CHAPTER III. THE SYSTÈME DE LA NATURE.
Early in 1770 appeared the famous Système de la Nature, ou Des Loix du Monde Physique et du Monde Morale, Par M. Mirabaud, Secrétaire Perpétuel et l'un des Quarante de l'Académie Française, Londres (Amsterdam), 1770. This work has gone through over thirty editions in France, Spain, Germany, England and the United States. No book of a philosophic or scientific character has ever caused such a sensation at the time of its publication, excepting perhaps Darwin's Origin of Species, the thesis of which is more than hinted at by Holbach. There were several editions in 1770. A very few copies contain a Discours préliminaire de l'Auteur of sixteen pages which Naigeon had printed separately in London. The Abrégé du Code de la Nature, which ends the book was also published separately and is sometimes attributed to Diderot, 8vo, 16 pp. [54:1]
There is also a book entitled Le vrai sens du Système de la Nature, 1774, attributed to Helvetius, a very clear, concise epitome largely in Holbach's own short and telling sentences, and much more effective than the original because of its brevity. Holbach himself reproduced the Système de la Nature in a shortened form in Bon-sens, 1772, and Payrard plagiarized it freely in De la Nature et de ses Lois, Paris, 1773. The book has been attributed to Diderot, Helvetius, Robinet, Damilaville and others. Naigeon is certain that it is entirely by Holbach, although it is generally held that Diderot had a hand in it. It was published under the name of Mirabaud to obviate persecution. The manuscript, it was alleged, had been found among his papers as a sort of "testament" or philosophical legacy to posterity. This work may be called the bible of scientific materialism and dogmatic atheism. Nothing before or since has ever approached it in its open and unequivocal insistence on points of view commonly held, if at all, with reluctance and reserve. It is impossible in a study of this length to deal fully with the attacks and refutations that were published immediately. We may mention first the condemnation of the book by the Parlement de Paris, August 18, 1770, to be burned by the public hangman along with Voltaire's Dieu et les Hommes, and Holbach's Discours sur les Miracles, La Contagion sacrée and le Christianisme dévoilé, which had already been condemned on September 24, 1769. [55:2]
The Réquisitoire of Seguier, avocat général, on the occasion of the condemnation of the Système de la Nature was so weak and ridiculous that the Parlement de Paris refused to sanction its publication, and it was printed by the express order of the King. As Grimm observed, it seemed designed solely to acquaint the ignorant with this dangerous work, without opposing any of its propositions. One would look in vain for a better example of the conservatism of the legal profession. [55:3]
Le poison des nouveautés profanes ne peut corrompre la sainte gravité des moeurs qui caractérise les vrais Magistrats: tout peut changer autour d'eux, ils restent immuables avec la loi (page 496).
N'est-ce pas ce fatal abus de la liberté de penser, qui a enfanté cette multitude de sectes, d'opinions, de partis, et cet esprit d'indépendance dont d'autres nations ont éprouvé les sinstres révolutions. Le même abus produira en France des effets peut-être plus funestes. La liberté indéfinie trouveroit, dans la caractère de la nation, dans son activité, dans son amour pour la nouveauté, un moyen de plus pour préparer les plus affreuses révolutions (p. 498).
The most interesting private attacks on the Système de la Nature came from two somewhat unexpected quarters, from Ferney and Sans Souci. Voltaire, as usual, was not wholly consistent in his opinions of it, as is revealed in his countless letters on the subject. Grimm attributed his hostility to jealousy, and the fear that the Système de la Nature might "renverse le rituel de Ferney et que le patriarcat ne s'en aille au diable avec lui." [56:4] George Leroy went so far as to write a book entitled Réflexions sur la jalousie, pour servir de commentaire aux derniers ouvrages de M. de Voltaire, 1772. Frederick II naturally felt bound to defend the kings who, as Voltaire said, were no better treated than God in the Système de la Nature. [56:5]
Voltaire's correspondence during this period is so interesting that it seems worth while to quote at length, especially from his letters to Fredrick the Great. In May 1770, shortly after the publication of the Système de la Nature Voltaire wrote to M. Vernes: [56:6] "On a tant dit de sottises sur la nature que je ne lis plus aucun de ces livres là." But by July he had read it and wrote to Grimm: [56:7] "Si l'ouvrage eut été plus serré il aurait fait un effet terrible, mais tel qu'il est il en a fait beaucoup. Il est bien plus éloquent que Spinoza... J'ai une grande curiosité de savoir ce qu'on en pense à Paris." In writing to d'Alembert about this time he seemed to have a fairly favorable impression of the book. "Il m'a paru qu'il y avait des longueurs, des répétitions et quelques inconséquences, mais il y a trop de bon pour qu'on n'éclate avec fureur contre ce livre. Si on garde le silence, ce sera une preuve du prodigieux progrès que la tolérance fait tous les jours." [57:8] But there was little likelihood that philosophers or theologians would keep silent about this scandalous book. Before the end of the month Voltaire was writing to d'Alembert about his own and the king of Prussia's refutations of it, and the same day wrote to Frederick: "Il me semble que vos remarques doivent être imprimées; ce sont des leçons pour le genre humain. Vous soutenez d'un bras la cause de Dieu et vous écrasez de l'autre la superstition." [57:9] Later Voltaire confessed to Frederick that he also had undertaken to rebuke the author of the Système de la Nature. "Ainsi Dieu a pour lui les deux hommes les moins superstitieux de l'Europe, ce que devrait lui plaire beaucoup" (p. 390).
