European Thought in the Eighteenth Century: From Montesquieu to Lessing

498 Pages·1954·17.627 MB·English

by  Paul Hazard

EUROPEAN THOUGHT IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

EUROPEAN THOUGHT
IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
FROM MONTESQUIEU TO LESSING
by
PAUL HAZARD
Member of the French Academy
NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1954
This translation from the original French, La Pensee Europeenne
au Siecle: De Montesquieu a Lessing (Boivin: Paris,
1946), was made by
J. LEWIS MAY
^9
Printed in Great Britain
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Preface p. xvii
Part I
CHRISTIANITY ON TRIAL
Chapter I. The Ubiquitous Critic p. 3
The eighteenth century proclaims itself the era of universal criticism. From
the irreverence in which the seventeenth century ended comes the irony which
ushers in the new age, p. 3. Raillery and its three symptoms; burlesque and the
mock heroic in favour, p. 4. Tales of imaginary travels whose authors show
their wit at the expense of the institutions and customs of old Europe, p. 6.
Old Utopias unearthed and reprinted, p. 7. Swift and his Gulliver, p. 7.
Twofold character of the new satire. It arises from social discontent rather
than from any pessimistic ideas about human life, p. 8. It betrays an obscure
belief in the possibility of progress, p. 9. John Gay and The Beggar's Opera, p. 10.
Parini and fl Maiiino and its sequel II Mese^ogiomo, p. 12. Criticism ends up
with an appeal which soon becomes a demand for something of which man
deems he has been cheated and which is called Happiness, p. 13.
Chapter II. Happiness P* 14
Happiness, the universal obsession of the age. The philosophers speculate
freely on the felicity of men and races, p. 14. The only things that count now
are the things that make for happiness, the search for which is the favourite
theme of writers in verse or prose, p. 14. Dreams, evasions. The Kingdom of
the Feliciens; Robinson Crusoe, p. 16. Colleges, salons, theatres, secret societies
rival one another in their zealous quest for the wondrous Grail, p. 17. Closing
its eyes to the ills of human kind, intellectual Europe takes refuge in the doctrine
of Optimism, p. 18. Aspects of happiness according to the rationalists of the
eighteenth century; it is first and foremost an earthly happiness, p. 18. Aridity
of this type of happiness, p. 21. Before it, all longing for the absolute disappears,
p. 23. Philosophy degenerates into a method for discovering the means to
happiness and happiness becomes a right supplanting the idea of duty, p. 24.
How previous ages went astray on this point, p. 24. Reaction of the new spirit
which condemns the values hitherto regarded as the guide of life. The demand
for reason and enlightenment, p. 25.
Chapter III. Reason and Knowledge p. 26
Limits imposed by the newcomers on the Empire of Reason proclaimed
powerless in the metaphysical order, p. 26. Formerly regarded as an innate
faculty, it was now told to limit itself to disengaging absolute ideas from sense-
data and to noting the relations of ideas between themselves, p. 27. Hence its
method, analysis, and its function, the establishment of general laws, p. 27.
VI SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Its safeguard against error. Experiment, p, 28. Its infallibility undermines
authority and tradition; Pietro Verri and his Temple of Ignoratwe, p. 29. Its
tmiversal character the criterion of truth, p. 30. Its beneficence, promising that
happiness will come through knowledge, p. 31. The new age, the age of light:
the Aufklarung, p. 31. The Aufklarung according to Kant: the setting free of
thd mind by a cautious process of evolution which makes it ready, both in action
and thought, to pass from a state of pupillage to one of freedom, p. 32. Facts
which explain the Aufklarung; Bayle’s influence still active, p. 33. Setback
for Vico and his Scierr^a Nova, p. 35. Success of Christian Wolff, apostle of
universal rationalism, p. 37. The pre-eminence of John Locke whose Essay
concerning Human Understanding was to remain until Kant came on the scene, the
breviary of philosophers and men of the world, p. 41.
Chapter IV. The God of the Christians Impeached p. 44
“Enlightenment” in the attack on the Christian faith, p. 43. Opening of the
case against the Christian God, without distinction of church or sect, p. 46.
