CHAPTER XII. DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. REACTION AGAINST THE PROTECTIVE SPIRIT, AND PREPARATIONS FOR THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. AT length Louis XIV. died. When it was positively known that the old king had ceased to breathe, the people went almost mad with joy. The tyranny which had weighed them down was removed; and there at once followed a reaction which, for sudden violence has no parallel in modern history. The great majority indemnified themselves for their forced hypocrisy by indulging in the grossest licentiousness. But among the generation then forming, there were some high-spirited youths, who had far higher views, and whose notions of liberty were not confined to the license of the gaming-house and the brothel. Devoted to the great idea of restoring to France that freedom of utterance which it had lost, they naturally turned their eyes towards the only country where the freedom was practised. Their determination to search for liberty in the place where alone it could be found, gave rise to that junction of the French and English intellects which, looking at the immense chain of its effects, is by far the most important fact in the history of the eighteenth century. During the reign of Louis XIV., the French, puffed up by national vanity, despised the barbarism of a people who were so uncivilized as to be always turning on their rulers, and who, within the space of forty years, had executed one king, and deposed another. They could not believe that such a restless 1 "L'annonce de la mort du grand roi ne produisit chez le peuple français qu'une explosion de joie." Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xxvii. p. 220. "Le jour des obséques de Louis XIV, on établit des guinguettes sur le chemin de Saint-Denis. Voltaire, que la curiosité avoit mené aux funérailles du souverain, vit dans ces guinguettes le peuple ivre de vin et de joie de la mort de Louis XIV." Duvernet, Vie de Voltaire, p. 29: see also Condorcet, Vie de Voltaire, p. 118; De Tocqueville, Règne de Louis XV, vol. i. p. 18; Duclos, Mémoires, vol. i. p. 221; Lemontey, Etablissement de Louis XIV, pp. 311, 388. 2.44 Kaum hatte er aber die Augen geschlossen, als alles umschlug. Der repri mirte Geist warf sich in eine zügellose Bewegung." Ranke, die Päpste, vol. iii. p. 192. The shock which these events gave to the delicacy of the French mind was very serious. The learned Saumaise declared that the English are more savage horde possessed any thing worthy the attention of enlightened men. Our laws, our literature, and our manners, were perfectly unknown to them; and I doubt if at the end of the seventeenth century, there were, either in literature or in science, five persons in France acquainted with the English language. But a long experience of the reign of Louis XIV. induced the French to reconsider many of their opinions. It induced them to suspect that despotism may have its disadvantages, and that a government composed of princes and bishops is not necessarily the best for a civilized country. They began to look, first with complacency, and then with respect, upon that strange and outlandish people, who, though only separated from themselves by a narrow sea, appeared to be of an altogether different kind; and who, having punished their oppressors, had carried their liberties and their prosperity to a height of which the world had than their own mastiffs." Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i. p. 444. Another writer said that we were "barbares révoltés;" and "les barbares sujets du roi." Mem. de Motteville, vol. ii. pp. 105, 362. Patin likened us to the Turks; and said, that having executed one king, we should probably hang the next. Lettres de Patin, vol. i. p. 261, vol. ii. p. 518, vol. iii. p. 148. Compare Mém. de Campion, p. 213. After we had sent away James II., the indignation of the French rose still higher, and even the amiable Madame Sevigné, having occasion to mention Mary the wife of William III., could find no better name for her than Tullia: "la joie est universelle de la déroute de ce prince, dont la femme est une Tullie." Lettres de Sevigné, vol. v. p. 179. Another