12. De la nature humaine, ou Exposition des facultés, des actions et des passions de l'âme, Londres (Amsterdam), 1772. (Thomas Hobbes.) Reprinted in a French Edition of Hobbes' works by Holbach and Sorbière, 1787. Appeared first in English in 1640, omitted in a Latin Edition of Hobbes printed in Amsterdam. In spite of its brevity, Holbach considered this one of Hobbes' most important and luminous works.
13. Discours sur les Miracles de Jesus Christ (Amsterdam, 1780?). Translated from Woolston, whom Holbach admired very much for his uncompromising attitude toward truth. He suffered fines and imprisonments, but would not give up the privilege of writing as he pleased. The present discourse was the cause of a quarrel with his friend Whiston. He died Jan. 27, 1733, "avec beaucoup de fermeté... il se ferma les yeux et la bouche de ses propres mains, et rendit l'esprit." This work exists in a manuscript book of 187 pages, written very fine, in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Mss. français 15224) and was current in France long before 1780. In fact it is mentioned by Grimm before 1770, but the dictionaries (Barber, Quérard) generally date it from 1780.
Before turning to Holbach's original works mention should be made of a very interesting and extraordinary book that he brought to light, retouched, and later used as a kind of shield against the attacks of the parliaments upon his own works.
In 1766 he published a work entitled L'Antiquité dévoilée par ses usages, ou Examen critique des principales Opinions, Cérémonies et Institutions religieuses et politiques des différens Peuples de la Terre. Par feu M. Boulanger, Amsterdam, 1766. This is a work based on an original manuscript by Boulanger, who died in 1759, preceded by an excellent letter on him by Diderot, published also in the Gazette Littéraire.
The use made by Holbach of Boulanger's name makes it necessary to consider for a moment this almost forgotten writer. Nicholas Antoine Boulanger was born in 1722. As a child he showed so little aptitude for study that later his teachers could scarcely believe that he had turned out to be a really learned man. As Diderot observes, "ces exemples d'enfans, rendus ineptes entre les mains des Pédans qui les abrutissent en dépit de la nature la plus heureuse, ne sont pas rares, cependant ils surprennent toujours" (p. 1). Boulanger studied mathematics and architecture, became an engineer and was employed by the government as inspector of bridges and highways. He passed a busy life in exacting outdoor work but at the same time his active intellect played over a large range of human interests. He became especially concerned with historical origins and set himself to learn Latin and Greek that he might get at the sources. Not satisfied that he had come to the root of the matter he learned Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew and Chaldean. Diderot says "Il lisait et étudiait partout, je l'ai moi-même rencontré sur les grandes routes avec un auteur rabinnique à la main." He made a mappemonde in which the globe is divided in two hemispheres, one occupied by the continents, the other by the oceans, and by a singular coincidence he found that the meridian of the continental hemisphere passed through Paris. Some such rearrangement of hemispheres is one of the commonplaces of modern geography. He furnished such articles as, Deluge, Corvée, Société for the Encyclopedia and wrote several large and extremely learned books, among them Recherches sur l'origine du Despotisme oriental and Antiquité dévoilée. He died from overwork at the age of thirty-seven.
