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.
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.
Madame de Stael - Germany
handle.
net/2027/hvd.
32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 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.
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 57
The greatness of soul that appeared among
the Romans, gave a sublime character to
their patriotism and their morals ; but this
consequence must be attributed to their
republican institutions. When liberty no
longer existed in Rome, a selfish and sensual
luxury was seen to reign there, with almost
an undivided empire; excepting that of an
adroit sort of political knowledge, which
directed every mind towards observation and
experience. The Romans retained nothing
of their past study of Grecian literature and
philosophy but a taste for the arts; and this
taste itself very soon degenerated into gross
enjoyments.
The influence of Rome did not exert itself
over the northern nations. They were al-
most entirely civilized by Christianity ;--and
their ancient religion, which contained
within it the principles of chivalry, bore no
resemblance to the Paganism of the South.
There was to be found a spirit of heroica!
and generous self-devotion; an enthusiasm
for women, which made a noble worship of
love; in a word, as the rigours of the climate
prevented man from plunging himself into
the delights of nature, he had so much the
keener relish for the pleasures of the soul
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? 58 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
It may be objected to me, that the Greeks
had the same religion and the same climate
as the Romans ; and that yet they have
given themselves up more than any other
people to speculative philosophy; but may
we not attribute to the Indians some of the
intellectual systems developed among the
Greeks? The ideal philosophy of Pytha-
goras and Plato ill agrees with Paganism,
such as it appears to us; historical traditions
also lead us to believe that . Egypt was
the medium through which the nations of
southern Europe received 'the influence of
the East. The philosophy of Epicurus is the
only philosophy of truly Grecian origin.
Whatever may become of these conjec-
tures, it is certain that the spirituality of the
soul, and all the thoughts derived from it,
have been easily naturalized among the peo-
ple of the North; and of all these nations,
the Germans have ever showed themselves
the most inclined to contemplative philo-
sophy. Leibnitz is their Bacon and their
Descartes. We find in this excellent genius
all the qualities which the German philoso-
phers in general glory to aim at: immense
erudition, perfect good faith, enthusiasm
hidden under strict form and method. He
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 5. 9
had profoundly studied theology, jurispru-
dence, history, languages, mathematics, na-
tural philosophy, chemistry; for he was con-
vinced that an universality of knowledge
was necessary to constitute a superior being
in any department: in short, every thing in
Leibnitz displayed those virtues which are
allied to sublimity of thought, and which
deserve at once our admiration and our
respect.
His works may be divided into three
branches--the exact sciences, theological
philosophy, and the philosophy of the mind.
Every one knows that Leibnitz was the rival
of Newton, in the theory of calculation.
The knowledge of mathematics is very
useful in metaphysical studies; abstract rea-
soning does not exist in perfection out of
algebra and geometry; I shall endeavour to *
show in another place the unsuitableness of
this sort of reasoning, when we attempt to
exercise it upon a subject that is allied in
any manner to sensibility; but it confers
upon the human mind a power of attention,
that renders it much more capable of ana-
lysing itself: we must also know the laws and
the forces of the universe, to study man
under all his relations. There is such an
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? 60 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
analogy, and such a difference, between the
physical and the moral world, their re-
semblances and their diversity lend each
other such light, that it is impossible to be
a learned man of the first rank without the
assistance of speculative philosophy, nor a
speculative philosopher without having stu-
died the positive sciences.
Locke and Condiliac had not sufficiently
attended to these sciences ; but Leibnitz had
in this respect an incontestable superiority.
Descartes also was a very great mathema-
tician; and it is to be remarked, that the
greater part of the advocates for the ideal
philosophy have made an unbounded use of
their intellectual faculties. The exercise of
the mind, as well as that of the heart, im-
parts a feeling of internal activity, of which
all those beings who abandon themselves to
the impressions that come from without are
rarely capable.
