who made virtue consist in the progressive developement of the powers of the soul in its advance towards spiritual perfection. Adam Smith,' a friend of Hume's, and principally celebrated for his classical work on the Wealth of Nations, the text book of Political Science, maintained that Morality can only consist in actions which are of a sort to merit universal approbation; and consequently made Sympathy the principle of Morality. By means of this faculty we put ourselves in the situation of the agent whose conduct we are considering, and then pass an impartial sentence, uninfluenced by subjective considerations, on the propriety or impropriety of his conduct. From such judgments, repeatedly formed, are deduced, according to Smith, general rules for our own conduct. The sum of his morality is this: "So act that other men may sympathise with you."

Thomas Payne, one of the founders of the independence of the United States, astonished even the English by his ultra-democratic principles and views.

In connection with the metaphysical labours of the British writers, we ought to mention Essays on the principles of Taste by Alison, Gerard, and Burke; as well as their inquiries on Language, and the History of Mankind. Sir William Jones distinguished himself greatly in this province.3

II. French Empirical School.

History of the French Revolution; or the Commencement, Progress, and Effects of the (so-called) New Philosophy of that country, III Parts, Leips. 1827-28, 8vo.

Born at Kirkaldy 1723; died 1790.

AD. SMITH, Theory of Moral Sentiments, sixth edition, Lond. 1790, 2 vols. 8vo., frequently reprinted in 1 vol. Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Lond. 1776; second edition, 1777, 2 vols. 4to.; edited by W. PLAYFAIR, 3 vols. 8vo. 1805; edited by D. BUCHANAN, 4 vols. 8vo. Edinb. 1814; edited by MCCULLOCH, 4 vols. Svo. Edin. 1828; reprinted in 1 vol. 1838. Essays on Philosophical Subjects, etc., to which is prefixed an account of the life and writings of the author, by DUGALD STEWART, Lond. 1795, 8vo.

2 Born in Norfolk, 1737; died in America, 1809.

Common Sense, Philadelphia, 1776, 8vo. Rights of Man: being an Answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French Revolution, parts I, II, seventh edition, 1791-92. The Age of Reason, being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology, parts I, II, Lond. 1794.

3 SIR WILLIAM JONES's works, with his Life, by LORD TEIGNMOUTH, 9 vols. 4to. Lond. 1799-1804; or 13 vols. 8vo. 1807.

378. Philosophizing in England constantly pursued the path of experience, and endeavoured to advance the interests of science, sometimes with acute and profound, at other times with narrow and superficial views; religion being throughout the principal object to which its inquiries were directed. The same tendency prevailed in France also, modified however by the character of the French nation, as well as by the influence still possessed by the clergy in checking freedom of thought. The metaphysics of Descartes and Malebranche had fallen into oblivion, Gassendi and Newton having taken their place; though a still more numerous party devoted themselves to the principles of Locke. Montesquieu,' who investigated the Laws of Nations with the genius of a true philosopher, and the mathematician and naturalist P. L. Moreau de Maupertuis, pursued the empirical method without calling in question the fundamental principles of Religion. The influence of the philosopher of Ferney, François Marie Arouet de Voltaires was more extensive and pernicious. He assigned the casting-vote in philosophy to the common popular Understanding and to Wit. To him may be added Jean Jacques Rousseau, who combined with him in greatly diminishing the reverence for everything positive in religion and the state, by their attacks on ecclesiastical and political despotism. Ch. Batteux, may be considered the first Frenchman who

1 CHARLES SECONDAT, Baron de Montesquieu; born in the Château de la Brède, near Bordeaux, 1689; died 1755.

De l'Esprit des Lois, 1748; (numerous editions). Euvres, Lond. 1759, 3 vols. 4to; 5 vols. 8vo. (several other editions). Œuvres Posthumes, 1798, 8vo.

2 Born at St. Malo, 1691; died at Bâle, 1759.

Essai de Philosophie Morale, Lond. 1750, 8vo. Essai de Cosmologie. Berl. 1750, 8vo. Euvres, Lyons, 1756, 4 vols. 8vo.

3 FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE, born 1694, died 1778. See his Life by CONDORCET, and since by ANCILLON, Mélanges de Littérature et de Philosophie.

Lettres Philosophiques, par VOLTAIRE [burnt by the executioner]. Candide, ou l'Optimisme.

