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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028978595

HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY

BY KUNO FISCHER

Descartes and his School

Translated from the Third and Revised German Edition

J. P. GpRDY, Ph.D.

PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGICS IN OHIO UNIVERSITY
EDITED BY

NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D.

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1887

[_Auikorzzed Ediit'ofi]

■?^

n^3

S. Zfy"'

COPTRIQHT, 1887,

Bt CHAKLE8 SCRIBNER'S SONS.

RAKD AVHBT OOMPAMT.

BI..BOTROTTPBRS AND PBIMTBRa,

BOBTOn.

INTEODUOTIOK

A MONGr the many histories of philosophy for which we are
, -f^^-^ indebted to modern research, the history of Modern Phi-

asophy by Professor Kuno Fischer of Heidelberg is conspicuous
T the courage with which the author grapples with tlie difficulties
•f his task and the success with which he overcomes them.
I'hough he is by no means removed from criticism or controversy
fi respect to the interpretation which he gives of the writers and
Jchools which he encounters, and in the positive and pronounced
estimates and criticisms which he does not hesitate to give of
Iheir leading positions, he is uniformly clear, spirited, and ex-
haustive. He is also popular in the best sense of the term, being
beither technical nor abstract beyond the necessities imposed by
iis theme, and connecting with the thorough and masterly dis-
cussion of schools and opinions as much of personal and general
listoric interest as could be expected or desired. For these
reasons his history is, perhaps, more readable than any other,
land is uniformly confessed by competent critics, whether friendly
lor otherwise, to be eminently attractive and exciting to the
[general student.

Hitherto only a small portion of this history has been translated
I English, — for one reason among others, that the history itself
[not yet complete, having as yet been finished to the end of
bielling's system and life, where it rests for obvious reasons
■Jh the author's unsatisfied desire satisfactorily to expound the
Irelopment of the Hegelian theory of Being and of Knowledge,
eanwhile the result of his attempt to do this is awaited with
are than ordinary interest by both the disciples and antagonists

iv INTRODUCTION-.

of Hegel and his critics. During tliis interval, there seems to be
no reason why the earlier portion of this history should not be
given to the English public, especially when we consider that the
history of the school of Descartes, in many senses, and especially
as treated by our author, stands by itself, and holds closer rela-
tions to all the forms of modern speculation than is commonly
supposed.

It should be remembered also, that this portion of the history
has meanwhUe passed to a third edition, and been carefully elab-
orated by the author. The general Introduction wiU be found to
possess an independent interest.

For these reasons the publishers have decided to publish in two
separate volumes a translation of that portion of this history which
treats of Descartes and his school (including Spinoza), leaving
the question at present undecided whether tbej' shall publish the
remainder of the history, being satisfied that the volumes which
they offer to the public will in any event constitute a valuable
addition to the library of the student of modern philosophy,
which will, in an important sense, be complete by itself.

They are assured that the translation has been made by a
competent German scholar, who, in addition to his knowledo^e of
the German language and his familiarity with German philosophy 1
has had the very great advantage of giving the study of several
months to the critical study of the school of Descartes previously
to undertaking this translation.

NOAH POETER.

Yale College, Deo. 14, 1886.

AUTHOE'S PREFACE.

THE first volume of this work has been out of print for some
time. I have been unable to complete a thorough revision
of it until during the present year, and I here present it in a
third edition. When I published the second edition, I had
written my history of modern philosophy as far as Kant. Since
then, I have added Fichte and his Predecessors, and Schel-
ling and his Period. Hegel, his School, and his Opponents,
and the course of development of philosophy since Hegel, are
still lacking. On account of the great difficulty of the subject,
I have been obliged, for the sake of clearness, to treat it in
such detail that the size and expensiveness of the work have
increased beyond what I intended. For it is impossible to
estimate the difficulties of one's own work, until one has realized
them, and sought to overcome them. And if he should be so
fortunate as to travel the toilsome road a second time, he will
have acquired the strength to advance more easily and rapidly,
as is often the case with long and fatiguing journeys. Brevity
without injury to clearness is possible only after the most
detailed exposition.

The size of the work in this new edition will be diminished
by the more compact form in which the matter is printed. I
seek to comply with this just desire of my publisher, while
I oppose every kind of abridgment that is unfavorable to clear-
ness. With my method of exposition, I cannot attain brevity
by omissions, but only by a corresponding treatment of all the
various parts of the whole. This was one reason for tliis new
revision, and is an essential part of it. It also seemed desirable

VI AUTHOK'S PREFACE.

to enlarge the introduction, especially the sections treating of the
Eenaissance and the Reformation : besides, it appeared necessary
to add the results of recent investigations concerning Descartes.
The stand-point and arrangement of the work are unchanged. It
is unnecessary to repeat in the i^reface what is shown in the work
itself. When a third edition of a work so extensive and expen-
sive as the present is called for, I can venture, with some satisfac-
tion, to regard it as a proof that it has been of some service in
the instruction of my contemporaries.

KUNO FISCHER.

Hhidblebeg, Oct. 23, 1878.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MODERN
PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE ... 1

CHAPTER II.

THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY, 15

I. The Pkoblem of the Wokld 17

II. The Pboblem of Knowledge 21

III. The Pkoblem of Fkeedom 26

IV. The Problem of Religion 30

CHAPTER HI.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH 41

I. Pkimitive Chkistianitt .41

II. The Chubch 43

III. The Doctkine of the Church 46

1. The Problem 46

2. Augustinianism 49

IV. The Deification of the Church 53

CHAPTER IV.

THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHILOSOPHY

OF THE MIDDLE AGES .55

I. Problem 55

II. The Ecclesiastical Age of the World . . .57

vil

viii CONTENTS.

PAGE

III. The Founding of Scholasticism 63

1. Erigena ^^

2. Anselm 65

IV. The Couksb of Development of Scholasticism . . 67

1. Realism and Nominalism 67

2. The Platonic and Aristotelian Realism .... 69

3. Sums and Systems 73

4. Thomas and Scotus 74

5. Occam. The Dissolution of Scholasticism ... 76

CHAPTER V.

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSAlSrCE 80

I. Humanism 80

II. The Italian Renaissance 82

III. The Course of Development of the Renaissance . 85

1. The Neo-Latin Renaissance 86

2. The Aristotelian Renaissance 87

3. The Political Renaissance 91

4. Italian Neo-Platonism and Theosophy .... 95

5. Magic and Mysticism 100

6. The Italian Nature-Philosophy 106

7. Scepticism as the Result of the Renaissance . . .116

CHAPTER VI.

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION 121

I. The New View of the Wobld 122

1 . The Historical View 122

2. The Geographical View 123

3. The Cosmographical View 125

4. Inventions 132

II. The Conflict between the Chuech and Science . 133

1. Trial of Galileo joo

III. The Religious Refokmation 13g

1. Protestantism -.oa

2. The Counter-Reformation and Jesuitism . . .145

3. Jansenism

CHAPTER VII.

THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PHILOSO-
PHY

153

158

CONTENTS. IX

BOOK I.

DESCARTES' LIFE AND WRITINGS.
CHAPTER I.

PAGE

DESCARTES' PERSONALITY AND THE FIRST PERIOD OF

HIS LIFE 165

I. Type of Life 165

II. The Fibst Pebiod op his Life (1596-1612) . . .168

CHAPTER II.

THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE (1612-1628): THE WAN-
DEMJAHBE. (a) LIFE IN THE WORLD AND AS

A SOLDIER 177

I. Enteance into the Wobld 177

II. Military Seevice in Holland (1617-1619) . . . 179
III. MiLiTAEY Seevice in Geemany (1619-1621) . . .183

1. Campaigns 183

2. His Solitude in Neuburg. An Inner Crisis . . . 186
8. The Epoch of the Crisis 193

CHAPTER III.

Continuation. (6) TRAVELS, AND SECOND RESIDENCE IN

PARIS (1621-1628) 197

CPIAPTER lY.

THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE (1629-1650). THE PERIOD OP
THE WORKS, (a) RESIDENCE IN THE NETHER-
LANDS 205

I. " The Hermitage in Holland " 205

II. Intellectual Life in the Netherlands . . . 213

1. The State of Culture . 213

2. Anna Maria von Schurmann 213

III. The Countess-Palatine Elizabeth 215

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

(6) THE DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLICATION OP THE

PAGE

WORKS ^^^

- L The "Cosmos" ^^

1. Arrangement and Plan 223

2. Composition, and Prevention of Publication . . 229
II. The Philosophical Works 235

1. The Motive for their Publication 235

2. Writings on Method 240

3. The Metaphysical Works 242

CHAPTER VI.

BEGINNINGS OF A SCHOOL. — DISCIPLES AND OPPO-
NENTS 250

I. Controversies in Utrecht 250

1. Eeneri and Regius 250

2. Gisbertus Voetius 252

3. The Condemnation of the New-Philosophy . . . 254

4. The Controversy between Descartes and Voetius . 256

5. Conclusion of the Utrecht-Groniugen Controversy . 262
II. Attacks in Letden 265

CHAPTER VII.

LAST TEARS AND WORK IN HOLLAND 269

I. New Plans and Friends 269

1. Journeys to France 269

2. Clerselier and Chanut 270

3. Last Residence in Paris 274

II. A New Opponent. — Last Labors 278

1. Regius' Apostasy 278

2. The Last Works 280

CHAPTER Vin.

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM . . 283

I. The Invitation or the Queen 283

1. Christina of Sweden 283

2. Philosophical Letters 284

3. Invitation and Journey to Stockholm .... 290

CONTENTS. xi

PAGE

II. Descartes in Stockholm 294

1. Eesidence and Position 294

2. Sickness and Death 296

CHAPTER IX.

A SURVEY OF HIS WORKS AND WRITINGS . . , .298

I. The Works published by Descartes himself . . 298

1. The Philosophical Works 298

2. The Polemical Works 299

II. The Remains and the Opera Postuma . . . • . 300

1. Writings not in Descartes' Possession .... 300

2. Lost Writings 300

3. The Works edited hy Clerselier 302

4. Collection of Unpublished Works at Descartes' Death . 302
III. Edition of Complete Works 303

1. Collective Editions 303

2. Arrangement of Letters 304

3. Supplements 305

BOOK 11.

DESCABTES' DOCTRINE.

CHAPTER I.

THE NEW METHOD OE PHILOSOPHY. — THE PATH TO

THE SYSTEM 309'

I. Sources op the Theory of Method .... 309'

1. Subject 309

2. The Methodological Posthumous Works. Critical

Questions 310

II. False Paths to Knowledge 313

1. Defective Knowledge 313

2. Defective Method 31.3'

IIL The Path to Truth 315

1. The Problem of Knowledge 315

2. The Method of True Deduction 317

3. Universal Mathematics. Analytical Geometry . . 320

4. Enumeration, or Induction. Intuition .... 323

xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

PAGE

THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: METPIODICAL DOUBT, 328

I. The Omgin and Extent op Doubt 328

1. The Teachings of the Schools 328

2. Self-deception 329

II. Doubt as Method and as Principle . . . .333

CPI AFTER in.

THE J'RINCIp£e of PHILOSOPHY AND THE PROBLEM

OF KNOWLEDGE 337

I. The Pkinciple of Certainty 337

1. One's Own Thinliing Being 337

2. The Principle of Certainty. The Mind as the Clearest

Object 339

II. The Problem of Knowledge 341

1. The Conception of a Being Without Us . . . 341

2. The Principle of Causality 343

3. The Idea of God . .' 344

CHAPTER IV.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. — HUMAN SELF-CERTAINTY,

AND CERTAINTY OF GOD 346

I. Proofs of the Existence of God 346

1. Cause of the Idea of God 346

2. The Idea of God as Innate 348

3. Ontological and Anthropological Proofs . . . 349

4. The Anthropological Proof as Foundation of the

Ontological 350

II. The CEpiAiNTY OF Self and the Certainty of God . 354

1. The Certainty of One's Own Imperfection . . . 354

2. The Idea of the Perfect and its Primariness . . . 356

3. The Primariness, Reality, and Truthfulness of God . 357

CHAPTER V.

THE ORIGIN OF ERROR. — UNDERSTANDING AND WILL.

— HUMAN FREEDOM 360

I. Error as the Fault of the Win 360

1. The Fact of Error 360

2. Will and Understanding 361

3. Blameworthy Ignorance 362

CONTENTS. XIU

PAGE

II. The Wish for Thuth . " 363

1. The Prevention of Error 363

2. The Lower and Higher Freedom of the Will . . 365

3. Freedom from Error 366

CHAPTER VI.

OPPOSITION BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY. — TRANSITION

TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE . . . .368

I. The Substantiality op Things 368

1. The Existence of Bodies 368

2. Substances. God and Things 371

3. Attribute and Modes 372

II. The Attributes op Things 373

1. False Attributes 373

2. The Multitude of Our Errors, and their Chief Source . 375

CHAPTER VII.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, (a) THE MATHEMATICAL

PRINCIPLE OF THE EXPLANATION OF NATURE . 379

I. Extension as the Attribute of Body .... 379

1. Body as an Object of Thought 379

2. Body as Quantity of Space 382

II. The Material World 384

- CHAPTER VIII.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE. (6) THE MECHANICAL

PRINCIPLE OF THE EXPLANATION OF NATURE . 385
I. Motion as the Fundamental Phenomenon op the

Material World 385

1. Motion as a Mode of Extension 385

2. Motion as Change of Place 386

II. The Causes of Motion 389

1. The First Cause of Motion, and its Quantity . . 389

2. The Second Causes of Motion, or the Laws of Nature . 390

III. Hydro-Mechanics. — Solid and Fluid Bodies . . 395

1. Distinction between the Two 395

2. Solid in Fluid Bodies . . . . . . .396

3. The Heavens and the Earth. The. Motion of the

Planets. The Hypotheses of Vortices . . .397

4. Emptiness and the Pressure of the Atmosphere . . 404

XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODT. — PASSIONS OF THE SOUL.

— NATURAL AND MORAL LIFE OF MAN. ■ 407

I. AlfTHEOPOLOGICAL PROBLEM • ^"

1. Meaning and Extent of the Problem . . . -407

2. The Cardinal Point of the Problem . • • .410

3. The Passions as Fundamental Phenomena of the

Human Soul ^11

IL The Union of the Soul and Body 413

1. The Mechanism of Life 413

2. The Organ of the Soul 416

3. The Will and the Passions 418

III. Kinds op Passion 421

1. Fundamental Forms 421

2. Derived or Combined Forms 423

IV. The Moral Aim of Life 429

1. Worth and Unworthiness of the Passions . . .429

2. The Worth of Wonder 431

3. Freedom of Mind 434

CHAPTER X.

■ THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST. — OBJECTIONS AND REPLIES . 438

I. Objections 438

1. Stand-points and Tendencies of their Authors . . 438

2. Points of Agreement and Disagreement . . . 441

3. The Points of Attack 446

II. Descartes' Replies 458

1. Reply to the Objection that the Proof is Syllogistic . 459

2. Reply to the Materialistic and Sensualistic Objections . 460

3. Reply to the Objection that Doubt is Nihilistic . . 462

CHAPTER XI.

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE
SOLVED AND NEW PROBLEMS
I. Object and Method of the Inquiry
II. Principal Critical Questions .

1. The Dualistic System of Knowledge
•"■ 2. Dualism between God and the World

3. Dualism between Mind and Body .

4. Dualism between Men and Animals

SYSTEM. -
1 .

UN-

465
465
460
470
471
477
483

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

III. New Problems and thkib Solution . . . .486

1. Occasionalism 48g

2. Spinozism 488

3. Monadology 489

4. Sensualism 491

5. Materialism and Idealism 492

6. Critical Pliilosophy 493

BOOK HI.

DEVELOPMENT AND MODIFICATION OF THE
DOCTRINE OF DESCABTES.

CHAPTER I.

DIFFUSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARTESIAN

DOCTRINE 499

I. Cabtesianism in the Netherlands 499

1. Tlie New Rationalism and its Opponents . . . 499

2. Attempts to Compose Philosophical Differences . . 502

3. Opponents in Lyons 504

II. Fbench Cabtesianism 505

1. Ecclesiastico-Political Persecutions .... 505

2. The Classic Period of French Literature and the

Supremacy of Descartes' Philosophy . . . 508

3. Fashionable Philosophy and Satire .... 512

CHAPTER 11.

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS/,T0 <ERITICAL^ DEVELOP CAR-

TESIANISM 516

I. The French School 516

1. Rohault and R^gis 516

2. De la Forge and Cordemoy 518

II. The School in the Netheblands 520

1. Clauberg 520

2. Balthasar Bekker 521

CHAPTER IH.

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM.— ARNOLD GEULINCX. 529

I. Geulincx' Life and Writings 529

XVI CONTENTS.

II. Geulistcx' Doctkine

1. The Doctrine of Principles

2. Ethics ....

CHAPTER IV.
MALEBRANCHE'S STAND-POINT, LIFE, AND WOEKS
I. The Intdition of the World in God
II. The Oratory of Jesus .
III. Malebranche's Life and Writings

1. Incidents

2. Controversies ....

3. Writings

PAGE

531
531

538

542
542
544
546
546
548
552

CHAPTER V.

MALEBRANCHE'S DOCTRINE. {a) THE PROBLEM OF

KNOWLEDGE OF OCCASIONALISM . . ■ -554

I. Dualism and Occasionalism 554

1. The Substantiality of Things 554

2. The Inactivity of Things 556

3. The Causality of God 558

II. Christianity and Philosophy 560

1. The Divine Will as the Law of Nature . . . .560

2. Error as the Consequence of Sin 562

3. Knowledge as Illumination 564

CHAPTER VI.

(6) SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM: THE INTUITION OF

THINGS IN GOD 566

I. Objects and Kinds of Knowledge 566

II. Malebranche's Doctrine of Ideas 569

1. The Origin of Ideas 569

2. The World of Ideas in God 572

3. Intelligible Extension and Universal Reason , . . 673

CHAPTER VII.

MALEBRANCHE'S DOCTRINE 577

I. The Universe in God 577

1. God as the Place of Minds 577

2. Things as Modes of God 57^)

II. Malebranche's Pantheistic Tendency . . . .581

INTRODUCTION

THE HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE.

nr^HE subject of this work is modern philosophy. How-
-*- ever peculiar the conditions of life which this philosophy-
implies, however natural and plain its problems, proposed
through its own insight, it is still conditioned in its origin
by the history of the philosophy which precedes it. To be
sure, it arises in a thoroughly conscious break with the
past. It has the distinct and outspoken certainty that an
entirely new beginning must be made, and declares at the
start that it intends to be free from all presuppositions, per-
fectly independent of all traditional doctrines, of all the
authorities of the past. And it actually realizes this ideal
as it conceives it. But this freedom of mind is itself an
historical event: this freedom from presuppositions has his-
torical conditions. The path that leads to it is gradually
broken, and preparations are made for it by a further and
further departure from the principles of the earlier philoso-
phy. There are definite crises in which the human mind,
weary of that which is, falls back upon its original powers,
and, from its inexhaustible sources, renews its culture. The
foundations of such crises are laid deep in the progress of
humanity : they are dependent upon a long series of histori-
cal conditions, and, therefore, they are rare. They never
appear except in the fulness of time. Such a fulness of

2 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

time, modern philosophy required for its origin. Hence,
this philosophy, with all its independence of thought, with
all the originality of its foundations, remains in constant
intercourse with its historical presuppositions. It contra-
dicts them in its iirst period, and sharpens this contradiction
to a complete contrast ; as it progresses, it inclines to them,
and feels a kinship with them ; and, in its most recent period,
it renews this antagonism and this relationship. Thus,
modern philosophy always sustains a definite relation to
the philosophy of ancient times, and never permits it to
vanish from its horizon. We must, therefore, in the intro-
duction to this work, become clear as to the historical con-
ditions from which modern philosophy proceeds, and as to
the connection of its first period with the great march of
human development.

In the very concept of the history of philosophy, certain
difficulties are contained which might make the possibility of
such a history doubtful. For a concept is difScult when its
characteristics cannot be at once combined, and impossible
when they cannot be combined at all. Now, between the
concept of history and that of philosophy, such an opposi-
tion seems indeed to exist. History is inconceivable with-
out a succession of events in time ; philosophy, without the
knowledge of truth. Now, only that concept is true which
completely corresponds to its object. There are, therefore,
but two possibilities, — either this correspondence between a
concept and its object exists, or it does not: in the first
case, the concept is true ; in the second, it is false. Truth is
a unit: it has no series or succession of cases, and, therefore,
as it seems, no history. And so a history of philosophy, a
succession of different systems, often in the most direct
contradiction, and never in perfect harmony with each other,
appears as the manifest contrfldiction of philosophy itself,
and the plainest testimony to its impossibility. Therefore
the contradictions of pliilosophers, the multiplicity and
diversity of their systems, have always been urged by

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE. 3

tliose who have doubted the possibility of true knowledge.
Among the objections which the sceptics of ancient times
brought against philosophy, the conflict of systems was one
of the first and most important. It is evident, that, from
this point of view, the history of philosophy, in the strict
sense of the term, is impossible. Either the many so-called
systems are accepted as mere historical facts, and the history
of philosophy is resolved into a history of philosophers, —
of their lives, opinions, and schools, — which the historian
sets forth as well as the sources of information concerning
permit, and as he understands those sources, or these sys-
tems are regarded merely as having failed to reach the
unity of true knowledge, and criticised without reference
to their historical character. In such a consideration of
the history of philosophy, history is entirely separated from
philosophy. In the first case, the history of philosophy
is a subject merely of a narration : in the second, it is a
subject merely of critical examination. The narration of
the first is as uncritical as the criticism of the second is
unhistorical. From the one-sided historical point of view,
there is indeed a history, but no philosophy : from the one-
sided critical point of view, there is indeed a philosophy,
but no history. This philosophy, without historical interest
and without historical insight, either regards the problem
of true knowledge as insoluble, and the given systems as
nothing but errors, or it maintains, on practical grounds, a
certain knowledge of the truth, valid in all cases, but which
those systems only imperfectly attain, and. mingle with false
opinions. Thus, it deals with historical systems either abso-
lutely sceptically, rejecting them all, or eelectically, separat-
ing and culling out the true according to a completely
subjective principle. Now, these critics are not what they
aim to be, by far. They suppose that they judge these
systems with entire freedom from prejudice, and in absolute
independence, as though they stood above the history of
philosophy. They do not know that they have received

4 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

their stand-points from this very history ; that these stand-
points are historical events with historical conditions ; that
they are necessary products of an entirely definite historical
position of philosophy, and that this very fact gives them
their authority for the time.

These two points of view — the historical and critical — are
naturally the first from which the history of philosophy is
considered. It is written at first either by historians or by
sceptics and eclectic philosophers. Three important sources
of the knowledge of ancient philosophy are so many exam-
l^les of these historical, sceptical, and eclectic stand-points,
— Diogenes Laertius, Sextus Empiricus, Johannes Stobaus.
And among the first writers who, in modern times, have
expounded and criticised the systems of philosophy, there
are three with corresponding points of view, — Thomas
Stanley, Pierre Bayle, and Jacob Brucker.

But this separation of the historical and critical points
of view does not solve the jjroblem of the history of phi-
losophy, but merely evades the difficulty. From the one, we
have history without philosophy ; from the other, philosophy
without history. It is impossible to comprehend how the
history of philosophy is possible from either of these stand-
points. And so the question returns, How is the history of
philosophy as science piossible ?

Let us inquire somewhat more rigorously whether philoso-
phy, as love of wisdom, as striving for truth, is really inca-
pable of a history. Let us admit for the present the usual
explanation, according to which truth consists in adequate
conceptions; i.e., in perfect agreement between our con-
cept and its object. If we assume that the object is a given,
in itself completed, thing, which remains unchangeably like
itself, certainly only two cases are possible: our concept
either does, or does not, correspond to this so constituted
object. And if we assume that there is just as certainly a
completed concept, only two cases are possible : either we
have, or do not have, this true concept ; either we are in com-

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE. 5

plete possession of the truth, or we are completely deprived
of it. In either case, every kind of history is excluded from
the territory of truth.

But this is never the case. However definite and un-
changeable may be the object of our knowledge, the concept
corresponding to it is never so perfect that with one grasp,
as it were, we lay hold of the object, or miss it altogether.
Even if true concepts were innate, we should have to become
gradually conscious of them : we should pass from the twilight
to the noonday of knowledge, in a succession of experiences
which would be equivalent to a history of our conscious-
ness. And, if true conceptions are not innate, they must
be produced by the mind, — i.e., be formed, — and, there-
fore, pass through a process of development which can be
nothing else than a gradual correction of our concepts, which,
in their first state, are not conformable to objects. Every
true concept in the human consciousness has become so : there
every truth has a history upon which its existence depends,
and this history forms an essential part of the progress in the
culture and development of the individual. The greater the
difficulties to be overcome, the more numerous the problems
to be solved in order to bring the truth into the light, the
longer, of courae, continues its development. Whole periods
remain involved in errors, and it requires the strength of a
new age to detect and correct and overcome them. Cen-
turies work on such a process of development. Such a truth
has a liistory on a large scale. Every science is an historical
growth, and could only become what it is by a gradual de-
velopment. The fabric of the world, in its constitution, its
laws, its mechanical order, remains unchangeably the same
as an object of human contemplation ; but astronomy had to
develop and fix a series of conceptions, then dissolve and
abandon them, before it could reach true knowledge after
so many centuries. However erroneous the old system, it
formed the necessary vestibule to the new and correct one.

The second of the above suppositions is, therefore, never

6 HISTORY OF MODERN THILOSOPHY.

true. True concepts are never once for all stamped upon
the mind, and perfect. On the contrary, they are always
problems to be solved. But even the first of them is not
always true. The object of our knowledge does not always
remain unchangeably the same. What if this object itself
forms a process, is undergoing a change which is constantly
renewed, not in such a change as is continually repeated
according to the same laws, like motion in nature, and
the circulation of life, but in a creative activity, in a really
progressive development? What if this object not merely
has, but unfolds and represents its entire nature in, a history,
without being exhausted in any period of it whatever ? If,
in brief, this object is of a living, spiritual nature? It is
evident that the knowledge of such an object not merely
requires development, in common with all human knowledge,
but, in order to correspond to its object, must itself be in a
state of historical progress. A process of progressing devel-
opment can only be conceived by a process of progressing
knowledge.

This process of progressing development is th^ human
mind: this progressing process of knowledge is philosophy
as the self-knowledge of the human mind. Since it is clear
that the human mind, as self-conscious, must be an object to
itself, it must be a problem to itself. It must seek to solve
this problem : it cannot exist without this effort. This effort
is philosophy. Without it the mind could not be a problem
to itself, could not be its own object, could not, therefore, be
self-conscious. Human self-consciousness is a problem which
philosophy solves. The human mind is like an historical
development which ramifies into a variety of modes and into
a series of systems of culture which the mind produces from
itself, consummates, and outgrows, and out of which, as its
material, produces new forms of civilization. What can the
knowledge, which seeks to correspond to this object, be,
except a variety and series of systems of knowledge, which,
like their object, lead an historical life? What, therefore,

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE. 7

can philosophy be in this relation, except the history of
philosophy ? It is like a quantity whose value is made up
of a series of quantities. At the first glance, it seemed as if
the concept of philosophy excluded from itself the possibility
of a history, as something incompatible with it : we now see,
that, on the contrary, philosophy not merely admits histori-
cal development as a possibility, but demands it as a neces-
sity ; that to every philosophical system with its historical
worth, belongs also its historical truth ; that each of these
systems demands as rigidly to be understood in its historical
characteristics as in its truth; that, therefore, the history of
philosophy as science unites in the closest manner the his-
torical point of view with the critical, the historical interest
with the philosophical. If its object were the philosopher's
stone, its truth would be something found, a prize, which is
either won or lost. If its object is the human mind, its truth
itself is a living history, and it must develop and advance
within the great march of the civilization of humanity.

This must be true if indeed the human mind is the real
object of philosophy ; if in its fundamental characteristics, in
its distinctive problems, philosophy is nothing else than the
self-knowledge of the mind, the self-knowledge of humanity
universally. But is this true ? Is not this explanation too
narrow and limited? Does not the problem of philosophy
embrace more than the human mind? We call it self-knowl-
edge : it calls itself knowledge of the universe (weltweisJieW).
And the only relation which the knowledge of self can
sustain to the knowledge of the universe, is that of the
human mind to the universe ; i.e., that of a part to the
whole. Have we not, therefore, drawn a fallacious infer-
ence, and extended to philosophy in general what is true
of it only in a limited sense, asserted of it universally what
is only true partially?

It is certainly true that all historical systems have by no
means put the problem of human self-knowledge in the front,
and made all others depend upon it. Rather only in rare

8 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

moments in the course of time, has the Delphic inscription
been written on the portals of philosophy, with the full and
distinct consciousness of being the first of all philosophical
problems. But, as often as it has, a definite crisis has at
the same time appeared in philosophy, as in antiquity in the
Socratic epoch, and in modern times in the Kantian. It is
easy to show that the meaning of these crises extends to the
whole of preceding and the whole of succeeding philosophy ;
that it is the fruit of the one and the seed of the other ; that
it absolutely brings to an end the philosophy of the past, as
it absolutely dominates that of the future. And thus it be-
comes clear, and is proved by the experience of the history
of philosofjhy itself, that human self-knowledge constitutes
the fundamental theme of all systems, — of all, if they are
not isolated, but considered in their inner relations with each
other. It is indeed the universal problem, for the clear per-
ception of which the systems of the one series prepare, and
the distinctly conscious starting-point of the systems of the
other series. The epochs in which the consciousness of this
problem breaks through would not illuminate the path of
philosophy on both sides so brilliantly, they would not
enable us to see so easily and simply the significance of all
the schools of philosophy, if they did not reveal the nature
of the subject in its entirety.

And what the experience of history thus shows, is
taught also by the concept of philosophy when rightly
considered. For human self-knowledge is not merely the
profoundest, but also the most comprehensive, of all scientific
problems. Philosophy as knowledge of self, plainly in-
cludes philosophy as knowledge of the universe. A thought-
less conception of the matter certainly represents the
knowledge of self as related to the knowledge of the uni-
verse — the self to the universe — as a part to the whole.
It sees in self a single thing ; in the universe, the conceived
totality (inhegriff") of things: how, therefore, can it be
that that is not less than this ? And yet it is not difficult

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE. 9

to see that the world as the conceived totality of things
presupposes a being that conceives this totality, therefore a
conceiving being, since conceived totality is nothing in
itself. It is not difficult to see that the world as the object
of our contemplation, as the problem of our knowledge, is
only possible under the condition of a being that makes it
an object, therefore, of a perceiving, conceiving, in a word,
self-conscious, being ; that this itself as a single thing, as a
part of the universe, belongs among the objects which re-
quire to be reflected upon, conceived, made into objects,
and presupposes, therefore, an original self, which forms the
inmost core of our being. Here is the great problem of
things that presses for solution, the problem of all problems.
The universe and self are related as subject and object, as
the conditioned to the condition, not as the whole to a
part, also not as the two sides of a contrast which exclude
each other, as the real to the ideal, to use the favorite
formula for expressing the relation between object and sub-
ject, the world and self. The world is our object, our
presentation : it is nothing independent of our presentation
of our self. We ourselves are the world. Every false view of
the world is always likewise a self-delusion : every true view
of the world is always likewise a self-knowledge. As there
is no world independent of our self to whom it appears, by
whom it is conceived, so there is no knowledge of the world
capable of being independent of, or disjoined from,» hiimman
self-knowledge. Only two cases are hero thinkable i eiither
our self-knowledge is made dependent upon our view of the
world, or our view of the world is made dependent upen our
self-knowledge. From the nature of the case» the- second
must be true ; but the perception of this necessity had to be
gained by toil, and philosophy made and abandouedi a series
of presuppositions before it could acquire it.. And' thus
its fundamental tendencies are distinguished. At first, the
world appeared first, and self as second, until the self-delu-
sion which lies at the foundation of this point of view

10 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSORHY.

became evident, and now their relation in the consciousness
of philosophy is reversed.

Thereby we hope to liave established that philosophy by
means of its concept can be nothing else than human self-
knowledge, and, as soon as it has gotten rid of the first
self-delusion, that it also consciously seeks to be nothing
else. The coui'se of its historical development confirms
this truth.

We can draw a number of self-evident inferences from
this conception, which throw much light upon the history of
philosophy, and clear aAvay a multitude of prejudices that
hinder a right view of it.

The first is, that philosophy, like the human mind itself,
is capable of, and requires, an historical cleveloj3ment ; that
it participates in the life of systems of culture which ages
and nations consummate, and, therefore, shares in their prog-
ress, and is subject to their destinies. It is the self-knowl-
edge of humanity, of humanity in the highest form of one
of its stages of development, controlled by one of its defi-
nite and distinct modes of culture. It is the problem of
jihilosophy to comprehend the inmost motives of this form
of cultui'e, and explain its nature and its ideal. This in-
most motive must appear, the mind mi^st be conscious of it
if it is conscious of itself, for it is itself this inmost motive.
And there is no other means of solving this problem than
philosophy.

The richer and more multiform the world of culture
which philosophy must comprehend and explain, the more
difficult its problem. A multitude of different and opposing
movements and intei-ests are clashing with each other on
the animated theatre of the world ; so different and conflict-
ing must be the motives at work in the human mind ; and
so different and conflicting must be the philosophical systems
of such an age. It is self-evident that the contradictions
of the time must appear in conflicting sj'stems, each of
them representing one phase of the spirit of the age, and

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE. 11

supplementing the rest in order to solve the philosophical
problem of the time.

Every period has its predominant tendencies, either mani-
festing themselves alone or with unmistakable ascendency,
and employing the active forces of history : they are based
either upon the great problem of the age, upon the highest
interests of the human mind, which obscure all others for
a time, and drive them into the background, or upon the
interests of mere bulk, which, with the value of its aims
in life, presses to the front, and temporarily chokes all
other forms of culture. Hence also in philosophy there
are predominant systems contrasted in character; profound
systems probing the depths of the human mind, and popu-
lar philosopMes comprehending no more than the masses
desire.

But whatever may be the spirit of a time which is por-
trayed in philosophj', this portrait is always more than a
mere likeness. Philosophy is related to the historical spirit
of man as ' is self-knowledge to our own life, and this en-
ables us to bring this great question into a smaller compass.
Now, what is involved in an act of self-knowledge,? We
withdraw our attention from the outer world, and reflect
upon ourselves. It is our own life which we make the
object of our thoughts ; and while we, in contemplation of
it, stand opposite to it, as it were, we ourselves become a
phenomenon. We cease to be what we have been : we
rise above our past self, like an artist above his work.
The artist absorbed in labor sees with different eyes from
the artist who has put down his tools, and stepped back
from his work, and, from a. well-chosen point of view,
critically surveys the whole. He discovers faults undetected
before ; here he sees an incongruity in the parts, there a
lack of symmetry. He sees how one part harmonizes with
.another, and what disturbs this harmony. What will he
do? Abandon the work because it is not yet perfected,
because it seems to him very defective ? Will he not rather

12 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

seize his tools again, and strive to realize that true concep-
tion which entered his mind in the moment of that criti-
cal survey? Let us leave the figure. We are the artist;
the work of art is our life; the critical survey is the
knowledge of self which interrupts our life. We withdraw
from the life we have been living, like the artist from his
work, to a point of view from which we make it our object,
and get a distinct perception of ourselves. Thereby we
leave our old life, and we shall never return to it again.
Thus, the knowledge of self determines the moment in
our existence which concludes one period in our life, and
begins another; it forms a crisis in our development; it
makes a turning-point in our lives. It is not merely a
copy, it is a transformation of our lives. We free our-
selves from our passions as soon as we think them ; they
cease to be our state as soon as they become our object;
we cease to feel them as soon as we begin to reflect upon
them. Therein lies the whole significance of the knowl-
edge of self; the crisis which it effects in our lives. It
transforms our state into our object : it places the power
under which we have lived over against us as an object.
What is the necessary result? We are no longer in-
volved in that state ; we are no longer controlled by that
power ; we are, therefore, no longer what we were. Thus,
earnest self-knowledge is always a fundamental freeing
and renewing of our lives : it is really the crisis in which
the present separates itself from the past, and prepares for
the future. The acts of self-knowledge in our lives are
like the monologue of a drama : the action withdraws from
the animated theatre of the outer world into one's inmost
mind, and there, in the quietness of self-reflection, it solves
old problems, and proposes new ones.

Such crises are wanting in no actively intellectual life, and
every one has experienced them. It is impossible for us •
continually to pour out our being without remainder, as it
were, into the particular states of life and culture by which

THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AS SCIENCE. 13

we are controlled. Insensibly begins, and gradually grows,
the rebellious consciousness. In the same proportion, our
interest in the old forms of culture dies ; in the same pro-
portion they cease to satisfy us ; we are weary of them. A
feeling of satiety and dissatisfaction becomes more and more
definite, more and more painful, until, at last, we remain
alone with ourselves. One thing is certain : we are estranged
from the life we have been living ; we are inwardly free from
it. For the first time we become conscious of our independ-
ence ; and we indemnify ourselves in our thoughts for every
thing that we no longer desire or believe with the great con-
sciousness that we no longer desire it. Now begins reflection
upon ourselves, upon the problem of our existence, upon the
problem of the world. We begin to philosophize so far as
our faculties and culture permit us. This philosophy is a
fruit of our culture, however mature or immature it may be.
Its foundations are laid in the state of culture from which it
proceeds, and from which it frees us. It will, therefore, ne-
cessarily give expression to this state of culture also. Thus,
from the experience and development of a single life, I have
described the state of mind in which the will inclines to
reflection and self-knowledge, and the first motives to phi-
losophize are conceived. Those are the moments when in-
tense natures become conscious of a passionate desire to
become acquainted with philosophy, and receive from it the
satisfaction that life no longer gives.

What those significant meditations upon self are in the life
of the individual, the prominent systems of philosophy are
in the life of humanity. They not merely accompany the
advancing spirit of man, but they exert a quiet though power-
ful influence upon its progress. They make that an object
of thought which was before a mastering state : they free
the world from this dominion, and so tend to complete
existing states, and prepare and lay the foundations of a
new human culture. They act as inner factors in originat-
ing, developing, and bringing to an end, the great systems

14 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of culture in the history of the world, and in determining
the great crises of culture. Humanity is a problem that
becomes more and more developed in history, is ever more
and more profoundly conceived. That, in brief, is the entire
content of the history of philosophy, a content indeed of
great historical significance. We first see the history of phi-
losophy in its true light, when we see in it the course of
development in which the necessary problems of humanity
are defined with all distinctness, and so solved that from
every solution ever new and profounder problems arise.
We must trace out the fundamental lines in this course of
development, in order to fix the point where we ourselves
take up its exposition.

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 15

CHAPTER II.

THE COURSE OP DEVELOPMENT OP GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

rriHE entrance of Christianity into the history of the world
-*- forms the boundary between the two great periods of
the history of the world, — the pre-Christian and the Chris-
tian. By this boundary we mean the whole time which
Christianity required to overcome the old religion and to
become itself a great power in the history of the world.

In the pre-Christian world, there was one nation which
beyond all others was philosophical. It exercised almost
undivided mental sway for more than a thousand years, and
its systems still remain a school of culture and education for
the nations of Christianity. The predominant philosophy of
antiquity was the Grecian. It began in the sixth century
before Christ, and ended in the sixth of the Christian era.
Its beginnings coincided with the foundation of the great
Persian empire, and its last school died about a half-century
after the downfall of the Western Roman Empire. A pecul-
iar fate willed that Grecian philosophers of the first period
should flee from the Persians, whose victorious arms already
threatened the Grecian world, and that, more than a thou-
sand years later, the last philosophers of Greece, driven from
Athens, should seek refuge with a Persian king, protected
by the edict of a Christian emperor.

A comparison has often been made between the philosophy
of Greece and that of modern times. In this relation, Soc-
rates has often been compared with Kant, and the pre-So-
cratic, with the pre-Kantian, philosophies ; and, even in the

16 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

post-Kantian philosophers, some have sought to find many
notewortliy points of resemblance to the Post-Socratic Attic
philosophers. Still, on the whole, the fundamental principles
of the two periods are essentially different. Nevertheless, I
will make the comparison in one respect, if only to make the
survey more rapidly. If one can distinguish the periods of
the development of antiquity according to the universal
scheme of historical division, into the earlier, middle, and
later times, Grecian philosophy, in the last of these divis-
ions, begins in an unmistakably reformatory epoch. The
founders of ancient philosophy were impelled by the desire
for a universal religious-moral reformation of the Grecian
world, and philosophy itself appeared in the service of this
reformatory effort. I need only mention Pythagoras to de-
note a type and example of a tendency which stamped itself
on Grecian philosophy even in its origin, and which was con-
tinually re-appearing during its progress. Ancient philosophy
began in the reformatory age of the Grecian world; modern
philosophy in that of the Christian world. Between the end
of the former and the beginning of the latter, lie a thou-
sand years of that specifically Christian culture in which
the new principle of faith developed its order of the
world in the supremacy of the Church, and based its view
of the world on theological foundations. Thus, it is the
philosophical problems of antiquity, and the theological
problems of Christendom, which, generally speaking, con-
stitute the course of development which precedes our subject
as its historical condition.

In the development and succession of its problems, Grecian
philosophy is a wonderful and an incomparable example of a
profound and, at the same time, entirely natural and simple
growth. Nothing is forced, nothing is artificial. Nowhere
is there a break in the progressing course of thought. Every-
where the uniting terms are thoroughly thought out and dis-
tinct. A connection of the most vital character binds the
members of this long series into a whole, in whose magnifi-

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 17

cent forms we recognize the plastic influence of classic art.
No other philosophy makes this impression. The thought-
world of Greece was born of one people, of one language,
and has nothing, therefore, of the fragmentary character of
those philosophies in whose elaboration different peoples
co-operate. And how full of meaning, and rich, is the de-
velopment of Grecian philosophy ! In its origin, it was in
contact with the cosmogonal fictions of the religion of nature:
at its close, it stood in the presence of Christianity ; and it
was not only an essential factor in its production, but is still
an indispensable means in its education.

I. THE PROBLEM OF THE WORLD.

Its first problem was the explanation of the world, as
it appeared as nature to the perceiving mind. Its first
thoughts were the simplest, which naturally first occurred
for the solution of that problem. Of what does the world
consist? What is the basal material of which it is formed
and constituted? But the world is not merely substance
and material : it is likewise form and order, system, cosmos.
In what consists its fundamental form, its principle of order?
These two problems were the first and simplest. The Ionic
school undertook to solve the first, — the determination of
the basal material ; the Pythagorean philosophy the second
and higher, — the determination of the principle of world-
order, or the fundamental form of the world.

If we combine these two questions in one, we have the
fundamental problem of Grecian philosophy, the problem
which was first solved in the zenith of its classical develop-
ment,— How are stuff and form united? How does stuff
acquire form ? How is the world formed ? How do things
arise ? This formation or origin, taken in its simplest sense,
is a becoming, a process, a change. And so the third natural
and great problem that here arises relates to the world-process,
the origin of the world. When the principle, the real ground
of things, is determined, whether it be stuff or form, plainly

18 HISTORY OF MODKRN PHILOSOPHY.

the next question must be, How do things result from their
real ground?

The solution of this question results in new contradictions.
The concept of becoming, of genesis and decay, in a word,
of the world-process, is a great problem. We must compre-
hend how something arises, — i.e., passes from non-existence
into existence ; how something changes, — i.e., how this thing
becomes another thing, passes from this condition into
another. Siich a transition seems incomprehensible, inexpli-
cable, underivable. And so there are for this problem of the
world but two solutions at first. We cannot deduce, cannot
explain, cannot think the genesis of things ; it appears, there-
fore, unthinkable and impossible ; it cannot be. That is one
solution. Or we cannot, to be sure, deduce becoming, but
we can just as little deny it : it must, therefore, be declared
original and eternal. It does not follow from the principle
of the world, it is itself the principle of the world. That
is the second solution. The two solutions form the most
decided contradiction. The first solution declares that noth-
ing is in a process or becoming: the second declares that
every tiling is in a process, in a constant and continuous
change which never begins, never ceases, never pauses.
Both recognize in the concept of becoming, the contradic-
tion that something is, and, at the same time, is not. This
contradiction is impossible, declare the Eleatics: this con-
tradiction is necessary, declares Heraclitus, "the incompre-
hensible sage of Ephesus." The problems on both sides are
clear. How must the world be conceived, since it does not
endure that contradiction, since being necessarily excludes
from itself not-being in every respect, therefore, all becoming
and all multiplicity, since, in a word, becoming and multi-
plicity are concepts, which are full of contradictions, unthink-
able, impossible ? This is the exact problem of the Eleatics.
They first made the great discovery, that contradictions are
contained in, and impossibilities asserted hj, our natural
thinking ; that, therefore, the natural concept of the world,

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 19

based on the reports of the senses, cannot be true. This
trend of thought is, therefore, rich in results for all time.
The world-process cannot be derived : how the primary being
passes over froni a permanent state into changing states
cannot be conceifed. Such a transition is unthinkable, there-
fore impossible. There is no becoming ; the primary being
remains always like itself; there is in it no difference, no
multiplicity : it is the all-one. The fundamental concept of
the Eleatics is, the necessarily to be thought, as the con-
tradictory of the impossibly to "be thought (Xenophanes,
Parmenides, Zeno, Melissus).

How must the world be conceived, since it excludes from
itself motionless, unchangeable being, as entirely contrary to
nature? That is the question of Heraclitus. The world-
process cannot be denied: it is. It cannot be deduced,
since it is incomprehensible how an unchangeable being
should at any time begin to change. The world-process is,
therefore, original; the primary being itself is in eternal,
uninterrupted change, ; it is itself the world-process, the eter-
nally arising and vanishing world ; it is the one divine entity,
the principle of world-order, the logos, the primitive fire.
That is the solution of Heraclitus.

As the Ionic and Pythagorean problems together consti-
tute the fundamental question of Greek philosophy, so the
Eleatic and Heraclitic philosophies constitute its deepest
and most fundamental contradictions. To answer the first
question, to comprehend the true relation of stuff and form,
or their union, the metaphysics of Aristotle was necessary.
To answer the second question, to comprehend the true rela-
tion of the one and the many, the existing and its changeable
phenomena being in becoming, — this union of the funda-
mental thoughts of the Eleatics and Heraclitus, — the Pla-
tonic dialectics was required.

But the problem of philosophy is still occupied with the
world-process as nature. This problem must be solved : the
world-process, the origin and formation of things, must be

20 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

made comprehensible or explained. Now, to explain is to
deduce. Such an explanation of natural becoming, is im-
possible both to the Eleatics and Heraclitus: they declare
the world-process impossible ; he, original. From neither
of these points of view can there be any question of a
derivation.

If the world-process is to be deduced, something must lie
at the foundation of it which has itself not become, and which
itself does not enter into change ; something, therefore, ori-
ginal and unchangeable, something in which no genesis or
destruction takes place; a something existing in the sense
of the Eleatics. The world-process is : it cannot take place
in the existing. What remains ? How alone can it be con-
ceived, since it plainly must be so conceived that that which
is does not itself change ? That is the precise form in which
the problem of Grecian philosophy now stands. The solu-
tion is evident, the only one possible. That which exists
cannot be conceived as one, but as many, a multiplicity
of primary beings. The world-process — i.e., all natural
changes, all genesis and destruction — can only be conceived
as a union and separation of primary beings; i.e., as a
mechanical process.

Since these primary beings must be united and separated,
they can, of course, be nothing else than materials, funda-
mental materials. But what are these fundamental materi-
als ? The first answer is that of Empedocles : they are the
four elements. But the elements are changeable and divisible,
and the fundamental materials must be unchangeable. This
is required by the principle of the Eleatics, to which this
trend of thought remains loyal, in this respect, and certainly
on logical grounds. But if they must be unchangeable, they
cannot have this or that property, cannot, therefore, be dif-
ferent kinds of elements ; hence, not the four elements at all,
but an indefinite multitude of fundamental materials, desti-
tute of quality and divisibility ; i.e., numberless atoms, only
quantitatively different, whose manifold unions or agoreo-a-

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREiK PHILOSOPHY. 21

tions constitute things (Leucippus, Dpmocritus). But if
only blind, mechanical motion results from the weight of the
combined atoms, what is the explanation of the form and
order of things? Evidently without such a law-giving
motion the problem of the world cannot be solved ; evidently
such a law-giving motion cannot result. from the fundamental
materials ; evidently there must be an intelligent principle
by means of which this motion, and thereby all motion what-
ever, is produced, since mechanical motion is, at the same
time, conformable to purpose. That primordial mind must,
therefore, be separated from that fundamental material,
and the dualism of mind and matter must be explained. In
itself, therefore, the matter of the world is a motionless,
unseparated mass, a chaos in which there is no separation of
materials, but a universal mingling of each with every other.
The fundamental materials, therefore, can no longer be con-
ceived as atoms, but qualitative materials, each of which is
mingled in every part with the parts of the other, therefore
materials divided in an equal number of parts, or homceo-
meria as Aristotle called them (Anaxagoras).

Here the first period of Greek phi]osophy naturally closes.
This period, usually called the period of natural philosophy,
has so far thought through the problem of the world, that
from its solutions mind necessarily resulted. There are three
great problems which occupied this first period, — the problem
of the world-material, that of the world-order, and that of
the world-process (genesis of things). These investigations
lead to one result, and this to a new and higher problem.

II. THB PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE.

If the nature of things is in truth as these first natural
philosophical systems have defined it, it appears, at first
sight, inconceivable, and therefore impossible, for the mind
of man to know things. Knowing is a mental process. Now,
if there is no process whatever, as the Eleatics maintained,
there is no mental process. If there is nothing but process.

22 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

and nothing whatever that is permanent, as Heraclitus main-
tained, neither subject nor object continues ; there is neither
a knowing nor a thing to be known, therefore no knowledge.
If there is notliing but mechanical process, nothing but the
unions and separatiomi of basal elements, as Empedocles and
the atomists maintained, there is no mental process, there-
fore no knowledge. And if the mental process depends
upon a being outside the world, as Anaxagoras maintained,
there is no natural process of knowledge, therefore no
human knowledge. The total result is, — human knowledge
is impossible. It is impossible from all the points of view of
the philosophy which has been heretofore taught : it cannot
exist in nature as that philosophy conceived it. At first
sight, therefore, nothing seems to remain but to deny it.
There is no knowledge, therefore no truth, therefore nothing
whatever in itself, or universally valid, neither in science
nor in ethics. Nothing remains but subjective opinion, and
the art of making it accepted ; nothing but the individual
man, who declared himself the measure of all things, — the
theme of the Sophists (Gorgias and Protagoras). The theory
of the sophists forms tha transition from the knowledge of
the world to the knowledge of self, — the crisis of Greek
philosophy : it decided the new problem which occupied the
following period, the classical time of Attic thought. It
turned a blaze of light upon the then existing state of
thought, by showing with entire clearness, that, under this
state, knowledge and, along with it, philosophy itself, was
an absolute impossibility. The sophists themselves were
really convinced of this impossibility, at least the ablest of
them, since they saw no means of escaping this conclusion.
In this conviction they were by no means without philosophi-
cal principles ; and if we correctly and completely understand
them, we shall have to say that they not merely made the
culture of their time fruitful, but that they threw such light
upon the condition of philosophy that the new problem was
self-evident to the progressing mind. They completely illu-

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 23

minated the state of thought of the Greek mind ; and the
confusion of concepts which they are charged with having
produced, was the necessary result of the existing condition
of thought, — a condition which they apprehended with per-
fect clearness, and made clear to the consciousness of others.

The fii'st who saw the new problem, and was himself pos-
sessed by it against his will, as it were, who brought on the
crisis of self-knowledge, and made it a matter of distinct con-
sciousness in the philosophy of Greece, was Socrates. The
doctrine of the Sophists forms the transition from the pre-
Socratic philosophy to the Socratic. The central point of
the pre-Socratic problems related to the genesis of things.
The problem of Socrates was to explain the genesis of the
process of knowing. This was the problem of Attic philosophy.
Attic philosophy conceived and solved the problem of the
world under the presupposition of the problem of knowledge.
Its question was. How must the world be thought, if it is to
be thought as a knowable world, as an object of knowledge ?

The question which occiipied Socrates was nothing else
than the genesis of knowledge, the passage of the mind
from the state of not-knowing into that of knowing, the
seeking of truth, the production and uniting of true concepts,
the factual refutation of the sophists who declared that
knowledge is impossible, because there is no concept, no
judgment, the contradictory of which cannot just as well be
affirmed. The continual contradiction of human opinions
was regarded by the sophists as a proof of the impossibility
of knowledge. Socrates regarded the harmony produced
out of the contradiction of opinions as the proof of the con-
trary. He could only find truth, therefore, in intercourse
with men, in animated conversation, in ordinary, conversa-
tional thought.

Universal concepts — those in which all men agree — are
true concepts, the objects of true knowledge, therefore true
objects in general. Are we not obliged to conclude that
those species or ideas which express the nature of things, are

24 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

also really the nature of things? that the objects of true
knowledge constitute the truly real and primordial being,
are, therefore, tlie true world, the intelligible or archetypal
world, which appears in the sensible world as in its copy, like
an idea in a work of art ? If there is true knowledge, its object
must be the truly real. That is the step from Socrates to
Plato. PVom this point of view, philosophy becomes a doc-
trine of ideas, and the world appears as a copy of ideas, as
an eternally living work of art ; the cosmos as a natural, the
state as a moral, work of art. An ideal world arises in the
philosophical consciousness, accessible to man only through
elevation to his thinking and ideal nature ; and this elevation
is only possible through purification from his sensuous nature,
from that which constitutes its roots, — namely, the desires
which obscure the bright world within us, and draw us down
into material things. This philosophy requires the turning
from desire and to ideas : it makes the elevation of man to
the world of ideas dependent upon his inner purification,
upon his moral transformation. Now the conception of an
eternal purpose in the world is gained, a living and moulding
power which unfolds itself in the order of things, and ap-
pears to man as an example for his moral life. In this ten-
dency towards the transformation of the moral life of man,
the Platonic philosophy is reformatory and religious. In
this phase of his doctrine, Plato feels a kinship with Pythag-
oras, and future centuries will feel their relationship with
Plato. The time will come when men with ardent longing
will look towards that intelligible world which Plato, like a
master of the plastic arts, conceives, and holds before his
world as the only deliverance from the ruin that had already
begun.

The opposition of idea and matter, of the intelligible and
material worlds, of the natures of thought and sense, is
peculiar to the Platonic philosophy, and is grounded in its
entire nature. Simply expressed, it is the dualism between
form and stuff. The philosophical consciousness, in its de-

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 25

mand for unity and coherence, struggles against this dualism.
And so the next question — which results from the Platonic
philosophy, and which we have called the fundamental prob-
lem of Greek thought — is, How does stuff acquire form?
How is their union explained? If they were separate from
each other, their union would only be comprehensible through
the action of a third principle, of external machinery ; and this
itself would remain incomprehensible. Form, therefore, must
be conceived' as dwelling in stuff, as a formative force, i.e.,
as energy ; and stuff must be conceived as containing form
potentially in itself, as the foundation for, and tendency to,
this particular formation, i.e., as energy; and every actual
thing must be conceived as self-forming stuff, which achieves
its form, realizes its inner purpose, i.e., as entelechy. And
things altogether must appear to us as a series of such forms,
the lower of which always contains the foundation for, and
tendency to, the next higher, i.e., as a gradation of entelechies.
And the world-process itself can only be conceived as a mo-
tion, in which stuff forms itself, form completes itself, poten-
tiality actualizes itself, and that which has already become a
thing, is constantly becoming stuff and material for higher
formations ; i.e., it must be conceived as development. By
this concept, Aristotle got rid of the Platonic dualism. Even
knowledge, according to Aristotle, is a process of development.
Thus, through the concept of development, both the problem
of the world and the problem of knowledge were solved.
This concept is established as soon as form is conceived as
the energic, and matter as the dynamic! principle, or, what is
the same thing, as soon as ideas are regarded as the purpose
dwelling in things. Matter, then, mi^'st be explained by the
concept of potentiality, or capacity for assuming form. Plato
regarded stuff as [ltj ov, Aristotle as Swdfiet ov. The difference
between these two philosophers cannot be stated more briefly
and forcibly.

Here ends the classic period of Greek philosophy. The
succeeding period takes another direction, pointed out by

26 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the Socratic schools and the Platonic-Aristotelian doctrine.
It ceased to be what it had been, — cosmology, — since before
and after its transition in Socrates it was constantly trying
to solve the problem of the world. The problems of the
world-stuff, world-order, world-process, occupied the atten-
tion of the pre-Socratic philosophers : How can the world be
known ? was the question of Socrates. Anaxagoras gave the
last solution of these first problems, Aristotle of the last.
Anaxagoras founded the dualism between mind and matter
which Aristotle sought to overcome by the doctrines of en-
telechy and development, but he was by no means entirely
successful ; since, at the conclusion of his system, this dualism
appears again and again. If we attend merely to this sepa-
ration of mind from matter, Aristotle's system seems to con-
clude in a dualism similar to that from which Anaxagoras
started.

III. THE PKOBLBM OF FREEDOM.

This dualistic mode of thought, though certainty incon-
sistent with the principle of Aristotle, was nevertheless a
natural result of his philosophy. This philosophy sees in
the world a series of gradations of entelechies : it conceives
this series as a completed whole, and, therefore, requires a
last member, a highest entelechy, i.e., such a one as can
proceed from no higher, which, therefore, in no wise con-
tains a potentiality for new formations, is, therefore, not at
all of a material nature, but is completely immaterial, hence
one which must be thought as pure form, as mere energy
which is an end only to itself, i.e., as thought which thinks
itself, as mind, as God. Moving every thing, he is himself
unmoved. Unaffected by the world-process, he is exalted
above the world, and in this exaltation is absolutely perfect.
He is sufficient to himself. This self-sufficiency appears as
the most perfect state, attainable only by mind which re-
poses in its self-consciousness, and holds itself aloof from
the motions of the world. Man also is a self-conscious per-
sonal being: if he were free from the world, he would be

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 27

perfect. This perfection becomes his ideal, his highest prob-
lem. What he seeks is the most perfect state of life, his
personal ideal. Philosophy which takes this direction is
practical rather than theoretical. The object of this phi-
losophy is not so much idea as ideal, not so much truth as
the wise man whose archetype it only seeks to know in order
to realize it in life. Its fundamental direction is practical :
its problem is the restoration of divine perfection in man, an
inner perfection, which approximates divinity. Its goal is
this divine-human state, or, if I dare so speak, this God-be-
coming of man. The solution of this problem is only pos-
sible through becoming free from the world ; and in this sense
I call the new problem, the freeing of man from the world.
Here we see already how Grecian philosophy, filled by the
ideal of man, renounces the world, and seeks a goal that,
without its knowledge, guided it into the path that termi-
nated in Christianity.

But how is the freeing from the world possible, through
which personal self-sufficiency is obtained? So long as the
world lays hold of us, and insnares us, we remain dependent.
This dependence is profound so long as we permit the world
to excite our desires, our passions, and our efforts ; so long
as we allow ourselves to be influenced by its goods, its evils,
its problems. To free ourselves thoroughly from the world,
we must cease to desire, to suffer, to struggle ; i.e., to strive
for the solution of the problems of the world. We must put
ourselves in a condition in which the world offers us no more
goods, in which there is nothing worthy of desire, in which
our desires and passions become dead, in which the will is
affected and influenced by nothing. This state is the virtue
of the stoics. We must lead a life — in order to protect our-
selves against the world — which is free from suffering, or,
not to ask too much of nature, in which we suffer as little,
and enjoy as much, as possible. This state is the happiness
of the Epicureans. Finally, in order to get rid of unrest of
mind, we must cease to strive, and must give up the solution

28 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of the problems of the world, being convinced that they are
insoluble. This doubt is the indifference of the Sceptics.
What, after Socrates, was begun in the cynic, Cyreuaic, and
Megaric schools, again appears after Aristotle, in the related
trends of thought, in the Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics,
raised to a higher power, as it were, and so conceived that
these different tendencies there spring from one motive, and
go hand in hand to one goal. This common motive is the
ideal of freedom from the world, a self-consciousness resting
in itself, entire self-sufficiency. In this common ideal. Stoics,
Epicureans, and Sceptics unite.

If we compare the means which they employ for the at-
tainment of their ideal, with the power from which they wish
to become free, the impossibility of their undertaking is
manifest. They wish to become free from the world; but
the world is more powerful than they are, and the ideal of
the wise man is wrecked on the abiding power of things.
The virtue of the Stoics stands opposed to the ever-renewing
power of natural impulses ; the happiness of the Epicureans,
to the course of nature with its army of evils, and unless the
Epicureans fly to their gods in the interspaces of the uni-
verse, they cannot escape the evils of the world ; finally, the
course of nature, with the power of its predominant concep-
tions and purposes, which the Sceptic cannot expel, of which
he cannot get rid, makes the indifference which he seeks im-
possible. It is impossible to wring the ideal of self-sufficiency
from the world, to bear it triumphantly away, unspotted by
the powers of the world. This ideal is the weaker party in
the conflict, and must at last succumb.

The means which are here opposed to nature, are, in the
last analysis, taken from nature herself. The Stoic seeks to
become free from nature through the independence of the
will, and this he calls virtue ; but this virtue is the proud
consciousness of one's own worth, and this egoistic feeling
is of the character of human vanity which is a part of nature.
The Epicurean seeks to become free from nature through en-

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 29

joyment, -which he would change into a permanent state : this
enjoyment is the agreeable consciousness of one's own well-
being, and this consciousness is a part of nature. The Sceptic
seeks to become free from nature through doubt : he wistes
to destroy our natural beliefs, and to regard the problems that
naturally arise as insoluble. But this doubt itself is sup-
ported by natural grounds, by the perceptions of the natural
understanding ; and this itself is a part of nature. The ideal
which seeks to overcome nature is constituted by the powers
of nature.

And so each of these trends of thought falls into a pecul-
iar contradiction with itself. The Stoic is happy in the con-
sciousness of his virtue ; he feels exalted in it, and has in this
exaltation that agreeable consciousness which the Epicurean
finds only in the enjoyments of the senses ; he contents him-
self with the consciousness that he does not need and desire
the goods of the world ; in this consciousness he can enjoy
them, first really enjoy them. In brief, the Stoic makes an
enjoyment of virtue. The Epicurean seeks enjoyment as the
most perfect state of life ; he avoids all suffering as far as
possible : but the greatest enemj' of pleasure are pleasures ;
and the Epicurean, therefore, carefully avoids pleasures, and,
for the sake of pleasure, practises a renunciation and temper-
ance which would do credit to many a Stoic. In brief, the
Epicurean makes a virtue of enjoyment. And thus the two
opposing trends of thought and systems of life, in their ac-
tual manifestations, may become like, even to the degree of
being confounded with each other. Finally, the Sceptic
makes a certainty of doubt, and falls into a contradiction no
matter whither he turns. For if his doubt is certain, he is
no longer a Sceptic ; and if his doubt is doubtful, it destroys
itself, and with it scepticism is at an end. Enough, these
trends of thought are on the road to the human ideal ; but
all their attempts fail, and at last resolve themselves into
nothing but problems which require a new and deeper
solution.

30 HISTORY OF MODEEN PHILOSOPHY.

rv. THE PROBLEM OF RELIGION.

We ourselves are the world. Our natural love of self and
our natural understanding are also world : they are funda-
mentally powers of the world, since without them there is no
world which we conceive or desire. And just this world
which is identical with ourselves, which we ourselves are in
a certain sense, is, in the ideal of the Stoics, Epicureans,
Sceptics, so little overcome that it is rather deified in it. To
get rid of this world, of this our own nature which is of the
world, which is indeed experienced as evil, to free ourselves
thoroughly from it, to fling away and break through this self
that takes us prisoner, and holds us down, — this is now the
problem of philosophy and, at the same time, the longing of
all who are sensible of the calamities of the time, and the
deep inner ruin of man. This ardent desire for freedom
from our own worldly and selfish nature is the desire for sal-
vation ; and so it is an absolutely religious motive which now
animates philosophy, and urges it directly toVards human re-
demption. It seeks the way to this goal : it aims itself to be
the means of salvation, it announces itself as a doctrine of
salvation. In this spirit, and in this motive, must we judge
its conceptions and its effects. Its problem is the last of an-
tiquity, — the salvation of the world. What it would call
into life, is a world religion : and it seeks to attain it, first,
through a purification of the old faith in the gods; and second,
through a restoration of it. With this thought, it prepares
for, and goes to meet, Christianity, contends and struggles
with it for the victory, which it finally loses. But the idea
of a world-saving religion was received in, and nourished by,
the consciousness of the Grecian world ; and when aspiring
Christianity broke through the limits of Judaism to work for
the salvation of the world, it found here the most fruitful
soil.

That desire for salvation which animated the last philosophy
of antiquity, and determined its mode of thought, consists

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 31

in the effort of man to get rid of the world, to escape from
the world, or, what is the same thing, to unite himself with
a being who is entirely aloof from the world of the senses,
free from its limits and evils. The stand-point of this phi-
losophy, therefore, requires, in the strictest sense of the word,
the oppositeness of God to the world. To satisfy this desire
of human salvation, God cannot be transcendent enough, or
enough opposed to the world. Exactly because of his aloof-
ness from the world, exactly because he is free from every
thing from which man desires to be free, does he become an
object of religious aspiration. And exactly for this reason is
there in the conception of a great chasm between God and
the world a religious satisfaction. God must be so conceived
that man can say to himself, " If I were with him, I should
be happy. In his presence there is nothing of that which
disturbs and oppresses me." The dualistic mode of concep-
tion is, therefore, a characteristic of this philosophy, and the
fundamental cause of it is absolutely religious. God here
stands opposite the world, not as the principle of order in
the presence of chaos, not as the moving purpose in the pres-
ence of the moved cosmos, but as the principle of blessed-
ness in opposition to the principle of evil. He is not a principle
for the explanation of things, but the ideal of man striving
for salvation. Religious aspiration widens to the uttermost
the chasm between God and the world : at the same time it
desires their union. But how is this union possible ? Cer-
tainly not by natural, therefore only by supernatural, means r
on the part of God by supernatural revelation ; on the p9,rt
of man by supernatural intuition, by inner, mysterious, illu-
mination. The highest state possible to man is now regarded
not as self-sufficiency or independence, but enthusiasm, a be-
ing filled by God. This state has nothing in common with,
the natural reason, and is not attainable by it. It is mysteri-
ous, and the philosophy which seeks this state is mystical.
It is a wonderful exaltation in which philosophy now partici-
pates, and which tears it away from its natural consciousness ;

32 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

a state of ecstasy which cannot arise by natural means, but
rather suddenly comes and vanishes like a moment of divine
illumination. Of himself, man cannot produce this state:
he can only experience it, and, so far as in him lies, make
himself ready to receive it by a constant purification of his
life, a continued renunciation of the world, and control of
the natural desires, even to the extremest abstinence. Hence
the strictly ascetic form of life which this pious philosophy
adopts. But the infinite chasm between the divine and the
human nature remains. Only in the moment of ecstasy is
man lifted above it ; but the moment of illumination passes,
and man sinks back again into the obscure and unholy world
of his natural consciousness. Religious aspiration must throw
a bridge across this chasm. Natural beings cannot, therefore
higher, supernatural beings must, be mediators between God
and man. From the world, no gradation of beings ascends to
God ; therefore, a gradation of beings must descend from God
to the needy world of man. These mediators are, therefore,
demons, — beings above man, and below God. Faith in
demons takes possession of this religious philosophy ; and the
same motive, which, in its mode of conception, separates God
and the world to the uttermost, and relates the two dualisti-
cally, putting the being of God entirely beyond and outside of
the world, which makes man's consciousness of God mystical,
and his life ascetic, — this motive makes philosophy demon-
ological in relation to the mediation between God and man.

Of course, from such conditions a new scientific system
cannot arise, nor does it lie in the need and tendency of the
time. It goes back to the past, and what it finds in those
systems akin to it, is taken by it, and transformed and reno-
vated in the religious spirit which now animates philosophy.
And it finds there two trends of thought pre-eminently
which meet its great want, and, therefore, even appear as
prefigurations, because they are the fruits of the same kind
of reformatory and religious motives ; viz., the doctrines of
Pythagoras and Plato, who are now surrounded with the

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 33

halo of a divine authority. Both these philosophies are
theologically transformed in the religious spirit of the time,
and in this character they appear as Neo-Pythagoreanism and
Neo-Platonism. To transform and renew the Pythagorean
doctrine in this spirit, its doctrine of the orders of the world
must be conceived as thoughts of God ; the numbers, which
express this order in the old Pythagorean system, must be
taken symbolically, — as signs or symbols of concepts, —
themselves, therefore, thought as ideas, the doctrine of num-
bers as a doctrine of ideas; i.e., the old Pythagorean phi-
losophy must be conceived as the Platonic. And so it is
principally the Platonic philosophy which offers material for
the development of that religious view of the world which the
last period of antiquity required. We may, therefore, call
this entire trend of thought religious Plafonism, which begins
with the Neo-Pythagoreans, and systematically culminates
and dies in the Neo-Platonic schools (Plotinus and Por-
phyry, Jamblichus, Proelus). In fact, the aspiration for a
supersensible, purely intelligible world, the ardent desire for
freedom from the world of the senses, for salvation from evil,
the desire for inward purification, — these fundamental im-
pulses which imbue philosophy with the religious spirit, find
no greater or more luminous example than Plato's doctrine of
ideas. And the Platonic ideas themselves, descending from
the highest unity step by step to an ever-increasing multi-
plicity, down to the extremest limit where forms enter into
matter, appear here as intermediate beings, as uniting terms,
as ladders, descending from God to the world. This world
of ideas offers itself as a welcome design into which philoso-
phy, with its faith in demons, works its conception of
mediators.

From this point of view, it is easy to determine the sys-
tematic form in which the last school of antiquity conceived
and solved its problem. It required a system which fulfils
these two conditions : first, the chasm between God and the
world must be made as wide as possible ; and second, this

34 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

chasm must be bridged over by a series of intermediate bemgs
infinite in number. These intermediate beings must be con-
ceived as a gradation, a descending gradation, and, therefore,
of decreasing perfection, which proceeds from the most per-
fect being, and ends in the most imperfect ; i.e., in the world
of the senses, with the effort to return to its original source.
The divine primordial being must be thought as not merely
beyond the world, but also all activity of mind, as beyond
even thought and will, since as such it is inaccessible to man.
Those intermediate beings, therefore, cannot proceed from
their divine Cause by means of will and thought, but only as
a necessary result, flowing from the fulness of his Being
without diminishing this fulness, as an effect from which
again new, less perfect effects emanate ; i.e., that gradation
of intermediate beings must be conceived as a gradation of
divine emanations. What, in the old Platonic system, are
ideas, are emanations in the Neo-Platonism, in which the sal-
vation of the world or the soul returning from the greatest
distance from God to union with him, is thought in the form
of an eternal process of the world and nature. Here we see
plainly how the religious motive is conceived in its typical
pagan form. These emanations are the most plastic material
for all forms of mythology. What in Plotinus are still ema-
nations, are in Jamblichus races of gods and demons, which
Proclus methodically orders and arranges.

From the central point of religious Platonism, in which it
is grounded, this mode of thought describes a wide horizon,
extending beyond Pythagoras and the bounds of the Grecian
world. Religious feelings, as such, are indeed kindred.
Every phenomenon of a distinctly religious character is im-
portant to the interests of this period. As it is itself of a
mystical nature, it is particularly attracted by such forms of
religious culture as are of a mysterious character, by such re-
ligious knowledge as has the character of a divine revelation.
Hence the powerful and fanciful attraction which the mys-
teries of Greece, the Orphic rites, and the Oriental religions,

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 35

exercise on this temper of mind. The more mysterious the
phenomenon, so much the more powerful and magical its
impression ; and the obscurer it appears, i.e., the further
removed from the present, so much the more mysterious can
it assume to be. Hence the effort of this Platonic trend of
thought to push the sources of its religious knowledge out
beyond the bounds of authentic history, and to sink them in
the darkness of the past. There it would find the origin of
its wisdom, and would see it borne on in religion and phi-
losophy by a succession of world-illuminating minds from
then until the present in which the old and mysterious reve-
lations are renewed. It is characteristic of the faith of this
time, of the dogmas of this philosophy, that it feels itself in
harmony with all the religious minds of the past, and brings
them in a connection which corresponds to its own religious
presuppositions. It looks everywhere as in a mirror, and
finds everywhere the reflection of its own mode of thought :
it perceives its conceptions in the philosophy of Plato, in the
wisdom of Pythagoras, in the mysteries of the Egyptians, in
the wisdom of the magicians and Brahmins, in the illumina-
tions of the Jewish prophets. It feels itself a link in the great
chain of minds through which divine revelations are commu-
nicated to humanity. Its reflection, which it throws back into
the past, appears again as the prefiguration of that from which
it claims to have received its own light. As these religious
Platonizing philosophers think, so must Plato and Pythago-
ras themselves, the old Platonists and old Pythagoreans, have
thought. And at the same time this perfect harmony is jus-
tified and proved. A multitude of writings appear written
in the spirit of the new mode of thought, under the names
of an Orpheus, Pythagoras, and old Pythagoreans. The
connection believed in is substituted for the actual one, and
this is completely obscured by dogmatic conceptions ; in like
manner, under the dominion of these conceptions, historical
sense and historical criticism are obscured until they are
completely lost.

36 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Among the religions of the East, there is particularly one
which spontaneously feels and acknowledges a spiritual kin-
ship with religious Platonism, — the Jewish. The decline and
ill fortune of the Jews under the oppression of foreign rule ;
the consciousness of this calamity, and the longing to be
delivered from it ; the hope of a future restoration ; faith in
a transcendent God ; the religious animation, extension, and
purification of the idea of God through the prophetic con-
sciousness ; the prophets themselves, with their religious and
reformatory efforts, and their illuminations enhanced even to
ecstasy ; faith in miracles ; the conception of angels as in-
termediate beings between God and man, already old and
familiar in the faith of the people, — all these characteristics
gave to Judaism a kinship with the Grecian philosophj^,
which we have just expounded, and made the jMosaic
religion hospitable to the Platonic. Even the external con-
ditions for mental intercourse existed in Alexandria, that cen-
tre of the Hellenic Orient. Judaism recognizes this kinship :
it can only comprehend the harmony between itself and Pla-
tonism by conceiving the latter as based on the Old Testa-
ment, the holy records of its own faith ; and now it can only
so interpret the records of its own faith as to vindicate their
harmony with Platonism. In this way the allegorical mode
of interpreting the Old-Testament Scriptures originated, and
on its basis the Jewish-Alexandrian religious philosophy.
This philosophy culminated in Philo, as religious Grecian
Platonism did in the later Neo-Platonists.

This Jewish philosophy is also religious Platonism, under
which name we accordingly include all the factors iu the
spirit of the time immediately preceding the Christian era.
Not to lose ourselves in details, since we are here concerned
only with the motive that impels philosophy onward, we seek
the central point of this entire trend of thought. Its chief
problem is the salvation of the world : the fundamental
thought in which its solixtion is sought is that of a world-
saving principle. Now, this principle can only be conceived

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPIIY. 37

as the divine purpose in the world, as the motive of creation,
as tlie world-arranging idea — present in the formation of
things — which enters into the universe, wliile God himself
remains entirely aloof from the world in his transcendent
existence. The principle, therefore, which creates and saves
the world must be different from God ; it is not God himself,
but it goes out from God as the word from the mind ; it is,
to express it allegorically and typically, the word of God, the
divine logos. All the intermediate beings between God and
man, however they are named, whether demons according
to the Greeks, or angels according to the Jews, meet in
this conception as in their unity. The logos is regarded as
the mediator between God and man.

The idea of the logos was developed in the Grecian phi-
losophy. In order to enter into human consciousness, this
idea required a trend of thought which, from the beginning,
made the principle of the world its problem. Grecian phi-
losophy from its very origin reflected upon the principle of
the world : it developed these reflections in its pre-Socratic
period, and applied them to the explanation of things ; in its
classic period, to the explanation of the knowledge of things;
in its first post-Aristotelian period, to the realization of the
human ideal ; in its last period, to comprehend from thence
the salvation of man from the world. If we denote that
principle of the world by the term logos, since even under
the logos a principle of the world must be thouglit, although
this name was by no means the one alwaj-s i;sed, we can say
that Greek philosophy was almost always occupied with this
theme, with this question, What is the logos? In the series
of solutions with which we have become acquainted, I will
call attention to three principal forms in which we meet the
Grecian concept of the logos most distinctly. The principle
of the world must be conceived as the order of the world,
which is equivalent to the eternal world-process ; but this
order of the world cannot be conceived without an eternal
purpose in the world, which expresses itself in the world-pro-

38 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

cess, and appears as changeless being in ceaseless becoming.
But this eternal purpose in the world cannot be conceived,
without at the same time conceiving in it the forming world-
energy, or the powers that form the world, and are the germ,
as it were, from which the world is developed. In the first
form, we recognize the Heraclitian explanation of the world ;
in the second, the Platonic ; in the third, after the appearance
of the Aristotelian philosophy, the Stoic. In the first expla-
nation, the logos appears as the order of the world or world-
process, as nature or cosmos ; in the second, as the archetypal
or ideal world, as the world of ideas ; in the third, as the
fulness of forming forces the \6yoi <7Trf.pix.aTiKo[. And in the
Heraclitian-stoic form, we even meet the word logos.

But the Platonic mode of thought forms the real central
point of the Grecian logos-idea. The Heraclitian mode of
thought involves it as a conclusion : the Stoic involves it as a
premise. For one cannot conceive the world-process without
the world-idea, and just as little can be conceived the form-
ing powers of the world without the same idea. The Pla-
tonic conception of the archet3'pal world includes the human
archetype as the intelligible ground of our existence and the
goal of our becoming. In the presence of this archetype, we
can only understand our earthy existence, our embodiment
in the material world, as a fall of the soul, which is guilty of
desire, and our return to that archetype is only possible by
means of a purification, which entirely overcomes desire in
our minds. But if this is the goal of man, should it not also
be the goal of the world — this salvation of man from the
world ? Here the Platonic philosophj'- appears in its religious
significance ; and, from this point, it gives rise to, and explains,
the religious state of mind and mode of thought which char-
acterized Greek philosophy in the last centuries of its exist-
ence. The logos now appears as the world-saving principle,
as the divine thought of the salvation of the world, in which
the secret, i.e., the inmost purpose of creation is contained,
as the real motive of creation, as the creative word of God.

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 39

The word is realized, in man who overcomes the world, or
restores in himself the pure archetype of man.

Now the Grecian and Jewish problems of salvation come
in contact, and show in very .many kindred conceptions their
religious affinity. That rests in the thought of the logos,
this in the conception of the Messiah. The logos is a uni-
versally conceived principle of the world, and seeks personi-
fication : the Messiah is an ideal of a people conceived as a
person, and seeks universalization. Both trends of thought
need to supplement and penetrate each other : this supple-
ment is sought on the Jewish side. To introduce Platonism
into Judaism is to think the logos idea into the conception of
the Messiah. This problem, already adumbrated in the Jew-
ish-Alexandrian book of wisdom, is solved by Philo, who
makes the logos-Messiah the central point of his philosophy,
the Mediator and Saviour of the world.

The problem of salvation demands a personal solution. It
is solved if a man appears who actually overcomes the world
in himself, who, in the deeper meaning of the word, is truly
free from the world, in whom humanity recognizes its arche-
type, and in whom it, therefore, believes as the Saviour of
the world. This is the only possible form in which the solu-
tion of the religious problem of the world can be effected.
A person must appear, who saves himself from the world, and,
through faith in him, the world itself; a person of whom one
can say that in him salvation has taken place, the idea has
appeared, the logos has become flesh, God has become man.
Only through faith in such a person can the desire of men
for salvation be satisfied.

From the point of view of the logos idea, as this was de-
veloped in the consciousness of Greek philosophy, this man
was not to be found, for this idea had no reference whatever
to a particular individual, to an actual man : it gave to the
faith which it animated no direction whatever towards a per-
son. From the logos to man, there was an impassable chasm,
a chasm that could not be bridged by any conceivable num-

40 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

ber of orders of divine beings. The logos idea sought per-
sonification, bnt it was utterly incompatible with the natural
life of man. The thought of salvation was inconsistent with
human nature ; it remained on the other side of reality, some-
thing universal and inanimate ; and so under this conception
the desire of salvation was without expectation and without
hope.

The Jewish desire for salvation, on the other hand, was
filled with a definite expectation and hope. An ideal of their
people was given to it in the person of the ^lessiah. It waited
patiently for this Saviour who was to come to be the deliverer
of a people, a people whom God had chosen and preserved
to rule the world. This world-ruling Messiah, whom the
prophets beheld in the future of Israel, was the object of the
highest hopes of the faith of the Jews. Now, when a Messiah
appeared who became a saviour, not in the Jewish sense, but
the Grecian, a saviour from the world, the conditions were
fulfilled under which the religious problem of the world re-
ceived its solution. Its starting-point lay in the centre of the
Jewish people. Their Messianic ideal gave the personal di-
rection which the idea of the logos lacked. The desire for
salvation had, therefore, to accept this ideal in order to reach
its goal, in which, as a phenomenon of history, the logos was
believed to have become flesh, God to have become man.
Faith had at first no path from the logos to man ; but there
was a path from man to the Messiah, and from this jNIessiah,
who was not a deliverer in the Jewish-worldly sense, to the
logos. Historical development took this path, a roundabout
one indeed, but tlie shortest one because it led to the goal ;
and, as Lessing has said in the "Education of the Human
Race," " It is not true that a straight line is always the
shortest way."

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH. 41

CHAPTER III.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH.
I. PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

ri^HE person Jesus realized that desire for salvation wliich
-L humanity felt most deeply, most purely, and most sim-
ply ; and simplicity always triumphs. Through him the Jew-
ish Messianic ideal was spiritualized and transformed :
through him it was animated from the beginning of its his-
tory with a new spirit, whose aim was not the exaltation of a
people, the subjugation of the world, but the transformation
and regeneration of man. In him was solved the deepest
and most difficult of the problems of the world, — the salva-
tion of man from the world ; he himself was the personal
solution of this problem ; he forms, therefore, the decisive
crisis in the development of humanity, as Socrates was in
the development of Greek consciousness. This comparison
shows likewise the difference between the two.

At this point in the history of humanity, a fundamental
spiritual renewing began. Before this was possible, it was
necessary for the divine idea to be embodied in a person
who restored and revealed the human archetype in himself ;
then it was necessary for humanity to recognize this arche-
type as its own, and believe in the person Jesus as the Sav-
iour of the world. This faith in Jesus Christ forms the
foundation and the principle of Christianity : it contains the
problem which from that time occupied humanity, and out
of which new problems are progressively developed. We
follow here these problems in their philosophical relations, so

42 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

far as they give rise to, and promote, a new view of the
world corresponding to the Christian faith. The principle
of this faith is absolutely religious: it is concerned only
with the eternal welfare of man, with the salvation of the
world, with the relation of man to God. The view of the
world corresponding to it is, therefore, absolutely theologi-
cal. The theological mode of thought forms the fundamen-
tal characteristic of Christian philosophy, by which we mean
that system of conceptions which is grounded on faith in
Christ as its principle.

Christian philosophy, therefore, as a system, could not be
developed until the religious principle of Christianity was
thoroughly established, — the principle that fitted it to be
the religion of the world. In its primitive form, Christianity
was not a system of thought, but the proclamation of a fact ;
not a series of dogmas, but a gospel. As it developed, it
passed through a series of different stages, and got rid of the
contradictions which were discovered in its first records.
Christian faith regarded Jesus from higher and higher points
of view. First he was the Messiah of the chosen people ;
then he was the Saviour of the world, who came not to glo-
rify the Jews, but to save the world ; and finally he was the
saving principle of the world, the eternal logos, God become
man, and in this light his person and life were represented.

To follow and point out those developments in the New-
Testament records, those contradictions, forms of transition,
and interminglings of Jewish and Hellenic conceptions,
those great conflicts which deeply and passionately agitated
primitive Christianity, and were necessary to free it from its
first limits, and fit it for a great career in the history of the
world, was the special task of a searching examination of the
Bible. It was necessary to decide between the Jewish faith
in the Messiah, and the faith in the Saviour of the world ;
between Christianity as the religion of the Jews and the reli-
gion of the world; between the Jewish and Gentile, the
Petrine and Pauline, conceptions. These controversies were

CHRISTIANITY AND THK CHURCH. 43

carried on and settled by primitive Christianity, wliich, in its
Pauline form, broke through the barriers of Judaism, and
severed the bond that still fastened it to a single nation.
Thus only did Christianity attain that universal value which
made possible a great career in the history of the world.

II. THE CHURCH.

The decisive step towards the realization of this career
was the fixed and permanent organization of the Church,
an empire of faith which rose in the midst of the Diins
of the old world, and laid the foundation for a new one.
But such an organization was impossible until Christianity
laid aside its apocalyptic conceptions of the imminent end
of the world. If Christ was about to come from the
clouds of heaven, and establish a millennial kingdom, there
was no need of a permanent ecclesiastical institution. But
as faith in Christ abandoned its Messianic form, and became
spiritualized ; as the idea of its universal value was empha-
sized, and, consequently, as the need for a new fellowship
and regulation in the life of humanity was felt, — the organi-
zation of the Church seemed a necessity. The Church was
the earthly kingdom of the invisible Christ instead of the
millennial kingdom expected by those who believed in his
immediate second coming. That kingdom of the invisible
Christ promotes the unity of believers, and this unity must
be the central fact and governing principle in the new regu-
lation of life. Now, Christ himself must be the bond of
union between Christian believers. But for its value on
earth, this union requires a visible form. The community of
believers need to know that they are united under one
head, a head which represents Christ in their midst, steps
into his place, as it were. The idea of a representative oifice,
i.e., tl}fi,idea of an episcopacy, alone solves the problem of
the unity of faith, which is identical with the problem of the
Church. Now, only in one way can bishops be regarded
as the representatives of Christ on earth. The apostles were

44 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the immediate successors of Christ : bishops must be the
successors of the apostles, and, through them, of Christ.
Thus, the value of the episcopacy depends upon the idea of
apostolic succession. But there are many bishops ; and the
idea of unity, which, it must be borne in mind, is identical
with that of the Church, requires their union under a
supreme bishop ; and, from the idea of apostolic succession, it
follows that he must be regarded as the successor of the
chief apostle, i.e., of Peter. Now, the Church was organized
in the Roman empire : the political institutions of Rome
were, therefore, the external conditions under which it began
to exist. Hence her political centres seemed the natural cen-
tres for the ecclesiastical organization ; the capitals of prov-
inces became the natural seats of bishops ; those of states, of
archbishops and patriarchs ; and the metropolis of the world,
the seat of the supreme bishop. Thus, Rome was the seat of
the ecclesiastical unit, the episcopal primate ; while it fol-
lowed, from ecclesiastical grounds, that this primate was
regarded as the successor or representative of Peter. From
the co-operation of the two causes, therefore, it followed that
the Roman bishop was regarded as the successor of Peter,
and the apostle Peter as the founder of the Christian com-
munity in Rome. Th\is the idea of the papacy arose and
was realized in the Western Church. The idea of Peter's
residence in Rome and his labors there first grew out of
anti-Pauline tendencies, then adapted itself to the recon-
ciled form of the Petro-Paulme legends, and grew into an es-
tablished tradition, on the basis of which the Roman bishops
claimed ecclesiastical primacy. (This conclusion is clearly
made out by a highl}^ instructive investigation, which has
thrown much light upon the nature and development of the
Jewish-Christian modes of thought.)

In the various departments of human life, and the various
forms of human culture, perhaps no greater example can be
found of an historical development, springing merely from
an idea, and perpetuated and controlled by it, than the Chris-

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH. 45

tian Church. It sprang from the idea of tlie unity of Christian
faith; and this idea determined its form, and developed it
into a power that ruled the world. Its fundamental form
was very simple. It was so constituted that believers felt
themselves united with Christ by a living, historical bond ;
that the person of Christ seemed united with believers by an
unbroken series of connecting links. Those links were the
bishops and the apostles and the apostolic fathers. Hence
the historical reality of Jesus was accepted as an axiom of
incontestable truth.

In a short time, the Church became a living and indestruc-
tible power. Its influence increased in spite of the persecu-
tions of Rome, and because of them. In the midst of the
disintegrating empire of ];)agan Rome, the Christian Church,
after a few centuries, was the only strong unit with inward
life. The unity of the state consisted in imperialism ; the
unity of faith, in the Church; and already it stood in the
presence of that empire as an imposing, and, even in its out-
ward form, invincible, power. In 07ie respect, imperialism
and th'e Church resembled each other, — in their striving for
centralization ; and this was why the Church exercised an
attraction on the imperial power. Each of these powers
could strengthen itself by forming an alliance with, and using,
the other. Constantino the Great appreciated this fact, and
it might very well have appeared to him in a religious light.^
It was not so much the cross in the clouds, as the cross in
the world, before which he bowed. Imperialism professed
Christianity, and thereby advanced to the power of the world.
What Constantine established in the beginning of the fourth
century, and Julian, fifty j'ears after the first edict of tolera-
tion, vainly sought to overthrow, was confirmed by Theodo-
sius the Great, at the end of that century, even before the
division of the empire.

The first inner problem of the new religion consisted in the

1 F. Chr. Baur: Christiauity, and the Christian Church of the First Three
Centuries (1851!), pp. 443-7.

46 HISTOBY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

development and adjustment of the apostolic oppositions, —
the grounding of Catholic Christianity. Externally, its work
was to conquer the Roman empire. It gained the victory
after enduring all sorts of political persecutions, in the course
of the three first centuries, from Nero to Diocletian, and
experiencing every attack of philosophy from Celsus to
Porphyry.

m. TUB DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCn.

1. The Problem. — Unity of faith demands perfect harmony
in the conceptions of faith. The Church must make these
conceptions universally valid or symbolical. Only the
Church can do it, since, by virtue of its bishops and synods,
it alone has the power to decide what is true. Christian
faith must be definitely determined, freed from all arbitrary
conceptions, from all opposing points of view. This was re-
quired by the Church, since unit}' of faith demands also unity
in the consciousness of faith: only thereby is the Church
inwardly and thoroughly established. The men who laid
the foundations of the ecclesiastical edifice, who put the doc-
trines of the Church in a definite form, are justly called the
fathers of the Church, patres ecclesice. They changed faith
into dogmas ; they grounded the doctrines of the Church, and
therewith the inner unity of the faith of the Church ; tliey
solved the fundamental problems of theology (called patristic
in this part of its development).

These problems were solved from a regulative point of
view. The criterion of the unity of faith was determined by
the teachings of Christ and the apostles. That is true which
they taught, which has been handed down as their doctrine
in unbroken succession by the successors of the apostles,
with whom the Church believes itself, and only itself, in
living historical connection. As apostolic succession forms
the unity of faith, so apostolic tradition forms the criterion
of the doctrines of faith.

From the point of view, and the fundamental idea, of
Christianity, we can see the principle that determined the

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH. 47

conception and solution of the patristic problem. What must
be believed, is Christ as the Saviour of humanity. He must
be accepted as the person in whom the salvation of the world
is accomplished. Faith in this fact forms the fixed presuppo-
sition on which the Church rests ; the sure guiding principle
which regulates and arranges its conceptions. What contra-
dicts this principle is false, that which agrees with it is true.
Thus orthodoxy and heterodoxy were distinguished in the
concepts of the Christian faith. And the problem of the
Church was to develop and establish the doctrines of ortho-
doxy in accordance with this principle.

In that fact of faith itself lies the fundamental question of
Christian theology. The fact of the salvation of the world
is accomplished in the person of Christ. Christ, therefore,
must be accepted as the Saviour of the world ; as the world-
saving principle, which is eternal ; like the divine purpose in
the world, like the divine motive in creation ; eternal, there-
fore, like God himself. This world-saving principle must be
identified with the person Jesus, with this definite, historical
person. The two moments of faith must have equal authority,
and must be united in the doctrine of the Church. If a cer-
tain mode of thought requires the saving world-principle in
Christ to be so acknowledged and emphasized that the his-
torical, human Jesus is thereby made unreal, the fact of sal-
vation ceases to be an historical, actual fact, and this mode
of thought is, therefore, false. If another mode of thought
requires the finite and creatural character of the Saviour to
be so emphasized that his divine nature is thereby degraded
and invalidated, this mode of thought is likewise, therefore,
in contradiction with that which must be believed. Thus,
the doctrine of the Church must develop its own principles
in conflict with opposing views of faith. It is threatened
on two sides, each a contradiction of the other. On the
one, the divine manifestation of Christ is maintained at the
expense of his historical and human reality: on the other,
reversely, his creatural nature is maintained at the expense

48 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of his divine. There, the Gnostic-Docetic mode of thought
must be contested ; here, the rationalistic-Arian.

If we presuppose salvation in Christ as the primarily
given fact, the problem of patristic theology is, to bring the
conceptions of faith into harmony with it, to make them
conformable to it, to so determine them that they do not in-
validate that primary fact. Humanity must be saved ; i.e.,
reconciled with God through Christ. This fact, therefore,
appears as a product of three factors, — God, Christ, human-
ity. In reference to all three, a multitude of conceptions are
possible which are not consistent with the fact of salvation ;
all those conceptions are, and must be, false in the opinion
of the Church. In respect, therefore, to all three, only cer-
tain conceptions are true ; and this brings us to the problem,
What are those true conceptions? If God is not so con-
ceived that from him goes out a world-saving principle, which
appears in the person of Christ, and makes real the fellow-
ship of believers, the fact of salvation is null. If the person
of Christ is not so conceived that salvation takes place in
him, there has been no salvation. If man is not conceived as
needing, and, therefore, capable of receiving, salvation, the
fact of salvation is without purpose and meaning.

These are thus three problems, in respect to that primary
fact of faith, which affect the doctrine of the Church : how
must the natures of God, Christ, and man, be conceived, that,
in all three points, our conceptions may be conformable to
the fact of salvation ? The first question is the problem of
theology ; the second, of Christology ; the third, of anthropol-
ogy. Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, determined the
ecclesiastical solution of the first question in a controversy
with the presbyter Arius : he is related to dogma, as Baur
aptly says, as Gregory VII. to the Church. Cyril, the patri-
arch of Alexandria, determined the solution of the second,
in controversy with Nestor, the patriarch of Constantinople ;
and the solution of the third was determined by Augustinus,
the bishop of Hippo, in controversy with the monk Pelagius.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH. 49

The solution of the first question requires the distinction of
the divine persons and their consubstantiality, the determi-
nation of the divine economy, the concept of the trinity;
that of the second, the distinction and union of both natures
in Christ, the concept of theanthropism ; that of the third,
the doctrine of divine grace and of the sinful nature of man,
by which tlie concept of liuman freedom is determined. Here
the ecclesiastical system of faith culminates in decided and
absolute opposition to paganism. Augustine defined this
opposition, conceiving them as fundamentally opposed sys-
tems,— paganism as the kingdom of this world, '■'■civiias ter-
rena;" Christianity as the kingdom of God, '■'•dvitas dei."
Filled and illuminated with the faith in a new world, in
the midst of the on-rushing destruction and devastation of the
old, he laid the foundation of the specifically Christian and
ecclesiastical view of the world.

2. Augustinianism. — Augustine was the ablest of ecclesi-
astical thinkers ; and if " ecclesiastical " includes " theologi-
cal," he was the greatest of Christian theologians. He made
the Church clear concerning herself: he kindled the light in
which she saw her own nature ; and in this sense Ave can say
with truth of this father of the Church, that he was her
greatest light. He not merely completed the faith of the
Church, but at the same time grounded faith in the Church,
drawing from the fact of salvation all the inferences that
relate to human nature.

Human nature must be conceived as adapted to the fact
of salvation .from sin. It must, therefore, be regarded as
needing salvation, or sinful. It can be saved only through
Christ: it appears, therefore, as incapable of salvation of
itself, or as destitute of freedom in its sinfulness. Sin, accord-
ingly, is the power which controls the will ; it is a property
of the will from which the will cannot free itself , it is the
nature of the human will. But sin is guilt, and guilt pre-
supposes freedom, since a being without freedom cannot
incur guilt : a sin which excludes freedom is a contradiction.

50 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Thus, sin appears as the fact of freedom, and likewise as its
loss. Man originally had power not to sin : he sinned, and
thus lost his freedom, and certainly forever. Since then he
can do nothing but sin. In the first sin, the human race
fell : in Adam, all have sinned. Sin is free in its origin ; in
its consequences, slavery, causing the permanent corruption
of human nature, original sin. That is the fundamental
thought of Augustine, — a thought which he first made valid
in this sense, raised into full consciousness, and made the
central point of the doctrine of salvation. In this state of
original sin, man cannot acquire salvation ; he can neither
give it to himself, nor can he of himself merit it; it can only
fall to his share contrary to his deserts, i.e., through grace.
There is nothing in man to deserve this favor : it is, there-
fore, unconditional, groundless, an act of the divine Arbi-
trary Will. God bestows his grace on man without his
co-operation ; i.e., he elects him to salvation. Salvation,
therefore, is the election of grace, — an election completely
independent of human actions and works : it was made be-
fore man existed, and must accordingly be conceived as
divine predetermination or predestination. To elect is to
prefer. Some are' elected by God to salvation, others to
damnation. Now, according to the divine decree, revealed
in the fact of salvation, man can receive divine grace only
through Christ, and communion with Christ is possible only
through the Church. The Church, therefore, is the kingdom
of grace, the divine institution of grace on earth, the con-
dition and means of human salvation. There is no salvation
except through redemption, none, therefore, outside of tlie
Church : this is the doctrine that the Church alone saves.

The fact of salvation presupposed by faith demands that
human nature be conceived as under the dominion of origi-
nal sin. The concept of God and that of the Church lead to
the same requirement.

God must be conceived as unconditional, i.e., all-powerful,
will. He is not merely power, but will : this concept nega-

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHURCH. 51

tives all emanation. He is unconditional will, — will limited
by nothing without him ; without him, therefore, there is
nothing that can limit him : this concept negatives all dual-
ism. The mode of thought of religious Platonism, the Neo-
Platonists, and the Christian Gnostics, was dualistic and
emanational. The theology of Augustine is completely
opposed to these modes of thought. If God is will, the
world is Mie work of his will, — i.e., creation, — and the divine
activity is creative. If God is unconditional will, the world,
since it does not emanate from the divine nature, can only
be created out of nothing by the divine will : it is '■'■per deuni
de nihilo." So the conservation of the world, since the world
is nothing in itself, is a continual creation of God, " creatio
continua;" so every thing which happens in the world is
determined, predetermined, by the divine will ; so men also
are predestined, some to salvation, the rest to damnation ; so
from the side of men salvation can be conditioned by nothing,
i.e., men appear as of themselves incapable of salvation, as
so under the rule of sin that this constitutes the condition
of their will, — a condition which is transmitted by iuheritance
from generation to generation. In this point, the theology
of Augustine results in the doctrine of original sin.

Two principal concepts of the Augustinian system appear
to contradict each other. The concept of God requires the
unconditionalness of the will, and this, the concept of pre-
destination, which destroys human freedom. But if there is
no freedom, there is no sin ; and if there is no sin, there is no
need of salvation; and if no need of salvation, no salvation.
What the concept of God denies, the concept of salvation
affirms. Augustine seeks so to remove this contradiction as
not to deny human freedom as such. God gave it to man,
but man has lost it through sin, aud corrupted his nature ;
and this is why sin has become original sin.

The concept of the Church requires that of original sin.
The perception of this connection turns a blaze of light upon
the system of Augustine. If the Church is the kingdom

52 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

within which alone we can commune with Christ, and there-
by partake of the divine grace, it possesses the power to
forgive sins. Only through and in it can sins be forgiven.
Salvation comes to man because the Church takes him into
her bosom through the means of grace of baptism. Now, if
the Church, as the kingdom of divine grace, is, like this,
unconditional, and independent of the co-operation of men,
it exists before individuals : it appears, like the state of the
ancients, as the whole which is earlier than the parts. It,
therefore, receives man in the beginning of his earthly exist-
ence, at his entrance in the world : it must incorporate into
itself children when it baptizes them. Through baptism,
children become partakers of forgiveness of sins, must,
therefore, also need forgiveness of sins, i.e., be sinful; and
this is only possible because of original sin. It is very sig-
nificant that a controversy arose between Pelagius and
Augustine concerning the damnation of unbaptized chil-
dren. If there is no salvation outside the Church, and if it
can only be reached through the Church, man outside the
Church is in a state of sin ; outside of baptism is corruption ; in
the kingdom of nature, sin rules, and this leads to damnation.
Without original sin, there is no sinfulness of children, no
necessity in their case for forgiveness of sin, no necessity
for their baptism, no validity to the doctrine that the church
exists before individuals, no unconditional existence of the
Church, i.e., no Church as the kingdom of grace. Thus,
the doctrine of original sin is the central point of the doctrine
of the Church. Faith in the Church demands the natural
corruption of individuals, and conversely. As to Avhat con-
cerns the eternal welfare of man, every thing depends upon
the Church, nothing upon the natural man. That is the
central point of Augustinianism, which, regardless of con-
sequences, forcibly and keenly drew all the inferences which
that presupposed principle of faith enjoins, even in their
unavoidable contradictions.

This system is the basis of the Church of the Middle Ages.

CHRISTIANITY AKD THE CHURCH. 53

This is the source of its consciousness of unconditional su-
premacy. But, in the course of the development of the
Church, conclusions were necessarily drawn which obscured
the principle of Augustinianism. Faith in the Church is un-
conditional obedience, and this does what the Church requires.
Obedience can show itself in but one way, — by obedient con-
duct, by external works, in this case by ecclesiastical works.
Inwardly these works may be merely mechanical : outwardly
they may far exceed the measure of what is required, and
be meritorious and holy ; and, from the nature of works, they
must be judged from without. Hence the possibility arises
of earning merit, and justifying one's self, by works. But,
if works avail as a means of justification, human co-operation
is no longer excluded from the conditions of salvation; and
in the same proportion as this co-operation is meritorious,
validity must be conceded to human freedom also. And
thus there proceeded from the faith in the Church, which
Augustine grounded, the doctrine of the merit of good
works, which, in contradiction with Augustinianism, rests
on the Pelagian doctrine of freedom. After this doctrine
had reached its extremest limit, Augustine's fundamental
thought of the sinful nature of man was emphasized anew
as a reforming power. Within the Christianity of the West
it broke through the authority of the Roman-Catholic sys-
tem in Luther, Zwingle, and Calvin ; and within Catholicism,
as Jansenism, it attacked the system\of the Jesuits.

IV. THE DEIFICATION OP THE CHURCH.

If the Church is the kingdom of divine grace, the vessel
of the Holy Spirit, and the sphere of its activity, it itself
appears as a member in the divine economy, as an eternal
ordinance, which, in its hierarchical forms, constitutes the
ladder which leads from heaven down to earth. In this
conception, the historical origin and development of the
Church is obscured: it seems as if it had descended from
heaven, become visible iu the earthly hierarchy, which rises

54 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

from the Jewish to the Christian, from the legal to the
ecclesiastical, from deacons and presbyters to bishops, and
continues beyond the world in the heavenly hierarchy in the
orders of angels, whose highest ranks surround the throne of
God.

The gradation of Platonic ideas had transformed itself in
the last systems of Greek philosophy, in religious Platonism,
into the gradation of heathen gods. This conception, which
the Neo-Platonic school of Athens, the system of Proclus,
developed, was the last of exhausted paganism. The Chris-
tian Church has now established its divine authority. It
also is a kingdom of orders mediating between God and
man, and the type and the form of that Neo-Platonic mode
of conception corresponds to its hierarchical constitution.
Thus it was that the two entered a union ; that that type
became Christianized, and in it the Church was deified.

This blending of Neo-Platonic forms with faith in the
Church, this deification of the Church, constitutes the charac-
ter and the theme of those writings which, in the sixth
century of the Cliristian era, were known under the name
of "Dionysius the Areopagite," who was one of the first
Christians whom Paul converted in Athens, and whom the
sage made the first bishop of that city. This conception of
the theology of the Areopagite, which sees and worships in
the Church the kingdom of heaven on earth, stamped itself
deeply on the religious imagination and the mysticism of
the Middle Ages. It was the Gnosticism of the Church.

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 55

CHAPTER IV.

THE CODESE OF DEVELOPMENT OP THE PHILOSOPHY OF
THE MIDDLE AGES.

I. PROBLEM.

CHRISTIANITY has developed into the Church, and
Christian faith into a series of dogmas. The fixed pre-
supposition upon which the further development of Christian
ideas now rests, is the fact of salvation, represented in the
form of the symbols and dogmas which resulted from the
labors of the fathers of the Church, and of the great coun-
cils of the fourth and fifth centuries. The fact of salvation
needed to be proclaimed, devoutly received, freed from every
limitation. The dogmas of faith, on the other hand, require
to be taught, proved, combined with each other. As the
Church forms a hierarchical system of absolute unity, so its
doctrine must become a system in complete harmony with
the spirit of the Church, and governed by it. The system-
atization of faith requires their collection and oi-ganization in
a demonstrative form, by means of which they can be taught
and learned. Such a form is impossible unless they are
grounded on a comprehensive basis, and logically deduced
therefrom. This systematization was the work of scholas-
ticism. The teachers of the Church in the narrower sense
of the term, the doetores ecclesice, take the place of the patres
ecdesice, the fathers of the Church. Dogmas in their hands
were materials for instruction : theology was taught. It be-
came scholasticism, and in this form constitutes the phi-
losophy of that ecclesiastical age of the world that we are
accustomed to call the Middle Ages.

56 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

The character and problem of scholasticism were thereby
determined. It was closely and vitally connected with the
hierarchical system, and was a servant of the Church. Its
labor was essentially /ormaL- out of given material, according
to a prescribed plan and an established guiding principle, it
had to erect a system of doctrine in perfect harmony with
the ecclesiastical conception of the world. As theology, it
was a servant of the Church : as philosophy, it was " the hand-
maid of theology."

But though scholastic philosophy was in bondage to the-
ology and the Church, this bondage involved a new and
peculiar relation into which scholasticism entered with faith.
The Church determined Avhat was believed: scholasticism
was to explain why it was true. Dogma says, " Deus homo : "
scholasticism asks, " Cur deus homo f " Dogmas must be
evident to the natural understanding : the faculties of human
knowledge must be brought into harmony with faith. This
harmony was the avowed problem, the programme, as it
were, of scholasticism. And this differentiates scholasticism
from the theological development which preceded it, and the
philosophical one that followed it. The doctrine of faith
had to be developed in opposition to Gnosticism, which was
its immediate antagonist, and in opposition to the philosophy
in general which came from paganism, and seemed to it the
mother of all heresies. It regarded philosophy, and, with
it, all the natural knowledge of reason, as inimical to faith;
and Tertullian regarded its assertions as the criterion of
infidelity, and with his " credo, quia absurdum,''' struck it to
the ground. In the time succeeding scholasticism, philosophy
threw off its dependence upon faith, and took its own course,
even in opposition to faith. Before and after scholasticism,
faith and philosophy were separated : in it they were united
so long as its power was unimpaired. While this alliance
lasted, scholasticism flourished, and lived in its true element.
When this alliance was dissolved, it fell into decline. When
faith tore itself loose from philosophy, and quit the service of

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 57

the latter, the signs of the decay of scholasticism were at
hand. And this decay came from within: it was the self-
dissolution of scholasticism, since it necessarily advanced to
the point in its own development where it demanded the
separation of knowledge and faith, and thereby destroyed
its own work.

The motive of scholasticism was '■^ credo ut intelligam ;" its
fundamental principle the ecclesiastical '■'■fides;'' its goal the
'■^ ratio fidei." The systematization of faith was likewise its
rationalization. Scholasticism is rational theology under the
control of the Church : therein lay its character and its prob-
lem. In scholasticism the Church authorized philosophy,
gave it a field of labor, demanded the development of a
Christian philosophy, and incorporated rational activity into
its own development, as a completely servile, dependent fac-
tor, to be sure, to which the faith of the Church prescribed
what it had to do. But to serve is to become free. Obedi-
ence is the discipline that prepares for freedom. In the ser-
vice of theology, philosophy laboriously attained its majority,
and won the independence with which it finally tore itself
loose from the dominion of the Church, and undertook its
own development.

II. THE ECCLESIASTICAL AGE OF THE WORLD.

In determining the problem and activity of scholasticism,
we have presupposed an ecclesiastical age of the world, that
had to be founded historically before this ecclesiastical philos-
ophy began its work of instruction. New states of the world
and of nations required to be developed, — nations which
received Christianity in the form of the faith of the Church,
the education and culture of whom proceeded from the
Church. The downfall of the old world ; the hostile migra-
tions of nations ; the destruction of the Western Roman em-
pire, which, of the powers contemporary with it, the Church
alone outlived ; the formation of the feudal system ; the
Christianization of new peoples distinguished into Romanic,

68 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Germanic, and Slavic ; finally, the founding of a new, Franko-
Carlovingian empire, extending over a large part of the
world, — these were the conditions which prepared the way
for the ecclesiastical age of the world, and preceded the
appearance of scholasticism. Its theatre was the Western
world, the Romanic-Germanic, — Spain, France, Italy, Britain,
Germany.

Rome was the spiritual centre of this new world, — not the
Rome of the Caesars, but ecclesiastical Rome, in whose rule
of the world the age consists that we have called ecclesiasti-
cal. The supremacy of the Church was based on its unity
and centralization. Rome was the centre of the empire of
the world: Rome, therefore, was, also, the Church of the.
world. The elevation of Roman bishops to authority over
the Church was the condition which constituted and realized
the character of the ecclesiastical age. This sovereign au-
thority of the Roman bishops is the papacy, which gradually,
in the course of centuries, step by step, scaled the height
from which it saw the Church and the world at its feet.

The first round of the ladder was the ecclesiastical primacy
to which the bishop of Rome, as the successor of Peter, laid
claim, and which particularly Leo I., a generation before the
downfall of the "Western Roman empire, succeeded in estab-
lishing, on the ground of the ecclesiastical dignity and impor-
tance of Rome. During the headlong political changes in
Italy, — in the course of the immediately subsequent time,
the Goths were forced to give way to the Greeks, and these
to the Longobardi, — the successors of Peter grew more and
more independent. The second great step was taken in the
eighth century through the alliance with the Prankish rulers,
which even Gregory I. had in mind : this made the bishop
of Rome the largest possessor of provinces, and, after the
downfall of the rule of the Longobardi, brought about that
significant and momentous event very near the beginning of
the uinth century, which denoted a new state of the world, —
the coronation of Charles the Great by the first bishop of the

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 59

West, the ecclesiastical inauguration of the empire of the
Caesars during the Middle Ages, the subjection of the world
to two highest, as yet harmonious and co-ordinate, powers,
the joint rule of emperor and pope. A dualism was founded,
which, in the progress of things, necessarily called forth a
conflict between those two powers for the empire of the
world. But before this, the final step was taken, which
forged for the Roman-ecclesiastical primacy, in the form in
which it then existed, the appearance of a legal foundation,
through that collection of spurious decretals named after
Isidorus. The form into which it had developed was the
original one according to the decretals, — the Roman bishop
■ the from-the-first acknowledged bishop of the Church of the
world, to whom even Coustantine conceded the government
of Rome and Italy. Not till then was the hierarchical sys-
tem finished, the ecclesiastical pyramid: the Roman bishop
passed not merely for the first, but the supreme, bishop of the
Christian world, the head and ruler of the Church. The
papacy consists in this central power. The pseudo-Isidoric
decretals appeared about the middle of the ninth century :
they originated in the Prankish episcopacy, and in its inter-
ests, since its immediate subjection to the Roman ruler freed
the bishops of the Frankish empire from the secular and
ecclesiastical powers (archbishops), whp were near at hand
to limit the scope of their authority. Independently of the
forged decretals, Nicholas I. (858-867) defended his eccle-
siastical central power, as it had been conceded, with a clear
consciousness of its importance, and with great energy.

The papacy, and with it the ecclesiastical age of the world,
reaches its highest point in the conflict for the supremacy of
the world, and in its victory there. We can trace its course
in this period of its greatest ascendency through three points,
— its rising, its culmination, and the beginning of its decline
as the sovereign power of the world. At its rising stood
Q-regory VII. (1073-1085) ; at its culmination. Innocence III.
(1198-1216) ; at the beginning of its decline, Boniface VIII.

60 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

(1294-1303). It was no longer enough that the bishops of
Rome were regarded as the successors of Peter, they became
his deputies : with this conception of his office, Gregorj^ VII.
ruled. The feeling of power increased : it was not enough
that they were deputies of Peter; they became the vicars
of Clirist, the vicegerents of God on earth, an infallible
authority in human form. The bishops themselves were
regarded only as their vicars ; the pope was not merely the
supreme, but, by reason of his absolute power, the only, bishop.
This is the claim of the papacy since Innocence III., sup-
ported by a new collection of ecclesiastical decrees from the
hand of Gratian, the so-called '■'■ decretum Gratiani," which
appeared in the course of the twelfth century. This highest
elevation of power is the papal system.

In these great conflicts for universal power, three great
phases can be distinguished. In the first, it was a conflict
of principles between the Church and the world, or the State :
it was the controversy between Gregory VII. and Henry IV.
In the second, it was a conflict for secular power, especially
for the possession of Italy : then were kindled those fatal con-
flicts between the popes and the Hohenstaufen. In the last,
the controversy was renewed between the Church and the
State, with the peculiar turn that then the national con-
sciousness was arrg.yed on the side of political power, to
oppose to the central power of Rome the independence of
the nation : it was the conflict which the king and the orders
of France waged against Boniface VIII.

At first, the two powerful, pyramid-shaped bodies of the
Middle Ages appeared on the field of battle, — the hierarchical
Church and the feudal State, — the first dovetailed into the
second, exposed to secularization, and in danger of becoming
ungovernable. The freeing of the Church from the powers
of the world that fetter it ; the dissolution of all the bonds
that ensnared the clergy in the world and in the State ; the
separation of the Church from the world without abandoning
its power, i.e., the exaltation of it above the State, — Gregory

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 61

VII. regarded as his reformatory work. He forbade the
marriage of priests, the sale of spiritual offices (simony), the
investiture of laymen, the vassalage of bishops. The contro-
versy concerning investiture continued long, and terminated
with a compromise between the parties. In tlie conflict with
the Hohenstaufen, the popes won the victory, but the means
to which they resorted sowed "the seeds of injury to the
papacy. Never in the history of the world did Nemesis show
her power more sublimely. To destroy the German imperial
family, the papal policy founded a French throne in Italy,
the necessary result of which Avas the increase of French in-
fluence upon the apostolic see. In the conflict with France,
the powerful Boniface VIII. was overthrown ; and he, the
most positive in his consciousness of power of all tlie popes,
was taken prisoner by the king of France : and the second
of his s^iccessors, a French pope, went to Avignon (1305)
two years after his death. Thus, the destruction of the
Hohenstaufen, through the French i5olicy of the popes, re-
sulted in their captivity to tlie French, that so-called Baby-
lonish exile (1305-1377) by which the papacy was hurled
down the abj-ss at the brink of which Boniface VIII. stood.
For the immediate consequence of this exile was the begin-
ning of the great schism (1378), the destruction of the unity
of the Church, which the reformatory councils of the fif-
teenth century restored, and the plans of which were frus-
trated by their own work. F'or the reformation of the
Church was incompatible with the restoration of the papacy.
What remained but the reformation of the Church, — which
was necessary, and had been proved impossible through coun-
cils, — a reformation beginning at the very foundation ? And
then appeared Luther, as the time of the upheaval had come.
Thus, the ecclesiastical age of the world, before the refor-
mation of the sixteenth century made the irreparable breech,
includes the time from Gregory VII. to the beginning of the
German reformation. Tliis is the period of real scholasticism,
— scholasticism bound, in its activity of thought, to the service

62 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of the Church ; and it extends from the end of the eleventh
to the end of the fifteenth century. Its course of develop-
ment corresponded to that of the Church. Two periods can
be clearly distinguished in the development of the Church, —
that of the papal rule of the world, or ecclesiastical centraliza-
tion ; and that of its nascent dissolution, or decentralization.
The former includes the tit^elfth and thirteenth centuries;
the latter, the fourteenth and fifteenth. The first two were
the time of the Crusades (1095-1291), in which the papacy
appeared at the head of the nations, and which (immediately
before Boniface VIII.) ended with the loss of all their con-
quests. Of course, the distinction between those two periods
stamps itself upon the course of the development of scholas-
ticism, which is controlled by the position of the Church in
the world. So, in its first period, the fundamental trend of
ecclesiastical centralization, the idea of the all-powerful,
universal Church, binding together all individual powers,
predominates ; and, in the second, the fundamental trend of
ecclesiastical decentralization, the idea of the Church, inde-
pendent of, and separated from, the world and the State.
The Church and the world are related as the faith of the
Church and natural (human) knowledge. The bond, there-
fore, between faith and knowledge was strong in the first
period, and weak in the second. Scholasticism changed with
the times. And precisely therein consists its philosophical
significance, that, within its department, it formulated, and
gave expression to, the consciousness of the time. That in
an ecclesiastical age of the world, the consciousness of the
time was of an ecclesiastical character, with ecclesiastical
limitations, was clearly the natural result of the predomi-
nant state of the world. It is absurd to make a noise about
empty and unproductive scholasticism, and blame the forest
because it is not an orchard.

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 63

III. THE FOUNDING OP SCHOLASTICISM:.

1. Urigena. — Scholasticism had two beginnings, separated
from .each other by more than two centuries, — the first,
which remained isolated, in the Carlovingian period, in the
time of the pseudo-Isidoric decretals and Nicholas I. ; the sec-
ond, with which its real course of development began, in
the period that commenced with Gregory VII.

The first founder, a Briton, whom Charles the Bold
called to his court in Paris, was John Seotus Erigena. He
regarded the unity and universality of the divine being as
the truly real, and the knowledge of it as the illuminatioA
of faith. God is the beginning, middle, and end of all that
is, which, in all its distinctions of kind, is determined by
the concept of creation and created being. There is one
being who creates all things, himself uncreated. He is the
creative ground of all things. There is a second, which,
though created, works creatively, — the logos. The third na-
ture consists in creatures, without creative power of their
own, in the world of time and sense. Finally, there is an
ultimate state, in which all creation and creating reach their
goal, the end of all things, in their re-union with God.
Accordingly, that which is, or nature in its entire extent,
is divided into the following distinctions of being: God,
the world in God (logos), the world outside of God, the
return of the world to God. That is Erigena's '■'■divisio
naturae," We perceive at once the Platonic thinker in the
form of this classification. In his manner of conceiving the
primary being as without distinctions, and distinguishing all
other beings as degrees of the one life, emanating from God,
separated from him, to him returning, in the mode of the
pantheistic doctrine of emanation, we see unmistakably the
traces of his mental affinity with the fundamental doctrine
of Neo-Platonism and the theology of the Areopagite. (It
was not an accident that he became the translator of the
Areopagite.)

64 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

In the system of Erigena, the divine life in the world has
but one origin, — its issue from the father of all things;
and humanity but one final goal, — union with God. With
him, therefore, there is no second divinity equal to the
primary being, no divine twofold nature, no twofold issue
of the Holy Spirit, no twofold choice of grace. If the final
goal of humanity consists in its spiritualization, glorification,
and re-union with God (^adunatio'), its communion with God
in the visible Church, and the presence of Christ in the sacra-
ment, have only a figurative and symbolical meaning.

