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diff --git a/22797-8.txt b/22797-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4453b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/22797-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10498 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Diderot and the Encyclopædists, 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 Encyclopædists + Volume II. + +Author: John Morley + +Release Date: September 28, 2007 [EBook #22797] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIDEROT AND THE ENCYCLOPÆDISTS *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +DIDEROT AND THE ENCYCLOPÆDISTS + +BY + +JOHN MORLEY + + +VOL. II. + + +London + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + +NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +1905 + +_First published elsewhere_ + +_New Edition 1886. Reprinted 1891, 1897, 1905_ + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + + PAGE + +CHAPTER I. + +OTHER DIALOGUES. + + (1) _The Conversations of a Father with his Children_ 1 + Remarks upon it. + (2) _The Inconsistency of Public Judgment on Private Actions_ 8 + Observations. + (3) _Supplement to Bougainville's Travels_ 14 + Philosophical qualities of the discussion not satisfactory 19 + Nothing gained by his criticism on marriage 21 + + +CHAPTER II. + +ROMANCE. + + Digression inevitable in dealing with Diderot 24 + Richardson's influence in Europe 26 + Diderot's _Éloge_ upon him 28 + Rousseau and Richardson 29 + Diderot writes _The Nun_ (1796) 31 + Circumstances of its composition 32 + Its intention 33 + And characteristics 35 + Sterne 36 + Diderot writes _Jacques le Fataliste_ 37 + Its history 38 + Goethe's criticism on it 38 + Nature of Diderot's imitation of Richardson and Sterne 40 + No true creation in _Jacques le Fataliste_ 41 + Its unredeemed grossness 43 + Its lack of poetry and of flavour 44 + + +CHAPTER III. + +ART. + + The _Salons_ 45 + Qualities of their criticism 45 + Deep foundation of Diderot's critical quality 46 + French art-criticism 48 + Dufresnoy, Dubos, Webb, André, Batteux 48, 49 + Travellers in Italy 50 + Diderot never in Italy 52 + Spirit of French art in his day 52 + Greuze, Diderot's favourite 56 + Greuze's _Accordée de Village_ 57 + Hogarth would have displeased Diderot 59 + Diderot's considerateness in criticism 60 + Boucher 62 + Fragonard 62 + Diderot adds literary charm to scientific criticism 63 + His readiness for moral asides 65 + His suggestions of pictorial subjects 68 + His improved versions 69 + Illustration of his variety of approach 72 + Diderot's Essay on Painting 73 + Goethe's commentary 73 + Difference of type between Goethe and Diderot 76 + Diderot's Essay on Beauty 78 + His anticipation of Lessing 82 + Music 83 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ST. PETERSBURG AND THE HAGUE. + + Diderot's resolution to visit the Empress of Russia 84 + The Princess Dashkow 84 + Prince Galitzin 85 + Diderot in Holland (1773) 86 + St. Petersburg and Russian civilisation 89 + The Empress 91 + Accounts of her by men of affairs 92 + Her pursuit of French culture 94 + Her interest in the French philosophic party 96 + Partly the result of political calculation 98 + The philosophers and the Partition of Poland 101 + Rulhière's narrative of Catherine's accession 102 + Falconet, the first Frenchman welcomed by her 104 + Diderot arrives at St. Petersburg (1773) 106 + His conversations with the Empress 107 + Not successful as a politician 108 + General impression of him 109 + Grimm outstrips him in court favour 110 + Diderot's return to the Hague 112 + Björnstähl's report of him 114 + Contemporary literature in Holland 117 + Hemsterhuys 118 + The Princess Galitzin 119 + Diderot's return to Paris 121 + + +CHAPTER V. + +HELVÉTIUS. + + Three works of which Diderot was regarded as the inspirer 123 + Helvétius's _L'Esprit_ 123 + Contemporary protests against it 123 + Turgot's weighty criticism 124 + Real drift of the book 127 + Account of Helvétius 127 + The style of his book 134 + The momentous principle contained in it 135 + Adopted from Helvétius by Bentham 136 + Helvétius's statement of doctrine of Utility 137 + Miscarriage of the doctrine in his hands 139 + His fallacy 140 + True side of his objectionable position 140 + Helvétius's reckless presentation of a true theory 141 + Confusion of beneficence with self-love 142 + Imitation from Mandeville 143 + Mean anecdotes 144 + Nature of Helvétius's errors 144 + Explanation of them 146 + Positive side of his speculation 147 + Its true significance 149 + Second great paradox of _L'Esprit_ 149 + Benjamin Constant's _Adolphe_ 152 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOLBACH'S SYSTEM OF NATURE. + + Publication of the _System of Nature_ (1770) 155 + Its startling effect 156 + Voltaire's alarm 158 + He never understood Holbach's position 159 + Account of Holbach 160 + Disregard of historic opinion in his book 163 + Its remarkable violence against the government 165 + The sting of this violence 166 + The doctrine from which Holbach's book arose 167 + Account of Holbach's Naturalism 168 + His proposition concerning Man 173 + He uses the orthodox language about the pride of man 177 + His treatment of Morals 178 + Onslaught upon the theory of Free Will 178 + Connection of necessarianism with humanity in punishment 181 + His answer to some objections against necessarianism 181 + Chapter on the Immortality of the Soul 183 + His enthusiasm for reforms 185 + The literature of a political revolution 187 + Misrepresentation of Holbach's ethical theory 188 + The _System of Nature_, a protest against ascetic ideals 191 + The subject of the second half of the book 193 + Repudiation of the _à priori_ method 194 + Replies to the common charges against atheism 197 + The chapter on the superiority of Naturalism 198 + Political side of the indictment against religion 199 + Holbach's propagandism 202 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +RAYNAL'S HISTORY OF THE INDIES. + + Contemporary estimate of _The History of the Indies_ 204 + Account of Raynal 205 + Composition of the book 207 + Its varied popularity 209 + Frederick the Great dislikes it 210 + Signal merit of the History 213 + Its shortcomings 214 + Its idyllic inventions 215 + Its animation and variety 218 + Superficial causes of its popularity 220 + Its deeper source 221 + Catholicism in contact with the lower races 222 + The other side of this 223 + Raynal's book a plea for justice and humanity 224 + Morality towards subject races 226 + Slavery 227 + Raynal's conduct in the Revolution 229 + His end 231 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DIDEROT'S CLOSING YEARS. + + Diderot's meditation on life and death 232 + Age overtakes him on his return from Russia 233 + Writes his life of Seneca 235 + Its quality 236 + Interest to Diderot of Seneca's career 237 + Strange digression in the Essay 239 + Reason for Diderot's anger against Rousseau 240 + His usual magnanimity 241 + Diderot's relations with Voltaire 244 + Naigeon 246 + Romilly's account of Diderot 247 + Palissot and the conservative writers 249 + The ecclesiastical champions of the old system 251 + The precursors gradually disappearing 253 + Galiani 254 + Beaumarchais's _Mariage de Figaro_ 255 + Diderot's famous couplet 256 + His fellow-townsmen at Langres 257 + Last days 258 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CONCLUSION. + + The variety of Diderot's topics 261 + + (1) _Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature_ 262 + Maupertuis's _Loi d'Epargne_ 262 + General scope of Diderot's aphorisms 263 + Prophecy about geometry 264 + Utility made to prescribe limits to speculation 267 + The other side of this principle 267 + On Final Causes 268 + Adaptation of the Leibnitzian law of economy 269 + + (2) _D'Alembert's Dream_ 271 + Diderot not the originator of French materialism 272 + Materialism of the three dialogues 273 + Mdlle. Lespinasse's moral objections 274 + + (3) _Plan of a University for Russia_ 275 + Religious instruction 276 + Latin and Greek 277 + Letter to the Countess of Forbach 278 + + (4) _Conversation with the Maréchale de ----_ 278 + Parable of the young Mexican 279 + + (5) _Letters to Falconet_ 281 + Diderot defends the feeling for posterity 283 + + +APPENDIX. + + _Rameau's Nephew: a Translation_ 285 + + + + +DIDEROT. + +CHAPTER I. + +OTHER DIALOGUES. + + +We may now pass to performances that are nearer to the accepted surface +of things. A short but charming example of Diderot's taste for putting +questions of morals in an interesting way, is found in the _Conversation +of a Father with his Children_ (published in 1773). This little dialogue +is perfect in the simple realism of its form. Its subject is the peril +of setting one's own judgment of some special set of circumstances above +the law of the land. Diderot's venerable and well-loved father is +sitting in his arm-chair before the fire. He begins the discussion by +telling his two sons and his daughter, who are tending him with pious +care, how very near he had once been to destroying their inheritance. An +old priest had died leaving a considerable fortune. There was believed +to be no will, and the next of kin were a number of poor people whom the +inheritance would have rescued from indigence for the rest of their +days. They appointed the elder Diderot to guard their interests and +divide the property. He finds at the bottom of a disused box of ancient +letters, receipts, and other waste-paper, a will made long years ago, +and bequeathing all the fortune to a very rich bookseller in Paris. +There was every reason to suppose that the old priest had forgotten the +existence of the will, and it involved a revolting injustice. Would not +Diderot be fulfilling the dead man's real wishes by throwing the +unwelcome document into the flames? + +At this point in the dialogue the doctor enters the room and interrupts +the tale. It appears that he is fresh from the bedside of a criminal who +is destined to the gallows. Diderot the younger reproaches him for +labouring to keep in the world an offender whom it were best to send out +of it with all despatch. The duty of the physician is to say to so +execrable a patient--"I will not busy myself in restoring to life a +creature whom it is enjoined upon me by natural equity, the good of +society, the well-being of my fellow-creatures, to give up. Die, and let +it never be said that through my skill there exists a monster the more +on earth!" The doctor parries these energetic declamations with +sufficient skill. "My business is to cure, not to judge; I shall cure +him, because that is my trade; then the judge will have him hung, +because that is his trade." This episodic discussion ended, the story of +the will is resumed. The father, when on the point of destroying it, was +seized with a scruple of conscience, and hastened to a curé well versed +in casuistry. As in England the agents of the law itself not seldom play +the part of arbitrary benevolence, which the old Diderot would fain have +played against the law, the scene may perhaps be worth transcribing: + + "'Nothing is more praiseworthy, sir, than the sentiment of + compassion that touches you for these unfortunate people. Suppress + the testament and succour them--good; but on condition of restoring + to the rightful legatee the exact sum of which you deprive him, + neither more nor less. Who authorised you to give a sanction to + documents, or to take it away? Who authorised you to interpret the + intentions of the dead?' + + 'But then, father Bouin, the old box?' + + 'Who authorised you to decide whether the will was thrown away on + purpose, or mislaid by accident? Has it never happened to you to do + such a thing, and to find at the bottom of a chest some valuable + paper that you had tossed there inadvertently?' + + 'But, father Bouin, the far-off date of the paper, and its + injustice?' + + 'Who authorised you to pronounce on the justice or injustice of the + document, and to regard the bequest as an unlawful gift, rather + than as a restitution or any other lawful act which you may choose + to imagine?' + + 'But, these poor kinsfolk here on the spot, and that mere + collateral, distant and wealthy?' + + 'Who authorised you to weigh in your balance what the dead man owed + to his distant relations, whom you don't know?' + + 'But, father Bouin, that pile of letters from the legatee, which + the departed never even took the trouble to open?' + + 'There is neither old box, nor date, nor letters, nor father Bouin, + nor if, nor but, in the case. No one has any right to infringe the + laws, to enter into the intention of the dead, or to dispose of + other people's property. If providence has resolved to chastise + either the heir or the legatee or the testator--we cannot tell + which--by the accidental preservation of the will, the will must + remain.'"[1] + + [1] _Oeuv._, v. 289. + +Diderot the younger declaims against all this with his usual vehemence, +while his brother, the abbé, defends the supremacy of the law on the +proper ground, that to evade or defy it in any given case is to open the +door to the sophistries of all the knaves in the universe. At this point +a journeyman of the neighbourhood comes in with a new case of +conscience. His wife has died after twenty years of sickness; in these +twenty years the cost of her illness has consumed all that he would +otherwise have saved for the end of his days. But, as it happens, the +marriage portion that she brought him has lain untouched. By law this +ought to go to her family. Equity, however, seems to justify him in +keeping what he might have spent if he had chosen. He consults the party +round the fire. One bids him keep the money; another forbids him; a +third thinks it fair for him to repay himself the cost of his wife's +illness. Diderot's father cries out, that since on his own confession +the detention of the inheritance has brought him no comfort, he had +better surrender it as speedily as possible, and eat, drink, sleep, +work, and make himself happy so. + + "'Not I,' cried the journeyman abruptly, 'I shall be off to + Geneva.' + + 'And dost thou think to leave remorse behind?' + + 'I can't tell, but to Geneva I go.' + + 'Go where thou wilt, there wilt thou find thy conscience.' + + The hatter went away; his odd answer became the subject of our + talk. We agreed that perhaps distance of place and time had the + effect of weakening all the feelings more or less, and stifling the + voice of conscience even in cases of downright crime. The assassin + transported to the shores of China is too far off to perceive the + corpse that he has left bleeding on the banks of the Seine. + + Remorse springs perhaps less from horror of self than from fear of + others; less from shame for the deed, than from the blame and + punishment that would attend its discovery. And what clandestine + criminal is tranquil enough in his obscurity not to dread the + treachery of some unforeseen circumstance, or the indiscretion of + some thoughtless word? What certainty can he have that he will not + disclose his secret in the delirium of fever, or in dreams? People + will understand him if they are on the scene of the action, but + those about him in China will have no key to his words."[2] + + [2] v. 295, 296. + +Two other cases come up. Does the husband or wife who is the first to +break the marriage vow, restore liberty to the other? Diderot answered +affirmatively. The second case arose from a story that the abbé had been +reading. A certain honest cobbler of Messina saw his country overrun by +lawlessness. Each day was marked by a crime. Notorious assassins braved +the public exasperation. Parents saw their daughters violated; the +industrious saw the fruits of their toil ravished from them by the +monopolist or the fraudulent tax-gatherer. The judges were bribed, the +innocent were afflicted, the guilty escaped unharmed. The cobbler +meditating on these enormities devised a plan of vengeance. He +established a secret court of justice in his shop; he heard the +evidence, gave a verdict, pronounced sentence, and went out into the +street with his gun under his cloak to execute it. Justice done, he +regained his stall, rejoicing as though he had slain a rabid dog. When +some fifty criminals had thus met their doom, the viceroy offered a +reward of two thousand crowns for information of the slayer, and swore +on the altar that he should have full pardon if he gave himself up. The +cobbler presented himself, and spoke thus: "I have done what was your +duty. 'Tis I who condemned and put to death the miscreants that you +ought to have punished. Behold the proofs of their crimes. There you +will see the judicial process which I observed. I was tempted to begin +with yourself; but I respected in your person the august master whom you +represent. My life is in your hands: dispose of it as you think right." +Well, cried the abbé, the cobbler, in spite of all his fine zeal for +justice, was simply a murderer. Diderot protested. His father decided +that the abbé was right, and that the cobbler was an assassin. + +Nothing short of a transcript of the whole would convey a right idea of +the dramatic ease of this delightful dialogue--its variety of +illustration with unity of topic, the naturalness of movement, the +pleasant lightness of touch. At its close the old man calls for his +nightcap; Diderot embraces him, and in bidding him good-night whispers +in his ear, "Strictly speaking, father, there are no laws for the sage. +All being open to exception, 'tis for him to judge the cases in which we +ought to submit to them, or to throw them over." "I should not be +sorry," his father answers, "if there were in the town one or two +citizens like thee; but nothing would induce me to live there, if they +all thought in that way." The conclusion is just, and Diderot might have +verified it by the state of the higher society of his country at that +very moment. One cause of the moral corruption of France in the closing +years of the old _régime_ was undoubtedly the lax and shifting +interpretations, by which the Jesuit directors had softened the rigour +of general moral principles. Many generations must necessarily elapse +before a habit of loosely superseding principles in individual cases +produces widespread demoralisation, but the result is inevitable, sooner +or later; and this, just in proportion as the principles are sound. The +casuists practically constructed a system for making the observance +alike of the positive law, and of the accepted ethical maxims, flexible +and conditional. The Diderot of the present dialogue takes the same +attitude, but has the grace to leave the demonstration of its +impropriety to his wise and benevolent sire. + + * * * * * + +II. We shall presently see that Diderot did not shrink from applying a +vigorous doubt to some of the most solidly established principles of +modern society. Let us meanwhile in passing notice that short piece of +plangent irony, which did not appear until many years after his death +(1798), and which he or some one else entitled, _On the inconsistency of +the Public Judgment on our Private Actions_. This too is in the form of +dialogue, but the argument of the story is in its pith as follows. +Desroches, first an abbé, then a lawyer, lastly a soldier, persuades a +rich and handsome widow to marry him. She is aware of his previous +gallantries, and warns him in very dramatic style before a solemn +gathering of friends, that if he once wounds her by an infidelity, she +will shut herself up and speedily die of grief. He makes such vows as +most men would make under such circumstances; he presses her hands +ardently to his lips, bedews them with his tears, and moves the whole +company to sympathy with his own agitation. The scene is absurd enough, +or seems so to us dull people of phlegmatic habit. Yet Diderot, even for +us, redeems it by the fine remark: "'Tis the effect of what is good and +virtuous to leave a large assembly with only one thought and one soul. +How all respect one another, love one another in such moments! For +instance, how beautiful humanity is at the play! Ah, why must we part so +quickly? Men are so good, so happy, when what is worthy unites all their +suffrages, melts them, makes them one."[3] For some time all went well, +and our pair were the happiest of men and women. Then various assaults +were made on the faithfulness of Desroches. He resisted them, until in +endeavouring to serve a friend he was forced to sue for the goodwill of +a lady with whom in his unregenerate days he had had passages of +gallantry. The old intrigue was renewed. Letters of damning proof fell +by ill hazard into his wife's hands. She reassembled her friends, +denounced the culprit, and forthwith carried away her child to seek +shelter with her aged mother. Desroches's fervent remorse was unheeded, +his letters were sent back unopened, he was denied the door. Presently, +the aged mother died. Then the infant. Lastly, the wife herself. Now, +says Diderot to his interlocutor, I pray you to turn your eyes to the +public--that imbecile crowd that pronounces judgment on us, that +disposes of our honour, that lifts us to the clouds or trails us through +the mud. Opinion passed through every phase about Desroches. The +shifting event is ever their one measure of praise and blame. A fault +which nobody thought more than venial became gradually aggravated in +their eyes by a succession of incidents which it was impossible for +Desroches either to foresee or to prevent. At first opinion was on his +side, and his wife was thought to have carried things with too high a +hand. Then, after she had fallen ill, and her child had died, and her +aged mother had passed away in the fulness of years, he began to be held +answerable for all this sea of troubles. Why had not Desroches written +to his wife, beset her doors, waylaid her as she went to church? He +had, as matter of fact, done all these things, but the public did not +know it. The important thing is, not to know, but to talk. Then, as it +befell, his wife's brother took Desroches's place in his regiment; there +he was killed. More exclamations as to the misfortune of being connected +with such a man. How was Desroches responsible for the death of his +mother-in-law, already well stricken in years? How could he foresee that +a hostile ball would pierce his brother-in-law in his first campaign? +But his wife? He must be a barbarian, a monster, who had gradually +pressed a poniard into the bosom of a divine woman, his wife, his +benefactress, and then left her to die, without showing the least sign +of interest or feeling. And all this, cries Diderot, for not knowing +what was concealed from him, and what was unknown and unsuspected even +by those who were daily about her? What presumption, what bad logic, +what incoherence, what unjustified veering and vacillation in all these +public verdicts from beginning to end! + + [3] _Oeuv._, v. 342. + +Yet we feel that Diderot's impetuous taunts fail to press to the root of +the matter. Diderot excels in opening a subject; he places it in a new +light; he furnishes telling concrete illustrations; he thoroughly +disturbs and unsettles the medium of conventional association in which +it has become fixed. But he does not leave the question readjusted. His +mind was not of that quality which is slow to complain where it cannot +explain; which does not quit a discussion without a calm and orderly +review of the conditions that underlie the latest exhibition of human +folly, shortsightedness, or injustice. The public condemnation of +Desroches for consequences that were entirely strange to his one +offence, was indefensible on grounds of strict logic. But then men have +imagination as well as reason. Imagination is stronger than reason with +most of them. Their imagination was touched by the series of disasters +that followed Madame Desroches's abandonment of her husband. They admit +no plea of remoteness of damage, such as law courts allow. In a way that +was loose and unreasonable, but still easily intelligible, the husband +became associated with a sequel for which he was not really answerable. +If the world's conduct in such cases were accurately expressed, it would +perhaps be found that people have really no intention to pronounce a +judicial sentence; they only mean that an individual's associations have +become disagreeable and doubtful to them. They may think proper to +justify the grievously meagre definition of _homo_ as _animal +rationale_, by varnishing their distaste with reasons; the true reason +is that the presence of a Desroches disturbs their comfort, by recalling +questionable and disorderly circumstances. That this selfish and rough +method many a time inflicts horrible cruelty is too certain, and those +to whom the idea of conduct is serious and deep-reaching will not fall +into it. A sensible man is aware of the difficulty of pronouncing wisely +upon the conduct of others, especially where it turns upon the +intricate and unknowable relations between a man and a woman. He will +not, however, on that account break down the permanent safeguards, for +the sake of leniency in a given case. _A great enemy to indifference, a +great friend to indulgence_, said Turgot of himself; and perhaps it is +what we should all do well to be able to say of ourselves. + +Again, though these ironical exposures of the fatuity and recklessness +and inconsistency of popular verdicts are wholesome enough in their +degree in all societies, yet it has been, and still remains, a defect of +some of the greatest French writers to expect a fruit from such +performances which they can never bear. In the long run a great body of +men and women is improved less by general outcry against its collective +characteristics than by the inculcation of broader views, higher +motives, and sounder habits of judgment, in such a form as touches each +man and woman individually. It is better to awaken in the individual a +sense of responsibility for his own character than to do anything, +either by magnificent dithyrambs or penetrating satire, to dispose him +to lay the blame on Society. Society is after all only a name for other +people. An instructive contrast might be drawn between the method of +French writers of genius, from Diderot down to that mighty master of our +own day, Victor Hugo, in pouring fulminant denunciations upon Society, +and the other method of our best English writers, from Milton down to +Mill, in impressing new ideas on the Individual, and exacting a +vigorous personal answer to the moral or spiritual call. + +One other remark may be worth making. It is characteristic of the +immense sociability of the eighteenth century, that when he saw +Desroches sitting alone in the public room, receiving no answers to his +questions, never addressed by any of those around him, avoided, coldly +eyed, and morally proscribed, Diderot never thought of applying the +artificial consolation of the Stoic. He never dreamed of urging that +expulsion from the society of friends was not a hardship, a true +punishment, and a genuine evil. No one knew better than Diderot that a +man should train himself to face the disapprobation of the world with +steadfast brow and unflinching gaze; but he knew also that this is only +done at great cost, and is only worth doing for clear and far-reaching +objects. Life was real to Diderot, not in the modern canting sense of +earnestness and making a hundred thousand pounds; but in the sense of +being an agitated scene of living passion, interest, sympathy, struggle, +delight, and woe, in which the graceful ascetic commonplaces of the +writer and the preacher barely touch the actual conditions of human +experience, or go near to softening the smart of chagrin, failure, +mistake, and sense of wrong, any more than the sweet music of the birds +poised in air over a field of battle can still the rage and horror of +the plain beneath. As was said by a good man, who certainly did not fail +to try the experiment,--"Speciosa quidem ista sunt, oblitaque rhetoricæ +et musicæ melle dulcedinis; tum tantum cum audiuntur oblectant. Sed +miseris malorum altior sensus est. Itaque quum hæc auribus insonare +desierint, insitus animum moeror prægravat."[4] + + [4] Boethius. + + * * * * * + +III. We may close this chapter with a short account of the _Supplement +to Bougainville's Travels_, which was composed in 1772, and published +twenty-four years later. The second title is, _A dialogue on the +disadvantage of attaching moral ideas to certain physical actions which +do not really comport with them_. Those who believe that the ruling +system of notions about marriage represents the last word that is to be +said as to the relations between men and women, will turn away from +Diderot's dialogue with some impatience. Those, on the contrary, who +hold that the present system is no more immovably fixed in ultimate laws +of human nature, no more final, no more unimprovable, no more sacred, +and no more indisputably successful, than any other set of social +arrangements and the corresponding moral ideas, will find something to +interest them, though, as it seems to the present writer, very little to +instruct. Bougainville was the first Frenchman who sailed round the +world. He did in 1766-69 what Captain Cook did about the same time. The +narrative of his expedition appeared in 1771, and the picture of life +among the primitive people of the Southern Seas touched Diderot almost +as deeply as if he had been Rousseau. As one says so often in this +history of the intellectual preparation for the Revolution, the +corruption and artificiality of Parisian society had the effect of +colouring the world of primitive society with the very hues of paradise. +Diderot was more free from this besetting weakness than any of his +contemporaries. He never fell into Voltaire's fancy that China is a land +of philosophers.[5] But he did not look very critically into the real +conditions of life in the more rudimentary stages of development, and +for the moment he committed the sociological anachronism of making the +poor people of Otaheite into wise and benevolent patriots and sound +reasoners. The literary merit of the dialogue is at least as striking as +in any of the pieces of which we have already spoken. The realism of the +scenes between the ship-chaplain and his friendly savage, with too +kindly wife, and daughters as kindly as either, is full of sweetness, +simplicity, and a sort of pathos. A subject which easily takes on an air +of grossness, and which Diderot sometimes handled very grossly indeed, +is introduced with an idyllic grace that to the pure will hardly be +other than pure. We have of course always to remember that Diderot is an +author for grown-up people, as are the authors of the Bible or any other +book that deals with more than the surface of human experience. Our +English practice of excluding from literature subjects and references +that are unfit for boys and girls, has something to recommend it, but it +undeniably leads to a certain narrowness and thinness, and to some most +nauseous hypocrisy. All subjects are evidently not to be discussed by +all; and one result in our case is that some of the most important +subjects in the world receive no discussion whatever. + + [5] See, however, above, vol. i. p. 274. + +The position which Diderot takes up in the present dialogue may be +inferred from the following extract. The ship-chaplain has been +explaining to the astonished Otaheitan the European usage of strict +monogamy, as the arrangement enjoined upon man by the Creator of the +universe, and vigilantly guarded by the priest and the magistrate. To +which, Orou thus: + + "These singular precepts I find opposed to nature and contrary to + reason. They are contrary to nature because they suppose that a + being who thinks, feels, and is free, can be the property of a + creature like itself. Dost thou not see that in thy land they have + confounded the thing that has neither sensibility, nor thought, nor + desire, nor will; that one leaves, one takes, one keeps, one + exchanges, without its suffering or complaining--with a thing that + is neither exchanged nor acquired, that has freedom, will, desire, + that may give or may refuse itself for the moment; that complains + and suffers; and that cannot become a mere article of commerce, + unless you forget its character and do violence to nature? And they + are contrary to the general law of things. Can anything seem more + senseless to thee than a precept which proscribes the law of change + that is within us, and which commands a constancy that is + impossible, and that violates the liberty of the male and the + female, by chaining them together in perpetuity;--anything more + senseless than are oaths of immutability, taken by two creatures of + flesh, in the face of a sky that is not an instant the same, under + vaults that threaten ruin, at the base of a rock crumbling to + dust, at the foot of a tree that is splitting asunder?... You may + command what is opposed to nature, but you will not be obeyed. You + will multiply evil-doers and the unhappy by fear, by punishment, + and by remorse; you will deprave men's consciences; you will + corrupt their minds; they will have lost the polar star of their + pathway." (225.) + +After this declamation he proceeds to put some practical questions to +the embarrassed chaplain. Are young men in France always continent, and +wives always true, and husbands never libertines? The chaplain's answers +disclose the truth to the keen-eyed Orou: + + "What a monstrous tissue is this that thou art unfolding to me! And + even now thou dost not tell me all; for as soon as men allow + themselves to dispose at their own will of the ideas of what is + just and unjust, to take away, or to impose an arbitrary character + on things; to unite to actions or to separate from them the good + and the evil, with no counsellor save caprice--then come blame, + accusation, suspicion, tyranny, envy, jealousy, deception, chagrin, + concealment, dissimulation, espionage, surprise, lies; daughters + deceive their parents, wives their husbands, husbands their wives; + young women, I don't doubt, will smother their children; suspicious + fathers will despise and neglect their children; mothers will leave + them to the mercy of accident; and crime and debauchery will show + themselves in every guise. I know all that, as if I had lived among + you. It is so, because it must be so; and that society of thine, in + spite of thy chief who vaunts its fine order, is nothing but a + collection of hypocrites who secretly trample the laws under foot; + or of unfortunate wretches who make themselves the instrument of + their own punishment, by submitting to these laws; or of imbeciles, + in whom prejudice has absolutely stifled the voice of nature." + (227.) + +The chaplain has the presence of mind to fall back upon the radical +difficulty of all such solutions of the problem of family union as were +practised in Otaheite, or were urged by philosophers in Paris, or are +timidly suggested in our own times in the droll-sounding form of +marriages for terms of years with option of renewal. That difficulty is +the disposal of the children which are the fruit of such unions. Orou +rejoins to this argument by a very eloquent account how valuable, how +sought after, how prized, is the woman who has her quiver full of them. +His contempt for the condition of Europe grows more intense, as he +learns that the birth of a child among the bulk of the people of the +west is rather a sorrow, a perplexity, a hardship, than a delight and +ground of congratulation. + +The reader sees by this time that in the present dialogue Diderot is +really criticising the most fundamental and complex arrangement of our +actual western society, from the point of view of an arbitrary and +entirely fanciful naturalism. Rousseau never wrote anything more +picturesque, nor anything more dangerous, nor more anarchic and +superficially considered. It is true that Diderot at the close of the +discussion is careful to assert that while we denounce senseless laws, +it is our duty to obey them until we have procured their reform. "He who +of his own private authority infringes a bad law, authorises every one +else to infringe good laws. There are fewer inconveniences in being mad +with the mad, than in being wise by oneself. Let us say to ourselves, +let us never cease to cry aloud, that people attach shame, chastisement, +and infamy to acts that in themselves are innocent; but let us abstain +from committing them, because shame, punishment, and infamy are the +greatest of evils." And we hear Diderot's sincerest accents when he +says, "Above all, one must be honest, and true to a scruple, with the +fragile beings who cannot yield to our pleasures without renouncing the +most precious advantages of society."[6] + + [6] _Oeuv._, ii. 249. + +This, however, does not make the philosophical quality of the discussion +any more satisfactory. Whatever changes may ultimately come about in the +relations between men and women, we may at least be sure that such +changes will be in a direction even still further away than the present +conditions of marriage, from anything like the naturalism of Diderot and +the eighteenth-century school. Even if--what does not at present seem at +all likely to happen--the idea of the family and the associated idea of +private property should eventually be replaced by that form of communism +which is to be seen at Oneida Creek, still the discipline of the +appetites and affections of sex will necessarily on such a system be not +less, but far more rigorous to nature than it is under prevailing +western institutions.[7] Orou would have been a thousand times more +unhappy among the Perfectionists under Mr. Noyes than in Paris or +London. We cannot pretend here to discuss the large group of momentous +questions involved, but we may make a short remark or two. One reason +why the movement, if progressive, must be in the direction of greater +subordination of appetite, is that all experience proves the position +and moral worth of women, taking society as a whole, to be in proportion +to the self-control of their male companions. Nobody doubts that man is +instinctively polygamous. But the dignity and self-respect, and +consequently the whole moral cultivation of women, depends on the +suppression of this vagrant instinct. And there is no more important +chapter in the history of civilisation than the record of the steps by +which its violence has been gradually reduced. + + [7] See Nordhoff's _Communistic Societies of the United States_ + (London: Murray, 1875), pp. 259-293. This grave and most instructive + book shows how modifiable are some of those facts of existing human + character which are vulgarly deemed to be ultimate and ineradicable. + +There is another side, we admit. The home, of which sentimental +philosophers love to talk, is too often a ghastly failure. The conjugal +union, so tender and elevating in its ideal, is in more cases than we +usually care to recognise, the cruellest of bonds to the woman, the most +harassing, deadening, spirit-breaking of all possible influences to the +man. The purity of the family, so lovely and dear as it is, has still +only been secured hitherto by retaining a vast and dolorous host of +female outcasts. When Catholicism is praised for the additions which it +has made to the dignity of womanhood and the family, we have to set +against that gain the frightful growth of this caste of poor creatures, +upon whose heads, as upon the scapegoat of the Hebrew ordinance, we put +all the iniquities of the children of the house, and all their +transgressions in all their sins, and then banish them with maledictions +into the foul outer wilderness and the land not inhabited. + +On this side there is much wholesome truth to be told, in the midst of +the complacent social cant with which we are flooded. But Diderot does +not help us. Nothing can possibly be gained by reducing the attraction +of the sexes to its purely physical elements, and stripping it of all +the moral associations which have gradually clustered round it, and +acquired such force as in many cases among the highest types of mankind +to reduce the physical factor to a secondary place. Such a return to the +nakedness of the brute must be retrograde. And Diderot, as it happened, +was the writer who, before all others, habitually exalted the delightful +and consolatory sentiment of the family. Nobody felt more strongly the +worth of domestic ties, when faithfully cherished. It can only have been +in a moment of elated paradox that he made one of the interlocutors in +the dialogue on Bougainville pronounce Constancy, "The poor vanity of +two children who do not know themselves, and who are blinded by the +intoxication of a moment to the instability of all that surrounds them:" +and Fidelity, "The obstinacy and the punishment of a good man and a +good woman:" and Jealousy, "The passion of a miser; the unjust sentiment +of man; the consequence of our false manners, and of a right of property +extending over a feeling, willing, thinking, free creature."[8] + + [8] _Oeuv._, ii. 243. + +It is a curious example of the blindness which reaction against excess +of ascetic doctrine bred in the eighteenth century, that Diderot should +have failed to see that such sophisms as these are wholly destructive of +that order and domestic piety, to whose beauty he was always so keenly +alive. It is curious, too, that he should have failed to recognise that +the erection of constancy into a virtue would have been impossible, if +it had not answered first, to some inner want of human character at its +best, and second, to some condition of fitness in society at its best. + +How is it, says one of the interlocutors, that the strongest, the +sweetest, the most innocent of pleasures is become the most fruitful +source of depravation and misfortune? This is indeed a question well +worth asking. And it is comforting after the anarchy of the earlier part +of the dialogue to find so comparatively sensible a line of argument +taken in answer as the following. This evil result has been brought +about, he says, by the tyranny of man, who has converted the possession +of woman into a property; by manners and usages that have overburdened +the conjugal union with superfluous conditions; by the civil laws that +have subjected marriage to an infinity of formalities; by religious +institutions that have attached the name of vices and virtues to actions +that are not susceptible of morality. If this means that human happiness +will be increased by making the condition of the wife more independent +in respect of property; by treating in public opinion separation between +husband and wife as a transaction in itself perfectly natural and +blameless, and often not only laudable, but a duty; and by abolishing +that barbarous iniquity and abomination called restitution of conjugal +rights, then the speaker points to what has been justly described as the +next great step in the improvement of society. If it means that we do +wrong to invest with the most marked, serious, and unmistakable +formality an act that brings human beings into existence, with uncounted +results both to such beings themselves and to others who are equally +irresponsible for their appearance in the world, then the position is +recklessly immoral, and it is, moreover, wholly repugnant to Diderot's +own better mind. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ROMANCE. + + +The President de Brosses on a visit to Paris, in 1754, was anxious to +make the acquaintance of that "furious metaphysical head," as he styled +Diderot. Buffon introduced him. "He is a good fellow," said the +President, "very pleasant, very amiable, a great philosopher, a strong +reasoner, but given to perpetual digressions. He made twenty-five +digressions yesterday in my room, between nine o'clock and one o'clock." +And so it is that a critic who has undertaken to give an account of +Diderot, finds himself advancing from digression to digression, through +a chain of all the subjects that are under the sun. The same Diderot, +however, is present amid them all, and behind each of them; the same +fresh enthusiasm, the same expansive sympathy, the same large +hospitality of spirit. Always, too, the same habitual reference of +ideas, systems, artistic forms, to the complex realities of life, and to +these realities as they figured to sympathetic emotions. + +It was inevitable that Diderot should make an idol of the author of +_Clarissa Harlowe_. The spirit of reaction against the artificiality of +the pseudo-classic drama, which drove him to feel the way to a drama of +real life in the middle class, made him exult in the romance of ordinary +private life which was invented by Richardson. It was no mere accident +that the modern novel had its origin in England, but the result of +general social causes. The modern novel essentially depends on the +interest of the private life of ordinary men and women. But this +interest was only possible on condition that the feudal and aristocratic +spirit had received its deathblow, and it was only in England that such +a revolution had taken place even partially. It was only in England as +yet that the middle class had conquered a position of consideration, +equality, and independence. Only in England, as has been said, had every +man the power of making the best of his own personality, and arranging +his own destiny according to his private goodwill and pleasure.[9] The +greatest of Richardson's successors in the history of English fiction +adds to this explanation. "Those," says Sir Walter Scott, "who with +patience had studied rant and bombast in the folios of Scuderi, could +not readily tire of nature, sense, and genius in the octavos of +Richardson." The old French romances in which Europe had found a dreary +amusement, were stories of princes and princesses. It was to be expected +that the first country where princes and princesses were shorn of +divinity and made creatures of an Act of Parliament, would also be the +country where imagination would be most likely to seek for serious +passion, realistic interest, and all the material for pathos and tragedy +in the private lives of common individuals. It is true that Marivaux, +the author of _Marianne_, was of the school of Richardson before +Richardson wrote a word. But this was an almost isolated appearance, and +not the beginning of a movement. Richardson's popularity stamped the +opening of a new epoch. It was the landmark of a great social, no less +than a great literary transition, when all England went mad with +enthusiasm over the trials, the virtue, the triumph of a rustic +ladies'-maid. + + [9] Hettner's _Literaturgeschichte_, i. 462. + +In the literary circles of France the enthusiasm for Richardson was +quite as great as it was in England. There it was one of the signs of +the certain approach of that transformation which had already taken +place in England; the transformation from feudalism to industrial +democracy. It may sound a paradox to say that a passion for Richardson +was a symbol that a man was truly possessed by the spirit of political +revolution. Yet it is true. Voltaire was a revolter against superstition +and the tyranny of the church, but he never threw off the monarchic +traditions of his younger days; he was always a friend of great nobles; +he had no eye and no inclination for social overthrow. And this is what +Voltaire said of _Clarissa Harlowe_: "It is cruel for a man like me to +read nine whole volumes in which you find nothing at all. I said--Even +if all these people were my relations and friends, I could take no +interest in them. I can see nothing in the writer but a clever man who +knows the curiosity of the human race, and is always promising something +from volume to volume, in order to go on selling them." In the same way, +and for exactly the same reasons, he could never understand the +enthusiasm for the _New Heloïsa_, the greatest of the romances that were +directly modelled on Richardson. He had no vision for the strange social +aspirations that were silently haunting the inner mind of his +contemporaries. Of these aspirations, in all their depth and +significance, Diderot was the half-conscious oracle and unaccepted +prophet. It was not deliberate philosophical calculation that made him +so, but the spontaneous impulse of his own genius and temperament. He +was no conscious political destroyer, but his soul was open to all those +voices of sentiment, to all those ideals of domestic life, to those +primary forces of natural affection, which were so urgently pressing +asunder the old feudal bonds, and so swiftly ripening a vast social +crisis. Thus his enthusiasm for Richardson was, at its root, another +side of that love of the life of peaceful industry, which gave one of +its noblest characteristics to the Encyclopædia. + +To this enthusiasm Diderot gave voice in half a dozen pages which are +counted among his masterpieces. Richardson died in 1761, and Diderot +flung off a commemorative piece, which is without any order and +connection; but this makes it more an echo, as he called it, of the +tumult of his own heart. Here, indeed, he merits Gautier's laudatory +phrase, and is as "flamboyant" as one could desire. To understand the +march of feeling in French literature, and to measure the growth and +expansion in criticism, we need only compare Diderot's _eloge_ on +Richardson with Fontenelle's _éloge_ on Dangeau or Leibnitz. The +exaggerations of phrase, the violences of feeling, the broken +apostrophes, give to Diderot's _éloge_ an unpleasant tone of +declamation. Some of us may still prefer the moderation, the subtlety, +the nice discrimination, of the critics of another school. Still it +would be a sign of narrowness and short-sight not to discern the +sincerity, the movement, the real meaning underneath all that profusion +of glaring colour. + + "O Richardson, Richardson, unique among men in my eyes, thou shalt + be my favourite all my life long! If I am hard driven by pressing + need, if my friend is overtaken by want, if the mediocrity of my + fortune is not enough to give my children what is necessary for + their education, I will sell my books; but thou shalt remain to me, + thou shalt remain on the same shelf with Moses, Homer, Euripides, + Sophocles! + + "O Richardson, I make bold to say that the truest history is full + of falsehoods, and that your romance is full of truths. History + paints a few individuals; you paint the human race. History sets + down to its few individuals what they have neither said nor done; + whatever you set down to man, he has both said and done.... No; I + say that history is often a bad novel; and the novel, as you have + handled it, is good history. O painter of nature, 'tis you who are + never false! + + "You accuse Richardson of being long! You must have forgotten how + much trouble, pains, busy movement, it costs to bring the smallest + undertaking to a good issue,--to end a suit, to settle a marriage, + to bring about a reconciliation. Think of these details what you + please, but for me they will be full of interest if they are only + true, if they bring out the passions, if they display character. + They are common, you say; it is all what one sees every day. You + are mistaken; 'tis what passes every day before your eyes, and what + you never see." + +In Richardson's work, he says, as in the world, men are divided into two +classes, those who enjoy and those who suffer, and it is always to the +latter that he draws the mind of the reader. It is due to Richardson, he +cries, "if I have loved my fellow-creatures better, and loved my duties +better; if I have never felt anything but pity for the bad; if I have +conceived a deeper compassion for the unfortunate, more veneration for +the good, more circumspection in the use of present things, more +indifference about future things, more contempt for life, more love for +virtue." The works of Richardson are his touch-stone; those who do not +love them, stand judged and condemned in his eyes. Yet in the midst of +this tumult of admiration Diderot admits that the number of readers who +will feel all their value can never be great; it requires too severe a +taste, and then the variety of events is such, relations are so +multiplied, the management of them is so complicated, there are so many +things arranged, so many personages! "O Richardson; if thou hast not +enjoyed in thy lifetime all the reputation of thy deserts, how great +wilt thou be to our grandchildren when they see thee from the distance +at which we now view Homer! Then who will there be with daring enough to +strike out a line of thy sublime work?"[10] Yet of the very moderate +number of living persons who have ever read _Clarissa Harlowe_, it would +be safe to say that the large majority have read it in a certain +abridgment in three volumes which appeared some years ago. + + [10] The _Eloge de Richardson_ is in Diderot's Works, v. 212-227. + +Doctor Johnson made the answer of true criticism to some one who +complained to him that Richardson is tedious. "Why, sir," he said, "if +you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so +much frighted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for +the sentiment, and consider the story only as giving occasion to the +sentiment." And this is just what Diderot and the Paris of the middle of +the eighteenth century were eager to do. It was the sentiment that +touched and delighted them in _Clarissa_, just as it was the sentiment +that made the fortune of the great romance in their own tongue, which +was inspired by _Clarissa_, and yet was so different from _Clarissa_. +Rousseau threw into the _New Heloïsa_ a glow of passion of which the +London printer was incapable, and he added a beauty of external +landscape and a strong feeling for the objects and movement of wild +natural scenery that are very different indeed from the atmosphere of +the cedar-parlour and the Flask Walk at Hampstead. But the sentiment, +the adoration of the _belle âme_, is the same, and it was the _belle +âme_ that fascinated that curious society, where rude logic and a stern +anti-religious dialectic went hand-in-hand with the most tender and +exalted sensibility.[11] It is singular that Diderot says nothing about +Rousseau's famous romance, and we can only suppose that his silence +arose from his contempt for the private perversity and seeming +insincerity of the author. + + [11] The _belle âme_ was the origin of the _schöne Seele_ that has + played such a part in German literature and life. The reader will + find a history of the expression in an appendix to Dr. Erich + Schmidt's study. _Richardson, Rousseau, und Goethe_ (Jena, 1875). + +Diderot made one attempt of his own, in which we may notice the +influence of the minute realism and the tearful pathos of Richardson. +_The Nun_ was not given to the world until 1796, when its author had +been twelve years in his grave. Since then it has been reproduced in +countless editions in France and Belgium, and has been translated into +English, Spanish, and German. It fell in with certain passionate +movements of the popular mind against some anti-social practices of the +Catholic Church. Perhaps it is not unjust to suppose that the horrible +picture of the depraved abbess has had some share in attracting a +public. + +It is thoroughly characteristic of Diderot's dreamy, heedless humour, +and of the sincerity both of his interest in his work for its own sake, +and of his indifference to the popular voice, that he should have +allowed this, like so many other pieces, to lie in his drawer, or at +most to circulate clandestinely among three or four of his more +intimate friends. It was written about 1760, and ingenious historians +have made of it a signal for the great crusade against the Church. In +truth, as we have seen, it was a strictly private performance, and could +be no signal for a public movement. _La Religieuse_ was undoubtedly an +expression of the strong feeling of the Encyclopædic school about +celibacy, renunciation of the world, and the burial of men and women +alive in the cloister. + +The circumstances under which the story was written are worthy of a word +or two. Among the friends of Madame d'Epinay, Grimm, and Diderot was a +certain Marquis de Croismare. He had deserted the circle, and retired to +his estates in Normandy. It occurred to one of them that it would be a +pleasant stratagem for recalling him to Paris, to invent a personage who +should be shut up in a convent against her will, and then to make this +personage appeal to the well-known courage and generosity of the Marquis +de Croismare to rescue her. A previous adventure of the Marquis +suggested the fiction, and made its success the more probable. Diderot +composed the letters of the imaginary nun, and the conspirators had the +satisfaction of making merry at supper over the letters which the loyal +and unsuspecting Marquis sent in reply. At length the Marquis's interest +became so eager that they resolved that the best way of ending his +torment was to make the nun die. When the Marquis de Croismare returned +to Paris, the plot was confessed, the victim of the mystification +laughed at the joke, and the friendship of the party seemed to be +strengthened by their common sorrow for the woes of the dead sister. But +Diderot had been taken in his own trap. His imagination, which he had +set to work in jest, was caught by the figure and the situation. One day +while he was busy about the tale, a friend paid him a visit, and found +him plunged in grief and his face bathed in tears. "What in the world +can be the matter with you?" cried the friend. "What the matter?" +answered Diderot in a broken voice; "I am filled with misery by a story +that I am writing!" This capacity of thinking of imaginary personages as +if they were friends living in the next street, had been stirred by +Richardson. His acquaintances would sometimes notice anxiety and +consternation on his countenance, and would ask him if anything had +befallen his health, his friends, his family, his fortune. "O my +friends," he would reply, "Pamela, Clarissa, Grandison ...!" It was in +their world, not in the Rue Taranne, that he really lived when these +brooding moods overtook him. And while he was writing _The Nun_, Sister +Susan and Sister Theresa, the lady superior of Longchamp, and the +libertine superior of Saint Eutropius, were as alive to him as Clarissa +was alive to the score of correspondents who begged Richardson to spare +her honour, not to let her die, to make Lovelace marry her, or by no +means to allow Lovelace to marry her. + +_The Nun_ professes to be the story of a young lady whose family have +thrust her into a convent, and her narrative, with an energy and +reality that Diderot hardly ever surpassed, presents the odious sides of +monastic life, and the various types of superstition, tyranny, and +corruption that monastic life engenders. Yet Diderot had far too much +genius to be tempted into the exaggerations of more vulgar assailants of +monkeries and nunneries. He may have begun his work with the purpose of +attacking a mischievous and superstitious system that mutilates human +life, but he certainly continued it because he became interested in his +creations. Diderot was a social destroyer by accident, but in intention +he was a truly scientific moralist, penetrated by the spirit of +observation and experiment; he shrunk from no excess in dissection, and +found nothing in human pathology too repulsive for examination. Yet _The +Nun_ has none of the artificial violences of the modern French school, +which loves moral disease for its own sake. The action is all very +possible, and the types are all sufficiently human and probable. The +close realistic touches which flowed from the intensity of the writer's +illusion, naturally convey a certain degree of the same illusion to the +mind of the reader. + +Existence as it goes on in these strange hives is caught with what one +knows to be true fidelity; its dulness, its littleness, its goings and +comings, its spite, its reduction of the spiritual to the most purely +mechanical. + + "The first moments passed in mutual praises, in questions about the + house that I had quitted, in experiments as to my character, my + inclinations, my tastes, my understanding. They feel you all over; + there is a number of little snares that they set for you, and from + which they draw the most just conclusions. For example, they throw + out some word of scandal, and then they look at you; they begin a + story, and then wait to see whether you will ask for the end or + will leave it there; if you make the most ordinary remark, they + declare that it is charming, though they know well enough that it + is nothing; they praise or they blame you with a purpose; they try + to worm out your most hidden thoughts; they question you as to what + you read; they offer you religious books and profane, and carefully + notice your choice; they invite you to some slight infractions of + the rule; they tell you little confidences, and throw out hints + about the foibles of the Lady Superior. All is carefully gathered + up and told over again. They leave you, they take you up again; + they try to sound your sentiments about manners, about piety, about + the world, about religion, about the monastic life, about + everything. The result of all these repeated experiments is an + epithet that stamps your character, and is always added by way of + surname to the name that you already bear. I was called Sister + Susan the Reserved."[12] + + [12] _La Religieuse._ _Oeuv._, v. 110. + +The portraits we feel to be to the life. The strongest of them all is +undoubtedly the most disagreeable, the most atrocious; it is, if you +will, the most infamous. We can only endure it as we endure to traverse +the ward for epileptics in an hospital for the insane. It is appalling, +it fills you with horror, it haunts you for days and nights, it leaves a +kind of stain on the memory. It is a possibility of character of which +the healthy, the pure, the unthinking have never dreamed. Such a +portrait is not art, that is true; but it is science, and that delivers +the critic from the necessity of searching his vocabulary for the cheap +superlatives of moral censure. Whether it be art or science, however, +men cannot but ask themselves how Diderot came to think it worth while +to execute so painful a study. The only answer is that the +irregularities of human nature--those more shameful parts of it, which +in some characters survive the generations of social pressure that have +crushed them down in civilised communities--had an irresistible +attraction for the curiosity of his genius. The whole story is full of +power; it abounds in phrases that have the stamp of genius; and +suppressed vehemence lends to it strength. But it is fatally wanting in +the elements of tenderness, beauty, and sympathy. If we chance to take +it up for a second or for a tenth time, it infallibly holds us; but +nobody seeks to return to it of his own will, and it holds us under +protest. + +If Richardson created one school in France, Sterne created another. The +author of _Tristram Shandy_ was himself only a follower of one of the +greatest of French originals, and a follower at a long distance. Even +those who have the keenest relish for our "good-humoured, civil, +nonsensical, Shandean kind of a book," ought to admit how far it falls +behind Rabelais in exuberance, force, richness of extravagance, breadth +of colour, fulness of blood. They may claim, however, for Sterne what, +in comparison with these great elements, are the minor qualities of +simplicity, tenderness, precision, and finesse. These are the qualities +that delighted the French taste. In 1762 Sterne visited Paris, and found +_Tristram Shandy_ almost as well known there as in London, and he +instantly had dinners and suppers for a fortnight on his hands. Among +them were dinners and suppers at Holbach's, where he made the +acquaintance of Diderot, and where perhaps he made the discovery that +"notwithstanding the French make such a pother about the word +_sentiment_, they have no precise idea attached to it."[13] The +_Sentimental Journey_ appeared in 1768, and was instantly pronounced by +the critics in both countries to be inimitable. It is no wonder that a +performance of such delicacy of literary expression, united with so much +good-nature, such easy, humane, amiable feeling, went to the hearts of +the French of the eighteenth century. "My design in it," said Sterne, +"was to teach us to love the world and our fellow-creatures better than +we do, so it runs most upon those gentle passions and affections which +aid so much to it."[14] This exactly fell in with the reigning Parisian +modes, and with such sentiment as that of Diderot most of all. There +were several French imitations of the _Sentimental Journey_,[15] but the +only one that has survived in popular esteem, if indeed this can be said +to have survived, is Diderot's _Jacques le Fataliste_. + + [13] Sterne's Letters, May 23, 1765. + + [14] Nov. 12, 1767. + + [15] E.g. _Le Voyageur Sentimental_ of Vernes (Grimm, _Corr. Lit._, + xiii. 227). + +It seems to have been composed about the time (1773) of Diderot's +journey to Holland and St. Petersburg, of which we shall have more to +say in a later chapter. Its history is almost as singular as the history +of _Rameau's Nephew_. A contemporary speaks of a score of copies as +existing in different parts of Germany, and we may conjecture that they +found their way there from friends whom Diderot made in Holland, and +some of them were no doubt sent by Grimm to his subscribers. The first +fragment of it that saw the light in print was in a translation that +Schiller made of its most striking episode, in the year 1785. This is +another illustration of the eagerness of the best minds of Germany to +possess and diffuse the most original products of French intelligence +and hardihood. Diderot, as we have said, stands in the front rank along +with Rousseau, along also with Richardson, Sterne, and Goldsmith, among +those who in Germany kindled the glow of sentimentalism, both in its +good and its bad forms. It was in Germany that the first complete +version of the whole of _Jacques le Fataliste_ appeared, in 1792. Not +until four years later did the French obtain an original transcript. +This they owed to the generosity of Prince Henri of Prussia, the brother +of Frederick the Great; he presented it to the Institute. + +"There is going about here," wrote Goethe in 1780, while Diderot was +still alive, "a manuscript of Diderot's called _Jacques le Fataliste et +son Maître_, and it is really first-rate--a very fine and exquisite +meal, prepared and dished up with great skill, as if for the palate of +some singular idol. I set myself in the place of this Bel, and in six +uninterrupted hours swallowed all the courses in the order, and +according to the intentions, of this excellent cook and _maître +d'hôtel_."[16] He goes on to say that when other people came to read it, +some preferred one story, and some another. On the whole, one is +strongly inclined to judge that few modern readers will equal Goethe's +unsparing appetite. The reader sighs in thinking of the brilliant and +unflagging wit, the verve, the wicked graces of _Candide_, and we long +for the ease and simplicity and light stroke of the _Sentimental +Journey_. Diderot has the German heaviness. Perhaps this is because he +had too much conscience, and laboured too deeply under the burdensome +problems of the world. He could not emancipate himself sufficiently from +the tumult of his own sympathies. At many a page both of _Jacques le +Fataliste_, and of others of his pieces, we involuntarily recall the +writer's own contention that excess of sensibility makes a mediocre +actor. The same law is emphatically true of the artist. Diderot never +writes as if his spirit were quite free--and perhaps it never was free. +If we are to enjoy these reckless outbursts of all that is bizarre and +grotesque, these defiances of all that is sane, coherent, and rational, +we must never feel conscious of a limitation, or a possibility of stint +or check. The draught must seem to come from an exhaustless fountain of +boisterous laughter, irony, and caprice. Perfect fooling is so rare an +art, that not half a dozen men in literature have really possessed it; +perhaps only Aristophanes, Rabelais, Shakespeare. _Candide_, wonderful +as it is, has many a stroke of malice, and _Tristram Shandy_, wonderful +as that is too, is not without tinges of self-consciousness; and neither +malice nor self-consciousness belongs to the greater gods of buffoonery. +Cervantes and Molière, those great geniuses of finest temper, still have +none of the reckless buffoonery of such scenes as that between Prince +Henry and the drawer, or the mad extravagances of the _Merry Wives_; +still less of the wild topsy-turvy of the _Birds_ or the _Peace_. They +have not the note of true Pantagruelism. Most critics, again, would find +in Swift a truculence, sometimes latent and sometimes flagrant, that +would deprive him, too, of his place among these great masters of free +and exuberant farce. Diderot, at any rate, must rank in the second class +among those who have attempted to tread a measure among the whimsical +zigzags of unreason. The sincere sentimentalist makes a poor reveller. + + [16] Quoted in Rosenkranz, ii. 326. + +We have spoken, as many others have done before us, of Diderot as +imitating our two English celebrities, and in one sense that is a +perfectly true description. In _Jacques le Fataliste_ whole sentences +are transcribed in letter and word from _Tristram Shandy_. Yet imitation +is hardly the right word for the process by which Diderot showed that an +author had seized and affected him. _La Religieuse_ would not have been +written if there had been no Richardson, nor _Jacques le Fataliste_ if +there had been no Sterne; yet Diderot's work is not really like the work +of either of his celebrated contemporaries. They gave him the suggestion +of a method and a sentiment to start from, and he mused and brooded over +it until, from among the clouds of his imagination, there began to loom +figures of his own, moving along a path which was also his own. This was +the history of his adaptation of _The Natural Son_ from Goldoni. We can +only be sure that nothing became blithe in its passage through his mind. +He was too much of a preacher to be an effective humorist. + +There is in _Jacques le Fataliste_ none of that gift of true creation +which produced such figures as Trim, and my Uncle Toby, and Mr. Shandy. +Jacques's master is a mere lay figure, and Jacques himself, with his +monotonous catchword, "_Il était écrit là-haut_," has no real +personality; he has none of the naturalness that wins us to Corporal +Trim, still less has he any touch of the profound humour of the immortal +Sancho. The book is a series of stories, rather than Sterne's subtle +amalgam of pathos, gentle irony, and frank buffoonery; and the stories +themselves are for the most part either insipid or obscene. There is +perhaps one exception. The longest and the most elaborate of them, that +which Schiller translated, is more like one of the modern French novels +of a certain kind, than any other production of the eighteenth century. +The adventure of Madame de Pommeraye and the Marquis d'Arcis is a crude +foreshadowing of a style that has been perfected by M. Feydeau and M. +Flaubert. The Marquis has been the lover of Madame de Pommeraye; he +grows weary of her, and in time the lady discovers the bitter truth. +Resignation is not among her virtues, and in her rage and anguish she +devises an elaborate plan of revenge, which she carries out with the +utmost tenacity and resolution. It consists in leading him on, by +skilful incitements, to marry a woman whom he supposes to be an angel of +purity, but whom Madame de Pommeraye triumphantly reveals to him on the +morning after his marriage as a creature whose past history has been one +of notorious depravity. This disagreeable story, of which Balzac would +have made a masterpiece, is told in an interesting way, and the +humoristic machinery by which the narrative is managed is less tiresome +than usual. It is at least a story with meaning, purpose, and character. +It is neither a jumble without savour or point, nor is it rank and gross +like half the pages in the book. "Your _Jacques_," Diderot supposes some +one to say to him, "is only a tasteless rhapsody of facts, some real, +others imaginary, written without grace, and distributed without order. +How can a man of sense and conduct, who prides himself on his +philosophy, find amusement in spinning out tales so obscene as +these?"