Introduction

Caroline Warman

1

Acknowledgements

7

1.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, 1789

11

2.

Voltaire, ‘Prayer to God’, from Treatise on Tolerance, 1763

14

3.

Three aphorisms from Denis Diderot, Philosophical Thoughts, 1746; Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, 1748; and Voltaire, Portable Philosophical Dictionary, 1764

16

4.

Nicolas de Condorcet, ‘On Admitting Women to the Rights of Citizenship’, 1790

18

5.

John Locke, Letter on Toleration, 1686

22

6.

Denis Diderot, ‘Aius Locutius’, from the Encyclopédie, 1751

24

7.

Montesquieu, ‘On the Enslavement of Negroes’, from The Spirit of the Laws

27

8.

Jean-François Marmontel, ‘Minds are not Enlightened by the Flames of an Executioner’s Pyre’, from Belisarius, 1767

29

9.

Three aphorisms from Diderot The Philosopher and Marshal ***’s Wife Have a Deep Chat, 1774; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile, or On Education, 1762; and Frederick the Great of Prussia

31

10.

Abbé Grégoire, On Freedom of Worship, 1794

33

11.

Immanuel Kant, ‘Dare to Know’, from What is Enlightenment?, 1784

35

12.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, 1784

36

13.

Pierre Bayle, On Tolerance, or A philosophical Commentary on these Words of the Gospel, Luke XIV. 23, Compel Them to Come in, 1686

38

14.

Alexandre Deleyre, ‘Fanaticism’, from the Encyclopédie, 1756

39

15.

Four aphorisms from Louis de Jaucourt, ‘Intolerant’, from the Encyclopédie, 1765; William Warburton, Essay on Egyptian Hieroglyphics, 1744; Rousseau, Émile, or On Education; and Anon., ‘Refugees’, from the Encyclopédie, 1765

41

16.

Jean le Rond d’Alembert, On the Suppression of the Jesuits, 1765

43

17.

Jeanne-Marie Roland, Personal Memoirs, 1795

45

18.

Evariste de Parny, The War of the Gods, 1799

47

19.

Olympe de Gouges, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, 1791

49

20.

Pierre Bayle, On Tolerance, 1686

52

21.

Voltaire, La Henriade, 1723

53

22.

Three aphorisms from Diderot, The Eleutheromaniacs, 1772; Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762; and Moses Mendelssohn, Morning Hours, 1785

55

23.

Montesquieu, The Persian Letters, 1721

57

24.

Abbé Grégoire, ‘New Observations on the Jews and in Particular on the Jews of Amsterdam and Frankfurt’, 1807

59

25.

Rétif de la Bretonne, Paris Nights, 1788

61

26.

Three aphorisms from Diderot, Philosophical Thoughts; Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, 1786; and Rousseau, The Social Contract

64

27.

Voltaire, Candide, 1759

66

28.

d’Alembert, ‘Geometer’, from the Encyclopédie, 1757

68

29.

Rabaut Saint-Étienne, ‘No Man Should Be Harassed for His Opinions nor Troubled in the Practice of His Religion’, 1789

70

30.

Three aphorisms from Diderot, ‘Letter to My Brother’, 1760; Voltaire, Treatise on Metaphysics, 1735; and Rousseau, The Citizen, or An Address on Political Economy, 1765

72

31.

Diderot, Extract from a Letter to Princess Dashkova, 3 April 1771

74

32.

Voltaire, ‘Free Thinking’, from Dictionary of Philosophy, 1764

75

33.

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, ‘Reflections on Slavery’, from A Voyage to the Island of Mauritius, 1773

79

34.

Pierre de Marivaux, The French Spectator, 5 October 1723

82

35.

Louis-Alexandre Devérité, Collected Documents of Interest on the Case of the Desecration of the Abbeville Crucifix, which Occurred on 9th August 1765, 1776

83

36.

Anon., The Private and Public Life of the Posterior Marquis de Villette, Retroactive Citizen, 1791

86

37.

Three aphorisms from Diderot, Philosophical Thoughts; Marivaux, The French Spectator; and Pierre Jean George Cabanis, On Sympathy, 1802

87

38.

Leandro Fernández de Moratín, ‘A Philanthropic Congregation’, 1811

89

39.

Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

90

40.

Voltaire, ‘On Universal Tolerance’, 1763

93

41.

Three aphorisms from Diderot, Philosophical Thoughts; Marivaux, The French Spectator; and Voltaire, ‘Fanaticisme’, from Portable Philosophical Dictionary

96

42.

Condorcet, Anti-superstitious Almanack, 1773-1774

98

43.

Montesquieu, Persian Letters

100

44.

José Cadalso y Vázquez de Andrade, Defence of the Spanish Nation against Persian Letter 78 by Montesquieu, 1775

102

45.

Nicolas-Edme Rétif, known as Rétif de la Bretonne, Ninth Juvenal. The False Immorality of the Freedom of the Press, 1796

103

46.

Condorcet, Anti-superstitious Almanack

105

47.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise, 1779

106

48.

Three aphorisms from Germaine de Staël, Reflections on the French Revolution, 1818; Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments; and Rousseau, Reveries of a Solitary Walker, 1782

109

49.

Luis Guttiérez, Cornelia Bororquia, or the Inquisition’s Victim, 1801

111

50.

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, ‘Fraternal Harmonies’, 1815

112

51.

Diderot, Supplement to Bougainville’s Voyage, 1772

114

52.

Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon, Memoirs, posthumous

116

53.

Three aphorisms from Alexandre Deleyre, ‘Fanaticism’, from the Encyclopédie; Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, 1789; and Voltaire, Letter to Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, 9 November 1764

119

54.

Helvétius, Essays on the Mind, 1758

121

55.

Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Portrait of Paris, 1781

123

56.

Juan Pablo Forner, In Praise of Spain and its Literary Merit, 1786

124

57.

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, ‘The Two Persians’, 1792

126

58.

Three aphorisms from Rousseau, Émile, or on Education; Voltaire, Letter to the King of Prussia, 20 December 1740; and Jaucourt, ‘Tolerance’, censored article from the Encyclopédie

128

59.

Voltaire, On the Horrible Danger of Reading, 1765

130