Diderot's Thoughts on Art & Style: With Some of His Shorter Essays

Front matter

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Preface to the First Edition ix '^

My Strange Thoughts on Drawing 11 "^

A Few Ideas of mine on Colour 18 '^

What Every One knows about Expression, and Something WHICH ALL THE WORLD DOES NOT KNOW . . 26 "^

A Short Corollary from the Preceding Article . . .31 w^

A Letter to my Friend M. Grimm 33 >^

Extracts from " Le Salon," 1767 . 38 ^

An Essay on Sculpture 72 ^

GrREUZE 79-^

On Diderot's Own Portrait painted by Michel Van- Loo 89

A Scene from the Life of St. Gregory 93

The Prince db Cond£ ; Meet in the Forest of Chantilly 95 -^

A Russian Pastoral 101 ^

A Halt of Peasants in the Summer 103 "^

William the Conqueror.'s Landing in England . . . 105 "^

The Baptism of Jesus Christ by St. John 108 ^ viii CONTENTS

PAOB

St. Augustine writing his Confessions Ill •^

Andromache 112

Montesquieu and Lord Chesterfield 141 *^

A Letter on the Deaf and Dumb . 146 ^

A Father's Talks with his Children 170

A Lament for mt Old Dressing-Gown 208

A Letter about the Blind, for the Use of those who

CAN SEE 219 "^

An Eulogy of Ricbardbon . 239 "^

Preface

TO THE FIRST EDITION

The progress of literature may be compared, I think, to the garden described by Bacon in his well-known essay, which is, he suggests, to be divided into three parts; first, the green lawn, then the main garden, where he places all kinds of artificial ornaments and regular alleys, and, thirdly, the heath, where natural wildness is to be encouraged or simulated. Now the green lawn, it appears to me, may be likened in its stately simplicity to the classical school, the main garden to the highly artificial literature of the early part of the eighteenth century; while Rousseau, Diderot, and the romantic school are the heath, and simulate the natural wildness. But with all his desire to return to Nature as the true teacher, Diderot does not allow himself to be misled by the idea that we need only copy Nature, and he has the true artisfs instinct for forming a whole, of which the parts are subordinate to each other. In his ^^ Salons *" he has many passages to

X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

this effect ; yet the preacher does not always practise, and instinct is sometimes overpowered by the viv€u;ity of his fancy.

It is curious to contrast the different treatment

which Diderot has received from his various critics.

Ste. Beuve takes the point of view of a literary critic,

and values his " Salons "' highly, but passes lightly

over his position as a philosopher, as a thinker and a

precursor of the French Revolution. Scherer, on the

other hand, is the stem moralist who judges him by

the standard of to-day, instead of realizing the fact

that Mr. Lecky has so well brought before us, that

the moral standard changes and gradually rises from

generation to generation, so that we stand on a higher %

moral platform than our ancestors in the eighteenth

century ; just as in our own country it is the labouring

mem who gets drunk and thinks lightly of it, while

in the last century it was the squires who drank,

yet deemed themselves worthy folk according to the

standard ai*ound them. Carlyle is even more severe in

his judgment than Scherer, and certainly hits harder

and with an intolerance which must have come down

from his Puritan ancestors.

Taine, in alluding to Diderot, says : " We find a generation of sound intellects followed by one wanting in mental equilibrium.**' He goes on to compare him with Voltaire, and finds more life in Diderot's characters

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xi

than in Voltaire's. " In the latter the strings that pull the puppets are visible ; in the former they are cut and the figures move of their own accord.*" Diderot soars on the wings of inspiration, but, alas ! his wings do not prevent his often falling into the mud. He is one of the most unequal of writers, now expressing in beautiful language his admiration and respect for virtue^ now telling stories which the taste of the present day would not suffer to be printed. The critic, who has done so m uch to introduce a fruitful criticism, was at time s i ncapable of judging his own work ; he was run away by his eager imagination. Goethe, who warned young men not to allow themselves to drift, might have added a warning against the opposite danger of allowing their talents to run unbridled to riot; as the late Master of Balliol (Scott) once said to a pupil, " There are some who require the spur, but others require the rein.*" Diderot required the rein.

