To the
opinions
of Helvetius succeeded
?
?
Madame de Stael - Germany
ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY.
27
remain some little difficulties concerning the
origin of things, and the end of our exist-
ence; but the question has been much sim-
plified--and reason now counsels us to sup-
press within our souls all the desires and all
the hopes that genius, love, and religion call
to life; for, according to this system, man
would only be another machine in the
great mechanism of the universe; his facul-
ties would be all wheel-work, his morality
a matter of calculation, and his divinity
success.
Locke, believing from the bottom of his
soul in the existence of God, established his
conviction, without perceiving it, upon rea-
sonings which are all taken out of the
sphere of experience: he asserts the exist-
ence of an eternal principle, the primary
cause of all other causes; thus he enters into
the region of infinity, and that region lies
beyond all experience: but Locke, at the
game time, was so apprehensive lest the idea
of God should pass for an innate idea in man,
it appeared to him so absurd that the Crea-
tor should have deigned to inscribe his name,
like that of a great painter, upon the tablet
of the soul, that he set himself to discover,
out of all the narratives of travellers, some
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? 28 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
nations who were destitute of any religious
belief. We may, I think, boldly affirm, that
such nations do not exist. The impulse that
exalts us towards the Supreme Being disco-
vers itself in the genius of Newton, as it
does in the soul of the poor savage, who
worships the stone upon which he finds rest.
No man clings exclusively to this world,
such as it is at present; and all have felt in
their hearts, at some period of their lives,
an undefinable inclination towards the su-
pernatural: but, how can it happen, that a
being, so religious as Locke, should try to
change the primitive characters of belief
into an accidental knowledge, which chance
may confer or take away? I repeat it--the
tendency of any doctrine ought always to be
deemed of great account in the judgment
which we form upon the truth of that doc. ^
trine; for, in theory, the good and the true
are inseparable.
All that is visible talks to man of a begin*
ning and an end, of decline and destruction.
A divine spark is the only indication of our
immortality. From what sensation does this
arise? All our sensations fight against it,
and yet it triumphs over them all. What!
it will be said, do not final causes, do not
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? ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY. 29
the wonders of the universe, the splendour
of heaven that strikes our eyes, all declare
the magnificence and the goodness of our
Creator? The book of nature is contradic-
tory; we see there the emblems of good
and evil almost in equal proportion; and
things are thus constituted, in order that
man may be able to exercise his liberty be-
tween opposite probabilities; between fears
and hopes almost of equal power. The
starry heaven appears to us like the threshold
of the Divinity; but all the evils and all the
vices of human nature obscure these celestial
fires. A solitary voice, without speech, but
not without harmony; without force, but
irresistible; proclaims a God at the bot-
tom of the human heart: all that is truly
beautiful in man springs from what he ex-
periences within himself, and spontane-
ously; every heroic action is inspired by
moral liberty:--the act of devoting ourselves
to the divine will, that act which every sen-
sation opposes, and which enthusiasm alone
inspires, is so noble and so pure, that the
angels themselves, virtuous as they are by
nature, and without impediment, might
envy it to man.
That species of metaphysics which dis-
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? 30 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
places the centre of life, by supposing its
impulse to come from without, despoils man
of his liberty, and destroys itself; for a
spiritual nature no longer exists, when we
unite it in such a manner to a corporeal
nature, that it is only by consideration for
religious opinion we consent to distinguish
them: such a system shrinks from its own
consequences, excepting when it derives from
them, as it has done in France, materialism
built upon sensation, and morality built
upon interest. The abstract theory of this
system was born in England; but none of
its consequences have been admitted there.
In France they have not had the honour of
the discovery, but in a great degree that of
the application. In Germany, since the time
of Leibnitz, they have opposed the system
and its consequences: and, assuredly, it is
worthy of enlightened and religious men of
all countries, to inquire if those principles,
whose results are so fatal, ought to be con-
sidered as incontestable truths.
Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Smith, Reid,
Dugald Stewart, &c. have studied the ope-
rations of the human mind with a rare saga-
city: the works of Dugald Stewart, in par-
ticular, contain so perfect a theory of the
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? ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY. 31
intellectual faculties, that we may consider
them, to use the expression, as the natural
history of the moral being. Every indivi-
dual must recognise in them some portion of
himself. Whatever opinion we may have
adopted as to the origin of ideas, we must
acknowledge the utility of a labour which
has for its object the examination of their
progress and direction:--but it is not enough
to observe the developement of our faculties,
we must ascend to their source, in order to
give an account of the nature, and of the
independence, of the will of man.
We cannot consider that question as an
idle one, which endeavours to learn whether
the soul has an independent faculty of feel-
ing and of thinking. It is the question of
Hamlet--" To be, or not to be? "
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? 32 PHItOSOPHY AND MORAlS,
CHAPTER III.
Of French Philosophy.
Descartes, for a long period, was at the
head of French philosophers; and if his
physics had not been confessedly erroneous,
perhaps his metaphysics would have pre-
served a more lasting ascendant. Bossuet,
Fenelon, Pascal, all the great men of the
age of Louis XIV. had adopted the Idealism
of Descartes: and this system agreed much
better with the Catholic religion than that
philosophy which is purely experimental;
for it appeared singularly difficult to com-
bine a faith in the most mysterious doctrines
with the sovereign empire of sensation over
the soul.
Among the French metaphysicians who
have professed the doctrine of Locke, we
must reckon, in the first class, Condillac,
whose priestly office obliged him to use
some caution in regard to religion; and
Bonnet, who, being naturally religious, lived
at Geneva; in a country where learning and
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. S3
piety are inseparable. These two philoso-
phers, Bonnet especially, have established
exceptions in favour of revelation; but it
appears to me, that one of the causes of the
diminution of respect for Religion, is this
custom of setting her apart from all the
sciences; as if philosophy, reasoning, every
thing, in short, which is esteemed in earthly
affairs, could not be applied to Religion: an
ironical veneration removes her to a distance
from all the interests of life; it is, if we may
so express ourselves, to bow her out of the
circle of the human mind. In every coun-
try, where a religious belief is predominant,
it is the centre of ideas; and philosophy
consists in the rational interpretation of di-
vine truths.
When Descartes wrote, Bacon's philoso-
phy had not yet penetrated into France;
and that country was then in the same state
of scholastic ignorance and superstition as at
the epoch when the great English master of
the art of thinking published his' works.
There are two methods of correcting the pre-
judices of men--the recourse to experience,
and the appeal to reflection. Baconadopted
the first means; Descartes the second. The
one has rendered immense service to the
vol. in. d
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? 34 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
sciences; the other to thought itself, which
is the source of all the sciences.
Bacon was a man of much greater genius,
and of still ampler learning, than Descartes.
