by Will Durant
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759–97), 881
Wolzogen, Frau Henrietta von (fl. 1782), 572
Wolzogen, Lotte von, 572
women, 896
in England, 678, 682, 728, 730–31, 787
in factories, 671, 678, 682
in France, 97, 99, 906–8
in Germany, 503–4
in Italy, 218–19
in Moslem countries, 413
in Poland, 474
Rousseau’s views on, 186
in Spain, 290–91
Sturm und Drang movement and, 522
Woodfall, Henry Sampson (1739–1805), 706
Woodward, Henry (1714–77), 741
Wootton, Rousseau’s stay in, 211–12
Wordsworth, William (1770–1850), 3, 809, 813
workers: in England, 670–71, 673, 676–82
in France, 914
French Revolution and, 933–341 in Russia, 423
Smith’s support for, 771
Works of Ossian, The (Macpherson), 559, 567, 767–68, 809
World as Will and Idea, The (Schopenhauer), 550
Wortley Montagu, Edward (1678–1761), 412, 413, 73ο
Writings and Genius of Shakespeare, The (Montagu), 730
Württemberg, 502–3
Württemberg, Duke of: in 1733–37, see Karl
Alexander, Duke; in 1737–93, see Karl Eugen, Duke
Württemberg, Prince of, 246
Württemberg, Princess of, 246
Würzburg-Bamberg, 503
Würzburg Residenz, 239
Xenien (Goethe and Schiller), 598–99
Yankovich, Theodor (fl. 1786), 453
“Ye banks an’ braes o’ bonnie Doon” (Burns), 777
Yenikale, 458
York, theater in, 740
Yorktown, battle of (1781), 714, 761, 871
Young, Arthur (1741–1820), 912, 931
description of Paris, 933
on emerging revolutionary movement in French, 946
on French agriculture, 928
on manners in France, 905
on Marie Antoinette, 941
observations of, 933
on poverty in England, 677
on unrest in Paris, 957, 959
Young, Edward (1683–1765), 518, 661
Young Pretender, see Stuart, Charles Edward
Ypres, 361
Yverdon, 190
Zaddikim, 636
Zaluski, Józef Andrzej, bishop of Kiev, 475, 481
Zand dynasty, 420
Zante, 229
Zapater, Goya’s friend (fl. 1788), 303
Zarcillo y Alcáraz, Francisco (1707–81), 298
Zavadovsky, Piotr (fl. 1776), 446
Zedlitz, Karl Abraham von (1731–93), 505, 535, 540
zelanti faction, 317
Zelter, Karl Friedrich (1758–1832), 614–15
Zeno, Apostolo (1668–1750), 220, 223, 239
Ziegesar, Silvie von (fl. 1810), 612–13
Zielence, battle of (1792), 488–89
Ziethen, Johann (Hans) Joachim von (1699–1786), 60
Zimmermann, Dr. Johann Georg (1728–95), 530, 582, 608
Zoffany, John (1733–1810), 746
Zorich, Simon (fl. 1777), 446
Zorndorf, battle of (1758), 53, 437
Zubov, Platon (b. 1764), 446, 470
Zubov, Valerian (b. 1765), 470
Züllichau, battle of, 55
Zur Farbenlehre (Goethe), 616
Zurich, 643, 645
Zweibrücken, Duke Charles of, see Charles, Duke of Zweibrücken
About the Authors
WILL DURANT was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, on November 5, 1885. He was educated in the Catholic parochial schools there and in Kearny, New Jersey, and thereafter in St. Peter’s (Jesuit) College, Jersey City, New Jersey, and Columbia University. New York. For a summer he served as a cub reporter on the New York Journal, in 1907, but finding the work too strenuous for his temperament, he settled down at Seton Hall College, South Orange, New Jersey, to teach Latin, French, English, and geometry (1907-11). He entered the seminary at Seton Hall in 1909, but withdrew in 1911 for reasons he has described in his book Transition. He passed from this quiet seminary to the most radical circles in New York, and became (1911-13) the teacher of the Ferrer Modern School, an experiment in libertarian education. In 1912 he toured Europe at the invitation and expense of Alden Freeman, who had befriended him and now undertook to broaden his borders.