Boulanger's ideas on philosophy, mythology, anthropology and history are of extraordinary interest today. Diderot relates his saying—"Que si la philosophie avait trouvé tant d'obstacles parmi nous c'était qu'on avait commencé par où il aurait fallu finir, par des maximes abstraites, des raisonnemens généraux, des réflexions subtiles qui ont révolté par leur étrangeté et leur hardiesse et qu'on aurait admises sans peine si elles avaient été précédées de l'histoire des faits." He carried over this inductive method into realm of history, which he thought had been approached from the wrong side, i.e., the metaphysical, "par consulter les lumières de la raison" (p. 8). He continues, "j'ai pensé qu'il devait y avoir quelques circonstances particulières. Un fait et non une spéculation métaphysique m'a toujours semblé devoir être et tribut naturel et nécessaire de l'histoire." Curiously enough the central fact in history appeared to Boulanger to be the deluge, and on the basis of it he attempted to interpret the Kulturgeschichte of humanity. It is a bit unfortunate that he took the deluge quite as literally as he did; his idea, however, is obviously the influence of environmental pressure on the changing beliefs and practices of mankind. Under the spell of this new point of view, he writes, "Ce qu'on appelle l'histoire n'en est que la partie la plus ingrate, la plus uniforme, la plus inutile, quoi qu'elle soit la plus connue. La véritable histoire est couverte par le voile des temps" (p. 7). Boulanger however was not to be daunted and on the firm foundation of the fact of some ancient and universal catastrophe, as recorded on the surface of the earth and in human mythology, he proceeds to inquire into the moral effects of the changes in the physical environment back to which if possible the history of antiquity must be traced. Man's defeat in his struggle with the elements made him religious, hinc prima mali labes. "Son premier pas fut un faux pas, sa première maxime fut une erreur" (p. 4 sq). But it was not his fault nor has time repaired the evil moral effects of that early catastrophe. "Les grandes révolutions physiques de notre globe sont les véritables époques de l'histoire des nations" (p. 9). Hence have arisen the various psychological states through which mankind has passed. Contemporary savages are still in the primitive state—Boulanger properly emphasizes the relation of anthropology to history—"On aperçoit qu'il y a une nouvelle manière de voir et d'écrire l'histoire des hommes" (p. 12) and with a vast store of anthropological and folklorist learning he writes it so that his assailant, Fabry d'Autrey, in his Antiquité justifiée (Paris, 1766) is obliged to say with truth, "Ce n'est point ici un tissus de mensonges grossiers, de sophismes rebattus et bouffons, appliqués d'un air méprisant aux objets les plus intéressants pour l'humanité. C'est une enterprise sérieuse et réfléchie" (p. 11).
In 1767 Holbach published his first original work, a few copies of which had been printed in Nancy in 1761. This work was Le Christianisme dévoilé ou Examen des principes et des effets de la religion Chrétienne. Par feu M. Boulanger. Londres (Amsterdam), 1767. There were several other editions the same year, one printed at John Wilkes' private press in Westminster. It was reprinted in later collections of Boulanger's works, and went through several English and Spanish editions. The form of the title and the attribution of the work to Boulanger were designed to set persecution on the wrong track. There has been some discussion as to its authorship. Voltaire and Laharpe attributed it to Damilaville, at whose book shop it was said to have been sold, but M. Barbier has published detailed information given him by Naigeon to the effect that Holbach entrusted his manuscript to M. De Saint-Lambert, who had it printed by Leclerc at Nancy in 1761. Most of the copies that got to Paris at that time were bought by several officers of the King's regiment then in garrison at Nancy, among them M. de Villevielle, a friend of Voltaire and of Condorcet. Damilaville did not sell a single copy and even had a great deal of trouble to get one for Holbach who waited for it a long time. This circumstantial evidence is of greater value than the statement of Voltaire who was in the habit of attributing anonymous works to whomever he pleased. [39:2]
The edition of 1767 was printed in Amsterdam as were most of Holbach's works. We have the details of their publication from Naigeon cadet, a copyist, whose brother, J. A. Naigeon, was Holbach's literary factotum. In a manuscript note in his copy of the Système de la Nature he tells how he copied nearly all Holbach's works, either at Paris or at Sedan, where he was stationed, and where his friend Blon, the postmaster, aided him, passing the manuscripts on to a Madame Loncin in Liège, who in turn was a correspondent of Marc-Michel Rey, the printer in Amsterdam. Sometimes they were sent directly by the diligence or through travellers. This account agrees perfectly with information given M. Barbier orally by Naigeon aîné. After being printed in Holland the books were smuggled into France sous le manteau, as the expression is, and sold at absurd rates by colporters. [40:3]
Diderot writing to Falconet early in 1768 [40:4] says: "Il pleut des livres incrédules. C'est un feu roulant qui crible le sanctuaire de toutes parts... L'intolérance du gouvernment s'accroit de jour en jour. On dirait que c'est un projet formé d'éteindre ici les lettres, de ruiner le commerce de librairie et de nous réduire à la besace et à la stupidité... Le Christianisme dévoilé s'est vendu jusqu'à quatre louis."
When caught the colporters were severely punished. Diderot gives the following instance in a letter to Mlle. Volland Oct. 8, 1768 (Avézac-Lavigne, Diderot, p. 161): "Un apprenti avait reçu, en payment ou autrement, d'un colporteur appelé Lécuyer, deux exemplaires du Christianisme dévoilé et il avait vendu un de ces exemplaires à son patron. Celui-ci le défère au lieutenant de police. Le colporteur, sa femme et l'apprenti sont arrêtés tous les trois; ils viennent d'être piloriés, fouettés et marqués, et l'apprenti condamné à neuf ans de galères, le colporteur à cinq ans, et la femme à l'hôpital pour toute sa vie."