Helvétius: From radical enlightenment to revolution

Political Theory

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 307-336

  Wootton, David ^a  

^a QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 0034412377     PISSN: 00905917     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0090591700028003001     Document Type: Article

References (184)

1. Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Régime and the French Revolution, trans. Stuart Gilbert (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 157-58; originally published in 1856.
2. Daniel Mornet, Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution française (Paris: Colin, 1933); Keith M. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1990), on Tocqueville, pp. 20-23; Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1996); Haydn T. Mason, ed., The Darnton Debate: Books and Revolution in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1998).
3. Daniel Mornet, Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution française (Paris: Colin, 1933); Keith M. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1990), on Tocqueville, pp. 20-23; Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1996); Haydn T. Mason, ed., The Darnton Debate: Books and Revolution in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1998).
4. Daniel Mornet, Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution française (Paris: Colin, 1933); Keith M. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1990), on Tocqueville, pp. 20-23; Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1996); Haydn T. Mason, ed., The Darnton Debate: Books and Revolution in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1998).
5. Daniel Mornet, Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution française (Paris: Colin, 1933); Keith M. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1990), on Tocqueville, pp. 20-23; Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1996); Haydn T. Mason, ed., The Darnton Debate: Books and Revolution in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1998).
6. Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, xviii, 67.
7. On sales of Helvétius, see Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, 64-68. Exceptional in giving due importance to Helvétius are Pierre Rosonvallon, "L'utilitarisme français et les ambiguités de la culture politique prérévolutionnaire (position d'un problème), "in The Political Culture of the Old Regime, ed. Keith Baker (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987), 435-40 (which brings out the connections between Helvétius, Sieyès, and Saint-Just); Mark Hulliung, The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the Philosophes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 18-20, 22-23, 31, 35, 62, 67, 115-19 (" Helvétius marks a republican turning point in the French Enlightenment"), 128-30, 141-42, 180-81, 195, 199, 217. Contrast Dale van Kley, who writes of De l'esprit "It is nothing… that is not derivative and banal or that goes much beyond the average parlementary remonstrance of the 1750s, "in The Damiens Affair and the Unravelling of the Ancien Régime, 1750-1770 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 224.
8. On sales of Helvétius, see Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, 64-68. Exceptional in giving due importance to Helvétius are Pierre Rosonvallon, "L'utilitarisme français et les ambiguités de la culture politique prérévolutionnaire (position d'un problème), "in The Political Culture of the Old Regime, ed. Keith Baker (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987), 435-40 (which brings out the connections between Helvétius, Sieyès, and Saint-Just); Mark Hulliung, The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the Philosophes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 18-20, 22-23, 31, 35, 62, 67, 115-19 (" Helvétius marks a republican turning point in the French Enlightenment"), 128-30, 141-42, 180-81, 195, 199, 217. Contrast Dale van Kley, who writes of De l'esprit "It is nothing… that is not derivative and banal or that goes much beyond the average parlementary remonstrance of the 1750s, "in The Damiens Affair and the Unravelling of the Ancien Régime, 1750-1770 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 224.
9. On sales of Helvétius, see Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, 64-68. Exceptional in giving due importance to Helvétius are Pierre Rosonvallon, "L'utilitarisme français et les ambiguités de la culture politique prérévolutionnaire (position d'un problème), "in The Political Culture of the Old Regime, ed. Keith Baker (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987), 435-40 (which brings out the connections between Helvétius, Sieyès, and Saint-Just); Mark Hulliung, The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the Philosophes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 18-20, 22-23, 31, 35, 62, 67, 115-19 (" Helvétius marks a republican turning point in the French Enlightenment"), 128-30, 141-42, 180-81, 195, 199, 217. Contrast Dale van Kley, who writes of De l'esprit "It is nothing… that is not derivative and banal or that goes much beyond the average parlementary remonstrance of the 1750s, "in The Damiens Affair and the Unravelling of the Ancien Régime, 1750-1770 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 224.
10. On sales of Helvétius, see Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, 64-68. Exceptional in giving due importance to Helvétius are Pierre Rosonvallon, "L'utilitarisme français et les ambiguités de la culture politique prérévolutionnaire (position d'un problème), "in The Political Culture of the Old Regime, ed. Keith Baker (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987), 435-40 (which brings out the connections between Helvétius, Sieyès, and Saint-Just); Mark Hulliung, The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the Philosophes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 18-20, 22-23, 31, 35, 62, 67, 115-19 (" Helvétius marks a republican turning point in the French Enlightenment"), 128-30, 141-42, 180-81, 195, 199, 217. Contrast Dale van Kley, who writes of De l'esprit "It is nothing… that is not derivative and banal or that goes much beyond the average parlementary remonstrance of the 1750s, "in The Damiens Affair and the Unravelling of the Ancien Régime, 1750-1770 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 224.
11. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution, 86-106.
12. Margaret Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Gordon R. Silber, "In Search of Helvétius's Early Career as a Freemason, "Eighteenth Century Studies 15 (1982): 421-41.
13. Margaret Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Gordon R. Silber, "In Search of Helvétius's Early Career as a Freemason, "Eighteenth Century Studies 15 (1982): 421-41.
14. An exception is Irving L. Horowitz, Claude Helvetius: Philosopher of Democracy and Enlightenment (New York: Paine-Whitman, 1954).
15. An exception is D. W. Smith, "Helvétius and the Problems of Utilitarianism, "Utilitas 5 (1993): 275-89.
16. D. Wootton, "From Commonwealth to Common Sense, "in Republicanism, Liberty and Commercial Society, ed. D. Wootton (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994), 1-41.
17. Claude-Adrien Helvétius, De l'esprit, ed. J. Moutaux (Paris: Fayard, 1988), 37. I follow here the English translation, modernizing spelling, except the translator, betrayed (on the most charitable interpretation) by a sweet tooth, has "who would not refuse." Helvétius, De l'esprit: or, Essays on the Mind (London, 1759), 14. On this translation, see below, n. 89. This passage so impressed Voltaire that it caused him to revise Candide to include an attack on slavery. Voltaire, Candide, ed. René Pomeau (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1980), 46.
18. Claude-Adrien Helvétius, De l'esprit, ed. J. Moutaux (Paris: Fayard, 1988), 37. I follow here the English translation, modernizing spelling, except the translator, betrayed (on the most charitable interpretation) by a sweet tooth, has "who would not refuse." Helvétius, De l'esprit: or, Essays on the Mind (London, 1759), 14. On this translation, see below, n. 89. This passage so impressed Voltaire that it caused him to revise Candide to include an attack on slavery. Voltaire, Candide, ed. René Pomeau (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1980), 46.
19. Claude-Adrien Helvétius, De l'esprit, ed. J. Moutaux (Paris: Fayard, 1988), 37. I follow here the English translation, modernizing spelling, except the translator, betrayed (on the most charitable interpretation) by a sweet tooth, has "who would not refuse." Helvétius, De l'esprit: or, Essays on the Mind (London, 1759), 14. On this translation, see below, n. 89. This passage so impressed Voltaire that it caused him to revise Candide to include an attack on slavery. Voltaire, Candide, ed. René Pomeau (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1980), 46.
20. For an example of Helvétius sheltering behind Locke, see "Lettre au Révérend Pere *** Jésuite, "in Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 2, ed. A. Dainard, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1984), 308. For an example of his opponents' references to Mandeville, see "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in ibid., 397.
21. For an example of Helvétius sheltering behind Locke, see "Lettre au Révérend Pere *** Jésuite, "in Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 2, ed. A. Dainard, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1984), 308. For an example of his opponents' references to Mandeville, see "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in ibid., 397.
22. James Tully, ed., Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and His Critics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988)
23. See, however, Beccaria's letter to Morellet, in Cesare Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene, ed. Franco Venturi (Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 1965), 361-69, at 365.
24. I owe the term to Lisa Jardine.
25. I borrow this term from Jack Hexter, More's "Utopia": the Biography of an Idea (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952).
26. See Helvétius's letters to Hume, Correspondance, 2:247-48, 258-59.
27. On Mandeville, see especially, E. J. Hundert, The Enlightenment's "Fable": Bernard Mandeville and the Discovery of Society (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
28. The classic discussion of these themes is J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975).
29. Caroline Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959). Turgot's letter was first published in Richard Price, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, 3rd ed. (London, 1785).
30. Caroline Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959). Turgot's letter was first published in Richard Price, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, 3rd ed. (London, 1785).
31. "Notes d'Helvétius, "in Oeuvres Complètes de Montesquieu, 8 vols. (Basle, 1799), 1:408.
32. De l'esprit, 94.
33. Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 3, ed. A. Dainard, M.-T. Ingenaud, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 288.
34. Notes de la main d'Helvétius, ed. Albert Keim (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1907), 25.
35. Correspondance, 2:290.
36. De l'esprit, 84.
37. Ibid., 305-8.
38. For example, R. Koebner, in "The Authenticity of the Letters on the Esprit des Lois Attributed to Helvétius, "Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 24 (1951): 19-43, writes of education as "the only essential demand of De l'esprit" (27). On Helvétius and Rousseau, Ian Cumming, Helvétius: His Life and Place in the History of Educational Thought (London: Routedge and Kegan Paul, 1955); Guy Besse, "D'un vieux problème: Helvétius et Rousseau, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972), 132-42; Joøm Schoøsler, John Locke et les philosophes français (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1997), 89-93, 116-24.