Frederick, however, hesitated to make his refutation public, and wrote to Voltaire: "Lorsque j'eus achevé mon ouvrage contre l'athéisme, je crus ma réfutation très orthodoxe, je la relus, et je la trouvai bien éloignée de l'être. Il y a des endroits qui ne saurait paraître sans effaroucher les timides et scandaliser les dévots. Un petit mot qui m'est échappé sur l'éternité du monde me ferait lapider dans votre patrie, si j'y étais né particulier, et que je l'eusse fait imprimer. Je sens que je n'ai point du tout ni l'âme ni le style théologique." [57:10] Voltaire, in his "petite drôlerie en faveur de la Divinité" (as he called his work) and in his letters, could not find terms harsh enough in which to condemn the Système de la Nature. He called it "un chaos, un grand mal moral, un ouvrage de ténèbres, un péché contre la nature, un système de la folie et de l'ignorance," and wrote to Delisle de Sales: "Je ne vois pas que rien ait plus avili notre siècle que cette énorme sottise." [58:11] Voltaire seemed to grow more bitter about Holbach's book as time went on. His letters and various works abound in references to it, and it is difficult to determine his motives. He was accused, as has been suggested, by Holbach's circle "de caresser les gens en place, et d'abandonner ceux qui n'y sont plus." [58:12] M. Avenel believed that he suspected Holbach himself of making these accusations. Voltaire's letter to the Duc de Richelieu, Nov. 1, 1770, [58:13] seems to give them foundation.
A very different reaction was that of Goethe and his university circle at Strasburg to whom the Système de la Nature appeared a harmless and uninteresting book, "grau," "cimmerisch," "totenhaft," "die echte Quintessenz der Greisenheit." To these fervent young men in the youthful flush of romanticism, its sad, atheistic twilight seemed to cast a veil over the beauty of the earth and rob the heaven of stars; and they lightheardedly discredited both Holbach and Voltaire in favor of Shakespeare and the English romantic school. One would look far for a better instance of the romantic reaction which set in so soon and so obscured the clarity of the issues at stake in the eighteenth century thought. [58:14]
The leading refutations directed explicitly against the Système de la Nature are:
1. 1770, Rive, Abbé J. J., Lettres philosophiques contre le Système de la Nature. (Portefeuille hebdomadaire de Bruxelles.)
2. Frederick II, Examen critique du livre intitulé, Système de la Nature. (Political Miscellanies, p. 175.)
3. Voltaire, Dieu, Réponse de M. de Voltaire au Système de la Nature. Au château de Ferney, 1770, 8 vo, pp. 34.
4. 1771, Bergier, Abbé N. F., Examen du matérialisme, ou Réfutation du Système de la Nature. Paris, Humbolt, 1771, 2 vols., 12mo.
5. Camuset, Abbé J. N., Principes contre l'incrédulité, a l'occasion du Système de la Nature. Paris, Pillot, 1771, 12mo, pp. viii + 335.
6. Castillon, J. de (Salvernini di Castiglione), Observations sur le livre intitulé, Système de la Nature. Berlin, Decker, 1771, 8vo. (40 sols broché.)
7. Rochford, Dubois de, Pensées diverses contre le système des matérialistes, à l'occasion d'un écrit intitulé; Système de la Nature. Paris, Lambert, 1771, 12mo.
8. 1773, L'Impie démasqué, ou remontrance aux écrivains incrédules. Londres, Heydinger, 1773
9. Holland, J. H., Réflexions philosophiques sur le Système de la Nature. Paris, 1773, 2 vols., 8vo.
10. 1776, Buzonnière, Nouel de, Observations sur un ouvrage intitulé le Système de la Nature. Paris, Debure, père, 1776, 8vo, pp. 126. (Prix 1 livre, 16 sols broché.)
11. 1780, Fangouse, Abbé, La religion prouvée aux incrédules, avec une lettre à l'auteur du Système de la Nature par un homme du monde. Paris, Debure l'aîné, 12mo, p. 150. Same under title Réflexions importantes sur la religion, etc., 1785.
12. 1788, Paulian, A. J., Le véritable système de la nature, etc., Avignon, Niel, 2 vols., 12mo.
13. 1803, Mangold, F. X. von, Unumstossliche Widerlegung des Materialismus gegen den Verfasser des Systems der Natur. Augsburg, 1803.
