Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews Part 26

FOOTNOTES:

[68] I forget who it was said of him: "Il a plus que personne l'esprit que tout le monde a."

[69] "Discours de la Methode pour bien conduire sa Raison et chercher la Verite dans les Sciences."

[70] "Eine thatige Skepsis ist die, welche unabla.s.sig bemuht ist sich selbst zu uberwinden, und durch geregelte Erfahrung zu einer Art von bedingtrer Zuverla.s.sigkeit zu gelangen."--_Maximen und Reflexionen_, 7 Abtheilung.

[71] "Au milieu de toutes ses erreurs, il ne faut pas meconnaitre une grande idee, qui consiste a avoir tente pour la premiere fois de ramener tous les phenomenes naturels a n'etre qu'un simple develloppement des lois de la mecanique," is the weighty judgment of Biot, cited by Bouillier (_Histoire de la Philosophie Cartesienne_, t. i. p. 196).

[72] "Traite de l'Homme" (Cousin's Edition), p. 347.

[73] Descartes pretends that he does not apply his views to the human body, but only to an imaginary machine which, if it could be constructed, would do all that the human body does; throwing a sop to Cerberus unworthily; and uselessly, because Cerberus was by no means stupid enough to swallow it.

[74] "Traite de l'Homme," p. 427.

[75] Compare "Traite des Pa.s.sions," Art. XIII. and XVI.

[76] Bouillier, into whose excellent "History of the Cartesian Philosophy" I had not looked when this pa.s.sage was written, says, very justly, that Descartes "a merite le t.i.tre de pere de la physique, aussi bien que celui de pere de la metaphysique moderne" (t. i. p. 197). See also Kuno Fischer's "Geschichte der neuen Philosophie," Bd. i.; and the very remarkable work of Lange, "Geschichte des Materialismus."--A good translation of the latter would be a great service to philosophy in England.

[77] For all the qualifications which need to be made here, I refer the reader to the thorough discussion of the nature of the relation between nerve-action and consciousness in Mr. Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Psychology," p. 115 _et seq._

[78]

"And this is she who's put on cross so much, Even by them who ought to give her praise, Giving her wrongly ill repute and blame.

But she is blessed, and she hears not this: She, with the other primal creatures, glad Revolves her sphere, and blessed joys herself."

_Inferno_, vii. 90-95 (W.M. Rossetti's Translation).