Thus, this system conflicts with the dogma of the Trinity,
ef theanthropism, of the divine election of grace, and with
the nascent doctrine of transubstantiation. After the S3aii-
bolical sacrifice had gradually transformed itself, in the
imagination of believers, into the real, through the culture
of the century, the doctrine of transubstantiation, formulated
by Paschasius Radbertus, had resulted from that culture
in the time of Erigena ; and those controversies concerning
the Lord's supper began, which were renewed under Gregory
VII., between Lanfranc and Berengar of Tours, the result
of which was, that the doctrine of transformation became a
dogma of the Church (1215) under Innocence III., a result
which grew out of the interests and the condition of the
Church. There is no greater example of the development
of a dogma from worship ; none in which the obedience of
faith had to stand a more powerful test in opposition to the
certainty of the senses ; none that could make more evident
the truth of that sentence of the German poet, " Miracle is
the favorite child of faith," than the faith in this trans-
formation.

Erigena's system stands in opposition to the Romish
Church. It appeared in an age in which the controversy
concerning predestination was renewed, and that concerning
transubstantiation arose. It is, therefore, comprehensible
enough, that such a thinker experienced persecutions from
the Church through s3-nods, bishops, and popes (Nicholas I.).

DEVELOPMENT OP PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 65

In his system, Gnosticism and Scholasticism are mingled. He
attempted to unify faith and knowledge, but in such a sys-
tem that the Church rejected it, and even centuries after his
death condemned it as a type of heretical ideas. Erigena
has been called the " Origen of the West." But scholasti-
cism required for the solution of its problem a "second
Augustine."

2. Anselm. — This " second Augustine " was found in a
contemporary and mental kinsman of Gregory VII. In the
year that Hildebrand ascended the papal see (1073), Anselm
of Aosta became prior of the cloister Bee in France (suc-
cessor of that Lanfranc who had defended the doctrine of
transubstantiation against Berengar) : twenty j'ears later he
was made archbishop of Canterbury, the first ecclesiastical
prince of England. In the controversy with England con-
cerning investiture, he supported the pope against the king ;
in the political questions of the Church, he was an hierarch ;
in theology, the orthodox founder of scholasticism. He
harmonized the interests of theology and hierarchy as the
spirit of scholasticism required.

The faith of the Church was then accepted as the motive
and aim of all knowledge, and knowledge itself was only
regarded as a means of strengthening the hold of the doc-
trines of the Church. Where comprehension ceased, faith
called a halt, and reason submitted. "Caput submittam."
The reality of God and theanthropism were not subjects of
inquiry or of doubt, as if they were first to be established :
they were incontestable certainties. The question was only
as to the arguments for demonstrating them. And the
arguments which Anselm of Canterbury made for the exist-
ence and incarnation of God in his "proslogium" and his
" Cur Beus homo ? " give a good illustration of the character
of scholasticism.

He proves the being of God ontologically. The reality of
the most perfect being is evident from our concept of him.
For, if he lacked existence, he would be defective, and, there-

66 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

fore, not perfect, and our conception would not then be
what it is, — that of the most perfect being. He proves the
incarnation of man, from the conditions through which alone
sinful humanity can be saved. For the fall of man is, as
disobedience to God, a crime of infinite guilt, and, as such,
can neither be forgiven, without some interposition, nor
punished according to its deserts; for forgiveness without
punishment would be unjust, and deserved punishment would
be the destruction of man. The former is incompatible with
divine justice : the latter would frustrate the purpose of
creation. There is but one way out of the difficulty, — guilt
must be atoned for ; satisfaction must be made to God. Sal-
vation is only possible through satisfaction. But this aton-
ing action, paying our infinite debt, must itself be an infinite
merit, of which sinful humanity is incapable. In place of
humanity, a sinless being must suffer and outweigh the guilt
of sin. Satisfaction is possible only through a substitutional
suffering. Here God himself alone can take the place of
humanity, for he alone is sinless ; and, therefore, substitu-
tional suffering requires the incarnation of God. This incar-
nation must not be subject to the conditions through which
original sin is transmitted ; it can take place, therefore, only
through supernatural birth ; is possible only in the son of the
Virgin Mary, in the person Jesus, who sacrificed himself for
humanity, and through this sacrificial death earned infinite
merit, — a merit which God cannot put to the account of Jesus
himself, but only to that of those for whom the God-man
made himself an offering. This merit which God puts to
the account of the race is the forgiveness of sins, or the salva-
tion of humanity. Now the debt is all paid. Salvation is
accomplished through the incarnation of God. The incarna-
tion results from the necessity of substitution, and this from
the satisfaction which humanity owes in consequence of
original sin. Heirship now steps in the place of original
sin ; original sin works on in nature ; heirship in the Church
as the kingdom of grace. Thus, the proofs of Anselm lead

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 67

lis to the central point of the doctrine of Augustine. Justly
can we call this first orthodox scholastic the second
Augustine.

IV. THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOLASTICISM.

1. Realism and Nominalism. — Anselm's arguments rest
upon a presupposition which, indeed, lies at the bottom of the
whole doctrine of the Church, but was first consciously-
accepted here, where the attempt was made to give a logical
and demonstrative proof of dogmas. The two turning-points
of the Augustinian doctrine of faith and the theology of An-
selm are original sin and salvation : in Adam man fell, in Christ
he is saved. If these facts have no universal truth, or, what
is the same, if these universal determinations have no actual
(real) being, faith is without foundation. Faith rests, there-
fore, on the logical presupposition that humanity as species
or idea in truth exists, and constitutes the nature of man.
What is true of this species must be true of all species
(ideas), of all universals. If they are not realities, it is to be
feared that the facts of faith are either manifestly unreal or
incapable of proof. The Church itself exists by virtue of
its idea : its reality rests on its universality. Even Augus-
tine based its authority on its catholicity, its necessary, on
its universal, validity. As the Platonic state exists in the
idea of justice, independently of particulars, so the Christian
Church exists in the idea of the unity of faith. And that is
why the comparison of the two is so just and appropriate, as
Bauer and Zeller have very significantly shown.

From this fundamental, and, to the Church, natural, view,
the proposition now follows in which scholasticism recog-
nizes its principle, universalia sunt realia. Species are the
truly real. It is characteristic enough that the first scholas-
tic proof of the existence of God was the ontological argument
of Anselm.

The realism of the Middle Ages was based on the reality
of universals, — the first fundamental trend of scholasti-

68 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

cism ; and it evoked its opposite. The problem of scholasti-
cism authorized also the claims of the natural understanding,
but to this, single things appear as the real objects ; species,
on the other hand, as mere concepts and abstractions, which
we make and denote by words. The natural understanding,
accordingly, regards universalia not as realia, but " voealia "
or "'■ nomina.^' On the unreality of universals rests the
nominalism of the Middle Ages, the second fundamental
trend of scholasticism, the first expression of which followed
close upon the heels of realism. These opposing views were
formulated in a controversy between Roscelin and William
of Champeaux, near the end of the eleventh century.

The range of the nominalistic mode of thought can be
easily determined. We know by means of presentations and
concepts, judgments and propositions. If concepts neither
have, nor apprehend, reality, there is no knowledge of the real,
and, since the objects of faith are the truly real, no knowledge
of faith. When, therefore, nominalism, in the spirit of scholas-
ticism, affirmed the reality of the objects of faith, it was at the
same time compelled, contrary to the fundamental principle of
scholasticism, to deny the knowledge of them. As soon as this
mode of thought prevailed, the bond between knowledge and
faith, which constituted the certainty of the theology of the
Middle Ages, was severed : the union of faith and knowledge.
From this vantage-ground we can survey the course of the
development of scholasticism. In the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, realism prevailed ; in the fourteenth, the nominal-
istic mode of thought became more and more general ; and
this led to the downfall of scholasticism, and formed the
transition to a new philosoph3% independent of faith. Thus,
the two fundamental tendencies of scholasticism, each in its
greatest predominance, coincide with the two periods which
we have distinguished in the ecclesiastical age of the world.
Realism corresponds to the period of the ecclesiastical rule
of the world and centralization ; nominalism to that of its
nascent destruction and decentralization.

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 69

Such a course of development has lately been denied ; and,
on the other hand, an attempt has been made to limit the
point of dispute between realism and nominalism to their
first encounter, when Roscelin explained universals as '■"fla-
tus vocis." If any one wishes to restrict the term nominalism
to Roscelin's unsuccessful contradiction of realism, he may
choose another name for the later and victorious line of
thought, in like manner opposed to it. The matter itself,
the well-known contrast between the two scholastic periods,
which we have just explained, remains unchanged. And
just as little is accomplished by the objection that the prog-
ress of scholasticism consisted only in growth in breadth,
only in the increased importation of its materials for doc-
trine, — in other words, in the increasing knowledge of
the doctrine of Aristotle. The materials of culture which the
Middle Ages received from the ancient world were the scant-
iest. Of the philosophy of Aristotle, which ruled scholas-
ticism in its zenith, — so some have claimed, — only an
unimportant fragment of the logic was at first known, the
doctrine of the proposition and the categories, and this only
in a translation of Boethius, with an introduction by Por-
phyry. Not till the twelfth century was the whole organon
of Aristotle known, and his real philosophy, his metaphysics,
physics, psychology, etc., not till the following, and these
through Latin translations, made first from the Hebrew and
Arabic, later from the Greek, until at last the study of the
ancients in their own language was again renewed. This
creeping away into the leading-strings of Aristotle signifies
nothing more than the increasing secularization of scholastic
theology, from which the separation between faith and
knowledge, and the victory of the nominalistic doctrine of
knowledge, at last necessarily resulted.

2. The Platonic and Aristotelian Realism. — During the
period when the ecclesiastical rule of the world was unbroken,
the accepted fundamental principle of scholastic theology
was, that species or ideas have reality ; that this reality is

70 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

either completely independent of individual things, or their
active, indwelling principle, either "-ante rem" or "m re."
This is not the place to enter into all the possible modifica-
tions and intermediate distinctions of those two conceptions.
The scholasticism of the twelfth century was untiring in
such distinctions. The two norm-giving conceptions were
prefigured in Greek philosophy, — the first in Plato, the second
in Aristotle. Both affirmed the reality of ideas , but Plato
regarded them as that which truly exists independently of
phenomena, while with Aristotle they were the truly efficient
force in things. With Plato, their reality was the world of
ideas ; with Aristotle, nature. We have already shown how
the second conception necessarily results from the first.
Platonic realism prevailed in the scholastic theology of the
twelfth century, the Aristotelian during the thirteenth.
Thus, in the ecclesiastical philosophy of the Middle Ages,
three trends of thought can be distinguished, which, gener-
ally speaking, coincide with the centuries, — the realistic-
Platonic in the twelfth, the realistic-Aristotelian in the
thirteenth, and the nominalistic in the two following.
Abelard (-|- 1142) formed the transition between the Pla-
tonic and Aristotelian scholasticism ; John Duns Scotus
(-\- 1308) between the realistic and nominalistic.

We have already referred to that significant affinity, which,
in spite of the fundamentally different ages in which they
were developed, and of their fundamentally different concep-
tions of the world, exists between the Platonic mode of
thought of antiquity and the ecclesiastical conceptions of
the Middle Ages, between the Platonic state and the Romish
Church. In both, the universal prevails unconditionally over
the particular ; the whole is before the parts, and the idea is
the only real power, completelj' independent of individuals.
It is not, therefore, surprising that, under the absolute rule
of the Church of the Middle Ages, a Platonic scholasticism
was developed, and that the period during which this scholas-
ticism prevailed coincided with the period of the Crusades ;

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 71

that the Church resisted the increasing departure from this
mode of realistic thought, the increasing approximations to
the Aristotelian realism, and finally yielded to the necessity
which it could not prevent. The physical and metaphysical
writings of Aristotle were still condemned in the beginning
of the thirteenth century, then hesitatingly permitted, first
to artists, then to theologians ; and finally the study of the
Aristotelian philosophy was even required, and the pagan
philosopher was held in the highest regard by the Church
itself, in respect to all natural knowledge.

What is the explanation of this remarkable phenomenon,
— this union between the Church of the Middle Ages and
Aristotle? 'It is not hard to find. When once natural
knowledge was authorized in scholasticism, even if only as
an instrument of faith, in the course of its development the
point necessarily came where nature also became its object,
and where it inserted into, and subordinated to, its system
this concept, even as the Church had subjected the State to
its authority. The Church itself in the course of time was
obliged to recognize this work as necessary and beneficial to
its system. Scholasticism required a theological conception
of nature. In obtaining it, the Church conquered a great
territory, that appeared hostile as long as it was foreign to
theology. By the theological conception of nature, a mode
of thought is to be understood which regards God as the
ultimate ground and purpose of nature, and nature herself
as a gradation of material and living forms, depending upon
the divine purpose, — forms which are animated by God, and
have their consummation in him. This conception of nature
is found in the Aristotelian philosophy, hence its significance
to scholasticism and the Church. Because of its pagan spirit,
it at first seemed to be of a questionable character ; but its
theological aspect recommended it to the Church, and finally
it was regarded as a most welcome means for solving a prob-
lem, through the solution of which the Church triumphs.
Now, the philosophy of Aristotle was almost unknown to the

72 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

West. His logical writings have no bearing upon the solu-
tion of this problem. The culture of the West was remote
from that of Greece, and made still more so by the chasm
between the two cluirches. And so, by the most circuitous
path, the Aristotelian philosoplij' was introduced into the
schools of Western Christendom, through the Arabian phi-
losophers of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries.
Of those, Avicenna (-(- 1036) was the greatest of those of
the East; Averroes (-|- 1198) of those of Spain. The latter
came nearest to the true understanding of Aristotle, through
the extent of his commentaries and the mode of his insight.

During the thirteenth century, scholasticism was in its
zenith. The problem was, to gain a concept of nature for
the system of theology, and thereby first to complete its
systematization. The kingdom of grace did not seem to
natural knowledge thoroughly established, until the king-
dom of nature was subordinated to it, and could be conceived
as forming one coherent whole with it. In this union of the
two kingdoms lay the problem. The kingdom of nature
must be regarded as the vestibule to the kingdom of grace ;
so that even in nature the kingdom of grace is outlined, pre-
figurated, designed, that the ordinances of the Church appear
as the filling out of the outline contained in nature. That is
the fundamental thought of the thirteenth century ; the real
motive in the systems of the great theologians of this period,
— Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas.
He who solves this problem most perfectly, in the conception
of the Church, sustains the same relation to scholasticism
that Augustine had done to the doctrine of faith. This
greatest of the scholastics was Thomas. In his system, nature
appears as a kingdom of gradations, planned with reference to,
and leading up to, the Church. In the natural life of man,
the stages of the body are completed : in the ordinances of
grace, i.e., in the sacraments, the natural life of man is com-
pleted. Thomas's doctrine of the sacraments turns a blaze
of light upon the spirit of this entire theology. It is the

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 73

Aristotelian conception of development which is the founda-
tion of its systems. As tlie foundation is related to the com-
pleted structure, the means to the end, so, in Thomas's view
of the world, is the natural world to the ecclesiastical, the
life of man to the sacraments. His system, in its ecclesiasti-
cal spirit, is throughout theological and supernatural ; but it
incorporated into itself the conception of nature, and there-
by completed the theological-scholastic mode of thought.
Thomas rounded off the faith of the Church into an incom-
parable system of doctrine, and earned for himself the fame
of being the ecclesiastical philosopher.

3. Sums and Systems. — The problem of scholasticism was,
to form a theological system out of the material furnished
by dogmatic doctrines and controversies. The first solution
of this problem consisted in the collection, abridgment, and
arrangement of all the materials appertaining to it, — those
so-called " Sums " of the twelfth century, the model of which
was the work of Peter Lombard (+ 1164). He sustained
the same relation to the doctrines of the Church that his
contemporary, Gratian, did to its laws. He surveyed the
whole field of dogmas or "sentences" in a comprehensive
work, which earned for him the title of '■'•magister sententi-
orum" and became the first commonly accepted text-book of
theology, the foundation of theological lectures. The sums
of sentences produced in the twelfth century were still no
systems. The test-book of Lombard furnished the material
out of which, blended with the philosophy of Aristotle, the
theological sums of the thirteenth century were produced, the
works of the great doctors of the Church. To the grounds
of the doctrine of the Church were now added the rational
grounds of the philosopher ; to the " autoritates" the " rationes."
In the exposition, comparison, and contrast of the two, the
new problem was introduced by the English Franciscan, Alex-
ander of Hales (+ 1245). The real representative of the
rationes was the Aristotelian philosophy. So far as this lay
in the horizon and power of comprehension of the time, it

74 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

must be set forth along with theology, and the problem
thereby explained and illustrated in its entirety. This was
done by the " doctor universalis" the German Dominican,
Albert the Great (+ 1280). His greater disciple, the Italian
Dominican, Thomas Aquinas (-j- 1274), completed the solu-
tion of the scholastic problem : he was the author of the
ecclesiastical philosophical system in which Augustine, the
Lombard, and Aristotle were harmonized with each other.
He Christianized the Aristotelian doctrine of development in
the spirit of the Church's rule of the world, as the Areopa-
gite had done the Neo-Platonic doctrine of emanation in the
spirit of its hierarchy.

4. Thomas and Scotus. — In the progress of the Aristotelian
Realism, the opposition between Thomas and Scotus arose,
which set their schools at variance with each other, and per-
manently affected the stability of the scholastic theology. If
the two kingdoms of nature and of grace are so united that
the former is consummated, and realizes its purpose, in the
latter, the kingdom of things in general must appear as the
best-ordered world, — a world which God chose, by reason of
his wisdom, out of all possible worlds, and created by his om-
nipotence : and the divine will in the creation of the world is
thus determined by knowledge ; and the divine creation, since
it is under the control of an idea, — that of the good, — is
necessary and determined. Thus, the system of Thomas, in
spite of its supernatural character, is absolutely deterministic;
and therein is the genuine expression of the ecclesiastical
conception of the world, which regards its ordinances as
rigidly determined, decided for all cases, and so arranged as
to completely exclude individual wills and choice. This
" theodicee " of Thomas, in which every thing is determined
according to divine knowledge, and arranged " ad deum,'"
found an antagonist in the English Franciscan, John Duns
Scotus. It was no less a controversy than that between de-
terminism and indeterminism, between necessity and freedom,
which here broke out in scholasticism. It was the question

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 75

of the freedom of the will. If the divine causality is necessary,
God is bound to his works, and cannot exist without them ;
then the independence of God must be denied, and, conse-
quently, his existence. If every thing is determined by
divine necessity, and this itself by the idea of the good,
nothing is either accidental or evil : God is not merely the
first, but, in the last analysis, the only, cause ; he is identical
with the nature of things, and pantheism is the manifest and
inevitable result. These were the weighty objections which
Scotus urged in reply to Thomas. Determinism, according
to which the divine will is determined by the idea of the
good, is disproved by the fact of accident and evil in the
world. The divine will is determined by nothing; it acts
without grounds, absolutely arbitrarily; it can just as well
create as not create, just as well this world as another, or even
none at all. The will is not determined by knowledge, but
conversely, — voluntas superior intellectu. The good is good,
not of itself, but through the determination of the divine will,
not '•'■per se," but " ex instituto ; " it is not rational, but posi-
tive : God has not willed because something is good, but
something is good because God has willed it. With the
power of choice, will is destroyed, and the distinction between
natural causes and will-causes obliterated ; there is then no
will at all, either divine or human. Scotus affirms human
freedom and its co-operation in the reception of divine grace ;
the meritoriousness of works which, not by reason of their
own character, also not because of the disposition of mind in
which they are done, but merely through this justify, — that
God by the exercise of his arbitrary will has united this
effect to this work. Spiritual works avail, independently of
any state of mind, as external acts in accordance with com-
mand as " opus operatum." This is the. theory of scholastic
indeterminisra seeking to support the power, and to promote
the interests, of the Church. Human freedom includes self-
determination, personal will, individual existence, by reason
of which every man is not merely a thing among things, but

76 HISTORY or MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

this particular, individual being existing for itself. Thus
arises in the consciousness of scholasticism the conception of
individuality, the character not merely of specific but iiadi-
vidual distinction of things which are differentiated not
merely by their kinds and properties (quiddities), but each
from all the rest by reason of its singleness (thisness). In-
dividuality is undefinable, incomprehensible, " ratio singulari-
tatis frustra quceritur." If reality reaches its highest point
and consummation in individuality, there is no knowledge of
the real. The same is true of arbitrary will: it is groundless
in its actions, therefore unknowable. The same is true of
divine revelation, of the work of salvation, of the objects of
the faith of the Church in general: they exist by reason
of the groundless and inscrutable will of God. There is,
therefore, no knowledge of the objects of faith, no rational
theology, no philosophical system of faith. Theology is
practical ; faith a direction and consent of the will independ-
ent of knowledge, not based on rational grounds, incapable
of being overthrown by rational considerations. Thus, inde-
iterminism dissolves the alliance between faith and knowledge.
C 5. Occam. The Dissolution of Scholasticism. — The way was
tlius paved for that new and last fundamental phase of scho-
lasticism,— the phase which was systematically grounded
by the English Franciscan, William Occam (-\- 1347?), a
disciple of Scotus. His was no longer the age of Roscelin,
which began with Gregory VII., and terminated with Inno-
cence III. When Scotus stood at the height of his fame, and
died, the papal see had been for three years in Avignon.
The age of Occam began with Boniface VIII., and the great
schism was not far distant.

Occam's work was the destruction of scholastic realism ;
of the dominion of the ideal world in the faith of the Church.
If universals (ideas) are real, they must precede creation in
God, and determine his will, and there is no divine freedom,
and no creation ex nihilo. It was the conflict between faith
and scholastic realism.

DEVELOPMKNT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 77

If uaiversals (genera), thiiB'gh common to things, are
themselves things, a thing must be in several things at
the same time, which is impossible. Ideas are not things,
they are not realities : they are only conceptions which
denote things, and are tliemselves denoted by words, as
words are by letters. They are, therefore, signs or " signa,"
the fundamental determinations of which are constituted by
the " termini.'^ These last are single and universal concep-
tions, spoken and written symbols, therefore intuitions, con-
ceptions, words. Intuitions represent single actual things;
concepts, many single perceptions ; words, conceptions. All
human knowledge takes place through terms (^termini') : it is
therefore terministic, and, so far as the signs which commu-
nicate it are '■'■ vocalia'' or names, nominalistic. Knowledge
through perceptions is intuitive or real, since they represent
things : knowledge through universal conceptions and judg-
ments, through words and sentences, is rational or logical
Qsermoeinal'). There is, therefore, no knowledge of actual
things. Reality consists in single things, individuals, simple
substances: our conception is neither thing nor substance
nor simple, and its indistinctness is in proportion to its
universality. There is, therefore, no agreement whatever
between conception and thing ; hence, no knowledge of the
truth.

Between conception and reality, there lies an impassable
chasm ; and hence the impossibility of the ontological proof
of the existence of God is evident, since its presupposition
of the reality of the conception of God is fundamentally
false. Also the cosmological proofs are invalid, since they
presuppose that there must be a first or ultimate cause, that
an infinite regress is impossible. But just this presupposi-
tion is fundamentally false ; rather, this regress is necessarily
to be demanded. There are, therefore, no proofs whatever
of the existence of God : there is no kind of rational theology.
From the impossibility of this knowledge follows the neces-
sity of faith, guaranteed only by the authority of the Church.

78 HISTORY OF MOUERN PHILOSOPHY.

The relation between the Church and the world corresponds
to that between faith and knowledge. The question is as to
separation in both cases, — as to the separation of faith from
knowledge, and the Church from the world. The time has
come when the powers of which the Church is the centre
begin to become centrifugal, and desire to throw off her con-
trol ; viz., states and nations, sciences and arts. With the
spiritualization of the Church, the independence of the State
from the Church is at the same time required. " Defend me
with your sword, and I will defend you with my pen," Occam
is reported to have said to Louis the Bavarian, in the con-
troversy between the emperor and the pope.

We must carefully observe how this nominalistic doctrine
of knowledge, which caused the dissension between faith and
knowledge, theology and philosophy, and stamped itself upon
the consciousness of the time, is related to both. It desired
separation for the sake of faith, for the sake of the Church.
It sought to purify and strengthen faith by separating it from
knowledge, and the Church by separating it from the world.
It is not an accident that these nominalists belonged for the
most part to the strictest party of the Franciscans. Faith
would no longer keep a common account with fallible knowl-
edge, supported by human authority : it would have nothing
more to do with this foreign and dangerous ally. In the same
proportion as it renounced all natural and rational knowledge,
it strengthened its supernatural character, increased its posi-
tive value, its ecclesiastical authority. To strengthen the
latter, and make it irresistible and unquestionable, was the
ultimate purpose of this nominalistic theology. It was,
therefore, in its nature scholastic. But it broke with the
secular power of the Church, and aimed at her purification,
and thus opened the way to reformatory efforts within
scholasticism. It also freed philosophy, by separating it
from faith, and directing the former to things of the world.
Within scholasticism it paved the way for a neiv philosophy.
It denied the possibility of a true knowledge of things by

DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 79

human means, and thus led to that scepticism with which
modern philosophy began, and out of which it proceeded.
It conceded to human knowledge, only the intuitive and sen-
sitive, and appeared in this point as the scholastic forerunner
of that empiricism and sensualism with which modern philoso-
phy began its course in the native country of Occam.

80 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER V.

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE.
I. HUMANISM.

IJAGAN philosophy served the ecclesiastical philosophy of
-*- the Middle Ages in a form foreign to its origin and its
nature. Scholastic theology confined human knowledge in
a twofold prison. It was under the control of the Church,
which determined its doctrines ; and under the control of a
school which borrowed its mode of teaching, and the form
of its culture, from the authorities of ancient philosophy.
M''hen, now, the chains began to be loosed, and human knowl-
edge began to strive for a fundamental renewing, the first
step was to throw off the bondage of the schools, and seek
out, and search into, the great philosophers of antiquity in
their original form. The philosophy of modern times came
directly from the emancipated schools of antiquity. It
matured in it gradually. Not till it felt itself outgrowing
the leading-strings of that philosophy, did the epoch of its
own independent existence come, and the moment when it
entered upon its majority. The revival of the Grecian-
Roman philosophy was, therefore, the necessary and imme-
diate problem of knowledge, the condition of, and the
transition to, modern philosophy.

This problem forms a part of philological archaeology,
and this itself required to be cultivated and understood as
a particular branch of revived antiquity in general. To
guide philosophy from the IMiddle Ages into our times, that
mental new birth of antiquity Avhich we call the "Eenais-

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 81

sanee," must find and illumine the path. The significance
of the Renaissance is in no way limited to linguistic studies ;
since it is not merely a matter of schools and of scholarship,
but an age -which progressing humanity has lived, and which
has penetrated every department of human culture, — an
inexhaustible age, which lives on in our day, and never will
die. The Renaissance is, in its work and its intellectual
tendencies, as little to be limited as the Reformation ; and
if both are limited to particular periods, — that in its bloom
to the second half of the fifteenth century, this to the first
of the sixteenth, — such a chronological limitation applies
only to the outbreak and founding of the two.

The Renaissance radically changed men's conceptions of
life and nature, fi'eed them from the powers which controlled
them in the Middle Ages, and stamped upon them an oppo-
sition to those powers which the Church itself, borne along
by the current of the time, did not observe, which it half
promoted, and which it did not recognize till much later,
when the first bloom of the Renaissance had faded, and the
Reformation had become powerful. The fundamental theme
of the Middle Ages was, the restoration and glorification of
the '■'■civitas dei" that kingdom of God on earth which,
through its divine ordinances, rules the world and binds indi-
viduals. The fundamental theme of the Renaissance starts
from the completely opposite key : it consists in the glorifi-
cation of man, his greatness and his fame ; in the worship
of the individual, his genius, his power, his immeasurable
natural freedom. If there ever was an age that believed in
the universal genius of man, in his omnipotence and magical
power, — an age that produced individuals of powerful minds,
and felt their charm, that deified the world of man in nature,
the state and art, — it was this. Its entire interest went out
to natural man, infinitely enlarged by his energy and his
endowments. In such a sense, far more comprehensively
and universally than we usually understand the term, can
we say of the Renaissance that it made the " Humanities "

82 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

its subject. In the Middle Ages, the power to loose and
bind, concerning forgiveness of sin and eternal welfare, was
with the Church. In the Renaissance, it was the poets, the
orators, the historians, who had power to elevate and over-
throw, to glorify, and refuse to acknowledge, the merit and
the fame of man. Even Dante, with whom the first glimmer
of the dawning Renaissance began to shine,' invented a hell,
and peopled it, by means of his absolute power as poetic
judge of the world. The -Middle Ages reverenced saints:
the Renaissance reverenced great men, eminent for their
mental achievements ; their relics and their graves were
honored, and the memorable scenes of their lives. "The
ground upon which a good man treads is consecrated : after
a hundred years his words and deeds re-echo to his descend-
ants." This was spoken in the spirit of the Renaissance
(a language foreign to the Middle Ages, but still the native
tongue of our thoughts and feelings). We must know how
the Renaissance fundamentally changed man's conception of
himself, before we speak of the altered course of the sciences
and education. It called " modern man " into life, as one
of its ablest students has said in a comprehensive and
luminous work, setting forth the characteristics of this
powerful age.i

n. THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCB.

The faith of the Middle Ages was led, by its worship of
relics, to Palestine, that it might actually see the Holy Land
and the holiest of graves. The Renaissance needed no
Crusades by means of which to find relics to worship. Italy
was its natural birthplace and home, — the classic land, the
grave of the most glorious past of the world. In the revival
of antiquity, Italy worshipped her own past world. Thus,
even in its origin, the Renaissance was not the artificial
product of the schools, but the natural course of the soar-
ing national self-consciousness, the subject and the theme

1 Jacob Burckliaidt: The Culture o£ the Italian Rouaissance (sec. ed.,
18C9).

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 83

of national joy and self-glorification. Augustine, the last of
the great Fathers of the Church, saw in the old Roman
Empire and its people the consummation of the "' civitas
terrena,'' the world devoted to destruction, fallen through the
sin of paganism, the world which in its greatness and earthly
fame had reaped the reward of its deeds, and perished for-
ever. Dante, the first national poet of Italy, extolled anew
the Roman nation as the noblest and first of the world, to
whom the dominion of the world belonged by the favor of
God, independently of Church and pope. He celebrated
Rome as the august widow, waiting in impatient longing for
her Csesar. The Eternal City, connnanding reverence in her
ruins, filled him with enthusiasm. Some decades after Dante,
that adventurous tribune. Cola de Rienza, appeared, and in
the midst of destitute and down-fallen Rome attempted, in
disunited Italj% to improvise the restoration of the Roman
Empire. Augustine, who lived before the beginning of the
Middle Ages, saw the new ecclesiastical kingdom of the
world in its rising ; that of the Caesar's in its setting : Dante,
even at the threshold of the Renaissance, saw the earthly
salvation of the world in a new Augustus.

For the mental regeneration of antiquity, it was well that
such a Roman central power did not exist, that it Avas no-
where less possible than in Italy. Political unity and cen-
tralization would have fettered the powers which, for the
unfolding of the new mental life, required to be in perfect
freedom and activity. That complexity of individuality, that
richness of nature, and enlargement of feeling, that rivalry of
states and cities which called out, and cultivated, talent in
every direction, would, in that case, never have been devel-
oped. Decentralized Italy was as favorable to the rise of
the Renaissance as was decentralized Germany to that of the
Reformation. The disintegration of Italy in consequence of
the conflict between the pope and the Hohenstaufen, the
multitude and diversity of little states, the continual and
headlong changes in their fortunes, internal party conflicts

84 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

and external wars, the usurpers and despots, the invention
and employment of every means of power to promote politi-
cal interests, to exalt the fame of princes, to attract and win
the masses, — among others, splendid and imposing works of
art, — all these conditions of Italy during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries involuntarily remind us of similar circum-
stances in Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries before
the Christian era. Then arose from the most active life that
richness- of knowledge of the world and of men, that wealth
of culture, from which Greek philosophy proceeded. This
analogy is significant. There are in the history of the world
scarcely two periods which present so many points of resem-
blance, grounded in the state of the nations between which
comparison is made. No wonder, therefore, that from such
conditions, from sucli a like condition of affairs in Italy, a
view of life and a culture were developed that felt their re-
lationship to antiquity, and again seized its neglected treas-
ures; that the Italians — the first of European nations that
became free from the Middle Ages — then recognized them-
selves as the descendants of the Greeks and Romans, and,
with this conception of themselves, entered upon the inherit-
ance of their past. We must, indeed, include all these fac-
tors, in order to understand the natural origin and character
of the Italian Renaissance, wliich opened the school of a new
universal culture to the rest of Europe. To tlie discovery
of ancient ruins, and works of art, was added the recovery of
authors, whose works were copied, multiplied, collected and
arranged in libraries. In the growing knowledge of these
works consists the literary Renaissance and the widening of
its scientific horizon.

In its greatest extension, this period reaches from the be-
ginning of the fourteenth to the end of the sixteenth century,
from Dante to Tasso. Its highest development, to fix the
period by means of the popes, extended from Nicholas V.
(1447-l-i55), the founder of the Vatican library, to Leo X.
(1513-1521), who, among the Muses of the Vatican, would

THE PERIOD or THE RENAISSANCE. 85

gladly have failed to hear the outbreak of the German Refor-
mation. The two periods before and after this period of
greatest vigor may be called "early" and "late" Renaissance.
Some events which happened about the middle of the
fifteenth century were of the greatest importance in broad-
ening and deepening this new spiritual current ; viz., the
invention of the art of printing, and the renewal of the union
between the Latin and Greek worlds, — between the bloom-
ing Italian Renaissance and Greek scholars. The councils
of union called by Pope Eugene IV. were the occasion of a
meeting, which, although of no value to the Church, ex-
ercised a great influence upon the Renaissance. Greek
theologians were invited by a Roman ambassador, Nicholas
Cusanus, — a German by birth, who was himself animated
by the deepest ideas of Greek philosophy, — to the council
which was opened in Ferrara, and removed the next year
to Florence. A few years later, the Eastern Empire fell.
The capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453) in-
creased the number of Greek scholars who fled to Italy,
and found a most welcome refuge there. The continued
settlement in Italy, strengthened by the last victory of the
barbarians, acquired the character of an intellectual colony,,
For the second time Italy deserved the name of Magnat
Grsecia.

m. THE COURSE OP DEVELOPMENT OP THE RENAISSANCE.

We have now to notice more particularly the growth and
development of the philosophical Renaissance, which mediated
the transition from the Middle Ages to modern philosophy.
It consisted in a growing separation from scholasticism, in a
growing development of its own enfranchised impulse to
knowledge ; and this determined the law of its development.
It was not enough to reknow the culture and systems of an-
tiquity in their true forms, to excavate them, as it were, and
strip them from the overgrowths and disguises of scholasti-
cism. It was not enough to imitate their philosophy : it was

86 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

necessary to imitate their philosophical spirit and originality.
The age must exert its own powers in seeking for a knowl-
edge of the world to satisfy its own need. Thus, the Renais-
sance was reproductive in relation to antiquity in the first
half of its work, and productive in the second, impelled by
the spirit of a new time.

1. The Neo-Latin Renaissance. — Ancient classic Rome, her
orators and poets, her models and instructors of rhetoric, the
systems and conceptions of life, of the Post-Aristotelian
philosophy, — epicureanism, stoicism, scepticism, — which
had become naturalized in her culture, lay nearer to the bud-
ding Italian Renaissance than ancient Greece and her culture.
The reproduction of this Roman culture is the Neo-Latin
Renaissance. The Neo-Latin Renaissance recognized its mod-
els in Cicero and Quintilian, and found its ablest representa-
tive in the Roman -Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457). In him the
opposition to the iliddle Ages and scholasticism was already
under full headway. Pure Latin, modelled after Cicero, was
opposed to the barbarous Latin of the Church ; philological
criticism, to the authenticity of ecclesiastical documents.
Valla examined the Vulgate, and pointed out its errors,
doubted the genuineness of the Apostles' Creed, refuted the
Constantinian origin of the territories of the pope in his
famous work " On the Erroneously Believed and Fabricated
Donation of Constantine." The Pseudo-Isidoric decretals
had, as it were, codified this fiction. The later papal system
did not rest satisfied with the donation. Constantine, it
held, had only given back to the pope what had always
belonged to him as the vicegerent of God. Even Dante
rejected the legality of the donation of Constantine, though
he did not dispute it as a fact. Valla proved that it was
never made, that the popes are robbers and usurpers, and
that they deserve to be deprived of their power. It is not
to be wondered at that this man was persecuted, and found
protection among the Aragonese in Naples. Far more re-
markable is it that Nicholas V. took him into his service.

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 87

Valla intended to write a work,- " P'or the Sake of Truth,
Religion, and Honor ; " but when he wished to return to
Rome, he declared himself ready to abandon it. His bold-
ness was due as much to ambition as to love of truth : he
desired it to bring him fame, but not misfortune. Tlie value
of martyrdom fell when the new interests of the Renaissance
were felt, and we cannot test tlie strength of his character
by a capacity for sacrifice which presupposes the power of
unshaken faith.

In a time when scholasticism still appeared the firm ally
of Aristotle, particularly in the department of logic, the
rejection of the former necessarily affected the latter. The
Neo-Latin Renaissance in its anti-scholastic and its anti-
hierarchical tendency became likewise the opponent of Aris-
totle and his logic. That is especially true of Valla and all
who followed him. In the text-books and practice of the
scholastics, the logic of Aristotle had acquired a ridiculous
and barbarous appearance. This was attacked by Valla and
his followers. Animated discourse, they urged, must be
accepted as a model in place of abstract and artificial forms
of thought ; instead of logic, rhetoric , instead of the dry and
unprofitable school-discipline of a barren manipulation of
words, unfettered and beautiful eloquence must serve that
form of culture which employs at the same time strength of
thought, and vigor of expression.

2. The Aristotelian Renaissance. — But the ouAvard march-
ing Renaissance could not leave the great master of Greek
philosophy in the hands of scholasticism. One of its tasks
was to restore the knowledge of Aristotle by means of his
own works, to tear his system from the control of the Church,
and to point out the opposition between him and her doc-
trines. This form of the development of the Italian Renais-
sance may be termed the Aristotelian. Its controversies
were continued during the sixteenth century, particularly in
the universities of Padua and Bologna. Its most j5rominent
representative, who was most in harmony with the spirit

88 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of the Renaissance, was the- Alantuan, Pietro Pomponatius
(1462-1525). Since the object of this movement was to
learn tlie true interpretation of Aristotle, the investigation
necessarily began with his commentators, and, because of the
disagreement between them, took the form of a controversy.
Averroes was the greatest of the Arabian, and Alexander of
Aphrodisias, " the commentator " (in the beginning of the
third century of the Chi-istian era), of the Grecian, ex-
pounders. Averroists and Alexandrists disputed in Padua
and Bologna. The Italian Renaissance, in the reproduction
of Greek philosophy, naturally preferred Greek expounders,
and followed their guidance. Pomponatius defended their
interpretations against Achillini and Nifo. The doctrine of
Aristotle was a system of development, which, founded on
the immanence of final cause, the unity of form and matter,
natural entelechy and its series of gradations, had led in its
last results again to a dualism of form and matter, God and
the world, mind and body. Thus, in the very nature of his
doctrine the monistic and dualistic tendencies were separated,
and therein lay the jDossibility of opposing interpretations of
it, according as the immanence of final cause or the tran>
scendence of God was the prevailing point of view from
Avhich it was considered and estimated. The first point of
view determines the naturalistic, the second the theological,
conception of the philosophy of Aristotle. The former was
first expounded among the Greek expositors by Strato, then
by Alexander, — the latter by the Neo-Platonists, from whom
it passed over to the Arabian philosophers, who made Aris-
totle accessible in the theosophic form to the scholasticism
of the West. If the Aristotelian system of development is
considered from its theological point of view, it appears as a
gradation of intelligences starting from the supra-mundane
Deity, each of which, embraced in, and ruled by, the higher,
governs a definite sphere in the cosmos of gradations, and
the lowest of which in the sublunary world constitutes the
mind of humanity. This was the fundamental form of the

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 89

doctrine of Averroes, which repelled scholasticism through
its pantheistic character, though its theological conception
of nature and the world attracted it. The aim now was
to purify the doctrine of Aristotle from the additions of its
Neo-Platonic, Arabian, and scholastic interpreters, to know
the true Aristotle, to ascertain the difference between him
and Plato, between him and the doctrine of the Christian
faith. The Italian Aristotelians, who agreed with Alexan-
der, were on their way back to the true Aristotle. There
was no point in which all these oppositions could so dis-
tinctly and actively appear, and at the same time so eagerly
arouse and hold the attention of the age, as in the question
concerning the immortality of the soul. Aristotle had taught
that the soul is the individual organic purpose of a living
body ; that the mind, or reason, is imperishable and immortal.
He had made a distinction between passive and active reason,
and affirmed immortality of the latter. Now the question
here arose, whether this immortal mind of man is also personal
and individual, whether there is a personal immortality, the
only immortality which has any value to the Church. If it
must be denied, according to Aristotle, there is, according to
him, no retribution for man in a world to come : there is
no world beyond the bounds of this life for the Church to
reach, and the power upon which all the authority of the
Church depends is gone. There is, in that case, an opposi-
tion between the doctrine of the Church and that of Aris-
totle as great as it is possible to conceive, and the whole
structure of scholasticism lies in ruins. If the mind, or
active reason (active in true knowledge), is explained both
as immaterial and individual, the personal immortality of
men, as Thomas intended, is proved by the help of the Aris-
totelian doctrine of the soul in majorem Dei gloriam. But
if active reason is identical with the universal mind of man,
immortality must be affirmed with Averroes, but personal
immortality denied. If, on the other hand, active reason,
according to the naturalistic conception, is regarded as a

90 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

product of development, and always subject to individual and
organic conditions, there can be no kind of human immor-
tality, neither impersonal nor individual. Pomponatius so
argued in his famous work, '■'•Be Immortalitate Animce ' (1516).
Immortality is merely a matter of faith ; and, as such, Pom-
ponatius allowed it to pass unchallenged, and even affirmed
it. The already current opposition between faith and knowl-
edge, theology and philosophy, was thus developed in the
sharpest form, concentrated in the weightiest and most prac-
tically important of cases. It was an opposition between
Thomas and Aristotle : it related to the whole question of a
world beyond, — a world by means of which the Church
rules the world we live in. What could be more A^-elcome
to the secular and worldly spirit of the Renaissance than
such an indirect reference to the interests of the present
life? A series of great problems, which are immediately
connected with the destiny of man, were proposed anew, —
problems concerning the order of the world and the nature
of its necessity, concerning predestination and fate, concern-
ing the possibility of human freedom, — all of them themes
which Pomponatius discussed also. It was then established
that all phenomena, even pretended supra-natural phenomena,
like presentiments, magic, demons, etc., must be explained
by natural laws. In relation to the art of magic, Pompona-
tius likewise attempted such an explanation.^

Now, if this explanation of things by natural causes could
in no way be obtained through a revival of the philosophy
of Aristotle, since the latter is in conflict not merely with
the doctrine of the Church, but also Avith that of nature, no
resource was left but for the Renaissance itself to attempt
the development of a new, natural philosophy, since that
kind of explanation was demanded. When Pomponatius led

1 For the most detailed account of Pomponatius, we are indebted to the
Italian scholar, Francesco Fiorentinl, who, in his two works P. Pomponatius
(18()8) and B. Telesio (1872-74), earned for himself great merit for his iavesti-
galiou of the philosophical Renaissance of the sixteenth century.

THE PERIOD OP THE RENAISSANCE. 91

into the field the Aristotelian doctrine of the soul against the
Christian heaven, the time was no longer far distant when
the Aristotelian doctrine of the system of the universe was
to be overthrown by the discovery of the real heavens.

3. The Political Renaissance. — The immediate objects of
the modern consciousness of the world, — a consciousness
which awoke with the Renaissance, — are nature and the
State, the totality of the human cosmos. The time had come
when interest in the State also was revived, and when it re-
jected the guardianship of theology, of the whole scholastic
doctrine of the State, determined as it was by the authority
of the Church. In a contemporary of Pomponatius, one of
the most remarkable minds of the Italy of that time, this
Renaissance of the political consciousness reached its highest
and most concentrated expression, — in the Florentine, Nic-
colo MaccMavelU (1469-1527). The desire to revive political
thought, to devote all his energies to the State, impelled him,
with native and irresistible power, to an extent possible only
in the perfect freshness of a new time. " Destiny willed that
I should be able to speak neither of silk nor weaving of wool,
neither of profit nor loss : / must speak of the State, or be
completely silent," wrote he to a friend when the Medici
had banished him. He would pay any price for the privilege
of returning to political activity, " even if I should have to
roll stones."

From the pattern of the old Roman State, from the study
of history, from patriotic interest in the affairs of Italy, he
derived his instructions and his tasks. The physical life of
man can be known and judged only through nature ; the life
of the State only through history. Thus the political horizon
is widened to the historical. An interest in politics awakens
an interest in history ; find from the natural union of the
two, political history arises. In this sjDirit, Macchiavelli
studied Livy, and wrote the history of Florence. Man is at
all times the same : always like causes have like effects ;
effects change and deteriorate in relation to causes. These

92 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

are some of the very evident and universal truths which
Maechiavelli repeated, again and again, and applied to his
own time and country. The greatness of ancient Rome,
and tire wretchedness of modern Italy: there the increasing
dominion of a growing and powerful people ; here the in-
creasing servitude of their descendants who are subject to
barbarians, and are a toy of foreign thirst for conquest : there
Home rising to the dominion of the world ; here Italy disin-
tegrated under foreign rule, invaded. Whence came that
greatness? whence this ruin? Why have the descendants of
the Romans degenerated ? Whence the chasm between the
Romans before Cjesar, and the Italians of the present? These
are the great historical questions which unceasinglj- occupy
the mind of Maechiavelli, which, prompted by Livy, he seeks
to answer in his " Discorsi," according to the laws of histori-
cal causality. The Italians of the Renaissance must be told
that they are, indeed, the most direct, but, also, the most
degraded, heirs of ancient Rome ; that regeneration requires
new exaltation. " Earn what thou hast inherited from tliy
fathers if thou wouldst possess it." Tiiis sentence, applied
to the heirs of the Romans, denotes that phase of the Italian
Renaissance which occupied the mind of Maechiavelli as
statesman and author.

He sought through his historical studies the means for the
political regeneration of Italy. This was his aim, liis real
patriotic task. The instructive model is the State, of which
Maechiavelli treats in his "Discorsi" on the first decade
of Livy, his comparing glance being constantly directed to
the present. The task of the present is the freeing of Italy
from barbarians, the restoration of its unity. The political
leformation of Italy can only j^roceed from an Italian city
which through its commonwealth, its republican constitution,
and its political development, is the richest and most experi-
enced. It can only be reached through a despotism which
knows and enijjloys all the means wherebj' power is estab-
lished, preserved, and extended. This city is Florence. The

THE PEEIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 93

great-grandson of that great Florentine citizen who had been
called the father of his country, is the man who should be
the despot of Italy. The political vocation and importance
of Florence are evident from its history ; and it was to show
this that Macchiavelli had written it as far as the death of
the man in whose son (Lorenzo II.) he would gladly have
seen the ruler of Italy. In his book " On the Prince," he
aimed to describe to Italy the ruler which it needed, in order
to fulfil the first condition of its political regeneration ;
namely, to become a power. Thus, his books on the history
of Florence are connected with those on the State and the
prince. If we clearly realize the distinction between the pro-
gressive development of power in an able and vigorous peo-
ple, a people which endures no despot, and the weakness of a
degraded and corrupt nation, that requires a tyrant in order
to be brought and kept into unity, we shall see no inconsis-
tency between the author of the " Discorsi," who looks with
aversion upon the great Csesar, and that of the " Principe,"
who desires for Italy a man like Caesar Borgia. And since
we know that questions of political power, least of all in a
corrupt people, can never be solved by moral means, it is
foolish to decry the book " On the Prince." Macchiavelli had
to describe a ruler, not a lay-brother, — one of those Italian
rulers in whom the age of the Renaissance had long been
accustomed to admire only their strength and success ; and
these have nothing in common with moral excellence.

Among the causes which made the Romans great and the
Italians contemptible, Macchiavelli lays special emphasis on
religion. And here the whole opposition between the politi-
cal Renaissance, and that of the Church, is evident. The
religion of the ancient Romans was the religion of the State,
and its preservation a patriotic and political duty. Christi-
anity, on the contrary, has been, from the beginning, con-
cerned with a world beyond this : its back is turned upon
the present world and the State. In its origin, it was un-
political; and it has alienated man from the State, and weak-

94 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

ened his political power. With this first evil, a second has
associated itself. The Christian religion has not remained
true to its original tendency: it has degenerated. On the
faith in heaven an ecclesiastical power on earth has been
grounded, and this has made itself master of the State. This
second and greater evil is the hierarchy and the papacj^,
which has its throne in Rome, and possesses a part of Italy.
There is no greater evil than the ecclesiastical State, the
greatest of all the obstacles to Italian unity. Here Macchi-
avelli attacks the worst antagonist of his reformatory plans.
Three cases are conceivable in the position of the papacy in
Italy : either the pope rules the whole of Italy, or only the
ecclesiastical State, or he is without all secular power —
merely the supreme head of the Church. In the first case,
Italy is not a State, but only a province of the Church ; in
the second, it is disunited — its unity impossible ; in the
third, which Dante had desired, the pppe requires the pro-
tection of a foreign power, which continually endangers the
independence of Italy. There is, therefore, no case in which
the papacy is compatible with the political reformation of
Italy. There is thus an absolute opposition between the
two, and ^Macchiavelli desires the destruction of the papacy.
In it he sees the root of evil. The papacy has corrupted
both religion and the State : it has made religion hypocriti-
cal, and deprived the State of power. It has been a centre
of corruption, and has poisoned the morals of nations. The
nearer they are to the head of the Church, the less religious
they are. Of Christian nations, therefore, the Romanic are
the most corrupt ; and of these, the Italians are the worst.
The aim of Macchiavelli cannot be mistaken : it was the
destruction of the Romish Church, — the secularization of
religion. His greatest preference was to substitute the re-
ligion of ancient, for that of modern, Rome ; the State for
the Church; patriotism for religion. He deifies the State.
Such a conception necessarily appeared in the course of
the Renaissance. Macchiavelli was filled by it, and he

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 95

stamped it upon this period with the incomparable force of
genius.

Pomponatius saw the contradiction between the doctrine
of immortality and philosophy : immortality is a matter of
faith, not knowledge. Macchiavelli saw the contradiction
between Christian faith in immortality and the true policy
of the State : man should concentrate his attention upon the
State. According to Pomponatius, the ecclesiastical kingdom
of heaven is without foundation : according to Macchiavelli,
the ecclesiastical kingdom on earth should be overthrown.

4. Italian Neo-Platonism and Theosophy. — The spirit of the
Renaissance was entirely engrossed with the present world ;
and in its boldest and most decided characters, this interest
amounts to the deification of the State and of nature. We
have seen in Macchiavelli one-half, as it were, of this affirma-
tion of the world, — the political, — and now we look for the
other. We find it at the end of the sixteenth century as
nature-philosophy and pantheism. This pantheistic view
of the world, deifying nature and the universe, was in con-
flict, not merely with the doctrine of the Church, but with,
that of Aristotle, which separates God and the world , and
since it was also the product of the Renaissance of the re-
vival of ancient philosophy, the starting-point of this tei>.
dency must be sought in Neo-Platonism. Here we find the
philosophical Renaissance advancing in a direction exactly-
the reverse of that taken by ancient philosophy itself.
Ancient philosophy proceeded from the problems of' cos-
mology through those of anthropology (Socratic) to- those
of theology, and resulted at last in that great religious- qiies-
tion which lay at the foundation of Neo-Platonism in its
most comprehensive sense. The Renaissance, on the other
hand, starting from the Middle Ages, sought the path to
the problems of cosmology through the theological view of the
world which it borrowed from the Middle Ages and still
retained. The philosophy of the ancients was naturally at
first most evident to the philosophy arising out of Christianity

96 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

on the side most in harmony with its theological and reli-
gious spirit. This form of the philosophy of Greece, in which
the last period of antiquity and the first of modern times
touch each other, is religious Platonism. They reach their
hands across the Middle Ages ; and it might seem as if, after
a long pause in which the philosophy of antiquity had been
silent, it wished to continue exactly where it had left off in
the last Neo-Platonists. We see before us the Renaissance
in that trend of thought which advanced from the religious-
philosophical view of the world to that of the natural-philo-
sophical. Its starting-point was the Italian Neo-Platonism ;
its conclusion the Italian nature-philosophy. There we meet
with modes of thought which remind us of Proclus and the
last Neo-Platonics ; here, on the other hand, with such as are
akin to the first conceptions of the Ionic nature-philosophy.
Among those Greek theologians who appeared in Flor-
ence, where the union between the Greek and Roman Church
was planned according to the view of the latter, were Gior-
gios Gemistos Plethon and his pupil Bessarion of Trebizond
(1395-1472), the former an opponent, the latter a friend, of
the union, soon after cai-dinal (1439) of the Romish Church,
the defender and leader of the Platonic Renaissance in
Italy. Plethon promulgated a kind of new world-religion
which was to eclipse Christianity, and be not unlike pagan-
ism. He was a devout disciple of Proclus rather than of
the Christian Church, and won through his animated ex-
positions the first Medici to the Platonic philosophy, and
occasioned the founding of the Platonic Academy in Flor-
ence, in which that school of Athens seemed to revive which
Justinian had suppressed more than nine centuries before.
The contest between Platonists and Aristotelians was then
renewed. Bessarion defended Plato against those who mis-
represented him. He regarded Plato and Aristotle as the
heroes of philosophy, in comparison with whom the phi-
losophers of his own time were mere apes. He proposed 'to
divide the territory of knowledge between them, so that

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 9T

Plato should be the authority in theology, and Aristotle, in
the philosophy of nature.

The first problem of the Academy of Florence was the
revival of the philosophy of Plato, the knowledge of it from
the original sources, the diffusion of- this knowledge in the
West. The Florentine Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) solved
this problem by translating into Latin the works of Plato
and Plotinus. Ficino was educated by Cosimo to be an in-
structor of philosophy in his family and in the Academy of
Florence. His mode of thought was the Neo-Platonic. He
found in the philosophy of Plato the essence of all wisdom,
the key to Christianity, and likewise the means of spiritual-
izing and renovating it. The philosophy of Plato, according
to Ficino, is the great mystery in which all the wisdom of
the past has been deposited, by which all true wisdom of
after-times is permeated. Plato is the real heir of Pythag-
oras and Zoroaster. Philo, Numenius, Plotinus, Jamblicus,
and Proclus are the real heirs of Plato, and also the revealers
of the mystery of his doctrine. This light has shone upon
those teachers of the Christian wisdom, — John, Paul, and
the Areopagites.

Now, what is the principle of this mode of thought, the
fundamental characteristics of which are not new? It is
this: Christianity and Neo-Platonism are to be harmonized,
the theological spirit of the one with the cosmological spirit
of the other. Neo-Platonism is akin to Christianity in its reli-
gious motive, its striving for union with God : it is opposed to
Christianity in its pagan deification of the world. The world
in Neo-Platonism appears in a natural and necessary connec-
tion of divine and eternal orders, as a natural result of the
primordial being, as an unfolding of divine powers in a defi-
nite order of gradations : the cosmos appears as a divine
emanation, which naturally gushes forth from its primitive
source, and enters into an order of degrees of decreasing
perfection in the forms of the world of sense, that from this
point, where the divine life is farthest from its original

98 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

source, it may struggle back again. In this system of
thought, union with God forms a moment in the eternal
circulation of the iiniverse, which, at its greatest distance
from its eternal and primitive cause, seeks to return. The
principle of Christianity is the salvation of the world through
Christ : that of Neo-Platonism is the (mediate) emanation of
the world from the divine primordial being.' Now, if Chris-
tianity is brought into harmony with Neo-Platonism, the
theological spirit of the first must enter into the emanistic
mode of thought of the second; assume, therefore, cosmo-
logical forms, and the divine mystery of the salvation of the
world must be conceived as revealing itself, not merely in the
Church, but also in the life of the world and of nature, and,
indeed, as flowing in a pure stream from the very depths
of the divine being. Nature is now regarded as a genuine
revelation of God, as a guide to union with God. It appears
in a religious significance which threatens the authority of
the Church. In the depths of nature the mystery of divinity
is concealed. He who penetrates nature, looks into the di-
vine being. Nature thus appears as the great mystery which
is to be revealed.

If this problem is solved, the veil is removed from divinity,
and the word of reconciliation spoken for all the contradic-
tions of the world. If we suppose the knowledge of God
dependent upon the fact of the salvation of the world in
Christ, we have the principle and form of (Christian) the-
ology. If we suppose the knowledge of God dependent
upon tlifi mystery. of nature, we have the principle and form
of theosophyt and this theosophical character is the next
form which philosophy, re-animated by Neo-Platonism, takes.
It is the first -step on ,the road to the nature-philosophy. But
from this point of view, nature does not appear as a subject
to be methodically investigated, but as a mystery for which
the word of solution is sought ; as a sealed book incapable

1 Cf. above, p. 31, and following.

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 99

of being opened by earthly powers, — a book for the under-
standing of which a key, as naysterious as the book itself, is
required. What, therefore, this theosophical spirit sought
was an esoteric doctrine to unfold the hidden meaning of
nature, and to solve its mystery. And as the Grecian logos-
idea went to meet the Jewish ideal of the Messiah, so this
theosophical spirit which Neo-Platonism aroused in the Chris-
tian world was attracted by the Jewish Cabala, which claimed
to have received from divine revelation in primitive times
the solution of the enigma of creation. In this union vsdth
the Cabala^ that Jewish Gnosticism, which in its fundamental
conceptions is akin to Neo-Platonism, we find the Platonic
theosophy distinctly expressed in the writings of Giovanni
Pico della Mirandola, the most talented representative of the
Italian Neo-Platonism.

The interest in Cabalistic doctrines and writings was an
active factor in the culture of the time, since attention was
thereby directed to Jewish literature, and the study of
Hebrew promoted. The circle of humanistic studies was
thus enlarged, and made to include Hebrew literature as
well as that of Greece. By the side of Erasmus, Reuchlin
arose, who made Hebrew the subject of scientific investiga-
tion, with a view of explaining the Holy Scriptures, and
understanding the Cabala. He made the acquaintance of
Pico, and through him became interested in the Cabala, and
eventually the first Hebrew scholar of the West. When the
theologians of Cologne, incited by a converted Jew, de-
manded the destruction of Hebrew literature, with the
exception of the Holy Scriptures, and, therefore, the eccle-
siastical condemnation of the Cabalistic books, Reuchlin
publicly defended this literature, and achieved a victory. It
was the first victorious conflict of Humanism with scholasti-
cism in Germany. The entire cultivated world followed the
controversy with their sympathy: the great parties of the
humanists and scholastics were arrayed against each other.
On one side were the famous men of the time, names

100 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

noted in literature and science ; on the other, men of little
ability and as little reputation. The letters of the famous
men Avho congratulated the victor were followed by " Let-
ters of Obscure Men " (1515-7), that inimitable satire which
shows most plainly how far the humanistic mind had gone
beyond the scholastic, whose style entertained it only as a
subject of the keenest wit and satire.^

5. Magie and Mysticism. — We follow the further course
of this theosophical mode of thought. If in nature divine
forces are active in a descending gradation, in which the
lower forces proceed from the higher, one divine life must
stream creatively through the whole universe : the lowest
must stand in an unbroken connection with the highest, the
earthly world with the heavenly ; and this unbroken con-
nection must transmit the invisible influences from above,
and the higher forces penetrate and govern all the lower..
Nothing more, accordingly, seems necessary than to appro-
priate those higher powers, in order to rule nature in the
completest sense. Theosophy is now attracted more and
more by the image of nature, is more and more absorbed in
contemplating it, eagerly listening, as it were, to overhear
the secrets of nature, constantly striving to acquire her con-
cealed powers. In this direction it becomes magic, the great
art which rests on the deepest and most mysterious of sci-
ences. This phase of theosophy, the mago-Cabalistic trend
of thought, was developed by Agrippa von JVettesheim (1487-
1535). It was faith in nature as the problem in which
divinity is concealed : it was also faith in the solution of this
problem. If there are divine forces in nature, why cannot
man acquire them ? If he acquires them, and learns how to
use them, he becomes a magician. This possibility was a
belief of the age. In a series of strange characters, this tem-
per of mind was distinctly expressed, which, in the legend

• Cf. D. Fr. Strauss, Ulrich von Hutten (sec. ed., 1871), Book I. chap. viii.
pp. 17U-211.

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 101

of Faust, finally found its typical, and, in the poefti of
Goethe, its Pjomethean, expression.^

" The spirit-world no closures fasten,
Thy sense is shut, thy heart is dead ;
Disciple, up ! untiring hasten

To bathe thy breast in morning red." ^

This passage which Goethe puts in the mouth of Faust,
was, in the sixteenth century, a really active factor in the
beliefs of men. Nor can we better express the conception
of the world which lies at the foundation of this belief, than
with the words of Faust, as he considers the sign of the
macrocosm : —

" How each the Whole its substance gives,
Each in the other works and lives
Like heavenly forces rising and descending,
Their golden urns reciprocally lending,
With wings that winnow blessing.
From heaven to earth I see them pressing,
Filling the earth with harmony unceasing." "

But how is it possible to appropriate these higher divine
forces in order that we may use them ? The first condition
is to apprehend them. They are concealed in nature and
the lower forms of it: they appear veiled, and, under the
hostile influences of external things, are hindered in a
variety of ways. These hinderances must be removed : this
veil must be torn away. It is, therefore, necessary even to
penetrate the material world, not to content one's self
merely with the consideration of the great spectacle of the
world's forces, but to disclose each in its properties, separat-
ing from it every thing which obstructs its action, and so
learning the arts of nature. Magic demands chemistry,

1 Cf. my work on Goethe's Faust, chap. i. pp. 21-35 (Stuttgart, Cotta, 1878).
' Bayard Taylor's translation.

102 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

chemical experiments. If we can remove all obstructions,
we can heal all diseases. The idea of a panacea lies in this
mode of thought, which, through chemistry, aims likewise
to promote medical science. But the important thing is, that
this phase of magic begins to have intercourse with nature
herself, makes trials of things, handles them, as it were, and
thus introduces experiment as the investigation of nature re-
quires. This practical, and therefore important, development
of magic was made by Paracelsus (1493-1541), a thauma-
turge, — still entirely in connection with its theosophical
principles.

Now, if the divine life is present and active in the inmost
nature of things, will it not likewise be active in the inmost
nature of man, in the very core of human nature ? Nowhere
can the divine mystery shine upon us more directly and
brightly and plainly than from the hidden depths of our own
being. All we must do is to force our way through the
barrier of our outer nature, and penetrate into the depths
where the spark of divine light shines. Here, also, a chem-
istry is necessary to separate every thing of a foreign or hos-
tile nature that penetrates from the outer world into our
inmost being, and disturbs our mind. The desires and
passions, which draw us into the things of the world, are the
dross which is mingled with the gold in the deep mines of
our souls. This mixture must be broken in pieces : the gold
must be separated from the dross, that the light may shine
out of the darkness, and fill all the powers of our soul.
There is a path which leads directly to God ; it goes through
the very centre of our being; it demands absorption into
ourselves, the quiet turning into our own inmost being, and
away from all worldly selfish pleasure, in a word, perfectly
sincere, profound, contemplative piety, by means of which
v.'e become what we are in the primary principle of our
being. That is not the path of magic, but of mysticism.
Both are forms of theosophy wliich seek the path to God
through the mystery of things. Magic takes its course

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 103

througli external nature ; mysticism, through internal ; that
through the mystery of nature ; this, through that of man.
Mysticism is the deeper and more abiding form, since it seeks
by a sure way which always leads to new discoveries. They
agree in that they seek the same goal, and strive to reach
it immediately, through the presageful' absorption into life
itself. They, therefore, agree in their aversion to tradition,
to the instructions of the school, to all learned and bookish
knowledge. They reject books with the feeling that some-
thing new gushes forth from themselves with original and
irresistible power. The passionate revolt against received
conceptions is only the expression of their revolt against the
past, the sign of the crisis in which the times divide. A
mystic like Valentin Weigel is not less satiated with the
learning of the schools than Agrippa and Paracelsus !

Mysticism had passed through a series of stages of devel-
opment in the Christian world before it was borne along, in
the sixteenth century, by that theosophical current of thought
which started from the Platonic Renaissance, and united it
closely with magic. In its simple form, it is the expression
of the inner religious life, which, in the quiet depths of the
soul, seeks the way to God, the life within God through the
change in the human heart, without which Christian piety
cannot be conceived. This fundamental characteristic is
natural to Christianity, and, in the manifold forms which are
subject to the different spirit of different times, forms the
continual theme of all Christian mysticism, the inexhaustible
source from which a stream of living religion ever anew
gushes forth, whenever Christianity, through its ecclesiasti-
cal development, is in danger of becoming fossilized in dog-
mas, and losing itself in a labyrinth of worldly desires and
theological systems. Thus, the scholasticism of the Middle
Ages was mystical in its tendencies whenever it opposed or
supplemented the theology of dialectics and formalism, —
periods related to theology as feeling to a mere tenet, and
life to a doctrine. In the twelfth century the monks in the

104 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

cloister of St. Victor in Paris (the Vietorines ; Hugo, Richard,
Walter) introduce(i mysticism into ecclesiastical scholasti-
cism, and with increasing dislike opposed the doctrines of
the schools that religion might not be eaten up by theology.
In the following century, when the ecclesiastico-scholastic
view of the world had reached the final point in its develop-
ment, mysticism formed its salutary supplement, and found
its most powerful expression in Bonaventura and Dante, who
portrayed the life of the soul in the course of its development,
as if it were on its way to God. When the nominalistic
doctrine of knowledge began to be diffused, and the separa-
tion between knowledge and faith, philosophy and theology,
began, theology was obliged to confine itself to practical and
religious life, and even assume a mystical tendency. But
with the first movement towards ecclesiastical decentraliza-
tion, religious life also strove to throw off the bondage of
the Church, and to assert itself more independently than
ever before, and demand its own inner transformation as the
essential condition of holiness. We find, therefore, in the
last centuries of scholasticism, an ecclesiastical and an inde-
pendent mysticism, the latter independent of the Church.
The former was in alliance with the reformatory councils,
and found expression in the French theologians Pierre cTAilly
(1350-1425) and Johann Gerson (1363-1429); the latter
was the forerunner of the German Reformation : and its great-
est expounder was the Saxon Dominican, Meister Eckardt,
whom the German and Netherlandish mystics followed ; viz.,
Suso (Keinrich Berg, 1300-1365), Johannes Tauler (1290-
1391), Johann Ruysbroek (1293-1381), and that unknown
citizen of Frankfort, the author of " The German Theology,"
which Luther published a year after he posted his theses
against indulgences. The Reformation of the sixteenth cen-
tury developed a Protestant mysticism in Germany, wliich,
in opposition to the nascent scholasticism of Lutheranism, to
a slavishly literal faith, to a merely outward service of God,
to the bodily presence of Christ in the sacrament, renewed the

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 105

old and eternal theme of spiritual regeneration, of the hell
of selfishness, of the heaven of self-denial, of the Christ
whom we must experience in ourselves in order to be saved
bi/ him. It was tliis religious, Protestant self-knowledge,
which in Casper SchwencJcfeld (1490-1561), Sebastian Franck
(1500-1545), Valentin Weigel (1533-1588), and Jacob Bohme
(1575-1624), opposed mechanical Lutheranism, and grew
stronger and stronger until, towards the end of the century,
it was compressed into the form of concord, and lost its power.

Jacob Bohme was the profoundest and ablest of those mys-
tics, and in him both these factors were combined ; viz., the
mago-Cabalistic view of the world, united with the Renais-
sance,— a view of the world which animated Paracelsus, —
and the mysticism which Protestantism called into life. The
divine mystery in man is identical with that in nature : if
the divine mystery in man is disclosed, the enigma and mys-
tery of creation are explained. Religious self-knowledge pen-
etrates the depths, the inmost, most concealed abysses of our
being. In regeneration, Bohme saw the manifestation of the
"inward," and the death of the "monstrous," man, who is
governed by selfishness ; in the birth of the natural (selfish)
will, the birth of things in general, which, by their own will,
tear themselves loose from God. There is, therefore, a pri-
mary state of things, or a Nature in God, which is related to
the life and revelation of God, as the natural will in man to
that which is born again. For the revelation of God is the
new birth and illumination of the world (humanity), which
reflects divine, as a mirror does natural, light. Bohme's
mago-mystical conception of the world was a theosophical
view of things, in which pious emotion co-exists with lively
imagination, filled with the images of nature. It was based
on the connection of, and the conflict between, the divine
and natural forces in life, whose goal can be none other than
"a being free from strife."

Religious self-knowledge is the ground of philosophical.
Eckardt's mysticism, which culminated in German theology,

106 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

was the forerunner of the Reformation. Protestant mysti-
cism, which culminated in Jacob Bohme, was a forerunner of
modern philosophy, and stands close to its threshold.

6. The Italian Nature - Philosophy. — We return to the
Renaissance to complete the course of its philosophical de-
velopment in the element peculiar to it. The revival of
Neo-Platonism resulted in a theosophical view of nature,
which at every step departed farther from the theological
conception of nature, of scholasticism, and of Aristotle, ex-
pressed its pantheistic character more distinctly, and which
finally terminated in a naturalistic view of the world com-
pletely opposed to scholasticism. According to this view of
the world, nature has a value of her own, manifests law, has
in and of herself the power and purpose of her activity, and
must, therefore, be explained by means of herself alone, not
by theological grounds, but ^'■juxta propria prindpia." This
is the trend of the Italian nature-philosophy, the last form of
that philosophical development of the Renaissance which
begau in the Platonic school of Florence.

The very problem which the Italian nature-philosophy
proposed, is completely opposed to the fundamental concep-
tion of Aristotle. It is impossible to explain nature by means
of itself, so long as the supra-mundane God is regarded as its
moving ground and cause. This conception of God is closely
connected with the doctrine that the universe is limited, with
the doctrine of the geo-centric system of the world, of the
opposition between the heavens and the earth, of the for-
mation of the elements by means of differences of motion
(change of place), through which the opposition between
the upper or heavenly element (ether), and the four lower
(fire, air, water, earth), is held to be evident. Fire, accord-
ingly, IS regarded as matter : warmth and cold, lightness
and heaviness, are opposite properties or states of matter.
In the foundations of the Aristotelian doctrine itself, there
is a conflict between the theological and naturalistic concep-
tions ; between metaphysics and physics ; between the tran-

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 107

scendence and immanence of purpose ; between purpose
(form) and matter.

This modern naturalism, which opposes that of Aristotle,
was founded by Bernardino Telesio of Cosenza, in Calabria
(1509-1588). He was the leader of the natural philosoph-
ical school, the central point of which was the Academy of
Cosenza. Avoiding the Church, he took nature alone as his
guide. His forerunner was the adventurous Grierolamo Gar-
dano of Milan (1500-1577). He based philosophy on the
knowledge of nature, the inner connection of all phenomena,
the absolute unity of the living universe, and revived the
conception of the world-soul, which he conceived as light
and warmth. The Telesian doctrine, the real foundation of
the Italian nature-philosophy, simplifies principles, and in-
sists on their derivation from the observation of things them-
selves. Every thing in nature must be explained by means
of matter and force, matter and the conflict between its in-
dwelling forces, the activity of which consists in their expan-
sion and contraction, which are identical with light and
darkness, warmth and cold, and are concentrated in the sun
and the earth. Though the conception of Telesio was unde-
veloped, the doctrine of natural forces and the idea of their
unity were already pressing to the centre of natural philoso-
phy. Warmth was no longer regarded as matter, but as
motion, and the cause of motion ; and fire, air, and water, as
its effects. Therewith, the Aristotelian physics was aban-
doned in one of its principal points, — its doctrine of the ele-
ments ; and, since every thing is to be explained by natural
forces, knowledge must be derived from sensation, reason
from sensibility, our moral nature from our desires, virtue
from the impulse to self-preservation. Theological and reli-
gious questions aside, the system of Telesio is absolutely
monistic and naturalistic. His principal work, " On the In-
vestigation of Natural Causes," appeared in its first form in
1565, though the completed work was not published until
1587.

108 HISTORY or MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

This doctrine, through its opposition to Aristotle, exercised
an involuntary attraction upon the Platonic mode of thought,
in the form in which it was revived by the Renaissance.
Francesco Patrizzi of Clissa, in Dalmatia (1529-1593), com-
bined the Neo-Platonism of Italy with the modern Italian
nature-philosophy founded by Telesio. The point where the
two come in contact is the doctrine of warmth and light,
which Telesio regarded as the moving and animating force
in nature, and with which the Neo-Platonists have always
compared the Divine being and his emanations. Patrizzi
distinguished and combined both significations, and regarded
the material and the spiritual light as proceeding from the
unity of the divine primitive light, the primary source of all
things, from which the series of emanations proceeds. That
is the fundamental thought which he sought to develop in
his "Nova de Universis Philosophia " (1591). In this system
the concept of the world-soul also has a place, so that Patrizzi
combined the doctrines of Telesio and Cardano within the
Italian nature-philosophy. Nevertheless, his doctrine, in its
Platonism, which was indeed hostile to Aristotle, but friendly
to the Church, appears as a step backward in the course of
this modern naturalistic philosophy.

Telesio and his followers were not concerned with the
revival of Aristotle or Plato, or with the controversies
between their revived schools. • The path upon which they
entered led to the Renaissance of nature herself in the mind
of man, to a naturalism so complete and unreserved that it
regarded transcendent conceptions as elements foreign to its
nature, as dead scholasticism, as the enslaving of nature by
theology, and rejected them accordingly. What Aristotle
had said of Plato, '■'■Amicus Plato, magis arnica Veritas!''' was
then felt concerning nature itself. It became the subject of
intense enthusiasm and affection. As Macchiavelli had dei-
fied the State, and had hated the secular power of the pope,
and the papacy itself, and had declared that it was the root
of political evil, so nature was then deified, and the doctrine

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 109

of the Church was attacked, — even the foundations of the
Christian faith. This bold step, required by the spirit of
the Italian Renaissance and its nature-philosophy, was taken
by the Dominican monk, Q-iordano Bruno, of Nola in Naples
(1548-1600), who rejected the habit of his order, and fled
adventurously over the world, as three centuries before him
his countryman, Thomas Aquinas, had risked every thing ia
order to flee out of the world into a cell of the Dominicans.
Thus the times change ! Bruno represented the naturalistic,
as Macchiavelli had done the political. Renaissance. His
theme was the deification of nature and the universe,
the divine, all-embracing unity, pantheism in opposition to
all ecclesiastical conceptions. This doctrine animated his
thoughts and poems, and seemed to him an entirely new
theory of the world, the new bond of religion and knowl-
edge, which he, as philosopher and poet, proclaimed. He had
exchanged the cowl of the monk for the thyrsus ! He felt
himself related to the philosophers of antiquity, who afiirmed
and taught the divine cosmos, — Pythagoras and Plato, the
Stoics and Epicureans. And they stood the nearer to him,
the less dualistic their systems and the more conformable to
the natural order of things. This is why he rates Plato
higher than Aristotle, Pythagoras than Plato, Epicurus and
Lucretius than the Stoics. On the other hand, he rejected
scholasticism, particularly that of Aristotle ; and the doctrine
of Duns Scotus was an object of intense aversion, since the
latter made nature subject to the divine arbitrary will. As
the system of things can only be one, our concepts must be
capable of being arranged systematically ; and hence he was
interested in, and gave some attention to, the so-called " art
of Lully." In opposition to the dualism of God and the
world, form and matter, he taught the absolute unity of
contradictions, — which the profound Nicholas Cusanus, on
the threshold of the Renaissance, had first stated, — and
made it the principle of his doctrine. The universe ap-
peared to him as the true and only revelation of God.

110 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Therefore, he opposed the faith in the personal God-man
on which Christianity rests, and the sinful natvire of man
on which Catholicism bases its justification by the Church
alone, and Protestantism its justification by faith alone.
The axiom of Luther, " sola fide,'' is as little in harmony
with his view as the Romish " nulla solus extra ecclesiam."
Nature alone is the kingdom of God ; and it is to be found
only in the living and true perception of things, not in
books, nor can it be reached through the manipulation of
words. Entirely filled by an intense desire for the knowl-
edge of nature, Bruno felt an aversion to the philological
spirit of the Renaissance, to formalism, to logic and rhetoric.
Here, indeed, naturalism came in conflict with humanism in
the narrower acceptation of the term.

From Bruno's fundamental pantheistic conception, which
denies the existence of God external to and beyond the
world, and regards the universe as his complete presence,
the identity of God and the world, the unconditional imma-
nence of God immediately follows. " It pleases him to move
the world within himself, nature in himself, himself in nature
to enclose." The universe, therefore, is, like God, unlimited,
immeasurable, embracing countless worlds ; the starry heavens
are no longer the boundary of the universe ; the earth is no
longer its motionless centre ; there is no such absolute cen-
tre at all ; even the sun is only central in relation to the
system of the planets. Bruno therefore accepted the Coper-
nican theory of the universe (which had already been ex-
pounded), and defended it against the Aristotelian and
Ptolemaic system, to which the ecclesiastical view of the
world had adjusted itself. He went beyond Copernicus in
his inferences, and was indeed a forerunner of Galileo.
Whether between the pantheistic and Copernican doctrines
a necessary connection exists, is not here the question. So
much is evident : from the denial of the geocentric system,
the denial of the limited and the affirmation'of the unlimited
universe necessarily follow, whereby the usual conceptions

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. Ill

of transcendence fall to the ground, and the equality of God
and the world results. One can base the pantheistic concep-
tion of the world on the Copernican theory, and, conversely,
the Copernican theory can be deduced from pantheism.
Bruno chose this method. Through his agreement with
Copernicus, he is the most advanced of the Italian natural
philosophers, as in his character he is the boldest and fullest
of genius.

Now, the divine, all-embracing unity must be conceived as
embracing all that is and happens in the nature of things.
This is the unity that embraces all in itself, produces and
moves all, permeates and knows all, — matter, force, and mind
in one. The relation between God and the universe is
accordingly identical witli the necessary order of things or
of nature. Bruno's doctrine of the all-embracing unity is
naturalistic. God is related to the universe as producing, to
produced, nature. He is " tiatura naturans : " the world of
phenomena is " natura naturata" God, as causative nature,
or all-producing force, is both matter and mind, matter and
intelligence, extension and thought. In this point we see
in Bruno the forerunner of Spinoza. But nature is likewise
a living and divine work of art, in which the artist, working
within it, reflects and reveals himself, advancing from uncon-
scious to conscious nature, from the material expression of
his thoughts to the mental, from the " vestigia " to the
^'■umhrce" which are the images of the divine ideas in us.
This natural and progressive revelation of God is a process
of development, in which the divine purposes or world-thoughts
dwell as impelling forces, and out of which they proceed as
objects of knowledge, like fruit from seed. The universe,
considered as a living work of art, is the self-development of
God. Grod is related, accordingly, to the world as the ground
of a development to all its forms and stages, like a germ to
its unfolding, like a point to space, like an atom to a body,
like a unit to a number. God is, therefore, the smallest and
greatest, and forms in truth the unity of all contradictions.

112 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

The world is contained in him potentially, — as Cujanus had
already said, — in undeveloped capacity, in a state of " impli-
catio:" in the world, God is in a state of ^^ expUcatio" of
infinite fulness, and unfolding, of his powers. Thus, the
universe appears as a system of development, the germs of
which are uninfolded powers, or monads of things. In this
point we see in Bruno the forerunner of our Leibnitz. The
Italian works which he published in London in 1584, lie in
the trend of thought which culminated in Spinoza ; while the
Latin didactic poems published in Frankfort-on-the-Main
(1591) shortly before his death, already prefigurated the
doctrine of monads. After he had fallen, through treachery,
into the hands of the Inquisition, filled by the " eroici furoris "
of his faith, he would not mitigate his sufferings by any kind
of recantation, and endured death by fire without any sign of
fear, in Rome, Feb. 17, 1600. "Ye tremble more than I,"
said he to his judges, in the presence of the stake. He was
no atheist, but a " lover of God." His doctrine of the divine
and immeasurable universe, which he felt and proclaimed as
a new religion, formed the principal count in his indictment.
He died for pantheism, on the ground of which he main-
tained and defended the new theory of Copernicus. Two
thousand years after the death of Socrates !

But however characteristic of modern times was Bruno's
passionate attack on the Church of the Middle Ages, he,
nevertheless, belonged to the philosophical Renaissance, not
to modern philosophy. He was not so independent as he
seemed to be. He was an innovator in intention rather than
in fact ; and, though original in his character and individual-
ity, his thoughts belonged, in good part, to the mental atmos-
phere of revived antiquity, and he appropriated them through
sympathy. The needle of the Italian nature-philosophy
unmistakably points to modern times ; but it was powerfully
deflected by the strong currents of the past, and, therefore,
still wavered in uncertainty. It was not the beginning and
the founding of modern philosophy, but the transition to it

THE PERIOD OF THE EENAISSANCE. 113

from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. The men-
tal tendencies of the past and future are, therefore, mingled
in it; and it felt the threefold attraction of antiquity, the
ecclesiastical age of the world, and the spirit of modern
times. In none of its advocates does this mingling — which
is too peculiar to be regarded as the usual eclecticism — ap-
pear more comprehensive, and on a larger scale, than in the
last of this series, Tommaso Campanella of Stylo, in Calabria
(1568-1639), the countryman and younger contemporary of
Bruno. Like Bruno, he was a Dominican of a fiery and
poetic imagination, who was possessed and overpowered, as
it were, by the Telesian nature-philosophy ; and, like him,
he was persecuted, not so much on ecclesiastical as on
political grounds, having been suspected of a conspiracy
against the Spanish Government, for which he did pen-
ance by suffering seven times at the rack, and impris-
onment for twenty-seven years in fifty different prisons
(1599-1626). With Telesio, who gave him his starting-
point, and Patrizzi and Bruno, he strengthened the anti-
Aristotelian character of the new nature-philosophy. Like
Patrizzi, he advocated the Telesian-Platonic doctrines, which
were friendly to the Church ; but, in complete opposition to
Bruno, he maintained the ecclesiastical rule of the world, and
established, in his doctrine, an alliance between the Italian
nature-philosophy and the scholastic doctrine of the State,
between Telesio, the founder of naturalism, and Thomas, the
theological authority of the Dominicans. From the ieight
of the late Renaissance, Campanella descended, in his politi-
cal opinions, to a stand-point before Dante, and bitterly op-
posed Macchiavelli, that genuine representation of the political
Renaissance, whom he regarded as diabolical. At the same
time, this remarkable mingling of Telesianic-Platonic and
Thomistic conceptions, this synthesis of the Italian nature-
philosophy, Neo-Platonic (Areopagitic) and scholastic the-
ology, rests on principles which cause Campanella to appear
as the progenitor of the founder of modern philosophy. He

114 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

sustains the same relation to Bacon and Descartes, especially
the latter, that Bruno does to Spinoza and Leibnitz.

The natural knowledge of things rests on our experience
of external and internal facts : the former consists in sense-
perceptions, and is sensualistic ; the latter is reflective, and
consists in the consideration of self, in the immediate cer-
tainty of our own being, in the indubitable " I am." This is
the point where Campanella borders on Descartes, and seems
to anticipate the beginning of modern philosophy. We know
immediately not merely our own existence and its limits, but
also what we are, and in what the nature of our being con-
sists ; namely, in the power of knowing and willing. I am
a being with faculties, a conceiving, willing being. These
are my immediately evident fundamental properties or
" primalities." My faculty is consummated in power; con-
ceiving in knowledge or wisdom ; willing in love. But, since
my being is of a limited nature, I am subject to the opposites
of these perfections, — to weakness, ignorance, and hate.
Now, knowledge requires the unity and connection of all
beings ; and their fundamental properties must, therefore, be
analogous to each other. Thus, the certainty of my own
existence immediately reveals to me the ultimate principles
or primary grounds of things. By means of those "jsn-
malitates " of his own being, Campanella apprehends the
'■'• proprindpia" which constitute the subject of his new meta-
physic. The unconscious beings beneath me are in a lower
potenCe what I am in a higher. God is in the highest and
absolute potence what all finite beings are in a lower. He is
omnipotence, wisdom, and love. There is, therefore, no ac-
tual thing that does not feel and desire its being, that does
not feel and will by reason of its nature, even if in an uncon-
scious, obscure manner. Every actual being has at the same
time feeling of itself, will to being, impulse to self-preserva-
tion. The living can never result from that which is lifeless,
nor conscious feeling and perception from that which is des-
titute of feeling. The powers of conceiving and willing are,

THE PERIOD OF THE EENAISSANCE. 115

therefore, the primitive forces which ground all existence,
the powers which animate and bring forth the gradation of
things. In this profound conception we find Campanella on
the road to Leibnitz, and opposed to Spinoza, to the same
extent as Bruno was related to him. He stands between
Telesio and Descartes, with Bruno between Telesio and
Leibnitz, but not, like Bruno, also between Leibnitz and Spi-
noza. The Telesianic doctrine of the opposition of, and con-
flict between, the forces in the nature of things, Campanella
grounds by maintaining that sense and sensation exist in all
things ; that from their impulse to self-preservation, the will
to existence, which already dwells in the resistance of an
inert mass, sympathy and antipathy, attraction and repul-
sion, follow: he bases it on the '■'■ sensus rerum," the entirely
original theme of his first philosophical work, which already
contained the fundamental thoughts of his metaphysics, and
appeared the same year (1591) in Naples, as Patrizzi's new
philosophy in Ferrara, and Bruno's Latin didactic poem in
Frankfort.

If the world is viewed from the stand-point of natural
things, it appears as a development, as a gradation of increas-
ing perfection and illumination, which terminates in God.
If God is taken as the stand-point from which it is consid-
ered, it appears as a creation of omnipotent wisdom and
love, which, in distinction from God, must be finite and in-
com'plete, and the farther it is from God, therefore, the less
perfect and the more obscure the members of the kingdom
of gradations which it forms, in which the intermediate king-
doms of ideas, minds, and souls cannot be wanting. The
spirit-world also includes the orders of angels, the heavenly
hierarchy, which the Areopagite had taught. Campanella's
doctrine of creation had its nearest type in Thomas, and his
conception of the descending gradation of the universe close-
ly resembles . the Neo-Platonic doctrine of emanation. But
in man, the world of spirits again ascends, springing out of
the da;rk bosom of nature. It must form a new kingdom of

116 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

light, a "system of suns," a copy of the divine kingdom.
There must be one flock and one shepherd. Campanella,
therefore, requires the unity and centralization of religion,
of the Church and the State ; a kingdom of the world, which
unites in itself humanity arranged in the form of a grada-
tion, under a universal ruler over whom the vicegerent of
God on earth is enthroned, the supreme head of the Church
of the world, as a copy of the divine omnipotence, the
Romish pope. A poetic, retrospective, earnest reconstruction
of the ecclesiastical age of the world of the times of Inno-
cence III., a philosophical dream, after Dante had imprecated
the secular power of the papacy, and Macchiavelli, his ec-
clesiastical power also, and the Reformation had made the
incurable schism ! But why should not the fancy of the
Renaissance, which possessed the magical power of necro-
mancy, again dream this ideal of the Middle Ages in the
person of one of its youngest sons ? There was still between
the Platonic State and the Romish Church an old kinship,
which could overcome and inspire the lonely Campanella in
his dungeon !

7. Scepticism as the Result of the Renaissance. — Even in
the last period of scholasticism, faith had no longer felt
knowledge as a support, but as an oppressive burden, and
had freed itself from it by the nominalistic theory of cogni-
tion. Human knowledge was directed to the world of nature
and sense, with the consciousness that its powers were in-
sufficient to grasp the nature of things. There was thus a
sceptical tendency in that scholastic doctrine which had
separated faith and knowledge. The Renaissance unsettled
faith in the Church, and in the transcendent and supernatural
world : it revived the philosophical systems of antiquity,
none of which were able to yield the scientific satisfaction
which the spirit of the new time sought and required. It
authorized an unfettered variety of individual opinions, and
was itself in no way inclined to submit to the trammels of a
system. An authority which usurps the empii-e of knowl-

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 117

edge was in irreconcilable and fundamental conflict with the
primary origin and nature of the Renaissance. It was, there-
fore, an entirely natural result, when the culture of the
Renaissance, unable of itself to produce a really new system,
finally terminated in a scepticism which openly confessed
this inability, and reckoned belief in the knowledge of truth
among human delusions.

To such a sceptical consciousness the culture of the period
naturally suggested a trend of thought which reminds us of
the Sophism of the ancients, in which doubt was a source of
personal enjoyment, and so strongly increased the feeling
of intellectual power in the individual, that he seemed to
himself to be standing on a height with the kingdoms of be-
lief and knowledge at his feet. Man again imagines himself
" the measure of all things." It rests with him whether he
will defend belief to-day, or deride it to-morrow. The Italian
Renaissance must still develop this idle and boastful sophism ;
and it found the corresponding character in a younger contem-
porary of Bruno and Campanella, a man whose opinion of him-
self passed over into the extremest presumption. His name
was Lucilio Vanini, and he called liimself Griulio Cesare Vanmi
(1585-1619). In one of his dialogues he makes one of the
speakers cry out in the greatest wonder at the power of his
reasoning, " Either thou art a God or Vanini I " He modestly
answered, " I am Vanini ! " In his " Amphitheatre," he ap-
peared as the antagonist of the philosophy of antiquity, and
as the advocate of Christianity, the Church, the Council of
Trent, and the Jesuits. In the very next year, he wrote
the "Dialogues on Nature," "The Queen and Goddess of
Mortals," in which he plainly derided the dogmas of religion
and Christianity, though his irony was disguised by being
expressed in the form of a dialogue. A century had passed
since Pomponatius led naturalism into the field against the
Church, and cautiously grounded and disguised doubt of
the doctrines of faith. Vanini was a disciple of Pomponatius,
though he lacked his earnestness and originality of inquiry.

118 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Almost at the same time, he played the roll of the sophistical
apologist, and shameless derider, of the Church. But the
age that followed the founding of the order of Jesuits, the
Council of Trent, the night of Bartholomew, no longer appre-
ciated such jests, and burned Vanini at the stake in Toulouse
because of his dialogues (1619). Not because of his char-
acter and his works, but only because of this tragic fate,
which is greater than the man, does Vanini appear alongside
of Giordano Bruno. ^

There is a sceptical view of the world, which resulted
from the Renaissance as the ripe fruit of collective experi-
ence and worldly wisdom, and formed the final stage of its
philosophical development. In this confused variety of philo-
sophical hypotheses and systems, there was none which had
the power to produce a conviction of its truth. Their con-
flicts with each other were rather a proof of their weakness,
which, in such a wealth of culture and intellectual power
as the Renaissance possesses, must have its foundations in
human nature itself. Therefore, true self-knowled<je, tested
by experience, out of sympathy with intellectual arrogance
and the desires natural to it, is the problem to which the
whole intellectual condition of the world points. The more
correct and clear one's self-observation, the better he knows
others, and the more successfully he gains the stand-point
from which he can calmly observe things. " Cest moi, que
Je peins ! " This is the stand-point of Michel de Montaigne
(1533-1592) in the last stage of the philosophical Renais-
sance : this sentence was the acknowledged and universal
theme of his self-delineations or essays (1580-1588). He
was educated entirely in the spirit of the Renaissance, and
his mode of thought was the result of his education. Mon-
taigne knew himself ; and no one knew better how to estimate
the power of the educating influences which depend upon an
age, and which even determine the opinions of men. In the

1 Fr. Fiorentino: Bernardino Telesio, vol. ii. pp. 211-222.

THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 119

world of men, individuals change ; in these, dispositions and
circumstances in life ; with these, opinions. He who knows
how opinions arise, will concede to none an objective value,
and regard each of them as the result of individual develop-
ment. A good-natured tolerance, therefore, based on a wide
knowledge of men, accompanied Montaigne's scepticism,
even in relation to the differences of religious beliefs which
had given rise to the civil wars in France. He despised the
conceit of truth of philosophical systems, and the puffed-up
learning which commentators heap on commentators. He
respected everywhere the individual right of opinions ; and
precisely in this respect Montaigne appears as the child of
the Renaissance, and his scepticism as the result of his cul-
ture. The more changeable and uncertain the world of
human conceptions and views, laws and customs, appears,
the stronger the coiitrast between that world and the law-
obeying and invariable course of nature, the living book of
creation, which Raymond von Sahunde, in his "Natural The-
ology " (1436), had already called the pure revelation of God.
Montaigne translated Raymond's work in his youth, and de-
fended it in the most comprehensive of his essays. To faith in
human knowledge and its bungling systems, he opposes faith
in nature, in its simplicity, and in its harmony with the posi-
tive revelation of God. He knew no wiser course than to
yield himself to nature, and follow her guidance. In this
faith in nature, Montaigne appears as a forerunner of Rous-
seau, also in that he rests this faith on self-observation, and
gives expression to it in the form of self-delineation. " C\st
moi, que je peins!" "I seek to know myself: this is my
metaphysics and physics." This sentence of our sceptic,
Rousseau also might have made his motto.

Montaigne stood on the threshold of modern philosophy,
but he did not cross it. It began where he stopped, with
doubt based on self-observation and self-examination, and
including belief in the existence and cognizability of nature.
It was doubt seeking and producing knowledge, which ani-

120 HISTORY or MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

mated Bacon and Descartes, the founders of modern philoso-
phy. Montaigne's father was a countryman of Bacon, who
took the form of the " Essays " as the model of his first
important work. Montaigne himself was a countryman of
Descartes. He was the type and leader of a sceptical mode
of thought which formed in Southern France, the last sta-
tion, as it were, between the Renaissance and Descartes. In
the preacher, Pierre Charron (1541-1603), this scepticism
became an exhortation to religious faith : in the professor of
medicine, Franz Sanchez (1562-1632),. it applied itself to a
natural observation of tilings. Its fundamental thought is
expressed in that sentence of Charron's, " The proper study
of mankind is man."

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 121

CHAPTER VI.

THE PERIOD OP THE REFORMATION.

rr^HE origin of modern philosophy was dependent upon an
-*- epoch-making fact which shook the foundations of the
culture of the Middle Ages, destroyed its limits, and, by the
union of all the forces necessary to the crisis, so transformed
the whole human conception of the world, that the founda-
tions for a new period of culture were firmly laid. This
comprehensive and fundamental transformation, which is in
no way limited to ecclesiastical changes, is the Reformation,
the boundary between the Middle and Modern Ages of the
world. Never in the world has a greater change taken place
in a shorter time. In the short space of a half-century,
human consciousness in all its principal forms was trans-
formed: a multitude of reforming forces crowded together
to bring the Middle Ages to an end. They worked in the
most different departments, destroying old conceptions of
the world and of life, and acting independently of each other,
and yet in wonderful harmony. We have become acquainted
with the stages of transition in which the Renaissance was
tending towards modern times. We must now show in what
respects it was a factor in the Reformation itself.

There are two objects which man immediately presents to
himself, — the world and himself. His theory of the world
consists in the connection and development of these two
conceptions, and in his theory of the world the highest
form of his culture. Both are subject to self-delusion, and
are true only to the extent to which they have seen through,

122 HISTORY OF MODERN I'HILOSOPHY.

and freed themselves from, the deceptive appearances of
things. The first conception, vsrhose object is the existing
world, may be called the view of the external world, the
second, whose object is human nature itself, the view of the
inner world of man. The latter culminates in the certainty
of a highest purpose which we serve, a highest power upon
whom we depend : in this form it is religious. The view of
the outer world, on the other hand, finds its definite objects
and problems in the present world. The given world is
humanity, in the development of which we are included,
the material world, in which humanity lives, the all or
the cosmos, in which this material world is comprehended.
Humanity, the earth, the universe, are accordingly the
objects comprehended in our view of the external world.
We, therefore, distinguish in it three great departments of
human culture, the Historical, the G-eographical, and the Cos-
mographioal. The object of the first is humanity in its devel-
opment ; that of the second, the earth as the dwelling-place
of man; that of the third, the universe as the totality of
material bodies. From these forms of our view of the outer
world, we distinguish our inner religious consciousness as
deeper than any of them. If we compare the modes of
thought which prevailed in all these departments before the
Reformation, with those which were accepted after it, the
greatest changes are evident at the first glance. The human
view of the world in all its departments, in all its essential
conditions, appears fundamentally and completely trans-
formed. This transformation is the Reformation.

I. THE NEW VIEW OF THE WORLD.

1. The Historical View — First of these, the historical view
was greatly enlarged, and so transformed that the conception
of humanity was freed from the limits by which its horizon was
bounded in the Middle Ages. From the point of the Middle
Ages, an impassable chasm lies between the pagan and the
Christian world. There is au absolute opposition between

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 123

them, — an opposite which excludes all connection, and which
the doctrine of Augustine liad stamped deeply upon the con-
sciousness of the Church. And just as profound were the
darkness and ignorance of the Middle Ages with reference
to antiquity and classic culture. The Church itself was
interested in concealing the historical and human conditions
of its development, that it might thereby promote faith in
its divine origin. The Middle Ages had only as much knowl-
edge of the human world and its history as the Church
permitted, and with such knowledge a scientific historical
view was impossible. The revival of classic learning broke
through the barriers set by the Church ; antiquity was dis-
covered anew ; the feeling of kinship with the spirit of its
art and philosophy permeated and renovated the Western
world, and in the admiration and imitation of these works of
classic paganism, men felt their relationship, not merely with
Christians, but with the whole human race. Their mode of
thought became humanistic at the same time with their
studies : art and philosophy followed in the same direction.
A new, rich, and comprehensive idea of humanity unfolded
itself: an abundance of problems to which no limit was set,
and which could only be solved by historical investigation,
forced their way into the field of scientific vision. We have
already described the period and culture of the Renaissance
in their fundamental characteristics, and mention them here,
not merely as a transition to the Reformation, but as a con-
stituent of the latter, taking the word in its widest sense.
The Renaissance contained the reformation of the historical
view of the world.

2. The Greographical Vieiv. — The discovery of the new
world in geography followed the discovery of the old in his-
tory. In consequence of the former, humanity learned more
and more of its development ; in consequence of the latter,
of the heavenly body which it inhabits. There the knowl-
edge of history, here that of the earth, was immeasurably
extended. Even the Crusades, planned and carried on by

124 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the ecclesiastical spirit of conquest, awakened the spirit of
travel, which resulted in those first discoveries in the won-
derful countries of the Orient. Then came the world-thirsty
spirit of the Renaissance, — filled with the spirit of business,
— which the Italian seaport cities particularly cultivated. It
was no accident that the great Oriental travels were made
by Venetians, and the epoch-making discovery itself by a
son of Genoa.

In the second half of the thirteenth century, the elder Poli
of Venice wandered over Eastern Asia. Marco Polo, their
younger companion, who accompanied them on their second
journey, made his home in China and India (1271-1295), and
by the histories which he wrote earned for himself the title
of " the Herodotus of the Middle Ages," at the time when
the Crusades unsuccessfully ended, and Dante was beginning
his career. The sea-route to India was then the great prob-
lem of commerce in the West, the solution of which was
sought by the circumnavigation of Africa, or by a trans-
atlantic voyage. This second thought, tearing itself away
from the shores of the old world, was the boldest. If it suc-
ceeds, the epoch-making work is done.

If the greatest extent of Asia is from East to West, and if
the earth is round. Eastern Asia must approach our portion of
the earth from the West, and the smaller the surface of the
earth, the closer Eastern Asia must be. Under these pre-
suppositions, both of which are false, Christopher Columbus
conceived and solved his problem. He had a firm belief in
the Western world, and based it besides on some actual
indications which were more certain than those assumptions.
He discovered land in the West, supposing that he had
reached India. Five years later, the Portuguese, Vasco da
Grama, sailed around the southern cape of Africa, and com-
pleted the sea-route to India.

It must now be discovered that the world in the West is
not Asia, but forms a continent by itself, separated from the
eastern coast of Asia by an ocean. The next problems were

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 125

the discovery of this ocean, the circumnavigation of America,
the circumnavigation of the earth, the discovery, conquest,
and colonization of the new continent. All this was done
within a single generation. The Spaniard, Balboa, crossed
the Isthmus of Darien, and discovered the Pacific Ocean
(1513) ; the Portuguese, Fernando Magellan (Magalhaens),
sailed around the southern point of America, and discovered
the southern ocean. To him belongs the fame of having
begun, and made possible, the first circumnavigation of the
earth, if he did not himself complete it. The Portuguese,
Cabral, discovered Brazil (1500) ; Fernando Cortez, the great-
est of the Spanish conquistadors, conquered Mexico (1519-
21) ; Pizarro discovered and conquered Peru (1527-31).
With the victorious wars of the English against Spain, in
the time of Elizabeth, a new epoch in transatlantic life
began. It consisted in the union between North America
and England, in the beginnings of a colonial foundation of
a state supported by German culture. Francis Drake was
the first successful circumnavigator of the globe (1577-80) :
some years later Walter Raleigh discovered the coasts of
Virginia, and planted the first germs of the English North-
American colonies.

All these achievements, each of which comprehended new
problems, were conditional upon the discovery of Columbus :
in it lay the reformation of the geographical view of the
world.

3. The Cosmographical View. — After the historical view
had become so enlarged as to include the whole human race
and its history, and the geographical view had made room
for the various continents and seas of the earth, but one
further step remained, — the discovery of the earth itself in
the universe, its place and position in the cosmos, the dis-
covery of the earth among the stars ! To the point of view
of sense, which is the first, and for the consideration of the
heavenly bodies, as it appears is the only possible one, the
universe seems to be a sphere, whose arch is the firmament,

126 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY-

and whose fixed centre is the earth itself, about which the
moon, the sun, and the planets revolve ; between the moon
and the sun, the two inferior planets. Mercury and Venus ;
beyond the sun, the three superior ones. Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn. Each of these heavenly bodies shares the daily revo-
lution of the heavens, and has at the same time a sphere
peculiar to itself (transparent to us, and therefore invisible),
to which it is attached, and by whose motion the different
revolutions of the planets are explained. This geocentric
view of the world was the cosmography of the ancients,
excepting the Pythagoreans, who, on dogmatic grounds,
imagined a central fire in the middle of the universe, and,
because of supposed properties of the number ten, maintained
the existence of a counter-earth. On false presuppositions,
they taught a system of the universe that was not geocen-
tric,— a system containing data upon which, unsystematized
and disconnected in antiquity, the heliocentric hypothesis
was based. The Aristotelian doctrine of the world was
based on the geocentric conception and the theory of the
spheres. But the motions of the planets contradicted the
doctrine of their circular, sphere-determined revolution ; and
since this was a fundamental part of the theory, the problem
remained to account for their irregularities on the theory of
the sphere. Finally the Alexandrine astronomer, Ptolemy,
gave an ingenious and final solution, in the second century
of the Christian era, in his work on the arrangement of the
planetary system (M.e.yaX-q SuWafts, called " Almagest " in the
Arabian translation). The planets move, as he taught,
around the earth in circles, whose centres move on the
periphery of another (deferent) circle. These circles are
called epicycles , and the curve which the planet so describes,
epicycloids. But the real path of the planets by no means
coincides with the hypothetical. In very many cases, the
observed place of the planet does not correspond with the
calculated : the planet is not precisely where it ought to be,
according to the geometrical construction. New contradic-

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 127

tions are constantly appearing between the actual course of
the planets and the theoretical, and new epicycles must con-
stantly be added to set aside these contradictions. A dis-
trust of the Ptolemaic doctrine arises in view of these facts
and the belief in the simplicity and regular course of nature.
It cannot be that nature acts so irregularly and intricately.
The doctrine cannot be true : it must make some false
fundamental presupposition. What is this? is now the
question.

Now, this entire conception is based on the presupposition
that the planets move about the earth, and that the earth is
in the centre of the universe. To get rid of epicycles, the
first of these two suppositions was abandoned : the planets
do not move about the earth. Their orbits are now related
to the sun, and the conception of these orbits is cleared up.
By the true distance of the planets, which the Danish
astronomer, Tycho de Brahe (1546-1601), calculated, it was
proved that the planets actually revolved around the sun.
The Ptolemaic system calculated the relation of the radii of
the epicycles to the radii of their deferents. Tycho calculates
the relation of .the first to the radii of the orbits of the planets,
about the sun, and found that the radii of the epicycles sus-
tain exactly the same relation to the radii of the deferents^
as to the radii of their orbits about the sun. In every
point of its epicycle, Mercury appears at an equal distance
from the sun ; Venus likewise. What is true of the in-
ferior planets, is proved of the superior ones also. Of aW
the planets, therefore, the sun forms the centre of its ept
cycles, or, what is the same thing, the deferent is the path
of the sun. In the Ptolemaic system, the centres of the
epicycles are empty : the sun now appears as this middle-
point of the orbits of all the planets. In reference to the-
sun, therefore, the orbits of the planets no longer appear
epicycloidal, but circular. The epicycles are analyzed : the
planets describe their orbit about the sun in the periphery
of their deferent. Under this presupposition, which annuls

128 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the theory of epicycles, and thereby essentially changes the
Ptolemaic system, the centre of the cosmos is yet an open
question. It is possible that the sun is the centre of the
orbits of the planets, and yet moves about the earth as
the cosmical centre. If so, the second fundamental pre-
supposition of the Ptolemaic system is true, and also the
ordinary and ecclesiastical conception. Both these cases are
conceivable : the planets move about the sun, which itself
moves about the earth as the cosmical centre ; or, the planets
move about the sun, which forms also the cosmical centre,
and what appears as motion of the sun is in truth the motion
of the earth, which is, therefore, no longer the motionless
centre of the universe, but a planet among planets. The
sun and the earth change their places and their rdles in the
universe. According to the one conception, the earth,
according to the other, the sun, is the cosmical centre.
That is the geocentric, this the heliocentric, hypothesis.
Ti/cJw de Brake defends the first ; the German astronomer
and canon, Nicholas Copetnicus (1473-1543), the second.
Both are distinguished from the Ptolemaic system, in that
tliey put the sun in the centre of the orbits pf the planets ;
but the system of Tycho shares with the Ptolemaic the
geocentric supposition ; while the Copernican annuls this
also, and, therefore, subverts the old system in its principle.
The Copernican theory precedes that of Tycho, which, there-
fore, appears not as the preliminary stage of the Copernican,
but rather as an attempt to mediate between that theory and
the Ptolemaic hypothesis. Copernicus's epoch-making work,
" On the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies," was published
shortly before his death (1543).

From the point of view of Copernicus, the cosmographical
view of the world is very simple and clear. The conception
of sense is fundamentally denied, while it is explained in an
extremely evident manner. The actual revolution of the
earth about its axis explains the apparent (daily) revolution
of the heavens : the actual motion of the earth about the

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 129

sun explains the apparent (yearly) motion of the sun about
the earth, and likewise the apparent epicycloidal orbits of the
planets. This supposition immeasurably enlarges the con-
ception of the universe. If the earth changes its place in
space, why does not this change appear in relation to the
fixed stars ? In the two points of the earth's orbit which are
most distant from each other, the axis of the earth points to
the same stars. A change of place, therefore, equal to the
diameter of the earth's orbit, i.e., to forty millions of miles,
appears as nothing in relation to the fixed stars. The fixed
stars must, therefore, appear infinitely distant ; or, to speak
according to the conception of the celestial globe, the diame-
ter of the sphere of the fixed stars must appear infinitely
great. This refutation of the Ptolemaic theory is likewise the
completest refutation of the conception of sense (common
sense), and is, therefore, an exceedingly instructive example
for every department of human thought, — an example of
which succeeding philosophy often avails itself. Kant gladly
compared his work with that of Copernicus. For the funda-
mental error of all earlier astronomy lay exactly in this, that
it was involved in a delusion concerning its own point of
view, which it represented to itself, on the authority of the
senses, as the motionless centre of the universe : now, the
apparent motions of the heavenly bodies must be acknowl-
edged as the actual, the appearances as real facts. The failure
to reflect on one's own point of view and one's own procedure
produces delusion. There is in this respect no grander and
more instructive example than the history of astronomy.

The work of Copernicus was dedicated to Pope Paul III.,
and in the preface, written by Osiander, was represented as
a mere hypothesis, though Copernicus himself was completely
convinced of its truth. Tycho, with his re-affirmation of the
geocentric doctrine, opposed this system ; and so the new
theory appeared uncertain, and ill a position exposed to sci-
entific attack. The next work, therefore, was so to ground
the Copernican theory by a series of new proofs, that its

130 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

truth should be put beyond scientific question, and Tycho's
counter-assumption be deprived of all force. This was done
by G-alileo Cralilei of Pisa (1564-1642), one of the great-
est natural philosophers of all times, in whom the Italian
Renaissance rendered its highest service, and produced a
reformer of science. While he was professor in Pisa (1587-
92), he reformed the doctrine of motion by discovering the
laws of projectiles and falling bodies. The same force of
gravity (centripetal force) which attracts bodies on the sur-
face of the earth towards its middle point, attracts the earth
towards the sun, and causes its revolution in connection with
the force of impetus or projection (centrifugal force) exerted
at the same time. The knowledge of this truth must have
convinced Galileo of the truth of the heliocentric doctrine,
even before he made in Padua (1592-1610) his great astro-
nomical discoveries. In the year 1597, he declared, in a let-
ter to Kepler, that he had been for many years a disciple of
Copernicus. The Aristotelian doctrine of the unchangeable-
ness of the heavens (the firmament) was overthrown when
Galileo observed the appearance and the vanishing of a star
in Ophiuchus (1604). With the aid of the telescope, which
he improved after it had been invented, and first applied to
the examination of the heavenly bodies, he made in the year
1610 those wonderful discoveries which completely established
the truth of the heliocentric system. He discovered the re-
semblance of the moon to the earth, the satellites of Jupiter,
the rings of Saturn, the changing phases of light of Venus
and Mercury, similar to those of the moon, and, finally, the
spots on the sun and their motion, from which he inferred
the revolution of the sun about its axis. The sun is the
centre of the planetary system, not the motionless and abso-
lute centre of the universe. The universe is immeasurable
in extent. The imagined vault of the heavens falls down as
the spirits of knowledge cry out, " Vanish, ye dark vaults of
heaven ! "

Galileo's telescopic discoveries are pure triumphs of the

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 131

Copernican system. If Copernicus was right, his opponents
had replied, the inferior planets must exhibit phases of light
similar to those of the moon. Since the effect does not exist,
neither can the cause. Galileo discovered the phases of
Venus, and silenced his opponents.

There are still in the Copernican doctrine, problems to be
solved, and conceptions to be corrected. It represents the
planets as revolving in circular orbits about the sun, and
with this view still maintains the theory of the spheres of
the ancients. But the actual, correctly observed motion of
the planets is not uniform : thej'' move, now more rapidly,
now more slowly ; and this changing velocity depends upon
their distance from the sun. The sun, therefore, is not in
the centre of their orbits, and their orbits are not perfect
circles. The next problem, accordingly, is to find the form
and the law of these orbits. The motion of the planets
must in like manner be in harmony with law : there must be
a definite relation between the time of their motion, and the
space through which it extends. To find this relation, is the
second problem. The times of the revolution of the planets
are different : the farther they are from the sun, the longer
the time of revolution. The length of the period of revolu-
tion depends upon the greatness of their distance, and be-
tween them a definite relation must exist : to find this, is the
third problem. When these laws are discovered, the har-
mony of the world which the Pythagoreans once sought is
actually discovered in its true figures and numbers. These
problems were solved by John Kepler, the German astron-
omer and mathematician of Weil in Wiirtemberg (1571-
1630), Galileo's contemporary, admirer, and friend. His first
discovered law explains the form of the orbits of the planets
as an ellipse, in one of the foci of which lies the centre of
the sun. His second law defines the relation between the
spaces and times of the motion of the planets: a straight
line from the centre of the planets to the centre of the sun
(radius victor') describes equal areas in equal times. The

132 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

third law defines the relation of the time of revolution of
the planet to its distance from the sun : the squares of the
times of revolution around the sun are as the cubes of
their mean distances from it. Kepler's laws rest on his ob-
servation of the planet Mars, which he published in his im-
portant work, " Nova astronomia " (1609). But one problem
remained to be solved, in order to complete the first epoch of
modern astronomy. The laws which Kepler discovered by
observation and induction must be derived or deduced from
one principle, which Galileo had already apprehended. Isaac
Newton (1642-1727), the greatest mathematician of England,
solved this problem by discovering the law of universal
gravitation.

As the transatlantic discoveries were conditional upon the
achievement of Columbus, so Copernicus furnished the point
of departure for those astronomic discoveries which ground
the new view of the universe.

4. Inventions. — The spirit of invention goes hand in hand
with the spirit of discovery. New inventions of the greatest
importance were made, in part accompanying and support-
ing the great discoveries, in part following and promoted
by them. The literary discoveries which diffused the light
of . antiquity over the world were accompanied by the art
of printing ; the transatlantic discoveries would have been
impossible without the compass; new instruments, both of
observation and calculation, were required for further prog-
ress in astronomical discoveries. There are no inventions
of more importance in scientific investigations than the
telescope and microscope, neither of which was invented
by Galileo himself, though he reconstructed and improved
both. For the calculations used by science, there are three
mathematical discoveries of the greatest importance: viz.,
logarithms, by means of which great calculations are simpli-
fied and facilitated; analytical geometry, — discovered by
Descartes contemporaneously with modern philosophy, —
by which geometrical problems are solved by calculations;

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 133

the higher analysis, or infinitesimal calculus, — discovered
by Newton and Leibnitz, — by which the variations of quan-
tities are subjected to the calculus.

11. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE.

1. Trial of Galileo. — Wherever the Reformation over-
threw the barriers of ecclesiastical conceptions, the opposition
between the old and new theory of the world was manifest;
but nowhere else was it so strong as in thQ transformation
of all the old conceptions of heaven and earth, for which a
modern Archimides had actually found a fulcrum. And
nowhere else had the Church so many and so powerful allies
as in the maintenance of the limited and geocentric universe,
for which both the senses and the authorities of antiquity
bear testimony. The interest of the faith of the Church is
here united in the closest manner with the Aristotelian and
Ptolemaic system. The two fit each other as scene and
action : the earth, the centre of the world ; the appearance
of God upon the earth ; the Church, the civitas del on earth,
the centre of humanity ; hell under the earth, heaven above
it ; the damned in hell, the saved in heaven beyond the stars,
where the orders of the heavenly hierarchy ascend to the
throne of God ! This whole structure of limited and local
conceptions totters and tumbles as soon as the earth ceases
to be the centre of the universe, and heaven its dome. There
are indeed far deeper conceptions of heaven and hell,
grounded in the Christian religion, and guaranteed by mysti-
cism, than those ; but the latter were the home, if I may so
speak, of the ecclesiastical consciousness of the Middle Ages
— with its conviction of the supremacy of the Church — and
of the faith of ecclesiastical people ; and that consciousness
and faith could not be separated from them. There is in this
point, therefore, a comprehensive, fundamental opposition
between the ecclesiastical and Copernican systems, — an oppo-
sition which could not be concealed, which could not but be
evident to the world, and which appeared the more serious

134 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

in view of the characters of the founders of the modern view.
They were not freethinkers, like Bruno and Vanini, chal-
lenging the Church; they were her obedient sons, and
desired nothing less than to injure her, though they were
at the same time entirely devoted to science ; they merely
sought to explain, and actually did explain, universally
known, enigmatical facts, which were incomprehensible from
the old stand-point. The suit which the Roman Inquisition
brought against, the Copernican system, in the person of
Galileo, is a lasting and memorable monument of this col-
lision between ecclesiastical policy and scientific inquiry.
It occurred in the beginnings of modern philosophy, and, as
we shall see, exercised a momentous influence upon it.

In his controversy with the Jesuits concerning the dis-
covery and explanation of the spots on the sun (1613),
Galileo had for the first time publicly declared his belief in
the Copernican doctrine, and thereby so excited the anger
of the monastic orders, that he became an object of suspicion
to the Inquisition, whose attention had already been directed
to him. The Copernican system, which had been propa-
gated for seventy years, and permitted as an hypothesis, was,
at the command of Paul V., examined and rejected by the
theologians of the holy ofSce, who were acquainted with
the subject. The heliocentric doctrine must be regarded
as contrary to reason and heretical; the non-geocentric as
contrary to reason and erroneous. This decree was pub-
lished Feb. 24, 1616. On the following day. Cardinal Bel-
larmin received papal instructions to admonish Galileo, who
was then in Rome, to abandon the Copernican doctrine. If
he refused, the Inquisition must proce^ against him. Ga-
lileo at once submitted (Feb. 26). No further inquisitorial
action was therefore necessary, no formal, specific prohibi-
tion. That this was the disposition of the matter and the
nature of Galileo's acquittal, is proved beyond doubt by
the papal instructions to Bellarmin, Feb. 25 ; the report of
the latter in the session of the Holy Office, March 3 ; the testi-

THE PERIOD OF THE KEFORMATION. 135

monial given to Galileo by Belkrmin, May 26 ; and, finally,
by expressions of Galileo himself in letters written at this
time. March 5, 1616, by a decree relating to the Coper-
nican theory, issued by the Congregation of the Index, the
writings which maintained the truth of that doctrine were
entirely forbidden ; others provisionally, until they were
corrected. The latter denoted those which, after the correc-
tion of certain passages, represented the Copernican view,
not as truth, but as an hypothesis. Among these was the
work of Copernicus himself. It cannot be doubted, there-
fore, that, after those proceedings relating to Galileo in the
spring of 1616, the Copernican theory was still tolerated as
a mathematical hypothesis. To gain a wider privilege, — the
privilege of proving and defending the heliocentric system
as such, — Galileo labored in vain during another stay in
Rome (1624), notwithstanding the fact that Urban VIII.
was favorably disposed towards him. In the mean time, by
a second irritating polemic against one of the Jesuit fathers
(1618), he had increased the number of his enemies who
wished to destroy him. The wished-for opportunity came.
In the year 1632, there appeared with the papal license,
" Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Most Important
Systems of the World, the Ptolemaic and Copernican." Its
form as a dialogue held the matter within the tolerated
limits of hypothetical treatment. The title expressly declared
that no decision was intended to be given, that only the
grounds for each of the theories were to be set forth. But
certainly no capable man could doubt on which side the
weight of argument lay, according to this dialogue. But a
condemnation of Galileo by the Inquisition was only possible
if every kind of exposition of the Copernican had been for-
mally forbidden to him personally. Such a special prohibi-
tion did not exist, and in the position of affairs was
impossible. But a means was found of avoiding this diffi-
culty. The prohibition by means of which alone the
wished-for condemnation could take place, was forged by

136 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHT.

his enemies ; and the official report of facts of Feb. 26, 1616,
was falsified, to bring it iii harmony with this forgery. On
this forgery, undiscovered until the most recent times, though
now proved, rested the unprecedented suit which ended
with Galileo's condemnation.! June 22, 1633, almost seventy
years old, he was obliged to renounce and forswear the
Copernican system, in the Church of the Dominicans, Maria
sopra Minerva, in Rome. He remfijined a prisoner until his
death, if not in the dungeons of the Inquisition, at least in
their power and under their eyes. He was neither imprisoned,
nor tortured on the rack ; and he was far from retracting his
retraction. " But it moves, for all that ! " Galileo may have
thought ; but he certainly did not say it. He suffered every
thing patiently, that he might be able to return to the free-
dom of his thoughts and investigations, which he rightly
valued more highly than such a martyrdom. The Romish
Church could not forbid the motion of the earth : instead of
that, it has put the works of Copernicus and Galileo on its
Index, and let them stand there more than two hundred
years.

III. THE RELIGIOUS REFORMATION.

1. Protestantism. — But however complete the transforma-
tion of men's conceptions in the departments of history,
geography, and astronomy, — transformations which freed
the horizon of man from its limits, and extended it immeas-
urably,— they would have been insufficient of themselves
to introduce a new principle of life into the development
of humanity, and make a world-epoch in the comprehensive
sense of the term. These reformatory achievements bore
their fruits in art and science ; i.e., oil heights of human
culture which in the most cultured ages are accessible only
to a few. They can prosper without making a fundamental
change in the feelings and education of humanity. The

1 Galileo Galilei and the Romish Curia. According to the authentic
sources by Karl von Gebler (Stuttg. Cotta, 1870). Concerning the forgery and
the history of its discovery, cf. pp. 95-112.

