Of the Influence of
Enthusiasm
on
Learning .
Learning .
Madame de Stael - Germany
?
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl.
handle.
net/2027/hvd.
32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
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? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? GERMANY;
BY THE
BARONESS STAEL HOLSTEW.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
A NEW EDITION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-
STREET.
1814.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? London: Printed by W. Clowes, Northumberland
Court, Strand.
\
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CONTENTS.
PART THE THIRD.
PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Chap. I. Of Philosophy . . Page 1
Chap. II. Of English Philosophy . . 10
Chap. HI. Of French Philosophy . 32
Chap. IV. Of the Ridicule introduced by a certain
Species of Philosophy . . . 46
Chap. V. General Observations upon German
Philosophy . . . " 56
Chap. VI. Kant . . 70
Chap. VII. Of the most celebrated Philosophers
before and after Kant . . 99
Chap. VIII. Influence of the new German Philo-
sophy over the Developement of the Mind 128
Chap. IX. Influence of the new German Philo-
sophy on Literature and the Arts . 135
Chap. X. Influence of the new Philosophy on the
Sciences . . . . 146
Chap. XI. Influence of the new Philosophy upon
the Character of the Germans . 168
Chap. XII. Of the moral System, founded upon
personal Interest . . . 175
Chap. XIII. Of the moral System founded upon
National Interest . . . . 186
Chap. XIV. Of the Principle of Morals in the
new German Philosophy . . 202
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? iv
CONTENTS.
Chap. XV. Of scientific Morality . Page 213
Chap. XVI. Jacobi . . . 218
Chap. XVII. O/Woldemar . . 226
Chap. XVIII. Of a romantic Bias in the defec-
tions of the Heart . . . 230
Chap. XIX. Of Love in Marriage . . 236
Chap. XX. Modern Writers of the ancient School
in Germany . . . . 247
Chap. XXI. Of Ignorance and Frivolity of Spi-
rit in their Relations to Morals . 257
PART THE FOURTH.
^ RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
Chap. I. General Considerationt upon Religion
in Germany . . . 267
Chap. II. Of Protestantism . . 278
Chap. HI. Moravian Mode of Worship 293
Chap. IV. Of Catholicism . . 300
Chap. V. Of the Religious Disposition called
Mysticism . . . 316
Chap. VI. Of Pain . . . 336
Chap. VII. Of the Religious Philosophers called
Theosophists . . . 851
Chap. VIII. Of the Spirit of Sectarismin Germany 357
Chap. IX. Of the Contemplation of Nature 368
Chap. X. Of Enthusiasm . . . 388
Chap. XI.
Of the Influence of Enthusiasm on
Learning . . . . 395
Chap. XII. Influence of Enthusiasm upon Hap-
piness . . . . 403
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PART THE THIRD.
PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
CHAPTER I.
Of Philosophy.
The world has been pleased, for some time
past, to throw great discredit upon the very
name of philosophy. The case is common
with all those terms, the signification of
which is capable of much extension: they^
become alternately the objects of benedic-
tion or blame among mankind, according
to their use in fortunate or unhappv periods:
but, in spite of the casual injustice or pane-
gyric of individuals and of nations, philo-
sophy, liberty, religion, never change their
value. Man has spoken evil things of the
sun, of love, and of life: he has suffered,
he has felt himself consumed, by these lights
of nature; but would he therefore extinguish
them?
VOL. III. B
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 2 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Every thing that has a tendency to set
bounds to our faculties, bears the stamp of a
degrading doctrine. We ought to direct those
faculties to the lofty end of our existence--our
advance to moral perfection. But it is not by
the partial suicide of this or that power of
our nature, that we shall be rendered ca-
pable of rising towards such an object: all
our resources are not too. numerous to for-
ward our approach to it; and, if Heaven
had granted more genius to man, he would
have advanced so much the more in virtue.
Among the different branches of philoso-
phy, metaphysics have, especially, occupied
the attention of the Germans. The objects
which this pursuit embraces, may be divided
jinto three classes. The first relates to the
mystery of the creation; that is to say, ti&
I the Infinite in all things; the second, to the
formation of ideas in the human mind; and
the third, to the exercise of our faculties,
1 without ascending to their source.
The first of these studies, that which
applies itself to the discovery of the secret
of the universe, was cultivated among the
Greeks, as it now is among the Germans.
It is impossible to deny that such a pursuit,
however sublime in its principle, makes us
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? f HILOsdffllf.
