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 © 1963 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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TO OUR BELOVED
GRANDDAUGHTER
MONICA
Dear Reader:
THIS volume is Part VIII in a history whose beginning has been forgotten, and whose end we shall never reach. The subject is civilizazation, which we define as social order promoting cultural creation; therefore it includes government, economy (agriculture, industry, commerce, finance), morality, manners, religion, art, literature, music, science, and philosophy. The aim is integral history—to cover all phases of a people’s activity in one perspective and one unified narrative; that aim has been very imperfectly achieved. The scene is Europe. The time is from the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) to the death of Louis XIV, whose reign (1643–1715) dominated and named the age.
The pervading theme is the Great Debate between faith and reason. Faith was on the throne in this period, but reason was finding new voices in Hobbes, Locke, Newton, Bayle, Fontenelle, and Spinoza; this “Classical Age was throughout what it called itself at its close, the Age of Reason.”* Almost a third of the book is devoted to the “Intellectual Adventure” out of superstition, obscurantism, and intolerance to scholarship, science, philosophy. An attempt is made to report the discussion fairly, despite the authors’ evident prejudice; hence the extended and sympathetic treatment of such able defenders of the faith as Pascal, Bossuet, Fénelon, Berkeley, Malebranche, and Leibniz. Our children will live a new chapter in this conflict of ideals, where every victory must be repeatedly rewon.
We hope to present Part IX, The Age of Voltaire, in 1965, and Part X, Rousseau and Revolution, in 1968. Some difficulties have arisen, partly from the wealth of material offered by the eighteenth century, all demanding study and space. Meanwhile we shall rely on the Great Powers not to destroy our subject before it destroys us.
May, 1963
WILL AND ARIEL DURANT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of the associated publishers with whom we began this “word business” in 1926 has passed away; we shall never forget his bright spirit. The other is still our friend, always enthusiastic, generous, and forgiving, a publisher who remains a poet.
We trust that it will not be interpreted as “a lively sense of future favors” if we take this—which could be our last—chance to express our gratitude to the many critics who have won us an audience for these volumes. Without their help we should have been voices moaning in the wilderness.
We owe a substantial debt to our daughter Ethel for her devoted transformation of our not quite legible second draft into an almost perfect typescript, with wise emendations. And to our sisters and brother—Sarah, Flora, Mary, and Harry Kaufman—for their patient classification of some forty thousand notes under some twelve thousand headings. To Mrs. Anne Roberts of the Los Angeles Public Library, and Miss Dagny Williams of the Hollywood Regional Library, for their precious aid in securing rare books from all over America; these volumes could never have been written without our magnificent, open-handed libraries. And to Mrs. Vera Schneider, of the editorial staff of Simon and Schuster, for such scholarly editing of this and the preceding volume as probably few manuscripts have ever received.
NOTES ON THE USE OF THIS BOOK
1. Dates of birth or death have usually been omitted from the narrative, where they tend to be forgotten or lost; they will be found always available in the Index.
2. The value of coins in any age is subject to so many influences and variations that no reliable system can be set up for equating them with current currencies. The livre in this period sank in value to the level of a franc. Voltaire reported* a silk weaver of Lyon in 1768 supporting a wife and eight children on 45 sous daily, or (since he received nothing on Sundays or holidays) 639 livres per year. A similar family would need at least $50 per week, or $2,600 per year, in the United States of 1962; this would equate a livre with $4.07. In the London of 1779 a worker with wife and children required about 19 shillings per week for rent, food, and common necessaries;† this would make a shilling equal to $2.50. From such comparisons we derive the following hazardous and loose equivalents:
crown, $12.50
ducat, $12.50
écu, $8.00
florin, $12.50
franc, $2.50
guinea, $52.50
guilder, $10.50
gulden, $10.50
livre, $2.50
louis d’or, $50.00
mark, $30.00
penny, $.21
pound, $50.00
reale, $.50
ruble, $10.00
scudo, $1.16
shilling, $2.50
sou, $.15
thaler, $8.00
3. The location of works of art, when not indicated in the text, will usually 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
Brussels—Museum
Budapest—Museum of Fine Arts
Cassel—Museum
Chantilly—Musée Condé
Chatsworth—Duke of Devonshire Collection
Chicago—Art Institute
Cincinnati—Art Institute
Cleveland—Museum of Art
Detroit—Institute of Art
Dresden—Gemälde-Galerie
Dulwich—College Gallery
Edinburgh—National Gallery
Ferrara—Galleria Estense
Frankfurt—Städelsches Kunstinstitut
Geneva—Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
Haarlem—Frans Hals Museum
The Hague—Mauritshuis
Kansas City—Nelson Gallery
Leningrad—Hermitage
Lisbon—National Museum
London—National Gallery
Madrid—Prado
Milan—Brera
Minneapolis—Institute of Arts
Munich—Haus der Kunst
Naples—Museo Nazionale
New York—Metropolitan Museum of Art
Nuremberg—Germanisches Nationalmuseum
Philadelphia—Johnson Collection
Rouen—Musée Municipale
St. Louis—Art Museum
; San Diego—Fine Arts Gallery
San Francisco—De Young Museum
San Marino, Calif.—Henry E. Huntington Art Gallery
Sarasota, Fla.—Ringling Museum of Art
Seville—Art Museum
Stockholm—National Museum
Vienna—Kunsthistorisches Museum
Washington—National Gallery
4. Reduced type has occasionally been used to indicate passages of only remote or special interest, or exceptionally dull.
