Helvétius, CLAUDE ADRIEN

Helvétius, CLAUDE ADRIEN, one of the French Encyclopædists, was of Swiss origin, and was born at Paris in 1715. He was trained for a financial career, and in 1738 was appointed to the lucrative office of farmer-general. But this post he quickly resigned for the situation of chamberlain to the queen's household. At this time he associated much with the French philosophers of the day, Diderot, D'Alembert, Holbach, and others. In 1751 he withdrew to a small estate at Voré (Le Perche), where he spent the most of his life in the education of his family, the improvement of his peasantry, and in literary labours. In 1758 appeared his celebrated work, Dc l'Esprit, in which, carrying out, as he thought, the work of Locke, he endeavoured to prove that sensation is the source of all intellectual activity, and that the grand lever of all human conduct is self-gratification. The book created an immense sensation. It was denounced by the doctors of the Sorbonne, and condemned by the parliament of Paris to be publicly burned. Everybody read it, and it was translated into the principal European tongues. Helvétius died at Paris, 26th December 1771, leaving behind him a work, De l'Homme, de ses Facultés, et de son Education (2 vols. Lond. 1772). His collected works were published in 14 vols. at Paris in 1796, and again in 3 vols. in 1818. See Morley's Diderot and the Encyclopædists (1878).