The newcomers demand accounts, and denounce the incoherence of the divine
plan, p. 48. Pietro Giannone and his passionate demonstration of the encroach¬
ments of the Church on the civil power in the Istoria civile del regno di Napoli,
p. 50. Jean MesUer, p. 33. Johann Christian Edelmann in his Unschuldige
Wahrheiten, proclaims the doctrine of religious indifferentism and in Die GdttliA-
keit der Vemunft, goes the length of deifying Reason, p, 36.
Chapter V. Revealed Religion P- 59
Rationalist dialectic: in the logical sphere; in the historical, p. 3 9. The various
fields of battle. England, where, since Toland and Collins, everyone was for
substituting Reason for Revelation, especially Tindal who, in his Christianity as
old as the Creation, makes the Gospel a p^se of eternal revelation, p. 60. Polemics,
less keen from 1740 onwards, continues to supply material abroad, p. 61, In
France, the opposition, impatient of exegesis, are popularizers working for the
general public; Voltaire, Montesquieu, Toussaint, Helvetius—they attack at all
points. Their shafts, sometimes in Pharisaic disguise, are often barbed with a
dash of sensual libertinism, p. 62. In Germany, the struggle, a little late in
starting, betrays a twofold current: one a worldly one, coming from France
and England, Wieland for example; the other learned and of Lutheran origin,
the true Aufklarung of the German Universities, p. 63. J. D. Michaelis proposes
to defend the Scriptures by abandoning the writings which are the subject of
dispute, p. 69. Lastly, Semler sees in the various religions only local and
ocrasiond forms of eternal revelation, and at the expense of dogma, reduces
religion to the level of morality, thus getting at the essence of Christianity, p. 71.
Chapter VI. Christian Apologetics p. 74
Attimde of the civil powers in face of the onslaught. It varies in the different
countries, p. 74. In France the chief weapon of the anti-philosophers is ridicule:
The Histoire des Cacouacs, p. 73. Palissot’s Philosophes, p. 76. Freron especially,
in the Annie litteraire, campaigns with as much keenness as common sense, p. 77!
Torrent of apologetic literature, p. 78. The apologists regroup their forces;
their efforts to reconcile religion and reason, p. 80. The Anglican apologists,
p. 82. A general movement in Europe to make Christianity acceptable to reason
by means of liberalism in doctrine and strictness in moral conduct, p. 86. Part
played by the Congregations, p. 87. In the view of Antonio Genovesi, an
Italian priest, the whole dispute arose from ignorance, and he founded his
apologetic on a profounder doctrinal instruction, p. 89. Transference of
Christian thought from nation to nation, p. 91.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS vii
Chapter VII. The Growth of Unbelief ; Jansenism ;
The Expulsion of the Jesuits P- 93
Apologetics, ponderous, boring and sometimes absurd, p. 93. Philosophy,
the atmosphere of the times. Secret organizations and tricks for the diffusion
of freethinking ideas and the circulation of forbidden books, p. 94. Complicity
of the governments who secretly encourage what they outwardly condemn.
Malesherbes controller of the book-trade, p. 98. The obstacles giye way one
after another; the final phase and the death of Jansenism, p. loi. With
Jansenism disappears one of the most powerful dams against the ravages of the
philosophic flood, p. 104. The expulsion of the Jesuits; at Lisbon, de Pombal;
in France, Pire Berruyer, P^re La Valette; in Spain, banishment mam militari,
p. 104. The Jesuits victims of the Enlightenment and of the policy of seculariza¬
tion, p. 108. The philosophers deem they haye destroyed the last rampart
against the rising tide of impiety: by what do they propose to replace Christianity ?
p. no.
Part II
THE CITY OF MEN
Chapter I. Natural Religion P*
Prestige of Nature, the source of enlightenment and the guarantee of Reason.