Some extracts from Ste. Beuve'*s essay on Diderot may form a fitting introduction of this classic writer to English readers, and show them his position in French literature — that literature whose prose stands unrivalled in clearness and its fitness to be the medium for the critic's j udgments. Ste. Beuve calls Diderot *^ the most German of French men,'' an d we find Lessing^ Goet he. ^Sd- Schiller translat in g him as if they felt a certain affinity with him, and hfe^ undoubtedly suggested to xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

Iicssing some of his writings on the drama and his fa pinng « Jju\rcu\n^ There is a frankness a nd bonhomie about Diderot , and a certain disregard of conventional rules, w hich mark him out as ii itroducing a new style. He was one of those who, with Rousseau , went back to nature and r evolted against the classical school which was in favour at that time. He studied not merely the surface of human nature, but had the Teutonic mining instinct, and sou ght to penetrate into motives a nd first principles and questions of morals. He has even prophetic gleams of Darwinism in his remarks on species and the morality of men and beasts.

Ste. Beuve calls him also ^* the first great writer of democratic society,**^ for he protests against luxury ; and in his charming essay, ** A Lament for my Old Dressing-Gowp.*" he shows a simplicity of taste which reminds one of the description of the room where Qoethe wrote, and which contained a few simple pieces of furniture, and none of those distracting objects which may divert the mind from beholding its own creations.

qiriogiJjur * It was a curiosity of that kind of which

♦ Did Montaigne coin the word incurioeit^ in this passage : " Oh ! que c'est un doux et mol chevet, et sain, que Tignorance et rincuriosit^ k reposer une tSte bien faite ? " Diderot oomments on it thus : ** One must have a head as well made as Montaigne's to be able to find ignorance and incurio»Uy to be two soft pillows." May not the oves - actiye brain long at times for two such pillows as conducive to sleep ?

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xiii

Cherbuliez says " Les esprits sup^rieurs sont tou jours curieux;'' yet, being unbridle d, it has pr evented h is concentrating his facu lties on one great work. Are we to blame him for this? Would it not~Tie wiser to acknowledge that different natures have different gifts, and that a^unter does not do the work of a steam engine OUn his revolt against the classical school, in his sympathy for the new democratic ideas which were stirring, Diderot was not likely to give limitations their true worth; they are, as it were, the steel rails which facilitate traction, but make the motion more mechanical and monotonous. The "fougue de Diderot,'' as Legouv6 expresses it, recalls the high-mettled charger eager for the battle, and Diderot dashes down his t houghts, is carried awcty by his feelings, a nd starts aside in many a suggestive and amusing digression; and if his value &s a critic is somewhat marred by this i mpetuosity , i t yet gives life and charm to his style, and will make many a reader take down his volumes while calmer critics lie unconsulted on their shelves.

This selection from Diderot here presented deals chiefly with questions of art, style, and morals.* This small volume aims at introducing him to a wider circle

* Mr. Morley, in his interesting life of Diderot, has given a translation of **Le Keyen de Ramean," a work which would have been ont of place in this selection, and Mr. Walter Pollock has translated ^'Le Paiadoze d'nn Gom^en," which is, therefore, omitted here.

XIV PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION of English readers than he has hitherto reached, and we trust these extracts may be found stimulating to thought. It is curious to contrast Diderot^s admiration of Richardson^s novels * with the remarks made by Lady Ma rv Wortley M ^nt^pMf* She could not help weeping over " Clarissa Harlowe,*" and writes : " The first volume softened me by a near resemblance of my maiden days, but on the whole ^tis most miserable stuff.'' And again, " I heartily dispise him (Richardson) and eagerly read him.'*' She is shocked at his want of knowledge of society — " T Tp ^ajs np ^^^° ^f ^"^^ tymnnorc ofjiigh life." T he minor faults of the author prevent ed Vi^j a/lmif»ifig J^jfi inaigKf into hnm an nature a nd

a ppreciating the truth of hi? c^^lineations of character. Diderot, on the other hand, was not jarred by the defects which annoyed the woman of fashion, and though his praise of Richardson strikes us as excessive, we should remember Go ethe 's great admira tion for Fielding's novels and for ^^Th<^ Y^o^r ftf Wakpfipld^^^ which may help us to understand the qualities in the English author ^ '"h^'^h plvfl'r'^d t he great writers of forei£U2.ji^ons, who were f^ll^f^^^'^g ngaingj- i\^^ f pncK.

