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55

MICHIEL WIELEMA, ERASMUS UNIVERSITY, ROTTERDAM

Frans Hemsterhuis: A Philosopher's View of the History of the Dl;ltch Republic / In the English-speaking world, the Dutch record of philosophy in the Netherlands, both philosopher Frans Hemsterhuis (1721-1790) in a national and an international perspective. is still comparatively unknown. Despite the It is becoming clear that the Netherlands, fact that he was the most original Dutch especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth thinker of the eighteenth century, there is centuries, played an extremely important role only one book on him in English, together in the development and transmission of with a few articles. 1 At the moment, his ideas philosophical ideas. 5 Although Dutch are the subject of research both in the philosophers were part and parcel of general Netherlands itself and in Germany, France European movements of thought, their and Italy. In November and December 1990, contribution to philosophy was in many ways two international symposia were held to highly original. commemorate his death two centuries ago. Attention was focused on his philosophical In the case of Hemsterhuis, this contribution achievement as well as on the reception of his concerned such diverse topics as thought in the Netherlands and in Germany. mathematics, astronomy, optics, philosophy, The proceedings of these symposia will soon ethics, politics, history, aesthetics and be published. A Dutch translation of his religion. His ideas in these fields mark him complete works and of some hitherto as a thinker who has left behind naive unpublished letters (he wrote only in French) Enlightenment rationalism, and has opened is being prepared in three volumes. 2 This will up the way for a more synthetic style of enable the Dutch, for the first time, to read thinking, which attracted both Kant and the Hemsterhuis in their own language. Finally, adherents of Sturm und Drang and the Royal Academy intends to prepare a romanticism. 6 His aim was to bring critical edition of his writings to replace the Newtonian mechanical philosophy within the well-known Meyboom edition. 3 wider framework of a Socratic philosophy of man. He opposed the materialistic and There are, therefore, plenty of signs of a naturalistic tendencies of French free­ contemporary revival of interest in thinkers, and made the human individual the Hemsterhuis' thought, a revival which owes centre of his philosophy. Man, according to much to the upsurge of interest in the history him, was a many-faceted being" whose of Dutch philosophy in general which started essential aspirations were of a moral, in the preceding decade. 4 There is a growing aesthetic and religious nature. He was born awareness of the importance of the past with a great number of faculties, which 56 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies needed to be developed and perfected; he was fellow man or God. This craving for union a being characterized by "perfectibility," an with the beloved, which is analogous to the expression first used by Rousseau. His force of attraction in the physical world, can development involved his entering into only be effective if man develops his moral relations both with his fellow men and with faculty,on which human society and religion God, the omnipresent Creator, in order to are based. develop his most important faculty, his moral organ, on whose effective activity human In the second Y.¢riod, Hemsterhuis was society, morality and religion depend. deeply influenc~d by his friendship with Amalia, Princess von Galitzin (1748-1806), Hemsterhuis spent most of his life the wife of the Russian ambassador to the elaborating these ideas. He was born in the Republic. She was an extremely gifted and Frisian town of Franeker as the son of the intelligent woman, eager to be taught famous philologist Tiberius Hemsterhuis. He mathematics and philosophy by the older studied for a while in Leiden, but did not Dutchman, whom she began to see as an take a degree. His main interests in his youth eighteenth-century Socrates. For his part, were mathematics, optics and engineering. In Hemsterhuis found in her the homogeneous 1755, instelild of becoming a military object with which his soul could be united. engineer or a professor of philosophy and Creative forces were unleashed and he began experimental physics, as he had hoped, he to write four beautiful dialogues which are entered the service of the Council of State, among the best writings that Dutch one of the most important judiciary and philosophy has produced: Sophyle ou de la advisory bodies of the Republic, where he Philosophie (1778), Aristee ou de la Divinite performed the duty of clerk until his (1779),8 Simon ou -des facultes de l'ame retirement in 1780. This gave him the (1779) and Alexis ou de l'age d'or (1787).9 In opportunity to become well acquainted with these dialogues the central concept of Dutch politics and affairs of state without Hemsterhuis' thought, the synthesis of becoming actually involved in them. Newtonian and Socratic philosophy, is applied to a number of traditional topics such He was an unambitious and quiet man, as the problem of certainty, the nature of devoting his spare time to philosophy, evil, the conception of beauty, the numismatics, art and literature. In his career significance of history. Besides these, their as a philosopher, two distinct periods can be friendship has left behind a great number of discerned, separated by the year 1775. In the letters, in which matters of mathematics, first, he wrote a number of philosophical science, philosophy, art, literature, history "letters," of which the Lettre sur la Sculpture and politics are widely discussed. Most of (1769), the Lettre sur les Desirs (1770) and these letters, which can be found in the Royal the Lettre sur l'homme et ses rapports (1772) Library· at The Hague and the University are the most important. 