of physic," and the "deductive cultivators of philosophy." The first
class of disciples are far in advance of their chief, and can only be
considered as having received an impulse in a true direction. The
second class unhesitatingly accepted his principles, and continued his
thinking, although they developed his system in a different manner, and
arrived at stronger conclusions than Des Cartes's courage would have
supported. Some of the physical speculations of Des Cartes have been
much ridiculed by subsequent writers; but many reasons may be urged, not
only against that ridicule, but also against the more moderate censure
which several able critics have dealt out against the intellectual
character of Des Cartes. It should be remembered that the theories of
all his predecessors were mere conjectural speculations respecting the
places and paths of celestial bodies, etc. Innumerable hypotheses had
been formed and found useless; and we ought rather to look to what Des
Cartes did accomplish under the many difficulties of his position,
in respect to the then, state of scientific knowledge, than to judge
harshly of those speculations, which, though attended with no beneficial
result to humanity at large, were doubtless well intended by their
author. He was the first man who brought optical science under the
command of mathematics, by the discovery of the law of refraction of the
ordinary ray through diaphanous bodies; and probably there is scarcely
a name on record, the bearer of which has given a greater impulse to
mathematical and philosophical inquiry than Des Cartes. Although, as a
mathematician, he published but little, yet in every subject which he
has treated he has opened, not only a new field lor investigation, but
also a new road for the investigators to proceed by. His discovery of
the simple application of the notation of indices to algebraical powers,
has totally remodelled the whole science of algebra. His conception of
expressing the fundamental property of curve lines and curve surfaces
by equations between the co-ordinates has led to an almost total
supersedence of the geometry of the ancients. Contemporary with Galileo,
and with a knowledge of the persecution to which that father of physics
was being subjected by the Church, we are tempted to express our
surprise that Des Cartes did not extend the right hand of fellowship,
help, and sympathy to his brother philosopher; but it is, nevertheless,
the fact, that either jealous of the fame of Galileo (as some have
alleged.) or from a fear of being involved in the same persecutions, Des
Cartes abstained from visiting the astronomer, although travelling for
some time near his place of abode in Italy. Lewes, in his "Life of Des
Cartes," says, "Des Cartes was a great thinker; but having said this
we have almost exhausted the praise we can bestow on him as a man. In
disposition he was timid to servility. While promulgating the proofs
of the existence of the Deity, he was in evident alarm lest the Church
should see something objectionable in them. He had also written an
astronomical treatise; but hearing of the fate of Galileo he refrained
from publishing, and always used some chicanery in speaking of
the world's movement. He was not a brave man; he was also not an
affectionate one. There was in him a deficiency of all finer feelings.
But he was even-tempered, and studious of not giving offence."
We are tempted, after a careful perusal of the life and writings of Des
Cartes and his contemporaries, to be of opinion that he was a man who
wished to be considered the chief thinker of his day, and who shunned
and rejected the offers of friendship from other philosophers, lest
they, by being associated with him, should jointly wear laurels which
he was cultivating solely to form a crown for himself. Despite all, his
brow still bears a crown, and his fame has a freshness that we might all
be justly proud of, if appertaining to ourselves.
We trust that in these few pages we have succeeded in presenting Des
Cartes, to such of our readers who were unacquainted with his writings,
sufficiently well to enable them to appreciate him, and to induce
them to search further; and at the same time we hope that those better
acquainted with him will not blame as for the omission of much which
they may consider more important than the matter which appears in this
little tract. We have endeavored to picture Des Cartes as the founder
of the deductive method, as having the foundation-stone of all his
reasoning in his consciousness.
"I"
M. DE VOLTAIRE.
François Marie Arouet, better known by the name of Voltaire, was born
at Chatenay, on the 20th of February, 1694. By assuming the name of
Voltaire, young Arouet followed the custom, at that time generally
practiced by the rich citizens and younger sons, who, leaving the family
name to the heir, assumed that of a fief, or perhaps of a country house.
