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John Vince

Calculus
for Computer
Graphics
Third Edition
Calculus for Computer Graphics
John Vince

Calculus for Computer

Graphics
Third Edition
John Vince
Bournemouth University
Hereford, UK

ISBN 978-3-031-28116-7 ISBN 978-3-031-28117-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28117-4

1st edition: © Springer-Verlag London 2013

2nd & 3rd editions: © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019, 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to my wife Hei ∂iπ .
Preface

Calculus is one of those subjects that appears to have no boundaries, which is why
some books are so large and heavy! So when I started writing the first edition of this
book, I knew that it would not fall into this category. It would be around 200 pages
long and take the reader on a gentle journey through the subject, without placing too
many demands on their knowledge of mathematics.
The second edition reviewed the original text, corrected a few typos, and incor-
porated three extra chapters. I also extended the chapter on arc length to include the
parameterisation of curves.
In this third edition, I have reviewed the text, corrected a few typos, and
incorporated new chapters on vector differential operators and solving differential
equations.
The objective of the book remains the same: to inform the reader about functions
and their derivatives, and the inverse process: integration, which can be used for
computing area and volume. The emphasis on geometry gives the book relevance
to the computer graphics community and hopefully will provide the mathematical
background for professionals working in computer animation, games and allied disci-
plines to read and understand other books and technical papers where the differential
and integral notation is found.
The book divides into 18 chapters, with the obligatory chapters to introduce and
conclude the book. Chapter 2 reviews the ideas of functions, their notation and the
different types encountered in everyday mathematics. This can be skipped by readers
already familiar with the subject.
Chapter 3 introduces the idea of limits and derivatives, and how mathematicians
have adopted limits in preference to infinitesimals. Most authors introduce integration
as a separate subject, but I have included it in this chapter so that it is seen as an
antiderivative, rather than something independent.
Chapter 4 looks at derivatives and antiderivatives for a wide range of functions
such as polynomial, trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic. It also shows how
function sums, products, quotients and function of a function are differentiated.
Chapter 5 covers higher derivatives and how they are used to detect a local
maximum and minimum.

vii
viii Preface

Chapter 6 covers partial derivatives, which although easy to understand, have a

reputation for being difficult. This is possibly due to the symbols used, rather than
the underlying mathematics. The total derivative is introduced here as it is required
in a later chapter.
Chapter 7 introduces the standard techniques for integrating different types of
functions. This can be a large subject, and I have deliberately kept the examples
simple, in order to keep the reader interested and on top of the subject.
Chapter 8 shows how integration reveals the area under a graph and the concept
of the Riemann Sum. The idea of representing area or volume as the limiting sum of
some fundamental units is central to understanding calculus.
Chapter 9 deals with arc length, and uses a variety of worked examples to compute
the length of different curves and their parameterisation
Chapter 10 shows how single and double integrals are used to compute the surface
area of different objects. It is also a convenient point to introduce Jacobians, which,
hopefully, I have managed to explain convincingly.
Chapter 11 shows how single, double and triple integrals are used to compute
the volume of familiar objects. It also shows how the choice of a coordinate system
influences a solution’s complexity.
Chapter 12 covers vector-valued functions, and provides a short introduction to
this very large subject.
Chapter 13 is new, and covers three differential operators: grad, div and curl.
Chapter 14 shows how to calculate tangent and normal vectors for a variety of
curves and surfaces, which are useful in shading algorithms and physically-based
animation.
Chapter 15 shows how differential calculus is used to manage geometric continuity
in B-splines and Bézier curves.
Chapter 16 looks at the curvature of curves such as a circle, helix, parabola and
parametric plane curves. It also shows how to compute the curvature of 2D quadratic
and cubic Bézier curves.
Chapter 17 is new, and explores a few techniques for solving first-order differential
equations.
I used Springer’s excellent author’s LATEX development kit on my Apple iMac,
which is so fast that I create an entire book in 3 or 4 seconds, just to change a single
character! This book contains around two hundred colour illustrations to provide
a strong visual interpretation for derivatives, antiderivatives and the calculation of
arc length, curvature, tangent vectors, area and volume. I used Apple’s Grapher
application for most of the graphs and rendered images, and Pages for the diagrams.
There is no way I could have written this book without the Internet and several
excellent books on calculus. One only has to Google ‘What is a Jacobian?’ to receive
over a thousand entries in about 1 second! YouTube also contains some highly infor-
mative presentations on virtually every aspect of calculus one could want. So I have
spent many hours watching, absorbing and disseminating videos, looking for vital
pieces of information that are key to understanding a topic.
The books I have referred to include: Teach Yourself Calculus by Hugh Neil,
Calculus of One Variable by Keith Hirst, Inside Calculus by George Exner, Short
Preface ix

Calculus by Serge Lang, Differential Equations by Allan Struthers and Merle Potter,
and my all-time favourite: Mathematics from the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg.
I acknowledge and thank all these authors for the influence they have had on this
book. One other book that has helped me is Digital Typography Using LATEX by
Apostolos Syropoulos, Antonis Tsolomitis and Nick Sofroniou.
Writing any book can be a lonely activity, and finding someone willing to read an
early draft, and whose opinion one can trust, is extremely valuable. Consequently, I
thank Dr. Tony Crilly for his valuable feedback after reading the original manuscript.
Tony identified flaws in my reasoning and inconsistent notation, and I have incorpo-
rated his suggestions. However, I take full responsibility for any mistakes that may
have found their way into this publication.
Finally, I thank Helen Desmond, Editor for Computer Science, Springer UK, for
her continuing professional support.

Breinton, Herefordshire, UK John Vince

February 2023
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 What Is Calculus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Where Is Calculus Used in Computer Graphics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Who Else Should Read This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Who Invented Calculus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Expressions, Variables, Constants and Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.1 Continuous and Discontinuous Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3.2 Linear Graph Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.3 Periodic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.4 Polynomial Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3.5 Function of a Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3.6 Other Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4 A Function’s Rate of Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.1 Slope of a Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.2 Differentiating Periodic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 Limits and Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 Some History of Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3 Small Numerical Quantities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.4 Equations and Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4.1 Quadratic Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4.2 Cubic Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.4.3 Functions and Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.4.4 Graphical Interpretation of the Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.4.5 Derivatives and Differentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.4.6 Integration and Antiderivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

xi
xii Contents

3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.6 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.6.1 Limiting Value of a Quotient 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.6.2 Limiting Value of a Quotient 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.6.3 Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.6.4 Slope of a Polynomial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.6.5 Slope of a Periodic Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.6.6 Integrate a Polynomial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4 Derivatives and Antiderivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.2 Differentiating Groups of Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2.1 Sums of Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2.2 Function of a Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.3 Function Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.4 Function Quotients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.5 Summary: Groups of Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3 Differentiating Implicit Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4 Differentiating Exponential and Logarithmic Functions . . . . . . . . 52
4.4.1 Exponential Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.4.2 Logarithmic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.4.3 Summary: Exponential and Logarithmic Functions . . . . 56
4.5 Differentiating Trigonometric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5.1 Differentiating tan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5.2 Differentiating csc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.5.3 Differentiating sec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.5.4 Differentiating cot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.5.5 Differentiating arcsin, arccos and arctan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.5.6 Differentiating arccsc, arcsec and arccot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.5.7 Summary: Trigonometric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.6 Differentiating Hyperbolic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.6.1 Differentiating sinh, cosh and tanh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.6.2 Differentiating cosech, sech and coth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.6.3 Differentiating arsinh, arcosh and artanh . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.6.4 Differentiating arcsch, arsech and arcoth . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.6.5 Summary: Hyperbolic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5 Higher Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2 Higher Derivatives of a Polynomial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.3 Identifying a Local Maximum or Minimum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.4 Derivatives and Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.5.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
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Contents xiii

6 Partial Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.2 Partial Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.2.1 Visualising Partial Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.2.2 Mixed Partial Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.3 Chain Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.4 Total Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.5 Second-Order and Higher Partial Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.6.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.7 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.7.1 Partial Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.7.2 First and Second-Order Partial Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.7.3 Mixed Partial Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.7.4 Chained Partial Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.7.5 Total Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7 Integral Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.2 Indefinite Integral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.3 Standard Integration Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.4 Integrating Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.4.1 Continuous Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.4.2 Difficult Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.4.3 Trigonometric Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.4.4 Exponent Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.4.5 Completing the Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.4.6 The Integrand Contains a Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.4.7 Converting the Integrand into a Series of Fractions . . . . 113
7.4.8 Integration by Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.4.9 Integrating by Substitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
7.4.10 Partial Fractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7.6 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7.6.1 Trigonometric Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7.6.2 Exponent Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7.6.3 Completing the Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7.6.4 The Integrand Contains a Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.6.5 Converting the Integrand into a Series of Fractions . . . . 131
7.6.6 Integration by Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.6.7 Integrating by Substitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.6.8 Partial Fractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
xiv Contents

8 Area Under a Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.2 Calculating Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.3 Positive and Negative Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.4 Area Between Two Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
8.5 Areas with the y-Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.6 Area with Parametric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.7 Bernhard Riemann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.7.1 Domains and Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.7.2 The Riemann Sum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9 Arc Length and Parameterisation of Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.2 Lagrange’s Mean-Value Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.3 Arc Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
9.3.1 Arc Length of a Straight Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
9.3.2 Arc Length of a Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
9.3.3 Arc Length of a Parabola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
3
9.3.4 Arc Length of y = x 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
9.3.5 Arc Length of a Sine Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
9.3.6 Arc Length of a Hyperbolic Cosine Function . . . . . . . . . 163
9.3.7 Arc Length of Parametric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
9.3.8 Arc Length of a Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
9.3.9 Arc Length of an Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
9.3.10 Arc Length of a Helix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
9.3.11 Arc Length of a 2D Quadratic Bézier Curve . . . . . . . . . . 168
9.3.12 Arc Length of a 3D Quadratic Bézier Curve . . . . . . . . . . 170
9.3.13 Arc Length Parameterisation of a 3D Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9.3.14 Arc Length Parameterisation of a Helix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
9.3.15 Positioning Points on a Straight Line Using
a Square Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
9.3.16 Positioning Points on a Helix Curve Using
a Square Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
9.3.17 Arc Length Using Polar Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
9.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9.4.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9.5 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.5.1 Arc Length of a Straight Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.5.2 Arc Length of a Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
3
9.5.3 Arc Length of y = 2x 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
9.5.4 Arc Length of a Helix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Contents xv