7 In these his aim is to Library at Munster, to which city the show that man is not simply a self-centred Priricess moved in 1779, are still unpublished physical being, as the materialists would have and have not even been systematically him, but that he is motivated by the desire to studied. They are a veritable treasure-house become one with either an object of art, his of information for anyone interested in Dutch Frans Hemsterhuis: a philosopher's view of the history of the Dutch Republic 57 as well as general European intellectual life Hemsterhuis had seen some of the worst in the eighteenth century. times in the history of the Dutch Republic since the disastrous year 1672. Until now, Hemsterhuis has been considered primarily as a systematic philosopher of the It is hardly surprising then, that in the years human soul and of art, history and religion. 1780-1787 he was fully occupied with But it is clear both from some of his minor political reflections. The military and writings and from his correspondence, that economic decline of the Republic led him to he also took a great interest in the history and contemplate the stark contrast between its politics of his own country. Although he had former greatness and its present humility. He no political ambitions of his own, matters of decided to write a philosophical history of state attracted his attention not only on this unique state, which according to him, in account of his professional occupation, but the course of its history, exhibited all also because they served as empirical possible modifications of which states are illustrations of his philosophical doctrines. In susceptible. Unfortunately he was only able good Enlightenment fashion, political history to write a philosophical introduction; this to him was philosophy teaching by example. fragment is known today as Reflexions sur la As a consequence, his comments on Dutch Repub/ique des Provinces-Unies . It is history and politics contain some highly supplemented by a small treatise called original elements which set them off from the Ebauche d'un avis du conseil d'etat, 11 which views of empirical historians or professional contains some very interesting historical politicians. Together they constitute a remarks, and by a large number of important philosopher's view of the history of the letters, which are for the most part Dutch Republic. unpublished. From these diverse sources it will be possible to derive a relatively Fortunately for us, Hemsterhuis' mature complete view of Hemsterhuis' reflections on years as a philosopher were spent during a the Republic. period of great political upheaval in the Republic.1O There was plenty of material to Hemsterhuis' political philosophy can be contemplate. For example, there was the war situated between the opposing views of with England (1780-1784). The Republic Enlightenment and romanticism, between proved weak, and suffered blow after blow, mechanism and organicism. As in his general causing great domestic tensions. In philosophy, his aim was to synthesize September 1781, Van der Capellen Newton and Socrates. From Newtonianism distributed his notorious pamphlet calling on derive the mechanical metaphors that he all citizens to carry arms and defend their constantly used in describing the nature and rights against the autocratic policy of the workings of state-machines. The distinction stadholder. In the years to come, the division between the organic whole of the individual between the Patriots and Orangists led to a and the mechanical aggregate of the state is full-scale civil war which brought the one of the most fundamental in his Republic to the edge of destruction. In philosophy. To him, states were artificial September 1787, the old regime was restored constructions of the human intellect, used with the help of a Prussian army. only to maintain the degenerate body of law 58 Canadian JouFnal of Netherlandic Studies that protects private property against theft to nature, but a long process in which the and violation. After the manner of Rousseau, sciences of man will playa leading role. The whose works he read, he considered the physical sciences being relatively perfected, invention of private property the main cause man should turn to metaphysics and for the degeneration of the original or natural psychology in order to discover his own true society into an artificial society or state, in nature. Artificial society should not be which man is only a cog in a machine. While perfected mathematically, ·as in Condorcet's original