Euvres de Voltaire, 45 vols. 4to. Genève, 1768, et suiv. Nouvelle édition, par BEAUMARCHAIS, 70 vols. 8vo. Kehl, 1784-89. Edit. de BEUCHOT, 72 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1829-1834, &c.

4 Born at Allendhuy, 1713; died 1780.

Les Beaux Arts réduits à un même Principe, Paris, 1746, (several editions). Cours de Belles-Lettres, ou Principes de la Littérature, Paris, 1747-50, (many editions).

proposed a theory of the fine arts, likewise based on empi rical principles. Etienne Bonnot de Condillac,' the model of French Philosophy till very recently, laboured to bring to perfection the system of Empiricism, and to trace all the representations of the mind of Man, since the Fall, to Sensation, or the faculty of feeling, by means of the principle of the transformation and modification of sensations. The cultivation of Language, which he derived from the involuntary tones of feeling, i. e. of pleasure and pain, he asserted to be the medium of improvement to Science. He affected to establish all knowledge according to mathematical strictness, by reducing each particular science to its most simple expression, or in other words, to an identical proposition. It may be remarked that he confounds in his theory the principles of Empirical and Speculative philosophy, and approximates the Atomic Theory of Gassendi, by enumerating among original facts that of the existence of bodies; (see the theory of Gassendi, § 523). Charles Bonnet also rendered considerable service to psychology. He was an admirable observer of Nature, with a mind habitually religious. He also derived all our representations from Sensation, by means of certain fibres and their vibrations; distinguishing the mind from the body, but allowing it to possess nothing of its own but a twofold 1 Born at Grenoble, 1716; died 1780.

Cours d'Etude du Prince de Parme, par M. l'Abbé de CONDILLAC, Paris, 1776, 16 vols. 8vo.

Essai sur l'Origine des Connaissances Humaines, Amsterd. 1746, 2 vols. 12mo.

Traité des Sensations, Lond. 1754, 2 vols. 12mo.

Traité des Animaux, Amsterd. 1755, 2 vols. 12mo.

Œuvres Philosophiques, Paris, 1795, 6 vols. 12mo. (several other editions).

2 Born at Geneva, 1720; died 1793.

(CH. DE BONNET), Essai de Psychologie, ou considerations sur les opérations de l'âme, sur l'habitude et sur l'education, Lond. 1755, 8vo. Essai Analytique sur les Facultés de l'âme, Copenh. 1759-60, third edit. 1775.

La Palingénésie Philosophique, ou Idées sur l'état passé et sur l'état futur des êtres vivans, Genéve, 1769, 2 vols. 8vo.

Euvres d'Histoire Naturelle et de Philosophie, Neufchâtel, 1779; second edition, 1783, 8 vols 4to.

Mémoires pour servir a l'Histoire de la Vie et des Œuvres de M. Ch. Bonnet, par J. TREMBLEY, Berne, 1794, 8vo.

capacity of Feeling and Impulsion. He denied the doctrine of Innate Ideas; deduced all representations from Sensation, and was consequently led to maintain that the soul can effect nothing but through the agency of the body; which is the source of all the modifications of which the other is susceptible. In this manner he approached Materialism, and admitted the existence of an affinity between the soul of men and of other animals. Other writers followed up the consequences deducible from the Empirical system with greater consistency and boldness; founding a decided system of Atheism, Materialism, and Absolute Determinism in all questions affecting the materiality and mortality of the Soul, and Morals. Of this number was La Mettrie,' a man of reprobate character, who endeavoured to account for all the operations of the mind on principles merely mechanical. Helvetius in like manner derived all its phenomena from sensational perception, and pronounced the notion of infinitude to be simply negative. To these must be added the authors of the famous Système de la

1 JUL. OFFROY DE LA METTRIE, born at St. Malo, 1709; died at Berlin, 1751. Euvres Philosophiques de M. de la Mettrie, Lond. (Berl.), 1751, 2 vols. 8vo.; Amst. 1753-64, 2 vols. 8vo. Histoire Naturelle de l'âme, La Haye, (Paris), 8vo. ; [this work, by order of the Parliament, was burnt by the hands of the executioner]. Traité de la vie heureuse de Sénèque, Potsdam, 1748. L'Ecole de la Volupté (id. sous le titre de l'Art de Jouir), 1750. L'Homme Machine, Leyden, 1748, 12mo. L'Homme Plante, Potsdam, 1748, 8vo.