10 Surface Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
10.2 Surface of Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
10.2.1 Surface Area of a Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
10.2.2 Surface Area of a Right Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
10.2.3 Surface Area of a Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
10.2.4 Surface Area of a Paraboloid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
10.3 Surface Area Using Parametric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
10.4 Double Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
10.5 Jacobians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10.5.1 1D Jacobian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
10.5.2 2D Jacobian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
10.5.3 3D Jacobian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
10.6 Double Integrals for Calculating Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
10.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
10.7.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
10.8 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
10.8.1 Surface Area of a Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
10.8.2 Surface Area Swept Out by a Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
10.8.3 Double Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
10.8.4 Area Using Double Integral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
11 Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11.2 Solid of Revolution: Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11.2.1 Volume of a Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
11.2.2 Volume of a Right Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
11.2.3 Volume of a Right Conical Frustum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
11.2.4 Volume of a Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.2.5 Volume of an Ellipsoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.2.6 Volume of a Paraboloid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
11.3 Solid of Revolution: Shells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
11.3.1 Volume of a Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
11.3.2 Volume of a Right Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
11.3.3 Volume of a Hemisphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
11.3.4 Volume of a Paraboloid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
11.4 Volumes with Double Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
11.4.1 Objects with a Rectangular Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
11.4.2 Rectangular Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
11.4.3 Rectangular Prism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
11.4.4 Curved Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
11.4.5 Objects with a Circular Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
11.4.6 Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
11.4.7 Truncated Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
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11.5 Volumes with Triple Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

11.5.1 Rectangular Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
11.5.2 Volume of a Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
11.5.3 Volume of a Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
11.5.4 Volume of a Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
11.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
11.6.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
11.7 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
11.7.1 Volume of a Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
11.7.2 Volume of a Right Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
11.7.3 Quadratic Rectangular Prism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
11.7.4 Curved Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
11.7.5 Cylinder with a Curved Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
12 Vector-Valued Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
12.2 Differentiating Vector Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
12.2.1 Velocity and Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
12.2.2 Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
12.2.3 Rules for Differentiating Vector-Valued Functions . . . . . 252
12.3 Integrating Vector-Valued Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
12.3.1 Distance Fallen by an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
12.3.2 Position of a Moving Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
12.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
12.4.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
12.5 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
12.5.1 Differentiating a Position Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
12.5.2 Speed of an Object at Different Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
12.5.3 Velocity and Acceleration of an Object
at Different Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
12.5.4 Distance Fallen by an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
12.5.5 Position of a Moving Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
13 Vector Differential Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
13.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
13.2 Scalar Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
13.3 Vector Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
13.4 The Gradient of a Scalar Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
13.4.1 Gradient of a Scalar Field in R2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
13.4.2 Gradient of a Scalar Field in R3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.4.3 Surface Normal Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.5 The Divergence of a Vector Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13.6 Curl of a Vector Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
13.7.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
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13.8 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

13.8.1 Gradient of a Scalar Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.8.2 Normal Vector to an Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.8.3 Divergence of a Vector Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.8.4 Curl of a Vector Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
14 Tangent and Normal Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
14.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
14.2 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
14.3 Tangent Vector to a Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
14.4 Normal Vector to a Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
14.4.1 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Line . . . . . . . . . . . 290
14.4.2 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Parabola . . . . . . . 292
14.4.3 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Circle . . . . . . . . . . 294
14.4.4 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to an Ellipse . . . . . . . . 296
14.4.5 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Sine Curve . . . . . 298
14.4.6 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Cosh Curve . . . . . 300
14.4.7 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Helix . . . . . . . . . . 302
14.4.8 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Quadratic
Bézier Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
14.5 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
14.5.1 Unit Normal Vectors to a Bilinear Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
14.5.2 Unit Normal Vectors to a Quadratic Bézier Patch . . . . . . 307
14.5.3 Unit Tangent and Normal Vector to a Sphere . . . . . . . . . . 310
14.5.4 Unit Tangent and Normal Vectors to a Torus . . . . . . . . . . 312
14.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
14.6.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
15 Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2 B-Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.1 Uniform B-Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.2 B-Spline Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
15.3 Derivatives of a Bézier Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
16 Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
16.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
16.2 Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
16.2.1 Curvature of a Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
16.2.2 Curvature of a Helix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
16.2.3 Curvature of a Parabola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
16.2.4 Parametric Plane Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
16.2.5 Curvature of a Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
16.2.6 Curvature of a 2D Quadratic Bézier Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
16.2.7 Curvature of a 2D Cubic Bézier Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
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16.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

16.3.1 Summary of Formulae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
16.4 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
16.4.1 Curvature of a Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
16.4.2 Curvature of a Helix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
17 Solving Differential Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
17.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
17.2 What Is a Differential Equation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
17.3 Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
17.3.1 Order and Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
17.3.2 General Solution to a Differential Equation . . . . . . . . . . . 345
17.4 Solving First-Order Ordinary Differential Equations . . . . . . . . . . . 346
17.4.1 Separation of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
17.4.2 Substitution of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
17.4.3 Integrating Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
17.5 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
17.5.1 Growth Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
17.5.2 Compound Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
17.5.3 Radiocarbon Dating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
17.6 Worked Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
17.6.1 Direct Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
17.6.2 Separation of Variables 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
17.6.3 Separation of Variables 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
17.6.4 Substitution of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
17.6.5 Integrating Factor 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
17.6.6 Integrating Factor 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
17.6.7 Compound Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
17.6.8 Radiocarbon Dating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
18 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Appendix A: Limit of (sin θ )/θ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Appendix B: Integrating cosn θ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Chapter 1
Introduction

1.1 What Is Calculus?

What is calculus? Well this is an easy question to answer. Basically, calculus has
two parts: differential and integral. Differential calculus is used for computing a
function’s rate of change relative to one of its arguments. Generally, one begins with
a function such as f (x), and as x changes, a corresponding change occurs in f (x).
Differentiating f (x) with respect to x, produces a second function f  (x), which gives
the rate of change of f (x) for any x. For example, and without explaining why, if
f (x) = x 2 , then f  (x) = 2x, and when x = 3, f (x) is changing 2 × 3 = 6 times
faster than x. Which is rather neat!
In practice, one also writes y = x 2 , or even y = f (x), which means that differ-
entiating is expressed in a variety of ways

dy d d
f  (x), , f (x), y
dx dx dx

thus for y = f (x) = x 2 , we can write

dy d d
f  (x) = 2x, = 2x, f (x) = 2x, y = 2x.
dx dx dx

Integral calculus reverses the operation, where integrating f  (x), produces f (x),
or something similar. But surely, calculus can’t be as easy as this, you’re asking
yourself? Well, there are some problems, which is what this book is about. To begin
with, not all functions are easily differentiated, as they may contain hidden infinities
and discontinuities. Some functions are expressed as products or quotients, and many
functions possess more than one argument. All these, and other conditions, must be
addressed. Furthermore, integrating a function produces some useful benefits, such
as calculating the area under a graph, the length of curves, and the surface area and
volume of objects. But more of this later.

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2 1 Introduction

But why should we be interested in rates of change? Well, say we have a function
that specifies the changing velocity of an object over time, then differentiating the
function gives the rate of change of the function over time, which is the object’s
acceleration. And knowing the object’s mass and acceleration, we can compute the
force responsible for the object’s acceleration. There are many more reasons for
having an interest in rates of change, which will emerge in the following chapters.

1.2 Where Is Calculus Used in Computer Graphics?

If you are lucky, you may work in computer graphics without having to use calculus,
but some people have no choice but to understand it, and use it in their work. For
example, we often join together curved lines and surfaces. Figure 1.1 shows two
abutting curves, where the join is clearly visible. This is because the slope information
at the end of the first curve, does not match the slope information at the start of the
second curve. By expressing the curves as functions, differentiating them gives their
slopes at any point in the form of two other functions. These slope functions can also
be differentiated, and by ensuring that the original curves possess the same derivatives
at the join, a seamless join is created. The same process is used for abutting two or
more surface patches.
Calculus finds its way into other aspects of computer graphics such as digital
differential analysers (DDAs) for drawing lines and curves, interpolation, curvature,
arc-length parametrisation, fluid animation, rendering, animation, modelling, etc. In
later chapters I will show how calculus permits us to calculate surface normals to
curves and surfaces, and the curvature of different curves.

Fig. 1.1 Two abutting

curves without matching
slopes
1.4 Who Invented Calculus? 3

1.3 Who Else Should Read This Book?

Who else should read this book? I would say that almost anyone could read this book.
Basically, calculus is needed by mathematicians, scientists, physicists, engineers,
etc., and this book is just an introduction to the subject, with a bias towards computer
graphics.