[17] And this is exactly what the modern critic is bound to ask. +In Rabelais there is at least puissant laughter; in Montaigne, when he +dwells on such matters, there is _naïveté_. In Diderot we do not even +feel that he is having any enjoyment in his grossnesses; they have not +even the bad excuse of seeming spontaneous and coming from the fulness +of his heart. "Reader," he says, "I amuse myself in writing the follies +that you commit; your follies make me laugh; and my book puts you out of +humour. To speak frankly to you, I find that the more wicked of us two +is not myself." Unhappily, he does not convey the impression of +amusement to his readers; it has no infection in it, and if his book +puts us out of humour, it is not by its satire on mankind, but by its +essential want of point and want of meaning, either moral or æsthetic. +The few masters of this style have known how to bind the heterogeneous +elements together, if not by some deep-lying purpose, at least by some +pervading mood of rich and mellow feeling. In _Jacques le Fataliste_ is +neither. + + [17] vi. 221, 222. + +That men of the stamp of Goethe and Schiller should have found such a +book of delicious feast, naturally makes the disparaging critic pause. +In truth, we can easily see how it was. Like all the rest of Diderot's +work, it breaks roughly in upon that starved formalism which had for +long lain so heavily both on art and life. Its hardihood, its very +license, its contempt of conventions, its presentation of common people +and coarse passions and rough lives, all made it a dissolvent of the +thin, dry, and frigid rules which tyrannised over the world, and +interposed between the artist or the thinker and the real existence of +man on the earth. When we think of what European literature was, it +ceases to be wonderful that Goethe should have been unable for six whole +hours to tear himself away from a book that so few men to-day, save +under some compulsion, could persuade themselves to read through. On +great wholesome minds the grossness left no stain, and the interest of +Diderot's singularities worked as a stimulus to a happier originality in +men of more disciplined endowments. And let us add, of more poetic +endowments. It is the lack of poetry in _Jacques_ that makes its irony +so heavy to us. We only willingly suffer those to take us down into the +depths who can also raise us on the wings of a beautiful fancy. Even +Rabelais has his poetic moments, as in the picture of Cupid +self-disarmed before the industrious serenity of the Muses. A single +lovely image, like Sterne's figure of the recording angel, reconciles us +to many a miry page. But in _Jacques le Fataliste_, Diderot never raises +his eye for an instant to the blue æther, his ear catches no harmony of +awe, of hope, nor even of a noble despair. With a kind of clumsy +jubilancy he holds us fast in the ways and language of thick and clogged +sense. The _fatrasie_ of old France has its place in literature, but it +can never be restored in ages when a host of moral anxieties have laid +siege to men's souls. The uncommon is always welcome to the lover of +art, but it must justify itself. _Jacques_ has the quality of the +uncommon; it is a curiously prepared dish, as Goethe said; but it lacks +the pinch of salt and the handful of herbs with sharp diffusive +flavour. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ART. + + +In 1759 Diderot wrote for Grimm the first of his criticisms on the +exhibition of paintings in the Salon. At the beginning of the reign of +Lewis XV. these exhibitions took place every year, as they take place +now. But from 1751 onwards, they were only held once in two years. +Diderot has left his notes on every salon from 1759 to 1781, with the +exception of that of 1773, when he was travelling in Holland and Russia. + +We have already seen how Grimm made Diderot work for him. The nine +_Salons_ are one of the results of this willing bondage, and they are +perhaps the only part of Diderot's works that has enjoyed a certain +measure of general popularity. Mr. Carlyle describes them with emphatic +enthusiasm: "What with their unrivalled clearness, painting the picture +over again for us, so that we too _see_ it, and can judge it; what with +their sunny fervour, inventiveness, real artistic genius, which wants +nothing but a _hand_, they are with some few exceptions in the German +tongue, the only Pictorial Criticisms we know of worth reading."[18] I +only love painting in poetry, Madame Necker said to Diderot, and it is +into poetry that you have found out the secret of rendering the works of +our modern painters, even the commonest of them. It would be a truly +imperial luxury, wrote A. W. Schlegel, to get a collection of pictures +described for oneself by Diderot. + + [18] _Essays_, iv. 303. (Ed. 1869.) + +There is a freshness, a vivacity, a zeal, a sincerity, a brightness of +interest in his subject, which are perhaps unique in the whole history +of criticism. He flings himself into the task with the perfection of +natural abandonment to a joyous and delightful subject. His whole +personality is engaged in a work that has all the air of being +overflowing pleasure, and his pleasure is contagious. His criticism +awakens the imagination of the reader. Not only do we see the picture; +we hear Diderot's own voice in ecstasies of praise and storms of +boisterous wrath. There is such mass in his criticism; so little of the +mincing and niggling of the small virtuoso. In facility of expression, +in animation, in fecundity of mood, in fine improvisation, these pieces +are truly incomparable. There is such an _impetus animi et quædam artis +libido_. Some of the charm and freedom may be due to the important +circumstance that he was not writing for the public. He was not exposed +to the reaction of a large unknown audience upon style; hence the +absence of all the stiffness of literary pose. But the positive +conditions of such success lay in the resources of Diderot's own +character. + +The sceptic, the dogmatist, the dialectician, and the other personages +of a heterogeneous philosophy who existed in Diderot's head, all +disappear or fall back into a secondary place, and he surrenders himself +with a curious freedom to such imaginative beauty as contemporary art +provided for him. Diderot was perhaps the one writer of the time who was +capable on occasion of rising above the strong prevailing spirit of the +time; capable of forgetting for a season the passion of the great +philosophical and ecclesiastical battle. No one save Diderot could have +been moved by sight of a picture to such an avowal as this: + + "Absurd rigorists do not know the effect of external ceremonies on + the people; they can never have seen the enthusiasm of the + multitude at the procession of the _Fête Dieu_, an enthusiasm that + sometimes gains even me. I have never seen that long file of + priests in their vestments; those young acolytes clad in their + white robes, with broad blue sashes engirdling their waists, and + casting flowers on the ground before the Holy Sacrament; the crowd + as it goes before and follows after them hushed in religious + silence, and so many with their faces bent reverently to the + ground; I have never heard that grave and pathetic chant, as it is + led by the priests and fervently responded to by an infinity of + voices of men, of women, of girls, of little children, without my + inmost heart being stirred, and tears coming into my eyes. There is + in it something, I know not what, that is grand, solemn, sombre, + and mournful." + +Thus to find the material of religious reaction in the author of +_Jacques le Fataliste_ and the centre of the atheistic group, completes +the circle of Diderot's immense and deep-lying versatility. And in his +account of such a mood, we see how he came to be so great and poetical a +critic; we see the sincerity, the alertness, the profound mobility, with +which he was open to impressions of colour, of sound, of the pathos of +human aspiration, of the solemn concourses of men. + +France has long been sovereign in criticism in its literary sense. In +that department she has simply never had, and has not now, any serious +rival. In the profounder historic criticism, Germany exhibits her one +great, peculiar, and original gift. In the criticism of art Germany has +at least three memorable names; but save where history is concerned most +modern German æsthetics are so clouded with metaphysical speculation as +to leave the obscurity of a very difficult subject as thick as it was +before. In France the beginnings of art-criticism were literary rather +than philosophic, and with the exception of Cousin's worthless +eloquence, and of the writers whose philosophy Cousin dictated, and of +M. Taine's ingenious paradoxes, Diderot is the only writer who has +deliberately brought a vivid spirit and a philosophic judgment to the +discussion of the forms of Beauty, as things worthy of real elucidation. +As far back as the time of the English Restoration, Dufresnoy had +written in bad Latin a poem on the art of Painting, which had the signal +honour of being translated into good English by no less illustrious a +master of English than Dryden, and it was again translated by Mason, the +friend of Reynolds and of Gray. Imitations, applied to the pictorial +art, of the immortal Epistle to the Pisos, came thick in France in the +eighteenth century.[19] But these effusions are merely literary, and +they are very bad literature indeed. The abbé Dubos published in 1719 a +volume of Critical Reflections on Poetry and Painting, including +observations also on the relations of those arts to Music. Lessing is +known to have made use of this work in his _Laocöon_, and Diderot gave +it a place among the books which he recommended in his Plan of a +University.[20] This, as it is the earliest, seems to have been the best +contribution to æsthetic thought before Lessing and Diderot. Daniel +Webb, the English friend of Raphael Mengs, published an Enquiry into the +Beauties of Painting (1760), and Diderot wrote a notice of it,[21] but +it appears to have made no mark on his mind. André, a Jesuit father, +wrote an Essay on the Beautiful (1741), which distributed the kinds of +art with precision, but omitted to say in what the Beautiful consists. +The abbé Batteux wrote a volume reducing the fine arts to a single +principle, and another volume attempting a systematic classification of +them. The first of these was the occasion of Diderot's Letter on Deaf +Mutes, and Diderot described their author as a good man of letters, but +without taste, without criticism, and without philosophy; _à ces +bagatelles près, le plus joli garçon du monde_.[22] + + [19] _E.g._ Watelet's poem, _Sur l'Art de Peindre_, 1760; Le + Mierre's _Sur la Peinture_, 1769; Marsy's _Pictura Carmen_, 1736. + See Diderot's works, xiii. 17, etc. + + [20] _Oeuv._, iii. 486. Guhrauer, ii. 15. Also Blümner's admirable + edition of the _Laocöon_, p. 173. + + [21] xiii. 33. + + [22] Grimm, _Corr. Lit._, iv. 136. In another place in the same work + either Grimm or Diderot makes a remark about Batteux, which is worth + remembering in our own age of official vindications of orthodoxy. + The abbé had written a book about first causes. "I venture to + observe moreover to M. l'abbé Batteux that when in this world a man + has put on the dress of any sort of harlequin, red or black, with a + pair of bands or a frill, he ought to give up once for all every + kind of philosophic discussion, because it is impossible for him to + speak according to his faith and his conscience; and a writer of bad + faith is all the more odious, as nothing compelled him to break + silence." _Ib._ vi. 120. + +Travellers to the land where criticism of art has been so slight, and +where production has been so noble, so bounteous, so superb, published +the story of what Italy had shown to them. Madame de Pompadour designed +to make her brother the Superintendent of fine arts, and she despatched +Cochin, the great engraver of the day, to accompany him in a studious +tour through the holy land of the arts. Cochin was away nearly two +years, and on his return produced three little volumes (1758), in which +he deals such blows to some vaunted immortalities as made the idolators +by convention not a little angry. The abbé Richard (1766) published six +very stupid volumes on Italy, and such criticism on art as they contain +is not worthy of serious remark. The President de Brosses spent a year +in Italy (1739-40), and wrote letters to his friends at home, which may +be read to-day with interest and pleasure for their graphic picture of +Italian society; but the criticisms which they contain on the great +works of art are those of a well-informed man of the world, taking many +things for granted, rather than of a philosophical critic industriously +using his own mind. His book recalls to us how true the eighteenth +century was to itself in its hatred of Gothic architecture, that symbol +and associate of mysticism, and of the age which the eighteenth century +blindly abhorred as the source of all the tyrannical laws and cruel +superstitions that still weighed so heavily on mankind. "You know the +Palace of Saint Mark at Venice," says De Brosses: "_c'est un vilain +monsieur, s'il eu fut jamais, massif, sombre, et gothique, du plus +méchant goût_!"[23] + + [23] _Lettres Familières_, i. 174. (Ed. 1869.) + +Dupaty, like De Brosses, an eminent lawyer, an acquaintance of Diderot +and an early friend of a conspicuous figure of a later time, the +ill-starred Vergniaud, travelled in Italy almost immediately before the +Revolution (1785), and his letters, when read with those of De Brosses, +are a curious illustration of the change that had come over the spirit +of men in the interval. He leaves the pictures of the Pitti collection +at Florence, and plunges into meditation in the famous gardens behind +the palace, rejoicing with much expansion in the glories of light and +air, in greenery and the notes of birds, and finally sums all up in one +rapturous exclamation of the vast superiority of nature over art.[24] + + [24] Dupaty's _Lettres sur l'Italie_, No. 40. In talking of Rome, he + complains in a very Diderotian spirit of the want of _le beau + moral_. "On ne trouve ici dans les moeurs ni des hommes privés ni + des hommes publics, cette moralité, cette bienséance, dont les + moeurs françoises sont pleines. _Le beau moral est absolument + inconnu._ Or, c'est pour atteindre à ce beau moral dans tous les + genres que la sensibilité est la plus tourmentée; qu'elle est en + proie aux contentions de l'esprit, aux émulations de l'âme ... + qu'elle pare avec tant de raffinement et de peine, les écrits, les + discours, les passions, enfin toute la vie publique et privée.' + +It is impossible, in reading how deeply Diderot was affected by +fifth-rate paintings and sculpture, not to count it among the great +losses of literature that he saw few masterpieces. He never made the +great pilgrimage. He was never at Venice, Florence, Parma, Rome. A +journey to Italy was once planned, in which Grimm and Rousseau were to +have been his travelling companions;[25] the project was not realised, +and the strongest critic of art that his country produced never saw the +greatest glories of art. If Diderot had visited Florence and Rome, even +the mighty painter of the Last Judgment and the creator of those sublime +figures in the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo, would have found an +interpreter worthy of him. But it was not to be. "It is rare," he once +wrote, "for an artist to excel without having seen Italy, just as a man +seldom becomes a great writer or a man of great taste without having +given severe study to the ancients."[26] Diderot at least knew what he +lost. + + [25] x. 514, _n._ + + [26] xi. 241. + +French art was then, as art usually is, the mirror of its time, +reproducing such imaginative feeling as society could muster. When the +Republic and the Empire came, and twenty years of battle and siege, then +the art of the previous generation fell into a degree of contempt for +which there is hardly a parallel. Pictures that had been the delight of +the town and had brought fortunes to their painters, rotted on the quays +or were sold for a few pence at low auctions. Fragonard, who had been +the darling of his age, died in neglect and beggary. David and his +hideous art of the Empire utterly effaced what had thrown the +contemporaries of Diderot into rapture.[27] Every one knows all that can +be said against the French paintings of Diderot's time. They are +executed hastily and at random; they abound in technical defects of +colour, of drawing, of composition; their feeling is light and shallow. +Watteau died in 1721--at the same premature age as Raphael,--but he +remained as the dominating spirit of French art through the eighteenth +century. Of course the artists went to Rome, but they changed sky and +not spirit. The pupils of the academy came back with their portfolios +filled with sketches in which we see nothing of the "lone mother of dead +empires," nothing of the vast ruins and the great sombre desolate +Campagna, but only Rome turned into a decoration for the scenes of a +theatre or the panels of a boudoir. The Olympus of Homer and of Virgil, +as has been well said, becomes the Olympus of Ovid. Strength, sublimity, +even stateliness disappeared, unless we admit some of the first two +qualities in the landscapes of Vernet. Not only is beauty replaced by +prettiness, but by prettiness in season and out of season. The common +incongruity of introducing a spirit of elegance and literature into the +simplicities of the true pastoral, was condemned by Diderot as a mixture +of Fontenelle with Theocritus. We do not know what name he would have +given to that still more curious incongruity of taste, which made a +publisher adorn a treatise on Differential and Integral Calculus with +amusing plates by Cochin, and introduce dainty little vignettes into a +Demonstration of the Properties of the Cycloid. + + [27] Goncourt's _L'Art au 18ième Siècle_, i. + +There is one true story that curiously illustrates the spirit of French +art in those equivocal days. When Madame de Pompadour made up her mind +to play pander to the jaded appetites of the king, she had a famous +female model of the day introduced into a _Holy Family_, which was +destined for the private chapel of the queen. The portrait answered its +purpose; it provoked the curiosity and desire of the king, and the model +was invited to the Parc-aux-Cerfs.[28] This was typical of the service +that painting was expected to render to the society that adored it and +paid for it. "All is daintiness, delicate caressing for delicate senses, +even down to the external decoration of life, down to the sinuous lines, +the wanton apparel, the refined commodity of rooms and furniture. In +such a place and in such company, it is enough to be together to feel +at ease. Their idleness does not weigh upon them; life is their +plaything."[29] + + [28] Goncourt's _Art au 18ième Siècle_, i. 213. + + [29] Taine's _Ancien Régime_, p. 186. + +Only let us not, while reserving our serious admiration for Titian, +Rembrandt, Raphael, and the rest of the gods and demigods, refuse at +least a measure of historic tolerance to these light and graceful +creations. Boucher, whose dreams of rose and blue were the delight of +his age, came away from Rome saying: "Raphael is a woman, Michael Angelo +is a monster; one is paradise, the other is hell; they are painters of +another world; it is a dead language that nobody speaks in our day. We +others are the painters of our own age: we have not common sense, but we +are charming." This account of them was not untrue. They filled up the +space between the grandiose pomp of Le Brun and the sombre +pseudo-antique of David, just as the incomparable grace and sparkle of +Voltaire's lighter verse filled up the space in literature between +Racine and Chénier. They have a poetry of their own; they are cheerful, +sportive, full of fancy, and like everything else of that day, intensely +sociable. They are, at any rate, even the most sportive of them, far +less unwholesome and degrading than the acres of martyrdoms, +emaciations, bad crucifixions, bad pietas, that make some galleries more +disgusting than a lazar-house.[30] + + [30] "Si tous les tableaux de martyrs que nos grands peintres ont si + sublimement peints, passaient à une postérité reculée, pour qui nous + prendrait-elle? Pour des bêtes féroces ou des + anthropophages."--Diderot's _Pensées sur la Peinture_. + +For Watteau himself, the deity of the century, Diderot cared very +little. "I would give ten Watteaus," he said, "for one Teniers." This +was as much to be expected, as it was characteristic in Lewis XIV., when +some of Teniers's pictures were submitted to him, imperiously to command +"_ces magots là_" to be taken out of his sight. + +Greuze (_b. 1725, d. 1805_) of all the painters of the time was +Diderot's chief favourite. Diderot was not at all blind to Greuze's +faults, to his repetitions, his frequent want of size and amplitude, the +excess of gray and of violet in his colouring. But all these were +forgotten in transports of sympathy for the sentiment. As we glance at a +list of Greuze's subjects, we perceive that we are in the very heart of +the region of the domestic, the moral, "_l'honnête_," the homely pathos +of the common people. The Death of a father of a family, regretted by +his children; The Death of an unnatural father, abandoned by his +children; The beloved mother caressed by her little ones; A child +weeping over its dead bird; A Paralytic tended by his family, or the +Fruit of a Good Education:--Diderot was ravished by such themes. The +last picture he describes as a proof that compositions of that kind are +capable of doing honour to the gifts and the sentiments of the +artist.[31] The _Girl bewailing her dead bird_ throws him into raptures. +"O, the pretty elegy!" he begins, "the charming poem! the lovely idyll!" +and so forth, until at length he breaks into a burst of lyric +condolence addressed to the weeping child, that would fill four or five +of these pages.[32] + + [31] x. 143. + + [32] x. 343. + +No picture of the eighteenth century was greeted with more enthusiasm +than Greuze's _Accordée de Village_, which was exhibited in 1761. It +seems to tell a story, and therefore even to-day, in spite of its dulled +pink and lustreless blue, it arrests the visitor to one of the less +frequented halls of the Louvre.[33] Paris, weary of mythology and sated +with pretty indecencies, was fascinated by the simplicity of Greuze's +village tale. "_On se sent gagner d'une émotion douce en le regardant_," +said Diderot, and this gentle emotion was dear to the cultivated classes +in France at that moment of the century. It was the year of the _New +Heloïsa_. + + [33] No. 260 of the French School. + +The subject is of the simplest: a peasant paying the dower-money of his +daughter. "The father"--it is prudent of us to borrow Diderot's +description--"is seated in the great chair of the house. Before him his +son-in-law standing, and holding in his left hand the bag that contains +the money. The betrothed, standing also, with one arm gently passed +under the arm of her lover, the other grasped by her mother, who is +seated. Between the mother and the bride, a younger sister standing, +leaning on the bride and with an arm thrown round her shoulders. Behind +this group, a child standing on tiptoes to see what is going on. To the +extreme left in the background, and at a distance from the scene, two +women-servants who are looking on. To the right a cupboard with its +usual contents--all scrupulously clean.... A wooden staircase leading to +the upper floor. In the foreground near the feet of the mother, a hen +leading her young ones, to whom a little girl throws crumbs of bread; a +basin full of water, and on the edge of it, one of the small chickens +with its beak up in the air so as to let the water go down." Diderot +then proceeds to criticise the details, telling us the very words that +he hears the father addressing to the bridegroom, and as a touch of +observation of nature, that while one of the old man's hands, of which +we see the back, is tanned and brown, the other, of which we see the +palm, is white. "To the bride the painter has given a face full of +charm, of seemliness, of reserve. She is dressed to perfection. That +apron of white stuff could not be better; there is a trifle of luxury in +her ornament; but then it is a wedding-day. You should note how true are +the folds and creases in her dress, and in those of the rest. The +charming girl is not quite straight; but there is a light and gentle +inflexion in all her figure and her limbs that fills her with grace and +truth. Indeed she is pretty and very pretty. If she had leaned more +towards her lover, it would have been unbecoming; more to her mother and +her father, and she would have been false. She has her arm half passed +under that of her future husband, and the tips of her fingers rest +softly on his hand; that is the only mark of tenderness that she gives +him, and perhaps without knowing it herself: it is a delicate idea in +the painter."[34] + + [34] x. 151-156. Dr. Waagen pronounces this picture to be as truly + an expression of _das Nationalfranzösiche_ as Wilkie's paintings are + of _das Englische_. See his _Kunstwerke und Künstler in Paris_, p. + 675. + +"Courage, my good Greuze," he cries, "_fais de la morale en peinture_. +What, has not the pencil been long enough and too long consecrated to +debauchery and vice? Ought we not to be delighted at seeing it at last +unite with dramatic poetry in instructing us, correcting us, inviting us +to virtue?"[35] It has been sometimes said that Diderot would have +exulted in the paintings of Hogarth, and we may admit that he would have +sympathised with the spirit of such moralities as the Idle and the +Industrious Apprentice, the Rake's Progress, and Mariage à la Mode. The +intensity and power of that terrible genius would have had their +attraction, but the minute ferocities of Hogarth's ruthless irony would +certainly have revolted him. Such a scene as Lord Squanderfield's visit +to the quack doctor, or as the Rake's debauch, would have filled him +with inextinguishable horror. He could never have forgiven an artist +who, in the ghastly pathos of a little child straining from the arms of +its nurse towards the mother, as she lies in the very article of death, +could still find in his heart to paint on it the dark patches of foul +disease. He would have fled with shrieks from those appalling scenes of +murder, torture, madness, bestial drunkenness, rapacity, fury--from +that delirium of scrofula, palsy, entrails, the winding-sheet, and the +grave-worm. Diderot's method was to improve men, not by making their +blood curdle, but by warming and softening the domestic affections. + + [35] x. 208. + +Diderot, as a critic, seems always to have remembered a pleasant +remonstrance once addressed at the Salon by the worthy Chardin to +himself and Grimm: "Gently, good sirs, gently! Out of all the pictures +that are here seek the very worst; and know that two thousand unhappy +wretches have bitten their brushes in two with their teeth, in despair +of ever doing even as badly. Parrocel, whom you call a dauber, and who +for that matter is a dauber, if you compare him to Vernet, is still a +man of rare talent relatively to the multitude of those who have flung +up the career in which they started with him." And then the artist +recounts the immense labours, the exhausting years, the boundless +patience, attention, tenacity, that are the conditions even of a +mediocre degree of mastery. We are reminded of the scene in a famous +work of art in our own day, where Herr Klesmer begs Miss Gwendolen +Harleth to reflect, how merely to stand or to move on the stage is an +art that requires long practice. "_O le triste et plat métier que celui +de critique!_" Diderot cries on one occasion: "_Il est si difficile de +produire une chose même médiocre; il est si facile de sentir la +médiocrité._"[36] No doubt, as experience and responsibility gather upon +us, we learn how hard in every line is even moderate skill. The wise +are perhaps content to find what a man can do, without making it a +reproach to him that there is something else which he cannot do. + + [36] x. 177. + +But Diderot knew well enough that Chardin's kindly principle might +easily be carried too far. In general, he said, criticism displeases me; +it supposes so little talent. "What a foolish occupation, that of +incessantly hindering ourselves from taking pleasure, or else making +ourselves blush for the pleasure that we have taken! And that is the +occupation of criticism!"[37] Yet in one case he writes a score of pages +of critical dialogue, in which the chief interlocutor is a painter who +avenges his own failure by stringent attacks on the work of happier +rivals of the year. And speaking in his own proper person, Diderot knows +how to dismiss incompetence with the right word, sometimes of scorn, +more often of good-natured remonstrance. Bad painters, a Parrocel, a +Brenet, fare as ill at his hands as they deserved to do. He remarks +incidentally that the condition of the bad painter and the bad actor is +worse than that of the bad man of letters: the painter hears with his +own ears the expressions of contempt for his talent, and the hisses of +the audience go straight to the ears of the actor, whereas the author +has the comfort of going to his grave without a suspicion that you have +cried out at every page: "_The fool, the animal, the jackass!_" and have +at length flung his book into a corner. There is nothing to prevent the +worst author, as he sits alone in his library, and reads himself over +and over again, from congratulating himself on being the originator of a +host of rare and felicitous ideas.[38] + + [37] xii. 8, 79. + + [38] xi. 149. + +The one painter whom Diderot never spares is Boucher, who was an idol of +the time, and made an income of fifty thousand livres a year out of his +popularity. He laughs at him as a mere painter of fans, an artist with +no colours on his palette save white and red. He admits the fecundity, +the _fougue_, the ease of Boucher, just as Sir Joshua Reynolds admits +his grace and beauty and good skill in composition.[39] Boucher, says +Diderot, is in painting what Ariosto is in poetry, and he who admires +the one is inconsistent if he is not mad for the other. What is wanting +is disciplined taste, more variety, more severity. Yet he cannot refuse +to concede about one of Boucher's pictures that after all he would be +glad to possess it. Every time you saw it, he says, you would find fault +with it, yet you would go on looking at it.[40] This is perhaps what the +severest modern amateur, as he strolls carelessly through the French +school at his leisure, would not in his heart care to deny. + + [39] See Reynolds's Twelfth Discourse, p. 106. + + [40] x. 102. + +Fragonard, whose picture of Coresus and Callirrhoë made a great +sensation in its day, and still attracts some small share of attention +in the French school, was not a favourite with Diderot. The Callirrhoë +inspired an elaborate but not very felicitous criticism. Then the +painter changed his style in the direction of Boucher, and as far away +as possible from _l'honnête_ and _le beau moral_, and Diderot turned +away from him; at last describing an oval picture representing groups of +children in heaven as "_une belle et grande omelette d'enfants_," heads, +legs, thighs, arms, bodies, all interlaced together among yellowish +clouds--"_bien omelette, bein douillette, bein jaune, et bien +brûlée_."[41] + + [41] xi. 296. For the Callirrhoë, see x. 397. + +On the whole, we cannot wonder either that painters hold literary talk +about their difficult and complex art so cheap, or that the lay public +prizes it so much above its intrinsic worth. It helps the sluggish +imagination and dull sight of the one, while it is apt to pass +ignorantly over both the true difficulties and the true successes of the +other. Diderot, unlike most of those who have come after him, had +carefully studied the conditions prescribed to the painter by the +material in which he works. Although he was a master of the literary +criticism of art, he had artists among his intimate companions, and was +too eager for knowledge not to wring from them the secrets of technique, +just as he extorted from weavers and dyers the secrets of their +processes and instruments. He makes no ostentatious display of this +special knowledge, yet it is present, giving a firmness and accuracy to +what would otherwise be too like mere arbitrary lyrics suggested by a +painting, and not really dealing with it. His special gift was the +transformation of scientific criticism into something with the charm of +literature. Take, for instance, a picture by Vien: + + "_Psyche approaching with her lamp to surprise Love in his + sleep._--The two figures are of flesh and blood, but they have + neither the elegance, nor the grace, nor the delicacy that the + subject required. Love seems to me to be making a grimace. Psyche + is not like a woman who comes trembling on tiptoe. I do not see on + her face that mixture of surprise, fear, love, desire, and + admiration, which ought all to be there. It is not enough to show + in Psyche a curiosity to see Love; I must also perceive in her the + fear of awakening him. She ought to have her mouth half open, and + to be afraid of drawing her breath. 'Tis her lover that she + sees--that she sees for the first time, at the risk of losing him + for ever. What joy to look upon him, and to find him so fair! Oh, + what little intelligence in our painters, how little they + understand nature! The head of Psyche ought to be inclined towards + Love; the rest of her body drawn back, as it is when you advance + towards a spot where you fear to enter, and from which you are + ready to flee back; one foot planted on the ground and the other + barely touching it. And the lamp; ought she to let the light fall + on the eyes of Love? Ought she not to hold it apart, and to shield + it with her hand to deaden its brightness? Moreover, that would + have lighted the picture in a striking way. These good people do + not know that the eyelids have a kind of transparency; they have + never seen a mother coming in the night to look at her child in the + cradle, with a lamp in her hand, and fearful of awakening it."[42] + + [42] x. 121. + +There have been many attempts to imitate this manner since Diderot. No +less a person than M. Thiers tried it, when it fell to him as a young +writer for the newspapers to describe the Salon of 1822. One brilliant +poet, novelist, traveller, critic, has succeeded, and Diderot's +art-criticism is at least equalled in Théophile Gautier's pages on +Titian's Assunta and Bellini's Madonna at Venice, or Murillo's Saint +Anthony of Padua at Seville.[43] + + [43] _Voyage en Italie_, 230. _Voyage en Espagne_, 330. See the same + critic's _Abécédaire du Salon de 1861_. + +Just as in his articles in the Encyclopædia, here too Diderot is always +ready to turn from his subject for a moral aside. Even the modern reader +will forgive the discursive apostrophe addressed to the judges of the +unfortunate Calas, the almost lyric denunciation of an atrocity that +struck such deep dismay into the hearts of all the brethren of the +Encyclopædia.[44] But Diderot's asides are usually in less tragic +matter. A picture of Michael Van Loo's reminds him that Van Loo had once +a friend in Spain. This friend took it into his head to equip a vessel +for a trading expedition, and Van Loo invested all his fortune in his +friend's vessel. The vessel was wrecked, the fortune was lost, and the +master was drowned. When Van Loo heard of the disaster, the first word +that came to his mouth was--_I have lost a good friend_. And on this +Diderot sails off into a digression on the grounds of praise and blame. + + [44] xi. 309. + +Here are one or two illustrations of the same moralising: + + "The effect of our sadness on others is very singular. Have you not + sometimes noticed in the country the sudden stillness of the + birds, if it happens that on a fine day a cloud comes and lingers + over the spot that was resounding with their music? A suit of deep + mourning in company is the cloud that, as it passes, causes the + momentary silence of the birds. It goes, and the song is resumed." + + "We should divide a nation into three classes: the bulk of the + nation, which forms the national taste and manners; those who rise + above these are called madmen, originals, oddities; those who fall + below are noodles. The progress of the human mind causes the level + to shift, and a man often lives too long for his reputation.... He + who is too far in front of his generation, who rises above the + general level of the common manners, must expect few votes; he + ought to be thankful for the oblivion that rescues him from + persecution. Those who raise themselves to a great distance above + the common level are not perceived; they die forgotten and + tranquil, either like everybody else, or far away from everybody + else. That is my motto."[45] + + "But Vernet will never be more than Vernet, a mere man. No, and for + that very reason all the more astonishing, and his work all the + more worthy of admiration. It is, no doubt, a great thing, is this + universe; but when I compare it with the energy of the productive + cause, if I had to wonder at aught, it would be that its work is + not still finer and still more perfect. It is just the reverse when + I think of the weakness of man, of his poor means, of the + embarrassments and of the short duration of his life, and then of + certain things that he has undertaken and carried out."[46] + + [45] xi. 294. + + [46] xi. 102. + +These digressions are one source of the charm of Diderot's criticism. +They impart ease and naturalness to it, because they evidently reproduce +the free movement of his mind as it really was, and not as the supposed +dignity of authorship might require him to pretend. There is no +stiffness nor sense, as we have said, of literary strain, and yet there +is no disturbing excess of what is random, broken, _décousu_. The +digression flows with lively continuity from the main stream and back +again into it, leaving some cheerful impression or curious suggestion +behind it. Something, we cannot tell what, draws him off to wonder +whether there is not as much verve in the first scene of Terence and in +the Antinoüs as in any scene of Molière or any work of Michael Angelo? +"I once answered this question, but rather too lightly. Every moment I +am apt to make a mistake, because language does not furnish me with the +right expression for the truth at the moment. I abandon a thesis for +lack of words that shall supply my reasons. I have one thing in the +bottom of my heart, and I find myself saying another. There is the +advantage of living in retirement and solitude. There a man speaks, asks +himself questions, listens to himself, and listens in silence. His +secret sensation develops itself little by little." Then when he is +about to speak of one of Greuze's pictures, he bethinks himself of +Greuze's vanity, and this leads him to a vein of reflection which it is +good for all critics, whether public or private, to hold fast in their +minds. "If you take away Greuze's vanity, you will take away his verve, +you will extinguish his fire, his genius will undergo an eclipse. _Nos +qualités tiennent de prés à nos défauts._" And of this important truth, +the base of wise tolerance, there follow a dozen graphic examples.[47] + + [47] x. 342. He says elsewhere of Greuze (xviii. 247) that he is _un + excellent artiste, mais une bien mauvaise téte_. + +Grétry, the composer, more than once consulted Diderot in moments of +perplexity. It was not always safe, he says, to listen to the glowing +man when he allowed his imagination to run away with him, but the first +burst was of inspiration divine.[48] Painters found his suggestions as +potent and as hopeful as the musician found them. He delighted in being +able to tell an artist how he might change his bad picture into a good +one.[49] "Chardin, La Grenée, Greuze, and others," says Diderot, "have +assured me (and artists are not given to flattering men of letters) that +I was about the only one whose images could pass at once to canvas, +almost exactly as they came into my head." And he gives illustrations, +how he instantly furnished to La Grenée a subject for a picture of +Peace; to Greuze, a design introducing a nude figure without wounding +the modesty of the spectator; to a third, a historical subject.[50] The +first of the three is a curious example of the difficulty which even a +strong genius like Diderot had in freeing himself from artificial +traditions. For Peace, he cried to La Grenée, show me Mars with his +breastplate, his sword girded on, his head noble and firm. Place +standing by his side a Venus, full, divine, voluptuous, smiling on him +with an enchanting smile; let her point to his casque, in which her +doves have made their nest. Is it not singular that even Diderot +sometimes failed to remember that Mars and Venus are dead, that they can +never be the source of a fresh and natural inspiration, and that neither +artist nor spectator can be moved by cold and vapid allegories in an +extinct dialect? If Diderot could have seen such a treatment of La +Grenée's subject as Landseer's _Peace_, with its children playing at the +mouth of the slumbering gun, he would have been the first to cry out how +much nearer this came to the spirit of his own æsthetic methods, than +all the pride of Mars and all the beauty of Venus. He is truer to +himself in the subject with which he met Greuze's perplexity in the +second of his two illustrations. He bade Greuze paint the Honest Model; +a girl sitting to an artist for the first time, her poor garments on the +ground beside her; her head resting on one of her hands, and a tear +rolling down each cheek. The mother, whose dress betrays the extremity +of indigence, is by her side, and with her own hands and one of the +hands of her daughter covers her face. The painter, witness of the +scene, softened and touched, lets his palette or his brush fall from his +hand. Greuze at once exclaimed that he saw his subject; and we may at +least admit that this pretty bit of commonplace sentimentalism is more +in Diderot's vein than pagan gods and goddesses. + + [48] Quoted in Diderot's _Oeuv._, v. 460, _n._ + + [49] E.g. _Oeuv._, xi. 258. + + [50] xi. 74. + +Diderot is never more truly himself than when he takes the subject of a +picture that is before him, and shows how it might have been more +effectively handled. Thus: + + "The Flight into Egypt is treated in a fresh and piquant manner. + But the painter has not known how to make the best of his idea. The + Virgin passes in the background of the picture, bearing the infant + Jesus in her arms. She is followed by Joseph and the ass carrying + the baggage. In the foreground are the shepherds prostrating + themselves, their hands upturned towards her, and wishing her a + happy journey. Ah, what a fine painting, if the artist had known + how to make mountains at the foot of which the Virgin had passed; + if he had known how to make the mountains very steep, escarped, + majestic; if he had covered them with moss and wild shrubs; if he + had given to the Virgin simplicity, beauty, grandeur, nobleness; if + the road that she follows had led into the paths of some forest, + lonely and remote; if he had taken his moment at the rise of day, + or at its fall!"[51] + + [51] x. 115. + +The picture of Saint Benedict by Deshays--whom at one moment Diderot +pronounces to be the first painter in the nation--stirs the same spirit +of emendation. Diderot thinks that in spite of the pallor of the dying +saint's visage, one would be inclined to give him some years yet to +live. + + "I ask whether it would not have been better that his legs should + have sunk under him; that he should have been supported by two or + three monks; that he should have had the arms extended, the head + thrown back, with death on his lips and ecstasy on his brow. If the + painter had given this strong expression to his Saint Benedict, + consider, my friend, how it would have reflected itself on all the + rest of the picture. That slight change in the principal figure + would have influenced all the others. The celebrant, instead of + being upright, would in his compassion have leaned more forward; + distress and anguish would have been more strongly depicted in all + the bystanders. There is a piece from which you could teach young + students that, by altering one single circumstance, you alter all + others, or else the truth disappears. You could make out of it an + excellent chapter on the _force of unity_: you would have to + preserve the same arrangement, the same figures, and to invite them + to execute the picture according to the different changes that were + made in the figure of the communicant."[52] + + [52] x. 125. + +The admirable Salons were not Diderot's only contributions to æsthetic +criticism. He could not content himself with reproductions, in eloquent +language upon paper, of the combinations of colour and form upon canvas. +No one was further removed from vague or indolent expansion. He returns +again and again to examine with keenness and severity the principles, +the methods, the distinctions of the fine arts, and though he is often a +sentimentalist and a declaimer, he can also, when the time comes, +transform himself into an accurate scrutiniser of ideas and phrases, a +seeker after causes and differences, a discoverer of kinds and classes +in art, and of the conditions proper to success in each of them. In +short, the fact of being an eloquent and enthusiastic critic of +pictures, did not prevent him from being a truly philosophical thinker +about the abstract laws of art, with the thinker's genius for analysis, +comparison, classification. Who that has read them can ever forget the +dialogues that are set among the landscapes of Vernet in the Salons of +1767?[53] The critic supposes himself unable to visit the Salon of the +year, and to be staying in a gay country-house amid some fine landscapes +on the sea-coast. He describes his walks among these admirable scenes, +and the strange and varying effects of light and colour, and all the +movements of the sky and ocean; and into the descriptions he weaves a +series of dialogues with an abbé, a tutor of the children of the house, +upon art and landscape and the processes of the universe. Nothing can be +more excellent and lifelike: it is not until the end that he lets the +secret slip that the whole fabric has been a flight of fancy, inspired +by no real landscape, but by the sea-pieces sent to the exhibition by +Vernet. + + [53] xi. 98-149. + +This is an illustration of the variety of approach which makes Diderot +so interesting, so refreshing a critic. He never sinks into what is +mechanical, and the evidence of this is that his mind, while intent on +the qualities of a given picture, yet moves freely to the outside of the +picture, and is ever cordially open to the most general thoughts and +moods, while attending with workmanlike fidelity to what is particular +in the object before him.[54] + + [54] _E.g._ xi. 223. + +In the light of modern speculation upon the philosophy of the fine arts, +Diderot makes no commanding figure, because he is so egregiously +unsystematic. But as Goethe said, in a piece where he was withstanding +Diderot to the face, _die höchste Wirkung des Geistes ist, den Geist +hervorzurufen_--the highest influence of mind is to call out mind. This +stimulating provocation of the intelligence was the master faculty in +Diderot. For the sake of that men are ready to pardon all excesses, and +to overlook many offences against the law of Measure. From such a point +of view, Goethe's treatment of Diderot's Essay on Painting (written in +1765, but not given to the world until 1796) is an instructive lesson. +"Diderot's essay," he wrote to Schiller, "is a magnificent work, and it +speaks even more usefully to the poet than to the painter, though for +the painter, too, it is a torch of powerful illumination." Yet Diderot's +critical principle in the essay was exactly opposite to Goethe's; and +when Goethe translated some portions of it, he was forced to add a +commentary of stringent protest. Diderot, as usual, energetically extols +nature, as the one source and fountain of true artistic inspiration. +Even in what looks to us like defect and monstrosity, she is never +incorrect. If she inflicts on the individual some unusual feature, she +never fails to draw other parts of the system into co-ordination and a +sort of harmony with the abnormal element. We say of a man who passes in +the street that he is ill-shapen. Yes, according to our poor rules; but +according to nature, it is another matter. We say of a statue that it is +of fine proportions. Yes, according to our poor rules; but according to +nature?[55] + + [55] x. 481, 462. + +In the same vein, he breaks out against the practice of drawing from +the academic model. All these academic positions, affected, constrained, +artificial, as they are; all these actions coldly and awkwardly +expressed by some poor devil, and always the same poor devil, hired to +come three times a week, to undress himself, and to play the puppet in +the hands of the professor--what have these in common with the positions +and actions of nature? What is there in common between the man who draws +water from the well in your courtyard, and the man who pretends to +imitate him on the platform of the drawing-school? If Diderot thought +the seven years passed in drawing the model no better than wasted, he +was not any more indulgent to the practice of studying the minutiæ of +the anatomy of the human frame. He saw the risk of the artist becoming +vain of his scientific acquirement, of his eye being corrupted, of his +seeking to represent what is under the surface, of his forgetting that +he has only the exterior to show. A practice that is intended to make +the student look at nature most commonly tends to make him see nature +other than she really is. To sum up, mannerism would disappear from +drawing and from colour, if people would only scrupulously imitate +nature. Mannerism comes from the masters, from the academy, from the +school, and even from the antique.[56] + + [56] x. 467. For a more respectful view of the antique, and of + Winckelmann's position, see _Salon de 1765_, x. 418. + +We may easily believe how many fallacies were discerned in such lessons +as these by the author of _Iphigenie_, and the passionate admirer of +the ancient marbles. Diderot's fundamental error, said Goethe, is to +confound nature and art, completely to amalgamate nature with art. "Now +Nature organises a living, an indifferent being, the Artist something +dead, but full of significance; Nature something real, the Artist +something apparent. In the works of Nature the spectator must import +significance, thought, effect, reality; in a work of Art he will and +must find this already there. A perfect imitation of Nature is in no +sense possible; the Artist is only called to the representation of the +surface of an appearance. The outside of the vessel, the living whole +that speaks to all our faculties of mind and sense, that stirs our +desire, elevates our intelligence--that whose possession makes us happy, +the vivid, potent, finished Beautiful--for all this is the Artist +appointed." In other words, art has its own laws, as it has its own +aims, and these are not the laws and aims of nature. To mock at rules is +to overthrow the conditions that make a painting or a statue possible. +To send the pupil away from the model to the life of the street, the +gaol, the church, is to send him forth without teaching him for what to +look. To make light of the study of anatomy in art, is like allowing the +composer to forget thorough bass in his enthusiasm, or the poet in his +enthusiasm to forget the number of syllables in his verse. Again, though +art may profit by a free and broad method, yet all artistic significance +depends on the More and the Less. Beauty is a narrow circle in which +one may only move in modest measure. And of this modest measure the +academy, the school, the master, above all the antique, are the +guardians and the teachers.[57] + + [57] Diderot's _Versuch über die Malerei_. Goethe's _Werke_, xxv. + 309, etc. + +It is unnecessary to labour the opposition between the two great masters +of criticism. Goethe, as usual, must be pronounced to have the last word +of reason and wisdom, the word which comprehends most of the truth of +the matter. And it is delivered in that generous and loyal spirit which +nobody would have appreciated more than the free-hearted Diderot +himself. The drift of Goethe's contention is, in fact, the thesis of +Diderot's Paradox on the Comedian. But the state of painting in +France--and Goethe admits it--may have called for a line of criticism +which was an exaggeration of what Diderot, if he had been in Goethe's +neutral position, would have found in his better mind.[58] + + [58] And of course on occasion did actually find. See xi. 101. Sir + Joshua Reynolds, who was too sincere a lover of his art not to be + above mere patriotic prejudice, describes the condition of things. + "I have heard painters acknowledge that they could do better without + nature than with her, or, as they expressed themselves, it only put + them out. Our neighbours, the French, are much in this practice of + extempore invention, and their dexterity is such as even to excite + admiration, if not envy; but how rarely can this praise be given to + their finished pictures!" Twelfth Discourse, p. 105. + +There is a passage in one of the Salons which sheds a striking +side-light on the difference between these two great types of genius. +The difference between the mere virtuoso and the deep critic is that, in +the latter, behind views on art we discern far-reaching thoughts on +life. And in Diderot, no less than in Goethe, art is ever seen in its +associations with character, aspiration, happiness, and conduct. + + "The sun, which was on the edge of the horizon, disappeared; over + the sea there came all at once an aspect more sombre and solemn. + Twilight, which is at first neither day nor night--an image of our + feeble thoughts, and an image that warns the philosopher to stay in + his speculations--warns the traveller too to turn his steps towards + home. So I turned back, and as I continued the thread of my + thoughts, I began to reflect that if there is a particular morality + belonging to each species, so perhaps in the same species there is + a different morality for different individuals, or at least for + different kinds and collections of individuals. And in order not to + scandalise you by too serious an example, it came into my head that + there is perhaps a morality peculiar to artists or to art, and that + this morality might well be the very reverse of the common + morality. Yes, my friend, I am much afraid that man marches + straight to misery by the very path that leads the imitator of + nature to the sublime. To plunge into extremes--that is the rule + for poets. To keep in all things the just mean--there is the rule + for happiness. One must not make poetry in real life. The heroes, + the romantic lovers, the great patriots, the inflexible + magistrates, the apostles of religion, the philosophers _à toute + outrance_--all these rare and divine insensates make poetry in + their life, and that is their bane. It is they who after death + provide material for great pictures. They are excellent to paint. + Experience shows that nature condemns to misery the man to whom she + has allotted genius, and whom she has endowed with beauty; it is + they who are the figures of poetry. Then within myself I lauded + the mediocrity that shelters one alike from praise and blame; and + yet why, I asked myself, would no one choose to let his sensibility + go, and to become mediocre? O vanity of man!"[59] + + [59] x. 124, 125. + +Goethe's _Tasso_, a work so full of finished poetry and of charm, is the +idealised and pathetic version of the figure that Diderot has thus +conceived for genius. The dialogues between the hapless poet and +Antonio, the man of the world, are a skilful, lofty, and impressive +statement of the problem that often vexed Diderot. Goethe sympathised +with Antonio's point of view; he had in his nature so much of the spirit +of conduct, of saneness, of the common reason of the world. And in art +he was a lover of calm ideals. In Diderot, as our readers by this time +know, these things were otherwise. + +The essay on Beauty in the Encyclopædia is less fertile than most of +Diderot's contributions to the subject.[60] It contains a careful +account of two or three other theories, especially that of Hutcheson. +The object is to explain the source of Beauty. Diderot's own conclusion +is that this is to be found in "relations." Our words for the different +shades of the beautiful are expressive of notions (acquired by +experience through the senses) of order, proportion, symmetry, unity, +and so forth. But, after all, the real question remains unanswered--what +makes some relations beautiful, and others not so; and the same objects +beautiful to me, and indifferent to you; and the same object beautiful +to me to-day, and indifferent or disgusting to me to-morrow? Diderot +does, it is true, enumerate twelve sources of such diversity of +judgment, in different races, ages, individuals, moods, but their force +depends upon the importation into the conception of beauty of some more +definite element than the bare idea of relation. Some sentences show +that he came very near to the famous theory of Alison, that beauty is +only attributed to sounds and sights, where, and because, they recall +what is pleasing, sublime, pathetic, and set our ideas and emotions +flowing in one of these channels. But he does not get fairly on the +track of either Alison's or any other decisive and marking adjective, +with which to qualify his _rapports_. He wastes some time, moreover, in +trying to bring within the four corners of his definition some uses of +the terms of beauty, which are really only applied to objects by way of +analogy, and are not meant to predicate the beautiful in any literal or +scientific sense. + + [60] _Oeuv._, x. + +There is no more interesting department of æsthetic inquiry than the +relations of the arts to one another, and the nature of the +delimitations of the provinces of poetry, painting, sculpture, music. +Diderot, from the very beginning of his career, had turned his thoughts +to this intricate subject. In his letter on Deaf Mutes (1751) he had +stated the problem--to collect the common beauties of poetry, painting, +and music; to show their analogies; to explain how the poet, the +painter, and the musician render the same image; to seize the fugitive +emblems of their expression. Why should a situation that is admirable in +a poem become ridiculous in a painting?[61] For instance, what is it +that prevents a painter from reproducing the moment when Neptune raises +his head above the tossing waters, as he is represented in Virgil: + + Interea magno misceri murmure pontum. + Emissamque hiemem sensit Neptunus, et imis + Stagna refusa vadis; graviter commotus, et alto + Prospiciens, summâ placidum caput extulit undâ. + + [61] It is to be observed also that he shows true perspicacity in + connecting the difficulty of transforming a poetic into a pictorial + description, with the kindred difficulty of translating a finished + poem in one language into another language. See also xi. 107. + +Diderot's answer to the question is an anticipation of the main position +of the famous little book which appeared fifteen years afterwards, and +which has been well described as the Organum of æsthetic cultivation. In +_Laocoön_ Lessing contends against Spence, the author of _Polymetis_ +against Caylus, and others of his contemporaries, that poetry and +painting are divided from one another in aim, in effects, in reach, by +the limits set upon each by the nature of its own material.[62] So +Diderot says that the painter could not seize the Virgilian moment, +because a body that is partially immersed in water is disfigured by an +effect of refraction, which a faithful painter would be bound to +reproduce; because the image of the body could not be seen +transparently through the stormy waters, and therefore the god would +have the appearance of being decapitated; because it is indispensable, +if you would avoid the impression of a surgical amputation, that some +visible portion of hidden limbs should be there to inform us of the +existence of the rest.[63] He takes another instance, where a +description that is admirable in poetry would be insupportable in +painting. Who, he asks, could bear upon canvas the sight of Polyphemus +grinding between his teeth the bones of one of the companions of +Ulysses? Who could see without horror a giant holding a man in his +enormous mouth, with blood dripping over his head and breast? + + [62] Lessing appears to have been directly led to this by Aristotle. + See Gotschlich's _Lessing's Aristotelische Studien_, p. 120. + + [63] _Oeuv._, i. 382, 403. + +Among the many passages in which Diderot touches on the differences +between poetry and painting, none is more just and true than that in +which he implores the poet not to attempt description of details: "True +taste fastens on one or two characteristics, and leaves the rest to +imagination. 'Tis when Armida advances with noble mien in the midst of +the ranks of the army of Godfrey, and when the generals begin to look at +one another with jealous eyes, that Armida is beautiful to us. It is +when Helen passes before the old men of Troy, and they all cry out--it +is then that Helen is beautiful. And it is when Ariosto describes Alcina +from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, that +notwithstanding the grace, the facility, the soft elegance of his verse, +Alcina is not beautiful. He shows me everything; he leaves me nothing to +do; he makes me wearied and impatient. If a figure walks, describe to +me its carriage and its lightness; I will undertake the rest. If it is +stooping, speak to me only of arms and shoulders; I will take all else +on myself. If you do more, you confuse the kinds of work; you cease to +be a poet, and become a painter or sculptor. One single trait, a great +trait; leave the rest to my imagination. That is true taste, great +taste."[64] And then he quotes with admiration Ovid's line of the +goddess of the seas: + + Nec brachia longo + Margine terrarum porrexerat Amphitrite. + + [64] _Oeuv._, xi. 328. + +Quel image! Quels bras! Quel prodigieux mouvement! Quelle figure! and so +forth, after Diderot's manner. + +Nobody will compare these detached and fragmentary deliverances with the +full and easy mastery which Lessing, in _Laocöon_ and its unfinished +supplements, exhibits over the many ramifications of his central idea. +We can only notice that Diderot had a foot on the track along which +Lessing afterwards made such signal progress. The reader who cares to +measure the advantage of Lessing's more serious and concentrated +attention to his subject, may compare the twelfth chapter of _Laocöon_ +with Diderot's criticism on Doyen's painting of the Battle between +Diomede and Aeneas.[65] As we see how near Diderot came to the real and +decisive truths of all these matters, and yet how far he remains from +the full perception of what a little consecutive study must have +revealed to his superior genius, we can only think painfully of his +avowal--"I have not the consciousness of having employed the half of my +strength: _jusqu'à présent je n'ai que baguenaudé_." + + [65] _Salon de 1761_; _Oeuv._, v. 140. + +On the great art of music Diderot has said little that is worth +attending to. Bemetzrieder, a German musician, who taught Diderot's +daughter to play on the clavecin, wrote an elementary book called +Lessons on the Clavecin and Principles of Harmony. This is pronounced by +the modern teachers to be not less than contemptible. Diderot, however, +with his usual boundless good nature, took the trouble to set the book +in a series of dialogues, in which teacher, pupil, and a philosopher +deal in all kinds of elaborate amenities, and pay one another many +compliments. It reminds one of the old Hebrew grammar which is couched +in the form of Conversations with a Duchess--"Your Grace having kindly +condescended to approve of the plan that I have sketched. All this your +Grace probably knows already, but your Grace has probably never +attempted," and so forth. + +The unwise things that men of letters have written from a good-natured +wish to help their friends, are not so numerous that we need be afraid +of extending to them a good-natured pardon. The beauty of Diderot's +Salons is remarkable enough to cover a multitude of sins in other arts. +There are few other compositions in European literature which show so +well how criticism of art itself may become a fine art. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ST. PETERSBURG AND THE HAGUE. + + +"What would you say of the owner of an immense palace, who should spend +all his life in going up from the cellars to the attics, and going down +from attics to cellar, instead of sitting quietly in the midst of his +family? That is the image of the traveller." Yet Diderot, whose words +these are, resolved at the age of sixty to undertake no less formidable +a journey than to the remote capital on the shores of the Neva. It had +come into his head, or perhaps others had put it into his head, that he +owed a visit to his imperial benefactress whose bounty had rendered life +easier to him. He had recently made the acquaintance of two Russian +personages of consideration. One of them was the Princess Dashkow, who +was believed to have taken a prominent part in that confused conspiracy +of 1762, which ended in the murder of Peter III. by Alexis Orloff, and +the elevation of Catherine II. to the throne. Her services at that +critical moment had not prevented her disgrace, if indeed they were not +its cause, and in 1770 the Princess set out on her travels. Horace +Walpole has described the curiosity of the London world to see the +Muscovite Alecto, the accomplice of the northern Athaliah, the amazon +who had taken part in a revolution when she was only nineteen. In +England she made a pleasant impression, in spite of eyes of "a very +Catiline fierceness." She was equally delighted with England, and when +she went on from London to Paris, she took very little trouble to make +friends in the capital of the rival nation. Diderot seems to have been +her only intimate. The Princess (1770) called nearly every afternoon at +his door, carried him off to dinner, and kept him talking and declaiming +until the early hours of the next morning. The "hurricanes of his +enthusiastic nature" delighted her, and she remembered for years +afterwards how on one occasion she excited him to such a pitch that he +sprang from his chair as if by machinery, strode rapidly up and down the +room, and spat upon the floor with passion.[66] + + [66] _Memoirs of Princess Dashkoff_ (vol. ii.). By Mrs. Bradford, an + English companion and friend of the Princess. (London, 1840.) See + Diderot's account of her, _Oeuv._, xvii. 487. Compare Horace + Walpole's _Letters_, v. 266. + +The Prince Galitzin was a Russian friend of greater importance. Prince +Galitzin was one of those foreigners, like Holbach, Grimm, Galiani, who +found themselves more at home in Paris than anywhere else in the world. +Living mostly among artists and men of letters, he became an established +favourite. With Diderot's assistance (1767) he acquired for the Empress +many of the pictures that adorn the great gallery at St. Petersburg, +and Diderot praises his knowledge of the fine arts, the reason being +that he has that great principle of true taste, the _belle âme_.[67] He +wrote eclogues in French, and he attempted the more useful but more +difficult task of writing in the half-formed tongue of his own country +an account of the great painters of Italy and Holland.[68] Diderot makes +the pointed remark about him, that he believed in equality of ranks by +instinct, which is better than believing in it by reflection.[69] It was +through the medium of this friendly and intelligent man that the Empress +had acted in the purchase of Diderot's library. In 1769 he was appointed +Russian minister at the Hague, and his chief ground for delight at the +appointment was that it brought him within reach of his friends in +Paris. + + [67] _Oeuv._, xviii. 239. + + [68] Grimm, _Cor. Lit._, xv. 18. Diderot, xviii. 251. + + [69] _Oeuv._, xix. 250. + +Diderot set out on his expedition some time in the summer of 1773--the +date also of Johnson's memorable tour to the Hebrides--and his first +halt was at the Dutch capital, then at the distance of a four days' +journey from Paris. Here he remained for many weeks, in some doubt +whether or not to persist in the project of a more immense journey. He +passed most of his time with the Prince and Princess Galitzin, as +between a good brother and a good sister. Their house, he notices, had +once been the residence of Barneveldt. Men like Diderot are the last +persons to think of their own historic position, else we might have +expected to find him musing on the saving shelter which this land of +freedom and tolerance had given to more than one of his great precursors +in the literature of emancipation. Descartes had found twenty years of +priceless freedom (1629-1649) among the Dutch burghers. The ruling ideas +of the Encyclopædia came in direct line from Bayle (_d. 1706_) and Locke +(_d. 1704_), and both Bayle and Locke, though in different measures, +owed their security to the stout valour with which the Dutch defended +their own land, and taught the English how to defend theirs, against the +destructive pretensions of Catholic absolutism. Of these memories +Diderot probably thought no more than Descartes thought about the +learning of Grotius or the art of Rembrandt. It was not the age, nor was +his the mind, for historic sentimentalism. "The more I see of this +country," he wrote to his good friends in Paris, "the more I feel at +home in it. The soles, fresh herrings, turbot, perch, are all the best +people in the world. The walks are charming; I do not know whether the +women are all very sage, but with their great straw hats, their eyes +fixed on the ground, and the enormous fichus spread over their bosoms, +they have the air of coming back from prayers or going to confession." +Diderot did not fail to notice more serious things than this. His +remarks on the means of travelling with most profit are full of sense, +and the account which he wrote of Holland shows him to have been as +widely reflective and observant as we should have expected him to +be.