Documentatieblad werkgroep Achttiende eeuw. Jaargang 1991

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C.W. Schoneveld
The eighteenth-century afterlife of John Locke's writings in the Netherlands^1.

The spread of John Locke's fame on the Continent in the eighteenth century was greatly furthered, and perhaps even partly caused, first by his personal contacts with the Dutch world of learning during his stay in the Republic and subsequently by the publication of the French translations of his writings there. Throughout the eighteenth century these translations poured from the Dutch presses, whereas there was only a sprinkling from France or Switzerland. Given the fact that the English language was hardly known in Holland - Philip van Limborch being a case in point and Jean Le Clerc a rare exception - it is not surprising that no English-language texts were printed there. Next to Latin, French was extensively used among the learned in the Dutch Republic. The cultural prestige of that language was much aided by the infusion of Huguenot intellectuals in the period of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The many French-language learned periodicals which, as we know, had no small share in the spread of Locke's ideas, were also largely controlled by Huguenot refugees. At first sight it must seem therefore that there was little or no room for publishing Locke in the Dutch language during his lifetime or afterwards. However, researching the matter led me to conclude otherwise.^2. Leaving aside the already well-known history of the French translations in Holland, I will confine myself to the eighteenth-century afterlife of those of Locke's writings that were rendered into Dutch. And it is the texts themselves, rather than the much too ambitious project of reconstructing their impact, that I will concentrate on. As it is, there will be mazes, quicksands and dead alleys enough on the way and the story will very much have an open ending. To put the problem in a nutshell: there is much more evidence

1. Text of a paper read at the Philosophy in the Netherlands in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Conference, Rotterdam, 4 November 1988.

2. Cf. Th.M.M. Verbeek, ‘Voorlopige Bibliografie van 18e eeuwse Vertalingen in het Nederlands van Wijsgerige Werken’, Documentatieblad Werkgroep 18e Eeuw, no. 22 (Febr. 1974), pp. 15-16.

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of Dutch translations having been made than there are actual copies of translations preserved in public libraries.

For the purpose of discussion I will distinguish between a practical, a theological and a philosophical Locke, and discuss them in that order.

I

Perhaps it is because the Dutch, like the English, have always been a pragmatic people that the translations of Some Thoughts concerning Education and A New Method of Making Common-place-books have survived in a fair number of copies. Some Thoughts was rendered into Dutch and published in Rotterdam within five years after its first appearance in English in 1693 and three years after the first French translation by Pierre Coste, which came out in Amsterdam in 1695.^3. Pieter Rabus in his review periodical De Boekzaal van Europe pointed out that the Dutch version (1698) was to be preferred to the French since it was based on a later, enlarged, English edition (the third, of 1695).^4. He had already reviewed the French translation and had clearly shown his enthusiasm for Locke's enlightened approach.^5. To the Dutch version itself he actually contributed some laudatory verses:

Hier kneed men brein, hier vormt men Zielen,
Hier straft men (juist met zweep; nog roê)
't Gebrek, waar in uw kind'ren vielen.
Hier houd de Matigheid haar Kerk,
En yder hoofddeugd preekt haar reden
Ten dienst der jonkheid even sterk:
Kort om, dit 's 't oeffenschool der zeden ([8], facing p. 1).^6.

[Here brains are moulded, souls are formed;
Here vice, to which your children fell,
Is punished without rod or whip.
Here moderation keeps its church,
Each cardinal virtue alike preaching
Its reason strongly to the young:
See then the school of morals here.]

3. John C. Attig, The Works of John Locke; A Comprehensive Bibliography from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, Westport, 1985, nos. 523 and 527. Further references to Attig will be in the text.

4. H. Bots (ed.), Pieter Rabus en de Boekzaal van Europe, 1692-1702, Amsterdam, 1974, p. 297.

5. De Boekzaal van Europe, 1696, March/April, pp. 319-28.

6. Numbers in square brackets refer to the Checklist of Eighteenth-Century Dutch Translations of John Locke, at the end.

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Rabus was also closely associated with the publisher of this book, Barend Bos. In this same year, 1698, he translated for him Robert Boyle's Of the High Veneration Man's Intellect Owes to God as a contribution to the promotion of English empiricism in the Netherlands.^7. Thus one might even venture the hypothesis that he also was the translator of Locke's empirical ideas on education. I will return to this suggestion further on.

In the next half-century French editions were published in the Netherlands at five-year intervals on average (Attig, nos. 577-89). But the Dutch text also remained in demand and continued to be held in high esteem. However, since in all this time it had not been reprinted, by the middle of the century it had become very scarce. The combination of these two facts finally resulted in a renewed publication in 1753. It seems that this new Dutch edition even caused a significant reduction in the subsequent demand of French-language ones. Instead of the earlier five-year intervals, there was now suddenly a thirty year gap before the next French edition published in Holland came out (Attig, no. 593), while the market in France was being taken over in the same period by a few editions from Paris and Lausanne (Attig, nos. 589-92).

The new Dutch edition, however, was not just a reprint but an entirely new translation. According to the new translator, Pieter Adriaan Verwer, already experienced in translating English prose fiction into Dutch^8., it would have been necessary to revise the old translation quite extensively ‘if one should wish to comply with the taste of the new age’ ([9], Sig. *2). He found it easier therefore to make a fresh one with the added advantage that it could be based on a later, further enlarged English edition (the eleventh of 1745). He had also been asked to add notes adapting Locke's ideas to the Dutch national character, which he had declared himself willing to do wherever such notes spontaneously suggested themselves to him. This has resulted in a number of interesting observations from a comparative cultural historical point of view. One such note, objecting to the employment of a private tutor, as advocated by Locke, and Verver's counter-arguments in favour of a school education, had grown to such length that he had decided to accord it the status of a preface, where it now precedes his translation of

7. J.J.V.M. de Vet, Pieter Rabus (1660-1702), een Wegbereider van de Noordnederlandse Verlichting, with a summary in English, Amsterdam, 1980, 74-75; C.W. Schoneveld, Intertraffic of the Mind, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Anglo-Dutch Translation, with a Checklist of Books Translated from English into Dutch, 1600-1700, Leiden, 1983, checklist, no. 117.

