| Tout
le monde a su, dans le temps, le
voyage que Diderot fit en
Russie. On pr�tendit que lui, et non l'imp�ratrice, en avait d'abord
t�moign� le desir, et qu'il avait engag� le prince Galitzin, son ami,
et ministre de Russie � Paris, � parler � cette souveraine de
l'empressement avec lequel il irait mettre � ses pieds l'hommage de son
admiration, de sa reconnaissance et de son respect: qu'elle avait
simplement r�pondu que si M. Diderot faisait le voyage de
Saint-P�tersbourg, elle le verrait volontiers; que l�-dessus il partit.
Du moment o� il eut d�pass� les fronti�res de la Russie, il se trouva
d�fray� de tout. Arriv� �
P�tersbourg, il fut re�u et trait� � merveille par
l'imp�ratrice, aussi charm�e de la f�condit� et de la chaleur de son
imagination, de l'abondance et de la singularit� de ses id�es, qu'elle
parut s'amuser du z�le, de la hardiesse et de l'�loquence avec lesquels
il pr�chait publiquement l'ath�isme. N�anmoins quelques vieux
courtisans, plus exp�riment�s ou plus faciles � alarme,
repr�sent�rent et persuad�rent � cette souveraine autocrate, que ce
genre de pr�dication pourrait avoir de f�cheux effets, � la cour
surtout, o� une jeunesse nombreuse, destin�e aux premiers postes de
l'empire, saisissait cette doctrine avec plus
d'avidit� que d'examen. L'imp�
ratrice, frapp�e de la convenance, de la n�cessit� m�me d'imposer
silence � Diderot sur ces mati�res, voulut toutefois para�tre n'avoir
aucune part aux moyens que l'on emploierait, d�fendit de faire
intervenir l'autorit�, mais consentit � ce qu'on annonc�t au philosophe
fran�ais qu'un philosophe russe, savant math�maticien, et membre
distingu� de l'acad�mie, offrait de lui d�montrer l'existence de Dieu
alg�briquement et en pleine cour. Diderot ayant t�moign� qu'il serait
bien aise d'entendre une d�monstration semblable, � la r�alite de laquelle au surplus il ne croyait gu�re, on prit jour et heure. Le moment �tant venu, et en pr�sence de toute la cour, c'est-�-dire des hommes, et principalement des jeunes gens, le philosophe russe s'avan�a gravement vers son adversaire, et du ton de la conviction, lui dit: Monsieur, (a+b)n/z=x; donc Dieu existe: r�pondez. |
Everyone
knew, in time,
the trip that Diderot made to Russia. It was claimed that he, and not the empress, had first
testified to the desire of it, and that he had engaged Prince Galitzin, his friend, and minister from
Russia to Paris, by speaking with this sovereign about the eagerness
with which he
would put at his feet the homage of his admiration, his recognition and
his
respect: that she had simply answered that if Mr. Diderot made the
trip to
Saint-P�tersbourg, she would see it readily; that he left
on this subject. From the moment when he had passed the borders of
Russia, he was defrayed of all. Arrived at
P�tersbourg, he was accepted and treated with wonder by the
empress, so charmed
by the fecundity and heat of his imagination, abundance and
singularity of his
ideas, that she appeared to be amused with the zeal, the boldness and
the eloquence
with which he preached atheism publicly. Nevertheless
some old courtiers, more experienced or easier with alarm, represented
and persuaded to this sovereign autocrat, that this kind of preaching
could have annoying
effects, at the court especially, where many youth, intended for
the first
stations of the empire, seized this doctrine with more greed than of
examination. The empress, struck by convenience, of the
necessity even of imposing silence on Diderot on these matters,
wanted
however to appear not to have any part with the means which one would
employ,
defended to make authority intervene, but granted so that one
announced to the
French philosopher that a Russian philosopher,
scholarly mathematician, and distinguished member of the
academy, offered to show the existence of God
algebraically to him and in full court. Diderot having testified that
it would
be quite easy to hear a similar demonstration, with the reality of
which moreover he scarcely believed, one took day and hour. The moment
having come, and in
the presence of all the court, that is men, and principally of young
people, the Russian
philosopher advanced seriously towards his adversary, and with the tone
of the
conviction, says to him: Sir, (a+b) n/z=x;
thus God exists: answer. |
| Diderot, indign�, voulut prouver la nullit�
et l'ineptie de cette pr�tendue preuve, mais il ressentit malgr� lui l'embarras que produit n�cessairement sur nous l'�vidence d'une sorte de mystification pr�par�e et concert�e: il ne put �chapper d'ailleurs � totalit� des plaisanteries auxquelles cette sc�ne donna lieu; enfin, inquiet, bless� de cette aventure, � laquelle Catherine ne pouvait �tre �tranger, il t�moigna le d�sir de retourner en France. |
Diderot, made indignant, wanted to prove the nullity and the ineptitude of this alleged proof, but he felt in spite of it the embarrassment which necessarily the obviousness of a kind of prepared and concerted mystification produces on us: he could not escape besides with totality from the pleasantries to which this scene gave place; finally, anxious, wounded by this adventure, to which Catherine could not be a stranger, he testified to the desire to return to France. |