The first class of the writings of Leibnitz
contains those which we call theological,
because they are directed to truths which
form part of the support of religion; and the
theory of the human mind is included in the
second class. In the first class he treats of
the origin of good and evil--of the divine
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 6l
prescience;--in a word, of those primitive
questions which lie beyond the bounds of
human intelligence. I do not pretend to cen-
sure, by this expression, those great men who,
from the times of Pythagoras and Plato down
to our own, have been attracted towards these
lofty philosophical speculations. Genius does
not set bounds to itself, until it has struggled
for a long time against that hard necessity.
Who can possess the faculty of thinking,
and not endeavour to learn the origin and
the end of the things of this world?
Every thing that lives upon earth, except-
ing man, seems to be ignorant of itself. He
alone knows that he will die, and this awful
truth awakens his interest for all the grand
thoughts which are attached to it. From the
time that we are capable of reflection we
resolve, or rather we think we resolve, after
our own manner, the philosophical questions
which may explain the destiny of man; but
it has been granted to no one to compre-
hend that destiny altogether. Every man
views it from a different point; every man
has his own philosophy, his poetry, his love.
This philosophy is in accord with the peculiar
bms of his character and his mind. When
we raise ourselves towards infinity, a thou-
i
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? 62 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
sand explanations may be equally true,
although different; for questions without
bounds have thousands of aspects, one of
which may be sufficient to occupy the whole
duration of existence.
If the mystery of the universe is above the
understanding of man, still the study of this
mystery gives more expansion to the mind.
It is in metaphysics as it is in alchemy: in
searching for the philosopher's stone, in en-
deavouring to discover an impossibility, we
, meet upon the road with truths which would
have remained unknown to us: besides, we
cannot hinder a meditative being from be-
stowing some time at least upon the tran-
scendent philosophy; this ebullition of spi-
ritual nature cannot be kept back, without
bringing that nature into disgrace.
The pre-established harmony of Leibnitz,
which he believed to be a great discovery,
has been refuted with success; he flattered
himself that he could explain the relations
between mind and matter, by considering
them both as instruments tuned beforehand,
which re-echo, and answer, and imitate each
other mutually. His monads, of which he
constitutes the simple elements of the uni-
verse, are but an hypothesis as gratuitous
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 63
as all those which have been used to explain
the origin of things. But in what a singular
state of perplexity is the human mind! In-
cessantly attracted towards the secret of its
being, it finds that secret equally impossible
to be discovered, or to be banished from its
thoughts.
The Persians say, that Zoroaster interro-
gated the Deity, and asked how the world
had begun, when it would end, what was
the origin of good and evil? The Deity an-
swered to all these questions--" Do what is
"good, and gain immortality. " The point
which particularly constitutes the excellence
of this reply, is this--that it does not dis-
courage man from the most sublime medi-
tations; it only teaches him, that by con-
science and sentiment he may exalt himself
to the most lofty conceptions of philosophy.
Leibnitz was an idealist, who founded his
system solely upon reasoning; and from
thence it arises, that he has pushed his ab-
stractions too far, and that he has not suffi-
ciently supported his theory upon inward
persuasion--the only true foundation of that
which is above the understanding: in short,
reason upon the liberty of man, and you
will not believe it; lay your hand upon your
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? 64 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
conscience, and you will not be able to
doubt it. Consequence and contradiction,
in the sense that we attach to either of these
terms, do not exist within the sphere of the
great questions concerning the liberty of
man, the origin of good and evil, the divine
prescience, &c. In these questions senti-
ment is almost always in opposition to rea-
son; in order to teach mankind, that what
he calls incredible in the order of earthly
things, is perhaps the supreme truth under
universal relations.
Dante has expressed a grand philosophical
thought by this verse :--
A guisa del ver primo che l'uom crede*.
We must believe certain truths as we believe
our own existence; it is the soul which re-
veals them to us; and reasonings of every
kind are never more than feeble streams de-
rived from this fountain.
