Discourse
which was awarded the prize by the Academy of Dijon
in the year 1750
on this question, which the Academy itself proposed,
Has the restoration of the sciences and the arts contributed to refining moral practices?
Barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intelligor illis. Ovid*
Preliminary Notice
What is celebrity? Here is the unfortunate work to which I owe my own. It is certain that this piece, which won me a prize and made my name, is mediocre at best, and I venture to add that it is one of the least in this whole collection. What an abyss of miseries the author would have avoided, if this first book had been received only according to its merits! But an initially unjustified favour gradually brought me severe treatment which is even more undeserved.*
Preface
Here is one of the greatest and most beautiful questions ever raised. In this Discourse it is not a question of those metaphysical subtleties which have triumphed over all parts of literature and from which programs in an Academy are not always exempt. However, it does concern one of those truths upon which rests the happiness of the human race.
I anticipate that people will have difficulty forgiving me for the position which I have dared to take. By colliding head on with everything which wins men’s admiration nowadays, I can expect only universal censure. And I cannot count on public approval just because I have been honoured with the approbation of some wise men. But still, I have taken my position. I am not worried about pleasing clever minds or fashionable people. In every period there will be men fated to be governed by the opinions of their century, their country, and their society. For that very reason, a freethinker or philosopher today would have been nothing but a fanatic at the time of the League.* One must not write for such readers, if one wishes to live beyond one’s own age.
One more word, and I’ll be finished. Little expecting the honour I received, since I submitted this Discourse, I have reorganized and expanded it, to the point of making it, in one way or another, a different work. Today I believe I am obliged to restore it to the state it was in when it was awarded the prize. I have only thrown in some notes and left two readily recognizable additions, of which the Academy perhaps might not have approved. I thought that equity, respect, and gratitude demanded that I provide this notice.
Discourse
Decipimur specie recti*
Has the restoration of the sciences and the arts contributed to the purification or to the corruption of morality? This is the matter we have to examine. What side should I take on this question? That, gentlemen, which suits an honourable man who knows nothing and who does not, for that reason, think any less of himself.
It will be difficult, I sense, to adapt what I have to say for the tribunal before which I am appearing. How can one venture to blame the sciences in front of one of the most scholarly societies in Europe, praise ignorance in a famous Academy, and reconcile a contempt for study with respect for truly learned men? I have seen these contradictions, and they have not discouraged me. I am not mistreating science, I told myself; I am defending virtue in front of virtuous men. Integrity is cherished among good people even more than erudition is among scholars. So what am I afraid of? The enlightened minds of the assembly which is listening to me? I confess that is a fear. But it’s a fear about the construction of the Discourse and not about the feelings of the speaker. Equitable sovereigns have never hesitated to condemn themselves in doubtful arguments, and the most advantageous position in a just cause is to have to defend oneself against a well-informed party, who is judging his own case with integrity.
To this motive which encourages me is added another which made up my mind: after I have upheld, according to my natural intelligence, the side of truth, no matter what success I have, there is a prize which I cannot fail to win. I will find it in the depths of my heart.