[70] It will be more convenient to say something on this in +connection with the stay which he again made at the Hague on his return +from his pilgrimage to Russia. + + [70] _Oeuv._, xviii. 365, 471. + +After many hesitations the die was cast. Nariskin, a court chamberlain, +took charge of the philosopher, and escorted him in an excellent +carriage along the dreary road that ended in the capital reared by Peter +the Great among the northern floods. It is worth while to digress for a +few moments, to mark shortly the difference in social and intellectual +conditions between the philosopher's own city and the city for which he +was bound, and to touch on the significance of his journey. We can only +in this way understand the position of the Encyclopædists in Europe, and +see why it is interesting to the student of the history of Western +civilisation to know something about them. It is impossible to have a +clear idea of the scope of the revolutionary philosophy, as well as of +the singular pre-eminence of Paris over the western world, until we have +placed ourselves, not only at Ferney and Grandval, and in the parlours +of Madame Geoffrin and Mademoiselle Lespinasse, but also in palaces at +Florence, Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. + +From Holland with its free institutions, its peaceful industry, its +husbanded wealth, its rich and original art, its great political and +literary tradition, to go to Russia was to measure an arc of Western +progress, and to retrace the steps of the genius of civilisation. The +political capital of Russia represented a forced and artificial union +between old and new conditions. In St. Petersburg, says an onlooker, +were united the age of barbarism and the age of civilisation, the tenth +century and the eighteenth, the manners of Asia and the manners of +Europe, the rudest Scythians and the most polished Europeans, a +brilliant and proud aristocracy and a people sunk in servitude. On one +side were elegant fashions, magnificent dresses, sumptuous repasts, +splendid feasts, theatres like those which gave grace and animation to +the select circles of London or Paris: on the other side, shopkeepers in +Asiatic dress, coachmen, servants, and peasants clad in sheepskins, +wearing long beards, fur caps, and long fingerless gloves of skin, with +short axes hanging from their leathern girdles. The thick woollen bands +round their feet and legs resembled a rude cothurnus, and the sight of +these uncouth figures reminded one who had seen the bas-reliefs on +Trajan's column at Rome, of the Scythians, the Dacians, the Goths, the +Roxolani, who had been the terror of the Empire.[71] Literary +cultivation was confined to almost the smallest possible area. Oriental +as Russia was in many respects, it was the opposite of oriental in one: +women were then, as they are still sometimes said to be in Russia, more +cultivated and advanced than men. Many of them could speak half a dozen +languages, could play on several instruments, and were familiar with +the works of the famous poets of France, Italy, and England. Among the +men, on the contrary, outside of a few exceptional families about the +court, the vast majority were strangers to all that was passing beyond +the limits of their own country. The few who had travelled and were on +an intellectual level with their century, were as far removed from the +rest of their countrymen as Englishmen are removed from Iroquois. + + [71] Ségur's _Mem._, ii. 230. + +To paint the court of Catherine in its true colours it has been said +that one ought to have the pen of Procopius. It was a hot-bed of +corruption, intrigue, jealousy, violence, hatred. One day, surrounded by +twenty-seven of her courtiers, Catherine said: "If I were to believe +what you all say about one another, there is not one of you who does not +richly deserve to have his head cut off." A certain princess was +notorious for her inhuman barbarity. One day she discovered that one of +her attendants was with child; in a frenzy she pursued the hapless +Callisto from chamber to chamber, came up with her, dashed in her skull +with a heavy weapon, and finally in a delirium of passion ripped up her +body. When two nobles had a quarrel, they fell upon one another then and +there like drunken navvies, and Potemkin had an eye gouged out in a +court brawl. Such horrors give us a measure of the superior humanity of +Versailles, and enable us also in passing to see how duelling could be a +sign of a higher civilisation. The reigning passions were love of money +and the gratification of a coarse vanity. Friendship, virtue, manners, +delicacy, probity, said one witness, are here merely words, void of all +meaning. The tone in public affairs was as low as in those of private +conduct. I might as well, says Sir G. Macartney, quote Clarke and +Tillotson at the divan of Constantinople, as invoke the authority of +Puffendorf and Grotius here. + +The character of the Empress herself has been more disputed than that of +the society in which she was the one imposing personage. She stands in +history with Elizabeth of England, with Catherine de' Medici, with Maria +Theresa, among the women who have been like great men. Of her place in +the record of the creation of that vast empire which begins with Prussia +and ends with China, we have not here to speak. The materials for +knowing her and judging her are only in our own time becoming +accessible.[72] As usual, the mythic elements that surrounded her like +a white fog from the northern seas out of which she loomed like a +portent, are rapidly disappearing, and are replaced by the outlines of +ordinary humanity, with more than the ordinary human measure of +firmness, resolution, and energetic grasp of the facts of her position +in the world. + + [72] The Imperial Historical Society are publishing a _Recueil + Général_ of documents, many of which shed an interesting light on + Catherine's intercourse with the men of letters. In the Archives of + the House of Woronzow (especially vol. xii.), amid much of what for + our purpose is chaff, are a few grains of what is interesting. M. + Rambaud, the author of the learned work on the Greek Empire in the + Tenth Century, gave interesting selections from these sources in two + articles in the _Revue des deux Mondes_ for February and April, + 1877. Besides what is to be gathered from such well-known + authorities as William Tooke, Ségur, Dashkoff, there are many + interesting pages in the memoirs of that attractive and interesting + person, the Prince de Ligne. The passages from English and French + despatches I have taken from an anonymous but authentic work + published at Berlin in 1858, _La Cour de la Russie il y a cent ans: + 1725-83: extraits des dépêches des Ambassadeurs anglais et + français_. Catherine's own Memoirs, published in London in 1859 by + Alexander Herzen, are perhaps too doubtful. + +We must go from the philosophers to the men of affairs for a true +picture. These tell us that she offered an unprecedented mixture of +courage and weakness, of knowledge and incompetence, of firmness and +irresolution; passing in turn from the most opposite extremes, she +presented a thousand diverse surfaces, until at last the observer had to +content himself with putting her down as a consummate comedian. She had +no ready apprehension. Too refined a pleasantry was thrown away upon +her, and there was always a chance of her reversing its drift. No +playful reference to the finances, or the military force, or even to the +climate of her empire, was ever taken in good part.[73] The political +part was the serious part of her nature. Catherine had the literary +tastes, but not the literary skill, of Frederick. She is believed, on +good evidence, to have written for the use of her grandsons not only an +Abridgment of Russian History, but a volume of Moral Tales.[74] The +composition of moral tales was entirely independent of morality. Just +as Lewis XV. had a long series of Châteauroux, Pompadours, Dubarrys, so +Catherine had her Orloffs and Potemkins, and a countless host of obscure +and miscellaneous Wassiltchikows, Zavadowskys, Zoriczes, Korsaks. On the +serious side, Lewis XIV. was her great pattern and idol. She resented +criticism on that renowned memory, as something personal to herself. To +her business as sovereign--_mon petit ménage_, as she called the control +of her huge formless empire--she devoted as much indefatigable industry +as Lewis himself had done in his best days. Notwithstanding all her +efforts to improve her country, she was not popular, and never won the +affection of her subjects; but she probably cared less for the opinion +and sentiment of Russia than for the applause of Europe. Tragedy +displeases her, writes the French Minister, and comedy wearies her; she +does not like music; her table is without any sort of exquisiteness; in +a garden she cares only for roses; her only taste is to build and to +drill her court, for the taste that she has for reigning, and for making +a great figure in the universe, is really not so much taste as a +downright absorbing passion. + + [73] _Mém. du Prince de Ligne_, p. 101. + + [74] Ségur, 219. + +Gunning, the English chargé d'affaires, insists that the motive of all +her patriotic labours was not benevolence, but an insatiable and +unbounded thirst for fame. "If it were not so, we must charge her with +an inconsistency amounting to madness, for undertaking so many immense +works of public utility, such as the foundation of colleges and +academies on a most extensive plan and at an enormous outlay, and then +leaving them incomplete, not even finishing the buildings for them." +They had served the purpose of making foreigners laud the glory of the +Semiramis of the north, and that was enough. The arts and sciences, said +the French Minister, have plenty of academies here, but the academies +have few subjects and fewer pupils. How could there be pupils in a +country where there is nobody who is not either a courtier, a soldier, +or a slave? The Princess Sophie of Anhalt, long before she dreamed of +becoming the Czarina Catherine II., had been brought up by a French +governess, and the tastes that her governess had implanted grew into a +passion for French literature, which can only be compared to the same +passion in Frederick the Great. Catherine only continued a movement that +had already in the reign of her predecessor gone to a considerable +length. The social reaction against German political predominance had +been accompanied by a leaning to France. French professors in art and +literature had been tempted to Moscow, the nobles sent to Paris for +their clothes and their furniture, and a French theatre was set up in +St. Petersburg, where the nobles were forced to attend the performances +under pain of a fine. Absentees and loiterers were hurried to their +boxes by horse-patrols. + +Catherine was more serious and intelligent than this in her pursuit of +French culture. She had begun with the books in which most of the salt +of old France was to be found, with Rabelais, Scarron, Montaigne; she +cherished Molière and Corneille; and of the writers of the eighteenth +century, apart from Voltaire, the author of Gil Blas was her favourite. +Such a list tells its own tale of a mind turned to what is masculine, +racy, pungent, and thoroughly sapid. "I am a Gauloise of the north," she +said, "I only understand the old French; I do not understand the new. I +made up my mind to get something out of your gentry, the learned men in +_ist_: I have tried them; I made some of them come here; I occasionally +wrote to them; they wearied me to death, and never understood me; there +was only my good protector, Voltaire. Do you know it was Voltaire who +made me the fashion?"[75] This was a confidential revelation, made long +after most of the philosophers were dead. We might have penetrated the +secret of her friendship for such a man as Diderot, even with less +direct evidence than this. It was the vogue of the philosophers, and not +their philosophy that made Catherine their friend. They were the great +interest of Europe at this time, just as Greek scholars had been its +interest in one century, painters in another, great masters of religious +controversy in a third. "What makes the great merit of France," said +Voltaire, "what makes its unique superiority, is a small number of +sublime or delightful men of genius, who cause French to be spoken at +Vienna, at Stockholm, and at Moscow. Your ministers, your intendants, +your chief secretaries have no part in all this glory." This vogue of +the philosophers brought the whole literature of their country into +universal repute. In the depths of the Crimea a khan of the Tartars took +a delight in having Tartufe and the Bourgeois Gentilhomme read aloud to +him.[76] + + [75] To the Prince de Ligne. + + [76] Rambaud, p. 573. + +As soon as Catherine came into power (1762), she at once applied herself +to make friends in this powerful region. It was a matter of course that +she should begin with the omnipotent pontiff at Ferney. Graceful verses +from Voltaire were as indispensable an ornament to a crowned head as a +diadem, and Catherine answered with compliments that were perhaps more +sincere than his verses. She wonders how she can repay him for a bundle +of books that he had sent to her, and at last bethinks herself that +nothing will please the lover of mankind so much as the introduction of +inoculation into the great empire; so she sends for Dr. Dimsdale from +England, and submits to the unfamiliar rite in her own sacred person. +Presents of furs are sent to the hermit of the Alps, and he is told how +fortunate the imperial messenger counts himself in being despatched to +Ferney. What flattered Voltaire more than furs was Catherine's +promptitude and exactness in keeping him informed of her military and +political movements against Turkey. It made him a centre of European +intelligence in more senses than one, and helped him in his lifelong +battle to pose, in his letters at least, as the equal of his friend, the +King of Prussia. For D'Alembert the Empress professed an admiration only +less than she felt for Voltaire. She was eager that he should come to +Russia to superintend the instruction of the young Grand Duke. But +D'Alembert was too prudent to go to St. Petersburg, as he was too +prudent to go to Berlin. Montesquieu had died five years before her +accession, but his influence remained. She habitually called the Spirit +of Laws the breviary of kings, and when she drew up her Instruction for +a new code, she acknowledged how much she had pillaged from Montesquieu. +"I hope," she said, "that if from the other world he sees me at work, he +will forgive my plagiarism for the sake of the twenty millions of men +who will benefit by it." In truth the twenty millions of men got very +little benefit indeed by the code. Montesquieu's own method might have +taught her that not even absolute power can force the civil system of +free labour into a society resting on serfdom. But it is not surprising +that Catherine was no wiser than more democratic reformers who had drunk +from the French springs. Or probably she had a lower estimate in her own +heart of the value of her code for practical purposes than it suited her +to disclose to a Parisian philosopher. + +Catherine did not forget that, though the French at this time were +pre-eminent in the literature of new ideas, yet there were meritorious +and useful men in other countries. One of her correspondents was +Zimmermann of Hanover, whose essay on Solitude the shelves of no +second-hand bookseller's shop is ever without. She had tried hard to +bribe Beccaria to leave Florence for St. Petersburg. She succeeded in +persuading Euler to return to a capital whither he had been invited many +years before by the first Catherine, and where he now remained. + +Both Catherine's position and her temperament made the society of her +own sex of little use or interest to her. "I don't know whether it is +custom or inclination," she wrote, "but somehow I can never carry on +conversation except with men. There are only two women in the world with +whom I can talk for half an hour at once." Yet among her most intimate +correspondents was one woman well known in the Encyclopædic circle. She +kept up an active exchange of letters with Madame Geoffrin--that +interesting personage, who though belonging to the bourgeoisie, and +possessing not a trace of literary genius, yet was respectfully courted +not only by Catherine, but by Stanislas, Gustavus, and Joseph II.[77] + + [77] See M. Mouy's Introduction to her Correspondence with + Stanislas. + +On the whole then we must regard Catherine's European correspondence as +at least in some measure the result of political calculation. Its +purposes, as has been said, were partly those to which in our own times +some governments devote a Reptile-fund. There is a letter from the +Duchesse de Choiseul to Madame du Deffand, her intimate friend, and the +friend of so many of the literary circle, in which the secret of the +relations between Catherine and the men of letters is very plainly told. +"All that," she writes--protection of arts and sciences--"is mere luxury +and a caprice of fashion in our age. All such pompous jargon is the +product of vanity, not of principles or of reflection.... The Empress of +Russia has another object in protecting literature; she has had sense +enough to feel that she had need of the protection of the men of +letters. She has flattered herself that their base praises would cover +with an impenetrable veil in the eyes of her contemporaries and of +posterity, the crimes with which she has astonished the universe and +revolted humanity.... The men of letters, on the other hand, flattered, +cajoled, caressed by her, are vain of the protection that they are able +to throw over her, and dupes of the coquetries that she lavishes on +them. These people who say and believe that they are the instructors of +the masters of the world, sink so low as actually to take a pride in the +protection that this monster seems in her turn to accord to them, simply +because she sits on a throne."[78] + + [78] _Corresp. Complète de Mdme. du Deffand_, i. 115. (Ed. 1877.) + June, 1767. + +In short, the monarchs of the north understood and used the new forces +of the men of letters, whom their own sovereign only recognised to +oppress. The contrast between the liberalism of the northern sovereigns, +and the obscurantism of the court of France, was never lost from sight. +Marmontel's _Belisarius_ was condemned by the Sorbonne, and burnt at +the foot of the great staircase of the Palace of Justice; in Russia a +group of courtiers hastened to translate it, and the Empress herself +undertook one chapter of the work. Diderot, who was not allowed to enter +the French Academy, was an honoured guest at the Russian palace. For all +this Catherine was handsomely repaid. When Diderot visited St. +Petersburg, Voltaire congratulated the Empress on seeing that unique +man; but Diderot is not, he added, "the only Frenchman who is an +enthusiast for your glory. We are lay missionaries who preach the +religion of Saint Catherine, and we can boast that our church is +tolerably universal."[79] We have already seen Catherine's generosity in +buying Diderot's books, and paying him for guarding them as her +librarian. "I should never have expected," she says, "that the purchase +of a library would bring me so many fine compliments; all the world is +bepraising me about M. Diderot's library. But now confess, you to whom +humanity is indebted for the strong support that you have given to +innocence and virtue in the person of Calas, that it would have been +cruel and unjust to separate a student from his books."[80] "Ah, madam," +replies the most graceful of all courtiers, "let your imperial majesty +forgive me; no, you are not the aurora borealis; you are assuredly the +most brilliant star of the north, and never was there one so beneficent +as you. Andromeda, Perseus, Callisto are not your equals. All these +stars would have left Diderot to die of starvation. He was persecuted in +his own country, and your benefactions came thither to seek him! Lewis +XIV. was less munificent than your majesty: he rewarded merit in foreign +countries, but other people pointed it out to him, whereas you, madame, +go in search of it and find it for yourself. Your generous pains to +establish freedom of conscience in Poland are a piece of beneficence +that the human race must ever celebrate."[81] + + [79] November 1, 1773. + + [80] November 1766. + + [81] December 22, 1766. + +When the first Partition of Poland took place seven years later, +Catherine found that she had not cultivated the friendship of the French +philosophers to no purpose. The action of the dominant party in Poland +enabled Catherine to take up a line which touched the French +philosophers in their tenderest part. The Polish oligarchy was Catholic, +and imposed crushing disabilities on the non-Catholic part of the +population. "At the slightest attempt in favour of the non-Catholics," +King Stanislas writes to Madame Geoffrin, of the Diet of 1764, "there +arose such a cry of fanaticism! The difficulty as to the naturalisation +of foreigners, the contempt for _roturiers_ and the oppression of them, +and Catholic intolerance, are the three strongest national prejudices +that I have to fight against in my countrymen; they are at bottom good +folk, but their education and ignorance render them excessively stubborn +on these three heads."[82] Poland in short reproduced in an aggravated +and more barbaric form those evils of Catholic feudalism, in which the +philosophers saw the arch-curse of their own country. Catherine took the +side of the Dissidents, and figured as the champion of religious +toleration. Toleration was chief among the philosophic watchwords, and +seeing that great device on her banners, the Encyclopædic party asked no +further questions. So, with the significant exception of Rousseau, they +all abstained from the cant about the Partition which has so often been +heard from European liberals in later days. And so with reference to +more questionable transactions of an earlier date, no one could guess +from the writings of the philosophers that Catherine had ever been +suspected of uniting with her husband in a plot to poison the Empress +Elizabeth, and then uniting with her lover in a plot to strangle her +husband. "I am quite aware," said Voltaire, "that she is reproached with +some bagatelles in the matter of her husband, but these are family +affairs with which I cannot possibly think of meddling." + + [82] _Corresp._, pp. 135, 144, etc. + +One curious instance of Catherine's sensibility to European opinion is +connected with her relations to Diderot. Rulhière, afterwards well known +in literature as a historian, began life as secretary to Breteuil, in +the French embassy at St. Petersburg. An eyewitness of the tragedy which +seated Catherine on the throne, he wrote an account of the events of the +revolution of 1762. This piquant narrative, composed by a young man who +had read Tacitus and Sallust was circulated in manuscript among the +salons of Paris (1768). Diderot had warned Rulhière that it was +infinitely dangerous to speak about princes, that not everything that is +true is fit to be told, that he could not be too careful of the feelings +of a great sovereign who was the admiration and delight of her people. +Catherine pretended that a mere secretary of an embassy could know very +little about the real springs and motives of the conspiracy. Diderot had +described the manuscript as painting her in a commanding and imperious +attitude. "There was nothing of that sort," she said; "it was only a +question of perishing with a madman, or saving oneself with the +multitude who insisted on coming to the rescue." What she saw was that +the manuscript must be bought, and she did her best first to buy the +author and then, when this failed, to have him locked up in the +Bastille. She succeeded in neither. The French government were not sorry +to have a scourge to their hands. All that Diderot could procure from +Rulhière was a promise that the work should not be published during the +Empress's lifetime. It was actually given to the world in 1797. When +Diderot was at St. Petersburg, the Empress was importunate to know the +contents of the manuscript, which he had seen, but of which she was +unable to procure a copy. "As far as you are concerned," he said, "if +you attach great importance, Madame, to the decencies and virtues, the +worn-out rags of your sex, this work is a satire against you; but if +large views and masculine and patriotic designs concern you more, the +author depicts you as a great princess." The Empress answered that this +only increased her desire to read the book. Diderot himself truly enough +described it as a historic romance, containing a mixed tissue of lies +and truths that posterity would compare to a chapter of Tacitus.[83] +Perhaps the only piece of it that posterity will really value is the +page in which the writer describes Catherine's personal appearance; her +broad and open brow, her large and slightly double chin, her hair of +resplendent chestnut, her eyes of a brilliant brown into which the +reflections of the light brought shades of blue. "Pride," he says, "is +the true characteristic of her physiognomy. The amiability and grace +which are there too only seem to penetrating eyes to be the effect of an +extreme desire to please, and these seductive expressions somehow let +the design of seducing be rather too clearly seen." + + [83] _Satire I. sur les caractères, etc. Oeuv._, vi. 313. + +The first Frenchman whom Catherine welcomed in person to her court was +Falconet, of whose controversy with the philosopher we shall have a few +words to say in a later chapter. This introduction to her was due to +Diderot. She had entreated him to find for her a sculptor who would +undertake a colossal statue of Peter the Great. Falconet was at the +height of his reputation in his own country; in leaving it he seems to +have been actuated by no other motive than the desire of an opportunity +of erecting an immense monument of his art, though Diderot's eloquence +was not wanting. Falconet had the proverbial temperament of artistic +genius. Diderot called him the Jean Jacques of sculpture. He had none of +the rapacity for money which has distinguished so many artists in their +dealings with foreign princes, but he was irritable, turbulent, +restless, intractable. He was a chivalrous defender of poorer brethren +in art, and he was never a respecter of persons. His feuds with Betzki, +the Empress's faithful factotum, were as acrid as the feuds between +Voltaire and Maupertuis. Betzki had his own ideas about the statue that +was to do honour to the founder of the Empire, and he insisted that the +famous equestrian figure of Marcus Aurelius should be the model. +Falconet was a man of genius, and he retorted that what might be good +for Marcus Aurelius would not be good for Peter the Great. The courtly +battle does not concern us, though some of its episodes offer tempting +illustrations of biting French malice. Falconet had his own way, and +after the labour of many years, a colossus of bronze bestrode a charger +rearing on a monstrous mass of unhewn granite. Catherine took the +liveliest interest in her artist's work, frequently visiting his studio, +and keeping up a busy correspondence. With him, as with the others, she +insisted that he should stand on no ceremony, and should not spin out +his lines with epithets on which she set not the smallest value. She may +be said to have encouraged him to pester her with a host of his obscure +countrymen in search of a living, and a little colony of Frenchmen whose +names tell us nothing, hung about the Russian capital. Diderot's +account of this group of his countrymen at St. Petersburg recalls the +picture of a corresponding group at Berlin. "Most of the French who are +here rend and hate one another, and bring contempt both on themselves +and their nation: 'tis the most unworthy set of rascals that you can +imagine."[84] + + [84] _Oeuv._, xx. 58. + +Diderot reached St. Petersburg towards the end of 1773, and he remained +some five months, until the beginning of March, 1774. His impulsive +nature was shocked by a chilly welcome from Falconet, but at the palace +his reception was most cordial, as his arrival had been eagerly +anticipated. The Empress always professed to detest ceremony and state. +In a letter to Madame Geoffrin she insists, as we have already seen her +doing with Falconet, on being treated to no oriental prostrations, as if +she were at the court of Persia. "There is nothing in the world so ugly +and detestable as greatness. When I go into a room, you would say that I +am the head of Medusa: everybody turns to stone. I constantly scream +like an eagle against such ways; yet the more I scream, the less are +they at their ease.... If you came into my room, I should say to +you,--Madame, be seated; let us chatter at our ease. You would have a +chair in front of me; there would be a table between us. _Et puis des +bâtons rompus, tant et plus, c'est mon fort._" + +This is an exact description of her real behaviour to Diderot. On most +days he was in her society from three in the afternoon until five or +six. Etiquette was banished. Diderot's simplicity and vehemence were as +conspicuous and as unrestrained at Tsarskoe-selo as at Grandval or the +Rue Taranne. If for a moment the torrent of his improvisation was +checked by the thought that he was talking to a great lady, Catherine +encouraged him to go on. "_Allons_," she cried, "_entre hommes tout est +permis_." The philosopher in the heat of exposition brought his hands +down upon the imperial knees with such force and iteration, that +Catherine complained that he made them black and blue. She was sometimes +glad to seek shelter from such zealous enforcement of truth, behind a +strong table. Watchful diplomatists could not doubt that such interviews +must have reference to politics. Cathcart, the English ambassador, +writes to his government that M. Diderot is still with the Empress at +Tsarskoe-selo, "pursuing his political intrigues." And, amazing as it +may seem, the French minister and the French ambassador both of them +believed that they had found in this dreaming rhapsodical genius a +useful diplomatic instrument. "The interviews between Catherine and +Diderot follow one another incessantly, and go on from day to day. He +told me, and I have reasons for believing that he is speaking the truth, +that he has painted the danger of the alliance of Russia with the King +of Prussia, and the advantage of an alliance with us. The Empress, far +from blaming this freedom, encouraged him by word and gesture. 'You are +not fond of that prince,' she said to Diderot. 'No,' he replied, 'he is +a great man, but a bad king, and a dealer in counterfeit coin.' 'Oh,' +said she laughing, 'I have had my share of his coin.'" + +The first Partition of Poland had been finally consummated in the Polish +Diet in the autumn of 1773, a few weeks before Diderot's arrival at St. +Petersburg. Lewis XV., now drawing very near to his end, and +D'Aiguillon, his minister, had some uneasiness at this opening of the +great era of territorial revolution, and looked about in a shiftless way +for an ally against Russia and Prussia. England sensibly refused to +stir. Then France, as we see, was only anxious to detach Catherine from +Frederick. All was shiftless and feeble, and the French government can +have known little of the Empress, if they thought that Diderot was the +man to affect her strong and positive mind. She told Ségur in later +years what success Diderot had with her as a politician. + +"I talked much and frequently with him," said Catherine, "but with more +curiosity than profit. If I had believed him, everything would have been +turned upside down in my kingdom; legislation, administration, +finances--all to be turned topsy-turvy to make room for impracticable +theories. Yet as I listened more than I talked, any witness who happened +to be present, would have taken him for a severe pedagogue, and me for +his humble scholar. Probably he thought so himself, for after some time, +seeing that none of these great innovations were made which he had +recommended, he showed surprise and a haughty kind of dissatisfaction. +Then speaking openly, I said to him: _Mr. Diderot, I have listened with +the greatest pleasure to all that your brilliant intelligence has +inspired; and with all your great principles, which I understand very +well, one would make fine books, but very bad business. You forget in +all your plans of reform the difference in our positions; you only work +on paper, which endures all things; it opposes no obstacle either to +your imagination or to your pen. But I, poor Empress as I am, work on +the human skin, which is irritable and ticklish to a very different +degree._ I am persuaded that from this moment he pitied me as a narrow +and vulgar spirit. For the future he only talked about literature, and +politics vanished from our conversation."[85] + + [85] Ségur, iii. 34. + +Catherine was mistaken, as we shall see, in supposing that Diderot ever +thought her less than the greatest of men. Cathcart, the English +ambassador, writes in a sour strain: "All his letters are filled with +panegyrics of the Empress, whom he depicts as above humanity. His +flatteries of the Grand Duke have been no less gross, but be it said to +the young prince's honour, he has shown as much contempt for such +flatteries as for the mischievous principles of this pretended +philosopher." + +Frederick tells D'Alembert that though the Empress overwhelms Diderot +with favours, people at St. Petersburg find him tiresome and +disputatious, and "talking the same rigmarole over and over again." In +her letters to Voltaire, Catherine lets nothing of this be seen. She +finds Diderot's imagination inexhaustible, and ranks him among the most +extraordinary men that have ever lived; she delights in his +conversation, and his visits have given her the most uncommon pleasure. +All this was perhaps true enough. Catherine probably rated the +philosopher at his true worth as a great talker and a singular and +original genius, but this did not prevent her, any more than it need +prevent us, from seeing the limits and measure. She was not one of the +weaker heads who can never be content without either wholesale +enthusiasm or wholesale disparagement. + +Diderot had a companion who pleased her better than Diderot himself. +Grimm came to St. Petersburg at this time to pay his first visit, and +had a great success. "The Empress," wrote Madame Geoffrin to King +Stanislas, "lavished all her graces on Grimm. And he has everything that +is needed to make him worthy of them. Diderot has neither the fineness +of perception, nor the delicate tact that Grimm has, and so he has not +had the success of Grimm. Diderot is always in himself, and sees nothing +in other people that has not some reference to himself. He is a man of a +great deal of understanding, but his nature and turn of mind make him +good for nothing, and, more than that, would make him a very dangerous +person in any employment. Grimm is quite the contrary."[86] + + [86] Mouy's _Corresp. du roi Stanislas_, p. 501. + +In truth, as we have said before, Grimm was one of the shrewdest heads +in the Encyclopædic party; he had much knowledge, a judgment both solid +and acute, and a certain easy fashion of social commerce, free from +raptures and full of good sense. Yet he was as devoted and ecstatic in +his feelings about the Empress as his more impetuous friend. "Here," he +says, "was no conversation of leaps and bounds, in which idleness +traverses a whole gallery of ideas that have no connection with one +another, and weariness draws you away from one object to skim a dozen +others. They were talks in which all was bound together, often by +imperceptible threads, but all the more naturally, as not a word of what +was to be said had been led up to or prepared beforehand." Grimm cannot +find words to describe her verve, her stream of brilliant sallies, her +dashing traits, her eagle's _coup d'oeil_. No wonder that he used to +quit her presence so electrified as to pass half the night in marching +up and down his room, beset and pursued by all the fine and marvellous +things that had been said. How much of all this is true, and how much of +it is the voice of the bewildered courtier, it might be hard to decide. +But the rays of the imperial sun did not so far blind his prudence, as +to make him accept a pressing invitation to remain permanently in +Catherine's service. When Diderot quitted St. Petersburg, Grimm went to +Italy. After an interlude there, he returned to Russia and was at once +restored to high favour. When the time came for him to leave her, the +Empress gave him a yearly pension of two thousand roubles, or about ten +thousand livres, and with a minute considerateness that is said not to +be common among the great, she presently ordered that it should be paid +in such a form that he should not lose on the exchange between France +and Russia. Whether she had a special object in keeping Grimm in good +humour, we hardly know. What is certain is that from 1776 until the fall +of the French monarchy she kept up a voluminous correspondence with him, +and that he acted as an unofficial intermediary between her and the +ministers at Versailles. Every day she wrote down what she wished to say +to Grimm, and at the end of every three months these daily sheets were +made into a bulky packet and despatched to Paris by a special courier, +who returned with a similar packet from Grimm. This intercourse went on +until the very height of the Revolution, when Grimm at last, in +February, 1792, fled from Paris. The Empress's helpful friendship +continued to the end of her life (1796).[87] + + [87] _Mémoire Historique_, printed in vol. i. of the new edition + (1877) of the Correspondence of Grimm and Diderot, by M. Maurice + Tourneux. + +Diderot arrived at the Hague on his return from Russia in the first week +of April (1774), after making a rapid journey of seven hundred leagues +in three weeks and a day. D'Alembert had been anxious that Frederick of +Prussia should invite Diderot to visit him at Berlin. Frederick had told +him that, intrepid reader as he was, he could not endure to read +Diderot's books. "There reigns in them a tone of self-sufficiency and +an arrogance which revolt the instinct of my freedom. It was not in such +a style that Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Gassendi, Bayle, and +Newton wrote." D'Alembert replied that the king would judge more +favourably of the philosopher's person than of his works; that he would +find in Diderot, along with much fecundity, imagination, and knowledge, +a gentle heat and a great deal of amenity.[88] Frederick, however, did +not send the invitation, and Diderot willingly enough went homeward by +the northern route by which he had come. He passed Königsberg, where, if +he had known it, Kant was then meditating the Critic of Pure Reason. It +is hardly probable that Diderot met the famous worthy who was destined +to deal so heavy a blow to the Encyclopædic way of thinking, and to +leave a name not less illustrious than Frederick or Catherine. A court +official was sent in charge of the philosopher. The troubles of posting +by the sea-road between Königsberg and Memel had moved him to the +composition of some very bad verses on his first journey; and the horror +of crossing the Dwina inspired others that were no better on his return. +The weather was hard; four carriages were broken in the journey. He +expected to be drowned as the ice creaked under his horses' feet at +Riga, and he thought that he had broken an arm and a shoulder as he +crossed the ferry at Mittau. But all ended well, and he found himself +once more under the roof of Prince Galitzin at the Hague. Hence he +wrote to his wife and his other friends in Paris, that it must be a +great consolation to them to know that he was only separated from them +by a journey of four days. That journey was not taken, however, for +nearly four months. Diderot had promised the Empress that he would +publish a set of the regulations for the various institutions which she +had founded for the improvement of her realm. This could only be done, +or could best be done, in Holland. His life there was spent as usual in +the slavery of proof-sheets, tempered by daily bursts of conversation, +rhapsody, discussion, and dreamy contemplation. He made the acquaintance +of a certain Björnstähl, a professor of oriental languages at the +university of Lund in Sweden, and a few pages in this obscure writer's +obscure book contain the only glimpse that we have of the philosopher on +his travels.[89] Diderot was as ecstatic in conversation, as we know him +to have been in his correspondence, in praise of the august friend whom +he had left. The least of his compliments was that she united the charms +of Cleopatra to the soul of Cæsar, or sometimes it was, to the soul of +Brutus. + + [88] D'Alembert au Roi de Prusse. Feb. 14, 1774. + + [89] _Briefe aus seinen ausländischen Reisen_, iii. 217-233. + (Leipsic, 1780--a German translation from the Swedish.) + +"At the Hague," says Björnstähl, "we go about every day with M. Diderot. +He has views extending over an incredibly wide field, possesses a +vivacity that I cannot describe, is pleasant and friendly in +intercourse, and has new and unusual observations to make on every +subject.... Who could fail to prize him? He is so bright, so full of +instruction, has so many new thoughts and suggestions, that nobody can +help admiring him. But willingly as he talks when one goes to him, he +shows to little advantage in large companies, and that is why he did not +please everybody at St. Petersburg. You will easily see the reason why +this incomparable man in such companies, where people talk of fashion, +of clothes, of frippery, and all other sorts of triviality, neither +gives pleasure to others nor finds pleasure himself." And the friendly +Swede rises to the height of generalisation in the quaint maxim, Where +an empty head shines, there a thoroughly cultivated man comes too short. + +Björnstähl quotes a saying of Voltaire, that Diderot would have been a +poet if he had not wished to be a philosopher--a remark that was rather +due perhaps to Voltaire's habitual complaisance than to any serious +consideration of Diderot's qualities. But if he could not be a poet +himself, at least he knew Pindar and Homer by heart, and at the Hague he +never stirred out without a Horace in his pocket. And though no poet, he +was full of poetic sentiment. Scheveningen, the little bathing-place a +short distance from the Hague, was Diderot's favourite spot. "It was +there," he writes, "that I used to see the horizon dark, the sea covered +with white haze, the waves rolling and tumbling, and far out the poor +fishermen in their great clumsy boats; on the shore a multitude of women +frozen with cold or apprehension, trying to warm themselves in the sun. +When the work was at an end and the boats had landed, the beach was +covered with fish of every kind. These good people have the simplicity, +the openness, the filial and fraternal piety of old time. As the men +come down from their boats, their wives throw themselves into their +arms, they embrace their fathers and their little ones; each loads +himself with fish; the son tosses his father a codfish or a salmon, +which the old man carries off in triumph to his cottage, thanking heaven +that it has given him so industrious and worthy a son. When he has gone +indoors, the sight of the fish rejoices the old man's mate; it is +quickly cut in pieces, the less lucky neighbours invited, it is speedily +eaten, and the room resounds with thanks to God, and cheerful +songs."[90] + + [90] xvii. 449. + +These scenes, with their sea-background, their animation, their broad +strokes of the simple, tender, and real in life, may well have been +after Diderot's own heart. He often told me, says Björnstähl, that he +never found the hours pass slowly in the company of a peasant, or a +cobbler, or any handicraftsman, but that he had many a time found them +pass slowly enough in the society of a courtier. "For of the one," he +said, "one can always ask about useful and necessary things, but the +other is mostly, so far as anything useful is concerned, empty and +void." + +The characteristics of the European capitals a century ago were believed +to be hit off in the saying, that each of them would furnish the proper +cure for a given defect of character. The over-elegant were to go to +London, savages to Paris, bigots to Berlin, rebels to St. Petersburg, +people who were too sincere to Rome, the over-learned to Brussels, and +people who were too lively to the Hague. Yet the dulness thus charged +against the Hague was not universally admitted. Impartial travellers +assigned to the talk of cultivated circles there a rank not below that +of similar circles in France and England. Some went even farther, and +declared Holland to have a distinct advantage, because people were never +embarrassed either by the levity and sparkling wit of France on the one +hand, nor by the depressing reserve and taciturnity of England on the +other.[91] Yet Holland was fully within the sphere of the great +intellectual commonwealth of the west, and was as directly accessible to +the literary influences of the time as it had ever been. If Diderot had +inquired into the vernacular productions of the country, he would have +found that here also the wave of reaction against French conventions, +the tide of English simplicity and domestic sentimentalism, had passed +into literature. The _Spectator_ and _Clarissa Harlowe_ inspired the +writers of Holland, as they had inspired Diderot himself.[92] + + [91] George Forster's _Ansichten vom Niederrhein_, etc. ii. 396 + (1790). + + [92] Jonckbloet's _Gesch. d. Niederland. Lit._ (German trans.) ii. + 502, etc. + +In erudition, it was still what, even after the death of Scaliger, it +had remained through the seventeenth century, the most learned state of +Europe; and the elder Hemsterhuys, with such pupils as Ruhnken and +Valckenaer, kept up as well as he could the scholarly tradition of +Gronovius and Grævius. But the eighteenth century was not the century of +erudition. Scholarship had given way to speculation. + +Among the interesting persons whom Diderot saw at the Hague, the most +interesting is the amiable and learned son of the elder Hemsterhuys, +himself by the way not Dutch, but the son of a Frenchman. Hemsterhuys +had been greatly interested in what he had heard of Diderot's +character,[93] though we have no record of the impression that was made +by personal acquaintance. If Diderot was playfully styled the French +Socrates, the younger Hemsterhuys won from his friends the name of the +Dutch Plato. The Hollanders pointed to this meditative figure, to his +great attainments in the knowledge of ancient literature and art, to his +mellowed philosophising, to his gracious and well-bred style, as a proof +that their country was capable of developing both the strength and the +sensibility of human nature to their highest point.[94] And he has a +place in the history of modern speculation. As we think of him and +Diderot discussing, we feel ourselves to be placed at a point that seems +to command the diverging streams and eddying currents of the time. In +this pair two great tides of thought meet for a moment, and then flow +on in their deep appointed courses. For Hemsterhuys, born a Platonist to +the core, became a leader of the reaction against the French philosophy +of illumination--of sensation, of experience, of the verifiable. He +contributed a marked current to the mysticism and pietism which crept +over Germany before the French revolution, and to that religious +philosophy which became a point of patriotic honour both in Germany and +at the Russian Court, after the revolutionary war had seemed to identify +the rival philosophy of the Encyclopædists with the victorious fury of +the national enemy. Jacobi, a chief of the mystic tribe, had begun the +attack on the French with weapons avowedly borrowed from the +sentimentalism of Rousseau, but by and by he found in Hemsterhuys more +genuinely intellectual arguments for his vindication of feeling and the +heart against the Encyclopædist claim for the supremacy of the +understanding. + + [93] _Oeuv. Phil. de Fr. Hemsterhuys_, iii. 141. (Ed. Meyboom.) + + [94] Forster, ii. 398. Galiani, _Corresp._ ii. 189. + +Diderot's hostess at the Hague is a conspicuous figure in the history of +this movement. Prince Galitzin had married the daughter of Frederick's +field-marshal, Schmettau. Goethe, who saw her (1797) many years after +Diderot was dead, describes her as one of those whom one cannot +understand without seeing; as a person not rightly judged unless +considered not only in connection, but in conflict, with her time. If +she was remarkable to Goethe when fifty years had set their mark upon +her, she was even more so to the impetuous Diderot in all the flush and +intellectual excitement of her youth. It was to the brilliance and +versatility of the Princess Galitzin that her husband's house owed its +consideration and its charm. "She is very lively," said Diderot, "very +gay, very intelligent; more than young enough, instructed and full of +talents; she has read; she knows several languages, as Germans usually +do; she plays on the clavecin, and sings like an angel; she is full of +expressions that are at once ingenuous and piquant; she is exceedingly +kind-hearted."[95] But he could not persuade her to take his philosophy +on trust. Diderot is said, by the Princess's biographer, to have been a +fervid proselytiser, eager to make people believe "his poems about +eternally revolving atoms, through whose accidental encounter the +present ordering of the world was developed." The Princess met his +brilliant eloquence with a demand for proof. Her ever-repeated _Why?_ +and _How?_ are said to have shown "the hero of atheism his complete +emptiness and weakness."[96] In the long run Diderot was completely +routed in favour of the rival philosophy. Hemsterhuys became bound to +the Princess by the closest friendship, and his letters to her are as +striking an illustration as any in literature of the peculiar devotion +and admiration which a clever and sympathetic woman may arouse in +philosophic minds of a certain calibre--in a Condillac, a Joubert, a +D'Alembert, a Mill. Though Hemsterhuys himself never advanced from a +philosophy of religion to the active region of dogmatic professions, his +disciple could not find contentment on his austere heights. In the very +year of Diderot's death (1784) the Princess Galitzin became a catholic, +and her son became not only a catholic but a zealous missionary of the +faith in America. + + [95] _Oeuv._, xix. 342. + + [96] Dr. Katerkamp's _Denkwürdigkeiten aus dem Leben der Furstinn + Amalie von Gallitzin_, p. 45. + +This, however, was not yet. The patriotic Björnstähl was very anxious +that Diderot should go to Stockholm, to see for himself that the +Holstein blood was as noble in Sweden as it was in Russia. Diderot +replied that he would greatly have liked to see on the throne the +sovereign (Gustavus III.) who was so nearly coming to pay him a visit on +his own fourth storey in Paris. But he confessed that he was growing +homesick, and Stockholm must remain unvisited. In September (1774) +Diderot set his face homewards. "I shall gain my fireside," he wrote on +the eve of his journey, "never to quit it again for the rest of my life. +The time that we count by the year has gone, and the time that we must +count by the day comes in its stead. The less one's income, the more +important to use it well. I have perhaps half a score of years at the +bottom of my wallet. In these ten years, fluxions, rheumatisms, and the +other members of that troublesome family will take two or three of them; +let us try to economise the seven that are left, for the repose and the +small happinesses that a man may promise himself on the wrong side of +sixty." The guess was a good one. Diderot lived ten years more, and +although his own work in the world was done, they were years of great +moment both to France and the world. They witnessed the establishment of +a republic in the American colonies, and they witnessed the final stage +in the decay of the old monarchy in France. Turgot had been made +controller-general in the months before Diderot's return, and Turgot's +ministry was the last serious experiment in the direction of orderly +reform. The crash that followed resounded almost as loudly at St. +Petersburg and in Holland as in France itself, and Catherine, in 1792, +ordered all the busts of Voltaire that had adorned the saloons and +corridors of her palace to be thrust ignominiously down into the +cellars. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HELVÉTIUS. + + +Before proceeding to the closing chapter of Diderot's life, I propose to +give a short account of three remarkable books, of all of which he was +commonly regarded as the inspirer, which were all certainly the direct +and natural work of the Encyclopædic school, and which all play a +striking part in the intellectual commotions of the century. + +The great attack on the Encyclopædia was made, as we have already seen, +in 1758, after the publication of the seventh volume. The same +prosecution levelled an angrier blow at Helvétius's famous treatise, +_L'Esprit_. It is not too much to say, that of all the proscribed books +of the century, that excited the keenest resentment. This arose partly +because it came earliest in the literature of attack. It was an +audacious surprise. The censor who had allowed it to pass the ordeal of +official approval was cashiered, and the author was dismissed from an +honorary post in the Queen's household.[97] The indictment described the +book as "the code of the most hateful and infamous passions," as a +collection into one cover of everything that impiety could imagine, +calculated to engender hatred against Christianity and Catholicism. The +court condemned the book to be burnt, and, as if to show that the motive +was not mere discontent with Helvétius's paradoxes, the same fire +consumed Voltaire's fine poem on Natural Religion. Less prejudiced +authorities thought nearly as ill of the book, as the lawyers of the +parliament and the doctors of the Sorbonne had thought. Rousseau +pronounced it detestable, wrote notes in refutation of its principles, +and was inspired by hatred of its doctrine to compose some of the most +fervid pages in the Savoyard Vicar's glowing Profession of Faith.[98] +Even Diderot, though his friendly feeling for the writer and his general +leaning to speculative hardihood warped his judgment so far as to make +him rank _L'Esprit_ along with Montesquieu's _Spirit of Laws_, and +Buffon's _Natural History_, among the great books of the century, still +perceived and showed that the whole fabric rested on a foundation of +paradox, and that, though there might be many truths of detail in the +book, very many of its general principles are false.[99] Turgot +described it as a book of philosophy without logic, literature without +taste, and morality without goodness.[100] + + [97] Barbier, vii. 137. + + [98] _Oeuv._, xii. 301. + + [99] _Ib._ ii. 267-274. + + [100] _Ib._ ii. 795. + +In the same weighty piece of criticism, which contains in two or three +pages so much permanently valuable truth, Turgot proceeds:--"When people +wish to attack intolerance and injustice, it is essential in the first +place to rest upon just ideas, for inquisitors have an interest in being +intolerant, and viziers and subviziers have an interest in maintaining +all the abuses of the government. As they are the strongest, you only +give them a good excuse by sounding the tocsin against them right and +left. I hate despotism as much as most people; but it is not by +declamations that despotism ought to be attacked. And even in despotism +there are degrees; there is a multitude of abuses in despotism, in which +the princes themselves have no interest; there are others which they +only allow themselves to practise, because public opinion is not yet +fixed as to their injustice, and their mischievous consequences. People +deserve far better from a nation for attacking these abuses with +clearness, with courage, and above all by interesting the sentiment of +humanity, than for any amount of eloquent reproach. Where there is no +insult, there is seldom any offence.... There is no form of government +without certain drawbacks, which the governments themselves would fain +have it in their power to remedy, or without abuses which they nearly +all intend to repress at least at some future day. We may therefore +serve them all by treating questions of the public good in a calm and +solid style; not coldly, still less with extravagance, but with that +interesting warmth which springs from a profound feeling for justice and +love of order."[101] + + [101] _Oeuv._, ii. 795-798. + +Of course it is a question whether, even in 1758, a generation before +the convulsion, it was possible for the French monarchy spontaneously to +work out the long list of indispensable improvements; still, at that +date, Turgot might be excused for thinking that the progress which he +desired might be attained without the violence to which Helvétius's +diatribes so unmistakably pointed. His words, in any case, are worth +quoting for their own grave and universal sense, and because they place +us exactly at the point of view for regarding _L'Esprit_ rightly. He +seizes on its political aspect, its assault on government, and the +social ordering of the time, as containing the book's real drift. In +this, as in the rest of the destructive literature of the first sixty +years of the century, the church was no doubt that part of the social +foundations against which the assault was most direct and most +vindictive, and it was the church, in the case of Helvétius's book, that +first took alarm. Indeed, we may say that, from the very nature of +things, in whatever direction the revolutionary host moved, they were +sure to find themselves confronted by the church. It lay across the +track of light at every point. Voltaire pierced its dogma. Rousseau +shamed its irreligious temper. Diderot brought into relief the vicious +absoluteness of its philosophy. Then came Helvétius and Holbach, not +merely with criticism, but with substitutes. Holbach brought a new dogma +of the universe, matter and motion, and fortuitous shapes. Helvétius +brought a theory of human character, and a new analysis of +morals--interest the basis of justice, pleasure the true interpretation +of interest, and character the creature of education and laws. + +To press such positions as these, was to recast the whole body of +opinions on which society rested. As the church was the organ of the old +opinions, Helvétius's book was instantly seized by the ecclesiastical +authorities in accordance with a perfectly right instinct, and was made +the occasion for the first violent raid upon a wholesale scale. When, +however, we look beyond the smoke of the ecclesiastical battle, and +weigh _L'Esprit_ itself on its own merits, we see quite plainly that +Helvétius was thinking less of the theological disputes of the day than +of bringing the philosophy of sensation, the philosophy of Locke and +Condillac, into the political field, and of deriving from it new +standards and new forces for social reconstruction. And in spite of its +shallowness and paradoxes, his book did contain the one principle on +which, if it had been generally accepted, the inevitable transition +might have taken place without a Reign of Terror. + +It was commonly said, by his enemies and by his alarmed friends, that +vanity and a restless overweening desire for notoriety was the inspiring +motive of Helvétius. He came from a German stock. His great-grandfather +settled in Holland, where he cured his patients by cunning elixirs, by +the powder of ground stag's horn, and the subtle virtues of crocodiles' +teeth. His grandfather went to push his fortunes in Paris, where he +persuaded the public to accept the healing properties of ipecacuanha, +and Lewis XIV. (1689) gave him a short patent for that drug.[102] The +medical tradition of the family was maintained in a third generation, +for Helvétius's father was one of the physicians of the Queen, and on +one occasion performed the doubtful service to humanity of saving the +life of Lewis XV. Helvétius, who was born in 1715, turned aside from the +calling of his ancestors, and by means of the favour which his father +enjoyed at court, obtained a position as farmer-general. This at once +made him a wealthy man, but wealth was not enough to satisfy him without +fame. He made attempts in various directions, in each case following the +current of popularity for the hour. Maupertuis was the hero of a day, +and Helvétius accordingly applied himself to become a geometer. +Voltaire's brilliant success brought poetry into fashion, and so +Helvétius wrote half a dozen long cantos on Happiness. Montesquieu +caught and held the ear of the town by _The Spirit of Laws_ (1748), and +Helvétius was acute enough to perceive that speculation upon society +would be the great durable interest of his time.[103] He at once set to +work, and this time he set to work without hurry. In 1751 he threw up +his place as farmer-general, and with it an income of between two or +three thousand pounds a year,[104] and he then devoted himself for the +next seven years to the concoction of a work that was designed to bring +him immortal glory. "Helvétius sweated a long time to write a single +chapter," if we may believe one of his intimates. He would compose and +recompose a passage a score of times. More facile writers looked at him +with amazement in his country-house, ruminating for whole mornings on a +single page, and pacing his room for hours to kindle his ideas, or to +strike out some curious form of expression.[105] The circle of his +friends in Paris amused themselves in watching his attempts to force the +conversation into the channel of the question that happened to occupy +him for the moment. They gave him the satisfaction of discussion, and +then they drew him to express his own views. "Then," says Marmontel, "he +threw himself into the subject with warmth--as simple, as natural, as +sincere as he is systematic and sophistic in his works. Nothing is less +like the ingenuousness of his character and ordinary life, than the +artificial and premeditated simplicity of his works. Helvétius was the +very opposite in his character of what he professes to believe; he was +liberal, generous, unostentatious, and benevolent."[106] + + [102] See Jal's _Dict. Crit._, p. 676. There is a comparison in + _L'Esprit_, which we may assume to have been due to family + reminiscence: "Like those Physicians who, in their jealousy of the + discovery of the emetic, abused the credulity of a few prelates, to + excommunicate a remedy of which the service is so prompt and so + salutary," etc.--ii. 23. + + [103] Hume, however, tells a story to the effect that Helvétius + tried to dissuade Montesquieu from publishing his great book, as + being altogether unworthy of his previous reputation. + + [104] Barbier v. 57. + + [105] Morellet, i. 71. + + [106] Marmontel, ii, 116. + +As it happens, there is a very different picture in one of Diderot's +writings. While Diderot was on a journey he fell in with a lady who +knew Helvétius's country. "She told us that the philosopher at his +country seat was the unhappiest of men. He is surrounded by peasants and +by neighbours who hate him. They break the windows of his mansion; they +ravage his property at night; they cut his trees, and break down his +fences. He dares not sally out to shoot a rabbit without an escort. You +will ask me why all this? It comes of an unbridled jealousy about his +game. His predecessors kept the estate in order with a couple of men and +a couple of guns. Helvétius has four-and-twenty, and yet he cannot guard +his property. The men have a small premium for every poacher that they +catch, and they resort to every possible vexation in order to multiply +their sorry profit. They are, for that matter, no better than so many +poachers who draw wages. The border of his woods was peopled with the +unfortunate wretches who had been driven from their homes into pitiful +hovels. It is these repeated acts of tyranny that have raised up against +him enemies of every kind, and all the more insolent, as Madame N. said, +for having found out that the good philosopher is a trifle +pusillanimous. I cannot see what he has gained by such a way of managing +his property; he is alone on it, he is hated, he is in a constant state +of fright. Ah, how much wiser our good Madame Geoffrin, when she said of +a trial that tormented her: 'Finish my case. They want my money? I have +some; give them money. And what can I do better with money than buy +tranquillity with it?' In Helvétius's place, I should have said: 'They +kill a few hares, or a few rabbits; let them kill. The poor creatures +have no shelter save my woods, let them remain there.'"[107] + + [107] Voyage à Bourbonne. _Oeuv._, xvii. 344. + +On the other hand, there are well-attested stories of Helvétius's +munificence. There is one remarkable testimony to his wide renown for +good-nature. After the younger Pretender had been driven out of France, +he had special reasons on some occasion for visiting Paris. He wrote to +Helvétius that he had heard of him as a man of the greatest probity and +honour in France, and that to Helvétius, therefore, he would trust +himself. Helvétius did not refuse the dangerous compliment, and he +concealed the prince for two years in his house.[108] He was as +benevolent where his vanity was less pleasantly flattered. More than one +man of letters, including Marivaux, was indebted to him for a yearly +pension, and his house was as open to the philosophic tribe as +Holbach's. Morellet has told us that the conversation was not so good +and so consecutive as it was at the Baron's. "The mistress of the house, +drawing to her side the people who pleased her best, and not choosing +the worst of the company, rather broke the party up. She was no fonder +of philosophy than Madame Holbach was fond of it; but the latter, by +remaining in a corner without saying a word, or else chatting in a low +voice with her friends, was in nobody's way; whereas Madame Helvétius, +with her beauty, her originality, and her piquant turn of nature, threw +out anything like philosophic discussion. Helvétius had not the art of +sustaining or animating it. He used to take one of us to a window, open +some question that he had in hand, and try to draw out either some +argument for his own view or some objection to it, for he was always +composing his book in society. Or more frequently still, he would go out +shortly after dinner to the opera or elsewhere, leaving his wife to do +the honours of the house."[109] In spite of all this, Helvétius's social +popularity became considerable. This, however, followed his attainment +of celebrity, for when _L'Esprit_ was published, Diderot scarcely met +him twice in a year, and D'Alembert's acquaintance with him was of the +slightest. And there must, we should suppose, have been some difficulty +in cordially admitting even a penitent member of the abhorred class of +farmers-general among the esoteric group of the philosophic opposition. +There was much point in Turgot's contemptuous question, why he should be +thankful to a declaimer like Helvétius, who showers vehement insults and +biting sarcasms on governments in general, and then makes it his +business to send to Frederick the Great a whole colony of revenue +clerks. It was the stringent proceedings against his book that brought +to Helvétius both vogue with the public and sympathy from the +Encyclopædic circle. + + [108] Burton's _Hume_, ii. 464. + + [109] Morellet, i. 141. A peculiarly graphic account of Madame + Helvétius in her later years is to be found in Mrs. Adam's + _Letters_, quoted in Parton's _Life of Franklin_, ii. 429. + +To us it is interesting to know that Helvétius had a great admiration +for England. Holbach, as we have already seen (above, vol. i. p. 270), +did not share this, and he explained his friend's enthusiasm by the +assumption that what Helvétius really saw in our free land was the +persecution that his book had drawn upon him in France.[110] Horace +Walpole, in one of his letters, announced to Sir Horace Mann that +Helvétius was coming to England, bringing two Miss Helvétiuses with +fifty thousand pounds a-piece, to bestow on two immaculate members of +our most august and incorruptible senate, if he could find two in this +virtuous age who would condescend to accept his money. "Well," he adds, +in a spirit of sensible protest against these unprofitable international +comparisons, "we may be dupes to French follies, but they are ten times +greater fools to be the dupes of our virtues."[111] Gibbon met Helvétius +(1763), and found him a sensible man, an agreeable companion, and the +worthiest creature in the world, besides the merits of having a pretty +wife and a hundred thousand livres a year. Warburton was invited to dine +with him at Lord Mansfield's, but he could not bring himself to +countenance a professed patron of atheism, a rascal, and a +scoundrel.[112] + + [110] _Oeuv._, xix. 187. + + [111] _Corresp._, iv. 119. + + [112] Walpole's _Corresp._, iv. 217. + +Let us turn to the book which had the honour of bringing all this +censure upon its author. Whether vanity was or was not Helvétius's +motive, the vanity of an author has never accounted for the interest of +his public, and we may be sure that neither those who approved, nor +those who abhorred, would have been so deeply and so universally +stirred, unless they had felt that he touched great questions at the +very quick. And, first, let a word be said as to the form of his book. + +Grimm was certainly right in saying that a man must be without taste or +sense to find either the morality or the colouring of Diderot in +_L'Esprit_. It is tolerably clear that Helvétius had the example of +Fontenelle before his eyes--Fontenelle, who had taught astronomical +systems in the forms of elegant literature, and of whom it was said that +_il nous enjôle à la vérité_, he coaxes us to the truth. _L'Esprit_ is +perhaps the most readable book upon morals that ever was written, for +persons who do not care that what they read shall be scientifically +true. Hume, who, by the way, had been invited by Helvétius to translate +the book into English, wrote to Adam Smith that it was worth reading, +not for its philosophy, which he did not highly value, but for its +agreeable composition.