orthodoxy. In Scotland, where the universities were an exception to the low
condition elsewhere, intellectual life was more flourishing, but even there what
took place in the chairs of philosophy tended to be pulled toward the magnet
of the secular subjects found outside in the political world, while the more
religiously orthodox (Reid, Beattie, Campbell, all connected to the clerical
stronghold at Aberdeen) fought back philosophical innovations in the name of
traditional religion and common sense. In the German universities, followers
of Leibniz such as Wolff and Baumgarten wriggled between medieval scholas-
ticism and the attacks of Pietists; their career troubles underlined the motiva-
tion of younger German intellectuals to seek their fortunes in modern bases of
support outside the universities. In France, the Sorbonne was the bastion of
theological orthodoxy, while provincial universities were mere shells with few
students, places to purchase quick degrees on the cheap (Ariès, 1962: 201;
Verger, 1986).
If there was an alternative to the patronage system during the 1700s, it
would have appeared to contemporaries as the market for books and maga-
zines. There was a rapid expansion of the publishing market in Germany
during the 1770s, and the Sturm und Drang period of literature constituted a
sensationalized advertising that went along with the outbreak of this middle-
class market. By 1770, titles in German came to number twice those in Latin,
reversing the situation of the previous century; secular literature for the first
time outstripped religious publications. In France, the greatest publishing en-
terprise up to its time was the Encyclopedia (1745–1772); multiple volumes
employed a staff of hundreds, and the circle of writers gathered around it was
the catalyst of creativity for virtually everyone of importance in Rousseau’s
generation. It took some time for the patronage and the publishing systems to
become distinct. Early in the century, the main intellectual circles in England
were grouped around the Whigs and the Tories. These groups published
periodicals and sponsored books. Political connections remained crucial be-
cause advance subscriptions from the wealthy were a key to a writer’s fortune,
and a political appointment would usually reward a writer who did honor, and
ideological service, to his political faction.^17
The publishing market did not encourage intellectuals to pursue autono-
mous concerns on a high level of abstraction; the attraction was toward
partisan polemic, literary style, and topical public issues. The anti-metaphysical
and in general anti-philosophical tone which characterized the writings from
these secular bases of intellectual production was a result. Antagonism to
traditional philosophy was enhanced by the struggle over religion. Secular
intellectuals, having found bases free from dependence on the church, criticized
the theologians and biblical scholars of the old religious establishment, and
tarred metaphysics with the same brush. Abstract philosophy became emblem-
Intellectuals Take Control: The University Revolution^ •^639