The father of M. de Voltaire was treasurer to the Chamber of Accounts,
and his mother, Margaret d'Aumart, was of a noble family of Poitou. The
fortune which the father enjoyed, enabled him to bestow a first-class
education upon the young Arouet, who was sent to the Jesuits' College,
where the sons of the nobility received their education. While at
school, Voltaire began to write poetry, and gave signs of a remarkable
genius. His tutors, Fathers Poree and Jay, from the boldness and
independence of his mind predicted that he would become the apostle of
Deism in France. This prediction he fulfilled. "Voltaire was," says Lord
Brougham, "through his whole life, a sincere believer in the existence
and attributes of the Deity. He was a firm and decided, and an openly
declared unbeliever in Christianity; but he was, without any hesitation
or any intermission, a Theist." His open declaration of disbelief in
the inspiration of the Bible, and his total rejection of the dogmas
of Christianity, laid him open to the malignant attacks and
misrepresentations of the priesthood and the bigots of Europe; and
so strong were they, that his life was continually in danger.
Lord Brougham, in his "Men of Letters of the Time of George III.."
says:--"Voltaire's name is so intimately connected in the minds of all
men with Infidelity, in the minds of most men with irreligion, and, in
the minds of all who are not well-informed, with these qualities alone,
that whoever undertakes to write his life and examine his claims to the
vast reputation which all the hostile feelings excited by him against
himself have never been able to destroy, or even materially to impair,
has to labor under a great load of prejudice, and can hardly expect, by
any detail of particulars, to obtain for his subject even common justice
at the hands of the general reader."
Voltaire was born in a corrupt age, and in a capital where it was
fashionable to be immoral. When he left College, he was introduced by
his own godfather, the Abbe de Chateauneuf, to the notorious Ninon de
l'Enclos, who, at her death, left him by will two thousand livres
to purchase books. In estimating the character of Voltaire, a due
consideration must be had for the period in which he lived, and of the
nature of the society amidst which he was reared. He lived twenty, years
under the reign of Louis XIV., and during the whole of the reign of the
infamous Louis XV., when kings, courtiers, and priests set the example
of the grossest immorality. It was then, as Voltaire said, "that to make
the smallest fortune, it was better to say four words to the mistress of
a king, than to write a hundred volumes."
Voltaire's life, from his youth upwards, was a stormy one. After he left
College, his father, finding him persist in writing poetry, and living
at large, forbade him his house. He insisted upon his son binding
himself to an attorney. But his restless disposition quite unfitted him
for regular employment, and he soon quitted the profession. He early made
the acquaintance of the most celebrated men of his time, but his genius,
his wit, and his sarcasm, soon raised up numerous enemies. At the age of
twenty-two, he was accused of having written a satire upon Louis XIV.,
who was just dead, and was thrown into the Bastile. But he was not cast
down. It was here that he sketched his poem of the "League," corrected
his tragedy of "Oedipus," and wrote some merry verses on the
misfortune, of being a prisoner. The Regent, Duke of Orleans, being
informed of his innocence, restored him to freedom, and granted him a
recompense. "I thank your royal highness," said Voltaire, "for having
provided me with food; but I hope you will not hereafter trouble
yourself concerning my lodging."
Voltaire, with his activity of mind, and living to so great an age,
must necessarily produce many works. They are voluminous, consisting of
history, poetry, and philosophy. His dramatic pieces are numerous, many
of which are considered second only to Shakespeare's. "Oedipus," "Zadig,"
"Ingénu," "Zaire," "Henri-ade," "Irene," "Tancred," "Mahomet,"
"Merope," "Saul," "Alzire," "Le Fanatisme," "Mariamne," "Gaston de
Foix," "Enfant Prodigue," "Pucelle d'Orléans," an essay on "Fire," the
"Elements," "History of Charles XII.," "Lectures on Man," "Letters on
England," "Memoirs," "Voyage of Sacramentado," "Micromegas," "Maid of
Orleans," "Brutus," "Adelaide," "Death of Cæsar," "Temple of Taste,"
"Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations," "An Examination of the Holy
Scriptures," and the "Philosophical Dictionary," are works that emanated
from the active brain of this wit, poet, satirist, and philosopher.
