of police. Damilaville gives me word of this. I hasten + to my friend Glénat, to warn him to count no more upon me. 'And why am + I not to count upon you?' 'Because you are a marked man. The police + have their eyes upon you and 'tis impossible to send work to you.' + 'But, my dear sir, there's no risk, so long as you entrust nothing + reprehensible to my hands. The police only come here when they scent + game. I cannot tell how they do it, but they are never mistaken.' 'Ah + well, I at any rate know how it is, and you have let me see much more + in the the matter than I ever expected to learn from you,' and with + that I turn my back on my rascal." Diderot having occasion to visit + the lieutenant of police, introduced the matter, and could not + withhold an energetic remonstrance against such an odious abuse of a + man's kindness of heart, as the introduction of spies to his fireside. + M. de Sartine laughed and Diderot took his leave, vowing that all the + wretches who should come to him for the future, with cuffs dirty and + torn, with holes in their stockings and holes in their shoes, with + hair all unkempt, in shabby overcoats with many rents, or scanty black + suits with starting seams, with all the tones and looks of distressed + worth, would henceforth seem to him no better than police emissaries + and scoundrels set to spy on him. The vow, we may be sure, was soon + forgotten, but the story shows how seriously in one respect the man of + letters in France was worse off than his brother in England.</p> + + <p>The world would have suffered no irreparable loss if the police had + thrown the Sceptic's Walk into the fire. It is an allegory designed to + contrast the life of religion, the life of philosophy, and the life of + sensual pleasure. Of all forms of composition, an allegory most + depends for its success upon the rapidity of the writer's eye for new + felicities. Accuracy, verisimilitude, sustention, count for nothing in + comparison with imaginative adroitness and variety. Bunyan had such an + eye, and so, with infinitely more vivacity, had Voltaire. Diderot had + not the deep sincerity or realism of conviction of the one; nor had he + the inimitable power of throwing himself into a fancy, that was + possessed by the other. He was the least agile, the least felicitous, + the least ready, of composers. His allegory of the avenue of thorns, + the avenue of chestnut-trees, and the avenue of flowers, is an + allegory, unskilful, obvious, poor, and not any more amusing than if + it's matter had been set forth without any attempt at fanciful + decoration. The blinded saints among the thorns, and the voluptuous + sinners among the flowers, are rather mechanical figures. The + translation into the dialect required by the allegorical situation, of + a sceptic's aversion for gross superstition on the one hand, and for + gross hedonism on the other, is forced and wooden. The most + interesting of the three sections is the second, containing a + discussion in which the respective parts are taken by a deist, a + pantheist, a subjective idealist, a sceptic, and an atheist. The + allegory falls into the background, and we have a plain statement of + some of the objections that may be made by the sceptical atheist both + to revelation and to natural religion. A starry sky calls forth the + usual glorification of the maker of so much beauty. "That is all + imagination," rejoins the atheist. "It is mere presumption. We have + before us an unknown machine, on which certain observations have been + made. Ignorant people who have only examined a single wheel of it, of + which they hardly know more than a tooth or two, form conjectures upon + the way in which their cogs fit in with a hundred thousand other + wheels. And then to finish like artisans, they label the work with the + name of it's author."</p> + + <p>The defender justifies this by the argument from a repeater-watch, + of which Paley and others have made so much use. We at once ascribe + the structure and movement of a repeater-watch to intelligent + creation. "No—things are not equal," says the atheist. "You are + comparing a finished work, whose origin and manufacture we know, to an + infinite piece of complexity, whose beginnings, whose present + condition, and whose end are all alike unknown, and about whose author + you have nothing better than guesses."</p> + + <p>But does not its structure announce an author? "No; you do not see + who nor what he is. Who told you that the order you admire here belies + itself nowhere else? Are you allowed to conclude from a point in space + to infinite space? You pile a vast piece of ground with earth-heaps + thrown here or there by chance, but among which the worm and the ant + find convenient dwelling-places enough. What would you think of these + insects, if, reasoning after your fashion, they fell into raptures + over the intelligence of the gardener who had arranged all these + materials so delightfully for their convenience?"<a name= + "FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" + class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + + <p>In this rudimentary form the chief speaker presses some of the + objections to optimistic deism from the point of view of the fixed + limitations, the inevitable relativity, of human knowledge. This kind + of objection had been more pithily expressed by Pascal long before, in + the famous article of his Thoughts, on the difficulty of demonstrating + the existence of a deity by light of nature.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" + id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class= + "fnanchor">[50]</a> Diderot's argument does not extend to dogmatic + denial. It only shows that the deist is exposed to an attack from the + same sceptical armoury from which he had drawn his own weapons for + attacking revelation. It is impossible to tell how far Diderot went at + this moment. The trenchancy with which his atheist urges his + reasoning, proves that the writer was fully alive to its force. On the + other hand, the atheist is left in the midst of a catastrophe. On his + return home, he finds his children murdered, his house pillaged, and + his wife carried off. And we are told that he could not complain on + his own principles.</p> + + <p>If the absence of witnesses allowed the robber to commit his crime + with impunity, why should he not? Again, there is a passage in which + the writer seems to be speaking his own opinions. An interlocutor + maintains the importance of keeping the people in bondage to certain + prejudices. "What prejudices? If a man once admits the existence of a + God, the reality of moral good and evil, the immortality of the soul, + future rewards and punishments, what need has he of prejudices? + Supposing him initiated in all the mysteries of transubstantiation, + consubstantiation, the Trinity, hypostatical union, predestination, + incarnation, and the rest, will he be any the better citizen?"<a name= + "FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" + class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> + + <p>In truth, Diderot's mind was at this time floating in an atmosphere + of rationalistic negation, and the moral of his piece, as he hints, + points first to the extravagance of Catholicism, next to the vanity of + the pleasures of the world, and lastly, to the unfathomable + uncertainty of philosophy. Still, we may discern a significant leaning + towards the theory of the eternity of matter, which has arranged + itself and assumed variety of form by virtue of its inherent quality + of motion.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + + <p>It is a characteristic and displeasing mark of the time that + Diderot in the midst of these serious speculations, should have set + himself (1748) to the composition of a story in the kind which the + author of the <i>Sofa</i> had made highly popular. The mechanism of + this deplorable piece is more grossly disgusting—I mean æsthetically, + not morally—than anything to be found elsewhere in the too voluminous + library of impure literature. The idea would seem to have been + borrowed from one of the old Fabliaux.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id= + "FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class= + "fnanchor">[53]</a> But what is tolerable in the quaint and + <i>naïf</i> verse of the twelfth or thirteenth century, becomes + shocking when deliberately rendered by a grave man into bald + unblushing prose of the eighteenth. The humour, the rich sparkle, the + wit, the merry <i>gaillardise</i>, have all vanished; we are left with + the vapid dregs of an obscene anachronism. Mr. Carlyle, who knows how + to be manly in these matters, and affects none of the hypocritical + airs of our conventional criticism, yet has not more energetically + than truly pronounced this "the beastliest of all past, present, or + future dull novels." As "the next mortal creature, even a Reviewer, + again compelled to glance into that book," I have felt the propriety + of our humorist's injunction to such a one, "to bathe himself in + running water, put on change of raiment, and be unclean until the + even." Diderot himself, as might have been expected, soon had the + grace to repent him of this shameful book, and could never hear it + mentioned without a very lively embarrassment.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" + id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class= + "fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + + <p>As I have said before,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id= + "FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class= + "fnanchor">[55]</a> it was such books as this, as Crébillon's novels, + as Duclos's Confessions du Comte</p> + + <p>X., and the dissoluteness of manners indicated by them, which + invested Rousseau's New Heloïsa (1761) with its delightful and + irresistible fascinations. Having pointed out elsewhere the + significance of the licentiousness from which the philosophic party + did not escape untainted,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id= + "FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class= + "fnanchor">[56]</a> I need not here do more than make two short + remarks. First, the corruption which had seized the court after the + death of Lewis XIV. in the course of a few years had reached the + middle class in the town. The loosening of social fibre, caused by the + insenate speculation at the time of Law, no doubt furthered the spread + of demoralisation. Second, the reaction against the Church involved + among its other elements a passionate contempt for all asceticism. + This happened to fall in with the general relaxation of morals that + followed Lewis's gloomy rigour. Consequently even men of pure life, + like Condorcet, carried the theoretical protest against asceticism so + far as to vindicate the practical immorality of the time. This is one + of those enormous drawbacks that people seldom take into account when + they are enumerating the blessings of superstition. Mediæval + superstition had produced some advantages, but now came the set-off. + Durable morality had been associated with a transitory religious + faith. The faith fell into intellectual discredit, and sexual morality + shared its decline for a short season. This must always be the natural + consequence of building sound ethics on the shifting sands and rotting + foundations of theology.</p> + + <p>Such literature as these tales of Diderot's, was the mirror both of + the ordinary practical sentiment and the philosophic theory. A nation + pays dearly for one of those outbreaks, when they happen to stamp + themselves in a literary form that endures. There are those who hold + that Louvet's Faublas is to this day a powerful agent in the + depravation of the youth of France. Diderot, however, had not the most + characteristic virtues of French writing; he was no master in the art + of the <i>naïf</i>, nor in delicate malice, nor in sprightly cynicism. + His book, consequently, has not lived, and we need not waste more + words upon it. <i>Chaque esprit a sa lie</i>, wrote one who for a + while had sat at Diderot's feet;<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id= + "FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class= + "fnanchor">[57]</a> and we may dismiss this tale as the lees of + Diderot's strong, careless, sensualised understanding. He was + afterwards the author of a work, La Religieuse, on which the + superficial critic may easily pour out the vials of affected wrath. + There, however, he was executing a profound pathological study in a + serious spirit. If the subject is horrible, we have to blame the + composition of human character, or the mischievousness of a human + institution. La Religieuse is no continuation of the vein of + defilement which began and ended with the story of 1748—a story which + is one among so many illustrations of Guizot's saying about the + eighteenth century, that it was the most tempting and seductive of all + centuries, for it promised full satisfaction at once to all the + greatnesses of humanity and to all its weaknesses. Hettner quotes a + passage from the minor writings of Niebuhr, in which the historian + compares Diderot with Petronius, as having both of them been honest + and well-intentioned men, who in shameless times were carried towards + cynicism by their deep contempt for the prevailing vice. "If Diderot + were alive now," says Niebuhr, "and if Petronius had only lived in the + fourth instead of the third century, then the painting of obscenity + would have been odious to them, and the inducement to it infinitely + smaller."<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> There is no trace in + Diderot of this deep contempt for the viciousness of his time. All + that can be said is that he did not escape it in his earlier years, in + spite of the natural wholesomeness and rectitude of his character.</p> + + <p>It is worthy of remark that the dissoluteness of the middle portion + of the century was not associated with the cynical and contemptuous + view about women that usually goes with relaxed morality. There was a + more or less distinct consciousness of a truth which has ever since + grown into clearer prominence with the advance of thought since the + Revolution. It is that the sphere and destiny of women are among the + three or four foremost questions in social improvement. This is now + perceived on all sides, profound as are the differences of opinion + upon the proper solution of the problem. A hundred years ago this + perception was vague and indefinite, but there was an unmistakable + apprehension that the Catholic ideal of womanhood was no more adequate + to the facts of life, than Catholic views about science, or property, + or labour, or political order and authority.</p> + + <p>Diderot has left some curious and striking reflections upon the + fate and character of women. He gives no signs of feeling after social + reorganisation; he only speaks as one brooding in uneasy meditation + over a very mournful perplexity. There is no sentimentalising, after + the fashion of Jean Jacques. He does not neglect the plain physical + facts, about which it is so difficult in an age of morbid reserve to + speak with freedom, yet about which it is fatal to be silent. He + indulged in none of those mischievous flatteries of women, which + satisfy narrow observers, or coxcombs, or the uxorious. "Never + forget," he said, "that for lack of reflection and principles, nothing + penetrates down to a certain profoundness of conviction in the + understanding of women. The ideas of justice, virtue, vice, goodness, + badness, float on the surface of their souls. They have preserved + self-love and personal interest with all the energy of nature. + Although more civilized than we are outwardly, they have remained true + savages inwardly.... It is in the passion of love, the access of + jealousy, the transports of maternal tenderness, the instants of + superstition, the way in which they show epidemic and popular notions, + that women amaze us; fair as the seraphin of Klopstock, terrible as + the fiends of Milton.... The distractions of a busy and contentious + life break up our passions. A woman, on the contrary, broods over her + passions; they are a fixed point on which her idleness or the + frivolity of her duties holds her attention fast.... Impenetrable in + dissimulation, cruel in vengeance, tenacious in their designs, without + scruples about the means of success, animated by a deep and secret + hatred against the despotism of man—it seems as if there were among + them a sort of league, such as exists among the priests of all + nations.... The symbol of women in general is that of the Apocalypse, + on the front of which is inscribed <i>Mystery</i>.... If we have more + reason than women have, they have far more instinct than we + have."<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> All this was said in no + bitterness, but in the spirit of the strong observer.</p> + + <p>Cynical bitterness is as misplaced as frivolous adulation. Diderot + had a deep pity for women. Their physical weaknesses moved him to + compassion. To these are added the burden of their maternal function, + and the burden of unequal laws. "The moment which shall deliver the + girl from subjection to her parents is come; her imagination opens to + a future thronged by chimæras; her heart swims in secret delight. + Rejoice while thou canst, luckless creature! Time would have weakened + the tyranny that thou hast left; time will strengthen the tyranny that + awaits thee. They choose a husband for her. She becomes a mother. It + is in anguish, at the peril of their lives, at the cost of their + charms, often to the damage of their health, that they give birth to + their little ones. The organs that mark their sex are subject to two + incurable maladies. There is, perhaps, no joy comparable to that of + the mother as she looks on her first-born; but the moment is dearly + bought. Time advances, beauty passes; there come the years of neglect, + of spleen, of weariness. 'Tis in pain that Nature disposes them for + maternity; in pain and illness, dangerous and prolonged, she brings + maternity to its close. What is a woman after that? Neglected by her + husband, left by her children, a nullity in society, then piety + becomes her one and last resource. In nearly every part of the world, + the cruelty of the civil laws against women is added to the cruelty of + Nature. They have been treated like weak-minded children. There is no + sort of vexation which, among civilised peoples, man cannot inflict + upon woman with impunity."<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id= + "FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class= + "fnanchor">[60]</a></p> + + <p>The thought went no further, in Diderot's mind, than this pathetic + ejaculation. He left it to the next generation, to Condorcet and + others, to attack the problem practically; effectively to assert the + true theory that we must look to social emancipation in women, and + moral discipline in men, to redress the physical disadvantages. + Meanwhile Diderot deserves credit for treating the position and + character of women in a civilised society with a sense of reality; and + for throwing aside those faded gallantries of poetic and literary + convention, that screen a broad and dolorous gulf.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /> + THE NEW PHILOSOPHY.</h2> + + <p>It is a common prejudice to treat Voltaire as if he had done + nothing save write the Pucelle and mock at Habakkuk. Every serious and + instructed student knows better. Voltaire's popularisation of the + philosophy of Newton (1738) was a stimulus of the greatest importance + to new thought in France. In a chapter of this work he had explained + with his usual matchless terseness and lucidity Berkeley's theory of + vision. The principle of this theory is, as every one knows, that + figures, magnitudes, situations, distances, are not sensations but + inferences; they are not the immediate revelations of sight, but the + products of association and intellectual construction; they are not + directly judged by vision, but by imagination and experience. If this + be so, neither situation, nor distance, nor magnitude, nor figure, + would be at once discerned by one born blind, supposing him suddenly + to receive sight. Voltaire then describes the results of the operation + performed by Cheselden (1728) on a lad who had been blind from his + birth. This experiment was believed to confirm all that Locke and + Berkeley had foreseen, for it was long before the patient could + distinguish objects by size, distance, or shape.<a name= + "FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" + class="fnanchor">[61]</a> Condillac had renewed the interest which + Voltaire had first kindled in the subject, by referring to Cheselden's + experiment in his first work, which was published in 1746.<a name= + "FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" + class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + + <p>It happened that in 1748 Réaumur couched the eyes of a girl who had + been born blind. Diderot sought to be admitted to the operation, but + the favour was denied him, and he expressed his resentment in terms + which, as we shall see, cost him very dear. As he could not witness + the experiment, he began to meditate upon the subject, and the result + was the <i>Letter on the Blind for the Use of those who See</i>. + published in 1749—the date, it may be observed in passing, of another + very important work in the development of materialistic speculation, + David Hartley's <i>Observations on man, his frame, his duty, and his + expectations</i>. Diderot's real disappointment at not being admitted + to the operation was slight. In a vigorous passage he shows the + difficulties in the way of conducting such an experiment under the + conditions necessary to make it conclusive. To prepare the born-blind + to answer philosophical interrogatories truly, and then to put these + interrogatories rightly, would have been a feat, he declares, not + unworthy of the united talents of Newton, Descartes, Locke, and + Leibnitz. Unless the patient were placed in such conditions as this, + Diderot thinks there would be more profit in questioning a blind + person of good sense, than in the answers of an uneducated person + receiving sight for the first time under abnormal and bewildering + circumstances.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id= + "FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class= + "fnanchor">[63]</a> In this he was undoubtedly right. If the + experiment could be prepared under the delicate conditions proper to + make it demonstrative evidence, it would be final. But the experiment + had certainly not been so prepared in his time, and probably never + will be.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + + <p>Read in the light of the rich and elaborate speculative literature + which England is producing in our own day, Diderot's once famous + Letter on the Blind seems both crude and loose in its thinking. Yet + considering the state of philosophy in France at the time of its + appearance, we are struck by the acuteness, the good sense, and the + originality of many of its positions. It was the first effective + introduction into France of these great and fundamental principles; + that all knowledge is relative to our intelligence, that thought is + not the measure of existence, nor the conceivableness of a proposition + the test of its truth, and that our experience is not the limit to the + possibilities of things. That is an impatient criticism which + dismisses the French philosophers with some light word as radically + shallow and impotent. Diderot grasped the doctrine of Relativity in + some of the most important and far-reaching of all its bearings. The + fact that he and his allies used the doctrine as a weapon of combat + against the standing organisation, is exactly what makes their history + worth writing about. The standing organisation was the antagonistic + doctrine incarnate. It made anthropomorphism and the absolute the very + base and spring alike of individual and of social life. No growth was + possible until this speculative base had been transformed. Hence the + profound significance of what looks like a mere discussion of one of + the minor problems of metaphysics. Diderot was not the first to + discover Relativity, nor did he establish it; but it was he who + introduced it into the literature of his country at the moment when + circumstances were ripe for it.</p> + + <p>Condillac, as we have said, had published his first work, the Essay + on the Origin of Human Knowledge, three years before (1746). This was + a simple and undeveloped rendering of the doctrine of Locke, that the + ultimate source of our notions lies in impressions made upon the + senses, shaped and combined by reflection. It was not until 1754 that + Condillac published his more celebrated treatise on the Sensations, in + which he advanced a stride beyond Locke, and instead of tracing our + notions to the double source of sensation and reflection, maintained + that reflection itself is nothing but sensation "differently + transformed." In the first book, again, he had disputed Berkeley's + theory of vision: in the second, he gave a reasoned adhesion to it. + Now Diderot and Condillac had first been brought together by Rousseau, + when all three were needy wanderers about the streets of Paris. They + used to dine together once a week at a tavern, and it was Diderot who + persuaded a bookseller to give Condillac a hundred crowns for his + first manuscript. "The Paris booksellers," says Rousseau, "are very + arrogant and harsh to beginners; and metaphysics, then extremely + little in fashion, did not offer a very particularly attractive + subject."<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> The constant intercourse + between Diderot and Condillac in the interval between the two works of + the great apostle of Sensationalism, may well account for the + remarkable development in doctrine. This is one of the many examples + of the share of Diderot's energetic and stimulating intelligence, in + directing and nourishing the movement of the time, its errors and + precipitancies included. On the other hand, the share of Condillac in + providing a text for Diderot's first considerable performance, is + equally evident.</p> + + <p>The Letter on the Blind is an inquiry how far a modification of the + five senses, such as the congenital absence of one of them, would + involve a corresponding modification of the ordinary notions acquired + by men who are normally endowed in their capacity for sensation. It + considers the Intellect in a case where it is deprived of one of the + senses. The writer opens with an account of a visit made by himself + and some friends to a man born blind at Puisaux, a place seventy miles + from Paris. They asked him in what way he thought of the eyes. "They + are an organ on which the air produces the same effect as my stick + upon my hand." A mirror he described "as a machine which sets things + in relief away from themselves, if they are properly placed in + relation to it." This conception had formed itself in his mind in the + following way. The blind man only knows objects by touch. He is aware, + on the testimony of others, that we know objects by sight as he knows + them by touch; he can form no other notion. He is aware, again, that a + man cannot see his own face, though he can touch it. Sight, then, he + concludes, is a sort of touch, which only extends to objects different + from our own visage, and remote from us. Now touch only conveys to him + the idea of relief. A mirror, therefore, must be a machine which sets + us in relief out of ourselves. How many philosophers, cries Diderot, + have employed less subtlety to reach notions just as untrue?</p> + + <p>The born-blind had a memory for sound in a surprising degree, and + countenances do not present more diversity to us than he observed in + voices. The voice has for such persons an infinite number of delicate + shades that escape us, because we have not the same reason for + attention that the blind have. The help that our senses lend to one + another, is an obstacle to their perfection.</p> + + <p>The blind man said he should have been tempted to regard persons + endowed with sight as superior intelligences, if he had not found out + a hundred times how inferior we are in other respects. How do we + know—Diderot reflects upon this—that all the animals do not reason in + the same way, and look upon themselves as our equals or superiors, + notwithstanding our more complex and efficient intelligence? They may + accord to us a reason with which we should still have much need of + their instinct while they claim to be endowed with an instinct which + enables them to do very well without our reason.</p> + + <p>When asked whether he should be glad to have sight, the born-blind + replied that, apart from curiosity, he would be just as well pleased + to have long arms: his hands would tell him what is going on in the + moon, better than our eyes or telescopes; and the eyes cease to see + earlier than the hands lose the sense of touch. It would therefore be + just as good to perfect in him the organ that he had, as to confer + upon him another which he had not. This is untrue. No conceivable + perfection of touch would reveal phenomena of light, and the longest + arms must leave those phenomena undisclosed.</p> + + <p>After recounting various other peculiarities of thought, Diderot + notices that the blind man attaches slight importance to the sense of + shame. He would hardly understand the utility of clothes, for + instance, except as a protection against cold. He frankly told his + philosophising visitors that he could not see why one part of the body + should be covered rather than another. "I have never doubted," says + Diderot, "that the state of our organs and senses has much influence + both on our metaphysics and our morality." This, I may observe, does + not in the least show that in a society of human beings, not blind, + but endowed with vision, the sense of physical shame is a mere + prejudice of which philosophy will rid us. The fact that a blind man + discerns no ill in nakedness, has no bearing on the value or + naturalness of shame among people with eyes. And moreover, the fact + that delicacy or shame is not a universal human impulse, but is + established, and its scope defined, by a varying etiquette, does not + in the least affect the utility or wisdom of such an artificial + establishment and definition. The grounds of delicacy, though + connected with the senses, are fixed by considerations that spring + from the social reason. It seems to be true, as Diderot says, that the + born-blind are at first without physical delicacy; because delicacy + has its root in the consciousness that we are observed, while the + born-blind are not conscious that they are observed. It is found that + one of the most important parts of their education is to impress this + knowledge upon them.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id= + "FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class= + "fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + + <p>But the artificiality of a moral acquisition is obviously no test + of its worth, nor of the reasons for preserving it. Diderot exclaims, + "Ah, madam, how different is the morality of a blind man from ours; + and how the morality of the deaf would differ from that of the blind; + and if a being should have a sense more than we have, how wofully + imperfect would he find our morality!" This is plainly a crude and + erroneous way of illustrating the important truth of the strict + relativity of ethical standards and maxims. Diderot speaks as if they + were relative simply and solely to our five wits, and would vary with + them only. Everybody now has learnt that morality depends not merely + on the five wits, but on the mental constitution within, and on the + social conditions without. It is to these rather than to the number of + our senses, that moral ideas are relative.</p> + + <p>Passing over various other remarks, we come to those pages in the + Letter which apply the principle of relativity to the + master-conception of God. Diderot's argument on this point naturally + drew keener attention than the more disinterestedly scientific parts + of his contribution. People were not strongly agitated by the question + whether a blind man who had learned to distinguish a sphere from a + cube by touch, would instantly identify each of them if he received + sight.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> + + <p>The question whether a blind man has as good reasons for believing + in the existence of a God as a man with sight can find, was of more + vivid interest. As a matter of fact, Diderot's treatment of the + narrower question (pp. 324, etc.) is more closely coherent than his + treatment of the wider one, for the simple reason that the special + limitation of experience in the born-blind cannot fairly be made to + yield any decisive evidence on the great, the insoluble enigma.</p> + + <p>Here, as in the other part of his essay, Diderot followed the + method of interrogating the blind themselves. In this instance, he + turned to the most extraordinary example in history, of intellectual + mastery and scientific penetration in one who practically belonged to + the class of the born-blind; and this too in dealing with subjects + where sight might be thought most indispensable. From 1711 to 1739 one + of the professors of mathematics at Cambridge was Nicholas Saunderson, + who had lost his sight before he was twelve months old. He was a man + of striking mental vigour, an original and efficient teacher, and the + author of a book upon algebra which was considered meritorious in its + day. His knowledge of optics was highly remarkable. He had distinct + ideas of perspective, of the projections of the sphere, and of the + forms assumed by plane or solid figures in certain positions. For + performing computations he devised a machine of great ingenuity, which + also served the purpose, with certain modifications, of representing + geometrical diagrams. In religion he was a sceptic or something more, + and in his last hours Diderot supposes him to have engaged in a + discussion with a minister of religion, upon the arguments for the + existence of a deity drawn from final causes. This discussion Diderot + professes to reproduce, and he makes Saunderson discourse with much + eloquence and some pathos.</p> + + <p>By one of those mystifications which make the French polemical + literature of the eighteenth century the despair of bibliographers, + Diderot cites as his authority a <i>Life of Saunderson</i>, by Dr. + Inchlif. He sets forth the title with great circumstantiality, but no + such book exists or ever did exist. The Royal Society of London, + however, took the jest of fathering atheism on one of its members in + bad part, and Diderot was systematically excluded from the honour of + admission to that learned body, as he was excluded all his life from + the French Academy.</p> + + <p>The reasoning which Diderot puts into the professor's mouth is at + first a fervid enlargement of the text, that the argument drawn from + the wonders of nature is very weak evidence for blind men. Our power + of creating new objects, so to speak, by means of a little mirror, is + far more incomprehensible to them, than the stars which they have been + condemned never to behold. The luminous ball that moves from east to + west through the heavens, is a less astonishing thing to them than the + fire on the hearth which they can lessen or augment at + pleasure.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> "Why talk to me," says + Saunderson, "of all that fine spectacle which has never been made for + me? I have been condemned to pass my life in darkness; and you cite + marvels that I cannot understand, and that are only evidence for you + and for those who see as you do. If you want me to believe in God, you + must make me touch him." The minister replied that the sense of touch + ought to be enough to reveal the divinity to him in the admirable + mechanism of his organs. To this, Saunderson:—"I repeat, all that is + not as fine for me as it is for you. But the animal mechanism, even + were it as perfect as you pretend, and as I daresay it is—what has it + in common with a Being of sovereign intelligence? If it fills you with + astonishment, that is perhaps because you are in the habit of treating + as a prodigy anything that strikes you as being beyond your own + strength. I have been myself so often an object of admiration for you, + that I have a poor opinion of what surprises you. I have attracted + people from all parts of England, who could not conceive by what means + I could work at geometry. Well, you must agree that such persons had + not very exact notions about the possibility of things. Is a + phenomenon in our notions beyond the power of man? Then we instantly + say—<i>'Tis the handiwork of a God</i>. Nothing short of that can + content our vanity. Why can we not contrive to throw into our talk + less pride and more philosophy?. If nature offers us some knot that is + hard to untie, let us leave it for what it is; do not let us employ + for cutting it the hand of a Being, who then immediately becomes in + turn a new knot for us, and a knot harder to untie than the first. An + Indian tells you that our globe is suspended in the air on the back of + an elephant. And the elephant! It stands on a tortoise. And the + tortoise? what sustains that?... You pity the Indian: and yet one + might very well say to you as to him—Mr. Holmes, my good friend, + confess your ignorance, and spare me elephant and tortoise."<a name= + "FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" + class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + + <p>The minister very naturally then falls back upon good authority, + and asks Saunderson to take the word of Newton, Clarke, and Leibnitz. + The blind man answers that though the actual state of the universe may + be the illustration of a marvellous and admirable order, still Newton, + Clarke, and Leibnitz must leave him freedom of opinion as to its + earlier states. And then he foreshadows in a really singular and + remarkable way that theory which is believed to be the great triumph + of scientific discovery, and which is certainly the great stimulus to + speculation, in our own time. As to anterior states "you have no + witnesses to confront with me, and your eyes give you no help. + Imagine, if you choose, that the order which strikes you so profoundly + has subsisted from the beginning. But leave me free to think that it + has done no such thing, and that if we went back to the birth of + things and scenes, and perceived matter in motion and chaos slowly + disentangling itself, we should come across a whole multitude of + shapeless creatures, instead of a very few creatures highly organised. + If I have no objection to make to what you say about the present + condition of things, I may at least question you as to their past + condition. I may at least ask of you, for example, who told you—you + and Leibnitz and Clarke and Newton—that in the first instances of the + formation of animals, some were not without heads and others without + feet? I may maintain that these had no stomachs, and those no + intestines; that some to whom a stomach, a palate, and teeth seemed to + promise permanence, came to an end through some fault of heart or + lungs; that the monsters annihilated one another in succession, that + all the faulty (<i>vicieuses</i>) combinations of matter disappeared, + and that <i>those only survived whose mechanism implied no important + mis-adaptation</i> (contradiction), <i>and who had the power of + supporting and perpetuating themselves</i>.</p> + + <p>"On this hypothesis, if the first man had happened to have his + larynx closed, or had not found suitable food, or had been defective + in the parts of generation, or had failed to find a mate, then what + would have become of the human race? It would have been still enfolded + in the general depuration of the universe; and that arrogant being who + calls himself Man, dissolved and scattered among the molecules of + matter, would perhaps have remained for all time hidden in the number + of mere possibilities.</p> + + <p>"If shapeless creatures had never existed, you would not fail to + insist that none will ever appear, and that I am throwing myself + headlong into chimerical hypotheses. But the order is not even now so + perfect, but that monstrous products appear from time to + time."<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> + + <p>We have here a distinct enough conception, though in an exceedingly + undigested shape, first, of incessant Variability in organisms as an + actual circumstance, which we may see exemplified in its extreme form + in the monstrous deviations of structure that occur from time to time + before our own eyes; second, of Adaptation to environment as the + determining condition of Survival among the forms that present + themselves. Even as a bald and unsustained guess, this was an + effective side-blow at the doctrine of final causes—a doctrine, as has + been often remarked, which does not survive, in any given set of + phenomena, the reduction of these phenomena to terms of matter and + motion.</p> + + <p>"I conjecture then," continues Saunderson, enlarging the idea of + the possibilities of matter and motion, "that in the beginning when + matter in fermentation gradually brought our universe bursting into + being, blind creatures like myself were very common. But why should I + not believe of worlds what I believe of animals? How many worlds, + mutilated and imperfect, were peradventure dispersed, then re-formed, + and are again dispersing at each moment of time in those far-off + spaces which I cannot touch and you cannot behold, but where motion + combines and will continue to combine masses of matter, until they + have chanced on some arrangement in which they may finally persevere! + O philosophers, transport yourselves with me on to the confines of the + universe, beyond the point where I feel, and you see, organised + beings; gaze over that new ocean, and seek across its lawless, aimless + heavings some vestiges of that intelligent Being whose wisdom strikes + you with such wonder here!</p> + + <p>"What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless + revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to + destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, + press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. + I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by + your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its + duration by the length of your own days. You judge of the continuous + existence of the world, as an ephemeral insect might judge of yours. + The world is eternal for you, as you are eternal to the being that + lives but for one instant. Yet the insect is the more reasonable of + the two. For what a prodigious succession of ephemeral generations + attests your eternity! What an immeasurable tradition! Yet shall we + all pass away, without the possibility of assigning either the real + extension that we filled in space, or the precise time that we shall + have endured. Time, matter, space—all, it may be, are no more than a + point."<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + + <p>Diderot sent a copy of his work to Voltaire. The poet replied with + his usual playful politeness, but declared his dissent from + Saunderson, "who denied God, because he happened to have been born + blind."<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> More pretentious, and + infinitely less acute critics than Voltaire, have fixed on the same + point in the argument and met it by the same answer; namely, that, + blind as he was, Saunderson ought to have recognised an intelligent + Being who had provided him with so many substitutes for sight; he + ought to have inferred a skilful demiurgus from those ordered + relations in the universe, which Thought, independently of Vision, + might well have disclosed to him. In truth, this is not the centre of + the whole argument. When Saunderson implies that he could only admit a + God on condition that he could touch him, he makes a single sense the + channel of all possible ideas, and the arbiter of all reasoned + combinations of ideas. This is absurd, and Diderot, as we have seen, + rapidly passed away from that to the real strength of the position. + All the rest of the contention against final causes would have come + just as fitly from the lips of a man with vision, as from Saunderson. + The hypothetical inference of a deity from the marvels of adaptation + to be found in the universe is unjustified, among other reasons, + because it ignores or leaves unexplained the marvels of mis-adaptation + in the universe. It makes absolute through eternity a hypothesis which + can at its best only be true relatively—not merely to the number of + our senses, but—to a few partially chosen phenomena of our own little + day. It explains a few striking facts; it leaves wholly unexplained a + far greater number of equally striking facts, even if it be not + directly contradicted by them. It is the invention of an imaginary + agency to account for the scanty successes of creation, and an + attribution to that agency of the kind of motives that might have + animated a benevolent European living in the eighteenth century. It + leaves wholly unaccounted for the prodigious host of monstrous or + imperfect organisms, and the appalling law of merciless and incessant + destruction.</p> + + <p>To us this is the familiar discussion of the day. But let us return + to the starting-point of this chapter. In France a hundred and twenty + years ago it was the first opening of a decisive breach in the walls + that had sheltered the men of Western Europe against outer desolation + for some fifteen centuries or more. The completeness of Catholicism, + as a self-containing system of life and thought, is now harder for + Protestants or Sceptics to realise, than any other fact in the whole + history of human society. Catholicism was not only an institution, nor + only a religious faith; it was also a philosophy and a systematised + theory of the universe. The Church during its best age directed the + moral relations of individual men, and attempted, more or less + successfully, to humanise the relations of communities. It satisfied + or stimulated the affections by its exaltation of the Virgin Mary as a + supreme object of worship; it nourished the imagination on + polytheistic legends of saints and martyrs; it stirred the religious + emotions by touching and impressive rites; it surrounded its members + with emblems of a special and invincible protection. Catholicism, we + have again and again to repeat, claimed to deal with life as a whole, + and to leave no province of nature, no faculty of man, no need of + intelligence or spirit, uncomprehended. But we must not forget that, + though this prodigious system had its root in the affections and + sympathies of human nature, it was also fenced round by a theory of + metaphysic. It rested upon authority and tradition, but it also sought + an expression in an intellectual philosophy of things. The essence of + this philosophy was to make man the final cause of the universe. Its + interpretation of the world was absolute; its conception of the + Creator was absolute; its account of our intellectual impressions, of + our moral rules, of our spiritual ideals, made them all absolute. Now + Diderot, when he wrote the Letter on the Blind, perceived that mere + rationalistic attacks upon the sacred books, upon the miracles, upon + the moral types, of Catholicism, could only be partially effective for + destruction, and could have no effect at all in replacing the old ways + of thinking by others of more solid truth. The attack must begin in + philosophy. The first fruitful process must consist in shifting the + point of view, in enlarging the range of the facts to be considered, + in pressing the relativity of our ideas, in freeing ourselves from the + tyranny of anthropomorphism.</p> + + <p>Hobbes's witty definition of the papacy as the ghost of the old + Roman Empire sitting enthroned on the grave thereof, may tempt us to + forget the all-important truth that the basis of the power of the + ghost was essentially different from that of the dissolved body. The + Empire was a political organisation, resting on military force. The + Church was a social organisation, made vital by a conviction. The + greatest fact in the intellectual history of the eighteenth century is + the decisive revolution that overtook that sustaining conviction. The + movement and the men whom we are studying owe all their interest to + the share that they had in this immense task. The central conception, + that the universe was called into existence only to further its + Creator's purpose towards man, became incredible. This absolute + proposition was slowly displaced by notions of the limitation of human + faculties, and of the comparatively small portion of the whole cosmos + or chaos to which we have reason to believe that these faculties give + us access. To substitute this relative point of view for the absolute, + was the all-important preliminary to the effectual breaking up of the + great Catholic construction.</p> + + <p>What seems to careless observers a mere metaphysical dispute was in + truth, and still is, the decisive quarter of the great battle between + theology and a philosophy reconcilable with science. When the Catholic + reaction set in, Joseph de Maistre, by far its acutest champion in the + region of philosophy, at once made it his first business to attack the + principle of relativity with all his force of dialectic, and to + reinstate absolute modes of thinking, and the absolute quality of + Catholic propositions about religion, knowledge, and + government.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> Yet neither he nor any one + else on his side has ever effectively shaken the solid argument which + Diderot fancifully illustrated in the following passage from his reply + to Voltaire's letter of thanks for the opuscule: "This marvellous + order and these wondrous adaptations, what am I to think of them? That + they are metaphysical entities only existing in your own mind. You + cover a vast piece of ground with a mass of ruins falling hither or + thither at hazard; amid these the worm and the ant find commodious + shelter enough. What would you say of these insects, if they were to + take for real and final entities the relations of the places which + they inhabit to their organisation, and then fall into ecstasies over + the beauty of their subterranean architecture, and the wonderfully + superior intelligence of the gardener who arranges things so + conveniently for them?"<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id= + "FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class= + "fnanchor">[74]</a> This is the notion which Voltaire himself three + years afterwards illustrated in the witty fancies of + <i>Micromégas</i>. The little animalcule in the square cap, who makes + the giant laugh in a Homeric manner by its inflated account of itself + as the final cause of the universe, is the type of the philosophy on + which Catholicism is based.</p> + + <p>In the same letter Diderot avows his dissent—hypocritically, we + find reason for suspecting—from Saunderson's conclusion. "It is + commonly in the night-time," he says, "that the mists arise which + obscure in me the existence of God; the rising of the sun never fails + to scatter them. But then the darkness is ever-enduring for the blind, + and the sun only rises for those who see." Diderot's denial of atheism + seems more than suspicious, when one finds him taking so much pains to + make out Saunderson's case for him, when he urges the argument + following, for instance: "If there had never existed any but material + beings, there would never have been spiritual beings; for then the + spiritual beings would either have given themselves existence, or else + would have received it from the material beings. But if there had + never existed any but spiritual beings, you will see that there would + never have been material beings. Right philosophy only allows me to + suppose in things what I can distinctly perceive in them. Now I + perceive no other faculties distinctly in the mind except those of + willing and thinking, and I no more conceive that thought and will can + act on material beings or on nothing, than I can conceive material + beings or nothing acting on spiritual beings." And he winds up his + letter thus: "It is very important not to take hemlock for parsley; + but not important at all to believe or to disbelieve in God. The + world, said Montaigne, is a tennis-ball that he has given to + philosophers to toss hither and thither; and I would say nearly as + much of the Deity himself."<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id= + "FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class= + "fnanchor">[75]</a></p> + + <p>In concluding our account of this piece, we may mention that + Diderot threw out a hint, which is a good illustration of the alert + and practically helpful way in which his mind was always seeking new + ideas. We have common signs, he said, appealing to the eye, namely, + written characters, and others appealing to the ear, namely, + articulate sounds; we have none appealing to touch. "For want of such + a language, communication is entirely broken between us and those who + are born deaf, dumb, and blind. They grow, but they remain in a state + of imbecility. Perhaps they would acquire ideas, if we made ourselves + understood by them from childhood in a fixed, determinate, constant, + and uniform manner; in short, if we traced on their hand the same + characters that we trace upon paper, and invariably attached the same + significance to them."<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id= + "FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class= + "fnanchor">[76]</a> The patient benevolence and ingenuity of Dr. Howe + of Boston has realised in our own day the value of Diderot's + suggestion.</p> + + <p>One or two trifling points of literary interest may be noticed in + the Letter on the Blind. Diderot refers to "the ingenious expression + of an English geometer that <i>God geometrises</i>" (p. 294). He is + unaware apparently of the tradition which attributes the expression to + Plato, though it is not found in Plato's writings. Plutarch, I + believe, is the first person who mentions the saying, and discusses + what Plato exactly meant by it. In truth, it is one of that large + class of dicta which look more ingenious than they are true. There is + a fine Latin passage by Barrow on the mighty geometry of the universe, + and the reader of the <i>Religio Medici</i> (p. 42) may remember that + Sir Thomas Browne pronounces God to be "like a skilful + geometrician."</p> + + <p>An odd coincidence of simile is worth mentioning. Diderot says + "that great services are like large pieces of money, that we have + seldom any occasion to use. Small attentions are a current coin that + we always carry in our hands." This is curiously like the saying in + the <i>Tatler</i> that "A man endowed with great perfections without + good breeding is like one who has his pockets full of gold, but wants + change for his ordinary occasions." Yet if Diderot had read the + <i>Tatler</i>, he would certainly have referred to the story in No. + 55, how William Jones of Newington, born blind, was brought to sight + at the age of twenty—a story told in a manner after Diderot's own + heart.</p> + + <p>II.</p> + + <p>It is proper in this place to mention a short philosophic piece + which Diderot wrote in 1751, his <i>Letter on the Deaf and Dumb for + the Use of those who Hear and Talk</i>. This is not, like the Letter + on the Blind, the examination of a case of the Intellect deprived of + one or more of the senses. It is substantially a fragment, and a very + important fragment, on Æsthetics, and as such there will be something + to say about it in another chapter. But there are, perhaps, one or two + points at which the Letter on the Deaf and Dumb touches the line of + thought of the Letter on the Blind.</p> + + <p>The Letter opens on the question of the origin and limits of + inversion in language. This at once leads to a discussion of the + natural order of ideas and expressions, and that original order, says + Diderot, we can only ascertain by a study of the language of gesture. + Such a study can be pursued either in assiduous conversation with one + who has been deaf and dumb from birth, or by the experiment of a + <i>muet de convention</i>, a man who foregoes the use of articulate + sounds for the sake of experiment as to the process of the formation + of language. Generalising this idea, Diderot proceeds to consider man + as distributed into as many distinct and separate beings as he has + senses. "My idea would be to decompose a man, so to speak, and to + examine what he derives from each of the senses with which he is + endowed. I have sometimes amused myself with this kind of metaphysical + anatomy; and I found that of all the senses, the eye was the most + superficial; the ear, the proudest; smell, the most voluptuous; taste, + the most superstitious and the most inconstant; touch, the profoundest + and the most of a philosopher. It would be amusing to get together a + society, each member of which should have no more than one sense; + there can be no doubt that they would all treat one another as out of + their wits."</p> + + <p>This is interesting, because it was said at the time to be the + source of one of the most famous fancies in the philosophical + literature of the century, the Statue in Condillac's Treatise on the + Sensations. Condillac imagined a statue organised like a man, but each + sense unfolding itself singly, at the will of an eternal arbiter. The + philosopher first admits the exercise of smell to his Frankenstein, + and enumerates the mental faculties which might be expected to be set + in operation under the changing impressions made upon that one sense. + The other senses are imparted to it in turn, one by one, each adding a + new group of ideas to the previous stock, until at length the mental + equipment is complete.</p> + + <p>We may see the extent of the resemblance between Condillac's Statue + and Diderot's <i>muet de convention</i>, but Diderot at least is free + from the charge of borrowing. Condillac's book was published three + years (1754) after the Letter on the Deaf and Dumb, and he afterwards + wrote a pamphlet defending himself from the charge of having taken the + fancy of his Statue from Diderot; nor, for that matter, did Diderot + ever make sign or claim in the matter. We have already spoken of the + relations between the two philosophers, and though it is a mistake to + describe Diderot as one of Condillac's most celebrated pupils,<a name= + "FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" + class="fnanchor">[77]</a> yet there is just as little reason to invert + the connection, or to doubt Condillac's own assertion that the Statue + was suggested to him by Mademoiselle Ferrand, that remarkable woman to + whose stimulating and directing influence he always professed such + deep obligation. Attention has been called to the fact that in 1671 a + Parisian bookseller published a Latin version of a much more + intelligent and scientific fancy than the Statue—the <i>Philosophus + Autodidactus</i> of the Arabian, Ibn Tophail. This was a romance, in + which a human being is suckled by a gazelle on a desert island in the + tropics, and grows up in the manner of some Robinson Crusoe with a + turn for psychological speculation, and gradually becomes conscious, + through observation, of the peculiar properties belonging to his + senses.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + + <p>Of the part of the Letter that concerns gesture, one can only say + that it appears astonishingly crude to those who know the progress + that has been made since Diderot's time in collecting and generalising + the curious groups of fact connected with gesture-language. We can + imagine the eager interest that Diderot would have had in such curious + observations as that gesture-language has something like a definite + syntax; that it furnishes no means of distinguishing causation from + sequence or simultaneity; that savages can understand and be + understood with ease and certainty in a deaf-and-dumb school.<a name= + "FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" + class="fnanchor">[79]</a> Diderot was acute enough to see that the + questions of language could only be solved, not by the old + metaphysical methods, but experientially. For the experiential method + in this matter the time was not ripe. It was no wonder, then, that + after a few pages, he broke away and hastened to æsthetics.</p> + + <p>III.</p> + + <p>Penalties on the publication of heretical opinion did not cease in + England with the disappearance of the Licensing Act. But they were at + least inflicted by law. It was the Court of King's Bench which, in + 1730, visited Woolston with fine and imprisonment, after all the forms + of a prosecution had been duly gone through. It was no Bishop's court + nor Star Chamber, much less a warrant signed by George the Third or by + Bute, which in 1762 condemned Peter Annet to the pillory and the gaol + for his Free Inquirer. The only evil which overtook Mandeville for his + Fable of the Bees was to be harmlessly presented (1723) as a public + nuisance by the Grand Jury of Middlesex. We may contrast with this the + state of things which prepared a revolution in France.</p> + + <p>One morning in July, 1749—almost exactly forty years before that + July of '89, so memorable in the annals of arbitrary government and + state prisons—a commissary of police and three attendants came to + Diderot's house, made a vigorous scrutiny of his papers, and then + produced a warrant for his detention. The philosopher, without any + ado, told his wife not to expect him home for dinner, stepped into the + chaise, and was driven off with his escort to Vincennes. His real + offence was a light sneer in the Letter on the Blind at the mistress + of a minister.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id= + "FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class= + "fnanchor">[80]</a> The atheistical substance of the essay, however, + apart from the pique of a favourite, would have given sufficiently + good grounds for a prosecution in England, and in France for that vile + substitute for prosecution, the <i>lettre-decachet</i>. And there + happened to be special causes for harshness towards the press at this + moment. Verses had been published satirising the king and his manner + of life in bitter terms, and a stern raid was made upon all the + scribblers in Paris. At the court there had just taken place one of + those reactions in favour of the ecclesiastical party, which for + thirty years in the court history alternated so frequently with + movements in the opposite direction. The gossip of the town set down + Diderot's imprisonment to a satire against the Jesuits, of which he + was wrongly supposed to be the author.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id= + "FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class= + "fnanchor">[81]</a> It is not worth while to seek far for a reason, + when authority was as able and as ready to thrust men into gaol for a + bad reason as for a good one. The writer or the printer of a + philosophical treatise was at this moment looked upon in France much + as a magistrate now looks on the wretch who vends infamous prints.</p> + + <p>The lieutenant of police (Berryer) treated the miserable author + with additional severity, for stubbornly refusing to give up the name + of the printer. Diderot was well aware that the printer would be sent + to the galleys for life, if the lieutenant of police could once lay + hands upon him. This personage, we may mention, was afterwards raised + to the dignified office of keeper of the seals, as a reward for his + industry and skill in providing victims for the royal seraglio at + Versailles.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> The man who had ventured + to use his mind, was thrown into the dungeon at Vincennes by the man + who played spy and pander for the Pompadour. The official record of a + dialogue between Berryer and Denis Diderot, "of the Catholic, + Apostolic, and Roman religion," is a singular piece of reading, if we + remember that the prisoner's answers were made, "after oath taken by + the respondent to speak and answer the truth."</p> + + <p>"Interrogated if he has not composed a work entitled <i>Letters on + the Blind</i>.</p> + + <p>"Answered no.</p> + + <p>"Interrogated by whom he had caused said work to be printed.</p> + + <p>"Answered that he had not caused the said work to be printed.</p> + + <p>"Interrogated if he knows the name of the author of the said + work.</p> + + <p>"Answered that he knows nothing about it.</p> + + <p>"Interrogated whether he has not had said work in manuscript in his + possession before it was printed.