However, the Reign of Terror, the Directory, and the rise to power of Napoleon turned nearly all of them against France, and the ensuing twenty years of war in Europe cut them off from the Continent. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, Day, Edge-worth, Williams, Priestley, Percival, Erasmus Darwin, Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, are among those who were Francophiles and at first supporters of the French Revolution. It is little wonder that French political and educational ideas were greatly esteemed by many of the intellectual and literary radicals in England in the second half of the century, despite the wars of the period. Émile and The Social Contract were published in 1762, and La Chalotais produced his Essay on National Education in 1763. Rousseau, who also came to England for a while, had many English acquaintances and admirers. Voltaire wrote for nearly sixty years of the century and prized his English associations highly. volumes of the Encyclopedia, which drew together so many radical contributors of great distinction. Montesquieu produced the Spirit of the Laws in 1743 Buffon wrote many of his forty-four volumes on Natural History between 17 Diderot and d’Alembert between 17 produced the thirty-five. BEFORE 1789 the channels of communication with France were open and the remarkable French intellectual achievements of the second half of the century gained the respect of many Englishmen.
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