Rousseau and Revolution
BY WILL DURANT
The Story of Philosophy
Transition
The Pleasure of Philosophy
Adventures in Genius
BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT
THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION
1. Our Oriental Heritage
2. The Life of Greece
3. Caesar and Christ
4. The Age of Faith
5. The Renaissance
6. The Reformation
7. The Age of Reason Begins
8. The Age of Louis XIV
9. The Age of Voltaire
10. Rousseau and Revolution
11. The Age of Napoleon
The Lessons of History
Interpretation of Life
A Dual Autobiography
COPYRIGHT © 1967 BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION
IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM
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MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO OUR BELOVED DAUGHTER
ETHEL BENVENUTA
WHO, THROUGH ALL THESE VOLUMES, HAS BEEN
OUR HELP AND OUR INSPIRATION
Dear Reader:
This is the concluding volume of that Story of Civilization to which we devoted ourselves in 1929, and which has been the daily chore and solace of our lives ever since.
Our aim has been to write integral history: to discover and record the economic, political, spiritual, moral, and cultural activities of each civilization, in each age, as interrelated elements in one whole called life, and to humanize the narrative with studies of the protagonists in each act of the continuing drama. While recognizing the importance of government and statesmanship, we have given the political history of each period and state as the oft-told background, rather than the substance or essence of the tale; our chief interest was in the history of the mind. Hence in matters economic and political we have relied considerably upon secondary sources, while in religion, philosophy, science, literature, music, and art we have tried to go to the sources: to see each faith at work in its own habitat, to study the epochal philosophies in their major productions, to visit the art in its native site or later home, to enjoy the masterpieces of the world’s literature, often in their own language, and to hear the great musical compositions again and again, if only by plucking them out of the miraculous air. For these purposes we have traveled around the world twice, and through Europe unnumbered times from 1912 to 1966. The humane reader will understand that it would have been impossible, in our one lifetime, to go to the original sources in economics and politics as well, through the sixty centuries and twenty civilizations of history. We have had to accept limits, and acknowledge our limitations.
We regret that we allowed our fascination with each canto of man’s epic to hold us too willingly, with the result that we find ourselves exhausted on reaching the French Revolution. We know that this event did not end history, but it ends us. Unquestionably our integral and inclusive method has led us to give to most of these volumes a burdensome length. If we had written shredded history—the account of one nation or period or subject—we might have spared the reader’s time and arms; but to visualize all phases in one narrative for several nations in a given period required space for the details needed to bring the events and the personalities to life. Each reader will feel that the book is too long, and that the treatment of his own nation or specialty is too brief.
French and English readers may wish to confine their first perusal of this volume to Chapters I-VIII, XIII-XV, and XX-XXXVIII, leaving the rest for another day, and readers in other tongues may choose their chapters likewise. We trust, however, that some heroes will go the course with us, seeking to vision Europe as a whole in those thirty-three eventful years from the Seven Years’ War to the French Revolution.
We shall not sin at such length again; but if we manage to elude the Reaper for another year or two we hope to offer a summarizing essay on “The Lessons of History.”
WILL AND ARIEL DURANT
Los Angeles
May 1, 1967
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to Yale University and the McGraw-Hill Book Company for permission to quote from Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland, and from Boswell in Holland. It would be difficult to write about Boswell without nibbling at the feast offered by the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, so carefully edited and so handsomely published.
We are indebted also to the author and to W. W. Norton & Company for permission to quote a letter from Marc Pincherle’s excellent Vivaldi.
Our warm appreciation to Sarah and Harry Kaufman for their long and patient help in classifying the material, and to our daughter Ethel for not only typing the manuscript immaculately, but for improving the text in many ways. Our thanks to Mrs. Vera Schneider for her scholarly editing of the manuscript.
NOTES ON THE USE OF THIS BOOK
1. Dates of birth and death are in the Index.
2. Italics in excerpts are never ours unless so stated.
3. We suggest the following rough equivalents, in terms of United States dollars of 1965, for the currencies mentioned in this book:
carolin, $22.50
ciguato, $6.25
crown, $6.25
doppio, $25.00
ducat, $6.25
écu, $3.75
florin. $6.25
franc, $1.25
groschen, $1.25
guilder, $5.25
guinea, $26.25
gulden, $5.25
kreutzer, $2.50
lira, $1.25
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ruble, $10.00
rupee, $4.00
shilling, $1.25
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sou, $.05
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4. The location of works of art, when not indicated in the text, will 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
