André Morellet

Who was André Morellet?

André Morellet was a French economist writer and contributor to the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. He was one of the last of the philosophes, and in this character he figures in many memoirs, such as those of Madame de Rémusat.

He was born at Lyon, and educated by the Jesuits there, and later at the Sorbonne. He took holy orders, but without much conviction. Voltaire called him "L'Abbé Mords-les", because of his ready and biting wit. His most notable works were a smart pamphlet in answer to Charles Palissot's scurrilous play Les Philosophes, and a reply to Ferdinando Galiani's Commerce des blés.

In 1765, Morellet produced a French translation of On Crimes and Punishments. His translation was widely criticized for the liberties he took with the text. He was a contributor to the Encyclopédie and a friend of Benjamin Franklin.

Later, he made himself useful in quasi-diplomatic communications with English statesmen, and was pensioned and also elected a member of the Académie française in 1785. A year before his death in Paris, he brought out four volumes of Mélanges de littérature et de philosophie du XVIIIe siècle, composed chiefly of selections from his former publications, and after his death appeared his valuable Mémoires sur le XVIIIe siècle et la Révolution.