Returning to the Ferrer School, he fell in love with one of his pupils—who had been born Ida Kaufman in Russia on May 10, 1898—resigned his position, and married her (1913). For four years he took graduate work at Columbia University, specializing in biology under Morgan and Calkins and in philosophy under Wood-bridge and Dewey. He received the doctorate in philosophy in 1917, and taught philosophy at Columbia University for one year. In 1914, in a Presbyterian church in New York, he began those lectures on history, literature, and philosophy that, continuing twice weekly for thirteen years, provided the initial material for his later works.
The unexpected success of The Story of Philosophy (1926) enabled him to retire from teaching in 1927. Thenceforth, except for some incidental essays Mr. and Mrs. Durant gave nearly all their working hours (eight to fourteen daily) to The Story of Civilization. To better prepare themselves they toured Europe in 1927, went around the world in 1930 to study Egypt, the Near East, India, China, and Japan, and toured the globe again in 1932 to visit Japan, Manchuria, Siberia, Russia, and Poland. These travels provided the background for Our Oriental Heritage (1935) as the first volume in The Story of Civilization. Several further visits to Europe prepared for Volume 2, The Life of Greece (1939), and Volume 3, Caesar and Christ (1944). In 1948, six months in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and Europe provided perspective for Volume 4, The Age of Faith (1950). In 1951 Mr. and Mrs. Durant returned to Italy to add to a lifetime of gleanings for Volume 5, The Renaissance (1953); and in 1954 further studies in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, and England opened new vistas for Volume 6, The Reformation (1957).
Mrs. Durant’s share in the preparation of these volumes became more and more substantial with each year, until in the case of Volume 7, The Age of Reason Begins (1961), it was so great that justice required the union of both names on the title page. And so it was on The Age of Louis XIV (1963), The Age of Voltaire (1965), and Rousseau and Revolution (winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1968).
The publication of Volume 11, The Age of Napoleon, in 1975 concluded five decades of achievement. Ariel Durant died on October 25, 1981, at the age of 83; Will Durant died 13 days later, on November 7, aged 96. Their last published work was A Dual Autobiography (1977).
* The debate as to the truthfulness of the Confessions is still warm on two continents. It turns chiefly on Rousseau’s charge that Grimm and Diderot had conspired to give a false account of his relations with Mme. d’Épinay, Mme. d’Houdetot, and themselves. The balance of critical judgment before 1900 was against Rousseau. About 1850 Sainte-Beuve, with unwonted acerbity, decided that “Rousseau, whenever his self-esteem and his diseased vanity are at stake, has not the slightest hesitation about lying, and I have arrived at the conclusion that with respect to Grimm he was a liar.”5 And the most learned of French literary historians, Gustave Lanson, agreed (1894): “We surprise Rousseau on every page in flagrant falsehoods—falsehood, not mere error; yet the book as a whole burns with sincerity—a sincerity not of facts but of feeling.”6 These judgments preceded the publication of Mrs. Frederika Macdonald’s Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A New Study in Criticism (London, 1906), which “makes out a good case for regarding Mme. d’Épinay’s Mémoires as colored, if not actually dictated, by the malevolent attitude of Grimm and Diderot; and her study of the documents undoubtedly qualifies a good many of the assumptions that had been previously made.”7 Cf. Masson, La Religion de Rousseau (I, 184): “We shall see with what caution we must use this recital [the Mémoires ], which was so strongly retouched [remanié
] by Diderot.” Similar judgments favorable to Rousseau were reached by Matthew Josephson (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 434-35, 531), Émile Faguet (Vie de Rousseau, 189), Jules Lemaître (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 9-10), and C. E. Vaughn (Political Writings of Rousseau, II, 295, 547-48, 552 f.).
