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Diderot's Supposed Contribution to D'holbach's Works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Virgil W. Topazio
Virgil W. Topazio*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester, Rochester, N. Y.
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Extract

We are confronted today with a persistent tradition, whose veracity has been less questioned with the passing years, that Diderot not only contributed extensively to the thought and style, but also wrote many of the pages, of D'Holbach's works.

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , March 1954, pp. 173 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1954

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References

1 This memoir is to be found at the end of Naigeon's Mémoires historiques et philosophiques sur la vie et les ouvrages de D. Diderot (Paris, 1821), pp. 417-429. The original title was “Aux Mânes de Diderot,” and it is under this title that it is included in the Œuvres de Diderot (Paris: Garnier, 1875-77), i, xiii-xix. All references will be to the Assézat-Tourneux ed. In order to simplify the footnote problem, the references to the Lettres à Sophie Volland will also be to the Assézat-Tourneux ed., unless the André Babelon edition (Paris: Gallimard 1930) records a variant reading.

2 See Naigeon's “Lettre sur la mort de M. le Baron d'Holbach,” Journal de Paris, 9 Feb. 1789, p. 175; Meister's “Article nécrologique sur d'Holbach,” Correspondance littéraire (Paris: Garnier, 1877-82), xv, 416; M. P. Cushing, Baron d'Holbach, A Study of Eighteenth-Century Radicalism in France (New York, 1914), p. 22; John Viscount Morley, Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (London, 1923), p. 164; W. H. Wickwar, Baron d'Holbach, A Prelude to the French Revolution (London, 1935), pp. 46-50. For an excellent treatment of D'Holbach's role in the vulgarization of science and his influence on “philosophie” by his contact with and interest in the sciences, see Pierre Naville, Paul Thiry D'Holbach et la philosophie scientifique au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1943), pp. 181-200.

3 The Correspondance littéraire contains unfavorable comments on the Théologie portative (vii, 426); De l'Imposture sacerdotale (vii, 508); the Esprit du Clergé, which Grimm admitted not having seen (vii, 387); David, ou l'Histoire de l'homme selon le cœur de Dieu (viii, 249-250); the Contagion sacrée; the Lettres à Eugénie; and the Lettres philosophiques (viii, 158-159).

4 Ibid., viii, 157, vii, 426; see also André Cazes, Grimm et les Encyclopédistes (Paris, 1933), pp. 221-222.

5 See Babelon, Correspondance inédite (Paris, 1931), i, 226; also Bédier and Hazard, Histoire de la littérature française illustrée (Paris, 1923), ii, 87.

6 In the Assézat-Tourneux ed., the first is missing, and the second and third read: “les manuscrits de M. de …” and “la besogne de M. de …” (Œuvres, xix, 245 and 247).

7 Babelon, Lettres à Sophie Volland, iii, 99-100.

8 See Correspondance littéraire, viii, 158.

9 See Voltaire, Œuvres, ed. Moland (Paris, 1877-85), xlvii, 139 (Voltaire's letter of 16 July 1770 to D'Alembert); and xlvii, 151 (D'Alembert's letter to Voltaire).

10 Babelon, Lettres à Sophie Volland, iii, 224. In the Assézat-Tourneux edition (xix, 331) this reads: “tout mon temps au Grandval s'en va à blanchir les chiffons des autres,” but the original MS. of the letter clearly reads “du Baron.”

11 An 1822 ed. of the Système de la nature (4 vols. in 18, Paris: Domèse) attributed this last chapter to Diderot. On this none too reliable authority, Tourneux likewise attributed it to Diderot. See Babelon, Cor., ii, 154, n. 2.

12 See iii, 236 (20 Nov. 1770); also 2 letters to Grimm in Correspondance inédite, i, 87-88 (15 Sept. 1759); 98 (2 Nov. 1769).

13 Naigeon, “Encyclopédie méthodique,” Philosophie ancienne et moderne, iii, 365, quoted by Lough in RHL, xlvii (1947), 216.

14 Babelon, Cor., i, 25 (letter of 1 May 1759).

15 Ibid., ii, 103-104 (letter to Denise).

16 Naigeon, p. 425, or Œuvres de Diderot, i, xvii, n.

17 Many examples of Diderot's awareness of his extraordinary ability and genius can be cited. Some of the most outstanding are: Œuvres, xviii, 399; xviii, 276; xix, 475; and ii, 273.

18 His letters to Sophie furnish numerous remarks which prove the great amount of work he did for Grimm: Œuvres, xix, 47-48 (17 Sept. 1761); 52 (22 Sept. 1761); 112 (26 Aug. 1762); 169 (18 Aug. 1765); 175 (8 Sept. 1765); 231 (8 Sept. 1767); 244 (24 Sept. 1767); 309 (24 July 1769); 313 (23 Aug. 1769); 326 (1 Oct. 1769); 339 (2 Nov. 1770); 340 (20 Nov. 1770). For a comprehensive picture of the assistance Diderot gave to Grimm during the latter's frequent trips, both as contributor to and substitute editor of the Correspondance littéraire, see J. R. Smiley, Diderot's Relations with Grimm (Illinois, 1950), Chap. iii. References to Diderot's having helped others are equally plentiful: Œuvres, xix, 112 (26 Aug. 1762); 208 (20 Dec. 1765); 309 (24 July 1769); 317 (2 Sept. 1769); 339 (2 Nov. 1770); and 341 (20 Nov. 1770); see also Mme de Vandeul's “Mémoires sur Diderot,” Œuvres, i, 47.

19 It is true that Diderot's correspondence has not come down to us intact. Part of it was destroyed by M. de Vandeul, his son-in-law. The possibility does exist, therefore, that the letters destroyed or lost may have contained references to Diderot's collaboration with D'Holbach. However, justifiable conclusions can logically be based only upon what can actually be analyzed and evaluated, not upon mere speculation.

20 “Essai sur les œuvres politiques & morales du Baron d'Holbach,” Annales Révolutionnaires, xv (1923), 209.

21 See Voltaire's “Style,” Œuvres, xx, 439.

22 Morley, Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, ii, 169.

23 Mémoires historiques sur la vie de M. Suard, sur ses écrits et sur le XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1820), i, 211.

24 Wickwar, Baron D'Holbach, A Prelude to the French Revolution, p. 78.

25 Alfred C. Hunter, J.-B.-A.-Suard, un Introducteur de la littérature anglaise en France (Paris, 1925), pp. 11, 157; also p. 145.

26 See Henri Lion, Annales Révolutionnaires, xiv (1922), 278.

27 André Morellet, Mémoires sur le 18e siècle et sur la Révolution (Paris, 1821), i, 133.

28 “Lettre sur la mort de M. le Baron d'Holbach,” Journal de Paris, 9 Feb. 1789, p. 175.

29 See Babelon, Cor., ii, 154-155 (letter of 24 May 1770).

30 See Lough, RHL, xxvii (1947), 316, n. 1.

31 For a well-documented study of Diderot's relations with Mme de Maux, see J. Lortel, “Une Rectification: un amour inconnu de Diderot,” RHL, xxiii (1916), 482-503. Additional information can be obtained from Jean Pommier, “Etudes sur Diderot,” Revue d'histoire de la philosophie et d'histoire générale de la civilisation, x (1942), 153-180.