by Will Durant
Table of Contents
Apology
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
List of Illustrations
PROLOGUE
Chapter I. FRANCE: THE REGENCY: 1715–23
I. The Young Voltaire
II. The Struggle for the Regency
III. Boom and Crash
IV. The Regent
V. Society Under the Regency
VI. Watteau and the Arts
VII. Authors
VIII. The Incredible Cardinal
IX. Voltaire and the Bastille
BOOK I: ENGLAND: 1714–56
Chapter II. THE PEOPLE
I. Prelude to the Industrial Revolution
1. The Sustainers
2. Industry
3. Invention
4. Capital and Labor
5. Transport and Trade
6. Money
II. Aspects of London
III. Schools
IV. Morals
V. Crime and Punishment
VI. Manners
VII. Chesterfield
Chapter III. THE RULERS
I. George I
II. George II and Queen Caroline
III. Robert Walpole
IV. Bolingbroke
V. How to Get into a War
VI. Ireland
VII. Scotland
VIII. Bonnie Prince Charlie
IX. The Rise of William Pitt
Chapter IV. RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
I. The Religious Situation
II. The Deistic Challenge
III. The Religious Rebuttal
IV. John Wesley
V. Of Bees and Men
VI. David Hume
1. The Young Philosopher
2. Reason Deflated
3. Morals and Miracles
4. Darwinism and Christianity
5. Communism and Democracy
6. History
7. The Old Philosopher
Chapter V. LITERATURE AND THE STAGE
I. The Realm of Ink
II. Alexander Pope
III. The Voices of Feeling
IV. The Stage
V. The Novel
1. Samuel Richardson
2. Henry Fielding
3. Tobias Smollett
VI. Lady Mary
Chapter VI. ART AND MUSIC
I. The Artists
II. William Hogarth
III. The Musicians
IV. Handel
1. Growth
2. The Conquest of England
3. Defeat
4. The Oratorios
5. Prometheus
V. Voltaire in England
BOOK II: FRANCE: 1723–56
Chapter VII. THE PEOPLE AND THE STATE
I. The Nobility
II. The Clergy
III. The Third Estate
1. The Peasantry
2. The Proletariat
3. The Bourgeoisie
IV. The Government
V. Louis XV
VI. Mme. de Pompadour
Chapter VIII. MORALS AND MANNERS
I. Education
II. Morals
III. Manners
IV. Music
V. The Salons
Chapter IX. THE WORSHIP OF BEAUTY
I. The Triumph of Rococo
II. Architecture
III. Sculpture
IV. Painting
1. In the Antechamber
2. Boucher
3. Chardin
4. La Tour
Chapter X. THE PLAY OF THE MIND
I. The Word Industry
II. The Stage
III. The French Novel
IV. Minor Sages
V. Montesquieu
1. Persian Letters
2. Why Rome Fell
3. The Spirit of Laws
4. Aftermath
Chapter XI. VOLTAIRE IN FRANCE: 1729–50
I. In Paris: 1729–34
II. Letters on the English
III. Idyl in Cirey: 1734–44
IV. The Courtier: 1745–48
V. Liebestod
VI. Mme. Denis
BOOK III: MIDDLE EUROPE: 1713–56
Chapter XII. THE GERMANY OF BACH
I. The German Scene
II. German Life
III. German Art
IV. German Music
V. Johann Sebastian Bach
1. Chronology
2. Compositions
a. Instrumental
b. Vocal
3. Coda
Chapter XIII. FREDERICK THE GREAT AND MARIA THERESA
I. Imperial Prelude
II. Prussian Prelude
1. Frederick William I
2. Der junge Fritz
3. The Prince and the Philosopher
III. The New Machiavelli
IV. The War of the Austrian Succession
V. Frederick at Home: 1745–50
VI. Voltaire in Germany: 1750–54
Chapter XIV. SWITZERLAND AND VOLTAIRE
I. Les Délices
II. The Cantons
III. Geneva
IV. The New History
BOOK IV: THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING
1715–89
Chapter XV. THE SCHOLARS
I. The Intellectual Environment
II. The Scholarly Revelation
Chapter XVI. THE SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE
I. The Expanding Quest
II. Mathematics
1. Euler
2. Lagrange
III. Physics
1. Matter, Motion, Heat, and Light
2. Electricity
IV. Chemistry
1. The Pursuit of Oxygen
2. Priestley
3. Lavoisier
V. Astronomy
1. Instrumental Prelude
2. Astronomic Theory
3. Herschel
4. Some French Astronomers
5. Laplace
VI. About the Earth
1. Meteorology
2. Geodesy
3. Geology
4. Geography
VII. Botany
1. Linnaeus
2. In the Vineyard
VIII. Zoology
1. Buffon
2. Toward Evolution
IX. Psychology
X. The Impact of Science upon Civilization
Chapter XVII. MEDICINE
I. Anatomy and Physiology
