History of Civilization in England, Vol. 2 of 3

952

For a popular but able view of the value of averages in scientific inquiries, see Herschel's Disc. on Nat. Philos. pp. 215–219.

953

As we see in the pretensions set forth by mathematicians, who often suppose that an amount of certainty can be attained in their own pursuits not to be found in any other. This error has probably arisen, as Locke suggests, from confusing clearness with certainty. Essay on Human Understanding, book iv. chap. ii. secs. 9 and 10, in Works, vol. ii. pp. 73, 74. See also Comte, Philos. Pos. vol. i. p. 103, where it is justly observed, that all branches of knowledge capable of being generalized into sciences admit of equal certainty, but not of equal precision: ‘si d'après l'explication précédente, les diverses sciences doivent nécessairement présenter une précision très-inégale, il n'en est nullement ainsi de leur certitude.’ This is handled unsatisfactorily by Montucla (Hist. des Mathémat. vol. i. p. 33), who says, that the principal cause of the peculiar certainty reached by the mathematician is, that ‘d'une idée claire il ne déduit que des conséquences claires et incontestables.’ Similarly, Cudworth (Intellect. System, vol. iii. p. 377): ‘nay the very essence of truth here is this clear perceptibility, or intelligibility.’ On the other hand, Kant, a far deeper thinker, avoided this confusion, by making mathematical clearness the mark of a kind of certainty rather than of a degree of it: ‘Die mathematische Gewissheit heisst auch Evidenz, weil ein intuitives Erkenntniss klarer ist, als ein discursives. Obgleich also beides, das mathematische und das philosophische Vernunfterkenntniss an sich gleich gewiss ist, so ist doch die Art der Gewissheit in beiden verschieden.’ Logik, Einleitung, sec. 9, in Kant's Werke, vol. i. p. 399. On the opinions of the ancients respecting certainty, compare Matter, Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. i. p. 195, with Ritter's Hist. of Ancient Philos. vol. ii. p. 46, vol. iii. pp. 74, 426, 427, 484, 614.

954

‘Vers 1750, deux hommes de génie, observateurs judicieux et profonds, conduits par une force d'attention très-soutenue à une logique rigoureuse, animés d'un noble amour pour la patrie et pour l'humanité, M. Quesnay et M. de Gournay, s'occupèrent avec suite de savoir si la nature des choses n'indiquerait pas une science de l'économie politique, et quels seraient les principes de cette science.’ Additions aux Œuvres de Turgot, vol. iii. p. 310. M. Blanqui (Hist. de l'Economie Politique, vol. ii. p. 78) also says, ‘vers l'année 1750;’ and Voltaire (Dict. Philos. article Blé, in Œuvres, vol. xxxvii. p. 384) says, ‘vers l'an 1750, la nation, rassasiée de vers, de tragédies, de comédies, d'opéra, de romans, d'histoires romanesques, de réflexions morales plus romanesques encore, et de disputes théologiques sur la grâce et sur les convulsions, se mit enfin a raisonner sur les blés.’

955

The revolutionary tendency of this economical movement is noticed in Alison's Europe, vol. i. pp. 184, 185; where, however, its commencement is erroneously assigned to ‘about the year 1761.’ See also, on the hostility this caused against government, Mém. de Campan, vol. i. pp. 7, 8; Mem. of Mallet du Pan, vol. i. p. 32; and Barruel, Hist. du Jacobinisme, vol. i. p. 193, vol. ii. p. 152.

956

‘D'ailleurs la nation s'étoit accoutumée à se séparer toujours de plus en plus de son gouvernement, en raison même de ce que ses écrivains avoient commencé à aborder les études politiques. C'étoit l'époque où la secte des économistes se donnoit le plus de mouvement, depuis que le marquis de Mirabeau avoit publié, en 1755, son Ami des Hommes.’ Sismondi, Hist. des Franç. vol. xxix. p. 269. Compare Tocqueville, Règne de Louis XV, vol. ii. p. 58. In this same year, 1755, Goldsmith was in Paris, and was so struck by the progress of insubordination, that he foretold the freedom of the people; though I need hardly say that he was not a man to understand the movement of the economists. Prior's Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. pp. 198, 199; Forster's Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 66.