1.4 Who Invented Calculus?

More than three-hundred years have passed since the English astronomer, physicist
and mathematician Isaac Newton (1643–1727) and the German mathematician Got-
tfried Leibniz (1646–1716) published their treaties describing calculus. So called
‘infinitesimals’ played a pivotal role in early calculus to determine tangents, area and
volume. Incorporating incredibly small quantities (infinitesimals) into a numerical
solution, means that products involving them can be ignored, whilst quotients could
be retained. The final solution takes the form of a ratio representing the change of a
function’s value, relative to a change in its independent variable.
Although infinitesimal quantities have helped mathematicians for more than two-
thousand years solve all sorts of problems, they were not widely accepted as a rig-
orous mathematical tool. In the latter part of the 19th century, they were replaced
by incremental changes that tend towards zero to form a limit identifying some
desired result. This was mainly due to the work of the German mathematician Karl
Weierstrass (1815–1897), and the French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy
(1789–1857).
In spite of the basic ideas of calculus being relatively easy to understand, it has
a reputation for being difficult and intimidating. I believe that the problem lies in
the breadth and depth of calculus, in that it can be applied across a wide range
of disciplines, from electronics to cosmology, where the notation often becomes
extremely abstract with multiple integrals, multi-dimensional vector spaces and
matrices formed from partial differential operators. In this book I introduce the reader
to those elements of calculus that are both easy to understand and relevant to solving
various mathematical problems found in computer graphics.
On the one hand, perhaps you have studied calculus at some time, and have not
had the opportunity to use it regularly and become familiar with its ways, tricks and
analytical techniques. In which case, this book could awaken some distant memory
and reveal a subject with which you were once familiar. On the other hand, this might
be your first journey into the world of functions, limits, differentials and integrals—in
which case, you should find the journey exciting!
Chapter 2
Functions

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter the notion of a function is introduced as a tool for generating one
numerical quantity from another. In particular, we look at equations, their variables
and any possible sensitive conditions. This leads toward the idea of how fast a function
changes relative to its independent variable. The second part of the chapter introduces
two major operations of calculus: differentiating, and its inverse, integrating. This is
performed without any rigorous mathematical underpinning, and permits the reader
to develop an understanding of calculus without using limits.

2.2 Expressions, Variables, Constants and Equations

One of the first things we learn in mathematics is the construction of expressions, such
as 2(x + 5) − 2, using variables, constants and arithmetic operators. The next step
is to develop an equation, which is a mathematical statement, in symbols, declaring
that two things are exactly the same (or equivalent). For example, (2.1) is the equation
representing the surface area of a sphere

S = 4πr 2 (2.1)

where S and r are variables. They are variables because they take on different values,
depending on the size of the sphere. S depends upon the changing value of r , and to
distinguish between the two, S is called the dependent variable, and r the independent
variable. Similarly, (2.2) is the equation for the volume of a torus

V = 2π 2 r 2 R (2.2)

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Exploring the Variety of Random
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taken from them. Fathers and mothers, thus robbed of their
children, in poverty and heart-broken, were driven into exile. "Old
men of eighty or ninety years were seen gathering up the last
remains of their life to undertake distant journeys, and more than
one died before reaching the asylum where he was to rest his weary
foot and drooping head."[12]
The court became alarmed by the magnitude of emigration. Guards
were posted at the gates of towns, at the fords of rivers, on the
bridges, on the highways, and at all points of departure upon the
frontiers. Still the fugitives, hiding in caverns by day and traveling by
night through by-paths, in great numbers eluded their foes. Every
conceivable disguise was adopted, as of shepherds, pilgrims,
hunters, valets, merchants. Women of rank—for there were not a
few such among the Protestants, who had been accustomed to all
the delicacies and indulgences of life—traveled on foot, exposed to
hunger and storms, two or three hundred miles. Girls of sixteen, of
all ranks in life, incurred the same hardships and perils. They
disfigured their faces, wore coarse and ragged garments, and
trundled wheel-barrows filled with manure, or carried heavy
burdens, to elude suspicion. Some assumed the disguise of men or
boys and took the office of servants; others feigned insanity or to be
deaf and dumb. In these ways large numbers escaped to Rotterdam.
[13]

Those near the sea-shore concealed themselves in ships among

bales of merchandise, and in hogsheads stowed away among the
freight. There were children who passed whole weeks in such lurking
places without uttering a cry. Some desperately pushed out to sea in
open boats, trusting to winds and waves to bear them to a place of
safety. Thousands perished of cold, exposure, and starvation.
Thousands were seized, loaded with chains, and dragged through
the realm in derision and contempt, and were then condemned to
pass the remainder of their days as galley-slaves. The galleys of
Marseilles were crowded with these victims, among whom were
many of the noblest men who have ever dwelt on earth. The prisons
were crowded with women arrested in their flight and doomed to
life-long captivity.
It is estimated that five hundred thousand found a refuge in foreign
lands. Thirteen hundred passed through the city of Geneva in one
week. England formed eleven regiments out of the refugees. One of
the faubourgs of London was entirely peopled by these exiles. M. de
Sismondi estimates that as many perished in the attempt to escape
as escaped. A hundred thousand in the Province of Languedoc died
prematurely, and of these ten thousand perished by fire, the
gallows, or the wheel.[14] We can not but sympathize with the
indignation of Michelet as he exclaims:
"Let the Revolutionary Reign of Terror beware of comparing herself
with the Inquisition. Let her never boast of having, in her two or
three years, paid back to the old system what it did for us for six
hundred years! The Inquisition would have good cause to laugh.
What are the twelve thousand men guillotined of the one, to the
millions of men butchered, hung, broken on the wheel—to that
pyramid of burning stakes—to those masses of burnt flesh which the
other piled up to heaven. The single inquisition of one of the
provinces of Spain states, in an authentic monument, that in sixteen
years it burned twenty thousand men!
"History will inform us that in her most ferocious and implacable
moments the Revolution trembled at the thought of aggravating
death, that she shortened the sufferings of victims, removed the
hand of man, and invented a machine to abridge the pangs of
death.
"And it will also inform us that the Church of the Middle Ages
exhausted itself in inventions to augment suffering, to render it
poignant, intense; that she found out exquisite arts of torture,
ingenious means to contrive that, without dying, one might long
taste of death; and that, being stopped in that path by inflexible
Nature, who, at a certain degree of pain, mercifully grants death,
she wept at not being able to make man suffer longer."[15]
Louis XIV. died in 1715. He did not allow any assembly of the states
to be convened during his reign. Every body began to manifest
discontent. The nobility were humbled and degraded, and hungered
for more power. The people had become very restive. The humbler
class of the clergy, sincere Christians and true friends of their
parishioners, prayed earnestly for reform. The Jesuits alone united
with the monarch and his mistresses to maintain despotic sway. The
court was utterly corrupt; the king a shameless profligate. Every
thing was bartered for money. Justice was unknown. The court
reveled in boundless luxury, while the mass of the people were in a
state almost of starvation. The burden had become intolerable.
The monarchy of France attained its zenith during the reign of Louis
XIV. Immense standing armies overawed Europe and prevented
revolt at home. Literature and art flourished, for the king was
ambitious to embellish his reign with the works of men of genius.
Great freedom of opinion and of utterance was allowed, for neither
king nor courtiers appear to have had any more fear of a rising of
the peasants than they had of a revolt of the sheep. Vast works
were constructed, which the poor and the starving alone paid for.
Still there were not a few who perceived that the hour of vengeance
was at hand. One of the magistrates of Louis XIV. remarked, "The
conflict is soon to arrive between those who pay and those whose
only function is to receive." The Duke of Orleans, who was regent
after the death of Louis XIV., said, "If I were a subject I would most
certainly revolt. The people are good-natured fools to suffer so
long."
Louis XIV. left the throne to his great-grandchild, a boy five years of
age. The populace followed the hearse of the departed monarch
with insults and derisive shouts to the tomb. The hoary despot, upon
a dying bed, manifested some compunctions of conscience. He left
to his successor the words:
"I have, against my inclination, imposed great burdens on my
subjects; but have been compelled to do it by the long wars which I
have been obliged to maintain. Love peace, and undertake no war,
except when the good of the state and the welfare of your people
render it necessary."
These words were not heeded, until the people were, in their terrible
might, inspired by fury and despair.
There is nothing more mournful to contemplate than the last days of
Louis XIV. He was the victim of insupportable melancholy, dreading
death almost with terror. His children and his grandchildren were
nearly all dead. The people were crushed by burdens which they
could no longer support. The treasury was in debt over eight
hundred millions of dollars. Commerce was destroyed, industry
paralyzed, and the country uncultivated and in many places almost
depopulated. The armies of France had been conquered and
humiliated; a disastrous war was threatening the realm, and the king
from his dying bed could hear the execrations of the people, rising
portentously around his throne.

FOOTNOTES:
[8] Histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et des principaux
Evenements du Regne de Louis XIV. Par M. le Duc de Noilles,
Paris, 1848.
[9] "Madame de Maintenon," writes St. Simon, "had men, affairs,
justice, religion, all, without exception, in her hands, and the king
and the state her victims."
[10] Under these circumstances the Protestants sent the following
touching petition: "It being impossible for us to live without the
exercise of our religion, we are compelled, in spite of ourselves,
to supplicate your majesty, with the most profound humility and
respect, that you may be pleased to allow us to leave the
kingdom, with our wives, our children, and our effects, to settle in
foreign countries, where we can freely render to God the worship
which we believe indispensable, and on which depends our
happiness or our misery for eternity." This petition met only the
response of aggravated severities.—Hist. of the Protestants of
France, by G. de Félice, p. 486.
[11] History of the Protestants of France, by G. de Félice, p. 405.
 [12] History of the Protestants of France, by G. de Félice, p. 408.
[13] Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes, par Elias Benoît, tome v., p. 953.
[14] Boulainvilliers.
[15] "It is painful to detect continually the hand of the clergy in
these scenes of violence, spoliation, and death. The venerable
Malesherbes, the Baron de Breteuil, Rulhières, Joly de Fleury,
Gilbert de Voisins, Rippert de Monclus, the highest statesmen, the
most eminent magistrates, who have written upon the religious
affairs of this period, utter but one voice on it. They agree in
signalizing the influence of the priests, an influence as obstinate
as incessant, sometimes haughty, sometimes supple and humble,
but always supplicating the last means of restraint and severity
for the re-establishment of religious unity."—History of the
Protestants of France, by G. de Félice, p. 487.