influential French lady mentions "la férocité des Anglais." Lettres inédites de Maintenon, vol. i. p. 303; and elsewhere (p. 109), "je hais les Anglais comme le peuple. . .. Véritablement je ne les puis souffrir." I will only give two more illustrations of the wide diffusion of such feelings. In 1679, an attempt was made to bring bark into discredit as a "remède anglais" (Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. v. p. 430); and at the end of the seventeenth century, one of the arguments in Paris against coffee was that the English liked it. Monteil, Divers Etats, vol. vii. p. 216. "Au temps de Boileau, personne en France n'apprenait l'Anglais." Euvres de Voltaire, vol. xxxviii. p. 337, and see vol. xix. p. 159. "Parmi nos grands écrivains du xvii° siècle, il n'en est aucun, je crois, où l'on puisse reconnaitre un souvenir, une impression de l'esprit anglais." Villemain, Lit. au XVIII Siècle, vol. iii. p. 324. Compare Barante, XVIII Siècle, p. 47, and Grimm, Correspond. vol. v. p. 135, vol. xvii. p. 2. The French, during the reign of Louis XIV., principally knew us from the accounts given by two of their countrymen, Monconys and Sorbière; both of whom published their travels in England, but neither of whom were acquainted with the English language. For proof of this, see Monconys, Voyages, vol. iii. pp. 34, 69, 70, 96; and Sorbière, Voyage, pp. 45, 70. When Prior arrived at the court of Louis XIV. as plenipotentiary, no one in Paris was aware that he had written poetry (Lettres sur les Anglais, in Euvres de Voltaire, vol. xxvi. p. 130); and when Addison, being in Paris, presented Boileau with a copy of the Muse Anglicana, the Frenchman learnt for the first time that we had any good poets: "first conceived an opinion of the English genius for poetry." Tickell's statement, in Aikin's Life of Addison, vol. i. p. 65. Finally, it is said that Milton's Paradise Lost was not even known by report in France until after the death of Louis XIV., though the poem was published in 1667, and the king died in 1715: "Nous n'avions jamais entendu parler de ce poëme en France, avant que l'auteur de la Henriade nous en eût donné une idée dans le neuvième chapitre de son Essai зur la poésie épique." Dict. Philos. article Epopée, in Euvres de Voltaire, vol. xxxix. 5. 175: see also vol. lxvi. p. 249. seen no example. These feelings, which, before the Revolution broke out, were entertained by the whole of the educated classes in France, were, in the beginning, confined to those men whose intellects placed them at the head of their age. During the two generations which elapsed between the death of Louis XIV. and the outbreak of the Revolution, there was hardly a Frenchman of eminence who did not either visit England or learn English; while many of them did both. Buffon, Brissot, Broussonnet, Condamine, Delisle, Elie de Beaumont, Gournay, Helvétius, Jussieu, Lalande, Lafayette, Larcher, L'Héritier, Montesquieu, Maupertuis, Morellet, Mirabeau, Nollet, Raynal, the celebrated Roland, and his still more celebrated wife, Rousseau, Ségur, Suard, Voltaire,-all these remarkable persons flocked to London, as also did others of inferior ability, but of considerable influence, such as Brequiny, Bordes, Calonne, Coyer, Cormatin, Dufay, Dumarest, Dezallier, Favier, Girod, Grosley, Godin, D'Hancarville, Hunauld, Jars, Le Blanc, Ledru, Lescallier, Linguet, Lesuire, Lemonnier, Levesque de Pouilly, Montgolfier, Morand, Patu, Poissonier, Reveillon, Septchènes, Silhouette, Siret, Soulavie, Soulès, and Valmont de Brienne. Nearly all of these carefully studied our language, and most of them seized the spirit of our literature. Voltaire, in particular, devoted himself with his usual ardour to the new pursuit, and acquired in England a knowledge of those doctrines, the promulgation of which afterwards won for him so great a reputation. He was the first who popularized in France the philosophy of Newton, where it rapidly superseded that of Descartes. He recommended to his countrymen the writings of Locke; which soon gained immense popularity, and which supplied materials to Condillac for his system of metaphysics, and to Rousseau for his theory of education. Besides