Humanities: Philosophy

416 LETIERS IN CANADA: 1965 world of reality. As what is ]mown must be known in the mode of the knower, these dreams are often lacking in 'purely literary worth, but they are begotten in that same fruitful Unconscious from which literature also is born. It is of phantasmagoria and dream-grotto that melodrama is composed. To laugh at the dreams of a great century is to show ourselves, and not our ancestors, to be naive. (RoBERTSON DAviEs) PHILOSOPHY D. W. Smith's attractive new Helwitius (Oxford University Press, pp. viii, 248, $6.50) is one of the few intensive studies of the ultra-materialist to appear since Albert Keirn's resuscitation of homme and reuvre in 1907. Despite its title, however, it is only incidentally a biography. of the retired fermier general. Nor does it conclude, surprisingly, that he was persecuted in the usual sense of the term; it may be overstating the case to call him a "scapegoat" and to imply that he was an engage sans le savoir, unless one gives a very generous interpretation to Morellet's epithet, "ap6tre et martyr de la philosophie." . The focus of the three-part work is on the events (pp. 15-63) and press comment (pp. 64-91) of the crucial period of the affaire De l'esprit, from February, 1758, to November, 1759. Parts II and lii analyze the reactions of the Church (pp. 95-154) and the philosophes (pp. 157-217). A brief conclusion resumes the facts and arguments. Specialists and dixhuitiemistes in general will be grateful to Professor Smith for his scholarly treatment of a critical moment in tlie history of ideas and attitudes. Unexpected dividends are a rare portrait appearing as the frontispiece-its source is not indicated and the stamp is illegibleplus a comprehensive bibliography and what amounts to an etat present of studies on Helv6tius. In less than two pages, the protagonist's personal history is sketched: the family medical tradition, his career as an honest tax-farmer and favourite of Queen Marie, his reputation as a roue and devoted husband, city salonnier, and country gentleman. His relationships with inHuential friends (including Malesherbes, Choiseul, and Mme de Pompadour) emerge in the course of the affaire; those with the encyclopedistes and philosophes (whom the author calls philosophers on occasion) are sorted HUMANITIES 417 and clarified in later chapters, with special attention to Rousseau (pp. 172-84) and Diderot (pp. 185-217). There is exemplary terseness in the presentation of the epistemology, ethics and educational ideas expounded in De l'esprit. The external history of the treatise, its changes in fortune and the "intricate pattern of cross-forces" are thoroughly documented, from the "foolhardy decision'' to publish to the last episcopal condemnation. For the baffled or impatient reader, two helpful digests of the col'nplex calendar of events are given (pp. 35, 64-5). Those interested in the book trade might have appreciated some indication of the various "first" editions and of the total sales of the succes de scandale. Items to be posted to the credit side of the De l'esprit ledger: privilege, approbation, publication, some timely interventions. Items to debit: betrayal of obliging official, two censorings, three retractions, assortment of suspensions, bannings, burnings, and censures. The list of condemnations to be entered in red: Pope Clement xm, King Louis xv (once cured of gout by Helvetius pere), the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, the Archbishop of Paris, the bishops of Soissons and Lodeve, the Parlement, the Sorbonne. Ensuing chapters show that the journalistes and pamphleteers were, with rare exceptions, anti-De l'esprit, even when lenient with the honnete homme who wrote it. Out of this seeming adversity, there came to Helvetius no material loss beyond that of his post as major doino to the Queen. At forty-four, he had a considerable fortune, a fine chateau .at Vore, something more than a pied-a-terre in Paris. He ·still had the favour of Mme de Pompadour , if not that of the Queen. He had, as well, a devoted wife, soon to be famed as a leading hostess, a wide circle of acquaintances, and ample time for travel abroad. Best of all, he was...