Understanding the World

Abstract

This chapter examines the evidence in Colson’s correspondence that throws light on his “culture,” the manner in which he understood and interpreted his world. Although the emphasis is on the end of the Old Regime, the examination also helps illuminate his views during the Revolution. Among the topics dealt with are his writing facility and style, the books in his personal library, the newspapers he read, his reporting on local gossip, his attitude toward the king, his account of the War of American Independence, his relationship to the Enlightenment, his reports on the earliest hot-air balloons, his experience with sickness and medicine, his attitudes toward the popular classes, and his relations with women. In general, the chapter concludes that there is virtually no evidence of an influence of the canonical Enlightenment on Colson’s beliefs, nor is there evidence of a “desacralization of the monarchy” before 1789. Nevertheless, later Revolutionary attitudes are possibly prefigured in his clear sympathy for the lower classes and in his penchant for practical reforms in some aspects of daily life.