Of these and other refutations of materialism such as Saint-Martin's Des erreurs et de la vérité, Dupont de Nemours' Philosophie de l'univers, Delisles de Sales' Philosophie de la nature, etc., which are not directed explicitly against the Système de la Nature, the works of Voltaire and Frederick the Great are the most interesting but by no means the most serious or convincing. Morley finds Voltaire very weak and much beside the point, especially in his discussion of order and disorder in nature which Holbach had denied. Voltaire's argument is that there must be an intelligent motor or cause behind nature (p. 7). This is God (p. 8). He admits at the outset that all systems are mere dreams but he continues to insist with a dogmatism equal to Holbach's on the validity of his dream. He repeatedly asserts without foundation that Holbach's system is based on the false experiment of Needham (pp. 5, 6), and even goes so far as to ridicule the evolutionary hypothesis altogether (p. 6). He speaks of the necessity of a belief in God, by a kind of natural logic. God and matter exist in the nature of things, "Tout nous announce un Être suprême, rien ne nous dit ce qu'il est." God himself seems to be a kind of fatalistic necessity. "C'est ce que vous appellerez Nature et c'est ce que j'appelle Dieu." At the end he shifts the argument from the base of necessity to that of utility. Which is the more consoling doctrine? If the idea of God has prevented ten crimes I hold that the entire world should embrace it (p. 27). As Morley has said, such arguments could scarcely have convinced Voltaire himself.
Frederick was surprised that Voltaire and D'Alembert had found anything good in the book. His refutation was more methodical than that of Voltaire, who called it a "homage to the Divinity" but wrote to D'Alembert that it was written in the style of a notary. Two other refutations emanating from the Academy of Berlin were those of Castillon and Holland. The first of these is a very heavy and learned work, formidable and forbidding in its logic. Castillon reduces Holbach's propositions to three. The self-existence of matter, the essential relation of movement to it, and the possibility of deriving everything from it or some mode of it. Castillon concludes after five hundred pages of reasoning that matter is contingent, movement not inherent in it, and that purely spiritual beings exist in independence of it. Hence the Système de la Nature is a "long and wicked error." Holland's is a still more serious work, which the Sorbonne recommended strongly as an antidote against Holbach's Système which it qualified as "une malheureuse production que notre siècle doit rougir d'avoir enfantée." But when it was discovered that Holland was a Protestant his work was condemned forthwith, Jan. 17, 1773.
Bergier's refutation is interesting as an attack from a churchman of extraordinary keenness and insight into the progress of the new philosophy. In the Système de la Nature he recognized the hand of the author of La Contagion sacrée and the Essai sur les préjugés and dealt with it as he did the Christianisme dévoilé. Buzonniere, Rochfort and Fangouse are milder and more naive in their demonstrations and their works are of no weight or interest. L'Impie démasqué is a brutal work which qualifies Holbach as a "vile apostle of vice and crime," and the Système de la Nature as the most impudent treatise on atheism that has yet dishonored the globe—one which covers the century with shame and will be the scandal of future generations.
The work of Paulian is of a different sort. Coming comparatively late, it attempted to review the hostile opinions of many years and then mass them in an overwhelming final attack on the Système de la Nature. To this end Paulian rewrites the entire book chapter by chapter, giving the "true version." He then reviews Holland's outline and Bergier's comments, together with seven articles directed explicitly against the Système de la Nature in such works as the Lettres Helviennes, of Abbé Barruel, Dict. des Philosophes, Dict. anti-philosophe, his own Dict. théologique, etc., besides many other writings against the new philosophy in general. He then reviews articles by members of the philosophic school against materialism and then goes back to Holbach's sources, Diderot, Bayle, Spinoza, Lucretius, Epicurus, etc. The work is not scholarly but comprehensive and evidently discouraged further formal refutations.
The Système de la Nature had many critics in the stormy days that followed 1789. Delisle de Sales found it a monstrosity—a fratras; La Harpe called it an infamous book, "un amas de bêtises qu'on ose appeler philosophie, inconcevables inepties, un immense échafaudage de mensonge et d'invective"; M. Villemain is much more calm and fair; Lord Brougham, like Damiron, Buzonnière, and many others, found it seductive but full of false reasoning; Lerminier was so severe that St.-Beuve was moved to defend Holbach against him. Samuel Wilkinson, the English translator of 1820, is one of the few whose criticism is at all favorable. Holbach has always appealed to a certain type of radical mind and his translators and editors have generally been men who were often over-enthusiastic. For example, Mr. Wilkinson says of the Système de la Nature, [64:15] "No work, ancient or modern, has surpassed it in the eloquence and sublimity of its language or in the facility with which it treats the most abstruse and difficult subjects. It is without exception the boldest effort the human mind has yet produced in the investigation of Morals and Theology. The republic of letters has never produced another author whose pen was so well calculated to emancipate mankind from all those trammels with which the nurse, the school master, and the priest have successively locked up their noblest faculties, before they were capable of reasoning and judging for themselves."
