Political Writings [antikvár]

Introduction It is surprising that this should be the first English translation of Benjamin Constant's political writings - indeed of any of his writings with the exception of the nowtX Adolphe." It is surprising if only because Constant is one of the few continental thinkers to have gained admission to the eminently Anglo-Saxon sanctuary of the fathers of modern Western liberaUsm. It is even more surprising since Constant himself, who was educated in Scotiand and spoke excellent EngUsh, was greatiy influenced by, and felt deep affinities with British culture. His friend Madame de Staël mockingly immortalized this Anglophilia when she cast him in the role of the admirable, if somewhat splenetic, Lord Oswald Nevil in her novel Corinne.'' " Adolphe was first translated into English during Constant's lifetime by his Edinburgh friend Alexander Walker: Adolphe: an anecdote found among the papers of an unknown person, and published by M. Benjamin de Constant (London, 1816). For a modem translation set'. Adolphe, translated by L. Tancock (Harmondsworth, 1964), repr. 1980. Some of Constant's pamphlets were translated into English in the early 19th cenmry: The Responsibility of Ministers (De la responsabilité des ministres), London, 1815 {The Pamphleteer, vol. 5) On the Liberty of the Press (De la liberté des brochures), London, 1815 {The Pamphleteer, vol. 6) On the Dissolution of the Chamber of deputies (De la dissolution de la Chambré), London, 1821 {The Pamphleteer, \o\. 18) 'At 25 he despaired of life. His spirit judged everything in advance, and his wounded sensibility was dead to the illusions of the heart. Nobody was kinder and more devoted to his friends than he was, whenever he could be of assistance to them. But nothing caused him any pleasure, not even the good he did to others. He sacrificed readily and easily his tastes to those of others. Yet generosity was not the only explanation for his total lack of egoism. This was rather due to a kind of sadness that prevented him from taking any active interest in his own fate.' A. L. G. de Staël, Oeuvres completes (17 vols., Paris, 1820), vol. 8, p. 4. See also the ^oTXxzk m. Delphine of Henri de Lebensei: 'a Protestant gendeman from the Languedoc', who 'had been educated at Cambridge and had undoubtedly been spoiled by English manners.' Ibid., vol. 5, p. 287. b