GUILLAUME RAYNAL AND THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CULT OF THE NOBLE SAVAGE WrLLIAM WOMACK In the popular mind, no eighteefh-century writer is, or was, more closely linked with the cult of the noble savage than J. J. Rousseau. It was, after all, Rousseau who was twice caricatured by the theater of the time as walking on all-fours while munching a head of lettuce.1 Though it is true that Rousseau did use an idealized state of nature—a fleeting moment prior to organized society when individuals living in isolation enjoyed perfect equality and total freedom—as a starting point for his politico-economic theories,2 he does not, and perhaps never has, deserved his reputation as noble savagery's most eloquent or persistent champion. Rousseau's state of nature and its virtuous inhabitants were a purely theoretical concept, unsupported by an empirical data, and in fact resembled no savage sodety then actually existing or which had ever existed. Modern anthropology would almost certainly dispute Rousseau's assumption that any creature which could properly be called "human" had ever lived in total isolation. Guillaume Raynal, though himself unversed in the as-yet-unfounded science of anthropology, did question this very assumption. He accused Rousseau of idle speculation, saying that his theories were based on the "supposition d'un état sauvage, idéal et chimérique." Such complète freedom and unfettered independence as Rousseau described could have been possible only in total isolation and, Raynal adds, "Jamais les hommes ne furent isolés." On the contrary, communal living has always been a fundamental characteristic of the human species.8 A glance at pertinent excerpts from the Histoire philosophique will show, despite some inconsistencies, that the savage, as he was actually perceived to exist, had no more prolix nor lyrical admirer than Guillaume Raynal. Although he is not as well known today as his more illustrious contemporaries , Raynal's Histoire philosophique et politique des Indes was for twenty crucial years, 1770 to 1790, one of the most widely read and possibly most influential literary works in France and Western Europe. Bibliographical evidence indicates that his work ranked with Voltaire's Candide and Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise as one of the three most widely sold, and 1PaIiSSOt, Le Cercle ou les Originaux (1775) and Les Philosophes (1760), in Théâtre et Oeuvres diverses (Paris: Duchesne, 1763), IL ^Rousseau, Discours sur Vorigine de Ttnégalité, in Oeuvres complètes (Paris: Gallimard [Pléiade], 1964), III, pp. 131-194. 8Guillaume Raynal Histoire philosophique et politique des établissmens et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (4 vols.; Genève: Jean Leonard Pellet, 1780), IV, p. 470. Subsequent references to this edition, the last authorized and revised by the author, will be incorporated in the text. Guillaume Raynal and the Noble Savage99 we must presume most widely read, works of the entire eighteenth century.4 Numerous contemporary allusions testify to the high regard in which Raynal and his work were held by Diderot, Grimm and other intellectual leaders of his day.5 Due to its outdated radicalism and certain déficiences of stylewordiness , overstatement, and lack of organization—Raynal's work has fallen into near oblivion since the French Revolution. It remains, nevertheless, an extremely thorough compendium of dghteenth-century thought and opinion. Raynal's nominal subject is the European discovery and conquest of the two Indies. He not only gives this generous subject massive factual coverage; he also expands his work into a universal history and an encyclopedia of current knowledge on all subjects from Africa to zoology. One comes away from the work convinced that European discovery and conquest were merely a convenient framework for Raynal's dazzling but fatiguing display of universal knowledge and, more importantly, his enthusiastic sermonizing on all the themes and preoccupations dear to the eighteenth century. These interminable digressions and innumerable small asides constitute a veritable encyclopedia, albeit a highly disorganized one, of eighteenth-century French opinion, a more complete record of the revolution in western thought which we call the Enlightenment than can be found in the collected works of any other single author, with the obvious exception of Voltaire. Among the several questions...