</p> + + <p>"Answered that he had not had the said manuscript in his possession + before or after it was printed.</p> + + <p>"Interrogated whether he has not composed a work which appeared + some years ago, entitled <i>Philosophic Thoughts</i>.</p> + + <p>"Answered no."</p> + + <p>And so, after a dozen more replies of equal veracity, on reading + being made to the respondent of the present interrogatory, Diderot + "said that the answers contain the truth, persisted in them, and + signed," as witness his hand. A sorrowful picture, indeed, of the + plight of an apostle of a new doctrine. On the other hand, the apostle + of the new doctrine was perhaps good enough for the preachers of the + old. Two years before this, the priest of the church of Saint Médard + had thought it worth while to turn spy and informer. This is the + report which the base creature sent to the lieutenant of police + (1747):—</p> + + <div class="blockquot"> + <p>"Diderot, a man of no profession, living, etc., is a young man who + plays the free-thinker, and glories in impiety. He is the author of + several works of philosophy, in which he attacks religion. His talk + is like his books. He is busy at the composition of one now, which is + very dangerous."</p> + </div> + + <p>The priest's delation was confirmed presently by a still lower + agent of authority, who, in bad grammar and bad spelling, describes + "this wretch Diderot as a very dangerous man, who speaks of the holy + mysteries of our religion with contempt; who corrupts manners, and who + says that when he comes to the last moment of his life, he will have + to do like others, will confess, and will receive what we call our + God, but it will only be for the sake of his family."<a name= + "FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" + class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + + <p>All these things had prepared an unfriendly fate for Diderot when + his time at last came, as it came to most of his friends. For a month + he was cut off from the outer world. His only company was the + <i>Paradise Lost</i>, which he happened to have in his pocket at the + moment of his arrest. He compounded an ink for himself, by scraping + the slate at the side of his window, grinding it very fine, and mixing + with wine in a broken glass. A toothpick, found by happy accident in + the pocket of his waistcoat, served him for pen, and the fly-leaves + and margins of the Milton made a repository for his thoughts. With a + simple but very characteristic interest in others who might be as + unfortunate as himself, he wrote upon the walls of his prison his + short recipe for writing materials.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id= + "FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class= + "fnanchor">[84]</a> Diderot might easily have been buried here for + months or even years. But, as it happened, the governor of Vincennes + was a kinsman of Voltaire's divine Emily, the Marquise du Châtelet. + When Voltaire, who was then at Luneville, heard of Diderot's + ill-fortune, he proclaimed as usual his detestation of a land where + bigots can shut up philosophers under lock and key, and as usual he at + once set to work to lessen the wrong. Madame du Châtelet was made to + write to the governor, praying him to soften the imprisonment of + Socrates-Diderot as much as he could.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id= + "FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class= + "fnanchor">[85]</a> It was the last of her good deeds, for she died in + circumstances of grotesque tragedy in the following month (Sept. + 1749), and her husband, her son, Voltaire, and Saint Lambert + alternately consoled and reproached one another over her grave. + Diderot meanwhile had the benefit of her intervention. He was + transferred from the dungeon to the château, was allowed to wander + about the park on his parole, and to receive visits from his friends. + One of the most impulsive of these friends was Jean Jacques. Their + first meeting after Diderot's imprisonment has been, described by + Rousseau himself, in terms at which the phlegmatic will smile—not + wisely, for the manner of expressing emotion, like all else, is + relative. "After three or four centuries of impatience, I flew into + the arms of my friend. indescribable moment! He, was not alone; + D'Alembert and the treasurer of the Sainte Chapelle were with him. As + I went in, I saw no one but himself. With a single hound and a cry, I + pressed his face close to mine, I clasped him tightly in my arms, + without speaking to him save by my tears and sobs; I was choking with + tenderness and joy."<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id= + "FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class= + "fnanchor">[86]</a> After this Rousseau used to walk over to see him + two or three times a week. It was during one of these walks on a hot + summer afternoon, that he first thought of that memorable literary + effort, the essay against civilisation. He sank down at the foot of a + tree, and feverishly wrote a page or two to show to his friend. He + tells us that but for Diderot's encouragement he should hardly have + executed his design. There is a story that it was Diderot who first + suggested to Rousseau to affirm that arts and sciences had corrupted + manners. There is no violent improbability in this. Diderot, for all + the robustness and penetration of his judgment, was yet often borne by + his natural impetuosity towards the region of paradox. His own curious + and bold <i>Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville</i> is entirely in + the vein of Rousseau's discourse on the superiority of primitive over + civilised life. "Prodigious sibyl of the eighteenth century," cries + Michelet, "the mighty magician Diderot! He breathed out one day a + breath; lo, there sprang up a man—Rousseau."<a name="FNanchor_87_87" + id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class= + "fnanchor">[87]</a> It is hard to believe that such an astonishing + genius for literature as Rousseau's could have lain concealed, after + he had once inhaled the vivifying air of Paris. Yet the fire and + inspiring energy of Diderot may well have been the quickening accident + that brought his genius into productive life. All the testimony goes + to show that it was so. Whether, however, Diderot is really + responsible for the perverse direction of Rousseau's argument is a + question of fact, and the evidence is not decisive.<a name= + "FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" + class="fnanchor">[88]</a> It would be an odd example of that giant's + nonchalance which is always so amazing in Diderot, if he really + instigated the most eloquent and passionate writer then alive to + denounce art and science as the scourge of mankind, at the very moment + when he was himself straining his whole effort to spread the arts and + sciences, and to cover them with glory in men's eyes.</p> + + <p>Among Diderot's other visitors was Madame de Puisieux. One day she + came clad in gay apparel, bound for a merry-making at a neighbouring + village. Diderot, conceiving jealous doubts of her fidelity, received + assurance that she would be solitary and companionless at the feast, + thinking mournfully of her persecuted philosopher lying in prison. She + forgot that one of the parents of philosophy is curiosity, and that + Diderot had trained himself in the school of the sceptics. That + evening he scaled the walls of the park of Vincennes, flew to the + scene of the festival, and there found what he had expected. In vain + for her had he written upon virtue and merit, and the unhallowed + friendship came to an end.</p> + + <p>After three months of captivity, Diderot was released. The + booksellers who were interested in the Encyclopædia were importunate + with the authorities to restore its head and chief to an enterprise + that stirred universal curiosity.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id= + "FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class= + "fnanchor">[89]</a> For the first volume of that famous work was now + almost ready to appear, and expectation was keen. The idea of the book + had occurred to Diderot in 1745, and from 1745 to 1765 it was the + absorbing occupation of his life. Of the value and significance of the + conception underlying this immense operation, I shall speak in the + next chapter. There also I shall describe its history. The + circumstances under which these five-and-thirty volumes were given to + the world mark Diderot for one of the few true heroes of literature. + They called into play some of the most admirable of human qualities. + They required a laboriousness as steady and as prolonged, a wariness + as alert, a grasp of plan as firm, a fortitude as patient, unvarying, + and unshaken, as men are accustomed to applaud in the engineer who + constructs some vast and difficult work, or the commander who directs + a hardy and dangerous expedition.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /> + THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA.</h2> + + <p>The history of the encyclopædic conception of human knowledge is a + much more interesting and important object of inquiry than a list of + the various encyclopædic enterprises to be found in the annals of + literature. Yet it is proper here to mention some of the attempts in + this direction, which preceded our memorable book of the eighteenth + century. It is to Aristotle, no doubt, that we must look for the first + glimpse of the idea that human knowledge is a totality, whose parts + are all closely and organically connected with one another. But the + idea that only dawned in that gigantic understanding was lost for many + centuries. The compilations of Pliny are not in a right sense + encyclopædic, being presided over by no definite idea of informing + order. It was not until the later middle age that any attempt was made + to present knowledge as a whole. Albertus Magnus, "the ape of + Aristotle" (1193-1280), left for a season the three great questions of + the existence of universals, of the modes of the existence of species + and genus, and of their place in or out of the bosom of the + individuals, and executed a compilation of such physical facts as had + been then discovered.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id= + "FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class= + "fnanchor">[90]</a> A more distinctly encyclopædic work was the book + of Vincent de Beauvais (<i>d.</i> 1264), called <i>Speculum naturale, + morale, doctrinale, et historiale</i>—a compilation from Aquinas in + some parts, and from Aristotle in others. Hallam mentions three other + compilations of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and observes + that their laborious authors did not much improve the materials which + they had amassed in their studies, though they sometimes arranged them + conveniently. In the mediæval period, as he remarks, the want of + capacity to discern probable truths was a very great drawback from the + value of their compilations.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id= + "FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class= + "fnanchor">[91]</a></p> + + <p>Far the most striking production of the thirteenth century in this + kind was the <i>Opus Majus</i> of Roger Bacon (1267), of which it has + been said that it is at once the Encyclopædia and the Novum Organum of + that age;<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> at once a summary of + knowledge, and the suggestion of a truer method. This, however, was + merely the introductory sketch to a vaster encyclopædic work, the + <i>Compendium Philosophiæ</i>, which was not perfected. "In common + with minds of great and comprehensive grasp, his vivid perception of + the intimate relationship of the different parts of philosophy, and + his desire to raise himself from the dead level of every individual + science, induced Bacon to grasp at and embrace the whole."<a name= + "FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" + class="fnanchor">[93]</a> In truth, the encyclopædic spirit was in the + air throughout the thirteenth century. It was the century of books + bearing the significant titles of Summa, or Universitas, or + Speculum.</p> + + <p>The same spirit revived towards the middle of the sixteenth + century. In 1541 a book was published at Basel by one Ringelberg, + which first took the name of Cyclopædia, that has since then become so + familiar a word in Western Europe. This was followed within sixty + years by several other works of the same kind. The movement reached + its height in a book which remained the best in its order for a + century. A German, one J.H. Alsted (1588-1638), published in 1620 an + <i>Encyclopædia scientiarum omnium</i>. A hundred years later the + illustrious Leibnitz pronounced it a worthy task to perfect and amend + Alsted's book. What was wanting to the excellent man, he said, was + neither labour nor judgment, but material, and the good fortune of + such days as ours. And Leibnitz wrote a paper of suggestions for its + extension and improvement.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id= + "FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class= + "fnanchor">[94]</a> Alsted's Encyclopædia is of course written in + Latin, and he prefixes to it by way of motto the celebrated lines in + which Lucretius declares that nothing is sweeter than to dwell apart + in the serene temples of the wise. Though he informs us in the preface + that his object was to trace the outlines of the great "latifundium + regni philosophici" in a single syntagma, yet he really does no more + than arrange a number of separate treatises or manuals, and even + dictionaries, within the limits of a couple of folios. As is natural + to the spirit of the age in which he wrote, great predominance is + given to the verbal sciences of grammar, rhetoric, and formal logic, + and a verbal or logical division regulates the distribution of the + matter, rather than a scientific regard for its objective + relations.</p> + + <p>For the true parentage, however, of the Encyclopædia of Diderot and + D'Alembert, it is unnecessary to prolong this list. It was Francis + Bacon's idea of the systematic classification of knowledge which + inspired Diderot, and guided his hand throughout. "If we emerge from + this vast operation," he wrote in the Prospectus, "our principal debt + will be to the chancellor Bacon, who sketched the plan of a universal + dictionary of sciences and arts at a time when there were not, so to + say, either arts or sciences." This sense of profound and devoted + obligation was shared by D'Alembert, and was expressed a hundred times + in the course of the work. No more striking panegyric has ever been + passed upon our immortal countryman than is to be found in the + Preliminary Discourse.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id= + "FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class= + "fnanchor">[95]</a> The French Encyclopædia was the direct fruit of + Bacon's magnificent conceptions. And if the efficient origin of the + Encyclopædia was English, so did the occasion rise in England + also.</p> + + <p>In 1727 Ephraim Chambers, a Westmoreland Quaker, published in + London two folios, entitled, a Cyclopædia or Universal Dictionary of + the Arts and Sciences. The idea of it was broad and excellent. "Our + view," says Chambers, "was to consider the several matters, not only + in themselves, but relatively, or as they respect each other; both to + treat them as so many wholes, and as so many parts of some greater + whole." The compiler lacked the grasp necessary to realise this + laudable purpose. The book has, however, the merit of conciseness, and + is a singular monument of literary industry, for it was entirely + compiled by Chambers himself. It had a great success, and though its + price was high (four guineas), it ran through five editions in + eighteen years. On the whole, however, it is meagre, and more like a + dictionary than an encyclopædia, such as Alsted's for instance.</p> + + <p>Some fifteen years after the publication of Chambers's Cyclopædia, + an Englishman (Mills) and a German (Sellius) went to Le Breton with a + project for its translation into French. The bookseller obtained the + requisite privilege from the government, but he obtained it for + himself, and not for the projectors. This trick led to a quarrel, and + before it was settled the German died and the Englishman returned to + his own country. They left the translation behind them duly + executed.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> Le Breton then carried the + undertaking to a certain abbé, Gua de Malves. Gua de Malves (<i>b.</i> + 1712) seems to have been a man of a busy and ingenious mind. He was + the translator of Berkeley's <i>Hylas and Philonous</i>, of Anson's + Voyages, and of various English tracts on currency and political + economy. It is said that he first suggested the idea of a cyclopædia + on a fuller plan,<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id= + "FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class= + "fnanchor">[97]</a> but we have no evidence of this. In any case, the + project made no advance in his hands. The embarrassed bookseller next + applied to Diderot, who was then much in need of work that should + bring him bread. His fertile and energetic intelligence transformed + the scheme. By an admirable intuition, he divined the opportunity + which would be given by the encyclopædic form, of gathering up into a + whole all that new thought and modern knowledge, which existed as yet + in unsystematic and uninterpreted fragments. His enthusiasm fired Le + Breton. It was resolved to make Chambers's work a mere starting-point + for a new enterprise of far wider scope.</p> + + <p>"The old and learned D'Aguesseau," says Michelet, "notwithstanding + the pitiable, the wretched sides of his character, had two lofty + sides, his reform of the laws, and a personal passion, the taste and + urgent need of universality, a certain encyclopædic sense. A young man + came to him one day, a man of letters living by his pen, and somewhat + under a cloud for one or two hazardous books that lack of bread had + driven him to write. Yet this stranger of dubious repute wrought a + miracle. With bewilderment the old sage listened to him unrolling the + gigantic scheme of a book that should be all books. On his lips, + sciences were light and life. It was more than speech, it was + creation. One would have said that he had made these sciences, and was + still at work, adding, extending, fertilising, ever engendering. The + effect was incredible. D'Aguesseau, a moment above himself, forgot the + old man, received the infection of genius, and became great with the + greatness of the other. He had faith in the young man, and protected + the Encyclopædia."<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id= + "FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class= + "fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + + <p>A fresh privilege was procured (Jan. 21, 1746), and as Le Breton's + capital was insufficient for a project of this magnitude, he invited + three other booksellers to join him, retaining a half share for + himself, and allotting the other moiety to them. As Le Breton was not + strong enough to bear the material burdens of producing a work on so + gigantic a scale as was now proposed, so Diderot felt himself unequal + to the task of arranging and supervising every department of a book + that was to include the whole circle of the sciences. He was not + skilled enough in mathematics, nor in physics, which were then for the + most part mathematically conceived. For that province, he associated + with himself as an editorial colleague one of the most conspicuous and + active members of the philosophical party. Of this eminent man, whose + relations with Diderot were for some years so intimate, it is proper + that we should say something.</p> + + <p>D'Alembert was the natural son of Madame de Tencin, by whom he had + been barbarously exposed immediately after his birth. "The true + ancestors of a man of genius," says Condorcet finely upon this + circumstance, "are the masters who have gone before him, and his true + descendants are disciples that are worthy of him." He was discovered + on a November night in the year 1717, by the beadle, in a nearly dying + condition on the steps of the church of St. John the Round, from which + he afterwards took his Christian name. An honest woman of the common + people, with that personal devotion which is less rare among the poor + than among the rich, took charge of the foundling. The father, who was + an officer of artillery and brother of Destouches, the author of some + poor comedies, by and by advanced the small sums required to pay for + the boy's schooling. D'Alembert proved a brilliant student. Unlike + nearly every other member of the encyclopædic party, he was a pupil + not of the Jesuits but of their rivals. The Jansenists recognised the + keenness and force of their pupil, and hoped that they had discovered + a new Pascal. But he was less docile than his great predecessor in + their ranks. When his studies were completed, he devoted himself to + geometry, for which he had a passion that nothing could extinguish. + For the old monastic vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, he + adopted the manlier substitute of poverty, truth, and liberty—the + worthy device of every man of letters. When he awoke in the morning, + he thought with delight of the work that had been begun the previous + day and would occupy the day before him. In the necessary intervals of + his meditations, he recalled the lively pleasure that he felt at the + play: at the play between the acts, he thought of the still greater + pleasure that was promised to him by the work of the morrow. His + mathematical labours led to valuable results in the principles of + equilibrium and the movement of fluids, in a new calculus, and in a + new solution of the problem of the precession of the + equinoxes.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + + <p>These contributions to what was then the most popular of the + sciences brought him fame, and fame brought him its usual + distractions. As soon as a writer has shown himself the possessor of + gifts that may be of value to society, then society straightway sets + to work to seduce and hinder him from diligently exercising them. + D'Alembert resisted these influences steadfastly. His means were very + limited, yet he could never be induced to increase them at the cost + either of his social independence or of his scientific pursuits. He + lived for forty years under the humble roof of the poor woman who had + treated him as a son. "You will never be anything better than a + philosopher," she used to cry reproachfully, "and what is a + philosopher? 'Tis a madman who torments himself all his life, that + people may talk about him when he is dead." D'Alembert zealously + adhered to his destination. Frederick the Great vainly tempted him by + an offer of the succession to Maupertuis as president of the Academy + of Berlin. Although, however, he declined to accept the post, he + enjoyed all its authority and prerogative. Frederick always consulted + him in filling up vacancies and making appointments. It is a + magnanimous trait in D'Alembert's history that he should have procured + for Lagrange a position and livelihood at Berlin, warmly commending + him as a man of rare and superior genius, although Lagrange had + vigorously opposed some of his own mathematical theories. Ten years + after Frederick's offer, the other great potentate of the north, + Catherine of Russia, besought him to undertake the education of the + young grand duke, her son. But neither urgent flatteries and + solicitations under the imperial hand, nor the munificent offer of a + hundred thousand francs a year, availed to draw him away from his + independence and his friends. The great Frederick used to compare him + to one of those oriental monarchs, who cherish a strict seclusion in + order to enhance their importance and majesty. He did not refuse a + pension of some fifty pounds a year from Berlin, and the same amount + was bestowed upon him from the privy purse at Versailles. He received + a small annual sum in addition from the Academy.</p> + + <p>Though the mathematical sciences remained the objects of his + special study, D'Alembert was as free as the other great men of the + encyclopædic school from the narrowness of the pure specialist. He + naturally reminds us of the remarkable saying imputed to Leibnitz, + that he only attributed importance to science, because it enabled him + to speak with authority in philosophy and religion. His correspondence + with Voltaire, extending over the third quarter of the century, is the + most instructive record that we possess of the many-sided doings of + that busy time. His series of <i>éloges</i> on the academicians who + died between 1700 and 1772 is one of the most interesting works in the + department of literary history. He paid the keenest attention to the + great and difficult art of writing. Translations from Tacitus, Bacon, + and Addison, show his industry in a useful practice. A long collection + of synonyms bears witness to his fine discrimination in the use of + words. And the clearness, precision, and reserved energy of his own + prose mark the success of the pains that he took with style. He knew + the secret. Have lofty sentiments, he said, and your manner of writing + will be firm and noble.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id= + "FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class= + "fnanchor">[100]</a> Yet he did not ignore the other side and half of + the truth, which is expressed in the saying of another important + writer of that day—By taking trouble to speak with precision, one + gains the habit of thinking rightly (<i>Condillac</i>).</p> + + <p>Like so many others to whom literature owes much, D'Alembert was + all his life fighting against bad health. Like Voltaire and Rousseau, + he was born dying, and he remained delicate and valetudinarian to the + end. He had the mental infirmities belonging to his temperament. He + was restless, impatient, mobile, susceptible of irritation. When the + young Mademoiselle Phlipon, in after years famous as wife of the + virtuous Roland, was taken to a sitting of the Academy, she was + curious to see the author of the Preliminary Discourse to the + Encyclopædia, but his small face and sharp thin voice made her reflect + with some disappointment, that the writings of a philosopher are + better to know than his mask.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id= + "FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class= + "fnanchor">[101]</a> In everything except zeal for light and + emancipation, D'Alembert was the opposite of Diderot. Where Diderot + was exuberant, prodigal, and disordered, D'Alembert was a precisian. + Difference of temperament, however, did not prevent their friendship + from being for many years cordial and intimate. When the Encyclopædia + was planned, it was to D'Alembert, as we have said, that Diderot + turned for aid in the mathematical sciences, where his own knowledge + was not sufficiently full nor well grounded. They were in strong and + singular agreement in their idea of the proper place and function of + the man of letters. One of the most striking facts about their + alliance, and one of the most important facts in the history of the + Encyclopædia, is that henceforth the profession of letters became at + once definite and independent. Diderot and D'Alembert both of them + remained poor, but they were never hangers-on. They did not look to + patrons, nor did they bound their vision by Versailles. They were the + first to assert the lawful authority of the new priesthood. They + revolted deliberately and in set form against the old system of + suitorship and protection. "Happy are men of letters," wrote + D'Alembert, "if they recognise at last that the surest way of making + themselves respectable is to live united and almost shut up among + themselves; that by this union they will come, without any trouble, to + give the law to the rest of the nation in all affairs of taste and + philosophy; that the true esteem is that which is awarded by men who + are themselves worthy of esteem.... As if the art of instructing and + enlightening men were not, after the too rare art of good government, + the noblest portion and gift in human reach."<a name= + "FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> + + <p>This consciousness of the power and exaltation of their calling, + which men of letters now acquired, is much more than the superficial + fact which it may at first seem to be. It marked the rise of a new + teaching order and the supersession of the old. The highest moral + ideas now belonged no longer to the clergy, but to the writers; no + longer to official Catholicism, but to that fertilising medley of new + notions about human knowledge and human society which then went by the + name of philosophy. What is striking is that the ideas sown by + philosophy became eventually the source of higher life in Catholicism. + If the church of the revolution showed something that we may justly + admire, it was because the encyclopædic band had involuntarily and + inevitably imparted a measure of their own clearsightedness, + fortitude, moral energy, and spirit of social improvement, to a church + which was, when they began their work, an abominable burden on the + spiritual life of the nation. If the Catholicism of Chateaubriand, of + Lamennais, of Montalembert, was a different thing from the Catholicism + of a Dubois, or a Rohan, from the vile corruptions of the Jesuits and + the grovelling superstitions of the later Jansenists, it was the + execrated freethinkers whom the church and mankind had to thank for + the change. The most enlightened Catholic of to-day ought to admit + that Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, were the true reformers of his + creed. They supplied it with ideas which saved it from becoming + finally a curse to civilisation. It was no Christian prelate, but + Diderot who burst the bonds of a paralysing dogma by the magnificent + cry, <i>Détruisez ces enceintes qui rétrécissent vos idées! Elargissez + Dieu!</i><a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> We see the same + phenomenon in our own day. The Christian churches are assimilating as + rapidly as their formula will permit, the new light and the more + generous moral ideas and the higher spirituality of teachers who have + abandoned all churches, and who are systematically denounced as + enemies of the souls of men. <i>Sic vos non vobis mellificatis + apes!</i> These transformations of religion by leavening elements + contributed from a foreign doctrine, are the most interesting process + in the history of truth.</p> + + <p>The Encyclopædia became a powerful engine for aiding such a + transformation. Because it was this, and because it rallied all that + was then best in France round the standard of light and social hope, + we ought hardly to grudge time or pains to its history. For it was not + merely in the field of religious ideas that the Encyclopædists led + France in a new way. They affected the national life on every side, + pressing forward with enlightened principles in all the branches of + material and political organisation. Their union in a great + philosophical band gave an impressive significance to their work. The + collection within a single set of volumes of a body of new truths, + relating to so many of the main interests of men, invested the book + and its writers with an aspect of universality, of collective and + organic doctrine, which the writers themselves would without doubt + have disowned, and which it is easy to dissolve by tests of logic. But + the popular impression that the Encyclopædists constituted a single + body with a common doctrine and a common aim was practically sound. + Comte has pointed out with admirable clearness the merit of the + conception of an encyclopædic workshop.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id= + "FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class= + "fnanchor">[104]</a> It united the members of rival destructive + schools in a great constructive task. It furnished a rallying-point + for efforts otherwise the most divergent. Their influence was + precisely what it would have been, if popular impressions had been + literally true. Diderot and D'Alembert did their best to heighten this + feeling. They missed no occasion of fixing a sentiment of co-operation + and fellowship. They spoke of their dictionary as the transactions of + an Academy.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id= + "FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class= + "fnanchor">[105]</a> Each writer was answerable for his own + contribution, but he was in the position of a member of some learned + corporation. To every volume, until the great crisis of 1759, was + prefixed a list of those who had contributed to it. If a colleague + died, the public was informed of the loss that the work had sustained, + and his services were worthily commemorated in a formal + <i>éloge</i>.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id= + "FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class= + "fnanchor">[106]</a> Feuds, epigrams, and offences were not absent, + but on the whole there was steadfast and generous fraternity.</p> + + <p>As Voltaire eloquently said, officers of war by land and by sea, + magistrates, physicians who knew nature, men of letters whose taste + purified knowledge, geometers, physicists, all united in a work that + was as useful as it was laborious, without any view of interest, + without even seeking fame, as many of them concealed their names; + finally without any common understanding and agreement, and therefore + without anything of the spirit of party.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id= + "FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class= + "fnanchor">[107]</a> Turning over the pages on which the list of + writers is inscribed, we find in one place or another nearly every + name that has helped to make the literature of the time famous. + Montesquieu, who died in the beginning of 1755, left behind him the + unfinished fragment of an article on Taste, and it may be noticed in + passing that our good-natured Diderot was the only man of letters who + attended the remains of the illustrious writer to the grave.<a name= + "FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> The article itself, + though no more than a fragment, has all the charms of Montesquieu's + delightful style; it is serious without pedantry, graceful without + levity, and is rich in observations that are precise and pointed + without the vice of emphasis. The great Turgot, diligently solicitous + for the success of every enterprise that promised to improve human + happiness by adding to knowledge and spreading enlightenment, wrote + some of the most valuable articles that the work contained, and his + discussion of Endowments perhaps still remains the weightiest + contribution to that important subject. Oddly enough, he was one of + the very few writers who refused to sign his name to his + contributions.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id= + "FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class= + "fnanchor">[109]</a> His assistance only ceased when he perceived that + the scheme was being coloured by that spirit of sect, which he always + counted the worst enemy of the spirit of truth.<a name= + "FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> Jean Jacques Rousseau, + who had just won a singular reputation by his paradoxes on natural + equality and the corruptions of civilisation, furnished the articles + on music in the first half dozen volumes. They were not free from + mistakes, but his colleagues chivalrously defended him by the plea of + careless printing or indifferent copying.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" + id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class= + "fnanchor">[111]</a> The stately Buffon very early in the history of + the Encyclopædia sent them an article upon Nature, and the editors + made haste to announce to their subscribers the advent of so superb a + colleague.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id= + "FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class= + "fnanchor">[112]</a> The articles on natural history, however, were + left by Buffon in his usual majestic fashion to his faithful + lieutenant and squire-at-arms, Daubenton. And even his own article + seems not to have been printed. Before the eleventh volume appeared, + terrible storms had arisen, not a few of the shipmen had parted + company, and Buffon may well have been one of them. Certainly the + article on Nature, as it stands, can hardly be his.</p> + + <p>In the supplementary volumes, which appeared in 1776—ten years + after the completion of the original undertaking—two new labourers + came into the vineyard, whose names add fresh lustre and give still + more serious value to the work. One of these was the prince of the + physiologists of the eighteenth century, the great Haller, who + contributed an elaborate history of those who had been his + predecessors in unfolding the intricate mechanism of the human frame, + and analysing its marvels of complex function. The other was the + austere and generous Condorcet. Ever loyal to good causes, and + resolute against despairing of the human commonwealth, he began in the + pages of the Encyclopædia a career that was brilliant with good + promise and high hopes, and ended in the grim hall of the Convention + and a nobly tragic death amid the red storm of the Terror.</p> + + <p>Among the lesser stars in the encyclopædic firmament are some whose + names ought not to be wholly omitted. Forbonnais, one of the most + instructive economic writers of the century, contributed articles to + the early volumes, which were afterwards republished in his Elements + of Commerce.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id= + "FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class= + "fnanchor">[113]</a> The light-hearted Marmontel wrote cheerful + articles on Comedy, Eloges, Eclogues, Glory, and other matters of + literature and taste. Quesnai, the eminent founder of the economic + sect, dealt with two agricultural subjects, and reproduced both his + theoretical paradoxes, and his admirable practical maxims, on the + material prosperity of nations. Holbach, not yet author of the + memorable System of Nature, compiled a vast number of the articles on + chemistry and mineralogy, chiefly and avowedly from German sources, he + being the only writer of the band with a mastery of a language which + was at that moment hardly more essential to culture than Russian is + now. The name of Duclos should not be passed over, in the list of the + foremost men who helped to raise the encyclopædic monument. He was one + of the shrewdest and most vigorous intelligences of the time, being in + the front rank of men of the second order. His quality was coarse, but + this was only the effect of a thoroughly penetrating and masculine + understanding. His articles in the Encyclopædia (<i>Déclamation des + Anciens</i>, <i>Etiquette</i>, etc.) are not very remarkable; but the + reflections on conduct which he styled <i>Considérations sur les Mœurs + de ce Siécle</i> (1750), though rather hard in tone, abound in an + acuteness, a breadth, a soundness of perception that entitle the book + to the rare distinction, among the writings of moralists and social + observers, of still being worth reading. Morellet wrote upon some of + the subjects of theology, and his contributions are remarkable as + being the chief examples in the record of the encyclopædic body of a + distinctly and deliberately historic treatment of religion. "I let + people see," he wrote many years after, "that in such a collection as + the Encyclopædia we ought to treat the history and experience of the + dogmas and discipline of the Christian, exactly like those of the + religion of Brahma or Mahomet."<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id= + "FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class= + "fnanchor">[114]</a> This sage and philosophic principle enabled him + to write the article, Fils de Dieu (vol. vi.), without sliding into + Arian, Nestorian, Socinian, or other heretical view on that fantastic + theme. We need not linger over the names of other writers, who indeed + are now little more than mere shadows of names, such as La Condamine, + a scientific traveller of fame and merit in his day and generation; of + Du Marsais, the poverty-stricken and unlucky scholar who wrote + articles on grammar; of the President Des Brosses, who was unfortunate + enough to be in the right in a quarrel about money with Voltaire, and + who has since been better known to readers through the fury of the + provoked patriarch, than through his own meritorious contributions to + the early history of civilisation.</p> + + <p>The name of one faithful worker in the building of this new + Jerusalem ought not to be omitted, though his writings were <i>multa + non multum</i>. The Chevalier de Jaucourt (1704-1779), as his title + shows, was the younger son of a noble house. He studied at Geneva, + Cambridge, and Leyden, and published in 1734 a useful account of the + life and writings of Leibnitz. When the Encyclopædia was projected, + his services were at once secured, and he became its slave from the + beginning of A to the end of Z. He wrote articles in his own special + subjects of natural history and physical science, but he was always + ready to lend his help in other departments, in writing, rewriting, + reading, correcting, and all those other humbler necessities of + editorship of which the inconsiderate reader knows little and thinks + less. Jaucourt revelled in this drudgery. God made him for grinding + articles, said Diderot. For six or seven years, he wrote one day, + Jaucourt has been in the middle of half a dozen secretaries, reading, + dictating, slaving, for thirteen or fourteen hours a day, and he is + not tired of it even now. When he was told that the work must + positively be brought to an end, his countenance fell, and the + prospect of release from such happy bondage filled his heart with + desolation.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id= + "FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class= + "fnanchor">[115]</a> "If," says Diderot in the preface to the eighth + volume (1765), "we have raised a shout of joy like the sailor when he + espies land after a sombre night that has kept him midway between sky + and flood, it is to M. de Jaucourt that we are indebted for it. What + has he not done for us, especially in these latter times? With what + constancy has he not refused all the solicitations, whether of + friendship or of authority, that sought to take him away from us? + Never has sacrifice of repose, of health, of interest been more + absolute and more entire."<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id= + "FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class= + "fnanchor">[116]</a> These modest and unwearying helpers in good works + ought not to be wholly forgotten, in a commemoration of more + far-shining names.</p> + + <p>Besides those who were known to the conductors of the Encyclopædia, + was a host of unsought volunteers. "The further we proceed," the + editors announced in the preface to the sixth volume (1756), "the more + are we sensible of the increase both in matter and in number of those + who are good enough to second our efforts." They received many + articles on the same subject. They were constantly embarrassed by an + emulation which, however flattering as a testimony to their work, + obliged them to make a difficult choice, or to lose a good article, or + to sacrifice one of their regular contributors, or to offend some + influential newcomer. Every one who had a new idea in his head, or + what he thought a new idea, sent them an article upon it. Men who were + priests or pastors by profession and unbelievers in their hearts, sent + them sheaves of articles in which they permitted themselves the + delicious luxury of saying a little of what they thought. Women, too, + pressed into the great work. Unknown ladies volunteered sprightly + explanations of the technicalities of costume, from the falbala which + adorned the bottom of their skirts, up to that little knot of riband + in the hair, which had come to replace the old appalling edifice of + ten stories high, in hierarchic succession of duchess, solitary, + musketeer, crescent, firmament, tenth heaven, and mouse.<a name= + "FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> The oldest contributor + was Lenglet du Fresnoy, whose book on the Method of Studying History + is still known to those who have examined the development of men's + ideas about the relations of the present to the past. Lenglet was born + in 1674. The youngest of the band was Condorcet, who was born nearly + seventy years later (1743). One veteran, Morellet, who had been, the + schoolmate of Turgot and Loménie de Brienne, lived to think of many + things more urgent than Faith, Fils de Dieu, and Fundamentals. He + survived the Revolution, the Terror, the Empire, Waterloo, the + Restoration, and died in 1819, within sight of the Holy Alliance and + the Peterloo massacre. From the birth of Lenglet to the death of + Morellet—what an arc of the circle of western experience!</p> + + <p>No one will ask whether the keen eye, and stimulating word, and + helpful hand of Voltaire were wanting to an enterprise which was to + awaken men to new love of tolerance, enlightenment, charity, and + justice. Voltaire was playing the refractory courtier at Potsdam when + the first two volumes appeared. With characteristic vehemence, he + instantly pronounced it a work which should be the glory of France, + and the shame of its persecutors. Diderot and D'Alembert were raising + an immortal edifice, and he would gladly furnish them with a little + stone here or there, which they might find convenient to stuff into + some corner or crevice in the wall. He was incessant in his industry. + Unlike those feebler and more consequential spirits, the + <i>petits-maîtres</i> of thought, by whom editors are harassed and + hindered, this great writer was as willing to undertake small subjects + as large ones, and to submit to all the mutilations and modifications + which the exigencies of the work and the difficulties of its + conductors recommended to them.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id= + "FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class= + "fnanchor">[118]</a> As the structure progresses, his enthusiasm waxes + warmer. Diderot and his colleague are cutting their wings for a flight + to posterity. They are Atlas and Hercules bearing a world upon their + shoulders. It is the greatest work in the world; it is a superb + pyramid; its printing-office is the office for the instruction of the + human race; and so forth, in every phrase of stimulating sympathy and + energetic interest. Nor does his sympathy blind him to faults of + execution. Voltaire's good sense and sound judgment were as much at + the service of his friends in warning them of shortcomings, as in + eulogising what they achieved. And he had good faith enough to + complain to his friends, instead of complaining of them. In one place + he tells them, what is perfectly true, that their journeymen are far + too declamatory, and too much addicted to substitute vague and puerile + dissertations for that solid instruction which is what the reader of + an Encyclopædia seeks. In another he remonstrates against certain + frivolous affectations, and some of the coxcombries of literary + modishness. Everywhere he recommends them to insist on a firm and + distinct method in their contributors—etymologies, definitions, + examples, reasons, clearness, brevity. "You are badly seconded," he + writes; "there are bad soldiers in the army of a great + general."<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> "I am sorry to see that + the writer of the article <i>Hell</i> declares that hell was a point + in the doctrine of Moses; now by all the devils that is not true. Why + lie about it? Hell is an excellent thing, to be sure, but it is + evident that Moses did not know it. 'Tis this world that is + hell."<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> + + <p>D'Alembert in reply always admitted the blemishes for which the + patriarch and master reproached them, but urged various pleas in + extenuation. He explains that Diderot is not always the master, either + to reject or to prune the articles that are offered to him.<a name= + "FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> A writer who happened + to be useful for many excellent articles would insist as the price of + good work that they should find room for his bad work also; and so + forth. "No doubt we have bad articles in theology and metaphysics, but + with theologians for censors, and a privilege, I defy you to make them + any better. There are other articles that are less exposed to the + daylight, and in them all is repaired. Time will enable people to + distinguish what we have thought from what we have said."<a name= + "FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> This last is a bitter + and humiliating word, but before any man hastens to cast a stone, let + him first make sure that his own life is free from every trace of + hypocritical conformity and mendacious compliance. Condorcet seems to + make the only remark that is worth making, when he says that the true + shame and disgrace of these dissemblings lay not with the writers, + whose only other alternative was to leave the stagnation of opinion + undisturbed, but with the ecclesiastics and ministers whose tyranny + made dissimulation necessary. And the veil imposed by authority did + not really serve any purpose of concealment. Every reader was let into + the secret of the writer's true opinion of the old mysteries, by means + of a piquant phrase, an adroit parallel, a significant reference, an + equivocal word of dubious panegyric. Diderot openly explains this in + the pages of the Encyclopædia itself. "In all cases," he says, "where + a national prejudice would seem to deserve respect, the particular + article ought to set it respectfully forth, with its whole procession + of attractions and probabilities. But the edifice of mud ought to be + overthrown and an unprofitable heap of dust scattered to the wind, by + references to articles in which solid principles serve as a base for + the opposite truths. This way of undeceiving men operates promptly on + minds of the right stamp, and it operates infallibly and without any + troublesome consequences, secretly and without disturbance, on minds + of every description."<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id= + "FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class= + "fnanchor">[123]</a> "Our fanatics feel the blows," cried D'Alembert + complacently, "though they are sorely puzzled to tell from which side + they come."<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id= + "FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class= + "fnanchor">[124]</a></p> + + <p>It is one of the most deplorable things in the history of + literature to see a man endowed with Diderot's generous conceptions + and high social aims, forced to stoop to these odious economies. In + reading his Prospectus, and still more directly in his article,</p> + + <p><i>Encyclopédie</i>, we are struck by the beneficence and breadth + of the great designs which inspire and support him. The Encyclopædia, + it has been said, was no peaceful storehouse in which scholars and + thinkers of all kinds could survey the riches they had acquired; it + was a gigantic siege-engine and armoury of weapons of attack.<a name= + "FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> This is only true in a + limited sense of one part of the work, and that not the most important + part. Such a judgment is only possible for one who has not studied the + book itself, or else who is ignorant of the social requirements of + France at the time. We shall show this presently in detail. Meanwhile + it is enough to make two observations. The implements which the + circumstances of the time made it necessary to use as weapons of + attack, were equally fitted for the acquisition in a happier season of + those treasures of thought and knowledge which are the object of + disinterested research. And what is still more important, we have to + observe that it was the characteristic note and signal glory of the + French revolutionary school, to subordinate mere knowledge to the + practical work of raising society up from the corruption and paralysis + to which it had been brought by the double action of civil and + ecclesiastical authority. The efforts of the Encyclopædists were not + disinterested in the sense of being vague blows in the air. Their aim + was not theory but practice, not literature but life. The + Encyclopædists were no doubt all men of battle, and some of them were + hardly more than mere partisans.</p> + + <p>But Diderot at least had constantly in mind the great work which + remained after the battle should be won. He was profoundly conscious + that the mere accumulation of knowledge of the directly physical facts + of the universe would take men a very short way towards + reconstruction. And he struck the key-note in such admirable passages + as this: "One consideration especially that we ought never to lose + from sight is that, if we ever banish a man, or the thinking and + contemplative being, from above the surface of the earth, this + pathetic and sublime spectacle of nature becomes no more than a scene + of melancholy and silence. The universe is dumb; the darkness and + silence of the night take possession of it ...It is the presence of + man that gives its interest to the existence of other beings; and what + better object can we set before ourselves in the history of these + beings, than to accept such a consideration? Why shall we not + introduce man into our work in the same place which he holds in the + universe? Why shall we not make him a common centre? Is there in + infinite space any other point from which we can with greater + advantage draw those immense lines that we propose to extend to all + other points? What a vivid and softening reaction must result between + man and the beings by whom he is surrounded ...Man is the single term + from which we ought to set out, and to which we ought to trace all + back, if we would please, interest, touch, even in the most arid + reflections and the driest details. If you take away my own existence + and the happiness of my fellows, of what concern to me is all the rest + of nature.'<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id= + "FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class= + "fnanchor">[126]</a></p> + + <p>In this we hear the voice of the new time, as we do in his + exclamation that the perfection of an Encyclopædia is the work of + centuries; centuries had to elapse before the foundations could be + laid; centuries would have to elapse before its completion: "<i>mais à + la posérité, et</i> À L'ÊTRE QUI NE MEURT POINT!"<a name= + "FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> These exalted ideas + were not a substitute for arduous labour. In all that Diderot writes + upon his magnificent undertaking, we are struck by his singular union + of common sense with elevation, of simplicity with grasp, of + suppleness with strength, of modesty with hopeful confidence. On + occasions that would have tempted a man of less sincerity and less + seriousness to bombast and inflation, his sense of the unavoidable + imperfections of so vast a work always makes itself felt through his + pride in its lofty aim and beneficent design. The weight of the burden + steadied him, and the anxiety of the honest and laborious craftsman + mastered the impulses of rhetoric.</p> + + <p>Before going further into the general contents of the Encyclopædia, + we shall briefly describe the extraordinary succession of obstacles + and embarrassments against which its intrepid conductor was compelled + to fight his way. The project was fully conceived and its details + worked out between 1745 and 1748. The Encyclopedia was announced in + 1750, in a Prospectus of which Diderot was the author. At length in + 1751 the first volume of the work itself was given to the public, + followed by the second in January 1752. The clerical party at once + discerned what tremendous fortifications, with how deadly an armament, + were rising up in face of their camp. The Jesuits had always been + jealous of an enterprise in which they had not been invited to take a + part. They had expected at least to have the control of the articles + on theology. They now were bent on taking the work into their own + hands, and orthodoxy hastily set all the machinery of its ally, + authority, in vigorous motion.</p> + + <p>The first attack was indirect. An abbé de Prades sustained a + certain thesis in an official exercise at the Sorbonne, and Diderot + was suspected, without good reason, of being its true author. An + examination of its propositions was ordered. It was pronounced + pernicious, dangerous, and tending to deism, chiefly on account of + some too suggestive comparisons between the miraculous healings in the + New Testament, and those ascribed in the more ancient legend to + Æsculapius. Other grounds of vehement objection were found in the + writer's maintenance of the Lockian theory of the origin of our ideas. + To deny the innateness of ideas was roundly asserted to be materialism + and atheism. The abbé de Prades was condemned, and deprived of his + license (Jan 27, 1752). As he was known to be a friend of Diderot, and + was suspected of being the writer of articles on theology in the + Encyclopædia, the design of the Jesuit cabal in ruining De Prades was + to discredit the new undertaking, and to induce the government to + prohibit it. Their next step was to procure a pastoral from the + archbishop of Paris. This document not only condemned the heretical + propositions of De Prades, but referred in sombre terms to unnamed + works teeming with error and impiety. Every one understood the + reference, and among its effects was an extension of the vogue and + notoriety of the Encyclopædia.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id= + "FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class= + "fnanchor">[128]</a> The Jesuits were not allowed to retain a monopoly + of persecuting zeal, and the Jansenists refused to be left behind in + the race of hypocritical intrigue. The bishop of Auxerre, who belonged + to this party, followed his brother prelate of Paris in a more direct + attack, in which he included not only the Encyclopædia, but + Montesquieu and Buffon. De Prades took to flight. D'Alembert commended + him to Voltaire, then at Berlin. The king was absent, but Voltaire + gave royal protection to the fugitive until Frederick's return. De + Prades was then at once taken into favour and appointed reader to the + king. He proved but a poor martyr, however, for he afterwards + retracted his heresies, got a benefice, and was put into prison by + Frederick for giving information to his French countrymen during the + Seven Years' War.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id= + "FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class= + "fnanchor">[129]</a> Unfortunately neither orthodoxy nor heterodoxy + has any exclusive patent for monopoly of rascals.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile Diderot wrote on his behalf an energetic and dignified + reply to the aggressive pastoral. This apology is not such a + masterpiece of eloquence as the magnificent letter addressed by + Rousseau ten years later to the archbishop of Paris, after the + pastoral against Emilius. But Diderot's vindication of De Prades is + firm, moderate, and closely argumentative. The piece is worth turning + to in our own day, when great dignitaries of the churches too often + show the same ignorance, the same temerity, and the same reckless want + of charity, as the bishop of Auxerre showed a hundred and twenty years + ago. They resort to the very same fallacies by way of shield against + scientific truths or philosophical speculations that happen not to be + easily reconcilable with their official opinions. "I know nothing so + indecent," says Diderot, "and nothing so injurious to religion as + these vague declamations of theologians against reason. One would + suppose, to hear them, that men could only enter into the bosom of + Christianity as a herd of cattle enter into a stable; and that we must + renounce our common sense either to embrace our religion or to remain + in it ...Such principles as yours are made to frighten small souls; + everything alarms them, because they perceive clearly the consequences + of nothing; they set up connections among things which have nothing to + do with one another; they spy danger in any method of arguing which is + strange to them; they float at hazard between truths and prejudices + which they never distinguish, and to which they are equally attached; + and all their life is passed in crying out either miracle or impiety." + In an eloquent peroration, which is not more eloquent than it is + instructive, De Prades is made to turn round on his Jansenist censor, + and reproach him with the disturbance with which the intestine + rivalries of Jansenist and Jesuit had afflicted the faithful. "It is + the abominable testimony of your convulsions," he cries, "that has + overthrown the testimony of miracles. It is the fatuous audacity with + which your fanatics have confronted persecution, that has annihilated + the evidence of the martyrs. It is your declamations against sovereign + pontiffs, against bishops, against all the orders of the + ecclesiastical hierarchy, that have covered priest, altar, and creed + with opprobrium. If the pope, the bishops, the priests, the simple + faithful, the whole church, if its mysteries, its sacraments, its + temples, its ceremonies, have fallen into contempt, yours, yours, is + the handiwork."<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id= + "FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class= + "fnanchor">[130]</a></p> + + <p>Bourdaloue more than half a century before had taunted the + free-thinkers of his day with falseness and inconsistency in taking + sides with the Jansenists, whose superstitions they notoriously held + in open contempt. The motive for the alliance was tolerably obvious. + The Jansenists, apart from their theology, were above all else the + representatives of opposition to authority. It was for this that Lewis + XIV. counted them worse than atheists. The Jesuits, it has been well + said in keeping down their enemies by force, became the partisans of + absolute government, and upheld it on every occasion. The Jansenists, + after they had been crushed by violence, began to feel to what + excesses power might be brought. From being speculative enemies to + freedom as a theory, they became, through the education of + persecution, the partisans of freedom in practice. The quarrel of + Molinists and Jansenists, from a question of theology, grew into a + question of human liberty.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id= + "FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class= + "fnanchor">[131]</a></p> + + <p>Circumstances had now changed. The free-thinkers were becoming + strong enough to represent opposition to authority on their own + principles and in their own persons. Diderot's vigorous remonstrance + with the bishop of Auxerre incidentally marks for us the definite + rupture of philosophic sympathy for the Jansenist champions. "It is + your disputatiousness," he said, "which within the last forty years + has made far more unbelievers than all the productions of philosophy." + As we cannot too clearly realise, it was the flagrant social + incompetence of the church which brought what they called Philosophy, + that is to say Liberalism, into vogue and power. Locke's Essay had + been translated in 1700, but it had made no mark, and as late as 1725 + the first edition of the translation remained unsold. It was the + weakness and unsightly decrepitude of the ecclesiastics which opened + the way for the thinkers.</p> + + <p>This victory, however, was not yet. Diderot had still a dismal + wilderness to traverse. He was not without secret friends even in the + camp of his enemies.</p> + + <p>After his reply to Peré Berthier's attack on the Prospectus, he + received an anonymous letter to the effect that if he wished to avenge + himself on the Jesuits, there were both important documents and money + at his command. Diderot replied that he was in no want of money, and + that he had no time to spare for Jesuit documents.