this, Voltaire 6 "Le vrai roi du xviii' siècle, c'est Voltaire; mais Voltaire à son tour est un écolier de l'Angle-terre. Avant que Voltaire eût connu l'Angleterre, soit par ses voyages, soit par ses amitiés, il n'était pas Voltaire, et le xviii siècle se cherchait encore. Cousin, Hist. de la Philos. I. série, vol. iii. pp. 38, 39. Compare Damiron, Hist. de la Philos. en France, Paris, 1828, vol. i. p. 34. • “J'avais été le premier qui eût osé développer à ma nation les découvertes de Newton, en langage intelligible." Euvres de Voltaire, vol. i. p. 315; see also vol. xix. p. 87, vol. xxvi. p. 71; Whewell's Hist. of Induc. Sciences, vol. ii. p. 206; Weld's Hist. of the Royal Society, vol. i. p. 441. After this, the Cartesian physics lost ground every day; and in Grimm's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 148, there is a letter, dated Paris, 1757, which says, "Il n'y a guère plus ici de partisans de Descartes que M. de Mairan." Compare Observations et Pensées, in Euvres de Turgot, vol. iii. p. 298. Which he was never weary of praising; so that, as M. Cousin says (Hist. de la Philos. II. série, vol. ii. pp. 311, 312), “Locke est le vrai maître de Voltaire." Locke was one of the authors he put into the hands of Madame du Châtelet. Con dorcet, Vie de Voltaire, p. 296. Morell's Hist. of Philos. 1846, vol. i. p. 134; Hamilton's Discuss. p. 3. 10 19 was the first Frenchman who studied Shakespeare; to whose works he was greatly indebted, though he afterwards wished to lessen what he considered the exorbitant respect paid to them in France. Indeed, so intimate was his knowledge of the English language," that we can trace his obligations to Butler,12 one of the most difficult of our poets, and to Tillotson,13 one of the dullest of our theologians. He was acquainted with the speculations of Berkeley," the most subtle metaphysician who has ever written in English; and he had read the works not only of Shaftesbury, but even of Chubb," Garth," Mandeville, 18 and Woolston. Montesquieu imbibed in our country many of his principles; he studied our language; and he always expressed admiration for England, not only in his writings, but also in his private conversation.20 Buffon learnt English, and his first appearance as an author was as the translator of Newton and of Hales. Diderot, following in the same course, was an enthusiastic admirer of the novels of Richardson;22 he took the idea of several of his plays from the English dramatists, particularly from Lillo; he borrowed many of his arguments from Shaftespolitique et l'éducation; Condillac toute sa philosophie." Villemain, Lit. au XVIII Siècle, vol. i. p. 83. See also, on the obligations of Rousseau to Locke, Grimm, Correspond. vol. v. p. 97; Musset Pathay, Vie de Rousseau, vol. i. p. 38, vol. ii. p. 394; Mem. de Morellet, vol. i. p. 113; Romilly's Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 211, 212. 10 In 1768, Voltaire (Euvres, vol. lxvi. p. 249) writes to Horace Walpole, "Je suis le premier qui ait fait connaître Shakespeare aux Français." See also his Lettres inédites, vol. ii. p. 500; Villemain, Lit. au XVIII Siècle, vol. iii. p. 325; and Grimm, Correspond. vol. xii. pp. 124, 125, 133. "There are extant many English letters written by Voltaire, which, though of course containing several errors, also contain abundant evidence of the spirit with which he seized our idiomatic expressions. In addition to his Lettres inédites, published at Paris in the present year (1856), see Chatham Correspond. vol. ii. pp. 131133; and Phillimore's Mem. of Lyttelton, vol. i. pp. 323-325, vol. ii. pp. 555, 556, 558. 13 Grimm, Correspond. vol. i. p. 332; Voltaire, Lettres inédites, vol. ii. p. 258; and the account of Hudibras, with translations from it, in Euvres, vol. xxvi. pp. 132-137; also a conversation between Voltaire and Townley, in Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii. p. 722. 13 Compare Mackintosh's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 341, with Euvres de Voltaire, vol. xxxix. p. 259, vol. xlvii. p. 85. Euvres de Voltaire, vol. xxxviii. pp. 216-218, vol. xlvi. p. 282, vol. xlvii. p. 439, vol. lvii. p. 178. ii. is Ibid. vol. xxxvii. p. 353, vol. lvii. p. 66; Correspond. inédite de Dudeffand, vol p. 230. 