Essay on the Art of Crawling

Baron d'Holbach's 1776 'Essay on the Art of Crawling' is a delicious satire on the sycophancy and self-abasement rife in the courts of Europe. A penetrating account of the workings of power that applies as much to today's courtiers as it did to those of the eighteenth century, it also makes a compelling case for the value of moral independence and personal dignity.