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 ENCYCLOPEDISTS

419

ENCYCLOPEDISTS

were to be published together. After Diderot had corrected the proof-sheets, Le Breton, fearing new vexations, suppressed passages hkely to be objection- able and to cause friction with the authorities. Di- derot noticed the changes too late to prevent them. The articles were mutilated to an extent which it is now impossible to determine, as all manuscripts and proof-sheets were immediately destroyed. At la.st, in 1765, volumes VIII-XVII were published, completing the text of the Encyclopedie.

It is not possilile to mention here all the contributors (about 160) to the work. Diderot himself wrote 990 articles on almost every subject, philosophical, re- ligious, and moral, but especially on the arts and trades. Great care was taken in the treatment of the mechanical arts. No trouble was spared to obtain minute descriptions of various machines and the means of using them. All this was explained in the text and illustrated in the plates. D'Alembert's arti- cles, with few exceptions, are on the mathematical and physical sciences. From the beginning Rousseau (1712-1778), then known as the author of several musical works and compositions, agreed to write the articles on music. He also wrote the article, " Econo- mie politique". The collaboration of Buffon (1707- 8S) who had promi.sed to write on "Nature" is an- nounced in the second volume, but it is doubtful if that article, as printed, is from him. Most of the topics in natural history were treated by Daubenton (1716-99). Articles by d'Holbach (1723-89), Mar- montel, Bordeu, are announced in the third volume. The fourth introduces Voltaire (1694-1778) as the au- thor of some literary articles, and says of him: "The Encyclopedie, on account of the justice which it has rendered and will always continue to render him, was worthy of the interest which he now takes in it." In the "Discours pr^Hminaire", d'Alembert had praised him as occupying "a distinguished place in the very small number of great poets", and extolled him for his qualities as a prose writer. Condorcet, Grimm, Ques- nay, Turgot, Necker also contributed articles or mem- oirs. De Jaucourt furthered the cause of the Ency- clopedie not only by his numerous articles and his constant interest, but also by his attitude and reputa- tion. Far from sharing the materialistic and atheistic tendencies of many of his co-workers, he was at the same time friendly to the Encyclopedists and to some of their enemies. Montesquieu at his death (1755) left an unfinished article on Taste (Gout); but his "Lettres persanes" (1721) and " Esprit des lois" (1748) inspired many of the social and political arti- cles in the Encyclopedic.

II. The Spirit and Influence of the Encyclope- die. — The expression spirit of the Encyclopedie may at first seem to be a misnomer. In that vast compila- tion is found the greatest diversity of subjects and even of views on the same subjects. The writers of the articles belong to all professions and to all classes of society. Names of military men, lawyers, physicians, artists, clergymen, scientists, philosophers, theolo- gians, statesmen, etc. appear on the lists of contribu- tors given at the beginning of each volume. The arti- cles are of unequal value; proportion is lacking, each contributor apparently writing as he thinks fit. Ver- bosity is a prominent defect, and, at times, the authors indulge in endless digressions. Voltaire repeatedly asked for brevity and better method. (See Letters to d'Alembert, esp. in 1756.)

The articles seem to have been gathered together from various sources without any preconceived plan, without any unity or sufficient supervision. Under these conditions the spirit of the Encyclopedie might denote merely one special tendency, or one group of tendencies, which, at first manifested along with many others, gradually became important and finally predominant. To some extent it is that, but it is also more than that. The Encyclopedie was not in-

tended only as a great monument to record the prog- ress realized in sciences, arts, civil and religious insti- tutions, industry, commerce, and all other lines of human endeavour; the Encyclopedists purposed more- over to prepare the future and indicate the way to fur- ther progress. The Encyclopedie would be a record, but it would also be a standard; not a mere onlooker, but a leader. In fact, appearing as it did in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, it is a mirror in which the events of the whole century are focused.

At the time of the publication of the Encyclopedie, the French Government was, owing to many causes and influences, already considerably weakened, and still weakening. Dissatisfaction and unrest, though not yet well defined, were spreacUng among the people. Existing institutions and customs, both religious and political, had recently been denounced in several pub- lications. The "philosophers" were favourably received in the salons of the aristocracy. On the other hand, Jansenism, with the endless discussions of which it had been the source or the occasion, and also with the lack of knowledge and looseness of morals among some members of the clergy, had prepared the way for a reac- tion in the sense of unbelief. There were other causes less direct, perhaps, and more remote, yet influential in bringing about a break with the past. In Descartes one may find unequivocal germs of the neglect, con- tempt even, of tradition in philosophy, especially when immediate evidence, the idee clairc, is made the sole valid criterion of truth. The influence of British philosophers was far from tending to check the growth of rationalism. Nor can we overlook the influence of the famous "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes", as it is known in the history of French literature. In the last two decades of the seventeenth century it was one of the main centres of attention. To this discus- sion, which resulted in a victory for those who fa- voured the "modem", Brunetiere traces back three important consequences: first, the meaning of tradi- tion becomes gradually identifietl with that of super- stition; second, progress is conceived as an emancipa- tion from, and an abjuration of, the past; finally, and this is still more important, education in all its stages consists more and more in derision of the past. True, recent times everywhere offered masterpieces in art, literature, and science. Whatever side we may take in the old quarrel to-day, and however much less radi- cal and more impartial our views may be, we can at least understand the attitude of those who succeeded the great men of the age of Louis XIV.

Another important factor was scientific progress. After being too frequently confined to idle a priori con- troversies, science was asserting its rights, and these it soon came to exaggerate, while it failed to recognize the rights of others. Reason gradually freed itself from the superstition of the past and claimed absolute independence. Ancient, or rather Christian, concep- tions of God and the world were not even deemed worthy of the serious consideration of a "thinker". Efficient causes alone were recognized, final causes proscribed. In nature science always dealt with im- mutable laws; soon the possibility of miracles and rev- elation was denied, while mysteries were regarded as absurd. Thus, in the place of traditional beliefs, new ideas were introduced, tending to rationalism, material- ism, naturalism, and deism. On positive points there was but little agreement; the tendency was primarily negative. It was an opposition to received dogmas and institutions, an effort to establish a new theoret- ical and practical philosophy on the basis of merely naturalistic principles. Nothing is truer than d'Alem- bert's statement, in the "Discours preliminairo", that "our century believes itself destined to change all kinds of laws". Towards the middle of (he eighteenth century the representatives of this movement were the "philosophers", and they were about to centralize their efforts in the Encyclopedie. Great prudence