CHAPTER III.
THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV.

State of France.—The Regency.—Financial Embarrassment.—

Crimes of the Rulers.—Recoining the Currency.—Renewed
Persecution of the Protestants.—Bishop Dubois.—Philosophy of
Voltaire.—Anecdote of Franklin.—The King's Favorites.—
Mademoiselle Poisson.—Her Ascendency.—Parc aux Cerfs.—
Illustrative Anecdote.—Letter to the King.—Testimony of
Chesterfield.—Anecdote of La Fayette.—Death of Pompadour.—
Mademoiselle Lange.—Power of Du Barry.—Death of Louis XV.

THE reign of Louis XIV. was that of an Oriental monarch. His

authority was unlimited and unquestioned. The people had two
powerful foes, the king and the nobles. The nobles, as the most
numerous, were the most dreaded. The people consequently looked
to the kings to protect them against the nobles, as sheep will look to
their natural enemy, the dogs, to defend them from their still worse
enemies, the wolves. The king had now obtained a perfect triumph
over the nobles, and had gathered all the political power into his
own hands. He had accomplished this by bribery, as well as by force.
The acquiescence of the nobles in his supremacy was purchased by
his conferring upon them all the offices of honor and emolument, by
exempting them from all taxes, and by supporting them in
indolence, luxury, and vice, from the toil of the crushed and starving
masses. There were now in the nation two classes, and two only,
with an impassable gulf between them. On the one side were eighty
thousand aristocratic families living in idleness and luxury; on the
other were twenty-four millions of people, who, as a mass, were
kept in the lowest poverty, maintaining by their toil the haughty
nobles, from whom they received only outrage and contempt.
Louis XIV. just before his death drew up an edict appointing a
council of regency during the minority of his great-grandson, the
young king. The Parliament of Paris, however, declared the will null,
and appointed the Duke of Orleans, who was considered favorable to
the nobles, regent! For eight years, from 1715 to 1723, the regent,
by shameless profligacy and extravagance, was but filling up the
measure of wrath which had been accumulating for ages. Nothing
was done to promote the welfare of the people, and,
notwithstanding the misery which was actually depopulating the
provinces, the gorgeous palaces of France exhibited scenes of
voluptuousness which the wealth of the Orient had never paralleled.
Louis XIV. had expended upon the single palace of Versailles more
than two hundred millions of dollars. The roofs of that vast pile
would cover a surface of twenty-five French acres. Thirty thousand
laborers were frequently employed simultaneously in embellishing
the magnificent park sixty miles in circuit.[16] Marly, with its
fountains, its parks, and gardens, had also been constructed with
equal extravagance. Both of these palaces exhibited scenes of
measureless profligacy gilded by the highest fascinations of external
refinement and elegance. Louis XIV. left the nation in debt eight
hundred and fifty millions of dollars. For several years the
expenditure had exceeded the income by nearly thirty millions of
dollars a year. The regent during the seven years of his profligate
administration had added to this debt a hundred and fifty millions of
dollars.
There was now fearful embarrassment in the finances. All the
measures for extorting money seemed to be exhausted, and it was
found impossible to raise the sums necessary to meet the expenses
of the court and to pay the interest upon the debt. Taxation had
gone to its last extremity; and no more money could be borrowed.
The Duke of St. Simon proposed that the treasury should declare
itself bankrupt.
"The loss," said he, "will fall upon the commercial and moneyed
classes, whom no one fears or pities. The measure," he continued,
"will also be a salutary rebuke to the ignoble classes, teaching them
to beware how they lend money to the king which will enable him to
gain the supremacy over the nobles."
The Duke of Orleans, who was regent only, not king, could
sympathize in these views. The general discontent, however, was
such, that he did not dare to resort to so violent a measure. The end
was accomplished in a more circuitous way. A commission of
courtiers was appointed to examine the accounts of the public
creditors. Three hundred and fifty millions of francs ($76,000,000)
were peremptorily struck from their claims. There was no appeal.
This mode of paying debts seemed so successful that the
commission established itself as an inquisitorial chamber, and
summoned before it all those who had been guilty of lending money
to the king. Most of these were thrown into prison, and threatened
with death unless they purchased pardon for the crime with large
sums of money. The regent and the nobles made themselves merry
with the woes of these low-born men of wealth, and filled their
purses by selling their protection.
A wealthy financier was perishing in one of the dungeons of the
Bastille. A count visited him and offered to procure his release for
sixty thousand dollars. "I thank you, Monsieur le Comte," was the
reply, "but Madame, your countess, has just been here, and has
promised me my liberty for half that sum."
The reign of the regent Duke of Orleans was the reign of the nobles,
and they fell eagerly upon the people, whom Louis XIV. had
sheltered from their avarice that more plunder might be left for him.
The currency was called in and recoined, one fifth being cut from the
value of each piece. By this expedient the court gained nearly fifteen
millions of dollars.
Soon this money was all gone. The horizon was darkening and the
approaching storm gathering blackness. Among the nobles there
were some who abhorred these outrages. A party was organized in
Paris opposed to the regent. They sent in a petition that the States-
General might be assembled to deliberate upon the affairs of the
realm. All who signed this petition were sent to the Bastille. There
had been no meeting of the States-General called for more than one
hundred years. The last had been held in 1614. It consisted of 104
deputies of the clergy, 132 of the nobles, and 192 of the people. The
three estates had met separately and chosen their representatives.
But the representatives of the people in this assembly displayed so
much spirit that the convention was abruptly dismissed by the king,
and neither king nor nobles were willing to give them a hearing
again.
A bank was now established with a nominal capital of six millions of
francs ($1,200,000). The shares were taken up by paying half in
money and half in valueless government bills. Thus the real capital
of the bank was $600,000. Upon this capital bills were issued to the
amount of three thousand millions of francs ($600,000,000). Money
was of course for a time plenty enough. The bubble soon burst. This
operation vastly increased the financial ruin in which the nation was
involved. Five hundred thousand citizens were plunged into
bankruptcy.[17] The Parliament of Paris, though composed of the
privileged class, made a little show of resistance to such outrages
and was banished summarily to Pontoise.
Dubois, one of the most infamous men who ever disgraced even a
court, a tool of the regent, and yet thoroughly despised by him, had
the audacity one morning to ask for the vacant archbishopric of
Cambray. Dubois was not even a priest, and the demand seemed so
ridiculous as well as impudent that the regent burst into a laugh,
exclaiming,
"Should I bestow the archbishopric on such a knave as thou art,
where should I find a prelate scoundrel enough to consecrate thee?"
"I have one here," said Dubois, pointing to a Jesuit prelate who was
ready to perform the sacrilegious deed. Dubois had promised Rohan
that if he would consecrate him he would bring back the favor of the
court to the Jesuit party. One of the mistresses of the regent had
been won over by Dubois, and the bloated debauchee was
consecrated as Archbishop of Cambray. Dubois was now in the line
of preferment. He soon laid aside his mitre for a cardinal's hat, and
in 1722 was appointed prime minister. The darkness of the Middle
Ages had passed away, and these scandals were perpetrated in the
full light of the 18th century. The people looked on with murmurs of
contempt and indignation. It was too much to ask, to demand
reverence for such a church.[18]
The infamous Jesuit, Lavergne de Tressan, Bishop of Nantes, who
consecrated Dubois, revived from their slumber the most severe
ordinances of Louis XIV. Louis XV. was then fourteen years of age.
Royal edicts were issued, sentencing to the galleys for life any man
and to imprisonment for life any woman who should attend other
worship than the Catholic. Preachers of Protestantism were doomed
to death; and any person who harbored such a preacher, or who
should neglect to denounce him, was consigned to the galleys or the
dungeon. All children were to be baptized within twenty-four hours
of their birth by the curate of the parish, and were to be placed
under Catholic instructors until the age of fourteen. Certificates of
Catholicity were essential for all offices, all academical degrees, all
admissions into corporations of trade. This horrible outrage upon
human rights was received by the clergy with transport. When we
contemplate the seed which the king and the court thus planted, we
can not wonder at the revolutionary harvest which was reaped.
The Catholic Church thus became utterly loathsome even to the
most devout Christians. They preferred the philosophy of
Montesquieu, the atheism of Diderot, the unbelief of Voltaire, the
sentimentalism of Rousseau, to this merciless and bloody demon,
assuming the name of the Catholic Church, and swaying a sceptre of
despotism which was deluging France in blood and woe. The sword
of persecution which had for a time been reposing in its scabbard
was again drawn and bathed in blood. Many Protestant ministers
were broken upon the wheel and then beheaded. Persecution
assumed every form of insult and cruelty. Thousands fled from the
realm. Religious assemblies were surrounded by dragoons, and fired
upon with the ferocity of savages, killing and maiming
indiscriminately men, women, and children. Enormous sums of
money were, by the lash, torture, the dungeon, and confiscation,
extorted from the Protestants. Noblemen, lawyers, physicians, and
rich merchants were most eagerly sought.
The seizure of Protestant children was attended with nameless
outrages. Soldiers, sword in hand, headed by the priests, broke into
the houses, overturned every thing in their search, committed brutal
violence upon the parents, and, reckless of their lamentations and
despair, seized the terrified children, especially the young girls, and
forced them into the convents.
Fanaticism so cruel was revolting to the intelligence and to the
general conscience of the age. Maddened priests could easily goad
on a brutal and exasperated populace to any deeds of inhumanity,
but intelligent men of all parties condemned such intolerance. It is,
however, worthy of note that few of the philosophers of that day
ventured to plead for religious toleration. They generally hated
Christianity in all its forms, and were not at all disposed to shield one
sect from the persecutions of another. Voltaire, however, was an
exception. He had spent a year and a half in the Bastille on the
charge of having written a libel against the government, which libel
he did not write. When it was proved to the court that he did not