In 1722, while at Brussels, Voltaire met Jean Baptiste Rousseau, whose
misfortunes he deplored, and whose poetic talents he esteemed. Voltaire
read some of his poems to Rousseau, and he in return read to Voltaire
his "Ode addressed to Posterity," which Voltaire, it is asserted, told
him would never arrive at the place to which it was addressed. The two
poets parted irreconcileable foes.
In 1725, Voltaire was again shut up in the Bastile, through attempting
to revenge an insult inflicted upon him by a courtier. At the end of six
months he was released, but ordered to quit Paris. He sought refuge in
England, in 1726. He was the guest in that country of a Mr. Falconer,
of Wandsworth, whose hospitality he remembered with affection so long as
life lasted. Voltaire was known to most of the wits and Freethinkers of
that day in England. At this early age he was at war with Christianity.
"His visit to England," says Lamartine, "gave assurance and gravity to
his incredulity; for in France he had only known libertines--in
England he knew philosophers." He went to visit Congreve, who had the
affectation to tell him that he (Congreve) valued himself, not on his
authorship, but as a man of the world. To which Voltaire administered
a just rebuke by saying, "I should never have come so far to see a
gentleman!"
Voltaire soon acquired an ample fortune, much of which was expended
in aiding men of letters, and in encouraging such youth as he thought
discovered the seeds of genius. The use he made of riches might prevail
on envy itself to pardon him their acquirement. His pen and his purse
were ever at the service of the oppressed. Calas, an infirm old man,
living at Toulouse, was accused of having hung his son, to prevent his
becoming a Catholic. The Catholic population became inflamed, and the
young man was declared to be a martyr. The father was condemned to the
torture and the wheel, and died protesting his innocence. The family
of Calas was ruined and disgraced. Voltaire, assuring himself of the
innocence of the old man, determined to obtain justice for the family.
To this end he labored incessantly for three years. In all this time, he
said, a smile did not escape him for which he did not reproach himself
as for a crime. His efforts were successful. Nor was this the only cause
in which he was engaged on the side of the weak and the wronged against
the powerful and the persecuting. His whole life, though maligned as an
Infidel and a-scoffer, was one long act of benevolence. On learning that
a young niece of Corneille languished in a condition unworthy of his
name, Voltaire, in the most delicate manner, invited her to his house,
and she there received an education suitable to the rank that her birth
had marked lor her in society. "It is the duty of a soldier," he said,
"to succor the niece of his general."
Voltaire lived for a time at the Court of Frederick the Great of
Prussia, and for many years carried on a correspondence with that
monarch. He quarrelled with the king, and left the court in a passion.
An emissary was despatched to him to request an apology, who said he was
to carry back to the king his answer _verbatim_. Voltaire told him that
"the king might go to the devil!" On being asked if that was the message
he meant to be delivered! "Yes," he answered, "and add to it that I told
you that you might go there with him." In his "Memoirs," he has drawn
a most amusing picture of his Prussian Majesty. He, also says, "Priests
never entered the palace; and, in a word, Frederick lived without
religion, without a council, and without a court."
Wearied with his rambling and unsettled mode of living, Voltaire bought
an estate at Ferney, in the Pays des Gex, where he spent the last twenty
years of his life. He rebuilt the house, laid out gardens, kept a good
table, and had crowds of visitors from all parts, of Europe. Removed
from whatever could excite momentary or personal passion, he yielded to
his zeal for the destruction of prejudice, which was the most powerful
and active of all the sensations he felt. This peaceful life, seldom
disturbed except by the threats of persecution rather than persecution
itself, was adorned by those acts of enlightened and bold benevolence,
which, while they relieve the sufferings of certain individuals, are of
any service to the whole human race. He was known to Europe as the
"Sage of Ferney." After an absence of more than twenty-seven years, he
re-visited Paris in the beginning of 1778. He had just finished his
play of "Irene," and was anxious to see it performed. His visit was an
ovation. He had outlived all his enemies. After having been the object
of unrelenting persecution by the priests and corrupt courtiers of
France for a period of more than fifty years, he yet lived to see the
day when "all that was most eminent in station or most distinguished in
talents--all that most shone in society, or most ruled in court, seemed
to bend before him." At this period he, for the first time, saw Benjamin
Franklin. They embraced each other in the midst of public acclamations,
and it was said to be Solon who embraced Sophocles.