8. See on him Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, Leiden, 1911-37, 10 vols, s.v. He had already translated Joseph Fielding's Amelia and novels by Sarah Fielding and Charlotte Lennox.

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Jean Le Clerc's well known funeral eulogy on Locke. Although a discussion of these notes is beyond the present scope, there are two which I cannot forbear quotinq - one on drinking habits, and another on Anglo-Dutch language relations. Where Locke advises the English to eat lighter breakfasts than is their custom, Verwer claims that this advice does not apply to Holland, except as a plea for sobriety in general and then he goes on:

Mooglyk ware het hier nutter het gebruik van de Koffie en Thé af te raden, niet alleen voor de Kinderen; maer in 't algemeen: want het is zeker dat de Natuur hier door niet weinig verzwakt. Tot een bewys hier van kan onder andere strekken, 'tgene my van goeder hant is voorgekomen: dat op de Linnenbleekeryen buyten Haerlem het Vrouwvolk, dat hier zwaren arbeid naer gelang de Sexe moet doen, op verre na zoo krachtig niet is, dan voor Vyftien of Twintig jaren, sedert welken tyd zy dezen uitlandschen drank op den voorgang van hunne Meestressen hebben leeren drinken; waer mede zy nu ruim zoo veel verkuischt zyn dan voorhenen met een vat sterk Bier, haer ter verlustiging gegeven, en 't welk hare lendenen en spieren merkelyk meer sterkte kon byzetten ([9], pp. 20-21, section 14).

[Here it may be more useful to discourage the use of coffee and tea, not only for children but in general, for it is certain that this does not a little weaken the constitution. As proof of this may be adduced something I have learned from a reliable source: it is a fact that the womenfolk on the linen-bleacheries outside Haarlem who, taking their sex into account, have to do heavy labour, are by far not so strong anymore as fifteen or twenty years ago, since when they have learned to drink this foreign potion in imitation of their mistresses; they have become as much enchanted with this as formerly with a fust of strong beer, which was given to please them, and which was able to add considerably more strength to their loins and muscles.]

The other note is on learning languages. Locke advises teaching children oral proficiency in French at an early age. Verwer adds, in a mixture of prophesy, prejudice and truth:

Het zelfde kan men zeggen van 't Engelsch, 't welk mede wel waerdig is om 'er zich in te oeffenen; doch 't heeft onder ons noch die Gemeenzaemheit niet als het Fransch, dewyl het, voor zoo veel het spreken aengaet, geen Tael is, welke in alle Landen gangbaer is, al zoo min als het Nederduitsch, en in dezen opzigte by ons weinig anders te pas komt dan in den Koophandel met de Engelschen. Ten aenzien van Geleertheit, en hier in byzonderlyk, om wel beredeneerde zaken met eene ongemeene Beknoptheit, Klaerheit en tevens deftige Bevalligheit te zien voorgestelt, bekenne ik, munten de Engelschen uit boven eenige

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Natie, en misschien mag men zeggen, dat het Engelsch aldus een Tael der Geleerden wort, en genoegsaem niet kan ontbeert worden: maer om ze tot dit Gebruik te leeren, behoeft men ze niet gemeenzaem te kunnen spreken; te meer om dat een Engelschman de Trotsheit bezit van zich zeer zelden met Vreemden te willen inlaten of naer hen veel te luisteren; zoo dat men hier ontrent volstaen kan met eene grondige Oeffening byzich zelven, die ook in alle Talen, welke zy zyn mogen, moet plaets hebben, zonder zelfs tot dit laeste een Taelmeester noodig te hebben ([9], pp. 330-31, section 162).

[The same can be said of English, which is equally worthy of being practised: but it is not yet as common among us as French is, since, like Dutch, it is not a language current in all countries, and it is useful to us in little else than our trade with the English. In the field of learning, and especially in presenting well-argued cases with an unusual degree of conciseness and clarity as well as a civilized grace, the English, I must confess, excell beyond any nation, and perhaps one may say that English is thus becoming a language for the learned, and can hardly be done without; but to learn it for this purpose it is not necessary to be able to speak it familiarly; the more so because an Englishman has the proud habit of very seldom wishing to mix with foreigners or to listen much to them; so that in this case a thorough training on one's own will suffice, as must be done with all languages, whichever they are, a language-tutor not even being necessary for this.]

In yet another note Verwer makes an amusing mistake when he thinks he has found a passage that his predecessor had left untranslated. The fact is that this passage simply does not occur in the edition used by the first translator. It critizes traditional grammar school teachers who only teach what they themselves have learned, without asking whether it is what their pupils will need later in life; Verwer now suggests that his predecessor had left it out because that person had himself been a grammar school teacher. Thus he, too, may have been thinking of Pieter Rabus, who was indeed such a teacher ([9], p. 184, section 94).

Locke's educational advice could now continue to find direct followers through this rejuvenation of his text. Nor was it forgotten in more modern times. In 1878 it saw yet another Dutch translation, again with notes. The editor admits that many of the notions in it have been superseded, but its general spirit is still warmly recommended by him ([10], pp. 143-48). That this advice was heeded, too, appears from the fact that the copy in the Royal Library in The Hague may not be taken out because it has been virtually read to pieces and, judging from the many underlinings in it, was once used as a textbook.