* A minor controversy obscures the narrative at this point. Diderot, in 1782, reported Rousseau’s visit in a manner reconcilable with Rousseau’s account: “When … Rousseau came to consult me about the view he should adopt, ‘The part you will take,’ I said, ‘is that which others would reject.’ ‘You are right,’ said he.”63 Marmontel, about 1793, quoted Diderot as having dissuaded Rousseau from taking the affirmative stand. “I shall follow your advice,’ said Rousseau.”64
* “What I am not, that for me is God and virtue.”—Nietzsche.111
* Chiefly Droit public de l’Europe (1748); Observations sur les Grecs (1749); Observations sur les Romains (1751); Droits et devoirs des citoyens (1758); Entretiens de Phocion sur le rapport de la morale avec la politique (1763); Observations sur l’histoire de France (1765); Doutes proposés aux philosophes économistes (1768, against the physiocrats); De la Législation, ou Principes des lois (1776); De la Manière d’écrire l’histoire (1783, demanding accurate and contemporary documentation); Principes de la morale (1784); Observations sur le gouvernement et les lois des États-Unis de l’Amérique (1784).
* “What! Two kisses at the close of my life! What a passport you deign to send me! Two!—it is one too many, adorable Egeria; I shall die with pleasure at the first.”
* “Qui n’a pas vécu dans les années voisine de 1780 n’a pas connu le plaisir de vivre.” So this famous remark appears in P. Dupré’s Encyclopédie des citations (Paris, 1959), 1, 635, which quotes, as source, Fr. Guizot’s Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de mon temps (Paris, 1858-68), 1,6.1
* This was the age of such master engravers and etchers as Charles-Nicolas Cochin, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Jean-Jacques Boissieu, and Charles Eisen—who was the outstanding book illustrator of the 18th century.
* Her letters to Guibert were preserved by his wife, and were published in 1811.
* See Robespierre’s description of the Encyclopedists: “As far as politics were concerned, this party drew the line at the Rights of the People. … Its leaders sometimes held forth against despotism, and were fed by despots; sometimes they wrote articles on kings, sometimes dedications in their honor. They penned speeches for courtiers, and madrigals for cv rtesans.”57
* Michelet has a charming passage on this thèse royale: “It is the chimera of the philosophes and the economists—of such men as Voltaire and Turgot—to accomplish the revolution—to achieve the happiness of mankind—by means of the king. Nothing is more curious than to behold this idol disputed by both parties. The philosophes pull him to the right, the priests to the left. Who will carry him off? Women.”75
* They returned to Paris in October, 1759; her home there became one of the minor salons. Her book on education was crowned by the Academy.
* In the profusion of Boufflers who entered history in the 18th century we may distinguish (1) the Duchesse de Boufflers, who became the Maréchale de Luxembourg, (2) the Marquise de Boufflers, mistress of Stanislas Leszczyński, and (3) the Comtesse de Boufflers, friend of David Hume and Horace Walpole.
* The material in brackets is tentative interpretation, and is not explicitly in Rousseau.
* Cf. Rousseau to his friend de Luze: “I wish I could go and see you, but in order not to show off my Armenian cap in the streets, I am obliged to ask you to come to me.”97
* The 1928 edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians gave him one column; the 1954 edition gave him twelve; judge from this the sudden expansion of Vivaldi’s reputation. Is fame a whim of chance?
* Two of Gozzi’s “fables” were made into operas: Re Turandote by Weber, Busoni, and Puccini, The Love of the Three Oranges by Prokofiev.
* A law of Aragon prescribed that every hidalgo should supply each of his sons with a pension, since “it would not be seemly for a nobleman to work.”59
* Goethe was fascinated by Cagliostro’s career, and made it the subject of a middling play, Der Grosskophta.
