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Chmielowski (1700-63), whose Nowe Ateny albo Akademia wszelkiej scjencji
pelna (The New Athens or an Academy full of the sciences, 1746) enjoyed wide
popularity. Chmielowski's religious bigotry and political naivete typified the
outlook of the dimmer, semi-educated noblemen of his day. 'The first ines-
timable diamond in the Polish Crown', he wrote, 'is the Golden Freedom. The
second bejewelled foundation of our liberty is the Liberum Regum Electio. The
third is the Liberum Veto. Freedom of speech in the Sejm and in the dietines is
the mother and soul of freedom; and there can be no sign that the Fatherland is
dying so long as they are all still talking.'^29 Having lost all hope of salvation,
Polish society turned in on itself, and bewitched by the imaginary idylls of 'Old
Sarmatia', began to lose sight of elementary realities.
Abroad, a procession of political writers recounted the obvious ills of the
Polish system without caring to examine their causes. As early as 1721, in his
Lettres persanes, Montesquieu stated 'Poland makes such poor use of her
Liberty, and of her Royal elections that she gives thereby no satisfaction but to
her neighbours, who have lost both.' In 1740, in his Anti-Machiavel, Frederick
II noted that in Poland, 'the throne is an object of trade like any other com-
modity on the public market.' In his Considerations sur le gouvernement, the
Marquis d'Argenson warned that 'Poland stands open on every side to be taken
by anyone who cares to do so. Very soon, her one strength will lie in her very
feebleness.' In the article devoted to Poland in the French Encyclopedic, the
Chevalier de Jaucourt was content to plagiarize the recent work of Abbe Gabriel
Coyer on the history of John Sobieski. In it, he mentioned a theme already
mooted by Montesquieu to the effect that the decline of the state was due to the
'slavery' of the common people. Similar opinions were repeated by most of the
sages of the day — by David Hume, by Adam Smith, by William Paley, and above
all, by Voltaire. Voltaire's numerous, brilliant, and uniformly hostile comments
deserve special mention, if only because they were so widely publicized. First in
his History of Charles XII, then in the drama, Les Lois de Minos, and later in his
numerous writings on the subject of Toleration, the sage of Ferney missed no
opportunity of deriding Poland as the home of 'chaos', 'barbarity', and 'fanati-
cism'. With no claim to any close acquaintance with Polish affairs, he used the
Republic as a cautionary tale to illustrate the fate of all who fell into the clutches
of Romish ignorance. 'Braves Polonais!... vous n'avez eu depuis longtemps que
deux veritables ennemis - les Turcs et la cour de Rome.' Needless to say, he used
the Polish leitmotif not as a serious contribution to the study of Poland, but as
a polemical weapon with which to humour his readers. Yet in his eagerness to
flatter his enlightened correspondents in Berlin and St. Petersburg, he often
lapsed into the sort of hyperbole which revealed his true colours. In 1768, for
example, he paid a characteristic double-edged compliment to the authors of
Poland's 'liberties', congratulating both Stanislaw-August and Archbishop
Podoski for their fortunate association with the 'Star of the North':