André Morellet


André Morellet was a French economist, author of various writings, contributor to the Encyclopédie and one of the last Enlightenment Age philosophes.

Biography

Born at Lyon, and educated by the Jesuits there, Morellet completed his theology degree in 1752 at the Sorbonne and quickly became recognized thereafter in Parisian literary circles for his views religious tolerance, inoculation, penal reform, liberty of the press and freedom of commerce. Morellet's early instruction by the Jesuits and his eventual clerical designation as abbé undoubtedly influenced his earliest writings in which the then 28-year-old licentiate in theology completed at least six articles, noted for their scope and length, to Volumes 6 and 7 of the Encyclopédie. A fiercely independent thinker once led Voltaire to refer to Morellet as "L'Abbé Mords-les" because of his sharp wit. He was a noted friend of Benjamin Franklin.
By 1754, Morellet had gradually terminated his official association with the Encyclopédie and instead redirected his attention to the French political economy. He sought to greater effect societal reforms through new writings, particularly on freedom of commerce, in which one paper stressed the importance of the textile industry. He never abandoned the spirit of the Encyclopédie though; in the spring of 1760, Morellet wrote in defense of the Encyclopédistes who were attacked by the Le Franc de Pompignan and Charles Palissot, publishing Les Si, Les Pourquoi, La Prière universelle and the Préface de la comédie des Philosophes. His firm conviction for the improvement of society never wavered; he continued to write even as outspoken critics of the French Revolution were executed publicly by the guillotine. The success of Morellet's pamphlet titled Le Cri des Families, which called for the restoration of the property to families of the executed, revived his philosophical optimism and led to his next work on behalf of the dispossessed parents and grandparents of political émigrés.
In his last year, he brought out four volumes of Mélanges de littérature et de philosophie du XVIIIesiècle, composed chiefly of selections from his former publications, and after his death appeared his valuable Mémoires sur le XVIIIesiècle et la Révolution. At the time of his death, the ninety-one year-old had amassed a personal library of 4,736 titles, which sold at auction for 22,169 francs.

Works

Main books