39. For example, R. Koebner, in "The Authenticity of the Letters on the Esprit des Lois Attributed to Helvétius, "Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 24 (1951): 19-43, writes of education as "the only essential demand of De l'esprit" (27). On Helvétius and Rousseau, Ian Cumming, Helvétius: His Life and Place in the History of Educational Thought (London: Routedge and Kegan Paul, 1955); Guy Besse, "D'un vieux problème: Helvétius et Rousseau, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972), 132-42; Joøm Schoøsler, John Locke et les philosophes français (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1997), 89-93, 116-24.
40. For example, R. Koebner, in "The Authenticity of the Letters on the Esprit des Lois Attributed to Helvétius, "Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 24 (1951): 19-43, writes of education as "the only essential demand of De l'esprit" (27). On Helvétius and Rousseau, Ian Cumming, Helvétius: His Life and Place in the History of Educational Thought (London: Routedge and Kegan Paul, 1955); Guy Besse, "D'un vieux problème: Helvétius et Rousseau, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972), 132-42; Joøm Schoøsler, John Locke et les philosophes français (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1997), 89-93, 116-24.
41. For example, R. Koebner, in "The Authenticity of the Letters on the Esprit des Lois Attributed to Helvétius, "Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 24 (1951): 19-43, writes of education as "the only essential demand of De l'esprit" (27). On Helvétius and Rousseau, Ian Cumming, Helvétius: His Life and Place in the History of Educational Thought (London: Routedge and Kegan Paul, 1955); Guy Besse, "D'un vieux problème: Helvétius et Rousseau, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972), 132-42; Joøm Schoøsler, John Locke et les philosophes français (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1997), 89-93, 116-24.
42. For example, De l'esprit, 216-19, 553.
43. For the reaction to De l'esprit, see D. W. Smith, Helvétius: A Study in Persecution (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1965).
44. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters"; Frances Acomb, Anglophobia in France, 1763-1789 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1950), 124-28. See D. W. Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Litteratur 81 (1971):267-75, and "Helvétius - problèmes de recherches, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972): 144-56; Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 1, ed. A. Dainard, M.-T. Inguenaud, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1991), viii-ix; Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Un disciple d'Helvétius: Martin Lefebvre de la Roche (1738-1806), "in Madame Helvétius et la Société d'Auteuil, ed. Jean-Paul de Lagrave (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1999), 29-51.
45. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters"; Frances Acomb, Anglophobia in France, 1763-1789 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1950), 124-28. See D. W. Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Litteratur 81 (1971):267-75, and "Helvétius - problèmes de recherches, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972): 144-56; Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 1, ed. A. Dainard, M.-T. Inguenaud, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1991), viii-ix; Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Un disciple d'Helvétius: Martin Lefebvre de la Roche (1738-1806), "in Madame Helvétius et la Société d'Auteuil, ed. Jean-Paul de Lagrave (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1999), 29-51.
46. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters"; Frances Acomb, Anglophobia in France, 1763-1789 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1950), 124-28. See D. W. Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Litteratur 81 (1971):267-75, and "Helvétius - problèmes de recherches, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972): 144-56; Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 1, ed. A. Dainard, M.-T. Inguenaud, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1991), viii-ix; Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Un disciple d'Helvétius: Martin Lefebvre de la Roche (1738-1806), "in Madame Helvétius et la Société d'Auteuil, ed. Jean-Paul de Lagrave (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1999), 29-51.
47. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters"; Frances Acomb, Anglophobia in France, 1763-1789 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1950), 124-28. See D. W. Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Litteratur 81 (1971):267-75, and "Helvétius - problèmes de recherches, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972): 144-56; Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 1, ed. A. Dainard, M.-T. Inguenaud, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1991), viii-ix; Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Un disciple d'Helvétius: Martin Lefebvre de la Roche (1738-1806), "in Madame Helvétius et la Société d'Auteuil, ed. Jean-Paul de Lagrave (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1999), 29-51.
48. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters"; Frances Acomb, Anglophobia in France, 1763-1789 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1950), 124-28. See D. W. Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Litteratur 81 (1971):267-75, and "Helvétius - problèmes de recherches, "Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles (1972): 144-56; Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 1, ed. A. Dainard, M.-T. Inguenaud, J. Orsoni, D. Smith, and P. Allan (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1991), viii-ix; Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Un disciple d'Helvétius: Martin Lefebvre de la Roche (1738-1806), "in Madame Helvétius et la Société d'Auteuil, ed. Jean-Paul de Lagrave (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1999), 29-51.
49. It was made to Hume between October 1763 and January 1766. See letter to Hugh Blair, April 1, 1767, in The Letters of David Hume, 2 vols., ed. J.Y.T. Greig (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1932), 2:133; also in Correspondance, 3:285.
50. It was made to Hume between October 1763 and January 1766. See letter to Hugh Blair, April 1, 1767, in The Letters of David Hume, 2 vols., ed. J.Y.T. Greig (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1932), 2:133; also in Correspondance, 3:285.