It seems unnecessary to analyze the Système de la Nature. This has been done by Damiron, Soury, Fabre, Lange, Morley, the historians of philosophy, and encyclopaedists; and the book itself is easily available in the larger libraries. The substance of Holbach's philosophy is susceptible of clearer treatment apart from it or any one of his books, although it permeates all of them.
M. Jules Soury has said, in describing a certain type of mind: "Il est d'heureux esprits, des âmes fortes et saines, que n'effraie point le silence éternel des espaces infinis où s'anéantissait la raison de Pascal. Naïves et robustes natures, mâles et vigoureux penseurs, qui gardent toute la vie quelque chose des dons charmants de la jeunesse et de l'enfance même, une foi vive dans le témoinage immédiat de nos sens et de notre conscience, une humeur alerte, toute de joyeuse ardeur, et comme une intrépidité d'esprit que rien n'arrête. Pour eux tout est clair et uni; ou à peu près, et là où ils soupçonnent quelque bas-bond insondable, ils se détournent et poursuivent fièrement leur chemin. Comme cet Epicurien dont parle Cicéron au commencement du De natura deorum, ils ont toujours l'air de sortir de l'assemblée des dieux et de descendre des intermondes d'Epicure."
Such was Holbach. His philosophy is based on the child-like assumption that things are as they seem, provided they are observed with sufficient care by a sufficient number of people. This brings us at once to the very heart of Holbach's method which was experimental and inductive to the last degree. Holbach was nourished on what might be called scientific rather than philosophical traditions. As M. Tourneux has pointed out, he had been a serious student of the natural sciences, especially those connected with the constitution of the earth. These studies led him to see the disparity between certain accepted and traditional cosmologies and a scientific interpretation of the terrestrial globe and the forms of life which flourish upon it. Finding the supposed sacred and infallible records untrustworthy in one regard, he began to question their veracity at other points. Being of a critical frame of mind, he took the records rather more literally than a sympathetic, allegorical apologist would have done, although it cannot be said that he used much historical insight. After having studied the sacred texts for purposes of writing or having translated other men's studies on Moses, David, the Prophets, Jesus, Paul, the Christian theologians and saints, miracles, etc., he concluded that these accounts were untrustworthy and mendacious. He knew ancient and modern philosophy and found in the greater part of it an unwarranted romantic or theological trend which his scientific training had caused him to suspect. It must be admitted that however false or illogical Holbach's conclusions may be considered, he was by no means ignorant of the subjects he chose to treat, as some of his detractors would have one believe. His theory of knowledge was that of Locke and Condillac, and on this foundation he built up his system of scientific naturalism and dogmatic atheism.
His initial assumption is, as has been suggested, that experience (application réitérée des sens) and reason are trustworthy guides to knowledge. By them we become conscious of an external objective world, of which sentient beings themselves are a part, from which they receive impressions through their sense organs. These myriad impressions when compared and reflected upon form reasoned knowledge or truth, provided they are substantiated by repeated experiences carefully made. That is, an idea is said to be true when it conforms perfectly with the actual external object. This is possible unless one's senses are defective, or one's judgment vitiated by emotion and passion.
Holbach's contention is that if one applies experience and reason to the external universe, or nature, "ce vaste assemblage de tout ce qui existe"; it reveals a single objective reality, i. e., matter, which is in itself essentially active or in a state of motion.
From matter in motion are derived all the phenomena that strike our senses. All is matter or a function of it. Matter, then, is not an effect, but a cause. It is not caused; it is from eternity and of necessity. The cardinal point in Holbach's philosophy is an inexorable materialistic necessity. Nothing, then, is exempt from the laws of physics and chemistry. Inorganic substance and organic life fall into the same category. Man himself with all his differentiated faculties is but a function of matter and motion in extraordinary complex and involved relations. Man's imputation to himself of free will and unending consciousness apart from his machine is an idle tale built on his desires, not on his experiences nor his knowledge of nature. This imputation of a will or soul to nature, independent of it or in any sense above it, is a still more idle one derived from his renunciation of the witness of his senses and his following after the phantoms of his imagination. It is ignorance or disregard of nature then that has given rise to supernatural ideas that have "no correspondence with true sight," or, as Holbach expressed it, have no counterpart in the external object. In other words, theology, or poetry about God, as Petrarch said, is ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system.
Man is a purely natural or physical being, like a tree or a stone. His so-called spiritual nature (l'homme moral) is merely a phase of his physical nature considered under a special aspect. He is all matter in motion, and when that ceases to function in a particular way, called life, he ceases to be as a conscious entity. He is so organized, however that his chief desires are to survive and render his existence happy. By happiness Holbach means the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. In all his activity, then, man will seek pleasure and avoid pain. The chief cause of man's misery or lack of well being is his ignorance of the powers and possibilities of his own nature and the Universal Nature. All he needs is to ascertain his place in nature and adjust himself to it. From the beginning of his career he has been the dupe of false ideas, especially those connected with supernatural powers, on whom he supposed he was dependent. But, if ignorance of nature gave birth to the Gods, knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them and the evils resulting from them, the introduction of theistic ideas into politics and morals. In a word, the truth, that is, correct ideas of nature is the one thing needful to the happiness and well-being of man.