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Locke's other publication in the practical category, his Methode Nouvelle de Dresser des Recueils, as the title ran when it originally saw the light in the Bibliothèque Universelle et Historique in 1686 (Attig, no. 30), was of such a commonplace practicality that it slightly embarrassed the author, but not so its Dutch publisher, since he warmly recommended it to the reader. The Dutch version in pamphlet-format did not come out until 1739 [1], but was again quite successful. This is also the first of the many cases to come where there are indications of the publication of editions of which I have been unable to locate any copies. For while in 1769 a new edition came out, which is called the fourth [2], the second has left no trace, and the third only an indirect although very precise one. The evidence for it comes from this fourth edition. It contains a preface which refers to itself as belonging to the third edition ([2], Sig. [A2v]). The conclusion must be that the preface in the fourth was taken over from the third, unaltered. The editor also announces the addition of new examples to clarify Locke's method further. In this way he had been able to resist the temptation to tamper with Locke's text itself, for, as he warned himself with the help of a Dutch proverb, one is not free to cut one's scythes into another man's corn (‘dat het ongeoorloofd is de zeizen in een anders koorn te slaan’; ibid.). The new examples extended the number of thirty pages in the first Dutch edition to fifty-six and it is from two of these additions that the date of the third edition can be reconstructed. One of them is an entry on comets (p. 46) containing a phrase about the prediction of a comet to appear in 1757, which sets the date ante quem. The post quem date is quite close to this. It occurs in an extremely topical entry too: one on earthquakes. The Lisbon one of 1755 (which caused the drowning of the honest Dutch Anabaptist in Candide) is mentioned, as well as a tremor felt in Amsterdam on 18 February 1756 (p. 41). So the revised third edition must have come out in 1756 and was reprinted in 1769, while a reprint of the first edition must have preceded it. This then is another success story in Locke's Dutch afterlife, even though half of the material evidence for it is now gone.

II

Under the heading of his religious writings I will discuss Locke's Letters on Toleration, the Reasonableness of Christianity and his Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul. Of these the Epistola de Tolerantia of 1689 had its genesis in Holland from Locke's discussions with Philippus van Limborch. It was first published in Gouda (Attig, no. 41), and a Dutch translation followed on its heels, even preceding the English one of the same year (Attig, no. 51) and a French one which was scheduled to be published concurrently but which failed at the time. Frustatingly enough, no copy of this first Dutch edition is known to have survived.

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The ingenuous attempts made by Mario Montuori in his recent edition of the Latin and English texts to disprove its ever having existed have been effectively refuted by Raymond Klibansky in his later edition.^9. It is just another case of the material evidence having been destroyed by the very popularity of its content. But as to circumstantial evidence, first and foremost we have Van Limborch's remark in his letter to Locke of 6/16 September 1689: ‘verum Belgice in officinis nostris prostat, et a pluribus maximo cum applausu legitur’. And he actually enclosed a copy of the book in his next letter of 20/30 September.^10. He could do this quite easily, given the brevity of the text: the Latin version contains only 96 pages in duodecimo. It seems that the Dutch text was in the same format and was also published in Gouda. At least this is what Verwer recorded from memory in his preface to Over de Opvoeding der Kinderen in 1753 ([9], p. L). This strengthens a suspicion that the Latin and the Dutch texts were part and parcel of the same undertaking. Thus the anonymous parcel (now literally speaking) that Van Limborch sent off to his Gouda publisher Justus van Hoeve may have contained not only the Latin manuscript but the Dutch text as well, possibly translated by Van Limborch himself.

Verwer's remark has so far passed unnoticed, but it was the publisher Isaak Tirion who saved the text itself from oblivion. In 1734 he collected together in one publication five essays on toleration and freedom of religion by various authors, headed by Locke's First Letter. In his preface Tirion explains that it is very often the fate of such tiny booklets to vanish from sight, so that in the case of the Brief aangaande Verdraagzaamheid ‘many people who hold Locke's writings in esteem only know it by name’ ([4], Sig. *3-[*3v]). To prevent this from happening with his own edition too, he came up with the solution to swell the book's size by these additions. And right he was, for it still exists in several copies and we may be thankful to him for this professionalism. But he was first of all motivated by the cause itself in the hope that eventually toleration ‘would become the general doctrine of all Christendom’ (id., Sig. *6). However, he had his doubts since Locke's Letter itself had already been attacked. He had considered also including Locke's replies, but had been advised against it on account of their length. In his preface he now enumerates in nine points the contents of the Third Letter, quotes its last page or so in full and declares himself willing to publish these other Letters yet, should this First Letter give rise to counter-publications. He also admits that the text of the translation is that of the first edition,

9. M. Montuori (ed.), John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, The Hague, 1963, pp. xxxvii-xl. R. Klibanski (ed.), John Locke, Epistola de Tolerantia, Oxford, 1968, p. xxvi.

10. E.S. De Beer (ed.), The Correspondence of John Locke, III, Oxford, 1978, letters 1178 and 1184.

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only corrected in some places (id., Sig. *3). We can conclude, therefore, that the announcement on the title page ‘Twede Druk’, instead of being devious as Montuori has tried to prove, is both honest and true. Thus Locke's voice in the lively debates conducted in Dutch about toleration in this period could again be heard and indeed was.

Although I have found evidence but no copy of a reprint or reissue by another publisher in 1772^11., what does exist is a new edition, with a changed title, published in 1774. Its preface claims that the book had become so rare that in view of the continued importance of the subject a new edition was now called for ([5], Sig. †). It contains a new seventy-page introductory essay by A.A. van der Meersch, a Remonstrant minister, analysing the grounds on which the authors base their arguments for toleration and pointing out the errors and mistaken notions that governments have about their power in matters of religion.^12. And, unnoticed by bibliographers, this new edition also added Locke's Second Letter in translation ([5], pp. 83-224, [6]).