He has known how to establish his philoso-
phy in the material world : that of Descartes
was brought into discredit by the learned,
who attacked with success his opinions upon
the system of the world: he could reason
justly in the examination of the mind, and
deceived himself in relation to the physical
laws of the universe: but the opinions of men
resting almost entirely upon a blind and pre-
cipitate confidence in analogy, they believed
that he who had observed so ill what passed
without him, was no better instructed as to
the world within. In his manner of writing,
Descartes shows a simplicity and overflow-
ing goodness of nature, which inspires his
readers with confidence; and the energy of
his genius will not be contested. Never-
theless, when we compare him, either to the
German philosophers or to Plato, we can
neither find in his works the theory of ideal-
ism in all its abstraction, nor the poetical
imagination, which constitutes its beauty.
Yet a ray of light had passed over the mind
of Descartes, and his is the glory of having
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? 'FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 35
directed the philosophy of his day towards
the interior clevelopement of the soul. He
produced a great effect by referring all re-
ceived truths to the test of reflection: these
axioms were admired--" I think, therefore I
44 exist; therefore I have a Creator, the per-
"feet source of my imperfect faculties : every
"thing without us may be called in question:
"truth is only in the mind, and the mind is
44 the supreme judge of truth. "
Universal doubt is the A B C of philoso-
phy: every man begins to reason again by
the aid of his own native light, when he at-
tempts to ascend to the principles of things;
but the authority of Aristotle had so com-
pletely. introduced the dogmatic method into
Europe, that the age was astonished at the
boldness of Descartes, who submitted all
opinions to natural judgment.
The Port Royal writers were formed in
his school; so that France produced men of
a severer turn of thought in the seventeenth
than in the eighteenth century. At the side
of their graceful and engaging genius ap-
peared a certain gravity, which betrayed the
natural influence of a system of philosophy
that attributed all our ideas to the power of
reflection.
d2
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? 36 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Mallebranche, the principal disciple of
Descartes, was a man gifted with the ener-
gies of mind in an eminent degree. They
have been pleased to consider him as a
dreamer in the eighteenth century; and in
Franoe it is all over with that writer who
has the character of a dreamer; for it im-
plies the idea of total inutility as to the pur-
poses of life, and this is peculiarly offensive
to all reasonable persons, as they are en-
titled ;--but this word Utility--is it quite no-
ble enough to be applied to all the cravings
of the soul?
The French writers of the eighteenth cen-
O
tury excelled most in the study of political
liberty ; those of the seventeenth in the study
of moral liberty. The philosophers of the
one period were combatants; of the other
anchorets. Under an absolute government,
like that of Louis the XlVth, independence
finds no asylum but in meditation: in the
disorderly reigns of the last century, the men
of letters were animated with the desire of
winning over the government of their coun-
try to the liberal principles and ideas of
which England displayed so fair an example.
The writers who have not gone beyond this
point, are very deserving of the esteem of
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. ' 37
their countrymen ; but it is not the less true,
that the works composed in the seventeenth
century are more philosophical, in many re-
spects, than those which have since been
published; for philosophy especially consists
in the study and the knowledge of our intel-
lectual existence.
The philosophers of the eighteenth cen-
tury have busied themselves rather with so-
cial politics than with the primitive nature of
man; those of the seventeenth century, solely
and precisely from their being religious men,
had a more thorough knowledge of the
human heart. During the decline of the
French monarchy, the philosophers turned
the direction of thought, which they used
as a weapon, to what was passing without
them: under the empire of Louis the XlVth,
they were more attached to the ideal meta-
physics, because the exercise of recollection
was more habitual to them, and they had
more occasion for it. In order to raise the
French genius to its highest degree of per-
fection, it would be requisite to learn, from
the writers of the eighteenth century, how
to use our faculties to advantage; and from
those of the seventeenth, how to study their
source-
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? 38 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Descartes, Pascal, and Mallebranche, had
much more resemblance to the German phi-
losophers than the French writers of the
eighteenth century; but Mallebranche and
the Germans differ in this, that the one lays
down as an article of faith what the others
reduce into a scientific theory:--the one
aims at clothing the forms inspired by his
imagination in a dogmatic dress, because he
is afraid of being accused of enthusiasm;
while the others, writing at the end of an
sera when analysis has been extended to
every object of study, know that they are
enthusiasts, and are solely anxious to prove
that reason and enthusiasm are of one ac-
cord.
If the French had followed the metaphy-
sical bias of their great men of the seven-
teenth century, they would now have enter-
tained the same opinions as the Germans;
for in the progress of philosophy Leibnitz is
the natural successor of Descartes and Malle-
branche, and Kant of Leibnitz.
England had great influence over the
writers of the eighteenth century; the admi-
ration which they felt for that country in-
spired them with the wish of introducing into
France her liberty and her philosophy. Eng-
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 39
Jish philosophy was then only void of danger
when united with the religious sentiments of
that people, with their liberty, and with
their obedience to the laws. In the bosom
of a nation where Newton and Clarke never
pronounced the name of God without bow-
ing their heads, let the metaphysical sys-
tems have been ever so erroneous, they could
not be fatal. That which is every way
wanting in France, is the feeling and habit
of veneration; and the transition is there
very quick from the examination which may
enlighten, to the irony which reduces every
thing to dust.
It seems to me that we may observe two
perfectly distinct epochs in the eighteenth
century; that in which Jhe influence of Eng-
land was first acknowledged, and that in
which the men of genius hurried themselves
into destruction: light was then changed to
conflagration; and Philosophy, like an en-
raged enchantress, set fire to the palace
where she had displayed her wonders.
In politics, Montesquieu belongs to the
. first epoch, Raynal to the second: in reli-
gion, the writings of Voltaire, which had the
defence of toleration for their object, breathed
the spirit of the first half of the century; but
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? 40 PHILOSOPHY A ND MORALS.
his pitiable and ostentatious irreligion has*
been the disgrace of the second. Finalty,
in metaphysics, Condillac and Helvetius, al-
though they were contemporaries, both carry
about them the impression of these very dif-
ferent eras; for, although the entire system
of the philosophy of sensation was wrong
in its principle, yet the consequences which
Helvetius has drawn from it ought not to be
imputed to Condillac; he was far from as-
senting to them.
Condillac has rendered experimental me-
taphysics more clear and more striking than
they are in Locke: he has truly levelled them
to the comprehension of all the world: he
says, with Locke, that the soul can have no
idea which does not come in from sensation;
he attributes to our wants the origin of
knowledge and of language; to words, that
of reflection: and thus, making us receive
the entire developement of our moral being
from external objects, he explains human
nature as he would a positive science, in
a clear, rapid, and, in some respects, con-
vincing manner; for if we neither felt in.
our hearts the native impulses of belief, nor
a conscience independent of experience, nor
a creating spirit, in all the force of the term,
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 41
we might be well enough contented with
this mechanical definition of the human soul.
It is natural to be seduced by the easy solu-
tion of the greatest of problems; but this
apparent simplicity exists only in the mode
of inquiry; the object to which it is pretend-
ingly applied does not the less continue of
an unknown immensity; and the enigma of
ourselves swallows up, like the sphinx, thou-
sands of systems which pretend to the glory
of having guessed its meaning.
