It is the authors assertion that the Abbe de Saint-Pierre was one of the first to challenge the concept in the spirit of Enlightenment philosophy, that is to say, not only in the form of an erudite study but rather with the concrete attempt to influence and ameliorate the international situation. Saint-Pierre was clearly well aware that the concept of sovereignty was the basis of the balance of power. Consequently, this issue would be central to his attempt to provide an alternative arrangement. More than a mere historical example, the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire served him as a key tool with which to address the necessity of accommodating sovereignty within a wider framework which would allow for reliable peace and stability. It is thus the task of this chapter to demonstrate how Saint-Pierre employed the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire in his theory of international relations. Keywords:Abbe de Saint-Pierre; enlightenment philosophy; Holy Roman Empire; sovereignty; theory of international relations

Frederick Beiser presents another study on German intellectual history, this time exploring aesthetic rationalism during the Enlightenment period. The structure follows the chronological development, and is with one exception organized around individual thinkers. After his introduction he starts with a first chapter on Leibniz, followed by chapters on Wolff and Gottsched. Chapter 4 deals with the dispute between Gottsched and the German-Swiss aestheticians J.J. Bodmer and J.J. Breitinger in the 1740s. The remaining four chapters are again dedicated to individual thinkers: Chapter 5 to Baumgarten, Chapter 6 to Winckelmann, Chapter 7 to Mendelssohn and Chapter 8 to Lessing. There is, somewhat surprisingly, no concluding chapter and the book therefore finishes slightly abruptly. The underlying thesis of this study is that despite Kant's aesthetics and his critique of the earlier tradition of aesthetic rationalism—notably in his Kritik der Urteilskraft—this earlier tradition still has a lot to offer and is far from obsolete. For Beiser, there is thus not only a historical, but also, and perhaps more importantly, a philosophical interest in this tradition. The obvious starting point of this tradition is to be seen in the work of Leibniz. Beiser argues that: Following Leibniz, the rationalists held that this is the best of all possible worlds, and they assigned to art a very important role in upholding such optimism. The importance of the aesthetic for their general worldview follows immediately from their analysis of pleasure. According to that analysis, all pleasure is aesthetic because it consists in the perception of perfection, which is the objective correlate of beauty itself. (p. 23)

to his dark power and shadowy influence. Occasionally, Pierre races from one event to the next, such as the Camus affair, and the Loudun and Illuminés investigations, without really succeeding in pinpointing or detailing Joseph’s input ; this is hardly helpful in chasing the shadows. However, he convincingly analyses the changing nature of the friar’s relationship with Richelieu, whom he first met in 1611. After a disagreement in 1630, when Joseph’s negotiations at Ratisbon threatened to scupper the cardinal’s strategy of a bi-confessional coalition to offset Spanish power, Joseph became more committed to this policy and was recompensed with an enhanced position as a political counsellor, rather than a mere diplomatic agent. The most rewarding element of this biography is undoubtedly Pierre’s decision to ascribe due weight to the young friar’s life before he entered the Capuchin order in 1599 and certainly well before Richelieu’s entry to the royal council in 1624, the dates that have most commonly formed the starting points of previous studies. In so doing, he is able to demonstrate a continuity of spiritual and political principles that governed Joseph’s involvement in religious reform, missions to Huguenot regions, endorsement of royal religion, and emphasis on French international leadership in Europe and near Asia. The mystical-political discourse that was evident in his published and private writings arose from the combined influences of patrimonial divisions that split the Du Tremblay family. It also owed a significant debt to Joseph’s embracing of Pseudo-Dionysian theological trends of hierarchy and order, and his exposure to youthful socio-cultural traumas, for example his struggle to recover the family fortune after his father’s death, and the aborted proposal to marry a member of the robe. If so, then the ‘mystical invasion’ in which Joseph played a role and the broader invigoration of the Catholic reform movement were not simply the consequences of his (and others) anguished reflections on the League’s defeat, as often suggested ; rather, they represented a constructive response to reunify Catholic families and a Church that had become dislocated through the vagaries of sectarian division and war. In this light, Joseph’s model of practical spirituality both produced and justified his constant reiteration of the need for religious unity in France and beyond, his desire that the French king head an international holy alliance constructed according to the rules of a terrestrial hierarchy, and his view that his secular work formed a key element of his apostolate.