It is the preface by the publisher signed V.D.V. (although his actual name is Jan Dóll), which sends us now back again into history with some bibliographical queries. He admits that this Second Letter had previously been published in 1742 but in a very defective translation, which was now considerably improved ([5], Sig. [†1v-†2]). He gave no publisher's name but it is Verwer again who may help us further, for in 1753 he also mentions such a translation, be it of a year later, published by Folkert van der Plaats at Harlingen ([9], p. LIV). Now that we have the name of a publisher there is every reason to believe that neither of the two dates, 1742 or 1743, represents the earliest edition but that this must be sought further back, in the year 1730 and to be even more precise on 5 April of that year, since against that date there exists a chronicle entry reading: ‘verschenen [published] by F.v.d. Plaats te Harlingen, J. Locke, Brief over de Verdraagzaamheid’.^13. Klibansky^14. and on his authority Attig (no. 71) assumed that this concerned the First Letter. The facts recorded above and the fact that Isaak Tirion in 1734 did not mention Van der Plaats's 1730 edition, must lead us to identify this as the Second Letter,

11. J. van Abkoude, Naamregister van ... Nederduitsche Boeken, Rotterdam, 1773, p. 456: ‘Verzameling van eenige verhandelingen over de Verdraagzaamheit en vryheit van Godsdienst / 1772. Amst. P. Doorewaart, 8. 1 gl.’ Further references to van Abkoude will be in textual parentheses.

12. [5], pp. IX-LXIX. The title page gives ‘den heer R.D.B.D.I.H.M.V.’ as the author. The identification as A.A. van der Meersch is given in the catalogue entry of the copy in the University Library at Leiden.

13. G.W. Wumkes, Stads- en Dorpskroniek van Friesland, I, Leeuwarden, 1730, p. 74. The source given by Attig, no. 71 (Leeuwarder Courant) derives from a misinterpretation of Wumkes' source. The newspaper did not begin to appear until 1752.

14. R. Klibanski (ed.), John Locke, Epistola de Tolerantia, Oxford, 1968, p. xxvii.

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as we must Van Abkoude's entry ‘Brief over de Verdraagzaamheit / Harlingen, F. vander Plaats, 8.’ (p. 261). All this pushes the date of the translation of the Second Letter back almost half a century and although, once more, it is not to be found, we do have the improved version of 1774. Now, the three several printing-years (1730, 1742 and 1743) form a pretty strong argument against a possible suggestion that the poor quality of the translation may have caused its disappearance. The text was some 75 per cent longer than the First Letter but with its octavo format it may have been equally thin and thus have shared the original fate of the First Letter in Dutch.

About Dutch translations of Locke's posthumously published comments on the Epistles of St. Paul, his most recent bibliographer, Attig, is entirely silent. This is understandable since no texts have come to light. Yet, l'histoire se repète, both Locke's introductory Essay for the Understanding of St. Paul's Epistles and his Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans saw Dutch translations. The former is mentioned in an edition of 1768 by Van Abkoude (p. 261; [13]), but this was not the first one, for together with the Paraphrase it already existed in 1739, when the two were advertised by the publisher Kornelis de Wit on the final page of his edition of de Nieuwe Manier om Verzaamelingen of Aantekeningen te Maaken as having been published by him and being for sale at his shop ([1], following p. 24; [12] and [13]). Verwer in his turn repeats this information in 1753 ([9], pp. LXVIII-LIX).

With all these lost volumes it begins to look like a miracle that what seems to be the unique copy of a Dutch translation of Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity has survived in the University Library of Utrecht. But it may well owe its rescue to the fact that it was bound together with a copy of the 1698 translation of Some Thoughts on Education. The title reads: De Schrifmatige Redelykheit van 't Christendom, door Johannes Lock, uyt het Engels Vertaalt. It was published by Evert Visscher in Amsterdam in 1729.^15. The anonymous translator contributed a preface in which he explained why he occasionally used the term ‘Messiahyten’ instead of ‘Christenen’. He refers the reader to a treatise published in 1708, called De Leere des Messiahyten, (which I have been unable to trace) and also promises him a contribution of his own on this subject. It is clear that he had only seen the first English and French editions of 1695 and 1696, respectively, without the author's name, for he defends his insertion of Locke's name on the title page on the authority of others ([11], Sig. *2). All this may give rise to speculations of various sorts,

15. Kornelis de Wit ([1], after p. 24) claims that he is the publisher; the solution may be that he had taken over the remaining stock in 1739 and this may also explain why Verwer ([9], p. LIX, footnote) and Van Abkoude (p. 261) both name him as the publisher too.

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including the question what connection this text might have with Le Clerc's reference to a Dutch translation made soon after 1695 in his ‘Eloge’ on Locke in 1705.^16. Curiously enough, Attig only mentions this reference (p. 104) and not the actually existing translation.

16. J. Le Clerc, ‘Eloge de feu Mr Locke’, Bibliothèque Choisie, VI (1705), pp. 342-411.

III

All the evidence of the eventful and checkered way Locke lived on in the Dutch translations of his works will gather to a head when we get to his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. But first I will mention two other texts under the heading of his philosophical writings. In connection with Locke's contribution to political philosophy, the Two Treatises of Government, there is the following item in Van Abkoude's Naamregister: ‘Locke (J.) over de Burgerlyke Regering / 1728. Groning. Sipkes, Cost en Bandsma, 12^o. 11 st.’ [7]. From this combination of data I draw the conclusion that this is a translation of the French version of the Second Treatise published in Amsterdam in 1691 also in duodecimo or, although this is slightly less likely, of the second edition published in Geneva in 1724 (Attig, nos. 166, 167). The Dutch title follows the wording of the French one, Du Gouvernement Civil, as well as its duodecimo size, rather than the English octavo size, its combined title, or the titles of the first or second treatise (Attig, nos. 100-04). And the modest price of ‘11 stuivers’, too, indicates that this can hardly be the translation of the combined texts, always published together in English, but never in French. Its definitive disappearance may well have happened quite soon after it was published, since even Verwer, who knew of all the other translations, was not aware of it in 1753. Unlike the French and the Americans, the Dutch apparently were not in great need of Locke's political ideas, many of which were already standard practice in Holland anyway.