51. Correspondance, 3:92.
52. Ibid., 3:150. Since Helvétius believed that the legislator's job was to ensure that citizens are virtuous, he cannot have approved of constitutions, no matter how cunningly contrived, which relied on checking and balancing vices.
53. De l'esprit, 363.
54. Ibid., 201.
55. Helvétius, De l'homme, ed. G. Moutaux and J. Moutaux, 2 vols. (Paris: Fayard, 1989), 553-57 (continuous pagination). This edition is a reliable reprint of the first edition. What is not reliable, as we shall see, is the publisher's claim, on the verso of the title page, that "Les éditions postérieures sont entièrement conformes à l'édition de 1773."
56. See Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters, "41-42, where the evidence is interpreted somewhat differently.
57. "Notes d'Helvétius, "404-6, 411-13.
58. Ibid., 414-15.
59. Ibid., 416.
60. Smith, Helvétius, 214.
61. Compare Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters, "42.
62. De l'esprit, 175.
63. Ibid., 391. (Grimm believed that the Esprit des lois was the inspiration of De l'esprit. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters, "26.)
64. Ibid., 391. (Grimm believed that the Esprit des lois was the inspiration of De l'esprit. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters, "26.)
65. De l'esprit, 340-45.
66. Ibid., 346-59, 456.
67. Ibid., 77-114.
68. De l'homme, 361-62; De l'esprit, 184, 201.
69. De l'homme, 361-62; De l'esprit, 184, 201.
70. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution 21, 95-97, 209-14.
71. Ibid., 89-90.
72. It was Morelly, not Helvétius, who caught Tocqueville's attention. Tocqueville, The Old Régime, 164. On self-love, De l'esprit, 211; Morelly, Code de la nature, ed. Gilbert Chinard (Paris: Ramond Clavreuil, 1950), 163, Chinard's introduction, 12-14, 18, 26, 30, 111-12; "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in Correspondance, 2:393, 395; Lettre à M. *** traduite de l'Anglois, au sujet d'un livre qui a pour titre: De l'esprit (Amsterdam, 1759), 36.
73. It was Morelly, not Helvétius, who caught Tocqueville's attention. Tocqueville, The Old Régime, 164. On self-love, De l'esprit, 211; Morelly, Code de la nature, ed. Gilbert Chinard (Paris: Ramond Clavreuil, 1950), 163, Chinard's introduction, 12-14, 18, 26, 30, 111-12; "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in Correspondance, 2:393, 395; Lettre à M. *** traduite de l'Anglois, au sujet d'un livre qui a pour titre: De l'esprit (Amsterdam, 1759), 36.
74. It was Morelly, not Helvétius, who caught Tocqueville's attention. Tocqueville, The Old Régime, 164. On self-love, De l'esprit, 211; Morelly, Code de la nature, ed. Gilbert Chinard (Paris: Ramond Clavreuil, 1950), 163, Chinard's introduction, 12-14, 18, 26, 30, 111-12; "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in Correspondance, 2:393, 395; Lettre à M. *** traduite de l'Anglois, au sujet d'un livre qui a pour titre: De l'esprit (Amsterdam, 1759), 36.
75. It was Morelly, not Helvétius, who caught Tocqueville's attention. Tocqueville, The Old Régime, 164. On self-love, De l'esprit, 211; Morelly, Code de la nature, ed. Gilbert Chinard (Paris: Ramond Clavreuil, 1950), 163, Chinard's introduction, 12-14, 18, 26, 30, 111-12; "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in Correspondance, 2:393, 395; Lettre à M. *** traduite de l'Anglois, au sujet d'un livre qui a pour titre: De l'esprit (Amsterdam, 1759), 36.
76. It was Morelly, not Helvétius, who caught Tocqueville's attention. Tocqueville, The Old Régime, 164. On self-love, De l'esprit, 211; Morelly, Code de la nature, ed. Gilbert Chinard (Paris: Ramond Clavreuil, 1950), 163, Chinard's introduction, 12-14, 18, 26, 30, 111-12; "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in Correspondance, 2:393, 395; Lettre à M. *** traduite de l'Anglois, au sujet d'un livre qui a pour titre: De l'esprit (Amsterdam, 1759), 36.
77. J.M.J. Rogister, "Louis-Adrien Lepaige and the Attack on De l'esprit and the Encyclopédie in 1759, "English Historical Review 92 (1977): 522-39, esp. 531-33.
78. "Censure de la Faculté de théologie, "in Correspondance, 2:420.
79. Journal de Trévoux quoted in [Charles Georges Le Roy], Examen des critiques du livre intitulé De l'esprit (London, 1760), 78.
80. David Raynor, "Hume's critique of De l'esprit, "Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 215 (1982): 223-29, at 226.