The work of Condillac ought only to be
considered as another book on an inexhausti-
ble subject, if the influence of this book
had not been fatal. Helvetius, who deduces
from the philosophy of sensations all the
direct consequences which it can admit,
asserts, that if the hands of man had been
made like the hoofs of the horse, he would
only have possessed the intelligence of this
animal. Assuredly, if the case was so, it
would be very unjust to attribute to ourselves
any thing blameable or meritorious in our
actions; for the difference which may exist
between the several organizations of indi-
viduals, would authorize and be the proper
cause of the difference in their characters.
To the opinions of Helvetius succeeded
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? 42 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
those of the System of Nature, which tended
to the annihilation of the Deity in the uni-
verse, and of free will in man. Locke, Con-
dillac, Helvetius, and the unhappy author of
the System of Nature, have all progressively
advanced in the same path: the first steps
were innocent; neither Locke nor Condillac
knew the dangers of their philosophy; but
very soon this black spot, which was hardly
visible in the intellectual horizon, grew to
such a size as to be near plunging the uni-
verse and man back again into darkness.
External objects, it was said, are the cause
of all our impressions; nothing then appears
more agreeable than to give ourselves up to
the physical world, and to come, self-invited
guests, to the banquet of nature; but by
degrees the internal source is dried up, and
even as to the imagination that is requisite
for luxury and pleasure, it goes on decaying
to such a degree, that very shortly man will
not retain soul enough to relish any enjoy-
ment, of however material a nature.
The immortality of the soul, and the sen-
timent of duty, are suppositions entirely
gratuitous in the system which grounds all
our ideas upon our sensations: for no sensa-
tion reveals to us immortality in death. If
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 43
external objects alone have formed our con-
science, from the nurse who receives us in
her arms until the last act of an advanced
old age, all our impressions are so linked to
each other, that we cannot arraign with
justice the pretended power of volition,
which is only another instance of fatality.
I shall endeavour to show, in the second
part of this section, that the moral system,
which is built upon interest, so strenuously
preached up by the French writers of the last
age, has an intimate connexion with that
species of metaphysics which attributes all
our ideas to our sensations, and that the con-
sequences of the one are as bad in practice,
as those of the other in theory. Those who
have been able to read the licentious works
published in France towards the close of the
eighteenth century, will bear witness, that
when the writers of these culpable perform-
ances attempt to support themselves upon
any species of reasoning, they all appeal to
the influence of our physical over our moral
constitution; they refer to our sensations for .
the origin of every the most blameable
opinion; they exhibit, in short, under all
appearances, the doctrine which destroys
free will and conscience.
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? 44 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
We cannot deny, it may be said, that this
is a degrading doctrine; but, nevertheless,
if it be true, must we reject it, and blind
ourselves on purpose? Assuredly those
writers would have made a deplorable dis-
covery, who had dethroned the soul, and
condemned the mind to sacrifice herself, by
employing all her faculties to prove, that the
laws which are common to every physical
existence agree also to her--but, thanks be
to God (and this expression is here in its pe-
culiar place), thanks be to God, I say, this
system is entirely false in its principle; and
the circumstance of those writers espousing
it who have supported the cause of immo-
rality, is an additional proof of the errors
which it contains.
If the greater part of the profligate have
upheld themselves by the doctrine of mate-
rialism, when they have wished to become
degraded according to method, and to form
a theory of their actions, it is because they
believed that, by submitting the soul to sen-
sation, they would thus be delivered from the
responsibility of their conduct. A virtuous
being, convinced of this doctrine, would be
deeply afflicted by it; for he would inces-
santly fear that the all-powerful influence of
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 45
external objects would change the purity of
his soul, and the force of his resolutions.
But when we see men rejoicing to proclaim
themselves the creatures of circumstances in
all respects, and declaring that all these cir-
cumstances are combined by chance, we
shudder from our very hearts at their per-
verse satisfaction.
When the savage sets fire to a cottage, he
is said to warm himself with pleasure at the
conflagration which he has kindled; he ex-
ercises at least a sort of superiority over the
disorder of which he is guilty; he makes
destruction of some use to him: but when
wan chooses to degrade human nature, who
. will thus be profited?
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? 46 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
CHAPTER IV.
Of the Ridicule introduced by a certain Species
of Philosophy.
The philosophical system, adopted in any
country, exerts a great influence over the
direction of mind; it is the universal model
after which all thought is cast;--those per-
sons even, who have not studied the system,
conform, unknowingly, to the general dis-
position which it inspires. We have seen
for nearly a hundred years past, in Europe,
the growth and increase of a sort of scoffing
scepticism, the foundation of which is the
species of metaphysics that attributes all our
ideas to our sensations. The. first principle
in this philosophy is, not to believe any
thing which cannot be proved like a fact or
a calculation: in union with this principle is
contempt for all that bears the name of
exalted sentiment; and attachment to the
pleasures of sense. These three points of the
doctrine include all the sorts of irony, of
which religion, sensibility, and morals, can
become the object.
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 47
Bayle, whose learned Dictionary is hardly
read by people of the world, is nevertheless
the arsenal from which all the pleasantries
of scepticism have been drawn ; Voltaire has
given them a pungency by his wit and ele-
gance; but the foundation of all this jesting
is, that every thing, not as evident as a phy-
sical experiment, ought to be reckoned in
the number of dreams and idle thoughts. It
is good management to dignify an inca-
pacity for attention by calling it a supreme
sort of reason, which rejects all doubt and
obscurity;--in consequence, they turn the
noblest thoughts into ridicule, if reflection
is necessary to comprehend them, or a
sincere examination of the heart to make
them felt. We still speak with respect of
Pascal, of Bossuet, of J. J. Rousseau, &c. ;
because authority has consecrated them, and
authority, of every sort, is a thing easily
discerned.
But a great number of readers being con-
vinced that ignorance and idleness are the
attributes of a man of wit, think it be-
neath them to take any trouble, and wish
to read, like a paragraph in a newspaper,
writings that have man and nature for their
subject.
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? 48 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
In a word, if by chance such writings were
composed by a German, whose name was
not a French one, and it was as difficult to
pronounce this name as that of the Baron in
Candide, what collections of pleasantries
would not be formed upon this circumstance!
and the meaning of them all would be the
following: "I have grace and lightness of
"spirit; while you, who have the misfor-
"tune to think upon some subjects, and to
"hold by some sentiments, you do not jest
"upon all with nearly the same elegance
M and facility. "
The philosophy of sensation is one of the
principal causes of this frivolity. Since the
time that the soul has been considered pas-
sive, a great number of philosophical labours
have been despised.