The second work is the posthumously published The Conduct of the Understanding. Although this is the one work by Locke that has recently been published in a modern Dutch translation (Attig, no. 766) there is no evidence that it was translated in the eighteenth century. But what does exist is a review in the Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen (VII [1767], i, 46-52) indicating that a brief summary of it was appended to a work by Samuel Clarke entitled De Mensch in zyne Natuur, Zeden en Christelyke Geloove Beschouwd. The title of this appendix ran: Eenige Stellingen ter Beoeffening van het Menschelyk Verstand, door den Beroemden Wijsgeer John Locke [14]. Since this part of the book took up only 28 pages and was translated from the English, it may well derive from the 22-page summary made by Alexander Simm and published in Miscellaneous

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Tracts, 1753 (Attig, no. 761). The reviewer provided a list of 24 theses that were dealt with in these Stellingen (p. 52). I have not yet found a copy of Clarke's book.

After all this evidence of Dutch Locke-translations it must come as a surprise to learn that Locke's magnum opus, the Essay concerning Human Understanding, was definitely not translated, as it still is not today. Yet there can be no doubt that it exerted its influence not only in French-speaking intellectual circles but also among that section of the educated public that could not read French or preferred to read Dutch. A presentation of the facts as I have found them must serve to explain this paradoxical situation.

Pierre Coste's French translation first appeared in Amsterdam in 1700 (Attig, no. 349). The very next year Barend Bos, the publisher, and Pieter Rabus, his editorial adviser, announced in their Dutch-language review periodical De Boekzaal their plan to publish Locke's ‘Proeve Rakende het Menschelyk Verstand, vertaald uit het Engelsch door *** en nagezien door P. Rabus, in folio’. And on account of the work's ‘unusual nature’ they intended to do it by subscription.^17. But apparently they had overrated the demand for a Dutch translation alongside the French one, for the project came to nothing. Had Barend Bos's periodical been more than its alternative title, Tweemaandelyke Uittreksels (bimonthly excerpts), indicated he might now have used it to make Locke's ideas public in Dutch after all. But the days of educational spectators had not yet begun in the Netherlands. It needed Addison's and Steele's example in England before the idea struck root in Holland too. It is actually in the Spectator that Addison made good use of Locke's ideas, quoting passages from the Essay on several occasions. Through Pieter Le Clercq's translation of the Spectator into Dutch in 1720s and 30s, these snippets of Locke also reached the Dutch reading public.^18.

But this was only a modest beginning. If not for Barend Bos and Pieter Rabus, the failed translation certainly was a blessing in disguise for another periodical editor. His periodical was called De Examinator, and the name of its anonymous editor, as became known afterwards, was Willem van Ranouw, Doctor of Medicine and known as a very learned man.^19. De Examinator can be called a spectator in that it is a moral weekly but it is very serious in tone and addresses itself to an already

17. Quoted by De Vet, Rabus, p. 75.

18. See for instance in the Dutch translation De Spectator, of Verrezene Socrates, Amsterdam, 9 vols, 1720-1744: vol. I, no. 48 (Eng. ed. no. 62); vol. II, nos. 12 and 24 (Eng. ed. nos. 94 and 110); vol. IV, nos. 30 and 50 (Eng. ed. nos. 387 and 414); and vol. V, no. 59 (Eng. ed. no. 519).

19. For Willem van Ranouw and his periodical see P.J. Buynsters, ‘Voorlopers van Justus van Effen’, Nieuwe Taalgids, 59 (1966), pp. 150-54.

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cultivated or even learned audience. It ran from 1718 to 1720. If one looks at it more closely, one notices that after a fairly varied start as far as subject matter and approach are concerned, a rapidly increasing amount of space is taken up by translations and summaries of up to complete paragraphs from the Latin translation of Locke's Essay: De Intellectu Humano (1701; Attig, no. 421), occasionally mentioned in a footnote by Van Ranouw as his source. Whether he was gradually running out of other material to deal with or just became increasingly enthusiastic about Locke's Essay is hard to tell; probably the latter, for towards the end of his last volume he employs an almost lyrical and certainly very Lockean image when once more he recommends him as someone ‘aan wiens fakkel wy hier onze nachtkaars en schemer-licht wel moogen ontsteeken’ [with whose torch we may well light our own night-candle and rush-light] (IV [1720], p. 476). Translating Locke's philosophical terminology carefully and presenting the arguments patiently and logically, he covers most of chapters 2 to 6 of Book III from ‘the signification of words’ to ‘mixed modes’ and the first five chapters of Book IV on the relations between knowledge and truth. Most likely, in these weekly doses Locke's ideas received a wider and more sustained hearing than would have been the case through an expensive folio-edition subscribed to by an already predisposed, select group of buyers.

Quite strikingly, I have found evidence of this pattern of a failed attempt to produce a Dutch edition in alternation with extracts appearing in Dutch-language periodicals, repeating itself in the next few decades. Thus in 1736 de Boekzaal (July, p. 93) announced that the publisher Jacobus Lovering had in the press a Dutch translation of The Essay ‘supplemented by Pierre Coste's notes and translated into elegant Dutch by prominent votaries and philologists. Two volumes in quarto’. Later scholars have assumed that the publication indeed materialized^20., but this is definitely not the case, as comes out in an anonymous letter to the Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen, of 1761 (pp. 520-21), to which I will presently return. Verwer too made mention of this failed attempt ([9], p. LV). Just at the time when Lovering was working on this edition, however, a colleague of his, writer as well as publisher of a learned quarterly periodical, Godgeleerde, Historische, Philosophische ... Bijdragen ... uit ... Uitlandsche Schrijvers ... Bijeengebracht, inserted in one of its issues two excerpts from Locke's Essay. The first was called ‘Wysgeerige Proeve omtrent het Geloof en de Zeden, midsgaders derzelver Onderscheide Palen’ (IV [1736], pp. 467-84). This is Book IV, Chapter 18: ‘Of

20. E.g.J. te Winkel, De Ontwikkelingsgang der Nederlandsche Letterkunde, III, 1910, p. 390; F. Sassen, ‘Desiderata voor de Beschrijving van de Wijsbegeerte in Nederland gedurende de 18e eeuw’, Documentatieblad Werkgroep 18e Eeeuw, no. 14 (Febr. 1972), p. 10.