957

In February 1759, he writes to Madame du Boccage: ‘Il me paraît que les grâces et le bon goût sont bannis de France, et ont cédé la place à la métaphysique embrouillée, à la politique des cerveaux creux, à des discussions énormes sur les finances, sur le commerce, sur la population, qui ne mettront jamais dans l'état ni un écu, ni un homme de plus.’ Œuvres de Voltaire, vol. lx. p. 485. In 1763 (vol. lxiii. p. 204): ‘Adieu, nos beaux arts, si les choses continuent comme elles sont. La rage des remontrances et des projets sur les finances a saisi la nation.’ Many of the ablest men being thus drawn off from mere literary pursuits, there began, about twenty years before the Revolution, a marked deterioration in style, particularly among prose writers. Compare Lettres de Dudeffand à Walpole, vol. ii. p. 358, vol. iii. pp. 163, 299; Mém. de Genlis, vol. ii. p. 374, vol. v. p. 123, vol. viii. pp. 180, 275; Mercier sur Rousseau, vol. ii. p. 151.

958

Georgel, who hated Turgot, says of him: ‘son cabinet et ses bureaux se transformèrent en ateliers où les économistes forgeoient leur système et leurs spéculations.’ Mém. de Georgel, vol. i. p. 406: see also Blanqui, Hist. de l'Écon. Politique, vol. ii. pp. 96–112; Condorcet, Vie de Turgot, pp. 32–35; Twiss, Progress of Political Econ. pp. 142 seq.

959

Sismondi, under the year 1774, notices ‘les écrits innombrables que chaque jour voyoit éclore sur la politique, et qui avoient désormais remplacé dans l'intérêt des salons ces nouveautés littéraires, ces vers, ces anecdotes galantes, dont peu d'années auparavant le public étoit uniquement occupé.’ Hist. des Français, vol. xxix. p. 495; and a similar remark in Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 126.

960

See the account, written in Feb. 1781, in Grimm, Corr. Lit. vol. xi. 260, where it is said of Necker's Compte Rendu, ‘La sensation qu'a faite cet ouvrage est, je crois, sans exemple; il s'en est débité plus de six mille exemplaires le jour même qu'il a paru, et depuis, le travail continuel de deux imprimeries n'a pu suffire encore aux demandes multipliées de la capitale, des provinces, et des pays étrangers.’ Ségur (Souvenirs, vol. i. p. 138) mentions, that Necker's work was ‘dans la poche de tous les abbés, et sur la toilette de toutes les dames.’ The daughter of Necker, Madame de Staël, says of her father's work, Administration des Finances, ‘on en vendit quatre-vingt mille exemplaires.’ De Staël sur la Révolution, vol. i. p. 111.

961

The expression of the Baron de Montyon: see Adolphus's History of George III. vol. iv. p. 290; and on the revolutionary tendency of Necker's financial works, Soulavie, Règne de Louis XVI, vol. ii. pp. xxxvii. xxxviii., vol. iv. pp. 18, 143. Necker published a justification of his book, ‘malgré la défense du roi.’ Du Mesnil, Mém. sur Le Brun, p. 108.

962

So far as I remember, there is not a single instance in any of his works; and those who assail him on this ground should adduce the passages on which they rely, instead of bringing vague general charges. Compare Life of Rousseau, in Brougham's Men of Letters, vol. i. p. 189; Stäudlin, Gesch. der theolog. Wissenschaften, vol. ii. p. 442; Mercier sur Rousseau, 1791, vol. i. pp. 27–32, vol. ii. pp. 279, 280.

963

‘Rousseau, qui déjà en 1753 avoit touché aux bases mêmes de la société humaine, dans son Discours sur l'origine de l'inégalité parmi les hommes.’ Sismondi, vol. xxix. p. 270. Schlosser (Hist. of the Eighteenth Century, vol. i. p. 138) notices ‘the entirely new system of absolute democracy which was brought forward by J. J. Rousseau;’ see also p. 289, and Soulavie, Règne de Louis XVI, vol. v. p. 208.

