Denkend aan Hume in Holland

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 94 To: Blanc [54] p 191
† * 94. To the ABBበLE BLANC† 1

Sir,

Yours of the 25th of August† 2 gave me a very real Pleasure. I doubt not but the Translation, with which you have honour’d my Performance, will renew my Satisfaction. I expect every day to have it from London. I must confess, that I cannot conceal my Vanity, when I find an Author, so justly celebrated for his own Performances, deign to give the Public a Translation of Works, so much inferior. I have often read Les Letres† 3 d’un Francois, with Profit and Pleasure: And as I never peruse a good Book without wishing to possess the Friendship of the Author; how much more, where my Gratitude is mov’d by such Marks of Esteem & Distinction as you have confer’d on me?

I have just now finish’d a new Edition of the political Discourses,† 1 where there are some Alterations & Additions. I have here subjoin’d in a Paper apart, that in case the Demand of the Public require a new Edition of the Translation, there may be no Delay in finishing it. You mention Notes to your Translation. This encreases my Impatience to see it. I doubt not but I shall learn from them to correct many of my Errors.

192

You drop a Hint as if you intended to introduce some more of my Performances to the Acquaintance of the learned World abroad.† 2 Allow me, therefore, to inform you of the best Editions. The only good Edition of my Essays moral & political is the fourth:† 3 It begins with this Sentence Some People are subject to a certain Delicacy of Passion &c.† 4 The best Edition of the Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals is the second.† 5 The Booksellers are reprinting in London the philosophical Essays;† 6 but the second Edition† 7 differs very little from this new one. I doubt these Essays are both too bold & too metaphysical for your Climate; tho’ we have lately, in some French Writers, been entertain’d with Liberties, that are not much inferior.

I know with what Advantage I must appear, when I pass thro your hands, who are so capable to improve & embellish my weak Performances. For this Reason I have sent you all the best Editions of these four Volumes.† 8 They go by the way of Boulogne; & you may expect to have them in about a Month. If they be of no Use to you in this Design, I beg at least you will favor me with an Acceptance of them as a Mark of my sincere Gratitude and Esteem.

A few days ago I finish’d the printing the first Volume of a Work, about which I have been long employ’d. It will be publish’d in about two Months. It is the History of Great Britain from the Accession of James the first: This first Volume contains the Reigns of James the I and Charles the I; and consists of 470 Quarto Pages. If you consider the vast Variety of Events, with which these two Reigns, particularly the last, are crowded, you will conclude, that my Narration is rapid, and that I have more propos’d as my Model the concise manner of the antient Historians, than the prolix, tedious Style of some modern Compilers. I have inserted no original Papers, and enter’d into no Detail of minute, uninteresting Facts. The philosophical Spirit, which I have so much indulg’d in all my Writings, finds here ample Materials to work upon.

193

The great Distance, which I have always kept from all Party & Dependance, from all Satyre and Panegyric, has made the Public entertain Expectations from this Work; and I tremble, I own, the more for the Opinion, which will be form’d on its Publication. I have sent you a Copy, which I beg you to accept of. The Bookseller gave me 400 pounds for allowing him to print one Edition of 2000 Copies; and his hopes are so sanguine, that he speaks of beginning a second Edition of 3000, and of paying me 600 pounds more for it.† 1 I mention this Circumstance that you may see there is some Chance that a Translation might turn to account. If it be done under your Eye I am sure it will be well executed. A few Notes, to clear up Passages obscure to Foreigners, may also be requisite. I esteem this Period, both for signal Events & extraordinary Characters, to be the most interesting in modern History; and considering some late Transactions in France,† 2 your Ministry may think themselves oblig’d to a man, who, by the Example of English History, discovers the Consequences of puritanical & republican Pretensions. You wou’d have remark’d in my Writings, that my Principles are, all along, tolerably monarchical, & that I abhor, that low Practice, so prevalent in England, of speaking with Malignity of France

194

I beg the Continuance of your Correspondence & Friendship; and tho’ I be at present in a remote Part of the World, which can furnish nothing curious or entertaining to a Man who lives in the Center of all the fine Arts, you will at least have the Satisfaction, whenever you write to me, of conferring an Honour on a Person, who knows the Value of it. A Letter directed to me at this Place will always find me.