* " I interrupt myself for a moment to express, at this later time of life, the deep admiration I still feel for Richardson. The follies of modern novel writing render it impossible for young people to underhand the perfection of the human nature in hi s conception ai^ d [glioacy of Anish in his dialogue, rendering ail his greater scenes lunsurpassaUe in tAfiUr manner ot' art."— Ruskin.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xv

^.^^^^classical school. Was it not a certain freshness of \ "^ yc/ delineation of human nature as contrasted with the | wooden puppets of less original writers, and with the artificial sentiments of the later romances ? If we wish to trace Diderot^s position in the world of thought we must turn to Grerman writers, for in Germany he has long been valued. An interesting and careful analysis of his writings and his relations with the scientific and literary men of his day is given in ^^ Diderot^s Leben und W erke,**^ by K. Ro senkrantz (pub. Leipzig ' 1866). It was as a mathematician that ") Diderot first claimed attention. When he was later branded as an Atheist it was apparently owing to the jealousy and ill-will of La Harpe, who declared that the articles in the " Encyclopaedia ^"^ showed Diderot to be a man who despised the Church. The multitude believed this without reading the articles, and as infidelity was considered a crime by a large class of ignorant courtiers, the fame of Diderot was obscured) for a time. He is indeed a curious instance of a man who was very popular among a small circle of friends, but whose merits were, after his death, overshadowed / by his illustrious contemporaries, Grimm, Bufibn, d'Alembert, and others. One reason may be that many of his MSS. were not published till long after his death, and his charming letters to Mile. Volland were not brought to light till 1830.

xvi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

•

Yet the more we inquire into the history of the compilation of the ^^ Encyclopaedia ^ the more we are struck by DideroVs unt iring enegr y and perseverance, and his great power of mastering the technical details of a great variety of manufactures so as to be able to present them clearly to his readers ; his vigorous mind was ready to take up any subject when some careless contributor failed to produce the article required for the " Encyclopaedia.''

Modem science has made some of Diderot's writings antiquated, but the student who cares to consult the French edition of his works in twenty volumes may find an historical interest in tracing the germs of some of our modem theories.

His ideas on t he danger of over civilization may have been quickened by the recollection of his prison days at Vincennes, where he was thrown, not so much on account of the unorthodox nature of his writings, as because he ventured to complain of having been forestalled by a scientific court lady in the examination of a blind man after an operation for cataract. In contrast with his treatment in civilized France, the conduct of the Empress Catherine in her semi-barbarous Empire was striking. In St. Petersburg his talents were fully recognized, and the Empress had the merit of being a good listener and of overlooking the want of courtly manners in her guest. Diderot required above i

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xvii

all an intelligent ^audience ; he had tried in his youth being tutor to the children of a rich financier, and devoted himself to them for a time, but at last could endure the strain no longer; he preferred poverty and independence and leisure for study. When his father desired him to choose one of three professions, and sent his friend M. Clement to tell him, his son Denis refused, and when asked what he wished to become, answered, ^^ Nothing, nothing at all; I love learning. I am quite contented and happy ; I wish for nothing else;'

In the region of the drama Diderot was more of a

^JVioses than a Joshua; he broke away from the old

jLclassical jraditiftn a,nd pnd^ft'^ftw^-t^ be natural, fo

(/ oringthe stage in relation with daily Ijfejixdempcratize

^^HrfiTwe may so say, and in doing this, though he failed^

' to gain the public ear. Via nppnp/l <^ y^^^ n/innfry tn fl^P

Germ an writers, who were ready and eager to profit by his teaching and example. " Le Fils Naturel," with its setting of dialogue and criticism, is interesting, and might again take its place on the stage. It was translated into English in the last century. Diderot, as a story-teller, has the fatal vice of coarseness, nor had he the final gift of the artist, the power of choice, ' the instinctive or highly trained taste whicH knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. Unlike most Frenchmen, he took the trouble of learning English, y xviii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

and translated Lord Shaftesbury''s " Essay on Virtue," afterwards published in the " Characteristics.''

.His account of his method of translation of this work shows that he acted on the principle that " the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.*" " Je Pai lu et relu; je me suis rempli de son esprit; et j'ai, pour ainsi dire, fermd son Uvre lorsque j'ai pris la plume/' (" I read it over and over again till I had steeped myself in its meaning ; and then I shut up the book, so to say, and took up my pen.")

One of his suggestive questions is : " How far jjie artist has a separate morality of his own ? " Some of the greatest artists seem to approach the indifference of nature and represent good and evil warring without letting us know on which side their sympathy^ is, and without, as it were, caring which prevailed, though keenly interested in the contest; they are unmoral^ if not immoral.

Again, he asks, have beasts a different morality to ours.'' We certainly hold ourselves privileged to do things to beasts which we should consider immoral as done to man. Even anti-vivisectionists are not, I believe all vegetarians; and the philanthropist^ Sir John Lubbock, did not think it immoral to make ants drunk in order to see whether their sober brethren would treat them in the same manner as they treated alien ants who were likewise made drunk.