Born at Lyon, and educated by the Jesuits there, Morellet completed his theology degree in 1752 at the Sorbonne and quickly became recognized thereafter in Parisian literary circles for his views religious tolerance, inoculation, penal reform, liberty of the press and freedom of commerce. Morellet's early instruction by the Jesuits and his eventual clerical designation as abbé undoubtedly influenced his earliest writings in which the then 28-year-old licentiate in theology completed at least six articles, noted for their scope and length, to Volumes 6 and 7 of the Encyclopédie. A fiercely independent thinker once led Voltaire to refer to Morellet as "L'Abbé Mords-les" because of his sharp wit. He was a noted friend of Benjamin Franklin. By 1754, Morellet had gradually terminated his official association with the Encyclopédie and instead redirected his attention to the French political economy. He sought to greater effect societal reforms through new writings, particularly on freedom of commerce, in which one paper stressed the importance of the textile industry. He never abandoned the spirit of the Encyclopédie though; in the spring of 1760, Morellet wrote in defense of the Encyclopédistes who were attacked by the Le Franc de Pompignan and Charles Palissot, publishingLes Si, Les Pourquoi, La Prière universelle and the Préface de la comédie des Philosophes. His firm conviction for the improvement of society never wavered; he continued to write even as outspoken critics of the French Revolution were executed publicly by the guillotine. The success of Morellet's pamphlet titled Le Cri des Families, which called for the restoration of the property to families of the executed, revived his philosophical optimism and led to his next work on behalf of the dispossessed parents and grandparents of political émigrés. In his last year, he brought out four volumes of Mélanges de littérature et de philosophie du XVIIIesiècle, composed chiefly of selections from his former publications, and after his death appeared his valuable Mémoires sur le XVIIIesiècle et la Révolution. At the time of his death, the ninety-one year-old had amassed a personal library of 4,736 titles, which sold at auction for 22,169 francs.
Mélanges de littérature et de philosophie du XVIIIe
Mémoires de l'abbé Morellet, de l'Académie française, sur le dix-huitième siècle et sur la Révolution. Réédition : Mercure de France, Paris, 1988. Texte en ligne :
Lettres inédites de l'abbé Morellet, sur l'histoire politique et littéraire des années 1806 et 1807, pour faire suite à ses Mémoires
Traité des délits et des peines de Cesare Beccaria V. Ph. Audegean, Genèse et signification des délits et des peines de Beccaria, Archives de philosophie du droit, Dalloz 2010, tome 53, p. 10.
Voyage de découverte à l'Océan pacifique du Nord by George Vancouver
Histoire de l'Amérique, livres IX et X contenant l'histoire de la Virginie jusqu'à l'année 1688 et celle de la Nouvelle-Angleterre jusqu'en 1652 by William Robertson
Extrait du sermon prêché en Irlande, le jour de la commémoration de la mort de Charles Ier, en 1725-1726 by Jonathan Swift