Religion, from now onwards natural, is reduced to the affirmation of the existence
of God, the Supreme Being, and to belief in final causes, p. 113. External
practices, sacraments, rites, statues, anthropomorphic representations give place
to the inward cult, aU that is necessary, p. 114. Deism the only really universal
religion, p. 116. Excuses, indulgence and sympathy of the age for atheism,
p. 117. Tendency towards philosophic materialism, p. 119. Tendency to
scientific materialism; mechanistic explanations of Nature, of the world and of
life; hLlsAsttne. 2Ln6L')ah Homme-machine 2Lnd Homme-plante, p. 121. Vulgarization
of atheism; a professional atheist, the Baron d’Holbach; his Systhme de la
Nature, p. 124. The band of executants appear to be victims of a monomania,
p. 126. Other countries refuse to go these lengths and scarcely get beyond the
deism stage, p. 127. In France, deists like d’Alembert and Voltaire make a
stand against atheism, and the age more worried than convinced by the blatant
activities of the atheists remains, generally speaking, deist, p. 128.
Chapter II. Natural Science P-13°
The natural sciences take precedence over mathematics, as does observation
over abstraction. To the reign of Descartes succeeds the reign of Newton,
p. 131. The taste for curiosities of nature; the thing has become the fashion
of the day, p. 132. Pullulation of scientific publications; new Academies, p. 133.
Ideal republic of the scientists: the Cassinis, de Saussure, Linnaeus, the Jussieus,
Reaumur, etc., Galvani and Lavoisier, p. 134. _ Difficulty, of getting away from
ideologies: Linnaeus and his classification of plants, p. 137. Joy over the
' enslavement of Nature through scientific discoveries. The promise of happiness;
unbounded hopes, p. 139. Buffbn, representative genius of the times, p. 141.
His theories cause a static conception of knowledge to be replaced by an evolu¬
tionary conception, p. 141. The immense effort of the period results in a
demonstration of the prime importance of observation in scientific activities,
p. 144.
Vlll SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Chapter III. Law P- i45
The new Law; natuml law. Specialists endeavour to put law on a rational
basis, p. 145. Hence the works of Heinecke, J. C. Wolff, Strube de Piermont,
d’Aube, Burlamaqui, Hubner, Filangieri, p. 145. Montesquieu’s magnificent
effort to introduce order into the chaos; labours, studies, voyages, meditations.
His Esprit des Lois, p. 153. His definition of law; necessary relationships
arising from the nature of things, p. 134. Difficulty of giving practical effect to
results of the speculative order, p. 133. Meantime a desire for justice is abroad
and men’s minds are ripe for reforms, p. 136.
Chapter IV. Morals p. i6o
Need to install a new morality on the remains of the Christian, Stoic or worldly
systems, p. 160. The new morality, illumined by the light of knowledge, and
founded on the natural goodness of man, on obedience to the laws of Nature,
and on the instinct which prompts us to pursue happiness, p. 161. Rehabilitation
of passion, pleasure and sensual delights as being natural and therefore rational,
p. 162. Justification of amour-propre regulated by regard for the interests of others,
p. 164. Being thus based on reason, morality takes on the aspect of experimental
science, p. 166. Active propaganda in favour of the new ethics, p. i 66. Grimm
and his Essai de caUchisme pour les enfants. Saint Lambert and his Catechisme universel,
p. 168. Three virtues needed in the new morality: tolerance, beneficence and
humanity, p. 169.
Chapter V. Government P- 172
The appearance in Europe of a crowd of theorists proclaiming a policy of
which virtue was to be the basis, good faith the instrument, and prosperity the
recompense, p. 172. From the idea of a primitive social contract proceeds, by
way of the concept of nature, the idea of political liberty and of equality, p. 173.
