The name of the lady was designedly kept in secrecy, and was unknown,
except to _a very few_, till some years after d'Holbach's death. We now
know from the _Feuilles Posthumes_ of Lequinio, who had it from Naigeon,
that the _Letters_ were written several years before their publication,
for the instruction of a lady formerly distinguished at the French
Court for her graces and virtues. They were addressed to the charming
Marguerite, Marchioness de Vermandois. Her husband held the lucrative
post of farmer-general to the king, and besides inherited large estates.
He possessed excellent natural abilities, and his mind was strengthened
and adorned by culture and letters. Had his modesty permitted him, to
appear as such, he would now be known as a poet of genius and merit,
for he wrote some poems and plays that were much admired by all who were
allowed to peruse them. He was married in 1763, on the day he completed
his twenty-first year, to Marguerite Justine d'Estrades, then only
nineteen years of age, and whom he saw for the first time in his life
only six weeks before they became husband and wife. Like most of the
matches then made among the higher classes in France, this was one of a
purely mercenary character. The father of the Marquis de Vermandois,
and the father of Marguerite, as a means of joining their estates,
contracted their children without deigning to consult the wishes of the
parties, and obedience or disinheritance was the only alternative. When
the compact was concluded, Marguerite was taken from the convent where
for five years she had lived as a boarder and scholar, and commenced her
married life and her course in the fashionable world at the same time.
The match was far more fortunate than such matches then generally proved
to be. Marguerite's husband was passionately attached to her, and that
attachment was returned. The Marquis was a friend of Baron d'Holbach,
and soon after his marriage introduced his wife to him. Among all
the beauties of Paris the Marchioness was one of the most lovely and
fascinating. Her features were remarkably beautiful, and the bloom and
clearness of her complexion were such as absolutely to render necessary
the old comparison of the rose and the lily to do them justice. To
these were added a voluptuous figure, agreeable manners, the graces and
vivacity of wit, and the still more enduring attractions of good humor,
purity, and benevolence! A female like her could not but be dear to all
who enjoyed her intimacy, and a strong friendship sprang up between her
and Baron d'Holbach. Greatly pleased with him at first, Marguerite was
afterwards as greatly shocked. When their intercourse had become so
familiar as to permit that frankness and freedom of conversation which
prevails among intimate friends, she discovered that the Baron was an
unbeliever in the Christian dogmas which she had learned at the convent,
where, in consequence of her mother's death, she had been educated. She
had been taught that an Infidel was a monster in all respects, and she
was astounded to find unbelievers in men so agreeable in manners and
person, and so profound in learning, as d'Holbach, Diderot, d'Alembert,
and others. She could deny neither their goodness nor their intellectual
qualities, and while she admired the individuals she shuddered at their
incredulity. Especially did she mourn over Baron d'Holbach. He had a
wife as charming as herself, formerly the lovely Mademoiselle d'Aine,
whose beautiful features and seductive figure presented "A combination,
and a form, indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal."
Nothing was more natural than that two such women should imbibe the
deepest tenderness for each other. But alas! the Baron's wife was
tainted with her husband's heresies; and yet in their home did the
Marchioness see all the domestic virtues exemplified, and beheld that
sweet harmony and unchangeable affection for which the d'Holbachs
were eminently distinguished among their acquaintances, and which was
remarkable from its striking contrast with the courtly and Christian
habits of the day. At a loss what to do, the Marchioness consulted her
confessor, and was advised to withdraw entirely from the society of the
Baron and his wife, unless she was willing to sacrifice all her hopes of
heaven, and to plunge headlong down to hell. Her natural good sense and
love of her friends struggled with her monastic education and reverence
for the priests. The conflict rendered her miserable; and unable to
enjoy happiness, she retired to her husband's country seat, where she
brooded over her wishes and her terrors. In this state of mind she
at length wrote a touching letter to the Baron, and laid open her
situation, requesting him to comfort, console, and enlighten her. Such
was the origin of the book now presented in an English dress to the
reader. It accomplished its purpose with the Marchioness de Vermandois,
and afterwards its author concluded to publish the work, in hopes it
might be equally useful to others. The Letters were _written_ in 1764,
when d'Holbach was in the forty-second year of his age. Twelve different
works he had before written and published, and all without the affix of
his name. _Eleven_ were upon mineralogy, the arts and the sciences, and
_one_ only upon theology. That _one_ had been secretly printed in
1761, at Nancy, with the imprint of London, and was _honored_ with a
parliamentary statute condemning its publication and forbidding its sale
or circulation. Christian hatred bestowed upon it the additional
honor of causing it to be burned in the streets of Paris by the public
executioner. But the prudence of the author protected his life. He
attributed the book to a dead man, who had been known to entertain
sceptical views. It was entitled Christianity Unveiled, and bore on
its title page the name of Boulanger. This was d'Holbach's first
contribution to Infidel literature, and the second similar work written
by him was the Letters to Eugenia. These were the preludes to more than
a quarter of a hundred different productions numbering among them such
books as _Good Sense, The System of Nature, Ecce Homo, Priests Unmasked,
&c, &c._, all printed anonymously or pseudonymously at his own
expense, without a possibility of pecuniary advantage, and with such
extraordinary secrecy as to show that he was actuated by no desire of
literary fame. It was love of truth alone that impelled d'Holbach to
write. Brilliant, profound, eloquent and excellent as were his writings,
attracting notice as they did from the civil and religious powers,
commented upon as they were by such men as Voltaire and Frederick the
Great, admired as they were by that class who felt and combated
the evils of tyranny as well as of religion, of kings as well as of
priests,--that class who almost drew their life from the books of him
and his compeers,--he was never seduced from the rule he originally laid
down for his literary conduct.
A very few persons he was obliged to trust in order to get his writings
printed, and but for that fact Baron d'Holbach would now only be known
as a gentleman of great wealth, extensive benevolence, and uncommon
liberality, as a man of profound learning and agreeable colloquial
powers, as the bountiful friend of men of letters, as the soother of the
distressed, as the protector of the miserable, and as the affectionate
husband and father. So much of him we should have known; but that he was
the author of those books which roused intolerant priests and corrupt
magistrates, consistories and parliaments, monarchs and philosophers,
the people and their oppressors,--that he was the Archimedes that thus
moved the world,--would not have been known had he not employed another
philosopher, by the name of Naigeon, to carry his manuscripts to
Amsterdam, and to direct their printing by Marc-Michel Rey. It was
Naigeon who carried the manuscript of the Letters to Eugenia to Holland,
together with a number of others by the same author, which also appeared
during the year 1768,--an eventful year in the history of Infidel
progress. The _Letters_ were carefully revised by d'Holbach before they
were sent to press. All the passages of a purely personal character were
omitted, some new matter was incorporated, and some sentences were added
purposely to keep the author and the lady he addressed in impenetrable
obscurity. To raise the veil from a man of so much worth and genius, as
well as to carry out his idea of doing good, is one of the reasons which
have led to the present preparation and publication of this book.