3
feel our impotence at every step; and dis-
couragement follows those efforts which
cannot produce a result. The usefulness
of the third sort of metaphysics, that
whkih is! included in the observation of
the actions of our understanding, cannot be
contested; but this usefulness is confined
to. the circle of daily experience. The phi-
losophical reflections of the second class--
those which are directed to the nature
of the human mind, and to the origin
of our ideas--appear to me the most in-
teresting of all. It is not likely that we
should ever be able to know the eternal
truths which explain the existence of this
world: the desire that we feel for such
knowledge, is among the number of those
noble thoughts which draw us towards
another life: but it' is not for nothing,
that the faculty of self-examination has been
given to u*. Doubtless, to observe the
progress of our intellect, such as it exists,
is already to avail ourselves of this faculty;
nevertheless, in rising higher, in striving
to learn whether that intellect acts sponta-
neously, or whether we can only think when
thought is excited by external objects, we
shall cast additional light upon the free-will
b2
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 4 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
of man, and consequently upon vice and
virtue.
A crowd of moral and religious questions
depends upon the manner in which we con-
sider the origin and formation of our ideas.
It is the diversity of their systems in this re-
spect, above all others, that distinguishes the
German from the French philosophers. We
may easily conceive, that if the difference is at
the fountain-head, it must show itself in the
derived streams: it is impossible, therefore,
to become acquainted with Germany, with-
out tracing the progress of that philosophy,
which, from the days of Leibnitz down to
our own, has incessantly exerted so great a
power over the republic of letters.
There are two methods of considering the
philosophy of the human mind ; either in
its theory or in its results. The examination
of the theory demands a capacity which be-
longs not to me; but it is easy to remark
the influence which this or that metaphysi-
cal opinion exercises over the developement
of the understanding and of the soul. The
Gospel tells us, " that we must judge of
"prophets by their works:" this maxim
may also guide our inquiry into the different
systems of philosophy; for every thing that
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PHILOSOPHY.
5
is of immoral tendency must be sophistical.
This life has no value, unless it is subservient
to the religious education of. our hearts;
unless it prepares us for a higher destiny, by
our free choice of virtue upon earth. Meta-
physics, social institutions, arts, sciences,
all ought to be appreciated accordingly as
they contribute to the moral perfection of
mankind: this is the touchstone granted lo
the ignorant as well as to the learned. For
if. the knowledge of the means belongs only
to the initiated, the results are discernible by
all the world.
It is necessary to be accustomed to that
mode 6f reasoning which is used in geome-
try, in. order to gain a full comprehension
of metaphysics. In this science, as in that
of calculation, if we omit the least link in
the chain of evidence, we destroy the whole
connexion. Metaphysical reasonings are
more abstract, and not less precise, than
mathematical; and yet their cibject is in-
definite. We must unite, as metaphysi-
cians, two of the most opposite faculties--
fancy, and the power of calculation: we have
to measure a cloud with the same accuracy
that. we. measure a field; and there is no
study which requires such closeness of at-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 6 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
tention; nevertheless, in the most sublime
questions there is always some point of view
within the reach of every body, and it IB
that point which I design to seize and to
present.
I put a question one day to Fichte, who
possesses one of the strongest and most
thinking heads in Germany, whether ne
could not more easily tell me his moral
system than his metaphysical ? " The one
"depends upon the other," he replied; and
the remark was very profound: it compre-
hends all the motives of that interest which
we can take in philosophy.
We have been accustomed to regard it as
destructive of every belief of the heart; it
would then indeed be the enemy of man;
but it is not so with the doctrine of Plato,
nOr with that of the Germans: they consider
sentiment as a fact, the primitive phaeno-
menon of mind; and they look upon the
power of philosophical reasoning as destined
solely to investigate the meaning of this
fact.
The enigma of the universe has wasted
the meditations of many, who have still
deserved our admiration, because they felt
themselves summoned to something better
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PHILOSOPHY.
7
than the present world. Geniuses of a lofty
kind love to wander unceasingly around the
abyss of thoughts that are without an end;
but still they must turn themselves away
from it, for the mind fatigues itself in vain,
in these efforts to scale the heavens.
The origin of thought has occupied the
attention of all true philosophers. Are there
. two natures in man? If there be but one,
is i$ mind or matter? If there be two, do
idea* come by the senses, or do they spring
up in the soul? Or, in truth, are they a
mixture of the action of external objects
upon us, and of the internal faculties which
we possess?