<a name= + "FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> He trusted to reason. + Neither reason nor eloquence availed against the credit at court of + the ecclesiastical cabal. The sale of the second volume of the + Encyclopædia was stopped by orders which Malesherbes was reluctantly + compelled to issue. A decree of the king's council (Feb. 7, 1752) + suppressed both volumes, as containing maxims hostile to the royal + authority and to religion. The publishers were forbidden to reprint + them, and the booksellers were forbidden to deliver any copies that + might still be in hand. The decree, however, contained no prohibition + of the continuance of the work. It was probably not meant to do + anything more serious than to pacify the Jesuits, and lend an apparent + justification to the officious pastorals of the great prelates. Some + even thought that the aim of the government was to forestall severer + proceedings on the part of the parliament of lawyers;<a name= + "FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> for corporations of + lawyers have seldom been less bigoted or obstructive than corporations + of churchmen. Nor were lawyers and priests the only foes. Even the + base and despicable jealousies of booksellers counted for something in + the storm.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id= + "FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class= + "fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + + <p>A curious triumph awaited the harassed Diderot.</p> + + <p>He was compelled, under pain of a second incarceration, to hand + over to the authorities all the papers, proof-sheets, and plates in + his possession. The Jesuit cabal supposed that if they could obtain + the materials for the future volumes, they could easily arrange and + manipulate them to suit their own purposes. Their ignorance and + presumption were speedily confounded. In taking Diderot's papers, they + had forgotten, as Grimm says, to take his head and his genius: they + had forgotten to ask him for a key to articles which, so far from + understanding, they with some confusion vainly strove even to + decipher. The government was obliged (May 1752) to appeal to Diderot + and D'Alembert to resume a work for which their enemies had thus + proved themselves incompetent. Yet, by one of the meannesses of + decaying authority, the decree of three months before was left + suspended over their heads.<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id= + "FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class= + "fnanchor">[135]</a></p> + + <p>The third volume of the Encyclopædia appeared in the autumn of + 1753. D'Alembert prefixed an introduction, vindicating himself and his + colleague with a manliness, a sincerity, a gravity, a fire, that are + admirable and touching. "What," he concluded, "can malignity + henceforth devise against two men of letters, trained long since by + their meditations to fear neither injustice nor poverty; who having + learnt by a long and mournful experience, not to despise, but to + mistrust and dread men, have the courage to love them, and the + prudence to flee them?... After having been the stormy and painful + occupation of the most precious years of our life, this work will + perhaps be the solace of its close. May it, when both we and our + enemies alike have ceased to exist, be a durable monument of the good + intention of the one, and the injustice of the other.... Let us + remember the fable of Bocalina: 'A traveller was disturbed by the + importunate chirrupings of the grasshoppers; he would fain have slain + them every one, but only got belated and missed his way; he need only + have fared peacefully on his road, and the grasshoppers would have + died of themselves before the end of a week.'"<a name= + "FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> A volume was now + produced in each year, until the autumn of 1757 and the issue of the + seventh volume. This brought the work down to Gyromancy and Gythiuin. + Then there arose storms and divisions which marked a memorable epoch + alike in the history of the book, in the life of Diderot and others, + and in the thought of the century. The progress of the work in + popularity during the five years between 1752 and 1757 had been steady + and unbroken. The original subscribers were barely two thousand. When + the fourth volume appeared, there were three thousand. The seventh + volume found nearly a thousand more.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id= + "FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class= + "fnanchor">[137]</a> Such prodigious success wrought the chagrin of + the party of superstition to fever heat. As each annual volume came + from the press and found a wider circle of readers than its + predecessor, their malice and irritation waxed a degree more intense. + They scattered malignant rumours abroad; they showered pamphlets; no + imputation was too odious or too ridiculous for them. Diderot, + D'Alembert, Voltaire, Rousseau, Buffon, were declared to have + organised a league of writers, with the deliberate purpose of + attacking the public tranquillity and overthrowing society. They were + denounced as heads of a formal conspiracy, a clandestine association, + a midnight band, united in a horrible community of pestilent opinions + and sombre interests.</p> + + <p>In the seventh volume an article appeared which made the ferment + angrier than it had ever been. D'Alembert had lately been the guest of + Voltaire at Ferney, whence he had made frequent visits to Geneva. In + his intercourse with the ministers of that famous city, he came to the + conclusion that their religious opinions were really Socinian, and + when he wrote the article on Geneva he stated this. He stated it in + such a way as to make their heterodox opinions a credit to Genevese + pastors, because he associated disbelief in the divinity of Jesus + Christ, in mysteries of faith, and in eternal punishment, with a + practical life of admirable simplicity, purity, and tolerance. Each + line of this eulogy on the Socinian preachers of Geneva, veiled a + burning and contemptuous reproach against the cruel and darkened + spirit of the churchmen in France. Jesuit and Jansenist, loose abbès + and debauched prelates, felt the quivering of the arrow in the quick, + as they read that the morals of the Genevese pastors were exemplary; + that they did not pass their lives in furious disputes upon + unintelligible points; that they brought no indecent and persecuting + accusation against one another before the civil magistrate. There was + gall and wormwood to the orthodox bigot in the harmless statement that + "Hell, which is one of the principal articles of our belief, has + ceased to be one with many of the ministers of Geneva; it would be, + according to them, a great insult to the divinity, to imagine that + this Being, so full of justice and goodness, is capable of punishing + our faults by an eternity of torment: they explain in as good a sense + as they can the formal passages of Scripture which are contrary to + their opinion, declaring that we ought never in the sacred books to + take anything literally, that seems to wound humanity and reason." And + we may be sure that D'Alembert was thinking less of the consistory and + the great council of Geneva, than of the priests and the parliament of + Paris, when he praised the Protestant pastors, not only for their + tolerance, but for confining themselves within their proper functions, + and for being the first to set an example of submission to the + magistrates and the laws. The intention of this elaborate and, + reasoned account of the creed and practice of a handful of preachers + in a heretical town, could not be mistaken by those at whom it was + directed. It produced in the black ranks of official orthodoxy fully + as angry a shock as its writer could have designed.</p> + + <p>The church had not yet, we must remember, borrowed the principles + of humanity and tolerance from atheists. It was not the comparatively + purified Christian doctrine of our own time with which the + Encyclopædists did battle, but an organised corporation, with + exceptional tribunals, with special material privileges, with dungeons + and chains at their disposal. We have to realise that official + religion was then a strange union of Byzantine decrepitude, with the + energetic ferocity of the Holy Office. Within five years of this + indirect plea of D'Alembert for tolerance and humanity, Calas was + murdered by the orthodoxy of Toulouse. Nearly ten years later (1766), + we find Lewis XV., with the steam of the Parc aux Cerfs about him, + rewarded by the loyal acclamations of a Parisian crowd, for descending + from his carriage as a priest passed bearing the sacrament, and + prostrating himself in the mud before the holy symbol.<a name= + "FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> In the same year the + youth La Barre was first tortured, then beheaded, then burnt, for some + presumed disrespect to the same holy symbol—then become the hateful + ensign of human degradation, of fanatical cruelty, of rancorous + superstition. Yet I should be sorry to be unjust. It is to be said + that even in these bad days when religion meant cruelty and cabal, the + one or two men who boldly withstood to the face the king and the + Pompadour for the vileness of their lives, were priests of the + church.</p> + + <p>D'Alembert's article hardly goes beyond what to us seem the axioms + of all men of sense. We must remember the time. Even members of the + philosophic party itself, like Grimm, thought the article misplaced + and hardy.<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id= + "FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class= + "fnanchor">[139]</a> The Genevese ministers indignantly repudiated the + compliment of Socinianism, and the eulogy of being rather less + irrational than their neighbours. Voltaire read and read again with + delight, and plied the writer with reiterated exhortations in every + key, not to allow himself to be driven from the great work by the + raging of the heathen and the vain imaginings of the people.<a name= + "FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> + + <p>While the storm seemed to be at its height, an incident occurred + which let loose a new flood of violent passion. Helvétius published + that memorable book in which he was thought to have told all the world + its own secret. His <i>De l'Esprit</i> came out in 1758.<a name= + "FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> It provoked a general + insurrection of public opinion. The devout and the heedless agreed in + denouncing it as scandalous, licentious, impious, and pregnant with + peril. The philosophic party felt that their ally had dealt a sore + blow to liberty of thought and the free expression of opinion. + "Philosophy," said Grimm, by philosophy, as I have said, meaning + Liberalism, "will long feel the effect of the rising of opinion which + this author has caused by his book; and for having described too + freely a morality that is bad and false in itself, M. Helvétius will + have to reproach himself with all the restraints that are now sure to + be imposed on the few men of lofty genius who still are left to us, + whose destiny was to enlighten their fellows, and to spread truth over + the earth."<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id= + "FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class= + "fnanchor">[142]</a></p> + + <p>At the beginning of 1759 the procureur-général laid an information + before the court against Helvétius's book, against half a dozen minor + publications, and finally against the Encyclopædia. The <i>De + l'Esprit</i> was alleged to be a mere abridgment of the Encyclopædia, + and the Encyclopædia was denounced as being the opprobrium of the + nation by its impious maxims and its hostility to morals and religion. + The court appointed nine commissaries to examine the seven volumes, + suspending their further sale or delivery in the meanwhile. When the + commissaries sent in their report a month later, the parliament was + dissatisfied with its tenour, and appointed four new examiners, two of + them being theologians and two of them lawyers. Before the new censors + had time to do their work, the Council of State interposed with an + arbitrary decree (March 1759) suppressing the privilege which had been + conceded in 1746; prohibiting the sale of the seven volumes already + printed, and the printing of any future volumes under pain of + exemplary punishment.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id= + "FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class= + "fnanchor">[143]</a> The motive for this intervention has never been + made plain. One view is that the king's government resented the action + of the law courts, and that the royal decree was only an episode in + the quarrel then raging between the crown and the parliaments. Another + opinion is that Malesherbes or</p> + + <p>Choiseul was anxious to please the dauphin and the Jesuit party at + Versailles. The most probable explanation is that the authorities were + eager to silence one at least of the three elements of opposition, the + Jansenists, the lawyers, and the philosophers,—who were then + distracting the realm. The two former were beyond their direct reach. + They threw themselves upon the foe who happened to be most + accessible.</p> + + <p>The government, however, had no intention of finally exterminating + an enemy who might at some future day happen to be a convenient ally. + They encouraged or repressed the philosophers according to the + political calculations of the moment, sometimes according to the + caprices of the king's mistress, or even a minister's mistress. When + the clergy braved the royal authority, the hardiest productions were + received with indulgence. If the government were reduced to satisfy + the clergy, then even the very commonplaces of the new philosophy + became ground for accusation. The Encyclopædia was naturally exposed + in a special degree to such alternations of favour and + suspicion.<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id= + "FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class= + "fnanchor">[144]</a> The crisis of 1759 furnishes a curious + illustration of this. As we have seen, in the spring of that year the + privilege was withdrawn from the four associated booksellers, and the + continuance of the work strictly prohibited. Yet the printing was not + suspended for a week. Fifty compositors were busily setting up a book + which the ordinance of the government had decisively forbidden under + heavy penalties.</p> + + <p>The same kind of connivance was practised to the advantage of other + branches of the opposition. Thirty years before this, the organ of the + Jansenist party was peremptorily suppressed. The police instituted a + rigorous search, and seized the very presses on which the Nouvelles + Ecclésiastiques was being printed. But the journal continued to + appear, and was circulated, just as regularly as before.<a name= + "FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></p> + + <p>The history of the policy of authority towards the Encyclopædia is + only one episode in the great lesson of the reign of Lewis XV. It was + long a common mistake to think of this king's system of government as + violent and tyrannical. In truth, its failure and confusion resulted + less from the arbitrariness of its procedure, than from the hopeless + absence of tenacity, conviction, and consistency in the substance and + direction of its objects. And this, again, was the result partly of + the complex and intractable nature of the opposition with which + successive ministers had to deal, and partly of the overpowering + strength of those Asiatic maxims of government which Richelieu and + Lewis XIV. had invested with such ruinous prestige. The impatience and + charlatanry of emotional or pseudo-scientific admirers of a personal + system blind them to the permanent truth, of which the succession of + the decrepitude of Lewis XV. to the strength of his great-grandfather, + and of the decrepitude of Napoleon III. to the strength of his uncle, + are only illustrations.</p> + + <p>The true interest of all these details about a mere book lies in + the immense significance of the movement of political ideas and forces + to which they belong. The true interest of all history lies in the + spectacle which it furnishes of the growth and dissolution, the shock + and the transformation, incessantly at work among the great groups of + human conceptions. The decree against the Encyclopædia marks the + central moment of a collision between two antagonistic conceptions + which disputed, and in France still dispute, with one another the + shaping and control of institutions. One of these ideas is the + exclusion of political authority from the sphere and function of + directing opinion; it implies the absolute secularisation of + government. The rival idea prompted the massacre of St. Bartholomew, + the dragonnades, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and all the + other acts of the same policy, which not only deprived France of + thousands of the most conscientious and most ingenious of her sons, + but warped and corrupted the integrity of the national conscience. It + is natural that we should feel anger at the arbitrary attempt to + arrest Diderot's courageous and enlightened undertaking. Yet in truth + it was only the customary inference from an accepted principle, that + it is the business or the right of governments to guide thought and + regulate its expression. The Jesuits acted on this theory, and + resorted to repressive power and the secular arm whenever they could. + The Jansenists repudiated the principle, but eagerly practised it + whenever the turn of intrigue gave them the chance.</p> + + <p>An extraordinary and unforeseen circumstance changed the external + bearings of this critical conflict of ideas. The conception of the + duties of the temporal authority in the spiritual sphere had been + associated hitherto with Catholic doctrine. The decay of that doctrine + was rapidly discrediting the conception allied with it. But the + movement was interrupted. And it was interrupted by a man who suddenly + stepped out from the ranks of the Encyclopædists themselves. Rousseau + from his solitary cottage at Montmorency (1758) fulminated the + celebrated letter to D'Alembert on Stage Plays. The article on Geneva + in the seventh volume of the Encyclopædia had not only praised the + pastors for their unbelief; it also assailed the time-honoured + doctrine of the churches that the theatre is an institution from hell + and an invention of devils. D'Alembert paid a compliment to his + patriarch and master at Ferney, as well as shot a bolt at his + ecclesiastical foes in Paris, by urging the people of Geneva to shake + off irrational prejudices and straightway to set up a playhouse. + Rousseau had long been brooding over certain private grievances of his + own against Diderot; the dreary story has been told by me before, and + happily need not be repeated.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id= + "FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class= + "fnanchor">[146]</a> He took the occasion of D'Alembert's mischievous + suggestion to his native Geneva, not merely to denounce the drama with + all the force and eloquence at his command, but formally to declare + the breach between himself and Diderot. From this moment he treated + the Holbachians—so he contemptuously styled the Encyclopædists—as + enemies of the human race and disseminators of the deadliest + poisons.</p> + + <p>This was no mere quarrel of rival authors. It marked a fundamental + divergence in thought, and proclaimed the beginning of a disastrous + reaction in the very heart of the school of illumination. Among the + most conspicuous elements of the reaction were these: the + subordination of reason to emotion; the displacement of industry, + science, energetic and many-sided ingenuity, by dreamy indolence; and + finally, what brings us back to our starting-point, the suppression of + opinions deemed to be anti-social by the secular arm. The old idea was + brought back in a new dress; the absolutist conception of the function + of authority, associated with a theistic doctrine. Unfortunately for + France, Rousseau's idea prospered, and ended by vanquishing its + antagonist. The reason is plain. Rousseau's idea exactly fitted in + with the political traditions and institutions of the country. It was + more easily and directly compatible than was the contending idea, with + that temper and set of men's minds which tradition and institutions + had fixed so disastrously deep in the national character.</p> + + <p>The crisis of 1758-59, then, is a date of the highest importance. + It marks a collision between the old principle of Lewis XIV., of the + Bartholomew Massacre, of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and + the new rationalistic principle of spiritual emancipation. The old + principle was decrepit, it was no longer able to maintain itself; the + hounds were furious, but their fury was toothless. Before the new + principle could achieve mastery, Rousseau had made mastery impossible. + Two men came into the world at this very moment, whom destiny made + incarnations of the discordant principles. Danton and Robespierre were + both born in 1759. Diderot seems to have had a biblical presentiment, + says Michelet. "We feel that he saw, beyond Rousseau, something + sinister, a spectre of the future. Diderot-Danton already looks in the + face of Rousseau-Robespierre."<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id= + "FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class= + "fnanchor">[147]</a></p> + + <p>A more vexatious incident now befell the all-daring, all-enduring + Diderot, than either the decree of the Council or the schism of the + heresiarch at Montmorency. D'Alembert declared his intention of + abandoning the work, and urged his colleague to do the same. His + letters to Voltaire show intelligibly enough how he brought himself to + this resolution. "I am worn out," he says, "with the affronts and + vexations of every kind that this work draws down upon us. The hateful + and even infamous satires which they print against us, and which are + not only tolerated, but protected, authorised, applauded, nay, + actually commanded by the people with power in their hands; the + sermons, or rather the tocsins that are rung against us at Versailles + in the presence of the king, <i>nemine reclamante</i>; the new + intolerable inquisition that they are bent on practising against the + Encyclopædia, by giving us new censors who are more absurd and more + intractable than could be found at Goa; all these reasons, joined to + some others, drive me to give up this accursed work once for all." He + cared nothing for libels or stinging pamphlets in themselves, but + libels permitted or ordered by those who could instantly have + suppressed them, were a different thing, especially when they vomited + forth the vilest personalities. He admitted that there were other + reasons why he was bent on retiring, and it would appear that one of + these reasons was dissatisfaction with the financial arrangements of + the booksellers.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id= + "FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class= + "fnanchor">[148]</a></p> + + <p>Voltaire for some time remonstrated against this retreat before the + hated <i>Infâme</i>. At length his opinion came round to D'Alembert's + reiterated assertions of the shame and baseness of men of letters + subjecting themselves to the humiliating yoke of ministers, priests, + and police. Voltaire wrote to Diderot, protesting that before all + things it was necessary to present a firm front to the foe; it would + be atrocious weakness to continue the work after D'Alembert had + quitted it; it was monstrous that such a genius as Diderot should make + himself the slave of booksellers and the victim of fanatics. Must this + dictionary, he asked, which is a hundred times more useful than + Bayle's, be fettered with the superstition which it should annihilate; + must they make terms with scoundrels who keep terms with none; could + the enemies of reason, the persecutors of philosophers, the assassins + of our kings, still dare to lift up their voices in such a century as + that? "Men are on the eve of a great revolution in the human mind, and + it is you to whom they are most of all indebted for it."<a name= + "FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a></p> + + <p>More than once Voltaire entreated Diderot to finish his work in a + foreign country where his hands would be free. "No," said Diderot in a + reply of pathetic energy; "to abandon the work is turning our back + upon the breach, and to do precisely what the villains who persecute + us desire. If you knew with what joy they have learnt D'Alembert's + desertion! It is not for us to wait until the government have punished + the brigands to whom they have given us up. Is it for us to complain, + when they associate with us in their insults men who are so much + better than ever we shall be? What ought we to do then? Do what + becomes men of courage,—despise our foes, follow them up, and take + advantage, as we have done, of the feebleness of our censors. If + D'Alembert resumes, and we complete our work, is not that vengeance + enough?... After all this, you will believe that I cling at any price + to the Encyclopædia, and you will be mistaken. My dear master, I am + over forty. I am tired out with tricks and shufflings. I cry from + morning till night for rest, rest; and scarcely a day passes when I am + not tempted to go and live in obscurity and die in peace in the depths + of my old country. There comes a time when all ashes are mingled. Then + what will it boot me to have been Voltaire or Diderot, or whether it + is your three syllables or my three syllables that survive? One must + work, one must be useful, one owes an account of one's gifts, + etcetera, etcetera. Be useful to men! Is it quite clear that one does + more than amuse them, and that there is much difference between the + philosopher and the flute-player? They listen to one or the other with + pleasure or disdain, and remain what they were. The Athenians were + never wickeder than in the time of Socrates, and perhaps all that they + owe to his existence is a crime the more. That there is more spleen + than good sense in all this, I admit—and back I go to the + Encyclopædia."<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id= + "FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class= + "fnanchor">[150]</a></p> + + <p>Thus for seven years the labour of conducting the vast enterprise + fell upon Diderot alone. He had not only to write articles upon the + most exhausting and various kinds of subjects; he had also to + distribute topics among his writers, to shape their manuscripts, to + correct proof-sheets, to supervise the preparation of the engravings, + to write the text explanatory of them, and all this amid constant + apprehension and alarm from the government and the police. He would + have been free from persecution at Lausanne or at Leyden. The two + great sovereigns of the north who thought it part of the trade of a + king to patronise the new philosophy, offered him shelter at + Petersburg or Berlin.<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id= + "FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class= + "fnanchor">[151]</a></p> + + <p>But how could he transport to the banks of the Neva or the Spree + his fifty skilled compositors, his crafty engravers on copper-plate, + and all the host of his industrial army? How could he find in those + half-barbarous lands the looms and engines and thousand cunning + implements and marvellous processes which he had under his eye and + ready to his hand in France? And so he held fast to his post on the + fifth floor of the house in the Rue Saint Benoît, a standing marvel to + the world of letters for all time.</p> + + <p>As his toil was drawing to a close, he suddenly received the most + mortifying of all the blows that were struck at him in the course of + his prolonged, hazardous, and tormenting adventure. After the + interruption in 1759, it was resolved to bring out the ten volumes + which were still wanting, in a single issue. Le Breton was entrusted + with the business of printing them. The manuscript was set in type, + Diderot corrected the proof-sheets, saw the revises, and returned each + sheet duly marked with his signature for the press. At this point the + nefarious operation of Le Breton began. He and his foreman took + possession of the sheets, and proceeded to retrench, cut out, and + suppress every passage, line, or phrase, that appeared to them to be + likely to provoke clamour or the anger of the government. They thus, + of their own brute authority, reduced most of the best articles to the + condition of fragments mutilated and despoiled of all that had been + most valuable in them. The miscreants did not even trouble themselves + to secure any appearance of order or continuity in these mangled + skeletons of articles. Their murderous work done, they sent the pages + to the press, and to make the mischief beyond remedy, they committed + all the original manuscripts and proof-sheets to the flames. One day, + when the printing was nearly completed (1764), Diderot having occasion + to consult an article under the letter S, found it entirely spoiled. + He stood confounded. An instant's thought revealed the printer's + atrocity. He eagerly turned to the articles on which he and his + subordinates had taken most pains, and found everywhere the same + ravages and disorder. "The discovery," says Grimm, "threw him into a + state of frenzy and despair which I shall never forget."<a name= + "FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> He wept tears of rage + and torment in the presence of the criminal himself, and before wife + and children and sympathising domestics. For weeks he could neither + eat nor sleep. "For years," he cried to Le Breton, "you have been + basely cheating me. You have massacred, or got a brute beast to + massacre, the work of twenty good men who have devoted to you their + time, their talents, their vigils, from love of right and truth, from + the simple hope of seeing their ideas given to the public, and reaping + from them a little consideration richly earned, which your injustice + and thanklessness have now stolen from them for ever.... You and your + book will be dragged through the mire; you will henceforth be cited as + a man who has been guilty of an act of treachery, an act of vile + hardihood, to which nothing that has ever happened in this world can + be compared. Then you will be able to judge your panic terror, and the + cowardly counsels of those barbarous Ostrogoths and stupid Vandals who + helped you in the havoc you have made."<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id= + "FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class= + "fnanchor">[153]</a></p> + + <p>Yet he remained undaunted to the very last. His first movement to + throw up the work, and denounce Le Breton's outrage to the subscribers + and the world, was controlled. His labour had lost its charm. The + monument was disfigured and defaced. He never forgot the horrible + chagrin, and he never forgave the ignoble author of it. But the last + stone was at length laid. In 1765 the subscribers received the + concluding ten volumes of letterpress. The eleven volumes of plates + were not completed until 1772. The copies bore Neufchâtel on the + title-page, and were distributed privately. The clergy in their + assembly at once levelled a decree at the new book. The parliament + quashed this, not from love of the book, but from hatred of the + clergy. The government, however, ordered all who possessed the + Encyclopædia to deliver it over forthwith to the police. Eventually + the copies were returned to their owners with some petty + curtailments.</p> + + <p>Voltaire has left us a vivacious picture of authority in grave + consultation over the great engine of destruction. With that we may + conclude our account of its strange eventful history.</p> + + <div class="blockquot"> + <p>A servant of Lewis xv. told me that one day the king his master + supping at Trianon with a small party, the talk happened to turn + first upon the chase, and next on gunpowder. Some one said that the + best powder was made of equal parts of saltpetre, of sulphur, and of + charcoal. The Duke de la Vallière, better informed, maintained that + to make good gunpowder you required one part of sulphur and one of + charcoal to five parts of saltpetre.</p> + + <p>"It is curious," said the Duke de Nivernois, "that we should amuse + ourselves every day in killing partridges at Versailles, and + sometimes in killing men or getting ourselves killed on the frontier, + without knowing exactly how the killing is done."</p> + + <p>"Alas," said Madame de Pompadour, "we are all reduced to that + about everything in the world: I don't know how they compound the + rouge that I put on my cheeks, and I should be vastly puzzled if they + were to ask me how they make my silk stockings."</p> + + <p>"'Tis a pity, then," said the Duke de la Vallière, "that his + Majesty should have confiscated our Encyclopædias, which cost us a + hundred pistoles apiece: we should soon find there an answer to all + our difficulties."</p> + + <p>The king justified the confiscation: he had been warned that + one-and-twenty folios, that were to be found on the dressing-tables + of all the ladies, were the most dangerous thing in all the world for + the kingdom of France; and he meant to find out for himself whether + this were true or not, before letting people read the book. When + supper was over, he sent three lackeys for the book, and they + returned each with a good deal of difficulty carrying seven + volumes.</p> + + <p>It was then seen from the article <i>Powder</i> that the Duke de + la Vallière was right; and then Madame de Pompadour learnt the + difference between the old rouge of Spain, with which the ladies of + Madrid coloured their faces, and the rouge of the ladies of Paris. + She knew that the Greek and Roman ladies were painted with the purple + that came from the <i>murex</i>, and that therefore our scarlet is + the purple of the ancients; that there was more saffron in the rouge + of Spain, and more cochineal in that of France.</p> + + <p>She saw how they made her stockings by loom; and the machine + transported her with amazement.</p> + + <p>Everyone threw himself on the volumes like the daughters of + Lycomedes on the ornaments of Ulysses; every one immediately found + all he sought. Those who were at law were surprised to see their + affair decided. The king read all about the rights of his crown. "But + upon my word," he said, "I can't tell why they spoke so ill of this + book." "Do you not see, sire, said the Duke de Nivernois, "it is + because the book is so good; people never cry out against what is + mediocre or common in anything. If women seek to throw ridicule on a + new arrival, she is sure to be prettier than they are."</p> + + <p>All this time they kept on turning over the leaves; and the Count + de C—— said aloud—"Sire, how happy you are, that under your reign men + should be found capable of understanding all the arts and + transmitting them to posterity. Everything is here, from the way to + make a pin down to the art of casting and pointing your guns; from + the infinitely little up to the infinitely great. Thank God for + having brought into the world in your kingdom the men who have done + such good work for the whole universe. Other nations must either buy + the Encyclopædia, or else they must pirate it. Take all my property + if you will, but give me back my Encyclopædia."</p> + + <p>"Yet they say," replied the king, "that there are many faults in + this work, necessary and admirable as it is."</p> + + <p>"Sire," said the Count de C——, "there were at your supper two + ragouts which were failures; we left them uneaten, and yet we had + excellent cheer. Would you have had them throw all the supper out of + the window because of those two ragouts?..."</p> + + <p>Envy and Ignorance did not count themselves beaten; the two + immortal sisters continued their cries, their cabals, their + persecutions. What happened? Foreigners brought out four editions of + this French book which in France was proscribed, and they gained + about 1,800,000 crowns.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id= + "FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class= + "fnanchor">[154]</a></p> + </div> + + <p>In a monotonous world it is a pity to spoil a striking effect, yet + one must be vigilant. It has escaped the attention of writers who have + reproduced this lively scene, that Madame de Pompadour was dead before + the volumes containing Powder and Rouge were born. The twenty-one + volumes were not published until 1765, and she died in the spring of + the previous year. But the substance of the story is probably true, + though Voltaire has only made a slip in a name.</p> + + <p>As to the reference with which Voltaire impatiently concludes, we + have to remember that the work was being printed at Geneva as it came + out in Paris. It was afterwards reprinted as a whole both at Geneva + (1777) and at Lausanne (1778). An edition appeared at Leghorn in 1770, + and another at Lucca in 1771. Immediately after the completion of the + Encyclopædia there began to appear volumes of selections from it. The + compilers of these anthologies (for instance of an <i>Esprit de + l'Encydopédie</i> published at Geneva in 1768) were free from all + intention of proselytising. They meant only to turn a more or less + honest penny by serving up in neat duodecimos the liveliest, most + curious, and most amusing pieces to be found in the immense mass of + the folios of the original.</p> + + <p>The Encyclopædia of Diderot, though not itself the most prodigious + achievement on which French booksellers may pride themselves, yet + inspired that achievement. In 1782 Panckoucke—a familiar name in the + correspondence of Voltaire and the Voltairean family—conceived the + plan of a Methodical Encyclopædia. This colossal work, which really + consists of a collection of special cyclopædias for each of the + special sciences, was not completed until 1832, and comprises one + hundred and sixty-six volumes of text, with a score more volumes of + plates. It has no unity of doctrine, no equal application of any set + of philosophic principles, and no definite social aim. The only + encyclopædia since 1772 with which I am acquainted, that is planned + with a view to the presentation of a general body of doctrine, is the + unfinished Encyclopédie Nuevelle of Pìerre Leroux and Jean Reynaud. + This work was intended to apply the socialistic and spiritualistic + ideas of its authors over the whole field of knowledge and + speculation. The result is that it furnishes only a series of + dissertations, and is not an encyclopædia in the ordinary + sense.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a></p> + + <p>The booksellers at first spoke of the Encyclopædia as an affair of + two million livres. It appeared, however that its cost did not go much + beyond one million one hundred and forty thousand livres. The gross + return was calculated to be nearly twice as much. The price to the + subscriber of the seven volumes up to 1757, of the ten volumes issued + in 1765, and of the eleven volumes of plates completed in 1772, + amounted to nine hundred and eighty livres,<a name="FNanchor_156_156" + id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class= + "fnanchor">[156]</a> or about forty-three pounds sterling of that + date, equivalent in value to more than three times the sum in money of + to-day.</p> + + <p>The payment received by Diderot is a little doubtful, and the terms + were evidently changed from time to time. His average salary, after + D'Alembert had quitted him, seems to have amounted to about three + thousand livres, or one hundred and thirty pounds sterling, per annum. + This coincides with Grimm's statement that the total sum received by + Diderot was sixty thousand livres, or about two thousand six hundred + pounds sterling.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id= + "FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class= + "fnanchor">[157]</a> And to think, cried Voltaire, when he heard of + Diderot's humble wage, that an army contractor makes twenty thousand + livres a day! Voltaire himself had made a profit of more than half a + million livres by a share in an army contract in the war of 1734, and + his yearly income derived from such gains and their prudent investment + was as high as seventy thousand livres, representing in value a sum + not far short of ten thousand pounds a year of our present money.</p> + + <p>II.</p> + + <p>All writers on the movement of illumination in France in the + eighteenth century, call our attention to the quick transformation, + which took place after the middle of the century, of a speculative or + philosophical agitation into a political or social one. Readers often + find some difficulty in understanding plainly how or why this + metamorphosis was brought about. The metaphysical question which men + were then so fond of discussing, whether matter can think, appears + very far removed indeed from the sphere of political conceptions. The + psychological question whether our ideas are innate, or are solely + given to us by experience through the sensations, may strike the + publicist as having the least possible to do with the type of a + government or the aims of a community. Yet it is really the + conclusions to which men come in this region, that determine the + quality of the civil sentiment and the significance of political + organisation. The theological doctors who persecuted De Prades for + suggestions of Locke's psychology, and for high treason against + Cartesianism, were guided by a right instinct of self-preservation. De + Maistre, by far the most acute and penetrating of the Catholic school, + was never more clear-sighted than when he made a vigorous and + deliberate onslaught upon Bacon, the centre of his movement against + revolutionary principles.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id= + "FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class= + "fnanchor">[158]</a></p> + + <p>As we have said before, the immediate force of speculative + literature hangs on practical opportuneness. It was not merely because + Bacon and Hobbes and Locke had written certain books, that the + Encyclopædists, who took up their philosophic succession, inevitably + became a powerful political party, and multiplied their adherents in + an increasing proportion as the years went on. From various + circumstances the attack acquired a significance and a weight in + France which it had never possessed in England. For one thing, + physical science had in the interval taken immense strides. This both + dwarfed the sovereignty of theology and theological metaphysics, and + indirectly disposed men's minds for non-theological theories of moral + as well as of physical phenomena. In France, again, the objects of the + attack were inelastic and unyielding. Political speculation in England + followed, and did not precede, political innovation and reform. In + France its light played round institutions which were too deeply + rooted in absolutism and privilege to be capable of substantial + modification. Deism was comparatively impotent against the Church of + England, first, because it was an intellectual movement, and not a + social one; second, because the constitutional doctrines of the church + were flexible. Deism in the hands of its French propagators became + connected with social liberalism, because the Catholic church in those + days was identified with all the ideas of repression. And the + tendencies of deism in France grew more violently destructive, not + only because religious superstition was grosser, but because that + superstition was incorporated in a strong and inexpansible social + structure.</p> + + <p>"It would be a mistake," wrote that sagacious and well-informed + observer, D'Argenson, so early as 1753, "to attribute the loss of + religion in France to the English philosophy, which has not gained + more than a hundred philosophers or so in Paris, instead of setting it + down to the hatred against the priests, which goes to the very last + extreme. All minds are turning to discontent and disobedience, and + everything is on the high road to a great revolution, both in religion + and in government. And it will be a very different thing to that rude + Reformation, a medley of superstition and freedom, which came to us + from Germany in the sixteenth century! As our nation and our century + are enlightened in so very different a fashion, they will go whither + they ought to go; they will banish every priest, all priesthood, all + revelation, all mystery." This, however, only represents the + destructive side of the vast change which D'Argenson then foresaw, + six-and-thirty years before its consummation. That change had also a + constructive side. If one of its elements was hate, another and more + important element was hope. This constructive and reforming spirit + which made its way in the intelligence of the leading men in France + from 1750 to 1789, was represented in the encyclopædic confederation, + and embodied in their forty folios. And, to return to our first point, + it was directly and inseparably associated with the philosophy of + Bacon and Locke. What is the connection between their speculations and + a vehement and energetic spirit of social reform? We have no space + here to do more than barely hint the line of answer.</p> + + <p>The broad features of the speculative revolution of which the + Encyclopædia was the outcome, lie on the surface of its pages and + cannot be mistaken. The transition from Descartes to Newton meant the + definite substitution of observation for hypothesis. The exaltation of + Bacon meant the advance from supernatural explanations to explanations + from experience. The acceptance and development of the Lockian + psychology meant the reference of our ideas to bodily sensations, and + led men by what they thought a tolerably direct path to the + identification of mind with functions of matter. We need not here + discuss the philosophical truth or adequateness of these ways of + considering the origin and nature of knowledge, or the composition of + human character. All that now concerns us is to mark their tendency. + That tendency clearly is to expel Magic as the decisive influence + among us, in favour of ordered relations of cause and effect, only to + be discovered by intelligent search. The universe began to be more + directly conceived as a group of phenomena that are capable of + rational and connected explanation. Then, the wider the area of law, + the greater is man's consciousness of his power of controlling forces, + and securing the results that he desires. Objective interests and + their conditions acquire an increasing preponderance in his mind. On + the other hand, as the limits of science expand, so do the limits of + nescience become more definite. The more we know of the universal + order, the more are we persuaded, however gradually and insensibly, + that certain matters which men believed themselves to know outside of + this phenomenal order, are in truth inaccessible by those instruments + of experience and observation to which we are indebted for other + knowledge. Hence, a natural inclination to devote our faculty to the + forces within our control, and to withdraw it from vain industry about + forces—if they be forces—which are beyond our control and beyond our + apprehension. Thus man becomes the centre of the world to himself, + nature his servant and minister, human society the field of his + interests and his exertions. The sensational psychology, again, + whether scientifically defensible or not, clearly tends to heighten + our idea of the power of education and institutions upon character. + The more vividly we realise the share of external impressions in + making men what they are, the more ready we shall be to concern + ourselves with external conditions and their improvement. The + introduction of the positive spirit into the observation of the facts + of society was not to be expected until the Cartesian philosophy, with + its reliance on inexplicable intuitions and its exaggeration of the + method of hypothesis, had been laid aside.</p> + + <p>Diderot struck a key-note of difference between the old Catholic + spirit and the new social spirit, between quietist superstition and + energetic science, in the casual sentence in his article on + alms-houses and hospitals: "<i>It would be far more important to work + at the prevention of misery, than to multiply places of refuge for the + miserable</i>."</p> + + <p>It is very easy to show that the Encyclopædists had not established + an impregnable scientific basis for their philosophy. Anybody can now + see that their metaphysic and psychology were imperfectly thought out. + The important thing is that their metaphysic and psychology were + calculated, notwithstanding all their superficialities, to inspire an + energetic social spirit, because they were pregnant with humanistic + sentiment. To represent the Encyclopædia as the gospel of negation and + denial is to omit four-fifths of its contents. Men may certainly, if + they please, describe it as merely negative work, for example, to + denounce such institutions as examination and punishment by Torture + (See <i>Question, Peine</i>), but if so, what gospel of affirmation + can bring better blessings?<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id= + "FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class= + "fnanchor">[159]</a> If the metaphysic of these writers had been a + thousandfold more superficial than it was, what mattered that, so long + as they had vision for every one of the great social improvements on + which the progress and even the very life of the nation depended? It + would be obviously unfair to say that reasoned interest in social + improvement is incompatible with a spiritualistic doctrine, but we are + justified in saying that energetic faith in possibilities of social + progress has been first reached through the philosophy of sensation + and experience.</p> + + <p>In describing the encyclopædic movement as being, among other + things, the development of political interest under the presiding + influence of a humanistic philosophy, we are using the name of + politics in its widest sense. The economic conditions of a country, + and the administration of its laws, are far more vitally related to + its well-being than the form of its government. The form of government + is indeed a question of the first importance, but then this is owing + in a paramount degree to the influence which it may have upon the + other two sets of elements in the national life. Form of government is + like the fashion of a man's clothes; it may fret or may comfort him, + may be imposing or mean, may react upon his spirits to elate or + depress them. In either case it is less intimately related to his + welfare than the state of his blood and tissues. In saying, then, that + the Encyclopædists began a political work, what is meant is that they + drew into the light of new ideas, groups of institutions, usages, and + arrangements which affected the real well-being and happiness of + France, as closely as nutrition affected the health and strength of an + individual Frenchman. It was the Encyclopædists who first stirred + opinion in France against the iniquities of colonial tyranny and the + abominations of the slave trade. They demonstrated the folly and + wastefulness and cruelty of a fiscal system that was eating the life + out of the land. They protested in season and out of season against + arrangements which made the administration of justice a matter of sale + and purchase. They lifted up a strong voice against the atrocious + barbarities of an antiquated penal code. It was this band of writers, + organised by a harassed man of letters, and not the nobles swarming + round Lewis XV., nor the churchmen singing masses, who first grasped + the great principle of modern society, the honour that is owed to + productive industry. They were vehement for the glories of peace, and + passionate against the brazen glories of war.<a name= + "FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p> + + <p>We are not to suppose that the Encyclopædia was the originating + organ of either new methods or new social ideas. The exalted and + peculiarly modern views about peace, for instance, were plainly + inspired from the writings of the Abbé Saint Pierre (1658-1743)—one of + the most original spirits of the century, who deserves to be + remembered among other good services as the inventor of the word + <i>bienfaisance</i>. Again, in the mass of the political articles we + feel the immense impulse that was given to sociological discussion by + the Esprit des Lois. Few questions are debated here, which Montesquieu + had not raised, and none are debated without reference to + Montesquieu's line of argument. The change of which we are conscious + in turning from the Esprit des Lois to the Encyclopædia is that + political ideas have been grasped as instruments. Philosophy has + become patriotism. The Encyclopædists advanced with grave solicitude + to the consideration of evils, to which the red-heeled parasites of + Versailles were insolently and incorrigibly blind.</p> + + <p>The articles on Agriculture, for example, are admirable alike for + the fulness and precision with which they expose the actual state of + France; for the clearness with which they trace its deplorable + inadequateness back to the true sources; and for the strong interest + and sympathy in the subject, which they both exhibit and inspire. If + now and again the touch is too idyllic, it was still a prodigious gain + to let the country know in a definite way that of the fifty million + arpents of cultivable land in the realm, more than one quarter lay + either unbroken or abandoned. And it was a prodigious gain to arouse + the attention of the general public to the causes of the forced + deterioration of French agriculture, namely, the restrictions on trade + in grain, the arbitrariness of the imposts, and the flight of the + population to the large towns. Then the demonstration, corroborated in + the pages of the Encyclopædia by the two patriotic vaunts of + contemporary English writers, of the stimulus given to agriculture by + our system of free exports, contained one of the most useful lessons + that the French had to learn.</p> + + <p>Again, there are some abuses which cannot be more effectively + attacked, than by a mere statement of the facts in the plainest and + least argumentative terms. The history of such an impost as the tax + upon salt (<i>Gabelle</i>), and a bold outline of the random and + incongruous fashions in which it was levied, were equivalent to a + formal indictment. It needed no rhetoric nor discussion to heighten + the harsh injustice of the rule that "persons who have changed + domicile are still taxed for a certain time in the seat of their + former abode, namely, farmers and labourers for one year, and all + other tax-payers for two years, provided the parish to which they have + removed is within the same district; and if otherwise, then farmers to + pay for two years, and other persons for three years" (<i>Taille</i>). + Thus a man under the given circumstances would have to pay double + taxes for three years as a penalty for changing his dwelling. We + already hear the murmur of the <i>cahiers</i> of five-and-twenty years + later in the account of the transports of joy with which the citizens + of Lisieux saw the <i>taille proportionelle</i> established (1718), + and how numerous other cities sent up prayers that the same blessing + might be conferred on them. "Reasons that it is not for us to divine, + caused the rejection of these demands; so hard is it to do a good act, + which everybody talks about, much more in order to seem to desire it, + than from any intention of really doing it.... To illustrate the + advantages of this plan, the impost of 1718 with all arrears for five + years was discharged in twelve months without needless cost or + dispute. By an extravagance more proper than any other to degrade + humanity, the common happiness made malcontents of all that class + whose prosperity depends on the misery of others,"—that is the + privileged class.<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id= + "FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class= + "fnanchor">[161]</a></p> + + <p>It is no innate factiousness, as flighty critics of French affairs + sometimes imply, that has made civil equality the passion of modern + France. The root of this passion is an undying memory of the curse + that was inflicted on its citizens, morally and materially, by the + fiscal inequalities of the old <i>régime</i>. The article, + <i>Privilegé</i>, urges the desirableness of inquiring into the + grounds of the vast multitude of fiscal exemptions, and of abolishing + all that were no longer associated with the performance of real and + useful service. "A bourgeois," says the writer, anticipating a cry + that was so soon to ring through the land, "a bourgeois in comfortable + circumstances, and who could himself pay half of the <i>taille</i> of + a whole parish, if it were imposed in its due proportion,—on payment + of the amount of his taxes for one or for two years, and often for + less; without birth, education, or talents, buys a place in a local + salt office, or some useless charge at court, or in the household of + some prince.... This man proceeds to enjoy in the public eye all the + exemptions possessed by the nobility and the high magistracy.... From + such an abuse of privileges spring two very considerable evils: the + poorer part of the citizens are always burdened beyond their strength, + though they are the most useful to the State, since this class is + composed of those who cultivate the land, and procure a subsistence + for the upper classes; the other evil is that privileges disgust + persons of education and talent with the idea of entering the + magistracy or other professions demanding labour and application, and + lead them to prefer small posts and paltry offices." And so forth, + with a gravity and moderation, that were then common in political + discussion in France. It gradually disappeared in 1789, when it was + found that the privileged orders, even at that time, in their + <i>cahiers</i> steadily demanded the maintenance of every one of their + most odious and iniquitous rights.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id= + "FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class= + "fnanchor">[162]</a></p> + + <p>When it is said, then, that the Encyclopædists deliberately + prepared the way for a political revolution, let us remember that what + they really did was to shed the light of rational discussion on such + practical grievances as even the most fatuous conservative in France + does not now dream of bringing back.</p> + + <p>Let us turn to two other of the most oppressive institutions that + then scourged France. First the <i>Corvée</i>, or feudal rule which + forced every unprivileged farmer and peasant in France to furnish so + many days' labour for the maintenance of the highways. Arthur Young + tells us, and the statement is confirmed by the Minutes of Turgot, + that this wasteful, cruel, and inefficient system was annually the + ruin of many hundreds of persons, and he mentions that no less than + three hundred farmers were reduced to beggary in filling up a single + vale in Lorraine.<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id= + "FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class= + "fnanchor">[163]</a> Under this all-important head, the Encyclopædia + has an article that does not merely add to the knowledge of its + readers by a history of the <i>corvées</i>, but proceeds to discuss, + as in a pamphlet or review article, the inconveniences of the + prevailing system, and presses schemes for avoiding them. Turgot had + not yet shown in practice the only right substitute. The article was + printed in 1754, and it was not until ten years later that this great + administrator, then become intendant of the Limousin, did away in his + district with compulsory personal service on the roads, and required + in its place a money payment assessed on the parishes.<a name= + "FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> The writer of the + article in the Encyclopædia does not anticipate this obviously + rational plan, but he paints a striking picture of the thousand abuses + and miserable inefficiencies of the practice of <i>corvées</i>, and + his piece illustrates that vigorous discussion of social subjects + which the Encyclopædia stimulated. It is worth remarking that this + writer was a sub-engineer of roads and bridges in the generality of + Tours. The case is one example among others of the importance of the + Encyclopædia as a centre, to which active-minded men of all kinds + might bring the fruits of their thought and observation.</p> + + <p>Next to the <i>corvées</i>, the monster grievance of the third + estate was the system of enrolments for the militia. The article, + <i>Milice</i>, is very short, but it goes to the root of the matter. + The only son of a cultivator of moderate means, forced to quit the + paternal roof at the moment when his labour might recompense his + straitened parents for the expense of having brought him up, is justly + described as an irreparable loss. The writer, after hinting that it + would be well if such an institution were wholly dispensed with, urges + that at least its object might be more effectively and more humanely + reached by allowing each parish to provide its due contingent of men + in its own way. This change was indeed already (1765) being carried + out by Turgot in the Limousin, and with excellent results. The writer + concludes with the highly civilised remark, that we ought to weigh + whether the good of the rural districts, the culture of the land, and + population, are not preferable objects to the glory of setting + enormous hosts of armed men on foot after the example of Xerxes. Alas, + it is one of the discouragements of the student of history, that he + often finds highly civilised remarks made one or two or twenty + centuries ago, which are just as useful and just as little heeded now + as they were when they were made.</p> + + <p>The same reflection occurs to one in reading the article on + Foundations. As I have already said, this carefully written and + sagacious piece still remains the most masterly discussion we possess + of the advantages and disadvantages of endowments. Even now, and in + our own country, the most fertile and beneficent work to which a + statesman of energy and courage could devote himself, would be an + application of the wise principles which were established in the + Encyclopædia. Passing from <i>Fondation</i> to <i>Foire</i> in the + same volume, also from the pen of Turgot, we see an almost equally + striking example of the economic wisdom of the encyclopædic school. + The provincial fairs, with their privileges, exemptions, exclusions, + were a conspicuous case of the mischief done by that "mania for + regulating and guiding everything," which then infected commercial + administration, and interrupted the natural course of trade by + imbecile vexations of police. Another vicious example of the same + principle is exposed in the article on <i>Maîtrises</i>. This must + have convinced every reader capable of rising above "the holy laws of + prejudice," how bad faith, idleness, disorder, and all the other evils + of monopoly were fomented by a system of jealous trade-guilds, + carrying compulsory subdivision and restriction of all kinds of + skilled labour down to a degree that would have been laughable enough, + if it had only been less destructive.</p> + + <p>One of the loudest cries in 1789 was for the destruction of game + and the great manorial chases or capitaineries. "By game," says Arthur + Young, "must be understood whole droves of wild boars, and herds of + deer not confined by any wall or pale, but wandering at pleasure over + the whole country to the destruction of crops, and to the peopling of + the galleys by the wretched peasants who presumed to kill them, in + order to save that food which was to support their helpless + children."<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id= + "FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class= + "fnanchor">[165]</a> In the same place he enumerates the outrageous + and incredible rules which ruined agriculture over hundreds of leagues + of country, in order that the seigneurs might have sport. In most + matters the seven volumes of the Encyclopædia which were printed + before 1757, are more reserved than the ten volumes which were + conducted by Diderot alone after the great schism of 1759. On the + subject of sport, however, the writer of the article <i>Chasse</i> + enumerates all the considerations which a patriotic minister could + desire to see impressed on public opinion. Some of the paragraphs + startle us by their directness and freedom of complaint, and even a + very cool reader would still be likely to feel some of the wrath that + was stirred in the breast of our shrewd and sober Arthur Young a + generation later (1787). "Go to the residence of these great nobles," + he says, "wherever it may be, and you would probably find them in the + midst of a forest, very well peopled with deer, wild boar, and wolves. + Oh! if I were the legislator of France for a day, I would make such + great lords skip!"