Desbarreaux (Jacques Vallée), Seigneur, French poet and sceptic, b. Paris, 1602, great-nephew of Geoffrey Vallée, who was burnt in 1574. Many stories are related of his impiety, e.g. the well-known one of his having a feast of eggs and bacon. It thundered, and Des Barreaux, throwing the plate out of window, exclaimed, “What an amount of noise over an omelette.” It was said he recanted and wrote a poem beginning, “Great God, how just are thy chastisements.” Voltaire, however, assigns this poem to the Abbé Levau. Died at Chalons, 9 May, 1673.
Descartes (René), French philosopher, b. at La Haye, 31 March, 1596. After leaving college he entered the army in ’16, and fought in the battle of Prague. He travelled in France and Italy, and in ’29 settled in Holland. In ’37 he produced his famous Discourses upon the Method of Reasoning Well, etc., and in ’41 his Meditations upon First Philosophy. This work gave such offence to the clergy that he was forced to fly his country “parce qu’il y fait trop chaud pour lui.” He burnt his Traite du Monde (Treatise on the World) lest he should incur the fate of Gallilei. Though a Theist, like Bacon, he puts aside final causes. He was offered an asylum by Christina, Queen of Sweden, and died at Stockholm 11 Feb. 1650.
Deschamps (Léger-Marie), known also as Dom Deschamps, a French philosopher, b. Rennes, Poitiers, 10 Jan. 1716. He entered the Order of Benedictines, but lost his faith by reading an abridgment of the Old Testament. He became correspondent of Voltaire, Rousseau, d’Alembert, Helvetius, and other philosophers. “Ce prêtre athée,” as Ad. Franck calls him, was the author of a treatise entitled La Vérité, ou le Vrai Système, in which he appears to have anticipated all the leading ideas of Hegel. God, he says, as separated from existing things, is pure nothingness. An analysis of his remarkable work, which remained in manuscript for three-quarters of a century, has been published by Professor Beaussire (Paris, 1855). Died at Montreuil-Bellay, 19 April 1774.
Deslandes (André François Boureau), b. Pondichery, 1690. Became member of the Berlin Academy and wrote numerous works, mostly under the veil of anonymity, the principal being A Critical History of Philosophy, 3 vols(1737). His Pygmalion, a philosophical romance, was condemned by the parliament of Dijon, 1742. His Reflexions sur les grands hommes qui sont mort en Plaisantant (Amsterdam, 1732) was translated into English and published in 1745 under the title, Dying Merrily. Another work directed against religion was On the certainty of Human Knowledge, a philosophical examination of the different prerogatives of reason and faith (London, 1741). Died Paris, 11 April, 1757.
Des Maizeaux (Pierre), miscellaneous writer, b. Auvergne, 1673. He studied at Berne and Geneva, and became known to Bayle who introduced him to Lord Shaftesbury, with whom he came to London, 1699. He edited the works of Bayle, Saint Evremond and Toland, whose lives he wrote, as well as those of Hales and Chillingworth. Anthony Collins was his friend, and at his death left him his manuscripts. These he transferred to Collins’s widow and they were burnt. He repented and returned the money, 6 Jan. 1730, as the wages of iniquity. He became Secretary of the Royal Society of London, where he died, 11 July, 1745.
Desmoulins (Lucié Simplice Camille Benôit), French revolutionary writer, b. Guise, 2 March, 1760. He was a fellow-student of Robespierre at Paris, and became an advocate and an enthusiastic reformer. In July ’89 he incited the people to the siege of the Bastille, and thus began the Revolution. On 29 Dec. 1790 he married Lucile Laridon-Duplessis. He edited Le Vieux Cordelier and the Révolutions de France et de Brabant, in which he stated that Mohammedanism was as credible as Christianity. He was a Deist, preferring Paganism to Christianity. Both creeds were more or less unreasonable; but, folly for folly, he said, I prefer Hercules slaying the Erymanthean boar to Jesus of Nazareth drowning two thousand pigs. He was executed with Danton, 5 April 1794. His amiable wife, Lucile, who was an Atheist (b. 1770), in a few days shared his fate (April 13). Carlyle calls Desmoulins a man of genius, “a fellow of infinite shrewdness, wit—nay, humor.”
Des Periers (Jean Bonaventure), French poet and sceptic, b. Arnay le Duc, about 1510. He was brought up in a convent, only to detest the vices of the monks. In 1535 he lived in Lyons and assisted Dolet. He probably knew Rabelais, whom he mentions as “Francoys Insigne.” Attached to the court of Marguerite of Valois, he defended Clement Marot when persecuted for making a French version of the Psalms. He wrote the Cymbalum Mundi, a satire upon religion, published under the name of Thomas de Clenier à Pierre Tryocan, i.e., Thomas Incrédule à Pierre Croyant, 1537. It was suppressed and the printer, Jehan Morin, imprisoned. Des Periers fled and died (probably by suicide, to escape persecution) 1544. An English version of Cymbalum Mundi was published in 1712. P. G. Brunet, the bibliographer, conjectures that Des Periers was the author of the famous Atheistic treatise, The Three Impostors.
Destriveaux (Pierre Joseph), Belgian lawyer and politician, b. Liége, 13 March, 1780. Author of several works on public right. Died Schaerbeck (Brussels), 3 Feb. 1853.
Destutt de Tracy (Antoine Louis de Claude) Count, French materialist philosopher, b. 20 July, 1754. His family was of Scotch origin. At first a soldier, he was one of the first noblemen at the Revolution to despoil himself of his title. A friend of Lafayette, Condorcet, and Cabanis, he was a complete sceptic in religion; made an analysis of Dupuis’ Origine de tous les Cultes (1804), edited Montesquieu and Cabanis, was made a member of the French Academy (1808), and wrote several philosophical works, of which the principal is Elements of Ideology. He was a great admirer of Hobbes. Died Paris, 9 March, 1836.
Des Vignes (Pietro), secretary to Frederick II. (1245–49). Mazzuchelli attributes to him the treatise De Tribus Impostoribus.