To these three questions, which at all
times have divided the philosophical world,
is united the inquiry which most imme-
diately touches upon virtue--the inquiry,
whether free-will or fatality decides the re-
solutions of man.
Among the ancients, fatality arose from
the will of the gods; among the moderns,
it is attributed to the course of events. The
ancient fatality gave a new evidence to free-
will ; for the will of man struggled against the
event, and moral resistance was unconquer-
able: the fatalism of the moderns, on the
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 8 PHILOSOPHY ANDvMORALS.
contrary, necessarily destroys the belief in
free-will: if circumstances make us what we
are, we cannot oppose their empire; if ex-
ternal objects are the cause of all that passes
in our mind, what independent thought can
free us from their ascendency? The fatal-
ism which descended from heaven, filled
the soul with a holy terror; while that
which attaches us to earth only works our
degradation. It may be asked, to what
purpose all these questions? It may be an-
swered, to what purpose any thing that
bears no relation to them? For what is
there more important to man, than to know
whether he really is responsible for his ac-
tions; and what sort of a proportion there is
between the power of the will and the em-
pire of circumstances over it? What would
become of conscience, if our habits alone
gave birth to it; if it was nothing but the
product of colours, of sounds, of perfumes,
of circumstances, in short, of every kind,
with which we may have been surrounded
from our infancy?
That species of metaphysics, which en-
deavours to discover what is the source of
our ideas, has a powerful influence, by its con-
sequences, upon the nature and energy of our
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PHILOSOPHY. 9
will; that species is at once the most exalted
and the most necessary of all our kinds of
knowledge; and the advocates of the highest
utility, namely of moral utility, cannot un-
dervalue ifcV' . ';-: . w" ? '
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 10 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
? ' ? ? CHAPTER II.
Of English Philosophy.
Every thing seems to testify in us the ex-
istence of a double nature. The influence
of the senses and that of the mind share our
being between them; and, accordingly as
Philosophy inclines towards the one or
the other, opinions and sentiments are in
every respect diametrically opposite. We
may also describe the dominion of the
senses, and that of thought, by other terms:
--there is in man that which perishes with
his earthly existence, and that which may
survive him; that which experience enables
him to acquire, and that with which his
moral instinct inspires him--the finite and
the infinite; but in what manner soever we
express ourselves, it is always necessary to
grant that there are two different principles
of life in a creature subject to death, and
destined to immortality.
A tendency to spiritualize has been always
very manifest among the people of the North;
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? find eyeu before the introduction of Chris-
tianity, this bias made itself perceptible
through the violence pf warlike passions.
The Greeks bad faith m exteivual miracle*
the German nations believe the miracles of
the soul. All their poetry is filled with
misgivings, with presages, with prophe-
cies of tibe heart; and while the Greeks
united themselves to nature by their in-
dulgence in pleasure, the inhabitants of the
North raised themselves to their Creator by
religious sentiments. In the South, Pagan-
ism deified the phenomena of nature; in the
North, they were inclined to believe in ma-
gic, because it attributes to the mind of man
a boundless power over the material world.
The soul and nature, liberty and necessity,
divide the dominion of existence; and just
as we place the commanding force within
ourselves or without us, we are the sons of
heaven, or the slaves of earth.
At the revival of letters, there were some
who occupied themselves with the sub-
tilties of the schools in metaphysics, and
others who believed in the superstitions of
magic in the sciences: the art of observation*
reigned no more in the empire of the senses,
than enthusiasm in the empire of the soul:
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 12 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Tvith very few exceptions, there was neither
experience nbr inspiration among the philo-
sophers. A giant appeared--. this was Bacon:
never were the discoveries of thought, nor
the wonders of nature, so well conceived by
the same intelligence. There is not a phrase
in his writings which does not imply years
of reflection and of study; he animates his
metaphysics with his knowledge of the hu-
man heart; he knows how to generalize
facts by philosophy. In physical science he
has created the art of experiment: but it does
not; at all follow, as it has been attempted
toi make us believe, that he was the advocate
of that system exclusively, which grounds all
our ideas upon our sensations. He admits
inspiration in every thing that belongs to the
soul; and he thinks it. even necessary, in or-
der to interpret natural phenomena accord-
ing to general principles. But, in his age,
there were still alchemists, diviners, and sor-
cerers: they were ignorant enough of Religion,
in the greatest part of Europe, to believe that
there were some truths of which she forbade
the promulgation--she who leads us into all
truth.