The Theodicea of Leibnitz treats of the
divine prescience, and of the cause of good
and evil: it is one of the most profound and
argumentative works upon the theory of the
infinite; the author, however, too often ap-
plies to that which is without bounds, a sort
* " It is thus that man believes in primitive truth. "
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 65
of logic to which circumscribed objects alone
are amenable. Leibnitz was a perfectly re-
ligious character; but, from this very cir-
cumstance, he believed it a duty to ground
the truths of religion upon mathematical rea-
soning, in order to support them on such
foundations as are admitted within the em-
pire of experience: this error proceeds from
a respect, oftener felt than acknowledged,
for men of cold and arid minds ; we attempt
to convince them in their own manner; we
acknowledge that arguments in a logical form
have more certainty than a proof from senti-
ment; and it is not true.
In the region of intellectual and religious
truths, of which Leibnitz has treated, we
must use consciousness in the room of de-
monstration. Leibnitz, wishing to adhere to
abstract reasoning, demands a sort of stretch
of attention which few minds can support.
Metaphysical works, that are founded neither
upon experience nor upon sentiment, singu-
larly fatigue the thinking power; and we
may imbibe from them a physical and moral
pain, so great, that by our obstinate en-
deavours to conquer it, we may shatter the
organs of reason in our heads. A poet,
Baggesen, has made Vertigo a divinity--we
VOL. III. p
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? 66 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
should recommend ourselves to the favour of
that goddess, when we are about to study
these works, which place us in such a man-
ner at the summit of ideas, that we have no
longer any ladder-steps to re-descend into
life.
The metaphysical and religious writers,
who are eloquent and feeling at the same
time (such as we have seen in some exam-
ples), are much better adapted to our nature.
Far from requiring the suppression of our
faculties of feeling, in order to make our fa-
culty of abstraction more precise, they bid
us think, feel, and wish, that all the strength
of our souls may aid us to penetrate into the
depths of heaven; but to cling close to ab-
straction is such an effort, that it is natural
enough for the generality of men to have
renounced the attempt, and to have thought
it more easy to admit nothing beyond what
is visible.
The experimental philosophy is complete
in itself; it is a whole, sufficiently vulgar,
tout compact, circumscribed, argumentative;
and while we adhere to the sort of reasoning
which is received in the commerce of the
world, we ought to be contented with it;
the immortal and the infinite are only felt
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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.
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 57
The greatness of soul that appeared among
the Romans, gave a sublime character to
their patriotism and their morals ; but this
consequence must be attributed to their
republican institutions. When liberty no
longer existed in Rome, a selfish and sensual
luxury was seen to reign there, with almost
an undivided empire; excepting that of an
adroit sort of political knowledge, which
directed every mind towards observation and
experience. The Romans retained nothing
of their past study of Grecian literature and
philosophy but a taste for the arts; and this
taste itself very soon degenerated into gross
enjoyments.
The influence of Rome did not exert itself
over the northern nations. They were al-
most entirely civilized by Christianity ;--and
their ancient religion, which contained
within it the principles of chivalry, bore no
resemblance to the Paganism of the South.
There was to be found a spirit of heroica!
and generous self-devotion; an enthusiasm
for women, which made a noble worship of
love; in a word, as the rigours of the climate
prevented man from plunging himself into
the delights of nature, he had so much the
keener relish for the pleasures of the soul
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? 58 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
It may be objected to me, that the Greeks
had the same religion and the same climate
as the Romans ; and that yet they have
given themselves up more than any other
people to speculative philosophy; but may
we not attribute to the Indians some of the
intellectual systems developed among the
Greeks? The ideal philosophy of Pytha-
goras and Plato ill agrees with Paganism,
such as it appears to us; historical traditions
also lead us to believe that . Egypt was
the medium through which the nations of
southern Europe received 'the influence of
the East. The philosophy of Epicurus is the
only philosophy of truly Grecian origin.
Whatever may become of these conjec-
tures, it is certain that the spirituality of the
soul, and all the thoughts derived from it,
have been easily naturalized among the peo-
ple of the North; and of all these nations,
the Germans have ever showed themselves
the most inclined to contemplative philo-
sophy. Leibnitz is their Bacon and their
Descartes. We find in this excellent genius
all the qualities which the German philoso-
phers in general glory to aim at: immense
erudition, perfect good faith, enthusiasm
hidden under strict form and method. He
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 5. 9
had profoundly studied theology, jurispru-
dence, history, languages, mathematics, na-
tural philosophy, chemistry; for he was con-
vinced that an universality of knowledge
was necessary to constitute a superior being
in any department: in short, every thing in
Leibnitz displayed those virtues which are
allied to sublimity of thought, and which
deserve at once our admiration and our
respect.
