by Paul Hazard
So it came about that, as soon as the classical ideal ceased to be a thing to aim at, a deliberate goal, a conscious choice, and began to degenerate into a mere habit, and an irksome one at that, the innovators, all ready for action, set to work with all the old zest and energy. And so, yet once again, the mind of Europe set out on the unending quest. Then came a crisis so swift and so sudden, so at least it seemed, that it took men completely by surprise; yet had it long been stirring in the womb of Time, and, so far from being a new thing, was in reality a very old one.
All-embracing, imperious, profound, it, too, in its turn, though born of the seventeenth century, was destined to leave its impress on virtually the whole of the eighteenth. The great clash of ideals occurred before 1715, indeed, before 1700. The daring utterances of the Aufklôrung, of the age of light, pale into insignificance before the aggressive audacities of the Tractatus theologico-politicus, the amazing declarations of the Ethics. Neither Voltaire nor Frederick II ever came near the ungovernable anticlerical, anti-religious frenzy of Toland and his like. Had Locke never been born, d’Alembert would never have penned the Discours préliminaire to the Encyclopaedia: the quarrel over the philosophers and their ideas was not a whit more bitter than those which, later on, created such an uproar in Holland and England. Even Rousseau’s “Back to Nature” ideas were not more revolutionary than those of Adario the Savage, as described by Lahontan the Rebel. In this era, so turbid, so crowded with events that it seems at first sight a mere welter of confusion, there took their rise two great streams which were to flow on through the whole of the century: one is the river of rationalism; the other, a mere trickle to begin with, but, later on, to overflow its banks, was the river of feeling, of sentiment. And since, all through this conflict of ideas, the aim was to extend the discussion beyond the sphere of the intellectual few and to get at the masses, since the basic principles of government and the very conception of right and wrong were at issue, since the principle of equality and individual freedom had been publicly proclaimed; since the rights of the individual as man and citizen had been openly canvassed, let it be recognized once more that virtually all the intellectual views and ideas which as a whole were to culminate in the French Revolution had already taken shape, even before the reign of Louis XIV had ended. The Social Contract, the principle of the delegation of power, the right of subjects to rebel against their rulers—all these things were ancient history by 1760. For three-quarters of a century and more they had been freely and openly discussed. Everything that is, is a microcosm of the whole. We know that. We know, too, that there is nothing new under the sun, for have we not been trying all along to trace relationships and construct genealogies? But if we are to give the name “novelty”, “new” (and that seems the nearest the intellectual department is able to supply)—if we are to apply the word “new” to something which, after a long period of germination, comes finally to birth, or to a fresh manifestation of eternal forces which, long dormant, burst forth anew and with a blaze so sudden and so dazzling as to seem new to ignorant or forgetful men; or if, again, we apply the term “new” to a particular tone, a particular way of saying things; or to a resolve to look forward rather than back, to discard the past after winning from it all we can; if, finally, we call “new” an intellectual movement so dynamic as notably to influence our everyday lives, then something new indeed, a change whose effects have lasted right down to our times, was wrought during those years when certain men of genius—Spinoza, Bayle, Locke, Newton, Bossuet, Fénelon, to name only the most illustrious—addressed themselves to the task of exploring the whole field of knowledge in order to bring out anew the verities which govern and condition the life of man. Applying to the moral sphere what one of them, Leibniz, said of the political, we, too, may say: Finis saeculi novam rerum faciem aperuit:[15] in the closing years of the XVIIth century a new order of things began its course.
END
[1]Ch. Castel de Saint-Pierre, Mémoires pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe, Cologne, 1712, Preface.
[2]Leibniz to the Abbé de Saint-Pierre, from Hanover, 7 February, 1715. See, by the same author, Observations sur le projet d’une paix perpétuelle, de M. l’abbé de Saint-Pierre (Oeuvres, ed. Foucher de Careil, vol. IV).
[3]Marana, Entretiens d’un philosophe avec un solitaire sur plusieurs matières de morale et d’erudition, 1696, p. 29. See also p. 28. “People try to settle disputes by force, or by sudden attack; the strongest will always get the better of those who are unprepared to defend themselves; and so long as there are different Provinces, Kingdoms and Peoples, there will be hostile clashes and wars; just as there will always be vice, so long as men walk the earth.”