In answer to these works were published: L'Homme plus que Machine, par ELIE LUZAC, Lond. (Leid.), 1748, second edition, Gotting. 1755, 12mo. De Machina et Anima Humana prorsus a se invicem distinctis Commentatio, auct. BALTH. LUD. TRALLES, Bresl. 1749, 8vo. GODOFRID. PLOUCQUET, Dissert. de Materialismo, Tubing. 1750, cum Supplemento et Confutatione libelli: L'Homme Machine, ibid. 1751, 4to. * CLAUDE ADRIAN HELVETIUS, born at Paris, 1715; died 1771. De l'Esprit, Paris, 1758, 4to.; 2 vols. 8vo. De l'Homme, de ses Facultés et de son Education, Lond. (Amsterd.), 1772, 2 vols. 8vo. Les Progrès de la Raison dans la Recherche du Vrai, Lond. 1775, 8vo. Euvres complètes, Amsterd. 1776, 5 vols. 12mo.; Deux-Ponts, 1784, 7 vols. 8vo.; Paris, 1794, 5 vols. 8vo.; 1796, 10 vols. 12mo.

Eloge de M. Helvétius, (Genève), 1774, 8vo. Essai sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de M. Helvétius (par Duclos?), en avant de son Poème didactique, intitulé: Le Bonheur, Lond. (Amsierd.), 1773, 8vo.; and in his Œuvres complètes.

Nature, La Grange, or the Baron D'Holbach,1 and Robinet.? We must attribute principally to the influence of the French Encyclopedists the popularity which was enjoyed by a species of philosophizing which consisted in explaining away all that is incomprehensible by unfounded materialistic hypotheses, as well as by arguments from analogy pushed to an extravagant length. To this must be added, the pretension of making science of every kind popular and accessible to all; and the habit of ridiculing as pedantic all serious and profound philosophical inquiries.

379. The men who at this period were dignified in France with the title of philosophers, through their shallowness and frivolity laid the foundation of that untenable enlightenment which confounds rational man with Nature, and deifies the material world; pronouncing the belief in a God to be superfluous or problematical, and rejecting all positive or revealed religion as the device of priestcraft. The universal corruption of the aristocracy, and the puerility of a ceremonial form of worship, procured for such opinions a ready acceptance. With views like these, the Encyclopedists

1 PAUL H. D. BARON VON HOLBACH, died 1789.

Système de la Nature, ou des Lois du Monde Physique et du Monde Moral, par feu M. MIRABAUD, [LA GRANGE? LE BARON D'HOLBACH ?] Lond. 1770, 2 vols. 8vo.

In reply see: BERGIER, Examen du Matérialisme, ou Réfutation du Système de la Nature, Paris, 1771, 2 vols. 8vo. DE CASTILLON, Observations sur le Livre intitulé; Système de la Nature, Berl. 1771, 8vo. Réflexions Philosophiques sur le Syst. de la Nat., par M. HOLLAND (GEORG. JONATH.) Paris, 1722, 2 vols. 8vo.; Neufchâtel, 1773. [VOLTAIRE], Réponse au Système de la Nature, Genève, 1772; et Encyclopédie, artic. "Dieu." Le Vrai Sens du Système de la Nature (par HELVETIUS), ouvrage posthume; (this work is made up of extracts). +F. X. V. MANGOLD, A Calm Refutation of Materialism, in answer to the author of the System of Nature, Augsb. 1803, 8vo.

2 Jean Baptiste Robinet; born at Rennes, 1723.

ROBINET, Considérations Philos. de la Gradation Naturelle des formes de l'être, ou les Essais de la Nature, qui apprend à faire l'Homme, Amstd. 1767, 2 vols. 8vo. Parallèle de la Condition et des Facultés de l'Homme avec celles des autres Animaux, trad. de l'Angl. Bouillon, 1769, 12mo. See Bibliog. § 360.

3 On French Empiricism, consult W. R. BODMER, Le Vulgaire et les Métaphysiciens, ou Doutes et Vucs critiques sur l'Ecole Empirique, Paris, 1802, 8vo.

See the work of MM. BARANTE and JAY, On the French Literature of the XVIII Century.