External objects, it was said, are the cause of all our impressions; nothing then appears more agreeable than to give ourselves up to the physical world, and to come, self-invited guests, to the banquet of nature; but by degrees the internal source is dried up, and even as to the imagination that is requisite for luxury and pleasure, it goes on decaying to such a degree, that very shortly man will not retain soul enough to relish any enjoyment, of however material a nature.

The immortality of the soul, and the sentiment of duty, are suppositions entirely gratuitous in the system which grounds. all our ideas upon our sensations; for no sensation reveals to us immortality in death. If external objects alone have formed our conscience, from the nurse who receives us in her arms until the last act of an advanced old age, all our impressions are so linked to each other, that we cannot arraign with justice the pretended power of volition, which is only another instance of fatality.

I shall endeavor to show, in the second part of this section,

distinguished from the phenomena of matter; and if the impossibility of materialism were not demonstrated, there was, at least, demonstrated the impossibility of its proof.

"This philosophy, and still more the spirit of this philosophy, was calculated to exert a salutary influence on the French. And such an influence it did exert. For a time, indeed, the truth operated in silence; and Reid and Stewart had already modified the philosophy of France, before the French were content to acknowledge themselves their disciples. In the works of Degerando and Laromiguière, may be traced the influence of Scottish speculation; but it is to Royer-Collard, and, more recently, to Jouffroy, that our countrymen are indebted for a full acknowledgment of their merits, and for the high and increasing estimation in which their doctrines are now held in France. M. Royer-Collard, whose authority has, in every relation, been exerted only for the benefit of his country, and who, once great as a professor, is now not less illustrious as a statesman, in his lectures, advocated with distinguished ability the principles of the Scottish school; modestly content to follow, while no one was more entitled to lead. M. Jouffroy, by his recent translation of the works of Dr. Reid, and by the excellent preface to his version of Mr. Dugald Stewart's Outlines of Moral Philosophy,' has likewise powerfully co-operated to the establishment, in France, of a philosophy equally opposed to the exclusive Sensualism of Condillac, and to the exclusive Rationalism of the new German Ichool."-(Sir Wm. Hamilton, Discussions on Philosophy, etc., p. 2-4)— Ed

that the moral system, which is built upon interest, so strenuously preached up by the French writers of the last age, has an intimate connection with the metaphysics which attribute all our ideas to our sensations, and that the consequences of the one are as bad in practice, as those of the other in theory. Those who have been able to read the licentious works published in France towards the close of the eighteenth century, will bear witness, that when the writers of these culpable performances attempt to support themselves upon any species of reasoning, they all appeal to the influence of our physical over our moral constitution; they refer to our sensations the most blamable opinions; they exhibit, in short, under all appearances, the doctrine which destroys free-will and conscience.

We cannot deny, it may be said, that this is a degrading doctrine; but, nevertheless, if it be true, must we reject it, and blind ourselves on purpose? Assuredly those writers would have made a deplorable discovery, who had dethroned the soul, and condemned the mind to sacrifice itself, by employing all its faculties to prove that the laws which are common to every physical existence, are also proper for it; but, thanks be to God (and this expression is here in its peculiar place), thanks be to God, I say, this system is entirely false in its principle; and the circumstance of those writers espousing it who have supported the cause of immorality, is an additional proof of the errors which it contains.

If the greater part of the profligate have upheld themselves by the doctrine of materialism, when they have wished to become degraded according to method, and to form a theory of their actions, it is because they believed that, by submitting the soul to sensation, they would thus be delivered from the responsibility of their conduct. A virtuous being, convinced of this doctrine, would be deeply afflicted by it; for he would incessantly fear that the all-powerful influence of external objects would change the purity of his soul and the force of his resolutions. But when we see men rejoicing to proclaim themselves the creatures of circumstances in all respects, and declaring that all these circumstances are combined by

chance, we shudder from our very hearts at their perverse satisfaction.

When the savage sets fire to a cottage, he is said to warm himself with pleasure at the conflagration which he has kindled; he exercises at least a sort of superiority over the disorder of which he is guilty; he makes destruction of some use to him: but when man chooses to degrade human nature, who will thus be profited?

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE RIDICULE INTRODUCED BY A CERTAIN SPECIES OF

PHILOSOPHY.

