1737-1755.
The "Considérations"--The Plan of 1737--The Plan of 1755.
"_Il faut être autant en garde contre la réforme que contre les
abus._"--"Considérations" (1784).
It was not to be imagined that the man who watched so anxiously the
progress of the malady, and marked with such sensitive precision the
quickening of the pulse, could do so from a mere cold interest in
social pathology. D'Argenson felt the distemper as if it had been his
own. He was devotedly, even extravagantly patriotic; and his political
criticism might have been less pungent had the subjects of invective
been less personal to himself. He could have neither patience nor
charity for men who could fiddle while Rome was burning. Powerless as
he was, he was at least above that reproach.
Seven years after d'Argenson's death there appeared a very remarkable
book. It was called
"CONSIDÉRATIONS SUR LE GOUVERNEMENT DE LA FRANCE,"