<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id= + "FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class= + "fnanchor">[166]</a></p> + + <p>This brings us to what is perhaps the most striking of all the + guiding sentiments of the book. Virgil's Georgics have been described + as a glorification of labour. The Encyclopædia seems inspired by the + same motive, the same earnest enthusiasm for all the purposes, + interests, and details of productive industry. Diderot, as has been + justly said, himself the son of a cutler, might well bring handiwork + into honour; assuredly he had inherited from his good father's + workshop sympathy and regard for skill and labour.<a name= + "FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> The illustrative plates + to which Diderot gave the most laborious attention for a period of + almost thirty years, are not only remarkable for their copiousness, + their clearness, their finish—and in all these respects they are truly + admirable—but they strike us even more by the semi-poetic feeling that + transforms the mere representation of a process into an animated scene + of human life, stirring the sympathy and touching the imagination of + the onlooker as by something dramatic. The bustle, the dexterity, the + alert force of the iron foundry, the glass furnace, the gunpowder + mill, the silk calendry are as skilfully reproduced as the more + tranquil toil of the dairywoman, the embroiderer, the confectioner, + the setter of types, the compounder of drugs, the chaser of metals. + The drawings recall that eager and personal interest in his work, that + nimble complacency, which is so charming a trait in the best French + craftsman. The animation of these great folios of plates is + prodigious. They affect one like looking down on the world of Paris + from the heights of Montmartre. To turn over volume after volume is + like watching a splendid panorama of all the busy life of the time. + Minute care is as striking in them as their comprehensiveness. The + smallest tool, the knot in a thread, the ply in a cord, the curve of + wrist or finger, each has special and proper delineation. The reader + smiles at a complete and elaborate set of tailor's patterns. He + shudders as he comes upon the knives, the probes, the bandages, the + posture, of the wretch about to undergo the most dangerous operation + in surgery. In all the chief departments of industry there are plates + good enough to serve for practical specifications and working + drawings. It has often been told how Diderot himself used to visit the + workshops, to watch the men at work, to put a thousand questions, to + sit down at the loom, to have the machine pulled to pieces and set + together again before his eyes, to slave like any apprentice, and to + do bad work, in order, as he says, to be able to instruct others how + to do good work. That was no movement of empty rhetoric which made him + cry out for the Encyclopædia to become a sanctuary in which human + knowledge might find shelter against time and revolutions. He actually + took the pains to make it a complete storehouse of the arts, so + perfect in detail that they could be at once reconstructed after a + deluge in which everything had perished save a single copy of the + Encyclopædia. Such details, said D'Alembert, will perhaps seem + extremely out of place to certain scholars, for whom a long + dissertation on the cookery or the hair-dressing of the ancients, or + on the site of a ruined hamlet, or on the baptismal name of some + obscure writer of the tenth century, would be vastly interesting and + precious. He suggests that details of economy, and of arts and trades, + have as good a right to a place as the scholastic philosophy, or some + system of rhetoric still in use, or the mysteries of heraldry. Yet + none even of these had been passed over.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id= + "FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class= + "fnanchor">[168]</a></p> + + <p>The importance given to physical science and the practical arts, in + the Encyclopædia, is the sign and exemplification of two elements of + the great modern transition. It marks both a social and an + intellectual revolution. We see in it, first, the distinct association + with pacific labour, of honour and a kind of glory, such as had + hitherto been reserved for knights and friars, for war and asceticism, + for fighting and praying.</p> + + <p>It is the definite recognition of the basis of a new society. If + the nobles and the churchmen could only have understood, as clearly as + Diderot and D'Alembert understood, the irresistible forces that were + making against the maintenance of the worn-out system, all the worst + of the evils attending the great political changes of the last decade + of the century would have been avoided. That the nobles and churchmen + would not see this, was the fatality of the Revolution. We have a + glimpse of the profound transformation of social ideas which was at + work in the five or six lines of the article, <i>Journalier</i>. + "Journeyman—a workman who labours with his hands, and is paid + day-wages. This description of men forms the great part of a nation; + it is their lot which a good government ought to keep principally in + sight. If the journeyman is miserable, the nation is miserable." And + again: "The net profit of a society, if equally distributed, may be + preferable to a larger profit, if it be distributed unequally, and + have the effect of dividing the people into two classes, one gorged + with riches, the other perishing in misery" (<i>Homme</i>).</p> + + <p>The second element in the modern transition is only the + intellectual side of the first. It is the substitution of interest in + things for interest in words, of positive knowledge for verbal + disputation. Few now dispute the services of the schoolmen to the + intellectual development of Europe. But conditions had fully ripened, + and it was time to complete the movement of Bacon and Descartes by + finally placing verbal analysis, verbal definition, verbal inferences, + in their right position. Form was no longer to take precedence of + matter. The Encyclopædists are never weary of contrasting their own + age of practical rationalism with "the pusillanimous ages of taste." A + great collection of books is described in one article + (<i>Bibliomanie</i>) as a collection of material for the history of + the blindness and infatuation of mankind. The gatherer of books is + compared to one who should place five or six gems under a pile of + common pebbles. If a man of sense buys a work in a dozen volumes, and + finds that only half a dozen pages are worth reading, he does well to + cut out the half dozen pages and fling the rest into the fire. + Finally, it would be no unbecoming device for every great library to + have inscribed over its portal, The Bedlam of the Human Mind. At this + point one might perhaps suggest to D'Alembert that study of the + pathology of the mind is no bad means of surprising the secrets of + humanity and life. For his hour, however, the need was not knowledge + of the thoughts, dreams, and mental methods of the past, but better + mastery of the aids and instruments of active life. In any case + Diderot was right when he expressed his preference for the essay over + the treatise: "an essay where the writer throws me one or two ideas of + genius, almost isolated, rather than a treatise where the precious + gems are stifled beneath a mass of iteration.... A man had only one + idea; the idea demanded no more than a phrase; this phrase, full of + marrow and meaning, would have been seized with relish; washed out in + a deluge of words, it wearies and disgusts."<a name="FNanchor_169_169" + id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class= + "fnanchor">[169]</a> Rousseau himself does not surpass Diderot or + D'Alembert in contempt for mere bookishness. We wholly misjudge the + Encyclopædia, if we treat it either as literature or philosophy.</p> + + <p>The attitude of the Encyclopædia to religion is almost universally + misrepresented in the common accounts. We are always told that the aim + of its conductors was to preach dogmatic atheism. Such a statement + could not be made by any one who had read the theological articles, + whether the more or the less important among them. Whether Diderot had + himself advanced definitely to the dogma of atheism at this time or + not, it is certain that the Encyclopædia represents only the phase of + rationalistic scepticism. That the criticism was destructive of much + of the fabric of popular belief, and was designed to destroy it, is + undeniable, as it was inevitable. But when the excesses of '93 and + '94—and all the revolutionary excesses put together are but a drop + compared with the oceans of bloodshed with which Catholicism and + absolutism have made history crimson—when the crimes and confusion of + the end of the century are traced by historians to the materialism and + atheism of the Encyclopædia, we can only say that such an account is a + misrepresentation. The materialism and atheism are not there. The + religious attack was prompted and guided by the same social feeling + that inspired the economic articles. The priest was the enemy of + society, the patron of indolence, the hater of knowledge, the mutineer + against the civil laws, the unprofitable devourer of the national + substance, the persecutor. Sacerdotalism is the object of the + encyclopædic attack. To undermine this, it was necessary first to + establish the principle of toleration, because the priest claims to be + recognised as the exclusive possessor of saving doctrine. Second, it + was necessary to destroy the principle of miracle, because the priest + professes himself in his daily rites the consecrated instrument of + thaumaturgy. "Let a man," says Rosenkranz very truly, "turn over + hundreds of histories of church, of state, of literature, and in every + one of them he will read that the Encyclopædia spread abroad an + irreligious spirit. The accusation has only a relative truth, to the + extent that the Encyclopædia assailed the belief in miracles, and the + oppression of conscience supported by a priestly aristocracy."<a name= + "FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></p> + + <p>It must be admitted that no consistent and definite language is + adhered to from beginning to end. D'Alembert's prophecy that time + would disclose to people what the writers really thought, behind what + fear of the censorship compelled them to say, is only partially + fulfilled.</p> + + <p>The idea of miracle is sapped not by direct arguments, but by the + indirect influences of science, and the exposition of the successes of + scientific method. It was here that the Encyclopædia exerted really + destructive power, and it did so in the only way in which power of + that kind can be exerted either wisely or effectually. The miracle of + a divine revelation, of grace, of the mass, began to wear a different + look in men's eyes, as they learned more of the physical processes of + the universe. We should describe the work of the Encyclopædia as being + to make its readers lose their interest, rather than their belief, in + mysteries. This is the normal process of theological dissolution. It + unfolded a vast number of scientific conceptions in all branches of + human activity, a surprising series of acquisitions, a vivid panorama + of victories won by the ingenuity and travail of man. A contemplation + of the wonders that man had wrought for himself, replaced meditation + on the wonders that were alleged to have been wrought by the gods. The + latter were not so much denied by the plain reader, as they were + gradually left out of sight and forgotten. Nobody now cares to + disprove Jupiter and Juno, Satyrs and Hamadryads.</p> + + <p>Diderot constantly insists on the propriety, the importance, the + indispensableness of keeping the provinces of science and philosophy + apart from the province of theology. This separation is much sought in + our own day as a means of saving theology. Diderot designed it to save + philosophy. He felt that the distinct recognition of positive thought + as supreme within the widest limits then covered by it, would + ultimately lead to the banishment of theological thought to a region + of its own, too distant and too infertile for men to weary themselves + in pursuit of it. His conception was to supplant the old ways of + thinking and the old objects of intellectual interest by new ones. He + trusted to the intrinsic fitness and value of the new knowledge and + new views of human life, to displace the old. This marks him for a + constructive thinker. He replaced barren theological interests that + had outlived their time, by all those great groups of living and + fruitful interests which glow and sparkle in the volumes of the + Encyclopædia. Here was the effective damage that the Encyclopædia + inflicted on the church as the organ of a stationary superstition. + Some of the articles remind us on what a strange borderland France + stood in those days, between debasing credulity and wholesome light. + We are so sensible of the new air that breathes impalpably over the + book, that when the old theological fancies appear for form's sake, + and are solemnly marshalled in orthodox state, the contrast and the + incongruity are so marked that one is amused by what looks like a + subtle irony, mocking the censor under his very eyes. Who can help + smiling at the grave question, <i>Adam, le premier de tous les hommes, + a-t-il été philosophe?</i> Such disputes as whether it is proper to + baptize abortions, ceased to interest a public that had begun to + educate itself by discussions on the virtue of Inoculation.</p> + + <p>Of the gross defects in the execution of the Encyclopædia nobody + was so sensible as Diderot himself. He drew up a truly formidable list + of the departments where the work was badly done.<a name= + "FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> But when the blunders + and omissions in each subject were all counted, the value of the vast + grouping of the subjects was hardly diminished. The union of all these + secular acquisitions in a single colossal work invested them with + something imposing. Secular knowledge was made to present a massive + and sumptuous front. It was pictured before the curious eyes of that + generation as a great city of glittering palaces and stately mansions; + or else as an immense landscape, with mountains, plains, rocks, + waters, forests, animals, and a thousand objects, glorious and + beautiful in the sunlight. Theology became visibly a shrivelled thing. + Men grew to be conscious of the vastness of the universe. At the same + time and by the same process the Encyclopædia gave them a key to the + plan, a guiding thread in the immense labyrinth. The genealogical + tree, or classification of arts and sciences, which with a few + modifications was borrowed from Bacon and appeared at the end of the + Prospectus, is seen to be faulty and inadequate. It distributes the + various branches of knowledge with reference to faculties of the human + understanding, instead of grouping them according to their objective + relations to one another. This led to many awkward results, as when + the art of printing is placed by the side of orthography as a + subdivision of Logic, to which also is given the art of heraldry or + emblazonment. There is awkwardness too in dividing architecture into + three heads, and then placing civil architecture under national + jurisprudence, and naval architecture under social jurisprudence, + while under fine arts no kind of architecture has any place. But when + we have multiplied these objections to the uttermost, the effect of + the magnificence and vastness of the scheme remains exactly what it + was.</p> + + <p>Even more important than the exposition of human knowledge was the + exposition of the degrees by which it had been slowly reared. The + Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopædia, of which by far the greater + and more valuable portion was written by D'Alembert, contains a fine + survey of the progress of science, thought, and letters since the + revival of learning. It is a generous canonisation of the great heroes + of secular knowledge. It is rapid, but the contributions of Bacon, + Descartes, Newton, Locke, Leibnitz are thrown into a series that + penetrates the reader's mind with the idea of ordered growth and + measured progress. This excited a vivid hopefulness of interest, which + insensibly but most effectually pressed the sterile propositions of + dogmatic theology into a dim and squalid background. Nor was this all. + The Preliminary Discourse and the host of articles marshalled behind + it, showed that the triumphs of knowledge and true opinion had all + been gained on two conditions. The first of these conditions was a + firm disregard of authority; the second was an abstention from the + premature concoction of system. The reign of ignorance and prejudice + was made inveterate by deference to tradition: the reign of truth was + hindered by the artificial boundary-marks set mischievously deep by + the authors of systems. As the whole spirit of theology is both + essentially authoritative and essentially systematic, this + disparagement was full of tolerably direct significance. It told in + another way. The Sorbonne, the universities, the doctors, had + identified orthodoxy with Cartesianism. "It is hard to believe," says + D'Alembert in 1750, "that it is only within the last thirty years that + people have even begun to renounce Cartesianism." He might have added + that one of the most powerful of his contemporaries, Montesquieu + himself, remained a rigid Cartesian to the end of his days. "Our + nation," he says, "singularly eager as it is for novelties in all + matters of taste, is in matters of science extremely attached to old + opinions." This remark remains true of France to the present hour, and + it would be an interesting digression, did time allow, to consider its + significance. France can at all events count one master innovator, the + founder of Cartesianism himself. D'Alembert points out that the + disciples violate the first maxims of their chief. He describes the + hypothesis of vortices and the doctrine of innate ideas as no longer + tenable, and even as ridiculous; but do not let us forget, he says + with a fine movement of candour, that it was Descartes who opened the + way; he who set an example to men of intelligence, of shaking off the + yoke of scholasticism, of opinion, of authority—in a word, of + prejudices and barbarism. Those who remain faithful to his + hypothetical system, while they abandon his method, may be the last of + his partisans, but they would assuredly never have been the first of + his disciples.</p> + + <p>By system the Encyclopædists meant more or less coherent bodies of + frivolous conjecture. The true merit of the philosopher or the + physicist is described as being to have the spirit of system, yet + never to construct a system. The notion expressed in this sentence + promises a union of the advantages of an organic synthesis, with the + advantages of an open mind and unfettered inquiry. It would be + ridiculous to think, says D'Alembert, that there is nothing more to + discover in anatomy, because anatomists devote themselves to + researches that may seem to be of no use, and yet often prove to be + full of use in their consequences. Nor would it be less absurd to lay + a ban on erudition, on the pretext that our learned men often give + themselves up to matters of trivial import.</p> + + <p>We are constantly struck in the Encyclopædia by a genuine desire to + reach the best opinion by the only right way, the way of abundant, + many-sided, and liberal discussion. The article, for instance, on + <i>Fermes Générales</i> contains an examination of the question + whether it is more expedient that the taxes of a nation should be + gathered by farmers of the revenue, or directly by the agents of the + government acting on its behalf and under its supervision. Montesquieu + had argued strongly in favour of a <i>Régie</i>, the second of these + methods. The writer of the article sets out the nine considerations by + which Montesquieu had endeavoured to establish his position, and then + he offers on each of them the strongest observations that occur to him + in support of the opposite conclusion. At the conclusion of the + article, the editors of the Encyclopædia append the following note: + "Our professed impartiality and our desire to promote the discussion + and clearing up of an important question, have induced us to insert + this article. As the Encyclopædia has for its principal aim the public + advantage and instruction, we will insert in the article, + <i>Régie</i>, without taking any side, all such reasons for and + against, as people may he willing to submit to us, provided they are + stated with due sense and moderation." Alas, when we turn to the + article on <i>Régie</i>, the promise is unfulfilled, and a dozen + meagre lines disappoint the seeker. But eight years of storm had + passed, and many a beneficent intention had been wrecked. The + announcement at least shows us the aim and spirit of the original + scheme.</p> + + <p>Of the line of argument taken in the Encyclopædia as to Toleration + we need say nothing. The Encyclopædists were the most ardent + propagators of the modern principles of tolerance. No one has to be + reminded that this was something more than an abstract discussion + among the doctors of social philosophy, in a country where youths were + broken on the wheel for levity in face of an ecclesiastical + procession, where nearly every considerable man of the century had + been either banished or imprisoned for daring to use his mind, and + which had been half ruined by the great proscription of Protestants + more than once renewed. The article <i>Tolérance</i> was greatly + admired in its day, and it is an eloquent and earnest reproduction of + the pleas of Locke. One rather curious feature in it is the + reproduction of the passage from the Social Contract, in which + Rousseau explains the right of the magistrate to banish any citizen + who has not got religion enough to make him do his duties, and who + will not make a profession of civil faith. The writer of the article + interprets this as implying that "atheists in particular, who remove + from the powerful the only rein, and from the weak their only hope," + have no right to claim toleration. This is an unexpected stroke in a + work that is vulgarly supposed to be a violent manifesto on behalf of + atheism.<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> + + <p>Diderot himself in an earlier article (<i>Intolérance</i>) had + treated the subject with more trenchant energy. He does not argue his + points systematically, but launches a series of maxims, as with set + teeth, clenched hands, and a brow like a thundercloud. He hails the + oppressors of his life, the priests and the parliaments, with a + pungency that is exhilarating, and winds up with a description of the + intolerant as one who forgets that a man is his fellow, and for + holding a different opinion, treats him like a ravening brute; as one + who sacrifices the spirit and precepts of his religion to his pride; + as the rash fool who thinks that the arch can only be upheld by his + hands; as a man who is generally without religion, and to whom it + comes easier to have zeal than morals. Every page of the Encyclopædia + was, in fact, a plea for toleration. This embittered the hostility of + the churchmen to the work more than its attack upon dogma. For most + ecclesiastics valued power more dearly than truth. And in power they + valued most dearly the atrocious right of silencing, by foul means or + fair, all opinions that were not official.</p> + + <p>III.</p> + + <p>Having thus described the general character and purport of the + Encyclopædia, we have still to look at a special portion of it from a + more particular point of view. We have already shown how multifarious + were Diderot's labours as editor. It remains to give a short account + of his labours as a contributor. Everything was on the same vast + scale. His industry in writing would have been in itself most + astonishing, even if it had not been accompanied by the more + depressing fatigue of revising what others had written. Diderot's + articles fill more than four of the large volumes of his collected + works.</p> + + <p>The confusion is immense. The spirit is sometimes historical, + sometimes controversial; now critical, now dogmatic. In one place + Diderot speaks in his own proper person, in another as the neutral + scribe writing to the dictation of an unseen authority. There is no + rigorous measure and ordered proportion. We constantly pass from a + serious treatise to a sally, from an elaborate history to a caprice. + There are not a few pages where we know that Diderot is saying what he + does not think. Some of the articles seem only to have found a place + because Diderot happened to have taken an interest in their subjects + at the moment. After reading Voltaire's concise account of + Imagination, we are amazed to find Diderot devoting a larger space + than Voltaire had needed for the subject at large, to so subordinate + and remote a branch of the matter as the Power of the Imagination in + Pregnant Women upon the Unborn Young. The article on Theosophs would + hardly have been so disproportionately long as it is, merely for the + sake of Paracelsus and Van Helmont and Poiret and the Rosicrucians, + unless Diderot happened to be curiously and half-sympathetically + brooding over the mixture of inspiration and madness, of charlatanry + and generous aim, of which these semi-mystic, semi-scientific + characters were composed.<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id= + "FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class= + "fnanchor">[173]</a></p> + + <p>Many of Diderot's articles, again, have no rightful place in an + Encyclopædia. <i>Genius</i>, for instance, is dealt with in what is + neither more nor less than a literary essay, vigorous, suggestive, + diffuse; and containing, by the way, the curious assertion that, + although there are few errors in Locke and too few truths in + Shaftesbury, yet Locke is only an acute and comprehensive + intelligence, while Shaftesbury is a genius of the first order.</p> + + <p>Under the word <i>Laborious</i>, we have only a dozen lines of + angry reproach against the despotism that makes men idle by making + property uncertain. Under such words as <i>Frivolous</i>, + <i>Gallantry</i>, <i>Perfection</i>, <i>Importance</i>, + <i>Politeness</i>, <i>Melancholy</i>, <i>Glorieux</i>, the reader is + amused and edified by miniature essays on manners and character, + seldom ending without some pithy sentence and pointed moral. Sometimes + (e.g. <i>Grandeur</i>) we have a charming piece after the manner of La + Bruyère. Under the verb <i>Naítre</i>, which is placed in the + department of grammar, we find a passage so far removed from grammar + as the following:—</p> + + <p>"The terms of life and death have nothing absolute; they only + designate the successive states of one and the same being; for him who + has been strongly nourished in this philosophy, the urn that contains + the ashes of a father, a mother, a husband, a mistress, is truly a + touching object. There still remains in it life and warmth; these + ashes may perhaps even yet feel our tears and give them response; who + knows if the movement that our tears stir, as they water those ashes, + is wholly without sensibility?"</p> + + <p>This little burst of grotesque sentimentalism is one of the pieces + that justify the description of Diderot as the most German of all the + French.<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> Equally characteristic + and more sensible is the writer's outbreak against Formalists. "The + formalist knows exactly the proper interval between receiving and + returning a visit; he expects you on the exact day at the exact time; + if you fail, he thinks himself neglected and takes offence. A single + man of this stamp is enough to chill and embarrass a whole company. + There is nothing so repugnant to simple and upright souls as + formalities; as such people have within themselves the consciousness + of the good-will they bear to everybody, they neither plague + themselves to be constantly displaying a sentiment that is habitual, + nor to be constantly on the watch for it in others." This is analogous + to his contempt for the pedants who object to the use of a hybrid + word: "If it happens that a composite of a Greek word and a Latin word + renders the idea as well, and is easier to pronounce or pleasanter to + the ear than a compound of two Greek words and two Latin words, why + prefer the latter?" (<i>Hibrides</i>). Some articles are simply + diatribes against the enemy. <i>Pardon</i>, for instance: "It needs + much attention, much modesty, much skill to wring from others pardon + for our superiority. The men who have executed a foolish work, have + never been able to pardon us for projecting a better. We could have + got from them pardon for a crime, but never for a good action." And so + forth, with much magnanimous acrimony. <i>Prostitution</i> is only + introduced for the pleasure of applying the unsavoury word to certain + critics "of whom we have so many in these days, and of whom we say + that they prostitute their pens to money, to favour, to lying, and to + all the vices most unworthy of an honourable man."</p> + + <p>We are constantly being puzzled and diverted by Diderot's ingenuity + in wandering away from the topic nominally in hand, to insinuate some + of those doctrines of tolerance, of suspended judgment, or of liberty, + which lay so much nearer to his heart than any point of mere + erudition. There is a little article on Aius-Locutius, the Announcing + Speaker, one of the minor Roman gods. Diderot begins by a few lines + describing the rise of the deity into repute. He then quotes Cicero's + pleasantry on the friendly divinity, that when nobody in the world had + ever heard of him, he delivered a salutary oracle, but after people + had built him a fine temple, then the god of speech fell dumb. This + suggests to Diderot to wonder with edifying innocence how so religious + a people as the Romans endured these irreverent jests in their + philosophers. By an easy step we pass to the conditions on which + modern philosophers should be allowed by authority to publish their + speculations. Diderot throws out the curious hint that it would be + best to forbid any writing against government and religion in the + vulgar tongue, and to allow those who write in a learned tongue to + publish what they please. And so we bid farewell to Aius-Locutius. In + passing, we ask ourselves whether Diderot's suggestion is not + available in the discussion of certain questions, where freedom of + speech in the vernacular tongue is scarcely compatible with the + <i>reverentia quæ debetur pueris</i>?</p> + + <p>Diderot is never prevented by any mistaken sense of the dignity of + his enterprise from interspersing his disquisitions on science and + philosophy with such practical thoughts on the common matters of daily + life as come into his ingenious head. He suggests, for instance, by + way of preventing the frauds of cab-drivers on their masters and on + the public, that all payments of fares should be made to appointed + officers at the various cab-stations, and that no driver should take + up a fare except at one of these stations.<a name="FNanchor_175_175" + id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class= + "fnanchor">[175]</a> In writing about lackeys, after a word on their + insolence and on the wretched case in which most of them end their + days, he points out that the multitude of them is causing the + depopulation of the fields. They are countrymen who have thronged to + Paris to avoid military service. Peasants turned lackeys to escape the + conscription, just as in our own days they turn priests. Then, says + Diderot, this evil ought to be checked by a tax upon liveries; but + such a tax is far too sensible ever to be imposed.</p> + + <p>Yet, notwithstanding the practical and fervid temper of his + understanding, Diderot is not above literary trifling when the humour + seizes him. If he can write an exhaustive article on Encyclopædia, or + Spinosa, or Academies, or Weaving, he can also stoop to Anagrams, and + can tell us that the letters of Frère Jacques Clément, the assassin of + Henry III., make up the sinister words, <i>C'est l'enfer qui m'a + créé</i>. He can write a couple of amusing pages on Onomatomancy, or + divination of a man's fortune from his name; and can record with + neutral gravity how frequently great empires have been destroyed under + princes bearing the same name as their first founders; how, again, + certain names are unlucky for princes, as Cains among the Romans, John + in France, England, and Scotland, and Henry in France.</p> + + <p>We have now and then an anecdote that is worth reading and worth + preserving. Thus, under Machiavellist: "I have heard that a + philosopher, being asked by a great prince about a refutation of + Machiavellism, which the latter had just published, replied, 'Sire, I + fancy that the first lesson that Machiavelli would have given to his + disciple would have been to refute his work.'" Whether Voltaire ever + did say this to the great Frederick, is very questionable, but it + would not have been ill said. After the reader has been taken through + a short course of Arabian philosophy, he is enlivened by a selection + of poetic sayings about human life from the Rose-garden of Sadi, and + the whole article winds up with an eastern fable, of no particular + relevancy, of three men finding a treasure, and of one of them + poisoning the food for which the other two had sent him; on his return + they suddenly fell on him and slew him, and then ate the poisoned + food, and so the treasure fell to none of them.<a name= + "FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a></p> + + <p>We have spoken in the previous section of the contempt expressed by + D'Alembert for mere literary antiquarianism—a very different thing, + let us remember, from scientific inquiry into the origin and + classification of institutions and social organs. Diderot's article on + the Germans is an excellent illustration of this wholesome + predominance of the scientific spirit over the superficialities of + barren erudition. The word "Allemand," says Diderot, "has a great many + etymologies, but they are so forced, that it is almost as well to know + none of them, as to know them all. As for the origin of this famous + stock, all that has been said on that matter, between Tacitus and + Clovis, is simply a tissue of guesses without foundation." Of course + in this some persons will see a shameful levity; others will regard it + as showing very good sense, and a right estimate of what is knowable + and worth knowing, and what is neither one nor the other. In the + article on Celibacy we notice the same temper. A few sentences are + enough for the antiquarianism of the subject, what the Egyptians, + Greeks, and Romans thought and ordained about celibacy. The substance + of the article is a reproduction of the Abbé Saint Pierre's discussion + of the advantages that would be gained for France, with her declining + population, if her forty thousand curés were allowed to marry, and to + bring into the world eighty thousand children. We may believe that + Diderot smiled as he transcribed the Abbé's cunning suggestion that a + dispensing power to relieve from the obligation of celibacy should be + recognised in the Pope, and that the Roman court should receive a sum + of money for every dispensation so granted.</p> + + <p>Although, however, Diderot despised mere bookishness, his article + on Libraries is one of the longest and most painstaking, furnishing a + tolerably complete list of the most famous collections, from the + beginning of books down to the latest additions to the King's Library + in the Rue Vivienne. In the course of this article he quotes with + seeming approval the quaint words in which old Richard of Bury, the + author of the <i>Philobiblon</i> (1340), praised books as the best of + masters, much as the immortal defender of the poet Archias had praised + them: "Hi sunt magistri qui nos instruunt sine virgis et ferulis, sine + cholera, sine pecuniâ; si accedis non dormiunt; si inquiris non se + abscondunt; non obmurmurant si oberres; cachinnos nesciunt si + ignores."</p> + + <p>In literature proper, as in philosophy, Diderot loses no + opportunity of insisting on the need of being content with suspended + judgment. For instance, he blames historians of opinion for the + readiness with which they attribute notions found in one or two rabbis + to the whole of the Jews, or because two or three Fathers say + something, boldly set this down as the sentiments of a whole century, + although perhaps we have nothing else save these two or three Fathers + left of the century, and although we do not know whether their + writings were applauded, or were even widely known. "It were to be + wished that people should speak less affirmatively, especially on + particular points and remote consequences, and that they should only + attribute them directly to those in whose writings they are actually + to be found. I confess that the history of the sentiments of antiquity + would not seem so complete, and that it would be necessary to speak in + terms of doubt much more often than is common; but by acting otherwise + we expose ourselves to the danger of taking false and uncertain + conjectures for ascertained and unquestionable truths. The ordinary + man of letters does not readily put up with suspensive expressions, + any more than common people do so." All this is an odd digression to + be found under the head of Hylopathianism, but it must always remain + wholesome doctrine.</p> + + <p>We cannot wonder at Diderot's admiration for Montaigne and for + Bayle, who, with Hume, would make the great trinity of scepticism. + "The work of Montaigne," said Diderot, "is the touchstone of a good + intelligence; you may be sure that any one whom the reading of + Montaigne displeases has some vice either of heart or understanding. + As for Bayle, he has had few equals in the art of reasoning, and + perhaps no superior; and though he piles doubt upon doubt, he always + proceeds with order; an article of his is a living polypus, which + divides itself into a number of polypuses, all living, engendered one + from the other."<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id= + "FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class= + "fnanchor">[177]</a> Yet Diderot had a feeling of the necessity of + advancing beyond the attitude of Bayle and Montaigne. Intellectual + suspense and doubt was made difficult to him by his vehement and + positive demand for emotional certainties.</p> + + <p>Diderot is always ready to fling away his proper subject in a burst + of moralising. The article on <i>Man</i>, as a branch of natural + history, contains a correct if a rather superficial account of that + curious animal; at length the writer comes to a table showing the + probable duration of life at certain ages. "You will observe," he + says, "1st, that the age of seven is that at which you may hope a + longer life; 2d, that at twelve or thirteen you have lived a quarter + of your life; at twenty-eight or twenty-nine you have lived half; at + fifty more than three-quarters." And then he suddenly winds up the + whole performance by the exclamation: "O ye who have laboured up to + fifty, who are in the enjoyment of comfort, and who still have left to + you health and strength, what then are you waiting for before you take + rest? How long will you go on saying <i>To-morrow, to-morrow?</i>"</p> + + <p>There are many casual brilliancies in the way of analogy and + parallel, many aptnesses of thought and phrase. The Stoics are called + the Jansenists of Paganism. "For a single blade of grass to grow, it + is necessary that the whole of nature should co-operate." "A man comes + to Pyrrhonism by one of two opposite ways; either because he does not + know enough, or because he knows too much; the latter is not the most + common way." And so forth.</p> + + <p>If we turn to the group of articles dealing with theology, it is + difficult for us to know exactly where we are. Sometimes Diderot + writes of popular superstitions with the gravity proper to a + dictionary of mythology. Sometimes he sews on to the sober gray of his + scepticism a purple patch of theistic declamation.<a name= + "FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> The article on Jesus + Christ is obviously a mere piece of common form, and more than one + passage in his article on <i>Christianisme</i> is undoubtedly + insincere. When we come to his more careful article, + <i>Providence</i>, we find it impossible to extract from it a body of + coherent propositions of which we could confidently say that they + represented his own creed, or the creed that he desired his readers to + bear away in their minds.</p> + + <p>It is hardly worth while to measure the more or the less of his + adherence to Christianity, or even to Deism, as inferred from the + Encyclopædia. We need only turn to his private letters to find that he + is in no degree nor kind an adherent, but the most hardy, + contemptuous, and thoroughgoing of opponents. At the risk of shocking + devout persons, I am bound to reproduce a passage from one of his + letters, in which there can be no doubt that we have Diderot's true + mind, as distinguished from what it was convenient to print. "The + Christian religion," he says, "is to my mind the most absurd and + atrocious in its dogmas; the most unintelligible, the most + metaphysical, the most intertwisted and obscure, and consequently the + most subject to divisions, sects, schisms, heresies; the most + mischievous for the public tranquillity, the most dangerous to + sovereigns by its hierarchic order, its persecutions, its discipline; + the most flat, the most dreary, the most Gothic, and the most gloomy + in its ceremonies; the most puerile and unsociable in its morality, + considered not in what is common to it with universal morality, but in + what is peculiarly its own, and constitutes it evangelical, + apostolical, and Christian morality, which is the most intolerant of + all. Lutheranism, freed from some absurdities, is preferable to + Catholicism; Protestantism to Lutheranism, Socinianism to + Protestantism, Deism, with temples and ceremonies, to Socinianism. + Since it is necessary that man, being superstitious by nature, should + have a fetish, the simplest and most harmless will be the best + fetish."<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> We need not discuss nor + extend the quotation; enough has been said to relieve us from the duty + of analysing or criticising articles in which Christianity is treated + with all the formal respect that the secular authority insisted + upon.</p> + + <p>This formal respect is not incompatible with many veiled and secret + sarcasms, which were as well understood as they were sharply enjoyed + by those who read between the lines. It is not surprising that these + sarcasms were constantly unjust and shallow. Even those of us who + repudiate theology and all its works for ourselves, may feel a shock + at the coarseness and impurity of innuendo which now and then + disfigures Diderot's treatment of theological as of some other + subjects. For this the attitude of the Church itself was much to + blame; coarse, virulent, unspiritual as it was in France in those + days. Voltaire, Diderot, Holbach, would have written in a very + different spirit, even while maintaining and publishing the same + attacks on theological opinion, if the Church of France had possessed + such a school of teachers as the Church of England found in the + Latitudinarians in the seventeenth century; or such as she finds now + in the nineteenth century in those who have imported, partly from the + poetry of Wordsworth, partly from the historic references of the + Oxford Tracts, an equity, a breadth, an elevation, a pensive grace, + that effectually forbid the use of those more brutal weapons of + controversy which were the only weapons possible in France a century + ago.</p> + + <p>We have already said so much of the great and important group of + articles on arts and trades, that it is unnecessary to add anything + further as to Diderot's particular share in them. He visited all the + workshops in Paris; he sent for information and specifications to the + most important seats of manufacture in the kingdom; he sometimes + summoned workmen from the provinces to describe to him the paper works + of Montargis, and the silk works and velvet works of Lyons.<a name= + "FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> Much of Diderot's work, + even on great practical subjects, was, no doubt, the reproduction of + mere book-knowledge acquired at second-hand. Take, for instance, + Agriculture, which was undoubtedly the most important of all subjects + for France at that date, as indeed at every other date. There are a + dozen pages of practical precepts, for which Diderot was probably + indebted to one of the farmers at Grandval. After this, he fills up + the article with about twenty pages in which he gives an account of + the new system of husbandry, which our English Jethro Tull described + to an unbelieving public between 1731 and 1751. Tull's volume was + translated into French by Duhamel, with notes and the record of + experiments of his own; from this volume Diderot drew the pith of his + article. Diderot's only merit in the matter—and it is hardly an + inconsiderable one in a world of routine—is that he should have been + at the pains to seek the newest lights, and above all that he should + have urged the value of fresh experiments in agriculture. Tull was not + the safest authority in the world, but it is to be remembered that the + shrewd-witted Cobbett thought his ideas on husbandry worth + reproducing, seventy years after Diderot had thought them worth + compiling into an article.</p> + + <p>It was not merely in the details of the practical arts that Diderot + wrote from material acquired at second-hand. The article on the + Zend-Avesta is taken from the Annual Register for 1762. The long + series of articles on the history of philosophy is in effect a + reproduction of what he found in Bayle, in Deslandes, and in Brucker. + There are one or two considerable exceptions. Perhaps the most + important is under the heading of Spinosa, to which we shall return + presently. The article on <i>Hobbisme</i> contains an analysis, + evidently made by the writer's own hand, of the bulk of Hobbes's + propositions; it is scarcely, however, illuminated by a word of + criticism. If we turn to the article on <i>Société</i>, it is true, we + find Hobbes's view of the relations between the civil and temporal + powers tolerably effectively combated, but even here Diderot hardly + does more than arm himself with the weapons of Locke.</p> + + <p>Of course, he honestly refers his readers to these sources of wider + information.<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id= + "FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class= + "fnanchor">[181]</a> All that we can say of the articles on the + history of philosophy is that the series is very complete; that + Diderot used his matter with intelligence and the spirit of criticism, + and that he often throws in luminous remarks and far-reaching + suggestions of his own. This was all that the purpose of his book + required. To imitate the laborious literary search of Bayle or of + Brucker, and to attempt to compile an independent history of + philosophy, would have been to sacrifice the Encyclopædia as a whole, + to the superfluous perfection of a minor part. There is only one + imperative condition in such a case, namely, that the writer should + pass the accepted material through his own mind before reproducing it. + With this condition it was impossible for a man of Diderot's + indefatigable energy of spirit, not as a rule to comply.</p> + + <p>But this rule too had exceptions. There were cases in which he + reproduced, as any mere bookmaker might have done, the thought of his + authority, without an attempt to make it his own. Of the confusion and + inequalities in which Diderot was landed by this method of mingling + the thoughts of other people with his own, there is a curious example + in the two articles on Philosopher and Philosophy. In the first we + have an essentially social and practical description of what the + philosopher should be; in the second we have a definition of + philosophy, which takes us into the regions most remote from what is + social and practical. We soar to the airiest heights of verbal + analysis and pure formalism. Nothing can be better, so far as it goes, + than the picture of the philosopher. Diderot begins by contrasting him + with the crowd of people, and clever people, who insist on passing + judgment all day long. "They ignore the scope and limits of the human + mind; they think it capable of knowing everything; hence they think it + a disgrace not to pronounce judgment, and imagine that intelligence + consists in that and nothing else. The philosopher believes that it + consists in judging rightly. He is better pleased with himself when he + has suspended his faculty of coming to a conclusion, than if he had + come to a conclusion without the proper grounds. He prefers to + brilliancy the pains of rightly distinguishing his ideas, of finding + their true extent and exact connection. He is never so attached to a + system as not to feel all the force of the objections to it. Most men + are so strongly given over to their opinions that they do not take any + trouble to make out those of others. The philosopher, on the other + hand, understands what he rejects, with the same breadth and the same + accuracy as he understands what he adopts." Then Diderot turns + characteristically from the intellectual to the social side. "Our + philosopher does not count himself an exile in the world; he does not + suppose himself in an enemy's country; he would fain find pleasure + with others, and to find it he must give it; he is a worthy man who + wishes to please and to make himself useful. The ordinary philosophers + who meditate too much, or rather who meditate to wrong purpose, are as + surly and arrogant to all the world as great people are to those whom + they do not think their equals; they flee men, and men avoid them. But + our philosopher who knows how to divide himself between retreat and + the commerce of men is full of humanity. <i>Civil society is, so to + say, a divinity for him on the earth</i>; he honours it by his + probity, by an exact attention to his duties, and by a sincere desire + not to be a useless or an embarrassing member of it. The sage has the + leaven of order and rule; he is full of the ideas connected with the + good of civil society. What experience shows us every day is that the + more reason and light people have, the better fitted they are and the + more to be relied on for the common intercourse of life."<a name= + "FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a></p> + + <p>The transition is startling from this conception of</p> + + <p>Philosopher as a very high kind of man of the world, to the + definition of Philosophy as "the science of possibles quâ possibles." + Diderot's own reflection comes back to us, <i>Combien cette maudite + métaphysique fait des fous!</i><a name="FNanchor_183_183" id= + "FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class= + "fnanchor">[183]</a> We are abruptly plunged from a Baconian into a + Leibnitzian atmosphere. We should naturally have expected some such + account of Philosophy as that it begins with a limitation of the + questions to which men can hope for an answer, and ends in an ordered + arrangement of the principles of knowledge, with ultimate reference to + the conditions of morals and the structure of civil societies. We + should naturally have expected to find, what indeed we do find, that + the characteristic of the philosopher is to "admit nothing without + proof, never to acquiesce in illusory notions; to draw rigorously the + dividing lines of the certain, the probable, the doubtful; above all + things never to pay himself with mere words." But then these wholesome + prescriptions come in an article whose definitions and distribution of + philosophy are simply a reproduction from Christian Wolff, and the + methods and dialect of Wolff are as essentially alien from the + positive spirit of the Encyclopædia as they were from the mystic + spirit of Jacobi.</p> + + <p>Wolff's place in the philosophical succession of German speculation + (1679-1754) is between Leibnitz and Kant, and until Kant came his + system was dominant in the country of metaphysics.<a name= + "FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> It is from</p> + + <p>Wolff that Diderot borrows and throws unassimilated into the pages + of the Encyclopædia propositions so fundamentally incongruous as this, + that "among all possibles there must of necessity be a Being + subsisting by himself; otherwise there would be possible things, of + the possibility of which no account could be given, an assertion that + could never be made." It is a curious thing, and it illustrates again + the strangely miscellaneous quality of Diderot's compilation, that the + very article which begins by this incorporation of the author of a + philosophical system expounded in a score of quartos, ends by a + vigorous denunciation of the introduction of the systematic spirit + into philosophy.</p> + + <p>I shall venture to quote a hardy passage from another article + (<i>Pyrrhonienne</i>) which some will think a measure of Diderot's + philosophical incompetency, and others will think a measure of his + good sense. "We will conclude," he says, "for our part that as all in + nature is bound together, there is nothing, properly speaking, of + which man has perfect, absolute, and complete knowledge, because for + that he would need knowledge of all. Now as all is bound together, it + inevitably happens that, from discussion to discussion, he must come + to something unknown: then in starting again from this unknown point, + we shall be justified in pleading against him the ignorance or the + obscurity or the uncertainty of the point preceding, and of that + preceding this, and so forth, up to the most evident principle. So we + must admit a sort of sobriety in the use of reason. When step by step + I have brought a man to some evident proposition, I shall cease to + dispute. I will listen no longer to a man who goes on to deny the + existence of bodies, the rules of logic, the testimony of the senses, + the difference between good and evil, true and false, etc. etc. I will + turn my back on everybody who tries to lead me away from a simple + question, to embark me in discussion as to the nature of matter, of + the understanding of thought, and other subjects shoreless and + bottomless."<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id= + "FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class= + "fnanchor">[185]</a> Whatever else may be said of this, we have to + recognise that it is exactly characteristic of the author. But then + why have written on metaphysics at all?</p> + + <p>We have mentioned the article on Spinosa. It is characteristic both + of the good and the bad sides of Diderot's work. Half of it is merely + a reproduction of Bayle's criticisms on Spinosa and his system. The + other half consists of original objections propounded by Diderot with + marked vigour of thrust against Spinosa, but there is no evidence that + he had gone deeper into Spinosa than the first book of the Ethics. + There is no certain sign that he had read anything else, or that he + had more of that before him than the extracts that were furnished by + Bayle. Such treatment of a serious subject hardly conforms to the + modern requirements of the literary conscience, for in truth the + literary conscience has now turned specialist and shrinks from the + encyclopædic. Diderot's objections are, as we have said, pushed with + marked energy of speech. "However short away," he says, "you penetrate + into the thick darkness in which Spinosa has wrapped himself up, you + discover a succession of abysses into which this audacious reasoner + has precipitated himself, of propositions either evidently false or + evidently doubtful, of arbitrary principles, substituted for natural + principles and sensible truths; an abuse of terms taken for the most + part in a wrong sense, a mass of deceptive equivocations, a cloud of + palpable contradictions." The system is monstrous, it is absurd and + ridiculous. It is Spinosa's plausible method that has deceived people; + they supposed that one who employed geometry, and proceeded by way of + axioms and definitions, must be on the track of truth. They did not + see that these axioms were nothing better than very vague and very + uncertain propositions; that the definitions were inexact, defective, + and bizarre.</p> + + <p>We have no space to follow the reasoning by which Diderot supports + this scornful estimate of the famous thinker, of whom it can never be + settled whether he be pantheist, atheist, akosmist, or God-intoxicated + man. He returns to the charge again and again, as if he felt a certain + secret uneasiness lest for scorn so loudly expressed he had not + brought forward adequate justification. And the reader feels that + Diderot has scarcely hit the true line of cleavage that would have + enabled him—from his own point of view—to shatter the Spinosist + system. He tries various bouts of logic with Spinosa in connection + with detached propositions. Thus he deals with Spinosa's third + proposition, that, <i>in the case of things that have nothing in + common with one another, one cannot be the cause of the other</i>. + This proposition, Diderot contends, is false in all moral and + occasional causes. The sound of the name of God has nothing in common + with the idea of the Creator which that name produces in my mind. A + misfortune that overtakes my friend has nothing in common with the + grief that I feel in consequence. When I move my arm by an act of + will, the movement has nothing in common in its nature with the act of + my will; they are very different. I am not a triangle, yet I form the + idea of one and I examine its properties. So with the fifth + proposition, that <i>there cannot be in the universe two or more + substances of the same nature or the same attributes</i>. If Spinosa + is only talking of the essence of things or of their definition, what + he says is naught; for it can only mean that there cannot be in the + universe two different essences having the same essence. Who doubts + it? But if Spinosa means that there cannot be an essence which is + found in various single objects, in the same way as the essence of + triangle is found in the triangle A and the triangle B, then he says + what is manifestly untrue. It is not, however, until the last two or + three pages that Diderot sets forth his dissent in its widest + form.</p> + + <p>"To refute Spinosa," he says at last, "all that is necessary is to + stop him at the first step, without taking the trouble to follow him + into a mass of consequences; all that we need do is to substitute for + the obscure principle which he makes the base of his system, the + following: namely, that <i>there are several substances</i>—a + principle that in its own way is clear to the last degree. And, in + fact, what proposition can be clearer, more striking, more close to + the understanding and consciousness of man? I here seek no other judge + than the most just impression of the common sense that is spread among + the human race.... Now, since common sense revolts against each of + Spinosa's propositions, no less than against the first, of which they + are the pretended proofs, instead of stopping to reason on each of + these proofs where common sense is lost, we should be right to say to + him:—Your principle is contrary to common sense; from a principle in + which common sense is lost, nothing can issue in which common sense is + to be found again."</p> + + <p>The passage sounds unpleasantly like an appeal to the crowd in a + matter of science, which is as the sin against the Holy Ghost in these + high concerns. What Diderot meant, probably, was to charge Spinosa + with inventing a conception of substance which has no relation to + objective experience; and further with giving fantastic answers to + questions that were in themselves never worth asking, because the + answers must always involve a violent wrench of the terms of + experience into the sphere transcending experience, and because, + moreover, they can never be verified. Whether he meant this or + something else, and whether he would have been right or wrong in such + an intention, we may admit that it would have been more satisfactory + if in dealing with such a master-type of the metaphysical method as + Spinosa, so acute a positive critic as Diderot had taken more pains to + give to his objections the utmost breadth of which they were + capable.<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a></p> + + <p>The article on Leibnitz has less original matter in it than that on + Spinosa. The various speculations of that great and energetic + intellect in metaphysic, logic, natural theology, natural law, are + merely drawn out in a long table of succinct propositions, while the + account of the life and character of Leibnitz is simply taken from the + excellent <i>éloge</i> which had been published upon him by Fontenelle + in 1716. Fontenelle's narrative is reproduced in a generous spirit of + admiration and respect for a genius that was like Diderot's own in + encyclopædic variety of interest, while it was so far superior to + Diderot's in concentration, in subtlety, in precision, in power of + construction. If there could exist over our heads, says Diderot, a + species of beings who could observe our works as we watch those of + creatures at our feet, with what surprise would such beings have seen + those four marvellous insects, Bayle, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Newton. + And he then draws up a little calendar of the famous men, out of whom + we must choose the name to be placed at the very head of the human + race. The list contains, besides Julian the Apostate—who was inserted, + we may presume, merely by way of playful insult to the ecclesiastical + enemy—Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Trajan, Bacon, and the four great + names that have just been cited. Germany derives as much honour from + Leibnitz alone, he concludes with unconsidered enthusiasm, as Greece + from Plato, Aristotle, and Archimedes, all put together. As we have + said, however, there is no criticism, nor any other sign that Diderot + had done more than survey the façade of the great Leibnitzian + structure admiringly from without.</p> + + <p>The article on Liberty would be extremely remarkable, appearing + where it does, and coming from a thinker of Diderot's general + capacity, if only we could be sure that Diderot was sincere. As it + happens, there is good reason to suppose that he was wholly insincere. + It is quite as shallow, from the point of view of philosophy, as his + article on the Jews or on the Bible is from the point of view of + erudition. One reason for this might not be far to seek. We have + repeatedly observed how paramount the social aim and the social test + are in Diderot's mind over all other considerations. But this + reference of all subjects of discussion to the good of society, and + this measurement of conclusions by their presumed effect on society, + is a method that has its own dangers. The aversion of ecclesiastics to + unfettered discussion, lest it should damage institutions and beliefs + deemed useful to mankind, is the great leading example of this peril. + Diderot, it might be said by those who should contend that he wrote + what he thought, did not escape exactly the same predicament, as soon + as ever he forgot that of all the things that are good for society, + Truth is the best. Now, who will believe that it is Diderot, the + persecuted editor of the Encyclopædia, and the author of the manly + article on Intolerance, who introduces such a passage as the following + into the discussion of the everlasting controversy of Free Will and + Necessity: "Take away Liberty, and you leave no more vice nor virtue + nor merit in the world; rewards are ridiculous, and punishments + unjust. The ruin of Liberty overthrows all order and all police, + confounds vice and virtue, authorises every monstrous infamy, + extinguishes the last spark of shame and remorse, degrades and + disfigures beyond recovery the whole human race. <i>A doctrine of such + enormity as this ought not to be examined in the schools; it ought to + be punished by the magistrates.