Among the most brilliant in this extending list is the Abbé Galiani,
the Neapolitan, who was born 1728, and died at Naples 1787. Although
Italian by birth, yet by the accident of official residence he became
for a while domesticated in France, wrote the French language, and now
enjoys a French reputation. His writings in French and his letters have
the wit and ease of Voltaire.
Galiani was a genius. Whatever he touched shone at once with his
brightness, in which there was originality as well as knowledge.
He was a finished scholar, and very successful in lapidary verses.
Early in life, while in Italy, he wrote a grave essay on Money, which
contrasted with another of rare humor suggested by the death of the
public executioner. Other essays followed; and then came the favor
of the congenial pontiff, Benedict the Fourteenth. In 1760 he found
himself at Paris as Secretary of the Neapolitan Embassy. Mingling
with courtiers officially, according to the duties of his position,
he fraternized with the liberal and adventurous spirits who exercised
such influence over society and literature. He was recognized as one
of them, and inferior to none. His petty stature was forgotten when
he conversed with inexhaustible faculties of all kinds, so that he
seemed an Encyclopædia, Harlequin, and Machiavelli all in one. The
atheists at the Thursday dinner of D’Holbach were confounded while he
enforced the existence of God. Into the questions of political economy
occupying attention at the time he entered with a pen which seemed
borrowed from the French Academy. His “Dialogues sur le Commerce des
Blés” had the success of a romance: ladies carried this book on Corn in
their work-baskets. Returning to Naples, he continued to live in Paris
through his correspondence, especially with Madame d’Épinay, the Baron
d’Holbach, Diderot, and Grimm.[489]
Among later works, after his return to Naples, was a solid volume--not
to be forgotten in the History of International Law--on the Duties
of Neutrals, where a difficult subject is treated with such mastery,
that, more than half a century later, D’Hautefeuille, in his elaborate
treatise, copies from it at length. Galiani was the predecessor of this
French writer in the extreme assertion of neutral rights. Other works
were left at his death in manuscript, some grave and some humorous;
also letters without number. The letters preserved from Italian
_savans_ filled eight large volumes; those from _savans_, ministers,
and sovereigns abroad filled fourteen. His Parisian correspondence did
not see the light till 1818, although some of the letters may be found
in the contemporary correspondence of Grimm.
In his Parisian letters, which are addressed chiefly to that clever
individuality, Madame d’Épinay, the Neapolitan abbé shows not only
the brilliancy and nimbleness of his talent, but the universality of
his knowledge and the boldness of his speculations. Here are a few
words from a letter dated at Naples, 12th October, 1776, in which he
brings forward the idea of “races,” so important in our day, with an
illustration from Russia:--
“_All depends upon races._ The first, the most noble of races,
comes naturally from the North of Asia. The Russians are the
nearest to it, and this is the reason why they have made more
progress in fifty years than can be got out of the Portuguese
in five hundred.”[490]
Belonging to the Latin race, Galiani was entitled to speak thus freely.
In another letter to Madame d’Épinay, dated at Naples, 18th May, 1776,
he had already foretold the success of our Revolution. Few prophets
have been more explicit than he was in the following passage:--
“Livy said of his age, which so strongly resembled ours, ‘_Ad
hæc tempora ventum est, quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia
pati possumus_,’--‘We are in an age when the remedies hurt
at least as much as the vices.’[491] Do you know how matters
stand? _The epoch has come of the total downfall of Europe,
and of transmigration to America._ Everything here is falling
into rottenness,--religion, laws, arts, sciences,--and
everything is going to be rebuilt anew in America. This is no
joke; nor is it an idea drawn from the English quarrels; I
have said, announced, preached it, for more than twenty years,
and I have always seen my prophecies fulfilled. _Do not buy
your house, then, in the Chaussée d’Antin; you must buy it
in Philadelphia._ My trouble is, that there are no abbeys in
America.”[492]
This letter was written some months before the Declaration of
Independence.
In another, dated at Naples, 7th February, 1778, the Abbé alludes to
the great numbers of English men and women who have come to Naples
“for shelter from the American tempests,” and adds, “Meanwhile the
Washingtons and Hancocks will be fatal to them.”[493] In still another,
dated at Naples, 25th July, 1778, he renews his prophecies in language
still more explicit:--
“You will at this time have decided the greatest revolution of
the globe,--namely, _if it is America which is to reign over
Europe, or if it is Europe which is to continue to reign over
America_. I would wager in favor of America, for the reason,
merely physical, that for five thousand years genius has turned
opposite to the diurnal motion, and travelled from East to
West.”[494]
Here again is the idea of Berkeley which has been so captivating.