Helvetius

His Life and Place in the History of Educational Thought

Ian Cumming

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415177658
• eBook ISBN: 9781135034290
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Published in 1998, Helvetius is a valuable contribution to the field of Sociology and Social Policy.

CHAPTER ONE

The Wisdom of Our Ancestors

THE fortunes of the Helvetius family were established firmly upon the sudorific, expectorant and emetic qualities of the root of ipecacuanha. This strange good fortune came about in the following manner.

There lived, at one time, a German family named Vigelius. Of three brothers the youngest studied in Basel and afterwards became rector in Neustadt; he took the name of Sweitzer. He died in the fulness of years at Cöthen whither he had migrated with his only son Balthazar. Balthazar’s son, in turn, is known to posterity as Balthazar Sweitzer or Schweitzer, Helvety or Helvetius, a lawyer of Cöthen who married Anna Braunin and by her had issue, Johan Frederik Helvetius. The slight, even dwarfish, Johan Frederik fled as a religious refugee from the ravaged Palatinate to the Netherlands in 1649. He studied medicine, reaching the zenith of his student investigations with a thesis on the Plague. On 4 September 1653 at Harderwijk, he was permitted to practise as a doctor of medicine. The Schweitzer family abandoned its titles of German nobility when it settled in Holland; it was a common practice in the sixteenth century for men to latinize their names, and in this way Schweitzer became Helvetius. Johan Frederik lived first in Amsterdam and later in The Hague, where, in 1658, he married Johanna Pels (or Pelises), daughter of an Amsterdam banker and East Indian merchant. They produced sixteen children, only eight of whom reached maturity. At times Johan Frederik had earned the gratitude and esteem of the Staten Generaal and the House of Orange, but his later years were devoted to the concoction of drugs and the study of alchemy. His most important publication was the Microscopium physiognomiae medicum which, in 1664, he dedicated to Prince William of Orange whom he tactfully compared with Caesar, Augustus, Hannibal and Alexander. His personal history ends in The Hague on 29 August 1709, five months after the demise of his prolific Johanna. The parish register of funerals, dated 3 September, shows that his interment was of the first class—the notary, Van den Bergh, invited eight apothecaries and eight surgeons to assist in the last respects. Of his children, Adriaan—better known as Jean-Adrien—claims our special attention. After studying at Leyden he went to Paris with some powders composed by his father but the enterprise was not successful and he returned home. Indifferent to the aversion of the French doctors the ‘gros Hollandois’ tried again and established himself in the Cité in the rue Saint-Louis at the Belle Étoile. There he fell in love with a neighbour, Jeanne Desgranges, widow of Louis Delbée, a former captain of the vessel La Justice. Although the merry widow produced a son, Jean-François, on 15 February 1683, Jean-Adrien’s parents refused to give their authority for his marriage to a woman about eight years his senior. Nevertheless he successfully petitioned the civil lieutenant at the Châtelet and the marriage took place on 3 August 1684 at the church of Saint Barthélemy. A few months previous, in March, Adrien had received a letter of naturalization on his professing the Roman Catholic religion.¹ Now Jean-Adrien did not waste all his substance in dalliance, nor was he slow to grasp the opportunity which was to lead him to fortune. In 1638 the German naturalist and traveller, Marggraf, accompanied Pison, doctor to Maurice of Nassau, to Brazil. Their papers and notes were published at Amsterdam by the famous geographer, Jean de Laet, in 1648 under the title of G. Pisonis De Medicina Brasiliensi Libri IV; G. Marggravi Historiae Rerum naturalium Brasiliae Libri VIII. In them was described a Brazilian plant which the natives used to cure different illnesses and which was especially efficacious in the relief of dysentery. Called by the Brazilians ‘poaya’ Marggraf and Pison named it ‘ipecacuanha’. A natural history of Brazil was not a subject about which doctors craved information and so it was neglected. And even after 1672, when a doctor, Le Gras, after three voyages to America, had brought back a large amount of the root and had deposited most of it with a Parisian apothecary named Claquenelle, the safe medicinal use of ipecacuanha was unknown and many accidents followed its uncertain administrations. About the years 1685 or 1686 Jean-Adrien met a rich druggist who lay seriously ill and who was being attended by d’Aforty (or Dafforty), a member of the ‘Faculté’. D’Aforty, aware that his professional reputation might suffer, refused to use ipecacuanha. But when Helvetius was offered the opportunity to test the therapeutic qualities of the root he did not hesitate. Success beyond measure brought him fame and fortune.

