HELVETIUS, CLAunz ADRIAN, a celebrated meta physician of the modern school, was born at Paris in Janu ary 1715. His ancestors, originally of the Palatinate, had been obliged, by their attachment to Protestant principles, to remove to Holland. His father, grandfather, and great grandfather belonged to the medical profession, and were all men of eminence. His grandfather in particular obtain ed celebrity by the introduction of ipecacuanha into the Materia Medica. M. Helvetius, the father of the subject of this article, was physician to the Queen of France, and held in great honour at court, was well known through Europe as a man of talents, and highly esteemed by all who knew him, for the probity of his character. He gave his son an excellent education, by placing him very early un der the care of an intelligent tutor, M. Lambert. The young Helvetius was remarkably docile, and rapidly imbib ed the spirit of the different authors whom he read ; and from his exquisite sensibility to praise, lie rendered him self an early proficient in literature, dancing, fencing, and the various other accomplishments which produce admi ration. At college he became warmly attached to the philosophy of Locke. To trace all mental operations to sensation, appeared to him a happy explanation of these complicated phenomena ; and he became animated with an ambitious desire to improve and extend the principles which he so mulch admired. At the age of twenty-three, he obtained the very lucrative situation of a farmer-general. He indulged the habits of a man of pleasure, but not with riot maintaining a degree of masterly prudence, which en abled him to manage his fortune without incurring incou enionce, and to give efficiency to the feelings of a noble humanity, by devoting a great part of his income to be nevolent acts. He assiduously sought out and rewarded talent and merit, and always observed a delicacy of man lier, which avoided the slightest wound to the pride of the most fastidious of those whom he served. Intent on the improvement of his own powers, he cultivated the society of Fontenelle, discussed along with him the doc trines of Locke and of Hobbes, and with his aid success fully cultivated the talent of expressing his ideas with perspicuity. He also became acquainted with Montesquieu and Voltaire, and profited in a similar'manner by his in tercourse with each of these eminent scholars. The ear liest literary labour of Helvetius, was his poem on Hap piness, in the composition of which Voltaire gave him great encouragement, and inculcated on him maxims which he himself had felt to be important, particularly on the indispensable necessity of truth of description, and regularity of language.
In the office of farmer-general, Helvetius was the uni form advocate of humanity, and exerted his influence to ob viate the hardships to which individuals were so often lia ble, from the persons employed to collect the revenue. Here he had to contend with men long inured to an unfeel ing system of procedure. In many of his remonstrances with the other farmers-general, his perseverance was re warded with success: but his employment was on the whole accompanied with much disgust, and was further rendered unpleasant by the time which it occupied, and which he was desirous of devoting to philosophical studies. He therefore
resigned its advantages, and with a sum of money which be had saved, he purchased an estate in the country, to which he retired. He married Mademoiselle Ligniville, after an acquaintance of 12 months, formed at the house of Madame Graffigni, the authoress of the Peruvian Letters. In compliance with the wishes of his father, he still passed a few months annually in the metropolis, attended court, and accepted of the situation of Maitre d' Hotel to the Queen. He took as inmates of his house two persons who had been his secretaries, chiefly from motives of benevolence. One of these, an unhappy cross-tempered and sarcastic charac ter, of the name of Bandot, presuming on his knowledge of Helvetius in his infancy, habitually treated him as a harsh schoolmaster treats a child. This circumstance is worthy of mention, for the light which the indulgence given to him throws on the character of Helvetius. Bandot's great de light was to discuss with his master the whole conduct, talents, character, and works of the latter ; and the discus sions uniformly ended with satirical abuse. Helvetius, after retiring with his wife on such occasions, sometimes said, " is it possible that I am so deficient as this man represents me ? I do not believe it, but I labour under these defects to a certain degree ; and if I did not keep Bandot, I should have no one to point them out." In his rural retreat, he composed his work De _Esprit, or " An Essay on the Mind and its Faculties," which was published in 1758 In this work, he developed with much eloquence, and followed to sonic bold conclusions, the prin ciples which he had imbibed from Locke, that all thought is a modification of physical sensation. He makes this the foundation of a system of public and private morals. This work had a powerful political effect. It was WI itten under an impression, that the numerous evils of society are the offspring of corrupt institutions and strongly protected pre judices, and that the true source of them had been conceal ed by the want of analytical views of human nature and so ciety. These fruits of his studies were presented to the world in a style and manner which were fitted to make a deep impression. His mode of representing the subject was favourable to that rage for pleasure, and that tendency to licentiousness in sonic points of morality, which had long prevailed in France. The author, however, in publishing it, gave a pledge of his sincerity, by risking all his honours, his property, and the whole peace of his life. Ilis opinions were in some points wrong, and some of their tendencies were injurious ; but we do not see, in his mode of stating them, marks of such haste or obstinacy as would have dis inclined him to sacrifice any passion which he found really hurtful, or from renouncing the eclat of a philosophical re former, if truth and consistency had been shown to lie ou the opposite side. The points at issue between him and his adversaries were of equal importance to all, and the prohibition of his writings can only be attributed to the love of power on the part of others, and a senseless dread of the consequences of free inquiry.