A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal | Page 2

and therefore shews no defect in the laws of either. But it is
nevertheless a breach of civil manners and literary justice; neither can it be any apology,
that because the countries are at war, literature shall be entitled to depredation.[1]
But the forestalling the Abbe's publication by London editions, both in French and
English, and thereby not only defrauding him, and throwing an expensive publication on
his hands, by anticipating the sale, are only the smaller injuries which such conduct may
occasion. A man's opinions, whether written or in thought, are his own until he pleases to
publish them himself; and it is adding cruelty to injustice to make him the author of what
future reflection or better information might occasion him to suppress or amend. There
are declarations and sentiments in the Abbe's piece, which, for my own part, I did not
expect to find, and such as himself, on a revisal, might have seen occasion to change, but
the anticipated piracy effectually prevented him the opportunity, and precipitated him
into difficulties, which, had it not been for such ungenerous fraud, might not have
happened.
This mode of making an author appear before his time, will appear still more ungenerous,
when we consider how exceedingly few men there are in any country who can at once,
and without the aid of reflection and revisal, combine warm passions with a cool temper,
and the full expansion of imagination with the natural and necessary gravity of judgment,
so as to be rightly balanced within themselves, and to make a reader feel, and understand
justly at the same time. To call three powers of the mind into action at once, in a manner
that neither shall interrupt, and that each shall aid and vigorate the other, is a talent very
rarely possessed.
It often happens, that the weight of an argument is lost by the wit of setting it off, or the
judgment disordered by an intemperate irritation of the passions: yet a certain degree of
animation must be felt by the writer, and raised in the reader, in order to interest the
attention; and a sufficient scope given to the imagination, to enable it to create in the
mind a sight of the persons, characters, and circumstances of the subject; for without

these, the judgment will feel little or no excitement to office, and its determinations will
be cold, sluggish, and imperfect. But if either or both of the two former are raised too
high, or heated too much, the judgment will be jostled from his seat, and the whole matter,
however important in itself, will diminish into a pantomime of the mind, in which we
create images that promote no other purpose than amusement.
The Abbe's writings bear evident marks of that extension and rapidness of thinking and
quickness of sensation which of all others require revisal, and the more particularly so
when applied to the living characters of nations or individuals in a state of war. The least
misinformation or misconception leads to some wrong conclusion and an error believed
becomes the progenitor of others. And as the Abbe has suffered some inconveniences in
France, by mistating certain circumstances of the war and the characters of the parties
therein, it becomes some apology for him, that those errors were precipitated into the
world by the avarice of an ungenerous enemy.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The state of literature in America must one day become a subject of legislative
consideration. Hitherto it hath been a disinterested volunteer in the service of the
revolution, and no man thought of profits: but when peace shall give time and
opportunity for study, the country will deprive itself of the honour and service of letters
and the improvement of science, unless sufficient laws are made to prevent depredations
on literary property. It is well worth remarking that Russia, who but a few years ago was
scarcely known in Europe, owes a large share of her present greatness to the close
attention she has paid, and the wise encouragement she has given to science and learning,
and we have almost the same instance in France, in the reign of Lewis XIV.

LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE ABBE RAYNAL
To an author of such distinguished reputation as the Abbe Raynal, it might very well
become me to apologize for the present undertaking; but as to be right is the first wish of
philosophy, and the first principle of history, he will, I presume, accept from me a
declaration of my motives, which are those of doing justice, in preference to any
complimental apology, I might otherwise make. The Abbe, in the course of his work, has,
in some instances extolled, without a reason, and wounded without a cause. He has given
fame where it was not deserved, and