San Marino, California—Huntington Art Gallery
Vienna—Kunsthistorisches Museum
Washington—Na
tional Gallery
Table of Contents
BOOK I: PRELUDE
Chapter I. ROUSSEAU WANDERER: 1712-56
I. The Confessions
II. Homeless
III. Maman
IV. Lyons, Venice, Paris
V. Is Civilization a Disease?
VI. Paris and Geneva
VII. The Crimes of Civilization
VIII. The Conservative
IX. Escape from Paris
Chapter II. THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR: 1756–63
I. How to Start a War
II. The Outlaw
III. From Prague to Rossbach
IV. The Fox at Bay
V. The Making of the British Empire
VI. Exhaustion
VII. Peace
BOOK II: FRANCE BEFORE THE DELUGE:1757-74
Chapter III. THE LIFE OF THE STATE
I. The Mistress Departs
II. The RecoVery of France
III. The Physiocrats
IV. The Rise of Turgot
V. The Communists
VI. The King
VII. Du Barry
VIII. Choiseul
IX. The ReVolt of the Parlements
X. The King Departs
Chapter IV. THE ART OF LIFE
I. Morality and Grace
II. Music
III. The Theater
IV. Marmontel
V. The Life of Art
1. Sculpture
2. Architecture
3. Greuze
4. Fragonard
VI. The Great Salons
1. Mme. Geoffrin
2. Mme. du Deffand
3. Mlle, de Lespinasse
Chapter V. VOLTAIRE PATRIARCH: 1758-78
I. The Good Lord
II. The Scepter of the Pen
III. Voltaire Politicus
IV. The Reformer
V. Voltaire Himself
Chapter VI. ROUSSEAU ROMANTIC: 1756-62
I. In the Hermitage
II. In Love
III. Much Ado
IV. The Break with the Philosophes
V. The New Héloïse
Chapter VII. ROUSSEAU PHILOSOPHER
I. The Social Contract
II. Émile
1. Education
2. Religion
3. Love and Marriage
Chapter VIII. ROUSSEAU OUTCAST: 1762–67
I. Flight
II. Rousseau and the Archbishop
III. Rousseau and the Calvinists
IV. Rousseau and Voltaire
V. Boswell Meets Rousseau
VI. A Constitution for Corsica
VII. Fugitive
VIII. Rousseau in England
BOOK III: THE CATHOLIC SOUTH: 1715-89
Chapter IX. Italia Felix: 1715-59
I. The Landscape
II. Music
III. Religion
IV. From Turin to Florence
V. Queen of the Adriatic
1. Venetian Life
2. Vivaldi
3. Remembrances
4. Tiepolo
5. Goldoni and Gozzi
VI. Rome
VII. Naples
1. The King and the People
2. Giambattista Vico
3. Neapolitan Music
Chapter X. PORTUGAL AND POMBAL: 1706-82
I. John V
II. Pombal and the Jesuits
III. Pombal the Reformer
IV. The Triumph of the Past
Chapter XI. SPAIN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT: 1700-88
I. Milieu
II. Philip V
III. Ferdinand VI
IV. The Enlightenment Enters
IX. Francisco de Goya y Spain
V. Charles III
1. The New Government
2. The Spanish Reformation
3. The New Economy
VI. The Spanish Character
VII. The Spanish Mind
VIII. Spanish Art
IX. Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
1. Growth
2. Romance
3. Zenith
4. Revolution
5. Decrescendo
Chapter XII. Vale, Italia: 1760-89
I. Farewell Tour
II. Popes, Kings, and Jesuits
III. The Law and Beccaria
IV. Adventurers
1. Cagliostro
2. Casanova
V. Winckelmann
VI. The Artists
VII. I Musici
VIII. Alfieri
Chapter XIII. THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN AUSTRIA: 1756-90
I. The New Empire
II. Maria Theresa
III. Joseph Growing
IV. Mother and Son
V. The Enlightened Despot
VI. The Emperor and the Empire
VII. Atra Mors
Chapter XIV. MUSIC REFORMED
I. Christoph Willibald Gluck
II. Joseph Haydn
Chapter XV. MOZART
I. The Wonderful Boy
II. Adolescence
III. Music and Marriage
IV. In Paris
V. Salzburg and Vienna
VI. The Composer
VII. Spirit and Flesh
VIII. Apogee
IX. Nadir
X. Requiem
BOOK IV: ISLAM AND THE SLAVIC EAST: 1715-96
Chapter XVI. ISLAM:1715-96
I. The Turks
II. African Islam