81. For Boulanger's text, see Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 4, ed. D. Smith, J. Orsoni, M.-T. Inguenaud, P. Allan, and A. Dainard (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 322-28. An edited version of this letter appeared in the posthumous Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental (1761). Both Voltaire and Venturi believed this letter to be the work of Diderot, but the discovery of Boulanger's autograph was announced in Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Cinq Lettres de Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger à Helvétius, "Dix-huitième Siècle 27 (1995): 295-316. The letter was presumably published in 1761 with Helvétius's permission, since he is its likely source. It was suppressed, because of its radicalism, in some early editions. Paul Sadrin, Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger (1722-1759) (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1986), 51, 53. Its absence from the English translation (attributed by library catalogues to John Wilkes) may represent caution on Wilkes's part, or it may have been missing from his source text.
82. For Boulanger's text, see Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 4, ed. D. Smith, J. Orsoni, M.-T. Inguenaud, P. Allan, and A. Dainard (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 322-28. An edited version of this letter appeared in the posthumous Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental (1761). Both Voltaire and Venturi believed this letter to be the work of Diderot, but the discovery of Boulanger's autograph was announced in Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Cinq Lettres de Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger à Helvétius, "Dix-huitième Siècle 27 (1995): 295-316. The letter was presumably published in 1761 with Helvétius's permission, since he is its likely source. It was suppressed, because of its radicalism, in some early editions. Paul Sadrin, Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger (1722-1759) (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1986), 51, 53. Its absence from the English translation (attributed by library catalogues to John Wilkes) may represent caution on Wilkes's part, or it may have been missing from his source text.
83. For Boulanger's text, see Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 4, ed. D. Smith, J. Orsoni, M.-T. Inguenaud, P. Allan, and A. Dainard (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 322-28. An edited version of this letter appeared in the posthumous Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental (1761). Both Voltaire and Venturi believed this letter to be the work of Diderot, but the discovery of Boulanger's autograph was announced in Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Cinq Lettres de Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger à Helvétius, "Dix-huitième Siècle 27 (1995): 295-316. The letter was presumably published in 1761 with Helvétius's permission, since he is its likely source. It was suppressed, because of its radicalism, in some early editions. Paul Sadrin, Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger (1722-1759) (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1986), 51, 53. Its absence from the English translation (attributed by library catalogues to John Wilkes) may represent caution on Wilkes's part, or it may have been missing from his source text.
84. For Boulanger's text, see Correspondance générale d'Helvétius, vol. 4, ed. D. Smith, J. Orsoni, M.-T. Inguenaud, P. Allan, and A. Dainard (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 322-28. An edited version of this letter appeared in the posthumous Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental (1761). Both Voltaire and Venturi believed this letter to be the work of Diderot, but the discovery of Boulanger's autograph was announced in Marie-Thérèse Inguenaud and David Smith, "Cinq Lettres de Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger à Helvétius, "Dix-huitième Siècle 27 (1995): 295-316. The letter was presumably published in 1761 with Helvétius's permission, since he is its likely source. It was suppressed, because of its radicalism, in some early editions. Paul Sadrin, Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger (1722-1759) (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1986), 51, 53. Its absence from the English translation (attributed by library catalogues to John Wilkes) may represent caution on Wilkes's part, or it may have been missing from his source text.
85. Keith M. Baker, "A Script for a French Revolution: the Political Consciousness of the Abbé Mably, "in Inventing the French Revolution, 86-106.
86. Baker, Inventing the French Revolution, 105-6.
87. Correspondance, 2:167.
88. Ibid., 3:289.
89. Ibid., 3:311-13.
90. Ibid., 3:464.
91. Koebner, "Authenticity of the Letters, "42.
92. Correspondance, 3:86.
93. Ibid., 3: letters 491, 492, 493, 496.
94. Ibid., 3:65.
95. Ibid., 2:184.
96. Ibid., 2:167.
97. De l'esprit, 403-4, 410.
98. [Saint-Lambert], "Essai sur la vie et les ouvrages d'Helvétius, "in Oeuvres d'Helvétius, 14 vols. (Paris, 1795), 1:110-11.
99. La Roche, "Sur Helvetius: Supplément à sa vie, "in Correspondance, 4:257-80, at 269-70.
100. De l'esprit, 178-79.
101. Both views are expressed by Voltaire. See Voltaire, Correspondance, ed. Theodore Besterman, vol. 19 (Banbury, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1971), D7881, D7887, D7902, D7912, D7940. On Voltaire and Helvétius, see Roland Desné, "Voltaire et Helvétius, "in Le siècle de Voltaire, ed. Christine Mervaud and Sylvain Menant, 2 vols. (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1987), 1:403-16.
102. Both views are expressed by Voltaire. See Voltaire, Correspondance, ed. Theodore Besterman, vol. 19 (Banbury, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1971), D7881, D7887, D7902, D7912, D7940. On Voltaire and Helvétius, see Roland Desné, "Voltaire et Helvétius, "in Le siècle de Voltaire, ed. Christine Mervaud and Sylvain Menant, 2 vols. (Oxford, UK: Voltaire Foundation, 1987), 1:403-16.