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Faith and Reason, and their Distinct Provinces’. The second was called ‘Over 't Vermaak en de Smart’ (IV [1736], pp. 651-64). It is Book II, Chapter 2: ‘Of Modes of Pleasure and Pain’. This periodical ran from 1732 to 1736. Its writer, editor and publisher was Martin Schagen, who was in addition a theologian and Mennonite minister. His very versatility caused another publisher, Pieter Meyer, to devote a satirical poem to him in which he was presented as the Dutch Martin Scriblerus, after the famous fictional Grubstreet journalist of Pope's and Swift's Scriblerus Club.^21.

The third attempt to arrive at a Dutch edition was launched by yet another publisher, H. Scheurleer, in a serious letter written to the newly founded Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen (I [1761], pp. 429-32). It is too long to quote or summarize but the gist of it is that he felt there was a great need to define once for all the demarcation-line between what God had pre-ordained and the extent of human freedom and responsibility. This was work for theologians but they should base themselves on Locke's philosophical analysis of the human understanding so as to arrive at solid conclusions; the idea is heartily supported in an editorial comment that follows it (pp. 432-34). The anonymous letter on Lovering's earlier attempt, just referred to, is a reaction to Scheurleer's new plan, and was published in the same periodical (id., pp. 520-21). The writer had remembered Lovering's plan of nearly twenty-five years ago and had now gone to visit him in order to find out if there were any printed proof sheets left. After a long search only one sheet was found and Lovering declared himself prepared to undertake the work once more if a good translator could be found. This pre-condition may well reflect the main reason for the earlier failed attempt. The anonymous letter-writer hints that the response to the proof sheets had been disappointing because of the inferior quality of the translation, even though as he remembered it was modelled on Pierre Coste's French version, which as we know was widely appreciated at the time.

In spite of the fact that Scheurleer's new plan proved abortive too, like the previous ones, Locke not only continued to find occasional translators but was being discussed too. An example from this same period is found in De Denker, another spectator-like periodical. Two issues of its first year extensively debate Locke's idea that the soul need

21. The poem occurs by way of Dedication in Gedenkschriften, behelzende het Zeldzaame Leeven, de Werken en Ontdekkingen van Martinus Scriblerus. Uit het Engelsch van den Heere Alexander Pope in 't Nederduitsch Vertaald, Amsterdam, Pieter Meyer, 1754, Sig. *2-[**1v]. It is called ‘Aan den Hollandschen Scriblerus’, although Schagen's name is not mentioned I conclude from a number of allusions in the text that he is the subject (or target). For Martin Schagen see further Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, s.v.

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not always be thinking, so that Descartes' thesis that thinking belongs to the soul's essence, is not true (I [1763], pp. 321-37).

Where three Dutch publishers had failed, it was W. Jugla of Antwerp who apparently thought he had found the solution. In 1766 he managed to publish a work entitled Korte Inhoud van een Werk genaamt Wysgeerige Proeven aangaande het Menschelyk Verstand [3]. A copy of it was among the holdings of a Franciscan library in Wychen near Nijmegen^22. until some decades ago, when this library was dissolved and its books distributed among the University Libraries of Nijmegen, Tilburg and Maastricht. Thus I expected it be in one of these three. However, all three of them recently reported to me that it is not in their possession. So here we see that even in our own time Locke-translations disappear from view. Perhaps again size may have something to do with it. I found a note in a card index left by the late Dr. Thijssen-Schoute containing this title and giving the number of pages as IV and 140, and the size 51 × 105 millimeters. This is an extremely small format, probably 24^o. Title, size and number of pages suggest that the text is a Dutch translation of the famous ‘Extrait d'un Livre anglois qui n'est pas encore publié, intitulé, Essai Philosophique concernant l'Entendement’ published by Jean Le Clerc in his Bibliothèque Universelle, or perhaps more precisely, of the same text separately issued as Abrégé d'un Ouvrage intitulé Essai Philosophique touchant l'Entendement, the wording of which is matched exactly by the Dutch title (cf. Attig, nos. 38, 39). Other evidence puts the source beyond all doubt. The Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen, not surprisingly, devoted a review to it, in which a passage of some twenty lines is quoted from it (VII [1669], i, pp. 52-53). The text turns out to be a word-for-word translation of Le Clerc's summary of Book IV, Chapter 6. The reason why the passage was copied was to prove the reviewer's damaging verdict that this translation was virtually useless, since ‘the editor has no command of the language and has not much grip on the subjects dealt with’. The reviewer also quotes the translator's pre-emptive excuse from the preface where he tries to lay the blame on the author as being often difficult to follow for an outsider. The reviewer then invites the reader to judge for himself. And indeed the text is very difficult to make head or tail of, whereas the French text (Attig, no. 39, p. 123) causes no major difficulties. The problems seem mainly to lie in the terminology. A comparison with Van Ranouw, who deals with the same subject in De Examinator (IV [1720], p. 694) in a quite perspicuous manner, corroborates this. Thus presumably it soon ended up in the obscurity it deserved at the time - but I stress ‘at the time’.

22. The entry of this occurs in the Central Catalogue in the Royal Library in The Hague.

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It is as if the editors of the Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen now felt what Van Ranouw first and Schagen later must have felt too: a wish to communicate some of Locke's views to the Dutch public direct. In their Miscellany volume of the same year, they chose Locke's famous chapter ‘Of the Association of Ideas’ to present in a Dutch translation, under the title ‘Van de Zamenvoeging der Denkbeelden’, mentioning Coste's translation as their source (VII (1769) ii, pp. 373-81).