[113] Helvétius intended that it should be this, +and accordingly he stuffed it with stories and anecdotes. Many of them +are very poor, many are inapposite, some are not very decent, others are +spoiled in telling, but still stories and anecdotes they remain, and +they carry a light-minded reader more or less easily from page to page +and chapter to chapter. But an ingenuous student of ethics who should +take Helvétius seriously, could hardly be reconciled by lively anecdotes +to what, in his particular formula, seems a most depressing doctrine. +Madame Roland read the celebrated book in her romantic girlhood, and her +impression may be taken for that of most generous natures. "Helvétius +made me wretched: he annihilated the most ravishing illusions; he showed +me everywhere repulsive self-interest. Yet what sagacity!" she +continues. "I persuaded myself that Helvétius painted men such as they +had become in the corruption of society: I judged that it was good to +feed one's self on such an author, in order to be able to frequent what +is called the world, without being its dupe. But I took good care not to +adopt his principles, merely in order to know man properly so-called. I +felt myself capable of a generosity which he never recognises. With what +delight I confronted his theories with the great traits in history, and +the virtues of the heroes that history has immortalised."[114] + + [113] Burton, ii. 57. + + [114] _Oeuv. de Mdme. Roland_, i. 108. + +We have ventured to say that _L'Esprit_ contained the one principle +capable of supplying such a system of thinking about society as would +have taught the French of that time in what direction to look for +reforms. There is probably no instance in literature of a writer coming +so close to a decisive body of salutary truth, and then losing himself +in the by-ways of the most repulsive paradox that a perverse ingenuity +could devise. We are able to measure how grievous was this miscarriage +by reflecting that the same instrument which Helvétius actually held in +his hand, but did not know how to use, was taken from him by a man of +genius in another country, and made to produce reforms that saved +England from a convulsion. Nobody pretends that Helvétius discovered +Utilitarianism. Hume's name, for instance, occurs too often in his pages +for even the author himself to have dreamed that his principle of +utility was a new invention of his own. It would, as Mill has said, +imply ignorance of the history of philosophy and of general literature +not to be aware that in all ages of philosophy one of its schools has +been utilitarian, not only from the time of Epicurus, but long before. +But what is certain, and what would of itself be enough to entitle +Helvétius to consideration, is that from Helvétius the idea of general +utility as the foundation of morality was derived by that strong and +powerful English thinker, who made utilitarianism the great reforming +force of legislation and the foundation of jurisprudence. Bentham +himself distinctly avowed the source of his inspiration.[115] + + [115] "To that book [_L'Esprit_], Mr. Bentham has often been heard + to say, he stood indebted for no small portion of the zeal and + ardour with which he advocated his happiness-producing theory. It + was from thence he took encouragement ... it was there he learned to + persevere," etc. etc.--_Deontology_, i. 296. + +A fatal discredit fastened upon a book which yet had in it so much of +the root of the matter, from the unfortunate circumstance that +Helvétius tacked the principle of utility on to the very crudest farrago +to be found in the literature of psychology. What happened, then, was +that Rousseau swept into the field with a hollow version of a philosophy +of reform, so eloquently, loftily, and powerfully enforced as to carry +all before it. The democracy of sentimentalism took the place that ought +to have been filled in the literature of revolutionary preparation by +the democracy of utility. Rousseau's fiction of the Sovereignty of the +People was an arbitrary and intrinsically sterile rendering of the real +truth in Helvétius's ill-starred book. + +To establish the proper dependence of laws upon one another, says +Helvétius, "it is indispensable to be able to refer them all to a single +principle, such as that of _the Utility of the Public, that is to say, +of the greatest number of men submitted to the same form of government: +a principle of which no one realises the whole extent and fertility; a +principle that contains all Morality and Legislation_."[116] + + [116] _Disc._ ii. chap. xvii. + +A man is just when all his actions tend to the public good. "To be +virtuous, it is necessary to unite nobleness of soul with an enlightened +understanding. Whoever combines these gifts conducts himself by _the +compass of public utility_. This utility is the principle of all human +virtues, and the foundation of all legislations. It ought to inspire the +legislator, and to force the nations to submit to his laws."[117] + + [117] _Ib._ ii. 6. + +The principle of public utility is invariable, though it is pliable in +its application to all the different positions in which, in their +succession, a nation may find itself.[118] + + [118] _Disc._ ii. 17. + +The public interest is that of the greatest number, and this is the +foundation on which the principles of sound morality ought invariably to +rest.[119] + + [119] _Ib._ ii. chap. xxiii. + +These extracts, and extracts in the same sense might easily be +multiplied, show us the basis on which Helvétius believed himself to be +building. Why did Bentham raise upon it a fabric of such value to +mankind, while Helvétius covered it with useless paradox? The answer is +that Bentham approached the subject from the side of a practical lawyer, +and proceeded to map out the motives and the actions of men in a +systematic and objective classification, to which the principle of +utility gave him the key. Helvétius, on the other hand, instead of +working out the principle, that actions are good or bad according as +they do or do not serve the public interest of the greatest number, +contented himself with reiterating in as many ways as possible the +proposition that self-love fixes our measure of virtue. The next thing +to do, after settling utility as the standard of virtue, and defining +interest as a term applied to whatever can procure us pleasures and +deliver us from pains,[120] was clearly to do what Bentham did,--to +marshal pleasures and pains in logical array. Instead of this, +Helvétius, starting from the proposition that "to judge is to feel," +launched out into a complete theory of human character, which laboured +under at least two fatal defects. First, it had no root in a +contemplation of the march of collective humanity, and second, it +considered only the purely egoistic impulses, to the exclusion of the +opposite half of human tendencies. Apart from these radical +deficiencies, Helvétius fell headlong into a fallacy which has been +common enough among the assailants of the principle of utility; namely, +of confounding the standard of conduct with its motive, and insisting +that because utility is the test of virtue, therefore the prospect of +self-gratification is the only inducement that makes men prefer virtue +to vice. + + [120] _Ib._ ii. 1, _note_ (_b_). + +This was what Madame du Deffand called telling everybody's secret. We +approve conduct in proportion as it conduces to our interest. +Friendship, _esprit-de-corps_, patriotism, humanity, are names for +qualities that we prize more or less highly in proportion as they come +more or less close to our own happiness; and the scale of our +preferences is in the inverse ratio of the number of those who benefit +by the given act. If it affects the whole of humanity or of our country, +our approval is less warmly stirred than if it were an act specially +devoted to our own exclusive advantage. If you want therefore to reach +men, and to shape their conduct for the public good, you must affect +them through their pleasures and pains. + +To this position, which roused a universal indignation that amazed the +author, there is no doubt a true side. It is worth remembering, for +instance, that all penal legislation, in so far as deterrent and not +merely vindictive, assumes in all who come whether actually or +potentially within its sphere, the very doctrine that covered Helvétius +with odium. And there is more to be said than this. As M. Charles Comte +has expressed it: If the strength with which we resent injury were not +in the ratio of the personal risk that we run, we should hardly have the +means of self-preservation; and if the acts which injure the whole of +humanity gave us pain equal to that of acts that injure us directly, we +should be of all beings the most miserable, for we should be incessantly +tormented by conduct that we should be powerless to turn aside. And +again, if the benefits of which we are personally the object did not +inspire in us a more lively gratitude than those which we spread over +all mankind, we should probably experience few preferences, and extend +few preferences to others, and in that case egoism would grow to its +most overwhelming proportions.[121] + + [121] _Traité de Législation_, i. 243. + +This aspect of Helvétius's doctrine, however, is one of those truths +which is only valid when taken in connection with a whole group of +different truths, and it was exactly that way of asserting a position, +in itself neither indefensible nor unmeaning, which left the position +open to irresistible attack. Helvétius's errors had various roots, and +may be set forth in as many ways. The most general account of it is that +even if he had insisted on making Self-love the strongest ingredient in +our judgment of conduct, he ought at least to have given some place to +Sympathy. For, though it is possible to contend that sympathy is only an +indirect kind of self-love, or a shadow cast by self-love, still it is +self-love so transformed as to imply a wholly different set of +convictions, and to require a different name. + +_L'Esprit_ is one of the most striking instances in literature of the +importance of care in choosing the right way of presenting a theory to +the world. It seems as if Helvétius had taken pains to surround his +doctrine with everything that was most likely to warn men away from it. +For example, he begins a chapter of cardinal importance with the +proposition that personal interest is the only motive that could impel a +man to generous actions. "It is as impossible for him to love good for +good's sake as evil for the sake of evil." The rest of the chapter +consists of illustrations of this; and what does the reader suppose that +they are? The first is Brutus, of all the people in the world. He +sacrificed his son for the salvation of Rome, because his passion for +his country was stronger than his passion as a father; and this passion +for his country, "enlightening him as to the public interest," made him +see what a service his rigorous example would be to the state. The other +instances of the chapter point the same moral, that true virtue consists +in suppressing inducements to gratify domestic or friendly feeling, when +that gratification is hostile to the common weal.[122] + + [122] _Disc._ ii. 5. + +It may be true that the ultimate step in a strictly logical analysis +reduces the devotion of the hero or the martyr to a deliberate +preference for the course least painful to himself, because religion or +patriotism or inborn magnanimity have made self-sacrifice the least +painful course to him. But to call this heroic mood by the name of +self-love, is to single out what is absolutely the most unimportant +element in the transaction, and to insist on thrusting it under the +onlooker's eye as the vital part of the matter. And it involves the most +perverse kind of distortion. For the whole issue and difference between +the virtuous man and the vicious man turns, not at all upon the fact +that each behaves in the way that habit has made least painful to him, +but upon the fact that habit has made selfishness painful to the first, +and self-sacrifice painful to the second; that self-love has become in +the first case transformed into an overwhelming interest in the good of +others, and in the second not so. Was there ever a greater perversity +than to talk of self-interest, when you mean beneficence, or than to +insist that because beneficence has become bound up with a man's +self-love, therefore beneficence _is_ nothing but self-love in disguise? +As if the fruit or the flower not only depends on a root as one of the +conditions among others of its development, but is itself actually the +root! Apart from the error in logic, what an error in rhetoric, to +single out the formula best calculated to fill a doctrine with odious +associations, and then to make that formula the most prominent feature +in the exposition. Without any gain in clearness or definiteness or +firmness, the reader is deliberately misled towards a form that is +exactly the opposite of that which Helvétius desired him to accept. + +In other ways Helvétius takes trouble to wound the generous sensibility +and affront the sense of his public. Nothing can be at once more +scandalously cynical and more crude than a passage intended to show +that, if we examine the conduct of women of disorderly life from the +political point of view, they are in some respects extremely useful to +the public. That desire to please, which makes such a woman go to the +draper, the milliner, and the dressmaker, draws an infinite number of +workmen from indigence. The virtuous women, by giving alms to mendicants +and criminals, are far less wisely advised by their religious directors +than the other women by their desire to please; the latter nourish +useful citizens, while the former, who at the best are useless, are +often even downright enemies to the nation.[123] All this is only a +wordy transcript of Mandeville's coarse sentences about "the sensual +courtier that sets no limits to his luxury, and the fickle strumpet that +invents new fashions every week." We cannot wonder that all people who +were capable either of generous feeling or comprehensive thinking turned +aside even from truth, when it was mixed in this amalgam of destructive +sophistry and cynical illustration. + + [123] _Disc._ ii. 15. + +We can believe how the magnanimous youth of Madame Roland and others +was discouraged by pages sown with mean anecdote. Helvétius tells us, +with genuine zest, of Parmenio saying to Philotas at the court of +Alexander the Great--"My son, make thyself small before Alexander; +contrive for him now and again the pleasure of setting thee right; and +remember that it is only to thy seeming inferiority that thou wilt owe +his friendship." The King of Portugal charged a certain courtier to draw +up a despatch on an affair with which he had himself dealt. Comparing +the two despatches, the King found the courtier's much the better of the +two: the courtier makes a profound reverence, and hastens to take leave +of his friends: "_It is all over with me_," he said, "_the King has +found out that I have more brains than he has_."[124] Only mediocrity +succeeds in the world. "Sir," said a father to his son, "you are getting +on in the world, and you suppose you must be a person of great merit. To +lower your pride, know to what qualities you owe this success: you were +born without vices, without virtues, without character; your knowledge +is scanty, your intelligence is narrow. Ah, what claims you have, my +son, to the goodwill of the world."[125] + + [124] See Diderot's truer version, _Oeuv._, ii. 482. + + [125] _Disc._ iv. 13, etc. + +It lies beyond the limits of our task to enter into a discussion of +Helvétius's transgressions in the region of speculative ethics, from any +dogmatic point of view. Their nature is tolerably clear. Helvétius +looked at man individually, as if each of us came into the world naked +of all antecedent predispositions, and independent of the medium around +us. Next, he did not see that virtue, justice, and the other great words +of moral science denote qualities that are directly related to the +fundamental constitution of human character. As Diderot said,[126] he +never perceived it to be possible to find in our natural requirements, +in our existence, in our organisation, in our sensibility, a fixed base +for the idea of what is just and unjust, virtuous and vicious. He clung +to the facts that showed the thousand different shapes in which justice +and injustice clothed themselves; but he closed his eyes on the nature +of man, in which he would have recognised their character and origin. +Again, although his book was expressly written to show that only good +laws can form virtuous men, and that all the art of the legislator +consists in forcing men, through the sentiment of self-love, to be just +to one another,[127] yet Helvétius does not perceive the difficulty of +assuming in the moralising legislator a suppression of self-love which +he will not concede to the rest of mankind. The crucial problem of +political constitutions is to counteract the selfishness of a governing +class. Helvétius vaulted over this difficulty by imputing to a +legislator that very quality of disinterestedness whose absence in the +bulk of the human race he made the fulcrum of his whole moral +system.[128] + + [126] _Oeuv._, ii. 270. + + [127] _Disc._ ii. 24. + + [128] As Mr. Henry Sidgwick has put this:--"Even the indefatigable + patience and inexhaustible ingenuity of Bentham will hardly succeed + in defeating the sinister conspiracy of self-preferences. In fact, + unless a little more sociality is allowed to an average human being, + the problem of combining these egoists into an organisation for + promoting their common happiness, is like the old task of making + ropes of sand. The difficulty that Hobbes vainly tried to settle + summarily by absolute despotism, is hardly to be overcome by the + democratic artifices of his more inventive successor." + +Into this field of criticism it is not, I repeat, our present business +minutely to enter. The only question for us, attempting to study the +history of opinion, is what Helvétius meant by his paradoxes, and how +they came into his mind. No serious writer, least of all a Frenchman in +the eighteenth century, ever sets out with anything but such an +intention for good, as is capable of respectable expression. And we ask +ourselves what good end Helvétius proposed to himself. Of what was he +thinking when he perpetrated so singular a misconstruction of his own +meaning as that inversion of beneficence into self-love of which we have +spoken? We can only explain it in one way. In saying that it is +impossible to love good for good's sake, Helvétius was thinking of the +theologians. Their doctrine that man is predisposed to love evil for +evil's sake, removes conduct from the sphere of rational motive, as +evinced in the ordinary course of human experience. Helvétius met this +by contending that both in good and bad conduct men are influenced by +their interest and not by mystic and innate predisposition either to +good or to evil. He sought to bring morals and human conduct out of the +region of arbitrary and superstitious assumption, into the sphere of +observation. He thought he was pursuing a scientific, as opposed to a +theological spirit, by placing interest at the foundation of conduct, +both as matter of fact and of what ought to be the fact, instead of +placing there the love of God, or the action of grace, or the authority +of the Church. + +We may even say that Helvétius shows a positive side, which is wanting +in the more imposing names of the century. Here, for instance, is a +passage which in spite of its inadequateness of expression, contains an +unmistakable germ of true historical appreciation:--"However stupid we +may suppose the Peoples to be, it is certain that, being enlightened by +their interests, it was not without motives that they adopted the +customs that we find established among some of them. The bizarre nature +of these customs is connected, then, with the diversity of interests +among these Peoples. In fact, if they have always understood, in a +confused way, by the name of virtue the desire of public happiness; if +they have in consequence given the name of good to actions that are +useful to the country; and if the idea of utility has always been +privately associated with the idea of virtue, then we may be sure that +their most ridiculous, and even their most cruel, customs have always +had for their foundation the real or seeming utility of the public +good."[129] + + [129] _Disc._ ii. 13. + +If we contrast this with the universal fashion among Helvétius's +friends, of denouncing the greater portion of the past history of the +race, we cannot but see that, crude as is the language of such a +passage, it contains the all-important doctrine which Voltaire, +Rousseau, and Diderot alike ignored, that the phenomena of the conduct +of mankind, even in its most barbarous phases, are capable of an +intelligible explanation, in terms of motive that shall be related to +their intellectual forms, exactly as the motives of the most polished +society are related to the intellectual forms of such a society. There +are not many passages in all the scores of volumes written in France in +the eighteenth century on the origin of society where there is such an +approach as this to the modern view. + +Helvétius's position was that of a man searching for a new basis for +morals. It was hardly possible for any one in that century to look to +religion for such a base, and least of all was it possible to Helvétius. +"It is fanaticism," he says in an elaborately wrought passage, "that +puts arms into the hands of Christian princes; it orders Catholics to +massacre heretics; it brings out upon the earth again those tortures +that were invented by such monsters as Phalaris, as Busiris, as Nero; in +Spain it piles and lights up the fires of the Inquisition, while the +pious Spaniards leave their ports and sail across distant seas, to plant +the Cross and spread desolation in America. Turn your eyes to north or +south, to east or west; on every side you see the consecrated knife of +Religion raised against the breasts of women, of children, of old men, +and the earth all smoking with the blood of victims immolated to false +gods or to the Supreme Being, and presenting one vast, sickening, +horrible charnel-house of intolerance. Now what virtuous man, what +Christian, if his tender soul is filled with the divine unction that +exhales from the maxims of the Gospel, if he is sensible of the cries of +the unhappy and the outcast, and has sometimes wiped away their +tears--what man could fail at such a sight to be touched with compassion +for humanity, and would not use all his endeavour to found probity, not +on principles so worthy of respect as those of religion, but on +principles less easily abused, such as those of personal interest would +be?"[130] + + [130] _Disc._ ii. 24. + +This, then, is the point best worth seizing in a criticism of Helvétius. +The direction of morality by religion had proved a failure. Helvétius, +as the organ of reaction against asceticism and against mysticism, +appealed to positive experience, and to men's innate tendency to seek +what is pleasurable and to avoid what is painful. The scientific +imperfection of his attempt is plain; but that, at any rate, is what the +attempt signified in his own mind. + +The same feeling for social reform inspired the second great paradox of +_L'Esprit_. This is to the effect that of all the sources of +intellectual difference between one man and another, organisation is the +least influential. Intellectual differences are due to diversity of +circumstance and to variety in education. It is not felicity of +organisation that makes a great man. There is nobody, in whom passion, +interest, education, and favourable chance, could not have surmounted +all the obstacles of an unpromising nature; and there is no great man +who, in the absence of passion, interest, education, and certain +chances, would not have been a blockhead, in spite of his happier +organisation. It is only in the moral region that we ought to seek the +true cause of inequality of intellect. Genius is no singular gift of +nature. Genius is common; it is only the circumstances proper to develop +it that are rare. The man of genius is simply the product of the +circumstances in which he is placed. The inequality in intelligence +(_esprit_) that we observe among men, depends on the government under +which they live, on the times in which their destiny has fallen, on the +education that they have received, on the strength of their desire to +achieve distinction, and finally on the greatness and fecundity of the +ideas which they happen to make the object of their meditations.[131] + + [131] _Disc._ iii. + +Here again it would be easy to show how many qualifications are needed +to rectify this egregious overstatement of propositions that in +themselves contain the germ of a wholesome doctrine. Diderot pointed out +some of the principal causes of Helvétius's errors, summing them up +thus: "The whole of this third discourse seems to imply a false +calculation, into which the author has failed to introduce all the +elements that have a right to be there, and to estimate the elements +that are there at their right value. He has not seen the insurmountable +barrier that separates a man destined by nature for a given function, +from a man who only brings to that function industry, interest, and +attention."[132] In a work published after his death (1774), and +entitled _De l'Homme_, Helvétius re-stated at greater length, and with a +variety of new illustrations, this exaggerated position. Diderot wrote +an elaborate series of minute notes in refutation of it, taking each +chapter point by point, and his notes are full of acute and vigorous +criticism.[133] Every reader will perceive the kind of answers to which +the proposition that character is independent of organisation lies open. +Yet here, as in his paradox about self-love, Helvétius was looking, and +looking, moreover, in the right direction, for a rational principle of +moral judgment, moral education, and moral improvement. Of the two +propositions, though equally erroneous in theory, it was certainly less +mischievous in practice to pronounce education and institutions to be +stronger than original predisposition than to pronounce organisation to +be stronger than education and institutions. It was all-important at +that moment in France to draw people's attention to the influence of +institutions on character; to do that was both to give one of the best +reasons for a reform in French institutions, and also to point to the +spirit in which such a reform should be undertaken. If Helvétius had +contented himself with saying that, whatever may be the force of +organisation in exceptional natures, yet in persons of average +organisation these predispositions are capable of being indefinitely +modified by education, by laws, and by institutions, then he would not +only have said what could not be disproved, but he would have said as +much as his own object required. William Godwin drew one of the most +important chapters of his once famous treatise on _Political Justice_ +from Helvétius, but what Helvétius exaggerated into a paradox which +nobody in his senses could seriously accept, Godwin expressed as a +rational half-truth, without which no reformer in education or +institutions could fairly think it worth while to set to work.[134] + + [132] _Oeuv._ ii. 271. + + [133] _Ib._ ii. 275-456. + + [134] _Political Justice_, bk. i. chap. iv.--"_The characters of men + originate in their external circumstances._" + +The reader of Benjamin Constant's _Adolphe_, that sombre little study of +a miserable passion, may sometimes be reminded of Helvétius. It begins +with the dry surprise of youth at the opening world, for we need time, +he says, to accustom ourselves to the human race, such as affectation, +vanity, cowardice, interest have made it. Then we soon learn only to be +surprised at our old surprise; we find ourselves very well off in our +new conditions, just as we come to breathe freely in a crowded theatre, +though on entering it we were almost stifled. Yet the author of this +parching sketch of the distractions of an egoism that just fell short +of being complete, suddenly flashes on us the unexpected but penetrating +and radiant moral, _La grande question dans la vie, c'est la douleur que +l'on cause_--the great question in life is the pain that we strike into +the lives of others. We are not seldom refreshed, when in the midst of +Helvétius's narrowest grooves, by some similar breath from the wider +air. Among the host of sayings, true, false, trivial, profound, which +are scattered over the pages of Helvétius, is one subtle and +far-reaching sentence, which made a strong impression upon Bentham. "_In +order to love mankind_," he writes, "_we must expect little from them_." +This might, on the lips of a cynic, serve for a formula of that kind of +misanthropy which is not more unamiable than it is unscientific. But in +the mouth of Helvétius it was a plea for considerateness, for +indulgence, and, above all, it was meant for an inducement to patience +and sustained endeavour in all dealings with masses of men in society. +"Every man," he says, "so long as his passions do not obscure his +reason, will always be the more indulgent in proportion as he is +enlightened." He knows that men are what they must be, that all hatred +against them is unjust, that a fool produces follies just as a wild +shrub produces sour berries, that to insult him is to reproach the oak +for bearing acorns instead of olives.[135] All this is as wise and +humane as words can be so, and it really represents the aim and temper +of Helvétius's teaching. Unfortunately for him and for his generation, +his grasp was feeble and unsteady. He had not the gift of accurate +thinking, and his book is in consequence that which, of all the books of +the eighteenth century, unites most of wholesome truth with most of +repellent error. + + [135] _Disc._ ii. 10. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOLBACH'S SYSTEM OF NATURE. + + +The _System of Nature_ was published in 1770, eight years before the +death of Voltaire and of Rousseau, and it gathered up all the scattered +explosives of the criticism of the century into one thundering engine of +revolt and destruction. It professed to be the posthumous work of +Mirabaud, who had been secretary to the Academy. This was one of the +common literary frauds of the time. Its real author was Holbach. It is +too systematic and coherently compacted to be the design of more than +one man, and it is too systematic also for that one man to have been +Diderot, as has been so often assumed. At the same time there are good +reasons for believing that not only much of its thought, but some of the +pages, were the direct work of Diderot. The latest editor of the +heedless philosopher has certainly done right in placing among his +miscellanea the declamatory apostrophe which sums up the teachings of +this remorseless book. The rumour imputing the authorship to Diderot was +so common, and Diderot himself was so disquieted by it, that he actually +hastened away from Paris to his native Langres and to the Baths of +Bourbonne, in order to be ready to cross the frontier at the first hint +of a warrant being out against him.[136] Diderot has recorded his +admiration of his friend's work. "I am disgusted," he said, "with the +modern fashion of mixing up incredulity and superstition. What I like is +a philosophy that is clear, definite, and frank, such as you have in the +_System of Nature_. The author is not an atheist in one page, and a +deist in another. His philosophy is all of one piece."[137] + + [136] _Oeuv._, xvii. 329. + + [137] _Ib._ ii. 398. + +No book has ever produced a more widespread shock. Everybody insisted on +reading it, and almost everybody was terrified. It suddenly revealed to +men, like the blaze of lightning to one faring through darkness, the +formidable shapes, the unfamiliar sky, the sinister landscape, into +which the wanderings of the last fifty years had brought them +unsuspecting. They had had half a century of such sharp intellectual +delight as had not been known throughout any great society in Europe +since the death of Michael Angelo, and had perhaps north of the Alps +never been known at all. And now it seemed to many of them, as they +turned over the pages of Holbach's book, as if they stood face to face +with the devil of the mediæval legend, come to claim their souls. Satire +of Job and David, banter about Joshua's massacres and Solomon's +concubines, invective against blind pastors of blinder flocks, zeal to +place Newton on the throne of Descartes and Locke upon the pedestal of +Malebranche, wishes that the last Jansenist might be strangled in the +bowels of the last Jesuit--all this had given zest and savour to life. +In the midst of their high feast, Holbach pointed to the finger of their +own divinity, Reason, writing on the wall the appalling judgments that +there is no God; that the universe is only matter in spontaneous +movement; and, most grievous word of all, that what men call their souls +die with the death of the body, as music dies when the strings are +broken. + +Galiani, the witty Neapolitan, who had so many good friends in the +philosophic circle, anticipated the well-known phrase of a writer of our +own day. "The author of the _System of Nature_," he said, "is the Abbé +Terrai of metaphysics: he makes deductions, suspensions of payment, and +causes the very Bankruptcy of knowledge, of pleasure, and of the human +mind. But you will tell me that, after all, there were too many rotten +securities; that the account was too heavily overdrawn; that there was +too much worthless paper on the market. That is true, too, and that is +why the crisis has come."[138] Goethe, then a student at Strasburg, has +told us what horror and alarm the _System of Nature_ brought into the +circle there. "But we could not conceive," he says, "how such a book +could be dangerous. It came to us so gray, so Cimmerian, so corpse-like, +that we could hardly endure its presence; we shuddered before it as if +it had been a spectre. It struck us as the very quintessence of musty +age, savourless, repugnant."[139] + + [138] _Corresp. de Galiani_, i. 142. + + [139] _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, bk. xi. + +If this was the light in which the book appeared to the young man who +was soon to be the centre of German literature, the brilliant veteran +who had for two generations been the centre of the literature of France +was both shocked by the audacity of the new treatise, and alarmed at the +peril in which it involved the whole Encyclopædic brotherhood, with the +Patriarch at their head. Voltaire had no sooner read the _System of +Nature_ than he at once snatched up his ever-ready pen and plunged into +refutation.[140] At the same time he took care that the right persons +should hear what he had done. He wrote to his old patron and friend +Richelieu, that it would be a great kindness if he would let the King +know that the abused Voltaire had written an answer to the book that all +the world was talking about. I think, he says, that it is always a good +thing to uphold the doctrine of the existence of a God who punishes and +rewards; society has need of such an opinion. There is a curious +disinterestedness in the notion of Lewis the Fifteenth and Richelieu, +two of the wickedest men of their time, being anxious for the +demonstration of a _Dieu vengeur_. Voltaire at least had a very keen +sense of the meaning of a court that rewarded and punished. The author +of the _System of Nature_, he wrote to Grimm, ought to have felt that he +was undoing his friends, and making them hateful in the eyes of the king +and the court.[141] This came true in the case of the great +philosopher-king himself. Frederick of Prussia was offended by a book +which spared political superstitions as little as theological dogma, and +treated kings as boldly as it treated priests. Though keenly occupied in +watching the war then waging between Russia and Turkey, and already +revolving the partition of Poland, he found time to compose a defence of +theism. 'Tis a good sign, Voltaire said to him, when a king and a plain +man think alike: their interests are often so hostile, that when their +ideas do agree, they must certainly be right.[142] + + [140] See the article _Dieu_ in the _Dict. Philosophique_. + + [141] Voltaire's _Corr._, Nov. 1, 1770. + + [142] July 27, 1770. + +The philosophic meaning of Holbach's propositions was never really +seized by Voltaire. He is, as has been justly said, the representative +of ordinary common sense which, with all its declamations and its +appeals to the feelings, is wholly without weight or significance as +against a philosophic way of considering things, however humble the +philosophy may be.[143] He hardly took more pains to understand Holbach +than Johnson took to understand Berkeley. In truth it was a +characteristic of Voltaire always to take the social, rather than the +philosophic view of the great issues of the theistic controversy. One +day, when present at a discussion as to the existence of a deity, in +which the negative was being defended with much vivacity, he astonished +the company by ordering the servants to leave the room, and then +proceeding to lock the door. "Gentlemen," he explained, "I do not wish +my valet to cut my throat to-morrow morning." It was not the truth of +the theistic belief in itself that Voltaire prized, but its supposed +utility as an assistant to the police. D'Alembert, on the other hand, +viewed the dispute as a matter of disinterested speculation. "As for the +existence of a supreme intelligence," he wrote to Frederick the Great, +"I think that those who deny it advance far more than they can prove, +and scepticism is the only reasonable course." He goes on to say, +however, that experience invincibly proves both the materiality of the +soul, and a material deity--like that which Mr. Mill did not +repudiate--of limited powers, and dependent on fixed conditions.[144] + + [143] Lange's _Gesch. d. Materialismus_, i. 369; where the author + shows how entirely Voltaire failed to touch Holbach's position as to + the meaning of Order in the universe. + + [144] _Oeuv._, v. 296, 303, etc. + +Let us now turn to the book itself. And first, as to its author. The +reader of the _New Heloïsa_ will remember that the heroine, after her +repentance and her marriage, has only one chagrin in the world; that is +the blank disbelief of her husband in the two great mysteries of a +Supreme Being and another world. Wolmar, the husband, has always been +supposed to stand for Rousseau's version of Holbach, and Holbach would +hardly have complained of the portrait. The Wolmar of the novel is +benevolent, active, patient, tranquil, friendly, and trustful. The +nicely combined conjunction of the play of circumstance with the action +of men pleases him, just as the fine symmetry of a statue or the +skilful contrivance of dramatic effects would please him. If he has any +dominant passion, it is a passion for observation; he delights in +reading the hearts of men.[145] + + [145] _Nouvelle Héloise_, IV. xii. + +All this seems to have been as true of the real Holbach as of the +imaginary Wolmar. We have already seen him as the intimate friend and +constant host of Diderot. He was one of the best-informed men of his +time (1723-89). He had an excellent library, a collection of pictures, +and a valuable cabinet of natural history; and his poorer friends were +as freely welcome to the use of all of them as the richest. His manners +were cheerful, courteous, and easy; he was a model of simplicity, and +kindliness was written on every feature. His hospitality won him the +well-known nickname of the maître d'hôtel of philosophy, and his house +was jestingly called the Café de l'Europe. On Sundays and Thursdays, +without prejudice to other days, from ten to a score of men of letters +and eminent foreign visitors, including Hume, Wilkes, Shelburne, +Garrick, Franklin, Priestley, used to gather round his good dishes and +excellent wine. It was noted, as a mark of the attractiveness of the +company, that the guests, who came at two in the afternoon, constantly +remained until as late as seven and eight in the evening. To one of +those guests, who afterwards became the powerful enemy of the +Encyclopædic group, the gaiety, the irreverence, the hardihood of +speculation and audacity of discourse, were all as gall and wormwood. +Rousseau found their atheistic sallies offensive beyond endurance. Their +hard rationalism was odious to the great emotional dreamer, and after he +had quarrelled with them all, he transformed his own impressions of the +dreariness of atheism into the passionate complaint of Julie. "Conceive +the torment of living in retirement with the man who shares our +existence, and yet cannot share the hope that makes existence dear; of +never being able with him either to bless the works of God, or to speak +of the happy future that is promised us by the goodness of God; of +seeing him, while doing good on every side, still insensible to +everything that makes the delight of doing good; of watching him, by the +most bizarre of contradictions, think with the impious, and yet live +like a Christian. Think of Julie walking with her husband; the one +admiring in the rich and splendid robe of the earth the handiwork and +the bounteous gifts of the author of the universe; the other seeing +nothing in it all save a fortuitous combination, the product of blind +force! Alas! she cries, the great spectacle of nature, for us so +glorious, so animated, is dead in the eyes of the unhappy Wolmar, and in +that great harmony of being where all speaks of God in accents so mild +and so persuasive, he only perceives eternal silence."[146] + + [146] _Nouvelle Héloise_, V. v. + +Yet it is fair to the author of this most eloquent Ignoratio Elenchi, to +notice that he honestly fulfilled the object with which he professed to +set out--namely, to show to both the religious and philosophical +parties that their adversaries were capable of leading upright, useful, +and magnanimous lives. Whether he would have painted the imaginary +Wolmar so favourably if he could have foreseen what kind of book the +real Holbach had in his desk, is perhaps doubtful. For Holbach's +opinions looked more formidable and sombre in the cold deliberateness of +print than they had sounded amid the interruptions of lively discourse. + + * * * * * + +It is needless to say, to begin with, that the writer has the most +marked of the philosophic defects of the school of the century. Perhaps +we might put it more broadly, and call the disregard of historic opinion +the natural defect of all materialistic speculation from Epicurus +downwards.[147] Like all others of his school, Holbach has no perception +nor sense of the necessity of an explanation how the mental world came +to be what it is, nor how men came to think and believe what they do +think and believe. He gives them what he deems unanswerable reasons for +changing their convictions, but he never dreams of asking himself in +what elements of human character the older convictions had their root, +and from what fitness for the conduct of life they drew the current of +their sap. Yet unless this aspect of things had been well considered, +his unanswerable reasons were sure to fall wide of the mark. Opinions, +as men began to remember, after social movement had thrown the logical +century into discredit, have a history as well as a logic. They are +bound up with a hundred transmitted prepossessions, and they have become +identified with a hundred social customs that are the most dearly +cherished parts of men's lives. Nature had as much to do with the +darkness of yesterday as with the light of to-day; she is as much the +accomplice of superstition as she is the oracle of reason. It was +because they forgot all this that Holbach's school now seem so shallow +and superficial. The whole past was one long working of the mystery of +iniquity. "The sum of the woes of the human race was not diminished--on +the contrary, it was increased by its religions, by its governments, by +its opinions, in a word, by all the institutions that _it was led to +adopt_ on the plea of ameliorating its lot."[148] _On lui fit adopter!_ +But who were the _on_, and how did they work? With what instruments and +what fulcrum? Never was the convenience of this famous abstract +substantive more fatally abused. And if religion, government, and +opinion had all aggravated the miseries of the human race, what had +lessened them? For the Encyclopædic school never attempted, as Rousseau +did, to deny that the world had, as a matter of fact, advanced towards +happiness. It was because the Holbachians looked on mankind as slaves +held in an unaccountable bondage, which they must necessarily be eager +to throw off, that their movement, after doing at the Revolution a +certain amount of good in a bad way, led at last to a mischievous +reaction in favour of Catholicism. + + [147] See Lange, i. 85. + + [148] _Syst. de la Nat._, I. xvi. + +Far more immediately significant than the philosophy of the _System of +Nature_ were the violence, directness, and pertinacity of its assault +upon political government. Voltaire, as has so often been noticed, had +always abstained from meddling with either the theory or the practical +abuses of the national administration. All his shafts had been levelled +at ecclesiastical superstition. Rousseau, indeed, had begun the most +famous of his political speculations by crying that man, who was born +free, is now everywhere in chains. But Rousseau was vague, abstract, and +sentimental. In the _System of Nature_ we have a clear presage of the +trenchant and imperious invective which, twenty years after its +publication, rang in all men's ears from the gardens of the Palais Royal +and the benches of the Jacobins' Hall. The writer has plainly made up +his mind that the time has at last come for dropping all the discreet +machinery of apologue and parable, and giving to his words the edge of a +sharpened sword. The vague disguises of political speculation, and the +mannered reservations of a Utopia or New Atlantis, are exchanged for a +passionate, biting, and loudly practical indictment. All over the world +men are under the yoke of masters who neglect the instruction of their +people, or only seek to cheat and deceive them. The sovereigns in every +part of the globe are unjust, incapable, made effeminate by luxury, +corrupted by flattery, depraved by license and impunity, destitute of +talent, manners, or virtue. Indifferent to their duties, which they +usually know nothing about, they are scarcely concerned for a single +moment of the day with the well-being of their people; their whole +attention is absorbed by useless wars, or by the desire to find at each +instant new means of gratifying their insatiable rapacity. The state of +society is a state of war between the sovereign and all the rest of its +members. In every country alike the morality of the people is wholly +neglected, and the one care of the government is to render them timorous +and wretched. The common man desires no more than bread; he wins it by +the sweat of his brow; joyfully would he eat it, if the injustice of the +government did not make it bitter in his mouth. By the insanity of +governments, those who are swimming in plenty, without being any the +happier for it, yet wring from the tiller of the soil the very fruits +that his arms have won from it. Injustice, by reducing indigence to +despair, drives it to seek in crime resources against the woes of life. +An iniquitous government breeds despair in men's souls; its vexations +depopulate the land, the fields remain untilled, famine, contagion, and +pestilence stalk over the earth. Then, embittered by misery, men's minds +begin to ferment and effervesce, and what inevitably follows is the +overthrow of a realm.[149] + + [149] _Syst. de la Nat._, I. xiv., xvi., etc. etc. + +If France had been prosperous, all this would have passed for the empty +declamation of an excited man of letters. As it was, such declamation +only described, in language as accurate as it was violent and stinging, +the real position of the country. In the urgency of a present material +distress, men were not over-careful that the basis of the indictment +should be laid in the principles of a sound historical philosophy of +society. We can hardly wonder at it. What is interesting, and what we do +not notice earlier in the century, is that in the _System of Nature_ the +revolt against the impotence of society, and the revolt against the +omnipotence of God, made a firm coalition. That coalition came to a +bloody end for the time, four-and-twenty years after Holbach's book +proclaimed it, when the Committee of Public Safety despatched Hébert, +and better men than Hébert, to the guillotine for being atheists. +Atheism, as Robespierre assured them, was aristocratic. + +Holbach's work may be said to spring from the doctrine that the social +deliverance of man depends on his intellectual deliverance, and that the +key to his intellectual deliverance is only to be found in the +substitution of Naturalism for Theism. What he means by Naturalism we +shall proceed shortly to explain. The style, we may remark, +notwithstanding the energy and coherence of the thought, is often +diffuse and declamatory. Some one said of the _System of Nature_, that +it contained at least four times too many words. Yet Voltaire, while +professing extreme dislike of its doctrine, admitted that the writer had +somehow caught the ear of the learned, of the ignorant, and of women. +"He is often clear," said Voltaire, "and sometimes eloquent, yet he may +justly be reproached with declamation, with repeating himself, and with +contradicting himself, like all the rest of them."[150] Galiani made an +over-subtle criticism on it, when he complained of the want of coolness +and self-possession in the style, and then said that it looked as if the +writer were pressed less to persuade other people than to persuade +himself. This was a crude impression. Nobody can have any doubt of the +writer's profound sincerity, or of his earnest desire to make +proselytes. He knows his own mind, and hammers his doctrines out with a +hard and iterative stroke that hits its mark. Yet his literary tone, in +spite of its declamatory pitch, not seldom sinks into a drone. Holbach's +contemporaries were in too fierce contact with the tusks and hooked +claws of the Church, to have any mind for the rhythm of a champion's +sentences or the turn of his periods. But now that the efforts of the +heterodox have taught the Churches to be better Christians than they +were a hundred years ago, we can afford to admit that Holbach is hardly +more captivating in style, and not always more edifying in temper, than +some of the Christian Fathers themselves. + + [150] _Dict. Phil._, s. v. Dieu, § 4. + +What then is the system of Nature, and what is that Naturalism which is +to replace the current faith in the deities outside of observable +nature? The writer makes no pretence of feeling a tentative way towards +an answer. From the very outset his spirit is that of dogmatic +confidence. He is less a seeker than an expounder; less a philosopher +than a preacher; and he boldly dismisses proof in favour of exhortation. + +"Let man cease to search outside the world in which he dwells for beings +who may procure him a happiness that nature refuses to grant; let him +study that nature, let him learn her laws, and contemplate the energy +and the unchanging fixity with which she acts; let him apply his +discoveries to his own felicity, and submit in silence to laws from +which nothing can withdraw him; let him consent to ignore the causes, +surrounded as they are for him by an impenetrable veil; let him undergo +without a murmur the decrees of universal force." + +_Science derived from experience is the source of all wise action._ It +is physical science (_la physique_), and experience, that man ought to +consult in religion, morals, legislature, as well as in knowledge and +the arts. It is by our senses that we are bound to universal nature; it +is by our senses that we discover her secrets. The moment that we first +experience them we fall into a void where our imagination leads us +endlessly astray. + +_Movement is what establishes relations between our organs and external +objects._ Every object has laws of movement that are peculiar to itself. +Everything in the universe is in movement; no part of nature is really +at rest.[151] + + [151] Holbach confesses his obligation on this head to Toland's + _Letters to Serena_ (1704). + +_Whence does nature receive this movement?_ From herself, since she is +the great whole, outside of which consequently nothing can exist. Motion +is a fashion of being which flows necessarily from the essence of +matter; matter moves by its own energy; its motion is due to forces +inherent in it; the variety of its movements, and of the phenomena +resulting from them, comes from variation of the properties, the +qualities, the combinations, originally found in the different primitive +matters of which nature is the assemblage. + +_Whence came matter?_ Matter has existed from all eternity, and a motion +is one of the inherent and constitutive qualities of matter; motion also +has existed from eternity. + +_The abstract idea of matter must be decomposed._ Instead of regarding +matter as a unique existence, rude, passive, incapable of moving itself, +of combining itself, we ought to look upon it as a Kind of existence, of +which the various individual members comprising the Kind, in spite of +their having some common properties, such as extension, divisibility, +figure, etc., still ought not to be ranged in a single class, nor +comprised in a single denomination. + +_What is nature's process? Continual movement._ From the stone which is +formed in the bowels of the earth by the intimate combination, as they +approach one another, of analogous and similar molecules, up to the sun, +that vast reservoir of heated particles that gives light to the +firmament; from the numb oyster up to man--we observe an uninterrupted +progression, a perpetual chain of combination and movements, from which +there result beings that only differ among one another by the variety of +their elementary matters, and of the combination and proportion of these +elements. From this variety springs an infinite diversity of ways of +existing and acting. In generation, nutrition, preservation, we can see +nothing but different sorts of matter differently combined, each of them +endowed with its own movements, each of them regulated by fixed laws +that cause them to undergo the necessary changes. + +Let us notice here three of the author's definitions. (1.) _Motion is an +effort, by which a body changes or tends to change its place._ (2.) Of +the ultimate composition of Matter, Holbach says nothing definite, +though he assumes molecular movement as its first law. He contents +himself, properly enough perhaps in view of the destination of his +treatise, with a definition "relatively to us." Relatively to us, then, +_Matter in general is all that affects our senses in any fashion +whatever; and the qualities that we attribute to different kinds of +matter, are founded on the different impressions that they produce on +us_. (3.) "When I say that Nature produces an effect, I do not mean to +personify this Nature, which is an abstraction; I mean that the effect +of which I am speaking is the necessary result of the properties of some +one of those beings that compose the great whole under our eyes. Thus, +when I say that Nature intends man to work for his own happiness, I mean +by this that it is of the essence of a being who feels, thinks, wills, +and acts, to work for his own happiness. By Essence I mean that which +constitutes a being what it is, the sum of its properties, or the +qualities according to which it exists and acts as it does." + +_All phenomena are necessary._ No creature in the universe, in its +circumstances and according to its given property, can act otherwise +than as it does act. Fire necessarily burns whatever combustible matter +comes within the sphere of its action. Man necessarily desires what +either is, or seems to be, conducive to his comfort and wellbeing. There +is no independent energy, no isolated cause, no detached activity, in a +universe where all beings are incessantly acting on one another, and +which is itself only one eternal round of movement, imparted and +undergone, according to necessary laws. In a storm of dust raised by a +whirlwind, in the most violent tempest that agitates the ocean, not a +single molecule of dust or of water finds its place by _chance_; or is +without an adequate cause for occupying the precise point where it is +found. So, again, in the terrible convulsions that sometimes overthrow +empires, there is not a single action, word, thought, volition, or +passion in a single agent of such a revolution, whether he be a +destroyer or a victim, which is not necessary, which does not act +precisely as it must act, and which does not infallibly produce the +effects that it is bound to produce, conformably to the place occupied +by the given agent in the moral whirlwind.[152] + + [152] Almost the very words of this passage are to be found in + Diderot. See above, vol. i. p. 237. + +_Order and disorder are abstract terms, and can have no existence in a +Nature, where all is necessary and follows constant laws._ Order is +nothing more than necessity viewed relatively to the succession of +actions. Disorder in the case of any being is nothing more than its +passage to a new order; to a succession of movements and actions of a +different sort from those of which the given being was previously +susceptible. Hence there can never be either monsters or prodigies, +either marvels or miracles, in nature. By the same reasoning, we have no +right to divide the workings of nature into those of Intelligence and +those of Chance. Where all is necessary, Chance can mean nothing save +the limitation of man's knowledge. + +The writer next has a group of chapters (vi.-x.) on Man, his +composition, relations, and destiny. The chief propositions are in +rigorous accord with the general conceptions that have already been set +forth. All that man does, and all that passes in him, are effects of the +energy that is common to him with the other beings known to us. But, +before a true and comprehensive idea of the unity of nature was possible +to him, he was so seized by the variety and complication of his organism +and its movements that it never came into his mind to realise that they +existed in a chain of material necessity, binding him fast to all other +forces and modes of being. Men think that they remedy their ignorance of +things by inventing words; so they explained the working of matter, in +man's case, by associating with matter a hypothetical substance, which +is in truth much less intelligible than matter itself. They regarded +themselves as double; a compound of matter and something else +miraculously united with it, to which they give the name of _mind_ or +_soul_, and then they proudly looked on themselves as beings apart from +the rest of creation. In plain truth, Mind is only an _occult force_, +invented to explain occult qualities and actions, and really explaining +nothing. By Mind they mean no more than the unknown cause of phenomena +that they cannot explain naturally, just as the Red Indians believed +that it was spirits who produced the terrible effects of gunpowder, and +just as the ignorant of our own day believe in angels and demons. How +can we figure to ourselves a form of being, which, though not matter, +still acts on matter, without having points of contact or analogy with +it; and on the other hand itself receives the impulsions of matter, +through the material organs that warn it of the presence of external +objects? How can we conceive the union of body and soul, and how can +this material body enclose, bind, constrain, determine a fugitive form +of being, that escapes every sense? To resolve these difficulties by +calling them mysteries, and to set them down as the effects of the +omnipotence of a Being still more inconceivable than the human Soul +itself, is merely a confession of absolute ignorance. + +It is worth noticing that with the characteristic readiness of the +French materialist school to turn metaphysical and psychological +discussion to practical uses, Holbach discerned the immense new field +which the materialist account of mind opened to the physician. "If +people consulted experience instead of prejudice, medicine would furnish +morality with the key of the human heart; and in curing the body, it +would be often assured of curing the mind too.... The dogma of the +spirituality of the soul has turned morality into a conjectural science, +which does not in the least help us to understand the true way of acting +on men's motives.... Man will always be a mystery for those who insist +on regarding him with the prejudiced eyes of theology, and on +attributing his actions to a principle of which they can never have any +clear ideas" (ch. ix.). It is certainly true as a historical fact that +the rational treatment of insane persons, and the rational view of +certain kinds of crime, were due to men like Pinel, trained in the +materialistic school of the eighteenth century. And it was clearly +impossible that the great and humane reforms in this field could have +taken place before the decisive decay of theology. Theology assumes +perversity as the natural condition of the human heart, and could only +regard insanity as an intolerable exaggeration of this perversity. +Secondly, the absolute independence of mind and body which theology +brought into such overwhelming relief naturally excluded the notion +that, by dealing with the body, you might be doing something to heal the +mind. Perhaps we are now in some danger of overlooking the potency of +the converse illustration of what Holbach says: namely, the efficacy of +mental remedies or preventives in the case of bodily disease. + +If you complain--to resume our exposition--that the mechanism is not +sufficient to explain the principle of the movements and faculties of +the soul, the answer is, that it is in the same case with all the bodies +in nature. In them the simplest movements, the most ordinary phenomena, +the commonest actions, are inexplicable mysteries, whose first +principles are for ever sealed to us. How shall we flatter ourselves +that we know the first principle of gravity, by virtue of which a stone +falls? What do we know of the mechanism that produces the attraction of +some substances, and the repulsion of others? But surely the +incomprehensibility of natural effects is no reason for assigning to +them a cause that is still more incomprehensible than any of those +within our cognisance. + +It is not given to man to know everything; it is not given to him to +know his own origin, nor to penetrate into the essence of things, nor to +mount up to the first principle of things. What is given to him is to +have reason, to have good faith, to concede frankly that he is ignorant +of what he cannot know, and not to supplement his lack of certainty by +words that are unintelligible, and suppositions that are absurd. + +Suns go out and planets perish; new suns are kindled, and new planets +revolve in new paths; and man--infinitely small portion of a globe that +is itself only a small point in immensity--dreams that it is for him +that the universe has been made, imagines that he must be the confidant +of nature, and proudly flatters himself that he must be eternal! O man, +wilt thou never conceive that thou art but an insect of a day? All +changes in the universe; nature contains not a form that is constant; +and yet thou wouldst claim that thy species can never disappear, and +must be excepted from the great universal law of incessant change! + +We may pause for a moment to notice how, in their deliberate humiliation +of the alleged pride of man, the orthodox theologian and the atheistic +Holbach use precisely the same language. But the rebuke of the latter +was sincere; it was indispensable in order to prepare men's minds for +the conception of the universe as a whole. With the theologian the +rebuke has now become little more than a hollow shift, in order to +insinuate the miracle of Grace. The preacher of Naturalism replaces a +futile vanity in being the end and object of the creation, by a fruitful +reverence for the supremacy of human reason, and a right sense of the +value of its discreet and disciplined use. The theologian restores this +absurd and misleading egoism of the race, by representing the Creator as +above all else concerned to work miracles for the salvation of a +creature whose understanding is at once pitifully weak and odiously +perverse, and whose heart is from the beginning wicked, corrupt, and +given over to reprobation. The difference is plainly enormous. The +theologian discourages men; they are to wait for the miracle of +conversion, inert or desperate. The naturalist arouses them; he supplies +them with the most powerful of motives for the energetic use of the most +powerful of their endowments. "Men would always have Grace," says +Holbach, with excellent sense, "if they were well educated and well +governed." And he exclaims on the strange morality of those who +attribute all moral evil to Original Sin, and all the good that we do to +Grace. "No wonder," he says, "that a morality founded on hypotheses so +ridiculous should prove to be of no efficacy."