964

Napoleon said to Stanislas Girardin respecting Rousseau, ‘sans lui la France n'auroit pas eu de révolution.’ Holland's Foreign Reminiscences, Lond. 1850, p. 261. This is certainly an exaggeration; but the influence of Rousseau was, during the latter half of the eighteenth century, most extraordinary. In 1765, Hume writes from Paris: ‘It is impossible to express or imagine the enthusiasm of this nation in his favour; … no person ever so much engaged their attention as Rousseau. Voltaire and every body else are quite eclipsed by him.’ Burton's Life of Hume, vol. ii. p. 299. A letter written in 1754 (in Grimm, Correspond. vol. i. p. 122) says that his Dijon Discourse ‘fit une espèce de révolution à Paris.’ The circulation of his works was unprecedented; and when La Nouvelle Héloïse appeared, ‘les libraires ne pouvaient suffire aux demandes de toutes les classes. On louait l'ouvrage à tant par jour, ou par heure. Quand il parut, on exigeait douze sous par volume, en n'accordant que soixante minutes pour le lire.’ Musset Pathay, Vie de Rousseau, vol. ii. p. 361. For further evidence of the effect produced by his works, see Lerminier, Philos. du Droit, vol. ii. p. 251; Mém. de Roland, vol. i. p. 196, vol. ii. pp. 337, 359; Mém. de Genlis, vol. v. p. 193, vol. vi. p. 14; Alison's Europe, vol. i. p. 170, vol. iii. p. 369, vol. iv. p. 376; Mém. de Morellet, vol. i. p. 116; Longchamp, Mém. sur Voltaire, vol. ii. p. 50; Life of Romilly, vol. i. p. 267; Mem. of Mallet du Pan, vol. i. p. 127; Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 482; Cassagnac, Causes de la Rév. vol. iii. p. 549; Lamartine, Hist. des Girondins, vol. ii. p. 38, vol. iv. p. 93, vol. viii. p. 125; Wahrheit und Dichtung, in Göthe's Werke, Stuttgart, 1837, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 83, 104; Grimm, Correspond. Lit. vol. xii. p. 222; De Staël, Consid. sur la Rév. vol. ii. p. 371.

965

Sismondi (xxix. p. 20), Lacretelle (XVIIIe Siècle, vol. ii. p. 110), and Tocqueville (Règne de Louis XV, vol. ii. p. 103), give the date 1749; so that 1747, in Biog. Univ. vol. xxvi. p. 46, is apparently a misprint.

966

‘Laissant voir dans toute cette loi, qui est assez longue, qu'il regardoit non-seulement l'accroissement, mais l'existence de ces propriétés ecclésiastiques, comme un mal pour le royaume.’ Sismondi, Hist. des Franç. vol. xxix. p. 21. This, I suppose, is the edict mentioned by Turgot, who wished to push the principle still further. Œuvres de Turgot, vol. iii. pp. 254, 255; a bold and striking passage.

967

Mably mentions the excitement caused by this proceeding of Machault, Observations sur l'Histoire de France, vol. ii. p. 415: ‘On attaqua alors, dans plusieurs écrits, les immunités du clergé.’ On the dislike felt by the clergy against the minister, see Ségur, Souvenirs, vol. i. p. 35; Soulavie, Règne de Louis XVI, vol. i. pp. 283, 310, vol. ii. p. 146.

968

In 1750, ‘Machault obtint les sceaux en conservant le contrôle-général.’ Biog. Univ. vol. xxvi. p. 46.

969

‘Croyait surtout que le temps était venu d'imposer les biens du clergé.’ Lacretelle, XVIIIe Siècle, vol. ii. p. 107. Nearly the same words are used in Biog. Univ. vol. xxvi. p. 46.

970

On which account, he still further provoked the indignation of the Catholic clergy. See Felice, Hist. of the Protest. of France, pp. 401, 402; a letter written in 1751.

971

‘The approach of the year 1760 witnessed a sensible relaxation of persecution… The clergy perceived this with dismay; and, in their general assembly of 1760, they addressed urgent remonstrances to the king against this remission of the laws.’ Felice, Protest. of France, p. 422. Comp. an interesting letter from Nismes in 1776, in Thicknesse's Journey through France, London, 1777, vol. i. p. 66.

972

Sismondi says of 1762, ‘Dès lors, la réaction de l'opinion publique contre l'intolérance pénétra jusque dans les provinces les plus fanatiques.’ Hist. des Franç. vol. xxix. p. 296. See also a letter to Damilaville, dated 6th of May, 1765, in Lettres inédites de Voltaire, vol. i. p. 412; and two other letters in Œuvres de Voltaire, vol. lxiv. p. 225, vol. lxvi. p. 417.

973

Of whom Hume, several years before, had formed a very high opinion. See Burton's Life of Hume, vol. ii. p. 497; a too favourable judgment, which should be contrasted with the opposite exaggerations, in Mém. de Genlis, vol. ix. pp. 360–363, and Barruel, Hist. du Jacobinisme, vol. i. pp. 87, 199.

974

Lavallée, Hist. des Franç. iii. 516; Biog. Univ. xxiv. p. 656.

975

Georgel, Mémoires, vol. ii. pp. 293, 294; a violent outbreak against ‘l'irréligieux édit … qui autorise tous les cultes.’

