In treating of the Philosophers and other writers of the eighteenth century I have not endeavored to give an abridgment of their books, but to explain such of their doctrines as seemed to me most important and influential. This I have done, where it was possible, in their own language. I have quoted where I could; and in many cases where quotation marks will not be found, the only changes from the actual expression of the author, beyond those inevitable in translation, have been the transference from direct to oblique speech, or some other trifling alterations rendered necessary in my judgment by the exigencies of grammar. On the other hand, I have tried to translate ideas and phrases rather than words. EDWARD J. LOWELL. June 24, 1892. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION I. THE KING AND THE ADMINISTRATION II. LOUIS XVI. AND HIS COURT III. THE CLERGY IV. THE CHURCH AND HER ADVERSARIES V. THE CHURCH AND VOLTAIRE VI. THE NOBILITY VII. THE ARMY VIII. THE COURTS OF LAW IX. EQUALITY AND LIBERTY X. MONTESQUIEU XI. PARIS XII. THE PROVINCIAL TOWNS XIII. THE COUNTRY XIV. TAXATION XV. FINANCE XVI. "THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA" XVII. HELVETIUS, HOLBACH, AND CHASTELLUX XVIII. ROUSSEAU'S POLITICAL WRITINGS XIX. "LA NOUVELLE HÉLOÏSE" AND "ÉMILE" XX. THE PAMPHLETS XXI. THE CAHIERS XXII. SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL MATTERS IN THE CAHIERS XXIII CONCLUSION INDEX OF EDITIONS CITED THE EVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. INTRODUCTION. It is characteristic of the European family of nations, as distinguished from the other great divisions of mankind, that among them different ideals of government and of life arise from time to time, and that before the whole of a community has entirely adopted one set of principles, the more advanced thinkers are already passing on to another. Throughout the western part of continental Europe, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, absolute monarchy was superseding feudalism; and in France the victory of the newer over the older system was especially thorough. Then, suddenly, although not quite without warning, a third system was brought face to face with the two others. Democracy was born full-grown and defiant. It appealed at once to two sides of men's minds, to pure reason and to humanity. Why should a few men be allowed to rule a great multitude as deserving as themselves? Why should the mass of mankind lead lives full of labor and sorrow? These questions are difficult to answer. The Philosophers of the eighteenth century pronounced them unanswerable. They did not in all cases advise the establishment of democratic government as a cure for the wrongs which they saw in the world. But they attacked the things that were, proposing other things, more or less practicable, in their places. It seemed to these men no very difficult task to reconstitute society and civilization, if only the faulty arrangements of the past could be done away. They believed that men and things might be governed by a few