In 1819 an anonymous translation of the Letters to Eugenia was published
in London by Richard Carlile. This translation in some of its parts
was sufficiently complete and correct, but in others it was at
absolute variance with the original work; in other parts, also, it was
interlarded with matter not written by d'Holbach; and in others, large
portions of the original Letters were entirely omitted, as were likewise
a number of notes and the whole of the preliminary observations, with
which the volume was introduced to the public by Naigeon, so long the
intimate friend of both d'Holbach and Diderot. In again presenting
the work in an English dress, the London translation has been made
the foundation of this, but the whole has been thoroughly revised and
collated with the original. The omitted portions have been translated
and inserted in their proper places, and though some passages of the
London work, not entirely faithful to the original, have been allowed to
stand, yet the book, as it now appears, is essentially a new one, and
is the most accurate and complete translation of the Letters to Eugenia
which has ever been made into the English language.
The work at first came anonymously from the press, and the mystery
of its authorship was sedulously maintained in the introductory
observations of Naigeon, in consequence of the danger which then
attended the issue of Infidel productions, not only in France
but throughout Christendom. The book was printed in Amsterdam, at
d'Holbach's own expense, by Marc-Michael Rey, a noble printer, to whom
the world is greatly indebted for the inestimable aid he rendered the
philosophers. But bold as he was, and then living in a country the most
free of any in the world, he dared not openly send these Letters from
his own press. They were issued in 1768, in two duodecimo volumes,
without any publisher's name, and with the imprint of _London_ on the
title page, in order to set those persecutors at bay who were prowling
for victims, and who sought to burn author, printer, and book at the
same pile. The prudence of the author and printer saved _them_ from
this fate; but the book had hardly reached France before its sale was
forbidden under penalty of fines and imprisonment, and it was condemned
by an act of Parliament to be burnt by the public executioner in the
streets of Paris, all of which particulars will be narrated in the
Biographical Memoir of Baron d'Holbach, which I am now preparing for the
press.
Of the excellence of the Letters to Eugenia, nothing need here be said.
The work speaks for itself, and abounds in that eloquence peculiar
to its author, and overflows with kindly sentiments of humanity,
benevolence and virtue. Like d'Holbach's other works, it is
distinguished by an ardent love of liberty, and an invincible hatred of
despotism; by an unanswerable logic, by deep thought, and by profound
ideas. The tyrant and the priest are both displayed in their true
colors; but while the author shows himself inexorable as fate towards
oppressive hierarchies and false ideas, he is tender as an infant to
the unfortunate, to those overburdened with unreasonable impositions,
to those who need consolation and guidance, and to those searching
after truth. Addressed, as the Letters were, to a lady suffering from
religious falsehoods and terrors, the object of the writer is set forth
in the motto from Lucretius which he placed on the title page, and which
may thus be expressed in English:--
"Reason's pure light I seek to give the mind,
And from Religion's fetters free mankind."