Voltaire did not survive his triumph long. His unwearied activity
induced him, at his great age, to commence a "Dictionary" upon a novel
plan, which he prevailed upon the French Academy to take up. These
labors brought on spitting of blood, followed by sleeplessness, to
obviate which he took opium in considerable quantities. Condorcet says
that the servant mistook one of the doses, which threw him into a state
of lethargy, from which he never rallied. He lingered for some time, but
at length expired on the 30th of May, 1778, in his eighty-fifth year.
It was the custom in those days, and prevails to a considerable extent
even in our own time, for the religious world to fabricate "horrible
death-beds" of all Freethinkers. Voltaire's last moments were distorted
by his enemies after the approved fashion; and notwithstanding the
most unqualified denial on the part of Dr. Burard and others, who were
present at his death, there are many who believe these falsehoods at
this moment. Voltaire died in peace, with the exception of the petty
annoyances to which he was subjected by the priests. The philosophers,
too, who wished that no public stigma should be cast upon him by the
refusal of Christian burial, persuaded him to undergo confession and
absolution. This, to oblige his friends, he submitted to; but when the
cure one day drew him from his lethargy by shouting into his ear, "Do
you believe the divinity of Jesus Christ?" Voltaire exclaimed, "In the
name of God, Sir, speak to me no more of that man, but let me die in
peace!" This put to flight all doubts of the pious, and the certificate
of burial was refused. But the prohibition of the Bishop of Troyes
came too late. Voltaire was buried at the monastery of Scellieres, in
Champagne, of which his nephew was abbot. Afterwards, during the first
French Revolution, the body, at the request of the citizens, was removed
to Paris, and buried in the Pantheon. Lamartine, in his "History of the
Girondists," p. 149, speaking of the ceremony, says:--
"On the 11th of July, the departmental and municipal authorities went
in state to the barrier of Charenton, to receive the mortal remains of
Voltaire, which were placed on the ancient site of the Bastile, like a
conqueror on his trophies; his coffin was exposed to public gaze, and a
pedestal was formed for it of stones torn from the foundations of this
ancient stronghold of tyranny; and thus Voltaire when dead triumphed
over those stones which had triumphed over and confined him when living.
On one of the blocks was the inscription, '_Receive on this spot,
where despotism once fettered thee, the Honors decreed to thee by thy
country_'.... The coffin of Voltaire was deposited between those of
Descartes and Mirabeau--the spot predestined for this intermediary
genius between philosophy and policy, between the design and the
execution."
