Michael-Angelo Fardella,' in his Logic, employed in the defence of Idealism the same arguments which had been used by Malebranche, namely, that the existence of the material world is incapable of demonstration, and can only be maintained on the grounds of revealed religion.

IV. Supernaturalists and Mystics of this period.

342. The dissensions of the Empirical and Speculative Schools brought once more upon the stage the opposite factions of the Supernaturalists, the Mystics, and the Sceptics. Among these by far the most distinguished was Blaise Pascal; who, in consequence perhaps of his early devotion to Mathematics, imbibed a distrust of philosophical speculation, and in the latter part of his life, when his bodily sufferings increased, devoted himself to a sort of ascetism. Theophilus Gale (Galeus) was a thinker of a different stamp. He was a presbyterian minister, and maintained that all true philosophy is contained in the revealed word of God, made known immediately to the Jews, and from them at various epochs and in various ways, handed over to other nations. Consequently, philosophy is subordinate to theology. He recommended for these pursuits the study of the Neo-platonic writers. Ralph Cudworth pursued the same system, but (with greater originality) turned it against the Materialists and Atheists, in defence of Revealed Religion. He collected proofs of the existence of God (Syst. c. V. § 101-102), and of the Creation out of nothing; and maintained the doctrine of a Rational system of knowledge, founded on Innate Ideas, according to the views of Plato. The Plastic Nature, which he supposes may account for the conformity of created things to their uses, is nothing more than the Soul of the World of Plato; to make room for which he denies the existence either of blind chance, of mechanical necessity, or of an immediate and continual creation on the part of God. He reproached Descartes for having excluded from Physics the doctrine of

1 Died at Padua, 1718. 2 Venice, 1696. 3 Born 1628; died 1677. 4 THEOPH. GALE, Philosophia Universalis, Lond. 1676, 8vo. Aula Deorum Gentilium, Ibid. 1676, 8vo.

5 Born in the county of Somerset, 1617; died a Professor at Cambridge, 1688. Cap. III, § 25, sqq,

Final Causes. He derives the principles of Moral Good and Rectitude from certain Moral Ideas, which are copies of the Divine Wisdom, and not from notions acquired by experience:1 on many other points also, adopting the principles of Plato, Henry More, a member of the same university, followed the same line of argument. He was a learned man, and of an acute understanding, who finding the Peripatetic system insufficient to satisfy his doubts, which had carried him so far as to question his own Individuality, embraced the Neo-platonic theory, borrowed principally from the works of Ficinus; studying also the Cabbalistic writings, which he defended in several of his compositions, but without moulding these different materials into an uniform system (see § 320). He derived all philosophical knowledge from intellectual Intuition, and maintained that all genuine philosophy is deducible from Revelation, and has reference to Man and his destiny. In his metaphysics -the subject of which is Immaterial Nature-he placed all Reality in an immoveable space, distinct and separate from moveable matter; and affected to deduce from this principle the laws of all motion, and of all matter liable to motion. He attributes to this space a real existence, and Divine attributes; describing it as the universal circumscription of the Divine presence. He maintains that the nature of the souls of men and other animals is simple, but supposes them to possess a certain extent. He pointed out the faults of the systems of Descartes and Spinoza, at the same time

1 RALPH CUDWORTH, The True Intellectual System of the Universe, Lond. 1678, folio: 1743, 2 vols. 4to.: 4 vols. 8vo. with Life by Birch, Oxford, 1830. Systema Intellectuale hujus Universi, etc., Lat. vert. J. L. MOSHEMIUS; with a Life of Cudworth, Jen. 1733, folio, cum Correctionib. posth. Lugd. Bat. 1773, 2 vols. 4to. Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, Lond. 1731.

2 Born 1614; died 1687.

De

HENRICI MORI Opera Philosophica Omnia, Lond. 1679, 2 vols. folio. Ejusdem, Conjectura Cabbalistica in tria prima capita Geneseos. fensio Cabbalæ Triplicis. Apologia contra SAM. ANDREE Examen Generale Cabbalæ Philosophicæ. Trium Tabularam Cabbalisticarum decem Sephiroth. Questiones et Considerationes in Tractatum primum libri Druschim. Catechismus Cabbalisticus, sive Mercavæus, fundamenta Philosophiæ, sive Cabbalæ Etopædomelisses Enchiridium Metaphysicum, Lond. 1674, 4to. Enchiridium Ethicum, Lond. 1660— 1668 1672, 8vo.

Y

expressing great respect for their talents. In Ethics he blended the principles of Aristotle and Plato. The contemporary of the two former, Samuel Parker,' bishop of Oxford, criticised the atomistic theory of Descartes, and his proof of the existence of the Deity; and defended theology (whence he derived his proofs of the existence of God) against Atheism. One of the most remarkable writers of this age was the physician and preacher John Pordage, who declared himself the decided advocate of a mystical Supernaturalism. He endeavoured to systematize the theosophic enthusiasm of Jacob Böhm (see § 330), and asserted, on the evidence of well-attested facts, that he had been assured of the truth of his theosophic doctrines by special revelation. His pupil Thomas Bromley, disseminated the same notions. The writings of this remarkable man contain some original and ingenious views on the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, as also on the phenomena of apparitions. In France, Pierre Poiret, originally a Cartesian (§ 337), devoted himself altogether to a mystical Supernaturalism, which denied to the mind all independent agency; and declared war against speculative philosophy. A remarkable knot of Mystics appeared in England about this time, including, besides Pordage and Bromley, Jane Lead, a woman of elevated piety and enthusiastic spirituality, who has scattered several luminous thoughts and memorable relations in the midst of the obscurity that generally characterises her style.

