Note 51 — THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN.
Reading edition
Voltaire in a letter of April 2, 1764, wrote: “Tout ce que je vois jeté les semences d’une révolution qui arrivera immanquablement, et dont je n’aurai pas le plaisir d’être témoin.... Les jeunes gens sont bien heureux: ils verront de belles choses.” Quoted in Martin, Hist. de Fr., vol. xvi, 136. Malesherbes, in speaking to the king as the organ of the parlement in 1770, said: “You hold your crown, Sire, from God alone; but you will not refuse yourself the satisfaction of believing that, for your power, you are likewise indebted to the voluntary submission of your subjects. There exist in France some inviolable rights, which belong to the nation.” Quoted from Remontrances de la Cours des Aides, 1770, by De Tocqueville; Mémoires, etc., i, 259-60. For Rousseau’s literary influence, see Joseph Texte, Jean Jacques Rousseau et les Origines du Cosmopolitisme Littéraire, Liv. ii, Paris, 1895.