</i>"<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id= + "FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class= + "fnanchor">[187]</a> Of course, this was exactly what the Jesuits said + about a belief in God, about revelation, and about the institutions of + the church. To take away these, they said, is to throw down the + bulwarks of order, and an attempt to take them away, as by + encyclopædists or others, ought to be punished by the magistrates. + Diderot had for the moment clearly lost himself.</p> + + <p>We need hardly be surprised if an article conceived in this spirit + contains no serious contribution to the difficult question with which + it deals. Diderot had persuaded himself that, without Free Will, all + those emotional moralities in the way of sympathy and benevolence and + justice which he adored would be lowered to the level of mere + mechanism. "If men are not free in what they do of good and evil, + then," he cries, in what is surely a paroxysm of unreason, "good is no + longer good, and evil no longer evil." As if the outward quality and + effects of good and evil were not independent of the mental operations + which precede human action. Murder would not cease to be an evil + simply because it had been proved that the murderer's will to do a bad + deed was the result of antecedents. Acts have marks and consequences + of their own, good or bad, whatever may be the state of mind of those + who do them. But Diderot does not seem to divine the true issue; he + writes as if Necessarians or Determinists denied the existence of + volitions, and as if the question were whether volitions do exist. + Nobody denies that they exist; the real question is of the conditions + under which they exist. Are they determined by antecedents, or are + they self-determined, spontaneous, and unconnected? Is Will + independent of cause?</p> + + <p>Diderot's argumentation is, in fact, merely a protest that man is + conscious of a Will. And just as in other parts of his article Diderot + by Liberty means only the existence of Will, so by Liberty he means + only the healthy condition of the soul, and not its independence of + causation. We need not waste words on so dire a confusion, nor on the + theory that Will is sometimes dependent on cerebral antecedents and + sometimes not. The curious thing is that the writer should not have + perceived that he was himself in this preposterous theory propounding + the very principle which he denounced as destructive to virtue, + ruinous to society, and worthy of punishment by the government. For it + seems that, after all, the Will of those whose "dispositions are not + moderate" is not free; and we may surely say that those whose + dispositions are least moderate, are exactly the most violent + malefactors against the common weal. One more passage is worth quoting + to show how little the writer had seized the true meaning of the + debate. "According to you," he says to Bayle, "it is not clear that it + is at the pure choice of my will to move my arm or not to move it: if + that be so, it is then necessarily determined that within a quarter of + an hour from now I shall lift my hand three times together, or that I + shall not. Now, if you seriously pretend that I am not free, you + cannot refuse an offer that I make you; I will wager a thousand + pistoles to one that I will do, in the matter of moving my hand, + exactly the opposite to what you back; and you may take your choice. + If you do think the wager fair, it can only be because of your + necessary and invincible judgment that I am free." As if the will to + move or not to move the arm would be uncaused and unaffected by + antecedents, when you have just provided so strong an antecedent as + the desire to save a thousand pistoles. It was, perhaps, well enough + for Voltaire to content himself with vague poetical material for his + poetical discourse on Liberty, but from Diderot, whether as editor or + as writer, something better might have been expected than a clumsy + reproduction of the reasoning by which men like Turretini had turned + philosophy into the corrupted handmaid of theology.</p> + + <p>The most extraordinary thing about this extraordinary article still + remains to be told. It was written, we may suppose, between 1757 and + 1762, or about that time. In June, 1756, Diderot wrote to a certain + Landois, a fellow-worker on the Encyclopædia, a letter containing the + most emphatic possible repudiation of the whole doctrine of Liberty. + "Liberty is a word void of sense; there are not and there never can + have been free beings; we are only what fits in with the general + order, with organisation, with education, and with the chain of + events. We can no more conceive a being acting without a motive than + we can conceive one of the arms of a balance acting without a weight; + and the motive is always exterior and foreign to us, attached either + by nature or by some cause or other that is not ourselves. <i>There is + only one sort of causes, properly speaking, and those are, physical + causes.</i>"<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id= + "FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class= + "fnanchor">[188]</a> And so forth in the vein of hard and remorseless + necessarianism, which we shall find presently in the pages of the + System of Nature.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id= + "FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class= + "fnanchor">[189]</a></p> + + <p>There is only one explanation of this flagrant contradiction. + Diderot must have written on Liberty just as he wrote on Jesus Christ + or the Bible. He cannot have said what he thought, but only what the + persons in authority required him to pretend to think. We may he sure + that a letter to an intimate would be more likely to contain his real + opinion than an article published in the Encyclopædia. That such + mystifications are odious, are shameful, are almost too degrading a + price to pay for the gains of such a work, we may all readily enough + admit. All that we can do is to note so flagrant a case, as a striking + example of the common artifices of the time. One other point we may + note. The fervour and dexterity with which Diderot made what he knew + to be the worse appear the better cause, make a still more striking + example of his astonishing dramatic power of throwing himself, as + dialectician, casuist, sophist, into a false and illusive part.</p> + + <p>Turning from the philosophical to the political or social group of + articles, we find little to add to what has been said in the previous + section. One of the most excellent essays in this group is that on + Luxury. Diderot opens ingeniously with a list of the propositions that + state the supposed evils of luxury, and under each proposition he + places the most striking case that he can find in history of its + falseness. He goes through the same process with the propositions + asserting the gains of luxury to society. Having thus effectually + disposed of any wholesale way of dealing with the subject, he proceeds + to make a number of observations on the gains and drawbacks of luxury; + these are full of sense and freedom from commonplace. Such articles as + <i>Pouvoir, Souverain, Autorité</i>, do little more than tell over + again the old unhistoric story about a society surrendering a portion + of its sovereign power to some individual or dynasty to hold in trust. + It is worth remarking how little democratic were Diderot and his + school in any Jacobinical, or anarchic, or even more respectable + modern sense. There is in Diderot's contributions many a firm and + manly plea for the self-respect of the common people, but not more + than once or twice is there a syllable of the disorder which smoulders + under the pages of Rousseau. Thus: "When the dwellers among the fields + are well treated, the number of proprietors insensibly grows greater, + the extreme distance and the vile dependence of poor on rich grow + less; hence the people have courage, force of soul, and strength of + body; they love their country, they respect the magistrates, they are + attached to a prince, to an order, and to laws to which they owe their + peace and well-being. And you will no longer see the son of the + honourable tiller of the soil so ready to quit the noble calling of + his forefathers, nor so ready to go and sully himself with the + liveries and with the contempt of the man of wealth."<a name= + "FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a></p> + + <p>No one can find fault with democratic sentiment of this kind, nor + with the generous commonplaces of the moralist, about virtue being the + only claim to honour, and vice the only true source of shame and + inferiority. But neither Diderot nor Voltaire ever allowed himself to + flatter the crowd for qualities which the crowd can scarcely possess. + The little article on Multitude seems merely inserted for the sake of + buffeting unwarranted pretensions. "Distrust the judgment of the + multitude in all matters of reasoning and philosophy; there its voice + is the voice of malice, folly, inhumanity, irrationality, and + prejudice. Distrust it again in things that suppose much knowledge or + a fine taste. The multitude is ignorant and dulled. Distrust it in + morality; it is not capable of strong and generous actions; it rather + wonders at such actions than approves them; heroism is almost madness + in its eyes. Distrust it in the things of sentiment; is delicacy of + sentiment so common a thing that you can accord it to the multitude? + In what then is the multitude right? In everything, but only at the + end of a very long time, because then it has become an echo, repeating + the judgment of a small number of sensible men who shape the judgment + of posterity for it beforehand. If you have on your side the testimony + of your conscience, and against you that of the multitude, take + comfort and be assured that time does justice." It is far from being a + universal gift among men of letters and others to unite this + fastidious estimation of the incapacity of the crowd in the higher + provinces of the intellectual judgment, with a fervid desire that the + life of the crowd should be made worthy of self-respecting men.</p> + + <p>The same hand that wrote the defiance of the populace that has just + been quoted, wrote also this short article on Misery: "There are few + souls so firm that misery does not in the long run cast them down and + degrade them. The poor common people are incredibly stupid. I know not + what false dazzling prestige closes their eyes to their present + wretchedness, and to the still deeper wretchedness that awaits the + years of old age. Misery is the mother of great crimes. It is the + sovereigns who make the miserable, and it is they who shall answer in + this world and the other for the crimes that misery has + committed."</p> + + <p>So far as the mechanism of government is concerned, Diderot writes + much as Montesquieu had done. Under the head of <i>Représentants</i> + he proclaims the advantages, not exactly of government by a + representative assembly, but of assisting and advising the royal + government by means of such an assembly. There is no thought of + universal suffrage. "<i>It is property that makes the citizen</i>; + every man who has possessions in the state is interested in the state, + and whatever be the rank that particular conventions may assign to + him, it is always as a proprietor; it is by reason of his possessions + that he ought to speak, and that he acquires the right of having + himself represented." Yet this very definite statement does not save + him from the standing difficulty of a democratic philosophy of + politics. Nor can it be reconciled in point of logic with other + propositions to which Diderot commits himself in the same article. For + instance, he says that "no order of citizens is capable of stipulating + for all; if one order had the right, it would very soon come to + stipulate only for itself; each class ought to be represented by men + who know its condition and its needs; <i>these needs are only well + known to those who actually feel them</i>." But then, in that case, + the poorest classes are those who have most need of direct + representation; they are the most numerous, their needs are sharpest, + they are the classes to which war, consumption of national capital and + way of expending national income, equal laws, judicial administration, + and the other concerns of a legislative assembly, come most close. The + problem is to reconcile the sore interests of the multitude with the + ignorance and the temper imputed in Diderot's own description of + them.</p> + + <p>An interesting study might be made, if the limits of our subject + permitted such a digression, on the new political ideas which a + century's experience in England, France, Germany, the American Union, + has added to the publicist's stock. Diderot's article on the + Legislator is a curious mixture of views which political thinkers have + left behind, with views which the most enlightened statesmen have + taken up. There is much talk after the fashion of Jean Jacques + Rousseau about the admirable legislation of Lycurgus at Sparta, the + philosophical government of the great empire of China, and the fine + spirit of the institutions of Peru. We perceive that the same + influences which made Rousseau's political sentimentalism so popular + also brought even strong heads like Diderot to believe in the + unbounded power of a government to mould men at its will, and to + impose institutions at discretion. The idea that it is the main + function of a government to make its people virtuous, is generally as + strong in Diderot as it was in Rousseau, and as it became in + Robespierre. He admires the emperors of China, because their edicts + are as the exhortation of a father to his children. All edicts, he + says, ought to instruct and to exhort as much as they command. Yet two + years after the Encyclopædia was finished (1774), when Turgot prefaced + his reforming edicts by elaborate and reasoned statements of the + grounds for them, it was found that his prefaces caused greater + provocation than the very laws that they introduced.</p> + + <p>Apart from the common form of enthusiasm for the "sublime + legislation" of countries which the writer really knew nothing about, + the article on the Legislator has some points worth noticing. We have + seen how Diderot made the possession of property the true note of + citizenship, and of a claim to share in the government. But he did not + pay property this compliment for nothing. It is, he says, the business + of the legislator to do his best to make up to mankind for the loss of + that equality which was one of the comforts that men surrendered when + they gave up the state of nature. Hence the legislator ought to take + care that no one shall reach a position of extreme opulence otherwise + than by an industry that enriches the state. "He must take care that + the charges of society shall fall upon the rich, who enjoy the + advantages of society." Even those who agree with Diderot, and are + ready to vote for a graduated income-tax, will admit that he comes to + his conclusion without knowing or reflecting about either the serious + arguments for it, or the serious objections against it.</p> + + <p>What is really interesting in this long article is its anticipation + of those ideas which in England we associate with the name of Cobden. + "All the men of all lands have become necessary to one another for the + exchange of the fruits of industry and the products of the soil. + Commerce is a new bond among men. Every nation has an interest in + these days in the preservation by every other nation of its wealth, + its industry, its banks, its luxury, its agriculture. The ruin of + Leipsic, of Lisbon, and of Lima has led to bankruptcies on all the + exchanges of Europe, and has affected the fortunes of many millions of + persons."<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> In the same spirit he + foresees the decline of patriotism in its older and narrower sense, + and the predominance of the international over the national sentiment. + "All nations now have sufficiently just ideas of their neighbours, and + consequently they have less enthusiasm for their country than in the + old days of ignorance. There is little enthusiasm where there is much + light; enthusiasm is nearly always the emotion of a soul that is more + passionate than it is instructed. By comparing among all nations laws + with laws, talents with talents, and manners with manners, nations + will find so little reason to prefer themselves to others, that if + they preserve for their own country that love which is the fruit of + personal interest, at least they will lose that enthusiasm which is + the fruit of an exclusive self-esteem."</p> + + <p>Yet Diderot had the perspicacity to discern the drawbacks to such a + revolution in the conditions of social climate. "Commerce, like + enlightenment, lessens ferocity, but also, just as enlightenment takes + away the enthusiasm of self-esteem, so perhaps commerce takes away the + enthusiasm of virtue. It gradually extinguishes the spirit of + magnanimous disinterestedness, and replaces it by that of hard + justice. By turning men's minds rather to use than beauty, to prudence + rather than to greatness, it may be that it injures the strength, the + generosity, the nobleness of manners."</p> + + <p>All this, whether it comes to much or little, is at least more true + than Diderot's assurance that henceforth for any nation in Europe to + make conquests must be a moral impossibility. Napoleon Bonaparte was + then a child in arms. Whether his career was on the whole a fulfilment + or a contradiction of Diderot's proposition, may be disputed.</p> + + <p>And so our sketch of the great book must at length end. Let us make + one concluding remark. Is it not surprising that a man of Diderot's + speculative boldness and power should have failed to rise from the + mechanical arrangement of thought and knowledge, up to some higher and + more commanding conception of the relation between himself in the + eighteenth century, or ourselves in the nineteenth, and all those + great systems of thought, method, and belief, which in various epochs + and over different spaces of the globe have given to men working + answers to the questions that their leading spirits were moved to put + to themselves and to the iron universe around them? We constantly feel + how near Diderot is to the point of view that would have brought + light. We feel how very nearly ready he was to see the mental + experiences of the race in east and west, not as superstition, + degradation, grovelling error, but as aspects of intellectual effort + and aspiration richly worthy of human interest and scientific + consideration, and in their aim as well as in their substance all of + one piece with the newest science and the last voices of religious or + anti-religious development. Diderot was the one member of the party of + Philosophers who was capable of grasping such a thought. If this + guiding idea of the unity of the intellectual history of man, and the + organic integrity of thought, had happily come into Diderot's mind, we + should have had an Encyclopædia indeed; a survey and representation of + all the questions and answers of the world, such as would in itself + have suggested what questions are best worth putting, and at the same + time have furnished its own answers.</p> + + <p>For this the moment was not yet. An urgent social task lay before + France and before Europe; it could not be postponed until the thinkers + had worked out a scheme of philosophic completeness. The thinkers did + not seriously make any effort after this completeness. The + Encyclopædia was the most serious attempt, and it did not wholly fail. + As I replace in my shelves this mountain of volumes, "dusky and huge, + enlarging on the sight," I have a presentiment that their pages will + seldom again be disturbed by me or by others. They served a great + purpose a hundred years ago. They are now a monumental ruin, clothed + with all the profuse associations of history. It is no Ozymandias of + Egypt, king of kings, whose wrecked shape of stone and sterile + memories we contemplate. We think rather of the gray and crumbling + walls of an ancient stronghold reared by the endeavour of stout hands + and faithful, whence in its own day and generation a band once went + forth against barbarous hordes, to strike a blow for humanity and + truth.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /> + SOCIAL LIFE (1759-1770).</h2> + + <p>Any one must be ignorant of the facts who supposes that the men of + the eighteenth century who did not believe in God, and were as little + continent as King David, were therefore no better than the reckless + vagabonds of Grub Street. Diderot, after he had once settled down to + his huge task, became a very orderly person. It is true that he had an + attachment to a lady who was not his wife. Marriage was in those days, + among the courtiers and the encyclopædic circle, too habitually + regarded as merely an official relation. Provided that there was no + official desertion, and no scandal, the world had nothing to say. + Diderot was no worse than his neighbours, though we may well be sorry + that a man of his generous sympathies and fine impulse was no better + than his neighbours. Mademoiselle Voland, after proper deduction made + for the manners of the time, was of a respectable and sentimental + type. Her family were of good position; she lived with her mother and + sisters, and Diderot was on good terms with them all. We have a + glimpse of the characteristics of the three ladies in a little + dialogue between Diderot and some one whom he met, and who happened to + have made their acquaintance. "He informed me that he had passed three + months in the country where you are.—<i>Three months</i>, said he, + <i>is more than one needs to go mad about Madame Le + Gendre</i>.<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id= + "FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class= + "fnanchor">[192]</a>—True, but then she is so reserved.—<i>I scarcely + know any woman with such an amount of self-respect</i>.—She is quite + right.—<i>Madame Voland is a woman of rare merit</i>.—Yes, and her + eldest daughter?—<i>She has the cleverness of a very devil</i>.—She is + very clever, no doubt; but what I especially like is her frankness. I + would lay a wager that she has never told a voluntary lie since she + came to years of discretion."<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id= + "FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class= + "fnanchor">[193]</a> The relations between Diderot and Sophie Voland + were therefore not at all on the common footing of a low amour with a + coarse or frivolous woman of the world. All the proprieties of + appearance were scrupulously observed. Their mutual passion, though + once not wholly without its gallantries, soon took on that worthy and + decorous quality into which the ardour of valiant youth is reluctantly + softened by middle age, when we gravely comfort it with names of + philosophical compliment.</p> + + <p>One of the most interesting of all the documentary memorials of the + century is to be found in the letters which Diderot wrote to + Mademoiselle Voland. No doubt has ever been thrown on the authenticity + of these letters, and they bear ample evidence of genuineness, so far + as the substance of them is concerned, in their characteristic style. + They were first published in 1830, from manuscripts sold to the + bookseller the year before by a certain French man of letters, + Jeudy-Dugour by name. He became a naturalised Russian, changed his + name to Gouroff, and died in the position of councillor of state and + director of the university of St. Petersburg. How he came by any + papers of Diderot it is impossible to guess. It is assumed that when + Mademoiselle Voland died her family gave his letters and other papers + back to Diderot. These, along with other documents, are supposed to + have been given by Diderot to Grimm. Thence they went to the Library + of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. Whether Jeudy-Dugour sold copies + or originals, and whether he made the copies, if copies they were, + from the Library, which was, however, rigorously closed during the + reign of Nicholas I., are literary secrets which it is impossible to + fathom. So far as Diderot is concerned, some of the spirit of + mystification that haunted literature in the eighteenth century still + hovers about it in the nineteenth. This we shall presently find in a + still more interesting monument of Diderot than even his letters to + Mademoiselle Voland.<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id= + "FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class= + "fnanchor">[194]</a></p> + + <p>They are not a continuous series. It was only when either Diderot + was absent from Paris, or his correspondent was away at her mother's + house in the country, that letter-writing was necessary. Diderot + appears to have written to her openly and without disguise. The + letters of Mademoiselle Voland in reply were for obvious reasons not + sent to Diderot's house, but under cover to the office of Damilaville, + so well known to the reader of Voltaire's correspondence. Damilaville + was a commissioner in one of the revenue departments, and it is one + among many instances of the connivance between authority and its foes, + that most of the letters and packets of Voltaire, Diderot, and the + rest of the group, should have been taken in, sent out, guarded, and + franked by the head of a government office. The trouble that + Damilaville willingly took in order to serve his friends is another + example of what we have already remarked as the singular amiability + and affectionate solicitude of those times. "Think of Damilaville's + attention," says Diderot on one occasion: "to-day is Sunday, and he + was obliged to leave his office. He was sure that I should come this + evening, for I never fail when I hope for a letter from you. He left + the key with two candles on a table, and between the two candles your + little letter, and a pleasant note of his own." And by the light of + the candles Diderot at once wrote a long answer.<a name= + "FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a></p> + + <p>We need not wonder if much is said in these letters of tardy + couriers, missing answers, intolerable absences, dreary partings, + delicious anticipations. All these are the old eternal talk of men and + women, ever since the world began; without them we should hardly know + that we are reading the words of man to woman. They are in our present + case only the setting of a curiously frank and open picture of a man's + life.</p> + + <p>It is held by some that one of the best means of giving the sense + of a little fixity to lives that are but as the evanescent fabric of a + dream and the shadow of smoke, is to secure stability of topographical + centre by abiding in the same house. Diderot is one of the few who + complied with this condition. For thirty years he occupied the fourth + and fifth floors of a house which was still standing not long ago, at + the corner of the Rue Saint Benoit by the Rue Taranne, in that Paris + which our tourists leave unexplored, but which is nevertheless the + true Paris of the eighteenth century. Of the equipment of his room we + have a charming picture by the hand of its occupant. It occurs in his + playful Regrets on My Old Dressing-gown, so rich in happy and + delightful touches.</p> + + <p>"What induced me to part with it? It was made for me; I was made + for it. It moulded itself to all the turns and outlines of my body + without fretting me. I was picturesque and beautiful; its successor, + so stiff, so heavy, makes a mere mannikin of me. There was no want to + which, its complaisance did not lend itself, for indigence is ever + obsequious. Was a book covered with dust, one of the lappets offered + itself to wipe the dust away. Did the thick ink refuse to flow from + the pen, it offered a fold. You saw traced in the long black lines + upon it how many a service it had rendered me. Those long lines + announced the man of letters, the writer, the workman. And now I have + all the mien of a rich idler; you know not who I may be. I was the + absolute master of my old robe; I am the slave of my new one. The + dragon that guarded the golden fleece was not more restless than I. + Care wraps me about.</p> + + <p>"The old man who has delivered himself up bound hand and foot to + the caprices of a young giddypate, says from morning to night: Ah, + where is my old, my kind housekeeper? What demon possessed me the day + that I dismissed her for this creature? Then he sighs, he weeps. I do + not weep nor sigh; but at every moment I say: Cursed be the man who + invented the art of making common stuff precious by dyeing it scarlet! + Cursed be the costly robe that I stand in awe of! Where is my old, my + humble, my obliging piece of homespun?</p> + + <p>"That is not all, my friend. Hearken to the ravages of luxury—of a + luxury that must needs be consistent with itself. My old gown was at + one with the things about me. A straw-bottomed chair, a wooden table, + a deal shelf that held a few books, and three or four engravings, + dimmed by smoke, without a frame, nailed at the four corners to the + wall. Among the engravings three or four casts in plaster were hung + up; they formed, with my old dressing-gown, the most harmonious + indigence. All has become discord. No more <i>ensemble</i>, no more + unity, no more beauty.</p> + + <p>"The woman who comes into the house of a widower, the minister who + steps into the place of a statesman in disgrace, the molinist bishop + who gets hold of the diocese of a jansenist bishop—none of these + people cause more trouble than the intruding scarlet has caused to + me.</p> + + <p>"I can bear without disgust the sight of a peasant-woman. The bit + of coarse canvas that covers her head, the hair falling about her + cheeks, the rags that only half cover her, the poor short skirt that + goes no more than half-way down her legs, the naked feet covered with + mud —all these things do not wound me; 'tis the image of a condition + that I respect, 'tis the sign and summary of a state that is + inevitable, that is woful, and that I pity with all my heart. But my + gorge rises, and in spite of the scented air that follows her, I turn + my eyes from the courtesan, whose fine lace head-gear and torn cuffs, + white stockings and worn-out shoes, show me the misery of the day in + company with the opulence of last night. Such would my house have + been, if the imperious scarlet had not forced all into harmony with + itself. I had two engravings that were not without merit, Poussin's + Manna in the Wilderness, and the same painter's Esther before + Ahasuerus; the one is driven out in shame by some old man of Rubens's, + the Fall of the Manna is scattered to the winds by a Storm of + Vernet's. The old straw chair is banished to the ante-room by a + luxurious thing of morocco. Homer, Virgil, Horace, Cicero, have been + taken from their shelf and shut up in a case of grand marqueterie + work, an asylum worthier of them than of me. The wooden table still + held its ground, protected by a vast pile of pamphlets and papers + heaped pell-mell upon it; they seemed as if they would long protect it + from its doom. Yet one day that too was mastered by fate, and in spite + of my idleness pamphlets and papers went to arrange themselves in the + shelves of a costly bureau....It was thus that the edifying retreat of + the philosopher became transformed into the scandalous cabinet of the + farmer-general. Thus I too am insulting the national misery.</p> + + <p>"Of my early mediocrity there remained only a list carpet. The + shabby carpet hardly matches with my luxury. I feel it. But I have + sworn and I swear that I will keep this carpet, as the peasant, who + was raised from the hut to the palace of his sovereign, still kept his + wooden shoes. When in a morning, clad in the sumptuous scarlet, I + enter my room, if I lower my eyes I perceive my old list carpet; it + recalls to me my early state, and rising pride stands checked. No, my + friend, I am not corrupted. My door is open as ever to want; it finds + me affable as ever; I listen to its tale, I counsel, I pity, I succour + it." ...</p> + + <p>Yet the interior of Socrates-Diderot was as little blessed by + domestic sympathy as the interior of the older and greater Socrates. + Of course Diderot was far enough from being faultless. His wife is + described by Rousseau as a shrew and a scold. It is too plain that she + was so; sullen to her husband, impatient with her children, and + exacting and unreasonable with her servants.<a name="FNanchor_196_196" + id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class= + "fnanchor">[196]</a> We cannot pretend accurately to divide the blame. + The companionship was very dreary, and the picture grievous and most + afflicting to our thoughts. Diderot returns in the evening from + Holbach's, throws his carpet-bag in at the door, flies off to seek a + letter from Mademoiselle Voland, writes one to her, gets back to his + house at midnight, finds his daughter ill, puts cheerful and cordial + questions to his wife, she replies with a tartness that drives him + back into silence.<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id= + "FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class= + "fnanchor">[197]</a> Another time the scene is violent. A torrent of + injustice and unreasonableness flows over him for two long hours, and + he wonders what the woman will profit, after she has made him burst a + blood-vessel; he groans in anguish, "Ah, how hard life seems to me to + bear! How many a time would I accept the end of it with joy!"<a name= + "FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> So sharp are the goads + in a divided house; so sorely, with ache and smart and deep-welling + tears, do men and women rend into shreds the fine web of one another's + lives. But the pity of it, O the pity of it!</p> + + <p>There are many brighter intervals which make one willing to suppose + that if the wife had been a little more patient, more tolerant, more + cheerful, less severely addicted to her sterile superstition, there + might have been somewhat more happiness in the house. One misery of + the present social ideal of women is that, while it keeps them so + systematically ignorant, superstitious, and narrow, it leaves them + without humility. "Be content," said the great John Wesley to his + froward wife, "be content to be a private insignificant person, known + and loved by God and me. Of what importance is your character to + mankind? If you was buried just now, or if you had never lived, what + loss would it be to the cause of God?" This energetic remonstrance can + hardly be said to exhaust the matter. Still it puts a wholesome side + of the case which Madame Diderot missed, and which better persons are + likely to miss, so long as the exclusion of women, by common opinion + or by law, from an active participation in the settlement of great + issues, makes them indifferent to all interests outside domestic + egoism, and egoistic and personal religion. Brighter intervals shone + in the household. "I announced my departure," writes Diderot, "for + next Tuesday. At the first word I saw the faces both of mother and + daughter fall. The child had a compliment for my fête-day all ready, + and it would not do to let her waste the trouble of having learnt it. + The mother had projected a grand dinner for Sunday. Well, we arranged + everything perfectly. I made my journey, and came back to be harangued + and feasted. The poor child made her little speech in the most + bewitching way. In the middle there came some hard words, so she + stopped and said to me, 'My papa, 'tis because my two front teeth have + come out'—as was true. Then she went on. At the end, as she had a posy + to give me, and it could not be found, she stopped a second time to + say to me—'Here's the worst of the tale; my pinks have got lost.' Then + she started off in search of her flowers. We dined in great style. My + wife had got all her friends together. I was very gay, eating, + drinking, and doing the honours of my table to perfection. On rising + from table I stayed among them and played cards instead of going out. + I saw them all off between eleven and twelve: I was charming, and if + you only knew with whom; what physiognomies, what folk, what + talk!"</p> + + <p>Another time the child, whispering in his ear, asks why her mother + bade her not remind him that the morrow was the mother's fête-day. The + presence of the blithe all-hoping young, looking on with innocent + unconscious eyes at the veiled tragedy of love turned to bitter + discord, gives to such scenes their last touch of piteousness. + Diderot, however, observed the day, and presented a bouquet which was + neither well or ill received. At the birthday dinner the master of the + house presided. "If you had been behind the curtains, you would have + said to yourself, how can all this gossip and twaddle find a place in + the same head with certain ideas! And in truth I was charming, and + played the fool to a marvel."<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id= + "FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class= + "fnanchor">[199]</a></p> + + <p>In the midst of distractions great and small, was an indomitable + industry. "I tell you," he wrote, "and I tell all men, when you are + ill at ease with yourself, instantly set about some good work. In + busying myself to soothe the trouble of another, I forget my own." He + was assiduous in teaching his daughter, though he complained that her + mother crushed out in a day what it had taken him a month to implant. + The booksellers found him the most cheerful and strenuous bondsman + that ever booksellers had. He would pass a whole month without a day's + break, working ten hours every day at the revision of proof-sheets. + Sometimes he remains a whole week without leaving his workroom. He + wears out his eyes over plates and diagrams, bristling with figures + and letters, and with no more refreshing thought in the midst of this + sore toil than that insult, persecution, torment, trickery, will be + the fruit of it. He not only spent whole days bent over his desk, + until he had a feeling as of burning flame within him; he also worked + through the hours of the night. On one of these occasions, worn out + with fatigue and weariness, he fell asleep with his head on his desk; + the light fell down among his papers, and he awoke to find half the + books and papers on the desk burnt to ashes. "I kept my own counsel + about it," he writes, "because a single hint of such an accident would + have robbed my wife of sleep for the rest of her life."<a name= + "FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a></p> + + <p>His favourite form of holiday was a visit to Holbach's country + house at Grandval. Here he spent some six weeks or more nearly every + autumn after 1759. The manner of life there was delightful to him. + There was perfect freedom, the mistress of the house neither rendering + strict duties of ceremony nor exacting them. Diderot used to rise at + six or at eight, and remain in his own room until one, reading, + writing, meditating. Nobody was more exquisitely sensible than Diderot + to the charm of loitering over books, "over those authors," as he + said, "who ravish us from ourselves, in whose hands nature has placed + a fairy wand, with which they no sooner touch us, than straightway we + forget the evils of life, the darkness lifts from our souls, and we + are reconciled to existence."<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id= + "FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class= + "fnanchor">[201]</a> The musing suggestiveness of reading when we read + only for reading's sake, and not for reproduction nor direct use, was + as delightful to our laborious drudge as to others, but he could + indulge himself with little of this sweet idleness. It was in harder + labour that he passed most of his mornings. These hours of work + achieved, he dressed and went down among his friends. Then came the + mid-day dinner, which was sumptuous; host and guests both ate and + drank more than was good for their health. After a short siesta, + towards four o'clock they took their sticks and went forth to walk, + among woods, over ploughed fields, up hills, through quagmires, + delighting in nature. As they went, they talked of history, or + politics, or chemistry, of literature, or physics, or morality. At + sundown they returned, to find lights and cards on the tables, and + they made parties of piquet, interrupted by supper. At half-past ten + the game ends, they chat until eleven, and in half an hour more they + are all fast asleep.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id= + "FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class= + "fnanchor">[202]</a> Each day was like the next; industry, gaiety, + bodily comfort, mental activity, diversifying the hours. Grimm was + often there, "the most French of all the Germans," and Galiani, the + most nimble-witted of men, inexhaustible in story, inimitable in + pantomimic narration, and yet with the keenest intellectual + penetration shining through all his Neapolitan prank and buffoonery. + Holbach cared most for the physical sciences. Marmontel brought a vein + of sentimentalism, and Helvétius a vein of cynical formalism. Diderot + played Socrates, Panurge, Pantophile; questioning, instructing, + combining; pouring out knowledge and suggestion, full of interest in + every subject, sympathetic with every vein, relishing alike the newest + philosophic hardihood, the last too merry mood of Holbach's + mother-in-law, the freshest piece of news brought by a traveller. It + was not at Grandval that he found life hard to bear, or would have + accepted its close with joy. And indeed if one could by miracle be + transported back into the sixth decade of that dead century for a + single day, perhaps one might choose that such a day should be passed + among the energetic and vivid men who walked of an afternoon among the + fields and woods of Grandval.</p> + + <p>The unblushing grossness of speech which even the ladies of the + party permitted themselves cannot be reproduced in the decorous print + of our age. It is nothing less than inconceivable to us how Diderot + can have brought himself to write down, in letters addressed to a + woman of good education and decent manners, some of the talk that went + on at Grandval. The coarsest schoolboy of these days would wince at + such shameless freedoms. But it would be wrong to forget the allowance + that must be made for differences in point of fashion. Diderot, for + instance, in these very letters is wonderfully frank in his exposure + of the details of his health. He describes his indigestions, and other + more indescribable obstructions to happiness, as freely as Cicero + wrote about the dysentery which punished him, when, after he had + resisted oysters and lampreys at supper, he yielded to a dish of beet + and mallow so dressed with pot-herbs, <i>ut nil posset esse + suavius</i>. Whatever men could say to one another or to their + surgeons they saw no harm in saying to women. We have to remember how + Sir Walter Scott's great-aunt, about the very time when Diderot was + writing to Mademoiselle Voland, had heard Mrs. Aphra Behn's books read + aloud for the amusement of large circles, consisting of the first and + most creditable society in London. We think of Swift, in an earlier + period of the century, enclosing to Stella some recklessly gross + verses of his own upon Bolingbroke, and habitually writing to fine + ladies in a way that Falstaff might have thought too bad for Doll + Tearsheet. In saying that these coarse impurities are only points of + manners, we are as far as possible from meaning that they are on that + account unimportant. But it is childish to waste our time in + censorious judgment on the individual who does no worse than represent + a ruling type. We can only note the difference and pass on.</p> + + <p>A characteristic trait in this rural life is Diderot's passion for + high winds. They gave him a transport, and to hear the storm at night, + tossing the trees, drenching the ground with rain, and filling the air + with the bass of its hoarse ground-tones, was one of his keenest + delights.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> Yet Diderot was not of + those in whom the feeling for the great effects of nature has + something of savagery. He was above all things human, and the human + lot was the central source of his innermost meditations. In the midst + of gossip is constantly interpolated some passage of fine reflection + on life—reflection as sincere, as real, coming as spontaneously from + the writer's inmost mood and genuine sentiment, as little tainted + either by affectation or by commonness, as ever passed through the + mind of a man. Some of these are too characteristic to be omitted, and + there is so little of what is exquisite in the flavour of Diderot's + style, that he perhaps suffers less from the clumsiness of translation + than writers of finer colour or more stirring melody. One of these + passages is as follows:—</p> + + <p>"The last news from Paris has made the Baron anxious, as he has + considerable sums in royal securities. He said to his wife: 'Listen, + my friend; if this is going on, I put down the carriage, I buy you a + good cloak and a good parasol, and for the rest of our days we will + bless the minister for ridding us of horses, lackeys, coachmen, + ladies'-maids, cooks, great dinner-parties, false friends, tiresome + bores, and all the other privileges of opulence.' And for my part I + began to think, that for a man without a wife or child, or any of + those connections that make us long for money, and never leave any + superfluity, it would be almost indifferent whether he were poor or + rich. This paradox comes of the equality that I discover among various + conditions of life, and in the little difference that I allow, in + point of happiness, between the master of the house and the + hall-porter. If I am sound in mind and body, if I have worth and a + pure conscience, if I know the true from the false, if I avoid evil + and do good, if I feel the dignity of my being, if nothing lowers me + in my own eyes, then people may call me what they will, <i>My + Lord,</i> or <i>Sirrah</i>. To do what is good, to know what is + true—that is what distinguishes one man from another; the rest is + nothing. The duration of life is so short, its true needs are so + narrow, and when we go away, it all matters so little whether we have + been somebody or nobody. When the end comes, all that you want is a + sorry piece of canvas and four deal boards. In the morning I hear the + labourers under my window. Scarce has the day dawned before they are + at work with spade and barrow, delving and wheeling. They munch a + crust of black bread; they quench their thirst at the flowing stream; + at noon they snatch an hour of sleep on the hard ground. They are + cheerful; they sing as they work; they exchange their good broad + pleasantries with one another; they shout with laughter. At sundown + they go home to find their children naked round a smoke-blackened + hearth, a woman hideous and dirty, and their lot is neither worse nor + better than mine. I came down from my room in bad spirits; I heard + talk about the public misery; I sat down to a table full of good cheer + without an appetite; I had a stomach overloaded with the dainties of + the day before; I grasped a stick and set out for a walk to find + relief; I returned to play cards, and cheat the heavy-weighing hours. + I had a friend of whom I could not hear; I was far from a woman whom I + sighed for. Troubles in the country, troubles in the town, troubles + everywhere. He who knows not trouble is not to be counted among the + children of men. All gets paid off in time; the good by the evil, evil + by good, and life is naught. Perhaps to-morrow night or Monday morning + we may go to pass a day in town; so I shall see the woman for whom I + sighed, and recover the man of whom I could not hear. But I shall lose + them the next day; and the more I feel the happiness of being with + them, the worse I shall suffer at parting. That is the way that all + things go. Turn and turn and turn again; there is ever a crumpled + rose-leaf to vex you."<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id= + "FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class= + "fnanchor">[204]</a></p> + + <p>It is not often that we find such active benevolence as Diderot's, + in conjunction with such a vein of philosophy as follows:—</p> + + <p>"Ah, what a fine comedy this world would be, if only one had not to + play a part in it; if one existed, for instance, in some point of + space, in that interval of the celestial orbs where the gods of + Epicurus slumber, far, far away, whence one could see this globe, on + which we strut so big, about the size of a pumpkin, and whence one + could watch all the airs and tricks of that two-footed mite who calls + itself man. I would fain only look at the scenes of life in reduced + size, so that those which are stamped with atrocity may be brought + down to an inch in space, and to actors half a line high. But how + bizarre, that our sense of revolt against injustice is in the ratio of + the space and the mass. I am furious if a large animal unjustly + attacks another. I feel nothing at all if it is two atoms that tear + and rend. How our senses affect our morality. There is a fine text for + philosophising!"<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id= + "FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class= + "fnanchor">[205]</a></p> + + <p>"What I see every day of physic and physicians does not much + heighten my opinion of them. To come into the world in imbecility, in + the midst of anguish and cries; to be the toy of ignorance, of error, + of necessity, of sickness, of malice, of all passions; to return step + by step to that imbecility whence one sprang; from the moment when we + lisp our first words, down to the moment when we mumble the words of + our dotage, to live among rascals and charlatans of every kind; to lie + expiring between a man who feels your pulse, and another man who frets + and wearies your head; not to know whence one comes, nor why one has + come, nor whither one is going—that is what we call the greatest gift + of our parents and of nature—human life."<a name="FNanchor_206_206" + id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class= + "fnanchor">[206]</a></p> + + <p>These sombre meditations hardly represent Diderot's habitual vein; + they are rather a reaction and a relief from the busy intensity with + which he watches the scene, and is constantly putting interrogatories + to human life, as day by day its motley circumstance passes before his + eyes. We should scarcely suspect from his frequent repetitions of the + mournful eternal chorus of the nullity of man and the vanity of all + the things that are under the sun, how alert a watch he kept on + incident and character, with what keen and open ear he listened for + any curious note of pain, or voice of fine emotion, or odd perversity + of fate. All this he does, not in the hard temper of a Balzac, not + with the calm or pride of a Goethe, but with an overflowing fulness of + spontaneous and uncontrollable sympathy. He is a sentimentalist in the + rationalistic century, not with the sentimentalism of misanthropy, + such as fired or soured Rousseau, but social, large-hearted, + many-sided, careless of the wise rigours of morality. He is never + callous nor neutral; on the contrary, he is always approving or + disapproving, but not from the standards of the ethical text-books. + The casuistry of feeling is of everlasting interest to him, and he is + never tired of inventing imaginary cases, or pondering real ones, in + which pliant feeling is invoked against the narrowness of duty. These + are mostly in a kind of matter which modern taste hardly allows us to + reproduce; nor, after all, is there much to be gained by turning the + sanctities of human relationship, with all their immeasurable bliss, + their immeasurable woe, into the playthings of an idle dialectic. It + is pleasanter, and for us English not less instructive than pleasant, + to see this dreaming, restless, thrice ingenious spirit, half Titan of + the skies, half gnome of the lower earth, entering joyously or + pitifully into the simple charm and natural tenderness of life as it + comes and passes. Nothing delights him more than to hear or to tell + such a story as this of Madame D'Epinay. She had given a small lad + eighteen sous for a day's work. At night he went home without a + farthing. When his mother asked him whether they had given him nothing + for his work, he said No. The mother found out that this was untrue, + and insisted on knowing what had become of the eighteen sous. The poor + little creature had given them to an alehouse-keeper, where his father + had been drinking all day; and so he had spared the worthy man a rough + scene with his wife when he got home.<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id= + "FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class= + "fnanchor">[207]</a></p> + + <p>From the pathos of kindly youth to the grace of lovable age the + step is not far. "To-day I have dined with a charming woman, who is + only eighty years old. She is full of health and cheerfulness; her + soul is still all gentleness and tenderness. She talks of love and + friendship with the fire and sensibility of a girl of twenty. There + were three men of us at table with her; she said to us, 'My friends, a + delicate conversation, a true and passionate look, a tear, a touched + expression, those are the good things of the world; as for all + besides, it is hardly worth talking of. There are certain things that + were said to me when I was young, and that I remember to this day, and + any one of those words is to be preferred before ten glorious deeds: + by my faith, I believe if I heard them even now, my old heart would + beat the quicker.' 'Madame, the reason is that your heart has grown no + older.' 'No, my son, you are right; it is as young as ever. It is not + for having kept me alive so long that I thank God, but for having kept + me kind-hearted, gentle, and full of feeling.'"<a name= + "FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> All this was after</p> + + <p>Diderot's own heart, and he declares such a conversation to be + worth more than all the hours of talk on politics and philosophy that + he had been having a few days before with some English friends. We may + understand how, as we shall presently see, a member of a society that + could relish the beauty of such a scene, would be likely to think + Englishmen hard, surly, and cheerless.</p> + + <p>His letters constantly offer us sensible and imaginative + reflection. He amused himself in some country village by talking to an + old man of eighty. "I love children and old men; the latter seem to me + like some singular creatures that have been spared by caprice of + fate." He meets some old schoolfellows at Langres, nearly all the rest + having gone: "Well, there are two things that warn us of our end, and + set us musing—old ruins, and the short duration of those who began + life with us." He is taken by a host over-devoted to such joys, to + walk among dung-heaps. "After all," he says, "it ought not to offend + one's sense. To an honest nose that has preserved its natural + innocence, 'tis not a goat, but a bemusked and ambre-scented woman, + who smelleth ill."</p> + + <p>"When I compare our friendships to our antipathies, I find that the + first are thin, small, pinched; we know how to hate, but we do not + know how to love."</p> + + <p>"A poet who becomes idle, does excellently well to be idle; he + ought to be sure that it is not industry that fails, but that his gift + is departing from him."</p> + + <p>"Comfort the miserable; that is the true way to console yourself + for my absence. I recollect saying to the Baron, when he lost his + first wife, and was sure that there was not another day's happiness + left for him in this world, 'Hasten out of doors, seek out the + wretched, console them, and then you will pity yourself, if you + dare.'"<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p> + + <p>"An infinitude of tyrannical things interpose between us and the + duties of love and friendship; and we do nothing aright. A man is + neither free for his ambition, nor free for his taste, nor free for + his passion. And so we all live discontented with ourselves. One of + the great inconveniences of the state of society is the multitude of + our occupations and, above all, the levity with which we make + engagements to dispose of all our future happiness. We marry, we go + into business, we have children, all before we have common + sense."<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a></p> + + <p>After some equivocal speculations as to the conduct of a woman who, + by the surrender of herself for a quarter of an hour to the desires of + a powerful minister, wins an appointment for her husband and bread for + her six children, he exclaims: "In truth, I think Nature heeds neither + good nor evil; she is wholly wrapped up in two objects, the + preservation of the individual and the propagation of the + species."<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> True; but the moral + distinction between right and wrong is so much wrung from the forces + that Diderot here calls Nature.</p> + + <p>The intellectual excitement in which he lived and the energy with + which he promoted it, sought relief either in calm or else in the play + of sensibility. "A delicious repose," he writes in one of his most + harassed moments, "a sweet book to read, a walk in some open and + solitary spot, a conversation in which one discloses all one's heart, + a strong emotion that brings the tears to one's eyes and makes the + heart beat faster, whether it comes of some tale of generous action, + or of a sentiment of tenderness, of health, of gaiety, of liberty, of + indolence—there is the true happiness, nor shall I ever know any + other."</p> + + <p><i>A Point in Rhetoric.</i>—"Towards six in the evening the party + broke up. I remained alone with D., and as we were talking about the + Eloges on Descartes that had been sent in to the Academy, I made two + remarks that pleased him upon eloquence. One, that it is a mistake to + try to stir the passions before convincing the reason, and that the + pathetic remains without effect, when it is not prepared by the + syllogism. Second, that after the orator had touched me keenly, I + could not endure that he should break in upon this melting of the soul + with some violent stroke: that the pathetic insists on being followed + by something moderate, weak, vague, that should leave room for no + contention on my part."<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id= + "FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class= + "fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + + <p><i>Holbach's Impressions of England.</i>—"The Baron has returned + from England. He started with the pleasantest anticipations, he had a + most agreeable reception, he had excellent health, and yet he has + returned out of humour and discontented; discontented with the + country, which he found neither as populous nor as well cultivated as + people say; discontented with the buildings, that are nearly all + bizarre and Gothic; with the gardens, where the affectation of + imitating nature is worse than the monotonous symmetry of art; with + the taste that heaps up in the palaces what is first-rate, what is + good, what is bad, what is detestable, all pell-mell. He is disgusted + at the amusements, which have the air of religious ceremonies; with + the men, on whose countenances you never see confidence, friendship, + gaiety, sociability, but on every face the inscription, <i>'What is + there in common between me and you?'</i>; disgusted with the great + people, who are gloomy, cold, proud, haughty, and vain; and with the + small people, who are hard, insolent, and barbarous. The only thing + that I have heard him praise is the facility of travel: he says there + is not a village, even on a cross-road, where you do not find four or + five post-chaises and a score of horses ready to start.... There is no + public education. The colleges—sumptuous buildings—palaces to be + compared to the Tuileries, are occupied by rich idlers, who sleep and + get drunk one part of the day, and the rest they spend in training, + clumsily enough, a parcel of uncouth lads to be clergymen.... In the + fine places that have been built for public amusements, you could hear + a mouse run. A hundred stiff and silent women walk round and round an + orchestra that is set up in the middle. The Baron compares these + circuits to the seven processions of the Egyptians round the tomb of + Osiris. A charming <i>mot</i> of my good friend Garrick, is that + London is good for the English, but Paris is good for all the + world.... There is a great mania for conversions and missionaries. Mr. + Hume told me a story which will let you know what to think of these + pretended conversions of cannibals and Hurons. A minister thought he + had done a great stroke in this line; he had the vanity to wish to + show his proselyte, and brought him to London. They question his + little Huron, and he answers to perfection. They take him to church, + and administer the sacrament, where, as you know, the communion is in + both kinds. Afterwards, the minister says to him, 'Well, my son, do + you not feel yourself more animated with the love of God? Does not the + grace of the sacrament work within you? Is not all your soul warmed?' + 'Yes,' says the Huron: 'the wine does one good, but I think it would + have done still better if it had been brandy.'"<a name= + "FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> + + <p><i>Two Cases of Conscience</i>.—"The curé said that unhappy lovers + always talked about dying, but that it was very rare to find one who + kept his word; still he had seen one case. It was that of a young man + of family, called Soulpse. He fell in love with a young lady of beauty + and of good character, but without money, and belonging to a + dishonoured family. Her father was in the galleys for forgery. The + young man, who foresaw all the opposition, and all the good grounds + for opposition, that he would have to encounter among his family, did + all that he could to cure himself of his passion; but when he was + assured of the uselessness of his efforts, he plucked up courage to + open the matter to his parents, who wearied themselves with + remonstrances. Our lover suddenly stopped them short, saying, 'I know + all that you have to say against me; I cannot disapprove of your + reasons, which I should be the first to urge against my own son, if I + had one. But consider whether you would rather have me dead or badly + married; for it is certain that if I do not marry the woman that I + love, I shall die of it.' They treated this speech as it deserved; the + result does not affect that. The young man fell sick, faded from day + to day, and died. 'But, Curé,' said I, 'in the place of the father, + what would you have done?' 'I would have called my son; I would have + said: Soulpse has been your name hitherto; never forget that it is + yours no more; and call yourself by what other name you please. Here + is your lawful share of our property; marry the woman you love, so far + from here that I may never hear speak of you again, and God bless you. + 'For my part,' said old Madame D'Esclavelles, 'if I had been the + mother of the young madman, I would have done exactly as his father + did, and let him die.' And upon this there was a tremendous division + of opinion, and an uproar that made the room ring again.</p> + + <p>"The dispute lasted a long time, and would be going on now if the + cure had not broken it off by putting to us another case. A young + priest, discontented with his profession, flees to England, + apostatises, marries according to the law, and has children. After a + certain time he longs for his native country; he comes back to France + with his children and his wife. After that, again, he is stricken by + remorse; he returns to his religion, has scruples about his marriage, + and thinks of separating from his wife. He opens his heart to our + curé, who finds the case very embarrassing, and not venturing to + decide it, refers him to casuists and lawyers. They all decide that he + cannot, with a sure conscience, remain with his wife. When the + separation, which the wife opposed with all her might, was about to be + legally effected—rather against the wishes of our curé—the husband + fell dangerously ill. When he knew that he could not recover, he said + to the curé: 'My friend, I wish to make public amends for my + backsliding, to receive the sacraments, and to die in the hospital; be + kind enough to have me taken there.' 'I will take care to do no such + thing,' the curé replied to him. 