The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters to Eugenia, by Baron d'Holbach

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Letters to Eugenia
or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices

Author: Baron d'Holbach

Translator: Anthony C. Middleton

Release Date: February 14, 2010 [EBook #31275]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO EUGENIA ***

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net

LETTERS TO EUGENIA;

OR,

A PRESERVATIVE
AGAINST RELIGIOUS PREJUDICES.

BY BARON D'HOLBACH,
AUTHOR OF THE SYSTEM OF NATURE, THE SOCIAL SYSTEM,
GOOD SENSE, CHRISTIANITY UNVEILED, ECCE HOMO,
UNIVERSAL MORALITY, RELIGIOUS CRUELTY, &c., &c., &c.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, BY
ANTHONY C. MIDDLETON, M. D.

... "Arctis
Religionum animos nodis exsolvere pergo."
LUCRETII _De Rerum Natura_, lib. iv. _v._ 6, 7.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY JOSIAH P. MENDUM,
AT THE OFFICE OF THE BOSTON INVESTIGATOR.
1857.

NAIGEON'S PREFACE.

1768.

For many years this work has been known under the title of _Letters to
Eugenia_. The secretive character of those, however, into whose hands
the manuscript at first fell; the singular and yet actual pleasure
that is caused generally enough in the minds of all men by the
exclusive possession of any object whatever; that kind of torpor,
servitude, and terror in which the tyrannical power of the priests
then held all minds--even those who by the superiority of their
talents ought naturally to be the least disposed to bend under the
odious yoke of the clergy,--all these circumstances united contributed
so much to stifle in its birth, if I may so express myself, this
important manuscript, that for a long time it was supposed to be lost;
so much did those who possessed it keep it carefully concealed, and so
constantly did they refuse to allow a copy to be taken. The
manuscripts, indeed, were so scarce, even in the libraries of the
curious, that the late M. De Boze, whose pleasure it was to collect
the rarest works belonging to every species of literature, could never
succeed in acquiring a copy