976

‘Le parlement de Paris discutait l'édit sur les protestans. Vingt ans plus tôt, combien une telle résolution n'eût-elle pas agité et divisé les esprits? En 1787, on ne s'étonnait que d'une chose: c'était qu'il pût y avoir une discussion sur des principes évidens.’ Lacretelle, XVIIIe Siècle, vol. iii. pp. 342, 343. In 1776, Malesherbes, who was then minister, wished to secure nearly the same privileges for the Protestants, but was prevented from doing so. Dutens, Mémoires, vol. ii. pp. 56–58. Dutens was himself concerned in the negotiation.

977

Henry II. used to refer to this title, by way of justifying his persecution of the Protestants (Ranke's Civil Wars in France, vol. i. p. 241); and great account was made of it by that exemplary prince, Louis XV. Soulavie, Règne de Louis XVI, vol. i. p. 155. The French antiquaries trace it back to Pepin, the father of Charlemagne. Barrington's Observations on the Statutes, p. 168.

978

The Prince de Montbarey, who was educated by the Jesuits about 1740, says, that, in their schools, the greatest attention was paid to pupils intended for the church; while the abilities of those destined for secular professions were neglected. See this statement, which, coming from such a quarter, is very remarkable, in Mémoires de Montbarey, vol. i. pp. 12, 13. Montbarey, so far from being prejudiced against the Jesuits, ascribes the Revolution to their overthrow. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 94. For other evidence of the exclusive and unsecular character of their education in the eighteenth century, see Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. iv. pp. 29, 30, 245.

979

See some singular observations in Parr's first sermon on faith and morals (Parr's Works, vol. vi. p. 598), where we are told that, in the management of the feud between Calvinists and Arminians, ‘the steadiness of defence should be proportionate to the impetuosity of assault;’ unnecessary advice, so far as his own profession is concerned. However, the Mohammedan theologians are said to have been even keener than the Christians on the subject. See Troyer's Discourse on the Dabistan, vol. i. p. cxxxv.; an important work on the Asiatic religions.

980

Neander (Hist. of the Church, vol. iv. p. 105) finds the germ of the Pelagian controversy in the dispute between Athanasius and Apollinaris. Compare, respecting its origin, a note in Milman's Hist. of Christianity, 1840, vol. iii. pp. 270, 271.

981

No writer I have met with, has stated so fairly and clearly the theological boundaries of these doctrines, as Göthe. Wahrheit und Dichtung, in Werke, vol. ii. part ii. p. 200, Stuttgart, 1837.

982

Compare Butler's Mem. of the Catholics, vol. iii. p. 224; Copleston on Necessity and Predestination, pp. 25, 26; Mosheim's Eccles. History, vol. ii. p. 254.

983

Hence the theory of indulgences, constructed by the Church of Rome with perfect consistency, and against which most of the Protestant arguments are illogical.

984

This seems to be the natural tendency, and has been observed by Neander in his instructive account of the Gnostics, History of the Church, vol. ii. p. 121: ‘The custom with such sects to attach themselves to some celebrated name or other of antiquity.’

985

The Dutch church was the first which adopted, as an article of faith, the doctrine of election held at Geneva. Mosheim's Eccles. History, vol. ii. p. 112. See also, on this doctrine in the Netherlands, Sinclair's Corresp. vol. ii. p. 199; Coventry's Speech in 1672, in Parl. Hist. vol. iv. p. 537; and Stäudlin, Gesch. der theolog. Wissenschaften, vol. i. p. 262: ‘In den Niederlanden wurde der Calvinische Lehrbegriff zuerst in eine scholastische Form gebracht.’

As to the Calvinism of North America, compare Bancroft's American Revolution, vol. i. pp. 165, 173, 174, vol. ii. pp. 329, 363, vol. iii. p. 213; Lyell's Second Visit to the United States, 1849, vol. i. p. 51; and Combe's Notes on the United States, vol. i. pp. 35, 99, 223, vol. iii. pp. 88, 118, 210, 226.

986

It is sometimes said that this was advocated by Bancroft as early as 1588; but this assertion appears to be erroneous, and Mr. Hallam can find no instance before the reign of James I. Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 390. The dogma, though new in the Church of England, was of great antiquity. See, on its origin among the early Christians, Klimrath, Hist. du Droit, vol. i. p. 253.

