Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
writer, a moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular. In the history of French literature, his significance lies chiefly in his friendship with Voltaire (20 years his senior).
Life
He was born in Aix-en-ProvenceAix-en-Provence
Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...
into the nobility, but his family was poor. He spent his youth at the family seat, Chateau of Vauvenargues
Château of Vauvenargues
The Château of Vauvenargues is a fortified bastide in the village of Vauvenargues, situated to the northof Montagne Sainte-Victoire, just outside the town of Aix-en-Provence in the south of France....
. Frail health prevented him from pursuing any but minimal schooling; he did not study Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
or Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. He also suffered poor eyesight. In boyhood, he became friends with Victor Riqueti, marquis of Mirabeau
Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau
Victor de Riquetti, marquis de Mirabeau was a French economist of the Physiocratic school. He was the father of great Honoré, Comte de Mirabeau and is, in distinction, often referred to as the elder Mirabeau....
(born 1715), father of the future French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
figure, Mirabeau
Mirabeau
Mirabeau can refer to:People* Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, a French physiocrat and economist.* Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, renowned orator, a figure in the French Revolution and son of Victor....
, and with the future archaeologist, Jules François Paul Fauris de Saint-Vincens (born 1718), with both of whom he would correspond avidly once he left home.
In the France of that age, the only occupations considered proper for a nobleman were in the military or the church. At age 17 or 18, Vauvenargues embarked on a career in the military, as a cadet in the King's Regiment. By 1739, he had achieved the rank of lieutenant; later, he was promoted to captain. In 1740, he met a fellow officer, an adolescent about nine years his junior, Paul Hippolyte Emmanuel de Seytres, who became a permanent object of the author's devotion. The two were part of the disastrous Siege of Prague (1742)
Siege of Prague (1742)
The 1742 Siege of Prague was an extended blockade of the Bohemian capital Prague during the War of the Austrian Succession. French forces first under the command of de Broglie were surrounded by a large Austrian army in June 1742...
, the expedition to Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
in support of Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
's designs on Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, in which the French were abandoned by their ally. Seytres died in the spring, at the age of seventeen. The future author's fascination for the boy persisted for the remaining five years of his own life. He addressed his philosophical work, Conseil à un jeune homme (Advice to a young Man) to Seytres and labored on a funeral eulogy for him, a work which Vauvenargues considered to be among the most important of his life and which he continued to polish until his own death. The Siege of Prague ruined Vauvenargues physically. In December, when half the army was conducted in a strategic retreat, his legs froze, and though he spent a long time in hospital at Nancy he never completely recovered. He was present at the battle of Dettingen
Battle of Dettingen
The Battle of Dettingen took place on 27 June 1743 at Dettingen in Bavaria during the War of the Austrian Succession. It was the last time that a British monarch personally led his troops into battle...
, and on his return to France was garrisoned at Arras
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
. He retired from the army.
He began corresponding with Voltaire in April 1743. He was encouraged to turn to literature by his friend the marquis of Mirabeau
Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau
Victor de Riquetti, marquis de Mirabeau was a French economist of the Physiocratic school. He was the father of great Honoré, Comte de Mirabeau and is, in distinction, often referred to as the elder Mirabeau....
, author of L'Ami des Hommes, and father of the statesman. Wishing to enter the diplomatic service, for two years he made applications to ministers and to king Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
himself. These efforts were unsuccessful, but Vauvenargues was nevertheless came close to securing a diplomatic appointment, thanks to the intervention of Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
. But he contracted smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, which disfigured him, rendered him nearly blind, and left him with a chronic cough. Voltaire then asked him to submit to him his ideas on the difference between Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
and Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...
. Their acquaintance ripened into a deep friendship.
Vauvenargues managed to move to Paris in 1745, where he lived as a recluse. Among the few people he socialized with were Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel was a French historian and writer, a member of the Encyclopediste movement.-Biography:He was born of poor parents at Bort, Limousin...
and Voltaire. He continued to correspond with Fauris de Saint-Vincens. In 1746 he published—anonymously—his sole volume, a collection of writing including Introduction à la connaissance de l'esprit humain, with Reflexions and Maximes appended. Voltaire implored him to publish a second edition of the book with improved diction. It was published in the year of his death (different sources disagree on whether he lived to see the publication of the second edition).
He died in Paris on May 28, 1747. The revised edition of his book was published posthumously.
Works
In childhood, he developed a great admiration for the work of the ancient Roman writer PlutarchPlutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
.
Despite the scantiness of Vauvenargues's oeuvre, it has attracted considerable interest. A century after his death, Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
favorably quoted Vauvenargues' saying: "la clarté est la bonne foi des philosophes" [clarity is the good faith of philosophers], from Reflections and Maxims, 729].
The chief distinction between Vauvenargues and his predecessor François de La Rochefoucauld
François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. The view of human conduct his writings describe has been summed up by the words "everything is reducible to the motive of self-interest", though the term "gently cynical" has also been applied...
is that Vauvenargues thinks nobly of man, and is altogether inclined rather to the Stoic
STOIC
STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
than to the Epicurean theory. He has been called a modern Stoic.