I have not come across any further attempts to translate Locke's Essay whole, but the periodical essayists remained undefatigable in their determination to communicate Locke's ideas. De Onderzoeker in three consecutive issues of its first year (1768) explained Lockean concepts (in nos. 35-37), for instance that of ‘simple ideas’, and the author, probably A.J.W. van Dielen^23., explicitly mentioned as one of his motives the fact that no Dutch translation of Locke existed (p. 296). Again, two years later, two consecutive issues (II [1770], nos. 67 and 68) deal with Locke. Van Dielen explains that he wanted to write about ‘geestdrijverij’ but finding that he could not improve on what Locke had advanced on the subject he decided to give a translation of Book IV, Chapter 19: ‘Of Enthusiasm’, apologizing for this as follows:

Ik beken het boek van deezen grooten Filozoof is genoeg bekend, dog ik twyffele egter dat het gros myner Leezers, en vooral zulken, die de meeste onderrichtingen op dit onderwerp behoeven, Locke geleezen zullen hebben; behalven dat dit uitmuntende boek nooit in onze taal zynde overgezet, deezen myner Leezers, die buiten hunne moedertaal geene andere verstaan, zonder tegenspraak met dit werk niet bekend zyn (II [1770], p. 115).

[I confess that this great philosopher's book is well enough known, but I doubt whether the majority of my readers, and especially those who need the most instruction in this subject will have read it; moreover, since this excellent book has never been translated into Dutch, those of my readers who do not understand any other language than their mother tongue are beyond any doubt unfamiliar with this work.]

The next year he returned to Locke again by providing extracts from Book II, Chapter 14: ‘Of Duration’, particularly sections 3, 4, 12 and 17; and this was followed in a later issue by a translation of Lyttleton's ‘Dialogue of the Dead’ between Bayle and Locke, in which a clear preference for the latter comes out (III [1771], pp. 177-84).

23. Cf. A.M. Zwaneveld, ‘De Opmerker (1772-1778)/ De Onderzoeker (1768-1772) als Geestverwant van R.M. van Goens’, Documentatieblad Werkgroep 18e Eeuw, 18 (1986), pp. 51-64.

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Eleven years later another serial publication, De Algemeene Oefenschoole, provided its own translation of the same dialogue,^24. while the Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen in 1774 translated an English piece which compared Bacon and Locke, again showing a preference for the latter, especially since ‘de staatkundige gesleepenheid en vlammende eerzugt van Bacon is rechtdraads overgesteld tegen de kunstlooze eenvoudigheid en nederigheid van Locke’ [the political shrewdness and burning ambition of Bacon is diametrically opposed to the artless simplicity and humility of Locke] (N.S. III [1774], ii, pp. 162-66). The three last mentioned items are, strictly speaking, peripheral to my subject but they do illustrate the continuing interest in Locke. And so does my final reference. While Verwer halfway through the century had preceded his translation of On Education by Jean Le Clerc's ‘Eloge de Feu Mr Locke’ in Dutch ([9], pp. XVIII-LXXVI), the Nieuwe Vaderlandsche Bibliotheek at the very end of the century (II [1798], ii, pp. 610-20) gave twenty of its pages to a translation of Pierre Coste's ‘Eloge de Mr Locke’, which had first appeared in the Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres in February 1705 (pp. 154-77). One can hardly think of a more appropriate ending to Locke's afterlife in eighteenth-century Holland.

24. Algemeene Oefenschoole, Afd. VI, XI (1782), pp. 385-402.

IV

From the preceding we may conclude that Locke's Dutch afterlife was much more eventful than the few items in Attig's bibliography might lead us to think. No doubt his practical works prospered and were spread widely; and one of his theological writings on toleration was seen to play a lasting role in the eighteenth-century development of the typically Dutch combination of Christian belief and Enlightenment. Nearly all of those whose names have been mentioned in connection with the promotion of Lockean ideas belonged to the liberal, intellectually prominent circles of Remonstrants and Mennonites. Lastly, Locke's philosophical writings certainly had a checkered career, but although his ideas arrived in Holland in bits and pieces, their spread and appeal may well have been wider and more insiduous than could have been the case if a full but expensive translation of the Essay had seen the light, as this would have prevented journalists from pilfering it in their periodicals with their wide and continuous circulation.

Next to the overwhelming presence of French translations pouring from Dutch presses, I have suggested a number of varied reasons responsible for the frustratingly large numbers of titles and editions in Dutch that have disappeared: such as the small format of some books; the persistent demand for these and for others; or conversely, in an

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isolated case, lack of interest in the subject; but more often the poor quality of a translation; or the difficulty of finding a good translator. If Adriaan Verwer was right in saying that English was becoming a language for the learned, it is clear that the role of translations from English in Holland, as in Locke's case, remained a vital one as long as the Dutch knew just enough of that language to carry on their mercantile intertraffic with the English. The intertraffic of the mind was still very much in need of good translations.

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Checklist of eighteenth-century dutch translations of John Locke

The order follows the chronology of Locke's originals as in Attig (see note 3, above). An * indicates item not found; see main text for more information about such items.