987

The spread of Arminianism was frequently noticed in Parliament during the reign of Charles I. Parl. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 444, 452, 455, 470, 484, 487, 491, 660, 947, 1368. On the decline of Calvinism at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge early in the seventeenth century, see a curious letter from Beale, in Boyle's Works, vol. v. p. 483; and on this movement in the church after Elizabeth, compare Yonge's Diary, p. 93, edit. Camden Soc. 1848; Orme's Life of Owen, p. 32; Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. i. pp. 154–156, vol. ii. pp. 208, 213, 214; Hutchinson's Mem. pp. 66, 77; Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 466; Des Maizeaux's Life of Chillingworth, p. 112.

988

Respecting the Calvinism of the opponents of the king, see Clarendon's Rebellion, pp. 36, 37; Bulstrode's Memoirs, pp. 8, 9; Burton's Diary, vol. iii. p. 206; Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i. p. 68; and on its influence in the House of Commons in 1628, Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England, vol. ii. p. 64.

989

M Heber (Life of Jeremy Taylor, p. cxx.) says, that Calvinism is ‘a system of all others the least attractive to the feelings of a Roman Catholic.’ Philip II., the great Catholic champion, especially hated the Calvinists, and in one of his edicts called their sect ‘détestable,’ De Thou, Hist. vol. x. p. 705: compare vol. xi. p. 458. To give an earlier instance; when the Roman inquisition was revived in 1542, it was ordered that heretics, and in particular Calvinists, should not be tolerated: ‘besonders Calvinisten.’ Ranke, Die Päpste, vol. i. p. 211.

990

By way of illustrating this, I may mention, that an intelligent observer, who travelled all through Germany, remarked, in 1780, that the Calvinists, though richer than their opponents, had less taste for the arts. Riesbeck's Travels through Germany, London, 1787, vol. ii. p. 240. An interesting passage; in which, however, the author has shown himself unable to generalize the facts which he indicates.

991

The Arminians have had among them many men of great learning, particularly of patristic learning; but the most profound thinkers have been on the other side, as in the instances of Augustin, Pascal, and Jonathan Edwards. To these Calvinistic metaphysicians the Arminian party can oppose no one of equal ability; and it is remarkable, that the Jesuits, by far the most zealous Arminians in the Romish Church, have always been celebrated for their erudition, but have paid so little attention to the study of the mind, that, as Sir James Mackintosh says (Dissert. on Ethical Philos. p. 185), Buffier is ‘the only Jesuit whose name has a place in the history of abstract philosophy.’ And it is interesting to observe, that this superiority of thought on the part of the Calvinists, accompanied by an inferiority of learning, existed from the beginning; for Neander (History of the Church, vol. iv. p. 299) remarks, that Pelagius ‘was not possessed of the profound speculative spirit which we find in Augustin,’ but that ‘in learning he was Augustin's superior.’

992

‘A philosophical necessity, grounded on the idea of God's foreknowledge, has been supported by theologians of the Calvinistic school, more or less rigidly, throughout the whole of the present century.’ Morell's Speculative Philosophy of Europe, 1846, vol. i. p. 366. Indeed, this tendency is so natural, that we find the doctrine of necessity, or something extremely like it, laid down by Augustin. See the interesting extracts in Neander's History of the Church, vol. vi. pp. 424, 425; where, however, a loophole is left to let in the idea of interference, or at all events of superintendence.

993

‘The five principal tenets of Jansenism, which amount in fact to the doctrine of Calvin.’ Palmer on the Church, vol. i. p. 320; and see the remarks of Mackintosh in his Memoirs, vol. i. p. 411. According to the Jesuits, ‘Paulus genuit Augustinum, Augustinus Calvinum, Calvinus Jansenium, Jansenius Sancryanum, Sancryanus Arnaldum et fratres ejus.’ Des Réaux, Historiettes, vol. iv. pp. 71, 72. Compare Huetius de Rebus ad eum pertinentibus, p. 64: ‘Jansenium dogmata sua ex Calvinianis fontibus derivasse.’

994

Jansenius was born in a village near Leerdam, and was educated, if I mistake not, in Utrecht.

995

The introduction of Jansenism into France is superficially related by Duvernet (Hist. de la Sorbonne, vol. ii. pp. 170–175); but the reader will find a contemporary and highly characteristic account in Mém. de Motteville, vol. ii. pp. 224–227. The connexion between it and the spirit of insubordination was remarked at the time; and Des Réaux, who wrote in the middle of the seventeenth century, mentions an opinion that the Fronde ‘étoit venue du Jansénisme.’ Historiettes, vol. iv. p. 72. Omer Talon too says that, in 1648, ‘il se trouvoit que tous ceux qui étoient de cette opinion n'aimoient pas le gouvernement présent de l'état,’ Mém. d'Omer Talon, vol. ii. pp. 280, 281.