The day on which it was said, there are
no mysteries in the world, or at all events
it is unnecessary to think about them; all
our ideas come by the eyes and by the ears,
and the palpable only is the true;--on that
day the individuals who enjoyed all their
senses in perfect health believed themselves
the genuine philosophers. We hear it in-
cessantly said, by those who have ideas
enough to get money when they are poor,
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 49
and to spend it when they are rich, that
they only possess a reasonable philosophy,
and that none but enthusiasts would dream
of any other. In effect, our sensations teach
this philosophy alone; and if we can gain
no knowledge except by their means, every
thing that is not subject to the evidence of
matter must bear the name of folly.
If it was admitted, on the contrary, that
the soul acts by itself, and that we must
draw up information out of ourselves to find
the truth, and that this truth cannot be
seized upon, except by the aid of profound
meditation, because it is not within the
range of terrestrial experience; the whole
course of men's minds would be changed;
they would not disdainfully reject the most
sublime thoughts, because they demand a
close attention; but that which they found
insupportable would be the superficial and
the common; for emptiness grows at length
singularly burthensome.
Voltaire so well perceived the influence
that metaphysics exercise over the general
bias of the mind, that he wrote Candide, to
combat Leibnitz. He took up a curious
whim against final causes, optimism, free-
will; in short, against all the philosophical
vol. in. s
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? 50 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
opinions that exalt the dignity of man; and
he composed Candide, that effort of a
diaholical gaiety; for it appears to be writ-
ten by a being of a different nature from
ourselves, insensible to our condition, well
pleased with our sufferings, and laughing,
like a deemon or an ape, at the miseries of
that human species, with which he has
nothing in common.
The greatest poet of the age, the author
of Alzire, Tancrede, Merope, Zaire, and
Brutus, showed himself in this work ignorant
of all the great moral truths, which he had
so worthily celebrated.
When Voltaire, as a tragic author, felt
and thought in the character of another, he
was admirable; but, when he remains
wholly himself, he is a jester and a cynic.
The same versatility, which enabled him to
adopt the part of the personages whom he
wished to represent, only too well inspired
the language which, in certain moments,
was suited to Voltaire.
Candide brings into action that scoffing
philosophy, so indulgent in appearance, in
reality so ferocious; it presents human na-
ture under the most lamentable point of
view, and offers us, in the room of every
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 51
consolation, the sardonic grin, which frees
us from all compassion for others, by making
us renounce it for ourselves.
It is in consequence of this system that
Voltaire, in his Universal History, has aimed
at attributing virtuous actions, as well as
great crimes, to those accidental events
which deprive the former of all their merit,
and the latter of all their guilt.
In effect, if there is nothing in the soul
but what our sensations have imprinted upon
it, we ought no longer to recognise more
than two real and lasting motives on earth-^-
strength applied to the agent, and the desire
of well-being; in other words, the law of
tactics, and the law of appetite: but if
the mind is still to be considered such as it
has been formed by modern philosophy,
it would very soon be reduced to wish
that something of an exalted nature
would re-appear, in order at least to fur-
nish it with an object for exercise and for
attack.
The Stoics have often repeated that we
ought to brave all the assaults of fortune, and
only to trouble ourselves with what depends
upon the soul, upon our sentiments and
our thoughts. The philosophy of sensation
would have a totally opposite result; it
e2
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? 52 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
would disembarrass us from our feelings
and thoughts, with the design of turning
our efforts towards our physical well-being:
she would say to us--" Attach yourselves to
"the present moment; consider as a chimera
"every thing which wanders out of the
"circle of the pleasures and affairs of this
"world, and pass your short career of life,
"as well as you may, taking care of your
"health, which is the foundation of happi-
"ness. " These maxims have been known
in all times; but they were thought to be the
exclusive property of valets in comedies;
and in our days they have been made the
doctrine of reason, founded upon necessity;
a doctrine very different from that of reli-
gious resignation, for the one is as vulgar as
the other is noble and exalted.
The singularity of the attempt consists in
deducing the theory of elegance from so
plebeian a philosophy ;--our poor nature is.
often low and selfish, as we must grieve to
confess; but it was novel enough to boast
of it. Indifference and contempt for exalted
subjects are become the type of the graceful;
and witticisms have been levelled against
those who take a lively interest in any thing,
which is without a positive result in the
present world.
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 53
The argumentative principle of this frivo-
lity of heart and mind, is the metaphysical
doctrine which refers all our ideas to our
sensations; for nothing but the superficial
comes to us from without, and the serious-
ness of life dwells at the bottom of the soul. ;
If the fatality of materialism, admitted as a
theory of the human mind, led to a distaste
for every thing external, as well as to a dis-
belief of all within us; there would still
be something in this system of an inactive
nobleness, of an oriental indolence, which
might lay claim to a sort of grandeur ;--and
some of the Greek philosophers have found
means to infuse almost a dignity into apathy;
but the empire of sensation, while it has
weakened sentiment by degrees, has left the
activity of personal interest in full force;
and this spring of action has become so
much . the more powerful, as all the others
have been broken into pieces. To incredu-
lity of mind, to selfishness of heart, must
still be added the doctrine concerning
conscience, which Helvetius developed,
when he asserted, that actions virtuous in
themselves had for their object the attain-
ment of those physical enjoyments which
we can taste here below: it has followed
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? 54 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
from hence, that sacrifices made to the ideal
worship of any opinion, or any sentiment
whatever, have been considered as if those
who offer them were dupes; and as men
dread nothing more than passing for dupes,
they have been eager to ca9t ridicule upon
every sort of unsuccessful enthusiasm; for
that which has been recompensed with good
fortune, has escaped raillery: success is
always in the right with the advocates of
materialism.
The dogmatic incredulity, that, namely,
which calls in question the truth of every
thing that is not proved by the senses, is
the source of the chief irony of man against
himself: all moral degradation comes from
that quarter. That philosophy, doubtless,
ought to be considered an effect, as well as a
cause, of the present state of public feeling;
nevertheless, there is an evil of which it is
the principal author; it has given to the
carelessness of levity the appearance of re-
flective reasoning; it has furnished selfish-
ness with specious arguments; and has made
the most noble sentiments be considered as
an accidental malady, caused by external
circumstances alone.
It is of consequence then to examine whe-
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 55
ther the nation, which has constantly guard-
ed itself against the metaphysical system,
from which such inferences have been drawn,
was not right in its principle, and still more
so in the application which it has made of
that principle, to the developement of the
faculties of man, and to his moral conduct.
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? 56 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
CHAPTER V.
General Observations upon German
Philosophy.
Speculative philosophy has always found
numerous partisans among the German na-
tions, and experimental philosophy among
those of Latin extraction. The Romans,
expert as they were in the affairs of life,
were no metaphysicians; they knew nothing
of this subject, except by their connexion
with Greece; and the nations civilized by
them, have, for the most part, inherited
their knowledge in politics, and their in-
difference for those studies which cannot be
applied to the business of the world. This
disposition shows itself in France in its
greatest strength; the Italians and the
Spaniards. have partaken of it; but the
imagination of the South has sometimes
deviated from practical reason, to employ
itself in theories purely abstract.
remain some little difficulties concerning the
origin of things, and the end of our exist-
ence; but the question has been much sim-
plified--and reason now counsels us to sup-
press within our souls all the desires and all
the hopes that genius, love, and religion call
to life; for, according to this system, man
would only be another machine in the
great mechanism of the universe; his facul-
ties would be all wheel-work, his morality
a matter of calculation, and his divinity
success.