'This woman is innocent; she married + you according to law; she knew nothing of the obstacles that existed. + And these children, what share have they in your sin? You are the only + wrongdoer, and it is they who are to be punished! Your wife will be + disgraced, your children will be declared illegitimate, and what is + the gain of it all?' And the good curé stuck to his text. He confessed + his man, the illness grew worse, he administered the last sacraments. + The man died, and his wife and children remained in possession of the + titles they had. We all approved the curé's wisdom, and Grimm insisted + on having his portrait taken."<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id= + "FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class= + "fnanchor">[214]</a></p> + + <p><i>Chinese Superiority</i>.—-"Apropos of the Chinese, do you know + that with them nobility ascends, and descends never? It is the + children who ennoble their ancestors, and not the ancestors the + children. And upon my word that is most sensible. We are greater + poets, greater philosophers, greater orators, greater architects, + greater astronomers, greater geometers, than these good people; but + they understand better than we the science of good sense and virtue; + and if peradventure that science should happen to be the first of all + sciences, they would be right in saying that they have two eyes and we + have only one, and all the rest of the world is blind."<a name= + "FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + + <p><i>Why Women write good Letters</i>.—"She writes admirably, really + admirably. That is because good style is in the heart; and that is why + so many women talk and write like angels without ever having learnt + either to talk or to write, and why so many pedants will both talk and + write ill all the days of their life, though they were never weary of + studying,—only without learning."<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id= + "FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class= + "fnanchor">[216]</a></p> + + <p>"A little adventure has just happened here that proves that all our + fine sermons on intolerance have as yet produced but poor fruit. A + young man of respectable birth, some say apprentice to an apothecary, + others to a grocer, took it into his head to go through a course of + chemistry; his master consented, on condition that he should pay for + board; the lad agreed. At the end of the quarter the master demanded + the money, and it was paid. Soon after, another demand from the + master; the apprentice replied that he barely owed a single quarter. + The master denied that the first quarter had been paid. The affair was + taken into court. The master is put on his oath, and swears. He had no + sooner perjured himself than the apprentice produced his receipt, and + the master was straightway fined and disgraced. He was a scoundrel who + deserved it, but the apprentice was a rash fellow, whose victory was + bought at a price dearer than life. He had received, in payment or + otherwise, from some colporteur, two copies of <i>Christianity + Unveiled</i>, and one of them he had sold to his master. The master + informs against him. The colporteur, his wife, and his apprentice, are + all three arrested, and they have just been pilloried, whipped, and + branded, and the apprentice condemned to nine years of the galleys, + the colporteur to five years, and the woman to the hospital for + life.... Do you see the meaning of this judgment? A colporteur brings + me a prohibited book. If I buy more than one copy, I am declared to be + encouraging unlawful trading, and exposed to a frightful prosecution. + You have read the <i>Man with Forty Crowns</i>,<a name= + "FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> and will hardly be able + to guess why it is placed under the ban in the judgment I am telling + you of. It is in consequence of the profound resentment that our lords + and masters feel about a certain article, <i>Tyrant</i>, in the + <i>Philosophical Dictionary</i>. They will never forgive Voltaire for + saying that it was better to have to do with a single wild beast, + which one could avoid, than with a band of little subaltern tigers who + are incessantly getting between your legs.... To return to those two + unfortunate wretches whom they have condemned to the galleys. When + they come out, what will become of them? There will be nothing left + for them to do, save to turn highway robbers. The ignominious + penalties, which take away all resource from a man, are worse than the + capital punishment that takes away his life."<a name= + "FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a></p> + + <p><i>Method and Genius: an Apologue.</i>—"There was a question + between Grimm and M. Le Roy of creative genius and co-ordinating + method. Grimm detests method; according to him, it is the pedantry of + letters. Those who can only arrange, would do as well to remain idle; + those who can only get instruction from what has been arranged, would + do as well to remain ignorant. What necessity is there for so many + people knowing anything else besides their trade? They said a great + many things that I don't report to you, and they would be saying + things still, if the Abbé Galiani had not interrupted them:</p> + + <p>'My friends, I remember a fable: pray listen to it. One day, in the + depths of a forest, a dispute arose between a Nightingale and a + Cuckoo. Each prizes its own gift. What bird, said the Cuckoo, has a + song so easy, so simple, so natural, so measured, as mine?</p> + + <p>What bird, said the Nightingale, has a song sweeter, more varied, + more brilliant, more touching, than mine?</p> + + <p><i>The Cuckoo:</i> I say few things, but they are things of weight, + of order, and people retain them.</p> + + <p><i>The Nightingale:</i> I love to use my voice, but I am always + fresh, and I never weary. I enchant the woods; the Cuckoo makes them + dismal. He is so attached to the lessons of his mother, that he would + not dare to venture a single note that he had not taken from her. Now + for me, I recognise no master. I laugh at rules. What comparison + between his pedantic method and my glorious bursts?</p> + + <p>The Cuckoo tried several times to interrupt the Nightingale. But + nightingales always go on singing, and never listen; that is rather + their weakness. Ours, carried away by his ideas, followed them with + rapidity, without paying the least attention to the answers of his + rival.</p> + + <p>So after some talk and counter-talk, they agreed to refer their + quarrel to the judgment of a third animal. But where were they to find + this third, equally competent and impartial? It is not so easy to find + a good judge. They sought on every side. As they crossed a meadow, + they spied an Ass, one of the gravest and most solemn that ever was + seen. Since the creation of the world, no ass had ever had such long + ears. 'Ah,' said the Cuckoo, 'our luck is excellent; our quarrel is a + matter of ears: here is our judge. God Almighty made him for the very + purpose!'</p> + + <p>The Ass went on browsing. He little thought that one day he would + have to decide a question of music. But Providence amuses itself with + this and many another thing. Our two birds bow very low, compliment + him upon his gravity and his judgment, explain the subject of their + dispute, and beseech him, with all deference, to listen to their case + and decide.</p> + + <p>But the Ass, hardly turning his heavy head and without losing a + single toothsome blade, makes them a sign with his ears that he is + hungry, and that he does not hold his court to-day. The birds persist; + the Ass goes on browsing. At last his hunger was appeased. There were + some trees planted by the edge of the meadow. 'Now, if you like,' said + he, 'you go there, I will follow; you shall sing, I will digest; I + will listen, and I'll give you my opinion.'</p> + + <p>The birds instantly fly away, and perch on branches. The Ass + follows them with the air and the step of a chief justice crossing + Westminster Hall: he stretches himself flat on the ground, and says, + 'Begin, the court listens.'</p> + + <p>Says the Cuckoo: 'My lord, there is not a word to lose. I beg of + you to seize carefully the character of my singing; above all things, + deign, my lord, to mark its artifice and its method.' Then filling its + throat, and flapping its wings at each note, it sang out, 'Coucou, + coucou, coucou, coucou, coucou, coucou.' And after having combined + this in every possible way, it fell silent.</p> + + <p>The Nightingale, without any prelude, pours forth his voice at + once, launches into the most daring modulations, pursues the freshest + and most delicate melodies, cadences, pauses, and trills; now you + heard the notes murmuring at the bottom of its throat, like the ripple + of the brook as it loses itself among the pebbles; now you heard them + rising and gradually swelling and filling the air, and lingering + long-drawn in the skies. It was tender, glad, brilliant, pathetic; but + his music was not made for everybody.</p> + + <p>Carried away by enthusiasm, he would be singing still; but the Ass, + who had already yawned more than once, stopped him, and said, 'I + suspect that all you have been singing there is uncommonly fine, but I + don't understand a word of it: it strikes me as bizarre, incoherent, + and confused. It may be you are more scientific than your rival; but + he is more methodic than you, and for my part, I'm for method.'</p> + + <p>"And then the abbé, addressing M. Le Roy, and pointing to Grimm + with his finger: 'There,' he said, 'is the nightingale, and you the + cuckoo; and I am the ass, who decide in your favour. Good-night.'</p> + + <p>"The abbés stories are capital, but he acts in a way that makes + them better still. You would have died with laughing to see him + stretch his neck into the air, and imitate the fine note of the + nightingale, then fill his throat, and take up the hoarse tone for the + cuckoo; and all that naturally, and without effort. He is pantomime + from head to foot."<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id= + "FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class= + "fnanchor">[219]</a></p> + + <p><i>Conversation.</i>—"'Tis a singular thing, conversation, + especially when the company is tolerably large. Look at the roundabout + circuits we took; the dreams of a patient in delirium are not more + incongruous. Still, just as there is nothing absolutely unconnected in + the head either of a man who dreams, or of a lunatic, so all hangs + together in conversation; but it would often be extremely hard to find + the imperceptible links that have brought so many disparate ideas + together. A man lets fall a word which he detaches from what has gone + before, and what has followed in his head; another does the same, and + then let him catch the thread who can. A single physical quality may + lead the mind that is engaged upon it to an infinity of different + things. Take a colour—yellow, for instance; gold is yellow, silk is + yellow, care is yellow, bile is yellow, straw is yellow; to how many + other threads does not this thread answer? Madness, dreaming, the + rambling of conversation, all consist in passing from one object to + another, through the medium of some common quality."<a name= + "FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p> + + <p><i>Annihilation.</i>—"The conversation took a serious turn. They + spoke of the horror that we all feel for annihilation.</p> + + <p>"'Ah,' cried Father Hoop, 'be good enough to leave me out, if you + please. I have been too uncomfortable the first time to have any wish + to come back. If they would give me an immortality of bliss for a + single day of purgatory, I would not take it. The best that can befall + us is to cease to be.'</p> + + <p>"This set me musing, and it seemed to me that so long as I was in + good health I should agree with Father Hoop; but that, at the last + instant, I should perhaps purchase the happiness of living again by a + thousand, nay, ten thousand, years of hell. Ah, my dear, if I thought + that I should see you again, I should soon persuade myself of what a + daughter once succeeded in persuading her father on his deathbed. He + was an old usurer; a priest had sworn to him that he would be damned + unless he made restitution. He resolved to comply, and calling his + daughter to his bedside, said to her: 'My child, you thought I should + leave you very rich, and so I should; but the man there insists that I + shall burn in hell-fire for ever, if I die without making + restitution.' 'You are talking nonsense, father, with your restitution + and your damnation,' the daughter answered; 'with your character I you + will not have been damned ten years, before you will be perfectly used + to it.'</p> + + <p>"This struck him as true, and he died without making + restitution.</p> + + <p>"And so behold us launched into a discussion on life and death, on + the world and its alleged Creator.</p> + + <p>"Some one remarked that whether there be a God or no, it is + impossible to introduce that device either into nature or into a + discussion without darkening it.</p> + + <p>"Another said that if a single supposition explained all the + phenomena, it would not follow from this that it is true; for who + knows whether the general order only allows of one reason? What, then, + must we think of a supposition which, so far from resolving the one + difficulty for the sake of which people imagined it, only makes an + infinity of others spring up from it?</p> + + <p>"I believe, my dear, that our chat by the fireside still amuses + you; so I go on.</p> + + <p>"Among these difficulties is one that has been proposed ever since + the world has been a world; 'tis that men suffer without having + deserved suffering. There has been no answer to it yet. 'Tis the + incompatibility of physical and moral evil with the nature of the + Eternal Being. This is how the dilemma is put: it is either impotence + or bad will; impotence, if he wished to hinder evil and could not; bad + will, if he could have hindered it and did not will it. A child would + understand that. It is this that has led people to imagine the fault + of the first father of us all, original sin, future rewards and + punishments, the incarnation, immortality, the two principles of the + Manicheans, the Ormuzd and Ahriman of the Persians, the doctrine of + emanations, the empire of light and darkness, metempsychosis, + optimism, and other absurdities that have found credit among the + different nations of the earth, where there is always to be found some + hollow vision of a dream, by way of answer to a clear, precise, and + definite fact.</p> + + <p>"On such occasions what is the part of good sense? Why, the part + that we took: whatever the optimists may say, we will reply to them + that if the universe could not exist without sensible creatures, nor + sensible creatures without pain, there was nothing to do but to leave + chaos at peace. They had got on very well for a whole eternity without + any such piece of folly.</p> + + <p>"The world a piece of folly! Ah, my dear, a glorious folly for all + that! 'Tis, according to some of the inhabitants of Malabar, one of + the seventy-four comedies with which the Eternal amuses himself.</p> + + <p>"Leibnitz, the founder of optimism, tells somewhere how there was + in the Temple of Memphis a high pyramid of globes placed one above the + others; how a priest, being asked by a traveller about this pyramid + and its globes, made answer that these were all the possible worlds, + and that the most perfect of them all was at the summit; how the + traveller, curious to see this most perfect of all possible worlds, + mounted to the top of the pyramid, and the first thing that caught his + eyes, as they turned towards the globe at the summit, was Tarquin + outraging Lucretia."<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id= + "FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class= + "fnanchor">[221]</a></p> + + <p>Almost every letter reminds us that we are in the very height of + the disputing, arguing, rationalistic century. Diderot delighted in + this kind of argument, as Socrates or Dr. Johnson delighted in it. He + was above all others the archetype and representative of the passion + for moralising, analysing, and philosophising which made the epoch + what it was; but the rest of the world was all in the same vein. If he + came to Paris in a coach from the country, he found a young lady in + it, eager to demonstrate that serious passions are nowadays merely + ridiculous; that people only promise themselves pleasure, which they + find or not, as the case may be; that thus they spare themselves all + the broken oaths of old days. "I took the liberty of saying that I was + still a man of those old days. '<i>So much the worse for you</i>,' she + said, '<i>you either deceive or are deceived, and one is as bad as the + other</i>.'"<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id= + "FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class= + "fnanchor">[222]</a> If Grimm and Madame d'Epinay and he were + together, they discussed ethics from morning to night; Diderot always + on the side of the view that made most for the dignity and worth of + human nature. Grimm is described on one of these occasions as having + rather displeased Madame d'Epinay: "He was not sufficiently ready to + disapprove the remark of a man of our acquaintance, who said that it + was right to observe the most scrupulous probity with one's friends, + but that it was mere dupery to treat other people better than they + would treat us. We maintained, she and I, that it was right and + necessary to be honest and good with all the world without + distinction."<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id= + "FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class= + "fnanchor">[223]</a></p> + + <p>Here is another picture of discussion, with an introduction that is + thoroughly characteristic of Diderot's temper:</p> + + <p>"This man looks at the human race only on its dark side. He does + not believe in virtuous actions; he disparages them, and denies them. + If he tells a story, it is always about something scandalous and + abominable. I have just told you of the two women of my acquaintance, + of whom he took occasion to speak as ill as he could to Madame Le + Gendre. They have their defects, no doubt; but they have also their + good qualities. Why be silent about the good qualities, and only pick + out the defects? There is in all that a kind of envy that wounds me—me + who read men as I read authors, and who never burden my memory except + with things that are good to know and good to imitate. The + conversation between Suard and Madame Le Gendre had been very + vivacious. They sought the reasons why persons of sensibility were so + readily, so strongly, so deliciously moved at the story of a good + action. Suard maintained that it was due to a sixth sense that nature + had endowed us with, to judge the good and the beautiful. They pressed + to know what I thought of it. I answered that this sixth sense was a + chimæra; that all was the result of experience in us; that we learnt + from our earliest infancy what it was in our instinct to hide or to + show. When the motives of our actions, our judgments, our + demonstrations, are present to us, we have what is called science; + when they are not present to our memory, we have only what is called + taste, instinct, and tact. The reasons for showing ourselves sensible + to the recital of good actions are numberless: we reveal a quality + that is worthy of infinite esteem; we promise to others our esteem, if + ever they deserve it by any uncommon or worthy piece of conduct.... + Independently of all these views of interest, we have a notion of + order, and a taste for order, which we cannot resist, and which drags + us along in spite of ourselves. Every fine action implies sacrifice; + and it is impossible for us not to pay our homage to + self-sacrifice"—and so forth.<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id= + "FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class= + "fnanchor">[224]</a></p> + + <p>Alas, all these endless debates and dialogues lacked the + inspiration and the charm with which the genius of a Plato could adorn + the narrowest quibble between Socrates and a Sophist. "Diderot," said + Mademoiselle de Lespinasse, "is an extraordinary man; he is out of his + place in society; he was meant for the chief of a sect, a Greek + philosopher, instructing youth. He pleases me greatly, but his manner + does not touch my soul."<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id= + "FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class= + "fnanchor">[225]</a> And we understand this. People disputed what + virtue is, but the dispute failed in that undefined spirit which makes + men love and adore virtue. Goodness is surrounded with no spacious + beauty, it is clothed with none of the high associations of + spontaneous piety. The discussion seems close, stifling, and airless. + Yet ages of loftier speech and greater spirituality have not always + been so favourable to the affections or to the attachments of life. In + amiability that society has never been surpassed; in sincerity of + mutual sympathy and kindliness of mutual regard. The common + irregularity of morals was seen to be perfectly compatible not merely + with a desire to please, but with an honest anxiety to serve.</p> + + <p>Of the thorough excellence of Diderot's heart, of his friendliness + and unwearied helpfulness, time would fail us to tell. Men's + conceptions of friendship differ as widely as their conceptions of + other things. Some look to friendship for absolute exemption from all + criticism, and for a mutual admiration without limit or conditions. + Others mistake it for the right of excessive criticism, in season and + out of season.</p> + + <p>Diderot was content to take friendship as the right, the duty, or + the privilege of rendering services, without thought of requiring + either them, or gratitude for them, back in return. This we must + confess to be rare. No man that ever lived showed more sterling + interest in furthering the affairs of others around him. He seemed to + admit every claim on his time, his purse, and his talents. A stranger + called upon him one day, and begged Diderot to write for him a puffing + advertisement of a new pomatum. Diderot with a laugh sat down and + wrote what was wanted. The graver occasions of life found him no less + ready. Damilaville lost one of his children, and his wife was + inconsolable. It was Diderot who was summoned, and who cheerfully went + for days together to soothe and divert her mind. For his correspondent + and for us he makes the tedium of his story beautiful by recalling the + fine saying of a grief-stricken woman in Metastasio, when they tried + to console her by the example of Abraham, who was ready even to slay + his son at the command of God: <i>Ah, God would never have given such + an order to his mother!</i></p> + + <p>The abbé Le Monnier wrote the worst verses that ever were read, a + play that was instantly damned, and a translation of Terence that came + into the world dead. But bad writers are always the most shameless + intruders on the time of good critics, and we find Diderot willingly + spending hours over the abbé's handwriting, which was as wretched as + what he wrote, and then spending hours more in offering critical + observations on verses that were only fit to be thrown into the fire. + The abbé, being absent from Paris and falling short of money, + requested Diderot to sell for him his copy of the Encyclopædia. "I + have sold your Encyclopædia," said Diderot, "but did not get so much + as I expected, for the rumour spread abroad by those scoundrels of + Swiss booksellers, that they were going to issue a revised edition, + has done us some harm. Send for the nine hundred and fifty livres + (about £40) that belong to you, and if that is not enough for your + expenses, besides the drawer that holds your money is another that + holds mine. I don't know how much there is, but I will count it all at + your disposal."<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id= + "FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class= + "fnanchor">[226]</a></p> + + <p>One Jodin, again, was a literary hack who had been employed on the + Encyclopædia. He died, leaving a foolish and extravagant widow, and a + perverse and violent daughter. The latter went on to the stage, and + Diderot took as much trouble in advising her, in seeking appointments + for her, in executing her commissions, in investing her earnings, in + dealing with her relatives, as if he had been her own father. If his + counsels on her art are admirable, there is something that moves us + with more than admiration in the good sense, the right feeling, the + worthiness of his counsels on conduct. And Diderot did not merely + moralise at large. All that he says is real, pointed, and apt for + circumstance and person. The petulant damsel to whom they were + addressed would not be likely to yawn over the sharp remonstrances, + the vigorous plain speaking, the downright honesty and visible + sincerity of his friendliness. It appears that she had sense enough + not to be offended with the frankness of her father's old employer, + for after he has plainly told her that she is violent, rude, vain, and + not always too truthful, she still writes to him from Warsaw, from + Dresden, from Bordeaux, praying him to procure a certain bracelet for + her, to arrange her mother's affairs, to find a good investment for + twelve thousand francs. When the mother was in the depths of + indigence, Diderot insisted that she should take her meals at his own + table. And all this for no other reason than that the troublesome pair + had been thrown in his way by the chance of human circumstance, and + needed help which he was able, not without sacrifice, to give. + Mademoiselle Jodin was hardly worthy of so good a friend. Her parents + were Protestants, and as she was a convert, she enjoyed a pension of + some eight pounds a year. That did not prevent her from one day + indulging in some too sprightly sallies, as the host was carried along + the street. For this she was put into prison, and that is our last + glimpse of the light creature.<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id= + "FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class= + "fnanchor">[227]</a></p> + + <p>Men knew how to be as wrong-headed and as graceless as women. We + have already mentioned the name of Landois in connection with + Diderot's article on Liberty. Landois seems to have been a marvel of + unreasonableness, but he was a needy man of letters, and that was + enough to make Diderot ready to bear with him and to succour him. He + wound up an epistle abounding, after the manner of the worthless + failures of the world, in reproaches and grievances against his + benefactor, with a cool request about a manuscript that was full of + dangerous matter. "Why, that," replied Diderot, "is a work that might + well be the ruin of me! And it is after you have on two separate + occasions charged me with the most atrocious and deliberate offences + towards you, that you now propose that I should revise and print your + work! You know that I have a wife and child, that I am a marked man, + that you are putting me into the class of hardened offenders; never + mind, you don't think of one of these things. You take me for an + imbecile, or else you are one. But you are no imbecile.... I see + through men's designs, and often enough I lend myself to them, without + deigning to disabuse them as to the stupidity which they impute to me. + It is enough if I perceive in their design some great service for + them, and not an excess of inconvenience for myself. It is not I who + am the fool, so often as people take me for one." Diderot then seems + half to forget to whom he is writing and pours out what reads like a + long soliloquy on morals, conduct, and the philosophy of life. He + insists that man, with all his high-flying freedom of will, is but a + little link in a great chain of events. He is a creature to be + modified from without; hence the good effects of example, discourse, + education, pleasures, pains, greatness, misery. Hence a sort of + philosophy of commiseration, which attaches us strongly to the good, + and irritates us no more against the bad than against a wind-storm + that fills our eyes with dust. If you adopt such principles as these, + they will reconcile you with others and yourself; you will neither + praise nor blame yourself for what you are. To reproach others with + nothing, to repent yourself of nothing—these are the two first steps + towards wisdom; this is the philosophy that reconciles us with the + human race and with life.<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id= + "FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class= + "fnanchor">[228]</a></p> + + <p>When he was in the very midst of all the toil and strife that the + Encyclopædia brought upon him, he could not refuse to spend three + whole days in working like a galley-slave at an account of an + important discovery that had been made by some worthy people with whom + he was acquainted slightly. "But while I was busy about their affairs, + my own are at a standstill. I write to you from Le Breton's, with a + mass of uncorrected proofs before me, and the printers crying out for + them. Still Grimm must be right, when he says that time is not a thing + of which we are free to dispose at our own fancy; that we owe it first + and foremost to our friends, our relations, our daily duties; and that + in the lavish profusion of our time on people who are indifferent, + there is nothing less than vice."<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id= + "FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class= + "fnanchor">[229]</a> Yet in spite of Grimm's most just remonstrance, + the lavish profusion always went on as before.</p> + + <p>There was one man, and only one man, for whose perverse and + intractable spirit Diderot's most friendly patience, helpfulness, and + devotion, were no match. I have already, in dealing with + Rousseau,<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> said as much of the + quarrel which he picked with Diderot as the matter requires, and it + would be superfluous to go over the ground again from another side. + Whether we listen to Rousseau's story or to Diderot's story, our + judgment on what happened remains unchanged. We have already seen how + warm and close an intimacy subsisted between them in the days when + Diderot was a prisoner at Vincennes (1749). When Rousseau made up his + mind to leave Paris and turn hermit (1756), there was a loud outcry + from the social group at Holbach's. They said to him, in the least + theological dialect of their day, what Sir Walter Scott had said to + Ballantyne when Ballantyne thought of leaving Edinburgh, that, "when + our Saviour himself was to be led into temptation, the first thing the + Devil thought of was to get him into the wilderness." Diderot + remonstrated rather more loudly than Rousseau's other friends, but + there was no breach, and even no coolness. What sort of humours were + bred by solitude in Rousseau's wayward mind we know, and the + Confessions tell us how for a year and a half he was silently brooding + over fancied slights and perhaps real pieces of heedlessness. Grimm, + who was Diderot's closest friend next to Mademoiselle Voland, despised + Rousseau, and Rousseau detested Grimm. "Grimm," he one day said to a + disciple, "is the only man whom I have ever been able to hate." Madame + d'Epinay was compelled to go to Geneva for her health, and Grimm + easily persuaded Diderot that Rousseau was bound by all the ties of + gratitude to accompany his benefactress on the expedition. Diderot + wrote to the hermit a very strong letter to this effect: it made + Rousseau furious. He declined the urgent counsel, he quarrelled + outright and violently with Grimm, and after an angry and confusing + interview with Diderot, all intercourse ceased with him also. "That + man," wrote Diderot, on the evening of this, their last interview, + "intrudes into my work; he fills me with trouble, and I feel as if I + were haunted by a damned soul at my side. May I never see him more; he + would make me believe in devils and hell."<a name="FNanchor_231_231" + id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class= + "fnanchor">[231]</a> And writing afterwards to some friend at Geneva, + he recalls the days when he used to pour out the talk of intimacy + "with the man who has buried himself at the bottom of a wood, where + his soul has been soured and his moral nature has been corrupted. Yet + how I pity him! Imagine that I used to love him, that I remember those + old days of friendship, and that I see him now with crime on one side + and remorse on the other, with deep waters in front of him. He will + many a time be the torment of my thought; our common friends have + judged between him and me; I have kept them all, and to him there + remains not one."<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id= + "FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class= + "fnanchor">[232]</a> It was not in Diderot's nature to bear malice, + and when eight years later Rousseau passed through Paris on his + ill-starred way to England and the</p> + + <p>Derbyshire hills, Diderot described the great pleasure that a visit + from Rousseau would give to him. "Ah, I do well," he says, "not to let + the access to my heart be too easy; when anybody has once found a + place in it, he does not leave it without making a grievous rent; 'tis + a wound that can never be thoroughly cauterised."<a name= + "FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a></p> + + <p>It is needless to remind the neutral reader that Rousseau uses + exactly the same kind of language about his heart. For this is the + worst of sentimentalism, that it is so readily bent into a + substitution of indulgence to oneself for upright and manly judgment + about others. Still we may willingly grant that in the present rupture + of a long friendship, it was not Diderot who was the real offender. + <i>Too many honest people would be in the wrong</i>, he most truly + said, <i>if Jean Jacques were in the right</i>.</p> + + <p>Of Grimm, I have already said elsewhere as much as is needful to be + said.<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> His judgment in matters + of conduct and character was cool and rather hard, but it was + generally sound. He had a keen eye for what was hollow in the + pretensions of the society in which he lived. Above all, he had the + keen eye of his countrymen for his own interest, and for the use which + he could make of other people. The best thing that we know in his + favour, is that he should have won the friendship of Diderot. + Diderot's attachment to Grimm seems like an exaggeration of the + excesses of the epoch of sentimentalism in Germany.</p> + + <p>He pines for a letter from him, as he pined for letters from + Mademoiselle Voland. If Grimm had been absent for a few months, their + meeting was like a scene in a melodrama. "With what ardour we + enclasped one another. My heart was swimming. I could not speak a + word, nor could he. We embraced without speaking, and I shed tears. We + were not expecting him. We were all at dessert when he was announced, + <i>'Here is M. Grimm.'</i> '<i>M. Grimm</i>,' I exclaimed, with a loud + cry; and starting up, I ran to him and fell on his neck. He sat down, + and ate a poor meal, you may be sure. As for me, I could not open my + lips either to eat or to speak. He was next to me, and I kept pressing + his hand and gazing at him."<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id= + "FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class= + "fnanchor">[235]</a> Mademoiselle Voland appears on some occasion to + have compared Diderot with his friend. "No more comparison, I beseech + you, my good friend, between Grimm and me. I console myself for his + superiority by frankly recognising it. I am vain of the victory that I + thus gain over my self-love, and you must not deprive me of that + little advantage."<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id= + "FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class= + "fnanchor">[236]</a> Grimm, however, knew better than Diderot how to + unite German sentimentalism with a steady selfishness. "I have just + received from Grimm," writes good-natured Diderot, "a note that wounds + my too sensitive spirit. I had promised to write him a few lines on + the exhibition of pictures in the Salon; he writes to me that if it is + not ready to-morrow, it will be of no use. I will be revenged for this + kind of hardness, and in a way that becomes me. I worked all day + yesterday, and all day to-day. I shall pass the night at work, and all + to-morrow, and at nine o'clock he shall receive a volume of + manuscript."<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id= + "FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class= + "fnanchor">[237]</a> We may doubt whether his German friend would feel + the force of a rebuke so extremely convenient to himself.</p> + + <p>While Grimm was amusing himself at Madame d'Epinay's country house, + Diderot was working at the literary correspondence which Grimm was + accustomed to send to St. Petersburg and the courts of Germany. While + Grimm was hunting pensions and honorary titles at Saxe-Gotha, or + currying favour with Frederick and waiting for gold boxes at Potsdam, + Diderot was labouring like any journeyman in writing on his behalf + accounts and reviews of the books, good, bad, and indifferent, with + which the Paris market teemed. When there were no new books to talk + about, the ingenious man, with the resource of the born journalist, + gave extracts from books that did not exist.<a name="FNanchor_238_238" + id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class= + "fnanchor">[238]</a> When we hear of Paris being the centre of + European intelligence and literary activity, we may understand that + these circular letters of Grimm and Diderot were the machinery by + which the light of Paris was diffused among darker lands. It is not + too much to say that no contemporary record so intelligent, so + independent, so vigorous, so complete, exists of any other remarkable + literary epoch.</p> + + <p>The abbé Raynal, of whom we shall have more to say in a later + chapter, had founded this counterpart of a modern review in 1747, and + he sent a copy of it in manuscript once a month to anybody who cared + to pay three hundred francs a year. In 1753 Raynal had handed the + business over to Grimm, and by him it was continued until 1790, twelve + years beyond the life of Voltaire and of Rousseau, and six years after + the death of the ablest, most original, and most ungrudging of all + those who gave him their help.</p> + + <p>An interesting episode in Diderot's life brought him into direct + relations with one of the two crowned patrons of the revolutionary + literature, who were philosophers in profession and the most arbitrary + of despots in their practice. Frederick the Great, whose literary + taste was wholly in the vein of the conventional French classic, was + never much interested by Diderot's writing, and felt little curiosity + about him. Catherine of Russia was sufficiently an admirer of the + Encyclopædia to be willing to serve its much-enduring builder. In + 1765, when the enterprise was in full course, Diderot was moved by a + provident anxiety about the future of his daughter. He had no dower + for her in case a suitor should present himself, and he had but a + scanty substance to leave her in case of his own death. The income of + the property which he inherited from his father was regularly handed + to his wife for the maintenance of the household. His own earnings, as + we have seen, were of no considerable amount. There are men of + letters, he wrote in 1767, to whom their industry has brought as much + as twenty, thirty, eighty, or even a hundred thousand francs. As for + himself, he thought that perhaps the fruit of his literary occupations + would come to about forty thousand crowns, or some five thousand + pounds sterling. "One could not amass wealth," he said pensively, and + his words are of grievous generality for the literary tribe, "but one + could acquire ease and comfort, if only these sums were not spread + over so many years, did not vanish away as they were gathered in, and + had not all been scattered and spent by the time that years had + multiplied, wants, grown more numerous, eyes grown dim, and mind + become blunted and worn."<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id= + "FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class= + "fnanchor">[239]</a> This was his own case. His earnings were never + thriftily husbanded. Diderot could not deny himself a book or an + engraving that struck his fancy, though he was quite willing to make a + present of it to any appreciative admirer the day after he had bought + it. He was extravagant in hiring a hackney-coach where another person + would have gone on foot, and not seldom the coachman stood for half a + day at the door, while the heedless passenger was expatiating within + upon truth, virtue, and the fine arts, unconscious of the passing + hours and the swollen reckoning. Hence, when the time came, there were + no savings. We have to take a man with the defects of his qualities, + and as Diderot would not have been Diderot if he had taken time to + save money, there is no more to be said.</p> + + <p>When it became his duty to provide for his daughter, between 1763 + and 1765, he resolved to sell his library. Through Grimm, Diderot's + position reached the ears of the Empress of Russia. Her agent was + instructed to buy the library at the price fixed by its possessor, and + Diderot received sixteen thousand livres, a sum equal to something + more than seven hundred pounds sterling of that day. The Empress added + a handsome bounty to the bargain. She requested Diderot to consider + himself the custodian of the new purchase on her behalf, and to + receive a thousand livres a year for his pains. The salary was paid + for fifty years in advance, and so Diderot drew at once what must have + seemed to him the royal sum of between two and three thousand pounds + sterling—a figure that would have to be trebled, or perhaps + quadrupled, to convey its value in the money of our own day. We may + wish for the honour of letters that Diderot had been able to preserve + his independence. But pensions were the custom of the time. Voltaire, + though a man of solid wealth, did not disdain an allowance from + Frederick the Great, and complained shrilly because it was irregularly + paid at the very time when he knew that Frederick was so short of + money that he was driven to melt his plate. D'Alembert also had his + pension from Berlin, and Grimm, as we have seen, picked up + unconsidered trifles in half of the northern courts. Frederick offered + an allowance to Rousseau, but that strange man, in whom so much that + was simple, touching, and lofty, mingled with all that was wayward and + perverse, declined to tax the king's strained finances.<a name= + "FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a></p> + + <p>It would shed an instructive light upon authorship and the + characters of famous men, if we could always know the relations + between a writer and his booksellers. Diderot's point of view in + considering the great modern enginery and processes of producing and + selling books, was invariably, like his practice, that of a man of + sound common sense and sterling integrity. We have seen in the + previous chapter something of the difficulties of the trade in those + days. The booksellers were a close guild of three hundred and sixty + members, and the printers were limited to thirty-six. Their privileges + brought them little fortune. They were of the lowest credit and + repute, and most of them were hardly better than beggars. It was said + that not a dozen out of the three hundred and sixty could afford to + have more than one coat for his back. They were bound hand and foot by + vexatious rules, and their market was gradually spoiled by a band of + men whom they hated as interlopers, but whom the public had some + reason to bless. No bookseller nor printer could open an establishment + outside of the quarter of the University, or on the north side of the + bridges. The restriction, which was as old as the introduction of + printing into France, had its origin in the days when the visits of + the royal inspectors to the presses and bookshops were constant and + rigorous, and it saved the time of the officials to have all their + business close to their hand. Inasmuch, however, as people insisted on + having books, and as they did not always choose to be at the pains of + making a long journey to the region of the booksellers' shops, hawkers + sprang into existence. Men bought books or got them on credit from the + booksellers, and carried them in a bag over their shoulders to the + houses of likely customers, just as a peddler now carries laces and + calico, cheap silks and trumpory jewellery, round the country + villages. Even poor women filled their aprons with a few books, took + them across the bridges, and knocked at people's doors. This would + have been well enough in the eyes of the guild, if the hawkers had + been content to buy from the legally patented booksellers. But they + began secretly to turn publishers in a small way on their own account. + Contraband was here, as always, the natural substitute for free trade. + They both issued pirated editions of their own, and they became the + great purchasers and distributors of the pirated editions that came in + vast bales from Switzerland, from Holland, from the Pope's country of + Avignon. To their craft or courage the public owed its copies of works + whose circulation was forbidden by the government. The Persian Letters + of Montesquieu was a prohibited book, but, for all that, there were a + hundred editions of it before it had been published twenty years, and + every schoolboy could find a copy on the quays for a dozen halfpence. + Bayle's Thoughts on the Comet, Rousseau's Emilius and Heloïsa, + Helvétius's L'Esprit, and a thousand other forbidden pieces were in + every library, both public and private. The Social Contract, printed + over and over again in endless editions, was sold for a shilling under + the vestibule of the king's own palace. When the police were in + earnest, the hawker ran horrible risks, as we saw a few pages further + back; for these risks he recompensed himself by his prices. A + prohibition by the authorities would send a book up within + four-and-twenty hours from half a crown to a couple of louis. This + only increased the public curiosity, quickened the demand, led to + clandestine reprints, and extended the circulation of the book that + was nominally suppressed. When the condemnation of a book was cried + through the streets, the compositors said, "Good, another edition!" + There was no favour that an unknown author could have asked from the + magistrates so valuable to him as a little decree condemning his work + to be torn up and burnt at the foot of the great staircase of the + Palace of Justice.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id= + "FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class= + "fnanchor">[241]</a></p> + + <p>It was this practical impossibility of suppression that interested + both the guild of publishers and the government in the conditions of + the book trade. The former were always harassed, often kept poor, and + sometimes ruined, by systematic piracy and the invasion of their + rights. The government, on the other hand, could not help seeing that, + as the books could not possibly be kept out of the realm, it was to be + regretted that their production conferred no benefit on the + manufacturing industry of the realm, the composition, the printing, + the casting of type, the fabrication of paper, the preparation of + leather and vellum, the making of machines and tools. When Bayle's + Dictionary appeared, it was the rage of Europe. Hundreds of the + ever-renowned folios found their way into France, and were paid for by + French money. The booksellers addressed the minister, and easily + persuaded him of the difference, according to the economic light of + those days, between an exchange of money against paper, compared with + an exchange of paper against paper. The minister replied that this was + true, but still that the gates of the kingdom would never be opened to + a single copy of Bayle. "The best thing to do," he said, "is to print + it here." And the third edition of Bayle was printed in France, much + to the contentment of the French printers, binders, and + booksellers.</p> + + <p>In 1761 the booksellers were afflicted by a new alarm. Foreign + pirates and domestic hawkers were doing them mischief enough. But in + that year the government struck a blow at the very principle of + literary property. The King's Council conferred upon the descendants + of La Fontaine the exclusive privilege of publishing their ancestor's + works. That is to say, the Council took away without compensation from + La Fontaine's publishers a copyright for which they had paid in hard + cash. The whole corporation naturally rose in arms, and in due time + the lieutenant of police was obliged to take the whole matter into + serious consideration—whether the maintenance of the guild of + publishers was expedient; whether the royal privilege of publishing a + book should be regarded as conferring a definite and unassailable + right of property in the publication; whether the tacit permission to + publish what it would have been thought unbecoming to authorise + expressly by royal sanction, should not be granted liberally or even + universally; and whether the old restriction of the booksellers to one + quarter of the town ought to remain in force any longer. M. de Sartine + invited Diderot to write him a memorandum on the subject, and was + disappointed to find Diderot staunchly on the side of the booksellers + (1767). He makes no secret, indeed, that for his own part he would + like to see the whole apparatus of restraint abolished, but meanwhile + he is strong for doing all that a system of regulation, as opposed to + a system of freedom, can do to make the publication of books a source + of prosperity to the bookseller, and of cheap acquisition to the + book-buyer. Above all things, Diderot is vehemently in favour of the + recognition of literary property, and against such infringement of it + as had been ventured upon in the case of La Fontaine. He had no reason + to be especially friendly to booksellers, but for one thing, he saw + that to nullify or to tamper with copyright was in effect to prevent + an author from having any commodity to sell, and so to do him the most + serious injury possible. And for another thing, Diderot had equity and + common sense enough to see that no high-flown nonsense about the + dignity of letters and the spiritual power could touch the fact that a + book is a piece of marketable ware, and that the men who deal in such + wares have as much claim to be protected in their contracts as those + who deal in any other wares.<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id= + "FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class= + "fnanchor">[242]</a></p> + + <p>There is a vivid illustration of this unexpected business-like + quality in Diderot, in a conversation that he once had with + D'Alembert. The dialogue is interesting to those who happen to be + curious as to the characters of two famous men. It was in 1759, when + D'Alembert was tired of the Encyclopædia, and was for making hard + terms as the condition of his return to it. "If," said Diderot to him, + "six months ago, when we met to deliberate on the continuation of the + work, you had then proposed these terms, the booksellers would have + closed with them on the spot, but now, when they have the strongest + reasons to be out of humour with you, that is another thing."</p> + + <p>"And pray, what reasons?"</p> + + <p>"Can you ask me?"</p> + + <p>"Certainly."</p> + + <p>"Then I will tell you. You have a bargain with the booksellers; the + terms are stipulated; you have nothing to ask beyond them. If you + worked harder than you were bound to do, that was out of your interest + in the book, out of friendship to me, out of respect for yourself; + people do not pay in money for such motives as these. Still they sent + you twenty louis a volume: that makes a hundred and forty louis that + you had beyond what was due to you. You plan a journey to Wesel [in + 1752, to meet Frederick of Prussia] at a time when you were wanted by + them here; they do not detain you; on the contrary, you are short of + money, and they supply you. You accept a couple of hundred louis; this + debt you forget for two or three years. At the end of that rather long + term you bethink you of paying. What do they do? They hand you back + your note of hand torn up, with all the air of being very glad to have + served you. Then, after all, you turn your back on an undertaking in + which they have embarked their whole fortunes: an affair of a couple + of millions is a trifle unworthy of the attention of a philosopher + like you.... But that is not all. You have a fancy for collecting + together different pieces scattered through the Encyclopædia; nothing + can be more opposed to their interests; they put this to you, you + insist, the edition is produced, they advance the cost, you share the + profits. It seemed that, after having thus twice paid you for their + work, they had a right to look upon it as theirs. Yet you go in search + of a bookseller in some quite different direction, and sell him in a + mass what does not belong to you."</p> + + <p>"They gave me a thousand grounds for dissatisfaction."</p> + + <p>"<i>Quelle défaite!</i> There are no small things between friends. + Everything weighs, because friendship is a commerce of purity and + delicacy; but are the booksellers your friends? Then your behaviour to + them is horrible. If not, then you have nothing to say against them. + If the public were called upon to judge between you and them, my + friend, you would be covered with shame."</p> + + <p>"What, can it be you, Diderot, who thus take the side of the + booksellers?"</p> + + <p>"My grievances against them do not prevent me from seeing their + grievances against you. After all this show of pride, confess now that + you are cutting a very sorry figure?"<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id= + "FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class= + "fnanchor">[243]</a></p> + + <p>All this was the language of good sense, and there is no evidence + that Diderot ever swerved from that fair and honourable attitude in + his own dealings with the booksellers. Yet he was able to treat them + with a sturdy spirit when they forgot themselves. Panckoucke, one of + the great publishers of the time, came to him one day. "He was swollen + with the arrogance of a parvenu, and thinking apparently that he could + use me like one of those poor devils who depend upon him for a crust + of bread, he permitted himself to fly into a passion; but it did not + succeed at all. I let him go on as he pleased; then I got up abruptly, + I took him by the arm, and I said to him: 'M. Panckoucke, in whatever + place it may be, in the street, in church, in a bad house, and to + whomsoever it may be, it is always right to keep a civil tongue in + one's head. But that is all the more necessary still, when you speak + to a man who has as little patience as I have, and that, too, in his + own house. Go to the devil, you and your work. If you would give me + twenty thousand louis, and I could do your business for you in the + twinkling of an eye, I would not stir a finger. Be kind enough to be + off."<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a></p> + + <p>Before returning from the author to his books, it is interesting to + know how he and his circle appeared at this period to some who did not + belong to them. Gibbon, for instance, visited Paris in the spring of + 1763. "The moment," he says, "was happily chosen. At the close of a + successful war the British name was respected on the continent; + <i>clarum et venerabile nomen gentibus</i>. Our opinions, our + fashions, even our games were adopted in France, a ray of national + glory illuminated each individual, and every Englishman was supposed + to be born a patriot and philosopher." He mentions D'Alembert and + Diderot as those among the men of letters whom he saw, who "held the + foremost rank in merit, or at least in fame."<a name= + "FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a></p> + + <p>Horace Walpole was often in Paris, and often saw the philosophic + circle, but it did not please his supercilious humour.</p> + + <div class="blockquot"> + <p>"There was no soul in Paris but philosophers, whom I wished in + heaven, though they do not wish themselves so. They are so + overbearing and underbred.... I sometimes go to Baron d'Holbach's, + but I have left off his dinners, as there was no bearing the authors + and philosophers and savants of which he has a pigeon-house full. + They soon turned my head with a system of antediluvian deluges which + they have invented to prove the eternity of matter.... In short, + nonsense for nonsense, I liked the Jesuits better than the + philosophers."<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id= + "FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class= + "fnanchor">[246]</a></p> + </div> + + <p>Hume, as everybody knows, found "the men of letters really very + agreeable; all of them men of the world, living in entire, or almost + entire harmony, among themselves, and quite irreproachable in their + morals." He places Diderot among those whose person and conversation + he liked best.</p> + + <p>We have always heard much of the power of the Salon in the + eighteenth century, and it was no doubt a remarkable proof of the + incorporation of intellectual interests in manners, that so many + groups of men and women should have met habitually every week for the + purpose of conversing about the new books and new plays, the fresh + principles and fresh ideas, that were produced by the incessant + vivacity of the time. The Salon of the eighteenth century passed + through various phases; its character shifted with the intellectual + mood of the day, but in all its phases it was an institution in which + women occupied a place that they have never acquired in any society + out of France. We are not here called upon to speculate as to the + reasons for this; it is only worth remarking that Diderot was not + commonly at his ease in the society of ladies, and that though he was + a visitor at Madame Geoffrin's and at Mademoiselle Lespinasse's, yet + he was not a constant attendant at any of the famous circles of which + women had made themselves the centre. The reader of Madame d'Epinay's + memoir is informed how hard she found it to tame Diderot into + sociability. "What a pity," she exclaims, "that men of genius and of + such eminent merit as M. Diderot should thus wrap themselves up in + their philosophy, and disdain the homage that people would eagerly pay + them in any society that they would honour with their + presence."<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id= + "FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class= + "fnanchor">[247]</a> One of the soundest social observers of the time + was undoubtedly Duclos. His <i>Considerations on the Manners of the + Century</i>, which was published in 1751, abounds in admirable + criticism. He makes two remarks with which we may close our chapter. + "The relaxation of morals does not prevent people from being very loud + in praise of honour and virtue; those who have least of them know very + well how much they are concerned in other people having them." Again, + "The French," he said, "are the only people among whom it is possible + for morals to be depraved, without either the heart being corrupted, + or their courage being weakened."</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /> + THE STAGE.</h2> + + <p>There is at first something incredible in the account given by some + thinkers of Diderot, as the greatest genius of the eighteenth century; + and perhaps an adjustment of such nice degrees of comparison among the + high men of the world is at no time very profitable. What is intended + by these thoroughgoing panegyrists is that Diderot placed himself at + the point of view whence, more comprehensively than was possible from + any other, he discerned the long course and the many bearings, the + complex faces and the large ramifications, of the huge movement of his + day. He seized the great transition at every point, and grasped all + the threads that were to be inwoven into the pattern of the new + time.</p> + + <p>Diderot is in a thousand respects one of the most unsatisfactory of + men and of writers. Yet it is hard to deny that to whatever quarter he + turned, he caught the rising illumination and was shone upon by the + spirit of the coming day. It was no copious and overflowing radiance, + but they were the beams of the dawn. Hence, what he has to say, and we + shall soon see how much he said, about the two great arts of painting + and the drama, though it is fragmentary, though it is insufficient, + yet points, as all the rest of his thoughts pointed, along the lines + that the best minds of the western world have since traversed. He + would, in the old metaphysical language, have called the direction of + it a turning to Nature, but if we translate this into more positive + terms, just as we have said that the Encyclopædia was a glorification + of pacific industry and of civil justice, so we may say that his whole + theory of the drama was a glorification of private virtues and + domestic life. And the definite rise of civil justice and industry + over feudal privilege and a life of war, and again the elevation of + domestic virtue into the place formerly held by patriotic devotion, + are the two great sides of a single movement.<a name= + "FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> It is quite true that + Diderot and the French of that day had only a glimpse of the promised + land in art and poetry. The whole moral energy of the generation after + Diderot was drawn inevitably into the strong current of social action. + The freshly kindled torch of dramatic art passed for nearly half a + century to the country of Lessing and Goethe.</p> + + <p>There is in the use of a certain kind of abstract language this + inconvenience, that the reader may suppose us to be imputing to + Diderot a deliberate and systematic survey of the whole movement of + his time, and a calculated resolution to further it, now in this way + and now in that. It is not necessary to suppose that the movement as a + whole was always present to him. Diderot's mind was constantly feeling + for explanations; it was never a passive recipient. The drama excited + this alert interest just as everything else excited it. He thought + about that, as about everything else, originally, that is to say, + sincerely and in the spirit of reality.<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id= + "FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class= + "fnanchor">[249]</a> Whoever turns with a clear eye and proper + intellectual capacity in search of the real bearings of what he is + about, is sure to find out the strong currents of the time, even + though he may never consciously throw them into their most general and + abstract expression.</p> + + <p>Since Aristotle, said Lessing, no more philosophical mind than + Diderot's has treated of the theatre. Lessing himself translated + Diderot's two plays, and the Essay on Dramatic Poetry, and repeatedly + said that without the impulse of Diderot's principles and + illustrations his own taste would have taken a different direction. As + a dramatist, the author of <i>Miss Sara Sampson</i>, of <i>Emilia + Galotti</i>, and above all that noble dramatic poem, <i>Nathan the + Wise</i>, could hardly have owed much to the author of such poor stuff + as <i>The Natural Son</i> and <i>The Father of the Family</i>. Lessing + had some dramatic fire, invention, spontaneous elevation; he had a + certain measure, though not a very large one, of poetic impulse. + Diderot had nothing of all these, but he had the eye of the + philosophic critic.</p> + + <p>Any one who reads Lessing's dramatic criticisms will see that he + did not at all overrate his obligations to his French + contemporary.<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id= + "FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class= + "fnanchor">[250]</a> It has been replied to the absurd taunt about the + French inventing nothing, that at least Descartes invented German + philosophy. Still more true is it that Diderot invented German + criticism.</p> + + <p>Diderot's thoughts on the stage, besides his completed plays, and a + number of fragmentary scenes, are contained principally in the Paradox + on the Player, a short treatise on Dramatic Poetry, and three + dialogues appended to <i>The Natural Son</i>. On the plays a very few + words will suffice. <i>The Natural Son</i> must, by me at least, be + pronounced one of the most vapid performances in dramatic history. + Even Lessing, unwilling as he was to say a word against a writer who + had taught him so much, is too good a critic not to recognise monotony + in the characters, stiffness and affectation in the dialogue, and a + pedantic ring in the sentences of new-fangled philosophy.