I have the Honour to be, with great Regard

Sir

Your most obedient & most obliged humble Servant

DAVID HUME

Edinburgh

12th of Septr. 1754

† 1 Jean-Bernard Le Blanc (1707-81), French man of letters, ‘historiographe des Bá¢timens du Roy de France’; author of Lettres d’un Franá§ois concernant le gouvernement, la politique et les moeurs des Anglois et Franá§ois, 3 vols., Paris, 1745 (English translation, Letters on the English and French Nations, 2 vols., Dublin, 1747); translator of Hume’s Political Discourses as Discours politiques de M. Hume, traduits de l’Anglois, Amsterdam (et se vend á  Paris), 1754, 2 vols., 12mo, and 2nd edit., Dresden, 1755, 2 vols. 8vo.

† 2 Le Blanc opened the correspondence with this letter from Paris (MS., R.S.E.; Burton, i. 458 f.). He announces that he is sending a copy of his translation of the Pol. Disc., and asks Hume to read it with care and to point out any errors in translation. The sooner this is done the better, he says, ‘car il est bon de vous dire que cette traduction, grá¢ce á  l’excellence de l’original se débite ici comme un roman…. Le libraire m’avertit qu’il sera bientá´t tems de penser á  la seconde édition. J’attendray votre réponse pour l’enrichir de vos remarques qui feront que celle-ci sera reá§ue du public avec encor plus d’applaudissements.’

† 3 Sic in MS.

† 1 Published as vol. iv of the Essays and Treatises, 1754.

† 2 I doubt if Le Blanc really meant that. What he said, after asking for Hume’s comments on the translation, was: ‘J’en profiterai á  la premiere édition, ainsi que des remarques, changements, ou additions qu’il vous plaira me communiquer, soit á  l’occasion de vos discours, soit sur les autres ouvrages anglois dont je parle dans mes notes.’

† 3 Vol. i of Essays and Treatises, 1753.

† 4 The opening of the essay Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion. In its earlier form it opened: ‘There is a certain delicacy of passion, to which some people are subject, that makes them extremely sensible….’

† 5 Vol. iii of Essays and Treatises, 1753.

† 6 Vol. ii of Essays and Treatises, 1754 (reprinted, still as third edition, in 1756).

† 7 The second edition appeared, first with A. Millar’s name on the title-page in 1750, and then with M. Cooper’s, in the same year.

† 8 I presume he means the 4 vols. of Essays and Treatises, including vol. iv, Political Discourses.

† 1 From a letter of Gavin Hamilton, the bookseller in question, to William Strahan, printed by Hill (p. 3, n. 2), it appears that Hume was originally offered £1,200 in all, in return for which the booksellers were to have the right to print 2,000 copies of each of the 3 vols. of the History when ready. As things fell out, Hume did not give Messrs. Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill the chance to publish any volume after the first. He objected to contracting for books too far ahead.

† 2 A reference to the quarrels between the clergy and the Parlement of Paris, in which the Court took first one side and then the other. In May 1753 the King by lettres de cachet ordered all Presidents and Councillors to residences that were named for them, away from Paris, the Grand Council being sent to Pontoise. The result was the publication of the Grandes Remonstrances on 23 May, containing the memorable statement: ‘If subjects owe obedience to kings, kings on their side owe obedience to law.’ In 1754 the Court reversed its policy, and recalled the exiled parlementaires.

(meer…)

Malherbe meldt op bladzijde 55 “From this letter and the following one (noot 51: to abbé le blanc 12 sept 1754) it is clear that he was keen for continental diffusion of his works in a language spoken everywhere in Europe.

(bron: Intelex online editie van The Letters of David Hume – TLDH, pagina 343 en 344)

Hume: TLDH Vol 2 App B [Early French Translators] p 343
APPENDIX B
HUME’S EARLY FRENCH TRANSLATORS

Hierin schrijft … (editor van de brieven) over de eerste Franse vertalingen van Humes werk en de correspondentie die daarmee te maken had.

1. The ‘Political Discourses’.

This was the first of Hume’s works to appear in a foreign translation. The earliest translation of it was published as:

Discours politiques de Mr David Hume, traduits de l’Anglois par M. de M***. A Amsterdam; chez J. Schreuder, & Pierre Mortier le Jeune. MDCCLIV. [16mo, pp. ii + 355.]
The translator was Eléazar de Mauvillon , of whom Le Blanc gives an unfavourable and probably an unfair account in his letter to Hume of 25 Dec. 1754 (see extract in vol. i, p. 207, note 3). There is nothing to show that Hume ever established touch with Mauvillon ; and there is much to show that he did not. As soon as we put together Letters 94, 97, 97A, 101, 113, 114, and 137, we see that they must have been all addressed to the same person; and as the replies to some of them are extant among the MSS., R.S.E., and are all from Le Blanc, we can establish the identity of Hume’s correspondent with certainty. Hume wrote all these letters to Le Blanc, and as far as we can tell, wrote no letters to Mauvillon . The entries in the Brit. Mus. Catalogue of Autograph Letters for Letters 94, 97, 101, and 113 (all among Egerton MSS. 21) should be revised accordingly.