Helvetius built up a reserve and bought up all the ipecacuanha available for sale at the European ports. He also obtained ‘lettres royales’—given at Versailles on 19 July 1688 and signed by Louis—which permitted him ‘de débiter pendant quatre années un spécifique pour guérir immanquablement et sans retour le flux de ventre et la dysenterie.’ A grateful patient, the duchesse de Chaulnes, recommended Jean-Adrien to Colbert who, in his turn, introduced the ‘médecin Hollandois’ to the son of Louis XIV; no details relating to his illness remain but it is known that the Dauphin was cured of an attack of dysentery. Jean-Adrien, well-named by his descendants ‘grand-père Ipéca’, now became the doctor of fashion. He was honoured with the title of ‘conseiller du roi’ and he was appointed inspector-general of the hospitals in Flanders, a position which Louis XIV created by an edict of 17 January 1708—the armies of Louis suffered severely from dysentery! After filling various positions wherein his charity and mercy were not constrained Jean-Adrien was appointed on 25 July 1717 as ‘médecin ordinaire’ to the duc d’Orléans. On 27 March 1724 Louis XV conferred on him ‘lettres de noblesse’.¹ It had been a practice, especially of Louis XIV, to create nobles and sell patents of nobility to virtuous persons who had performed their various duties with merit. The virtuous were always wealthy; in 1706, for example, the ennobling of 500 persons cost each one 6,000 livres. The ennobled members of the upper bourgeoisie, however, were not recognized as their social equals by the aristocracy who preserved the elegance and dignity of good breeding, albeit at times rather tarnished. So great was the difference in station between a ‘grand seigneur’ and a ‘bourgeois’ that when the prince de Craon² died in 1754 Claude-Adrien Helvetius, although related to him by marriage, did not go into mourning. The duc de Richelieu, who tells this story in his Mémoires,³ says that Helvetius was applauded for his modesty. The upper bourgeoisie, on its part, was disdainful not only of the provincial and urban artisans but also of the more comfortably placed wealthy tradesmen and those who held subordinate positions in local government. Half a century or more was to pass before the social hierarchy of the bourgeoisie was to be dissolved in the comprehensive term ‘tiers état’, or before the word ‘citoyen’ was to enhance the usefulness of a member of society. Jean-Adrien died on 20 February 1727 in his sixty-fifth year.

On 12 July 1685 a second son had been born to Jean-Adrien and Jeanne, by then legally united. The child, named Jean-Claude-Adrien, was raised at home and received his early instruction from his father. In time he attended the Collège des Quatre-Nations and was looked upon as a bright pupil. This college owed its foundation to Cardinal Mazarin. On 6 March 1661 only a few days before he died, he had dictated to two notaries of the Châtelet proposals for an educational establishment. The college was to house a library on condition that it remain open to the public twice a week. Louis XIV approved of this advice by letters patent in June 1665. In 1674 the University also gave its approval provided there were no academies which were not academic! The building was erected between 1662 and 1674 under the superintendence of Louis Levau, Director of Buildings, and after his death, by his former pupil François Dorbay. Since classes started in 1688 and they were confined to children who were not less than ten years of age and not more than fifteen it is probable that Jean-Claude-Adrien attended about the year 1696. It would appear that some favour was given to the Helvetius family for it was made a condition of entry that pupils provide certificates proving four degrees of paternal nobility. A few years before he attended, in 1691, the library was opened to the public on Mondays and Thursdays; this arrangement continued till the Revolution. When it was about time for him to leave school Jean-Claude-Adrien showed a boyish love of the army; but he agreed to follow the advice of his father with whom he was always in perfect accord. And so, about the age of sixteen or seventeen he went to the University of Paris, the oldest in France. It had four faculties—arts, law, theology and medicine. As a medical student, Jean-Claude-Adrien displayed great enthusiasm and gained a reputation for the ardour with which he applied himself to his studies. He followed courses at the Hôtel-Dieu and the Charité and in 1708 he received his doctorate. His skill was soon recognized and a few years later he was consulted during the last illness of Louis XIV. Chance again favoured the Helvetius family. About 1719 or 1720 the young Louis XV fell strangely ill and defied the ability of his doctors; Helvetius was called, and contrary to other medical advice performed an operation which proved successful. In gratitude for the royal deliverance the Regent granted Helvetius a pension of 10,000 livres and invited him to live at Versailles. After being received into the Académie des Sciences in 1719 he was appointed ‘médecin ordinaire’ to Louis XV (4 February 1720), ‘médecin inspecteur des hôpitaux militaires’ (August 1720), ‘médecin consultant du roi’ (4 July 1721), and ‘médecin à la suite du roi’ (28 April 1722). In 1722 his mother, Jeanne, died at her home in the parish of Saint-Séverin. He found great favour with the queen Marie Leczinska and on 28 February 1728 he was appointed her ‘premier médecin’, almost exactly a year after the death of his father. Because of his practical skill as a doctor and his many writings Helvetius was honoured by the academies of Berlin, Florence and Boulogne and by the London Royal Society; he was also made an honorary associate of the Royal College of Medicine at Nancy. On 17 July 1746 he was attacked for the first time by apoplexy; when he realized in 1751 that his illness was becoming more serious he suggested that his pupil, Delavigne, should succeed him as ‘médecin de la reine’; in December 1754 he became very ill and on 17 July 1755 died a few days after his seventieth birthday. He was buried in the cemetery of the parish of Saint-Louis at Versailles.

