Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, of France, was born 11th March, 1711,
and died 6th March, 1796, thus spanning, with his long life, from the
failing years of Louis the Fourteenth to the Reign of Terror, and
embracing the prolonged period of intellectual activity which prepared
the Revolution. Among contemporary “philosophers” his place was
considerable. But he was a philosopher with a cross of the adventurer
and charlatan.
Beginning as Jesuit and as priest, he somewhat tardily escaped the
constraints of the latter to employ the education of the former in
literary enterprise. A long list of acknowledged works attests the
activity of his pen, while others were attributed to him. With these
avocations, yielding money, mingled jobbing and speculation, where even
the slave-trade, afterwards furiously condemned, became a minister of
fortune. In the bright and audacious circles of Paris, especially with
Diderot and D’Holbach, he found society. The remarkable fame which he
reached during life has ceased, and his voluminous writings slumber
in oblivion, except, perhaps, a single one, which for a while played
a great part, and by its prophetic spirit vindicates a place in our
American gallery.
Only the superficial character of this work appears in its
title,--“Philosophical and Political History of the Establishments and
of the Commerce of the Europeans in the two Indies,”[407] being in six
volumes. It was a frame for pictures and declamations, where freedom of
thought was practically illustrated. Therefore it was published without
the name of the author, and at Amsterdam. This was as early as 1770.
Edition followed edition. The “Biographie Universelle” reports more
than twenty regular and nearly fifty pirated. At least twelve editions
of an English translation saw the light. It was translated, abridged,
and reprinted in nearly all the languages of Europe. The subject was
interesting at the time, but the peculiar treatment and the open
assault upon existing order gave the work zest and popularity. Though
often vicious in style, it was above the author in force and character,
so that it was easy to believe that important parts were contributed
by others. Diderot, who passed his life in helping others, is said
to have supplied nearly a third of the whole. The work at last drew
down untimely vengeance. Inspired by its signal success, the author,
in 1780, after the lapse of a decade, put forth an enlarged edition,
with frontispiece and portrait, the whole reinforced with insertions
and additions, where Christianity and even the existence of a God
were treated with the license already applied to other things. The
Parliament of Paris, by a decree dated May 21, 1781, handed the work to
the public executioner to be burned, and condemned the author in person
and goods. Several years of exile followed.
The Revolution in France found the Abbé Raynal mellowed by time,
and with his sustaining philosophers all dead. Declining active
participation in the great conflict, he reappeared at last, so far
as to address the President of the National Assembly a letter, where
he pleaded for moderation and an active government. The ancient
assailant of kings now called for “the tutelary protection of the royal
authority.” The early _cant_ was exchanged for _recant_.
The concluding book of the enlarged edition of his famous work contains
a chapter entitled “Reflections upon the Good and the Evil which the
Discovery of America has done to Europe.”[408] A question of similar
import, “Has the Discovery of America been hurtful or useful to the
Human Race?” he presented as the subject for a prize of twelve hundred
livres, to be awarded by the Academy of Lyons. Such a question reveals
a strange confusion, inconsistent with all our prophetic voices, but
to be pardoned at a time when the course of civilization was so little
understood, and Buffon had announced, as the conclusion of science,
that the animal creation degenerated on the American Continent. In his
admirable answer to the great naturalist, Jefferson repels with spirit
the allegation of the Abbé Raynal that “America has not yet produced
one good poet, one able mathematician, one man of genius in a single
art or science.”[409] But he does not seem aware that the author in
his edition of 1780 had already beaten a retreat from his original
position.[410] This is more noteworthy as the edition appeared before
the criticism.
It was after portraying the actual condition of the English Colonies
in colors which aroused the protest of Jefferson that the French
philosopher surrendered to a vision of the future. In reply to doubts,
he invokes time, civilization, education, and breaks forth:--
“Perhaps then it will be seen that America is favorable to
genius, to the creative arts of peace and of society. A new
Olympus, an Arcadia, an Athens, a new Greece, on the Continent,
or in the archipelago which surrounds it, will give birth,
perhaps, to Homers, Theocrituses, and, above all, Anacreons.
Perhaps another Newton will rise in the new Britain. It is from
English America, no doubt, that the first ray of the sciences
will shoot forth, if they are to appear at last under a sky so
long clouded. By a singular contrast with the ancient world,
where the arts passed from the South toward the North, in the
new we shall see the North enlighten the South. Let the English
clear the land, purify the air, change the climate, meliorate
Nature; _a new universe will issue from their hands for the
glory and happiness of humanity_.”[411]
Then, speculating on the dissensions prevailing between the Colonies
and the mother country, he announces separation, but without advantage
to the European rivals of England:--
“Break the knot which binds the ancient Britain to the new;
soon the Northern Colonies will have more strength alone than
they possessed in their union with the mother country. That
great continent, set free from all compact with Europe, will
be unhampered in all its movements.… The colonies of our
absolute monarchies, … following the example of the English
colonies, will break the chain which binds them shamefully to
Europe.”[412]