baron d'Holbach, was born in January, 1723, in the little village
of Heidelsheim (N.W. of Carlsruhe) in the Palatinate. Of his
parentage and youth nothing is known except that his father, a rich
parvenu, according to Rousseau, [5:5] brought him to Paris at the
age of twelve, where he received the greater part of his education.
His father died when Holbach was still a young man. It may be
doubted if young Holbach inherited his title and estates immediately
as there was an uncle "Messire Francois-Adam, Baron d'Holbach,
Seigneur de Heeze, Leende et autres Lieux" who lived in the rue
Neuve S. Augustin and died in 1753. His funeral was held at
Saint-Roch, his parish church, Thursday, September 16th, where he was
afterward entombed. [5:6] Holbach was a student in the University
of Leyden in 1746 and spent a good deal of time at his uncle's estate
at Heeze, a little town in the province of North Brabant (S.E. of
Eindhoven). He also traveled and studied in Germany. There are two
manuscript letters in the British Museum (Folio 30867, pp. 14, 18, 20)
addressed by Holbach to John Wilkes, which throw some light on his
school-days. It is interesting to note that most of Holbach's friends
were young Englishmen of whom there were some twenty-five at the
University of Leyden at that time. [6:7] Already at the age of
twenty-three Holbach was writing very good English, and all his life
he was a friend of Englishmen and English ideas. His friendship for
Wilkes, then a lad of nineteen, lasted all his life and increased in
intimacy and dignity. The two letters following are of interest
because they are the only documents we have bearing on Holbach's early
manhood. They reveal a certain sympathy and feeling--rather gushing
to be sure--quite unlike anything in his later writings, and quite
out of line with the supposedly cold temper of a materialist and an
atheist.