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 137

Church promoted the Renaissance. Generally speaking, the
Renaissance was indeed Avithin the pale of the Church, and
would have composed its differences, come to terms, with
it. It was not the infidelity of the clearing-up period,
contented with its enjoyment of culture, which the Church
had to fear. It was weak in comparison with the Church
because of its numbers, its need of undisturbed leisure, and
its indifference to matters of faith. Even the heroes of the
reformation of science, the great discoverers, like Columbus,
Copernicus, and Galileo, were loyal sons of the Church,
who never entertained the idea of breaking with it. The
united culture of the Renaissance was incapable of shaking
the foundations of the ecclesiastical rule of the world so
powerfully as to destroy it.

The Church rests on religious foundations, and rules
people through its hierarchical constitution. Only, there-
fore, by means of religious motives which relate to those
principles, and force their way into the hearts of people,
can the decisive attack be made against the Church. To
move the world, the fulcrum must be sought without it.
It is otherwise with the Church : he who would overthrow
the authority of the Church, and transform the foundations
of its faith, must take his stand within it, and, indeed, in
the very depths of its faith. This transformation and reno-
vation of the religious consciousness is the Reformation in
the ecclesiastical sense, without which, the Middle Ages,
in spite of all discoveries, would have lived on.

As little as the Church accidentally and suddenly assumed
the form of the hierarchy and the Roman papacy, as little
did the Reformation accidentally and suddenly appear in
opposition to it. It came from the Church itself, in which
it gradually matured. There never was an ecclesiastical
age without reformatory emotions and desires. Always in
the midst of the secularization occasioned by the progress
of human affairs, the Church has felt the desire, natural to
it because of its Christian spirit, for spiritualization and

138 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

purification. But the direction in which the reform was
sought, varied with the period. To free Christian life from
the entanglements of the world, and to alienate it there-
from, the monastic orders of the first centuries arose. To
free the ecclesiastical hierarchical state from the bonds of
feudalism, Gregory VII. appeared as a reformer of the
hierarchy. When the Roman ecclesiastical rule of the world
had reached its height, Innocent III. saw the unity of faith
threatened by an invasion of heretics, who even then opposed
the Gospel to the Church; and he declared the urgent
necessity for a reformation of the laity, in reference to
ecclesiastical faith. When, finally, the unity of ecclesiastical
rule in the papacy itself was destroyed by the schism, the
councils of the fifteenth century came with the problem
to reform the Church in its head and members. The
problem remained unsolved and insoluble. It Avas impos-
sible to restore the Church by the reformation of the papacy,
and the repression of that anti-hierarchical tendency. This
impossibility could not have been more glaringly shown
than by the flames of the stake, at which the reformatory
council of Constance burnt Huss. The flames in which he
perished, illuminated for the Reformation the road from
Constance to Wittenberg. Since it could not come from
above, it must come from below, reaching its crisis in Luther,
when the times were ripe, a hundred years after the death
of Huss.

The Reformation of the sixteenth century based the
opposition of religion to the Church on the foundation of
Christianity. This opposition, which, on religious grounds,
attacked the system of the Church all along the lines, we
call Protestantism — using the term in a wider sense than
its historical origin suggests. Negatively, it consists in the
denial of Roman Catholicism; positively, in the ground of
faith on which it rests, without which it never would have
become a religious power. The principle of Protestantism,
what it affirms, is evident from what it denies. The religion

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 139

of the Middle Ages consists in faith in the Church as a
divine and infallible authority, in the obedience of faith,
which believes what the Church teaches, and does what it
commands, which, like all other obedience, has to prove itself
by external works. The ideal of this faith is ecclesiastical
activity, the performance of the duties of worship, and of
actions agreeable and serviceable to the Church. He who
does more in the service of the Church than she requires,
acts meritoriously. Believers are justified in the eyes of the
Church, and therefore before God, by meritorious works, —
works done in obedience to the Church. This obedience of
faith consists, therefore, in faith in justification by cultus
and by works. That is faith in the doctrine of salvation
by works which regards human actions as meritorious, and,
therefore, concedes and affirms human freedom. The ex-
ternal work is independent of the temper of mind in which
it is done; it is '■'■opus operatum;'''' and from the point of
view of the Church, we can understand why it makes
its supremacy independent of the dispositions of individuals,
and, therefore, regards obedience to the Church as the
characteristic and essence of piety. Now the guilt of sin
stands between man and God ; and this can be blotted out
only by complying with the ordinances of the Church, by
confession and penance ; it can be atoned for only by eccle-
siastical penalties, the duration of which is proportioned to
the sin, and may even extend into the world beyond. There
are many kinds of ecclesiastical and pious works ; and since
the Church determines their worth with a view to her own
interests, it is in her power to set one off against the other,
for one external work to substitute another of a difi'erent
character, to accept an equivalent for penance that may
shorten its duration, or even atone for the sin altogether.
A fine that enriches the Church may even be such an equiva-
lent. Now, if penance, the condition of forgiveness of sin,
is sold for gold, forgiveness of sin itself is also sold. But,
if penance is once made a matter of ecclesiastical exchange,

140 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

there is nothing to hinder the acceptance of a fine as an
equivalent for the sake of the need of the Church. Thus the
system of indulgences arose, for which the additional justifica-
tion by dogma was not wanting as a necessary consequence
of faith in justification by works. Since there are in the
Church so many whose penances more than counterbalance
their sin, so there may also be those who sin more than they
do penance, and make good the deficit by money. If the
surplus of the penance of saints is for this cause transferred
to the account of sinners, the deficit in their penance is
made good.

The system of indulgences makes perfectly evident the
absolute opposition between the Church and religion. Re-
ligion requires deep repentance — a repentance that wrings
and transforms the heart — as the condition of forgiveness of
sins : the Church accepts money as an equivalent for repent-
ance ! It was here that a religious re-action set in against
the system of the Church. The Reformation began with the
thesis which Luther posted on the door of the church in
Wittenberg (Oct. 31, 1517), since it was the cause of re-
ligion against the Church. If it was at first only the misuse
of indulgence which Luther attacked in his theses, — he con-
demned it as a means of eternal salvation, not as a substitute
for ecclesiastical punishment, — the earnestness of his reli-
gious nature compelled him to go on unceasingly. For the
system of indulgences is no accidental abuse: it follows
naturally from the dofctrine of the holiness of works, as the
latter does from the obedience of faith required by the ab-
solute authority of the Church, which is independent of
motives and dispositions. And Luther's motive was his
anxiety for the salvation of the human soul, to which the
Romish Church had been unfaithful. This motive urged
him on. He soon rejected the dogmatic ground of indul-
gence, the doctrine of works of supererogation, faith in saints,
the confession of individual sins as though they were numer-
able. He denied the doctrine of salvation by works in prin-

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 141

ciple, and, therefore, attacked its foundation ; viz., the hierar-
chical system of the Church, the primacy of the pope, the
infallibility of councils. The final and necessary result was,
that he disputed the authority of the Church in matters of
faith, therefore the duty of the obedience of faith, and de-
clared, for the sake of religion, the freedom of faith. Then
the Reformation was in its element ; it appeared, in comparison
with the Catholic Church, as the religious work of revived
Christianity ; in comparison with Roman Catholicism, as the
national work of the German people. This position, which
Luther's epoch-making writings on the Lord's Supper, the
captivity of the Church, and the improvement of the Chris-
tian state, set forth, was won by the strong man through
severe struggles, since the yoke that he shook off was his
own, and it pressed heavily upon his conscience.

What Protestantism denies, accordingly, is justification by
works. No work has a power to atone for sin : every work,
however holy it may seem, may be a mere " opus operatum"
done in a merely outward mechanical way without any feel-
ing whatever, and, as such, is of no avail for salvation — is
rather injurious to it because of the trust falsely reposed in
it. All ecclesiastical works — even the most thorough re-
nunciation of the world — may be strictly performed without
effecting any change in the inner man. Such works, there-
fore, have no religious value. Religion consists in mpral
regeneration, in that transformation of the heart which con-
sists in faith, — in faith in justification, not by the Church, but
by Christ. The affirmation of Protestantism is, " Salvation
is by faith alone." This faith is not a work which human
free-will can do or deserve, but an act of divine grace which
takes hold of man without regard to the dogmas of the
Church, which are the works of man. Thus, the Reforma-
tion returned to the sources of Christian faith and Christian
doctrine, that it might restore Christianity itself from its
primary conditions. In opposition to the dogmas of the
Church, it rests on the Holy Scriptures as the records of the

142 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

revelation of God ; on the doctrines of the apostles, particu-
larly of Paul, who first threw off the yoke of the law, and
rejected the works of the law, and proclaimed justification by
faith; on the doctrines of the Fathers of the Church, par-
ticularly of Augustine, who first turned a blaze of light upon
human guilt in all. its extent as the work, and, at the same
time, the loss of freedom, and put it in the very centre of
the doctrine of the Church — that inalienable guilt, clinging
to the very core of human nature, which the Church had
made salable ! Not the offering of gold, but the sacrifice of
the human heart and its selfishness, leads to salvation. That
was the theme of that " German Theology," which Luther,
for this very reason, prized next to the Bible and Augustine.
Every one must make an offering of himself, of his own
sinful heart: therein consists the universal priesthood of
Christians in opposition to the consecratory priesthood of the
Church and the sacrificial priesthood of the sacrament.
From this point of view, we see why the reformers opposed
the hierarchy and its exaltation in the cultus of the Church,
particularly the Lord's Supper; why they transformed the
doctrine of the sacraments, especially of the Lord's Supper.
This explains why the purification and simplification of
cultus was a principal object of the Reformation, one of its
essential problems, its starting-point, indeed, where it felt
most simply and strongly. The real home of the reUgion
of a people is cultus, and this culminates in the Lord's
Supper.

The transformation, therefore, of the doctrine of the Lord's
Supper is the most immediate and effective transformation
of the religious life of a people.

We have the fundamental facts before us which Protes-
tantism afiirmed, — the facts in which the great reformers,
Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, were agreed ; viz., faith in the Scrip-
tures, belief in the teachings of Paul and Augustine, the
purification of the cultus of the Church, the transformation
of the doctrine of the sacrament. Differences arose within

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 143

the doctrine of Augustine concerning predestination, within
that of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper concerning the
real presence of Christ. Calvin maintained the doctrine of
predestination and election, in all its hardness and logical
rigor, which even Augustine had not ventured to do.
Zwingle denied every kind of mystical or magical transub-
stantiation, maintaining that the sacrament is purely sym-
bolic. In spite of the conflict which urgently enjoined union
against the common enemy, these differences were not com-
posed, and Protestantism was divided in the period of the
Reformation into the Lutheran and Reformed creeds.

The Renaissance began before the Reformation, and also
was contemporary with it. The revival of learning, of
studies in Greek and Hebrew, necessarily led to new and
clearer views concerning the origin of Christianity, to a new
and better understanding of the Bible, and therewith to con-
clusions which the Reformation required for the investiga-
tion of' history and the Scriptures. It owed its scientific
equipment to the Renaissance. When the rising German
Reformation, and the German Renaissance, which came from
Italy, were at the same time in full bloom, there was a
moment when each availed itself of the other, in the clear
consciousness of their common origin, and their common
national exaltation. The spirit of the new period affected
men's minds "verj powerfully. The regeneration of Chris^
tianity wished to go hand in hand with that of antiquity,
and that of the German people and empire with both. The
scientific and religious Reformation sought to be national
and political also. This idea found an expounder in TJlrich
von Sutten, and was powerfully stated in his last writings
(1519-23). But the political Reformation necessarily failed,
since the religious Reformation made a deeper chasm in the
German Empire than ever before. Moreover, the Reforma-
tion and the Renaissance came in conflict. That intellectual
aristocracy which wished to live and shine in the quiet enjoy-
ment of the high culture of antiquity, was incompatible with

144 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the revolutionary tumults of people whom the Reformation
had unshackled. The doctrines of ancient philosophy, —
affirming the freedom of the will, — which the Renaissance
had revived, were inconsistent with the Augustinianism of
Luther's doctrine, that man is completely destitute of free-
dom. This opposition between the Renaissance and the
Reformation was embodied with typical completeness in the
controversy between Erasmus and Luther. But the ideas
of religion were very powerful in that period, and even led
the spirits of the Renaissance into their service. From this
side came Zwingle, with his simple and natural conception
of the Lord's Supper, which Luther rejected with the charac-
teristic expression, " We have a different spirit from yours ! "
But even among the German reformers, there was one who
combined both tendencies, Melanchthon, — who received his
training from the Renaissance, and entered into the service
of the German Reformation, — a kinsman and disciple of
Reuchlin, Luther's associate, nearest friend, and helper. He
combined the religious and liberal spirit of the Renaissance,
and was able to endure contrasts offensive to Luther, being
inclined to certain compromises between Catholicism and
Protestantism, between the Lutheran and the Reformed ten-
dencies. Lutheranism would not tolerate these compromises.
After it became dogmatically fixed in the Augsbui-g con-
fession (1530) ; after it was more narrowly and inflexibly
developed through the settlement of religious differences at
Augsburg (1555) ; finally, after the adoption of the forms
of concord made impossible any compromise with the re-
formed branch of Protestantism, and destroyed the work of
Melanchthon, — German Protestantism also split into the
Lutheran and Dutch-reformed Churches ; and that ecclesias-
tical-political division of Germany, which paved the way for
the Thirty Years' War, was completed.

The Reformation was not responsible for the political dis-
integration of Germany, though it did indeed promote it
and increase it. This consequence was so necessary and

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 145

unavoidable, that it affords no ground for reproach. Without
the disintegrated and decentralized Romish Empire of the
German nation, the Reformation would never have been pos-
sible, as the Romish Church would not have been possible
without the centralized power of the ancient Roman Empire,
nor the Renaissance without the division and decentraliza-
tion of Italy. It was not an accident, but an historical ne-
cessity in the condition of affairs that then existed, that the
Reformation arose in Germany and Switzerland. Its central
points were Wittenberg, Zurich, and Geneva. Luther was
the leader of the German Reformation in Wittenberg (1517-
1546), Zwingle of the Swiss in Zurich (1519-1531), and
Calvin in Geneva (1541-1564). In the course of the six-
teenth century, the Reformation spread from these points
over Europe, and became a great historical power. The
Scandinavian State Church was modelled after the Lutheran
(1527-37), those of Scotland (under Knox, 1556-73) and the
Netherlands after the Reformed (Calvinistic). The Nether-
lands won their political and religious freedom by a war with
Spain (1566-1609). In England, the Reformed Episcopal
State Church took the place of the Romish (1534-71) ; in
Italy, the Reformation fermented in isolated phenomena ; in
Spain, the fermentation was checked ; in France, it produced
the religious civil wars.

2. Tlie Counter-Reformation and Jesuitism. — Through the
Reformation the opposition between Protestantism and Ca-
tholicism in Western Christianity arose, based on principles
which make compromise impossible. Protestantism denies
the authority of the Church. Its basis is the opinions and
convictions of individuals, who, by their agreement, form
congregations, but do not grant that unconditional authority
which alone constitutes the power of the Church. Hence
the unity of Protestantism in its opposition to Catholicism,
and its divisions as regards itself, which latter appear as
weaknesses in comparison with the Catholic Church. It was,
therefore, the interest and the policy of the Romish Church

146 - HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

to strengthen its unity and authority anew against Protes-
tantism, and, by setting aside certain abuses, to forever ex-
clude from itself, by solemn anathemas, all the motives,
which, in its eyes, had made faith weak, and given it a dis-
position to revolt. This formal denial and condemnation of
Protestantism became the theme of the counter-Reforina-
tion which the Council of Trent accomplished (1545-1563),
— the last ecumenical council but one.

But the principle of Catholicism was not satisfied by the
simple condemnation of Protestantism : it required the de-
struction of the enemy, the reconquest of apostate nations,
the restoration of the Church of the Middle Ages. A new
equipment and organization of ecclesiastical powers were
required for the solution of this problem, the first step in
which was a conflict with the Reformation. A new order of
the Church, devoted to this special purpose, was necessary ;
and this was founded (1534) by Ignatius von Loyola (1491-
1556) in the " Society," or, to use the characteristic and
martial title, " Company," of Jesus, which first received the
papal sanction in 154Q. If the religious objects of the
Romish Church are identical with their political ends, that is,
the preservation and increase of their power in the world,
Jesuitism is identical with Roman Catholicism, and is, as it
were, the principle of which the ultramontane system is the
result. Two tendencies, so fundamentally different in prin-
ciple that one would never combine them in thought, were
united in the spirit of the order of the Jesuits; viz., the
most enthusiastic readiness to sacrifice themselves for an
ideal of the past, the restoration of the Church of the
Middle Ages, — and that, too, after the Renaissance and the
Reformation, — and the most far-seeing policy, thoroughly
acquainted with all the questions of the present, with every
change in the condition of affairs, with every means that
promotes power, and at the same time skilled and resolute
in their application, and systematic in their combination !
Who -would have thought that the dreamy enthusiasm of a

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 147

Don Quixote, and the policy of a MaocMavelU, could be
united in a common cause ? They were united in the .order
of the Jesuits. Never in the history of the world has the
spirit of Macchiavelli, although hostile to the Church, mani-
fested itself more powerfully, more effectively, more fearfully,
than in the order of the Jesuits, whose sole purpose was to
advance the cause, and increase the power, of the Church.
Jesuitism is ecclesiastical Macchiavellism. And perhaps no
man ever lived who was so much like Don Quixote as his
countryman, Ignatius von Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits,
who first turned from the romances of chivalry to the legends
of saints, from Amadis to Franciscus, and then, before the
picture of Mary on Montserrat, held his nightly watch, as
the knight of La Mancha had done in that village tap-house,
which was to him a knightly castle. Without that enthusiasm
for the past, ravished by the pictures of the saints of the
Middle Ages, the idea of the order of the Jesuits would
never have suggested itself. Before Ignatius von Loyola
became a soldier of Jesus, he had vowed to become a knight
of Mary. It was in the same year that Luther appeared
before the Diet of Worms. The new order sprang into ex-
istence at the same time with Protestantism, and, as the
Company of Jesus, was firmly organized in opposition to its
enemy.

The Church was in danger : it could be re'scued, and re-
stored to its old power, only by the unconditional acceptance
of its central authority, by the permanent dictatorship of
the Pope. Hence unconditional and blind submission to the
will of the Pope, that obedience which is equivalent to mili-
tary subordination, was the peculiar vow of the Jesuits,
which, in connection with the three customary vows of
chastity, poverty, and obedience, ^ constituted the specific
character of these new monks. The world which they in-
tended to fight and conquer could not be overcome by re-
treating into a cloister, but only by the most influential life
in the very midst of the world, interested in all that interests

148 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

men. In the order of the Jesuits, two characters were united
which elsewhere have always been separate ; viz., the monk
and the man of the world, the former, in the most inflexible,
the latter, in the most pliant, form. This union, which
marks an entirely new stage in the history of monks, existed
for the exclusive service of the Romish-monarchical Church,
which sent out the disciples of Loyola against unbelievers,
particularly against Protestants, with the injunction, "Go
ye into all the world." As once the Jewish-Christian legends
represented Peter as following the hated apostle, who bore
Christianity to the heathens, step by step, that he might
destroy his work, so these new followers of Peter were ap-
pointed to pursue the hated Reformation — this new Paulin-
ism — everywhere, and to undermine it. Their activity in
their character of men of the world was much more power-
ful in attaining the ends of the Church than the exercises of
orduiary monks, which robbed them of time and strength.
Hence the Jesuits were not required to perform those ascetic
and ceremonial duties which regulate the unoccupied life of
monks.

We have seen that unconditional, instant obedience con-
stitutes the particular purpose of the order and the vow
of the real professed {prqfessi quatuor votorum). Corre-
sponding to this was the strictest subordination and grada-
tion in the Constitution of the order. It rose from novices
to scholastics, to their worldly and spiritual coadjutors, to
the professors of the three vows, to those of the fourth who
are their real missionaries, and reached its head in the gen-
eral who rilled the great order divided into colleges, provinces,
and countries. Owe purpose animated every member, pro-
ducing that uniform and trained type which showed cool,
measured reserve and a winning self-possession in the play
of the features and the expression of the countenance. The
duties of the order enjoined the wisdom of the serpent, which,
in this case, was incompatible with the harmlessness of a
dove. The conversion of heathen nations, which even the

THE PERIOD OF THE KEFORMATION. 149

first Jesuits undertook in India, China, and Brazil, formed the
foreign part of their mission. At home their effort was to rule
over Christian nations. They sought to accomplish this end
by the employment of three means, — cultus, education, and
the governing of States, — and they were successful. Since the
most imposing, splendid, pictorial cultus is the most national,
they did all in their power to enlarge and enrich cultus in this
direction. Even their art was characterized by rich, overladen
gorgeousness, lacking in taste, though it pleased the people.
It lay entirely in their interest to favor dogmas relating to
cultus, to enlarge the cultus of Mary, and, in the doctrine
of immaculate conception, to make common cause with the
Franciscans. To be a knight of Mary was the first ideal of
their founder ! That the doctrine of the infallibility of the
pope became a formal dogma of the order, was the immediate
result of their principles. To promote the interests of the
Church, they adapted their pedagogical system to the culti-
vation of common people, of people of the world, of scholars,
of theologians and preachers, and so fitted it to the needs of
the time that even their enemies acknowledged their schools
as typical institutions of learning. Through their power
over the people, they gained power over the State. For the
power of the State rests on the people, as the power of the
Church rests on God. The monarchy of the Church (papacy)
is an emanation from the divine absolute power, and is, there-
fore, absolute and unchangeable. Secular empires, on the
contrary, rest on the sovereignty of the people, and, therefore,
are just only so long as they promote the well-being of the
people, which is inseparable from the welfare of the Church.
Since the Church could not then control the State directly,
it had to do it indirectly by means of the people, who were
absolutely dependent in spiritual matters, and sovereign in
political affairs. Hence the Jesuits were the first to pro-
claim the sovereignty of the people, by means of which
princes could be dethroned ; and they had to be dethroned, if,
by apostasy from, or disobedience to, the Church, they were

150 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

unfaithful to the cause of the people. Such an apostasy or
disobedience converted princes into tyrants. The same
Jesuits, who, in Catholic and orthodox courts, were the
aristocratic educators and father-confessors of princes, were
revolutionists in the country of apostate or suspected princes,
who taught the duty of killing tyrants, and not only caused
it to be done, but glorified it. Thus, the Jesuit Mariana
praised the murderer of Henry III. in his work on royalty
(1598). They taught, that when a prince becomes an apos-
tate, i.e., a tyrant, his people have not merely the right, but
the duty, to revolt from him.

The Jesuits were not content with weakening Protestant-
ism through their influence upon cultus, education, and the
State: they placed their lever still deeper, and sought to
overturn and destroy the very foundations of Protestant-
ism. The doctrine of justification by faith and grace rests
on the terribleness of human guilt, on that Augustinian
doctrine of original sin, which deprived man of freedom, and
made him the slave of his selfishness. To get this cardinal
point of tlie Protestant creed out of the way, and to com-
pletely obscure it in the thoughts of men, was the real object
of the Jesuit Morals, which we only rightly understand when
we so conceive its origin and purpose. The more earnestly
Protestantism conceived the guilt of sin, and felt it as the
ground of anguish of conscience, — this was the source of
the Reformation, — so much the less stress did the Jesuits
lay upon it. The Protestant doctrine of faith and grace is,
in their opinion, a great noise about nothing ! Protestants
have conceived sin much too mystically and tragically.
When it is simply and intelligently considered, it is not such
a terrible matter : it does not consist in a mystical guilt of
the race, which corrupted every one at once and forever,
but in single actions, each of which requires to be considered
and judged in its circumstances and intentions. Thus, sin
is casuistically conceived, and its importance very greatly
diminished. The compact mass of guilt which presses man

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 151

to the earth, is pulverized, as it were. In their doctrine of
Morals, the Jesuits were the most pronounced individualists.
The entire object of their system was to make sin a trifling
matter, by analyzing the fall of sin into individual falls.
Hence their casuistry, which finds contradictions everywhere,
and transforms scruples into problems of conscience, the
solution of which first decides whether man has sinned, or
not. "When conscience begins to refine, it ceases to judge.
To weaken its office as judge, the keenness of casuistry
interposes, of which the Jesuits make a great display. In
every single auction, the purpose must first of all be examined.
"Who will condemn a purpose, the motive of which is, or
may be, the attainment of a worthy end, or the opinion of
an approved authority? "When the motives of an action
are in this way made probable, and transformed into grounds
of excuse or approbation, it is in good part justified. Hence
the importance of prohability in the Jesuit Morals. Prob-
ability is the art of making conscience a calculation of
probabilities, and such a one, indeed, as diminishes the
probability of sinful motives. Now, every purpose is, accord-
ing to its nature, internal: we must, therefore, distinguish
between the professed and real purpose, upon which last
alone the sinfulness of an action depends. In consequence
of secret reserve (the so-called reservation, or restriction),
an action may indeed be inconsistent with the professed,
but conformable to the true, purpose, and thereby justified.
Reservation is the art of excluding wicked motives from
actions, or, more correctly, from the judgment concerning
them. The greater the sin, the more improbable the assump-
tion that it was committed with perfect clearness of knowl-
edge, and with the purpose of sinning. Hence the greater
the sin, the less becomes its probability, so that mortal sins
finally become so highly improbable as to be practically
impossible. In this way, one brings his purposes entirely
under his will : he can bend them, or let them be bent, by
reasons of probability and reservations, entirely according to

152 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

his convenience. It is as easy, with the help of such a
system of morals, to get rid of sin, as it appears difficult,
according -to it, even to sin at all. The freedom not to sin,
which, according to Augustine and the reformers, man com-
pletely lost, the Jesuits restored to him in full measure;
and they laid great emphasis upon Pelagianism in the
doctrine of the natural freedom of man.

The moral worth of actions is not, accordingly, determined
by the actual disposition and intention, as they seem to be,
but hj judgment concerning such disposition and intention.
But the Church is the judge; and the whole Morals of
the Jesuits was used, and was intended to be used, as an
anti-reformatory instrument and means of power in their
hands. The reformers made the Church dismal and unen-
durable to the sinner with their doctrine of the value of
works : the Jesuits made it more comfortable and easy than
it had ever been before. After sins have been transformed
into pardonable weaknesses, forgiveness itself remains ; but
it can be bestowed by the Church only after the perform-
ance of sacramental duties, otherwise the sin remains un-
forgiven and condemned. The more frequently one sins,
the oftener he must confess ; and it is scarcely necessary to
say, that, with the Jesuitical confessors, absolution from sin
was as simple and light a matter as sin itself. For-
giveness depends merely upon obedience to the Church,
upon the strict performance of ecclesiastical duties, upon
ecclesiastical correctness, in which alone piety consists. God
is the Father of him only whose Mother is the Church. It
gives to the dear God very great and particular joy to par-
don good children who live to please their Mother, and who
earn the approbation of their teachers, the Jesuit fathers.
So simple and natural is the grace of God, of which the
reformers made so nebulous a doctrine ! Not till the proba-
bility Morals of the Jesuits had infinitely diminished the
guilt of sin, and had made the forgiveness of sins a natural
result, was it possible to understand, as the Jesuit Escobar

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 153

said, the meaning of those words of Jesus, " My yoke is easy,
and my burden is light " !

It is the natural inclination of men to regard their sins as
a light matter, and to excuse themselves : hence the Morals
of the Jesuits accords with the feelings of the world ; it is the
justification of man in his ordinary life, the self-palliation of
the natural man transformed into an art and a system ; a
theory of Morals arranged to suit the palate of worldly
pleasure, plainly more akin to the spirit of the Renaissance
and the illumination (^Aufkldrung') than the mystical doctrine
of Luther and the gloomy Calvin. The Jesuit Morals sus-
tains the same relation to men's usual modes of action that
Macchiavelli's doctrine of the State sustains to the practice
of politics. Instead of feeling a virtuous horror at both,
people of the world should rather wonder that they have
spoken this prose all their lives. " To appear good is better
than to be good," said Macchiavelli, because he knew how
little genuine goodness of heart accomplishes in political
affairs. In like maimer the Jesuit Morals necessarily regards
the appearance of holiness as better than holiness itself, for
holiness can only come from a transformation of the will and
a discord in our own nature, which always disturbs faith in
authority, and endangers obedience to the Church. With
Macchiavelli, the power of the State ; with the Jesuits, the
power of the Church, — was the one end to which the doctrine
of Morals had to be adapted and accommodated. That the
Jesuits so successfully showed men how they could remain
sinful, and be loyal to the Church, is the explanation, in great
part, of the powerful influence which they exercised on the
society of an immoral period, particularly on such courts as
that of Louis XIV., who had the highest appreciation of the
privilege of being able to sin, without detriment to his piety.

3. Jansenism. — In opposing the Reformation, the Jesuits
also opposed Augustinianism, and in it a principle of the
Catholic Church. The question arose whether the Church
should of itself subvert this principle, or not rather preserve

154 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

and restore it, and upon it as a foundation reform itself?
The Church was exposed to two dangers, — to apostasy from
herself through Protestantism, to apostasy from Augustinian-
ism through Jesuitism. The two evils must be avoided by a
revival of Augustinianism within the Church, acting there
in opposition to the Jesuits. This movement originated in
Catholic Netherlands, and fought its fiercest battles in
France. It might be termed Catholic Protestantism, because,
without apostasy from the Church, it shared with the Ref-
ormation its Augustinian-moral principle. Its founder was
Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), professor of theology in Lyons,
whose great work on Augustine appeared the same year
that the Jesuits celebrated the first centennial of their
order (1640).

The feeling that the Catholic Church required a religious
and moral purification, existed before the Reformation ; and
it was by no means completely stifled by the Council of Trent
and Jesuitism. It worked on here and there, and, particu-
larly in France, it awoke anew the spirit of contemplative,
world-renouncing piety, and earnestness of repentance : it
stimulated men to the religious and strictly conscientious
performance of the duties imposed by the Church as the
condition of salvation, and the duties of worship, and hence
prevented Catholicism from being completely absorbed by
Jesuitism. Augustine's doctrine of the sinful nature of man,
and Jansen's revival of Augustinianism, corresponded to this
feeling. Under the reforming guidance of a strict and pious
abbess, Angelica Arnauld (made abbess in 1607), a lonely
nunnery in the country. Port Royal des Champs, was ready
to receive this doctrine ; and it was propagated in the subor-
dinate cloister. Port Royal de Paris, founded in Paris in 1625 ;
and under the influence of a man who was Jansen's most
intimate and most congenial friend, Du Verger, abbey of
St. Cj^ron, it became imbued with the principles of Jansen-
ism. In the asylum of the country cloister, there were a
number of able men, among them, men eminent in science

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 155

and theology, with the same religious aims in life, and living
in the same anchoretic manner, who undertook the defence
of Jansenism, and appeared before the public as an ecclesias-
tical-religious party of great intellectual power. They were
the men of Port Royal, at whose head were the theologian
Antoirie Arnauld — " the great Arnauld " (1612-1694) — and
the mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-67), " the genius of
Port Royal." The Church was already feared within the
Church. The contest with the Jesuits arose of itself : the
contest against the authority of the pope was provoked by
the latter. In 1653 Innocence X. condemned some positions
of Jansen as heretical, which the Jansenists denied to have
been taught by Jansen at all. After a second bull (1654)
had fixed this point also, Arnauld disputed, not, to be sure,
the right of the pope to decide concerning dogmas, but his
power to decide concerning matters of fact (1655). Whether
certain propositions are heretical, the Pope can decide ; but
whether they actually occur in the works of Jansen, is a
question as to a matter of fact (^question dufait}, and can be
decided only historically, and not by an authoritative declara-
tion. Such a limitation of the papal authority is the denial of
its infallibility, the characteristic dogma of the Jesuits. The
doctors of Sorbonne condemned Arnauld by a majority of
votes, a third of which were cast by monks. " Our antago-
nists," said Pascal, " have more monks than reasons ! "

As early as ten years before, before the first bull condemned
the assertions of Jansen, Arnauld had taken up the fight
against Jesuitism, supported though it was by the king and
the bishops of the court. We have seen the connection
between the casuistical Morals of the Jesuits, and their
stress on ecclesiastical observances, on frequent confes-
sions and communions, in all of which inward repentance
and earnestness of penance were completely disregarded. In
his work " On Frequent Communion," Arnauld shows the
sterility of the Jesuit Morals ; and in another, he attacks the
" Theological Ethics of the Jesuits " itself (1643). To favor

156 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Jesuitism, and condemn Jansenism, papal infallibility was
arrayed against historical truth; and the papal authority,
whether through its own error or deceit, was misused and
degraded to sanction falsehood. It was time to turn a full
blaze of light on Jesuitism, upon all its machinery, even to
the mainspring of its action, to strip it of disguises, and lay
it bare before all the world as a system of falsehood, which
converts error into truth, and sin into righteousness. This
was done in a series of letters which followed Arnauld's
attacks on papal infallibility, and, under the name of " Louis
Montalte," were directed to a friend in the province. They
were " Pascal's Provincial Letters " (" Lettres provinciales,"
1656-57), — one of the greatest and most successful of the
few masterpieces of polemical literature because of the im-
portance of its subject, the power of its arguments, and the
perfectness of its exposition, which employed all the re-
sources of language, even the burning energy of wit. Of
the men of Port Royal, Pascal was the most intellectual,
and the most courageous in his convictions. He stripped
the disguise from Jesuitism as no one else has done, either
before or after him, and denied papal infallibility without
the reservations, which he found ambiguous, and even
Jesuitical, in the Jansenists. It is impossible to change
the nature of things by an authoritative decision of the
Church. The decision against Galileo as little proves that
the earth rests, as the decision against the antipodes proves
that there are none. If popes ever err, they are not infalli-
ble, even in matters of faith. In this avowed opinion, Pascal
was on the road from Catholicism to Protestantism. He
had seen the indecision of Jansenism, since it was una,ble
longer to acknowledge the authority of the Romish Church,
and still did not dare to reject it. This indecision was its
ruin. The old Port Royal was destroyed : at the instigation
of the Jesuits, the Pope issued the bull Unigenitus (1713),
condemning Quesnel's New Testament, not caring whether
Augustinian and biblical doctrines also fell under the anath-

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION. 157

ema ; in union with the State, he destroyed French Jansenism
in 1730.

Catholicism and Protestantism are world-historical opposi-
tions, which embrace and eihaust the principles of religious
life within Christianity. Hence, no mingling of the one
with the other is possible ; no compromise between them,
no existence of the one in the other, no intermediate forms.
Whatever occupies an intermediate position is always a
variety of one of the two, and, taken by itself, an impotent
mongrel. Faith, submitting to authority, and religious lib-
erty (I mean by the latter, not an empty phrase, but that
which Luther demanded), are utterly antagonistic religious
principles, the conflict between which led the Reforma-
tion to apostasy, and the Church to the decrees of the
Council of Trent. That Protestantism cannot prosper in
Catholicism, that no temper of mind akin to it can live in
the Church, and under the principle that faith must submit
to authority, Jansenism experienced in its own case, and
proved to the world a second time. French Jansenism of
the seventeenth century serves as a proof, as it were, that
the German Reformation of the sixteenth century calculated
rightly when it declared its revolt against Catholicism.

Catholicism and Protestantism are also stages in the reli-
gious development and education of the Christian world. The
former is still far from being outgrown: the latter is far
from being perfectly developed.

1,38 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER VII.

THE COtTRSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

THE Reformation was a freeing and renovation of the
spiritual life of unlimited range. By putting an end
to the Church's control over the conscience, and rejecting
the obedience of faith and the doctrine of the holiness of
works, it threw off the chains which, for the sake of
human salvation, had shackled and bound human labor.
If the performance of ecclesiastical works does not con-
tribute to salvation, their neglect cannot jirevent it: if
asceticism, celibacy, voluntary poverty, unconditional obedi-
ence, aloofness from civil and political life, do not make
religious perfection, as this indeed cannot be made at all, the
natural and harmless pleasures of life, marriage and a family,
the performance of civil duties and labors, participation in
the affairs of State and in the business of the world, do not
injure or endanger the well-being of the soul. The victory
over the world by the solution of its problems, by self-
sacrificing labor, must rather contribute to human purificar
tion, and thereby to salvation. The labor of man in the
service of civilization is not incompatible with his labor for
himself, for his own purification and moral development ; and
since Protestantism must require these, it cannot hinder that ;
it must permit it, and, from the stand-point of its own histori-
cal problem of education, it must even require it. Thus,
religion no longer restrains man from labor and a career in
the world: it makes him free, and authorizes him even to
seek out and solve the problems of the world. In this point.

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY. 159

the religious spirit of the Reformation again met the human-
ism of the Renaissance, not to antagonize it, but to increase
its pleasure in secular labor, and to free it more perfectly
than it had itself been able to do. It is a one-sided and
miserable conception, both of the Reformation and the Renais-
sance, Avhich regards the former as the opposition to, or even
protest against, the latter.

Among the new problems of human labor, the first was
that of science and knowledge. Philosophy had to enter the
road which the Reformation made and opened. It followed
the example of the latter. As the Reformation sought to
restore Christianity out of its original sources, God, man,
and the Bible, so philosophy desired to renew human knowl-
edge out of its inexhaustible sources likewise, independently
of all traditions of the past, of all conditions which do not
lie in itself, i.e., in its own faculty of knowledge. The
Reformation in philosophy consisted in such a renewal. As
soon as this problem was fully and clearly conceived, this
independence declared, new knowledge sought in this spirit,
the epoch of modern philosophy began. Modern philosophy
was founded in the first third of the seventeenth century,
and stretches on to our day. From the time it was founded,
to the development of its last historically notable systems,
about two hundred years have passed by. The countries in
which it has been chiefly developed are England, France, the
Netherlands, and Germany ; and these are the countries which
were most powerfully affected by the Reformation. It suf-
fered its severest contests in France, stood them successfully
in Germany, and victoriously terminated them in England
and the Netherlands. These countries, in part attacked, in
part overcome, by the Reformation, have been the leaders
of modern philosophy ; since the end of the last century, it
has been chiefly in the hands of the Germans, out of whom
the Reformation proceeded.

It is easy to survey the course of its inner development.
It seeks to know things by means of human reason, and

160 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

therefore begins in entire confidence in the possibility of
sixch knowledge, in complete trust in the power of human
reason. It rests on this assumption, and is dogmatic, accord-
ingly, in its first form. Since it presupposes knowledge, it
must make the nature of things its object, independently
of the conditions of knowableness ; and the explanation of
all phenomena, even the phenomena of- mind, its problem,
to be solved by means of the essential principles of nature.
In its fundamental tendency, accordingly, it is naturalistic.
Now, the true faculty of knowledge must be but one, like the
true knowledge of things. But there are two faculties of
the human mind through which things become objects of
consciousness; viz., the sensibility and the understanding.
In the very beginnings of modern philosophy, therefore, there
arises a conflict between opposing theories of knowledge, — a
conflict which the common problem and presupposition does
not prevent, but rather excites. One party declares that the
only true knowledge of things takes place through sense-
perception ; the other, through the understanding, or clear
and distinct thought. The former regards experience (em-
piricism) as the only means of solving the problem of phi-
losophy; the other, the understanding (rationalism). This
solution, therefore, must first be sought in the opposite
trends of empiricism and rationalism. The nominalistic doc-
trine of knoAvledge prepared the waj' for empiricism. As
soon as this appears in complete independence, the epoch
of modern philosophy begins, and the former [causes the
development and opposition of rationalism. With what
right is obvious. Things must be known as they are,
independently of the manner in which we perceive them,
in which they appear to our senses. We cannot, therefore,
perceive the true nature of things: it can be learned only
by thought. This is the point out of which that great con-
troversy proceeds, in which modern philosophy was engaged
in the first part of its development, and which marks each
of its stages by an antithesis.

COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY. 161

The empirical philosophy was founded by the English-
man Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in the years 1605-1623.
It -was developed in England by Rohhes and Locke, the
founder of Sensualism (1690). From this point, it separates
into two branches, — in the English-French illumination
{Aufklarung), which terminates in Materialism, and in the
logical development and culmination of the sensualistic
doctrine in the English philosophers, Berkeley and Hume
(1710-1740). I have expounded this branch of modern
philosophy, which recognizes Bacon as its founder, in a
particular work, to which I here refer my reader because
it is only separated from the present work on account of
reasons ^ not connected with its subject-matter.

The Frenchman, B,en6 Descartes, founded Rationalism.
He laid the foundation of a new doctrine of rational princi-
ples, the principal stages of which appeared in France, the
Netherlands, and Germany. These principal stages are
denoted by Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibnitz, as those of
Empiricism are by Bacon, Hohbes, and Locke. Parallels are
naturally suggested which are likewise antitheses, — Bacon
and Descartes, Hobbes and Spinoza, Locke and Leibnitz.
Locke forms the starting-point of Voltaire and the F'rench
illumination ; Leibnitz, of Wolf and the German. The
fundamental development of modern metaphysics from 'Des-
cartes to Leibnitz, to indicate the literary limiting points,
falls between the years 1636 and 1715.

Now, the fact of knowledge under the dogmatic presup-
position, both of Empiricism and Rationalism, is neither
explained nor explicable. The necessary consequence, there
fore, was a denial of its possibility. This was made by Rume
in whose Scepticism the opposing trends of thought converge,
and complete their course. Philosophy stands at a new
and decisive turning-point : it can no longer presuppose the

1 Francis Bacon and his Followers. The History of the Development of
the Empirical Philosophy. Second and revised edition. Leipzig: F. A.
Brockhaus, 1876.

162 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

possibility of knowledge, but must inquire into and establish
it in the first place. The nature of things is conditioned by
their knowableness. The problem of knowledge is the first
of all problems. Hume disturbed the dogmatic slumber
of philosophy. The first whom he awoke was Kant, the
founder of the critical epoch (1781), which divides modern
philosophy into the dogmatic and critical periods, and con-
trols the philosophy of our century.

BOOK I.

DESCARTES' LIFE AND WRITINGS.

CHAPTER I.

DESCARTES' PERSONALITY AND THE FIRST PERIOD OF
HIS LIFE.

I. TYPE OF LIFE.

"TTT^ITH the founders of the modern period of philosophy,
' ' it was not the business of professorships and schools,
but of an inmost call, and a free, independent leisure. It
was no longer the aim to transmit a traditional doctrine, but
to originate the elements and principles of a new one. The
" munus professorium " of scholastic times did not, therefore,
lie within the scope of these first philosophers: they had
enough to do, to come to terms with their own thoughts and
desire for truth. Apart from the leisure which they devoted
to philosophy, they either lived on the theatre of the great
world, in pursuit of objects more satisfying than a professor-
ship to their ambition and their thirst for experience, or they
devoted their lives entirely to the quiet service of knowl-
, edge. They were either men of the world, like Bacon and
?fi,vv>^ ■OftscaT-toa, or lecluses, like Descartes and Spinoza. The
characteristics of both types were, however, to a certain
extent, united in Descartes. Compared with Bacon and
Leibnitz, he appears as a philosophical recluse, who, out
of inmost inclination, despised both the splendor and obliga-
tions of a worldly position, and felt so powerfully the desire
for knowledge, that every opposing ambition was silenced,
even the desire for scientific fame. "I have no desire at
all " said he, at the close of his description of himself, " to
be regarded as a man of importance in the world; and I

165

166 HISTORY or MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

shall always count -the enjoyment of undisturbed leisure a
greater favor than the highest earthly preferments." In
this respect, he strongly resembles Spinoza. Yet, in com-
parison with the latter, Descartes appears as a distinguished
and wealthy man of the world, whose place was in the
society of the great, who entered for a short time into their
enjoyments, and always remained at home in their customs,
carefully preserving, also, an outward harmony with the
world in which he lived, and avoiding, even anxiously fleeing
from, all conflicts with its regulations, — conflicts which
Spinoza certainly did not seek, but which he courageously
endured, — finally, who was rich enough to satisfy his burn-
ing thirst for the world and experience in a life of varied
activity, and in long and numerous journeys. In Spinoza's
life, the Wanderjahre were wanting, which were to Descartes
a school with a long course of study which he thoroughly
completed. As his doctrine contained the germs from which
Spinoza and Leibnitz develop their systems, so his character
and type of life unite the characteristics of both, but so
unite them that the man of the world is ruled by the
recluse, and the desire for knowledge decides the funda-
mental direction and form of his entire life.

It was the desire for truth that caused Descartes to enter
into the activities of the world, and to lead an almost adven-
turous life. It was not the great world, as such, that attracted
him, but reflection upon it; and when his thirst for expe-
rience was satisfied, he found, in the perfect and free leisure
of solitude, his true and contented form of life. He lived
ever only for himself and his intellectual culture. Both
from natural inclination and on principle he sought to avoid
all external conflicts. He was not able to do so altogether,
but he never sought them. He knew why he sustained a
friendly relation towards the world. His conservative atti-
tude was as much the result of deep reflection as it was
natural. It was determined not merely by his method and
principles, but was a necessary consequence of the nature

DKSCARTES: THE FIRST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 167

of his mind: the unrest of his mind was so great that he
needed outward quiet, and nothing could induce liim to
sacrifice it.

But he avoided no i7mer struggle, however great and power-
ful. When one makes of truth a duty, he owes it first of all
to himself. To be true to one's self is the fundamental con-
dition of all truthfulness. Most men boast of their candor
towards others, and live in the greatest blindness concerning
themselves; and, of all deceptions, self-deeeption is the worst
and most frequent. From this most destructive enemy of
truth, Descartes wished to protect himself by the most search-
ing self-examination and the boldest doubt. All apparent
truth and pretended knowledge consist in an intellectual self-
deception which is, at bottom, a moral one. This was the
enemy with whom Descartes fought, and he did not let him
go until he was certain he had conquered him. In this
struggle for truth, in this fight against intellectual self-decep-
tion in every form, Descartes was one of the greatest and
most fearless of thinkers. A look into these uiner conflicts
which some of his writings portray exactly as he experienced
them, sufSces to give us a knowledge of the man, whom a
mere surface view so little penetrates, and often so falsely
and ignorantly estimates. In the whole range of philosophi-
cal literature, there is no work in which the struggle for truth
is portrayed in a more animated, personal, captivating man-
ner, and, at the same time, more simply and clearly, than
in Descartes' essay on method and his first " Meditation."
That irresistible desire for knowledge, that disgust with
book-learning, that distrust of all scholars, that aversion to
all instruction and improvement by others, that thirst for the
world and life, that longing for a fundamental and complete
mental renovation, are in those writings conspicuous charac-
teristics ; and they are expressed so powerfully nowhere else
but in a German poem. If we bring before our minds the
profound critic and thinker in the " Faust " of Goethe, who,
struggling after truth, falls into a maelstrom of doubts, and

168 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

resolves to seek it henceforth only in himself and the great
book of the world, flees out of his study into the wide world,
which he hurriedly and adventurously roams over without
being captivated by it ; if we seek in actual life for a man
corresponding to this picture, who has lived all these char-
acteristics, and experienced all these conflicts and changes, —
we shall find no one who exemplifies this exalted type so per-
fectly as Descartes, who lived not far from the period which
began to develop the Faust legend. There was even in his
life a moment of search, when he allowed himself to be seized
by the hope of help from magic.

The life of the philosopher naturally divides itself into
three parts, which cause the course of its development to
stand out so distinctly within the above sketched outlines,
that their limits and names are self-evident. The first six-
teen years is the period of instruction ; the next sixteen, the
period of travel ; the last twenty-two, the time of his master-
ship and works.

n. THE FIRST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE (1596-1612). i

Our philosopher comes from a distinguished and wealthy
old French family of Touraiue. The name was Des Quartes
in the old mode of writing it : in the fourteenth century it
appears in the Latin form De Quartis. Distinguished birth
was at that time a passport into the highest public ofiices, in
which, especially those of the Church and the army, some
members of his family had distinguished themselves. Be-
sides the army and the Church, the parliaments, the highest

' The most important of Descartes' writings for tlie knowledge of his life
and development is his Discours de la Methode. In my translation, Rene
Descartes' Principal Works for the Grounding of his Philosophy (Mannh.,
1863). As biographical expositions are to he mentioned, A. Baillet: La Vie de
M. Descartes (2 vols., Paris, 1691. Abridged, Paris, 1692). Thomas : iSloge
de Ren(5 Descartes (17(57). Besides, Notes sur I'Eloge de Descartes (OSuvres
de Descartes, publ. par V. Cousin, t. i, pp. 1-117). The Notes are given in ex-
tracts. Fr. Bouillier: Histoire de la Philosophie Cart&ienne (2 vols , Paris,
1854). J. Millet: Histoire de Descartes avant 1637 (Paris, 1867), depuis 1637
(Paris, 1870).

DESCARTES: THE FIRST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 169

courts of France, offered a field of public activity suited to
one of distinguished birth ; and the counsellors of parliament
formed a particular class of French nobles, an official nobility
the most independent of all by reason of its position. One
of his family was Archbishop of Tours. His grandfather
fought against the Huguenots. His father, Joachim Des-
cartes, took the robe, and became counsellor of parliament in
Rennes. The traditions of his family were not adapted to
educate a philosopher, to say nothing of a reformer of phi-
losophy and a renovator of knowledge. They were rather
fitted to restrict the career of Descartes within the usual and
pleasant course of the loyal nobility, and to make him averse
to the innovations of the time. But this family spirit was
not without influence in the life of our philosopher. It was
•partly due to it, that Descartes, notwithstanding that freedom
of mind which he insisted upon in science as in life, notwith-
standing that most fundamental reform in thought which
proceeded from him, was deeply averse, not merely on prin-
ciple, but radically, to every violent and arbitrary reform in
public life, to every kind of subversion in Church and State,
and, in this respect, never ceased to be an old French noble-
man of conservative stamp. But this family spirit, on the
other hand, could not prevent him from becoming more and
more estranged from his family, since his life was devoted to
science, far from the walks of public activity : particularly,
it could not prevent the elder brother of Descartes from
looking down contemptuously upon him, even when he had
made the name of Descartes famous throughout the world.
With his father, who marked his scientific tastes even when
a child, and wished to indulge them, his relations always re-
mained the most tender.

The estates of the family, upon which the father of Des-
cartes resided by turns during the parliamentary vacation,
lay in South Touraine and Poitou. I mention particularly
La Haye, which belonged in part to Descartes, and Perron.
Ren^ Descartes was born in La Haye the last of March, 1596,

170 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

— the third child of the first marriage. His mother (Jeanne
Brochard) died a few days after his birth, of consumption, a
disease which her son inherited. The pale face of the child,
his weak body, and a dry cough, permitted, in the opinion of
the physician, no hope that he would live. That, neverthe-
less, the child was kept alive, was due to the care of his nurse,
to whom Descartes always showed a grateful memory. To
distinguish him from his brother, he was called " Rene Des-
cartes Signeur du Perron," after the little estate Perron,
situated in Poitou, which he was to possess. In the family
he was called simply "Perron." He himself attached no
importance to his title as a nobleman, called himself in the
world simply " Ren^ Descartes," in his Latin writings " Re-
natus Descartes." The Latinized and abridged " Cartesien "
was disagreeable to him. Small, and of delicate health, his
body required in childhood the greatest indulgence : it was
necessary for him to avoid all mental exertion, and he could
only prosecute his studies as play. Nevertheless, his extraor-
dinarily strong desire for knowledge showed itself so actively,
and at such an early age, that his father was accustomed to
call him in jest his little philosopher. When he finished his
eighth year, he seemed strong enough to take up a regular
course of study. At the beginning of the year 1604, in the
royal palace at La Flfiche, in Anjou, a new school was started,
founded by Henry IV., and intended to be the first and most
distinguished school for the French nobility. After the king
had sacrificed his faith to his crown, and, through the Edict
of Nantes, had assured toleration to those of his old faith, he
wished to show favor also to his enemies the Jesuits. By an
act of indiscreet magnanimity, he recalled them into the
country from which they had been driven ten years before
(1594), after the first murderous attack which one of them
had ventured upon his life. The father of the "great
Arnauld " had already written his philippics against them.
The king now gave to the order the palace of La Fleche,
and committed to their management the school in which a

DESCARTES: THE FIRST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 171

hundred French nobles were to be educated. It was endowed
with royal magnificence and generosity. As a mark of his
favor, he had ordered that his heart should be buried in the
Church of La FlSche.

Descartes was among the first pupils, and remained there
until he finished the course. He had not merely gone
through the studies taught in the school, but he had com-
pletely outgrown them, when, in his seventeenth year, he
left the institution. The rector of the school. Father Char-
let, was related to him, and interested himself particularly
in the pupil recommended to his protection, who, — which
is rarely the case with boys of genius, — through obedience,
fidelity to duty, and desire for learning, very soon became a
really exemplary scholar. Charlet committed the boy to
the special tutorage and care of Father Dinet, who after-
wards became provincial of the order, and confessor of the
kings Louis XIII. and XIV. To the authority of this man,
who was kindly disposed towards him, Descartes appealed
when, in the times of his scientific controversies, Bourdin
invidiously attacked him. There Descartes first became
acquainted with Marin Mersenne, who later entered the order
of Minims (hermit brothers of the holy Francesco de Paolo),
and whom, when their school-days were over, Descartes
again met in a fortunate hour in Paris. I mention hio name
at once, because he had the first place among Descartes'
friends. When the new doctrine began to spread abroad in
the scientific world, and to be an object of attack in many
points, and when many explanations were necessary, Mer-
senne, who was in the capital of France, while Descartes
was living in the most concealed retirement, was, as it were,
the scientific and business agent of his friend. He was
called the resident of Descartes in Paris and the dean of the
Cartesians. When they met in La Fl^che, Mersenne, who
was eight years older, was already in the last part of the
course of study, while Descartes was commencing it: the
former was already studying philosophy when the latter

172 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

began grammar. The greatest event during the school-life
of Descartes which came within the range of his experience,
was the murder of Henry IV. He was among the chosen
pupils who, on the 10th of June, 1610, solemnly received the
heart of the king.

The studies of the school began with the ancient lan-
guages, which Descartes learned with ease : he not merely
read the ancient poets, but even enjoyed and imitated them.
Then followed a two years' course in philosophy, — in the first
year, logic and ethics ; in the second, physios and metaphysics.
It was when the boy was ripening into the young man, and
his spiritual consciousness began to be very active, that
Descartes became acquainted with the studies of the philo-
sophical course (1610-1611). These branches had the great-
est influence upon Descartes, in that they utterly failed to
satisfy his thirst for knowledge, challenged his judgment,
provoked his criticism, and gave the first occasion to the
doubt by means of which he finally cut himself loose from
the schools and from science in the scholastic form. Finally
came mathematics, which completely took possession of his
hungry mind, and, among all the sciences taught in the
school, was the only one which satisfied him, and incited him
to further study of it. This fact illuminates for us the nature
of his mind. He cared not for polymathy, but only for the
certainty, clearness, and distinctness of knowledge ; i.e., for
actual knowledge, not for the confused knowledge of a
multitude of objects, but for the kind of knowledge. His
thirst for knowledge was not at all for polymathy, but was
absolutely philosophical. What he sought was not the cog-
nition of this or that object, but truth, clearness and distinct-
ness of concepts, evident sequence and order in his thoughts.
This is why mathematics fascinated him, and satisfied him
beyond all other sciences. It gave him an illustration of
what knowing really is, and wherein true knowledge is dis-
tinguished from false. It pointed out the direction which
thought must follow in order to find truth. Even then.

DESCARTES; THE FIRST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 173

therefore, mathematics was important to the young scholar,
not merely because of its problems, which so eagerly occu-
pied him, but pre-eminently because of its method. This
method was the criterion by which he judged science in
general. And to the same extent to which his mind was
accustomed to clearness and distinctness of conceptions in
mathematics, to a course of thought by which new truths
are reached, he was astonished to find the opposite in the
remaining sciences : in the syllogism, the absence of a method
of thought by which discoveries are made ; in ethics, unfruit-
ful theories ; in physics and metaphysics, obscure, dark, and
uncertain conceptions, of which, indeed, their systems con-
sist, resting on the most uncertain foundations. Already it
IS evident that he will not continue to apply himself to
mathematics as the particular science which best suits his
endowments, but that he will find his attitude with refer-
ence to science in general by reflecting upon it; that he
will use it as a means of cultivating his mind, and gain-
ing a point of view from which to make an independent
and wide survey over the territory of human knowledge
as such. Mathematics becomes the criterion by means of
which he tests every cognition. It awakens in him the
philosophical spirit, which, conformably to the nature of his
desire for knowledge, finds its first satisfaction in math-
ematics, and bears its first fruits there. The preference for
this science was in Descartes the first characteristic of the
methodical thinker, as his aversion towards the philosophy
of the schools was the first manifestation of the sceptical.
And so ripens already in the scholar the problem to which
he gave his entire life, — the fundamental reformation of the
sciences hy means of a new method based on the analogy of math-
ematics. At first the goal lay in the dark distance, but
already it is clear to him that the right method of thought
is the only way to truth; that this method must be dis-
covered, or, what amounts to the same thing, that the spirit
of mathematics must be made fruitful in philosophy.

174 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

The method which Descartes sought to discover, and which
he wished to introduce into philosophy, was not an art of
orderly exposition : such an art already existed in the syllo-
gism. Its purpose was not to expound the known, but to
discover the unknown, to deduce and develop it method-
ically from the known. He was less interested, therefore,
in the proof of mathematical propositions than in the solu-
tion of mathematical problems, in analysis and algebra.
When he was listening while at school to an exposition of
the ordinary analysis, it is said to have occurred to him that
this analysis is nothing but algebra ; that the latter contains
the key to the solution of geometrical problems ; that the
magnitudes of geometry can be expressed by means of equa-
tions, and its problems, therefore, arithmetically solved.
Therewith the first thought of a new science was conceived, —
a thought in the highest degree fruitful to it, — the science of
I analytical geometry, of which Descartes was to be the founder.
This great discovery was the first result of his methodical
thought. He mastered mathematics from the side of method ;
regarded it as an instrument for the solution of problems,
and knew how to use it for the most difficult solutions in
a new and skilful manner. In this way mathematics is
studied by its masters, and Descartes intended to become
such a master while he was still a pupil. He continued to
occupy himself quietly with mathematical- problems which
he proposed to himself, and solved by means of his method.
Nothing was more agreeable to him than these lonely medi-
tations, which were favored by the indulgence granted to
him on account of his state of healtli. Pie was allowed to
rise later in the morning than the rest of the pupils. In these
early hours spent in bed, he communed with his thoughts
in the most undisturbed and active manner. They were
the hours of his most unoccupied and fruitful leisure. He
so accustomed himself to this mode of work, that he con-
tinued it in after-life, and gathered in full measure the gold
of the morning hours.

DESCARTES: THE FIRST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 175

Let US hear how Descartes himself describes the state of
mind in which he found himself at the end of his course at
school. "From childhood on," says he, glancing back to
that time, " I have been educated for the sciences ; and as I
was made to believe, that by their help I might acquire
a clear and certain knowledge of all that is useful in life,
I was ardently desirous of being instructed in them. But
when I had finished the entire course of study, at the close
of which one is usually admitted into the order of the
learned, I completely changed my opinion ; for I found
myself involved in so many doubts and errors, that I was
convinced that I had derived no other result from my desire
for learning than that I had more and more discovered my own
ignorance. And yet I was studying in one of the most
famous schools of Europe, in which I thought there must
be learned men if such were anywhere to be found. I had
then learned all that my fellow-students had learned ; and,
since my desire for knowledge was not satisfied with the
sciences actually taught us, I had read all the books that
had fallen into my hands, treating of the subjects acknowl-
edged to be the most curious and rare. I knew the judg-
ment others formed of me. I saw that I was considered not
less capable than my fellow-students, although among them
were some who were already fixed upon to fill the places
of our instructors. And finally our age appeared to me as
rich and fertile in powerful minds as any earlier one. I
was, therefore, led to take the liberty of judging all men by
myself, and of concluding that there were no sciences of
such a nature as I had previously been given to believe."
In this survey of his life, he reviews the sciences taught at
the school, — the ancient languages, rhetoric, poetry, mathe-
matics, ethics, philosophy. He states that in each he fomnd
something useful, but that none of them, mathematics, ex-
cepted, had a right to be called science, in the strict sense
of the term. Even the existing mathematics seemed to him
limited and unphilosophical, and the school-philosophy every-

176 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

where uncertain and doubtful. " Therefore," he continues,
" I completely abandoned the study of books as soon as my
age permitted me to leave the subordinate position of a
scholar, and I resolved no longer to study any other science
than that which I could find in myself or in the great hook of
the world. I therefore spent the rest of my youth in travel-
ling, in visiting courts and armies, in holding intercourse
with men of different tempers and positions in life, in col-
lecting varied experience in the situations into which for-
tune threw me, in proving myself, and so reflecting upon
my experiences that I might derive some benefit from them.
And in this way I gradually extricated myself from many
errors which darken our natural understanding, and make
us less capable of listening to reason. But after I had spent
several years in thus studying the book of the world, and
in making every possible effort to gather experience, I at
length resolved to study myself in the same manner, and
to employ all the powers of my mind in choosing the paths
I ought to follow. And I succeeded, as I think, much
better than if I had never left my country and my books."

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 177

CHAPTER II.

THE SECOND PERIOD OP HIS LIFE (1612-1628) : THE WANDEE-
JAHEB. (a) LIFE IN THE WORLD AND AS A SOLDIER.

I. ENTRANCE INTO THE WORLD.

TN August, of the year 1612, Descartes left the school of
-■- La Fldche. The first sixteen years of his life lay behind
him. The wanderings upon which he entered continued
as long, — ^the study of the world, from which, in a riper
epoch of his life, he was to return into his inmost self.
Upon the period of school-culture followed the period of
self-culture, — self-formation in the literal sense of the word.
He would accept nothing from without and on good author-
ity, but would deduce every thing from himself; would
penetrate, prove, discover every thing by means of his own
thought. The school-culture was the result of an aggregate
accumulated by many minds, composed of all sorts of con-
fused opinions, without method, internal order or harmony.
As soon as he perceived this, his faith in the teachings of
the school was gone forever. With all the gratitude and
regard which Descartes always felt for his instructors (with
a certain preference, indeed, for the Jesuits), he thought
himself indebted to his training at school for only the
smallest part of his performances. He often remarked to
his friends, that, without the education which his father gave
him, he would have written the same works, only he would
have written them all in French, none in Latin.

It was a long journey from the first doubt of the existing
state of science to the discovery of new and sure principles.

178 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

and its termination still lay in the dark distance. It was
with Descartes a moment of complete uncertainty as to his
life. The learned professions had no attractions for him,
and he was not sure of his calling to philosophy; he be-
lieved that he had talent for the mechanical arts; but his
father. intended him for a military career, according to the
custom of the family, after his elder brother entered the
profession of law. But he was not then strong enough for
military service ; and in order to strengthen himself, and
prepare for his future calling, he practised riding and fencing
at Rennes, where he staid for a time after he left school.
The path of a French cavalier leads through the distin-
guished society of Paris. At the commencement of the
following year, Descartes went to Paris, attended by some
servants, in order to become acquainted with the fashions
and customs of the great world through intercourse with
companions of his rank. For some time the excitement of
the new life, with its numerous diversions and enjoyments,
pleased him ; and he floated with the stream. But the great
needs of his thinking nature soon awakened when he met
men whose mental natures were akin to his. He became
acquainted with the mathematician Mydorge, and met again,
in the cloister of the Minims, his school-friend, Mersenne,
the philosopher among the monks, with whom he entered
into an intimate and active intellectual intercourse, which
continued, unfortunately, only for a short time, since Mer-
senne was sent to Revers as instructor of philosophy by the
provincial of his order (1614). Scientific conversation was
dearer to Descartes than play, which was his most agreeable
amusement among the cavaliers. Suddenly he vanished
from the distinguished society. No one knew where he
was. He lived in Paris, in an out-of-the-way house in the
suburb St. Germain, entirely secluded, concealed from his
friends, even from his family. He occupied himself entirely
with mathematics, associated only with some scientific men,
and avoided going out where his acquaintances might see

DESCARTES; THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 179

him. He lived thus two years in the metropolis of the
world, sought in vain. Finally, towards the end of the year
1616, one of his friends, whom he had been avoiding, hap-
pened to see him on the street. That put an end to his
freedom and retirement. He had to consent to go back into
the society which had lost all charms for him. It was no
longer play, but music, which most delighted him, and at
the same time excited his thoughts. He could live a dis-
sipated life, but never a thoughtless one. What occupied
him immediately became an object of reflection. He prac-
tised knightly exercises, and at the same time wrote an
essay on the art of fencing. He played ; but what attracted
him was, not the winnings, but the calculations by which he
endeavored to avoid the chances of play. In music it was
chiefly the mathematical relations of vibrations which gave
him material for thought. His next work, the first of those
which have been preserved, was an essay on music.

II. MILITARY SERVICE IN HOLLAND (1617-19).

The political condition of France had as little power to
engage the interest of Descartes as intercourse with the
nobility. The greatest event of that time was the summon-
ing of the States-General of the kingdom, the last in France
before 1789. While the whole of Paris flocked to see the
solemn procession of deputies to the Charch of Notre Dame,
Descartes, who had already fled to his retirement in St.
Germain, was absorbed in mathematical studies. The affairs
of the court were at that time in the most wretched con-
fusion. The queen-mother, Maria of Medici, ruled under
the influence of an unworthy favorite, Marshall d'Ancre,
whom she had elevated to power. The princes forcibly
opposed this disgraceful rule ; but its overthrow resulted
only in the transfer of power from the favorite of an ambi-
tious and corrupt queen, to a weak king who was under a
guardian. One favorite put the other out of his way by
causing him to be murdered. He was murdered in Paris

180 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

in 1617, during Descartes' residence there ; and under such
circumstances, it was natural for him to avoid service in the
French army, and to prefer to serve in a neighboring country
friendly to his own land.

With the armistice of 1609 the United Netherlands, after
a long and persistent struggle, had won the first acknowl-
edgment of their independence. France favored this rising
Protestant power because of her old hatred of the Spanish-
Austrian monarchy, and permitted her warlike sons to bear
arms there under the leadership of those who fought a com-
mon enemy. Many French nobles had already taken ser-
vice under Maurice of Nassau. ' Descartes followed them.
In May, 1617, he went to Breda, and entered as cadet into
the service of the Stadtholder. That the pupil of the Jesuits
should be a soldier of the son of the great Prince of Orange
will not surprise us when we consider the circumstances of
the time. We shall soon see that the same man, now a
volunteer under Maurice, continued his military career under
the flag of Tilly. We have in general no right to make so
much noise about his military career as foolish panegyrists
have attempted, a thing to which he himself gave no occa-
sion. He lacked both the military ambition and the bodily
strength which make soldiers by profession. He wished to
become acquainted with the great and strange world as a
drama in which he could be a spectator, not an actor. His
military services were his first mode of travelling, and of
finding an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of the
world. Implements of war interested him from the side
of their mechanical inventions, and the methods employed
in fortifications and sieges were subjects of his reflections.
Every kind of crudeness in camp and field was repulsive to
him. His tabard was a passport, as it were, by means of
which he had an opportunity of seeing in the easiest manner
all those things which attracted his curiosity. He was less
a soldier than a tourist, and chose a military life, not as a
career, but as a costume. For this reason he remained vol-

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 181

unteer, rejected promotion and pay, took the latter but once,
for the sake of the name, " as certain pilgrims do alms," and
preserved it as a memento of his military life.

In Breda he found an armed peace, which had still to
continue four years, and which left hira complete leisure.
Undisturbed, he devoted himself to his scientific pursuits, and
through a happy accident made the acquaintance of a man
with whom he could share them. The Stadtholder knew
how to value mathematics, and preferred them to all other
sciences on account of their importance to the art of war.
They were, therefore, prosecuted by the men of ability about
him ; and it befell that mathematical problems were posted
for solution on the walls. One day Descartes saw such a
problem, written in the language of the Netherlands, and
requested a by-stander to translate it into French or Latin.
As chance would have it, this by-stander was the scholarly
and highly respected mathematician, Isaac Beeckmann of Mid-
dleburg, who, surprised at the request of the French cadet,
explained the problem, stipulating, in jest, that Descartes
should solve it. The second day after, Descartes brought
him the solution ; and, in spite of the great difference in their
ages, this accidental acquaintance soon developed into a
friendly and scientific intercourse. At Beeckmann's urgent
suggestion, Descartes wrote in Breda (1618) his "Compen-
dium Musicse," which he dedicated to his friend, with the
earnest request that he keep it secret. This was first printed
after his death (1650). Probably he had at that time also
written an essay on algebra, and put it in Beeckmann's
hands ; since it appears from one of his later letters (Octo-
ber, 1630), that the latter had such a work. The friendship
of the two was disturbed by the boasting and indiscreet
vanity of the latter, who regarded the disparity of their ages
as a disparity of knowledge, and pretended that Descartes
was his pupil ; while the latter was conscious that his old
friend had learned much from him, and that Beeckmann had
taught him nothing more than he was accustomed to learn

182 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

from all things, even ants and worms, as he openly told him
in the letter above mentioned.

As in Paris, Descartes devoted himself to his thoughts,
and gave little heed to the stormy events which were hap-
pening around him. While external conflicts in the Neth-
erlands ceased for a time in consequence of the truce,
momentous conflicts broke out between political and eccle-
siastical parties. The ecclesiastical controversies which
disunited Protestantism in the Netherlands, had begun
between Jacob Arminius and Franz Gomarus, two profess-
ors of theology in the University of Leyden. The contro-
versy related to the question of unconditional predestination
and election, which Gomarus maintained in rigid Calvin-
istic fashion, and Arminius denied, defending the freedom of
the human will. It was the opposition between orthodox
Calvinism and rationalism which these two men embodied.
The controversy passed from lecturers' chairs to pulpits, and
soon became so general, and gained such strength, that it
divided the ecclesiastical life of the Netherlands into the
parties of the Arminians and the Gomarists. Since the year
1610, when the Arminians appeared as a ccyigregation, and
brought their confession of faith (" remonstrance ") before
the States of Holland and West Friesland, with a claim for
toleration, these two parties had stood opposed to each other
as Remonstrants and Counter-remonstrants. With these
parties in the Church, political parties were united, — the
monarchical party, headed by Maurice of Nassau (Prince of
Orange since February, 1618), and the Republican party,
under the leadership of John van Oldenbarneveld, grand
pensionary of Holland, and Hugo Grotius, recorder of Rot-
terdam. The party of Orange sided with the Calvinists,
and summoned a universal synod for the condemnation of
their opponents : the Republican party sided with the Armin-
ians, and insisted on the right of individual States to self-
government in ecclesiastical matters, a right which they
guarded with their own militia against the attacks of their

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 183

fanatical opponents. The Stadtholder then caused the
leaders of the opposite party to be taken prisoners, and
accused of high treason against the United Netherlands.
Oldenbarneveld was beheaded (May 13, 1619) ; the victory
was given to orthodox Calvinism by the decrees of the synod
of Dort (1618) ; the Arminians were condemned, and ex-
cluded from the community of churches. Gishertus Voetius
was one of their most violent and intolerant opponents at
that synod : we shall meet him hereafter as professor in
Utrecht, in the life of our philosopher. When Descartes left
Breda, he did not dream how disagreeable the victors of
Dort would make his later residence in the Netherlands.

ni. MILITARY SERVICE IN GERMANY (1619-21).

1. Campaigns. — The first two years of Descartes' life as
a soldier were of the most peaceful character. In Breda, he
had become acquainted, not with war, but with an armistice ;
and his most interesting experience there was his intercourse
with a mathematician. He could not permit his military
career to end in such an unwarlike way, and just then a war
broke out in Germany. The news of the disturbances in
Bohemia whicli resulted in the Thirty Years' War had already
spread in the Netherlands. The Protestants of the land were
in the armed defence of their rights, in open resistance to the
authority of the emperor, particularly to prevent the succes-
sion of Ferdinand, who was to inherit the crown of Boliemia
from his cousin Matthias, and had set himself the task of
uprooting Protestantism, first in the kingdom of his inherit-
ance, and then, where it was possible, in the empire also.
The counts Thurn and Mansfeld led the insurgents in
Bohemia: the forces of the emperor were commanded by
Bucquoi. The Emperor Matthias died on the 20th of
March, 1619. In spite of the protests of the Bohemians,
Ferdinand went to Frankfort as elector of Bohemia, was
chosen king of Bohemia, Aug. 28, 1619, and crowned as
Emperor Ferdinand II., Sept. 9. Even before his coronation,

184 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the Bohemians had proclaimed a Protestant prince, Frederick
V. of the Palatinate, as their king. War for the Bohemian
crown was thus inevitable between the new emperor and this
counter-king chosen by the Bohemians. This, however, was
only the starting-point of a struggle which, from the position
of affairs, necessarily and immediately spread. The question
was not merely as to the possession of Bohemia, but in a
wider sense as to the existence of Protestantism. It was a
struggle between the Catholic and Protestant interests in the
empire, which stood in opposition to each other in the alliances
of the Union and Liga. Thus, the material lay ready for the
breaking out of a great European war which was to lay waste
the lands of Germany for thirty years.

Descartes exchanged the Netherlands for this scene of
action. In July, 1619, he went to Frankfort-on-the-Main,
saw there the preparations for the election of an emperor,
and was present at the coronation, the most magnificent
spectacle which the world of that time could show. Then he
took service in the Bavarian army, and so we find him at the
commencement of the Thirty Years' War a volunteer esquire
of the leader of Liga. The first movement of the Bavarian
army was against Wiirtemberg, the duke of which stood on
the side of the union. The army marched against Donawert,
but the campaign was interrupted by diplomatic negotiations :
they entered winter quarters, and Descartes spent the winter
of 1619-20 at Neuburg-on-the-Danube in the most perfect
solitude, — a solitude that proved fruitful for his thoughts.

The diplomatic interruption had come from France. The
emperor had sought an alliance with the French : the most
influential man at the court of Louis XIII. , the favorite of
the king, the Duke of Luynes, had been won over to the
Austrian party ; and under the Duke of Angouleme, a bril-
liant embassy went to Germany, to arrange the differences of
the hostile parties in the interests of the emperor. The em-
bassy at first stopped at Ulm, the imperial city of Swabia ;
summoned thither the hostile parties of the empire, and

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 185

efifected an agreement, according to which the war, at first
confined to Bohemia, was made the exclusive matter of Fer-
dinand, and Frederick of the Palatinate ; and the Protestant
princes of Germany were excluded from participation in it.
From Ulm, the embassy went to Vienna. The Duke of
Bavaria, as an ally of the emperor, led his troops to upper
Austria, conquered there the rebellious Protestants, united,
in Bohemia, with the imperial army under Bucquoi, and
their combined forces defeated, in the battle of Prague, the
Bohemian rebels and their king, Frederick of the Palatinate,
who fled to Schlesia the same day that the victorious army
entered Prague.

During this time, Descartes was not always with the army
in which he served. After the winter in Neuburg, he went
in June, 1620, to Ulm, where he met his countrymen, and
remained some months on account of his interest in science.
In September he went to Vienna, where the French embassy
was, and returned to the Bavarian army in Bohemia probably
a little before the battle of Prague. He remained in Prague
until towards the end of the year, then spent some months
in solitude on the southern boundary of Bohemia, engaged
in meditation. Since the Bavarian army had ended its cam-
paign, he joined the imperial army under Bucquoi in Mora-
via in the beginning of the spring of 1621, as he wished to
continue for a while his life as a soldier, which just then
offered to him an experience of war. The revolt in Hungary,
which had been allied with that in Bohemia, still continued
under Bethlem Gabor. The campaign of the imperial army,
in which Descartes served, was directed against this enemy.
His panegyrists pretend that he distinguished himself in this
campaign : he himself tells us nothing of it. Bucquoi took
Presburg, Tirnau, and other fortified cities, and fell in the
heroic battle of Neuhausel, July 10, 1621. The siege of this
city was raised July 27 ; and soon after. Descartes quitted the
service of the emperor, and ended his life as a soldier. Dur-
ing these three years (1619-21) he served in the Netherlands

186 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

during the truce, was in winter quarters in Neuburg, and
served in the Bohemian and Hungarian campaign. It ap-
pears that in Neuburg, where the war called him to Bohemia,
he had already intended to abandon his life as a soldier, and
travelled from Vienna to Venice in order to make a pilgrimage
on foot from that place to Loretto.

2. His Solitude in Neuburg. An Inner Crisis. — We must
look deep into the life of Descartes to find the man himself.
We must seek for the events of most importance to him, not
in campaigns and battles, but in the winter quarters on the
Danube and in Bohemia, where he resigned himself entirely
to his meditations. His scientific interests followed him
everywhere. In Ulm he became acquainted with the math-
ematician Faulhaber, and remained there some months: in
Prague nothing interested him more deeply than reminis-
cences of Tycho Bralie. But of most importance to his
development was that residence in Neuburg, where, in the
deepest solitudes, he found the clew which gradually led to
the founding of the new philosophy. It was the time of a
crisis. Since he left La FlSche, the doubts which there
took possession of him had not let him rest : they had fol-
lowed him into the society of Paris, had driven him into the
solitude of the suburb of St. Germain, and been his com-
panions in the garrison of Breda. Mathematics alone seemed
to him to give certain knowledge. It satisfied him entirely,
and even became the bond of his friendships. Yet it did
not free him from the doubts that disquieted him. Its clear-
ness did not make the other sciences clearer : the certainty
of its truths did not protect him against the uncertainty of
philosophy. If we could only make philosophy as certain
as mathematics, if we could penetrate the nature of things
with mathematical distinctness, and form a philosophy accord-
ing to the method of geometry, we could build a system of
true philosophy, very slowly, to be sure, but with perfect
certainty. That was the problem which had gradually taken
shape in his mind, — as sceptical as it was mathematical, —

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 187

and the solution of which became united with the inmost
aim of his life. Philosophy lay before him like a dark
chaos: mathematics shone upon him from a perfectly clear
sky. If we could only let this light into that chaos ! But
how is it possible? On this question the mind of Descartes
was concentrated. He felt that he was standing at the door
of truth, and could not enter it. In every moment of soli-
tude, this importunate problem thrusts itself upon him,
though he cannot solve it. With a feeling of his own impo-
tency, he prays for light from heaven, and vows a pilgrimage
to Loretto. Since he can find no help in himself, he seeks it
without. It seems to him as if some one could explain the
riddle, as if the key were somewhere preserved as a secret
treasure, like the stone of the Wise, which only adepts
possess. In the midst of his doubts, he feels an impulse
towards mystics and magicians. In this mood he hears of
the " brotherhood of the Hosicrucians," which arose in a mys-
tical manner, and, consecrated to the service of truth, intends
to enlighten the world, and free the sciences from their
errors. It is impossible for any one outside of the society to
learn who its members are, and they dare not betray them-
selves in any way. The imagination of people is so much
the more active about them ; the most fabulous reports go
from mouth to mouth ; works are published in defence of
them and in opposition to them. The interest of our phi-
losopher is deeply aroused. He earnestly seeks to meet one
of them, perhaps through a work, the title of wliich has been
preserved, and which was to have been dedicated to the
Rosicrucians : but all his efforts were in vain ; he never was
able to discover a Rosi crucian, for the simple reason that
there were none. At the time when Descartes was seeking
them, the rumor of such a society had just arisen ; and the
published writings, which spread abroad their fame, their
plans for reformation, the wonderful history of their founder
and their order, had just begun to be circulated (since 1614).
The whole matter had no foundation in fact. It was an

188 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

invention of the Suabian theologian, Valentin Andrese
(1586-1654), circulated by him for the purpose of disgust-
ing the world with magic and its pretended reformations, by
the most extravagant satire, and directing it to a genuine
reformation by means of practical Christianity. He wished
to scourge a folly of the time, and was compelled to discover
that he had promoted it in a high degree, by providing for
it new nourishment, which all the world greedily swallowed^
The Rosicrucians were sought everywhere: they existed
nowhere. Never has a satire so completely failed of its
intended effect, and accomplished the exact opposite. It
became a universal mystification, gave birth to the fables
concerning the Rosicrucians, even duped a Descartes, and
made a Leibnitz curious fifty years after its origin.^ But
what shall we say when even in our day the latest French
biographer of Descartes accepts the Rosicrucians as an his-
torical fact, and even conjectures that Descartes was a mem-
ber of that brotherhood, whose founder or head at that time
was Andrese! To be sure, Descartes alwaj'-s denied that he
was a Rosicrucian, or that he knew any of them ; but that
proves nothing, since he dared not acknowledge it.^

These moods of despondency in which Descartes felt help-
less, and vowed pilgrimages, and longed for the Rosicrucians,
passed by. Truth cannot be received from without, but
must be sought in a path that one discovers and makes for
himself. This right and sure road is Method, already typi-
fied in mathematics and logic. The point now is, to make
it universal, i.e., philosophical ; to simplify it, and free it
from all defects. Even then Descartes knew certain rules
which point out the path the mind must follow in seeking
truth: knowledge extends no farther than clear and dis-
tinct thought ; dark conceptions must be analyzed into their
elements, and illuminated step by step ; clear ones must be
so arranged and united that their connection may be as

1 Vol. iii. of this work (sec. ed.), pp. 72 and following.
' Millet: Histoire de Descartes, vol. i. p. 93.

DESCAETES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 189

evident as they are themselves. At first all is dark. "What
is required, therefore, is a universal and fundamental analysis
of our conceptions, — an analysis of them into their simplest
elements, the simplicity of which is equivalent to their
absolute clearness and certainty. These rules must not only
be given, but followed. They require a knowledge of self/
illuminating the very core of our being, demanding all the
powers of our mind, and, therefore, our entire life, and aim-
ing at the instruction of self as the single purpose of life.
Every dependence upon the opinions of others is a devia-
tion from this goal, a false step in the direction of the life
which must preserve the greatest independence in thought
and judgment. But this independence reaches only so far
as thought : farther it ought not to reach, and cannot. Here
is the limit, and the failure to observe it would be likewise
a false step. Self-instruction, therefore, requires the greatest
self-limitation. Thought takes its own way ; and to find this
way, and systematize it, one mind is sufficient, and better than
many. In the world, on the other hand, complicated human
interests prevail, difficult to systematize, laboriously adjusted
to each other in the great organizations of society, which
have gradually arisen, and oppose every theory arbitrarily
obtruded upon them, every methodical regulation which
thought would introduce in accordance with its guiding
principle. There is in this point a sharp distiuction between
the theoretical and practical life : the former requires a sys-
tematic arrangement governed by one fundamental thought ;
the latter will not tolerate it. The reform of thought, there-
fore, is entirely different from that of society; and the
instruction of self, in its search for the truth, has neither
the time nor the ability to improve the world. A direct
application of theory to public and practical affairs is, in
Descartes' eyes, a most erroneous use of method, and, there-
fore, an unmethodical procedure of the most vicious charac-
ter, which he avoided on principle. The instruction of self
was for him the task of the whole of life, a purely personal

190 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

and private one, which he never sought to have accepted
as an example by others. That saying of Faust, "Do not
imagine that I could teach any thing to improve and amend
men," was with Descartes, not the bitter, but the good-
natured and modest, expression of the aim of his life. This
inability is likewise a nolition on principle. What has
happened in the arrangement of public affairs can be changed
and reformed only gradually. It is better for them to
remain as they are than to be suddenly overturned by an
abstract theory, and what is bad in them become worse than
before. By such considerations Descartes justified his con-
servatism. In his thoughts he intended to be free ; and he
avoided, therefore, every public position in life, related him-
self to the activities of the world, less as an actor than as
a spectator. He made no change in the outward form of
his life. From a feeling of piety and on principle, he re-
mained loyal to the laws of his land, to the religion of his
father, to the customs of his rank ; and he resolved before-
hand rather not to publish any thoughts that might conflict
with public authorities, than to disquiet men, and disturb
ideas long established in Church and State. This mode of
thought, to which we cannot allow the courage of the
reformer, aiming at the welfare of others, but to which we
must concede a wise caution, a ripe judgment, based on a
wide experience of the world, and a profound knowledge
of men, was already methodically confirmed, when, at the
age of five and twenty, Descartes left the army. His state-
ments concerning this matter are so simple and artless that
no one can read them and regard the cautious, at times
timid, conduct of Descartes as an affectation. " I was then
in Germany," he says, in his essay on method, "attracted
thither by the wars which are still going on in that country ;
and, as I was returning from the coronation of the emperor,
I spent the beginning of the winter in a locality, where,
without distracting conversation, and fortunately, also, with-
out any cares or passions, I remained the whole day alone

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 191

in my room, with full opportunity to occupy myself with my
thoughts. One of the first of these that occurred to me was,
that works composed of many parts are often less perfect
than those which are the work of a single hand. Thus, one
sees that the buildings which a single architect has planned
and executed, are generally more beautiful and commodious
than those which several have attempted to improve, by
making old walls serve purposes for which they were not
originally intended." " It is true that it is not customary to
pull down all the houses of a city, for the simple purpose
of rebuilding them in another form, and of making more
beautifiil streets ; but we certainly do see that many people
have their houses pulled down in order to rebuild them,
and that they are often even constrained to this when their
houses are in danger of falling down, and their foundations
are insecure. I was accordingly convinced that it would
indeed be absurd for a private individual to think of reform-
ing the State by fundamentally changing it throughout, and
overturning it with a view of restoring it amended ; and I
had the same opinion of any similar plan for reforming the
body of the sciences and their systems, as they are estab-
lished in schools. But I thought that I could do nothing
better with my opinions than to cast them off at once and
completely, that I might be able, by reflection, to put others
in their places, or even to restore the very same ones after
they had been vindicated by reason. And I was certain,
that, in this way, I should succeed in ordering my life far
better than if I built upon old foundations, and held fast to
principles which I had taken on trust in my youth, and
the truth of which I had not at any time tested. For,
although I was conscious of various difficulties in this under-
taking, they were not insurmountable, and not to be com-
pared with those which are involved in the slightest
reformation in public affairs. Only with great labor can
the huge bodies of society be set up again when they are
once overthrown, or even held upright when they totter;

192 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

and their fall is always very disastrous. Then their imper-
fections are always somewhat modified by time ; and many
of them, which no sagacity could have reached with equal
success, have thus been insensibly removed or corrected;
and, finally, these defects are in almost all cases more toler-
able than their arbitrary change. It is in this case as with
the roads that wind between mountains, and which daily use
has made so smooth and easy, that it is far better to follow
them than to seek a straight path by clambering over rocks,
and descending to the bottom of precipices. I shall never,
therefore, be able to approve of those restless meddlers, who,
called neither by birth nor fortune to the management of
public affairs, are continually projecting theoretical reforms
in public matters. And if I thought that this essay con-
tained any thing which could make me suspected of such
folly, I should be very sorry that I have consented to its
publication. I have never intended any thing more than
to reform my own thoughts, and base them on a foundation
entirely my own. And, although my satisfaction with my
work causes me here to give an account of it, I do not
counsel any one to make a similar attempt. Others, whom
God has more highly endowed, may, perhaps, entertain
more exalted purposes ; but I am afraid that even mine is
too bold for many. The resolve to strip one's self of all
past beliefs is not an example for every man." After Des-
cartes had developed his method in its theoretical and practi-
cal relations, and stated the maxims by which his life was
governed, he continues, "Having thus provided myself with
these maxims, and put them aside with those principles of
faith which I have ever held in the highest regard, I thought
I could take the liberty to renounce and examine the re-
mainder of my opinions. And, inasmuch as I hoped to be
better able to accomplish this work by intercourse with men,
than by remaining longer in solitude, where these thoughts
had occurred to me, T began travelling before the end of the
winter. And during the nine subsequent years, I did noth-

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 193

ing but wander, now here, now there, since I wished to be
a spectator, rather than an actor, in the dramas of the world ;
and since in every matter I carefully considered what might
be doubted, and prove a source of deception, I gradually
succeeded in rooting out all the errors that had crept into
my mind. Not that in this I imitated the sceptics, who
doubt for the sake of doubt, and seek to be always unde-
cided. My design, on the contrary, was to obtain certainty,
and to throw aside the loose earth and sand, in order to find
rocks or clay." " Thus, living apparently as those who have
nothing to do but to lead a pleasant and innocent life, and
who strive to enjoy their pleasures without vices, and engage
in all honorable diversions, that they may enjoy their leisure
without ennui, I was constantly progressing in the execution
of my plans, and perhaps making greater gains in the knowl-
edge of truth than if I had done nothing but read books,
and converse with scholars." ^

3. The Epoch of the Crisis. — We have allowed Descartes
to speak at such length on account of the biographical im-
portance of his statements. Although they were not pub-
lished until eighteen years had passed by after the events of
which they give so luminous an account, their historical
truth cannot be doubted when we consider that Descartes'
love of truth and his accurate self-knowledge would certainly
exclude any deception of memory concerning the progress of
his own development. This account is the single, perfectly
trustworthy and authentic source of our knowledge of the
crisis of his life. It is accordingly certain that Descartes left
school a sceptic, trying to find truth, but ignorant of the
road to it ; that the guiding light began .to shine into his
mind during his retirement in Neuburg in the winter of
1619 ; that he there first saw the possibility and necessity of
applying the analytical method to the human mind and its
cognitions with the same certainty and success as he had so

1 Disoours de la M^thode. Parts II. et III. Cf. my translation, pp. 12-16,
27,28.

194 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

fortunately found in geometry. He had discovered the fun-
damental principle of analytical geometry when he ^formed
the important resolution to deal with himself instead of
quantities ; to analyze his own mind and its cognitions in
order to banish darkness, and come into light ; to so order
his entire life accordingly that it might be the constant
subject of this experiment of which he had no example, and
might reward him for his labor. In this resolution, all the
rules were contained which he then adopted for his guidance.
He still felt far from the goal that he hoped slowly and surely
to reach, but he felt that he was on the right road. At the
age of three and twenty, one has not yet that knowledge of
men or that experience of himself which ought to precede a
fundamental and methodical examination of himself. Ac-
cordingly, Descartes postponed it until he had completed his
" Wanderjahre," which he henceforth arranged with a view
to this problem of his life and method. The goal, sought on
this road, could be none other than the principles of modern
philosophy of which Descartes was the founder. Its germ
was planted in that solitude in Neuburg, but it required nine
years to come to perfect maturity. The certainty of the crisis
filled Descartes with enthusiastic joy: the view opened, and
in the distance the Olympic peaks of knowledge were ablaze
with light; we use his own figure. It seems that we can
determine the day of this remarkable epoch in his life : it was
the 10th of November, 1619. In the diary of the philosopher
relating to that time, which, so far, is unfortunately lost, —
our knowledge of it is derived from Baillet's accounts, and
from incomplete transcripts made by Leibnitz, and published
by Foucher de Careil, — there was a note with the heading
" Olympica," and in the margin, " On the tenth of Novem-
ber I began to make a wonderful discovery (intelligere ccepi
fundamentum inventi mirabilis}." In Leibnitz' transcript, the
year is 1620 : according to Baillet's account, the words of
Descartes were, " On the tenth of November, 1619, filled
with enthusiasm I discovered the foundations of a wonderful

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 195

science (cum plenus forem enthusiasms et mirabilis scientise
fundc^jienta reperirem)." The published statements of the
philosopher without further detail mark the beginning of the
winter of 1619 as the epoch of the crisis. In a longer note
in his diary, he says, " I shall be in Loretto before the end
of November, shall finish and publish my essay before Easter,
as I have promised myself this day, September 23, 1620."
The subject of that essay could be none other than that dis-
covery in return for which he had vowed the pilgrimage to
Loretto. He made the pilgrimage five years later : seventeen
years rolled by before , he published the work, — twenty,
indeed, if the principles of the system was the work
alluded to.

The accounts of the first discovery vary. His most recent
biographer supposes that the " scientice mirabilis " and the
" inventum mirabile " refer to different discoveries, the first
of which was made Nov. 10, 1619 ; the second, Nov. 11, 1620.
The subject of the first, he thinks, was analytical geometry
and also the new method of philosophy ; that of the second is
unknown, probably of a particular mathematical character,
and relating to equations. Now, this combination is purely
■ arbitrary : in the diary of Descartes, so far as Leibnitz has
copied it, and Foucher de Careil has published it, there is not
one word under the date of Nov. 11, 1620. In the text of the
diary, Descartes says, " In the year 1620 I first began to per-
ceive a wonderful discovery;" on the margin, Nov. 10 is
written as the date of it; and we are further told, that
Descartes intended to make S- pilgrimage from Venice to
Loretto in November, 1620.

In the light of Descartes' statements, the most certain
opinion appears to be, that the 10th of November was the
epoch-making day when he conceived the first, fruitful
thought of his philosophy. (The year 1620 in connection
with this date is probably a mistake made by Leibnitz in
copying.)

Baillet informs us, on the authority of the diary, that, im-

196 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

mediately after the enthusiastic excitement of the eventful
day, Descartes had three remarkable dreams, which^e de-
scribed in detail, and interpreted as allegories of his past and
future. In the first, he seemed to be lame, driven by a storm
to seek protection in a church ; in the second, he thought he
heard a sound like thunder, and saw sparks of fire around
him ; in the third, he suddenly opened the poem of Ausonius
and read the words, "■ Quod vitce sectabor iter ? " After long
impotency and many inward struggles, Descartes had on the
day before heard the voice of truth, had suddenly seen light,
and found the path of his life.^

'' In the Olympica (according to Leibnitz' copy) the following sentence
comes immediately after the date of his "wonderful discovery:" "In No-
vember, 1619, I dreamed of a poem that began with the words, ' Quod vitas
sectabor iter ?"' It is to be inferred from this, that immediately before, not the
year 1620, but 1619, was mentioned, with the marginal note, " On the tenth of
November," etc.

Compare Foucher de Careil: CEuvres in^dites de "Descartes, I. (Paris,
1859), Pre'f. ix.-xiii.; Introd. xi.-xv. Millet: Hist, de Descartes, I. pp. 74-
82, 96-98.

DESCAETES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 197

CHAPTER III.

CONTINUATION. (6) TEAVBL.S, AND SECOND RESIDENCE
IN PARIS.

TT^IGHT months passed by before Descartes returned to
-*-^ France from Hungary, where he ended his military
career. He wished to travel for some time, since his travels
were his studies in the great book of the world ; and his coun-
try at this time had little attiaction for him. The renewal
of the war with the Huguenots, and the pestilence which had
raged for a year in Paris, made a longer absence in foreign
lands agreeable. He travelled through Moravia and Silesia,
to Mark-Brandenburg and Pomerania, where we find him in
the beginning of the autumn of 1621, thence to Mecklen-
burg and Holstein, thence from Emden by way of the sea
to West Friesland ; and experienced during the voyage an
adventure which he narrated in a note of that time (under
the heading " Experimenta "), and in which his presence of
mind, and moral force, stood a successful test. The mariners
with whom he sailed intended to rob and kill him. Believ-
ing that he did not understand their language, they talked
about it quite openly ; but Descartes perceived their inten-
tion, and with quickly drawn sword and determined air so
frightened the robbers that he rescued himself and his ser-
vant. From West Friesland he went to Holland, where h&
remained a part of the winter. In The Hague, he visited
the court of the Prince of Orange ; and, directly after, that
of the Infantin Isabella in Brussels. In March, 1622, he re-
turned to France, came into possession of his inheritance from

198 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

his mother, and went to Paris in February, 1623. Among
the items of news which then attracted the attention of the
social circles of the metropolis, the events of the war in
Germany, and the brotherhood of the Rosicrucians, were the
most interesting. No one could speak more intelligently
concerning the most recent and important events of the
German war than Descartes, and his accounts were listened
to with the greatest attention. A report was also abroad,
that there were members of the Rosicrucians, that order of
"invisibles," in Paris, that Descartes was very closely con-
nected with them, that he was even a member of that myste-
rious brotherhood. The Rosicrucians even became a subject
of literary controversies at this time. Mersenne was engaged
in a controversy with the English scientist, Robert Fludd,
who defended them ; while Gassendi, who was afterward to
rival Descartes for the honor of being the first philosopher
of France, opposed them. After nine years Descartes again
met his old friend Mersenne, who had returned to Paris in
the mean time, and then lived near the Palace Royal, and
was working on the edition of his commentary on Genesis.
As to the Rosicrucians, Descartes could only reply in jest, to
the curious questions, that his presence proved that he was
not an " invisible."

He resided in Paris but a few months. After he had
again visited his family in Brittany, and sold his property in
Poitou, he started again upon his travels (September, 1623),
directing his course towards the south. He wished to be-
come acquainted with Italy, and live in Rome during a part
of the year of the jubilee that began Christmas, 1624. The
papal city was then, as it were, an abstract of the whole of
Europe. He went through Switzerland to Tyrol, and visited
in Innspruck the court of the Archduke Leopold; went
thence to Venice, and saw on Ascension Day the imposing
ceremony of the marriage of the doge with the sea; from
thence made a pilgrimage to Loretto, to fulfil the vow he had
made in Neuburg five years before. At the beginning of

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 199

the jubilee he was in Rome, and remained there until the
following spring. On his return he stopped at Florence,
and visited the court of the great duke, Ferdinand II. ; but
he did not see Galileo, the greatest man of the time, who
was afterward to exert a momentous influence upon his life.
The statement that he made the acquaintance of Galileo is
contradicted by his own declaration in a letter to Mersenne.
Before the middle of the year 1625, he returned to France
by Piedmont and over the Alps.

Near the beginning of the summer, Descartes went to
Paris, where he remained, with some interruptions, during
the three following years. Shortly before this, an otEce
suitable to his rank was offered to liim in Chattellerault, and
he seems to have thought of buying it ; but he gave up the
idea when he thought of it seriously, and, true to his first
resolve, preserved his independence and leisure. The circle
of his scientific acquaintances and friends increased ; he was
sought on all sides, and was even then considered as one of
the first mathematicians and philosophers of his time. In
this circle were to be found the ablest mathematicians,
physicists, and theologians of the metropolis. I mention the
names of Hardy, de Beaune, Morin, Desargues, Balzac, the
physician Villebressieux, the theologians Gibieuf, de la Barde,
de Sancy, and particularly his first patron, the Cardinal
B^ruUe. In the following years we find the physician Ville-
bressieux and the ahh6 Picot in intimate relation with Des-
cartes. His most intimate friends were still those of his first
residence in Paris, Mersenne and Mydorge, who was then
engaged in optical experiments and studies, and stimulated
Descartes to the investigations which afterwards bore fruit
in his " Dioptrics." Both of them were supported in these
studies by Ferrier, one of the first optical artisans of Paris,
who was skilled alike in the theory and technics of his art,
and who made the instruments sketched by Mydorge, and
with whom Descartes practised the art of polishing glasses.
Descartes esteemed him so highly, that there was no one

200 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

with whom he, in after years, would have more willingly-
shared that so carefully sought and so anxiously guarded
solitude in Holland.

From the house of his friend Le Vasseur d'Etioles, where
he had at first resided, he again withdrew into the suburb
of St. Germain, to spend some time in a more retired way.
When he returned into the house of Le Vasseur, and into
the larger circle of his friends, the social and scientific inter-
course began again; and there was thus formed there a little
academy, of which Descartes was the centre. There, in
social conversations, he gave the first expression to the
philosophical thoughts which had ripened in solitude, and
which, through their originality and depth, so surprised his
friends, and were at the same time so obviously true, that
scholars and booksellers immediately urged him to publish
them. But Descartes was resolved to be on his guard
against all precipitance and prejudice in the execution of
his work, to cultivate the growing crop a while longer, and
to wait for the harvest until the time of perfect maturity
had come in his own life also. Soon society and visits again
wearied him ; the irresistible longing for solitude again
returned: and he fled from the house of his friend, and
concealed himself on the outskirts of Paris, in a dwelling
known only to his most intimate friends (summer of 1628).
Le Vasseur sought him in vain. Finally he met his servant
on the street, and compelled him to point out the dwelling;
and there Le Vasseur found Descartes at eleven o'clock in
bed, according to his custom, and watched him for a long time
unobserved, as he lay, writing from time to time, absorbed
in meditation.

When Descartes first left France, Louis XIII. had shaken
off the influence of his mother, and abandoned himself to
the control of his favorite : when he returned to Paris, this
rule was over, and at the side of the weak long an able
statesman was rising into power, really called to govern.
The year before, Richelieu was made cardinal ; two years

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 201

later, under the again powerful influence of the queen-
mother, he became a member of the council of state ; soon
he was the first minister, in truth the only ruler, in France.
The policy of this man tolerated no power in France that
opposed or threatened the royal rule ; and demanded, there-
fore, the subjection and disarmament of the Protestants and
their fortified cities, of which latter La Rochelle was the
most important. He determined to starve out this city, and
therefore so to invest it as to make relief and the supply of
provisions impossible. The besiegers had the greatest diffi-
culties to encounter from the position of the city ; and that
they were able to overcome them, made the siege of La
Rochelle memorable in the history of military science. A
crowd of curious people flocked there to see the military
works, Descartes among them ; and he was compensated
before Rochelle for the solitude given up in Paris. His
friend Desargues had, as engineer, assisted in making the
machinery ; and he introduced Descartes to Richelieu. The
king himself was present, and it did not suit him for the
nobles whom curiosity had drawn there to be mere specta-
tors. Descartes was among the attendants of the king when
he reconnoitred the English fleet which tried in vain to
relieve the city, and afterwards when he entered it after it
had voluntarily surrendered. At the beginning of Novem-
ber, 1628, Descartes returned to Paris from this his last cam-
paign (if we can give it such a name). Exactly nine years
had passed since in Neuburg on the Danube he first saw the
road whose terminus now lay close at hand.

Some days after his return, Descartes celebrated a victory
which was more memorable to him than his campaigns, — a
triumph of his method; a test which it had stood success-
fully before a chosen circle of able and influential men.
"When new ideas are in the air, many imagine that they have
already grasped them; and along with the true and rare dis-
coverer we always find a crowd of supposed innovators who
deceive themselves and others. Such people usually have all

202 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

sorts of knowledge, know precisely as much as they make a
display of, and have an impudent assurance in appearing
before the public, an amazing readiness and social cleverness
in speaking, — all of them qualities calculated to deceive par-
ticularly the world of rank and fashion, which often has
difficulty in distinguishing gold from fools' gold. A certain
Chandoux was an example of this class, a doctor and chemist
by profession, who had already attracted attention in Paris.
Aristotle and the scholastics were, in his mouth, abandoned
and obsolete points of view ; he could declaim against them
in as modern a way as Bacon, Hobbes, and Gassendi: his
every other word was "the new philosophy," the new and
absolutely certain principles which he boasted that he him-
self had discovered. This boasting had really deceived the
papal ambassador. Marquis de Bagne ; he wished this luminary
to let his light shine in his circle, and invited a company of
celebrated people to hear him. Besides Cardinal Berulle,
Descartes, Mersenne, Villebressieux, and others were invited.
Chandoux was prepared, and his fluent and plausible exposi-
tion won the sincere approval of this select audience. Des-
cartes said nothing. Cardinal Bdrulle, observing his silence,
asked his opinion. He answered evasively, as if after the ap-
proval of such men nothing further were to be said. Finally,
pressed on all sides, he took up the discourse, praised its flu-
ency, and the freedom with which Chandoux had declared
against scholasticism, in behalf of a completely independent
philosophj'' ; but as to the supposed new principles, he was
obliged to doubt whether they could stand the test of truth.
Descartes saw before him an example of that self-deception
which he had himself experienced, and which he had seen a
thousand times in others, and the nature of which he thor-
oughly understood. An opportunity of setting an example
offered itself. We must have a test to distinguish truth from
error. He who does not possess it gropes in darkness. He
pledged himself so to refute the most evident truth that might

DESCARTES: THE SECOND PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 203

be proposed to him, and so to prove the most evident error,
that his hearers would be forced to admit the validity of his
reasonings. The double experiment was immediately made,
and Descartes kept his pledge by producing twelve argu-
ments of increasing probability. His object was to show
that nothing can be proved or disproved by unproved prin-
ciples, and that merely apparent principles prove nothing ;
that all previous philosophizing, no matter how many mod-
ern terms it employed, was based on unreal foundations;
and that the new philosophy of Chandoux was in this
respect not one whit better than the old and traditional
one which he despised. Without the touchstone of truth,
there is in human knowledge no protection against false
coins. Chandoux seems to have understood this art better
in other matters than in philosophy : he practised it on
money, and was hanged on the Grdveplatz as a counter-
feiter.

Descartes made no secret of his criterion ; and he declared
to his hearers whom his experiment had convinced, and who
were, therefore, desirous to know more about it, that all truth
can be discovered only by methodical thought, and must be
tested by it. Cardinal B^rulle was profoundly impressed.
He recognized in Descartes the epoch-making mind called
to the reformation of philosophy, capable of becoming for
France such a renovator of science as Bacon had been for
England. In a confidential conversation, he formally pledged
Descartes to write and publish a work on method. The ex-
hortations of such a man must have strengthened his already
mature resolution to devote himself henceforth to the execu-
tion of his work. For the complete collection of his thoughts
he needed leisure, and freedom from disturbance, which
Paris did not afford him. It appears that he lived for some
time in the country in the neighborhood of Paris, and wrote
there, perhaps, the first sketch of his doctrine of method
" The Rules for the Direction of the Mind " QEegulce ad Direo-

204 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

tionem Ingenit), of which only a fragment has been preserved.
After carefully considering where it would be best for him
to live, with a view to his health and the undisturbed prose-
cution of his work, he went to Holland, and remained there
for the next twenty years.

DESCAHTES: THE THIRD PEBIOD OF HIS LIFE. 205

CHAPTER IV.

THIED PERIOD (1629-1650). THE PERIOD OP THE WORKS.
(o) RESIDENCE IN THE NETHERLANDS.

I. "THE HERMITAGE m HOLLAND."

rr^HE Wanderj'ahre were over. Descartes had seen much
-*- of the world ; had become acquainted with human life
in its most different forms, and observed its unconscious de-
ceptions. He had become a great critic of opinions, a master
in the detection of error. His mind had been so critically
trained, so methodically exercised in distinguishing truth
from error, so sharpened by a comprehensive knowledge of
men, so undeceived by the false values of the world, that he
was then mature enough to undertake the difficult task of
self-examination, and to discover the truth in himself. We
expect from him no descriptions of his travels, no account of
the courts and armies, the countries and cities, which he has
seen ; but a profound analysis of human knowledge, unre-
strained by fear of doubt. He proposed to take himself as
a representative of human consciousness, as an example of a
mind filled with experiences of the world and of life, even
as Montaigne's had been. On this plane must he stand, if
he would overcome the doubts which had remained the last
and most mature fruits of Montaigne's experiences. Des-
cartes had not travelled in order to recount the adventures
of a French cavalier. And we do not understand him if
(with a French contemporary writer) we regard the phi-
losopher and the man of the world in him as two different
persons. The man of the world was the instructor of the

206 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

philosopher. This was their relation in the plan of his life,
according to his own statements. His studies in the world
are completed now, and he has come to the point where he
must begin his study of himself. Now he seeks, as Montaigne
had done, " a quiet little place."

The v/orld attributed to Descartes more than he had ac-
tually accomplished. Up to the time when he left Paris, he
had been occupied with the sceptical and negative side of his
philosophy, not with the positive. That the world expected
such a work from him, and even believed that he had already
completed it, incited him to take up the matter in earnest,
and without delay. He would not permit the men of whose
judgment he thought most highly to be mistaken in their
opinion of him. At any rate, seven years later, looking
back upon his Wanderjahr-e, Descartes stated this as the mo-
tive which had finally caused him to retire into the workshop
of the philosopher. " These nine years passed away before 1
had come to any conclusion concerning the difficulties which
occasion the controversies of scholars, or had begun to lay
the foundations of a more certain philosophy than the tradi-
tional one. The example of so many eminent men who had
formed the same purpose before me, and who, as it seemed
to me, had failed, made me realize so many difficulties in the
work, that I would not have ventured on it so soon, had not
the report gone out that I had already completed it. I do
not know what were the grounds of this opinion; and if
any expressions of mine gave rise to it, this must have hap-
pened rather from my having confessed my ignorance more
frankly than scholars are in the habit of doing, and expounded
the reasons for doubting many things that seemed certain to
many, than from having boasted of a system of iDhilosophy.
But, too honorable to be willing to be more highly esteemed
than I deserved, I thought I ought to bend all my energies
to the task of making myself worthy of my reputation. I
therefore resolved, exactly eight years ago, to avoid every
place where it was possible for me to meet acquaintances.

DESCAETES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 207

and to retire to a land where the long duration of war has
resulted in such discipline that the armies maintained only
enable the inhabitants to enjoy more securely the fruits of
peace, and where in the midst of a great and very busy
people, more careful of their own affairs than curious about
others', I have been able to live, without dispensing with the
advantages of the most populous cities, as solitary and re-
tired as in the midst of the most distant desert." ^

Two conditions were necessary to enable Descartes to
devote himself to his work with complete freedom, — a favor-
able climate, and undisturbed solitude. France and Paris
offered neither : he found both in Holland, whither he went
in the beginning of the spring of 1629, exactly ten years after
he left Breda. He took the utmost precautions against every
interruption. He bade farewell to his family by letter, and
took leave in Paris of only his most intimate friends. The
Abb6 Picot had charge of his business matters, Mersenne of
his literary affairs : in particular, the greater part of the letters
that Descartes wrote to France, and received from thence,
passed through Mersenne's hands. Importunate curiosity
should not discover where he lived. He concealed his place
of residence even by false dates, frequently changed it, and
preferred those that were most out of the way, — suburbs,
villages, remote country-houses. For his correspondence in
Holland, also, he had friendly agents in different places, —
Beeckman in Dort, Bloemaert in Haarlem, Reynier in Am-
sterdam, Hooghland in Leyden. He lived in his retirement
like a nomad, "like the Jews in the deserts of Arabia." Dur-
ing his twenty years in Holland (1629-49), he changed his
residence twenty-four times, and lived in thirteen different
places. I mention Amsterdam, Franeker, Deventer, Utrecht,,
Amersfort, Leeuwarden, the abbey of Egmond in Alkmaar,
Egmond van Hoef, Harderwijk on the Zuyder Zee, Leyden,
and the palace of Endegeest near Leyden. He was there
entirely master of his time, and his mode of life : he could
1 (Euvres, t. i., Discours de la M^thode, part iii. pp. 155, 156.

208 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

live in populous cities, finding abundant diversion in society,
and in intercourse with his friends, and as soon as he desired
to return to his work, he could retire to the most out-of-the-
way places, where no bore troubled him. There he was
safer than in the suburb of St. Germain. In such solitude
originated and matured the works which made him the
founder of modern philosophy, and an object of admiration
to the world. Franeker and Leeuwarden in Friesland, Harde-
wijk in Guelders, Endegeest near Leyden, and Egmond in
North Holland, were the places where his most iiuportant
works originated. The palace of Endegeest is still conse-
crated by the memory of Descartes. In Franeker, whither
he had gone from Amsterdam, soon after he left France (he
wrote his name, '■'■ lienatus Descartes Gallus philosophus" iu
the register of the University of Amsterdam), he dwelt in a
lonely palace which was separated from the city by a moat,
and wrote there the first sketch of his " Meditations," which
were finished ten years later in Harderwijk (1639-40). In
Leeuwarden his " Essays " originated, during the winter of
1635-36, which were introduced by the "Discours de la
M^thode," his first published work. In Endegeest he planned
the " Principles," his most important philosophical work
(1641-43), and finished it in Egmond. This was one of the
most beautiful villages in North Holland, and Descartes
liked best to stay there, and, indeed, did stay there longer
than anywhere else. His first stay there was during the
winter of 1637-38, immediately after the publication of his
" Essays : " his last was during the years 1643-49, — the last
period of his solitude in Holland, which was interrupted by
three journeys to France, made in 1644, 1647, and 1648.

Descartes' life in Holland can accordingly be divided into
three periods, the first of which precedes the publication
of his important works (1629-36) ; the second includes it
(1637-44); the third succeeds it (1644-49). During the
first, Descartes lived for the most part in Amsterdam,
Deventer, Utrecht, and Leeuwarden, after he left Franeker ;

DESCARTES; THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 209

he lived during the second, first in Egmond, then in Harder-
wijk, Amersfort, Amsterdam, Leyden, and the castle of
Endegeest; he spent the third in Egmond. Directly after
the sketch of the "Meditations," which were finished in
their first form in December, 1629, Descartes began a com-
prehensive and important work, in which he intended to
explain the world according to liis new principles: it was
to be called "Cosmos," and was to be his first published
work. It was about finished, when, for reasons hereafter
to be stated, he determined not to publish it at all. He
was engaged in this work during the years 1630-33. After
he had thus abandoned the idea of appearing before the
public as instructor of the world in this first essay, he
hesitated whether he should not give it up forever.

Directly after this, occurred an episode not provided for
in the method of his life ; but inclination is often more
powerful than principle. In the winter of 1684-35, he
became acquainted with a lady in Amsterdam, with whom
he fell in love, and whom he made his wife without observ-
ing the forms of marriage. She bore him a daughter (in
Deventer, July 19, 1635), who was named " Francine Des-
cartes," and whom he cared for with tender love. But he
was not long to experience the happiness of a father: the
child died in Amersford, Sept. 7, 1640.1

Descartes thoroughly enjoyed the independence and leisure
which he had always desired, and which he found for the
first time in the Netherlands in undivided measure. Some
of his letters, particularly those of the first year, reveal a
most cheerful and contented state of mind, which communi-
cates itself to the reader. He described his idyllic life in
Holland, in the happiest mood, to Balzac, the well-known
protegS of Richelieu, by whom he was esteemed as a his-
toriographer and stylist. Descartes wrote to Balzac from

1 All further details are unknown. In the records of haptism of the
Reformed Church in Deventer, the mother is called " Hilene, fille de Jean."
Cf. Millet : Histoire de Descartes, i. pp. 339, 340.

210 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Amsterdam in the spring of 1631, when the latter had
returned to Paris from his family estate : " I really had some
scruples about disturbing your quiet, and therefore pre-
ferred not to write until you were no longer enjoying the
solitude of the country. Though I intended to write the
first week, I have left you undisturbed for eighteen months,
during the whole of your' absence from home, and you have
not once thanked me. But now that you are again in Paris,
I must beg for my part of the time that is wasted by so
many importunate visitors, and say to you, that, in the two
years I have spent in foreign land, I have not once been
tempted to return to Paris ; and only since I have known
that you were there has it been possible for me to be hap-
pier elsewhere than here. And were it not that my work
restrains me, — the most important, in my poor judgment, in
which I can engage, — the wish to enjoy your conversation
and to see the birth of all those powerful thoughts which we
admire in your writings, would alone be strong enough to
drive me from this place. Do not ask me, I beg you, what
the work is which seems so important to me ; for I should be
ashamed to tell you. I have become so much of a philoso-
pher, that I set but little value on much that the world
esteems, while I put a high estimate on other things that
are usually considered worthless. Yet I know that you do
not think with the vulgar: you judge me more favorably
than I deserve, and at some convenient time I will talk with
you frankly about my labors. To-day, only this : I am not
in the humor to write books. I do not despise renown when
one is really able, as you are, to earn a great and solid
reputation. But to the middling and uncertain fame that I
perhaps might hope for, I prefer the peace and quiet of mind
which I have here. I sleep here every night ten hours,
without being awakened by a single care. I dream only of
beautiful things, of woods and gardens and the enchanted
palaces of legends ; and when I awake I find myself with still
greater delight in the actual world which surrounds me.

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 211

Nothing but your presence is wanting." When Balzac
answered that he was iifclined to go to Holland, and live
also among the hermits, Descartes replied, " I thought that
I was dreaming, and rubbed my eyes, when I read that you
thought of coming here. And yet it is not at all strange
that a noble spirit like yours should no longer endure the
restraints of a court ; and if God has prompted you, as you
write, to leave the life of the world, I should sin against the
Holy Spirit if I should seek to dissuade you from such a
resolve. Rather, I invite you to choose Holland, and to
prefer it, not merely to the cloisters of all Capuchins and
Carthusians, to which so many honorable people retire, but
also to the most beautiful residences of France and Italy, —
even to that renowned hermitage where you sojourned last
year. A country-house, however well furnished, always
lacks many conveniences which one finds in a city, and even
the solitude which one hopes for in the country is never
perfect there. I admit that you may find there a brook so
magical in its beauty that it turns the greatest talkers into
dreamers ; a lovely vale, that rejoices and delights you : but
there are likewise a multitude of neighbors, who make visits
far more inconvenient than those which one receives in
Paris. But in this great city I am the only man who is not
engaged in business ; and every one else is so entirely occu-
pied with his own interests, that I could spend my entire life
here without being noticed by any one. I take a daily walk
in the midst of a multitude of people, as freely and quietly
as you do in your gardens. And I note the men about me as
I would the trees in your gardens, or the animals in your
meadows. Even the noise of traffic disturbs my reveries as
little as would the murmur of a brook. With the same
pleasure with which you regard the peasants as they culti-
vate your fields, I observe that the labor of all these people
contributes to make the place where I live more beautiful
and comfortable. And as the sight of rich, ripening fruits is
a pleasure to you, so I see with delight ships sailing into our

212 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

harbor, laden with the productions of both Indias and the
rarities of Europe. Nowhere in thi world can all the pleas-
ures of life be had as easily as here. There is no country
in which civil freedom is more complete, security greater,
crime rarer, the simplicity of ancient manners more perfect,
than here. I do not understand why you prefer Italy, where
the heat of the day is unendurable, the coolness of the even-
ing unhealthy, the darkness of the night dangerous since it
conceals robbers and murderers. You fear the winter of the
North ; but what shade, what fans, what springs, can so well
protect you from the heat of Rome as you can here be kept
from the cold by a stove and a good fire ? Come therefore
to Holland : I await you with a little collection of my fan-
cies that may not, perhaps, displease you." ^

After the publication of his first work, it was reported
that Richelieu intended to make the pliilosopher offei*s to
induce him to return to Paris. " I do not believe," writes
Descartes to Mersenne, "that the cardinal will condescend
to think of a man like me. Moreover, between ourselves,
there is nothing less suited to my plans than the air of Paris,
on account of the numerous distractions which are there
unavoidable. And as long as I can live as I choose, I will
rather stay in a village in any country you can mention,
where the visits of the neighbors are as little troublesome as
here in a corner of North Holland. This is my only reason
for preferring this country to my own, and I am now so ac-
customed to it that I have no wish to change my residence." ^

We add to these passages from his letters a sentence from
the beginning of the " Meditations," one of the first which
Descartes wrote iji that retired castle in the city of Franeker :
" The present is favorable ; I am free from care, and enjoy
undisturbed leisure ; I am living in solitude, and will now

1 The first letter was written. In Cousin's opinion, March 29, 1631; the
second. May 15 of the same year. Balzac's answer was written between
them, April 25, 1631. (CEuvres, t. vi. pp. 197-203.)

'' This letter was evidently written in Egmond, May 27, 1638. (CEuvres,
t. vii. p. 155.)

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 213

apply myself earnestly and freely to my task, which at first
requires the complete overthrow of all my opmions."

II. INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN THE NETHERLANDS.

1. The State of Culture. — Holland, however, would scarcely
have been his " beloved hermitage," as he called it, if it had
not likewise afforded opportunities for the most active intel-
lectual intercourse. The Netherlands were then one of the
first centres of every kind of culture. Art and science, the
humanitarian and exact sciences, were in full bloom. Prot-
estantism had given new life to, and excited new contro-
versies in, the Church and theology ; which had quickened
its neighbor Catholicism also. In Leyden, the controversy
already mentioned between the Arminians and the Gomarists
had been kindled; in Lyons, Jansenism arose, which in
France came in contact with the doctrine of Descartes, and
was in part friendly to it. The universities of the Nether-
lands stood in the van of intellectual culture : new ones were
being founded. Particular mention must be made of the
University of Utrecht (established in 1636), where the first
school of the new philosophy was formed, and where it found
its most violent opponents. Science, learning, universal
culture, were the order of the day, and spread in the circles
of society like a fashion, even among women. Out of the
wealth of the interests of culture, there was developed in
receptive and gifted women a scientific, scholarly, and artistic
culture, which, even in its most masculine forms, was com-
patible with womanliness ; and, in spite of the astonishment
which they excited, they did not make the impression of
artificially educated "blue-stockings."