II. The Ingenuity of Disease
III. Treatment
IV. Specialists
V. Surgery
VI. The Physicians
BOOK V: THE ATTACK UPON CHRISTIANITY
1730–74
Chapter XVIII. THE ATHEISTS: 1730–51
I. The Philosophic Ecstasy
II. The Background of Revolt
III. Jean Meslier
IV. Is Man a Machine?
Chapter XIX. DIDEROT AND THE Encyclopédie: 1713–68
I. Shiftless Years
II. The Blind, the Deaf, and the Dumb
III. History of a Book
IV. The Encyclopédie Itself
Chapter XX. DIDEROT PROTEUS: 1758–73
I. The Pantheist
II. The Dream of d’Alembert
III. Diderot on Christianity
IV. The Nephew of Rameau
V. Ethics and Politics
VI. Diderot on Art
VII. Diderot and the Theater
VIII. Diderot
Chapter XXI. THE SPREADING CAMPAIGN: 1758–74
I. Helvétius
1. Development
2. Philosophy
3. Influence
II. Auxiliaries
III. D’Holbach
1. The Amiable At
heist
2. The System of Nature
3. Morals and the State
4. D’Holbach and His Critics
Chapter XXII. VOLTAIRE AND CHRISTIANITY: 1734–78
I. Voltaire and God
II. Voltaire and the Encyclopédie
III. The Theology of Earthquakes
IV. Candide
V. The Conscience of Europe
VI. Écrasez l’infâme!
VII. Religion and Reason
VIII. Voltaire Bigot
Chapter XXIII. THE TRIUMPH OF THE Philosophes: 1715–89
I. The Clergy Fights Back
II. The Antiphilosophes
III. The Fall of the Jesuits
IV. Education and Progress
V. The New Morality
VI. Religion in Retreat
VII. Summing Up
EPILOGUE IN ELYSIUM
Photographs
About the Authors
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE
INDEX
TO OUR BELOVED
GRANDSON
JIM
Apology
BLAME for the length of this volume must rest with authors fascinated to exuberant prolixity by the central theme—that pervasive and continuing conflict between religion and science-plus-philosophy which became a living drama in the eighteenth century, and which has resulted in the secret secularism of our times. How did it come about that a major part of the educated classes in Europe and America has lost faith in the theology that for fifteen centuries gave supernatural sanctions and supports to the precarious and uncongenial moral code upon which Western civilization has been based? What will be the effects—in morals, literature, and politics—of this silent but fundamental transformation?
The scale of treatment in each volume has grown with the increasing number of past events and personalities still alive in their influence and interest today. This and the multiplicity of topics—all aspects of civilization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756—may offer some excuse for the proliferation of the tale. So The Age of Voltaire has burst its seams, and spills over into a contemplated Part X, Rousseau and Revolution, which will carry the story to 1789. This will look at the transformation of the world map by the Seven Years’ War; the later years of Louis XV, 1756–74; the epoch of Johnson and Reynolds in England; the development of the Industrial Revolution; the flowering of German literature from Lessing to Goethe, of German philosophy from Herder to Kant, of German music from Gluck to Mozart; the collapse of feudalism in the France of Louis XVI; and the history of those peripheral nations—Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Spain—which have been deferred from this volume partly to save space, and as not directly involved (except through the papacy) in the great debate between reason and faith. This final volume will consider the later phases of that debate in the revolt of Rousseau against rationalism, and the heroic effort of Immanuel Kant to save the Christian theology through the Christian ethic. The perspective of the age of Voltaire will be completed in that Part X of The Story of Civilization. The epilogue to the present volume reviews the case for religion; the epilogue to Rousseau and Revolution, surveying all ten volumes, will face the culminating question: What are the lessons of history?