write the libel he was liberated from prison and banished from
France. Several years after this, Voltaire, having returned to France,
offended a nobleman, the Chevalier de Rohan. The chevalier
disdainfully sent his servant to chastise the poet. Voltaire, enraged
by the degradation, sent a challenge to De Rohan. For the crime of
challenging a noble he was again thrown into the Bastille. After six
months he was released and again exiled. Soon after his Lettres
Philosophiques were condemned by the Parliament to be burned,
and an order was issued for his arrest. For many years he was
compelled to live in concealment. He thus learned how to
sympathize with the persecuted. In his masterly treatise upon
toleration, and in his noble appeals for the family of the murdered
Protestant, Jean Calas, he spoke in clarion tones which thrilled upon
the ear of France. When Franklin in Paris called upon Voltaire, with
his grandson, he said, "My son, fall upon your knees before this
great man." The aged poet, then over eighty years of age, gave the
boy his blessing, with the characteristic words, "God and freedom."
The philosophy of Voltaire overturned the most despicable of
despotisms. His want of religion established another despotism
equally intolerable.
The miserable regent died in a fit in the apartment of his mistress in
1723. The young king was now fourteen years of age. He was a
bashful boy, with no thought but for his own indulgence. When a
child he was one day looking from the windows of the Tuileries into
the garden, which was filled with a crowd.
"Look there, my king," said Villeroi, his tutor; "all these people
belong to you. All that you see is your property; you are lord and
master of it."
Louis XV. carried these principles into vigorous practice during his
long reign of fifty-nine years. When fifteen years of age he married
Maria, daughter of Stanislaus, the exiled King of Poland. Maria was
not beautiful, but through a life of neglect and anguish she
developed a character of remarkable loveliness and of true piety.
There is but little to record of France during these inglorious years
which is worthy of the name of history. The pen can only narrate a
shameful tale of puerility, sin, and oppression. Weary and languid
with worn-out excitements, the king at one time took a sudden freak
for worsted-work, and the whole court was thrown into commotion
as imitative nobles and ecclesiastics were busy in the saloons of
Versailles with wool, needles, and canvas.
The king at one of his private suppers noticed a lady, Madame de
Mailly, whose vivacity attracted him. Simply to torture the queen he
took her for his favorite, and received her into the apartment from
which he excluded his meek and virtuous wife. Maria could only
weep and look to God for solace. Madame de Mailly had a sister, a
bold, spirited girl, Mademoiselle de Nesle. She came to visit the
court, and after vigorous efforts succeeded in supplanting her sister,
and took her degrading place. She was suddenly cut off in her sins
by death; but there was another sister of the same notorious family,
Madame Tournelle, who endeavored to solace the king by throwing
herself into his arms. The king received her, and she became his
acknowledged favorite, and for some time maintained the position of
sultana of the royal harem. Wherever she went a suite of court-
ladies followed in her train. All were compelled to pay homage to the
reigning favorite of the day, for all power was in her hands, and she
was the dispenser of rewards and punishments. The king conferred
upon this guilty woman, who was as cruel as she was guilty, the title
of Duchess of Chateauroux. Madame de Tencin, one of the ladies of
the court, in a confidential letter to Richelieu, written at this time,
says:
"What happens in his kingdom seems to be no business of the
king's. It is even said that he avoids taking any cognizance of what
occurs, averring that it is better to know nothing than to learn
unpleasant tidings. Unless God visibly interferes, it is physically
impossible that the state should not fall to pieces."
Even Madame Chateauroux, herself one of the most corrupt
members of that court of unparalleled corruption, remarked to a
friend,
"I could not have believed all that I now see. If no remedy is
administered to this state of things, there will, sooner or later, be a
great overthrow."[19]
Though the Duchess of Chateauroux was the reigning favorite, she
had another younger sister who was a member of the royal harem.
The princess of the blood, Mademoiselle Valois, and the Princess of
Conti were also in this infamous train. These revolting facts must be
stated, for they are essential to the understanding of the French
Revolution. Up to this time the king, of whom the people knew but
little, was regarded with affection. They looked upon him as the only
barrier to protect them from the nobles. Soon after this Madame
Chateauroux was taken sick and died in remorse, crying bitterly for
mercy, and promising, if her life could be spared, amendment and
penance. She was so detested by the people that an armed escort
conducted her remains to the grave to shield them from popular
violence.
The king, for a time, was quite chagrined by the death of this
woman, who had obtained a great control over him. While profligacy
and boundless extravagance were thus rioting in the palace,
bankruptcy was ruining merchants and artisans, and misery reigned
in the huts of the peasants.
A citizen of Paris by the name of Poisson had a daughter of
marvelous grace and beauty. Mademoiselle Poisson married a
wealthy financier, M. Etoilles. She then, conscious of her beauty and
of her unrivaled powers of fascination, formed the bold and guilty
resolve to throw herself into the arms of the king. When the king
was hunting in the forest of Senart she placed herself in his path, as
if by accident, in an open barouche, dressed in a manner to shed the
utmost possible lustre upon her charms. The voluptuous king fixed
his eye upon her and soon sent for her to come to the palace of
Versailles. The royal mandate was eagerly obeyed. She immediately
engrossed the favor of the king, was established in the palace, and
henceforth became the great power before which all France was
constrained to bow. Her disconsolate husband, who had loved her
passionately, entreated her to return to him, promising to forgive
every thing. Scornfully she refused to turn her back upon the
splendors of Versailles. Receiving from the king as the badge of her
degradation the title of Marchioness of Pompadour, Jeannette
Poisson was enthroned as the real monarch of France. She was a
woman of vast versatility of talent, brilliant in conversation, and
possessed unrivaled powers of fascination. For twenty years she held
the king in perfect subjection to her sway. She never for one
moment lost sight of her endeavor to please and to govern the
monarch. "Sometimes she appeared before him clad as a peasant-
girl, assuming all the simplicity and rustic grace of this character. She
took with equal ease the appearance of a languishing Venus or the
proud beauty of a Diana. To these disguises often succeeded the
modest garb of a nun, when, with affected humility and downcast
eyes, she came to meet the king."
Her power soon became unlimited and invincible, for her heart was
of iron, and even her feminine hand could wield all the terrors of
court banishment, confiscation, exile, and the Bastille. It is said that
a witticism of Frederic II. of Prussia, at her expense, plunged France
into all the horrors of the Seven Years' War. The most high-born
ladies in the land were her waiting-women. Her steward was a
knight of the order of St. Louis. When she rode out in her sedan-
chair, the Chevalier d'Hénin, a member of one of the noblest families
of the kingdom, walked respectfully by her side, with her cloak upon
his arm, ready to spread it over her shoulder whenever she should
alight.
She summoned embassadors before her, and addressed them with
the regal we, assuming the style of royalty. She appointed bishops
and generals, and filled all the important offices of Church and State
with those who would do her homage. She dismissed ministers and
created cardinals, declared war and made peace. Voltaire paid court
to her, and devoted his muse to the celebration of her beauty and
her talents. Montesquieu, Diderot, and Quesnay waited in her
antechamber, imploring her patronage. Those authors who pleased
her she pensioned and honored; those who did not were left in
poverty and neglect. Even the imperial Maria Theresa, seeking the
alliance of France, wrote to her with her own hand, addressing her
as her "dear friend and cousin." "Not only," said Madame de
Pompadour one day to the Abbé de Bernis, "not only have I all the
nobility at my feet, but even my lap-dog is weary of their fawnings."
Rousseau, strong in the idolatry of the nation, refused to join the
worshipers at the shrine of Pompadour. She dared not send him to
the Bastille, but vexatiously exclaimed "I will have nothing more to
do with that owl."
As Madame de Pompadour found her charms waning, she
maintained her place by ministering to the king's appetites in the
establishment of the most infamous institution ever tolerated in a
civilized land. Lacretelle, in his History of France, thus describes this
abomination:
"Louis XV., satiated with the conquests which the court offered him,
was led by a depraved imagination to form an establishment for his
pleasures of such an infamous description that, after having depicted
the debaucheries of the regency, it is difficult to find terms
appropriate to an excess of this kind. Several elegant houses, built in
an inclosure called the Parc aux Cerfs, near Versailles, were used for
the reception of beautiful female children, who there awaited the
pleasure of their master. Hither were brought young girls, sold by
their parents, and sometimes forced from them. It was skillfully and
patiently fostered by those who ministered to the profligacy of Louis;
whole years were occupied in the debauchery of girls not yet in a
marriageable age, and in undermining the principles of modesty and
fidelity in young women."
When some one spoke to Madame de Pompadour of this
establishment, she replied,
"It is the king's heart that I wish to possess, and none of these little
uneducated girls will deprive me of that."
If the king in his rides chanced to see a pretty child who gave
promise of unusual beauty, he sent his servants to take her from her
parents to be trained in his harem. The parents had their choice to
submit quietly at home, or to submit in the dungeons of the Bastille.
One incident, related by Soulavie, in his "Anecdotes of the Reign of
Louis XV.," illustrates the mode of operation:
"Among the young ladies of very tender age with whom the king
amused himself during the influence of Madame de Pompadour or
afterward, there was also a Mademoiselle Treicelin, whom his
majesty ordered to take the name of Bonneval the very day she was
presented to him. The king was the first who perceived this child,
when not above nine years old, in the care of a nurse, in the garden
of the Tuileries, one day when he went in state to his good city of
Paris; and having in the evening spoken of her beauty to Le Bel, the
servant applied to M. de Sartine, who traced her out and bought her
of the nurse for a few louis. She was the daughter of M. de Treicelin,
a man of quality, who could not patiently endure an affront of this
nature. He was, however, compelled to be silent; he was told his
child was lost, and that it would be best for him to submit to the