The application of these principles to the given situation in France in 1770 would obviously have produced unwelcome results. Holbach's theory was that religion was worse than useless in that it had inculcated false and pernicious ideas in politics and morals. He would do away completely with it in the interest of putting these sciences on a natural basis. This basis is self-interest, or man's inevitable inclination toward survival and the highest degree of well-being, "L'objet de la morale est de faire connaître aux hommes que leur plus grand intérêt exige qu'ils pratiquent la vertu; le but du gouvernement doit être de la leur faire pratiquer."
Government then assumes the functions of moral restraint formally delegated to religion; and punishments render virtue attractive and vice repugnant. Holbach's theory of social organization is practically that of Aristotle. Men combine in order to increase the store of individual well-being, to live the good life. If those to whom society has delegated sovereignty abuse their power, society has the right to take it from them. Sovereignty is merely an agent for the diffusion of truth and the maintenance of virtue, which are the prerequisites of social and individual well-being. The technique of progress is enlightenment and good laws.
Nothing could be clearer or simpler than Holbach's system. As Diderot so truly said, he will not be quoted on both sides of any question. His uncompromising atheism is the very heart and core of his system and clarifies the whole situation. All supernatural ideas are to be abandoned. Experience and reason are once for all made supreme, and henceforth refuse to share their throne or abdicate in favor of faith. Holbach's aim was as he said to bring man back to nature and render reason dear to him. "Il est tempts que cette raison injustement dégradée quitte un ton pusillamine qui la rendront complice du mensonge et du délire."
If reason is to rule, the usurper, religion, must be ejected; hence atheism was fundamental to his entire system. He did not suppose by any means that it would become a popular faith, because it presupposed too much learning and reflection, but it seemed to him the necessary weapon of a reforming party at that time. He defines an atheist as follows: "C'est un homme, qui détruit des chimères nuisibles au genre humain, pour ramener les hommes à la nature, à l'expérience, à la raison. C'est un penseur qui, ayant médité la matière, ses propriétés et ses façons d'agir, n'a pas besoin, pour expliquer les phénomènes de l'univers et les opérations de la nature, d'imaginer des puissances idéales, des intelligences imaginaires, des êtres de raison; qui loin de faire mieux connaître cette nature, ne font que la rendre capricieuse, inexplicable, et méconnaissable, inutile au bonheur des hommes."
APPENDIX
HOLBACH'S CORRESPONDENCE
Holbach to Hume, Aug. 23, 1763.
Holbach to Hume, Mar. 16, 1766.
Holbach to Hume, July 7, 1766.
Holbach to Hume, Aug. 18, 1766.
Holbach to Hume, Sept. 7, 1766.
These were printed in Hume's Private Correspondence, London, 1820,
pp. 252-263, and deal largely with Hume's quarrel with Rousseau.
Holbach to Garrick, June 16, 1765.
Holbach to Garrick, Feb. 9, 1766.
These two letters are in manuscript in Lansdowne House,
Coll. Forster, and were published by F. A. Hedgcock,
David Garrick et ses amis français. Paris, 1911, pp. 251-253.
Holbach to Wilkes, Aug., 1746, 9 (Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30867, p. 14).
Holbach to Wilkes, Dec. 10, 1746 (Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30867, p. 18).
Holbach to Wilkes, May 22, 1766 (Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30869, p. 39)
Holbach to Wilkes, Nov. 9, 1766 (Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30869, p. 81).
Holbach to Wilkes, Dec. 10, 1767 (Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30869, p. 173).
Holbach to Wilkes, July 17, 1768 (Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30870, p. 59).
Holbach to Wilkes, Mar. 19, 1770 (Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30871, p. 16).
Holbach to Wilkes, April 27, 1775, 9 (Wilkes, Correspondence,
London, 1804, Vol. IV, p. 176).
The first seven of these letters are published for the first time
in the present volume, pp. 6-11 and pp. 75-80.
Holbach to Galiani, Aug. 11, 1769 (Critica, Vol. I, pp. 488 sq.).
Galiani to Holbach, April 7, 1770 (Galiani, Correspondence, Paris,
1890, Vol. I, p. 92).
Galiani to Holbach, July 21, 1770 (Galiani, Correspondence, Paris,
1890, Vol. I, p. 199).
Holbach to Galiani, Aug. 25, 1770 (Critica, Vol. I, p. 489).
been able to find.
Holbach to Beccaria, Mar. 15, 1767, published by M. Landry
Beccaria, Scritte e lettre inediti, 1910, p. 146.