Jean-Claude-Adrien had found the life of a doctor much more congenial than his father had, although many years were to pass before the profession ceased to be an object of ridicule on which dramatists could sharpen wits and authors build ridiculous situations. Possibly boorish young doctors were still to be found who would see nothing strange in Thomas Diaforus, doctor son of a doctor father, attempting to insinuate himself into the loving grace of an unappreciative Angélique by presenting her with a thesis against the ‘circulateurs’.¹ Innovations as yet were heresies to the scholastics; and even till the end of the eighteenth century the science of medicine often became lucrative quackery rather than honest innovations and wise searchings. There were French dealers in magic and spells, counterparts of the Chevalier John Taylor, ‘Spot’ Ward and Robert James. And there were still doctors who owed to Dr Sangrado, the most celebrated physician of Valladolid, the principles of their medical practice; he condensed all the study of pharmacy, anatomy, botany and physic into two rules, the first of which was to bleed the patients and the second to make them drink warm water.² Besides purgings, bleedings and syringings there were patent medicines which were supposed to effect wonderful cures. Such treatment was not confined to France; indeed, the export of Schauer’s Balsam, Dr Kieso’s Elixir and many other preparations was once the chief trade of Augsburg. Nevertheless, physicians gained an entry into polite society during the seventeenth century, but those adventurous members of the barbers’ guild, the often unscientific surgeons, remained socially inferior to those who studied medicine. Not till 1743 did La Peyronie obtain by means of ‘lettres royales’, the same privileges for surgeons that ‘régents’ and ‘docteurs’ of the University enjoyed. The Académie de Chirurgie was created in 1731 after La Peyronie and Maréchal had convinced Louis XV that it was necessary. In England, too, a significant progressive move was made in 1745 when the Company of Barber Surgeons was dissolved and the Surgeons’ Company formed.¹ Advances in medical science were made simultaneously with discoveries in the natural sciences. In the seventeenth century Newton gave tremendous impetus to the study of natural philosophy; he may have regarded the unfolding universe as a manifestation of the glory of God but the sceptics seized his system as proof of the heavens abiding by mechanical principles. The Aristotelian theory of the four elements was upset by the chemists Boyle in England, and Becher and Stahl in Germany. Scientists and philosophers were realizing the truth of Seneca’s words that they must learn, in the pursuit of wisdom, to listen with equanimity to the reproaches of the foolish and to despise contempt itself. Yet the lure of alchemy persisted. Johan Frederik Helvetius propounded his spagyric art in discussing a most rare miracle of nature in the transmutation of metals; verily, as the mass of lead was in a moment changed into gold, Johan Frederik found refuge in the words of Elihu that ‘great things doth God which we cannot comprehend.’ And the scholarly adventurer, Becher, attempted to change the Danube sand into gold. Many of the great doctors, such as Bouvart, Tronchin and Jean-Claude-Adrien Helvetius, recorded their observations and gave others the fruits of their experiments, and they achieved fame through their individual treatment of certain illnesses. As late as 1897 when the Plague was raging throughout the Bombay Presidency it was considered advisable to make available selected remedies and suggestions for treatment compiled by Jean-Adrien Helvetius. Of course, because of experimentation and trial and error, and in spite of distinct advances in surgery, obstetrics, dentistry and ophthalmology even the great doctors made mistakes. Without rancour, Hénault lamented on this fact when his sister died in 1727 after being treated by Silva, to whom Helvetius entrusted many of his patients. Different countries were improving their codes of hygiene and sanitation and when one reflects that there were no lavatories at Versailles until the time of Louis XVI—and then only for the King and Queen—it becomes apparent that the French generally stood in need of ablutionary regeneration. The study of anatomy supported the practice of surgery yet it was not till the end of the seventeenth century that it was looked on as respectable. At one time it was necessary for the anatomists to buy corpses from the hospitals Bicêtre and Saltpétrière or else procure them surreptitiously from the Cimetière de Clamart. It is important to realize that the interest in medical science and in the other exact sciences was not confined to the aristocracy who could afford the time to spend on experimentation nor to the professors in the academies which were rapidly taking their places beside the universities, but all classes, particularly the bourgeoisie, were enthralled not only by the possibility of making discoveries but also by the process of scientific thought.