2. Anna Maria von Schurmann. — Anna Maria Schurmann
(1607-78) was then the most remarkable example of this
class, " the star of Utrecht, the tenth Muse, the Minerva of
Holland," as her admirers called her, a real prodigy of learn-
ing and varied culture. She learned the ancient languages
even in her childhood; read Seneca, Virgil, and Homer. To

214 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

these she added the modern languages, Italian, Spanish,
French, and English. She wrote Latin with the accuracy
of a philologist, French with the elegance of a Balzac. To
read the Bible in the original texts, she studied the Shemitic
languages and dialects ; and not merely understood but
wrote Hebrew. She wrote letters, and composed essays and
poems, in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French. She edited
Spanheim in 1648, and seven years before published a Latin
work in defence of the scientific and scholarly cultivation of
women. She was versed in poetry, rhetoric, dialectics, math-
ematics, and philosophy, even in the problems of meta-
physics. She was likewise acquainted with the fine arts : she
painted with publicly acknowledged talent, and was expert
in sculpture and copper-engraving, even in the plastic arts.
She set little value on all this culture in comparison with
the study of the Bible, the Church Fathers, and scholasti-
cism. She knew Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas, but did
not care to know any thing of the new philosophy. Her
deepest interests > were religious, which, at last, were not
satisfied in the orthodox Church of the Netherlands. She
desired a Church of Christ, which, like the primitive com-
munities of the elect, should live in perfect renunciation of
the world and in brotherly intercourse, filled by no other
love than the " amor crucifixusr Her instructor and guide
in Utrecht had been Voetiiis, the most bitter opponent of
Descartes. She finally followed the French preacher Lahadie,
who had gone over to Calvinism from the Jesuits, and was
then preaching in favor of the community of the elect.
He was the Roumanian forerunner, and in certain respects
the type, of Spener, who founded German pietism. She was
already an old woman when she called this man to the
Netherlands (1667), and wandered with the exile into
foreign lands. ^

1 Gottfr. Arnold's Impartial History of the Church and Heretics, bd. ii.
(Schaffhausen, 1741), chap. xxi. pp. 307-319. Dr. P. Tschackert : A. M. von
Schurmann, the Star of Utrecht, the disciple of Labadie (Gotha, 1876).

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 215

Many years before, more, indeed, than a generation, Des-
cartes visited the famous woman in Utrecht, and found her
engaged in studying the Mosaic account of creation. An im-
passable chasm lay between the biblical Genesis, and the clear
and distinct knowledge of the origin of the world which Des-
cartes required, and sought to give in his " Cosmos." The
philosopher remarked that for the explanation of things one
could learn nothing from Moses; and was afterwards regarded
by the zealous pupil of Voetins as a " profane man," against
whom one must be on his guard. A passage relating to that
conversation is cited from her writings, in which she thanks
God that the "profane man" found no hearing with her.
She saw in Descartes an ungodly philosopher ; he in her,
great talent for art, which Voetius had spoiled with his
theology, — so he said in one of his letters.^

m. THE COUNTESS-PALATINE ELIZABETH.

It appeared that this "Minerva of Holland" sought to
rival Descartes in her influence upon one of the ablest and
most interesting women of the time, whom a tragic fate
had led into the asylum of the Netherlands. The family
of Frederick V. of the Palatinate, who had lost the crown of
Bohemia in the battle of Prague, and had been deprived
of his hereditary states in Germany, lived in The Hague,
fugitives and exiles. With the death of Gustavus Adolphus,
his last hope departed. He survived him only a few days
(November, 1632), leaving eleven of the thirteen children
whom his wife, Elizabeth Stuart, had borne him ; among
them four daughters, the oldest of whom was the Princess
Elizabeth (1618-80). There has been, in modern times, no
royal family which has suffered so many strange and tragical
experiences of an extraordinary character as this, and which,
on the other hand, has received greater and more extraordi-
nary gifts from fortune, and is more interesting in its

1 Foucher de Careil : Descartes et la Princesse-Palatine (Par. 1862), pp.
61-63.

216 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

descendants. Frederick V. was deprived of two crowns,
and ended his life in misfortune and exile. His widow, in
the midst of her numerous family, led, as ex-queen of
Bohemia, a kind of court life in exile. The eldest son was
drowned in the Zuyder Zee (1629). Rupert, the third son,
gained and lost a reputation as a commander of cavalry ia
the English civil war. His brother Maurice went to Amer-
ica, and no one knew what became of him. Edward, the
next brother, went to France secretly, and joined the Catholic
Church (1645). The second daughter, Louise HoUandine
(1622-1709), followed his example : she became the famous
and notorious abbess of Maubuisson. Philip, next to the
youngest of the sons, killed, on a public street, a French
nobleman. Marquis d'Epinay, who had insidiously attacked
him the day before (June, 1646) ; he was banished by his
mother forever, — out of revenge, it seems, since she was
said to be more devoted to that nobleman than befitted
the dignity of the queen, the mother, and the matron. The
Countess-palatine Elizabeth, her elder brother Charles Louis
(1617-80), and her youngest sister Sophia (1630-1714),
through their personal importance, and the importance of
their destinies, were undoubtedly the first of the children
of the unfortunate elector. The hereditary rights of Charles
Louis were restored by the peace of Westphalia, and through
the ability of his administration he became the restorer of
the Palatinate after the devastations of the Thirty Years'
War. His daughter was the excellent Charlotte Elizabeth,
the Duchess of Orleans, who knew how to preserve her
loyalty to Germany, and maintain the rank of the Palatinate,
at the court of Louis XIV. Her son, Philip of Orleans,
was regent ; her uncle was the Emperor Francis L, the hus-
band of Maria Theresa. Sophia, the youngest daughter of
Frederick, was the pride of the family of the Palatinate.
She was the first electress of Hanover, "the great electress;"
her son George was the first king of Great Britain of the
house of Hanover ; her daughter, Sophia Charlotte, was the

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 217

first queen of Prussia. That these three showed favor to
the greatest philosophers of the century, increased their
posthumous fame. Charles Louis, a man of the most toler-
ant spirit, invited Spinoza to take the chair of philosophy
in Heidelberg ; Sophia and her daughter chose Leibnitz for
their intimate friend and counsellor ; and the Princess Eliza-
beth was the most enthusiastic pupil of Descartes.

She had spent her childhood, the first years of " the Thirty
Years' WajT," with her grandmother Juliana, the daughter of
the great Prince of Orange, at Krosse in Mark-Brandenburg,
far from her parents. Under the care of this highly cultivated
woman, the powers of Elizabeth were awakened at an early
age, and her taste for the sciences and the languages was cul-
tivated when she was very young. When she went, in the
first bloom of her youth, to the court of her mother in The
Hague, her charms and talents soon made her celebrated.
One of the first objects of her admiration was the "star of
Utrecht," in whom the intelligent and aspiring Elizabeth saw
a brilliant exemplar. She became acquainted with Schur-
mann, and carried on a friendly correspondence with her.
Summoned by extraordinary events from the usual career of
princesses, Elizabeth was firmly resolved to devote herself en-
tirely to intellectual pursuits. When (1638) she rejected the
suit of the Polish king, she had just begun to study the doc-
trine of Descartes. She was nineteen years old when the phi-
losopher published his first work. She read the " Discourse,"
the " Essays," and the " Meditations," and then wished to see
and become acquainted with their author. She felt in sym-
pathy with his view of life ; and his doctrine, and mode of
instruction, so fascinated her by their depth and clearness,
that all that she had learned before seemed worthless in com-
parison. She belonged to the rare class who could under-
stand and judge the mathematician and the metaphysician
with equal success. Then the " star of Utrecht " paled be-
fore the constellation of Descartes. She made the acquaint-
ance of the philosopher, which she had wished for so ardently.

218 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

He responded to the veneration of the young princess with a
full heart, and became her teacher and friend as long as he
lived, — the most faithful, perhaps, that she ever had. In
order to be near her, Descartes took up his residence in the
palace of Endegeest, in the spring of 1641. He dedicated to
her his most important work, the " Principles of Philosophy "
(1644) ; for her recreation in the days of her bodily and men-
tal affliction, he wrote, in the spring of 1645, the letters on
human happiness (a subject discussed by Seneca in, his books
" De Vita Beata "), which formed a part of his theory of
ethics, and resulted in "The Passions of the Soul," the last
work which he himself published, and which he composed in
the winter of 1646, and immediately sent to his friend the
princess. There is no more beautiful memorial of the Prin-
cess Elizabeth than the letter with which Descartes dedicated
his most important work to her : " The greatest advantage I
have derived from my writings is the honor of becoming
acquainted with your highness, and of being permitted at
times to converse with you, and thus becoming a witness of
your rare and estimable qualities ; and I am sure I shall do a
service to posterity by proposing them as an example. It
would be folly for me to flatter, or write what I am not
convinced of, on the first page of a book in which I aim to
expound the fundamental principles of knowledge. I know
your noble modesty, and am sure that the simple and frank
opinion of a man who only writes what he believes, will be
more agreeable to you than the ornate praises of those who
have studied the art of compliment. I shall say nothing in
this letter that I do not know by experience ; and shall write
here, as in the rest of the work, with the accuracy that befits
a philosopher." With a few strokes Descartes sketches the
true dignity of human nature, and draws the distinction be-
tween apparent virtues, which are like will-of-the-wisps, and
real virtues. Temerity is more conspicuous than true courage,
and prodigality than true generosity. Genuine goodness of
heart is considered less pious than superstition and hypocrisy.

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OP HIS LIFE. 219

Simplicity is often the source of goodness, and despair of
courage, and that which includes all virtues is wisdom. Wis-
dom apprehends the good distinctly, and firmly and constantly
performs it. It does not shine like the apparent virtues, and
is therefore less observed and so less praised ; but its demand
is for understanding and character. We cannot all have the
same faculties of knowledge, but we can have the same
strength of will. But where we find a union of a clear
understanding, and an earnest effort for culture, with strength
of will, there we find the flower of virtue. "These three
conditions are found in your highness in great perfection.
The amusements of a court, and the usual method of educat-
ing princesses, are unfavorable to study ; and that these obsta-
cles have been unable to prevent you from appropriating the
ripest fruits of the sciences, proves how earnestly you desire
knowledge, while the shortness of the time in which you
have made such attainments witnesses to the greatness of
your ability. But I have yet another proof, that relates to
me personally : I have met no one who has such a thorough
and comprehensive understanding of my writings as yourself.
^ Even among the best and most highly cultivated minds, there
are many that find them very obscure ; and it is almost always
the case, that those who are familiar with mathematics cannot
comprehend metaphysics, while those conversant with meta-
physics cannot understand mathematics. The only mind, as
far as my experience goes, to whom both alike are easy, is
yours ; and I am therefore compelled to regard it as incom-
parable. And what increases my admiration is, that it is not
an aged man, who has given many years to study, in whom
we find such comprehensive and scientific scholarship, but a
young princess whose charms rather resemble the Graces, as
the poets describe them, than the Muses or the wise Minerva.
I see in your highness all those excellences that are requisite
to pure and sublime wisdom on the part not merely of the
mind, but of the will and character ; magnanimity and gen-
tleness are united with a disposition which an unjust fortune

220 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

■with persistent persecutions has not been able to imbitter or
discourage. It is this high-minded wisdom which I reverence
in you ; and I dedicate to it, not merely this work, because it
treats of philosophy, which is the study of wisdom, but my-
self and my services."

In the same year that Elizabeth received this dedication,
Schurniann wrote her a letter which unmistakably cast a
wicked side-glance at Descartes. She acknowledged her rev-
erence for the doctors of the Church, who, with no wish to
be innovators, modestly trod the path "which Augustine and
Aristotle had pointed out, — those two great luminaries of the
science of human and divine things, whose light could not be
dimmed by any troubled clouds of error with which one
sought to obscure them." ^

The personal intercourse between Descartes and the prin-
cess was very active during his residence in Endegeest.
He had previously lived a year in Leyden (April, 1640-April,
1641), and then two years in a palace in the country, only a
half-mile away (April, 1641, to end of March, 1643), and went
from there through Amsterdam to Egmond, that he might be
completely undisturbed while he attended to the publication
of his " Principles." I do not know whether he saw the
princess after he went to Egmond, since it does not appear
from his letters, some of which are unfortunately lost. Their
correspondence began directly after their separation, and con-
tinued from the commencement of his residence in Egmond
(May, 1643), until after his arrival in Stockholm (October,
1649). She requested him to solve various problems in
philosophy, geometry, and natural philosophy. The first and
most important which she proposed to him related to the
union of the soul and body, the most important problem of
Descartes' system. In a series of letters, he discussed the

^ Foucher de Careil: Descartes et la Prinoesse-Palatine, pp. 11, 12. No one
has yet undertaken the instructive and valuable labor of writing a monograph
of Elizabeth. The above-mentioned work, with its ignorance of German life
and history, can scarcely be considered a contribution to it.

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 221

great question of the value and significance of human life
(May and June, 1645). Elizabeth sent him Machiavelli's
work on "Princes," with her comments, and requested his
(autumn of 1646); and it is worthy of remark, that Des-
cartes, already past fifty, first became acquainted with this
book through his pupil. Everywhere on the journey of life,
Descartes accompanied her with the most sympathetic and
friendly counsel. Dark days came to Elizabeth, — sickness
and misfortunes of every kind, the apostasy of a brother and
a sister from the faith of her father, dissensions in the family
of her mother, the overthrow of the Stuarts in England.
After the conversion of her brother Edward, and the execu-
tion of her uncle Charles I., Descartes wrote to console and
cheer her. He thought of Elizabeth and her unfortunate
family when he commenced corresponding with the Queen
of Sweden ; and he accepted the invitation to Stockholm, in
the hope of making the two princesses friends, and of caus-
ing the powerful influence of Sweden to be exerted in behalf
of Elizabeth and her house. Already he rejoiced in the pros-
pect of living with her, in the near future, in the court of
Heidelberg.

After the murder of the Marquis d'Epinay, Elizabeth was
obliged to leave The Hague, because she was suspected (prob-
ably without reason) of being an accessory to the crime. She
spent the next j^ears in Berlin, at the court of her cousin the
great elector. When her brother's hereditary rights were
restored, she returned to her paternal city, and lived at the
court of Heidelberg until the quarrels of Charles Louis and
his spouse, Charlotte of Hesse, set the brother and sister at
variance, and drove Elizabeth from Heidelberg. She became
imperial abbess of the Lutheran abbey of Herforden in West-
phalia, and died there on the anniversary of Descartes' death,
a generation after him (Feb. 11, 1680). She remained what
she had always been, — a gifted and profound student, able
to reconcile the interests of philosophy with those of religion.
She granted to her old friend Schurmann the asylum which

222 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

she asked for in Herforden (1670), when with Labadie and
the Church of Christ she was no longer tolerated in Amster-
dam ; and resolutely protected the congregation, which had
entered the country, from the hostilities of the State Church.
The same year she was visited by the English Quaker Wil-
liam Penn, who seemed to make a powerful impression upon
her. The storms of the world had beaten thickly upon the
aged princess, and she needed the peace which comes from
the renunciation of the world. But through all the changes
of her life, through changing events and moods and circum-
stances, she thanked Descartes for her highest intellectual
satisfaction ; and this is the recollection of the abbess also
which has been preserved.

DESCAETES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 223

CHAPTER V.

(6) THE DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLICATION OP THE WORKS.
I. THE "COSMOS."

1. Arrangement and Plan.

~^rOW that we have followed the important events in the
-'-^ life of Descartes during his residence in Holland, we
must direct our attention more particularly to his studies,
and the origin of the works to which his residence there
was devoted. In the foregoing chapter, we have touched
upon them in connection with the account of his life in
Holland, and shall give in the next book a systematic ex-
position of his doctrine : we have here, therefore, merely to
give the history of their development and publication, and shall
mention their contents only when it is necessary to the
understanding of their history.

The "Meditations " were completed, in their first form, in
Franeker, Dec. 28, 1629 ; and the foundation was thus laid
for a new explanation of things by the simplest and surest
principles discovered by methodical thought. Descartes'
first discovery was method ; and this led him to the principles
which required a new knowledge of the world, and at the
same time furnished the foundation for it. If he proposed
to write and publish his works in the order of the develop-
ment of his thoughts, the theory of method would come first;
the principles of metaphysics, second; and, last, cosmology,
the doctrine of nature and of man. From the scanty remains
of some writings composed in the years 1619-29, and from

224 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the accounts given by Baillet, it is probable that in a frag-
ment "Studium Bonse Mentis," and in the "Rules for the
Direction of the Mind," already mentioned, there were out-
lines of his theory of method.

But Descartes thought that it was safer, and for the in-
struction of the world better, to take the directly opposite
course, and assume his method and principles provisionally,
and let them stand their first examination by the world in
their application, that is, in the explanation of things. Such
a course seemed to him the best introduction to his philos-
ophy, and would require the world to judge it according to
the declaration, "By their fruits ye shall know them." To
understand the reasons for Descartes' plan, we must glance
at the fundamental thoughts of his system ; though I shall
rather state what they were, than enter into their proof.

For years he had been entirely occupied with this question :
What criterion infallibly distinguishes truth from error, true
conceptions from false ones, reality from imagination ? That
he had such a criterion, even in the last days of his residence
in Paris, was evident from his remarkable criticism of Chan-
doux. He had discovered that there is no such criterion in
our presentations ; that the so-called actual phenomena may
just as well be mere phantoms, and can in no way be distin-
guished from them. There remained, therefore, but one
certainty : not that our presentations denote actual things, or
that the objects which appear to us really exist, but that we
have fiuch presentations, that such objects appear to ms.
Certain only is it, that our act of presentation, that our
thought, is ; and, since each is certain only of his own thought,
the first incontestable fact is : I am thinking. / think : there-
fore I am. This perception is entirely clear and distinct :
what we know with the same clearness and distinctness has,
therefore, the same certainty. And now we find the criterion
we have been searching for: clear and distinct perception
decides concerning being and not-being; the clearness and
distinctness of a conception proves the reality of its object.

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 226

From the conception of a perfect Being, his existence is
clearly and distinctly evident ; from the nature of this Being,
follows his veracity ; and from this, the existence of the ma-
terial world. For, if there were no material world, its appar-
ent reality would be a deception, which would be inconsistent
with the truthfulness, and, therefore, with the perfection and
existence, of God. But if there really is a material world, it
must be capable of being clearly and distinctly known ; i.e.,
it must be a world arranged in harmony with laws, a scien-
tific object, a cosmos which we can comprehend. The clear
and distinct law of all happening is causality, the connection
of cause and effect, the necessity on account of which noth-
ing happens without a cause, and every thing alwaj's comes
from some other. If,* therefore, the world, the totality of
material things or nature, is explained by the law of caus-
ality, it is clearly and distinctly known ; and its reality is
thus proved, and the doubt that it may be a mere phantom
world is forever laid. These considerations open two paths
to the philosopher : he can go from universal doubt to the
single certainty of his own thinking being, and, from the
vantage-ground here won of the criterion of truth, discover
the existence of God in the conception of him, and, by means
of this, his veracity, and hence the reality of the material
world, and its knowableness ; and thus vindicate the problem
of the natural sciences. Or, he can begin with the solution
of this problem, prove the existence of the world by our
clear and distinct conception of it, and thus reach the goal
already arrived at in his metaphysical investigations. The
first path is metaphysical, the second physical : that is deduc-
tive, this inductive, in relation to the entire system and its
grounding. In the second, what metaphysics requires is
proved by things, as- it were, ad oculos. Physics forms the
basis on which rests the validity of our philosophical princi-
ples : it tests their correctness. If there is a possible science
of the world, there is a world in harmony with law, its ex-
istence is beyond doubt, and the existence of bodies is as

226 HISTOKY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

certain as the existence of God and the soul. If nature
obeys law, it can be known distinctly, and is therefore not
merely imagined but real.

Descartes takes this path. He intends to give a clear and
distinct picture of the world, if only in a comprehensive out-
line, that he may thus assure the victory in advance to his
most fundamental thoughts. He could not have proceeded
more pedagogically. He, therefore, discontinues his meta-
physical inquiries, and enters upon a series of physical re-
searches, which he intends to compress in a single work,
explaining the world in its broad outlines from the heavenly
bodies down to those of human beings. He calls it "Le
Monde," according to his subject. This cosmology was the
first of his works intended for the world. He sought to
derive the world from the laws of matter, to cause it to arise,
as it were, before our eyes, and leave the reader to discover
that this world, so explained, and presented to him merely
•as an hypothesis, is identical with the world we live in.

First the origin of light out of chaos, then the formation
of the heavens and the heavenly bodies, luminous stars, fixed
stars and suns, of the opaque heavenly bodies, planets, comets,
and the earth, are pointed out ; then the history of the earth,
'the formation of its atmosphere, surface, and productions, are
stated ; the origin of the elements, of the ebb and flow of
'tides, of the currents of water and air (winds), of seas and
mountains, of springs and streams, of metals and plants, of
the bodies of animals and men, down to the union of body
and soul, which constitutes the entire man, and forms the
point of departure of mental and moral life. Here arise
the questions concerning the essential difference between soul
and body, the union of the two in man, the freeing of the
mental and spiritual life from the fetters of the body. The
first is metaphysical ; the second, psychological ; the third,
ethical. The doctrine of principles forms the foundation of
cosmology, and the doctrine of the soul its boundary. The
doctrine of morals is the most importaiit, as well as the final,

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 227

chapter of his practical philosophy, which has first to explain
the motion of physical bodies by means of machinery, and
then the proper method of treating, nursing, and healing the
human body. The theory of motion in its relations to prac-
tice is mechanics ; anthropology, from the same point of view,
is the science of medicine ; and the theory of the spiritual na-
ture of man, considered in the same relation, is ethics. These
are the fruit-bearing branches of the tree of knowledge,
whose root is metaphysics, and whose trunk is the philosophy
of nature. This trunk Descartes wished to expound in his
" Cosmos." " I wished to embrace in it all that I had learned
of the nature of material things before I took it up. But as
a painter on a plane surface cannot represent all the different
sides of a real object, and, therefore, selects one of the most
important, puts that in the light, but leaves the rest in
shadow, and represents them perspectively, so I feared that
it would be impossible for me to comprise all my thoughts in
my work : I therefore decided to give a minute exposition of
my theory of light, and, along with this, to treat of the sun
and the fixed stars, because these objects are almost the only
sources of light ; also, of the medium between the heavenly
bodies, because light passes through it ; of planets, comets,
and the earth, because they reflect it ; and, particularly, of all
terrestrial objects, because they are either colored, transpar-
ent, or luminous ; and, finally, of man, because he considers
all these objects. But that I might discuss all these things
with greater security, and express my opinions with more
freedom, without being obliged to accept or refute the the-
ories heretofore accepted, I resolved to leave this entire
world here below to the disputes of lecturers, and to inquire
what would happen in a new one if God should cause the
material for it to arise somewhere in imaginary space, to
move in the condition of chaos, and to act according to fixed
and unchangeable laws. Every thing in this world of mine
was to happen in the most natural and intelligible manner.
I showed how the greatest part of matter would have to

228 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

order itself in obedience to those laws, and assume a form
similar to that of our heavens, how some parts would become
an earth, others planets and comets, others suns and fixed
stars. Then I gave a detailed account of the origin, prog-
ress, and reflection of light ; and left it to the reader to
observe, that, in the heavenly bodies of the actual world, noth-
ing is to be found that must hot or can not resemble the
world which I described. At this point I began to speak
more particularly of the earth, and I showed how without
the assumption of gravity all its parts continually gravitate
towards the centre ; how, under the influence of the heavenly
bodies, particularly the moon, an ebb and flow arises on its
surface (which is covered with air and water) first of our
seas, and then a motion of the water and air from east
to west like that noticed in our tropics ; how mountains and
seas, springs and streams, are naturally formed, metals come
in mines, plants grow in fields, and how in general compound
bodies are produced. And since fire is the only cause of light
in the world, excepting the heavenly bodies, I endeavored to
give an exact explanation of its origin, preservation, and
mode of action." ^

Descartes had already engaged in studies in optics, with a
view to his investigation of light; and he continued them
uninterruptedly. For the explanation of the complex bodies
on the surface of the earth, particularly of animal and human
bodies, he needed a knowledge bf chemistry, anatomy, and
medicine ; and he sought to gain it in a practical way. In
Amsterdam, where he resided after he left Franeker, he was
engaged during the winter of 1630, especially, with studies in
anatomy, which he pursued with the greatest zeal. He him-
self bought from a butcher parts of the bodies of animals,
and dissected them : he wished to be able to explain the
minutest part of the body of an animal as precisely as the
formation of a crystal of salt or a flake of snow. While he

1 CEuvres, 1., Dis. de la Mdth., part. v. pp. 168-172 (I have given tbe most
Important passage, with some abbreviations).

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 229

was engaged in these studies, he was meditating on the plan
of the " Cosmos," but he wrote almost nothing.

2. Composition, and Prevention of Publication. — At last he
began to write, and told his friend Mersenne in April, 1630,
that he had made a beginning, and hoped to be able to send
him the completed work not far from the beginning of 1633.
Soon he was under full headway. "I am just now busy
bringing order out of chaos, and deducing light from it, —
one of the greatest and most difficult labors in which I can
ever engage, since it contains almost the whole of cosmology.^
Two years after the first report (April, 1632), he thought he
could find the key to the deepest human knowledge of mate-
rial things, the explanation of the order that prevails in the
world of the fixed stars, and determines their position. For
some months he did nothing to the work, but he still hoped
to reach the conclusion before the time indicated : later the
date of the conclusion was fixed at Easter. Shortly before
this time (March, 1638), he proceeded from his account
of the heavenly bodies and the earth, to the explanation of
terrestrial bodies and their different properties, and con-
sidered whether he should also investigate the origin of ani-
mals in this work. He decided to exclude this matter, to
avoid increasing the size of his book. It had already grown
under his hands, and could no longer serve, as he originally
intended, for a convenient "afternoon's reading." "■* Only
something concerning human nature still remained to be
added. So far he had gone, at the beginning of June, 1633,
during his residence in Deventer. " I shall treat of man to
a greater extent than I proposed : I intend to explain the
principal functions of his body, and have already given an
account of some of them, as digestion, beating of the pulse,
distribution of nutritious matter, the action of the 'five senses,
etc. I have dissected the heads of various animals, in order

1 CEuvres, t. vi. p. 181. (It is uncertain wliether this letter was written
June, 1630, or Jan. 10, 1631.)
' CEuvres, t. vi. p. 101.

230 HISTORY OF MODEEN PHILOSOPHY.

to ascertain in what memory, imagination, etc., consist." In
the midst of his labor he received and read Harvey's famous
work " On the Motion of the Heart " (" De Motu Cordis "),
which had been published five years before. Mersenne had
repeatedly called his attention to it. "I find my opinions
but little different from his, although I had written my own
explanation of the matter before I read his book." ^

Suddenly the work stopped, and its conclusion seemed to
be indefinitely postponed. " My essay," he wrote July 22,
1633, "is almost finished; I have only to make some correc-
tions, and copy it : but I have such an aversion towards it,
that, if I had not promised three years ago to send it to you
before the end of this year, it might be a long time before I
should be able to finish it. Nevertheless, I will try to keep
my promise." ^

What had happened ? In this work, which lacked only a
final revision, he had explained the universe on mathematical-
mechanical principles, in accordance with the law of causal-
ity, setting forth the motion of the earth as a necessary link
in the mechanical order of the heavenly bodies. Now, the
Copernican system had been defended by Galileo, and just
then in a new work under the form of an hypothesis. His
famous dialogue on the two most important astronomical sys-
tems appeared in 1632, and was condemned exactly four
weeks before Descartes wrote the above letter.^ Descartes
had not then heard of the sentence, though he had been
informed of the trial. But that was enough to make his
work disagreeable to him. The decision against Galileo
was published in Li6ge, Sept. 20, 1633 ; and Descartes then
learned that the doctrine of the motion of the earth was not
tolerated, even as an hypothesis, since the sentence of con-
demnation contains these words : " quamvis hypothetice a se
illam proponi simularet." Almost a year passed by before he
read the work itself (August, 1684); and then hastily, since
it was lent to him secretly, only for a number of hours. He

3 CEuvres, t. vi. p. 235. 2 lb., pp. 237, 238. » See lutroduotion, pp. 135, 136.

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 231

suddenly saw himself threatened by one of those conflicts
which he wished to avoid on principle. He saw, that, if he
published his work as it was, he would provoke a contest
with the Church, and that he would be regarded as one of
those dangerous innovators whom he himself disliked.
Unless he were willing to mutilate his work, and so make it
absurd, there was nothing left for him but to keep it secret,
and decline every proposal to publish his thoughts. " I am
like wicked debtors," he wrote to Mersenne, Nov. 28, 1633,
" who are always asking their creditors for more time, as soon
as they see the day for payment drawing near. I had really
intended to send you my ' Cosmos ' as a New-Year's present ;
and about two weeks ago I was entirely resolved to send at
least a part of it to you, if the whole should not be then
copied. But I have just been inquiring in Leyden and Am-
sterdam whether Galileo's system of the universe can there
be found, since I thought I had heard that it had been pub-
lished in Italy the previous year. I am now informed that it
was certainly printed, but that every copy of it was imme-
diately burnt in Eome, and that Galileo himself was sen-
tenced to do penance. This has so strongly affected me, that
I have almost resolved to burn all my manuscript, or at least
to show it to no one. And I am the more inclined to this
resolution, because it at once occurs to me, that Galileo, who
is an Italian, and, as I am informed, has been in favor with
the Pope, is charged with no other crime than his doctrine of
the motion of the earth, which, as I know, some cardinals had
before pronounced heretical. But in spite of it, if my in-
formation is correct, it has continued to be propagated even
in Rome ; and I confess, that, if it is false, all the principles of
my philosophy are erroneous, since they mutually support each
other ; and it is so closely connected with all the parts of my
work, that I cannot leave it out without fatally injuring the
rest. But on no account will I publish any thing that con-
tains a single word that might displease the Church, and I
will rather suppress it altogether than allow it to appear in a

232 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

mutilated condition. I never was inclined to book-making ;
and if I had not promised the work to you and some other
friends, that the desire to keep my promise might stimulate
me to more vigorous application, I should never have gone
so far. But, after all, I am sure that you will not send an
officer to force me to pay my debts, and perhaps you will be
glad to be spared the pains of reading worthless stuff. How-
ever, I cannot in a sudden humor break so many promises
repeated so often during so many years. I will therefore lay
my work before you as soon as possible, and beg only for a
year's delay that I may have an opportunity to revise it. You
yourself quoted to me that sentence from Horace, Nonumque
prematur in annum ; and but three years have passed since I
began the work I intend to send you. "Write me, I beg you,
what you hear of Galileo's matter." In the next letter,
which was lost on the way, he recalled this tardy promise.
" You will find my reasons excellent," he wrote Jan. 10, 1634,
" and you will not have the least disposition to blame me for
withholding my work : rather, you would be the first to sug-
gest it. I am sure you know that Galileo was condemned by
the Inquisition a short time ago, and his doctrine of the
motion of the earth pronounced herfetical. Now, the various
conclusions of my essay form a chain, and this view of the
motion of the earth is one of its links ; and, if any one of my
positions is false, all my arguments are invalid. And, how-
ever certain and evident they might seem to me, I would
on no account maintain them in opposition to the authority
of the Church. I am well aware that the decision of a Roman
inquisition is not a dogma, that the vote of a council is ne-
cessary to that ; but I am by no means so enamoured of my
thoughts as to wish to invoke such extraordinary means for
their protection. I desire quiet ; I have guided my life so
far according to the motto. Bene vixit bene qui latuit, and I
intend to continue to do so. I am now rid of the fear of
having sinned against a desirable moderation of judgment in
my work, and this pleasant consciousness more than counter-

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 233

balances the vexation at the time and labor lost." In a sub-
sequent letter, Mersenne, who ardently desired to become
acquainted with the work, jokingly said that somebody would
murder Descartes yet in order to be able to read it sooner.
" I had to laugh," answered Descartes^ " when I read that
passage. My writings are so thoroughly concealed that a
murderer would hunt for them in vain, and I shall have been
dead a hundred years before the world comes in possession
of them." ^ Nevertheless, at another time he did not posi-
tively declare that the work would not appear, either in his
lifetime or after his death. He wrote to one of his best
friends, de Beaune (June, 1639), who earnestly requested him
not to keep his work secret longer, since it might easily be
lost : " We let fruit hang on the tree as long as it improves,
although we know very well that storms, hail, and other
disasters may destroy it at any moment. Now, my work is
such a fruit, and we can never pluck it late enough." ^ It
happened as de Beaune feared. Only a short sketch, reduced
to the limits originally intended, which was afterwards written
or revised by Descartes, was found in his unpublished writ-
ings after his death, under the title " The World, or an Essay
on Light" (1664).

An unforeseen catastrophe had caused the philosopher to
retrace the first step he had taken towards a literary career ;
and it was necessary to become accurately acquainted with
his feelings and reasons, as stated in his own letters, in
order to understand it. It is true that he feared the fate of
Galileo: he saw here a collision between a doctrine which
he believed, and an authority which, in accordance with
the practical principles of his life, he held worthy of honor.
The case had arisen in which, according to his principles,
theory should retire p favor of the absolute value of politi-
cal'and ecclesiastical interests. He felt this conflict in all

1 CEuvres, pp. 242, 243, 13T, 138. The letter was written in the summer of
1637, after the publication of the Discoura de la Me'thode.
a CEuvres, t. viii. p. 127.

234 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

its seriousness, and yet without a trace of the courage of
the reformer which dares, and even desires, opposition.
And he made no secret, either to himself or to others, of his
timidity. Nevertheless, we should not correctly understand,
and could not therefore correctly judge, Descartes' conduct
if we regarded this motive as the only one. He might
have avoided the conflict, left his work unpublished, and
yet have felt the necessity for such a course as painful in
the extreme. But this was by no means the case. On the
contrary, the fate of Galileo was to him a most welcome
reason for freeing himself from an oppressive obligation.
His promises to write and publish the work imposed upon
him a necessity more painful than the alternative demanded
by the Inquisition. Now he could say, " I need not keep
my promise: I can keep my thoughts to myself; I am no
longer in debt to the public, for it will not have my work."
Evidently relieved and in excellent humor, he wrote, in this
mood, to his friends. And he afterwards declared himself
to the world in the same strain, in his first published work.
After he had stated his reasons for entering upon a literary
career, he spoke quite openly of the hinderance which had
occurred, and he declared frankly : " Although my resolu-
tion had been fixed, nevertheless my deep aversion to book-
making permitted me to find other reasons sufficient to
excuse me." ^ The condemnation of Galileo served as a
convenient and welcome reason for declining to publish his
works.

It would have been right if Descartes had adhered to the
resolution, formed for such reasons, to withhold his doctrine
of the motion of the earth. That he disguised it in a cer-
tain manner, that it might be accepted without hesitation,
is a graver fault. Here his truthfulness came in conflict
with his policy, and the truth had to suffer. He offered to
help secretly an ecclesiastic in Paris who wished to defend
the doctrine of Galileo, but withdrew his offer when he

I Discours de la Methode, Part VI. CEuvres, t, i. p. 191.

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 235

learned that the theory was not tolerated, even as an hypoth-
esis; He read the condemned work, and thought he could
find an expedient for rescuing the doctrine of the immobility
of the earth, in appearance, in view of the difference be-
tween his theory of motion and Galileo's. "You see," he
says in one of his letters, " that in words I deny the mo-
tion of the earth, while in reality I defend the system of
Copernicus." Can it serve to justify Descartes, that we are
obliged to admit that Galileo in like manner retracted his
doctrine ?

Towards the end of the year 1633, Descartes had firmly
resolved to keep his works secret. How did it happen,
nevertheless, that he afterwards published his doctrine?
To this question his last biographer has found an answer
more touching than true, and he has also neglected to
make his idyllic explanation intelligible. The anticipation
of the joys of a father is claimed to have brought the phi-
losopher to the resolution to publish books. " New feelings
awakened in his mind ; and what Mersenne, de Beaune, and
his best friends could not accomplish, the smile of a child
beaming into his face in the bright future was already able
to do." After the birth of his child, he remained for some
months in Deventer, and then went with the mother and
daughter to Leeuworden to write the " Discours de la
M^thode."^ The reader can now guess what connection
there is between the birth of his child, and the publication
of his works, the most important of which were written
after her death !

n. THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.

1. The Motive for their Publication. — The reasons that led
Descartes to avoid and then to undertake a literary career,
then abandon it, and finally enter upon it, and publish a
series of works, must be learned from himself and from the
problem of his life ; and so much the more, as Descartes

1 J. Millet : Histoire de Descartes avant 1637, p. 340.

236 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

declared them in detail, in concluding his first important
work. His opponents are very ready with the decision that
fear was the motive of secrecy, while ambition incited him to
literary activity. The first opinion is very superficial, and
the second fundamentally false. Whatever external influ-
ences might have contributed to hinder or promote his
literary activity, the inner reason, in harmony with his
character, Avhich first restrained him from publication, and
then led him to it step by step, was the desire for self-
instruction, the guiding principle of his life. This is the
key to all those contradictions and vacillations. When he
entered upon his course of self-instruction, he avoided pub-
lishing his thoughts, as a loss of time and a disturbance ;
when he had made some progress in it, the publication of
his thoughts and the interchange of ideas became a part
of it. At first Descartes was engaged exclusively in self-
instruction on principle, and was absorbed in his thoughts,
which he did not write, or, if he did, only briefly and hastily.
Then came a time when the maturity and clearness of his
developed thoughts could not be better tested than by
stating them in detail in writing. He who is his own
teacher must also be his own examiner. The record of his
own thoughts was such an examination, and Descartes was
much too methodical and thorough to be willing to dispense
with it. Carefully written works, ready for the press, thus
arose, intended to serve for the examination of his own
thoughts and the instruction of the world ; but the world
which they were to instruct was posterity, — not for the
sake of posthumous fame, but because of the great service
they could render. The more uninterruptedly and con-
stantly he could pursue his discoveries, the richer the results,
and the greater the benefits accruing to the world from his
labors. He wa,s therefore resolved not to publish his works
during his own lifetime. He dreaded the loss of time which
the publication of his works would certainly involve. It
would oblige him to parry attacks, correct misunderstand-

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OP HIS LIFE. 237

ings, engage in controversies with opponents and discussions
with disciples. Even the reputation they might bring him
would be unfavorable to his leisure. Sharing the territory-
he had won, would make it impossible for him to acquire
more. "I am willing to have it known, that the little
knowledge I have gained is almost nothing in comparison
with that of which I am ignorant, and to the knowledge of
which I hope to be able to attain. For it is with students
of science as with those who are growing rich, who make great
gains with less difficulty than they experienced when poor
in making much smaller ones. Or, they may be compared
with generals whose forces usually increase with victories, and
who must use greater skill in keeping the field after a defeat
than in taking cities and provinces after a victory. For he
who seeks to surmount the obstacles and remove the errors
that beset us in our march to the knowledge of truth must
indeed fight a battle, and he loses it who adopts a false
opinion concerning a matter of some comprehensiveness and
importance ; and to regain his former position, requires
greater ability than to make great progress when once in
possession of certain principles. And as for myself, if I
have succeeded in discovering any truths in the sciences,
I am certain that they are only the results of five or six diffi-
culties which I have overcome, and my struggles with which
I regard as so many battles in which fortune was on my
side ; and I declare without hesitation, that I only need to
gain two or three such victories to reach the goal of all my
designs, and I am not yet so advanced in years but that I
may hope to accomplish this before I die. But my obligation
to husband the time that remains increases with the hope
of being able to use it well; and the publication of the
principles of my physics would undoubtedly occasion a great
loss of time. For, however evidently and absolutely they
might be proved, it would be impossible for them to accord
with the opinions of all the world ; and I foresee that they
■ would be the occasion of various controversies and disturb-

238 HISTORY or modern philosophy.

ances." These are the reasons why every publication of his
works seemed as absurd to our philosopher, as for a con-
queror to write books, and engage in controversies concern-
ing the art of war, while advancing from victory to victory.
It was represented to Descartes, that the publication of his
doctrine might be useful to him and also to his doctrine.
Some would call his attention to certain defects ; others
would turn it to practical account by means of useful deduc-
tions from it : and thus, by the assistance of others, his
system would be improved and extended. But these con-
siderations had no weight with him. For no one was in a
better position to criticise his doctrine than himself, since no
one else was so well acquainted with it; and, as to the applica-
tion of his thoughts, they were not yet mature enough to have
practical results, and, if they were, no one could realize them
as well as he himself, since the discoverer is always the best
judge, the only master. And Descartes not only dreaded an-
tagonists, but the school which might attach itself to him and
deform his work. He knew what the schools of every time
have made of their masters, and he was on his guard before-
hand against the " Cartesians." He expressly requested pos-
terity not to attribute any opinion to him which he had not
himself declared. Precisely those disciples are most inju-
rious who not merely repeat the words of the master, but
seek to interpret and complete his doctrine, and pretend to
know more than he himself. " They are like the ivy, which
never strives to rise higher than' the tree to which it clings,
and often even returns downward after it has reached the
top. For these also appear to me to sink, that is, to become
more ignorant than when they began to study, who, not
contented with the teachings of the master, credit him with
the solution of many problems of which he says nothing, and
of which, perhaps, he never thought. These people live in
obscure conceptions which are very convenient to such phi-
losophers ; for they can thus talk with the utmost boldness,
and engage in endless controversies. They are like a blind

DESCARTES; THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 239

man who wishes to fight with one who can see, without dis-
advantage, and therefore leads him into a very dark cellar ;
and they ought to be glad that I refrain from publishing
my 'Principles of Philosophy,' for they are so simple and
evident that they would throw open the window, and let
the light into the cellar into which the combatants have
descended." ^

But this sincere reason was more than counterbalanced by
other considerations. The first, which stood by the cradle of
his works, and did not cease to influence him, was the feeling
that he ought to maintain his credit and keep his word. The
reputation which would come with the diffusion of his writ-
ings was an enemy of his repose, but the feeling of unfulfilled
promises was also. Earnestly to seek a reputation, was as
disturbing as anxiously to avoid it. Descartes did neither.
He allowed himself to gain the reputation of being a great
thinker ; and did not wish to be considered a charlatan, who
had a reputation to which he had no right, and excited hopes
which he did not fulfil, because, as one was at last obliged
to believe, he could not. " Although T am not immoderately
fond of fame, — am, indeed, averse to it, if I may venture to
say so, in so far as I regard it as an enemy of repose, which I
prefer to every thing else, — I have never been careful to con-
ceal my actions as if they were crimes, nor made any effort
to remain unknown : for I should regard such a course as a
wrong to myself ; and, besides, it would have been unfavor-
able to the perfect tranquillity which I value so highly. And,
since I have not been able to avoid acquiring some kind of
reputation, while thus alike indifferent to becoming known
and remaining unknown, I thought I ought to do my best to
avoid one that was bad." But the most important reason that
determined him to publish his writings was, as we have al-
ready said, his desire for self-instruction. Descartes leaves
no doubt on that point. " I see more and more clearly every
day," says Descartes, " how my plan of self-instruction suffers

1 Discours de la M^thode, Part VI., (Euvres, i. pp. 196-203.

240 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

by means of this delay ; for I need a great number of experi-
ments, which I cannot perform without the assistance of
others ; and, although I do not flatter myself with the hope
that the public will be greatly interested in my endeavors,
yet I will not do myself such an injury as to give ground to
those who shall survive me, to make the reproach against me
that they might, in many respects, have been much better
instructed if I had not too much neglected to give the infor-
mation by means of which they might have promoted my
plans." 1 The philosopher expressly declares that this con-
sideration was his second motive in writing the "Discourse."
It is, therefore, one and the same reason, — his desirci of self-
instruction, — that determined Descartes first to avoid writ-
ing his thoughts, and then inclines him to it, then causes him
to refuse to publish his works, and finally to undertake it.

2. Writings on Method. — He goes carefully to work. His
first publication is not his system, but tests or essays (essais),
relating only to method and its application. He does not
yet publish his theory of method, but only a preliminary
statement of his general position ; no traitS, but only a dis-
cours, de la methode, intended only as a preface or announce-
ment of the doctrine, and rather vindicating the practical
importance than explaining the theory of method. "I do
not here intend to unfold the nature of my method, but only
to talk about it."^ The practicableness of his method was to
be proved by its actual application in mathematics and phy-
sics. Descartes therefore published three essays along with
the more important one, which were so chosen that the first
belongs to mathematical physics, the second to physics, the
third to pure mathematics. The subject of the first is " Diop-
trics," that of the second " Meteors," that of the last " Geo-
metry." The " Dioptrics " treats of the refraction of light,
of sight, and of optical glasses. In "Meteors," Descartes

'' Discours de la Mdthode.

2 CEuvrcs, vi. p. 138 (letter to Mersenne, written in the summer of 1637).
Cf. p, 305 (a letter to a friend of Mersenne, April, 1637).

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 241

seeks to unfold the nature of salt, the causes of winds and
thunder-storms, the configuration of snow, the colors of the
rainbow and the properties of single colors, the halos about
the sun and moon, and particularly parhelions, four of which
had been seen in Rome some years before (March 20, 1629),
and had been described to him in detail. The " Geometry "
proves the new method of analysis which he had discovered,
by the solution of entirely new problems. In " Dioptrics "
and " Meteors," he merely sought to illustrate the value and
usefulness of his method, while in " Geometry " his aim was
to give an incontestable proof of it. These essays were to
have appeared under the following title : " Sketch of a Uni-
versal Science, by means of which our Nature can be raised
to the Highest Degree of Perfection ; in addition, Dioptrics,
Meteors, and Geometry, in which the Author has chosen the
Best Cases for testing that Science, and so explained them
that Every Reader can understand the Subject without any
Instruction in Learned Matters." ^ It was well that Descartes
preferred to this high-sounding title the simple name ^'■^ssais,"
and called the more important essay " A Discourse on the
Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth
in the Sciences." He wrote for thoughtful, independent
readers, unperverted by book-learning, and, therefore, in
French ; stating the following reason at the conclusion of
his " Discourse : " " And if I write in French, the language of
my country, rather than in Latin, the language of my instruct-
ors, it is because I hope that the natural and healthy reason
will estimate my opinions more correctly than the learning
which puts its faith only in the books of the ancients. Peo-
ple of sound understanding, who have been properly in-
structed, are the only judges I desire ; and I am sure that
they will not be so partial to Latin that they will refuse to
listen to my reasonings because I expound them in their
native tongue." "

I CEuvres, vi. pp. 276, 277 (letter to Mersenne, March, 1636).
" Discours de la M^thode, Part VI., CEuvres, 1. pp. 210, 211.

242 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

With the exception of the "Geometry," the work was
ready for the press in the spring of 1636. Since the firm
of Elzevir in Amsterdam was not so ready to make advances
as Descartes had expected, he had it published by Jean le
Maire in Leyden. The privilege of sale was granted by the
States of Holland, Dec. 22, 1636; and by France not till May
4, 1637. Mersenne had attended to the matter in France,
and delayed it. It was his fault, and likewise his service,
that the French license was a eulogy of Descartes, though
the latter had expressly wished to remain unmentioned, both
in his work and in the documents relating to it. The
" Essays " could not be sent until June, 1637.

3. The Metaphysical Works. — The path upon which he
entered led farther. It was impossible for him to stop with
these essays : he had said so much of his system, that it was
necessary to say more. In the fourth part of his "Discourse,"
the fundamental principles of the new doctrines had already
appeared. He had discussed the necessity of universal
doubt, the principle of certainty, the criterion of knowledge,
the existence of God and the soul, — in a word, the prin-
ciples of his philosophy. But naturally, in view of the plan
of that work, these doctrines were rather stated than clearly
established, and thus guarded against every misconception.
And this danger was least avoided exactly where he was
most exposed to it, — in the passages discussing the exist-
ence of God, — and Descartes himself recognized this as the
weakest and obscurest part of his work, which, therefore,
required a thorough and immediate elucidation. But to
elucidate the concept of God, was to explain the fundamental
conceptions of his metaphysics. The work was already done.
It was his first- work in the Netherlands, the sketch of the
"Meditations" written in Franeker. The book had been
written ten years when Descartes resolved upon its pub-
lication; and during his winter residence in Harderwijk
(1639-40), he gave it the final revision.

The investigation is described as it has arisen in his own

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 243

mind, advancing from problem to problem, from solution to
solution. It makes upon the reader the impression of deeply
experienced thoughts which have been subject to ever-
repeated examinations, the constant companions of the phi-
losopher for years, the friends of his solitude, which have
attained to maturity with him. They have the character of
the most lively soliloquy, a monological drama which the
reader cannot help following with the most active sympathy.
The question is concerning the existence or non-existence
of truth. The problem of knowledge appears as the great
question, upon the answer to which depends the destiny of
the human spirit, and is by Descartes so experienced. There
is no truth if doubt is not completely overcome, and there is
no such victory if doubt has not defended itself and fought
knowledge with every weapon which it possesses. We are
not only made to understand the grounds of doubt, but also
to feel the unrest of spirit which agitates the- doubter^ who
strives after truth, and, in spite of the certainty of the vic-
tory which has already been won, describes the contests he
has endured as if he were even now in the heat of the
conflict. This union of contemplative repose with the most
vivid representation of a mind aroused and stormed by an
army of doubts, which the spirit of contemplation already
marshals and masters, gives to the "Meditations" of Des-
cartes an irresistible charm, and the character, in their kind,
of an incomparable philosophical work of art.

For the first time Descartes appeared before the world
undisguised, as the thinker which he was. He had finally
spoken the fundamental thoughts, which he had been matur-
ing for the last twenty years, for the instruction of the world.
He did not disguise his opinions, but he attended to their
publication with the greatest caution. The work was imme-
diately intended only for scholars, and was, therefore, written
in Latin. But this was not sufficient to protect it from
suspicions and misconceptions. He was apprehensive of
opposition to his physical principles from the Aristotelians ;

244 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

to his theology, from the Church. The fundamental princi-
ples of his philosophy of nature were contained in the
" Meditations ; " but the inferences from them were not
drawn, and if he did not expressly say to the scholastic phi-
losophers that the question was concerning a purely mechan-
ical physics, they would not observe it, and the victory
would be won before they knew that a battle had been
fought. Descartes therefore wished that nothing be said of
his physics at first. '■'■II ne faut pas le dire" was his instruc-
tion to his friend Mersenne on this particular.

But Descartes had made his theological principles so con-
spicuous that it was impossible to conceal them. He there-
fore sought to prevent every ecclesiastical suspicion by the
title and dedication. He says that the principal content
of the " Meditations " is proofs of the existence of God and
the immortality of the soul ; and he dedicated his work to
the doctors of Sorbonne, the theological authority of Paris,
whose university had been regarded as the highest theo-
logical authority of the Church since the time of the Middle
Ages. Convinced that rational proofs of the existence of
God and the immortality of the soul could convert unbe-
lievers, and that they would not lead believers astray;
that they were, therefore, in harmony with the interests of
the Church, the claims of the Bible, and the decisions of the
last Lateran Council, — he submitted his work to the cen-
sorship and protection of the theologians of Paris. They
had no objections to make. Father Gibieuf, whom he par-
ticularly asked to examine it, gave him his entire approval.
Nevertheless, the Church opposed it eventually : twenty-
two years later, this work of Descartes, which laid the foun-
dations of his philosophy, stood on the list of forbidden books
at Rome, with the remark, " donee corrigatur."

Descartes foresaw that the novelty of his thoughts would
make a stir among scholars, and provoke all sorts of objec-
tions. He therefore wished to learn the objections of the
most famous men beforehand, and to have them printed with

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 245

his replies as an appendix to the work. It was a shrewd
measure : when the work first appeared, it was already
attacked and defended. Criticism, which usually follows
a work, and thus directs and often perverts public judg-
ment, was here obtained beforehand, and published with the
book itself, so that the author had the last word. Some
copies were therefore made, and given to friends, who circu-
lated them among capable men, and obtained their opinions,
and in part reported them to Descartes, in part sent them
committed to writing by their authors. Bloemaert and
Bannius in Harlem, the only Catholic priests in Holland
with whom Descartes was at all intimate, were his principal
agents in this matter in the Netherlands; Mersenne, of
course, attended to it in France. Bloemaert and Bannius
gave the manuscript to a Catholic scholar of reputation,
Caterus of Antwerp, a doctor of the theological faculty of
Lyons, who was a missionary in Holland, and dwelt in Alk-
maar. His opinion was the first which Descartes received
and sent with his reply to Mersenne (November, 1640).
Mersenne circulated the work among Parisian scholars,
obtain dtt the opinions of theologians and mathematicians,
and sent two collections of them to Descartes. Three of
them were made by men of ability and historical fame, two
of whom were philosophers, one English and one French,
contemporaries and antagonists of Descartes, both of whom
read the " Meditations," and committed their opinions of it
to writing at Mersenne's suggestion. The English philoso-
pher was Thomas Hobhes ; the Frenchman, Pierre G-assendi.
At the end of the year 1640, Hobbes had come to Paris to
reside again, to avoid the English civil war; and he spent
there a number of years, the most important literary period
in his life, since he wrote during that time his best-known
important works. Mersenne requested him to read and criti-
cise the "Meditations," soon after his arrival. Descartes
received the first part of his objections Jan. 20, 1641, during
his residence in Leyden, and replied to them the next day ;

246 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the second part was sent in the first week of February.
At this time, Gassendi, who was still engaged in his impor-
tant work on Epicurus and his doctrine, went to Paris, and
became acquainted, through Mersenne, with Descartes' new
work, and was requested to state his opinion in writing.
Gassendi had an inordinate desire to be praised and quoted.
He was amiable in conversation, and extravagant in liis
praises, except when the Aristotelians were concerned ; but
he was too vain to be an impartial critic. He was out of
humor with Descartes because the latter had not cited his
explanation of parhelions in his essay on " Meteors," which
neglect he regarded as proeter decorum. In an ill humor,
and without a thorough understanding of Descartes' doc-
trine, he wrote his objections (" Disquisitio Metaphysica seu
Dubitationes "), which Mersenne received at the end of
May, 1641. Of course the usual praises were not wanting
at the conclusion. He wrote a rejoinder (instantice) to Des-
cartes' reply, which his scholar, Sorbiere, published with
the announcement that a perfect triumph had been achieved
(1643). The third of the above-mentioned authors was
Antoine Arnauld, then a young theologian, and sooft after
admitted among the doctors of Sorbonne, who was subse-
quently to earn the name of the "great Arnauld," and to
be one of the most famous of the Jansenists. Descartes
regarded his objections as the most important, on account
of their style, insight, and mathematical acuteness. Arnauld
may be regarded as the man through whose agency the
union was afterwards effected between the Cartesian phi-
losophy and the Jansenists of Port Royal. Descartes had
wished Mersenne to give the manuscript also to Father
Gibieuf of the Oratory of Jesus, and to the mathematician
Desargues, whom he valued more highly than three theo-
logians. Another opponent appeared, — Father Bourdin of
the Society of Jesus, professor of mathematics in the College
of Clermont, who in his lectures had already invidiously
attacked Descartes' "Dioptrics" and "Meteors," and now

DESCARTES; THE THIRD PERIOD OP HIS LIFE. 247

was just as hostile to his " Meditations." His attacks were
very annoying to Descartes. He knew with what unanimity
the Jesuits acted. He saw himself involved in a contro-
versy with an order with which he wished to maintain the
old friendly relations on grounds both of regard and policy.
That a member of the Society of Jesus should be so hostile
to him, must have been doubly painful to him at a time when
he was receiving the worst treatment from the Calvinists in
the Netherlands. The order, however, had nothing to do
with Bourdin's polemic. The provincial Dinet was favor-
able to Descartes, and composed the difference. Bourdin
himself ceased to be his enemy after he became acquainted
with him.

We have here to deal merely with the history of these
ohjectiones and responsiones, not with their contents. (They
constitute a second and larger part, as it were, of the
" Meditations.") There were seven, arranged in chrono-
logical order. First came those of Doctor Caterus; the
reports of objections collected by Mersenne occupied the
second and sixth places; those of Hobbes were third,
Arnauld's fourth, Gassendi's fifth, and Bourdin's seventh,
though it was not possible to publish the latter in the first
edition.

The work first appeared in Paris under the title, " Medita-
tiones de prima philosophia, ubi de Dei existentia et animse
immortalitate " (1641). The philosopher now sought to
overcome his dislike of the name "Cartesius," since the
name Descartes was to him "mw peu trap rude en latin."
The second edition was published by Elzevir in Amsterdam,
under the changed title, " Meditationes de prima philosophia
in quibus Dei existentia et animse human se a corpore dis-
tinctio demonstrantur." The reason for this change is
evident enough. The existence of God is a metaphysical
principle ; but the immortality of the soul is not, while the
difference of essence between the soul and body is. This
difference forms the foundation of the entire Cartesian sys-

248 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

tem, and, strictly speaking, is the theme of the '■'■prima
pMlosophia." The second expression is, therefore, a correc-
tion of the first, which was chosen for theological and reli-
gious reasons, as the dedication declares. Descartes' theory
of the immortality of the soul is based on the difference of
essence between soul and body ; and metaphysics deals with
principles, not with deductions from them. The explanation
given by Descartes' last biographer again sacrifices truth to
emotion. While Descartes was engaged in publishing the
" Meditations," his father died, and almost at the same time
his daughter and eldest sister. Now, it was full of consola-
tion to the philosopher, to read on the title-page of his work
" de animce immortalitate." It was not really the title of his
work, but an epitaph ! If such feelings demanded any ex-
pression in such a place, the words " animce Jiumance a corpore
distinctio " would have been just as comforting.^

The " Meditations " developed the course of thought by
which the fundamental principles of the new philosophy
were discovered and established. His next work was the
systematic exposition of his entire system. Descartes began
it immediately after the publication of the " Meditations,"
and completed it within the course of the year. "The
Principles of Philosophy," in four books, was published by
Elzevir in Amsterdam in 1644, and was his second compre-
hensive and important work. The first book treats of the
principles of human knowledge ; the second, of the principles
of bodies ; the third, of the visible world ; the fourth, of the
earth. The first two form the doctrine of principles, strictly
speaking, metaphysics and the philosophy of nature. In the
progress of his works, the " Meditations " were, in time as
in fact, the middle term between the methodological essays
and the system of metaphysics. Descartes called them his
"metaphysical essays," and thus aptly indicated that they
combined the characteristics of " philosophical essays " and
the " Principles of Philosophy." He wrote this work in the

1 J. Millet: Descartes, son Histoire depuis 1637, pp. 23-25,

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 249

happiest period of his life. The success of his previous pub-
lications had raised him above the fear of public literary
activity. He was perfect master of the matter to which he
had to give form and order, and nothing could give greater
pleasure to his methodical mind than such activity as this.
He exercised the skill of the architect, which he gladly used
as an example, in order to show the imperfections of patch-
work in comparison with a systematic work produced by one
mind. He erected this temple of his thoughts while he was
living in the free and idyllic leisure which the country
palace of Endegeest permitted him to enjoy ; always in the
neighborhood of, and often in conversation with, the gifted
princess, who understood him perfectly, and knew how to
appreciate him. The Countess-palatine Elizabeth was then
the world for whom he wrote ; and he dedicated to her his
work, unconcerned about the doctors of Sorbonne. But
already a storm was gathering about the new doctrine and
the philosopher.

250 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER VI.

BEGINNINGS OP A SCHOOL. DISCIPLES AND OPPONENTS.
I. CONTROVERBIES IN UTRECHT.

1. Reneri and Regius.

AS little as Descartes sought the difPusion of his doctrine,
- he could not prevent it from gaining friends and dis-
ciples, who soon formed the nucleus of a school ; for whose
public activity in teaching, his works offered a definite basis,
and the universities of the Netherlands the first field of
labor. With friends came antagonists. Even in its origin,
the school was violently attacked. In attacking disciples,
the master was attacked ; every means of suppressing the
new doctrine was tried ; even the person of its author was
threatened. The University of Utrecht was the place, where
the school began to form, and where it was first opposed.
It was not so much a definite theory which provoked its
antagonists, as Descartes' mental importance in general ; it
was the novelty and power of his thoughts, which excited
the hostility of those who would gladly have made them-
selves the subject of the first command, "Thou shalt have
no other gods before me."

In order to understand the course and character of the
controversies of Utrecht, we must go back a little. In
the first part of his stay in the Netherlands, Descartes had
become acquainted with Henry Reneri (Renier) in Amster-
dam, who studied in LiSge and Lyons, was converted from
Catholicism to the Reformed Church, and, therefore, dis-
inherited by his father. An exile from his native country,

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 251

he had sought an asylum in Holland, and started in Amster-
dam a private school. He had become acquainted with Des-
cartes through Beeckman. Through his intercourse with
Descartes, Reneri became deeply interested in philosophy;
and by diligent study he made such attainments that he was
called to the University of Leyden after the death of the
Aristotelian there, from thence to Deventer, and in the year
1634 to Utrecht. Descartes' iirst disciple was the first pro-
fessor called to the newly founded university, with whose
history that of the Cartesian system was interwoven- during
its first years. Reneri's career as professor in Utrecht was
short but brilliant. For five years he was an ornament of
the university. After his early death (March, 1639), by
order of the city and university the highest honors were
paid to his memory. The funeral oration, delivered by Anton
jEmilius, professor of history and rhetoric, himself a disciple
of the new philosophy, was likewise a eulogy of Descartes.
The government wished that the philosopher and his system
should be mentioned with commendations, and that the
oration should be published. On its titlepage Reneri was
called the friend and disciple of Descartes, " the Atlas and
Archimedes of our century." Envy and hatred followed
close upon this public and somewhat extravagant praise :
they sought first to strike the philosopher through his
disciples.

Among Reneri's pupils in Utrecht was an exceedingly
talented young medical student by the name of Regius
(Henry le Roi), who had mastered the new doctrine with
enthusiastic zeal, and so expounded it in his private lectures
on physiology that he soon won a crowd of enthusiastic
students. There was only one chair of medicine in the
university, and this was filled by Straaten. He wished to
teach nothing but anatomy and practical medicine, and,
therefore, urged that another chair should be established for
botany and theoretical medicine. Regius was chosen for the
new position, and was appointed professor in ordinary in

252 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

1638. After Reneri's death he was the leader of the new
philosophy in Utrecht, and, therefore, the first target of its
enemies.

2. Crishertus Voetius. — The leader of his opponents was
one of the most highly respected and influential men in
Utrecht, — Gisbertus Voetius, the first professor of theology
in the University of Utrecht, and the first clergyman of the
city. He had been one of the most violent Gomarists in
the synod at Dort, and, since the victory of his party, one
of the most overbearing. He strode along with a pompous
air, his person carefully attended to, with an expression of
perfect self-satisfaction. For a long time he had regarded
his talents, merits, and worth as incomparable, and despised
every thing in which he was deficient ; and he was deficient
in much. His scholarship was narrow and superficial ; his
reading limited, embracing little beyond the loci communes,
some commentaries and abridgments. He made the grossest
blunders in his writings, because he quoted authorities with-
out having read and understood them. His judgment was
without acuteness, his thoughts lacked connection and
order; in philosophy, his ability and knowledge were lim-
ited by the ordinary scholasticism. It is difficult to believe
that a person of such mediocrity could be so respected and
feared, and become the dangerous antagonist of so great a
thinker. His inclination, however, led him to a kind of
activity for which he had most talent. He chose polemics,
a field where much can be accomplished with a large audi-
ence, without learning and real culture. He was not a
controversialist of abUity, but a mere fighting-cock, fitted to
please a mob. He lacked both the fairness and judgment
necessary to a just and impartial estimate of an opponent.
He hated Catholics and philosophers worst of all ; and pas-
sion so blinded him that he was scarcely able to distinguish
them, and in his malignity he regarded the same man as a
Jesuit and an atheist. Yet he was shrewd enough to decry
an opponent as an atheist when addressing Jesuits, and as a

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 253

Jesuit when addressing Protestants. He was disputatious,
because he would not brook opposition, and because he
wished to rule. His thirst for power made him eager for
office, and affable. He wished to please the people, and
excite their admiration, now by an air of devotion, now
by his bold and impudent sermons and writings. With
people in general, he took the rdle of the prelate, while with
scholars it pleased him to appear as a pedant; but his
strongest desire was to appear to all as a man whom every
one had cause to fear. For this reason there was no other
discourse he liked so well to deliver as castigatory sermons
in the manner of a Capuchin, — which make a strong impres-
sion on people, — and, to avoid being considered a coward,
he persecuted regardlessly persons of power and influence,
for unimportant matters. He was a master of the arts of
pleasing the people, and, therefore, won their esteem without
seeming to make it an object. And so it came to pass, that
he was really beloved and highly respected by the masses, an
object of fear to many, and was called " the glory and orna-
ment of the churches of the Netherlands (ecclesiarum helgi-
carum decus et ornamentum) ; " and this was the height of
his ambition, as well as the expression of his own modest
opinion.

By the side of this man, there arose in Utrecht an influen-
tial intellectual power in the doctrine and school of Des-
cartes, which acknowledged no allegiance to him. Since it
was praised on the titlepage of that funeral oration, Voetius
had been its enemy. He had exerted his influence a year
before in behalf of Regius's appointment, after the latter
had flattered him and allowed him to examine his creed.
But now the zeal of Regius for Cartesianism, and still more
his popularity as a lecturer, displeased Voetius; and he
plotted the ruin of Regius and Descartes. If he could only
prove that the new doctrine was dangerous to Protestantism
and, therefore, to the Netherlands ! And, if he could show
that the Cartesian philosophy was atheistic, it could be very

254 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

easily done, since Regius was a Cartesian. To this end he
read through the "Discourse," Descartes' first publication,
and collected all the passages relating to theology; and,
fortunately for his purpose, he found doubt so openly
acknowledged, and vindicated with such disregard of con-
sequences, that the atheistic tendencies of the work were to
him self-evident.

3. The Condemnation of the New Philosophy. — At first the
name of Descartes was not mentioned. Voetius contented
himself with selecting certain features of Descartes' doctrine,
and attacking them as atheistic, in some academic theses in
June, 1639. In this way he began his campaign, which, if
he were successful, would end with the expulsion of Des-
cartes from the Netherlands. For a long time the contro-
versy was carried on in the form of academic theses and
disputations. Voetius made every exertion, and used his
influence with the professors and magistrates, and his power
as rector, to destroy Regius. On many an occasion, Regius,
in his young and somewhat immature way, had shown the
superiority of the new philosophy to the old, and had
offended his colleagues by making the old ridiculous, and
thus exposed himself to severe attacks. In June, 1640,
when he defended the new doctrine of the circulation of the
blood, discovered by Harvey and defended by Descartes, he
was instructed not to depart so far from the traditional theo-
ries, and to defend the new doctrines only " exercitii causa.''^
The next year Voefius was made rector. The controversy
became more animated, though it was still carried on only
by academic theses and disputations. Regius defended the
thesis that the union of soul and body consists only in the
composition of the two ' substances, and is not, therefore, an
actual unity, — not a '■'■unum per se" but only "joer acci-
dens." Now, it is exactly in this point that the most pro-
nounced contradiction exists between the Cartesian system
and the Aristotelian scholastic theory of the entelechy and
substantiality of forms ; and in his counter-theses Voetius

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 255

declared the new doctrine heretical. The theory of the
substantiality of the body, and the composition of man out
of two substances (" unum per accidens "), is contrary to rea-
son ; the theory of the motion of the earth, which Kepler (!)
introduced, contradicts the teachings of the Scriptures, as
well as all the philosophy that has been hitherto accepted ;
and the denial of substantial forms leads to the same contra-
dictions, promotes scepticism, endangers faith in immortality,
the Trinity, incarnation, original sin, prophecy, miracle,
grace, regeneration, etc. These theses denote the man, and
the nature of his mind.

At this point the controversy, hitherto academic and
carried on by means of disputations and theses, began to
be conducted in writing. Contrary to the advice of Des-
cartes and his friends in Utrecht, Regius published his
defence against the theses of Voetius. Indeed, Descartes
was in general but little pleased with the polemical tone of
Regius. The manner in which he inveighed against the
scholastic philosophy could not but displease Descartes, from
his whole mode of thought. He reminded Regius that the
past ought not to be attacked for sport, and, indeed, he saw
neither use nor plan in the controversy which the latter had
in view. Should Regius publish his reply to Voetius, — and
Descartes counselled against it, — it ought to be moderate
in its tone, and freed from all offensive expressions. Regius
followed the last advice ; but, however carefully he chose his
words, however flattering they were to Voetius, the latter
could not pardon him for daring to reply to him at all. In
addition to this, the reply was printed without license, the
printer was a Catholic, and the publisher a Remonstrant.
Voetius discovered a whole nest of heresies that must be
broken up. By command of the magistrates, the book was
confiscated; but this only made it read the more, and its
diffusion made the anger of Voetius still hotter; and the
result was, that at his urgent suggestion Regius was for-
bidden to lecture on philosophical subjects. He now turned

256 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

to attack the new philosophy as such, and defend the old.
His son wrote theses in reply to Regius ; while one of
his creatures, a student by the name of Waterlaet, wrote a
vindication of the already seriously threatened orthodox
philosophy. But Voetius struck the home thrust through
the university of which he was master. The academic senate
decreed a formal disapprobation of the publication of Regius
and his doctrine, and likewise a formal condemnation of the
new philosophy. The decree was pronounced March 16,
1642, and contained the following declaration : " We, pro-
fessors of the University of Utrecht, reject and condemn the
new philosophy, because, in the first place, it contradicts
the old, and subverts its principles ; second, because it makes
students averse to the study of the old philosophy, and thus
hinders their cultivation, since they cannot understand the
terminology of the schools when they have once become
acquainted with the principles of this pretended philosophy ;
and, finally, because not only do so many false and irra-
tional views follow from it, but also immature youths can
easily draw inferences from it inconsistent with other sci-
ences, particularly the true theology." Eight out of ten
professors subscribed to this division : the other two were
Cyprianus and JEmilius, the admirer of the philosopher.

4. The Controversy between Descartes and Voetius. — The
condemnation was aimed at Descartes, although his name
was not mentioned ; and he therefore now appeared on the
field of battle. Engaged in preparing the second edition
of the "Meditations," and in replying to Bourdin's objec-
tions, he found an excellent opportunity for describing the
intrigues of his enemy in Utrecht, in a letter written at the
same time to Dinet, in which he also examined the attacks
of his opponent among the Jesuits. He made no mention of
university, disciples, or opponents ; but with a few strokes
he sketched a picture of the latter ad vivum.: "There is
a man who is regarded by the world as a theologian, a
preacher, and a defender of the faith, who, through his con-

DESCARTES; THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 257

troversial sermons, in which he libellously attacks now the
Catholic Church, now others of a different faith from his
own, now the powers of the time, has won a high place in
the respect and regard of the people. He makes a show of
an ardent and ingenuous zeal for religion ; interlarding his
discourses, at the same time, with jests which please the
ear of the common people. He is constantly publishing pam-
phlets which are not worth reading, citing therein various
authors who testify against rather than for him, and whose
works he probably knows only from their tables of contents.
He speaks of every possible science in a bold and confident
manner, as if he were entirely at home in them, and there-
fore passes for a scholar among the ignorant. But people
of some judgment, who know how forward he is to begin
quarrels with all the world, how often he substitutes insults
for arguments, and, after he has been beaten, how insult-
ingly he retires, openly ridicule and despise him if they are
not of his faith. Indeed, he has been handled so roughly
before all the world, that scarcely any thing for disputation
now remains. Intelligent people of his own faith excuse and
tolerate him as well as they can, but in their hearts they
regard him with equal contempt. " ^

Voetius recognized his portrait, and breathed vengeance.
He ought now to have openly taken the field against
Descartes, and led the fight directly against him ; but he
remained in ambush, and sought to find people to go into
the fire for him. He wanted to find some one to attack the
theories of the philosopher, another to write a libel against
him, or to put his name to a pamphlet written by Voetius
himself. At the same time, before the public he took the
rdle of the injured man. He was innocence itself, Descartes
was a malicious slanderer. He failed in his first attempt to
secure an ally to attack the theories of Descartes, nor could
he have made it more unskilfully, or in a way that showed
a greater lack of character. Voetius, the sworn enemy of

1 CEuvres, t. ix. pp. 34, 35.

258 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Catholicism, wrote, to this end, to a Catholic theologian, who
was also Descartes' old and true friend, — Mersenne. And
how did he write ? The letter was written in the beginning
of the controversies, before the university pronounced its
judgment of condemnation ; and in it we find these words :
" You have doubtless read the philosophical essays which
Descartes has published in French. He appears to wish to
be the founder of a new sect, unheard of till now ; and there
are those who admire and pray to him as though he were
a god fallen down from heaven. These tvpr)fi.aTa should be
subjected to your judgment and censorship. No physicist
or philosopher could overthrow him more successfully than
you, who are eminent in geometry and physics, — precisely
those departments in which Descartes imagines he is strong ;
and to do so would be a labor worthy of your learning and
your ability. You have defended truth, and, in the recon-
ciliation of theology and physics, vindicated metaphysics
and mathematics. Truth, therefore, summons you to avenge
her." Disgusted by this letter, Mersenne treated Voetius
as he deserved. He did not answer him for a long time ;
and when he did, he declined his proposal as emphatically
as he could, confounding its author so far as it lay in his
power. At the same time he sent the letter, with his answer,
to Descartes.

Voetius succeeded in finding an ally to be responsible for
the libel. He found a man ready to give his name and pen
to a pamphlet sketched, and in part written, by himself, —
Martin Schoock, professor in Groningen, formerly his pupil
and now his tool. The pamphlet was published a year after
that academic condemnation (March, 1643), under the title,
" Philosophia Cartesiana, sive admiranda methodus novse phi-
losophise Renati Descartes," in style and character a malicious
libel. The preface attacked the letter to Dinet, in which
Descartes had insulted Reformed religion, and the Evangeli-
cal Church of the Netherlands, particularly one of its most
eminent members. The rest of the pamphlet is an attack

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 259

on the new philosophy; charges it with having dangerous
consequences, infidelity, atheism, and immorality. Descartes
is a second Vanini, an atheist, and a hypocrite, like the latter
who was justly condemned for his atheism and burned in
Toulouse. This comparison, which smells of the stake, and
is developed with great care and in great detail, is the
unmistakable work of Voetius.

The pamphlet was published in Utrecht. During the
printing, Descartes received the sheets one by one ; and as
soon as he read the first, he began his reply, " Epistola ad
celeberrimum virum D. Gisbertum Voetium," the masterpiece
of his polemics. He had a threefold purpose : first, to vin-
dicate the picture of his antagonist, sketched in the letter to
Dinet ; second, to invalidate the pamphlet signed by Schoock ;
and, third, to criticise another of Voetius' bungling works,
wliich appeared while Descartes was writing. Thus the
polemic grew under his hands, and the letter became a book
of nine parts. Even before he received the last sheets of
the "Philosophia Cartesiana," Voetius published a libel enti-
tled " On the Fraternity of Mary." The two publications,
unlike as they are in their subjects, resemble each other
so closely in their mode of thought, style, and polemical
methods, that their kinship is easily recognized. Descartes
now turns aside to take up this new subject, devotes to it
the sixth part of his letter, and, after he .has received the
last sheets of the pamphlet, returns to his original subject.
This interruption is unfavorable to the composition of his
polemic. It makes a sudden leap into a new field, and
absorbs foreign matter which increases its strength in
appearance only, while in fact it scatters it and disturbs the
impression of the whole. However, his procedure is ex-
plained both by his irritation, and particularly by the fact
that it is an acknowledged production of Voetius of which
he is in possession, while he is compelled to write against a
concealed author. If he can prove that the author of the
Philosophia Cartesiana," and that of the » Confraternitas

260 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Mariana," is one and the same man, he has scored an impor-
tant point, and convicted Voetius of the double meanness of
reviling and lying.

The subject of the second publication has nothing in com-
mon with the first. There existed in Catholic times, in
Bois-le-Duc, a Society of the Holy Virgin, in possession of
certain rights and revenues, of which the most distinguished
men in the city were members. After the downfall of the
Spanish power, and the victory of the Reformation, this
society had been acknowledged by the new government
(1629). Its rights and revenues were preserved ; though
exactly for this reason it lost its ecclesiastical character, of
which nothing remained but its name, and now existed
merely as a civil society. But to prevent it from being a
secret centre of Catholicism, and thus forming numerous
intrigues dangerous to the state, the authorities required the
admission of reformed members ; and so the burgomaster of
Bois-le-Duc, with thirteen of the most influential Protestants
of the city, became members of the society. This event
kindled the anger of Voetius into a flame. He immediately
hurled a thesis, always his first thunderbolt, against this
" idolatry " in Bois-le-Duc. The authorities of the city,
through one of their ecclesiastics, replied in a moderate and
conciliatory tone to the charges of idolatry, religious indif-
ference; and ungodly tolerance ; but Voetius or his compan-
ions made a counter-reply with an anonymous libel, and
since this was forbidden in Bois-le-Duc he wrote the book,
"De Confraternitate Mariana."

The two antagonists were now pressing hard upon each
other. Four years had passed since Voetius began the
attack ; and he had continued it in theses, disputations, lec-
tures, sermons, and private letters. Through his influence
the judgment of condemnation was pronounced by the Uni-
versity of Utrecht, and he boasted of it in a letter which fell
into Descartes' hands ; and finally he had concealed himself
behind Schoock in order to insult the philosopher in a libel,

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 261

and make him and his system an object of suspicion. After
the lapse of years, Descartes himself entered the controversy,
and wrote two articles, the letters to Dinet and Voetius, both
of which were handed in his name, by influential men, to the
first burgomaster of the city of Utrecht.

A lawsuit now resulted from the controversy. Voetius
played the rdle of a martyr who had suffered for his faith.
Descartes was a Jesuit, who had come into the Netherlands
as the emissary and spy of the Jesuits, to excite dissensions
and controversies ; and this was why Voetius, " the glory and
ornament of the Church of the Netherlands," had been the
first object of his attacks, the first victim of his slanders.
He had never injured Descartes : the pamphlet against him
was written by Schoock, not by himself. Thus he excited
public sentiment in Utrecht, particularly that of the authori-
ties, and arrayed it on his side, seeking from the magis-
trates protection, as a persecuted man, against the slanders
of the foreign philosopher. The 13th of June, 1643, the
authorities issued a summons to Descartes, to appear in per-
son, and prove his accusations against Voetius, especially to
prove that Voetius and iiot Schoock was the author of the
pamphlet against him. If his accusations were true, they
would result in the greatest injury to the university and the
city. The summons was issued with all the forms of pub-
licity ; it was proclaimed before the people with the ringing
of a bell ; it was printed, posted, sent abroad. All this
emanated from hostility to Descartes; for it was entirely
unnecessary, as every one knew where to find him. He
received the summons in Egmond, where he had lived for a
short time, and answered it in writing in the language of
the country. He thanked the authorities for the purpose
of the investigation, and offered to prove his assertions ; but,
as a Frenchman, he disputed their right to institute judicial
proceedings against him. Since a libel had been published
against him in Utrecht, he had a right to expect that the
investigation would first of all discover its author, and hold

262 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

him to account. However, he felt that he was no longer
safe: he was apprehensive of a warrant, which could be
immediately executed in Egmond. He went, therefore, to
The Hague, and committed himself to the protection of the
French ambassador, de la Thuill^rie, who took up the mat-
ter ; and through his influence the Prince of Orange put a
stop to further persecution. That Descartes was unmolested,
was due to the stadtholder. Sentence was certainly pro-
nounced against him ; his letters were condemned as libels,
and he was found guilty of slandering Voetius (Sept. 23,
1643) : but the decision was published almost secretly, and
when it was proclaimed publicity was avoided with as much
care as it had been sought some months before when the sum-
mons was issued. The authorities were in an embarrassing
position, and wished to get the matter out of the way by
pronouncing a sentence of condemnation in such a way as
to make it of no effect. Voetius had thus a,ttained the small-
est part of his purpose. If he had succeeded, Descartes
would have been driven from the Netherlands, and his con-
demned publications would have been burnt. It was said
that he had already urged the exeCutioner to make a huge
pile, in order that the flames might be seen at a great
distance.

5. Conclusion of the Utrecht- Groningen Controversy. — But
the matter was not yet ended. Descartes learned the decis-
ion without being officially informed of its purport and its
reasons. What he heard necessarily increased his apprehen-
sions for his safety, even for his reputation, since he seemed
to have been proved guilty of having falsely accused Voetius
of having written the libel. Schooek had spent the summer
in Utrecht, and had there declared most positively that he
alone was the author of the " Philosophia Cartesiana," that
he had written it without assistance or suggestion from Voe-
tius, and that he intended to state this in a new publication.
This made Descartes' position worse. He received anony-
mous letters from those who were kindly disposed to him

DESCAKTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 263

in Utrecht and The Hague, warning him that he was in
imminent danger. He had reason to fear imprisonment, and
the seizure of his papers, in Egmond Van Hoef, where he
was then staying ; and, therefore, intended to go back to
The Hague in November, 1643.^ For the second time he
appealed for protection to the French ambassador, describing
to him in detail the situation in Utrecht. (Tlie letter has
been in part preserved, and has been lately published by
Foucher de Careil.^)

But, since Schoock had declared that he alone was the
author of the pamphlet, Descartes was compelled to bring
an action against him before the senate of the University of
Groningen. And there the matter terminated quite other-
wise than in Utrecht. It happened that the accused was
just then rector of the university. To spare their rector,
and, at the same time, do justice to the philosopher, the
senate avoided pronouncing a formal decision, and made a
declaration satisfactory to Descartes, lamenting that Schoock
had engaged in the controversy against the latter, and
had brought utterly groundless charges against his system.
Schoock himself declared, under oath, that Voetius had
urged him to write the pamphlet, the most of which was
written in Utrecht; that he had furnished the material for
it, and, during the printing, had added the strongest invec-
tives, and had put Schoock's name, against his will, on the
titlepage and to the preface. Schoock further swore tha;t he
could not acknowledge the pamphlet in its present form as
his own, and that he must declare that it was unworthy
of a respectable man and a scholar. He said he repented of
nothing more bitterly, than that he had had any thing to do
with it ; that he had broken with Voetius, and had refused

1 CEuvres in^dites, vol. ii. pp. 22, 23. (Letter to the counsellor of state,
"William, in The Hague, Nov. 7, 1043.)

2 lb., ii. pp. 43-63. (Letter to M. de la ThuilWrie.) From the first words of
the letter, it is evident that Descartes had, for the first time, appealed to his
protection shortly before; which, it seems to me, his latest biographer over-
looks, J. Millet: Histoire do Descartes, ii. pp. 127-129.

264 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

his request to sign a false testimony. Now Descartes' accu-
sation against Voetius was completely proved, and the decis-
ion of the court in Utrecht was shown to be entirely
groundless. He sent the document stating the action of the
senate in Groningen, and the information laid before it, to
the authorities in Utrecht, with the reasonable expectation
that they would look into the matter, and make right the
wrong they had done him, by some public act. But nothing
was done, except to issue a prohibition to the printer and
publisher in Utrecht, forbidding them to sell or circulate any
publications for or against Descartes. Half of this prohibi-
tion was aimed at the philosopher ; and the other half was
without effect, since both Voetiuses, father and son, continued
to publish abuses of Descartes. The younger Voetius wrote
a defence of his father, and a pamphlet against the Univer-
sity of Groningen, in which Descartes and his system were
again slandered, and the contents of the first pamphlet were
re-affirmed, although the authorship of the elder Voetius was
denied. The elder Voetius brought an action against his
colleague Schoock, but let the prosecution drop. The two
worthies found it useful to compose their differences in good
time, since they had been partners in too many intrigues, and
each had reason to fear the revelations of the other.

Descartes finally concluded the controversy (the last week
of June, 1645), which, from its first occasion to the point of
time just stated, occupied a period of six years, with " An
Apologetic Letter to the Magistrates of Utrecht, against the
Two Voetiuses, Father and Son." The entire course of the
controversy was narrated in detail ; and from the letters of
Voetius to Schoock, it was proved that Voetius projected and
urged the defamatory pamphlet ; that he made the compari-
son with Vanini ; that he himself wrote the preface, the most
outrageous part of the pamphlet, and put it in Schoock's
hands. He said further, that the magistrates had for four
years treated him unfairly and unjustly, in favor of the two
Voetiuses : first, in summoning him like a vagabond ; second,

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 265

in condemning him as a slanderer, and in not retracting this
decision even after the declaration of the senate of Groning-
en ; third, in endeavoring to dispose of the matter without
a word of restitution, by an apparently neutral but really
partisan prohibition. He expected that the magistrates would
at last give him the satisfaction which was his due.'

The magistrates of Utrecht remained deaf to all argu-
ments. Their partiality appears the more odious when we
consider the circumspect conduct, the peaceable character,
and the retired life of Descartes. In a free country, where
he sought nothing except leisure and solitude, he had, for no
just reason, come pretty near being deprived of its hospi-
tality, and his residence there had been made intensely dis-
agreeable. His dislike of appearing before the world as an
author had been . justified : he must do penance for the
attempt which he had made so hesitatingly and cautiously,
with a long series of interruptions and disappointments.

n. ATTACKS IN LKTDEN.

When the affair at Utrecht was ended, the new philosophy
had already struck roots in the University of Leyden, and
had begun to be a subject of academic theses and disputa-
tions. Hooghland, a Catholic nobleman, the mathematicians
Golius and Schooten, were friends and disciples of Des-
cartes. Particular mention should be made of Adrian
Heereboord, who circumspectly and successfully defended
his theories in the university. As in Utrecht, disciples
aroused opponents. Here, also, they came from the theolo-
gians, who emulated Voetius, and were probably set on by
him. Scarcely two years had passed since the conclusion of
the Utrecht controversy, when the attacks of the theologians
in Leyden became so violent that Descartes, at the sugges-
tion of his friends, appealed from Egmond to the magistrates

1 Lettre Apologe'tique de M. Descartes, aux magistrats de la Tille d'Utrecht,
contre MM. Voetius pere et fils (CEuvres, t. ix. pp. 250-322). Kegius received
this "fasciculum epistolarum," as he called it, June 22, 1645.

266 HISTOEY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

for protection. And he had the same experience with these
magistrates as with those in Utrecht.

In the first months of the year 1647, Revius, a theological
tutor, had caused some theses to be defended against the
" Meditations," in which the philosopher was charged with
pure atheism and other heresies. The man was so insignifi-
cant, and his attacks so coarse, that they had no effect.
Soon after, Triglandius defended theses, accusing Descartes,
not merely of atheism, but blasphemy and Pelagianism.
Descartes had called God a deceiver, and had explained the
faculty of the human will as greater than the idea of God.
As a matter of fact, Descartes had supposed the possibility
that the world is a mere phantom, the work of a deceptive
demon, in order to prove the contrary ; and he had declared
that the human will is more comprehensive than the under-
standing. These attacks had so little the appearance of
mere misconceptions, that the friends of the philosopher per-
ceived in them dangerous intentions, and advised him to take
measures against them. On May 4, 1647, Descartes wrote to
the curators of the university and the magistrates of the city
of Leyden, requesting redress for the wrong inflicted upon
him by false accusations. He was answered May 22, that the
rector of the university, as well as the professors of the theo-
logical and philosophical faculties, had been called together,
and strictly forbidden to make any mention of Descartes'
theories, whether to attack or defend them, and it was ex-
pected that he would engage in no further discussion of the
theories which had been attacked.^ The redress, therefore,
consisted in this, — that the theories which had been attacked
should be considered Cartesian, and that his entire system
was laid under a kind of interdict in the University of Ley-
den ; and, indeed, the philosopher himself required to submit
to this regulation. Aroused by the injustice and unreason-
ableness of this procedure, Descartes replied to the magis-
trates, saying that he had probably not understood them ; it

1 CEuvres, t. x. pp. 26, 27.

DESCARTES: THE THIRD PERIOD OF HIS LIFE. 267

was to him perfectly indifferent whether his name was men-
tioned in the University of Leyden, or not ; but for the sake
of his reputation, he must demand the declaration that the
theories which had been attacked were not his.' " Am I a
Herostratus, that people are forbidden to mention me ? " he
wrote at that time to one of his friends in Holland. " I have
never striven to have my name spread abroad, or desired that
any pedant in the world should know any thing of me. But
the matter has now gone so far, that they must either give
me redress, or openly acknowledge that your theologians
have a right to lie and slander, and that a man like me cannot
expect the least justice against them in this land." ^ A little
before this, he described his new grievances to the Princess
Elizabeth. "I have written a long letter to the curators
of the University of Leyden, to demand redress for the
slanders of two theologians. I have not yet received their
answer ; but I do not expect much, since I know the disposi-
tion of the people in this country, and that they do not
defend honesty and virtue, since they fear the frowns, of theo-
logians. The wrong will be plastered over, not healed." "If,
as I foresee, I do not obtain justice, I intend to leave this
country immediately." " I have just received letters from the
Hague and Leyden, informing me that the meeting of the
curators is postponed, and that the theologians propose to be
the judges. In this case, I shall be subject to an inquisition
worse than the Spanish ever was, and shall be branded as an
enemy of their faith. I am, therefore, advised to appeal to
the French ambassador, and the Prince of Orange, not to
obtain justice, but to prevent, by their interference, the
extremest measures of my antagonists. I do not think, how-
ever, that I shall follow this advice. I want justice ; and if I
cannot get it, I think it best to prepare to return as quietly
as possible." °

Descartes was entirely correct, when, in his letter to the

1 CEnvres, t. x. pp. 29-34. " ib., pp. 3(i-40.

8 lb., pp. 40-44. (The letter is dated May 12, 1647.)

268 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Princess Elizabeth, he said that the Leyden attacks were a
consequence of those of Utrecht, and spoke of a " theological
league " that opposed him, determined to suppress his doc-
trine. The orthodox Calvinists of the Netherlands were
agreed upon the condemnation of the new philosophy, and
had no intention whatever to engage in discussions concern-
ing its nature and grounds. They wished to make short
work of it, and to forbid to theologians by synodal decrees
any use of Descartes' doctrine in their discourses and writ-
ings. Ten years later they accomplished their purpose. It
was the first conflict between modern philosophy and the
Reformed Church.

With this, the idyllic life of the philosopher in the Nether-
lands was over. The Utrecht-Leyden difficulties had more
and more embittered his feelings against the country and its
inhabitants. He had every reason to feel insecure, and to
think of a new and quiet residence.

LAST YEARS AND WORK IN HOLLAND. 269

CHAPTER VII.

LAST YEARS AND WORK IN HOLLAND.
I. NEW PLANS AND FRIENDS.

1. Journeys to France.

rr^HERE were reasons enougli to induce the philosopher,
-L after so long an absence, and after he had so success-
fully finished the most important part of his work, to return
to his own country. Although he had found many and able
friends and disciples, particularly in the Hague, among the
personal friends of the Prince of Orange and his counsellors,
men like Constantine Huyghens van Zuytlichen (father of
the famous Christian Huyghens), Wilhelm, PoUot, and others,
he had been obliged to learn that the ruling party in the
Church was hostile to him, had threatened to drive him
from the country, and suspected him as a Catholic French-
man. His opponents in the Netherlands wished to get rid
of him, while his countrymen had long desired his return.
It seemed unworthy of France, that a man who had in-
creased the fame of the French name to such an extraor-
dinary extent, should live in a foreign land. Even at the
court, Descartes had found admirers. Sept. 6, 1646, a royal
pension was bestowed upon him, unsought. With the pros-
pect of a new one, the patent of which he received a year
and a half later (March, 1648), he was invited to live in
France, in a position suitable to his rank, and favorable to
his leisure. Even before this, he had felt a desire to see old
friends, and become acquainted with new ones ; and, besides,
after the death of his father, the duty of attending to the

270 HISTORY OF MOBERN PHILOSOPHY.

business affairs of his family occasioned him to break in
upon liis leisure in Egmond, and make a visit to France.

The two first journeys were made in the years 1644 and
1647, principally to attend to the business of his inheritance
and his family. We learn from his letters that he left
Egmond van Hoef, May 1, 1644; went by the Hague, Ley-
den, and Amsterdam to France ; that he left Paris, July 10,
for Brittany, to stay there two months.' At the commence-
ment of October, he was again in Paris with his friend
Picot; and in the middle of November, he returned to
Egmond. The condemnation in Utrecht had already been
pronounced, and action had been brought in Groningen,
against Schoock, when he set out upon the journey. Two
years later we find him in the first week in June, in the
Hague, about to start on another journey to France. He
left Paris, July 15, to go again to Brittany and Poitou, to
look after business matters. In the middle of autumn he
was again in Egmond. Just before this, those unpleasant
attacks in Leyden were made, and he quietly resolved to
return. The thought of setting his feet on French soil was
ever with him ; and, therefore, he accepted that favorable
invitation which was the only reason of his third and last
visit to Paris.

He became acquainted with two of the critics of his " Med-
itations " in Paris, and, with them, forgot their disputes ;
viz., the Jesuit Bourdin on his first visit, and Gassendi on the
last. In the summer of 1647 he made the acquaintance of
the younger Pascal, whom he often met, and sought to con-
vince that there is no " vacuum " in nature, and no " horror
vacuii." He insisted that we must not explain certain phe-
nomena of the motion of fluid bodies — for example, the
ascent of water in the tube of a pump — by such fictions, but
by the pressure of the air.

2. Clerselier and Chanut. — Among the new friends and

1 CEuvres inddites, ii. p. 31. (Letter to 'Wilhelra in the Hague, July 9, 1644.
Descartes inquires in tliis letter concerning the Groningen matter.)

LAST YEAES AND ■WORK IN HOLLAND. 271

enthusiastic admirers whom Descartes found in France, the
most important were two men with whom he became
acquainted in Paris, in the summer of 1644, and whose
names are interwoven with the destiny of the philosopher
and his works : they were the young advocate of parliament,
Claude Clerselier, and his brother-in-law, Pierre Chanut, then
president of the board of revenue, and next year French
ambassador to the court of the queen of Sweden. When he
went through Amsterdam on his way to Sweden (October,
1645), Descartes came from Egmond to see Chanut, for
whom he had formed a very warm friendship. Chanut was
particularly interested in questions relating to theoretical
ethics ; and Descartes had so high an opinion of his judgment,
that he wished him to read and criticise his works. " Most
men have so little capacity for criticism, that I do not find it
useful to waste time with their opinions; but I shall regard
yours as the utterances of an oracle." In the same letter,
he wrote to his distant friend, " I often think regretfully,
that the world is much too large for the few excellent people
in it. I would that they all lived in a single city ; and I
would gladly quit my hermitage, to live there too, if they
would permit me. Although I shun the crowd, on account
of the multitude of intrusive boors one meets at every step,
I yet value intercourse with those whom one esteems, as the
greatest happiness of life. If i/ou were in Paris, I should
have a strong motive to go there too." " I have been yours
from the first hour of our acquaintance, and I esteem you as
warmly as if I had spent my whole life with you." ^

Chanut took the liveliest interest in the writings and
studies of Descartes, and spread his fame abroad whenever he
had the opportunity. He studied the "Principles" agaia,
and requested Clerselier to send him the French edition of
the " Meditations," that he might give it to the queen. He
rejoiced that Descartes had sketched a short essay on "-The

1 (Euvres, t. ix. pp. 409, 410. (March, 1646,) p. 417. (Letter dated' Nov. 1,
1646.)

272 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Nature of the Human Passions ; " and he urged his friend to
complete this work, which was connected with the questions
relating to the theory of morals. This interest plainly ani-
mated the lonely philosopher, who was somewhat depressed
by his recent experiences. "I would now gladly write of
yet another undertaking," Descartes had said in the letter in
which he mentioned that essay on the passions, "but I see
how few men there are who think it worth while to read my
writings; and this pleases me so little, that it makes me
negligent." •

That the young queen of Sweden was to receive his " Med-
itations " from the hands of a friend, and read them at his
suggestion, afforded to him a pleasant prospect, and plainly
brightened his depressed mood, disgusted as he was with the
conduct of a hostile or stupid multitude. Involuntarily his
imagination placed the Northern queen by the side of the
Princess Elizabeth, and found a resemblance between them.
Vague wishes and hopes were excited, which reflected them-
selves in his next letter to Chanut. This letter deserves an
important place among the self-revelations of the philosopher.
Among the griefs and disappointments of the last years, he
had often repented of his unfaithfulness to his motto, " £e7ie
qui latent, bene vixit." He wished now to see the world only
in his friends. Perhaps Stockholm seemed to him that city
of congenial minds to live in which he held the highest good.
" Had I not an entirely exceptional opinion of j'our penetra-
tion, and the greatest wish to learn of you, I should not have
begged you so importunately to examine my writings ; for I
am not in the habit of burdening people with such requests.
I have let my works go into the world unadorned, destitute
of the finery that attracts the eyes of thoSe who judge merely
\>j appearances, since I cared onlj'' for the attention of men
of ability, who would take the pains to examine them for
my instruction. This service you have not yet rendered me,
though you have put me under great obligations in other

1 CEuvres, t. ix. p. 413. (Letter dated June 15, 1646.)

LAST YEARS AND WORK IN HOLLAND. 273

respects, and I know that you speak -well of me ; and.Clerse-
lier informs me that you wish to give my ' Meditations ' to
the queen. I have never been ambitious to be known by
persons in such high station ; and if I had had the discretion
which savages attribute to apes, no one would know that I
write books. For it is said that savages believe that mon-
keys could talk if they would, but they refrain from doing so
that they may not be forced to work. I have not been dis-
creet enough to avoid writing, and therefore I am no longer
in possession of the quiet and leisure that I might have
enjoyed. However, the mischief is done. I am known by a
multitude of the adherents of the schools, who look askance
at my writings, and seek in all ways to injure me. I have,
therefore, reason to wish to be known also by better people,
who have both the poAver and the will to protect me. And
I have heard such excellent things of this queen, that I am
sincerely grateful to you for thinking of me in connection
with her, though I have been in the habit of complaining
when any one wished to make me acquainted with a person
in eminent station. I would not have believed half that De
la Thuillerie told me about the queen on his return from
Sweden, if I had not myself experienced in the princess, to
whom I dedicated my 'Principles,' that persons of great
rank, of whichever sex, do not need to be old to excel others
by far in scientific and moral culture. I only fear that the
queen will not thank you for recommending my writings.
Perhaps they would seem more worthy of being read if they
treated of ethical subjects, but this is a theme upon which I
dare not enter. The professors have fallen into a passion
even on account of my harmless principles of phj^sics, and
they would give me no rest if I should write on ethics. A
father (Bourdin) has accused me of scepticism, because I
have refuted the sceptics; and a clergyman (Voetius) has
decried me as an atheist, because I have attempted to prove
the existence of God. "What would they say if I should
inquire into the true value of all things which we desire or

274 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

shun, and into the state of the soul after death, and should
seek to ascertain to what degree we have a right to love life,
and what should be our state that we may not fear death ?
And however perfectly my views might accord with those of
religion, and however useful they might be to the State,
exactly opposite opinions would be attributed to me in both
particulars. I hold it best, therefore, to write no more books
at all, and to say with Seneca, 'Heavy is the burden of
death on him who dies, known to all the world, but unknown
to himself.' I will labor only for my own instruction, and
impart my thoughts only in private conversations. How
happy I should be could I have such intercourse with you !
but I do not believe I can ever go where you now live, or
that you can retire here. My only hope is, that, after some
years, you will make me happy by spending some days in my
hermitage on your return to France; and I can then talk
with you with an open heart." '

His " beloved hermitage," however, lost its attraction for
him soon after, through the attacks of the Leyden theolo-
gians ; and the interruptions that followed, strengthened his
wish to change his place of residence. His next plans were
directed to France.

3. Last Residence in Paris. — But the affairs of that coun-
try, particularly those of the court, had grown more and
more unfavorable to him ; and the prospects which had been
held out to him had vanished when he went to Paris for
the last time, at the end of May, 1648. He had found the
theatre of political events very much changed, even on his
first journey (1644), after an absence of fifteen years. Louis
Xni. had died a year before (May 14, 1643), a few months
after Richelieu (Dec. 4, 1642), leaving the kingdom to a boy
five years old, under the regency of his mother, Queen Anne
of Austria, and the commanding influence of Mazarin, who
had succeeded Richelieu. The new edicts of taxation, in the
year 1644, had called forth remonstrances from the parlia-

1 CEuvres, t. x. pp. 413-417. (The letter is dated Nov. 1, 1646.)

LAST YEARS AND WORK IN HOLLAND. 275

ment in Paris, and created disturbances among the people ;
and a keen observer could even then have seen the sisms of
a gathering storm. Now measures of violence on the part
of the court, and opposition from the parliament, the division
of parties, and the intrigues of party leaders, had gone so far
that there was every indication of an outbreak of a civil war
(May, 1648). The imprisonment of two members of parlia-
ment in August of this year had caused an insurrection ; and
when Descartes left Paris towards the end of the month, he
saw the barricades erected with which the war of Fronde
began. But the absolutism of the French monarchy was on
the point of completion ; and the last remaining shadow of
a law-making power, independent of the crown, vanished
after a series of battles.

Under such circumstances, no one could think of the posi-
tion which had been promised Descartes, or even of the
pension which had been assured him. The only advantage
of his journey was a philosophical correspondence with
Arnauld (June, 1648), and a last visit to his friend Mer-
senne, whom he left very sick, and of whose death he was
informed soon after his return to Egmond. He had to aban-
don for a time his plan of living in France. "I should have
done well," he wrote to the Princess Elizabeth soon after his
arrival in Paris, "to remain in a country where there is peace
already ; and if these storms are not soon over, I shall return
to Egmond in six or eight weeks, and wait there until the
sky of France is clear. However, I find myself very happily
situated, since I am perfectly free, with one foot in France,
and the other in Holland." ^ But the storms increased, and
Descartes felt still happier when he had both feet in Egmond.
"Thank God," wrote he from this place, "the journey to
France, to which I had formally pledged myself, is behind
me : I am not sorry that I went, but I am yet gladder that
I am back. I have found no one to envy, and those who
live in the greatest splendor deserve the deepest sympathy.

1 CEuvres, t. x. p. 136.

276 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

To learn how happy a quiet and retired life is, and how rich
is the man of moderate means, I could have chosen no better
time to make a visit to France." He has seen a queen under
barricades, and considers Elizabeth happy when he compares
her lot with that of the queens and princesses of Europe :
she is in a harbor, they are out on a stormy sea. " We ought
to be contented if we are in a harbor, even though we owe
our security to a shipwreck." ^

Some months later he apologized to Chanut for not having
written of his return, declaring that he would rather say
nothing about it, since an account of his experience might
easily appear to be a criticism of those well-meaning people
who invited him to France. "I have considered them as
friends who invited me to dine ; and when I accepted their
invitation, I found their kitchen in disorder, and their pots
upset. I have therefore returned without saying a word,
that I might not increase their chagrin. But I have learned
a lesson, and will never again undertake a journey on account
of promises, even when they are written on parchment." ^

But Descartes did not always bear this deception with
such equanimity. In the very next letter to Chanut, he
gave a more detailed account of the matter, and he was
evidently somewhat annoyed. "I have never reckoned on
the favor of fortune, and have always sought to so order my
life that it might not be exposed to her influence : she there-
fore seems to be jealous, since she neglects no opportunity
to treat me badly. I have experienced this to my satisfac-
tion in all three of the journeys I have made from this place
to France, particularly the last, which was enjoined upon me,
as it were, in the name of the king. To induce me to under-
take it, letters had been sent to me written on parchment,
with the seals of the state, containing extravagant praises of
my merit, and the assurance of an excellent pension; and

1 ffinvres, t. X. pp. 165, 166. (Letter to Elizabeth, Oct. 1, 1648, according to
Cousin's conjecture.)

2 lb., p. 310. (The letter was written Feb. 26, 1649.)

LAST YEARS AND WORK IN HOLLAND. 277

these royal documents were accompanied by private letters,
promising still more after my arrival. But when I went,
the matter resulted quite otherwise, in consequence of the
sudden political disturbances. None of the promises were
kept : the despatch of the patents had even been paid for by
one of my relatives, to whom, of course, I had to return
the money. It seemed that I had only travelled to Paris to
buy the dearest and most useless parchment that ever came
into my hands. So far I was entirely indifferent to the
matter, and I should only have charged it to the account of
the political disturbances, if the people who invited me had
made any use of my presence whatever. And this annoyed
me most, that no one desired any thing of me, except to see
my face ; and I am really obliged to believe that I was invited
to go to France, not for any serious purpose, but for the sake
of the rarity, as though I were an elephant or panther. I
know very well that I have no reason to expect the like in
Stockholm ; but after the miserable results of all the journeys
I have undertaken in the last twenty years, I cannot help
fearing, that, if I should start upon a new one, I should have
nothing else to expect than to be plundered by robbers on
the way, or suffer a shipwreck that would cost me my life." ^

The invitation to Sweden had been given, and unpleasant
forebodings filled the mind of the philosopher. There was a
third enemy more certainly to be foreseen than robbers or
shipwreck, — the unfavorable climate, of which he himself
had warned Chanut in earlier letters, and which was to pre-
pare for him a premature death.

Paris and Descartes were not made for each other. Every
time he lived there, the longing for solitude and quiet over-
came him, and drove him repeatedly into suburbs, and finally
out of France. In the same mood in which he left Paris
twenty years before, he now returns to his village in Hol-
land, and felt there as though he were in a harbor. It is
one of the most noteworthy facts of Descartes' experience,

1 aSuvres, t. x. pp. 325, 326. (The letter was dated March 31, 1649.)

278 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

without a knowledge of which we cannot understand his
character and disposition, tliat this greatest thinker of
France was perhaps the only Frenchman who could not live
in Paris, and had an antipathy to the metropolis of the world.
" If I venture in my vanity to hope for the approval of the
queen," wrote he to Chanut soon after his last arrival in
Paris, " you must attribute it, not so much to my disposition,
as to the air of Paris. I think I have told you before, that
it disposes me to chimerical fancies rather than to philosophi-
cal thoughts. I see so many here who deceive themselves in
their opinions and calculations, that illusion seems to me an
epidemic in Paris. The harmless solitude from which I have
come pleased me far better; and I think I shall not resist
my home-sickness, and shall soon return thither."

II. A NEW OPPONENT. — LAST LABORS.

1. Regiv£ Apostasy. — Descartes had reason, when he
crossed the threshold of his literary career, to fear disciples
who would not only follow him, but interpret his theories,
and seek to improve them. He was to experience this to the
fullest extent in the case of Regius, " The first martyr of the
Cartesian philosophy." In the controversy which Regius had
carried on with Voetius by means of theses, Descartes was
unable to entirely approve of the mode in which his disciple
conceived of the relation between soul and body; and he par-
ticularly disapproved of his polemical methods when the
controversy began soon after to be conducted in writing.
When, four years later, Regius laid the manuscript of his
text-book on physics (^fundamenta physicce) before Descartes,
he found so many unproved assertions, so many false hypoth-
eses, and in his theory of man such deviations from his own
" Principles," that he strongly advised him not to publish it :
he should limit himself to medicine, Descartes told him,
since he had no talent for metaphysics, and the University of
Utrecht had acted in his interest when it forbade him to lec-
ture on philosophical subjects; not only was his mode of

LAST YEAKS AND "WORK IN HOLLAND. 279

exposition injurious to the theories of the philosopher, but
he distorted them to such an extent, that Descartes would be
obliged to publicly disclaim all responsibility for it if Regius
published the work. Nevertheless, the book was published
(September, 1646). Descartes wrote to the Princess Eliza-
beth that the book was not worth her reading : where it
deviated from him, it was false; and where it seemed to
accord with his doctrine, it was a wretched and ignorant
plagiarism.^

Toward the end of the year 1647, two works appeared,
attacking the Cartesian theories ; one bearing the title " Con-
sideratio Reviana," and displaying its hostility, both in the
name of its author and in the abuses which it contained.
Descartes paid no attention to it. The second was an
anonymous placard, discussing in twenty-one theses the
theory of the human mind, and, without mentioning Des-
cartes, so corresponding with the theories contained in
Regius' work, that there could be no doubt of its authorship.
In this placard, Descartes recognized an enemy in fact, if
not in intention. It so distorted and caricatured his theories
by pernicious and false conceptions, that, to obviate all mis-
conceptions, he wrote a detailed criticism, of which, however,
it seems that only a few copies were printed.^ Who would
have thought that the last antagonist with whom he would
have to contend in the Netherlands, would be the same man
whom he had once called his best and most trusted disciple ?

We remark briefly, that the defection of Regius, which
Descartes had noticed with such displeasure in the text-book
on physics, consisted in an attempt to transform Descartes'
fundamental doctrine, the dualism of soul and body, into
materialism, and already indicated the direction which the
French philosophy of the eighteenth century was to take in
the hands of Condillac and La Mettrie. Thought and exten-

1 CEnvres, t. ix. pp. 323-330. (Three letters to Kegius in July, 1645, t. x. pp.
23-26.) (Letter to ElizaTjeth, March 15, 1647.)

2 See following chapter.

280 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

sion are not to be conceived as opposite attributes of dif-
ferent substances, — according to Regius, — but as different
attributes of one substance ; namely, body. The soul is a
mode of body completely dependent upon its states and
changes. The mind, therefore, neither has nor needs innate
ideas, but gains all its ideas through the senses. The sub-
stantiality of the human mind, and its difference of essence
from the body, are established by religion and revelation.
So ran the text-book. The tendency is unmistakable : dual-
ism prevails in religion, and materialism in philosophy. The
theses of the placard aimed at the destruction of the Carte-
sian metaphysics. If any one wishes to know what Descartes
would have said to Condillac and La Mettrie, let him read
what he said to Eegius. He saw before him a nest of
fallacies.^

2. The Last Works. — After Descartes had laid the foun-
dations of his system in the " Principles of Philosophy," and
had developed it as far as the theory of organic nature, the
most important subject that remained was man, the problem
of anthropology, which comprehends three important sub-
jects,— physiologjs psychology, ethics. The first relates to
the organs and functions of the human body ; the second,
to the union of the soul with the body ; the third, to the prob-
lems and purposes of life. Physiology is closely connected
with zoology. The human body in its developed form can
only be understood through a knowledge of its origin,
through the history of the development of the embryo, and
this, in turn, through the history of the formation of animal
bodies, the knowledge of which last the philosopher continu-
ally and industriously sought to acquire by studies in com-
parative anatomy. Here, nature was his immediate object of
study. When any one visited him in Egmond, and inquired
for his library, he pointed to a dissected animal. That Des-
cartes sought to discover the secrets of life by studies in
comparative anatomy and embryology, is a wonderful proof

I CEuvres, t. x. pp. 70-111. (Written in Egmond at the end of December )

LAST YEARS AKD WORK IN HOLLAND. 281

of the methodical thinker, and must be valued more highly
in the estimation of his biological labors than the worth or
worthlessness of his results. Even in his " Cosmos " he was
engaged in an inquiry concerning the origin of animals ; and
he had even then written an essay on the human bodj',
intended to be included in that work. It was his " Traits
de THomme " which treated of digestion, of the circulation
of the blood, of respiration, of the motion of the muscles, of
the organs of the senses and sensations, of the motions and
functions of the brain. He now determined to remodel it ;
and the result was a new work, embracing animals and man,
— "A Description of the Functions of the Human Body and
an Explanation of the Formation of Animals ; " or, as it is
usually called, " Traits de la Formation du Foetus." This
work occupied him during 1647 and 1648. In a letter dated
Dec. 23, 1647, the Princess Elizabeth expressed the wish that
he would write an essay on education. Descartes answered
that three reasons prevented him from undertaking it :
" The third is, that I am just now engaged in another work,
which I hope you will like better, — a description of animal
and human functions ; since what I hastily sketched on that
subject twelve or thirteen years ago, and showed you, has
repeatedly fallen into unskilful hands, and I now feel the
necessity of remodelling it, and have even ventured to
develop the history of the animal from the commencement
of its origin (I began it eight or ten days ago). I say of
animals in general, since I would not undertake an investi-
gation of what relates to man in particular, because I have
not the necessary knowledge. The remaining months of the
winter will be perhaps the most quiet period of the remain-
der of my life; and I would rather use them, therefore, in
this work, than in one which requires less concentration." ^

His presentiment was true. It was the last quiet period
of his life. The journey to France with its disappointments

1 CEim-es, x. pp. 121, 122. (The letter could not have been written before
Feb. 1, 1648.)

282 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

was at hand. Then came yet more distracting days, and
then the end.

Descartes had already solved the chief problem of psychol-
ogy, in his "Passions of the Soul." It was the last work
which he himself published — sketched in the winter of
1645-46, finished afterwards, and published the year he died.
He would not write on morals and education, because he
was unwilling to fan the flames of controversy which his
other works had kindled.; and he foresaw that such would
be the result of engaging in discussions of questions of such
practical importance. He had expressed his thoughts on
the worth and object of human life, in his letters to the
Princess Elizabeth and the Queen of Sweden.

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 283

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CLOSE OP DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM.
I. THE INVITATION OF THE QUEEN.

1. Christina of Sweden.

"VTTHEN Chanut went to Stockholm in the latter part of
' ' the autumn of 1645, the daughter of Gustavus Adol-
phus had sat for a j'ear on the throne of Sweden. She was
nineteen years old, in the zenith of her fortune and power,
heiress of a powerful kingdom, and daughter of a man who
united the fame of a hero with the glory of a martyr. The
love and hopes of her people were fixed upon her, and the
first measures of her reign seemed to realize the latter in a
high degree. She was still young and unspoiled : her will
was as yet master of those bizarre impulses, that capricious
and fickle nature, that false and theatrical thirst for great-
ness, to which she lightly and blindly sacrificed her great
destiny. The first princess of the North, both through her
political and personal importance, and able to maintain this
position, she became of her own accord a vagrant and adven-
turous woman, and did every thing in her power to make
herself unworthy of her father. Her mental powers were in
full bloom when Chanut sought to interest her in Descartes ;
and that which seemed peculiar and unbridled in her nature
could be attributed to an excess of youthful vigor, and to
that too masculine education which she had received accord-
ing to the wish of her father. She was passionately fond of
hunting, and gratified her taste for it with the best hunters.
She was a bold and skilful rider, easily remaining in the

284 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

saddle ten hours without dismounting from her horse. She
preferred the dress of a man, and despised every adornment.
She had hardened her body by fatigue, and strengthened it
by a simple and hardy mode of life. She was not only queen
in name, but knew how to command ; and she was so famil-
iar with the business of the state, so independent in her
decisions, so obstinate in their execution, that she made the
members of her council feel her superiority. Her literary
tastes and her intellectual interests were of a masculine
character. She was fond of serious books and conversation,
read daily some pages of Tacitus, spoke Latin, and studied
Greek. Her exterior betrayed her restless and excitable
spirit : the expression of her face and the tone of her voice
changed quickly as she spoke. Hers was not a religious
nature, although she was interested in religious questions,
aiid ready to consider objections from any quarter. She was,
therefore, particularly interested in the theoretical aspects of
religion and morals, and often took or gave the opportunity
for discussing such subjects in conversation. Thus it hap-
pened that one day, during a conversation with Chanut, who
was full of admiration for the queen, she proposed the fol-
lowing questions : In what does the nature of love consist ?
Can love to God result from our natural knowledge ? Which
is worse, excess in love or in hate ? The content as well as
the aphoristic style of the questions is very characteristic of
the philosophical tastes of the queen. Chanut thought that
no one could solve these problems better than Descartes,
and wrote to him accordingly.

2, Philosophical Letters. — Descartes answered from Eg-
mond, Feb. 1, 1647, in a cheerful mood. This "Letter on
Love " was the first conversation, as it were, in which Des-
cartes indirectly, and from a distance, engaged -with the
queen of Sweden; for that she should read it was Chanut's
intention in asking for the opinion of the philosopher. The
letter is a little masterpiece, a real cabinet picture ; and any
connoisseur of the philosopher, knowing nothing of its author-

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 285

ship, or the occasion of its writing, but familiar only with its
ideas, the course of its investigations, and the choice of its
expressions, would immediately exclaim, "A genuine Des-
cartes ! " He wrote no other work so limited in extent (it
does not exceed the limits of an ordina'ry letter), in which he
can be better understood, on the supposition that one knows
how to read between the lines of a philosopher.

He distinguished intellectual love from that of passion,
and then determined the nature of love in general, by an
analytical inquiry : it consists in this, that we imagine an
object whose presence or possession gives us pleasure, whose
absence or loss gives us pain. We, therefore, desire this
object with all the strength of our wills: we wish to be
united, or form one whole with it, ourselves to be but a part
of this whole. Love is necessarily united with pleasure, pain,
and desire. These four directions of the will depend upon
the nature of the soul proper, without union with the body.
They are contained in the need for knowledge, which belongs
to a thinking being. As thinking beings, we love the knowl-
edge of things, feel pleasure when we have it, and pain when
we are deprived of it, and, therefore, strive to possess it.
Nothing is obscure here. Only the desire for knowledge
moves our soul. We know what we love and desire, what
rejoices us, and what afflicts us. The joys and sorrows of
intellectual love, therefore, are not passions, but clear ideas.
The love which is of the nature of passion or of sense, first
arises when those clear ideas become obscured by the union
of the soul with the body* There are bodily states or changes
with which certain desires in our soul are coincident, al-
though there is no resemblance or connection between them.
In this way arise the obscure desires of sense and passion,
which seek certain objects, and shun others ; the possession
of those gives pleasure, the presence of these, pain ; those
are loved, these are hated. Pleasure and pain, love and hate,
are the four fundamental forms of the desires of sense, the
elementary passions out of which, by composition and modi-

286 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

fication, all the rest arise. They are the only passions to
which we are subject before birth, since they are active even
in the nourishment of the embryonic life. Intellectual love
coincides with the need for knowledge of our thinking
nature ; that of passion has its roots in the needs for nour-
ishment of our organic nature. There is a conception of
desirable objects (intellectual love) without bodily excita-
tion, and without passion ; and in like manner passion can
exist without knowledge. There is love without passion,
and passion without love. In the usual acceptation of the
term, both are united in human love. Soul and body are
united in such a manner that particular activities of thought
and will accompany particular organic states, and mutually
summon each other, like thoughts and words. Thus, the con-
ception of desirable objects or love finds its involuntary
bodily expression in the increased activity of the heart, and
the more rapid circulation of the blood. This love which is
both of soul and body, this union of intellection and passion,
constitutes the feeling concerning whose nature the queen
inquired.

From this it seems to follow that God, too exalted to be
accessible, and too spiritual to be brought before our minds
by means of the senses, can never be an object of love in
the light of natural knowledge, since the representation of the
Godhead to the senses is either the mystery of incarnation,
as in Christianity, or the error of idolatry, as in the religions
of paganism, where one, like Ixion, embraces a cloud instead
of a goddess. Yet by deep reflection, the idea of God can
become love, and, indeed, the most powerful of all passions,
if we recognize in God the origin, and, therefore, the goal, of
our mental life. But we must not regard this goal as a kind
of becoming-divine, otherwise we fall into a dangerous error,
which is not loving God, but desiring his divinity. Rather,
we recognize in God the origin, not merely of our souls,
but of the whole universe, which does not need to be a
sphere in order to find its ground and stability in God alone.