The aim of Voltaire's life was the destruction of prejudice and the
establishment of Reason. "Deists," said W. J. Fox in 1819, "have done
much for toleration and religious liberty. It may be doubted if there
be a country in Europe, where that cause has not been advanced by the
writings of Voltaire." In the Preface and Conclusion to the "Examination
of the Scriptures," Voltaire says:--
"The ambition of domineering over the mind, is one of the strongest
passions. A theologian, a missionary, or a partisan of any description,
is always for conquering like a prince, and there are many more sects
than there are sovereigns in the world. To whose guidance shall I
submit my mind? Must I be a Christian, be-cause I happened to be born
in London, or in Madrid? Must I be a Mussulman, because I was born in
Turkey? As it is myself alone that I ought to consult, the choice of a
religion is my greatest interest. One man adores God by Mahomet, another
by the Grand Lama, and another by the Pope. Weak and foolish men! adore
God by your own reason.... I have learnt that a French Vicar, of
the name of John Meslier, who died a short time since, prayed on his
death-bed that God would forgive him for having taught Christianity. I
have seen a Vicar in Dorsetshire relinquish a living of £200 a year, and
confess to his parishioners that his conscience would not permit him to
preach the shocking absurdities of the Christians. But neither the will
nor the testament of John Meslier, nor the declaration of this worthy
Vicar, are what I consider decisive proofs. Uriel Acosta, a Jew,
publicly renounced the Old Testament in Amsterdam; however, I pay no
more attention to the Jew Acosta than to Parson Meslier. I will read
the arguments on both sides of the trial, with careful attention, not
suffering the lawyers to tamper with me; but will weigh, before God,
the reasons of both parties, and decide according to my conscience. I
commence by being my-own instructor.... I conclude, that every sensible
man, every honest man, ought to hold Christianity in abhorrence. 'The
great name of Theist, which we can never sufficiently revere,' is the
only name we ought to adopt. The only gospel we should read is the grand
book of nature, written with God's own hand, and stamped with his own
seal. The only religion we ought to profess is, 'to adore God, and act
like honest men.' It would be as impossible for this simple and eternal
religion to produce evil, as it would be impossible for Christian
fanaticism not to produce it.... But what shall we substitute in its
place? say you. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my
relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast, and you ask me
what you shall put in its place! Is it you that put this question to me?
Then you are a hundred times more odious than the Pagan Pontiffs, who
permitted themselves to enjoy tranquillity among their ceremonies and
sacrifices, who did not attempt to enslave the mind by dogmas, who never
disputed the powers of the magistrates, and who introduced no discord
among mankind. You have the face to ask what you must substitute in the
place of your fables!"
As will be seen by his exclamation on his death-bed, Voltaire was no
believer in the _divinity_ of Christ. He disbelieved the Bible _in
toto_. The accounts of the doings of the Jewish kings, as represented in
the Old Testament, he has unsparingly ridiculed in the drama of "Saul."
The quiet irony of the following will be easily appreciated:--
Divinity of Jesus.--The Socinians, who are regarded as blasphemers, do
not recognize the divinity of Jesus Christ. They dare to pretend, with
the philosophers of antiquity, with the Jews, the Mahometans, and
most other nations, that the idea of a god-man is monstrous; that the
distance from God to man is infinite; and that it is impossible for
a perishable body to be infinite, immense, or eternal. They have the
confidence to quote Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, in their favor, who,
in his "Ecclesiastical History," book i., chap. 9, declares that it is
absurd to imagine the uncreated and unchangeable nature of Almighty God
taking the form of a man. They cite the fathers of the church, Justin
and Tertullian, who have said the same thing: Justin in his "Dialogue
with Triphonius;" and Tertullian, in his "Discourse against Praxeas."
They quote St. Paul, who never calls Jesus Christ, God, and who calls
him man very often. They carry their audacity so far as to affirm,
that the Christians passed three entire ages in forming by degrees the
apotheosis of Jesus; and that they only raised this astonishing edifice
by the example of the Pagans, who had deified mortals. At first,
according to them, Jesus was only regarded as a man inspired by God,
and then as a creature more perfect than others. They gave him some time
after, a place above the angels, as St. Paul tells us. Every day added
to his greatness. He in time became an emanation, proceeding from God.
This was not enough; he was even born before time. At last he was God
consubstantial with God. Crellius, Voquelsius, Natalis, Alexander,
and Hornbeck, have supported all these blasphemies by arguments, which
astonish the wise and mislead the weak. Above all, Faustus Socinus
spread the seeds of this doctrine in Europe; and at the end of the
sixteenth century, a new species of Christianity was established. There
were already more than three hundred.--[Philosophical Dictionary, vol.
i. p. 405.]
Though a firm and consistent believer in the being of a God, Voltaire
was no bigot. The calm reasoning of the following passage does honor to
its author:--