Both Europe and the American colonies, during the 18th century were enveloped by a new trend in thinking and way of life. The thought was that human kind was emerging from an age of darkness into ‘Enlightenment’. This idea was focused around the advancement of scientific knowledge, the development of respect for humanity and above all, reason. People of this time believed that knowledge had to be earned and that ‘through experience and observation, guided by reason,’ progress was inevitable. The idea of Enlightenment filtered its way into society and was became institutionalized.
During this period, European traditions also came under the microscope and were challenged by many scholars and philosophers. Economical, social and political attitudes were studied and began to move away from negativity. People then focused on the positives of life and human nature. The monarch and general hierarchy of society was questioned and related back to natural intentions for mankind. Frenchmen felt enslaved by their current authorities and tried to overthrow them through the improvement of literacy, anonymous tracts and social exploration.
As the focus of Enlightenment was on the natural law and order of the world, religious beliefs and especially Christian theology were a central topic. People of this age were trying to simplify common day human laws back to nature as it provided ‘the basic metaphor’ for how mankind should live.
In Letter 24 of ‘Les letters persanes,’ Rica’s perception of the French at this time, was of a people keen to find answers-and willing to work for them. Their hustle and bustle is the result of experiences which were critical in advancing towards Enlightenment and Rica’s example demonstrated that these people were more than capable of putting in considerable effort. Montesquieu presents Rica focusing on women and their rebellion against conforming to the authority. Women fought to bring justice to their sex and they utilized their reason to discover they were being treated inequitably and to see they had a right to interpret the Holy Bible – amongst other things - in their own way. They saw straight through their leaders, supposedly acting on God’s behalf and telling them how they should live. By becoming independent, women reflected the reason and need for the movement. This not only propelled the people forward in their own case, but set an example for other groups to form and gather momentum for change. As civilians came to this understanding they are referred to as the King’s ‘invisible enemies’. They were perhaps named this as they were not particular people, more as a general movement of subservients with the same idea in mind. In reality, virtually everybody was an invisible enemy. Their idea was to reform and liberalize monarchical society and restore natural order and law.
Natural laws would grant every person an equal right to every resource available. The power of the French King over the people interfered with the law and made some people better off than others, as there were ranks below the King of his servants. These people were also told what to think. They lived and breathed someone else’s beliefs of the world. This went against all ideas of progress and individuality brought about by reason. The King and the Pope held an unnatural power over the people and imprinted their own beliefs into their minds for the purpose of forming armies and alliances. The people’s own character traits were turned against them. They were pressed to conform and put their effort into serving their superiors instead of the search for Enlightenment.
Letter 10 from Usbek to Mirza shows two lone Troglodytes, seemingly detached from this monarchical control, as they have no superior to mold them. They live a happy selfless life and would happily die for their fellow man. This makes them appear full of reason to have the knowledge to do so. They also recognized the importance of educating, of passing on their knowledge from generation to generation. This strengthened their progress and their people. Even so, this apparently perfect society was broken by what made it great, the morality of its people. This became so great that they needed to offload the pressure on to an authorative figure, which broke the natural way, and mankind’s perversion sets in.
The Enlightenment was the result of many Frenchmen, women and subservient citizens analyzing their modern day culture and society, comparing it with natural laws and then acting to bring about change. Without the stories mentioned in ‘The Persian Letters’ other groups would not have received the ideas these people spread and would not have gone on to study and experience them for themselves.
These stories and especially the fable of the Troglodytes incorporate both the process of discovering Enlightenment, and in comparison the terror of disintegration without it. Through their experience they had built up knowledge of what corrupted their people, and the best way to avoid negative events in their community.
Bibliography
“Montesquieu” World Book Encyclopedia, volume XIII, pp 130-131