Table of Contents
BOOK I: THE FRENCH ZENITH: 1643–1715
Chapter I. THE SUN RISES: 1643–84
I. Mazarin and the Fronde
II. The King
III. Nicolas Fouquet
IV. Colbert Rebuilds France
V. Manners and Morals
VI. The Court
VII. The King’s Women
VIII. Le Roi S’en Va-t-en Guerre
Chapter II. THE CRUCIBLE OF FAITH: 1643–1715
I. The King and the Church
II. Port-Royal: 1204–1626
III. The Jansenists and the Jesuits
IV. Pascal
1. Himself
2. The Provincial Letters
3. In Defense of Faith
V. Port-Royal: 1656–1715
VI. The King and the Huguenots
VII. Bossuet
VIII. Fénelon
Chapter III. THE KING AND THE ARTS: 1643–1715
I. The Organization of the Arts
II. Architecture
III. Decoration
IV. Painting
V. Sculpture
Chapter IV. MOLIÈRE: 1622–73
I. The French Theater
II. Apprenticeship
III. Molière and the Ladies
IV. L’Affaire Tartuffe
V. The Amorous Atheist
VI. Meridian
VII. Curtain
Chapter V. THE CLASSIC ZENITH IN FRENCH LITERATURE: 1643–1715
I. Milieu
II. Corneille Postscript
III. Racine
IV. La Fontaine
V. Boileau
VI. The Romantic Protest
VII. Mme. de Sévigné
VIII. La Rochefoucauld
IX. La Bruyère
X. For Good Measure
Chapter VI. TRAGEDY IN THE NETHERLANDS: 1649–1715
I. The Spanish Netherlands
II. The Dutch Republic
III. The Flowering of Genre,
IV. Jan de Witt
V. William III of Orange
BOOK II: ENGLAND: 1649–1714
Chapter VII. CROMWELL: 1649–60
I. The Socialist Revolt
II. The Irish Revolt
III. The Scottish Revolt
IV. Oliver Absolute
V. Puritan Heyday
VI. The Quakers
VII. Death and Taxes
VIII. The Road Back
IX. The King Returns
Chapter VIII. MILTON: 1608–74
I. John Bunyan
II. The Young Poet
III. The Reformer
IV. Marriage and Divorce
V. Freedom of the Press
VI. The Latin Secretary
VII. The Old Poet
VIII. The Final Years
Chapter IX. THE RESTORATION: 1660–85
I. The Happy King
II. The Religious Caldron
III. The English Economy
IV. Art and Music
V. Morals
VI. Manners
VII. Religion and Politics
VIII. The “Popish Plot”
IX. Comoedia finita
Chapter X. THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION: 1685–1714
I. The Catholic King
II. Deposuit potentes de sede
III. England under William III
IV. England under Queen Anne
Chapter XI. FROM DRYDEN TO SWIFT: 1660–1714
I. A Free Press
II. The Restoration Drama
III. John Dryden
IV. A Catalogue
V. Evelyn and Pepys
VI. Daniel Defoe
VII. Steele and Addison
VIII. Jonathan Swift
BOOK III: THE PERIPHERY: 1648–1715
Chapter XII. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE BALTIC: 1648–1721
I. Adventurous Sweden
II. Poland and Sobieski
III. Russia Turns West
IV. Peter Learning
V. Charles XII and the Great Northern War
Chapter XIII. PETER THE GREAT: 1698–1725
I. The Barbarian
II. The Petrine Revolution
III. Aftermath
Chapter XIV. THE CHANGING EMPIRE: 1648–1715
I. The Reorganization of Germany
II. The German Soul
III. The Arts in Germany
IV. Austria and the Turks
Chapter XV. THE FALLOW SOUTH: 1648–1715
I. Catholic Italy
II. Italian Art
III. The Christine Odyssey
IV. From Monteverdi to Scarlatti
V. Portugal
VI. The Collapse of Spain
Chapter XVI. THE JEWISH ENCLAVES: 1564–1715
I. The Sephardim
II. The Dutch Jerusalem
III. England and the Jews
IV. The Ashkenazim
V. The Inspirations of Faith
VI. Heretics
BOOK IV: THE INTELLECTUAL ADVENTURE: 1648–1715
Chapter XVII. FROM SUPERSTITION TO SCHOLARSHIP: 1648–1715
I. Impediments
II. Education
III. The Scholars
Chapter XVIII. THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST: 1648–1715
I. The International of Science
II. Mathematics
III. Astronomy
IV. The Earth
V. Physics