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? GERMANY;
BY THE
BARONESS STAEL HOLSTEW.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
A NEW EDITION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-
STREET.
1814.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? London: Printed by W. Clowes, Northumberland
Court, Strand.
\
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CONTENTS.
PART THE THIRD.
PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Chap. I. Of Philosophy . . Page 1
Chap. II. Of English Philosophy . . 10
Chap. HI. Of French Philosophy . 32
Chap. IV. Of the Ridicule introduced by a certain
Species of Philosophy . . . 46
Chap. V. General Observations upon German
Philosophy . . . " 56
Chap. VI. Kant . . 70
Chap. VII. Of the most celebrated Philosophers
before and after Kant . . 99
Chap. VIII. Influence of the new German Philo-
sophy over the Developement of the Mind 128
Chap. IX. Influence of the new German Philo-
sophy on Literature and the Arts . 135
Chap. X. Influence of the new Philosophy on the
Sciences . . . . 146
Chap. XI. Influence of the new Philosophy upon
the Character of the Germans . 168
Chap. XII. Of the moral System, founded upon
personal Interest . . . 175
Chap. XIII. Of the moral System founded upon
National Interest . . . . 186
Chap. XIV. Of the Principle of Morals in the
new German Philosophy . . 202
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? iv
CONTENTS.
Chap. XV. Of scientific Morality . Page 213
Chap. XVI. Jacobi . . . 218
Chap. XVII. O/Woldemar . . 226
Chap. XVIII. Of a romantic Bias in the defec-
tions of the Heart . . . 230
Chap. XIX. Of Love in Marriage . . 236
Chap. XX. Modern Writers of the ancient School
in Germany . . . . 247
Chap. XXI. Of Ignorance and Frivolity of Spi-
rit in their Relations to Morals . 257
PART THE FOURTH.
^ RELIGION AND ENTHUSIASM.
Chap. I. General Considerationt upon Religion
in Germany . . . 267
Chap. II. Of Protestantism . . 278
Chap. HI. Moravian Mode of Worship 293
Chap. IV. Of Catholicism . . 300
Chap. V. Of the Religious Disposition called
Mysticism . . . 316
Chap. VI. Of Pain . . . 336
Chap. VII. Of the Religious Philosophers called
Theosophists . . . 851
Chap. VIII. Of the Spirit of Sectarismin Germany 357
Chap. IX. Of the Contemplation of Nature 368
Chap. X. Of Enthusiasm . . . 388
Chap. XI.
Of the Influence of Enthusiasm on
Learning . . . . 395
Chap. XII. Influence of Enthusiasm upon Hap-
piness . . . . 403
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? PART THE THIRD.
PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
CHAPTER I.
Of Philosophy.
The world has been pleased, for some time
past, to throw great discredit upon the very
name of philosophy. The case is common
with all those terms, the signification of
which is capable of much extension: they^
become alternately the objects of benedic-
tion or blame among mankind, according
to their use in fortunate or unhappv periods:
but, in spite of the casual injustice or pane-
gyric of individuals and of nations, philo-
sophy, liberty, religion, never change their
value. Man has spoken evil things of the
sun, of love, and of life: he has suffered,
he has felt himself consumed, by these lights
of nature; but would he therefore extinguish
them?
VOL. III. B
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 2 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Every thing that has a tendency to set
bounds to our faculties, bears the stamp of a
degrading doctrine. We ought to direct those
faculties to the lofty end of our existence--our
advance to moral perfection. But it is not by
the partial suicide of this or that power of
our nature, that we shall be rendered ca-
pable of rising towards such an object: all
our resources are not too. numerous to for-
ward our approach to it; and, if Heaven
had granted more genius to man, he would
have advanced so much the more in virtue.
Among the different branches of philoso-
phy, metaphysics have, especially, occupied
the attention of the Germans. The objects
which this pursuit embraces, may be divided
jinto three classes. The first relates to the
mystery of the creation; that is to say, ti&
I the Infinite in all things; the second, to the
formation of ideas in the human mind; and
the third, to the exercise of our faculties,
1 without ascending to their source.
The first of these studies, that which
applies itself to the discovery of the secret
of the universe, was cultivated among the
Greeks, as it now is among the Germans.
It is impossible to deny that such a pursuit,
however sublime in its principle, makes us
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? f HILOsdffllf.