Locke, believing from the bottom of his
soul in the existence of God, established his
conviction, without perceiving it, upon rea-
sonings which are all taken out of the
sphere of experience: he asserts the exist-
ence of an eternal principle, the primary
cause of all other causes; thus he enters into
the region of infinity, and that region lies
beyond all experience: but Locke, at the
game time, was so apprehensive lest the idea
of God should pass for an innate idea in man,
it appeared to him so absurd that the Crea-
tor should have deigned to inscribe his name,
like that of a great painter, upon the tablet
of the soul, that he set himself to discover,
out of all the narratives of travellers, some
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? 28 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
nations who were destitute of any religious
belief. We may, I think, boldly affirm, that
such nations do not exist. The impulse that
exalts us towards the Supreme Being disco-
vers itself in the genius of Newton, as it
does in the soul of the poor savage, who
worships the stone upon which he finds rest.
No man clings exclusively to this world,
such as it is at present; and all have felt in
their hearts, at some period of their lives,
an undefinable inclination towards the su-
pernatural: but, how can it happen, that a
being, so religious as Locke, should try to
change the primitive characters of belief
into an accidental knowledge, which chance
may confer or take away? I repeat it--the
tendency of any doctrine ought always to be
deemed of great account in the judgment
which we form upon the truth of that doc. ^
trine; for, in theory, the good and the true
are inseparable.
All that is visible talks to man of a begin*
ning and an end, of decline and destruction.
A divine spark is the only indication of our
immortality. From what sensation does this
arise? All our sensations fight against it,
and yet it triumphs over them all. What!
it will be said, do not final causes, do not
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? ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY. 29
the wonders of the universe, the splendour
of heaven that strikes our eyes, all declare
the magnificence and the goodness of our
Creator? The book of nature is contradic-
tory; we see there the emblems of good
and evil almost in equal proportion; and
things are thus constituted, in order that
man may be able to exercise his liberty be-
tween opposite probabilities; between fears
and hopes almost of equal power. The
starry heaven appears to us like the threshold
of the Divinity; but all the evils and all the
vices of human nature obscure these celestial
fires. A solitary voice, without speech, but
not without harmony; without force, but
irresistible; proclaims a God at the bot-
tom of the human heart: all that is truly
beautiful in man springs from what he ex-
periences within himself, and spontane-
ously; every heroic action is inspired by
moral liberty:--the act of devoting ourselves
to the divine will, that act which every sen-
sation opposes, and which enthusiasm alone
inspires, is so noble and so pure, that the
angels themselves, virtuous as they are by
nature, and without impediment, might
envy it to man.
That species of metaphysics which dis-
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? 30 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
places the centre of life, by supposing its
impulse to come from without, despoils man
of his liberty, and destroys itself; for a
spiritual nature no longer exists, when we
unite it in such a manner to a corporeal
nature, that it is only by consideration for
religious opinion we consent to distinguish
them: such a system shrinks from its own
consequences, excepting when it derives from
them, as it has done in France, materialism
built upon sensation, and morality built
upon interest. The abstract theory of this
system was born in England; but none of
its consequences have been admitted there.
In France they have not had the honour of
the discovery, but in a great degree that of
the application. In Germany, since the time
of Leibnitz, they have opposed the system
and its consequences: and, assuredly, it is
worthy of enlightened and religious men of
all countries, to inquire if those principles,
whose results are so fatal, ought to be con-
sidered as incontestable truths.
Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Smith, Reid,
Dugald Stewart, &c. have studied the ope-
rations of the human mind with a rare saga-
city: the works of Dugald Stewart, in par-
ticular, contain so perfect a theory of the
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? ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY. 31
intellectual faculties, that we may consider
them, to use the expression, as the natural
history of the moral being. Every indivi-
dual must recognise in them some portion of
himself. Whatever opinion we may have
adopted as to the origin of ideas, we must
acknowledge the utility of a labour which
has for its object the examination of their
progress and direction:--but it is not enough
to observe the developement of our faculties,
we must ascend to their source, in order to
give an account of the nature, and of the
independence, of the will of man.
We cannot consider that question as an
idle one, which endeavours to learn whether
the soul has an independent faculty of feel-
ing and of thinking. It is the question of
Hamlet--" To be, or not to be? "
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? 32 PHItOSOPHY AND MORAlS,
CHAPTER III.
Of French Philosophy.
Descartes, for a long period, was at the
head of French philosophers; and if his
physics had not been confessedly erroneous,
perhaps his metaphysics would have pre-
served a more lasting ascendant. Bossuet,
Fenelon, Pascal, all the great men of the
age of Louis XIV. had adopted the Idealism
of Descartes: and this system agreed much
better with the Catholic religion than that
philosophy which is purely experimental;
for it appeared singularly difficult to com-
bine a faith in the most mysterious doctrines
with the sovereign empire of sensation over
the soul.
Among the French metaphysicians who
have professed the doctrine of Locke, we
must reckon, in the first class, Condillac,
whose priestly office obliged him to use
some caution in regard to religion; and
Bonnet, who, being naturally religious, lived
at Geneva; in a country where learning and
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. S3
piety are inseparable. These two philoso-
phers, Bonnet especially, have established
exceptions in favour of revelation; but it
appears to me, that one of the causes of the
diminution of respect for Religion, is this
custom of setting her apart from all the
sciences; as if philosophy, reasoning, every
thing, in short, which is esteemed in earthly
affairs, could not be applied to Religion: an
ironical veneration removes her to a distance
from all the interests of life; it is, if we may
so express ourselves, to bow her out of the
circle of the human mind. In every coun-
try, where a religious belief is predominant,
it is the centre of ideas; and philosophy
consists in the rational interpretation of di-
vine truths.
When Descartes wrote, Bacon's philoso-
phy had not yet penetrated into France;
and that country was then in the same state
of scholastic ignorance and superstition as at
the epoch when the great English master of
the art of thinking published his' works.
There are two methods of correcting the pre-
judices of men--the recourse to experience,
and the appeal to reflection. Baconadopted
the first means; Descartes the second. The
one has rendered immense service to the
vol. in. d
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? 34 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
sciences; the other to thought itself, which
is the source of all the sciences.
Bacon was a man of much greater genius,
and of still ampler learning, than Descartes.