His works may be divided into three
branches--the exact sciences, theological
philosophy, and the philosophy of the mind.
Every one knows that Leibnitz was the rival
of Newton, in the theory of calculation.
The knowledge of mathematics is very
useful in metaphysical studies; abstract rea-
soning does not exist in perfection out of
algebra and geometry; I shall endeavour to *
show in another place the unsuitableness of
this sort of reasoning, when we attempt to
exercise it upon a subject that is allied in
any manner to sensibility; but it confers
upon the human mind a power of attention,
that renders it much more capable of ana-
lysing itself: we must also know the laws and
the forces of the universe, to study man
under all his relations. There is such an
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? 60 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
analogy, and such a difference, between the
physical and the moral world, their re-
semblances and their diversity lend each
other such light, that it is impossible to be
a learned man of the first rank without the
assistance of speculative philosophy, nor a
speculative philosopher without having stu-
died the positive sciences.
Locke and Condiliac had not sufficiently
attended to these sciences ; but Leibnitz had
in this respect an incontestable superiority.
Descartes also was a very great mathema-
tician; and it is to be remarked, that the
greater part of the advocates for the ideal
philosophy have made an unbounded use of
their intellectual faculties. The exercise of
the mind, as well as that of the heart, im-
parts a feeling of internal activity, of which
all those beings who abandon themselves to
the impressions that come from without are
rarely capable.
The first class of the writings of Leibnitz
contains those which we call theological,
because they are directed to truths which
form part of the support of religion; and the
theory of the human mind is included in the
second class. In the first class he treats of
the origin of good and evil--of the divine
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 6l
prescience;--in a word, of those primitive
questions which lie beyond the bounds of
human intelligence. I do not pretend to cen-
sure, by this expression, those great men who,
from the times of Pythagoras and Plato down
to our own, have been attracted towards these
lofty philosophical speculations. Genius does
not set bounds to itself, until it has struggled
for a long time against that hard necessity.
Who can possess the faculty of thinking,
and not endeavour to learn the origin and
the end of the things of this world?
Every thing that lives upon earth, except-
ing man, seems to be ignorant of itself. He
alone knows that he will die, and this awful
truth awakens his interest for all the grand
thoughts which are attached to it. From the
time that we are capable of reflection we
resolve, or rather we think we resolve, after
our own manner, the philosophical questions
which may explain the destiny of man; but
it has been granted to no one to compre-
hend that destiny altogether. Every man
views it from a different point; every man
has his own philosophy, his poetry, his love.
This philosophy is in accord with the peculiar
bms of his character and his mind. When
we raise ourselves towards infinity, a thou-
i
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? 62 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
sand explanations may be equally true,
although different; for questions without
bounds have thousands of aspects, one of
which may be sufficient to occupy the whole
duration of existence.
If the mystery of the universe is above the
understanding of man, still the study of this
mystery gives more expansion to the mind.
It is in metaphysics as it is in alchemy: in
searching for the philosopher's stone, in en-
deavouring to discover an impossibility, we
, meet upon the road with truths which would
have remained unknown to us: besides, we
cannot hinder a meditative being from be-
stowing some time at least upon the tran-
scendent philosophy; this ebullition of spi-
ritual nature cannot be kept back, without
bringing that nature into disgrace.
The pre-established harmony of Leibnitz,
which he believed to be a great discovery,
has been refuted with success; he flattered
himself that he could explain the relations
between mind and matter, by considering
them both as instruments tuned beforehand,
which re-echo, and answer, and imitate each
other mutually. His monads, of which he
constitutes the simple elements of the uni-
verse, are but an hypothesis as gratuitous
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 63
as all those which have been used to explain
the origin of things. But in what a singular
state of perplexity is the human mind! In-
cessantly attracted towards the secret of its
being, it finds that secret equally impossible
to be discovered, or to be banished from its
thoughts.