Holbach to Malesherbes, April 6, 1761 (hitherto unpublished). See
present volume, p. 30.
(Hume, Private Correspondence, London, 1820, pp. 252-263)
PARIS, the 23rd. of August, 1763
Sir,—
I have received with the deepest sense of gratitude your very kind
and obliging letter of the 8th. inst: favors of great men ought to
give pride to those that have at least the merit of setting the value
that is due upon them. This is my case with you, sir; the reading
of your valuable works has not only inspired me with the strongest
admiration for your genius and amiable parts, but gave me the highest
idea of your person and the strongest desire of getting acquainted
with one of the greatest philosophers of my age, and of the best friend
to mankind. These sentiments have emboldened me to send formally,
though unknown to you, the work you are mentioning to me. I thought
you were the best to judge of such a performance, and I took only
the liberty of giving a hint of my desires, in case it should meet
with your approbation, nor was I surprized, or presumed to be
displeased, at seeing my wishes disappointed. The reasons appeared
very obvious to me; not withstanding the British liberty, I conceived
there were limits even to it. However, my late friend's book has
appeared since and there is even an edition of it lately done in
England: I believe it will be relished by the friends of truth,
who like to see vulgar errors struck at the root. This has been
your continued task, sir; and you deserve for it the praises of all
sincere wellwishers of humanity: give me leave to rank myself among
them, and express to you, by this opportunity you have been so kind
as to give me, the fervent desire we have to see you in this country.
Messrs. Stuart, Dempster, Fordyce, who are so good as to favor me
with their company, have given me some hopes of seeing you in this
metropolis, where you have so many admirers as readers, and as many
sincere friends as there are disciples of philosophy. I don't doubt
but my good friend M. Helvétius will join in our wishes, and prevail
upon you to come over. I assure you, sir, you won't perceive much
the change of the country, for all countries are alike for people that
have the same minds.
I am, with the greatest veneration and esteem, sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant.
D'HOLBACH.
Rue Royale, butte St. Roch, à Paris.
(Coll. Forster, Vol. XXI; pub., Hedgcock, p. 253)
PARIS, Feb ye 9th, 1766.
I received, my very Dear Sir, with a great deal of pleasure, your
agreeable letter of ye 24th of January, but was very sorry to hear
that you are inlisted in the numerous troup of gouty people. Tho'
I have myself the honour of being of that tribe I dont desire my
friends should enter into the same corporation. I am particularly
griev'd to see you among the invalids for you have, more than any
other, occasion for the free use of your limbs. However, don't be
cross and peevish for that would be only increasing you distemper;
and I charge you especially of not scolding that admirable lady
Mrs Garrick, whose sweetness of temper and care must be a great
comfort in your circumstances. I beg leave to present her with my
respects and ye compliments of my wife, that has enjoyed but an
indifferent state of health, owing to the severity of the winter.
Mr and Made Helvetius desire you both their best wishes and so do
all your friends, for whom I can answer that every one of them
keeps a kind remembrance of your valuable persons. Dr. Gem thinks
you'll do very well to go to Bath, but his opinion is that a thin
diet would be more serviceable to you than anything else; believe
he is in the right. Abbé Morellet pays many thanks for the answers
to his queries, but complains of their shortness and laconism;
however it is not your fault. He is glad to hear you have receiv'd
his translation of Beccaria's book, Des délits et des peines and
the compliments of our friend Dr Gatti to whom I gave your direction
before he went to London. Our friend Suard has entered his neck into
the matrimonial halter; we are all of us very sorry for it for we know
that nothing combin'd with love, will at last make nothing at all.
I was not much surpris'd at the particulars you are pleas'd to mention
about Rousseau. According to the thorough knowledge I have had of
him I look on that man as a mere philosophical quack, full of
affectation, of pride, of oddities and even villainies; the work he
is going to publish justifies the last imputation. Is his memory so
short as to forget that Mr Grimm, for those 9 years past, has taken
care of the mother of his wench or gouvernante whom he left to starve
here after having debauch'd her daughter and having got her 3 or 4
times with child. That great philosopher should remember that
Mr. Grimm has in his hands letters under his own hand-writing that
prove him the most ungrateful dogg in the world. During his last
stay in Paris he made some attempts to see Mr Diderot, and being
refused that favor, he pretended that Diderot endeavoured to see
him, but that himself had refused peremptorily to comply with his
request. I hope these particulars will suffice to let you know what
you are to think of that illustrious man. I send you here a copy of
a letter supposed to come from the King of Prussia, but done by
Mr Horace Walpole, whereby you'll see that gentleman has found out
his true character. But enough of that rascal who deserves not to be
in Mr Hume's company but rather among the bears, if there are any in
the mountains of Wales.
I am surprized you have not receiv'd yet the Encyclopédie, for a
great number of copies have been sent over already to England unless
you have left your subscription here, where hitherto not one copy has
been delivered for prudent reasons.