[4]Journal des Savants, 13 April, 1693. Apropos of the present state of affairs in Europe, 1693; “hardly a day goes by but some fresh change or other takes place”.
[5]Lesage, Le Diable Boiteux, chap. I.
[6]Spectator, No. 455.
[7]Fontenelle, Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, Sixième soir.
[8]Louis du May, Le prudent voyageur, Génève, 1681. Discours IV. De l’Europe en général.
[9]Pensées sur la Comète, passim; and Dictionnaire.
[10]Lettres choisies, Letters, 5, 9, 23.
[11]Défense de la tradition et des Saints Pères, chap. XX, livre III. Part I: Audacieuse critique d’Erasme sur saint Augustin, soutenue par M. Simon.
[12]See Bayle, Correspondance. Pierre Jurieu, Le philosophe de Rotterdam accusé, atteint et convaincu, 1706, p. 2.
[13]See John Evelyn, The History of Religion, London, 1850, Preface. Ch. Korholt, De tribus impostoribus magnis liber, Kilonii, 1680.
[14]L. P. Two Essays sent in a letter from Oxford to a nobleman in London, London, 1695.
[15]Works, Ed. Foucher de Careil, Vol. III. Status Europae incipiente novo saeculo.
INDEX
The links below refer to the page references of the printed edition of this book. While the numbers do not correspond to the page numbers or locations on an electronic reading device, they are retained as they can convey useful information regarding the position and amount of space devoted to an indexed entry. Because the size of a page varies in reflowable documents such as this e-book, it may be necessary to scroll up or down to find the referenced entry after following a link.
Addison, Joseph, 57, 61, 65, 70, 78, 325, 355, 381, 392–3
Alembert, d’, 446
Alexander Strong i’th’arm, 362, 364
Alexander the Great, 43, 362
Ambrosius (Richard Simon), 194
Amelot de la Houssaye, 321
Amenta, Niccolo, 349
Anabaptists, 303
Anacreon, 337, 342, 345
Angelic Brethren, Confraternity of, 432
Anne, Queen of England, 65, 150, 421
Anti-Paponists, 95
Anti-Trinitarians, 94
Antonio, Nicholas, 49
Arbuthnot, John, 65
Aretino, 141
Aristophanes, 387
Aristotle, 31, 99, 119, 130, 133, 220, 242, 245, 249, 263, 305, 331, 338, 346, 353, 355–6, 383, 402, 412, 443
Arminians, 94, 97, 183, 303
Arnauld, Antoine, 46, 86, 89, 137, 147, 202, 222
Arnold, Gottfried, 418–9
Artagnan, M. d’, 368
Astorini, 44
Augustine, St., 103, 161, 192, 200–1, 412, 444
Aulnoy, Catherine de Berneville, Comtesse d’, 381
Aymar, Jacques, 176–8
Bacon, Francis, 63, 241, 263, 307, 412
Baluze, Étienne, 49
Barrow, Isaac, 86
Bartholin, Thomas, 310
Basnage, Jacques, 85, 97
Basnage de Beauval, Henri, 75, 190, 302
Baumgarten, Alexander A, 409
Bayle, Jacob, 375
Bayle, Pierre, xvi, 10, 59, 70, 75, 87, 93, 98, 99–115, 137, 145–6, 148, 150, 156–158, 160, 167, 178, 239, 259, 284–6, 295, 324, 335, 375, 443–4, 447
Bekker,
Balthasar, 145, 148, 169–72, 175
Bellinzani, Anne de, 376
Benoist, Élie, 85, 160
Bentley, Richard, 48, 65, 252
Berkeley, George, 65, 249, 252
Bernard, Jacques, 113
Bernier, François, 10, 76, 101, 121, 359
Bernini, 405