The Persians say, that Zoroaster interro-
gated the Deity, and asked how the world
had begun, when it would end, what was
the origin of good and evil? The Deity an-
swered to all these questions--" Do what is
"good, and gain immortality. " The point
which particularly constitutes the excellence
of this reply, is this--that it does not dis-
courage man from the most sublime medi-
tations; it only teaches him, that by con-
science and sentiment he may exalt himself
to the most lofty conceptions of philosophy.
Leibnitz was an idealist, who founded his
system solely upon reasoning; and from
thence it arises, that he has pushed his ab-
stractions too far, and that he has not suffi-
ciently supported his theory upon inward
persuasion--the only true foundation of that
which is above the understanding: in short,
reason upon the liberty of man, and you
will not believe it; lay your hand upon your
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? 64 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
conscience, and you will not be able to
doubt it. Consequence and contradiction,
in the sense that we attach to either of these
terms, do not exist within the sphere of the
great questions concerning the liberty of
man, the origin of good and evil, the divine
prescience, &c. In these questions senti-
ment is almost always in opposition to rea-
son; in order to teach mankind, that what
he calls incredible in the order of earthly
things, is perhaps the supreme truth under
universal relations.
Dante has expressed a grand philosophical
thought by this verse :--
A guisa del ver primo che l'uom crede*.
We must believe certain truths as we believe
our own existence; it is the soul which re-
veals them to us; and reasonings of every
kind are never more than feeble streams de-
rived from this fountain.
The Theodicea of Leibnitz treats of the
divine prescience, and of the cause of good
and evil: it is one of the most profound and
argumentative works upon the theory of the
infinite; the author, however, too often ap-
plies to that which is without bounds, a sort
* " It is thus that man believes in primitive truth. "
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? GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 65
of logic to which circumscribed objects alone
are amenable. Leibnitz was a perfectly re-
ligious character; but, from this very cir-
cumstance, he believed it a duty to ground
the truths of religion upon mathematical rea-
soning, in order to support them on such
foundations as are admitted within the em-
pire of experience: this error proceeds from
a respect, oftener felt than acknowledged,
for men of cold and arid minds ; we attempt
to convince them in their own manner; we
acknowledge that arguments in a logical form
have more certainty than a proof from senti-
ment; and it is not true.
In the region of intellectual and religious
truths, of which Leibnitz has treated, we
must use consciousness in the room of de-
monstration. Leibnitz, wishing to adhere to
abstract reasoning, demands a sort of stretch
of attention which few minds can support.
Metaphysical works, that are founded neither
upon experience nor upon sentiment, singu-
larly fatigue the thinking power; and we
may imbibe from them a physical and moral
pain, so great, that by our obstinate en-
deavours to conquer it, we may shatter the
organs of reason in our heads. A poet,
Baggesen, has made Vertigo a divinity--we
VOL. III. p
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? 66 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
should recommend ourselves to the favour of
that goddess, when we are about to study
these works, which place us in such a man-
ner at the summit of ideas, that we have no
longer any ladder-steps to re-descend into
life.
The metaphysical and religious writers,
who are eloquent and feeling at the same
time (such as we have seen in some exam-
ples), are much better adapted to our nature.
Far from requiring the suppression of our
faculties of feeling, in order to make our fa-
culty of abstraction more precise, they bid
us think, feel, and wish, that all the strength
of our souls may aid us to penetrate into the
depths of heaven; but to cling close to ab-
straction is such an effort, that it is natural
enough for the generality of men to have
renounced the attempt, and to have thought
it more easy to admit nothing beyond what
is visible.
The experimental philosophy is complete
in itself; it is a whole, sufficiently vulgar,
tout compact, circumscribed, argumentative;
and while we adhere to the sort of reasoning
which is received in the commerce of the
world, we ought to be contented with it;
the immortal and the infinite are only felt
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