<a name= + "FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> Even in the three + critical dialogues that Diderot added to the play, Lessing cannot help + discerning the mixture of superficiality with an almost pompous + pretension. Rosenkranz, it is true, finds the play rich in fine + sentences, in scenes full of effect, in which Diderot's moral + enthusiasm expresses itself with impetuous eloquence. But even he + admits that the hero's servant is not so far wrong when he cries, + "<i>Il semble que le bon sens se soit enfui de cette maison</i>," and + adds that the whole atmosphere of the piece is sickly with conscious + virtue.<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> For ourselves we are + ready for once even to sympathise with Palissot, the hack-writer of + the reactionary parties, when he says that <i>The Natural Son</i> had + neither invention, nor style, nor characters, nor any other single + unit of a truly dramatic work. The reader who seeks to realise the + nullity of the <i>genre sérieux</i> in Diderot's hands, should turn + from <i>The Natural Son</i> to Goldoni's play of <i>The True + Friend</i>, from which Diderot borrowed the structure of his play, + following it as narrowly as possible to the end of the third act. + Seldom has transfusion turned a sparkling draught into anything so + flat and vapid. In spite of the applause of the philosophic + <i>claque</i>, led by Grimm,<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id= + "FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class= + "fnanchor">[253]</a> posterity has ratified the coldness with which it + was received by contemporaries. <i>The Natural Son</i> was written in + 1757, but it was not until 1771 that the directors of the French + Comedy could be induced to place it on the stage. The actors detested + their task, and as we can very well believe, went sulkily through + parts which they had not even taken the trouble to master.<a name= + "FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> The public felt as + little interest in the piece as the actors had done, and after a + single representation, the play was put aside.</p> + + <p>Ill-natured critics compared Diderot's play with Rousseau's opera; + they insisted that <i>The Natural Son</i> and <i>The Village + Conjuror</i> were a couple of monuments of the presumptuous + incompetence of the encyclopædic cabal. The failure of <i>The Natural + Son</i> as a drama came after it had enjoyed considerable success as a + piece of literature, for it had been fourteen years in print. We can + only suppose that this success was the fruit of an unflinching + partisanship.</p> + + <p>It is a curious illustration of the strength of the current passion + for moral maxims in season and out of season, that one scene which to + the scoffers of that day seemed, as it cannot but seem to everybody + to-day, a climax of absurdity and unbecomingness, was hailed by the + party as most admirable, for no other reason than that it contained a + number of high moralising saws. Constance, a young widow and a model + of reason, takes upon herself to combat the resolution of Dorval not + to marry, after he has led her to suppose that he has a passion for + her, and after a marriage between them has been arranged. "No," he + cries, "a man of my character is not such a husband as befits + Constance." Constance begs him to reassure himself; tells him that he + is mistaken; to enjoy tranquillity, a man must have the approval of + his own heart, and perhaps that of other men, and he can have neither + unless he remains at his post; it is only the wicked who can bear + isolation; a tender soul cannot view the general system of sensible + beings without a strong desire that they should be happy. Dorval, who + cuts an extremely sorry figure in such a scene, exclaims, "Ah, but + children! Dorval would have children! When I think that we are thrown + from our very birth into a chaos of prejudices, extravagances, vices, + and miseries, the idea makes me shudder!"—"Dorval, you are beset by + phantoms, and no wonder. The history of life is so little known, while + the appearance of evil in the universe is so glaring.... Dorval, your + daughters will be modest and good; your sons noble and high-minded; + all your children will be charming.... There is no fear that a cruel + soul should ever grow in my bosom from stock of yours."<a name= + "FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a></p> + + <p>We can hardly wonder that players were disgusted, or critics moved + to wicked jests. The counterpart to the scene in which Constance + persuades Dorval that they would be very happy in one case, is the + scene in which Dorval persuades Rosalie that they would be very + unhappy in another case. The situations in themselves may command our + approval morally, but they certainly do not attract our sympathies + dramatically. That a woman should demonstrate to a man in fine + sententious language the expediency of marrying her, is not + inconsistent with good sense, but it is displeasing. When a man tells + a woman that, though love draws in one way, duty draws in the other, + we may admire his prudence, but we are glad when so delicate a + business comes to an end. In <i>The Natural Son</i> the latter scene, + though very long, is the less disagreeable of the two. And just as in + Diderot's most wordy and tiresome pages we generally find some one + phrase, some epithet, some turn of a sentence whose freshness or + strength or daring reveals a genius, so in this scene we find a few + lines whose energy reminds us that we are not after all in the hands + of some obscure playwright, whose works ought long ago to have been + eaten by moths or burnt by fire. Those lines are a warning against the + temptation so familiar in every age since Paris was a guest in the + halls of Menelaus, to take that fatal resolve, All for love and the + world well lost. "To do wrong," says Dorval, "is to condemn ourselves + to live and to find our pleasure with wrong-doers; it is to pass an + uncertain and troubled life in one long and never-ending lie; to have + to praise with a blush the virtue that we flung behind us; to hear + from the lips of others harsh words for our own action; to seek a + little calm in sophistical systems, that the breath of a single good + man scatters to the winds; to shut ourselves for ever out from the + spring of true joys, the only joys that are virtuous, austere, + sublime; and to give ourselves up, simply as a way of escape from + ourselves, to the weariness of those frivolous diversions in which the + day flows away in self-oblivion, and our life glides slowly from us + and loses itself in waste."<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id= + "FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class= + "fnanchor">[256]</a> A very old story, no doubt; but natural, true, + and in its place.</p> + + <p>What adds to the flatness of the play is a device which Diderot + introduced on a deliberately adopted principle; we mean the elaborate + setting out of the acting directions. Every movement, every gesture, + every silent pause is written down, and we have the impression less of + a play than of some strangely bald romance. In the versified + declamation which then reigned on the French stage, nothing was left + to natural action, nothing was told by change of position, by movement + without speech, or in short by any means other than discourse. + Diderot, repudiating the conventions of dramatic art, and consulting + nature or reality, saw that there are many scenes in life in which it + is more natural to the personages of the scene to move than to speak, + in which indeed motion is natural, and speech is altogether unnatural. + If this be so in real life, he said, it should be so on the stage, + because nothing passes in the world which may not pass also in the + theatre; and as pantomime, or expression of emotion, feeling, purpose, + otherwise than by speech, has so much to do in life, the dramatist + should make abundant use of pantomime in composing stage-plays. Nor + should he trust to the actor's invention and spontaneous sense of + appropriateness. He ought to write down the pantomime whenever it adds + energy or clearness to the dialogue; when it binds the parts of the + dialogue together; when it consists in a delicate play that is not + easily divined; and almost always he ought to write it down in the + opening of a scene. If any one is inclined to regard this as + superfluous, let him try the experiment of composing a play, and then + writing the pantomime, or "business," for it; he will soon see what + follies he commits.<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id= + "FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class= + "fnanchor">[257]</a></p> + + <p>Whatever we may think of the practice of writing the action as well + as the words for the player, nobody would now dispute the wisdom of + what Diderot says as to the part that pantomime fills in the highest + kind of dramatic representation. We must agree with his repeated + laments over the indigence, for purposes of full and adequate + expression, of every language that ever has existed or ever can + exist.<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> "My dear master," he + wrote to Voltaire on the occasion of a performance of <i>Tancred</i>, + "if you could have seen Clairon passing across the stage, her knees + bending under her, her eyes closed, her arms falling stiff by her side + as if they were dead; if you heard the cry that she uttered when she + perceives Tancred, you would remain more convinced than ever that + silence and pantomime have sometimes a pathos that all the resources + of speech can never approach."<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id= + "FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class= + "fnanchor">[259]</a> If we wonder that he should have thought it worth + while to lay so much emphasis on what seems so obvious, we have to + remember that it did not seem at all obvious to people who were + accustomed to the substitution of a mannered and symmetrical + declamation for the energetic variety and manifold exuberance of + passion and judgment in the daily lives of men.</p> + + <p>We have already seen that even when he wrote the Letter on the Deaf + and Dumb, Diderot's mind was exercised about gesture as a supplement + to discourse. In that Letter he had told a curious story of a bizarre + experiment that he was in the habit of making at the theatre. He used + to go to the highest seats in the house, thrust his fingers into his + ears, and then, to the astonishment of his neighbours, watch the + performance with the sharpest interest. As a constant playgoer, he + knew the words of the plays by heart, and what he sought was to + isolate the gesture of the performers, and to enjoy and criticise that + by itself. He kept his ears tightly stopped, so long as the action and + play went well with the words as he remembered them, and he only + listened when some discord in gesture made him suppose that he had + lost his place. The people around him were more and more amazed as + they saw him, notwithstanding his stopped ears, shed copious tears in + the pathetic passages. "They could not refrain from hazarding + questions, to which I answered coldly, 'that everybody had his own way + of listening, and that my way was to stop my ears, so as to understand + better'—laughing within myself at the talk to which my oddity gave + rise, and still more so at the simplicity of some young people who + also put their fingers into their ears to hear after my fashion, and + were quite astonished that the plan did not succeed."<a name= + "FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> This was an odd and + whimsical way of acting on a conviction which lay deep in Diderot's + mind, namely, that language is a very poor, misleading, and utterly + inadequate instrument for representing what it professes, and what we + stupidly suppose it, to represent. Rousseau had expressed the same + kind of feeling when he said that definitions might be good things, if + only we did not employ words in making them.</p> + + <p>A curious circumstance is worth mentioning in connection with the + Three Dialogues appended to <i>The Natural Son</i>. Diderot informs + his readers that the incidents of <i>The Natural Son</i> had actually + occurred in real life, and that he knew the personages. In the + Dialogues it is assumed that the play had been written by the hero + himself, and the hero is the chief speaker. Not a word is said from + which the reader would guess that Diderot had borrowed the substance + of his plot and some of its least insipid scenes from Goldoni. We can + hardly wonder that he was charged with plagiarism. Yet it was not + deliberate, we may be sure. When Diderot was strongly seized by an + idea, outer circumstances were as if they did not exist. He was swept + up into the clouds. "Diderot is a good and worthy man," wrote Madame + Geoffrin to the King of Poland, "but he has such a bad head, and he is + so curiously organised, that he neither sees nor hears what he does + see and hear, as the thing really is; he is always like a man who is + dreaming, and who thinks all that he has dreamed quite real."<a name= + "FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a></p> + + <p><i>The Father of the Family</i>, written in 1758, and first acted + in 1761, is very superior to <i>The Natural Son</i>; it even enjoyed a + certain popularity. In Germany it became an established favourite, and + in Italy it was only less popular than a piece of Goldoni's. The + French were not quite so easy to please. In 1761 its reception was + undoubtedly favourable, and it ran for more than a week. In 1769 it + was reproduced, and, according to Diderot's own account, with + enthusiasm. "There was a frightful crowd," he says, "and people hardly + remember such a success. I was surprised at it myself. My friends are + at the height of exultation. My daughter came home intoxicated with + wonder and delight." Even Madame Diderot at length grew ashamed at + having to confess that she had not seen her husband's triumph, and + throwing aside her horror of the stage, was as deeply moved as every + one else.<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a></p> + + <p>Notwithstanding this satisfactory degree of success, and though it + was performed as late as 1835, the play never struck root in France. + It is indeed a play without any real quality or distinction. "Diderot, + in his plays," said Madame de Staël, "put the affectation of nature in + the place of the affectation of convention."<a name="FNanchor_263_263" + id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class= + "fnanchor">[263]</a> The effect is still more disagreeable in the + first kind of affectation than the second. <i>The Father of the + Family</i> is made more endurable than <i>The Natural Son</i> by a + certain rapidity and fire in the action, and a certain vigour in the + characters of the impetuous son (Saint Albin) and the malignant + brother-in-law (the Commander). But the dialogue is poor, and the + Father of the Family himself is as woolly and mawkish a figure as is + usually made out of benevolent intentions and weak purpose combined. + The woes of the heavy father of the stage, where there is no true + pathos, but only a sentimental version of it, find us very callous. + The language has none of that exquisite grace and flexibility which + makes a good French comedy of own day, a piece by Augier, Sandeau, + Feuillet, Sardou, so delightful. Diderot was right in urging that + there is no reason why a play should be in verse; but then the prose + of a play ought to have a point, elegance, and highly-wrought + perfection, which shall fill us with a sense of art, though not the + art of the poet. Diderot not only did not write comedy in such a + style; but he does not even so much as show consciousness that any + difference exists between one kind of prose and another. The blurred + phrases and clipped sentences of what Diderot would have called + Nature, that is to say of real life, are intolerable on the stage. + Even he felt this, for his characters, though their dialogue is + without wit or finish, are still dull and tame of speech, in a + different way from that in which the people whom we may meet are dull + and tame. There is an art of a kind, though of an extremely vapid + kind.</p> + + <p>Again, though he may be right in contending that there is a serious + kind of comedy as distinct from that gay comedy which is neighbour to + farce—of this we shall see more presently—yet he is certainly wrong in + believing that we can willingly endure five acts of serious comedy + without a single relieving passage of humour. Contrast of character, + where all the characters are realistic and common, is not enough. We + crave contrast in the dramatic point of view. We seek occasional + change of key. That serious comedy should move a sympathetic tear is + reasonable enough; but it is hard to find that it grudges us a single + smile. The result of Diderot's method is that the spectator or the + reader speedily feels that what he has before him substitutes for + dramatic fulness and variety the flat monotony of a homily or a tract. + It would be hard to show that there is no true comedy without + laughter—Terence's <i>Hecyra</i>, for instance—but Diderot certainly + overlooked what Lessing and most other critics saw so clearly, that + laughter rightly stirred is one of the most powerful agencies in + directing the moral sympathies of the audience,—the very end that + Diderot most anxiously sought.</p> + + <p>It is mere waste of time to bestow serious criticism on Diderot's + two plays, or on the various sketches, outlines, and fragments of + scenes with which he amused his very slight dramatic faculty. If we + wish to study the masterpieces of French comedy in the eighteenth + century, we shall promptly shut up the volumes of Diderot, and turn to + the ease and soft gracefulness of Marivaux's <i>Game of Love and + Chance</i>, to the forcible and concentrated sententiousness of + Piron's <i>Métromanie</i>, to the salt and racy flavour of Le Sage's + <i>Turcaret</i>. Gresset, again, and Destouches wrote at least two + comedies that were really fit for the stage, and may be read with + pleasure to-day. Neither of these compliments can fairly be paid to + <i>The Natural Son</i> and <i>The Father of the Family</i>. Diderot's + plays ought to be looked upon merely as sketchy illustrations of a + favourite theory; as the rough drawings on the black board with which + a professor of the fine arts may accompany a lecture on oil + painting.</p> + + <p>One radical part of Diderot's dramatic doctrine is wholly condemned + by modern criticism; and it is the part which his plays were + especially designed to enforce. "It is always," he says, "virtue and + virtuous people that a man ought to have in view when he writes. Oh, + what good would men gain, if all the arts of imitation proposed one + common object, and were one day to unite with the laws in making us + love virtue and hate vice. It is for the philosopher to address + himself to the poet, the painter, the musician, and to cry to them + with all his might: <i>0 men of genius, to what end has heaven endowed + you with gifts</i>? If they listen to him, speedily will the images of + debauch cease to cover the walls of our palaces; our vices will cease + to be the organs of crime; and taste and manners will gain. Can we + believe that the action of two old blind people, man and wife, as they + sought one another in their aged days, and with tears of tenderness + clasped one another's hands and exchanged caresses on the brink of the + grave, so to say—that this would not demand the same talent, and would + not interest me far more than the spectacle of the violent pleasures + with which their senses in all the first freshness of youth were once + made drunk?"<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id= + "FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264" class= + "fnanchor">[264]</a></p> + + <p>The emphasising moralists of Diderot's school never understood that + virtue may be made attractive, without pulling the reader or the + spectator by the sleeve, and urgently shouting in his ear how + attractive virtue is. When <i>The Heart of Midlothian</i> appeared + (1818), a lady wrote about it as follows: "Of late days, especially + since it has been the fashion to write moral and even religious + novels, one might almost say of the wise good heroines what a lively + girl once said of her well-meaning aunt—'On my word she is enough to + make anybody wicked.' Had this very story been conducted by a common + hand, Effie would have attracted all our concern and sympathy, Jeanie + only cold approbation. Whereas Jeanie, without youth, beauty, genius, + warm passions, or any other novel perfection, is here our object from + beginning to end. This is 'enlisting the affections in the cause of + virtue' ten times more than ever Richardson did; for whose male and + female pedants, all excelling as they are, I never could care half as + much as I found myself inclined to do for Jeanie before I finished the + first volume."<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id= + "FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265" class= + "fnanchor">[265]</a></p> + + <p>In other words, you must win us by kindling our sympathy, not by + formally commanding our moral approval. To kindle sympathy your + personage must be interesting; must touch our pity or wonder or + energetic fellow-feeling or sense of moral loveliness, which is a very + different thing from touching our mere sense of the distinctions + between right and wrong. Direct homily excites no sympathy with the + homilist. Deep pensive meditations on the moral puzzles of the world + are not at all like didactic discourse. But the Father of the Family + was exactly fulfilling Diderot's notion of dramatic purpose and + utility when he talked to his daughter in such a strain as this: + "Marriage, my daughter, is a vocation imposed by nature.... He who + counts on bliss without alloy knows neither the life of man nor the + designs of heaven. If marriage exposes us to cruel pain, it is also + the source of the sweetest pleasures. Where are the examples of pure + and heartfelt interest, of real tenderness, of inmost confidence, of + daily help of griefs divided, of tears mingled, if they be not in + marriage? What is there in the world that the good man prefers to his + wife? What is there in the world that a father loves more dearly than + his children? O sacred bond, if I think of thee, my whole soul is + warmed and elevated!"<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id= + "FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266" class= + "fnanchor">[266]</a></p> + + <p>But these virtuous ejaculations do not warm and elevate us. In such + a case words count for nothing. It is actual presentation of beautiful + character, and not talk about it, that touches the spectator. It is + the association of interesting action with character, that moves us + and inspires such better moods as may be within our compass. Diderot, + like many other people before and since, sought to make the stage the + great moral teacher. That it may become so, is possible. It will not + be by imitating the methods of that colossal type of histrionic + failure, the church-pulpit. Exhortation in set speeches always has + been, and always will be, the feeblest bulwark against the boiling + floods of passion that helpless virtue ever invented, and it matters + not at all whether the hortatory speeches are placed on the lips of + Mr. Talkative, the son of Saywell, or of some tearful dummy labelled + the Father of the Family.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id= + "FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class= + "fnanchor">[267]</a></p> + + <p>Yet one is half ashamed to use hard words about Diderot. He was so + modest about his work, so simple and unpretending, so wholly without + restless and fretting ambitions, and so generous in his judgment of + others. He made his own dramatic experiment, he thought little enough + of it; and he was wholly above the hateful vice of sourly disparaging + competitors, whether dead or living. He knew that he was himself no + master, but he was manly enough to admire anybody who was nearer to + mastery. He was full of unaffected delight at Sedaine's busy and + pleasing little comedy, <i>The Philosopher without knowing it</i>; it + was so simple without being stiff, so eloquent without the shadow of + effort or rhetoric. After seeing it, Diderot ran off to the author to + embrace him, with many tears of joyful sympathy and gratitude. + Sedaine, like Lillo, the author of Diderot's favourite play of + <i>George Barn</i><i>well</i>, was a plain tradesman, and the success + of his libretti for comic operas had not spoiled him. He could find no + more expansive words for his excited admirer than "<i>Ah, Monsieur + Diderot, que vous étes beau</i>!"<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id= + "FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class= + "fnanchor">[268]</a> Diderot was just as sensible of the originality + and Aristophanic gaiety of Collé's brilliant play, <i>Truth in + Wine</i>, though Collé detested the philosophic school from Voltaire + downwards, and left behind him a bitterly contemptuous account of + <i>The Natural Son</i>.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a></p> + + <p>Of all comic writers, however, the author of the <i>Andria</i> and + the <i>Heautontimorumenos</i> was Diderot's favourite. The half dozen + pages upon Terence, which he threw off while the printer's boy waited + in the passage (1762), are one of the most easy, flowing, and + delightful of his fragments; there is such appreciation of Terence's + suavity and tact, of his just and fine judgment, of his discrimination + and character. He admits that Terence had no verve; for that he + commends the young poet to Molière or Aristophanes, but as verve was + exactly the quality most wanting to Diderot himself, he easily forgave + its absence in Terence, and thought it amply replaced by his + moderation, his truth, and his fine taste. Colman is praised for + translating Terence, for here, says Diderot, is the lesson of which + Colman's countrymen stand most in need. The English comic writers have + more verve than taste. "Vanbrugh, Wycherley, Congreve, and some others + have painted vices and foibles with vigour; it is not either invention + or warmth or gaiety or force that is wanting to their pencil, but + rather that unity in the drawing, that precision in the stroke, that + truth in colouring, which distinguish portrait from caricature. + Especially are they wanting in the art of discerning and seizing those + <i>naïf</i>, simple, and yet singular movements of character, which + always please and astonish, and render the imitation at once true and + piquant."<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> Criticism has really + nothing to add to these few lines, and if Diderot in his last years + read <i>The School for Scandal</i>, or <i>The Rivals</i>, he would + have found no reason to alter his judgment.</p> + + <p>One English play had the honour of being translated by Diderot; + this was <i>The Gamester</i>, not <i>The Gamester</i> of Shirley nor + of Garrick, but of Edward Moore (1753). It is a good example of the + bourgeois tragedy or domestic drama, which Diderot was so eager to see + introduced on to the French stage. The infatuation of Beverley, the + tears and virtue of Mrs. Beverley, the prudence of Charlotte and the + sage devotion of her lover, the sympathetic remorse of Bates, and even + the desperation of Stukely, made up a picture of domestic misery and + moral sentiment with which Diderot was sure to fall in love. + Lillo's</p> + + <p><i>George Barnwell</i>, with its direct and urgent moral, was a + still greater favourite, and Diderot compared the scene between Maria + and Barnwell in prison to the despair of the <i>Philocletes</i> of + Sophocles, as the hero is heard shrieking at the mouth of his + cavern;<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id= + "FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class= + "fnanchor">[271]</a> just as a more modern + critic has thought Lillo's other play, <i>The Fatal Curiosity</i>, + worthy of comparison with the <i>Œdipus Tyrannus</i>.</p> + + <p>Diderot's feeling for Shakespeare seems to have been what we might + have anticipated from the whole cast of his temperament. One of the + scenes which delighted him most was that moment of awe, when Lady + Macbeth silently advances down the stage with her eyes closed, and + imitates the action of washing her hands, as wondering that "the old + man should have so much blood in him." "I know nothing," he exclaims, + "so pathetic in discourse as that woman's silence and the movement of + her hands. What an image of remorse!"<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a></p> + + <p>It was not to be expected that Diderot should indulge in those + undiscriminating superlatives about Shakespeare which are common in + Shakespeare's country. But he knew enough about him to feel that he + was dealing with a giant. "I will not compare Shakespeare," he said, + "to the Belvedere Apollo, nor to the Gladiator, nor to Antinous"—he + had compared Terence to the Medicean Venus—"but to the Saint + Christopher of Notre Dame, an unshapely colossus, rudely carven, but + between whose legs we could all pass without our brows touching + him."<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a> Not very satisfactory + recognition perhaps; but the Saint Christopher is better than + Voltaire's drunken savage.</p> + + <p>It is not every dramatist who treats the art of acting as seriously + as the art of composition. The great author of <i>Wilhelm Meister</i> + is the most remarkable exception to this rule, and Lessing is only + second to him. It is hardly possible for a man to be a great + dramatist, and it is simply impossible for a man to be a great critic + of the drama, who has not seriously studied the rules, aims, and + conditions of stage representation. Hazlitt, for instance, has written + some admirable pages about the poetry, the imaginative conception, the + language, of Shakespeare's plays, but we find his limit when he says + that King Lear is so noble a play that he cannot bear to see it acted. + As if a play could be fully judged without reference to the conditions + of the very object with which it was written. A play is to be + criticised as a play, not merely as a poem. The whole structure of a + piece depends on the fact that it is to be acted; its striking moments + must be great dramatic, not merely beautiful poetic, moments. They + must have the intensity of pitch by which the effect of action exceeds + the effect of narrative. This intensity is made almost infinitely + variable with the variations in the actor's mastery of his art.</p> + + <p>Diderot, who threw so penetrating a glance into every subject that + he touched, even if it were no more than a glance, has left a number + of excellent remarks on histrionics. The key to them all is his + everlasting watchword: <i>Watch nature, follow her simple, and + spontaneous leading</i>. The Paradox on the Player is one of the very + few of Diderot's pieces of which we can say that, besides containing + vigorous thought, it has real finish in point of literary form. There + is not the flat tone, the heavy stroke, the loose shamble, that give a + certain stamp of commonness to so many of his most elaborate + discussions. In the Paradox the thoughts seem to fall with rapidity + and precision into their right places; they are direct; they are not + overloaded with qualifications; their clear delivery is not choked by + a throng of asides and casual ejaculations. Usually Diderot writes as + if he were loath to let the sentence go, and to allow the paragraph to + come to an end. Here he lays down his proposition, and without + rambling passes on to the next. The effort is not kept up quite to the + close, for the last half dozen pages have the ordinary clumsy + mannerism of their author.</p> + + <p>What is the Paradox? That a player of the first rank must have much + judgment, self-possession, and penetration, <i>but no sensibility</i>. + An actor with nothing but sense and judgment is apt to be cold; but an + actor with nothing but verve and sensibility is crazy. It is a certain + temperament of good sense and warmth combined, that makes the sublime + player.<a name="FNanchor_274_274" + id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class= + "fnanchor">[274]</a> Why should he differ + from the poet, the painter, the orator, the musician? It is not in the + fury of the first impulse that characteristic strokes occur to any of + these men; it is in moments when they are tranquil and cool, and such + strokes come by an unexpected inspiration.<a name= + "FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> It is for coolness to temper the delirium of + enthusiasm. It is not the violent man who is beside himself that + disposes of us; that is an advantage reserved for the man who + possesses himself. The great poets, the great actors, and perhaps + generally all the great imitators of nature, whatever they may be, are + gifted with a fine imagination, a great judgment, a subtle tact, a + sure taste, but they are creatures of the smallest sensibility. They + are equally well fitted for too many things; they are too busy in + looking, in recognising, and in imitating, to be violently affected + within themselves. Sensibility is hardly the quality of a great + genius. He will have justice; but he will practise it without reaping + all the sweetness of it. It is not his heart, but his head, that does + it all. Well, then, what I insist upon, says Diderot, is that it is + extreme sensibility that makes mediocre actors; it is mediocre + sensibility that makes bad actors; and it is the absolute want of + sensibility that prepares actors who shall be sublime.<a name="FNanchor_276_276" + id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276" class= + "fnanchor">[276]</a></p> + + <p>This is worked out with great clearness and decision, and some of + the illustrations to which he resorts to lighten the dialogue are + amusing enough. Perhaps the most interesting to us English is his + account of Garrick, whose acquaintance he made towards the year 1765. + He says that he saw Garrick pass his head between two folding doors, + and in the space of a few seconds, his face went successively from mad + joy to moderate joy, from that to tranquillity, from tranquillity to + surprise, from surprise to astonishment, from astonishment to gloom, + from gloom to utter dejection, from dejection to fear, from fear to + horror, from horror to despair, and then reascend from this lowest + degree to the point whence he had started.<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a></p> + + <p>Of course his soul felt none of these emotions. "If you asked this + famous man, who by himself was as well worth a journey to England to + see, as all the wonders of Rome are worth a journey to Italy, if you + asked him, I say, for the scene of <i>The Little Baker's Boy</i>, he + played it; if you asked him the next minute for the scene from + <i>Hamlet</i>, he played that too for you, equally ready to sob over + the fall of his pies, and to follow the path of the dagger in the + air."<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id= + "FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class= + "fnanchor">[278]</a></p> + + <p>Apart from the central proposition, Diderot makes a number of + excellent observations which show his critical faculty at its best. + As, for example, in answering the question, what is the truth of the + stage? Is it to show things exactly as they are in nature? By no + means. The true in that sense would only be the common. The really + true is the conformity of action, speech, countenance, voice, + movement, gesture, with an ideal model imagined by the poet, and often + exaggerated by the player. And the marvel is that this model + influences not only the tone, but the whole carriage and gait. Again, + what is the aim of multiplied rehearsals? To establish a balance among + the different talents of the actors. The supreme excellence of one + actor does not recompense you for the mediocrity of the others, which + is brought by that very superiority into disagreeable prominence. + Again, accent is easier to imitate than movement, but movements are + what strike us most violently. Hence a law to which there is no + exception, namely, under pain of being cold, to make your denouement + an action and not a narrative.<a name= + "FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_279_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a></p> + + <p>One of the strongest satires on the reigning dramatic style, + Diderot found in the need that the actor had of the mirror. The fewer + gestures, he said, the better; frequent gesticulation impairs energy + and destroys nobleness. It is the countenance, the eyes, it is the + whole body that ought to move, and not the arms.<a name= + "FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a> There is no maxim more + forgotten by poets than that which says that great passions are mute. + It depends on the player to produce a greater effect by silence than + the poet can produce by all his fine speeches.<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id= + "FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class= + "fnanchor">[281]</a> Above all, the player + is to study tranquil scenes, for it is these that are the most truly + difficult. He commends a young actress to play every morning, by way + of orisons, the scene of Athalie with Joas; to say for evensong some + scenes of Agrippina with Nero; and for Benedicite the first scene of + Phædra with her confidante. Especially there is to be little + emphasis—a warning grievously needed by ninety-nine English speakers + out of a hundred—for emphasis is hardly ever natural; it is only a + forced imitation of nature.<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id= + "FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282" class= + "fnanchor">[282]</a></p> + + <p>Diderot had perceived very early that the complacency with which + his countrymen regarded the national theatre was extravagant. He would + not allow a comparison between the conventional classic of the French + stage and the works of the Greek stage. He insisted in the case of the + Greeks that their subjects are noble, well chosen, and interesting; + that the action seems to develop itself spontaneously; that their + dialogue is simple and very close to what is natural; that the + dénouements are not forced; that the interest is not divided nor the + action overloaded with episodes. In the French classic he found none + of these merits. He found none of that truth which is the only secret + of pleasing and touching us; none of that simple and natural movement + which is the only path to perfect and unbroken illusion. The dialogue + is all emphasis, wit, glitter; all a thousand leagues away from + nature. Instead of artificially giving to their characters + <i>esprit</i> at every point, poets ought to place them in such + situations as will give it to them. Where in the world did men and + women ever speak as we declaim? Why should princes and kings walk + differently from any man who walks well? Did they then gesticulate + like raving madmen? Do princesses when they speak utter sharp + hissings?</p> + + <p>People believe us to have brought tragedy to a high degree of + perfection. It is not so. Of all kinds of literature it is the most + imperfect.<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id= + "FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283" class= + "fnanchor">[283]</a></p> + + <p>The ideas which appeared thus incongruously in the tales of 1748 + reappeared in the direct essays on the drama in 1757 and 1758. We have + left nothing undone, he said, to corrupt dramatic style. We have + preserved from the ancients that emphasis of versification which was + so well fitted to languages of strong quantity and marked accent, to + vast theatres, to a declamation that had an instrumental + accompaniment; and then we have given up simplicity of plot and + dialogue, and all truth of situation.<a name= + "FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> La Motte nearly fifty years before had attacked + the pseudo-classic drama. He had inveighed against the unities, + against long monologues, against the device of confidants, and against + verse. His assault, in which he had the powerful aid of Fontenelle, + was part of that battle between Moderns and Ancients with which the + literary activity of the century had opened. The brilliant success of + the tragedies of Voltaire had restored the lustre of the conventional + drama, though Voltaire infused an element of the romantic under the + severity of the old forms. But the drama had become even less like + Sophocles and Euripides in <i>Zaïre</i> than in <i>Phédre</i> or + <i>Iphigénie</i>. Voltaire intended to constitute the French drama + into an independent form. He expected to be told that he was not like + Sophocles, and he did not abstain from some singularly free railing + against Euripides. The Greek pieces often smacked too much of the tone + of the fair to satisfy him; they were too familiar and colloquial for + a taste that had been made fastidious by the court-pieces of Lewis + XIV. Diderot was kept free from such deplorable criticism as this by + feeling that the Greek drama was true to the sentiment of the age that + gave it birth, and that the French drama, if not in the hands of + Racine, still even in the hands of Voltaire, and much more in the + hands of such men as Lagrange-Chancel and the elder Crébillon, was + true to no sentiment save one purely literary, artificial, and barren. + He insists on the hopelessness of the stage, unless men prepared + themselves at every part for a grand return to nature. We have seen + what is his counsel to the actor. He preaches in the same key to the + scene-painter and the maker of costumes. Scene-painting ought to be + more rigorously true than any other kind of picture. Let there be no + distraction, no extraneous suggestion, to interfere with the + impression intended by the poet. Have you a salon to represent? Let it + be that of a man of taste and no more: no ostentation and no gilding, + unless the situation expressly demands the contrary.</p> + + <p>In the dresses the same rule holds good. Under robes that are + overladen with gold lace, I only see a rich man; what I want to see is + a man. Pretty and simple draperies of severe tints are what we need, + not a mass of tinsel and embroidery. "A courageous actress has just + got rid of her panier, and nobody has found her any the worse for it. + Ah, if she only dared one day to show herself on the stage with all + the nobility and simplicity of adjustment that her characters demand; + nay, in the disorder into which she would be thrown by an event so + terrible as the death of a husband, the loss of a son, and the other + catastrophes of the tragic stage, what would become, round her + dishevelled figure, of all those powdered, curled, frizzled, + tricked-out creatures? Sooner or later they must put themselves in + unison. O nature, nature! We can never resist her."<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_285_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a></p> + + <p>From all this we turn, for a few moments only, and not too + cheerfully, to the Serbonian bog of dramatic rules and the metaphysics + of the theatre. There is no subject in literature, not even the + interpretation of the Apocalypse, which has given birth to such + pedantic, dismal, and futile discussion. The immense controversy, + carried on in books, pamphlets, sheets and flying articles, mostly + German, as to what it was that Aristotle really meant by the famous + words in the sixth chapter of the <i>Poetics</i>, about tragedy + accomplishing the purification of our moods of pity and sympathetic + fear, is one of the disgraces of human intelligence, a grotesque + monument of sterility. The great tap-root of fallacy has been and + remains the incessant imputation of ethical or social purpose to the + dramatist, and the demand of direct and combined ethical or social + effect from the drama. There is no critic, from the great Aristotle + downwards, who has steered quite clear of these evil shallows; + Diderot, as we have seen, least of all. But Diderot disarms the + impatience which narrower critics kindle, by this magnificent + concession, coming at the close of all: "Especially remember that + <i>there is no general principle;</i> I do not know a single one of + those that I have indicated which a man of genius cannot infringe with + success."<a name="FNanchor_286_286" id= + "FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286" class= + "fnanchor">[286]</a> Here we listen to the + voice of the genuine Diderot; and if this be granted, we need not give + more than a passing attention to the rules that have gone before—about + the danger of borrowing in the same composition the shades both of the + comic and of the tragic styles; about movement being injurious to + dignity, and of the importance therefore of not making the principal + personage the <i>machinist</i> of the piece; about the inexpediency of + episodic personages —and so forth. The only remark worth making on + these propositions is that, whatever their value may be, Diderot at + any rate, like a true philosopher, generalised from the facts of + nature and art. He did not follow the too common critical method of + reading one's own ideas into a work of art, and then taking them back + again in the more imposing form of inevitable deductions from the work + itself.</p> + + <p>What Diderot conceived himself really to have done, was to have + sketched and constituted a new species in the great dramatic kingdom. + Every one knows, he said, that there is tragedy and that there is + comedy, but we have to learn that there is room in nature and the art + of the stage for a third division, namely, the <i>genre sérieux</i>, a + kind of comedy that has for its object virtue and the duties of man. + Why should the writer of comedy confine his work to what is vicious or + ridiculous in men? Why should not the duties of men furnish the + dramatist with as ample material as their vices? Surely in the + <i>genre honnête et sérieux</i> the subject is as important as in gay + comedy. The characters are as varied and as original. The passions are + all the more energetic as the interest will be greater. The style will + be graver, loftier, more forcible, more susceptible of what we call + sentiment, a quality without which no style ever yet spoke to the + heart. The ridiculous will not be absent, for the madness of actions + and speeches, when they are suggested by the misunderstanding of + interests or by the transport of passion, is the truly ridiculous + thing in men and in life.<a name="FNanchor_287_287" + id="FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287" class= + "fnanchor">[287]</a></p> + + <p>Besides his own two pieces, Diderot would probably have pointed to + Terence as the author coming nearest to the <i>genre sérieux</i>. If + Goethe's bad play of <i>Stella</i> had retained the close as he + originally wrote it, with the bigamous Fernando in the last scene + rejoicing over the devoted agreement of the two ladies and his + daughter to live with him in happy unity, that would perhaps have been + a comedy of the <i>genre sérieux</i>, with the duties of man + gracefully adapted to circumstances.</p> + + <p>The theory of the <i>genre sérieux</i> has not led to the formation + of any school of writers adopting it and working it out, or to the + production of any masterpiece that has held its ground, as has + happened in tragedy, comedy, and farce. Beaumarchais, who at last + achieved such a dazzling and portentous success by one dramatic + masterpiece, began his career as a playwright by following the vein of + <i>The Father of the Family;</i> but <i>The Marriage of Figaro</i>, + though not without strong traces of Diderotian sentiment in pungent + application, yet is in its structure and composition less French than + Spanish. It is quite true, as Rosenkranz says, that the prevailing + taste on the French stage in our own times favours above all else + bourgeois romantic comedy, written in prose.<a name= + "FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_288_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> But the strength of the romantic element in them + would have been as little satisfactory to Diderot's love of realistic + moralising as the conventional tragedy of the court of Lewis XIV. The + Fable of most of them turns on adultery, and this is not within the + method of the <i>genre sérieux</i> as expounded by Diderot. Perhaps + half a dozen comedies, such, for instance, as <i>The Ideas of Madame + Aubray,</i> by M. Dumas, are of the <i>genre sérieux</i>, but + certainly there are not enough of such comedies to constitute a + genuine Diderotian school in France. There is no need therefore to say + more about the theory than this, namely, that though the drama is an + imitative art, yet besides imitation its effects demand illusion. + What, cries Diderot, you do not conceive the effect that would be + produced on you by a real scene, with real dresses, with speech in + true proportion to the action, with the actions themselves simple, + with the very dangers that have made you tremble for your parents, for + your friends, for yourselves? No, we answer: reproduction of reality + does not move us as a powerful work of imagination moves us. "We may + as well urge," said Burke, "that stones, sand, clay, and metals lie in + a certain manner in the earth, as a reason for building with these + materials and in that manner, as for writing according to the + accidental disposition of characters in Nature."<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id= + "FNanchor_289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_289_289" class= + "fnanchor">[289]</a> Common dangers do not + excite us; it is the presentation of danger in some uncommon form, in + some new combination, in some fresh play of motive and passion, that + quickens that sympathetic fear and pity which it is the end of a play + to produce. And if this be so, there is another thing to be said. If + we are to be deliberately steeped in the atmosphere of Duty, illusion + is out of place. The constant presence of that severe and overpowering + figure, "Stern Daughter of the Voice of God," checks the native + wildness of imagination, restricts the exuberance of fancy, and sets a + rigorous limit to invention. Diderot used to admit that the <i>genre + sérieux</i> could never take its right place until it had been handled + by a man of high dramatic genius. The cause why this condition has + never come to pass is simply that its whole structure and its + regulations repel the faculties of dramatic genius.</p> + + <p>Besides the perfection of the <i>genre sérieux</i>, Diderot + insisted that the following tasks were also to be achieved before the + stage could be said to have attained the full glory of the other arts. + First, a domestic or bourgeois tragedy must be created. Second, the + conditions of men, their callings and situations, the types of + classes, in short, must be substituted for mere individual characters. + Third, a real tragedy must be introduced upon the lyric theatre. + Finally, the dance must be brought within the forms of a true + poem.</p> + + <p>The only remark to be made upon this scheme touches the second + article of it. To urge the substitution of types of classes for + individual character was the very surest means that could have been + devised for bringing back the conventional forms of the pseudo-classic + drama. The very mark of that drama was that it introduced types + instead of vigorously stamped personalities. What would be gained by + driving the typical king off the stage, only to make room for the + generalisation of a shopkeeper? This was not the path that led to + romanticism, to André Chenier, to De Vigny, to Lamartine, to Victor + Hugo. Théophile Gautier has told us that the fiery chiefs of the + romantic school who suddenly conquered France at the close of the + Restoration, divided the whole world into <i>flamboyant</i> and + <i>drab</i>. In the literature of the past they counted Voltaire one + of the Drab, and Diderot a Flamboyant.<a name="FNanchor_290_290" id= + "FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290" class= + "fnanchor">[290]</a> If it be not too presumptuous in a foreigner to + dissent, we cannot but think that they were mistaken. Nothing could be + farther removed at every part from Diderot's dramatic scheme, than + <i>Faust</i> or <i>Götz von Berlichingen</i> or <i>Hernani</i>.</p> + + <p>The truth is that it was impossible for an effective antagonism to + the classic school to rise in the mind of an Encyclopædist, for the + reason that the Encyclopædists hated and ignored what they called the + Dark Ages. Yet it was exactly the Dark Ages from which the great + romantic revival drew its very life-breath. "In the eighteenth + century," it has been said, "it was really the reminiscence of the + classic spirit which was awakened in the newer life of Europe, and + made prominent."<a name="FNanchor_291_291" + id="FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291" class= + "fnanchor">[291]</a> This is true in a certain historic sense of + Rousseau's politics, and perhaps of Voltaire's rationalism. In spite + of the vein of mysticism which occasionally shows in him, it is true + in some degree of Diderot himself, if by classicism we mean the + tendency to make man the centre of the universe. Classicism treats man + as worthy and great, living his life among cold and neutral forces. + This is the very opposite of the sinfulness, imperfection, and + nothingness habitually imputed to man, and the hourly presence of a + whole hierarchy of busy supernatural agents placed about man by the + Middle Ages. Yet we cannot but see that Diderot was feeling for + dramatic forms and subjects that would have been as little classic as + romantic. He failed in the search. There is one play and only one of + his epoch that is not classic, and is not romantic, but speaks + independently the truest and best mind of the eighteenth century + itself, in its own form and language. That play is <i>Nathan the + Wise</i>.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> + RAMEAU'S NEPHEW.</h2> + + <p>In hypochondriacal moments, it has been said, the world, viewed + from the æsthetic side, appears to many a one a cabinet of + caricatures; from the intellectual side, a madhouse; and from the + moral side, a harbouring place for rascals.<a name= + "FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_292_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> We might perhaps extend this saying beyond the + accidents of hypochondriasis, and urge that the few wide, profound, + and real observers of human life have all known, and known often, this + fantastic consciousness of living in a strange distorted universe of + lunatics, knaves, grotesques. It is an inevitable mood to any who dare + to shake the kaleidoscopic fragments out of their conventional and + accepted combination. Who does not remember deep traces of such a mood + in Plato, Shakespeare, Pascal, Goethe? And Diderot, who went near to + having something of the deep quality of those sovereign spirits, did + not escape, any more than they, the visitation of the misanthropic + spectre. The distinction of the greater minds is that they have no + temptation to give the spectre a permanent home with them, as is done + by theologians in order to prove the necessity of grace and another + world, or by cynics in order to prove the wisdom of selfishness in + this world. The greater minds accept the worse facts of character for + what they are worth, and bring them into a right perspective with the + better facts. They have no expectation of escaping all perplexities, + nor of hitting on answers to all the moral riddles of the world. Yet + are they ever drawn by an invincible fascination to the feet of the + mighty Sphinx of society. She bewilders them with questions that are + never overheard by common ears, and torments them with a mockery that + is unobserved by common eyes. The energetic—a Socrates, a + Diderot—cannot content themselves with merely recording her + everlasting puzzles; still less with merely writing over again the + already recorded answers. They insist on scrutinising the moral world + afresh; they resolve the magniloquent vocabulary of abstract ethics + into the small realities from which it has come; they break the + complacent repose of opinion and usage by a graphic irony. "The + definitions of moral beings," said Diderot, "are always made from what + such beings ought to be, and never from what they are. People + incessantly confound duty with the thing as it is."<a name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_293_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a> We shall proceed to + give a short account of one or two dialogues in which he endeavours to + keep clear of this confusion.</p> + + <p>By far the most important of these is <i>Rameau's Nephew</i>. The + fortunes of this singular production are probably unique in literary + history. In the year 1804</p> + + <p>Schiller handed to Goethe the manuscript of a piece by Diderot, + with the wish that he might find himself able to translate it into + German. "As I had long," says Goethe, "cherished a great regard for + this author, I cheerfully undertook the task, after looking through + the original. People can see, I hope, that I threw my whole soul into + it."<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id= + "FNanchor_294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294_294" class= + "fnanchor">[294]</a> When he had done his + work, he returned the manuscript to Schiller. Schiller died almost + immediately (May 1805), and the mysterious manuscript disappeared. + Goethe could never learn either whence it had come, or whither it + went. He always suspected that the autograph original had been sent to + the Empress Catherine at St. Petersburg, and that Schiller's + manuscript was a copy from that. Though Goethe had executed his + translation, as he says, "not merely with readiness but even with + passion," the violent and only too just hatred then prevailing in + Germany for France and for all that belonged to France, hindered any + vogue which <i>Rameau's Nephew</i> might otherwise have had. On the + eve of Austerlitz and of Jena there might well be little humour for a + satire from the French.</p> + + <p>Thirteen years afterwards an edition of Diderot's works appeared in + Paris (Belin's edition of 1818), but the editors were obliged to + content themselves, for <i>Rameau's Nephew</i>, with an analysis of + Goethe's translation. In 1821 a lively sensation was produced by the + publication of what professed to be the original text of the missing + dialogue. It was really a retranslation into French from Goethe. The + fraud was not discovered for some time, until in 1823 Brière announced + for his edition of Diderot's works a reprint from a genuine original. + This original he had procured from Madame de Vandeul, Diderot's + daughter, who still survived. She described it as a copy made in 1760 + under the author's own eyes, and this may have been the case, though, + if so, it must, from some of the references, have been revised after + 1773. The two young men who had tried to palm off their retranslation + from Goethe as Diderot's own text, at once had the effrontery to + accuse Brière and Diderot's daughter of repeating their own fraud. A + vivacious dispute followed between the indignant publisher and his + impudent detractors. At length Brière appealed to the great Jove of + Weimar. Goethe expressed his conviction that Brière's text was the + genuine text of the original, and this was held to settle the + question. Yet Goethe's voucher for its correspondence with the copy + handed to him by Schiller was not really decisive evidence. He admits + that he executed the translation very rapidly, and had no time to + compare it closely with the French. An identification nearly twenty + years afterwards of verbal resemblances and minute references, in a + work that had been only a short time in his hands, cannot be counted + testimony of the highest kind. We have thus the extraordinary + circumstance that for a great number of years, down almost to the + present decade, the text of the one masterpiece of a famous man who + died so recently as 1784 rested on a single manuscript, and that a + manuscript of disputed authenticity.<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_295_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a></p> + + <p>Critics differ extremely in their answers to the question of the + subject or object of Diderot's singular "farce-tragedy." One declares + it to be merely a satirical picture of contemporary manners. Another + insists that it is meant to be an ironical <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> + of the theory of self-interest, by exhibiting a concrete example of + its working in all its grossness. A third holds that it was composed + by way of rejoinder to Palissot's comedy <i>(Les Philosophes</i>), + 1760, which had brought the chiefs of the rationalistic school upon + the stage, and presented them as enemies of the human race. A fourth + suspects that the personal and dramatic portions are no more than a + setting for the discussion of the comparative merits of the French and + Italian schools of music. The true answer is that the dialogue is all + of these things, because it is none of them. It is neither more nor + less than the living picture and account of an original, drawn by a + man of genius who was accustomed to observe human nature and society + with a free unblinking vision, and to meditate upon them deeply and + searchingly.</p> + + <p>Diderot goes to work with Rameau in some sort and to a certain + extent as Shakespeare went to work with Falstaff. He is the artist, + reproducing with the variety and perfection of art a whimsical figure + that struck his fancy and stirred the creative impulse. Ethics, + æsthetics, manners, satire, are all indeed to be found in the + dialogue, but they are only there as incident to the central figure of + the sketch, the prodigy of parasites. Diderot had no special fondness + for these originals. Yet he had a keen and just sense of their + interest. "Their character stands out from the rest of the world, it + breaks that tiresome uniformity which our bringing up, our social + conventions, and our arbitrary fashions have introduced. If one of + them makes his appearance in a company, he is like leaven, fermenting + and restoring to each person present a portion of his natural + individuality. He stirs people up, moves them, provokes to praise or + blame: he is a means of bringing out reality; gives honest people a + chance of showing what they are made of, and unmasks the + rogues."<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id= + "FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296" class= + "fnanchor">[296]</a></p> + + <p>Hearing that the subject of Diderot's dialogue is the Parasite, the + scholar will naturally think of that savage satire in which Juvenal + rehearses the thousand humiliations that Virro inflicts on Trebius: + how the wretched follower has to drink fiery stuff from broken + crockery, while the patron quaffs of the costliest from splendid cups + of amber and precious stones; how the host has fine oil of Venafrum, + while the guest munches cabbage that has been steeped in rancid + lamp-oil; one plays daintily with mullet and lamprey, while the other + has his stomach turned by an eel as long as a snake, and bloated in + the foul torrent of the sewers; Virro has apples that might have come + from the gardens of the Hesperides, while Trebius gnaws such musty + things as are tossed to a performing monkey on the town wall. But the + distance is immeasurable between Juvenal's scorching truculence and + Diderot's half-ironical, half-serious sufferance. Juvenal knows that + Trebius is a base and abject being; he tells him what he is; and in + the process blasts him. Diderot knows that Rameau too is base and + abject, but he is so little willing to rest in the fat and easy + paradise of conventions, that he seems to be all the time vaguely + wondering in his own mind how far this genius of grossness and paradox + and bestial sophism is a pattern of the many, with the mask thrown + off. He seems to be inwardly musing whether it can after all be true, + that if one draws aside a fold of the gracious outer robe of + conformity, there is no comeliness of life shining underneath, but + only this horror of the skeleton and the worm. He restrains + exasperation at the brilliant effrontery of his man, precisely as an + anatomist would suppress disgust at a pathological monstrosity, or an + astonishing variation in which he hoped to surprise some vital secret. + Rameau is not crudely analysed as a vile type: he is searched as + exemplifying on a prodigious scale elements of character that lie + furtively in the depths of characters that are not vile. It seems as + if Diderot unconsciously anticipated that terrible, that woful, that + desolating saying,—<i>There is in every man and woman something which, + if you knew it, would make you hate them</i>. Rameau is not all + parasite. He is your brother and mine, a product from the same + rudimentary factors of mental composition, a figure cast equally with + ourselves in one of the countless moulds of the huge social + foundry.