III. Persia
Chapter XVII. RUSSIAN INTERLUDE: 1725-62
I. Work and Rule
II. Religion and Culture
III. Russian Politics
IV. Elizabeth Petrovna
V. Peter and Catherine
VI. Peter III
Chapter XVIII. CATHERINE THE GREAT: 1762-96
I. The Autocrat
II. The Lover
III. The Philosopher
IV. The Statesman
V. The Economist
VI. The Warrior
VII. The Woman
VIII. Literature
IX. Art
X. Journey’s End
Chapter XIX. THE RAPE OF POLAND: 1715-95
I. Polish Panorama
II. The Saxon Kings
III. Poniatowski
IV. The First Partition
V. The Polish Enlightenment
VI. Dismemberment
BOOK V: THE PROTESTANT NORTH: 1756-89
Chapter XX. FREDERICK‘S GERMANY: 1756-86
I. Frederick Victorious
II. Rebuilding Prussia
III. The Principalities
IV. The German Enlightenment
V. Gotthold Lessing
VI. The Romantic Reaction
VII. Sturm und Drang
VIII. The Artists
IX. After Bach
X. Der Alte Fritz
Chapter XXI. KANT: 1724-1804
I. Prolegomena
II. Critique of Pure Reason
III. Critique of Practical Reason
IV. Critique of Judgment
V. Religion and Reason
VI. The Reformer
VII. Posthumous
Chapter XXII. ROADS TO WEIMAR: 1733-87
I. The Athens of Germany
II. Wieland
III. Goethe Prometheus
1. Growth
2. Götz and Werther
3. The Young Atheist
IV. Herder
V. Schiller’s Wanderjahre
Chapter XXIII. WEIMAR IN FLOWER: 1775-1805
I. Wieland Sequel
II. Herder and History
III. Goethe Councilor
IV. Goethe in Italy
V. Goethe Waiting
VI. Schiller Waiting
VII. Schiller and Goethe
Chapter XXIV. GOETHE NESTOR: 1805—32
I. Goethe and Napoleon
II. Faust: Part I
III. Nestor in Love
IV. The Scientist
V. The Philosopher
VI. Faust: Part II
VII. Fulfillment
Chapter XXV. THE JEWS: 1715-89
I. The Struggle for Existence
II. The Mystic Solace
III. Moses Mendelssohn
IV. Toward Freedom
Chapter XXVI. FROM GENEVA TO STOCKHOLM
I. The Swiss: 1754-98
II. The Dutch: 1715-95
III. The Danes: 1715-97
IV. The Swedes: 1718-97
1. Politics
2. Gustavus III
3. The Swedish Enlightenment
4. Assassination
BOOK VI: JOHNSON’S ENGLAND: 1756-89
Chapter XXVII. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
I. Causes
II. Components
III. Conditions
IV. Consequences
Chapter XXVIII. THE POLITICAL DRAMA: 1756-92
I. The Political Structure
II. The Protagonists
III. The King Versus Parliament
IV. Parliament Versus the People
V. England Versus America
VI. England and India Revolution
VII. England and the French
VIII. The Heroes Retire
Chapter XXIX. THE ENGLISH PEOPLE: 1756-89
I. English Ways
II. English Morals
III. Faith and Doubt
IV. Blackstone, Bentham, and the Law
V. The Theater
1. The Performance
2. Garrick
VI. London
Chapter XXX. THE AGE OF REYNOLDS: 1756-90
I. The Musicians
II. The Architects
III. Wedgwood
IV. Joshua Reynolds
V. Thomas Gainsborough
Chapter XXXI. ENGLAND’S NEIGHBORS: 1756-89
I. Grattan’s Ireland
II. The Scottish Background
III. The Scottish Enlightenment
IV. Adam Smith
V. Robert Burns
VI. James Boswell
1. The Cub
2. Boswell Abroad
3. Boswell at Home
Chapter XXXII. THE LITERARY SCENE:1756-89
I. The Press
II. Laurence Sterne
III. Fanny Burney
IV. Horace Walpole
V. Edward Gibbon
1. Preparation
2. The Book
3. The Man
4. The Historian
VI. Chatterton and Cowper
VII. Oliver Goldsmith
Chapter XXXIII. SAMUEL JOHNSON:1709-84
I. Deformative Years
II. The Dictionary
III. The Charmed Circle
IV. Ursus Major
V. The Conservative Mind
VI. Autumn
VII. Release
VIII. Boswell Moriturus
BOOK VII : THE COLLAPSE OF FEUDAL FRANCE: 1774-89
Chapter XXXIV. THE FINAL GLORY:1774-83
I. The Heirs to the Throne
II. The Government
III. The Virgin Queen