society, which had actually existed, social mathematicf, but rather gradually as Hemsterhuis attempted to· show in the abandoned. The/epoch or perihelion of dialogue Alexis, had been based on man's mathematics in which we live should give moral organ and so had at least in that sense way to another perihelion of sensibility, like a moral character, the artificial society of that experienced by the Greeks. True to the today is based only on intellect, and is far Socratic ideal, Hemsterhuis calls on man to removed from morality. In fact, states do not strive after self-knowledge and thus perfect have a moral organ, and can approach one himself. another only as wild animals do. So although Hemsterhuis does indeed speak of states in Against this background should be seen terms of animals, he does not mean to say Hemsterhuis' comments on Dutch history and they are organic wholes, but rather that they on contemporary events. First of all, he are mechanisms which clash with one another stresses the fact that the Republic was born as like animals in search of prey. In other a result of a number of historical· accidents; words: states still live in the state of nature like the absence of the foreign sovereign and international relations are completely (Philip II) and the outstanding talents of the amoral. first Dutch stadholders William, Maurice and Frederick. Rather than being the As a consequence, man is aware of a wide homogeneous creation of a single legislator, gap between himself and the state. Laws are its institutions were derived from the felt to be external forces which do not necessities of the war against Spain. There correspond with his moral· conscience. The was only so much unity as to make possible individual seems to belong to two orders of a combined war effort. Real sovereignty lay being, the eternal order, based on the not with the central organs of state, like the immutable nature of things, and the temporal States General and· Council of State, but with order, based on human conv~ntion; he seems the regents in the towns and provinces. So to live an amphibious life, so to speak. For the Republic, like any artificial society, was Hemsterhuis, therefore, the traditional only an aggregate with no organic unity. distinction between nature and culture Unlike other states, however, it was an becomes a specifically political distinction extremely incoherent aggregate, made up of between man and state. In order to return to highly heterogeneous parts, which were a homogeneous existence, man has to abolish constantly tending to go their own way. the artificial state, and again become a complete moral being; in this way he will be As such, the Republic was an extraordinary able to return to the original society of the entity. Its constitution was extremely golden age. This is not simply a quick return complex and weak, and its sovereignty was Frans Hemsterhuis:a philosopher's view of the history of the Dutch Republic 59 divided among thousands. These weaknesses the growth of ideological differences between were only felt, however, after. the war against the Patriotic and Orangist parties, which Spain was over. In the absence of a common were leading to full-scale civil war. These enemy, common policy proved almost parties were themselves turning into political impossible. Domestic strife weakened the animals without any sense of morality, state and made it vulnerable to foreign attack, attempting to devour their opponent. Peaceful as in 1672. Nevertheless, it managed to citizens were becoming armed soldiers - the survive for two centuries. Its history seems Dutch need for/ individual independence like a "tissue of miracles," its survival only carried to its ~itreme. Anarchy made any being due to the quarrels among its more form of government impossible, and no one powerful neighbours, which allowed it to had enough common sense or. authority to put develop into one of the wealthiest nations the matters right again. world had ever seen. But with every change in the reciprocal relations between the great Hemsterhuis blamed this mess primarily on European states, the Republic was shaken the Patriots. After all, they strove for a and almost fell apart. democratization of the old system and called on citizens to carry arms. Hemsterhuis feared According to Hemsterhuis then, the this would lead to complete anarchy. Himself Republic's ml;lin weakness was its a moderate supporter of .Orangist ideas, he incoherence. Unlike the states which were attempted to prove that the Republic, the products of autocratic legislation, it had especially in times of foreign danger, is in no internal stability. Hemsterhuis doubted need of a single executive power, a very much whether this situation could ever stadholder, to balance. the authority of the be amended. He said that even the great cities and provinces. He should be a "great legislators Minos, Lycurgus, Solon and man," a man with great talents, like some of Plato, working together, would fail to the preceding stadholders had been. But in. produce a constitution that could tum this practice this solution proved ineffective. The Republic into something decent. The positive current stadholder, William V, was inept and aspect of this situation was of course the wholly