Bertad, Père, 185
Bianchini, Francesco, 48
Bignon, Abbé J. P., 310
Blackmore, Richard, 353
Bochart, Samuel, 181
Bodin, Jean, 443
Boehme, Jacob, 423
Boerhaave, Hermann, 309, 314–5
Boileau, 5, 138, 178, 347–8, 350, 356, 369, 377, 381, 386, 405
Boinebourg, Baron de, 222
Boisguilbert, Pierre Le Pesant de, 282
Bonald, Vicomte de, 256
Bossuet, xvi, 5, 14, 40, 58, 80–1, 87, 89, 95–7, 138, 198–224, 274–5, 300, 373, 444, 447
Bouhours, Père, 59, 346
Boulainvilliers, Comte de, 17
Bourignon, Antoinette, 433–4
Boutroux, Émile, 220
Bouvet, Père, 363
Boyer, Abel, 30, 66, 69
Boyle, Robert, 254, 259, 309–10, 365
Bremond, Abbé Henri, 415
Breteuil, Baron de, 376
Brinon, Mme de, 226, 234
Brinvilliers, 176
Briois, Père, 57
Bromley, William, 57
Brossette, Claude, 178
Brown, Thomas, 61, 86, 365
Bruno, Giordano, 443–4
Brutus, 287
Buchanan, 63
Buffier, Père, 30
Bunyan, John, 64
Burnet, Gilbert, 31–2, 57, 86, 97
Butler, Joseph, 252
Bysshe, Edward, 346
Byzance, Louis de, see Levi, Raphael.
Caffaro, Père, 215
Calixtines, 229–30
Campanella, Tommaso, 8
Canitz, F. R. L., 342
Cappelle, Louis, 181–2
Cardan, Jérôme, 120, 443–4
Carducci, Giosue, 346
Carpzow, B., 172
Cartesianism, 107, 176, 434
Cartesians, 119, 145, 409, 434
Cato the Censor, 263, 287
Cato Uticensis, 263
Cervantes, M. de, 4, 56
Chardin, Jean, 12, 19
Charles II, King of England, 75
Charles XI, King of Sweden, 272
Charles XII, King of Sweden, 77
Charles V, Emperor, 31
Charron, Pierre, 443
Chateaubriand, François René, Vicomte de, 33, 418
Chaulieu, Abbé de, 129, 396
Cherbury, Lord Herbert of, see Herbert, Edward
Chillingworth, William, 70
Christina of Sweden, Queen, 7
Cibber, Colley, 378–9
Cicero, 68, 261, 263, 287
Cimento, Academy of the, 308
Clarici, Paolo Bartolomeo, 308
Clarke, Samuel, 70, 252, 255, 262, 365
Claude, John, 80–1, 84
Cocceians, 94
Colbert, Jean Baptiste, 8, 281
Collier, Jeremy, 349, 378
Collins, Anthony, 70, 147, 262–3, 373
Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de, 251, 402
Confucius, 21, 331, 364
Congreve, William, 64, 349
Conscienciari, 147
Conti, Antonio, 7
Copernicus, 305
Cordemoy, 31
Corneille, Pierre, 58, 162, 336, 356, 383, 388
Cornelius Nepos, 52
Coste, Pierre, 70–1, 73, 248–9, 310, 330, 406
Counter-Remonstrants, 303
Courtilz, Gatien de, 367
Crébillon, Prosper Jolyot, 354
Crellius, Jean, 209
Crescimbeni, Giovanni Maria, 347, 381
Cromwell, Oliver, 59
Cudworth, R., 65, 113, 245, 263, 299
Cumberland, Richard, 273
Cun-fu-zu, see Confucius
Cuper, Gilbert, 302
Cyprian, St., 206
Dacier, André, 353
Dacier, Mme., 338
Dampier, William, 9
Daniel, Père, 30, 33
Dante, 346, 395
Defoe, Daniel, 54
Dehénault, Jean, 122
Deism, 252–267
Della Valle, Pietro, 10
Dennis, John, 346
Descartes, xvi, 58, 97, 99, 120, 130–1, 170, 213, 241, 263, 306–7, 312–3, 357, 394–5, 409–10, 412, 434
Deshoulières, Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde, Mme., 123
Diagoras, 285
Diderot, 138
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 353
Dodwell, Henry, 39, 86