VI. Chemistry
VII. Technology
VIII. Biology
IX. Anatomy and Physiology
X. Medicine
XI. Results
Chapter XIX. ISAAC NEWTON: 1642–1727
I. The Mathematician
II. The Physicist
III. The Genealogy of Gravitation
IV. The Principia
V. Evening
Chapter XX. ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY: 1648–1715
I. Thomas Hobbes
1. Formative Influences
2. Logic and Psychology
3. Ethics and Politics
4. Religion and the State
5. Baiting the Bear
6. Results
II. Harrington’s Utopia
III. The Deists
IV. Defenders of the Faith
V. John Locke
1. Biography
2. Government and Property
3. Mind and Matter
4. Religion and Toleration
VI. Shaftesbury
VII. George Berkeley
Chapter XXI. FAITH AND REASON IN FRANCE: 1648–1715
I. The Vicissitudes of Cartesianism
II. Cyrano de Bergerac
III. Malebranche
IV. Pierre Bayle
V. Fontenelle
Chapter XXII. SPINOZA: 1632–77
I. The Young Heretic
II. Theology and Politics
III. The Philosopher
IV. God
V. Mind
VI. Man
VII. Reason
VIII. The State
IX. The Chain of Influence
Chapter XXIII. LEIBNIZ: 1646–1716
I. The Philosophy of Law
II. Wanderjahre
III. Leibniz and Christianity
IV. Locke Reviewed
V. Monads
VI. Was God Just?
VII. Paralipomena
BOOK V: FRANCE AGAINST EUROPE: 1683–1715
Chapter XXIV. THE SUN SETS
I. Mme. de Maintenon
II. The Grand Alliance: 1689??
?97
III. The Spanish Problem
IV. The Grand Alliance: 1701–2
V. The War of the Spanish Succession
VI. Twilight of the God
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE
NOTES
INDEX
List of Illustrations
THE page number in the captions refers to a discussion in the text of the subject or the artist, and sometimes both.
Part 1. This section follows page 78
FIG. 1—GIRARDON: Louis XIV
FIG. 2—JEAN NOCRET: Anne of Austria
FIG. 3—ANTOINE COYSEVOX: Colbert
FIG. 4—PIERRE MIGNARD: Cardinal Mazarin
FIG. 5—UNKNOWN ARTIST: Ninon de Lenclos
FIG. 6—PIERRE MIGNARD: Madame de Montespan
FIG. 7—JOOST VAN EGMONT: The Great Condé
FIG. 8—N.DE L’ARMESSIN: Louise de La Vallière
FIG. 9—HYACINTHE RIGAUD: Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orléans
FIG. 10—Death Mask of Blaise Pascal
FIG. 11—JOSEPH VIVIEN: Fénelon
FIG. 12—HYACINTHE RIGAUD: Jacques Bossuet
FIG. 13—Church of Val-de-Grâce, Paris
FIG. 14—GIRARDON: Bathing Nymphs
FIG. 15—ANDRE CHARLES BOULLE: Ebony cabinet
FIG. 16—The Louvre Colonnade
FIG. 17—Church of St.-Louis-des-lnvalides, Paris
FIG. 18—CHARLES LE BRUN: Gobelin Tapestry: The Family of Darius at the Feet of Alexander
FIG. 19—Chapel at Versailles
FIG. 20—ANTOINE COYSEVOX: Duchess of Burgundy
FIG. 21—DESJARDINS: Pierre Mignard
FIG. 22—PIERRE MIGNARD: Duchess of Maine as a Child
FIG. 23—La Rochefoucauld
FIG. 24—HOUDON: Molière
Part II. This section follows page 206
FIG. 25—TENIERS THE YOUNGER: Temptation of St. Anthony
FIG. 26—JACOB VAN RUISDAEL: The Storm
FIG. 27—MEINDERT HOBBEMA: Water Mill with the Great Red Roof
FIG. 28—VERMEER: Head of a Girl
FIG. 29—EDWARD PIERCE: John Milton
FIG. 30—SIR PETER LELY: Oliver Cromwell
FIG. 31—SIR PETER LELY: Charles II of England
FIG. 32—SIR GODFREY KNELLER: Henry Purcell
FIG. 33—PETER PAUL RUBENS: George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
FIG. 34—CHRISTOPHER WREN: Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
FIG. 35—CHRISTOPHER WREN: St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
FIG. 36—SIR GODFREY KNELLER: Sir Christopher Wren
FIG. 37—SIR PETER LELY: Nell Gwyn
FIG. 38—ANTHONY VANDYCK: James II as a Boy
FIG. 39—CHARLES JERVAS: Jonathan Swift
FIG. 40—JOHANN GOTTFRIED SCHIDOW: Frederick the Great