BARON D'HOLBACH ***
Project Gutenberg E-Text of Baron D'Holbach: A Study of Eighteenth Century Radicalism in France by Max Pearson Cushing (27-Oct-1886 to 12-Jan-1951) Originally published 1914
This e-text transcribed by David Ross
Proofed by Richard Farris
BARON D'HOLBACH A Study of Eighteenth Century Radicalism in France
by
MAX PEARSON CUSHING
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University
New York 1914
Press of The New Era Printing Company Lancaster, PA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction.
CHAPTER I. HOLBACH THE MAN.
Early Letters to John Wilkes.
Holbach's family.
Relations with Diderot, Rousseau, Hume, Garrick and other important persons of the century.
Estimate of Holbach. His character and personality.
CHAPTER II. HOLBACH'S WORKS.
Miscellaneous Works.
Translations of German Scientific Works.
Translations of English Deistical Writers.
Boulanger's _Antiquite devoilee_.
Original Works: _Le Christianisme devoile_. _Theologie portative_. _La Contagion sacree_. _Essai sur les prejuges_. _Le bons-sens_.
CHAPTER III. THE _Systeme de la Nature_ AND ITS PHILOSOPHY.
Voltaire's correspondence on the subject.
Goethe's sentiment.
Refutations and criticisms.
Holbach's philosophy.
APPENDIX. HOLBACH'S CORRESPONDENCE.
Five unpublished letters to John Wilkes.
[ENDNOTES]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Part I. Editions of Holbach's works in Chronological Order.
Part II. General Bibliography.
BARON D'HOLBACH
A une extreme justesse d'esprit il joignait une simplicite de moeurs tout-a-fait antique et patriarcale.
J. A. Naigeon, _Journal de Paris_, le 9 fev. 1789
INTRODUCTION
Diderot, writing to the Princess Dashkoff in 1771, thus analysed the spirit of his century:
Chaque siecle a son esprit qui le caracterise. L'esprit du notre semble etre celui de la liberte. La premiere attaque contre la superstition a ete violente, sans mesure. Une fois que les hommes ont ose d'une maniere quelconque donner l'assaut a la barriere de la religion, cette barriere la plus formidable qui existe comme la plus respectee, il est impossible de s'arreter. Des qu'ils ont tourne des regards menacants contre la majeste du ciel, ils ne manqueront pas le moment d'apres de les diriger contre la souverainete de la terre. Le cable qui tient et comprime l'humanite est forme de deux cordes, l'une ne peut ceder sans que l'autre vienne a rompre. [Endnote 1:1]
