BAYLE, Wal, PIERRE (1647-1706). A French philosopher and critic. He was the author of a famous Historical and Critical Dictionary (Dirtionnaire historique et critique), which passed through eight editions in 40 years (1697, 1702, 1715. 1720, 1730, 1734, 1738, 1740), and was twice translated into English (1709, 1734-41 ). He was born at Carla, near Foix, November IS, 1647, of a Protestant family, stud ied at Puy-Laurens and Toulouse, and showed the critical balance of his mind by professing Catholicism in 1669 and Protestantism in 1670. He taught for a time in Geneva, and in 1675 became professor of philosophy at the Protestant Academy of Sedan. On its suppression (1681) Bayle sought intellectual freedom in Holland, and settled at Rotterdam, where he received a salary from the municipality as an unattached professor of philosophy. He now published his first important work, the sensational Pensoes snr la cometc, and a Critique generals •ur rills toire du Calvinisme du Pere Maintboury (11;82). somewhat antiquated in style, but in thought a full generation in advance of his country men. In 1684 he began to publish a literary magazine, Arourelles de let republique des let tees, and greeted the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by two pamphlets, ('c tine c'•st que in France touts catholique sons le reline de Louis lc Grand, and Commentai•e philosophique silt. le Comnpelle Intrare (1686), which were denounced for 'preaching the dogma of religious indiffer ence and universal toleration,' alike by Protest ants and by Catholics, and was disavowed iron ically by Boyle, who had the courage of his convictions, but not of their consequences. Such tactics, afterwards imitated by Voltaire, make his authorship of Avis our refugic's (1690) dubious; hut in any case it intensified the opposition of Protestants, who now accused him of atheism, with the result that Bayle was deprived (1693) of his municipal pension and authority to teach in Rotterdam. This act he chose to attribute to his Cartesian philosophy, the ministers be ing, he said, 'obstinate admirers of Aristotle.' Bayle now devoted himself wholly to compiling his Dictionary, originally as a work of pure eru dition, to trace and rectify error in other works, but it became in the course of its compilation a.
destructive criticism of received history and sys tems, and so an arsenal of rationalism for the Eighteenth Century. The Dictionary makes no pretense to completeness, but it acquires a kind of unity through its constant insinuation that the teachings of reason contradict the dogmas of religion. and that the rational man, in forming his morality, will consider only himself. In the articles of the Dictionary, and still more in the notes to them, Bayle's humor delights in daring impieties and Rabelaisian obscenities, after the manner of his time, possibly as a mask for his insidious dialectic. It popularized his work, but gave a handle to his enemies, who grew in number and virulence. To justify himself, he wrote four dissertations — On A theists; On Maniehtrans; On Obscenities; and On Pyrrho ?lists; but his last work—Reponse aux questions darn provincial (1703) and Continuation des pens('es su-r in contete (1704)—showed that he still thought it, in his own words, "in no wise sure that the impressions of nature are to be ac cepted as the expressions of truth." He died at. Rotterdam, December 28, 1706. Bayle's private life was dignified and disinterested. His libertin ism was wholly intellectual. His ideas and spirit penetrate like yeast the whole Eighteenth Century. Bayle's Works (4 folios, 1727-31, re printed with additions, 1737) contains his inter esting Correspondaner. There is a commentated edition of the Dietionnaire in 16 vols. (Paris, 1820), and a Selection of Unpublished Corre spondence (('hoi• de in correspondance inedite, Copenhagen, 1390). The Di•tionnaire was trans lated (4 vols., 1710; 3d ed., 5 vols., 1734-38). Consult: Desmaizeaux. La vie de Pierre Boyle (The Hague. 1732) ; and Feuerbach, Pierre (Leipzig, 1848). See also Brunetiere, Etudes critiques, 5th series (1893) Renouvier, Philo sophic analatique de Phistoire, Vol. III. (1897); and Perrens, Les libertins art France au XVII. siecle (1S96).