otion, and fortuitous shapes. Helvetius
brought a theory of human character, and a new analysis of
morals--interest the basis of justice, pleasure the true interpretation
of interest, and character the creature of education and laws.

To press such positions as these, was to recast the whole body of
opinions on which society rested. As the church was the organ of the old
opinions, Helvetius's book was instantly seized by the ecclesiastical
authorities in accordance with a perfectly right instinct, and was made
the occasion for the first violent raid upon a wholesale scale. When,
however, we look beyond the smoke of the ecclesiastical battle, and
weigh _L'Esprit_ itself on its own merits, we see quite plainly that
Helvetius was thinking less of the theological disputes of the day than
of bringing the philosophy of sensation, the philosophy of Locke and
Condillac, into the political field, and of deriving from it new
standards and new forces for social reconstruction. And in spite of its
shallowness and paradoxes, his book did contain the one principle on
which, if it had been generally accepted, the inevitable transition
might have taken place without a Reign of Terror.

It was commonly said, by his enemies and by his alarmed friends, that
vanity and a restless overweening desire for notoriety was the inspiring
motive of Helvetius. He came from a German stock. His great-grandfather
settled in Holland, where he cured his patients by cunning elixirs, by
the powder of ground stag's horn, and the subtle virtues of crocodiles'
teeth. His grandfather went to push his fortunes in Paris, where he
persuaded the public to accept the healing properties of ipecacuanha,
and Lewis XIV. (1689) gave him a short patent for that drug.[102] The
medical tradition of the family was maintained in a third generation,
for Helvetius's father was one of the physicians of the Queen, and on
one occasion performed the doubtful service to humanity of saving the
life of Lewis XV. Helvetius, who was born in 1715, turned aside from the
calling of his ancestors, and by means of the favour which his father
enjoyed at court, obtained a position as farmer-general. This at once
made him a wealthy man, but wealth was not enough to satisfy him without
fame. He made attempts in various directions, in each case following the
current of popularity for the hour. Maupertuis was the hero of a day,
and Helvetius accordingly applied himself to become a geometer.
Volt