[1].	Eene nieuwe manier om verzaamelingen of aantekeningen te maaken; opgesteld en gemeen gemaakt door Johannes Locke. En uit het Fransch (de oorspronkelyke taal, daar het in geschreven, en in de Bibliotheque Universelle, tome second, te vinden is) in het Nederduitsch overgezet. En ook tegens de Engelsche Vertaaling, achter the Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke gevoegd, naagezien. Te Amsterdam, by Kornelis de Wit, Boekverkooper op den Nieuwen Dyk, tusschen de twee Haarlemmer sluizen, in den Staaten Bybel. 1739. [4], 24, [2] pp. 4^o. Translation of Attig, nos. 30/31. An untraced second edition was probably published before 1756.
[2].	Eene nieuwe manier om verzaamelingen of aantekeningen te maaken; opgestelt en gemeen gemaakt door Johannes Locke. En uit het Fransch (de oorspronkelyke taal, daar het in geschreven, en in de Bibliotheque Universelle, tome second, te vinden is) in het Nederduitsch overgezet. En tegens de Engelsche vertaaling, achter the Posthumous works of Mr Locke gevoegd, nagezien. Vierden druk. Te Amsterdam by S.J. Baalde, boekverkooper. 1769. [6], 50 pp. 4^o. Reprint of the untraced third edition printed in 1756.
*[3].	Korte inhoud van een werk genaamt Wysgeerige proeven aangaande het menschelyk verstand, door den heer John Locke. Te Antwerpen, voor Willem Jugla, op d'Overtoomsche weg. 1766. [4], 140 pp. 24^o? Translation of Attig, no. 39. See Central Catatalogue, Royal Library, The Hague.
[4].	‘Een brief aangaande de verdraagzaamheit. Geschreven door Johannes Locke. Uit het Latyn vertaalt. Twede druk’. // IN: Verzameling van eenige verhandelingen over de verdraagzaamheid en vryheid van godsdienst. Te Amsterdam by Jacob ter Beek en Isaak Tirion, boekverkoopers. 1734. [16], 80, 60, 83, 68 pp. 8^o. ON: pp. 1-80 (as the first of 5 treatises). Translation of Attig, no. 41. The lost first edition, 1689, was probably in 12^o and published in Gouda by Justus van Hoeve.

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[5].	‘Eerste brief over de verdraagzaamheid geschreven door Joannes Locke. Uit het Latyn vertaald. Derde druk’. // IN: De vryheid van godsdienst in de burgerlyke maatschappy betoogd en verdeedigd, uit het regt der nature en der volken, en uit de nature van den Kristelyken godsdienst, door de zeer vermaarde mannen Locke, Noodt, Barbeyrac, Hoadly en Drieberge. Voor welker verhandelingen geplaatst is een vertoog ter inleidinge, waarin zo de grondbeginsels van die vryheid, en van het regt der overheid omtrent haare zorge voor den godsdienst, als de oorsprong der dwalingen wegens de heerschappy over denzelven worden aangeweezen, door den heer R.D.B.G.D.I.H.M.V. te Amsterdam, by Jan Dóll. 1774. [10], [LXIX], 452 pp. 8^o. ON: pp. 1-82.
[6].	‘Tweede brief, over de verdraagzaamheid geschreven door Joannes Locke’. // IN: [5], ON: pp. 83-224. Translation of Attig, no. 87. Earlier editions probably in 1730, 1742, 1743, published by Folkert van der Plaats, Harlingen.
*[7].	Over de burgerlyke regering. Groningen, Sipkes, Cost en Bandsma. 1728. 12^o. Translation of Attig, no. 166. Title in Van Abkoude (1773), p. 261.
[8].	Verhandeling over de opvoeding der kinderen, behelzende verscheydene nutte aenmerkingen die de ouders ten opzigt van 't lichaam, doch voornamentlyk van de ziel hunner kinderen in de opvoeding hebben waar te nemen. Door dr. Johannes Lock. Na den derden engelschen druk vertaalt. Te Rotterdam, by Barent Bos, boekverkooper. 1698. [6], 11, [1], 352 pp. 8^o. Translation of Attig, no. 524. In the copy of the University Library at Leiden the printed title page is missing; it does have the engraved added title page which carries the date 1697, but the book is a copy of the 1698-edition, which contains this engraved title-page with the date 1697 too.
[9].	J. Locke over de opvoeding der kinderen; van nieuws uit het Engelsch vertaelt, naer den elfden druk, door Pieter Adriaen Verwer: vermeerdert met eenige aantekeningen en het leven van den schryver. Te Amsterdam, by K. van Tongerlo en F. Houttuin. 1753. [78], 452, [12] pp. 8^o. Translation of Attig, no. 538.

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[10].	J. Locke, Over de opvoeding der kinderen. Paedagogische Bibliotheek onder redactie van J. Versluys. II. Groningen, W. Versluys. 1878. [3], 148 pp. 8^o. Reprinted: Groningen, P. Noordhoff, 1925.
[11].	De schriftmatige redelykheit van 't Christendom. Door Johannes Lock. Uyt het Engels vertaalt. Eph 4. v. 5 [quoted]. t'Amsterdam, by Evert Visscher, boekverkooper in de Dirk van Hasselt steeg. 1729. [4], 290, [2] pp. 8^o. Translation of Attig, no. 639.
*[12].	J. Locke, De Brief aan den Romeinen, met een doorgaande uitbreiding en redegevende aantekeningen opgeheldert. Amsterdam, Kornelis de Wit. [Before or in] 1739. 4^o. Translation of Attig, no. 701. Title from [1]. Van Abkoude, p. 261 has an edition: Amsterdam, A. van der Kroe. 1768. 4^o.
*[13].	J. Locke, Proeve om de Brieven van den ap. Paulus op de beste wyze te leeren verstaan. Amsterdam, Kornelis de Wit. [Before or in] 1739. 8^o. Translation of Attig, no. 703. Title from [1].
*[14].	De mensch in zyne natuur, zeden en Christelyke geloove beschouwd door S. Clarke, Doctor der H. Godgeleerdheid. Waarachter gevoegd zijn eenige stellingen ter beoeffening van het menschelyk verstand, door den beroemden wysgeer John Locke; gevonden onder de Nagelatene schriften van die twee geleerde mannen. Uit het Engelsch vertaald. In 's Gravenhage, door de goedheid en zeegen der Heeren uit liefde voor den evennaasten gedrukt. 1765. 356 pp. 8^o. Translation of Attig, no. 725 or 761. Title from Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen, VII (1767), i, p. 46.