We have tried to reflect reality by combining history and biography. The experiment will legitimately invite criticism, but it carries out the aim of “integral history.” Events and personalities go hand in hand through time, regardless of which were causes and which were effects; history speaks in events, but through individuals. This volume is not a biography of Voltaire; it uses his wandering and agitated life as connective tissue between nations and generations, and it accepts him as the most significant and illustrative figure of the period between the death of Louis XIV and the fall of the Bastille. Which, of all the men and women of that turbulent era, is more vividly remembered, more often read, more alive in influence today, than Voltaire? “Voltaire,” said Georg Brandes, “summarizes a century.”1 “Le vrai roi du dix-huitième siècle,” said Victor Cousin, “c’est Voltaire.”2 Let us follow that living flame through his century.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The manuscript has had the advantage of being read by Dr. Theodore Bester-man, Director of the Institut et Musée Voltaire in Geneva; we thank him for his patience, and for opening to us his great collection of Voltaireana. He found one serious error in our text, but otherwise voted us “a very high degree of accuracy.” Doubtless some errors still remain. We shall welcome all corrections that are tempered with mercy.
Our warm appreciation to Sarah and Harry Kaufman for their help in classifying the material, and to our grandson, James Easton, for revising the chapter on the history of science. Our daughter Ethel not only typed the manuscript but improved it by her suggestions. And we have had again the benefit of expert and scholarly editing of the text, the notes, and the index by Mrs. Vera Schneider.
NOTES ON THE USE OF THIS BOOK
1. Dates of birth and death will be found in the Index.
2. Voltaire reckoned a 50 per cent depreciation of French currency between 1640 and 1750.3 The general reader may use the following rough equivalents, as between 1750 and 1965, in terms of the currency of the United States of America:
crown, $6.25
ducat, $6.25
écu, $3.75
florin, $6.25
franc, $1.25
guilder, $5.25
guinea, $26.25
gulden, $5.25
livre, $1.25
louis d’or, $25.00
mark, $16.67
penny, $.10
pound, $25.00
shilling, $1.25
sou, $.0625
thaler, $4.00
3. The location of works of art, when not indicated in the text, will usually be found in the Notes. In allocating such works, the name of the city will imply its leading gallery, as follows:
Amsterdam—Rijksmuseum
Berlin—Staatsmuseum
Bologna—Accademia di Belle Arti
Budapest—Museum of Fine Arts
Chicago—Art Institute
Cincinnati—Art Institute
Cleveland—Museum of Art
Detroit—Institute of Art
Dresden—Gemälde-Galerie
Dulwich—College Gallery
Edinburgh—National Gallery
Frankfurt—Städelsches Kunstinstitut
Geneva—Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
The Hague—Mauritshuis
Kansas City—Nelson Gallery
Leningrad—Hermitage
London—National Gallery
Madrid—Prado
Milan—Brera
Naples—Museo Nazionale
New York—Metropolitan Museum of Art
Paris—Louvre
San Marino, Calif.—Henry E. Huntington Art Gallery
Vienna—Kunsthistorisches Museum
Washington—National Gallery
4. Passages in reduced type are especially dull and recondite, and are not essential to the general picture of the age.
List of Illustrations
THE page numbers in the captions refer to a discussion in the text of the subject or the artist, and sometimes both.