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 287

This knowledge of the omnipotent will is so sublime that it
fills us with joy, and with the effort to humbly follow the
will of God. Therein consists the true love of God, illumi-
nated by natural knowledge ; and it is so powerful that it
takes possession, even of the heart and nerves. The feel-
ing of reverence does no harm to the feeling of love, but
unites with it the wish to sacrifice one's self for the beloved
object. Even friendship is capable of sacrifice ; much more,
patriotism. The more exalted the object of our love, the
more joyous and willing is the subordination of ourselves ;
and there is, therefore, no obstacle to the union of the deepest
love and reverence in the same feeling. Chanut himself, said
Descartes, could best testify to the truth of this, since he ex-
perienced it. "If I asked you on your conscience, whether
you love that noble queen near whom you now live, you
might persist in saying that you feel for her only admiration,
homage, reverence ; but, in spite of it, I should maintain that
your feeling is an ardent affection, since, as often as you
speak of her, there flows from your mouth such a torrent of
admiring words, that, as much as I believe you (I know your
love of truth, and have heard of it from others), I am con-
vinced you could not describe her with such animation if
she had not excited your affections, and warmed your heart.
Indeed, it is impossible to be so near such a luminary without
being warmed by it."

Which is worse, an excess of love, or an excess of hate?
The more our benevolence suffers through a passion, and our
contentment decreases, and the more our pernicious excesses
increase, the worse is the passion. There is no doubt that
hate nourishes wickedness, while it poisons even kind na-
tures ; that it is a miserable and tormenting feeling, destitute
of any real satisfaction, for the pleasure of hate is demoniacal,
belonging to evil spirits in the place of torment. But as to
pernicious excesses, the greater excess is also the worse.
We must, therefore, inquire which of the two passions is in
•general more inclined to excess ? And Descartes' answer is,

288 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

love ! It is more passionate, and therefore more powerful and
more heroic than hate. Natures like Hercules, Roland, etc.,
have indulged in more excesses in love than in hate. Love
unites, hate separates ; and when love unites us to a worth-
less object, it injures us more than hate when it separates us
from one that is worthy. And, finally, the more passionate
the love, the more recklessly it seeks to remove every obsta-
cle to its satisfaction. It thus excites hate in more than one
direction, and with it an army of evils : love sowed the seed
from which sprang the harvest that resulted in the burning of
Troy.i

When the queen read the letter, she said to Chanut, " So
far as I know Descartes, from this letter and your account of
him, I count him the most fortunate of men ; and his life
seems to me enviable. Say to him that I have a high opinion
of him." Descartes gave some more particular explanations,
which the queen had requested, in a letter to Chanut, June
6, 1647. Soon she eagerly made another opportunity of ask-
ing for the opinion of the philosopher.

Among the scholars of Sweden, John Freinsheim of Elm, a
German philologist, was then famous, because of his discov-
ery of the supplements of Livy. A panegyric on Gustavus
Adolphus had resulted in his call to Upsala as professor of
politics and rhetoric, and five years afterwards he was called
to Stockholm as historiographer and librarian of the queen.
In his farewell address in Upsala, at which the queen with the
French ambassador and some gentlemen of her court were
present, he discussed the question of the highest good. The
queen herself had suggested the subject. After she had
heard the address, which was delivered in Latin, she re-
marked to Chanut, " These men can only treat such subjects
superficially: we should hear Descartes discuss it." The
question was accordingly proposed to him, and answered in
a letter to the queen herself (November, 1647).

Descartes briefly sketched the foundations of his theory of

1 CEuvres, t. x. pp. 2-22.

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 289

morals, and the principles by which his own life was guided.
He proposed, not to determine the highest good in an abso-
lute sense — this is God — but with reference to man, not
humanity, whose highest good consists in the sum of all
material and spiritual excellences, but with reference to
individual man. So understood, the highest good must be
attainable, something that we are able to possess or acquire,
something, therefore, that lies in our power. Material goods
are not in our power : the highest good must, therefore, be
sought within the mind, in the territory of knowledge and
will. But even knowledge in its different degrees is condi-
tioned by one's capacities and circumstances, which are inde-
pendent of us. There remains, therefore, the will as the only
field in which the hidden treasure can be found. It is
always in our power, it is our own highest faculty, our inner
self, the core of our being. The will to seek knowledge lies
in our power. We can firmly and continually carry out the
resolve to act always according to our best judgment; and if
we do so, we realize the ideal, both of the Stoics and Epicu-
reans, for we are both virtuous and happy. This will alone
is that which is truly worthy of reverence in this world. " I
know that the gifts of fortune are usually valued more
highly ; but, as I am sure that your Majesty sets a higher
value on your virtue than your crown, I declare openly that
to me virtue appears as the only commendable thing." All
other goods deserve to be valued, — not honored and praised,
— provided they are considered as gifts of God, or as opportu-
nities of which we are to make a good use by means of our
free will. For honor and love are rewards, and only what
the will does deserves to be rewarded or punished. The
greatest good of man is the state of greatest contentment,
and this, whatever its nature, exists within us; for the
soul alone is contented, and only when it is in possession of
some desired object. Its conception of good is frequently
very confused : it conceives many goods as far greater than
they really are, but its satisfaction always equals its estimate

290 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of the good which it possesses-. Now, no good is greater than
the excellent use of our free will. This will, therefore, and
it alone, is the highest good.i

It was very fortunate that these jjhilosophical letters, the
occasion of which was a mere accident, treated of themes
lying, as it were, at the point of his pen. The question as to
the nature of love was closely connected with the sketch on
the "Passions," which he had written a year before. The
question as to the highest good related to the same subject,
which he had discussed shortly before that sketch, in the
letters on human happiness, which he had written to the
Princess Elizabeth. These letters had resulted in the sketch
on the passions. Descartes now sent both writings to Cha-
nut, along with the letter to the queen, requesting Chanut
to permit no one to read them except the queen, and not
even the queen unless she expressly desired to.^

More than a year passed by before Christina answered
(December, 1648).^ She had been occupied in the mean
time with quite other matters than the nature of love and
the highest good : the year 1648 was the date of the peace
of Westphalia. But she did not lose sight of Descartes ; and
after she had communicated with him through letters, she
ardently wished to become personally acquainted with him.

3. Invitation and Journey to Stockholm. — Christina was
deeply interested in the work on the passions, and resolved
to study Descartes' philosophical works thoroughly. They
were her constant companions. She carried the sketch on
-the passions with her when she went hunting, and the "Prin-
ciples of Philosophy " when she went to her mines. She
made it the duty of Freinsheim to study this work, that he
might help her understand it; and Chanut was requested to
come to his assistance. "Since Friensheim has discovered

1 CEuvres, t. x. pp. 59-64. ("Written in Egmond, Nov. 20, 1647.)

a lb., pp. 65-67.

8 The answer of the queen ia lost. Descartes spoke of its contents, and the
style of its Fjenoh, in complimentary terms, in a letter to Chanut, Feb. 2G, 11/411.
lb., pp. 307 and following.

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 291

that he needs a companion in this work," wrote Chanut
good-humoredly to Descartes, " I am requested to read the
'Principles' with him. It is my duty to make myself agree-
able to the queen, at whose court I serve the king of France ;
and so it is now one of the duties of the French ambassador
to Sweden, to study Descartes." While Descartes was in
Paris, in the midst of the political commotions which de-
stroyed his expectations relating to the immediate future, he
learned with pleasure that his books were read at the court of
Sweden, and that the queen studied philosophy, even on her
hunts. He recommended the first book of the "Principles"
instead of the "Meditations," because it was more concise,
and likewise more easily understood. He further advised the
queen not to delay with the theory of motion in the second
book, and to give her attention merely to the important
point of view, that, in the sensible properties of things, there
is nothing objective, except size, form, and motion, and that,
by these fundamental properties, even light and warmth are
explained, which, like appetite and pain, exist only in our
mind.^

But Christina soon found that the difliculties of his sys-
tem could be better set aside by Descartes himself than by
Freinsheim and Chanut, and that she could understand it
better from Descartes' own mouth than from his books. She
urgently requested Chanut to invite him to Stockholm — to
repeat the invitation. The first letter which reached Paris,
when Descartes had already left that city, did not reach him
until the middle of February, 1649 : he received the second
about the end of the following month. He answered (prob-
ably March 31, 1649) in two letters to Chanut, one of which
was to be shown to the queen, and the other confidential.
In the former he accepted the invitation, and promised to

1 CEuvrea, x. pp. 308, 309. (Descartes replied to the queen at the same time,
Feb. 26, 1649: he called his answer " un compliment yort sterile." In conclusion
he assured her that his devotion to her could not be greater if he were a Swede
or a Finlander.)

292 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

undertake the journey in the middle of the summer, in order
to spend the winter in Stockholm: in the latter he wrote
quite differently ; many reasons for hesitation had obtruded
themselves upon him, many more than he had thought of at
first. He had had so many unfortunate experiences with
his philosophy and his travels, and had found so few who
were really able to appreciate his doctrine. At the first
glance, it seemed to many strange and peculiar ; but after
they understood it, it seemed so simple and natural, that it
no longer excited their attention. For truth is, as it were,
the health of the soul ; and, like that of the body, we prize
it only when we do not possess it. Besides, there is no place
less adapted to the study of such a philosophy than the court
of a queen, where there are so many things to distract the
mind. Still, if the queen had the necessary leisure and per-
severance, he would come. But if her interest was merely
a passing curiosity, he hoped Chanut would do all in his
power to save him from having to make the journey.^

All these considerations seemed to him more weighty in
his solitude at Egmond. He feared the long journey, the
strange country, the severe climate. " One does not won-
der," he wrote some days after to Chanut, " that Ulysses left
the enchanted island of Calypso and Circe, where he could
enjoy every conceivable pleasure, to live in a stony and
barren country, because it was his native land. But a man
who was born in the gardens of Touraine, and who now lives
in a country, where, if not more honey, probably more milk,
flows than in the jjromised land, may very well be slow to
leave such a residence to go to a land of bears, in the midst
of rocks and ice."^ But not only nature, but the court,
made him apprehensive. Envious antagonists, with their
slanders and intrigues of all kinds, would be no less abun-
dant there than in his solitude in Holland. He feared that

1 CEuvres, x. pp. 320-32'f. Cf. with the second letter, our account on p. 277.

2 lb., pp. 330, 331. (The letter was dated April 4, 1B49, according to Cousin's
supposition.)

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 293

the queen -would be an object of suspicion, even in her own
country, because she had invited him. Already her prefer-
ence for scholars and her studious habits were criticised ; and
it was deridingly said, that she was surrounding herself with
the pedants of Europe, and that soon Sweden would be
ruled by grammarians. He was very much afraid that
hostile accounts of his system had been circulated in Sweden
by assiduous opponents, who had heard of the purpose of his
journey, and that thus his stay near the court of the queen
might redound to her harm. He, therefore, wrote to Freiu-
sheim with all frankness, and at the same time with the
greatest delicacy, and asked for information and advice.^
He received such an answer that he had reason to feel at
ease.

Every step in the direction of limiting his independence
and solitude, Descartes felt as a departure from his own
proper element into one that was foreign to him. Whenever
he was on the point of crossing this boundary, he stopped in
hesitation. He thought of his journey to Sweden, as he had
done of the publication of his works ; then he would have
preferred to be silent ; now he preferred to remain where he
was. Chanut had visited the philosopher in Holland in the
spring, as he passed through on his way to Paris, where he
was to remain until late in the fall, and had silenced many
of Descartes' objections. Still, he would gladly have waited
the return of his friend, in order to make the journey with
him. But the impatience of the queen hastened him. She
sent Flemming, one of her admirals, to Amsterdam, to offer
to Descartes the services of his ship for the journey to Stock-
holm, where she hoped to see him before the end of April.
But Descartes had already declared that he could not start
before the middle of the summer. After he had prepared
his work on the passions for the press, and given it to the

1 CBuvres, t. x. pp. 335-337. (The letter was dated June 10, lCti9, in Cousin's
opinion. At the close of the letter, Descartes asked whether the queen would
consent to the publication of his essay on the passions.)

294 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

publisher in Amsterdam, and carefully arranged all his
affairs, he left Egmond, Sept. 1, 1649.

II. DESCARTES IN STOCKHOLM;.

1. Residence and Position. — Descartes arrived in Stock-
holm early in October. Madame Chanut, the wife and sister
of his two excellent friends, gave him a most hospitable
reception in the absence of her husband, who was still in
Paris. The queen received him with the highest marks of
honor. Some days after his arrival, he wrote to his friend,
the Princess Elizabeth, saying that he had only seen the
queen twice, and had been quite as favorably impressed with
her ability and attractiveness as he had dared to hope.
Thanks to Freinsheim, he was free from the oppressive
duties of court ceremony, and had to attend the court only
when the queen wished to see him. Under the most favor-
able circumstances, he would not remain in Stockholm
longer than the beginning of the next summer. Already he
looked back with longing at his beloved hermitage in Hol-
land. " It is easy for me there to make progress in the
investigation of truth, and in this alone consists the chief
purpose of my life." ^

But the queen had plans with reference to Descartes, that
contemplated a much longer stay. Through his residence in
Stockholm, she not only wished to broaden her own culture,
but to serve the cause of science in her country, and assist
the philosopher in the prosecution of his own plans. She
desired that he should be her instructor and friend ; that
he should found a scientific academy in Stockholm ; and
under her protection, and in the enjoyment of perfect leisure,
complete the sketches he had brought with him, and finish
the works he had begun. In this manner, Christina wished
to promote the interests of the new philosophy, as well as
be benefited by it. But to this end, it was necessary for-
Descartes to remain in Stockholm, not merely for a time,

1 CEuvres, t. x. pp. 373-375.

THE CLOSE OF DESCARTES' LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 295

and by way of a visit, but permanently. The queen, there-
fore, desired his formal settlement iu Sweden, and intended
to have him take a place among the magnates of the land,
as the possessor of an hereditary estate. When Chanut
returned in November, the queen told him her plans, and
requested him to gain the consent of his friend. Descartes
was thoroughly averse to the proposal ; pleaded that the cli-
mate was too severe for him. It was the only difficulty which
the queen would admit, and she easily set that aside. Des-
cartes' estate should be in Southern Sweden ; and Chanut
and a member of the council of the ^kingdom were commis-
sioned to find one for him among the possessions of the arch-
bishopric of Bremen and Pomerania, which Sweden had
just acquired by the peace of Westphalia, — an estate which
should yield him a splendid revenue, and be hereditary in his
family. The matter was already in progress, when it was
interrupted and postponed by Chanut's sickness, and it was
not finished when Descartes died. Thus, the peculiar
course of his destiny came very near making the greatest,
and, for German philosophy, most important, thinker of
France, the owner of an estate in German lands, through the
favor of the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus.

The philosophical instruction of the queen began in
November, after Descartes had come to feel somewhat at
home in his new surroundings. That she might study the
difficult subject when her mind was freshest, and be entirely
undisturbed by any business of state, Christina chose the
first hours of the morning. Descartes was obliged to go to
the palace every morning at five o'clock, in the cold of a
Northern winter, which, moreover, was unusually severe that
year, and await his royal pupil in the library. He had had
reason to fear the climate. After a walk with Chanut, Jan.
18, 1650, the latter was taken sick with an inflammation of
the lungs ; and, for a time, his life was in danger. Descartes
nursed his friend with the greatest care ; and, after nights of
wakefulness, he was every morning at five o'clock in the

296 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

library of the queen ; besides, he spent a portion of the after-
noons conferring with her concerning the proposed academy,
the statutes of which he sketched in the latter part of Jan-
uary, and submitted to the queen, Feb. 1. It was the last
time he saw her. These statutes show how little Descartes
was thinking of himself and his own advantage. The very
first article excluded foreigners from the presidency, a posi-
tion the queen had intended for him.

2. Sickness and Death. — Exhausted by his labors and the
care of his friend, he had less power to resist the attacks of
the terrible cold of the winter. He was already sick when
he returned from his last conference with the queen, though
he forced himself to sit up. The fever raged so much the
more violently the next day, and for a week he lay dehrious.
Even on the fifth day his case seemed hopeless to the physi-
cians. Unfortunately, the first physician of the queen, du
Ryer, a countryman and friend of Descartes, was absent.
The second, van Weulles, was a Hollander, and a friend, it
is said, of Descartes' opponents in Utrecht. The seventh
day his delirium ceased, his reason returned, but only to
enable him to perceive that death was near, and to bid him
direct his thoughts upon eternity. He died Feb. 11, 1650,
at four o'clock in the morning, before the end of his fifty-
fourth year.

When the queen was informed of his death by the secre-
tary of the French embassy, she burst into tears. She
wished to honor the memory of her " great teacher," and to
show to posterity that she knew how to appreciate him.
She proposed to bury him among the great dignitaries of the
crown, at the feet of the kings of Sweden, and to erect a
mausoleum of marble over his tomb. Chanut persuaded
the queen to give up this plan. He rightly felt that a
simple grave in the churchyard of foreigners would be more
fitting than a tomb of royal magnificence in the vault of the
kings of Sweden. He was buried Feb. 12, 1650. A simple
monument marked the place where he lay ; and an inscrip-

THE CLOSK OF DESCAKTES" LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 297

tion stated that here Descartes rested, whom the Queen of
Sweden had called to her court from his solitude in Egmond,
and to whom Chanut dedicated this memorial. In the year
of his death a medal was stamped in his honor in Holland,
with the symbol of the sun lighting the earth. It was pain-
ful to French patriotism, that the remains of the greatest
of French philosophers reposed in a distant land. Sixteen
years after his death, d'Alibert, one of his friends, assisted by
Terlon, who was then the minister of France to Sweden, had
his ashes conveyed to France at his own expense. They
were put on board of a ship in Stockholm, May 1, 1666, and
solemnly interred June 25, 1667, in the Church of Sainte-
Genevieve, the French Pantheon of to-day. It was a long
time before the authorities of the Church would consent to
show such high honors to the ashes of a man whose name
had stood for some years on the index. But his friends
overcame their opposition by attributing to Descartes "a
great service " to the Church. Queen Christina had resigned
her crown in June, 1654, and soon after had joined the Cath-
olic Church. Now, Descartes had been her instructor for
some months ; and these two facts, as disconnected as they
were, were joined together, and Descartes was represented
as a missionary who succeeded in converting the daughter
of Gustavus Adolphus. And since she herself was willing
to declare that her conversion was due to the influence of
Descartes, it was no longer the philosopher, but the proselyter,
whose ashes the priests received in the Church of Sainte-
Genevieve.

The testimony of the queen was false, given from a frivolous
readiness to oblige, as she herself declared frankly enough in
private. Nothing was more foreign to the character of Des-
cartes than the disposition to make proselytes. He remained
true to the Church in which he was born, because he was
born in it ; but with her proselyting, he had nothing to do.
His life, so far as he could direct it in harmony with his
genius, was given to philosophy and solitude.

298 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER IX.

A SURVEY OF HIS WORKS AND WRITINGS.
I. THE WORKS PUBLISHED BY DESCARTES HIMSELF.

rr^HE writings which Descartes himself published, and
-L whose origin we have become acquainted with in the
history of his life, can be arranged in the two following
groups, philosophical and polemical, the members of which
follow each other in chronological order : —

1. The Philosophical Works.

1. " Essais philosophiques." Leyde, Jean le Maire, 1637.
JEtienne de Courcelles translated the essays into Latin, with
the exception of the geometry ; and the translation was
revised by Descartes. Franz van Schooten, professor of
mathematics in Leyden, translated the geometry into Latin,
including in the translation de Beaune's observations and
his own explanations. The title of the first was " R. Cartesii
specimina philosophise, sive dissertatio de methodo recte
regendse rationis, Dioptrice et meteora ex gallico latine
versa (par Etieune de Courcelles) et ab autore emendata."
Amst., Lud., Elzevir, 1644. The title of the second was
"Geometria a R. Descartes galliee edita, cum notis Florim.
de Beaune, latine versa et commentariis illustrata a Fr. a
Schooten." Lugd., Bat. J. Maire, 1649.

2. " Renati Descartes meditationes de prima philosophia,
ubi de Dei existentia et animae immortalitate. His adjunctse
sunt varise objectiones doctorum virorum in istas de Deo et
anima demonstrationes cum responsionibus auctoris." Paris,

A SURVEY OF HIS WORKS AND WRITINGS. 299

1641. The second edition with the changed title (see pp.
247, 248), containing the objections of Bourdin and the letter
to Dinet, was published in Amsterdam by Elzevir, 1642 : the
third appeared the year Descartes died. Duke de Luynes
translated the " Meditations " into French, and Clerselier the
'' Objections " and " Replies." Descartes revised these trans-
lations, and changed some passages in the Latin text. It
was published in Paris, 1647.

3. "Renati Descartes principia philosophic." Amst.,
Elzev., 1644. The second edition appeared the year the phi-
losopher died. The French translation was made under the
direction of the Abb6 Picot, and approved by Descartes,
who accompanied it with a prefatory letter : " Principes de la
philosophie, Merits en latin par Ren^ Descartes, et traduits
en frangais par un de ses amis " (Paris, 1647). The letter to
Picot, translated into Latin, was published in the following
edition of the " Principles " as a preface.

4. " Les passions de rS,me." Amst., Elzevir, 1650. On
the origin of the work, which was sketched in the winter of
1646, and finished in the summer of 1649, after the manu-
script had been sent to the Princess Elizabeth, and after-
wards to the Queen of Sweden, compare p. 272. A Latin
translation appeared the year Descartes died.

2. The Polemical Worlcs.

1. " Epistola Renati Descartes ad celeberrimum virum
Gisbertum Voetium, in qua examinantur duo libri nuper pro
Voetio Ultrajecti si-mul editi : unus de confraternitate Mari-
ana, alter de philosophia Cartesiana." Amstelodami, Elzevir,
1643.

2. "R. Descartes notse in programma quoddam sub finem
anni 1647 in Belgio editum cum hoc titulo : explicatio
mentis humanse sive animae rationalis, ubi explicatur, quid
sit et quid esse possit." Amst., Lud., Elzevir, 1648. These
"notes" are Descartes' reply to Regius (see p. 279). It is
so rare, that even Pieters, the author of the annals of the

300 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

publishing-house of Elzevir, did not discover it until after
the publication of his work. (Some years later it was at-
tacked by Tobias Andreas, in a work called " Replicatio pro
notis Cartesii." Arast., Elzev., 1653.)

II. THE REMAINS AND THE OPERA POSTUMA.

1. Writings not in Descartes^ Possession.
Of the writings which Descartes left unpublished at his
death, two are first to be mentioned which were written for
friends, and were not, therefore, found with the rest of them ;
viz., (1) "Compendium musicse," the first of his writings
which have been preserved, which was written for Beeck-
man in 1618 (see pp. 179, 180), and published in Utrecht in
1650; (2) The fragment of an essay on mechanics, which
was written for Constantine Huyghens in 1636, explaining
certain machines, as the roller and pulley, inclined plane,
wheel and axle, screw and lever. A second fragment, on
lifting-machines ("Explicatio des engins"), which Daniel
Mayor found, translated into Latin, and published in 1672,
differs but little from the preceding. Poisson translated
this fragment and the " Compendium musicse " into French,
publishing them under the following title: "Traits de la
m^canique compost par M. Descartes, de plus I'abr^g^ de la
musique du m§me auteur, mis en frangais avec les ^claircisse-
ments n^cessaires par N. P. P. D. L." (Nic. Poisson, prStre
de I'oratoire.) Paris, Angot, 1668.

2. Lost Writings.

The rest of his unpublished works were in a box which
Descartes took with him to Stockholm ; and an inventory of
its contents was there made, after his death, in the presence
of Chanut. An essay on fencing was found, — probably his
first essay, written even when he was in Rennes ; a diary of
the years 1619-21; three works on the theory of method;
" Studium bonse mentis," " Rules for the Direction of the
Mind," a dialogue on the investigation of truth in the light

A SURVEY OF HIS WORKS AND WRITINGS. 301

of reason ; a fragment called " Thaumantis regia " (palace of
wonders) ; probably a study preliminary to his work in
physics, in which, according to Baillet, the theory that
animals are automata already appeared ; fragments on math-
ematical, physical, and natural-history subjects ; a part of
the " Cosmos ; " the essay on man and the formation of the
foetus ; letters ; the fragment of a French comedy, and verses
in celebration of the peace of Westphalia.

Besides, Descartes had left a box in the care of his friend
Hooghland, containing, in addition to valuable letters, an
essay, " De deo Socratis," and, perhaps, the complete " Cos-
mos " in its original form. Millet thinks so ; ^ though it is
not possible to say with certainty, since the writings in
Hooghland's care are lost, and likewise the catalogue of
them.

Of those left at Stockholm, the essay on fencing, the
original copy of the diary of the years 1619-21, the frag-
ments on different scientific subjects, the " Thaumantis
regia," the " Studium bonse mentis," and the poems, cannot
now be found.

It is no wonder that some of the unpublished writings left
in Stockholm were irrecoverably lost. In view of the acci-
dent that befell the chest, we must say that it was by chance
that so many, and certainly the most important, were pre-
served. Chanut sent the whole of them to his brother-in-
law, Clerselier, in Paris, who intended to look after their
publication. The ship reached the coasts of France without
accident, and the boat in which they were put, reached Paris
safely ; but when they were being landed near the Louvre,
they fell into the water, and lay there three days. They
were finally fished out, and dried in sheets and leaves, and in
this state reached Clerselier in the greatest confusion. -The
result was, that their publication was delayed, and involved
insuperable difficulties, especially in the case of the letters.
They had become so confused with each other, that it was

I J. Millet: Descartes avant 1637. Preface, pp. xxiii., xxiv.

302 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

impossible to restore them to perfect order. In some cases,
heterogeneous parts could not be separated : in others, parts
that belonged together could not be united.

3. The Works edited hy Clerselier.

1. The fragment of the often mentioned "Cosmos," " Le
monde, on traite de la lumiere." The first and incorrect
edition was . published in Paris in 1664, without Clerselier's
knowledge, under the title, " Le monde de Descartes, ou le
traits de la lumiSre." The edition corrected by Clerselier
appeared in 1677.

2. " Traitd de I'homme." This is closely connected with
the " Cosmos," and was intended to form a part of it, "Cha-
pitre XVIII." (see above, pp. 229, 230). Clerselier's edition,
with remarks by Laforge, was published in Paris in 1664.
Shortly before, Florentius Schujd, professor of philosophy in
Leyden, had published a Latin translation, " Renatus Des-
cartes de homine." (" Lugduni, Batav.," 1662-64.) Clerse-
lier found the translation bad, but the preface good ; and he
therefore incorporated the latter in French in his edition.

With this essay, likewise, and always united with it, ap-
peared the "De la formation du foetus," which Descartes
himself had divided into paragraphs, as he had not done the
" Traits de I'homme." Its whole title is, " La description du
corps humain et de toutes ses functions, tant de celles qui
ne dependent pas I'ame que de celles qui en dependent, et
aussi la principale cause de la formation de ses membres."

3. " Les lettres de Ren^ Descartes," 3 vols., Paris, 1657-

1667.

4. Collection of Unpublished Works.

It is strange that Clerselier did not publish two of the
most important of his posthumous works, both of them
relating to the theory of method. They were published a
half-century after the death of the philosopher, in the first
collection of his posthumous works, " Opera postuma Carte-
sii" (Amst., 1701), wliich contained in addition the fragment

A SURVEY OF HIS WORKS AND WRITINGS. 303

" The World, or an Essay on Light," the tract on mechanics,
the compendium of music, " Observations on the Procrea-
tions of Animals," and lastly, excerpts. The two important
works which were then published for the first time are, —

1. " Regulse ad directionem ingenii." It was intended to
contain three parts, and each of these twelve rules. Only
the first half is preserved, containing eighteen rules, with
the statement of the three following without explanation.
According to Baillet, the original text of this work was also
in Latin. (Cf. above, pp. 203, 204.)

2. "Inquisitio veritatis per lumen naturale," a dialogue
between three persons, likewise unfinished, and, according to
Baillet, originally written in French. The title of the post-
humous work runs, " La recherche de la v^rit^ par les lumi-
^res naturelles qui a elles seules, et sans le secours de la
religion et de la philosophie,- d^terminent les opinions que
doit avoir un honnete homme sur toutes les choses qui
doivent faire I'objet de ses pens^es et qui p^n^trent dans les
secrets des sciences les plus abstraites."

III. EDITION OF COMPLETE WORKS.

1. Collective Editions.

Even before this first collection of posthumous works,
collective editions, more or less complete, some of the philo-
sophical works, others of his complete writings, as they were
called, were published in Latin by Elzevir in Amsterdam.
According to the annals of the publishing-house of Elzevir,
" R. D. opera philosophica " appeared in the years 1644, 1670,
1672, and 1674. Besides, an edition of the philosophical
works of the year 1656 is mentioned, and called "Editio
tertia." The first edition of the "Opera omnia" was pub-
lished in eight volumes, 1670-83 ; the second in nine, 1692-
1701 and 1713. It was not really a complete edition, but a
collection of separate editions, which contained in the last
volume the " Opera postuma."

The first French edition in thirteen volumes appeared in

304 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Paris in 1724-29. A century later (1824-26), Victor Cousin

published his edition in eleven volumes. This is the edition

which we cite, " (Euvres de Descartes, publi^es par Victor

Cousin."

2. Arrangement of Letters.

After the publication of the " Opera postuma," a complete
edition of the works of Descartes involved not merely the
labor of collecting, but also a critical work ; since it was ne-
cessary to try to discover lost writings, and to collect those
that were scattered, and, also, to determine the order of
those extant. The collection and arrangement of the letters
was necessarily a work of particular importance. By far the
greatest and most important part of the letters were in
Mersenne's hands, and fell, after his death, into the posses-
sion of the mathematician Roberval, who was an enemy to
Descartes, and locked them up. They afterwards fell into
the hands of La Hixe, who handed them over to the Acad-
emy. Baillet wished to write the life of Descartes ; and the
abb^, J. B. Le Grand, at the same time desired to publish
the first complete edition of his works; after the death of
Clerselier (1684), he inherited the remains of the phi-
losopher, and had himself collected a number of scattered
letters, and was, with Baillet, permitted by the Academy to
use the letters which had been in Mersenne's possession.
The edition was not published. The manuscripts which Le
Grand possessed fell, after his death (1704), into other
hands, and were entirely lost. The contents of a part were
preserved by copies, and published in the " Opera postuma "
in the year 1701. The copies of the letters of Descartes,
made the year 1667, now in the library of the Academy, con-
tain critical marginal comments on the dates, addresses, and
connection of the letters, based on a comparison with the
original manuscript ; and they leave no doubt that a critical
edition of them was at one time in preparation. It is not
known who made these comments. Cousin, who arranged
the letters (vols, vi.-x. of his edition), according to them.

A SURVEY OF HIS WORKS AND WRITINGS. 305

suspects that Montempuis, rector of the university of Paris,
about the middle of the seventeentli century, was the author,
since his seal was found in the copies. Millet, on the other
hand, regards it as certain that Baillet and Le Grand made
those comments, attempting together in the years 1690-92
to arrange the correspondence of Descartes.

3. Supplements.

In the remains of the philosopher was a diary of the years
1619-21, containing youthful writings, sketches, notes of
different kinds, and referring to a time of which we have
no literary evidence. Every thing, therefore, relating to
this time, however unimportant in itself, should have been
regarded as valuable and significant by those who were in-
trusted with the edition of his works. According to Baillet,
the diary was bound in parchment, and contained the follow-
ing: some thoughts on the sciences in general, on algebra,
" Democritica," " Experimenta," " Preeambula," " Olympica,"
a sketch of twelve pages, in which that much-spoken-of mar-
ginal note was written, denoting Nov. 10, 1619, as the day of
a mental epoch. (See above, pp. 195, 196.)

Fortunately, there was one man in Clerselier's time who
would gladly have preserved every line that Descartes wrote:
it was no less a man than Leibnitz. During a stay in Paris,
he became acquainted with Clerselier, who in the beginning
of June, 1676, permitted him to examine Descartes' papers,
and make copies of them, imperfectly arranged and inco-
herent, as necessarily resulted from the condition of the
manuscripts. He considered them the most valuable litei'ary
treasures which he possessed, and intended to publish them
himself. " A man in Holland has for a long time intended,"
he wrote to Vernouilli, " to publish some posthumous works
of Descartes. I, also, am in possession of some of Descartes'
remains. I have the rules for the investigation of truth
(which do not appear so extraordinary to me as they do to
some), the fragment of a dialogue in French, his first

306 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

thoughts on the origin of animals, etc. If the promised pub-
lication has not yet appeared, I should like myself to prepare
such an one, with the addition of some unpublished writings
by Galileo, Valarianus Magnus, and Pascal, along with my
observations on the universal part of the 'Principles' of
Descartes. I simply want a large number of free copies."
Among the copies made by Leibnitz, there were besides notes
on the " Principles," physical, physiological, and anatomical
observations, mathematical writings, and especially passages
from that notable diary which Leibnitz called, " Cartesii
cogitationes privatse."

They were not published. They passed from Leibnitz's
library to that of Hannover. None of them were specifically
catalogued except those on physiological and anatomical sub-
jects, and those under the title " Excerpta ex Cartesii manu-
scriptis." The rest remained unknown and concealed, until
lately Foucher de Careil discovered a part of them, and pub-
lished them under the title, "CEuvres in^dites de Descartes"
(Paris, 1859-60).

A critically arranged, accurate, and comprehensive edition
of Descartes' complete works is a work of the future. The
translation of a work is not the work itself. The Latin
writings should be published in tlieir original text, either
alone or along with the French translations.

BOOK II.

DESCARTES' DOCTRINE.

CHAPTER I.

THE NEW METHOD OP PHILOSOPHY. - THE PATH TO THE

SYSTEM.

I. SOURCES OF THE THEORY OF METHOD.

1. Subject.

"TTTE must seek to enter the doctrine of Descartes by
' ' the path of his method ; and this, therefore, must
first be carefully studied. Descartes repeatedly and expli-
citly declared, that, in scientific investigation, method. is the
important matter, and that he himself had found a new and
sure one, by the help of which he had made his discoveries.
And if he had not made this declaration, and if the proper
mode of searching for truth had not been the subject of some
of his works, the rest of them would have compelled us to
recognize a master of method, that is, of the art of bringing
light into thought, by the mode of their composition, and
the order and coherence of their ideas. No one can practise
this art as Descartes did unless he has studied it. As we
have been obliged to speak in the foregoing book of the
method of the philosopher, since it was the guide, not only of
his thinking, but also of his life, we cannot avoid some repeti-
tion here.^

Methodical thinking, and thoughts on method, are different
things : the former consists in the use and practice, the latter
in the theory, of method. All of Descartes' writings are me-
thodical : strictly speaking, not one of them is methodologi-

1 Foregoing book, chap. i. pp. 170-172; chap. ii. pp. 187-194; chap. iii. pp. 202-
204; chap. v. 224- vi. 240.

309

310 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

cal, not one of them is an accurate and complete exposition
or theory of the scientific mode of thought. Descartes pro-
mulgated no new brganon, as Bacon did. Of the writings
which he himself published, there is but one which expressly
treats of method, the " Discours de la m^thode." There is
another which so methodically discovers and expounds the
elements of knowledge, that, from the use of method, its real
nature is most distinctly evident, — the " Meditations." Of
the former, Descartes himself said, " No traite, but a discours ;
not an exposition of the theory of method, but only a con-
versation about it." If we judge it according to its title, we
might conclude that it does not perform what it promises;
but in truth it does more. We expect a theory of method,
and become acquainted with a man who has given his life
to science, and to this end has regulated and ordered it in
a completely methodical manner. The path to truth is not
merely pointed out with outstretched finger, but entered and
lived. Bacon sought to be only the Mercury along the road,
who remains standing on his pedestal, and points out to
others the road. Descartes lets us see how he himself
finds it, and advances along it. But it must be admitted
that our first expectation is not realized. There are four
brief rules for the investigation of truth in the second part
of the " Discours," stated in the most concise form, without
discussion or explanation.

2. Tlie Methodological Posthumous Works. Critical Ques-
tions. — In addition to the " Discours," Descartes wrote two
fragments relating to the theory of method, " Regulse ad
directionem ingenii," and "Recherche de la v^rit^ par les
lumiSres naturelles," which were found among his unpub-
lished writings after his death.i We are not informed when
they were written, and are therefore obliged to rely on
conclusions based chiefly on comparisons between them and
the " Discours " and " Meditations." The mere fact that
the first was written in Latin gives us reason to believe that

1 See foregoing book, chap. ix. p. 303.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 311

it belongs to the period in which Descartes wrote his scien-
tific essays in that language, and was still entirely occupied
with the question of method. It must have been written,
therefore, before the philosophical essays. What the "Dis-
cours " compresses into four short rules, and only stipples,
as it were, " The Rules for the Direction of the Mind "
develop in detail, though not completely. This suggests
that it was written before the "Discours," and that Des-
cartes did not, therefore, wish to expound the regulative part
of the latter. And there is finally another piece of internal
evidence that decides the question. We know that Des-
cartes regarded the method of mathematics as the type of the
method of philosophy, and the " Rules " contain the follow-
ing passage : " I have, therefore, until to-day, applied myself
to this universal mathematical science, accordhig to my
ability, so that I can in future devote myself to higher
investigations without fearing that my thoughts are not yet
sufficiently mature." ^ When the philosopher wrote this sen-
tence, he had not written the " Meditations." The " Rules "
were therefore written before the "Meditations," and were
probably composed in France after that conversation with
VeruUe, and before Descartes went to the Netherlands to
write that work in Franeker.^

The date of the dialogue cannot be determined so cer-
tainly. Its contents and line of thought coincide so exactly,
often in its very terms, with the "Meditations," that the
connection of the two is perfectly manifest. Each leads up
to the principle of certainty, "I think, therefore I am," in
precisely the same manner ; but the " Recherche " here breaks
off in the middle of a sentence. What the "Meditations"
express in the form of a monologue, is here developed in a
dialogue between three. Eudoxe, the principal speaker, in
his solitude in the country, represents the healthy and nat-
ural understanding, ignorant of the learning of the schools,
and therefore not led astray by it ; while Polyandre repre-

1 CEuvres, t. xi., rfeg. iv. p. 224. 2 gee foregoing book, chap. iii. p. 20i.

312 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

sents the courtier and man of the world, who is interested in
philosophy, although he knows nothing about it ; Epistemon
is the polymathist, trained in the schools, who believes in
the books of the ancients, and despises the natural, untaught
understanding. Polyandre rapidly comprehends and with
increasing interest what Eudoxe, philosophizing in the spirit
of the " Meditations," draws out of him by means of ques-
tions in the Socratic manner; while Epistemon stands shaking
his head, and interjects his remarks here and there with the
air of a scholar. We see in Eudoxe, if not the philosopher
himself, the reader with philosophical tastes ; and in Poly-
andre the receptive pupil, such as Descartes wished for as
judges of his own writings at the conclusion of his "Dis-
cours." ^ There was a time when he did not think his
philosophy could become common property, and his doubt
an example for every simple and natural mind to follow.
When he composed the dialogue, he no longer held that
opinion. T hold it, therefore, highly probable, that it was
written after the " Meditations " and the " Discours," and
was related to the last, which hopes for a perfectly impartial
reader as the proof to a calculation. It was therefore writ-
ten in French, and was designed to contain two books,
which were to develop Socratically the whole system of the
new philosophy. For this reason I think it was written
after the " Principles," since one must be completely master
of a subject to treat it in a dialogue. But that this dialogue,
as Millet assumes, is or was intended to be that " traitS de
VSrudition " which the Princess Elizabeth asked the philoso-
pher to write, appears to me doubtful, both because of the
subject and because of the reasons that led Descartes to
decline to undertake it.^

1 See foregoing book, chap. v. p. 241.

2 Cf. with foregoing book, chap. vii. p. 281, J. Millet: Histolre de 'Des-
cartes, vol. ii. p. 326.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 313

II. FALSE PATHS TO KNOWLEDGE.

1. Defective Knowledge. — The conviction at which Des-
cartes early arrived, and which he energetically cherished,
that science within and without the schools was in a
wretched condition, had awakened in his mind ideas of the
reformation of scientific thought. What displeased him was
not the poverty or limited extent of knowledge, but the
uncertain manner in which it was proved ; it was not the
lack of learning that left him discontented, since the Renais-
sance had increased the materials for culture to a very great
degree ; but the more thoroughly he examined the matter,
the clearer it seemed to him that the lack of real knowledge
was the cause of the wretched condition of the sciences. Sci-
ence, as he saw it, lacked one thing that in his eyes was not
merely the best, but every thing ; viz., true knoivledge. Des-
cartes has been well compared with Luther. The objection
that he neither was, nor wished to be, a Protestant is silly.
We have here to do, not with the Catholic, but the reformer
of philosophy, who did indeed sustain the same relation to
science that Luther did to the Church. The Church lacked
religion : that, in a word, was the conviction of Luther, based
oh his need of personal salvation. The sciences lacked true
knowledge : that, with equal brevity, was the conviction of
Descartes, based on his personal need of knowledge and
truth. This incontestable parallelism throws light upon the
problem and work of the philosopher. He occupies a posi-
tion in philosophy which the Renaissance of philosophy
never reached, and which it never could reach under the
dominion of antiquity.

2. Defective Method. — We know that which we see fol-
lows from grounds, and these grounds must themselves be
deduced from other grounds, and so on till we reach those
that are rooted in absolute certainty. In other words, all
knowledge consists in the correct arrangement and deduction
of inferences. Each of these inferences is a link in a well-

314 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

articulated chain : each of them takes a step forward on the
path of truth, and can be gained, therefore, only by pro-
gressing thought. But in order to walk, we must exert our
own physical powers; and in order to make progress in
thought, we must exert the powers of our mind. Method
consists in this self-dependent and ordered thought. It is
the only path to knowledge : all others lead to error and
delusion. If, therefore, Descartes misses knowledge in sci-
ence, he finds the reason for its absence in the lack of all
methodical thought. Either one's own thought is lacking,
as in the schools, where opinions are accepted on authority,
or ordered thought, as is the case outside of the schools,
where irregular desires of innovation and fantastic projects
run wild.

What we accept on authority is not philosophical, but
merely historical, knowledge. "And if we had read every
word of Plato and Aristotle, without the certainty of our
own judgment, we should not have advanced a step in phi-
losophy : we should have increased our historical knowledge,
but not our knowledge of truth." * The less of actual knowl-
edge the learning of the schools and the ordinary philosophy
— the vulgar philosophy, as Descartes calls it — possesses, the
more restlessly and greedily it collects opinions which fill
the memory, and swell up the mind, without giving it nour-
ishment. " I believe that the body of a dropsical patient is
scarcely more unhealthy than the mind of a greedy polyma-
thist."^ The hunting after, and catching at, all sorts of
opinions are fatal to methodical thought, which exercises the
utmost care in taking every step, and, therefore, advances
slowly without any inclination to unhealthy and unprofitable
speed. Polymathists are not thinkers, but collectors. The
thinker seeks insight; and the clearer the insight, the higher
he prizes it; and, indeed, unless it is perfectly clear, he re-
gards it as valueless : the collector, on the other hand, seeks

1 CEiivres, xi. Eagles pour la direction de I'esprit, iii. p. 211.

2 Eech. de la v&itd, p. 338.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 315

all sorts of so-called knowledge, and the rarest is to him the
most interesting. The former prizes clearness, the latter
rareness. The rarer his stock of knowledge, and the more
difficult of acquisition, the more distinguished does the
polymathist regard himself. He knows what others do not
know : he is learned, they are ignorant. To pretended knowl-
edge is thus added false imagination, the conceit- of scholars,
which even Montaigne regarded as a bane. In his deep
aversion to the learning of the schools and polymathy, Des-
cartes reminds us of that saying of Heraclites, TroXvixafflr v6ov
oi StSao-Kci. And not less improfitable than the blind search
for knowledge, appeared to him the blind hunt for discov-
eries, such as uncalled innovators, the adventurers of science,
seek to make. They are like those who seek for treasures,
and who dig here and there in the hope that luck will enable
them to light upon gold. They generally seek in vain ; and
if they find a treasure, they find it not '■'■par art," but '■'■par
un coup de fortune ." ^ Bacon had a similar conviction when
he saw the necessity of making thought a mode of discovery,
and the process of discovery methodical, in order to trans-
form it from a blind work of chance into an intentional work
of art. Better not seek at all than seek in darkness. It is
the worst method of making discoveries, but an infallible
one for weakening the natural power of vision. The un-
learned, healthy mind which has not developed its natural
powers, but which, also, has not dulled them, is far more
receptive to true knowledge than the mind which has been
spoiled by polymathy, and an undiscriminating search for
knowledge. Descartes wished to portray the character of
the polymathist in his Epistemon. Of the many examples
of charlatanry, he had seen one face to face in Chandoux.

III. THE PATH TO TRUTH.

1. The Prollem of Knowledge. — How does knowledge re^
suit from thought ? That is the question which the theory

1 Efeg. X. p. 253.

316 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of method undertakes to answer, — a purely theoretical and
absolutely universal one. The objects of knowledge are
many and different, but knowledge itself is one ; and there
can, therefore, be but one way in which we can certainly
and undoubtedly, i.e., really, know. As the sun is related
to the objects which it illuminates and reveals, so reason, the
light within us, is related to the objects of thought. It is
the same for all of them. How this light is produced, how
it is made to attain perfect brilliancy, are questions, therefore,
which are valid for all objects, for all sciences without ex-
ception. The theory of method which seeks to answer these
questions has, therefore, the significance of a universal sci-
ence ; and since it is valid for all the branches of knowledge,
it makes them all fruitful. The faculty of knowledge is the
capital which forms the basis of all our intellectual invest-
ments ; and to make it perfectly safe, is to increase the riches
of knowledge immeasurably.

Every cognition is sure in the same proportion as the
grounds from which it follows. Absolutely certain knowl-
edge can be based only on absolutely certain grounds, and
it is the mode of attaining such knowledge that the theory
of method has to explain. The question is not how we may
choose the less of two doubts, or the greater of two proba-
bilities. Knowledge is the highest good, and we must not
seek it by a method which can be recommended merely as
enabling us to choose the less of two evils. Now, the more
complex the cognition, the larger the number of its grounds,
and the greater, therefore, its liability to error. In the field
of complex knowledge we find at first mere probability,
which involves doubt and uncertainty. If we wish to have
absolutely certain knowledge, we must begin with the sim-
plest conceptions, with the easiest problems, with objects
that can be most easily known. The simpler the object, the
sooner it can be perfectly examined in all its parts. Learn-
ing shows itself averse to clearness in its habit of prefer-
ring complicated and difficult questions to simple and easy

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 317

■ones, because one can thus maintain all sorts of theories and
opinions, and engage in controversies on this side and on
that. A single clear concept is more valuable and fruitful
than many obscure and misty ones. The light in our minds
is like real light : it diffuses itself. If it is perfectly clear in
one place, clearness penetrates farther. If one conception is
perfectly illuminated, others are illuminated along with it,
and the day begins to dawn in our world of thought. And
it is with fog in the mind as with real fog,: when it begins to
arise from the ground, soon the whole sky is obscured. We
must take care, therefore, that the fog in our mind does not
ascend, but that it falls to the ground ; for if our conceptions
are unclear in their foundations, the fog arises, and darkens
our whole world of thought. Of what value is all learning
if it is wrapped in darkness ? It is not the subject of inves-
tigation that makes knowledge, but thought ; and it is not
true that difficult subjects, as they are usually treated, are
more difficult than the knowledge of the simplest objects.
On the contrary, "it is much easier," says Descartes, "to
have a multitude of vague ideas on any question whatever
than to penetrate to the truth in reference to the simplest of
all questions." ^ Even so judged Socrates concerning the
worth of true knowledge and the worthlessness of sophistical
opinions, and of idle learning that boasted of them. In
every great epoch of philosophy, the spirit of Socrates is
present !

2. The Method of True Deduction. — We already see the
starting-point of the road to truth, and the direction which
it must take : it begins with the simplest perception, and
advances to those which are composed of perfectly sure and
clear elements, as a product of its factors. The method of
knowledge is therefore synthetic, since it acquires and forms
truths by progressive synthesis. Now, all derivative percep-^
tions are only true when they are as sure and certain as
those from which they are derived, and they have this cer-

1 E6g. li. p. 209.

318 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

tainty only when they evidently follow from them. That
synthesis, therefore, consists in the logical derivation of
every truth from the preceding, and of all from the first.
This is the principle of the whole of knowledge: every
derived perception is the basis of the following one. Proof
by principles Aristotle called, in a narrower sense, syllogism :
in Latin this syllogistic proof is called deduction; and with
this name Descartes denotes his method, which he distin-
guished from the deduction of Aristotle as Bacon did his
induction from the Aristotelian.

According to Descartes, there is no other criterion of truth
than well-understood deduction. We must find the source
of truth, and follow the course of the stream with the great-
est care and accuracy step by step. "As to the object of
scientific investigation, we dare not be guided by the thoughts
of others, or even our own mere conjectures : we must follow
what we ourselves clearly and evidently know, or can with
certainty derive from what we know." The starting-point
is the simplest truth; the goal, the complete knowledge of
things. "We must give careful attention to these two
points," says Descartes, " make no false assumption, and seek
the way to the knowledge of all things." ^

It appears that two paths lead to that goal, experience and
deduction. The founders of modern philosophy stood at
this parting-way, and left it in opposite directions. Bacon
regarded experience as the only means of attaining to true
knowledge ; Descartes, deduction. Why Descartes rejected
the Baconian method is evident. Experience begins with the
facts of sense-perception, that is, with complex objects,
the knowledge of which is exposed on all sides to deception.
Among existing sciences, some are dialectical, others empiri-
cal : the only sciences which proceed deductively are math-
ematical, which, therefore, are alone free from error and
uncertainty, since experience is subject to involuntary decep-
tions, but deduction is not. " From this it does not follow

1 Bfeg. iii. p. 209, iv. p. 216.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 319

that arithmetic and geometry are the only sciences that we'
ought to study, but that he who seeks the path to truth
must occupy himself with objects that can be known as cer-
tainly as the deductions of arithmetic and geometry." ^

Descartes distinguished this deductive method not only
from the empirical, but also from the dialectical, mode of
thought, which last prevails in the sciences of the schools.
Experience is uncertain, dialectics useless, in reference to
actual knowledge. This is the point in which Descartes
opposed his deduction to that of Aristotle, which consists in
the dialectic arts of the schools, the usual doctrine of the
syllogism, which only enables us to arrange and state that
which we already know in a logically correct form, but does
not enable us to discover new truth. It does not produce
knowledge, but presupposes it : it does not belong to philoso-
phy, but to rhetoric. Touching the unfruitfulness of this
kind of deduction or of the ordinary syllogism, Descartes
entirely agreed with Bacon. " The dialecticians can form no
syllogism whose conclusion expresses a truth that was not
known before. The ordinary dialectics is, therefore, comA
pletely worthless for the discovery of truth, and is useful
only in stating and explaining the results of our investiga-
tions : it has, therefore, no place in philosophy, but is strictly
a part of rhetoric." ^

Science, on the other hand, has to develop the known from
the unknown, to find out new truths, to make discoveries,
and, indeed, by means of the method which advances from dis-
covery to discovery. Every new truth is a problem, which
can be thoroughly and certainly solved, only when all the con-
ditions are distinctly known from which the solution neces-
sarily follows. They must, therefore, form a series, every
member of which forms the evident ground of the one that
immediately follows it. In such a continuity of progressing
and new inferences consists that method of deduction which
Descartes demands.'

1 Kfeg. ii. pp. 204r-209. » K6g. iv. p. 217, x. p. 256.

320 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

3. Universal Mathematics. Analytical Geometry, — We have
already mentioned in the history of his youth, how, exactly
in this particular, mathematics seemed to him a type, and
enabled him to ascertain his position with respect to the
other sciences.^ He found in mathematics a kind of scien-
tific thought corresponding to his needs, advancing in an
orderly manner from problem to problem, from solution to
solution, from discovery to discovery. There alone he found
a method of solving problems, and discovering the unknown by
means of the known. In this method, Descartes saw the
true spirit of mathematics, not in the usual school discipline,
which first states its proposition, and then proves it. He saw,
also, how, through the application, perfection, and generaliza-
tion of this method, mathematics had made its greatest prog-
ress. Even the ancients understood the art of so solving
geometrical problems as to deduce unknown magnitudes from
those that are known. As by the analysis of a known fact,
the unknown conditions from which it follows can be dis-
covered, so from a known problem, or the assumption of its
actual solution, the conditions are known which are essential
to this fact, that is, to the solution of the problem. The
ancients, therefore, called their method analysis, the practice
of which consisted only in the comparison of known magni-
tudes with those that are unknown. What the analysis of
the ancients was in reference to figures, the algebra of the
moderns is in reference to numbers. Arithmetic is more
comprehensive than geometry, and algebra is a generalization
of the analytical method. The next step in the improvement
of this method is to make it valid for the whole doctrine of
quantities, or, which is the same thing, to apply algebra to
geometry, to solve geometrical problems by algebraic calcula-
tions or by equations. This long stride consists in analytical
geometry, which Descartes discovered. The analysis of geom-
etry is made by means of construction : analytical geometry
solves its problems by means of equation^, by a logical opera-

1 Foregoing book, chap. i. pp. 170-173; book il. p. 184.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 321

tion, therefore, which is independent of the intuition of
space, the method of which both generalizes and simplifies
mathematical thought. We cannot too carefully remember
that Descartes discovered analytical geometry while he was
studying method ; for while he was trying to combine the
analysis of the ancients and algebra, he perceived their
identity. " The human soul has a divine aptitude for knowl-
edge, which has borne its natural fruits in spite of the errors
which have intrenched themselves in learning. We find the
proof of this in arithmetic and geometry, the simplest of all
sciences. Even the ancients used a certain analysis in geom-
etry for the solution of problems: in arithmetic blossoms
algebra, as we see, which aims to apply to numbers the method
which the ancients applied to figures. These two kinds of
analysis are involuntary fruits of our natural powers of
thought: and I am not surprised, that, in application to such
simple objects, they have yielded richer results than in other
sciences, where greater obstacles stand in the way of their
development ; although there, also, if they are carefully culti-
vated, they can be brought to perfect maturity." i

Here Descartes alludes to his own particular problem, for
the knowledge and solution of which, the mathematical
method in the analysis of the ancients, the algebra of the
moderns, and the analytical geometry, which he himself had
discovered, formed preliminary stages. After he had made
this method universal within the realm of mathematics or
the theory of quantities, there only remained to make the
knowledge of all things mathematical. He must take the
last step in the extension and generalization of mathematical
methods ; h^ must apply analysis to the whole of human
knowledge, analyzing its problem in order to determine from
what conditions truth follows, and from what error ; and,
therefore, he must analyze all the voluntary and involuntary
delusions of human nature into their elements. The quantity
to which the method of analysis is to be applied, is the human

1 Efeg. iv. pp. 217, 218.

322 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

mind; the philosopher himself in his own person.' The most
complex of all objects is to be analyzed into its simplest fac-
tors. In this labor consisted the Titanic difficulty with which
Descartes so long struggled. His path had led him through
the territory of mathematics, to a point where he stood, as it
were, before the last curtain. To raise this curtain, to com-
pletely unfold and universalize the method, as yet bound
within and veiled by the theoiy of quantities, is the under-
taking in which he engages. The problem is, to apply the
methods of mathematics to the knowledge of the universe ;
to treat mathematics, not as the theory of quantities, but
as the theory of science, as universal mathematics. The
method which in Descartes' own words was veiled and
covered by the theory of quantities, was to be uncovered in
the literal sense of the word. " That is the goal," continued
Descartes in the passage above quoted, " which I have before
my eyes in this essay. I should not lay so much emphasis
on these rules, if they only served for the solution of certain
problems with which arithmeticians and geometers pass
away the time. I should then be devoting -myself to trifles
with perhaps a little more art than others. And if in this
essay I often speak of figures and numbers, — because I can
obtain such evident and certain examples from no other
sciences, — the attentive reader will, nevertheless, easily see
that I am in no way concerned with the ordinary mathe-
matics, but that I am explaining a method which there
appears in disguise rather than in its true nature. This
method is intended to contain the elements of human reason,
and to enable us to discover in every subject the truths that
are concealed in it. And, to tell the truth, I am convinced
that it excels every other means of attaining to human
knowledge, since it is the origin and source of all truths."
" I have therefore given up the special study of arithmetic and
geometry, in order to devote myself to a universal mathemati-
cal science. I have first asked myself what one really means

1 See foregoing book, chap. ii. pp, 189, 194, 195.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 323

by 'mathematics,' and wherefore arithmetic and geometry-
are considered parts of it, and not astronomy, music, optics,
mechanics and so many other sciences with just as good
right. The word ' mathematics ' means science, and the
above-mentioned branches have therefore as much right to
the name as geometry." " In a careful consideration of these
matters, I have learned that all the sciences which have to do
with the investigation of order and quantity, belong to math-
ematics, whether they inquire after this quantity in numbers,
figures, stars, sounds, or in entirely diiierent objects; and
that there must, therefore, be a universal science, which,
apart from every particular application, grounds every thing
relating to order and quantity, and, therefore, deserves the
peculiar and time-honored name of mathematics, since the
other sciences are its parts." ^

4. Enumeration, or Induction. Intuition. — In order to solve
a problem methodically, we must know all its presupposi-
tions, all the points upon which its solution depends. The
complete enumeration of these points, the analysis of the
principal question into the conditions necessary to its solu-
tion, Descartes calls enumeration, or induction. Through
such a survey, we find our position with reference to the
solution of the problem, and bring it under our power. Noth-
ing prepares us more thoroughly and surely for the solution
than the accurate and exhaustive knowledge of the problem.
When the questionable points are known, and methodically
arranged, from the condition upwards to the conditioned, we
can advance with complete certainty from the first condition
through all the intermediate terms to the solution of the
problem. To take the simplest example, the progressive
series of the numbers 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, etc., is based on the
equality of the following relations, 3:6 = 6:12 = 12: 24 =
24 : 48 ; and the equality of these proportions is based on the
fact that the following member is in every case twice as
great as the one that immediately precedes it. The progress

1 E6g. iv. pp. 217-223.

324 HISTORY OP MOBEEN PHILOSOPHY.

of the series is apprehended by means of the relation of the
individual members to each other, and this by means of their
multiplication. The first proposition is 3x 2 = 6, 6x2 =
12,12 X 2=24,24x2 = 48. The second is, therefore, 3 : 6 =
6 : 12 = 12 : 24 = 24 : 48 ; and from this follows the third, that
the numbers 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, etc., form a progressive series
with the geometrical ratio 2. In this way, continuity and
connection come into our world of conceptions, and our
ideas appear as members of series. The longer the series
of conceptions which deduction methodically arranges, the
wider the horizon, and the stronger the power of the mind
that grasps and masters it. But the longer the series, the
more distant its members are from the first condition upon
which they depend, and, therefore, from the source of their
light ; and there is danger, that, with increasing distance, the
clearness of perception will decrease. We must, therefore,
frequently run through the whole series, each time more
rapidly, until we are completely master of it, and survey the
whole of it at a single glance. In this manner we disaccus-
tom ourselves to the natural dulness of the mind, and make
its horizon wider. Thought is quickened, and, at the same
time, a great relief is given to the memory. For to pre-
serve a multitude of conceptions, there is no better means
than to unite them deductively in a thoroughly thought out
series. Methodical thought is the surest of all systems of
mnemonics.^

^ Sow does deduction begin? This question, which brings
us to the beginning of the system, and prepares the way for
a transition to it, we have purposely raised at the conclusion
of our discussion of the theory of method. Every member
of the series is based on the one that immediately precedes
it, and is, therefore, dependent iipon all of the earlier mem-
bers, and is the more dependent the farther it stands frOm
the first, which itself depends upon no other. The begin-
ning of deduction is, therefore, not an inference, but an

1 Efeg. vi. pp. 226-233; vii. pp. 234, 235. Cf. xi. pp. 257, 258.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 325

immediate certainty, a perception or intuition, as Descartes
says, perfectly clear in the light of reason. Intuition is the
starting-point of the path of knowledge, and it is made from
that point on by means of deduction. These two kinds of
knowledge are the only means of attaining to certainty, the
single conditions which make science possible. " The start-
ing-point can be apprehended only through intuition, the
inferences from it only through deduction." "The entire
method consists in the arrangement and succession of the
objects in reference to which the mind is seeking to learn
the truth. To follow the guidance of this method, we must
follow obscure and complicated conceptions step by step
backward into those that are ever simpler and simpler, until,
from the intuition of the object of the simplest of all, we
start step by step to the knowledge of each following and
more complex conception. In this alone consists the perfec-
tion of method, and every one who wishes to wander through
the labyrinth of science must hold it fast as carefully as
Theseus did the thread. I know there are many who,
through ignorance or lack of judgment, pay no attention to
the theory of method, and often attempt to solve the most
difficult problems in a way that suggests a man attempting
to reach the top of a high building at a single spring,
despising, or else not seeing, the stairs that lead up to it
step by step. Thus proceed astrologists, who undertake to
determine the effects of the stars without having made
careful observations of their nature and motions. Thus
proceed many people who, without a knowledge of the
underlying principles of mechanics, undertake to make
machines. Thus act the greater part of philosophers, who
do not trouble themselves about experience, and suppose
that truth will issue from their brains like Minerva from the
head of Jupiter." ^

^ The methodical solution of every problem requires the
orderly enumeration, or induction, of its conditions, and the

1 Efig. iii. pp. 211, 212, 214; v. p. 225.

326 HISTORY OF MODEEN PHILOSOPHY.

analysis of those into the intuition, from which deduction
systematically advances. In this consists the sum of the
Cartesian theory of method. Deduction begins with intui-
tion. But what is the object of that intuition? It can be
no other than the condition of all deduction, which, as such,
is not itself deducible. As all visible objects exist under the
condition that there is a power of vision, so all knowable
objects exist under the condition that there is a power of
knowledge or intelligence. The certainty of the last must,
therefore, precede the knowledge of things. This is the
foundation of deduction, and we are already in sight of the
beginning of the system — full of significance. On methodo-
logical grounds, Descartes requires the investigation of the
faculty of knowledge as the first step ; and the critical spirit
of his philosophy appears so' clear and self-conscious in this
requirement, that we might here suppose that we are stand-
ing at the threshold of the Kantian philosophy. " The most
important of all the problems to be solved, is the determina-
tion of the nature and limits of human knowledge, — two
points which we embrace in one question, which must first
of all be methodically investigated. Every one who has the
least love for truth, must have examined this question ; since
its investigation comprehends the whole of method, and, as
it were, the whole organon of knowledge. Nothing seems
to me more absurd than to contend, at random, about the
mysteries of nature, the influences of the stars, the unknown
events of the future, without having once inquired whether
the human mind is competent to such inquiries." ^

The single object of intuitive knowledge is likewise the
first condition of all knowable things, hence, the guiding
principle of deduction ; viz., intelligence itself. Every thing
else I know through inferences, therefore through middle
terms : of one object I am directly and immediately certain,
— of myself, my own being, my own thought. "Every one
can intuitively know that he thinks, that he exists." ^ Des-

1 B?!g. viii. pp. 245, 246. 2 iii. p. 212.

THE NEW METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. 327

cartes states these propositions in his theory of method as
examples of intuition or immediate certainty : tliey are the
foundations of his system. We must now see how these
fundamental truths are discovered, and how from this point
the further problems are solved.

328 HISTOEY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER II.

THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: METHODICAL DOUBT.
I. THE ORIGIN AND EXTENT OF DOUBT.

1. TJie Teachings of the Schools.

SINCE the diffusion of the Cartesian philosophy, its first
propositions, " I doubt every thing," " I think, therefore
I am," have become famous sayings, with which, as usually
happens, the ignorant divert themselves. But he who does
not clearly understand their origin in the mind of Descartes,
knows nothing more of them than the mere words. How
came such a cautious and circumspect thinker to entertain
such a fundamental and far-reaching doubt ' This concise
and summary expression was not the suggestion of a moment,
not a bold, quickly formed resolution, but the result of a
long and uninterrupted self-examination. Between those
first doubts in the scholar at La Fl^che, and that doubt
in the philosopher, with which he grounds his system,
intervenes a long series of years. His first doubts were
excited against the sciences of the schools and the learning
of books. He found a multitude of conflicting theories
heaped together out of different times and minds, propa-
gated without examination, and taught by the authority
and under the influence of the schools. His longing for
truth would not tolerate the reception of such a disorderly
mass of ungrounded theories. It demanded coherence in the
theories assented to, and knowledge perceived, to rest on valid
-g'Pe^nds, — a knowledge derived from one's own thought and
experience, "from myself," as he said, *'and the great book
9/F the world," and not from books and the opinions of others.

THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: METHODICAL DOUBT. 829

But not even our own thought and experience of the
world are a guaranty of truth. Both are liable to deception.
To abandon our faith in teachers and books is of little avail,
if we rest contented in the illusions of our own thought.
Many boast of all sorts of doubts, and are at the same time
the victims of the emptiest and most superficial self-decep-
tions. Apart from all artificial education, we have a natural
propensity to accept things on authority; and we imagine
ourselves independent where we are in the most utter de-
pendence. To doubt the truth of our own opinions and our
own intellectual excellence, goes deeper, and is, at the same
time, more important, because it is so much the more difficult
than a sceptical attitude towards external authorities. We
have now to do with a doubt that shall follow our self-decep-
tions into their last hiding-place.

2. Self-deception. — We find in our minds a multitude of
deeply rooted conceptions, based on prescriptive right, as it
were, which through habit have become second nature, so
that it is very difficult not to believe them. They are based
on our first impressions, on the beliefs of childhood ; and we
are inclined to rely on them. Nevertheless, experience has
taught us that many of these conceptions are false. Why
may not the rest be ? There is no guaranty of their truth ;
and if we would proceed surely, we must hold them all, if
not false, at least uncertain and doubtful.^

Thus doubt forces its way into our inner world, attack-
ing time-honored conceptions ; and it will not pause until it
meets with beliefs that are able to defy it. If the imagina-
tions of childhood have been routed, or made to waver,
nevertheless our sense-perceptions will stand their ground.
But they also are deeply rooted ; they are as old as the
beliefs of childhood, and belong to the same general class;
and it is improbable that they will prove the only exception
to their uncertainty. The senses also have so often deceived
us, that it is impossible for us to accept all their representa-

1 CEuvres, 1. 1. M^dit., i. pp. 23S, 236, t. iii. Princ, sec. 1, pp. 63, 64.

330 HISTORY OF MODEEN PHILOSOPHY.

tions as true. If we are in earnest in our attempt to rid
ourselves of self-deception, we shall not give perfect trust to
their reports, and must, therefore, admit doubt even into
this supposed stronghold of certainty. For the inconsider-
ate and, therefore, too hasty confidence in the reports of our
senses is also a self-deception.

But it nevertheless seems that some of the perceptions of
sense are of indubitable certainty. Our own body and its
limbs, its present states and activities, are manifest phenom-
ena, whose reality nobody questions. But is this reality to
be accepted under all circumstances ? There are very many
and well-known cases, in which presentations of sense of
apparently the most certain character turn out to be empty
imaginations, which delude us with the appearance of reality.
As often as we dream, we experience this illusion. We
experience what we dream, and dream what we have experi-
enced. The same phenomena are now objects of experience,
now the visions of a dream. In the first case we regard
them as true ; in the second, false. The nature of the presen-
tation, therefore, is no guaranty of the reality of its object ;
and the objects of sense are not to be taken as real because
they are objects of sense, and also not because they are these
particular objects of sense, since, as such, they may just as
well be imaginary. They exist in reality when they are not
dreams. But to apprehend this reality, and guard it against
every doubt, there must be a criterion by means of which
we can a^trcurately, infallibly, and invariably distinguish the
visions of a dream from the experiences of our waking states.
Now there is no such criterion. " When I consider the
matter carefully, I do not find a single characteristic by
means of which I can certainly determine whether I am
awake, or whether I dream. The visions of a dream and the
experiences of my waking states are so much alike, that I
am completely puzzled ; and I do not really know that I am
not dreaming at this moment ! " '

1 M^d., i. p. 238. Princ, i. sec. i, pp. 64, 65.

THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: METHODICAL DOUBT. 331

In the progress of his self-examination, the fact of dreams
forms an important moment, which repeatedly turns the
scale in favor of doubt. In this case, it destroys our appar-
ently strongest certainty, — that in the objects of sense.
" How do you know" asks Eudoxe, " that your whole life is
not a continual dream ? " ^ That reminds us of a sentence in
Calderon's profound poem : —

" In this wonder-world a dream is
Our whole life and all its changes :
All we seem to be and do
Is a dream and fancy too.
Briefly, on this earthen ball,
Dreaming what we're living all."

So much is evident: the same phenomena which in dreams
are completely imaginary, cannot be accepted as real in the
state of waking, until we are able to distinguish the two
states in the surest possible manner.

But there is yet something in the objects of sense that sets
doubt at defiance. If all these objects are but the images of
a dream, nevertheless all that is in them cannot be mere
imagination : an image in a dream, like every other image, is
a compound, which consists of certain elements without
which its composition could not take place. However imagi-
nary the image, its fundamental constituents are given, and
have the surest claim on reality. Without certain elemen-
tary ideas, as space, time, extension, form, quantity, number,
place, etc., there is no object of sense, no image, and, there-
fore, no image of a dream. As a painting presupposes, but
does not make, colors, in like manner those elements are
related to our world of confused and manifold conceptions.
Before this last condition of sensible objects, it seems that
doubt must call a halt.^ But we must first inquire b^/ whom
those elements are given of which all our presentations and
imaginations consist, and whether their reality is guaranteed

1 CSuvres, t. xi. Eech. de la v4nti, p. 350. ^ Med., i. pp. 238-240.

332 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

by their author. For that which is given and received from
without has not as such the stamp of truth, otherwise every-
thing that we accept on authority might be accepted as true.
But in the beginning of our inquiry, we came in contact with
transmitted conceptions, and found them doubtful exactly
because they were transmitted. To be sure, their uncer-
tainty was based on the fact of their human origin ; wlule
those which we are now considering seem to be innate, and
not to belong to the things which men have transmitted.
Their origin, therefore, must be sought in a supra-human
source, — in God himself, as the ground of our being, and
the cause of the world. Doubt thus stands in the immediate
presence of the highest object of faith ; and the question now
arises, whether, in the interest of the most searching self-
examination, we dare quiet ourselves with the assumption
that some of our ideas are of divine origin ; whether; with this
assumption, the possibility of deception is excluded. The
more imperfectly we conceive of this God, whether as Fate,
Chance, or Necessity of Nature, the less has he the power to
preserve us from deception ; and the more perfectly he
appears as an all-powerful spirit, the more he has the power
to plunge us into deceptions. And if he has the power, why
not the will also ? Perhaps because he is good ; but if he
does not will that I err, why do I ? Plainly his will does
not protect me from error, and he has the power to blind me.
It may be that I live in a world of phantoms, in a mere illu-
sionary world, perhaps that I may hereafter be delivered from
it, or that I may never attain to the light of truth. It may
be that the divine omnipotence has so created me, that the
world which I represent to myself exists merely in my imagi-
nation, without truth and reality in itself.^ At all events,
this supposition is possible, and it is more than the fancy of
a self-tormenting hypercritic. The idea that the sense-world
in which we live is a mere phantom world, which blinds and
deceives us, is the theme of the MS,yS,, one of the oldest reli-

1 M&l., 1. pp. 240-242. Princ, sec. 5, pp. 65, 66.

THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: METHODICAL DOUBT. 333

gions.in the •world. In the course of the self-examination of
our philosopher, the plummet of doubt reaches so deep that
it penetrates to, and vindicates the possibility of, this concep-
tion, and thus demolishes the last bulwark, behind which
our ordinary beliefs, nourished by our confidence in the
senses, have protected themselves from scepticism. We
have, therefore, no beliefs that cannot and must not be
doubted, if we wish to completely rid ourselves of every self-
delusion. It may be that many of them are true ; but we do
not know it, since none of them are proved. We have no
reason to consider them certain, but reason enough to hold
them uncertain. Now, the declaration, " I doubt every thing,"
follows from the perception of this universal uncertainty.
" What can I allege against these reasons ? I have no argu-
ments to weaken their force. I am at last compelled to the
open acknowledgment, that every thing which I have be-
lieved can be doubted, not thoughtlesslj' or lightly, but from
cogent and well-considered reasons ; and that, if the truth
is of any importance to me, I ought to guard as carefully
against assuming by chance that which is uncertain, as that
which is plainly false." ^

n. DOUBT AS METHOD AND AS PRINCIPLE.

With our entire world of conceptions — which has not
stood the test of self-examination — we are prisoners to self-
delusion, and have grown accustomed to our fetters. Doubt
requires not only to break in upon and attack this habit
here and there, but all along the line, that it may utterly
destroy it : it requires to wean us from the habit of self-delu-
sion. No habit is stronger than that of belief, and none is
more diiBcult to get rid of. And if doubt is really to have
the power to banish self-delusion, it is not enough for us to
conceive and understand it, and have a distinct idea of the
reasons for it : we must accustom ourselves to this mode of
thought, and live in this critical state of mind as heretofore

1 M^d., p. 242. Prlnc, i. sec. 2. Eech., p. 351.

334 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

in the uncritical. That is as difficult as this was easy. The
habit of self-delusion comes of itself; the weaning from it
only through discipline of the mind and method. " But it
is not enough by far to have observed this necessity: we
must continually re-present it to our minds. For those famil-
iar opinions are constantly returning and capturing the
easily believing mind, which is subject to them, as it were,
by prescription and domestic right. They return against my
will, and I cannot wean myself from the habit of deferring to
them, and confiding in them. Although I know very well
how doubtful they are, nevertheless they seem so true that
it seems more reasonable to believe them than deny them." *
Doubt becomes a principle : the critical direction of the
mind becomes a conscious resolution of the will and a
maxim. I wish to get rid of self-delusion, and not merely in
this case or that, here or now, but in all cases and at all
times. As self-deception is universal and habitual, so the
doubt which is to banish it must be universal, and become at
home in our mode of thought. We should note carefully
the object of this doubt. It is not directed against this or
that conception, the religious conception, for example, of
which many first think when doubt is spoken of, but
against a human state, the existence of which we can see
with half an eye, against the state of self-delusion, imagina-
tion, blindness. He who rejects or opposes the doubt of
Descartes, must approve of our self-delusion. He who holds
it better not to give way to that doubt, must hold it better
for us to continue in our self-blindness. It can, therefore,
be only a deluded mind, not one that is earnestly religious,
that fears such doubt. The opposite of self-delusion is truth-
fulness to one's self. This is the source of all truth and all
the courage in seeking truth. He who is not true to himself
|has not the courage to look through his blindness ; he has in
general no courage in seeking truth ; generally speaking, he
is not true, and all the candor which he has in other matters

1 Med., i. pp. 242, 243.

THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY: MEtSoDICAL DOUBT. 335

is at bottom false. That, therefore, is the iuteiition of the
Cartesian doubt and the task which it sets itself: be true to
yourself. Do not persuade yourself, and do not allow your-
self to be persuaded, that you are what you are not, that you
know what is not clear and evident to you, that you believe
that which at bottom you doubt, or ought to doubt.

Thus deeply inward is the inquiring and critical mind of
Descartes directed : he requires self-illumination in place
of self-delusion. He has to do only with his own mind, and
not with the world ; his doubt attacks merely the validity of
conceptions, and not states of the world ; it is therefore not
practical, but only theoretical. " I know that neither danger
nor error can arise from this : I have no reason to be afraid
of an excess of distrust, since I am here concerned, not with
practical, but merely with theoretical, problems. I will sup-
pose, then, not that the All-wise and perfectly good God is
the source of truth, but some malignant, and at the same
time powerful, demon, who has employed all his skill in
deceiving me. I will suppose that the sky, the air, the
earth, colors, figures, sounds, and all the things I perceive
without me, are the illusions of dreams, with which that
spirit has laid snares for my credulity. I will consider my-
self as without eyes, flesh, blood, or any of the senses, as
possessing all these things merely in imagination, and I will
resolutely continue and strengthen myself in this mode of
consideration. If it is not then in my power to arrive at the
knowledge of truth, I shall at least be able to protect myself
from error. I will face that lying spirit, and be he ever so
powerful and cunning, he shall not overcome me. But the
undertaking is difficult, and a certain indolence is constantly
leading me back to my old habits of life : and like a prisoner
who rejoices in dreams over an imaginary freedom, and
dreads awakening, when he begins to suspect that it is only
a dream, and cherishes the pleasant fancy as long as possible ,
so involuntarily I fall back into my old beliefs, and fear to
arouse myself from my slumber. I fear the laborious exist-

336 HISTOR? OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

ence that will follow this pleasant sleep, and which must
be spent, not in the light of day, but in the impenetrable
darkness of already excited doubts." ' To return is impos-
sible. The sun of truth must rise out of the ocean of doubt

itself.

1 Med., i. pp. 243-245. Pr., i. 3, p. 64.

THE PRINCIPLE OF PHILOSOPHY. 337

CHAPTER HI.

THE PRINCIPLE OF PHILOSOPHY AND THE PROBLEM OF
KNOWLEDGE.

I. THE PRINCIPLE OF CERTAINTY.

1. One's Own TJiinhing Being.

~r HAVE no conception the truth of which is evident to
-*- me. On the contrary, they are all of such a nature that
I perceive their uncertainty. Experience, which has con-
tradicted them in so many cases, testifies against the trans-
mitted conceptions of childhood; the errors of the senses
agamst the conceptions of sense ; dreams, against the appar-
ently most certain sense-perceptions; and, finally, against
the reality of those elementary conceptions that lie at the
foundation of all the rest, arises the possibility that the
world of the senses universally is a mere unsubstantial,
phantom world, that in the very roots of our being we
are involved in deception and illusion. Thus, every thing
is doubtful, and nothing certain except this very doubt.
Every thing is doubtful ; i.e., I doubt every thing. The
second proposition is as certain as the first, and I am as
certain of myself. If I subtract delusion from self-delusion,
myself remains : if that is possible, this is necessary. With-jj
out a self, there can be no self-delusion and no doubt.
Now I have found a point which doubt can never attack,
because it depends upon it. " Archimedes demanded only a
firm and immovable point in order to move the earth, and
we also can entertain great hopes if we can discover the
smallest certain and indubitable truth." Even suppose that

338 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

we have been banished by a wicked demon into a world of
illusion, nevertheless we are, no matter in what cohdition
of mortal blindness. If that demon deceives me, it is clear
that I also am : let him deceive me as much as he can, he can
never bring it to pass, that, so long as I think that something
is, I myself am not. And accordingly, after I have con-
sidered every thing again and again, I come at last to this
proposition, which stands firm: "I am, I exist," is neces-
sarily true in the moment in which I express it or conceive
it.i

The next question is, What am I? We cannot answer,
" I am a man," or " I am this body," since, it is possible that
all bodies are only phantoms. I cannot, 'herefore, explain
the essence of my being by activities which, like self-motion,
nourishment, sensation, can certainly be ascribed to the soul,
but not without the body. If I separate from myself every
thing that is doubtful, nothing remains but the doubting itself.
If nothing of that which I hold uncertain exists, my uncer-
tainty yet remains. If I am nothing of that which I imagine
myself to be, my imagination yet remains. If every thing
is false which I afSrm or deny, it is yet true that I affirm or
deny. Now, doubting, imagining, affirming, denying, etc., are
modes of thought. Thought remains after subtraction of

' every thing that is doubtful ; in thought, therefore, consists
my unchangeable essence; my thought is my true being; I

I think, therefore I am. "But why shall I imagine other
things? I am not that assemblage of members called the
human body ; also I am not a thin and penetrating substance
diffused through all these members, or wind, or fire, or
vapor, or breath, or any of the things which I imagine myself
to be. For I liave supposed that all those things in reality
are not; and though that supposition remains, I am neverthe-
less something." I am a thinking being. In this sentence,

1 Med., ii. pp. 246-248. Pr., i. sec. 7. In the Eech. de la v&itd, Eudoxe
characterizes the doubt of every thing with the above expression of the
Meditations as "un point flxe et immuable."

THE PKINCIPLE OF PHILOSOPHY. 339

Descartes realizes, in relation to the knowledge of things,
the requirement of Archimedes. If I should doubt the cer-
tainty of my thought, I should put in question the possibility
of doubt itself, and should be obliged to return to the old
delusions. The proposition, therefore, "I think, hence T
am," excludes all uncertainty, and is the first and surest
truth which every one finds who philosophizes methodically.'

If to the question, " What am I ? " the answer is returned,
" I am a man," we must inquire farther, and the unknown
species be defined by the more unknown genus, according to
the "tree of Porphyry." What is man? What is rational
animal, living body, life, body, thing, etc. ? A labyrinth of
obscure conceptions. But the answer, "I am a doubting,
and therefore thinking, being," cannot in like manner be
resolved into an endless regress of questions, — what is
doubting, thinking, etc.? To this objection of Epistemon,
the philosopher of the schools, Eudoxe aptly replies, "We
must doubt and think in order to know what it is." He
who has experienced this activity does not inquire concern-
ing its genus and species, since it is a matter of immediate
knowledge.^

2. The Principle of Certainty. The Mind as the Clearest
Object. — Every thing which is just as evident as the cer-
tainty of my own thinking being is just as true. Here the
object of thought is directly present to the mind, and we
know immediately both that it is and what it is. The pres-
ence of the object makes the perception of it clear : it is dis-
tinct because the object appears in its own nature unmixed
with other things. " I call that clear which is present and
manifest to the attentive mind, as we say we see an object
clearly when it is present to the eye looking on, and when
it makes on the sense of sight an impression sufficiently
strong and definite ; but I call that distinct which is clear,
and at the same time so definitely distinguished from every

1 Disc, iv. p. 158. U4A., li. pp. 248-253. Pr., i. sees. 7-10.

2 Reeh. de la v&ite, pp. 354-371.

340 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

thing else that its essence is evident to him who properly
considers it." The truth of self-certainty has both charac-
teristics : it is perfectly clear and distinct ; and it would be
less certain, that is, more uncertain, like every thing else, if
it had these characteristics in a less degree. Clearness and
distinctness are, therefore, the criteria of certainty or of truth.
Our philosopher, accordingly, expresses the principle or
" regula generalis " of truth by the formula, " What I clearly
and distinctly conceive is true.^^^

The principle of knowledge follows from the proposition of
certainty. It is important to notice one of its consequences
immediately. The less the clearness and distinctness of a
conception, the less the certainty by which the truth and
reality of its object is evident. Now, clearness is dependent
upon the presence of the object, or the immediateness of the
relation between perception and its object. The more medi-
ate, therefore, the object, the greater the number of middle
terms between perception and its object, and the more ob-
scure the perception. Nothing is more immediately present
to us than our own being : nowhere has any one a greater
right to say that each is- nearest to himself, than in knowl-
edge. I am a thinking being or mind. Mind, therefore, is
of all objects the clearest ; its existence and nature are more
evident than those of things without us, of material objects,
the representations of which are mediate and dependent upon
the senses ; and obscure, because they are mediate ; and con-
fused, because the nature of my senses is mingled with the
nature of the object. To make an object distinct, is to rep-
resent it to ourselves in its purity, and to separate from it
every thing foreign to its nature ; and that we can do only
by examination and criticism, i.e., by judgment and thought.
To'^learly and distinctly ^pepresent a thing is, therefore, to
think. From the principle of certainty, therefore, follows
the principle in which the rationalism of Descartes' philoso-
phy finds distinct expression : True knowledge is possible only

1 Eech. de la vdrit^, pp. 354-371.

THE PRINCIPLE OF PHILOSOPHY. 341

through thought. Thought alone makes our ideas of things
clear and distinct.

Every conception which I have is my conception ; and
every conception, therefore, proves more certainly than it
does any thing else, that I am. I say this body exists because
I touch it : perhaps it does not exist, perhaps I only imagine
or dream that I touch it. But one thing follows with incon-
testable certainty, — that I, who touch the body, or imagine I
touch it, in reality am. That mind should be more clear
and evident than body, appears absurd to the common con-
sciousness : bodies are so distinct because we can see them
with our eyes, and grasp them with our hands. That mind
is more distinct than body, will seem less absurd, and the
nature of the object perceived by means of the senses less
distinct, if we earnestly try to conceive it. What- do we
distinctly conceive in a piece of wax, which we perceive as
a hard object which we can grasp with our hands? It is
not properties which we have just perceived; for the wax
melts, and they are present no longer. What remains is
something extended, ductile, changeable, which, by means
of its extension, is capable of passing through an endless
series of changes of size, and by means of its ductility and
changeableness, and endless series of forms. This endless
manifold can be conceived and comprehended by no presen-
tation of sense, but only by thought.'

n. THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE.

1. The Conception of a Being without us. — If, now, truB-
knowledge consists in the clearness and distinctness of con-
ceptions, and if these are attainable only by thought,, thje
question arises. How, by means of thought, do I come' toi a
knowledge of things ? My certainty reaches no farther than
the activity of my thought : where this ceases, uncertainty
begins. If we represent to ourselves the internal and exter-
nal wor]4 as the hemispheres of the universe, the one lies

1 M^d., il. pp. 256-258. Pr., i. sees. 8-12.

342 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

in the circle of illumination, the other in shadow. If the
light within us does not illuminate the dark world without
us, we remain in uncertainty and doubt concerning its exist-
ence. This, therefore, is the question which the problem of
knowledge comprehends, — How does the certainty of the
existence of things without us follow from the certainty of
our own existence ? To put the question in its most general
form. Is there any being at all without us, the existence of
which is as clearly and distinctly evident as our own think-
ing being? Have we a conception, from which the existence
of such a being manifestly follows?

Let us examine somewhat more closely the different kinds
of ideas we find in our internal world. Some of them seem
origijial or innate, others to have been voluntarily formed,
but most of them to have been received from without.
These last, the presentations of the senses, we consider effects
and copies of things without us, and, therefore, an indubi-
table evidence of their existence. We know indeed how
unfounded this opinion is, how the senses often, and dreams
always, deceive us. To be sure, the presentations of the
senses as such are never false. It is certain that I have this
perception, — that I present to myself the sun as a round disk
that moves of itself: only from this it does not follow that
the sun is a disk that moves in such a manner. The error
lies in this inference, it lies not in my presentation, but in
the fact that I hold my perception as the property and state
of a thing without me. In so doing, I am not merely having
a conception, but judging about it. It is a judgment when
we declare that a presentation in our minds is the effect and
copy of a thing outside of us. It is a groundless judgment
when we relate presentations of sense to external objects.
This is not the place to finally decide the question, whether,
by means of our sense-perceptions, the existence of bodies
can be proved. Here we only declare that the sensible prop-
erties which we find in our consciousness give no reason
to seek their cause or original without us. The reasons

THE PRINCIPLE OF PHILOSOPHY. 343

whic,h are adduced for that purpose prove nothing : it is in
vain to appeal to the fact that they arise involuntarily, and
that we refer them to an outward object by a natural instinct.
These instincts are not infallible ; and the fact that those
sensations are independent of our will, does not exclude the
possibility of their proceeding involuntarily from the condi-
tions of our own nature. And even if they are effects of
external objects, it does not follow that they are related to
their causes as copies to their originals, since an effect may
be very unlike its cause. We must declare, accordingly,
that they in no way authorize the certain judgment, that
there are things without us. If, therefore, any of our ideas
is to make us certain of the existence of things outside of us,
it cannot be a sensation.^

2. The Principle of Causality. — As certain as is our own
thinking nature by means of which we have ideas, so cer-
tain is the principle of causality : " From nothing, nothing
becomes ; every thing is the effect of a producing cause." If
less should be contained in the cause than in the effect, this
excess would have to be produced by nothing. From this it
follows that the cause never can be less than the effect, but
must contain more reality than, or just as much as, the effect.
In the first case, it is related to the effect, as the artist to a
work of art, since in him more is contained than in his work ;
in the second, as a form to its impression. That cause, Des-^
cartes calls " causa eminens;" this, " causa for malis." If, now,
we find an idea in our minds which contains more reality
than our own nature, it is clear that we are neither its
" eausa eminens " nor its " causa formalis" therefore not its
cause at all ; that, therefore, th§ cause of this idea must exist
without us. The question is, whether we have, such an
idea.2

What we conceive are either substances or modes. Plainly
those contain more reality than these; and we have now,
therefore, to examine more closely the worth and value of

I Med., iii. pp. 268-272, » lb., iii. pp. 2T2-275. Pr., i. see. 17.

344 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

conceived substances. As such we take our own being, and
the things without us. These are in part like us, in part dif-
ferent from lis ; the latter are either higher or lower than we ;
the higher are God and angels ; the lower are animals, or en-
tities below animals. Angels are beings between God and
men ; and, if we have the ideas of these two, we can make
that of angels, and do not need for this purpose any original
without us. Men are beings like ourselves, whose bodies are
different from ours. From the conception of our own being
and bodily substances, we can form those of other men.
The ideas of God and of body are accordingly the elements
out of which the ideas of the remaining substances are
formed by the activity of our own minds. What we repre-
sent to ourselves by way of the senses as belonging to ob-
jects, is obscure, and, therefore, either nothing or of less
reality than our thinking nature : what we distinctly con-
ceive in them is contained in our own thinking nature, or can
be derived from it. In no case does the conception of a body
contain more reality than that of our own being. ) There is,
therefore, at first sight no reason why we could not be the
producing cause of this conception. I am a thinking being:
every other finite thing is less than I am. When, therefore,
I conceive finite beings without me, the cause and the origi-
nal of my conception does not need to exist without me.
There remains, therefore, but one conception as the object of
our question, — the idea of God.^

3. The Idea of God. — I am a finite being, God is infinite :
I am imperfect and defective, God is perfect and without
defects. It is, therefore, impossible for me to be the cause
of this idea. Either I cannot have such a conception at all,
or its cause must be a being of like reality ; i.e., God himself.
But I have the idea of God ; and in this case, to have it is
equivalent to having received it. Every conception, as
every phenomenon, has its cause. If I clearly and distinctly
perceive that I cannot be this cause, I know just as clearly

1 M^d., iii. pp. 276-280. Pr., i. sec. 18.

THE PRINCIPLE OP PHILOSOPHY. 345

and distinctly that it must be without me ; that there is,
therefore, a being without me. " If in one of my ideas, a so
powerful reality is represented, that I am certain that it can-
not be contained in me, either formally ^ or eminently, and
that I cannot, therefore, be its cause, it follows that I am not
alone in the world, but that yet another being exists as the
cause of that idea. But if I have no such idea, I have no
means of proving that a being exists different from me. I
have considered the matter on all sides, and with all possible
care, and up to this moment have been unable to reach any
other result." ^

Through the idea of God, the darkness without our lonely
self-certainty is to be illuminated, and the problem of knowl-
edge solved. The question now arises. How is the knowledge
of things possible by means of the idea of God ? This must
be the subject of our next inquiry ; and we may be sure,
that, without it, the meaning and depth of the Cartesian
philosophy are not understood.

1 The following remark may serve to explain the expression, "formally
contained : " producing is with Aristotle shaping, or forming. What is con-
ceived, Descartes calls " objective ; " what actually exists, "formal." The con-
ceived object is "realitas objectiva;" the actual object, " realitas actiialis sive
formalis." That which contains the cause formally is nothing more or less
than the contents of the effect.

2 Disc, iv. p. 160. M^d., ili. p. 276.

346 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. — HUMAN SELF-CEBTAINTY, AND
CERTAINTY OP GOD.

I. PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

1. Cause of the Idea of God.

AGAINST our self-delusion, Descartes had summoned
self-examination, that fundamental doubt which- left
but one certainty ; viz., that we doubt, that we think, that
we are. From this followed the principle of all certainty, —
that truth consists in clearness and distinctness of knowl-
edge. The fact of causality is clear and distinct ; it follows
from the fact of certainty, since it is impossible for us to
think and not to be ; this would be activity without a sub-
ject, change without substance, effect without cause. From
the principle of causality, it follows that we cannot be
the cause of a conception which contains more reality than
we ourselves do. Now, the idea of God contains more
reality : therefore we cannot be the cause of it. There
must, therefore, be a being without us, who has all the per-
fections that we conceive as belonging to him : the cause of
the idea of God is God himself. To be a cause is to be
active, and therefore real ; so that the existence of God is
evident merelj^ from the idea of God in us.

Since the solution of the problem of knowledge is to be
reached through this point, it must first of all be fortified
and protected against every doubt. Our certainty of the
existence of God is based first of all on the certain fact that
we exist, and have the idea of God. Is the inference valid ?

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, ETC. 347

Does it follow that God really exists, because we are, and
have the idea of God ? Perhaps we ourselves are able, by
means of our own powers, to produce this idea: perhaps
neither God nor we ourselves, but another cause, has pro-
duced both us and the idea of God within us. If it can be
proved, that, without the existence of the most perfect being,
it is impossible for us and the idea of God within us to exist,
these possibilities are excluded.

We must be perfect in order to produce the idea of the
perfect, according to the requirement of the principle of
causality. But in fact we are not perfect : and if we were in
our capacities, this perfection would not be actual, but
only potential ; i.e., a becoming or growing perfection which
is, equivalent to existing imperfection. Becoming is endless :
growing perfection is never completed. We are, therefore,
always in a state which, when compared with the idea of
God, is less perfect than this. A capacity for perfection is
actual imperfection. Mere capacity is not yet activity, not
producing cause ; therefore, not the cause of the idea of
God.

The principle of causality holds not merely of our ideas,
but just as well of our existence. If we suppose that the
cause of our existence is not the most perfect being, it must
be one that is less perfect — either I myself, or my parents,
or another being ; perhaps one, perhaps several. If I had
been my own creator, I should have had the power to give
myself all those perfections which I am able to conceive : I
should then have become God. But I do not possess these
perfections : they do not, therefore, stand in my power, and
I was not my own creator. Conserving is continued creat-
ing : he only who can create, can conserve. But I have not
the power to conserve myself: therefore, I did not have it
to create myself. The continuance of my existence is not
in my power, nor in that of my parents : therefore, they also
were not my creators. As a thinking being, I should have
to be conscious of this sovereign power if I had it. But I

348 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

am conscious of the opposite : I am not, therefore, the cause
of my existence. It is just as little thinkable that the
Divine perfections which I conceive have more than one
cause, since with unity those causes would lack true perfec-
tion, and would not, therefore, be what they would have to
be. There remains, therefore, but one inference : one. being
different from us, proceeding either from a higher being or
existing of itself, has produced that conception. We must
deny the case of origin from a higher being, for this is to
suppose an endless regress of causes, which is impossible ; for
we would in that case never come to the producing cause,
and, therefore, never to the effect. That producing being
which must be different from us, and sui generis, can exist only
of itself : it is God. To deny the existence of God in this
sense, is to declare our own existence and the idea of God in
us impossible. " From the fact alone that I am, and have
the idea of a most perfect being, or God, it follows with com-
plete clearness that God also exists." ^

2. The Idea of God as Innate. — We have received this
idea ; but since we have not received it through the senses
nor any other medium, we have received it immediately
from God himself; it is originally given, or innate; God has
stamped it upon us as lus work " as the mark of the artist."
This mark is not here different from the work, but is the
work itself : God is not merely the cause, but the archetype,
of our existence. "From the fact alone that God created
me, I believe that God fashioned me after his image, and that
I am like him. In this exact likeness consists the idea of God.
I am this exact likeness, and I therefore know the idea of God
by the same faculty through which I know mj'self. When
I make my own nature an object of study, I see not merely
that I am a defective, dependent being, aspiring unceasingly
after higher perfection, after something greater and better,
but I see at the same time that that primordial Being upon
whom I depend contains in himself all perfections, and that

.1 M^d.,iii. pp. 280-289.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, ETC. 349

not potentially as the goal of an endless striving, but in
reality and infinitely. I apprehend the existence of God.
The force of the proof lies in this, — that I am compelled to
perceive that I myself, with the idea of God in me, could
not possibly exist if God in reality were not, — I mean the
God whom I conceive, — that is, the Being who has all the
perfections which I do not comprehend, but can only touch,
as it were, with my thoughts afar off, the Being who is des-
titute of every kind of imperfection." ^

3. Ontological and Anthropological Proofs. — In order to
prove the existence of God, Descartes used several different
arguments ; and it is a too superficial treatment of him to
emphasize merely the ontological proof, as is usually done.
We will inquire first what these proofs are, then their order,
and finally their deepest motives.

The principle of certainty is. Every thing which we clearly
and distinctly apprehend is true. Now, in the mere idea of
God, I apprehend his existence clearly and distinctly, and it
is accordingly indubitable. This is the inference from con-
cept to existence, the so-called ontological argument which
Anselm introduced into scholastic theology. The idea of
God is given in us as a fact of our inner experience, as a
fact in our world of conceptions, which cannot be produced
by us, but only by God himself. Therefore, God exists.
This proof concludes from the fact to the cause : it is a
posteriori, and can, therefore, be regarded as a proof from
experience.

The fact of our existence and of the idea of God in us can
be stated in this manner : we exist, and are endowed with the
idea of a most perfect being. Since we cannot ourselves be
the cause of our existence, it must be such a being, different
from us, as possesses all the perfections of which we have an
idea: otherwise it would not be able to produce us with the
ideas of them. This most perfect of all beings, or God,
therefore exists. This proof concludes from the nature of

1 M^d., iii. pp. 289-291.

350 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

man, so far as it is imperfect, and conceives perfection to
the nature and existence of God. In it the two preceding
arguments, the ontological and empirical, are united. "We
call this proof anthropological, and add the remark, that,
without it the ontological or metaphysical argument cannot
be understood and estimated in the sense of our philosopher.
It is the real Cartesian proof of the existence of God.

The order in which Descartes develops his arguments is
worthy of remark. Where he leads us along the methodical
course which his own thoughts took in their search for truth,
and therefore proceeds analytically in his exposition, he
states the anthropological argument before the ontological,
as in his essay on method and in his " Meditations," — there
in all brevity, here in detail. But where he proceeds syn-
thetically in his exposition of the truths he has discovered,
he states first the ontological and then the anthropological
argument, as in the geometrical outline of the "Medita-
tions," which was contained in his reply to the second objec-
tion and in the "Principles." In the "Meditations" he
rests the whole force of his proof on the anthropological
argument, and does not develop the ontological argument
until afterwards, when he returns again to the idea of God.^

4. The Anthropological Proof as Foundation of the Ontologi-
cal.— The ontological proof of Descartes is fundamentally
different from the scholastic one, in spite of its parallelism
with it. This difference is so important, that the usual
failure to observe it is equivalent to a complete lack of
insight into the system of our philosopher. Descartes must
have been convinced that the objections which overthre\v
the scholastic argument did not touch his, since he was
acquainted with them, and considered them in detail in his
fifth " Meditation." We will first notice the defects of the
usual ontological argument.

From the mere idea of God, his existence is claimed to

1 Disc, iv. pp. 159-162. Mdd., iii. pp. 280-289. lb., v. pp. 312-317. Obj. et
IWp., Propos., i.-iii. (Oiuvres, i. pp. 460-462.) Princ, i. 18-22.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, ETC. 351

follow, just as evidentlj' as, from the concept of a triangle,
the fact that the sum of its angles is equal to two right ones,
and, from the concept of a circle, the equality of its radii.
As little as we can conceive a hill without a valley, so little
can we think God without existence. As necessarily as hill
and dale are united, so inseparable are the concept and
existence of God. Either he is the most perfect Being, or
he is nothing at all. For the most perfect being would not
be what it is if any thing were wanting to it, and certainly
not if it lacked reality. But here the following objection at
once arises ' Our idea of God is a conception, like every other,
and we cannot see why that should be held of this concep-
tion which is held of no other , viz., that thought existence
is actual existence. In every other case the conceived object
is only possible, not actual. God alone, according to the onto-
logical proof, constitutes an exception : he exists because I
think him. But if I do not think him ? Does not my
thought stand in my own power? Are not my thoughts
voluntary? It depends, therefore, upon me whether there
is to be an argument for the existence of God, or not ! We
must, therefore, require as the first condition of an ontologi-
cal proof, that the idea of God is not an arbitrary, but a
necessary, thought, inseparably bound and united with our
nature. If this necessity cannot be grounded in the nature
of man, the ontological proof, even in its starting-point, i»
without foiindation. From this it is evident that it requires
to be anthropologically grounded and vindicated.

But even when that first condition is fulfilled, we are yet
far from the goal. Suppose the idea of God in us is neces-
sary: does his existence follow from it? If we are com-
pelled to conceive the most perfect being, we must, of course,
think it as actual ; but is, then, thought actuality already
real? Is existence within my conception also existence
without, and independent of it? It is impossible to see how
my conception and thought should at any time go out
beyond themselves, and testify to the reality of a being

352 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

beyond all conceived and conceivable objects. So long,
therefore, as the idea of God is only my conception, produced
by my thought, however necessarily, so long is the existence
of God also only my idea. The thought existence is and
remains only possible : the reality, independent of me and
my. conception, is absolutely incapable of demonstration by
the merely ontological argument. If the idea of God in me
is to prove the existence of God, it must be more than
merely my idea: it must not merely represent the existence
of God, but in a certain sense be that existence itself. Sup-
pose that this idea which I have were the expression of
God's own nature, his immediate effect, and proclaimed
itself as such to me, then, certainly, it would be a direct
proof of the Divine causality, and, therefore, of the Divine
existence. But how dare I consider as an effect of God an
idea which I find as my conception, as one among others ?
And it is not enough that I dare so consider it : I ought
rather to be utterly unable to regard it as any thing else.
As certain as I am of myself, so certain ought I to be that
this idea is not my product, but the effect of God in me.
This is the point which is now to be proved, upon which
every thing in Descartes' doctrine of God directly depends.
If it can be proved that the idea of God in us (1) is neces-
sary, and (2) cannot be our effect, the point in question is
made out. It must be shown that an imperfect being such
as we are cannot produce the conception of a perfect being.
In any case, the knowledge of our own imperfection and
weakness, therefore the investigation of our own nature, our
self-examination, must be the first step on the way to the
knowledge of God. But it is not merely the first step, but
also the light on the way! This light, which Descartes'
doctrine of God and its ontological argument alone imparts,
is entirely wanting to the scholastic proof. In the latter
the important matter is, that we conceive a perfect being:
in Descartes' argument the important matter is, that we
conceive a perfection which we ourselves do not have, and

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, ETC. le^

because we do not have it. With Descartes, therefore, the
ontological argument goes hand in hand with the anthro-
pological, which rests on human self-knowledge. If from
the nature of man it is evident that he is compelled to con-
ceive a perfect being, then, and only then, has the ontologi-
cal argument a secure starting-point. And if, in like man-
ner, it follows from human nature that the idea of God is
not its product, but the activity and effect of God in it,
then, and only then, can that proof reach its goal.

The conditions, accordingly, which our idea of God must
fulfil, in order to be capable of proving his existence, are its
necessary or original conception, and its divine origin. Des-
cartes comprises both in his expression, " Innate Idea." Not
from the mere idea of God is his existence inferred, but from
the innate idea, which, as the activity or effect of God, is the
expression in us of the divine existence. To infer his exist-
ence from this idea of God innate in us is equivalent to
apprehending the existence of God from his existence in us.
This is an immediate, not a mediate, inference : it is a simple
certainty, not a syllogism. We advance from the concept of
God to his existence, not as to something new, but rather
existence is discovered in the concept, not as one character-
istic among others, but this concept is the divine activity
. and existence itself. The knowledge of the existence of God
is, therefore, dependent upon no middle terms, but is just as
intuitive as the knowledge of our own existence. Both are
alike evident, and alike certain. As from the '■'■cogito"
" sum " immediately follows, so from " Beiis cogitatur," " Deus
est" immediately follows. As certainly as I exist, so cer-
tainly exists a being without me : as certainly as I know that
I am, so certainly know I now that lam not alone, that out-
side and independent of me exists yet another independent
being. In the " cogito, ergo sum," the mind was absorbed in
itself, in a monologue as it were : it had turned from the con-
sideration of outward things, and at first won no other cer-
tainty than that of its own existence. In the review of its

3.'^4 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Xeas, one is discovered which excels all others ; and the first
''glance, as it were, betrays its divine origin. While all other
conceptions are ever repeating to the lonely thinker, " Thou
art, thou art, I am only a mirror of your nature, an effect of
your power," this alone proclaims, to him, '■'•I am, I reflect in
thee another and far better nature than thine : I have not,
therefore, sprung from thee, but from my archetype." In the
case of all other objects, the fact of my conception proves
the possibility of their existence ; in this alone, its necessity.
In all other cases, concept and thing, essence and existence,
'■'■essentia" and '■'■ existentia," are two different things: here
alone they are one and the same.

n. THE CKRTAINTT OF SELF AKD THE CERTAINTY OF GOD.

1. The Certainty of Ones Own Imperfection. — The sentence,
'■'■ Deus cogitatur, ergo Deus est" is claimed to be as certain as
the sentence, '■'■cogito, ergo sum." The method of Descartes
requires the deductive union of truths. Between these two
propositions, therefore, there must be an immediate connec-
tion, and this must be evident ; and since the " cogito " is
indubitable, it must first of all be comprehended as the
ground of the " Deus cogitatur." Our conception of God is
necessary if it is immediately contained in that of our own
thinking being and is given by it, if our self-consciousness
and the consciousness of God form two sides of one and the
same intuition, which belong together as thoroughly as right
and left, above and below. This connection between
" cogito " and " Deus cogitatur," between the certainty of self
and the certainty of God, is the point to be proved and illus-
trated, without which the doctrine of Descartes remains mis-
understood. This doctrine cannot, as usually happens, be
conceived and expounded as if it first promises a method,
and then does not keep its promise, but leaps from the fact
of self-certainty to that of causality, and then to the onto-
logical proof of the existence of God, derives from the
essence of God some of his attributes, among them veracity,

THE EXISTENCE OP GOD, ETC. 355

and then courageously advances to the knowledge of things.
If this were the fact with reference to the progress of Des-
cartes' thoughts, there would be in them no methodical
advance ; and Epistemon's objection would be well taken,
that we do not advance a step from the fact of self-certainty.
" A beautiful knowledge indeed ! You have a method to
prove every thing, to avoid making a false step, and trip,
therefore, around the same point, without taking a step in
advance ! " ^ Epistemon says what Descartes puts in his
mouth ! The philosopher was acquainted with this objection.
In order to discover the methodical progress from the
certainty of self to the certainty of God, we must take the
expression of the first, the " cogito " or the " sum cogitans"
exactly in the sense in which the philosopher conceives it
and establishes it. His desire for truth requires self-exami-
nation, which consists in the perception that we deceive our-
selves in many instances, and, therefore, possibly in all ; that
we have no reason to regard any of our opinions as true;
rather, that we are in a state, of universal uncertainty, and
completely destitute of the truth. On this knowledge of
self rests that all-embracing doubt which admits the possi-
bility of delusion everywhere, and distinctly recognizes that
we are destitute of the truth. The Cartesian doubt is noth-
ing else than the certainty of this defect, of this our universal
intellectual imperfection. In one and the same act, doubt
reveals to us our thinking nature and our defective intelli-
gence. Not for nothing follows the " cogito ergo sum " imme-
diately from the de omnibus dubito." lam myself, that being
whose existence is immediately evident to me. lam myself,
the being of whose possession of truth I doubt absolutely, as
to whose intellectual excellence I am completely puzzled.
He who does not find in the Cartesian " cogito," that expres-
sion of one's own thought, certain of itself, the confession of
one's own complete intellectual destitution so far as the state
of thought referred to in the " cogito " is concerned, he does

1 Kech. de lav^rit^. CEuvres, xi. pp. 372, 373.

356 HISTOEY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

not understand what that sentence means, and is ignorant,
both of its theme and its origin. The certainty of one's own
thinking being springs from doubt, and is penetrated with
the conviction that one's own thought is destitute of knowl-
edge and of truth, though sorely needing it.

But to be conscious of one's own imperfection is to strive
for, and therefore to conceive, perfection. The idea of the
perfect is, therefore, necessarily and immediately connected
with the act — it is indeed contained in it — which makes us
certain of our own imperfection. And exactly therein con-
sists the profound and now evident connection between the
Cartesian '■-cogito" and " Deus oogitatur." ^

2. The Idea of the Perfect and its Primariness. — As neces-
sary as is the conception of myself, so necessary is the idea
of God : as necessary as is the certainty of my own imperfect
existence, so necessary is the conception of the perfect.
. This conception is necessary and inseparable from the
thought most entirely our own, but from this we are as yet
by no means entitled to infer the existence of God. There
arises on the contrary, from the point we have won, a series
of doubts of this inference. If the perfect is the goal of
our endeavors, it can be nothing else than an idea in us,
however necessarily such a goal may be conceived. When
we become conscious of our powers, we are aware at the
same time of our defects and limitations ; and while in
thought we increase our powers, and disregard their limita-
tions, we come by the known " via eminentia " to the concep-
tion of a most perfect being, which is none other than our own
imperfect self, with the omission of all that the first syllable
indicates. Exactly, therefore, because the idea of the perfect
proceeds from the consciousness of imperfect human nature, it
is a mere work of the latter ; it is only an idea, not God ; and
the anthropological argument which promised to support the
ontological proof, seems at first to be very unfavorable to it.

1 Cf. Disc, de la meth., iv. p. 159, concerning this progress in Descartes'
thoughts.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, ETC. 357

It is true that from the idea of the imperfect, — if we omit
the negations, — that of the perfect can be produced, and
brought into consciousness. But the problem is not thus
solved, but only referred to the question. How does the idea
of the imperfect arise ? How do we attain to the knowledge
of our own imperfection ? It is one thing to he imperfect,
another to hnow that we are. In the one case, imperfection
is a state in which I am involved : in the other, it is an object
which I make clear to myself. This perception, at least, is
not imperfect, but is as perfect as it is true. That I am
involved in self-delusion is an undoubted proof of my
defects : that I break through its barriers, and perceive my
self-delusion, is an undoubted proof of a perception present
in me, without which I should continue in the darkness of
delusion, and the idea of my imperfection would never occur
to me. If the question were as to the estimation of a work
of art, every one knows that the art critic would see its
defects more clearly than any one else, because he is familiar
with the perfections of art, and knows what this particular
work requires. There are no defects for idiots : either they
find every thing good, or they condemn without discrimina-
tion. Only the critic sees imperfections : they can be appre-
hended only in the light of the perfect, the light which
illuminates that " via eminentia " on which man supposes
he first finds the idea of the perfect. It is no wonder that he
finds it, since he had it already, and had to have it, when he
perceived his own imperfection. Without truth, there is no
desire for truth, no self-examination, no becoming perplexed
with reference to ourselves and all our conceptions, no
doubt, no certainty of self, no " cogito ergo sum."

3. The Primariness, Reality, and Truthfulness of God. —
The relation is now reversed, and what seemed to be the
inference, is in truth the ground. From the idea of the per-
fect, springs that of the imperfect : that is more origiyml than
this, therefore more original than the knowledge of our own
imperfection, of our own thinking being. In our certainty

358 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of God, our certainty of self has its roots. The idea of God
is not merely one among others, but is the only one of its
kind, because it is the source of all light. It is not merely
as clear and evident as the conception of our own being, hut
far clearer, because it first illuminates this conception. " It
is of all our ideas the clearest and most distinct, and there-
fore the truest."^ This sentence of Descartes is now first
intelligible.

But as the primariness of the idea of God, its independence
of our thought and existence, its causality in reference to
our knowledge of self, is evident, the reality of God is there-
with clear of itself. It is proved that the idea of the perfect,
primary as it is, is not merely an idea, but God. Without
the reality of God, there is no idea of God, no idea of the
perfect in us, no perception of our own imperfection, no
" de omnibus cogito" no " eogito ergo sum.^' In this connec-
tion we see the progress of Descartes' thoughts in their
methodical conclusiveness.

And not only the fact that God is, now appears beyond
doubt (because the existence and idea of God first make
true doubt possible), but also what he is. The idea which
illuminates the state of our own intellectual imperfection in
the clearest manner, can be nothing else than intellectual
perfection itself, with which no kind of defect is compatible.
This God is, therefore, absolute truth and truthfulness itself,
which, with deception, excludes, also, from himself the pur-
pose to deduce.^ Thus is the last and most oppressive doubt
removed, that stood in the way of the possibility of true
knowledge, in our self-examination. Now I know that no
demon has banished me into a phantom world, and afflicted
me with incurable blindness. If I had remained a prisoner
in delusion, as in a dark, labyrinthine dungeon, with no way
out, I could not even doubt, since even doubt proves that I
am conscious of delusion, and that somewhat of the infallible
light has shone into my spirit. Now doubt is cleared up.

1 Mdd., iii. pp. 281, 282. 2 lb., iii. p. 291, iv. 294. Prino., i. sec. 29.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, ETC. 359

The knowledge of things is possible ; my presentations are
no phantoms ; things are as I conceive them, when I con-
sider them in that infallible light ; i.e., when I clearly and
distinctly apprehend them.

After we have thus become acquainted with the true
nature of Descartes' proof of existence of God, and the true
connection of its various parts, we cannot help perceiving
that the statements concerning the idea, reality, and truthful-
ness of God, are not edifying assurances, but principles, which
constitute the foundation of knowledge, and support the
remainder of the system.

360 HISTOKY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER V.

THE ORIGIN OF EBEOR.— UNDERSTANDING AND WILL.—
HUMAN FREEDOM.

L ERROR AS THE FAULT OF THE WILL.

1. The Fact of Error.

npHE possibility of knowledge is established. With this
-L certainty arises a new doubt, diametrically opposed to
the first one, for the possibility of knowledge seems to be
grounded in a way that excludes the possibility of error.
At first nothing was clearer than our errors, now nothing is
more unintelligible. If our thinking nature springs from
the primary source of light and truth, if we are not pris-
oners to delusion, and if the world which we conceive is no
phantom world, but truly real, whence comes the possibility
of delusion, and that state of blindness in which we, in fact,
find ourselves ? The ground of it cannot be sought in God,
therefore not in the nature of our conceptions, thei'efore
only in ourselves. We are not deceived, but we deceive
ourselves. All error is self-deception. The question is. In
what does this self-deception consist, and from what source
does it spring ? ^

It has already been pointed out, that, in the mere state of
conception, no error takes place, and that the possibility of
error first enters with judgment, which declares our concep-
tions, states, or properties of things without us.^ In a judg-
ment of such a kind, error is made or expressed, but this
expression of error is not its source. What is asserted in a

1 Med., iv. p. 3. 2 gee preceding chapter.

THE ORIGIN OF ERROR, ETC. 361

judgment is either true or false, but a true or false asser-
tion is not yet my error. I have only erred when I hold a
true judgment false, a false one true, a doubtful one certain,
a certain one doubtful. To hold a true judgment false is to
deny it, to hold a false one true is to affirm it. If I hold a
doubtful judgment certain, and a certain judgment doubtful,
I deny in the one case the uncertainty, and in the other the
certainty. From this it appears, that not in judgment as
such, but in our acceptance or rejection, in our affirming or
denying of judgment, error properly consists ; and its source
can therefore only be contained in our faculty of affirming
Or denying, accepting or rejecting.

This faculty requires more precise determination. If we
were forced to affirm every true judgment, and to deny every
false one, we could not err. Error can therefore only arise
from such a faculty of affirming or denying as excludes all
force from itself, and depends entirely upon our inclination.
This unconditioned or free faculty to affirm, just as well as
to deny, the same proposition, is will, or the freedom of
choice (free will). A judgment is the work of the under-
standing : the affirming or denying of it is the work of the
will. Error consists in our preferring the false judgment to
the true, in our preferring to assert the false : it is only
possible because the choice between the two lies completely
in our power. It is accordingly clear that the two faculties,
understanding and will, co-operate to produce error, since by
virtue of its freedom the will is guilty of error through the
understanding, or what amounts to the same thing, since
the will turns the understanding from the path of knowl-
edge. ^

2. Will and Understanding. — To make a thorough inves-
tigation of the source of error, the relation between these
two faculties must be more closely examined. If the will
were compelled to affirm the true judgment, to deny the
false one, to leave the uncertain one undecided, it would be

1 Med., Iv. p. 298.

362 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

bound to the understanding, by it mastered and guided,
equally limited in its sphere of action. But as we have
already seen, this is by no means the truth. Our under-
standing is limited. There is much that I cannot compre-
hend at all, or only obscurely and indistinctly: there is
nothing which the will cannot afSrm or deny, accept or
reject, or towards which it cannot occupy an attitude of indif-
ference ; i.e., nothing which it cannot neither affirm or deny.
It reaches farther, therefore, than the understanding: it
extends to the unknown as well as to the known, and can
affirm or deny the one as well as the other. " The will is
therefore greater than the understanding." It is not merely
greater, but since it extends to every thing, while the under-
standing is limited in its knowledge to a definite sphere, it
is unlimited, while the understanding is limited. This
unconditioned greatness of the will is our freedom, and like-
ness to God. " The will, or the freedom of the will," says
Descartes, "is of all my faculties the only one which,
according to my experience, is so great that I cannot con-
ceive a greater. It is this faculty pre-eminently by reason
of which I believe I am created in the image of God." But
if will and understanding are so related to each other that
the latter is subject to natural limits, while the former is
completely independent of them, it is evident that neither
of the two, taken by itself, can be the source of error , not
the understanding alone, because as our natural faculty of
knowledge, dependent upon God, it cannot be deceptive ;
not the will alone, since, as our unconditioned faculty of
freedom, it is, in the proper sense of the word, divine.^

That concurrence of the two faculties through which error
is caused must accordingly consist in this : The human will,
by virtue of its freedom, perverts the understanding, and
transforms its infallible light into a Will-o'-the-wisp. Error
can be nothing else than a blameworthy ignorance.

3. Blameworthy Ignorance. — By means of its unlimited

1 M^d., iv. pp. 298-300. Princ, i. 34r^8.

THE ORIGIN OF ERROR, ETC. 363

character, the will extends both to the known and the
unknown, to the clear and the obscure sphere of knowledge;
and, by means of its freedom, it can both affirm and deny
the one and the other. But if it affirms or denies independ-
ently of clear and distinct knowledge, it acts groundlessly ; i.e.,
it judges without reasons, and errs therefore in any case, no
matter what judgment it affirms or denies. Error, therefore,
reaches farther than we at first determined. Even the affirma-
tion of a true judgment is an error if it is made without
grounds. I affirm the judgment without knowing that, and
why, it is true : I judge in the darkness, and stumble through
accident upon the truth, like a blind fowl upon a grain of
corn. If I would be true to myself, I must confess that I do
not know the truth with reference to the matter in question :
I am in darkness, and avoid every assertion about it. But as
soon as I judge, I imagine a certainty which I do not have ; I
deceive myself, therefore ; i.e., I err. Or I pretend to others
a certainty which I do not possess, and which I know that I
do not possess; I, therefore, deceive others; i.e., I lie. If
the affirmed judgment is false, the manifest error is a double
one ; it is an error, both in relation to the fact and person-
ally : I am deceived in the fact, and deceived concerning my-
self. To repeat an earlier example, it is no error for me to
conceive the sun as a moved disk. I err as soon as I judge
that the sun is a moved disk; I err as to the fact and
personally when I affirm the geocentric system ; I err if I
deny it without insight into the grounds of the system, and
hold the opposite one true.

n. THE WISH FOR TEUTH.

1. The Prevention of Error. — Error consists in groundless
assertion. It arises from the freedom of the will as the
faculty of affirming or denying groundlessly. In this faculty
lies likewise the power neither to affirm or deny ; i.e., to with-
hold every groundless assertion, or, what amounts to the same
thing, to avoid every error. As soon as I am true to myself,

364 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

I must be aware of my states of personal uncertainty, my
lack of insight; and by means of this knowledge, I am able
to abstain from every error and all mere apparent knowledge.
But if in every case of error the possibility not to err stood
open, every error into which we fall is our own deed and
fault. We should not err if our knowledge were perfect : it
is imperfect, and this imperfection is not our fault, but the
defect or limit of our nature. Without this defect, there
would be no possibility of erring ; and in spite of it, we
should avoid error if we carefully withheld our judgment,
and never again wished to seem to know, except when in
truth we clearly and distinctly perceive ; if we in no case pre-
ferred groundless judgment to those that are grounded. This
choice constitutes error, and the freedom of the will makes
this choice possible. Grounded judgments are few, while
ungrounded ones are numerous. The appearance of know-
ing more than one really knows, is tempting, and occasions
that misuse of freedom through which we prefer ungrounded
judgments to those which are grounded. We can now say
exactly what the understanding and will contribute to error.
The contribution of the understanding lies in its limits, that
of the will in its misuse. The limits of the understanding is
a natural defect, the misuse of the will is a moral one ;
namely, a lack of personal truthfulness, genuine knowledge
of self, and self-examination.'