</p> + + <p>Such is the scientific attitude of mind towards character: It is + not philanthropic nor pitiful: the fact that base characters exist and + are of intelligible origin is no reason why we should not do our best + to shun and to extirpate them. This assumption of the scientific point + of view, this change from mere praise and blame to scrutiny, this + comprehension that mere execration is not the last word, is a mark of + the modern spirit. Besides Juvenal, another writer of genius has shown + us the parasite of an ancient society. Lucian, whose fertility, wit, + invention, mockery, freshness of spirit, and honest hatred of false + gods, make him the Voltaire of the second century, has painted with + all his native liveliness more than one picture of the parasite. The + great man's creature at Rome endures exactly the same long train of + affronts and humiliations as the great man's creature at Paris sixteen + centuries later, beginning with the anguish of the mortified stomach, + as savoury morsels of venison or boar are given to more important + guests, and ending with the anguish of the mortified spirit, as he + sees himself supplanted by a rival of shapelier person, a more + ingenious versifier, a cleverer mountebank. The dialogue in which + Lucian ironically proves that Parasitic, or the honourable craft of + Spunging, has as many of the marks of a genuine art as Rhetoric, + Gymnastic, or Music, is a spirited parody of Socratic catechising and + Platonic mannerisms. Simo shows to Tychiades, as ingeniously as Rameau + shows to Diderot, that the Spunger has a far better life of it, and is + a far more rational and consistent person than the orator and the + philosopher.<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id= + "FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297" class= + "fnanchor">[297]</a> Lucian's satire is vivid, brilliant, and + diverting. Yet every one feels that Diderot's performance, while + equally vivid, is marked by greater depth of spirit; comes from a soil + that has been more freely broken up, and has been enriched by a more + copious experience. The ancient turned upon these masterpieces of + depravation the flash of intellectual scorn; the modern eyes them with + a certain moral patience, and something of that curious kind of + interest, looking half like sympathy, which a hunter has for the + object of his chase.</p> + + <p>The Rameau of the dialogue was a real personage, and there is a + dispute whether Diderot has not calumniated him. Evidence enough + remains that he was at least a person of singular character and + irregular disastrous life. Diderot's general veracity of temperament + would make us believe that his picture is authentic, but the interest + of the dialogue is exactly the same in either case. Juvenal's fifth + satire would be worth neither more nor less, however much were found + out about Trebius.</p> + + <p>"Rameau is one of the most eccentric figures in the country, where + God has not made them lacking. He is a mixture of elevation and + lowness, of good sense and madness; the notions of good and bad must + be mixed up together in strange confusion in his head, for he shows + the good qualities that nature has bestowed on him without any + ostentation, and the bad ones without the smallest shame. For the + rest, he is endowed with a vigorous frame, a particular warmth of + imagination, and an uncommon strength of lungs. If you ever meet him, + unless you happen to be arrested by his originality, you will either + stuff your fingers into your ears or else take to your heels. Heavens, + what a monstrous pipe! Nothing is so little like him as himself. One + time he is lean and wan, like a patient in the last stage of + consumption: you could count his teeth through his cheeks; you would + say he must have passed some days without tasting a morsel, or that he + is fresh from La Trappe. A month after, he is stout and sleek as if he + had been sitting all the time at the board of a financier, or had been + shut up in a Bernardine monastery. To-day in dirty linen, his clothes + torn and patched, with barely a shoe to his foot, he steals along with + a bent head; one is tempted to hail him and toss him a shilling. + To-morrow, all powdered, curled, in a good coat, he marches about with + head erect and open mien, and you would almost take him for a decent + worthy creature. He lives from day to day, from hand to mouth, + downcast or sad, just as things may go. His first care of a morning + when he gets up is to know where he will dine; after dinner, he begins + to think where he may pick up a supper. Night brings disquiets of its + own. Either he climbs to a shabby garret he has, unless the landlady, + weary of waiting for her rent, has taken the key away from him; or + else he shrinks to some tavern on the outskirts of the town, where he + waits for daybreak over a crust of bread and a mug of beer. When he + has not threepence in his pocket, as sometimes happens, he has + recourse either to a hackney-carriage belonging to a friend, or to a + coachman of some man of quality, who gives him a bed on the straw + beside the horses. In the morning he still has bits of the mattress in + his hair. If the weather is mild, he measures the Champs Elysées all + night long. With the day he reappears in the town, dressed over night + for the morrow, and from the morrow sometimes dressed for the rest of + the week."</p> + + <p>Diderot is accosted by this curious being one afternoon on a bench + in front of the Café de la Régence in the Palais Royal. They proceed + in the thoroughly natural and easy manner of interlocutors in a + Platonic dialogue. It is not too much to say that <i>Rameau's + Nephew</i> is the most effective and masterly use of that form of + discussion since Plato. Diderot's vein of realism is doubtless in + strong contrast with Plato's poetic and idealising touch. Yet + imaginative strokes are not wanting to soften the repulsive theme, and + to bring the sordid and the foul within the sphere of art. For an + example. "Time has passed," says Rameau, "and that is always so much + gained."</p> + + <p>"<i>I.</i>—So much lost, you mean.</p> + + <p>"<i>He.</i>—No, no; gained. People grow rich every moment; a day + less to live, or a crown piece to the good, 'tis all one. When the + last moment comes, one is as rich as another. Samuel Bernard, who by + pillaging and stealing and playing bankrupt, leaves seven-and-twenty + million francs in gold, is no better than Rameau, who leaves not a + penny, and will be indebted to charity for a shroud to wrap about him. + The dead man hears not the tolling of the bell; 'tis in vain that a + hundred priests bawl dirges for him, in vain that a long file of + blazing torches go before. His soul walks not by the side of the + master of the funeral ceremonies. To moulder under marble, or to + moulder under clay, 'tis still to moulder. To have around one's bier + children in red and children in blue, or to have not a creature, what + matters it?"</p> + + <p>These are the gleams of the <i>mens divinior</i>, that relieve the + perplexing moral squalor of the portrait. Even here we have the + painful innuendo that a thought which is solemnising and holy to the + noble, serves equally well to point a trait of cynical defiance in the + ignoble.</p> + + <p>Again, there is an indirectly imaginative element in the sort of + terror which the thoroughness of the presentation inspires. For indeed + it is an emotion hardly short of terror that seizes us, as we listen + to the stringent unflinching paradox of this heterogeneous figure. + Rameau is the squalid and tattered Satan of the eighteenth century. He + is a Mephistopheles out at elbows, a Lucifer in low water; yet always + diabolic, with the bright flash of the pit in his eye. Disgust is + transformed into horror and affright by the trenchant confidence of + his spirit, the daring thoroughness and consistency of his dialectic, + the lurid sarcasm, the vile penetration. He discusses a horrible + action, or execrable crime, as a virtuoso examines a statue or a + painting. He has that rarest fortitude of the vicious, not to shrink + from calling his character and conduct by their names. He is one of + Swift's Yahoos, with the courage of its opinions. He seems to give one + reason for hating and dreading oneself. The effect is of mixed fear + and fascination, as of a magician whose miraculous crystal is to show + us what and how we shall be twenty years from now; or as when a + surgeon tells the tale of some ghastly disorder, that may at the very + moment be stealthily preparing for us a doom of anguish.</p> + + <p>Hence our dialogue is assuredly no "meat for little people nor for + fools." Some of it is revolting in its brutal indecency. Even Goethe's + self-possession cannot make it endurable to him. But it is a study to + be omitted by no one who judges the corruption of the old society in + France an important historic subject. The picture is very like the + corruption of the old society in Rome. We see the rotten material + which the purifying flame of Jacobinism was soon to consume out of the + land with fiery swiftness. We watch the very classes from which, as we + have been so often told, the regeneration of France would have come, + if only demagogues and rabble had not violently interposed. There is + no gaiety in the style; none of that laughter which makes such a + delineation of the manners of the time as we find in Collé's play of + <i>Truth in Wine</i>, <i>naïf</i>, true to nature, and almost + exhilarating. In <i>Rameau</i> we are afflicted by the odour of deadly + taint.</p> + + <p>As the dialogue is not in every hand—nor could any one wish that it + should be—I have thought it worth while to print an English rendering + of a considerable part of it in an appendix. Mr. Carlyle told us long + ago that it must be translated into English, and although such a piece + of work is less simple than it may seem, it appears right to give the + reader an opportunity of judging for himself of the flavour of the + most characteristic of all Diderot's performances. Only let no reader + turn to it who has any invincible repugnance to that curious turn for + <i>wildbret</i>, which Goethe has described as the secret of some + arts.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <span>Dixeris hæc inter varicosos centuriones,<br /></span> + <span>Continuo crassum ridet Pulfenius ingens<br /></span> <span>Et + centum Græcos curto centusse licebit.<br /></span> + </div> + </div> + + <p>As I have already said, it must be judged as something more than a + literary diversion. "You do not suspect, Sir Philosopher," says + Rameau, "that at this moment I represent the most important part of + the town and the court." As the painter of the picture says, Rameau + confessed the vices that he had, and that most of the people about us + have; but he was no hypocrite. He was neither more nor less abominable + than they; he was only more frank and systematic and profound in his + depravity. This is the social significance of the dialogue. This is + what, apart from other considerations, makes <i>Rameau's Nephew</i> so + much more valuable a guide to the moral sentiment of the time than + merely licentious compositions like those of Louvet or La Olos. Its + instructiveness is immense to those who examine the conditions that + prepared the Revolution. Rameau is not the ακόλστος of Aristotle, nor + the creature of απονοία described by Theophrastus—the castaway by + individual idiosyncrasy, the reprobate by accident. The men whom he + represented, the courtiers, the financiers, the merchants, the + shopkeepers, were immoral by formula and depraved on principle. Vice + was a doctrine to them, and wretchlessness of unclean living was + reduced to a system of philosophy. Any one, I venture to repeat, who + realises the extent to which this had corroded the ruling powers in + France, will perceive that the furious flood of social energy which + the Jacobins poured over the country was not less indispensable to + France than the flood of the barbarians was indispensable for the + transformation of the Roman Empire.</p> + + <p>Scattered among the more serious fragments of the dialogue is some + excellent by-play of sarcasm upon Palissot, and one or two of the + other assailants of the new liberal school. Palissot is an old story. + The Palissots are an eternal species. The family never dies out, and + it thrives in every climate. All societies know the literary dangler + in great houses, and the purveyor to fashionable prejudices. Not that + he is always servile. The reader, I daresay, remembers that La Bruyère + described a curious being in Troilus, the despotic parasite. Palissot, + eighteenth century or nineteenth century, is often like Troilus, + parasite and tyrant at the same time. He usually happens to have begun + life with laudable aspirations and sincere interests of his own; and + when, alas, the mediocrity of his gifts proves too weak to bear the + burden of his ambitions, the recollection of a generous youth only + serves to sour old age.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <span>Bel esprit abhorré de tous les bons esprits,<br /></span> + <span>Il pense par la haine échapper au mépris.<br /></span> <span>A + force d'attentats il se croit illustré;<br /></span> <span>Et s'il + n'était méchant, il serait ignoré.<br /></span> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Palissot began with a tragedy. He proceeded to an angry pamphlet + against the Encyclopædists and the fury for innovation. Then he + achieved immense vogue among fine ladies, bishops, and the lighter + heads of the town, by the comedy in which he held Diderot, D'Alembert, + and the others, up to hatred and ridicule. Finally, after coming to + look upon himself as a serious personage, he disappeared into the mire + of half-oblivious contempt and disgust that happily awaits all the + poor Palissots and all their works. His name only survives in + connection with the men whom he maligned. He lived to be old, as, + oddly enough, Spite so often does. In the Terror he had a narrow + escape, for he was brought before Chaumette. Chaumette apostrophised + the assailant of Rousseau and Diderot with rude energy, but did not + send him to the guillotine. In this the practical disciple only + imitated the magnanimity of his theoretical masters. Rousseau had + declined an opportunity of punishing Palissot's impertinences, and + Diderot took no worse vengeance upon him than by making an occasional + reference of contempt to him in a dialogue which he perhaps never + intended to publish.</p> + + <p>Another subject is handled in <i>Rameau's Nephew,</i> which is + interesting in connection with the mental activity of Paris in the + eighteenth century. Music was the field of as much passionate + controversy as theology and philosophy. The Bull Unigenitus itself did + not lead to livelier disputes, or more violent cabals, than the + conflict between the partisans of French music and the partisans of + Italian music. The horror of a Jansenist for a Molinist did not + surpass that of a Lullist for a Dunist, or afterwards of a Gluckist + for a Piccinist.<a name= + "FNanchor_298_298" id="FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_298_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> Lulli and Rameau (the uncle of our parasite) had + undisputed possession of Paris until the arrival, in 1752, of a + company of Italian singers. The great quarrel at once broke out as to + the true method and destination of musical composition. Is music an + independent art, appealing directly to a special sense, or is it to be + made an instrument for expressing affections of the mind in a certain + deeper way? The Italians asked only for delicious harmonies and + exquisite melodies. The French insisted that these should be + subordinate to the work of the poet. The former were content with + delight, the latter pressed for significance. The one declared that + Italian music was no better than a silly tickling of the ears; the + other that the overture to a French opera was like a prelude to a + Miserere in plain-song. In 1772-73 the illustrious Gluck came to + Paris. His art was believed to reconcile the two schools, to have more + melody than the old French style, and more severity and meaning than + the purely Italian style. French dignity was saved. But soon the old + battle, which had been going on for twenty years, began to rage with + greater violence than ever. Piccini was brought to Paris by the + Neapolitan ambassador. The old cries were heard in a shriller key than + before. Pamphlets, broadsheets, sarcasms flew over Paris from every + side.</p> + + <p>Was music only to flatter the ear, or was it to paint the passions + in all their energy, to harrow the soul, to raise men's courage, to + form citizens and heroes? The coffee-houses were thrown into dire + confusion, and literary societies were rent by fatal discord. Even + dinner-parties breathed only constraint and mistrust, and the + intimacies of a lifetime came to cruel end. <i>Rameau's Nephew</i> was + composed in the midst of the first part of this long campaign of a + quarter of a century, and its seems to have been revised by its author + in the midst of the second great episode. Diderot declares against the + school of Rameau and Lulli. That he should do so was a part of his + general reaction in favour of what he called the natural, against the + artifice and affectation. Goethe has pointed out the inconsistency + between Diderot's sympathy for the less expressive kind of music, and + his usual vehement passion for the expressive in art. He truly + observes that Diderot's sympathy went in this way, because the novelty + and agitation seemed likely to break up the old, stiff, and abhorred + fashion, and to clear the ground afresh for other efforts.<a name= + "FNanchor_299_299" id="FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href= + "#Footnote_299_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a></p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2>END OF VOL. I.</h2> + + <p><i>Printed by</i> R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</p> + <hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + <h2><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES</h2> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + xviii. 505.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + xviii. 364.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> + 379.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, i. + 30.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> + <i>Wahlverwandschaften</i>, pt. ii. ch. vii. The reader will do well + to consult the philosophical estimate of the function of the man of + letters given by Comte, <i>Philosophie Positive</i>, v. 512, vi. 192, + 287. The best contemporary account of the principles and policy of + the men of letters in the eighteenth century is to be found in + Condorcet's <i>Esquisse d'un Tableau, etc.</i>, pp. 187-189 (ed. + 1847).</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Naigeon, p. + 24.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, xix. + 162.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, xix. + 89.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, xix. + 93.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, i. + xlviii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Marmontel, + <i>Mém.</i>, vol. ii. b. vii. p. 315.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Morellet, + <i>Mém.</i>, i. p. 29.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, i. + xlviii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> xix. + 55.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + xviii. 376.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Madame de + Vandeul says 1744. But M. Jal (<i>Dict. Crit.</i>, 495) reproduces + the certificate of the marriage. Perhaps we may charitably hope that + Diderot himself is equally mistaken, when in later years he sets down + a disreputable adventure to 1744. (<i>Œuv.</i>, xix. 85.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> For an account + of Madame de Puisieux in her later years, see Mdme. Roland's + <i>Memoirs</i>, i. 156.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Sainte Beuve, + <i>Causeries</i>, ix. 136.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + xix. 159. See also <i>Salons</i>, 1767, No, 118.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Les Règnes + de Claud et de Néron</i>, § 79.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Account of + Diderot by Meister, printed in Grimm's <i>Correspondence + Littéraire</i> xiii. 202-211.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Grétry, quoted + in Genin's <i>Œuv. choisies de Diderot</i>, 42.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Marmontel, + <i>Mém</i>., bk. vii. vol. ii. 312.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Plato, + <i>Theages</i>, 130, c.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Art. + <i>Encyclopédie</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> See Barbier's + Journal, iv. 166.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The book was + among those found in the possession of the unfortunate La Barre.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Honegger's + <i>Kritische Geschichte der französischen Cultureinflüsse in den + letzten Jahrhunderten</i>, pp. 267-273.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> "Es ist nicht + gleichgültig ob eine Folge grosser Gedanken in frischer + Ursprünglichkeit auf die Zeitgenossen wirkt, oder ob sie zu einer + Mixtur mit reichlichem Zusatz überlieferter Vorurtheile verarbeitet + ist. Ebensowenig ist est gleichgültig welcher Stimmung, welchem + Zustande der Geister eine neue Lehre begegnet. Man darf aber kühn + behaupten, das für die volle durchführung der von Newton angebahnten + Weltanschauung weder eine günstigere Naturanlage, noch eine + günstigere Stimmung getroffen werden konnte, als die der Franzosen im + 18. Jahrhundert." (Lange's <i>Gesch. d. Materialismus</i>, i. 303.) + But the writer, like most historians of opinion, does not dwell + sufficiently on the co-operation of external social conditions with + the progress of logical inference.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See Montgeron's + <i>La Verité des Miracles de M. de Pâris démontrée</i> (1737)—an + interesting contribution to the pathology of the human mind.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Barbier, 168, + 244, etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Pensées + Philosophiques</i>, xviii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> On this, see + Lange, i. 294.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Pensées + Philosophiques. Œuv.</i>, i. 128, 129.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + xix. 87. Grimm, Supp. 148.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Volney, in a + book that was famous in its day, <i>Les Ruines, ou Méditation sur les + révolutions des empires</i> (1791), resorted to a slight difference + of method. Instead of leaving the pretensions of the various creeds + to cancel one another, he invented a rather striking scene, in which + the priests of each creed are made to listen to the professions of + their rival, and then inveigh against his superstition and + inconsistency. The assumption on which Diderot's argument rests is, + that as so many different creeds all make the same exclusive claim, + the claim is equally false throughout. Volney's argument turns more + directly on the merits, and implies that all religions are equally + morbid or pathological products, because they all lead to conduct + condemned by their own most characteristic maxims. Volney's concrete + presentation of comparative religion was highly effective for + destructive purposes, though it would now be justly thought + inadequate. (See <i>Œuv. de Volney</i>, i. 109, etc.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> See on this, + Lange, ii. 308.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>De la + Suffisance de la Religion Naturelle</i>, § 5.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> It is well to + remember that torture was not abolished in France until the + Revolution. A Catholic writer makes the following judicious remark: + "We cannot study the eighteenth century without being struck by the + immoral consequences that inevitably followed for the population of + Paris from the frequency and the hideous details of criminal + executions. In reading the journals of the time, we are amazed at the + place taken in popular life by the scenes of the Grève. It was the + theatre of the day. The gibbet and the wheel did their work almost + periodically, and people looked on while poor wretches writhed in + slow agony all day long. Sometimes the programme was varied by + decapitation and even by the stake. Torture had its legends and its + heroes—the everyday talk of the generation which, having begun by + seeing Damiens torn by red-hot pincers, was to end by rending Foulon + limb from limb." (Carné, <i>Monarchie française au 18ième Siècle</i>, + p. 493.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Lettres sur + les Anglais</i>, xxiii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Essai sur le + Mérite</i>, I. ii. § 3. <i>Œue.,</i> i. 33.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> "Shaftesbury is + one of the most important apparitions of the eighteenth century. All + the greatest spirits of that time, not only in England, but also + Leibnitz, Voltaire, Diderot, Lessing, Mendelssohn, Wieland, and + Herder, drew the strongest nourishment from him." (Hettner, + <i>Literaturgeschichte des 18ten Jahrhunderts: ler Theil</i>. 188.) + See also Lange's <i>Gesch. des Materialismus,</i> i. 306, etc. An + excellent account of Shaftesbury is given by Mr. Leslie Stephen, in + his <i>Essays on Free-thinking and Plain-speaking</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Œuv</i>., i. + xlvi.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Jobez, + <i>France sous Louis XV</i>., ii. 373. There were, in 1725, 24,000 + houses, 20,000 carriages, and 120,000 horses. (Martin's <i>Hist, de + France</i>, xv. 116.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> The records of + Paris in this century contain more than one illustration of the + turbulence of this odious army of lackeys. Barbier, i. 118. For the + way in which their insolence was fostered, see Saint-Simon, xii. 354, + etc. The number of lackeys retained seems to have been + extraordinarily great in proportion to the total of annual + expenditure, and this is a curious point in the manners of the time. + See Voltaire, <i>Dict. Phil</i>, § v. Économie Domestique (liv. + 182).</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Duclos, <i>Mém. + secrets sur le Règne de Louis XV</i>., iii 306.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Œuv</i>., + xix. 91.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Ib</i>. p. + 130.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Prom, du + Sceptique. Œuv</i>., i. 229.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> "If there is a + God, he is infinitely incomprehensible, since, being without parts or + limits, he has no relation to us: we are therefore incapable of + knowing what he is, or if he is. That being so, who shall venture to + undertake the solution of the question? Not we, at any rate, who have + no relation to him." <i>Pensees</i>, II. iii. 1.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> P. 182.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> P. 223.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Barbazan's + <i>Fabliaux et Contes</i>, iii. 409 (ed. 1808). The learned + Barbazan's first edition was published in 1756, and so Diderot may + well have heard some of the contents of the work then in + progress.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Naigeon.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> In my + <i>Rousseau</i>, p. 243 (new ed.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> + <i>Voltaire</i>, p. 149 (new ed., Globe 8vo).</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Joubert.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Hettner, + <i>Literaiurgeschichte des 18ten Jahrhunderts</i>, ii. 301.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + ii. 260, etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + ii. 258, 259. <i>De l'Essai sur les Femmes, par Thomas</i>. See + Grimm's <i>Corr. Lit.</i>, vii. 451, where the book is disparaged; + and viii. 1, where Diderot's view of it is given. Thomas (1732-85) + belonged to the philosophical party, but not to the militant section + of it. He was a serious and orderly person in his life, and enjoyed + the closest friendship with Madame Necker. His enthusiasm for virtue, + justice, and freedom, expressed with much magniloquence, made him an + idol in the respectable circle which Madame Necker gathered round + her. He has been justly, though perhaps harshly, described as a + "valetudinarian Grandison." (Albert's <i>Lit. Française au 18ième + Siècle</i>, p. 423.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <i>Elémens de + la Philosophie de Newton</i>, Pt. II. ch. vii. Berkeley himself only + refers once to Cheselden's case: <i>Theory of Vision vindicated</i>, + § 71. Professor Fraser, in his important edition of Berkeley's works + (i. 444), reproduces from the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i> the + original account of the operation, which is unfortunately much less + clear and definite than Voltaire's emphasised version would make it, + though its purport is distinct enough.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Essai sur + l'Origine des Connaissances humaines</i>, I. § 6.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <i>Let. sur les + Aveugles</i>, 323, 324. Condorcet attaches a higher value to + Cheselden's operation. <i>Œuv.</i>, ii. 121.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Dr. M'Cosh + <i>(Exam. of J. S. Mill's Philosophy</i>, p. 163) quotes what seems + to be the best reported case, by a Dr. Franz, of Leipsic; and Prof. + Fraser, in the appendix to Berkeley (<i>loc. cit.</i>), quotes + another good case by Mr. Nunnely. See also Mill's <i>Exam. of + Hamilton</i>, p. 288 (3d ed.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> + <i>Confessions</i>, II, vii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Darwin, <i>The + Expression of the Emotions in Men and Animals</i>, c. xiii. p. 312, + and also pp. 335-337. This fact, so far as it goes, seems to make + against the theory of transmitted sentiments.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Locke answered + that the man would not distinguish the cube from the sphere, until he + had identified by actual touch the source of his former tactual + impression with the object making a given visual impression. + Condillac, while making just objections to the terms in which + Molyneux propounded the question, answered it different from Locke. + Diderot expresses his own opinion thus: "I think that when the eyes + of the born-blind are opened for the first time to the light, he will + perceive nothing at all; that some time will be necessary for his eye + to make experiments for itself; but that it will make these + experiments itself, and in its own way, and without the help of + touch." This is in harmony with the modern doctrine, that there is an + inherited aptitude of structure (in the eye, for instance), but that + experience is an essential condition to the development and + perfecting of this aptitude.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> A very + intelligent English translation of the <i>Letter on the Blind</i> was + published in 1773. For some reason or other, Diderot is described on + the title-page as Physician to His most Christian Majesty.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>Œuv</i>., i. + 308.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Pp. 309, + 310.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> P. 311.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> <i>Corr.</i>, + June 1749.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> See <i>Critical + Miscellanies: First Series</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Diderot to + Voltaire, 1749. <i>Œuv</i>., xix. 421.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Diderot to + Voltaire, 1749. <i>Œuv</i>., xix. 421.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> P. 294.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Lewes's + <i>Hist. Philos</i>., ii. 342.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Rosenkranz, i. + 102.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Tylor's + <i>Researches into the early history of mankind</i>, chaps. ii. and + iii.; Lubbock's <i>Origin of Civilization</i>, chap. ix.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Madame Dupré de + Saint Maur, who had found favour in the eyes of the Count d'Argenson. + D'Argenson, younger brother of the Marquis, who had been dismissed in + 1747, was in power from 1743 to 1757. Notwithstanding his alleged + share in Diderot's imprisonment, he was a tolerably steady protector + of the philosophical party.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Barbier, iv. + 337.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> There is a + picture of Berryer, under the name of Orgon in that very curious + book, <i>L'Ecole de l'Homme</i>, ii. 73.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Pieces given in + Diderot's Works, xx. 121-123.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Naigeon, p. + 131.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Voltaire's + <i>Corr</i>. July and Aug. 1749.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> <i>Conf</i>., + II. viii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> Michelet's + <i>Louis XV</i>., p. 258.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> See the present + author's <i>Rousseau</i>, vol. i. p. 134 (Globe 8vo ed.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> For the two + petitions of the booksellers to D'Argenson praying for Diderot's + liberty, see M. Assézat's preliminary notice. <i>Œuv</i>., xiii. 112, + etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Jourdain's + <i>Recherches sur les traductions latines d'Aristote</i>, p. 325.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> <i>Lit. of + Europe</i>, pt. i. ch. ii. § 39.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Whewell's + <i>Hist. Induc. Sci.</i>. xii. c. 7.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> Fr. Roger + Bacon; J.S. Brewer's Pref. pp 57, 63.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Leibnitii, + Opera v. 184.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> <i>Œuv. de + D'Alembert</i>, i. 63.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> <i>Mém.</i> + pour J.P.F. Luneau de Boisjermain, 4to, Paris, 1771. See also + Diderot's <i>Prospectus</i>, "La traduction entière de Chambers nous + a passé sous les yeux," etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Biog. + Universelle, <i>s.v.</i></p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> Michelet, + <i>Louis XV.</i>, 258. D'Aguesseau (1668-1751) has left one piece + which ought to be extricated from the thirteen quartos of his + works—his memoir of his father (<i>Œuv.</i>, xiii.) This is one of + those records of solid and elevated character, which do more to + refresh and invigorate the reader than a whole library of religious + or ethical exhortations can do. It has the loftiness, the refined + austerity, the touching impressiveness of Tacitus's <i>Agricola</i> + or Condorcet's <i>Turgot</i>, together with a certain grave sweetness + that was almost peculiar to the Jansenist school of the seventeenth + century.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> A short + estimate of D'Alembert's principal scientific pieces, by M. Bertram, + is to be found in the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>, for October + 1865.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> <i>Œuv. de + D'Alembert</i>, iv. 367.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> <i>Œuv. de + J. Ph. Roland</i>, i. 230 (ed. 1800).</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> <i>Essai sur + la Société des Gens de Lettres et des Grands</i>, etc. <i>Œuv</i>., + iv. 372. "Write," he says, "as if you loved glory; in conduct, act as + if it were indifferent to you." Compare, with reference to the + passage in the text, Duclos's remark (<i>Consid. sur les Mœurs</i>, + ch. xi.): "The man in power commands, but the intelligent govern, + because in time they form public opinion, and that sooner or later + subjugates every kind of despotism." Only partially true.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> <i>Pensées + Philos.</i>, § 26.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> <i>Phil. + Pos.</i>, v. 520. <i>Polit. Pos.</i>, iii. 584.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> See Pref. to + vol. iii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> For + instance, see Pref. to vol. vi.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> <i>Siècle de + Louis XV</i>., ch. xliii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Grimm, + <i>Corr. Lit.</i>, i. 273. Diderot, <i>Œuv</i>., iv. 15.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> + <i>Avertissement</i> to vol. vi.; also to vol. vii. Turgot's articles + were Etymiologie, Existence, Expansibilité, Foires, Fondations. The + text of these is wrongly inserted among Diderot's contributions to + the Encyclopædia, in the new edition of his Works, xv. 12.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Condorcet's + <i>Vie de Turgot</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> Pref. to + vol. iii. (1752), and to vol. vi. (1756).</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> Pref. to + vol. ii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Grimm, + <i>Corr. Lit.</i>, i. 130. Forbonnais's chief work is his + <i>Becherches et Considérations sur les finances de la + France</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> + <i>Avert.</i> to vol. ii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Nov. 10, + 1760, xix. 24. Also, Oct. 7, 1761, xix. 35.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> See also + Preface to vol. iii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> + <i>Avert.</i> to vol. vi., and <i>s. v. Fontange</i>. Grimm, i. + 451.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> <i>Corresp. + avec D'Alembert</i> (<i>Œuv.</i>, lxxv.), Sept. 1755, Feb. 1757, + etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> Dec. 22, + 1757.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> May 24, + 1757.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> Dec. 13, + 1756; April 1756.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> July 21, + 1757.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> Article + <i>Encyclopédie</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> To Voltaire, + Feb. 15, 1757.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> Hettner's + <i>Literaturgesch, des 18ten Jahrhunderts</i>, ii. 277.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> Art. + <i>Encyclopédie</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> + <i>Prospectus</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> Barbier, v. + 151, 153.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> Diderot to + Voland, <i>Œuv</i>., xviii. 361. Carlyle's <i>Frederick,</i> bk. + xviii. ch. xi.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> <i>Apologie + de l' Abbe de Prades. Œuv.,</i> i. 482.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> See Jobez, + i. 358.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> xix. + 425.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> Barbier, v. + 160.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> <i>Ib</i>. + v. 169.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> Grimm, + <i>Corr. Lit</i>., i. 81. Barbier, <i>v</i>. 170.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> + <i>Avert.</i>, to vol. iii. <i>Œuv. de D'Alembert</i>, iv. 410.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> Barbier, v. + 170. Grimm, <i>Corr. Lit.</i>, i. 201; <i>Ib.</i> ii. 197.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> Hardy, + quoted by Aubertin, 407, 408.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> <i>Corr. + Lit.</i>, ii. 271.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> To + D'Alembert, Dec. 29, 1757; Jan. 1758.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> For a short + account of Helvétius's book, see a later chapter.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> <i>Corr. + Lit.</i>, ii. 292, 293.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> Barbier, + vii. 125-142.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> Lacretelle's + <i>France pendant le 18ième Siècle</i>, iii. 89.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> Jobez, ii. + 464, 538.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> See + <i>Rousseau</i>, vol. i. chaps, vii. and ix. (Globe 8vo ed.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> <i>Louis XV. + et Louis XVI.</i>, p. 50.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> Jan. 11, + 1758. Jan. 20, 1758. Diderot to Mdlle. Voland, Oct. 11, 1759. See + the following chapter.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> Voltaire to + D'Alembert, Jan. to May 1758. Voltaire to Diderot, Jan. 1758.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> Diderot to + Voltaire, Feb. 19, 1758, xix. 452.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> To Voland, + <i>Œuv.</i>, xix. 146.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> <i>Corr. + Lit.</i>, vii. 146.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> <i>Corr. + Lit.</i>, vii. 146.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> <i>Œuv. de + Voltaire</i>. Published sometimes among <i>Facéties</i>, sometimes + among <i>Mélanges</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> See <i>Œuv. + Choisies de Jean Reynaud</i>, reprinted in 1866. The article on + <i>Encyclopèdie</i> (vol. i.) is an interesting attempt to vindicate + Cartesian principles of classification.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> See fly-leaf + of vol. xxviii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> <i>Mém.</i>, + ii. 115. Grimm, vii. 145.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> De Maistre + says that the reputation of Bacon does not really go farther back + than the Encyclopædia, and that no true discoverer either knew him or + leaned on him for support. (<i>Examen de la Phil. de Bacon</i>, ii. + 110.) Diderot says: "I think I have taught my fellow-citizens to + esteem and read Bacon; people have turned over the pages of this + profound author more since the last five or six years than has ever + been the case before" (xiv. 494). In Professor Fowler's careful and + elaborate edition of the Novum Organum (<i>Introduct.</i>, p. 104), + he disputes the statement of Montuola and others, that the celebrity + of Bacon dates from the Encyclopædia. All turns upon what we mean by + celebrity. What the Encyclopædists certainly did was to raise Bacon, + for a time, to the popular throne from which Voltaire's Newtonianism + had pushed Descartes. Mr. Fowler traces a chain of Baconian + tradition, no doubt, but he perhaps surrenders nearly as much as is + claimed when he admits that "the patronage of Voltaire and the + Encyclopædists did much to extend the study of Bacon's writings, + besides producing a considerable controversy as to his true meaning + on many questions of philosophy and theology."</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> See above, + p. 62, <i>note</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> D'Alembert + was not afraid to contend against the great captain of the age, that + the military spirit of Lewis XIV. had been a great curse to Europe. + He showed a true appreciation of Frederick's character and conception + of his duties as a ruler, in believing that the King of Prussia would + rather have had a hundred thousand labourers more, and as many + soldiers fewer, if his situation had allowed it. <i>Corresp. avec le + roi de Prusse</i>, <i>Œuv.</i>, v. 305.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> See Essay on + Turgot in my <i>Critical Miscellanies</i>, <i>Second Series</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> Such, as + that their feudal rights should be confirmed; that none but nobles + should carry arms, or be eligible for the army; that + <i>lettres-de-cachet</i> should continue; that the press should not + be free; that the wine trade should not be free internally or for + export; that breaking up wastes and enclosing commons should be + prohibited; that the old arrangement of the militia should + remain.—Arthur Young's <i>France</i>, ch. xxi. p. 607.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i> + ch. xxi.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> <i>Critical + Miscellanies</i>, <i>Second Series</i>, p. 202.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> <i>Travels + in France</i>, p. 600.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> <i>Travels + in France</i>, i. 63.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> Rosenkranz, + i. 219.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> + <i>Avert</i>. to vol. iii</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> Diderot, + <i>Œuv.</i>, iv. 24.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> Diderot's + <i>Leben</i>, i. 157.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + xx. 132.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> The writer + was one Romilly, who had been elected a minister of one of the French + Protestant churches in London. See <i>Memoirs of Sir Samuel + Romilly</i>, vol. i.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> I have no + space to quote an interesting page in this article on the + characteristics and the varying destinies of genius. "We must rank in + this class Pindar, Æschylus, Moses, Jesus Christ, Mahomet, + Shakespeare, Roger Bacon, and Paracelsus." xvii. 265-267.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> The same + idea is found still more ardently expressed in one of his letters to + Mdlle. de Voland (Oct. 15, 1759, xviii. 408), where he defends the + eagerness of those who have loved one another during life, to be + placed side by side after death.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> xiv. 32.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> <i>S.v.</i> + Sarrasins, xvii. 82. See also xviii. 429, for Diderot's admiration of + Sadi.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> S. v. + <i>Pyrrhonienne</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> <i>E.g.</i> + in the article on <i>Plaisir</i>, xvi. p. 298.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> To + Damilaville, 1766, xix. 477.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> xx. 34.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> xvi. + 280.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> See also + article <i>Indépendance</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> iv. 93.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> The reader + will find abundant information and criticism upon the Wolffian + Philosophy in Professor Edward Caird's <i>Critical Account of the + Philosophy of Kant</i>, recently published at Glasgow.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> xvi. 491, + 492.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> There are + casual criticisms on Spinosa in the articles on <i>Identity</i> and + <i>Liberty</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> xv. 501.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> xix. 435, + 436.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> See below, + vol. ii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> S.v. + <i>Luxe</i>, xvi. 23.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> As an + illustration how much these ideas were in the air, the reader may + refer to a passage in Sédaine's popular comedy, <i>The Philosopher + without knowing it</i> (1765), Act II. sc. 4. Vanderk, among other + things, says of the merchant: "Ce n'est pas un temple, ce n'est pas + une seule nation qu'il sert; il les sert toutes, et en est servi: + c'est l'homme de l'univers. Quelques particuliers audacieux font + armer les rois, la guerre s'allume, tout s'embrase, l'Europe est + divisée: mais ce négociant anglais, hollandais, russe ou chinois, + n'en est pas moins l'ami de mon coeur: nous sommes sur la superficie + de la terre autant de fils de soie qui lient ensemble les nations, et + les ramènent à la paix par la nécessité du commerce; voila, mon fils, + ce que c'est qu'un honnête négociant."</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> The younger + sister of Diderot's Sophie.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> xviii. + 454.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> See below, + the chapter on <i>Rameau's Nephew</i>.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> Nov. 10, + 1770; xix. 22.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> See, for + instance, xix. 81, 91, 129, 133, 145, etc.—passages which Mr. Carlyle + and Rosenkranz have either overlooked, or else, without any good + reason, disbelieved.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> xviii. + 293.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> xix. 46.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> xix. 84. See + also 326.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> xix. 137, + 341, etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> xviii. + 535.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> xviii. 507, + etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> xviii. 526, + 531.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> Nov. 2, + 1759; xviii. 431.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> xix. 82.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> xix. + 139.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> xix. + 107.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> xix. + 181.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> xix. 81.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> xix. + 149.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> xix. 90.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> xix. 163, + 164.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> Sept. 20, + 1765; xix. 179-187.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> xviii. 476, + 478.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> xviii. 479. + Comte writes more seriously somewhat in the same sense: "For thirty + centuries the priestly castes of China, and still more of India, have + been watching our Western transition; to them it must appear mere + agitation, as puerile as it is tempestuous, with nothing to harmonise + its different phases but their common inroad upon unity." <i>Positive + Polity</i>, iv. 11 (English Translation)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> xix. + 233.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> Voltaire's + Satire on the Economists.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> Oct. 8, + 1768; xix. 832.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> xviii. + 509.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> xviii. + 513.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> xviii. + 511-513.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> xix. + 244.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> xviii. + 459.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> xix. + 259.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> <i>Lettres + de Mdlle. de Lespinasse</i>, viii. p. 20. (Ed. Asse, 1876.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> Aug. 1, + 1769; xix. 365.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> (1765-69) + xix. 381-412. Also p. 318.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> June 1756; + xix. 433-436.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> Aug. 1762; + xix. 112.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> In + <i>Rousseau</i>, vol. i. ch. vii. (Globe 8vo, ed.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> Dec. 1757; + xix. 446.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> xix. + 449.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> Dec. 20, + 1765; xix. 210.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> See + <i>Rousseau</i>, vol. i. ch. vii. (Globe 8vo. ed.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> Oct. 9, + 1759; xviii. 397.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> Nov. 6, + 1760; xix. 17.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> Sept. 17, + 1761; xix. 47.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> Sept. 17, + 1769; xix. 320.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> <i>Lettres + sur le Commerce de la Librairie</i>, xviii. 47.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> See + <i>Rousseau</i>, vol. ii. ch. i. (Globe 8vo. ed.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> Diderot's + <i>Lettre sur le Commerce de la Librairie</i> (1767). <i>Œuv.</i>, + xviii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> Those who + are interested in the history of authorship may care to know the end + of the matter. Copyright is no modern practice, and the perpetual + right of authors, or persons to whom they had ceded it, was + recognised in France through the whole of the seventeenth century and + three-quarters of the eighteenth. The perpetuity of the right had + produced literary properties of considerable value; for example, + Boudot's Dictionary was sold by his executors for 24,000 livres; + Prévot's Manual Lexicon and two Dictionaries for 115,000 livres. But + in 1777—ten years after Diderot's plea—the Council decreed that + copyright was a privilege and an exercise of the royal grace. The + motives for this reduction of an author's right from a transferable + property to a terminable privilege seem to have been, first, the + general mania of the time for drawing up the threads of national life + into the hands of the administration, and second, the hope of making + money by a tariff of permissions. The Constituent Assembly dealt with + the subject with no intelligence nor care, but the Convention passed + a law recognising in the author an exclusive right for his life, and + giving a property for ten years after his death to heirs or + <i>cessionaires</i>. The whole history is elaborately set forth in + the collection of documents entitled <i>La Propriété littéraire au + 18ième siècle</i>. (Hachette, 1859.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> Oct. 11, + 1759; xviii. 401.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> xix. 319, + 320.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> + <i>Miscellaneous Works</i>, p. 73.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> Walpole to + Selwyn. 1765. Jesse's <i>Selwyn</i>, ii. 9. See also Walpole to Mann, + iv. 283.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> D'Epinay, + ii. 4, 138, 153, etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> See Comte's + <i>Positive Polity</i>, vol. iii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> "<i>That + virtue of originality that men so strain after is not newness, as + they vainly think (there is nothing new), it is only + genuineness.</i>"—Ruskin.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> Lessing: + 1729-81. Diderot: 1713-84. As De Quincey puts it, Lessing may be said + to have begun his career precisely in the middle of the last + century.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> <i>Hamburg. + Dramaturgie</i>, § 85. Werke, vi. 381. (Ed. 1873.)</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> Diderot's + <i>Leben</i>, i. 274, 277.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> <i>Corr. + Lit.</i>, ii. 103.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> See Grimm's + account of the performance, <i>Corr. Lit.</i>, vii. 313.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> Act IV. sc. + 3.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> Act V. sc. + 3.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> <i>De la + Poésie Dramatique</i>, ch. xxi.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> vii. + 107.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> Nov. 28, + 1760; xix. 457.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> <i>Lettre + sur les Sourds et les Muets</i>, i. 359.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> + <i>Correspond. du Roi Stanislas-Auguste et de Mdme. Geoffrin,</i> p. + 466.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> Aug. 1769; + xix. 314-323.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Quoted in + Mr. Sime's excellent <i>Life of Lessing</i> (Trübner and Co., 1877), + p. 230.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> <i>De la + Poésie Dramatique</i>, § 2, vii. 313.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> Lockhart's + <i>Life of Scott</i>, iv. 177 (ed. 1837).</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> <i>Père de + Famille</i>, Act II. sc. 2, p. 211.</p> + </div> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a>xix. 474.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> <i>Paradoxe + sur le Comédien</i>, p. 383.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> + <i>Journals</i>, ii. 331. Also vi. 248; vii. 9.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> + <i>Réflexions sur Térence</i>, v. 228-238. In another place (<i>De la + Poésie Dram.</i>, 370) he says: "Nous avons des comédies. Les Anglais + n'ont que des satires, à la vérité pleines de force et de gaieté, + mais sans mœurs et sans goût. Les Italiens en sont réduits au drame + burlesque."</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> vii. 95.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> <i>Lettre + sur les Sourds et les Muets</i>, i. 355.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> + <i>Paradoxe</i>, viii. 384. The criticism on the detestable rendering + of <i>Hamlet</i> by Ducis (viii. 471) makes one doubt whether Diderot + knew much about Shakespeare.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> Letter to + Mdlle. Jodin, xix. 387.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> Johnson one + day said to John Kemble: "Are you, sir, one of those enthusiasts who + believe yourself transformed into the very character you represent?" + Kemble answered that he had never felt so strong a persuasion + himself. <i>Boswell</i>, ch. 77.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> Lessing + makes this a starting-point of his criticism of the art of acting, + though he uses it less absolutely than Diderot would do. <i>Hamburg. + Dramaturgie</i>, § 3, vol. vi. 19.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> In + Lichtenberg's <i>Briefe aus England</i> (1776) there is a criticism + of the most admirably intelligent kind on Garrick. Lord Lytton gave + an account of it to English readers in the <i>Fortnightly Review</i> + (February 1871). The following passage confirms what Diderot says + above:</p> + + <p>"You have doubtless heard much of his extraordinary power of + change of face. Here is one example of it. When he played the part of + Sir John Brute, I was close to the stage, and could observe him + narrowly. He entered with the corners of his mouth so turned down, as + to give to his whole countenance the expression of habitual + sottishness and debauchery. And this artificial form of the mouth he + retained, unaltered, from the beginning to the end of the play, with + the exception only that, as the play went on, the lips gaped and hung + more and more in proportion to the gradually increasing drunkenness + of the character represented. This made-up face was not produced by + stage-paint, but solely by muscular contraction; and it must be so + identified by Garrick with his idea of Sir John Brute as to be + spontaneously assumed by him whenever he plays that part; otherwise, + his retention of such a mask, without even once dropping it either + from fatigue or surprise, even in the most boisterous action of his + part, would be quite inexplicable."</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> viii. + 382.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> viii. 373, + 376, etc.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> As Hamlet to + his players: "Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus; + but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may + say) the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a + temperance that may give it smoothness."</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> To Jodin, + xix, 382. "Point de hoquets, point de cris, de la dignité vraie, un + jeu ferme, sensé, raisonné, juste, mâle; la plus grande sobriété de + gestes. C'est de la contenance, c'est du maintien, qu'il faut + déclamer les trois quarts du temps."—P. 390.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> P. 395.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> <i>Bijoux + Indiscrets</i>, ch. xxxviii.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> vii. 121. + Lessing makes a powerful addition to this. <i>Hamburg. Dram.</i> vi. + 261.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> <i>Poésie + Dramatique</i>, §§ 20, 21.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_286_286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> <i>Sienne + Entretien</i>, vii. 138.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_287_287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> <i>Poés. + Dram.</i>., § 2. The Poetics of the Genre Sérieux are to be found, + vii. 137, 138.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_288_288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> i. 316.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_289_289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> <i>Hints for + an Essay on the Drama</i>, p. 155.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_290_290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> <i>Hist. du + Romantisme</i>, p. 93.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_291_291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> <i>Der + Gegensatz des Classischen und des Romantischen, etc.</i> By Conrad + Hermann, p. 66.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_292_292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> + Schopenhauer, <i>Ethik</i>, 199</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_293_293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> <i>Œuv.</i>, + iv. 29.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_294_294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> + <i>Werke</i>, xxv. 291.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_295_295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> The original + of the text, published in the Assézat edition of Diderot's works, was + a manuscript found, with other waifs and strays of the eighteenth + century, in a chest that had belonged to Messrs. Würtel and Treutz, + the publishers at Strasburg. Its authenticity is corroborated by the + fact that in the places where Goethe has marked an omission, we find + stories or expressions from which we understand only too well why + Goethe forbore to reproduce them.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_296_296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> v. 339.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_297_297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> Lucian, Περι + Παρασίτον, and Περι των επι μίσφω συνόντων.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_298_298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> Grimm, ix. + 349.</p> + </div> + + <div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href= + "#FNanchor_299_299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> + <i>Anmerkungen, Rameau's Neffe; Werke</i>, xxv. 268.</p> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (Vol 1 +of 2), by John Morley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIDEROT *** + +***** This file should be named 15098-h.htm or 15098-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/9/15098/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, LN Yaddanapudi, Leonard Johnson and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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