He has known how to establish his philoso-
phy in the material world : that of Descartes
was brought into discredit by the learned,
who attacked with success his opinions upon
the system of the world: he could reason
justly in the examination of the mind, and
deceived himself in relation to the physical
laws of the universe: but the opinions of men
resting almost entirely upon a blind and pre-
cipitate confidence in analogy, they believed
that he who had observed so ill what passed
without him, was no better instructed as to
the world within. In his manner of writing,
Descartes shows a simplicity and overflow-
ing goodness of nature, which inspires his
readers with confidence; and the energy of
his genius will not be contested. Never-
theless, when we compare him, either to the
German philosophers or to Plato, we can
neither find in his works the theory of ideal-
ism in all its abstraction, nor the poetical
imagination, which constitutes its beauty.
Yet a ray of light had passed over the mind
of Descartes, and his is the glory of having
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? 'FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 35
directed the philosophy of his day towards
the interior clevelopement of the soul. He
produced a great effect by referring all re-
ceived truths to the test of reflection: these
axioms were admired--" I think, therefore I
44 exist; therefore I have a Creator, the per-
"feet source of my imperfect faculties : every
"thing without us may be called in question:
"truth is only in the mind, and the mind is
44 the supreme judge of truth. "
Universal doubt is the A B C of philoso-
phy: every man begins to reason again by
the aid of his own native light, when he at-
tempts to ascend to the principles of things;
but the authority of Aristotle had so com-
pletely. introduced the dogmatic method into
Europe, that the age was astonished at the
boldness of Descartes, who submitted all
opinions to natural judgment.
The Port Royal writers were formed in
his school; so that France produced men of
a severer turn of thought in the seventeenth
than in the eighteenth century. At the side
of their graceful and engaging genius ap-
peared a certain gravity, which betrayed the
natural influence of a system of philosophy
that attributed all our ideas to the power of
reflection.
d2
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? 36 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Mallebranche, the principal disciple of
Descartes, was a man gifted with the ener-
gies of mind in an eminent degree. They
have been pleased to consider him as a
dreamer in the eighteenth century; and in
Franoe it is all over with that writer who
has the character of a dreamer; for it im-
plies the idea of total inutility as to the pur-
poses of life, and this is peculiarly offensive
to all reasonable persons, as they are en-
titled ;--but this word Utility--is it quite no-
ble enough to be applied to all the cravings
of the soul?
The French writers of the eighteenth cen-
O
tury excelled most in the study of political
liberty ; those of the seventeenth in the study
of moral liberty. The philosophers of the
one period were combatants; of the other
anchorets. Under an absolute government,
like that of Louis the XlVth, independence
finds no asylum but in meditation: in the
disorderly reigns of the last century, the men
of letters were animated with the desire of
winning over the government of their coun-
try to the liberal principles and ideas of
which England displayed so fair an example.
The writers who have not gone beyond this
point, are very deserving of the esteem of
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. ' 37
their countrymen ; but it is not the less true,
that the works composed in the seventeenth
century are more philosophical, in many re-
spects, than those which have since been
published; for philosophy especially consists
in the study and the knowledge of our intel-
lectual existence.
The philosophers of the eighteenth cen-
tury have busied themselves rather with so-
cial politics than with the primitive nature of
man; those of the seventeenth century, solely
and precisely from their being religious men,
had a more thorough knowledge of the
human heart. During the decline of the
French monarchy, the philosophers turned
the direction of thought, which they used
as a weapon, to what was passing without
them: under the empire of Louis the XlVth,
they were more attached to the ideal meta-
physics, because the exercise of recollection
was more habitual to them, and they had
more occasion for it. In order to raise the
French genius to its highest degree of per-
fection, it would be requisite to learn, from
the writers of the eighteenth century, how
to use our faculties to advantage; and from
those of the seventeenth, how to study their
source-
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? 38 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Descartes, Pascal, and Mallebranche, had
much more resemblance to the German phi-
losophers than the French writers of the
eighteenth century; but Mallebranche and
the Germans differ in this, that the one lays
down as an article of faith what the others
reduce into a scientific theory:--the one
aims at clothing the forms inspired by his
imagination in a dogmatic dress, because he
is afraid of being accused of enthusiasm;
while the others, writing at the end of an
sera when analysis has been extended to
every object of study, know that they are
enthusiasts, and are solely anxious to prove
that reason and enthusiasm are of one ac-
cord.
If the French had followed the metaphy-
sical bias of their great men of the seven-
teenth century, they would now have enter-
tained the same opinions as the Germans;
for in the progress of philosophy Leibnitz is
the natural successor of Descartes and Malle-
branche, and Kant of Leibnitz.
England had great influence over the
writers of the eighteenth century; the admi-
ration which they felt for that country in-
spired them with the wish of introducing into
France her liberty and her philosophy. Eng-
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 39
Jish philosophy was then only void of danger
when united with the religious sentiments of
that people, with their liberty, and with
their obedience to the laws. In the bosom
of a nation where Newton and Clarke never
pronounced the name of God without bow-
ing their heads, let the metaphysical sys-
tems have been ever so erroneous, they could
not be fatal. That which is every way
wanting in France, is the feeling and habit
of veneration; and the transition is there
very quick from the examination which may
enlighten, to the irony which reduces every
thing to dust.
It seems to me that we may observe two
perfectly distinct epochs in the eighteenth
century; that in which Jhe influence of Eng-
land was first acknowledged, and that in
which the men of genius hurried themselves
into destruction: light was then changed to
conflagration; and Philosophy, like an en-
raged enchantress, set fire to the palace
where she had displayed her wonders.
In politics, Montesquieu belongs to the
. first epoch, Raynal to the second: in reli-
gion, the writings of Voltaire, which had the
defence of toleration for their object, breathed
the spirit of the first half of the century; but
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? 40 PHILOSOPHY A ND MORALS.
his pitiable and ostentatious irreligion has*
been the disgrace of the second. Finalty,
in metaphysics, Condillac and Helvetius, al-
though they were contemporaries, both carry
about them the impression of these very dif-
ferent eras; for, although the entire system
of the philosophy of sensation was wrong
in its principle, yet the consequences which
Helvetius has drawn from it ought not to be
imputed to Condillac; he was far from as-
senting to them.
Condillac has rendered experimental me-
taphysics more clear and more striking than
they are in Locke: he has truly levelled them
to the comprehension of all the world: he
says, with Locke, that the soul can have no
idea which does not come in from sensation;
he attributes to our wants the origin of
knowledge and of language; to words, that
of reflection: and thus, making us receive
the entire developement of our moral being
from external objects, he explains human
nature as he would a positive science, in
a clear, rapid, and, in some respects, con-
vincing manner; for if we neither felt in.
our hearts the native impulses of belief, nor
a conscience independent of experience, nor
a creating spirit, in all the force of the term,
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 41
we might be well enough contented with
this mechanical definition of the human soul.
It is natural to be seduced by the easy solu-
tion of the greatest of problems; but this
apparent simplicity exists only in the mode
of inquiry; the object to which it is pretend-
ingly applied does not the less continue of
an unknown immensity; and the enigma of
ourselves swallows up, like the sphinx, thou-
sands of systems which pretend to the glory
of having guessed its meaning.