* Cf. Pater, in his classic essay on Winckelmann: “He may have had a sense of a certain antique and as it were pagan grandeur in the Roman Catholic religion. Turning from the crabbed Protestantism which had been the ennui of his youth, he might reflect that while Rome had reconciled itself to the Renaissance, the Protestant principle in art had cut off Germany from the supreme tradition of beauty.”53 And Goethe wrote in a little book on Winckelmann (1804): “The pagan temper radiates from all of his actions and writings. … His remoteness from every Christian way of thinking, indeed his very aversion to this way of thinking, must be kept in mind when we attempt to pass judgment on his so-called change of religion. The parties into which the Christian religion is divided were to him a matter of utter indifference.”54 “Pagan” need not mean atheist; Winckelmann repeatedly affirmed his belief in God, but in “the God of all tongues, nations, and sects.”55
* “Mme. de Lucchesini … was able to listen, which is not as easy as many think, and no fool ever knew how to do it.”2
* This was originally issued at Leipzig in 1862 as Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlicher Toniverke W. A. Mozarts . We use the revision by Alfred Einstein in Mozart, His Character and His Work (London, 1957), 473-83.
* The story that Euler confused Diderot before the Russian court with an imaginary algebraic proof of God’s existence is probably apocryphal.42
* It was the favorite residence of Czar Nicholas II; from it he fled to Siberia and death in 1917. The Soviets transformed it into a museum. It was severely damaged in the Second World War, but has been restored.
* English readers may pronounce Polish c usually as ts; cz as ch; sz as sh; and w as v .
* In 1889 Breitkopf and Hartel published 120 compositions by Frederick the Great. Several are available on records. His Sinfonía in D for Two Flutes and Orchestra was revived in Berlin in 1928 and in New York in 1929.8
* In a letter to Garve, 1798, Kant gave a later explanation of his “awakening”: “The antinomies of pure reason [the difficulties involved in either believing or disbelieving in God, free will, or immortality] … first aroused me from my dogmatic slumber and drove me to a critique of reason.”21
* “Know you the land where the lemon trees bloom, where the golden oranges glow in the dark foliage, where a soft wind blows from the blue sky, and the quiet myrtle and the lofty bay tree stand: do you know it well? There, there would I go with you, O my beloved!”
* Verweile doch, du bist so schon!
* Caspar Friedrich Wolff had come to the same conclusion in 1768.
* When one speaker complained that North slept through the oration, North replied that it was unjust to complain of his taking a remedy which the honorable gentleman himself had supplied. When an irate member demanded his head he answered that he would gladly surrender it provided he did not have to accept the member’s head in exchange.68
* The city of Wilkes-Barre, in Pennsylvania, was named for Wilkes and Barré, who strongly supported the cause of the colonies in Parliament.
* I.e., the compulsion laid upon Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, by the mob at Versailles, to march back with it to Paris and to live under popular surveillance in the Tuileries (Oct. 5-6, 1789).
* Lady Mary Wortley Montagu?
* Must.
† Drunk.
* Wealth.
† To do such things I must not.
* Not alone.
• One.
* Hangs.
* Gold.
† Fellow.
‡ Dolt.
§ Prize.
** The discovery of Boswell’s journals was among the most exciting events in the literary history of our time. He had bequeathed his papers to his heirs, who judged them too scandalous for publication. One bundle, containing the London Journal
, was found at Fettercairn House, near Aberdeen, in 1930; a larger treasure was ferreted out from the chests and closets of Malahide Castle, near Dublin, in 1925-40. Most of the papers were bought by Colonel Ralph Isham, and were acquired from him by Yale University. Professor Frederick A. Pottle edited them for the McGraw-Hill Book Company, which has sole publishing rights. We are grateful for permission received, from editor and publisher, to quote some passages from the journals. Professor Pottle’s James Boswell: The Earlier Years appeared after this section was written.
* Cf. Voltaire: “All history, in short, is little else than a … collection of crimes, follies, and misfortunes . . .”128
* Cham meant khan . The phrase was apparently first used by Smollett in a letter to Wilkes, March 16, 1759.
* Arthur Young, English gentleman farmer, traveled on the Continent in 1787, 1788, and 1789, and reported his observations in Travels in France (1792). He had some English prejudices (“Take the mass of mankind, and you have more good sense in half an hour in England than in half a year in France”4); but he seems to have given a fair and reliable account of what he saw. We shall find him reporting prosperity as well as poverty. His chief criticisms of France were of its technological backwardness and its excessively centralized, ubiquitous, and autocratic government.