THE philosophical system, adopted in any country, exerts a great influence over the direction of mind; it is the universal model after which all thought is cast; those persons even, who have not studied the system, conform, unknowingly, to the general disposition which it inspires. We have seen for nearly a hundred years past, in Europe, the growth and increase of a sort of scoffing skepticism, the foundation of which is the philosophy that attributes all our ideas to our sensations. The first principle in this philosophy is, not to believe any thing which cannot be proved like a fact or a calculation; in union with this principle is contempt for all that bears the name of exalted sentiment, and attachment to the pleasures of sense. These three points of the doctrine include all the sorts of irony of which religion, sensibility, and morals, can become the object.

Bayle, whose learned Dictionary is hardly read by people of the world, is nevertheless the arsenal from which all the pleasantries of skepticism have been drawn; Voltaire has given them a pungency by his wit and elegance ;' but the founda

"Since the metaphysics of Locke crossed the channel, on the light and brilliant wings of Voltaire's imagination, Sensualism has reigned in France

tion of all this jesting is, that every thing, not as evident as a physical experiment, ought to be reckoned among dreams and idle thoughts. It is good management to dignify an incapacity for attention, by calling it a supreme sort of reason which rejects all doubt and obscurity; in consequence, they turn the noblest thoughts into ridicule, if reflection is necessary to comprehend them, or a sincere examination of the heart to make them felt. We still speak with respect of Pascal, of Bossuet, of J. J. Rousseau, etc.; because authority has consecrated them, and authority, of every sort, is a thing easily discerned. But a great number of readers being convinced that ignorance and idleness are the attributes of a man of wit, think it beneath them to take any trouble, and wish to read, like a paragraph in a newspaper, writings that have man and nature for their subject.

In a word, if by chance such writings were composed by a German, whose name was not a French one, and it was as difficult to pronounce this name as that of the Baron in Candide, what collections of pleasantries would not be formed upon this circumstance! and the meaning of them all would be the following: "I have grace and lightness of spirit; while you, who have the misfortune to think upon some subjects, and to hold by some sentiments, you do not jest upon all with nearly the same elegance and facility."

The philosophy of sensation is one of the principal causes of this frivolity. Since the time that the soul has been considered passive, a great number of philosophical labors have been despised.

without contradiction, and with an authority of which there is no parallel in the whole history of philosophy. It is a fact, marvellous but incontestable, that from the time of Condillac, there has not appeared among us any philosophical work, at variance with his doctrine, which has produced the smallest impression on the public mind. Condillac thus reigned in peace; and his domination, prolonged even to our own days, through changes of every kind, pursued its tranquil course, apparently above the reach of danger. Discussion had ceased: his disciples had only to develop the words of their master; philosophy seemed accomplished." (M. Cousin, Journal des Savans, 1819.)-Ed.

The day on which it was said that there are no mysteries in the world, or at all events that it is unnecessary to think about them, that all our ideas come by the eyes and by the ears, and that the palpable only is the true, the individuals who enjoyed all their senses in perfect health believed themselves the genuine philosophers. We hear it incessantly said, by those who have ideas enough to get money when they are poor, and to spend it when they are rich, that they have the only reasonable philosophy, and that none but enthusiasts would dream of any other. In fact, our sensations teach nothing but this philosophy; and if we can gain no knowledge except by their means, every thing that is not subject to the evidence of matter must bear the name of folly.

If it was admitted, on the contrary, that the soul acts by itself, and that we must draw up information out of ourselves to find the truth, and that this truth cannot be seized upon, except by the aid of profound meditation, because it is not within the range of terrestrial experience, the whole course of men's minds would be changed; they would not disdainfully reject the most sublime thoughts because they demand a close attention; but that which they found insupportable would be the superficial and the common; for emptiness grows at length singularly burdensome.

Voltaire so well perceived the influence that metaphysics exercise over the general bias of the mind, that he wrote Candide, to combat Leibnitz.' He took up a curious whim against final causes, optimism, free-will; in short, against all the philosophical opinions that exalt the dignity of man; and he composed Candide, that work of a diabolical gayety; for it appears to be written by a being of a different nature from ourselves, insensible to our condition, well pleased with our sufferings, and laughing like a demon or an ape, at the miseries of that human species with which he has nothing in common.

The greatest poet of the age, the author of Alzire, Tancrède, Merope, Zaïre, and Brutus, showed himself in this work igno

1 His object was to combat the optimism of Leibnitz.—Ed.