The Abbé Le Blanc’s translation appeared first as:
Discours politiques de Monsieur Hume, traduits de l’Anglois. Amsterdam, et se vend á  Paris, chez M. Lambert, 1754. [2 vols., 12mo.]

The following year a second edition appeared as:

Discours politiques de Monsieur Hume. Traduits de l’Anglois. Nouvelle Edition Par Monsieur L’Abbé Le Blanc Historiographe des Batimens du Roi de France . . . Avec Privilège du Roi. A Dresde, chez Michel Groell, Libraire et Marchand d’Estampes. M.DCC.LV. [2 vols., 8vo.]

2. Other Philosophical Works.

In 1758, J. H. Schneider, an Amsterdam bookseller, began the publication of what he later on entitled OEuvres philosophiques de Mr. D. Hume. His translators were J.-B. Mérian, J.-B.-R. Robinet de Chá¢teaugiron and Mlle de la Chaux; and 5 vols. appeared, 1758-60, as follows:

I-II. Essais philosophiques sur l’entendement humain . . . Avec les Quatres [sic] philosophes [The Epicurean, the Stoic, the Platonist, and the Sceptic].

III. Histoire naturelle de la Religion . . . avec un examen critique et philosophique de cet ouvrage.

Hume: TLDH Vol 2 App B [Early French Translators] p344

IV. Dissertation sur les passions, sur la tragédie, sur la règle du goá»t. (Only III and IV bear on the half-title OEuvres philosophiques de Mr. D. Hume.)

V. Essais de morale, ou Recherche sur les principes de la morale.

In 1759 the same bookseller brought out: OEuvres philosophiques de M. D. Hume [2 tomes in 1 vol., 8vo.], which contained the same works as III and IV above, in the same translations, and
with the same accompaniments. In 1764 he brought out what he called a second edition of OEuvres de M. Hume, in 2 vols., 8vo. This contained:
I. Essais moraux et politiques.
II. Essais philosophiques sur l’entendement humain.


On 5 Dec. 1763, Schneider wrote to Hume:

‘Il y a près de quatre ans que j’ai cherché á  me procurer votre adres, pour avoir l’honneur de vous présenter un exemplaire de vos Essais en Franá§ais, que j’ai fait traduire dans cette Langue & dont je vais dans peu publier le 6e volume de la premiere Edition, et le 1e de la seconde Edition …. Les tomes 1. 2. 3. & 4 sont traduit á  Berlin, & le 5e á  Paris. La traduction de tomes 3 4 & 5, je les ai payé deux fois; pour en avoir seul le fond de l’Edition Franá§aise; il me fallais faire ce Sacrifice, pour empecher qu’on n’en fit pas une edition á  Geneve.
‘Si vous publiez Monsieur, encore quelque chose, oserai-je vous prier, de me le faire parvenir d’abord, afin que je le puisse joindre sans delais. ‘Un de mes Confrere ici, a fait traduire un volume, en franá§ais, dont je ne peux pas encore avoir le Droit de copie, mais j’ai esperance d’en faire l’acquisition dans peu, pour le faire imprimer d’un même caractere & format. La Traduction est fait par Mr Mauvillon á  Dresde; Mr L’Abbé le Blanc en a fait aussi une de ce volume, qui á  mon avis, me semble beaucoup mieux que l’autre . . .’

(MS., R.S.E., unpublished.)

J.-B.-R. Robinet, author of the book, De la Nature, which made some stir in its day and which Hume mentions to Blair in Letter 237, may have made Hume’s acquaintance in France, but I think this is unlikely. At any rate he wrote to Hume from Amsterdam on 17 Dec. 1765, addressing his letter to Dublin on the assumption that Hume had gone there with Lord Hertford. This letter went astray, and on 2 Sept. 1767 Robinet sent another copy of it to Hume. He says that he is proposing to bring out a complete edition of Hume’s works in French, and he asks for Hume’s opinion on the comparative merits of Mauvillon’s and Le Blanc’s translations of the Political Discourses. He continues:

