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Voltaire and Peter Annet's Life of David
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2021
Extract
In the history of the interplay of English and French liberal thought in the eighteenth century, too much attention has been given to the supposed influence of such well-known deists as Bolingbroke and Toland, much too little to Voltaire's definite and direct borrowings from the radical and late deist, Peter Annet, whose method and style were more closely akin to Voltaire's own than were those of any other English deist. Although Voltaire was well acquainted with, and influenced by, certain of Annet's earlier tracts, especially his History of Saint Paul, it is from his Lift of David, the Man after God's own Heart, apparently more than from any other treatise from across the channel, that Voltaire borrowed directly in spirit and in detail, and translated faithfully whatever passages suited his needs. In this work, he found practically all the material for his frequent and varied animadversions on David from the beginning to the end of his Biblical criticism. Indeed, study of his use of Annet's Life of David throws light upon the extent, the nature, and the moment of the influence of the English deistic movement on Voltaire's attacks on the established religion.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1928
References
page 836 note 1 Lethe Stephen, English Thought in the ISth Century (London, 1881); I, 247.
page 836 note 2 J. M. Robertson, Short History of Free-thought (London, 1915), II, 327. See R. Ctrlile, The Deist (London, 1820).
page 837 note 3 London, 1764, 2 vol. The Life of David was attributed tome hundred year, later upon very uncertain evidence to Archibald Campbell, and again to Peter Noorthouck. See Notes and Queries: l.t tenet, xli, 204, 255; 5th tenet, viii,98. Convincing internal evidence of Annet's authorship is found in his Supemeturals examin'd, Collection of Tracts (s.l.n.d.): pp. 160-62, where much of the identical material appears and the Life of David is clearly presaged.
page 837 note 4 Op. cit., I, 247, n. 1.
page 837 note 5 CEuvres (éd. Moland), V, 569. Voltaire refers to the English suthor invariably as Huet, Hut, or Hutte, and assigns to the work the fictitious date of 1728,which he later corrected. It appears very probable that he never knew Annet by name.
page 837 note 6 CEuvres, XLI, 472. Cf. Life of David, pp. 62-64 (Csrlue's Deist, voL I, reprint of edition of 1766).
page 838 note 7 XLII 560. Ci. Life of David, p. 64. Beuchot checked this epithet in Holbach's translation of Annet's work in 1768.
page 838 note 8 Op. cit., I, 258 ff.
page 838 note 9 Op. cit., p. 20.
page 839 note 10 V, 578, 580 and note.
page 839 note 11 Op.cit.,p.24.
page 840 note 12 V,583. Cf. Life of David,pp.35,49.
page 840 note 13 XXX, 193, note I. Cf. Life of David, p. 50.
page 840 note 14 Lift of David, p. 33. Cf. Voltaire, V, 334,385.
page 841 note 15 V, 608. Cf. Life of David, p. 41.
page 841 note 16 Op. cit., p. 63. Cf. Voltaire, V, 608.
page 841 note 17 Op. cit. 67.
page 842 note 18 XXX, 193, note 2. Cf. Life of David, p. 50.
page 842 note 19 G. Lanson, in the Rout da Court at Conferences (June 18, 1908).
page 842 note 20 Life ef David, pp. 33,34.