We have had in the French Comedy a new play called Le Philosophie sans
le savoir done and acted in a new stile, quite natural and moving: it
has a prodigious success and deserves it extremely well. Marmontel
will give us very soon upon the Italian stage his comical opera of
La Bergère des Alpes. I hope it will prove very agreeable to the
Publick, having been very much delighted by the rehearsal of it; the
music was done by Mr Cohaut who teaches my wife to play on the luth.
We expect a tragedy of the Dutch Barnvelt.
Mr Wilkes is still in this town, where he intends to stay until you
give him leave to return to his native country. We have had the
pleasure of seeing Mr Chanquion, your friend, who seems to be a very
discerning gentleman and to whom in favor of your friendship I have
shown all the politeness I could. I hear that Sr James Macdonald has
been ill at Parma, but is now recovered and in Rome. Abbé Galliani is
still at Naples and stands a fair chance of being employ'd in the
ministry there.
Adieu, very dear Sir and remember your affectionate friend
D'HOLBACH
(Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30869, p. 39)
PARIS the 22d Of May (1766)
My dear Sir
I am extremely glad to know your lucky passage and happy arrival
in your native country. I hope you know too well the sincere
dispositions of my heart as to doubt of the friendship I have
vowed to you for life; it has been of too long a duration to be
shaken by any circumstances, and especially by those that do honor
to you. I shall be very happy if your affairs (that seem to be in
a fair way) permit you to drop over very soon to spend some time
in this place along with Miss Wilkes to whom Made D'Holbach and I
pay our best compliments. I can easily paint to my imagination
the pleasure you both felt at your first meeting; everybody that
has any sensibility must be acquainted with the grateful pangs in
those moving circumstances.
Your case with the hawker at your entry in London is very odd and
whimsical you did extremely well to humour the man in his opinion
about Mr. Wilkes. I dare say if you had done otherwise his fist
would have convinc'd you of the goodness of your cause, and then it
would have been impossible for you to pass for a dead man any longer;
which however, I think was very necessary for you in the beginning.
I expect with great eagerness the settlement of your affairs with
the ministry to your own satisfaction; be persuaded, Dear Sir, that
nobody interests himself in your happiness than myself, and nothing
will conduce more to it than your steady attachment to the principles
of honor and patriotism.
If you don't find a way of disposing of the little packet, you need
not take much trouble about it, and you may bring it back along with
you, when you come to this place, as to the kind offers you are so
good as to make me about commissions, experience has taught me that
it is unsafe to trust you with them, so I beg leave with gratitude
to decline your proposals as that point.
All our common friends and acquaintances desire their best
compliments to you, and believe me, my dear Sir.
Your affectionate oblig'd humble servant
D'HOLBACH
(Brit. Mus. Mss., VOL 30869, p. 81)
PARIS 9ber 10th 1766
My very Dear Sir
I receiv'd with the greatest pleasure the news of your lucky arrival
in Engelland. You know the sentiments of my heart, and are undoubtedly
convinc'd how much I wish for the good success of all your enterprises
tho I am to be a great looser by it. I rejoice very heartily at the
fine prospect you have now in view and don't doubt but the persons you
mention will succeed if they are in good earnest: which is allways a
little doubtful in people of that Kidney.
We have had the pleasure of seeing Miss Wilkes three or four times since
your departure, she is extreamly well and longs for the return of her
friend Mlle Helvetius the 20th of this month.
Rousseau will very likely hate the English very cordially for making
him pay so dear for his books, it is however a sign that he told us a
lye when he pretended in his writings to have no books at all, as to
his guitar he should buy a new one to tune his heart a little better
than he did before.
We have no news here, except the Election of Mr Thomas as a member of
the french academy. Marquis Beccaria is going to leave us very soon
being obliged to return to Milan: Count Veri will at the same time set
out for England.
I'll be oblig'd to you for a copy or two of the book printed in holland
you mentioned in your letter you may send it by some private opportunity
to Miss Wilkes, with, proper directions. A gentleman of our Society
should be glad to get 2 copies of Baskervilles' virgil in octavo.
Tho Mr Davenport and Rousseau seem to be pleased very much with one
another, I suppose they may very soon be tired of their squabbling,
and the latter like the apostles will shake of against the barbarous
Britons the dust of his feet.
Receive the hearty compliments of my wife and all our friends. You
know the true sentiments of my heart for you,
Dear Sir. I am with great sincerity
your most obedient humble Servant
D'HOLBACH
(Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30869, p. 173)
Dear Sir
I receiv'd with a great deal of pleasure your friendly letter from
Ostende of the 26th. nov. I was extreamly glad to hear your happy
arrival at that place, and do not doubt but you met with a lucky
passage to Dover the following day, we are now enjoying the conversation
of your British friends about elections; that will not be tedious for
you if, according to your hopes, you should succeed in your projects.
