Benjamin Constant De Rebecque
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HENRI BENJAMIN CONSTANT DE REBECQUE “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Benjamin Constant HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1767 October 25, Sunday: Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque was born into a family descended from Huguenots who in the early 17th Century had fled from France. His father was Colonel Arnold Louis-Juste Constant Rebecque, a Swissman serving in the military of Holland, and his mother Henrietta Pauline Chandieu died at his birth. Being expelled from New Spain, all Jesuits headed toward the port of Veracruz, Mexico — most would end up in Italy. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Benjamin Constant “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1782 Benjamin Constant completed his studies at the University of Nürnberg in Bavaria, and would go on to study at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Benjamin Constant “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1783 Benjamin Constant completed his studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He would spend most of his life in Switzerland and Great Britain, with episodic political involvements in revolutionary France. By this point George Heriot had left the Royal Military Academy, but remained in Woolwich, employed as a civilian clerk by the Army. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Benjamin Constant “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1786 Benjamin Constant returned from Scotland to Switzerland. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Benjamin Constant HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1787 In Paris, Benjamin Constant took Madame de Charriere, an older Dutchwoman who had married into a Swiss family with which his own was connected, as his mistress. Initially, there was an escapade to England. Their affair –we do not know whether it was more an affair of the intellect or more one of the heart– would endure until in 1796 he would enter into his liaison with Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Madame de Staël. At this point he began his manuscript on religion, which eventually would appear in 5 volumes as DE LA RELIGION, CONSIDÉRÉE DANS SA SOURCE, SES FORMES ET SES DÉVELOPPEMENTS. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Benjamin Constant HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1788 March: Benjamin Constant became chamberlain at the court of Charles William, duke of Brunswick. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Benjamin Constant HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1789 May 8, Friday: At the court of Charles William, duke of Brunswick, Benjamin Constant got married with a lady in waiting to the duchess of Brunswick, Wilhelmina, Baroness Chramm, and was made a counselor of legation. The launch of the Bounty was making admirable headway toward Timor under the able leadership of Captain William Bligh, but supplies were of course exceedingly short: This afternoon we got our Boat cleaned out and it took us the whole day to get every thing dry and in Order. Hitherto I have issued the allowance by guess, but I now got a pair of Scales made with two Cocoanutt Shells, and having accidentally some Pistol Balls in the Boat 24 of which weighed one pound, or 16 ounces I adopted one as the proportion of weight that each person should receive of Bread at the times I served it. I also amused all hands with describing the situation of New Guinea and New Holland, and I gave every information that in case any accident happened to me those who survived might have some Idea of what they were about and arrive safe at Timor, which at present they knew nothing of more than the Names. At Night I served a Jill of Water and a ½ ounce of Bread for supper. In the morning half a Jill of Cocoa nutt milk and some of the decayed Bread for Breakfast, and for Dinner I divided the Meat of four Cocoanutts with the remainder of the Rotten Bread which was worse than can well be conceived. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1793 January 11, Friday: Benjamin Constant met Charlotte von Hardenberg (1769-1845), the wife of Christian Albrecht Wilhelm, Baron Mahrenholz (1752-1808). He became friends with both wife and husband — who would divorce. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1794 The marriage of Benjamin Constant was dissolved, and he resigned his post in the court of Charles William, duke of Brunswick, as he became romantically involved with yet another married woman, Madame Germaine de Staël. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1795 May 25, Monday: Benjamin Constant and Madame de Staël arrived in Paris from Switzerland. June 24, Wednesday: William Smellie died in Edinburgh, Scotland. Robert Burns (who wouldn’t himself last much longer) would provide the remark now engraved on the tombstone: Here lies a man who did honour to human nature. October 15, Thursday: Madame Germaine de Staël was exiled from revolutionary France. Benjamin Constant would follow her to Switzerland. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1796 Mid-April: Benjamin Constant’s initial political pamphlet of import, DE LA FORCE DU GOUVERNEMENT ACTUEL ET DE LA NECESSITE DE SE TALLIER (THE STRENGTH OF THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT AND THE NEED TO JOIN IT), in defense of the Directory, appeared as an insert in The Monitor. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1797 End May to Early June: Benjamin Constant’s EFFECTS OF TERROR following the 2d edition of his THE STRENGTH OF THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT AND THE NEED TO JOIN IT. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1803 Benjamin Constant followed Madame de Staël into exile from Napoléon’s France. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1811 While visiting Hardenberg near Göttingen, contact with German mysticism began to make Benjamin Constant somewhat less sceptical toward religion. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1813 November: Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque’s DE L’ESPRIT DE CONQUETE ET DE L’USURPATION DANS LEURS RAPPORTS AVEC LA CIVILISATION EUROPEENNE, a political writing in opposition to Napoléon, was published at Hanover. WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF Benjamin Constant “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1815 Benjamin Constant returned to Paris in order to advocate liberal constitutional principles. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1824 Publication of the initial volume of Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque’s DE LA RELIGION, CONSIDÉRÉE DANS SA SOURCE, SES FORMES ET SES DÉVELOPPEMENTS (Paris: Bosange). DE LA RELIGION, 1 HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1830 December 8, Wednesday: In consequence of a fall in the Chamber of Deputies, Benjamin Constant had been crippled for years — and in fact had fought his last of many duels while seated in a chair. On this day, after long illness, he died. December 12, Sunday: A state funeral was held for Benjamin Constant. During the ceremony, some young fans had to be discouraged from carrying his coffin into the Pantheon. It was carried instead to the cemetery Pere-Lachaise, in Paris’s 29th Arrondissement. HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1831 Posthumous publication of the final volume (of five) of Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque’s DE LA RELIGION, CONSIDÉRÉE DANS SA SOURCE, SES FORMES ET SES DÉVELOPPEMENTS (Paris: Bosange). HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT 1837 April 27, Thursday: David Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, the 1st volume either of John Toland (1670-1722)’s A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF THE HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF JOHN MILTON, BOTH ENGLISH AND LATIN. WITH SOME PAPERS NEVER BEFORE PUBLISH’D (3 volumes, Amsterdam, 1698), or of Dr. Thomas Birch (1705-1766)’s A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF THE HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF JOHN MILTON (2 volumes, London, 1738) — and we don’t know which. Thoreau also checked out the 1st of the five volumes of Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque’s DE LA RELIGION CONSIDÉRÉE DANS SA SOURCE, SES FORMES ET SES DÉVELOPPEMENTS (Paris: Bosange, 1824-1831). DE LA RELIGION, 1 HDT WHAT? INDEX BENJAMIN CONSTANT BENJAMIN CONSTANT From George Templeton Strong’s New-York diary: Matters very bad out of doors. Confidence annihilated, the whole community, big and little, traveling to ruin in a body. Strong fears entertained for the banks, and if they go, God only knows what the consequences will be. Ruin here, and on the other side of the Atlantic, and not only private ruin but political convulsion and revolution, I think .... In Washington DC, our nation’s capital, George Kephart was advertising that his firm, located at the west end of Duke Street, would be willing to offer the highest cash price for “likely Negroes, from ten to twenty-five years of age.” Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 27th of 4th M / Took Shaws Carryall & with my wife & Mary Williams rode to Portsmouth to attend Monthly Meeting — In the first Meeting Wm Jenkins abovementioned was present & preached — We thought him a concerned young man, but his offering was evidently premature & the fruit unripe - after Meeting Henry Gould & I felt it our duty to take an opportuinity with him & advise him to return home as soon as he could, as he acknowledged he had come away against the advice of his friends — he seemed disposed to take our advice, & we felt satisfied we had done our duty toward him as caretakers in society.