unable to perform his important great freedom that every Dutch citizen duties. Neither in the war with England nor enjoyed. In the Dutch Republic, individual in the civil war did he prove a competent freedom was greater than anywhere else in leader of the Union. In the end, only another Europe, and this should not be sacrificed to miracle saved the Republic from destruction. the demands of the state. Industry and practical wisdom had been the fruits of Hemsterhuis' defence of the existing liberty, and these were the. envy of constitution, supplemented by a strong foreigners. executive power, comes as something of a surprise. One might have expected him to But in the years leading up to the Pruss ian approve radical measures for improving the intervention, Hemsterhuis feared that the government of the Republic. His view is, Dutch adherence· to individual independence however, that in a confederation such as this, would finally result in the destruction of this only the present system can guarantee that a remarkable Republic. He especially abhorred middle course is steered between anarchy and 60 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies despotism. Hemsterhuis not only experienced target, however, was the Prince of Orange, the ravages of anarchy himself, he also knew who was a member of the Council. As a there was an example of despotism nearby: former employee and highly valued man of the kingdom of France. It is interesting to affairs, Hemsterhuis was asked to repel the compare his comments on the Dutch Patriotic attack. He drew up a document showing that movement with those on the French the Council was not to blame, and that the Revolution. While deploring the impending only possible cure for the diseases of the destruction of the old system in the Republic, Republic lay in brotherly co-operation of all which at the last minute was avoided by the to warn off the imminent dangers. In fact, by Prussian troops, he greeted with some means of the Council he prepared a coup enthusiasm the downfall of the French d' etat against the Patriotic "tyrants" in the monarchy, one of the most powerful state­ States of Holland, but "traitors" managed to machines man had ever produced. While in have his document rejected. 12 the Republic individual freedom needed to be balanced by some degree of state authority, As can be seen from his use of such in France despotism had to give way to derogatory terms as "tyrants" and greater individual freedom. The French "demagogues," Hemsterhuis had a very low people took their destiny into their own opinion of the Patriotic politicians. They hands, just as the Dutch had done two claim they are promoting the interests of the centuries earlier. What the outcome of this nation, but in fact they are leading it to would be was upcertain, but with prophetic destruction. They even impair civil liberties vision Hemsterhuis predicted a long period of by taking measures against their Orangist barbarism before things calmed down again. opponents. Small armies were roaming the countryside, spreading fear and crushing Despite the potentially revolutionary resistance. Hemsterhuis' opinion, however, character of his political philosophy, of was not always one-sided. In August 1787, which the abolition of state-machines was a for example, a "flying army" raided Delft, key element, Hemsterhuis' practical political took possession of vital armouries and caused view was, therefore, rather conservative. In the Orangist magistrate to be replaced by a France, on the other hand, the similar Patriotic one. Instead of expressing his political philosophy of Rousseau played an indignation, as one might expect, he exults at important part in revolutionary ideology. the "beauty" and "skill" of this coup d'etat, According to Hemsterhuis, however, the although he knew very well the disastrous Dutch state, because of its inherent consequences it would have. It is weaknesses, needed to be strengthened rather characteristic of his philosophical mind that than abolished. He did all he could to uphold he was also able to judge political events the authority of the central organs of state, disinterestedly or even aesthetically. The such as the Council of State, which he frightful chaos in the Republic, which he considered of prime importance. In 1784, for compared to the chaotic universe of the example, the Council came under heavy ancient atomists, the extreme and abnormal attack from the Patriots in the States of behaviour that common citizens suddenly Holland. It was accused of neglecting the started to exhibit, the malign influence of defence of the southern frontier. The real partisanship upon people's morality, and Frans Hemsterhuis:a philosopher's view of the history of the Dutch Republic 61 many other features, made the Republic for conservative attitude that had characterized him a better school of psychology and his political thinking until the Restoration. politics than were all the writings of Greek and Roman historians together. As we have seen, Hemsterhuis was deeply concerned with the fate of his own country. As a matter of practical politics, Hemsterhuis He lived during one of the most turbulent welcomed enthusiastically the restoration of periods of its history. As a philosopher, the