Nature and limitations of the said equality; it is acceptable on the political plane,
but out of the question on the social plane where it comes up against the im¬
passable barrier of property, p. 174. Criticism of the law of property; MoreUy
and his Code de la Nature ; Mably, the apostle of the community of property
and his treatise la Legislation, p. 176. Howbeit the period continues mrnly
attached to the idea of property, especially landed property, p. 178. Apology of
Freedom of every kind and of the liberal state, p. 179. The form of government
is a matter of indifference, but a just balance between the elements which compose
the Constitution is essential, p. 180. The English Constitution looked on as the
model, p. 181. Reciprocal duties of nations a consequence of natural law,
whence the need for pacts to settle the conflict of interests and to prevent war,
p. 182. The Abbe de Saint Pierre and his Projet de paix perpetuelle en Europe,
p. 183. Evolution of the terms of the political problem, of which interests of
state take the first place. The sovereign subordinated to the nation. The subject
is now the citizen, p. 186. These new ideas seen in practice; the revolutions in
America and France are the logical outcome of the ideas of the philosophers, p. 187,
Chapter VI. Education p.
Rollin and his TraiU des &udes, belated charter of classical discipline and of
the tastes of the previous era, p. 189. Reaction of the newcomers who denounce
the educational system hitherto in force as out of date and routine-like, p. 192.
The needs of modem life are to be the basis of modern teaching. The Humanities
wiU largely give way to living languages, modem history, geography science
especially natural science, p. 193. Basedow emphasizes the value of the pro¬
gressive element in education, which should be in due ratio to the pupil’s physical
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS IX
intellectual and moral development, p. 195. Self-denial and prudence are
qualities required in the new schoolmaster. Love and devotion should replace
the rod, p. 196. Civic and national character of education; this idea incites the
state to lay down the law in educational matters; the Abbe de Saint Pierre, la
Chalotais, p. 197. All these ideas, fully elaborated, will be confronted by the
genius of Rousseau, p. 198.
Chapter VII. The Encyclopaedia P- ^99
Its twofold character responds to the demands of the age: it is at once scientific
and popular, p. 199. Compiled in obedience to the law of Reason and the law
of Nature, the Encyclopaedia is to be the independent, faithful and living
inventory of all things known to man at the date of its publication, p. 202.
Enthusiasm at the start of this philosophic crusade increased by the dramatic
excursions and alarms which attended it, p. 204. Difficulty of making alphabetical
order fit in with logical order, and of fixing on a principle for the classification
of the sciences, p. 205. Its compilers adopt a mode of classification based on
the three faculties: memory, imagination and reason, whence all knowledge
proceeds, p. 207. Thus man, God being omitted from the picture, finds himself
at the centre of the Universe, p. 208. Being a work of “ vulgarization ” the
Encyclopaedia fulfils one of the requirements of the time, p. 208. Social im¬
portance of its object which lends dignity to the workman and gives to his work
a value at least equal to that of the brain-workers inasmuch as it is the direct
instrument of well-being resulting from material progress, p. 210. Defects of
the Encyclopedie, borrowed matter, errors, unequal editing, contradictions,
repetitions, omissions, p. 211. Its influence; slowly but surely by an all¬
permeating hostility it undermines ancient standards and substitutes the social
sanction for the divine, p. 212. Was it a tool of the Freemasons? p. 213. Its
effects assisted by its vast circulation, p. 213.
Chapter VIIL The World of Letters and Ideas p- 215
The age of Louis XIV the ideal pattern of the times; hence all over Europe
and in every branch of composition a literature of imitation, p. 215. Though
all but exhausted in France, classicism, in the other European countries, holds
out rich possibilities, as is shown by numerous works on the Ars Poetica appearing
among them, p. 218. The age looks for a reassessment of values; development
of literary criticism, p. 219. Giuseppe Baretti and his Frusta ktteraria, p. 220.
Samuel Johnson and his criticism of Paradise Lost, conservative and traditional;
his criticism of Shakespeare considered in the light of his truth to the things
depicted; his dislike of novelties, p. 221. Literature of the intellect; Marivaux,
Goldoni, Ramon de la Cruz, Wieland, p. 223. Wit, the flower of the age, the
Abbe Galiani, Voltaire, p. 228. Lack of the poetical sense; prose must be plain,
direct and limpid, p. 229. The literature of social pleasures; letter-writing,
Mme du Deffand, Abne de Graffigny, etc., Horace Walpole, Frederick II, Voltaire,
p. 231. Gazettes and reviews, national and international, p. 233. Smaller types
preferred to the larger, p. 233. Metastasio’s opera, Voltaire’s lighter verses, or the
Musarion of Wiel^d, a perfect expression of the literature of pleasure, p. 237.