103. Lettre à M., 28, 35, 36, 40.
104. On Machiavelli, see De l'esprit, 423, 443. Although contemporaries do not seem to have remarked on it, one may surely suspect the influence of Rousseau's Discours sur l'origine et les fondemens de l'inégalité parmi les hommes (1755) at De l'esprit, 291.
105. On Machiavelli, see De l'esprit, 423, 443. Although contemporaries do not seem to have remarked on it, one may surely suspect the influence of Rousseau's Discours sur l'origine et les fondemens de l'inégalité parmi les hommes (1755) at De l'esprit, 291.
106. D. W. Smith, "Helvétius's Library, "Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 79 (1971): 153-61, at 154.
107. Lettre à M., 25.
108. Ibid.
109. Correspondance, 2:167.
110. De l'homme, 585-86. Diderot would thus appear to have been wrong when he wrote to Hume, "You think that our intolerance is more favorable to the progress of thought than your unbounded liberty? Helvétius, D'Holbach, Morellet, and Suard do not share this view." Tocqueville, The Old Regime, 153.
111. De l'homme, 585-86. Diderot would thus appear to have been wrong when he wrote to Hume, "You think that our intolerance is more favorable to the progress of thought than your unbounded liberty? Helvétius, D'Holbach, Morellet, and Suard do not share this view." Tocqueville, The Old Regime, 153.
112. Correspondance, 2:184.
113. Ibid., 3:465.
114. De l'esprit, 314-23.
115. Ibid., 492.
116. Ibid., 289-92.
117. Correspondance, 3:289.
118. Ibid., 3:462-66. One cannot help but feel that Turgot would have been astonished at the account of the political thought of Helvétius and his associates given by Alan C. Kors in D'Holbach's Coterie: An Enlightenment in Paris (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), 315-19.
119. Ibid., 3:462-66. One cannot help but feel that Turgot would have been astonished at the account of the political thought of Helvétius and his associates given by Alan C. Kors in D'Holbach's Coterie: An Enlightenment in Paris (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), 315-19.
120. [Charles Georges Le Roy], Examen des critiques du livre intitulé De l'esprit (London, 1760); also in later editions of the Oeuvres.
121. De l'esprit, 210. Here the English translator, who seems comfortable even with Helvétius's most subversive views (with the possible exception noted above), commits what may be a symptomatic error, transforming Helvétius's "L'on n'a point jusqu'à présent assez fortement insisté sur cette vérité; non qu'on doive renverser en un jour tous les Autels de l'erreur" into the much more hard-line "This truth has not been hitherto insisted upon with suffi-cient force; no, all the altars of error must one day be overthrown." Essays on the Mind, 116. The translator was no journeyman, for he appears to have financed the publication himself, as the volume is "Printed for the Translator." He adds his own notes, including a characteristically English attack on standing armies.
122. De l'esprit, 210. Here the English translator, who seems comfortable even with Helvétius's most subversive views (with the possible exception noted above), commits what may be a symptomatic error, transforming Helvétius's "L'on n'a point jusqu'à présent assez fortement insisté sur cette vérité; non qu'on doive renverser en un jour tous les Autels de l'erreur" into the much more hard-line "This truth has not been hitherto insisted upon with suffi-cient force; no, all the altars of error must one day be overthrown." Essays on the Mind, 116. The translator was no journeyman, for he appears to have financed the publication himself, as the volume is "Printed for the Translator." He adds his own notes, including a characteristically English attack on standing armies.
123. "Mandement de l'archevêque de Paris, "in Correspondance, 2:322; Turgot to Condorcet, in ibid., 3:464. Presumably, they read (to take one example) Helvétius's protest against the tortures invented by oriental despots as a reference to the execution of Damiens. De l'esprit, 342.
124. "Mandement de l'archevêque de Paris, "in Correspondance, 2:322; Turgot to Condorcet, in ibid., 3:464. Presumably, they read (to take one example) Helvétius's protest against the tortures invented by oriental despots as a reference to the execution of Damiens. De l'esprit, 342.
125. "Mandement de l'archevêque de Paris, "in Correspondance, 2:322; Turgot to Condorcet, in ibid., 3:464. Presumably, they read (to take one example) Helvétius's protest against the tortures invented by oriental despots as a reference to the execution of Damiens. De l'esprit, 342.