ancien regime by the Prussian army in however, he wasa:ble to have a bird' s eye September 1787. In a long letter to the view of events )is they unrolled in chaotic Princess, written on the return of William V order. He saw in them the consequences of to The Hague, he describes vividlyth¢ panic "mechanical" politics, politics which is that fell upon the Patriotic "tyrants" after they detached from its ethical foundations in man had heard of the capture of· the· town··of as a many-sided being. The mechanization of Gorinchem a few days earlier. Many of them politics had brought with it the horrible fled, and their houses were rifled. There was phenomenon of the state-machine in which an unparalleled outburst of joy, people each individual is just another cog. It usurps embraced each other in the streets. Not man's moral faculty and so causes him to feel without a good deal of exaggeration, alienated from his fellows. Men turn away Hemsterhuis calls the former Patriotic rule from politics to fulfil higher aspirations, for "the most despicable tyranny that history example in art or religion. But man is records," based on wholly unacceptable essentially a political being as well, as ideas. He ends this letter, however, in a Hemsterhuis had learnt from Aristotle. Only much more light-hearted vein. The tumult in social and political activity can man's and uproar of the preceding days, including moral faculty be fully developed. Instead of the big parade to celebrate the return ofthe .. politics using people, people should start stadholder, have done his poor ears nO good: using politics as a means of moral self­ "For me, the universe in its audible aspect perfection, as in the Greek city states, where has turned into nothing." individual and society were one; each individual saw himself as the "mirror of the In the last years of his life, Hemsterhuis was state." again able to enjoy life in a politically calm atmosphere. But he was well aware tllat the Hemsterhuis may well have doubted whether Republic was not set aright, ind;that the a return to this Greek ideal was possible in quiet was only apparent. Politicians kept modern Europe. Surely, the end of the Dutch looking back to the past in order to find civil war and the destruction of the French remedies for the Republic's illness. But monarchy must at least have been good signs. according to Hemsterhuis, it took "courage What else should be done to promote this and innovation" to restore it to its former ideal? As a pupil of Socrates, Hemsterhuis, greatness. The constitution, laws and military of course, laid great stress on education. In a discipline had all been destroyed, and had to highly interesting letter,13 he suggests erasing be re-created. However, he did not make the word "fatherland" from every children's clear how this should be done. It might well book and teaching geography without using have involved shaking off the cautious maps that show the artificial boundaries of 62 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies states. In this way, the child should become REFERENCES a cosmopolitan and see the world or at least the whole of Europe as its fatherland. Too 1 See H. Moenkemeyer, Franrois Hemsterhuis (Boston, 1975), an excellent survey. By the same often states have usurped patriotism for their author, "Franc,:ois Hemsterhuis: admirers, critics, own immoral ends and thereby degraded this scholars, " in Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift fUr noble feeling into one of the most hostile Literaturwissenschajt und Geistesgeschichte 51 (1977), sentiments that artificial society has 502-525, on the reception of Hemsterhuis' philosophy. produced. Patriotism should give way to love Also in English:M/J. Petry, "Hemsterhuis on Mathematics and O})tics," in The Light of Nature. of humanity. Essays in the His/cry and Philosophy of Science presented to A. c: Crombie, J.D. North and J.J. Although these and many other of Roche, eds. (Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster, 1985), Hemsterhuis' ideas were very progressive, 209-234. The best biography is still the book by L. his actual influence seems to have been Brummel, Frans Hemsterhuis. Een philosofenleven limited to Orangist conservative circles. (Haarlem, 1925). K. Hammacher wrote a profound Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp (1764-1834), interpretation in German: Unmittelbarkeit und Kritik bei Hemsterhuis (Munich, 1971). for example, the conservative statesman who laid the foundations for the new monarchy of 2 It will be published by Ambo in Baarn. Volume one 1814, in his youth had conversed with will contain Hemsterhuis' writings on mathematics, Hemsterhuis and may well have been astronomy, optics and general philosophy, volume two influenced by his demonstration of the will comprise his writings and a number of necessity of a single executive power, unpublished letters on education, politics, and history, and volume· three will contain his works on .ethics, whether it be a stadholder or a king. 14 Van Hogendorp derived his ideas from the old psychology, aethetics,and philosophy of religion. Each volume will also contain an introduction and regime,and like Hemsterhuis attached great explanatory notes. importance to the Council of State, of which he was vice-president for three years. 