sacrifice unless he wished to lose his liberty also."
The expense of the Parc aux Cerfs alone, according to Lacretelle,
amounted to 100,000,000 francs—$25,000,000.
These were not deeds of darkness. They were open as the day.
France, though bound hand and foot, saw them, and exasperation
was advancing to fury. An anonymous letter was sent to Louis,
depicting very vividly the ruinous state of affairs and announcing the
inevitable shock. Madame de Hausset, in her memoirs, gives the
following synopsis of this letter:
"Your finances are in the greatest disorder, and the great majority of
states have perished through this cause. Your ministers are without
capacity. Open war is carried on against religion. The encyclopedists,
under pretense of enlightening mankind, are sapping the
foundations of Christianity. All the different kinds of liberty are
connected. The philosophers and the Protestants tend toward
republicanism. The philosophers strike at the root, the others lop the
branches, and their efforts will one day lay the tree low. Add to
these the economists, whose object is political liberty, as that of
others is liberty of worship, and the government may find itself in
twenty or thirty years undermined in every direction, and it will then
fall with a crash. Lose no time in restoring order to the state of the
finances. Embarrassments necessitate fresh taxes, which grind the
people and induce toward revolt. A time will come, sire, when the
people will be enlightened, and that time is probably near at hand."
The king read this letter to Madame de Pompadour, and then,
turning upon his heel, said,
"I wish to hear no more about it. Things will last as they are as long
as I shall."
On another occasion, Mirabeau the elder remarked in the drawing-
room of Madame de Pompadour,
"This kingdom is in a deplorable state. There is neither national
energy nor money. It can only be regenerated by a conquest like
that of China, or by some great internal convulsion. But woe to
those who live to see that. The French people do not do things by
halves."
Madame de Pompadour herself was fully aware of the catastrophe
which was impending, but she flattered herself that the storm would
not burst during her life. She often said, "Après nous le
déluge"—"After us comes the deluge."
The indications of approaching ruin were so evident that they could
not escape the notice of any observing man. Even Louis XV. himself
was not blind to the tendency of affairs, and only hoped to ward off
a revolution while his day should last.
Lord Chesterfield visited France in 1753, twenty years before the
death of Louis XV., and wrote as follows to his son:
"Wherever you are, inform yourself minutely of, and attend
particularly to the affairs of France. They grow serious, and, in my
opinion, will grow more so every day. The French nation reasons
freely, which they never did before, upon matters of religion and
government. In short, all the symptoms which I have ever met with
in history previous to great changes and revolutions now exist and
daily increase in France."
The great difficulty of raising money and the outrages resorted to for
the accomplishment of that purpose alarmed the courtiers. One
night, an officer of the government, sitting at the bedside of the king
conversing upon the state of affairs, remarked,
"You will see, sire, that all this will make it absolutely necessary to
assemble the States-General."
The king sprang up in his bed, and, seizing the courtier by his arm,
exclaimed,
"Never repeat those words. I am not sanguinary; but, had I a
brother, and did he dare to give me such advice, I would sacrifice
him within twenty-four hours to the duration of the monarchy and
the tranquillity of the kingdom."
It is not strange that in such a court as this Christianity should have
been reviled, and that infidelity should have become triumphant.
"When I was first presented to his majesty Louis XV.," La Fayette
writes, "I well remember finding the eldest son of the Church, the
King of France and Navarre, seated at a table between a bishop and
a prostitute. At the same table was seated an aged philosopher,
whose writings had conveyed lustre upon the age in which he
flourished; one whose whole life had been spent in sapping the
foundation of Christianity and undermining monarchy. Yet was this
philosopher, at that moment, the object of honor from monarchs and
homage from courtiers. A young abbé entered with me, not to be
presented to royalty, but to ask the benediction of this enemy of the
altar. The name of this aged philosopher was Voltaire, and that of
the young abbé was Charles Maurice Talleyrand."
Nearly all the infidel writers of the day—Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot,
D'Alembert—were men hopelessly corrupt in morals. Many of them
were keen-sighted enough distinctly to perceive the difference
between Christianity and the lives of debauched ecclesiastics. But
most of them hated Christianity and its restraints, and were glad to
avail themselves of the corruptions of the Church that they might
bring the religion of Christ into contempt. But there were not
wanting, even then, men of most sincere and fearless piety, who
advanced Christianity by their lives, and who with heroism rebuked
sin in high places.
The Bishop of Senez was called to preach before the king. With the
spirit of Isaiah and Daniel he rebuked the monarch for his crimes in
terms so plain, direct, and pungent as to amaze the courtiers. The
king was confounded, but God preserved his servant as Daniel was
preserved in the lions' den.
At length Madame de Pompadour died, in 1764, and the execrations
of France followed her to her burial. It was a gloomy day of wind
and rain when the remains of this wretched woman were borne from
Versailles to the tomb. The king had now done with her, and did not
condescend to follow her to her burial. As the funeral procession left
the court-yard of the palace he stood at a window looking out into
the stormy air, and chuckled at his heartless witticism as he said,
"The marchioness has rather a wet day to set out on her long
journey." This remark is a fair index of the almost inconceivable
heartlessness of this contemptible king.
Madame de Pompadour breathed her last at Versailles in splendid
misery. She was fully conscious of the hatred of the nation, and
trembled in view of the judgment of God. "My whole life," said she,
in a despairing hour, "has been a continual death."
"Very different indeed," beautifully writes Julia Kavanagh, "were the
declining years of Maria Lecsinska and those of the Marchioness of
Pompadour. The patient and pious queen laid her sufferings at the
foot of the cross. Insulted by her husband and his mistresses,
neglected by the courtiers, deeply afflicted by the loss of her
children, whom she loved most tenderly, she still found in religion
the courage necessary to support her grief, and effectual consolation
in the practice of a boundless benevolence."[20]
The old king was now utterly whelmed in the vortex of dissipation;
character, and even self-respect, seemed entirely lost. He looked
around for another female to take the place of Jeannette Poisson. In
one of the low haunts of Parisian debauchery, the courtiers of the
king found a girl of extraordinary beauty, calling herself
Mademoiselle Lange. She had been sewing in the shop of a milliner,
but was now abandoned to vice. She was introduced as a novelty to
the voluptuous monarch, and succeeded in fascinating him. She
received the title of Countess du Barry, and was immediately
installed at Versailles as the acknowledged favorite of the king. Vice
never rises, but always descends in the scale of degradation. The
king had first selected his favorites from the daughters of nobles, he
then received one from the class whom he affected to despise as
low-born; and now a common prostitute, taken from the warehouses
of infamy in Paris, uneducated, and with the manners of a
courtesan, is presented to the nation as the confidant and the
manager of the despicable sovereign. All the high-born ladies,
accustomed as they were to the corruptions of the court, regarded
this as an insult too grievous to be borne. The nobles, the clergy, the
philosophers, and the people, all joined in this outcry. But Madame
du Barry, wielding the authority of the king, was too strong for them
all. She dismissed and banished from the court the Duke of Choiseul,
the king's minister, and to his post she raised one of her own friends.
She then, with astounding boldness, suppressed the Parliaments,
thus leaving to France not even the shadow of representative power.
Thus she proceeded, step by step, removing enemies and
supplanting them by friends, until the most noble of the land were
emulous of the honor of admission to the saloon of this worthless
woman.
It is an appalling and a revolting fact that for half a century before
the revolution France was governed by prostitutes. The real
sovereign was the shameless woman who, for the time being, kept
control of the degraded and sensual king. "The individual," says De
Tocqueville, "who would attempt to judge of the government by the
men at the head of affairs and not by the women who swayed those
men, would fall into the same error as he who judges of a machine
by its outward action and not by its inward springs."
The king was now so execrated that he dared not pass through Paris
in going from his palace at Versailles to Compiègne. Fearing insult
and a revolt of the people if he were seen in the metropolis, he had
a road constructed which would enable him to avoid Paris. As
beautiful female children were often seized to replenish his seraglio
at the Parc aux Cerfs, the people received the impression that he
indulged in baths of children's blood, that he might rejuvenate his
exhausted frame. The king had become an object of horror.[21]
Such was the state of affairs when the guilty king was attacked by
the small-pox, and died at Versailles in 1774, in the sixty-fourth year
of his age and the fifty-ninth of his reign. Such in brief was the
career of Louis XV. His reign was the consummation of all iniquity,
and rendered the Revolution inevitable. The story of his life,
revolting as it is, must be told; for it is essential to the
understanding of the results which ensued. The whirlwind which was
reaped was but the legitimate harvest of the wind which was sown.
Truly does De Tocqueville say, "The Revolution will ever remain in
darkness to those who do not look beyond it. It can only be
comprehended by the light of the ages which preceded it. Without a
clear view of society in the olden time, of its laws, its faults, its
prejudices, its sufferings, its greatness, it is impossible to understand
the conduct of the French during the sixty years which have followed
its fall."
 FOOTNOTES:
[16] Galignani's Paris Guide.
[17] History of French Revolution, by E.E. Crowe, vol. ii., p. 150.—
Enc. Am.
[18] The Duke of St. Simon, who was one of the council of the
regency, in his admirable memoirs, gives the following sketch of
Dubois: "Dubois was a little, thin, meagre man, with a polecat
visage. All the vices, falsehood, avarice, licentiousness, ambition,
and the meanest flattery contended in him for the mastery. He
lied to such a degree as to deny his own actions when taken in
the fact. In spite of his debauchery he was very industrious. His
wealth was immense, and his revenue amounted to millions."
[19] Women of France, p. 91.
[20] Women of France, p. 170.
[21] Historical View of the French Revolution, by J. Michelet, vol.
i., p. 46.