Part I. This section follows page 78
FIG. 1—PORTRAIT AFTER NICOLAS DE LARGILLIÈRE: Voltaire as a Young Man
FIG. 2—MICHEL CORNEILLE: Philippe d’Orléans, Regent
FIG. 3—UNKNOWN ARTIST: The Rue Quincampoix in 1718
FIG. 4—Regency Wall Paneling
FIG. 5—ALLAN RAMSAY: The Fourth Earl of Chesterfield
FIG. 6—PORTRAIT ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN MARC NATTIER: Prince Charles Edward Stuart (The Young Pretender)
FIG. 7—ANTONIO CANALETTO: View of the Thames from Richmond House
FIG. 8—ALLAN RAMSAY: David Hume
FIG. 9—W. HAMILTON: John Wesley
FIG. 10—JACOPO AMIGONI: Caroline of Ansbach
FIG. 11—ANTOINE WATTEAU: The Em
barkation for Cythera
FIG. 12—CHALK PORTRAIT ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HOARE: Alexander Pope
FIG. 13—PORTRAIT FROM THE STUDIO OF RICHARD BROMPTON: William Pitt the Elder
FIG. 14—JOSEPH HIGHMORE: Samuel Richardson
FIG. 15—SIR GODFREY KNELLER: Lady Mary Worthy Montagu
FIG. 16—ENGRAVING BASED ON A SKETCH BY WILLIAM HOGARTH: Henry Fielding
FIG. 17—UNKNOWN ITALIAN ARTIST: Tobias Smollett
FIG. 18—WILLIAM HOGARTH: Scene from Marriage à la Mode
FIG. 19—WILLIAM HOGARTH: The Shrimp Girl
FIG. 20—WILLIAM HOGARTH: Self-Portrait
FIG. 21—WILLIAM HOGARTH: Engraving, The Sleeping Congregation
FIG. 22—THOMAS HUDSON: George Frederick Handel
FIG. 23—JACQUES ANDRÉ AVED: Jean Philippe Rameau
FIG. 24—The Tuileries Palace and Gardens
Part II. This section follows page 206
FIG. 25—HYACINTHE RIGAUD: Louis XV at the Age of Six
FIG. 26—MAURICE QUENTIN DE LA TOUR: Louis XV
FIG. 27—HYACINTHE RIGAUD: Cardinal Fleury
FIG. 28—CARLE VANLOO: Marie Leszczyńska
FIG. 29—FRANÇOIS BOUCHER: Madame de Pompadour
FIG. 30—MAURICE QUENTIN DE LA TOUR: Madame de Pompadour
FIG. 31—JEAN MARC NATTIER: Madame de Châteauroux
FIG. 32—INTERIOR DECORATION, LOUIS QUINZE STYLE: Drawing Room in the Hôtel de Ludre, Paris
FIG. 33—Faïence Soup Tureen from Lunéville in Lorraine, Period of King Stanislas
FIG. 34—JACQUES CAFFIÉRI AND A. R. GAUDREAU: Commode
FIG. 35—Andirons, Period of Louis XV
FIG. 36—Mantel Clock, Period of Louis XV
FIG. 37—Tapestry, Period of Louis XV
FIG. 38—ROSLIN: François Boucher
FIG. 39—JEAN LAMOUR: Iron Gates of the Place Stanislas, Nancy
FIG. 40—FRANÇOIS BOUCHER: The Luncheon from Italian Scenes Tapestries
FIG. 41—GUILLAUME COUSTOU I: One of the Horses of Marly, Place de la Concorde
FIG. 42—JEAN BAPTISTE CHARDIN: Le Bénédicité
FIG. 43—JEAN BAPTISTE CHARDIN: The Artist’s Second Wife
FIG. 44—JEAN BAPTISTE CHARDIN: Self-Portrait
FIG. 45—FRANÇOIS BOUCHER: The Rape of Europa
Part III. This section follows page 334
FIG. 46—UNKNOWN ARTIST OF THE FRENCH 18TH-CENTURY SCHOOL: Voltaire
FIG. 47—ENGRAVING AFTER A PAINTING BY DEVERIA: Montesquieu
FIG. 48—NICOLAS DE LARGILLIÈRE: Madame du Châtelet
FIG. 49—FRANÇOIS BOUCHER: Le Coucher du Soleil (Sunset)
FIG. 50—MATTHÄUS DANIEL PÖPPELMANN: The Zwinger Palace, Dresden
FIG. 51—JOHANN MICHAEL FISCHER: The Abbey Church of the Benedictine Monastery at Ottobeuren
FIG. 52—BALTHASAR NEUMANN: Staircase of the Prince-Bishop’s Residenz, Würzburg