126. De l'esprit, 35-41, 218-19, 402-3; De l'homme, 575-76.
127. De l'esprit, 35-41, 218-19, 402-3; De l'homme, 575-76.
128. De l'esprit, 220.
129. Ibid., 221, 254.
130. Ibid., 79.
131. Ibid., 34.
132. Ibid., 31-32.
133. Ibid., 29, 41.
134. Ibid., 32-33.
135. Ibid., 33.
136. "Notes d'Helvétius, "404, 407-10, 413-14. Jean-Pierre Gross, Fair Shares for All: Jacobin Egalitarianism in Practice (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 97-101. Montesquieu was to remain a Standard reference point for those advocating a more equal distribution of property, for example, [Antoine de Cournand], De la propriété (Paris, 1791; reprint, Milan, Italy: Galli Thierry, 1967), x.
137. "Notes d'Helvétius, "404, 407-10, 413-14. Jean-Pierre Gross, Fair Shares for All: Jacobin Egalitarianism in Practice (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 97-101. Montesquieu was to remain a Standard reference point for those advocating a more equal distribution of property, for example, [Antoine de Cournand], De la propriété (Paris, 1791; reprint, Milan, Italy: Galli Thierry, 1967), x.
138. "Notes d'Helvétius, "404, 407-10, 413-14. Jean-Pierre Gross, Fair Shares for All: Jacobin Egalitarianism in Practice (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 97-101. Montesquieu was to remain a Standard reference point for those advocating a more equal distribution of property, for example, [Antoine de Cournand], De la propriété (Paris, 1791; reprint, Milan, Italy: Galli Thierry, 1967), x.
139. Robert B. Rose, "The 'Red Scare' of the 1790s: The French Revolution and the 'Agrarian Law, ' "Past and Present 103 (1984): 113-30, at 115-16.
140. De l'esprit, 33.
141. [Giacinto Dragonetti], Delle virtù e de' premi (n.l., 1766), 39-40, and A Treatise on Virtues and Rewards (London, 1769), 69.
142. [Giacinto Dragonetti], Delle virtù e de' premi (n.l., 1766), 39-40, and A Treatise on Virtues and Rewards (London, 1769), 69.
143. Dragonetti, A Treatise, 66-67. On the textual history, see Wootton, "From Commonwealth to Common Sense, "36-37.
144. Dragonetti, A Treatise, 66-67. On the textual history, see Wootton, "From Commonwealth to Common Sense, "36-37.
145. Dragonetti, A Treatise, 75.
146. De l'esprit, 33.
147. Helvétius, A Treatise on Man, trans. W. Hooper, 2 vols. (London, 1777), 2:109.
148. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings, ed. Mark Philp (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995), 416.
149. De l'esprit, 33. On the meaning of the word paysan, see Alfred Cobban, The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1964), 18-19.
150. De l'esprit, 33. On the meaning of the word paysan, see Alfred Cobban, The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1964), 18-19.
151. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1689), 2:§41: "a King of a large and fruitful Territory there [America] feeds, lodges, and is clad worse than a day labourer in England." Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, ed. F. B. Kaye, 2 vols. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1924), 1:169; Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776), bk. 1, Chap. 1.
152. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1689), 2:§41: "a King of a large and fruitful Territory there [America] feeds, lodges, and is clad worse than a day labourer in England." Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, ed. F. B. Kaye, 2 vols. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1924), 1:169; Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776), bk. 1, Chap. 1.
153. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1689), 2:§41: "a King of a large and fruitful Territory there [America] feeds, lodges, and is clad worse than a day labourer in England." Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, ed. F. B. Kaye, 2 vols. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1924), 1:169; Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776), bk. 1, Chap. 1.
154. The classic study of this mode of thought is Ronald L. Meek, Social Science and the Ignoble Savage (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976).
155. De l'esprit, 33.
156. Paine, Common Sense, in Rights of Man, 33-34. See Wootton, "From Commonwealth to Common Sense, "36-8.
157. Paine, Common Sense, in Rights of Man, 33-34. See Wootton, "From Commonwealth to Common Sense, "36-8.
158. On these debates, see Rose, "The 'Red Scare.' "
159. Robert B. Rose, Gracchus Babeuf: The First Revolutionary Communist (London: Edward Arnold, 1978), 189.
160. Mark Philp, introduction to Paine, Rights of Man, x.
161. Nos. 8-13 of the Oeuvres, no. 25 of De l'esprit, and no. 13 of De l'homme in D. W. Smith, "A Preliminary Bibliographical List of Editions of Helvétius's Works, "Australian Journal of French Studies 7 (1970): 299-347. Nicolas Bonneville (Freemason, advocate of an agrarian law, and translator of Paine) was familiar with Helvétius's De l'homme, although he does not quote it in the context of agrarian justice. See Nicolas Bonneville, De l'esprit des religions, 2d. ed. (Paris, 1792), 82-86, a series of excerpts from De l'homme (1773), 48-61.