3 Oeuvres Philosophiques de Franrois Hemsterhuis, Another case in point is that of Philip Willem L.S.P. Meyboom, ed., 3 vols. (Leeuwarden, 1846- van Heusde(1778-1839),professor of history 1850; reprint Hildesheim, New York, 1972). and Greek in the university of Utrecht, who 4 One important sign of this revival can be seen in the called on his· countrymen to revive Socratic foundation of a national society for the promotion of philosophy as exemplified in the writings of research into Dutch philo~phy: the "Werkgroep Hemsterhuis. 15 To him, the philosophy of Sassen voor de. geschiede~~ van de wijsbegeerte in Hemsterhuis was the best suited for a nation Nederland." It was founded at the Erasmus University in which king and people co-operated in in May 1989. Its main activities consist in organizing order to improve life in all areas. Had conferences on chosen topics and publishing a bi­ Hemsterhuis lived to see the birth of the annual journal, Geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte in ,Nederland. /A start will soon be made with the Dutch monarchy, it is highly probable that he publication of an international series, Studies in the would have greeted it wholeheartedly, Hist()ry of Ideas in the Low Countries. because it combined the best features of his beloved Republic in its heyday - strong leadership by· a prince who happened to be a 5 For a recent general survey, see M.R. Wielema, great man, great civil liberties, economic "Philosophy in the Netherlands in the seventeenth and growth and prosperity - with a "unified eighteenth centuries," in Rivista di storia della filosofia constitution that corrected its mairi defects: 44 (1989), 353-363. its incoherence and complexitY. 16 r

Frans Hemsterhuis: a philosopher's view of the history of the Dutch Republic 63

6 See K. Hammacher, "Hemsterhuis und seine now escaped the attention of historians. For example, Rezeption in der deutschen Philosophie," in Algemeen his name is not even mentioned in two recent books on Nederlands Tijdschrijt voor Wijsbegeerte 75 (1983), Dutch eighteenth-century intellectual history: M.C. 110-131. Jacob and W. W. Mijnhardt, eds., The Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century. Decline, Enlightenment, 7 The Lettre sur l'homme et ses rapports avec Ie and Revolution (Ithaca, London: Cornell U P, 1992) commentaire inedit de Diderot was edited by Georges and W.R.E. Velema, Enlightenment and Conservatism May (New Haven, 1964). in the Dutch Republic.. The Political Thought of Elie Luzac (1721-1796) (A,s'sen, Maastricht: Van Gorcum, 8 A Dutch translation of Aristee and some minor 1993). / scientific writings was published recently: Frans

Hemsterhuis. Waarneming en werkelijkheid, M.l II For an excellent survey, see S. Schama, Patriots Petry, ed. (Baarn, 1990), as vol. 14 in the series and Liberators. Revolution in the Netherlands 1780- Geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte in Nederland 1813 (New York, London, 1977), chapters 1-3. (Baarn: Ambo, 1986-1992), which consists of twenty volumes in which the main Dutch philosophical 12 These two treatises were not published in classics are presented in editions which are both Hemsterhuis' lifetime. They appeared in lH. popular and critical. The other authors in the series Halbertsma's Letterkundige Naoogst, vol. 2 include: Siger van Brabant (1240-1281), Johannes (Deventer, 1845), 564-588 and vol. 1 (Deventer, Buridan (1295-1358), Marsilius van Inghen (1330- 1840), xii-xxiv, respectively. Hemsterhuis comments 1396), Heymeric van de Velde (1395-1460), Rudolf on these matters in his correspondence on 25 October Agricola (1444-1485), Desiderius Erasmus (1469- and 2 December, 1784. The letters are partly written 1536), Dirk Volckertsz. Coornhert (1522-1590), Hugo in cipher, a method he frequently used for transmitting de Groot (1583-1645), Gerardus Vossius (1577-1649), politically risky messages to MUnster. Arnout Geulincx (1624-1669), Petrus van Balen (1643-1690), Bernard Nieuwentijt (1654-1718), 13 This letter, dated 2 May 1785, has been published Willem Jacob's Gravesande (1688-1742), Paulus van by Marie Muller in "Mindestens EUropa. 1785. Ein Hemert (1756-1825), Philip Willem van Heusde Brief des Philosophen Hemsterhuis an die Fiirstin (1778-1839), Cornelis Opzoomer (1821-1892), Galitzin," in West/alen. Hefte for Geschichte, Kunst Jacobus Moleschott (1822-1893), Gerardus Heymans und Volkskunde 33 (1955), 37-41. (1857-1930) and Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1947). Spinoza (1632-1677) has been excluded from the 14 On Van Hogendorp, see H.L. T. de Beaufort, series, because excellent Dutch translations of his Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp. Grondlegger van het writings already exist. Koninkrijk (Den Haag, 1963) ..

9 The unfmished dialogue Alexis II ou du Militaire (ca. 150n Van Heusde, see lM.M. de Valk, Philip Willem 1783) was published by E. Boulan in Franrois Van Heusde. Wijsbegeerte van het gezond verstand Hemsterhuis, Ie Socrate ho,landais (Groningen, Paris, (Baarn, 1989). 1924), 111-136. 16 I wish to thank Prof. Dr. M.l Petry for the 10 Hemsterhuis' comments on Dutch history have until grammatical and stylistic revision of this article.