From the above explanation, it follows that error enters
in a blameworthy manner as soon as we treat the unknown
as known. To the unknown belongs also the unknowable.
We are not able to know the purposes of God, and dare not,
therefore, pretend to know any thing by means of these pur-
poses : the teleological explanation of natural things is there-
fore erroneous. " Even from this reason I am convinced
that that whole class of final causes can have no place in the
explanation of nature, for it seems to me to be temerity to
inquire after the purposes of God." Here Descartes and

1 Mdd., Iv. pp. 304-308.

THE ORIGIN OF ERROR, ETC. 365

Spinoza meet ; both deny the validity of the concept of pur-
pose in tlie explanation of things ; Descartes, because the
purposes of God are unknowable ; Spinoza, because they are
impossible. The step from unknowableness to impossibility
is not long, and is the logical advance of rationalism.'

That we err, is our fault, not the fault of God. In so far
as our will causes error, it is at once evident that it does not
belong among the works of God. But also the imperfection
of our intellectual nature does not derogate from the divine
perfection. The divine perfection requires the perfection of
the divine works ; but this consists in the wliole, and suffers
so little from the defects of individual things, that it rather
results from it. The imperfection of our limited existence
appears perfection when considered in reference to the whole,
therefore also in reference to God. "What would perhaps
have to be considered very imperfect if it existed alone, is
perhaps very perfect considered as part of the whole." Here
Descartes and Leibnitz meet. The vindication of the per-
fection of the whole from the imperfection of individuals
forms the fundamental thought of the Leibnitzian Theodicee
as the nullity of purpose and the concept of purpose of the
philosophy of Spinoza. ^

2. The Lower and HigJier Freedom of the Will. — Our
errors are the fault of our will : they are caused by it, and
by it they can be avoided. We must, therefore, distinguish
within the will certain states or stages according as it, by
its action, is guilty of, or avoids, error. There are, therefore,
different stages of freedom, lower and higher ; and that
which directly produces error must be considered the lowest.
This consists in affirming or denying without reason; and
results from the irrational action of the will, i.e., from mere
arbitrariness, which is determined in its choice of judgments
and actions by no kind of rational considerations. The
indifference of the will is, therefore, the lowest stage of free-
dom. Freedom is so much the higher, and the will so much

1 Mid., iv. p. 297. " lb., iv. p. 297.

366 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the freer, the clearer the reasons on account of which it
affirms or denies ; i.e., the more it acts in accordance with
insight. "But that indifference which I experience when
no sort of rational considerations incline me more to one side
than the other, is the lowest stage of freedom, and proves,
not its perfection, but the absence of knowledge. For if
I always clearly knew what is true and good, I should never
be in doubt what to judge and to choose, and I should thus be
entirely free without ever being indifferent." ^ Thus the
higher is distinguished from the lower, the rational from the
indifferent and groundless, the enlightened by freedom from
that which is blind, and destitute of knowledge. Through
the latter alone, moral action is possible. Here we see the
fundamental thought of Descartes' ethical doctrine.

3. Freedom from Error. — Here we again see in the clear-
est manner the beginning of the entire system. There was
only one means of penetrating the blindings of our deeply
rooted self-delusions : we had to become sceptical as to our-
selves, to doubt of the validity and truth of all our concep-
tions, to accustom ourselves to this doubt, and to strengthen
ourselves in this habit of self-examination, even as we had
done in the habit of self-delusion. This intellectual trans-
formation can take place only through the will, through the
wish for truth. Now we see to the very bottom of our
self-delusion, and of the doubt which is directed against it.
Error lies not in our conceptions, not in judgments as such,
but in affirming or denying them without reason ; in an act
of the will, therefore, which we have the power to withhold.
It is thus the will in the last analysis which darkens the
understanding, and plunges us into error: it is likewise
the will which preserves us from error, and frees us from it.

We wish to affirm or deny without having thought or
known : that is the untruth to ourselves, our self-delusion, our
error. We wish to affirm or deny according as we have dis-
tinctly known : that is the truth to ourselves, the doubt of the

1 M^d., iv. pp. 300, 301.

THE ORIGIN OF ERROR, ETC. 367

truth of our conceptions, the perception of our ignorance, the
firm resolve to know, to think clearly and distinctly, and, so
long as we are in the dark, not to judge. To act according
to this resolution as an inviolable law is the business of the
will and character. " Thus we acquire the freedom not to
err as a kind of habit, and in this consists the greatest and
chief perfection of man." '

Med., iv. pp. 306, 307.

368 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER VI.

OPPOSITION BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY. — TRANSITION TO
THE PHILOSOPHY OP NATUEB.

I. THE SUBSTAKTIALITT OF THINGS.

1. The Uxistenee of Bodies.

AFTER we have proved the possibility of knowledge,
and explained error, we must now consider the ques-
tion as to the reality of the objects which we conceive as
things without us. Faith in the senses affirms this reality :
self-examination and doubt have shattered the faith in the
truth of the presentations of the senses. The idea of God
has made me aware that I am not alone in the world, and
from the perfection of God it is self-evident that the imper-
fection of my existence belongs to the perfection of the
whole. I am imperfect, because limited: I am limited,
because I am not the whole, but only a part of it, not
the only being except God, but only one among others.
There are, therefore, besides me, yet other beings in the
world.

My conceptions are true in so far as I do not deceive my-
self: things are as I conceive them if I think them clearly
and distinctly. They appear to me as bodies. Is not tliis
appearance my self-delusion ? Are there in reality bodies ?
Certain it is that the presentation or picture of bodies is
present to my mind, that I imagine their existence. If my
thought alone can be the cause of this imagination, or, what
amounts to the same thing, if thought and imagination are
completely identical, there is no reason to refer the fact, that

OPPOSITION BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 369

I represent to myself bodies, to an external cause. But
imagination, as it seems, is different from pure thought. I
experience this difference as soon as I think or imagine the
same object. It is difficult to imagine a figure with a thou-
sand sides, though it is thought as easily as a triangle.
Since, now, the essence of the mind consists in thought, the
faculty of imagination appears not only to be dependent
upon the mental nature, but to require the union of it with
the body. It appears, that, without body, our imagination of
it could not take place. The fact, therefore, of this imagina-
tion is claimed to be a valid reason for the existence of
bodies. The entire argument rests on the unproved assump-
tion, that thought and imagination are different, and that
imagination is something else than a mere modification of
thought. By such an argument in its most favorable inter-
pretation, the existence of bodies can only be made probable,
but never certain.'

But the attempted proof can apparently be supported with
greater certainty on the fact of our sensations and similar
experiences. How, without the existence of bodies, are such
affections possible as pleasure and pain ? impulses like hunger
and thirst? moods like joy and sadness? sensations like hard-
ness and softness, warmth and cold, color and tone ? sensa-
tions of smell and taste? It is certain that we have such
experiences ; that, of all our experiences, they are the most
vivid and importunate ; that they come without our will, and,
therefore, as it appears, from things without us ; that we re-
ceive knowledge of the latter in no other way than through
the impressions upon our senses, and we, therefore, regard
them as the expression of things themselves, as their exact
copies. Involuntarily we refer the presentations of our senses
to bodily causes, as though we were guided by a natural
instinct. We consider them as the elements of all our con-
ceptions, since they are the first we have, and so come to
think that all the ideas in our minds enter through the

1 M^d., vi. pp. 322-325.

370 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

senses, and that all the impressions upon the senses are made
by bodily causes. But we know how terribly we have de-
ceived ourselves concerning the truth of the presentations of
the senses, not merely in dreams where they have no reality
at all, but also in states of waking, where perception repre-
sents the same object, now in one way, now in another, and
at times even completely deceives us. The four-cornered
tower appears round in the distance : after an amputation,
pain is still experienced in the amputated member. Accord-
ingly, we can prove the existence of bodies just as little by
our sensations as by our imagination.^

So much is certain : we have sensitive presentations ; they
must be caused, and the power that produces them is either
within or without us. If it is in us, it must be the under-
standing or will; and, in that case, they must either be
thought or willed. But they are neither : they come without
the action of thought or will, often indeed against the will.
The cause, therefore, cannot be our mind, i.e., we ourselves ;
and it must, then, exist without us, either in God or in things
of a nature different from God and our own spiritual being.
Suppose that God is the cause : he must have produced them
either immediately, or through intermediate causes of a higher
nature than ours. They would in that case have originated
in a way that is, and must remain, entirely hidden from us ;
while we are impelled by our very nature to seek their origin
in an entirely different direction. Their true origin would
remain not only veiled from us, we should not only be
stricken with blindness concerning it, but we should be
involved in a complete delusion, — a delusion not due to our-
selves, not to any fault of ours, but to the very constitution
of our nature. We should be led into error by God himself,
and that is inconsistent with the divine truthfulness (intel-
lectual perfection). It is, accordingly, certain that the cause
of our sensitive presentations is not we, not God, but bodies
themselves, for that is the name we apply to natures different

1 M^d., vi. pp. 325-331.

OPPOSITION BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 371

from God and mind. Bodies are, but what are they ? That
is the next question.'

2. Substances. God and Things. — It is evident that bodies
in reality exist as the cause of our presentations of bodies,
that they exist independently of our thought, that our
existence is not essential to theirs. Such an independent
being, Descartes calls substance. " I say that two substances
are in truth diiferent, when each of them can exist without
the other." "Exactly in this consists the nature of sub-
stances, that they mutually exclude each other. This deter-
mination is valid, both of bodies and minds: each exists
independently of the other, and is in this respect substance,
but only in this. For if a substance is a being that needs
no other in order to exist, and is, therefore, completely inde-
pendent, there can, strictly speaking, be but one which itself
depends upon nothing, while every thing else depends upon
it. If there were several of such substances, they would have
to mutually exclude and condition, and therefore limit, each
other. There can be, therefore, but one absolutely independ-
ent being, but one substance in the true sense of the word ;
and that substance is God. He is substance in an absolute
sense ; mind and body olily relatively. God is infinite : mind
and body, on the other hand, are finite because they mutually
exclude and limit each other. There are, accordingly, two
kinds of substances, — God and things. The former is infinite,
the latter finite. "We cannot call them species of substance,
since they have no common genus. Descartes says explicitly,
that the word substance cannot be used in the same sense
(univoce') of things and God. God is the cause of all things.
Minds and bodies are, therefore, dependent beings in relation
to God, since they need for their existence the existence and
activity of God. The concept of substance in relation to
the world or the totality of finite things must, accordingly,
be limited so as to indicate such beings as require for their
existence merely the concourse of God. "By a substance

1 M^d., vi. pp. 331-335. Cf. above, chap. Iv. p. 358.

372 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

which in no way is in need of another being, but one being
can be understood ; namely, God. We cannot conceive how
others can exist save by the concourse of God. The term
substance does not, therefore, apply univoce, to adopt an
expression of the schools, to God and other beings ; i.e., no
meaning of this word can be accepted which is common to
God and to them." '

In this explanation, two conceptions have important
results, — the unity of substance — in comparison with which
things, minds and bodies, are not real substances — and the
concourse of God. The first concept contains the motive of
Spinozism ; the second, of Occasionalism.

3. Attribute and Modes. — Substances are fundamentally
different in nature. We can only know what they are from
their manifestations or properties. That property which
expresses the essence of substance, and necessarily belongs
to, or dwells in it, is attribute. Attribute is the quality
without which substance can neither be nor be thought.
Within a substance, different and changing determinations
are possible ; its attribute remains, though it can assume
a variety of forms, and express itself in a variety of ways ;
these forms are modes, or modifications. We can think sub-
stance and attribute without modes, but not modes without
substance and attribute. Modes, therefore, are not neces-
sary but accidental properties of substance, and in this
respect we call them accidents. Thus, mind cannot exist
without thought, though it may very well without imagining
or desiring this or that object. Thought is the attribute of
the mind : imagination and desire are modes of thought. In
like manner, figure cannot be thought without space, though
space can very well be thought without figure : figures are
modes of space, while space itself constitutes a necessary
attribute of body. A substance can only change its modes,
not its essence. The change of its states, and therewith

2 Obj. et Rep. Def., v.-x. (CEuvres, i. pp. 453, 4S4, 464, 465. Pr., 1. sees.
51, 52.)

OPPOSITION BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 373

change in general, falls under the concept of mode. In God,
no change is possible : there is, therefore, in him only attri-
butes, not modes.^

In these concepts all kinds of distinctions are contained.
These exist either between different substances, or between
substance and attribute as between different attributes, or
between substance and mode as between different modes.
The first kind of distinction Descartes calls real, the second
rational, the third modal. Real, for example, is the distinc-
tion between mind and body ; rational, that between mind
and thought, body and extension, extension and divisibility ;
modal, that between body and figure, or figure and motion.^

n. THE ATTRIBUTES OF THINGS.

1. False Attributes. — We apprehend the essence of things
by means of their necessary attributes or properties. The
question in what these consist can now be accepted as the
form into which the problem of knowledge resolves itself.
What are things in themselves? What are tliey as objects of
our clear and distinct conception ? The question would be
easy to answer if they were not at the same time objects
of our obscure and indistinct conceptions. In the sifting of
these two modes of thought lies the difficult and critical point,
the problem without the solution of which there can be no
knowledge of things. What we clearly and distinctly conceive
in things is their true attribute : what we conceive in them
obscurely and confusedly is their false attribute. We havev
therefore, to undertake the critical separation of the two.
When we subtract from the intuition of things their faJse'
attributes, only the true remain. What, therefore, are the
false or imaginary attributes ? Plainly all those which we
ascribe to things as such, though they are only modtes in
which we conceive them. If we regard as a property of
objects what is merely a property of our thought, we attribute
to bodies what belongs to ourselves. The matter is then thor-
1 Princ, i. sees. 52-56. ^ n,., i. sees. 61, 62.

374 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

oughly confused, and a knowledge of the nature of things is
impossible. The more habitual and involuntary is this mode
of consideration, the more thorough is the confusion, and the
more difficult the sifting. We consider the duration of a thing
as a property contained in its nature, and say the duration of
a thing consists of so many days, months, years, etc. These
determinations are nothing but certain quantities or numbers
of the motion of the earth or the moon. The thing that
endures so many months has, as such, nothing to do with the
moon. We compare its existence with the motion of the heav-
enly bodies : we number these motions, and measure thereby
the duration of the thing, and thus make the determination of
time, which the thing is claimed to have as a property. We
make it ; i.e., our thought. Time is not a property of things,
but of our thought : it is a " modus cogitandV Number and
measure are modes of thought. What is true of time is just
as true of number and all those common predicates which
thought forms in comparing things ; therefore, of all those
concepts of genera and species, the so-called universals, of
which Porphyry distinguished the well-known five, — quinque
voces, as they were called in the logic of the schools, — genus,
species, difference, property, accident. " Triangle " is a
genus ; " right-angled triangle " is species and specific dif-
ference ; the Pythagorean relation between the length of its
sides is its property (^proprirem), its rest or motion, its acci-
dent (accidens')}

The abstract characteristics of things are our modes of
thought, their sensible qualities our modes of sensation. We
suppose that the thing is hard or soft, cold or warm, sour or
sweet, light or dark ; that it has this or that color, this or that
sound, etc. All these determinations are not properties of
things, but states of sensations of our organs of sense. To
apprehend the so-called sensible qualities clearly and dis-
tinctly, we must distinguish accurately our nature from the
nature of things, and not ascribe to one what belongs to

1 Princ, i. sees. 57-G9.

OPPOSITION BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 375

the other. Sensations are in us, not in things. As soon as
we mingle our nature with that of things, the conception of
things is obscured, and knowledge confused. It seems as if
light and color actually belonged to, or dwelt in, the things
which we see ; as if pain or titillation were in the member of
our body in which we have that feeling. And we do not
err so long as we merely assert that it so appears. The
judgment that it is so first makes the error, this judgment
that obeys the appearance ! If we allow ourselves to be
deluded by this appearance, we are involved in self-delusion.
That we have these particular sensations, is true ; that we
conceive them as properties of things, is false. Sensations as
states of feeling are clear ; as properties of things, they are
obscure. What in the nature of things corresponds to or
causes this sensation is at first sight unknown. When,
therefore, we attribute sensible qualities to things them-
selves, we conceive something of the nature of which we are
ignorant; i.e., we have an obscure conception. We appre-
hend in bodies, extension, figure, motion, clearly and dis-
tinctly; not so colors and tones, warmth and cold, etc.
Our sensation as a property of things is a thoroughly ob-
scure conception. We judge that things are as we are sen-
sible of them. It is now clear how much value belongs to
this judgment. It is exactly equivalent to saying that
things are as we conceive them, when we conceive them
obscurely and confusedly. This judgment is fundamentally
false. It is not the sensation which is false, but the judg-
ment which is thoughtlessly and uncritically based upon it.
Here self-examination is wanting. This defect in this place
is " the first and most important cause of all our errors." ^

2. The Multitude of our Errors, and their Chief Source. —
To separate the true from the false attributes of things, a
thoughtfulness is necessary, an attentive self-examination,
and a maturity of mind, which we cannot pgssess in child-
hood. Under the first influence of things, we are not able to

1 Princ, i. sees. 66-71.

376 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

distinguish between their real and apparent properties, and,
therefore, suppose that they are like each other. Thus begins
the confusion. We believe things are as we perceive them.
We estimate the reality of bodies according to the kind and
degree of our sensation : the stronger the impression, the
greater appears to us their reality ; the weaker the impres-
sion, the less their reality ; and when we have no impression
at all, nothing exists for us. Thus, we regard the stars as
little points of light, the earth as immovable, its surface as
level, the air as less real than stones and metals, etc. We
live only in the objects which we conceive as external to us
and sensible without being aware, and without thinking, of
our perceiving activity. This self-forgetfulness, or this lack
of recollection of self, conceals from us our own mental
nature. Now, we believe that there are no other objects at
all than those which we conceive as falling under the senses,
no other substances than bodies, no other bodies than those
we perceive by means of the senses. Most men live in this
faith, and guide their thoughts and actions by it ; and it is,
therefore, no wonder that they think and act during their
whole lives in darkness.

Our speech shapes itself in accordance with our habitual
conceptions. Error insinuates itself into our use of language,
and obtains through words a generally received and stereo-
typed expression, which offers the most obstinate resistance
even to discovered truth. In spite of Copernicus and Gali-
leo, in the habitual language of men, the sun never ceases to
move around the earth. Communication takes place only by
means of language. Errors are not merely fortified by words,
but transmitted and propagated from generation to genera-
tion. Conceptions gradually cohere so closely with words,
that it is very difficult to separate them ; and most men hold on
to the words merely without being conscious of the concepts.
The word steps into the place of the thing. " Since we can
remember words so much more easily than things, we hardly
ever have the concept of a thing so distinct that we can

OPPOSITION BETWEEN SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 377

separate it from the words that express it. And the thought
of almost all men has more to do with words than things, so
that they habitually assent to words which they do not
understand, because they suppose that they once understood
them, or received them on the most trustworthy authority."
And this is the reason why the learning of books and the
wisdom of the schools are so poor and barren in true knowl-
edge : they repose on faith in words.

Words become stamped on the memory; and when they
have been kept there a long time, it begins to appear as if
the conceptions and things had been known for a long time
along with them, and that, therefore, it is entirely unneces-
sary to examine them. Words become an easy and familiar
object of memory, and familiar words pass for familiar things;
i.e., the strange passes for the familiar, and the familiar for the
known, and thus error is completed in its fundamental form.
That which is merely familiar, is, as a rule, least known, since
it is least examined, because it seems superfluous to examine
it. The appearance of familiarity is the greatest foe to
knowledge, and the strongest fortress of self-delusion. Thus,
error is completed, and made chronic in the worst form, —
worst because it is most averse to self-examination. "We
err most frequently in supposing, in the case of many things,
that we have known them for a very long time, and have
left them in charge of memory, and now affirm them as ob-
jects with which we are entirely familiar, while in truth we
have never known them."-

It is not our conception of sensible things which is the
error, but our belief in it. From this error the rest follow.
Our language and our memory do every thing in their power
to strengthen and diffuse our errors, and to bring self-delu-
sion to such dominion that the desire for self-examination
vanishes. "To philosophize in earnest, and to investigate
the truths of all knowable objects," — so Descartes ends the
first book of his " Principles," — " we must in the first place
lay aside our prejudices, and be on our guard against giving

378 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

our assent to communicated opinions until we have exam-
ined them carefully, and found them true. We must then
methodically and carefully examine our opinions, and accept
only those as true which we clearly and distinctly appre-
hend. In this investigation we shall first know that we are
thinking beings, that there is a God upon whom we depend,
and that from him follows the possibility of a true knowl-
edge of all things since he is their cause. We shall find
likewise that we bear in us eternal truths, like the law of
causality; that we conceive likewise a bodily or extended
divisible and movable nature as an actual object; that we
have certain affections and sensations, the causes of which
are yet unknown to us. In these few propositions are con-
tained, as it seems to me, the most important principles of
human knowledge." "The philosopher ought to accept
nothing as true that he does not perceive to be such ; and if
he trusts the senses without examination, he reposes more
confidence in the inconsiderate judgments of childhood than
in the decisions of mature reason."

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 379

CHAPTER VII.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, (a) THE MATHEMATICAL
PRINCIPLE OF THE EXPLANATION OF NATURE.

I. EXTENSION AS THE ATTRIBUTE OF BODY.

1. Body as an Object of Thought.

IN the progress of methodical inquiry, the reality of our
mind, of God, and of bodies, has been put beyond doubt.
We know clearly and distinctly that there are things with-
out us which exist independently of our thought, and are,
therefore, substances; that they are finite hke ourselves in
distinction from God, bodily in distinction from us who are
spiritual. This perception of the opposition between mind
and body forms the concluding point of the metaphysics and
the starting point of the philosophy of nature : it is the tran-
sition from the doctrine of knowledge to the doctrine of body.
The fundamental question of physics is, What are bodies in
themselves ? In what does their attribute consist ?

From the opposition of the two substances, it follows that
no property of spiritual beings can be mingled with the con-
ception of body ; that all mere subjective modes of concep-
tion, particularly our modes of sensation, must be subtracted
from it. Bodies are what they are after the subtraction of
all their sensible qualities. They are, even when we do not
perceive them: their perceivable or sensible qualities do
not, therefore, belong to their nature as such. A stone
seems hard when we touch it : if it changes into dust, it does
not cease to be stone, though it is indeed no longer hard.
What is true of hardness, is true also of warmth and cold,

380 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

color, weight, etc. Color does not belong to the nature of
stone, since there are transparent stones: weight does not
belong to the nature of bodies, since there are some, as fire,
which are not heavy. In the sifting and criticism of the
concept of body, Descartes follows exactly the same course
as in the examination of mind. In the knowledge of self,
the point was to ascertain the pure concept of our nature ;
in the knowledge of the world without us, the pure con-
cept of body. In the former case, it was necessary to sep-
arate from our nature every thing that does not necessa-
rily belong to it, every thing the reality of which can be
doubted; and nothing remained except the activity of thought
itself, and that constituted the attribute of mind. And in
like manner every thing must now be separated from the
nature of body that does not necessarily belong to it, every
thing which can be separated from it without annihilating
the independent existence or substance of bodies. Nothing
thus remains except pure materiality or extension, and this
is the attribute of body.

If the two attributes, opposed in their natures, are min-
gled with each other, as in considering our modes of thought
and sensation as properties of bodies, there arises a twofold
confusion, and we deceive ourselves, both concerning the
nature of bodies and ourselves. To conceive bodies as the
substance in which universal concepts and sensible proper-
ties inhere, is to transform them into thinking natures, or to
anthropomorphize them. The fundamental aim of the Car-
tesian philosophy of nature is just the opposite. It aims to
free physics from all anthropomorphism, and to apprehend
the nature of objects after the subtraction of the mental
nature of man. Involuntarily we attribute our properties
to body, and our mode of considering them is likewise the
veil which hides them from our eyes. To remove this veil is
therefore the first condition of knowing them. When the
veil, which is woven, as it were, out of our mental nature,
falls off, nothing else can be revealed than body in its naked-

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 381

ness, in its nature opposed to, and deprived of, mind ; and
this is merely extension. Mind is as the self-conscious,
likewise the self-active, inner nature : all self-action is of
a spiritual nature.' Completely opposed to this is the inert
state of the being which is acted upon merely from without ;
i.e., of extended being, or matter. Extension is, therefore,
the attribute of body: the opposition between mind and
body is equivalent to the opposition between thinking and
extended substance.

Since all further inferences and problems of Descartes' phi-
losophy depend upon this concept of extension, the ground-
ing of it should be explained yet more searchingly. We
must make clear to ourselves the fact, that, from the point
of view of the Cartesian doctrine of mind, no other concep-
tion of body is possible, and that this, as an object of thought
and the opposite of mind, contains no other attribute than
extension. Body is to be considered purely physically, i.e.,
as a mere object of knowledge ; and this can be done only
when our consideration fulfils the conditions under which
objects are first of all possible. The common opinion is, that
they are given without any thing further, and we have only
to open our senses to receive them, and await their impres-
sions : they are the models ; we, the table of wax. But the
matter is not so simple. There is no object without a pla-
cing of myself over against it, without distinguishing myself
from the thing, and the thing from myself; i.e., without
separating my nature from the nature of the thing, and with-
out stepping opposite to the external world as a self-conscious
or thinking being. There is no object without subject, no
" thou " without " I." There is no subject without the
certainty of self, no self-conscious discrimination without
thought. Thought only has objects, since it causes them to
arise. They are as little given as thought itself, which is
no existing, ready-made thing, but an activity which only
reaches as far as we are certain of it, as it illuminates con-
sciousness. Without the thinking certainty of self, the

382 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

'■'■eogito ergo sum,'^ there are no objects, also no bodies as
objects. In our sensations, things do not stand opposite to
us : they touch us and grasp us. They are not our objects,
but our states and affections : we are not free from them, but
under their impression ; and, therefore, we do not know what
they are, but only how we are sensible of them. To consider
body as an object, according to the requirements of knowl-
edge, is, therefore, exactly the same as taking an attitude,
not of sensation, but of pure thought, towards body ; to place
it over against the mind, and to separate it from every thing
of a mental nature, i.e., to place it opposite to the mind,
to consider it as the opposite of mind, as an inert, merely
extended being, destitute of a self. If the mind is only a
thinking being, body is only extended : if that according to
its nature is bodiless, this is mindless. These two concepts
mutually demand and support each other.'

2. Bodg as Quantity of Space. — Body is an extended sub-
stance : it is nothing more. As the mind is nothing without
thought, so the body is nothing without extension. Between
substance and attribute, there is no real difference. Body
and extension are, therefore, identical. A body without
extension is either a word without meaning, or a confused
concept. Extension is distinguished in length, breadth, and
thickness ; it has no other distinctions than those of spatial
dimensions ; it is merely spatial. Extension and space are,
therefore, identical. Body distinctly conceived is, therefore,
nothing except quantity of space. The physical concept of
it is, therefore, identical with the mathematical. Space is
related to body as universal extension to a limited portion
of it. Every body is a limited quantity of space : without
it are others, some of which immediately surround it. The
space which the body occupies is its place, and, in reference
to its surroundings, its position. The external place is the
space (^superficies') in which the surrounding and surrounded
bodies touch each other. The inner place is the space which

' Princ, ii. sees, i, 9, 11. CEuvres, iii.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 383

the bodj' fills : the inner place and size of the body are there-
fore identical.'

Against the position that body and quantity of space
(extension) are identical, two doubts arise, based on the
rarefaction of bodies, and empty space. If body and exten-
sion were identical, the same body would have to occupy the
same extension all the time, and could not be extended, now
more, now less, which is the case in the rarefaction and con-
densation of bodies. But the supposition upon which the
objection rests is not true. Rarefaction is not increased
extension, since extension, or matter, consists in the multi-
tude of parts ; but rarefaction does not consist in increasing
the parts of bodies, but in enlarging the spaces between them,
or in other bodies entering into them. Thus, the sponge
which is filled with water does not increase in size because
its parts increase in number, but because there is more water
than before in the spaces between them. The rarefaction
and condensation of bodies does not, therefore, consist in
their increased or decreased extension, but in the enlarge-
ment or diminution of their pores.^

But empty pores are empty space : this is extension with--
out body, and is, therefore, an actual proof that body and
extension are not identical. This objection also is invalid,,
and rests on confused concepts. Empty space is either
understood relatively or absolutely : in the first case it is Bot
empty, in the second it is' without meaning. A water-
pitcher, a cauf, and a trading-vessel are said to be empty
when the first is empty of water, the second of fish,, and the
third of goods, although they are always filled with other
bodies. We call the space empty which does not contain
certain bodies which we expected to find there,- or which in
general are capable of being perceived by the senses. This
customary (relative) concept of empty space has, however,
led to the philosophical (absolute) concept. There is no
necessary connection between a vessel and its contents ; it

1 Princ, ii. sees. 10-15. ^ lb., ii. sees. 5-7.

384 HISTOEY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

can contain air, water, sand, and also nothing ; and when
every content is lacking, it is absolutely empty. Absolute
emptiness is nothing, space is something; and there is just
as little an empty space as a something which is nothing.
A vessel can be empty of this or that thing, but not abso-
lutely empty, since in that case it could not exist. In
absolute emptiness, there would be literally nothing to sep-
arate the concave walls of a vase from each other ; and these
would have to fall together, and there would be no config-
uration and no vessel. In truth, there is no emptiness, but
only the appearance of emptiness. Every body is extended,
and is full in the same proportion as it is extended : it can-
not be more or less extended, therefore not more or less full
than it is whether it is filled with gold or lead or water or
air, or whether it seems to be empty.'

n. THE MATERIAL WORLD.

Body and extension are identical : there is nothing empty.
Where space is, there are bodies and only bodies ; these
stretch through the whole of space, however far it extends ;
it extends as far as extension. 'JVithin extension, there is
nothing which is unextended or indivisible. There are no
atoms : the smallest parts of bodies are always still divisible,
therefore not atoms, but molecules or corpuscles. And just
as, little can extension anywhere cease or be bounded; for
with this boundary, the iinextended would have to begin,
and the boundary itself could therefore no longer be
extended. It is, therefore, absolutely impossible to enclose
extension within bounds : it is absolutely boundless. There-
fore the material world is infinite.

Since extension can nowhere be empty, or cease at any
place, it is continuous, and forms a continuum. There are,
therefore, not different kinds of extension or matter, there-
fore, also, not different material worlds. The material world
is merely extended, boundless, and one. Beyond thought,
there is no other world than the material.

1 Princ, ii. sees. 16-19.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 385

CHAPTER VIII. ■

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE. (6) THE MECHANICAL PEIN-
CIPLB OP THE EXPLANATION OF NATURE.

I. MOTION AS THE FUNDAMENTAL PHENOMENON OF THE MATERIAL

WOELD.

1. Motion as a Mode of Extension.

i A LL the phenomena or events of the inner world are
't^^^^ modifications of thought : all the phenomena and mod-
ifications of the outer world are modifications of extension,
which, we have seen, is the attribute of material substance.
Now, if extension is infinitely divisible, its parts can be united
and separated, and thus different formations or forms of matter
result. This union and separation take place through the
approach and removal of the parts ; i.e., through motion. Ex-
tension is therefore divisible, capable of form, and movable.
Its possible changes consist in division, formation, and motion :
there are no other modifications of extension. With the fol-
lowing declaration, Descartes concludes the second part of his
" Principles : " "I frankly avow that I acknowledge ift the
nature of bodies no other matter than that which can be
divided, formed, and moved in a great variety of ways, that
which mathematicians call magnitude (quantity) ; that in this
matter I consider merely its divisions, figures, and motions,
and accept nothing as true that does not follow from these
principles as evidently as the certainty of mathematical prop-
ositions. In this way all the phenomena of nature can be
explained. I think, therefore, that no other principles in
physics than those here expounded are necessary or admis-
sible." 1

1 Princ, ii. sec. 64.

386 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

These principles can be simplified. All division and for-
mation of matter takes place through motion. All the
modifications of matter can, therefore, be analyzed into
motion. The changes in the material world are all phe-
nomena of motion : every change in matter and all the dif-
ferences of its forms are dependent upon motion.* The
stand-point of the Cartesian philosophy of nature is now per-
fectly clear: the nature of bodies consists in quantity of
space and their changes in motion ; that is conceived math-
ematically, this mechanically. Descartes' explanation of
nature, therefore, rests completely on mathematical-mechan-
ical principles.

2. Motion as Change of Place. — All motion consists in a
spatial change. Now, the space which a body takes up in
relation to other bodies is its place, or position. If a body
moves, it changes its place : all motion is, therefore, change of
place. " It is the action by means of which a body passes
from one place into another." ^

jThis concept must be more precisely determined that it
may be guarded against the objection that the same body in
the same time can be both moved and not moved. A body
can change its place while it rests, as a man sitting in a ship
which is moving with the current of the stream. He is
changing his place with reference to the banks of the stream,
but not with reference to the ship in which he is sitting ; he
remains in the same position with reference to the bodies
that immediately surround him; i.e., he rests. Since motion
can be considered only as a mode of a moving body, or as a
change peculiar to it, it cannot be predicated of a body that
changes its place without its own action. A body or (since
all bodies are parts of one and the same matter) a part of
matter moves only when it changes its place in relation to
the immediately surrounding bodies ; i.e., when it is trans-
ported from the vicinity of the bodies that directly touch it
to the vicinity of others. Now, that change of place which

1 Princ, ii. sec. 23. 2 ib.^ ji. gee. 24.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 387

has the character of such a transposition or translation
(transport) from one place to another is motion in the strict
sense of the word.

But this concept also requires a yet more precise determi-
nation, that it may meet the above objection from a new
point of view. Change of place is always relative. If a
body A changes its place in relation to the immediately
neighboring parts of the matter B, B also changes its place
in relation to A. It is possible that both bodies are active
and in motion at the same time. But there are cases in the
change of place of immediately neighboring parts of matter,
in which only one of the bodies moves. Two bodies, A and
B, move on the surface of the earth directly towards each
other. This motion is reciprocal, and belongs to each of the
two in like manner. Both bodies change their places at the
same time in relation to the parts of the surface of the earth
that immediately surround them : this change of place is
also reciprocal, and the earth also must be considered to
move in relation to A and B ; i.e., it must at the same time
move in two opposite directions, which is impossible. The
bulk of the earth is, therefore, considered as resting in rela-
tion to the bodies of the earth and so many smaller bodies
that move here and there on its surface. From this it is
evident that a body is moved when it passes from the vicin-
ity of those parts of matter that directly touch it, and which,
in relation to it, are considered at rest. A ship that is urged
forward by the stream, and backwards by the wind, with
the same force, remains opposite to the same place on
the bank: it does not change its place on the earth, but
rests, while the particles of water and air which surround it
are in constant motion. " If we would know," says Descartes,
" what motion really is, in order to determine it precisely,
we must explain it as the translation of place (transport) of
one part of matter or of one body from the vicinity of those
bodies which directly touch it, and are considered at rest,
into the vicinity of others." " By a body, or a part of matter.

388 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

I understand the whole of the mass in motion, not taking
into consideration the parts of which it may be composed,
and which may have at the same time still other motions.
I say that it is the translation from one place to another, not
the force or activity which causes it, with a view of showing
that motion is always in the moving object, and not in the
thing that causes it, since I believe that these two things are
not usually distinguished with enough care. As figure is a
property of the figured, and rest of the resting, thing, so I
understand motion as a property of the moving thing, but
not a being for itself or substance." '

From this explanation certain inferences can be drawn,
both in relation to simple and complex and also compound
mptions.

The first inference is, that every body has and can have but
one motion peculiar to it, since its active change of place
holds only in relation to the matter in its vicinity, and which
is at rest. But as part of a greater body, which itself has a
motion peculiar to it, it can, without damage to its own
motion, take part in an infinite multitude of other motiofiSr]
Thus, the wheels of a watch move in a way peculiar to
themselves, while they take part in the motion of the sailor
with the watch in his pocket, as he walks up and down in a
ship, with the sailor in the motion of the ship, with the ship
in that of the sea, with the sea in that of the revolution of
the earth on its axes, etc. The wheels of this watch have
their own motion, belonging only to them, while they, at the
same time, take part in a complication of a great multitude
of other motions. Without distinguishing precisely a body's
own motion from those in which it participates, we should
be unable to determine whether and how a body moves.
Now, this motion peculiar to a body, although in the same
time it is only this and no other, i.e., appears as simple, can
very well be compounded of, or result from, different motions ;
as, for example, a wagon-wheel in motion both revolves

1 Princ, ii. sees. 15, 24-30.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 389

about its" axle and advances in a straight line, or a point
which is urged at the same time in different directions moves
injtiie diagonal of the two.

/ It further follows from the concept of motion, that no body-
can be moved by itself alone while all others are at rest.
There is no empty space, and, therefore, no empty place. If,
therefore, a bod« leaves its place, another must enter into it
at the same time,\while it itself forces from its new place the
bodies which TTmds there, and forces them in turn to expel
other bodies from the position they have occupied up to that
time. There is, therefore, with every moving body the
motion of several, which form a chain, the last link of which
catches into the first, so that always a complex of bodies is
moved which forms a riag or circle.'

II. THE CAUSES OF MOTION".

\ 1. The First Cause of Motion, and its Quantity. — The law
of causality requires that nothing should happen without a
cause. The cause of motion is force, the opposite of motion
is rest. Rest is arrested or hindered motion. Nobody can
be moved, no motion can be stopped, without force. \ Rest,
therefore, is not possible without force. The opposite opin-
ion is a childish error, based on the experience of childhood,
— that we need force and exertion to move a body, but none
to cause it to rest. As soon as one tries to stop a moving
body, or make it rest, he will at once learn whether it re-
quires strength, or not.^

Motion and rest are the two opposite modes or conditions
of body. Bodies are merely extended and movable: they
neither move nor come to rest by means of their own force,
since of themselves they are destitute of force. From
whence, therefore, come motion and rest into the material
world, since they do not come from the material world itself?
Both must be caused; and as they can be caused neither by
body nor by minds, their first cause can only be God. In

1 Princ, ii. sees. 31-33. " lb., ii. sec. 26.

390 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

relation to minds, he is the principle of knowledge; in rela-
tion to bodies, the principle of motion and of rest.j He illu-
minates the mind, and moves bodies, or causes them to rest.
Matter is created in a state in part of motion, in part of rest :
both belong to it originally. We must, therefore, conceive
the material v^orld as from the very beginning in part mov-

Tj, in part at rest.
Now, if bodies of themselves have power neither to pro-
duce'nor stop motion, they have, also, not the power either
to increase or diminislij|r7 The quantity of motion and rest,
in the material world, therefore, always remains the same.
If in one part of matter motion is increased, it must be
diminished in another to exactly the same extent : if it van-
ishes in one form, it must appear in another. \The quantity
of motion in the world is constant.^ Descartes deduces this
law from the unchangeableness ^f the Divine nature and
activity. The law is necessary because its opposite is impos-
sible, both because of the nature of God and of bodies.'
2. The Second Causes of Motion, or the Laws of Nature. —

^From the unchangeableness of God, it follows that all the
changes in the_ material world take place according to un-
changeable rules. / These rules Descartes calls laws of nature.

ISince all the changes of matter are motions, all the laws of
nature are laws of motion; and since God is the first cause
of motion, these laws are characterized as its second causes
(casMSff secundce'). Bodies are of themselves without force :
none of them, therefore, can of themselves change from the
state in which they happen to be. They remain or continue
in the given state of form and position, rest or motion, until
an outward cause effects a change.

(1) In this consists the first law of nature. All changes
in the material world are due to outward causes. We can
call this the law of inertia or constancy, only we must not
iinderstand that this means rest, and imagine that a body of
itself strives to restjv— to continue in a state of rest, and to

1 Princ, ii. sec. 36.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 391

return from a state of motion into that of rest. As if a body-
preferred rest to motion, and would rather be inactive than
active ! This conception is fundamentally false. Jlf there
were such an endeavor, every body would immediately place
itself in a state of rest, as soon as the outward cause of its
motion ceased to act. A body which we pushed with our
hand would come to rest the moment our hand let it go. But
it continues its motion until outward causes, i.e., others which
it meets on its way, hinder it, and cause it to rest.) Because
we do not perceive these causes, we suppose that the body
Qomes to a state of rest, not because of the action of outward
causes, but of its own exertions. This judgment through our
ignorance is our error.'

If we can venture to speak of any exertion of a body at
all, it can only consist in an effort to continue in Avhatever
state it is in, but not in one state at the expense of another,
but in preserving the state in which it may happen to be,
whether of motion or of rest ; i.e., in opposing or offering
resistance to every external cause which acts upon it. This
effort to preserve its state coincides with the existence of
body. Every thing seeks to preserve its existence, and
defends itself against destruction : every body by means of its
inertia or constancy defends itself against the destruction of
its existing states ; i.e., it opposes every external cause that
seeks to change any of its states. Without such a resistance,
the quantity of motion in the material world would not be
constant. This resistance is, therefore, necessary. Now
every act is an expression of force, and we can, therefore,
speak of a force of resistance in bodies, and, in this sense, we
can admit the validity of the concept of force in the material
world. Bodies have indeed no original forces to exert, but
only a force to oppose to external influences. " The power
of every body to work upon another, or to make resistance
to its influence, consists only in this : every thing strives to
continue so far as it can in the state in which it finds itself,

1 Princ, ii. sees. 37, 38.

392 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

according to the first of the laws of nature." Every part of
matter has this force ; tlie greater, therefore, the number of
parts of a body, the greater its force. The quantity of jjarts
is called mass, and the quantity of motion, velocity. The
greater, therefore, the mass in motion, the greater the action,
and therefore the force. The measure of force is, therefore,
equal to the product of the mass into the velocity.'
\~~^Y) From the law of constancy it follows that every body
immotion continues its motion, and of itself, — to be sure,
in a direction which remains unchangeably the same. If it
describes a curve, its direction is changed every moment;
and this can only happen under the constant influence of an
external cause. Unchanged uniform direction is a straight
line. Every body in motion must, therefore, strive of itself
to continue its motion in a straight line, and if, by reason of
an external cause, it is moved in a circle (as a stone in a
sling), to continue it in a tangent of the ctfcle. Every body
must preserve its state of motion : it must, therefore, en-
deavor to continue to move in the direction of a straight
line, since every deviation from it can only be effected by
external causes. In this consists the second law of nature.^
, (3) There is no empty space. Every moving body must,
therefore, meet another body with which it collides, as it
moves on its course, which it endeavors to prolong in a
straight line. A collision takes place between bodies mov-
ing either in opposite or_the same directions, or between
bodies one of which is at rest. In the first case, three possi-
bilities arise : either the masses and velocities of both bodies
are equal; or the masses are unequal, and the velocities
equal ; or the masses are equal, and the velocities unequal.
If one of the bodies is in a state of rest, there are likewise
three possibilities to be distinguished : either the body at
rest is greater or smaller than, or equal to, the body in
motion. In the second of the above cases, when the collid-
ing bodies are in motion in the same direction, if the smaller

' Princ, ii. sec. 43. > lb., ii. sec. 39.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 393

mass, moving more rapidly, overtakes the greater, three pos-
sibilities arise according to the relation of the differences of
size to the difference of velocities, which, however, are not
considered as separate cases. All together, there are, accord-
ingly, seven cases which Descartes distinguishes in the
collision of bodies, and consequently seven rules accord-
ing to which the changes resulting from the collision take
place.'

These laws are determined under the following supposi-
tions: (1) that in the states of different bodies, not their
motions, but only their motion and rest, are opposed to each
other, and, therefore, between bodies in motion no other
opposition is possible than that of their directions ; (2) that
the colliding bodies are completely hard or solid ; (3) that
complete abstraction is made of every influence of other
bodies surrounding them which might increase or diminish
their motion, especially the influence of fluid bodies. Under
these suppositions the law is to be determined in each of the
different cases according to which a body changes its motion
and direction in consequence of a collision. The change
follows from the force of resistance exerted by a body, and
depends upon its size. The greater force of resistance, so
Descartes thinks, overcomes the smaller, or hinders its
action.^

If, therefore, a body B is moving in a straight line, and
meets another body C having a greater force of resistance,
it cannot move the latter from the spot, or push it away,
since, according to the supposition, C is perfectly hard or
solid ; but B, in consequence of the resistance, cannot con-
tinue on its way, but must return in the opposite direction.
It therefore loses its direction, but not its motion, since
directions are opposed, not motions. But if B has the
greater force of resistance, it will continue on its way with
the body C : it does not change its direction, but only the
quantity of its motion, of which it loses as much as it imparts

» Princ, ii. sees. 46-52. ^ lb., il. sees. 44, 45, 53.

394 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

to the other body. Since the quantity of the motion (mass
in motion), i.e., the product of the mass into the (simple)
velocity, always remains the same, the velocity must decrease
in the same proportion as the moving mass is enlarged or
increased in size. This can be increased only through
imparted motion; and, therefore, every body which puts
another in motion must lose as much of its own motion as
it communicates to that body.'

If we call the motion which one body communicates to
another, its action, and the loss of mption which it thereby
itself experiences, re-action, in every case of communicated
motion, action and re-action are equal. And since within
nature no motion originates, but all is only imparted, since
it can only be produced by means of external, i.e., mate-
rial, causes, that equation is the real, fundamental law of
the mechanically-moved material world. That Descartes
treats this law, which he derives from the constancy or
conservation of the quantity of motion in the world,^ as a
special case, and does not regard it as valid for all cases of
collision, is an error of his doctrine of motion, due to false
presuppositions. If all changes of bodily states follow from
external causes, the loss of motion which a body suffers must
be considered as an effect, whose external cause is the force
of resistance exerted by the body to which it communicates
motion, however great or small that force of resistance may
be. It is false that the smaller force is without effect in
relation to the greater, or that the greater can completely
prevent the action of the smaller ; ^ it is false that in the
collision of bodies the one avails as the impelling, the other
merely as the impelled, body, and that every thing now
depends on this, whether that is greater or less than this ;
finally, it is false that the opposition between rest and
motion is absolute, and that there are no oppositions between
motions.
^'ITrom the principles of Descartes, it follows that bodies of

1 Priuc, ii. sees. 40-42. 2 lb., ii. sec. 42. s ib., ii. sec. 45.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 395

themselves are destitute of force, that they only have a force
of resistance because they are obliged to continue in their
states, that all changes in the material world are due to
external causes, and all motion, therefore, to impulse and
pressure, and that, therefore, there are no inner concealed
causes, no secret forces, no so-called qualitates occultce in gen-
eral in the material world. Gravity is regarded as such a
force, an original property of a body belonging to it of itself.
Descartes denies it. Therein consists the opposition between
Galileo and Descartes: with gravity he was obliged to reject
gravitation and the power of attraction /TTherein consists the
subsequent opposition of Newton toTDescartes : he is, there-
fore, compelled to deny the so-called central forces, as well
as every actio in distans, and to explain the case of bodies,
as the courses which planets describe, by the impact, or the
external and immediate influence, of other bodies. Since
the laws thus far considered relate merely to the collision of
solid or hard bodies, all the motions which cannot be derived
from them must be explained by means of the distinction
between solid and fluid bodies, particularly from the consti-
tution, motion, and influence of the latter.^

ni. HYDRO-MECHANICS. — SOLID AND FLUID BODIES.

1. Distinction between the Two. — Since there are no other
opposite states in body than motion and rest, it is evident
that from these alone the opposite states of cohesion of solid
and liquid bodies must be derived. Perception plainly
teaches us that solid bodies resist every opposing motion,
every attempt to separate their parts, or move them out of
their places, — which is not the case with fluid bodies. Now,
as we have seen, according to Descartes, motion is not
opposed to motion, but rest. What, therefore, makes a body
solid, or its parts capable of resisting the intruding motion
which seeks to separate them, or move them out of their
places, can be nothing else than that these parts are every-

1 Princ, ii. 53.

396 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

where in a state of rest; and the great mobility and separa-
bility of the parts of a fluid body consist in the fact that
they are everywhere in motion, even in their smallest parts.
Nothing can make the combination or connection of material
things stronger than their rest ; for, if this were not so, a par-
ticular kind of cement would have to hold or unite them
together. Now, this medium could only be a substance or a
mode ; but the parts themselves are substances, and rest is a
mode of those substances, — rest, which of all material states
is the most hostile to motion. The fact that fluid bodies, as
water and air, are able to dissolve many solid bodies by their
influence, proves that their parts must be continually in
motion, since they could not otherwise decompose those
bodies.*

2. Solid in Fluid Bodies. — Parts of matter are either at
rest or in motion, therefore bodies are solid or fluid. Since
there is no empty space, there must be fluid bodies in every
space where there are no solid ones. All pores are, there-
fore, filled by fluid bodies, and they surround solid bodies.
Suppose, now, that fluid matter, the smallest parts of which
are continually in motion, and at the same time in such a
way that they are tending in every direction, completely
surrounds a solid body: the latter will be in contact with
fluid parts on all sides, and urged with like force in different
directiotis, so that it is suspended, or at rest, in the fluid
matter that surrounds it. There is no cause by virtue of
which the body must move in one direction rather than
another. As soon, therefore, as such a cause enters, giving
to the body a definite impulse, though with but the smallest
expenditure of force, it puts the body in motion. The
smallest force suffices to move a solid body when it is com-
pletely surrounded by fluid matter.^

Now, suppose that the fluid matter in which the solid body
is suspended, or at rest, is put in motion in a definite direc-
tion with its entire mass, like a stream towards the sea, or

I Princ, ii. sees. 51-56. * lb., il. sees. 66, 57.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 397

air moved westward by an east wind : the solid body is
seized by the current, and borne onward with the fluid parts
which touch it and surround it. It will always, therefore,
have the same neighbors while it drifts with the stream, and
will not, therefore, change its surroundings or its place. It
is at rest in the fluid matter that surrounds it, the whole
mass of which is in motion in a definite direction.'

3. The Heavens and the Earth. The Motion of the Planets.
The Hypotheses of Vortices. — Descartes bases his theory of
the rest and motion of the heavenly bodies on his doctrine
of the rest and motion of solid and fluid bodies and the influ-
ence of the latter upon the former. The heavenly bodies do
not rest on pillars, and are not suspended by cords, nor are
they fastened in transparent spheres; but they are poised in
the spaces of the heavens, which cannot be empty, but must
consist of fluid matter, which surrounds the heavenly bodies
on all sides. They are distinguished in relation to size, light,
and motion. Some are self-luminous, as the fixed stars and
suns: others are opaque, as the planets, the moon, and the
earth. The sun is analogous to the fixed stars, the earth to
the planets. Some do not seem to change their position
with reference to each other, and appear to be immovable :
others change their places, and are regarded as wandering
stars. Those are called fixed stars, these planets. The sys-
tem of the heavenly bodies, especially that of the planets,
appears, therefore, as a special case, and at the same time as
the greatest example in which fluid matter surrounds other
bodies on all sides.^

In order to explain the motion of the planets, the stand-
point must first of all be determined from which it is con-
sidered and judged. For every thing depends on whether
this stand-point itself is at rest or in motion in relation to the
planets. Three hypotheses have been advanced to explain
it, — that of Ptolemy in antiquity, and those of Copernicus
and Tycho Brahe in modern times. The Ptolemaic hypoth-
1 Princ, ii. sees. 61, 62. ^ lb., iii. sees. 5-14.

398 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

esis is abandoned by science, because it is inconsistent with
absolutely certain facts, which more recent observation and
investigation have established, especially the phases of light
of Venus, discovered by the telescope, and similar to those
of the moon. Only, therefore, the hypotheses of Copernicus
and Tycho Brahe can now come in question ; and they agree
in reference to the heliocentric motion of the planets, not in
reference to the motion of the earth, which Copernicus af-
firmed, and Tycho Brahe denied. Is the earth at rest, or in
motion ? That is the point of controversy in deciding which
Descartes asserts that he agrees with neither of the two
astronomers. Although the Copernican hypothesis is some-
what simpler and clearer than that of Tycho Brahe, Descartes
maintains that it has not distinguished with sufficient care
between motion and rest, while Tycho has denied the motion
of the earth in a sense which is inconsistent with the truth.
Because Tycho did not sufficiently consider in Avhat motion
really consists, he maintained in words indeed that the earth
is at rest ; but at bottom his theory requires its motion, even
more rigidly than that of Copernicus himself. One should,
therefore, proceed more carefully than Copernicus, and more
correctly than Tycho. " JNIy position is different from that
of those two philosophers only in this," says Descartes some-
what ambiguously, " that, with more carefulness than Coper-
nicus, I deny the motion of the earth, and I seek to ground
my theory with more truth than Tycho. I will here expound
the hypothesis which seems to me the simplest of all^and the
fittest, both for the explanation of the phenomena, and for
the investigation of their natural causes. I will, however, say
explicitly, that I by no means desire that this theory of mine
should be regarded as the complete truth, but only as an
hypothesis or opinion which may possibly be erroneous." ^

The two essential presuppositions of Descartes' hypothesis
are the immeasurableness of the universe and the nullity of
empty space. From the first, it follows that the universe

1 Princ., iii. Bees. 15-19. Of. introduction, chap. vi. pp. 125-130.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 399

is not a spherical body, and does ndt consist in concentric
spheres to which the stars are fastened ; that there is, there-
fore, no celestial sphere beyond the farthest planet (Saturn),
and that the sun does not lie in the same spherical superficies.
From the second, it follows that the spaces of the heavens
are filled with fluid matter, and that the heavenly bodies are
surrounded by the latter, and subject to its influences. This
is the point where Descartes applies his hydromechanic prin-
ciples to the motion of the heavenly bodies ; that is, to the
planets and the earth. The earth is completely surrounded
by fluid matter, and is acted upon uniformly in all directions,
or borne onwards by its current, as a solid body in fluid mat-
ter. It rests in the heavens as a ship on the sea, which is
moved by no wind, propelled by no oar, held fast by no
anchor, but quietly floats with the current. And the same
is true of the rest of the planets. " Each is at rest in that
space in the heavens in which it is ; and all the change of
place which we observe in tliose bodies, follows only from the
motion .of the matter of the heavens which surrounds them
on all sides." We cannot say, therefore, if we have the
true idea of motion, that the planets and the earth are
themselves moved. This would be the case if they changed
their surroundings; i.e., if the space of the heavens which
surrounds it rested while the planets wandered through it.
But this space of the heavens is itself fluid in all its parts,
is always matter in motion, which as such never ceases to
surround the heavenly bodies, though the individual parts
in contact with them are perpetually changing; i.e., now
these, now those, parts of that matter are in contact with the
superficies of that body. Thus, on the surface of the earth,
Avater and air are in continual motion ; while the earth itself,
in reference to the parts of its waters and atmosphere,, iSs
not regarded as moved. It rests in its moved space in the
heavens, in this flowing matter which surrounds it, and in
reference to which it does not change its place. But although
it rests, it does indeed change its position with reference to

400 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the other heavenly bodies. If any one, speaking in the
usual way, persists in ascribing motion to the earth, it moves
exactly as does a man who is asleep in a ship while it takes
him from Dover to Calais.^

If, now, we suppose that that flow of the matter of the
heavens which surrounds the planets and carries them on-
wards with it, describes a current spinning round like a
vortex, in the centre of which is the sun, and that the earth
is one of these planets, it is evident in what sense Descartes
teaches the heliocentric motion of the earth, like Copernicus,
without denying with him that it is at rest, and still less
with Tycho affirming this rest in a cosmical centre. How
he explains the motion of the earth and planets, not by
virtue of their weight and attraction, but only by the impel-
ling force of the matter that immediately surrounds and
touches them, is also evident.^

The rotary-moving current, or the central motion of the
matter, Descartes calls a vortex, or whirlpool-like motion
(tourbillon'),' and explains thereby the course of the wander-
ing stars (planets, moons, comets). It is with this motion
of the matter of the heavens as with the eddies of water
which rotate about a centre in ever widening circles, and
carry along with them the floating bodies that come within
them. The nearer the centre, the quicker the rotary motion,
the more rapid the rotation ; and the more distant the cen-
tre, the slower the rotation. "As waters when they are forced
to a reflux form an eddy, and draw violently within their
rotary motion, and carry along with them, light floating
bodies, as, for example, straws ; as then these bodies, seized
by the eddy, turn about their own centre, and those nearer
the centre of the eddy always complete their rotation earlier
than the more distant ones; as, finally, this eddy always,
to be sure, describes a circular figure, but almost never a
perfect circle, but extends itself, now more in length, and
now in breadth, wherefore the parts at the periphery are not

1 Prino., iii. sees. 20-29. = 11)., iii. sec. 30. » lb., iii. sec. 47.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 401

equally distant from the centre, — so one can easily see that
the motion of the planets is of the same character, and
that no other conditions are necessary to explain all their
phenomena." ^

Among these phenomena, the motion and time of rotation
of the planets, and spots of the sun, of the earth and moon,
the obliquity of the orbits of the earth and the planets
(ecliptic), the elliptic form of these orbits, the consequent
unequal distances of the planets from the sun, and the there-
fore unequal velocities, are particularly conspicuous. "I
need not farther show how, by this hypothesis, the changes
of night and day and of the seasons, the phases of the moon,
the eclipses of the sun and moon, the standing still and
retrogradation of the planets, the precession of the equinoxes,
the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic, and similar facts,
can be explained, since all these phenomena are easily
understood by any one who has a little knowledge of
astronomy." ^

We now know upon what presuppositions the Cartesian
hypothesis depends, and in what it consists. It would lead
us too far from the system itself to show more particularly
how Descartes seeks to ground his hypothesis ; how from
chaos this so-ordered world, fluid and solid matter, the rotary
currents of the fluid matter, the kinds of matter and heav-
enly bodies, arise according to the laws of motion. He
assumes that matter in its original condition was distributed
in a certain uniform manner ; that in some places its parts
had a rotary motion, by means of which fluid masses were
formed which revolved around a common centre, while each
of their little particles moved about its own centre, from
which proceeded the distinction of central and peripheric
masses ; that the rotating and difi'erently shaped molecules,
by their mutual contact and friction, changed their con-
figuration, blunted their corners, and gradually rounded
them oif in such a way that they assumed the spherical form

1 Princ, iii. sec. 30. " lb., iii. sees. 31-37.

402 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of globules; that thus intervals arose which had to be filled
up, and were immediately filled up by yet smaller and more
rapidly moving particles, which decreased in size through
that mutual blunting and rounding off of the molecules;
that the excess of the thus resulting waste was driven into
the centres of the rotary currents, and constituted the
material out of which the central masses (^fixed stars') were
formed, while the surrounding masses, moving in concentric
spheres, shaped in their smallest parts in the form of a
globule, constituted the space of the heavens. From the
laws of motion it follows that every body having a circular
motion, like a stone in a sling, constantly tends to fly off from
the centre, and proceed in a straight line. Every particle of
the central masses and the matter of the heavens has this
centrifugal tendency, and in this light consists. The kinds
of matter and the classes of the heavenly bodies are distin-
guished in reference to light. The heavenly bodies are
either luminous, transparent, or opaque. The central bodies
(fixed stars and suns) are luminous ; the heavens are trans-
parent; the wandering stars (the planets and comets, the
earth and the moon) are opaque. There are, accordingly,
three kinds of matter or elements : the first are those smallest
and most rapidly moving particles, of which luminous bodies
consist ; the second the spherical molecules which form the
material of the heavens ; the third the coarser matter, moved
with greater difSculty because of its size and form, which
constitutes the material of the wandering stars. Ether is
that subtile matter which fills every apparently empty space,
and is the lightest and most easily moved of all the kinds of
matter, and is always in rapid motion.'

When Descartes expressly says that his hypothesis for
explaining the system of the universe not only may be, but
in certain respects is, false, he plainly wished to protect him-
self from the fate of Galileo. For, according to the experi-
ence of Galileo, it was not enough to announce his theory of

1 Princ, ill. sees. 54-64.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 403

the universe as a mere hypothesis : it must be declared to be
erroneous. Descartes made this declaration of his own
accord beforehand, to avoid being compelled to make it
afterwards. He acknowledged his error, because, as he
said, his explanation conflicted with the biblical account of
creation. The Bible asserts that the order of the heavenly-
bodies was created ; while he explained it as gradually arising
according to purely mechanical laws, in order to make it
comprehensible by man.'

This equivocation is to be charged to the account of the
time and his character, and, after the detailed discussions of
that point in our history of his life, needs no further vindica-
tion or justification. In the attempt to explain the origin of
the system of the world by purely mechanical laws lies the
importance of Descartes' philosophy of nature. That was
the object of his first work, which, for reasons with which the
reader is already acquainted, remained unpublished, and was
lost as far as the essay on light. Its essential contents are
contained in the two last books of the " Principles ; " and we
may fairly suppose, that, after the publication of this work,
that of the " Monde " was superfluous.

But as to the relation of our philosopher to modern
astronomy, particularly to Copernicus and Galileo, a definite
judgment can now be pronounced. He did not mention
Kepler's great discoveries, and probably was not acquainted
with them. The geocentric hypothesis of Tycho he rejected.
If one explains the heavens as rotating about the earth, and
correctly understands motion in its relative and reciprocal
sense, he must ascribe far more motion to the earth in re-
lation to the heavens on the theory of Tycho than even
Copernicus maintained.^

Descartes teaches that the motion of the planets is helio-
centric, and that the earth is a planet : he teaches its daily
revolution on its axes, and its yearly motion about the sun
in an elliptic orbit. He, therefore, agrees essentially with

1 Princ, iii. sees. 43-45. " lb., iii. sees. 38, 39.

404 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Copernicus and Galileo. But he bases his theory on me-
chanical laws of a different sort from those maintained by
Galileo. We have already become acquainted with his mode
of proof; it is a deduction from his principles; and whatever
may be its validity and truth, the difference between him
and Galileo is in no wise a pretence. That Descartes also
denied the motion of the earth, in a certain sense follows
from his concept of motion which he had to apply to the
heavenly bodies. In all these paints, without ignorance of
the matter, there can be no talk of any kind of accommodation.
The Cartesian denial of the motion of the earth has nothing
whatever in common with the ecclesiastical : rather is it
completely opposed to it. Descartes affirmed that motion of
the earth which the Church, the Bible, Ptolemy, and common
opinion denied. For all that he said, " You see that in terms
I deny the motion of the earth, while in reality I maintain
the system of Copernicus." He affirms the heliocentric
motion of the earth, and that is the only question at issue.
It would have been more than sophistical if he had sought,
in opposition to Galileo, to appear to maintain the rest of the
earth, in agreement with the Church, or out of deference to it.
Perhaps it would not have been disagreeable to Descartes
if the world, and particularly the authorities of the Church,
had deceived themselves concerning this point of his doc-
trine. But that he sought to deceive any one concerning it, is
false, and can only be believed by those who are miac-
quainted with his works. Of the accommodation, therefore,
with which he is charged, only so much remains : Descartes,
after he had openly and honorably presented and established
his doctrine, declared that his hypothesis was false so far as
it conflicted with the faith of the Church. He acted as Gali-
leo did, except that he anticipated the retraction with a view
of avoiding chicanes.'

4. Emptiness and the Pressure of the Atmosphere. — The
conviction that empty space is impossible, and that all

1 Cf. book i. chap. v. pp. 230-235.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE, ETC. 405

motions in nature can only be produced by external, material
causes and their immediate influence, i.e., by pressure and
impact, necessarily led Descartes to fundamentally deny
with the vacuum, also the so-called " horror vacui " of nature,
— a conception which still prevailed among the physicists
of his generation, — and to declare it one of the greatest
of errors. It is just as false to affirm the reality of empty
space as to deny it with the Peripatetics on the ground that
nature abhors a vacuum, and will not, therefore, permit it.
It is to unite both errors to limit the " horror vacui " to a
certain degree, as did the advanced physicists of Descartes'
time, that in spite of it a certain void might exist in nature.
By such hypotheses they sought to explain the ascent of
fluids, as water in the bore of a pump, and quicksilver in a
tube. Descartes opposed to the assumption of emptiness
his subtile matter (ether), by reason of which there could be
no vacuum anywhere. This was the point of controversy
between him and Blaise Pascal, who denied the existence of
his subtile matter, and maintained the reality of a void, on
the ground of a moderate horror vacui.

When we perceive motions or rest, without at the same
time being able to perceive their material causes, we are
inclined to believe that no causes whatever are present.
Thus, the motion of the atmosphere, the pressure which it
exerts on all bodies which it surrounds and touches, is a con-
stantly acting cause, however little the moving mass falls
under the observation of senses. Descartes insisted that for
the actual explanation of certain phenomena of the motion of
fluid bodies, the pressure of the atmosphere (weight of the air)
must be supposed instead of empty space and the horror of a
vacuum. Even in the dialogue of Galileo, he met the as-
sumption of the " horror vacui " where the cause of the phe-
nomenon should have been sought in the weight of the air,
and criticised it in the observations which he made on that
work in a letter written in October, 1638. Nine years later,
in a conversation with Pascal, he advised him to convince him-

406 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

self by an experiment of the nullity of emptiness and the
reality of atmospheric pressure, by noting the height of quick-
silver in a tube at the foot, and also at the top, of a very
high mountain. He would find, that, as he went higher up
the mountain, the column of quicksilver would fall, in con-
sequence of the decreasing pressure of the atmosphere. He
could easily have this experiment performed in Auvergne,
where he resided. The experiment was made on the Puy-de-
D8me, and confirmed what Descartes predicted without hav-
ing made the experiment. Pascal, however, did not mention
this circumstance, and also gave the philosopher no account
of the success of that experiment. Descartes attributed this
unreasonable conduct to the hostile influence of Roberval,
who was the friend of Pascal, and hence made a profession
of enmity to Descartes.'

As to the matter itself, the priority of the discovery can-
not be claimed for Descartes. The experiment which he
recommended to Pascal in the summer of 1647, consists in
the barometrical measurement of altitudes ; and the barome-
ter was invented by Toricelli some years before (1643).
But Descartes was before acquainted with the law upon
which the invention rests, as his letters in the years 1631
and 1638 show. And not even the testimony of his letters
is required, since the law necessarily follows from his princi-
ples, as we have seen. Applied to the motion of floating
bodies (solid bodies in water), the invention which goes by
the name of the Cartesian diver could easily be made and
explained by the activity and modifications of the pressure of
the air.

1 Concerning Descartes' doctrine of the pressure of the atmosphere, com-
pare his letters, June 2, 1631, and October, 1638, to Mersenne (concerning Gali-
leo), and those of June 11 and August 17, 1649, to Carcavi (concerning Pascal).
CEuvres, vi. p. 204 ; vii.p. 436 ; x. pp. 343, 351. Millet : Descartes, etc., il. pp.
214-2J0. See above, book ii. chap. vii. pp. 270, 271.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 407

CHAPTER IX.

UNION OP SOUL AND BODY. — PASSIONS OP THE SOUL.—
NATURAL AND MORAL LIPS OP MAN.

I. ANTHROPOLOGICAL PROBLEM.

1. Meaning and Extent of the Problem.

rr^HERE yet remains a problem after the fundamental
-•- questions of metaphysics are answered. These relate
to the existence of God and the mind and body, and require
their clear and distinct knowledge, i.e., the determination of
their reality and essence ; and this is only evident when it is
conceived without any mingling with its opposite. The be-
ing of God required to be apprehended independently of all
finite and imperfect things ; that of the mind, independently
of the body ; that of the body, independently of the mind.
Both, therefore, must be considered as completely opposite
substances, the mind merely as a thinking, the body merely as
an extended, being ; the processes of the mind only as modes
or kinds of thought ; the processes of body only as modes or
kinds of extension, i.e., as motions. God, as the real ground
of all things, must, in reference to the mind, be regarded as
the original source of knowledge, and, in reference to body,
as the original source of motion.

If, now, there are processes of a mental nature which are
united with certain motions in such a manner that the former
cannot exist without the latter, we have a fact before us
which involves a new problem. Such a fact cannot be
explained by the dualism of mind and body, that funda-
mental concept of Descartes' philosophical principles. The

408 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

new problem, therefore, is not metaphysical. A union of
mind and body can only take place in a being which consists
of them both. We ourselves are this being, and certainly
among all finite substances only we, since we are thinking
natures, and as such we immediately and, therefore, with
absolute certainty, know our own being and existence. We
are likewise united with a body which we conceive as ours.
Our sense-perceptions prove that there are bodies without
us ; our affections and natural impulses, that one of them is
ours. "Nature teaches me nothing more explicitly than
that I have a body, with which it stands ill when I feel pain,
and which needs food and drink when I suffer hunger and
thirst. I cannot doubt that there is something real in these
feelings. Those affections and impulses make it clear to me
that I am not in my body like a pilot in a ship, but that I
am united with it in the closest manner, and, as it were,
mingled with it so that we constitute one being in a certain
measure. Otherwise I should not feel pain by reason of my
mental nature when my body is injured, but should perceive
this injury merely in an intellectual way, as the captain
perceives any damage to his ship. If the body needed food
and drink, I should apprehend these states without having
the unclear feelings of hunger and thirst. These feelings are,
in fact, obscure conceptions, which proceed from the union
and, as it were, mingling, of the mind with the body."
Among all knowable minds, the mind of man is the only one
which is united with body; and, therefore, the new problem
is anthropological?-

The nature of the mind consists in thought ; true knowl-
edge in clear and distinct thought, which is both striven for
and obtained by the absolute power of the will as well as
hindered and prevented thereby. Genuine freedom of the
will seeks true knowledge, and acts according to it. In this
the human mind fulfils its nature and its destiny .^ In the
union with the body, its clearness is obscured, and its free-

1 M^d., vi. pp. 335, 336. = Cf. book ii. chap. v. pp. 366, 367.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 409

dom limited : it is, therefore, itself in a condition which is
not conformable to its nature. Now, freedom of the will and
clearness of thought appear as a goal to be reached, as a
work to be done, as a problem to be solved, and only solved
by a proper exercise of the power of the will. Thus, the
anthropological problem comprehends that of ethics.

Nevertheless, this union of the mind with the body is, in
its way, also according to nature, since it is grounded in the
order of things. We cannot, therefore, regard our bodily
life in Platonic fashion, as a decree or punishment due to a
fall from the spirit world, and desire for the enjoyments of
earth, but as the result of natural laws. But if the union
of mind and body is in harmony with the laws of nature, it
cannot even in reference to the mind be considered as con-
trary to nature, however little it conforms to the essence of
the mind. We must, rather, with the naturalness acknowl-
edge also the Tightness of that union, and of every thing
that necessarily follows from it, as impulses, inclinations,
passions, etc. All these activities of human nature are, as
such, good and necessary conditions or instruments of
spiritual life. If they check and darken the latter, this is
not the fault of nature, but of the will. Its original direc-
tion is not false, and the deviation from it is our error. Its
natural character is not bad, but the degeneracy of it because
of our will. What comes to pass in the dual nature of man
requires to be naturally explained and morally vindicated;
i.e., its worth in freeing the mind must be apprehended. It
is particularly the passions which Descartes regards from a
purely natural point of view, convinced that he thus con-
siders them from an entirely new point of view. " How defec-
tive are the sciences which the ancients have handed down to
us, is nowhere more evident than in their treatment of the
passions. For as much attention as has been given to this
subject, and as easy as it is to be understood, since every
one can discover the nature of the passions in himself with-
out tany observation of outward things, the doctrines of the

410 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

ancients concerning it are so inadequate and uncertain that
I am obliged to entirely forsake the usual paths in order to
approach the truth with some confidence. I must write,
therefore, as if I had to do with a subject that no one has
considered before me." With these words, Descartes begins
his essay on the passions of the soul. " My intention is,"
says he in the prefatory letter, " to treat the passions of the
soul, not as a preacher, also not as a moral philosopher, but
only as a physicist." •

2. The Cardinal Point of tJie Problem. — Now, if Descartes
regards the passions as the principal object of consideration
in anthropology, he must find here the characteristic expres-
sion of human (mental-bodily) life, the ground of the knowl-
edge of man's dual nature. The explanation of this fact is
for him the cardinal point of the problem of psycliology. As
motion is related to body, so is passion to man : as there the
concept of motion had first of all to be more precisely
determined, so we must here ascertain in what the nature of
passion consists.

• It is at once evident that all the passions are of a passive
nature. Nevertheless, every thing of a passive nature is not
passion. In opposition to the nature of body, the nature of
mind consists in self-activity, the source and power of which
is in the will. Everj^ thing, therefore, which takes place in
us without being willed by us, is, in the widest sense, of a
passive nature. Of this nature are all involuntary functions,
even the apprehensions or perceptions which we form and
experience independently of every act of self-determination
and choice. Some of these perceptions are inner, and relate
merely to the mind, as the involuntary apprehension of our
thoughts and volitions. Our thinking nature is not passive,
but the apprehension of it is so far as this forces itself upon
us of itself, and we are compelled to be aware of it. There
are other perceptions which relate merely to body, either our

1 Les passions de I'&me, part 1. art. i, R^p. k la lettre, ii. (Euvres, t. iv.
pp. 34-38.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 411

own or those that are external to it. To these belong the
feelings due to our senses or our sensations, as colors, sounds,
etc. ; the bodily affections, as pleasure and pain ; the bodily
impulses, as hunger and thirst. All these perceptions, inner
and outer, are of a passive nature, but are not passions in
the strict sense of the term. We are passive in them, but
not impassioned.!

There is a third class of passive states, which belongs
neither to the mind alone, nor to the body alone, but to both
at the same time, — states in which the soul itself suffers under
the influence and concurrence of the body. It can remain
indifferent in seeing and hearing, hunger and thirst, but not
in joy and anger. It alone is susceptible of joy and sorrow,
love and hate ; but it could not be if it were destitute of a
body. Passion consists in this kind of passive experience.
It would be impossible for the passions to be able to arouse,
animate, and affect our souls as powerfully as they do if they
were not mental forces. It would be impossible for them to
have such capacity as they have to obscure and confuse the
mind, if they were not at the same time of a bodily nature.
They are states of the mind, not such as are produced by its
free energy, but which attack it and lay hold of it without
any exercise of the will. They are states of feeling, but not
such 'as exist in the body, but in the soul. They are, in a
word, emotions of the mind QSmotions de Vdme'), in which both
natures are mingled, the mental and bodily. " One can
define them as perceptions or feelings or emotions of the
soul, which appertain to it peculiarly, and are caused, sus-
tained, and strengthened by the activity of the animal
spirits." 2

3. The Passions as Fundamental Phenomena of the Human
Soul. — From this it is evident what importance Descartes
ascribes to the fact of the passions. He regards them as
fundamental phenomena, as the third and most important,

1 Les passions, i. arts, xix., xxiii., xxiv.

2 lb., i. arts, xxv., xxvii.-xxix.

412 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

besides thought (will) and motion. Understanding and will
are possible only in the mind ; motion, only in the body ; the
passions only in man, who unites mind and body, in himself.
Thought requires nothing but mind, motion nothing but
body : the passions, on the other hand, require the union of
both. The dual nature of man is the only real ground of the
passions : the passions are the only ground of the knowledge of
the dual nature of man, which is not so evident from the
fact of sensations and natural impulses. To understand why
Descartes allows this importance only to the passions, and
regards sense-perceptions and desires, on the other hand,
merely as bodily processes, we must bring before our minds
the foundation of his entire doctrine. From his stand-point, ^
there is, so far as our knowledge extends, but one body which
is united with a mind, or animated with a soul ; and that is
the human body. All other bodies, even animals, are mere
machines, destitute of mind and soul. The soul is the mind ;
and the reality of the latter is evident onlj'- from its certainty
of itself, and coincides with that. Without self-consciousness,
there is no thought, no mind, no soul. Animals have no
self-consciousness, and, therefore, no souls: they are, hence,
nothing but moved bodies, or automata. But they have sen-
sations and impulses ; and, hence, these must be regarded as
bodily motions, governed by purely mechanical laws, by
which they must be explained. Animals feel, but they have
no souls: the former is an undeniable fact, and the latter a
necessary inference, in the system of Descartes. It is certain
that animals see and hear, hunger and thirst : it is just as
certain that they have no clear and distinct knowledge, no
self-consciousness, and, therefore, according to Descartes'
principles, neither mind nor soul. It only remains, accord-
ingly, to regard sensations and impulses in general, and,
therefore, even in man, as mechanical processes, having noth-
ing in common with psychical activities. Thus, Descartes
finds no fact which reveals to him the union of mind and
body except the passions. One can ask whether the passions

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 413

are not also of an animal nature, and whether sensations and
impulses are not also of a psychical nature ; one can dis-
pute the Cartesian theses, which deny both, and even doubt
whether the philosopher himself remained, and could remain
entirely, true to them ; but we have no right to question that
he taught them, and was obliged to teach them, in conse-
quence of his principles. The examination of this point is
not now our purpose. We have as yet to do only with the
exposition and proof of the system, and to follow the paths
which Descartes trod. When we estimate his doctrine, we
shall return to those questions, and then we shall examine
them carefully. ^

n. THE UNION OF THE SOIJL AND BODY.

1. The Mechanism of Life. — So far as the life of man is
lil^e that of animals, it must be explained bj' purely mechan-
ical and physical causes, particularly motion and warmth.
It has been falsely supposed that the soul moves and Avarms
the body, and is, therefore, also the physical principle of life.
For every flame proves that it is not the soul which imparts
motion and warmth to the body. And if the human body
becomes stiff and cold after death, it suffers this change, not
because it ceases to be animated by a soul, or because the
soul has left it. The living body is not, as such, animated
with a soul ; for if so, animals would have souls, and this con-
flicts with the principles of Descartes' doctrine. Life does
not consist in the union of soul and body; death, not in
their separation. Life is not the product which produces
soul, but the presupposition under which the soul enters
into a union with body, the condition without which such
a union cannot take place. The truth of the matter is,
therefore, the direct reverse of the usual opinion. Not
because the body is animated with a soul is it, therefore,
alive, but, because it lives, it can be animated with a soul.
The body is not stiff and cold because the soul leaves it, but
the soul leaves it because it is dead. Death is the destrue-

414 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

tion of life, and is a necessary result of physical causes.
Life is mechanism : death is the destruction of that mech-
anism, and results when the living body suffers such an
injury that the whole machine stops. To the error which
makes the soul the principle of life, Descartes opposes the
following explanation : " Death never enters because the
soul is absent, but because one of the important organs of
the body is destroyed. We can, therefore, decide that the
body of a living man differs from that of one who is dead,
exactly as does a watch (or an automaton of any kind ;
i.e., a machine moved by itself) which has in itself the
material principle of the motions which it is to perform,
along with all the conditions necessary to its activity, and,
when it is wound up, goes, — from one that is broken, in
which the moving principle ceases to be active." ^

The soul can be united only with a living body. Since
it is of a mental nature, also, among finite beings so
far as they are kuowable by us, exclusively of a human
nature, this union can only take place with the body of
man.

The human body, like that of animals, is a machine. Its
principle of life is the fireplace in it which prepares the
warmth of life, and imparts it to the whole organism, —
fire, whose material is the blood, and whose place is the
heart. Harvey's great discovery of the motion of the blood
and heart of animals explained this fundamental princi-
ple in the mechanism of life, and made an epoch in the
history of biology. Descartes became acquainted with it
when he was finishing his " Cosmos," and absorbed in the
investigation of the human body, and had come by his own
path to a like conclusion. This doctrine appeared to him so
important, and so great and evident a triumph of the
mechanical physics and of the scientific method in general,
that he expounded it as an example of the latter in the
fifth part of his " Discours," and, referring to Harvey's fa-

1 Les passions, i. arts, iv.-vl.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 415

mous discovery, explained the motion of the heart and
the circulation of the blood through the arteries and
veins.'

According to these fundamental conditions, Descartes dis-
cusses the remaining parts and function of the machine of
the animal-human body. The organs of motion are the
muscles, those of feeling are the nerves. The heart is the
central organ of the blood and its motion, that of the nerves
is the brain. Descartes represents an organ as acting be-
tween the two, whose origin and activity he characterizes as
the most remarkable phenomenon of life. The finest, most
mobile, most fiery particles of the blood, which are produced
in the heart by a kind of distillation, ascend by mechanical
laws through the arteries into the brain, and are led from
thence to the nerves, and, through these, to the muscles.
They cause feeling and motion in those organs, and, there-
fore, administer the real functions of life ; and hence Des-
cartes calls them animal spirits (esprits animaux). "The
most remarkable fact in these things is the origin of animal
spirits, which are like a very fine wind, or, better, a very
pure and active flame, which constantly ascends in the great-
est abundance from the heart into the brain, and goes thence
through the nerves into the muscles, and imparts motion to
all the members. But why the most mobile and the finest
particles of blood, which, as such, make the best material for
the aniiflal spirits, go rather to the brain than elseAvhere, is
very simply explained by the fact that the arteries, which
carry them to the brain, ascend from the heart in the most
direct line ; and if several things are striving to move at the
same time in the same direction, while, as in the case of the
particles of the blood, which strive to go to the brain from
the left ventricle of the heart, there is not room enough for
all, it follows from the laws of mechanics, which are identical
with the laws of nature, that the weaker and less mobile must

1 Disc, de la m^th., part v. CEuvr., i. pp. 174-184. Lea passions, 1. art. vii.
See book i, chap. v. pp. 230.

416 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

give place to those that are stronger, and that these alone
must make their way to the brain." '

In like manner, all our involuntary motions, as in general
all the activities which we have in common with animals,
depend only upon the arrangement of our organs and the
motion of our animal spirits, which, excited by the warmth
of the heart, take their natural course into the brain, and
thence into the nerves and muscles, in the same manner
as the motion of a watch is produced only by the force of
its spring and the form of its wheels.^

2. The Organ of the Soul. — The human body is a very
complicated machine, whose parts, as the heart, brain, stom-
ach, arteries, veins, muscles, nerves, etc., are in universal
interaction, mutually preserving each other, and constituting
a community in which each serves, and suffers with, the
other. This machine forms a whole, and each of its parts
is an organ of the whole ; its parts, therefore, are not merely
aggregated, but articulated ; the community or complex of
organs constitutes an organism, or articulated machine. An
organism is, therefore, a particular kind of machine. It is a
machine whose parts form themselves, and combine of their
own accord, and constitute, therefore, no mere aggregate, but
a unity or a whole. Descartes is so in earnest with this defi-
nition, the characteristic of the organism, that he says of the
living body directly, " It is one, and in a certain sense indi-
visible.'''' The soul, therefore, if it is to be united with the
human body, cannot merely dwell in one of its parts, but
must be present to the whole organism. For since every part
of the living body is connected with every other, none can
enter into an exclusive union with the soul ; and since this,
by reason of its nature, has nothing in common with exten-
sion and divisibility, it is impossible for it to enter into ex-
clusive union with one part of the organism.^

But it can very well be especially united with one of the

1 Disc, de la mdth., part v. pp. 183, 184. Les passions, i. arts, x.-xiii.

2 Les passions, i. art. xvi. ' lb., i. art. xxx.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 417

organs : indeed, there must be — in view of that fundamental
difference of the two substances, which does not permit their
immediate union — a particular organ through which the soul
has intercourse with the whole organism. Since the princi-
pal question in relation to the two substances is how motions
in the organs are transformed into sensation and perception,
and sensation and perception into motion, it is easy to see
that it is the animal spirits, those agents of sensation and
motion, which are the medium of intercourse between soul
and body. In the motion of the animal spirits, there are
two centres, the heart and the brain ; in the former, they are
produced ; to the latter they ascend, and from thence act
upon the organs. If, therefore, the soul carries on its inter-
course with the organism by means of the animal spirits, it
must be especially connected with one of the two central
organs. The more precise answer of the question is self-
evident. Since the peculiar action of the animal spirits goes
out from the brain, this only can be the sfjecial organ ; and
in this, to use Descartes' expression, must the "seat of the
soul " be sought.

The place of the peculiar organ of the soul is in the central
organ of the nerves, itself also central and lying in the mid-
dle of the brain, where the animal spirits from the two parts
of the brain, the anterior and posterior cavities, commune
with each other, and where motion can be most easily caused
by them, and they themselves can move most easily. It is
the pineal gland, or conarion, which Descartes explains as the
real organ of the soul. He finds, besides, a particular reason
in support of his hypothesis. The impressions upon the
senses of sight and hearing are dual, like the organs by
means of which they are received ; while the object perceived,
like our presentation of it, is single, which would not be
possible unless a union of the double impressions was effected
in the central organ. It appears necessary, therefore, that
an organ should exist in the brain to receive the double im-
pressions, and that this organ should be single in its nature.

418 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Descartes finds this organ in the pineal gland, which he,
therefore, regards as the principal seat (^principal siege) of
the soul, as that part of the human body with which it is
united most closely (Jtroitement'). The central position and
singleness of that part of the brain were the reasons which
persuaded the philosopher to localize there the psychical
activity so far as it receives and causes bodily impressions.^

By the connection between soul and body, as that now is
obvious, the natural origin of the passions is explained. The
received impression is changed by the activity of the soul
into presentation and motive. If such an impression is ex-
perienced as something hurtful to our life, as, for example,
when we see a wild animal rushing upon us, there arises a
conception of danger along with the presentation of the
object. Without a conscious exercise of volition, the will
bestirs itself to protect the body, whether by attack or flight.
Involuntarily, accordingly, that organ of the soul is affected,
and that impulse is given to the course of the animal spirits,
which disposes the limbs either for a battle or flight. The
disposition to resist is courage, that to flee is fear. Courage
and fear are not sense-impressions, but impulses of the will :
they are not mere conceptions, but emotions of the mind, or
passions. The motion, which in such emotions is felt in the
heart, as little proves that the passions have their seat in
the heart, as a painful sensation in the foot proves that pain
is in the foot, or the sight of the stars in the vault of the
heavens points out their true place.^

3. The Will and the Passions. — This explanation of the
passions by the mental-bodily nature of man is, by the as-
sumption which it makes, and the principle of its explanation,
very characteristic of the doctrine of Descartes. By the help
of the animal spirits and the organ of the soul, which is, he
maintains, the pineal gland, the philosopher seeks to prove
the origin of the passions in a purely mechanical way. In this

• Les passions, i. arts, xxxi., xxxii., xxxiv., xli,
2 lb., i. art. xxxiii., xxxv., xxxvi., xl.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 419

lies the central point and the novelty of his attempt ; and it
was this which Descartes had in mind, when, in the very
beginning of his work, he declared, that, in his doctrine of
the passions, he had been obliged to entirely leave the beaten
paths, and that he intended to discuss them, not as a preacher
or a philosopher, but merely as a physicist. The passions
had been previously considered merely as psychical processes,
and it had not been seen that they contain factors of a purely
bodily character. Now, since they master the soul, and de-
prive it of its freedom for the time being, and, therefore,
militate against its nature, the psychological explanation
knew not how to help itself except by a division of the soul
into higher and lower powers, into a higher and lower appe-
titive faculty, into a rational and irrational soul, to which
latter it ascribed the passions. Thus, the soul was divided
into different parts, and it was held to consist, as it were, of
different persons or souls: its unity and indivisibility were
abandoned, and thereby its nature completely denied. This
is the point which Descartes attacked and characterized as
the confusion in which all of the earlier theories of the soul
were involved.

It is true that reason fights with the passions, that it can
gain the victory or be overcome in this conflict, that in
human nature two powers fall into a struggle, the stronger
of which gains the victory. But it is a false explanation of
this fact to say that that fight takes place in the mental
nature of man, and that this rises against itself as it were.
In truth, the conflict takes place between two motions of
opposite direction, which are communicated to the organ of
the soul, — the one from the side of the body by the animal
spirits, the other from the side of the soul by the will. That
is involuntary, and is determined by bodily impressions alone :
this is voluntary, and is motived by the intention which the
will decides. Those bodily impressions which stir up the
moving animal spirits in the organ of the soul, and through
this in the soul itself, are here transformed into presenta-

420 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

tions of sense, which either leave the will at rest, as is the
case in the usual perception of objects, or, by their immedi-
ate relation to our existence, disturb and move the will.
Presentations of the first kind are passionless, and there is
no reason for opposing them. Those of the second class, on
the other hand, necessarily excite passion, since they rush
violently upon the will, and provoke its counter-action. The
attack upon the will follows from bodily causes : it neces-
sarily results from natural and mechanical laws, and in its
strength consists the power of the passions. The re-action
of the will is free : it acts with mental power, in itself desti-
tute of passion, and is, therefore, able to oppose and master
the passions. In this strength consists the power over
the passions. Assaulted by the impressions of the animal
spirits, the soul can suffer fear, and, strengthened by its own
will, have courage, and master the fear with which passion
at first filled it. It can give the organ of the soul, and
thereby the animal spirits, the opposite direction, by reason
of which the limbs move to battle, though fear urges them
to flight. It is now clear what powers fight with each other
in the passions. What has been regarded as a conflict
between the higher and lower nature of the soul, between
reason and desire, between the thinking and sensitive soul,
is in truth a conflict between the body and the soul, between
passion and will, between natural necessity and the freedom
of the will, between nature (matter) and mind.' Even the
weakest minds can, by their influence upon the organ of the
soul, become luaster of and direct the motion of the animal
spirits, and through them the progress of the passions, in
such a way that they are able to control them completely .^

The mechanical origin of the passions does not prevent,
but is rather the basis of, their moral results. The freedom
of the mind requires to be won by a hard struggle, and this
can only happen through the subjection of the opposing
powers. These opposing powers are the passions, and are,

1 Les passions, i. art. xlvii. ^ lb., i. art. 1.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 421

therefore, necessary conditions of the freeing of the human
mind. Therein consists their importance and worth. They
•would not be the opposing powers of the will if they did not
have their origin in a nature opposed to the mind, and hence
the necessity of their mechanical origin. They would not
be opposing powers if they were not powerful, i.e., if they
could not affect the will ; and that is possible only when body
and mind are united as in human nature. Hence, this is
regarded as the necessary and only basis for explaining the
passions. The foundation is now perfectly clear upon which,
within the Cartesian system, the doctrine of the passions
rests. The next question is. In what do they consist ?

III. KINDS OP PASSION.

1. Fundamental Forms. — We have already distinguished
those presentations of sense which are destitute of passion
from those of an impassioned character. The ground of an
impassioned feeling does not lie in the object as such, but
in the interest which our will takes in its existence, or in
the way in which the object is related to our existence, and
in which we are sensible of this relation. The nature of the
latter is infinitely variable, because of the difference of indi-
viduals and of the states of our souls at different times.
What one regards with fear, another views with contempt,
and yet another with indifference. And in the change of
our states of life and of our temper of mind, the same object
makes upon the same person an impression, now of joy, now
of sadness, and now no impression whatever. There is,
therefore, an endless variety of passions. Yet from the
nature of passionate excitement in general, we can deduce
certain simple and necessary forms, which are related to the
rest as fundamental forms to their modifications, or as ele-
ments (given in the calculations of combinations) to their
variations. The fundamental forms, Descartes calls primary
or '•'■primitive ; " those derived from, or combined of, them, the
special or '■^particular" passions. From this point of view,

422 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

our passions can be distinguished and arranged. What we
are emotionally sensible of are not things, but their worth ;
i.e., the advantages or injuries which we receive from them,
or imagine we receive. It appears that the third case, in
which the object is experienced neither as useful nor hurtful,
excludes all value, and therefore every excitation of passion.
This is not so. There are objects which, merely by their
power and novelty, take hold of the mind with irresistible
force, without in the least exciting our desires. An impas-
sioned excitation is also united with presentations of this
kind on account of their involuntary and powerful effect,
and this Descartes calls wonder. We see at a glance that
this feeling is full of passion, and has neither the usual
character of desire, nor, still less, that of indifference.

What we conceive as useful or beneficial to us appears as
something worthy of desire, or as a good ; the opposite of it
as an evil^ the destruction of which is desired. We wish to
possess the good, and to get rid of the evil. In the first case
we wish to possess the object, in the second to be free from
it, while we merely look at the admired object, wishing
neither to possess nor be rid of it. There are, accordingly,
in the first place, two fundamental forms of passion to be
distinguished, — wonder and desire. Desire sustains either a
positive or negative relation to its object: it wishes to have
and preserve the good, and to be rid of and destroy the evil.
In the former case it is love, in the latter hate. Now,
desired objects are either future or present. The good which
is near at hand allures, the imminent evil threatens. In
both cases, desire is eager, and consists in the expectant hope
or longing for the attainment of a good, and the avoidance
of an evil. Since, now, in both cases the opposite can be
realized, — since we may fail to attain the good and to avoid
the evil, — desire is affected both by hope and fear; i.e., it is
positive and negative at the same time. If the objects which
excite our desire are present, we either find that we possess
the desired good, or that an evil has befallen us. In the

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 423

first case we are filled with the feeling of joy, in the second
with that of sadness. Accordingly, there are the following
primitive passions, which lie at the foundation of all the rest,
— wonder, love and hate, desire, joy and sadness. Wonder is
the only passion which is neither positive nor negative ; the
longing for an object is the only desire that is both at the
same time ; all the remaining passions are desires either of
the one or the other character.^

2. Derived or Combined Forms. — We will first consider the
desires. We propose to call attention to the most important
forms of these particular passions, and to show that they are
either combined of some of the given elements, or that they
are species of them.

The fundamental values of the objects which we have
characterized as utilities and injuries are infinitely different
in degree. There is a measure for determining the strength
or greatness of our desires, and for distinguishing certain
principal gradations. We love or hate what seems useful
or hurtful to us. Our self-love is, accordingly, the measure
by means of which our desires for things are to be compared,
and the intensity of them estimated. We may love other
beings either less than, or as much as, or more than, we do
ourselves: our love for an object may be less than, or equal to,
or greater than, our self-love. In the first case, it is inclination
(^affection} ; in the second, friendship (amitiS') ; in the third,
devotion (dSvotion'). What we love in the highest degree, i.e.,
self-sacrificingly, are the powers upon whom our existence de-
pends, and by whom it is conditioned, as God, our country,
humanity, etc. Among the objects which excite love and
hate in our soul are to be particularly emphasized the beauti-
ful and ugly as objects of sensitive delight and repulsion :
the love of the beautiful is delight (agriment), the opposite
feeling is disgust (horreur). Both passions, because they
excite the senses, are the strongest .kinds of love and hate,
but also the most deceptive.

I Les passions, ii. art. Ixix.

424 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Longing (yerlangeri) is desire (begierde), eager to possess
the good which is near at hand, and to avoid the imminent
evil; passionate and still uncertain hope. This expecta-
tion is either hope (espirance') or fear (crainte'), according
to the degree of its uncertainty. The highest degree of
hope is assurance (sScurite), the highest degree of fear is
despair (dSsespoir). Descartes incidentally calls jealousy a
species of fear. When the hoped or feared result depends
not on external circumstances, but merely on ourselves
and our own activity; when we can gain the good, and
avoid the evil, merely by our own power, and must choose
the means for doing so, perform certain actions, and, there-
with, contend with certain difficulties, — hope and fear are
modified accordingly. The fear of making a mistake in
the choice of means reaches no decision because of the
multitude of doubts and questions, and becomes irresolvr
Hon. The energetic hope of being able to oppose and over-
come the difficulties that lie in the way of the realization of
one's plans, is courage (courage^ and daring (Jiardiesse~) ; the
opposite feeling, afraid of difficulties, and trembling before
them, is cowardice (IdchetS^ and terror (^Spouvante) }

The presentation of existing goods or evils excites in us
the feeling of joy (^joie') or sorrow (tristesse'). If those goods
or evils do not relate to us, but to others, it is the happiness
or unhappiness of another that rejoices or saddens us. Joy
and sorrow, love and hate, are modified accordingly. The
rejoicing in the joy of others is good will, sympathy with
their misfortunes is pity (^pitii'). When the prosperity of
others disturbs us, we experience envy (^envie) ; when we re-
joice in their misfortunes, malice. Descartes made these
feelings dependent on a moral condition, which ought not to
be considered in a physical explanation of the passions. He
considers the prosperity and misfortunes of others as de-
served or undeserved, the persons in question as worthy or
unworthy of them, so that what they experience of good or

1 Les passions, ii. arts. lyii., lix.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 425

evil happens to them justly. We have, then, before our eyes,
not so much the happy and unhappy, as the deserved, states
of others, and rejoice in the just course of things. Only
the deserved prosperity of others excites our good will, as the
undeserved our envy : only the deserved misfortunes of others
excite our malice, as the undeserved our pity. These emo-
tions of the mind now appear as right, as so many kinds of
our natural feeling of right, whose satisfaction is a source of
joy, and whose wounding is painful. Envy and pity belong
to the class of sorrowful feelings, good will and pleasure in
the misfortunes of others to the feelings of joy. But the two
latter are claimed to be different in this, that joy on account
of deserved success is serious, while scorn and ridicule (mo-
querie) are mingled in the joy on account of deserved misfor-
tune.i It is at once evident, that, in the explanation of these
passions, Descartes has not kept physical and moral causes
enough apart. Right feeling can strengthen our good will
and pity, but it has nothing to do with malice and envy. The
philosopher has here missed the physical explanation which
he promised, and not spoken of the passions " as physicist."

The good and bad deeds of men are particular classes of
useful and hurtful objects, and therefore give rise to partic-
ular feelings of joy and sorrow, which take different forms
according as we ourselves or others are the authors of those
deeds, and the actions of others affect us or not. Joy, on
account of our own good, is self-contentedness (satisfaction de
soi-mSme') : the opposite feeling is repentance (repentir). The
consideration that we gain in the opinion of others through
our merits, is fame (gloire') : the opposite thereof is disgrace
Qionte). The merits of others awake in us 2k friendly feeling
{faveur'), and, if our own well-being is promoted thereby,
gratitude (reconnaissance) ; while an evil-doer excites our in-
dignation (indignation), and, if he adds injury to ourselves,
our anger (colere). The goods and evils which fall to our
share are of longer or shorter duration. Long habit dulls

1 Les passions, ii. arts. Ixi., Ixii.

426 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

feeling, and changes satisfied joy into satiety (dSgoiK), while
it gradually diminishes our sadness on account of our losses
and injuries. The good and bad times which we experience
pass by : we see those vanish with regret (regret), and per-
ceive with gladness (allSgresse') the termination of these.^

Among the primitive passions, Descartes characterized
wonder as the first, and as elevated above the contrariety of
the others. We must now enter somewhat more particularly
into the nature, and the particular kinds and characteristics,
of this passion. It is always called forth by a new and un-
usual, a rare and extraordinary, object, the impression of
which lays hold of our mind, and is experienced as a surprise.
Its power does not gradually increase, but is at once active
in all its strength, because it arrests all our habitual impres-
sions. Wonder is, therefore, the strongest of all our passions,
and, like every surprise, has the character of a sudden eflFect.
In all the emotions of the mind, we are involuntarily seized
by an object ; but nowhere is this seizure so pure and perfect
as in wonder, whose essence it constitutes. Therefore, in a
certain manner, somewhat of this mode of feeling is present
in all the passions. It may be so powerful as to exclude all
opposition, and not merely move the mind, but so chain it
that all the animal spirits in the brain rush to the place of
the impression, and concentre here, while all the rest of the
body is motionless, and we become petrified, as it were, as
we gaze at the object. Then wonder passes into amazement
(Stonnement'), and degenerates through excess.^

So long as we are affected only by the power of the new
and unusual impression, we have no consciousness of the
usefulness or hurtfulness of the object — which constitutes
the fundamental theme of the rest of the passions. Wonder
is, therefore, prior to these : it is the first of the passions, and
has not, like the others, an opposite. Its real opposite would
consist in a state of mind which permits itself to be affected

■■ Les passions, ii. arts. Ixiii., Ixvii.
" lb., ii. arts. Ixx., Ixxii., Ixxiii.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 427

by nothing whatever, a state of mind completely passionless
in its lack of receptivity to impressions. There is, therefore,
no passion opposed to wonder; i.e., it has no opposite. But
there are, indeed, differences in, or kinds of, wonder, depend-
ent upon the object whose unusualness surprises us, varying
according as its extraordinary character consists in its large-
ness or its smallness, or as we or other free beings are its
object. Descartes calls the two fundamental forms of wonder,
esteem (estime) and contempt (mSpris^ ; the corresponding
estimate of one's self is either magnanimity (magnanimite)
(self-respect) and pride (orgueiV), or humility (liumilitS')
and abjectness of disposition (hassesse) (false humility) ; while
the surprising impression produced by the greatness or little-
ness of others excites our reverence (vSnSration) or contempt
(dSdain)}

Among these kinds of wonder, our estimates of ourselves
are the most deserving of notice. Nothing stamps itself
more distinctly in the demeanor of a man, in the expression
of his countenance, in his gestures and gait, than an extraor-
dinarily high or low estimate of himself. In our estimate of
ourselves, there is a true and false exaltation of our worth,
as there is a true and false disparagement of it. Descartes
calls true self-esteem mag^ianimity (niagnanimitJ^, not haugh-
tiness, but generosity (gSnSrosite^ : pride, on the other hand,
is false self-esteem. Genuine humility he calls humility
(humilitS vertueuse} : false humility, on the other hand, is
^^bassesse." Now the criterion is to be determined for dis-
tinguishing the true from the false in the intensity and
direction of our self-esteem. In general we may remark, that
only free beings can be objects of esteem and contempt.
Only one object is in truth worthy of esteem, as its opposite
is contemptible, — our freedom of the will, by virtue of which
reason rules in our nature, and the passions serve. In this
free and rational mastery of self, all the moral worth of man
consists. It is the only good that no favor of fortune can

1 Lea pas3ion3, ii. arts, liii.-lv.

428 HISTORY OF MODEKN PHILOSOPHY.

give, but which can be earned only by labor and discipline
of the will which each one practises in himself. He who has
gained the mastery over himself, possesses that greatness of
soul from which that truly high and alone justifiable self-
esteem proceeds, that magnanimous disposition which Des-
cartes calls gSnSrositS. Nothing is more valuable than this
good ; but nothing is more difficult to attain, since one must,
in comparison with it, regard the usual goods of life as of
no worth, and lift himself high above the weaknesses of
human nature. If one struggles earnestly to overcome his
own weaknesses, and to divest his freedom of them, he ap-
prehends for the first time how numerous they are, and how
frail human nature is. Its littleness and covetousness are
therefore experienced in the same proportion as greatness of
soul is striven for and obtained. True self-esteem goes hand
in hand, therefore, with true humility. Only self-esteem that
■does not proceed from the feeling of the greatness and free-
dom of one's own will, is false and perverted, as also is any
humility that is not based on the feeling of one's own weak-
ness of will. Perverted self-esteem is haughtiness or pride,
as perverted humility is self-abasement and abjectness of dis-
position. As genuine humility is not merely compatible, but
necessarily connected, with generosity, so is pride with crin-
ging. " Pride is so unreasonable and absurd, that I should
scarcely be able to believe that men could stoop to it if so
much unmerited praise were not bestowed; but flattery is
so general, that every man, however faulty, finds himself
praised, not only without any merit, but even for his mean-
nesses, and that is why the most ignorant and stupid are
proud." " Men of the most abject disposition are frequently
the most arrogant and haughty, as great souls are the most
modest and humble. These preserve their equanimity in
prosperity and misfortune ; while little and base souls depend
upon the caprices of fortune, and are puffed up by prosperity,
exactly as they are cast down by adversity. We often see,
indeed, that these people humble themselves in a disgraceful

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 429

manner before others who can serve or injure them, and, at
the same time, conduct themselves in the most insolent
manner towards those from whom they have nothing to
hope or to fear." Every energetic or free being can deserve
esteem. No man, therefore, is contemptible as such, and
least of all because he lacks certain external advantages
and gifts of fortune, as talent, beauty, honor, riches, etc.
If a man earns our esteem, we are sensible of respect or
reverence, which is composed of awe and admiration, while
another who deserves our contempt, seems so far below us,
that his baseness certainly excites our wonder, but not the
least fear.^

rv. THE MORAL AIM OF LDi^.

1. Worth and UnwortJiiness of the Passions. — At this point
the doctrine of the soul passes over into the doctrine of morals,
and completely illuminates the theme of the latter. To be
free is every thing. The freedom of the will, our highest
faculty, points out the direction and the goal. The exalta-
tion of our spiritual nature above the senses, the freedom of
the will, which has in subjection our desires and passions, is
the purpose of human life, the highest good, the possession
of which alone constitutes our happiness, the only moral
worth, the single ground of our self-esteem. Descartes did
not expound his doctrine of morals in a special work, but
only discussed its principal points, in part in his work on the
passions, in part in the letters which he wrote to the Prin-
cess Elizabeth on the happy life (criticising and correcting
Seneca), and in those designed for the Queen of Sweden on
love and the highest good. We have seen the direct connec-
tion between those letters and the origin and completion of
the work on the passions of the soul.^

If the highest good consists in the freedom which masters

' Les passions, iii. arts, cxlix.-clxiii.

2 See book ii. chap. iv. p. 218; chap. viii. pp. 284-291. The letters to Eliza-
beth on " beate vivre " are in CEuvves, t. ix. pp. 210-249.

430 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the passions, it cannot be won without a conflict with the
latter, and is, therefore, inconceivable without them. If
the highest good is of all things the most worthy of desire, it
must, in a certain sense, be an object of desire, and there
must be a passion which of itself has a moral tendency. It
is at these two points in the explanation of the emotions of
the mind, that the doctrine of the soul and that of morals
interpenetrate.

All our passions can be reduced to those six primitive
ones whose simplest forms are wonder and desire. Even
wonder, so far as it desires the conception or consideration
of its object, is a desire. In the last analysis, therefore, all
our passions are desires, and, as such, the natural motives of
our actions. All human action is conditioned by the fact
that something is wished or desired, and right action consists
in right desiring. If we can determine the latter, we have
found the fundamental rule which constitutes the theme of
the whole of morals. This fundamental rule is very simple
and evident. The possession of all desirable goods is either
entirely, or in part, or not at all, dependent upon ourselves ;
i.e., upon our own powers. What we cannot acquire by our
own activity, we cannot even really possess, and, therefore,
also cannot reasonably desire. "We, therefore, desire unrea-
sonably what our power is not sufficient to enable us to ac-
quire or appropriate, but which, on the contrary, depends
upon conditions which lie wholly or in part beyond our power.
Our wishes are unreasonable if it is impossible to realize
them ; and it is, strictly speaking, impossible when the ne-
cessary conditions do not lie within our power. So unrea-
sonable are the general wishes of men: they desire most
passionately what least depends upon their own energy, the
external goods of life, beauty, honor, riches, etc. The rule
of knowledge says. Think clearly and distinctly : only that
which is clearly and distinctly apprehended is true. The
maxim of the will says. Desire clearly and' distinctly : only
that which is so desired is good. Wish nothing that thou

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 431

canst not obtain by thyself alone. Thy highest faculty is
freedom. It cannot make thee beautiful, rich, respected,
powerful, successful, in the eyes of the world, but only free :
it makes thee, not a master of things, but only of thyself.
Wish not to be more ! Let the only good which thou desirest
be this mastery over thyself: let it be the only goal of thy
efforts, the single object of thy admiration ! All other wishes
are vain ! ^

2. The Worth of Wonder. — Right action, accordingly, is
dependent upon a true knowledge of our strength and weak-
ness. From the knowledge of the first springs the feeling of
our true and attainable nobility ; from that of the second,
genuine humility. Nothing is more conducive to the latter
than the consideration of the immeasurable universe, in
which man is not the centre and purpose of things, but a
vanishing point, too weak to alter the course of things
according to his wishes. " Because the passions impel us to
action only through the desires which they excite, our desires
must be regulated ; and therein consists the most important
use of morality." "We have two resources against idle
wishes: the first is a lofty and true estimate of one's self
(c/enSrositS'), of which I shall speak later; the other, the
thought upon which we ought often to meditate. Divine
providence has determined the course of things from eternity
like a destiny or an unchangeable necessity, which latter is to
be opposed to blind fate, in order to destroy this phantom of
the imagination. For we can only wish what, in our opinion,
somehow lies within the realm of possibility. What, on the
other hand, is independent of our power, we can only regard
as possible by conceiving it as depending upon that blind fate,
and by believing that the like has already happened before.
We believe in chance because we do not know the real
causes of things. If an event, which in our opinion depends
upon chance, does not happen, it is clear that one of its causes

1 Les passions, ii. arts, cxliv.-cxlvi. Cf. letter to Elizabetll, (Euvres, ix. pp.
211-214.

432 HISTOEY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

is absent, and that, therefore, it could not happen, and that the
like never has happened ; namely, something without a cause.
If we had previously had this necessary course of things
clearly before our eyes, we should never have regarded the
matter as possible, and, therefore, never desired it." ^ All
vain wishes are errors, while correct wishes are a necessary
consequence of a true self-respect and the greatness of mind
(c/SnSrositS} that is based upon it. Descartes, therefore, calls
this latter " the key, as it were, to all other virtues, and the
chief means for overcoming the passions." ^

Self-esteem is a kind of wonder. This is the emotion of
the mind which of itself takes the moral direction, and points
the way to all the others. For wonder is a desire that sat-
isfies itself, not with the possession, but with the conception
or contemplation, of things, and, therefore, moves the mind
in a direction which precedes, and makes ready for, knowl-
edge. When we are affected by a surprising impression, by
a new, unusual, rare object, we are lost, as it were, in the
contemplation of it. Nothing is now more natural than
the wish to complete this contemplation, or to make it plain
by a more thorough examination. Knowledge consists in this
explanation. From the desire to contemplation, the desire
for knowledge naturally follows. Of all our passions, none
is of so theoretical a nature, and so favorably disposed to
knowledge, as wonder. It is on the way to knowledge : it
stands at the beginning of the course. That saying of Aris-
totle, that philosophy begins with wonder, is valid also with
Descartes, without conflicting with his characteristic decla-
ration that philosophy begins with doubt. The desire for
knowledge is one thing, the certainty of it another: the
former has its source in wonder, the latter in doubt. We
know what importance Descartes ascribes to the will in his
theory of error. Wonder involuntarily gives to the will a
theoretic direction, and makes it disposed to knowledge:
hence Descartes regards it not merely as the first among the

1 Les passions, ii. arts, cxliv., cxlv. " lb., lil. art. clxl.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 433

primitive passions, but as the most important of the passions
in general.

We are speaking of natural and healthy wonder, which
agitates the mind, but does not enchain it ; which calls forth
the desire for knowledge, but does not stifle it. Here Des-
cartes distinguishes the two defective extremes, which Aris-
totle had done in reference to the natural impulses in general,
the too much and the too little, defect and excess, dulness and
the inability to resist the power of the impression, the inca-
pacity to wonder and the inordinate desire of wonder. The
first temper of mind consists in a determined equanimity,
that allows itself to be affected by nothing ; the second in a
blind curiosity, that catches at new impressions, and yields
itself to every one without an impulse towards investigation.
This kind of wonder is not really an emotion of the mind,
but a cessation of mental action ; not really wonder, but, as
Descartes had already said before, amazement. Exactly in
this consists the value of wonder, that it is not most sensible
of the useful or hurtful, but of the rare and extraordinary,
character of impressions, and stamps it upon the mind in
such a manner that it insures the continued activity of the
mind, and excites our reflections. " The other passions can
only serve to make useful or hurtful objects noticeable : won-
der alone observes the exceptional. And we see that people
without any natural inclination to this emotion are usually
very ignorant."

" But much more frequently we find the opposite, that men
abandon themselves too much to wonder, and are amazed at
things that are either very little, or not at all, worthy of
attention. And thus the theoretic value of this passion is
either completely cancelled or perverted into its opposite.
Intentional and special attention is of avail against a defi-
ciency in wonder, and to this our will can always oblige the
understanding as soon as we see that the observation of
the object is worth the pains. But against excessive wonder,
there is no other resource but to learn to know many things,

434 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

and to distinguish the rarest and most unusual. Although
only dumb and stupid men are by nature incapable of won-
der, the capacity for it is not always proportioned to great-
ness of mental endowments. But it is especially a character-
istic of such minds as have a good natural understanding,
and who, without imagining themselves therefore great, are
quick. Certainly the impulse to wonder diminishes in con-
sequence of habit. The more rare objects any one has seen
and wondered at, the more he forms the habit of not wonder-
ing at them any longer, and of regarding all succeeding ones
as usual. But when the impulse to wonder exceeds all
proper proportion, and fastens its attention ever only on the
first impression of the object before it, without striving for
a further knowledge of it, the habit thence arises of con-
stantly catching at new impressions. And this is the reason
which makes the disease of blind curiosity chronic : one then
seeks out exceptional things merely to wonder at them, not
in order to understand them ; and people gradually become so
fond of wonder (admiratifi), that they are attracted as much
by trifling as by the most important things."

3. Freedom of Mind. — Without passions, the soul would
take no part in its bodily life ; without them, there would be
for human nature neither goods nor evils in the world ; they
alone are the source of our joyful and sorrowful existence.
The more powerfully they move and affect us, the more re-
ceptive are we to the joys and sorrows of life, the sweeter its
joys, and the bitterer its sorrows. And certainly its sorrows
are so much the more painful, the less we are able to control
our passions, and the more disagreeable our external circum-
stances. But there is a means of mastering our passions, and
moderating them to such an extent, that their evils become
very endurable, and all transform themselves into a source of
joy. This single means is wisdom. With this declaration
Descartes concludes his work on the passions of the soul.^

Wonder gives the natural impulse to enter the path that

1 Les passions, iii. art. ccxil.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 435

leads to wisdom. Wisdom releases the impulse to knowl-
edge which cannot content itself without our self-knowledge,
without the perception of our self-delusion, without the fun-
damental doubt which leads to certainty, to a true self-knowl-
edge, and, therefore, to a true estimation of ourselves, upon
which that enlightened self-respect, that genuine feeling of
freedom, is based, which coincides with true knowledge, and
determines moral worth. Thus, from the impulse to wonder
s'prings the impulse towards knowledge, and from this result
doubt and the certainty of self, and thence in the light of rea-
son that wonder whose object is the greatest and most ex-
alted of our faculties, the freedom of the will. Here arises
that affection of the mind which Descartes called magnani-
mous temper (magnanimity or gSnSrositS^ (self-respect), and
which holds the reins of our moral life in its hands.

Before this knowledge vanish the imaginary worth of
things, the illusive goods of the world, the desires blinded
by such appearances, the power of all the passions whose ob-
ject is this kind of desire or selfishness. So long as the soul
abandons itself to the control of these passions, it is driven
by them hither and thither : it can repress one while it fol-
lows its opposite, and thus exchange one master for another.
Such a triumph is merely apparent : it is not the soul, but one
of its passions, that triumphs, while it itself remains a slave.
But when by its own energy and freedom, acting upon its
clear and distinct knowledge, it lifts itself above the level of
the passions, then first does it conquer " with its own weap-
ons,'" and, therefore, in reality. This victory is the triumph
of the freedom of the mind. " What I call its own weapons
(ses propres armes') are the firm and certain judgments con-
cerning good and evil according to which the soul is resolved
to act. Those are the weakest of all souls whose will, with-
out the aid of knowledge, allows itself to be moved by the
passions of the moment, now in this direction, now in that :
these passions turn the will against itself, and bring the soul
into the most miserable condition into which it can fall.

436 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Thus, on the one hand, fear represents death as the greatest
of all evils, which is only to be escaped by flight ; while on
the other, honor represents this disgraceful flight as an evil
which is still worse than death. The two passions drive the
will in different directions ; and this, mastered now by one,
and now by the other, is continually at war with itself, and
thus makes the condition of the soul slavish and miser-
able." 1

Here the system of Descartes concludes, returning to its
deepest foundations. What lay at the foundation of doubt
was the will, which sought to break through self-delusion,
and penetrate to certainty. Certainty consisted in the clear
and distinct knowledge of self and of God: from thence
followed the clear and distinct knowledge of things without
us. In the light of reason, we saw the absolute opposition
of soul and body. Our passions now prove the union of the
two, for only in such a union could they have their source :
they deny what clear knowledge affirms. Thus arises a con-
tradiction between the perceptions of our free reason, and
the involuntary affections of our mind. The problem con-
tained in this contradiction is solved when we understand
the passions, see through the imaginary worth of their objects,
and destroy their power. That opposition of soul and body
does not prevent their union in human nature, and this union
does not prevent the opposition of the two. Rather in the
exaltation of the soul over the bodily existence, in the free-
ing from the passions and desires, in a word, in the freedom
of the soul, this opposition first finds its true and energetic
expression. Our passions are related to our thinking nature
as obscure conceptions to those which are clear, and in their
obscurity lies their weakness. If the will, by virtue of
doubt, could break through self-delusion, and, by the help of
thought, could attain to clear and distinct knowledge, it can
by clear and distinct knowledge also master the power of the
passions ; for desires also are self-delusions which blind us by

1 Les passions, i. art. xlviii.

UNION OF SOUL AND BODY, ETC. 437

tte illusory worth of things, and keep us imprisoned therein.
Doubt meets and overcomes each of our self-delusions, even
the power of the passions and the freedom of the soul ; i.e.,
the will, enlightened by knowledge, gains the victory over the
passions also.

438 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER X.

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST. — OBJECTIONS AND EBPLIES.
I. OBJECTIOlSrS.

1. Stand-points and Tendencies of their Authors.

WE have expounded the philosophy of Descartes in the
connection of its essential parts, and now turn to
examine it. And here we meet at once those objections to
the " Meditations," objections which the philosopher himself
invited, and to which he replied, and which he published
along with his replies. It was the first test which the new
system had to stand before its author and the world. Des-
cartes wished to put his doctrine to such a test in its very
first appearance before the world, and as the one who was
best acquainted with it, to be also its first interpreter and
defender. These critical discussions are therefore historically
notable.^

If the objections are mingled with the exposition of the
doctrine, and arbitrarily scattered in different places, as
usually happens, their impression, as a whole, is completely
lost, while that of the system is unnecessarily interrupted.
There is no source from which we can better learn the first
effect of the new doctrine on the philosophical minds of the
time than these objections validly made from such different
points of view by critics with and without reputation while
the impression of the work, as yet in manuscript, was still
fresh in their minds. We find here together the prevailing
tendencies of the philosophical consciousness of the time,

1 See book i. chap. v. pp. 245-247.

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 439

some of them in their most renowned representatives. It is,
therefore, worth while to carefully consider this group of
Descartes' first critics.

Not taking into account the reports of objections collected
by Mersenne in the second and sixth places, Descartes re-
ceived, and replied to, the objections of Caterus, Hobbes,
Arnauld, Gassendi, and Bourdin, in the order in which we
have just mentioned their authors. The later ones, which
we may call the eighth . and ninth, and which it was impos-
sible to include in the edition of the "Meditations," were
discussed by letters. To these belong the objections under
the name of Hyperaspistes, and those of the English philo-
sopher, Henry More. The former are scarcely worthy of
notice, since they repeat what had already been said : the
latter again attacked Descartes from the theosophical stand-
point, disputing the mere materiality of extension, and main-
taining an immaterial space, valid for spiritual being, and
explaining the presence of God in the world as well as that
of the soul in the body.^

The second and sixth objections, which express the doubts
of different philosophers, and in which Mersenne indeed also
found a place for his own, are in the manner of dilettantes.
They are not, therefore, contemptible; for in an age as active
in philosophy as Descartes', the desultory co-operation of
dilettantes is no unimportant power. Caterus' objections
relate only to the concept of God, particularly to the onto-
logical proof, and, therefore, do not touch the fundamental
principle and trend of the new doctrine.