The work of Condillac ought only to be
considered as another book on an inexhausti-
ble subject, if the influence of this book
had not been fatal. Helvetius, who deduces
from the philosophy of sensations all the
direct consequences which it can admit,
asserts, that if the hands of man had been
made like the hoofs of the horse, he would
only have possessed the intelligence of this
animal. Assuredly, if the case was so, it
would be very unjust to attribute to ourselves
any thing blameable or meritorious in our
actions; for the difference which may exist
between the several organizations of indi-
viduals, would authorize and be the proper
cause of the difference in their characters.
To the opinions of Helvetius succeeded
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? 42 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
those of the System of Nature, which tended
to the annihilation of the Deity in the uni-
verse, and of free will in man. Locke, Con-
dillac, Helvetius, and the unhappy author of
the System of Nature, have all progressively
advanced in the same path: the first steps
were innocent; neither Locke nor Condillac
knew the dangers of their philosophy; but
very soon this black spot, which was hardly
visible in the intellectual horizon, grew to
such a size as to be near plunging the uni-
verse and man back again into darkness.
External objects, it was said, are the cause
of all our impressions; nothing then appears
more agreeable than to give ourselves up to
the physical world, and to come, self-invited
guests, to the banquet of nature; but by
degrees the internal source is dried up, and
even as to the imagination that is requisite
for luxury and pleasure, it goes on decaying
to such a degree, that very shortly man will
not retain soul enough to relish any enjoy-
ment, of however material a nature.
The immortality of the soul, and the sen-
timent of duty, are suppositions entirely
gratuitous in the system which grounds all
our ideas upon our sensations: for no sensa-
tion reveals to us immortality in death. If
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 43
external objects alone have formed our con-
science, from the nurse who receives us in
her arms until the last act of an advanced
old age, all our impressions are so linked to
each other, that we cannot arraign with
justice the pretended power of volition,
which is only another instance of fatality.
I shall endeavour to show, in the second
part of this section, that the moral system,
which is built upon interest, so strenuously
preached up by the French writers of the last
age, has an intimate connexion with that
species of metaphysics which attributes all
our ideas to our sensations, and that the con-
sequences of the one are as bad in practice,
as those of the other in theory. Those who
have been able to read the licentious works
published in France towards the close of the
eighteenth century, will bear witness, that
when the writers of these culpable perform-
ances attempt to support themselves upon
any species of reasoning, they all appeal to
the influence of our physical over our moral
constitution; they refer to our sensations for .
the origin of every the most blameable
opinion; they exhibit, in short, under all
appearances, the doctrine which destroys
free will and conscience.
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? 44 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
We cannot deny, it may be said, that this
is a degrading doctrine; but, nevertheless,
if it be true, must we reject it, and blind
ourselves on purpose? Assuredly those
writers would have made a deplorable dis-
covery, who had dethroned the soul, and
condemned the mind to sacrifice herself, by
employing all her faculties to prove, that the
laws which are common to every physical
existence agree also to her--but, thanks be
to God (and this expression is here in its pe-
culiar place), thanks be to God, I say, this
system is entirely false in its principle; and
the circumstance of those writers espousing
it who have supported the cause of immo-
rality, is an additional proof of the errors
which it contains.
If the greater part of the profligate have
upheld themselves by the doctrine of mate-
rialism, when they have wished to become
degraded according to method, and to form
a theory of their actions, it is because they
believed that, by submitting the soul to sen-
sation, they would thus be delivered from the
responsibility of their conduct. A virtuous
being, convinced of this doctrine, would be
deeply afflicted by it; for he would inces-
santly fear that the all-powerful influence of
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 45
external objects would change the purity of
his soul, and the force of his resolutions.
But when we see men rejoicing to proclaim
themselves the creatures of circumstances in
all respects, and declaring that all these cir-
cumstances are combined by chance, we
shudder from our very hearts at their per-
verse satisfaction.
When the savage sets fire to a cottage, he
is said to warm himself with pleasure at the
conflagration which he has kindled; he ex-
ercises at least a sort of superiority over the
disorder of which he is guilty; he makes
destruction of some use to him: but when
wan chooses to degrade human nature, who
. will thus be profited?
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? 46 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
CHAPTER IV.
Of the Ridicule introduced by a certain Species
of Philosophy.
The philosophical system, adopted in any
country, exerts a great influence over the
direction of mind; it is the universal model
after which all thought is cast;--those per-
sons even, who have not studied the system,
conform, unknowingly, to the general dis-
position which it inspires. We have seen
for nearly a hundred years past, in Europe,
the growth and increase of a sort of scoffing
scepticism, the foundation of which is the
species of metaphysics that attributes all our
ideas to our sensations. The. first principle
in this philosophy is, not to believe any
thing which cannot be proved like a fact or
a calculation: in union with this principle is
contempt for all that bears the name of
exalted sentiment; and attachment to the
pleasures of sense. These three points of the
doctrine include all the sorts of irony, of
which religion, sensibility, and morals, can
become the object.
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 47
Bayle, whose learned Dictionary is hardly
read by people of the world, is nevertheless
the arsenal from which all the pleasantries
of scepticism have been drawn ; Voltaire has
given them a pungency by his wit and ele-
gance; but the foundation of all this jesting
is, that every thing, not as evident as a phy-
sical experiment, ought to be reckoned in
the number of dreams and idle thoughts. It
is good management to dignify an inca-
pacity for attention by calling it a supreme
sort of reason, which rejects all doubt and
obscurity;--in consequence, they turn the
noblest thoughts into ridicule, if reflection
is necessary to comprehend them, or a
sincere examination of the heart to make
them felt. We still speak with respect of
Pascal, of Bossuet, of J. J. Rousseau, &c. ;
because authority has consecrated them, and
authority, of every sort, is a thing easily
discerned.
But a great number of readers being con-
vinced that ignorance and idleness are the
attributes of a man of wit, think it be-
neath them to take any trouble, and wish
to read, like a paragraph in a newspaper,
writings that have man and nature for their
subject.
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? 48 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
In a word, if by chance such writings were
composed by a German, whose name was
not a French one, and it was as difficult to
pronounce this name as that of the Baron in
Candide, what collections of pleasantries
would not be formed upon this circumstance!
and the meaning of them all would be the
following: "I have grace and lightness of
"spirit; while you, who have the misfor-
"tune to think upon some subjects, and to
"hold by some sentiments, you do not jest
"upon all with nearly the same elegance
M and facility. "
The philosophy of sensation is one of the
principal causes of this frivolity. Since the
time that the soul has been considered pas-
sive, a great number of philosophical labours
have been despised.