CHAPTER IV.
DESPOTISM AND ITS FRUITS.

Assumptions of the Aristocracy.—Molière.—Decay of the Nobility.

—Decline of the Feudal System.—Difference between France
and the United States.—Mortification of Men of Letters.—
Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau.—Corruption of the Church.—
Diderot.—The Encyclopedists.—Testimony of De Tocqueville.—
Frederic II. of Prussia.—Two Classes of Opponents of
Christianity.—Enormity of Taxation.—Misery of the People.
—"Good old Times of the Monarchy!"
HAVING given a brief sketch of the character of Louis XV., let us now
contemplate the condition of France during his long reign. It has
been estimated that the privileged class in both Church and State
consisted of but one hundred and fifty thousand. It was their
doctrine, enforced by the most rigorous practice, that the remaining
twenty-five millions of France were created but to administer to their
luxury; that this was the function which Providence intended them to
perform. Every office which could confer honor and emolument in
the Church, the army, the State, or the Court, was filled by the
members of an aristocracy who looked with undisguised contempt
upon all those who were not high-born, however opulent or however
distinguished for talents and literary culture. Louis XV., surrounded
by courtesans and debauched courtiers, deemed it presumption in
Voltaire to think of sitting at the same table with the king. "I can
give pensions to Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontinelle, and Maupertius,"
said the king, "but I can not dine and sup with these people."[22]
The courtiers of Louis XIV. manifested in the most offensive manner
the mortification which they felt in being obliged to receive Molière,
the most distinguished comic dramatist of France, to their table. No
degree of genius could efface the ignominy of not being nobly born.
[23] But, notwithstanding the arrogance of the nobles, they, as a
class, had fallen into contempt. All who could support a metropolitan
establishment had abandoned their chateaux and repaired to Paris.
The rural castle was shut up, silence reigned in its halls, and grass
waved in its court-yard. The bailiff only was left behind to wring the
last farthing from the starving tenantry. Many of the noble families
were in decay. Their poverty rendered their pride only the more
contemptible. Several of the provinces contained large numbers of
these impoverished aristocratic families, who had gradually parted
with their lands, and who were living in a state of very shabby
gentility. They were too proud to work and too poor to live without
working. Turgot testifies that in the Province of Limousin there were
several thousand noble families, not fifteen of whom had an income
of four thousand dollars a year.[24] One of the crown officers wrote
in 1750:
"The nobility of this section are of very high rank, but very poor, and
as proud as they are poor. The contrast between their former and
their present condition is humiliating. It is a very good plan to keep
them poor, in order that they shall need our aid and serve our
purposes. They have formed a society into which no one can obtain
admission unless he can prove four quarterings. It is not
incorporated by letters patent, but it is tolerated, as it meets but
once a year and in the presence of the intendant. These noblemen
hear mass, after which they return home, some on their Rosinantes,
some on foot. You will enjoy this comical assembly."
In days of feudal grandeur the noble was indeed the lord and master
of the peasantry. He was their government and their sole protector
from violence. There was then reason for feudal service. But now
the noble was a drone. He received, and yet gave nothing,
absolutely nothing, in return. The peasant despised as well as hated
him, and derisively called him the vulture.
The feudal system is adapted only to a state of semi-barbarism. It
can no more survive popular intelligence than darkness can exist
after the rising of the sun. When, in the progress of society, nobles
cease to be useful and become only drones; when rich men, vulgar
in character, can purchase titles of nobility, so that the nobles cease
to be regarded as a peculiar and heaven-appointed race; when men
from the masses, unennobled, acquire opulence, education, and that
polish of manners which place them on an equality with titled men;
when men of genius and letters, introduced into the saloons of the
nobles, discover their own vast superiority to their ignorant,
frivolous, and yet haughty entertainers; and when institutions of
literature, science, and art create an aristocracy of scholarship where
opulence, refinement, and the highest mental culture combine their
charms, then an hereditary aristocracy, which has no support but its
hereditary renown, must die. Its hour is tolled.
Such was the state of France at the close of the reign of Louis XV. It
is estimated that there were in France at that time five hundred
thousand well-informed citizens.[25] This fact explains both the
outbreak of the Revolution and its failure. They were too many to
submit to the arrogance of the nobles; hence the insurrection. They
were too few to guide and control the infuriated masses when the
pressure was taken from them, and hence the reign of terror, the
anarchy and blood. The United States, with a population about the
same as that of France in the morning of her Revolution, has four or
five millions of intelligent and well-educated men. These men
support our institutions. But for them, the republic would be swept
away like chaff before the wind.
As we have before said, men of letters were patronized by the king
and the court, but it was a patronage which seemed almost an insult
to every honorable mind. The haughty duke would look down
condescendingly, and even admiringly, upon the distinguished
scholar, and would admit him into his saloon as a curiosity. High-
born ladies would smile upon him, and would condescend to take his
arm and listen to his remarks. But such mingling with society stung
the soul with a sense of degradation, and none inveighed with
greater bitterness against aristocratic assumption than those men of
genius who had been most freely admitted into the halls of the
great. They were thus exasperated to inquire into the origin of
ranks, and their works were filled with eulogiums of equality and
fraternity.
It was this social degradation which was one of the strongest
incentives to revolution. This united all the industrial classes in
France, all who had attained wealth, and all men of intellectual
eminence, in the cry for reform. Equality of rights was the great
demand thus forced from the heart of the nation. Fraternity became
the watch-word of the roused and rising masses.[26]
Thought was the great emancipator. Men of genius were the Titans
who uphove the mountains of prejudice and oppression. They
simplified political economy, and made it intelligible to the popular
mind. Voltaire assailed with keenest sarcasm and the most piercing
invectives the corruptions of the Church, unjustly, and most
calamitously for the interests of France, representing those
corruptions as Christianity itself. Montesquieu popularized and
spread before the nation those views of national policy which might
render a people prosperous and happy; and Rousseau, with a
seductive eloquence which the world has never seen surpassed,
excited every glowing imagination with dreams of fascinating but
unattainable perfection. Nearly all the revolutionary writers
represented religion not merely as a useless superstition, but as one
of the worst scourges of the state. Thus they took from the human
heart the influence which alone can restrain passion and humanize
the soul.
They represented man but as a lamb, meek and innocent, dumb
before his shearers, and seeking only to live harmlessly and happily
in the outflowings of universal benevolence and love. This lamb-like
man needed no more religion than does the butterfly or the robin.
He was to live his joyous day, unrestrained by customs, or laws, or
thoughts of the future, and then was to pass away like the lily or the
rose, having fulfilled his function. Death an eternal sleep, was the
corner-stone of their shallow and degrading philosophy. The
advocates of this sentimentalism were amazed when they found the
masses, brutalized by ignorance and ages of oppression, and having
been taught that there was no God before whom they were to stand
in judgment, come forth into the arena of the nations, not as lambs,
but as wolves, thirsting for blood and reckless in devastation.
Libertines in France are still infidels, but they have seen the effect of
their doctrines, and no longer dare to proclaim them. "Where is the
Frenchman of the present day," says De Tocqueville, "who would
write such books as those of Diderot or Helvetius?"[27]
Unfortunately, fatally for the liberties of France, the leading writers
were infidels. Mistaking the corruptions of Christianity for Christianity
itself, they assailed religion furiously, and succeeded in eradicating
from men's souls all apprehensions of responsibility to God. Nothing
could more effectually brutalize and demonize the soul of man. And
yet the Papal Church, as a towering hierarchy, had become so
corrupt, such an instrument of oppression, and such a support of
despotism, that no reform could have been accomplished but by its
overthrow.[28] It was the monarch's right arm of strength; it was the
rampart which was first to be battered down.
The Church had no word of censure for vice in high places. It spread
its shield before the most enormous abuses, and, by its inquisitorial
censorship of the press, protected the most execrable institutions.
The Church, enervated by wealth and luxurious indulgence, had also
become so decrepit as to invite attack. No man could summon
sufficient effrontery to attempt her defense. The only reply which
bloated and debauched ecclesiastics could make to their assailants
was persecution and the dungeon. There were a few truly pious men
in the Church; they did, however, but exhibit in clearer contrast the
general corruption with which they were surrounded.
Diderot, though educated by the Jesuits—perhaps because he was
educated by the Jesuits—commenced his career by an attack upon
Christianity in his Pensées Philosophiques. He was sent to prison,
and his book burned by the public executioner. Still, multitudes read
and so warmly applauded that he was incited to form the plan of the
celebrated Encyclopedia which was to contain a summary of all
human knowledge. In this grand enterprise he allied with him the
ablest scholars and writers of the day—Mably, Condillac, Mercier,
Raynal, Buffon, Helvetius, D'Alembert, and others. Nearly all these
men, despising the Church, were unbelievers in Christianity. They
consequently availed themselves of every opportunity to assail
religion. The court, alarmed, laid a prohibition upon the work, but
did not dare to punish the writers, as they were too numerous and
powerful. Thus infidelity soon became a fashion. Notwithstanding
the prohibition, the work was soon resumed, and became one of the