I see by your letter that instead of coming back directly by Calais
you intend to travel with Miss Wilkes through Antwerp and the Low
countries, which I should think not very advisable in this rigorous
season of the year, for generally at that time the waters are lock'd
up by the frost and travelling is bad et tedious and may be would
prove hurtful to your tender fellow traveler to whom my wife and I
desire our best compliments. Such a scheme will be more advantagious
for you both and more conformable to the wishes of your friends in
this place.
I hope your arrival in London will contribute to reconcile abbé
Galliani to that place, where he complains of having not heard of
the sun since he set his foot on British shore, however he may
comfort himself for we have had very little of it in this country.
The Abbé must be overjoy'd at the news of the Jesuits being expell'd
from his Native country for now he may say Gens inimica mihi
Tyrrhenum navigat aquor. We have no material news in this country,
except that the queen continues to be in a very bad state of health.
If there is some good new romance I'll be oblig'd to bring it over
along with you as, well as a couple of french books call'd
Militaire philosophe and Théologie portative in case you may
easily find them in London, for we cannot get them here. I am told
the works of one Morgan have been esteem'd in your country but I don't
know the titles of them, if you should know them and meet with them
with facility, I should be very much oblig'd to you provided you make
me pay a little more than you have done hitherto for your commissions.
All our common friends beg their compliments and I wish for your
speedy return, and I am Sincerely
Dear Sir
Your faithful affectionate humble servant
D'HOLBACH
PARIS the 10th of decemb. 1767
(Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30870, p. 59)
GRANDVAL, 17th of July 1768
Dear Sir
I receiv'd with a great deal of pleasure your very agreeable letter
of the 28th of last month. I am extreamly glad that your generous
soul is very far from sinking under the weight of these Misfortunes,
and to see that you don't give up the hopes of carrying triumphantly
your point notwithstanding the discouragements you have met with lately.
I need not tell you how much your friends in Paris and I in particular
interest ourselves in all the events that may befall you. Our old
friendship ought to be a sure pledge of my sincere sentiments for you,
and of my best wishes for your good success in all your undertakings.
I believe you can do no better but to keep strictly to the rules you
have laid down for your conduct, and I don't doubt but you'll find it
will answer the best to your purpose.
I am very much oblig'd to you, Dear Sir, for the kind offers you make
in your friendly letter. I have desir'd already Mr Suard to bring over
a few books lately published in your metropolis. I am very glad to hear
that Gentleman is pleas'd with his journey.
There's no possibility of getting for you a compleat sett of Callots
engravings. Such a collection must be the business of many years; it
is to be found only after the decease of some curious men who have taken
a great deal of trouble to collect them. I found indeed in two shops 8
or 10 of them, but the proofs (les épreuves) were very indifferent and
they wanted to sell them excessively dear; in general 200 guineas would
procure a collection very far from being compleat.
My wife and all our common acquaintence desire their best compliments
to you and to Miss Wilkes and you know the sentiments wherewith I am
for ever
Dear Sir
your affectionate friend and
very humble servant
D'HOLBACH
(Brit. Mus. Mss., Vol. 30871, p. 16)
PARIS the 19th of March 1770
Dear Sir
I receiv'd with a due sense of gratitude the favour of your last
letter, and was overjoy'd to hear from yourself that your long
confinement has not been able hitherto to obstruct the lively flow
of your spirits. A little more patience and you'll reach the end
of all your misfortunes, that have been faithfully partaken by your
friends in England and abroad, for my own part I wish most sincerely
that everything for the future may turn to your profit and welfare,
without hurting that of your country, to whom, as a lover of mankind,
I am a well wisher.
My wife desires her best compliments to you and your beloved Daughter,
whom we both expect to see again with a great deal of pleasure in
this country next month. Notwithstanding our bad circumstances we
are making very great preparations for the Wedding of the Dauphin,
and our metropolis begins already to be filled with foreigners that
flock hither from all parts of the world. Our friend Mr D'Alainville
is to set out at the end of April to fetch the Archdutchess at
Strasbourg and bring mask (ed) (?) her different stages on the road
to Versailles.
We have no news in the literary world except that Voltaire
is become lately le père temporal, that is to say the benefactor
of the Capucins du pays de Gex where he lives, a title of which
all his pranks seemd to exclude him, but grace you know, is omnipotent,
and monks are not over nice when there is something to be got by
their condescension.
If the hurry of affairs whould leave you any moments to read
curious books I would advise you to peruse two very strange
works lately publish'd viz Recherches philosophiques sur les
américains, le Système de la Nature par Mirabaud. I suppose
you'll find them cheaper and more easily in London that at
Paris.
All your late acquaintances in this Town desire me to present
you with their sincere compliments and best wishes; as to mine
you know that they have no other object but your Welfare.
I am, Dear Sir, for ever
your most affectionate friend
and humble servant
D'HOLBACH
P. S. I'll be very much oblig'd to you for sending over to me in
2 vol. small octavo.