[153] + + [153] Ch. xi. + +This brings us to Holbach's treatment of Morals. The moment had come to +France, which was reached at an earlier period in English speculation, +when the negative course of thought in metaphysics drove men to consider +the basis of ethics. How were right and wrong to hold their own against +the new mechanical conception of the Universe? The same question is +again urgent in men's minds, because the Darwinian hypothesis, and the +mass of evidence for it, have again given a tremendous shake to +theological conceptions, and startled men into a sense of the +precariousness of the official foundations of virtue and duty. + +Holbach begins by a most unflinching exposure of the inconsistency with +all that we know of nature, of the mysterious theory of Free Will. This +remains one of the most effective parts of the book, and perhaps the +work has never been done with a firmer hand. The conclusion is +expressed with a decisiveness that almost seems crude. There is declared +to be no difference between a man who throws himself out of the window +and the man whom I throw out, except this, that the impulse acting on +the second comes from without, and that the impulse determining the fall +of the first comes from within his own mechanism. You have only to get +down to the motive, and you will invariably find that the motive is +beyond the actor's own power or reach. The inexorable logic with which +the author presses the Free-Willer from one retreat to another, and from +shift to shift, leaves his adversary at last exactly as naked and +defenceless before Holbach's vigorous and thoroughly realised Naturalism +as the same adversary must always be before Jonathan Edwards's vigorous +theism. "The system of man's liberty," Holbach says (II. ii.), with some +pungency, "seems only to have been invented in order to put him in a +position to offend his God, and so to justify God in all the evil that +he inflicted on man, for having used the freedom which was so +disastrously conferred upon him." + +If man be not free, what right have we to punish those who cannot help +committing bad actions, or to reward others who cannot help committing +good actions? Holbach gives to this and the various other ways of +describing fatalism as dangerous to society, the proper and perfectly +adequate answer. He turns to the quality of the action, and connects +with that the social attitude of praise and blame. Merit and demerit +are associated with conduct, according as it is thought to affect the +common welfare advantageously or the reverse. My indignation and my +approval are as necessary as the acts that excite these sentiments. My +feelings are neither more nor less spontaneous than the deciding motives +of the actor. Whatever be the necessitating cause of our actions, I have +a right to do my best by praise and blame, by reward and punishment, to +strengthen or to weaken, to prolong or to divert, the motives that are +the antecedents of the action; exactly as I have a right to dam up a +stream, or to divert its course, or otherwise deal with it to suit my +own convenience. Penal laws, for instance, are ways of offering to men +strong motives, to weigh in the scale against the temptation of an +immediate personal gratification. Holbach does not make it quite +distinct that the object of penal legislation is in some cases to give +the offender, as well as other people, a strong reason for thinking +twice before he repeats the offence; yet in other cases, where the +punishment is capital, the legislation does not aim at influencing the +mind of the offender at all, but the minds of other people only. This is +only a side illustration of a common weakness in most arguments on this +subject. A thorough vindication of the penal laws, on the principles of +a systematic fatalism, can only be successful, if we think less of the +wrongdoer in any given case, than of affecting general motives, and +building up a right habit of avoiding or accepting certain classes of +action. + +The writer then justly connects his scientific necessarianism in +philosophy with humanity in punishment. He protests against excessive +cruelty in the infliction of legal penalties, and especially against the +use of torture, on two grounds; first, that experience demonstrates the +uselessness of these superfluous rigours; and, second, that the habit of +witnessing atrocious punishments familiarises both criminals and others +with the idea of cruelty. The acquiescence of Paris for a few months in +the cruelties of the Terror was no doubt due, on Holbach's perfectly +sound principle, to the far worse cruelties with which the laws had +daily made Paris familiar down to the last years of the monarchy. And +Holbach was justified in expecting a greater degree of charitable and +considerate judgment from the establishment in men's minds of a +Necessarian theory. We are no longer vindictive against the individual +doer; we wax energetic against the defective training and the +institutions which allowed wrong motives to weigh more heavily with him +than right ones. Punishment on the theory of necessity ought always to +go with prevention, and is valued just because it is a force on +prevention, and not merely an element in retribution. + +Holbach answers effectively enough the common objection that his +fatalism would plunge men's souls into apathy. If all is necessary, why +shall I not let things go, and myself remain quiet? As if we _could_ +stay our hands from action, if our feelings were trained to proper +sensibility and sympathy. As if it were possible for a man of tender +disposition not to interest himself keenly in all that concerns the lot +of his fellow-creatures. How does our knowledge that death is necessary +prevent us from deploring the loss of a beloved one? How does my +consciousness that it is the inevitable property of fire to burn, +prevent me from using all my efforts to avert a conflagration? + +Finally, when people urge that the doctrine of necessity degrades man by +reducing him to a machine, and likening him to some growth of abject +vegetation, they are merely using a kind of language that was invented +in ignorance of what constitutes the true dignity of man. What is nature +itself but a vast machine, in which our human species is no more than +one weak spring? The good man is a machine whose springs are adapted so +to fulfil their functions as to produce beneficent results for his +fellows. How could such an instrument not be an object of respect and +affection and gratitude? + +In closing this part of Holbach's book, while not dissenting from his +conclusions, we will only remark how little conscious he seems of the +degree to which he empties the notions of praise and blame of the very +essence of their old contents. It is not a modification, but the +substitution of a new meaning under the old names. Praise in its new +sense of admiration for useful and pleasure-giving conduct or motive, is +as powerful a force and as adequate an incentive to good conduct and +good motives, as praise in the old sense of admiration for a deliberate +and voluntary exercise of a free-acting will. But the two senses are +different. The old ethical association is transformed into something +which usage and the requirements of social self-preservation must make +equally potent, but which is not the same. If Holbach and others who +hold necessarian opinions were to perceive this more frankly, and to +work it out fully, they would prevent a confusion that is very +unfavourable to them in the minds of most of those whom they wish to +persuade. It is easy to see that the work next to be done in the region +of morals, is the readjustment of the ethical phraseology of the +volitional stage, to fit the ideas proper to the stage in which man has +become as definitely the object of science as any of the other phenomena +of the universe. + +The chapter (xiii.) on the Immortality of the Soul examines this +memorable growth of human belief with great vigour, and a most +destructive penetration. As we have seen, the author repudiates the +theory of a double energy in man, one material and the other spiritual, +just as he afterwards repudiates the analogous hypothesis of a double +energy in nature, one of the two being due to a spiritual mover outside +of the external phenomena of the universe. Consistently with this +renunciation of a separate spiritual energy in man, Holbach will listen +to no talk of a spiritual energy surviving the destruction of the +mechanical framework. To say that the soul will feel, think, enjoy, +suffer, after the death of the body, is to pretend that a clock broken +into a thousand pieces can continue to strike or to mark the hours. And +having emphatically proclaimed his own refusal to share the common +belief, he proceeds with good success to carry the war into the country +of those who profess that belief, and defend it as the safeguard of +society. We need not go through his positions. They are substantially +those which are familiar to everybody who has read the Third Book of +Lucretius's poem, and remembers those magnificent passages which are not +more admirable in their philosophy than they are noble and moving in +their poetic expression:-- + + Nam veluti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis + In tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus + Interdum, nilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam + Quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura. + Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest + Non radii solis neque lucida tela diei + Discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque. + +And so forth, down to the exquisite lines-- + + "Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxoi + Optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati + Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent. + Non poteris factis florentibus esse, tuisque + Praesidium. Misero misere," aiunt, "omnia ademit + Una dies infesta tibi tot praemia vitae." + Illud in his rebus non addunt, "nec tibi earum + Jam desiderium rerum super insidet una." + Quod bene si videant animo dictisque sequantur, + Dissolvant animi magno se angore metuque. + "Tu quidem ut es leto sopitus, sic eris aevi + Quod superest cunctis privatu' doloribus aegris: + At nos horrifico cinefactum te prope busto + Insatiabiliter deflevimus, aeternumque + Nulla dies nobis maerorem e pectore demet." + Illud ab hoc igitur quaerendum est, quid sit amari + Tanto opere, ad somnum si res redit atque quietem, + Cur quisquam æterno possit tabescere luctu. + +We may regret that Holbach, in dealing with these solemn and touching +things, should have been so devoid of historic spirit as to buffet +David, Mahomet, Chrysostom, and other holy personages, as superstitious +brigands. And we may believe that he has certainly been too sweeping in +denying any deterrent efficacy whatever to the fires of hell. But where +Holbach found one person in 1770, he would find a thousand in 1880, to +agree with him, that it is possible to think of commendations and +inducements to virtue, that shall be at least as efficacious as the +fiction of eternal torment, without being as cruel, as wicked, as +infamous to the gods, and as degrading to men. + +From his attack on Immortality, Holbach naturally turns with new energy, +as do all who have passed beyond that belief, to the improvement of the +education, the laws, the institutions, which are to strengthen and +implant the true motives for turning men away from wrong and inspiring +them to right. He draws a stern and prolonged indictment against the +kings of the earth, in words that we have already quoted above, as +unjust, incapable, depraved by license and impunity. One passage in this +chapter is the scripture of a terrible prophecy, the very handwriting on +the wall, which was to be so accurately fulfilled almost in the lifetime +of the writer:--"The state of society is now a state of war of the +Sovereign against all, and of each of its members against the other. Man +is bad, not because he was born bad, but because he is made so; the +great and the powerful crush with impunity the needy and the +unfortunate, and these in turn seek to repay all the ill that has been +done to them. They openly or privily attack a native land that is a +cruel stepmother to them; she gives all to some of her children, while +others she strips of all. Sorely they punish her for her partiality; +they show her that the motives borrowed from another life are powerless +against the passions and the bitter wrath engendered by a corrupt +administration in the life here; and that all the terror of the +punishments of this world is impotent against necessity, against +criminal habits, against a dangerous organisation that no education has +ever been applied to correct" (ch. xiv.). In another place: "A society +enjoys all the happiness of which it is susceptible so soon as the +greater number of its members are fed, clothed, housed; are able, in a +word, without an excessive toil, to satisfy the wants that nature has +made necessities to them. Their imagination is content so soon as they +have the assurance that no force can ravish from them the fruits of +their industry, and that they labour for themselves. By a sequence of +human madness, whole nations are forced to labour, to sweat, to water +the earth with their tears, merely to keep up the luxury, the fancies, +the corruption of a handful of insensates, a few useless creatures. So +have religious and political errors changed the universe into a valley +of tears." This is an incessant refrain that sounds with hoarse +ground-tone under all the ethics and the metaphysics of the book. There +are scores of pages in which the same idea is worked out with a sombre +vehemence, that makes us feel as if Robespierre were already haranguing +in the National Assembly, Camille Desmoulins declaiming in the gardens +of the Palais Royal, and Danton thundering at the Club of the +Cordeliers. We already watch the smoke of the flaming châteaux, going up +like a savoury and righteous sacrifice to the heavens. + +From this point to the end of the first part of the book, it is not so +much philosophy as the literature of a political revolution. There is a +curious parenthesis in vindication not only of a contempt for death, but +even of suicide; the writer pointing out with some malice that Samson, +Eleazar, and other worthies caused their own death, and that Jesus +Christ himself, if really the Son of God, dying of his own free grace, +was a suicide, to say nothing of the various ascetic penitents who have +killed themselves by inches.[154] "The fear of death, after all," he +says, summing up his case, "will only make cowards; the fear of its +alleged consequences will only make fanatics or melancholy pietists, as +useless to themselves as to others. Death is a resource that we do ill +to take away from oppressed virtue, reduced, as many a time it is, by +the injustice of men to desperation." This was the doctrine in which the +revolutionary generation were brought up, and the readiness with which +men in those days inflicted death on themselves and on others showed how +profoundly it had entered their souls.[155] We think, as we read, of +Vergniaud and Condorcet carrying their doses of poison, of Barbaroux +with his pistol, and Valazé with his knife, of Roland walking forth from +Rouen among the trees on the Paris road, and there driving a cane-sword +into his breast, as calmly as if he had been throwing off a useless +vesture. + + [154] This is not original in Holbach. Diderot's article on Suicide + in the Encyclopædia (_Oeuv._, xvii. 235) contains the usual + arguments of the Church against suicide, with some casuistic + illustrations, but it also contains an account of Dr. Donne's + vindication of Suicide, called _Bia-thanatos_, 1651, in which these + remarks of Holbach occur verbatim. Hallam found Donne's book so dull + and pedantic that he declares no one would be induced to kill + himself by reading such a book unless he were threatened with + another volume. + + [155] Hume's suppressed Essay on Suicide (see the edition by Mr. + Green and Mr. Grose, 1875, vol. ii. 405) is a much more exhaustive + argument than Holbach's, though the language of the two pieces is + sometimes curiously alike. Rousseau in this, as in so many other + moralities--marriage, for instance--was on the side of the Church, + only allowing suicide where a man happens to be stricken by a + painful and incurable disease. See the two famous letters in the + _New Heloïsa_, Pt. iii. 21, 22. + +Holbach has been accused of reducing virtue to a far-sighted +egoism,[156] and detached and crude propositions may be quoted, that +perhaps give a literal warrant for the charge. Nominally he bases +morality on happiness, but his real base is the happiness of the +greatest number. To borrow Mr. Sidgwick's classification, Holbach is a +universalistic and not an egoistic Hedonist. The spirit of what he says +is, in fact, not individualist but social. "The good man is he to whom +true ideas have shown his own interest or his own happiness to lie in +such a way of acting, that others are forced to love and approve for +their own interest.... It is man who is most necessary to the well-being +of man.... Merit and virtue are founded on the nature of man, on his +needs.... It is by virtue that we are able to earn the goodwill, the +confidence, the esteem, of all those with whom we have relations; in a +word, no man can be happy alone.... To be virtuous is to place one's +interest in what accords with the interest of others; it is to enjoy the +benefits and the delights that one is the means of diffusing among +them.... The sentiments of self-love become a hundred times more +delicious when we see them shared by all those with whom our destiny +binds us. The habit of virtue excites wants within us that only virtue +can satisfy; thus it is that virtue is ever its own recompense, and pays +itself with the blessings that it procures for others" (ch. xv.) + + [156] Taine's _Ancien Régime_, p. 287. + +Surely it is a childish or pedantic misinterpretation to represent this +as egoism, whether armed or not with keen sight; and still worse to talk +of it as over-throwing the barriers that keep in the throng of selfish +appetites. "Every citizen should be made to feel that the section of +which he is a member is a Whole, that cannot subsist and be happy +without virtue; experience should teach him at every moment that the +wellbeing of the members can only result from that of the whole body" +(ch. xv.) To say of such a doctrine as this, that it is to invite every +individual to make himself happy after his own will and fashion, and to +pull down the barriers of the selfish appetites, is the very absurdity +of philosophic prejudice. It is for us to look at Holbach's ethical +doctrine in its widest practical application, and if we place ourselves +at a social point of view, we cannot but perceive that the principle +laid down in the words that we have just quoted, was the indispensable +weapon against the anti-social selfishness of the oppressive privileged +class. These words represent the ethical side of every popular and +democratic movement. You may class Holbach's morality as the morality of +self-interest, if you please; but its true base lay in social sympathy. +To proclaim happiness as the test of virtue was to develop the doctrine +of naturalism; for happiness is the outcome of a conformity to the +natural condition of things. On the other hand, to insist that virtue +lies in promoting the happiness of the body social as a whole, was to +preach the most sovereign of all truths, in a state of things where the +body social as a whole was kept distracted and miserable by the +selfishness of a scanty few of its members. The Church, nominally built +upon the morality of the Golden Rule, was perverted into being the great +organ of sinister self-interest. The Atheists, apparently formulating +the morality of the Epicureans, were in effect the teachers of public +spirit and beneficence. And, taught in such circumstances, public +spirit could only mean revolution. We may doubt whether Holbach had +thought out the very different questions that may be fused under the +easy phrase of a basis for morals. What are the sanctions of moral +precepts? Why ought each to seek the happiness of all? What is the mark +of the difference between right and wrong? What is the foundation of +Conscience, or that habit of mind which makes right as such seem +preferable to wrong? Clearly these are all entirely separate topics. Yet +Holbach, it is obvious, had not divided them in his own mind, and he +seems to think that one and the same answer will serve for what he +mistook for one and the same question. He found it enough to say that +every individual wishes to be happy, and that he cannot be happy unless +he is on good terms with his neighbours; this reciprocity of needs and +services he called the basis of morals. For a rough and common-sense +view of the matter, such as Holbach sought to impress on his readers, +this perhaps will do very well; but it is not the product of accurate +and scientific thinking. + +It is not necessary, again, to point out how Holbach, while expounding +the System of Nature, left out of sight the great natural process by +which the moral acquisition of one generation becomes the starting-point +of further acquisitions in the next. He forgot the stages. He talks of +Man as if all the races and eras of man were alike, and also as if each +individual deliberately worked out sums in happiness on his own +account. It would not only have been more true, according to modern +opinions, but more in accordance with Holbach's own view of necessity, +and of the irremovable chain that binds a man's conduct fast to a series +of conditions that existed before he was born, if he had recognised +conscience, moral preferences, interest in the public good, and all that +he called the basis of morals, as coming to a man with the rest of the +apparatus that the past imposes on the present, and not as due to any +process of personal calculation. + +Holbach had not clearly thought out the growth, the changes, varieties, +and transformations among moral ideals. He was, of course, far too much +in the full current of the eighteenth century not to feel that +exultation in life and its most exuberant manifestations, which the +conventional moralists of the theological schools had set down and +proscribed as worldliness and fleshliness. "_Action_," he says in this +very chapter; "_action is the true element of the human mind_; no sooner +does man cease to act, than he falls into pain and weariness of spirit." +No doubt this is too absolutely stated, if we are to take some millions +of orientals into our account of the human mind, but it has been true of +the nations of the west. Yet the recognition of this law did not prevent +the writer from occasionally falling into some of the old canting +commonplaces about people being happiest who have fewest wants. As if, +on the contrary, that action which he describes as the true element of +man, were not directly connected with the incessant multiplication of +wants. We may take this, however, as a casual lapse into the common form +of moralists of ascetic ages. In substance the _System of Nature_ is +essentially a protest against ascetic and quietist ideals. + + * * * * * + +The second half of the _System of Nature_ treats of the Deity; the +proofs of his existence; his attributes; the manner in which he +influences the happiness of men. What is remarkable is that here we have +an onslaught, not merely on the Church with its overgrowth of abuses, +nor on Christianity with its overgrowth of superstitions, but on that +great conception which is enthroned on unseen heights far above any +Church and any form of Christianity. It is theism, in its purest as in +its impurest shape, that the writer condemns. No more elaborate, +trenchant, and unflinching attack on the very fundamental propositions +of theology, natural or revealed, is to be found in literature. Pure +rationalism has nothing to add to this destructive onslaught. The tone +is not truly philosophic, because the writer habitually regards the +notion of a God as an abnormal and morbid excrescence, and not as a +natural growth in human development. He takes no trouble, and it would +have been an incredible departure from the mental fashion of the time if +he had taken any trouble, to explain theology, or to penetrate behind +its forms to those needs, aspirations, and qualities of human +constitution in which theology had its best justification, if not its +earliest source. He regards it as an enemy to be mercilessly routed, +not as a force with which he has to make his account. Still, as a piece +of rough and remorseless polemic, the second part of the _System of +Nature_ remains full of remarkable energy and power. The most eager +Nescient or Denier to be found in the ranks of the assailants of +theology in our own day is timorous and moderate compared with this +direct and on-pressing swordsman. And the attack, on its own purely +rationalistic ground, is thoroughly comprehensive. It is not made on an +outwork here, or an outwork there; it encircles the whole compass of the +defence. The conception of God is examined and resisted from every +possible side--cosmological, ethical, metaphysical. To say that the +argument is one-sided, is only to say that it is an attack. But the fact +that the writer omits the contributions made under the temporal shelter +of theology to morality and civilisation, does not alter the other fact +that he states with unsurpassed vigour all that can be said against the +intellectual absurdities and moral obliquities that theology has +nourished and approved, and only too firmly planted. + +Of the elaborate examination of the proofs of the existence of a God +adduced by Descartes, Samuel Clarke, Malebranche, and Newton (ch. iv. +and v.), we need only say that its whole force might have been summed up +in the single proposition that the author once for all repudiates any _à +priori_ basis for any beliefs whatever. It would have been sufficient +for philosophic purposes if he had contented himself with justifying +and establishing that position. The fabric of orthodox demonstration +would have fallen to the ground after the destruction of its +foundations. Holbach rejected the whole _à priori_ system; it was a +matter of course therefore that he rejected each one of the twelve +propositions which Clarke had invented by the _à priori_ method. Holbach +held that experience is the source and limit of knowledge, reasoning, +and belief, and rejected as a fantastic impertinence of dreamy +metaphysicians the assumption that our conceptions measure the +necessities of objective existence. From that point of view, merely to +state was to empty of all demonstrating quality such assertions as that +something has existed from all eternity; an independent and immutable +Being has existed from all eternity; this immutable and independent +Being exists by himself, and is incomprehensible; the Being existing +necessarily is necessarily single and unique--and so forth. Even if we +accept this _à priori_ method, and accept the first assumption that +something must have existed from all eternity, it was open to Holbach to +say, as Locke said on setting himself to examine Descartes' proof of a +God: "I found that, by it, senseless matter might be the first eternal +being and cause of all things, as well as an immaterial intelligent +spirit." But what we feel is that the whole controversy is being +conducted between two disputants on two different planes of thought, +between two creatures dwelling in different elements. To apply to +Clarke's propositions, or to the slightly different propositions of +Malebranche, the test of experience, to measure them by the principle of +relativity, must be fatal in the minds of such persons as already accept +experience as the only right test in such a matter. It is exactly as if +the action of an Italian opera should be criticised in the light of the +conditions of real life: the whole performance must in an instant figure +as an absurdity. No partisan of the lyric drama would consent to have it +so judged, and the philosophic partisans of theology would perhaps have +been wiser to keep clear of pretensions to _prove_ their master thesis. +They might have been content to keep it as an emotional creation, an +imaginative hypothesis, a noble simplification of the chimeras of the +primitive consciousness of the race. + +As it was, neither side could be convinced by the other, for they had no +common criterion. They had hardly even a common language. The only +effect of Holbach's blows was to persuade the bystanders who thronged +round the lists in that eager time, that the so-called proofs with which +the high philosophic names were associated, were only proofs to those +who accepted a way of thinking which it was the very characteristic of +that age decisively to reject. The controversial force of this part of +the attack simply lay in the piercing thoroughness with which the +irreconcilable discrepancies between the seventeenth century notion of +demonstration, and that notion in the eighteenth, were forced upon the +reader's attention. + +One other remark may be made. Whatever we may think of the success of +the author's assault on the theistic hypothesis of the universe, it is +impossible to deny that he at least succeeds in repelling the various +assaults levelled on what is vulgarly termed atheism. He rightly urges +the unreasonableness of taxing those who have formed to themselves +intelligible notions of the moving power of the universe, with denying +the existence of such a power; the absurdity of charging the very men +who found everything that comes to pass in the world on fixed and +constant laws, with attributing everything to chance. If by Atheist, he +says, you mean a man who would deny the existence of a force inherent in +matter, and without which you cannot conceive nature, and if to this +moving force you give the name of God, then an Atheist would be a +madman. Holbach then describes the sense in which Atheists both exist +and, as he thinks, may well justify their existence. Their qualities are +as follows: To be guided only by experience and the testimony of their +senses, and to perceive nothing in nature except matter, essentially +active and mobile and capable of producing all the beings that we see; +to forego all search for a chimerical cause, and not to mistake for +better knowledge of the moving force of the universe, merely a separate +attribution of it to a Being placed outside of the great whole; to +confess in good faith that their mind can neither conceive nor reconcile +the negative attributes and theological abstractions with the human and +moral qualities that are ascribed to the Divinity. + +The chapter (ix.) on the superiority of Naturalism over Theism as a +basis for the most wholesome kind of Morality, is still worth reading by +men in search of weapons against the presumptuous commonplaces of the +pulpit. In this sphere Holbach is as earnest and severe as the most +rigorous moralist that ever wrote. People who talk of the moral levity +of the destructive literature of the eighteenth century would be +astonished, if they could bring themselves to read the books about which +they talk, by the elevation of the _System of Nature_. The writer points +out the necessarily evil influence upon morals of a Book popularly taken +to be inspired, in which the Divinity is represented as now prescribing +virtue, but now again prescribing crime and absurdity; who is sometimes +the friend, and sometimes the enemy, of the human race; who is sometimes +pictured as reasonable, just, and beneficent, and at other times as +insensate: unjust, capricious, and despotic. Such divinities, and the +priests of such divinities, are incapable of being the models, types, +and arbiters of virtue and righteousness. No; we must seek a base for +morality in the necessity of things. Whatever the Cause that placed man +in the abode in which he dwells, and endowed him with his +faculties--whether we regard the human species as the work of Nature, or +of some intelligent Being distinct from Nature--the existence of man, +such as we see him to be, is a fact. We see in him a being who feels, +thinks, has intelligence, has self-love, who strives to make life +agreeable to himself, and who lives in society with beings like +himself; beings whom by his conduct he may make his friends or his +enemies. It is on these universal sentiments that you ought to base +morality, which is nothing more nor less than the science of the duties +of man living in society. The moment you attempt to find a base for +morals outside of human nature, you go wrong; no other is solid and +sure. The aid of the so-called sanctions of theology is not only +needless, but mischievous. The alliance of the realities of duty with +theological phantoms exposes duty to the same ruin which daylight brings +to the superstition that has been associated with duty. It sets up the +arbitrary demands of a varying something, named Piety, in place of the +plain requirements of Right. As for saying that without God man cannot +have moral sentiments, or, in other words, cannot distinguish between +vice and virtue, it is as if one said that, without the idea of God, man +would not feel the necessity of eating and drinking. + +The writer then breaks out into a long and sustained contrast, from +which we may make a short extract to illustrate the heat to which the +battle had now come: + +"Nature invites man to love himself, incessantly to augment the sum of +his happiness: Religion orders him to love only a formidable God who is +worthy of hatred; to detest and despise himself, and to sacrifice to his +terrible idol the sweetest and most lawful pleasures. Nature bids man +consult his reason, and take it for his guide: Religion teaches him that +this reason is corrupted, that it is a faithless, truthless guide, +implanted by a treacherous God, to mislead his creatures. Nature tells +man to seek light, to search for the truth: Religion enjoins upon him to +examine nothing, to remain in ignorance. Nature says to man: 'Cherish +glory, labour to win esteem, be active, courageous, industrious:' +Religion says to him: 'Be humble, abject, pusillanimous, live in +retreat, busy thyself in prayer, meditation, devout rites; be useless to +thyself, and do nothing for others.' Nature proposes for her model, men +endowed with noble, energetic, beneficent souls, who have usefully +served their fellow-citizens: Religion makes a show and a boast of the +abject spirits, the pious enthusiasts, the phrenetic penitents, the vile +fanatics, who for their ridiculous opinions have troubled empires.... +Nature tells children to honour, to love, to hearken to their parents, +to be the stay and support of their old age: Religion bids them prefer +the oracle of their God, and to trample father and mother under foot, +when divine interests are concerned. Nature commands the perverse man to +blush for his vices, for his shameless desires, his crimes: Religion +says to the most corrupt: 'Fear to kindle the wrath of a God whom thou +knowest not: but if against his laws thou hast committed crime, remember +that he is easy to appease and of great mercy: go to his temple, humble +thyself at the feet of his ministers, expiate thy misdeeds by +sacrifices, offerings, prayers; these will wash away thy stain in the +eyes of the Eternal.'" + +Of course, philosophical criticism would have much to say about this +glowing mass of furious propositions; for the first voice of Nature +hardly whispers into the ear of the primitive man all these high and +generous promptings. But if by Nature we here understand the +Encyclopædists, and by Religion the Catholic Church in France at that +moment, then Holbach's fiery antitheses are a tolerably fair account of +the matter. And the political side of the indictment was hardly less +just, though its hardihood appalled men like Voltaire. + +"Nature says to man, 'Thou art free, and no power on earth can lawfully +strip thee of thy rights:' Religion cries to him that he is a slave +condemned by God to groan under the rod of God's representatives. Nature +bids man to love the country that gave him birth, to serve it with all +loyalty, to bind his interests to hers against every hand that might be +raised upon her: Religion commands him to obey without a murmur the +tyrants that oppress his country, to take their part against her, to +chain his fellow-citizens under their lawless caprices. Yet if the +Sovereign be not devoted enough to his priests, Religion instantly +changes her tone; she incites the subjects to rebellion, she makes +resistance a duty, she cries aloud that we must obey God rather than +man.... If the nature of man were consulted on Politics, which +supernatural ideas have so shamefully depraved, it would contribute far +more than all the religion in the world to make communities happy, +powerful, and prosperous under reasonable authority.... This nature +would teach princes that they are men and not gods; that they are +citizens charged by their fellow-citizens with watching over the safety +of all.... Instead of attributing to the divine vengeance all the wars, +the famines, the plagues that lay nations low, would it not have been +more useful to show them that such calamities are due to the passions, +the indolence, the tyranny of their princes, who sacrifice the nations +to their hideous delirium? Natural evils demand natural remedies; ought +not experience, therefore, long ago to have undeceived mortals as to +those supernatural remedies, those expiations, prayers, sacrifices, +fastings, processions, that all the peoples of the earth have so vainly +opposed to the woes that overwhelmed them?... Let us recognise the plain +truth, then, that it is these supernatural ideas that have obscured +morality, corrupted politics, hindered the advance of the sciences, and +extinguished happiness and peace even in the very heart of man." + + * * * * * + +Holbach was a vigorous propagandist. Two years after the appearance of +his master-work he drew up its chief propositions in a short and popular +volume, called _Good sense; or Natural Ideas opposed to Supernatural_. +His zeal led him to write and circulate a vast number of other tractates +and short volumes, the bare list of which would fill several of these +pages, all inciting their readers to an intellectual revolt against the +reigning system in Church and State. He lived to get a glimpse of the +very edge and sharp bend of the great cataract. He died in the spring of +1789. If he had only lived five years longer, he would have seen the +great church of Notre Dame solemnly consecrated by legislative decree to +the worship of Reason, bishops publicly trampling on crosier and ring +amid universal applause, and vast crowds exulting in processions whose +hero was an ass crowned with a mitre. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +RAYNAL'S HISTORY OF THE INDIES. + + +"Since Montesquieu's _Esprit des Lois_," says Grimm in his chronicle, +"our literature has perhaps produced no monument that is worthier to +pass to the remotest posterity, and to consecrate the progress of our +enlightenment and diligence for ever, than Raynal's _Philosophical and +Political History of European settlements and commerce in the two +Indies_." Yet it is perhaps safe to say that not one hundred persons now +living have ever read two chapters of the book for which this immortal +future was predicted. + +When the revolutionary floods gradually subsided, some of the monuments +of the previous age began to show themselves above the surface of the +falling waters. They had lost amid the stormy agitation of the deluge +the shining splendour of their first days; still men found something to +attract them after the revolution, as their grandfathers had done before +it, in the pages of the _Spirit of Laws_, of the _New Heloïsa_, and the +endless satires, romances, and poems of the great Voltaire. Raynal's +book was not among these dead glories that came to life again. It +disappeared utterly. Nor can it be said that it deserved a kinder fate. +Its only interest now is for those who care to know the humour of men's +minds in those præ-revolutionary days, when they could devour a long +political and commercial history as if it had been a novel or a play, +and when the turn of men's interests made of such a book "the Bible of +two worlds for nearly twenty years." + +Raynal is no commanding figure. Born in 1711, he came to Paris from +southern France, and joined the troop of needy priests who swarmed in +the great city, hopefully looking out for the prizes of the Church. +Raynal is the hero of an anecdote which is told of more than one abbé of +the time; whether literally true or not, it is probably a correct +illustration of the evil pass to which ecclesiastical manners had come. +He had, it was said, nothing to live upon save the product of a few +masses. The Abbé Prévost received twenty sous for saying a mass; he paid +the Abbé Laporte fifteen sous to be his deputy; the Abbé Laporte paid +eight sous to Raynal to say it in his stead. But the adventurer was not +destined to remain in this abject case, parasite humbly feeding on +parasite. He turned bookmaker, and wrote a history of the +Stadtholderate, a volume about the English Parliament, and, of all +curious subjects for a man of letters of that date, an account of the +divorce of King Henry the Eighth of England. He visited this country +more than once, and had the honour in 1754 of being chosen a fellow of +the Royal Society of London.[157] We have some difficulty in +understanding how he came by such fame, just as we cannot tell how the +man who had been glad to earn a few pence by saying masses, came shortly +to be rich and independent. He is believed to have engaged in some +colonial ventures, and to have had good luck. His enemies spread the +dark report that he had made money in the slave trade, but in those days +of incensed party spirit there was no limit to virulent invention. It is +at least undeniable that Raynal put his money to generous uses. Among +other things, he had the current fancy of the time, that the world could +be made better by the copious writing of essays, and he delighted in +founding prizes for them at the provincial academies. It was at Lyons +that he proposed the famous thesis, not unworthy of consideration even +at this day: _Has the discovery of America been useful or injurious to +the human race?_ + + [157] The _Biographie Universelle_, followed by the Encyclopædia + Britannica, tells a story of Raynal visiting the House of Commons; + the Speaker, says the writer, learning that he was in the gallery, + "suspended the discussion until a distinguished place had been found + for the French philosopher." This must be set down as a myth. The + journals have been searched, and there is no official confirmation + of the statement, improbable enough on the face of it. + +Raynal was one of the most assiduous of the guests at the philosophic +meals of Baron Holbach and Helvétius; he was very good-humoured, easy to +live with, and free from that irritable self-consciousness and self-love +which is too commonly the curse of the successful writer, as of other +successful persons. He did not go into company merely to make the hours +fly. With him, as with Helvétius, society was a workshop. He pressed +every one with questions as to all matters, great or small, with which +the interlocutor was likely to be familiar.[158] Horace Walpole met him +at "dull Holbach's," and the abbé at once began to tease him across the +table as to the English colonies. Walpole knew as little about them as +he knew about Coptic, so he made signs to his tormentor that he was +deaf. On another occasion Raynal dined at Strawberry Hill, and mortified +the vanity of his host by looking at none of its wonders himself, and +keeping up such a fire of talk and cross-examination as to prevent +anybody else from looking at them. "There never was such an impertinent +and tiresome old gossip," cried our own gossip.[159] + + [158] Morellet, i. 221. + + [159] _Walpole's Corresp._, vi. 147 and 445. + +Raynal failed to give better men than Horace Walpole the sense of power. +When his greatest work took the public by storm, nobody would believe +that he had written it. Just as in the case of the _System of Nature_, +so people set down the _History of the Indies_ to Diderot, and even the +most moderate critics insisted that he had at any rate written not less +than one-third of it. Many less conspicuous scribes were believed to +have been Raynal's drudges. We can have no difficulty in supposing that +so bulky a work engaged many hands. There is no unity of composition, no +equal scale, no regularity of proportion; on the contrary, rhapsody and +sober description, history and moral disquisition, commerce, law, +physics, and metaphysics are all poured in, almost as if by hazard. We +seem to watch half a dozen writers, each dealing with matters according +to his own individual taste and his own peculiar kind of knowledge. + +Indeed, it is a curious and most interesting feature in the literary +activity of France in the eighteenth century, that the egoism and vanity +of authorship were reduced by the conditions of the time to a lower +degree than in any other generation since letters were invented. The +suppression of self by the Jesuits was hardly more complete than the +suppression of self by the most brilliant and effective of the +insurgents against Jesuitry. Such intimate association as exists in our +day between a given book and a given personality, was then thoroughly +shaken by the constant necessity for secrecy. As we have seen, people +hardly knew who set up that momentous landmark, the _System of Nature_. +Voltaire habitually and vehemently denied every one of his most +characteristic pieces, and though in the buzz of Parisian gossip the +right name was surely hit upon for such unique performances as +Voltaire's, yet the fame was far too broken and uncertain to reward his +vanity, if the better part of himself had not been fully and sincerely +engaged in public objects in which vanity had no part. Rousseau was an +exception, but then Rousseau was in truth a reactionist, and not a loyal +member of the great company of reformers. As for Diderot, he valued the +author's laurel so cheaply, as we have seen, that with a gigantic +heedlessness and Saturnian weariness of the plaudits or hisses of the +audience, while supremely interested in the deeper movements of the +tragi-comic drama of the world, he left some of his masterpieces lying +unknown in forgotten chests. Again, in the case of the Encyclopædia, as +we have also seen, Turgot as well as less eminent men bargained that +their names should not be made public. Wherever a telling blow was to be +dealt with the sword, or a new stone to be laid with the trowel, men +were always found ready to spend themselves and be spent, without taking +thought whether their share in the work should be nicely measured and +publicly identified, or absorbed and lost in the whole of which it was a +part. + +Whatever may have been the secret of the authorship of Raynal's book, +and whether or no even the general conception of such a performance was +due to Raynal, it is at least certain that the original author, whoever +he may have been, divined a remarkable literary opportunity. This +divination is in authorship what felicity of experiment is to the +scientific discoverer. The book came into immediate vogue. It was +published in 1772; a second edition was demanded within a couple of +years, and it is computed that more than twenty editions, as well as +countless pirated versions, were exhausted before the universal +curiosity and interest were satisfied. As the subject took the writer +over the whole world, so he found readers in every part of the habitable +globe. And among them were men for whom destiny had lofty parts in +store. Zeal carried one young reader so far that he collected all the +boldest passages into a single volume, and published it as _L'Esprit de +Raynal_; an achievement for which, as he was a member of a religious +congregation, he afterwards got into some trouble.[160] Franklin read +and admired the book in London. Black Toussaint Louverture in his +slave-cabin at Hayti laboriously spelled his way through its pages, and +found in their story of the wrongs of his race and their passionate +appeal against slavery, the first definite expression of thoughts which +had already been dimly stirred in his generous spirit by the brutalities +that were every day enacted under his eyes. Gibbon solemnly immortalised +Raynal by describing him, in one of the great chapters of the _Decline +and Fall_, as a writer who "with a just confidence had prefixed to his +own history the honourable epithets of political and +philosophical."[161] Robertson, whose excellent _History of America_, +covering part of Raynal's ground, was not published until 1777, +complimented Raynal on his ingenuity and eloquence, and reproduced some +of Raynal's historical speculations.[162] + + [160] Hédouin by name. + + [161] Ch. xxi. + + [162] _Works_, xii. 189 (edition of 1822). + +Frederick the Great began to read it, and for some days spoke +enthusiastically to his French satellites at dinner of its eloquence and +reason. All at once he became silent, and he never spoke a word about +the book again. He had suddenly come across half a dozen pages of +vigorous rhapsodising, delivered for his own good: + +"Oh Frederick, Frederick! thou wast gifted by nature with a bold and +lively imagination, a curiosity that knew no bounds, a passion for +industry. Humanity, everywhere in chains, everywhere cast down, wiped +away her tears at the sight of thy earliest labours, and seemed to find +a solace for all her woes in the hope of finding in thee her avenger. On +the dread theatre of war thy swiftness, skill, and order amazed all +nations. Thou wast regarded as the model of warrior-kings. There exists +a still more glorious name: the name of citizen-king.... Once more open +thy heart to the noble and virtuous sentiments that were the delight of +thy young days." He then rebukes Frederick for keeping money locked up +in his military chest, instead of throwing it into circulation, for his +violent and arbitrary administration, and for the excessive imposts +under which his people groaned. "Dare still more; give rest to the +earth. Let the authority of thy mediation, and the power of thy arms, +force peace on the restless nations. The universe is the only country of +a great man, and the only theatre for thy genius; become then the +benefactor of nations."[163] + + [163] Book v. § 31. + +In after days, when Raynal visited Berlin, overflowing with vanity and +self-importance, he succeeded with some difficulty in procuring an +interview with the King, and then Frederick took his revenge. He told +Raynal that years ago he had read the history of the Stadtholderate, and +of the English Parliament. Raynal modestly interposed that since those +days he had written more important works. "_I don't know them_," said +the king, in a tone that closed the subject.[164] + + [164] _Thiébault_, iii. 172; where there is a long and most + disparaging account of Raynal, by no means incredible, though we + must remember that a competent judge has pronounced Thiébault to be + "stupid, incorrect, and the prey of stupidities." + +More disinterested persons than Frederick set as low a value on Raynal's +performance. One writer even compares the book to a quack mounted on a +waggon, retailing to the gaping crowd a number of commonplaces against +despotism and religion, without a single curious thing about them except +their hardihood.[165] But the instinct of the gaping crowd was sound. +Measured by the standard and requirements of modern science, Raynal's +history is no high achievement. It may perhaps be successfully contended +that the true conception of history has on the whole gone back, rather +than advanced, within the last hundred years. There have been many signs +in our own day of its becoming narrow, pedantic, and trivial. It +threatens to degenerate from a broad survey of great periods and +movements of human societies into vast and countless accumulations of +insignificant facts, sterile knowledge, and frivolous antiquarianism, in +which the spirit of epochs is lost, and the direction, meaning, and +summary of the various courses of human history all disappear. +Voltaire's _Essai sur les Moeurs_ shows a perfectly true notion of what +kind of history is worth either writing or reading. Robertson's _View of +the Progress of Society in Europe from the Fall of the Roman Empire to +the Sixteenth Century_ is--with all its imperfections--admirably just, +sensible, and historic in its whole scope and treatment. Raynal himself, +though far below such writers as Voltaire and Robertson in judgment and +temper, yet is not without a luminous breadth of outlook, and does not +forget the superior importance of the effect of events on European +development, over any possible number of minute particularities in the +events themselves. He does not forget, for instance, in describing the +Portuguese conquests in the East Indies, to point out that the most +remarkable and momentous thing about them was the check that they +inflicted on the growth of the Ottoman Power, at a moment in European +history when the Christian states were least able to resist, and least +likely to combine against the designs of Solyman.[166] This is really +the observation best worth making about the Portuguese conquests, and it +illustrates Raynal's habit, and the habit of the good minds of that +century, of incessantly measuring events by their consequences to +western enlightenment and freedom, and of dropping out of sight all +irrelevancies of detail. + + [165] Sénac de Meilhan, 123. + + [166] Book i. § 7. Robertson works out this reflection in his + _Historical Disquisition concerning Ancient India_, iv. § 8. + +This signal merit need not blind us to Raynal's shortcomings in the +other direction. There are very few dates. The total absence of +references and authorities was condemned by Gibbon as "the unpardonable +blemish of what is otherwise a most entertaining book." There is no +criticism. As Raynal was a mere literary compiler, it was not to be +expected that he should rise above the common deficiencies in the +thought and methods of his time. It was not to be expected that he +should deal with the various groups of phenomena among primitive races, +in the scientific spirit of modern anthropology. It is true that he was +contemporary with De Brosses, who ranks among the founders of the study +of the origins of human culture. One sentence of De Brosses would have +warned Raynal against a vicious method, which made nearly all that was +written about primitive men by him and everybody else of the same +school, utterly false, worthless, and deluding. "It is not in +possibilities," said De Brosses, "it is in man himself that we must +study man: it is not for us to imagine what man might have done, or +ought to have done, but to observe what he did." Of the origin and +growth of a myth, for example, Raynal had no rational idea. When he +found a myth, what he did was to reduce it to the terms of human action, +and then coolly to describe it as historical. The ancient Peruvian +legend that laws and arts had been brought to their land by two divine +children of the Sun, Manco-Capac and his sister-wife Manca-Oello, is +transformed into a grave and prosaic narrative, in which Manco-Capac's +achievements are minutely described with as much assurance as if that +sage had been Frederick the Great, or Pombal, or any statesman living +before the eyes of the writer. Endless illustrations, some of them +amusing enough, might be given of this Euhemeristic fashion of dealing +with the primitive legends of human infancy. + +On the other hand, if Raynal turns myth into history, he constantly +resorts to the opposite method, and turns the hard prose of real life +into doubtful poetry. If he reduces the demi-gods to men, he delights +also in surrounding savage men with the joyous conditions of the +pastoral demi-gods. He can never resist an opportunity of introducing an +idyll. It was the fashion of the time, begun by Rousseau and perfected +by the author of _Paul and Virginia_. The taste for idylls of savage +life had at least one merit; it was a way of teaching people that the +life of savages is something normal, systematic, coherent, and not mere +chaos, formless, and void, unrelated to the life of civilisation. A +recent traveller had given an account of an annual ceremony in China, +which Raynal borrowed without acknowledgment.[167] M. Poivré had +described how the Emperor once every year went forth into the fields, +and there with his own hand guided the plough as it traced the long +furrows. Raynal elaborated this formality into a characteristic rhapsody +on peace, simplicity, plenty, and the father of his people. As a +caustic critic of M. Poivré remarked, if a Chinese traveller had arrived +at Versailles on the morning of Holy Thursday, he would have found the +King of France humbly washing the feet of twelve poor and aged men, yet, +as Frenchmen knew, this would be no occasion for rapturous exultation +over the lowliness and humanity of the French court. + + [167] _Voyage d'un Philosophe, etc._; a work published in 1768, and + in great vogue for some time, partly because it furnished material + for the speculations of Raynal, Helvétius, and the rest. See _De + l'Homme_, II. xiii., etc. Grimm, v. 450. + +In the same spirit Raynal made no scruple in filling his pages with the +sentimental declamations in which the reaction of that day against the +burden of a decaying system of social artifice found such invariable +relief and satisfaction. None of these imaginary pieces of high +sentiment was more popular than the episode of Polly Baker. It occurs in +the chapters which describe the foundation of New England.[168] The +fanaticism and intolerance of the Puritan Fathers of that famous land +are set forth with the holy rage that always moved the reformers of the +eighteenth century against the reformers of the seventeenth. Religion is +boldly spoken of as a dreadful malady, whose severity extended even to +the most indifferent objects. It may be admitted that the cruel +persecution of the Quakers, and the grotesque horrors of witch-finding +in New Salem, gave Raynal at least as good a text against Protestantism +as he had found against Catholicism in the infernal doings in the West +Indian Islands or in Peru. Even after this bloody fever had abated, says +Raynal, the inhabitants still preserved a kind of rigorism that savours +of the sombre days in which the Puritan colonies had their rise. He +illustrates this by the case of a young woman who was brought before the +authorities for the offence of having given birth to a child out of +wedlock. It was her fifth transgression. Raynal, conceiving history +after the manner of the author of the immortal speeches of Pericles, put +into the mouth of the unfortunate sinner a long and eloquent apology. At +the risk of her life, she cries, she has brought five children into +existence. "I have devoted myself with all the courage of a mother's +solicitude to the painful toil demanded by their weakness and their +tender years. I have formed them to virtue, which is only another name +for reason. Already they love their country, as I love it.... Is it a +crime, then, to be fruitful, as the earth is fruitful, the common mother +of us all?... And how am I not to cry out against the injustice of my +lot, when I see that he who seduced and ruined me, after being the cause +of my destruction, enjoys honour and power, and is actually seated in +the tribunal where they punish my misfortune with rods and with infamy? +Who was that barbarous lawgiver who, deciding between the two sexes, +kept all his wrath for the weaker; for that luckless sex which pays for +a single pleasure by a thousand dangers,"--and so forth. It need hardly +be said that this is far too much in the vein, and almost in the words +of Diderot, to have any authenticity. And as it happens, there is a +piece of external evidence on the matter, which illustrates Raynal's +curious lightheartedness as to historic veracity. Franklin and Silas +Deane were one day talking together about the many blunders in Raynal's +book, when the author himself happened to step in. They told him of what +they had been speaking. "Nay," says Raynal, "I took the greatest care +not to insert a single fact for which I had not the most unquestionable +authority." Deane then fell on the story of Polly Baker, and declared of +his own certain knowledge that there had never been a law against +bastardy in Massachusetts. Raynal persisted that he must have had the +whole case from some source of indisputable trustworthiness, until +Franklin broke in upon him with a loud laugh, and explained that when he +was a printer of a newspaper, they were sometimes short of news, and to +amuse his customers he invented fictions that were as welcome to them as +facts. One of these fictions was the legend of Raynal's heroine. The +abbé was not in the least disconcerted. "Very well, Doctor," he replied, +"I would rather relate your stories than other men's truths."[169] + + [168] Book xvii. + + [169] Jefferson, quoted in Parton's _Life of Franklin_, ii. 418. + +When all has been said that need be said about the glaring shortcomings +of the _History of the Indies_, its popularity still remains to be +accounted for. If we ask for the causes of this striking success, they +are perhaps not very far to seek. For one thing, the book is remarkable +both for its variety and its animation. Horace Walpole wrote about it to +Lady Aylesbury in terms that do not at all overstate its liveliness: "It +tells one everything in the world; how to make conquests, invasions, +blunders, settlements, bankruptcies, fortunes, etc.; tells you the +natural and historical history of all nations; talks commerce, +navigation, tea, coffee, china, mines, salt, spices; of the Portuguese, +English, French, Dutch, Danes, Spaniards, Arabs, caravans, Persians, +Indians, of Louis XIV. and the King of Prussia, of La Bourdonnais, +Dupleix, and Admiral Saunders; of rice, and women that dance naked; of +camels, gingham, and muslin; of millions of millions of lires, pounds, +rupees, and cowries; of iron cables and Circassian women; of Law and the +Mississippi; and against all governments and religions."[170] + + [170] _Walpole's Letters_, v. 421. + +All this is really not too highly coloured. And Raynal's cosmorama +exactly hit the tastes of the hour. The readers of that day were full of +a new curiosity about the world outside of France, and the less known +families of the human stock. It was no doubt more like the curiosity of +keen-witted children than the curiosity of science. Montesquieu first +stirred this interest in the unfamiliar forms of custom, institution, +creed, motive, and daily manners. But while Montesquieu treated such +matters fragmentarily, and in connection with a more or less abstract +discussion on polity, Raynal made them the objects of a vivid and +concrete picture, and presented them in the easier shape of a systematic +history. Again, if the reading class in France were intelligently +curious, it must be added, we fear, that they were not without a +certain lubricity of imagination, which was pleasantly tickled by +sensuous descriptions of the ways of life that were strange to the iron +restraints of civilisation. Finally, the public of that day always chose +to veil and confuse the furtive voluptuousness of the time by moral +disquisition, and a light and busy meddling with the insoluble +perplexities of philosophy. Here too the dexterous Raynal knew how to +please the fancies of his patrons, and whether Diderot was or was not +the writer of those pages of moral sophism and paradox, there is +something in them which incessantly reminds us of his _Supplement to +Bougainville's Voyages_. + +Among the superficial causes of the popularity of Raynal's _History_, we +cannot leave out the circumstance that it was composed after a very +interesting and critical moment in the colonial relations of France. The +Seven Years' War ended in the expulsion of the French from Canada and +from their possessions in the East Indies. When the peace of 1763 was +made, this was counted the most disastrous part of that final record and +sealing of misfortune. When we see with what attachment the ordinary +Frenchman of to-day regards what is as yet the thankless possession of +Algeria, we might easily have guessed, even if the correspondence of the +time had set it forth less distinctly than it does, with what deep +concern and mortification the French of that day saw the white flag and +its lilies driven for ever from the banks of the St. Lawrence in the +west, and the coast of Coromandel in the east. Raynal himself tells us +with what zealous impatience the government attempted to make the nation +forget its calamities, by stirring the hope of a better fortune in the +region to which they gave the magnificent name of Equinoctial France. +The establishment of a free and national population among the scented +forests and teeming swamps of Guiana, was to bring rich compensation for +the icy tracts of Canada. This utopia of a brilliant settlement in +Guiana has steadily invested the minds of French statesmen from Choiseul +down to Louis Napoleon, and its history is a striking monument of +perversity and folly. But from 1763 to 1770, while Raynal was writing +his book, men's minds were full of the heroic design, and this augmented +their interest in the general themes which Raynal handled--colonisation, +commerce, and the overthrow and settlement of new worlds by the old. + +However much all these things may have quickened the popularity of +Raynal's _History_, yet the true source of it lay deeper; lay in the +fuel which the book supplied to the two master emotions of the hour--the +hatred and contempt for religion, and the passion for justice and +freedom. The subject easily lent itself to these two strong currents. Or +we may say that hatred of religion, and passion for justice and freedom, +were in fact the subjects, and that the commercial establishments and +political relations of the new worlds in the east and west were only the +setting and framework. Raynal was perhaps the first person to see that +the surest way of discrediting Catholicism was to write some chapters of +its history. Gibbon resorted to the same device shortly afterwards, and +found in the contemptuous analysis of heresies, and the selfish and +violent motives of councils and prelates, as good an occasion of +piercing the Church as Raynal found in painting the abominable fraud and +cruelty that made the presence of Christians so dire a curse to the +helpless inhabitants of the new lands. And the same reproachful +background which Gibbon so artistically introduced, in the humane, +intelligent, and happy epoch of the pagan Antonines, Raynal invented for +the same purpose of making Christianity seem uglier, in the imaginary +simplicity and unbroken gladness of the native races whose blood was +shed by Christian aggressors as if it had been water. + +It would perhaps have been singular at a moment when men were looking +round on every side for such weapons as might come to their hand, if +they had missed the horrible action of Catholicism when brought into +contact with the lower races of mankind. There is no more deplorable +chapter in the annals of the race, and there is none which the historian +of Christianity should be less willing to pass over lightly. The +ruthless cruelty of the Spanish conquerors in the new world is a +profoundly instructive illustration of the essential narrowness of the +papal Christianity, its pitiful exclusiveness, its low and bad morality, +and, above all, its incurable unfitness for dealing with the spirit and +motives of men in face of the violent temptations with which the wealth +of the new world now assailed and corrupted them. Catholicism had held +triumphant possession of the conscience of Europe for a dozen centuries +and more. The stories of the American Archipelago, of Mexico, of Peru, +even if told by calmer historians than Raynal, show how little power, +amid all this triumph of the ecclesiastical letter, had been won by the +Christian spirit over the rapacity, the lust, the bloody violence of the +natural man. They show what a superficial thing the professed religion +of the ages of faith had been, how enormous a task remained, and how +much the most arduous part of this task was to make Catholicism itself +civilised and moral. For it is hardly denied that Christianity had done +worse than merely fail to provide an effective curb on the cruel +passions of men. The Spanish conquerors showed that it had nursed a +still more cruel passion than the rude interests of material selfishness +had ever engendered, by making the extermination or enslavement of these +hapless people a duty to the Catholic Church, and a savoury sacrifice in +the nostrils of the Most High. + +It is true that a philosophic historian will have to take into account +the important consideration that the reckless massacres perpetrated by +the subjects of the Most Catholic King were less horrible and less +permanently depraving than the daily offering of the bleeding hearts of +human victims in the temples of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipuk. He +would have to remember, as even Raynal does, that if the slave-drivers +and murderers were Catholics, so also was Las Casas, the apostle of +justice and mercy. Still the fact remains, that the doctrine of moral +obligations towards the lower races had not yet taken its place in +Europe, any more than the doctrine of our obligation to the lower +animals, our ministers and companions, has yet taken its place among +Italians and Spaniards. The fact remains, that the old Christianity in +the sixteenth century was unable to deal effectively with the new +conditions in which the world found itself. As Catholicism now in France +in the eighteenth century proved itself unable to harmonise the new +moral aspirations and new social necessities of the time with the +ancient tradition, Raynal was right in telling over again the afflicting +story of her earlier failure, and in identifying the creed that murdered +Calas and La Barre before their own eyes, with the creed that had +blasted the future of the fairest portion of the new world two centuries +before. + +The mere circumstance, however, that the book was one long and powerful +innuendo against the Church, would not have been enough to secure its +vast popularity. Attacks on the Church had become cheap by this time. +The eighteenth century, as it is one of the chief aims of these studies +to show, had a positive side of at least equal importance and equal +strength with its negative side. As we have so often said, its writers +were inspired by zeal for political justice, for humanity, for better +and more equal laws, for the amelioration of the common lot,--a zeal +which in energy, sincerity, and disinterestedness, has never been +surpassed. Raynal's work was perhaps, on the whole, the most vigorous +and sustained of all the literary expressions that were given to the +great social ideas of the century. It wholly lacked the strange and +concentrated glow that burned in the pages of the Social Contract; on +the other hand, it was more full of movement, of reality, of vivid and +picturesque incident. It was popular, and it was concrete. Raynal's +story went straight to the hearts of many people, to whom Rousseau's +arguments were only half intelligible and wholly dreary. It was that +book of the eighteenth century which brought the lower races finally +within the pale of right and duty in the common opinion of France. The +engravings that face the title-page in each of the seven volumes give +the keynote to the effect that the seven volumes produced. In one we see +a philosopher writing on a column those old words of dolorous pregnancy, +_Auri sacra fames_, while in the distance Spanish and Portuguese ships +ride at anchor, and on the shore white men massacre blacks. In another +we see a fair woman, typifying bounteous Nature, giving her nourishment +to a white infant at one breast, and to a black infant at the other, +while she turns a pitiful eye to a scene in the background, where a gang +of negro slaves work among the sugar-canes, under the scourge and the +goad of ruthless masters. A third frontispiece gives us the story of +Inkle and Yarico, which Raynal sets down to some English poet, but as no +English poet is known to have touched that moving tale until the +younger Colman dramatised it in 1787, we may suspect that Raynal had +remembered it from Steele's paper in the _Spectator_. The last of these +pieces represents a cultivated landscape, adorned with villages, and its +ports thronged with shipping; in the foreground are two Quakers, one of +them benignly embracing some young Indians, the other casting +indignantly away from him a bow and its arrows, the symbols of division +and war. + +The most effective chapters in the book were, in truth, eloquent sermons +on these simple and pathetic texts. They brought Negroes and Indians +within the relations of human brotherhood. They preached a higher +morality towards these poor children of bondage, they inspired a new +pity, they moved more generous sympathies, and they did this in such a +way as not merely to affect men's feelings about Indians and Negroes, +slave-labour, and the yet more hateful slave-trade, but at the same time +to develop and strengthen a general feeling for justice, equality, and +beneficence in all the arrangements and relations of the social union +all over the world. The same movement which brought the suffering blacks +of the new world within the sphere of moral duty, and invested them with +rights, intensified the same notion of rights and duties in association +with the suffering people of France. This was the sentiment that reigned +during the boyhood and youth of those who were destined, some twenty +years after Raynal's book was first placed in their hands, to carry +that sentiment out into a fiery and victorious reality. + +Montesquieu had opened the various questions connected with slavery. We +can have no better measure of the increased heat in France between 1750 +and 1770 than the difference in tone between two authors so equal in +popularity, if so unequal in merit, as Raynal and Montesquieu. The +latter, without justifying the abuses or even the usage of slavery in +any shape, had still sought to give a rational account of its growth as +an institution.[171] Raynal could not read this with patience. He +typifies all the passion of the revolt against the historic method. +"Montesquieu," he says, "could not make up his mind to treat the +question of slavery seriously. In fact, it is a degradation of reason to +employ it, I will not say in defending, but even in combating an abuse +so contrary to all reason. Whoever justifies so odious a system deserves +from the philosopher the deepest contempt, and from the negro a +dagger-stroke. 'If you put a finger on me, I will kill myself,' said +Clarissa to Lovelace. And I would say to the man that should assail my +freedom: If you come near me, I poniard you.... Will any one tell me +that he who seeks to make me a slave, is only using his rights? Where +are they, these rights? Who has stamped on them a mark sacred enough to +silence mine? If thou thinkest thyself authorised to oppress me, because +thou art stronger and craftier than I--then do not complain when my +strong arms shall tear thy breast open to find thy heart; do not +complain when in thy spasm-riven bowels thou feelest the deadly doom +which I have passed into them with thy food. Be thou a victim in thy +turn, and expiate the crime of the oppressor."