5

1 Died 1688.

2 A Free and Impartial Account of the Platonic Philosophy, Oxford, 1666, 4to. Tentamina Physico-Theologica de Deo, Lond. 1669, 8vo. 1673. Disputationes de Deo et Providentia, Lond. 1678, 4to.

3 Born about 1625; died in London 1698.

4 Die Lehre des Deutschen Philosophen Jacob Böhm, 1844.

5 Metaphysica Vera et Divina, Francof. et Leips. 1725, 3 vols. 8vo. Sophia, seu Detectio Coelestis Sapientiæ de Mundo interno et externo, Amst. 1699. Theologia Mystica, sive Arcana Mysticaque Doctrina de Invisibilibus, Eternis, etc. non Rationali Arte sed Cognitione Intuitiva descripta, Amst. 1691.

6 See his Sabbath of Rest.

7 De Eruditione Triplici, Solida, Superficiaria et Falsa, Amst. 1629 —1706, 1707, 2 vols. 4to. Fides et Ratio collatæ ac suo utraque loco redditæ adversus Principia Jo. Lockii, Amst. 1707, 8vo. Opera Posthuma, Amst. 1721, 4to., and elsewhere. See § 340, notc.

V. Sceptics.

3

343, Scepticism was propagated in France by two disciples of Le Vayer, Simon Sorbière1 and Simon Foucher (§ 332). The first translated the Sketch by Sextus Empiricus of the Pyrrhonean philosophy (§ 151, bibliogr.). The latter employed himself upon the history of the Academic system (see at the head of § 166), and opposed Scepticism to the speculations of Descartes and Malebranche. On the other hand appeared, as opponents of Scepticism, Peter Mersenne, Martin Schoock (§ 336), and Jean de Silhon. In England the preacher Joseph Glanville endeavoured to moderate by a degree of Scepticism the unbounded extravagancies of Dogmatism, (particularly of the Aristotelians and Descartes), with the hope of promoting the cause of philosophy. He enlarged with ability on the causes of doubt, and applied them to the different departments of science; more particularly, the discoveries in physics effected in his own time. His remarks on Causality, in which he coincides with those of Algazel (§ 258), and appears to have forestalled Hume, deserve especial attention. We do not, says he, detect the existence of any cause immediately by sensational or intuitional perception, but only by mediate representations, and therefore by inference, which may be erroneous. Jerome HirnhaymR also

1 Born 1615; died at Paris 1670.

2 Died 1648.

P. MERSENNE, La Vérité des Sciences contre les Sceptiques, Paris, 1625, 8vo.

3. MART. SCHOOCKII De Scepticismo pars prior, libb. IV, Groning. 1652, 8vo. 4 Died 1666. JEAN SILHON, De la Certitude des Connaissances Humaines, etc. Paris, 1661, 8vo. 5 Died 1680.

6 Jos. GLANVILLE, Scepsis Scientifica, or Confessed Ignorance the Way to Science; in an Essay of the vanity of dogmatizing and confident opinion. With a reply to the exceptions of the learned THOMAS ALBIUS, Lond. 1665, 4to. De Incrementis Scientiarum inde ab Aristotele ductarum, Lond. 1670. HENR. STABIUS has published a Dissertation in answer to the latter work. 7 Scepsis Scient., p. 142.

8 A monk of the order of Præmonstratenses, and Doctor of Theology at Prague; died 1679.

HIERONYMUS HIRNHAYM, De Typho Generis Humani, sive Scientiarum Humaniorum inani ac ventoso tumore, difficultate, labilitate,

allied Scepticism to Supernaturalism. Declaiming with considerable ability against literary presumption, and the arrogance of the leared, and maintaining that all knowledge is delusive, and that every axiom (so esteemed) of Reason had been annulled by Revelation, he insisted that Revelation from God, Supernatural Grace, and an internal Divine illumination, are the only true sources of certain knowledge. His Scepticism led him to recommend an enthusiastic Asceticism.

It may be remarked in general, that about this period Scepticism was called in to support the Catholic religion, whose advocates endeavoured by the use of it to recall Protestants to the pale of the church.*

PROGRESS OF SCEPTICISM IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

I.

Sensationalism of Locke.

An Essay concerning the Human Understanding, in four books, Lond. 1690, fol. tenth edition; Lond. 1731, 2 vols. 8vo.

Thoughts on Education, Lond. 1693; Lond. 1732, etc.

Posthumous Works, Lond. 1706. The Works of John Locke, 1714, 3 vols. fol. third edition, 1727. Collection of Several Pieces of John Locke, Lond. 1720, 8vo.

On his Philosophical System consult:

JEAN LE CLERC, Eloge Historique de feu M. Locke, en avant du tom. I des Euvres Diverses.

TENNEMANN'S Abh. über den Empirismus in der Philosophie, vorzüglich den Lockischen; in d. III. Th. d. Uebersetzung.

Darstellung und Prüfung des Lockischen Sensualsystems, in G. E. SCHULZE'S Kritik der Theoretischen Philosophie, I. B, s. 113; II. B,

s. 1.

CHRISTLIEB GOTTWALD WABST, Diss. (resp. Jo. GODOFR. SCHULER) Jo. Lockii de Ratione Sententias excutit, Viteb. 1714, 4to.

Life of Locke, by LORD KING, 2 vols.

falsitate, jactantia, præsumtione, incommodis et periculis, tractatus brevis in quo etiam vera sapientia a falsa discernitur, et simplicitas mundo contempta extollitus, idiotis in solatium, doctis in cautelam conscriptus, Prag. 1676, 4to.

* The same remark is applicable at the present day with additional force.-ED.