162. Nos. 8-13 of the Oeuvres, no. 25 of De l'esprit, and no. 13 of De l'homme in D. W. Smith, "A Preliminary Bibliographical List of Editions of Helvétius's Works, "Australian Journal of French Studies 7 (1970): 299-347. Nicolas Bonneville (Freemason, advocate of an agrarian law, and translator of Paine) was familiar with Helvétius's De l'homme, although he does not quote it in the context of agrarian justice. See Nicolas Bonneville, De l'esprit des religions, 2d. ed. (Paris, 1792), 82-86, a series of excerpts from De l'homme (1773), 48-61.
163. Nos. 8-13 of the Oeuvres, no. 25 of De l'esprit, and no. 13 of De l'homme in D. W. Smith, "A Preliminary Bibliographical List of Editions of Helvétius's Works, "Australian Journal of French Studies 7 (1970): 299-347. Nicolas Bonneville (Freemason, advocate of an agrarian law, and translator of Paine) was familiar with Helvétius's De l'homme, although he does not quote it in the context of agrarian justice. See Nicolas Bonneville, De l'esprit des religions, 2d. ed. (Paris, 1792), 82-86, a series of excerpts from De l'homme (1773), 48-61.
164. Nos. 8-13 of the Oeuvres, no. 25 of De l'esprit, and no. 13 of De l'homme in D. W. Smith, "A Preliminary Bibliographical List of Editions of Helvétius's Works, "Australian Journal of French Studies 7 (1970): 299-347. Nicolas Bonneville (Freemason, advocate of an agrarian law, and translator of Paine) was familiar with Helvétius's De l'homme, although he does not quote it in the context of agrarian justice. See Nicolas Bonneville, De l'esprit des religions, 2d. ed. (Paris, 1792), 82-86, a series of excerpts from De l'homme (1773), 48-61.
165. Koebner, "The Authenticity of the Letters, "37; Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "272; Jeroom Vercruysse, "Helvétius imprimé à Bouillon, "Le livre et l'estampe 33 (1987): 7-46. No. 6 of the Oeuvres in Smith's "Preliminary Bibliographical List." I have used the copy in the Bodleian Library.
166. Koebner, "The Authenticity of the Letters, "37; Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "272; Jeroom Vercruysse, "Helvétius imprimé à Bouillon, "Le livre et l'estampe 33 (1987): 7-46. No. 6 of the Oeuvres in Smith's "Preliminary Bibliographical List." I have used the copy in the Bodleian Library.
167. Koebner, "The Authenticity of the Letters, "37; Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "272; Jeroom Vercruysse, "Helvétius imprimé à Bouillon, "Le livre et l'estampe 33 (1987): 7-46. No. 6 of the Oeuvres in Smith's "Preliminary Bibliographical List." I have used the copy in the Bodleian Library.
168. Koebner, "The Authenticity of the Letters, "37; Smith, "A Reprint of Helvétius's Oeuvres, "272; Jeroom Vercruysse, "Helvétius imprimé à Bouillon, "Le livre et l'estampe 33 (1987): 7-46. No. 6 of the Oeuvres in Smith's "Preliminary Bibliographical List." I have used the copy in the Bodleian Library.
169. De l'homme, 566, 593.
170. Helvétius, Oeuvres (Hiklesheim: Georg Olms, 1967). It is this text that is translated in an otherwise excellent volume, Carlo Borghero, ed., La polemica sul lusso nel Settecento francese (Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 1974), 127-50.
171. De l'homme, 568.
172. Oeuvres completes d'Helvétius, 3 vols. (Paris, 1818), 1:vi.
173. Oeuvres completes d'Helvétius, 14 vols. (Paris, 1795), 1:vii-viii.
174. Smith, "A Reprint, "271-62, and "Helvétius - problèmes de recherches, "152-56.
175. Smith, "A Reprint, "271-62, and "Helvétius - problèmes de recherches, "152-56.
176. Smith, "Helvétius - problèmes de recherche, "156: "Helvétius est un penseur politique plus conservateur que la tradition ne nous l'a presenté."
177. De l'homme, 568; A Treatise on Man, 113.
178. De l'homme, 568; A Treatise on Man, 113.
179. Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976).
180. Correspondance, 3:288.
181. [Saint-Lambert], "Essai sur la vie, "101-110, 172-73. See also La Roche, "Sur Helvetius, "264-66, 276-77 and (on his charity to fellow Freemasons), Silber, "In Search of Helvétius's Early Career, "428-29, 431.
182. [Saint-Lambert], "Essai sur la vie, "101-110, 172-73. See also La Roche, "Sur Helvetius, "264-66, 276-77 and (on his charity to fellow Freemasons), Silber, "In Search of Helvétius's Early Career, "428-29, 431.
183. [Saint-Lambert], "Essai sur la vie, "101-110, 172-73. See also La Roche, "Sur Helvetius, "264-66, 276-77 and (on his charity to fellow Freemasons), Silber, "In Search of Helvétius's Early Career, "428-29, 431.
184. Correspondance, 3:278, 273.