To understand the chief objections, we must bring before
our minds the fundamental thoughts on which the whole
Cartesian system rests. The methodical knowledge of things
in the natural light of reason or of thought was the problem
and the universal theme of Descartes. So far as the light
of knowledge is, and must be, natural (les lumieres naturelles'),

1 The letters bet-ween H. More and Descartes were written from December,
1648, to October, 1649. CEuvres, t. x. pp. 178-196.

440 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

his system is naturalistic. So far as this natural light is, and
requires to be, reason, or pure (clear and distinct) thought,
this naturalism is rationalistic. Method consists in the mode
in which that light is discovered, and so produced in thought
that it illuminates things. These are the fundamental
thoughts. He who attacks these, attacks the foundations
of the new doctrine. This fundamental attack can be made
in three points. We can defend the natural light of knowl-
edge, but deny that it arises and shines in thought, holding
that it must be sought not in reason, but in the senses. Such
a view denies not the naturalism, but the rationalism, of Des-
cartes ; not the philosophical (natural), but the metaphysical
(rational), knowledge of things : this view is empiricism or
sensualism. This sensualism is as ancient as the atomic
mode of thought, and as modern as the Baconian philosophy.
The Renaissance had again animated the old doctrine of
Democritus, which Epicurus, and after him Lucretius, had
revived, even in antiquity. Gassendi, whom we can regard
as a late product of the Renaissance, took this position against
Descartes, being a disciple of Epicurus. From the revival
of philosophy by Bacon, who had founded empiricism, a
sensualistic school necessarily resulted, and this already in-
volved materialism. Hobhes opposed Descartes from this
point of view. We have before us that antithesis which,
at the first glance at the course of the development of mod-
ern philosophy, we saw arising within it.^ It is the first of
the indicated oppositions.

But even the natural light of knowledge does not remain
undisputed. The supernatural light of faith and of revela-
tion, which illuminates the kingdom of grace and the Church,
is the adversary of naturalism : theology and, more particu-
larly, Augustinianism, which the Reformation had revived
against the Romish Church, and which Jansenism sought to
support within Catholicism — Jansenism, which appeared at
the same time with the doctrine of Descartes, and can be re-

1 See introduction, chap. vii. pp. 159-162.

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 441

garded as the most powerful expression of the religious con-
sciousness of the time. Arnauld, who was imbued with
Augustinianism, and was one of the most important theolo-
gians then living in France, and afterwards the leader of the
Jansenists, opposed the new philosophy from this point of
view.

There is an ecclesiastical rationalism which Scholasticism
had developed, and whose problem was not to discover new
truths, but to prove those dogmatically asserted. There can
be no greater opposition than between the methods of Carte-
sianism and "Scholasticism ; between thought, making no pre-
suppositions and purified by doubt, and thought trained in
and bound by dogmatism ; between sj-nthetic deduction
and the unfruitful doctrine of the syllogism, parading its
" harbara " and " celarent." The Jesuits, the neo-scholastics
of the time, were adepts in the dialectic arts of the schools ;
and through them, Descartes had become acquainted with
this method at an early age, and thoroughly despised it.
The Jesuit Bourdin, the author of the objections in the
seventh place, concentrated his attack upon Descartes'
method, seeking therewith to overthrow the new doctrine
itself. That this method was attacked by a Jesuit, and the
mode of his attack, were as characteristic as his polemic was
unimportant.

2. Points of Agreement and Disagreement. — Among the
tendencies of thought which found themselves in conflict
with the doctrine of Descartes, there is no greater contrast
than that between the Augustinian theology and the sensu-
alistic (materialistic) philosophy, — Arnauld and Hobbes !
Both attacked the new system — namelj'', the rational knowl-
edge of God and of things — at the same time. They attacked
from opposite sides, the metaphysical foundations of the sys-
tem, the principles, which claim to be discovered by methodi-
cal thought, and to be not merely more certain than any of
those hitherto accepted, but absolutely certain and indubita-
ble. Theology rejects these principles, because it acknowl-

442 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

edges none but the facts of religion and revelation ; sensual-
ism, because it concedes to human knowledge no other
foundation than the facts of the sensible world and experi-
ence. These attacks upon the doctrine of Descartes were
unavoidable. They turn a blaze of light upon the funda-
mental features of the entire system in its naturalistic and
rationalistic character. And, therefore, we may regard the
objections of Hobbes, Gassendi, and Arnauld as the most
worthy of notice and instructive. Hobbes, although abler
and more modern than Gassendi, treated the matter somewhat
superficially, and was less accurate and searching in his criti-
cisms than Gassendi. Descartes, therefore, broke off the con-
troversy with the former, while he carried it to the end with
the latter. For this reason we may regard Arnauld and
Gassendi, both countrymen of the philosopher, as the most
important opponents against whom he attempted to defend
his doctrine.

Not less significant than the points of disagreement are
the points of agreement between the philosophy of Descartes
and the Augustinian theology, between Cartesianism and the
materialistic sensualism. As soon as we turn away from the
metaphysical (rational) basis of the system, the resemblances
on both sides are perfectly evident. The sensualistic philoso-
phy is, from its entire foundation and nature, inclined to a
materialistic and mechanical explanation of nature. Des-
cartes also gave this explanation : it could not be stricter.
Hobbes, who at first noted only this phase of the new doc-
trine, thought that it completely coincided with his own.
But the Cartesian explanation of nature is a necessary con-
sequence of those dualistic principles with which we are now
acquainted : its purely materialistic and mechanical tendency
proceeds from an entirely different stand-point from that of
the sensualistic philosophers. They thought that because
nature is material, the mind is also. Because nature can be
explained only by mechanical laws, the activities of the mind
are also to be explained in the same manner. Descartes'

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 443

conception on the other hand is precisely the reverse of this.
Because the mind is not at all material, the world of bodies
is only material : because the phenomena of mind cannot at
all be derived from material conditions, the phenomena of
the body can only be explained by such conditions. Because
the mind is the opposite of body, the body is also the oppo-
site of mind. This was the point about which the contro-
versy arose between our pliilosopher on the one side, and
Hobbes and Gassendi on the other.

In the opposition of the nature of mind to that of body, in
this pronounced dualism, lay the central point of the new
system. And just here where it was attacked by the sensu-
alists, it exercised an involuntary attraction upon those
Augustinian theologians. Descartes himself felt himself
more closely related to these than to his philosophical oppo-
nents. He saw that Arnauld understood him far better than
Hobbes and Gassendi, whose entire mode of thought repelled
him ; and he regarded the objections which the former made
as the most important of all. We are acquainted with his
profound investigation of the concept of God, and the de-
cided importance of its results upon his entire system.
When the philosopher declared, that, by this phase of his
doctrine, he wished also to promote and strengthen the
cause of religion, it was not an idle remark, or a merely
cautious and conservative way of speaking. He was sin-
cerely interested in the cause of religion, and Arnauld sym-
pathized with him in this respect. Along with this, there
was a verbal agreement with Augustine, which must have
been welcome to the theologian, and must have seemed so
much the more significant as it appeared in the very point
which Descartes had called the fulcrum of Archimedes ; viz.,
in the proposition of certainty. To prove the existence of
God, Augustine took the certainty of self as his starting-point
in his work on the freedom of the will. He puts these words
in the mouth of Alypius as he addresses Euodius : " I will
begin with the most certain truth. I ask you, therefore,

444 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

whether you yourself are, and whether you are afraid of a
delusion in your answer to this question, although no sort of
error is possible here, for if you did not exist, you could not
even be deceived." Exactly so had Descartes spoken in his
"Meditations," without knowing that in his '■'■ cogito, ergo
sum,^' he had had a predecessor in Augustine. When he
learned this fact from Arnauld, he thanked him for the
delightful surprise.

But similar starting-points as little prove a real and thor-
ough agreement as similar conclusions. Trends of thought
which set out from opposed principles may coincide in
certain points, as, for example, the Cartesian and sensual-
istic doctrines in reference to the mechanical explanation of
nature ; and even so, trends of thought may start from a
common point, and diverge widely in their course. Thus
it is in a certain respect with the Cartesian and Augustinian
doctrines. If we follow them in their course, and compare
their historical developments, we discover a contrast, a
greater than which cannot be conceived. From the system
of Augustine follows the ecclesiastical consciousness of the
Middle Ages and the dominion of scholasticism ; from the
system of Descartes, that of Spinoza. But such an opposi-
tion was still far from the consciousness of our philosopher.
So far as the tendency of his philosophy was clear to his
own mind, he could deceive himself concerning the funda-
mental opposition between his doctrine and the Augustinian
theology, and regard the essential agreement of the two as
certain. The existence of things, the knowledge of minds,
the motion of bodies, as the creative work of God, were still
valid for him. The human mind would be veiled in impen-
etrable darkness if the idea of God, and, therefore, God
himself, did not illuminate it. The material world would
be motionless and lifeless if God himself did not move it.
Things could neither exist nor endure if God had not created
them, and if he did not conserve them. Human knowledge
is thus in its final ground illumination ; the existence of the

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 445

world, creation; its duration, continual creation. All this
Augustine also taught, but on supernatural grounds, resting
on the fact of faith in the Christian revelation ; while Des-
cartes sought to prove it by the natural light of reason,
whose original source he saw in God himself. The guiding
principle of the Augustinian system is the Christian faith
and the absolutely supernatural fact of redemption : the
guiding principle of the Cartesian is only the natural light
of reason — clear and distinct thought. Therein consists the
absolute opposition of the two. Arnauld felt this opposition.
His doubts were excited by the rationalistic mode of thought
and its necessary consequences. The truth of the ecclesias-
tical doctrine of faith is not consistent with the method of
clear and distinct thought. We know clearly and distinctly
that modes cannot exist without substances, and properties
not without the subject to which they belong. It is impossi-
ble for properties to exist, when the thing to which they
belong no longer exists; for those to remain while this is
transformed, for bread and wine to be transubstantiated into
flesh and blood, and yet preserve their properties of form,
color, taste, etc. It is impossible for substance and modes to
be separated from each other : divine omnipotence itself can-
not effect such a separation, for it would then act contrary to
clear and distinct thought. Descartes denies this possibility,
while faith in the transubstantiation of the elements affirms
it. Arnauld and the authors of the objections in the sixth
place urged these objections against the philosopher. We
know clearljr and distinctly that substances are independent
of each other, and, therefore, can never constitute one being.
Now, persons are substances ; and the unity of three persons,
as it is taught in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, appears
unthinkable. With the position that substance and modes
are inseparably united, the doctrine of the Lord's Supper is
at strife; with the position that substances are necessarily
separate, the doctrine of the Trinity.^ Arnauld remarked

1 Obj., iv. (t. ii. p. 35). lb., vi. (t. ii. pp. 327-320).

446 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

that the principle of certainty should be limited to philoso-
phical knowledge, and not applied to morals and religion.
Descartes, in agreement with Augustine, should stop at the
boundary between faith and knowledge, as this rests on
reasons, while the basis of that is authority. Descartes had
no difficulty in agreeing with Arnauld, since that limitation
was in harmony with his feelings, and the guiding principle
of his life. But the problems of philosophy are more power-
ful than the inclinations and rules of life of philosophers.
The limitation which Descartes thought proper to impose
upon himself, the spirit of his doctrine could not continually
endure.

3. The Points of Attack. — We shall best find our attitude
with reference to the contents of the objections and their
points of attack by recalling the cardinal points of the sj's-
tem so far as they are contained in the " Meditations." The
salient points are methodical doubt, the principle of certainty,
the idea, existence and truthfulness, of God, the reality of
the sensible world, the cause of error, and the difference of
essence between mind and body. The objections concentre
about these important points, and can be arranged accord-
ingly.

The new method and its sceptical vindication found its
principal opponent in the scholastic, who felt himself strong
and at home in the old doctrine of the syllogism and the
sorites. The principle of certainty by means of pure
thought, and the thereon based doctrine of the absolute inde-
pendence of the mind, so far as the body is concerned, was
attacked by the sensualistic philosophers, assisted by their
sensualistic mode of thought, by which the consciousness of
most men is dominated. Against this point, therefore, there
are the greatest multitude of objections: here unite with
Hobbes and Gassendi those " different theologians and phi-
losophers," from whom the objections in the second and sixth
places proceed. A multitude of objections are urged against
the proofs of the existence and veracity of God, particularly

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 447

against the inference that God cannot deceive us, in which
the anonymous theologians vie with Caterus and Ai-nauld.
Only that Arnauld, who had penetrated the spirit of the new
doctrine more deeply, first saw that Descartes' ontological
proof was different from the scholastic.

1. It is a universal characteristic of the philosophers of
modern times, no matter what their point of view, that they
thoroughly despise the old school, particularly the art of
disputation, which had earned its triumphs in the lecturers'
chairs of the Middle Ages. Their right to do so can best be
judged from a concrete case, — when one sees before liis eyes
how a polemic of the old dialectic couches his lance against
the founder of a new and synthetic method. In this respect,
the objections of Bourdin are characteristic, and not without
interest for the historian of culture. He seelis to prove,
according to the rules of the syllogism, that Descartes'
method is impossible ; that it can neither begin nor advance,
nor prove any thing whatever except pure nothing; that it. is
both absurd and nihilistic in the sense of complete nullity.

The proposition of certainty, with which methodical knowl-
edge begins, rests on that absolute doubt which denies all
certainty. The first proposition is, " Nothing is certain ; "
and then by means of it, it is proved that "something is
certain." From a universal negative, a particular affirma-
tive is affirmed, which, according to the rules of the syllogism,
is impossible : so impossible is the proposition of certainty,
the pretended beginning of all knowledge.

The same is true of the proposition of doubt. Because
we have been deceived in some cases, the possibility of de-
ception is asserted of all cases ; because one thing is uncer-
tain, therefore all things are uncertain, or nothing is certain.
This inference is impossible, because we cannot deduce a
universal from a particular judgment: so impossible is the
proposition of doubt, the pretended beginning of philosophy.
If the proposition of doubt is really valid, it must have a re-
actionary effect, and destroy itself; if nothing is certain, it is

448 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

not even certain that any thing is uncertain : so impossible
is not merely the inference, but also the beginning of
doubt.i

The entire Cartesian philosophy, according to Bourdin,
is wrecked on the impossibility of basing a universal judg-
ment on a particular one — even the dualism between mind
and matter, even the physics that rests on the doctrine that
body is merely extended. If some bodies are extended, it
does not follow that this is a property of all bodies, still less
that it constitutes the essence of bodies, and that, therefore,
the soul, because it is indivisible (unextended), can never
be of a bodily nature. By such reasoning, one could prove
to a peasant that the properties with which he is acquainted
in his domestic animals are all essential to an animal ; that,
therefore, the wolf is not an animal.'^

As impossible as is every attempt to make a beginning of
knowledge according to Descartes' method, so impossible is
every attempt at progress. It sinks at every step into a
bottomless abyss, into pure nothing. It is only necessary
to judge the course of this method according to the rules
of the syllogism, to state its attempts at progress in the
regular forms of " celarent," " cesare" etc., in order to see
whither it leads. Every being whose existence is doubtful
is not actual ; the existence of body is doubtful, therefore
body is not actual, and no actual being is body ; I am real,
therefore I am no body. Now, according to Descartes,
every thing is doubtful, consequently mind also. Mind,
therefore, has as little reality as body ; and, therefore, we
ourselves are neither mind nor body, hence nothing. Since,
now, every thing must be either mind or body, and can be
neither of the two, there is nothing at all. It is thus evident,
that, according to the new method of knowledge, we can
neither make a beginning, nor advance, nor reach any goal
whatever of knowledge. We must, therefore, return to the
old method of the schools, from the nihilistic to the syllogis-

J Obj., vii. (t. u. pp. 893, 404, 412-415). a lb., vii. pp. 441-443.

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 449

tic, from the sceptical to the dogmatic, from Cartesianism to
scholasticism.^

2. The objections of Hobbes, Gassendi, and Arnauld to
the Cartesian doubt are, of course, of a different character.
Hobbes discussed the matter with a somewhat lofty air : he
impugns the novelty of the doubt and its validity in refer-
ence to sensible knowledge. Even among the ancient philos-
ophers, both before and after Plato, there had been sceptics
by profession ; and Plato himself had said much of the un-
certainty of the perceptions of sense. Descartes would have
done better to leave this stuff alone : it is not modern, but
belongs to the whims of antiquity. Gassendi is ready to
agree to a moderate scepticism, after the fashion of the people
of the world, but he finds the Cartesian excessive : it throws
away the good along with the bad, and puts a new error in
the place of the old. Whoever imagines or persuades him-
self that he has a doubt that deprives him of all certainty,
deceives himself; and however much he protests that he
regards nothing as certain, there are things enough which
he cannot doubt, but which he regards as perfectly certain.
The doubt of Descartes is, therefore, largely self-delusion.
Arnauld, on the other hand, felt that this doubt shook the
intellectual self-righteousness of man, and affirmed its vali-
dity so far as it was confined to natural knowledge, and
avoided entering the territory of faith and morals on
principle.^

3. The principle of certainty is contained in the " cogito,
ergo sum" " I think, therefore I am : I am a thinking being
(mind)." We must carefully separate the numerous objec-
tions which were urged against this particular point. As
short as it is, it includes a series of important and definite
assertions, which Descartes deduces from it. The " cogito ergo
sum" therefore, offers more than one point of attack. From
the " I think," taken strictly, follow two inferences : (1) /

^ Obj., vii. pp. 444-455, 461-463, 489-504.

2 lb., iii. (t. i. pp. 466, 467). lb., iy. (t. ii. p. 30). lb., v. (t. ii. pp. 91, 92).

450 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

am, or I exist; (2) I am thinldng, or I am mind. The nature
of the inference is to be carefully considered in three points :
(1) the certainty of one's own existence follows only from
thought, from no other activity; (2) from thought follows
immediately only the certainty of one's own thinking nature,
nothing else ; (3) this certainty follows from thought (not
mediately, but) immediately. It is not a conclusion, but an
immediate or intuitive certainty.

From thence result the following points of attack and
objections : (1) From the " I think " follows, to be sure, the
" I am, or exist," but not " I am mind." (2) The " I am "
by no means follows only from my thought, but just as validly
from all my other activities. (3) The " I think, therefore
I am," is an inference, and presupposes what it seeks to
prove so long as its major premise is not proved. It is a
petitio principii, and, as such, has no certainty. Hobbes,
under his own name, advances the first objection ; Gassendi
the second ; Descartes examines and refutes the third in
considering the objections in the second place.

From the " I think," it unquestionably follows that I am,
and that to my activities or properties those of thought
belong. We can, therefore, without doubt, conclude, I am
thinking, or, I am a thinking being, but not, I am mind, or,
my nature consists in thought : that is converting a property
of a thing into the thing itself. The first proposition is true ;
the second absurd. Thought is as little a for-itself-existing
being as talcing a walk is. One can just as well say, " I go
a-walking : there my nature consists in walking." ^ It is a
reasonable inference from the "I think," that I am a think-
ing being ; i.e., a subject to whom, among other properties
or activities, those of thought belong. Plainly the activity
cannot also be the subject of the activity : thought cannot
also be the subject of thought. I can, indeed, say, I think
that I have thought ; i.e., I remember what a particular
kind of thought is. But it is nonsense to say, " Thought

1 Obj., iii. (t. i. pp. 4C8, 4G9).

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 451

thinks ; " or, " I think that I think ; " for this would lead to
an endless regress, and make all thought impossible, since
the subject of the thought would never attain to existence.
Nothing is more evident than the distinction between sub-
ject and activity, thing and property. As the subject of
thought, therefore, I am a being different from thought ; i.e.,
I am a hody ivhich thinks. According to this conclusion,
Cartesianism is overthrown, and sensualistic materialism en-
throned in its stead.' Mind consists in the thinking activity
of body ; thought, in the union of words which denote con-
ceptions or imaginations ; and these are produced by the
motion of, and impressions upon, the organs of the body.
All ideas, therefore, have their origin in sense, and mind is
nothing independent of body. Clear and obscure concep-
tions are nothing else than clear and obscure impressions.
We see a near object distinctly ; a distant one, indistinctly.
Assisted by instruments, we see clearly what appears either
indistinct or not at all to the unaided eye. The astronomical
conception of the heavenly bodies sustains the same relation
to the ordinary conception that telescopic vision does to un-
assisted vision, that distinct impressions do to indistinct.
Both kinds of conception are sensible : all our conceptions
are only sensible. So-called universal concepts are abstracted
from our impressions, and have no real, but only a nominal,
existence. What we perceive by the senses are not things
themselves, but their properties. The concept of substance
is, therefore, a conception without an object. We receive all
our impressions from without : therefore, there are no innate
ideas, no special dowry of the mind, which man has in com-
parison with the other beings of the world. Therefore he is
different from animals only in degree, but not in kind.^

4. My thought is not the only activity from which the cer-
tainty follows that I am. To be sure, this certainty follows
from the activity of my thought, but not because this ac-

1 Obj., Hi. (t. i. pp. 469, 470, 475). Cf. Obj., vi. (t. ii. pp. 318, 319).

2 lb., iii. (t. i. pp. 476, 477, 483, 485-487). C£. Obj., vi. (t. ii. pp. 320, 321).

452 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

tivity is thought, but because this thought is my activity.
The sentence, "I go a-walking, therefore I am," is just as
certain as the " cogito ergo sum." * If my being consisted in
thought, I could not be without thought a moment : I should
be thinking even in the embryonic state and in lethargic
sleep. We cannot think, without consciousness, but we can
indeed exist without it : therefore our being and our thought
are in no way identical.^

Moreover, according to Gassendi, the proposition of cer-
tainty does not give us what we had a right to expect in
view of the promises of Descartes ; viz., the most accurate
and profound knowledge of our own nature. What new and
particular thing do we learn when we ascertain that we are
thinking beings ? We learn what we have known for a long
time. If we are promised fundamental instruction concern-
ing the nature of wine, we expect an accurate chemical
analysis of its constituents, but not the declaration that it
is a fluid. We have the property of thought, as wine has
that of fluidity. What further? Such a commonplace is
the Cartesian proposition of certainty.^

5. But this proposition is not even certain ; for, (1) accord-
ing to the philosopher's own declaration, it depends upon
our certainty of the existence of God, and is, therefore, ex-
posed to all the doubts of the validity of the proofs of his
existence (an objection which is repeated at different times) ;
and (2) it is a conclusion which depends upon an unproved
assumption. The complete syllogism is, "All thinking beings
are, or exist : I think, therefore I am." Now, to prove the
major premise, the truth of the conclusion must be assumed.
This syllogism, therefore, is not merely a petitio principii,
but also a eirculus vitiosus, as the logicians say. These objec-
tions would be pertinent if the proposition of certainty were
a syllogism. We await Descartes' reply.*

1 Obj., V. (t. ii. p. 93. Cf. p. 248; t. i. pp. 451, 452).

2 lb., V. (t. ii. pp. 101, 102). a lb., v. (t. ii. pp. 122, 123).
* lb., ii. (t. i. pp. 403, 404).

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 453

6. The final ground of all certainty and knowledge, accord-
ing to Descartes, is the idea of God in us, whose cause can
only be God himself. That, in brief, is the ontological argu-
ment whose profound basis, in the system of Descartes, we
have become acquainted with in detail, and which none of
his opponents knew how to appreciate. Here the objections
are massed. To separate the points of attack, we must dis-
tinguish the points which the proof includes. It requires
(1) that the pruiciple of causality be applicable also to
ideas; (2) that, in particular, the idea of God requires a
real cause ; (3) that this idea be innate ; (4) that from this
innate idea the reality of God be immediately evident ; (5)
that God be the cause of himself, and, therefore, infinite.
Each of these propositions offers a point of attack.

Ideas are thought-things which have only a nominal exist-
ence. They require, therefore, no real or active causes, and,
least of all, such as contain more "objective reality" than
they themselves. Caterus laid special emphasis upon this
objection to Cartesianism.^

The idea of God is not innate ; for if it were, it would
be always present, even in sleep. But many do not have
it at all, none always. The cause of it, therefore, cannot be
God. We are its cause : the idea of God is our creation ;
the work of the human understanding, which forms the
conception of a perfect and infinite being by increasing the
perfections with which it is acquainted, widening the limits,
and abstracting from the imperfections. It is not true that
the conception of an infinite being must be caused by this
being. The infinite universe is not also the cause of our
conception of it; but we attain to this idea by gradually
enlarging our at first limited idea of the world, and at last
extending it to the immeasurable.^

Our idea of God, therefore, contains nothing of the reality

1 Oh]., i. (t. i. pp. 355, 356).

2 lb., ii. (t. i. pp. 400-402). lb., iii. (t. i. pp. 479, 480). lb., v. (t. ii. pp.
139, 140).

454 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

of God. Nor can the existence of God be proved by the
existence of things, since the assumption of a last or first
cause is groundless ; for the causal nexus is infinite, and we
are not justified in setting limits to it. But even granting
that there is a being which is cause of itself, its infinitude
would in no way follow from this uuconditionedness (aseity).i

The existence of God does not follow from the idea of
God, still less, clearly and distinctly. For in that case the
idea must, first of all, be clear and distinct. But it is the
opposite, even according to Descartes' own doctrine ; for we
are finite and imperfect beings, while God is infinite and per-
fect. If the idea of God were the ground of all certainty,
the fact that atheists regard their mathematical knowledge
as indubitable would be incomprehensible.^

The idea of God is neither innate, nor is it clear and dis-
tinct. Hobbes went farther, and even disputed its possibility,
maintaining that we have no faculty with which to form such
an idea, and that it has no origin or object. Since it is not
innate, it must have been abstracted from things. Now, it
cannot be abstracted from bodies, also not from the presen-
tation of the soul, since we have no definite presentation of
the soul. The object of the idea of God must be an infinite
substance, which excels all others in reality ; but of sub-
stance in general we have no conception, and a thing that
is more a thing than all others is unthinkable. All thought
consists in inferring and deducing: the unconditioned is,
therefore, inconceivable, and all investigations concerning it
are useless. Now, the entire cogency of the Cartesian argu-
ments rests upon the idea of God in us. If God did not in
truth exist, the idea of God could not be in us. The exist-
ence of this idea, says Hobbes, is unproved, unprovable,
and, in my opinion, impossible. Descartes, therefore, has
not proved the existence of God, and, still less, the creation.^

1 Obj., i. (t. i. pp. 359, 360). lb., v. (t. ii. pp. 139-142).

2 lb., V. (t. ii. pp. 174, 175). lb., vi. (t. ii. pp. 321, 322).
8 lb., iii. (t. i. pp. 484, 493).

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 455

7. If there is no rational linowledge whatever of God, we
cannot base upon it the possibility of a knowledge of things.
Descartes bases the knowledge of things upon the veracity of
God, upon the impossibility of deception by God. Now,
granting the knowledge of God, this inference is false, both
in the light of revelation and in that of reason. Either the
Bible contains that which is unworthy of belief, or there are
deceptions which God has willed. He blinded Pharaoh, and
caused the prophets to foretell things which did not come to
pass : both the Old and New Testament teach that we wan-
der in darkness. Further, on rational grounds it is impossi-
ble to see why deception is incompatible with the nature of
God, or why it is unworthy of him. There are wliolesome
deceptions made with the best and wisest intention. Thus,
parents deceive their children, and physicians the sick.^

That God cannot be the cause of our errors is accordingly
to be rejected. Descartes explained error by the freedom of
the will, and regarded it as the fault of the will. It was to
be expected that theologians would raise objections against
this fault, and sensualists against this freedom. If every
act of belief on confused grounds is a fault, a perversion and
misuse of the will, the conversions to Christianity have taken
place on indefensible grounds, very few of which have re-
sulted from the clearest and most certain conviction, and the
mission of the Church is gone. Descartes regards the indif-
ference of the will, i.e., completely indeterminate choice, as
the lowest degree of freedom, while the highest is the will
illuminated or determined by the perceptions of reason. Ar-
bitrariness is incompatible with wisdom that is absolutely
free : this is bound by the necessity of thought and the laws
of reason, and there is in God no arbitrariness in opposition
to it, — a doctrine very characteristic of the Cartesian stand-
point, but very questionable from that of theology .^

1 Ob]"., 11. (t. 1. pp. 404-406). lb., vi. (t. 11. pp. 322-324). lb., ill. (t. 1. pp. 601,
502).

s lb., ii. (t. i. p. 406). lb., vi. (t. 11. pp. 324, 325).

456 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Sensualists cannot admit a faculty independent of all phys-
ical conditions, and, therefore, they dispute the freedom of
the will. It has always been combated, never proved, and,
by the most strictly orthodox Calvinists, completely denied.
Even Hobbes appealed in this case to the Calvinists. Free-
dom is not merely unproved, but unprovable, like every other
unconditioned. It is, on physical grounds, impossible. To
deduce error from the freedom of the will is to explain the
known by the unknown and the unknowable, the natural by
the impossible. Error is rather the natural and easily to be
comprehended consequence of our limited faculty of knowl-
edge.i

8. The Cartesian dualism follows from the certainty of
self illuminated by the idea of God; the perception that
mind and body are substances, and, indeed, completely
opposed to each other. From thence is evident the inde-
pendence of the mind of the body. All his opponents, how-
ever they differ in their other opinions, attack this point.
The sensualists and theologians contest this doctrine in
common : their arguments are similar, though their motives
are different. Sensualists wish to maintain the dependence
of the mind upon the body, because they wish to make the
body supreme. Theologians are interested in opposing the
freedom and independence of the mind, because, with them,
the absolute dependence of human beings is of the utmost
importance. The weakness of body is evident enough. If
our mental nature is united with that of the body, and de-
pends upon it, the frailty and weakness of man are made out
as the system of theology requires. By their participation in
the nature of bodies, finite spirits are distinguislied from God.
According to the opinion of the Church Fathers and the
Platonists, even spirits of a higher order have bodies ; and ac-
cordingly the Lateran Council permitted angels to be repre-
•sented by paintings. So much the less has the human mind
a right to imagine that it is independent of body. But even

1 Obj., iii. (t. i. pp. 494, 495). lb., v. (t. ii. pp. 186-192).

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 457

if the difference of the two substances were sufBciently
proved, the immortality of the soul is not yet proved. For,
if the soul is immaterial, it can be destroyed by the divine
omnipotence. Besides, such an argument would prove too
much. For the souls of animals, since they are likewise
different from body, would have to be immortal according
to that reasoning, which it occurs to no one to maintain.
To be sure, Descartes denies that animals have souls, declar-
ing that they are nothing but machines ; but this opinion is
so utterly at variance with experience, that it is difficult to
convince any one of it.^

Moreover, according to Arnauld, the proof that is said to
be evident from the opposition between body and mind will
not stand the test of a careful examination. What can be
thought without the concept of another being, is held to be
able to exist without the existence of that being, and, there-
fore, to be independent of it : thus it is with the concept of
mind in relation to that of body, and conversely. This infer-
ence from idea to existence is incorrect, since it proves too
much. I can conceive a right-angled triangle without knowl-
edge of the Pythagorean proposition : I can conceive length
without breadth, and this without depth. Nevertheless, there
are no right-angled triangles without the properties which
Pythagoras proved, and there is in reality no one dimension
without the rest. That we can form the concept of mind
clearly and distinctly without that of body, is therefore no
proof of the immaterial existence of mind. Further, the op-
position of substances cannot be inferred from that of their
attributes (thought and extension), the concepts of which
must necessarily be separated. What is true of thought is not
for that reason just as true of mind ; for, if it were, the nature
of the latter would be identical with the conscious activity
of thought, and all obscure and unconscious states of mind,
as in embryonic life and sleep, would be impossible. Expe-

1 Obj., vi. (t. ii. pp. 319, 320). lb., ii. (t. i. pp. 408, 409). lb., iv. (t. ii. pp.
16-16).

458 HISTORY OF MODEKN PHILOSOPHY.

rience teaches us that the life of our souls is influenced by
our bodily states, that our mental development goes hand in
hand with that of the body, and that sound mental activity
is hindered by the obstruction of physical causes. The mind
slumbers in childhood: it is lost in madness. Facts like
these bear testimony against the purely spiritual nature of
man, and one does not need to be a materialist to find them
worthy of attention.'

No more detailed account is necessary to show how sen-
sualists, on the ground of these and similar facts, affirm the
complete dependence of the mind upon the body, reject the
dualism of Descartes, and admit only a difference of degree
between man and the rest of the animal creation.

II. DESCARTES' REPLIES.

Since we have had in mind, and given due consideration
to, Descartes' replies to these objections, in our exposition of
his system, it is not to be expected that we shall now begin
to have a new perception of the purport and meaning of his
doctrine. If even the philosopher himself in most cases
could do nothing else in opposing the objections than return
to the " Meditations," and since the work was so mature and
thoroughly thought out that he found nothing to correct, his
explanations were fundamentally only circumlocutions and
repetitions of what he had already said. To avoid such
repetitions, we shall here proceed more briefly than in the
objections, noticing only those cardinal points of the system
which have always been subject to misunderstandings, though
they certainly have not justified them. They all relate to
the principle of certainty. This is completely misunderstood
when it is attempted to interpret it syllogistically, to construe
it materialistically, to prove it sensualistically, to nullify it
sceptically. As in all these cases, especially the three latter,
the misunderstandings, however gross, have a plausibility
that can easily deceive, we will hear how Descartes defends

1 Obj. Iv. (t. ii. pp. 11-15, 30).

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 459

the immediate certainty of his principle, whose first and
immediate object is only our mental existence, whose ground
is only the activity of our thought, and whose discovery pro-
ceeds from the certainty of doubt (not from its uncertainty).

1. Reply to the Objection that the Proof is Syllogistic. — The
principle of the whole doctrine consists in our certainty of
ourselves and of God, in our certainty of self illuminated by
the idea of God, or, if one prefers this way of stating it, in
the proof of our mental existence and that of God. We
have shown in detail how closely and directly these two cer-
tainties are connected, and express the same thing in different
relations.' What, therefore, is true of one, is true, also, of
the other. Either they are both immediately, or both me-
diately, certain : in the latter case they are syllogistically
proved ; i.e., they remain unproved, and therefore invalid.
When the Cartesian proof of God, especiaiUy the ontological
form of it, is understood syllogistically, it is identical with
the scholastic one, and is exposed to all the objections which
the latter properly calls forth. Descartes corrects this mis-
understanding in his reply to the objections of Caterus, show-
ing in what his ontological argument differs from that of
Thomas (he should have said Anselm) ; that his proof is not
an inference, but an immediate certainty, since in the idea of
God his existence is clearly and distinctly apprehended with-
out middle terms. The same is true of the certainty of our-
selves, which in like manner is not reached syllogistically or
through middle terms, but is immediately or intuitively evi-
dent. Descartes makes that declaration in his reply to the
second objections. "If any one says, 'I think, therefore
I am or exist,' he does not infer existence from thought
by means of a syllogism, but apprehends it as something
immediately certain through the simple intuition of the
mind." 1

If one understands the doctrine of Descartes, the above-

' See book ii. chap. iv. pp. 354-359.

a E^p. aux Obj., i. (t. i. pp. 388-395). lb., ii. (p. 427).

460 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

mentioned misconceptions seem so unintelligible as to be
ridiculous. The Cartesian certainty of self rests not on this
or that theorem, but on the consciousness of our intellectual
imperfection, which must be evident by means of the idea of
intellectual perfection. This idea, since it precedes and con-
ditions our consciousness, is necessarily independent of the
latter, and of an original character ; i.e., it is not merely an
idea, but God. If I am completely confused in myself and
in all my thoughts, and declare my uncertainty with perfect
conviction, one ought not to expect that any one will inquire
upon what syllogism my conviction rests. He who does,
knows not of what I speak. He knows neither the uncer-
tainty in which I find myself, nor still less my incontestable
certainty. The above objections to the doctrine of Descartes
are based upon this kind of utter ignorance.

2. Reply to the Materialistic and Sensualistic Ohjections. —
From the truth of self-certainty, the origin and depth of
which Hobbes utterly failed to see, he deduced materialism.
If I am a thinking being, I distinguish myself from thought
as the subject from its property or activity : I am, therefore,
a being different from thought; i.e., a body which thinks.
Thought, therefore, is a bodily activity, or a kind of motion.
The facts of experience prove that it is so. These every-
where show that the so-called mental life depends upon the
states, impressions, and processes of the bodily nature ; is,
therefore, nothing except a phenomenon and effect of the
body.

Descartes discusses these thoroughly superficial and grossly
sophistical objections, which were unworthy of a Hobbes, as
lightly and as slightingly as they deserved. Nothing is easier
than to bring any two things into the relation of subject and
predicate, and to declare that that must be different from
this. We can then reverse the proposition, and prove the
contrary. We can thus make the heavens the earth, and the
earth the heavens ; the mind the body, and, just as validly,
the body the mind. Such a mode of proof has no validity at

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 461

all, and is opposed to all sound logic and to the common use
of language.'

Gassendi attempted to lessen the value of Descartes' cer-
tainty of self by maintaining that it can be proved sensualis-
tically. That we are, is evident, not merely from our thought,
but just as clearly from any other of our activities. '■'■Amhulo
ergo sum " must be accepted with the same right as " cogito ergo
sum." The proposition, " I go a-walking, therefore I am,"
is, according to Gassendi, just as certain as " I think, there-
fore I am." Descartes himself uses this example, in order to
illustrate Gassendi's objection. Of all objections, this, to the
common consciousness, is most plausible; and if it is well
taken, the Cartesian principle of certainty is lost.

From every activity which I conceive, it follows, with
indubitable certainty, that I am. The more particular de-
terminations of the activity are completely incidental and
indifferent. That / conceive them is the important matter,
and the only ground upon which that certainty is evident.
To conceive an activity, or be conscious of it, is to think.
From every activity, so far as I conceive or think it, it fol^
lows that I am. If I do not conceive it, nothing at all follows
for my consciousness. The taking a walk is a state of motion
of the human body. It does not follow from thence that I
am. Not till I conceive this body, and its state of motion as
mine, can I say, " I take a walk." It is possible that this
motion does not really exist ; that it exists only in imagina-
tion or in dreams ; that I do not take a walk ; but it is im-
possible that T, who have this imagination, am not. The
certainty, therefore, of my own existence does not follow
from my motion, but only from my conception of it; i.e.,
from my thought. It makes no difference what I conceive,
whether the object which I conceive is my own walking or
that of another. It may be imaginary in both cases ; but that
I conceive them is certain, and from thence alone follows
the certainty of my existence. " I think, therefore I am," is,

1 R«p. aux Ob]., lii. (t. i. pp. 472-474, 476-478).

462 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

therefore, indisputable. Gassendi, in opposing this proposi-
tion, was laboring under a twofold misconception, and in-
volved in a double error. He did not see, that, abstracting
from my conception and my consciousness, there is no ac-
tivity at all which I could denote as mine. Still less did he
see that it may be the activity of any other, or any object
whatever, from the conception of which in me the certainty of
my existence is immediately evident ; that, therefore, in all
cases, my conception or thought is the only ground of cer-
tainty.i

3. Hefly to the Objection that Doubt is Nihilistic. — The
proposition of self-certainty was exposed to a threefold attack.
Some regarded it as syllogistic, and therefore unproved.
Hobbes admitted its validity, but only of our bodily exist-
ence ; Gassendi also, but on the ground of all our ac-
tivities without distinction. All these objections to the
foundations of Descartes' doctrine are unsupported. We
have still to consider Bourdin's objection, who declared the
inference of certainty completely invalid and impossible,
since it depends on doubt.

We have already noticed those cheap dialectic arts by
means of which the author of the seventh objections at-
tempted to disprove the doctrine of Descartes, by a reductio
ad absurdum, to prevent each of its steps, and, finally, as its
logical result, to deduce the proposition that nothing what-
ever is. Let us leave its scholastic buffoonery and capi-ioles
unnoticed, and attend merely to the principle with which the
controversial man sought to break down and overthrow
the new doctrine. The strength of the whole polemic lies in
this proposition : If the reality of all things is doubted, their
non-reality must be asserted ; or, to speak more in Bourdin's
manner, If all things are doubtful, nothing exists in reality.
Two misconceptions, which, in opposition to the doctrine of
Descartes, we must characterize as a crude lack of under-
standing, lie at the foundation of this conception. The

1 R6p. aux Obj., v. (t. ii. pp. 247, 248).

THE FIRST CRITICAL TEST, ETC. 46S

opponent regards " to be doubtful " and " to be unreal " (1)
as identical in meaning and (2) a state of things ! In his
understanding, therefore, the Cartesian assertion, "I doubt
all things," is changed into, "There are no real things at
all."

To be doubtful, so far as it relates to an object, is possibly
not to be. When we doubt an object, or the reality of a
thing, -we do not deny it, but leave it' an open question
whether the thing is, or not, whether it is so, or otherwise.
"To be doubtful" is not a predicate which belongs to an
object in the same manner as extension, motion, rest, to
body. "Something is doubtful" means "It is doubtful to
me : " I doubt or am uncertain whether the thing is, or
not, whether it is so, or otherwise." " To be doubtful "
is, therefore, not a state of things, but merely of our
thought: it is the state of our uncertainty. The oppo-
site of it is my certainty, and this exists only in my imagi-
nation or in truth. In the former case, it is self-delusion;
in the latter, knowledge. The path to truth leads not
through our self-delusion, but through our knowledge of it ;
i.e., through the doubt of our own pretended or imaginary
certainty. This path Descartes trod, and therein consists his
doubt and its method. Either we must deny that we are
involved in self-delusion, which would be the height of self-
blindness, or we must be aware of this state, and fall into the
very same doubt which Descartes experienced and made typi-
cal. This doubt is the only protection against self-delusion,
and is unavoidable. It is as old as the experience tliat we
are involved in delusion, and it becomes new as often as this
experience is repeated ; and this is the case in every man who
earnestly desires truth. Hobbes's objection, therefore, that
doubt is no modern discovery, did not make the- least impres-
sion on our philosopher. New, or not, replied Descartes, it is
necessary, since I desire truth.' Least of all could Bourdin,
in his confident self-sufficiency, conceive the earnestness and

1 E^p. aux Obj., iii. (t. i. p. 467).

464 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

depth of the Cartesian doubt. Nothing follows more clearly
and evidently from this doubt than self-certainty, because
it is already contained in it. It is not asserted that things
are unreal or non-existent, but their existence and proper-
ties are uncertain or doubtful. It is not asserted that things
are doubtful or uncertain, but that / am uncertain, and
indeed in all things. From " I am uncertain " follows im-
mediately " I am," since it is contained in it.^

The necessity of doubt, the truth of self-certainty, the
grounding of the latter by our doubt or thought, — the only
and immediate validity of this ground, therefore the axiom-
atic certainty of our mental existence, — these foundations of
the doctrine of Descartes stand firm and sure, in opposition
to the objections. All of them attack it, but none of them
make the least impression upon it.

How is it with the system itself that rests on these founda-
tions? This question leads us to the last inquiry, to the
examination of the system.

1 Obj., vli. Remarque de Descartes (t. ii. pp. 385-387, 405-412).

A CRITICAL EXAMIKATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 465

CHAPTER XI.

A CEITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM. -UNSOLVED
AND NEW PROBLEMS.

1. OBJECT AND METHOD OF THE INQUIRY.

rr^HE criticisms which we have expounded in the fore-
-*- going chapter are not only worthy of note historically,
hut are also significant for the examination of the system to-
day. They represent the doctrine of Descartes in the light
in which it should be considered and estimated. That both
theologians and naturalists opposed the principles of our
philosopher, is, of itself, a proof that his system is neither
theological nor naturalistic in the opinion of his antagonists.
From opposite points of view they attacked the doctrine of
rational principles or its metaphysical foundations. The
natural light of clear and distinct thought appeared to the
theological antagonists doubtful in relation to the ecclesias-
tical doctrines of faith ; to the sensualistic, in relation to the
empirical doctrine of nature. Those missed the supernatural
light of revelation; these, the natural light of the senses.
The light of reason (la lumiere naturelle) which Descartes
followed, falls not down from heaven, and does not jwoceed
from the senses. Theologians regard it as merely natural,
and, therefore, as something foreign to their modes of think-
ing ; and sensualists, on the other hand, as not natural, and
therefore as something equally foreign to their sensualistic
modes of thought. To those, the new doctrine is too natu-
ralistic: to these, it is not naturalistic enough. The one
party fears that theology will become naturalized, and thus
become disloyal to the Church; the other, that the doc-

466 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

trine of nature will become rationalized, and thus become
alienated from experience.

Thus, in spite of their own opposition, the theological
mode of thought which proceeds from Augustine and the
scholastics, and the sensualistic, which in Gassendi started
from Epicurus, and in Hobbes from Bacon, united against
Descartes. At the same time, each of the two trends found
a congenial side in the new doctrine ; and it is a fact well
worthy of remark, that, particularly between Descartes and
Arnauld, there were points of agreement which both felt as a
mental kinship. To none of the authors of the objections
did Descartes feel so near : upon the agreement of none did
he lay a greater emphasis. He hoped to have so united the
theological and naturalistic systems in his doctrine, that they
could enter into an alliance in which neither — least of all
the theological — should be the loser. It is also true that
both are contained in the new system, and not merely exter-
nally and artificially joined with each other, but thought to-
gether, in the mind of our philosopher. Now the question
here arises, whether in Descartes' doctrine those tendencies
are really united and are compatible which are in conflict
with each other outside of the system, and meet in the
polemic against it?

We cannot correctly, and from its own point of view, esti-
mate a system by applying to it the measure of foreign opin-
ions, and determining its value accordingly. Those objections
with which we have become acquainted furnished an example
of such a subjective estimation. Every thoroughly thought-
out system, as it comes from the miild of a great philosopher,
is in its kind a whole that requires to be apprehended and
examined as such. It is, therefore, to be inquired whether it
has really solved the problem which determines its funda-
mental thoughts. As necessary as is the problem, so neces-
sary must be the conditions without which the solution can-
not be given. These conditions are the principles of the
system: the solution of the problem consists in their com-

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 467

plete and logical development. To examine a system from
its own point of view is, therefore, nothing else than to
compare its solution with its problem, its results with its
principles, its derivative propositions with those which are
fundamental, and see whether it has performed what it in-
tended. If the doctrine of a philosopher is completed and
without defect, nothing remains but to recognize and dif-
fuse it, — the task of disciples who regard the work of the
master as perfect. To apprehend defects is the business of a
searching and progressive examination, which at first assumes
neither the correctness of the consequences, still less that of
the principles, but only inquires whether all the inferences
which could be deduced from those principles have actually
been drawn. If not, the system is to be completed. Therein
consists its completion, and this constitutes the proper and
first business of a school. The second inquiry penetrates
deeper : it relates to the correctness of the consequences ; to
the harmony of the derivative propositions with those from
which they are deduced; to the application of the principles,
whose validity is accepted without question : in a word, the
question is as to the logicalness of the solution. If there are
defects in this respect, the consequences must be so changed
and corrected as to bring them in perfect harmony with the
principles. In this consists the critical advance of the doc-
trine, — a work of the progressive school. When the system
has been completed and corrected in the sense just explained,
no more can be done while the principles remain undisputed.
But if, in spite of it, the problem is not yet solved, the fault
lies in the principles, — in the incongruity between the prob-
lem and the principles ; in their lack of comprehensiveness.
It is evident that the problems the system attempts to solve
cannot be solved by means of its principles. To this the
third inquiry leads, penetrating to the heart of the matter. It
no longer concerns the completeness and correctness of the
derivative principles, but that of those from which they are
derived : it makes the really critical test which determines

468 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

•whether the calculation is correct or not. Defects in infer-
ences are secondary: those in fundamental principles, on
the other hand, are primary. If the calculation is not cor-
rect, defects of a fundamental character are discovered in the
system. The principles must now be changed, corrected, and
made conformable to the problem to be solved. In this con-
sists the transformation of the system, and this transcends
the sphere of the school in the narrower sense.

Progressive stages can be distinguished, even in the trans-
formation of a system; and we will now call attention to
the most important of them. In the first, which makes the
beginning, the fundamental principles are partly transformed,
in order to be brought into harmony with the system. The
extremest limits of the school are then reached, and it may
be questioned whether this advance belongs to the school.
If now, in spite of this change in the principles of the system,
the problem cannot be solved, we must advance to the sec-
ond stage, to the entire transformation of the system; and
there is now no longer a question that the old school is com-
pletely abandoned. If the required goal is not reached on
the new road, it is evident that the fault, the error as it were,
in the calculation, must be sought not merely in the princi-
ples, but in the problem itself, in the mode in which it is put,
in the terms of the calculation as it were. The problem
must then be made soluble by a complete rectification, by a
change in the fundamental question. This transformation is
a revolution or epoch.

The rightly progressive examination of a great and epoch-
making system, from its own point of view, accordingly con-
sists in the views which are immediately deduced from the
system, which take its direction, — first developing, then
correcting, and finally transforming it. While the problem
continues to be conceived in the form in which it has been
entertained up to this time, the principles are transformed,
at first partly, then completely. Finally, the problem itself
is transformed, the authority of the whole of the philosophy

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 469

of the past is overthrown, and a new epoch created. With
this method of examining a system from its own point of
view, progressing from question to question, coincides, as we
see, the course of the historical development of philosophy
itself.

The doctrine of Descartes is such a great and epoch-mak-
ing system, to which all those stages of criticism and of pro-
gressing historical development can be referred. "We touch
upon them here by way of illustration, since they are ex-
pounded in detail hereafter. Thus, the first disciples of Des-
cartes, men like Reneri and Regius (the latter in his earli-
est period), carefully unfold the principles. Geulincx and
Malebranche make further developments. Spinoza affects
their partial, and Leibnitz their total, transformation ; while
Kant completely demolishes them, and lays the foundations
of a new epoch.

II. PRINCIPAL CRITICAL QUESTIONS.

In the light of reason, or of clear and distinct thought,
Descartes had apprehended the reality of God as well as that
of minds and bodies, their dependence upon God as well as
their independence of each other. " Precisely in this consists
the nature of substances, that they exclude each other." God
is the infinite substance, minds and bodies are finite : those
are thinking, these are extended, substances. There exists,
accordingly, in our system a double and radical dualism : (1)
the opposition between God and the world, and (2) within
the world, between mind and bodies, from which that be-
tween men and animals necessarily follows.

This doctrine affirms the substantiality of God in distinc-
tion from the world, the substantiality of the world in dis-
tinction from God. In the first affirmation consists its theo-
logical character ; in the second, its naturalistic. That God,
according to Descartes, is the absolute, powerful Will, who
illuminated minds, moved bodies, created and preserved all
things, won the approval of the theologians, while the natu-

470 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

ral light of reason and the thereby evident substantiality
of things was an object of their doubts. The nature of
things was divided in the opposition between minds and
bodies. If our system admitted nothing but the nature of
things as real, it would be exclusively naturalistic. It would
be materialistic if it affirmed only the substantiality of body.
But its naturalism is limited by the validity which it concedes
to the concept of God, since it regards things as depending
upon the will of God, and limits materialism by the validity
it concedes to the concept of mind, since it opposes mind to,
and declares it independent of, matter. The materialists are,
therefore, limited and repelled on two sides, and agree with
Descartes only in this, that he affirms, also, the substantiality
of matter, and, in consequence of it, explains the world by
purely mechanical laws.

The same principle which forms the central point of the
whole doctrine decides its twofold dualism. It advances
through doubt to self-certainty, and thence to the knowledge
of God and of body. From our self-certainty is immediately
evident the independence or substantiality of mind, its dif-
ference of essence from God and bodies, therefore the opposi-
tion, both between finite and infinite, and between thinking
and extended being. The dualistic character of the system
is required by its principle, and is, therefore, fundamental.
We must now inquire whether these dualistic principles are
in harmony with the problem, whether all derivative proposi-
tions are consistent with those principles; i.e., whether the
system itself does not teach that which opposes the dualism
between God and the world, mind and body, man and
animal? These questions relate to the principal critical
points.

1. The Dualistic System of Knowledge. — Since, according
to Descartes, substances mutally exclude, and are completely
independent of, each other, there exists between them neither
mutual nor one-sided dependence, neither reciprocal action
nor causality, therefore no kind of community or conneo-

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 471

tion. The problem of knowledge requires the universal
connection of things, dualism their separation. Dualism,
therefore, is in conflict with the problem which it claimed
to solve, or that dualistic system of knowledge is involved
in a contradiction with itself. The method of Descartes
aimed to be (it is his own figure) the thread of Ariadne,
the guiding principle, to lead knowledge step by step by a
continuous and sure path through the labyrinth of the
universe. Now, in more than one place the path of knowl-
edge is severed by the yawing chasm of dualism. From
this it is evident that the doctrine of Descartes cannot
solve its problem by means of its principles, that the range
of the problem of knowledge extends farther than that of
the system.

2. Dualism between Cfod and the World. — Were God in
truth separate from things, and separated as the concept of
substance and the dualistic doctrine demand, there could
be no kind of connection between them, and there would be
no possibility of the idea of God in minds, nor of motion
and rest in bodies: those could not be illuminated, these
could not be moved, by God. Our idea of God is according
to the philosopher's own and necessary declaration, the
effect, activity, existence of God in us. In like manner,
the original state of motion and rest in the world of bodies
is the act of the divine Will. Minds and bodies, accordingly,
and, therefore, finite things in general, are dependent upon
God, hence not substances in the strict sense of the word.

Descartes himself says it. The substantiality of God is
one thing, that of things another: strictly speaking, only
the first is to be accepted, not the second. Things are not
substances in reference to God. Without God, minds are
in darkness, so unilluminated that they are not even aware
of their own imperfection, for only the idea of the perfect
illuminates the imperfect : without the idea of God (without
God), there is in minds no doubt, therefore no certainty of
self, from which alone our substantiality is evident. With-

472 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

out God, there is in bodies neither motion nor rest. With-
out him, therefore, both minds and bodies, therefore finite
things in general, are as good as non-existent. They are
not merely dependent upon God, but even exist only through
him: they are his effects, he their cause. The more em-
phatically the substantiality of God is affirmed, so much
the less can it be predicated of things, so much the more
does the independence of the world lose in importance,
until at last it has none at all. To the absolute independ-
ence of God correspond only the absolute dependence and
non-reality of things. They are creatures of God : the
concept of substance is transformed into that of creature.
To say both at the same time, Descartes calls things " created
substances" — which does not reconcile, or even conceal, the
contradiction, but openly declares it. The concejDt of a
created substance is a contradictio in adjecto ; since by sub-
stance, according to the philosopher's own declaration, a
thing must be understood, that requires no other for its
existence, while the word creature denotes a being that can
neither exist nor be thought without the will of God.
And not merely for their existence, but also for their con-
servation, are things held to require the will and creative
power of God. Because they are not in and of themselves,
they also cannot be preserved by their own power. Des-
cartes, therefore, with Augustine calls the conservation of
the world a continual creation {creatio continua). Finite
substances are, therefore, not merely in certain respects
dependent, and lacking in substantiality, they are in every
respect. Accurately speaking, there are no longer three
substances, but in truth but one : God is the only substance.
Descartes himself draws this inference, which is irreconcila-
ble with his dualistic system of knowledge. " By substance
is only to be understood such a being as requires no other
for its existence. This independence can be conceived of
but one being; that is, of God. All other things we can
conceive to exist only under the concoursg of God. There

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 473

is no meaning of this word which can be understood of God
and his creatures in common." •

Here, now, is the point in which that principal critical
question is decided: does the doctrine of Descartes so
unite the theological and naturalistic systems, that each of
the two has its rights? The question must at iirst sight
be answered in the negative. The substantiality of things
(the world) cannot maintain itself against the substantiality
of God. The latter not merely preponderates, but has all
of the weight, and finite substances finally lose all inde-
pendence in comparison with the infinite. In the place
of nature, the concepts of creation, of continual creation,
step in ; and these permit to things no independence of
their own whatever. In the doctrine of Descartes, there-
fore, the theological element seems to gain such absolute
supremacy, that Augustinianism in his system appears to
gain the victory over naturalism.

But let us not be deceived by appearances. In truth, tlie
God of Augustine is very unlike that of our philosopher.
One thing is the ground of the knowledge of the God of
Augustine ; another, of that of Descartes'. That is evident
from the fact of redemption, this from the fact of human
self-certainty. The God of Augustine elects the one to
happiness, the other to damnation; he enlightens the one,
and strikes the other with blindness ; he saves whom he
will, and has mercy on whom he will ; he is absolute
sovereign power, and irrational arbitrary will.^ But in the
doctrine of Descartes, God is the cause (real ground) of
our self-certainty, which constitutes the principle of knowl-
edge according to the guiding principle of clear and distinct
thought. This thought is the natural light within us which
never deceives us, the source of which is God. To this God,
therefore, deception is impossible. If there could be such .
a deception, human knowledge would be impossible, and the

1 Pi-ino. Phil., i. sec. 51.

2 See Introduction, chap. iii. p. 61.

474 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

fundamental principle shattered on whicli knowledge rests
in absolute security. Let us fix this point accurately in our
minds. There is something which according to the doc-
trine of our philosopher is impossible, and therefore limits
the divine arbitrary will in the most significant manner.
That is impossible in God which would destroy knowledge
in us, and transform our natural light into a Will-o'-the-
wisp. Descartes expressly says, " The first attribute of God
consists in this, that he is absolutely truthful, and the giver of
all light. It is, therefore, unreasonable to suppose that he
can ever deceive us, or strictly and positively can be the cause
of the errors to which, as experience shows, we are subject.
To be able to deceive can perhaps by us human beings be
regarded as a mark of mind : to will to deceive is always
an indubitable consequence of wickedness, fear, or weak-
ness, and can, therefore, never be asserted of God."^

Human knowledge is possible only if it is impossible for
God to deceive us. But the less God wills and can will
our error, the less he is able to act according to arbitrary
will, but only according to the necessity which is in harmony
with law, and is one with his nature and will. If he were
arbitrary will acting without grounds, as he is absolute
omnipotence, why should he not will to deceive us according
to his inscrutable determination, and how could we be sure
that he never will ? How are we able so to know the incom-
prehensible will of God as to perceive with absolute cer-
tainty that there is one thing he can never will, and that
is to deceive us? In that case, we see likewise one thing
that he always desires, and that is our knowledge. The
divine Will is, therefore, knowable, and it would not be if
it were arbitrary will acting without reasons. It is not
that, since it cannot just as well will our error as our knowl-
edge. He desires only the latter: his will is, therefore, not
indifferent, but always illuminated by the most distinct
knowledge. The divine Will is not different from the divine

1 Prino. Phil., i. sec. 29.

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OP THE SYSTEM, ETC. 475

light : the natural light, because it is infallible, is identical
with the divine. Now, in what is the being of God dis-
tinguished from that of nature ? In one of his most note-
worthy sentences, Descartes says, " It is certain that there
must be truth in every thing which nature teaches us.
For hy nature, in general, I understand nothing other than
Crod himself or the world-order established hij God, and by my
own nature in particular nothing more than the assemblage
of all the powers God has lent to me." ^

We now see the bearing of the doctrine that God is the
only substance in the teachings of Descartes. The more
the naturalistic element steps into the background, and
vanishes in the presence of the theological, the more the
independence of things is absorbed by the independence of
God : by so much the more in the theological element itself
the naturalistic again appears, by so much the more does the
Cartesian God cease to be a supernatural being, by so much
the more is this concept of God naturalized and alienated
to the extremest opposition to the Augustinian. From the
dualistic declaration, " God and nature," already arises the
monistic " God or nature " (Deus sive natura}. Decartes
hints at it: Spinoza elevates it to sovereign authority.
While Descartes seems to approach Augustine, he really
draws near Spinoza, and goes so far to meet him that he
actually pronounces the formula which contains Spinozism.
While in his personal inclinations, he feels drawn to the
Fathers of the Church, and to those theologians who were
imbued with Augustinianism, and rejoices in the agreement
which was remarked between his doctrine and Augustinian-
ism, the spirit of his doctrine prepares a trend of thought
which will complete naturalism, and oppose the theological
system in the sharpest manner. The destiny of philosophy
is mightier than the persons through whom it speaks and
works. Descartes is on the road which leads to Spinoza,
while he supposes that he is laying the foundations of the

1 Med., vi. (t. i. p. 335).

476 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

doctrines of faith more deeply, and calls the doctors of
Sorbonne to witness that he has completed a work benefi-
cial to the Church. He is seized by the powers of whom it
is snid nolentem trahunt ! The fundamental direction of his
system which pierces through, and takes possession of, the
theological, is the naturalistic.

Nevertheless, in the doctrine of Descartes, the concept of
God as the onli/ substance in no way attains to sovereign
authority. Dualism protects itself against monism. In the
nature of things, something remains behind which belongs
peculiarly to them, and constitutes their unassailable funda-
mental essence. God moves bodies, which of themselves
are only movable since they are only extended. Now,
extension or matter, according to Descartes' own declaration,
cannot be understood by means of that which is immaterial ;
and since God is not material, matter cannot come from God.
It is, therefore, inconsistent with clear and distinct thought,
hence also with the nature of God, to treat matter as
Descartes does, as something created. We note here the
characteristic contradiction which arises : body cannot be a
substance in comparison with God ; extension cannot be
created. The fact that God is the only substance is again
put in question, since along with God, extension, the essence
of body, comes to be considered as independent of God.
God illuminates minds : in this illumination, the natural
light of reason, they cannot err. Nevertheless, they do err ;
and the ground of their error can be no other than they
themselves, than their will. By virtue of this will they
are beings with powers of their own, beings independent of
God.

Two powers accordingly arise in the nature of things
which lay claim to independent reality in opposition to the
assertion that God is the only substance, — extension hora the
side of body, will from that of mind. But as soon as tliere
is something that is independent of God or substantial,
the proposition that God is the only substance can no longer

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 477

be affirmed. Thus, we see in' the doctrine of Descartes a
series of unsolved problems which have necessarily arisen
before us. The dualistic system of knowledge is in conflict
with the problem of knowledge, with the solubility of this
problem. The dualism between God and the world is in
conflict with itself when the substantiality of one is denied.
Substantiality is put in question on both sides : things are
held to be creatures, and God the only substance ; but the
nature of things is in conflict with this concept through
the independence both of extension and will.

3. Dualism between Mind and Body. — If the dualism
between God and the world in the system of the philoso-
pher falls into uncertainty, the cleft in the nature of things,
on the other hand, the opposition between mind and body,
appears in the most decided and certain form. From our
self-certainty it followed that we are independent and con-
scious beings ; i.e., thinking substances (minds). As soon as
our doubt that there are things without us was removed,
these had to be conceived as beings independent of us, in
their way self-dependent, i.e., also as substances which can
have nothing in common with mind, are, therefore, com-
pletely opposed to the latter, or, which is the same thing, as
merely extended substances (bodies). Thus, the opposition
between mind and body stepped into the full light of clear
and distinct thought. Nothing that thinks is extended,
nothing that is extended thinks. Thought and extension
are different " toto genere^'' as Descartes says in replying to
Hobbes. But if only the opposition or separation between
mind and body can be thought clearly and distinctly, the
union of the two must appear unthinkable or impossible in
the natural light of reason ; and if there is actually such a
union, it is in conflict with the foundations of the system,
and its explanation puts the doctrine of Descartes to the
severest test. We have now to inquire whether the philoso-
pher stands this test without denying his principles.

No objections to a system of knowledge are stronger than

478 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the undeniable facts of nature itself. The negative instance
to the dualism of mind and body is man, since he is both
in one. In him mind and body are united, and indeed so
closely, that, according to Descartes' own declaration, they
constitute in a certain manner one being.i What becomes
of this fact when brought face to face with that clearly and
distinctly apprehended opposition of the two substances?
The philosopher declares, "In truth, mind and body are
completely separated: in the light of reason I see that
there is no community between the two." Human nature
proves the contrary, since it is such a community. Accord-
ing to dualism, natural things are either minds or bodies.
Man is a living proof of the contrary, a natural being who
is both at the same time. The voice of his self-certainty
calls to him, " Thou art mind : " the voice of his natural
impulses and desires calls just as distinctly, "Thou art
body."

After the Princess Elizabeth, Descartes' most receptive
disciple, had studied the "Meditations," the first question,
which she wished Descartes to answer b}'' letter, was, How
is it with the union of soul and bod}'? Descartes replied
that no question was more proper, but his answer to it
was not a sufficient explanation. He did not solve the
problem, but only changed it, and left it unanswered.
Clearly and distinctly one apprehends, he said, merely the
opposition of soul and body, not their union; that the
essence of the mind consists in thought and will, that of
body in extension and its modifications is an object of the
most distinct knowledge, while the union of the two and
their mutual influence is only perceived by means of the
senses. " The human mind is not capable of distinctly
conceiving the difference of essence between soul and body,
and, at the same time, their union, for it would then be
necessary to conceive both as a single being, and at the
same time as two different things, which is a contradic-

1 Uii., vi. (t. i. p. 336).

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OP THE SYSTEM, ETC. 479

tion.^ " This confessed contradiction shows that the solution
of the anthropological problem conflicts with the dualism of
the principles.

There is no doubt that the complete nature of man con-
sists in a union of mind and body ; that, therefore, neither of
the two substances, compared with human nature, has the
character of completeness. The different relations in which
mind and body require to be considered, must be carefully
compared, that we may see whether the dualistic principles
hold their own. Mind and body are finite substances, beings
opposed to each other, constituents of human nature. They
are finite in distinction from God, opposed in reference to
each other, constituents which mutually complete each other
in reference to man. In each of these three relations, the
character of their substantiality is modified.

In the first relation, mind and body, as has already been
shown, are not really substances, but creatures (^substanfAce
creatoe). But if they are not substances at all, they cannot
be opposed : their dualism is here wrecked on the concept
of God, which cancels or invalidates the independence of
things. In the second relation, they are complete substances
(^substantim completce^, since they ai-e opposed to, and mutu-
ally exclude, each other. But their mutual exclusion is also
reciprocity, therefore a kind of community. If two natures
are so related to each other, that each must be conceived as
the contrary of the other, neither can be conceived ivithout
the other. Both are bound together by the character of
opposition, which constitutes their essence. The nature of
body consists in nothing but extension, because it must con-
sist in the complete opposite of thought. Thus, the dualism
between mind and body is wrecked on the concept of sub-
stance itself, which excludes every relation of substances,
therefore even opposition. In the third relation, i.e., in ref-
erence to human nature, mind and body are incomplete sub-

1 Of. the first two letters to Elizabeth in the spring of 1643 (t. ix. pp.
123-135). See book i. chap. iv. p. 220.

480 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

stances (suistantice incompletce) : each requires the other for
its completion, and is, taken by itself, as little a whole as the
hand is the whole human body. Descartes himself uses this
comparison. If substance, according to the philosopher's
own and often repeated declaration, must be a being requir-
ing no other for its existence, an incomplete being, requiring
completion, is no substance. Here the substantiality of
mental and bodily nature, and therewith their dualism, are
wrecked on the concept and fact of man. The contradic-
tion is so apparent that the philosopher himself admits it.

With the doctrine of Descartes', that minds and bodies are
independent of and completely separated from each other, the
system itself is accordingly in conflict, since it maintains that
both are creatures of God, that they are necessarily opposed
in the world, and united in man. We must now examine
more closely Descartes' solution of his anthropological prob-
lem, in the light of this contradiction of concepts.

Man is one being, consisting of two natures. How is this
problem solved? This is the anthropological question from
the point of view of Cartesianism. We cannot apprehend
and affirm, both at the same time, wrote Descartes to his
pupil. If, then, we affirm the one, we must deny the other.
And there are passages in which this fundamental dualist, in
involuntary acknowledgment of the individuality of oiu"
being, affirms the unity of human nature, in such a way that
he denotes the union of soul and body in man as a substan-
tial unity (unio suhstantialis), and denies the duality of their
natures in such a way, that he transfers the fundamental
property of the one to the other, at one time making the
soul extended, at another the human body indivisible^ and
thus expunges the contradiction of attributes.^

Nevertheless, the fundamental doctrine of dualism remains
the guiding point of view from which the union of the soul
and body in man requires to be so explained, that the duality
of natures may suffer no injury. They form not in truth,

1 Les passions, i. art. 30.

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 481

but only " in a certain manner," one being. Out of relation
to man, they are in no way incomplete, since each is sufficient
for itself, and neither requires the other ; but human nature
is first complete when they are both united in it, and, there-
fore, only in this relation has the connotation of incomplete
substances validity, as Descartes emphasizes in his reply to
the fourth objections. What nature has fundamentally sepa-
rated, remains separated even in union. Fundamentally dif-
ferent substances cannot, therefore, be united, but only
placed together : their union is not unity of nature, but of
composition, not " unitas naturce" but " unitas compositionis.''
Man is a compound of mind and body. In this conception,
both the opposition and union of substances are valid, and
only from this point of view can the anthropological ques-
tion be put. The dualistic system has no other.

The question now arises whether these anthropological
principles are really consistent with the metaphysical,
whether soul and body, as constituents of a compounded
being, still remain those fundamentally different substances
which they are according to the dualistic principles of the
doctrine. Every compounded being is divisible, and, since
only extension can be divided, necessarily extended, there-
fore bodily or material ; and the same holds of each of its
parts. The parts which, through external combination, con-
stitute a whole, preserve their independence with reference
to each other, and remain substances; but only such sub-
stances can be brought into composition with each other as
are of the same kind, extended, material. Between the ex-
tended and the non-extended, the material and the immate-
rial, the bodily and the bodiless, substance, no kind of
composition is possible. If man is a compound of soul and
body, the fundamental difference of substances is gone. The
soul must touch the body with which it enters into the
closest union. The point where it touches it, or is con-
nected with it, must be spatial, in a place, bodily : the soul
is now localized, and becomes, in this respect, itself spatial.

482 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

It is impossible to see in what respect it remains unspatial
or immaterial. Extension is aggressive ; if the soul, to
speak figuratively, gives it the little finger, it takes the whole
hand : if the thinking substance only has its seat anywhere,
its independence of, and difference from, the body are lost,
not merely in this, but in every, respect. If the soul is
localized, even thereby is it also materialized, and made sub-
ject to mechanical laws. To these inferences Descartes is
necessarily forced, and we have seen how he makes them
in his work on the "Passions." He places the soul in the
middle of the brain, in the conariou, where it both receives
and causes the motion of the animal spirits. There it
moves, and is moved by, body. Elsewhere he maintains
that only bodies are movable, and, leaving out of considera-
tion the first moving cause, that they are only moved by
bodies. If this is true, the soul, since it is movable and
moves bodies, must itself be bodily. It has become a mate-
rial thing, however earnestly we have been assured that it is
a thinking substance fundamentally different from body.
That duality of natures which dualism asserts, and which is
held to remain preserved in composition, is by this very posi-
tion completely destroyed. That mechanical influence and
connection which are said to exist only between bodies, are
now asserted between soul and body. The composition of
two substances, as the Princess Elizabeth aptly remarked,
cannot be thought without the extension and materiality of
the soul. The Cartesian anthropology is in conflict, not
merely with the dualistic principles of metaphysics, but also
with the mechanical laws of natural philosophy. That the
quantity of motion in the world remains constant, that
action and re-action are equal, — all these fundamental prop-
ositions of the doctrine of motion cease to be valid as
soon as motions are produced in bodies by immaterial
causes.

However the union of the two substances in human
nature is thought, whether as unity or composition, in each

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 483

conception it is in conflict with the fundamental dualism of
the system, and necessarily results in the opposite.

4. Dualism between Men and Animals. — The union of the
two substances is asserted only of human nature : only in this
respect did Descartes regard them as incomplete beings, as
only in relation to God created substances, therefore, in the
strict sense of the term, not substances at all. Everywhere
else dualism preserves its complete, unimpaired significance.
Of all finite beings, man is the only one who consists of
soul and body: among all living bodies, his is the only one
that is animated with a soul. All other things (so far as our
knowledge extends) are either minds or bodies : all other
bodies, even animals, are soulless, mechanically arranged
and moved masses, nothing but machines. This is the dif-
ference of essence between men and animals ; and it neces-
sarily results from the fundamental dualism of Descartes'
doctrine, and is by no means a paradoxical fancy of the
philosopher. Soul is mind: the mark by which mind is
known is its self-certainty; this forms the single ground
of the knowledge of our mental existence. Where self-con-
sciousness is wanting, both mind and soul are wanting.
Animals, therefore, are without souls, since they have no
self-consciousness; while man, by reason of his self-con-
sciousness, is of a mental nature. The opposition between
man and animal is accordingly related to that between
mind and body as a particular case to a universal proposition
which includes it, or as an inference to its ground. And the
proposition that animals are automata, follows from the
difference of essence between man and animals.

We have now to inquire whether these inferences are in
harmony with the principles, whether that particular case of
dualism in the doctrine of Descartes can maintain itself as
the system necessarily requires, and how the philosopher
comes to terms with the facts which conflict with his doc-
trine from the side both of human and animal nature. We
are now at the point which we have already spoken of,

484 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

where we must inquire more closely into this critical ques-
tion.^ Its central point lies in the explanation of those phe-
nomena of life which man has in common with animals, as
sensations and impulses. If Descartes denies passions to
animals because passions are emotions of the mind, still he
cannot deny that they have sensations. How are these to
be explained? Are they mental or bodily, psychical or
mechanical, modes of thought or of motion ? In the answer
to this question, Descartes falls into a series of unavoidable
contradictions.

1. All true knowledge, according to the principle of cer-
tainty, consists in clear and distinct thought. If our thought
were only clear and distinct, there would be no error : the
wiU is guilty of error, because it affirms false judgments ;
these arise when we regard our presentations of sense (sensa-
tions) as properties of things. Sensations do not make the
error, but, without them, there would be no material out of
which the will could make them. If error consists in false
judgments, sensations consist in presentations of sense,
and these form the matter of judgment. Presentations are
only in mind : they are modes of thought. Sensations,
accordingly, are psychical. Among our different ideas are
also the presentations of body. Descartes at first leaves it
an open question, whether we ourselves, or things without
us, cause these ideas ; but he leaves no doubt that our sensa-
tions are presentations ; he accordingly relates sensations
merely to mind.^

2. Involuntarily we relate our sensations to bodies without
us as their cause. If there were no such bodies, our presen-
tation of the world of the senses would be a natural delu-
sion, one, therefore, in the last analysis willed by God
himself; and this, according to Descartes, is impossible.
Therefore, our presentations of the sensations are also caused
by bodies ; i.e., they are at the same time bodily motions and

1 See book ii. chap. ix. pp. 412, 413.

2 Med., iii. (t. i. pp. 277-279).

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 485

impressions, and can only exist in a mind which is united in
the closest manner with a body. Now, Descartes relates sen-
sations, not merely to mind, but to man as a being composed
of soul and body.^

3. The share which the body demands in sensations be-
comes constantly greater and greater, and at last it is so
great that the mind loses its part, and they become the com-
plete property of the body. Since man has them in common
with animals, they are also processes in the nature of ani-
mals, and, as such, merely mechanical, only impressions
and motions, without conception or perception. Therewith
sensation ceases to be what it is. From the position that
animals are nothing but machines, followed the inference
that they have no sensations, by means of which, in all seri-
ousness, Cartesians attempted to justify vivisection. As soon
as we consider sensations as phenomena of animal-human life,
they can be referred only to body. We observe that the
doctrine of Descartes is vacillating in reference to sensations,
and is impelled in three different directions by means of its
dualistic and anthropological principles. The first of the
"Meditations" treats sensations and sense-perceptions as
psychical facts, and relates them merely to the mind : the last
regards them as anthropological, and relates them to the com-
pound of mind and body. The work on the passions admits
nothing but the passions as bodily-psychical events, and
relates the sensations and impulses merely to body.^ Thence
results a twofold antinomy, — (1) thesis : sensations as unclear
conceptions are modifications of thought, therefore psychi-
cal; antithesis: sensations as presentations of sense are not
merely psychical, but at the same time bodily ; (2) thesis :
sensations as human processes are not merely bodily; an-
tithesis: sensations as animal processes are merely bodily
and mechanical.

4. If sensation is only mechanical, there can be no talk of

1 Med., vi. (t. i. pp. 336-340).

2 Lea passions, i. arts, xxiii., xxiv.

486 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

perception and feeling, since there are none whatever. What
is asserted of animals must be asserted also of men, for the
living body in both cases is nothing but a machine, incapa-
ble, therefore, of sensation, and that, too, in each of its
parts, therefore in the brain. But if there are no sensations
whatever in the true meaning of the word, then also no
presentations of sense, no unclear thoughts, no errors are
possible. Thus, the doctrine of Descartes inevitably comes
into this characteristic position : it must both affirm and
deny the fact of sensations and at the same time ; it is unable
to do either. The attempt to explain them becomes in-
volved, therefore, in an antinomy as well as a dilemma. If
sensation is affirmed, it must also be affirmed in animals, and
they can no longer be regarded as without souls : thus, the
difference of essence between man and animal, mind and
body, disappears. If sensation is denied, the conceptions of
sense, obscure thought, human error, the state of our intel-
lectual perfection, therefore our self-delusion, our doubt, our
certainty of self, must also be denied. It is, therefore, as
impossible to affirm them as to deny them. In a word, from
the stand-point of Descartes' doctrine, the fact of sensation is
unexplained and inexplicable.

in. NEW PEOBLEMS AND THEHl SOLUTION.

1. Oocagionalism. — These contradictions, which we have
discovered and proved in the doctrine of Descartes, are prob-
lems which require to be solved, and which condition the his-
torical development of the system. At first the correction
of Cartesianism does not forsake its dualistic principles, but
follows their guidance, and determines logical consequences
accordingly. If mind and body are by nature opposed to
each other, a natural union of the two as it takes place in
men cannot be comprehended. It is, therefore, logical to
declare it incomprehensible. As a matter of fact, it exists.
Since it cannot result from natural causes, it is an effect of
supernatural causes — can only be the product of divine

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 487

power. Two facts proclaim that soul and body are united in
men, — the fact of our mental-bodily life and our perception
and knowledge of the material world. In both cases, accord-
ing to the dualistic principles, we must declare that the
union is possible neither through the mind, nor the body,
nor both together, but only through God. The soul does
not move the body by means of its will, nor does the body
cause a presentation by means of its impression ; but God
brings it to pass, that the corresponding motion in our organs
follows upon our volition, and the corresponding presenta-
tion in our mind, upon the impressions of our senses. Our
will and its volition are not the cause, but only the occasion,
in connection with which, and by reason of the divine activ-
ity, the motion that executes our designs takes place in our
bodily organs. The same is true of our impressions of sense
in relation to ideas. The occasion is not the producing, but
merely the occasional, cause (causa occasionalis') : the efficient
cause (causa efficiens') is, in both cases, God alone. This
stand-point of Occasionalism, which Geulincx applied to the
anthropological problem, is the first and logical development
of Cartesianism. If the dualistic principles are valid, the
union of the two substances which takes place in our per-
ception and knowledge of the material world is likewise
incomprehensible. If mind and body, thought and exten-
sion, are completely separated, how comes the idea of exten-
sion in our minds ? This idea can be only in God : therefore
our knowledge of bodies, or our perception of things, is pos-
sible only in God. To this explanation Malebranche comes,
in the logical development of the principles of Descartes
which he affirms and maintains.

The problem of man and of human knowledge is not
solved by Occasionalism : on the contrary, every appearance
of a natural explanation is avoided, and the impossibility of
a rational solution maintained. So long as the opposition
of the two substances is regarded as fundamental, the ques-
tions of anthropology cannot be answered ; and the service,

488 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

as well as the advance, of Occasionalism consists in having
illustrated this position of the anthropological problem.

2. Spinozism. — But a rational solution continues to be
demanded by the doctrine of Descartes, since its problem is
a universal knowledge of things. The union of soul and
body requires, therefore, to be considered in the light of
reason, and to be comprehended as a necessary effect of
natural causes. Now, since the fundamental dualism of the
Cartesian doctrine makes such an explanation impossible, all
further advance depends upon a transformation which at
first takes place only partially. The opposition of sub-
stances is denied, that of their attributes admitted. If
thought and extension are the attributes of opposed sub-
stances, the union of soul and body is incomprehensible, and
equivalent to a miracle. Those two fundamental attributes
of tilings must be conceived as opposite attributes, not
of different substances, but of one. This one is the only
and divine substance : minds and bodies are not independ-
ent beings, but modes or effects of God, who, as the eternal
and inner cause of all things, is equal to nature. The phrase
" Beus sive natura " is now accepted as perfectly valid.
Since the one divine Substance comprises in itself the
opposite attributes of thought and extension, the two forces
act as independently of each other as they are necessarily
united : all things are effects both of thought and extension ;
i.e., they are both minds and bodies. These do not become
united, they have been from eternity. They are not united
only in men, but in every thing, since of every natural
effect must be true what is true of the nature of the
universe and its activity ; viz., it is thinking and extended.
As effects of the same univei'se, all things are bodies
animated with souls, therefore alike in nature, and different
only in the degree of their power. Therewitli the dualism of
substances, which Descartes had maintained, is annulled, —
the difference of essence between God and the world, mind
and bod}?, man and animal. Monism has supplanted dualism ;

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 489

and thus the naturalistic trend is completed, and raised to
universal validity. Spinoza develops this trend, logically
carrying out the fundamental thought of Descartes' doctrine,
and transforming the principles accordingly. This funda-
mental thought was the logical requirement of a method of
thought advancing along an unbroken path to the universal
dominion of nature, and the logical outcome of the proposi-
tion that there is in truth but one substance. That there is
but one substance, and that its attributes are of opposite
natures, is the fundamental concept of Spinozism.

3. Monadology. — The opposition of attributes was still
maintained, — the dualism between thought and extension.
The transformation of the Cartesian doctrine by Spinoza
was, therefore, only partial. In spite of its monistic char-
acter, the foundations of Spinozism still remain partly
involved in the dualistic system of his master, and are,
therefore, still dependent upon him. The next step in the
historical development of philosophy must consist in the
denial of that opposition of attributes also, and in the entire
transformation of the principles of Descartes without chan-
ging the problem of knowledge.

If there is in truth but one substance, as Descartes had
declared, and Spinoza had sought to establish, things are
merely modifications of it, therefore absolutely dependent
in their nature: no single and finite thing is independent —
not even minds, not even the human mind. The self-cer-
tainty of the latter is, therefore, fallacious and impossible,
since it is the expression and ground of its supposed sub-
stantiality. Without independence, there is also no self-
certainty; without this, no certainty at all, and no possibility
of knowledge. This is the point to which the doctrine of
Descartes is immovably anchored. Upon it monism is
wrecked ; and in order to develop philosophy further, it is
first necessary to return to the starting-point of the Cartesian
doctrine, and to attempt so to advance from it as to avoid
dualism, and fundamentally overcome it. Exactly therein

490 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

consists the entire transformation or reformation of philoso-
phy. Substance must be so conceived that the self-certainty
of the human mind is compatible with it — that the inde-
pendence of individuals is not thereby annulled, but rather
confirmed. Hence the conception of the substantiality of
individual beings : there is not one substance, but an infinite
number. If these substances are again to be opposed to each
other, and to be divided into the two classes of minds and
bodies, we have returned to Cartesianism, and must a second
time make our way through occasionalism to the monism of
Spinoza. The concept of substance is, therefore, so to be
transformed, that the opposition of thought and extension,
that remnant of dualism, may be obliterated. We cannot
get rid of this opposition so long as mind and self-certainty,
thought (conception) and self-conscious activity, are regarded
as identical, and the possibility of unconscious activity of
mind or unconscious conceptions is not evident. If there
are obscure conceptions, or if there is an unconscious life of
the soul, the territory and nature of mind are no longer limited
to self-consciousness, and bodies, because they are uncon-
scious, are not, therefore, soulless, and the opposition between
mind and body (man and animal) grows less, and is resolved
into differences of degree, into gradations in the power of
conception, into degrees of development of beings animated
with souls, each of whom constitutes a self-active being or
individuality, determined by the degree of its power. The
concept of substance is transformed into that of individual
active beings or monads, the world appears as an ascending
series of such monads, as a system of development similar
to that which Aristotle had taught. The new system of
knowledge dissolved the dualism between thought and exten-
sion, mind and body, and thus removed also the opposition
between Descartes and Aristotle, between modern and
ancient philosophy. It so transformed the former that it
restored the latter. This is the stand-point of Leibnitz in
his doctrine of monads, a doctrine which dominates the

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 491

metaphysics of the eighteenth century, particularly German
philosophy and the Aufklarung.

Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibnitz are the three greatest
philosophers of modern times before Kant. One can satisfy
himself of their importance without any scholarly examina-
tion of their works. There are certain fundamental truths
which are incontestably evident to every reflecting person
from the consideration of his own mind and of the nature
of things. There is no opposition in the world greater than
that between self-conscious and unconscious beings. This
opposition exists, and at first sight it makes no difference
whether it is mediate or immediate. When. we compare the
dark world of body with the illuminated world of conscious-
ness, a chasm yawns before us. Just as evident as is this
opposition is the necessity of a universal, conformable to
nature, and continuous connection, in which each thing pro-
ceeds from causes, and these themselves in turn are necessary
consequences. The natural belonging-together of things de-
mands such an inseparable connection or causal nexus. We
must affirm and unite these fundamental truths: therein
consists the third. The contrast in the nature of things is
caused by their connection ; i.e., the chain of things forms a
development which rises from the lowest grades of unconscious
beings step by step to conscious beings, from the natural
woiid to the moral, from nature to culture, from the lower
grades of human culture to the higher. The three funda-
mental truths are accordingly those of the opposition, the
causal connection, and the development, in the nature of
things. The first animates the dualism of Descartes ; the
second, the monism of Spinoza ; the third, the harmonizing
(evolutionistic) system of our Leibnitz.

4. Sensualism. — We have marked the path along which,
in logical development of the principles of Descartes, phi-
losophy advanced through the dependent stand-point of the
school to a transformation of the metaphysical system. Let
us now turn to the opposite tendency of Empiricism, that

492 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

we may compare it with Descartes, and see the paths which
lead in a straight line from him to his opponents. Thus we
shall ascertain the position of his system with reference to
the different territories of modern philosophy.

The opposite stand-point of sensualism can be reached by
a single step, as it were, from the doctrine of Descartes. If,
for example, the nature of mind consists in self-certainty,
whatever is in mind must appear in consciousness. Original
or innate ideas must, therefore, always be present in every
consciousness. But since, as a matter of fact, they are not, it
follows that there are no innate ideas, that, therefore, nothing
is innate to the mind, that it is on the contrary empty by
nature, like a tabula rosa, and receives all its ideas merely
through perception (outer and inner). In this way Locke
attempted to refute Descartes in his " Essay on the Human
Understanding," and to lay the foundations of sensualism.
From sensualism arise two completely antagonistic trends,
idealism and materialism. Let us compare both with our
philosopher.

5. Materialism and Idealism. — According to Descartes,
nothing can be accepted as true except that which is indubit-
ably certain : our self-certainty was the ground and type of
all knowledge. Now, we are immediately certain of nothing
but our conceptions or ideas : these, therefore, are the only
objects of our knowledge, our only certainties. Without us,
or independent of the conceiving mind, there is nothing
real ; no matter, as a thing independent of mind. All
objects are only mental, not substances, therefore, not self-
dependent beings existing for themselves, but phenomena.
Only perceiving or conceiving beings are substantial. There
are, therefore, only minds and ideas. This proposition is the
fundamental theme which Berkeley develops in his idealism.
We meet Berkeleyanism when we follow in a straight line
the direction pointed out by the Cartesian proposition of
self-certainty.

In order to maintain the dualism of thinking and ex-

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 493

tended substances, Descartes conceived the union of the two
in man as a compound of mind and body, from which the
position that the soul has a place and is material, inevitably
followed. There a broad street for materialism was opened
in his doctrine. If the soul has its seat in the brain, the
materialists can easily conclude that the soul is the brain,
thinking is feeling, feeling an activity of- the brain — nothing
more than a motion of the molecules of the brain. Not
merely animals, but men also, are machines, and nothing but
machines. We see a path before us which leads straight
from Descartes to La Mettrie, from the " coffito ergo sum " to
the " Vhomme machine," from the French metaphysician of
the seventeenth to the French materialism of the eighteenth
century. This materialism was indeed a development of
English sensualism, but in the Cartesian anthropology it
found a point of support which even La Mettrie did not
neglect. What is held of man is extended also to the uni-
verse. The universe is a machine. This sentence is the
theme of the gysteme de la nature.

6. Critical Philosophy. — But we have already seen how
weak is the support which Cartesianism offers to materialism.
There is no question, that from the principle of self-certainty,
on which the system of our philosopher rests, the logical
path leads not to materialism but to idealism. The real and
truly objective world can be no other than that which is per-
ceived. Now, we must carefully decide whether our concep-
tions are voluntary products or necessary results of the
intelligence. Even in his first " Meditation," Descartes had
declared that there are elementary conceptions which lie at
the foundation of all the rest, without which no kind of
conception of things is possible. He had laid special
emphasis upon space and time as examples of such funda-
mental concepts. On further reflection, time appeared as
a mere modus cogitandi, as a conception of a species which
our thought makes and erroneously regards as a property of
things themselves. Among the different ideas in our minds.

494 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

there is but one, not taking into account our idea of God,
whose object Descartes proved, — the idea of things outside
of us or of body whose attribute consists in extension or in
space. Space constitutes the nature of bodies, which, inde-
pendently of our intelligence, exist as things in themselves.
Apart from our idea of God, space is the only one of our
fundamental conceptions which expresses the nature of a
substance independent of thought. If space were nothing
but our conception, the same would be true of matter and
the whole world of bodies, and we should then be as imme-
diately certain of external things as of our own existence.
Descartes affirms the reality of space because he regards
bodies as things in themselves, as the external causes of our
presentations of sense, as we are compelled to regard them
by the natural instinct of reason. It would be a work of
divine deception if it were otherwise. Descartes affirmed
that the idea of space is original. His only reason for deny-
ing the idealistic character of space is the veracity of God.
The same reason ought to have compelled him to accept the
sensible qualities of body as properties of things in them-
selves: yet he declared this opinion the most wanton self-
delusion, and insisted, that, in order to apprehend clearly and
distinctly what bodies are in themselves, we must strip from
the conception of them our modes of thought and sensation.
If we withdraAV from our conception of things certain con-
ceptions, it is impossible to see why any thing should remain
which is fundamentally different from thought. According
to Descartes, nothing remains except space or extension.
Space, then, must be that conception which we cannot re-
nounce, or which we cannot strip off from our act of conceiv-
ing ; i.e., the necessary act of our intelligence. If extension
and thought are completely opposed to each other, as Des-
cartes asserted, there cannot be in our thought any idea
of extension, as Malebranche rightly inferred from that
dualism. If there is in us the idea of extension, the funda-

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SYSTEM, ETC. 495

mental conception of space, as Descartes emphatically
maintains, thought and extension are not opposed to each
other, but extension or space belongs to the nature of
thought, to the constitution of our reason : space and the
material world in it are, then, nothing but our conception.
Now the question no longer is, " How are mind and body as
opposite substances united?" but, " How does the mind attain
to the conception of space, or how are thought and (external)
intuition united?" To precisely this question did Kant Te-
duce the psychological problem of the doctrine of Descartes
after he had proved that space is nothing in itself, but is
merely our conception, the necessary intuition of our reason.
Kant discovered this truth by his critical investigation which
tests the natural light of the senses and of thought, but by
no means presupposes its infallibility. This is the turning-
point in which not merely the principle of philosophy, but
the problem itself, is transformed ; and the first inquiry is as
to the possibility and conditions of knowledge, and this
must be answered before one decides whether the nature of
things is knowable and in what it consists. When Des-
cartes appealed to the veracity of God and of natiu'e in
order to make the infallibility of our intelligence dependent
upon it, that light of reason in which bodies appeared as
things in themselves, he laid the foundations of dogmatic
philosophy.

Nevertheless, the problem of the critical pliilosophy is also
contained in his system, and in his first methodological work
is stated so clearly that Kant might have appropriated it
word for word : " What is the nature and what are the limits
of the human knowledge? is the most important of questions.
Every one who has the least love for truth must once in his
life have considered it, since its investigation includes the
whole of method, and, as it were, the true organon of
knowledge. Nothing seems to me more absurd than to con-
tend boldly and aimlessly concerning the secrets of nature.

496 HISTORY OP MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the influences of the stars, and the hidden things of the
future, without having once inquired whether the human
mind is competent to such investigations."

With this view of Kant, for which the doctrine in the pas-
sage quoted offers a stand-point so favorable and to which it
is apparently so near, we conclude this book.

BOOK III.

DEVELOPMENT AND MODIFICATION OF THE
DOCTRINE OF DESCARTES.

CHAPTER I.

DIFFUSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARTESIAN
DOCTRINE.

L CARTESIANISM IN THE ITETHEHLANDS.

1. TJie New Rationalism and its Opponents.

npHE second half of the seventeenth century was the period
-*- when the new doctrine was more and more widely dif-
fused and accepted: it spread from the Netherlands to
Germany, and from France to England and Italy. It was
first and most widely diffused and most generally accepted
in France and the Netherlands, the two homes of the philos-
opher. The state of culture in these two countries presented
the conditions favorable to its development, and influences
hostile to it, though the character of both in France differed
from that of those in Holland.

The independence of Spain, which the United Netherlands
had achieved by war ; their federation ; the republican and
Protestant spirit of the people ; the culture of powerful cities,
particularly a series of vigorous universities, some of them
recently invigorated, some of them recently founded, and
peculiar in their character, — offered to aspiring Cartesianism
free scope for the exertion of its powers. Some decades
after the first school began to be formed, the origin of which
Descartes himself had seen, there was no university in the
United Netherlands in which the new ideas had not gained
admission. Utrecht, Leyden, Groningen, and Franeker are
particularly to be mentioned. The new doctrine, began to
be taught in the University of Utrecht by Reneri and Regius :

499

600 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

in Leyden it reached the zenith of its academic influence,
both because of the number and the ability of its adherents ;
it not only controlled the departments of philosophy and
mathematics in those universities, but it strongly influenced
theology, physics, and medicine. The first labor of Des-
cartes' disciples consisted in commenting upon and explain-
ing his works, in paraphrasing the most important of them,
the contents of which were by some even stated in verse.
Then lacunae were found in the system itself, which required
to be filled up, and inferences which needed to be modified
and more precisely determined. Therewith began the modifi-
cation (^Fortbildung') of the system, the work of its later
disciples.

We have seen the attacks which the principles of the new
system provoked. They proceeded in part from the ecclesi-
astico-theological, in part from the pliilosophical, side —
from the old Aristotelian-scholastic and the new sensualistic-
materialistic tendencies. The object of the first disciples
of Descartes was to compose these differences, and particu-
larly to adapt the new doctrine to the requirements of the-
ology. They followed the example of Descartes in relation
to matters of faith. In his system of metaphysics, with its
proofs of the existence of God and the immortality of the
soul, he had indeed intended to renew the alliance between
theology and philosophy, faith and reason, and establish it
more firmly than ever before. He hoped to have accom-
plished what scholasticism had labored for in vain, the
rationalization of faith. But his demonstrations by no means
disposed of the matter. In open conflict with biblical and
ecclesiastical conceptions, he had taught the motion of the
earth and the infinity of the universe. It was not enough to
make theology rational, according to Descartes. The new
theology had to prove its harmony with the Bible; and this
could only be done by an artificial change in the interpreta-
tion of conflicting passages in the Bible, by an assumption
that in such cases the biblical language was to be taken fig-

DIFFUSION OF THE CARTESIAN DOCTRINE. 601

iiratively, in a word, by an allegorical explanation — the expe-
dient which has always been resorted to whenever the
attempt has been made to justify a speculative religious doc-
trine by the records of revelation. The natural, philological,
historical interpretation had to give place to the so-called
philosophical, that it might not stand in the way of the har-
mony which was to be proved. The Cartesian theologians of
Leyden, Groningen, and Franeker developed and defended
this theory of allegorical interpretation. WitticTi (1625-
1688), who was professor in Leyden, the most celebrated
teacher in the university in his time, the leader of the new
rationalism in the Netherlands, and later an antagonist of
Spinoza, was the most distinguished expounder of this view.
In the year 1659, his work, " On the Harmony between the
Bible and Cartesianism," appeared. Amerpool, in Groningen,
in his " Cartesius Mozaizans " (1669), even sought to prove
that the Mosaic account of creation and the Cartesian cos-
mogony were in harmony by reading the hypothesis of vor-
tices into the first chapter of Genesis. The spirit of Philo
seemed to have taken possession of the Cartesians. Their
uncritical, extravagant mode of interpretation went so far
that Schotanus, who put the Cartesian metaphysics in rhyme,
compared the six Meditations with the six days of creation !
Coccejus, a theologian who taught in Leyden at the same
time that Wittich was there, independently of the rational-
ists of the philosophical school, used the allegorical mode of
interpretation to show that the New Testament is contained
typologically in the Old. The Cartesians, and followers of
Coccejus, were, therefore, regarded as allies by their op-
ponents in the Netherlands, as the Cartesians and Jansenists
were in France.

With the greatest impetuosity the orthodox representa-
tives of the Church in the Netherlands attacked the new
school with its anti-biblical doctrines and its allegorical mode
of interpretation, which it charged with treating the founda-
tions of faith in an arbitrary manner, and seeking to subject

502 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

theology to the claims of reason. They demanded the sepa-
ration of the two, the formal exclusion of Cartesianism from
pulpits and lecturers' chairs. Their leaders were the Voe-
tians, who so influenced the civil authorities, the academic
curators, and theological faculties, and excited them against
the new doctrine, that enemies appeared against it in
Utrecht and Leyden, even in the lifetime of the philosopher.^
Soon after the death of Descartes the synod of Dort pro-
nounced a prohibition (1656) which \vas confirmed by the
decrees of Delft in the following year.

But these measures accomplished nothing of importance.
Their chief result was that those who diffused the doctrine
did not acknowledge that they were disciples of Descartes.
When Heerebord, professor of theology in Leyden, published
his " Philosophical Investigations " in the year the decrees
of Delft were enacted, he announced himself as an inde-
pendent thinker, who availed himself of the freedom of
faith and of thought in the Netherlands, to speak alike
impartially of Aristotle and Thomas, of Patricias, Ramus
and Descartes. He declared in the preface that he was
the slave of no philosopher, that he proposed to be neither
the scourge nor the martyr, neither the " Momus " nor the
" Mimus " of the authorities of the schools. Lambert Velt-
Jmysen, a private individual in Utrecht, and an advocate of
the Cartesian rationalism even in its application to the Bible,
later an opponent of Spinoza, defended the motion of the
earth, and said in the preface of his work that he was not
a theologian, but a free man in a free country.^

2. Attempts to Compose Philosophical Differences. — Some
of the physiologists and doctors of the Cartesian school
sought to give a sensualistic interpretation to the system,
and to give a materialistic character to its explanation of
the relation between the soul and body. Regius in Utrecht,

1 Cf. book i. chap. vi. p. 250-267.

2 Francioque Bouillier : Histoire de la philosophie Cart&ienne, 3d ^d.
(Paris, 18C8) t. i. chap. xii. pp. 269-271 ; chap. xiii. pp. 283-291.

DIFFUSION OF THE CAETESIAN DOCTRINE. 503

and EoogUand in Leyden, who in his " Cogitationes " (1646)
so developed the fundamental doctrines of Descartes that
the only Cartesianism of his. work was the dedication, made
this attempt at the same time. Regius had been once
praised as a disciple, and Hooghland was the friend, of the
philosopher. Descartes regarded Regius as an apostate, and
publicly rejected him ; i Hooghland, as a well-disposed man
without a calling to philosophy, and without understanding
of his doctrine : he thought his work as immature, and he
expressed his disapprobation of it in a letter to the Princess
Elizabeth. Descartes would not enter into any kind of
compromise with these deserters to those enemies whom he
had so forcibly opposed in his replies to the objections of
Hobbes and Gassendi. He repudiated every attempt to
accommodate his doctrine to sensualism and materialism,
though he approved of the efforts to harmonize it with the
theology of the Church, and even with the physics of Aris-
totle. Every agreement between the opposing tendencies of
modern philosophy seemed to him the grossest caricature
of his own doctrine, though he regarded it as advantageous
to it to enter into an alliance with the old authorities long
familiar both in Church and the schools. There was no
Cartesian sensualism and materialism, but there was a Car-
tesian theology, and an Aristotelian-Cartesian philosophy
of nature ought to be possible. In this way his doctrine
increased in influence without losing any thing of its own
significance, since its disciples insisted on its principles, and
sought to reconcile opposing views to it by a change in
their interpretation. Thus, a Cartesian interpretation was
put upon the Bible, that Descartes' doctrine might appear
biblical ; and in like manner, a Cartesian interpretation was
given to Aristotle, that his stamp, as it were, might be put
upon the doctrine of Descartes, and the old school of physics
no longer take umbrage at his doctrine. The most impor-
tant representative of this trend was J. Raey, professor of

1 See book i. chap. vii. pp. 278-280.

504 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

medicine in Leyden. He published in 1654 his " Clavis
philosophise naturalis seu introductio ad naturae contempla-
tionem Aristotelico-Cartesiana : " he sustained the same rela-
tion to Aristotle in the interests of theology, that Wittich
did to the Bible in the interests of physics. Descartes
himself declared that no one was better able to teach the
new doctrine than Raey. We shall hereafter have occasion
to mention Clauberg among the prominent men of the later
school: Raey was his teacher, Wittich his pupil.

The oppositions were too open and pronounced to be
tempered or denied. Descartes' theory of knowledge was
necessarily contested by the orthodox, and his doctrine of
mind by the materialists. According to the former, reason
is independent of authority : according to the latter, mind
is independent of matter. The Groniugen professor, ToUa»
Andrea (1604-1674), endeavored to maintain and defend
the system against its common enemies.

3. Opponents in Lyons. — Of course those artificial and
transparent attempts to change the interpretation of the old
doctrines were unable to deceive the disciples of the old school
— physicists as little as theologians. The more the new
doctrine disguised itself, the more dangerous it necessarily
appeared. Its opponents combined to attack their common
enemy. In Lyons, the university of Catholic Netherlands,
the physicist Plempius, with the approval of the theologians,
led the movement against advancing Cartesianism. The
papal nuncio in Brussels supported these zealots by admoni-
tions and prohibitions sent to the rector of the university.
The Jesuits took hold of the matter ; and the result was,
that on Nov. 20, 1663, the philosophical works of Descartes,
particularly the "Meditations," the declaration against
Regius, the letters to Dinet and Voetius, and the work
upon the passions, were placed upon the index of forbidden
books. That even the declaration against Regius' material-
istie interpretation of Cartesianism was mentioned in this pro-
hibition, is as remarkable as that Crassendis works were not

DIFFUSION OP THE CARTESIAN DOCTRINE. 505

prohibited. But in view of the objections of Bourdin and
the mode of thought of the Jesuits, it is not surprising that
they regarded sensualism as rather to be commended than
condemned, precisely because of its doctrine of the sensi-
bility. But little resulted from the Romish prohibition in
Lyons and Catholic Netherlands, but it was the more effec-
tive in France.^

II. FRENCH CAETESIANISM.

1. Ecclesiastieo-Political Persecutions. — The condition of
public affairs in France, the natural home of Cartesianism,
was unfavorable to its diffusion. Both political and ecclesi-
astical power were centralized — the French king was the
most absolute of nionarchs, to whose command the institu-
tions of learning were subject, while he himself was under
the influence of the Jesuits. .These facts, along with the
popularity of Epicureanism which Gassendi and his disciples
liad revived, and which was promoted by the French spirit of
the time, were great obstacles to the progress of Descartes'
ideas. Three years after the Romish prohibition, the inter-
ment of Descartes' ashes in a church in Paris was forbidden ;
and after permission had been granted, the funeral ceremony
and the erection of a monument were forbidden (1667).
The king forbade tlie doctrine of Descartes to be taught in
the CollSge Royal (1669), in the University of Paris (16T1),
and that of Angers (1675). The new opinions were forbidden
to be diffused, " car tel est notre hon plaisir." The theological
faculty in Caen would not confer degrees upon Cartesians
(1667), and in the University of Paris the prohibition was
renewed twenty years after that royal command wMch had
come through the hands of the archbishop. That sufih a
repetition seemed necessary shows how little the officiial per-
secution, to which Descartes' doctrine was exposed! iii France
from 1670 to 1690, succeeded in accomplishing its iiitended

I Fr. Bouillier: Hist, de la phil. Cart., i. chap. xii. pp. 270-278 ; chap. xxli.
pp. 466, 467.

506 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

purpose. Descartes' doctrine was too strong to be over-
thrown by those persecutions.

The desire to suppress Cartesianism and to persecute it so
violently came from the Church, and was intensified by the
ecclesiastico-poUtical spirit which then ruled in France. The
war against Jansenism had been going on for years, and had
already entered the stage which terminated in the complete
overthrow of the Port-Royalists when the persecution of
Cartesianism assumed its intolerant character. The new
philosophy was regarded as an ally of Jansenism ; and
Arnauld, the spokesman of the latter, was a Cartesian. If
the Jansenists were to be thoroughly overthrown, it would
not do to overlook the Cartesians, and the campaign against
Jansenism must be extended against Cartesianism also. No
centrifugal tendencies would be tolerated in the French
Church. From this ecclesiastico-political position, which
Louis XIV. occupied in union with the Jesuits, the disciples
of Descartes appeared in the ranks of the Jansenists, and
behind them the threatening Calvinists and Lutherans.
This was the real motive of all the Jesuitical polemics
against Cartesianism. Its positions were contested that its
connection with Jansenism might be deduced from its infer-
ences, and from its connection with Jansenism its hostility
to the Church. The sceptical foundation of the system, the
Cartesian doubt, seemed proof enough that in this point
the unconditional validity of the authority of the Church
was fundamentally denied. But the manifest contradiction
between the Cartesian metaphysics and the doctrine of
transubstantiation passed for the real ground of accusation.
If accidental validity only is conceded to forms, — not sub-
stantial, as with the scholastics, — if they are nothing but
modifications of substances, and are inseparably united with
them, it is absolutely impossible for the form and properties
of a thing to continue while the thing itself is changed, for
the body and blood of Christ to appear in the form and
among the properties of bread and wine — to illustrate the

DIFFUSION OF THE CARTESIAN DOCTRINE 507

principle by the case of pre-eminent interest to the Church.
Descartes taught, that, under all conditions, substance contin-
ues and forms change : the Church teaches, that, in the sacra-
ment of the eucharist, forms continue while the substance
itself is changed. According to Descartes' principles, there is
indeed transformation, but no transubstantiation : according
to the Church, there is, in the sacrament of the eucharist,
transubstantiation, but no transformation. According to
Descartes, the essence of body consists in extension, and this
in space : it is, therefore, absolutely impossible for the same
body to exist in different spaces or places. The real or
bodily presence of Christ can, therefore, in no way exist in
the sacrament. Those fundamental positions concerning
substance and its modifications, substance and its attributes,
body and its extension, are accordingly absolutely anti-eucha-
ristic. Denying the substantiality of forms, and maintaining
that of extension, they are in fundamental conflict with ex-
actly that tenet of the Roman-Catholic Church in which
cultus and dogma are inseparably interwoven. All these
considerations were laid before the philosopher himself; and
in his reply to the objections of Arnauld, and in his letters to
the Jesuit Mesland, he vainly attempted to set them aside,
and to give to his sj^stem an orthodox interpretation. The
points in dispute related to metaphysical necessities ; i.e., to
such truths as are incapable of being changed, even by the
will of God. Had the question as to the position of a philo-
sophical system on the doctrine of transubstantiation been
of a merely academic character, it would be almost impossi-
ble to comprehend how such discussions in the golden age of
French literature should have played such an important part
in modern philosophy. But it was an ecdesiastico-poUtical
question of pre-eminent importance. We must realize, that,
in the conception and doctrine of the sacrament of the
eucharist, the ecclesiastical parties of the sixteenth century
were divided ; that at this point the great chasm arose which
tore Protestantism from Catholicism, and even separated the

508 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Lutherans from the Reformed Church; that the Jesuitical
stress on cultus, and particularly their administration of the
Lord's Supper, the frequent and unspiritual confessing and
communing, insisted upon by the Jesuit fathers, was one of
the first objects which the French Jansenists, especially
Arnauld, violently attacked ; that in the age of Louis XIV.,
the question was not merely as to a splendid modern litera-
ture, but as to the complete restoration of the unity of the
French Church, as to the repression of Jansenism and the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, — we must realize these
things before we can understand the significance of the
charge that Descartes' doctrine was anti-eucharistic. That
charge involved the charge of having Jansenistic, and at
bottom Calvinistic, tendencies; of being one of the most
dangerous opponents of the Romish Church, and the unity
of the Church in France. The question was not as to the
inclination and wishes of the philosopher, but as to the prin-
ciples of his doctrine. The Jesuit Valois epitomized the
objections which they urged against it in the following title :
"The Antagonism of the Doctrines of Descartes to the
Church, and their Harmony with Calvin " (1680).'

2. The Classic Period of French Literature and the Svr
premacy of Descartes' Philosophy. — But these antagonists
were completely mistaken — however correct their inferences
may have been — when they regarded the Cartesian philoso-
phy as a matter of an ecclesiastical party, and supposed that
its destiny was bound up with that of the Jansenists and-
Protestants in France. They had very much under-esti-
mated its importance when they looked upon it as a mere
theological revival. It was a new theory of the world, a
new system of knowledge and of nature, shaped and
illumined by the strictest and most consistent method of
thought, based on the most certain principles, and presented
so clearly and beautifully that it must have made a very
powerful impression upon the sensitive mind of the French,

1 Fr. BouUlier, i. chaps, xxi., xxii. See Intioduction, pp. 153-157.

DIFFUSION OF THE CARTESIAN DOCTRINE. 609

and upon the Augustan age of their literature and poetry.
Against such a coalition of forces, the persecution of
ecclesiastical enemies, and even the powerful disfavor of
the court, could accomplish nothing permanent. Public
institutions of learning were closed to the Cartesian philoso-
phy : it was diffused in a surer and less public manner
through literature, by private scientific circles, by the
intellectual society of the metropolis — which set the fashion
for the rest of France. In the year 1635 Richelieu had
founded the French Academy for the guidance and develop-
ment of the language and literature. The next year
appeared " The Cid " of the great Corneille, in which the
character of high tragedy and the genius of the poet were
perfectly expressed : a year later Descartes published his first
works, the "Discours" and the "Essais." The epoch of
classic French literature had begun. When the ashes of the
philosopher were brought, a generation later, from Stock-
holm to Paris, the scientific circles and societies in the latter
city were permeated by his thoughts. The same year
(1666) Colbert founded the Academy of Sciences, and
supplemented the work of Richelieu, by establishing an
institute which was to sustain the same relation to mathe-
matics and physics that the Academy did to the French lan-
guage and literature. The latter reached its zenith in that
time. The tlu-ee stars of classic poetry shone at the same
time, — Corneille, already setting; Moliere, in his zenith;
Racine, the pupil of Port Royal, just climbing towards the
zenith: his "Andromache" appeared in 1667, a poem not
less characteristic of his genius than "The Cid" of the
genius of Corneille.

There are a peculiar affinity and harmony of spirit between
the great philosopher and the great tragic poets of this
period. The former set forth in his scientific works what
the latter embody in their dramas ; viz., the passions of the
soul. The theme of their poems is not the characteristics
of persons, but the portraiture of passions. To be able to

510 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

express these as powerfully as possible, they seek the most
plastic materials, the event most in harmony with their pur-
pose, the most eloquent examples. The actions and charac-
ters which they bring before us in their correct works are
only the organs thi-ough which powerful emotions express
themselves forcibly and grandly. There was one passion
which Descartes distinguished from the rest, one which he
considered as suige7ieris, as the noblest and purest of all. He
called it "magnanimitS" and "gSnSrositS ;" the nobility of the
soul — self-esteem based on an heroic self-denial.^ This pas-
sion in manifold forms lives in the poems of Corneille, who
has been called the "great" because of this exalted charac-
teristic, which, with the rhetorical power that is characteristic
of the French, produces agreeable emotions. Of remaining
passions, none is more powerful than love, none more tor-
menting than jealousy. These passions were most pbwerfully
and eloquently expressed by the authors of "Andromache"
and " Phadra." If one wishes a personal illustration of that
emotion which Descartes extolled as ^'■magnanimitS" he need
only recall Corneille's Chim^ne in his " Cid," who, to avenge
the death of her father, did every thing in her power to sac-
rifice her lover, the idol of her heart ; and she saw in such
a denial of self, the perfection of strength of soul, and the
culmination of fame : " Je veux que la voix de la plus noire
envie Sieve au del ma gloire et plaigne mes enmis, sachant, que
je t'' adore et que je te poursuis."

In the life of our philosopher himself, and in his princi-
ples, which brought on a conflict with the great authorities
of the world, — venerable because of the power which they
have inherited from the past, — and which demanded
personal submission to them, we find a characteristic in
harmony with that exalted emotion portrayed in the poems
of Corneille.

The intellectual tendencies of the time, whether con-
sciously or not, were determined by the influence of Des-

1 See book ii. chap. ix. p. 431 and following.

DIFFUSION OF THE CARTESIAN DOCTRINE. 511

cartes. A new species of poetry, which felt itself superior
to the Renaissance, and was filled with the consciousness of
its greatness and originality, associated itself with the new
philosophy. It would no longer imitate the ancients, but
would improve upon them, give itself rules, and methodi-
cally apply them, that it might produce works worthy of
acceptance as examples. The thoughts of philosophers and
the inventions of poets were controlled by a regular, care-'
fully considered art. Descartes was the first to discipline the
reason, to subject it to an art of thought, to realize the re-
quirement upon which he insisted, and to leave to his age a
luminous example in his works. His doctrine furnished the
foundation for a new work on logic, "L'art de penser," written,
in Port Royal by Arnauld and Nicole (1662) : Boileau wrote'
a book on the art of poetry, " L'art podtique," which has
been aptly called the "Discours de la m^thode " of poetry.'
Even in poetry nothing must please but reason and truth :
'■'■Aimez done la raison ; que toujours nos icrits empruntent d'elle
seule et leur lustre et leur prix." " Itieyi nest beau que le vrai ;
le vrai seul est aimalle ! " Even in poetry, brevity and clear-
ness, the avoidance of every thing superfluous and bombastic,
are required. The most evident coherence, and therefore
unity of place, time, and action, were made rigid laws for
dramatic works. All these rules are just such as Descartes
would have laid down if he had treated of the art of
poetry. They correspond to his doctrine which demands in
the works produced by men — no matter upon what material
they work, whether stones, ideas, or actions — ab.solute unity
and the closest coherence. Irregular and confused accumula-
tions from various ages were as repulsive to the author of
the "Discours de la m^thode " in the sciences as in houses
and cities. He would certainly have objected to similar ac-
cumulations in dramatic works. The tendency, which, in
the second half of the seventh century, controlled French
mind and taste in its greatness as well as in its limitations,

1 Bouillier, i. chap, xxiii. p. 491.

512 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

manifesting itself in science and art, even in the gardens of
Versailles, was based on a certain mode of thought, the
principles of which are nowhere more distinctly and con-
sciously expressed than in the doctrine of Descartes. We
can, therefore, easily understand that Cartesianism in France
and Paris was a power far greater than the decrees of the
king whom it even made dependent upon itself, as it were,
incog7iito. It was a fashion of the time to which men in-
voluntarily paid homage. The tendency of the time was
Cartesian.

3. Fashionable Philosophy and Satire. — It is, therefore, no
wonder that the world of fashion and distinction and the
ladies of the time cultivated Cartesianism or made a profes-
sion of it. The Duchess du Maine was compared with
Queen Christina on account of her reverence for Descartes :
the scholarly Dupr^ was called, "Za CartSsienne." Out of
love to her daughter, Madame de Erignon, whose life was de-
voted to the study of the philosopher, Madame de S<)vign^
was drawn to share her interests. Jestingly she called Des-
cartes, in her letters to her daughter, " votre pere," and the
latter, " ma chere petite CartSsienne." She visited in Brittany
a relative of the philosopher who bore his name, and wrote to
her daughter, " Je tiens un petit moreeau de ma fille." She
used the proverb of Cartesianism in order, with inimitable
grace, to express her maternal tenderness : " Je pense, done je
suis ; je pense a vous avec tendresse, dona je vous aime." She
gave her daughter an account of a philosophical discussion
after a dinner in which one of the guests had maintained
that thought depends upon the senses, and her son had de-
fended the contrary opinion according to Descartes. In one
of her letters she aptly and wittily reveals the hold of the
new philosophy upon the society of the time, and the nature
of her own interest in the matter which was the subject of
general interest, though it was frowned upon by the court ;
she regarded it as a modern and fashionable fancy, of which
one could not afford to be ignorant: "Corbinelli and

DIFFUSION OF THE CARTESIAN DOCTRINE. 513

Lamousse have undertaken to instruct me in Cartesianism.
I wish to learn it like ombre, not in order to play, but to see
others play." ^

As soon as a philosophical system becomes a fashion, it is
easy to make it ridiculous, especially if it collided with the
opinions of the world by apparently paradoxical positions,
and, nevertheless, is cultived by women, and affected by
many. It was inevitable, therefore, that in witty Paris and
in the time of MoliSre, Cartesianism, as the fashionable phi-
losophy, should be made an object of satire. There was a
harmony unsought between Descartes and the tragic poets
in their conception of human nature and the passions, and
the opposition between Descartes and MoliSre was just as
natural. The disciple of Gassendi ridiculed the female dis-
ciples of Descartes in his "Femmes savantes" (1672). In
the tragedies and comedies of the France of that time, in
Cornielle and MoliSre, we can see the reflection of the two
opposing currents of French philosophy, — the Cartesian
and Gassendish. But we must not conceive the matter
pedantically, and think of philosophical discipleship. If
Gassendi had not instructed Molidre, and if the latter had
not been acquainted with Lucretius, whose poem he trans-
lated, he would have been in sympathy with the sensualism
of the natural understanding, and opposed to the dualistic
and spiritualistic doctrine of Descartes. He needed no per-
sonal malice nor that of a school to induce him to make the
extravagances and affectations of Descartes' female disciples
ridiculous. The comic poet chose such subjects as though
he were called to do so. I shall not venture to decide
whether, in the character of Marphurius, in "Mariage
force," he was ridiculing the Cartesian doubt, and not rather
that universal scepticism found in every time. In "Femmes
savantes," he satirized, not exclusively, I admit, but in some
of the most effective passages, the follies to which the
fashion of Cartesianism had given rise in women. His char-

1 Bouillier, i. chap. xx. pp. 438-440.

514 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

acters are not pronounced Cartesians, but women who
enthuse in an unintelligent manner over every thing that
smacks of learning. One praises Plato, another Epicurus, a
third finds " corpuscles " perfectly lovely, and " a void " too
hateful for any thing, and thinks herself subtile in preferring
" subtile matter : " "Je goutebien mieux la matiere subtile."
Now, these are Cartesianisms which are treated by women as
matters of taste exactly as though they were fashionable
articles. " J'aime ses tourbillons,'^ said Armande ; and his
mother continued, '■'■ Moi, ses mondes tourbants.'^ Moliere
portrays as most ridiculous the intense desii-e to regard the
body with its needs and impulses, the sensitive nature of
man, as contemptible stuff (guenille'), the association with
which the soul must regard as beneath its dignity. The mas-
ter of the house, Chrysole, is of a different opinion, and replies
to his wife entirely in the style of Gassendi : " Mon corps
est moi-mime, et fen veux prendre soin, guenille, si Von veut ;
ma guenille rnest cliere." Also the lover Clitandre wishes to
know nothing of the spiritualistic doctrine which separates
the mind from the senses : "2)e ces dStachements je ne connais
point Vart; le del rna dSnie cette philosophie." And B^lise,
the most ridiculous, and therefore the most successful, char-
acter of the comedy, bases on the Cartesian dualism her
theory of refined love, which belongs only to thinking sub-
stance, and has nothing in common with matter: " Mais nous
Stablissons une espece d^amour, qui doit Stre 4pure comme Vastre
du jour: la substance, qui pense y pent itre regue, mais nous
en bouissons la substance Stendue." ^

That a satire of the fashion of Cartesianism appeared as
late as the year 1690, written by the Jesuit Daniel, and
entitled, " Voyage du monde de Descartes," proves how long-
lived the " Femmes savantes " were. The author takes com-
fort by considering past fashions. In his jests we recognize
the associate of Bourdin. The whole satire sprang from
that sensualistic temper in which the Jesuits were in har-

1 Femmes savantes, act ii. sc. 7; iii. 2; iv. 2; v. 3.

DIFFUSION OF THE CARTESIAN DOCTRINE. 515

mony with Gassendi, particularly as opposed to Descartes.
What they attacked in Cartesianism by objections, accusa-
tions, satires, was its spiritualistic character. To make that
ridiculous, Daniel represented the philosopher as the magi-
cian of his doctrine, as it were, who had power to really
separate the soul from the body, to lay the latter aside like
a garment for a time, and to make journe5^s simply as a soul.
During such an absence of soul, the body of the philosopher
had been buried in Stockholm, and now the latter dwells in
the third heavens, engaged in constructing the universe out
of the subtile matter which he found there in store. He who
wishes to solve the riddle of the universe in the easiest way
must visit this architect of the world up there in his work-
shop ; it is only necessary for such an one to throw off his
body, and set out upon his journey as pure soul ; and this
can very easily be done by a well-trained Cartesian, since the
master had bestowed upon his disciples his own miraculous
powers. In this way, a disciple, eager for knowledge, made
his " Voyage du monde de Descartes." ^

The spiritualism of Descartes' doctrine was a result of
its dualistic conception of the relation between the mind
and the body, and that contains the questions which gave

rise to the first attempt [to^criticailyVlevelop the system.
V '^'

1 Bouillier, i. chap. xx. p. 443; chap, xxvii. p. 576.

516 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO CRITICALLY DEVELOP
CABTESIANISM.