16 Euvres, vol. xxxiv. p. 294, vol. Ivi, p. 121. 17 Ibid. vol. xxxvii. pp. 407, 441. 18 Ibid. vol. xxxvi. p. 46. 19 Ibid. vol. xxxiv. p. 288, vol. xli. pp. 212-217; Biog. Univ. vol. li. pp. 199, 200. 20 Lerminier, Philos. du Droit, vol. i. p. 291; Klimrath, Hist. du Droit, vol. ii. p. 502; Harris's Life of Hardwicke, vol. ii. p. 398, vol. iii. pp. 432-434; Mém. de Diderot, vol. ii. pp. 193, 194; Lacretelle, XVIII Siècle, vol. ii. p. 24. 21 Villemain, Lit. au XVIII Siècle, vol. ii. p. 182; Biog. Univ. vol. vi. p. 235; Le Blanc, Lettres, vol. i. p. 93, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160. 22 "Admirateur passionné du romancier anglais." Biog. Univ. vol. xxxvii. p. 581. Compare Diderot, Corresp. vol. i. p. 352, vol. ii. pp. 44, 52, 53; Mercier sun Rousseau, vol. i. p. 44. And bury and Collins, and his earliest publication was a translation of Stanyan's History of Greece.23 Helvétius, who visited London, was never weary of praising the people; many of the views in his great work on the Mind are drawn from Mandeville; and he constantly refers to the authority of Locke, whose principles hardly any Frenchman would at an earlier period have dared to recommend. The works of Bacon, previously little known, were now translated into French; and his classification of the human faculties was made the basis of that celebrated Encyclopædia, which is justly regarded as one of the greatest productions of the eighteenth century.25 The Theory of Moral Sentiments, by Adam Smith, was during thirty-four years translated three different times, by three different French authors. 26 such was the general eagerness, that directly the Wealth of Nations, by the same great writer, appeared, Morellet, who was then high in reputation, began to turn it into French; and was only prevented from printing his translation by the circumstance, that before it could be completed, another version of it was published in a French periodical.27 Coyer, who is still remembered for his Life of Sobieski, visited England; and after returning to his own country, showed the direction of his studies by rendering into French the Commentaries of Blackstone.28 Le Blanc travelled in England, wrote a work expressly upon the English, and translated into French the Political Discourses of Hume.29 Holbach was certainly one of the most active leaders of the liberal party in Paris; but a large part of his very numerous writings consists solely in translations of English authors. Indeed, it may be broadly stated, that while, at the end of the seventeenth century, it would have been difficult to find, even among the most educated Frenchmen, a single "Villemain, Lit. vol. ii. p. 115; Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. i. pp. 34, 42; Tennemann, Gesch. der Philos. vol. xi. p. 314; Biog. Univ. vol. xi. p. 314; Grimm, Correspond. vol. xv. p. 81. Stanyan's History of Greece was once famous, and, even so late as 1804, I find Dr. Parr recommending it. Parr's Works, vol. vii. p. 422. Diderot told Sir Samuel Romilly that he had collected materials for a history of the trial of Charles I. Life of Romilly, vol. i. p. 46. "Diderot, Mém. vol. ii. p. 286; Cousin, Hist. de la Philos. II. série, vol. ii. p. 331; Helvétius de l'Esprit, vol. i. pp. 31, 38, 46, 65, 114, 169, 193, 266, 268, vol. ii. pp. 144, 163, 165, 195, 212; Letters addressed to Hume, Edinb. 1849, pp. 9-10. "This is the arrangement of our knowledge under the heads of Memory, Rea son, and Imagination, which D'Alembert took from Bacon. Compare Whewell's Philos. of the Sciences, vol. ii. p. 306; Cuvier, Hist. des Sciences, part ii. p. 276; Georgel, Mém. vol. ii. p. 241; Bordas Demoulin, Cartesianisme, vol. i. p. 18. 27 Mém. de Morellet, i. 236, 237. Quérard, France Lit. ix. 193. Euvres de Voltaire, lxv. 161, 190, 212; Biog. Univ. x. 158, 159. 30 See the list, in Biog. Univ. vol. xx. pp. 463-466; and compare Mém. de Diderot, vol. iii. p. 49, from which it seems that Holbach was indebted to Toland, though Diderot speaks rather doubtingly. In Almon's Mem. of Wilkes, 1805, vol. iv. pp. 176, 177, there is an English letter, tolerably well written, from Holbach to Wilkes. |