3
feel our impotence at every step; and dis-
couragement follows those efforts which
cannot produce a result. The usefulness
of the third sort of metaphysics, that
whkih is! included in the observation of
the actions of our understanding, cannot be
contested; but this usefulness is confined
to. the circle of daily experience. The phi-
losophical reflections of the second class--
those which are directed to the nature
of the human mind, and to the origin
of our ideas--appear to me the most in-
teresting of all. It is not likely that we
should ever be able to know the eternal
truths which explain the existence of this
world: the desire that we feel for such
knowledge, is among the number of those
noble thoughts which draw us towards
another life: but it' is not for nothing,
that the faculty of self-examination has been
given to u*. Doubtless, to observe the
progress of our intellect, such as it exists,
is already to avail ourselves of this faculty;
nevertheless, in rising higher, in striving
to learn whether that intellect acts sponta-
neously, or whether we can only think when
thought is excited by external objects, we
shall cast additional light upon the free-will
b2
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-22 00:48 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044051734390 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 4 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
of man, and consequently upon vice and
virtue.
A crowd of moral and religious questions
depends upon the manner in which we con-
sider the origin and formation of our ideas.
It is the diversity of their systems in this re-
spect, above all others, that distinguishes the
German from the French philosophers. We
may easily conceive, that if the difference is at
the fountain-head, it must show itself in the
derived streams: it is impossible, therefore,
to become acquainted with Germany, with-
out tracing the progress of that philosophy,
which, from the days of Leibnitz down to
our own, has incessantly exerted so great a
power over the republic of letters.
There are two methods of considering the
philosophy of the human mind ; either in
its theory or in its results. The examination
of the theory demands a capacity which be-
longs not to me; but it is easy to remark
the influence which this or that metaphysi-
cal opinion exercises over the developement
of the understanding and of the soul. The
Gospel tells us, " that we must judge of
"prophets by their works:" this maxim
may also guide our inquiry into the different
systems of philosophy; for every thing that
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? PHILOSOPHY.
5
is of immoral tendency must be sophistical.
This life has no value, unless it is subservient
to the religious education of. our hearts;
unless it prepares us for a higher destiny, by
our free choice of virtue upon earth. Meta-
physics, social institutions, arts, sciences,
all ought to be appreciated accordingly as
they contribute to the moral perfection of
mankind: this is the touchstone granted lo
the ignorant as well as to the learned. For
if. the knowledge of the means belongs only
to the initiated, the results are discernible by
all the world.
It is necessary to be accustomed to that
mode 6f reasoning which is used in geome-
try, in. order to gain a full comprehension
of metaphysics. In this science, as in that
of calculation, if we omit the least link in
the chain of evidence, we destroy the whole
connexion. Metaphysical reasonings are
more abstract, and not less precise, than
mathematical; and yet their cibject is in-
definite. We must unite, as metaphysi-
cians, two of the most opposite faculties--
fancy, and the power of calculation: we have
to measure a cloud with the same accuracy
that. we. measure a field; and there is no
study which requires such closeness of at-
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? 6 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
tention; nevertheless, in the most sublime
questions there is always some point of view
within the reach of every body, and it IB
that point which I design to seize and to
present.
I put a question one day to Fichte, who
possesses one of the strongest and most
thinking heads in Germany, whether ne
could not more easily tell me his moral
system than his metaphysical ? " The one
"depends upon the other," he replied; and
the remark was very profound: it compre-
hends all the motives of that interest which
we can take in philosophy.
We have been accustomed to regard it as
destructive of every belief of the heart; it
would then indeed be the enemy of man;
but it is not so with the doctrine of Plato,
nOr with that of the Germans: they consider
sentiment as a fact, the primitive phaeno-
menon of mind; and they look upon the
power of philosophical reasoning as destined
solely to investigate the meaning of this
fact.
The enigma of the universe has wasted
the meditations of many, who have still
deserved our admiration, because they felt
themselves summoned to something better
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? PHILOSOPHY.
7
than the present world. Geniuses of a lofty
kind love to wander unceasingly around the
abyss of thoughts that are without an end;
but still they must turn themselves away
from it, for the mind fatigues itself in vain,
in these efforts to scale the heavens.
The origin of thought has occupied the
attention of all true philosophers. Are there
. two natures in man? If there be but one,
is i$ mind or matter? If there be two, do
idea* come by the senses, or do they spring
up in the soul? Or, in truth, are they a
mixture of the action of external objects
upon us, and of the internal faculties which
we possess?
