Denkend aan Hume in Holland

In Buijnsters’ biografie van Van Alphen wordt melding gemaakt van één verwijzing naar Hume. En Voltaire wordt veel vaker genoemd.

In HvA’s gedicht “Mijne onbekende vrienden. Gedagten op mijn boekenkamer”, dat in zijn Mengelingen staat, schrijft hij over Hume en Bolingbroke dat ze wellicht om hun ʻschitterend vernuftʼ al roem verwerven, maar

“’t Bewondrend hart blijft egter koel,
Maar als ik ADDISON zie sterven,
Dan ben ik vol gevoel.”

[geciteerd in Buijnsters, 201.]

Over Luzac: “Geestverwant van H.v.A., bestreed ook Luzac Voltaire en Rousseau als extreme figuren die het grote werk van de Verlichting, ʻdat met de godsdienstige hervorming begonnen was en langzaam verder gingʼ (p. 10), in gevaar brachten.” [324n]

Robertson recenseert Velema’s Enlightenment and Conservatism in BMGN (1994/95),
pleitend voor een “holistische” – tja – niet nominatieve kijk op de verlichting.

Luzac is als individu interessant genoeg, maar symboliseert ook de politieke en filosofische opvattingen die afwijken van de mainstream Verlichting – en toont ons zo de werkelijke breedte van die Verlichting.

Hoewel Elie Luzac het niet eens was met het materialisme van De La Mettrie, publiceerde hij toch diens L’Homme Machine – hij had zich als uitgever (en afkomstig uit de kringen van Franse Hugenoten, die van de Republiek het “intellectuele entrepot” hadden gemaakt) voorgenomen de persvrijheid in ere te houden, en uitgaven van L’Homme Machine werden door kerkelijke instanties tegengehouden.

Onder invloed van Jean Barbeyrac geloofden Luzac en Formey dat Christian Wolff de basis had gelegd voor een science des moeurs vanuit het natuurrecht. Luzac interpreteerde Wolffs principe van ‘perfectie’ zodanig dat er een door god bepaalde harmonie zou kunnen zijn op aarde, waarin de Rede de individuele rechten en plichten bepaalde voor de rest van de maatschappij.

Met behulp van Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois zag Luzac de noodzaak om republicanisme te herdefniëren zodat ze bij deze tijd pasten: dus met vrijheid onder de wet, scheiding der machten, aanpassing van regeringsvormen aan de omstandigheden en de koophandel als vervanging voor veroveringen.

De Franse philosophes konden dan ook op Luzacs kritiek rekenen. Hij maakte zich druk om de Encyclopédie van D’Alembert en Rousseaus Discours, Du Contrat Social en Emile. Hij vond dat zij afweken van de weg van de Rede en zich teveel richtten op ‘sensations’, waarmee ze het natuurrecht en morele orde verwierpen. Rousseaus archaische republicanisme zou bovendien bij implementatie de vrede en vrijheid die de koophandel kende veroordelen.
De fouten werden in Luzacs ogen niet alleen gemaakt in Frankrijk, ook Engeland en Schotland deden ze mee aan het bejubelen van de ‘sentiments’.

Het grootste gevaar was echter het primitieve Rousseau-iaanse republicanisme van de Patriotten in de jaren ’80 – en werd na zelf klappen te hebben ghad hun sterkste en hardnekkigste criticus. Hij viel ze aan door hun ideeën over democratie, representatie en gewapend burgerschap misbruik van taal te noemen, en een ontkenning van de politieke en economische voorwaarden voor een maatschappij van vrije handel.

Luzac bewijst wat Robertson betreft perfect hoe de Verlichting niet kan worden gelijkgeschakeld aan de Franse philosophes.

Robertson is het niet eens met de switch van het nationale verlichtingsdiscours naar een Verlichtingsgeschiedenis die verschillende ‘smaken’; (mijn woorden) Verlichting kent, omdat zowel Moderate als conservative, twee termen die Velema gebruikte om Luzacs Verlichting mee aan te dudien, op verschillende plekken verschillende dingen betekenen. Hume was ook een politieke conservatief, maar anderzijds zo sceptisch dat Luzac hem op veel fronten absoluut niet zou hebben waarderen.

“‘Conservative’ is, if anything, a label still more difficult to apply generally. In many respects, Luzac’s politics resemble those of David Hume: hostile to an archaic republicanism, while not averse to reform that was adapted to the circumstances of commercial society. But Hume was also a sceptic, a critic of reason and natural law in ways that Luzac could only find deeply disturbing.Perhaps it would be better, to avoid such labels (with their implicit tendency to deconstruct the Enlightenment into a proliferation of supposedly distinct ‘Enlightenments’), and to acknowledge instead that fundamental Enlightenment concerns with liberty and secular human betterment could be expressed from many points on the spectrum of moral philosophies and political outlooks current in eighteenth-century Europe.”