About the years 1710 or 1711 Jean-Claude-Adrien Helvetius had married the beautiful Geneviève-Noëlle de Carvoisin d’Armancourt. They lived at first in the rue Geoffrey L’Asnier in the parish of Saint-Paul. Their first child was a daughter who unfortunately died on 2 March 1714. But on 26 January of the following year a son was born, and since the parents were then living in the rue Serpente, the child was baptized on 28 January at the church Saint-Séverin and named Claude-Adrien.

¹ The ‘lettre de naturalité pour Adrien Helvetius, médecin natif de la Haye en Hollande,’ is recorded in the Archives de France, Série O–O’28F16 ‘Lettres de Naturalité 1684’.

¹ The record of the ‘annoblissement’ of Adrien Helvetius, ‘inspecteur général des hôpitaux de flandre’, is kept in the Archives de France, Série PP (PP146B ‘Amortisse, Annoblisse, Arrests’).

² Marc de Beauvau (1678–1754) served in the guards of the duc de Lorraine, who gave him the property of Haudonvillier and the title of marquis de Craon (1712). The princesse de Craon was a member of the Ligniville family and aunt of Mme Helvetius.

³ Mémoires du maréchal de Richelieu (ed. Barrière, Paris, 1858).

¹ Molière’s play, La Malade Imaginaire, was first performed on 10 February 1673 and William Harvey had discovered the circulation of the blood about 1616—his essay on the subject was published in 1628.

² Alain-René Lesage, Gil Bias,

¹ For the qualifications required by a surgeon see T. S. Smollett’s The Adventures of Roderick Random (Vol. 1, Ch. XVII), wherein the hero of the story is examined at Surgeons’ Hall. It is well to bear in mind, however, that Smollett himself failed to pass the examination for Surgeon’s Mate in 1740,

CHAPTER TWO

Entangled in the Cobwebs of the Schools

THE birth of a daughter was not an occasion for rejoicing in eighteenth-century France. Yet one cannot believe that the good doctor Helvetius and his pious wife were unaffected when their first child, Geneviève, died. Perhaps because of this sad loss Claude-Adrien’s parents were particularly tender and loving towards him; he was fortunate in possessing a fairly wealthy, tolerant father and a beautiful, pious and dutiful mother. In a century which was characterized by an amazing amount of licentiousness there were yet among the country folk and the bourgeoisie many who enjoyed normal family life. While the Regency produced confusion in manners and a disregard for domestic virtues the taint of scandal seldom was attached to the bourgeoisie. Modest—even frugal—in their habits, simple in their follies, often austere in their morals, the self-made ‘gentilshommes’ had too much to lose to indulge in the extravagances of a morally decadent court. Even the cynical Restif de la Bretonne, the most prolific French writer of the later eighteenth century, could write tenderly of the life of his father.¹ This atmosphere of bourgeois order and decency pervades those paintings of Chardin such as La pourvoyeuse, La mère laborieuse, Le bénédicité and L’enfant au toton. Just as the seventeenth-century Dutch burghers live in the paintings of that time, so Chardin has por...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Foreword
• 1 The Wisdom of Our Ancestors
• 2 Entangled in the Cobwebs of the Schools
• 3 A Youth of Frolics
• 4 The Philosophic Diner-Out
• 5 Of Some Substance and Stake in the Country
• 6 The True Apostles of Equality
• 7 Seeking the Bubble Reputation
• 8 C’est un Furieux Pays
• 9 Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
• 10 Death, a Necessary End
• 11 The Dart of Chance
• 12 The First Duty of a State
• 13 Effort, and Expectation, and Desire
• 14 Wild Rousseau
• 15 L’Education Peut Tout
• 16 Teaching Nations How to Live
• Bibliography
• Index
• Genealogical Table of the Helvetius Family