[172] + + [171] Book xv. of the _Esprit des Lois_. + + [172] Book xi. § 30. + +Raynal then asks the political question, how we can hope to throw down +an edifice that is propped up by universal passion, by established laws, +by the rivalries of powerful nations, and by the force of prejudices +more powerful still. To what tribunal, he cries, shall we carry the +sacred appeal? He can find no better answer than that of Turgot and the +Economists. It is to Kings that we must look for the redress of these +monstrous abominations. It is for Kings to carry fire and sword among +the oppressors. "Your armies," he cries, anticipating the famous +expression of a writer of our own day, "will be filled with the holy +enthusiasm of humanity." In a more practical vein, Raynal then warns his +public of the terrible reckoning which awaits the whites, if the blacks +ever rise to avenge their wrongs. The Negroes only need a chief +courageous enough to lead them to vengeance and carnage. "Where is he, +that great man, whom Nature owes to the honour of the human race? Where +is he, that new Spartacus who will find no Crassus? Then the Black Code +will vanish; how terrible will the White Code be!" We may easily realise +the effect which vehement words like these had upon Toussaint, and upon +those for whom Toussaint reproduced them. + +Men have constantly been asking themselves what the great literary +precursors of the Revolution would have thought, and how they would have +acted, if they could have survived to the days of the Terror. What would +Voltaire have said of Robespierre? How would Rousseau have borne himself +at the Jacobin Club? Would Diderot have followed the procession of the +Goddess of Reason? To ask whether these famous men would have sanctioned +the Terror, is to insult great memories; but there is no reason to +suppose that their strong spirits would have faltered. One or two of the +younger generation of the famous philosophic party did actually see the +break-up of the old order. Condorcet faced the storm with a heroism of +spirit that has never been surpassed: disgust at the violent excesses of +bad men could never make him unfaithful to the beneficence of the +movement which their frenzy distorted. + +Raynal was of weaker mould, and showed that there had been a stratum of +cant and borrowed formulas in his eloquence. He lived into the very +darkest days, and watched the succession of events with a keen eye. His +heart began to quail very early. Long before the bloodier times of the +internecine war between the factions, and on the eve of the attempted +flight of the king, he addressed a letter to the National Assembly (May +31, 1791). The letter is not wanting in firm and courageous phrases. "I +have long dared," he began, "to tell kings of their duties. Let me +to-day tell the people of its errors, and the representatives of the +people of the perils that menace us all." He then proceeded to inveigh +in his old manner, but with a new purpose and a changed destination. +This time it was not kings and priests whom he denounced, but a +government enslaved by popular tyranny, soldiers without discipline, +chiefs without authority, ministers without resources, the rudest and +most ignorant of men daring to settle the most difficult political +questions. How comes it, he asks, that after declaring the dogma of the +liberty of religious opinions, you allow priests to be overwhelmed by +persecution and outrage because they do not follow your religious +opinions? In the same energetic vein he protests against the failure of +the Constituent Assembly to found a stable and vigorous government, and +to put an end to the vengeances, the seditions, the outbreaks, that +filled the air with confusion and menace. It was in short a vigorous +pamphlet, written in the interest of Malouet and the constitutional +royalists. The Assembly listened, but not without some rude +interruptions. Robespierre hastened to the tribune. After condemning the +tone of Raynal's letter, he disclaimed any intention of calling down the +severity either of the Assembly or of public opinion upon a man who +still preserved a great name; he thought that a sufficient excuse for +the writer's apostasy might be found in his advanced age. The Assembly +agreed with Robespierre, and passed to the order of the day.[173] + + [173] Hamel's _Robespierre_ i. 456-458. + +Raynal lived to see his predictions fulfilled with a terrible bitterness +of fulfilment. In spite of the anger which he had roused in the breasts +of powerful personages, the aged man was not guillotined; he was not +even imprisoned. All his property was taken from him, and he died in +abject poverty in the spring of 1796. Let us hope that the misery of his +end was assuaged by the recollection that he had once been a powerful +pleader for noble causes. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DIDEROT'S CLOSING YEARS. + + +At the end of a long series of notes and questions on points in anatomy +and physiology, which he had been collecting for many years, Diderot +wound up with a strange outburst: + +"I shall not know until the end what I have lost or gained in this vast +gaming-house, where I shall have passed some threescore years, dice-box +in hand, _tesseras agitans_. + +"What do I perceive? Forms. And what besides? Forms. Of the substance I +know nothing. We walk among shadows, ourselves shadows to ourselves and +to others. + +"If I look at a rainbow traced on a cloud, I can perceive it; for him +who looks at it from another angle, there is nothing. + +"A fancy common enough among the living is to dream that they are dead, +that they stand by the side of their own corpse, and follow their own +funeral. It is like a swimmer watching his garments stretched out on the +shore. + +"Philosophy, that habitual and profound meditation which takes us away +from all that surrounds us, which annihilates our own personality, is +another apprenticeship for death."[174] + + [174] _Elémens de Physiologie_, _Oeuv._, ix. 428. + +This was now to be seen. Diderot, as we have said, came back from his +expedition to Russia in the autumn of 1744, tranquilly counting on half +a score more years to make up the tale of his days. He remained in +temper and habit through this long evening of his life what he had been +in its morning and noontide--friendly, industrious, cheerful, exuberant +in conversation, keenly interested in the march of liberal and +progressive ideas. On his return his wife and daughter found him thin +and altered. A few months of absence so often suffice to reveal that our +friend has grown old, and that time is casting long shadows. Age seems +to have come in a day, like sudden winter. He was as gay and as kindly +as ever. Some of his friends had declared that he would never bethink +himself of returning at all. "Time and space in his eyes," said Galiani, +"are as in the eyes of the Almighty; he thinks that he is everywhere, +and that he is eternal."[175] They had predicted for Diderot at St. +Petersburg the fate of Descartes at the court of Queen Christina. But +the philosopher triumphantly vindicated his character. "My good wife," +said he, when he had reached the old familiar fourth floor, "prithee, +count my things; thou wilt find no reason for scolding; I have not lost +a single handkerchief."[176] + + [175] _Corresp._, ii. 180. + + [176] _Oeuv._, i. 54 + +This cheerfulness, however, did not hide from his friends that he was +subject to a languor which had been unknown before his journey to +Russia. It was not the peevish fatigue that often brings life to an +unworthy close. He remained true to the healthy temper of his prime, and +found himself across the threshold of old age without repining. As the +veteran Cephalus said to Socrates, regrets and complaints are not in a +man's age, but in his temper; and he who is of a happy nature will +scarcely feel the burden of the years. + +In 1762 Diderot had written to Mdlle. Voland a page of affecting musings +on the great pathetic theme: + + "You ask me why, the more our life is filled up and busy, the less + are we attached to it? If that is true, it is because a busy life + is for the most part an innocent life. We think less about Death, + and so we fear it less. Without perceiving it, we resign ourselves + to the common lot of all the beings that we watch around us, dying + and being born again in an incessant, ever renewing circle. After + having for a season fulfilled the tasks that nature year by year + imposes on us, we grow weary of them, and release ourselves. + Energies fade, we become feebler, we crave the close of life, as + after working hard we crave the close of the day. Living in harmony + with nature, we learn not to rebel against the orders that we see + in necessary and universal execution.... There is nobody among us + who, having worn himself out in toil, has not seen the hour of rest + approach with supreme delight. Life for some of us is only one long + day of weariness, and death a long slumber, and the coffin a bed of + rest, and the earth only a pillow where it is sweet, when all is + done, to lay one's head, never to raise it again. I confess to you + that, when looked at in this way, and after the long endless + crosses that I have had, death is the most agreeable of prospects. + I am bent on teaching myself more and more to see it so."[177] + + [177] Letter to Mdlle. Voland, Sept. 23, 1762. xix. 136, 137. + +Again, we are reminded by Diderot's words on this last gentle epilogue +to a harassing performance, of Plato's picture of aged Cephalus sitting +in a cushioned chair, with the garland round his brows. "I was in the +country almost alone, free from cares and disquiet, letting the hours +flow on, with no other object than to find myself by the evening as +sometimes one finds one's self in the morning, after a night that has +been busy with a pleasant dream. The years had left me none of the +passions that are our torment, none of the weariness that follows them; +I had lost my taste for all the frivolities that are made so important +by our hope that we shall enjoy them long. I said to myself: If the +little that I have done, and the little that is left for me to do, +should perish with me, what would the human race be the loser? What +should I be the loser myself?"[178] + + [178] The dedication of the _Règnes de Claude et de Néron_ to + Naigeon, iii. 9. + +This was the mood in which Diderot wrote his singular apology for the +life and character of Seneca. Rosenkranz makes the excellent reflection +that though Diderot attained to a more free comprehension of Greek art, +and especially of Homer, than most of his contemporaries, yet even with +him the Roman element was dominant. It was Horace, Terence, Lucretius, +Tacitus, Seneca, who to the very end came closer to him than any of the +Greeks. The moralising reflection, the satirical tendency, the +declamatory form of the Romans, all had an irresistible attraction for +him.[179] Both Roger Bacon and Francis Bacon had preceded him in +admiration for Seneca, and Montaigne found Cicero tiresome and +unprofitable compared with the author of the Epistles to Lucilius. "When +there comes any misfortune to a European," says the imaginary oriental +of Montesquieu's _Persian Letters_, "his only resource is the reading of +a philosopher called Seneca."[180] + + [179] Diderot's _Leben_, ii. 357. + + [180] See Mr. Brewer's preface to Roger Bacon, p. 73.; Montaigne's + chapter _Des Livres_, and the _Defense de Sénèque et de Plutarque._; + _Let. Pers._, 33. + +But Diderot was not a man to admire by halves, and to literary praise of +Seneca's writings he added a thoroughgoing vindication of his career. In +his early days he had referred disparagingly to Seneca,[181] but +reflection or accident had made him change his mind. The cheap severity +of abstract ethics has always abounded against Seneca, and this severity +was what Diderot had all his life found insupportable. Holbach had +induced Lagrange, a young man of letters whom he had rescued from want, +to undertake the translation of Seneca, and when Lagrange died, Holbach +prevailed on Naigeon, Diderot's fervid disciple, to complete and revise +the work, which still remains the best of the French versions. That +done, then both Holbach and Naigeon urged Diderot to write an account +of the philosopher. + + [181] _Essai sur le Mérite et la Vertu._ _Oeuv._, i. 118, _note_. + +The Essay on the Reigns of Claudius and Nero[182] is marked by as much +vehemence, as much sincerity of enthusiasm, as if Seneca had been +Diderot's personal friend. There is a flame, a passion, about it, an +ingenuous air of conviction, which are not common in historical +apologies. It is inevitable, as the composition is Diderot's, that it +should have many a rambling and declamatory page. His paraphrases of +Tacitus are the most curious case in literature of the expansion of a +style of sombre poetic concentration into the style of exuberant +rhetoric. Both Grimm and a Russian princess of the blood urged him even +to translate the whole of Tacitus's works, but it is certain that nobody +in the world had ever less of Tacitean quality. Still the history is +alive. "_I do not compose_," Diderot said in the dedication. "_I am no +author; I read or I converse; I ask questions and I give answers._" The +writer throws himself into the historic situation with the vivid +freshness of a contemporary, and if the criticism is sophistical, at +least the picture is admirably dramatic. Seneca's position as the +minister of Nero seemed exactly one of those cases which always excited +Diderot's deepest interest--a case, we mean, in which the general rules +of morality condemn, but common sense acquits. + + [182] The first edition (1778) was entitled _Essai sur la Vie de + Sénèque le philosophe, sur ses écrits, et sur le règne de Claude et + de Néron_. In the second edition (1782) this was changed into _Essai + sur les règnes de Claude et de Néron, et sur la vie et les écrits de + Sénèque_. + +Diderot, as we have already pointed out,[183] was always very near to +the position that there is no such thing as an absolute rule of right +and wrong, defining classes of acts unconditionally, but each act must +be judged on its merits with reference to all the circumstances of the +given case. Seneca's career tests this way of looking at things very +severely. His connivance with the minor sensualities of Nero's youth, as +a means of restraining him from downright crime, and of keeping a +measure of order in the government, will perhaps be pardoned by most of +those who realise the awful perils of the Empire. As Diderot says, +nobody blames Fénelon or Bossuet for remaining at the court of Lewis +XIV. in its days of license. But connivance with a king's amours, +however degrading it may be from a certain point of view, is a very +different thing from acquiescence in a king's murder of his mother. Even +here Diderot's impetuosity carries him in two or three bounds over every +obstacle. The various courses open to the minister, after the murder of +Agrippina, are discussed and dismissed. What, after Nero had slain his +mother, was there nothing left to be done by a firm, just, and +enlightened man, with an immense burden of affairs on his back, and +capable by his courage and benevolence, of bearing succour, repairing +misfortunes, hindering depredations, removing the incompetent, and +giving power to men of virtue, knowledge, and ability? If he had only +saved the honour of a single good woman, or the life or fortune of a +single good citizen; if he could bring a day of tranquillity to the +provinces, or cross for a week the designs of the miscreants by whom the +emperor was surrounded, then Seneca would have been blamed, and would +have deserved blame, if he had either retired from court or put an end +to his life.[184] This is all true enough, and if Seneca had been only a +statesman, the world would probably have applauded him for clinging to +the helm at all cost. Unhappily, he was not only a statesman, but a +moralist. The two characters are always hard to reconcile, as perhaps +any parliamentary candidate might tell us. The contrast between lofty +writing and slippery policy has been too violent for Seneca's good fame, +as it was for Francis Bacon's. It is ever at his own proper risk and +peril that a man dares to present high ideals to the world. + + [183] Above, vol. ii. chap. i. + + [184] iii. 110, 111. + +One of the strangest of the many strange digressions in which the Essay +on Claudius and Nero abounds, brings us within the glare of the great +literary quarrel of the century. Soon after Rousseau settled in Paris +for the last time, on his return from England and the subsequent +vagabondage, it was known that he had written the _Confessions_, dealing +at least as freely with the lives of others as with his own. He had even +in 1770 and 1771 given readings of certain passages from them, until +Madame d'Epinay, and perhaps also the Maréchale de Luxemburg, prevailed +on the authorities to interfere. No one was angrier than Diderot, and +in the first edition of the Essay, published in the year of Rousseau's +death (1778), he incongruously placed in the midst of his disquisitions +on the philosopher of the first century, a long and acrimonious note +upon the perversities of the reactionary philosopher of the eighteenth. +He was believed by those who talked to him to be in dread of the +appearance of the _Confessions_, and we may accept this readily enough, +without assuming that Diderot was conscious of hidden enormities which +he was afraid of seeing publicly uncovered. Rousseau, as Diderot well +knew, was so wayward, so strangely oblique both in vision and judgment, +that innocence was no security against malice and misrepresentation. + +Rousseau's name has never lacked fanatical partisans down to our own +day, and Diderot was attacked by some of the earliest of them for his +note of disparagement. The first part of the _Confessions_--all that +Diderot ever saw--appeared in 1782, and in the same year Diderot +published a second edition of the Essay on Claudius and Nero, so +augmented by replies, inserted in season and out of season, to the +diatribes of the party of Rousseau, that as it now stands the reader may +well doubt whether the substance and foundation of the book is an +apology for Seneca or a vindication of Denis Diderot. As Grimm said, we +have to make up our minds to see the author suddenly pass from the +palace of the Cæsars to the garret of MM. Royou, Grosier, and company; +from Paris to Rome, and from Rome back again to Paris; from the reign +of Claudius to the reign of Lewis XV.; from the college of the Sorbonne +to the college of the augurs; to turn now to the masters of the world, +and now to the yelping curs of literature; to see him in his dramatic +enthusiasm making the one speak and the others answer; apostrophising +himself and apostrophising his readers, and leaving them often enough in +perplexity as to the personage who is speaking and the personage whom he +addresses.[185] We may agree with Grimm that this gives an air of +originality to the performance, but such originality is of a kind to +displease the serious student, without really attracting the few readers +who have a taste for rebelling against the pedantries of literary form. +We become confused by the long strain of uncertainty whether we are +reading about the Roman Emperor or the French King; about Seneca, +Burrhus, and Thrasea, or Turgot, Malesherbes, and Necker. + + [185] Grimm, _Corr. Lit._, xi. 77. + +Diderot's candour, simplicity, happy bonhommie, and sincerity in real +interests raised him habitually above the pettiness, the bustling +malice, the vain self-consciousness, the personalities that infest all +literary and social cliques. It is surprising at first that Diderot, who +had all his life borne the sting of the gnats of Grub Street with decent +composure, should have been so moved by Rousseau, or by meaner +assailants, whom Rousseau himself would have rudely disclaimed. The +explanation seems to lie in this fact of human character, that a man of +Diderot's temperament, while entirely heedless of criticism directed +against his opinions or his public position, is specially sensitive to +innuendoes against his private benevolence and loyalty. An insult to the +force of his understanding was indifferent to him, but an affront to +one's _belle âme_ is beyond pardon. It was hard that a man who had +prodigally thrown away the forces of his life for others should be +charged with malignity of heart and an incapacity for friendship. This +was the harder, because it was the moral fashion of that day to place +friendliness, amiability, the desire to please and to serve, at the very +head of all the virtues. The whole correspondence of the time is +penetrated to an incomparable degree by a caressing spirit; it is +sometimes too elaborate and far-fetched in expression, but it marks a +vivid sociability, and even a true humanity, that softens and harmonises +the sharpness of men's egotism. + +Again, though Diderot himself is not ungenerously handled in the +_Confessions_, there are passages about Madame d'Epinay and Madame +d'Houdetot which not only stamp Rousseau with ingratitude towards two +women who had treated him kindly, but which were calculated to make +practical mischief among people still living. All this was atrocious in +itself, and the atrocity seemed more black to Diderot than to others, +because he had for some years known Madame d'Epinay as a friendly +creature, and, above all, because Grimm was her lover. Perhaps we may +add among the reasons that stirred him to pen these diatribes, a +consciousness of the harm that Rousseau's sentimentalism had done to +sound and positive thinking. But this, we may be sure, would be +infinitely less potent than the motives that sprang from Diderot's own +sentimentalism. The quarrel, for all save a few foolish partisans, is +now dead, and we may leave the dust once more to settle thick upon it. +Diderot's own way of reading history is not unworthy of imitation, and +it is capable of application in spirit to private conduct no less than +to the history of great public events. "Does the narrative present me +with some fact that dishonours humanity? Then I examine it with the most +rigorous severity; whatever sagacity I may be able to command, I employ +in detecting contradictions that throw suspicion on the story. It is not +so when an action is beautiful, lofty, noble. Then I never think of +arguing against the pleasure that I feel in sharing the name of man with +one who has done such an action. I will say more; it is to my heart, and +perhaps too it is only conformable to justice, to hazard an opinion that +tends to whiten an illustrious personage, in the face of authorities +that seem to contradict the tenour of his life, of his doctrine, and of +his general repute."[186] + + [186] _Oeuv._, iii. 57. + +The elaborate outbreak against Rousseau is perhaps Diderot's only breach +of what ought thus to be a rule for all magnanimous men. Diderot, or his +shade, paid the penalty. La Harpe retaliated for some slight wound to +pitiful literary vanity, by a lecture on Seneca in which he raked up +all the old accusations against Seneca's champion. La Harpe, for various +reasons into which we need not now more particularly enter, got the ear +of the European public in the years of reaction after he had himself +deserted his old philosophic friends, and gone over to the conservative +camp. He found the world eager to listen to all that could be said +against men who were believed to have corrupted their age; and his +bitter misrepresentations, not seldom invigorated by lies, were the +origin of much of the vulgar prejudice that has only begun to melt away +in our own generation. + +Rousseau died in 1778. The more versatile literary genius of the century +had died a couple of months earlier in the same year. It was not until +the occasion of Voltaire's triumphant visit to Paris, after an absence +of seven-and-twenty years, that he and Diderot at length met. Their +correspondence had been less constant and less cordial than was common +where Voltaire was concerned; but though their sympathy was imperfect, +there was no lack of mutual goodwill and admiration. The poet is said to +have done his best to push Diderot into the Academy, but the king was +incurably hostile, and Diderot was not anxious for an empty distinction. +He had none of that vanity nor eagerness for recognition--pardonable +enough, for that matter--which such distinctions gratify. And he perhaps +agreed with Voltaire himself, who said of academies and parliaments +that, when men come together, their ears instantly become elongated. +After Diderot's return from Russia Voltaire wrote to him: "I am +eighty-three years of age, and I repeat that I am inconsolable at the +thought of dying without ever having seen you. I have tried to collect +around me as many of your children as possible, but I am a long way from +having the whole family.... We are not so far apart, at bottom, and it +only needs a conversation to bring us to an understanding."[187] + + [187] Dec. 8, 1776. + +Of such conversations we have almost nothing to tell. No sacred bard has +commemorated the salutation of the heroes. We only know that at the end +of their first interview Diderot's facility of discourse had been so +copious that, after he had taken his leave, Voltaire said: "The man is +clever, assuredly; but he lacks one talent, and an essential +talent--that of dialogue." Diderot's remark about Voltaire was more +picturesque. "He is like one of those old haunted castles, which are +falling into ruins in every part; but you easily perceive that it is +inhabited by some ancient sorcerer."[188] They had a dispute as to the +merits of Shakespeare, and Diderot displeased the patriarch by repeating +the expression that we have already quoted (vol. i. p. 330) about +Shakespeare being like the statue of St. Christopher at Notre Dame, +unshapely and rude, but such a giant that ordinary men could pass +between his legs without touching him.[189] + + [188] Métra's _Corresp. Secrète_, vi. 292. + + [189] See Diderot's _Oeuv._, xix. 465, _note_. + +There was one man who might have told us a thousand interesting things +both about Diderot's conversations with Voltaire, and his relations +with other men. This man was Naigeon, to whom Diderot gave most of his +papers, and who always professed, down to his death in 1814, to be +Diderot's closest adherent and most authoritative expounder. Diderot +was, as he always knew and said, less an author than a talker; not a +talker like Johnson, but like Coleridge. If Naigeon could only have +contented himself with playing reporter, and could have been blessed by +nature with the rare art of Boswell. "We wanted," as Carlyle says, "to +see and know how it stood with the bodily man, the working and warfaring +Denis Diderot; how he looked and lived, what he did, what he said." +Instead of which, nothing but "a dull, sulky, snuffling, droning, +interminable lecture on Atheistic Philosophy," delivered with the +vehemence of some pulpit-drumming Gowkthrapple, or "precious Mr. Jabesh +Rentowel." Naigeon belonged to the too numerous class of men and women +overabundantly endowed with unwise intellect. He was acute, diligent, +and tenacious; fond of books, especially when they had handsome margins +and fine bindings; above all things, he was the most fanatical atheist, +and the most indefatigable propagandist and eager proselytiser which +that form of religion can boast. We do not know the date of his first +acquaintance with Diderot;[190] we only know that at the end of +Diderot's days he had no busier or more fervent disciple than Naigeon. +To us, at all events, whatever it may have been to Diderot, the +acquaintance and discipleship have proved good for very little. + + [190] The _Biographie Universelle_, after giving 1738 as the date of + Naigeon's birth, absurdly attributes to him the article on _Âme_ in + the Encyclopædia, which was published in 1752, when Naigeon was + fourteen years old. + +Our last authentic glimpse of Diderot is from the pen of a humane and +enlightened Englishman, whose memory must be held in perpetual honour +among us. Samuel Romilly, then a young man of four-and-twenty, visited +Paris in 1781. He made the acquaintance of the namesake who had written +the articles on watch-making in the Encyclopædia, and whose son had +written the more famous articles on Toleration and Virtue. By this +honest man Romilly was introduced to D'Alembert and Diderot. The former +was in weak health and said very little. Diderot, on the contrary, was +all warmth and eagerness, and talked to his visitor with as little +reserve as if he had been long and intimately acquainted with him. He +spoke on politics, religion, and philosophy. He praised the English for +having led the way to sound philosophy, but the adventurous genius of +the French, he said, had pushed them on before their guides. "You +others," he continued, "mix up theology with your philosophy; that is to +spoil everything, it is to mix up lies with truth; _il faut sabrer la +théologie_--we must put theology to the sword." He was ostentatious, +Romilly says, of a total disbelief in the existence of a God. He quoted +Plato, "the author of all the good theology that ever existed in the +world, as saying that there is a vast curtain drawn over the heavens, +and that men must content themselves with what passes beneath that +curtain, without ever attempting to raise it; and in order to complete +my conversion from my unhappy errors, he read me all through a little +work of his own"--of which we shall presently speak. On politics he +talked very eagerly, "and inveighed with great warmth against the +tyranny of the French government. He told me that he had long meditated +a work upon the death of Charles the First; that he had studied the +trial of that prince; and that his intention was to have tried him over +again, and to have sent him to the scaffold if he had found him guilty, +but that he had at last relinquished the design. In England he would +have executed it, but he had not the courage to do so in France. +D'Alembert, as I have observed was more cautious; he contented himself +with observing what an effect philosophy had in his own time produced on +the minds of the people. The birth of the Dauphin (known afterwards as +Lewis XVII., the unhappy prisoner of the Temple) afforded him an +example. He was old enough, he said, to remember when such an event had +made the whole nation drunk with joy (1729), but now they regarded with +great indifference the birth of another master."[191] + + [191] _Memoirs of Sir Samuel Romilly_, i. 63, 179, etc. + +It was thus clear to the two veterans of the Encyclopædia that the +change for which they had worked was at hand. The press literally teemed +with pamphlets, treatises, poems, histories, all shouting from the +house-tops open destruction to beliefs which fifty years before were +actively protected against so much as a whisper in the closet. Every +form of literary art was seized and turned into an instrument in the +remorseless attack on _L'Infâme_. The conservative or religious +opposition showed a weakness that is hardly paralleled in the long +history of the mighty controversy. Ability, adroitness, vigour, and +character were for once all on one side. Palissot was perhaps, after +all, the best of the writers on the conservative side.[192] With all his +faults, he had the literary sense. Some of what he said was true, and +some of the third-rate people whom he assailed deserved the assault. His +criticism on Diderot's drama, _The Natural Son_, was not a whit more +severe than that bad play demanded.[193] Not seldom in the course of +this work we have wished with Palissot that the excellent Diderot were +less addicted to prophetic and apocalyptical turns of speech, that there +were less of chaos round his points of burning and shining light, and +that he had less title to the hostile name of the Lycophron of +philosophy.[194] But the comedy of _The Philosophers_ was a scandalous +misrepresentation, introducing Diderot personally on the stage, and +putting into his mouth a mixture of folly and knavery that was as +foreign to Diderot as to any one else in the world. In 1782 the satirist +again attacked his enemy, now grown old and weary. In _Le Satyrique_, +Valère, a spiteful and hypocritical poetaster, is intended partially at +least for Diderot. A colporteur, not ill-named as M. Pamphlet, comes to +urge payment of his bill. + + [192] See above, vol. i. p. 362. + + [193] _Petites Lettres sur de Grands Philosophes_, ii. + + [194] _Oeuv. de Palissot_, i. 445. iv. 244. + + Daignez avoir égard à mes vives instances. + Je suis humilié d'y mettre tant de feu: + Mais les temps sont si durs! le comptoir rend si peu! + Imprimeur, Colporteur, Relieur, et Libraire, + Avec tous ces métiers, je suis dans la misère: + Mais j'ai toujours grand soin, malgré ma pauvreté, + De ne peser mon gain qu'au poids de l'équité. + Vous en allez juger par le susdit mémoire. + + [_Il prend ses lunettes comme pour lire._ + + VALÈRE. (_Avec humeur._) Eh, monsieur, finissez. + + M. PAMPHLET. C'est trahir votre gloire + Que de vouloir caeher les immortels écrits + + [_Il lit._ + + Dont vous êtes l'auteur. _Les Boudoirs de Paris,_ + _On Journal des Abbés._ _L'Espion des Coulisses,_ + Ouvrage assez piquant sur les moeurs des actrices. + +And the intention of the pleasantry is pointed by a malicious footnote, +to the effect that people who might be surprised that a serious man like +Valère should have written works of this licentious and frivolous kind, +will conceive that in a moment of leisure a philosopher should write +_Les Bijoux Indiscrèts_, for instance, and the next day follow it by a +treatise on morality,[195]--as Diderot unhappily had done. + + [195] _Le Satyrique_, iii. p. 84. _note_. + +Palissot was not so good as Molière, Boileau, and Pope, as he was +fatuous enough to suppose; but he was certainly better than the +scribbler who asked-- + + Mais enfin de quoi se glorifie + Ce siècle de mollesse et de Philosophie? + Dites-moi: le Français a-t-il un coeur plus franc + Plus prodigue à l'état de son généreux sang, + Plus ardent à venger la plaintive innocence + Contre l'iniquité que soutient la puissance? + Le Français philosophe est-il plus respecté + Pour la foi, la candeur, l'exacte probité? + Où sont-ils ces Héros, ces vertueux modèles + Que l'Encyclopédie a couvé sous ses ailes?[196] + + [196] Métra, vi. 128. + +Tiresome doggrel of this kind was the strongest retort that the party of +obscurantism could muster against the vigour, grace, and sparkle of +Voltaire. + +The great official champions of the old system were not much wiser than +their hacks in the press. The churchmen were given over to a blind mind. +The great edition of Voltaire's works which Beaumarchais was printing +over the frontier at Kehl, excited their anger to a furious pitch. The +infamous Cardinal de Rohan, archbishop of Strasburg (1781), denounced +the publication as sacrilege. The archbishop of Paris (1785) thundered +against the monument of scandal and the work of darkness. The archbishop +of Vienne forbade the faithful of his diocese to subscribe to it under +pain of mortal sin. In the general assembly of the clergy which opened +in the summer of 1780, the bishops, in memorials to the king, deplored +the homage paid to the famous writer who was "less known for the beauty +of his genius and the superiority of his talents, than for the +persevering and implacable war which for sixty years he had waged +against the Lord and his Christ." They cursed in solemn phrase the +"revolting blasphemies" of Raynal's _History of the Indies_, and +declared that the publication of a new edition of that celebrated book +with the name and the portrait of its author, showed that the most +elementary notions of shame and decency lay in profound sleep. + +In the midst of those prolonged cries of distress, we have no word of +recognition that the only remedy for a moral disease is a moral remedy. +The single resource that occurred to their debilitated souls was the +familiar armoury of suppression, menace, violence, and tyranny. "Sire," +they cried, "it is time to put a term to this deplorable lethargy." They +reminded the king of the declaration of 1757, which inflicted on all +persons who printed or circulated writings hostile to religion, the +punishment of death. But "their paternal bowels shuddered at the sight +of these severe enactments;" all that they sought was plenty of rigorous +imprisonment, ruinous fining, and diligent espionage.[197] If the reader +is revolted by the rashness of Diderot's expectation of the speedy decay +of the belief in a God,[198] he may well be equally revolted by the +obstinate infatuation of the men who expected to preserve the belief in +a God by the spies of the department of police. Much had no doubt been +done for the church in past times by cruelty and oppression, but the +folly of the French bishops, after the reign of Voltaire and the +apostolate of the Encyclopædia, lay exactly in their blindness to the +fact that the old methods were henceforth impossible in France, and +impossible for ever. How can we wonder at the hatred and contempt felt +by men of the social intelligence of Diderot and D'Alembert for this +desperate union of impotence and malignity? + + [197] See for abundant matter of the same kind, M. Rocquain's + _L'Esprit Révolutionnaire avant la Révolution_, bk. x. pp. 382, 390, + etc. + + [198] Montesquieu more sensibly had given the Church not more than + five hundred years to live. _Let. Pers._, 117. One hundred and fifty + of them have already passed. + +The band of the precursors was rapidly disappearing. Grimm and Holbach, +Catherine and Frederick, still survived.[199] D'Alembert, tended to the +last hour by Condorcet with the lovable reverence of a son, died at the +end of October 1783. Turgot, gazing with eyes of astonished sternness on +a society hurrying incorrigibly with joyful speed along the path of +destruction, had passed away two years before (1781). Voltaire, the +great intellectual director of Europe for fifty years, and Rousseau, the +great emotional reactionist, had both, as we know, died in 1778. The +little companies in which, from Adrienne Lecouvreur, the Marquise de +Lambert, and Madame de Tencin, in the first half of the century, groups +of intelligent men and women had succeeded in founding informal schools +of disinterested opinion, and in finally removing the centre of +criticism and intellectual activity from Versailles to Paris, had now +nearly all come to an end. Madame du Deffand died in 1780, Madame +Geoffrin in 1779, and in 1776 Mdlle. Lespinasse, whose letters will long +survive her, as giving a burning literary note to the vagueness of +suffering and pain of soul. One of Diderot's favourite companions in +older days, Galiani, the antiquary, the scholar, the politician, the +incomparable mimic, the shrewdest, wittiest, and gayest of men after +Voltaire, was feeling the dull grasp of approaching death under his +native sky at Naples. Galiani's _Dialogues on the Trade in Grain_ +(1769-70) contained, under that most unpromising title, a piece of +literature which for its verve, rapidity, wit, dialectical subtlety, and +real strength of thought, has hardly been surpassed by masterpieces of a +wider recognition. Voltaire vowed that Plato and Molière must have +combined to produce a book that was as amusing as the best of romances, +and as instructive as the best of serious books. Diderot, who had a hand +in retouching the _Dialogues_ for the press,[200] went so far as to +pronounce them worthy of a place along with the _Provincial Letters_ of +Pascal, and declared that, like those immortal pieces, Galiani's +dialogues would remain as a model of perfection in their own kind, long +after both the subject and the personages concerned had lost their +interest.[201] The prophecy has not come quite true, for the world is +busy, and heedless, and much the prey of accident and capricious +tradition in the books that it reads. Yet even now, although Galiani +was probably wrong on the special issue between himself and the +economists, it would be well if people would turn to his demolition, as +wise as witty, of the doctrine of absolute truths in political economy. +Galiani's constant correspondent was Madame d'Epinay, the kindly +benefactress of Rousseau a quarter of a century earlier, the friend of +Diderot, the more than friend of Grimm. In 1783 she died, and either in +that year or the next, Mademoiselle Voland, who had filled so great a +space in the life of Diderot. The ghosts and memories of his friends +became the majority, and he consoled himself that he should not long +survive. + + [199] Grimm died in 1807, Holbach in 1789, Catherine in 1796, and + Frederick in 1786. + + [200] See _Oeuv._, xix. 317, 326. + + [201] _Oeuv._, vi. 442, where Diderot gives a sketch of this + interesting man. + +The days of intellectual excitement and philanthropic hope seemed at +their very height, but in fact they were over. "Nobody," said +Talleyrand, "who has not lived before 1789, knows how sweet life can +be." The old world had its last laugh over the _Marriage of Figaro_ +(April 1784), but in the laugh of Figaro there is a strange ring. Under +all its gaiety, its liveliness, its admirable _naïveté_, was something +sombre. It was pregnant with menace. Its fooling was the ironical +enforcement of Raynal's trenchant declaration that "the law is nothing, +if it be not a sword gliding indistinctly over the heads of all, and +striking down whatever rises above the horizontal plane along which it +moves." + +Diderot himself is commonly accused of having fomented an atrocious +spirit by the horrible couplet-- + + Et ses mains ourdiraient les entrailles du prêtre, + Au défaut d'un cordon pour étrangler les rois.[202] + + [202] "Is it not possible that the virtuous and moderate proposal to + strangle the last Jesuit in the bowels of the last Jansenist might + do something towards reconciling matters?"--Voltaire to Helvétius, + May 11, 1761. + +That the verses could have actually excited the spirit of the Terrorists +is impossible, for they were not given to the world until 1795. And in +the second place, so far as Diderot's intention is concerned, any one +who reads the piece from which the lines are taken, will perceive that +the whole performance is in a vein of playful phantasy, and that the +particular verses are placed dramatically in the mouth of a proclaimed +Eleutheromane, or maniac for liberty.[203] Diderot was not likely to +foresee that what he designed for an illustration of the frenzy of the +Pindaric dithyramb, would so soon be mistaken for a short formula of +practical politics.[204] + + [203] _Les Eleutheromanes, ou les Furieux de la Liberté._ _Oeuv._, + ix. 16. + + [204] It is a curious illustration of the carelessness with which + the so-called negative school have been treated, that so + conscientious a writer as M. Henri Martin (_Hist. de France_, xvi. + 146) should have taxed Diderot, among other sinister maxims, with + this, that "the public punishment of a king changes the spirit of a + nation for ever." Now the words occur in a collection of + observations on government, which Diderot wrote on the margin of his + copy of Tacitus, and which are entitled _Principes de Politique des + Souverains_ (1775). Some of the most pungent maxims are obviously + intended for irony on the military and Machiavellian policy of + Frederick the Great, while others on the policy of the Roman + emperors are shrewd and sagacious. The maxim from which M. Martin + quotes is the 147th, and in it the sombre words of his quotation + follow this:--"_Let the people never see royal blood flow for any + cause whatever._ The public punishment of a king," etc.! See + _Oeuv._, ii. 486. + +In 1780 his townsmen of Langres paid him a compliment, which showed that +the sage was not without honour in his own country. They besought him to +sit for his portrait, to be placed among the worthies in the town hall. +Diderot replied by sending them Houdon's bronze bust, which was received +with all distinction and honour. Naigeon hints that in the last years of +his life Diderot paid more attention to money than he had ever done +before;[205] not that he became a miser, but because, like many other +persons, he had not found out until the close of a life's experience +that care of money really means care of the instrument that procures +some of the best ends in life. For a moment we may regret that he was +too much occupied in attending to his affairs to take the unwise +Naigeon's wise counsel, that he should devote himself to a careful +revision of all that he had written. Perhaps Diderot's instinct was +right. Among the distractions of old age, he had turned back to his +Letter on the Blind, and read it over again without partiality. He +found, as was natural, some defects in a piece that was written +three-and-thirty years before, but he abstained from attempting to +remove them, for fear that the page of the young man should be made the +worse by the retouching of the old man. "There comes a time," he +reflects, "when taste gives counsels whose justice you recognise, but +which you have no longer strength to follow. It is the pusillanimity +that springs from consciousness of weakness, or else it is the idleness +that is one of the results of weakness and pusillanimity, which disgusts +me with a task that would be more likely to hurt than to improve my +work. + + Solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne + Peccet ad extremum ridendus et ilia ducat." + +And so he contented himself with some rough notes of phenomena that were +corroborative of the speculation of his youth.[206] + + [205] _Mém. sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Diderot_, p. 412. + + [206] Grimm, _Corr. Lit._, xi. 120. + +In the early spring of 1784 Diderot had an attack which he knew to be +the presage of the end. Dropsy set in, and he lingered until the summer. +The priest of Saint Sulpice, the centre of the philosophic quarter, came +to visit him two or three times a week, hoping to achieve at least the +semblance of a conversion. Diderot did not encourage conversation on +theology, but when pressed he did not refuse it. One day when they +found, as two men of sense will always find, that they had ample common +ground in matters of morality and good works, the priest ventured to +hint that an exposition of such excellent maxims, accompanied by a +slight retractation of Diderot's previous works, would have a good +effect on the world. "I daresay it would, monsieur le curé, but confess +that I should be acting an impudent lie." And no word of retractation +was ever made. As the end came suddenly, the priest escaped from the +necessity of denying the funeral rites of the Church. + +For thirty years Diderot had been steadfast to his quarters on an upper +floor in the Rue Taranne, and even now, when the physicians told him +that to climb such length of staircase was death to him, he still could +not be induced to stir. It would have been easier, his daughter says, to +effect a removal from Versailles itself. Grimm at length asked the +Empress of Russia to provide a house for her librarian, and when the +request was conceded, Diderot, who could never be ungracious, allowed +himself to be taken from his garret to palatial rooms in the Rue de +Richelieu. He enjoyed them less than a fortnight. Though visibly growing +weaker every day, he did all that he could to cheer the people around +him, and amused himself and them by arranging his pictures and his +books. In the evening, to the last, he found strength to converse on +science and philosophy to the friends who were eager as ever for the +last gleanings of his prolific intellect. In the last conversation that +his daughter heard him carry on, his last words were the pregnant +aphorism that _the first step towards philosophy is incredulity_. + +On the evening of the 30th of July 1784 he sat down to table, and at the +end of the meal took an apricot. His wife, with kindly solicitude, +remonstrated. _Mais quel diable de mal veux-tu que cela me fasse?_ he +said, and ate the apricot. Then he rested his elbow on the table, +trifling with some sweetmeats. His wife asked him a question; on +receiving no answer, she looked up and saw that he was dead. He had died +as the Greek poet says that men died in the golden age--[Greek: thnêskon +d' hôs hypnô dedmêmenoi], _they passed away as if mastered by sleep_. It +had always been his opinion that an examination of the organs after +death is a useful practice, and his wish that the operation should take +place in his own case was respected. Nothing interesting or remarkable +was revealed, and his remains were laid in the vaults of the church of +Saint Roche. + +So the curtain fell upon this strange tragi-comedy of a man of letters. +There is no better epilogue than words of his own:--"We fix our gaze on +the ruins of a triumphal arch, of a portico, a pyramid, a temple, a +palace, and we return upon ourselves. All is annihilated, perishes, +passes away. It is only the world that remains; only time that endures. +I walk between two eternities. To whatever side I turn my eyes, the +objects that surround me tell of an end, and teach me resignation to my +own end. What is my ephemeral existence in comparison with that of the +crumbling rock and the decaying forest? I see the marble of the tomb +falling to dust, and yet I cannot bear to die! Am I to grudge a feeble +tissue of fibres and flesh to a general law, that executes itself +inexorably even on very bronze!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CONCLUSION. + + +A few more pages must be given to one or two of Diderot's writings which +have not hitherto been mentioned. An exhaustive survey of his works is +out of the question, nor would any one be repaid for the labour of +criticism. A mere list of the topics that he handled would fill a long +chapter. A redaction of a long treatise on harmony, a vast sheaf of +notes on the elements of physiology, a collection of miscellanea on the +drama, a still more copious collection of miscellanea on a hundred +points in literature and art, a fragment on the exercise of young +Russians, an elaborate plan of studies for a proposed Russian +University,--no less panurgic and less encyclopædic a critic than +Diderot himself could undertake to sweep with ever so light a wing over +this vast area. Everybody can find something to say about the collection +of tales, in which Diderot thought that he was satirising the manners of +his time, after the fashion of Rabelais, Montaigne, La Mothe-le-Vayer, +and Swift. But not everybody is competent to deal, for instance, with +the five memoirs on different subjects in mathematics (1748), with +which Diderot hoped to efface the scandal of his previous performance. + + +I. + +Decidedly the most important of the pieces of which we have not yet +spoken must be counted the _Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature_ +(1754). His study of Bacon and the composition of the introductory +prospectus of the Encyclopædia had naturally filled Diderot's mind with +ideas about the universe as a whole. The great problem of man's +knowledge of this universe,--the limits, the instruments, the meaning of +such knowledge, came before him with a force that he could not evade. +Maupertuis had in 1751, under the assumed name of Baumann, an imaginary +doctor of Erlangen, published a dissertation on the _Universal System of +Nature_, in which he seems to have maintained that the mechanism of the +universe is one and the same throughout, modifying itself, or being +modified by some vital element within, in an infinity of diverse +ways.[207] Leibnitz's famous idea, of making nature invariably work with +the minimum of action, was seized by Maupertuis, expressed as the Law of +Thrift, and made the starting-point of speculations that led directly to +Holbach and the _System of Nature_.[208] The _Loi d'Epargne_ evidently +tended to make unity of all the forces of the universe the keynote or +the goal of philosophical inquiry. At this time of his life, Diderot +resisted Maupertuis's theory of the unity of vital force in the +universe, or perhaps we should rather say that he saw how open it was to +criticism. His resistance has none of his usual air of vehement +conviction. However that may be, the theory excited his interest, and +fitted in with the train of meditation which his thoughts about the +Encyclopædia had already set in motion, and of which the _Pensées +Philosophiques_ of 1746 were the cruder prelude. + + [207] As to the precise drift of Maupertuis's theme, see Lange, + _Gesch. d. Materialismus_, i. 413, _n._ 37. Also Rosenkranz, i. 134. + + [208] In 1765 Grimm describes the principle of Leibnitz and + Maupertuis as "gaining on us on every side."--_Corr. Lit._, iv. 186. + +The _Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature_ are, in form as in title, +imitated from those famous _Aphorismi de Interpretatione Naturæ et Regni +Hominis_, which are more shortly known to all men as Bacon's _Novum +Organum_.[209] The connection between the aphorisms is very loosely +held. Diderot began by premising that he would let his thoughts follow +one another under his pen, in the order in which the subjects came up in +his mind; and he kept his word. Their general scope, so far as it is +capable of condensed expression, may be described as a reconciliation +between the two great classes into which Diderot found thinkers upon +Nature to be divided; those who have many instruments and few ideas, and +those who have few instruments and many ideas,--in other words, between +men of science without philosophy, and philosophers without knowledge +of experimental science. + + [209] Palissot, in the _Philosophers_, concocted some very strained + satire on the too pompous opening of the _Interpretation of Nature_. + Act I. sc. 2. + +In the region of science itself, again, Diderot foresees as great a +change as in the relations between science and philosophy. "We touch the +moment of a great revolution in the sciences. From the strong +inclination of men's minds towards morals, literature, the history of +nature and experimental physics, I would almost venture to assert that +before the next hundred years are over, there will not be three great +geometers to be counted in Europe. This science will stop short where +the Bernouillis, the Eulers, the Maupertuis, the Clairauts, the +Fontaines, the D'Alemberts, the Lagranges have left it. They will have +fixed the Pillars of Hercules. People will go no further." Those who +have read Comte's angry denunciations of the perversions of geometry by +means of algebra, and of the waste of intellectual force in modern +analysis,[210] will at least understand how such a view as Diderot's was +possible. And no one will be likely to deny that, whether or not the +pillars of the geometrical Hercules were finally set a hundred years +ago, the great discoveries of the hundred years since Diderot have been, +as he predicted, in the higher sciences. The great misfortune of France +was that the supremacy of geometry coincided with the opening of the +great era of political discussion. The definitions of Montesquieu's +famous book, which opened the political movement in literature, have +been shown to be less those of a jurisconsult than of a geometer.[211] +Social truths, with all their profound complexity, were handled like +propositions in Euclid, and logical deductions from arbitrary premises +were treated as accurate representations of real circumstance. The +repulse of geometry to its proper rank came too late. + + [210] Comte's _System of Positive Polity_, i. 380, etc. English + translation, 1875. + + [211] By F. Sclopis, quoted in M. Vian's _Hist. de Montesquieu_, p. + 51. + +Comte always liberally recognised Diderot's genius, and any reader of +Comte's views on the necessities of subjective synthesis will discern +the germ of that doctrine in the following remarkable section: + + "When we compare the infinite multitude of the phenomena of nature + with the limits of our understandings and the weakness of our + organs, can we ever expect anything else from the slowness of our + work, from the long and frequent interruptions, and from the rarity + of creative genius than a few broken and separated pieces of the + great chain that binds all things together? Experimental philosophy + might work for centuries of centuries, and the materials that it + had heaped up, finally reaching in their number beyond all + combination, would still be far removed from an exact enumeration. + How many volumes would it not need to contain the mere terms by + which we should designate the distinct collections of phenomena, if + the phenomena were known? When will the philosophic language be + complete? If it were complete, who among men would be able to know + it? If the Eternal, to manifest his power still more plainly than + by the marvels of nature, had deigned to develop the universal + mechanism on pages traced by his own hand, do you suppose that this + great book would be more comprehensible to us than the universe + itself? How many pages of it all would have been intelligible to + the philosopher who, with all the force of head that had been + conferred upon him, was not sure of having grasped all the + conclusions by which an old geometer determined the relation of the + sphere to the cylinder? We should have in such pages a fairly good + measure of the reach of men's minds, and a still more pungent + satire on our vanity. We should say, Fermat went to such a page, + Archimedes went a few pages further. + + "What then is our end? The execution of a work that can never be + achieved, and which would be far beyond human intelligence if it + were achieved. Are we not more insensate than the first inhabitants + of the plain of Shinar? We know the immeasurable distance between + the earth and the heavens, and still we insist on rearing our + tower. + + "But can we presume that there will not come a time when our pride + will abandon the work in discouragement? What appearance is there + that, narrowly lodged and ill at its ease here below, our pride + should obstinately persist in constructing an uninhabitable palace + beyond the earth's atmosphere? Even if it should so insist, would + it not be arrested by the confusion of tongues, which is already + only too perceptible and too inconvenient in natural history? + Besides, it is utility that circumscribes all. It will be utility + that in a few centuries will set bounds to experimental physics, as + it is on the eve of setting bounds to geometry. I grant centuries + to this study, because the sphere of its utility is infinitely more + extensive than that of any abstract science, and it is without + contradiction the base of our real knowledge."[212] + + [212] _Oeuv._, ii. 12, 13, § 6. See the same idea in the + Encyclopædia, above, vol. i. pp. 225-227. + +We cannot wonder that when Comte drew up his list of the hundred and +fifty volumes that should form the good Positivist's library in the +nineteenth century, he should have placed Diderot's _Interpretation of +Nature_ on one side of Descartes' _Discourse on Method_, with Bacon's +_Novum Organum_ on the other. + +The same spirit finds even stronger and more distinct expression in a +later aphorism:--"Since the reason cannot understand everything, +imagination foresee everything, sense observe everything, nor memory +retain everything; since great men are born at such remote intervals, +and the progress of science is so interrupted by revolution, that whole +ages of study are passed in recovering the knowledge of the centuries +that are gone,--to observe everything in nature without distinction is +to fail in duty to the human race. Men who are beyond the common run in +their talents ought to respect themselves and posterity in the +employment of their time. What would posterity think of us if we had +nothing to transmit to it save a complete insectology, an immense +history of microscopic animals? No--to the great geniuses great objects, +little objects to the little geniuses" (§ 54). + +Diderot, while thus warning inquirers against danger on one side, was +alive to the advantages of stubborn and unlimited experiment on the +other. "When you have formed in your mind," he says, "one of those +systems which require to be verified by experience, you ought neither to +cling to it obstinately nor abandon it lightly. People sometimes think +their conjectures false, when they have not taken the proper measures to +find them true. Obstinacy, even, has fewer drawbacks than the opposite +excess. By multiplying experiments, if you do not find what you want, it +may happen that you will come on something better. _Never is time +employed in interrogating nature entirely lost_" (§ 42). The reader will +not fail to observe that this maxim is limited by the condition of +verifiableness. Of any system that could not be verified by experience +Diderot would have disdained to speak in connection with the +interpretation of nature. + +This, of course, did not prevent him from hypothesis and prophecy which +he himself had not the means of justifying. For example, he said that +just as in mathematics, by examining all properties of a curve we find +that they are one and the same property presented under different faces, +so in nature when experimental physics are more advanced, people will +recognise that all the phenomena, whether of weight, or elasticity, or +magnetism, or electricity, are only different sides of the same +affection (§ 44). But he was content to leave it to posterity, and to +build no fabric on unproved propositions. + +In the same scientific spirit he penetrated the hollowness of every +system dealing with Final Causes: + + "The physicist, whose profession is to instruct and not to edify, + will abandon the _Why_, and will busy himself only with the + _How_.... How many absurd ideas, false suppositions, chimerical + notions in those hymns which some rash defenders of final causes + have dared to compose in honour of the Creator? Instead of sharing + the transports of admiration of the prophet, and crying out at the + sight of the unnumbered stars that light up the midnight sky, _The + heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his + handiwork_, they have given themselves up to the superstition of + their conjectures. Instead of adoring the All-Powerful in the + creation of nature, they have prostrated themselves before the + phantoms of their imagination. If any one doubts the justice of my + reproach, I invite him to compare Galen's treatise on the use of + parts of the human body, with the physiology of Boerhaave, and the + physiology of Boerhaave with that of Haller; I invite posterity to + compare the systematic or passing views of Haller with what will be + the physiology of future times. Man praises the Eternal for his own + poor views; and the Eternal who hears from the elevation of his + throne, and who knows his own design, accepts the silly praise and + smiles at man's vanity" (§ 56). + +The world has advanced rapidly along this path since Diderot's day, and +has opened out many new and unsuspected meanings by the way. Perhaps the +advance has been less satisfactory in working out, in a scientific way, +the philosophy that is implied in the following adaptation of the +Leibnitzian and Maupertuisian suggestion of the law of economy in +natural forces:--"Astonishment often comes from our supposing several +marvels, where in truth there is only one; from our imagining in nature +as many particular acts as we can count phenomena, whilst _nature has +perhaps in reality never produced more than one single act_. It seem +even that, if nature had been under the necessity of producing several +acts, the different results of such acts would be isolated; that there +would be collections of phenomena independent of one another, and that +the general chain of which philosophy assumes the continuity, would +break in many places. _The absolute independence of a single fact is +incompatible with the idea of an All; and without the idea of a Whole, +there can be no Philosophy_" (§ 11). + +At length Diderot concludes by a series of questions which he thinks +that philosophers may perhaps count worthy of discussion. What is the +difference, for example, between living matter and dead? Does the energy +of a living molecule vary by itself, or according to the quantity, the +quality, the forms of the dead or living matter with which it is united? +We need not continue the enumeration, because Diderot himself suddenly +brings them to an end with a truly admirable expression of his sense of +how unworthy they are of the attention of serious men, who are able to +measure the difference between a wise and beneficent use of +intelligence, and a foolish and wasteful misuse of it. "When I turn my +eyes," he says, "to the works of men, and see the cities that are built +on every side, all the elements yoked to our service, languages fixed, +nations civilised, harbours constructed, lands and skies measured--then +the world seems to me very old. When I find man uncertain as to the +first principles of medicine and agriculture, as to the properties of +the commonest substances, as to knowledge of the maladies that afflict +him, as to the pruning of trees, as to the best form for the plough, +then it seems as if the earth had only been inhabited yesterday. And if +men were wise, they would at last give themselves up to such inquiries +as bear on their wellbeing, and would not take the trouble to answer my +futile questions for a thousand years at the very soonest; or perhaps, +even, considering the very scanty extent that they occupy in space and +time, they would never deign to answer them at all." + + +II. + +In 1769 Diderot composed three dialogues, of which he said that, with a +certain mathematical memoir, they were the only writings of his own with +which he was contented. The first is a dialogue between himself and +D'Alembert; the second is D'Alembert's Dream, in which D'Alembert in his +sleep continues the discussion, while Mdlle. Lespinasse, who is watching +by his bedside, takes down the dreamer's words; in the third, Mdlle. +Lespinasse and the famous physician, Bordeu, conclude the matter.[213] +It is impossible, Diderot said to Mdlle. Voland, to be more profound and +more mad: it is at once a supreme extravagance, and the most +deep-reaching philosophy. He congratulated himself on the cleverness of +placing his ideas in the mouth of a man who dreams, on the ground that +we must often give to wisdom the air of madness, in order to secure +admittance. Mdlle. Lespinasse was not so complacent. She made D'Alembert +insist that the dialogue should be destroyed, and Diderot believed that +he had burned the only existing copy. As a matter of fact, the +manuscript was not published until 1830, when all the people concerned +had long been reduced to dust. There are five or six pages, Diderot said +to Mdlle. Voland, which would make your sister's hair stand on end. A +man may be much less squeamish than Mdlle. Voland's sister, and still +pronounce the imaginative invention of D'Alembert's Dream, and the +sequel, to be as odious as anything since the freaks of filthy Diogenes +in his tub. Two remarks may be made on this strange production. First, +Diderot never intended the dialogues for the public eye. He would have +been as shocked as the Archbishop of Paris himself, if he had supposed +that they would become accessible to everybody who knows how to read. +Second, though they are in form the most ugly and disgusting piece in +the literature of philosophy, they testify in their own way to Diderot's +sincerity of interest in his subject. Science is essentially unsparing +and unblushing, and D'Alembert's Dream plunged exactly into those parts +of physiology which are least fit to be handled in literature. The +attempt to give an air of polite comedy to functions and secretions must +be pronounced detestable, in spite of the dialectical acuteness and +force with which Diderot pressed his point. + + [213] _Oeuv._, ii. + +It would be impossible, in a book not exclusively designed for a public +of professors, to give a full account of these three dialogues. It is +indispensable to describe their drift, because it is here that Diderot +figures definitely as a materialist. Diderot was in no sense the +originator of the French materialism of the eighteenth century. He was +preceded by Maupertuis, by Robinet, and by La Mettrie; and we have +already seen that when he composed the Thoughts on the Interpretation of +Nature (1754), he did not fully accept Maupertuis's materialistic +thesis. Lange has shown that at a very early period in the movement the +most consistent materialism was ready and developed, while such leaders +of the movement as Voltaire and Diderot still leaned either on deism, or +on a mixture of deism and scepticism.[214] The philosophy of +D'Alembert's Dream is definite enough, and far enough removed alike from +deism and scepticism. + + [214] _Gesch. d. Materialismus_, i. 309, 310, etc. + +"The thinking man is like a musical instrument. Suppose a clavecin to +have sensibility and memory, and then say whether it would not repeat of +itself the airs that you have played on its keys. We are instruments +endowed with sensibility and memory. Our senses are so many keys, +pressed by the nature that surrounds them, and they often press one +another; and this, according to my judgment, is all that passes in a +clavecin organised as you and I are organised. + +"There is only one substance in the world. The marble of the statue +makes the flesh of the man, and conversely. Reduce a block of marble to +impalpable powder; mix this powder with humus, or vegetable earth; knead +them well together; water the mixture; let it rot for a year, two +years--time does not count. In this you sow the plant, the plant +nourishes the man, and hence the passage from marble to tissue. + +"Do you see this egg? With that you overturn all the schools of theology +and all the temples of the earth. It is an insensible mass before the +germ is introduced into it; and, after the germ is introduced, there is +still an insensible mass, for the germ itself is only an inert fluid. +How does this mass pass to another organisation, to life, to +sensibility? By heat. What will produce heat? Movement. What will be the +successive effects of movement? First, an oscillating point, a thread +that extends, the flesh, the beak, and so forth." + +Then follows the application of the same ideas to the reproduction of +man--a region whither it is not convenient to follow the physiological +inquirer. The result as to the formation of the organic substance in man +is as unflinching as the materialism of Büchner. + + But doctor, cries Mdlle. Lespinasse, what becomes of vice and + virtue? Virtue, that word so holy in all languages, that idea so + sacred among all nations? + + BORDEU. We must transform it into beneficence, and its opposite + into the idea of maleficence. A man is happily or unhappily born; + people are irresistibly drawn on by the general torrent that + conducts one to glory, the other to ignominy. + + MDLLE. LESPINASSE. And self-esteem, and shame, and remorse? + + BORDEU. Proclivities, founded on the ignorance or the vanity of a + being who imputes to himself the merit or the demerit of a + necessary instant. + + MDLLE. LESPINASSE. And rewards and punishments? + + BORDEU. Means of correcting the modifiable being that we call bad, + and encouraging the other that we call good.