Doria, P. M., 377
Dryden, John, 65, 255–6
Dubos, Abbé, 147, 404, 406, 408
Du Cange, Charles, 49
Du Pin, Ellies, 206
Duras, Duchesse de, 80
Duverney, J. G., 310
Eachard, Laurence, 30, 33
Edict of Nantes, Revocation of, 15, 69–71, 74, 82–4, 90, 223, 225, 274–6, 301
Elzevir, 193
Enthusiasts, 421
Epictetus, 287
Epicurus, 120, 263, 285, 287
Erasmus, 87, 175, 263, 287, 353, 444
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Hanover, 223
Eryceira, Count, 347
Euhemerus, 285
Farquhar, George, 61, 64
Fénelon, xvi, 5, 89, 137, 147, 206, 208, 215, 282, 323, 325, 374, 424–6, 447
Fer, Nicolas de, 53
Fériol, M. de, 363
Ferrand, President, 376
Filicaja, Vincenzo da, 343
Filmer, Robert, 277–8
Fleury, Abbé, 182, 202, 207
Fleury, Cardinal de, 339
Fontenelle, xvi, 132, 134, 148, 162–5, 167, 234, 239, 304–6, 313, 324, 335, 339, 373, 398, 445
Foresti, Antonio, 47
Fortis, Abbé Alberto, 308
Fouquet, Nicolas, 226
Francke, A. H., 423
François, Ier, 31–3
Franklin, Benjamin, 83
Frederick I of Prussia, 77
Frederick II of Prussia, 446
Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, 77, 175
Gale, Thomas, 49
Galland, Antoine, 16, 363
Garcilaso de la Vega, 288
Garofalo, Biagio, 196
Garth, Samuel, 369
Gassendi, Pierre, 106–7, 120, 241, 263 412
Gassendists, 119
Gay, John, 65
Gemelli, Carreri, G. F., 9
George, Elector of Hanover (George I of England), 234
Gichtel, J. G., 432
Glanvil, Joseph, 168
Goethe, 354
Gomarians, 94
Gosse, Edmund, 65
Gottsched, J. C., 355
Gracián, Baltasar, 174–5, 321–2
Grammont, Comte de, 320, 368
Gravesande, G. J., 309
Gravina, G. V., 283, 347, 354, 381
Gregory the Great, St., 82
Grimmelshausen, H. J. C. von, 391
Gronovius, Jacob, 39
Groot, Hugo de, see Grotius
Grotius (Hugo de Groot), 87, 183, 209, 263, 270–1, 275–6, 283, 412
Gualtieri, Fr. Giovanni Antonio, 308
Guericke, Otto von, 310
Guyon, Jeanne Bouvier de la Mothe, 426–30
Haendel, G. F., 381
Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 288, 320, 377
Hamilton, Anthony, 368
Hanover, Duchess of, 226
Heinsius, Daniel, 127
Helvetius, C. A., 402
Henrietta of England, 138
Herbelot, Barthélemy d’, 16–7
Herbert, Edward, Lord Cherbury, 141, 252, 263
Herodotus, 14
Hill, Aaron, 360
Hippo, 285
Hobbes,
Thomas, 141, 148, 263, 268, 274, 277
Hochstetter, A. A., 67
Hocquincourt, Charles de Monchy,
Maréchal d’, 323
Homer, 338–9, 353
Horace, 346, 353
Huet, Gédéon, 302
Huet, Pierre Daniel, Bishop of Avranches, 45–6, 205
Huisseau, Pastor d’, 95, 301
Huygens, Christian, 309
Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, 30
Irenaeus, St., 189
James II of England, 62–3, 276
Jaquelot, I., 85, 113–4
Jerome, St., 161, 192, 202, 444
Jérôme Acosta (Richard Simon), 194
Jérôme le Camus (Richard Simon), 194
Jérôme de Sainte-Foi (Richard Simon), 194
John of the Cross, St., 429
Josephus, 263
Julius Caesar, 33
Jurieu, Pierre, 85, 89, 104, 113, 147, 208, 274–5, 301, 373
Justin, Saint and Martyr, 161
Juvenal, 377
King, William, 111, 113
Knutsen, Matthias, 147
Kuhlmann, Quirinus, 433