To these three questions, which at all
times have divided the philosophical world,
is united the inquiry which most imme-
diately touches upon virtue--the inquiry,
whether free-will or fatality decides the re-
solutions of man.
Among the ancients, fatality arose from
the will of the gods; among the moderns,
it is attributed to the course of events. The
ancient fatality gave a new evidence to free-
will ; for the will of man struggled against the
event, and moral resistance was unconquer-
able: the fatalism of the moderns, on the
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? 8 PHILOSOPHY ANDvMORALS.
contrary, necessarily destroys the belief in
free-will: if circumstances make us what we
are, we cannot oppose their empire; if ex-
ternal objects are the cause of all that passes
in our mind, what independent thought can
free us from their ascendency? The fatal-
ism which descended from heaven, filled
the soul with a holy terror; while that
which attaches us to earth only works our
degradation. It may be asked, to what
purpose all these questions? It may be an-
swered, to what purpose any thing that
bears no relation to them? For what is
there more important to man, than to know
whether he really is responsible for his ac-
tions; and what sort of a proportion there is
between the power of the will and the em-
pire of circumstances over it? What would
become of conscience, if our habits alone
gave birth to it; if it was nothing but the
product of colours, of sounds, of perfumes,
of circumstances, in short, of every kind,
with which we may have been surrounded
from our infancy?
That species of metaphysics, which en-
deavours to discover what is the source of
our ideas, has a powerful influence, by its con-
sequences, upon the nature and energy of our
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? PHILOSOPHY. 9
will; that species is at once the most exalted
and the most necessary of all our kinds of
knowledge; and the advocates of the highest
utility, namely of moral utility, cannot un-
dervalue ifcV' . ';-: . w" ? '
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? 10 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
? ' ? ? CHAPTER II.
Of English Philosophy.
Every thing seems to testify in us the ex-
istence of a double nature. The influence
of the senses and that of the mind share our
being between them; and, accordingly as
Philosophy inclines towards the one or
the other, opinions and sentiments are in
every respect diametrically opposite. We
may also describe the dominion of the
senses, and that of thought, by other terms:
--there is in man that which perishes with
his earthly existence, and that which may
survive him; that which experience enables
him to acquire, and that with which his
moral instinct inspires him--the finite and
the infinite; but in what manner soever we
express ourselves, it is always necessary to
grant that there are two different principles
of life in a creature subject to death, and
destined to immortality.
A tendency to spiritualize has been always
very manifest among the people of the North;
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? find eyeu before the introduction of Chris-
tianity, this bias made itself perceptible
through the violence pf warlike passions.
The Greeks bad faith m exteivual miracle*
the German nations believe the miracles of
the soul. All their poetry is filled with
misgivings, with presages, with prophe-
cies of tibe heart; and while the Greeks
united themselves to nature by their in-
dulgence in pleasure, the inhabitants of the
North raised themselves to their Creator by
religious sentiments. In the South, Pagan-
ism deified the phenomena of nature; in the
North, they were inclined to believe in ma-
gic, because it attributes to the mind of man
a boundless power over the material world.
The soul and nature, liberty and necessity,
divide the dominion of existence; and just
as we place the commanding force within
ourselves or without us, we are the sons of
heaven, or the slaves of earth.
At the revival of letters, there were some
who occupied themselves with the sub-
tilties of the schools in metaphysics, and
others who believed in the superstitions of
magic in the sciences: the art of observation*
reigned no more in the empire of the senses,
than enthusiasm in the empire of the soul:
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? 12 PHILOSOPHY AND MORALS.
Tvith very few exceptions, there was neither
experience nbr inspiration among the philo-
sophers. A giant appeared--. this was Bacon:
never were the discoveries of thought, nor
the wonders of nature, so well conceived by
the same intelligence. There is not a phrase
in his writings which does not imply years
of reflection and of study; he animates his
metaphysics with his knowledge of the hu-
man heart; he knows how to generalize
facts by philosophy. In physical science he
has created the art of experiment: but it does
not; at all follow, as it has been attempted
toi make us believe, that he was the advocate
of that system exclusively, which grounds all
our ideas upon our sensations. He admits
inspiration in every thing that belongs to the
soul; and he thinks it. even necessary, in or-
der to interpret natural phenomena accord-
ing to general principles. But, in his age,
there were still alchemists, diviners, and sor-
cerers: they were ignorant enough of Religion,
in the greatest part of Europe, to believe that
there were some truths of which she forbade
the promulgation--she who leads us into all
truth.