most powerful agents in ushering in the Revolution.
"Christianity was hated by these philosophers," writes De
Tocqueville, "less as a religious doctrine than as a political
institution; not because the ecclesiastics assumed to regulate the
concerns of the other world, but because they were landlords,
seigneurs, tithe-holders, administrators in this; not because the
Church could not find a place in the new society which was being
established, but because she then occupied a place of honor,
privilege, and might in the society which was to be overthrown."
Christianity is the corner-stone of a true democracy. It is the
unrelenting foe of despotism, and therefore despotism has invariably
urged its most unrelenting warfare against the Bible. When papacy
became the great spiritual despotism which darkened the world, the
Bible was the book which it hated and feared above all others. With
caution this corrupt hierarchy selected a few passages upon
submission and obedience, which it allowed to be read to the
people, while the majestic principles of fraternity, upon which its
whole moral code is reared, were vigilantly excluded from the public
mind. The peasant detected with a Bible was deemed as guilty as if
caught with the tools of a burglar or the dies of a counterfeiter.
It was impossible, however, to conceal the fact that the Bible was
the advocate of purity of heart and life. Its teachings created a
sense of guilt in the human soul which could not be effaced. Corrupt
men were consequently eager to reject the Bible, that they might
appease reproachful conscience. Frederick II., of Prussia, an atheist
and a despiser of mankind, became the friend and patron of Voltaire
in his envenomed assaults upon Christianity. Louis XV., anxious to
maintain friendly political relations with Prussia, hesitated to
persecute the recognized friend of the Prussian king. The courtiers,
generally with joy, listened to those teachings of unbelief which
relieved them from the restraints of Christian morality. Thus
Christianity had two classes of vigorous assailants. The first were
those who knew not how to discriminate between Christianity and its
corruptions. They considered Christianity and the Papal Church as
one, and endeavored to batter the hateful structure down as a
bastille of woe. Another class understood Christianity as a system
frowning upon all impurity, and pressing ever upon the mind a final
judgment. They were restive under its restraints, and labored for its
overthrow that guilt might find repose in unbelief.
Astonishment is often expressed at the blindness with which the
upper classes of the Old Régime allowed their institutions to be
assailed. "But where," asks De Tocqueville, "could they have learned
better. Ruling classes can no more acquire a knowledge of the
dangers they have to avoid, without free institutions, than their
inferiors can discern the rights they ought to preserve in the same
circumstances."[29]
The measureless extravagance of the court had plunged the nation
into a state of inextricable pecuniary embarrassment. The whole
burden of the taxes, in myriad forms, for the support of the throne
in Oriental luxury, for the support of the nobles, who were perhaps
the most profligate race of men the world has ever known; for the
support of the Church, whose towering ecclesiastics, performing no
useful functions, did not even affect the concealment of their vices,
and who often vied with the monarch himself in haughtiness and
grandeur; for the support of the army, ever engaged in extravagant
wars, and employed to keep the people in servitude—all these taxes
so enormous as to sink the mass of the people in the lowest state of
poverty, debasement, and misery, fell upon the unprivileged class
alone.
Taxes ran into every thing. The minister who could invent a new tax
was applauded as a man of genius. All the offices of the magistracy
were sold. Judges would pay an enormous sum for their office, and
remunerate themselves a hundred-fold by selling their decisions.
Thus justice became a farce. Titles of nobility were sold, which,
introducing the purchaser into the ranks of the privileged class,
threw the heavier burden upon the unprivileged. All the trades and
professions were put up for sale. Even the humble callings of making
wigs, of weighing coal, of selling pork, were esteemed privileges,
and were sold at a high price. There was hardly any thing which a
man could do, which he was not compelled to buy the privilege of
doing. A person who undertook to count the number of these offices
or trades for which a license was sold, growing weary of his task,
estimated them at over three hundred thousand.[30]
An army of two hundred thousand tax-gatherers devoured every
thing. To extort substance from the starving people the most cruel
expedients were adopted. All the energies of galleys, gibbets,
dungeons, and racks were called into requisition. When the corn was
all absorbed, the cattle were taken. The ground, exhausted for want
of manure, became sterile. Men, women, and children yoked
themselves to the plow. Deserts extended, the population died off,
and beautiful France was becoming but a place of graves.
The people thus taxed owned but one third of the soil, the clergy
and the nobles owning the other two thirds. From this one third the
people paid taxes and feudal service to the nobles, tithes to the
clergy, and imposts to the king. They enjoyed no political rights,
could take no share in the administration, and were ineligible to any
post of honor or profit. No man could obtain an office in the army
unless he brought a certificate, signed by four nobles, that he was of
noble blood.
The imposition of the tax was entirely arbitrary. No man could tell
one year what his tax would be the next. There was no principle in
the assessment except to extort as much as possible. The tax-
gatherers would be sent into a district to collect one year one million
of francs, perhaps the next year it would be two millions. No
language can describe the dismay in the humble homes of the
peasants when these cormorants, armed with despotic power,
darkened their doors. The seed-corn was taken, the cow was driven
off, the pig was taken from the pen. Mothers plead with tears that
food might be left for their children, but the sheriff, inured to scenes
of misery, had a heart of rock. He always went surrounded by a
band of bailiffs to protect him from violence. Fearful was the
vengeance he could wreak upon any one who displeased him.
The peasant, to avoid exorbitant taxation, assumed the garb of
poverty, dressed his children in rags, and carefully promoted the ruin
and dilapidation of his dwelling. "Fear," writes de Tocqueville, "often
made the collector pitiless. In some parishes he did not show his
face without a band of bailiffs and followers at his back. 'Unless he is
sustained by bailiffs,' writes an intendant in 1764, 'the taxables will
not pay. At Villefranche alone six hundred bailiffs and followers are
always kept on foot.'"[31]
Indeed, the government seemed to desire to keep the people poor.
Savages will lop off the leg or the arm of a prisoner that he may be
more helplessly in their power. Thus those despotic kings would
desolate their realms with taxation, and would excite wars which
would exhaust energy and paralyze industry, that the people thus
impoverished and kept in ignorance might bow more submissively to
the yoke. The wars which in endless monotony are inscribed upon
the monuments of history were mostly waged by princes to engross
the attention of their subjects. When a despot sees that public
attention is directed, or is likely to be directed, to any of his
oppressive acts, he immediately embarks in some war, to divert the
thoughts of the nation. This is the unvarying resource of despotism.
After a few hundred thousand of the people have been slaughtered,
and millions of money squandered in the senseless war, peace is
then made. But peace brings but little repose to the people. They
must now toil and starve that they may raise money to pay for the
expenses of the war. Such, in general, has been the history of
Europe for a thousand years. Despots are willing that billows of
blood should surge over the land, that the cries of the oppressed
may thus be drowned.
So excessive was the burden of taxation, that it has been estimated
by a very accurate computation that, if the produce of an acre of
land amounted to sixteen dollars, the king took ten, the duke, as
proprietor, five, leaving one for the cultivator.[32] Thus, if we
suppose a peasant with his wife and children to have cultivated forty
acres of land, the proceeds of which, at sixteen dollars per acre,
amounted to six hundred and forty dollars, the king and the duke
and the Church took six hundred of this, leaving but forty dollars for
the support of the laborers.
Let us suppose a township in the United States containing twenty
square miles, with five thousand inhabitants. Nearly all these are
cultivators of the soil, and so robbed by taxes that they can only live
in mud hovels and upon the coarsest food. Clothed in rags, they toil
in the fields with their bareheaded and barefooted wives and
daughters. The huts of these farmers are huddled together in a
miserable dirty village. In the village there are a few shop-keepers,
who have acquired a little property, and have become somewhat
intelligent. There is also a physician, and a surgeon, and a poor,
dispirited, half-starved parish priest. Upon one of the eminences of
the town there is a lordly castle of stone, with its turrets and towers,
its park and fish-pond. This massive structure belongs to the duke.
Weary of the solitude of the country, he has withdrawn from the
castle, and is living with his family in the metropolis, indulging in all
its expensive dissipations. His purse can only be replenished by the
money which he can extort from the cultivators of the land who
surround his castle; and his expenses are so enormous that he is
ever harassed by an exhausted purse.
For a few weeks in the summer he comes down to his castle, from
the metropolis, with his city companions, to engage in rural sports.
Wild boars, deer, rabbits, and partridges abound in his park. The
boars and the deer range the fields of the farmers, trampling down
and devouring their crops; but the farmer must not harm them, lest
he incur the terrible displeasure of the duke. The rabbits and the
partridges infest the fields of grain; but the duke has issued a special
injunction that the weeds even must not be disturbed, lest the
brooding partridges should be frightened away, to the injury of his
summer shooting.
Perhaps one half of the land in the township belongs to the duke,
and the farmers are mere tenants at will. During past ages, about
half of the land has been sold and is owned by those who till it. But
even they have to pay a heavy ground-rent annually to the duke for
the land which they have bought. If a farmer wishes to purchase a
few acres from his neighbor, he must first pay a sum to the duke for
permission to make the purchase. For three or four days in the week
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