[120]

Vernieuwing moest of van de bestaande instituties komen, of van revolutie. De patriotten, die voor optie 2 kozen, werden door Luzac met al zijn intellectuele energie bestreden. Door uit te leggen hoe Luzac, met al zijn moderne Verlichtingsidealen van vrijheid en economische vooruitgang toch tegen die radicale politieke oplossingen streed, heeft Velema een goed boek geschreven, aldus John Robertson.

(zie ook Mossner 480-530)

Hume: NLDH Ltr 39 To: Suard [64] p 79
† * 39. To JEAN-BAPTISTE-ANTOINE SUARD† 6

[Paris, Nov. 1763-March 1764]† 7
Vous m’avez fait, Monsieur, un vrai plaisir de m’informer de l’arrivée de Mlle de Langlotierre. Je me rendrais auprès de vous environ les cinques heures et demi, cet après-dá®née, et vous aurez la bonté de me mener chez elle, sans la [sic] rien dire. Pour dá®ner ou souper chez elle, il me sera presque impossible, étant engagé pour toute la semaine. Si l’heure que je prens la liberté de vous donner ne vous convienne pas, je vous prie de ne vous gêner en aucune faá§on, parce que la même heure demain me conviendrait également. Je serai charmé si, au même tems que je renouvelle une ancienne connaissance, je pourrai ajouter encore au nombre de mes amis une personne comme vous, si recommandable en toute faá§on et dont je fais un grand cas.
80
J’ai l’honneur d’être, Monsieur, votre très humble et très obéissant serviteur,
DAVID HUME
Há´tel de Grimberg,† 1 lundi 10 heures, le matin.

† * Charles Nisard, Mémoires et correspondances historiques et littéraires inédits, 1726 á  1816 (Paris, 1858), p. 354.

† 6 Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Suard (1733-1817), journalist, critic, friend of the philosophes, considered as authority on English literature which he tried to make known in France. Joint editor of two literary journals, Le Journal étranger, 1760-2; La Gazette littéraire de l’Europe, 1764-6. Translated some of Ossian’s poems and (in the Mercure de France, Dec. 1759) the sections from Hume’s
History dealing with English literature in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. In 1766, acting under the direction of d’Alembert, Suard translated into French Hume’s manuscript account of the Rousseau affaire under the title of Exposé succinct de la contestation qui s’est élevée entre M. Hume et M. Rousseau, avec les pièces justificatives; he wrote to Hume about his translation on 2 Nov.
1766 (R.S.E. vii. 75; HL ii. 445-6). Hume replied on 5 Nov. (HL 358): ‘I am sensible of your great Partiality and Friendship, in offering to become my Translator for any Work, which I may hereafter give to the Public: Surely I cou’d not desire to be introduced to foreign Countries in a more advantageous Manner than I shou’d be by your elegant Pen….’ Translated Robertson’s History of Charles V (1771) and Hume’s My Own Life (1777). Made a Member of the Académie, 1774.
80
† 7 The date can be inferred both from Hume’s address and the fact that he had not yet met Suard.

† 1 The Hotel de Grimberg, rue St. Dominique, was at that time, after the resumption of diplomatic relations, the seat of the British Embassy.

