David Williams, prêtre de la Nature, lecteur de Voltaire et de Rousseau

Abstract

Peter France : David Williams, priest of nature, reader of Voltaire and Rousseau. The Welsh author and philanthropist David Williams (1738-1816), a leading London' radical during the last 3 decades of the 18th Century, was known as an educational reformer, the priest' of the first public deistic chapel in Europe, the friend and adviser of Brissot and the Girar-dins, and the founder of the Royal Literary Fund. He provides an interesting example of the way in which the ideas of Voltaire and Rous¬ seau were combined in a synthesis of radical thought. He translated several works of V. and discussed R.'s views in various writings. The former provided a model for the advocacy of free thought and toleration, the latter a stimulus for educational and political reform. Williams took what he needed from both, adapting them to the Engllish tradition and situation.