Factual literature. History; the wish to renovate historic methods, p. 239.
Obstacles encountered by the renovators, p. 240. Their positive and constructive
aims; fable to be replaced by the pronouncements of witnesses, p. 243. Their aim
limited to monographs, p. 244. Abandonment of the marvellous, including the
supernatural, p. 243. In the end, assignment of the first priority to the study
of Civilization; Voltaire and the Essai sur les Moeurs, p. 243. Despite these
endeavours they fail to get at concrete reality in all its complex aspects, p. 247.
They have not entirely given up Metaphysics and the conflict between their
empirical philosophy and their tendency towards the abstract, determined the
character of their historical labours, p. 248.
E.T.—a*
X SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Chapter IX. Ideas and Manners p. 249
Social types of the day; the Adventurer.' Love of travel engenders the
cosmopolitan. The tendency grows stronger, and up starts the Adventurer;
Cagliostro and Casanova, p. 249. Woman. From the pursuit of pleasure and
sensuous delights we must logically ascribe the apotheosis of Woman, Queen of
the Age: the Temple de Guide, the Voyage d Paphos, the Congresso di Citera, Angola.
Mistresses; aU, kings, grandees, even philosophers, have them. Paris sets the
tune; Europe follows suit, p. 254. Women take part in the intellectual move¬
ment; their role; Voltaire and Mme du Chatelet; the salons, Mrs. Montagu in
London, others elsewhere, especially Mme du Deffand in Paris, p. 257. The
Man of Letters; he lives by his caUing now, which means the increase of his
social dignity. Emancipated from the patronage of the great the man of letters
is the leader of public opinion, p. 259. The Bourgeois; a new class comes into
being; the Bourgeois tends to supplant the Nobleman, whose social worth is
now contested. He puts up a poor defence, p. 263. Personal merit henceforth
the sole title to social advancement, p. 264. Between the dethroned nobility
and the uneducated proletariat comes the new class whose patent rests on the
idea of freedom and on power based on property, p. 266. The Freemason;
representing the spirit of the age, he repudiates austerity, preaches and practises
concord, calls for political freedom, declares war on despots and on privilege,
and stands forth as the apostle of Deism, p. 267. Originating in England,
Freemasonry rapidly spreads all over Europe. Despite the condemnation of
the Church, kings and nobles join the movement, p. 269. The Philosopher: a
new pattern of humanity. His essential character. The spirit of enquiry, con¬
trolled by reason, put at the service of mankind, p. 271. Victory near at hand;
England, France and Switzerland very much to the fore; the Latin countries
lag behind, but the Northern countries and their sovereigns lead the way for the
rest, p. 274. “The face of Europe almost completely changed in the last hfly
years”, says Voltaire, p. 276.
I
Part III
DISAGGREGATION
Book I
Chapter I. “Becoming” p, 279
Seeds of decay within the philosophic doctrine itself; triple causes which
were to lead to its defeat. The philosophers’ primary error regarding Nature
clearly brought to light by Kant, who in his Critique of Pure Reason, by reducing
all problems to the nature of knowledge, reinstated the soul in its due place,
p. 279. On the other hand, the heart had not relinquished its rights; the Abbe
Prevost and Manon Lescaut, Richardson and Pamela, Rousseau and la Nouvelle
Hlloise, Goethe and Werther, Bemardin de Saint-Pierre and the jStudes de la
Nature, all foretell the appearance of the Man of Feeling, p. 280. The lack of
unity and coherence in the doctrine of the philosophers and their divergent
views regarding Deism is the major cause of their failure, p. 282. Such are the
phases in the history of the philosophy of Enlightenment, p. 283.
Chapter IL Nature and Reason p. 284
Contradictions which defeat the attempt of the philosophers to identify Nature
and Reason; lack of any precise definition of the concept of Nature. Voltaire’s
criticism, p. 283. Empiricism itself by confining knowledge to the perception