† * 358. To JEAN-BAPTISTE-ANTOINE SUARD† 3
I cannot sufficiently express, My Dear Sir, all the Acknowlegements, which I owe you, for the Pains you have taken in translating a Work, which so little merited your Attention or the Attention of the public. It is done entirely to my Satisfaction; and the Introduction in particular is wrote with great Prudence & Discretion, in every point except where your Partiality to me appears too strongly.† 1 I accept of it, however, very willingly as a Pledge of your Friendship. You and M. Dalembert did well in softening some Expressions, especially in the Notes; and I shall take care to follow these Corrections in the English Edition. My Paper, indeed, was not wrote for the public Eye; and nothing but a Train of unforeseen Accidents cou’d have engaged me to give it to the Press. I am not surprized, that those, who do not consider nor weigh those Circumstances, shou’d blame this Appeal to the Public; but it is certain, that, if I had persevered in keeping Silence, I shou’d have passed for the guilty Person, and those very People, who blame me at present, wou’d, with the Appearance of Reason, have thrown a much greater Blame upon me. This whole Adventure I must regard as a
Misfortune in my Life; and yet even after all is past, when it is easy to correct any Errors, I am not sensible, that I can accuse myself of any Imprudence; except in accepting of this Man when he threw himself into my Arms: And yet it wou’d then have appeared cruel to refuse him. I am excusable for not expecting to meet with such a Prodigy of Pride and Ferocity, because such a one never before existed. But after he had declared War against me in so violent a Manner, it cou’d not have been prudent in me to keep Silence towards my Friends, and to wait till he shou’d find a proper time to stab my Reputation. From my Friends, the Affair passed to the Public, who interested themselves more in a private Story, than it was possible to imagine; and rendered it quite necessary to lay the whole before them. Yet after all, if any one be pleased to think, that by greater Prudence I cou’d have avoided this disagreeable Extremity, I am very willing to submit: It is not surely the first Imprudence I have been guilty of.
103
I agree with you, that Rousseau will probably reply, and yet it is very difficult to imagine what he can possibly say, after having already entered into so long and minute and tedious a Detail. It will be ridiculous for him to bring out any new Facts of Consequence, which he may pretend to have omitted; after he has already mentioned the Looks of my Land-ladies and my own, as Grounds of
Complaint. But whatever he may say, I am resolute to keep an absolute Silence for the rest of my Life; and allow everyone to entertain what Opinion they please with regard to this Story. I fancy the only Dispute in the World will be whether Rousseau is more wicked or mad, or whether he be not both in nearly equal proportions. You say that he has Enthusiasts, who still pretend to excuse him. Do they pretend then, that Dalembert, Horace Walpole, and I entered into a Conspiracy against him to lead him into England, and ruin him, by settling him in a most commodious and agreeable Manner, and by doubling his Income? For if this be not asserted, how can his outrageous Behaviour towards me admit of any Apology?
Cou’d I look on Rousseau as one of the Classics of your Language, I shou’d imagine, that this Story, silly as it is, might go to Posterity, and interest them as much as it has done our Contemporaries: But really his Writings are so full of Extravagance, that I cannot believe their Eloquence alone will be able to support them. He has a Suspicion himself, that this is the Case: I shall tell you the Story
because I think it for his Credit: For otherwise I wou’d not repeat any thing that passed between us during the time of our Familiarity. When we were on the Road, he told me, that he was resolved to improve himself in English: and as he heard, that there were two English Translations of his Emile, he wou’d procure them, he said, & read them, and compare them: His Knowlege of the Subject
wou’d facilitate his Advances in the Language. Immediatly on our Arrival, I procured the Books for him. He kept them two or three days, and then returned them, by telling me, that they cou’d be of no Use to him. He had not patience, he said, to read them; he was in the same Case with regard to the Original and all his other Writings, which, after their Publication, he cou’d never take into his hand without Disgust. It is strange, I reply’d, that Pieces so much admired for their Eloquence cou’d give no Satisfaction to their Author: Why! said he, with regard to their Style & Eloquence, I am not altogether dissatisfy’d with them; but I dread always qu’ils pechent par le fond; and that their Lustre is only the Blaze of a day.
104
I am sensible of your great Partiality & Friendship, in offering to become my Translator for any Work, which I may hereafter give to the Public: Surely I cou’d not desire to be introduced to foreign Countries in a more advantageous Manner, than I shou’d be by your elegant Pen. But my Scritoire is at present exhausted, and I have no Prospect of filling it: I am even unsettled as to my Views of
establishing myself; and I indulge myself in the humour of living from day to day, partly in Reading, partly in Company, partly in Indolence. I am afraid, that you indulge yourself too much in this last Enjoyment: Otherwise, why do you, who have Taste & Knowlege in so eminent a Degree, desire to translate the Works of any other Person, and not rather give some original Performance to the
Public? You say, perhaps, that the Constraints, under which you labour in France, discourages you; and you envy the Liberty of England. But be assured, that the Indifference and I may say, Barbarism of England is more discouraging than all the Persecutions of France, which sometimes tend only to give a Lustre to an Author, and to render him more interesting.
104
I beg my Compliments to all my Friends of your Society: They may be assured that I shall never give up the Thoughts of revisiting them but with my Life. I am with the greatest Sincerity My Dear Sir Your most obedient and most humble Servant
DAVID HUME
Edinburgh
5 of November 1766

† * MS. in J. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City; New Monthly Mag. & Universal Register, Vol. xiii, Pt. I (Jan. to June, 1820), pp. 5 f.; Burton, ii. 357 f. (incomplete).
† 3 Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Suard (1734-1817), journalist and translator; sometime editor of the Gazette de France (an official publication), and joint editor of the Gazette littéraire de France; admitted to the Academy, 1773; translator of Robertson’s History of Charles V.
† 1 The opening paragraph of the Advertisement written by the French editors and translated for the Concise and Genuine Account reads: ‘The name and writings of Mr. Hume have been long since well known throughout Europe. At the same time, his personal acquaintance have remarked, in the candour and simplicity of his manners, that impartiality and ingenuousness of disposition which distinguishes his character, and is sufficiently indicated in his writings.’