[215] + + [215] _Oeuv._, ii. 176. + +The third dialogue we must leave. The fact that German books are written +for a public of specialists allows Dr. Rosenkranz to criticise these +dialogues with a freedom equal to Diderot's own, and his criticism is as +full as usual of candour, patience, and weight. An English writer must +be content to pass on, and his contentment may well be considerable, for +the subject is perhaps that on which, above all others, it is most +difficult to say any wise word. + + +III. + +The Plan of a University for the Government of Russia was the work of +Diderot's last years, but no copy of it was given to the public before +1813-14, when M. Guizot published extracts from an autograph manuscript +confided to him by Suard. Diderot, with a characteristic respect for +competence, with which no egotism can ever interfere in minds of such +strength and veracity as his, began by urging the Empress to consult +Ernesti of Leipsic, the famous editor of Cicero, and no less famous in +his day (1707-1781) for the changes that he introduced into the system +of teaching in the German universities. Of Oxford and Cambridge Diderot +spoke more kindly than they then deserved. + +The one strongly marked idea of the plan is what might have been +expected from the editor of the Encyclopædia, namely, the elevation of +what the Germans call real or technological instruction, and the +banishment of pure literature as a subject of study from the first to +the last place in the course. In the faculty of arts the earliest course +begins with arithmetic, algebra, the calculation of probabilities, and +geometry. Next follow physics and mechanics. Then astronomy. Fourthly, +natural history and experimental physics. In the fifth class, chemistry +and anatomy. In the sixth, logic and grammar. In the seventh, the +language of the country. And it was not until the eighth, that Greek and +Latin, eloquence and poetry, took their place among the objects or +instruments of education. Parallel with this course, the student was to +follow the first principles of metaphysics, of universal morality, and +of natural and revealed religion. Here, too, history and geography had a +place. In a third parallel, perspective and drawing accompanied the +science of the first, and the philosophy and history of the second. + +In the thorny field of religious instruction, Diderot expresses no +opinion of his own, beyond saying that it is natural for the Empress's +subjects to conform to her way of thinking. As her majesty thinks that +the fear of pains to come has much influence on men's actions, and is +persuaded that the total of small daily advantages produced by belief +outweighs the total of evils wrought by sectarianism and intolerance, +therefore students ought to be instructed in the mystery of the +distinction of the two substances, in the immortality of the soul, and +so forth.[216] + + [216] _Oeuv._, iii. 490. + +There is a story that one evening at St. Petersburg, Diderot was +declaiming with stormy eloquence against the baseness of those who +flatter kings; for such, he said, there ought to be a deeper and a +fiercer hell. "Tell me, Diderot," said the Empress by and by, "what they +say in Paris about the death of my husband." Instead of telling her the +plain truth that everybody said that Peter had been murdered by her +orders, the philosopher poured out a stream of the smoothest things. +"Come now," said Catherine suddenly, "confess, if you are not walking +along the path that leads to your deep hell, you are certainly coming +very close to purgatory." Diderot's elaborate concessions to her +majesty's political religion would, it is to be feared, have brought him +still further in the same sulphureous track. + +As we have often had to bewail Diderot's diffuseness, it is as well to +remark that a long passage in the sketch of which we are speaking shows +how close and concentrated he could be upon occasion. The two pages in +which he demolishes the incorrigible superstition about Latin and +Greek,[217] contain a thoroughly exhaustive summary of all the arguments +and the answers. In the immense discussion about Latin and Greek that +has taken place in the hundred years since Diderot's time, it is +tolerably safe to say that not a single point has been brought forward +which Diderot did not in these most pithy and conclusive pages attempt +to deal with. He winds up with the position that, even for the man of +letters, the present system of teaching Latin and Greek is essentially +sterile. I am perfectly sure, he says, that Voltaire, who is not exactly +a mediocrity as a man of letters, knows extremely little Greek, and that +he is not twentieth nor even hundredth among the Latinists of the +day.[218] + + [217] _Ib._ iii. 469-471. + + [218] _Oeuv._, iii. 473. + +Following this sketch is printed a letter to the Countess of Forbach on +the education of children. It is full of rich wisdom on its special +subject. Nobody can read it without feeling that quality in Diderot +which made his friends love him. And we see how, when he was called to +practical counsel, he banished into their own sphere the explosive +paradoxes with which he delighted to amuse his hours of speculative +dreaming. + + +IV. + +Romilly has told us that Diderot was bent on converting him from the +error of his religious ways, and with that intention read to him a +Conversation with the Maréchale de----.[219] It is believed to be an +idealised version of a real conversation with Madame de Broglie, and was +first printed, almost as soon as written (1777), in the correspondence +in which Métra, in imitation of Grimm, informed a circle of foreign +subscribers what was going on in Paris. The admirers of Diderot profess +to look on this Conversation as one of the most precious pearls in his +philosophic casket. It turns upon the conditions of belief and unbelief, +represented by the two interlocutors respectively, and is a terse and +graphic summary of the rationalistic objections to the creed of the +church. The most conspicuous literary passage in it is a parable which +has been attributed to Rousseau, but with which Rousseau had really +nothing to do, beyond reproducing the spirit of its argument in the ever +famous creed of the Savoyard Vicar. + + [219] _Ib._ ii. 505-528. + + A young Mexican, tired of his work, was sauntering one day on the + seashore. He spied a plank, with one end resting on the land, and + the other dipping into the water. He sat down on the plank, and + there gazing over the vast space that lay spread out before him, he + said to himself: "It is certain that my old grandmother is talking + nonsense, with her history of I know not what inhabitants, who, at + I know not what time, landed here from I know not where, from some + country far beyond our seas. It is against common sense: do I not + see the ocean touch the line of the sky? And can I believe, against + the evidence of my senses, an old fable of which nobody knows the + date, which everybody arranges according to his fancy, and which is + only a tissue of absurdities, about which people are ready to tear + out one another's eyes." As he was reasoning in this way, the + waters rocked him gently on his plank, and he fell asleep. As he + slept, the wind rose, the waves carried away the plank on which he + was stretched out, and behold our youthful reasoner embarked on a + voyage. + + _La Maréchale._--Alas, that is the image of all of us; we are each + on our plank; the wind blows, and the flood carries us away. + + _C._--He was already far from the mainland when he awoke. No one + was ever so surprised as our young Mexican, to find himself out on + the open sea, and he was mightily surprised, too, when having lost + from sight the shore on which he had been idly walking only an + instant before, he saw the sea touching the line of the sky on + every side. Then he began to suspect that he might have been + mistaken, and that, if the wind remained in the same quarter, + perhaps he would be borne to that very shore and among those + dwellers on it, about whom his grandmother had so often told him. + + _La Maréchale._--And of his anxiety you say nothing. + + _C._--He had none. He said to himself: "What does it matter, + provided that I find land? I have reasoned like a giddy-pate, + granted; but I have been sincere with myself, and that is all that + can be required of me. If it is no virtue to have understanding, at + any rate it is no crime to be without it." Meanwhile the wind + continued, the man and the plank floated on, and the unknown shore + came into sight. He touched it, and behold him again on land. + + _La Maréchale._--Ah, we shall all of us see one another there, one + of these days. + + _C._--I hope so, madam; wherever it may be, I shall always be very + proud to pay you my homage. Hardly had he quitted his plank, and + put his foot on the sand, when he perceived a venerable old man + standing by his side. He asked him where he was, and to whom he had + the honour of speaking. "I am the sovereign of the country," + replied the old man; "you have denied my existence?"--"Yes, it is + true."--"And that of my empire?"--"It is true!"--"I forgive you, + because I am he who sees the bottom of all hearts, and I have read + at the bottom of yours that you are of good faith; but the rest of + your thoughts and your actions are not equally innocent." Then the + old man, who held him by the ear, recalled to him all the errors + of his life; and as each was mentioned, the young Mexican bowed + himself upon the ground, beat his breast, and besought forgiveness. + + +V. + +Of Falconet,[220] we have already spoken, as a sculptor of genius, and +as one of Diderot's most intimate friends. Writing to Sophie Voland +(Nov. 21, 1765), Diderot informs her that some pleasantries of +Falconet's have induced him to undertake very seriously the defence of +the sentiment of immortality and respect for posterity.[221] This +apology was carried on in an energetic correspondence which lasted from +the end of 1765 to 1767. Falconet's letters were burned by his +grand-daughter for reasons unknown, and we have only such passages from +them as are more specially referred to by Diderot himself. Falconet +flattered himself that he had the best of the argument, and was eager +that they should be published, but Diderot was sluggish or busy. The +correspondence was imparted to Catherine of Russia, who took a lively +interest in it, and to some others, but it was not given to the +public--and then only partially--until 1830. + + [220] Above, vol. ii. p. 104. + + [221] xix. 200. + +Diderot's position in these twelve letters may be described in general +terms as being that the sentiment of immortality and respect for +posterity move the heart and elevate the soul; they are two germs of +great things, two promises as solid as any other, and two delights as +real as most of the delights of life, but more noble, more profitable, +and more virtuous. What Diderot means by immortality is not the +religious dogma, that the individual personality will be objectively +preserved and prolonged in some other mode of existence. On the +contrary, it was his disbelief in this dogma of the churches that gave a +certain keenness to his pleading for that other kind of immortality, +which prolongs our personality only in the grateful and admiring +memories of other people who come after us. He intended by the sentiment +of immortality "the desire to surround one's name with lustre among +posterity; to be the admiration and the talk of centuries to come; to +obtain after death the same honours as we pay to those who have gone +before us; to furnish a fine line to the historian; to inscribe one's +own name by the side of those which we never pronounce without shedding +a tear, heaving a sigh, or being touched by regret; to secure for +ourselves the blessings that we have such a thrill in bestowing on +Sully, Henry IV., and all the other benefactors of the human race."[222] +The sphere that surrounds us, and in which the world admires us, the +time in which we exist and listen to praise, the number of those who +directly address to us the eulogy that we have deserved of them--all +this is too small for the capacity of our ambitious souls. By the side +of those whom we see prostrated before us, we place those who are not +yet in the world. It is only this uncounted throng of adorers that can +satisfy a mind whose impulses are ever towards the infinite. At night it +is sweet to hear a distant concert, of which only snatches reach the +ear, all to be bound into a melodious whole by the imagination, which is +all the more charmed as the work is in the main its own. Even if all +this were but the sweetness of a lovely dream, is then the sweetness of +a dream as nothing? And am I to count for nothing a sweet dream that +lasts as long as my life, and holds me in perpetual intoxication? + + [222] xviii. 94. + +Falconet's answer was hard and positive. Contemporary glory suffices. +What is fame, if I am not there to enjoy? The fear of contempt and +disgrace is as strong a motive as you need, to incite men to great work. +Glory after death is chimerical and uncertain. Think of all the great +names that are clean forgotten, of all the great workers whose +achievements are lost or effaced, of all the others whose works are +attributed to those who did not execute them! Your posterity is no +better than a lottery. + +No, cries Diderot, with redoubled eloquence, rising to his noblest +height,[223] "the present is an indivisible point that cuts in two the +length of an infinite line. It is impossible to rest on this point and +to glide gently along with it, never looking on in front, and never +turning the head to gaze behind. The more man ascends through the past, +and the more he launches into the future--the greater he will be.... +And all these philosophers, and ministers, and truth-telling men, who +have fallen victims to the stupidity of nations, the atrocities of +priests, the fury of tyrants, what consolation was left for them in +death? This, that prejudice would pass, and that posterity would pour +out the vial of ignominy upon their enemies. O posterity, holy and +sacred! Stay of the unhappy and the oppressed, thou who art just, thou +who art incorruptible, who avengest the good man, who unmaskest the +hypocrite, who draggest down the tyrant, may thy sure faith, thy +consoling faith, never, never abandon me! Posterity is for the +philosopher what the other world is for the devout!" + + [223] xviii. pp. 113 and 100. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +RAMEAU'S NEPHEW: A TRANSLATION. + +[See vol. i. p. 348.] + + +[I have omitted such pages in the following translation as refer simply +to personages who have lost all possibility of interest for our +generation; nor did any object seem to be served by reproducing the +technical points of the musical discussion. Enough is given, and given +as faithfully as I know how, to show the reader what _Rameau's Nephew_ +is.] + + In all weathers, wet or fine, it is my practice to go, towards five + o'clock in the evening, to take a turn in the Palais Royal. I am he + whom you may see any afternoon sitting by himself and musing in + D'Argenson's seat. I keep up talk with myself about politics, love, + taste, or philosophy; I leave my mind to play the libertine + unchecked; and it is welcome to run after the first idea that + offers, sage or gay, just as you see our young beaux in the Foy + passage following the steps of some gay nymph, with her saucy mien, + face all smiles, eyes all fire, and nose a trifle turned up; then + quitting her for another, attacking them all, but attaching + themselves to none. My thoughts,--these are the wantons for me. If + the weather be too cold or too wet, I take shelter in the Regency + coffee-house. There I amuse myself by looking on while they play + chess. Nowhere in the world do they play chess so skilfully as in + Paris, and nowhere in Paris as they do at this coffee-house; 'tis + here you see Légal the profound, Philidor the subtle, Mayot the + solid; here you see the most astounding moves, and listen to the + sorriest talk, for if a man may be at once a wit and a great + chess-player, like Légal, you may also be a great chess-player and + a sad simpleton, like Joubert and Mayot. + + One day I was there after dinner, watching intently, saying little, + and hearing the very least possible, when there approached me 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 astonishing strength of lungs. If you ever meet him, and if + you are not 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 several 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 or patched, with + barely a shoe to his foot, he steals along with a bent head; you + are tempted to hail him and fling him a shilling. To-morrow all + powdered, curled, in a fine coat, he marches past 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 in a morning, when he + gets up, is to know where he will dine; and 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 that he has, unless + the landlady, weary of waiting for her rent, has taken the key away + from him; or else he slinks to some tavern on the outskirts of the + town, where he waits for daybreak over a piece 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 the 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 his 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. + + I do not rate these originals very highly. Other people make + familiar acquaintances, and even friends, of them. They detain me + perhaps once in a twelvemonth, if I happen to fall in with them. + Their character stands out from the rest of the world, and breaks + that wearisome 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 a piece of leaven + which ferments and restores to each a portion of his natural + individuality. He stirs people up, moves them, invites to praise or + blame; he is the means of bringing out the truth, he gives honest + people a chance of showing themselves, he unmasks the rogues; this + is the time when a man of sense listens, and distinguishes his + company. + + I had known my present man long ago. He used to frequent a house to + which his clever parts had opened the door. There was an only + daughter. He swore to the father and mother that he would marry + their daughter. They shrugged their shoulders, laughed in his face, + told him he was out of his senses, and I saw in an instant that his + business was done. He wanted to borrow a few crowns from me, which + I gave him. He worked his way, I cannot tell how, into some houses + where he had his plate laid for him, but on condition that he + should never open his lips without leave. He held his tongue and + ate away in a towering rage: it was excellent to watch him in this + state of constraint. If he could not resist breaking the treaty, + and ever began to open his mouth, at the first word all the guests + called out _Rameau!_ Then fury sparkled in his eyes, and he turned + to his plate in a worse passion than ever. You were curious to know + the man's name, and now you know it: 'tis Rameau, pupil of the + famous man who delivered us from the plain-song that we had been + used to chant for over a hundred years; who wrote so many + unintelligible visions and apocalyptic truths on the theory of + music, of which neither he nor anybody else understood a word; and + from whom we have a certain number of operas that are not without + harmony, refrains, random notions, uproar, triumphs, glories, + murmurs, breathless victories, and dance-tunes that will last to + all eternity; and who, after burying Lulli, the Florentine, will be + himself buried by the Italian virtuosi,--a fate that he had a + presentiment of, which made him gloomy and chagrined; for nobody is + in such ill-humour, not even a pretty woman who awakes with a + pimple on her nose, as an author threatened with loss of his + reputation. + + He comes up to me. Ah, ah! here you are, my philosopher! And what + are you doing among this pack of idlers? Can it be possible that + you too waste your time in pushing the wood?... + + _I._--No, but when I have nothing better to do, I amuse myself by + watching people who push it well. + + _He._--In that case you are amusing yourself with a vengeance. + Except Philidor and Légal, there is not one of them who knows + anything about it. + + _I._--What of M. de Bussy? + + _He._--He is as a chess-player what Mademoiselle Clairon is as an + actress; they know of their playing, one and the other, as much as + anybody can learn. + + _I._--You are hard to please, and I see you can forgive nothing + short of the sublimities. + + _He._--True, in chess, women, poetry, eloquence, music, and all + such fiddle-faddle. What is the use of mediocrity in these matters? + + _I._--Little enough, I agree. But the thing is that there must be a + great number of men at work, for us to make sure of the man of + genius: he is one out of a multitude. But let that pass. 'Tis an + age since I have seen you. Though I do not often think about you + when you are out of sight, yet it is always a pleasure to me to + meet you. What have you been about? + + _He._--What you, I, and everybody else are about--some good, some + bad, and nothing at all. Then, I have been hungry, and I have eaten + when opportunity offered; after eating, I have been thirsty, and + now and then have had something to drink. Besides that, my beard + grew, and as it grew I had it shaved. + + _I._--There you were wrong; it is the only thing wanting to make a + sage of you. + + _He._--Ay, ay; I have a wide and furrowed brow, a glowing eye, a + firm nose, broad cheeks, a black and bushy eyebrow, a clean cut + mouth, a square jaw. Cover this enormous chin with amplitude of + beard, and I warrant you it would look vastly well in marble or in + bronze. + + _I._--By the side of a Cæsar, a Marcus Aurelius, a Socrates. + + _He._--Nay, I should be better between Diogenes, Laïs, and Phryne. + I am brazenfaced as the one, and I am happy to pay a visit to the + others. + + _I._--Are you always well? + + _He._--Yes, commonly; but I am no great wonders to-day. + + _I._--Why, you have a paunch like Silenus, and a face like.... + + _He._--A face you might take for I don't know what. The ill humour + that dries up my dear master seems to fatten his dear pupil. + + _I._--And this dear master, do you ever see him now? + + _He._--Yes, passing along the street. + + _I._--Does he do nothing for you? + + _He._--If he has done anything for anybody, it is without knowing + it. He is a philosopher after his fashion. He thinks of nobody but + himself. His wife and his daughter may die as soon as they please; + provided the church bells that toll for them continue to sound the + _twelfth_ and the _seventeenth_, all will be well. It is lucky for + him, and that is what I especially prize in your men of genius. + They are only good for one thing; outside of that, nothing. They do + not know what it is to be citizens, fathers, mothers, kinsfolk, + friends. Between ourselves, it is no bad thing to be like them at + every point, but we should not wish the grain to become common. We + must have men; but men of genius, no; no, on my word; of them we + need none. 'Tis they who change the face of the globe; and in the + smallest things folly is so common and so almighty, that you cannot + mend it without an infinite disturbance. Part of what they have + dreamt comes to pass, and part remains as it was; hence two + gospels, the dress of a harlequin. The wisdom of Rabelais's moral + is the true wisdom both for his own repose and that of other + people: to do one's duty so so, always to speak well of the prior, + and to let the world go as it lists. It must go well, for most + people are content with it. If I knew history enough, I should + prove to you that evil has always come about here below through a + few men of genius, but I do not know history, no more than I know + anything else. The deuce take me, if I have learnt anything, or if + I find myself a pin the worse for not having learnt anything. I was + one day at the table of the minister of the King of----, who has + brains enough for four, and he showed as plain as one and one make + two, that nothing was more useful to people than falsehood, nothing + more mischievous than truth. I don't remember his proofs very + clearly, but it evidently followed from them that men of genius are + detestable, and that if a child at its birth bore on its brow the + mark of that dangerous gift of nature, it ought to be smothered or + else thrown to the ducks. + + _I._--Yet such people, foes as they are to genius, all lay claim to + it. + + _He._--I daresay they think so in their own minds, but I doubt if + they would venture to admit it. + + _I._--Ah, that is their modesty. So you conceived from that a + frightful antipathy to genius. + + _He._--One that I shall never get over. + + _I._--Yet I have seen the time when you were in despair at the + thought of being only a common man. You will never be happy if the + pro and the con distress you alike. You should take your side, and + keep to it. Though people will agree with you that men of genius + are usually singular, or as the proverb says, _there are no great + wits without a grain of madness_, yet they will always look down on + ages that have produced no men of genius. They will pay honour to + the nations among whom they have existed; sooner or later, they + rear statues to them, and regard them as the benefactors of the + human race. With all deference to the sublime minister whom you + have cited, I still believe that if falsehood may sometimes be + useful for a moment, it is surely hurtful in the long-run; and so, + on the other hand, truth is surely useful in the long-run, though + it may sometimes chance to be inconvenient for the moment. Whence I + should be tempted to conclude that the man of genius who cries down + a general error, or wins credit for a great truth, is always a + creature that deserves our veneration. It may happen that such an + one falls a victim to prejudice and the laws; but there are two + sorts of laws, the one of an equity and generality that is + absolute, the other of an incongruous kind, which owe all their + sanction to the blindness or exigency of circumstance. The latter + only cover the culprit who infringes them with passing ignominy, an + ignominy that time pours back on the judges and the nations, there + to remain for ever. Whether is Socrates, or the authority that bade + him drink the hemlock, in the worst dishonour in our day? + + _He._--Not so fast. Was he any the less for that condemned? Or any + the less put to death? Or any the less a bad citizen? By his + contempt for a bad law did he any the less encourage blockheads to + despise good ones? Or was he any the less an audacious eccentric? + You were close there upon an admission that would have done little + for men of genius. + + _I._--But listen to me, my good man. A society ought not to have + bad laws, and if it had only good ones, it would never find itself + persecuting a man of genius. I never said to you that genius was + inseparably bound up with wickedness, any more than wickedness is + with genius. A fool is many a time far worse than a man of parts. + Even supposing a man of genius to be usually of a harsh carriage, + awkward, prickly, unbearable; even if he be thoroughly bad, what + conclusion do you draw? + + _He._--That he ought to be drowned. + + _I._--Gently, good man. Now I will not take your uncle Rameau for + an instance; he is harsh, he is brutal, he has no humanity, he is a + miser, he is a bad father, bad husband, bad uncle; but it has never + been settled that he is particularly clever, that he has advanced + his art, or that there will be any talk of his works ten years + hence. But Racine, now? He at any rate had genius, and did not pass + for too good a man. And Voltaire? + + _He._--Beware of pressing me, for I am not one to shrink from + conclusions. + + _I._--Which of the two would you prefer; that he should have been a + worthy soul, identified with his till, like Briasson, or with his + yard measure, like Barbier, each year producing a lawful babe, good + husband, good father, good uncle, good neighbour, decent trader, + but nothing more; or that he should have been treacherous, + ambitious, envious, spiteful, but the author of _Andromaque_, + _Britannicus_, _Iphigenie_, _Phèdre_, _Athalie_? + + _He._--For his own sake, on my word, perhaps of the two men it + would have been a great deal better that he should have been the + first. + + _I._--That is even infinitely more true than you think. + + _He._--Ah, there you are, you others! If we say anything good and + to the purpose, 'tis like madmen or creatures inspired, by a + hazard; it is only you wise people who know what you mean. Yes, my + philosopher, I know what I mean as well as you do. + + _I._--Let us see. Now why did you say that of him? + + _He._--Because all the fine things he did never brought him twenty + thousand francs, and if he had been a silk merchant in the Rue + Saint Denis or Saint Honoré, a good wholesale grocer, an apothecary + with plenty of customers, he would have amassed an immense fortune, + and in amassing it, he could have enjoyed every pleasure in life; + he would have thrown a pistole from time to time to a poor devil of + a droll like me; we should have had good dinners at his house, + played high play, drunk first-rate wines, first-rate liqueurs, + first-rate coffee, had glorious excursions into the country. Now + you see I know what I meant. You laugh? But let me go on. It would + have been better for everybody about him. + + _I._--No doubt it would, provided that he had not put to unworthy + use what gain he had made in lawful commerce, and had banished from + his house all those gamesters, all those parasites, all those idle + flatterers, all those depraved ne'er-do-wells, and had bidden his + shop-boys give a sound beating to the officious creature who offers + to play pander. + + _He._--A beating, sir, a beating! No one is beaten in any + well-governed town. It is a decent enough trade; plenty of people + with fine titles meddle with it. And what the deuce would you have + him do with his money, if he is not to have a good table, good + company, good wines, handsome women, pleasures of every colour, + diversion of every sort? I would as lief be a beggar as possess a + mighty fortune without any of these enjoyments. But go back to + Racine. He was only good for people who did not know him, and for a + time when he had ceased to exist. + + _I._--Granted, but weigh the good and bad. A thousand years from + now he will draw tears, he will be the admiration of men in all the + countries of the earth; he will inspire compassion, tenderness, + pity. They will ask who he was, and to what land he belonged, and + France will be envied. He brought suffering on one or two people + who are dead, and in whom we take hardly any interest; we have + nothing to fear from his vices or his foibles. It would have been + better, no doubt, that he should have received from nature the + virtues of a good man, instead of the talents of a great one. He is + a tree which made a few other trees planted near him wither up, and + which smothered the plants that grew at his feet; but he reared his + height to the clouds, and his branches spread far; he lends his + shadow to all who came, or come now, or ever shall come, to repose + by his majestic trunk; he brought forth fruits of exquisite savour + which are renewed again and again without ceasing. + + We might wish that Voltaire had the mildness of Duclos, the + ingenuousness of the Abbé Trublet, the rectitude of the Abbé + d'Olivet. But as that cannot be, let us look at the thing on the + side of it that is really interesting; let us forget for an instant + the point we occupy in space and time, and let us extend our + vision over centuries to come, and peoples yet unborn, and distant + lands yet unvisited. Let us think of the good of our race: if we + are not generous enough, at least let us forgive nature for being + wiser than ourselves. If you throw cold water on Greuze's head, + very likely you will extinguish his talent along with his vanity. + If you make Voltaire less sensitive to criticism, he will lose the + art that took him to the inmost depths of the soul of Merope, and + will never stir a single emotion in you more. + + _He._--But if nature be as powerful as she is wise, why did she not + make them as good as she made them great? + + _I._--Do you not see how such reasoning as that overturns the + general order, and that if all were excellent here below, then + there would be nothing excellent. + + _He._--You are right. The important point is that you and I should + be here; provided only that you and I are you and I, then let all + besides go as it can. The best order of things, in my notion, is + that in which I was to have a place, and a plague on the most + perfect of worlds, if I don't belong to it! I would rather exist, + and even be a bad hand at reasoning, than not exist at all. + + _I._--There is nobody but thinks as you do, and whoever brings his + indictment against the order of things, forgets that he is + renouncing his own existence. + + _He._--That is true. + + _I._--So let us accept things as they are; let us see how much they + cost us and how much they give us, and leave the whole as it is, + for we do not know it well enough either to praise or blame it; and + perhaps after all it is neither good nor ill, if it is necessary, + as so many good folk suppose. + + _He._--Now you are going beyond me. What you say seems like + philosophy, and I warn you that I never meddle with that. All that + I know is that I should be very well pleased to be somebody else, + on the chance of being a genius and a great man; yes, I must agree. + I have something here that tells me so. I never in my life heard a + man praised, that his eulogy did not fill me with secret fury. I am + full of envy. If I hear something about their private life that is + a discredit to them, I listen with pleasure: it brings us nearer to + a level; I bear my mediocrity more comfortably. I say to myself: + Ah, thou couldst never have done _Mahomet_, nor the eulogy on + Maupeou. So I have always been, and I always shall be, mortified at + my own mediocrity. Yes, I tell you I am mediocre, and it provokes + me. I never heard the overture to the _Indes galantes_ performed, + nor the _Profonds abîmes de Ténare, Nuit, eternelle nuit_, sung + without saying to myself: That is what thou wilt never do. So I was + jealous of my uncle. + + _I._--If that is the only thing that chagrins you, it is hardly + worth the trouble. + + _He._--'Tis nothing, only a passing humour. [Then he set himself to + hum the overture and the air he had spoken of, and went on:] + + The something which is here and speaks to me says: Rameau, thou + wouldst fain have written those two pieces: if thou hadst done + those two pieces, thou wouldst soon do two others; and after thou + hadst done a certain number, they would play thee and sing thee + everywhere. In walking, thou wouldst hold thy head erect, thy + conscience would testify within thy bosom to thy own merit; the + others would point thee out, There goes the man who wrote the + pretty gavottes [and he hummed the gavottes. Then with the air of a + man bathed in delight and his eyes shining with it, he went on, + rubbing his hands:] Thou shalt have a fine house [he marked out its + size with his arms], a famous bed [he stretched himself luxuriously + upon it], capital wines [he sipped them in imagination, smacking + his lips], a handsome equipage [he raised his foot as if to mount], + a hundred varlets who will come to offer thee fresh incense every + day [and he fancied he saw them all around him, Palissot, + Poinsinet, the two Frérons, Laporte, he heard them, approved of + them, smiled at them, contemptuously repulsed them, drove them + away, called them back; then he continued:] And it is thus they + would tell thee on getting up in a morning that thou art a great + man; thou wouldst read in the _Histoire des Trois Siècles_ that + thou art a great man, thou wouldst be convinced of an evening that + thou art a great man, and the great man Rameau would fall asleep to + the soft murmur of the eulogy that would ring in his ears; even as + he slept he would have a complacent air; his chest would expand, + and rise, and fall with comfort; he would move like a great man ... + [and as he talked he let himself sink softly on a bench, he closed + his eyes, and imitated the blissful sleep that his mind was + picturing. After relishing the sweetness of this repose for a few + instants he awoke, stretched his arms, yawned, rubbed his eyes, and + looked about him for his pack of vapid flatterers]. + + _I._--You think, then, the happy mortal has his sleep? + + _He._--Think so! A sorry wretch like me! At night when I get back + to my garret, and burrow in my truckle-bed, I shrink up under my + blanket, my chest is all compressed, and I can hardly breathe; it + seems like a moan that you can barely hear. Now a banker makes the + room ring and astonishes a whole street. But what afflicts me + to-day, is not that I snore and sleep meanly and shabbily, like a + paltry outcast. + + _I._--Yet that is a sorry thing enough. + + _He._--What has befallen me is still more so. + + _I._--What is that? + + _He._--You have always taken some interest in me, because I am a + _bon diable_, whom you rather despise at bottom, but who diverts + you. + + _I._--Well, that is the plain truth. + + _He._--I will tell you. [Before beginning he heaved a profound + sigh, and clasped his brow with his two hands. Then he recovers his + tranquillity and says:] + + You know that I am an ignoramus, a fool, a madman, an impertinent, + a sluggard, a glutton.... + + _I._--What a panegyric! + + _He._--'Tis true to the letter, there is not a word to take away; + prithee, no debate on that. No one knows me better. I know myself + and I do not tell the whole. + + _I._--I have no wish to cross you, and I will agree to anything. + + _He._--Well, I used to live with people, who took a liking for me, + plainly because I was gifted with all these qualities to such a + rare degree. + + _I._--That is curious. Until now I always thought that people hid + these things even from themselves, or else that they granted + themselves pardon, while they despised them in others. + + _He._--Hide them from themselves! Can men do that? You may be sure + that when Palissot is all alone and returns upon himself, he tells + a very different tale; you may be sure that when he talks quietly + with his colleague, they candidly admit that they are only a pair + of mighty rogues. Despise such things in others! My people were far + more equitable, and they took my character for a perfect nonesuch; + I was in clover; they feasted me, they did not lose me from their + sight for a single instant without sighing for my return. I was + their excellent Rameau, their dear Rameau, their Rameau the mad, + the impertinent, the lazy, the greedy, the merry-man, the lout. + There was not one of these epithets which did not bring me a smile, + a caress, a tap on the shoulder, a cuff, a kick; at table, a titbit + tossed on to my plate; away from the table, a freedom that I took + without consequences, for, do you see, I am a man without + consequence. They do with me and before me and at me whatever they + like, without my standing on any ceremony. And the little presents + that showered on me! The great hound that I am, I have lost all! I + have lost all for having had common sense once, one single time in + my life. Ah! if that ever chances again! + + _I._--What was the matter, then? + + _He._--Rameau, Rameau, did they ever take you for that? The folly + of having had a little taste, a trifle of wit, a spice of reason; + Rameau, my friend, that will teach you the difference between what + God made you, and what your protectors wanted you to be. So they + took you by the shoulder, they led you to the door, and cried: "Be + off, rascal; never appear more. He would fain have sense, reason, + wit, I declare! Off with you; we have all these qualities and to + spare!" You went away biting your thumb; it was your infernal + tongue, that you ought to have bitten before all this. For not + bethinking you of that, here you are in the gutter without a + farthing, or a place to lay your head. You were well housed, and + now you will be lucky if you get your garret again; you had a good + bed, and now a truss of straw awaits you between M. de Soubise's + coachman and friend Robbé. Instead of the gentle quiet slumber that + you had, you will have the neighing and stamping of horses all + night long--you wretch, idiot, possessed by a million devils! + + _I._--But is there no way of setting things straight? Is the fault + you committed so unpardonable? If I were you, I should go find my + people again. You are more indispensable to them than you suppose. + + _He._--Oh, as for that, I know that now they have me no longer to + make fun for them, they are dull as ditch-water. + + _I._--Then I should go back: I would not give them time enough to + learn how to get on without me, or to turn to some more decent + amusement. For who knows what may happen? + + _He._--That is not what I am afraid of: that will never come to + pass. + + _I._--But sublime as you may be, some one else may replace you. + + _He._--Hardly. + + _I._--Hardly, it is true. Still I would go with that lacklustre + face, those haggard eyes, that open breast, that tumbled hair, in + that downright tragic state in which you are now. I would throw + myself at the feet of the divinity, and without rising I would say + with a low and sobbing voice: "Forgive me, madam! Forgive me! I am + the vilest of creatures. It was only one unfortunate moment, for + you know I am not subject to common sense, and I promise you, I + will never have it again so long as I live." + + [The diverting part of it was that, while I discoursed to him in + this way, he executed it pantomimically, and threw himself on the + ground; with his eyes fixed on the earth, he seemed to hold between + his two hands the tip of a slipper, he wept, he sobbed, he cried: + "Yes, my queen, yes, I promise, I never will, so long as I live, so + long as ever I live...." Then recovering himself abruptly, he went + on in a serious and deliberate tone:] + + _He._--Yes, you are right; I see it is the best. Yet to go and + humiliate one's self before a hussy, cry for mercy at the feet of a + little actress with the hisses of the pit for ever in her ears! I, + Rameau, son of Rameau, the apothecary of Dijon, who is a good man + and never yet bent his knee to a creature in the world! I, Rameau, + who have composed pieces for the piano that nobody plays, but which + will perhaps be the only pieces ever to reach posterity, and + posterity will play them--I, I, must go! Stay, sir, it cannot be + [and striking his right hand on his breast, he went on:] I feel + here something that rises and tells me: Never, Rameau, never. There + must be a certain dignity attached to human nature that nothing can + stifle; it awakes _à propos des bottes_; you cannot explain it; for + there are other days when it would cost me not a pang to be as vile + as you like, and for a halfpenny there is nothing too dirty for me + to do. + + _I._--Then if the expedient I have suggested to you is not to your + taste, have courage enough to remain a beggar. + + _He._--'Tis hard being a beggar, while there are so many rich + fools at whose expense one can live. And the contempt for one's + self, it is insupportable. + + _I._--Do you know that sentiment? + + _He._--Know it! How many times have I said to myself: What, Rameau, + there are ten thousand good tables in Paris, with fifteen or twenty + covers apiece, and of these covers not one for thee! There are + purses full of gold which is poured out right and left, and not a + crown of it falls to thee! A thousand witlings without parts and + without worth, a thousand paltry creatures without a charm, a + thousand scurvy intriguers, are all well clad, while thou must go + bare! Canst thou be such a nincompoop as all this? Couldst thou not + flatter as well as anybody else? Couldst thou not find out how to + lie, swear, forswear, promise, keep or break, like anybody else? + Couldst thou not favour the intrigue of my lady, and carry the + love-letter of my lord, like anybody else? Couldst thou not find + out the trick of making some shopkeeper's daughter understand how + shabbily dressed she is, how two fine earrings, a touch of rouge, + some lace, and a Polish gown would make her ravishing; that those + little feet were not made for trudging through the mud; that there + is a handsome gentleman, young, rich, in a coat covered with lace, + with a superb carriage and six fine lackeys, who once saw her as he + passed, who thought her charming and wonderful, and that ever since + that day he has taken neither bite nor sup, cannot sleep at nights, + and will surely die of it?... He comes, he pleases, the little maid + vanishes, and I pocket my two thousand crowns. What, thou hast a + talent like this, and yet in want of bread? Shame on thee, wretch! + I recalled a crowd of scoundrels who were not a patch upon me, and + yet were rolling in money. There was I in serge, and they in + velvet; they leaned on gold-headed canes, and had fine rings on + their fingers. And what were they? Wretched bungling strummers, and + now they are a kind of fine gentlemen. At such times I felt full of + courage, my soul inflamed and elevated, my wits alert and subtle, + and capable of anything in the world. But this happy turn did not + last, it would seem, for so far I have not been able to make much + way. However that may be, there is the text of my frequent + soliloquies, which you may paraphrase as you choose, provided you + are sure that I know what self-contempt is, and that torture of + conscience which comes of the usefulness of the gifts that heaven + has bestowed on us; that is the cruellest stroke of all. A man + might almost as well never have been born. + + [I had listened to him all the time, and as he enacted the scene + with the poor girl, with my heart moved by two conflicting + emotions, I did not know whether to give myself up to the longing I + had to laugh, or to a transport of indignation. I was distressingly + perplexed between two humours; twenty times an uncontrollable burst + of laughter kept my anger back, and twenty times the anger that was + rising from the bottom of my soul suddenly ended in a burst of + laughter. I was confounded by so much shrewdness and so much + vileness, by ideas now so just and then so false, by such general + perversity of sentiments, such complete turpitude, and such + marvellously uncommon frankness. He perceived the struggle going on + within me:] What ails you? said he. + + _I._--Nothing. + + _He._--You seem to be disturbed. + + _I._--And I am. + + _He._--But now, after all, what do you advise me to do? + + _I._--To change your way of talking. You unfortunate soul, to what + abject state have you fallen! + + _He._--I admit it. And yet, do not let my state touch you too + deeply; I had no intention, in opening my mind to you, to give you + pain. I managed to scrape up a few savings when I was with the + people. Remember that I wanted nothing, not a thing, and they made + me a certain allowance for pocket-money. + + [He again began to tap his brow with one of his fists, to bite his + lips, and to roll his eyes towards the ceiling, going on to say:] + + But 'tis all over; I have put something aside; time has passed, and + that is always so much gained. + + _I._--So much lost, you mean. + + _He._--No, no; gained. People grow rich every moment; a day less to + live, or a crown 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 just like Rameau, who leaves not a penny, and + will be indebted to charity for a shroud to wrap round him. The + dead man hears not the tolling of the bell; 'tis in vain that a + hundred priests bawl dirges for him, and that a long file of + blazing torches go before: his soul walks not by the side of the + master of the 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? And then, look at this wrist, it was stiff as the + devil; the ten fingers, they were so many sticks fastened into a + metacarpus made of wood; and these muscles were like old strings of + catgut, drier, stiffer, harder to bend than if that they had been + used for a turner's wheel; but I have so twisted and broken and + bent them. What, thou wilt not go? And I say that thou shalt.... + + [And at this, with his right hand he seized the fingers and wrist + of his left hand, and turned them first up and then down. The + extremity of the fingers touched the arm, till the joints cracked + again. I was afraid every instant that the bones would remain + dislocated.] + + _I._--Take care, you will do yourself a mischief. + + _He._--Don't be afraid, they are used to it. For ten years I have + given it them in a very different style. They had to accustom + themselves to it, however they liked it, and to learn to find their + place on the keys and to leap over the strings. So now they go + where they must. + + [At the same moment he threw himself into the attitude of a + violin-player; he hummed an allegro of Locatelli's; his right arm + imitated the movement of the bow; his left hand and his fingers + seemed to be feeling along the handle. If he makes a false note, he + stops, tightens or slackens his string, and strikes it with his + nail, to make sure of its being in tune, and then takes up the + piece where he left off. He beats time with his foot, moves his + head, his feet, his hands, his arms, his body, as you may have seen + Ferrari or Chiabran, or some other virtuoso in the same + convulsions, presenting the image of the same torture, and giving + me nearly as much pain; for is it not a painful thing to watch the + torture of a man who is busy painting pleasure for my benefit? Draw + a curtain to hide the man from me, if he must show me the spectacle + of a victim on the rack. In the midst of all these agitations and + cries, if there occurred one of those harmonious passages where the + bow moves slowly over several of the strings at once, his face put + on an air of ecstasy, his voice softened, he listened to himself + with perfect ravishment; it is undoubted that the chorus sounded + both in his ears and mine. Then replacing his imaginary instrument + under his left arm with the same hand by which he held it, and + letting his right hand drop with the bow in it, said:] + + Well, what do you think of it? + + _I._--Wonderful! + + _He._--Not bad, I fancy; it sounds pretty much like the others.... + [And then he stooped down, like a musician placing himself at the + piano.] + + _I._--Nay, I beg you to be merciful both to me and to yourself. + + _He._--No, no; now that I have got you, you shall hear me. I will + have no vote that is given without your knowing why. You will say a + good word for me with more confidence, and that will be worth a + new pupil to me. + + _I._--But I am so little in the world, and you will tire yourself + all to no purpose. + + _He._--I am never tired. + + [As I saw that it was useless to have pity on my man, for the + sonata on the violin had bathed him in perspiration, I resolved to + let him do as he would. So behold him seated at the piano, his legs + bent, his head thrown back towards the ceiling, where you would + have thought he saw a score written up, humming, preluding, dashing + off a piece of Alberti's or Galuppi's, I forget which. His voice + went like the wind, and his fingers leapt over the imaginary keys. + The various passions succeeded one another on his face; you + observed on it tenderness, anger, pleasure, sorrow; you felt the + piano notes, the forte notes, and I am sure that a more skilful + musician than myself would have recognised the piece by the + movement and the character, by his gestures, and by a few notes of + airs which escaped from him now and again. But the absurd thing was + to see him from time to time hesitate and take himself up as if he + had gone wrong.] + + Now, you perceive, said he, rising and wiping away the drops of + sweat which rolled down his cheeks, that we know how to place our + third, our superfluous fifth, and that we know all about our + dominants. Those enharmonic passages, about which the dear uncle + makes such fuss, they are not like having the sea to swallow; we + can manage them well enough. + + _I._--You have given yourself a great deal of trouble to show me + that you are uncommonly clever; but I would have taken your word + for it. + + _He._--Uncommonly clever; oh no! For my trade, I know it decently, + and that is more than one wants; for in this country is one obliged + to know all that one shows? + + _I._--No more than to know all that one teaches. + + _He._--That is true, most thoroughly true. Now, sir philosopher, + your hand on your conscience, speak the truth; there was a time + when you were not a man of such substance as you are to-day. + + _I._--I am not so very substantial even now. + + _He._--But you would not go now to the Luxembourg in + summer-time.... You remember? + + _I._--No more of that. Yes, I do remember. + + _He._--In an overcoat of gray shag? + + _I._--Ay, ay. + + _He._--Terribly worn at one side, with one of the sleeves torn; and + black woollen stockings mended at the back with white thread. + + _I._--Yes, anything you like. + + _He._--What were you doing in the alley of Sighs? + + _I._--Cutting a shabby figure enough, I daresay. + + _He._--You used to give lessons in mathematics? + + _I._--Without knowing a word about them. Is not that what you want + to come to? + + _He._--Exactly so. + + _I._--I learnt by teaching others, and I turned out some good + pupils. + + _He_--That may be; but music is not like algebra or geometry. Now + that you are a substantial personage.... + + _I._--Not so substantial, I tell you. + + _He._--And have a good lining to your purse.... + + _I._--Not so good. + + _He._--Let your daughter have masters. + + _I._--Not yet; it is her mother who looks to her education, for one + must have peace in one's house. + + _He._--Peace in one's house? You have only that, when you are + either master or servant, and it should be master. I had a + wife--may heaven bless her soul--but when it happened sometimes + that she played malapert, I used to mount the high horse, and bring + out my thunder. I used to say like the Creator: Let there be light, + and there was light. So for four years we had not ten times in all + one word higher than another. How old is your child? + + _I._--That has nothing to do with the matter. + + _He._--How old is your child, I say? + + _I._--The devil take you, leave my child and her age alone, and + return to the master she is to have. + + _He._--I know nothing so pig-headed as a philosopher. In all + humility and supplication, might one not know from his highness the + philosopher, about what age her ladyship, his daughter, may be? + + _I._--I suppose she is eight. + + _He._--Eight! Then four years ago she ought to have had her fingers + on the keys. + + _I._--But perhaps I have no fancy for including in the scheme of + her education a study that takes so much time and is good for so + little. + + _He._--And what will you teach her, if you please? + + _I._--To reason justly, if I can; a thing so uncommon among men, + and more uncommon still among women. + + _He._--Oh, let her reason as ill as she chooses, if she is only + pretty, amusing, and coquettish. + + _I._--As nature has been unkind enough to give her a delicate + organisation with a very sensitive soul, and to expose her to the + same troubles in life as if she had a strong organisation and a + heart of bronze, I will teach her, if I can, to bear them + courageously. + + _He._--Let her weep and give herself airs, and have nerves all on + edge like the rest, if only she is pretty, amusing, and coquettish. + What, is she to learn no dancing nor deportment? + + _I._--Yes, just enough to make a curtsey, to have a good carriage, + to enter a room gracefully, and to know how to walk. + + _He._--No singing? + + _I._--Just enough to pronounce her words well. + + _He._--No music? + + _I._--If there were a good teacher of harmony, I would gladly + entrust her to him two hours a day for two or three years, not any + more. + + _He._--And instead of the essential things that you are going to + suppress?... + + _I._--I place grammar, fables, history, geography, a little + drawing, and a great deal of morality. + + _He._--How easy it would be for me to prove to you the uselessness + of all such knowledge in a world like ours? Uselessness, do I say? + Perhaps even the danger! But I will for the moment ask you a single + question, will she not require one or two masters? + + _I._--No doubt. + + _He._--And you hope that these masters will know the grammar, the + fables, the history, the geography, the morality, in which they + will give her lessons? Moonshine, my dear mentor, sheer moonshine! + If they knew these things well enough to teach them to other + people, they never would teach them? + + _I._--And why? + + _He._--Because they would have spent all their lives in studying + them. It is necessary to be profound in art and science, to know + its elements thoroughly. Classical books can only be well done by + those who have grown gray in harness; it is the middle and the end + which light up the darkness of the beginning. Ask your friend + D'Alembert, the coryphæus of mathematics, if he thinks himself too + good to write about the elements. It was not till after thirty or + forty years of practice that my uncle got a glimpse of the + profundities and the first rays of light in musical theory. + + _I._--O madman, arch-madman, I cried, how comes it that in thine + evil head such just ideas go pell-mell with such a mass of + extravagances? + + _He._--Who on earth can find that out? 'Tis chance that flings them + to you, and they remain. If you do not know the whole of a thing, + you know none of it well; you do not know whither one thing leads, + nor whence another has come, where this and that should be placed, + which ought to pass the first, and where the second would be best. + Can you teach well without method? And method, whence comes that? I + vow to you, my dear philosopher, I have a notion that physics will + always be a poor science, a drop of water raised by a needle-point + from the vast ocean, a grain loosened from an Alpine chain. And + then, seeking the reasons of phenomena! In truth, one might every + whit as well be ignorant, as know so little and know it so ill; and + that was exactly my doctrine when I gave myself out for a + music-master. What are you musing over? + + _I._--I am thinking that all you have told me is more specious than + solid. But that is no matter. You taught, you say, accompaniment + and composition. + + _He._--Yes. + + _I._--And you knew nothing about either. + + _He._--No, i' faith; and that is why there were worse than I was, + namely those who fancied they knew something. At any rate, I did + not spoil either the child's taste or its hands. When they passed + from me to a good master, if they had learnt nothing, at all events + they had nothing to unlearn, and that was always so much time and + so much money saved. + + _I._--What did you do? + + _He._--What they all do! I got there, I threw myself into a chair. + "What shocking weather! How tiring the streets are!" Then some + gossip: "Mademoiselle Lemierre was to have taken the part of Vestal + in the new opera, but she is in an interesting condition for the + second time, and they do not know who will take her place. + Mademoiselle Arnould has just left her little Count: they say she + is negotiating with Bertin.... That poor Dumesnil no longer knows + either what he is saying or what he is doing.... Now, Miss, take + your book." While Miss, who is in no hurry, is looking for her + book, which is lost, while they call the housemaid and scold and + make a great stir, I continue--"The Clairon is really + incomprehensible. They talk of a marriage which is outrageously + absurd: 'tis that of Miss ... what is her name? a little creature + that used to live with so and so, etcetera, etcetera:--Come, + Rameau, you are talking nonsense; it is impossible.--I don't talk + nonsense at all; they even say it is done. There is a rumour that + Voltaire is dead, and so much the better.--And pray, why so much + the better?--Because he must be going to give us something more + laughable than usual; it is always his custom to die a fortnight + before." What more shall I tell you? I used to tell certain + naughtinesses that I brought from houses where I had been, for we + are all of us great fetchers and carriers. I played the madman, + they listened to me, they laughed, they called out: How charming he + is! Meanwhile Missy's book had been found under the sofa, where it + had been pulled about, gnawed, torn by a puppy or a kitten. She sat + down to the piano. At first she made a noise on it by herself; then + I went towards her, after giving her mother a sign of approbation. + The mother: "That is not bad; people have only to be in earnest, + but they are not in earnest; they would rather waste their time in + chattering, in disarranging things, in gadding hither and thither, + and I know not what besides. Your back is no sooner turned, M. + Rameau, than the book is shut up, not to be opened until your next + visit; still you never scold her." Then, as something had to be + done, I took hold of her hands and placed them differently; I got + out of temper, I called out "_Sol, Sol, Sol_, Miss, it is a _Sol_." + The mother: "Have you no ear? I am not at the piano, and I can't + see your book, yet I know it ought to be a _Sol_. You are most + troublesome to your teacher; I can't tell how he is so patient; you + do not remember a word of what he says to you; you make no + progress...." Then I would lower my tone rather, and throwing my + head on one side, would say: "Pardon me, madam, all would go very + well if the young lady liked, if she only studied a little more; + but it is not bad." The mother: "If I were you, I should keep her + at one piece for a whole year." "Oh, as for that, she shall not + leave it before she has mastered every difficulty, and that will + not be as long as you may think." "Monsieur Rameau, you flatter + her, you are too good. That is the only part of the lesson which + she will keep in mind, and she will take care to repeat it to me + upon occasion...." And so the time got over; my pupil presented me + my little fee, with the curtsey she had learnt from the dancing + master. I put it into my pocket while the mother said: "Very well + done, mademoiselle; if Favillier were here, he would applaud you." + I chattered a moment or two for politeness' sake, and behold, that + was what they call a music lesson. + + _I._--Well, and now it is quite another thing? + + _He._--Another thing! I should think so, indeed. I get there. I am + deadly grave; I take off my cuffs hastily, I open the piano, I run + my fingers over the keys, I am always in a desperate hurry. If they + keep me waiting a moment, I cry out as if they were robbing me of a + crown piece: in an hour from now I must be so and so; in two hours, + with the duchess of so and so; I am expected to dine with a + handsome marchioness, and then, on leaving her, there is a concert + at the baron's.... + + _I._--And all the time nobody is expecting you anywhere at all? + + _He._--No. + + _I._--What vile arts! + + _He._--Vile, forsooth! Why vile? They are customary among people + like me; I don't lower myself in doing like everybody else. I was + not the inventor of them, and it would be most absurd and stupid in + me not to conform to them. Of course, I know very well that if you + go to certain principles of some morality or other, which all the + world have in their mouths, and which none of them practise, you + will find black is white, and white will become black. But, my + philosopher, there is a general conscience, just as there is a + general grammar; and then the exceptions in each language that you + learned people call--what is it you call them? + + _I._--Idioms. + + _He._--Ah, exactly; well, each condition of life has its exceptions + to the general conscience, to which I should like to give the title + of idioms of vocation. + + _I._--I understand. Fontenelle speaks well, writes well, though his + style swarms with French _idioms_. + + _He._--And the sovereign, the minister, the banker, the magistrate, + the soldier, the man of letters, the lawyer, the merchant, the + artisan, the singing master, the dancing master, are all most + worthy folk, though their practice strays in some points from the + general conscience, and abounds in moral idioms. The older the + institution, the more the idioms; the worse the times, the more do + idioms multiply. The man is worth so much, his trade is worth the + same; and reciprocally. At last, the trade counts for so much, the + man for the same. So people take care to make the trade go for as + much as they can. + + _I._--All that I gather clearly from this twisted stuff is, that + there are very few callings honestly carried on, and very few + honest men in their callings. + + _He._--Good, there are none at all; but in revenge, there are few + rogues out of their own shops; and all would go excellently but for + a certain number of persons who are called assiduous, exact, + fulfilling their strict duty most rigorously, or, what comes to the + same thing, for ever in their shops, and carrying on their trade + from morning until night, and doing nothing else in the world. So + they are the only people who grow rich and are esteemed. + + _I._--By force of idioms. + + _He._--That is it; I see you understand me. Now, an idiom that + belongs to nearly all conditions--for there are some that are + common to all countries and all times, just as there are follies + that are universal--a common idiom, is to procure for one's self as + many customers as one possibly can; a common folly is to believe + that he is cleverest who has most of them. There are two + exceptions to the general conscience, with which you must comply. + There is a kind of credit; it is nothing in itself, but it is made + worth something by opinion. They say, _good character is better + than golden girdle_: yet the man who has a good character has not a + golden girdle, and I see nowadays that the golden girdle hardly + stands in much need of character. One ought, if possible, to have + both girdle and character, and that is my object when I give myself + importance by what you describe as vile arts, and poor unworthy + tricks. I give my lesson and I give it well; behold the general + rule. I make them think I have more lessons to give than the day + has hours; behold the idiom. + + _I._--And the lesson; you do give it well? + + _He._--Yes, not ill; passably. The thorough bass of the dear master + has simplified all that. In old days I used to steal my pupil's + money. Yes, I stole it, that is certain; now I earn it, at least + like my neighbours. + + _I._--And did you steal it without remorse? + + _He._--Oh, without remorse. They say that if one thief pilfers from + another, the devil laughs. The parents were bursting with a + fortune, which had been got the Lord knows how. They were people + about the court, financiers, great merchants, bankers. I helped to + make them disgorge, I and the rest of the people they employed. In + nature, all species devour one another; so all ranks devour one + another in society. We do justice on one another, without any + meddling from the law. The other day it was Deschamps, now it is + Guimard, who avenges the prince of the financier; and it is the + milliner, the jeweller, the upholsterer, the hosier, the draper, + the lady's-maid, the cook, the saddler, who avenge the financier of + Deschamps. In the midst of it all, there is only the imbecile or + the sloth who suffers injury without inflicting it. Whence you see + that these exceptions to the general conscience, or these moral + idioms about which they make such a stir, are nothing, after all, + and that you only need to take a clear survey of the whole. + + _I._--I admire yours. + + _He._--And then misery! The voice of conscience and of honour is + terribly weak, when the stomach calls out. Enough to say that if + ever I grow rich I shall be bound to restore, and I have made up my + mind to restore in every possible fashion, by eating, drinking, + gambling, and whatever else you please. + + _I._--I have some fears about your ever growing rich. + + _He._--I have suspicions myself. + + _I._--But if things should fall so, what then? + + _He._--I would do like all other beggars set on horseback: I would + be the most insolent ruffler that has ever been seen. Then I should + recall all that they have made me go through, and should pay them + back with good interest all the advances that they have been good + enough to make me. I am fond of command, and I will command. I am + fond of praise, and I will make them praise me. I will have in my + pay the whole troop of flatterers, parasites, and buffoons, and + I'll say to them, as has been said to me: "Come, knaves, let me be + amused," and amused I shall be; "Pull me some honest folk to + pieces," and so they will be, if honest folk can be found. We will + be jolly over our cups, we will have all sorts of vices and + whimsies; it will be delicious. We will prove that Voltaire has no + genius; that Buffon, everlastingly perched upon his stilts, is only + a turgid declaimer; that Montesquieu is nothing more than a man + with a touch of ingenuity; we will send D'Alembert packing to his + fusty mathematics. We will welcome before and behind all the pigmy + Catos like you, whose modesty is the prop of pride, and whose + sobriety is a fine name for not being able to help yourselves. + + _I._--From the worthy use to which you would put your riches, I + perceive what a pity it is that you are a beggar. You would live + thus in a manner that would be eminently honourable to the human + race, eminently useful to your countrymen, and eminently glorious + for yourself. + + _He._--You are mocking me, sir philosopher. But you do not know + whom you are laughing at. You do not suspect that at this moment I + represent the most important part of the town and the court. Our + millionaires in all ranks have, or have not, said to themselves + exactly the same things as I have just confided to you; but the + fact is, the life that I should lead is precisely their life. What + a notion you people have; you think that the same sort of happiness + is made for all the world. What a strange vision! Yours supposes a + certain romantic spirit that we know nothing of, a singular + character, a peculiar taste. You adorn this incongruous mixture + with the name of philosophy; but now, are virtue and philosophy + made for all the world? He has them who can get them, and he keeps + them who can. Imagine the universe sage and philosophical; agree + that it would be a most diabolically gloomy spot. Come, long live + philosophy! The wisdom of Solomon for ever! To drink good wines, to + cram one's self with dainty dishes, to rest in beds of down: except + that, all, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. + + _I._--What, to defend one's native land? + + _He._--Vanity; there is native land no more; I see nought from pole + to pole but tyrants and slaves. + + _I._--To help one's friends? + + _He._--Vanity; has one any friends? If one had, ought we to turn + them into ingrates? Look well, and you will see that this is all + you get by doing services. Gratitude is a burden, and every burden + is made to be shaken off. + + _I._--To have a position in society and fulfil its duties? + + _He._--Vanity; what matters it whether you have a position or not, + provided you are rich, since you only seek a position to become + rich? To fulfil one's duties, what does that lead to? To jealousy, + trouble, persecution. Is that the way to get on? Nay, indeed: to + see the great, to court them, study their taste, bow to their + fancies, serve their vices, praise their injustice--there is the + secret. + + _I._--To watch the education of one's children? + + _He._--Vanity; that is a tutor's business. + + _I._--But if this tutor, having picked up his principles from you, + happens to neglect his duties, who will pay the penalty? + + _He._--Not I, at any rate, but most likely the husband of my + daughter, or the wife of my son. + + _I._--But suppose that they both plunge into vice and debauchery? + + _He._--That belongs to their position. + + _I._--Suppose they bring themselves into dishonour? + + _He._--You never come into dishonour, if you are rich, whatever you + do. + + _I._--Suppose they ruin themselves? + + _He._--So much the worse for them. + + _I._--You will not pay much heed to your wife? + + _He._--None whatever, if you please. The best compliment, I think, + that a man can pay his dearer half, is to do what pleases himself. + In your opinion, would not society be mightily amusing if everybody + in it was always attending to his duties? + + _I._--Why not? The evening is never so fair to me as when I am + satisfied with my morning. + + _He._--And to me also. + + _I._--What makes the men of the world so dainty in their + amusements, is their profound idleness. + + _He._--Pray do not think that; they are full of trouble. + + _I._--As they never tire themselves, they are never refreshed. + + _He._--Don't suppose that either. They are incessantly worn out. + + _I._--Pleasure is always a business for them, never the + satisfaction of a necessity. + + _He._--So much the better; necessity is always a trouble. + + _I._--They wear everything out. Their soul gets blunted, weariness + seizes them. A man who should take their life in the midst of all + their crushing abundance would do them a kindness. The only part of + happiness that they know is the part that loses its edge. I do not + despise the pleasures of the senses: I have a palate, too, and it + is tickled by a well-seasoned dish or a fine wine; I have a heart + and eyes, and I like to see a handsome woman. Sometimes with my + friends, a gay party, even if it waxes somewhat tumultuous, does + not displease me. But I will not dissemble from you that it is + infinitely pleasanter to me to have succoured the unfortunate, to + have ended some thorny business, to have given wholesome counsel, + done some pleasant reading, taken a walk with some man or woman + dear to me, passed instructive hours with my children, written a + good page, fulfilled the duties of my position, said to the woman + that I love a few soft things that bring her arm round my neck. I + know actions which I would give all that I possess to have done. + _Mahomet_ is a sublime work; I would a hundred times rather have + got justice for the memory of the Calas. A person of my + acquaintance fled to Carthagena; he was the younger son in a + country where custom transfers all the property to the eldest. + There he learns that his eldest brother, a petted son, after having + despoiled his father and mother of all that they possessed, had + driven them out of the castle, and that the poor old souls were + languishing in indigence in some small country town. What does he + do--this younger son who in consequence of the harsh treatment he + had received at the hand of his parents had gone to seek his + fortune far away? He sends them help; he makes haste to set his + affairs in order, he returns with his riches, he restores his + father and mother to their home, and finds husbands for his + sisters. Ah, my dear Rameau, that man looked upon this period as + the happiest in his life; he had tears in his eyes when he spoke to + me of it, and even as I tell you the story, I feel my heart beat + faster, and my tongue falter for sympathy. + + _He._--Singular beings, you are! + + _I._--'Tis you who are beings much to be pitied, if you cannot + imagine that one rises above one's lot, and that it is impossible + to be unhappy under the shelter of good actions. + + _He._--That is a kind of felicity with which I should find it hard + to familiarise myself, for we do not often come across it. But, + then, according to you, we should be good. + + _I._--To be happy, assuredly. + + _He._--Yet I see an infinity of honest people who are not happy, + and an infinity of people who are happy without being honest. + + _I._--You think so. + + _He._--And is it not for having had common sense and frankness for + a moment, that I don't know where to go for a supper to-night? + + _I._--Nay, it is for not having had it always; it is because you + did not perceive in good time that one ought first and foremost to + provide a resource independent of servitude. + + _He._--Independent or not, the resource I had provided is at any + rate the most comfortable. + + _I._--And the least sure and least decent. + + _He._--But the most conformable to my character of sloth, madman, + and good-for-nought. + + _I._--Just so. + + _He._--And since I can secure my happiness by vices which are + natural to me, which I have acquired without labour, which I + preserve without effort, which go well with the manners of my + nation, which are to the taste of those who protect me, and are + more in harmony with their small private necessities than virtues + which would weary them by being a standing accusation against them + from morning to night, why, it would be very singular for me to go + and torment myself like a lost spirit, for the sake of making + myself into somebody other than I am, to put on a character + foreign to my own, and qualities which I will admit to be highly + estimable, in order to avoid discussion, but which it would cost me + a great deal to acquire, and a great deal to practise, and would + lead to nothing, or possibly to worse than nothing, through the + continual satire of the rich among whom beggars like me have to + seek their subsistence. We praise virtue, but we hate it, and shun + it, and know very well that it freezes the marrow of our bones--and + in this world one must have one's feet warm. And then all that + would infallibly fill me with ill-humour; for why do we so + constantly see religious people so harsh, so querulous, so + unsociable? 