Chapter I: Montmorency--The New Heloïsa (3)

[82] C.G. de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (p. 1721--guillotined, 1794), son of the chancellor, and one of the best instructed and most enlightened men of the century--a Turgot of the second rank--was Directeur de la Librairie from 1750-1763. The process was this: a book was submitted to him; he named a censor for it; on the censor's report the director gave or refused permission to print, or required alterations. Even after these formalities were complied with, the book was liable to a decree of the royal council, a decree of the parliament, or else a _lettre-de-cachet_ might send the author to the Bastile. See Barbier, vii. 126.

After Lord Shelburne saw Malesherbes, he said, "I have seen for the first time in my life what I never thought could exist--a man whose soul is absolutely free from hope or fear, and yet who is full of life and ardour." Mdlle. Lespinasse's _Lettres_, 90.

[83] See note, p. 132.

[84] _Conf._, xi. 134.

[85] _Conf._, xi. 139.

[86] _Ib._, xi. 139. _Corr._, ii. 270, etc. Dec. 12, 1761, etc.

[87] _Conf._, xi. 150.

[88] Fourth Letter to Malesherbes, p. 377.

[89] With one trifling exception, the Letter to Grimm on the Opera of Omphale (1752): _Écrits sur la Musique_, p. 337.

[90] See Barbier's Journal, viii. 45 (Ed. Charpentier, 1857). A succinct contemporary account of the general situation is to be found in D'Alembert's little book, the _Destruction des Jésuites_.

[91] Grimm, for instance: _Corr. Lit._, iii. 117.

[92] _Corr._, ii. 337. June 7, 1672. _Conf._, xi. 152, 162.

[93] _Conf._, xi. 162. The Levite's story is to be read in _Judges_, ch. xix.