‘On a imprimé en Hollande 6 petits volumes sous le titre d’OEuvres Philosophiques contenant les Essais sur l’entendement Humain, les Essais de Morale, l’histoire naturelle de la Religion &c. Cette traduction ou plutot ces traductions sont de plusieurs mains. Il y a quelque peu de Voltaire dans les essais de morale, au moins j’ai vu des corrections de sa main sur une mauvaise traduction des premiers Essais, qui m’a passé manuscrite sous les yeux, & qui est entrée dans les 6 petits volumes dont je vous parle . . . Les traducteurs ont joint quelques notes dans lesquelles ils prétendent refuter le texte: ils me semblent de pigmées qui vont heurter étourdiment un colosse, ou des enfans qui veulent enchaá®ner un géant avec un cheveu. Toutes ces notes seront supprimées…. On vous attribue un Traité de la Nature humaine imprimé á  Londres en 1739 & dont je ne connois point de traduction franá§oise. On imprime actuellement ici la traduction d’un Ouvrage Anglois intitulé: Tableau Philosophique de l’histoire du Genre humain, depuis l’origine du monde jusqu’á  Constantin. Le traducteur vous l’attribue.’ (MS., R.S.E., unpublished.)
Hume: TLDH Vol 2 App B [Early French Translators] p 345
Apparently Hume answered this letter on 26 Sept. 1767, and either then or a little later sent Robinet a copy of the Essays and Treatises. There are two further letters from Robinet, both dated from Bouillon, among the MSS., R.S.E. He speaks of pushing on with his edition of Hume’s works, and of having it ready by the spring of 1769; but all that seems ever to have appeared is Le Temple du Bonheur noted below.
Meanwhile Andrew Millar’s friend, David Wilson, the London bookseller who visited Paris in the later summer of 1764 and was presented by Hume to Lord Hertford (see letter 250 above), had reprinted Schneider’s translations as: Hume:
OEuvres philosophiques de M. Hume, traduites de l’Anglois . . . Nouvelle
Edition, Londres, D. Wilson, 1764, in 6 vols., 8vo:
I. Les huits [sic] premiers Essais sur l’entendement
humain.
II. Les quatre derniers Essais sur l’entendement humain et les quatre
philosophes.
III. Histoire naturelle de la
religion.
IV. Les Dissertations sur les passions, sur la tragédie et sur la règle du
goá»t.
V. Les Recherches sur les principes de la
morale.
VI. Les Essais moraux et
politiques.
This was probably a pirated edition.
Three other publications about this time may be noted:
(a) Essais sur le commerce; le luxe; l’argent; l’intérêt de l’argent; les
impá´ts; le credit public; et la balance du commerce; par M. David Hume.
Traduction nouvelle, avec des Réflections du Traducteur. Et Lettre d’un
négociant de Londres á  un de ses amis . . . A Paris, chez Saillant . . . A Lyon,
Chez Aimé De la Roche . . . M.DCC.LXVII. [8vo, pp. 232.]

(b) Pensées philosophiques, morales, critiques, littéraires et politiques de
M. Hume . . . A Londres. Et se trouve á  Paris, chez la Veuve Duschesne . . .
M.DCC.LXVII. [12mo, pp. xii + 416.]

(c) Le Temple du Bonheur, ou Recueil des plus excellens Traités sur le
Bonheur, extraits des meilleurs auteurs anciens et modernes, Tome premier. A
Bouillon, Aux Dépens de la Société Typographique. Et se trouve á  Paris, chez
Lacombe. M.DCC.LXIX. [8vo.]
Hume: TLDH Vol 2 App B [Early French Translators] p 346

3. The Suppressed Essays.

Copies of Hume’s two suppressed essays, Of Suicide and Of the Immortality of the Soul, found their way early into France. Perhaps Hume himself lent them to some of his philosophical friends in Paris and allowed copies to be taken; perhaps they were shown as curiosities by John Wilkes, who had a proof copy in his possession at one time. However it may have been, they appeared for the
first time in a French translation in a book entitled Recueil Philosophique, 2 tom. in 1 vol., Londres, 1770. Tome II of this publication contains, inter alia:

(i) Sentences des Philosophes sur la nature de l’á¢me, par M. Mirabaud.
(ii) Dissertation sur l’immortalité de l’á¢me, traduit de l’anglois.
(iii) Dissertation sur le suicide, traduit de l’anglois.
(iv) Problème important. La religion est-elle nécessaire á  la morale et utile á  la politique? par M. Mirabaud.
(v) Pensées sur la religion. Anonyme.

(ii) and (iii) are Hume’s essays. The ‘Mirabaud’ given as the author of (i) and (iv) is a pseudonym for the Baron d’Holbach, and Lanson definitely gives d’Holbach as the translator of Hume’s essays, I do not known on what authority. I imagine Hume never heard of these translations and would have been somewhat annoyed if he had.

4. The ‘History’.

These have all been referred to in the Notes above. (See especially Vol. i, pp.
258, 302, 415, 494.)