'Tis because they have imposed a task upon themselves + which is not natural to them. They suffer, and when people suffer, + they make others suffer too. That is not my game, nor that of my + protectors either; I have to be gay, supple, amusing, comical. + Virtue makes itself respected, and respect is inconvenient; virtue + insists on being admired, and admiration is not amusing. I have to + do with people who are bored, and I must make them laugh. Now it is + absurdity and madness which make people laugh, so mad and absurd I + must be; and even if nature had not made me so, the simplest plan + would still be to feign it. Happily, I have no need to play + hypocrite; there are so many already of all colours, without + reckoning those who play hypocrite with themselves.... If your + friend Rameau were to apply himself to show his contempt for + fortune, and women, and good cheer, and idleness, and to begin to + Catonise, what would he be but a hypocrite? Rameau must be what he + is--a lucky rascal among rascals swollen with riches, and not a + mighty paragon of virtue, or even a virtuous man, eating his dry + crust of bread, either alone, or by the side of a pack of beggars. + And, to cut it short, I do not get on with your felicity, or with + the happiness of a few visionaries like yourself. + + _I._--I see, my friend, that you do not even know what it is, and + that you are not even made to understand it. + + _He._--So much the better, I declare; so much the better. It would + make me burst with hunger and weariness, and may be, with remorse. + + _I._--Very well, then, the only advice I have to give you, is to + find your way back as quickly as you can into the house from which + your impudence drove you out. + + _He._--And to do what you do not disapprove absolutely and yet is a + little repugnant to me relatively? + + _I._--What a singularity! + + _He._--Nothing singular in it at all; I wish to be abject, but I + wish to be so without constraint. I do not object to descend from + my dignity.... You laugh? + + _I._--Yes, your dignity makes me laugh. + + _He._--Everybody has his own dignity. I do not object to come down + from mine, but it must be in my own way, and not at the bidding of + others. Must they be able to say to me, Crawl--and behold me, + forced to crawl? That is the worm's way, and it is mine; we both of + us follow it--the worm and I--when they leave us alone, but we turn + when they tread on our tails. They have trodden on my tail, and I + mean to turn. And then you have no idea of the creature we are + talking about. Imagine a sour and melancholy person, eaten up by + vapours, wrapped twice or thrice round in his dressing-gown, + discontented with himself, and discontented with every one else; + out of whom you hardly wring a smile, if you put your body and soul + out of joint in a hundred different ways; who examines with a cold + considering eye the droll grimaces of my face, and those of my + mind, which are droller still. I may torment myself to attain the + highest sublime of the lunatic asylum, nothing comes of it. Will he + laugh, or will he not? That is what I am obliged to keep saying to + myself in the midst of my contortions; and you may judge how + damaging this uncertainty is to one's talent. My hypochondriac, + with his head buried in a night-cap that covers his eyes, has the + air of an immovable pagod, with a string tied to its chin, and + going down under his chair. You wait for the string to be pulled, + and it is not pulled; or if by chance the jaws open, it is only to + articulate some word that shows he has not seen you, and that all + your drolleries have been thrown away. This word is the answer to + some question which you put to him four days before; the word + spoken, the mastoid muscle contracts, and the jaw sticks. + + [Then he set himself to imitate his man. He placed himself on a + chair, his head fixed, his hat coming over his eyebrows, his eyes + half-shut, his arms hanging down, moving his jaw up and down like + an automaton:] Gloomy, obscure, oracular as destiny itself--such is + our patron. + + At the other side of the room is a prude who plays at importance, + to whom one could bring one's self to say that she is pretty, + because she is pretty, though she has a blemish or two upon her + face. _Item_, she is more spiteful, more conceited, and more silly + than a goose. _Item_, she insists on having wit. _Item_, you have + to persuade her that you believe she has more of it than anybody + else in the world. _Item_, she knows nothing, and she has a turn + for settling everything out of hand. _Item_, you must applaud her + decisions with feet and hands, jump for joy, and scream with + admiration:--"How fine that is, how delicate, well said, subtly + seen, singularly felt! Where do women get that? Without study, by + mere force of instinct, and pure light of nature! That is really + like a miracle! And then they want us to believe that experience, + study, reflection, education, have anything to do with the + matter!..." And other fooleries to match, and tears and tears of + joy; ten times a day to kneel down, one knee bent in front of the + other, the other leg drawn back, the arms extended towards the + goddess, to seek one's desire in her eyes, to hang on her lips, to + wait for her command, and then start off like a flash of lightning. + Where is the man who would subject himself to play such a part, if + it is not the wretch, who finds there two or three times a week the + wherewithal to still the tribulation of his inner parts? + + _I._--I should never have thought you were so fastidious. + + _He._--I am not. In the beginning I watched the others, and I did + as they did, even rather better, because I am more frankly + impudent, a better comedian, hungrier, and better off for lungs. I + descend apparently in a direct line from the famous Stentor.... + + [And to give me a just idea of the force of his organ, he set off + laughing, with violence enough to break the windows of the + coffee-house, and to interrupt the chess-players.] + + _I._--But what is the good of this talent? + + _He._--You cannot guess? + + _I._--No; I am rather slow. + + _He._--Suppose the debate opened, and victory uncertain; I get up, + and, displaying my thunder, I say: "That is as mademoiselle + asserts.... That is worth calling a judgment. There is genius in + the expression." But one must not always approve in the same + manner; one would be monotonous, and seem insincere, and become + insipid. You only escape that by judgment and resource; you must + know how to prepare and place your major and most peremptory tones, + to seize the occasion and the moment. When, for instance, there is + a difference in feeling, and the debate has risen to its last + degree of violence, and you have ceased to listen to one another, + and all speak at the same time, you ought to have your place at the + corner of the room which is farthest removed from the field of + battle, to have prepared the way for your explosion by a long + silence, and then suddenly to fall like a thunder-clap over the + very midst of the combatants. Nobody possesses this art as I do. + But where I am truly surprising is in the opposite way--I have low + tones that I accompany with a smile, and an infinite variety of + approving tricks of face; nose, lips, brow, eyes, all make play; I + have a suppleness of reins, a manner of twisting the spine, of + shrugging the shoulders, extending the fingers, inclining the head, + closing the eyes, and throwing myself into a state of stupefaction, + as if I had heard a divine angelic voice come down from heaven; + that is what flatters. I do not know whether you seize rightly all + the energy of that last attitude. I did not invent it, but nobody + has ever surpassed me in its execution. Behold, behold! + + _I._--Truly, it is unique. + + _He._--Think you there is a woman's brain that could stand that? + + _I._--It must be admitted that you have carried the talent of + playing the madman, and of self-debasement, as far as it can + possibly be carried. + + _He._--Try as hard as they will, they will never touch me--not the + best of them. Palissot, for instance, will never be more than a + good learner. But if this part is amusing at first, and if you have + some relish in inwardly mocking at the folly of the people whom you + are intoxicating, in the long run that ceases to be exciting, and + then after a certain number of discoveries one is obliged to repeat + one's self. Wit and art have their limits. 'Tis only God Almighty + and some rare geniuses, for whom the career widens as they advance. + + _I._--With this precious enthusiasm for fine things, and this + facility of genius of yours, is it possible that you have invented + nothing? + + _He._--Pardon me; for instance, that admiring attitude of the back, + of which I spoke to you; I regard it as my own, though envy may + contest my claim. I daresay it has been employed before: but who + has felt how convenient it was for laughing in one's sleeve at the + ass for whom one was dying of admiration! I have more than a + hundred ways of opening fire on a girl under the very eyes of her + mother, without the latter suspecting a jot of it; yes, and even of + making her an accomplice. I had hardly begun my career before I + disdained all the vulgar fashions of slipping a _billet-doux_; I + have ten ways of having them taken from me, and out of the number I + venture to flatter myself there are some that are new. I possess in + an especial degree the gift of encouraging a timid young man; I + have secured success for some who had neither wit nor good looks. + If all that was written down, I fancy people would concede me some + genius. + + _I._--And would do you singular honour. + + _He._--I don't doubt it. + + _I._--In your place, I would put those famous methods on paper. It + would be a pity for them to be lost. + + _He._--It is true; but you could never suppose how little I think + of method and precepts. He who needs a protocol will never go far. + Your genius reads little, experiments much, and teaches himself. + Look at Cæsar, Turenne, Vauban, the Marquise de Tencin, her brother + the cardinal, and the cardinal's secretary, the Abbé Trublet, and + Bouret! Who is it that has given lessons to Bouret? Nobody; 'tis + nature that forms these rare men. + + _I._--Well, but you might do this in your lost hours, when the + anguish of your empty stomach, or the weariness of your stomach + overloaded, banishes slumber. + + _He._--I'll think of it. It is better to write great things than to + execute small ones. Then the soul rises on wings, the imagination + is kindled; whereas it shrivels in amazement at the applause which + the absurd public lavishes so perversely on that mincing creature + of a Dangeville, who plays so flatly, who walks the stage nearly + bent double, who stares affectedly and incessantly into the eyes of + every one she talks to, and who takes her grimaces for finesse, and + her little strut for grace; or on that emphatic Clairon, who + becomes more studied, more pretentious, more elaborately heavy, + than I can tell you. That imbecile of a pit claps hands to the + echo, and never sees that we are a mere worsted ball of + daintinesses ('Tis true the ball grows a trifle big, but what does + it matter?), that we have the finest skin, the finest eyes, the + prettiest bill; little feeling inside, in truth; a step that is not + exactly light, but which for all that is not as awkward as they + say. As for sentiment, on the other hand, there is not one of these + stage dames whom we cannot cap. + + _I._--What do you mean by all that? Is it irony or truth? + + _He._--The worst of it is that this deuced sentiment is all + internal, and not a glimpse of it appears outside; but I who am now + talking to you, I know, and know well, that she has it. If it is + not that, you should see, if a fit of ill-humour comes on, how we + treat the valets, how the waiting-maids are cuffed and trounced, + what kicks await our good friend, if he fails in an atom of that + respect which is our due. 'Tis a little demon, I tell you, full of + sentiment and dignity. Ah, you don't quite know where you are, eh? + + _I._--I confess I can hardly make out whether you are speaking in + good faith or in malice. I am a plain man. Be kind enough to be a + little more outspoken, and to leave your art behind for once.... + + _He._--What is it? why it is what we retail before our little + patroness about the Dangeville or the Clairon, mixed up here and + there with a word or two to put you on the scent. I will allow you + to take me for a good-for-nothing, but not for a fool; and 'tis + only a fool, or a man eaten up with conceit, who could say such a + parcel of impertinences seriously. + + _I._--But how do people ever bring themselves to say them? + + _He._--It is not done all at once, but little by little you come to + it. _Ingenii largitor venter._ + + _I._--Then hunger must press you very hard. + + _He._--That may be; yet strong as you may think them, be sure that + those to whom they are addressed are much more accustomed to listen + to them than we are to hazard them. + + _I._--Is there anybody who has courage to be of your opinion? + + _He._--What do you mean by anybody? It is the sentiment and + language of the whole of society. + + _I._--Those of you who are not great rascals must be great fools. + + _He._--Fools! I assure you there is only one, and that is he who + feasts us to cheat him. + + _I._--But how can people allow themselves to be cheated in such + gross fashion? For surely the superiority of the Dangeville and the + Clairon is a settled thing. + + _He._--We swallow until we are full to the throat any lie that + flatters us, and take drop by drop a truth that is bitter to us. + And then we have the air of being so profoundly penetrated, so + true. + + _I._--Yet you must once, at any rate, have sinned against the + principles of art, and let slip, by an oversight, some of those + bitter truths that wound; for, in spite of the wretched, abject, + vile, abominable part you play, I believe you have at bottom some + delicacy of soul. + + _He._--I! not the least in the world. Deuce take me if I know what + I am! In a general way, I have a mind as round as a ball, and a + character fresh as a water-willow. Never false, little interest as + I have in being true; never true, little interest as I have in + being false. I say things just as they come into my head; sensible + things, then so much the better; impertinent things, then people + take no notice. I let my natural frankness have full play. I never + in all my life gave a thought, either beforehand, what to say, or + while I was saying it, or after I had said it. And so I offend + nobody. + + _I._--Still that did happen with the worthy people among whom you + used to live, and who were so kind to you. + + _He._--What would you have? It is a mishap, an unlucky moment, such + as there always are in life; there is no such thing as unbroken + bliss: I was too well off, it could not last. We have, as you + know, the most numerous and the best chosen company. It is a school + of humanity, the renewal of hospitality after the antique. All the + poets who fall, we pick them up; all decried musicians, all the + authors who are never read, all the actresses who are hissed, a + parcel of beggarly, disgraced, stupid, parasitical souls, and at + the head of them all I have the honour of being the brave chief of + a timorous flock. It is I who exhort them to eat the first time + they come, and I who ask for drink for them--they are so shy. A few + young men in rags who do not know where to lay their heads, but who + have good looks; a few scoundrels who bamboozle the master of the + house, and put him to sleep, for the sake of gleaning after him in + the fields of the mistress of the house. We seem gay, but at bottom + we are devoured by spleen and a raging appetite. Wolves are not + more famishing, nor tigers more cruel. Like wolves when the ground + has been long covered with snow, we raven over our food, and + whatever succeeds we rend like tigers. Never was seen such a + collection of soured, malignant, venomous beasts. You hear nothing + but the names of Buffon, Duclos, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, + D'Alembert, Diderot; and God knows the epithets that bear them + company! Nobody can have any parts if he is not as stupid as + ourselves. That is the plan on which Palissot's play of _The + Philosophers_ has been conceived. And you are not spared in it, any + more than your neighbours. + + _I._--So much the better. Perhaps they do me more honour than I + deserve. I should be humiliated if those who speak ill of so many + clever and worthy people took it into their heads to speak well of + me. + + _He._--Everybody must pay his scot. After sacrificing the greater + animals, then we immolate the others. + + _I._--Insulting science and virtue for a living, that is + dearly-earned bread! + + _He._--I have already told you, we are without any consistency; we + insult all the world, and afflict nobody. We have sometimes the + heavy Abbé d'Olivet, the big Abbé Le Blanc, the hypocrite Batteux. + The big abbé is only spiteful before he has had his dinner; his + coffee taken, he throws himself into an arm-chair, his feet against + the ledge of the fireplace, and sleeps like an old parrot on its + perch. If the noise becomes violent he yawns, stretches his arms, + rubs his eyes, and says: "Well, well, what is it?" "It is whether + Piron has more wit than Voltaire." "Let us understand; is it wit + that you are talking about, or is it taste? For as to taste, your + Piron has not a suspicion of it." "Not a suspicion of it?" "No." + And there we are, embarked in a dissertation upon taste. Then the + patron makes a sign with his hand for people to listen to him, for + if he piques himself upon one thing more than another, it is taste. + "Taste," he says, "taste is a thing...." But, on my soul, I don't + know what thing he said that it was, nor does he. + + Then sometimes we have friend Robbé. He regales us with his + equivocal stories, with the miracles of the convulsionnaires which + he has seen with his own eyes, and with some cantos of a poem on a + subject that he knows thoroughly. His verses I detest, but I love + to hear him recite them--he has the air of an energumen. They all + cry out around him: "There is a poet worth calling a poet!..." + + Then there comes to us also a certain noodle with a dull and stupid + air, but who has the keenness of a demon, and is more mischievous + than an old monkey. He is one of those figures that provoke + pleasantries and sarcasms, and that God made for the chastisement + of those who judge by appearances, and who ought to have learnt + from the mirror that it is as easy to be a wit with the air of a + fool as to hide a fool under the air of a wit. 'Tis a very common + piece of cowardice to immolate a good man to the amusement of the + others; people never fail to turn to this man; he is a snare that + we set for the new-comers, and I have scarcely known one of them + who was not caught ... + + [I was sometimes amazed at the justice of my madman's observations + on men and characters, and I showed him my surprise.] That is, he + answered, because one derives good out of bad company, as one does + out of libertinism. You are recompensed for the loss of your + innocence by that of your prejudices; in the society of the bad, + where vice shows itself without a mask, you learn to understand + them. And then I have read a little. + + _I._--What have you read? + + _He._--I have read, and I read, and I read over and over again + Theophrastus and La Bruyère and Molière. + + _I._--Excellent works, all of them. + + _He._--They are far better than people suppose; but who is there + who knows how to read them? + + _I._--Everybody does, according to the measure of his intelligence. + + _He._--No; hardly anybody. Could you tell me what people look for + in them? + + _I._--Amusement and instruction. + + _He._--But what instruction, for that is the point? + + _I._--The knowledge of one's duties, the love of virtue, the hatred + of vice. + + _He._--For my part, I gather from them all that one ought to do, + and all that one ought not to say. Thus, when I read the _Avare_, I + say to myself: "Be a miser if thou wilt, but beware of talking like + the miser." When I read _Tartufe_, I say: "Be a hypocrite if thou + wilt, but do not talk like a hypocrite. Keep the vices that are + useful to thee, but avoid their tone and the appearances that would + make thee laughable." To preserve thyself from such a tone and such + appearances, it is necessary to know what they are. Now these + authors have drawn excellent pictures of them. I am myself, and I + remain what I am, but I act and I speak as becomes the character. I + am not one of those who despise moralists; there is a great deal + of profit to be got from them, especially with those who have + applied morality to action. Vice only hurts men from time to time; + the characteristics of vice hurt them from morning to night. + Perhaps it would be better to be insolent than to have an insolent + expression. One who is insolent in character only insults people + now and again; one who is insolent in expression insults them + incessantly. And do not imagine that I am the only reader of my + kind. I have no other merit in this respect than having done on + system, from a natural integrity of understanding, and with true + and reasonable vision, what most others do by instinct. And so + their readings make them no better than I am, and they remain + ridiculous in spite of themselves, while I am only so when I + choose, and always leave them a vast distance behind me; for the + same art which teaches me how to escape ridicule on certain + occasions teaches me also on certain others how to incur it + happily. Then I recall to myself all that the others said, and all + that I read, and I add all that issues from my own originality, + which is in this kind wondrous fertile. + + _I._--You have done well to reveal these mysteries to me, for + otherwise I should have thought you self-contradictory. + + _He._--I am not so in the least, for against a single time when one + has to avoid ridicule, happily there are a hundred when one has to + provoke it. There is no better part among the great people than + that of fool. For a long time there was the king's fool; at no time + was there ever the king's sage, officially so styled. Now I am the + fool of Bertin and many others, perhaps yours at the present + moment, or perhaps you are mine. A man who meant to be a sage would + have no fool, so he who has a fool is no sage; if he is not a sage + he is a fool, and perhaps, even were he the king himself, the fool + of his fool. For the rest, remember that in a matter so variable as + manners, there is nothing absolutely, essentially, and universally + true or false; if not that one must be what interest would have us + be, good or bad, wise or mad, decent or ridiculous, honest or + vicious. If virtue had happened to be the way to fortune, then I + should either have been virtuous, or I should have pretended + virtue, like other persons. As it was, they wanted me to be + ridiculous, and I made myself so; as for being vicious, nature + alone had taken all the trouble that was needed in that. When I use + the term vicious, it is for the sake of talking your language; for, + if we came to explanations, it might happen that you called vice + what I call virtue, and virtue what I call vice. + + Then we have the authors of the Opéra Comique, their actors and + their actresses, and oftener still their managers, all people of + resource and superior merit. And I forget the whole clique of + scribblers in the gazettes, the _Avant Coureur_, the _Petites + Affiches_, the _Année littéraire_, the _Observateur littéraire_. + + _I._--The _Année littéraire_, the _Observateur littéraire_! But + they detest one another. + + _He._--Quite true, but all beggars are reconciled at the porringer. + That cursed _Observateur littéraire_, I wish the devil had had both + him and his sheet! It was that dog of a miserly priest who caused + my disaster. He appeared on our horizon for the first time; he + arrived at the hour that drives us all out of our dens, the hour + for dinner. When it is bad weather, lucky the man among us who has + a shilling in his pocket to pay for a hackney-coach! He is free to + laugh at a comrade for coming besplashed up to his eyes and wet to + the skin, though at night he goes to his own home in just the same + plight. There was one of them some months ago who had a violent + brawl with the Savoyard at the door. They had a running account; + the creditor insisted on being paid, and the debtor was not in + funds, and yet he could not go upstairs without passing through the + hands of the other. + + Dinner is served; they do the honours of the table to the + abbé--they place him at the upper end. I come in and see this. + "What, abbé, you preside? That is all very well for to-day, but + to-morrow you will come down, if you please, by one plate; the day + after by another plate, and so on from plate to plate, now to right + and now to left, until from the place that I occupied one time + before you, Fréron once after me, Dorat once after Fréron, Palissot + once after Dorat, you become stationary beside me, poor rascal as + you are--_che siedo sempre come_"--[an Italian proverb not to be + decently reproduced]. + + The abbé, who is a good fellow, and takes everything in good part, + bursts out laughing; Mademoiselle, struck by my observation and by + the aptness of my comparison, bursts out laughing; everybody to + right and left burst out laughing, except the master of the house, + who flies into a huff, and uses language that would have meant + nothing if we had been by ourselves-- + + "Rameau, you are an impertinent." + + "I know I am, and it is on that condition that I was received + here." + + "You are a scoundrel." + + "Like anybody else." + + "A beggar." + + "Should I be here, if I were not?" + + "I will have you turned out of doors." + + "After dinner I will go of my own will." + + "I recommend you to go." + + We dined: I did not lose a single toothful. After eating well and + drinking amply, for after all Messer Gaster is a person with whom I + have never sulked, I made up my mind what to do, and I prepared to + go; I had pledged my word in presence of so many people that I was + bound to keep it. For a considerable time I hunted up and down the + room for my hat and cane in every corner where they were not likely + to be, reckoning all the time that the master of the house would + break out into a new torrent of injuries, that somebody would + interpose, and that we should at last make friends by sheer dint of + altercation. I turned on this side and that, for I had nothing on + my heart; but the master, more sombre and dark-browed than Homer's + Apollo as he lets his arrows fly among the Greeks, with his cap + plucked farther over his head than usual, marched backwards and + forwards up and down the room. Mademoiselle approaches me: "But, + mademoiselle," say I, "what has happened beyond what happens every + day? Have I been different from what I am on other days?" + + "I insist on his leaving the house."--"I am leaving.... But I have + given no ground of offence."--"Pardon me; we invite the abbé + and...." It was he who was wrong to invite the abbé, while at the + same time he was receiving me, and with me so many other creatures + of my sort.--"Come, friend Rameau, you must beg the abbé's + pardon."--"I shall not know what to do with his pardon."--"Come, + come, all will be right."--They take me by the hand, and drag me + towards the abbé's chair; I look at him with a kind of admiring + wonder, for who before ever asked pardon of the abbé? "All this is + very absurd, abbé; confess, is it not?" And then I laugh, and the + abbé laughs too. So that is my forgiveness on that side; but I had + next to approach the other, and that was a very different thing. I + forget exactly how it was that I framed my apology.--"Sir, here is + the madman...."--"He has made me suffer too long; I wish to hear no + more about him."--"He is sorry."--"Yes, I am very sorry."--"It + shall not happen again."--"Until the first rascal...."--I do not + know whether he was in one of those days of ill-humour when + mademoiselle herself dreads to go near him, or whether he + misunderstood what I said, or whether I said something wrong: + things were worse than before. Good heavens, does he not know me? + Does he not know that I am like children, and that there are some + circumstances in which I let anything and everything escape me? And + then, God help me, am I not to have a moment of relief? Why, it + would wear out a puppet made of steel, to keep pulling the string + from night to morning, and from morning to night! I must amuse + them, of course, that is the condition; but I must now and then + amuse myself. In the midst of these distractions there came into my + head a fatal idea, an idea that gave me confidence, that inspired + me with pride and insolence: it was that they could not do without + me, and that I was indispensable. + + _I._--Yes, I daresay that you are very useful to them, but that + they are still more useful to you. You will not find as good a + house every day; but they, for one madman who falls short, will + find a hundred to take his place. + + _He._--A hundred madmen like me, sir philosopher; they are not so + common, I can tell you! Flat fools--yes. People are harder to + please in folly than in talent or virtue. I am a rarity in my own + kind, a great rarity. Now that they have me no longer, what are + they doing? They find time as heavy as if they were dogs. I am an + inexhaustible bagful of impertinences. Every minute I had some + fantastic notion that made them laugh till they cried; I was a + whole Bedlam in myself. + + _I._--Well, at any rate you had bed and board, coat and breeches, + shoes, and a pistole a month. + + _He._--That is the profit side of the account; you say not a word + of the cost of it all. First, if there was a whisper of a new piece + (no matter how bad the weather), one had to ransack all the garrets + in Paris, until one had found the author; then to get a reading of + the play, and adroitly to insinuate that there was a part in it + which would be rendered in a superior manner by a certain person of + my acquaintance.--"And by whom, if you please?"--"By whom? a pretty + question! There are graces, finesse, elegance."--"Ah, you mean + Mademoiselle Dangeville? Perhaps you know her?"--"Yes, a little; + but 'tis not she."--"Who is it, then?"--I whispered the name very + low. "She?"--"Yes, she," I repeated with some shame, for sometimes + I do feel a touch of shame; and at this name you should have seen + how long the poet's face grew, if indeed he did not burst out + laughing in my face. Still, whether he would or not, I was bound to + take my man to dine; and he, being naturally afraid of pledging + himself, drew back, and tried to say "No, thank you." You should + have seen how I was treated, if I did not succeed in my + negotiation! I was a blockhead, a fool, a rascal; I was not good + for a single thing; I was not worth the glass of water which they + gave me to drink. It was still worse at their performance, when I + had to go intrepidly amid the cries of a public that has a good + judgment of its own, whatever may be said about it, and make my + solitary clap of the hand audible, draw every eye to me, and + sometimes save the actress from hisses, and hear people murmur + around me--"He is one of the valets in disguise belonging to the + man who.... Will that knave be quiet?" They do not know what brings + a man to that; they think it is stupidity, but there is one motive + that excuses anything. + + _I._--Even the infraction of the civil laws. + + _He._--At length, however, I became known, and people used to say: + "Oh, it is Rameau!" My resource was to throw out some words of + irony to save my solitary applause from ridicule, by making them + interpret it in an opposite sense. + + Now agree that one must have a mighty interest to make one thus + brave the assembled public, and that each of these pieces of hard + labour was worth more than a paltry crown? And then at home there + was a pack of dogs to tend, and cats for which I was responsible. I + was only too happy if Micou favoured me with a stroke of his claw + that tore my cuff or my wrist. Criquette is liable to colic; 'tis I + who have to rub her. In old days mademoiselle used to have the + vapours; to-day, it is her nerves. She is beginning to grow a + little stout; you should hear the fine tales they make out of this. + + _I._--You do not belong to people of this sort, at any rate? + + _He._--Why not? + + _I._--Because it is indecent to throw ridicule on one's + benefactors. + + _He._--But is it not worse still to take advantage of one's + benefits to degrade the receiver of them? + + _I._--But if the receiver of them were not vile in himself, nothing + would give the benefactor the chance. + + _He._--But if the personages were not ridiculous in themselves they + would not make subjects for good tales. And then, is it my fault if + they mix with rascaldom? Is it my fault if, after mixing themselves + up with rascaldom, they are betrayed and made fools of? When people + resolve to live with people like us, if they have common sense, + there is an infinite quantity of blackness for which they must make + up their minds. When they take us, do they not know us for what we + are, for the most interested, vile, and perfidious of souls. Then + if they know us, all is well. There is a tacit compact that they + shall treat us well, and that sooner or later we shall treat them + ill in return for the good that they have done us. Does not such an + agreement subsist between a man and his monkey or his parrot?... If + you take a young provincial to the menagerie at Versailles, and he + takes it into his head for a freak to push his hands between the + bars of the cage of the tiger or the panther, whose fault is it? It + is all written in the silent compact, and so much the worse for the + man who forgets or ignores it. How I could justify by this + universal and sacred compact the people whom you accuse of + wickedness, whereas it is in truth yourselves whom you ought to + accuse of folly.... But while we execute the just decrees of + Providence on folly, you who paint us as we are, you execute its + just decrees on us. What would you think of us, if we claimed, with + our shameless manners, to enjoy public consideration? That we are + out of our senses. And those who look for decent behaviour from + people who are born vicious and with vile and bad characters--are + they in their senses? Everything has its true wages in this world. + There are two Public Prosecutors, one at your door, chastising + offences against society; nature is the other. Nature knows all the + vices that escape the laws. Give yourself up to debauchery, and you + will end with dropsy; if you are crapulous, your lungs will find + you out; if you open your door to ragamuffins, and live in their + company, you will be betrayed, laughed at, despised. The shortest + way is to resign, one's self to the equity of these judgments, and + to say to one's self: That is as it should be; to shake one's ears + and turn over a new leaf, or else to remain what one is, but on the + conditions aforesaid.... + + _I._--You cannot doubt what judgment I pass on such a character as + yours? + + _He._--Not at all; I am in your eyes an abject and most despicable + creature; and I am sometimes the same in my own eyes, though not + often: I more frequently congratulate myself on my vices than blame + myself for them; you are more constant in your contempt. + + _I._--True; but why show me all your turpitude? + + _He._--First, because you already know a good deal of it, and I saw + that there was more to gain than to lose, by confessing the rest. + + _I._--How so, if you please? + + _He._--It is important in some lines of business to reach + sublimity; it is especially so in evil. People spit upon a small + rogue, but they cannot refuse a kind of consideration to a great + criminal; his courage amazes you, his atrocity makes you shudder. + In all things, what people prize is unity of character. + + _I._--But this estimable unity of character you have not quite got: + I find you from time to time vacillating in your principles; it is + uncertain whether you get your wickedness from nature or study, and + whether study has brought you as far as possible. + + _He._--I agree with you, but I have done my best. Have I not had + the modesty to recognise persons more perfect in my own line than + myself. Have I not spoken to you of Bouret with the deepest + admiration? Bouret is the first person in the world for me. + + _I._--But after Bouret you come. + + _He._--No. + + _I._--Palissot, then? + + _He._--Palissot, but not Palissot alone. + + _I._--And who is worthy to share the second rank with him? + + _He._--The Renegade of Avignon. + + _I._--I never heard of the Renegade of Avignon, but he must be an + astonishing man. + + _He._--He is so, indeed. + + _I._--The history of great personages has always interested me. + + _He._--I can well believe it. This hero lived in the house of a + good and worthy descendant of Abraham, promised to the father of + the faithful in number equal to the stars in the heavens. + + _I._--In the house of a Jew? + + _He._--In the house of a Jew. He had at first surprised pity, then + goodwill, then entire confidence, for that is how it always + happens: we count so strongly on our kindness, that we seldom hide + our secrets from anybody on whom we have heaped benefits. How + should there not be ingrates in the world, when we expose this man + to the temptation of being ungrateful with impunity? That is a just + reflection which our Jew failed to make. He confided to the + renegade that he could not conscientiously eat pork. You will see + the advantage that a fertile wit knew how to get from such a + confession. Some months passed, during which our renegade redoubled + his attentions; when he believed his Jew thoroughly touched, + thoroughly captivated, thoroughly convinced that he had no better + friend among all the tribes of Israel ... now admire the + circumspection of the man! He is in no hurry; he lets the pear + ripen before he shakes the branch; too much haste might have + ruined his design. It is because greatness of character usually + results from the natural balance between several opposite + qualities. + + _I._--Pray leave your reflections, and go straight on with your + story. + + _He._--That is impossible. There are days when I cannot help + reflecting; 'tis a malady that must be allowed to run its course. + Where was I? + + _I._--At the intimacy that had been established between the Jew and + the renegade. + + _He._--Then the pear was ripe.... But you are not listening; what + are you dreaming about? + + _I._--I am thinking of the curious inequality in your tone, now so + high, now so low. + + _He._--How can a man made of vices be one and the same?... He + reaches his friend's house one night, with an air of violent + perturbation, with broken accents, a face as pale as death, and + trembling in every limb. "What is the matter with you?"--"We are + ruined." "Ruined, how?"--"Ruined, I tell you, beyond all + help."--"Explain."--"One moment, until I have recovered from my + fright."--"Come, then, recover yourself," says the Jew.... "A + traitor has informed against us before the Holy Inquisition, you as + a Jew, me as a renegade, an infamous renegade...." Mark how the + traitor does not blush to use the most odious expressions. It needs + more courage than you may suppose to call one's self by one's right + name; you do not know what an effort it costs to come to that. + + _I._--No, I daresay not. But "the infamous renegade----" + + _He._--He is false, but his falsity is adroit enough. The Jew takes + fright, tears his beard, rolls on the ground, sees the officers at + his door, sees himself clad in the _Sanbenito_, sees his + _auto-da-fè_ all made ready. "My friend," he cries, "my good, + tender friend, my only friend, what is to be done?" + + "What is to be done? Why show ourselves, affect the greatest + security, go about our business just as we usually do. The + procedure of the tribunal is secret but slow; we must take + advantage of its delays to sell all you have. I will hire a boat, + or I will have it hired by a third person--that will be best; in it + we will deposit your fortune, for it is your fortune that they are + most anxious to get at; and then we will go, you and I, and seek + under another sky the freedom of serving our God, and following in + security the law of Abraham and our own consciences. The important + point in our present dangerous situation is to do nothing + imprudent." + + No sooner said than done. The vessel is hired, victualled, and + manned, the Jew's fortune put on board; on the morrow, at dawn, + they are to sail, they are free to sup gaily and to sleep in all + security; on the morrow they escape their prosecutors. In the + night, the renegade gets up, despoils the Jew of his portfolio, his + purse, his jewels, goes on board, and sails away. And you think + that this is all? Good: you are not awake to it. Now when they told + me the story, I divined at once what I have not told you, in order + to try your sagacity. You were quite right to be an honest man; you + would never have made more than a fifth-rate scoundrel. Up to this + point the renegade is only that; he is a contemptible rascal whom + nobody would consent to resemble. The sublimity of his wickedness + is this, that he was himself the informer against his good friend + the Israelite, of whom the Inquisition took hold when he awoke the + next morning, and of whom a few days later they made a famous + bonfire. And it was in this way that the renegade became the + tranquil possessor of the fortune of the accursed descendant of + those who crucified our Lord. + + _I._--I do not know which of the two is most horrible to me--the + vileness of your renegade, or the tone in which you speak of it. + + _He._--And that is what I said: the atrocity of the action carries + you beyond contempt, and hence my sincerity. I wished you to know + to what a degree I excelled in my art, to extort from you the + admission that I was at least original in my abasement, to rank me + in your mind on the line of the great good-for-noughts, and to hail + me henceforth--_Vivat Mascarillus, fourbum imperator_! + +[Here the discussion is turned aside, by Rameau's pantomimic performance +of a fugue, to various topics in music.[224]] + + [224] Vol. v. pp. 457-468. + + _I._--How does it happen that with such fine tact, such great + sensibility for the beauties of the musical art, you are so blind + to the fine things of morality, so insensible to the charms of + virtue? + + _He._--It must be because there is for the one a sense that I have + not got, a fibre that has not been given to me, a slack string that + you may play upon as much as you please, but it never vibrates. Or + it may be because I have always lived with those who were good + musicians but bad men, whence it has come to pass that my ear has + grown very fine, and my heart has grown very deaf. And then there + is something in race. The blood of my father and the blood of my + uncle is the same blood; my blood is the same as that of my father; + the paternal molecule was hard and obtuse, and that accursed first + molecule has assimilated to itself all the rest. + + _I._--Do you love your child? + + _He._--Do I love it, the little savage! I dote on it. + + _I._--Will you not then seriously set to work to arrest in it the + consequences of the accursed paternal molecule? + + _He._--I shall labour in vain, I fancy. If he is destined to grow + into a good man, I shall not hurt him; but if the molecule meant + him for a ne'er-do-well like his father, then all the pains that I + might have taken to make a decent man of him would only be very + hurtful to him, Education incessantly crossing the inclination of + the molecule, he would be drawn as it were by two contrary forces, + and would walk in zigzags along the path of life, as I see an + infinity of other people doing, equally awkward in good and evil. + These are what we call _espèces_, of all epithets the most to be + dreaded, because it marks mediocrity and the very lowest degree of + contempt. A great scoundrel is a great scoundrel, but he is not an + _espèce_. Before the paternal molecule had got the upper hand, and + had brought him to the perfect abjection at which I have arrived, + it would take endless time, and he would lose his best years. I do + not meddle at present; I let him come on. I examine him; he is + already greedy, cunning, idle, lying, and a cheat; I'm much afraid + that he is a chip of the old block. + + _I._--And you will make him a musician, so that the likeness may be + exact? + + _He._--A musician! Sometimes I look at him and grind my teeth, + saying: If thou wert ever to know a note of music, I believe I + would wring thy neck. + + _I._--And why so, if you please? + + _He._--Music leads to nothing. + + _I._--It leads to everything. + + _He._--Yes, when people are first-rate. But who can promise himself + that his child shall be first-rate. The odds are ten thousand to + one that he will never be anything but a wretched scraper of + catgut. Are you aware that it would perhaps be easier to find a + child fit to govern a realm, fit to be a great king, than one fit + for a great violin player. + + _I._--It seems to me that agreeable talents, even if they are + mediocre, among a people who are without morals, and are lost in + debauchery and luxury, get a man rapidly on in the path of fortune. + + _He._--No doubt, gold and gold; gold is everything, and all the + rest without gold is nothing. So instead of cramming his head with + fine maxims which he would have to forget, on pain of remaining a + beggar all the days of his life, what I do is this: when I have a + louis, which does not happen to me often, I plant myself in front + of him, I pull the louis out of my pocket, I show it to him with + signs of admiration, I raise my eyes to heaven, I kiss the louis + before him, and to make him understand still better the importance + of the sacred coin, I point to him with my finger all that he can + get with it, a fine frock, a pretty cap, a rich cake; then I thrust + the louis into my pocket, I walk proudly up and down, I raise the + lappet of my waistcoat, I strike my fob; and in that way I make him + see that it is the louis in it that gives me all this assurance. + + _I._--Nothing could be better. But suppose it were to come to pass + that, being so profoundly penetrated by the value of the louis, he + were one day.... + + _He._--I understand you. One must close one's eyes to that; there + is no moral principle without its own inconvenience. At the worst + 'tis a bad quarter of an hour, and then all is over. + + _I._--Even after hearing views so wise and so bold, I persist in + thinking that it would be good to make a musician of him. I know no + other means of getting so rapidly near great people, of serving + their vices better, or turning your own to more advantage. + + _He._--That is true; but I have plans for a speedier and surer + success. Ah, if it were only a girl! But as we cannot do all that + we should like, we must take what comes, and make the best of it, + and not be such idiots as most fathers, who could literally do + nothing worse, supposing them to have deliberately planned the + misery of their children--namely, give the education of Lacedæmon + to a child who is destined to live in Paris. If the education is + bad, the morals of my country are to blame for that, not I. Answer + for it who may; I wish my son to be happy, or what is the same + thing, rich, honoured, and powerful. I know something about the + easiest ways of reaching this end, and I will teach them to him + betimes. If you blame me, you sages, the multitude and success + will acquit me. He will put money in his purse, I can tell you. If + he has plenty of that, he will lack nothing else, not even your + esteem and respect. + + _I._--You may be mistaken. + + _He._--Then perhaps he will do very well without it, like many + other people. + + * * * * * + + [There was in all this a good deal of what passes through many + people's minds, and much of the principle according to which they + shape their own conduct; but they never talk about it. There, in + short, is the most marked difference between my man and most of + those about us. He avowed the vices that he had, and that others + have; but he was no hypocrite. He was neither more nor less + abominable than they; he was only more frank, and more consistent, + and sometimes he was profound in the midst of his depravity. I + trembled to think what his child might become under such a master. + It is certain that after ideas of bringing-up, so strictly traced + on the pattern of our manners, he must go far, unless prematurely + stopped on the road.] + + _He._--Oh, fear nothing. The important point, the difficult point, + to which a good father ought to attend before everything else, is + not to give to his child vices that enrich, or comical tricks such + as make him valuable to people of quality--all the world does that, + if not on system as I do, at least by example and precept. The + important thing is to impress on him the just proportion, the art + of keeping out of disgrace and the arm of the law. There are + certain discords in the social harmony that you must know exactly + how to place, to prepare, and to hold. Nothing so tame as a + succession of perfect chords; there needs something that + stimulates, that resolves the beam, and scatters its rays. + + _I._--Quite so; by your image you bring me back from morals to + music, and I am very glad, for, to be quite frank with, you, I + like you better as musician than as moralist. + + _He._--Yet, I am a mere subaltern in music, and a really superior + figure in morals. + + _I._--I doubt that; but even if it were so, I am an honest man, and + your principles are not mine. + + _He._--So much the worse for you. Ah, if I only had your talents! + + _I._--Never mind my talents; let us return to yours. + + _He._--If I could only express myself like you! But I have an + infernally absurd jargon--half the language of men of the world and + of letters, half of Billingsgate. + + _I._--Nay, I am a poor talker enough. I only know how to speak the + truth, and that does not always answer, as you know. + + _He._--But it is not for speaking the truth--on the contrary, it is + for skilful lying that I covet your gift. If I knew how to write, + to cook up a book, to turn a dedicatory epistle, to intoxicate a + fool as to his own merits, to insinuate myself into the good graces + of women! + + _I._--And you do know all that a thousand times better than I. I + should not be worthy to be so much as your pupil. + + _He._--How many great qualities lost, of which you do not know the + price. + + _I._--I get the price that I ask. + + _He._--If that were true, you would not be wearing that common + suit, that rough waistcoat, those worsted stockings, those thick + shoes, that ancient wig. + + _I._--I grant that; a man must be very maladroit not to be rich, if + he sticks at nothing in order to become rich. But the odd thing is + that there are people like me who do not look on riches as the most + precious thing in the world; bizarre people, you know. + + _He._--Bizarre enough. A man is not born with such a twist as that. + He takes the trouble to give it to himself, for it is not in + nature. + + _I._--In the nature of man? + + _He._--No; for everything that lives, without exception, seeks its + own wellbeing at the expense of any prey that is proper to its + purpose; and I am perfectly sure that if I let my little savage + grow up without saying a word to him on the matter, he would wish + to be richly clad, sumptuously fed, cherished by men, loved by + women, and to heap upon himself all the happiness of life. + + _I._--If your little savage were left to himself, let him only + preserve all his imbecility, and add to the scanty reason of the + child in the cradle the violent passions of a man of thirty--why he + would strangle his father and dishonour his own mother. + + _He._--That proves the necessity of a good education, and who + denies it? And what is a good education but one that leads to all + sorts of enjoyments without danger and without inconvenience? + + _I._--I am not so far from your opinion, only let us keep clear of + explanations. + + _He._--Why? + + _I._--Because I am afraid that we only agree in appearance, and + that if we once begin to discuss what are the dangers and the + inconveniences to avoid, we should cease to understand one another. + + _He._--What of that? + + _I._--Let us leave all this, I tell you; what I know about it I + shall never get you to learn, and you will more easily teach me + what I do not know, and you do know, in music. Let us talk about + music, dear Rameau, and tell me how it has come about that with the + faculty for feeling, retaining, and rendering the finest passages + in the great masters, with the enthusiasm that they inspire in you, + and that you transmit to others, you have done nothing that is + worth.... + + Instead of answering me, he shrugged his shoulders, and pointing to + the sky with his finger, he cried: The star! the star! When Nature + made Leo, Vinci, Pergolese, Duni, she smiled. She put on a grave + and imposing air in shaping my dear uncle Rameau, who for half a + score years they will have called the great Rameau, and of whom + very soon nobody will say a word. When she tricked up his nephew, + she made a grimace, and a grimace, and again a grimace. [And as he + said this, he put on all sorts of odd expressions: contempt, + disdain, irony; and he seemed to be kneading between his fingers a + piece of paste, and to be smiling at the ridiculous shapes that he + gave it; that done, he flung the incongruous pagod[225] away from + him, and said:] It was thus she made me, and flung me by the side + of the other pagods, some with huge wrinkled paunches, and short + necks, and great eyes projecting out of their heads, stamped with + apoplexy; others with wry necks; some again with wizened faces, + keen eyes, hooked noses. All were ready to split with laughing when + they espied me, and I put my hands to my sides and split with + laughter when I espied them, for fools and madmen tickle one + another; they seek and attract one another. If when I got among + them, I had not found ready-made the proverb about _the money of + fools being the patrimony of people with wits_, they would have + been indebted to me for it. I felt that nature had put my lawful + inheritance into the purses of the pagods, and I devised a thousand + means of recovering my rights. + + [225] These little china images of gods, with nodding heads, were + then a fashionable toy in Paris. + + _I._--Yes, I know all about your thousand means; you have told me + of them, and I have admired them vastly. But with so many + resources, why not have tried that of a fine work?... + + _He._--When I am alone I take up my pen and intend to write; I bite + my nails and rub my brow; your humble servant, good-bye, the god is + absent. I had convinced myself that I had genius; at the end of the + time I discover that I am a fool, a fool, and nothing but a fool. + But how is one to feel, to think, to rise to heights, to paint in + strong colours, while haunting with such creatures as those whom + one must see if one is to live; in the midst of such talk as one + has to make and to hear, and such idle gossip: "How charming the + boulevard was to-day!" "Have you heard the little Marmotte? Her + playing is ravishing." "Mr. So-and-so had the handsomest pair of + grays in his carriage that you can possibly imagine." "The + beautiful Mrs. So-and-so is beginning to fade; who at the age of + five-and-forty would wear a headdress like that?" "Young + Such-and-such is covered with diamonds, and she gets them cheap." + + "You mean she gets them dear." + + "No, I do not." + + "Where did you see her?" + + "At the play." + + "The scene of despair was played as it had never been played + before." "The Polichinelle of the Fair has a voice, but no + delicacy, no soul." "Madame So-and-so has produced two at a birth; + each father will have his own child...." And yet you suppose that + this kind of thing, said and said again, and listened to every day + of the week, sets the soul aglow and leads to mighty things. + + _I._--Nay, it were better to turn the key of one's garret, drink + cold water, eat dry bread, and seek one's true self. + + _He._--Maybe, but I have not the courage. And then the idea of + sacrificing one's happiness for the sake of a success that is + doubtful! And the name that I bear? Rameau! It is not with talents + as it is with nobility; nobility transmits itself, and increases in + lustre by passing from grandfather to father, and from father to + son, and from son to grandson, without the ancestor impressing a + spark of merit on his descendant; the old stock ramifies into an + enormous crop of fools; but what matter? It is not so with talents. + Merely to obtain the renown of your father, you must be cleverer + than he was; you must have inherited his fibre. The fibre has + failed me, but the wrist is nimble, the fiddle-bow scrapes away, + and the pot boils; if there is not glory, there is broth. + + _I._--If I were in your place, I would not take it for granted; I + would try.... Whatever it be that a man applies himself to, nature + meant him for it. + + _He._--She makes mighty blunders. For my part, I do not look down + from heights, whence all seems confused and blurred,--the man who + prunes a tree with his knife, all one with the caterpillar who + devours its leaf; a couple of insects, each at his proper task. Do + you, if you choose, perch yourself on the epicycle of the planet + Mercury, and thence distribute creation, in imitation, of Réaumur; + he, the classes of flies into seamstresses, surveyors, reapers; + you, the human species into joiners, dancers, singers, tilers. That + is your affair, and I will not meddle with it. I am in this world, + and in this world I rest. But if it is in nature to have an + appetite--for it is always to appetite that I come back, and to the + sensation that is ever present to me--then I find that it is by no + means consistent with good order not to have always something to + eat. What a precious economy of things! Men who are over-crammed + with everything under the sun, while others, who have a stomach + just as importunate as they, a hunger that recurs as regularly as + theirs, have not a bite. The worst is the constrained posture to + which want pins us down. The needy man does not walk like anybody + else; he jumps, he crawls, he wriggles, he limps, he passes his + whole life in taking and executing artificial postures. + + _I._--What are postures? + + _He._--Ask Noverre.[226] The world offers far more of them than his + art can imitate. + + [226] A famous dancing-master of the time. + + _I._--Ah, there are you too--to use your expression or + Montaigne's--_perched on the epicycle of Mercury_, and eyeing the + various pantomimes of the human race. + + _He._--No, no, I tell you; I'm too heavy to raise myself so high. + No sojourn in the fogs for me. I look about me, and I assume my + postures, or I amuse myself with the postures that I see others + taking. I am an excellent pantomime as you shall judge. + + * * * * * + + [Then he set himself to smile, to imitate the admirer, the + suppliant, the fawning complaisant; he expects a command, receives + it, starts off like an arrow, returns, the order is executed, he + reports what he has done; he is attentive to everything; he picks + up something that has fallen; he places a pillow or a footstool; he + holds a saucer; he brings a chair, opens a door, closes a window, + draws the curtains, gazes on the master and mistress; he stands + immovable, his arms hanging by his side, his legs exactly straight; + he listens, he seeks to read their faces, and then he adds:--That + is my pantomime, very much the same as that of all flatterers, + courtiers, valets, and beggars. + + The buffooneries of this man, the stories of the abbé Galiani, the + extravagances of Rabelais, have sometimes thrown me into profound + reveries. They are three stores whence I have provided myself with + ridiculous masks that I place on the faces of the gravest + personages, and I see Pantaloon in a prelate, a satyr in a + president, a pig in a monk, an ostrich in a minister, a goose in + his first clerk.] + + * * * * * + + _I._--But according to your account, I said to my man, there are + plenty of beggars in the world, and yet I know nobody who is not + acquainted with some of the steps of your dance. + + _He._--You are right. In a whole kingdom there is only one man who + walks, and that is the sovereign. + + _I._--The sovereign? There is something to be said on that. For do + you suppose that one may not from time to time find even by the + side of him, a dainty foot, a pretty neck, a bewitching nose, that + makes him execute his pantomime. Whoever has need of another is + indigent, and assumes a posture. The king postures before his + mistress, and before God he treads his pantomimic measure. The + minister dances the step of courtier, flatterer, valet, and beggar + before his king. The crowd of the ambitious cut a hundred capers, + each viler than the rest, before the minister. The abbé, with his + bands and long cloak, postures at least once a week before the + patron of livings. On my word, what you call the pantomime of + beggars is only the whole huge bustle of the earth.... + + _He._--But let us bethink ourselves what o'clock it is, for I must + go to the opera. + + _I._--What is going on? + + _He._--Dauvergne's _Trocqueurs_. There are some tolerable things in + the music; the only pity is that he has not been the first to say + them. Among those dead, there are always some to dismay the living. + What would you have? _Quisque suos patimur manes._ But it is + half-past five, I hear the bell ringing my vespers. Good day, my + philosopher; always the same, am I not? + + _I._--Alas, you are; worse luck. + + _He._--Only let me have that bad luck for forty years to come! Who + laughs last has the best of the laugh. + + + THE END. + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh._ + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | COLLECTED EDITION OF THE | + | WORKS OF JOHN MORLEY | + | | + | In 12 Vols. Globe 8vo. 4s. net each. | + | | + | [_Eversley Series._ | + | | + | |=VOLTAIRE.= |1 Vol. | | + | |=ROUSSEAU.= |2 Vols. | | + | |=DIDEROT AND THE ENCYCLOPÆDISTS.= |2 Vols. | | + | |=ON COMPROMISE.= |1 Vol. | | + | |=MISCELLANIES.= |3 Vols. | | + | |=BURKE.= |1 Vol. | | + | |=STUDIES IN LITERATURE.= |1 Vol. | | + | |=OLIVER CROMWELL.= |1 Vol | | + | | + | =THE LIFE OF WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE.= 3 Vols. 8vo. 42s. | + | net. | + | | + | =OLIVER CROMWELL.= 8vo. 10s. net. Illustrated Edition. Extra | + | Crown 8vo. 14s. net | + | | + | =LIFE OF WALPOLE.= Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. | + | [_Twelve English Statesmen._ | + | | + | =LIFE OF BURKE.= Crown 8vo. Library Edition, 2s. net; | + | Popular Edition, 1s. 6d.; sewed, 1s. | + | [_English Men of Letters._ | + | | + | =MACHIAVELLI.= 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. | + | | + | MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | Transcriber's Notes & Errata | + | | + | Italic text is enclosed in underscores (_). | + | | + | Bold text is enclosed in 'equals' signs (=). | + | | + | 'OE' and 'oe' ligatures have been transcribed as 'o' and | + | 'e', and 'O' and 'e'. | + | | + | The following words were found in both unhyphenated and | + | hyphenated forms. The number of instances of each are given | + | in parentheses. | + | | + | |apiece (1) |a-piece (1) | | + | |demigods (1) |demi-gods (2) | | + | |nightcap (1) |night-cap (1) | | + | |wellbeing (4) |well-being (3) | | + | | + | The following typographical errors have been corrected. | + | | + | |Error |Correction || + | | | || + | |sociey |society || + | | | || + | |It would, as Mill has said, |It would, as Mill has said, || + | | imply ignorance of the | imply ignorance of the || + | | history of philosophy and | history of philosophy and || + | | of general literature not | of general literature not || + | | to be aware that in all | to be aware that in all || + | | ages of philosophy and of | ages of philosophy one of || + | | general literature, not | its schools has been || + | | to be aware that in all | utilitarian, not only from || + | | ages of philosophy one of | the time of Epicurus, but || + | | its schools has been | long before. || + | | utilitarian, not only | || + | | from the time of Epicurus, | || + | | but long before. | || + | | | || + | |beween |between || + | | | || + | |sense how |sense of how || + | | | || + | |arbitary |arbitrary || + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Diderot and the Encyclopædists, by John Morley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIDEROT AND THE ENCYCLOPÆDISTS *** + +***** This file should be named 22797-8.txt or 22797-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/9/22797/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://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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