The day on which it was said, there are
no mysteries in the world, or at all events
it is unnecessary to think about them; all
our ideas come by the eyes and by the ears,
and the palpable only is the true;--on that
day the individuals who enjoyed all their
senses in perfect health believed themselves
the genuine philosophers. We hear it in-
cessantly said, by those who have ideas
enough to get money when they are poor,
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 49
and to spend it when they are rich, that
they only possess a reasonable philosophy,
and that none but enthusiasts would dream
of any other. In effect, our sensations teach
this philosophy alone; and if we can gain
no knowledge except by their means, every
thing that is not subject to the evidence of
matter must bear the name of folly.
If it was admitted, on the contrary, that
the soul acts by itself, and that we must
draw up information out of ourselves to find
the truth, and that this truth cannot be
seized upon, except by the aid of profound
meditation, because it is not within the
range of terrestrial experience; the whole
course of men's minds would be changed;
they would not disdainfully reject the most
sublime thoughts, because they demand a
close attention; but that which they found
insupportable would be the superficial and
the common; for emptiness grows at length
singularly burthensome.
Voltaire so well perceived the influence
that metaphysics exercise over the general
bias of the mind, that he wrote Candide, to
combat Leibnitz. He took up a curious
whim against final causes, optimism, free-
will; in short, against all the philosophical
vol. in. s
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? 50 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
opinions that exalt the dignity of man; and
he composed Candide, that effort of a
diaholical gaiety; for it appears to be writ-
ten by a being of a different nature from
ourselves, insensible to our condition, well
pleased with our sufferings, and laughing,
like a deemon or an ape, at the miseries of
that human species, with which he has
nothing in common.
The greatest poet of the age, the author
of Alzire, Tancrede, Merope, Zaire, and
Brutus, showed himself in this work ignorant
of all the great moral truths, which he had
so worthily celebrated.
When Voltaire, as a tragic author, felt
and thought in the character of another, he
was admirable; but, when he remains
wholly himself, he is a jester and a cynic.
The same versatility, which enabled him to
adopt the part of the personages whom he
wished to represent, only too well inspired
the language which, in certain moments,
was suited to Voltaire.
Candide brings into action that scoffing
philosophy, so indulgent in appearance, in
reality so ferocious; it presents human na-
ture under the most lamentable point of
view, and offers us, in the room of every
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 51
consolation, the sardonic grin, which frees
us from all compassion for others, by making
us renounce it for ourselves.
It is in consequence of this system that
Voltaire, in his Universal History, has aimed
at attributing virtuous actions, as well as
great crimes, to those accidental events
which deprive the former of all their merit,
and the latter of all their guilt.
In effect, if there is nothing in the soul
but what our sensations have imprinted upon
it, we ought no longer to recognise more
than two real and lasting motives on earth-^-
strength applied to the agent, and the desire
of well-being; in other words, the law of
tactics, and the law of appetite: but if
the mind is still to be considered such as it
has been formed by modern philosophy,
it would very soon be reduced to wish
that something of an exalted nature
would re-appear, in order at least to fur-
nish it with an object for exercise and for
attack.
The Stoics have often repeated that we
ought to brave all the assaults of fortune, and
only to trouble ourselves with what depends
upon the soul, upon our sentiments and
our thoughts. The philosophy of sensation
would have a totally opposite result; it
e2
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? 52 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
would disembarrass us from our feelings
and thoughts, with the design of turning
our efforts towards our physical well-being:
she would say to us--" Attach yourselves to
"the present moment; consider as a chimera
"every thing which wanders out of the
"circle of the pleasures and affairs of this
"world, and pass your short career of life,
"as well as you may, taking care of your
"health, which is the foundation of happi-
"ness. " These maxims have been known
in all times; but they were thought to be the
exclusive property of valets in comedies;
and in our days they have been made the
doctrine of reason, founded upon necessity;
a doctrine very different from that of reli-
gious resignation, for the one is as vulgar as
the other is noble and exalted.
The singularity of the attempt consists in
deducing the theory of elegance from so
plebeian a philosophy ;--our poor nature is.
often low and selfish, as we must grieve to
confess; but it was novel enough to boast
of it. Indifference and contempt for exalted
subjects are become the type of the graceful;
and witticisms have been levelled against
those who take a lively interest in any thing,
which is without a positive result in the
present world.
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 53
The argumentative principle of this frivo-
lity of heart and mind, is the metaphysical
doctrine which refers all our ideas to our
sensations; for nothing but the superficial
comes to us from without, and the serious-
ness of life dwells at the bottom of the soul. ;
If the fatality of materialism, admitted as a
theory of the human mind, led to a distaste
for every thing external, as well as to a dis-
belief of all within us; there would still
be something in this system of an inactive
nobleness, of an oriental indolence, which
might lay claim to a sort of grandeur ;--and
some of the Greek philosophers have found
means to infuse almost a dignity into apathy;
but the empire of sensation, while it has
weakened sentiment by degrees, has left the
activity of personal interest in full force;
and this spring of action has become so
much . the more powerful, as all the others
have been broken into pieces. To incredu-
lity of mind, to selfishness of heart, must
still be added the doctrine concerning
conscience, which Helvetius developed,
when he asserted, that actions virtuous in
themselves had for their object the attain-
ment of those physical enjoyments which
we can taste here below: it has followed
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? 54 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
from hence, that sacrifices made to the ideal
worship of any opinion, or any sentiment
whatever, have been considered as if those
who offer them were dupes; and as men
dread nothing more than passing for dupes,
they have been eager to ca9t ridicule upon
every sort of unsuccessful enthusiasm; for
that which has been recompensed with good
fortune, has escaped raillery: success is
always in the right with the advocates of
materialism.
The dogmatic incredulity, that, namely,
which calls in question the truth of every
thing that is not proved by the senses, is
the source of the chief irony of man against
himself: all moral degradation comes from
that quarter. That philosophy, doubtless,
ought to be considered an effect, as well as a
cause, of the present state of public feeling;
nevertheless, there is an evil of which it is
the principal author; it has given to the
carelessness of levity the appearance of re-
flective reasoning; it has furnished selfish-
ness with specious arguments; and has made
the most noble sentiments be considered as
an accidental malady, caused by external
circumstances alone.
It is of consequence then to examine whe-
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? FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. 55
ther the nation, which has constantly guard-
ed itself against the metaphysical system,
from which such inferences have been drawn,
was not right in its principle, and still more
so in the application which it has made of
that principle, to the developement of the
faculties of man, and to his moral conduct.
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? 56 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
CHAPTER V.
General Observations upon German
Philosophy.
Speculative philosophy has always found
numerous partisans among the German na-
tions, and experimental philosophy among
those of Latin extraction. The Romans,
expert as they were in the affairs of life,
were no metaphysicians; they knew nothing
of this subject, except by their connexion
with Greece; and the nations civilized by
them, have, for the most part, inherited
their knowledge in politics, and their in-
difference for those studies which cannot be
applied to the business of the world. This
disposition shows itself in France in its
greatest strength; the Italians and the
Spaniards. have partaken of it; but the
imagination of the South has sometimes
deviated from practical reason, to employ
itself in theories purely abstract.
