Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/705

 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY.] FRANCE 609 tion of man. Diderot, in a scries of early works, Lettrc sur les Aveiif/les, Promenade d uii Sceptique, Ptnsees Philo- sophiqites, c., exhibited a good acquaintance with philo sophical history and opinion, and gave sign in this direction, ns in so many others, of a far-reaching intellect. As in almost all his works, however, the value of the thought is extremely unequal, while the different pieces, always written in the hottest haste, and never duly matured or corrected, present but few specimens of finished and polished writing. Bonnet (1724-1793), a Swiss of Geneva, wrote a large number of works, many of which are purely scientific. Others, however, are more psychological, and these, though advocating the materialistic philosophy generally in vogue were remarkable for uniting materialism with an honest adherence to Christianity. The half mystical writer, St Martin, also deserves notice. Bat the French , ,rlls. metaphysician of the century is undoubtedly Condillac (1714-1780), almost the only writer of the time in Franco who succeeded in keeping strictly to philosophy without attempting to pursue his system to its results in ethics, politics, and theology ; still more without desiring to anti cipate such results, and to discuss the application of a philo sophy before the philosophy was itself established. In the Traite des Sensations, the Esuai sur FOrif/ine ties Connais- smices Humaines, and other works Condillac elaborated and continued the imperfect sensationalism of Locke. As his philosophical view, though perhaps more restricted, was far more direct, consecutive, and uncompromising than that of the Englishman, so his style greatly exceeded Locke s in clearness and elegance. It cannot pretend to vie with the beauty and artistic suitability of the styles of Descartes and Malebranche, nor with that of Condillac s elder contem porary Berkeley. But for all that, it is a good medium of philosophical expression, and its literary character did not a little to assist the diffusion of the principles of materialism. 18^ Century Theology. To devote a section to the history of the theological literature of the 18th century in France may seem something of a contradiction ; for, indeed, all or most of such literature was anti-theological. The magnificent list of names which the church had been able to claim on her side in the 1 7th century was exhausted before the end of the second quarter of the 18th with Massillon, and none came to fill their place. Very rarely has ortho doxy been so badly defended as at this time. The literary championship of the church was entirely in the hands of the Jesuits, and of a few disreputable literary free-lances like Fn ron (1710-1776) and Desfontaines. The Jesuits were learned enough, and their principal journal, that of Trevoux, was conducted with much vigour and a great deal of erudition. But they were in the first place discredited by the moral taint which has always hung over Jesuitism, and in the second place by the persecutions of the Jansen ists and the Protestants, which were attributed to their influence. No single name or work on the orthodox side has preserved the least reputation ; while, on the other hand, the names of Pere Nonotte and several of his fellows have been enshrined unenviably in the imperishable ridicule of Voltaire, one only of whoso adversaries, Guenee (1717- 1803), was able to meet him at something like his own weapons. At the same time, while religion and the church were never so badly off for defenders, they had never been, and have never been, so desperately in need of defence. The financial condition of the church was in scandalous con trast with the need and bankruptcy of the state. The lives of too many of its ministers were in more scandalous con trast still with its doctrines and precepts ; while its poli tical ascendency, and the use made of it, were felt to be, not merely unjust and improper in themselves, but an almost insuperable barrier to social and political reform. Meanwhile a spirit of hostility had long been growing up, not merely to the church, but to Christianity and religion itself, which was not entirely due to ecclesiastical corrup tions. The Renaissance by its paganism, the lief ormat ion by its latitudinarian developments, and the growth of modern science by its materialistic tendencies, had all con tributed to this anti-theological movement. Even in the reign of Louia XIV. there was a considerable school of free thinkers at the French court, and when the restraint of that monarch s devotion was removed the number became largely increased, especially as the study of the writings of the English deists came to strengthen the tendency. It has never been at all accurately decided how far what may be called the scoffing school of Voltaire represents a direct re- Voltaire volt against Christianity, and how far it was merely a kind (thcoJogy) of guerilla warfare against the clergy. It is positively cer tain that Voltaire was not an atheist, and that he did not approve of atheism. But for his aggressive and reforming tendencies he might very likely have confined himself to the colourless and speculative deism of Bolingbroke and Shaftesbury. As it was, however, he went farther, and his Dictionnaire Philosopftiqtif, which is typical of a vast amount of contemporary and subsequent literature, consists of a heterogeneous assemblage of articles directed against various points of dogma and ritual and various characteris tics of the sacred records. From the literary point of view, it is one of the most characteristic of all Voltaire s works, though it is perhaps not entirely his. The desultory arrangement, the light and lively style, the extensive but not always too accurate erudition, and the somewhat cap tious and quibbling objections, are intensely Voltairian. But there is little seriousness about it, and certainly no kind of rancorous or deep-seated hostility. With many, however, of Voltaire s pupils and younger contemporaries the case was altered. They were distinctively atheists and anti- supernaiuralists. The atheism of Diderot, unquestionably the greatest of them all, has been keenly debated ; but in the case of Damilaville, Naigeon, Holbach, and others there is no room for doubt By these persons a great mass of atheistic and anti-Christian literature was composed and set afloat. The characteristic work of this school, its last word indeed, is the famous Sytrteme dc la Nature, attributed TLo to Holbach (1723-1789), but known to be, in part atSysternof least, the work of Diderot. In this remarkable work, which Natuve - caps the climax of the metaphysical materialism or rather nihilism of the century, the atheistic position is clearly put. It made an immense sensation ; and it so fluttered not merely the orthodox but the more moderate free-thinkers, that Frederick of Prussia and Voltaire, perhaps the most singular pair of defenders that orthodoxy ever had, actually set themselves to refute it. The extreme unpopularity and startling nature of its tenets, which we do not here judge, have been wont to reflect themselves in the criticisms passed on it merely as a book. Viewed in this light, without pre judice either way, it must be pronounced undeserving of much of this unfavourable criticism. Its style and argu ment are very unequal, as books written in collaboration are apt to be, and especially books in which Diderot, the paragon of inequality, had a hand. But there is on the whole a great consistency and even rigour in the argument ; there is an almost entire absence of the heterogeneous assemblage of anecdotes, jokes good and bad, scraps of accurate or inac curate physical science, and other incongruous matter with which the Philosophes were wont to stuff their works; and lastly, there is in the best passages a kind of sombre grandeur which recalls the manner as well as the matter of Lucretius. It is perhaps well to repeat, in the case of so notorious a book, that this criticism is of a purely literary and formal character ; but there is little doubt that the literary merits of the work considerably assisted its didactic influence. As the Revolution approached, and the victory