I. THE FEENCH SCHOOL.

1. Rohault and RSgis.

AMONG the French Cartesians who were prominent in
the diffusion and development of Cartesianism, both
by their oral discussions and their writings, especial men-
tion should be made of Rohault of Amiens (1620-1672),
the son-in-law of Clerselier, and Sylvain RSgis of Angers
(1632-1707). The former was a man with a talent for
mechanical invention ; and by his lectures on physics, —
delivered in Paris on Wednesdays, — and the explanations
and disputations connected with them, he won a very large
audience, in which all classes of society were represented,
for the new doctrine, and by his work on physics (" Traitd de
physique ") he extended the influence of his instruction far
beyond Fraiace. A year before his death, his " Entretiens de
philosophic " appeared, in which he sought to reconcile the
Cartesian doctrine with the Aristotelian physics, and the
theology of the Church, in the manner with which we have
already become acquainted in the Netherlands. He was
the man who brought that testimonial from the Queen of
Sweden which opened the door of St. Genevieve for the
ashes of Descartes. R^gis was his pupil, and was sent by
the Cartesian society in Paris to the southern part of France
to teach the new doctrine there : in the years 1665-71 he
was thus engaged, first in Toulouse, then in Montpellier,

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP CARTESIANISM. 517

with the most extraordinary success. When he returned to
Paris to continue the lectures of his teacher, the persecution
of Cartesiauism with which we are acquainted had begun.
At the advice of the archbishop, R^gis felt obliged to dis-
continue his lectures, and was unable until 1690 to publish
his " System de philosophic," which contained in four parts
logic, metaphysics, physics, and morals.

What particularly attracts our attention in his works is
not so much the deviations from Descartes in his ethics and
politics in the direction of Hobbes, and in his doctrine of
ideas towards Gassendi, as his modification of Cartesianism
in reference to the relation between God and the world,
soul and body. In these points we find ideas in harmony
with Occasionalism, and particularly with Malebranche. If
God is, strictly speaking, the only substance, he is the only
real cause. We must, therefore, distinguish between the
primary causality of God and the secondary causality of
things. But if the divine activity is truly original, it alone
also truly produces, and natural things must be regarded
as intermediate causes or instruments through which God
works. They are not forces, but only " instruments." From
this point of view, the natural interaction between soul and
body necessarily appears as the result of the divine will:
through the body God causes the processes in the soul to
arise, through the soul the motions in the body. Now, the
instrumental cause has indeed no producing causality of its
own, but only acts in connection with the divine will, which
it influences, and whose action it modifies, as the nature of
the instrument does the activity of the artist. R^gis thus
leaves something to the soul that depends upon the soul
itself; it cannot produce motion, though it can indeed deter-
mine its direction ; it is a director, not a producer, of motion.
Thus the divine and human will concur in the production
of the bodily motions which correspond to the processes of
the soul. The relation of the two substances remains, there-
fore, undetermined and indefinite. If one determines and

518 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

changes the direction of a motion, he thereby causes motion.
We may regard Regis' position as an attempt to harmonize
Cartesianism, not merely with its sensualistic opposite, but
also with the innovations which had already appeared within
the Cartesian school itself. By the latter, we mean the
theories of the French Occasionalists, and of Malebranche,
whose principal works were published before those of R^gis
were written. Scarcely had the latter entered upon that bril-
liant career of instruction in Toulouse, when French Occa-
sionalism appeared in the writings of two older Cartesians.^

2. Be la Forge and Cordevioy. — In the year 1666, the
physician and physiologist, Louis de la Forge, a friend of
Descartes, and, with Clerselier, the editor of "Traitd de
I'homme," published his work " On the Human Soul, its
Powers and Activities, also its Union with the Body accord-
ing to the Principles of Descartes," and the advocate Giraud
de Cordemoy, his six " Philosophical Essays on the Difference
between Soul and Body."^ The relation of the two sub-
stances in respect to both their union and separation is the
most important of the subjects discussed in these works.

De la Forge explains the connection between soul and
body as the work of the divine will, and, in like manner, the
interaction between the two, with the exception of those
motions which depend upon our will which he regards as
voluntary. The human soul, accordingly, appears as the
producing and immediate cause of all conscious and volun-
tary actions (motions) ; God, oh the other hand, as the
producing and immediate cause of all unconscious and
involuntary processes. As to the latter, the bodily impres-
sion cannot cause the conception, but only occasion God to
cause it, and conversely. He thus maintained one-half of
Occasionalism. He accepted Occasionalism except in the

i Concerning Rohault and Regis, cf. Bouillier, 1. chap. xxiv. pp. 508-510,
517-524.

2 Lovis de la Fori/e : Traits de I'9,me liuraaine, de ses facultds et fonotions et
de son union avec le corps d'aprfes les principes de Descartes. Cordemoy:
Dissertations philosopbiques sur le discernemeut de I'&me et du corps.

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP CARTESIANISM. 519

case of the so-called voluntary motions. If these are not
in fact voluntary, and if they are as independent of our
will as they are of our knowledge, we must declare that
the human will causes no bodily actions whatever, and,
on the basis of Dualism, carry out the theory of Occasion-
alism.

Cordemoy took this step. He was the first Occasionalist
among the French Cartesians, and his Occasionalism was due
to the logical development of his dualistic principles. There
is but one active cause, as there is but one kind of self-
active being ; viz., mind, or will. Bodies have no wills, there-
fore they are not causes. No body, as such, can change
another body, none can affect the mind. Thinking sub-
stances are fundamentally different from extended ones.
The human mind (will), therefore, cannot move a body, and
it has just as little power to direct motion. There is but one
cause that moves body, and there is but one that causes the
interaction between mind and body ; and that is in both
cases the divine, because infinite and all-powerful. Will.
When two bodies meet, neither of itself moves the other,
but their collision is only the occasion upon which the
cause that moved the first body moved the second also. If
mind and body exist together in man, and the will puts
forth a volition to make a definite movement in an organ
of the body, the volition is only the occasion upon which
God so causes, and so directs, the motion that it corresponds
to the purpose. Our will, therefore, is not the efficient, but
only the occasional, cause of motion : motion takes place
independently of us, voluntary as well as involuntary. Our
will causes neither motion nor its direction.^

The principles of Occasionalism were stated in the clearest
manner by Cordemoy, and we see how far R^gis remained
behind. But the Occasionalistic system had been developed
still more comprehensively and profoundly in the Nether-
lands, and had taken a course similar to that from De la

1 Bouillier, i. chap. xxiv. pp. 511-616.

520 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Forge to Cordemoy ; viz., from Clauberg to Geulincx. The
logical development and application of the dualistic princi-
ples of Descartes was the animating thought that found
expression in different tendencies.

II. THE SCHOOL IN THE NETHERLANDS.

1. Clauberg. — JoJm Clauberg of Solingen in Westphalia
(1622-1665) had heard Tobias Andrea in Groningen, had
become acquainted with Clerselier and De la Forge during a
visit to France, and then continued his philosophical studies
in Leyden under Eaey, where he gave special attention to
physics, before he began to teach philosophy in Herborn.
He was professor of philosophy in the University of Duis-
burg during the last thirteen years of his life (1652-1665).
A German by birth, and convinced of the philosophical
destiny of his mother-tongue, Clauberg was one of the first
to teach philosophy in the German universities. He was full
of enthusiasm for Cartesianism, and, except the Holy Scrip-
tures, he valued no works more highly than those of Des-
cartes, and he labored with untiring zeal to defend and
explain them. In reply to the theological opponents of Car-
tesianism,— Revius in Leyden, with whom we are already
acquainted, and his own associate Lentulus in Herborn, — he
wrote his " Defensio Cartesiana " (1652) : he explained the
" Meditations," defended the Cartesian doubt as the path to
truth ("Initiatio philosophi " ), and wrote a logic which
served to develop the system, sought to unite the old and
new philosophy, and may be regarded as a forerunner of the
French manual, " L'art de penser."

None of his works has a greater claim on our interest than
the essay " On the Union of Soul and Bod}' in Man " (" De
animse et corporis in homine conjunctione "). The fact of
the mutual influence of soul and body cannot be explained
by natural laws in view of their substantial difference, but
must be regarded as a miracle, due to the exercise of divine
power. But the soul, because of its essence, is far more

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP CARTESIANISM. 521

powerful than the body ; it has more power orer the body
than the body has over it ; it cannot produce the motion of
the body, but it can indeed direct it ; it is not its physical
but its " moral cause." To use Descartes' figure, it is related
to the body like a driver to a wagon : the wagon is moved
by the horses, but the driver determines their course. But
the body can exert no influence whatever upon the soul : it is
completely incapable of any psychical effect. Its impres-
sions and motions merely precede, prepare for, i.e., occasion,
the corresponding psychical changes, but do not cause them.
The soul exercises a directive power upon the body : upon
occasion of the bodily impressions, it produces the corre-
sponding impressions by virtue of its own thinking nature.
Accordingly, in comparison with either God or body, it is
not so important as it ought to be on the principles of
dualism. Clauberg reminds us of La Forge in limiting Occa-
sionalism to the influences of the body, and of Rdgis in
ascribing a directive influence to the human will on the
bodily motions ; though Rdgis, later than Cordemoy, retraced
his steps, and resumed the stand-point of old Cartesiauism,
while Clauberg only departed farther from it, and in the
vacillations and half-heartedness of his Occasionalism he
may be regarded as having entered upon the path that
terminated in the critical development of it.^

2. Balthasar Bekker. — From the Cartesian dualism, it fol-
lows that God is the only real substance and the primitive
source of power, the only producing cause in the true sense
of the word, in comparison with whom natural things have
only a secondary, instrumental, occasional efficiencj^ and the
mutual influence of soul and body exists only by virtue of
the divine will. Motion in bodies, and knowledge in minds
are caused, and the first cause of both is God. No being
except God, therefore, can exert a causative force upon
minds and bodies, and, therefore, upon man, who consists of
the two. This fact overthrows a whole class of generally

i Bouilller, i. chap. xiii. pp. 293-298.

522 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

accepted opinions. If there are intermediate beings between
God and us, spirits below God and of a supernatural character,
they cannot exert any influence whatever upon man, nor can
they alter the nature of things at all. By the light of rea-
son, we see, as Descartes proved, only the reality of God,
minds and bodies: we see in bodies no property except
extension, no activity except mechanical motion, and, in
minds, nothing but understanding and will. We must,
therefore, deny that these intermediate beings (demons)
exert any power in the world of things, and indeed we dare
dispute even their existence. There are undoubtedly many
worlds unknown to us, and many unknown beings ; but there
are no demonic actions, and, therefore, no demonic causes,
at least none capable of appearing to us, and exerting an in-
fluence upon us. In this point, the new rationalism opposes
all demonology, and attacks a multitude of opinions which
have been entertained in the most different forms from the
earliest times, and were entertained, as -it were, in the very
presence of Descartes' doctrine. There are, as objects of
knowledge and reasonable belief, neither demons nor angels, —
either good or bad, — no souls of men separate from the body,
returning to the Avorld of apparitions, — either happy or
damned, — neither Devil nor ghosts, — hence no leagues with
the Devil, and no magic based upon it, — neither enchanters
nor witches, no power capable of enchanting men and things
in opposition to the laws of nature ; in a word, no " en-
chanted world." What throws light upon the world is
reason, and faith in God, which is based upon it : what
bewitches and enchants it is superstition, the objects of
which are demons, and which is itself produced by ignorance
and deceit. We can judge what strength and courage of
conviction were necessary to maintain such a position in a
century in which the existence of the Devil was firmly be-
lieved by orthodox Christians and people in general, and
with such strength that witches were burnt in the name of
justice. It was a preacher in the Netherlands, and a doctor

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP CARTESIANISM. 523

of theology, who developed this bold position with such
energy and thoroughness that his work became famous, was
hotly attacked by some, and imitated by many. He paid the
penalty for it by losing his position and by being excluded
from the communion of the churches, a sacrifice to, and a
proof of, his fidelity to his convictions. He was the boldest
and most interesting of the Cartesian theologians.

Balthasar Bekker of West Pnesland (1634-1698) began
to preach soon after the completion of his studies (which
he had begun in Franeker, and continued in Groningen) in
the village of Oosterlittens ; afterwards he went to France,
where he labored until 1674, when he accepted a call to
Lonen, and three years later to Weesop; shortly after he
was invited to Amsterdam (1679), but he lost his position in
consequence of his principal work (1694). He had already
excited the suspicion and hatred of the orthodox by an
earlier work : now he was suspended from his position by
the authorities of the city, and, since he remained loyal to
his convictions, he was dismissed from it by order of the
synod.

His first work, published in 1668, contained his philosophical
creed, — a defence of Cartesianism ("De philosophia Cartesi-
anaadmonitio Candida et sincera"): the second, an "Investi-
gation of Comets," written in the language of the Netherlands,
opened the campaign against superstition, which he attacked
in the form of fear of comets. In 1680 the dreaded heavenly
body had appeared, and the minds of men were thrown into
terror. On this occasion, and with a similar purpose, Pierre
Bayle published in Rotterdam at the same time (1683) his
work on comets. Bekker's comprehensive and great Avork,
written in the tongue of the Netherlands, was published in
the years 1691-94 under the title, " The Enchanted World "
(" De Betoverde Weereld "), and gave in four books a com-
plete and methodical discussion of his subject. The first book
gives an account of faith in demons as it is found in different
peoples and religions, in the heathens of ancient as well as

524 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

modern times, in Jews and Mohammedans, in Catholic and
Protestant Christians, and thus fixes the subject to be
investigated in its entirety. In the following books, the
matter itself is examined : in the second, from the point of
view of reason and the Bible ; in the third and fourth, from
that of the facts which are urged as proofs of demons ; viz.,
the magical arts, — particularly enchantment and prophesy-
ing,— the appearances of spirits, and the demonic states of
being possessed. The author then distinguished traditional
doctrines and testimonies from experiences — subjective
in their origin — to which people appeal, and which they
allege as present actual facts in proof of demonology. Bek-
ker took this occasion to recount a number of facts that had
come under his own experience and observation, and which
had convinced him of the nullity of the pretended demon-
ological facts. (The above biographical account is based on
these statements of the fourth book.) The faith of Chris-
tians in demons, particularly that of the Reformed Church,
was the real object against which Bekker's entire work was
directed. It was the faith in the Devil and in leagues with
the Devil, in enchanters and witches, which he sought to
completely destroy. He wished to prove to the Church that
its faith in demons was rooted in superstition. His argu-
ments were drawn in the main from three sources ; viz.,
from the historical origin of the Christian faith in demonol-
ogy, from pure reason, and from the Bible.

Faith in demons, like the faith in a plurality of gods to
which it belongs, is of pagan origin, and was inherited by
primitive Christianity from paganism. It penetrated primi-
tive Christianity, and it became powerful in the Romish
Church, in the faith and cultus of which it formed, along
with magic, an essential element. This element was partly
destroyed, partly preserved, by the Reformation, and ac-
cepted by it as an inheritance from Catholicism : this is
particularly true of the belief in the existence of the Devil.
Thus, the belief in demons and magic in the Romish Church

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP CARTESIANISM. 525

is nothing but paganism in Christianity, and the belief of
the Reformed Church in the existence of the Devil is noth-
ing but Papacy in Protestantism. It is one of the most
serious errors of the time to detest the Romish Church on
account of things which we admire in pagan religions, and
not to see that these things have remained in their essence,
having merely changed their forms. And it is just as
absurd to regard the Romish Church as the work of the
Devil, and the Pope as Antichrist, and still continue under
the yoke of papal authority by believing in the power of the
Devil. Until we have entirely broken with the authority
of the Church and its traditions, we have no right to detest
the Papacy, since that is inseparable from the authority of the
Church. To Papists we should say, " Your faith in demons,
and your magic, is pagan : why, therefore, do you hate pagan-
ism?" To Protestants, "Your belief in demons and the Devil
is Catholic : why, therefore, do you hate Papacy, and admire
paganism?" The Reformed Church sustains the same rela-
tion to the Papacy that the Papacy does to pagan religions :
they have inherited and accepted their superstitions, and
condemned the faith from which they received them.^

The philosophical stand-point from which Bekker proved
that demonic effects are unknowable, that belief in demons
is absurd, and that superstition comes from paganism, was,
as we have already seen, the Cartesian, which is based on
the dualism of God and the world, mind and body. He
rejected the Spinozistic conception of God, and conceived
the relation between the soul and body, not strictly accord-
ing to Occasionalism, but according to the old Cartesianism,
which according to its principles denied the natural inter-
action of the two, yet admitted it as a fact. God alone can
exert power upon nature : man is the only finite being whose
mind has any power over his own body. Hence all faith in
demons is without foundation.^

1 The Enchanted World, hook i., chiefly xxiv., sees. 16-22.

2 lb., hook ii., chiefly i., 3-15, ii. i, iii. 1, iv. 8, vi. 11, vii.

526 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

But all arguments against demons and their activity are
destitute of cogency, so long as tliey are opposed by the
Bible, wliich, in so many places, speaks of the appearance of
angels and the Devil, of good and bad spirits, of archangels,
and of Satan. The author of " The Enchanted World " was
a firm believer in the Bible : he dared not, and would not,
doubt what he found there. Hence, in order to be cejrtain
that there are no demonological actions in the world, that
there is no influence exerted by supernatural agents, he had
to convince himself that these things are not asserted by
the Bible. To gain this conviction, and state the grounds
of it in detail, was plainly the most difficult problem of his
works ; and it is evident from some of its statements, that it
required many years to bring the perceptions of his reason
into harmony with his faith in the Bible. Thus, for example,
he had for a long time literally understood and accepted
the liistory of the fall, and the temptation of the Devil who
is spoken of as a serpent. After he had repeatedly and
carefully examined all the passages pertaining to this sub-
ject along with the necessary philological considerations, he
had reached this conclusion: (1) that none of the passages
in question teach any thing concerning the origin and
nature, property and order, of good and evil spirits, and
that, therefore, the Scriptures contain no doctrine of demons ;
(2) that none of them assert an immediate activity of angels
(good spirits) upon men, or (3) the real activity of the
Devil. When angels appear, it is never as independent
beings, but either as intermediate causes or instruments of
the divine power, or as images and signs (rhetorical figures)
of the presence of God; or finally, when they appear in
bodily form, and eat and drink, as did those messengers
who were sent to Abraham and Lot, they are not super-
natural beings, but men. Wlien God is spoken of as coming
on the wings of cherubim and of the wind, the cherubim
are evidently to be understood in the same figurative sense
as the wind ; and when the heavenly hosts of worshipping

THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP CARTESIANISM, 527

spirits are mentioned as surrounding the throne of God,
angels mean nothing but the throne; and both are images
of human forms trying to glorify God. The idea of the
Devil, on the other hand, as an independent spirit arrayed
against God, having and exerting a power of his own in
the world, and possessing a kingdom on earth, is perfectly
absurd. Where the Bible speaks of the appearing and
actions of the Devil, we must interpret it either allegorically
as in the history of the temptation in Paradise, and in the
controversy, mentioned in the Epistle of Jude, between the
archangel and Satan over the corpse of Moses, or the nar-
rative relates to a vision as in the history of the temptation
of Jesus. In all other cases, the occurrence is referred to the
Devil by the interpreters of the Scriptures through a mis-
understanding, while in reality the narration refers only to
divine or merely human actions. Thus, it was not Satan
who caused the sufferings of Job, but God who tried him ;
and it was not the persecutions of the Devil which Paul
had to endure, but those of evil men, whether the officer
with his scourge, or the enemies of the apostle with their
slanders.^

This was the attitude of our theologian towards the
Holy Scriptures. To harmonize his faith in the Bible with
his disbelief in the Devil, he interpreted the Bible in
harmony with the laws of nature, only he confined this
method to the explanation of demonic miracles while he
acknowledged the divine as worthy of belief. Later rational-
ism extended the natural mode of explanation to all miracles.
As to the question of biblical miracles, there are three points
of view. The orthodox say, " Miracles are worthy of belief
because they are narrated in the Bible." Rationalists say,
"They are not worthy of belief, therefore they are not
narrated in the Bible." Those who occupy the third point
of view, which is later than the two preceding, affirm their

1 lb., book il., chiefly viii.; ix., sec. 11; x. 18-23; xi. 12, 13; xiv.; xv. 9;
xviii. 3-12; xx, 23-26; xxi.; xxiii.

528 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

minor premise though their conclusion is negative. They
say, "Miracles are not worthy of belief although they are
narrated in the Bible." The second of these points of view
was Bekker's, supported by the rationalism of the Cartesian
doctrine ; though he by no means occupied that attitude
towards all the miracles of the Bible, but only towards
the accounts of demons. That is the remarkable position
of this man in the history of philosophy and theology.

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM. - ARNOLD GEULINCX. 529

CHAPTER III.

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM. -ARNOLD GEULINCX.
I. GEULINCX' LIFE AND WRITINGS.

rpHE special representative of Occasionalism in its com-
-»- plete and systematic form came from Catholic Nether-
lands,— Arnold Geulincx^ of Antwerp (1625-1669), a pnpil,
and afterwards a teacher, in the University of Lyons. He
here studied philosophy and medicine, took his doctor's
degree, and for twelve years delivered lectures on philosophy,
— the last six as the first representative of the department.
His lectures were attended by a large and enthusiastic crowd
of students until he was forced to stop, and flee in a state
of the greatest destitution to Leyden, where he was hospi-
tably and benevolently received by the Cartesian Heidanus.
Through his influence, Geulincx, after he went over to the
Reformed Church, was permitted to deliver private lectures
in the University of Leyden, which were indeed as well
attended, though they were not so lucrative, as those in Lyons.
The assistance of Heidanus was to him a deliverance. He
himself, in the preface of his logic, called the misfortune that
had overtaken him a "naufragium rerum;" and Bontekoe,
who, under the name Philaretus, published his most impor-
tant work after his death, placed on the titlepage the
words '•'■ fost tristia auctoris fata^ His position must have
been desperate at that time, since Philaretus says in the
preface that he must have starved or begged if Heidanus had

1 The name is spelled in different ways in the titles of his works, — Geulincx,
Geulinxs, Geulinx, Geulincs, GeuUnok.

530 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

not come to his assistance. What drove him from Lyons
is not clearly known. We may surmise, that, on account
of the persecution of the Cartesians there by the party of
Plempius and the Jesuits, Geuliocx lost his positiou, and,
being poor, suffered on account of economic difficulties, and
■was oppressed by the orthodox. The Abb^ Paquot, a licen-
tiate of theology from Lyons, in his literary memorabilia
(1768), states that debts and official dissensions compelled
the unhappy man to have recourse to flight. But his great
influence upon the students of the university, and the theses
in which he attacked and derided scholasticism, were reasons
enough to make him an object of hatred to his antagonists.

He had not leisure enough to publish all his works. The
first work which he published in Leyden was a collection of
the theses which he had defended in Lyons, — " Saturnalia,
seu qusestiones quodlibeticte in utramque partem disputatae "
(1660). Two years later his restoration of logic appeared, —
" Logica fundameutis suis, a quibus hoctenus coUapsa fuerat,
restituta." This was followed by the first part of his most
important work, — "ri'£(9t o-eavroi/ »ive ethica" (Amsterdam,
1665), the whole of which was published after his death by
Philaretus (Bontekoe).

His Physics and Metaphysics are next in importance, two
posthumous works, in which he opposed the Cartesian stand-
point to the Peripatetic ; viz., " Physica vera " (Lugdunum,
1680), and " Metaphysica vera et ad mentam peripateticam "
(Amsterdam, 1691). Contemporaneously with these, his ob-
servations on the Principles of Descartes were published in
Dort, — "Annotata prsecurrentia " and "Annotata majora
in principia Renati Descartes."

Geulincx' Logic and " L'art de penser," the logic of Port
Royal, appeared the same year ; his Ethics a year before the
writings of Louis de la Forge and Cordemoy upon the rela-
tion between soul and body. He was independent of both
of them, and, therefore, the first and real founder of
Occasionalism.

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM. - ARNOLD GEULINCX. 631

II. GEULINCX' DOCTRINE.

He was the first who was in all respects in earnest with
the Cartesian dualistic principles, and who set himself the
task of making the strictest and most logical application of
them. He found likewise that in one of its essential parts
the structure of the master still needed to be supplemented
and completed. Descartes' system required a theory of
- ethics : he had indeed stated its elements and outline in his
work on the passions, but he had left this part of his system
undeveloped.

Geulincx undertook to supply this defect. Only a true
knowledge of self can furnish the guiding principle of our
conduct, and solve the problem of ethics. Hence the title
of his most important work, " Tvio6l a-eavrov sive ethica."
Know thj^self, know from what thou art, thy true relation
to the world, and, hence, thy destiny in the world ! Now,
human nature consists in the union of soul and body. In
what does this consist ? The problem of ethics leads us to
that of anthropology, and this to the fundamental questions
of metaphysics : what is the nature of the soul and of the
body? How are finite substances distinguished from the
infinite substance? The doctrine of morals rests therefore
on metaphysics, and has three questions to answer, — What
am I ? What is body ? What is God ? Geulincx, accord-
ingly, divided his metaphysics into Autology, Somatology,
and Theology. Spinoza also called his most important work
" Ethica." It may be that the title of Geulincx, whose work
probably appeared before Spinoza's, was not without influ-
ence upon the latter.

1. The Doctrine of Principles. — All knowledge rests on
the certainty of self, the Cartesian " cogito, ergo sum." The
only object of immediate, and, therefore, absolute, knowl-
edge, is our own being. Only thinking beings can be objects
to themselves, and be evident to themselves. Only thinking
activity is immediately certain of itself, and every activity

532 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

which is certain of itself must be of a thinking nature.
The spheres of my thinking activity and that of my seif-cer-
tainty are exactly equal : so far as one extends, so far
extends the other, so far extend I myself.

It is, therefore, clear that I myself am active only as far as
my consciousness reveals my activity. If there is in me an
activity of which I am not immediately certain, which does
not fall within the illuminated circle of my consciousness, I
am not in truth myself active : I am not the being who pro-
duces this activity, and thus it is evident that something
takes place in me of which I am not the producing cause.

My activity coincides with my consciousness. But the
activity which lies in the light of consciousness is perfectly
clear and transparent : I see not merely that it happens, but
I see through its entire course ; I know how it happens. If,
therefore, an activity takes place in me of which I do not
know how it happens, I am not really conscious of this activ-
ity : it does not lie in the circle of my certainty of self. It
is, therefore, not in truth my activity : I am not its cause.

The mference, therefore, which Geulincx immediately
draws from the Cartesian " cogito, ergo sum" and declares the
self-evident principle of his doctrine, is this : It is impossible
for self-activity to be unconscious, and it is equally impos-
sible for unconscious activity to be self-activity. He who
does not know how an event takes place in him cannot be
the cause of this event. If you do not know, or if you are
not conscious, how you do any thing, you yourself do not do
it, and it is not your action. Every activity presupposes
that it is thought and willed. What, therefore, happens in
you without your thought and will does not happen through
you : you are not its cause. In other words, Every uncon-
scious and involuntary activity is not yours}

Activity without previous thought and will is impossible.

1 " Tmpossibile est, ut isfaciat, qui nescit, qvoinodo fiat. Qtiod nescis, qvomodo
flat, id non facts " (Metaph., pars i. ; Scientia, v.). " Qua fronte dicam, id me
facere, quod quomodoflat neaciof" (Tract., i. sec. ii. § 2, par. 4).

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM. - ARNOLD GEULINCX. 533

This "impossible" contains the whole of Occasionalism.
My thought is modified in a variety of ways. I have expe-
riences which I do not consciously produce, which, like my
sensations, come involuntarily, the origin of which I do not
know. They are independent of my thought and will: I
myself am my thought and will. They do not, therefore,
depend upon me: they, therefore, presuppose a will foreign
to mine, which produces them in me. This foreign will
produces in us the multitude of sensations either immedi-
ately through itself, or through us, or through bodies. Our
own nature as thinking is one, simple, indivisible. That
foreign will, therefore, cannot produce in us sensations
through ourselves, and for the same reason not through
itself, since as a thinking being it is likewise simple. The
only means of its activity, therefore, is body, but mere ex-
tension, as uniform as it is, cannot produce that variety of
experiences : it must, therefore, be body in its variety, i.e.,
in its changes, which is the means employed by that foreign
will in producing in us the experiences that do not depend
upon ourselves. Now, all changes in body are motions, and
our involuntary experiences must, therefore, be produced by
a will not our own by means of the motion of bodies.^

Now, mind, by reason of its nature, is inaccessible to any
motion. Motion is the approach or withdrawal of parts;
but the mind has no parts, and therefore it cannot be moved.
Only the divisible is movable, and the mind is indivisible.
Between mind and body, therefore, there is no natural com-
munity. There is no influence, no incursus, of body into
mind. If, therefore, by means of the body something takes
place in mind, the body cannot be the producing, but only
the instrumental, cause of it ; not the cause, but only the in-
strument; not "-causa efficiens," but ''causa oceasionalis"
(occasional cause). ^
.There are a great number of bodies different because of

1 Metaph., i.; Scient., ii., Iv., vi., vii.
a Metaph., pars. i. ; Scient., viii.

534 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

their motions ; among these bodies or parts of the material
world one is the instrument, by means of which a multitude
of sensations are produced in me : with this body, my soul is
united. The union of a soul and a body is man : I am man
so far as I am united with a body in which a will not my
own causes my motions, and through these motions causes
experiences in my soul. To enter into those conditions of
human nature, i.e., into this union with a body, is to be
born : to leave those conditions is to die. The constitution of
human nature is not my work : I do not produce it, and I do
not know how it is produced. I only know that it is not
caused by me, that it must, therefore, be caused by a will
other than mine. In the world in which I live, I am accord-
ingly myself the work of a will not my own.

My power extends only as far as my will, and my will
should not be directed to objects beyond my power. Where
I can do nothing, I ought not to will any thing. ' Vbi nihil
vales, ihi nihil velis ! " In this point, the doctrine of morals
empties into metaphysics, the " ostium fluminis moralis,^' as it
were, as Geulincx says.i

We see plainly how closely the occasionalistic mode of
thought is connected with the ethical, and conditions the
latter. What does not take place through my will and with
my consciousness is not my deed • this sentence contains in
nuce the whole of Occasionalism.

The immediate inference is obvious. My connection with
the body, and with the world in which I am born, live, and
die, is not my work, since it lies beyond the sphere of my
will and my consciousness. This world is not the scene of
my activity, and it ought not, therefore, to be the object
of my will : this sentence contains the whole sum of ethics.

If, with Descartes, we admit -the validity of the opposition
of thinking and extended substances, in view of the actual
union of soul and body, no other conclusion is possible than
the Occasionalism of Geulincx. It does not explain the fact

1 Metaph., i.; Sclent., xi.; cf. ix., x.

THE SYSTl'EM OF OCCASIONALISM. -ARNOLD GEULINCX. 635

of that union, but rather the impossibility of comprehending
it on natural principles. If the absolute opposition of soul
and body is once accepted, nothing else can indeed be
inferred than the impossibility of their natural community.

Experience shows that there is an apparent interaction
between soul and body. Certain motions in our bodies are
followed by certain states of consciousness in our souls, and,
in like manner, certain volitions are followed by certain
motions which correspond to those volitions. It is easy to
say that the will moves the body, and the impressions upon
the senses produce the sensations. But how is it possible,
we must ask, for the soul to act upon the body, or the body
upon the soul, since both are substances fundamentally dif-
ferent in nature, and excluding each other ? In such a rela-
tion any mutual influence is impossible. Bodily processes
can never be caused by the soul, and the body has just as
little power to cause changes in the soul. Thus, philosophy
overthrows what experience seems to teach ; viz., the mutual
causal relation between soul and body.

But if, in spite of all this, a causal relation does exist, it
must be so conceived that every reciprocal influence of one
upon the other, every natural interaction (injiuxus pJiysicus),
is excluded. It is not the will that causes motion, nor the
impression which causes sensation ; but this is their relation :
when an impression or a motion takes place in an organ of
my body, on occasion of this, the corresponding sensation is
produced in my soul, and in like manner, on occasion of a
volition, the corresponding motion m my bodily organ. The
causal relation is only occasional. Both sides are entirely in-
dependent of each other : no kind of natural causal nexus,
therefore, exists between them. They are in complete har-
mony, but such a one as excludes every natural accommo-
dation of one to the other : they are in a miraculous harmony
which admits no natural explanation. I feel, in harmony
with the impressions upon my senses ; but the' cause of this
sensation is neither body, since it cannot act upon the soul.

636 HISTOEY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

nor I myself, since the sensation is involuntary, and I do not
know how it arises. My body moves in harmony with my
volitions ; but the cause of this motion is neither the body,
since this is a merely extended substance incapable of itself
of any kind of activity, nor am I myself the cause, since my
own activity is not of the nature of motion, but only of
thought and will.

This union of soul and body is the greatest wonder of the
world. It is absolutely impossible to comprehend how will
and motion, sensation and impression, con-espond to each
other. This correspondence appears perfectly magical, con-
sidered from the natural point of view. That T, through
my will, set my body in motion, is not less wonderful than if
I thereby set the whole material world in motion. It is no
less wonderful, said Geulincx, that the tongue in my mouth
trembles when I pronounce the word "earth," than if the
earth had thereby trembled.^ This shows how perfectly
Geulincx understood his point of view. The wonder is not
diminished because the body is mine upon which I act, since
it consists precisely in the fact that a part of the material
world is my body, or, what is the same thing, that there is
one body which is connected with me who am a soul.

What is the source of this union of soul and body?
Since they are not united of themselves, but, on the con-
trary, exist independently of each other, they must be
united by a particular activity, — one that proceeds from nei-
ther of the two sides, one whose cause can neither be soul
nor body. The cause of this activity, therefore, can only be
God. There is no action, no activity whatever without wilL
The activity which unites the soul with the body is not
ours : it is not our will. Its cause must, therefore, be a will
that is independent of us, and there is no being of this
nature but God. Thus, the problem of Occasionalism is
solved theologically.

From this point of view, Geulincx develops his concept

^ Etbica Tract., i. sec. ii. § 2, par. 11.

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM. - ARNOLD GEULINCX. 537

of God. He it is who unites the soul with the body. Man
consists of both, pre-supposes, therefore, the existence of
minds and bodies. The union of the two requires the
motion of bodies, and this is possible neither through minds
nor through bodies, but only through God. God, therefore,
must be conceived as moving will which is more powerful
than the infinite material world ; i.e., he must be conceived
as omnipotent will. He causes in us the states of conscious-
ness which do not depend upon our thought and will.
Therefore, he must be conceived as a thinking being ; i.e., as
mind. He works in minds and bodies : he is related to
things, therefore, as an active being to those that are passive.
He acts, they are acted upon, are passive. All things depend
upon him: he depends upon nothing. God is the absolute
being : he is of himself (a se), cause of himself, unlimited,
perfect, necessary, eternal. That he should not exist is
impossible : it is impossible for minds and bodies to be
united except through him. What contradicts the nature
of things, contradicts also the divine nature ; or rather, the
eternal truths are a necessary consequence of the divine
intelligence in which they dwell. These truths cannot be
changed, even by the divine will : he can only affirm them,
and act according to them. Thus, the Occasional mode of
thought elevates more and more distinctly the eternal
necessity of things into a divine necessity, upon which the
will depends, and which forms, as it were, nature in God.^

In this point, Geulincx is borne along by a current of
thought which struggles towards Spinoza.

Natural minds are related to the divine Mind as dependent
and conditioned beings to one that is independent and
unconditioned, as particular to universal, as limited to
unlimited. Geulincx still wavered between the theological
and naturalistic conception. He regarded finite minds as
creatures, and at the same time as modes of God: the
former conception is theological, the latter naturalistic.

1 Metaph., pais, iii.; Scient., vii.

538 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

He denotes minds as " mentes creatce, particulares, limitatce : "
he calls them " aliquid mentis.'" Thus, the creatural relation
becomes a partitive one ; the theological conceiDtion, natural-
istic; the creatures of God, modifications of God. The
more Geulincx feels compelled to concentre all activity in
God, the more must he limit the field of self-activity in
things, so that at last they have no existence for themselves,
but are only effects or modes of God.^

2. Mhics. — Theology and autology unite in the point
which determiues the outlines of ethics. We know ourselves
as creatures of the power of God, as dependent upon him,
and permeated by his activity. This perception of our entire
dependence upon God is at the same time the perception
of our entire lack of power. Our knowledge of self har-
monizes with our knowledge of God in the sentence, " Ubi
nihil vales, ibi nihil velis.'' This thought determines ethics.
Of this principle which it receives from metaphysics it
makes a virtue, in which lies the spirit of renunciation of
the world.

There remains to man nothing higher than to bring his
will and actions in harmony with his knowledge, than to
affirm what his reason teaches him, than to obey it willingly
and perfectly. This love of reason is the fundamental form
of all virtue, of all moral action : its different kinds are
the cardinal virtues, which, from this point, can easily be
determined. We must first perceive the voice of reason by
making a careful study of ourselves, then obey it, doing
what it commands, and, finally, make this obedience the
guiding principle of our conduct, the constant rule of our
lives. Thence the fourth and highest duty naturally fol-
lows: we must pretend to be nothing except what we in
truth are, — instruments in the hand of God. In view of
the knowledge of our entire dependence, and utter weak-
ness, we must renounce every idle wish, every false self-
exaltation, and become truly humble in the inmost recesses

1 Metaph., pars, iii.; Sclent., ii.

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM.- ARNOLD GEULINCX. 539

of our nature. Thus Geulincx determines the four cardinal
virtues which proceed from the love of reason or the will
conformable to it; viz., diligence, obedience, justice, and
humility. The last is the daughter of virtue, and the sum
of them all.i

This humility is the moral expression of a true estimate
of self, and this is itself a necessary consequence of true
self-knowledge. Thus, the highest of the virtues appears
as the fulfilment of the injunction, yi,5(9t o-eawoV. When we
know what we in truth are, every kind of self-exaltation is
impossible: those apparent worths which blind our self-
love vanish ; we see the vanity and nothingness of all our
idle wishes and desires; and the host of worldly cares, which
are nourished by our self-love, cease to give us pain.

Our self-examination reveals the fact that we conceive a
world of which we ourselves form a part, that in this world
we are united with a body which we call ours : we see that
we have produced, and can produce, nothing of this world ;
that we do not know how we act upon our body, and cause
motions in it ; that these motions, therefore, are as little our
work as the changes in the rest of the universe ; that, there-
fore, the world which we conceive can neither be the scene
nor the object of our activity. Where we can do nothing,
we ought to will nothing. Hence we should desire nothing
for our body, but should merely contemplate it : we should
relate ourselves to this machine which we call our body as to
the world in which we live, not practically, but merely theo-
retically, because, in truth, we can do nothing more. Thus
we obey the injunction, " Ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis." ^

1 " Virtus est amor rationis. Ratio est in nobis imago divinitatis" (Etli.
Tract., i. cap. i. § i. par. 6). " DiUf/entia est anscnltatio rationis. Obedientia est
executio rationis. Justitia est adwqnatio rationis" (Eth. Tract. ,i. cap. i. § i. par.
6). " Humilitas est virtntum cardinalium stimma. Humilitas cireulum absol-
vit ; ultra earn virtuti nihil addi potest. Igitur filia virtutis humilitas (lb., § i.
par. 2).

^ "Sum igitur nudus spectator hiijus machince. Esse me in hoc mundo-me
ipectare hunc mundum " (Eth. Tract., I. sec. ii. § 2, par. 8, par. 14).

540 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

The power of our will reaches no farther than our
thought : it does not reach beyond our inner world. In this
alone should we live and act. A complete renunciation of
the world, directed to God, necessarily springs, therefore,
from true knowledge of self. We renounce our own self as
far as this is of a worldly nature. Our worldly existence,
our well-being, and our value in the world, cease therewith
to be objects of our interests, cares, and wishes. This re-
nunciation is not an act of vanity, but of piety and modesty.
From the false relation to the world, which our self-deception
deludes us with, we turn to the true, revealed by our self-
knowledge ; and this destroys our self-love, and demands the
abandonment of all idle wishes.

This kind of renunciation and genuine self-abasement in
opposition to self-exaltation, Geulincx calls " despeetio sui."
It is the consequence and the negative expression, as it were,
of the " inspectio sui." Self-knowledge and resignation are,
accordingly, the constituents of humility, which is nothing
else than submission to the divine order of things, and that
state of the mind which is destitute of all the cares of self-
love, the " ineuria sui," as our philosopher well explains the
" despectio sui." ^

Here we see most plainly how the ethical doctrine of the
Occasionalists irresistibly tends towards Spinozism. Geu-
lincx himself calls love of reason — the principle of his
Ethics — love also of God. He says that the lughest of
the virtues depends upon love of God and reason. In the
'■'■amor Dei intellectualis" of Spinoza's Ethics, we find the
culmination of what Geulincx had meant by the " amor Dei
ac rationis."

But we must first consider the system of Occasionalism in

1 " Humilitos est contemptio sui prcB atnore Dei ac rationis. Requiritur ad
humiUtatem, contemptus negatives sui ipsiiis, quo quis de se non laboret, de non,
curet, nullam sniprie amore rationis rationem ducat. Atnor enim Dei ac rationsi
(qui est ipsa virtus) hoc agis in amonte, ut se ipse deserat, a se penitus recedat. —
Humilitas est ineuria sui. Partes hunvilitalis sunt dues; inspectio sui et despectio
sui " (Eth. Tract., i. sec. ii. § 1).

THE SYSTEM OF OCCASIONALISM. — ARNOLD GEULINCX. 541

its application to the theory of knowledge ; i.e., in the com-
pleted form which Malebranche developed in France. He
stands between Geulincx and Spinoza. His most important
work appeared nine years after the Ethics of the one, and
three before that of the other.

542 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER IV.

MALEBBANCHE'S STAND-POINT, LIFE, AND WORKS.
I. THE INTUITION OF THE WOELD IN GOD.

IN criticising the doctrine of Descartes, we have already-
seen that it contains two opposing elements ; viz., the
theological and naturalistic, the affirmation of the substan-
tiality of God and the world as the totality of natural
things. The concept of God requires the complete depend-
ence of things, while that of nature requires their own
peculiar independence. This contradiction Descartes could
not tolerate. God is, in his system, the only real substance ;
while minds and bodies are not really substances, though
they are called by that name. God in truth is the only sub-
stantial and efficient being. Is the action of this being free,
or necessary ? Does it proceed creatively from arbitrary
will, or is it determined by unchangeable laws ? Is it will,
or nature ? Must we conceive it according to Augustine, or
Spinoza? Descartes was personally inclined to the former:
the tendency of his doctrine was towards the latter. While
he seemed to approach Augustine, he actually approached
Spinoza.i

This characteristic required to be developed in a peculiar
system. Starting from Descartes, it struggles towards
Augustine, but turns directly towards Spinoza ; and, though
it violently resists him, against its will it goes so far to mete
him that it even crosses the boundary of his system. The
stand-point of this trend of thought is remarkable and signi-

1 Cf. book ili. chap. xi. pp. 471-478.

MALEBRANCHE'S STAND -POINT, LIFE, AND WORKS. 543

ficant in that in it, on Cartesian principles, Augustinianism
and Spinozism almost touch each other, and, at the same
time, violently repulse each other.

We find the problem already adumbrated in Descartes.
How is a knowledge of things, particularly of bodies, possi-
ble, if minds and bodies are substances, opposite in nature,
which completely exclude each other? Plainly such a
knowledge from those two sides is not possible : it cannot be
by means of the nature of minds and bodies. Descartes
himself had shown profoundly how the idea of the perfect
reveals in us the idea of the imperfect, how in the light of
this idea we become conscious of our own imperfection, i.e.,
of ourselves, perceive our self-delusion, fall into doubt, and
thereby first attain to the certainty of our thinking being.
He had shown how in this certainty of self, the existence of
tilings outside of us, the reality of bodies, becomes evident
to us through the idea of God, and onli/ through this. Our
knowledge of things thus appears, even according to Des-
cartes, in its last analysis as an illumination through God, as a
seeing of things in God or in the light of the divine reason.

This claim is very plainly hinted at by Occasionalism : it
is suggested by that assertion of Geulincx, " If you do not
know how you do any thing, you do not do it at all : it is
not your own activity." ^ Now, we have the perception of
the external world without knowing how this perception
arises. Our conscious reflection finds it, and pre-supposes it.
This intuition, the world as presentation, is not our work ;
and it is just as little an effect of the external world upon
our minds, for such an effect is impossible. Our intuition
of the world is, therefore, only possible through God : onjy
in him can we present to ourselves the world without us.
We see things in God. That is the central point of the
doctrine which Nicholas Malehranche made his own. There-
with are indicated the fundamental features which constitute
the philosophical character of this man, his importance and
1 See preceding chap., p. 631 and following.

544 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

position in the course of the development of the Cartesian
doctrine. He was a religious and theological thinker of the
Augustinian type, and an enthusiastic disciple and profound
student of the new philosophy. The type of an Augustinian
Cartesian was embodied in him. His mode of thought was
that of Occasionalism, like Geulincx's: he was the most out-
spoken opponent of Spinoza, whom he abhorred as an atheist,
whose doctrine he rejected — with all sincerity, and in
perfect conviction — as atheistic and chimerical. But in
spite of it, of all the opponents of Spinoza, there was
no other who approached him more closely : of all the Car-
tesians, there was no other who had so manifestly cleared
the way for the fundamental thoughts of Spinoza as Male-
branche. While he fled from him, he fell into his hands.
It was his historical work to apprehend with religious zeal,
and logically develop, the Augustinian element in the doc-
trine of Descartes. To devote himself to this problem in
perfect freedom from disturbance, he found the favoring
conditions in the society of priests of the Oratory of Jesus,
which, in the midst of the noisy metropolis, occupied a quiet
dwelling in Rue St. Honore.

II. THE ORATORY OF JESUS.

Even after the Council of Trent, the desire was active in
Catholicism for a deeper theological culture to purify men
without alienating them from the Church. To this end, the
Oratory of Jesus was founded in Paris, a society of priests
without vows. A scientific centre had grown up in that
retired society which was regarded as one of the first of the
theological circles of France. Their rivals were the Jansen-
ists and Jesuits, — the former with similar aims and tenden-
cies, the latter with opposed. It is no wonder that the
Jesuits were hostile to the Oratory ; that, with their purpose
of restoring the Church, they attacked a society of priests
which seemed to them a lot of secret reformers. Wherever
Augustinianism was active, the Jesuits were suspicious.

MALEBRANCHE'S STAND-POINT, LIFE. AND WORKS. 545

And it was very powerful in the Oratory. Plato and Augus-
tine were there rated more highly than Aristotle and
Thomas. The characteristic difference of the two was
manifest in their attitude towards the philosophical move-
ments of the time. The fathers of the Oratory embraced
Idealism ; the Society of Jesus Sensualism. We have seen
already that the latter were the outspoken opponents of
Descartes, whose doctrine of mind they attacked with the
weapons of Gassendi, while the former sympathized with
Descartes, whose doctrine of God had affinities with Augus-
tinianism. In this revival of Augustinianism within the
Catholic Church, in this anti-Jesuitical attitude, in this
friendliness towards Cartesianism, the priests of the Oratory
may be compared with the recluses of Port Royal. But
this mental kinship could not prevent a very bitter and
obstinate controversy from breaking out between the greatest
thinker of the Oratory and the greatest theologian of Port
Royal, between Malebranche and Arnauld.

The founder of the Oratory himself in a certain way
assisted in founding the new philosophy. Fourteen years
after the founding of the Oratory of Jesus, Cardinal BdruUe
had that memorable conversation with Descartes, in which
he pledged him to put his doctrine on paper, and publish
it (1628).' At his advice, the philosopher went into retire-
ment, and wrote the " Meditations : " BdruUe died too early
(1629) to see the publication of Descartes' works. His
successor, De Condren, remained faithful to the purposes of
the founder, and recommended the study of these works to
the members of the Oratory. The Fathers Gibieuf and De la
Barde were personal friends and admirers of the philosopher:
Poisson explained the Essay on Method and the " Geometry,"
and translated the fragment of Mechanics and the Compen-
dium of Music. The spirit of Descartes was at home in the
Oratory. His doctrine appeared to the fathers in complete
harmony with Augustine, as the longed-for alliance between

I See book iii. chap. iii. pp. 203-205.

546 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

religion and reason, Christianity and science. In this feel-
ing, Andre Martin, the first of the members of the Oratory
who publicly taught Cartesianism at a university (Angers),
wrote under the name of Ambrosius Victor, his " Philosophia
Christiana," a work that prepared the way for our philos-
opher. In his " Athei detecti," the Jesuit Hardouin called
Andr^ Martin the teacher of atheism, whom Malebranche
followed. Those persecutions with which we are already
acquainted, which, through the influence of the Jesuits, were
aimed at the doctrine of Descartes, soon threatened the Ora-
tory also. To preserve it from destruction, the superiors of
the society warned the members in 1678 against further culti-
vating the pernicious doctrine. Then it appeared how deeply
Cartesianism had struck roots. They made answer, " If Car-
tesianism is a pestilence, more than two hundred of us have
caught it." Four years before, Malebranche's most important
work had appeared. The Cartesian doctrine in alliance with
the spirit of religious contemplation and the Augustinian
mode of thought was already accepted in the Oratory when
Malebranche became a member of it.

m. MALEBRAITCHE'S LrFE AND WRITINGS.

1. Incidents. — Fontenelle's memorial oration and the bio-
graphical remarks of the Jesuits Andr^ and Adry, which
have recently been discovered by the Abb^ Blampignon, are
our sources of information concerning the life of Nicholas
Malebranche, which externally was very monotonous.^ He
was born in Paris, Aug. 6, 1638, the son of a royal officer^
and the last and weakest of many children. Even in early
life he was obliged to endure an operation, in consequence
of which his fate prescribed a celibate life. Nature herself,
in harmony with his inclination, directed him to the clerical
.office. When he arrived at the age of manhood, — usually
the period of greatest vigor, — he had to suffer for twenty
years with a nausea at the stomach, that made every attempt

' Bouillier, ii. chap. ii. p. 16.

MALEBRANCHE'S STAND-POINT, LIFE, AND WORKS. 547

to take nourishment painful. In body he lacked every thing
that belongs to strength and beauty. He was unusually
tall and slender, extremely thin, and besides he was deformed
by a very large curve of the spine. His head alone was well
developed, his eyes fiery, and the expression of his counte-
nance was mild and amiable. He bore his bodily afflictions
with the greatest patience, lived temperately, and in great
quietness, and thereby attained a quiet of mind which
strengthened his intellectual powers, and preserved his life.
No one had believed that with such a body he could live to
be seventy-seven years old. That he might have the care of
his mother as long as possible, he remained with his parents
until his sixteenth year. Destined for the clerical calling,
he took his philosophical course in the College de la Marche,
and then pursued his theological studies in Sorbonne. These
studies left him with feelings similar to those with which
Descartes left the school of La Fl^che. Thus dissatisfied,
he became at the age of one and twenty a priest of the Ora-
tory of Jesus. Even then he was not at once seized by the
prevailing intellectual current. His was one of those pro-
found natures who must themselves experience what they
are to believe. His philosophical needs and talents remained
concealed until his twenty-sixth year. They manifested
themselves only in the fact that none of the learned, philo-
sophical, and historical studies with which he had been
occupied in his first five years in the Oratory, satisfied him.
At the end of that time he had the painful experience that
his thirst for knowledge remained without satisfaction. That
Cartesian desire for knowledge, out of sympathy with the
Renaissance, with its study of history and antiquity, would
not let him rest, though he was unable to discover in himself
the source of truth, and had no idea where it was to be
found. Then one of those significant accidents that never
fail to appear in the lives of such men, revealed to him
his true vocation. His path one day lay through Rue St.
Jacques; and he entered a book-store, where his attention

548 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

was called to the latest literary novelty, the "Traitd de
I'homme " of Descartes, which had just been published. At-
tracted by the title, Malebranche took the book with him.
As he read it, his curiosity changed into the greatest admira-
tion. For the first time he saw a strict, evident, well-
arranged method of explanation and exposition : for the first
time he felt the charm of philosophy. There was what he
had so long sought for, as it were, instinctively and in vain.
He had to put the book down more than once because his
throbbing heart would not let him read further. Now his
work becomes clear to him. He will study the works of
Descartes, at first nothing but these. At a single stroke,
as it were, he felt alienated from all other objects, and
entirely absorbed in the doctrine of Descartes. After he
had devoted ten years to the study of it, and had thoroughly
mastered it (1664-74), he published his most important
work, "On the Investigation of Truth." The book soon
made him famous. After it appeared, he was called
'■'■Auteur de la recherche de la verite." The Oratory shared
in this fame, and in a general assembly the fathers voted
him thanks, and congratulated him.

A series of writings followed this principal work, extend-
ing even to the last year of his life. Their essential theme
was the unity of religion and theology, of Christianity and
metaphysics, of Augustinianism and Cartesianism (when
logically developed). It was this unity which Malebranche
represented.

2. Controversies. — As much as he loved peace, he could
not prevent his writings from provoking opponents, who did
not cease to attack him ; and he never tired of defending
liimself. That he, a priest of the Oratory, presented to his
generation the doctrine of Augustine in alliance with that of
Descartes, and by the depth of his thoughts as well as by
the beauty of their exposition gained influence over men,
necessarily embittered the Jesuits, who felt his triumph over
Pelagianism and Scholasticism as a double defeat. Some of

MALEBRANCHE'S STAND-POINT, LIFE, AND WORKS. 549

them inclined towards him when Arnanld, their more obsti-
nate and most dreaded enemy, took the field against him.
Malebranche's doctrine of divine grace, which he developed
in a particular work (1680), separated the two who were
friendly to each other before. Arnauld opened the contest
with his book "On True and False Ideas" (1683), which
was aimed at Malebranche's theory of knowledge. In the
following years (1683-86), polemic after polemic appeared.
The opponents rivalled each other in the violence and bitter-
ness of their criticisms, until finally the matter seemed to
rest. Then arose the controversy between Rdgis and Male-
branche concerning the pleasures of sense and their moral
worth. Arnauld seized this opportunity to renew the con-
troversy, after a long pause, with undiminished violence.
Malebranche had finished the first part of his reply when
his irreconcilable enemy died, Aug. 8, 1694, in his exile in
the Netherlands. Malebranche also remained unreconciled ;
and even after the death of his opponent, in the feeling of
the injustice which he had suffered, he could not restrain
himself from replying. His essay on grace had found de-
cided opponents among the ablest and most influential theo-
logians of the French church, particularly in Bossuet and
FSnelon, both of whom were favorable to Cartesianism.
Bossuet vainly endeavored to bring Malebranche to other
thoughts; he feared that the philosopher of the Oratory
would sow the seed of heresies; and, at his suggestion, his
disciple and friend, F^nelon, wrote a violent reply to the
essay on grace, which, however, remained unpublished, and
did not appear until a century after the death of its author.
The relation between Malebranche and Bossuet changed
when, some years later, a bitter conflict broke out between
the latter and F^nelon (the bishops of Meaux and Cambray)
concerning the question whether, in the love of God, the
passive state of entire self-denial — as the mystics and quiet-
ists insist upon it — is necessary or to be condemned ? B< s-
suet rejected the quietistic view to which F^nelon inclined.

650 HISTOR'X OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Malebranche then wrote his essay " On the Love of God "
(1697), which maintained Bossuet's position, and so won
him that he took the first step towards a closer friendship
with Malebranche, which was never again disturbed.

The most important subject of controversy between Male-
branche and Arnauld related to the doctrine of divine provi-
dence and grace, of unconditional predestination, determining
every single event, of groundless arbitrary divine will, capa-
ble of being limited by no kind of necessity and freedom on
the part of others (the independence of the human will).
The divine will is not to be bound by the divine wisdom and
the unchangeableness of his being, by the necessity of a best
constitution of the world and the unchangeableness of its
laws. He causes not merely the facts which happen, but the
occasions of their happening ; and certainly, this divine ac-
tivity concerns not merely the universal order, but each par-
ticular case. As soon as an unchangeable law prevails, —
whether a physical or moral necessity, — God is subject to
it ; and the creed of the Church that declares an omnipotent
Creator, is false. These are, in brief, the considerations
which, in the polemical form of unrelenting censure and bit-
ter reproach, the strictly Jansenistic Arnauld urges against
his opponent. Every acknowledgment of a necessity in
God, every attempt to construct a thSodicee, every optimis-
tic theory which regards the divine will as bound to create
the perfect and best, appeared to him as a characteristic of
naturalism — in opposition to Christian faith — which he
had reason enough to find in Malebranche's doctrine: he
might have found it, even in the doctrine of Descartes. It
was the point in which Malebranche, against his will as it
were, affirmed the eternal necessity of things in God. He
affirmed it without injury to liis piety and his orthodoxy,
which could not have been more sincere. And, therefore,
Arnauld's judgments seemed to him so unjust: he was
frightened from the mirror which the latter held before him
as he was terrified by the doctrine of Spinoza.

MALEBRANCHE'S STAND-POINT, LIFE, AND WORKS. 551

Divine predestination concerns also the motions of external
bodies ; through these, those of our bodies, the occasional
causes of our volitions and actions, which, therefore, can by
no means be independent of God. This kind of psychical
predestination by the motion of bodies was called '' pr emotion
physique" Upon this subject the Jansenist Boursier wrote an
elaborate work in which he rejected every limitation of divine
predestination, and taught it in the sense of "■promotion " (^prce-
motion)} (He agreed with Malebranche in four points, and
was friendly to him.) But human freedom was not thereby
to be denied. Malebranche defended it in his " Thoughts
on Premotion Physique," and aptly characterized the contra-
diction of Boursier, who put human actions entirely within
the power of God, and still attempted to mjiintain their free-
dom. We might just as well say, " God changes a globe
into a cube without injuring its spherical form, or a cube
into a globe without removing its corners." It was Male-
branche's last work in the last year of his life.

He lived in his cell in the Oratory in the deepest retire-
ment for more than a half-century. Sometimes he enjoyed
the quiet of the country at the house of a hospitable friend.
He was so accustomed to the solitude of his retired life, and
was so absorbed in his thoughts, that he seldom spoke, and
was called in the Oratory the "silent and meditative man."
His fame as a philosopher and an author brought him many
visitors. Scholars who came to Paris wished to see the man
who wrote the work on the investigation of truth. Even
during his last sickness he became acquainted with the Eng-
lish philosopher, Berkeley, and had an eager conversation
with him concerning the existence of matter. It is said that
the exertion hastened his death.^ He died after four months
of suffering, Oct. 13, 1715.

1 De Taction de Dieu sur les creatures, traits dans lequel on prouve la pro-
motion physique. (Paris, 1713.)

2 Gf. my work, Francis Bacon and His Followers, 2d ed. (Brockhaus, 1875),
book iii. chap. xi. p. 669.

552 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

The century of the French illumination (^Aufklarung) for-
got the doctrines of this man, but not his fame. Voltaire
called him " the great dreamer of the Oratory ; " Buffon,
"the divine Malebranche." His style was admired: even
Voltaire called him a master of philosophical style. Some
have been pleased to call him the French Plato, a compari-
son which Malebranche deserves neither as a thinker nor
an author, and which neither his doctrine of ideas nor his
dialogues justify. Perhaps we can more correctly say, that,
after Descartes, he was the greatest metaphysician of France,
if we do not forget that the distance between them is great.
In truth, Descartes stands in France alone and incomparable.
3. Writings. — Malebranche's public literary activity
covers a period of more than forty years. It began with his
most important work, " De la recherche de la v^rit^," the
first three books of which appeared in 1674, the three follow-
ing in the next year. Six editions of it were published dur-
ing the lifetime of the author, the last of which (Paris, 1712)
is the completest. Seventeen explanations (^ielaircissementa)
were added to this. The Reformed preacher Lenfant, to the
great delight of its author, translated the work into Latin,
" De inquirenda veritate libri sex " (Genevse, 1685).

"Conversations chrdtiennes, dans lesquelles on justifie la
vdrit^ de la rehgion et de la morale de Jdsus Christ " (Paris,
1677), followed the above-mentioned work. It was written at
the request of Duke Chevreuse, and published without the
name of its author. Xext came " Traitd de la nature et de la
grice, en trois discours " (Amsterdam, 1680). This essay was
the occasion of the controversies above spoken of. Then fol-
lowed "Meditations chr^tiennes et mdtaphysiques" (Cologne,
1683), which is regarded as his masterpiece in point of
style. Although the first edition consisted of four thousand
copies, a second was soon necessary. The same year " Traitd
de morale " appeared (Cologne, 1683). (According to Bouil-
lier, Malebranche was said to have written this work at the
request of the Princess Elizabeth, — which is difficult to be-

MALKBEANCHE'S STAND-POINT, LIFE, AND WORKS. 553

lieve, as the latter had died three years before.^) After the
first work, which laid the foundation of his philosophy,
the most important for his philosophical point of view is
" Entretiens sur la m^taphysique et sur la religion " (Rot-
terdam, 1688). It is the most concise statement of his
doctrine.

His last works were "Traits de I'amour de Dieu"
(Lyons, 1677), "Entretiens d'un philosophe chr^tien avec
un philosophe chinois sur I'existence et la nature de Dieu "'
(Paris, 1708), " Reflexion sur la premotion physique, centre
le P. Boursier" (Paris, 1715). His controversial writings
against Arnauld were published in four volumes, — " Recueil
de toutes ses r^ponses a Arnauld " (Paris, 1709).

The result of Arnauld's attacks was that the essay on
nature and grace was put on the Romish Index, May 29,
1689, and, indeed, without the remark '■'■donee corrigatur.'"
The Latin translation of his most important work, the " Traite
de morale," and the " Entretiens sur la mdtaphysique et sur
la religion," met the same fate twenty years later. As pain-
ful as this was to the pious Malebranche, his convictions
remained unshaken. We must follow the truth, wrote he to
a friend, '■'•per imfamiam et honam famam.''^^

1 Eouillier, ii. chap. li. p. 37.

' lb., chap. ii. p. 25. Even in his lifetime a collection of his works was
published in eleven volumes (Paris, 1712). Genoude and Lourdoiieix pub-
lished complete collective editions in two quartos (Paris, 1838). Tlie three
principal works (Recherche de la v^rite, Me'ditations chretiennes, Entretiens
sur la metaphysique) were published with a revised text and an introduction In
four volumes by Jules Simon (Paris, 1877).

554 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER V.

MALEBEANCHE'S DOCTRINE, (a) THE PROBLEM OP
KNOWLEDGE OF OCCASIONALISM.

I. DUALISM AND OCCASIONALISM.

1. The Substantiality of Things.

THE principle which determines the doctrine of our
philosopher consists in the application of the princi-
ples of dualism to the possibility of our knowledge of
things. How can the nature of body be evident to mind,
when there is no sort of natural community between the
two, but rather a complete opposition ? In his maintenance
of the latter, Malebranche is through and through Cartesian.
With Descartes, he explains the difference of essence between
thinking and extended substances as the foundation of phi-
losophy, and, also, defines substance as that being which can
exist, and be thought, without another, while the opposite
is true of its states or modifications, the manner of its
existence (maniere d'etre). Now, thought is independent of
extension, and conversely ; thinking and extended substances
(minds and bodies) are, therefore, independent of each other,
and hence, in this respect, substances.^

Extension is divisible ; its parts can be united or separated :
in this way spatial relations arise, which form different and
changing orders. The order in which the parts unite is
figure : its change in space is motion. The only modifica-
tions of extension are form and motion : the corresponding
modifications of thought are intellect and desire. Intellect

1 Entret. sur la m^taphys., chap. i.

MALEBRANCHE'S DOCTRINE. 555

expresses itself in the threefold form of sense-perception,
imagination, and pure reason ; the faculty of desire in the
twofold form of inclination and passion.

How is a true knowledge of things possible by means of
human knowledge subject to such modifications? We are
exposed to errors, and must inquire into their sources in
order to find the path to truth. For aught we can yet say,
it is possible, that, on account of its nature, our thought is
in danger at every step of falling into errors, that the Will-o'-
the-wisps of error are seen in each of its modifications, and
mistaken by us for the light of truth. These illusions are
to be laid bare. True knowledge sees things as they are in
themselves without any foreign addition. But through our
sensation and imagination, we do not consider things as
they are in themselves, but as they affect us, and as they
are to our sensibility, through the impressions they make
upon it. And while we are under the power of our inclina-
tions and passions, we have just as little power to perceive
the true nature of things. We do not see what they are
in themselves, but how we are sensible of them, how we
regard them, and what they are worth to us in the state of
life in which we exist. What, therefore, we are conscious
of through sense and imagination, through inclination and
passion (by which we are blinded), is not the true nature
of things, but always only their relation to us. What we
are conscious of is, in the last analysis, only our states of
consciousness dependent upon the impressions made upon
our senses. And pure understanding (esprit pur) taken by
itself, opposed, as it is, in its isolation to things without us,
independent, as it is, to the rest of the modifications of
thought, can, at first view, reveal to us clearly and distinctly
neither the nature of things nor their relations.

Our modes of presentation and desire are, accordingly, so
many sources of error, so many paths upon which the truth
is not to be found. To investigate the truth, these erroneous
paths must be avoided, and, therefore, must first of all be

556 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

known. The problem of our philosopher is, therefore,
divided into the investigation of those five sources of error
and the universal method of truth. There are, accordingly,
six books in the whole work : (1) " On the Senses ; " (2)
"On the Imagination;" (3) "On the Understanding, or
Pure Mind ; " (4) " On the Inclinations, or Natural Affec-
tions;" (5) "On the Passions;" (6) "On the Universal
Method of Truth." The fundamental question was the
problem of knowledge ; and the conception of it was, as we
see, absolutely determined by the dualistic principles of the
Cartesian doctrine.^

2. The Inactivity of Things. — The nature of the material
world consists only in extension that is divisible, movable,
capable of form. Bodies can be moved, but they are inca-
pable of self-motion. Extension is destitute of energy, bodies
are not moving forces. Every change that takes place in the
material world is a motion, but no body has power to pro-
duce motion: none is its producing, efficient cause. Now,
motion is the only kind of effect that can be attributed to
bodies. If they are unable to cause motion, they are unable
to cause any thing whatever: they are of themselves com-
pletely inactive, entirely destitute of power to act upon mind
and change its states. Matter cannot modify mind. It can-
not affect it either agreeably or disagreeably : it cannot make
it happy or unhappy.* Now, since the universe consists of
minds and bodies, and bodies exert power neither upon mat-
ter nor mind, it follows that they do not exert power at all,
but that power is exerted through them. If we call the
acting force cause, we must declare that bodies are incapable
of being causes, that bodies are no real or actual causes.

It might seem that the motion whose cause bod}' cannot
be, is produced by minds. But how can minds move body,
since the nature of both is such as to exclude any kind of
connection? Now, composition or union is a kind of con-
nection, and is inconceivable without motion. Man is a

1 Kecherche de la \in%i, liv. i. chaps, i., iv.; liv. iii. conclusion.

MALEBRANCHE'S DOCTRINE. 557

union of soul and body ; but neither can the soul of itself
attract the body, nor the body the soul. A human being,
therefore, is a union of two substances, neither of which
could have produced the union. The cause of human exist-
ence is not to be found, therefore, in nature, not in things,
neither in minds nor bodies. The will of man moves nothing,
not even the smallest body. I will to move my arm in a
particular direction, and the motion takes place. If the will
were the producing cause of the motion, a necessary connec-
tion must exist and be knowable between it and the motion :
the motion must have, in that case, depended upon the will
mediately or immediately, therefore upon consciousness, and
we must be the more capable of producing motions in our
bodies, the more plainly we see the connection between will
and motion in all its connecting links, and the anatomist
must be also the strongest athlete. The motion of the arm
follows the volition without our perceiving the connection,
without our knowing the series of connecting links that com-
municate motion from the will to the body. Motion, there-
fore, takes place in entire independence of our thought and
knowledge. Now, since will is a modification of thought,
motion takes place independently of our volition : it follows
after it, but not out of it. Even if we were able to follow
motion from one organ of the body to another, its connec-
tion with the will would not thereby be known. Suppose it
is the animal spirits which, by means of the nerves, set the
muscles in motion, and through these the arm : we only see
how one moving body moves another, but not how the
will produces motion in the animal spirits, not how the soul
moves the body. This connection is unknown and unknow-
able. It is a natural impossibility, since there is between
will and motion, thought and extension, no community re-
sulting from their natural activity.

Body moves neither mind nor body, nor is it moved by
mind. If now, nevertheless, bodies are united with each
other and with minds in harmony with law, if there is an

558 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

order of things, the cause of it is not the efficient nature of
things themselves. Things are not active beings ; they are
not real and true causes ; they do not act. Yet natural
events appear everyvsrhere dependent upon natural causes.
When bodies collide, their motion is changed according to a
constant lavr. If we will to move the arm, the arm in fact
moves. In the former case, the collisi(5n of the bodies
appears the material cause of the change in motion that fol-
lows it : in the latter, the will seems the cause of the motion
of the arm. This natural causality must be affirmed, and at
the same time the activity of natural things must be denied.
What remains, therefore, but to maintain that natural causes
are not the efficient causes of things ? A ball strikes a ball ;
it imparts to the latter its motion ; it is the natural cause of
this motion. But since the ball can never be the producing
cause of motion, it cannot be the producing cause of im-
parted motion. In brief, the natural cause is not the pro-
ducing. What is it, then ? What is a cause without
activity? It is not active but passive cause, not the force
but the medium and mere vehicle of efficiency, not the effi-
cient but the occasional cause, not real cause but mere occa-
sion. The so-called natural causes are all of them merely
occasional. In this point, Malebranche completely agrees
with Geulincx, although he does not directly appeal to him.
He is a Dualist, like Descartes, and an Occasionalist, like
Geulincx. His Occasionalism was the necessary consequence
of the Dualism which he maintained as a fundamental
principle.!

3. The Causality of God. — Now, if all natural causes are
merely occasional, what is the producing cause ? The nega-
tive answer is evident from the simple conversion of the fol-
lowing sentence : if no natural thing is a real or true cause,
a real or true cause is also no natural thing, no' finite, im-
perfect thing . whatever, but the infinite and perfect being
alone ; i.e., Crod himself, who can be but one, since his per-

1 Eech. de la vdrit^, liv. vi. part ii. chap. ili. Entret., vii.

MALEBRANCI-IE'S DOCTRINE. 559

fection is not relative, but absolute. There is but one true
cause, and it includes all true energy in itself; and, without
it, there is no kind of active power. This one true cause is
God. That is the conclusion of the true philosophy, which,
in this point, is in entire harmony with true religion. Only
by means of the principles of the new philosophy, i.e., the
doctrine of Descartes, is this great and decisive truth clearly
and distinctly conceived. Only from this point, therefore,
is the harmony between reason and faith, philosophy and re-
ligion, possible. Malebranche fixes upon this point of coin-
cidence as his goal, and keeps it constantly in mind.

From this fundamental view, the opposition of this philos-
ophy to the old is at once evident. There is but one true
cause : all the rest are occasional, therefore not in truth
causal at all. God is the only cause. In comparison with
him, natural things are not less causal, but not causes at all,
not causes in the relative sense, but, in the strict understand-
ing of the term, not causes at all. The question is as to the
difference between God and the world, God and things ; and
it is precisely in this point that Malebranche found the dif-
ference between the new philosophy and the old. We can-
not explain the difference between God and the world by the
different kind of causality or activity of the two. In that
case, God would be regarded as the absolute, highest, and
first cause, and things as relative, lower, and secondary
causes ; God and the world would then differ only in degree ;
things would be causes, only with less power. Malebranche
states with the utmost emphasis that the contrast betwee-ni
false and true, pagan and Christian, philosophy, consists ia
the affirmation and denial of secondary causes. He insists
upon their absolute denial. Under whatever name they are'
affirmed, whether as forms, faculties, qualities, energies, plastic-
forces, as soon as things are regarded as causes or agencies,
"philosophy falls into the most dangerous of all errors." For
what is the necessary result? To be a cause is to effect, to
produce, to create. There is no efficiency that is not of a

560 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

productive, creative nature. No finite and natural thing can
create : none can change of itself or by means of another
finite thing. To exert a power of causality is to create : to be
a cause is to be God. These assertions Malebranche regards
as identical. If things are causes, they are, therefore, of a
divine nature : as secondary causes, they are divinities of
the second and a lower degree, " little deities ; " and nature
herself a world everywhere filled with divine or demonic
powers. Is not this paganism ? To admit secondary causes
is to affirm paganism. With this mode of thought, says
IMalebranche, the heart may be a Christian, but the head is a
pagan. The error is contrary to reason because it is based on
an absurd proposition : a secondary cause is a little deity; i.e.,
a deity which is none, a pure chimera. It is also pernicious
because of its inevitable moral consequences. What one re-
gards as divine, he must affirm. Natural things appear to
partake of the divine nature, and the human will is blinded
by such an imagination, and insnared in desires for the world ;
the love for God becomes stifled by the love for his creatures ;
the mind must certainly be a pagan, and the heart, filled with
such desires, can hardly remain a Christian. Hence Male-
branche called this error the most dangerous in the philoso-
phy of the ancients.^

II. CHRISTIANITY AND rHILOSOPHT.

1. The Divine Will as the Law of Nature. — Things, ac-
cordingly, exist, persist, and act, only by means of the
divine causality. They exist through God; i.e., they are
creatures, minds as well as bodies. Body of itself is neither
at rest nor in motion. God, therefore, is the author, both of
rest and motion in the material world. He alone is the au-
thor of the union of soul and body ; therefore, of human
existence. He causes in our mind, both sensation and
knowledge. Without the divine assistance we could not

1 Rech. de la v^rite, liv. vi. part ii. chap. iii. " De I'erreur laplus dangereuse
de la philosophic des anciens."

MALEBRANCHE'S DOCTRINE. 561

move a finger nor prononnee a syllable. " Without God,"
said Malebranche, " man in the world would be as immovable
as a rock, and as dumb as a block. Without him, the union
of body and soul is impossible. He must unite his ever active
will with our ever powerless desires that our will may show
itself by the corresponding action.^ A creature is from its
very nature destitute of power as the divine yiH is omnipo-
tent by reason of its nature. To effect is to create. To
suppose that a finite will acts creatively, is a cause, has
effects, is as great a contradiction as to suppose that the all-
powerful will of God is not creative.^ The existence of the
world and its conformity with law is, therefore, only the
effect of God. All the activity in the world is his creating
activity. The world exists, i.e., it is created : the world en-
dures, i.e., creation does not pause, does not cease, does not
pass away, works continually. The continuance of the
world is preservation by God : the preservation of the world
is continual creation.

The causal nexus of things is the divine will, only this.
It is the indissoluble bond that connects all creatures ; by it
alone things are connected ; by it alone soul and body are
united, by it alone the world endures and lives. " The
universe is in God, but God is not in the universe." Male-
branche uses the first sentence to state his own theory ; the
second, that of Spinoza ; and he does it expressly to denote
the doctrine of the latter, and to reject it (as atheistic). If
God is in the universe, producing activity is in things them-
selves, and the door is thrown wide open for that most dan-
gerous of all errors which deifies things. But if the universe
is in God, he alone is the cause of every thing.^

The world exists because God wills it: it obeys law
because the divine will is steadfast and constant. "God is
wise ; he loves order, and will not violate it ; he acts in
accordance with it, does not at any time disturb it." The

1 Entret., vii. = Rech. de la v&itS, liv. vi. p. ii. chap. 3. s Eatret., viii.

562 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

motions of the material world, and the union of soul and
body in man, take place according to this eternal order.

The divine purpose in this union can be none other than
to test the human soul. Its duty is to stand this test, to
keep its independent and higher nature free and pure in
immediate union with God, in spite of its union with the
body. " God can unite minds with bodies, but he cannot
subject minds to bodies." Reason enables us to see clearly
that the soul is independent of its body. Experience
daily convinces us of the contrary. We are dependent
upon our bodily states, and miserable because of this depend-
ence.

2. Error as the Consequence of Sin. — Whence this depend-
ence ? God never willed it, nor caused it : he could do
neither. It was not our original state (immediately depend-
ent upon God), but the wretched condition which we have
brought upon ourselves : we have fallen, and thereby come
under the power of the body. Human nature is oppressed
by the yoke of the body because of the guilt of sin : it is
original sin that has deprived us of the independence of the
soul. Sin pre-supposes freedom. In the state preceding the
fall, the soul was independent of the body, and dependent
directly on God. How was freedom possible in such a state
of dependence? This possibility is inconceivable. "Free-
dom," said Malebranche, "is a mystery."

The divine will is unchangeable. God wills the inde-
pendence of the mind, and he does not cease to will it even
after we have lost it through the guilt of sin. He willed
it originally according to his wisdom, and wills now to
restore that which has been lost, according to his mercy : he
desires to save us from sin through Christ. God's vrill
being the only cause, we live in a double union : our mind is
united with God, upon whom it directly depends, and like-
wise with a body, upon which it does not depend. The fall
of man reversed this relation : it estranged us from the
divine light, and made us subject to the body. Now, God

MALEBRAKCHE'S DOCTRINE. 663

can still only will our restoration ; i.e, salvation.i If philoso-
phy, by its own resources, can point out that the path of
holiness alone can lead us to truth, Malebranche's object is
accomplished; viz., the unity of philosophy and religion,
of metaphysics and Christianity, of Cartesianism and Augus-
tinianism. To understand Malebranche, we must realize
with all clearness how in his mind the two parts meet, and
with what important results the Christian religion and
Augustinianism co-operate in his solution of the problem
of knowledge.

Truth consists, as Descartes taught, in the clear and dis-
tinct conception of things. Obscure and confused concep-
tions are not true : our sensations are caused by our external
impressions ; our imaginations by our inner. Neither teach
what things are in themselves, but only what they are for us.
Neither the senses nor the imagination, therefore, give us
knowledge ; and, as Malebranche repeatedly urged, we must
carefully distinguish between feeling (sew^iV) and knowing
Qconnaitre) if we wish to avoid error. Our sensations are
not, as such, false, since only through them do we learn how
other bodies are related to ours : they show what is useful
or hurtful to our body, what tends to preserve or endanger
our life ; and as long as sensations are regarded only in this
sense, they do not lead us into error. They do not lead
us into error until we use them to attain a knowledge of
things. " We should consider the senses as false witnesses
in relation to the truth," said Malebranche, " but as true
counsellors in relation to the preservation and needs of
life ! "

To seek to know through the senses is nothing else
than to make our judgment and thought dependent upon
them. And that is the root of error. We err as soon as
our thought falls under the control of the senses. But how
is it possible to avoid this after the mind has once become
dependent upon the body? Dependence is the penalty of

1 En tret., iv.

564 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

sin, in consequence of which thought comes under the
dominion of the senses, takes them as guides to knowledge,
and thereby falls completely under the power of error, and
no longer distinguishes between feeling and knowing.

3. Knoivledge as Illumination. — But if error is the penalty
of sin, we can get rid of it only by a thorough eradication of
sin ; i.e., by salvation or the immediate union of the soul with
God. We err necessarily and inevitably while the soul de-
pends upon the body with which it was united by God, but
to which it was by no means subjected by God : we know
the truth just as necessarily and inevitably when the soul
depends upon God, when our mind is immediately united
with the divine. Error is the guilt of sin, the darkening of
the soul by the body which controls it: knowledge is the
illumination of the soul by the divine light. It is possible
only through God, as error is possible only by turning from
God, by subjection to the yoke of the body ; i.e., by sin.

From this point we can get the clearest perception of the
inmost motive and problem of Malebranche. He took the
Cartesian Dualism for his foundation, and logically developed
it into Occasionalism. This logically denies the activity of
things, and admits only the causality of the divine will.
Malebranche opposes this conception to the philosophy of the
ancients, i.e., to Naturalism, and in this point agrees with
Augustine. But even the divine causality cannot destroy
the dualism of mind and body, since the foundation and
principle of the doctrine would thereby be destroyed: the
divine causality, therefore, cannot make the mind dependent
upon body. This dependence is not possible in, and by
means of, God, but it exists, nevertheless, in fact. It is,
therefore, only possible through ourselves, through our es-
trangement from God, through sin which darkens our mind
and causes error. But if error is the result of sin or our
estrangement from God, knowledge, or the destruction of
error, is only possible through our union with God and his
illumination.

MALEBRANCHE'S DOCTRINE. 565

Now, if it can be proved by purely philosophical argu-
ments that our knowledge of things is only possible in and
through God, that we see things in God, a very important
regressive inference results. If knowledge is, only possible
through union with God, error can only arise by our fall
from God : error is, therefore, a proof of sin ; and since, as
experience shows, we are inevitably involved in it, the same
is true of the sin which causes it. The error in which we
live, and which clings to us, is a proof of original sin. That
is the central point of Augustinianism, which is, dogmati-
cally, the acutest and completest expression of the Christian
doctrine. The core of the doctrine of Malebranche now lies
plainly before our eyes. The proposition that knowledge is
only possible as illumination, that we see things in God,
forms the connecting link between philosophy and religion,
metaphysics and Christianity. Every thing, therefore, de-
pends upon the philosophical proof of this proposition, and
the vindication of it as the theory of knowledge. This is
the problem which is still to be solved.

566 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER VI.

(6) SOLUTION OP THE PEOBLEM : THE INTUITION OP
THINGS IN GOD.

I. OBJECTS AlfD KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE.

AS different as are the objects of human knowledge, so
different are its kinds. The objects of our knowledge
are God, our own minds, other finite minds, and body. The
perfect can never be evident from the imperfect, nor the in-
finite from the finite. Our knowledge of God is not, there-
fore, deduced, but original, and is of all our knowledge the
clearest and most distinct. The consciousness of God is
the light by which we know. Bodies, on the other hand, are
not knowable of and through themselves : they are not of an
intelligible, but of a material, nature, extended substances,
independent of us, and opposite to us in nature. It is as im-
possible for mind to go beyond the limits of its thinking
.nature as for body to go beyond extension. How can
they affect each other? How can mind be acted upon by
matter ? How can matter make its way into mind ? The
objects of the mind are only conceived things (ideas). If-
there are ideas which present the nature of body clearly and
distinctly, then, and only then, is a knowledge of things
possible.

If we were not ourselves of a mental nature, we should
never learn that there are other minds : if we did not know
by our own experience what sensations, conceptions, and
desires are, we would have no suspicion that similar facts
exist in other beings. We know other minds only by means

THE INTUITION OF THINGS IN GOD. 567

of analogy, not, therefore, immediately, but by a comparison
guided by our own inner experience. We suspect that they
are similar to us: we know it, as Malebranche says, "par con-
jecture" We ourselves are the original with which we com-
pare them : the criterion for the knowledge of men is the
knowledge of self. In what does this consist ? We need no
medium for it as we do for the knowledge of the nature of
body ; only a conception or idea could be such a medium :
but in the knowledge of self, the being which we conceive
coincides with the conceiving being ; the knowledge of self,
therefore, does not take place through ideas. It has the
character of immediate certainty. Malebranche denotes it
by the term " conscience," But this immediate consciousness
does not extend beyond our inner experience : we know of
ourselves nothing more or less than what we inwardly and
directly perceive. Before we experience joy and pain, we
do not know what emotions (affecte') are : we know ourselves
only so far as we have experience of ourselves, only through
inner perception, or, as Malebranche says, ^'■par sentiment
intSrieur." ^

We are not in a position to comprehend, to make clear to
ourselves, to realize, all the possible modifications of our
thought, all possible inner experiences in our consciousness.
There is, therefore, no clear and distinct knowledge of self ;
but there is indeed an idea which presents to us the nature
of body clearly and distinctly. Malebranche, therefore, does
not admit the Cartesian assertion that the nature of mind is
more clearly evident to us than that of body. Descartes
saw that sensible qualities are our states of sensation, con-
ceptions modifications of thought, but only because they
could not be modifications of extension. He was by no
means able to so evidently deduce the different sensations
from the nature of thought as the different figures from that
of extension. Mathematics is clearer than psychology, and
that is a distinct proof that the nature of body is more

I Kech. de la v^rite, liv. iii. part ii. chap. 7.

568 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

evident than that of the soul : the evidence for the latter is
plainly less. If both were knowable only in the same de-
gree, we could as easily and clearly deduce colors and tones
from mind as the figures of a triangle, square, etc., from
extension (body). If two ideas are equally clear, and at
the same time completely diiferent, they could never be
mistaken for each other, and their difference would always
be evident to us. Soul and body are fundamentally dif-
ferent. If the ideas of soul and body are alike clear, how
is it that so many men cannot distinguish them, but con-
ceive the body far more distinctly than the difference of
one from the other? The explanation is, that the nature
of the soul is by no means so evident to our consciousness,
that our knowledge of self is by no means absolutely clear,
that it is rather, as Malebranche expresses it, a " connaissance
confuse." '

We can illustrate the difference of knowledge in respect
to its objects and kinds by sight. What makes things visible
is light : we see things in light. We cannot see our own act
of seeing, but we are certain of it through our experience ;
and from this certainty of our own power of seeing, we infer
that of others. As our power of seeing is related to the
light, so is our power of knowing to God. As our power of
seeing is related to things in the light (images of things), so
is our power of knowing to the ideas of body. As our inner
experience of color is related to our seeing, so is our know-
ing to our own soul ; and as our own power of seeing is re-
lated to that of others, so is our knowledge to other minds.

Of the four objects of knowledge, only one, accordingly, is
completely evident and clear; viz., body. Bodies can be
known only through ideas, and through ideas only bodies are
knowable. The question concerning the knowledge of
things is, accordingly, resolved into the question concerning
ideas.

' Rech. de la ve'rite, liv. iii. part ii. chap. vii. par. iv.; Eclairc, xi.; Entret.,
iii.

THE INTUITION OF THINGS IN GOD. 669

II. MALEBRANCHE'S DOCTRINE OF IDEAS.

1. The Origin of Ideas. — How is a clear knowledge of
things possible ? Reduced to its simplest and ultimate form,
this question runs, How are ideas possible, and what is their
origin ? The ideas of things are immediate objects of our
consciousness, and as such they are in our mind. The ques-
tion is. How came they in our mind, whence have we received
them? There are, at first view, three possibilities for the
solution of this problem : ideas are given to us either by the
body, or by the soul, or by God. There are two cases of each
of the two last possibilities : either the soul, creating ideas,
produces them out of itself, or they belong to the soul as its
properties : they are modifications of thought which we
know through inner experience. God produces ideas in the
soul, either by stamping them all at once upon it, and making
them innate, or creating single ideas anew in the soul every
time, as occasion demands.^

Let us suppose the- first case : there are bodies, Avhich, ac-
cording to the Peripatetic view, produce ideas in us. Now,
bodies themselves cannot enter into the soul : there must,
therefore, be copies, or resembling forms, that peel off from
body, touch our senses, and impress themselves upon it
(especes impresses), then are made intelligible, are trans-
formed into sensation, and become consciousness (^espjeces
expresses'). If the images of a body go out from the body
itself, they must be parts of it. But, if so, the material sub-
stance must become less and less, until it is finally completely
resolved into images. If those forms are parts of bodies,
they are themselves material, and therefore impenetrable.
Now, since they fill all space, from the stars to human eyes,
it is impossible to see how they penetrate these spaces which
are filled, and, in the thousand-fold crossings and disturbances
to which they are necessarily subject, can produce definite
and distinct impressions.^ And, even granting that these

1 Rech. de la verite, liv. iii. part li. chap. i.

2 lb., liv. iii. p. ii. chap. ii.

570 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

copies as effects of bodies are communicated to the organs
of our senses, this communication would still consist in
motion. Now, how is it possible for motion to be trans-
formed into sensation ? "I am indeed able," said Male-
branche, " to follow the activity of the sun, for example,
through all the space between it and me ; but since this space
is filled, I see, of course, that the sun cannot make an im-
pression upon me where it is, that its activity must be trans-
mitted even to the place where I am, even through my eyes,
and through these to my brain. But advancing thus from
motion to motion, I do not comprehend how the sensation
comes into existence. Tliis transformation of motion into
sensation has always appeared to me perfectly incomprehen-
sible. What a wonderful transformation ! An impression
upon my eyes metamorphosed into a flash of light ! I see
this flash, not in my soul, of which it is a sensation, not in my
brain, where the motion terminates, not in my eye, where the
impression is made, but in the air, — in the air, I say, which
is completely incapable of such a modification. What a
miracle ! " ' Sensation can never result from motion. If so,
body would be able to modify the soul, and body and soul
could not be opposite in nature. From whatever point of
view we consider the matter, it is evident from every reason
that it is impossible for bodies to produce ideas in us.

There remain, therefore, but two alternatives : either the
cause of ideas in the soul is the soul itself, or God. -

It may be that the soul produces ideas out of itself, or
possesses them among its properties (as modifications of
thought). Let us examine these alternatives. The first case
has three possibilities; viz., the soul produces ideas either
out of nothing, or out of material impressions, or according
to the object to which the idea relates, like a copy accord-
ing to its original. To produce something from nothing is to
create. But the soul has no creative power, and does not,
therefore, create ideas. But if it cannot produce ideas at

1 Entret., iv. par. vi.

THE INTUITION OF THINGS IN GOD. 571

all-, it cannot produce them out of material impressions ; for
ideas are spiritual beings {itres spirituels), and material im-
pressions are of a bodily nature. How can spiritual things
be made out of bodily? If man cannot create an angel,
said Malebranche, he also cannot produce him out of stone.
At least, the latter is as difficult as the former. It must,
therefore, on the above supposition, be the objects them-
selves according to which the soul forms ideas. But to
copy objects, we must have them before our minds, there-
fore have ideas of them. Why, then, does the soul need to
produce ideas since it already has them ? Such an hypothesis
is not an explanation of the origin of ideas, since it pre-
supposes it, and subjects it to a condition which represents
the producing of ideas as entirely unnecessary. Thus, in
whatever way we consider the matter, we come to the same
conclusion : it is impossible for the soul to produce ideas.'

Let us take the second case. Ideas are contained in the
soul ; it possesses them by virtue of its very nature ; they
belong to its natural qualities, as the sensations of cold and
heat, colors and tones, as the affections of joy and pain,
as the passions of love and hate, etc. The soul is, if not
the cause, the natural subject, of ideas. Since its nature is
higher and nobler than that of body, it must contain more
reality than body : in the nature of the soul, that of body is
also expressed and contained therein in an eminent manner
(^Sminement). The intelligible world will, accordingly, com-
prehend in itself the sensible and material : conceptions or
ideas of body are, accordingly, ideas of body, and as such,
like all other modes of thought, natural manifestations of the
soul. In that case, it is our thought in which ideas exist :
it is our knowledge of self, or our inner experience through
which we become conscious of ideas. But this entire theory
contradicts the fundamental principles of our philosopher.
Whatever may be the relative rank of soul and body, their
relative grade of being, they are decidedly and certainly

1 Eech. de la veritiS, liv. iii. p. ii. cliap. iii.

572 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

opposed to each other. Now, how can thought conceive
extension, how can extension be an object of our conception,
how can ideas of body be modifications of thought, or natural
qualities of the soul? From Malebranche's point of view,
it is manifestly impossible for the soul to possess ideas of
body by virtue of its very nature. Now, since it can neither
produce nor possess them, it is in every sense impossible for
ideas to proceed from the soul.i God alone, therefore,
remains as the cause of ideas.

2. The World of Ideas in God. — We have received ideas
neither from bodies nor from ourselves : God, therefore, as
it seems, is the only source from which we could have
received them. In this case, there are two possibilities :
either God has stamped all ideas upon the soul once for all,
and they are innate, or he produces every idea in us anew
whenever we require them.

Let us take the first case : all our ideas are innate. Now,
it is evident that they are infinite in number : take a single
class, as that of geometrical figures ; it is without limit.
There are countless figures, and even single figures, as a
triangle, an ellipse, etc., has countless forms : there are an
infinite multitude of triangles, an infinite multitude of
ellipses, according to the distance of their foci. All our
ideas are, accordingly, an infinite multitude of countless num-
bers. Our soul is finite, the world of ideas is infinite. How
can the finite soul conceive this infinite world, and not
merely conceive, but even receive it into itself? As little
as God can impart his infinity to the soul, so little can
he make the world of ideas innate. The theory of an
innate world of ideas is in conflict with the nature of the
human mind, which never ceases to be a creature or limited
substance.

Let us take the second case, — the only one, as it appears,
that still remains: we have received ideas from God, not
all of them at once, but single ones, one after another, as we

1 Rech., liv. iii. p. ii. chap, v.; Entret., i.

THE INTUITION OF THINGS IN GOD. 573

require them. As often as we will to present to ourselves a
definite object, God produces the idea of it in our minds.
We have not had the idea before : on the contrary, we have
been entirely without it. But without any idea of an object,
how can we tliink of it? How can we will to bring it
before our minds ? Is not thinking of an object equivalent
to seeking the idea of it ? How can we seek that of which
we have no idea at all ? It is, accordingly, impossible for
God to produce the idea of an object in our minds according
as we need it, if we do not in any manner whatever, how-
ever obscurely, already possess the idea. But if we already
possess it, it is unnecessary for God first to produce it.i

By this path, therefore, we reach no result, or rather the
negative one that we can neither receive ideas from bodies, nor
from ourselves, hor from God. There is, therefore, no source
from which ideas can flow into our minds ; it is, accordingly,
altogether impossible for us to have them ; we are not the
being that has them, we are not the subject of ideas. From
this negative conclusion follows the positive : the only possi-
ble source of ideas is God. It is impossible for God to
convey ideas from his being into ours, either by making
them innate, or by creating them each time anew. It is,
therefore, clear that ideas arise in God, and also that they
can be, and remain, nowhere but in him. Ideas are in and
through God alone : he alone is the infinite and all-embra-
cing being (^etre umversel), the only cause of ideas, and,
through them, of things.^

Now we have reached the solution of the problem.
Ideas are, and remain, only in God : knowledge of things is
possible onlj- through ideas, therefore only in God ; i.e.,
we know or we see things, only in God.

3. Intelligible Extension and Universal Reason. — If we
know things through ideas, they are the ideas which are
evident to us, and which cause our knowledge. They could

1 Eech., liv. iii. p. ii. chap. iv.

' lb., liv. iii. p. ii. cliap. v.; Eutret., ii.

574 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

not have such a power upon our minds if they were not of
a higher nature than the latter. The only truly efficient
being is God. If, therefore, ideas are of an efficient nature
(efficaoes), they are divine. Thus, the proof of the assertion
that ideas are in God, is found in the fact that we know by
means of ideas. This proof, said Malebranche, will have
the force of a demonstration to those who are accustomed
to abstract thought.'

The things which we know clearly and distinctly through
ideas are only bodies : these, in all their forms and changes,
are modifications of extension, and nothing else. It is,
therefore, the idea of extension by means of which all
bodies are known, and nothing else. All ideas, accordingly,
can be reduced to this one, intelligible extension, — VStendue
intelligible, — as Malebranche, in his dialogues, most simply
denotes the fundamental form of all ideas.^

Intelligible extension is neither a modification of exten-
sion nor of thought. No modification of extension is
intelligible, no modification of thought can be a conception,
of extension. Intelligible extension can, therefore, neither
belong to extension, since it is intelligible, nor to thought,
since it is extension. It cannot, therefore, belong to finite
beings at all, to beings contrasted with others, but only to a
being which is without opposition, which is unlimited and
infinite. The idea of extension is only possible in God ; and
since only this idea makes the external world knowable, it
is clear that we see all things in God. The idea of exten-
sion is related to the ideas of bodies, as extension as such to
actual bodies. As extension is modified in bodies, so is the
idea of extension in the ideas of body. As extension con-
stitutes the condition and principle of the material world,
so the idea of extension is the fundamental form and princi-
ple of the world of ideas. It is the primordial idea (idSe
primordiale'). As ideas are related to things, so intelligible

' Rech., llv. iii. p. ii. chap. vi.
2 Entret., i. pars. 9, 10.

THE INTUITION OF THINGS IN GOD. 675

extension is related to actual. Ideas are in God, things are
outside of him. Those are of a creative nature ; these are
creatures ; or, to express this relation in Platonic terms, ideas
are the archetypes, things, copies. Thus, Malebranche called
intelligible extension the arcAetype of the material world.i

After we have shown how the idea of extension is related
to the ideas of bodies, and to body itself, there remains the
question, How is this idea related to minds? It forms in
minds the clear and distinct object of their intuition: tliis
object is in all minds the same. In the intuition of this
object, therefore, all minds agree ; and however different we
may be in other respects, this conception is the same in all
of us. As the idea of extension expresses the essence of
all bodies, so the intuition of it expresses the essence of all
minds, — the universal reason (la raison universelle). There
is but one reason, and this remains unchangeably like itself.
The multiplicity and variety of individual minds are cancelled
in it : it does not belong as a modification to the nature of
finite minds, for in that case reason would be as different
as individuals; but by reason of its universality and un-
changeableness, it belongs to the nature of God.^

Universal reason and intelligible extension mutually cor-
respond to each other. They are related to each other as
subject and object : universal reason is the subject for which
intelligible extension is the object, and conversely. God
comprehends the universal reason in himself; this, intelligi-
ble extension; this, the ideas of all bodies, therefore the
objects of clear and distinct knowledge. To make this
knowledge ours, we must take the point of view from which
alone the objects of knowledge, the ideas of body, i.e., the
intelligible extension, appears. This point of view is the
universal or divine reason. In it, said Malebranche, minds
exist. This expression is identical in meaning with the
proposition, we see things in God. "God sees in himself

1 Entret., iii. par. i.; lb., ii. par. i. ; lb., iii. par. ii.

2 lb., i. par. x.; lb., iii. par. iv.

676 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

intelligible extension, the archetype of matter, of which the
world consists, and where our bodies dwell : we see only in
God, since our minds dwell only in the universal reason,
that intelligible substance which comprehends in itself the
ideas of all the truths which we discover." ^

1 Entiet., i. par. x.; lb., xii.

THE RELATION OF THINGS TO GOD. 577

CHAPTER VII.

I. THE UNIVERSE IN GOD.

1. God as the Place of Minds.

"TTTE are now in the very centre of the system. Male-
' ' branche combines two important proofs in order to
establish his doctrine of ideas and the intelligible world in
God, the real theme of his philosophy. He deduces the one
from the fact of our knowledge, the other from the creation
of the world.

The fact that we perceive and know a world without us
is undeniable, but it is explicable neither by means of the
powers of our senses nor by body. What we perceive
through our senses is always only our own impressions and
states, not the properties of external things as such. The
external world is not sensible, but material. Matter cannot
of itself act upon our mind: it cannot impart itself and
represent itself to mind. The capacity to be intuited and
known does not belong to its properties : the material world
as such is not knowable. It is conceivable that the mind
could have sensations of body while bodies themselves were
destroyed, while all its real properties ceased to exist. And
that is an evident proof that the capacity to be presented
to the mind does not belong to matter. The material world
is not conceivable : the world, therefore, which we conceive
is not material. Hence the world as conception or object
can only be of an intelligible character ; and since it is pro-

578 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

duced neither by nor in our thought, its cause can only be
God, and it can continue to exist nowhere else than in him.
Malebranche's proof can be most concisely expressed as
follows: Without an intelligible world, there can be no
knowledge ; without God, no intelligible world : hence our
knowledge of things is only possible through and in God.^
The other proof, deduced from the doctrine of creation, leads
to the same conclusion. God must conceive what he cre-
ates. Creation pre-supposes the creator and the idea of the
world, God and the idea of things. Without the eternal
presence of things in God, there is no creation, no world,
therefore, also, none knowable to us. If things are to be
evident to us, their ideas must be present to us ; and since
these are only in God, our presence in God is necessary in
order to conceive them. There is no other stand-point for
true knowledge. Truth consists in our clear and distinct
conception of an object ; and this must be strictly distin-
guished from all other conceptions, and is, therefore, possi-
ble only in the intuition of the intelligible world, i.e., in
God. We must be in God in order to have clear thoughts.
Our conceptions are confused Avhen we are out of him.
Hence the expression Malebranche used to state this fact :
"God is through his presence so closely united with our
souls, that we can say that he is the place of minds, exactly
as space is the place of bodies. God is the intelligible world
or the place of minds, as the material world is the place of
bodies." ^

2. Things as Modes of God. — Our objects of knowledge
are particular and finite things. The particular cannot be
conceived without the universal, since it is its more precise
determination ; the finite not without the infinite, since it is
its limitation. Now, God is the absolutely universal and
infinite being. Hence the ideas of things are related to the
idea of God, as the particular to the universal, as the limited
to the unlimited. What is true of ideas must, indeed, be

I Bntret., i. 2 Eeeh., liv. iii. part ii. chap. vi.

THE RELATION OF THINGS TO GOD. 579

true^ of things themselves. Things are related to God as
particular beings to the universal one, as finite to the infinite
one. They are, in a limited and imperfect way, Ayhat Cxod
is infinitely and perfectly: they take part in the divine
being, are "participations" of it. Thus Malebranche arrives
at the significant assertion, "All particular ideas are only
participations of the universal idea of the infinite in so far
as God's being does not depend upon his creatures, but all
creatures are notUng but imperfect participations of the divine
being. All ideas which we have of creatures in particular
are only limitations of the idea of the Creator." ^

God himself, according to Malebranche, is the single pur-
pose of all divine activity. This certainty is evident from
the simplest thought, as well as from the revelations of the
Scriptures. What God creates, he creates for himself: he
alone is the cause and the end of all his creatures. Minds
exist only to consider the works of God, and therein to per-
ceive God himself: they exist by means of this intuition, in
which they see the image of God, — which is, as it were, the
mirror of God. As he alone is the end of creation, so he is
the only object of our knowledge, and the only goal of our
efforts. The consideration and love of God is the funda-
mental cause of our conceptions and desires, of our entire
spiritual life. " If we did not see God," said Malebranche,
" we should not see ang thing : if we did not love him, we
should not love any thing." Every volition is a striving for
God, love for him. Without this love, we could neither
love nor desire any thing. Without God, our being is inac-
tive and dead, our thought without light, our volitions with-
out an end. Without him, there is neither power to think nor
to desire. To think is to know God, to will is to love him.
In this point, a manifest contradiction appears between phi-
losophy and experience. The former sees in God the con-
stant goal of our efforts : the latter shows that we constantly
desire the particular and perishable goods of the world. If

1 Rech., liv. iii. part ii. chap vi.

580 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

the first is necessary, the second appears impossible : if we
admit the testimony of experience, we must declare the
theory of philosophy to be the greatest of all errors. Male-
branche denied that there was any contradiction, and main-
tained that his theory was in harmony with experience.
Our worldly desires are, in his eyes, no exception to his
theory that love to God is the sole, animating cause of our
volitions. It is with our desires precisely as with our con-
ceptions: our ideas of things are participations of the uni-
versal idea of God, our desires for things are participations
of the love for God. Our love for the particular and transi-
tory goods of the world, and our love for God as the most
universal and eternal good, stand in the same relation as the
particular and the universal, the finite and the infinite, the •
limited and the unlimited, the conditioned and the uncondi-
tioned. What the latter is perfectly and infinitely, the for-
mer is imperfectly and finitely. Our desires for things are
modifications of our love for God. What, indeed, can things
themselves he except modifications of God? It is not we who
draw such inferences from the position of our philosopher :
he himself declares them openly and freely. " We can only
love particular goods," said Malebranche, "by turning the
love for God, which he infuses into us, into the direction of
those goods." Those particular goods are worldly things :
our love for worldly things is accordingly a determination
of our love for God. All our desires are modifications of
the will whose fundamental direction is towards God. If
we desire worldly things, the will is directed towards crea-
tures, but in truth its object is the Creator. The move-
ment, therefore, which impels it towards creatures is only a
determination of that movement which struggles towards
God. But if our love for creatures is only a determination
of our love for God, creatures themselves must be regarded
lis determinations of. God. Hear Malebranche's own decla-
ration : " All the particular ideas which we have of creatures
are only limitations of the idea of the Creator, as all desires in

THE RELATION OF THINGS TO GOD. 581

reference to creature, are only determinations of the movement
of the will which is directed tozvards the Creator." i God's power
produces things and their modifications; his wisdom in-
cludes the ideas of all things in itself; his love is the inmost
motive of all natural effort. The being of God consists in
this power, wisdom, and love : they are God himself. Hence
the divine being, in which all things have their existence and
their ideas, is the only cause and purpose of their activity.
"Let us," said Malebranche, concluding this most important
section of his most important work, "let us abide in this
conviction, viz., that God is the intelligible world or place of
minds, as the material world is of bodies ; that all things re-
ceive their modifications through his power, find their ideas
in his wisdom, are moved necessarily and in harmony with
law ! And since his power and love are he himself, we be-
lieve with the apostle Paul that he is not far from every one
of us, for in him we live and move and have our being." ^

II. MALEBRANOHE'S PANTHEISTIC TENDENCY

That sentence of Paul's is found in the Bible, and panthe-
ists eagerly quote it. The farther Malebranche advanced in
the development of his fundamental thoughts, the more
prominent became the features of his pantheistic mode of
thought, not as the object of the philosopher, but the inevi-
table destiny of his doctrine which accepted two diametri-
cally opposite views of the world, the Augustinian and the
naturalistic, and sought to combine them. And exactly
in this is it a true and necessary reflection of the period

' " Ifous ne pouvons aimer des biens particvUers qu'en determinant vers ces
Mens le mouvement d'amour que Dieu nous donne pour lui. Ainsi comme nous
n'aimons attcune chose que par Vamoiir n^cessaire, que nous avons pour Dieu ;
nous ne voyons aucune chose que par la connaissance naturelle, que nous avons de
Dieu: et toutes les ide'es particulieres, que nous avons des creatures, ne sont que
des limitations de I'idee du Criateur, comme tous les mouvements de la volonte
pour les creatures ne sont que des determinations du mouvement pour le Createur "
(Bech., liv. iii. p. ii. chap. vi.).

* Eech., liv. iii. p. ii. chap, vi.: " Que nous voyons toutes chases en Dieu."

582 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

which revived Augustinianism with intense fervor, and, at
the same time, was irresistibly filled with that naturalism
which mastered the new era of philosophy. Between the
two tendencies, as between two diverging lines, there are
very different distances at diiferent stages of development.
At one point they are very wide apart ; at another they ap-
proach each other: the point in which they meet is Male-
branche. Descartes, Geulincx, Plato, are the connecting
links — the stages, as it were, of the course along which his
doctrine passes ; Descartes and Plato being the two extremes.
Malebranche's method of combining them was not eclectic.
There was one fundamental thought that urged him through
these different stages: from Descartes, as a starting-point,
through the Occasionalists to Augustine ; from Augustine,
through Plato, to a naturalistic conception of God, which
was on the very point of becoming Spinozism.

The dualistic principles of Descartes formed the starting-
point of Malebranche, and he accepted Occasionalism without
qualification. He maintained the absolute inactivity and in-
substantiality of things, the activity and substantiality of God
alone. Fi'om this point, there is but one step to Augustinian-
ism. Even our knowledge of things depends upon God: it
is only possible as illumination. " We see things in God."
This assertion is Augustinian in reference to the ground of
our knowledge, and Platonic in reference to its objects ; for
what we see in God are the ideas of things, the intelligible
world. If, according to Descartes' doctrine, — consistently
developed, — an absolute opposition exists between us and
things without us, between minds and bodies, an opposition
excluding every kind of community, we can know only in
the light of God, and things are knowable only through
ideas.

It is only bodies which are knowable through ideas. Now,
bodies are modifications of extension : hence the idea of the
latter, intelligible extension, is our proper object of knowl-
edge, the fundamental form into which j\'lalebranche analyzed

THE RELATION OF THINGS TO GOD. 583

ideas. Here we see most clearly the Cartesian origin of his
system. Only when the nature of body consists simply in
extension, as the Cartesian dualism requires, does the essence
of knowable things, or the idea of the whole material world,
consist in intelligible extension.

The intelligible world is in God : God is the intelligible
world. It is the object of the universal reason : God is the
universal reason. The intelligible world is our object of
knowledge, in so far as we are in the universal reason, or
God. These are not mere inferences from Malebran die's
doctrine, but literal statements of it. There remains between
God and the world no other difference than that between in-
telligible and actual extension. The latter is what the former
is not; viz., creature. But by what characteristics is the
creatural character of extension distinguished from its divine
and eternal nature? We cannot say that intelligible exten-
sion is infinite while matter is finite, for the latter is, indeed,
infinite. According to Malebranche's explicit statement,
that, the intelligible world is the archetype of the actual
world, such an absolute difference between ideal and real
extension can no longer exist. We find no characteristic to
distinguish the two ; and, even if there were such, it would
not be knowable. The difference between these two kinds
of extension is, therefore, in no case an object of knowledge.
But since the whole difference between God and the world
is analyzed into this distinction, we are obliged to decide
that between God and the world, according to Malebrauche,
an evident difference no longer exists.

But we must go still farther. In the range of the doctrine
of our philosopher, deductions appear, which not only obliter-
ate the knowable difference between God and real extension,
but their essential difference. Even Malebranche declared
that the ideas of things are "limitations" of the idea of
God, our desires for things are "determinations" of our
love for God, and creatures themselves imperfect "participa-
tions " of the divine being. What is true of all things, must

584 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

be true of bodies. Even ideas of bodies are limitations of
the ideas of God ; even bodies themselves participate in the
divine nature, and are related to God as our desires are to
the love of God ; they are determinations or modifications of
God. Now, bodies are modifications only of extension. If
they are, likewise, modifications of God, God must be the
extension, the modes of which are bodies ; i.e., he is real
extension.

The Occasionalistic principles, which Malebranche applied
without qualification or reserve, irresistibly lead to just this
conclusion. Completely powerless as natural things here
appear, without all substantiality, without any power to act
independently, they can be nothing more than mere modifi-
cations of God: they take part in the being of God, and,
therefore, coincide with him. They are in a determinate,
finite, imperfect manner, what God is perfectly, infinitely,
indeterminately. Here from the nature of things a highly
important regressive inference can be drawn of God. Things
are either minds or bodies. If minds must relate themselves to
thought as body does to extension, things are either the inodi-
fications of thought or extension. Now, if both are modifica-
tions of God, God must unite both these attributes in himself.
He is the one and only substance — whose activity consists
both in thought and extension. This proposition takes us
into the heart of Spinozism, a purely naturalistic system, to
which the doctrine of Descartes has led us through Geulincx
and Malebranche, to which Malebranche himself was driven
by the Cartesian-Occasionalistic, Augustinian, Platonic mode
of thought, however strongly he opposed the doctrine of
Spinoza, and wished to maintain that of Augustine. I re-
mark in passing, that the pantheistic feature of his doctrine
is by no means to be considered as a form of its later devel-
opment — as some have contended — on which Spinoza's
works exerted a certain influence, but that it is found even
in his most important work, and nowhere more distinctly
appears than in that most important section which treats of

THE RELATION OF THINGS TO GOD. 685

the fundamental theme " that we see all things in Cxod."
Spinoza's most important work appeared three years later.
It is not true, therefore, that Malebranche, in his dialogues
on metaphysics and religion, gave more scope to the panthe-
istic mode of thought than in his work on the investigation
of truth. The later work is different from the earlier, only
in relation to the doctrine of the universal reason and intelli-
gible extension; but this difference is not connected with
the pantheistic development of the doctrine, but with its
simplification and concise conception.

God is universal reason ; he is the intelligible world ;
therefore, also, intelligible extension. So said Malebranche.
God is an infinite, tliinking, and extended being. So said
Spinoza. The whole difference between them consists only
in intelligible extension, which Malebranche identifies with
God, while he distinguishes the actual from him. But even
this remnant of Platonism vanishes in presence of the explicit
assertion that things, therefore bodies also, participate in
the being of God — in presence of the inference which Male-
branche cannot guard against, that things, therefore even
bodies, are modifications of God. This naturalistic feature
inevitably moulded the doctrine of our philosopher, and gave
to its conception of the divine will that deterministic char-
acter, which the Jansenists rightly regarded as a limitation
of the unconditional will of God, and was, therefore, so
violently opposed by Arnauld. We can easily understand
that Malebranche, who was not conscious of this tendency
of his doctrine, and of the logical result of his ideas, though
he was indeed aware of the religious spirit and purpose of his
entire system, — we can easily understand that he regarded
these attacks as the wretchedest and the most hostile mis-
interpretations. It had been his aim to put the honor of God
beyond every thing, by ascribing to him alone all power and
activity ; and he could not see how he had thereby infringed
upon the divine will. It is true that Malebranche affirmed
these two propositions: God is absolutely and infinitely

586 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

powerful, and acts according to eternal and necessary laws ;
and God is absolutely free, acting independently of any laws.
He did not see the contradiction in which he was involved,
and appealed to the second proposition when he was re-
proached with the first, and when his opponents objected
that it was impossible for the activity of God to be controlled
by law, and, at the same time, for the will of God to be
absolutely free.

If any one wishes so to present to himself this contradic-
tion in Malebranche's own conceptions that he may see the
two contradictions close to each other, there is scarcely a
more striking example than that letter (first discovered and
published by Cousin) which the philosopher wrote, March
21, 1693, to a certain Torssac on the immortality of the soul.
Some attempt to prove the immortality of the soul, he said,
from the substantiality of the mind and the impossibility of
destroying it: but if God created the soul from nothing, he
can also annihilate it ; and immortality must, therefore, be
based on the power and will of God. But such a method of
proof affords no mathematical certainty. " Since every thing
depends upon God, and the world by no means necessarily
proceeds from his nature," "there is between voluntary
effects and their cause no such connection as between truths
and their principles." The immortality of the soul cannot,
therefore, be rigorously demonstrated. Nevertheless, Male-
branche will give good proofs (cZe bonnes preuves'). The
most important is, " God's mode of action must correspond
to his attributes ; he must act as he is : the guiding principle
of his volitions is found in his essence ; it consists in the
unchangeable order of his perfections. Now, if God is wise
and omniscient, he is unchangeable and constant in his
purposes, — and he would not be if we were not immortal.
GocTs nature forms the rule and the inviolable law of his
activity, and I discover in him nothing that could induce
him to will our annihilation. We cannot judge the divine
will according to ours, and in general we must resist our

THE RELATION OF THINGS TO GOD. 587

inclination to anthropomorphize the causes of things if we
would know them rightly." Malebranche found the decision
of the question of immortality in divine revelation and the
incarnation, since the end of divine creation can be none
otlier than the salvation of the world.

In this letter, the fundamental features of the philosopher
lie before us. He affirms the freedom of the divine will,
making every tiring dependent on his unconditional decrees :
he denies it, making the will of God dependent on the
eternal necessity of the divine nature, which is revealed in
Christ's work of salvation. Cousin aptly said, " Malebranche
was, with Spinoza, the greatest disciple of Descartes : he was
in a literal sense the Christian Spinoza."

Only a little while before he died, Malebranche was com-
pelled, in a confidential correspondence with the well-trained
mathematician and physicist De Mairan, to defend himself
against Spinozism, and to meet the charge that the latter
is a necessary consequence of his own doctrine. These
eight letters, written in the last year but one of his life
(Sept. 27, 1713-Sept. 6, 1714), the publication of which we
likewise owe to Cousin, ^ are a highly interesting and instruc-
tive proof of Malebranche's relation to Spinoza : they show
in what Malebranche saw the chief distinction of their
doctrines, and how, finally, without having weakened the
conviction of his friend, he grew weary of defending him-
self, and laid down his pen without having accomplished
his object, and discontinued the painful discussion. De
Mairan, forty years younger than Malebranche, with a
reverential devotion to him, acquainted with his works as
well as with those of Descartes, — himself inclined to Des-
cartes, — had just read and re-read Spinoza's works, attracted
by the mathematical arrangement of its propositions, and the
clearness and cogency of its proofs : he had reflected upon
them in perfect quiet (" dans le silence des jJdssions" as he

1 v. Cousin: Fragments de philosophie Carte'aienne (Paris, 1852). Corre-
spondence de Malebranche et de Mairan, pp. 262-348.

588 HISTORY OP MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

said, quoting a beautiful expression of Malebrancft fs), and
he was unable to break the chain of its demote jjrations.
He was by no means blinded by admiration, since the
religious and practical inferences from the doctrine seemed
to him questionable enough. He turned to Malebranche
with the urgent request, " Overthrow this system for me,
whose proofs are so cogent, and whose consequences are so
depressing." He had already read and examined a number
of refutations ; but they did not convince him, since he saw
that none of them understood the system they attempted to
demolish. Now he hoped that the deepest thinker of the
time would point out the fundamental error of that terrible
system. For Malebranche himself, he urged, had spoken in
his "Meditations" of such a fundamental error, of such a
" false principle " which had compelled Spinoza to deny
creation, and heap error on error. Was it contempt or
sympathy that caused him to say in that passage, " le misS-
rable Spinoza " ? ^ De Mairan took him at his word : " Point
out this error, and prove it ! " Malebranche had studied the
works of Spinoza neither dispassionately nor thoroughly, but,
as he himself confessed, had read them formerly (^autrefois'),
and never completely (en totalitS'). Besides, philosophizing
by letter was troublesome to him. But, if he had had the
most thorough knowledge, he could have taken no other
position in opposition to it than the one here formulated,
which he repeated ad nauseam.

His answer to Mairan literally confirms the judgment
that we have pronounced concerning the difference of the
two systems. Spinoza's fundamental error was, he said,
that he did not distinguish intelligible and material extension,
the world in God and the created world, the ideas of things
and creatures, and, therefore, denied creation. This con-
fusion was the false principle of his doctrine and. the ground
of all his errors. And just as literally does Mairan's third
reply agree with our view. There are two kinds of cou-

1 Mdditationes chrdtiennes. Mcid., Ix. § 13.

THE RELATION OF THINGS TO GOD. 589

fusion : we can identify things whicli are different, and
•we may seek to distinguish those that are not different.
Malebranche is involved in a confusion of this second char-
acter concerning the relation of the intelligible and real
(created) extension. De Mairan aptly wrote, "Reverend
Father, your distinction between intelligible and created
Extension only serves to confuse the true ideas of things.
JV^hat you call intelligible extension, is, according to all the
properties you ascribe to it, extension itself (TStendue propre-
ment dite). What you call created extension, is related
to intelligible, as modifications to a substance." In brief,
Malebranche's doctrine, rightly understood, is Spinoza's.

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